The Nature of a Demigod

Aftermath

"I want to see Cyclopes," Briares agreed. "I don't want to be lonely anymore."

"I doubt you'll be lonely down there," I said a little wistfully, because I'd never even been in Poseidon's kingdom. "They're going to keep you really busy."

Briares's face morphed to a happy expression. "Busy sounds good! I only wish Tyson could go, too." Tyson blushed. "I need to stay here with my brother. You will do fine, Briares. Thank you."

The Hundred-Handed One shook my hand about a hundred times. "We will meet again, Percy. I know it!" Then he gave Tyson a big octopus hug and waded out into the ocean. We watched until his enormous head disappeared under the waves. I clapped Tyson on the back. "You helped him a lot."

"I only talked to him."

"You believed in him. Without Briares, we never would've taken down Kampê." Tyson grinned. "He throws good rocks!"

I laughed. "Yeah. He throws really good rocks. Come on, big guy. Let's have dinner."

[Y/N's POV]

The very second that the tunnel exploded and Kampê was blown off the face of the earth, it became hard to breath. It was like this pressure in my chest. Like I was holding my breath for too long. Or maybe like I tried to swallow something and it got stuck in my throat. My heart was beating nonstop, like I'd just run a marathon. I couldn't really explain it.

Despite all that, after all we'd been through this summer already, to be able to just sit down at the dining pavilion and have a regular dinner, I wasn't going to take it for granted. I sat at the Artemis table with Zoe, who rambled on about something. "I need to tell Silena. She owes me money." I poked at my food. "What for?"

"The Aphrodite cabin put a pool of bets together on when you and Annabeth would finally get together. I put money on July of this year." I choked on the food I was chewing. After I had coughed and pounded on my windpipe enough to not die, I looked up at her in disbelief. "You all placed bets on us getting together?"

She nodded insistently, like there was nothing against all wrong with that. "I thought it was quite obvious that people believed you would end up together. Naturally..." She chewed on some pork sausage. "I spent last winter with you, and based on how you acted about her, I imagined it would happen sooner than later. I've spent enough time alive to know how to spend my money." She carried on eating like nothing was wrong.

"Uh-huh..." I said, putting my fork down on my plate, processing all that.

I stood up from my table and a few quick strides later, I had made my way over to Annabeth, at the Athena table. I squeezed in between her and her siblings, making enough room for myself. "Hi." Annabeth said with a smile.

"Hi yourself." I replied, recalling my dream. It still mind of gave me butterflies in my stomach thinking about it. I shrugged that thought off and looked at Annabeth.

"Hey, did you know that some of the campers here put money on you and I going out?" Her face turned bright red. "They what?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Annabeth's sister Miriam leaned in from across the table. "Did it happen?" she asked, with enough interest to tell me that she also put money on it. I don't know how she had money to bet. She was thirteen. "When did you put money down for?" I asked. Miriam looked at the table. "September." she muttered meekly, looking anywhere but at is.

"Well, for whatever reason you're gambling, Miri, you just lost your money." I said, wrapping my arm around Annabeth, pulling her in tightly, and pressing a big kiss to her cheek.