CHAPTER THREE.
she's the kind of the book you
can't put down
FEYRE BLANCHARD didn't speak much for the next couple of days.
Instead she just kept to herself either in the comfort of her cabin, on top of the hill with a bow and arrow in hand, or deep in the woods, surrounded by dozens of tall trees where she would sit and play on her guitar gifted to her by her absent father. She didn't spend much time with her sisters, or even Luke for that matter, which was a rarity these days. Campers were worried about the girl. Even Chiron pulled her aside and questioned Feyre about her strange shift in behaviour. She went from being a bubbly and bright girl, to being as quiet as a mouse. It was unusual to say the least.
But Feyre couldn't bring herself to tell Chiron the reason behind her sudden shift in moods.
You could say she had Percy Jackson to thanks for that. Ever since Feyre saw the young blond boy in her dream the night before he arrived at camp, she couldn't shake this insatiable feeling that his arrival was only the beginning of something. . . Something big. It was the most logical explanation. She would sit there, whether it was her bunk, the hilltop, or her spot in the woods, and she would analyse every last detail of her dream from that night, pick it apart until she found something worth remembering. Why else would she dream about a future he was clearly apart of only hours before she formally met him passed out in the infirmary?
It made Feyre begin to wonder what part would Percy play in the moments leading up to her death. She saw Annabeth, Grover, and Delia in her dream too. However, there was still this nagging feeling drilling into the back of her skull that told her Percy was a part of something bigger. She didn't what it was yet. But she singled him out in her dream for a reason. Maybe he could help save Feyre from her fate. Or he was the key to stopping it all together. It could potentially be a pipe dream. Feyre wasn't naive, and she knew it was a long shot. But if Percy was the key to saving her own life, she was going to use him to the best of her ability.
And if Feyre wanted to save herself from certain death, the girl knew she couldn't sit alone with her thoughts, and cut herself off from the rest of camp. She had to do something about it.
So, when Feyre lifted her gaze from the notebook in hand, she saw her siblings grabbing their bow and arrows, prepping themselves for another day of long and rigorous training. Feyre bit down on the inside of her cheek for a short moment, contemplating whether or not she should join them. She hasn't felt the weight of her bow in her hands for a while now, and she was starting to miss it. And maybe getting outside with her siblings again would provide her with some comfort instead of the same old harrowing feeling creeping over her like an overbearing shadow.
So Feyre hopped off her bunk and slipped on her sneakers before she removed her bow from the wall of weapons. Her sudden actions were enough to surprise her siblings, each of them staring back at her with a mix of confusion and bewilderment plastered across each of their faces. Feyre noticed this and cleared her throat, laughing nervously. "Yes?" She inquired, raising her brow in the process.
The group were quiet at first before Delia finally piped up. "Nothing. We just didn't expect you to be joining us this time," She informed. Feyre frowned in response to her sister's words.
"Why?" Feyre questioned, throwing her quiver of her head so it was now strapped to her back. "Because I've been quiet these last few days?"
Feyre was silently hoping her brothers and sisters would dismiss her statement and claim they haven't noticed her gloomy mood over the course of the last few days. However, Feyre was given the opposite when the small crowd of teens nodded their heads. "Yeah..." They replied in unison.
The girl didn't say anything at first. Instead she let out a sigh filled with defeat before she shook her head in response. "Come on, let's show these rookie cabins who the best archers in camp really are," She concluded, dismissing the previous topic of conversation.
Feyre led her siblings out of their cabin and up towards the hill where she saw a group of teenagers like herself, shooting the targets ahead of them with confidence and strife. But judging from first glance alone, their precision was always slightly off, leaving their arrows anywhere but the centre of their targets. Feyre rolled her eyes at the familiar sight before she stopped in her tracks, taking in the feeling of the sun beating down on her olive skin, and the feeling of the soft summer breeze flowing elegantly through her dark coloured locks.
