~ ☼ ~

I blinked away the sleep in my eyes to see Alec hovering over me.

He had a pensive look on his face, but when we locked eyes, he gave me an unsteady smile.

"Hey, runaway," he said. "I got some ambrosia for you."

I sat up, watching as he got a square of a vague baked good from a bag on the bedside table. We were in a hotel room - I assume one of my siblings had bought it - and Chicago was going on as normal outside the window. I brought my attention back to Alec as he offered the ambrosia to me, and I ate it with no complaints. Even though it made me feel physically better, it didn't help my mental state.

Not only were Lucas and Kiera were traitors.... now they were dead, too.

I think the fact that I didn't fight him on eating the ambrosia must've been Alec's confirmation that I was doing horribly.

"AJ..." he said, trailing off, as I swallowed German chocolate cake that tasted like ash.

I stared back at him, tears coming to my eyes again.

"I'm so, so sorry," he said. He pulled me into a hug.

For a moment, I could almost pretend I wasn't here. Maybe I was back in the Big House, waking up at CHB for the first time, and could start all over. I'd ask Lucas more and not forget about him after our second meeting. And I'd be nicer to Kiera, too, no matter how bitter she was.

"Where's Aria?" I asked, my voice raspy.

Alec pulled away. "She's in the bathroom. She got a few scrapes and cuts, but she's... she's near catatonic. Riley thought maybe getting her into water would help."

I doubted it. She was a woods girl, not a water girl.

I tried to get to my feet, and Alec quickly put his hands out. "Woah there."

"Alec," I said. I gave him a look, and he sighed.

"Okay," he said. "After you."

He moved away in the rolling hotel desk chair to let me walk past him. I wasn't injured, so I could walk perfectly fine, as long as I didn't think too hard.

When I approached the bathroom, Riley met me there. Immediately, she pulled me into a hug, too. Even though I wanted to see Aria, I couldn't deny my sister made me feel better. As I let her coils tickle my scalp, I began to cry again.

"I'm so sorry, Riley," I said. "You were right."

"Shh." She rubbed my back. "It's okay."

She let me go and touched my face once. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Is Aria?"

She sighed. "You see for yourself."

While she went off to update Alec, I tiptoed into the bathroom. Aria was in the shower, in just a camisole and her shorts. Her hair was soaking wet, and her legs were pulled up to her chest.

She was staring straight ahead.

"Hi," I said. I wanted to sit down beside her, but I knew I couldn't do that if she didn't want it. And it didn't look like she wanted it.

"If you need me," I added, swallowing, "I'm here."

I wanted to believe I could be there for her, like I had been in the mall, but I couldn't guarantee that. Remembering the mall and how freely we'd lived, joking and arguing like nothing would ever stop us, reminded me that Kiera was dead. Kiera and her vision and her little fox. She was dead.

And so was my first love.

I really wanted to be there for her, but she needed her family and I did too. All I could do was let her know, like Lucas had let me know at the last possible minute, that I loved her.

Then I remembered that Kiera never had found the walkman in the backpack - the one I had stolen for her. We'd been too busy jamming out together. I guess that was a better way to go out, but tears burst into my eyes again at the memory.

"Do you have their bags?" I asked, coming out of the bedroom hurriedly.

Alec and Riley were sitting next to each other, she on the edge of the bed and him in his makeshift doctor's chair, but they looked at me when I came back in.

Alec nodded. "Yeah. They're all right there."

He pointed towards the lump of luggage by the door. My violin case, everyone's bag, and the camping gear. At the sight, a lump the same size as this formed in my throat, but I pushed through it to reach into Kiera's bag and pull out the music I had stolen.

I wished I had something similar for Lucas, but I had nothing. I knew nothing about him besides him being a prep. I wished so badly I hadn't judged him like that.

"Okay," I said, once I'd gotten everything. "We... we need to make a shroud."

