Whatever part of Luke still existed underneath all the crazy, it had been that part of him that chose to save my life even after we'd tried to kill each other. After I woke up on the most luxuriously comfortable bed I'd ever slept on, I'd realised that waking up alone meant I was still alive and when I moved myself, I didn't feel like I was in any pain. I was starving though, so when I sniffed at the air and caught the scent of hot buttery rolls, bacon and other good things, I immediately threw back my covers and staggered towards the source of the smell in order to begin tentatively feeling the platters that were set upon a table, plates and cutlery also set out. If this was someone else's meal then I'm sorry, but my fingers dove right in. It was the only way to figure out what was there and within seconds I was licking my fingers like crazy after having found all kinds of breakfast assortments, though shoving my fingers and finding a bowl of baked beans wasn't part of the plan. Still I was ravenous, so I grabbed the plate from one of the settings and started to load up, biting into things in between until I had stocked my plate high.
With a croissant hanging from my mouth I put the plate down and felt the pitcher containing some kind of liquid near to my right, lifting it up in order to sniff it. I'm pretty sure it was orange juice, but the freshly squeezed kind. Also realising I was thirsty, I found myself a glass then wrapped my hand around the rim like a guard and placed my thumb on the inside so that I knew how far to fill up, carefully placing the glass pitcher so that the lip was touching the rim before pouring. When I felt the liquid touch my thumb I stopped and put it back roughly where I found it, bumping it accidentally against another plate before managing to find a flat, unoccupied surface. I downed the drink, hoping that it wasn't poisoned, then sat down to tear into my food with a vengeance. Chewing through my third rasher of bacon, someone finally spoke. "You want some ketchup with that?" I shrieked and almost spat out the bacon, my hand snatching at the croissant that I was yet to return to and lobbed it at the source of the voice as I had jolted and almost tipped backwards over my chair.
I heard a soft whump of the pastry being snatched out of the air followed by a light and somewhat gentle chuckle as I stood half upright, now freezing in place. "Luke?" Of course it was him, I mean I could never misplace his voice, but still. I was so focused on eating that I hadn't even realised he was in the room with me. "Where are you?"
"Over here. Want me to come over?"
"Are you going to kill me if you do?" He chuckled again and the sound was louder than before, meaning he was already coming towards me. Under my bare feet I could feel a thick and spongy carpet which made me realise that his footfalls were dampened, I couldn't hear him properly.
"Of course not. Now that you've helped yourself to my breakfast and you've rested in my bed, I have to call you a guest. It's rude to kill your guests." This didn't exactly make me feel overly thrilled, but I didn't move away as Luke now stood only a few feet away from me. My hand jumped to my wrist and for the first time, I was relieved to find my bracelets were still there. "Don't worry, I won't take them away from you. One of them was from your mom, right? I wouldn't take it from you. Besides the other is just the camp bead, it's not anything threatening so you can keep that one too." Blinking at him, I realised that he didn't know about the magic. Luke didn't know that this bracelet was actually a gift from Poseidon because I'd never told him the truth after my mom had told it to me. "But I've removed your weapon from it, it's not going to reappear so don't get any heroic ideas." He warned me and I heard something sing when it was tapped against the solid wood. I hadn't had Amaryllis long, but I instinctively knew her sound. "Quite an interesting weapon you picked up. How did you get it?"
"It was a gift. Figured after having to kill the monster Lamia without a weapon, I should probably start carrying one around."
"Right, I heard about that." Hearing the sound of a chair being pulled out Luke then sat down in it, I think at the head of the table as I sat to his right, feeling him watching me studiously. "Well at least you'll never go without ice with this thing. Did your father give it to you?" Out of habit my face twisted into a scowl at the mention of my father, and Luke seemed to be amused as he quickly corrected himself. "No, I doubt you would have kept it if it was from him, no matter how desperately you needed a weapon. Still, a trident Lily?" Shrugging my shoulders I began to relax back in my chair and calm down a little as I told him that I hadn't picked it but I somehow seemed to have a natural talent for the trident. I blamed dad. "Starting to accept your godly side, Lily?"
