Annabeth

A few hours later

Most of the camp already knew about Silena's arrival. She was going to stay in the Aphrodite cabin, so of course the Aphrodite kids already knew about her. And word spread through camp quickly. What they didn't know, was that we would pretty soon have a bunch more supposed to be dead people coming into camp. At least, I thought they would come  to camp. They might decide not to, of course.

But all I could think about right then, was Luke. What if he came? What would I do? The last time I had seen him was up on mount Olympus, when he'd stabbed himself to defeat Kronos. I had mixed feelings for him. If he came, should I be mad at him for leaving me? For betraying us all? Or should I be happy, finally seeing him again?

You're overreacting, I told myself, he's probably not gonna show up in camp anyway, why would he? 

I was deep in thought so I didn't see when I bumped into Piper. "Oh sorry Piper I didn't see you there." I said.

"It's fine," she told me, "I was coming to look for you anyways."

"You were?"

"Yeah, I heard about Silena, Is she really back?"

"Yeah." I replied. Piper hadn't been there during the titan war. She never met Silena or Luke or the others that had died then.

"How? I thought she was... Dead?"

Chiron had told me not to tell anyone about the doors of death stuff, not to raise panic, but I felt Piper should know, being the daughter of Aphrodite.

"She came through the doors of death," I whispered, "there's probably gonna be a lot more dead people out there, and hades looking for them, so Chiron doesn't want anyone to know, to not raise panic. So don't speak about it."

Piper nodded. "Where is Silena? I want to meet her."

"She's probably at the Aphrodite cabin, that's where I last saw her."

Piper nodded and walked off.

I walked back to my cabin to continue my work. But I couldn't concentrate. I kept thinking about Luke, an no matter how much I told myself to forget about it, that he wouldn't come, a little part of me hoped he would. He would come, and it would be like the old days.

***

I didn't show up for dinner. Instead I sat in my cabin. I was hoping Luke had made it through the doors, so I could at least see him again, but at the same time, part of me hoped he hadn't.

I probably would have stayed on my laptop for the rest of the day, but a bunch of noise started up outside. 

I went out of my cabin to see what the commotion was about.

There, in the distance, was Thalia and her crew. 

The hunters had come.