The Last Arrow - The Great Holiday Mystery

4. Blood Red Bow

~Aphrodite Cabin~

‘We’re doomed, we’re doomed,’ Grover repeated over and over again.

‘Stop that,’ Frank snapped. ‘We’re not doomed.’

‘I’m too young to die by perfume!’ Grover wailed.

‘Cut it out, G-man,’ Percy muttered nervously, running a hand through his already messy black hair. ‘We’re gonna be okay.’

There was a sharp crash as the Aphrodite kids apparently discovered the doors couldn’t be opened with a broom through the handle. Another boom and the door rattled on its hinges. Apparently high heels were good for kicking down doors. Piper and Annabeth rushed over to barricade the door.

Annabeth grimaced, ‘We can’t hold it much longer.’

‘Okay,’ Hazel blinked rapidly. ‘What do we do?’

‘The windows,’ Percy exclaimed.

Hazel checked, ‘They’re locked from the outside. Who does that?’

‘The makers of this cabin,’ Piper groaned from the door. ‘Hurry!’

‘Back up a bit, would ya?’ Jason shoved Hazel aside and crouched beside the window frame while Hazel huffed.

The son of Jupiter raised his right hand and, ever so slowly, moved his fingers from right to left, sliding the lock open with the tiniest bit of his wind powers.

‘Might wanna hurry it up, Jason,’ Annabeth said through gritted teeth.

‘I’m getting there,’ Jason snapped.

A second later, snap. The lock popped out and Jason heaved the window up, ushering everyone through.

‘Go, go, go!’ Jason hissed.

Hazel jumped through the window and landed on her feet. Juniper climbed out daintily as Jason resisted the urge to push her out, in hopes of making her go faster. Grover was quicker, neatly leaping out the window on his nimble goat hooves. Frank, a little more bulky, got through and landed on his hands and knees on the other side.

‘I got it, man,’ Percy muttered, taking the window from Jason and urging him out.

Jason leapt from the window frame and, instead of falling to the ground, flew up into a tree. Why? Jason wasn’t sure himself.

‘Piper, Annabeth,’ Percy called. ‘Hurry.’

‘You go,’ Piper nodded at Annabeth. ‘It’s my cabin.’

‘They’ll accuse you of messing up Drew’s bunk,’ Annabeth said, indicating the bed which now had clothes, old posters and empty lipstick containers littering it.

‘Don’t worry,’ Percy reassured them. ‘I know how to take care of it. Just go!’

With a guarded glance at each other, Piper and Annabeth sprinted to the window and leapt out in one fluid motion, one after the other. Percy, at the same time, summoned the all the water from the bathroom. It swirled towards the doors like a directed tornado, barricading them with the power of water.

Glancing back to make sure his barricade was functional, Percy followed the other seven out the window and released the water. The screams of eight Aphrodite children tumbling in onto a sopping wet floor could be heard throughout the camp. Percy fell towards the ground, concentrating more on the water then his landing and landed hard on his ankle.

‘Ah!’

Percy rolled and lay sprawled out, only agony thrashing through his mind.

‘Percy!’ Annabeth both whispered and yelled.

Through the pain, he could hear feet running towards the window he’d emerged from, high heeled feet clicking and slipping in the freshly spilled water. Percy couldn’t move, the throbbing pain making his brain feel like it was filled with even more seaweed.

Air underneath him made him panic as he felt suddenly light. Wind rustled happily by his ears, reassuring him like a gentle embrace. He felt himself settle high in a tree, well over twenty feet from the ground.

Percy’s mouth opened, ready to scream, but a hand covered the lower half of his face, silencing any sound. Percy tried to look back and saw Jason grimacing at him. They both kept silent as they listened to the Aphrodite kids cursing in ancient Greek. Only when Jason deemed it safe did he float the two of them to the ground where they landed safely.

‘Percy!’ Annabeth cried as she ran and landed knees first by his side, her hand caressing his check gently. ‘Oh gods, what did you do?’

He chuckled and sat up enough to lean against the tree he had been nestled in, ‘Forgot to look where I was going.’

Annabeth laughed through relieved tears, ‘You were so still. I was scared you were seriously hurt. Don’t do that again.’

She dove on top of him, linking her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder. He raised his arms to encircle her as tight as he could, while Hazel and Juniper cooed how cute they were.

‘Guys,’ Frank cleared his throat.

He and Grover looked over to where Jason and Piper kissed passionately, back to Percy and Annabeth locked in a warm embrace, to their girlfriends ogling the loving couple.

Grover’s eyes lit up with the start of a bad plan, ‘The Aphrodite kids are coming, the Aphrodite kids are coming!’

‘What?!’

Annabeth tumbled off Percy as he sat up straighter, rolling across his ankle as he yelped in pain. Jason and Piper broke apart quickly, instantly looking around for vengeful Aphrodite kids. Juniper flashed away in a poof of green mist and Hazel fell backwards onto her butt.

Frank and Grover cracked up.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, ‘Mature.’

‘Wasn’t it,’ Percy grumbled as his girlfriend helped him stand.

There was an awkward silence as the eight of them reached the conclusion that was so obvious, yet so obscure.

‘So,’ Hazel drew out the word slowly. ‘What do we do now?’

The silence extended. The only sound was the whistle of the wind rustling through the high leaves in the trees, and Percy’s laboured breaths as he leant heavily on Annabeth.

‘Take another look at the clue?’ Frank suggested.

‘No Styx Sherlock,’ Jason grumbled, earning him a glare from the son of Mars.

‘No fighting,’ Percy reminded them. ‘The clue said, “On the wings of a dove, their hidden is love.” What if it’s not a metaphorical dove?’

‘You mean a real dove?’ Piper shook her head and rolled her eyes. ‘Have you ever actually seen a dove at camp, Percy?’

‘Where did that thought come from?’ Frank asked dismissively.

Percy pointed, ‘From behind you.’

The seven turned to look at a bright white bird nestled in a low branch, a discoloured roll of parchment tied around her leg in a blood red bow.