Time's Up

Some day, I'm going to have a normal day. I don't know when. I don't know how it will go down. But I'll get it eventually. Until then, I'll just have to deal with the never ending soap opera that is my life.

That said, there are certainly worse ways to wake up. Hard to compete with having two loving women using me as a pillow. Calypso to one side, Annabeth to another.

At Calypso's behest, she graciously addressed my little problem from the night before. Turns out Calypso must have spoken, and possibly practiced, with Katie regarding certain techniques. Not that she lost her gentle doting touch. As if I can complain.

Piper insisted on Thalia taking a turn at joining the group in bed, but both of them wound up with different partners instead. Khione and Reyna didn't do anything like that, but it was nice to see new relationships developing among everyone. Less stress for me to perform. Not to mention the fact that both Thalia and Reyna looked absolutely adorable with Cinder using them both as a personal nest.

But all that joy came crashing down when a sharp scream echoed throughout the whole barracks.

I barely had the sense to wake up. Our lighter sleepers jolted out of bed. Zoë, ever vigilant, rushed to the source before I had a chance to even understand where it came from. Namely, the nymphs' room. Specifically the one housing Nimba, Rose, and Sierra.

"Percy," Zoë called. "Hurry."

"Wha…?" Calypso, disheveled, perked her head up and rubbed her eye. "Is it morning alre—?"

"Gnnn!"

Our startled selves fell out of the bed. Calypso at least had the sense to giggle a bit and kiss my nose, but that short lived joy came to an end.

"Master!" Palírroia pulled at my arm and hoisted me up. "Please!"

Her imploring tone and desperate expression had me moving faster than should have been possible that early in the morning. With her nearly dragging me along, I quickly found myself in a centurion's quarters, currently filled to maximum occupancy.

On one of the beds lay Sierra, curled into a fetal position, whimpering, shivering, covered in sweat. Or whatever constitutes sweat when dealing with nebulae.

Rose and Nimba kneeled at her side, whispering to her. Their expressions wrought with panic. Even Ashe was in attendance, more composed than the others, but evidently concerned as she tried murmuring words of comfort to Sierra.

"What happened?"

Zoë turned to me, her expression grim. "The day we all feared. The curse has started."

Sure enough, Sierra tightened in on herself, digging her nails into her palms. The slightest droplets of silver blood dribbled from the cuts.

"When did this start?"

"You heard it, I imagine," Ashe said, standing from Sierra's bedside. "We… tried convincing her to fuck you."

"It's not like you'd hurt her!" Nimba exclaimed. "You're so fun when you—"

"This isn't going to help her," Rose said, pulling Nimba into a soft embrace. "We need to focus on what to do now."

"The answer is simple," Ashe said. She pointed a finger at me. "He needs to fuck her. Make it quick if you have to. Once the pain stops, they can end it, and then none of us have anything to worry about."

"Practical words," Zoë said. "But in an impractical situation." She crossed her arms. "Were I in Sierra's position, I don't believe I'd let anyone touch me, much less bed me." Her shoulders hunched. "If not for my prior respect and conflicted emotions for thee, I worry I would be the one in pain."

"We can think about that later. Is she still able to talk?"

"Barely…" Ashe brushed her hands through her hair. "She's using all of her energy to stop screaming."

"Let's see what we can do then."

I took my place kneeling next to Nimba, who held a weeping Rose.

Sierra spared me a glance, but her misty eyes darted away. A portion of the sheets dribbled with drool, trapped between her teeth. To say her body was resting in the fetal position would cruelly undersell the severity of the situation. No. No rest to be had. Instead, her body shivered and twitched. If she started foaming at the mouth, I'd have assumed she was suffering from brain damage.

"You don't have to say anything," I said. "But can you give me any sign that you're listening?"

All she did was try to pull away. Not that she made it very far.

"It's okay." Nimba reached out to take her hand. "You can trust him."

She whimpered on contact and recoiled, pulling her hand away.

