Another night, another nightmare.

Kia's recent nightmares had been more potently disturbing than the ones she'd seen a few weeks earlier for some reason, and she assumed that couldn't mean anything good. They ranged from all things like never-ending mazes and the spark of insanity lighting a match in someone's mind to rotten and browned blood staining white tiles with an urgency similar to the eerie feeling one gets in an empty hospital at night to faces stretching through the walls of her old home, reaching toward her with their faces twisted as if they were about to scream. Lately, the nightmares were terrifyingly paralysing.

Tonight, she dreamt of a completely white room, feeling like a psychopath in a straitjacket against the repulsively clean and disinfected walls; the nauseating feeling of being unclean in a place that was assuredly spotless crept into the pores of Kia's skin, and the utter silence of the room was trying to drive her to the point of madness. She couldn't move.

Kia thought her eyesight must have been fooling her when the room started turning red, thinking of the way the colours would invert of you stared at something for too long. At first, it was just a dot of red, right in between the middle of her knees. Then it expanded, like a network of roots being defiled with red liquid, branching out and reaching all around her. The white she was wearing was also stained. Uncomfortable liquid started dampening her skin, and she didn't like that she knew what it was. Copper and iron was all she could smell, and it was numbing her nostrils to the point of screaming, the smell so pungent it distracted Kia from the figure in front of her.

"Blood has already been shed, Kia."

Her eyes, already widened in fear and unbridled panic, turned to face the front, where Luke Castellan stood, bathing in the blood coming up to his arms like one would embrace a friend they hadn't met in eons. His hair was untouched and pure, a sandy-blond, and his eyes were blue, just as they were before. He didn't look as sick anymore, much more like a king—a king that could destroy the entire thin thread that controlled the events of this reality with a snap of his fingers. Kia knew he wouldn't like to hear it, but Luke looked like... a god.

"What will you do, Kia?" Luke asked serenely. He looked so at peace with the crimson rising to his chin. "Many have already lost their lives, and this is only a portion of the blood they've shed. I take it with honour, not allowing their deaths to be erased by the crooked hand of history, as the gods who would have it shunned, the truth hidden from the future so that demigods will continue to serve them would have it." His face seemed to float closer. "Tell me, Kia. What will you tell the lost demigods when you see them? If everyone knew the truth, how would they treat you?"

Somehow, Kia didn't think that it was the truth about the gods he was speaking about.

Luke smiled, and for what felt like the first time since she'd ever met him, it didn't feel like he loathed her to the point of darkness consuming his heart. "We'll see each other soon," he said. Kia couldn't decide whether he meant it as a threat or as a promise. Maybe it was a deadline.

The scarlet of the sea of red flooded over her eyes, and the next thing she knew, she was up, keeling over the side of her bed and emptying last night's dinner into a bucket she'd taken to keeping beside her. It had become a common occurrence for her to wake up like this.

Chiron had insisted on bringing her back into the Big House to stay, telling her it was so that he could monitor her health closely. Kia had a feeling he was being dishonest, or that there was at least more to than just what he said.

She wiped at the corner of her lips, grimacing when an dirtied hem of her sweater had come back up. Heading to the washroom to freshen up, seeing as how it was daybreak anyway, her head pounded with an oncoming headache. A fantastic start to the day already.

As she brushed her teeth, she stared at the dark circles beneath her eyes. As it was, she tried to not sleep for too many consecutive hours to not see the dreams, but in dreams, time was stretched, so eventually she ended up trying not to sleep at all. This was the night she'd decided to try and see whether her nightmares had diminished on any scale, but of course, it hadn't.

Later, she went to the Athena cabin to find Vidya, a daughter of Athena she had recently befriended, seeing as how Annabeth (whom she had finally successfully annoyed enough into forming a friendship with) was out of camp going on a date—erm, going to catch a movie with Percy, and Percy was obviously with her there.

Vidya was one of the kids who stayed over the year at camp. She had told Kia it was because Nepal was way too far away from America to visit every year (Although she also grumbled about wanting to stay there instead, seeing as how there weren't much anybody monsters there. Vidya said it was because Nepal was so far away from the original Western Civilisation that they didn't waste their effort going so far for just one demigod; she mentioned a bunch of other smart-people things Kia couldn't remember or understand—Vidya used a lot of complicated words.). She was your regular Athena kid: athletic, intelligent, proud and pretty. Seriously, how was it even fair that Athena kids were so perfect?

She knocked on the cabin door, and lo and behold, the most annoying, infuriating and irritating person on the planet opened the door: Vidya Adhikari. She wore the trademark cocky smirk she always did around Kia, her stormy grey eyes intelligent and gleaming. "Well, well, well, it looks like you've created a pattern of seeking me out because you just adore my company so much."

Kia berated herself for even coming here. She voiced her previous thoughts of Vidya being the most annoying, infuriating and irritating person on the planet. Vidya laughed in her face. "You're the one who keeps showing up at my door," she said cockily, leaning against the doorframe.

"Yeah, I'm leaving."

