In which, Adira Lancaster falls in love with her rival, Percy Jackson
OR
he falls in love with her first, unknowingly.
She only seemed to think about a rivalry. Nothing else. Zilch. Nada. Zip.
-disclaimer- I do not own the Percy Jackson Books, or an...
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I'd finally found something I was really good at.
The Queen Anne's Revenge responded to my every command. I knew which ropes to hoist, which sails to raise, which direction to steer. We plowed through the waves at what I figured was about ten knots. I even understood how fast that was. For a sailing ship, pretty darn fast. It all felt perfect—the wind in my face, the waves breaking over the prow. Adira stood right in the front, feeling the air hit her face. She said it reminded her of the tree. Our Tree, as she said it.
But now that we were out of danger, all I could think about was how much I missed Tyson, and how worried I was about Grover.
I couldn't get over how badly I'd messed up on Circe's Island. If it hadn't been for Adira, I'd still be a rodent, hiding in a hutch with a bunch of cute furry pirates. I thought about what Circe had said: See, Percy? You've unlocked your true self!
I wondered what Adira thought of me after this experience...
I still felt changed. Not just because I had a sudden desire to eat lettuce. I felt jumpy, like the instinct to be a scared little animal was now a part of me. Or maybe it had always been there. Adira said that's how she felt every time she turned into a certain animal. She said when she turned into a wolf, all she wanted was meat. Somehow, that didn't surprise me.
That's what really worried me.
We sailed through the night.
Annabeth tried to help me keep lookout, but sailing didn't agree with her. After a few hours rocking back and forth, her face turned the color of guacamole and she went below to lie in a hammock. She left Adira, who still looked wide awake in the front. She was fearless from the water. She'd let her feet dangle off the side of the boat.
I watched the horizon. More than once I spotted monsters. A plume of water as tall as a skyscraper spewed into the moonlight. A row of green spines slithered across the waves—something maybe a hundred feet long, reptilian. I didn't really want to know.
Once I saw Nereids, the glowing lady spirits of the sea. I tried to wave at them, but they disappeared into the depths, leaving me unsure whether they'd seen me or not.
Sometime after midnight, Adira came up on the top deck, after looking at the ocean for a few hours. We were just passing a smoking volcano island. The sea bubbled and steamed around the shore.
"One of the forges of Hephaestus," she said. "Where he makes his metal monsters."
"Like the bronze bulls?"
She nodded. "Go around. Far around."
I didn't need to be told twice. We steered clear of the island, and soon it was just a red patch of haze behind us.
I looked at Adira, who fumbled with her arrowhead. "The reason you hate Cyclops so much... the story about how Thalia really died. What happened?"
It was hard to see her expression in the dark, but I know that it was one that turned dark.
