"Extra shot of nectar." I hear Grover whisper to the barista.
"Nectar?" Questions Tyson.
"If you haven't had, you haven't lived." Says Grover eyeing his nectar.
I shake my head and let out a laugh. My eyes focus on Annabeth. She obviously looks uncomfortable with Tyson being here. I just don't get why.
"Annie, whats wrong?" I ask her.
"Nothing." She says while staring at the ground waiting for her coffee.
"If it was nothing, I wouldn't have asked." I say as I place a hand on hers to show her that I am here to talk.
"Here we are!" Interrupts Grover as he hands all of us our coffee.
We all get up and make our way onto the sidewalk.
"This has to be the most fun I have ever had. Ever." Says Tyson making me look at him sympathetically.
"Anythings gotta be better than living in the woods right?" Says Percy.
"Living in the woods would've been fine if you were there. Every thing is better with a brother." He answers, still with a smile on his face.
"You know technically we don't have the same mom." Says Percy. I give him another glare and he holds his hands up in his defense.
"So, we're still brothers! I know! How cool is that?" Says Tyson.
"Arctic." Says Percy sarcastically.
I can't help but laugh, and give him a nudge on the shoulder. As we are walking, Grover and Annabeth stray behind.
"Its too sweet, don't you think?" I hear Annabeth say.
"No, nectars never too sweet." I laugh at Grover's comment.
"Hey! Get off of me!" I hear Grover scream and I quickly turn around to see three guys jump him and throw Annabeth to the side.
"Leave him alone!" I scream as I knee one guy in the stomach, but he takes out a baton and hits me in the back with it.
I let out a groan of pain as Percy lifts me up and helps me get to Grover with him.
"Percy!" Grover yells as he disappears into thin air.
"Was that Chris Rodriguez? How did they do that?" Says Annabeth.
"Back at camp, Luke said that there were other half-bloods who have turned." Says Percy.
"Turned? What do you mean turned?" I say with a shaky tone in my voice.
"To his side. Luke has Grover." Says Percy as he sighs and kicks a trash can.
"The oracle was right. Luke is going after the fleece. Thats why he needs a satyr." I say as I try to wrap my mind around why Luke wants the fleece.
"But what does Luke want with the fleece anyway?" Says Annabeth, basically reading my mind.
"I-I don't know." I say shakily as I try to catch my breath.
Percy grabs my hand and smiles at me. I quickly snap out of it and pull myself together.
"But, if we are gonna get Grover back, we have to find Luke." I say.
"But, we don't know where he is." Says Percy.
"I think I know someone who might." Says Annabeth gesturing for us to follow her.
We follow her to a UPS store. Percy and I exchange confused looks as Annabeth explains why we are here.
"You wanna find Luke? His dad will know where he is." She states.
As soon as she says this I can feel goosebumps on my arms. I'm meeting Luke's father. This isn't exactly the way I imagined it before. Before, I imagined Luke and I meeting his father together, since he has never met him himself. I have always known Luke's hatred towards his father. Its something that we share. We agreed on how stupid the 'no meeting your parents' rule Zeus set in place. He was the only one that was willing to do something about it, though. I don't know how to act when I meet him. I want to talk to him about Luke, but what would he know? He has never met him or known Luke the way I did, or thought I did.
"Olympic Parcel Service." Percy reads the sign as our dyslexia changes the letters.
He notices how nervous I am. Its too obvious. My hands are shaking and I can feel myself break into a sweat. Gods, I need to pull myself together.
"Hey, if you don't want to see him, you can wait out here." He says gently, but for some reason this angers me. Does Percy really think I'm that weak and fragile that I can't talk to Luke's dad.
"I'm fine." I say as I walk through the door.
One of the employees is talking to a customer.
"Overnight shipping to Hades. Gotcha." He says as he takes a shield out of the elderly woman's hands.
She walks out and we focus on the employee.
"Hi. We were hoping to speak with Hermes. About his son?" I ask, feeling a sudden boost of confidence after what Percy said.
"Oh, what has my son done now?" The worker groans.
It can't be.
"Your Hermes?" Asks Annabeth.
"A little insulted you didn't recognize me. My feelings may have even been hurt if I wasn't such a self-confident individual. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm killing these shorts." He says as he points proudly at his cargo shorts.
"Well, you guys definitely have something in common." I say trying to lighten myself up from meeting Luke's father.
"You know my son?" He asks.
"I thought I did." I say and he makes a weird look at me, but quickly brushes it off.
