Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

(Percy’s POV)

I walked into the Olympian throne room with the rest of the Seven, Thalia, Reyna, Nico, Will, Grover, and Calypso. The war was over, but I couldn’t help wondering what would happen next. I didn’t have much time to think on this though, because as soon as I stepped through the doors, everyone hushed and all eyes were on me and my friends.

Suddenly, Zeus spoke. "It seems that once again Percy Jackson and his friends have saved Olympus. It is only fitting that we reward them all with the greatest gift we gods can give."

I grinned and looked at Annabeth. She smiled back.

"Once again, the council is offering immortality to you, Perseus Jackson. This time, however, it will be offered to your friends as well, except for Calypso, who is already immortal. Will you now accept our most prestigious gift?" Zeus glared down at me.

"Once again? This time?" Jason stared at me.

"Be quiet, little brother. We're in the Olympian throne room." Thalia glared at him as he smiled sheepishly.

I glanced at Annabeth and she nodded, giving me a thumbs up and a smile. I turned back to Zeus and stepped forward. "On behalf of all of the demigods in this room, I graciously accept this wonderful gift." I bowed and waited, hoping that Hera and the other Olympians would refrain from turning me into dust.

"Very well," Zeus boomed. "With the power granted to me through the unanimous vote from the Great Olympian Council, I now pronounce you all gods, immortal and allowed to live on Olympus."

Me and my friends (minus Calypso) each stood in front of an Olympian. Lightning struck the central hearth and flowed out to each god and demigod pairing. Instead of electrocuting us, it surrounded each of us in little cocoons. Suddenly my feet weren’t touching the floor, and I heard Thalia give a little gasp off to my right. Then my cocoon brightened, but I wasn’t able to shut my eyes against the light. The cocoons got brighter and brighter until finally all I could see was white and all of my limbs were numb. I floated back to the floor as my cocoon of lightning slowly backed away towards the hearth. I pitched forward as soon as I was standing on my own, but I caught myself and looked around.

Everyone else was regaining their balance as well, but something was different about them. I couldn’t put my finger on it until Reyna spoke.

“Are we...glowing?”

Everyone else looked at each other as Athena stood.

“Heroes,” she looked down at us from her 15-foot height, “you are now the twelve gods of mortality. In honor of your new positions, the Fates have sent you a gift, to be shared with your friends from the other mythological pantheons.”

“Wait, do you mean Magnus and Carter?” Annabeth asked.

Athena smiled. “Does this answer your question?”

There was a bright flash of light and Carter and Sadie appeared, along with a couple of people who I assumed were magicians based on their linen ninja pajamas.

Another light flashed, and Magnus and Alex dropped out of nowhere, with three other people I didn’t know.

Nico stared at Magnus and Alex. “You two are dead. You have human bodies, but you’re dead. How?”

Grover let out a condescending bleat. “Perrrcy, what have you been keeping from us?”

Annabeth and I exchanged a glance and Annabeth turned to the gods.

“You’re really going to combine the pantheons?” she asked.

Apollo nodded. “Since that upstart Octavian was killed, I have been able to use the Oracles again. Rachel and I have seen that you must unite the pantheons or there could be drastic consequences.”

I groaned. “Not another war. I want peace and quiet for a change.”

Annabeth nodded. “How drastic are we talking about?” she winced. “I really don’t want another war.”

“Believe me, neither do we.” This was Hermes, frowning at the memories of the Second Titan War. “Thankfully, as long as you demigods, magicians, and einherji stay on good terms, chaos and evil forces should stay dormant.”

There was silence, and then someone spoke. “That’s it?” Piper laughed nervously. “The fate of the world is determined by our friendship? That’s kind of anticlimactic, isn’t it?”

Aphrodite frowned. “You of all people should know how important relationships are, even if they’re platonic, not romantic.”

Jason butted in. “As much as I like discussing the end of the world, Lady Athena mentioned a gift from the Fates. If I know the Fates, they will not like being kept waiting.”

Sadie frowned. “Ahem. Hello? There are strange people here that I don’t know.”

Annabeth shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Sadie. I totally forgot you were there. Let’s all sit down and introduce ourselves first.”

I nodded. “Good idea. I’ll go first.”

Hestia waved her hand and some couches appeared around the central hearth.

Once everyone sat down, I stepped forward. “Let’s all say our names, ages, pantheons, and how we got mixed up in all this stuff. For instance, I’m Percy Jackson, 17, I’m Greek, and I’m a demigod son of Poseidon and former Praetor of the Twelfth Legion.” I sat down and Annabeth stood up.

“I’m Annabeth Chase, 17, Greek, demigod daughter of Athena and official architect for Olympus.”

Grover went next. “I’m Grover Underwood, 33, Greek, I’m a satyr. By the way, satyrs age half as fast as humans, so I’m just now in my 3rd year of high school.”

“That’s rough, man. I’ll go next.” Jason stood. “I’m Jason Grace, 16, Greek/Roman, demigod son of Jupiter and Pontifex Maximus. That means I take care of the temples and offerings for various gods.”

Piper got up. “Alright Sparky, my turn. I’m Piper Mclean, and yes, my dad is Tristan McLean, I’m 16, Greek, demigod daughter of Aphrodite.”

“Your dad is Tristan McLean?” Alex grinned. “Cool.”

“I’ll go next.” Frank nodded at Piper and she sat down with Jason. “I’m Frank Zhang, 16, Roman, demigod son of Mars and descendant of Poseidon. I’m a Praetor in the Twelfth Legion.”

Hazel went next, kissing Frank as she stood. “I’m Hazel Levesque, 14, Roman, demigod daughter of Pluto.”

Leo jumped up. “Guess that means I’m next then. I’m Leo Valdez, 16, Greek, demigod son of Hephaestus, and Supreme Commander of the Argo II.” He grinned and the rest of the Seven rolled their eyes.

Nico stood. “Let’s get this over with. I’m Nico di Angelo, 14, although I’m really 84 because I stayed in the Lotus Hotel, Greek, demigod son of Hades.”

“You’re eighty-four?” Magnus stared at him.

“Time moves slower in the Lotus Hotel,” I explained. “Nico thought he was there for a few weeks but it was actually seventy years.”

Magnus nodded. “Magical places are weird with time.”

Will got up. “My turn. I’m Will Solace, 15, Greek, demigod son of Apollo.”

Thalia stood. “I guess I should go next. I’m Thalia Grace. I look 15 but I’m actually 23 because I was a tree and now I’m part of an immortal group called the Hunters of Artemis. I’m Greek, demigod daughter of Zeus, and lieutenant for the Hunters.” She nodded at Reyna. “Your turn.”

Reyna got up. “I’m Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, please don’t call me Ra-Ra, I’m 16, Roman, demigod daughter of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, and Praetor of the Twelfth Legion.”

“Like Percy and Frank,” Sadie supplied.

“Except I kept my Praetorship,” Reyna grinned and winked at me. I smiled back.

“Okay, I guess I’m next in line.” Carter stood. “I’m Carter Kane, 15, Egyptian, I’m the Eye of Horus and a magician in the House of Life.”

“Giant chicken warrior,” I snickered.

Carter turned red. “I told you, it’s a falcon-headed warrior avatar, now shut up.”

Sadie stood up. “As much as I love teasing my brother, it’s my turn and I hate waiting. I’m Sadie Kane, 13, Egyptian, Eye of Isis and a magician in the House of Life.”

