ʙᴏᴏᴋ ɪ : 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙛 | 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Chapter 16

A Coast Guard boat picked them up, but they were too busy to keep the kids for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls.

They dropped the demigods off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.

Their clothes were sopping wet. When the Coast Guard boat had appeared, Percy'd silently prayed they wouldn't pick him out of the water and find him perfectly dry, which might've raised some eyebrows. So he'd willed himself to get soaked. Sure enough, his usual waterproof magic had abandoned him. He was also barefoot, because he'd given his shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wondered why one of them was barefoot than wonder why one had hooves.

After reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. It felt as if they'd just come back from the dead-which they ACTUALLY had. Percy's backpack was heavy with Zeus's master bolt. His heart was even heavier from seeing his mother.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way-"

"It was a trick," Percy said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."

"Hey," she warned.

"You get it, don't you?"

She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."

"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody-"

"Percy ..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry...."

"The prophecy was right," Percy said. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."

Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"

Percy stopped in my tracks, looking down the beach. "Gee, let me think."

"...It isn't him. There's a spy in camp," Y/N said looking forward, "I can feel it in my gut.".

And there he was, waiting for them, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.

"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see Percy. "You were supposed to die."

"You tricked me," he said. "You stole the helm and the master bolt."

Ares grinned. "Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power-that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."

"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."

The idea seemed to amuse him. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this ..."

Y/N thought about it when they continued talking to each other. That's right, who would it be? It wouldn't be Clarisse for sure because she might be good at fighting but strategies and making a plan work? A plan kept from everyone else? No, she would need help in that. It wasn't her. It's someone else. She tried her best not to think about the one person she admired a lot but she couldn't help it. There's a high chance that it's from a certain person who gifted them with a pair of flying shoes.