Julie puts her hands on her hips and surveys her masterpiece proudly. Nico scowls.
"I look stupid."
"No, you don't!" Julie swats him on the arm, gesturing down at the black dress shirt and pants she's forced him into. "You look good, Nico. And, this is a date. You can't just show up in the same jacket and t-shirt you wear every day."
"Why not?"
"Because it's rude," She teaches, poking him in the chest for emphasis. "You have to show you're making an effort to look nice for him. That's just how dating works."
Nico grumbles and tugs at the buttons on his sleeve. "I don't know why he even likes me."
Julie rolls her eyes. "We are not going through this again. Will likes you because he has a brain and functioning eyeballs. Now, sit down, and let me do your hair."
He huffs, but does as she says, regardless of how red his cheeks are. Julie hums while she rakes product through his curls. It's not often Nico lets her use him as a dress up doll. She's going to make the most of it.
"So, how are you getting there?"
Nico shrugs. "Jules-Albert."
"Your zombie chauffeur?"
"Mhm."
Julie considers suggesting a less terrifying mode of transportation. Then, she decides that if Will can't kick it with Jules-Albert, he isn't the man for Nico. Julie loves that zombie. She changes the subject.
"Who's paying?"
"...Me?"
"Correct. You have an infinity card. When you get to dinner, what do you do?"
"Open the door."
"Yes. And?"
"..."
"Pull out his chair, Nico."
"But, he's a guy."
"And that means he doesn't deserve manners?"
"Fine, whatever."
Satisfied, Julie pats him on the shoulders and steps back to signal she's done with his hair. Nico still looks green in the face, but Julie can't help but smile when he glances at himself in the mirror and actually sits a little bit taller. She watches him stand up to retrieve his sword from the bed and strap it to his belt. When he turns back to her, Nico freezes in discomfort.
"Why are you crying?"
"I'm not!" Julie says hastily, swiping the mistiness from her eyes. She laughs and takes him in again.
Nico di Angelo. Going on a date.
This must be how mothers feel on the first day of Kindergarten.
"Have an awesome time tonight, Neeks," She says.
Nico's head ducks down bashfully. "You're sure that...That this isn't..." He huffs in frustration, and Julie steps up to squeeze his shoulder.
"It's a different world now, Nico," Julie assures him. "There will be the occasional asshole. There always is. But, after everything you've gone through," She crouches down a bit to catch his eye. "I think this is going to be much easier than you expect it to be. Especially with Will."
Nico looks at her for a long moment. He seems to lean into her hand, like he's...asking her to draw out a bit of his anxiety.
Julie pulls his fear from him without question. There's no greater privilege for a Heartbreak than to make the people she loves feel a little bit braver.
Once he relaxes a little, Julie lets herself throw on a smirk.
"Now, go get Malibu Ken. He's probably waiting for you."
Nico takes a beat to flick her unnecessarily hard on the forehead, prompting her to slap him on the back as he retreats from Cabin 13. She follows him out onto the porch and watches him meet up with Will by the barrier.
Judging from the way the blonde's thoughts seem to buffer for a minute when he sees Nico, Julie must have done her job well. She nods to herself and ducks back inside to grab her designated reconnaissance backpack (the flowers are black and grey instead of pink and purple).
She's got a date of her own with the roof of the luxury apartment building that shares an alleyway with Triumvirate Holdings. A standing one that she hasn't missed since Jason left three weeks ago. And, she isn't about to start now.
The flight to Manhattan only takes about twenty minutes. Julie lands on the rooftop garden just as the first stars appear in the sky.
She's made it a habit these last few weeks to spend nights here. Nico and her cabin think she's going home to the apartment every night. Sally, Paul, and Percy think she's still staying at camp. Really, she's getting cozy on a sleeping bag on the roof up here and staring both up and down at the windows of Triumvirate Holdings with the binoculars she stole from Leo's stuff (he's not dead anymore, so she doesn't bother feeling guilty).
She's been watching the building for three weeks now, and she hasn't seen Meg once. Which is why Juliette nearly jumps out of her skin when she watches a side door of the office building slam open and a small figure stumble into the alley.
Julie's on her knees and peering through her binoculars in an instant.
Well, damn. That's Meg, alright.