The magician next to her got up. “I’m Walt Stone, 16, Egyptian, Eye of Anubis and his host, and a magician in the House of Life.”

The girl next to him stood. “I suppose I’m next. I’m Jasmine Anderson, but you can call me Jaz. I’m 14, Egyptian, I’m studying the path of Sekhmet as a healer and magician in the House of Life.”

Alex popped up. “I want to go next! My name is Alex Fierro. I’m genderfluid, and right now I want to be called ‘she’ and ‘her’. I’m 16, Norse, and I’m an einherji. Einherjar are dead people who are chosen by Valkyries like Sam to go to Valhalla. I’m also an Argr, which means I can shapeshift, also like Sam.”

“Hey! You said you wouldn’t talk about that!” said the girl who was obviously Sam.

Alex shrugged. “Sorry.”

Magnus stood. “Sorry about Alex. She’s weird.”

“Hey!”

“Anyway, I’m Magnus Chase.” He smiled. “I’m 16, Norse, and an Einherjar. Annabeth is my cousin.”

Sam got up. “I’m Samirah al-Abbas, but you can call me Sam. I’m 16, Norse, and a Valkyrie, one of Odin’s warriors. I’m kind of his ‘special forces’.” She made a weird motion with her hands and the tall blond guy stood up. The short guy next to him also stood, like a translator or something. The blond guy started moving his hands, and the short guy spoke.

“This is Hearthstone, also known as Hearth. He is 19, Norse, and an elf. He is an official Rune Lord, which means he can use the magic rune stones to shape reality around him.”

Hearth sat down and the short guy kept talking. “I am Blitzen, yes, like the reindeer, but you can call me Blitz. I’m 20, Norse, and a Svartalf , which means dark elf. Dark elves are the offspring of dwarves and the goddess Freya. Magnus is my cousin.” He sat down.

Sadie brightened. “Well, if that’s everyone, then we can move on to this gift, now, right?”

Suddenly, there was another bright flash of light, but this one was different. It seemed...older. Then three shapes appeared.

“The Fates,”

“The Norns,”

“Shait, Hemsut, and Huh,” said Annabeth, Sam, and Carter respectively.

“They’re the same three ladies?” Leo leaned away from them. “That’s strange, even for me.”

The light dimmed and faded until all that was left were three ladies, flickering between forms. Finally, each lady settled on an appearance. The lady on the left was a Fate, the lady in the middle was dressed in a long, ghostly white robe with a large hood covering her face, and the lady on the right had a snake for a head and was wearing Egyptian battle armor.

I decided to break the silence. “So...I know that the lady on the left is a Greek Fate, but who are the others?”

The Fates were silent, so Carter answered my question. “The lady on the right is Shait, the goddess of Fate. The lady in the middle must be a Norn, though I don’t really know what exactly those are.”

Sam spoke. “The Norns are magic-rune readers like Hearth, but they’re way more powerful. The Norns don’t need runestones to use their magic, and you don’t see them in Valhalla unless someone really important comes along, like Magnus.”

I nodded. “So...each lady represents a pantheon, but all of them can shapeshift to complete the sets. Got it.”

The Fate stepped forward. “You have guessed wisely, Perseus Jackson.”

I shifted in my seat at the use of my full name. Someone, probably Athena, snorted when the Fate called me wise, but she kept talking. “We are three deities, capable of becoming what we are needed to be. Today, we take on our natural forms, to present our gift.”

Jason spoke. “Yeah, you guys keep mentioning a ‘gift’... what is it?”

The Fate held out her hands, and something glowed in them. As the light faded, I could see books. The Fate handed them to Athena, prompting her to read the title.

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One: The Lightning Thief. What is this?” she asked.

The Fate responded, “A set of biographies, written by a lovely mortal who was clear sighted. When we appeared to him and told him to write and publish these stories, he didn’t even question it. In fact, he made up a story about writing it for one of his children. He seemed downright glad we prompted him. Now that the books are published, it wasn’t hard to obtain copies for you to read. Now, you are not allowed to leave Olympus until the books are all read. Time outside has stopped, and we have given you the entirety of Olympus to roam and fulfill your needs. Everyone else has been relocated until you are finished. Have a pleasant day!” She smiled, then gasped. "Oh! I almost forgot! Each of you is going to be feeling the exact same things that the books describe, except for emotions. We're not that mean. Have fun!" She and her sisters disappeared.

Me and Annabeth paled. "This is not going to be fun," she said, wincing.

“Well,” Hazel said nervously, “I suppose we should start reading.”

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Chapter Text

Athena set all of the books down but the first one, and stood up. “I will go first,” she said. “If you are dyslexic, you are excused from reading, but everyone else has to read at least one chapter. I’ll read the first chapter: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher.” She glared at me as she said this, but kept going.

“Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is this: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.

“Being a half-blood is dangerous. It’s scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. If you’re a normal kid reading this because you think it’s fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages - if you feel something stirring inside - stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it’s only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they’ll come for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“My name is Percy Jackson. I’m twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that. I could start any any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan - twenty-eight mental case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. I know - it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.

“Mr. Brunner was this middle aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.”

“Chiron,” Annabeth guessed.

“Shh,” I said. “I don’t want any spoilers.”

Athena kept reading.

“You wouldn’t think he’d be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn’t put me to sleep.

“I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn’t get in trouble. See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary war cannon. I wasn’t aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.”

Leo snickered, while Athena glared and continued on.

“And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that...Well, you get the idea.”

“Dude,” Jason grinned, “How are you not a Hermes kid?”

“I agree with Jason,” said Leo, trying (and failing) to stifle his laughter. “We need to hear more.”

I blushed and told Athena to keep reading.

“This trip, I was determined to be good.”

“Like that’s gonna happen,” Thalia remarked. I glared at her and she smirked. Athena continued.

“All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.”

Everyone glanced at Grover and winced. He blushed.

“That’s disgusting,” said Aphrodite, wrinkling her nose.

“Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must’ve been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don’t let that fool you. You should’ve seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.

“Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn’t do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death

“WHAT?!” screamed the entire room, except for maybe a couple of gods.

Athena rolled her eyes and went back to the book.
“by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.”

“Oh,” said Leo. He blushed. “We thought he actually-”

“I know,” I said. I grinned. “Let’s keep going. I want to know what happens next.”

Annabeth slapped me and her mother continued the story.

“‘I’m going to kill her,’ I mumbled. Grover tried to calm me down. ‘It’s okay. I like peanut butter.’ He dodged another piece of Nancy’s lunch. ‘That’s it.’ I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. ‘You’re already on probation,’ he reminded me. ‘You know who’ll get blamed if anything happens.’ Looking back on it, I wish I’d decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would’ve been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.

“Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.”

Athena stopped to say “Longer,” then continued.

“He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.”

Nico choked. “This early? You fought her this early?”

I nodded. “Be quiet. We’re getting close to the good part.”

Athena widened her eyes in realisation, and quickly went back to the story.

“Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

“From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say ‘Now, honey’ real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. One time, after she’d made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn’t think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, ‘You’re absolutely right.’

“Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, ‘Will you shut up?’ It came out louder than I meant it to.”

“It always does,” said Thalia, looking at me with sympathy.

“The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. ‘Mr. Jackson,’ he said, ‘did you have a comment?’ My face was totally red. I said, ‘No, sir.’ Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. ‘Perhaps you’ll tell us what this picture represents?’ I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.”

“You did?” Thalia stared at me then laughed. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Kelp Face.”

“Oh, shut up, Pinecone Head.” I rolled my eyes and smiled. “Let’s keep going.”