"Sir, we're looking for Luke because he attacked Camp Half-Blood and kidnapped our friend." Percy begins. "And we need your help and don't have a lot of time." Finishes Annabeth.
"Thats really cute how you finish each other's sentences." Says Hermes making me roll my eyes at his lack of seriousness, something I did with Luke too often. "Follow. You like this tie? I just bought it. Herms, of course. Check it out. State-of-the-art sorting, processing and packaging facility. If you can box it, we can ship it at the speed of... Well, me. We have plans to expand next year. We're finding we have some space issues. So picture this, only bigger." He says while gesturing his hands, a lot. "Don't touch that. We're the fastest-growing Olympian industry. It took a while to get up and running, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Trust me, I was there."
"We are kind of in a hurry, so if you could stop yapping about your 'industry' that would be fantastic." I say while Annabeth and Percy look at me like I'm crazy and Tyson just keeps smiling.
"Wow." Hermes says angry making us all think he is gonna go all god on us. "You have fire, I like it. Lemme guess...daughter of Athena?"
"Close. Daughter of Hades." I answer.
Annabeth looks offended by my comment, but I just watch Hermes' face go from joyful and charming, to terrified and humbled.
"Hmmm. You are the one I have heard the gods talking about. Your reputation seems to proceed you." He says vaguely.
"Hey! What does that mean-?" I start to say, but Percy cuts me off. "What she means to say is 'how do we find Luke?'" He says while putting his hand over my mouth.
I lick his hand and he turns to me and makes a face.
"You asked for it." I answer with a smile and he chuckles back.
"Come on! Give me a break!" We hear a voice say.
"Easy for you to say, Your Eminence. Actually, Martha, it's not easy for him. He's the god of freaking speed." Says another.
"Except he's not the one whose butt is stuck to a big silver stick forever!" Answers the other voice.
A staff is handed to Hermes with two live snakes on it who seem to be arguing. I look at Annabeth and she just shrugs.
"Hey, guys, what did I say? When we meet new people, protract your S's. it's more dramatic. Makes an impression." Says Hermes.
"I'm personally insulted. Snakes don't talk like that. It is a stereotype and it's offensive. Bad enough some of our relatives are hanging out with Medusa... turning people to stone." Says one of the snakes, unintentionally adding emphasis on the 's'.
"I love your hair. I wish my hair would do that." Says one of the snakes as she starts to hiss at my hair.
"Yeah, that will happen." Says the other one.
"Why don't you guys make yourselves useful? Demi-Google Luke for me. These kids are looking for him." Says Hermes.
"Why? Do they have a death wish?" Says one of the snakes.
I glance at him wondering why he would say that. Luke would never kill someone, thats not who he is.
"Luke, I don't know what to do about him. I've tried reaching out, but the kids angry. He's resentful." Hermes starts trying to explain, but is cut off by my scoffs.
Luke told me about his father. How he never bothered to reach out to him. Hermes, however, ignores me and begins to walk towards a conveyer belt with a lot of stuff on it.
"But, if you happen to cross paths with him, or Zeus forbid, swords, you may need one or two things to help." He begins opening a box and showing us mystical objects.
As he is speaking, I hear a voice in my head.
Join me. Rid yourself of your tragedy.
What is this? Who are you?
You deserve vengeance on them for what they did to you. Banishing you of your power. You are capable of beautiful things, but they hold you back because of fear.
Get out of my head. GET OUT!
"Hey? You okay?" Percy asks as he touches my arm.
I snap out of whatever trance I was in and look into his eyes. It was like I was somewhere else. But, who was I talking to? I might just be going crazy and I can't have Percy thinking any less of me than he already does.
"Yeah. Fine. Just zoned out a bit."
"Am I boring you, daughter of Hades?" Questions Hermes.
"No, course not. Your just soo interesting." I say sarcastically, but he just nods and prides himself on my 'compliment'.
"'Demi google Luke' He said. Except how am I supposed to type with any fingers." We hear one of the snakes ranting, again.
"So, you got a location for me?" Asks Hermes.
"Luke is on a boat called the Andromeda. Passing the Chesapeake Bay as we speak." Answers the snakes.
"Thank you." We all say in unison as we start to rush out of there.
"Hey, wait." Says Hermes, to me.
I was dreading this conversation.
Author's note
Wheww! Bet you had fun reading all of that. This chapter is by far the longest I have ever written. I just didn't know where to end it. BTW who do you ship Stella more with: Luke or Percy. Lmk in the comments! Much love!