"Try not to touch her," Ashe said. "If this is anything like what I had to deal with, then all of her senses are heightened. Combine that with the constant pain and… well… it won't matter how gentle you are with her."

Nimba grimaced. Probably the first time I'd seen her so miserable. And that's saying a lot, given everything she's gone through.

"Please," I said. "I want to help you. But I won't do it unless you let me."

"Let you?" Ashe said. "She can't let you. She can't stop you either. You can end all of this right now."

Sierra whimpered. What little sense she could spare for us clearly heard Ashe. Her pupils dilated to pinpricks.

"Come on!" she urged. "You don't deserve to go through this. I put up with it for years! Don't make the same mistake I did!"

Tears pooled in Sierra's eyes. Some of the luster in her wispy hair dulled.

I paled. She was drawing from her life force, which technically wasn't available to her, to stave off the pain. Assuming everything was normal, she'd have a relatively decent supply to pull from. But with it locked away in her necklace, she had virtually nothing to use.

"You don't have to do this," I said. "If you want, we can get this over quickly, then you won't ever have to interact with me again."

"You'd just leave her behind?!" Nimba balked.

"Of course not. But if she doesn't want to talk to me afterwards, she doesn't. She won't ever have to worry about spreading her legs again. I'll leave her alone, but you can still have your sister back to the way she was. Healthy. Relatively happier. And just as strong as ever."

Nimba turned her gaze on Sierra, and gave her the biggest and saddest pair of pleading puppy eyes I'd ever seen.

"Please. Just this once. Let him help you. I promise he'll be gentle."

Unfortunately, no one in the room could really attest to that. I hadn't been particularly gentle with any of the nymphs. Granted, they didn't want it gentle. Same with Zoë, save for that night in Eurytion's bathtub.

Nimba's words fell on deaf ears. Sierra pulled herself into a ball and tucked away what little of her face was exposed.

My shoulders slumped. Without saying a word, Sierra made her choice, painful as it may be for me to stand by and watch it.

I stepped back.

"No!" Ashe lunged forward and wrapped her arms around my chest. "Please! She needs this! She might not like you afterwards, but at least she'll be able to tell you so. If she stays like this—" Her voice cracked. "There's a fighting spirit in her. I know that. More than almost any of the others. But she—"

"She made her choice," Zoë said. "Just like throwing a rope to a drowning man, we are not to blame if he does not grab it."

I didn't have the heart to add anything, so I gave Ashe's hand a gentle squeeze and pulled away from her.

Zoë followed me out of the room while the remaining nymphs gathered around Sierra's bed, save for Ashe, who glared at me while I left.

At the door stood Reyna, a tight grimace pulled at her lips. Alongside her were Kinzie and Juniper. Both wore conflicted expressions.

"I don't envy you," Reyna said. "That's not an easy decision to make."

"Is there any chance a legion medic could help her?"

"Doubtful, but we can try. This isn't an injury, illness, or infection. From a physical stance, she's healthy. Weaker than normal because of what she went through before the rescue, but healthy."

"The curse is not a simple malady," Zoë said. "More than once, I've pulled women who have suffered the same curse, though for different reasons. Even recruited some as hunters as well.

"What she is experiencing is the curse treating her body like a length of rope, twisting and coiling it ever tighter. But just like rope, the body can only coil so far before it begins to fray… and eventually snap."

Kinzie gulped. "So… if she's dealing with the effects, why don't I feel anything? Or Phoebe for that matter." She gestured to the hunter, who was rubbing her arms while Thalia spoke with her.

"Probably because you only joined the harem yesterday," Reyna said. "Your timers only recently started. Sierra was technically a member since day one… She just wasn't around during that time."

"Right… So how much time do we have?"

"Give or take about two weeks."

"Uh huh…" She turned to me. "So I know I've been coming off a bit strong, but if I don't get fucked in the next week, I'm going to be very pissed at you."

"Unless someone decides to castrate me sometime soon, I doubt that will be a problem."

