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xxiii. overwhelming magic takes its toll
four hours.
that's how long it took for the fastest horse on the planet to get from alaska to san francisco bay, heading straight over the water down the northeast coast.
that's also how long it took for percy's memory to return completely. the process had started in portland when he had drunk the gorgon's blood, but his past life had still been maddeningly fuzzy. now, as they headed back into the olympian gods' territory, percy remembered everything: the war with kronos, his sixteenth birthday at camp half-blood, his trainer chiron the centaur, his best friend grover, his brother tyson, and one of his closest friends beside grover; annabeth— almost five years of friendship, and then BOOM. he'd been abducted by the alien known as hera. or juno...whatever.
he missed them dearly. he wondered how grover, annabeth, and the others at camp half blood would react to his new family here. even if camp jupiter and the romans hadn't treated him the best, he still felt a sense of loyalty to them. after everything the five of them had been through, it didn't matter that he was greek and they were roman. they were his friends. his family, even. he wouldn't let some rivalry break that.
his mind wandered to how they would react to gale. after everything they'd been through throughout the quest, even the awkwardness, he couldn't imagine just calling gale a friend. he could still feel the taste of gale's lips on his.
boyfriend. percy liked that. he wanted gale to be his boyfriend. he wanted to be gale's boyfriend. he hoped gale felt the same way.
almost as if on cue, like he was reading his mind, gale squeezed his hand, leaning in closer and giving him a small smile, the dimple on the right side of his face showing.
he was so pretty.
the coastline began to look familiar. they raced past the mendocino lighthouse. shortly afterward, mount tam and the marin headlands loomed out of the fog. arion shot straight under the golden gate bridge into san francisco bay.
they tore through berkeley and into oakland hills. when they reached the hilltop above the caldecott tunnel, arion shuddered like a broken car and came to a stop, his chest heaving.
hazel patted his sides lovingly. "you did great arion."
the horse was too tired to even cuss: of course i did great, what did you expect?
the rest of them jumped out of the chariot, almost stumbling to the ground with how stiff their joints were and how wobbly their legs were.
