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I couldn't believe what was happening. I was bleeding from about a thousand different cuts all over me. The shrapnel in the venti was small but plentiful, and stung like crazy. Meg was also trapped in one of the venti. Piper had a broken jaw from Caligula, and Apollo. . . Apollo had stabbed himself.
Caligula ran to Apollo and gripped the shaft of the arrow but Medea yelled, “Stop!”
She ran across the room and crouched beside Apollo and Caligula.
“Pulling out the arrow could make matters worse!” She said it so low that I almost couldn’t hear her.
“He stabbed himself in the chest,” Caligula said. “How can it be worse?”
Medea muttered something I couldn’t hear then said, “I don’t want him to bleed out.” She pulled out a glass vial from a black silk bag and shoved the bag at Caligula, “Hold this.”
She uncorked the vial and poured it onto Apollo’s wound. Apollo didn’t even react, which probably wasn’t a good sign.
The horse, Incitatus, trotted over to them, “Whoa, he really did it. That’s a horse of a different color.”
“This idiot can’t even kill himself right,” grumbled Medea. “It appears that, somehow, he missed his heart.”
I couldn’t help being relieved. Apollo might be a god, but he had changed since becoming a mortal. He was selfless, kind, and caring. So different than he was just a few months before, when he was on Olympus. I winced as a piece of shrapnel cut my cheek.
Medea snapped her fingers at Caligula. “Hand me the red vial.”
Caligula scowled. “I never rummage through a woman’s purse. Especially a sorceress's.”
“If you want to be the sun god, do it!” Medea snarled back.
Caligula found the red vial and Medea coated her left hand with it. In her right she gripped the arrow that was still in Apollo. She yanked it out. Even from inside my storm spirit prison, I could hear his scream. Medea quickly stopped the bleeding with the red substance. In the process of all this, she had lost control over the venti. Caligula, Medea, and Incitatus were all so distracted with Apollo, I knew this was my best chance.
I thrust out my arms and reached out to the wind. I put all my energy into pushing the wind spirits up and sideways. The wind spirits exploded horizontal and vertically. They cut through the ship, the mast creaked and parts of the ceiling rained down on us. Meg had been on my left, and got blasted into the darkness. I prayed she was okay but didn’t have much time to dwell on that since Caligula, Medea, and Incitatus had not so much as suffered a scratch.
I saw Apollo try and move towards Meg but couldn’t and instead mouthed something I couldn’t hear, and a young pandos ran out of the room. The break in the ship floor became wider, me on one side and the others on the other. Waterfalls, ten feet tall, poured from the broken chasm. The floor was soaked and the water below made the machines smoke. Above me, pandai were screaming and drawing weapons. I unsheathed my gladius, and raised it high. Lightning came down and vaporized the pandai. I stepped out of the smoke so I could see my friends. . . and enemies.
Caligula sneered at me. “You’re one of those Camp Jupiter brats, aren't you?”
I didn’t hesitate. I had always felt conflicted between the two camps. Camp half-blood or Camp Jupiter. I had always felt the pressure to choose between them, but the thing was: I couldn’t. Both camps were my home. I responded with confidence and authority, “I’m Jason Grace. Former praetor of the Twelfth Legion. Son of Jupiter. Child of Rome. But I belong to both camps.”
“Good enough,” Caligula said. “I’ll hold you responsible for Camp Jupiter's treason tonight. Incitatus!” He snatched up a golden spear that was rolling across the floor. The emperor got on his horse’s back and charged the chasm in the ship. He leaped it in one bound and I had to throw myself aside so I didn’t get trampled.
From across the room I heard a cry of anger. Piper. I risked a glance. Her jaw was definitely broken and she was bleeding from the edge of her mouth. Seeing her, I just got more determined that she would not be the one to die on this ship. She charged Medea but before I could see what happened Caligula charged me again. I parried his spear with my sword but I was more exhausted than I thought. The wind and lightning had taken most of my energy and Caligula was fast and more powerful.
I heard a shout from Piper. No doubt telling me to come over there and leave with them. Caligula stabbed with his spear and I dodged his attack parrying with my sword. I turned to them. “Get out of here! Go!”
