Nothing is mine.

Percy briefly goes into an attic.

A Child Dreams of Sunshine

The arrow hissed across the lake, streaking two metres over the top of the orange traffic cone sitting on the end of the pier and smashing through the window of Percy's cabin. Bits of broken glass flashed in the sun as they fell into the grass.

'Well—' Percy lowered the bow '—that didn't exactly go very well.' He chuckled under his breath. 'Thy archery sucketh, foolish boy. Thou art meant to shoot thy blatantly stolen orange cone, not thy own cabin.'

Imagine how much fun you could've had teaching me archery, Zoë. He grinned and pulled the last arrow out of the bag of the cloth bag and nocked it, fumbling with the bow string as he drew it back. Well, I would've had fun, you probably would've got really tired of how terrible I am at this and shown me how to do it right.

Percy released the arrow; the string lashed across his cheek, sending a wave of light tingling down his spine, and the arrow plopped into the lake between his feet, sinking down through the blue.

'I think I might be getting worse.'

Metea rose from the depths, water streaming from her long cerulean hair. 'My lord,' she murmured, holding out his arrow.

Percy winced. 'Right, sorry about that.'

'I don't mind.' Her clear blue eyes sparkled like waves in the sun. 'I was watching you shoot, my lord.'

'I'm very very good,' Percy said, taking his arrow. 'As you can see, I can hit a very small window at about fifty feet without even trying.'

Metea laughed, floating on her back beside him, her gown of deep green leaves and weed trailing from her bare shoulders past her pale feet. 'If you say so, my lord.'

'Just Percy. I'm not lord of anything.' He nocked the arrow, shifting his grip on the bow and leaning his head away from the string. 'Let's see if this works any better.'

This is what you said I should do, right Zoë? Percy closed his eyes and imagined the slow sweep of the tide up the sand, breathing in and out with the slow wash of the waves. And now…

He opened his eyes and focused on the cone, releasing the arrow. It flashed across the still lake surface, glanced off the top of the cone and smashed through the other window.

'You know what,' Percy said. 'Maybe I should shoot the other way.'

Metea giggled. 'It's too late. You've broken both the windows already.'

'Chiron is going to be quite displeased,' he said. 'I'm going to be upset too, it's going to get cold in there now.' Percy watched Metea float around him in slow circles. 'Where're your sisters?'

'Wherever they are.' She closed her eyes in the sun. 'We don't always go everywhere together.'

'I've only ever seen you together.'

'When the camp's all busy, we stick together,' Metea murmured. 'The other demi-gods… they can be annoying, messing around in the lake, throwing things into the creek, shouting things at my sisters and I.'

'They won't anymore,' Percy said. 'I'll tell them not to. I'll tell Clarisse she can throw them in the lake if she catches them. She'll enjoy that, she's a deeply violent person.'

Metea hummed. 'Are you going to stay and swim with me, my lord?'

'I am all out of arrows.' Percy balled up the empty bag. 'But I should probably go to the Big House and tell Chiron I broke those windows. And while I'm there…'

No regretting. I'll keep on making them proud. He bent and unstrung the bow. Time to see the oracle again.

Percy balled the bowstring up and stuffed it in his pocket, tucking the bow beneath his arm. 'I'll see you when I'm back around the lake, Metea. Say hi to your sisters from me.'

'I will.' Her bright clear blue eyes swept up and down him. 'Good fortune, my lord.'

'Percy.' He shook his head and headed back toward the pier. 'I don't know why I try, you never listen to me, and your sisters don't either. It's always my lord this and my lord that.'

'You are a prince of the sea,' Metea breathed, floating alongside him; her long cerulean hair trailed after her through the lake like ribbons of seaweed. 'So much blue, stretching on all the way to the horizon, and so strong. I feel like a palmful of water cupped in your hands. You could hold onto me forever, or drink me dry and never think of me again.'

Percy froze, cold sharp little waves of unease clamoured in the pit of his stomach. 'I wouldn't do that.'

'I wouldn't mind,' Metea whispered. 'I was born from all that blue, it's only right I should return to it one day.'

