The Nature of a Demigod

Fire and Fear

I felt tears forming in my eyes again, as Chiron sighed in relief. The first thing he said was, "I didn't know you could fly."

I laughed. Outside of that, I couldn't really think of something else to do with such a stupid moment. That had to be the worst thing he could have said to me after almost dying again.

But I went with it anyway, a weak chuckle following my words. "I didn't know either. You know my dad's crazy into flying. And Daedalus had some notes on flying machines. I just took my best guess in the controls." I said as I wiped the stinging sensation from my eyes.

"That explains a lot." he muttered, laying his head back against the concrete. He blinked some dirt out of his eyes, standing quickly, and as I went to reach out towards him, I was reminded of the wound hampering my shoulder.

"You saved my life," Rachel said to Y/N as he approached. I flexed my shoulder. "Yeah, well... let's not make a habit of it." I said, glaring at him. "What are you doing here, Dare? Don't you know better than to fly into a war zone?"

"I-" Rachel glanced at Percy. "I had to be here. I knew Percy was in trouble."

"Got that right," I grumbled. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have some injured friends I've got to tend to. Glad you could stop by, Rachel."

"Annabeth-" Y/N called. I grabbed his hand and stormed off. I guess he knew there was no choice, so he turned to them with an apologetic shrug, and walked away with me.

[Percy's POV]

Rachel plopped down on the curb and put her head in her hands. "I'm sorry, Percy. I didn't mean to... I always mess things up."

It was kind of hard to argue with her, though I was glad she was safe. "It's okay," I told Rachel, though my words sounded hollow. "So what's the message you wanted to deliver?"

She frowned. "How did you know about that?"

"A dream." Rachel didn't look surprised. She tugged at her beach shorts. They were covered in drawings, which wasn't unusual for her, but these symbols I recognized: Greek letters, pictures from camp beads, sketches of monsters and faces of gods. I didn't understand how Rachel could have known about some of that.

She'd never been to Olympus or Camp Half-Blood. "I've been seeing things too," she muttered. "I mean, not just through the Mist. This is different. I've been drawing pictures, writing lines-"

"In Ancient Greek," I said. "Do you know what they say?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I was hoping... well, if you had gone with us on vacation, I was hoping you could have helped me figure out what's happening to me." She looked at me pleadingly.

Her face was sunburned from the beach. Her nose was peeling. I couldn't get over the shock that she was here in person. She'd forced her family to cut short their vacation, agreed to go to a horrible school, and flown a helicopter into a monster battle just to see me.

In her own way, she was as brave as Annabeth.

But what was happening to her with these visions really freaked me out. Maybe it was something that happened to all mortals who could see through the Mist. But my mom had never talked about anything like that. And Hestia's words about Luke's mom kept coming back to me: May Castellan went too far. She tried to see too much.

"Rachel," I said, "I wish I knew. Maybe we should ask Chiron-" She flinched like she'd gotten an electric shock. "Percy, something is about to happen. A trick that ends in death."