Moments Too Priceless

The son of Hades sucked in a breath as he clouted a stack of books whose leather covers were covered with thick grey dust. Malcolm gave him a look before Nico pulled a stool towards him, ignoring the ancient volumes he'd just knocked over.

"You could have just sat in this couch with me," snickered Malcolm, his lips quirking into a smile as he patted the black tattered couch he sat on.

Nico sneered at the son of Athena. "N to the fucking O. You could have picked something better to sit your ass down on."

"Shut it," reprimanded Malcolm, waving a gloved hand as his bright eyes and merriment faded into a blunt frown. "I was thinking a while ago about your task for Lady Aphorei."

The pale boy stiffened, his look of neutrality unyielding. "Do you have an idea in mind?"

"No," said the brunette quietly, his voice barely coherent. Nico's jaw feathered in agitation. "I was wondering if Percy, Annabeth, and that other hunter—" Faith, Nico remembered. "—could somehow persuade Lady Aphorei to join our side."

"How'd you know about their quest?" said Nico crudely, the whips of cold from the slim gap of a window lashing at his skin. "Chiron didn't tell anybody much information about their whereabouts."

Malcolm met his icy gaze. "Lady Aphorei herself told me. She suspects the three of them would come find her in the Underworld. She doesn't trust you anymore, you know, after spilling out information like that to Percy."

Nico took an interest to the simple silver ring he wore, twisting and turning it over and over again. "Lloyd is the only one the she-devil trusts," he spat out, a growing dislike emerging from him. "I doubt he still has any good left in him after being Marked."

He hated how his voice cracked in the end. Being Marked was a horrid thought—it meant being bonded to the Dark completely, along with your loyalty siding with the enemy.

Some half-bloods who have dared join the Dark had been Marked; and Nico once had to stand there and watch their pristine skin carved with what seemed to be a ghostly knife. A symbol of power—a Mark of their allegiance to the Dark.

Nico felt pathetic and hopeless as he shifted in his stool. "I don't want to be Marked. Not yet. But, I don't want innocents to get involved in this either." I don't want Will to die.

"I know." Malcolm's pitiful gaze did not help. Nico felt a sudden urge to shout that no, he didn't know what he was feeling. He didn't know the risks of everything he did.

He didn't know the agony of waking up every day, hoping Will wasn't dead.

The son of Athena murmured quietly, ruining the silence, "Until when does Lady Aphorei want you to get the Book of Fyrmarcs for her?"

Nico snarled silently at the blank wall beside him, not bothering to look at the blond. "I already asked a few days ago," he said, his voice devoid of any emotion. "I'm just managing to convince Lady Aphorei for now that I need more time for careful planning. Then, that bastard of a bitch, Lloyd, thought it would be better if I've done the task within a time limit."

His fingers curled into fists, gleefully imagining he was beating the idiot up into a bloodied pulp. "I'm gonna kill whoever birthed Lloyd into this world," hissed Nico with a dark malice.

Malcolm had the audacity to chuckle, yet those eyes remained so carefully empty. "Good luck with that."

"What?"

"Oh, gods. I didn't think . . . " Malcolm gaped at him, disbelieving. "Surely you know? Or has no one told you?"

Nico began growing greatly irked. He cast a glare at the son of Athena, growling, "Spit it out, Pace."

There was a tinkling of lights and clinging glass below them-he'd gotten used to the sound of it. They both knew when someone has entered the Big House; either be Chiron or a camper. Nico didn't care as of the moment as his piercing stare dug into Malcolm's wary one.

"Lady Aphorei is Lloyd's mother. She's messed with Poseidon's memories, making him believe that Lloyd was his son back then."

It must've been Nico when a dredged wine bottle burst into fine glazed fragments.

*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*

Faith felt awfully dizzy, but she wasn't going to admit that in front of Percy.

She did not know when she began leaning back on his body, but she found it a quite comfortable position to be in. The hunter's numb fingertips ached dreadfully as she clawed the wyvern's tough hide with all her might.

May the gods help her if she somehow fell off the damning thing. Her fear of heights wasn't really helping either; only when Percy managed to goad the beast into flying lower to the ground was when Faith felt less ill.

