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Priya’s only been at camp a whopping two months when she's made the head of the Persephone cabin. Her half brother and only cabinmate turns eighteen and decides to try his luck at New Rome University.
Fine by Priya. She's never had super close bonds anyway. It's not her scent that keeps her as a year-rounder. It's that her mom—her mortal mom, that is—loves her orchard more than she loves Priya. Which. Whatever.
The transition of power happens only one week before the winter solstice, which means that she has the honor (?) of visiting Mount Olympus today.
Piling into the van with everyone else, she gets crammed in the back with Connor Stoll and two others who, like her, haven't made much of an impression.
The middle row is Will Solace, Clarisse La Rue, and Miranda Gardiner. And, surprise, surprise, shotgun is held by none other than Percy Jackson.
Priya doesn’t get why people react to Percy the way they do. When he’s there, people hold their breath, give a wide berth. When he’s gone, they whisper about him. There are campfire stories dedicated to his quests, some of the old timers sacrifice food in his name rather than any of gods’.
Maybe it’s because she hasn’t seen any of his ‘great deeds,’ but she just doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.
She settles in for a long ride from Half-Blood Hill to the Empire State Building, squished between the window and a camper with an excited look on their face. As Argus slowly directs the van onto the empty stretch of highway that snakes around the magical border of camp, the person beside Priya turns and says, “I'm Mel.”
“Cool.” Priya puts in their earbuds and faces the window.
She has to admit, it's a pretty ride. It's snowing, but not too hard. Just flakes drifting down, slowly accumulating on the strips of grass on either side of the highway. The spines of the leafless trees. Winter's not really her time of year. God Mom in the Underworld and all that. She used to think she had Seasonal Affectedness Disorder (thanks WebMD) and her guidance counselors used to make comments about her ‘winter blues.’
At least her half brother Trey mentioned feeling the same way. And her cousin (second cousin? Divine family trees give her a headache) Miranda doesn't exactly look happy in the second row, sun covered in clouds.
Go Mom, cause that winter.
Miranda and Will talk idly about their respective boyfriends and Connor and Clarisse make fun of them as they talk about their respective boyfriends. Percy stays silent in the front, seemingly checked out. Although, sometimes, Priya swears she catches his eye in the rearview mirror. Each time, he seems deep in thought.
At some point, the fourth demigod in the back seat, an Aphrodite kid, if Priya remembers correctly, calls up to the front seat. Percy either doesn't notice or ignores the question.
Will reaches over and nudges him. Percy jerks away from the touch, eyes sharp. The air is muggy when Priya takes her next breath. He realizes who touched him and the wintery dry air returns on the breath after. The condensation on the glass seems thicker.
Percy tugs out an earbud.
“Mitchell asked if Annabeth’s meeting us there or if we're picking her up,” Will reports.
Percy's gaze flicks back to Mitchell, pressed between Connor and Mel. “She's already there. Overseeing some of the last buildings to break ground.”
People talk about Percy like he's a god or something. In Priya’s opinion? Annabeth Chase is way more powerful.
Priya’s only met her once and she's really not looking forward to a repeat. Percy makes the weather go funky? Cool, she'll get an umbrella.
She's pretty sure Annabeth can see into her soul. No amount of water-proofing is going to help with that.
Mitchell gives Percy a thumbs up and everyone goes back to their conversations.
The tires turn any snow on the road to water as Argus directs the van south, toward the Midtown Tunnel. Priya doesn't think anything of it, other than that's the route her satyr ‘guardian’ Lyall led her through. But as Argus signals for the exit, Priya sees, out of the corner of her eye, Connor shift uncomfortably, bowing his head. Mitchell crosses his arms, scowling out the window. Miranda puts a hand on Clarisse’s shoulder only for it to be shrugged off.
Directly in front of Priya, Will drags three fingers over his chest and then pushes them away with some force.
Despite seeming disconnected from what was going on in the van, in the front seat with headphones in, Percy twists around in his chair to face Clarisse.
“She died a hero,” he says quietly, expression sorrowful.
Clarisse nods and then shoves at his arm. It looks like it hurts but Percy just smiles sadly.
As he turns back around, Mel asks, “What happened?”
Eyes snap to them and Priya presses herself closer to the window. The silence is unbearable and Priya wishes that she'd fought harder to stay at camp. The van goes dark as they enter the tunnel, the thundering of trucks and cars muffled by the tension in the van. Shadows stretch across their seats, but Priya can still see the apologetic look on Mel’s face. Nice to know Priya isn’t the only one to step in it, asking questions about a camp where only bad things seem to happen.
When they finally emerge back into open air, still a gray morning, still snowing, the older campers relax minutely.
Clarisse clears her throat. “Friend of mine. Aphrodite kid. She led her cabin to protect this entrance during the Titan War.” She doesn't turn around to look at Mel, nor does her voice change as she says, “She died because I couldn't get my head out of my ass.”
“Clarisse-”
“Can it, Solace.”
Priya presses herself further against the van window, the glass painfully cold on her forehead.
Mel looks at their lap. Mitchell keeps glaring. Connor asks loudly if they can stop at a bodega before they get to the Empire State Building.
