We Are Cursed (A Percy Jackson AU) || BOOK 2

Chapter 31 || Piper

Piper was never confident in her charmspeaking skills, and now wasn't a time to be insecure.

"No!" she responded, squeezing her eyes shut tighter. "I won't open my eyes!"

"Open your eyes, Piper McLean... Open those pretty eyes so I can see them..."

Piper could feel the tension in her eyelids lift slightly and she shook it away. She was the daughter of the charmspeaking goddess! Not some regular mortal!

"Close your eyes!" she charmspoke.

She could feel the grip of Medusa loosen slightly.

"W-What?" she stuttered. "No, I can't! I'm Medusa! I won't be charmspoken by some lowly girl!"

"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" she spoke with full force.

Silence. Medusa's grunts showed that she was struggling.

"TELL ME IF YOUR EYES ARE CLOSED OR NOT AND SPEAK THE TRUTH," Piper demanded, charmspeak blasting into Medusa's eardrums.

"My..." Medusa hesitated as she grunted with restraining effort. "My eyes are closed... I speak the truth..."

Piper didn't want to open her eyes. She thought she was wrong and that she hadn't done a good job. But charmspeaking was about confidence, as Silena Beauregard, the one of the best charmspeakers said. So she opened her eyes, confidence blasting off of her like waves of radiation. To her relief, Medusa's eyes were closed. Leaning down, Piper picked up the sunglasses and forced them onto Medusa's nose. Taking some duct tape, she taped it around her head, much to the protest of the hissing vipers.

"NO!" Medusa roared, her hands fumbling on the glasses, trying to yank them off her face. "NO! I WILL HAVE YOUR STATUE! OR YOU WILL DIE INSTEAD! EITHER WORKS!"

Medusa's nose twitched as her talons extended from her fingers. She was now smelling for Piper and reaching out to claw her throat out instead. Piper ducked as her talons sliced the air above her.

"LEO, NOW!" she yelled.

Leo pressed a button on his watch and steam began to pour out from Hades knows where. The mist filled Medusa's senses and she hissed with protest.

"ARGH! I HATE THE SCENT OF LEMON MACAROONS!" she wailed.

Sniffing around, she groaned when she couldn't smell anything but lemon macaroons. Suddenly, she smirked.

"My nose isn't that stupid, daughter of Aphrodite..."

"Leo!" she hissed as Leo pressed another button, filling the room with another smell. The smell of diet coke.

"Wha... What is this?" she sniffed the air. "Is this vanilla coke?!"

Her talons sliced through the mist, trying to decipher where Piper was. Leo pressed another button as the smell of grass floated into the garden emporium.

"Is this the smell of grass?! Why?! Why?!" Medusa cried out, knocking over some statues as she tried to find her way around. Of course, her eyes were still closed, thanks to Piper's magic.

Leo pressed one more button and the heavy smell of bug spray hit Medusa directly in the face.

"Bug spray! Ew! AH! MY EYES! WHY CAN'T I OPEN THEM?!" she screeched.

"Jason, now!" Piper called to him through the hideous wails and moans of terror from the monster.

Jason had his sword out as he swung, slicing her head clean off. She was killed with a strangled wail, the smoke clearing and the three demigods standing over a head dripping with green goo.

"E-Ew..." Leo stuttered, looking at it.

"Does anyone remember how to extract snake venom? I wasn't paying attention in health class," Jason murmured, trying to clean his sword off.

Lucky for them, the snakes were still alive, though weak.

"I know," Piper said, grabbing a mason jar off the shelf above her. "Leo, do you have a balloon or saran wrap? Any plastic cover."

"I've got a blue balloon from Percy's birthday still stuck in my overalls," Leo said, pulling the deflated balloon out.

Piper took the balloon out and strapped it onto the jar, getting ready for the poison extraction.

"Leo, do you have gloves?"

"Yep," Leo said.

"Can you hold one of the snakes' mouth open while I hold the jar?"

Leo carefully grabbed a snake, pushing its mouth open so that the fangs could penetrate the balloon. Once they did, Piper motioned for Jason to step forward.

"I can't risk the jar moving too much, so can you press down on their glands?"

Jason looked puzzled. "How do I do that?"

Piper sighed, letting her boyfriend take the jar while she pressed down on the glands. Venom squirted out into the jar, filling it with a substance that reminded her of gasoline. Moving on to the next head, the same process was repeated until the jar was half-way full and the snakes were dead from the exhaustion.

"What curse did the snakes have?" Jason whispered.

"What?" Piper turned to him.

"To be stuck on her head, that must've been a nasty curse..." Leo muttered.

"Let's go!" Piper sighed, draping Medusa's head in Leo's jacket.

"Why are we keeping that?" Leo crinkled his nose in disgust.

"It'll come in handy someday," Piper said. "I know it. Let's just get moving first."

Packing the head in their backpack, the trio raced out of the emporium and for the ship, which was resting a convenient distance away. Staggering onto the ship, they took off into the sky, checking off one item.

"What's the next stop?"

"We've gotta stop by... Los Angeles. Dirt from the Underworld, a.k.a, Hades' house."

"How far is that from New Jersey?" Piper asked.

"2,433 miles. 4.35 hours," Leo whispered. "We won't get to LA until it's 2 AM. We'll need to stay somewhere for the night..."

"My dad's house," Piper declared. "He lives in LA now and I know his address."

"Haven't you been separated from your dad since he started filming a show a year ago?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, but I'm still his daughter and this is important. Let's just go and let's go now."

"Hang on tight... this is gonna be one boring ride." Leo yawned.

"I'm gonna go to Percy's room to refill the sedative," Jason said as he walked down the hall.