ultimately, annabeth is the reason why thalia doesn’t join luke. thalia doesn’t owe the gods anything: her father turned her into a tree, stole seven years of her life. athena ignored annabeth. hermes put luke through hell. hera took her brother away. apollo condemned an innocent halcyon green, and dozen of demigods with him. most of the gods didn’t care, she knew that.
luke was her kindred spirit, the only one who understood her. he was one of the best things that ever happened to her, she remembered telling him how amalthea led her to good things, and she led her to him. they fought together, for each other, saved each other’s life countless times. he was the one who carried annabeth when she was too exhausted to keep going, he one who pretended not to be hungry to give them his food.
when halcyon green mentioned a betrayal in luke’s future, she was furious. and despite this, when people at camp talked about the betrayal, she grew cold & angry. when percy says he saw him in the middle of the titan’s curse, “ thalia’s anger immediately melted. ” she wanted to see him, she wanted to understand.
she didn’t believe what people said, not really. luke was her person, and she put herself in his shoes. if annabeth or luke had died on that hill, if their parent had willingly turned them into a tree, she would have been enraged. she would have sworn to end the gods.
so of course she was tempted to join him, her soulmate, her family, and to avenge all the wrongs the olympians did.
but something stopped her, or rather someone.
she saw annabeth, saw her hurt, holding the sky. the reality settled. luke hurt annabeth. he crossed a line. the sight carved itself into thalia’s memory forever: annabeth’s small figure bent beneath an impossible weight, her hands shaking, body trembling as she tried to endure something no child should ever have to carry. luke had sworn to protect her all of them had. we take care of our own. now annabeth was there, suffering because of the war he started, because somewhere along the way, luke decided that this fight mattered more than the people he once loved.
the temptation to join him was still there, thalia knew it always would be. luke’s anger still made sense to her, and a big part of her would always wonder what it would feel like to stand beside him again, to burn olympus down together. luke & thalia, against the world.
that frightened her. if she stayed too close to that choice, one day she might actually make it. that was why she joined the Hunters of Artemis, because she needed distance, from luke, from the path he had chosen, from the version of herself that might one day follow him & destroy the world as they knew it.
















