Lea loved New York.
One could be cruising through the streets driven by a demonic chicken ladies that needed to go back to Hermes' Driving School with a giant sabretooth tiger loping along behind them, and nobody gave it a second glance, but to spew curses as the harpies narrowly avoided a fender bender as they abruptly cut them off.
(Lea would have rather flown on the back of pegasus than ride with one of these ever again!)
It didn't take long for them to get to the Empire State Building where Percy was already waiting. Mrs. O'Leary was sitting at his side when they came to a stop.
Lea eyed him as she climbed out of the van. He didn't seem all that different, but she could sense that there was something.
Drew appeared at her side, draped in her rose-golden armor. A gift that was worthy only for a child of Aphrodite.
(She heard Chiron whispering to Argus that it was so similar to the armor that her half-brother, Aineías, had worn when he went to battle against the Trojans and even after when he battled the Rutuli and brutally defeated the Rutulian King Turnus.)
"Any word from Alabaster," Drew asked. Lea gave a small shrug. "He's finishing up on his mission. He would be here soon enough."
Though they both worried greatly for their friend, but three titans, his Mother, Pasiphaë, and Aeëtes, were all on the other side. With their magical defenses, it was no doubt taking a long while for him and the siblings he had taken with him to break through.
Eliza and Annabeth flanked Percy, both of the dressed in matching black camouflage. Annabeth had her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder—ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first. Eliza had her weapons hidden somewhere in the fanny pack around her waist like most of her siblings. Fashionable and deadly.
Lea raised a brow as she saw the way his eyes looked at both of them. There was almost something hungry in his gaze, but desperate also. His eyes dropped down to Eliza's mark on her wrist, a dove with their names on the wings, twirling around the head like a crown, and between its beak like a slip of grass.
"What is it?" Annabeth frowned as his eyes darted to hers once more.
"What's what?" Percy asked.
"You're looking at us funny," Eliza drawled.
"It's, uh, nothing." Percy turned to the rest of the group. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."
The centaur shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."
"But you're our leader."
He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher.—" Lea refrained from snorting. She didn't exactly remember what she had said during that meeting, but he didn't teach them shit but how to utilized empathy blind spots. "That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."
Percy looked like he wanted to protest, but seriously, what did he expect? For Lea to lead? Please. She'd sooner set everything on fire. Percy took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."
Percy asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary and Salome, which none of them looked happy about.
Chiron shook her brother's hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."
Percy nodded, gave him a confident smile, and said, "Let's go." to the rest of them.
A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover. He glanced up when they all filed in with their weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."
"No," Percy said. "Six-hundredth floor."
He checked them out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. Lea scowled at him, sharing a look with Drew. She couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice their weapons and Apóllōn had told them that only deities guarded their doors.
"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."
Percy leaned across the desk. "Forty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"
He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Make it quick."
"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," Percy added.
"Um, no," he agreed. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."
Lea smirked a bit darkly, "Thank you, Romulus."
He paled a bit at the matching smiles that she and Drew gave so she was correct in her address. Hmp. Figured. The other eight guards would definitely have more of backbone.
They decided it would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator. Lea joined Percy with the first group.
When the elevator doors finally dinged open Lea inhaled sharply. It was just as beautiful as her dream. In front of them, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. The mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.
It didn't seemed to be a home of the everlasting gods.
Lea studied her brother, one hand reaching out touch him while his two khaos-mates looked him up and down. "You look . . . different," Annabeth decided. "Where exactly did you go?"
But Lea could sense it from his aura.
He had the Curse of Ahkilles.
The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined them.
"Tell you later," Percy said. "Come on."
They made their way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympos. Her gazed moved around the place, heart thundering furiously in her chest. It was too quiet and her muscles strained from a phantom ache. A hand gripped her own, and she looked up to see Percy looking at her in worry. She gave him a small smile, squeezing his hand before they continued on. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. Eliza gave a choked breath as she saw a couple of the Mousai sitting on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be in it.
She made her way over, her violin appearing in her hand from somewhere and began to play a small song.
Drew smiled, whispering to Lea. "A good idea. Hyakinthos said there are a few songs that invoke protection and healing. If she can get them to do protection..."
