Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 81

Now his mom was back, erasing the one certainty Jason had about her – that she'd left him forever.

Across the table, Antinous raised his goblet. "So pleased to meet you, son of Jupiter. Listen to your mother. You have many grievances against the gods. Why not join us? I gather these three serving girls are your friends? We will spare them. You wish to have your mother remain in the world? We can do that. You wish to be a king –"

"No." Jason's mind was spinning. "No, I don't belong with you."

Michael Varus regarded him with cold eyes. "Are you so sure, my fellow praetor? Even if you defeat the giants and Gaia, would you return home like Odysseus did? Where is your home now? With the Greeks? With the Romans? No one will accept you. And, if you get back, who's to say you won't find ruins like this?"

"You were a legion officer," he told Varus. "A leader of Rome."

"So were you," Varus said. "Loyalties change."

"You think I belong with this crowd?" Jason asked. "A bunch of dead losers waiting for a free handout from Gaia, whining that the world owes them something?"

Around the courtyard, ghosts and ghouls rose to their feet and drew weapons.

"Beware!" Piper yelled at the crowd. "Every man in this palace is your enemy. Each one will stab you in the back at the first chance!"

And Cressida's body ignited with purple flames that spread like wildfire. She was the female personification of her father as she boosted Piper's charmspeak. "You can trust no one. Trust nothing but the strike of your weapon. Stand fast, never take your eyes off your enemy, for they are about to strike."

Piper's charmspeak over the last few weeks had become incredibly powerful. Couple that with Cressida's powers of mental manipulation and you had a truly deadly combo that had all the ghosts gripping their swords as they side-eyed one another, waiting for the first person to strike, and it would be a bloodbath if it happened.

Jason's mother stepped towards him. "Dearest, be sensible. Give up your quest. Your Argo II could never make the trip to Athens. Even if it did, there's the matter of the Athena Parthenos."

A tremor passed through him. "What do you mean?"

"Don't feign ignorance, my dearest. Gaia knows about your friend Reyna and Nico the son of Hades and the satyr Hedge. To kill them, the Earth Mother has sent her most dangerous son – the hunter who never rests. But you don't have to die."

Jason glanced at the girls who were ready for his cue, and he forced himself to meet his mother's eyes.

But Jason wasn't a toddler anymore. He was a battle veteran, a demigod who'd faced death countless times. And what he saw in front of him wasn't his mother – at least, not what his mother should be – caring, loving, selflessly protective.

A remnant, Annabeth had called her.

Michael Varus had told him that the spirits here were sustained by their strongest desires. The spirit of Beryl Grace literally glowed with need. Her eyes demanded Jason's attention. Her arms reached out, desperate to possess him.

"What do you want?" he asked. "What brought you here?"

"I want life!" she cried. "Youth! Beauty! Your father could have made me immortal. He could have taken me to Olympus, but he abandoned me. You can set things right, Jason. You are my proud warrior!"

Jason remembered something Thalia had told him. Their mother had become increasingly unstable until her despair had driven her crazy. She had died in a car accident, the result of her driving while drunk. The watered wine in Jason's stomach churned. He decided that if he lived through this day he would never drink alcohol again.