Ariadnê snarled as she rushed back through the kingdom. The citizens gave her concerned looks as she made her way to the private training grounds.
A scream caught her attention and she turned towards the sound. "HELP!" She took off running.
The first thing she caught sight of was the emblem of Athens.
The second thing she caught sight of was the girl no older than twelve cowering away from the man that stood over her.
Her mind went blank, images flashing through her head of being in a similar position with Gamy Gabe. The only luck she managed to gain was that the man never crossed the line except for staring creepily and "accidental" brushes on her.
The ground began to rumble under her feet and she was lashing out before she could even think.
Blood squirted onto her face as her dagger swiped across skin. Her fingers dug into the eye sockets, yanking fiercely at the eyeballs wrapping around them as they yanked outwards. Her dagger pierced his chest deeply before she yanked it out, gore flying through the air. Her other hand wrapped around a lung, heating it to a boiling temperature and filling it burst within her hand.
She was still shaking with rage when Katie appeared at her side. The elder girl carefully pulled her away from the body, grimacing before wrapping the corpse in a bundle of petals. The child that he had been assaulting was long gone.
Katie pulled her through the back streets of the kingdom until they came upon the back of the palace. With quick hands, she placed her within a tub, washing the blood and grime off her.
And she only opened her arms when Ariadnê turned into her embrace and began to cry.
Nico and Percy appeared at their sides, wrapping the two girls into their arms. The three of them held her close until she had no tears left to cry.
It was admirable and concerning to see how quickly she hid away her vulnerability, expression smoothing over into a familiar unbothered mask. She rolled her shoulders back, stepping out their embrace but not moving too far from them.
"Well," she stated. "That was a shit show."
Nico nodded, empathetically, "It could have gone better." She smiled, amused, but it dropped off her face at Percy's words.
"You need to tell them the truth," he said. She scowled, bitterness clinging to her words, "Now it's tell them the truth. What happened to 'letting her realize that Apollôn will never love her the way she wants? What happened to 'She needs to face that heartbreak'? What you all thought I didn't know?"
The three of them flinched. They hadn't agreed with Annabeth and Luke's words, but they didn't necessarily disagree either.
Percy shook his head, "I never agreed with that, Ari. You know all I want is for you to be happy!"
She bit back the scathing remark that she wanted to say. Taking a deep breath, she pushed her anger away, "And you think that telling them will make me happy? What? I'm just supposed to tell them everything, and we'd skip off into the sunset. That everything from the past few weeks never happened. That I didn't have to deal with the love of my life choosing one of my best friends over me in my face and that said best friend is also in love with me?"
"You know he likes you," Katie gaped. Ariadnê scowled, "Beckendorf mentioned once, but I realized it just then. A lot of things started to make sense!"
"He was never subtle," Percy muttered and her eyes widened, "Are you telling me that you, the most oblivious person to ever walk the face of earth, noticed before I did?"
