In which the daughter of Hephaestus risks it all to try and save her best friend...
JOAN JACKSON is the daughter of Hephaestus. She has spent her entire life on the run, but never alone. With her friends Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth she makes it to C...
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Chapter Eight Lessons In Makeup And Maiming
Luke had been sitting quietly in a small and broken marble shrine. He had Backbiter in one hand, and a curled fist in another. I walked up behind him, snapping a branch under the weight of my foot. Luke turned around, his eyes panicked as he scanned the stretching forest around us. He relaxed when he saw it was just me. "Joan, what are you doing here?" Luke asked, frowning.
"My father was actually there," I told him, "He's...he's trying to warn me about something." I stared at Luke as I felt my voice begin to break. I was breaking. Under all of this pressure, how everything was changing so quickly. "I don't know what he's trying to tell me," I rasped.
Luke's eyes shifted. He didn't seem surprised, which puzzled me. Did he know something big was happening as well? No, no he would have told me already. We told each other everything. "You're one of the smartest people I know," I admitted, "If anyone can figure it out, it's you."
"I think I already know what he's getting at," Luke told me. He motioned for me to sit down next to him. I sat close to him without hesitation. Luke was familiar. The way his body tensed, the way he fiddled with his hands, the way he breathed. I knew him as well as I did myself.
"Percy is a child of the Big Three," Luke explained, "He's probably warning you to stay away from him." That wasn't what I was expecting to hear. Percy had called Luke his friend. Percy trusted Luke, so why couldn't Luke do the same?
I frowned at Luke. "No, no, you can't say that," I told him firmly, "Thalia was our friend. We stuck by her side. We are not abandoning Percy."
"And she almost got you killed when the Minotaur was chasing us," Luke responded coolly, "She almost got all of us killed with all of the monsters hunting us down."
"She sacrificed herself for us!" I said, my voice rising.
Luke looked me in the eye with such intensity that I felt my entire body locked in his gaze. "For us? Or for the gods?" Luke said, "All of that power, and they still wouldn't let her use it to save herself."
"And what would you do with that kind of power, Luke? Save yourself, or save your friends?" I asked him imploringly. I needed to know.
"Myself," Luke said firmly, his eyes cutting into mine, "I know my friends would understand."
"And me? If it came between you or me, who would you pick?"
"Joan, that isn't fair-"
"Answer me, Luke!"
"You!" Luke snapped, his voice shaking, "I'd pick you! Are you happy?" He shot up. I had never seen Luke look so emotional, so angry, in our entire time we had been friends.
This pressure that had been weighing me down, I had a sense that the same had been happening to Luke. I stared up at him, his exasperated expression and the way he looked like he wanted to scream. I stood up slowly, my hands firm at my sides. What was he so stressed about?
