As I walked off towards the ambassador's house, all I could think of was Rami sitting in the fields alone, all those hopeful wishes I hold deep in my heart about the two of us. They all disappear as soon as we realize that we inevitably lose each other in a few days.
I grabbed my swimsuit from my closet and changed into it, pulling on some sweatpants over the top, I look up at the projector and smile, remembering the last movie night we had, we got the boys to help us move the beds so we could all watch it together and all eight of us were sitting there watching a movie, Cora and I had gotten up in front of the screen and re-enacted a scene from the movie, we all stayed up so late and had an amazing night. I remember feeling so secure, like that moment would last forever and we would all be happy like that forever. I walk over to the chest of drawers and look through the DVDs we have. I pull out the one labeled Mamma Mia - Cora's favorite movie. I tap it against my hand gently, I walk over, and place it under my pillow. A movie night is a good idea, maybe even if it gets Cora to speak to me again.
I grab my headphones, plug them into my MP3 player, and walk into the kitchen, I hear the door open and I turn around, pulling out my headphones as I do 'Hey,' I say as I see Cora walk in 'I'm about to go for a swim, do you want to join me?' I see her looking around the room and she finally looks at me.
'oh… I'm not feeling great right now, m-maybe tomorrow, I'm gonna go lie down actually…' she says and starts walking to our room.
'Cora?' she looks at me 'How about a movie night later? Just the girls. What do you say?'
She nods gently 'Yeah… okay…' she walks into the room and lays down on her bed, I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and walk to the girl's bathroom, I run my hands through my hair and grab a bobble from my wrist, tying my hair back in a high ponytail, a few bits falling out at the front and I walk back into the living room, I see Marcus sitting on the couch.
'Astrid? Thought that was you.' he says without looking at me, flipping through his book, his tone happy and hopeful.
'How's Bo?' I ask him teasingly and he gives me a wide grin, I lean against the couch and he puts his book down.
'He's good,' he says blushing 'I got breakfast with him this morning at the cafe just outside the border'
'I'm glad you're happy Marcus,' I say with a smile, messing up his jet black hair. 'I thought I told you last week, you can't keep leaving camp,' I chuckled softly, pushing his shoulder and standing up 'I'm going for a swim.'
'Have fun' He calls as I grab a towel from the bathroom and leave the house, I lean against the door and take a deep breath, the sweet summer air, the scent of the wildflowers that grow throughout the camp, I open my eyes and see the bright sky through the trees, I walk over to the pool house and open the door, there are a few people in the water, I walk over to the bench along the wall and I place my things down, unlacing my converse and placing them on the bench, I pull off my sweatpants and dive into the water, propelling myself forward, swimming up and down the pool a few times before taking a break and laying on my back, feeling the water moving around me, moving me up and down slowly, my breathing slow and measured, my mind reeling and trying to figure out my dream, the field with Rami. The flicker of gold. The prophecy - or what I know of it running through my mind - 'Born of Loki's cunning and chaos unbound' 'Her voice the cadence of an ancient song. With every step, the ice shall grow'
My mind is running scared trying to figure out what the mixed up and confusing lines mean when I hear a voice calling my name, I realise the water around me had grown freezing and icy, I gasp and pull my head up, my body falling under the water and I push myself back up, wading at the water trying to keep myself afloat, I look around and see Aelia standing at the side of the pool.
'Astrid!' She yelled again as I floated to the surface and coughed up water, I swam to the ladder and pulled myself out of the water, shaking and coughing. I look at the scared demigods trying to get as far away from the pool as possible, I see it icing over and becoming solid.
'I-… I-I didn't mean to…' I say shakily and she comes to my side, wrapping my towel around my shoulders and hugging me as I take deep breaths and try to calm myself down.
'I'll get Erik…' she says, not knowing what else to do, she runs to the door and yells his name, she sees Rami walking past and yells him over instead, she pulls him inside and he takes one look at the pool before running to me and pulling me into his arms, I cling onto him, trying to calm down, he runs his hand over my hair that is dripping down my back.
'Its okay… you're okay… I'm right here…' he whispers to me as I take a few shaky breaths, I'm freezing and my hands won't stop shaking, the pool begins to grow colder, and the temperature in the room drops.
'I'm sorry… I didn't mean it…' I say again, as he holds me in his arms, my body shaking, my mind reeling, I know I need to calm down so the temperature will go back to normal. I sit with his strong, warm arms wrapped around me, his head resting on top of mine as he rocks me softly and I begin calming down.