And suddenly that feeling of peaceful tranquility that Feyre Blanchard always felt when she attended her archery class was ripped away from her in a matter of seconds when she saw her best friend, Luke Castellan, standing in the distance. But that wasn't what left Feyre standing at a still. It was who she saw standing beside him with his curly blond hair and puzzled expression as he watched the arrows soar through the air towards the targets. Percy Jackson. He must've finally gained enough strength to become fully situated with camp life away from whatever normal life he had before he arrived.
Feyre didn't exactly know why she was shocked to see Luke standing next to Percy. It was likely the new boy hadn't been claimed yet and Luke was just showing him around, like he always did for the new kids when they arrived at camp. If they were left unclaimed, or if they were just another child of Lord Hermes, then Luke would introduce himself and help them get settled, like he had his own personal welcome wagon. Feyre would know. She was once the new kid left unclaimed in the Hermes cabin. She shouldn't be surprise to see Luke becoming a mentor to yet another new arrival.
However, for Feyre, that meant being formally introduced to Percy Jackson. And although a small part of her was still wary of the young boy because of what the future might entail for them both, Feyre knew she couldn't avoid it forever. So the girl rolled back her shoulders, released a shaky breath past her lips and forced a kind smile across her face. Feyre then approached Luke and Percy with a spring in her step. And when Luke noticed the sight of his friend walking towards him, he gently tapped Percy on the back and met the girl halfway, a smile of his own tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Look who finally decided to show up," Luke piped up, and Feyre shot him a look.
But instead of rising to his playful taunting, a smirk formed across Feyre's lips before she parted her lips to speak. "You miss me?" She teased, causing for Luke to roll his eyes, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth in the process as he turned his attention towards Percy, who was glancing between the duo with a puzzled look in his blue eyes.
"Percy, this is Feyre. She's one of the best archers in camp," He introduced the boy to her.
Feyre pulled a face, shaking her head. "You mean, the best archer in camp, right? Or are you too ashamed to admit that I'm just better than you?" She questioned in a rhetorical manner.
Luke let out a chuckle in response to the girl's comment. "And, Feyre...this is—"
Before Luke had a chance to finish his sentence, Feyre held out her hand for the younger boy to shake. "You're Percy Jackson. I know," She interjected. This caused for Percy to shake the girl's hand, a hesitant and nervous look in his eye. Feyre quickly realised the error in her ways. "Sorry. That's the ADHD talking. I sometimes forget about social cues and that knowing your name before you have a chance to say it first is weird. I'm starting to ramble, aren't I?" She babbled, slowly letting go of Percy's hand.
Luke smiled at the girl again, watching as her cheeks turned a light shade of red when she realised what she had done wrong. "Percy, Feyre is the daughter of Apollo. The God of many things, but notoriously known for being the God of—"
Luke was cut off again, but this time he was cut off by Percy. "The God of Prophecy?" He questioned, and Feyre nodded her head in response, a sheepish grin etched at the corners of her lips. "Cool! So you knew I was coming here?" He then exclaimed in an excited manner.
Feyre chuckled, shrugging her shoulders. "Kinda...I saw you in the future. It's all very weird and confusing," She corrected.
Percy then furrowed his brows together. "Did you happen to see who my father might be in this vision?" He asked.
Feyre sympathised with the young boy. When she first arrived to camp four years ago, she was just like him, confused with a yearning to know who her father was. Everyone had theories about who he was at first. Feyre heard almost every name of a God fall from someone's lips in the first two weeks of her life at camp. The first was the God of War — Ares, but that was countered with a firm no from Clarisse La Rue, who claimed Feyre had to be the forbidden child of Hades — King of the Underworld, meaning she wouldn't have a cabin to go to thus meaning Feyre may have to leave camp. Clarisse would've loved that as Feyre and her never got along.
Then there were rumours that Dionysus was her father (Feyre was always thankful the strange drunken God wasn't), or Hephaestus, and even the names of some minor Gods were thrown around camp in the same sentence as Feyre's name. But both were quickly debunked when Feyre didn't express any qualities from either Gods. Those had to have been the worst two weeks of her life. Feyre had gone her entire life being told who she was. Then from the moment she arrived at camp, she was being told who her father had to be.