“‘That’s Kronos eating his kids, right?’ ‘Yes,’ Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. ‘And he did this because…’ ‘Well…’ I racked my brain to remember. ‘Kronos was the king god, and--’ ‘God?’ Mr. Brunner asked. ‘Titan,’ I corrected myself. ‘And he didn’t trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters--’ ‘Eeew!’ said one of the girls behind me. ‘--and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans,’ I continued, ‘and the gods won.’”

Everyone stared at me. Annabeth spoke. “I don’t know whether to be proud you remembered that, or appalled that you described one of the biggest wars in history with fifteen words.”

I blushed. “Let’s just keep reading, okay?”

Athena raised her eyebrow and continued reading.

“Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, ‘Like we’re going to use this in real life. Like it’s going to say on our job applications, “Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.”’ ‘And why, Mr, Jackson,’ Brunner said, ‘to paraphrase Miss Bobofit’s excellent question, does this matter in real life?’ ‘Busted,’ Grover muttered. ‘Shut up,’ Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears. I thought about his question, and shrugged. ‘I don’t know, sir.’ ‘I see.’ Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. “Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods,  had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan’s stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it’s time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?’”

“Wow, no wonder he’s called Captain Sunshine,” said Leo, whistling.

“I know,” I nodded.

“Let’s keep going,” Sadie suggested. “I want to know what happens next.”

“The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, ‘Mr. Jackson.’ I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. ‘Sir?’ Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn’t let you go--intense brown eyes that could’ve been a thousand years old and seen everything. ‘You must learn the answer to my question,’ Mr. Brunner told me. ‘About the Titans?’ ‘About real life. And how your studies apply to it.’ ‘Oh.’ ‘What you learn from me,’ he said, ‘is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.’ I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.”

“He’s training you,” said Jason. “Preparing you for life as a demigod.”

“Uh huh.”

Athena continued.

“I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: ‘What ho!’ and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No--he didn’t expect me to be as good, he expected me to be better. And I just couldn’t learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.”

Annabeth nodded. “I may be considered the smart one, but I still have dyslexia. I have to read the Greek editions of every book, because the words just swim right off the page.” All of the other demigods nodded sympathetically, except for Frank.

“I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he’d been at this girl’s funeral. He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.”

“He probably was at her funeral,” Annabeth agreed, while I glared at her. “It hasn’t said he’s Chiron! Maybe he’s some random teacher! We have to be quiet, because this is where it gets interesting.” I motioned for Athena to keep going.

“The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I’d ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We’d had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.”

Poseidon’s eyes widened. “Oh, this is during the--”

“Yup,” I cut him off. “Let’s not spoil anything.”

Athena went back to the story.

“Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady’s purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn’t seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn’t know we were from that school--the school for loser freaks who couldn’t make it elsewhere. ‘Detention?’ Grover asked. ‘Nah,’ I said. ‘Not from Brunner. I just wish he’d lay off me sometimes. I mean--I’m not a genius.’ Grover didn’t say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, ‘Can I have your apple?’”

Everyone turned to look at Grover. “Really?” asked Magnus. “Wow.” Grover blushed and Athena kept reading.

“I didn’t have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom’s apartment, only a little ways from were we sat. I hadn’t seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She’d hug me and be glad to see me, but she’d be disappointed, too. She’d send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn’t be able to stand that sad look she’d give me.”

“Aunt Sally’s the best,” Nico said.

“After this, we’re all going to Central Park and I’m bringing my mom and her cookies. All of us.” I grinned. “That includes you magicians and einhar-thingies.”

“Einhar-thingies?” Magnus repeated. “I’m really feeling the love here.”

We all laughed and Athena started reading again.

“Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends--I guess she’d gotten tired of stealing from the tourists--and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover’s lap. ‘Oops.’ She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, ‘Count to ten, get control of your temper.’”

Thalia sneered. “That never works. They need to come up with something that actually makes a difference.”

I nodded. “This is where it gets interesting, I promise.”

“But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don’t remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, ‘Percy pushed me!’ Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering. ‘Did you see--’ ‘--the water--’ ‘--like it grabbed her--’ I didn’t know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I’d done something she’d been waiting for all semester. ‘Now, honey--’ ‘I know,’ I grumbled. ‘A month erasing workbooks.’ That wasn’t the right thing to say.”

Everyone snorted and I blushed. “Let’s keep going, please, I want to get this part over with.”

Athena obliged.

“‘Come with me,’ Mrs. Dodds said. ‘Wait!’ Grover yelped. ‘It was me. I pushed her.’ I stared at him, stunned. I couldn’t believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. ‘I don’t think so, Mr. Underwood,’ she said. ‘But--’ ‘You--will--stay--here.’ Grover looked at me desperately. ‘It’s okay, man,’ I told him. ‘Thanks for trying.’ ‘Honey,’ Mrs. Dodds barked. ‘Now.’ Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I’ll-kill-you-later stare.”

“Hah! Like that could scare anyone,” Ares sneered at me. I turned toward him and gave him the most terrifying glare I could muster. His eyes widened and his face turned pale. “Th-That’s not scary at all! You c-can’t scare the god of war!” He stuck his chin out, but I could see him trembling. Thalia and Annabeth snickered. My face turned back to neutral and I told Athena to keep going.

“Then I turned to Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn’t there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How’d she get there so fast? I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I’ve missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank space behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. I wasn’t so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.”

“This is not going to end well,” said Piper.

I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She’s going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn’t the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty.”

“Dude, you’re gonna die,” said Jason, with Leo and Frank nodding.

“Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would’ve been nervous. It’s weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it… ‘You’ve been giving us problems, honey,’ she said. I did the safe thing.”

“Ran?” Sadie suggested.

I shook my head. “I wish.”

Athena continued.

“I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. ‘Did you really think you would get away with it?’ The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She’s a teacher, I thought nervously. It’s not like she’s going to hurt me.

Various people snorted.

“I said, ‘I’ll-I’ll try harder, ma’am.’ Thunder shook the building. ‘We are not fools, Percy Jackson,’ Mrs. Dodds said. ‘It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.’ I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.”

“Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth shook her head. Athena glared at me and continued to read.

“‘Well?’ she demanded. 'Ma'am, I don't…’ 'Your time is up,’ she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.”

Athena turned to Hades. “You sent a Fury after him?” she asked incredulously.

He shrugged and blushed. “Sorry.”

Athena shook her head.

“Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. 'What ho, Percy!’ he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hits my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword--Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. “How did it transform without being physically uncapped?” She turned to me. “Don't ask me,” I said. “Ask Chiron, he would know.”

“Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly.”

“Oh, that feels weird!” I exclaimed, poking my legs. “The fates said we would feel everything except emotions,” Annabeth mused. “This is going to be painful.” I nodded, while others looked at us worriedly. Athena looked at her daughter strangely, then resumed the story.

“My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, 'Die, honey!’ And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.”

“That's natural?” Alex looked at me. “That's the strangest thing I've ever heard.” I raised my eyebrow. “You're going to hear a lot weirder by the time this is over.”

“The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me. I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.”

“Well, that's not creepy at all,” Sam remarked.

“My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, 'I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt.’”

“Who’s Mrs. Kerr?” Magnus asked. We all ignored him.

“I said, 'Who?’ 'Our teacher. Duh!’ I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. He said, 'Who?’ But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.”

Will nodded. “Grover, you are a terrible liar,” he declared.

Grover blushed.

