craving |PERCY JACKSON| [book 1] UNDER EDITING

XV

"PERCY?" SELENA WAS SHAKING THE BOY to get his attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting." She sounded tense and Percy wasn't sure why.

Selena didn't trust Aunty Em. Something was very off about her. Something mythological, and not in a good way.

Statues, the sounds of hissing, three sisters? Selena had a feeling this was about to get dangerous.

Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything. "Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."

She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly. "We really should go."

"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"

"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A pose?" Selena asked warily.

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."

Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy-"

"Sure we can," Percy interrupted, he was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed them for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"

"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."

Percy followed Aunty Em back out the front door, into the garden of statues and the three followed, wary looks in their eyes. Selena kept a hand on the handle of her dagger, ready to use it.

Aunty Em directed them to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girls in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side of them."

"Not much light for a photo," Percy remarked.

"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"

"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.

Aunty Em stepped back as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"

Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."

"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear." She still had no camera in her hands.