Wild Heart ⋆ Riordanverse¹

xiv. no hesitation

xiv. no hesitation

*    *    *

THEA WAKES UP FROM A DREAM ABOUT HER MOM TO THE SOUND OF PERCY SCREAMING. She sits up and looks around as his screams fill the air, waiting for the other people in the Hermes Cabin to hear. None of them stir, not even Travis, who's an even lighter sleeper than she is.

...Why wouldn't they wake up to someone screaming?

Every fiber of her being tells her that it's a trick, that she shouldn't leave the safety of the cabin. If no one else heard it, it isn't real.

But then he screams again, harsh and guttural, and says that he can't hold the monsters off. It's the last straw and she hurries away as quietly as she can, snatching her sword along the way.

Percy is at the beach. She can't understand why he's there—why he's out after curfew—but she can't think about that. Even if it is a trick, she can't live with herself if she doesn't help him.

When she finally reaches him he's sitting in the sand, Annabeth and Tyson standing beside him.

"What's going on?" she pants. "Where's the monsters? Are you okay?"

"There's no monsters," Percy says. "It—it must have been a trick Hermes did. He came to talk to me . . . he thinks we should go on the quest."

"Okay."

He blinks. "Wait, really? That's all it took?"

"Well, yeah," she says, sticking her sword into the sand. "I was going even if Clarisse got the quest."

"...Oh." He glances at Annabeth. "Are you still going?"

"Well, obviously, someone has to keep you two idiots in line."

Thea rolls her eyes. "Admit it, princess. You looove me.

"Ugh, as if!"

"Can you two hush?" Percy whispers. "I'm trying to focus!"

"On what? Your will?"

"Thea, seriously—"

She does stop talking and lets him work. Percy calls for his father, for his help to get to a ship that is passing by. She waits anxiously as the Harpies approach and wonders if it is against the rules to kill them if they are attacked.

The surf splits apart and the heads of four white stallions burst from it. Hippocampi. Thea has never seen them before, they're incredible.

Their front halves are white stallions, but from the hips down they're scaled with glistening rainbow fins, the most beautiful creatures she has ever seen.

"Oh my gods," she gushes, gently petting the nearest one. It nuzzles into her hand, its damp hair turning her hand wet. "Who's the prettiest hippocampi ever?"

"We'll admire them later," Percy says. "Come on!"

As the Harpies screech, Thea grabs a duffel bag and her sword, slinging the bag over her shoulder as she climbs onto the hippocampus. The other hippocampi seem hesitant about her and keep their distance, but Thea doesn't mind. She has the prettiest one, anyway.

Thea doesn't ask why they are taking that ship, she trusts Percy's judgment. But seeing it loom ahead of them in the night, lit up like a haunting Christmas tree, makes unease course through her body. And the chill of the water spraying back onto her doesn't help.

It only gets bigger the closer they get. Thea anxiously holds onto her sword and the hippocampus, feeling entirely out of her depth at how massive the ship is. It's like the business buildings in Atlanta, except it moves across the water. She doesn't want to board it, she feels like it will be a repeat of the Titanic, but it's too late to turn back. No, she can't turn back.