“'Not funny, man,’ I told him. 'This is serious.’ Thunder booked overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. 'Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson.’ I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. 'Sir,’ I said, ‘where’s Mrs. Dodds?’ He stared at me blankly. 'Who?’”

Will smiled. “Now that man can lie.” Grover's face turned even redder.

“'The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher.’ He frowned and say forward, looking mildly concerned. 'Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?’”

Athena closed the book. “That's the first chapter,” she said. “The next is 'Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death’.” I shivered. “I forgot about that.” Leo jumped up. “Let's eat. I'm starving.” He grinned, and we all left the throne room in search of food.

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Chapter Text

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Previously on ‘Percy Jackson and the Unknown Biographies…’

He grinned, and we all left the throne room in search of food.

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Annabeth and I walked out of the throne room hand in hand. The gods started leading us towards food, but Hades stopped me.

“I need to talk to you two,” he said. “Privately.”

Annabeth and I exchanged glances, then nodded. He led us down a smaller path, into a deserted pavilion.

He took a deep breath, then spoke. “The Fates want me to tell why your life has been so hard. Why the two of you have gotten hurt so much, why you’ve done more than any hero, why you’ve been tested and attacked and chosen for dangerous things so much more than anyone else.”

He hesitated, but continued. “But before I can tell you that, I have to explain some things about the Underworld. The first is that I keep track of every spirit everywhere, whether they are in Tartarus, Elysium, Asphodel, etc., including the spirits currently alive. The thing is, that’s a lot of souls. So, each soul is put in a category: 3, 3a, 2, 2a, 1, 1a, E, 0, A, P, or T.”

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “That’s a strange way of naming groups.”

Annabeth punched me. “He’s obviously not done yet, Seaweed Brain.”

Hades nodded at her. “Thank you. Anyway, as I was saying, the spirits are sorted into these eleven groups, depending on where they are in life or death. ‘T’ means Tartarus, ‘P’ means Punishment, ‘A’ means Asphodel, and ‘E’ means Elysium. The numbers are rebirths. ‘0’ means that a soul is on it’s first life, and it’s never been rebirthed or gone to the Underworld. ‘1’ is one rebirth, ‘2’ is 2 rebirths, and ‘3’ is three rebirths. The numbers that are tagged with the letter ‘a’ mean the soul is on it’s respective island. A soul in ‘1a’ would be on the first Isle of the Blest, while a soul in ‘1’ is rebirthed, attempting to get to the Isle.”

I nodded. “So where are we?”

Annabeth’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean--”

Hades nodded. “The reason you two have gone through so much is that you are in group ‘3’. You’re on your last rebirth.”

My jaw dropped. “So you’re saying--”

“That we’ve been hurt so much because we’ve proven ourselves heroes in all of our lives?” Annabeth shook her head. “I can’t believe it.”

Hades kept talking. “There’s more. Every single time you two have been rebirthed, you’ve ended up together, as soulmates. You’ve also been reborn as some of the most influential people in history.”

“Like who?” Annabeth asked.

“In one of your lives, Annabeth, you were the original Andromeda. In another, you were Amelia Earhart. In your third life, you were Ada Lovelace.”

Annabeth’s jaw fell, and I blinked. “Wait,” I said, “if Annabeth is the original Andromeda, and we're always soulmates, then wouldn’t that make me--”

Annabeth laughed. “Percy is his namesake! That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Knowing mythology, it probably isn’t.” I smirked. “So now I can say I’ve killed Medusa twice!”

Annabeth laughed and slapped me. “Is that all you wanted to tell us, Lord Hades?”

He nodded. “The Fates wanted you to know why your life was so hard. They felt that you should have a right to know, since you’re gods now.”

I nodded, then grinned. “Alright, let’s join the others. I’m starving!”

Annabeth chuckled and rolled her eyes. “You are a black hole for food,” she said.

I just smiled and pulled her toward the sounds of demigods, magicians, and einherji.

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Chapter Text

🔱🌊🌊🔱

 Previously on ‘Percy Jackson and the Unknown Biographies…’

I just smiled and pulled her toward the sounds of demigods, magicians, and einherji.

🔱🌊🌊🔱

 After we stuffed ourselves with special mortal-friendly ambrosia and nectar, we decided to go to the amphitheater to continue reading the books. Athena snapped her fingers and the first book appeared. “Alright,” she said, “I’ve already read a chapter, so who wants to go next?”

Sam raised her hand, and Athena passed the book to her.

“This chapter is Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death.”

Annabeth and Grover went pale. The gods’ eyes widened. I just rolled my eyes.

Sam glanced at us, and decided not to ask. She started reading.

“I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr--a perky blond woman whom I’d never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip--had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

“It got so I almost believed them--Mrs. Dodds had never existed.”

“Almost?” Blitz asked.

“Just wait,” I prompted Sam to keep going. “I want to get these over with as soon as possible. I don’t like painful experiences.”

“Almost. But Grover couldn’t fool me.”

Everyone groaned. Grover blushed and bleated apologetically.

“When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, the claim she didn’t exist. But I knew he was lying. Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. I didn’t have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat. The freak weather continued, which didn’t help my mood. On night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. On of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.”

Zeus narrowed his eyes at Poseidon, then turned his glare toward me. “Is this during-”

“Yup,” I cut him off. “I don’t like spoilers, so let’s keep going.”

“I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for the spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn’t even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.”

Annabeth stifled a laugh. “A sot is a drunkard, Seaweed Brain,” she explained, and I blushed.

Sam snickered and kept reading.

“The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy. Fine, I told myself. Just fine. I was homesick. I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. And yet… there were things I’d miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson river in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I’d miss Grover, who’d been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he’d survive next year without me. I’d miss Latin class, too--Mr. Brunner’s crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.’

“I have all of those at Camp Half-Blood--or at least some version of them,” I mused. “I can see the woods out of my cabin window, the Sound is right there, and I can smell pine trees galore. Grover lives there, and while I don’t have Latin, I have Greek classes, and I get plenty of tournament days during the summer.”

“And I think at this point everyone knows Mr. Brunner is Chiron,” Leo piped up.

“Um, who’s Chiron?” Jaz asked.

I glared at Leo. “See? Spoilers!”

He smiled sheepishly, and told Sam to keep going.

“ As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.”

“Percy,” Annabeth chided, “you need to study even if you don’t like the subject.”

“I know that, but I was twelve,” I argued. “Besides, I passed the SAT and DSTOMP, so you know I studied for those.”

She rolled her eyes and Sam wisely decided to keep reading.

“I hadn’t forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn’t sure why, but I’d started to believe him. The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon--”

“Now I will!” I said cheerfully.

Sam glared at me and continued.

“Or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.”

Aphrodite shuddered and I squirmed, feeling exactly what Sam described.

“I remembered Mr. Brunner’s serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will only accept the best from you, Percy Jackson. I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. I’d never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn’t want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn’t tried.”

Annabeth nodded. “It’s always good to ask a teacher for help.”

I shrugged.

“I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner’s door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. I was three steps away from the handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover’s said ‘...worried about Percy, sir.’”

Thalia winced. “Your best friend talking about you to a teacher? Not good.”

Grover sighed. “Well, at least you didn’t hear too much. That was towards the end of the conversation.”

“Let’s keep going,” I suggested, and Sam obliged.

“I froze. I’m not usually an eavesdropper--”

“Really?” Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

“Well now I am,” I retorted. “It comes with being a demigod.”

“Sure,” Annabeth replied. “Let’s just keep going.”

