Two: Ajax
Real Gentlemen Use the Window Entrance
As with many decisions Pax made, he figured this could only end in one of two ways: with a cinema-worthy make out sequence or by getting pushed out a second story window.
He'd made sure to do everything right. Or at least, he did everything the internet told him to do. Well, everything the internet told Axel to do, since Pax had complained loudly that Axel was supposed to advise him on this but Axel had absolutely no experience on the matter so he wasn't fulfilling his brotherly duty. After some arguing and a Nerf gun battle, Axel took the responsibility that was rightfully his.
Axel's feedback went as thus…
One: be so clean Hygieia would let you borrow her toothbrush to scrub between your toes.1 So, Pax had snuck into a Champ High School, broke into a few different gym lockers to borrow fancier products than he'd ever used—ones that would make Aphrodite Cabin gasp at how he smelled better than a double bacon cheeseburger. Then he took a shower and dry-cleaned his favorite outfit. He slipped some earrings and gauges into his ears, something he hadn't done since he and Axel ran away from their dad. He let Axel trim his fohawk—a hairstyle courtesy of Connor and Travis Stoll who shaved a quarter of his hair a few weeks prior while he was sleeping in Cabin Eleven. He even refused to let Hunnie and Baller store dead things inside his duster jacket. Really, he tried to keep the Mist-form weasels out of his jacket in general. Battling rodents didn't really scream "date me."
Two: be yourself, and make sure you've improved yourself to the point where you're confident in that person. Pax couldn't not be Pax—not after what happened last time he wasn't himself. His mother, a goddess, gave him golden apples that let him turn into whoever he wanted. He cringed to think how he'd made an enemy of Will Solace a month ago, when he'd pretended to be Nico Di Angelo, forgot he was pretending to be Nico Di Angelo, and kissed Will's sister. Make enemies with the best healer and guy who will probably save your life one day? Pax should have saved time, walked up to Hades and told him that his Helm of Darkness looked stupid.
Third and lastly: be kind, polite, complimentary, and comforting.
Number two contradicted with number three. It was like having a marriage counselor tell Aphrodite she should be honest, but also give her husband a loving compliment. Just stab a honey badger. It'll end better.
Pax swallowed, checked his hair—which was already rebelling against the jell Axel put in it—and knocked on Kally's window.
For a moment, he wondered if he should go knock on the front door like a proper gentleman would at 10:00 o'clock on a Friday night… Na. There was both a tree to one side of Kally's second story window, and a shed almost directly under it. It was like her parents were giving him their blessing. Ah, you want to sneak into our daughter's room? You have two options. There's a ladder in the shed if you're feeling really lazy—oh! And a grappling hook if you want to look more adventurous and piraty.
It was now official: if Kally left her window open when the warmer weather of spring came, Pax was going to come dressed in a Jack Sparrow outfit and scale her window with a grappling hook.
Music hummed inside. It got louder, probably to cover his entrance. He grinned when he heard her switch away from a song on a playlist that he had made for her. He was determined to get this girl more into metal, Orpheus Metal to be precise.
The curtains fluttered, then Kally opened the window.
Her hair was still damp from a shower. Instead of looking the color of sunrise, it hung in dark tendrils against her pale skin. Pax caught his breath. He didn't often get to see Kally with her hair down. She wore a dark purple T-shirt that really made her green eyes stand out. Her best friend, Merry, must have given it to her since it read: Techies, We Do It In the Dark.
"You said you'd Iris Message before coming over," she said, glancing over her shoulder. The door was locked. Her parents were already asleep on the first floor—Pax had checked. Pax knew she was worried about her brother though. Pax didn't know why. His brother supported what they were doing.
Pax fished around in his pocket, withdrawing a drachma. "Oh holy Iris—"
"Get in here before John gets home," she grumbled.
He returned the coin to his pocket and hopped inside. Although he'd meant to alert Kally beforehand, Pax had a hard time focusing on more than one thing at once, especially when Hunnie and Baller had decided to wage war against him for the whole stay-out-of-his-jacket thing. Weasels… he thought, good at weaseling their way into everything.
He just wished the phrase, "weaseling into things" wasn't so amply named.
