A/N: I'm sorry I updated so late today! I was so busy ready fanfiction at night yesterday that I slept at like 1 am. 🤣🤣🤣 Anyways, here's the chapter, and I hope you enjoy it!
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Ally's mouth dropped open in surprise. "W-what?"
"Using elder python venom," Alabaster called unhelpfully from his position. "Straight from the depths of Tartarus. It has no cure, except for the fleece."
"Shut up," I snapped. "You're not helping."
"Sorry, sis, just doing my duty as a lieutenant to keep my subordinates informed."
"Enough," Luke cut in before I could retort something back, and I snapped my mouth shut with a glare at Alabaster, who flinched and quickly turned around.
I grinned to myself.
Ally watched our exchange with raised brows but didn't say anything, clearly too preoccupied with the information that my idiot of a brother had just dumped on her. "So, what's the plan?" she ventured, glancing at Luke whose face was still shadowed.
"Go to camp. Luke sneaks in. Poisons tree. He goes back to the Andromeda. We wait for a quest to be issued. Head to Miami. Wait some more. Ambush them when they come back, take the fleece, heal him, and give it back to them," I responded.
"Wait, wait, hold on," Ally said, holding her hand out. "Hold on." She took a deep breath. "Say it again. Slower this time, and with more detail."
I heaved a sigh. I was sure sighing a lot these days.
I hope that what they say about ageing a year every time you sigh was just normal superstition of the mortar world, and not because there was some sort of life-sucking monster that had crawled out of Tartarus some centuries before and fed off the life of poor mortals through their sighs.
That would suck.
"We go to camp,-" I started.
"Just tell her on the ship, Ri," Luke said absentmindedly. "We're almost there anyway."
I glanced to the side to see the looming silhouette of the Princess Andromeda drawing closer, and forced a smile to my face. "Yeah, okay."
I flashed Ally a forced grin. "I'll give you a tour and we can talk about it then, alright?"
Ally nodded, staring up at the giant cruise ship in awe and excitement. "Sounds great."
The ship loomed closer and closer, and when we entered the shadow of the ship, Alabaster cut the engine, plunging us into silence, broken only by the lapping waves.
I stared up at the ship, feeling a weird swirl of emotions within me that left me numb and devoid of any emotion, which made no sense. It was sort of like facing an enemy that you knew you couldn't defeat without fear, I suppose, that left you with such a feeling of disconnectedness with the rest of the world.
Unbidden, I shivered. The shadow that the ship plunged us to felt too real; more than just a mere shadow. Chills ran up my spine, and I gritted my teeth to avoid releasing the whip curled around my wrist. The constant edge I had to tread on the ship had led to me wearing my whip in its natural form at all times, and I always carried at least four daggers wherever I went, though my blades and other whip were still hidden away.
"It's a bit chilly," Luke said, placing a hand on my back, "You okay?"
I blinked. What? "Oh, it's just the breeze," I managed, remembering that shiver that had penetrated me a moment ago. "I'm good, but it would be great if someone could get us around to the ladder."
Luke sighed. "Will you and Alabaster please just stop sniping at each other? You guys are waging a war against each other, and I need my two lieutenants to be," he paused, glancing at me, and said, "united. Like family."
Alabaster snorted. "Sorry, sir. You're going to have to wait quite a while."
Luke rolled his eyes. "Oh, please, I have three more years to do that. I can be patient."
"Guys, that's the ladder, right?" Ally interjected, pointing at the white steel ladder that had come into view as we rounded the ship. "And, also, I'm still here, you know."
"Sorry," Luke, Alabaster, and I said at the same time.
Ally snorted. "Whatever."
Luke grabbed onto the ladder as we drifted by, halting the boat, and tied the rope to the bottom rung.
"Alabaster, you first," he said.
Alabaster nodded and grabbed onto the bottom rung, lifting himself onto the ladder. I motioned Ally to follow after he had climbed up a few rungs, and she started up carefully.
"Meet me in my cabin after you give Ally a tour," Luke murmured to me before reaching over and hoisting himself onto the rungs.
I nodded silently. Luke nodded to me and started to climb.
I grabbed onto the rung, but stopped and glanced at the water.
Left alone in the boat, in the ship's shadow and the waves lapping softly, I wished, not for the first time, that the path I was treading could have been different. The light sparkled on the water in the sunlight, barely a meter away from where I was, still standing in the shadow.
The silence was suffocating.
"Ri! You coming or not?" Luke called. I glanced up to see him halfway up the ladder peering down at me.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," I said, plastering a smirk on my face. "I'm just waiting for you to put some distance between us because you climb too slow."
"Hellish woman," I heard Luke mutter as he started to climb again. "Just because you won once-"
"Just accept that you lost," I retorted. "And deal with it."
I glanced at the lapping waves one last time and sighed. "Okay, here we go. Back onto the ship of damnation," I muttered silently. Forcing all thoughts of Clarianna into the back of my mind firmly and locking the door, I stepped onto the ladder.
Gripping the rung with one hand, I stretched my other towards the speed boat and said, "Κλείσε." Close. In a flash of black light, the ship disappeared, a hand-sized model of it appearing in my hand. I tucked the toy into my pocket and started to climb.
"Need help?" Luke called from where he was standing next to the double doors amidst the yellow lifeboats as I emerged over the edge of the boat.
"Nope," I responded, flipping deftly over the railing. My eyes glanced over Ally, who was waiting next to Luke, her fidgeting belying her nervousness, Alabaster, who was as devoid of expression as ever, and Luke, who was grinning at me like we had a secret (which we did) with his blue eyes sparkling mischievously.
"So?" I asked, purposefully ignoring the blonde in the corner. "Why are you guys all just standing there?"
"Waiting. For you," Alabaster responded. "Because you took forever to get up here."
"You could have just gone on without me," I said.
"You know I wouldn't have allowed that," Luke said, reaching for the door. His brows furrowed in concentration and, after a moment, I heard the lock click open. Luke sighed. "Why does this lock have to be so complicated? It's a pain in the ass to open every single time someone leaves the ship."
He flung open the door. "Ally, Ri will give you a tour. But first, we have to get you introduced to the rest of the crew and get you settled in."
"You up for it?" I asked Ally.
She nodded. "Yeah. Nervous, but I'm good."
I grinned. "Great. Then, welcome aboard the Princess Andromeda."
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