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Jason had heard the legends, of course he had. Anyone who grew up near the coast had heard the legends of Captain Jackson, the Pirate Lord. Some say he was a ruthless killer who had defected from the Navy with a stolen ship, and an equally stolen crew. Some say he wasn’t really a person at all, but just a story the fishermen’s wives told to keep the children from wandering down by the docks at after dark: “best stay away from the shores or Captain Jackson will snatch you away in the night.” Others said he had free reign of the oceans because he had the blessing of the sea god himself.
Personally, Jason hadn’t put too much thought into the legends until the morning he woke up and the massive black ship was docked at his town’s modest harbour.
By the time Jason got to the marketplace, the villagers were already gossiping.
“That’s Anaklusmos."
“See that flag? That’s the banner of Captain Jackson.”
“This is a dark day, indeed."
“They call it Anaklusmos. Riptide,” the baker whispered to Jason as he picked up bread for his mother. “It cuts through anything in it’s path, causing destruction wherever it goes.”
“Why do they let it dock here?” Jason mused, staring at the mast silhouetted in the morning sky.
“Who do you think is stupid enough to try to stop them?” The baker replied. “No, the best course is to keep our heads down, and pretend the ship never darkened our shores.”
But Jason couldn’t pretend the ship wasn’t there. It loomed over the village as he went about his day. It haunted Jason, swaying gently in the harbour, but otherwise still and void of any signs of life, and his eyes were constantly drawn to the black sails that seemed to be always visible.
“This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to this sad excuse for a town,” his sister said over their modest dinner.
“Thalia!” their mother scolded.
She rolled her eyes and carried on as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “I wonder why they’ve docked here. The guys at the mill say that there are rumors of oil and gold up north.”
“What did I tell you about talking to the guys at the mill,” Beryl interrupted again and proceeded to launch into a lecture about how Thalia should be conducting her social affairs.
Jason stopped listening, used to tuning out the rows between his mother and sister. He absently pushed the food around on his plate as he stared out the window, the mast of the black ship visible over the other cottages.
Then suddenly, without thinking, without even realizing what he was doing, Jason pushed his chair back from the table, grabbed his coat from the peg by the door, and was gone before his mother or sister even noticed.
The streets seemed oddly quiet and still as Jason made his way down to the docks. Normally at this time in the evening the village would still active, but perhaps the shadow of the ship had shaken everyone more than they had let on during the mid-day sun.
As Jason approached the end of the docks, he could hear sounds coming from the ship… but they weren’t the sounds he would have expected. There was laughter, and shouting, and what sounded like a poor attempt at singing. Even more intrigued, Jason found himself walking up the gangway, casual as you please, and hopping onto the deck of the ship before everything finally caught up to him and he stopped short.
It was like a scene in a movie: everyone who was milling around the deck stopped and stared at Jason. And he just stood there, confused and wrong footed, staring back at the pirate crew like a deer in headlights. The crowd began to rumble, and move slowly towards Jason.
“Outta my way!”
The crowed split and a blonde girl, not much older than Jason—maybe 19 or 20—emerged from the ranks.
“Well, well, well. What have we here, lads?” she strode forward and circled Jason, eyeing him suspiciously, hand resting on the hilt of her sword. She turned back to the group of pirates. “Leo! Don’t we have security measures in place for a reason?”
“Aye-aye, Annabeth! And trust me, they’re working,” said a curly haired guy, with what looked like soot smudged across his face. "He must have stowed away when we were bringing in the supplies.”
“What?” The question burst out of Jason before he could stop himself, panic flaring for the first time.
Everyone turned back to him, including Annabeth who had her arms crossed over her chest and an amused look on her face.
“Was there something you wanted to say, Stowaway?” she asked.
“Look, I’m sorry I came aboard without permission, but I have no intention of stowing away. In fact, I’ll just be heading home now.”
“Oh really?” Annabeth asked, amused. “And how do you propose to do that?”
“You’re still docked in the harbour,” Jason said, gesturing behind him. “I just got here.”
The pirates had all become silent. They watched Annabeth expectantly, and Annabeth leveled Jason with look he couldn’t quite read.
“Anchors aweigh was three days ago,” she said after a long moment.
As her words registered Jason could feel it: the ship was rocking beneath him. He was officially out to sea; a stowaway on the pirate ship Anaklusmos.
His knees gave out, his vision tunneled, and he could hear people shouting and moving around him but nothing made sense.
“What do we do with him?”
“Take him to The Captain.”
