The Siren of the Summer Tide🌺Percy Jackson

XII 🐹 Daphne Finds Paradise Again! (1)

"He may have survived," Annabeth said halfheartedly. "I mean, fire can't kill him."

Percy nodded, but Daphne knew they had no reason to feel hopeful. That explosion had ripped through solid iron. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was no way he could've lived.

He'd given his life for them all, and Daphne was instantly ashamed about how awkward she had acted around him.

Waves lapped at the boat. Annabeth brought Daphnes attention back to them and showed her and Percy  some things she'd salvaged from the wreckage: Hermes's thermos (now empty), a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors' shirts and a bottle of Dr Pepper. But Daphne's bag was lost to sea. Luckily, her disposable camera was slipped into her hoodie pocket - and although soaked, Daphne had already snapped a picture of Percy drooling in his sleep to test if it still worked. Apparently, it did. But in the wreckage of the duffel bags there was also a small packet of tablets, probably paracetamol, which made Daphne blink in confusion.

She poked the packet of tablets. "What're these?"

Percy glanced up. "I didn't want to use them yet. Hermes said something... that they were going to be useful 'for your unclaimed friends journey'. It sounded important, but I didn't want to stress you out about them."

Annabeth stared at him in pity, realising something before either of the other two did. "Percy..."

"Yeah?"

"And you're telling me this now?" Daphne snapped. She sat forward and squinted at the packet, reading the fine lining at the bottom and scoffing, "Oh, great!"

"What's up?" Percy said defensively. "I didn't want to worry you-"

"Worry me with Hermes' anti Sea Illness pills?" Daphne scoffed. "Oh- you-"

She swore colourfully in Ancient Greek before taking one of the tablets. They must've been some sort of magic, because instantly, the haze in her vision cleared up as though she'd wiped her eyes after crying. The lump in her throat was a lot smaller and the swirling pit of nausea in her stomach had as good as disappeared.

After realising that Daphne could've been cured from her crippling seasickness a good few days ago, she really didn't seem to be in a talking mood. She sulked on the other side of the boat and glared at Percy whenever he tried to engage her in conversation. Already in a bad mood, he glared back at her.

Annabeth looked between the two of them nervously. She really didn't like having to sit in the middle of another one of their weird arguments - and being stuck on a small raft in the middle of the ocean with no escape wasn't the best place to be between them.

Annabeth explained to Percy that she'd fished him out of the water and found his knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla's teeth. She didn't mention how Daphne was passed out on the raft the whole time, which she was pretty grateful about. Most of his stuff had floated away, but he still had Hermes's bottle of multivitamins, and of course, his loyal Riptide. The ballpoint pen always appeared back in his pocket no matter where he lost it. Daphne checked the pocket to her now extremely ripped jeans and - yep - her lipgloss was tucked into the bottom.

They sailed on for hours. Now that they were actually in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too - as if a thunderstorm of blood was coming. Or something even more dangerous, which Daphne couldn't even muster the imagination to think about right now.

Somehow, Percy knew what direction they needed to go. He told them that they were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of their destination, but that didn't make any of them feel any less lost.