Where You Go ― Jason Grace

xxvi. ophelia takes command of those who fell

OPHELIA WAS PLAYING a dangerous game, but it was one she'd played before. She wasn't afraid, not even as her strength faded, channeling out of her and into the two dozen or so ghosts assembled around her. She wouldn't be able to fight as she maintained them, but she trusted the ghosts to do their jobs and keep the battle away from her, taking out every monster they could get their hands on. 

As Jack London solidified next to her, she passed him her switchblade. "You handle Lycaon's wolves," she told him. 

He nodded with the smallest of smiles. "It would be an honor."  

The ghosts surged into battle, their ghostly swords and spears turning solid as they came into contact with Earthborn, storm spirits, and Lycaon's wolves. The wolves couldn't be killed by anything other than silver, but the ghostly weapons passing through them was enough of a shock to make them pause. It gave Jack the chance to catch them off-guard and plunge the silver blade into their skulls, turning them into shadows. 

Four ghosts stood around Ophelia, guarding her as the rest of the ghost army fought, ensuring she was protected enough to keep the army solid. They were little more than children, but they had weapons in their hands and a fierce determination in their eyes, all of them eager to succeed in death where they'd failed in life.

She had done this before, she was sure of it. Piper and Leo were momentarily startled by the sudden appearance of ghosts, but they recovered quickly enough. Jason, on the other hand, fought with them as if he'd fought with ghosts before. 

Ophelia had a feeling he had.

Around her, her friends were holding their own in the battle. Jason had somehow tamed a storm spirit in the shape of a stallion. Piper was surrounded by Earthborn, practically glowing as she smiled at them and sliced them to pieces. 

Leo had taken on Khione herself. It should've been suicide, but Leo was on fire—literally. Khione kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of them. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, keeping Khione's winter magic from freezing them all into statues. Everywhere Leo went, ice melted around him—even Thalia began to defrost a little when Leo stepped near her.

Memories trickled in as the ghosts around her fought. Snippets of different fights, with different ghosts and different monsters. A younger Jason fighting next to her, their weapons out and covered in golden dust. A girl with a wicked smile as sharp as her dagger. 

This was far from the first battle Ophelia had fought. 

Piper stabbed the last Earthborn, who toppled to the ground in a pile of sludge. Jason rode his storm spirit through the last ventus, breaking it into vapor. A few feet away, Leo was bearing down on the goddess of snow. The ghost army had run out of targets, and Jack returned to Ophelia's side, placing her switchblade back into her hand. 

"You did well," he praised. "Let us go, now. Before you lose all of your strength." 

Ophelia let go of her mental grip on the ghosts' spirits, and they faded back to their translucent forms. Exhaustion was creeping in, but she shook it off. 

She could rest when Hera was out of her cage and gave Ophelia and Jason all of their memories back.

"You're too late!" Khione snarled. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."

Leo set his hammers ablaze and threw them at the goddess, but she turned into snow—a white powdery image of herself. Leo's hammers slammed into the snow woman, breaking it into a steaming mound of mush.