Miss Quinn

124 ~ What to do, What to do

Emma and Thalia went back to the throne room after a while of just talking. Once they left Olympus, Thalia would have to go off with her hunters, and Emma didn't know when they'd see one another again.

The room was almost empty. Most of the campers had left or been moved. Only Will, Sadie, and a few of the worst off campers remained. They helped move one camper that had suffered through a lot of burns and was heavily bandaged. It was an odd elevator ride. The boy was unconscious, lying on the floor between Emma and Thalia. The two girls were leaning against the walls, listening to some catchy song from forty years ago.

"Percy should have asked Zeus for better elevator music," Thalia scoffed.

Emma chuckled. "Wouldn't make a difference to me. I don't know any of these songs anyway."

Thalia raised her brows. "You don't listen to music?"

"We listen to Wizard bands. My mum likes Celestina Warbeck. We used to listen to Muggle music when we had a car and were pretending to be Muggles. But now that I don't go to Muggle school, we've given up pretenses."

"Hmm. Remind me to give you a list of all the best bands."

"I'm sure you'd have a lot."

"Oh, I do," Thalia emphasized.

The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open. Thalia picked up the guy under the arms and Emma grabbed his legs. They brought him out as carefully as they could and laid him across the stretcher Will had gotten for him.

"Thanks, guys. Argus will take him back to camp."

Emma nodded. "You're going with them?"

Will smiled. "Yeah, someone's got to be there in case one of them wakes up. I'll see you at Camp, okay?"

Emma hugged him and stepped out into the sunlight. New York City was hustling and bustling again. There were a lot of police cars and ambulances. Kronos's army really had made a mess.

Mocha the Pegasus was waiting for Emma at the corner. She'd been scratched a few times, but she looked happy. Emma stroked her a few times and healed the cuts across her skin.

"You coming, Thals?" Emma called.

Thalia eyed Mocha nervously. "No, my hunters are waiting for me."

"Not even for today?" Emma pleaded. "You haven't even said goodbye to Percy and Annabeth."

Thalia smiled. "Tell them goodbye for me. I'll see you around, Emma."

Emma threw her arms around her friend. "Love you, Thals."

Thalia squeezed Emma tightly. "Love you, Em. Make good choices."

Emma pulled away. "Always do."

She swung herself up onto Mocha's back, waved, and felt Mocha leap up into the air, wings spreading beneath her.

The rest of the day was as strange as the beginning. Emma arrived back at Camp to the news that Rachel Dare had become the new Oracle. Campers trickled in from New York by car, pegasus, and chariot. The wounded were cared for. The dead were given proper funeral rites at the campfire.

Silena's shroud was hot pink, but embroidered with an electric spear. The Ares and Aphrodite cabins both claimed her as a hero, and lit the shroud together. No one mentioned the word spy. That secret burned to ashes as the designer perfume smoke drifted into the sky.

Austin Barton and Michael Yew were both given golden shrouds. Michael's was embroidered with a bow, and Austin's with a sun. Connor burned both shrouds and then joined his sisters and Will in a group hug. They watched until the shrouds were nothing more than ashes.