They didn't know how long it's been. Annabeth was always the one with the watch on her wrist. Now, she was gone with that pathetic excuse of a demigod, Lloyd. Faith had put enough pieces together by then and concluded with the fact that the wyvern's name was Lucius.

How twisted. The name Lucius meant light, and yet the beast they rode was as dark as night.

Other than being completely useless and troubling (or so, that's what she thought), she did manage to help them both by controlling the Mist, as Percy admitted he was absolutely rubbish at this particular skill.

Looking straight ahead instead of the blurry grounds beneath them, Faith pulled herself away from the son of Poseidon.

"I'm hungry," declared Faith, the constant beating of the monster's mighty wings roaring in her ears. She turned her head slightly to look at Percy, only to receive a nonchalant shrug.

"All right." He pursed his lips, as if in deep concentration, then frowned at himself. "I keep forgetting that I can't talk to Lucius in my head."

Faith couldn't stop the snicker from escaping as her neck strained from turning it too far back. "Did this whole flying trip damage your brain or something?"

Percy stuck his tongue out at her in a childish manner. "I have a pegasus named Blackjack. Being the son of Poseidon and all, I could talk to him. Too bad I can't do the same to Lucius."

At the mention of the wyvern, it dipped lower through the air with a sort of grace and began gliding. Its wings stopped flapping, and Faith wasn't sure if she should be glad or worried.

She yelped, muttering near-silent curses before the beast regained its composure once more and let out a somewhat satisfactory purr.

"You're kidding me, Jackson," said Faith incredulously as if nothing had interrupted their conversation. "How do you say fuck in horse language, then?"

The raven sent her a funny look before bursting into laughter, throwing his head back as he did so. Faith felt a smile tug at her lips; Percy had a habit of doing that whenever he laughed, she noted.

When he pulled his steady grip away from Lucius, she immediately put them back where they were. "As much as I find your delight a bit entertaining, I don't want you to fall off," hissed Faith, though the amusement in her eyes betrayed her.

Percy let out a huff, giving her a smirk much like her own. "Hey, you complimented me."

"I think I would've fallen off this thing first before complimenting you, Jackson."

"Awh, you're in denial," sing-sang the son of Poseidon, nestling a bit closer. Faith bit back a laugh when she purposely bobbed her head from side to side, her lashes of hair slapping Percy in the face.

"I'm seriously hungry," heaved the hunter, ignoring the hot feeling spreading on her face and neck. Without a second thought, she landed two gentle pats on wyvern's neck, ignoring the sharp scanty skin her fingers touched.

Faith felt Percy's stare on her. "What are you doing?" uttered the son of Poseidon, his hold on the beast's skin stronger than before when it decided to plunge lower and lower.

She gave him a triumphant beam. "Well, I am hungry. Maybe there's a food place near that DOA recording studios thing." Near the place where the souls of the Underworld are. How enlightening.

Percy's mouth opened for a slight second before he closed it again, shaking his head at her. Faith caught something along the lines of dealing with her stubbornness, then she giggled-yes, she was very out of character today.

"Oh my gods." The beast flew with enough potential to go through an entire skyscraper unharmed as it ducked its stark head, swooping down and slicing through the air like an arrow through fog. Faith felt her breath catch in her throat as she couldn't help but lurch backwards and—

She felt her grip slipping. A flare of wild panic settled in her stomach as she dug her shoes in Lucius's hide, watching as the line that separated the sky from the earth tilted in front of her eyes.

Then, the ringing in her ears stopped. They were gliding now—landing in a deserted area, away from all the usual Los Angeles noise from its people. She cursed loudly, and wasn't surprised when Percy almost fell on the side. The wyvern halted to a stop, its wings neatly folding with a sort of elegance.

Faith quickly got off, careful not to step on Lucius's delicate wings. Percy followed discreetly with a groan.

They were in an alleyway, the dilapidated buildings forming a dark peaked shadow that fell on them like a cloak. Very few passersby failed to notice them; they were not as odd-looking unlike the cloaked figures she'd faced with Annabeth.