“But I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult. I inched closer. ‘...alone this summer,’ Grover was saying. ‘I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too--’ ‘We would only make matters worse by rushing him,’ Mr. Brunner said. ‘We need the boy to mature more.’ ‘But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline--’ ‘Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.’ ‘Sir, he saw her…’ ‘His imagination,” Mr. Brunner insisted. ‘The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that.’”

“I guess not,” Reyna said.

I agreed. “Didn’t work as well with Grover being a terrible liar.”

Grover bleated. “I get it, I’m a terrible liar. Can we stop coming back to it?”

I nodded. “Sure, G-man. Let’s keep going.”

“‘Sir, I...I can’t fail in my duties again.’”

Thalia and Annabeth winced, while Grover made a mournful bleat. Zeus frowned, and Jason went over to hug his sister.

Sam must have decided that reading was the best thing to do, so she continued the story.

“Grover’s voice was choked with emotion. ‘You know what that would mean.’ ‘You haven’t failed, Grover,’ Mr. Brunner said kindly. ‘I should have seen her for what she was. Now let’s just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall--’ The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.”

I winced. “Oops.”

“Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner’s office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer’s bow. I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door.”

“Okay, that is totally--” Calypso shoved her hand over Leo’s mouth. He pushed her away. “Jeez, mamacita , no need to slap me in the face.”

“Stop spoiling the book,” Calypso shot back. “And for the thousandth time, don’t call me mamacita!”

“A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. ‘Nothing,’ he murmured. ‘My nerves haven’t been right since the winter solstice.’ ‘Mine neither,’ Grover said. ‘But I could have sworn…’ ‘Go back to the dorm,’ Mr. Brunner told him. ‘You’ve got a long day of exams tomorrow.’ ‘Don’t remind me.’ The lights went out in Mr. Brunner’s office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.”

The other demigods nodded. “It’s really hard to stay put and quiet when you’re ADHD,” Thalia agreed.

“Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he’d been there all night. ‘Hey,’ he said, bleary-eyed. ‘You going to be ready for this test?’ I didn’t answer. ‘You look awful.’ He frowned. ‘Is everything okay?’ ‘Just...tired.’ I turned so he couldn’t read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.”

I looked at Grover. “You knew what I was feeling, didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “Guilty.”

Magnus screwed his eyes together. “Now I’m really confused,” he said. “How would he know what you’re feeling?”

“Satyrs can read emotions,” Grover explained. “I was able to tell what Percy was feeling even if he was hiding it.”

“Now that everything is explained,” Annabeth smiled, “we can continue the story. Sam?”

Sam nodded and went back to the book.

“I didn’t understand what I’d heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I’d imagined the whole thing. But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger. The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I’d misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. For a moment, I was worried he’d found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn’t seem to be the problem. ‘Percy,’ he said. ‘Don’t be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It’s...it’s for the best.’”

“Oooh,” Leo closed his eyes. “I hate it when teachers do that.”

“And it’s not just teachers,” Sadie said, wrinkling her nose. “I’ve heard some gods and ghosts say that to me, too.”

“It’s the worst,” Alex agreed.

“His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. I mumbled, ‘Okay, sir.’ ‘I mean…’ Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn’t sure what to say. ‘This isn’t the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.’”

“Ugh,” Piper groaned. “Honestly, how bad can you be at this?”

“He really sucks,” Will said.

“My eyes stung. Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn’t handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out. ‘Right,’ I said, trembling. ‘No, no,’ Mr. Brunner said. ‘Oh, confound it all. What I’m trying to say...you’re not normal, Percy. That’s nothing to be--’ ‘Thanks,’ I blurted. ‘Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.’ ‘Percy--’ But I was already gone.’

I closed my eyes. “That was not my best moment,” I said, and re-opened my eyes. “Let’s keep going,” I suggested, and Sam obliged.

“On the last of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.”

I looked at the gods. “Before you say anything, I didn’t know you actually existed, and I definitely didn’t know you were relatives, so don’t kill me for calling you nobodies.”

Sam quickly started reading before anyone could reply.

“They asked me what I’d be doing this summer and I told them I’d be going back to the city. What I didn’t tell them was that I’d have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I’d go to school in the fall.”

I snorted. “That definitely did not happen.”

“‘Oh,’ one of the guys said. ‘That’s cool.’ They went back to their conversation as if I’d never existed. The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn’t have to. He’d booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city. During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers.”

“That can’t be good,” Walt commented.

“It occurred to me that he’d always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before I’d always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. Finally I couldn’t stand it anymore. I said, ‘Looking for Kindly Ones?’ Grover nearly jumped out of his seat.”

“Percy,” Annabeth chided, “don’t do that to people.”

“‘Wha--what do you mean?’ I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam. Grover’s eye twitched. ‘How much did you hear?’ ‘Oh...not much. What’s the summer solstice deadline?’ He winced. ‘Look, Percy...I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…’ ‘Grover--’ ‘And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…’ ‘Grover, you’re a really, really bad liar.’”

Said satyr groaned and closed his eyes.

“His ears turned pink. From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. ‘Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.’ The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009”

“We need to fix those cards,” Annabeth said. “Remind me to do that when we’re done.”

“Okay,” I said, and Sam kept reading.

“‘What’s Half--’ ‘Don’t say it aloud!’ he yelped. ‘That’s my, um...summer address.’ My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I’d never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy. ‘Okay,’ I said glumly. ‘So, like, if I wanted to come visit your mansion.’ He nodded. ‘Or...or if you need me.’ ‘Why would I need you?’”

“Percy!” Annabeth glared at me.

I put my hands up and leaned away from her. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”

“Humph.” She turned away from me and motioned for Sam to keep going.

“It came out harsher than I meant it to. Grover blushed right down to his Adam’s apple. ‘Look, Percy, the truth is, I--I kind of have to protect you.’ I stared at him. All year long, I’d gotten into fights, keeping bullies away from him. I’d lost sleep worrying that he’d get beaten up next year without me. And her he was acting like he was the one who defended me. ‘Grover,’ I said, ‘what exactly are you protecting me from?’”

“You don’t want to know,” Annabeth said, and all the demigods in the room nodded in agreement. The gods looked uncomfortable.

“There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we’d all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.”

Reyna shook her head. “This is not going to end well,” she said.

I groaned. “You have no idea.”

“We were on a stretch of country road--no place you’d notice if you didn’t break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand. The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I’d ever seen.”

Nearly every god and demigod in the room went pale. I stifled a laugh.

“I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.”

“Hold on.” Poseidon held up a hand. “Electric blue? That’s his color, not mine.” He pointed to Zeus, and I smirked. “Keep reading,” I said, and Sam obeyed.

“All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.”

Magnus started. “Are those-”

“Just wait,” I promised.

“The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.”

“Nooo,” Annabeth moaned, and had her face in her hands.

I put my arm around her. “I haven’t died yet, have I? And besides, we’re gods now, so it’ll be fine.”

“I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. ‘Grover?’ I said. ‘Hey, man--’ ‘Tell me they’re not looking at you. They are, aren’t they?’ ‘Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?’ ‘Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.’ The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors--gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.”

Annabeth inhaled sharply, melting into me and starting to weep.

“Hey,” I soothed, rubbing her back, “it’ll be fine. I’m here. It’s okay. We’re fine.”

Magnus glared at me. “Why is she crying? This better not be your fault.”

