Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 50

Everything had happened so quickly. They had secured grappling lines to the Athena Parthenos just as the floor gave way, and the final columns of webbing snapped. Jason and Frank dove down to save the others, but they'd only found Nico, Hazel and a sobbing Annabeth hanging from the rope ladder.

Percy and Cressida were gone.

The pit to Tartarus had been buried under several tons of debris. Leo pulled the Argo II out of the cavern seconds before the entire place imploded, taking the rest of the parking lot with it. The Argo II was now parked on a hill overlooking the city. Jason, Hazel, and Frank had returned to the scene of the catastrophe, hoping to dig through the rubble and find a way to save their friends, but they'd come back demoralized. The cavern was simply gone.

Annabeth was distraught.

Piper had tried to feed her ambrosia and see to her ankle, but she refused to take it. She blamed herself. She blamed herself for not cutting the spiderwebs off her leg sooner. She blamed herself for letting herself be saved. She blamed herself for not falling with them or not trying hard enough to save them.

And her cabin was now a reflection of her grief. Papers, maps and everything about the Mark of Athena and the statue was in tatters and scattered along her floor. Glass from a few photo frames joined the chaos. Photos of the three of them, photos of her and Cressida from their many trips into Manhattan. Cressida was just there to explore while Annabeth was looking for supplies and inspiration for her Olympus remodel.

And now both her best friends, two of the people she loved most in the world were gone.

And all she had left was Cressida's stupid switchblade that she hadn't let go of since she picked it up off the floor of the cavern.

Piper had come in a little while after that, finding Annabeth crying in the middle of the chaos before using her charmspeak to calm her, but it just wasn't as effective as Cressida's powers.

Leo had also never seen Coach so miserable.

He kept pacing the deck with tears in his eyes, pulling at his goatee and slapping the side of his head, muttering, "I should have saved them! I should have blown up more stuff! My Ressa. My poor cupcake. I should've saved her."

Finally, Leo told him to go belowdecks and secure everything for departure. He wasn't doing any good beating himself up. The six demigods gathered on the quarterdeck and gazed at the distant column of dust still rising from the site of the implosion.

And while Annabeth blamed herself, Leo blamed himself.

Back in Salt Lake City when they ran into Nemesis, she gave him a fortune cookie, telling him that it would give him the answers to whatever question he asked, but there would be a price for it.

He had opened the fortune cookie. He'd gotten the access code for the sphere and saved Frank and Hazel. But the sacrifice had been Percy and Cressida. Leo was sure of it.

"It's my fault," he said miserably.

The others stared at him. Only Hazel seemed to understand. She'd been with him at the Great Salt Lake.

"No," she insisted. "No, this is Gaia's fault. It had nothing to do with you or with Annabeth. Leo, listen to me." Hazel gripped his hand. "I won't allow you to take the blame. I couldn't bear that after—after Sammy..." She choked up, but Leo knew what she meant.

His bisabuelo had blamed himself for Hazel's disappearance. Sammy had lived a good life, but he'd gone to his grave believing that he'd spent a cursed diamond and doomed the girl he loved. He'd been meaning to tell Hollywood about it, preferably in Spanish. He hardly got to use the language anymore so it was fun to have someone who could understand that part of him. But that just made him feel more guilty.