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I 016. I
𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑽𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔
❝ he had promised ❞
THE THREE FATES THEMSELVES TOOK LUKE'S BODY.
Three ghoulish grandmothers with bags of knitting needles and yarn.
One of them looked at Ariadne, and even though she didn't say anything, her mind flashed with the future. In one, she watched as her body was set on fire with a burial shroud covering it. She saw her face, and it was young. She looked the same age. The second option was a coffin being lowered into the grave with a gravestone above. In that vision she was much older. Having lived to an old age.
Ariadne gulped. She felt a sudden urgency to decide which one would be better.
It is done, she said.
The Fate held up the snippet of blue yarn—Luke's lifeline.
They gathered up Luke's body, now wrapped in a white and green shroud, and began carrying it out of the throne room.
"Wait," Hermes said.
The messenger god was dressed in his classic outfit of white Greek robes, sandals, and helmet. The wings of his helm fluttered as he walked. The snakes George and Martha curled around his caduceus, murmuring, Luke, poor Luke.
Ariadne thought about May Castellan, alone in her kitchen, backing cookies and making sandwiches for a son who would never come home.
Hermes unwrapped Luke's face and kissed his forehead. He murmured some words in Ancient Greek—a final blessing.
"Farewell," he whispered. Then he nodded and allowed the Fates to carry away his son's body. As they left, Ariadne thought about the Great Prophecy. The lines now made sense to her. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. The hero was Luke. The cursed blade was the knife he'd given Annabeth long ago—cursed because Luke had broken his promise and betrayed his friends.
A single choice shall end his days. Percy's choice, to give him the knife, and to believe, as Annabeth had, that he was still capable of setting things right. Olympus to preserve or raze. By sacrificing himself, he had saved Olympus. Rachel was right. In the end, Percy wasn't really the hero. Luke was.
But what didn't make sense was her part. Daughter of the Vines shall rise or fall. Kronos tempted her with saving her mother's new family or her friends. Monster or hero, no one is safe. She risked using her powers against the Titans and Typhon, resulting in her almost destroying herself. Her very choice could be the end of the maze. That was the one thing she didn't get. What choice? Her mom? It just hadn't happened yet.