"Good."

Juniper fidgeted with her dress, still focused on the other nymphs.

"Now you understand part of why I don't want you to just jump in and join. That's what will happen if you do."

That snapped her out of her reverie. She turned to me with a pout. "Not if we share each other right after I join. I don't plan on waiting for two weeks."

"You may not have to wait any time at all." Annabeth approached us. "So we just got a report from a legionnaire. Something about a faun in the Fields of Mars who said he was meeting with you."

"That's not just any faun. That would be Grover."

Juniper jumped back. "What?! He… he's here? How? What…?"

"I sent him a message yesterday. He agreed to come by today."

"Wow… I didn't think he would come so quickly."

It took an inordinate amount of willpower to not make a joke.

"According to the others, you won't have to worry about that with Percy," Kinzie said, grinning ear to ear. "And I intend to test that claim very thoroughly."

Zoë turned her head away and made for the other hunters. Reyna buried her face in her hand. Juniper flushed, but eyed me with curious excitement. Annabeth simply rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, he's the super stud of the modern mythological world. So before you go inflating his head any further, we should meet up with Grover."

"Want to get the gang back together?"

She smirked. "If Tyson were here, absolutely. But last I heard, he was busy building some sort of submarine for his new girlfriend."

The picture of a cyclops and a harpy together romantically still struck me as bizarre, but I was happy for the big guy nonetheless.

"And before you suggest it, Rachel is not technically a part of this group."

"Not even I was going to suggest it," Rachel said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and turning over in bed. "I need another hour or two."

"And as for Thalia…"

We took a glance over to her while she consoled Phoebe, who seemed incapable of keeping her breathing steady. She spared us a look and waved us off. Cinder tugged on Phoebe's bootstring in an effort to help.

"I guess that's settled."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Come on. Let's get dressed. Grover's waiting for us."

"Why do I have to do this?"

Juniper spent the better part of our walk complaining. Every step consisted of her trying to fight back or pull away while Annabeth and I dragged her up to the Garden of Bacchus.

"This is your boyfriend," Annabeth said. "You're the one accusing him. You're the one trying to join a harem to get away from him. He at least deserves to know what's going on and face his accuser."

All Juniper could do was whine and struggle as we reached the foot of the hill.

"Seriously, you two! This isn't funny! I' left with you specifically so I wouldn't have to see him again!"

"Why?" Annabeth snapped. "You two were happy together for years. What changed?"

"Do you know what it's like to wake up to the sight of your boyfriend with other women?"

We both paused, shared a glance, and turned to her.

"Did you really just ask me that? That is literally my life now."

Juniper paled. "Oh… right… I guess… I'm sorry. I just…" She deflated. "I'm not ready to face him after that. It's too fresh. Too soon."

"If you're not ready to properly face your boyfriend, be honest with him, and break up with him, then you aren't ready to join a harem. You're still hung up on him. You need closure, and you won't get it by letting us do the legwork for you."

At least she had the decency to look ashamed. Her head hung low, and she let us bring her to the crest of the hill. We'd officially reached the Garden of Bacchus.

A statue of the god in question captured the attention in the center of the terraced garden. Grapevines wove in and out of the wood trellises overhead. All around, the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle baked in the August heat. All familiar scents in one way or another.

And perched on a nearby marble bench, studying the statue of the dancing god, was none other than Grover.

Given the corner we rounded to reach the place, I was the first one he saw. Not a blink later, he already crossed half the garden.

"Perce!"

I survived his over enthusiastic tackle. Barely. While he bleated for joy and squeezed the life out of me, I tried ducking my head away from his growing horns.

"Good to see you too, G-Man." I cracked a smile.

Only after the inadvertent goring attempt did he finally pull away and actually register our nearby guest.

"Annabeth!"

Just as eagerly, he jumped up and pulled her in for an equally humorous hug, which she gladly returned.

"It's been too long," she said. "We really need to have a proper get together one of these days."

