Queen of Lies

The teen god

Zacc falls to his butt, whimpering and hiding from the image in front of him. A football field away, I see a tall silhouette standing at the edge of the high, jutted rocks. Waves crash next to him and he holds a trident. Gods always have to make such dramatic entrances... He looks at his wrist. 

I scoff. 

He was looking at his gold watch. 

We were about to meet this formidable force, and he's wondering when lunch will be served.

"You can take him." Zacc strangles his legs to his chest.

I turn my head slowly in an are-you-serious-right-now? "I'm a human lie detector. What do you want me to do?"

He twiddles his fingers, pouting his lower lip. "I guess we have to die now."

I roll my eyes. Think, Verita, think. What would Annabeth do? She'd use her brain power and save the world for, what? The third time in a row? 

It's too bad I'm stupid.

I gulp as a dark shadow spreads over us. "Oh, boy," I squeak as a wave swallows us and our mediocre ship.

I suck in a breath, emerging out of the water like a drowning person. I'm not great with analogies, especially when I'm suffocating, so please cut me some slack this whole way through.

I clutch onto what was left of our boat. Pieces of debris litter the sea, including Zacc.

He couldn't swim, but luckily he found his trusty inner tube in the shape of a unicorn for support.

I freeze. The man I saw earlier, no taller than me stood on the water in front of me.

The god arches an eyebrow. "It's obvious you know who I am, considering no one would dare take this path unless they were looking for someone in particular."

I choke and spit out saltwater. "I was hoping for Jesus, but he's a lot nicer."

The man wasn't a man at all. He was a teenage kid; hair jet black and eyes that matched the polluted sea. The only difference between this guy and a regular student was his stance and hair were unnaturally perfect. And I thought Artemis could pull off the child look.

The god speaks, "Dude, I'm sorry about your boat but this wasn't my idea."

I shiver, sensing his honesty. 

All those stories I've heard about this god... This guy really was recently turned into a god. When Artemis took on her kid form, her voice didn't match her appearance at all, but his tone and attitude matched his youthful build like he wasn't a god at all -- like he was still one of us.

I feel a tiny relief. Maybe I could relate to him. "If I remember correctly, you're Perseus. Don't you get confused with the hero a lot?"

"Don't even get me started. If my mother knew I was going to become a god one day I'm sure she would've come up with something original. But Percy works just fine."

I'm still rocking with the waves. "Cool, Percy. It's umm awesome being the god of sea and ships, but... why?" I gesture to our once-but-now-lost boat.

"My father ordered me to destroy any ship with demigods that comes this way. But he didn't say I couldn't spare your lives."

I nod and wipe my wet hair out of my eyes. "Oh great Percy, it is an honor meeting someone so powerful, and destroy our transportation, scare the living heck out of a son of zeus," Zacc's lips tremble with fear, "not like he's never afraid," I mumble, then continue, "and you sparing our lives is a huge bonus, but we were ordered to steal that there trident."