cassiopeia ☆ percy jackson

ch.4

CHAPTER 4: THE UNCLAIMED
Cassia

“Is she gonna be okay?”

“She’s lucky it didn’t go deeper than it did, but yeah, she’ll be okay.”

I heard voices around me, all making my head spin as I started to wake up.

But the only person I was worried about was right next to me.

“Percy?”

I heard shuffling as my eyes adjusted to the morning light, and Percy looked down at me, “Cassia, do you feel okay? Does it hurt?”

“Does what hu-” as I sat up on my elbows, I spotted what he was talking about. A long and deep cut on my stomach, stitches keeping the wound shut. It didn’t hurt, even though it had to be new.

“What. . .happened?” I asked carefully, looking up at Percy and Grover.

“When Percy was on the Minotaur, you tried to stab it. It cut you pretty bad” Grover explained, gesturing towards the giant horn on a table.

“All Percy could see was red. He killed it,” I looked back to him, who stared at the Minotaur horn with hatred.

“You killed it?” I questioned, gently grabbing his arm to bring his focus back to me.

“It killed my mom. . .”

No.

No, that can’t. . .

He looked down at me, almost studying my face, “I wasn’t going to let it take you too.”

The way he said it - the way he was staring at me - I felt my heart begin to race.

But questions resurfaced before I could linger on this. Last I remembered, we were racing from the Minotaur that Percy killed. And then we spun out and crashed. How did it find us? Why was it trying to kill us? How did it kill Miss. Jackson?

And. . .

“Where are we?”

“We made it to camp. It’ll be safe for you here-”

I sat up, groaning from the pain in my stomach, “what about my dad? Is he going to be okay? What if the monsters-?”

Grover helped me stand up, and Percy pulled my shirt down to cover my first battle scar, “since your scent isn’t with him anymore, no monsters will go after him. I promise.”

I looked at Grover, “my scent?”

“All demi-gods have a certain smell that attracts monsters when they get older, but. . .” he hesitated, “but yours is different.”

“Different how?” Percy questioned, seeming just as confused as I was.

“Usually monsters don’t smell a demi-god until they’re ten or twelve, but for some reason, they started to notice you when you were five. I’ve never seen that before,” Grover admitted, and Percy held on tight. His arm was around my waist, helping me adjust and scared I might faint again.

“So not only am I schizophrenic but I’m also a monster magnet. How lovely.”

“Actually, great news,” Grover grinned, leading us outside, “you’re not schizophrenic!”

“. . .no, I’m pretty sure I am.”

“Those voices you hear? They’re the monsters like Mrs. Dodds, trying to tempt you away from camp or us,” it brought me some kind of relief that I wasn’t as crazy as I thought I was, but I also felt. . .angry.