And then Jason heard no more.
***
Jason opened his eyes, hung in that moment between sleep and wakefulness for one blissful moment before the memories rushed back and the panic set in. He had no idea how long he had been out.
He tried to force down the panic and calmly assess the situation. He didn’t seem to be injured, and though he was bound and gagged, the knots were not cutting into his skin, and he was propped up on a velvet sofa. He struggled for a moment, trying to loosen his bindings, but froze when he heard footsteps approach.
Jason stared wide-eyed as Annabeth entered followed by someone he had not yet seen.
“Oh good, he’s awake,” Annabeth said as she marched over and pulled the gag out of Jason’s mouth. “He’s all yours, Captain,” she said with a salute, and then she was gone.
Jason stared at the figure who was now looming above him, and his eyes opened wide in shock. Annabeth had addressed him as Captain, but it must have been a joke. The man looking down at Jason was in his early 20s. He had messy black hair, stormy green eyes, and a smirk on his face.
“So, you’re my newest stowaway?” the man asked conversationally.
Despite the fact that he was no longer gagged, Jason was speechless. He nodded, then confused, shook his head.
The man chuckled, “Well, which is it?”
“I didn't mean to,” Jason started. “I was just curious and then I don’t know what happened, but they said you left port three days ago, but that’s impossible because I was just having dinner with my mother. And, oh gods, please don’t kill me!”
He really did laugh this time, “Why would I kill you?”
“Because you’re Captain Jackson? And that’s what you do.” Jason answered, voice shaking slightly.
“Well, yes, that’s half true,” he agreed. “I am Captain Jackson, but I’m not going to kill you.”
Jason gaped at him. “But Captain Jackson leaves no survivors."
“You sound like you want me to kill you!” Captain Jackson said with a laugh. "What’s your name?”
He hesitated, but decided on the truth: “Jason.”
“Well, Jason. It’s not every day someone wanders onto my ship and get’s past Leo’s security. Annabeth, my First Mate, thought you might be something, and she is usually right.”
“Honestly, this is all just a misunderstanding,” Jason tried to explain.
“It does appear that way,” Captain Jackson agreed. “But I can’t let you go.”
The small flicker of hope that Jason had been holding onto died.
“Look, I am sorry it had to be this way, but it could be worse,” Captain Jackson said, and he did look sorry. “I’ll have Annabeth show you to your quarters, have someone send you something to eat. And don’t worry, if you still insist, I’ll go ahead and kill you in the morning,” he said with a wink.
With the flick of something golden Jason couldn’t see, Captain Jackson cut the bindings on Jason’s wrists and ankles. And before Jason could say anything else, Captain Jackson was out the door, and Jason was left rubbing his sore wrists in confusion.
***
“So, how are you enjoying your stay?”
Jason grunted in reply. He was laying across another velvet sofa, staring blankly up at the ceiling as he had done every morning for the past week.
It wasn’t like he was being kept as a prisoner, per say; they didn’t keep him in the holds or in any sort of chains. But he hadn't been allowed to leave the quarters that he had been assigned. Plus, every day Captain Jackson showed up in his room, asked how Jason was enjoying his stay, and then left with an ominous, “I’m sure I'll get around to killing you eventually.”
So a grunt was about the extent of the enthusiasm that Jason could muster.
Unexpectedly, this morning, Captain Jackson sat down on the velvet sofa next to Jason. “I’m going to tell you a story, and if at the end, you understand, maybe we can change the situation here.”
“You’ll let me go?”
Captain Jackson sighed. “No, but we can maybe get you out of this cabin."
Jason considered this and then nodded.
“Before I get started, let me ask you another question: when you first got here, you said, that Captain Jackson leaves no survivors. How do you know?”
Jason blinked. “The legends all say so,” he said, slowly.
“Ah ha. And how long have you heard these legends?”
A realization was slowly dawning on Jason. “My whole life.”
Captain Jackson smiled. “And how do you think that is possible? As you can see, I’m not that much older than you are.”
“You’re not Captain Jackson.”
Captain Jackson smiled. “Well, again, you’re half right. I am not the first Captain Jackson. You might say it’s more of a family business. Before me, was my mother: Captain Sally Jackson.”
“Your mother was a vicious pirate Captain?” Jason asked, stunned.
“Well, I’m not sure she was vicious,” Captain Jackson replied with a laugh, “but she did have quite the reputation in her day. And when she retired, I took up her mantel and became the next Captain Jackson. Of course, most people just call me Percy.”
