Nothing is mine.

Anyone figured out the prophecy yet...?


Four Will Pursue Vengeance to Faithful Roar

The motorbike growled and roared past the cornfields, bouncing through potholes with steel screeches as the suspension crunched, its exhaust sputtering and crackling.

Percy tilted his head, letting the breeze push the hair away from his eyes, and took a deep breath, pushing his chest out. Annabeth's arms tightened and his ribs creaked.

'Are you trying to crush me?' he yelled over his shoulder.

'Drive better,' she snapped in his ear. 'You can go around the holes!'

'I could—'

A lorry thundered past, buffeting them toward the verge.

She squeezed tighter. 'Percy if we crash at this speed we will die.'

'Wise-girl, we're doing thirty miles per hour.' He leant right, weaving around a drain cover and two potholes. 'I don't know how to change the gears. We literally can't go any faster.'

Annabeth clung to him with one arm and reached past to mime twisting the handle. 'I don't know which way is up or down, but that will change it.'

Percy twisted it away from himself and the bike sprang forward. 'I think that was up,' he shouted.

'Clarisse and Grover are probably already there,' Annabeth said.

'Go faster, did you say?' He grinned. 'Go through the holes? If you're sure.' Percy twisted the gears up one by one, tearing along the flat ribbon of tarmac as the wind screamed in his ears.

Annabeth buried her face in his back and crushed his ribs.

This is so much better than all that running. A faint smile crept onto his lips. You'd have hated having to share a bike with me, Zoë. A laugh burst from him.

'What?' Annabeth yelled into his back. 'What's funny?'

'I was just imagining doing this with Zoë. She would have been very upset about cooties.' A huge grin spread across his face. 'Thou doth not need to hit every hole, Perseus. Thy driving sucketh.'

Annabeth snorted. 'She would have been driving and you'd be back here holding on and trying not to put your hands anywhere you'd get slapped for.'

Percy chuckled. 'Thou art useless, Perseus, I shall drive in thy place. And then I could have told her she drove like a little old lady and she was too wrinkly to be allowed to legally drive anyway—' the humour melted away like a snowflake into the still surface of a winter lake'—it would have been great fun…'

Annabeth muttered something under her breath and shifted against him. 'I think that's Grover and Clarisse at the top of the next hill after the sign.'

'Maybe.' Percy let the hill slow them to a crawl, passing the buckshot-marred sign for Yellowstone.'

Clarisse leant over the seat of the bike, sniggering as they pulled off the road and crunched to a stop on the broad gravel verge. 'Did you stop to kiss? Goldilocks looks like someone was messing with her hair.'

'Urgh. Shut up, Clarisse.' Annabeth hopped off and stumbled away. 'That was the wind. Don't listen to Drew's nonsense.'

'And the potholes.' Percy kicked the stand out and swung off the bike, stretching his back. 'Nice of Ares to give us these, way better than walking or the bus. Give or take Bird-brain's attempt to break my ribs every time we went faster than a brisk jog.'

'Dad liked the battle at camp.' Clarisse shrugged and cracked her knuckles. 'Said it was a good scrap and he was proud of his kids for holding the line. Thought I'd cash in the favour for something we could all use and I'm pretty sure we've come a lot further than we rode. We passed another Yellowstone Park sign half an hour ago and the distance has changed by a hundred miles.'

'Isn't he too busy fighting Typhon to bend the rules here?' Percy asked.

'They're taking breaks to try and wear Typhon down before he reaches Olympus,' Annabeth said, shaking her gold curls out and sweeping them over her shoulders. 'Mom told me.'

'My dad's fighting beneath the sea, I haven't really heard from him.'

Not even when Tyson died.

Percy glanced around. 'Where's Grover?'

'Said he smelt something weird.' Clarisse cackled and jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. 'Pretty sure he's still throwing up down in the ditch.'

Percy drifted over and peered through the long grass into the damp trench beside the road. 'Grover?'

A pair of footprints sat in the ditch, one bare-toed the other cloven.

Empousae. A cold trickle snaked down his spine, pooling in his gut; he pulled Anaklusmos from his pocket.

'We're not alone,' he hissed, extending the pen into a xiphos. 'And Grover has vanished. What the hell were you doing Clarisse?!'

She stiffened. 'He was right there in the ditch chucking his guts up, Percy. I swear. Literally a minute ago.'

'He's not there now.' Percy jumped down into the ditch and wrinkled his nose at the bitter stink. 'But he was definitely throwing up here.'

Clarisse stomped down the slope and swept aside the grass, revealing a splatter of vomit and a mess of footprints leading up the bank into the cornfield. 'I'll get Goat-boy.' Her knuckles turned white around her spear haft. 'And kick seven shades of shit out of whatever's here.'

'Let's go.' Percy leapt up and stared over the wall of green across endless fields. 'I can't see anything, but those footprints are empusae.'

Annabeth shoved him aside and he slipped down the bank on one knee.

An arrow thunked into the bank.

'Thanks, Feather-face.' Percy jumped back down into the ditch.

Clarisse snapped her bracelet into a broad bronze hoplon, sweeping it up to catch two more arrows.

'They're in the field,' Annabeth said, pulling her cap from her pocket. 'Right ahead of us and about halfway in. You two stay here and look confused. I'll sneak across and deal with them.'

'Hoot like an owl when you're there,' Percy said.

Clarisse laughed and swiped the arrows off her shield with her forearm. 'Be careful not to get mud in your hair, Rapunzel.'

'Shut up, Clarisse.' Annabeth swept the cap onto her head and vanished. Her footsteps thudded up the bank and the corn parted with a soft rustle.