In order to get out of the window sill and into her room, Pax had to crawl over her nightstand. Kally considered her room "small" since she didn't have space for a desk or chair and had to keep her dresser in her closet. All her soccer trophies and Dice and Drakin figurines, a game Kally explained to him in detail the first time he snuck in, were stored on a handmade shelf above her bed. Posters of David de Gea, a goalkeeper for Manchester United and Spain's national team, and fantasy maps colored her walls.
Pax loved the space. It just meant, when he sat on the edge of her bed, the only spot she could sit was beside him. It was up there on the list of things that made Pax happy, almost as up there as the time Hermes stole all the toilet paper in Olympus… right before Zeus went to use the bathroom.
Pax sat on the bed.
When Kally adjusted her glasses, pressing them further up her face, Pax could see how deep her blush was. "Hi," she said, torn between reflexive hospitality and justified irritation at his unannounced arrival. He hoped some part of Kally was doing an internal happy dance too. After a moment's hesitation, she sat beside him.
He'd have to make her angry enough to forget to be shy. He glanced around the room.
On her nightstand, he was pleased to see the letters he'd been sending her. An apology letter about the whole sorry I pretended to be your half-brother's Sexy Goth boyfriend and kissed you and a few others about how excited he and Axel were to find a decent abandoned house to squat in.2 Really, Axel wrote the letters. Pax's dyslexia was so bad, he couldn't even spell Kally's name. He'd tried at the first letter for a good hour, in Ancient Greek and English, before crying to Axel for help. Unfortunately, this meant Axel edited out quite a bit of Pax's charm during the scribing process. Apparently relaying the story of how he and a child from the Hephaestus cabin streaked through a homophobia rally was "inappropriate for a letter to a lady."
"Calex sent me," Pax said, leaning a little closer.
"He sent Axel," she automatically corrected. "Is he okay?"
Pax wanted to roll his eyes. Calex thinking Pax was an unreliable messenger? Ba! Next time Pax found himself in the Underworld, he'd be sure to deliver a message from Calex to one of the Furies, informing her that Calex found her quite attractive and he'd fancy a date. For now, he took in a deep breath. "It's… pretty serious."
Kally's eyes widened.
"He said he understands that everyone makes mistakes…" Pax touched her shoulder gingerly. "And that it isn't too late to support a better football team."3
The words took a moment to sink in. Then Kally smacked away Pax's hand and scowled. There! Pax thought, Now she won't act all shy—all done like a perfect gentleman.
"Did you even talk to him?" she asked, glaring at the floor.
"Some nonsense about dreams and prophecies—it sounded really boring." Pax shrugged. He reached up, and took the golden statue of an Argonaut off a shelf. "You know, if you're getting more comfortable with the fact that you stole this, the Stoll brothers and I could get you into some intense work. Stuff involving glue, some hairbrushes from the Aphrodite cabin, and several glorious seconds of internet fame."
"I didn't steal-Mr. Paine said I could keep it. He's been training me," she added the last part quietly and Pax got the feeling she didn't want further questioning on it. Mr. Paine was Kally's chemistry teacher and a retired Roman centurion. Kally said he was nicer than he let on, but Pax didn't want to test this theory, since-the first time he met the man-Pax and Axel had darted him unconscious and dragged him into a boy's bathroom stall.
Kally pulled her legs onto the bed to cross them pretzel style. Her knee pressed into his, proving—to Pax—she was either oblivious or a foul temptress. "I take it Axel is waiting in the van?" she asked.
Oblivious.
"Probably valiantly defending your house from some monster or another, but yea, waiting," he said.
"Are you two still arguing?"
This brought Pax's attention away from pressing his leg slightly more into Kally's. He frowned. "I apologized… but he still…" still wants to get rid of me. Pax knew he'd start to cry again if he said it. Axel had been trying to convince him to stay at Camp Half-Blood for weeks, because "it's too dangerous for you to go after Dad." Since the lava wall, sword practice with sharpened blades, and capture the flag with loosy-goosy rules on the whole "minimal maiming" thing was much better. It was. It was a lot safer, but Pax didn't care. He was Axel's cheerleader. Axel wouldn't eat nearly enough candy without him there.