That little girl is a lot less little now. Sometime over the last six months, she must have had a growth spurt. She's taller, and the Roman style wrap dress she's wearing leaves her arms on display, revealing strong muscles that must have come from years of hard training. Behind the small hand splayed across her face, she still has the red glasses - the cat eye shaped ones with the rhinestones on them. Julie's heart aches when she notices a few of those rhinestones missing.
Julie watches Meg lower her palm from her face, and her gut twists painfully when it uncovers a very broken nose. There's blood all down the girl's chin. She starts to stumble down the alleyway, moving faster than Juliette would have expected with the sort of bruises she sees wrapping around Meg's left ankle. Stashing Leo's binoculars back into her bag, Julie starts immediately climbing down the nearest fire escape to follow.
She's trying to be as quiet as possible, but that's really hard when you have a stupid, heavy, inconvenient metal leg. It takes Julie about five minutes to gymnastic swing down to ground level, and by the time she lands clumsily in the alley, Meg is nowhere to be seen.
Julie growls out some of her favorite examples of Greek profanity and summons her Stygian Ice bow. She shines the pale white light down on the concrete.
She doesn't really want to say 'Oh, good, there's a blood trail,' but...It makes her job easier, at least.
Running through dark NYC alleyways chasing a twelve year old girl is really hard to do without feeling like a kidnapper. When Julie turns a corner and takes off in a sprint towards a cry of pain in the distance, she can't help but think how bad this would look out of context to the police.
Shit, shit, shit. In the weeks she's been sitting around waiting for this kid to make an appearance, you'd think she'd have thought about how to introduce herself. Of course, she didn't expect to be chasing her down in an alleyway.
A howl pierces the night, and Julie's stomach drops.
Hellhounds.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Guess there's no time to remember how to interact with children. Julie needs to make sure no demigods become dog treats tonight.
Juliette slides out of the alleyway into the street and immediately looses three arrows at once. Out of the four dumpster-sized hellhounds in the road, her arrows bury themselves deep into the eye sockets of one and the neck of another. The blinded hound bursts into dust while the other three snarl and turn on Julie.
Meg is on one knee. There's already at least three hellhounds worth of dust piled up on the street around her, but she's panting heavily, and there's three deep claw marks across the top of her chest. Her face squints in confusion as Juliette stands her ground in the path of three charging monsters.
Julie rapid fires arrows into the largest of her pursuers. They burrow into the black dog's face and neck, reducing it to rubble. The other two howl in rage at their friend's demise and lunge the rest of the distance to Juliette. She leaps to the side and barrel rolls gracefully over one shoulder into a kneeling position to fire more arrows into her next target. They land in the hound's meaty chest, and it tumbles to the ground to collapse into sand.
The final dog leaps on top of Julie. She takes advantage of the handy new bronze club permanently attached to her at the shin now. Julie slams her right leg up into the jaw of the hound and cringes in disgust when she hears the sound of teeth shattering in its mouth. It rears back, giving Juliette enough time to get back on her knees and thrust the recurve of her bow into the soft tissue at the base of its neck.
The final monster poofs into dust, and Julie drops her weapon to her side. Her chest heaves as she catches her breath, looking over to Meg with a smile.
Was that a good first impression? Did she look cool doing tha-Where'd Meg go?
The sound of weapons being drawn makes Juliette look to the side.
You know in action movies, how the main character will get ambushed, and it'll lead to an epic hand to hand fight scene full of stunts and suspense, eventually ending with the hero doing something recklessly brave and getting away just in the nick of time?
Yeah, maybe that would have happened if Juliette had absorbed anything any of her past sword instructors tried to teach her.
Instead, she just screams like a toddler and almost instantly is flat on the asphalt with a sword at her throat.
Actually, make that two swords.
"Why are you watching me?" Meg demands.
Gods, her voice is so high. She's so young. Juliette just stares, wide eyed, at this mini version of Paul McCaffery and tries to think of how to go about this. Her silence makes Meg impatient. She presses the edges of her dual Imperial Gold swords into Juliette's neck, and the older girl hisses at the sting.
Julie cringes and tries to lean away from the blades. "Umm, you're welcome?!"
"I've seen you watching me," The girl snaps.
"Technically, I've been watching the building."
Meg scowls and presses her weapons down harder. Juliette yelps as her blood starts to sizzle against the gold.
"I'll kill you, you know," Meg threatens. "I've done it before."