I gave him a sideways smile. “It’s not my fault. Those three ladies are the Fates, like we saw earlier. They control people’s lifelines, literally. Each person is a length of a different-colored yarn, and when the Fates cut it, it means you’re fated to die.” I sighed. “I suppose I can reveal some spoilers to you. This lifeline is Luke’s. Luke is another demigod, a son of Hermes, who went over to Kronos during the Second Titan War. In the end, he sacrificed himself to stop Kronos. After, the Fates showed me this exact piece of yarn, which is when I figured it out.”

Annabeth gasped. “This is Luke’s? But--”

“Let’s just keep going,” I said gently, redirecting her from the painful memories.

Sam wisely took my suggestion, and we continued the story.

“I heard Grover catch his breath. ‘We’re getting on the bus,’ he told me. ‘Come on.’ ‘What?’ I said. ‘It’s a thousand degrees in there.’ ‘Come on!’ He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.”

Annabeth winced and held on to me tighter. I wrapped both arms around her and held her there, wordlessly reassuring her as the others continued the story.

“Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for--Sasquatch or Godzilla. At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. The passengers cheered. ‘Darn right!’ yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. ‘Everybody back on board!’ Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I’d caught the flu.”

“Well this is uncomfortable,” I remarked, and various people glared at me. “What? I’m feeling the same thing the book describes.”

“Grover didn’t look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. ‘Grover?’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘What are you not telling me?’ He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. ‘Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?’ ‘You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They’re not like...Mrs. Dodds, are they?’ His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.”

“Spot on,” Jason nodded. “These are much worse.”

“He said, ‘Just tell me what you saw.’ ‘The middle one took the scissors, and she cut the yarn.’ He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might’ve been crossing himself, but it wasn’t. It was something else, something almost--older. He said, ‘You saw her snip the cord.’ ‘Yeah. So?’ But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.”

Thalia nodded. “Smart. I wonder why we ever called you stupid?”

“Because he’s a loyal idiot who won’t let other people do what needs to be done.” Annabeth sat up and I rolled my eyes. “He also is stupid.”

Sam snickered before she kept reading.

“‘This is not happening,’ Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. ‘I don’t want this to be like the last time.’”

Once again, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover winced, while Zeus glowered.

“‘What last time?’ ‘Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.’ ‘Grover,’ I said, because he was really starting to scare me. ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.’ This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. ‘Is this like a superstition or something?’ I asked.”

“Not quite,” Reyna said. Thalia snorted.

“No answer. ‘Grover--that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?’ He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I’d like best on my coffin.”

Sam closed the book, leaving a finger to mark her spot. “That’s the end of the chapter,” she said. “The next is Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants. Who’d like to read next?”

“I’ll read.” Carter reached for the book as everyone snickered at the image of Grover without pants.

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Chapter Text

So...

I'm reaaaallllly sorry that it's taken so long to update. I know a lot of you are really disappointed in me, and believe me, so am I. But no more! I have three more pages to copy and then it's smooth sailing from there, so I should have an update in no time! *cue me procrastinating for another year*
Anyways, I'll try to update ASAP. Thanks for your understanding!

Chapter Text

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Previously on ‘Percy Jackson and the Unknown Biographies’…

Carter reached for the book as everyone snickered at the image of Grover without pants.

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Carter cleared his throat and waited for everyone to calm down before he started reading.

“Confession time-”

“Uh oh,” Thalia snickered.

“I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal. I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering ‘Why does this always happen?’ and Why does it always have to be sixth grade?’”

“That is freaky,” Carter admitted, then continued reading.

“Whenever he got upset, Grover’s bladder acted up, so I wasn’t surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. ‘East One-hundred-and-fourth and First,’ I told the driver.”

Leo’s eyes brightened. “Now I know where Percy lives!” he said gleefully.

“I moved out,” I said. “We have a better apartment now.”

He sighed. “Way to take all the fun out of it, Percy.”

“A word about my mother, before you meet her. Her name is Sally Jackson and she’s the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.”

“My entire life proves that theory,” I complained, and the other demigods agreed.

“Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn’t care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for college with a good creative-writing program.Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.”

“Aww, that’s so sad,” Piper said.

I smiled. “She has a diploma now, and you can read her books at Barnes & Noble. Don’t ask me to remember the titles, though.”

“They’re really good,” Annabeth commented.

“The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad. I don’t have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.”

“Zeus raised an eyebrow, and the room started sparking. Poseidon shrugged. “Yes, I visited him. So what? It’s not like I told or showed him anything important.”

Zeus sighed.

“My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren’t married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.”

Athena nodded. "Smart. Though why she would be attracted to this one is beyond me." She wrinkled her nose, and Poseidon sighed.

“She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn’t an easy kid. Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe.”

Leo snickered. “Seriously?”

I nodded. “He was the most disgusting person I’ve ever met.”

Reyna raised an eyebrow. “Was?”

I grinned wickedly.

“I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.”

Aphrodite gagged.

“Between the two of us, we made my mom’s life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along...well, when I came home is a good example. I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.”

“Ew,” Piper wrinkled her nose.

“Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, ‘So, you’re home.’ ‘Where’s my mom?’ ‘Working,’ he said. ‘You got any cash?’ That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.”

Aphrodite scoffed. “As if.”

“He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don’t know why he hadn’t been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous--”

Carter stopped. “You know that’s bad for you, right?”

I shrugged. “Not like I could do anything about it.”

“--and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our ‘guy secret.’ Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.”

Several people frowned.

“‘I don’t have any cash,’ I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow. Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should’ve covered up everything else.”

Athena sniffed. “You’re lucky it did.”

“‘You took a taxi from the bus station,’ he said. ‘Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?’”

“Wait, seriously?” Reyna asked angrily.

“Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. ‘Come on, Gabe,’ he said. ‘The kid just got here.’ ‘Am I right? ’ Gabe repeated. Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.”

A few people gagged.

“‘Fine,’ I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. ‘I hope you lose.’ ‘Your report card came, brain boy!’ he shouted after me. ‘I wouldn’t act so snooty!’ I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn’t my room. During school months, it was Gabe’s ‘study.’”

“What would a guy like him study?” Annabeth wondered.

“He didn’t study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.”

Leo winced. “I will never complain about a bad smell again.”

“I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home. Gabe’s smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady’s shears snipping the yarn. But as soon as I thought about that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover’s look of panic--how he’d made me promise I wouldn’t go home without him.”

Thalia grinned. “Someone’s regretting his life choices.”

I rolled my eyes. “Be quiet, Pinecone Face.”

“A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone--something--was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons. Then I heard my mom’s voice.”

“Yes!” several campers cheered.

“Sally is the best,” Nico said.

“‘Percy?’ She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She’s got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it’s like she’s seeing all the good things and none of the bad. I’ve never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even Gabe.”

I smirked. “I have a pretty awesome mom.”

“‘Oh, Percy.’ She hugged me tight. ‘I can’t believe it. You’ve grown since Christmas!’ Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She’d brought me a huge bag of ‘free samples,’ the way she always did when I came home.”

Leo’s eyes lit up, but Calypso restrained him.

“We sat together on the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn’t put in my letters. She didn’t mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn’t seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right? I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.”

“Mommy’s boy,” someone snickered.

“Yeah, maybe I am,” I snarled. “You got a problem with that?’

“From the other room, Gabe yelled, ‘Hey, Sally--how about some bean dip, huh?’ I gritted my teeth. My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should’ve been married to some millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.”

A bunch of demigods nodded.

“For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn’t too down about the expulsion. I’d lasted almost the whole year this time. I’d made some new friends. I’d done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn’t been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.”

