XXIII

He runs into the room, holding Backbiter loosely and his sword swings back and forth, a pendulum, one with the wind. She steps back into the corner of the place to avoid being decapitated by its sharp blade. "Do you need help with anything?"

Her words are cold and refined, no emotion in-between the letters — he's throwing clothes out of drawers unceremoniously and she finds no reason to be pleased with him as she'll be the one cleaning up the mess. He doesn't look up as he says, "I can't find my extra knives."

She sighs. "They're in the bathroom. You were too lazy to take them out yesterday when you came back."

"Oh, right," he sheepishly smiles as he walks into the bathroom to grab the offending weapons.

"Don't 'oh, right' me!" she snaps as he comes back into the room. "Look at the mess I'm going to have to pick up now!"

He bends down and kisses her cheek. "I have a different proposition. How about you come with me to the rebellion in Boston? I can send somebody in for the mess."

It's scary how comfortable she is with him now.

XXIV

"Look," she hisses, "after everything that you've taken away, you don't get to rule me. Be happy with the world."

XXV

The next time she visits that prison the only visible change is Percy. The muck on the floor is just as — if not more — disgusting, and the people all look void, the same.

"Thalia?" a hoarse whisper sounds into the dark and she turns towards it, keenly listening. It takes her a minute to realize who it is.

"Grover!" she happily says his name but cannot smile. Grover is in prison? Does Luke even have a heart?

Yes, she realizes, and he's given it to me.

"I'll get you out," her voice breaks, "I promise."

"No," he tells her, "I will die how I must."

Why is everybody except for her so brave?

XXVI

Little do you know that I've always been yours

Our love wasn't gone, just washed out to shore

You have to know how to swim to get it back

Little do you know that you're right on track

-Dee

XXVII

He's in a bad mood when he joins her for dinner that day. She's been let out of the room more and more recently, seeing the world as his black black chessboard.

"Look at me," he orders.

"No," she replies. She is not a soldier, obeying her master's every word — instead she is free, free free free and nobody will stop her, least of all him.

"Don't make me —"

"No."

He grabs her face harshly, and she winces. His hand shakes a little at that but doesn't let go and she knows, knows for certain now that he can never love her as much as he loves power.

The servants are waved away with a flick of his fingers and his lips bend down to her ear. "Oh, sweetheart, there is no choice. Look at me."

When she makes no movement to indicate eye contact he levels her head until blue bright eyes meet.

(One pair is much lighter than the other)

Suddenly, he's in her head.

He pushes through memories, sifting through her thoughts and she shivers. She's never felt so bare before — it's more intimate than anything else she's ever experienced.

Luke watches her memories. They're categorized into 'good' and 'bad' (her mind is a neat little place), and he ignores most of them. That is, except for the ones with him in them . . .

It doesn't matter. He keeps going until he reaches her secrets.

She realizes.

"Please . . . please don't," she's fallen to pleading, begging him . . .

He enters anyways.

XXVIII

Jason?

Her . . . brother?

XXIX

Thalia faints.

XXX

"I'm sorry," he pleads her, begs her to forgive him. He never says 'I'm sorry'.

She looks away.

XXXI

"That night he caged her
Bruised and broke her . . .

Silent pain
Then he slowly saw their nightmares were his dreams

Monster
How should I feel?
Creatures lie here
Looking through the windows
I will
Hear their voices
I'm a glass child
I am May's regrets"*

-Meg and Dia

XXXII

"Jason," he whispers to her. She's in the bed, but she's not sleeping — he can tell that much. "What happened to him?"

She is silent.

"Tell me," he repeats. "If he's alive, I can find him."

She doesn't move.

He tries more tactics to make her listen to him, but she is unresponsive. He tells himself that he won't — can't — snap at her. It's not her fault that he found out about the one secret she would take to the grave.

It's her who finally snaps. "Stop, okay? Leave me alone."

"Thalia . . . I want to help."

"Don't help!" she yells, and he can almost hear her cries. "Please, please don't help me, Luke Castellan. Whenever you help me somebody dies and I get hurt. I don't want you to find Jason. If he was alive — and he's probably not — I would have found him by now. I don't want you to find him. He deserves to be free, not a soldier or the like to your cause."

She's full out crying now, tears dripping down her cheeks.

"You took me. Don't take him, too."

XXXIII

"Hell sent us the

most evil disease

and we . . .

called it 'love'"

-Conny Cernik

*the original song, 'Monster' by Meg and Dia, is incredibly dark. It is based on a short story written by the singers of a boy who was abused at home. The last line is supposed to say, "I am Hannah's regrets," because she is the boy's mother, but I took creative liberties and changed it to May, as in Luke's mom, for it is supposed to connect to him in this story.

In the original story, the boy who is abused at home grows up not knowing what love is. He does questionable things to a girl on the street and then goes home to commit suicide.

It is not something to take lightly. I included it in this story because I felt like the song itself (which you should definitely listen to) held a strong connection to Luke. You may see it inspiring some of my next writing, as it is a strong, heart-breaking song which holds so many meanings it is indescribable.

Luke is an incredibly broken character. The point of this story is to show that sometimes shattered people break others along with themselves.

Yup, I'm back to this! And I've decided to be incredibly dark today. Oh, well. I'm still sick, so I had enough time to put this together.

I'm trying to make it clear that Thalia is standing up to Luke. Yes, he won, but she's still her own person. Hopefully she's not being too submissive, because that just isn't Thalia.

Jason will show up in the next chapter. And sorry about the amount of time I'm taking, I get distracted very easily.

Review if you liked it. I'm not opposed to CC.

-Dee