Julie's chest hurts more than her neck. She stares at the blood still dripping down from Meg's nose.
"I'm sure you could," She agrees. She tries to make her face as nonthreatening as possible, offering up a nervous smile. "There's really no need, though. I'm not an enemy."
"I've been watching you too," Meg snaps. "I know you have weird shapeshifting powers. So, answer the question, or I'm gonna slice you up and leave you to the Stym...Stymph-Stym-whatever birds."
"I think they only eat live prey."
Meg glares in annoyance and poises to strike with a sword. Julie squeaks in fright and holds up her palms.
"Wait!"
She slashes a blade. Julie rolls out of the way in time to snatch her bow from the concrete and level an arrow at Meg's shoulder.
"Come on, kid, don't make me fight you," She groans. "At least, not in these shoes."
She's wearing sandals today. She wasn't expecting to have to brawl so much.
Meg glances down at Juliette's feet. Her face screws up in confusion at the sight. "Where the heck's your other leg?"
Julie grins. "Primordial goddess turned it to rock."
The face the younger girl makes pulls a loud laugh out of Julie. She looks equal parts interested and disgusted. Oh, who is she kidding? She's not gonna shoot this kid.
Juliette drops her weapon and turns it back into a bracelet charm. She shows Meg her empty hands. "Look. Unarmed. So, can we talk now?"
Meg just glares at her. Julie purses her lips.
"Your nose is broken."
"Oh, really?"
Juliette huffs in annoyance. "Do you want me to fix it?"
"Not if it'll look like yours," Meg snarks through the blood.
Julie's jaw drops in offense, and she raises a hand to pinch at her nose. "What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Shut up."
"You shut up," Julie grumbles. She checks the pockets of her letterman jacket and smiles in satisfaction when she finds a plastic baggy of ambrosia. She tosses it to Meg.
The girl keeps her swords up. The bag sails over her shoulder.
Juliette stares at her in exasperation. "That's ambrosia."
Meg sniffs, and its hard not to gag when a bubble of blood pops out of her nose. "I know what it is! I'm not stupid. Like you."
"You don't even know me!"
"Exactly!" shouts Meg. She grips her swords tighter. "So, why did you help me? Why have you been watching me?"
Gods, here it is. The dreaded introduction.
Julie didn't realize she might be bad with kids until she was faced with a child that isn't related to her on her mom's side. Aphrodite kids, you can just offer to paint their nails or braid their hair, and they love you for life. Harley, Julie can handle. He's less a kid than a ball of pure nuclear chaos. She relates to that.
But, Meg? Juliette knows nothing about her except that she's particularly traumatized for a twelve year old and is currently holding two very sharp knives.
"I'm..." What should she tell her? Does she tell her they're sisters? What if Meg asks where she's been? Or why they weren't raised together? Julie doesn't know the answers to those questions. "I'm Juliette."
Meg frowns. Kind of disgustedly.
"Like the play?" She grimaces.
Julie blinks at her. "Um. I guess? It's spelled different than Romeo's Juliet. I think."
Another bubble of blood pops in Meg's nostril. Gods, that's disgusting. Julie's gonna be sick. She reaches a hand out hesitantly.
"Can I please take care of that nose for you?" She begs. "It's really gross, to be honest."
"No," Meg states. She lowers her weapons and stares Julie down while they glow gold and shrink back down into a ring on either of the girl's hands. Once they're sheathed, she wipes some of the blood from her face onto the back of her arm and spits on the ground. "I'm Meg. Don't follow me anymore."
Before Julie can say a word, the little girl turns on her heel and starts darting back the way they came. She watches in awe as Meg leaps from fire escape to fire escape until she reaches an open window on one of the lower floors of Triumvirate Holdings.
Juliette sighs and picks the baggy of ambrosia back up off the road.
That definitely could have gone better. At least she didn't get her throat cut open.
"You have a lead?" Jason asks, leaning both palms onto the desk in intrigue.
Reyna crosses one leg over the other and strokes Argentum's head. The silver dog leans into her hand happily. "I do. Centurion Levesque is escorting him from the barrier now. They'll be here soon."
"Why is it you're looking for this Oracle to begin with?" asks Frank. He looks between Jason's serious scowl and Piper's anxious grimace. "It seems important."
Jason and Piper exchange a hesitant glance.
