cupiditas |PERCY JACKSON| [book 3]

V

 ONCE THE HUNTERS WERE GONE, Thalia stamped her foot in frustration. "The nerve of those Hunters! They think they're so... Argh!"

"I'm with you," Percy stated, "I don't trust—"

"Oh, you're with me?" Thalia turned on the boy furiously. "What were you thinking back there in the gym, Percy? You'd take on Dr. Thorn all by yourself? You knew he was a monster! If we'd stuck together, we could've taken him without the Hunters getting involved. Annabeth might still be here. Did you think of that?"

"Hey!" Selena stepped between the two, "That's enough! This wasn't anyone's fault, Thalia."

Thalia didn't say another word. She wiped a tear from her cheek, turned, and marched off. Selena looked down and saw something blue in the snow. She leaned down and picked it up. It was Annabeth's blue baseball cap. It must've fallen from her pocket during the struggle. 

The Hunters set up their camping site in a matter of minutes. Seven large tents, all of silver silk, curved in a crescent around one side of a bonfire. One of the girls blew a silver dog whistle, and a dozen white wolves appeared out of the woods. They began circling the camp like guard dogs. The Hunters walked among them and fed them treats, completely unafraid, but Selena and Percy stuck close to the tents. Falcons watched them from the trees, their eyes flashing in the firelight, and Selena got the feeling they were on guard duty, too. Even the weather seemed to bend to the goddess's will. The air was still cold, but the wind died down and the snow stopped falling, so it was almost pleasant sitting by the fire.

Selena was in a daze as she sat by the fire. She couldn't believe Annabeth was gone. But it wasn't anyone's fault. Annabeth was just trying to protect Percy and Thalia.

She turned to Percy. He sat there, looking down at the ground thoughtfully. She knew he was blaming himself, she could see it in the way he was holding himself. His shoulders were hunched over and his head was hanging low.

Selena scooted closer to him and grabbed his hand, "It wasn't your fault, Percy. No one could have known that she would jump on him and they would fall off a cliff. Even if you didn't go off by yourself it could've happened. But what I do know is if you didn't follow those kids, they could've been gone without us even knowing. You saved them, Aquaman."

Percy looked up at her and gave her a small smile, "Thanks. But that doesn't change the fact that she's gone and Thalia is pissed at me."

"We'll find Annabeth. She isn't dead and she's a smart girl. And as for Thalia, she just needed to blame someone other than herself. She's just mad because Annabeth saved you guys. She'll get over it."

Selena looked up and watched as Thalia paced in the snow at the edge of camp, walking among the wolves without fear. She stopped and looked back at Westover Hall, which was now completely dark, looming on the hillside beyond the woods.

Finally, one of the Hunters brought Percy and Selena their backpacks. Grover and Nico came back from their walk, and Grover helped Percy fix up his wounded arm.

"It's green!" Nico said with delight and Selena winced,

"Hold still," Grover told me. "Here, eat some ambrosia while I clean that out."

Percy winced as Grover dressed the wound, and he squeezed Selena's hand tight, but the ambrosia square helped. It tasted like homemade brownie, dissolving in his mouth and sending a warm feeling through his whole body. Between that and the magic salve Grover used, Percy's shoulder felt better within a couple of minutes.

Nico rummaged through his own bag, which the Hunters had apparently packed for him, though how they'd snuck into Westover Hall unseen, Selena didn't know. Nico laid out a bunch of figurines in the snow—little battle replicas of Greek gods and heroes. Selena recognized Zeus with a lightning bolt, Ares with a spear, Apollo with his sun chariot.

"Big collection," Percy commented,

Nico grinned. "I've got almost all of them, plus their holographic cards! Well, except for a few really rare ones."

"You've been playing this game a long time?"

"Just this year. Before that..." He knit his eyebrows.

"What?" Selena asked, curious,

"I forget. That's weird." He looked unsettled, but it didn't last long. "Hey, can I see that sword you were using?"

Percy showed him Riptide, and explained how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it.

"Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?"

"Um, well, I don't actually write with it."

"Are you really the son of Poseidon?"

"Well, yeah."

"Can you surf really well, then?"

Percy looked at Grover and Selena, both were trying hard not to laugh.

"Jeez, Nico," Percy said. "I've never really tried."

He went on asking questions. Did he fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (Percy didn't answer that one.) If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the Goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff? (Selena tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Selena his girlfriend? (Percy and Selena quickly let go of each other's hands. At this point, they were ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)

Percy figured any second Nico was going to ask him how many hit points Percy had, and he'd lose his cool completely, but then Zoe Nightshade came up to them.

"Percy Jackson."

She had dark brown eyes and a slightly upturned nose. With her silver circlet and her proud expression, she looked so much like royalty that Selena had to resist the urge to sit up straight. She studied Percy distastefully like he was a bag of dirty laundry she'd been sent to fetch.

"Come with me," she said. "Lady Artemis wishes to speak with thee."