"No. Never. Not in a million years." I protested hotly before biting on my tongue and remembered the Sirens' song, telling me that my stubbornness and refusal to acknowledge my dad would be my fatal flaw. I pointedly tossed those thoughts aside. It felt strange to sit and talk to Luke like this, it almost felt like old times, and it was a super weird feeling but at the same time I kind of liked it. My head turned back to the table laden with food. Hunger won out. I started eating again. "You said something about ketchup?" I'm not entirely sure if Luke smiled or not, I mean I knew the feeling of his smile and although I sort of felt it, it also felt cold and distant as he guided my hand to the ketchup dish. Very fancy. They didn't even leave it in a bottle here. "Why am I alive Luke? I was bleeding out and about to be monster food. Did you save me?"
"I thought that perhaps you might yet see my side of things. We agreed before that the gods weren't fit to rule anymore, and I know that you hate them as much as I do. I was able to persuade Lord Kronos to give you another chance to join us." He said to me as I shovelled fried egg into my mouth. I probably should have thought about being politer, more dainty and sophisticated in the wake of such a perilous situation, but I didn't have the patience for that. Or the manners. I was hungry and this food was amazing. "So will you join us, Lils? Will you join me?"
"I might have done, if you'd asked." I told him truthfully, pausing in order to answer him without bits of egg flying out of my mouth. "But you kind of repeatedly tried to kill my brother. You're not in my good books at the moment and no matter what, Percy and my mom will always come first. The world can crumble and burn around us for all I care, so long as they're safe." This seemed to give Luke a lot to think about because he didn't answer me then and sat silently for a long while whilst I continued to eat until I was full to the brim. Finally sitting back, I used one of the fancy napkins which felt like real cotton and not those paper things you get in restaurants, my thumb brushing over the corner where I felt the embroidered letters 'PA', probably for the name of the ship. "Are we still on the Andromeda?"
"How did you know it's called that?"
"I have friends who can read. Well…a pegasus who can read." I corrected, because honestly all of us half-bloods had terrible reading sills because of our dyslexia. It was the one thing that made me sort of happy I couldn't see, because I could read braille which meant books weren't a problem for me. I didn't bother asking Luke where we were because I knew exactly. Now that I was fed and watered, my senses were starting to sharpen again. I could feel the ship around me, almost coming alive to my mind as I knew each cabin and door, every cog and gear, felt the thrum of the propellers and the slapping waves against the hull. If I wanted to, I could steer this ship and run it aground without moving from this chair, but I didn't, because I had made a promise to a god and the only way I could accomplish that was by being here. Something I did notice, however, was a familiar presence following us. My head turned quickly and I found myself getting up and going towards the back of the suite which faced the stern of the ship, reaching out my hand to feel the coolness of glass in front of me. Glass doors. I found the handle and pulled it aside in order to step out onto the balcony on the tenth floor, thankfully not in the admiralty suite because I don't think I could have slept easy with that thing in the same room as me. Hearing the wash of the waves and tasting the salt in the air, I kept my face turned to the sea directly behind us, feeling the presence more strongly.
"There's a ship out there and it's been following us ever since we left Miami. It's a ghost ship, no one's on board." I heard Luke say as he followed me out and even came to the balcony edge with me, allowing himself to be a little closer as if testing the boundaries. I didn't recoil or shove him away, so he stayed put. "A couple of my guys tried to get on board, but it throws them off each time they try. I'm thinking about having it destroyed."
"No!" Protesting instantly, my hand jumped out to grab hold of Luke's arm and I felt him tense in surprise as he stared at me. "No please, don't hurt my Queen, the ship is mine! She's just following me!" Now I knew Luke was perplexed and I winced inwardly, knowing that I would have to explain things a little. "It's something to do with being a kid of Poseidon, I'm a natural with ships and they respond to me. Especially the old kind of ships. I probably subconsciously wanted her to follow me because I want to keep her as my vessel. Please Luke? Please don't destroy her. All my treasure is on board!" Staring at me for a moment longer, Luke suddenly broke into laughter which had me staring at him in shock. It was the first time I had heard his old laugh in a very long time and it seemed to swell within me, making me grow warm as my cheeks coloured and grew flushed.