They'd decided early into their flight to California to keep as many details of Juliette's situation to themselves as they can. The less people who know about such a dangerous magical artifact, the better. And, not just for Juliette. Jason wasn't entirely kidding when he told his girlfriend he has no desire to face her in combat. The prospect of the Tiberii donum being in the hands of someone like Caligula...Jason considers that to be a serious potential weakness for Olympus.
The two of them were in California for maybe an hour before the immortal emperor made his presence known to them with a 'welcome home' gift of an entire herd of angry venti. Since then, he's made their lives a living hell. Piper's dad has been slammed by the Hollywood media from Caligula's slander campaign. Half of California is on fire. And, all of this is going down with no way of contacting CHB for help.
Iris Messages are still not working. Telephones. Email. Even the Postal System seems to be failing to deliver messages. Jason's tether with Juliette has been so silent and still that it makes his skin crawl, and any demigods that try carrying correspondence between the two camps get immediately overrun by wind spirits.
"Rachel thinks she's been captured," Jason goes with. "Probably by Caligula."
"We can't just leave her that way," Piper agrees.
That seems good enough reasoning for the praetors. They nod, and, moments later, the door to the office slides open, and Hazel Levesque steps inside with a familiar face just behind her.
"Coach!" Jason exclaims.
Piper laughs brightly and runs up to hug the satyr. Coach Hedge pats her on the back hard enough to send her into a coughing fit.
"Hey, cupcakes! Heard you all were in a pickle. Came to bash some heads in if you need me!" He shouts triumphantly, brandishing a metal baseball bat covered in baby paint-handprints.
Hazel sighs tiredly and goes to stand beside Frank. "He's been telling me about some military store down south. Apparently, someone gave Hedge access to rocket launchers."
"Oh, dear," Frank murmurs.
"Heck yeah! And hand grenades! Ah, I gotta take you kiddos there sometime. It's the best," Hedge cheers, slinging the bat over his shoulder. "Mellie doesn't let me bring 'em around the baby, though, so I built a shed out of cardboard, and I keep them in there."
"What about when it rains?" Piper asks nervously.
"What about it?" frowns Hedge.
"Oh, dear," Frank says again.
"Gleeson Hedge," Reyna cuts in, standing from her desk chair. The five of them look to her. She raises an eyebrow at the satyr. "Centurion Levesque's report said you have information on the Oracle of Erythaea. What is it?"
"The Ora-what?" Hedge scratches his head. "Nah, I'm here to talk about the wildfires."
Hazel steps forward to address her superiors. "I have reason to believe the fires are connected to the Oracle's disappearance. I've sensed they had magical origins from the beginning. If Coach Hedge knows the source of the fires, I'm almost sure that's where Herophile must be."
"Very well," Reyna nods.
Jason grips the pommel of his sword and turns to his first protector expectantly. "What is it you have to tell us, Coach?"
Gleeson Hedge crosses his arms.
"So, there's this maze, right?"
"It's a good thing we decided on the indoor baby shower," Juliette muses, watching the snow fall outside with a scowl.
Sally chuckles. She sets down the bouquet of flowers she's been putting in water to come peer over Julie's shoulder at the winter wonderland forming outside. "Percy's going to be thrilled."
"Yay," Julie mutters sarcastically.
Sally laughs and returns to the kitchen, pulling open the fridge to start removing premade dishes of food. "What kind of kid doesn't like snow?"
Julie glares at the weather harder. "The reptilian kind."
Turning back around, she notices her six months pregnant stepmom arranging the food on the counter and leaps up from her seat.
"Umm, no? What do you think you're doing?" She chastises. "This is your baby shower! Go sit down! There's fuzzy socks and donuts waiting for you by the couch."
Sally smiles sheepishly. "But-"
"No!" snips Julie, swatting the woman's hands away. She points to the living room. "Go relax. Now. I mean it."
A good natured sigh and a kiss on Julie's forehead later, Sally does as she's told. Juliette finishes up setting out the platters of food and drinks before moving into the living room to put the finishing touches on the decorations.
Even though Sally knows she's having a girl, pulling Percy away from the blue balloon section would have been like separating the opposite ends of a super magnet. So, the arch over the door and all the balloons lining the corners and mantle are various shades of blue with a few pink ones tucked in where Julie could sneak them.
