Rise of the New Olympians (TNOS #1)

Chapter 27 ◈ Mission Vesuvius (Part 1)

"We're on the lookout," Poseidon replied. "Nothing strange as of yet."

"Okay. Just update us if something goes south."

"I hope you go south," Zeus said in a child-like voice.

Athena groaned. "What does that even mean, idiot?"

A static sound took over and the line went silent. Poseidon just shook his head.

"Kids," he said, chuckling. "There's not a second where they can be at a truce with themselves."

I laughed. "True. I wonder how you handle their arguments."

"Hm. I just do." He tilted his head at me. "So, do you sense anything?"

I blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, sorry. My bad." He smiled sheepishly. "What I meant was, other than me and my siblings, do you hear anyone else's mind from afar?"

"Um, well. . . no. But I'm going to try," I said.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and opened up my mind. Poseidon's mental voice was as clear as day in my head, while the thoughts of Athena and Zeus, who were thinking of retorts to say to the other, were not as clear.

I opened my eyes. "There's no one I could hear."

"That's a relief. For now," Poseidon said. "Since there's nothing that we can do as of the moment, I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah. Go ahead."

"Did you think about what I said during our flight?" he asked. "You know, about your motivation?"

I shrugged. "Well, I still don't know what, uh, motivates me. Not sure what I should even think."

"That's fine, Amelia," he said. "I hope I'm not pressuring you about it."

"No, no! It's fine, really." I smiled. "I'm actually glad you're trying to help me, even if I'm not sure how to help myself."

A buzz suddenly sounded in my ear, taking me aback for a second.

"Hey, this is Zeus. Does anyone hear me?"

"Zeus, we can hear you," I said. "What's up?"

I heard him take a breath. "Yeah, well, we're now down the crater."

"That's good," Poseidon said beside me.

"There's one problem though," Zeus hesitated.

"We're listening. . ."

"The Item's buried deep on the ground, which is quite inconvenient," Athena grunted. "Why does the blasted Artifact have to be in a blasted volcano?"

A string of grumbles and foreign curses followed shortly after.

"Don't mind her, she's overreacting," Zeus said.

"Whatever. We better start working on getting it out," Athena muttered before she resumed grumbling to herself.

"Don't worry, guys," Zeus reassured us. "It's not that much, just a few feet deep, but it'll take us a while to dig it out."

"Okay. We'll stay put," I said.

"But you have to hurry up," Poseidon told them. "We don't want to spend more time here than necessary."

"Sure, bro. You two just sit tight, but don't get too cozy becaus—"

He was cut off by a high-pitched screech coming out of nowhere. As it pierced through my ears, I grimaced and quickly took off the earpiece.