Percy's eyes drifted across the cabins to the sea. 'One day.'

'One day the sea will have washed this strip of land away and I will join my distant sisters, a nereid in the court beneath the waves.' A soft sigh slipped from Metea's lips. 'It's not so bad. Maybe we will meet again there.'

'I think I'll be long gone by then,' he replied. 'The sea won't wash all this away for years and years.'

'Maybe you won't be…'

Percy jumped up onto the pier and swept his hair off his forehead. 'Bye Metea.'

'Farewell, my lord.' She waved one hand, sinking back beneath the surface of the lake.

He tossed the bow through the broken window and tiptoed around the scatter of glass shards, hurrying through the cabins to the big house.

'Chiron!' Percy knocked on the door.

Chiron stuck his head out of the lounge window. 'What is it, Percy?'

'Two things, really.' He flushed. 'I might have tried to fire a bow and broken both of the windows that face the lake in my cabin.'

A long sigh escaped Chiron. 'Right. I'll get someone to come and fix that before this evening. What's the other thing? Please tell me you haven't shot a naiad or a nymph?'

'No, I couldn't even shoot the traffic cone that was on Dionysius's statue's head in the store cabin.'

'Put that cone back, Perry,' Dionysius called. 'That was my party crown. Didn't anyone explain to you what happens when you steal from the Gods?'

'I…' Percy rolled his eyes. 'Fine, I'll put it back later. I don't really need an explanation for why it's important.'

Dionysius snorted. 'Brat. I should curse you to forever wear one on your head every time you drink alcohol.'

'Percy's too young to drink,' Chiron said.

'I know when someone's drunk wine, old horse,' Dionysius replied. 'He might not drink raki when I give it to him, but Calypso batted her pretty lashes and said please all softly and sweetly and he caved in right away.'

Percy's heart sank. 'It wasn't right away. It was the third time. Right after she promised she wouldn't tell my mom because she was cursed to never leave her island and couldn't.'

Chiron's face sobered. 'Yes. Quite.'

'Anyways,' Percy said. 'I wanted to ask for the attic key. I'm not really doing anything useful here, just accidentally breaking windows, so…'

'Very well.' Chiron stuck a hand down his shirt and lifted the key over his head; it dangled from his fist on an old shoelace. 'Would you answer one question for an old teacher first, Percy?'

'I didn't mean to break the window, I promise.' He held up his hand and wiggled his little finger. 'I'll pinky swear it.'

Dionysius's laughter drifted out through the window. 'He wants to ask why, brat? Prophecies are choice and change and fate. Why are you seeking yours so soon after surviving war? Are you mad?'

'I'm not seeking it,' Percy said, frowning his nose. 'I'm just doing what I should do, which is figuring out how to best help everyone. And you're meant to ask the oracle for advice, right?'

'All wise seekers of knowledge must first beseech Apollo.' Chiron tossed the key.

Percy snatched it from the air. 'I mean, I just ask the oracle, understand literally nothing she says, and figure it out as I go along — usually after it's happened. That's what I've done since I got here.'

'You're only meant to ask for the advice of the Gods on important issues, Perry,' Dionysius drawled. 'If you start asking Apollo's oracle to help you choose your breakfast cereal every morning you're going to come down with a nasty case of plague.'

'I'm just going to go on up,' Percy said. 'I'll let you know if I'm headed off anywhere like Hades, or, worse, Florida.'

Dionysius snorted. 'Brat.'

Chiron waved a hand at the door. 'Just leave the key in the door, I'll come and retrieve it later.'

He took a deep breath and opened the door, trudging up the creaking stairs to the attic door and jamming the key in the lock.

It doesn't really matter what she says. I just have to choose well.

Percy turned the key and shoved the door open.

The oracle sat in the gloom beneath the small round window, still as stone.

'What can I do to best help the other demi-gods?' Percy asked.

Her bandaged face twisted to face him. 'Son of Poseidon,' the oracle whispered. 'Starsworn. Slayer of the Light Beholden to the World.'

'I guess that's me,' he muttered. 'What am I meant to do now if I want—' he swallowed a soft swell of yearning '—if I want to make them proud and not disappoint.'