The flowers, at least, are pink. Percy didn't care about those. And, Julie made sure to dye as many of the foods Paul made pink as she could before her brother got home from swim practice and took control of the food coloring. With the help of a cabin's worth of squealing Aphrodite kids, a boat load of custom grown flowers from the Demeter campers, and about a hundred rolls of pink tule, Juliette managed to turn their tiny NYC apartment into the world's cutest baby shower venue.
"It looks fantastic in here, Julie," Sally compliments, eyes a bit misty as she looks around this party thrown all for her.
Juliette scurries to the TV to turn on some background music before the guests start arriving. "Well, duh! I wasn't gonna let you not have the coolest baby shower ever. You're Sally Jackson."
Her stepmom smiles. "Thank you."
Now, it's Julie's turn to go misty-eyed. She clears her throat and turns away to adjust the pink checkered tablecloth.
To be totally honest, Julie's a bit nervous for this party. Letting her camp family mingle with her city family might be a recipe for disaster seeing as she's been lying to both of them for ages now. It's been a week since she fought those hellhounds with Meg. She hasn't seen the girl since, but it's not for a lack of trying. Juliette has now officially spent the entire last month sleeping out in the cold on the top of that apartment building, and she's no closer to figuring out how to extract Meg from Nero's clutches than she was when Jason left.
Speaking of Jason-
"Where's Romeo these days?" Sally asks, starting on a pink frosted donut. "I feel like I haven't seen him in forever. Is he coming today?"
Julie purses her lips. She hasn't mentioned Jason's quest to her family. Percy obviously knows that he's not at camp anymore, but she and Nico decided to tell him that Jason's spending the schoolyear looking for Leo with Piper. The less Percy knows about more possible impending doom, the better. Especially right in the middle of winter finals.
"He's...around," Julie laughs her off. "Just been busy."
Sally frowns. She stares at Juliette from the couch, belly balancing a half eaten donut and still managing to look menacing enough that the teen starts to sweat. "Right. And, what's the truth?"
Julie groans. Do all mothers have superpowers when it comes to seeing through every lie their kids tell?
"He's in California on a quest," She sighs. "So, no, he won't be here."
Sally raises her eyebrows in interest. "What kind of quest?"
Juliette purses her lips, eyes flicking down to Sally's swollen belly. Maybe selective truths would be a good course of action. "He's looking for one of Apollo's oracles. He should be about done soon."
He'd better be. It's been a month now, Soldier Boy. You're late.
Sally nods, looking thoughtful, and Julie relaxes when she realizes the woman isn't planning on prying further.
There is something Julie has been wanting to ask her, though. Now probably isn't a good time. Right before her baby shower doesn't seem like an appropriate opportunity to ask painful questions, but-
"What's your question, sweetie?"
Julie turns to Sally in surprise. The woman's wise blue eyes are sparkling knowingly. She smiles.
"I know that face, kid. What do you want to ask?"
Are they completely sure this woman is mortal?
Juliette sighs and moves to sit beside Sally on the couch. The woman adjusts so that she's facing her stepdaughter, and Julie thinks about how to phrase what she wants to know in a way that won't be stressful enough to send Sally into premature labor. "So, Percy told me about Gabe."
Nothing changes on Sally's face. She just nods for Julie to go on.
She continues carefully. "I'm in a situation now where I need to help someone who...is in a similar situation. To you and Percy. Back then."
Sally nods again, looking serious. Julie purses her lips.
"I guess, I just wanted to know what changed for you," She asks. "What made you end it?"
A moderate euphemism for turning her abuser into stone, but she thinks Sally gets what she means. No judgement at all, don't get her wrong. If Juliette ever gets the chance to turn Nero into stone, she's certainly going to take it.
Sally leans back against the arm of the couch and wraps her arms protectively around her swollen belly. "Well, I guess it was more a question of timing for me," She answers. "I endured what Gabe put me through for the safety of my son. Once he couldn't offer me that anymore...Once Percy was found by the monsters anyway," Sally shrugs. "I had no reason to let him hurt me anymore. So, I didn't."
Julie looks down at the seam on her leg where skin meets bronze. "That makes sense," She mumbles.
Sally's hand brushes some of Julie's hair off of her shoulder as the woman tilts her head to catch her eye. "Is that not the answer you were looking for?"
