Chapter Text
Thalia panted, hunched forward with her hands braced on her knees. She had chased Lycaon through the woods, never taking her sharp eyes off of him, but then he had just vanished out of thin air.
Why had he even bothered to catch her attention if he was just going to run away afterwards?
A large explosion suddenly shook the ground, and Thalia looked behind her and watched as a billowy ice cloud erupted, painting the sky like an atomic bomb.
Piper! Leo!
“Daughter of Jupiter.”
Thalia ducked and rolled across the snowy ground, managing to avoid Lycaon’s lunge. She pulled the coin out of her pocket and flipped it, watching as it transformed into her spear.
She jabbed and hacked at the wolves, only to find that her attacks had no effect.
“I’ve told you the last time we faced off, Daughter of Jupiter,” Lycaon cackled as he circled her menacingly. She recognized the Latin as it poured from his fanged mouth. “Your weapon does not work on my kind. You are helpless, without weapons, without power…you might as well surrender now.”
Thalia may not have remembered much about her past, but surrendering? She had a feeling that it was out of the question for her.
If she couldn’t defeat them with her spear, she would use her bow. It didn’t have corporeal arrows, so she figured it was her best shot.
But first…she had to get to high ground. She fought off her nausea and leaped up just as one of Lycaon’s minions lunged for her. She caught herself on a relatively high branch, and shakily pulled her entire body onto it.
Don’t focus on the height.
Thalia breathed in deep, completely focusing on the horde of ravenous wolves below.
“Trying to sit this one out?”
She flipped her spear, willing it to become what she wanted. She soon held her gold bow in her hand, its weight comforting to her. She nocked an arrow and aimed for a wolf that was clawing its way up the tree. The transparent black arrow flew through his skull and dropped him. She watched as he dissipated in the snow.
Thalia swiftly killed five more of the wolves closest to her, not even breathing between shots.
The rest of them, following their master’s lead, retreated a few feet.
“Oh, don’t tell me you’re scared now,” Thalia mocked.
Lycaon snarled orders, and half of the wolves dispersed, exiting the woods and heading back to the Wolf House.
Thalia grinned, breathing heavily. Her arm ached from firing multiple times in a row without ceasing. A lot less wolves to kill meant a loss less pain for her arm.
She nocked another arrow, this time aiming at Lycaon. His back was turned. She remembered Lupa’s advice in her head.
Only a coward attacks a sleeping wolf.
She eased her hold, getting ready to strike as soon as he turned to face her again.
Unfortunately, she didn’t exactly get the chance.
The tree shook with the force of ten wolves hitting it and she almost lost her balance. Her bow slipped from her hands and she unthinkingly dipped down to catch it. Her fingers wrapped around it, but she had to hang upside down from the branch to reach it. She strapped her bow to her back.
She barely registered Lycaon’s snarl. “Attack!”
At its master’s order, one of the wolves sprung towards her, its claws aiming for her neck and face. She caught him angrily by the paws, feeling his claws dig a little into her wrists. He wasn’t the largest in the pack, so he was easier to deflect, but he was still incredibly vicious.
Blood poured from her wrists and hands in streams, but she gritted her teeth against the pain. Thalia tensed to brace herself for the agony that awaited her as she released his paws and grappled his neck. He clawed her neck, ripping into her skin, and she fumbled around before managing to swiftly jerk his neck to the side, snapping it and ending his life.
She went to pull herself back onto the branch but two wolves had snuck up on her and clawed at her shirt, bringing her down to the snow.
The hungry wolves surrounded her, but Lycaon instructed them not to attack. He wanted the pleasure of killing her, he explained, as he cackled down at her wounded form.
He leaned down, baring his fangs, snarling and spitting all over the place. She visibly cringed and closed her eyes.
Could she summon lightning? Would it possibly be enough to stop all of them? She seriously doubted it. There were way too many. If she blasted Lycaon, there would be several more to take his place.
If she was lucky, it would be over soon. She relaxed, as best as she could, and tried to think of the positive side to dying.
She tried.
But then she thought of Reyna, and she kind of lost her head a little bit. She recalled something she had promised Reyna, and she struck out without realizing what she was doing.
Thalia’s fist caught Lycaon in his deformed jaw, and she kicked up at him until he was off of her completely. When he landed on his back a few feet away, she braced her hands behind her in order to flip herself back to her feet. She held her hands out, feeling the electricity crackling through her fingers.
The wolves, unable to communicate with her, barked in fright and slid back on their paws.
With a scream, she released the energy, mindlessly watching as sparks rippled through the deranged animals, drawing rapid, crazed screeches from their throats.
