𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 - jason grace ¹

v. all the pretenders

V. JASON !
⋆ ★
all the pretenders

          The redhead introduced herself as Rachel while she and Jason put Piper on the couch while Annabeth rushed down the hall to get a med kit. Piper was still breathing, but she wouldn't wake up. She seemed to be in some kind of coma. Violet stayed in a corner of the living room while she drank her slushie. She leaned closer to examine Piper and went to touch her skin.

"She's burning up," Violet snapped her hand back and shook it to relieve it from her warmth of Piper's skin. "How can we heal her?"

Seeing her so pale, barely breathing, Jason felt a surge of protectiveness. Maybe he didn't really know her. And she wasn't his girlfriend, he was sure of that. But they had come all this way. He'd left her side for a little while, and this had happened.

Chiron put his hand on her forehead and grimaced. "Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?"

"I wish I knew," she said. "As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera's cabin. I went inside. Annabeth and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice."

"A prophecy?" Chiron asked.

"No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like long distance, a power trying to speak through me."

Annabeth ran in with a leather pouch. She knelt next to Piper. "Chiron, what happened back there I've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper's shoulders and told her—"

"To free her?" Jason asked.

"From a prison?" finished Violet. They made eye contact and Jason saw her dark eyes look scared. He would've tried for a smile if he wasn't equally as terrified.

Annabeth stared at them both. "How did you know that?"

Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

"Jason, Violet, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please."

Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial into Piper's mouth while Jason and Violet explained what had happened when the room froze-the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason's patron. When they were done, no one spoke, which made Jason more anxious.

"So does this happen often?" he asked. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?"

"Your patron," Annabeth said. "Not your godly parent?"

"No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life."

Annabeth frowned. "I've never of heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk— he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?"

"But why would she be asking for his help?" Violet spoke up. Jason noticed how perfect her profile was. It was hard to focus on anything else when she was so easy to stare at. But he had to force himself to continue the conversation. "She tried to kill us, now she's asking us to free her?"

"Violet is right," Jason said. "She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice."

Annabeth turned to Chiron. "Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that."

The centaur looked miserable. He held Piper's wrist, checking her pulse. At last he said, "It is not Kronos. That threat is ended. But . . ."