THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES [J. GRACE]

TWENTY-FOUR

run, piper thought. we have to get out of here. but before she could even turn her thoughts into words, jason called, "hey, check it out!" from a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up a purple t-shirt like the one he'd worn on the school field trip, except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers. jason frowned. "why does this look so familiar?"

"jason, it's like yours," chandler told him simply, not even bothering to try, and yell at him to snap out of the spell anymore. the hephaestus girl had come to the conclusion that if they killed the woman, surely they'd break it. ever since, she'd just been tolerating jason, and leo, in their spelled states without an issue. "now we really have to leave." but piper wasn't sure the honey blonde could even hear chandler's voice anymore through the princess's enchantment.

"nonsense," the princess dismissed with a wave of her hand. "the boys aren't done, are they? and yes, my dear. those shirts are very popular. trade-in's from previous customers. it suits you."

leo picked up an orange camp half-blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion, acid, maybe? and a roman toga slashed to pieces, and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

"your highness," chandler said the title begrudgingly, in fact tacking on a little roll of her eyes at the sheer dramatics of the insistence of the title. piper could tell she didn't like calling this lady your highness as if she served her, or something. "why don't you tell the boys how you betrayed your family? i'm sure they'd like to hear that story."

her words didn't have any effect on the princess, but the boys turned, suddenly interested. "more story?" leo blinked at his sister, hanging on her every word finally.

"i like more story!" jason agreed with his best friend, giving a slight nod.

the princess flashed the hephaestus demigoddess an irritated look. "oh, one will do strange things for love, chandler. you should know that. i fell for that young hero, in fact, because your friend's mother, aphrodite, had me under a spell. if it wasn't for her, but i can't hold a grudge against a goddess, can i?" the princess's tone made her meaning clear: i can take it out on the both of you.

chandler rolled her eyes, and urged piper to start talking using her own magical voice. the aphrodite girl was glad even though her friend was suspicious of what the princess mentioned earlier, she still trusted piper, and it warmed her heart. "but that hero took you with him when he fled colchis," piper remembered the story, it was coming back to her after chandler had mentioned it. "didn't he, your highness? he married you just as he promised." the look in the princess's eyes made piper want to apologize, but she didn't back down.

"at first," her highness admitted, smoothing her fingers along her collarbone as if to soothe herself from the details of her morbid story, "it seemed he would keep his word. but even after i helped him steal my father's treasure, he still needed my help. as we fled, my brother's fleet came after us. his warships overtook us. he would have destroyed us, but i convinced my brother to come aboard our ship first, and talk under a flag of truce. he trusted me."

"and you killed your own brother," chandler said, the horrible story clearly, all coming back to her, along with a name, an infamous name that began with the letter m.

"what?" jason stirred. for a moment he looked almost like himself. "killed your own—"

"no," the princess snapped, then quickly composed herself after she recieved an offended look from jason at the tone. she cleared her throat, then tried once more. "those stories are lies. it was my new husband, and his men who killed my brother, though they couldn't have done it without my deception. they threw his body into the sea, and the pursuing fleet had to stop, and search for it so they could give my brother a proper burial. this gave us time to get away. all this, i did for my husband. and he forgot our bargain. he betrayed me in the end."