𝑨𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑺 • 𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐶𝑌 𝐽𝐴𝐶𝐾𝑆𝑂𝑁 ²

TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
—dumb deals

🗡🗡🗡

—JUDITH never went home that year. Her mother had returned from deployment before Christmas rolled along, but by that time, there had already been three attacks on the camp's borders, two sightings of monster buses ( yes, they traveled by freaking charter bus ), and then she had the whole messed up issue with Nico and Percy to deal with. She couldn't go home when things were escalating too far and too quickly.

The fall and winter months were relatively uneventful apart from the events that took place right after Percy's party. The two boys had given her their own rendition of the proposition Nico offered that night. While Nico's highlighted the pros heavily, Percy's had really emphasized the possible death part.

But Nico had been the one to simplify it down for her.

The minuscule chance of Percy dying in the River Styx was nothing compared to the chance of Kronos killing him in one blow without the curse on his side. The answer seemed so obvious to her because Judith had a hard time thinking about Percy dying — it just didn't sit right with her. It made her chest ache. But she battled between wanting to see him safe and the utter aversion she held for this reckless habit he had of taking everything upon himself like it was his job.

There was no true win-win scenario. There never was. But in the end, she chose to focus on what she deemed mattered to her more, Percy's life. Judith's annoyances could be set aside for the reassurance of his safety, knowing she would be beside him every step of the way, even if he tried to force her away.

  And her choice had put them at odds with each other.

  Then spring came, and things started to pick up drastically. The satyrs that weren't out in the Wild were sent to recruit more half-bloods or retrieve the many who had gone back home. A few refused to come back for fear of death ( Judith couldn't blame them, they'd already lost too many ).

  They'd lost two since the combat missions were started up. Depending on the job, a couple or more Demigods were sent out to stop a monster bus or stop a migration on foot. Judith had been with Beckendorf on the very first mission, destroying an undercover school bus filled to the brim with dracaenae. They used one of the Hephaestus boy's new inventions, Greek Fire bombs, detonated by a button on his watch.

  The invention was great — genius, really — but it wasn't quite enough to put a dent in a massive army. Each day, Kronos' army grew and the odds in their favor got exponentially smaller. And one thing that could possibly change the tides was stubbornly ignoring Judith's Iris-messages.

  "Has he said anything to you?" Judith leaned against a tree, sharpening Soulrender as Nico hung from a tree branch upside down ( he claimed it helped to get the blood flowing after shadow traveling ).

Nico sighed. "Nothing new."

The two sat in silence. There was still time, they told themselves, but not much. They had a few months of what the campers had taken to calling the 'calm before the storm,' but it wasn't really calm. Each day seemed like a fight for their lives, even the quiet ones.

And the first day of summer was the next day, meaning Percy would be there midday. His presence would kickstart a ticking clock in everyone's mind.

"You have to convince him," the son of Hades pushed, jumping down from his branch. "Percy's strong, but not strong enough to beat a Titan."

Judith placed her whetstone on a root beside her to watch Nico pace. "I've tried. You've seen me try." Judith then whispered darkly, "Maybe we should get Rachel Dare to beg him. I bet he'd do it then."