Lea gave a small smirk. "Remember the original story of Snow White? They made the evil queen dance to death."
"And the Mousai are the goddesses of music, song and dance."
The two of them shared looks before Drew broke off to speak with her sister and the goddesses. The others looked at her, but Lea just shrugged and kept walking.
A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree which made Lea wonder about Tyson. A minor godling spotted them from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters. Lea was getting a bit worried the longer that they went without seeing Kírkē. They passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.
"Hate her," she muttered.
"Has she been cursing you or something?" Percy asked. Lea recalled that last summer, Annabeth had gotten on the bad side of the Queen of the Gods who was known to hold grudges and was willing to have some measure of vengeance for slights committed against her. Annabeth hadn't really talk about it, but Lea had been thinking of protection charms for her also.
"Just little stuff so far," she said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"
"Right."
"So she sends cows after me."
"Cows? In San Francisco?"
With Lea's teleportation spell, she could be back at her parents place whenever and then of course, there was her uncle's place in Boston, their old house in Virginia that they still kept, and the entire floor she had to herself in their apartment building.
(When Lea found out that Hermes had bought the building, well, she had taken creative liberties with her part of the floor plan and crashed through one of the neighboring apartments for her own room.)
"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place—in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."
"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"
They all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out.
But Lea knew exactly what it was.
"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."
"No," Lea breathed with a small smile. "It's the defenses. That's Kírkē's mageia."
She was a bit worried though. She would be fighting against her siblings.
"Let's get to the palace," Percy said, squeezing her hand in comfort.
No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps echoed as they walked into the throne room. Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam some cow snake thing.
"Moooo!" it said happily, turning in a circle.
"Hey, man," Percy said. Lea raised a brow. He had the weirdest friends. "They treating you okay?"
"Mooo," the creature answered.
They walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome."
Lea wheezed. Oh, now she was hot, pun not attended since she was poking at the ever-burning, divine hearth-fire. But she wore this gorgeous brown dress that somehow managed to fit her curves yet flare about modestly at the same time. Her hair was covered by a veil though a few curls peeked through. She was definitely like an hot old time conservative soccer mom that did brunch and took care of the house and baked pies while the men around acting like fools.
Percy bowed. "Lady Hestia."
They followed his example.
Hestia regarded him with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."
The other campers started muttering among themselves: What did she say? What about Achilles?
"You must be careful," Hestia warned him. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."
Annabeth nudged him. "Um . . . what is she talking about?"
Lea's eyes slipped closed, but they shot right back open as Percy's knees buckled and almost sent her to ground with him if it weren't for Annabeth grabbing him.
"Percy! What happened?"
"Did . . . did you see that?" Percy asked.
"See what?"
"How long was I out?" Percy muttered.
Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "Percy, you weren't out at all. You just looked at Hestia for like one second and collapsed."
Lea's mark burned.
She inhaled sharply, one hand coming to press against it as Percy went, "Um, Lady Hestia, we've come on urgent business. We need to see—"
"We know what you need," a man's voice said. Lea felt tears prick at her eyes. It had been months since she heard that voice.
A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.
"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. Absently, Lea could understand why she was so anxious to go. Hermes, the Friend to Mortals, did not look very friendly.
"Hello, Percy." His brow furrowed as though he was annoyed with him, but Lea paid no mind to that.
"Lord Hermes."Percy bowed awkwardly right as Lea dropped his hand and threw herself at the god.
Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in her mind as Hermes wrapped his arms around her and spun her around. Don't say hi to us. We're just reptiles.
George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.
"Khaíre, my sweet Leaneíras," Hermes murmured into her ear before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Khaíre, my darling."
Tears pricked at her eyes as she tightened her arms around him though absently she could hear Percy speaking with Geōrgios and Mártha.
"Um, Hermes," Percy said, drawing the attention of the blessings who had refused to let each other go. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."
Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"
Lea's brow furrowed, and she pulled away to look at him just a bit.
"You guys," Percy said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Annabeth, Lea, and I back here in thirty minutes."
Silena frowned. "But—"
"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."
The Stolls seemed to like that—getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids. Lea could see the amusement in Hermes' face as that registered with him.
"We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving the three of them— four as Drew slipped into the room with Hermes.
"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."