She rose from the battered, dusty chair, her shadow stretching across the floorboards to Percy's feet; loose stained bandages dangled from her withered fingers, fluttering in the faint breeze through the loose window panes. 'A child dreams of sunshine upon the path of cedar, snared in the coils of a heartless creature; free them from within hate's baleful bars, and you will go on to a spire to the stars...'

'A spire to the stars,' Percy murmured. 'You told me that before.'

The oracle sank back into her chair and fell still.

With Zoë. He stepped back, pulling the door closed with a dull thud. A spire. Like a tower or a mountain. Like Mount Tamalpais. Percy swallowed the sharp cold tug of icy waves. Don't worry about that. Just choose well.

The stairs creaked beneath his feet as he trudged back down them, turning the words over in his head. 'I need to find a child. On a path of cedar. Who dreams of sunshine.' Percy frowned. 'A child of Apollo?'

He drifted out through the cabins to stare into the ashes of the campfire. Where would I even start? I'm terrible at tracking or searching for things. Percy sighed and glanced up into the blue sky, imagining the soft light of the stars. Will you help me, Zoë? So I do it right.

'Oi!' Clarisse jogged down the path and vaulted over the Ares table, thrusting her gym water bottle at his chest. 'Stop sulking and come give me my one-on-one match, Prissy. I'm all warmed up after my run.'

'I have a prophecy to think about,' he replied.

She stiffened. 'Where are we going?'

A small smile crept across Percy's face. 'It's okay, Clarisse, you don't have to come.'

Clarisse grinned, a flash of teeth beneath her sharp nose. 'What else would I do?' She raised her chin, lowering the water bottle to her side. 'Where you go, I follow, strategos. To honour and immortality.'

To a beautiful death, you mean. Percy shook his head. No, if it's me, if it's me. And if it's not, it can't be anyone else.

'You can take the vegetable psycho too,' she said. 'Just no heavy petting when we're in the same room and don't walk in on me in the bathroom or she'll try and club me to death with a marrow again.'

'I will what?' Katie folded her arms on the far side of the tables, narrowing her bright green eyes. 'What have you done?'

'This idiot went to talk with the bandaged old skeleton in the attic,' Clarisse said. 'And now he's going to go off and chase whatever it told him by himself.'

Katie chewed her lip. 'What did the oracle say?'

'I'm looking for a child who dreams of sunshine upon the path of cedar,' Percy said. 'Which I guess is a child of Apollo? Because sunshine.'

Clarisse cackled. 'Sounds like you get to live out Drew's bondage fantasy after all, Sea-boy. You're going to have a lovely baby together.'

Percy shot her a flat look. 'I feel so violated. Why did you have to remind me of that?'

'It's very funny,' she replied. 'Slightly disturbing, but funny because it's not me.'

'Yeah… moving on. Are there any famous cedar trees?' Percy asked. 'I can't think of any.'

'Cedar…' Katie edged around the tables, scrunching her face up. 'Not in the myths I can think of, but there's a Cedar Point County Park and Cedar Island Lighthouse and a bunch of cedar roads by Northwest Harbor. You can basically walk to them from here, they're not far away.'

'How the hell do you know that?' Clarisse demanded.

'It's near Gardener's Bay and everyone used to tease me about it being my bay when I came here as a kid.' Katie's green eyes flashed as she glowered at Clarisse. 'I can show you the way there, Percy. Roughly.'

'I'm not taking anyone else with me this time,' Percy said. 'You both have things to do here. This is for me, I only asked about me, so I can't drag you guys along.'

Clarisse scowled. 'Fine. But you owe me two fights when you get back now.'

Katie squirmed. 'I—'

'Ask him for a kiss when he comes back.' Clarisse grinned. 'Or a hug if you're not up to that yet.'

Pink blossomed across Katie's cheeks. 'Shut up! Just because your brain is too small to feel anything but blunt force trauma! You probably think swords are hot!'

'Clarisse.' Percy levelled a sharp look at her.

