xxiv. winners

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THEY ARRIVE IN CAMP HALF-BLOOD THAT NIGHT. The Hephestaus cabin practically suffocates Charlie and Thea in a group-hug, the Hermes cabin coming next with half-hearted "congrats on not dying" and an attempted pick-pocket on Connor's part. Reggie has been glued to her ever since after being plagued by nightmares nearly every night that Thea died.

After two weeks, they have finally made it home. At least home for Thea, the others can leave and go home to their other parent, but not her. She's preparing herself for the heartache that is Charlie going back to his home in Chicago. He offers for her to come, but she isn't ready for that. She can't face his younger siblings or his mother.

She takes every shift with the guard she can, practically daring anything to come and try to take the Fleece. She's spent two weeks in the hell that was the Sea of Monsters, she'll be damned if she went through all of that just for the Fleece to be snatched out right from under them.

Tommy stays, too. He wants to experience Camp Half-Blood—or rather spend time around people his own age, but both work too. It turns out that he's good with tools and knows his way around chariots, which comes in handy. He knows to the exact degree to engineer the rigs for the horses—automatons or not—which he says is yet another one of the perks of being a centaur.

Thea is as shocked as everyone else when Chiron announces that the chariot races are back on. Again, Thea's helping with Hephestaus Cabin's chariot, and Tommy is, too. She even pitches in with the Hermes cabin, mostly because Reggie pesters her into it with the claim "Travis and Connor have no idea what they're doing, they got glue in Maily's hair!" which is true, she has to comb the glue out of poor nine-year-old Maily's hair.

The Hermes Cabin isn't hers, not by Claim at least, but it goes unsaid that she has a place there just as much as the kids Claimed by Hermes. After all, if you aren't Claimed, or aren't one of the Olympians', the Hermes Cabin is yours to stay in.

"Your cabin mates are . . . delightful?" Tommy tries, wincing at how it sounds, even to himself.

"They grow on you," she says, glancing over at where Travis is trying to charm Katie Gardner into giving him three drachmas. "Very, very slowly. Like molasses eating you alive."

"Oh. Wonderful image." He tightens a bolt on the wheel. "Are you going with Annabeth and Percy, or Hermes?"

"And Tyson," she adds. "He's their pit crew. And I'm not on either, I just like to help build. Plus, this is more of a them thing, y'know?"

"Hermes' kids?"

"No, Princess and King of Atlantis," she huffs. "Them and their stupid niceness. They offered, but it wouldn't have worked."

"And why not? You three seem close."

"I mean, we are," she says, angrily beating a piece of metal into place with Charlie's hammer. "But we're also not, y'know? They both can go home to their cushy little lives. Well, Annabeth's is cushy, her dad makes, like, over a 100k a year. But she has a step-mom and even more half-siblings, and her dad, and Percy has his mom. Almost everyone in camp gets to go home but me, and I have to just wait here until everyone else comes back—"

Tommy softly grabs her arm and moves it to lower the hammer to the ground. "It is good to get that out, but please not with a hammer. You'll lose a finger." He pauses. "Or more of your fingers."

Thea sputters out a laugh and hits him across the chest. "Like you're one to talk! You're missing, like, two fuckin' fingers."

"In my defense, I am not quite as strong as my centaur brothers. They didn't know a firework would blow off those two."

"A firework? They shot it at you?"

Tommy winces. "Ah, no . . . they told me to catch, and I did. It exploded in my hand."

"Well . . . yeah, that was pretty stupid of you."

"Thea, stop talking to pretty boy over there and finish the axis!"

She flips Connor off. "Shut up! I'm practically the reason this thing even has good blueprints!"

"Well, we would have a complete chariot if you quit making goo-goo eyes at him!"

"You wouldn't even know what those look like, you'd have to get near a girl for that!" she yells, sticking her tongue out toward him. He sticks his out in response, too, and Tommy watches with mild amusement.

Silena whistles, the sharp sound cutting through the argument. She blushes once everyone turns to her. "Um, Thea, Charlie wanted to talk to you. He's in the dining hall?"

Thea gives Tommy a pat on the shoulder as she leaves and thanks Silena as she jogs toward the dining hall. When she finds Charlie she is going to pick at him endlessly about Silena, because once again, the daughter of Aphrodite is talking to Charlie while he works. Charlie insists she's "just a friend" but they all know better. Charlie doesn't make gifts for just anyone, and he doesn't make anyone necklaces but Thea.

"What's up?" she asks. She takes a sip of his water bottle just to annoy him. "By the way, I think Silena definitely—"

"Do not," he says, pointing a finger at her. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you about the chariot race."

