PERCY
Councillor Terik sighs. "I would reprimand you for threatening the Council, but capturing the Neverseen is far more important. Shall we begin?"
I roll my eyes. "Um, yes! I thought that was a given."
One by one, Councillors come forward and bless the pile of items. They place the jewel on their circlet to the pile, and whisper… something under their breath.
As soon as Councillor Darek places his ruby to the prized possessions, a bright flash envelopes the room. When we can see again, we are standing outside of a cave. We can vaguely see outlines of people walking around in the darkness. Then, every five seconds, more people appear with confused noises and shrieks.
Suddenly, a glowing dome, like the one that Marella trapped me in at the beginning of it all, covers the cave entrance. We can finally see the people inside, who I realize are all wearing black cloaks with white eyes on them. My blood boils as I realize that this is the organization that killed everyone I love. I take a deep breath in, pushing down my rage, and the raw, volatile power that is bubbling inside me.
And then one of them walks to the edge of the cave.
They flip off their hood.
And she smiles.
Lady Gisela. Keefe's horrible mother. I've only heard stories, but I hate her already.
She laughs. I think she's insane. "Good job! You've finally figured it out! I suppose now you're going to throw us all into Exillium?"
Councillor Emery nods. "Yes, we will."
Gisela looks way too pleased. I step forward. "If she's that happy about it, I wouldn't recommend putting her wherever Exillium is."
She smiles. "Ah! Look! It's the Hero of Olympus! How smart you are to figure it out!" Then she fake-frowns. "Oh. But a hero wouldn't fail to save his loved ones, would he?"
'What? How does she-?'
I stumble backwards. Her words are like poisoned daggers, launched at all of my weakest points. Then again, it's not like I don't tell this to myself every second of every day.
"Bianca Di Angelo. Zoe Nightshade. Lee Fletcher."
I bow my head towards the ground, trying to not let anyone see the tears.
"Castor. Charles Beckendorf. Michael Yew."
How does she know these names?"
"Silena Beauregard. Ethan Nakamura. Luke Castellan."
These hit me like a boulder, burying me. I cover my ears against the onslaught of blame. Stop, please stop.
"Bob. Damasen."
A cry escapes from my lips. My fault. I left them in Tartarus. I fall to my knees, my hands against my ears.
"Travis Stoll. Clarisse La Rue. Conner Stoll."
Stop. Stop. Stop.
"Katie Gardener. Thalia Grace. Calypso."
It's my fault. All of it is my fault.
"Dakota. Gwen. Michael Kahale."
With a jerk in my heart, I know who she is going to say next. Her voice is louder.
"Jason Grace! Piper Mclean! Frank Zhang!"
I want to scream. But I can't. I'm too weak.
"Leo Valdez! Hazel Levesque!"
No. No. NO!
"ANNABETH CHASE!"
KEEFE
I watch as Percy cracks more with every name. I remember being told these names in the story-no, not a story, that was his life. The last couple of names have the greatest effect. The last name- Annabeth Chase- creates the biggest reaction.
His desolated eyes squeeze shut, and from his mouth pours a scream of utter despair. As the sound sweeps over me, I almost fall to my knees. I can feel every emotion he can right now. And it is overwhelming.
My moth- Lady Gisela looks at Percy. And smiles. I want to kill her. My hand is inching towards the goblin throwing star in my pocket. How can anyone look at this and smile?
She walks towards Percy, who is kneeling on the ground. She leans down to whisper in his ear. I channel my hearing, and I just catch her saying, "And it's just what they deserved."
And suddenly, the emotions in the air change. From Sophie, who was also eavesdropping, I feel a sudden fear. And from Percy…
Rage.
Pure, unadulterated rage.
His eyes snap open, glowing with fury. He hisses, "What the Tartarus did you just say?"
And that is when I know my mother is truly done for. Percy hates using Tartarus as a curse word, probably because of his time spent there, which he elaborated as little as possible on.
