***
We once again found ourselves on the landing of the stairs, overlooking where we walked through. Hylla led us back down and deeper into the spa. Annabeth is beside me, still in amazement at our surroundings.
I unconsciously reach my hand out to the plant box lining the path, running my hand along the edge of a leaf. Before my eyes, it seems to die at my touch, spreading from my fingers to the rest of the plant. I pull away quickly and let out a quiet gasp.
The leaf is now brown and dry, as if a single touch of mine could turn it to dust.
I froze, realizing what I had done.
"What the..." I begin, turning to Annabeth. After a moment she realizes that I am not walking with her, she looks for me. We make eye contact and she shakes her head as if coming to her senses.
Did I just do that? Did I just kill that plant with a touch?
My friend looks between me and the plant, not making the connection. She just thinks that the dead plant was out of place, but not that I caused it to die.
Hylla realizes that we both stopped following her, and gives us questioning looks. My eyes flick to the plant before I could stop, and she looks between me and the plant, having an idea of what happened.
"We'll get you some gloves, dear." Hylla tells me, earning a confused glance from Annabeth. "Let's keep going."
***
We enter a room almost as grand as C.C.'s.
One of the ladies sits me in front of a large mirror. She begins to undo my messy braid, though there isn't much of it left. I wince and she brushes it, getting the larger knots out.
"Let's start by washing your hair, then we'll get you changed." She tells me, looking at my reflection in the mirror. "How does that sound?"
Before I answer Hylla comes back with a pair of white gloves in her hands. "Sienna, these are for Lillian."
The girl who stood behind me- Sienna -looked between her and I, but just took the gloves without questioning it. She set them in front of me, but didn't put them on yet.
Instead she finished with my hair, taking the rubber band and placing them on the table. Sienna washed and straightened my hair, taking stands of a gold material and tying it in with small braids before putting my hair in one main braid.
She applied a light layer of makeup to my face, and I resisted the urge to push her away.
"What do you think?" she asked, spinning me in the chair to face the mirror.
"Wow," I breathe. "I look..."
"Beautiful," she finishes, and I nod in agreement.
***
When she was done, I was dressed in a sleeveless dress. It was like C.C.'s, only mine was the same whaite as the streak in my hair. Annabeth was dressed the same, hair braided with the same gold as mine. It was strange to see Annabeth in makeup, because I never thought it was something I would see.
Sienna had covered up the scar on my forearm from Pitch, because the gloves only covered half of it.
I sat beside Annabeth in the spa as she got her nails painted. The place was so relaxing, I could have sworn I dozed off for a few minutes.
***
Eventually we went back to see C.C. We waited outside her room for a moment, but Annabeth was the one to speak up. "Miss C.C.?"
I could hear C.C. curse in Ancient Greek from the other side of the door, but I didn't pay attention as to why. It wasn't like I didn't on occasion.
We walked into the room, and I frowned. "Where's Percy?"
C.C. smiled. "He's having one of our treatments, my dear. Not to worry. You look wonderful! What did you think of your tour?"
Annabeth's eyes brightened. "Your library is amazing!"
"I was just about to say that, actually," I tell C.C.
"Yes, indeed," C.C. said. "The best knowledge of the past three millennia. Anything you want to study, anything you want to be, my dear Annabeth."
"An architect?" For a moment I was confused. Annabeth knew that she always wanted to be an architect.
"Pah!" C.C. said. "You, my dear, have the makings of a sorceress. Like me. You too, Lillian."
Annabeth took a step back. "A sorceress?"
"Yes, my dear." C.C. held up her hand. A flame appeared in her palm and danced across her fingertips. "My mother is Hecate, the goddess of magic. I know a daughter of Athena when I see one. We are not so different, you and I. We both seek knowledge. We both admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men."
"You're my sister?" I ask, surprised.
"I- I don't understand." Annabeth said.
When my friend said this, I could hear one of the guinea pigs in the cage going crazy. I was about to brush it off, but something told me not too.
"Stay with me," C.C. told us. "Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, learn to bend others to your will. You will become immortal!"
"But-" I go to argue.
"You are too intelligent, my dear," C.C. said. "You know better than to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-blood heroes can you name?"
"Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart-"
She cut Annabeth off. "Bah! Men get all the glory." C.C. closed her fist and extinguished the magic flame. "The only way to power for women is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful women! And me, of course. The greatest of all."
"You're Circe!" I say, realizing who this woman was.
"Yes, my dear." Annabeth and I backed up, and Circe laughed.
"You need not worry. I mean you no harm."
"What have you done to Percy?"
"Only helped him realize his true form."
My eyes went wide as I realized what I was hearing just moments before was Percy.
"Forget him," Circe said. "Join me and learn the ways of sorcery."
"But-" Annabeth began.
"Your friend will be well cared for. He'll be shipped to a wonderful new home on the mainland. The kindergartners will adore him. Meanwhile, you will be wise and powerful. You will have all you ever wanted."
My eyes darted between Percy and Annabeth. Percy was a guinea pig, while Annabeth had a dreamy expression on her face.
"Let me think about it," Annabeth murmured. "Just...give us a minute alone. To say goodbye."
"Of course, my dear," Circe cooed. "One minute. Oh...and so you have absolute privacy..." She waved her hand and iron bars slammed down over the windows. She swept out of the room and I heard the locks on the door click shut behind her.
