𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

xvii ━━ the moment i crashed into you (like so many wrecks do)

01. chapter seventeen

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

I DIDN'T RELAX UNTIL THE GLOW OF quebec city faded behind us. even using the word 'relax', was an overstatement. i merely just stopped thinking i was on the verge of death.

i could hear piper and jason talking behind me, but i was too confused to even bother to try and listen to their conversation. it seemed private anyway.

i was still wrapt up on what boreas and khione said about 'aphrodite's prophecy' involving me. for sure they had the wrong girl. it would make sense for piper to be involved in aphrodite's prophecy, but me? no way.

khione was right, love wasn't for me. i knew love wasn't for me since i was young. my grandparents always called me mopey and gloomy. no men like a mopey woman, camille, start acting like a woman instead of a gloomy young girl, they told me.

it always made me mad when they'd talk to me like that. after my dad died right in front of me, they never provided me with reassurance or comfort. they simply scolded me for my grief and guilt.

i was traumatized. i watched the essence of my father be wiped from the earth with one sentence of mine. but my grandparents didn't care. they wanted a distinguished young lady that was smart and lovely. AKA, not me.

now, i was finally able to place that feeling of lovelessness that's haunted me since childhood. being the child of death and hatred, i wasn't meant for love. it would be ridiculous to say there was a prophecy for me from aphrodite. but khione seemed really bent on it.

it hurt my brain. i remembered boreas saying that aeolus could tell me more since he receives all secrets through the winds.

leo passed us some sandwiches from his pack. he'd been quiet ever since we'd told him what happened in the throne room. "i still can't believe khione," he said. "she looked so nice."

"trust me, man," jason said. "snow may be pretty, but up close it's cold and nasty. we'll find you a better prom date."

leo didn't look pleased. he hadn't said much about his time in the palace, or why the boreads had singled him out for smelling like fire. i knew what he was hiding, but i also had the feeling it was more than that. whatever it was, his mood seemed to be affecting festus, who grumbled and steamed as he tried to
keep himself warm in the cold canadian air. happy the dragon was not so happy.

we ate our sandwiches as we flew, but my appetite wasn't great. ever since i'd arrived at the wilderness school about a week prior, i was always starving. i would eat so much since i was so deprived of food for two months. now that i was on a dangerous quest, i guess i lost my appetite out of anxiety.

nobody talked. whatever we might find in chicago, we all knew boreas had only let us go because he figured we were already on a suicide mission.

the moon rose and stars turned overhead. the encounter with boreas and his children had scared me more than i wanted to admit. now that i had a full stomach, my adrenaline was fading.

suck it up, cupcake! coach hedge would've yelled at me. don't be a wimp!

i had been thinking about the coach ever since we left the grand canyon. i'd never liked hedge, but he'd leaped off a cliff to save leo and i, and he'd sacrificed himself to protect us on the skywalk. i now realized that all the times at school the coach had pushed me, yelled at me to run faster or do more push-ups, the old goat man had been trying to help me in his own irritating way—trying to prepare me for life as a demigod.