𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗔 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗗 • 𝘗𝘑𝘖

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗖𝗬 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗘 tried to step in front of Jackie at the same time. They ended up bumping shoulders and glaring at each other, but they didn't say anything.

Marielle slung her harpoon gun across her chest so she could hold it in front of her. Percy uncapped his glowing sword. 

Something enormous bounded up the ramp. It was the size of a pick-up truck, with silver claws and golden glittering fur. It looked ridiculously expensive, which was an odd thought, because it was a cat.

"The Nemean Lion," Thalia said. "Don't move."

The lion roared so loudly Jackie's hair fluttered. His fangs gleamed like stainless steel.

"Separate on my mark," Zoë said. "Try to keep it distracted."

"Until when?" Grover asked.

"Until I think of a way to kill it. Go!"

With that vote of confidence, they dispersed. Marielle started left. Percy started right. Jackie didn't know which way to go, but she needed to, fast.

The thing was, she didn't know how to fight a lion. She'd spent so much time convincing and being convinced that she'd be a good addition to the quest that she'd forgotten that to demigods, monsters usually meant monsters. This wasn't scaly cops following Jackie around. This wasn't a bus driver with rams' horns. This was a mythological beast–and one that Jackie had no weapons against. She couldn't Charmspeak a lion.

And she'd never seen Marielle fight. She trusted the girl–how could she not, after all that Marielle had told her?–but she knew the myth. Marielle's harpoon gun looked rickety and old, like it had hung in the cabin of her boat, unused, for a decade. It wouldn't do a thing against the lion–no one could fault her for trusting the glowing sword that Percy held more than Marielle's rusty gun.

She went right. She saw Marielle's eyes widen, like she was almost shocked, but then her expression fell because she was too busy dodging a pouncing lion.

Jackie and Percy sprinted further down the linoleum corridor, arrows whistling past them. Jackie heard Grover play a sharp tweet-tweet cadence on his reed pipes.

"Phyllis," Percy shouted, "where's your bow?"

He must've noticed her lack of weapon. That's why he'd tried to protect her–not because he somehow could tell she was really Jackie, underneath Phyllis' face.

Damn. Jackie briefly hoped Marielle wouldn't mind her revealing their secret.

But relief won out, and Jackie finally allowed Phyllis' visage to fade away. The green eyes faded into brown. Her skin tanned, just slightly. The freckles disappeared, and Phyllis' red hair slowly lost its vibrant color, starting from the roots, like she was regrowing her head of hair.