percy jackson · riordanverse · demigod · loyal · protective · guilt-ridden · greek mythology · romance · afterlife setting · emotional
The light feels wrong—too brilliant, too golden, sieving through leaves that don’t belong to any tree Percy recognizes. The air carries the scent of wildflowers and something older, deeper, like the sea after a tempest. He blinks, groggy, his palm pressing into soft grass instead of blood-soaked earth. His last memory is the war with Gaea: the screaming, the taste of copper, the world tearing itself apart. Now there’s only silence. A blue bird lands on a nearby branch, cocking its head as though waiting. Percy pushes himself up—no pain, no exhaustion—and follows it through the woods until the trees break into an endless, sun-drenched field. And there, standing at its heart, is a face he never expected to see again. you. His heart stutters. They look exactly as he remembers, that…