nineteen

                                    

                                          
ITS OVER
That night, Ariana slept in Hades cabin.
She shared her room with Hazel, giving her the bed whilst she slept on the couch. Even Nico had decided to use the cabin, in his own bedroom.
Just before curfew, Frank came to visit and spent a few minutes talking with Hazel in hushed tones.
Ariana left her room, giving them some privacy and she sat in Nico's room for a while. 
"You really loved Leo?" Her brother asked.
Ariana looked at him, her eyes were lined with pain and grief. "I did, I still do."
Frank knocked on the door and walked in next to Nico's bed.
Ariana looked over. Zhang stood so tall now. He seemed so ... Roman.
"Hey." Frank said. "We'll be leaving in the morning. Just wanted to tell you thanks."
Nico sat up in his bunk. "You did great.
"Frank, it's been an honour fighting side by side with you." Ariana told him truthfully.
She was going to miss him and Hazel.
Frank smiled. "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised I lived through it. The whole magic firewood thing..."
Ariana nodded. She took it as a good sign that Frank could talk about it openly now.
"I can't see the future," Nico told him, "but I can often tell when people are close to death. You're not.,I don't know when that piece of firewood will burn up. Eventually, we all run out of firewood. But it won't be soon, Praetor Zhang. You and Hazel ... you've got a lot more adventures ahead of you. You're just getting started. Be good to my sister, okay?"
Hazel walked up next to Frank and laced her hand with his. "Nico, you're not threatening my boyfriend, are you?"
The two of them looked so comfortable together it made Ariana glad. But it also caused an ache in her heart - a ghostly pain, like an old war wound throbbing in bad weather.
"No need for threats." Ariana said. "Frank's a good guy. Or bear. Or bulldog. Or -"
"Oh, stop." Hazel laughed. Then she kissed Frank. "See you in the morning."
"Yeah." Frank said. "Nico ... you sure you won't come with us? You'll always have a place in New Rome."
"Thanks, Praetor. Reyna said the same thing. But ... no." 
"I hope I'll see you both again?"
"Oh, you will." Nico promised. "I'm going to be the flower boy at your wedding, right?"
Ariana shrugged, smirking. "As long as I'm the maid of honour!"
"Um ..." Frank got flustered, cleared his throat and shuffled off, running into the doorjamb on the way out.
Hazel crossed her arms. "You just had to tease him about that."
She sat on Nico's bed. For a while they just stayed there in comfortable silence ... siblings, two children from the past, three children of the Underworld.
"I'm going to miss you." Nico said.
Hazel leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. "You too, big brother and sister. You will both visit." 
Ariana tapped the new officer's badge that gleamed on her shirt. "Centurion of the Fifth Cohort now. Congratulations. Are there rules against centurions dating praetors?"
"Shhh." Hazel said. "It'll be a lot of work getting the legion back in shape, repairing the damage Octavian did. Dating regulations will be the least of my worries."
"You've come so far. You're not the same girl I brought to Camp Jupiter. Your power with the Mist, your confidence -" Nico began.
"It's all thanks to you."
"No." Nico said. "Getting a second life is one thing. Making it a better life, that's the trick."
As soon as he said it, Ariana realized he could've been talking about himself. She decided not to bring that up.
Hazel sighed. "A second life. I just wish ..."
She didn't need to finish her thought. For the past two days, Leo's disappearance had hovered like a cloud over the whole camp. 
Ariana, Hazel and Nico had been reluctant to join the speculation about what had happened to him.
"You guys felt his death, didn't you?" Hazel's eyes were watery. Her voice was small.
Ariana nodded, afraid she was about to cry again, both of siblings reached over to her.
"Yeah." Nico admitted. "But I don't know, guys. Something about it was ... different."
"He couldn't have taken the physicians cure. Nothing could have survived that explosion. I thought ... I thought I was helping Leo. I messed up. I'm so sorry Ariana, I know how much you loved him."
"No. It is not your fault." But Ariana wasn't quite so ready to forgive herself. She'd spent the last forty-eight hours replaying the scene with Octavian at the catapult, wondering if she'd done the wrong thing.
Perhaps the explosive power of that projectile had helped destroy Gaia. Or perhaps it had unnecessarily cost Leo Valdez his life.
"I just wish he hadn't died alone." Hazel murmured. "There was no one with him, no one to give him that cure. There's not even a body to bury ..."
Her voice broke. Nico put his arm around her.
Ariana and Nico held her as she wept. Eventually she fell asleep from exhaustion. Nico tucked her into his own bed and kissed her forehead. 
Then they went to the shrine of Hades in the corner- a little table decorated with bones and jewels.
"I suppose," she said, "there's a first time for everything."
They knelt and prayed silently for their father's guidance.
Afterwards, Ariana bid Nico goodnight.
Before she left Nico turned to her. "Don't blame yourself, Ariana."