BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

83.

EDEN FLOPPED DOWN on her bed, groaning.

"I don't wanna go on duty," she whined. "Can you make them let me sleep here with you?"

Piper rolled her eyes. "You've gotta go on duty, babe," she said. "But I'll tell you a story."

"Sure, whatever," Eden rolled to her side, reaching out to put her arms around Piper's waist. "As long as I get to stay with you."

"Well . . . these two Cherokee hunters were out in the woods, right? Each of them was under a taboo."

"A taboo – something they weren't allowed to do, right? Sounds familiar."

"Yeah." Piper relaxed more, running her hands over her books.

"So one of the hunters," she continued, "he wasn't supposed to eat deer meat. The other guy wasn't supposed to eat squirrel meat."

"The fuck?"

"Hey, I don't know. Some Cherokee taboos were permanent no-no's, like killing eagles." Piper took one of Eden's hands in hers, tracing patterns. "That was bad luck for almost everybody. But sometimes, individual Cherokee took on temporary taboos – maybe to cleanse their spirit, or because they knew, from listening to the spirit world or whatever, that the taboo was important. They went with their instincts."

"Okay, sure." Eden was not sure. "So back to the story. I'm obsessed with your voice."

"They were out hunting in the woods all day. The only things they caught were squirrels. At night they made camp, and the guy who could eat squirrel meat started cooking it over the fire."

"Yum."

"Another reason I'm a vegetarian. Anyway, the second hunter, who wasn't allowed squirrel meat – he was starving. He just sat there clutching his stomach while his friend ate. Finally the first hunter started feeling guilty. 'Ah, go ahead,' he said. 'Eat some.' But the second hunter resisted. 'It's taboo for me. I'll get in serious trouble. I'll probably turn into a snake or something.' The first hunter laughed. 'Where did you get that crazy idea? Nothing will happen to you. You can go back to avoiding squirrel meat tomorrow.' The second hunter knew he shouldn't, but he ate."

Eden traced shapes on her thigh, letting out a sigh. She was obsessed with Piper. "What happened?"

"In the middle of the night, the second hunter woke up screaming in pain. The first hunter ran over to see what was wrong. He threw off his friend's covers and saw that his friend's legs had fused together in a leathery tail. As he watched, snakeskin crept up his friend's body. The poor hunter wept and apologized to the spirits and cried in fear, but there was nothing to be done. The first hunter stayed by his side and tried to comfort him until the unfortunate guy fully transformed into a giant snake and slithered away. The end."

"I love these Cherokee stories," Eden said. "They're so cheerful."

"Yeah, well."

"So the guy turned into a snake. The moral is: Frank has been eating squirrels?"

Piper laughed, which made Eden feel dizzy in adoration. "No, stupid. The point is, trust your instincts. Squirrel meat might be just fine for one person, but taboo for another. The second hunter knew he had a serpent spirit inside him, waiting to take over. He knew he shouldn't feed that bad spirit by eating squirrel meat, but he did it anyway."

"So . . . I shouldn't eat squirrels."

"Eden, it's a fucking story. You wanted me to tell you it."

"That's because I like procrastinating," Eden groaned. "And I love you more than fighting things. Also, it's getting really exhausting. Can't anyone else do it? While we stay in here and . . ."

She tilted her head up for a kiss. Piper rolled her eyes, but went to lean down to kiss her when there was a knock on the door.

Leo leaned inside. "A party? Am I invited?"

"Shut up, oh my god," Eden threw a pillow at him. "You literally built this room for us to share. What's new?"

"Oh, not much." He pointed upstairs. "The usual obnoxious venti trying to destroy the ship. You ready for guard duty?"

"Why do I have to do all of the work?" Eden groaned, rolling off of the bed. "Why can't your boyfriend do the work?"

"Eden, he got stabbed a few days ago."

She rolled her eyes. "Back in my day, we still did shit when we got stabbed." She leaned over to kiss Piper, then left with Leo. "You're a simp for your boyfriend."

Then a lot of fighting ensued.

* * *

Eden swore she didn't have anything to do with the exploding toilets.

Of course, the one night that she'd pulled an all nighter for guard duty, her girl got a nightmare, and Piper never told Eden about those things until later because she'd always been insecure. Yes, it was a thing they were fixing.

But anyway, it was her brother's part. Piper had recounted her dream and then the toilets had exploded.

And sure, Eden felt angry, she absolutely did. But she didn't have the energy for exploding toilets.

"No way are you two going down there alone," Percy said.

"For once, I actually agree with him," Eden frowned.

Leo ran down the hall waving a wrench. "Man, did you have to destroy the plumbing?"

Percy ignored him. Water ran down the gangway. The hull rumbled as more pipes burst and sinks overflowed.

Eden rolled her eyes, pressing the back of her hand to his chest. "Dude, can you, like, not? I enjoy using the bathroom. And this is seriously giving me deja vu of when you first arrived to camp."

"Yeah, yeah." Percy made the water stop, at least. Thank god.

"We'll be all right," Annabeth told him. "Piper foresaw the two of us going down there, so that's what needs to happen."

Percy glared at Piper, and Eden immediately hit the back of his head. "And this Mimas dude? I'm guessing he's a giant?"

"Probably," Piper said. "Porphyrion called him our brother."

"And a bronze statue surrounded by fire," Eden frowned, her eyes wanting to close so badly. "And those . . . other things you mentioned. Mackies?"

"Makhai," Piper said. "I think the word means battles in Greek, but I don't know how that applies, exactly."

"That's my point!" Percy said. "We don't know what's down there. I'm going with you."

"No." Annabeth put her hand on his arm. "If the giants want our blood, the last thing we need is a boy and a girl going down there together. Remember? They want one of each for their big sacrifice."

"Then I'll get Jason," Percy said. "And the two of us –"

"Seaweed Brain, are you implying that two boys can handle this better than two girls?"

"No. I mean . . . no. But –"

Annabeth kissed him. "We'll be back before you know it."

Eden snorted. "Besides, he couldn't even do guard duty last night. I had to fight, like, ten Venti on my own. Not the type of coffee I wanna drink." She looked over at her girlfriend. "You sure you wanna go? I could come with."

"I'll be fine, babe," Piper kissed her, and suddenly Eden was in Elysium. "Sleep. You got that?"

Eden pouted, but said, "fine," and then watched as her and Annabeth went upstairs, before quickly going to her room.