“So, you learned piracy from your mother?” Jason asked, incredulous. “She taught you to plunder and kill?”
Captain Jackson—Percy—laughed. “Don’t you get it? We don’t just kill people for no reason. If we’re in danger, we will defend our lives. We do a lot of work out on the seas, most of which does not end in bloodshed. But, Jason,” he said, suddenly serious again, "the reason that you never see survivors isn’t because I kill them. It’s because they never leave this ship.”
“What?"
“Every member of the crew found their way to Anaklusmos in one way or another. Some have been part of the crew since before I was born, faithfully serving my mother, or my grandfather before her. Some, like Annabeth, found me on my first journey and have been with me ever since,” Percy explained.
“What do you mean, they found their way here?” Jason asked, that panic he felt the first night on the ship creeping back into this throat.
Percy sighed, and began rolling up his left shirt sleeve. “What are the other legends you’ve heard about Captain Jackson?”
“I… um…” Jason stammered nervously.
“Because one of them is true,” Percy pulled his sleeve all the way up to his elbow and revealed a teal-blue and gold trident tattoo adorning his forearm. “I do have the sea god's blessing. He’s my father."
Jason stared into the stormy green eyes of the Captain and finally understood what had happened to him that night, understood why he was drawn to the ship. And for the first time, Jason truly understood that he would never go back home.
***
Jason hasn’t expected anything to change after his unusual meeting with Captain Percy Jackson, but the next day Jason awoke to find a clean set of clothes, and a redhead watching him curiously from the door.
Jason scrambled to his feet.
“Did I scare you?” she asked, genuinely concerned. “Sorry about. I’m Rachel Elizabeth Dare. And you must be Jason.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“I’m going to show you the ropes, Jason,” she said with a smile. “It’ll be fun, I promise. Let’s go!”
Jason barely had time to pull on the clean clothes and boots before Rachel was pulling him up and out of the belly of the ship. He squinted his eyes at the first exposure of direct sunlight in days, but as his eyes adjusted, he found the atmosphere was similar to night he came aboard. There were crew members manning the sails and making sure that the dark ship stayed it course, all of whom seemed quite a bit older than himself. Jason wondered is this was the legacy crew from Percy’s mother. Aside from them, there were groups of younger people, anywhere from early teen to late 20s, who appeared to be working on a variety different projects.
“Over there, that’s Leo,” Rachel said pointing to the guy he had seen the first night. “He’s head of security. He’s always working on some sort of trick or trap, or something. And over there is Frank and Clarisse,” she jabbed her thumb towards an a guy and a girl closely examining a set of bows on the far side of the ship. “He’s like some sort of fighting prodigy, and she’s a Telumkinesist—there isn’t a weapon invented that Clarisse hasn’t mastered,” she explained seeing the look of confusion on Jason’s face. “Between them they’re unstoppable.”
Jason watched as Frank loosed an arrow. It whizzed right over Leo’s head, and stuck dead center in a bullseye painted onto the mast.
“Oh, look,” Rachel stage whispered to Jason, and he slowly turned, still focused on the arrow vibrating in the wood. Walking across the deck was a pair of women. One of them he recognized as Annabeth, the First Mate, the second looked far too put together to be a permanent resident of a pirate ship. Jason noticed that most of the conversation stopped as the pair walked across the deck, and as they passed, the second woman turned and stared right at Jason, eyes narrowing. It seemed like time slowed down as she stared, unblinking at him, and then the moment passed and she turned back to her conversation with Annabeth.
“She looked right at you,” Rachel breathed, impressed. “What happened?”
Jason’s brow furrowed, “What?”
“You didn’t, um, feel anything?” she prompted. “Hear anything?”
“No.”
Rachel studied him for a long moment, “Interesting.”
“What’s interesting?”
“That’s Piper. She’s, um, like a siren. People are drawn to her, do things for her,” Rachel explained. “Obviously when you’re in the pirate business, it’s helpful to have someone with those kinds of skills on your side.”
“A siren?” Jason repeated.
“Yeah,” Rachel said, still giving Jason a strange look. “Well anyway,” she continued changing the subject back to the tour, "you already know Annabeth, and trust me when I say she’s earned her position as First Mate; she’s a strategic genius. And over there are Hazel and Nico, and they can tell if death is near.”
“If death. Is near,” he repeated. He was starting to feel like all he would be doing for the rest of his life was repeating things in a shocked tone.
