Deadly Waters | Percy Jackson

11. Best Wishes, Percy Jackson

In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because at Percy have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when he's walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; because he's a half-blood, he understood that some divine force really is trying to mess up his day.

So, there they were, Annabeth, Grover, Pez and Percy, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind them, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

Percy was pretty much in shock himself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in his ears. But Annabeth kept pulling them along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

Of course, she had been the one to stall them in the first place after they had escaped the flaming wreckage;

"That's it!" she yelled, turning so quickly on the other girl that neither her nor the two boys had time to react. "Who the Hades are you?" She demanded, backing her harshly into a tree and placing her knife against her throat.

Things had escalated fairly quickly, and Percy had to restrain an amused smile at the irony of Annabeth's choice of curse.

Percy and Grover yelled in surprise. Pez wasted no time in grabbing the blade of the knife – in her bare hand mind you – and forcing it away, slipping out of her hold and twirling around the girl, effectively swapping their positions.

"Bitch, what the fuck?!" Pez shouted, rain nearly blinding her as she immobilised the other girl's arms against the tree.

Pez had been so furious that Percy had to forcefully pull her away from Annabeth as the two started clawing at each other.

"That's enough!" he yelled. "This is ridiculous! We're running for our lives, we shouldn't be fighting each other."

"She started it," Pez snarled.

"And I'll gladly finish it." Annabeth growled.

It had taken some time to calm them down. Annabeth kept insisting that Pez had somehow led the Furies to them, and Pez kept swearing at her in Russian.

"How else do you explain it then?" Annabeth demanded. "We get sent on a quest that no one outside of camp should know about, then suddenly your bestfriend shows up, a best friend that – might I add – had no previous knowledge of the demigod world, now mysteriously all along having been a demigod, and we get attacked by all three Kindly Ones." She glared heavily at Pez after her rant. "Explain that."

Pez stared her in the eyes, no longer struggling in Percy's hold. "Idi trakhni sebya."

It had taken Percy's and – a reluctant – Grover's effort to convince Annabeth not to throw Pez to the wolves.

"Chiron and I suspected Pez of being a demigod," Grover admitted nervously. "Of course, we weren't sure if it was just Percy's scent carrying over – that can happen sometimes – but it wasn't until the Greyhound when school ended that I become sure."

Annabeth stared at him and Percy took the moment to pinch Pez's side.

She rolled her eyes.

At his silent prompting, she'd then made-up some bullshit story of always having an inkling that she was different, she'd researched the myths, made her own conclusions and blah, blah, blah – Percy had stopped paying attention. That she was supposed to be meeting her parents in Washington, but she'd decided to stick with them for the meantime.