❝ Does being a Child of Hermes automatically make you good at flirting? Or was that just a skill you picked up? ❞
Andromeda Jackson knew she was not cut out for the demigod life, and that was before she heard about her death from the creepy oracle i...
─── the dreaded folder of blackmail on luke castellan
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𝖂aking up after hitting water at that speed was tortuous. We were in a rowboat, with a makeshift sail stitched of grey uniform. Luke was tacking in the wind next to me, my head resting on his legs and I groaned, running my hand over my face.
"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," Luke murmured, the old nickname being brought back.
"Tyson...?" Luke didn't answer, as the waves tossed us up and down. "Oh."
"He may have survived," he said half heartedly. "I mean, fire can't kill him."
I nodded, feeling grateful that he was trying to cheer me up, but I had no reason to feel hopeful. I'd seen that explosion rip through solid iron. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was no way he could've lived.
Waves lapped at the boat. Luke showed me some things he'd managed to salvage from the wreckage—Hermes's thermos (now empty), a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors' shirts, and a bottle of Dr Pepper. He'd fished me out of the water and found my knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla's teeth. Most of my stuff had floated away, but I still had Hermes's bottle of multivitamins, and of course I had Riptide.
We sailed for hours. Now that we were in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too—as if a thunderstorm were coming. I knew what direction we needed to go. I knew we were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of our destination. But that didn't make me feel any less lost.
No matter which way we turned, the sun seemed to shine straight into my eyes. We took turns sipping from the Dr Pepper, shading ourselves with the sail as best we could. And we talked about my latest dream of Grover.
"Then we have twenty-four hours to find Grover," Luke muttered, tacking again as I nodded my head. "That's assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus doesn't change his mind and marry Grover earlier."
"Yeah," I said bitterly. "You can never trust a Cyclops."
"Andi..." Luke trailed off. "I was wrong about Tyson."
I hummed, leaning my head on his shoulder as I looked through our measly possessions.
"Luke, what's Chiron's prophecy?"
"I shouldn't..." Luke huffed.
"I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell me. But you didn't promise, did you?"
