¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

001.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter one

━━ ELISA STARTED COUNTING down the days until August 18th the moment it was a new year. And if she was a hundred percent honest, she started counting down the days until Percy's sixteenth birthday on his fifteenth birthday.

She stood inside Cabin Ten, watching as Drew Tanaka paced nervously around. There was tense air in the cabin instead of its typical smell of baked goods. It had been this way since the news of the latest mission had been spread around Camp Half-Blood.

Percy and Beckendorf were currently on a mission to Princess Andromeda to try and stop the forces of Kronos's army. Her heart clenched when Elisa heard who had been elected to carry out the mission. But it made sense as to why Beckendorf and Percy had to be the ones to carry out the task. Percy, Son of Poseidon, and Beckendorf, Son of Hephaestus, made a pretty unstoppable team.

Elisa wasn't supposed to know, that seemed pretty obvious to her. Neither Percy nor Beckendorf told her about the mission, but Annabeth had. When Elisa asked the guys about it, they danced around the topic.

And it was infuriating.

Not only had Percy and Beckendorf not told Elisa, but Beckendorf also seemed hesitant to even tell Silena. Beckendorf could barely even tell his own girlfriend. And all of that made Elisa more nervous for this mission than any other that had taken place before.

Silena seemed to be picking up on it, too. She was becoming more and more stressed as time wore on. Half the time, Elisa struggled to recognize the daughter of Aphrodite; not entirely because Silena had stopped taking so much time to do her makeup in the morning ( she really didn't need it, her skin looked practically flawless ), but her attitude seemed to shift.

Silena was becoming more impatient, more finicky. She'd literally jump at any sudden movement or loud noise. And since they lived in a camp with children of Ares, who liked to bellow loudly all the time, Silena was basically jumping out of her skin twenty-four/seven.

Drew and Elisa were getting worried, but anytime they managed to corner Silena, the head counselor would brush them off.

The daughter of Dionysus sucked in her bottom lip, watching as Drew stopped to check her makeup in one of the desk mirrors. When Drew stood up to look at her, Elisa asked, "Should we go get Silena?"

Drew immediately shook her head. "No. She's with Clarisse right now. We should leave her be."

Elisa swallowed harshly. "Yeah, you're right."

It was horrible waiting for Percy and Beckendorf to get back, but her heart didn't feel any better once a conch horn sounded across the rolling hills of Camp Half-Blood. She and Drew made one quick glance before bolting out of Cabin Ten.

As Elisa ran for the beach, where the conch horn had come from, she could see other people stopping what they were doing, their heads peaking upwards like dogs called to attention. She and Drew stopped short where the grass started mixing with sand, breathing hard as they looked down the dunes of the camp's shores.

Drew let out a small gasp, only seeing two figures climbing up the banks. Elisa's heart jerked, recognizing both figures; Percy Jackson and a Stoll brother—maybe Connor, Elisa still struggled to tell them apart.

However, there wasn't a third figure—a figure that should've looked like Beckendorf's—like there should have been.

"Drew—" Elisa started to say.