Indigo Eyes

Chapter 82

Briares had left.

They told him everything about Kronos and Camp but the Hundred Handed One still left. Tyson was in shambles. Briares was his hero and his hero had let him down.

They'd chosen to camp for the night in a corridor made of huge marble blocks that looked as if it was part of a Greek tomb. Cressida was prepping the area since she'd taken first watch, making herself comfortable before lobbing a small ball of purple flames onto the ground as a light source.

Annabeth was out pretty quickly as she rested her head on her pack. Grover didn't need to be told twice. He pulled a heap of straw out of his pack, ate some of it, made a pillow out of the rest and was snoring in no time. Tyson took longer getting to sleep. He tinkered with some metal scraps from his building kit for a while, but whatever he was making, he wasn't happy with it. He kept disassembling the pieces.

"I'm sorry I lost the shield," Percy said to his brother. "You worked so hard to repair it."

Tyson looked up. His eye was bloodshot from crying. "Do not worry, brother. You saved me and Pretty Girl. You wouldn't have had to if Briares had helped."

"He was just scared," Percy said. "I'm sure he'll get over it."

"He is not strong," Tyson said. "He is not important anymore."

"As someone speaking from experience," Cressida said as she knelt in front of Tyson. "Now that he's free from the creature that was terrifying him, it's going to take a while for his strength to come back. He'll be there when it counts," she said and Tyson's bottom lip quivered. "But as for you, you need some rest." She reached up to kiss his cheek as her palm glowed. "So relax and go to sleep."

And Tyson's eye began to droop as he obeyed and fell back and began to snore.

Cressida just shook her head at him as she began carefully packing up the metal pieces in his hand. She placed them carefully into her pocket as she moved back over to her bedroll and Percy dragged his next to her.

"You should sleep," Cressida said.

"Can't. We have too much to talk about."

She sighed as she leaned back against the wall next to him. "Alright. Go."

"Also, we're just here to talk, not argue. I think we do that enough."

"We bicker. I don't think we argue, argue," Cressida said and Percy only rolled his eyes at her as he nudged her shoulder. "Why did you lie to me?"

"I genuinely don't know," he said. "Firstly, I swear to you, that I don't know what Hera meant that I knew how to navigate the maze. And second, I was with Rachel for like five minutes at the Dam. I forgot about her for the most part. And when I did remember her, it just felt like she didn't belong in a conversation between you and me."

She stared at him strangely.

"I told you I didn't know. It's not like it makes sense to me either," he defended. "But since I know actions speak louder than words with you, I swear on the River Styx -"

She slapped her hand over his mouth. "Don't," she pleaded, her eyes glassy. "Don't you dare."

Percy gently lowered her hand from his mouth. "Why?"

"Is it not obvious?" she said with a broken smile as she played with her charm bracelet, the pinecone charm having reappeared a while ago. "People I care about are going to die in this prophecy. Janus was going to make me choose between them. And I can tell you right now that if I was faced with a choice to choose who dies, I'd pick myself. Every time."