Thalia winced “Key word being ‘almost’.”

“I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn’t seem so bad.”

Everyone snorted.

“Until that trip to the museum… ‘What?’ my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. ‘Did something scare you?’ ‘No, mom.’ I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.”

Sadie shrugged. “I guess that’s fair.”

“She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn’t push me. ‘I have a surprise for you,’ she said. ‘We’re going to the beach.’ My eyes widened. ‘Montauk?’ ‘Three nights--same cabin.’ ‘When?’ She smiled. ‘As soon as I get changed.’ I couldn’t believe it. My mom and I hadn’t been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn’t enough money.”

Poseidon rolled his eyes.

“Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, ‘Bean dip, Sally? Didn’t you hear me?’ I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom’s eyes and understood she was offering a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.”

Some people cheered.

“‘I was on my way, honey,’ she told Gabe. ‘We were just talking about the trip.’ Gabe’s eyes got small. ‘The trip? You mean you were serious about that?’ ‘I knew it,’ I muttered. ‘He won’t let us go.’ ‘Of course he will,’ my mom said evenly.  ‘Your stepfather is just worried about money. That’s all. Besides,’ she added, ‘Gabriel won’t have to settle for bean dip. I’ll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works.’”

Grover sighed. “She makes the best bean dip.”

“Gabe softened a bit.”

Somebody laughed. “The way to his heart: bean dip.”

“‘So this money for your trip...it comes out of your clothes budget, right?’ ‘Yes, honey,’ my mother said. ‘And you won’t take my car anywhere but there and back.’ ‘We’ll be very careful.’ Gabe scratched his double chin. ‘Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip…And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game.’”

Several people groaned.

“Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week. But my mom’s eyes warned me not to make him mad. Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?”

“It was for your own good,” Jason said.

I sighed.

“‘I’m sorry,’ I muttered. ‘I’m really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now.’ Gabe’s eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. ‘Yeah, whatever,’ he decided. He went back to his game.”

Hazel blinked. “Is he really that stupid?”

“‘Thank you, Percy,’ my mom said. ‘Once we get to Montauk, we’ll talk more about...whatever you’ve forgotten to tell me, okay?’ For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes--the same fear I’d seen in Grover during the bus ride--as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. ”

I made a half-hearted laugh.

“he ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. An hour later we were ready to leave. Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom’s bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking--and more important, his ‘78 Camaro--for the whole weekend.”

“Dude, get your priorities straight,” someone scoffed.

“‘Not a scratch on this car, brain boy,’ he warned me as I loaded the last bag. ‘Not one little scratch.’ Like I’d be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn’t matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he’d find a way to blame me.”

Frank scratched his head. “How?”

“Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can’t explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I’d seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe.”

Zeus scoffed. “No mortal would be affected by that curse.”

“The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked im on the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he’d been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn’t stay long enough to find out. I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.”

Several jaws dropped.

“H-how…” Athena stammered.

“Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.”

Annabeth shivered. “No wonder you kick me out before I can even get inside.”

“I loved the place. We’d been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she’d met my dad.”

“Aww,” Piper cooed. “That’s so sweet.”

“As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea. We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin’s windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine.”

“Thalia snorted. “And a good thing, too.”

“We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work. I guess I should explain the blue food.”

Leo sat up. “Finally!”

“See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.”

Magnus gagged.

“This--along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Ms. Ugliano--was proof that she wasn’t totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.”

Everyone laughed.

“When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.”

Something occurred to me. “I wonder if that candy shop is still there.”

“Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk--my father. Mom’s eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.”

Poseidon was curious. “What did she say?”

“You’ll find out,” was my only reply.

“‘He was kind, Percy,’ she said. ‘Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes.’ Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. ‘I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud.’”

Annabeth sighed.

“What?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Your guilt complex is so predictable, I can guess what your next thought will be with great accuracy.”

“I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.”

“I knew it,” Annabeth announced.

“‘How old was I?’ I asked. ‘I mean...when he left?’ She watched the flames. ‘He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin.’ ‘But...he knew me as a baby.’ ‘No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born.’”

Several demigods winced.

“I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. I had always assumed that he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I’d felt it must be true. Now, to be told he’d never even seen me… I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He’d left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.”

“That is definitely an unfair trade,” Jason agreed.

“‘Are you going to send me away again?’ I asked her. ‘To another boarding school?’ She pulled another marshmallow from the fire. ‘I don’t know, honey.’ Her voice was heavy. ‘I think…I think we’ll have to do something.’ ‘Because you don’t want me around?’”

“Percy!” Annabeth glared.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it that way!”

Annabeth’s eyes were daggers.

“I regretted the words as soon as they were out. My mom’s eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. ‘Oh, Percy, no. I--I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away.’ Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said--that it was best for me to leave Yancy.”

Some of my friends groaned.

“‘Because I’m not normal,’ I said. ‘You say that as if it’s a bad thing, Percy. But you don’t realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you’d finally be safe.’ ‘Safe from what?’”

Thalia shook her head. “You don’t want to know.”

“She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me--all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I’d tried to forget. During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.”

“A cyclops?” Poseidon frowned.

“Before that--a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I’d somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.”

“Huh,” someone grunted. “Isn’t that a Hercules story?”

“In every single school, something creepy happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn’t make myself tell her.”

Annabeth facepalmed.

“I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn’t want that.”

She sighed.

“‘I’ve tried to keep you as close to me as I could,’ my mom said. ‘They told me that was a mistake. But there’s only one other option, Percy--the place your father wanted to send you. And I just...I just can’t stand to do it.’ ‘My father wanted me to go to a special school?’ ‘Not a school,’ she said softly. ‘A summer camp.’”

“She knew?” a camper asked, puzzled.

Grover nodded.

“My head was spinning. Why would my dad--who hadn’t even stayed around long enough to see me born--talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn’t she ever mentioned it before? ‘I’m sorry, Percy,’ she said, seeing the look in my eyes. ‘But I can’t talk about it. I--I couldn’t send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good.’”

People from the other pantheons looked confused.

“But I thought it was a summer camp…”

“‘For good? But if it’s only a summer camp…’ She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her anymore questions she would start to cry.”

“You never make Sally cry,” Thalia said solemnly.

“That night I had a vivid dream. It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse’s muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle’s wings.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Zeus and Poseidon.

“As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder. I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse’s wide eyes, and I screamed, No! ”

“That’s when you wake up,” Reyna guessed.

“I woke with a start. Outside, it was really storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, ‘Hurricane.’”

“No way,” someone said. “It’s too early in the summer for a hurricane.”

“I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, and angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand.”

Many faces paled.

“A desperate voice--someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door. My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn’t...he wasn’t exactly Grover.”

“What do you mean, not exactly Grover?” a person asked.

“‘Searching all night,’ he gasped. ‘What were you thinking?’ My mother looked at me in terror--not scared of Grover, but of why he’d come. ‘Percy,’ she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. ‘What happened at school? Why didn’t you tell me?’”

“Uh, oh,” Nico said. “She’s mad.”

“I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. ‘O Zeu kai alloi theoi!’ he yelled. ‘It’s right behind me! Didn’t you tell her?’ I was too shocked to register that he’d just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I’d understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night.”

“Why,” came from many frustrated voices.

“Because Grover didn’t have his pants on--and where his legs should be...where his legs should be…”

“WHAT!?” the room almost screamed.