"Is the Mist working?" said Percy lowly, cautious and alert. Faith nodded stiffly, avoiding to meet Lucius's loathing eyes. A monster, it was.

But then, maybe this one had a heart. Just maybe.

Slowly, she held out a hand to the son of Poseidon. "Give me the bag. We have to feed him after the long journey."

"I—what?" He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "You're going to feed my bag to Lucius?"

If they weren't in their current situation, Faith would've gladly laughed until tears were prickling at the corners of her eyes. "No, you idiot. There's meat in there. Me and Annabeth found it in your bag-but in all honesty, I can accept the fact that you bring a lump of meat with you wherever you go—"

"I do not!"

"—but I can't seem to explain how the name written on the plastic bag was, coincidentally, the name of the wyvern as well."

Percy reacted almost instantly. The strap of his bag, which was over his shoulder in a sloppy way, slipped away. He dropped it, scrunching his nose at it.

"That explains the horrid smell," he admitted, "I thought it was you, but I was too much of a gentleman to tell you about it."

Faith rolled her eyes at him, snatching the grimy bag from the stained stone floors. She ignored Percy as she rummaged inside, remembering to breathe through her mouth instead of her nose so she wouldn't have to endure the nauseating stench.

Trying not to waste any time, the brunette hastily threw the filled plastic bag just a few feet from the eager wyvern. She pinched her nose, scowling as Lucius looked at it for a mere second, sniffing around before bringing out its talons.

"That," began Percy, watching as Lucius ripped the plastic bag to shreds and devoured the wet meat with a sparkle of hunger in its dark crimson eyes, "is disgusting."

Faith couldn't agree more. "We figured Aphrodite somehow snuck it in your bag," she quipped, pursing her lips tightly. "Is Lucius ours now? Yours, I mean?"

"You can have him. I'm all good." He eyed the wyvern with a sort of interest gleaming in those sea-greens of his. "There's more of them, I think. They're using them as weapons to win this war. I remember there's a line in the prophecy; something about seek the ones they enslave to breed."

She nodded slyly, disgusted at the thought formulating in her mind. "They breed these things," she said quietly, wincing at the sudden growl that sounded from the beast's throat. "I have nightmares about them sometimes. Screaming demigods in cells—they were being forced to drink something, and they would just-"

"Demigods," said Percy, as if taking his time to let her words sink in. "They enslave demigods to . . . to breed wyverns." It did not sound like a question at all; there was a sort of dangerous edge to his voice that she hadn't heard for a while.

Her missing brother, Elijah—she was almost sure that he was at the mercy of Ouranos. Just the thought of a primordial god, an equal of Gaea's, at war against them . . .

We'll find him, she remembered Percy's promise, loud and clear. A growl resonated within the brick walls of the shadowed alleyway, and—

Lucius had finished, baring its teeth at them with no much effort to look intimidating. Its tail curled up, waving about and looking quite pleased. There was pinkish blood encrusting its mouth, no doubt drying already on that harsh raw skin.

It's no more than a feline cat with wings and enormous fangs, she thought.

Faith slung the bag over her own shoulder, cocking her head at the son of Poseidon coolly. "You think there's some McDonalds here or something?"

Percy perked up at her, then gestured to the wyvern that began roaming the filth that enveloped the alley. "Probably. What does Lucius look like to the others? The mortals?"

"A really big black dog."

"How creative."

She made a face, flipping the middle finger at him. Percy sniggered as she stepped out of the shadows with near-silent footsteps. A pale sunset began to swallow the sky, the sun dipping lower than the grayish buildings that loomed over them.

No one seemed to be paying them any attention at all; they were no more than mortals. Her eyes scanned over the area quickly, cautious if any monsters were wandering about. Percy was tending to Lucius, no doubt trying to form a somewhat stable alliance with the wyvern.

Faith spoke without looking back, "There's a pizza place nearby, and a motel just a block away. It's almost dark—we don't want to get caught by any monsters."

When he didn't reply for a several moments, she shot him a look. Percy was glaring-or so, it seemed like it—at a wrinkled poster that was stuck to the wall with Sellotape.

