Chapter 597: Where Laughter Takes Shape

Annabeth stared at him.

"...That’s not what I meant."

"I know," he said with a smile.

Her lips pressed together.

She hesitated, then tried again.

"I’m sure you have people to celebrate with," she said. "Friends, family."

Ronan hummed thoughtfully.

"I do."

That was all he said. Annabeth felt something suspiciously close to irritation.

"...And yet you’re here," she said, gesturing at him.

Ronan’s gaze didn’t leave her.

"True, and that’s because I want to be here."

The simplicity of it made her pause.

He didn’t look uncertain. He didn’t even look like he was joking, and she was almost certain he had to be joking.

Annabeth shifted slightly.

"That doesn’t make sense," she muttered.

Ronan chuckled softly.

"It does to me."

Ronan exhaled slowly, his expression softening just a fraction.

"My sister-in-law is the person I’m most proud of today," he said.

Annabeth blinked, caught slightly off guard by the shift.

"For how far she’s come," he continued. "For what she did today. She scored the highest, but she doesn’t even seem to care. And though I’d like to celebrate with her, I also know to give her space because she has friends to celebrate with, and this isn’t about her... at least according to her. There’s also the fact that she has Orion, and he would hate that I be a cockblocker, so... here I am."

"Oh," Annabeth said.

She didn’t know what else to say to that. She had not been expecting his words, after all.

Ronan leaned slightly closer—not enough to invade her space, but enough that his presence felt... intentional.

"I decided to spend time with the one woman I can’t seem to get out of my head, one who has invaded my dreams for the past few nights," he said.

Annabeth frowned at that. Why was he telling her this?

"Um..." she began.

Ronan chuckled. "I’m talking about you, Annabeth."

Annabeth froze. Heat rose to her face before she could stop it.

"...You—"

She stopped.

Her mouth opened.

Then closed.

She had no idea what to say to that.

And that... annoyed her.

Annabeth prided herself on composure. On having something to say, something to respond with.

But this?

This was different.

She wasn’t used to this.

Not like this. Not from someone like him.

And definitely not something said so easily.

Her gaze flickered away for a moment.

She could feel it—how aware she suddenly was of everything, of herself, of him.

Of the fact that he was standing there, looking at her like that.

And he was... handsome.

That was the problem.

One of them, at least.

There was no lack of handsome men in the Nightshade Pack.

She had noticed that. And even some men from her pack who were never attractive looked different suddenly.

Maybe it was the air, or perhaps it was because she was a bit more relaxed here. Back in the west, everyone had been focused on survival. Perhaps that was why she did not have the avenue to notice how handsome some of them were.

If Nathan or Benny were here, they would have teased her relentlessly. Nathan would have made comments about how he told her that there were handsome men around, and she failed to notice until she had left the west.

Benny would have laughed his ass off... she missed them.

She shook her head slightly, trying to regain control of the conversation and her emotions.

"...Did you find out more about the corpse plant?" she asked.

Ronan blinked.

Then huffed a quiet laugh.

"We did."

She looked back at him, grateful for the shift.

"And?"

"And," Ronan said slowly, "that shouldn’t be your focus right now."

Annabeth frowned. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"...Excuse me?"

Ronan stepped just slightly closer.

"Focus on me instead," he said lightly. "I came to spend time with you, after all."

Annabeth stared at him with her mouth ajar.

---

At another part of the square, Sophia laughed loudly.

She was surrounded—Nia, Laia, Bianca, Cat, Dren, Joren, Micah, Miles—voices overlapping, energy spilling in every direction.

They had formed a loose circle, though it hardly stayed that way for long.

Music pulled at them.

And they followed.

Sophia spun once, laughter breaking from her as Nia grabbed her hand and dragged her into movement again.

"Don’t fall," Micah warned.

"We won’t," Nia said with a laugh. "I have her. This isn’t like that time at the training grounds."

"I thought we’d forgotten about that?" Sophia asked.

"But how could we?" Laia asked. "You brought it up yourself during your speech, after all."

Nia turned Sophia around as they danced to the music while Joren and Dren argued about Joren being Sophia’s guard.

"Guess who’s a fucking hunter!" Cat said loudly, and cheers went up again as she danced with Miles.

Everyone laughed and joked, her friends showing off their jewelries, Bianca going as far as to put on a show for them, catwalking. Uther followed, moving his head so the earrings could bounce.

Sophia held her stomach, laughing as they did.

Her head tilted back slightly, her hair shifting with the movement, her expression completely open.

Orion stood a short distance away, watching Sophia. She was dancing and laughing with her friends... he had been cast aside.

* I feel neglected,* Noctis grumbled.

"Me and you both," Orion said. "But Sophia did say her friends were of utmost importance today, so..."

*That doesn’t make it better,* Noctis told him.

Orion sighed. "Tell me about it," he said, then after a pause added, "At least she’s happy."

He watched her with her friends, at the way she moved. She was one of them already, that much was obvious.

Sophia laughed at something Nia said, and for a brief moment, everything around Orion shifted.

The sound dulled, and everything blurred. He saw a child in the place where Sophia was just moments ago, her head thrown back as she laughed loudly.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone, and everything was back to normal.

Sophia stood there again, laughing.

Orion frowned. He had no idea what just happened. Something about what he saw was familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

He shook his head. Maybe the goddess was playing tricks on him, or maybe because Sophia was the Luna, he was now seeing things that shouldn’t be.

He paused. He really had no idea. And he was not in the mood for games, especially if it was by the goddess.

But then, that didn’t feel like a vision to him... he wasn’t sure what visions felt like, but it didn’t feel like it, and what he had seen... it felt too familiar to be a vision.