𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑, percy jackson

CHAPTER 51! he wouldn't strangle percy the second he spotted him

they talked for a while about things like poseidon and all the cool things they could do together next summer.

then tyson's boss started yelling at him, saying he had to get back to work.

then, cherry started yelling at his boss for even thinking of slightly raising his tone at tyson.

tyson covered his ears.

when the iris message cut out, percy called his mother.

cherry stayed to greet her, and then let them have privacy.

« ───── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ───── »

cherry sat beside annabeth.

she nursed the red mug of hot chocolate in her hands.

grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about our strange encounter with the magic of pan. within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.

a couple of the senior campers, beckendorf, silena beauregard, the stoll brothers, and even clarisse were inside the big house.

"the important thing is you have prevailed. and you saved annabeth!" chiron encouraged them.

cherry was glad, but her mind kept going back to thalia.

she wished that the girl would show up and say hi. but she wouldn't.

annabeth smiled at percy gratefully, which made him look away.

"luke is alive." percy said. "annabeth was right."

annabeth sat up. "how do you know?"

he told annabeth and cherry what his father had told him at the olympus party.

"well." annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "if the final battle does come when percy is sixteen, at least we have two more years to figure something out."

chiron's expression was gloomy. sitting by the fire in his wheelchair, he looked really old.

"two years may seem like a long time," he said. "but it is the blink of an eye. i still hope you are not the child of the prophecy, percy. but if you are, then the second titan war is almost upon us. kronos's first strike will be here."

"how do you know?" percy asked. "why would he care about camp?"

"because the gods use heroes as their tools," chiron said simply. "destroy the tools, and the gods will be ruined. luke's forces will come here. mortal, demigod, monstrous.. we must be prepared. clarisse's news may give us a clue as to how they will attack, but-"

"oh, where's clarisse? i miss my girlfriend." cherry managed to joke.

percy made a face.

there was a knock on the door, and nico di angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red from the cold.

cherry smiled at him.

he was smiling, but he looked around anxiously. "hey! where's.. where's my sister?"

cherry's face fell.

dead silence.

everybody had been waiting for the group to appear, to tell nico in person.

that was the last thing percy wanted to do, but he owed it to bianca.

"hey, nico." percy got up from his comfortable chair. "let's take a walk, okay? we need to talk."