𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐒│p. jackson

[ 19. ]

II xix. hera farts in her sleep... II

ONCE INSIDE Jason (and the Hecate siblings) seemed to get his (and their) bearings. The house was built in a giant U, and the blonde led them between the two wings to an outside courtyard with an empty reflecting pool. At the bottom of the pool, just as Jason had described from his freaky dream, two spires of rock and root tendrils had cracked through the foundation.

One of the spires was much bigger-a solid dark mass about twenty feet high. Underneath the mass of fused tendrils he could make out the shape of a head, wide shoulders, a massive chest and arms, like the creature was stuck waist deep in the earth. No, not stuck-rising. On the opposite end of the pool, the other spire was smaller and more loosely woven. Each tendril was as thick as a telephone pole.

Leo dropped into the pool first and approached the cage. "Hola, Tía. Little bit of trouble?"

Hera's eyes zeroed in on him, and her pupils seemed to shrink to almost nothing. "Leo Valdez."

Thalia stepped next to him and looked at the goddess with distaste. "We tried everything we could think of, Leo, but maybe my heart wasn't in it. If it was up to me, I'd just leave her in there."

"Oh, Thalia Grace the both of you will regret ever being brought into this earth-"

"Save it!" Thalia snapped. "You've been nothing but a curse to every child of Zeus-and Andie- for ages. You sent a bunch of intestinally challenged cows after my friend Annabeth-"

"She was disrespectful!"

"You dropped a statue on my legs."

"It was an accident!"

"You tried to trick Andromeda into eating manure!"

"Okay, that was on purpose."

"Hey!" Andromeda scowled, coming into the clearing.

Hera's eye bulged. "You! Andromeda Johnson I swear to the gods you will-"

"Enough!" Thalia snapped, "And you took my brother! Here-on this spot. You ruined our lives. We should leave you to Gaea!"

"Hey," Jason intervened. "Thalia-sis-I know. But this isn't the time. You should help your Hunters."

Thalia clenched her jaw. "Fine. For you, Jason. But if you ask me, she isn't worth it."

Thalia turned, leaped out of the pool, and stormed from the building. Leo turned to Andromeda with a smirk. "So, did you eat it?"

"What the fuck, Leo."

Hera laughed, head tilting back a bit too dramatically if you asked Andromeda. The green-eyed girl huffed, crossing her arms.

"Just a question-"

"No. I did not eat animal shit."

When the goddess was done with her laughing fit, she wiped an imaginary tear from under her eye and turned to the blonde. "Anyways, Jason -you are wiser than your sister. I chose my champion well."

"I'm not your champion, lady," Jason said. "I'm only helping you because you stole my memories and you're better than the alternative. Speaking of which, what's going on with that?" He nodded to the other spire that looked like the king-size granite body bag.

"That, Jason," Hera said, "is the king of the giants being reborn."

"Gross," Piper said.

"Indeed," Hera nodded grimly. "Porphyrion, the strongest of his kind. Gaea needed a great deal of power to raise him again -my power. For weeks I've grown weaker as my essence was used to grow him a new form."