"Did you ever find out if the whole your-mom-and-Apollo thing was an assault or an affair?" Pax asked.
Kally hugged herself and shook her head. She'd been trying to get the courage to ask her mother about it for the last month.
Pax puffed up his cheeks full of air and popped them. He sure knew how to put a girl at ease. Hey, you know how your mom either cheated on your dad or was attacked by a god? Yea, that's cool—do you want to go to the movies after this?
Their openness about everything had been nice in a sad way. A month ago, Kally swore an oath on the River Styx to keep his secrets—well, he tricked her into it, but that wasn't the point. He'd been able to talk to her about stuff he couldn't say to anyone else. From what he gathered of Kally's situation, without Merry around, she didn't have anyone to talk to either. He'd come to think of her as a best friend of sorts, a really hot, incredibly kind best friend.
Pax wanted to make her feel better, but his skill level at making people comfortable and happy was the same as a demonic clown's.
On impulse, he said, "You have a smudge on your glasses."
That gave her a distraction. Confusion scrunched her face up as she withdrew her hands from around her waist. Kally took off her glasses and started to polish them with the ends of her shirt. There was nothing on them, but—as he suspected—she didn't realize that.
Pax tried not to look at her exposed belly button. He swallowed, edging a hand over to touch the frame of the glasses before she could put them on. "How blind are you?" he asked. "Are we talking Tiresias levels of blind?"
She shrugged. "I can see up close, but everything far away is a blur."
Pax gave her a devilish grin. "Daughter of Apollo!" he said in his best furniture commercial bravado, "God of Archery! … Nearsighted."
She shoved him with her shoulder and Pax felt his heart make an escape attempt through his throat. "Shut up," Kally whispered with a small smile. "I get enough of that from Will and Kayla."
That was one of his favorite things to see: Kally's smile when she was comfortable. "How close do you have to be to see me clearly?" Pax wondered. Even to him, his voice sounded too serious. The smell of mint and eucalyptus—likely her shampoo—made him feel drowsy.
Kally turned to face him. With their shoulders touching, Pax was close enough to feel her breath gently tickle his cheek. Her face reddened, making a nice contrast with her eyes. She likely had the same realization he had about their proximity. "This is close enough," she murmured.
Pax decided later he'd lost some of his ability for proper decision making, though he was about as skilled at good decision making as he was at comforting people and at underwater basket weaving. He promised himself he wouldn't screw this up though, even if the opportunity was stellar. Eros, lead me not into temptation, I can find the way myself, he thought. That was the last thought.
Then he leaned down, brushing his mouth against the skin behind her ear. The smell of her shampoo and the soft moisture of her flesh were intoxicating. Pax felt his fingers twitch to hold her hand, dodging the frames of her glasses. "Is this…" he repeated her question as a quiet exhale into her ear. "…close enough?"
One of Kally's hands escaped his grip to touch her lips: her nervous reflex. But she didn't flinch away. Pax traced his lips along her jaw, finding her fingertips hesitantly blocking the path to her mouth. He glanced up at her eyes, kissing the tip of her index finger, like it would remove the barrier. "I really screwed up our first kiss… please let me fix it," he begged. He wasn't supposed to. He'd promised himself not to get too touchy.
Slow enough to make him whine, Kally's hand dropped from her face to hold his hand. He couldn't read her expression, but he gasped when she timidly pressed her mouth to his.
Pax exhaled deeply, leaning further against her. She was new to this and he had to remind himself not to overwhelm her. Keep your hands to yourself, keep your hands to yourself, he kept repeating, trying to focus on clutching her fingers instead of how the wetness of her hair felt cool against his arm, how minty she tasted, and how badly he wanted to see her waistline again.
He needed to stop. As he withdrew, Pax nipped her upper lip, leaving Kally's face a more brilliant shade than Santa's favorite set of PJs.
Pax slipped an arm around her waist, hoping that her dad wouldn't come in with a machete to cut his arm off, as he imagined any sensible father would do. He'd practiced this in his head. Granted, in his head, he looked a little closer to Thor in the Avengers and had anime-style roses that appeared whenever he spoke but, eh, at least he was clean.
