Percy Jackson, Sky bearer

Chapter 22

"Interesting.." Lady Artemis murmured, her startling silver eyes boring into sea green ones. 

"So what they say about the clever son of Poseidon was true... I'm surprised you recognized me so fast, boy." Grover, who had stood planted in his spot since Thorn was gone, dropped to his knees and gasped, compliments and words of admiration spewing from his lips.

Thalia saved him from embarrassing himself further in front of the goddess by snapping, "Not the time, goat boy. We have other things to worry about, Annabeth is gone!" Percy slowly stood up from his respectful kneeling position and smoothed down the front of his coat, trying to stop the faint trembling of his hands and focusing on keeping his composure.

It was strange, the young wizard hadn't felt this rattled for such a long time. He desperately sought out his usual calm and cleared his mind, relying back on his training and occlumency skills to carefully construct a neutral expression and a less tense posture, all while ignoring the roaring of his thoughts screaming at him to go and find her gods damn it-

"Wait a minute, hold on." Bianca Di Angelo exclaimed, confusion written across her face. Percy had almost forgotten about her and Nico. "Time out. What's going on? Who the hell are you people?" Artemis looked at her, the goddess's previously stony expression softening just a fraction.

"It might be a better question, my dear girl, to ask who are you? Who are your parents?" Bianca glanced nervously around and at her brother, who was staring with awe at Artemis and her hunters with their unconcealed weapons.

"Our parents are dead, we're both orphans. There's a bank trust that pays for our school..." Her words trailed off as she looked around, noticing that everybody had expressions that said they didn't particularly believed her, some with pity. "What?" she demanded in a defensive manner "I'm telling the truth!"

Zoë Nightshade, Artemis's right hand it seems, cut in, "You are a half blood," her accent was curious, the words she used old fashioned. "One of thy parents was a mortal. The other an Olympian," Bianca's confused expression grew more pinched.

"An Olympian... athlete?"

Zoë shook her head. "An Olympian god."

Nico, the younger brother, lit up. "Cool!" he said, dancing around excitedly as he asked questions about the gods.

"Nico, shut up!" Bianca put her hands to her face, voice quavering. "This isn't your stupid Mythomagic game, there are no gods!" Percy sympathized with the girl, he knew it wasn't easy to process something as big as this and if he was in her exact position he wouldn't have believed it either.

The anger and grief in Thalia's eyes subsided a bit as she softly explained, "I know it's hard to believe, Bianca, but the gods are still around. Trust me, they're immortal and whenever they have kids with regular humans... kids like us, well... our lives are dangerous."

"Dangerous." the older Di Angelo sibling muttered "like the girl who fell," Thalia turned away and Percy pushed down the turbulent emotions threatening to rise right along with his scowl.

"Do not despair for Annabeth," Artemis said "she was a brave maiden and if she can be found, I shall find her myself." Percy ran a hand through his hair, although it was impossible to mess it up more than it was already.

"Is there no chance for us to go look for her now?" he knew the answer before it left the goddess's mouth. He had reached out to the ocean the moment his friend and Thorn fell, but felt nothing in the freezing waves.

"She is gone. You sense it, don't you son of Poseidon? There is magic at work and I do not know exactly how or why but your friend has vanished."

But where? He nearly growled, how in Merlin did Thorn so easily disappeared with Annabeth? Some sort of portkey? A form of apparition? What the hell was going on?