Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 61

Bob seriously knew how to use a broom. He slashed back and forth, destroying the demons one after the other while Small Bob the kitten sat on his head, arching his back and hissing. Castor sat on his shoulders as he threw his sword like a boomerang and Percy realised that the blade was curved like a pirate's sabre which was why it came flying back to him before he threw it again. His shirt was slashed and there was a big one through the calf of his jeans, but he wasn't bleeding or injured. Benefits of being a spirit apparently. His silvery aura did seem a little dimmer though but that might have been the poison currently killing Percy.

In a matter of seconds, the arai were gone. Most had been vaporized. The smart ones had flown off into the darkness, shrieking in terror. Percy wanted to thank the Titan, but his voice wouldn't work. His legs buckled. His ears rang.

Through a red glow of pain, he saw Cressida a few yards away, wandering blindly toward the edge of the cliff - again. If he lived, he was going to buy a house on the flattest land he could find and keep her there with him, away from cliffs and ledges and bridges that she could fall off. Or better yet, they could just live in the ocean. 

"Uh!" Percy grunted.

Bob followed his gaze. He bounded toward Cressida and scooped her up. She yelled and kicked, pummelling Bob's gut, but Bob didn't seem to care as Castor held her head, trying to get her to focus on his voice before he tried calming her down and getting her to control her breathing as he'd done a million times before.

Bob carried her over to Percy and put her down gently, Castor jumping onto the ground next to her.

"You're alright, Cress. I got you."

The Titan touched her forehead. "Owie."

Her panic finally faded as her eyes cleared and she blinked, her indigo irises regaining their colour and Percy had never seen a prettier sight. She was ok.

"Where - What?"

She was disoriented as Castor kept her focus on him as he checked her vision and held up some fingers, getting all of them right before her vision settled on Percy where he lay next to Bob.

A million emotions passed across her face but the main one was relief as she crawled over to him.

It wasn't a bad way to die he supposed. In the arms of the woman he loved more than anything.

"What's wrong with him?" she cried. "What happened?" She cradled his shoulders and wept into his scalp. Her hand was twined with his, that much he could tell considering he couldn't feel his body anymore. His consciousness was like a small helium balloon, loosely tied to the top of his head. It had no weight, no strength. It just kept expanding, getting lighter and lighter. He knew that soon it would either burst or the string would break, and his life would float away.

But Cressida wasn't going to let that happen.

As Bob loomed over them, seeming to assess the damage as he planted his broom like a flag, Cressida pulled out not one but two vials of Solace Solution, not even thinking as she tipped both of them down his throat. Hey, if he could take on a thousand curses, surely he could take two vials of Solace Solution. And to think Clarisse had said it would be her that took too much at once.

It tasted like the cupcake she and Tyson made him for his birthday before she wiped the dust and sweat from his eyes and his vision of her became clearer and he sank back into his body a little bit more.

"Lots of curses," Bob said. "Percy has done bad things to monsters."

"Can you help him?" Cressida pleaded, tears still streaming out of her indigo eyes, and she didn't think they were going to stop anytime soon. "Please, Bob, can you fix him? I don't think the Solace Solution can't cure a million curses. I can't lose him. Please."