Bewitched || P. Jackson

𝕋he last day?

Nicki let out a yelp as Percy twitched in his seat. Beads of sweat pooled on his forehead. She turned to Prometheus with a fire in her dull purple eyes. If Nicki didn't know any better, she would've said the Titan faltered.

"Take your crusty fingers off of him, right now."

Prometheus smiled. "Percy will come to no harm."

"I didn't ask. Now take your finger and shove it up your ass. Get off of him."

Prometheus seemed to analyse his options for a second. He pulled his hand away from Percy's forehead.

Percy blinked, startled by the awakening.

"Percy?" Thalia asked. "What... what was that?"

Percy was too stunned to answer.

Prometheus nodded sympathetically. "Appalling, isn't it? The gods know what is to come, and yet they do nothing, even for their children. How long did it take for them to tell you your prophecy, Percy Jackson? Don't you think your father knows what will happen to you? Think about Nicki. How all they want her for is death."

"Percy," Grover warned, "he's playing with your mind. Trying to make you angry." Grover could read emotions, so he probably knew Prometheus was succeeding.

Nicki swallowed roughly. Thalia rested her hand on the younger girl's shoulder protectively.

"Do you really blame your friend Luke?" the Titan asked him. "And what about you, Percy? Will you be controlled by your fate? Kronos offers you a much better deal."

Percy clenched his fists. "I'll give you a deal. Tell Kronos to call off his attack, leave Luke Castellan's body, and return to the pits of Tartarus. Then maybe I won't have to destroy him,"

The empousa snarled. Her hair erupted in fresh flames, but Prometheus just sighed.

"If you change your mind," he said, "I have a gift for you."

A Greek vase appeared on the table. It was about three feet high and a foot wide, glazed with black-and-white geometric designs. The ceramic lid was fastened with a leather harness.

Grover whimpered when he saw it.

Thalia gasped. "That's not—"

"Yes," Prometheus said. "You recognize it." Looking at the jar, Nicki felt a strange sense of fear. "This belonged to my sister-in-law," Prometheus explained. "Pandora."

A lump formed in Percy's throat. "As in Pandora's box?"

Prometheus shook his head. "I don't know how this box business got started. It was never a box. It was a pithos, a storage jar. I suppose Pandora's pithos doesn't have the same ring to it, but never mind that. Yes, she did open this jar, which contained most of the demons that now haunt mankind—fear, death, hunger, sickness."

"Don't forget me," the empousa purred.

"Indeed," Prometheus conceded. "The first empousa was also trapped in this jar, released by Pandora. But what I find curious about the story—Pandora always gets the blame. She is punished for being curious. The gods would have you believe that this is the lesson: mankind should not explore. They should not ask questions. They should do what they are told. In truth, Percy, this jar was a trap designed by Zeus and the other gods. It was revenge on me and my entire family—my poor simple brother Epimetheus and his wife Pandora. The gods knew she would open the jar. They were willing to punish the entire race of humanity along with us."

Nicki thought about her dream of Hades and Maria di Angelo. Zeus had destroyed an entire hotel to eliminate two demigod children—just to save his own skin because he was scared of a prophecy.