A/N: Rick Riordan owns the copyrighted characters in this story. No infringement intended in the name of profit.
The ride back was uneventful. Or as uneventful as riding a Pegasus high over the New York coastline can be. We parked Blackjack back into the stables and ran into Silena Beauregard as we were walking out.
"Where have you two been?" she asks with an overly curious smile at Annabeth, who is still keeping her focus on me with her 'we have unfinished business' smile.
"Mission," I say not hiding how annoyed I look and feel, "I don't suppose you've seen your Mom recently?"
"Actually I have. She's talking with Chiron and Mr. D," she explains pointing towards the Big House.
"Thanks…" I say, grabbing Annabeth's hand and leading her there.
"We don't have to see her right away do we? Let's go to your cabin first. We can be alone…" Annabeth says too loud, and I look back as we're walking away from Silena to notice her covering her mouth in shock.
Great, she heard that. By dinner the whole camp will think that Wise Girl and I had sex. Awesome.
Chiron, Mr. D, and Aphrodite are sitting on the front porch drinking iced tea and listening to Clarisse complain about something to do with the Apollo cabin and a hijacked chariot. Clarisse is no less annoyed by seeing me, and the fact that all three of the people she was addressing are now much more interested in my presence also doesn't help.
"Get in line, Jackson," Clarisse sneers.
"I'll be quick," I reply, throwing the bible down on the table in front of them.
"You've found religion, Perry? Good for you. I trust you won't be needing to stay at camp any longer?" Mr. D starts, again pretending to forget my name. Chiron clears his throat, probably in an attempt to cut him off and make sure I don't explode at him.
"Your vial is in there. I was originally going to have Annabeth present it to you, but I'm afraid she'll try and smell it again," I say with as much controlled venom as possible. This was the wrong thing to say though as Annabeth looks beyond guilty in front of Aphrodite.
"Dionysus, would you be a dear and…" Aphrodite begins to ask, but before she can even finish Dionysus snaps his fingers a shot glass full of light blue liquid appears on the table.
"Have her drink this, my dear, and all will be well," Aphrodite says, fanning herself.
"Unless it causes her and me to forget the past few hours, I seriously doubt that," I answer angrily.
"But then, what would either of you have taken away from this little task," she smiles, "Make sure she gets to bed…that antidote draft can make you drowsy."
Unbelievable. No way am I taking her near a bed again.
At least not today.
"Can you do me a favor?" I ask, turning towards Clarisse.
"Bite me, Jackson," she replies.
Right…let's try a different way.
"Can you do her a favor?" I ask again, posturing towards Annabeth. Clarisse's expression softens, and I hand her the drink. "Make sure she takes this and get her to bed?"
Clarisse nods. "Come on, girl, you've done enough for one day," and she leads Annabeth away.
I take a moment to watch them walk off, then turn to the table. I would give anything to cuss them all out, with the exception of Chiron who, judging by his facial expression, has no freaking idea what is going on.
But anymore outbursts in front of the Olympians may get me into trouble I don't even want to imagine. And I have to think Mr. D especially won't put up with me disrespecting Aphrodite.
So I take a breath.
"Good night," I say, with an almost blank expression.
Dinner was terrible. Not the food, but just the fact that I couldn't eat. I would look over at the Athena table and see an empty spot where Annabeth should be sitting, and how if she were there she would have caught me staring at her, and I would have caught her staring back at me a minute later, and we would play this awkward game from afar until it got too weird and I would end up leaving.
One of the only good things about having to eat by yourself is that you never have anybody to say 'Excuse Me' to when you want to leave.
But after today, I would give anything to have that kind of awkward again.
Even later that night I volunteered to fill Annabeth's spot on patrol. It was actually a great night for it, there was a light breeze coming in from the East, and the Satyrs were whooping it up and playing some sort of late night game of tag or something deep in the woods. Sometimes it's so quiet you just feel like an attack is coming, but tonight wasn't going to be one of those nights.
I catch the briefest glimpse of large bird flying just ahead of me towards the woods and land on a branch. As I walk further on I notice it's an owl. Despite the random fact I memorized about owls being nocturnal and all, we don't see many of them here at camp.
We stare at each other as I walk pass.
"A moment of your time, Son of Poseidon," a woman's voice commands from behind me.
I turn around to find a female warrior holding a long spear. She has a breastplate with an olive tree etching and a helmet made to look like the face of an owl.
Only so many Olympians this could be.
"Lady Athena," I salute sincerely with a bow.
It's obvious why she's here, and I should probably be more scared, but at this point I can't help whatever happens.
Just the same…I can feel my knees buckling.
"Rise, Perseus Jackson," she says as she approaches lifting up her helmet's face plate. Her hair is blonde and curly like Annabeth's this time, and some strands are falling out of the helmet, but she looks like no less of a knockout, especially with her cool grey eyes.
"How may I be of service?" I ask as she approaches. I may be going overboard with the respect, but I'm also glad to see an Olympian today that didn't do something to piss me off.
"Allow me to join you on patrol," she answers, not like I needed convincing. Having one of the Olympians on patrol with you all but guarantees you might survive.
We walk for a minute or two, and I can't figure out if I should say something first or not. Everytime I convince myself I should though, I still can't think of single smart thing to start with.
"I'm never going to completely like your father Perseus, we have too much history between us to ever make that possible. But I have learned something today."
"You learned something?" I say jokingly, forgetting this is not Annabeth, daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom, but the actual Goddess of Wisdom.
Annabeth chalks these comments up to my brain having to barf up a stupid comment once in a while to make room for new seaweed.
"Funny…just like your father," she says, and I look down immediately ashamed at my poorly timed attempt at humor, "but unlike your father, you showed amazing restraint today…especially for a teenage boy."
"You…you heard?" I ask.
"Actually I saw. This was a test set up by Aphrodite and her son, Eros. I was not told about this until moments before Annabeth found you in the room. Needless to say, I'm not happy with Aphrodite's scheming, especially since this was done to set up a bet."
"A bet?" I ask as I stop walking, wondering also how exactly Aphrodite and Athena watched this whole thing go down. Did they literally turn themselves into flies and hang out on the wall the whole time?
No way in Hades am I asking her.
"Mmm…yes…Lady Aphrodite wanted to bet me on whether you would give in to your temptation. She does know a thing or two about that after all…" she says with an annoyed tone.
"But you stopped it just in time right? Is that how we managed to get out of there without…you know…'it' happening?" I question, not daring to say the 'sex' word in front of Annabeth's all-powerful mother.
"Actually I bet you were going to crack, and that I would eventually have to step in if it seemed you were unable to resist Annabeth's less-than-sober advances. Aphrodite bet you would do the honorable thing," she explains with a smile. "You should probably be aware that I don't care for being wrong…especially at the expense of Aphrodite…but in this particular case it's a good thing."
"So you're not going to kill me?" I ask hopefully.
She smiles slowly…and my knees twitch again.
"Not tonight. No. You have demonstrated your loyalty to my daughter, despite being the son of the God who is widely considered to have the least ability to control his…carnal…desires."
"Um…thanks?" I say without enthusiasm. It's kind of tough to be happy about that comment when she has basically called out my dad for being a sex addict.
She stops walking abruptly.
"This is where I take my leave. Continue to honor my daughter, Son of Poseidon," she says as she begins to shimmer and turn into the blinding white light.
And then she's gone.
I sigh and shake my head.
Sure they are trying to destroy the world, but I bet these crazy shenanigans don't go on in Kronos' army.
To be continued…