“Sure, like if there’s a storm, or we encounter another ship, they always know if it will bring death,” Rachel explained as if it was obvious.
Jason’s head was spinning. Is that was Percy had meant when he said that people find their way to the ship?
“Well, that’s part of the sea god's blessing,” Rachel said, as if reading his mind. “He know’s that Percy needs the best crew, so special people, people with unique abilities, are drawn here and choose to stay and serve the Captain.”
Jason looked down at the short redhead in front of him, grinning from ear to ear like she just divulged something that should have remained a secret.
“Where do you fit in?”
“Oh, me?” she looked somewhat disappointed, like Jason was asking the wrong question. "I’m an Oracle. I can see who might come and why they’re here.”
“What about me then? What make me special?” he asked, voice desperate. “I can’t draw people to me. I don’t see disaster. I can barely even hold my own in a fight. Why am I here?”
Rachel leveled him with that same look she had when Piper had walked by; a look that Jason couldn’t read at all. “That,” she said, “is the question, isn’t it?”
***
After his tour with Rachel things settled into a more or less normal routine for Jason. He helped out with what needed to be done to keep the ship running smoothly—which involved a lot of peeling potatoes with a guy named Grover who wore a very unpirate-like hat, and assured Jason with a wink that he was more than just a cook—and he began to get to know the rest of the large crew. As it turned out, he and Leo got on like a house on fire. Frank had taken to helping him brush up on his fighting skills, and even the mysterious Piper seemed to take him in stride, once she realized that he was inexplicably immune to her charm.
He’d also slowly gotten closer to Captain Jackson—or Percy, as he now referred to the other man in his head. Once he was part of the daily life on board, Percy began to show up more often. Every once in awhile, he would invite Jason to his quarters, and they would stay up well into the night drinking mead and talking about everything and anything. The captain was enigmatic, and Jason felt himself looking forward to their time together.
He was also sure that time moved differently while on Anaklusmos. If this wasn’t obvious enough from his inauspicious first night on board, it became clear when Rachel appeared by his side one morning and congratulated him for being on board for over a month without getting himself killed. She made it sound like a joke, but despite his budding friendships (for lack of a better word), Jason had never really given up the fear that he might die at any moment; he was on a pirate ship, after all.
And so the time passed. Jason had no notion of where they had sailed to, nor did he really know how long he had been gone. The great ship had not docked anywhere since Jason’s village. Still, every now and then something would nag at the back of his mind and he would stop to question how long he’d been at sea. Sometimes, late at night, he would lay awake and think back to his mom and sister and wonder how they were getting on without him. The next morning he would wake up feeling odd and distant, but inevitably something on board would catch his attention, and those small vestiges of homesickness would blow away on the breeze.
***
The storm rolled over the horizon one night as they crew was finishing their dinner. As the sun began to set, vibrant orange, pink, and purple were splashed across the sky, disappearing into an inky black in the distance. As the night grew on, the sky darkened further and the clouds creeped in, heavy and dense.
The ship was a flurry of activity as everyone scrambled to secure the vessel. As Jason helped Grover make sure the food stores were protected, he found his eyes drifting to Nico and Hazel, as they sat together staring solemnly out into the night, totally unaffected by the hustle and bustle around them.
Once everything was secured, the ship was quiet and tense as the crew hunkered down and prepared for the worst.
But the storm never came.
Jason awoke the next morning to find himself, and in fact the whole ship, wrapped in a thick blanket of fog. He could hardly see ten feet ahead of him and nearly walked into three people and the side of the ship before he got his bearings.
His teeth were chattering, and he could feel the moisture seeping into his clothes, chilling him down to his bones by the time he found Percy. The Captain was perched at the helm, squinting into the blinding white fog.
“I thought the god of the sea was your father,” Jason said, pulling his coat around him tighter. “Can’t either of you can do anything about this weather?"
Percy laughed. “The blessing doesn’t work like that. My father expects me to earn my title, so he helps me gather the best crew to help me on my path. And while I am unusually skillful when it comes to navigating the seas—I can do things with water that you wouldn’t believe—but fog? That’s all in the sky god’s realm. Nothing much I can do there.”
“You know that would have sounded crazy to me not that long ago,” Jason replied.
“Funny how life works, isn’t it?” Percy smiled and raised his eyebrows at Jason.
“Rocks!” A call from the crow’s nest broke the otherwise quiet ship. “Rocks off the port bow.”
“How far!” Captain Jackson called back. Jason could see the shift in his personality, he was suddenly in full Captain mode.
