Explain.
It had been roughly a week since Frank and Hazel left for Camp Jupiter.
It had been roughly two weeks since Nico left the infirmary, but not Will’s side.
It had been roughly eight days since Percy and Annabeth went back into the city to see Sally and Paul.
It had been exactly three weeks, two days, and thirteen hours since Leo Valdez died, and the only way anyone knew this was because Piper and Jason were counting constantly.
People heard Jason murmuring Latin prayers under his breath.
People saw Piper look up at the sky hopefully.
People saw the two of them move and speak like zombies.
Frank said they’d come out of it soon.
Hazel felt waves of pity wash over her at the sight of them.
Percy knew that loss was hell, and of course he’d know.
Annabeth watched them with half-formed condolences floating in her mind.
Nico told them they should move on for the better.
Will said grief was normal, but they had to let go.
People knew they were half-alive and being eaten up with guilt.
I could have saved him.
Why didn’t I try harder?
If I’d done this…
If he did that…
If I wasn’t so…
Pathetic.
Scared.
Weak.
Stupid.
Jason and Piper were two shells of what they had once been, and they didn’t let anyone help them.
They didn’t want help.
They wanted Leo.
It hurt.
It hurt a lot more than it should’ve, and she knew this would happen. Some promises could not be kept, and this was one of them.
He swore on the River Styx.
Maybe he was searching right now.
She knew it was hopeless.
She didn’t care.
Calypso felt ages spanning between the time from now, and when she had felt Leo’s lips on hers, his charming laugh, dumb smile, handsome face- he was so, so ordinary, but also the most extraordinary man she’d ever laid her eyes on.
She left her garden unattended, let weeds grow and flowers wilt. She occupied herself with daydreaming, looking out over the ocean, writing songs and planning amateur designs for Leo and Calypso’s Garage: Auto Repair and Mechanical Monsters.
She was desperately torn between taking her mind off Leo and hanging onto every thought of him. She knew this curse made her fall in love ten times faster than a normal girl, but her pinning over Leo was making her realize how genuine of a man he really was.
Sometimes she fantasized about being a demigod. A normal demigod. She wouldn’t like being a daughter of Hephaestus for obvious reasons. She liked the idea of being an Aphrodite girl, or perhaps a Hecate one.
She decided upon Hecate. With her sorcery and the like, it made sense. She fantasized of a world with no war, just her and Leo Valdez meeting and falling in love and living like normal mortals, marrying and having kids.
She planned their wedding and named their future children, thinking of a domestic life and adding every little detail she could. Having dinner together, her daughter bringing home her boyfriend, going out with friends and working in the auto garage with Leo…
She wanted a girl and a boy- twins. They’d be troublemakers, but smart and gorgeous and amazing because they’d be theirs.
Yes, she was clutching to hope. It might’ve been odd and far too early in their relationship to be thinking of such things, but she didn’t care.
All she cared about was seeing Leo Valdez again, even if it killed her.
Atë didn’t like death exactly.
Sometimes it worked in her favor and let her get her way, but most times it repulsed her.
She hated the thought of living short, simple lives. She wanted so badly for mortals to thrive and live long lives. At least the worthy ones. She had a very high standard of worth, and those who dipped under it, well, they could be scum for all she cared
Her Litae, her followers, her sisters, her friends, they’d bring her the ones who didn’t deserve death. The ones she watched and protected, powerful and beautiful men and women whose lives were so short, yet so inspiring and impacting, that she couldn’t bear to let them go.
She brought them back. Sometimes she hoped one would care to stay with her, in her cursed colorless home, and even dare to love her. She wanted to kill all of them that denied her, watch as their last chance of survival was stripped from them, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t kill from her isolation, she simply wasn’t allowed to. It infuriated her.
She fell in love so easily, she felt as if Aphrodite laughed at her. It was first and foremost Eurystheus who Atë first adored.
She’d tricked Zeus. She made him swear an oath that a descendant of his would be a great ruler. Hera delayed Heracles’ birth, but instead brought forth Eurystheus prematurely.
Zeus cast her down from Mt. Olympus, forbidding her to return. She silently fell in love with Eurystheus, but before she could admit her feelings, he was married to Antimache.
He was not a great man, but she loved him.
She preserved her grace in the room. If she were to leave, she would once again become the tyraness she once was, bringing havoc down upon mortals and wrecking and breaking their spirits. She didn’t want that.
Sometimes she weighed her options.
Stay safe and sane in this room forever.
Or be alive, free, careless, and joyous, killing and destroying and doing what she once did. What she was once meant to do.
She wanted to do the latter.
She always stuck to the former.
Atë was biding her time, sending Leo Valdez off like this. She was biding it for something unavoidable and strong and even more powerful than Gaea herself. Oh, she was looking forward to doing all that, but for now she simply waited.
And her lady, her mother and mentor, was waiting for her to initiate what they knew was nothing a single breathing being could stand. For now, she busied herself in the preparation.
The war had been won because of Leo Valdez, but he had also triggered the beginning of the inevitable end.
And Atë couldn’t wait.