Kally looked confused but didn't pull away. Pax swallowed. "I don't want to be just some guy who sneaks into your room at night when your parents are sleeping and tries to commandeer kisses," he said. "I want to be your boyfriend who sneaks into your room at night when your parents are sleeping and tries to commandeer kisses."
She looked at the ground and pulled one hand from him to put her glasses on. "I shouldn't have done that. I can't trust you."
He was furious that his immediate response was an affirming, Ah, you're wising up Cyclops.
In his head, her reaction had been much more dramatic and involved a lot more hugging, illegal fireworks, and his brother poking through the window to give him a high-five. He tried not to show any disappointment.
Pax shrugged, trying to force one of his devil grins. Normally that expression drove her nuts, though he hoped the kiss had already done that. "We're demigods," he reminded. "Our lives are supposed to be complicated, not make sense, and involve a lot of near-death experiences and villainous monologues."
That uplifting reassurance didn't seem to convince her. She pulled away from him and stood up. Pax stayed on her bed, mentally enumerating the ways this could have gone differently-like having a giant cow crash through the ceiling.
"We shouldn't leave Axel waiting outside," Kally said shakily, gathering her Argonaut statue, a canteen of nectar, and some dried beef strips she kept as treats for Hunnie and Baller. She shoved everything into a messenger bag and went to the night stand to slip in her contacts.
Pax popped his cheeks one more time before he stood. He shouldn't push it—
"I'm not going to get a direct answer, am I?" he asked.
Her shoulders shook with a laugh. "I didn't think you liked direct answers."
Although she was still facing the night stand, Pax could hear the mischievous half-smile she occasionally wore around him. "That's evil," he said with admiration. "I've taught you well young Cyclops. Now go forth and spread this chaos."
When she turned around, she was in mid-eye roll. Kally shoved a packet of Reese's Sticks into his torso, likely as a peace offering, before heading for the window. "Come on. I want to see what's going on with Calex."
Scaling down from the window was easy. They reached the bottom and Pax was contemplating whether or not he wanted to try slipping an arm around Kally's shoulder as they walked.
Axel had parked in Kally's yard, partially obscured from the house by a cluster of pines. Although Kally's family had enough land to keep the Great God Pan happy, someone would definitely notice if they parked on her driveway, and likely call the creep watch. The Pax boys' mobile home was a ragged, white pharmaceutical van, with the words Pax Extraction Team written in bright colors on the side, though most of the paint had been singed off in a dragon attack. The vehicle was about as inconspicuous as a homeless man holding a "free candy" sign outside a kindergarten.
They were almost there. Pax was trying not to replay the last ten minutes in his head, but that was like asking Tumblr not to post spoilers. Pax jumped when someone by the house snapped, "So, you're the guy she's been sneaking out to see."
They froze. Pax glanced at Kally to see if this was some harmless prank a senile neighbor liked to play on high schoolers that were creeping out to make out, but she looked as startled as he. They turned to see four figures approaching that Pax definitely hadn't noticed before.
"Monsters?" Pax asked, fingering the darts on his utility belt.
"My brother and his friends," Kally responded like that was way worse.
So…. Monsters, Pax decided. Just the squishy, first level difficulty kind.
The four guys formed a horseshoe around them, making Pax giddy to be in-what at least looked like-the start of a bad high school anime. Hopefully Pax would be one of those where the dashing, bad-boy comedy relief protagonist has a happily ever after in the end. Not one where he dies.
These guys were closer to Axel's age though maybe more in their twenties. They were athletic, laughing, and—from a stumble in one of their steps—might have been hitting the adult grape juice. Each had a hockey stick slung over one shoulder, which Pax had to commend. At least they weren't stereotypically wielding baseballs and crow bars.
"What do you want John?" Kally snapped. Her voice shook.
One took an extra step towards Pax. In the dim moonlight and what little porch light filtered this far, Pax could see this guy was the smallest, only a little taller than Pax. He had dark hair and a tattoo of a crucifix peeking out along his neck. Pax was pretty sure this was the one related to Kally, judging by the skin tone, the one Pax liked to call couleur de transparent.
