Thalia

"How are you feeling?" Leo asked me as Fiona finished bandaging my shoulder.

The three of us had been here in the bathroom for about 30 minutes now trying to treat my brand so it wouldn't get infected later. Though we were several rooms away, I could already hear the music coming from Caesar's ballroom.

"My shoulder still hurts." I said blatantly.

"That's to be expected." Leo replied. "It'll heal in a few weeks' time." He ran his hands though his hair and sighed. He'd been doing that a lot today. He turned back to me and Fiona. "Are you ready to go back out there into the lion's den?"

I stood up and exhaled. "Not really, but I don't have a choice." I stated.

Leo pressed his lips together. Before motioning for us to follow him out. Everyone else had gone ahead and left to go to the ballroom for the after party. Well, it wasn't much of a "party" per say seeing as the only one's present would be Caesar, the Ronans, Jason, myself, and a few guards. However, we all just had to play along until we could be released.

Unless of course Caesar had an ulterior motive like Leo had predicted.

I shook the thought away as we came to the large set of oak double doors that lead to the ballroom. Right now, I couldn't afford to let my thoughts wonder. Had to be at the top of my game. I took a deep breath as Leo opened the doors and the muffled music that had been behind it fluttered into my ears.

"Ah! There she is! The guest of honor!" Caesar grinned. He took his arm from around Peter's shoulder and Peter scowled at Caesar's back as he followed behind Caesar over to me. Caesar stroked my cheek and smiled. "My, my. You've gotten much more beautiful since I saw you last, my doll." He cooed.

"We've only been apart for 30 minutes." I deadpanned as Peter wrapped an arm around my waist.

"30 minutes too long." Caesar teased.

"30 minutes too short." I replied, earning a hearty laugh from Caesar.

"You're too funny, doll." He smiled. "Anyway, enjoy your party! All this is in celebration of you, after all. Dance, eat, be merry!" He turned to go before pausing and turning back. "Just don't stray too far." He added with a smirk. With that, he left to go isolate himself somewhere to watch the party from afar.

We all just stood there for a few heartbeats, not quite sure of what to say or do.

Ricardo walked over with two glasses of what appeared to be white wine and handed a glass to Fiona, who accepted it with shaky hands. "What now?" Ricardo asked. "I don't suppose you all have thought up a plan to get out of here."

Leo shook his head. "No. Not yet. Even if we did leave without Caesar's permission, it would only end in us being hunted down for insubordination. Our best bet is to wait out this party and leave when he lets us. Worst case scenario, we'll have to fight our way out."

"But that would one of two separate ways." Fiona added, looking up. "Either we kill Caesar,"

"Or he kills us." Peter finished, tightening his grip on me.

"Exactly." Leo said. "That won't be pretty and there's no way to for us to be sure that Thalia won't be hurt during the fighting. Plus," He turned to look over his shoulder where Jason was having a conversation with Caesar, who looked completely uninterested. "We can't be too sure that Caesar's little lap dog over there doesn't have his own men here today. We might have to worry about them as well."

"So, this is just looking like a suicide mission." Ricardo stated, clutching his glass tighter. With a sigh, he tossed back the wine and glared at me. "I just love the idea of sacrificing my life for a nobody, anyway." He seethed.

"Hey man, watch it! I don't give a damn where the hell we are! If you refer to Lea as a 'nobody' again, I will snap your fucking neck." Peter hissed, pushing me behind him protectively.

"Peter, calm down." Leo warned.

"I call them like I see them, pretty boy. I told you all before hand having her know about us is too dangerous, yet you didn't listen! Now look at us, about to die like rats here in the middle of nowhere."

"Babe, please-"

"No Fiona!" Ricardo whisper yelled. "When I married you, I did it because I expected the two of us to live a long happy life together. We haven't even been married for a whole month yet and already you're expecting me to get ready to die here?" Tears threatened to spill from Ricardo's eyes as he continued. "And for a girl I have no emotional attachment to? I can't do that, Fiona. I just can't."

Fiona grabbed Ricardo's hand and held it close to her heart. "I get that, Ricardo. I really do. But Thalia means something to ME. She means something to US." She said motioning to her brothers. "She's family at this point, and like it or not, we ALWAYS have to be prepared to die for family. Do you understand that?" She asked reaching up to brush a stray strand of hair out of Ricardo's face.

Ricardo stared into Fiona's brown eyes for a moment before he turned his head away with a click of his tongue. Slowly and reluctantly, he nodded.

It was quiet between us all for a few heartbeats before Leo spoke up. "I think we al need to take a few moments to ourselves to breathe." He said. "Go mingle, but make sure to stay close to someone else at all times." Peter went to lead me away before Leo called out to him. "You're with me. Thalia, you go over there to the food bar with Rhys and Corey, alright?" He stated. Not daring to oppose him, I simply nodded and left.

Corey stood beside Rhys with his arms crossed, his cold blue eyes never leaving Caesar. Rhys on the other hand was filling a plate up with various food items as though he hadn't eaten in days.

"Leave it to you, to pig out in a moment of crisis." I joked as I made my way over to the two boys.

Corey, who was too focused on Caesar to notice my presence, jumped at the sound of my voice. "Oh, Thalia. Its just you." He sighed.

"I'm just hungry. I'm a stress eater." Rhys responded, as though Corey didn't just almost have a heart attack beside him.

"No. You're just dumb." Corey retorted, focusing his attention back to Caesar.

I turned to look with him to see Caesar staring at his fingernails as though they were the most interesting thing in the room at the moment. To him, they probably were. He was most definitely aware of us staring at him. I mean, how could e not be. We were being so blatantly obvious about it. He was just choosing to ignore us. I was at that moment I noticed something.

Where was Jason?

Wasn't he just over there with him? I let my eyes scan the room in search of him but couldn't find him. Did he leave? Did Caesar send him to fetch something?

Suddenly, I hand grabbed my wrist and I gasped, whipping around to face the person holding me. I scoffed as I met Jason's cold gaze.