“My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she’d never used before: ‘ Percy. Tell me now! ’ I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, ‘Get to the car. Both of you. Go! ’”

“Aargh,” a few people pulled at their hair.

“Grover ran to the Camaro--but he wasn’t running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.”

“Wait, WHAT?”

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Chapter Text

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Previously on ‘Percy Jackson and the Unknown Biographies…’

‘...there were cloven hooves.’ “Wait, WHAT?”

🔱🌊🌊🔱

All of the Greeks turned toward Magnus, confused.

“You didn’t notice?” Leo asked.

Magnus blushed. “I had more important things on my mind,” he said defensively.

Annabeth raised her eyebrow, “Grover literally introduced himself as a satyr.”

Magnus blushed even further. “Can we just keep reading?” he pleaded.

Zia rolled her eyes and plucked the book out of her boyfriend’s hands. “I’ll read next,” she announced. “However, I suggest we break for dinner after this chapter.”

Some of the other non-immortals nodded.

Zia took a deep breath and started to read.

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

Poseidon shook his head. “I must have been furious,” he said, and I exchanged glances with Annabeth. He had no idea.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

I wrinkled my nose. I could tell Aphrodite was resisting the urge to gag.

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?" Grover's eyes flitted to the rear-view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

“That’s not creepy at all,” Hearth signed, with Blitz translating.

Magnus snorted. “You’re one to talk.”

"Watching me?" "Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend." "Urn ... what are you, exactly?" "That doesn't matter right now."

Sadie frowned. “It kind of does, though.”

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

Dionysus looked up from a wine magazine he must have been reading. “You’d best watch your mouth,” he said haughtily. “The satyrs will tear you to shreds.”

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat. "Goat!" he cried. "What?" "I'm a goat from the waist down."

 Jaz blinked. “But you said it doesn’t matter.”

"You just said it didn't matter." "Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!" "Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?" "Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

“So there was a Mrs. Dodds,” Calypso mused.

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" "Of course." "Then why—" "The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

“No thanks to Grover,” Leo joked.

Grover let out a sharp bleat.

“Sorry man,” I apologized, “but you’re never gonna live that down.”

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?" The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail. "Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety." "Safety from what? Who's after me?"

“That’s a very good question.” Jason furrowed his eyebrows.

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions." "Grover!" "Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?" I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.

I snorted. “Oh, just you wait,” I muttered, so that only Annabeth could hear me.

She stifled a laugh.

My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences. "Where are we going?" I asked. "The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

“Camp Half-Blood,” someone whispered.

"The place you didn't want me to go." "Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

Thalia laughed. “That’s an understatement.”

"Because some old ladies cut yarn." "Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die. "Whoa. You said 'you.'” "No I didn't. I said 'someone.'" "You meant 'you.' As in me." "I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

“Is this really the time?” Walt rolled his eyes.

"Boys!" my mom said. She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm. "What was that?" I asked. "We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

Alex sighed. “You’re not gonna make it.”

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive. Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock.

“Ooh!” I let out an involuntary gasp. “That feels really weird.”

She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

My vision flickered, and I sagged into Annabeth’s lap.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

At the same time, I groaned in real life. I grimaced. “That was unpleasant.”

"Percy!" my mom shouted. "I'm okay... ." I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in. Lightning.

Poseidon glared at Zeus, who just shrugged.

That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!" He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die! Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

Several people stifled laughter.

"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered. I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

Athena scrunched her forehead together, and I could tell she was trying to figure out the identity of the monster.

I swallowed hard. "Who is—" "Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car." My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

“Gabe’s going to freak,” Frank commented.

I grunted. “That was the least of my worries.”

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?" "What?" Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

Thalia huffed. “Finally. I thought you would never introduce me.”

I smirked. “You don’t even wake up until after my second quest,” I challenged, and she rolled her eyes.

"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door." "Mom, you're coming too."

Annabeth tsked beside me. “Fatal flaw,” she reminded me.

I just sighed.

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. "No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover." "Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

Will shook his head. “He’s going to give you away like that.”

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...

Poseidon coughed. “I believe I know what the monster is,” he said quietly.

I shrugged. “I’m pretty sure all of the Greeks know what it is.”

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line." "But..." "We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please." I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like a bull.

Athena made a noise of affirmation.

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom." "I told you—" "Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."

I noticed Hestia appear at the hearth out of the corner of my eye. I gave her a slight nod, and she returned it with a small smile.

I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid. Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

“Don’t you guys mow?” I didn’t catch who said that.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. 

Hazel’s face screwed up. “What monster fights in their underwear?”

Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

Will started. “So that’s what’s hanging up the Poseidon cabin.”

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real. I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—" "Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you." "But he's the Min—" "Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

“She’s smart,” Apollo smirked.

I shot him a Look.™

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least. I glanced behind me again. The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away. "Food?" Grover moaned.

Reyna shook her head. “He’s going to get you killed,” she said.

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?" "His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough." As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Leo whistled.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying. Oops.

Annabeth chuckled. “You’ve done worse,” she informed me, and I grinned.

"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?" "How do you know all this?" "I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

Hermes sighed. “That’s how they all get killed.”

"Keeping me near you? But—" Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. He'd smelled us.

“Run,” Thalia urged. “My tree is right there!”

The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."

“This isn’t going to end well,” Nico said, with a pained look on his face.

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

I tried plugging my nose with my hand, but it didn’t work. This was going to be a long experience.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

“Uh oh,” someone cursed.

We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

“Why so pessimistic, Percy?” someone teased.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover. "Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

Annabeth shook her head fondly. “Not a chance,” she said.

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air. "Mom!"

Thalia and Nico gasped.

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!" Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.

“Aunt Sally!” Thalia cried.

I smiled. “She’s okay, guys, you saw her two weeks ago.”

"No!" Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons. The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. I couldn't allow that.

Leo leaned backwards. “It’s Scary Percy Time,” he said.

I stripped off my red rain jacket. "Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!" "Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists. I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.

“That’s debatable,” Annabeth said, but she gave me a grin.

I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment. But it didn't happen like that.

Sadie sighed. “Does it ever?”

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. Time slowed down. My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck. How did I do that?

“That’s a good question, Percy. How in the depths of Niflheim did you do a flip when your fighting move was to run away?” Alex looked startled.

I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

My hand flew up to my mouth. My entire face felt numb. “Eugh,” I said.

I had barely noticed, but Grover had fallen asleep some time ago, probably when his book version passed out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

“Once again: ew.” I gagged.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward. Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

I shuddered. That would be an unpleasant experience.

"Food!" Grover moaned. The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!

Several people jumped.

“Did you just-”

I cut Jason off with a smirk. “I pulled one of his horns off, yes.”

Jason closed his mouth. “Okay, then.”

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife. The monster charged. Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

Multiple people winced. I even saw a few gods turned a slight shade of green.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart. The monster was gone.

“Wow,” was the only thing I heard.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.

“Smart,” Reyna said.

The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

“Oo-ooh,” Piper teased Annabeth.

“Shut up,” Annabeth said. I could see that her cheeks were bright red.

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

“That’s the end of the chapter,” Zia said.

I grinned and stood up to stretch. “Good. I’m starving.”

🔱🌊🌊🔱

Chapter Text

You probably noticed the tag updates, but just in case, I wanted to say it in person. I'm sorry, but I will no longer be continuing this fic. I haven't had much inspiration in a long time, and I don't think I'll update in a while, if ever. Your guys' support has meant a lot, and I'm sorry to disappoint, but I just can't continue this fic. Thank you for reading. ❤️