Lexi's POV
I saw Percy drop to his knees beside a girl with blonde hair who was lying on the floor. I could see the pain on his face under his hood, and though I felt remorse for the girl, I also felt a twinge of disappointment. Did Percy know this girl well? Had they been close?
I kept dropping Percy hints that I liked him, but like the seaweed brain he was, nothing was getting through that thick skull of his. No matter how close I sat to him at the Chaos table or how many little complements and tips I slipped him, there was no response at all. He still saw me as a little sister. I was stuck firmly in the friend zone and it was going to take some serious work to get out of it.
I knew that Annabeth girl had noticed something though. She kept shooting me evil glares and threatening motions, and jerking her head possessively in Percy's direction as though to say, keep back, he's mine.
But no matter how she glared, I was just enchanted by Percy. The way he moved, his sweet nature, his strength in battle, his hair... oh wow.
I was just the crazy one. To be honest, I liked being crazy, and it wasn't going to stop soon, that's just what I am, but it felt like I was being judged. I was the one in the corner, the pit stop.
Percy, Nico, Luke and Adalind were the dream team, working sinuously to kick evil in the nuts while I taught eight year olds how to hold a bow without dislocating their shoulders.
I was brought back to the real world with a jolt as a warm hand landed on my shoulder.
"Hey Lexi, are you OK? You look out of it."
It was Percy. Though his eyes were full of sadness and grief, he put on a brave smile.
Like always.
"Who was she?" I whispered, casting my eyes over the motionless figure on the floor.
"Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter. She had been Travis Stoll's girlfriend for four hundred and sixty seven years. They were the only couple not to break up apart from Frank and Hazel, and they're at Camp Jupiter."
I gasped in horror. I had never met any of Percy's old friends, but he had told me a lot about them. I couldn't believe I had not recognized Katie from all of Percy's descriptions. My heart curled in shame.
Percy was still talking, and I looked up at him as he said,
"...suspicious. Two attacks in one day. We rarely get attacked at all, and we had no protection. The hellhounds could get through the barrier and the vines appeared inside. What should we do?"
He looked at me, and I could see desperation on his face. This was his home and I could tell that the attacks were upsetting him as much as anyone else.
I thought about everything I had been through in the army.
"First," I said thoughtfully, "We need lookout posts around the camp in case of another attack. Morning and night, twenty-four hours a day. I'd say there should be at least one Chaos warrior keeping watch at a time. We also need to find possible links between the attacks. I suggest we call a meeting to discuss ideas."
Percy smiled, and I felt myself melting under his grateful gaze.
"I knew you'd have the answer." he said softly.
***
Percy's POV
I headed off to the big house with the other four and we took seats around the long table. I looked around, seeing more familiar faces like Nyssa, who had obviously taken over the role of counselor in the absence of Leo, Clarisse, looking as murderous as ever, and Butch from the Iris cabin. I noticed he kept shooting Clarisse furtive looks out of the corner of his opalescent eye.
"Okay." I called. The table fell respectfully silent, apart from Grover, who was snacking on tin cans.
"I called this meeting to discuss the recent attacks, and try to find a link between them. We need to find a pattern so we can predict these attacks before it's too late."
Murmuring. Then, a voice from the end of the table asked, "How do you know there's a link at all?"
It was Thalia, who was obviously visiting the camp with the hunters. I still found it disturbing that she didn't look a day older than sixteen.
"I think we can all agree," I replied, "That two attacks in one day is not normal. Something weird is happening. I... I can feel it."
It was true. It was only now that I realized that a cold chill had been haunting me for weeks. Something big was about to happen, and for a demigod or even a chaos warrior, that's not good.
I was just about to say something else when my head snapped to the side. A derisive snort had just come from the end of the table, and my eyes locked in on Nicolas, who was sitting sideways on his chair with his dirty trainers of the table, eating a powdery something from a bag. I was about to ask him what his problem was when I realized the bag was labeled Monster Donuts'. Oh no.
"Where did you get that!?" I asked in alarm, staring at the bag in Nicolas' hands.
