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chapter ninety-one. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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PERCY CAME OVER TO ME JUST A MOMENT LATER, but it was clear his attention wasn't really on me. He narrowed his eyes on a point over my shoulder. I turned and took notice of a blue Prius parked down on the south side behind the Empire State Building.
And before I could even ask what he was looking at, Percy bolted off down the street.
"Percy!" I called, falling into a jog to catch up to him, all of my own problems momentarily forgotten as I slowed to a stop next to him. I peered inside the car—Paul was passed out behind the wheel, and Sally was snoring beside him. They'd been sitting in traffic for over a day, the battle raging around them, and none of us had noticed. Percy hadn't noticed.
"They... they must've seen those blue lights in the sky." He rattled the doors, but they were locked. "I need to get them out."
"Percy," I said, twisting my lips to the side sadly. "We can't—"
"I can't leave them here!" He sounded a little crazy. He pounded on the windshield, so roughly I was sure it would crack. "I have to move them. I have to—"
"Okay, just.. just hold on." I turned, waving for Chiron's attention, who was talking to some centaurs down the block. "We'll push the car to a side street, okay? But there's nothing.. there's nothing we can do."
Chiron galloped over. "What's... Oh dear. I see."
"They were coming to find me," Percy said. "My mom must've sensed something was wrong."
"Most likely," Chiron said. "But Percy, they will be fine. The best thing we can do for them is stay focused on our job."
Then I noticed something in the backseat of the Prius. I furrowed my brow, pressing my hands against the window to get a closer look. Seat-belted behind Sally was a black-and-white Greek jar about three feet tall. Its lid was wrapped in a leather harness.
"No way," Percy muttered, at my side.
I looked to him, bemused. "Percy, is that—?"
"Pandora's jar." He rolled his jaw, clearly peeved by the item, and told me about his meeting with Prometheus. I'd been either passed out or dying of a stab wound while he had met with the Titan under a flag of truce. Prometheus had gifted him with Pandora's jar. I'd never seen it before, but I'd heard the myths—people driven mad of indecision, the jar following you around until the suspense was killing you. And now Percy was stuck with the weight on his shoulders.
"Then the jar is yours," Chiron said grimly. "It will follow you and tempt you to open it, no matter where you leave it. It will appear when you are weakest."