“Basically none of the food on Mount Olympus is demigod-friendly,” he explains conspiratorially to Mel and Priya. Right. Mount Olympus.
With the simmering awkwardness, Priya almost forgot they were going to a divine council meeting. Sweet.
Argus shakes his head, the eyes on his neck rolling at the request.
Priya tries to distract herself with the Christmas lights lining buildings and twisting around trees. She wonders what her mom—mortal mom—is doing right now. If she should go back home for next semester.
Mel asks the others what Olympus is like and despite his girlfriend apparently being the head architect of the city, Percy stays out of the conversation. Priya’s heard that he’s pretty edgy when it comes to talking about the gods or Olympus or his quests, so she isn’t surprised.
Connor informs them that this is his fifth or sixth time going to the winter solstice council. “When you’re an old timer like me,” he explains, “You start to lose track.”
Clarisse flicks him.
Suddenly, Percy sits up straight. He looks in the rearview mirror, then out the back window. Priya follows his gaze.
“Laistrygonian,” he announces, sounding annoyed.
She’s not exactly sure what a Laistrygonian is, but she can guess that the lumbering giant exiting the alley they just passed isn’t from New Jersey. The greasy hair, ripped muscles, grimy jeans and leather jacket. Topping him off is a torn Santa hat. He’s either a lost WWE wrestler, real late for SantaCon, or hungry for demigods.
The younger half-bloods in their group shift uncomfortably, Priya included. Mitchell shrinks down in his seat, as if that would help.
Demigod scent is a very real thing, Priya has learned.
Ahead of them, the light turns green and Argus hits the gas, almost rear-ending the cab in front of them. He makes a frustrated noise in the back of his throat.
“Will?” Percy asks, eyes trained at the giant stepping around the mortals trying to get their last-minute shopping in.
Will shakes his head. “You know I'm a terrible shot. I don't even carry a bow anymore.”
Percy turns toward Clarisse, raises an eyebrow, then a fist.
Silently, they play rock paper scissors. Three rounds of it, because even as a nasty-looking giant is bearing down on them through Midtown traffic, they both put scissors, then paper, then finally Percy plays rock and Clarisse taps his fist with her flat palm. Paper wins.
Percy groans loudly and asks Argus to pull over. He acts as if his mom just asked him to check the mail on his way in, not like their lives are in imminent danger.
If Priya wasn't holding her breath, trying to calm her pounding heart, she would've laughed.
Argus puts on his right blinker, slamming on the breaks as he passes an empty metered spot. He backs in without turning around, extra eyes making parallel parking a breeze.
A blast of snow as Percy climbs out of the passenger seat. Priya watches with rapt attention as he stalks toward the giant. Deep laughter comes from it and Priya swears she can smell its sewage breath.
Percy says something that Priya can’t make out, his sword growing in his hand. The giant reaches behind him and suddenly holds an ignited metal ball.
Priya looks back and sees that the rest of the campers are still in the van. “Aren’t any of you going to help him?” she shouts.
Connor raises his hand. “I could-”
Argus scowls and Connor slumps down. “See if I get you any snacks from the bodega,” he grumbles.
In the brief moment she looked away, Percy had closed in on the giant. It launches the metal ball at Percy, but he sidesteps it easily. Snow surges around it, dousing the flame and cushioning its fall as it hits the ground. The mortal pedestrians look minorly inconvenienced as they maneuver around the giant. One, a young man in a too-big black coat, holds out a few bills to the giant, who roars at him. The businessman shrugs and carries on.
In the moment of distraction, Percy gets inside the giant’s guard and stabs it in the gut.
The giant roars, crumbling to dust around Percy. Soon, he’s nothing more than a bit of grime in the slushy snow.
“Thank the gods,” Mel mutters.
“That was terrifying,” Priya agrees.
Clarisse actually laughs. “Fresh blood,” she says derisively.
Miranda nudges her. “Like you wouldn’t have been scared of that when you were thirteen.”
The older demigods squabble a bit, groaning when Percy climbs back in, covered in dust and bringing a blast of cold air with him.
“He knew it was me,” Percy complains. “If he’d stayed in the alley, I would’ve left him alone.” He looks at his clothes in disgust. “I thought for sure the Santa hat was going to stay behind. Annabeth’s going to be so annoyed that we’re late and I don’t even have proof of the Lystragonian.”
Clarisse shoves the back of his head as Argus pulls back into traffic. “You reek, Prissy. I’m sure that’ll be proof enough.”
Priya leans forward. “What do you mean you would’ve left it alone? It would’ve killed us!”
“Like. Barely,” Clarisse says.
Percy shrugs. “It was only one. I fought six? When I was in seventh grade.”
Priya doesn't think too hard about how she should be in seventh grade right now. If not for the whole satyr-showing-up-at-her-apartment thing.
Connor looks across Mitchell and Mel. “We just didn’t want it to dent the van. Chiron gets annoyed when he has to send it into the shop,” he explains.
Argus nods emphatically.
Priya closes her eyes. She’s two months into being a demigod. She is not looking forward to what becoming an old timer means.