╔══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╗
—— AZALEA WEST WATCHED the smoke pour from the top of the arch. That's were Percy was, her brows furrowed keeping all of her attention on the helicopter going close to the smoky air. She hoped Percy was okay, they're was nothing more Azalea could wish for in life then for the blue eyed boy to be alive.
In the past few days she had become attached to him. It was weird to think about it Azalea had only known him for a week but just the thought of not being able to see his perfect smile, or his blue eyes, or even his sarcastic remarks made tiny tears emerge from the corner of her eyes. She was completely head over heels for Percy Jackson and had just realized now realized it.
Her, Annabeth and Grover stood near an ambulance the area was crowded with police and firefighters walking around as well as interviewing pedestrians that had been in the arch. Azalea hoped none of them would recognize the young girl as the missing kid from four years ago.
"They're looking at us." Grover warned, he was talking about the police not too far away eying the kids. The blonde quickly moved her head to look at the ground instead of up, her hair covering her face to prevent any police officers from getting a look at her.
"Yeah." Annabeth nudged the girl next to her slightly pointing to three old woman on a bench. Immediately after seeing the yarn, Azalea new who these women were.
"So we should probably get outta here don't you think? The girls standing next to Grover didn't pay attention to him talking. Instead they observed the old woman in pink cut the strings with a pair of scissors. Azalea swallowed thickly, her palms getting sweaty just thinking about the message the Fates had just sent.
"Dude they're looking right at us." Grover panicked slightly.
"What." Both girls turned to him. He motion to the police making it least amount of obvious possible.
"Come on. Let's go find Percy." Azalea instructed she had a feeling that he could still be alive, or more a deep wish that he was alive. "Azalea." Grover didn't want to burst her bubble but there was a chance Percy did not survive.
"He's alive." She defended quickly. "I can't feel it."
Walking away from the mess they had created, Azalea started shouting Percy's name wondering around a bit before making her way onto a dock. Annabeth and Grover following behind checking out an another dock area for a minute.
"Perc..." Her voice drifted off watching the boy jump over the dock's fence dripping in water. Seeing him standing there perfectly fine made a bright smile appear across her face. "Hi." He gave her a little wave. Some wind came and blew some hair in her face but she couldn't care not when Percy was standing right in front of her.
"Look I'm sorry about shoving you in the stairwell." He apologized, she just marched her way up to the son of Poseidon and lunged forward, wrapping her arms tightly around him. Azalea went on her tiptoes a little, her head falling in the crook of his neck. He stood stiff still in shock. butterflies rising in his stomach at the fact the most beautiful girl he had ever seen was hugging him. His nose filling with her sent, over time he had realized her flower sent and differed on her mood. She never smelt like this before but it was intoxicating.
She pulled back for a moment keeping him at arms reach, Azalea raised her fist and punched Percy in the shoulder causing him to grab onto it in pain. "You little fucker, why would you do that." They locked eyes a deep red blush rising to her cheeks she was mad so mad he could of died. Percy winced at her angry tone.
"Oh my god, you could of died." Her worry radiated of her, she closed the gap between them pulling the boy back into a tight hug.
"I'm okay flower girl." One of Percy's hands moved to her middle back. She had her arms rapped around him when she felt him move his head a little. "I'm sorry for shoving you on the stairwell as well. Even hearing myself say that sounds really bad, but I just I knew you guys would never agree and there wasn't enough time." Percy told Grover and Annabeth as they made their way to where Azalea was still hugging Percy. The short girl slowly moved away realizing that she had probably been hugging him for to long, Annabeth walked up and gave him a hug as well but pulled away much quicker then Azalea.
"So you're not as dead as we thought you'd be." Grover said,
"Surprise." Percy looked to the blonde next to him who was messing around with her blue zip up that was now soaked from when she had been clinging on to him. "What happened."
"Short version, we need to go to Santa Monica."
"I've been there." Azalea commented.
"What like now." Grover uttered.
"My father's gonna meet me there. He's gonna help us." He breathed.
"Okay just one problem with this plan, the police think that we crashed an Amtrak train. And then did that." Grover pointed to the arch that was sprawling black smoke.
"The cops are after us."
"Yeah." The saytr replied.
"Isn't that gonna make it hard for us to get on a train? Or a bus, or really anything you need tickets for."
"Oh one hundred percent." Azalea stated the obvious.
—— AZALEA WISHED SHE was more in shape, at camp the most she would do is train in archery and sit around doing nothing. She never cared to be active like some of the kids the blonde knew that would go on runs around camp just for the fun of it, if Azalea was being honest she would rather die then get any type of exercise in. That's why in the moment Azalea felt like her feet were falling off, this was probably the longest she had walked in over a year and it was killing her.
The short girls pace was slow falling a few steps behind Percy, Grover and Annabeth lost in her thought like she always was. While the three chatted ahead she thought about the fates and the fact they had cut a string right in front of their faces. First they would be betrayed now someone will die, why couldn't the gods give them a break.
