Changing Fate (Book 1: The God and The Titan)

6

Much to my disappointment, the Jacksons did not have a spare bow or quiver to lend me.

"I suck at archery," Percy explained.

"Yes, but I don't," I said. "This is why you should always plan for my needs."

"Stop talking about yourself, Big Ego." Emma said hitting my arm.

"OW!" I yelled.

Sally lent Meg a proper winter fleece jacket, however. I decided to sit with Emma's oversized pilot jacket.

Once we reached the Prius, Meg called shotgun, which was yet another example of my unfair existence. Gods do not ride in the back with Titans. I again suggested following in a Maserati or a Lamborghini, but Percy admitted he had neither. The Prius was the only car his family owned.

I mean...wow. Just wow. Unlike me, Emma was telling Percy that The Prius looked cool. She punched me in the arm after I said that I disagreed with her.

Sitting in the backseat with Emma, I quickly became carsick. I was used to driving my sun chariot across the sky, where every lane was the fast lane. I was not used to the Long Island Expressway. Believe me, even at midday in the middle of January, there is nothing express about your expressways.

Percy braked and lurched forward. I sorely wished I could launch a fireball in front of us and melt cars to make way for our clearly more important journey.

"Doesn't your Prius have flamethrowers?" I demanded. "Lasers? At least some Hephaentian bumper blades? What sort of cheap economy vehicle is this?"

Percy glanced in the rearview mirror. "You have rides like that on Mount Olympus?"

"We don't have traffic jams," I said, "That I can promise you."

"Rides on Olympus sound awesome!!" Emma blurted out. One thing she's said this whole time that I agree with.

Meg was tugging at her crescent moon rings. Again I wondered if she and Emma had some connection to Artemis. The moon was my sister's symbol. Perhaps Artemis had sent Meg and Emma to look after me?

Yet that didn't seem right. Artemis had trouble sharing anything with me--demigods, arrows, nations, birthday parties. It's a twin thing. Also Meg McCaffery and Emma Lightning did not strike me as some of my sister's followers. Meg had another sort of aura...one I would've been able to recognize easily if I were god. But, no. I had to rely on mortal intuition, which was like trying to pick up sewing needles while wearing oven mitts. Emma had a different kind of aura and her last name sounded familiar to me from something Athena had once said. Hopefully I'll remember it later.

Meg turned and gazed out the rear windshield, probably checking for any shiny blobs pursuing us. "At least we're not being--"

"Don't say it," Percy warned.

Meg huffed. "You don't even know what I was going to--"

"You were going to say, 'At least we're not being followed," Percy said. "That'll jinx us and immediately we'll notice that we are being followed. Then we'll end up in a big battle that totals my family car and probably destroys the whole freeway. Then we'll have to run all the way to camp."

Meg's eyes widened. "You can tell the future?"

"Don't need to." Percy changed lanes to one that was crawling slightly less slowly. "I've just done this a lot. Besides"--he shot me an accusing look--"nobody can tell the future anymore. The Oracle isn't working."

"What Oracle/Which Oracle?" Emma and Meg said at the same time. Neither of us answered. For a moment, I was too stunned to speak. And believe me, I have to be very stunned for that to happen. "It still isn't working?" I said in a small voice. "You didn't know?" Percy asked. "I mean, sure, you've been out of it for six months, but this happened on your watch."