In which, Adira Lancaster falls in love with her rival, Percy Jackson
OR
he falls in love with her first, unknowingly.
She only seemed to think about a rivalry. Nothing else. Zilch. Nada. Zip.
-disclaimer- I do not own the Percy Jackson Books, or an...
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We'd arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. The air was cold and thin. The roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny.
I was freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks.
As we walked, Percy told Grover and I about his conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told him to seek out Nereus in San Francisco, just as he told me.
Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."
I tried not to get too depressed about our chances. I didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but I knew we had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods.
As we walked, Percy leaned over to me.
"Adi," he asked.
"Yeah," I said, cradling myself to stay warm. Percy began taking off his coat, but I stopped him.
"No, Percy," I warned. "I'm fine."
"You sure? Because your face is red as a tomato and your fingers are almost purple."
I scoffed. "I'm fine, Perce," I held my hands up while he gave me a look. "I'm fine!"
"Okay..." he said. His face drooped, and I knew something was wrong. "What's up with you?"
"I've been meaning to tell you something... about where they have Annabeth? Someone else is there."
"I know," I sighed, choking back tears. "They have Mariana. I've been having dreams too," I said. I wrapped my hand around him.
"We'll get her back. We'll get all of them back," he said, kissing my cheek.
"Yeah, I know," I said, looking at him. He wrapped his arms around me, sharing some of his coat with me. Soon enough, our body heat together warmed us. It was weird that I was almost taller than him, but somehow he was standing taller by a few inches.
🏹
We stopped in the middle of town. You could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.
"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."
"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.
"Yes," Zoe said. "Coffee is good."
"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."
"Oh my gods!" I said, "and menus!" Grover licked his lips. Percy and I laughed.