~ ☼ ~

The sun had set by the time we returned to Millennium Park. Aria was with us, but she was stone cold and deadly silent. She had simply gotten to her feet when we we told her we were leaving and walked a foot behind us, never saying a word or looking at us for even a second.

Alec and Riley, meanwhile, wouldn't leave my side.

Peleus was standing where we'd left him, under the bean, but there were no bodies anywhere. When we approached him, he said, "Demigods."

"Peleus," I said with a nod.

"If you'll come with me to the lake," he said, "I've prepared shrouds."

I guess I should've been relieved that he'd taken care of this, but it didn't help the grief at the end of the day. We followed him out of the park, across the broad interstate that was Lake Shore Drive - that was the name of a song I knew, but I couldn't appreciate it right now - and to the small concrete walkway around a marina. Behind us, Chicago glowed with the lights of a million rooms, and before us laid my friends' dead bodies.

I looked at Aria, but she still said nothing. She only stared out onto the water as Peleus took the music gear from me. Somehow, he knew exactly what I wanted. I guess if anyone could throw a funeral, it was a great hero like himself - if anyone knew tragedy, it was those people involved in the Trojan War.

I watched as Peleus tucked the walkman, the earbuds, and the CD into Kiera's shroud. Then he lit them both on fire. All four of us demigods sucked in a breath at the same time. It was only then - as the ancient man passed the shrouds out into Lake Michigan, like a viking funeral - that Aria took my hand. I savored the feeling of it like it was my last link to the summer of 2007 I thought I'd have.

~ ☼ ~

Afterwards, Aria asked for a drachma. Riley supplied one, and I watched as she walked up to the edge of the water and asked Iris for a message to Etisha. That was the girl from the hunters who'd gave Artemis' regards to us. I knew what was coming next.

Peleus, Alec, Riley, and I stepped away to give her privacy, but I overheard as she told the hunters her location. Then, when she was done, she walked back over to us. It was only now that I saw the tears in her eyes.

She pulled me into a hug, and I hugged her back. I wished it could've lasted forever, but then she pulled away again. Her hair was still wet from the half-shower Riley had helped her have, and she had none of her stuff on her. I guess that was it.

"I'm joining the hunters," She said. "Maybe we can stop the Titans before something like this happens again."

I gave her the strongest smile I could. "I really hope you're right."

Then she let go, sighing. "Um... Lady of Artemis is meeting me here. I'm staying until then."

"Do you want us to..."

"No." She seemed sincere. "I want you to get back to camp."

Then, on second thought, she fingered the camp necklace that hung around her tan neck. 5 beads for 5 summers, unclaimed and lonely. She turned to Peleus, and said, "I know you're not a god, but do you know, by any chance, who my parent is? And who..." she swallowed.

Luckily, he didn't make her finish.

He nodded. "You, child, are the daughter of Britomartis - Minoan goddess of hunting, fishing, mountains, and woodlands."

Both of us gasped together. I think for a moment, she almost looked happy. It was the closest she could get to being Artemis' daughter, and it meant she really was going where she was meant to be.

"And the other girl was the daughter of Hecate," he said after a moment, once we'd finished our reactions. "Goddess of witchcraft and the night."

I was surprised by this, and so was Aria. She blinked, her jaw dropping. We looked at each other, and I think we shared the same vision: what might have come of Kiera's sass and grit had she simply had a chance to grow up and find herself.

"I see," said Aria at last. "Thank you."

She gave me one final look, this one sad again, but loving nonetheless. She accompanied it with a weak smile, which made me want to run after her so, so badly as I watched her walk away. But I couldn't be like Ki, and I couldn't get in her way. I knew I'd see her again one day.

That left only us.

Being with just Alec and Riley again felt weird after the last three days. And remembering... remembering what had happened...

Alec grabbed my shoulder like a protector and said, "Lord Peleus, thank you for your help. We should get going."

"Of course," said Peleus. "Don't you want to know who your father is, though?"