Pain sprouted from my left thigh, I grunted and stumbled. Looking down there was an arrow sticking out of my leg. Looking up, more pandai were there despite me using most of my energy turning them to dust. I heard Piper’s scream of warning as Caligula charged again. I rolled out of the way and grabbed at the air. If there was any time I needed my steed, it was now. The wind yanked me into the air and I was now riding on the back of my storm spirit horse, Tempest. I rode up to Caligula. The ceiling space was much too small for the two of us on horseback. We jousted in the air; sword against spear. His spear was longer, giving him an advantage since we were in the air and on horseback. Every time he charged or stabbed, I parried or dove. I couldn’t get on offense. Another arrow hit me in the upper arm and I winced in pain but kept fighting.
“I told you this isn’t a game!” Caligula yelled. “You don’t walk away from me alive!”
As long as Piper, Apollo, and Meg get out safely it doesn’t matter if I live or die, I thought. Below me and Caligula, an explosion rocked the ship and the chasm split further. I continued to fight Caligula, but with my focus on him, that gave the pandai an easy target. An arrow pierced my other arm and I groaned in pain. Tempest dived as Caligula jabbed his spear at me. I rode Tempest back up to Caligula and slashed my sword against his spear, hoping to break it. Of course that did not work. A fourth arrow buried itself in my right leg and I wanted to drop dead from exhaustion and pain. Somehow I managed to raise my sword again and parry a stab from his spear that would have ended my life. Tempest and Incitatus traded kicks. Tempest attacked Incuratus with bursts of electricity that scorched its white pelt. I loved this horse.
I charged past Caligula and met Apollo’s eyes. I tried to tell him what I was doing with a glance. From the expression on his face I knew he got it. I was going to be the only one dying tonight.
“GO!” I yelled. “Remember!” I directed that last word to Apollo. That morning I had made him promise to remember what it was like to be a mortal. After everything that had happened he couldn’t just go back to Olympus and pretend everything was fine, like none of this ever happened. I held Apollo’s gaze, hoping the word sank in.
Pain flared in my back. I had held Apollo’s eyes a second too long. Caligula’s spear was sticking through my back and out my chest. My eyes widened in shock. My mind dazed with pain. I heard a scream, it was Piper. It cut through my mind, she was okay. She had to be okay.
I fell forward. Before I could fall off Tempest I wrapped my hand around his neck and whispered, “Get Piper and the others to safety. Don’t worry about me.”
My strength was gone. I let myself fall. I hit the deck face down, my sword fell out of my hand and I gasped in pain, my thoughts were fuzzy. I definitely had broken something in the fall, but that didn’t matter. I was going to die either way. I knew this ever since I had heard the prophecy. Piper was not going to die, I refused to let that happen. So that meant me. I didn’t regret my actions, not for a second, but I wished I could be able to see Leo again. I couldn’t believe it when Apollo had told me that he was alive and well. There was also my sister, Thalia, we barely saw each other and now I wished we’d coordinated more. Oh gods, everyone on the Argo II. What would they think? My breath hitched and I could barely breathe now.
I heard the sound of someone landing beside me. They said something I didn’t hear. My mind was wandering through the pain. Random memories. Being left at the wolf house by a mother who I would never see again. Being trained by Lupa and going to Camp Jupiter. Me rising to praetor. The feeling of everyone always looking up at me. Always being the leader. The fight on Mt Orthys and defeating Krios. Waking up on the Wilderness school bus with Piper and Leo. Not knowing who I was, all the questions I had. The quest they went on together. Building the Argo II. Leaving on it. New Rome. Leaving again. The many quests all of them did while trying to save the world from Gaea. The fight with Percy. Almost drowning. Rescuing Nico. Being there for Nico when the love god outed him. The fight in the House of Hades. Getting stabbed and healed. Defeating Gaea and saving the camps. The friendships made. The relationships found. Surviving all of that and now dying. It wasn’t fair, but since when was anything in a demigods life fair.
I was ripped from my thoughts when the spear was ripped out of me. I jerked. Caligula forced the spear back in. Right through my heart. Pain spiked, then everything turned to black.