After almost twenty minutes, the temperature starts rising again, Rami holds his hand over the pool and it begins smoking as he unfreezes it, like he did with the pond, his body begins to grow warmer and I feel myself reacting to his heat, my body relaxing on his, I can feel the heat seeping into my blood, thawing out my anxiety and fear.
Aelia walks back into the pool house with Erik and he walks over to my side 'Astrid?…what happened?'
'She was in the water and it started freezing over, I came over to see what the campers were screaming about and I saw them all rushing to get out of the water…' Aelia tells him and he places a hand on my forehead then quickly retracts it.
'Gods, you're freezing cuz.' he looks at me concerned 'We need to get you to the infirmary…get you some ambrosia or something' he says, his voice wavering slightly as he speaks, I reach over and take his hand.
'I'm fine Erik,' I say calmly and sit up slowly, Rami's hand still resting on my back as I move out of his arms 'I'll be fine' I whisper and try to pull myself up, my knees buckle and my legs shake as I collapse back onto Rami.
I must've blacked out. The next thing I remembered was strong arms carrying me, the sky splitting with cracks of lightning. My mind was blank—until I saw it. The golden flash. So close yet so far away. I felt myself slipping back into my dream… the gold suddenly surrounded me, the brightness almost overwhelming me, I blinked a few times trying to see clearly, and I heard loud and garbled voices around me.
'Thor-'
'Loki- She cant par- In the game-!'
I couldn't see anyone but I could guess who it was. Odin. Yelling at Thor and Loki, who were still fighting over Erik and me, the voice began getting clearer.
'You know her prophecy! She will be the end of us if we allow her to participate in the games!'
'She is the most powerful in that camp!' My father's voice rattled around in my head as he screamed back at Odin.
'And she should never become any more powerful. You know her prophecy better than anyone else. She. Cannot. Ascend.'
The argument began to grow muffled and garbled again as the room starts growing icy and cold, and I fall back into reality, I sit up and look around, I was sitting in the infirmary, on a bed with Cora sitting in the chair beside me and Marcus looking at some chart while holding a bottle of nectar.
'You're awake…' Cora said with a gentle smile 'Marcus give her the nectar.' she told him as she reached for my hand, Marcus looked at me and I could see the relief in his eyes that I was awake.
'Here. Drink this slowly.' He cautions me before leaving me and Cora together, her hand gripping mine like I'm about to fall off a cliff, I smile at her
'So, does this mean you're speaking to me again?…' I ask hopefully as she takes a deep breath.
'I'm sorry Astrid, I was scared. I don't want to lose you or Erik, so I was pushing you away, I-I thought that by doing that then it would hurt less when one of you left' Tears begin to fall from her eyes and she puts her head down 'You're my best friend Astrid. I can't lose you…' I gripped her hand back and whispered.
'Hey, look at me?' she tilted her head back up to look at me and wiped her tears away 'We're fine Cor. I promise.' I smile at her and she looks into my eyes, I open my arms and she hugs me tightly, her hands clenched in tight fists as she buries her head in my hair, I can feel her shaking as she cries quietly, I comfort her and we stay in the infirmary for the next hour or two until the dinner bell rings and Marcus comes back into the room.
'Dinner time, ladies' he walks over to me and helps me out of bed, my legs still shaky but I manage to stand and walk towards the dining hall, the tall white pillars, strung with gold and silver wires that twist around the pillars creating a spiral, Cora and Marcus help me to the top table in the middle row of seats, they help me sit down and soon the dining hall fills with demigods, chattering and moving around.
The plates in front of us holding a slip of paper and a pencil, I write down a burger with chips, I try to write lemonade but Marcus stops me, making me get water instead, I convince him to let me get some shortbread since it was my favourite thing to get when my mother and I went to Scotland when I was a little girl, I place the pencil down and the plate shakes softly the meal appearing in front of me as quickly as you could say 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' I picked up one of the chips and started eating it, the food at camp was always the best no matter what you got, Rami came over and sat next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders and hugging me gently, Cora sat with Erik, holding his hand.
I knew she was happy, she had the same look in her eyes she did when she and Erik first got together, I leaned my head against Rami's shoulder and he stole a chip from my plate.
'Hey,' I looked up at him with a pout, 'Food stealer.' I say with a hint of annoyance in my voice but I can't help but smile as he looks into my eyes, his eyes look relieved to see me, I realize I probably scared him when I collapsed earlier and he confirms my thought when he says,
'Don't do that to me again. 'Kay?' he says hushed so only I can hear him, I nod softly and put my head back on his shoulder, he kisses my head gently and hugs me closer to him, our legs pressed together, his hand not moving from my shoulder, but he writes messily on the paper with his left hand. He isn't left-handed. He just refused to move his hand from my shoulder, his food appeared and everyone started laughing as he wrote water on his paper but when he sipped it he spat it out because the paper thought he wrote vinegar.