Julie picks at a loose string on the couch.
She isn't sure. She doesn't understand kids. She wants to help Meg, but she has no idea how to break through years of conditioning and abuse in order to get her to listen.
How do you convince a child that they deserve better?
"Is it possible that you might be a better source for that answer?" Sally questions.
Juliette looks up at her in confusion. Sally has set her snack back on the side table. Her whole focus is on Juliette as she guides her gently through their conversation.
"Me?"
"You," smiles Sally. "What made you end it?"
Julie stares at her.
"End-" what?
'Don't you want to make me proud?'
Oh.
Julie squeezes her eyes shut, forcing back the scales that emerge without her permission and wiping the image of Luke's face from her mind. Sally reaches out to squeeze her hand, and Juliette sighs.
"I forgot about that."
Her stepmom snorts. Julie glares at her good naturedly. Then, she shrugs.
"I don't know. I guess Percy's life was more important than Luke's approval."
Sally Jackson smiles a bit at that, but then she leans forward and pushes Julie's hair behind her ear. "Juliette, I'm his mom, so I can't really disagree with that point. But, I want you to think deeper than that," She advises. "You didn't even know Percy yet. Was it really about saving him?"
Juliette studies the woman before her. She looks like she knows something that Julie doesn't. It makes the girl's thoughts zip around her head quicker than lightning.
What exactly did happen that day?
What changed?
There's a knock at the door then, and Julie has to switch tasks, slipping back into party-planner mode as she hurries to let Annabeth and Tyson in. She vows to herself to think on it later, though.
Something about it feels important.
"Jason, look out!"
He barely gets the chance. Piper's warning is mostly drowned out by the crashing of the rubble all around them. Jason throws himself to the side just in time for a stalactite to crash to the floor where he'd just been standing. The tremors the collision sends through the maze knocks loose an avalanche of more rubble. There's an entire ceiling's worth of it careening right for their heads.
Jason thrusts out a hand to shove Piper to the ground. He hears her yelp in surprise and tries to follow her out of harm's way, but it's too late. The boulders are already falling all around him.
"JASON!"
Instinctively, lightning zaps from Jason's skin. It targets the nearest wreckage and shatters it before he can be hit. He dives to the ground and rolls out of the way as the remainder of the ceiling hits the rocky floor, and the tunnel is plunged into darkness.
Lungs clogged with dust, Jason coughs and struggles to his elbows.
"Piper?"
His voice echoes off the walls. No response.
Jason curses to himself and rises to his feet. He summons electricity to his fingertips and lets it illuminate the part of the maze he assumes he's now probably trapped in.
Sure enough, the section Jason was just in with Piper is closed off thanks to the cave in. There's only one direction to go now.
Deeper.
By the time all of the guests are gone, Paul and Sally are totally beat. Julie sends them off to bed, enlisting Percy to help her clean up so they can get some rest. He agrees, albeit sleepily, and the two of them end up teaming up to assembly-line the dirty dishes - Julie washing, Percy drying. The music has long since reached the end of Julie's party playlist when one of them has something to say.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
"You just did," Percy snarks. When Julie turns to glare at him, he snorts and nods. "What's up?"
She dumps probably way too much dish soap on the tray she's about to wash. "That first day that we met. After the fight," She glances at him. He raises his eyebrows. "Why did you decide to take me with you?"
Percy kinda smirks at her like she said something funny, pushing his dark hair off his forehead with his elbow. "You mean besides you being ten years old and bleeding out?"
"Yes."
He rolls his eyes and pulls the rinsed tray from her hands. "Well, you had just taken a stab wound for me, to start. That kind of thing usually starts a friendship off on the right foot."
"Yes, but besides that."
Percy shrugs helplessly, stacking the tray up into one of the higher cabinets. "I dunno what else to say, Jules. You were a kid who needed help, and you'd just saved my life. There wasn't really anything deeper to it. You had nowhere to go, so we brought you to camp. That's it."
Juliette huffs in frustration, scrubbing roughly at the next plate in the sink. "But, I was Luke's," She reminds him irritably. "Weren't you worried I'd betray you, or something?"
Her brother looks at her like she's insane. "What are you talking about? You were never Luke's. You were a kid, not a robot."
"But, how did you know?" Julie repeats.