'I bet she uses that cap for all sorts,' Clarisse said. 'Sneaking into boys' changing rooms. Watching you shower.'

Percy laughed. 'More likely she uses it as a night cap so spiders can't see her when she sleeps and to keep reading after her bedtime.'

'Yeah if that cucumber-wielding blonde psycho catches her spying on you in the shower she's going to brain Goldilocks with an onion or something.' She grinned as an arrow flicked off the edge of her shield and bounced away into the puddle of Grover's vomit. 'Would be funny to watch that little scrap. I bet there would be scratching and hair-pulling.'

'I don't think that's going to be a problem,' he murmured.

'Katie rejected you?' Clarisse shrugged. 'Suck it up. Every child of Ares knows Aphrodite is just going to fuck with you. Should have stayed with that nymph princess on Ogygia if you wanted to spend all your time cuddling someone pretty.'

'Thanks, Clarisse.' He rolled his eyes. 'You're a real spirit-lifter. And she didn't reject me. I didn't come back for her… and I had to tell her that.'

She's nice, but Zoë's right. She was right about everything. He clutched Anaklusmos tight in his hand. Love won't keep me from destiny. Or destined foes. And Katie will just end up like Bianca.

Clarisse grinned, a broad glitter of teeth beneath her sharp nose. 'I do fighting not talking. I'll fight for you to the end, Sea-boy, but I'm not cuddling with you.'

'You're not as pretty as Calypso anyways.'

Clarisse scowled. 'Bet Calypso can't put you on your ass like I can.'

'Can you?' Percy chuckled. 'Are you sure?'

'Yes.' She growled, a fierce glint in her brown eyes. 'If it's blades only.'

He spun Anaklusmos in his hand and smiled. 'It's never blades only, Clarisse. I'm the sea. Always.'

'The sea is going to have some bruises after this war ends.' Clarisse jabbed him with the butt of her spear. 'I'll put you on that sand, Fish-face.'

'Bruises maybe, defeats unlikely. Not with that brittle twig you keep waving around in your hand.' Percy poked his head up above the ditch. 'The arrows have stopped.'

'Yeah. Let's go.' Clarisse jogged into the corn, swatting it away with her hoplon. 'Snow White gets upset if things don't go to plan.'

Percy laughed and hurried after her, brushing through the tall stalks.

Annabeth stood over a single empousa, her dagger pressed into her throat. 'About time. I thought you two might have stopped to kiss, you were taking so long.'

Grover lay in the dirt beside a patch of golden dust, tugging at the cord around his wrists.

Clarisse snorted and cracked a grin, sliding her spear tip between Grover's hands and slicing through the string. 'Fair play, princess.'

'What did this one say?' Percy asked.

'Nothing yet.' Annabeth pushed the empousa down to her knees. 'I was waiting for you two before I asked.'

'Where's Ethan?' Clarisse demanded, folding her hoplon away. 'If you mess me around I'm going to break your face in with my bare hands.'

The empousa bared her fangs. 'The son of Nemesis is north of you. He left us and my kind. Only the dracaenae could keep up.'

'So he's in a hurry,' Annabeth said. 'Does he know we're chasing him?'

The empousa shrugged. 'No.'

'So he's hurrying to get somewhere.' Annabeth frowned, biting at her lip. 'Back to Luke, probably.'

'We'd better catch him first then.' Clarisse shoved the empousa down with a boot and drove the full length of the spear-blade through her ribs.

The empousa burst into golden dust.

'Back to the bikes.' Percy hauled Grover to his feet and tucked Anaklusmos back into his pocket. 'The prophecy says we'll pursue him to somewhere, so we'll catch him.'

'Faithful roar,' Annabeth murmured. 'It sounds familiar, actually, but I can't quite place it.'

'Not really the worrying bit,' Percy said, mustering a grin. 'Not sure Lydia's scourge will be very friendly, even if none of us are called Lydia, annd someone will already be bleeding by that point.' He smothered a swell of cold choppy waves. 'And then there's the last bit…'

'I know,' Annabeth whispered. 'I know. I'll try and figure it out. I'll try, but…' She wrung her hands.

Clarissse stared at her feet and Grover studied the red marks on his wrists.

'Hey,' Percy murmured, resting a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. 'One choice at a time, Wise-girl. What we choose we were always going to choose. So be brave. Choose well. And live or die without regret.'

She stared at him with wide grey eyes. 'If you do something stupid like at Hephaestus's forge again I'll - I'll - I'll—'

'Unevenly space my face?' he suggested. 'Make my shroud symmetrical? Fill my coffin with crabs?'

Clarisse snickered.

'Worse.' Annabeth sheathed her dagger and huffed, stalking off through the corn. 'And don't make stupid jokes about dying, you ass. Not when we thought you were really dead a few weeks ago.'

'In my defence I also thought I was dead for a bit.' He followed her and grinned at her bouncing blonde curls. 'I woke up, and thought Calypso was Zoë and I was in Elysium or something. They look really similar, give or take the tiara, I guess all Atlas's daughters look like the Hesperides.'

Annabeth stumbled to a halt. 'Zoë.'

Percy dodged around her into a face full of corn. 'Thanks, Column-hugger.' He swiped strands of tickling cobweb away from his cheek and shook them off his fingers.

'Your head is so full of seaweed, Percy,' she whispered. 'Star-sworn…'

But ever free. Percy pressed a hand to the slim line of Anaklusmos in his pocket with a soft smile. Free to be so much more than just fleeting souls veiled in crumbling flesh. He glanced up past the bright sun and the blue. Right, Zoë?


AN: Don't forget to come join the Discord to get another chapter (two for active community members). The link's in my profile and you can find all my other writing there as well, so it's not the worst place to go check out!