"If it's about that wheel, I hammered it out but the metal Jake chose won't meld well with the mold—"

"No, it's fine—well, it's not, I told him not to choose that kind—but it's fine." He clears his throat and seems almost nervous. "Since the chariot's almost done for tomorrow, me and the siblings talked. And we think you should be the sword for the chariot."

She blinks. "What? I'm not a Hephestaus kid, I can't."

"Technically you're unclaimed, and according to the rules, unclaimed campers can participate for any team or their own separate one. So . . ."

"Charlie, if you're messing with me right now, I'll break your freakin' arm—"

"I'm not! Look, I still think you going on the quest was a bad idea, but—you did well. And it's stupid that you don't get enough credit just because you don't have a cabin." He smiles. "So, me and the siblings thought this would work. You might not be Hepheastaus' kid, but you're in our cabin."

Thea sucks in a breath and nearly lunges at Charlie, who catches her. She remembers him being a scrawny kid who still struggled to lift the large hammers, and now he's holding her as if she weighs nothing. It makes her hug him a bit tighter. "I love you a lot, you big giant."

"Love you too, Thea."

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"ALRIGHTY, LET'S DO this!" Thea hefts a sword over her shoulder, a spare one from the armory. A bit too big. "Maybe we'll get extra points since we're dressed traditional?"

Charlie frowns down at his toga. "I can't believe I let Nyssa talk us into this. I made it this many years without wearing one, and I do it for a chariot race?"

"Well, someone thinks you look good," Thea says, elbowing him in the side as she points toward Silena in the stands. "I can see her blushing from over here."

"Thea!" he yelps, pushing her arm down. "Don't!"

"Oh, please. It's obvious."

"Just—just get in the damn chariot."

She hops onto the back and holds onto the rail tightly. It feels just like when she rode the rails a few times but not as smooth. She only holds on with one hand, an iron grip, their chariot first, thanks to their automaton horses.

Thea readies herself as the Aphrodite kids ride up beside them, weary of the spikes on the spokes of their wheels. Trevor stumbles against the railing and swings his sword toward her. She leans back and smacks the side of her sword into the blade of his, using the vibration of it stunning his hand to slice his arm.

"Shit!"

She uses the strength of her arms to hold herself up as she kicks with both legs, which sends him rolling in the dirt off the side. Thea nearly falls off as she swings her legs back over the railing, but she makes it back.

"Cutting it close!" Charlie yells from the front.

"I got it!"

When they turn onto their second lap Ares starts to gain on them and Thea draws a javelin. The driver, a third-year named Hannah, has a face of horror, mid-scream for Clarisse as the javelin flies forward. Thea is off by nearly a foot, but it doesn't matter. The javelin splits apart at the tip, elongates into a metal-link net, and entraps Hannah in it.

Charlie cheers her on as the Ares chariot swerves off the track, throwing up a fist for her. She smiles widely and throws one up for him, too.

When Annabeth and Percy's chariot starts to gain on them, Thea yells for him to throw the firebomb. A Molotov cocktail of Greek fire, her specialty. She hefts it into her hand and Percy shakes his head, yelling that she "better not," but she throws it anyway. It lands on the roof of their chariot and immediately engulfs it.

"You're the worst, Thea!" Annabeth yells, parrying her sword.

"You too, Princess!"

Thea is better with a sword, and with the confusion of the fire, she's gaining the upper hand.

"Annabeth, switch with me!" Percy yells. "Take the reins!"

"But—"

"Trust me!"

Their chariots aren't even, hers higher and theirs slightly behind. It makes it easy to take out one of their back wheels entirely.

Percy curses as he nearly falls off the side from the shaking, Riptide clenched in his hand. "What—why are you wearing a toga?!"

"To confuse you, obviously!" She hacks forward as the red on his cheeks intensifies. "And it's working!"

He taps a button on his watch and a shield pops out. It's large, but it won't stand against Charlie's swords. She brings her sword down, a hard arc, and it shatters on impact.

"What? You—"

Percy slices her on the arm and throws her—a move of her own—and she goes rolling off the side of the track. "Sorry!"

She flips him off as they continue forward. She dusts off her toga and gets to her feet as she watches Percy knock Charlie off, too, and their horses crash into two other chariots. It's a bit funny if she isn't so pissed they lost.

By the time she gets Charlie to his feet from where he's fallen in a briar bush, they have already crossed the finish line. It takes a few minutes to hurry over, and by then Percy and Annabeth have already been lifted into the air by the Athena cabin.

Percy smiles at her and holds out his first. Thea meets hers with his and cheers along with the crowd for her friends.

When Percy and Annabeth are bestowed their laurel wreaths, Thea wolf-whistles so loud it makes her ears hurt.