¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

016.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter sixteen

━━ THE REST OF the summer holiday felt strange to Elisa. Now that there wasn't any life-threatening quest hanging dangerously close over their heads, Elisa felt like she could almost enjoy the summer at Camp Half-Blood. In the beginning, when spring was changing to summer, Elisa had enjoyed her time at Camp—and then she and Percy found the Labyrinth.

               After that, things got worse. And things didn't become steadily worse over a course of time—no, everything seemed to take a sharp nosedive off the Empire State Building from the 600th floor.

               Exploring the Labyrinth certainly had not been Elisa's plan for that summer. She didn't want to spend her first summer at Camp Half-Blood crammed inside a monster-filled, ever-changing maze that smelled disgusting. Elisa had wanted to spend her summer doing the daily activities offered: Archery, rock climbing, pegasus riding, playing Capture the Flag, singing songs at the campfire, racing chariots, and whatever else she had missed out on all those years.

               Still—it seemed strange to start all of that after the Labyrinth had collapsed and Daedalus had passed on. Elisa followed a daily schedule; practicing sword-fighting ( or spear-fighting in her case ), rock climbing while still refusing to get on when the lava was pouring down, riding pegasus with Silena and Drew, playing Capture the Flag ( avoiding Zeus's Fist like it had the plague ), and getting to experience sitting at the campfire at the end of the day after a long, sweaty summer day.

               Elisa didn't want it to end. She didn't want the summer to end. Winters had always been rough for her and the next summer would mean the end of the world as she knew it ( once Percy's sixteen birthday rolled around, that is ). She wished for nothing more than to stop time in its tracks. Even with everything going on with the Labyrinth, Camp Half-Blood felt more like a home than Durango ever did.

               She wasn't saying everything was perfect and that it was all sunshine and rainbows—that was impossible when you had a Greek god for a father. There was still a sting in the air, it still seemed like Half-Blood Hill was still holding its breath, waiting for next summer to come around, but the summer session was still in full swing. And there was no way to talk about what had gone down in the maze; Elisa avoided Percy like the plague ( not on purpose—sort of ) and bringing up the topic to Annabeth meant bringing up Luke, which was a sure-fire way to get something thrown at you and the silent treatment for a week straight. And that was if Annabeth had been in a good mood before bringing up the topic of Luke Castellan, the traitor.

               Elisa didn't mean to start avoiding Percy, it was just ... how things ended up. She didn't have a reason to be around him anymore with the quest finished. The daughter of Dionysus couldn't avoid Percy during the quest; they were stuck in cramped corridors with each other, after all. But now, she had so much more space and so much more room to hide away from all that had happened between the two of them. ( And that included the things that hadn't happened between them, as well. ) It all seemed nice and easier to avoid him—something that crushed her, sure, but being around him caused just as much pain.

               The only way Elisa could explain it to herself was that seeing Percy's face was a constant reminder of all her fuck ups and missteps. Even though being away from him still caused just as much heartache, she could avoid all of that by distracting herself ( especially because his stupidly handsome face and idiotic comments wouldn't be around to be persistent reminders ).