The Enemy of my Enemy is Roman

Shadow traveling. My new favorite way to get around I thought to myself after the fifth go. Reyna, Nico, the Athena Parthenos and I had been jumping from country to country for about two days now. Nico was definitely getting more exhausted each time, so we decided to let him have tonight off. He curled up by the nose of the statue and passed out instantly, leaving me alone with Reyna. Gods, she is the most beautiful thing I've ever laid my eyes on. Obviously I'd never have a chance, but sometimes it almost seemed like she did like me back.

Every now and then I'd catch her looking at me and she would quickly change her line of slight, almost blushing it seemed. After escaping Tartarus with Percy and Annabeth (I jumped in after them just to make sure they made it back as Percy and I had been half-brothers) I had a new respect for the beauty of the world. Especially Reyna. Her chocolate brown hair, deep eyes, and caramel colored skin.

"Should we build a fire?" I asked.

"Probably, I'll get the wood and you can light it, since you have the lighter," She said.

"Aaaaand because I'm hot?" I joked, with a wink. She just scowled and rolled her eyes. Ok, maybe I didn't have a chance. I heard a howl off in the distance. She must've too.

"Jackson… get your sword," She told me. I focused and summoned my celestial silver (like celestial bronze but sharper, stronger, and more lethal) sword to my hand. It was the same sword King Leonidas used at the Battle of Thermopylae. I met his ghost while visiting the spot where the famous battle took place. The king was a son of Athena, whilst his brethren were sons of Ares or descendants of Heracles. During my visit I was ambushed by a hyperborean, or frost giant, and two scythian dracaenae. After the battle (which I fought bare-handed) Leonidas told me I was worthy to wield his sword and shield. The appear whenever I will them to.

I only called my sword this time. I stepped close to Reyna, her imperial gold dagger drawn. She smelled like cocoa. That's irrelevant. Focus on the howling.

Right. I lashed out with my sword and was parried by a half decayed, dog paw looking thing. Four mastiff sized, zombie dogs stepped into the light of my sword. One of the dogs lunged at Reyna, but she ducked, spun and stabbed it, reducing it to dust. The second one jumped at me. I swung my sword in a deadly arc and disintegrated it. The next dog stepped forward. Reyna and I both stabbed it. Unfortunately, this exposed her left side. The last dog

pounced and sunk its claws into her ribs. She screamed in pain and fell down.

"Poison," she uttered before I spun and cut the head off the final dog. I shoved an ambrosia square into her mouth and made sure she ate it before lifting up her shirt careful not to expose… anything that shouldn't have been, and began examining her wounds. The ambrosia closed the holes, but I could see black tendrils from where the claws had penetrated her. The poison was still there.

"Look out," She said, her voice barely audible. I turned to see the figure of a man emerge from the darkness with a sword in his hand.

"I am Aether," He declared, "Son of Nyx. Sent here from Tartarus to kill the puny demigod who escaped my mother's temple," Aether drew a sword made of steel black as night, about three feet long. I thought for a moment and remembered that Aether was the god of the upper atmosphere, the air of the gods. He stood about seven feet tall, and had a form that was hard to make out. It kept changing. I couldn't describe it if I tried. I raised my sword as the god charged us yelling, "I'm going to kill that bitch of a Roman girl behind you as well,"

I completely lost it. Aether brought the sword down and I rolled under his strike. I spun and almost cut him in half but he was faster than he looked. Parrying my strike he quickly jabbed at my neck. I pulled a matrix, recovered, and pressed him harder. The fight was a blur of slash, parry, jab, dodge. Aether was fast but I'd been training all my life and knew how to fight, even if I was fighting a minor god. I finally got lucky. It had been about five minutes now and I hadn't even broken a sweat, being in the best shape of my life. The god slashed at my legs. I jumped over the sword, rolled under his guard and stabbed him right in the stomach. I wrenched upwards and cut him in half vertically. With a blood curdling screech he dissipated into Ozone.

Reyna was laying behind me, face contorted in pain.

"You… Than-" She whispered before her eyes closed. Panic boiled up inside me. I carried her over to the Athena Parthenos and yelled,"Hey, Nico!"

"Blue birthday cake!" he screamed,"Wait, what's going on?"

"You need to get us to camp, now!" I told him.

"I… I don't think I have enough strength. That's the entire Atlantic Ocean,"

"You need to try! She's going to die if you don't," I said, desperate.

"Ok. Strap in," he said. I put on my rope harness and held Reyna tight in my arms. The shadows closed around me.