"Where do you think, duh brain? From the shop in the forest." He waved his hand vaguely towards the wood surrounding the cabins that was visible out the large windows of the big house.
I jumped to my feet. So did the other Chaos warriors and unsurprisingly, Annabeth.
The others just looked confused.
We ran out of the big house and into the woods. Once we were in far enough it was easy to find the shop, we just followed our noses and arrived at a huge, pink-and-white building in an area of the forest that no one really went into. I could see a baby telekhine with his nose in a box, and a dracaena at the counter, but apart from them in was deserted.
"How did Nicolas get in?" Annabeth whispered to the air behind us. "Only monsters can get in."
I laughed under my breath. I guess being a son of Kronos made you a monster, in a way. I didn't like thinking like that, but Nicolas had long since proved what side he was on.
"This must be how the hellhounds could get through the barrier!" Annabeth continued. "They were drawing power from a source inside the camp - like a secret entrance for monsters."
Though I didn't like admitting that Annabeth was right, it made sense. She was the daughter of Athena, after all.
If the monsters had a source of power within the camp - a power for monsters only - it would explain not only how they got in, but also why we couldn't sense its aura. Usually something that powerful has a sort of pulsing energy around it. I recalled how I had felt when I was standing near the Athena Parthenos, or even further back, teetering on the edge of the hole to Tartarus in my dreams.
"How do we destroy it?" I asked her.
She thought to herself for a moment, then said, "There should be one monster the shop draws its power from. I'd expect it's inside, but we'd have to break the magical barrier that only lets monster through."
"Easy." I muttered, and waved my hand. A ripple passed through the surrounding area like a heat-haze, and then vanished. "Gone."
"Sooo..." said Luke tentatively, "Go in, find big monster, kill big monster, go out."
"Yup." I replied.
"Oh joy."
We walked right up to the shop, but before we could enter the dracaena spotted us. With a hiss of alarm, the monster reached behind the counter and pressed a small blue button on the edge of the desk.
Immediately, alarm bells blared and the lights flashed. The tiny telekhine, no bigger than a kitten, looked up in wide-eyed alarm, and it looked so sweet I forgot it was a monster. I scooped it up while the others were distracted with the dracaena, and slipped it into my cloak. It wiggled slightly, then lay still.
I looked up. The dracaena was long gone thanks to Luke's sword, but even as the yellow dust settled, two doors on either side of the counter swung open. I had thought they led to storerooms of some sort, but they were obviously an extra security measure.
Two huge, feathery balls of fire seemed to be hovering in the doorways. They were swirling and burning with red hot sparks flying off them. The heat radiating from them was incredible, and a hot wind was blowing my cloak.
Phoenixes.
I knew that these birds couldn't be killed, but they were obviously not in the mood to come to a peaceful arrangement. They were making an awful shrieking noise that bounced off the walls and reverberated inside my ears like a drum roll. The only option was to reduce them to their newborn state, tiny helpless chicks.
I uncapped Riptide. Everyone here knew my identity, so there was no point in hiding my favourite sword. It spiralled into life with the familiar whoosh! and I felt a slight reassurance.
I knew that monsters didn't like the sight of celestial bronze, and the phoenixes were no exception. They squawked at the sight of it, their ruby red eyes widening in alarm below a plume of fiery feathers.
Luke pulled his chaotic silver sword, swiftwind, out of its sheath and Nico grabbed his staff. He fights with a sword sometimes, but he prefers this staff. It's like two metres high and it's full of dark power, and it collapses like Thalia's spear, so it's really awesome. One touch of it, and all you'll want to do is give up and cry.
While Nico, Lexi and Luke took one phoenix, me, Annabeth and Adalind took the other. Annabeth trapped it so it couldn't get back into the storeroom, and Adalind blew perfect fire at it so it stayed in one place while I slashed at it. Though phoenixes are creatures of flame, perfect fire is the ultimate element, and it doesn't give two sh*ts who it burns.