And when she was finally claimed, even then she couldn't find the joy in knowing who her father was. After she won an archery competition with ease, kids watched in shock when she was engulfed in a bright, golden light, and a golden sun with twenty one rays made of arrows appeared above her head. She still remembered Chiron's words clear as day as she was claimed by her father, "Feyre Blanchard! Daughter of Apollo!" And since that day onwards she was being told how a daughter of Apollo should be.
It was exhausting sometimes. Feyre was often surprised at how she was able to remain her true self outside of what others wanted her to be, even after all this time. So when she looked back at Percy, she hoped the same wouldn't happen to him the way it did for her. The girl smiled again, shaking her head. "It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid," She informed, letting him down gently. Percy nodded his head before another thought crossed Feyre's mind. "So, that's why you're here? You want to figure out who your dad is?" She asked.
Luke nodded his head. "We thought a test of skill would help Percy here figure it out. We thought archery was a good place to start," He elaborated. Luke then gently nudged Percy. "All of Apollo's kids are basically pros when it comes to archery," He told the blond boy.
"It's true," Feyre chimed, nodding her head in agreement. "I got claimed two weeks after I came to camp after winning an archery competition. But when I held my bow and arrow for the first time...it just felt right," She explained further, and without giving it a second thought, Feyre gave her bow to Percy. "So let's see what you got, new kid."
Percy was hesitant but took the bow from the girl, but she could see the nervous expression washing over his face as he looked back and forth between the weapon in his hand and the targets in the distance. "I wanna be very clear about this, I've never done anything like this before, and it looks super dangerous," He warned them, his gaze soon shifting warily between Feyre and Luke.
Luke clicked his tongue, shrugging his shoulders in the process. "Eh, and you never killed a Minotaur before either, 'til you did," He reminded the younger boy.
Percy spared the older duo one last look before he swallowed thickly. He then walked over towards where the other archers were aiming the weapons. Feyre shot the boy a kind smile and an encouraging look, throwing her thumbs up, in which Percy responded with a sheepish grin. Feyre chuckled and turned back around to face Luke. "It's nice that you've taken him under your wing. Grover told me he lost his mom when they were trying to get him to camp. I'm just saying it's nice that you're helping him navigate all of this," She explained, gesturing towards their surroundings.
Luke folded his arms over his chest, a sympathetic stare burning in his eyes as his gaze slowly flickered over towards Percy. It lasted for a short moment before he turned his attention back to Feyre. "We're all in this together, right?" He inquired in a rhetorical manner.
However, before Feyre had a chance to respond, she watched as Luke lifted his gaze to look back at Percy once again, his eyes widening for a moment. Suddenly, Luke wrapped his arms around Feyre and pulled her out of the way. The girl didn't quite understand what her friend was doing until she looked over to see dozens of kids had ducked out of the way, her gaze travelling back to Percy who was laying on the floor, a shocked expression plastered across his pale face. Feyre then looked back at Luke, lifting her gaze to see him staring down at her, a shaky breath leaving his lips, but the relief in his eyes spoke a thousand words.
And as they stood there, chest to chest, their faces only inches apart, Feyre knew this is the closest her and Luke have ever been with each other. They were so close she could feel his heart beating against his chest, his breathing beginning to increase rapidly when he stared back down at her again. Feyre was so entranced by the boy that she didn't know if she could move. That was until Luke cleared his throat and let her go, his arms falling back down to his sides, allowing Feyre to back away from him, tucking her hair nervously behind her ear, biting down on the inside of her cheek in the process.
Feyre didn't utter another word to the boy after that. She just turned around and approached Percy, taking her bow back from him. "Should I try again?" He asked.
"No!" Everyone shouted at him in unison with each other.
Feyre let out a chuckle as she looked back at everyone, trying to shake off the tense moment between Luke and herself by turning her attention back to Percy. "Looks like Apollo isn't your dad," She pointed out.
