Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THIRTY THREE, luke, part two
❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
"PERCY, WAKE UP."
Aster shook his shoulders as he slowly opened his eyes.
In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline. There was a beachside highway lined with palm trees, storefronts glowing with red and blue neon, a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.
"It's Miami, I think," Aster said. "But that's not important. The hippocampi are acting funny."
The creatures had slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing the water. They didn't look happy. One of them sneezed. When they hadn't been able to calm them, Aster and Annabeth had agreed to wake Percy.
"This is as far as they'll take us," Percy said, as if he knew what they were thinking. It then occurred to Aster that he probably could, being the son of Poseidon. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore on our own."
None of them were very psyched about that, but they thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride anyways. Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a couple of other things he'd salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck, gave him a soggy mango he'd picked up on the island, and said good-bye. It made Aster's heartstrings twinge, just a little bit.
Once the hippocampus' white manes disappeared into the sea, they swam for shore. The waves pushed them forward—no doubt because of Percy—and in no time they were back in the mortal world. They wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed them—six kids dripping wet and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster—they didn't let on. Aster counted her blessings for that one.
Now that they were back among mortals, Tyson's single eye blurred from the Mist. Grover had put on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.
Annabeth ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the Miami Herald. She cursed. "June eighteenth! We've been away from camp for ten days!"
"That's impossible!" Clarisse said.
Aster and Percy exchanged a look. They both knew it wasn't, based on their experience in the Lotus Casino last summer. Time traveled differently in monstrous places.
"Thalia's tree must be almost dead," Grover wailed. "We have to get the Fleece back tonight!"
Clarisse slumped down on the pavement. "How are we supposed to do that?" Her voice trembled. "We're hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is just like the Oracle said. It's your fault, Jackson! If you hadn't interfered–"
