¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

008.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter eight

━━━━━ VIOLET STUMBLED OUT of the shadows, feeling as if her insides were being stretched and pulled. She crouched to the floor, holding her head and gasping for air. The daughter of Eros stared at the shadows she had just escaped from, her mind running with all sorts of questions.

Before anything else, a black-haired boy shimmered into air next to her, mid-run. Percy grabbed Violet by the arm, pulled her off the ground, and tore across the mall. She never once asked questions, knowing what he had seen inside that dark room with Luke Castellan, Thorn, and the General. Neither of them dared to look behind them as they ran all the way into the Air and Space Museum.

Percy and Violet skidded to a stop through the admissions area, breathing heavily and exchanging nervous glances with one another. She wanted to ask if he had thought anything was weird about the shadows in the room; if Percy had seen anything odd poking around in the darkness; but Violet could bring herself to bring up the topic. It was like the words died at her lips, unable to be said.

A small—albeit screaming—part of her senses knew why she couldn't bring it up. If she brought up the shadows and what she had been able to do, that would make it more than real. She would have to confront the fact she was able to blend into the shadows and move through them as if walking through a field of grass.

Maybe it was better to stay unknowing, but ... Well, Violet had never been okay without knowing any questions. She was curious, and to a fault—as her mother always liked to point out.

The main part of the museum was one huge room with rockets and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. Three levels of balconies curled around so that visitors could look at the exhibits from all different heights. The place wasn't crowded, just a few families and a couple of tour groups of kids, probably doing one of those holiday school trips. Violet wanted to yell at them all to leave, but she figured that would only get her in more trouble than it was worth. She and Percy had to find Thalia and Grover and the Hunters. Any minute, the skeleton warriors would invade the museum, and she didn't think they would settle for an audio tour.

The daughter of Eros held the throbbing pain in her ribcage. It felt like a sharp knife was piercing her side. "What were those things?"

The black-haired boy looked at her, his eyes wild. "You saw them?"

Violet's eyes widened. "I mean—I saw them as you were running out of that dark hallway! I wasn't, like, in the room or anything. You had the invisibility cap and all."

Percy looked like he wanted to grill her for more answers but he jumped like a frightened animal as a door slammed nearby. Violet grabbed his arm, her insides still feeling twisted and churned, and said, "We need to find them and warn them—find Thalia and Zoë. They'll know what to do."

The two hurried around the museum, searching wildly for any sign of the four quest members. When there was another loud sound, one that was harder to identify, Violet and Percy exchange another nervous look before breaking into another sprint. As they were running up the ramp to the top-floor balcony, Percy slammed into Thalia—literally. The daughter of Zeus knocked back into the Apollo space capsule behind her, shaking all the dust that had gathered on the metal.

Grover yelped in surprise at the sight of Percy and Violet, the duo sweaty and scared-looking. Before they could do anything, Zoë and Bianca had arrows notched, aimed at Percy and Violet's chests. Their bows had just appeared out of nowhere—some magical Hunter thing.