(Percy's POV)
The stateroom was beautiful, & horrible.
The beautiful part: Huge windows curved along the back wall, looking out over the stern of the ship. Green sea & blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon. A Persian rug covered the floor. Two plush sofas occupied the middle of the room, with a canopied bed in one corner & a mahogany dining table in the other. The table was loaded with food-pizza boxes, bottles of soda, & a stack of roast beef sandwiches on a silver platter.
The horrible part: On a velvet dais at the back of the room lay a ten-foot-long golden casket. A sarcophagus, engraved with Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames & heroes dying grisly deaths. Despite the sunlight streaming through the windows, the casket made the whole room feel cold.
“Well,” Luke said, spreading his arms proudly. “A little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?”
He’d changed since the last summer. Instead of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he wore a button-down shirt, khaki pants, & leather loafers. His sandy hair, which used to be so unruly, was now clipped short. He looked like an evil male model, showing off what the fashionable college-age villain was wearing to Harvard this year.
He still had the scar under his eye-a jagged white line from his battle with a dragon. And propped against the sofa was his magical sword, Backbiter, glinting strangely with its half-steel, half-Celestial bronze blade that could kill both mortals & monsters.
“Sit,” he told us. He waved his hand & four dining chairs scooted themselves into the center of the room.
None of us sat.
Luke’s large friends were still pointing their javelins at us. They looked like twins, but weren’t human. They stood about eight feet tall, for one thing, & wore only blue jeans, probably because their enormous chests were already shag-carpeted with thick brown fur. They had claws for fingernails, feet like paws. Their noses were snoutlike, & their teeth were all pointed canines.
“Where are my manners?” Luke said smoothly. “These are my assistants, Agrius & Oreius. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.”
I said nothing. Despite the javelins pointed at me, it wasn’t the twins who scared me.
I’d imagined meeting Luke again many times since he’d tried to kill me last summer. I’d pictured myself boldly standing up to him, challenging him to a duel. But now that we were face-to-face, I could barely stop my hands from shaking.
“You know Agrius & Oreius’s story?” Luke asked. “Their mother...well, it’s sad, really. Aphrodite ordered the young woman to fall in love. She refused & ran to Artemis for help. Artemis let her become one of her maiden huntresses, but Aphrodite got her revenge. She bewitched the young woman to fall in love with a bear.
When Artemis found out, she abandoned the girl. Typical of the gods, wouldn’t you say? They fight with one another & the poor humans get caught in the middle. The girl’s twin sons here, Agrius & Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though...”
“For lunch,” Agrius growled. His gruff voice was the one I’d heard talking to Luke earlier.
“Hehe! Hehe!” His brother Oreius laughed, licking his furlined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Luke and Agrius both stared at him.
“Shut up, you idiot!” Agrius growled. “Go punish yourself!”
Oreius whimpered. He trudged over to the corner of the room, slumped onto a stool, & banged his forehead against the dining table, making the silver plates rattle.
Luke acted like this was perfectly normal behavior. He made himself comfortable on the sofa & propped his feet on the coffee table. “Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How’s your mom? How’s school?”
“You poisoned Thalia’s tree.” I snapped.
Luke sighed. “Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?”
“How could you?” Nora sounded so angry I thought she’d explode. Sparks flew off her & her eyes began to glow “Thalia saved your life! How could you dishonor her-“
“I didn’t dishonor her!” Luke snapped. “The gods dishonored her, Nora! If Thalia were alive, she’d be on my side.”
“Liar!” Nora yelled at him.
“If you knew what was coming, you’d understand-“
“I understand you want to destroy the camp!” Annabeth yelled. “You’re a monster!”
Luke shook his head. “The gods have blinded you. Can’t you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? What good is the ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to the core. It has to be destroyed. Join me! We can start a new world. We could use your intelligence, Annabeth. And your strength too Nora.”
“Because you have none of your own!”
His eyes narrowed. “I know you, Annabeth. You deserve better than tagging along on some hopeless quest to save the camp. Half-Blood Hill will be overrun by monsters within the month. The heroes who survive will have no choice but to join us or be hunted to extinction. You really want to be on a losing team...with company like this?” Luke pointed at Tyson.
“Hey!” I said.
“Traveling with a Cyclops,” Luke chided. “Talk about dishonoring Thalia’s memory! I’m surprised, Annabeth. You of all people-“
“Shut up Luke!” Nora shouted.
I didn’t know what Luke was talking about, but Annabeth buried her head in her hands like she was about to cry.
“Leave them alone,” I said. “And leave Tyson out this.”
Luke laughed. “Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him.”
I must have looked surprised, because Luke smiled. “Yes, Percy, I know all about it. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates, again...30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp who keep me posted.”
“Spies, you mean.”
He shrugged. “How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he’s grateful? You think Poseidon cares for you more than he cares for this monster?”
Tyson clenched his fists & made a rumbling sound down in his throat.
Luke just chuckled. “The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what’s in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?”
I wanted to get in Luke’s face and tell him off, but as usual, he knew just how to throw me off balance. Sixteenth birthday?
I mean, I knew Chiron received a prophecy from the Oracle many years ago. I knew part of it was about me. But, if I reached my sixteenth birthday? I didn’t like the sound of that.
“I know what I need to know,” I managed. “Like, who my enemies are.”
“Then you’re a fool.”
Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair to splinters. “Percy is not a fool!”
Before I could stop him, he charged Luke. His fists came towards Luke’s head-a double overhead blow that would’ve knocked a hole in titanium- but the bear twins intercepted. They each caught one of Tyson’s arms & stopped him cold. They pushed him back & Tyson stumbled. He fell to the carpet so hard the deck shook.
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Take care my lovely readers.❤️
Alice signing off.
XOXO.
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