By the time Reyna gets there, Piper is empty of tears and a hollow ache has settled in the place where her heart should be; the only emotion she is left with is anger and she has nowhere to place it.

She gets ready for a fight: prepares for the recriminations that are sure to come, the reminders that she is nothing but Aphrodite's daughter, that she should have never even attempted to be a warrior, why did she ever thought she could protect the people she loved (the guy she desperately, painfully adores) when everyone knows that love causes pain and grief and despair.

Piper gets ready, but when Reyna reaches her, there is no anger there, not towards her: instead in her dark eyes there's the same kind of pain that Piper knows is in her own.