Percy shakes his head in bewilderment, drying his hands on a rag. "I don't know, I just did," He shrugs. "And, I was right, wasn't I? So, who cares?"
He turns back to shut the cabinets, and Julie's eyes sink down to the kitchen floor.
It's very clear when Jason has reached the right place. The temperature rises about 40 degrees, and the cavern around him becomes illuminated by eerie red light. He grips his gladius like his life depends on it. It probably does, to be honest. He has no idea what's waiting for him on the other side of the great iron doors he's approaching.
There are no guards. Somehow, that puts Jason even more on edge.
Heart pounding, he pushes his sweaty hair out of his face and stands tall in front of the doors. Gods, it must be over 120 degrees in here. His armor actually feels hot to the touch. He scans the barrier before him for a way forward.
No lock. No keyhole. No handles. What is he meant to-
As if they sensed his question, the middle of the doors begin to emit a blinding ruby light. Jason grits his teeth and strains to keep his eyes open and alert, sword raised, as he waits for it to either die down or strike him with something. He can't decide whether or not to be relieved when, gradually, the red light dims to reveal words burned into the iron doors.
Three goddesses birthed from the King of Gods. They serve Fate above Love and Justice above Duty. Two are their namesake.
Jason lowers his blade.
A riddle. Or trivia, really. He can only assume that's the way to move forward. To answer the question.
Okay, well, they're goddesses. Daughters of Zeus or Jupiter. He'd like to say that narrows it down, but he's under no illusions of his father's self restraint when it comes to procreation. Jason thinks through his mental portfolio of minor deities.
For there to be a plurality here, he has to assume the goddesses share a domain in some capacity.
Included in groups of three would be the Graeae, but they aren't daughters of Zeus. Neither are the Gorgons. There are nine muses. The Horae are Zeus', but they're three goddesses of the seasons, not of Fate or Justice.
So, that would leave the Charites, also known as the Graces.
Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia are the handmaidens to Aphrodite. To Love. Their domain would pertain to anything regarding the beauty and charm of a human life. Jason could understand that falling under the umbrella of 'Fate.'
And, two are their namesake. Well, Jason does have a sister. Jason and Thalia Grace.
"The Graces," He tells the doors.
At his answer, the words on the doors glow golden. With a clang, they split down the middle and swing open to reveal the path ahead. He'd say he's relieved, but his heart just starts pounding faster.
Regardless, Jason raises his sword again and steps through the threshold.
When Juliette makes it back to the top of her building for the night, something feels different. Maybe it's the copious amounts of sugar she ingested earlier wreaking havoc on her kidneys. Maybe it's just the freezing cold air making the snake side of her especially cranky.
She gets comfortable on her sleeping bag, pulling her letterman jacket tighter over her white sweatshirt. Gods, Julie hates winter. This freaking sucks. Julie doesn't know what Apollo thinks he's doing, but this is way too cold for the beginning of December, and he needs to do his job better.
That, or Meg needs to have a sudden urge to leave home and decide to run away without Julie needing to do anything. That would be fantastic. She could start spending the night in places that actually have heating.
Julie's breathing warm air into the skeleton gloves she stole from Nico's cabin this morning when a strange sight catches her eye. She frowns and sits up taller, reaching for her binoculars. She points them up at the windows of one of the higher floors of Triumvirate Holdings.
Something's glowing up there. It's emitting red light bright enough to spot through the windows from 50 floors down where Julie's sitting. Nothing special seems to happen when she notices it, but...There's something that stirs in her for some reason.
She's intrigued. She wants to get closer. Juliette sets down her binoculars and transforms, intent on figuring out what exactly they've got hidden up there.
"We have to get you out of here," Jason pants, pulling at the chains securing Herophile to the floor of the chamber.
The red haired woman shakes her head, moving to pull his hands away and clutch them pleadingly. "Jason Grace, you must listen-"
"Stand back. Maybe I can blast the brackets holding the chains with lightning."
He pulls his hands from hers and backs up to do just that. Blinding strands of lightning spider from his fingertips as he thrusts them towards the places the chains are secured to the metal platform below them. The electricity bounces off harmlessly and ricochets around the room. Herophile screams and hits the deck. Jason curses to himself and looks around the room for another option.
