there must be more than this provincial life.
[ percy jackson x original character ]
[ book three in the belle series ]
[ the mark of athena, the house of hades, & the blood of olympus ]
[ bonus: the lost hero, the hidden oracle, the ship of the dea...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖙-𝖍𝖚𝖎𝖙: AND FOES BEAR ARMS TO THE DOORS OF DEATH
★ 。／｜＼。★
TARTARUS HAD SAID that it would be an honor to be killed by him. Belle certainly didn't see how. As she stared up at his dark whirlpool face that was enough to give her nightmares while wrapped up in Percy's arms, she decided that dying in a less memorable way was how she wanted to leave the mortal world. Perhaps dying in her sleep in her eighties, surrounded by her children and Percy by her side after a much calmer life than their teenage years? Yes. That was how she definitely wanted to go.
The question what would Annabeth do? was useless in this situation. Annabeth's tactic was stalling, but right now, Belle couldn't find the words to say. Her mouth was agape and nothing was going through her mind except extreme fear. Belle was vaguely aware of the army of monsters behind her, but they hadn't done anything after their initial roar. In fact, now they were silent, keeping their distance as they waited for Tartarus to act.
Tartarus, God of the pit, flexed his fingers and examined his own polished black talons. There was no expression on his face because it was a giant whirlpool, but he straightened his shoulders as if he were pleased.
It is good to have form, Tartarus said. With these hands, I can eviscerate you.
Belle couldn't help but notice his voice sounded like a recording was being rewinded. It was almost af his words were being sucked straight into the vortex of his face rather than being projected outwards. Now that she thought about it, everything seemed to be drawn to the God's face — the dim light, the poisonous clouds, the essence of the monsters surrounding them, even Belle's own fragile life force. She glanced around for a moment to see that every object on the vast plain of Tartarus' heart had grown a vaporous comet's tail that all pointed towards Tartarus.
She wanted to say something to the God to try and distract him, but everything was telling her to hide and avoid doing anything that would draw more of Tartarus' attention. Besides, even if she was able to move past her fear and say something, what would she say? That Tartarus wouldn't get away with this? Because that certainly wasn't true. The only reason Belle and Percy had survived this long at the moment was because Tartarus was admiring his new form. He wanted the pleasure of physically ripping both of them to pieces. Belle knew that if Tartarus wished he could just devour her existence with a single thought just as easily as he had vaporized Hyperion and Krios. There probably wouldn't be any rebirth from that.