Alec blinked. "What?"

Peleus looked at him for a moment. Then he shook his head and waved a hand. "Eh. Never mind."

We watched him walk away in confusion, before he disappeared back over Lake Shore Drive. I didn't know where he was going - if he just lived in Millennium Park for fun, or if he was waiting for a truly worthy demigod to take his sword.

I wondered if there was one out there.

~ ☼ ~

Alec and Riley had driven all the way there from Long Island after Percy's death, which triggered Riley to have a vision.

"A vision?" I asked. "A real vision?"

Riley was solemn as she nodded. She sat in the backseat with me so I didn't have to ride alone. Alec, who was just barely old enough to have a license, drove, but kept looking back at us.

"And I saw that battle. The one with the empousae."

"The minute it ended," added Alec, "We headed straight here."

I bit my lip. "But that's what... 20 hours?"

"12." Riley smiled. "It was in the middle of the night. We left at 4 am."

I was horrified. "How'd you get the car?"

Alec chuckled. It was a deep, deep relief to her this noise again. "It's my grandma's. We may or may not have stole it in the middle of the night. Luckily, she's too preoccupied with her backgammon to notice."

Right. He lived in Brooklyn now. He'd told me a little about it over AoL.

"What about Camp?" I asked. "Did they notice?"

At this, I swear I felt the temperature drop in the car. Weirdly, it made me remember my friends were dead.

Great, I thought. If I'm gonna be thinking of my dead friends every time people are tense, I'm screwed.

For once, I didn't tell myself to shut up. It felt good to be sarcastic.

"They're.... they're going through a lot right now, AJ." Riley shook her head.

"Between the Labyrinth and Percy's death," added Alec, swallowing, "They won't notice a few minor campers missing."

I knew he meant himself and Riley, but it applied to me, too. I wondered if the Hermes cabin would notice Aria and Kiera gone, or if their counselor Luke betraying them was too much trauma for anything else to matter at this point.

I felt a tear come to my eye, and rubbed it away.

"I'm so sorry," I said, "For leaving so abruptly. It'll never happen again. I'm sticking to you two for the rest of the summer."

"Aw, AJ," said Riley. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "You don't have to be sorry."

"No, you don't," said Alec. "In fact, I'd rather you feel as good as you can right now. Do you... do you want to talk about it?"

Surprisingly, I found I did. So I told them everything, from the beginning in Highland Falls to the ending when they appeared. I included Lucas' kiss and Aria's coming out, the fox and the hunters and my kill count. By the end, I was leaning into Riley's arms, sobbing uncontrollably. I'd never been like this in front of someone else before. It felt so, so weird, but I couldn't do anything about it. I had to rely on them. Even if some part of me was terrified, now, that they'd end up betraying me too.

Or maybe even worse - that they'd die, too.

I shoved the thought away quickly before it could make me panic. None of that, I thought. You have them now. That's what matters.

After Alec and Riley had run out of comforts, Alec finally turned around and looked at me. "I know it's not the same thing, but..." he swallowed. "You know I lost my mom. It'll get... it'll get easier to cope with, I promise."

I smiled weakly at him. "I know."

But I didn't believe him.

"Do you want to stop somewhere?" asked Riley. "Like, if you wanted to, we could just avoid Camp forever until the war is over-"

"Riley," Alec admonished.

"I'm kidding!" she said. "I'm just trying to cheer you up."

I shook my head.

"Even if you were serious, I'd say no. Their deaths can't have been in vain." I looked out the window at the Midwest flying by, gone just like that. "Let's go home."

~ ☼ ~

A/N: I've been waiting to write that plot twist and these ending scenes for YEARS (literally half a decade at least), and I'm so happy I finally got to. I almost just left DoS to die bc of a low read count and bc I wanted to focus on my original stories, but something always called me back <3

If you're reading this, thank you!! Keep reading, it's not over yet!