★ 𝟐 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒅 ★ p. jackson

002

Luke made the first move, a simple jab to the left. Em deflected it and made a move of her own swinging towards him. He caught her blade with his and pushed her off. As quick as she was, Luke was always going to be physically stronger than her, that wasn't going to stop her though.

She deflected him again and continued to block him before making another move. She pushed his sword down with her own but lost her footing as he swept at her feet. She fell to the ground in defeat.

"Better luck next time," Luke laughed and extended an arm to her. Em sat up on her arms and blew a brown curl out of her face. She noticed a few campers watching them. She looked at Luke's hand, slapping it out of her way, before grabbing her sword and standing up on her own. She was slightly enraged now that she had been defeated once. "Again."

"If you say so." Luke raised his weapon once more and moved for her. If possible she was quicker than before. She was lighter on her feet and felt stronger then the first time. She ducked under his arm and came up, pushing her sword against his. This time when Luke pushed off her, she used the disarming method and knocked his weapon to the ground. Luke's mouth fell open a bit, but before he could speak she pointed her sword at his adam's apple. He raised his hands in surrender, still in shock.

"Em?"

"What?" She smiled at her victory but quickly replaced in with a frown when she saw his face.

"You're glowing."

"No I'm no-" she looked down. "Holy Hephaestus!" She was glowing, people started to gather around and whisper. "What on earth," "how is she doing that?"

Chiron must have noticed the amusement and trotted over. He smirked as if he knew what was happening. Esmeralda looked around herself in disbelief.

"Her sword," a kid in the crowd pointed out.

He was right, even her sword was glowing. As the aura faded she was left feeling unstoppable. She looked at her weapon and dropped it when she noticed. The sword her brother had given her had been replaced with one of Stygian iron. It was still the same sword her brother had made her, engraved and all, just tailored to her. A child of Hades. "What the-"

"You're father," Chiron spoke. "It appears you've impressed him."

Esmeralda smiled to herself. "Thank you," she whisper only loud enough for her to hear. But hopefully her father heard too.

~

"You're kidding." Annabeth whined as the two girls walked to lunch. "I can't believe I missed it."

"I can't believe it happened." Esmeralda said, "he hasn't given me any attention since he first claimed me."

"I've never heard of anything like that, do you think it means something."

"Maybe, I hope not." They said their goodbyes and walked towards their separate lunch tables. Esmeralda sat down across from Luke who playfully kicked her foot. The two started an aggressive game of footsies under the table and only stopped when it was time to make their offerings to the gods.

As they sat back down Em caught sight of Percy who sat by himself at the Poseidon table. He had moved out of the Hermes cabin this morning and the pair hadn't spoken to each other since the previous night. Em could admit that she didn't have to be so rude during their conversation, but she truly did hate to talk about her father.

"Everything ok?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, just thinking." She took a sip of her drink. Luke nodded and started up a conversation with the Stoll brothers. Em tried to listen but instantly got bored, she then noticed Annabeth staring her down from across the pavilion.