“Too close! It’s hard to tell in the fog.”
Percy was off in a flash, barking orders to the rest of the crew, moving quickly and confidently across the deck. For the first time, Jason felt truly useless as a member of Percy's crew; he would only get in the way if he tried to help, and he had no otherworldly skills to rely on. Jason had nothing to offer.
Jason pressed himself against the side of the ship and worried his lip anxiously wishing there was something—anything—he could do. He could feel static growing in the air, feel the air on the ship grow warm with a charge.
Lightning suddenly split through the sky, momentarily illuminating the sea off the Starboard side.
“Could anyone—” Percy started but was cut off by a clap of thunder that rattled the ship.
Lightning struck again, and suddenly everything was illuminated: especially the islet of jagged rocks that Anaklusmos moments from meeting.
"Port side! The rocks! We have to turn now. Turn hard! Turn hard!"
The ship rocked up over the swell of a wave, and the whole crew seemed to be holding their breath preparing for impact.
“Percy, look out!” Jason yelled, reaching his hand out toward the Captain, despite the fact that there was nothing he could possibly to do help, even if he wasn’t all the way across the deck. But the desire to protect the other man was overwhelming. He prayed with everything he had that Percy would be safe.
And then something happened.
At first it felt like the ship was suspended mid-swell, then there was an enormous creaking sound as the sails all shifted at the same time. The wind was now blowing in gales from the south, steering them away from the jagged rocks that loomed out of the fog.
Everything seemed still and silent for a moment before all hell broke loose. The crew was scrambling to secure the mainsail, and keep the ship on course. The fog was bellowing past, and dissipating in the ship’s wake, leaving a soft, slightly warm breeze.
Jason was on his knees, bent over, breathing hard, and cradling his right arm against his chest. Everything around him was dull and muted. He saw the Captain’s boots before he heard him.
“Jason? Jason can you hear me?”
Jason shook his head, as if to clear his mind and looked up into the concerned face of Captain Percy Jackson. Out of the corner of his eyes, as his sense returned to him, he realized that most of the crew was standing around him, too.
“Jason,” Percy said softly—softer than Jason had thought him capable of—kneeling down so was eye level with Jason. “What… How?”
Jason looked straight into Percy’s eyes and then slowly held out his arm. Down his forearm, a vivid lightning bolt stood out against his pale skin, red around the edges, and slightly raised in it’s newness.
It perfectly matched the placement of Percy’s trident.
“Oh,” Percy breathed.
By this time, Rachel Elizabeth Dare had pushed her way to the front and was taking in the scene in front of her: Percy and Jason on their knees, Jason’s arm held out, but Percy hesitating, holding his hand inches from Jason’s.
Rachel reached forward and gripped Jason’s shoulder. Her eyes widened, her already frizzy hair standing on end for a brief moment. “Oh,” she said, simply.
“I don’t understand,” Jason admitted, looking desperately at Percy.
“You have the blessing of the sky god.”
***
Jason found himself outside of the Captain’s quarters. It had been a week since the incident during the storm, and he’d hardly seen Percy. Jason wasn’t sure why the other man was avoiding him, but all those casual chats throughout the day, eyes caught across the deck, all those mealtime jokes, and evening drinks were abruptly gone.
For the past week, Jason had stayed awake late into the night, staring at his arm in the moonlight of his bunk and wishing. Wishing Percy would invite him in for one of their frequent nightcaps so he could ask him what this all meant. Wishing that this sense of otherness he now felt brought him closer to the rest of the crew. And in the late, late hours, wishing he was home with his mother and sister again.
All Jason knew was that he was going to go crazy if he didn’t talk to Percy soon. So, he screwed up his courage to the sticking place, and knocked on the ornate double doors. Jason shifted his weight from one foot to another as he wait for an answer, and after a minute he knocked again, this time with more force. Again there was no immediate response, and Jason was beginning to wonder if the Captain was even inside. Just has he was about turn away, he heard Percy call out.
“Enter!”
Jason pushed open the heavy doors and stepped into the dim cabin. The Captain had his back to the door, and seemed to be engrossed in something splayed across the antique desk in the center of the room. Jason hesitated for a moment and the closed the doors behind himself and they shut with a resounding thud.
“Did you get report from the Stolls?” Percy asked distractedly. He finally turned around and looked up. “Oh, you’re not Annabeth.”
Jason laughed awkwardly. “Uh, no.”
A silence fell between them and Jason was suddenly aware that they had never had a problem talking before. Even when Jason was afraid he was going to die, Percy would charge in and force him into conversation.
