The Moon's Shine (PJO)

Chapter 55

Forcing the group into solidarity . . . didn't go as planned.

The first red light flashed in Louisiana's mind when Alina announced that she'd get Caroline—that meant she had to convince Serena.

"Why do you have Caroline?" Louisiana had complained. "I thought you were up for the challenge. Or are the offspring of Ares not as brave as they pretend to be?"

"I'm not stupid enough to walk into Thanatos' domain," had come the answer. And that was that.

Louisiana cursed Alina under her breath as she walked to the southern border of camp and pushed through a flap of a nearby tent. She realized she'd never been in Serena's tent and took an eager look around—a tent the size of a living room; the floor covered with carpet; bright, sunny lighting; and on the nightstand, a few picture frames.

She . . . looks so happy in those photos. Without thinking, Louisiana covered the distance to the table and picked up the picture in the middle. It was a polaroid, taken after one of the nightly campfire shows—a Camp Half-Blood tradition. Serena was in the middle, and a dozen other campers—all Apollo kids—crammed into the view. The daughter of Apollo seemed squished, but her brilliant smile betrayed no sense of discomfort. Louisiana's heart ached—

"What are you doing in my tent?"

Louisiana spun around. In the corner, Serena sat up on her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. When she saw the daughter of Hypnos, her expression hardened. "Get out."

"You look so happy in this picture," Louisiana whispered, unmoving. "I can't believe I forgot about how your smile looked. If only you were still happy around me—"

"GET OUT!" Serena yelled. Her eyes burned with anger, and she temporarily forgot that it was the middle of the night—people were asleep. "Stop touching my stuff. I know you're here to convince me of something. But I'm not going to listen."

"Give me two minutes—" Louisiana tried.

"Is it about Percy?"

"Well . . . sort of . . ."

"Then I don't need to hear anything else. Now will you excuse yourself, or do I have to force you out?"

"Just listen to me!" Louisiana didn't know where she got the energy to shout. But something inside of her snapped (A/N-XD), and rage filled every pocket of her body. "Percy is innocent. Xavier framed him—and if we don't stop him soon, he's gonna make a move on Artemis!"

There was a pause. Serena seemed stunned at the bluntness of Louisiana's words. No evidence backed her up, but it was enough to lull the conversation. For a moment, Louisiana thought she had won.

But then Serena lashed out. "You have a crush on Percy, don't you?"

Louisiana was taken aback. She'd expected Serena to yell at her—or even push her out. But this . . . was surprising. "What?"

"Everything makes sense." Serena pushed forward, as if putting the pieces together. "There's so much evidence against him. But you're still on his side. He's funny, smart, good-looking, strong . . ."

"Do you have a crush on him?" Louisiana had to ask.

Serena completely ignored her; she wasn't the one on trial. "Louisiana, if you can give me even a shred of evidence incriminating Xavier, I'll listen to you." 

Louisiana opened her mouth—but nothing came out. There really wasn't any way to convince the daughter of Apollo.

"You're disgusting," Serena spat. "You came here to convince me. But you can't. Now tell me. What should I do? Y'know, if I reported this to Artemis, she'd make you cook for a month. No—a year."