Indigo Eyes

Chapter 108

When they returned to camp the next morning, Mr D had been about to explode with rage until he saw the smile that glittered on his daughter's face when she wandered up to the pavilion.

And for the next couple of weeks, things seemed normalish. They rotated through activities, sang campfire songs and Cressida was even able to drag Pollux out of bed.

It was the last day of summer, but Pollux was staying. After Cressida had told him that they couldn't avenge their brother if he stayed in bed all day, he was instantly on his feet, Clarisse promising to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't overdo it with training. Annabeth was sticking around to make sure Chiron was ok and would leave shortly after to head back to San Francisco and the private school she'd be attending.

Percy was also heading back to Manhattan, but he was only doing so with the promise on the River Styx that Cressida would come to his house for his birthday.

The three of them were sitting together on Half-Blood Hill as they talked about it, Cressida drawing pictures in the sand as Annabeth said she'd keep an eye out for somebody that she refused to name. Luke.

Even in her semi-vegetative state, Cressida knew of Annabeth's reluctance to speak of her ex-friend. She'd shut out any talk of him lest they open up a huge box of hurt, worry and anger.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked after a time. "What was the rest of the prophecy?"

Annabeth fixed her eyes on the woods in the distance and didn't say anything.

"You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze. The dead, the traitor and the lost one raise," Percy recited. They'd raised a lot of the dead. They'd saved Ethan Nakamura who turned out to be a traitor and they'd raised the spirit of Pan, the lost one.

Annabeth shook her head like she wanted him to stop because the words physically pained her.

"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand," Cressida continued this time. "It turned out to be Nico and not Minos like we'd originally thought. Nico chose our side and saved us."

"And the child of Athena's final stand - that was Daedalus," Percy said. "And we know what the last two lines meant. The purple demigod shall turn the tide, and the fallen shall come from both sides."

Cressida shook her head. "It wasn't me," she muttered, fidgeting with the heart-shaped charm on her bracelet, the one that Castor had put there on her very first quest three years ago. "It was Castor." She was staring at the sand as if she was trying to find the strength to say what she needed to say. "He changed everything; he changed the tide of the battle when he fell."

Percy only reached to squeeze her hand before he turned back to Annabeth. "But those other two lines -"

"Percy-"

"Destroy with a hero's final breath. That makes sense now. Daedalus died to destroy the labyrinth. But what was the last -"

"And lose a love to worse than death." Annabeth had tears in her eyes. "That was the last line, Percy. Are you happy now?"

"Oh my gods, Books," Cressida exhaled, the fact that the battle was over and her magic had faded, meaning that Annabeth would feel all the pain about Luke that she made her numb to. She scooted over to let Annabeth rest her head on her shoulder.

"Oh," Percy said dumbly. "So Luke -"

"I didn't know who the prophecy was talking about. I – I didn't know if..." She faltered helplessly. "Luke and I – for years, he was the only one who really cared about me. I thought..."