~Playlist: "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol~

"If I stayed here, if we just laid here would you lay with me and just forget the world?"

Thalia's POV

I press against the wall, struggling to hear what's being said inside the room. Daphne, the girl that seems to be in charge of the newcomers, just revealed that Rachel Dare is the only one that isn't a 'demigod', whatever that is.

I can't decide whether everyone forgetting about me is a blessing or not. On the bright side, I'm not being dragged away in chains to the dungeon. But there are people in there that I love, and it hurts that they haven't noticed by absence. Then again, I guess I'm just a criminal.

The pounding in my head is unbearable. At the beginning of the fight, I was quickly pushed to the ground, and my head got the worst of it. I tentatively raise my hand to touch my head, and wince when it connects with damaged skin. I pat around to see just how big this wound is. No matter where I touch, it hurts.

I pull my hand back from my head. It's covered with blood.

I don't feel sick at the sight of it. I just feel...disconnected. As if I'm not the one standing in dirt and debris, eavesdropping in on a conversation with a bloody head. Because how can this be me? How could I have been the one to betray everyone?

"What are you doing here?" a hoarse voice asks from behind me.

I whirl around, regretting the action immediately. My head pounds even harder now. But I forget about that quickly.

Because standing in front of me is Luke.

"Me? What are you doing here?" I ask sharply. "Don't you have to worry about your psycho sister?"

He smiles grimly at me. "She doesn't tell me where to go."

"Really? And here I was thinking you were her guard dog," I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Cut the bull, Luke. What do you want?"

"I wanted to make sure you're okay," he says softly. "Is that a crime?"

Two strong urges seize through me: I want to laugh and cry.

"You haven't cared about me for a long time, Luke. Why start now?"

"That's not true-"

"I thought you were dead," I say, and I hate myself for the emotion in my voice. "I thought that I killed you. Annabeth thought you were dead. Do you know what that did to us?"

"It wasn't that simple, and you know it."

"You expect me to believe that?" I scoff. "Luke, Annabeth cried for days. Even though you were a traitor, she missed you."

"I'm not here to fight with you, I just wanted to talk, Thalia."

"Did you see what happened in there?" I point back towards the courtroom. "Did you know about any of that?"

Silence greets my question. Then, Luke slowly looks up at me.

"Do you remember when we were younger and we'd break into houses? And you'd also be amazed at how I could unlock the house locks so quickly?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" I ask, not caring enough to mask my annoyance.

"Well, Daphne can control fire because of her parentage. My father is Hermes," he practically spits out the word. "And I can work locks."

I release a dry laugh. "That's it? That's your superpower? That's so lame. Out of all of those super cool powers, like fire and shapeshifting, you get to pick the locks."

He cracks a small grin. "Just my luck, isn't it?"

"Some of us just use keys, you know."

Luke nudges me with his elbow playfully. "Hey, I didn't hear you complaining when I found you that leather jacket. You wouldn't have gotten it if it wasn't for my lame superpower."

I laugh, and it feels good. For a second, it's just me and Luke, acting the way we have for years. It's just us laughing.

The moment stops abruptly as everything crashes around me, as I remember everything that had changed in the past few months.

"What happened to us, Luke?" I ask miserably. "How did all of this happen."

"I just wanted us to stay together. You, me, and Annabeth. None of this was supposed to ever happen. Not Willow, not even the Prince. Just us."

"Looks like things didn't go according to your plan, then."

"Nothing ever really does," he says darkly. "Remember when we were younger, and wanted to run away from here? From anywhere, really. Just find somewhere new that we could call our own."

I release a long breath, and try to bring myself on high-alert. I try to remember everything that Luke has done. But the memory of everything that we were, everything that we could be, is just too comfortable to try to escape.

"I wanted to," I confess. "But then we found Annabeth, and we couldn't just take her away from her family."

"We can run away, you know. Just like we always dreamed. We can run away from the palace, from the DI, from Willow. We can just run away from it all."

"There's still Annabeth," I point out. "We can't just leave her."

"She has the Prince now," Luke says with a dismissive shrug. "And all the friends she made here. It's not like we're leaving her on her own. She's a Three now, because of the Elite's caste. Besides, Annabeth's a tough girl: she can take care of herself."

"But we can't just drop everything and-"

Suddenly, Luke moves. He grabs my face with his hands, and just holds it. Our foreheads are touching, and our eyes are so close to each other. My heart stops in my chest as I struggle to breathe normally. His eyes aren't as blue as I remember: there are small flakes of gold scattered around his pupils.

"Thals, I don't want to stay here anymore. I don't want to deal with any of this. We can just escape it all."

I want to. I want to so badly. But every time I've trusted Luke, something bad has happened, like losing all of Annabeth's trust and getting arrested. Heck, even when we were younger, his ideas would result in me getting hurt. Every time I've fallen for him, I've gotten burned. If I'm smart, I'll stand up and leave right now.

"Luke..." I trail off, not able to even form a thought.

"Come with me, Thalia. We'll go somewhere that even the gods can't find us."

"I don't know," I whisper. "Luke, I don't know."

It's most likely my imagination, but it looks as if his blue eyes turn gold.

"Promise me that no matter what, you'll wait for me," Luke says softly. He leans even closer to me, and kisses my forehead.

My mind reels, and everything around me goes fuzzy. Once the world goes back to normal, I realize that Luke is long gone, leaving me alone in a hallway filled with nothing but rubble and debris.

My head is pounding even worse now. Cautiously, I raise my hand to my temple and lower it. Blood coats my hand.

A shard of glass lays by my side. I pick it up and stare at my reflection. The injury on my head is huge, and blood is smeared everywhere. Why did Luke kiss that?

"Curse the seducing methods of Luke Castellan," I mutter angrily as I drop the glass shard. It shatters once it hits the ground.

I bang my fist against the wall. The brick scratches my knuckle raw, and I regret my choice as I stare at the torn flesh.

I cradle my injured hand gently as I lower myself to the ground. I lean back against the wall, and stare at the emptiness surrounding me. Though it's muffled, I can still hear the meeting that I was excluded from.

A part of me hates it. That part of me wants to stand up right now, find Luke, and tell him that I want to go with him, that I want to be with him before I'm in too deep. Because close to everything was perfect before the Selection.

Now, I've been reunited with a brother that I thought I had lost forever, and he doesn't even care because he didn't remember me. My best friend believes that I betrayed her, which I pretty much did, though I doubt she knows the full extent as to why. And Luke. I don't even know what I feel for Luke, but I do know that it can't be anything but trouble if it got me into all of this.

I know what I have to do. To fix this, I'm going to have to do a ton more than anyone else will, but I'll still fix it. Over the past few months, I've managed to lose myself so badly that I don't even know who I am anymore. I've lost track of what truly matters to me, and I've let that get away. The old Thalia Grace wouldn't have, and I'm going to be her again.

No matter what it takes, I'm going to find myself again.

A/N
So what are y'all's opinions of Thalia now? What do you think of her past decisions to help Luke (and Willow)?

Today's shoutout goes to @HappyBubbles203 because she's such an amazing fan! Thank you so much for all of your kind words!

Here's my random poll question: do you listen to the songs for each chapter?

Thank you, and hopefully another update will come soon!