"Jason Grace, please!" The Oracle cries to him, standing back up. She grasps Jason's elbow and turns him to face her again. Her pale face is desperate. The same way she'd looked as she pleaded with Apollo in his dream. "If you break my chains, you will be ensnared in my place. You are needed elsewhere!"
"I won't just leave you here!" protests Jason.
Herophile shakes her head sadly. "You must. It is Apollo who must free me. No one else."
Jason shouts in frustration and tries pulling apart the chains with his bare hands. "Apollo is missing! He can't free you."
"He will," Herophile insists. "I've seen it. And you, Jason, must be waiting for him when it's time."
He bends over his knees to catch his breath. Gods, it's so hot in here. The lava just feet away is bubbling and smoking. Jason is entirely drenched in sweat.
"Waiting for him?" He asks, panting. "Waiting where?"
"You must be here in the West when it's time. Apollo cannot defeat the emperors without you. You must not leave California," Her voice drops an octave, her eyes shining with intensity. "No matter what happens. You cannot leave until Apollo has called on you. Do you understand?"
Jason shakes his head in bewilderment. "Why-?"
"It is imperative," Herophile pleads. "To attempt this on your own...This is Apollo's battle. If you or your friend here today try to fight the emperors yourself, one of you will surely-"
She cries out, falling to her knees and clutching at her head. Jason drops to the floor as well to hold her upper arms steady as Herophile's eyes squeeze shut, and the next words choke from her painfully. "Three letters...Starts with 'D'."
Die.
Fear totally empties Jason's lungs. The Oracle starts to cry, looking up at him with a sob.
"Please, Jason Grace. Swear to me on the Styx that you will remain in the West until your duties to Apollo are complete. Swear it, and I will tell you anything," She promises. "Anything you wish to hear."
He stares at her, unsure if the cramping in his lungs is from dread or the toxic gasses probably filling this volcanic pit. Jason pushes his sweaty hair back for about the millionth time and stares at the urgent face of the Oracle of Erythraea.
There are no guards in the room with the red light. Julie supposes they might be out in the hall. She can imagine no one really expects an intruder to climb all the way to the 98th floor before picking a window to crawl into. But, Juliette is no ordinary intruder.
She changes back in time to cling to the outside of the window. One prick of her finger and a tedious half hour later, she's melted a hole in the pane of glass big enough to squeeze through. Julie climbs inside and drops down into what looks to be some kind of...throne room.
There's a golden chair on a dais flanked by unlit braziers. There's a banner hanging behind it, deep purple and marked with three of those axe symbols. The one with the bundle of rods around it. The one she saw on that teenage boy's chain at the museum and the cuffs Proserpina had...
Shit, what is Juliette doing? Why did she come in here? She knows better than this! This was never the plan!
Julie shakes the weird dazed feeling out of her head and backs up, ready to turn back to the window and skydive out of this hellhole. But, partially through spinning around on her heel...
There's that light again.
Julie's retreat ceases. She stares towards a gilded box atop the podium in the center of the room. From every corner of the chest, ruby colored light is shining like sun rays. It feels warm against Julie's frosted skin.
She shouldn't be here. She needs to go. This is stupid.
Juliette's feet carry her to the podium anyway, and she reaches for the latch on the chest.
"Anything?" Jason echoes, eyes wide. "You could tell me where the Tiberii donum are?"
Something cracks in Herophile's endless black irises. She nods, though. Despite her heartbroken expression, Jason feels a weight lift from his shoulders.
"Okay," He agrees, finally letting go of her chains. "I swear on the Styx that I won't leave California until I've helped Apollo free you."
They're too far underground to hear the inevitable roll of thunder, but Jason feels his oath click into place like the lowering of a coffin into the cold earth.
The metal clasp seems to hum under Julie's touch, welcoming it. She flips it open.
Slowly, carefully, silently, Juliette lifts the top of the chest.
Under the lid, two red velvet cushions sit empty.
Juliette frowns in confusion.
"What you seek, Jason Grace, is already where you most fear it to be," Herophile whispers.
Jason's stomach drops. He watches the woman before him fearfully. "Where is it?"
She sighs and looks down.
"The Tiberri donum lies in the hands of your love's next great heartbreak," Herophile yelps painfully, a hand slapping to the side of her head. "With her father's blood," She croaks.
"Three letters. Starts with M."
Jason's blood runs cold.
"I told you not to follow me anymore."
Two sharp points press into Julie's back.
