SEA GREEN [PERCY JACKSON X HARRY POTTER]

#18

"Who's 'they'?"

"Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. They all looked panicked when they came out to see me."

Annabeth stuffed her textbooks into her bag. "Is this revenge for not telling them about Percy?"

"You didn't tell them about me?"

"Of course, I didn't! What did you want me to tell them?" Annabeth exclaimed incredulously, smacking Percy with a book she hadn't put in her bag yet. "What do you think their reactions would be if I told them that you drank too much Nectar?! They would have more questions than I could handle!"

Percy lowered his head and grinned. "Right, sorry."

"Travis is still gone," Katie reminded them impatiently, blowing her hair out of her face. "We have to find him!"

"We'll find him, Katie," Annabeth reassured.

"We'd better," Percy added. "If he decides to pull a Percy or Jason I will personally kick him in the face."

"Save a punch for me," Katie said.

She pulled Percy and Annabeth along, roaming the halls of Hogwarts, Travis nowhere to be found or seen.

"Woah," Katie breathed as she slammed into two other bodies. "Sorry."

"It's fine, Katie."

"Will, Nico. Perfect timing," she smiled. "Could you help us find Travis?"

"What's wrong?" Nico asked. Everyone noticed how close he and Will were standing, but they didn't mention it. Nico seemed to realise it too, because he shifted and moved away from Will subtly.

"He's missing. We don't know where he is," Percy said, explaining the obvious. "Hence why we're finding him."

"You sure he's not just fooling around?" Will offered uncertainly.

Katie threw her hands up in frustration. "I just have this feeling... It's not good."

But it was more than that. But she was too scared to share it with her peers. She was scared the Eidolon would make use of her before she got rid of it.

"Some brave demigod," she thought to herself. She hated that she was terrified, but she knew she should've expected it when she volunteered for the quest.

She hadn't seen Travis for hours. At first, she didn't feel anything strange, but almost an hour ago, the Eidolon started laughing in her head. She had been put off by that.

"Where do you think he'll be?"

"If he's captured? Somewhere underground. It's harder to escape that way," Nico said.

"Tell them about the hidden passage under the Astronomy Tower, Gardner." the Eidolon instructed.

"Is Travis there?"

There was no answer. Still, Katie tried her luck.

"I heard about an underground cave from some eighth-years. It's under the Astronomy Tower," Katie claimed.

Percy snapped his fingers. "We'll search there first."

They made their way past groups of students, quickening their pace when the Astronomy Tower was in sight.

"Why are there so many students?" Percy complained as a girl pushed past him rather rudely.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth chided. "We're already here."

There was no time to stare in awe at the magnificent structure that was the Astronomy Tower, so they jogged over to the stairs at an attempt to find a secret entrance.

Katie kicked the walls in frustration after several minutes of searching, her worry and anger getting to her.

She was worried for Travis, that stupid idiot. She was worried for him, and he had the nerve to disappear just like that.

She was angry with herself; with the Eidolon in her mind. She was angry with it because it was a coward. It hid in the depths of her thoughts, suggesting ideas that she knew were wrong and then threatening her when she refused to comply.

Granted that the Eidolon couldn't fight the demigods physically, Katie couldn't see how she was wrong. The Eidolons were cowards that played with their minds to get what they wanted, instead of battling it out.

However, Katie failed to realise one more thing.

By heeding the Eidolon's words and choosing to keep its presence in her mind a secret, Katie was being the exact thing she was labelling the Eidolons.

She was being a coward.