Clarisse twitched. 'Sorry, Flower-girl.' She snickered. 'Swords are hot, though. Nothing beats a lean guy all hot and bothered with a sharp bronze blade in his hand. All the veins standing out on his arms… My sort of man, that.' She stuck her water bottle under her arm and grabbed Percy's wrist. 'Could be better, to be honest.'

'Get off him.' Katie growled. 'If you don't, I'll do more than dent your stupid hoplon this time.'

Percy laughed. 'Careful, Clarisse. There's no glory in dying crushed beneath a giant stem of broccoli.' He waved a hand at his cabin. 'I'm going to pack my rucksack and figure out the best way to Cedar Point Park. If I'm back tomorrow, you know it wasn't this place, but prophecies are stupid and it probably is the first cedar relevant thing I run into.'

'I'll look after the camp,' Clarisse promised. 'And make sure nothing happens to this strawberry-loving psycho.'

Katie swept her blonde hair back over her ears. 'I can look after myself.' She bit at her lip. 'Are you sure, Percy?' Her voice shrank to a mumble. 'You shouldn't go off alone, it could be dangerous.'

'I'm not going to change my mind, Captain Crunch,' Percy said. 'But I'm almost entirely scratch resistant, remember, so nothing can happen to me that I don't deserve.' He took a deep breath. 'Right, I'll get my stuff and figure out how to get there. I can probably sail if I ask dad nicely or something…'

'Good luck, Percy.' Clarisse saluted him with her water bottle as he strode past toward his cabin.

Katie started after him, but faltered and drifted to a stop. 'Be careful,' she whispered. 'Come back to me.'

Percy's heart dipped. Oh Katie.

He watched her stare after him in the reflection of the Athena cabin window, rosy-cheeked and worrying at her lip, her green eyes wide and full of a soft fragile light. 'I'm sorry,' he murmured, skirting his cabin toward the orange cone. 'But I won't ever be sorry enough, will I?'

Soft laughter tickled his cheek in a wash of sweet fig-scented hair and a gentle warm arm draped over his shoulders. 'Have you found another heart to break, Percy?'

'Aphrodite…' Percy released a long sigh. 'I kind of have to pack.'

'I know,' she murmured; her warm lips grazed his ear. 'You're leaving again. You could stay. Just like you could have stayed with Calypso. But you're leaving another girl behind instead...'

Guilt snatched Percy's breath, ripped it away like the turning tide snatching a shell back out to sea. 'I—'

'You…?' Aphrodite's laughter sent his heart racing and heat fluttering through his veins. 'You didn't mean to? Is that better, Percy? To do it so carelessly?'

'If I take her with me…' Bianca's terrified eyes and Annabeth's bloodstained golden curls flashed through his thoughts. 'I know what happens. Love is—'

'The ruin of heroes,' she whispered. 'And the death of girls who chase their affections.' Aphrodite's arm vanished and she slipped around before him, her golden curls shivering into shoulder length brown hair and her eyes turning to familiar hazel. 'Only, that wasn't why Zoë died, was it? She was alone in that garden. Trapped. Caged. It was love that set her free. It was love that let her flower into who she was meant to be.'

Percy stared down at the orange cone. 'You're not going to trick me into choosing selfish things. Even if I yearn for them, I know better.' A little shiver ran through him as she stared at him with familiar midnight eyes and long, dark hair. 'I know what happens. I fall.'

'You don't just fall, Percy. You fall in love.' Aphrodite's red lips curved into a smile. 'You plunge from the bliss of its dizzying heights into the deepest bitterness of heartbreak, but even sitting in the ashes of your heart, burnt out to dust, your only wish would be to feel it all again.'

'I promised I wouldn't fall,' he said. 'That's why I'm leaving. Because if it's going to be someone, I think it should just be me.'

She took his hand, drawing him down to sit beside her on the pier, her grey eyes bright with laughter. 'But you thought that before, no? You thought it was meant to be you every time you chose.' Aphrodite's fingers traced the line of his jaw. 'And yet here you are, despite great woe, getting closer to sixteen with every passing second...'

AN: Follow the linktree for more!

linktr . ee / mjbradley