Anthízo, Percy Jackson

V. twisted illusions of greed and desire

KARINA WAS CERTAIN that the thief hadn't been there a second ago. he'd simply materialized, as if he'd stepped out from behind an invisible curtain.

"who are you?" hazel asked.

the bandit laughed. "sciron, of course!"

"you act as if we should know that," karina muttered.

"chiron?" jason asked. "like the centaur?"

the bandit rolled his eyes. "sky-ron, my friend. son of poseidon! thief extraordinaire! all-around awesome guy! but that's not important. i'm not seeing any valuables!" he cried, as if this were excellent news. "i guess that means you want to die?"

"wait," hazel said. "we've got valuables. but if we give them up, how can we be sure you'll let us go?"

"oh, they always ask that," sciron said. "i promise you, on the river styx, that as soon as you surrender what i want, i will not shoot you. i will send you right back down that cliff."

karina, jason, and hazel shared a wary look. river styx or no, the way sciron phrased his promise didn't reassure her.

"what if we fought you?" jason asked. "you can't attack us and hold our ship hostage at the same— "

BANG! BANG!

it happened so fast, karina's brain needed a moment to catch up.

smoke curled from the side of jason's head. just above his left ear, a groove cut through his hair like a racing stripe. one of sciron's flintlocks was still pointed at his face. the other flintlock was pointed down, over the side of the cliff, as if sciron's second shot had been fired at the argo II

hazel choked. "what did you do?"

"oh, don't worry!" sciron laughed. "if you could see that far— which you can't— you'd see a hole in the deck between the shoes of a big young man, the one with the bow."

"frank!"

sciron shrugged. "if you say so. that was just a demonstration. i'm afraid it could have been much more serious."

karina's jaw twitched in anger, and in a blur of gold, she unsheathed her gladius and pressed the tip of it against the bandit's throat.

but, he saw it coming. at the same time, he raised on of his flintlocks directly in the center of her forehead, metal only inches from her face. her face remained stoic as she stared into the bleak eyes of sciron.

"i wouldn't do that if i were you," sciron said with a devious smile on his face. "i don't play nice with bratty demigods."

karina's lips pressed together hardly, refraining herself from slitting the thief's throat. her hands trembled with anger, and restraint— she could feel gaea's influence willing her the kill the man.

"try me."

sciron smirked, and pressed the flintlock against her forehead. "i only want my treasure. and i don't need you in order to get that. i will not hesitate to pull the trigger."

karina's lips pulled into a smirk. "then why haven't you killed me yet?"

jason intervened at that point. he walked up to her, and pulled her away from sciron, dragging her back to his side, where he gave her a hard glare.

"what the hell are you doing?" he asked harshly.

karina glared back at him, but a small smirk was still on her lips. "poking the bear."

jason's hard stare didn't waver. "don't make things worse, nina. feeding into his games won't get us anywhere."

she shrugged. "i know," she said. "but it was fun."