“If you’re busy I could come back later,” Jason said finally.
Percy rubbed his hand over his face, “No, no, it’s fine. Sit down.”
Jason sat down in the chair he often sat in when Percy invited him in for a nightcap. He hoped it would make him feel more comfortable. It didn’t.
“So, how are you?” Percy asked with an air of casualness, sitting down across from Jason.
“How am I?” Jason laughed angrily. “How am I? Um, confused? A week ago, something absolutely insane happened, and then the one person I counted on to keep me sane just disappeared on me.”
Percy bowed his head slightly. “I am sorry. I thought it would be easier.”
“Easier? How could you avoiding me be easier? I thought we were friends.”
Percy studied Jason for a long moment. “First you were my prisoner, then you were my crew," he said cooly.
Jason felt something drop out of his stomach. “So, you were never my friend then.”
“It’s the curse of the blessing,” Percy explained. “Maybe over time my crew becomes my friend, but at first, I can’t trust that it’s what they want and not just the sway of the sea.”
“So you thought if you avoided me, I wouldn’t accidentally become your friend?” Jason spat angrily.
“Don’t you get it,” Percy said, equally angry and frustrated. “You’re not my prisoner or my crew anymore. Now you’re something else; you’re no longer bound to the ship.”
That made Jason pause. “What do you mean?”
Percy slid out of his chair and knelt in front of Jason. He pushed Jason’s sleeve up and, like the day the mark appeared, held his fingers inches away from the lightening that stood out, shades of gold and red and black.
“With the sky god blessing, the sea god has no hold you,” Percy said, a hint of sadness betrayed in his voice. He dropped his hands into his lap and bowed his head. “You are free to leave the ship. Free to go back to your life and your family next time we dock.”
For so long, Jason thought that going home was the only thing that he wanted. But now the idea of leaving the man in front of him was unbearable.
“And what if I want to stay,” Jason whispered.
Percy’s head snapped up, eyes wide in disbelief.
Jason dropped to the floor too, his knees pressed against Percy’s. He reached out and grabbed Percy’s wrist and placed Percy’s hand over his forearm, covering the lightening bolt. He felt static surge through his body as he twisted his wrist slightly to grasp Percy’s forearm right over his trident.
“What if I choose to stay here with you,” Jason asked again, tightening his grip.
Percy closed the gap between them, and Jason felt waves and rain and wind and the shake of thunder all in that first kiss. It was the pull of the tide and the spray of the sea, and Jason felt like he might drown, but he also never wanted it to end.
When they finally pulled apart, panting and still desperate with need, Percy pressed his forehead against Jason’s.
“I didn’t dare hope that you’d want to stay,” he admitted. “But you you’re staying.”
“I’m staying,” Jason agreed.
***
The rumors of Captain Jackson and the black ship Anaklusmos had been around as long as anyone in the village could remember. There were some who still swore that the legends were only that— legends— and there were others who swore that Captain Jackson’s reign of terror was real and should be feared.
Beryl and Thalia Grace believed the legends were true. How could they not? They both remembered the day the dark ship darkened their shores. It was the day they lost Jason.
The fog lifted one morning to reveal the black ship was once again docked in the harbour, pirate banner rippling in the wind. Beryl and Thalia ate breakfast in silence, trying their best to ignore the sails looming over the village.
Suddenly, a knock on the door rang out in the small cottage. They both stared at each other before hesitantly moving to the door and sliding open the latch.
“Oh gods!” Beryl gasped, collapsing into Jason’s arms. “Oh gods, I thought I would never see you again.”
“Hi, mom,” Jason said softly, holding her close and breathing in the familiar scent of his mother’s hair. “Thalia.”
Thalia stared at her brother. He seemed older, taller, and there was something in his eyes—powerful and flickering. But it was her brother, there was no doubting that.
“You stupid—” she started, but couldn’t finish. She threw herself into the hug as well.
“I can’t believe you’re real," Beryl said when the hug finally ended. She held her son at arm’s length. "Let me look at you. Where have you been all this time?”
Jason shifted uncomfortably, and Thalia realized that Jason wasn’t alone.
“Mom, Thalia. I want you to meet someone.”
A man slightly older than Jason stepped out of the shadows. He had messy black hair, and eyes that danced like the waves on the sea. When he linked his hand with Jason's Thalia saw that they both had markings on their forearms.
“This is my boyfriend, Captain Percy Jackson.”