He's standing now, his fists clenched, towering over Gisela. My mom doesn't look intimidated, but I'm sure if I was touching her, she'd be freaking out.
"Well, don't pretend like you hadn't thought about it. They couldn't protect themselves, and they were going to die eventually. Maybe you would have done it, with that power that you can't control."
Percy growls, a low, deep sound that promises pain. "They deserved to die, did they? I can't control it, can I?" He smiles, a shark-like sneer that makes shivers go down my spine. "I suppose I'm not controlling myself, then."
Percy snaps, a sharp, clear sound that is louder than it should be, and my mother screams. Her arm is bent at a strange angle, and I'm thrust into a memory.
Percy stares at me in disbelief. "Dude. I literally blew up a volcano by accident when I was fourteen. I can make your bodily fluids turn against you and tear you apart from the inside with a snap of my fingers. I would be a pretty pathetic son of Poseidon if I couldn't change the way a river is flowing."
"So promise me, you'll kill me if I try to hurt someone with my powers."
I can't. I can't kill him. He's my friend.
But when Percy snaps again, and Gisela's other arm snaps so hard that the bone is poking out of the arm, I begin to consider the idea. Not killing him, but what came after.
"But if there is any other way to stop you, I will use that. I will try my hardest not to kill you."
Percy is staring at my mom much like she was staring at him when he was screaming. With sadistic pleasure. "Take it back," he whispers, watching as Gisela twitches.
I know what comes out her mouth before she says it. "No." She was always too proud.
Percy's face screws up into a terrifying glare. "TAKE IT BACK!"
"NO!"
Percy yells, an indecipherable burst of sound, and blood begins to stream out of her nose, her ears, even her eyes. It's disgusting, but Percy doesn't care. He doesn't stop either. The blood just keeps coming, coming. Lady Gisela gets paler and paler. Until finally, she lets out a gasp, and stops moving.
Is she…? She can't be… dead, can she?
Percy slashes his hand in a zig-zag towards the ground. A lighting bolt strikes my mom. If she wasn't dead before, she definitely is now.
I'm torn. I hate her, and she was an awful person and mother, but she's still my mother. The few good memories I have of her filter through. When she looked at me with pride after I had done well in school. When she picked up my drawing after my father ripped them out of my notebook.
The Councillors look shocked at the power that Percy wields. The Neverseen are cowering in the back of the cave, scared they'll be next. And Sophie… Sophie looks resigned. Her voice fills my head. 'We need to stop him.'
'I know. He told me to kill him if this happened.'
Sophie recoils, shock evident on her face. 'WHAT!-we can't-no-' She collects herself. 'We can't. He's our friend.'
'We can knock him out.'
Sophie looks skeptical. 'Can we? I mean, he's pretty well trained.'
'We have to try.'
I slowly walk up to Percy, like he's a cornered animal. I reach inside me for the bubbling power, the Beguiling sweet talk that's always there. "Heeey, Percy. It's okay. Just calm down."
Percy's wild eyes land on me, and he looks almost scared. "Keefe? Who-why?" He seems to shrink into himself. He points at my mom. "Did I do that?" he breathes.
I nod. "Yeah, you did."
He backs away, a primal fear in his eyes. "No. No, no, no. Tell me I didn't do it."
I reach out to him, but he flinches away violently. "Don't touch me!"
I pull back, confused. Why isn't he okay with this? He was fine before. "Hey, Perce. What's the matter?"
I reach out again. He scoots away. "No. I'll hurt you. Don't make me hurt you!" He's really distressed. I think we may still need to knock him out. I reach into my pocket, and slowly draw out a melder. One shot won't bring pain, but it will knock him out.
But Percy doesn't know that. When he sees it, his eyes go cold. "So that's how we're going to play it. Just like the gods. As soon as they don't need you, they kill you." Thunder rumbles. He sneers up at the sky before turning his glare on me. "I'm not going down without a fight."
