𝑨𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑺 • 𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐶𝑌 𝐽𝐴𝐶𝐾𝑆𝑂𝑁 ²

THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY
—dumb rivers

🗡🗡🗡

—JUDITH hadn't given a lot of thought as to how she would die. In fact, she'd hardly thought it possible up until this point. It was always how she would wish death upon someone else. Namely, Percy Jackson.

  But this — this heroic idiot ... this dumb, stupid hero ... he refused to be struck down. Against all odds, he became this impossible demigod, looking danger in the eye and rising above it, constantly fighting for his life and overcoming. A god in a mortal hero's clothing. And somewhere along the line, the idea of Percy dying became her worst nightmare. This dumb, stupid hero couldn't die, not if Judith had anything to say about it.

  But she had to be alive to see that through, didn't she?

  But he was the impossible god. Not her.

  Death had been chasing her for a while now, she realized.

  Bryce Tanner had been the first. Bianca di Angelo and Zoë Knightshade, the next. Maya Brown, her sister. Charles Beckendorf, the last. And now, it had caught up to her, seizing her at her most vulnerable. She should have seen the signs, honestly. She'd been too lucky for too long.

  But children of Ares weren't particularly versed in seeing the little things.

Neither were they very practiced in the art of hospitality.

  "If you would stop squirming, maybe we'd give you some answers," Deimos growled as he tried to pin her arms to her side. "Stop! Stop it!"

  But she didn't. Her hands fisted at her sides, ready to punch at the first hint of release. Her legs strained to kick up at any part of her brothers, particularly the sensitive ones that would inflict the most pain.

  "Judith!" Phobos shouted. "Fine. You asked for this."

  And then suddenly her brothers were gone, the pressure of their scarred hands lifted from her shoulders, and she was left in the darkness by herself, alone and furious. With no outlet for her rage. Her hands expertly moved to dispatch her weapons into her hands, but she found nothing at her waist.

Judith couldn't even remember the last time she was unarmed.

She felt naked and helpless.

Her knuckles popped as she held up her fists protectively.

But it was unnecessary, because what came next was only a series of memories. One by one, Judith watched every dangerous situation she'd witnessed Percy get into appear through a thick blanket of fog. But instead of nearly escaping like he always managed to do, each scene ended in his death.

The first vision, he was trampled and burned by the bronze bulls that invaded the camp. Back when she'd met him for the first time. Her mind willed her to move forward, to do something to help, but her legs were frozen stiff. Her heart hammered at a speed beyond comprehension, drumming to a morbid song.

  The next one, she didn't see, but ... she felt it.

  Just as she'd failed to save Bryce Tanner, Judith and Annabeth were not able to retrieve Percy from the Sea of Monsters after the ship's explosion. His body never surfaced. Judith's heart could still feel the helplessness, the sorrow that came from losing Bryce, but now it was Percy, and her chest felt three sizes too small for her growing heartbreak.

The next vision strangled the air from her lungs. Leaving Polyphemus' cave, they'd narrowly avoided catastrophe, but now ... now the Cyclops didn't miss its mark as it hurled a rock at Percy's retreating form.