•as the world caves in•

•inspections•

Percy's room was a mess, but he was the only one there, so it wasn't too shocking. As we went from cabin to cabin I read reports, and wondered if Thalia and the Hunters were doing okay.

When we reached my cabin, we gave it a five out of five like we always got, and Silena sat on her bed eating chocolate.

"Great job as usual, Silena." Annabeth said.

I walked over to her, giving her a side hug. The wall behind her was decorated with pictures of her and Charlie, her and I, and other things that meant something to her.

"You want a bonbon?" She asked. "My dad sent them. He thought they might cheer me up."

"Are they good?" Percy asked.

"They taste like cardboard." Silena said.

I smiled and took the one she handed me, Percy doing the same, Annabeth passing.

"I'll be back later, sis. Want me to get you anything?"

Silena shook her head. "No thanks, Cor. I appreciate it."

"Of course."

I felt bad for leaving but I knew Silena was in mourning and it would take forever for her to return to her normal state. She took her grief differently than I took mine when I thought Percy was dead, so I didn't fully know how to help her.

Outside, the Apollo and Ares cabins were fighting again. I gave both cabins a one out of five.

"What're they fighting over?"

I scribbled more notes, begging Chiron to end this stupid thing. The Apollo kids had cursed the Ares kids into rhyming, last time that happened it lasted a week, and the Ares kids cursed the Apollo kids arrows to rubber.

I looked up and Percy was staring at me in some dazed expression and his cheeks were red. I snorted. "The flying chariot."

"Huh?" He said, the daze fading.

"You asked what they were fighting about."

"Oh. Oh right."

I glanced at Annabeth who gave me an encouraging smile. I told Annabeth what Percy had told me and she was annoyed, but she told me at least he didn't kiss her, and that based on what was said it didn't seem like he kissed back.

I was sad walking into the Hephaestus cabin, it was a wreck, Jake Mason looked like he didn't know what he was doing. It should've gotten a two, but we gave it a three.

Finally we got to the Athena cabin, which was nice and neat like normal, apart from Annabeth's bunk that was covered in papers and her laptop still running.

I started thinking about the rule of no two demigods in a cabin alone together, it was always brought up with Silena and Charlie. It was a reasonable rule, but I still thought it was dumb.

"Sorry to bring this up, Cor," Annabeth said, muttering as she cleaned her bunk. "But this Silena and Charlie thing is making me think about what's important. Losing people who are important."

I nodded, side eyeing Percy. "Yeah, I've thought about that a lot too."

Percy was staring at me again, nodding like an idiot. "Um, yeah. Like... is everything cool with your family?"

I nodded. "Sam and Dr. Chase wanted to take us to Greece this summer."

Annabeth smiled. "Yeah, it was going to be a ton of fun. Sam is a half-blood and all, so we were gonna see all of our parents sacred sites."

"Who's she a kid of again?" Percy asked.

"Demeter." I answered. "That's why there's a huge garden on our balcony."

"Oh." Percy nodded. "Well, there'll be other summers."

We stood in silence as Annabeth finished her inspection.

As we walked back to the Big House, Percy read a note from a satyr, Gleeson Hedge, asking Grover for help. We hadn't seen much of Grover, he only came around a few times to see Juniper.

Then Percy told us about how he had a dream about Rachel (seriously?) and how she had paintings of Luke as child.

I looked at my clipboard. "What do you want us to say?"

Annabeth looked annoyed. "Percy, she is a mortal. Mortals have dreams. We already know what Kronos wants, what he plans to do, we're ready. We shouldn't have shown you the prophecy, it scared you and you run when scared."

"Me?" Percy scoffed. "Run away?"

I got in his face. "Yes, you. You're a coward!" A flash of realization went in his eyes. "If you don't like our chances, maybe you should go on that vacation with Rachel."

"Coriane, that's not fair!"

I shoved by him.

•.•.•.•

At the funeral for Charlie, I held Silena as she sobbed. Percy came over to talk to her, but only made it worse.

Clarisse and I glared. I made a face at him. "Good job, Percy."

I took Silena back to our cabin, giving her more bonbons even as she sobbed, "they taste like cardboard!"