cupiditas |PERCY JACKSON| [book 3]

IX

"YOU'VE ALREADY GOT ARES ON YOUR BAD SIDE," Thalia reminded Percy as the three of them trudged toward the cabins. "You need another immortal enemy?"

She was right. Percy's first summer as a camper, he'd gotten in a fight with Ares, and now he and all his children wanted to kill him. Percy didn't need to make Dionysus mad, too.

"Sorry," Percy mumbled, "I couldn't help it. It's just so unfair."

Thalia stopped by the armory and looked out across the valley, toward the top of Half-Blood Hill. Her pine tree was still there, the Golden Fleece glittering in its lowest branch. The tree's magic still protected the borders of camp, but it no longer used Thalia's spirit for power.

"Percy, everything is unfair," Thalia muttered. "Sometimes I wish..."

She didn't finish, but her tone was so sad Selena felt sorry for her. With her ragged black hair and her black punk clothes, an old wool overcoat wrapped around her, she looked like some kind of huge raven, completely out of place in the white landscape.

"We'll get Annabeth back," Selena reached out and took Thalia's hand, "We just don't know how yet."

"First I found out that Luke is lost," she said. "Now Annabeth—"

"Don't think like that."

"You're right." She straightened up. "We'll find a way."

Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.

"I'll break that up," Thalia said. "You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about capture the flag tomorrow."

"All right. You should be team captain."

"No, no," she said. "Selena should do it. She's been at camp longer."

Selena shook her head, "Oh, no, I shouldn't lead anything. You two should like... co-captain or something.

The two didn't look comfortable with the idea, but nodded anyway.  As Thalia headed for the court, Percy said, "Hey, Thalia."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about what happened at Westover. I should've waited for you guys."

'"S okay, Percy. I probably would've done the same thing." She shifted from foot to foot, like she was trying to decide whether or not to say more. "You know, you asked about my mom and I kinda snapped at you. It's just... I went back to find her after seven years, and I found out she died in Los Angeles. She, um... she was a heavy drinker, and apparently, she was out driving late one night about two years ago, and..." Thalia blinked hard.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well. It's... it's not like we were ever close. I ran away when I was ten. Best two years of my life were when I was running around with Luke, Selena, and Annabeth. But still—"

"That's why you had trouble with the sun van."

She gave Percy a wary look. "What do you mean?"

"The way you stiffened up. You must've been thinking about your mom, not wanting to get behind the wheel."

Selena could tell that Percy was sorry he'd said anything. Thalia's expression was dangerously close to Zeus's, the one time Selena had seen him get angry—like any minute, her eyes would shoot a million volts.

"Yeah," she muttered. "Yeah, that must've been it."

She trudged off toward the court, where the Ares camper and the Hunter were trying to kill each other with a sword and a basketball.

Selena and Percy split up and made the rounds, telling everybody about capture the flag. Once she finished with her half, Selena quickly made her way back to her own cabin.

She was tired after the events in Maine and the trip back to camp. Selena set her bag down by her bed before flopping down on top of the mattress. She looked over at the photos she taped to the wall and looked at the one with her, Annabeth, Thalia, and Luke when they were younger.

"We'll get you back." Selena whispered, looking at Annabeth's smiling face, "I promise."