'Is your handwriting that bad Rami?' Azia asks, her and Evan were sitting together, like always, with the exact same meal on their plates, like always. Everyone laughed at her comment and Rami took a sip of my water instead of his.
We all had dinner together, and for almost twenty minutes everything was perfect, Rami was holding me, we were stealing food off each other's plates, everyone was laughing and having a good time, and even Aelia was telling jokes and being social, until we heard yelling from one of the tables toward the entrance of the hall, a whole group of campers was yelling and swinging at each other. Evan, Azia, and Erik all stood up and went over to try and break it up. I went to stand up too but Rami stopped me, whispering in my ear again.
'Stay here frosty.' he said quietly but with so much command all I could do was sit there, my legs still felt a bit wobbly from earlier but I hated sitting on the sidelines, I watched uneasily as the campers began fighting with the ambassadors who were all over there now apart from me, I felt so helpless, so powerless.
The ambassadors finally managed to get the campers to stop fighting, but not without injury. Evan had been punched in the face, Rami had fallen on his arm at one point, Aelia had been kicked in the stomach and Marcus was carrying her to the infirmary for some ambrosia, Cora had a small cut on the back of her hand because one of the campers decided to use their knife as a weapon. I helped her wrap it up in a napkin to help until Marcus came back with ambrosia and bandages, Rami sat next to me again and I gently placed my hand on his shoulder, he winced and I looked up at him with sympathy in my eyes.
'Sorry,' I said as I felt his arm. 'It's okay, you've dislocated your shoulder but it isn't bad, Marcus can put it back in place…' I said looking at his arm with such sympathy, he took a deep breath as I rubbed my thumb over his shoulder lightly
'You should see the other guy,' he joked and I met his gaze, my bright blue eyes locked with his deep brown ones.
An unspoken exchange, a silent I hate it when you get hurt - I know. I sit with him and help him finish off his dinner while we wait for Marcus to come back.
When he got back I helped him fix Rami's arm and put him in a sling. I helped him the best I could to help the rest of the injured campers, I saw Ivar sitting with a cut on his arm, no doubt payback from Bryn.
That night I tried to stay at the dining hall to help Marcus, but he insisted I go back to the house. I nodded and went back but only because I remembered I had promised Cora a movie night.
While walking back to the ambassador's house I picked up a few flowers for the girls, a blue azalea for Azia, a pink camellia flower for Cora, and a black dahlia for Aelia. When I got back to the house, I went into the cupboard and grabbed a bag of popcorn, I poured it into a bowl before starting to make fruit-ice lollies for us, the molds sitting on the counter as I cut the strawberries, I added raspberries and blueberries in as well before pouring water in the molds and cupping my hands around them to freeze them over.
'Ooh, you're making lollies and you didn't think to offer me one?' Rami asks impatiently as he walks over and leans against the counter with his good arm.
'These are for movie night,' I tell him with a gentle smile. 'You can make your own, put it in the freezer' he rolls his eyes.
'Yeah but I want one of yours,' he says with a pout. 'You have to be nice cause my arm hurts' I roll my eyes, I know he's gonna get his way and I hate how he always has a way of being right.
'Fine, I'll make you a lolly' I say softly and put some fruit in a mold and pour water inside before freezing it with my hands and giving it to him, he takes an exaggerated lick and I laugh softly.
'I'll see you in the morning frosty…' he says with a smile before walking back into the boys bedroom, the chill still clinging to my hands as I shake them softly, I grab the lollies and go into the room, Azia had set up the movie and I handed the girls their flowers and lollies before sitting down on my bed, readying to watch the movie.
The rest of the night is blissful, the four of us belting out 'honey, honey' and jumping on our beds, we sang our hearts out, having the best time until the boys came through and told us we were being "too loud" to which we responded with starting a pillow fight with them - and we won obviously, the boys then didn't criticise our singing or our volume again.
***
The next four days were hectic, to say the least, the campers began rioting, threatening war on each other and just being completely irrational, I was breaking up at least six or seven fights a day and sometimes it took all eight of us to break them up if there was more than thirty campers involved. The days were noisy and chaotic, even training ended up with more or less ten campers in the infirmary, and the nights were quiet. Too quiet. I had filled the quiet as best I could in the house but it didn't help much, two days before the selection me and Cora had spent most of the day together, training, picking flowers, racing through the woods together, and just spending as much time together as possible. I wasn't ready to face the inevitable, I didn't want to go to sleep that night because I knew what was awaiting me the day after tomorrow.