"Hey guys, I think this quest might be harder than we thought." Birds chirp in the background. "I've been thinking."
"That's new." Nagged Azalea, very grumpy from all the walking she was doing. Percy turned his head and side eyed her deciding to ignore her remark and negative attitude. "I didn't steal the master bolt, you guys didn't steal the master bolt. Were pretty sure Hades has the master bolt but he couldn't have stolen it himself. I mean we don't even know who actually stole the thing, or why or how deep this goes." Percy looked at both of his friends next to him. "Im the last person to realize this aren't I?"
"Yeah." Annabeth nodded.
"Okay so... maybe when we started my head wasn't fully in this. But since the river it feels different somehow. He saved me, I guess I just really never thought that's something he'd do for me. So maybe I gotta take things more seriously now." Azalea brushed her finger through her hair trying to get the knots out while listening to the boy in front of her.
"Car." A engine could be heard out in the distance they all turned around at the sound. "That's not a car, it's a bike just let it pass. Come on." Annabeth told them, nudging Azalea and the boys to follow her behind the road barricade.
"I'm saying, we're not just trying to retrieve a thing." Azalea sat next to Percy, she brought her legs up to her chest and stared out to the dead planet that lined the road. The blonde had a lot to think about, the fact that one of them was going to die or maybe that technically she's been dead for the last couple years, maybe even the fact she was sitting next to the boy she had just realized she had a crush on, either of them could explain her bad mood.
"I think we might need to be detectives here to." Percy continued.
"Yeah." Azalea kept her eyes locked on what was in front of her. "Why are you being weird with me? We've never been weird." The blue eyed boy accused.
"I'm not being weird." Azalea shot back.
"Yes, you are. You've been weird since we left the Arch." Azalea finally moved her gaze to look at Percy. "Oh... I get it." She raised a brow wondering what he thought it was.
"It doesn't have to be a thing, you know that you hugged me." She rolled her eyes and looking away from him again. "Oh boy." The short girl sighed, of course that's what he thought it was.
"I mean we're friends, that seems like a thing friends do. At least I think they do."
"We saw the Fates." Azalea motioned between her and Annabeth. "Back at the arch, we saw the Fates and we saw one of them cut a piece of thread." She explained.
"And that's bad or...?"
"The Fates weave the life strand of every living thing. When you see a string cut it." Grover was cut off. "It means one of us is going to die." Annabeth clarified.
"We're all gonna to die eventually." Percy said.
"Soon." She said in a serious tone. "It's a warning, an omen."
"Okay guys, we need to talk about this whole fate thing." The engine of a motorcycle was heard getting closer to them. "Three old ladies with a ball of yarn can't know what's gonna happen. What I'd do choose to do changes what's gonna happen, and I can choose to do anything I." The motorcycle engine sound stopped right next to them. "Want."
"Need some help." A man's voice was heard from behind the road barricade. They all looked at each other confused then moved to peek up above the concrete wall. "Beg pardon?" Grover questioned.
"I asked if you could use some help."
"Nope no we're- we're good. Appreciate you asking, though. So long." Grover attempted to get the man to move along.
"You don't seem to good." Azalea, and Annabeth pop up this time. "We don't need anything from you."
"We're all good Mr, you can go now." Azalea went back down.
"You sure? Because you guys are so behind schedule." Annabeth, Percy, Grover and Azalea all stood up at what the man had said, questioning expressions on their faces. "I mean summer solstice is just a few days away. And as much as I'd love to see a good war pop off, as your big cousin, i feel like, maybe I wanna give you a hand."
"Cousin?"
"Ares." Annabeth told them. "You must be Athena's kid." Ares raised a brow. "Always gotta be the wisest one in the bunch."
His eyes trailed over to Azalea who had her arms crossed. "And you I can smell you from here daughter of Persephone."
"I could say the same for you but at least I smell good." Azalea confidently told Ares. "Why would you want to help us." She questioned the man on the bike.
"How do you even know about what we're doing out here." Annabeth piped up beside the blonde girl.
"Because I'm doing the exact same thing as you. Zeus sent all of his kids out looking for the master bolt, too. Listen dummies. I'm hungry, there's a halfway decent diner up the road if you want my help you'll meet me there. But don't dawdle. Won't wait forever." The god of war finished before putting his sun glasses on and speeding away. Leaving the four kids in his track staring at him speed away.
"That's my cousin? What kind of family is this?" Percy asked.
"Come on." Annabeth lead the way.
"Don't worry gods don't technically have DNA, so none of us are technically related." Azalea reassured him beginning their walk again.
╚══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╝
OH MY GOODNESS 10,000 READS IS RIDICULOUS
THANK YOU!!!!
Love Estella St. James
💕💕💕💕