"Go back inside Kally," John told her.
Kally stared. Once she comprehended what he said, she stuttered, "Wha—you—you used to sneak out all the time—"
Two of the other guys laughed and pushed at each other, like they were reminiscing over past bromances, worthy of epic, swaggy ballads.
"Remember that time at the Battlefield—" the tallest chattered excitedly.
"And the other time, behind the old Walmar-"
"Shut up." John scowled. He apparently did not have an acquired taste for swaggy ballad appreciation. Once the others had quieted, John turned back to Kally. "Yea, I did sneak out a lot," he agreed. He jabbed his hockey stick at Pax. "I know exactly why you're sneaking out. I was a sixteen-year-old-boy once too."
Pax gave him an innocent grin and nudged Kally. "Aw, he knows it was recently my birthday."
She shot him her don't make this worse glance that he'd become so accustomed to ignoring. She started to say, "No—this is stupid—I'm just—"
John's eyes drifted past her to the Paxmobile. He swore enough that Pax's grandmother would have jammed a bar of soap down John's gullet so he'd hiccup bubbles for the next week. "Look at that van! It has abduction written all over it!" he cried.
"Actually, it says 'extraction.' Minute difference," Pax corrected. "Kids would be way less willing to come with us if it said abduction."
John's hockey stick jammed forward. Pax stepped backwards, so the strike missed him by inches. The motion would have probably left him gasping on the ground if he hadn't moved.
"John!" Kally shouted. "Stop it!"
His friends had stopped laughing. They lifted their hockey sticks up and tensed, ready to advance. John took another step towards Pax. "Listen, you little, Mexican creep, I don't want to see you on my family's land ever again and nowhere near my sist—"
Pax tried to restrain his anger. Already, he had a hard time controlling his demigod powers, but he didn't want to kill one of Kally's brothers. That would look bad whenever he got to meet her parents. Oh hi, my name is Ajax Pax. You may have read about me in your son's obituary.
"Hey," Pax objected. "For starters, I'm from Southern Belize, not Mexico, a common misconception for idiots—"
This time, John slammed his hockey stick at the side of Pax's head.
He didn't need to block; Kally caught it, shoved the stick in the ground and brought her foot down hard enough to snap off the end.
John and his friends gawked at her like that was horrifying.
Pax thought it was super hot. Then Pax realized how much she was trembling and how upset she was. This might have been the first time she stood up to her brother or any member of her family.
"Kally…" John hissed. "Get out of the way."
Until those words, Kally's yard had been rustling with fallen leaves, the branches of the pines, and likely adorable, nocturnal creatures out for their breakfast murder. Pax hadn't noticed the noise until the forest went silent. At John's command, the leaves, animals, and wind seemed to take a collective gasp behind Pax and Kally.
Pax knew better than to think John had anything to do with it.
A blast of chilled November air released behind them, flipping Kally's hair over her shoulder, making the boys cover their eyes to avoid a flurry of decaying leaves. The pressure around them dropped and Pax felt his ears pop. A nauseating smell, sickeningly sweet and metallic, made Pax shudder. He knew it was chocolate and blood. Oh Johnny and band, Pax thought, you done messed up.
John and his friends exchanged nervous glances.
"Pax..?" Kally asked cautiously.
Pax didn't bother answering; he knew what was coming and-as any good performer-he knew a surprise introduction could make half the show.
A car door slammed behind them. Neither was willing to take a look away from John and his friends, but Pax could hear the soft crunch of Axel's boots on the leaves.
At the movement, John managed to shake off the ominous weather warnings like the best hero in a horror film. "There are two of you?" John exclaimed. He hefted his broken hockey stick. "You are way too old to be hanging out with my sister! Kally, what have you gotten yourself in—"
"First…" Axel interrupted, though the voice was deeper than Axel's. Gravely and reverberant. Kally risked breaking eye contact with her brother to see if it really was Axel.
Pax inhaled sharply. It's not that monster… he reminded himself. John was too small game for Axel to don that. He glanced back, expecting something even scarier than Ronald McDonald himself.