She couldn’t see anything—her eyes clouded in anger and literally sparking along with her hands. But she knew whenever she ran out of strength, whenever she was unable to summon any more lightning, whenever she was left panting on her knees, that the only wolf left standing was Lycaon.
He howled in anger, his body charred and smoking. “You will pay for killing my pack.”
“No worries, Lycaon,” a silky voice purred. “I’ll handle her.”
Thalia’s eyes widened and she swallowed. She had her suspicions, but she didn’t actually think Khione had been that important in the big scheme of things.
She wasn’t able to fight when the goddess kicked her over, and she ended up sprawled on her back.
Thalia stared up at Khione, her vision slightly blurred with exhaustion. She saw that sickly smirk and the evil glint in her eyes as she leaned down and pressed her lips to Thalia's cheek.
“Goodnight, my little nuisance.”
Thalia dreamed of her past as if she were an outsider, watching in as she interacted with the people she knew but didn’t yet remember. She was in some military-type of place, surrounded by a horde of armored warriors.
Her brother was a great distance from her, glancing down at her with apathy. He was sitting in a comfortable chair, positioned on a high, decorated platform.
He spoke to her, his voice tense. “You have committed crimes against the Legion, consul. I order you to rescind your honorary position.”
Why was he doing this to her? What crime did she commit?
Her voice quivered out of anger or sadness—she couldn't tell. "I rescind."
Jason glanced down at the look of pain sketched onto her features. “The Senate has decided to give you a punishment worthy of your transgression. Because you tried to do something without their permission, you must do everything without assistance—survive on your own, without food or provisions from the Legion. You may keep Aegis,” he said, motioning to the bracelet on her wrist. “And your personal weapon. But nothing else.”
A representative from the Senate stood next and addressed the people around them, recalling the transgression and how it was an insult.
Jason cleared his throat whenever the chubby man was finished. “Thalia Grace, former consul of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, you are hereby banished.”
A sickly blonde boy cackled at the information but quickly quieted himself once he received strange looks.
“You may bid one person goodbye. And then you must leave.”
Normally, she felt she would’ve chosen him but she felt anger swell in her dream-self. Fuck him. He was betraying her. She suddenly didn’t care if he was her brother; he didn’t deserve her goodbye.
For some reason, she steeled her expression and stomped angrily into the Consul House—a nice, sizable building constructed with a mixture of modern and ancient styles. She missed the hurt glint in her younger brother’s eyes.
As soon as her dream-self entered the room, a girl rushed up to Thalia and wrapped her arms around her tightly. She nuzzled her pretty face in Thalia’s neck.
“I’m sorry,” she heard herself mutter. She pressed herself more firmly against Reyna. “So, so sorry . But don’t worry. I’ll see you again. I’ll make things right.”
“Why?” the question was almost broken. “Why did you do it?”
“Explaining it to you wouldn’t make me sound any better,” she answered. “So there isn’t really any point, is there?”
“I know you wouldn’t do that,” Reyna insisted. “You wouldn’t hurt Jason like that. You wouldn’t hurt the Legion.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Thalia replied. “I was stupid and foolish and I rushed in without thinking, Reyna. I’ve always been impulsive, and now I’m finally paying the price for it.”
“Why would you try to lead the army to Krios? You know you were supposed to lead it with Jason, and with the permission of the Senate. You broke the rules—”
“To save my brother! I thought there was some prophecy; a child of Jupiter, if they led the attack, would die. That’s what Octavian said. Sneaking the army away without permission was the only way I could ensure that Jason wouldn’t go out there and get killed by Krios!”
“You believed Octavian,” Reyna stated plainly, as if the mere notion was completely idiotic. “We can’t prove that he lied to you. We can only prove that you ran off and tried to take the glory for yourself.”
“I didn’t want the glory for once. Don’t you understand that?”
“I do,” Reyna affirmed, toying with the hair at the nape of Thalia’s neck. “But they don’t. They consider it—”
“Treason, yeah. I got that.”
“Don’t be an ass,” Reyna pleaded. “Not when you’re about to leave me.”
Thalia glanced down, feeling her eyes tear up for the first time in years. Gods, she couldn’t leave this girl—why? She released a quiet sob, unable to force herself to meet Reyna’s eyes again.
“How much longer do you have?”
Thalia silently shook, forcing her voice to come out stronger than she felt. “I leave before morning.”
Reyna nodded jerkily, as if she was also shaking herself out of something. She reached up and wiped at the few tears that dotted Thalia’s face. “Come here.”
