PHILOXENIA ➸ Percy Jackson¹

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SEVEN—Catching Embers

─── ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽☼☾.* :☆ﾟ｡ ───

If Lux died from this, she was for sure coming back as a ghost to haunt Luke. 

They were hurtling toward the water at a speed that made her stomach want to fly out of her body, and yet they still had a long way to fall. At least, that was what Lux expected. She was too busy holding on to the boat straps for dear life while clenching her eyes shut and screaming her head off to know how far they were from the water.

She couldn't hear anything over the sound of her screams and the howling wind, but then she felt someone grab the back of her shirt, and then the sensation of being propelled sideways instead of plummeting downward. Not that it made her nausea go away. 

When they hit the ocean, they bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone. Lux managed to open her eyes only to be met with a spray of saltwater. After the initial rocky landing, they whizzed along like a speed boat, leaving behind the wails of outrage on the decks of the Princess Andromeda.

Lux's head spun as if she was on a Ferris wheel running faster than it should. She felt queasy, and the way her stomach was bubbling like a cauldron didn't bode well.

"I don't feel so good." She clamped a hand over her mouth as a layer of cold sweat formed on her skin. She tried to swallow it down, but her body still felt clammy, her throat tight like a warning.

Lux scrambled to hold on to the side of the boat, heaving just as she perched her head over the water. She emptied the contents of her stomach, her vision going blurry—a blessing in disguise if she thought about it. Someone was stroking her back but remained silent, and even if they did say anything, Lux doubted she would have heard it.

Her nausea finally subsided and she felt a rush of calm and relief wash over her body. She panted heavily, her forehead falling on the edge of the boat as her knees buckled. She felt like she just run a marathon without consuming a drop of water.

"Do you feel better?" Without the threat of vomiting pressing down on her, Lux was able to give Annabeth a thumbs up.

"I'm good," she said, her voice croaking.

"Here, have some water." Lux accepted the canteen gratefully from Percy, making sure to take only little sips to avoid overwhelming her throat.

"I'm never getting on a cruise ship ever again," she declared once she began to feel more like herself again.

"Hear, hear."

As they raced over the sea, they tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. They figured it was important to let someone know what Luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust.

The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight—perfect for an Iris-message—but their connection was still poor. When Annabeth threw a golden drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show them Chiron, his face did appear, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

They told him all about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden casket holding Kronos' remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind on their end, they weren't sure how much he heard.

"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for—"

His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him—a bunch of voices whooping and hollering like how Lux imagined frat guys would be in real life, just like in the movies.