But Axel looked normal-mostly. Axel typically twisted his Mist mask to have short-cropped dark hair, dark, intense eyes, and bronze skin that left people guessing his country of origin. Whenever asked, Pax would tell them Axel was born of the primordial awesome and remained dormant until the world was ready for him.
Now, Axel looked taller. His hands were at his side, but Pax knew exactly how quickly he could access the swords, daggers, and knives dangling all over his surplus army jacket and dark jeans. His eyes glistened a reflective, predatorial gold.
Pax snagged Kally's hand so she'd look away from Axel's face. "Keep your eyes on John," he instructed.
Stunned, she glanced at Pax, giving the unspoken, excuse me kind sir, but what the Hades?!
Pax didn't care. As long as she wasn't looking at Axel.
His footsteps stopped just behind Pax, opposite the side Kally was on. Then he spoke, "First… Ajax, you're going to apologize to John for making him scared for his sister's safety."
The tone was so similar to their father's, Pax forgot to retaliate… for two seconds. Verbal back-stabbing backstabber! he thought before snapping, "Like Tartarus I—"
Axel's low growl silenced him. Pax didn't want to tremble like he was five, but he was shaking as violently as the time he and Matt agreed to watch The Conjuring in a dark closet after chugging three Red Bulls.
That was Axel's big, tough military voice, the voice he used as Luke's right hand man, the one he spoke when he wanted to say, you're no longer my brother, but a soldier. It sounded just like their father. Some people thought about rainbows and kittens when they reflected on their family. Pax had nostalgia like that… but the traumatic kind. Evil nostalgia? Or was it still just nostalgia? Regardless, Pax didn't dare look at his brother now. He tried to visualize Axel doing this whole exchange with a chicken propped on his head. It made Pax feel better and feel a little hungry for some McNuggets.
"And John—pleased to meet you—" There was a brief pause were Pax could guarantee his brother bowed his head slightly.
John and band just looked bewildered. The tall chatty one whispered, "What's wrong with his eyes?"
Axel acted like no one had spoken. "You're going to apologize to my brother, myself, and Kally for insinuating the friends she chose are bad people," the voice not like Axel's ordered.
John and his friends stared at him. Two in the back exchanged a glance, seeming to realize numbers might mean nothing in this fight.
Then John managed a tense, forced laugh that sounded more like the cry of a cornered piglet. He clung to his broken stick like it would do anything to Axel, other than give him a back scratcher or a toothpick, depending on the type of shindig this turned into.
"You're just some guy…" he muttered, clearly unconvinced. Louder, he repeated, "You're just some guy."
His friends joined in on the laughter. It was hollow. None of them looked confident anymore and they weren't pushing each other around in the playful stupor of, hee hee, let's beat up this tiny, devilish demigod.
Maybe it was Axel's weapons.
To John's credit, he stood his ground. The fear on his face started to dissipate as he snarled, "You and your brother can get off my land and never come back. Who do you think you-"
"I am Axel Pax," he stated. The air dropped in temperature. Pax's ears popped again. He tightened his grip on Kally's hand. He could hear the flick of a lighter and something blue glowed behind them.
Axel continued, "And I do not rest until I have eaten the gods of my enemies. Do you wish to become an enemy of mine Jonathan Cassand?"
Slowly, the comment sank in. Pax felt Kally's hand tremble.
The bravado died. Two of John's friends took uncertain steps back. John paled. "Wha—"
"I like your sister and would never hurt her," the gravelly rasp assured. "However, you are a stranger, and I have no qualms devouring strangers when they insult my family without proper cause."
Pax gave them about three seconds before John and his friends booked it.
They lasted two.
An inhuman, throaty snarl thundered from Axel and made Pax very happy he'd used the bathroom before entering Kally's house. Apparently one of John's friends hadn't.
The friends ran, the tallest one screaming, "Oh God! It's a real monster!"
John backed up and stumbled to the ground. His jaw hung open in horror and awe, the broken stick lying useless beside him. Pax kinda wanted to see how bad a brain freeze he'd get if you jammed some ice cream into that gaping mouth.
When Axel finally stepped forward and into view, the lighter was gone and his hands were slipping over his ears, like he was adjusting his hair. Pax knew better, especially since Axel muttered in Maya as he walked.
