Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)

CHAPTER 35

(Percy's POV)

I came toward the gods, my legs trembling. They were in giant human form, as Hades had been, but I could barely look at them without feeling a tingle, as if my body were starting to burn. Zeus, the Lord of the Gods, wore a dark blue pinstriped suit. He sat on a simple throne of solid platinum. He had a well-trimmed beard, marbled gray & black like a storm cloud. His face was proud, grim & handsome, his eyes rainy gray.

As I got nearer to him, the air crackled & smelled of ozone. The god sitting next to him was his brother, without a doubt, but he was dressed very differently. He reminded me of a beachcomber from Key West.

He wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts, & a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts & parrots all over it. His skin was deeply tanned, his hands scarred like an old-time fisherman’s. His hair was black, like mine. His face had that same brooding look that had always gotten me branded a rebel. But his eyes, seagreen like mine, were surrounded by sun-crinkles that told me he smiled a lot, too.

His throne was a deep-sea fisherman’s chair. It was the simple swiveling kind, with a black leather seat & a built-in holster for a fishing pole. Instead of a pole, the holster held a bronze trident, flickering with green light around the tips.

The gods weren’t moving or speaking, but there was tension in the air, as if they’d just finished an argument.

Nora went to Zeus' throne & said, "Hi, dad."

Zeus looked down at her with pride & admiration in his eyes. He immediately smiles at her saying, "Hello, my daughter."

She smiles back at him & goes over to my dad's throne. "Hey, Uncle!"

"How's my little niece doing?" He stretches his large hand out for a high five, which Nora returns quickly. The weirdest part was that she had suddenly brightened up the whole room by just being there.

"I'm doing great." She replies looking over at me motioning for me to step forward. I approached the fisherman’s throne & knelt at his feet. "Father." I dared not look up. My heart raced. I could feel energy emanating from the two gods. If I said the wrong thing, I had no doubt they could blast me to dust.

To my left, Zeus spoke. "Shouldn't you address the master of this house first, boy?" I kept my head down, & waited.

"Peace, brother," Poseidon said. His voice stirred my oldest memories: that warm glow I remembered as a baby, the sensation of this god’s hand on my forehead, "The boy defers to his father. This is only right."

"You still claim him then?" Zeus asked, menacingly. "You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?"

"I have admitted my wrongdoing," Poseidon said. "Now I would hear him speak."

Wrongdoing. A lump welled up in my throat. Was that all I was? A wrong doing? The result of a god’s mistake? Nora came & placed a hand on my shoulder in reassurance.

"I have spared him once already," Zeus grumbled. "Daring to fly through my domain...pah! I should have blasted him out of the sky for his impudence."

"And risk destroying your own daughter & your master bolt?" Poseidon asked calmly. "Let us hear him out, brother."

Zeus grumbled some more. "I've only spared him because of you Nora. I shall listen," he said. "Then I shall make up my mind whether or not to cast this boy down from Olympus."

"Perseus," Poseidon said. "Look at me."

I did, & wasn’t sure what I saw in his face. There was no clear sign of love or approval. Nothing to encourage me. It was like looking at the ocean: some days, you could tell what mood it was in. Most days, though, it was unreadable, mysterious.

I got the feeling Poseidon really didn’t know what to think of me. I didn’t know whether he was happy to have me as a son or not. In a strange way, I was glad that Poseidon was so distant. If he’d tried to apologize, or told me he loved me, or even smiled, it would’ve felt fake. Like a human dad, making lame excuses for not being around. I could live with that. After all, I wasn’t sure about him yet, either.

"Address Lord Zeus, boy," Poseidon told me. "Tell him your story."

So I told Zeus everything, just as it had happened. I took out the metal cylinder, which begansparking in the Sky God’s presence, & laid it at his feet.

There was a long silence, broken only by the crackle of the hearth fire. Zeus opened his palm. The lightning bolt flew into it. As he closed his fist, the metallic points flared with electricity, until he was holding what looked more like the classic thunderbolt, a twenty- foot javelin of arcing, hissing energy that made the hairs on my scalp rise.

"I sense the boy tells the truth," Zeus muttered. "But that Ares would do such a thing...it is most unlike him."

"He is proud & impulsive," Poseidon said. "It runs in the family."

"Lord?" I asked

They both said, "Yes?"

"Ares didn’t act alone. Someone else-something else- came up with the idea."

I described my dreams, & the feeling I’d had on the beach, that momentary breath of evil that had seemed to stop the world, & made Ares back off from killing me.

"In the dreams," I said, "the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Ares hinted that he’d been having dreams, too. I think he was used, just as me, to start a war."

"You're accusing Hades, after all?" Zeus asked.

"No," I said. "I mean, Lord Zeus, I’ve been in the presence of Hades. This feeling on the beach was different. It was the same feeling when I got close to that pit. That was the entrance to Tartarus? Something powerful & evil is stirring down there... something even older than the gods."

Nora nodded as well. Poseidon & Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. I caught one word. Father.

Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off. Poseidon tried to argue. Zeus held up his hand angrily. "We will speak of this no more," Zeus said. "I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."

He rose & looked at me. His expression softened just a fraction of a degree.

"You have done me a service, boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much."

"I had help, sir-," I said.

"To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for peace in the family, I shall let you live."

"Um...thank you, sir."

"Do not presume to fly again. Do not let me find you here when I return. Otherwise you shall taste this bolt. And it shall be your last sensation. And Nora, you have done well too. I shall speak to you again very soon."

Thunder shook the palace. With a blinding flash of lightning, Zeus was gone.

5 chapters to go!!!

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Alice signing off.
XOXO.