𝑨𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑺 • 𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐶𝑌 𝐽𝐴𝐶𝐾𝑆𝑂𝑁 ²

TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
—dumb war councils

🗡🗡🗡

—BRYCE TANNER, SON OF HERMES, was lost to the sea of monsters in a ship explosion two years ago. His death marked the first Judith had ever witnessed. Since then, she had been through seven more: Bianca di Angelo, Zoë Knightshade, Maya Brown, Castor, Lee Fletcher, and this past summer: Elijah Monaghan and Charlotte Jenkins.

  And now, the number was pushed to eight in wake of Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus', death on the Princess Andromeda.

  The world seemed a little darker, a little foggier. There was a haze of blur between Judith and the world beyond as she comprehended the words coming out of Percy's mouth. The daughter of Ares felt a strange sting in her eyes and blinked to get rid of it to no avail. Then a new sensation trailed down her cheek, down to her jaw and chin, till finally dropping off. Swiping at her face once, the girl's hand returned to her side, wet and shuddering as she did her best to ignore it.

Grief was not an emotion Judith had truly experienced before, and she hoped she never familiarized herself with it. It hurt in a way that a physical wound couldn't. Where a scratch made her heart beat with adrenalin and fervor, this ache willed her heart to stop its thrum, willed it to be forever silent in mourning and utter despair. The girl would rather have her her heart burst from her chest in a fitful rage than continue to let this feeling hold her down. But its grasp was iron wrapped around her chest, ignoring her pleas for air. And without oxygen, fire was snuffed out.

  And the look on Silena's face ... Judith tried to forget the image. Heartbreak was another foreign experience, one only seen in the movies. If Judith thought her pain was unbearable, the daughter of Aphrodite was in agony. Clarisse had to step forward and guide the breaking girl away.

  But the girl was given little time to recover before they were in the Big House's rec room. Judith had become an honorary member of the war council from her constant presence at the camp and her leadership in the combat missions. Some of the senior counselors disagreed with her addition as it gave the Ares cabin two representatives, but they couldn't argue with the fact that the Hermes cabin had both Stoll brothers present. The compromise was that she could give input but was not allowed to vote unless needed for a quorum.

  They all gathered around the ping-pong table, staggered to create more space. Percy, Annabeth, and Chiron were retrieving the Great Prophecy from the attic so it left them unsupervised. And left unsupervised, it didn't take long for a fight to break out between Clarisse and Michael Yew.

  "It's our loot!" the Apollo boy yelled, standing on his tiptoes so he could get in Clarisse's face. "If you don't like it, you can kiss my quiver!"

  Judith rolled her eyes in exasperation. Her words must not have gotten through their thick skulls earlier. Around the table, the camper's eyes shifted uneasily from her to the standing head counselors, many of them having bore witness to her conniption that day. The Stoll brothers tried to hide their smirks, the only ones to find the argument hilarious. Pollux hadn't seen her blow up at lunch, but the conflict made him edgy all the same. Katie Gardner from the Demeter cabin hated any type of yelling so she was all around agitated. And Jake Mason, the newly appointed counselor for Hephaestus was unsettled by this new change of scenery, especially after the sudden loss of his half-brother. Silena sat vacant in her chair, staring absently at a mug of hot chocolate in front of her. Her eyes were red and puffy, clear remnants of her distress. Judith felt so terrible that she had to sit through this narrow-minded argument.