The phoenix had a temporary advantage. I couldn't fly, as the space was too small and there was too much fire in the air. The phoenix, however, was as agile as a gymnast, swooping and diving unharmed through (most of) the flames, able to avoid my wild swings easily.
I decided I had to kick it up a notch. The obvious opponent to fire is water, and luckily for me, water is my speciality.
I used my storm to create a mini hurricane in the restaurant, and through the howling winds and raging rain I shot handfuls of narrow, carefully aimed jets of water at the phoenix's eyes and exposed underbelly as it flew overhead. I managed to catch it a few times, and each time I did its flame seemed to dim a little until it looked like the bird was glowing, like it had molten lava bubbling away under its skin. When it flew into the clouds I had created I could see a faint glow darting around like a moth to candlelight.
"One more shot should do it." Adalind said in my head, blowing a mouthful of fire so the phoenix flew closer to me.
I filled my hands with water as though my palms had freshwater rivers running through them. Soon I had two fairly large bubbles of water in my hands, ready to fire.
All I needed was a target.
As the bird flew over me, I looked up just in time and fired my jets of water straight at its underside.
A shriek, and then, as though it was its last chance to stay alight, it burst into a dazzling display or red and gold flames, a ball of writhing and twisting light, before crumbling into ashes. I was just in time to watch the remains stir, and to see a tiny baby bird poke its head up from the dust, with large eyes and small, leathery wings, not a feather on it and crooning helplessly.
I felt a little guilty.
The other three had already dealt with their phoenix. Luke had a nasty gash across his sword hand, and Nico had a shallow scratch across his cheek. At first I thought Lexi was unharmed before she tried to take a step towards me and her foot gave way beneath her.
Quick as lightning I was by her side, and caught her just before she hit the floor. Her eyes had rolled back in her head, and her hand was limp, though I could feel a steady pulse beating in her wrist.
"What happened?" I asked to the other two, still supporting Lexi on my knee.
"The phoenix was about to scratch my throat out," said Luke, "And Lexi jumped in front of me. I got this," He pointed to the back of his hand at the rapidly swelling wound, "But the back of the bird's claw hit her. She flew backwards and hit the counter, and I think she broke her ankle. She probably collapsed from exhaustion, you know she trained for a week straight before coming here?"
I grimaced. I had heard a lot from chaos about the warriors overstretching themselves. "Never take more than you can handle." Though chaos warriors could go several weeks without sleep, that was provided they didn't get into massive fights or do a lot of exhausting training. Lexi had already been here three days, that made ten days of nonstop training and fighting. Definitely not good.
"We better get back to the meeting." I said, looking around at the trashed shop. Annabeth, who had been closest to the hurricane I had created, looked particularly ruffled, and I couldn't help remembering what she looked like in Tartarus. Messy, bloody, dirty... but beautiful.
I shook my head. The main problem was Lexi. I looked down at her, and I could just see the edges of her bright orange irises under her top eyelid, which was twitching slightly, her long red eyelashes fluttering ever so lightly.
I picked her up bridal style, and walked out of the shop, holding her like she was made of china and making my strides quicker, more urgent. I had to make sure Lexi was OK.
Lexi's POV
I felt a pair of warm arms carrying me, and smelt the sea.
I didn't open my eyes, because I knew Percy thought I was still out. I was exhausted, but I had just enough energy to enjoy the feeling of being carried so softly.
I could feel the presence of Luke, Nico and Adalind too. It was comforting to know they were there. I even didn't mind that Annabeth girl being around that much. I shouldn't really hate her because she broke up with Percy and she wants him back, should I? I mean, any girl would, but Percy was really angry with her.
Even if Percy was a little pissed, I decided, in that very moment while I was being carried through the woods, surrounded by friends, that I was going to make her one of them.
I was going to give her a chance.
Hi Peoples!
I hope you enjoyed that chapter.
I know it's a bit shorter than usual but I have seven exams and I was really desperate to update so yeah.
So, Percy's kinda stuck between two girls huh?
Plz comment, just for this book,
Who do you ship?
Percabeth, or,
Lercy?
plz tell me!
Cheers,
catgirlxxx