She caught a grainy photo of a train, with four kids on its top along with a dog that was snarling at—

"Oh," she said quietly, not moving at all when Percy snatched the newspaper off the wall and began shredding it into pieces. "That kinda gives our location away to the enemy, doesn't it?"

"Unfortunately." The son of Poseidon let the crumpled pieces of black and white fall from his hands, hovering in the air for just a few seconds before falling to the ground with a heap.

Faith sighed loudly, trying to catch his eye. He didn't budge. "We're going to find her, all right? Chase is a pretty good fighter; she wouldn't give in too quickly to that traitor."

"I know." There was some sort of emotion she couldn't pin down on his voice. With a wry face, Faith let the matter go and clicked her tongue repeatedly at the wandering wyvern.

Lucius's fangs shone as it swiveled around to face them, its claws scraping over the ground. Somehow, she still felt cautious around the creature-even after riding it with no much problems.

Their walk to the pizza place was a rather brisk one. At one point, she tripped because she hadn't been looking at where she was trudging along; instead, she'd been busy scanning the faces of whoever they passed by.

Percy's face was easily concealed beneath his hood. He was given the privilege to do so as he wore a rather comfy-looking hoodie that practically hugged his lean body like a warm embrace.

Upon noticing this, Faith frowned upon herself as they crossed the lifeless streets. She'd done her best to conceal most of her pristine skin with her turquoise scarf, but it had not helped to make her feel warmer at all.

They stopped walking.

Above them, an apple red neon sign gleamed brightly; the lettered words Casa Bianca Pizza Pie blinded her.

"Pizza pie?" blurted Percy, making a long sullen face. "Is it like . . . pizza in a pie?"

She laughed lowly, careful to keep her voice down. Lucius purred for a sly second behind them, clearly impatient, and-

Mental note: never keep a wyvern waiting.

Percy jerked away after being shoved violently by the winged beast, yet it wasn't enough to knock him on his feet. She yelped, watching in horror as Lucius rampaged inside, the eerie crack of glass and cement collapsing-

"Do they still think Lucius is a very big black dog?"

"Probably?" Faith winced inwardly as her stomach churned in her ears. The customers that had been peacefully dining inside the pizza place let out several high-pitched screams. They scram, a twinge of fright and panic in their immense eyes.

She didn't move, grimacing as Lucius jumped over the counter. Its muscled neck disappeared under the steel racks, scouring through the steaming fryers. Faith eagerly nudged Percy, who had a comical expression on his face.

"I don't know about you," she chirped, grinning gleefully, "but I think our dear Lucy here is a great example for the both of us."

Percy gaped like a fish. "Lucy? You mean Lu—wait, my—"

Too late, mused Faith, not bothering to tiptoe over the shards of glass that tinged the dulled marble floors. Someone screamed, saying something about the police, but she didn't care.

In over a few minutes with no much effort, she grinned at the three big plastic bags she carried in both arms. Faith made sure to get a large bottle of water, some fries, and even a few loafs of bread along with the pizzas that were surely enough for a week.

On her delightful spree, Percy had gathered his own essentials as well; but, she realised, they were mostly for Lucius—the awful smell gave it away the moment he got near.

"The mortals are slow," said Faith casually, as if they hadn't just done a raid in a pizza place. The slung bag over her shoulder was dreadfully heavy; she'd spent most of her time stuffing it with other goodies. "We still have time to run. I used the Mist to make our faces a little bit unrecognizable, so everything's good."

"We've just stolen a lot of pizzas," said Percy, as if not quite believing what they've done. "And for some weird reason, I feel completely happy about it."

Faith snickered at the son of Poseidon, trying to stop Lucius from making the kitchen utensils clatter down on the floor with a loud crash. "We're such great partners in crime, aren't we?" she told him with a suggestive grin, earning a choke.

"I'm not going to disagree with you." He sighed, glancing slyly at the familiar red and blue siren lights glowing in the darkening roads. Lucius let out a roar at seemingly no one in particular, its wings broadening in the direction of a pale-blue motel.

"Let's run?" asked Percy, slight enjoyment evident in his voice.

Faith kept her eyes on the road, not knowing there was an impish grin on her lips. "I get your fries if I get there first."