Spirit of the Panther (House of Hades/Frank Zhang Fanfic)

XVIII. Decisions, Decisions

I laid out on the sun, taking in as much sun as possible. We were swapping stories. Frank explained what happened with the legion as he combed through my curly hair.

"Frank's just being modest," Jason said. "He controlled the entire legion. You should've seen him. By the way . . ." Jason glanced at Percy. "I resigned my praetorship and gave it to Frank. Unless you want to contest to it."

Percy grinned. "No argument."

"Praetor?" I exclaimed, looking up Frank. "That's big."

Frank shrugged. "Well . . . yeah. It's a bit weird though."

I sat up and kissed Frank. "It's perfect, Frank."

Leo clapped Frank on the back. "Way to go, Zhang. Now you can have Octavian to fall on his sword."

"Tempting," Frank agreed. "But you guys . . . Tartarus is the real story. What happened? Ezzy knows but . . . how did you two do it?"

Percy took Annabeth's hand. "We'll tell you the story." Percy glanced at me and nodded. "Not yet, okay? I'm not ready to remember."

I waved my hand and a glass jar of lemonade appeared. "I can attest to that, Percy."

Annabeth smiled softly. "No. Right now . . ." She gazed over the river. "Uh, our ride is coming."

I looked over my shoulder. The Argo II was heading our way, its sails catching the wind. From a distance, I could hear Festus creaking and clanking.

"That's my boy!" Leo yelled.

I could see Coach standing at the prow.

"About time!" Coach yelled down. "What took you so long, cupcakes? You kept your visitor waiting!"

"Visitor?" I murmured, sitting up.

At the railing next to Hedge, a dark-haired girl appeared with a purple cloak around her shoulders. Her face was covered in soot and bloody scratches. It must have been Reyna, the other praetor of Camp Jupiter, Reyna.

The ship moved above us and the doors underneath opened up. The Athena Parthenos lowered down onto the hill. Her golden dress looked like metal. Reyna came down from the ship and stared up at the statue.

"Incredible," Reyna murmured.

She still had red-eyes from crying. She had to put her pegasus Scipio out his misery after an attack by a griffin. I would cry if I had to do that to Sasha. Thankfully, she had arrived soon after the whole Doors of Death thing.

Reyna circled the statue warily. "It looks new."

"Yeah," Leo said. "We brushed off the cobwebs and used a little Windex. It wasn't hard."

The Argo II hovered overhead. With Festus watching for threats, we decided to have lunch on the sunny hillside. We wanted to plan out what our plan was for Athens.

"Hey, Reyna," I called. "Come have some food. Please, join us. We won't bite."

The praetor glanced over, her eyebrows furrowed. Reyna was dressed casually, with jeans and a purple Camp Jupiter shirt.

"Alright," she finally said.

I scooted over to make room for her. She sat in between Annabeth and I, picking up a cheese sandwich.

"So, Frank," Reyna said. "Praetor now?"

Frank shifted beside me. "Well, yeah, I guess. Field promotion."

"Leading a different legion." Reyna nibbled her sandwich. "A legion of the undead."

I tucked my arm into Frank's. "Apparently he was really good."