Sea Green Eyes

Demigods & Magicians - Part Five

The vultures were having a party. Past a line of trees, a muddy field stretched to the edge of the island. At the base of a small lighthouse, a few picnic tables huddled as if for shelter. Across the harbour, the Statue of Liberty glowed white in the storm, rain clouds pushing around her like waves off the prow of a ship. In the middle of the picnic grounds, six large black buzzards whirled in the rain, orbiting our buddy Setne.

The magician was rocking a new outfit. He'd changed into a red quilted smoking jacket that matched his stupid crown. His silk pants shimmered in red and black paisley. Just to make sure his look wasn't too understated, his loafers were entirely covered in rhinestones.

He really made Mr D's leopard print tracksuits look like a Chanel pantsuit.

"He's summoning Nekhbet," Sadie murmured. "I'd really rather not see her again."

"What kind of name is Neck Butt, anyway?" Percy asked as Cressida coughed a laugh.

Sadie snickered. "That's what I called her the first time I saw her. But really, she's not very nice. Possessed my gran, chased me across London..."

"So what's the plan?" Carter asked. "Maybe a flanking manoeuvre? Or a diversionary -"

"Charge!" Sadie barrelled into the clearing, her staff in one hand and her Greek scroll in the other.

Percy and Cressida glanced at each other.

"We are amazing at picking friends," Percy grinned.

"Hell yeah, we are."

"Together?"

And Cressida grinned even brighter. "Together," she agreed as they charged after Sadie.

Percy's planning involved running at Setne and killing him, and he was on track with the fact that he outpaced Sadie even with his new heavy sword. But Cressida outdid both of them. She had grapevines boosting her into the air and catching her as she fell as she wielded Carter's khopesh as if she'd used it all her life.

He really hated how she was naturally good at everything. 

She took out the two vultures that dived at Percy before Percy even knew he was being attacked.

But when he reached Setne, the magician vanished, and Percy's blade cut through empty air.

He stumbled, off-balance and angry before he glanced at his friends. Sadie smacked a vulture with her staff. The bird exploded into white sand, Carter was covered in Mist and nowhere to be seen and Cressida had managed to set Carter's khopesh on fire and threw it like a boomerang as it sliced the arm of a vulture before returning to her hand and the vulture screeched before flying after its brethren.

With a bolt of white fire, Sadie blasted another vulture out of the sky.

"Hey!" Cressida called as she slid down a vine. "Don't hit my soldier."

"Oh, relax!" Sadie waved off as she began scanning the field for Setne. "Where is the skinny old git?" The skinny old git appeared right behind her. He spoke a single word from his scroll of nasty surprises, and the ground exploded.

When Percy regained his senses, he was surprised to still be on his feet, but the force of the spell had pushed him away from Setne, his shoes making trenches in the mud. Cressida was cursing like a sailor because she hadn't been as lucky and had been knocked down into the mud.

Around Setne, the earth had ruptured in a ten-foot-diameter ring, splitting open like a seedpod. Plumes of dirt had sprayed outward and were frozen in mid-air.

Tendrils of red sand coiled around them as they snaked in all directions.

Sadie was flat on the ground, buried under a blanket of mud. She struggled but couldn't seem to get free. Her staff was knocked out of reach. Her scroll was a muddy rag in her hand.