As she walked away, she grinned as she heard the grass of the field crunch behind her. "Would you look at that? How the tables have turned."

She turned around, expecting to see Vidya, but instead, she saw the baby-seal green eyes she'd been waiting to see all year.

Percy grinned goofily at her, opening his arms. Kia ran at him, practically bulldozing into him. They threw their arms around each other, hugging so tightly that campers passing by definitely thought they were both losing circulation. Pulling away, Kia realised a detail she'd missed earlier.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the movies with Annabeth?" she asked.

Percy rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, about that..."

That was when they saw Vidya jogging toward them on the lawn. She brushed her pants free of dirt. She grumbled sarcastically, "Thanks for waiting."

"What took you so long?"

"Loraine needed a book from the top shelf," she said, expertly bringing up how tall she was. She stood at a prideful five foot six, even though she was only thirteen.

She looked at Percy, and she looked as if he had the same epiphany as Kia. "Shouldn't you be on a da—" Kia stepped on her foot harshly "—out with Annabeth right now?" She glared at Kia, who looked away innocently as if she hadn't done anything.

"Um, yeah, but—"

"Hey, Kia!" Connor Stoll hollered at her. "You got a bobby pin?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you!" she hollered back.

"Wise choice!"

Percy sighed exasperatedly. "How can anyone even get a word in around here? Anyway, I was attacked by vampire ladies who wanted to kill me."

"Who doesn't want to kill you?" Vydia snorted at the same time Kia said, "Vampire ladies?"

They both stared at Vydia for a moment. She put her hands up in defence. "Can you really name someone who doesn't want to kill you?"

Percy gestured loosely to Kia. "Kia, duh."

"Well, I mean, sometimes you get kind of—"

"Alright, whatever!" Percy said annoyedly. "You've made your point. We came back to camp and Annabeth just ditched me for another super secret, super important mission she won't tell me about again other than in cryptic wording."

Vydia nodded wisely. "Yes, very confidential."

Percy stared at her. "Oh, don't look at me. I have no idea what it is. It's Annabeth. It could be a nuclear weapon being employed to get rid of the spiders on our cabin for all I know."

Kia looked at her surprisedly. "That's the first time you've said 'spiders' without shuddering."

"I know. It was terrible. I'm never doing it again."

A loud yell and a crash came from the Athena cabin. Vydia paled. "Bethzilla is gonna kill me if the cabin isn't spotless by the time she comes back. I'll see you guys later."

Bethzilla was what Kia and Vydia hand graciously dubbed Annabeth that one time a fellow camper had managed to piss her off. Fake spiders and stapler pins weren't involved. It was quite terrifying.

"If you live."

"Shut up, Kia."

She sprinted back, and Percy thought he saw her put her hands together in a prayer. He could understand this response. Irritated Annabeth was not fun.

He looked to Kia. "Spar?"

She shrugged. "Sure."

On the way to the sword arena, they talked about the things that happened since their quest in December, and Percy's pupils caught onto the dark crescents beneath her eyes. It was evident she hadn't been sleeping properly.

"You haven't been sleeping," Percy stated straightforwardly.

Kia didn't try to contest it. She was aware that he knew her better than to be able to fall for her lies; it also felt wrong to lie to him. In the iris-messages they'd had between each other, it was easier to hide the dark circles, seeing as how she'd always made it a priority to have the transactions at night or in the dim light of her room in the Big House.

"Yeah," she said simply.

"Nightmares?"

Kia sighed. It was hard to keep stuff from him. She told him all about the things she'd seen, omitting the most recent one. They were unusual, even by demigod standards—nightmares for demigods were never this metaphorical or distinct from stuff directly related to issues at hand. They had already discovered last winter that the visions she'd seen before were all to help her with her powers, but there was no reason for her to see them now, and such ambiguous things that would unsettle people at most.

Percy was concerned for her. There was no reason for her to be suffering this much; the poor thing looked pale and weak. It wasn't something he'd say out loud, but she reminded him of Luke, all malnourished and like he'd fly away if the wind blew too hard, the way he looked at Mount Tamalpais.

Percy grabbed Kia's hand. She turned to him in surprise. "Percy, wha—"

"Kia," he said seriously. "You can tell me anything. I mean it."

Kia gulped, looking away. "I... I know, okay? It's just—I don't know."

Percy's eyes softened in sympathy. He pulled her close and hugged her. She was really cold, even in summer.

Percy was very warm. Only now did Kia realise that he was taller than her now, maybe a few inches taller. It felt really good to hug him. She shut her eyes in content, holding him close like it'd give her even more comfort.

Pulling back, Percy kept her at arm's length. "Really. I'll always stick by you, Ki. No matter what."

Maybe it was childish, but she held up her pinky finger. Kia looked away embarrassedly when Percy stared at it in confusion.

"...Promise," she said in a small voice.

Percy smiled even though she wasn't looking at him. He wrapped his own pinky around it, and tugged it to get her to look at him. Finally, he got Kia to meet his eyes. Green met brown. "I promise with my heart."