Thalia obliged, welcoming Reyna’s comforting arms. They kissed again, this time much softer and more relaxed, like they had all the time in the world when they knew they certainly didn’t. They fell into bed, gradually shedding clothing as they kissed and touched and gasped.
“Come back to me,” Reyna whispered against her mouth. “Don’t try to stay gone. I will hunt you down and beat the Pluto out of you.”
“Always,” the daughter of Jupiter assured, bending down to quickly kiss her. When she tried to pull away, Reyna fiercely grabbed her by the neck and clashed their mouths together rather ungracefully.
“I’ll wait for you,” Reyna asserted, slithering down her body and warming her cool skin. Thalia unwillingly shivered. “Return to me.”
“I will.”
“Promise me.”
“I’ll try my best, Arellano.”
“No,” Reyna almost begged—but Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano didn’t beg. “Promise me, Grace.”
“I—I promise.”
Thalia woke up to something even more terrifying than wolves.
She screamed in Hera’s face, scooting back into the farthest corner of the cell. She glanced around, her heart rate a lot quicker than normal. Her body was chilly, and she looked up to see her bangs sticking to her face and peppered with little icicles. Khione had…frozen her and locked her up with Hera?
“Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon,” Thalia worked out between irregular breaths.
“Screaming was a bit unnecessary, don’t you think?” Hera drawled listlessly. “Really, it was rather dramatic.”
Thalia glowered. “Oh, it was absolutely necessary, you insane tw—”
"Hush," Hera commanded in that motherly tone that Thalia loathed. "You had a lot of injuries, but I think it helped that she froze you. She thawed you out, too, so don't go thinking I did you a favor."
"That crazy bitch," Thalia muttered under her breath.
“I can’t believe you fell for that D-List goddess’ act. I guess you see a hot piece of ass and you clock out,” the goddess remarked hatefully. “Like father, like daughter.”
“You’re ten seconds away from getting left in here. One more comment, and I’m sending Piper and Leo back to camp.”
Hera snorted in contempt. “You wouldn’t be free, either.”
“It’s a sacrifice I’ll gladly make,” Thalia retorted spitefully. “Especially if it means the world will be free of you.”
Hera breathed through her nose, poorly holding back her aggravation. “Have you forgotten all that I have done for you?”
Thalia scoffed. “Of course not. I’ll never forget the way you ruined my life, robbed me of my memories, and drove me slowly insane in a prison cell.”
“You just got here,” Hera snapped. "How could I have driven you insane?"
Thalia smiled sarcastically. “Just anticipating the near future.”
“This doesn’t have to be so bad, you know,” Hera said. Thalia could practically see the sarcasm leaking from her tone. “We can talk, woman to woman.”
“Woman to woman?” Thalia echoed in disgust.
“All right, fine, goddess to brat. Satisfied?”
Thalia exhaled in irritation, but slowly stood and made her way over to Hera. She faced the front, gripping the thick, whirling tendrils that served to bar them in the enclosed space. “Fine, I’ll bite. What do you want to talk about?”
“See that large spire over there?” Hera questioned, pointing. Thalia followed her gaze. “The one shaped like the upper half of a body.”
“What is that?”
“A giant. The king of the giants,” Hera explained. “He is called Porphyrion. Say what you want about me—but he’s ten times worse. Gaea needed a great deal of power to raise him again—my power. For weeks I’ve grown weaker as my essence was used to grow him a new form.”
Thalia’s grip tightened. “I remember hearing about him. He was supposed to take my father’s place.”
“That’s right.”
“So, what would he do with you?”
Hera looked disgruntled. “When he awakes, he will offer me a choice: marry him, or be consumed by the earth. And I cannot marry him. We will all be destroyed. And as we die, Gaea will awaken.”
Thalia shook her head. “No. I’m not going to let that happen.”
“You don’t really have a choice, the way things are looking,” Hera complained. “I give it until sunset.”
Thalia squinted her eyes, peering at the sky. “A few minutes, then. Great.”
Hera rolled her eyes. “Well, what are you waiting for? Your friends already stopped by for a little visit. They're outside fighting with the Hunters. More monsters have shown up—the Earthborn. I'm sure they need your help."
Thalia frowned. “What?”
The goddess gestured to the biggest gap in the cage. “You’re thin, you’re young. Suck in it, and scoot out.”
Thalia glared. “I thought this was enchanted.”
“For a goddess,” Hera said. “I’ve never seen a demigod try.”
“What if it kills me?” Thalia shrieked.
“Then I’ll apologize to your father.”
Thalia offered a fake laugh.
“Well, get going,” Hera urged, scowling. “You have two minutes to save the day."