He looked normal again, with dark eyes. Today's shirt read: I Ordered a Senate Meeting at Camp Half-Blood. I Got One.
When Axel continued past Kally and Pax, towards her brother, Kally made a sound of protest and tried to intercept him. Pax dragged her back. Axel wouldn't actually hurt him. Well… probably wouldn't hurt him. Like 50/50.
Axel knelt beside John. "You understand that your sister is old enough to make her own decisions and you need to respect her choices, right?" he asked in a much less gravelly, killer voice.
John glanced at Kally, who might have been reconsidering just that question. John nodded.
"And that it would be unwise to mention this to anyone?"Axel asked softly.
John swallowed and nodded more vigorously. His head might pop off if Axel asked him a third question.
"Run along," Axel commanded.
John skidded a few times when he sprinted back to the house. Cussing mingled with a door slam when he reached the entrance.
Axel stood up and put his hands in his pockets. He looked an uncomfortable amount like a normal eighteen-year-old.
Pax had one thing to say to him and it wasn't to gloat that he never had to apologize to John. He puffed up his chest and crossed his arms. "I can handle my own fights. I am small—but mighty!"
Axel walked over to where Kally stood, dumbfounded, and Pax stood, pouting. He smiled faintly, and Pax realized his brother would have loved John to come back outside for Round Two: Cower!
Axel sighed. "I know you can, but you don't know when you don't need to fight." He turned to Kally. "Hey Kall." He gave her a quick hug that brought back the red in her face and broke whatever fear she'd mustered. "It is good to see you. Sorry about your brother."
"What—uh—what was that? Your voice…" she trailed off, lifting a hand up to touch her lower lip in concern
"A trick of the Mist," Axel explained. "I altered what he was seeing to scare him…" He tilted his head. "Your hair looks nice."
If one of Kally's godly powers was to turn into a lobster or Coca Cola can, she was trying her hardest and was getting pretty close to the right color. Pax would have to congratulate her on the progress once he got over his gloom. Neither Kally nor Axel had shown any direct interest in each other, but something Aphrodite said to Pax a month ago nagged the back of his mind, "The person you love is going to fall in love with your best friend." He had hoped Aphrodite would reconsider, but she'd said that before Axel tried to decapitate the goddess. Now, if she reconsidered, she might do something worse, like make him fall in love with a rock or a cactus or Jason Grace.4
As they walked towards the van, Kally frowned. "Is John going to think you guys are demons because of… whatever you just showed him? He'll get the head of our parish to talk to me if that's what you made him see."
Pax sighed dramatically and put his hands behind his head. "I hope not. Exorcists don't work on us, but they do make quite a fuss."
Kally stopped mid-way through pulling up her hair to stare at him.
He winked his yellow eye at her. He loved when she couldn't tell if he was teasing or reminiscing. Out of the corner of his gaze, he could see Axel's lip twitch back a smile.
"We should hurry," Axel said, corralling Kally back into a walk. "And not just because of Calex."
"Oh, most mysterious one?" Pax asked. He wondered if something had happened to make Axel do that to the boys. After all, Pax could have just darted all of them, though that wouldn't have been nearly as good a story for later.
Axel pulled a Smartphone out of his pocket and grinned. "Matt put up a new tweet. He said the Hephaestus campers finished crafting our ride. We're ready to start our quest."
1 Goddess of Hygiene. She'd probably use a porcupine to floss before doing letting Pax scrub his feet with her toothbrush… I don't think Pax ever takes his combat boots off. Does he even have feet? What if he has… little Pax paws….
2 During Whispers of a Snake, Pax pretended to be Nico Di Angelo to get information out of Kally. He may have… forgotten who he was when they were talking… and… you know it goes when you have godly powers, right? You just kinda forget what you're doing sometimes. Right Zeus?
3 Calex is a huge Arsenal football hooligan. Kally passively supports Manchester United. Calex doesn't understand how such a nice girl could make such a grievous mistake.
4 Disclaimer: the author of this series has no hate for Jason Grace. But Pax does. A lot of hate. With sharp pointy daggers and weasel fangs.
