Indigo Eyes

Chapter 134

Camp went late that summer, much to Cressida's delight and Percy couldn't stop preaching that they were the best two weeks of his life.

Grover had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods. So far, the gods had kept their promise. New demigods were popping up all over the place – not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.

There was also a new line of cabins under construction. The U-shape would soon be a complete rectangle, and the demigods had really taken to the new task with gusto. Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool – solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate and several others. Annabeth was having a blast because they kept adding new ones to the blueprints every day. Cressida and Pollux even decided to do up the outside of their cabin a little bit. Annabeth and Chiron were even talking about adding a whole new wing of cabins.

The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents. It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them, but almost all of them made it through. They were even expecting twice the number of campers next summer.

Cressida was actually dubbed camp leader as she helped the residents of the newer cabins get organised and the new campers familiar with camp while also helping Annabeth organise the new construction projects.

All her friends were so proud of her. There was no one that deserved the honour more.

And Percy would never admit to it but he didn't have the words to describe the feeling in his stomach when he saw her talking to this trio of siblings that had arrived, the youngest being the tender age of five and the little boy was obsessed with Cressida's vines as she made him fly through the air before being dropped into her arms as she tickled them.

And she felt the same with the way that same little boy also enjoyed riding around on Percy's shoulders.

What made the summer even better was the revelation that Cressida was going to come to Manhattan with him for a few days, some of the year-rounders taking her duties as camp leader. Her words were, "Well, you can't exactly take me on that first date you owe me if we're not in the same city."

Percy had been overjoyed as he'd picked her up and spun her around before she lowered her lips to his.

The last night of camp brought on the bead ceremony.

The Hephaestus cabin had designed the bead this year. It showed the Empire State Building, and etched in tiny Greek letters, spiralling around the image, were the names of all the heroes who had died defending Olympus.

There were too many on there, however, they were proud to wear it. Jake Mason also got a kiss on the cheek from Cressida when she read Castor's name on the bead.

Percy had four beads now, the boy saying he felt like an old timer, but he was put to shame by Annabeth and Cressida who had just received their ninth beads.

The next day, they'd said goodbye to Rachel and Annabeth. The trio of girls actually got on surprisingly well and it made Percy nervous.

But while Rachel was going to Clarion Ladies' Academy, Annabeth had gotten permission from her parents to attend a boarding school in New York so she could oversee the rebuilding efforts on Olympus.

But while everyone else was getting delivered to the city, Cressida and Percy were getting picked up by Sally who was more than happy to make the drive when Cressida Iris messaged her to ask if she could stay for a couple of days.

As the couple stood at the top of Half-Blood Hill, Cressida still reeling from the conversation with Annabeth about the new prophecy. The words made them nervous as they considered possible meanings and just wished and prayed with everything they had for some peace. They knew it was probably unlikely, but it didn't hurt.

Percy shook her out of it as he said to her, "Race you to the car?"

She smiled at him, and Percy had discovered in the last two weeks that she had a specific smile that she only gave him. Maybe it was the look in her eyes when she saw him or something, but he knew that it was definitely a different smile, a smile just for him.

"Loser buys dinner?"

"But you don't have any money?"

"Ah, but I have a magic credit card that I won't need to use because I won't lose."

"Oh, we'll see about that."

"Like how we saw your whole embarrassment thing when I kissed you?"

Percy just narrowed his eyes at her. "On your marks, set, go!"

And he bolted, leaving her behind.

Except he didn't make it very far before he tripped over as grapevines wrapped around his feet and Cressida laughed evilly as she sprinted past him.

"Cheater!" he called as he got up and went after her, but she'd already pressed her hands on the blue Prius in victory.

"And just as always, I win," she boasted.

"You cheated," Percy scowled.

"You cheated first. Didn't do you any good though."

Percy's scowl only deepened before he pressed her against the car and he kissed her. And then he pulled away he reached past her to open the backseat door. "Shut up and get in the car."

And as they got into the car and left camp behind, Percy realised that he hadn't looked back once.