"Your mother," Hermes grumbled, setting Lea down at the side of him. He wouldn't let her too far while she blushed as she realized what she had just did. Oh, she most definitely ruined her street cred. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and Geōrgios and Mártha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Ζεύς didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself, but Ζεύς was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhôeus. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."
"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"
Thunder rolled through the sky.
"I'd watch the comments, girl," Hermes warned. "Ζεύς is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."
"But there are these blue lights—"
"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hekátē, I'd wager, though I wouldn't put it past Pasiphaë or Aeëtes, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage. Olympos has strong magical wards. Besides, Aiolos, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympos from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."
Percy raised his hand. "Um . . . what about that materializing/teleporting thing you guys do?"
"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. And Kírkē has taken some of her most powerful and trusted followers to take them head. Όχι, if Krónos wants Olympos, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?" Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous—hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive."
"Maybe just a few of you could come back," Percy suggested.
Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Perseus Jackson, you don't understand. Typhôeus is our greatest enemy."
"I thought that was Kronos."
The god's eyes glowed. "No, Perseus. In the old days, Olympos was almost overthrown by Typhôeus. He is husband of Ékhidna—"
"Met her at the Arch," her brother muttered. "Not nice."
"—and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidón because he's fighting his own war. Háidēs sits in his realm and does nothing, and Dēmḗtēr and Persephónē follow his lead. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."
"Progress?" Drew said. "He nearly destroyed St. Louis."
"Yes," Hermes admitted. "But he destroyed only half of Kentucky. He's slowing down. Losing power."
It sounded to Lea that he was trying to convince himself.
In the corner, the snake-cow mooed sadly.
"Please, Hermes," Annabeth said. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"
"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages."
"Hey," Lea sniffed. "I listen to you."
He gave her a small smile, brushing the hair from her face. "And I thank you for that, my love."
Rodents, Geōrgios mused. I'm in it for the rodents.
Shhh, Mártha scolded. We care what Hermês has to say. Don't we, Geōrgios?
Oh, absolutely. Can we go back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That's fun.
"Quiet, both of you," Hermes grumbled.
The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray-eyes thing.
"Bah," Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."
"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.
"She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant."
Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it. "Go on."
"Last thing." Hermes looked at me. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um, something about staying away from her daughter." He turned to look at Drew, "Your Mother, however, says that 'Love is a dagger. It's a weapon to be wielded far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It's beautiful until it makes you bleed.'"
Drew gazed at the floor before nodding her head sharply. Lea wondered what that meant. "Because when you love something, you protect it." Drew murmured.
"Thank you, Hermes," Annabeth said. "And I . . . I wanted to say . . . I'm sorry about Luke."
The god's expression hardened like he'd turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."
Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"
"SORRY doesn't cut it!"
Geōrgios and Mártha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.
"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth. "You're the only one who could have."
Percy tried to step between them as Lea tugged at his hand. "What are you talking about? Annabeth didn't—"
"Don't defend her, Jackson!" Hermes turned the cattle prod towards her brother. Lea snarled. "She knows exactly what I'm talking about."
"Maybe you should blame yourself!" Percy snapped and Lea and Drew stared at him. Very angry interdimensional alien-god with a pointy weapon that had something called laser mode and he wanted to yell at him? "Maybe if you hadn't abandoned Luke and his mom!"
Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was ten feet tall. Lea stumbled back, rushing to stand in front of her brother, green mageia flickering around her hands. But as he prepared to strike and she could see the look in his eyes of how to strike without hitting her, Geōrgios and Mártha leaned in close and whispered something in his ear.
Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff.
"Perseus Jackson," he said, "because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again. You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much—" His voice broke, and he shrank back to human size. "My son, my greatest pride . . . my poor May . . ."
He sounded so devastated Lea didn't know what to say. One minute he was ready to vaporize them. Now he looked like he needed a hug.
She had never realized... Sure, she didn't care to hear about his past lovers, but that was more so in the fact that most of them tried to target her.
And sure, she knew a few of them were mortals. A couple of his demidivine children were very irritated with her existence as it meant there was no chance for him to go back to their parents, but... this was...
Well Lea wasn't sure why the depth of his feelings for this woman bothered her just a bit.
