Athena tried her best to stand up, but she ended up just falling back down to the floor. "I'm too weak," she said. "Just leave me. Go save yourself."
"No, I won't. I ..." Jon began.
"It's okay. My pendant will protect me."
Jon looked oddly at her. "Protect you?"
She sat up a bit. "It protects me from any magical attacks. And that includes what's happening in there," she said, pointing at the lunch room doors. "As long as I wear it, I won't change."
"Yeah, but you can still get hurt. It won't protect you against physical harm, will it?"
She looked at him, with an expression he didn't think he'd see under these circumstances. It was a look of curious amazement.
"What?" he asked.
"You're taking all of this in stride. Almost as if ... it was normal. Magic pendants and everything."
"Well ... uh ..." The reason he was taking it in stride was because he had the wishing stone, so he knew that magic really was real.
"It's okay. I'm glad to know someone else who's as interested in the occult as I am. I just didn't think it would be you. Zoe never said anything."
"Well, I'm not really ..." He stopped suddenly. Maybe it was better for her to believe that he was into the occult than tell her about the wishing stone. At least for the moment. "I'm not into the occult as much as you. I don't have an anti-magic pendant, for one."
"That's okay. I have another at my house. If we can somehow get there, I could give it to you."
Jon nodded. Now all they needed to do was get out of there. But Athena was still too weak at the moment.