The dreamy look melted off Annabeth's face.
She rushed over to the cage, me right behind her. "All right, which one is you?" She asked Percy.
All of the guinea pigs squealed, which didn't help. I looked around the room and spotted the cuff of Percy's jeans sticking out from under the loom.
I rummaged through his pockets until I found what I was looking for. Hermes multivitamins.
Once I got the cap off, I gave one to Annabeth, who realized what I was doing. She and I ate them at the same time, and immediately I could feel the magic wearing off. The door flew open and Circe came back in, flanked by two of her business-suited attendants.
"Well," Circe sighed, "how fast a minute passes. What is your answer, my dear?"
"This," Annabeth said, and she drew her bronze knife. I took off my bracelet and held the sword in my hand, grateful for the weight.
The sorceress stepped back, but her surprise quickly passed. She sneered. "Really, little girls, a knife and sword against my magic? Is that wise?"
"Here's what you don't understand." I told her, meeting her eyes. "You aren't the only one with magic here."
Circe looked back at her attendants, who smiled. They raised their hands as if preparing to cast a spell.
"What will their makeover be?" Circe mused. "Something small and ill-tempered. I know...a shrew!"
Blue fire coiled from her fingers curling like serpents around Annabeth and I. Nothing happened to me. When I realized this, I looked over, but Annabeth was still Annabeth.
"Holy Hecate it actually worked." I mutter.
"You weren't sure?" Annabeth hissed. I made a face, telling her we can discuss this later.
"How!" Circe yelped.
I held up my bottle of vitamins for the sorceress to see.
Circe howled in frustration. "Curse Hermes and his multivitamins! Those are such a fad! They do nothing for you."
"Obviously they do something. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now," I told her. "Turn Percy back or else."
"I can't!"
"Then you asked for it."
Circe's attendants stepped forward, but their mistress said, "Get back! She's immune to magic until that cursed vitamin wears off."
Annabeth and I dragged Circe over to the guinea pig cage, knocked the top off, and poured the rest of the vitamins inside. Quickly I grabbed one, just in case Percy wasn't able to get one.
"No!" Circe screamed.
Percy was apparently one of the first to get a vitamin, because he was quickly on the floor back in human clothes. Thankfully, he was somehow back in his regular clothes. Six other guys sat beside him who all looked disoriented, blinking and shaking wood shavings out of their hair.
I tossed the vitamin in the cage for another guinea pig.
"No!" Circe screamed. "You don't understand! Those are the worst!"
One of the men stood up- a huge guy with a long tangled pitch-black beard and teeth the same color. He wore mismatched clothes of wool and leather, knee-length boots, and a floppy felt hat. The other men were dressed more simply- in breeches and stained white shirts. All of them were barefoot.
"Argggh!" bellowed the big man. "What's the witch done t'me!"
"No!" Circe moaned.
Annabeth gasped. "I recognize you! Edward Teach, son of Ares?"
"Aye, lass," the big man growled. "Though most call me Blackbeard! And there's the sorceress what captured us, lads. Run her through, and then I mean to find me a big bowl of celery! Arggggh!"
Circe screamed. She and her attendants ran from the room, chased by the pirates.
Annabeth sheathed her knife and glared at Percy.
"Thanks..." He faltered. "I'm really sorry-" Before he could say anything else, she tackled him with a hug, then pulled away just as quickly.
"I'm glad you're not a guinea pig."
"I am too." I told him as I gave him a hug, though not quite as short as Annabeth.
Annabeth and I undid the golden braids in our hair.
"Come on, Seaweed Brain," she said. "We have to get away while Circe's distracted."
We ran down the hillside through the terraces, past screaming spa workers and pirates ransacking the resort. Blackbeard's men broke the tiki torches for the luau, threw herbal wraps into the swimming pool, and kicked over tables of sauna towels.
I almost felt bad letting the unruly pirates out, but I guessed they deserved something more entertaining than the exercise wheel after being cooped up in a cage for three centuries.
"Which ship?" Annabeth said as we reached the docks. I looked around desperately. We couldn't very well take our rowboat. We had to get off the island fast, but what else could we use?
"There," Percy said.
Annabeth blinked. "But-"
"I can make it work."
"How?" I ask him.
Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her toward the three-mast ship. Painted on its prow was the name: Queen Anne's Revenge. I ran after my friends, eager to leave.
"Argggh!" Blackbeard yelled somewhere behind us. "Those scalawags are a-boarding me vessel! Get 'em, lads!"
"We'll never get going in time!" I yelled as we climbed aboard.
I looked around at the hopeless maze of sail and ropes. The ship was in great condition for a three-hundred-year old vessel, but it would still take a crew of fifty several hours to get underway. We didn't have several hours. I could see the pirates running down the stairs, waving tiki torches and sticks of celery.
"Mizzenmast!" Percy yelled, startling me. Annabeth and I both looked at him like he was crazy, but in the next second, the air was filled with the sound of f ropes being snapped taut, canvases unfurling, and wooden pulleys creaking.
Annabeth ducked as a cable flew over her head and wrapped itself around the bowsprit. "Percy, how..."
Percy didn't answer. The Queen Anne's Revenge lurched away from the dock, and by the time the pirates arrived at the water's edge, we were already underway, sailing into the Sea of Monsters.
***
A/N: IT'S HERE!
I hope y'all liked it, because I'm honestly not sure why I was so excited to publish this.