"Look, Lord Hermes," Percy said. "I'm sorry, but I need to know. What happened to May? She said something about Luke's fate, and her eyes—"
Hermes glared at her brother, and his voice faltered. The look on his face wasn't really anger, though. It was pain. Deep, incredible pain.
"I will leave you now," he said tightly. "I have a war to fight."
He began to shine.
"No," Lea objected. He couldn't leave just yet. She waved her hand absently, sending the three of them crashing through the throne room doors as she walked closer to him. He stopped shining immediately. "Hermes... I... what..."
He banished the staff away to wrap her tightly in a hug. "My Leaneíras... how I have missed you so."
Missed her and the first thing he did was threaten her brother? The wires were a bit crossed.
"I cannot stay long," he murmured, holding her close. "We can catch up after we win this."
"Do you have a message for me then?"
"Naí, you are a being of mageia," he said, glowing softly. "You are... you are so... you are so beautiful... so enchanting... a being of khaos and mischief wrapped in one. You are the lightning that walks. A great and dreadful storm." He gazed her with bright and hungry eyes. "But tis... oh, my love, you will face a terrible truth and the earth shall rumble, the skies shall weep, and the dead shall walk again. And this is your time of fire. Your hour of trial, when the storm is at the door and all is darkest. Hold to yourself, Twice-Blessed Leaneíras. Be worthy—not of your brother or father's power, but of your own. Remember. Remember what a blessing love is."
He pressed another kiss to her forehead before stepping away. He turned her around gently, but she could still feel the heat radiating from him as he glowed with the light of a supernova.
Then he was gone.
She walked out of the doors to find the trio awaiting her. They could see eeasily that she was shaken just like them but she shook her head.
Just then the Stoll brothers ran towards them.
"You need to see this," Connor said. "Now."
The blue lights in the sky had stopped and Lea felt fear cling to her heart as she worried about Kírkē.
The other campers had gathered in a small park at the edge of the mountain. They were clustered at the guardrail, looking down at Manhattan. The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one golden drachma and see the city. Campers were using every single one.
Lea looked down at the city. She could see almost everything from here—the East River and the Hudson River carving the shape of Manhattan, the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north. Everything looked normal, but something was wrong. She felt it in her bones before she realized what it was.
"I don't . . . hear anything," Annabeth said.
That was the problem.
Even from this height, Lea should've heard the noise of the city—millions of people bustling around, thousands of cars and machines—the hum of a huge metropolis. You don't think about it when you live in New York, but it's always there. Even in the dead of night, New York was never silent.
But it was now.
Her muscles ached and she felt a bit lightheaded.
"What did they do?" The twins said, voices tight and angry as they spoke as one. "What did they do to my city?"
Percy pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look.
In the streets below, traffic had stopped. Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways. There was no sign of violence, no wrecks, nothing like that. It was as if all the people in New York had simply decided to stop whatever they were doing and pass out.
"Are they dead?" Silena asked in astonishment.
And see the world in endless sleep
New York was Lea and Percy's home. It was their world.
"Not dead," Percy said. "Morpheus has put the entire island of Manhattan to sleep. The invasion has started."
WORD COUNT: 4578
THINGS TO KNOW:
1) Empathy blind spots occurs when children decide that certain people's feelings don't "count" and there feel justified in being mean to them.
2) Official Gate keepers of Olympos:
2A) The Hôrai - Diké, Eunomia, Ëirene
2B) Hēraklēs
2C) Anikêtos and Alexiarês - Sons of Hēraklēs and Hêbê
3) Unofficial Gate Keepers of Olympos (my own personal thoughts):
3A) Aineías
3B) Diomēdēs
3C) Romulus
COMMENTS FROM THE AUTHOR:
1) Lea looking at Percy befriending Grover who turns out to be half-goat, befriending Tyson who was a cyclops, Bessie, half-serpent/half-goat, Blackjack, the pegasus: "And I'm the weird one?"
2) Me who is a big fan of Marvel!Loki and still refuses to watch anything after his show but used a quote that came from there that I found on google.
3) "This is your time of fire. Your hour of trial, when the storm is at the door and all is darkest. Hold to yourself, God of Lies. Be worthy- not of your brother's power, but of your own. Remember. Remember what a lie is."
—Loki: Agent of Asgard Vol 1 11