Percy nodded his head, appearing almost disappointed. "Looks like it," He muttered quietly underneath his breath, but loud enough for the girl to hear.
The girl sent him a kind look, her gaze softening in the process before she placed a comforting hand on Percy's shoulder. "Hey, you'll figure it out. And if you don't figure out who your dad is, that's okay too. Being in cabin eleven isn't so bad, and you have Luke looking out for you. So you'll be just fine, Percy," She reassured him, smiling down at the boy.
"Did you see that in the future, too?" Percy asked, a teasing look glimmering in his bright blue eyes. Feyre chuckled at the young boy's comment, finding the funny side to it. "And I'm sorry for almost shooting you with your own bow..." He then apologised in a much more serious tone.
Feyre nodded. "Apology accepted," She told him. The girl then walked back over with Percy at her side, her lips parting to speak once she reached Luke once again. "And thank you for saving my life back there," She informed, a grateful twinkle in her eyes.
"It's okay..." Luke trailed off for a moment, staring down at the girl. "Couldn't have you dying in my arms now, could I? That would've been embarrassing for you," He joked, and Feyre shook her head in response.
Feyre spared her friend one last glance before she went back to the very top of the hill, standing in front of her target. She withdrew an arrow from her quiver and aimed her bow directly in front of her target — a series of components of wood, straw and string in the shape of a monster. Feyre inhaled sharply for a moment, drowning out all the noise around her until it felt like there was nothing more than the target and herself standing upon the mountain. And when she knew she was ready, she let go, allowing the arrow to soar through the air before it stabbed her makeshift monster straight through the eye, causing for her brothers and sisters to cheer for the girl.
Percy was left astonished by the precision that Feyre harnessed when it came to her archery skills. He clapped his hands together briefly. "Wow. She's so cool," He commented, and Luke watched as Feyre began to help her sister, Delia, with her aim.
"Feyre does have that effect on people," Luke pointed out. "She's the head councillor of the Apollo cabin. A skilled archer, and an even better musician. She's also the kindest camper I've ever met. Feyre is kinda like an open book. She's not afraid to open herself up to people and befriend them. She's...one of a kind. I know that much for sure," He elaborated further, continuing to watch the girl with admiration lingering deep within his dark eyes.
Percy picked up on this, his gaze flickering between Luke and the girl teaching the other kids in the distance. He then nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah. Your girlfriend seems really cool," He replied.
His words seemed to take Luke by surprise because he quickly turned his attention back to Percy upon hearing that statement leave the boy's lips. Luke was quick to shake his head, laughing nervously. "Oh, no. Feyre and I aren't together like that. She's just a really good friend...She's my best friend actually. But that's it," He corrected.
Percy furrowed his brows together for a moment. "Okay..." He spoke briefly, not buying Luke's words, not even for a second. Especially when he saw Luke staring at the girl, admiring her from afar once again.
Feyre would find herself glancing back at Luke every so often, not being able to shake their brief intimate moment out of her head. Feyre thought she was good at hiding it, but it didn't take long for someone tap the girl on her shoulder. This caused for Feyre to snap back to reality, turning her head to the side to see Alina smirking back at her. "What?" She asked her sister.
Alina rolled her eyes in response. "Could you and Luke at least try and keep your eyes off each other for a second while we train?" She asked rhetorically.
Feyre didn't say anything. She just laughed off her sister's words and forced any thought of Luke Castellan to the back of her skull as she lifted her bow again, resuming training for their Capture the Flag game tomorrow.
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authors note.
Another short chapter I'm sorry. I just like these sweet moments and i don't want them being overshadowed by the action that comes afterwards. But the next chapter will the capture the flag chapter so expect something a little longer. Also can we talk about Percy clocking Feyre and Luke in seconds??? because that's kinda iconic of him.
And yes! Feyre and Luke will be a fast burn couple as they already have feelings for each other when this story starts, it's just acknowledging and acting on them...plus the betrayal is going to hurt 10x more if they're already becoming a couple 🤭
Until then I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'll update again soon!!