"So that's why! I did wonder, but I wasn't sure…how did you come to get that of all things?"
"Well, we almost got trapped by Circe at her resort spa where she'd turned Percy and a bunch of pirates from three hundred years ago into guinea pigs, you know, Blackbeard? Anyway that ship was at the docks so we took it. We stole a pirate ship from pirates." Luke continued laughing and soon I found myself grinning. Intrigued, he asked to know exactly what happened so I told him all about Circe and how she'd tried to convince me and Annabeth that men were pigs and that we should become sorceresses instead. "She said I could become queen of the oceans if I let her train me, but that sounded like too much hard work. Her spa was nice though, like some kind of paradise. I kind of wish I can take my mom there." I faltered then, thinking about mom. "Gods…mom. She probably…did Percy…do they know I'm alive?" For a moment, Luke said nothing but then he must have taken pity on me because my expression had started to crumble.
"The gods…should know that you are alive. At the very least, Poseidon does. It's probably part of the reason he doesn't try to overturn the ship anymore, because you're on board. Word should spread, though it would be better for me if it didn't, and it'll reach your brother and your mom." This wasn't exactly the best news, but it was better than nothing, though when I asked Luke refused to allow me to contact someone, not even my mom. He didn't want to risk me letting anything slip or sending secret messages, or giving anyone an idea of where we were so I didn't push it. If Luke wanted, he could exchange that luxury bed for a broom cupboard and lock me in. I wasn't going to make him angry on purpose.
"So I'm stuck here as a prisoner?"
"Honoured guest." He corrected, feeling him next to me leaning his back against the balcony in a posture that seemed relaxed but I knew Luke better than that. In a blink of an eye he could spring into action and dive straight into a fight.
"Honoured guests can leave when they want." I pointed out bluntly, so he considered for a moment in brief silence before amending his previous statement in a tone that told me that he was smiling just like he used to before all this had happened.
"Privileged hostage, then." It was a step up from prisoner, I wasn't going to argue. "For now you'll be confined to your own cabin under guard. Try anything and I won't hesitate to make you regret it, understand? I'm doing you a favour, Lily. Don't throw it back in my face. If you attempt to escape then I really will kill you." Despite the fact his words sounded harsh, they felt rather empty which gave me hope, though I had no intentions of escaping. Yet.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Where am I going to go anyway? I'm in the middle of the ocean and I can't swim. It's not like I can summon a whale or something to take me home." I reasoned lightly, playing it off as a joke though Luke now frowned at me as if actually considering if I could do something like that. "I'm joking! I don't speak whale. At least I don't think I do. Can I at least have poolside privileges? This is a cruise ship, there has to be plenty to do around here and I'll be bored out of my mind in a cabin with nothing to do. You're really going to lock a poor, blind, helpless girl up Luke? I might get frightened." Now I knew Luke was smiling at me, his hand reaching out in order to naturally ruffle my hair and although I felt his fingers brush against the top of my hand, he also hastily retracted it back as he spoke.
"I'll think about it, but I know better than any that you're not helpless, or easily frightened." This made me glow brightly, feeling rather proud to have such an acknowledgement from Luke because despite everything that he'd done and also despite the fact that he was a bad guy, he was still one of the coolest people I knew. "By the way…you really have gotten good with your fighting skills. You probably didn't realise, but you actually did nick me when we duelled." I couldn't help it, I gasped loudly and clapped a hand to my face.
"Really? Where?"
"My arm. It was quick and light, but still a hit. You got me." Now beaming from ear to ear, I quickly demanded to know when it was I managed to get that hit, even grabbing Luke in order to shake him urgently as he chuckled but didn't push me from him, this time letting his hand lift up to brush at my hair. "About two and a half minutes in." Instantly I winced.
"Damn. So I owe you ten golden drachmas."