Celestial Bronze and Seraph Blades

Chapter 2: Warlocks Are Not Monsters

Percy's POV

After he doused the weird people with a wave, things started to blur together. He vaguely remembered fighting the blonde guy, and now here he was. Tied up in a chair with no idea what the heck was going on. Yippee.

"Was the wave really necessary?" Annabeth asked, wriggling in her binding. They must have taken our weapons, Percy thought belatedly. He felt in his pocket for Riptide, and his fingers touched the pen gratefully. Or at least they tried to.

"I told you, London was never a good place," Nico scowled. He was especially moody since Will had told him not to use shadow-magic or anything. If he could, then he would be gone already.

"I'm pretty sure I said that. Annabeth, how are we going to get out?" Percy asked, turning to his girlfriend.

She looked around. "Percy, you have Riptide?" He nodded. "You're going to need to cut through this rope first. It should be relatively easy."

Tyson was looking at the ropes holding them down. "I don't think this is regular twine," he said quietly. Percy looked down at the shiny material. Definitely not twine.

"It's electrum, made of both gold and silver," a girl said, walking into the room. She had long black hair, tied back expertly into a ponytail, and eyes so brown, they almost looked black, save for the speckles of lighter coloring. She had black high-heeled boots on with tight leather pants and a blood red blouse. Percy recognized her as the girl he first met.

"Imperial gold?" Tyson asked, looking at her with a wide eye.

She glared at him. "What? It's just gold and silver. No fancy name." She fingered the bracelets around her wrist and looked at the nail polish on her other hand. "Usually, we'd use adamas, but who knows what you are. Demon, Downworlder, mundane."

"You mean mortal," Percy said.

She turned her gaze to him. She was actually quite pretty. No, gorgeous. But the kind of gorgeous that ripped out your heart. In his opinion, Annabeth's beauty was perfect. "I mean exactly what I said." He matched her glare.

After a moment, the girl turned away. "I'll be back with Magnus."

Percy noticed Annabeth perk up. "He's probably not your cousin, Wise Girl," he said quietly. She nodded sadly and looked down.

They sat in silence for a moment before three people, the girl, the man who tried to murder Tyson, and another one, this one tan with slightly slanted eyes, probably exotic. The two men were arguing over something and the girl was rolling her eyes. Percy got some vague words, including, "-glitter-", "-apartment-", and a very frustrated "-Magnus!"

The girl cleared her throat and the two men turned to her, the pale one with a red face. She gestured to the four prisoners tied up in chairs, and the exotic one met Percy's eyes. For a second, Percy couldn't believe what he saw, then it was gone, and the man's eyes were brown again. "I know you," he said, a slight accent ringing in his voice. "You're Percy Jackson."

Percy's eyes widened, and he felt Annabeth tense. The other boy and girl looked surprised also. "You know me?" he said, trying to act calm.

"Yeah, how could I forget you? You blew up half of your schools! You were all over the news for a while." Percy flushed, remembering all of his failed schools. "I thought you lived in New York."

Percy nodded. "We all do. And, don't mind my asking, who are you?"

The man bowed slightly. "I am Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn." Percy turned to Annabeth. Warlock? "This is my boyfriend Alec Lightwood," he said, gesturing to the boy with black hair and deep blue eyes, almost the same color as Jason's. Percy saw Nico's eyes widen. "And that's his sister Isabelle." Isabelle scowled at them.