"Won't argue with that. Though I'll take what I can…" He frowned, sniffing the air. "Is that…?" He breathed deeply. "Juniper?"

Annabeth and I turned to the dryad. Or rather, where she once stood. Only one problem.

She wasn't there.

"Oh! I get distracted for five seconds, and she runs off!" Annabeth huffed.

"Wait, you guys brought Juniper? Wha… How did?" He shook his head. "Okay. Let's take a step back a bit. We clearly have a lot to talk about."

"That would put things mildly," I remarked.

"Right. Please try to keep all the rutting talk to a minimum."

Annabeth smirked. "No promises. If only to see you blush."

He blushed.

"Okay, fine. But let's take this somewhere… that isn't here. I don't know about you, but the last thing I want to think about is Mr. D in a loincloth reciting ballet." He gestured to the statue.

"You won't get any argument from me," Annabeth said. "Come on. The side of the hill offers a great view of the city."

Indeed it did.

Beneath us, the Little Tiber encompassed the city of New Rome. Red tiled roofs glowed under the morning light; a sharp contrast to the glistening white marble walls. The dome of the senate house towered ominously over its neighbors, as if saying "Here you shall be judged! And the verdict is already 'guilty!'"

For once, Annabeth didn't study the architecture. She didn't have that analytical tint to her expression, as if she were imagining the improvements. Instead, she leaned back, resting on her palms, and let out a sigh of appreciation.

"We need to do this more often," Grover said. "It's nice having everyone together."

Annabeth and I nodded our agreement.

"So tell me," Annabeth said, "what exactly goes on in the daily life of the lord of the wild?"

Grover cracked a grin. "Normally, I wouldn't bore people with the details… but who am I kidding? I've been waiting for a long time to talk about this…"

The next couple minutes passed as Grover regaled us with his adventures. His journey through America, driving out a group of minor dragons from Yellowstone, helping a tribe of monopodes settle in Florida. Of course, there was his current assignment, putting a stop to the wildfires raging across the woodlands of California.

"Normally, brushfires are fine. Small controlled bursts are fine for the environment. Beneficial even. But when everything everywhere is burning, there's nowhere for the animals to run."

Even as he said that, he seemed distracted. His heart not quite in the words. Eyes not quite meeting ours.

"Okay, we're not going to delay this any longer," Annabeth said. "You obviously want to know about Juniper."

"Thank you." He let out a breath. "My chest was going to explode from the anticipation. What's going on? How'd you even manage to bring her here?"

We gave him a quick and dirty rundown of the ritual we used. Then came the hard part.

"So… Juniper approached me two days ago." I scratched my head. "Apparently, she saw something. A message that came from you. Or… well… a couple messages."

He tilted his head to the side. "Um. I called her about a week ago. But beyond that, I haven't sent her anything. Been too busy over here. Was actually hoping to get things wrapped up over here soon so I could go back. It's nice being out and about, but it's not home."

"We can relate," Annabeth muttered.

"No kidding. But that's not what I meant. From what she told us, she's been receiving Iris messages with you in them… with other nymphs."

Silence.

Grover's eyes went wide as saucers. Like a deer in headlights… goat in headlights? He froze.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Annabeth recoiled. "Wait, are you saying that's actually true?! Grover, seriously?"

"Wait, wait." He raised his hands in surrender. "Look, yes. It's true. But…"

"Come on!" Annabeth jumped to her feet. Admittedly, I almost joined her. "You can't just cheat on Juniper!"

Grover all but groveled helplessly at her feet. "Seriously, just give me a chance to explain." He turned his head to me. "Perce?"

I simply shook my head. "Not cool, man. I thought you were better than that."

"Guys! Just give me five minutes!"

Annabeth crossed her arms and huffed. "There are a lot of things in this world you can justify. Rape and infidelity are two that can't ever be justified."

"I'm not trying to… Ugh! Seriously, can you just sit down for a moment?"

If he didn't sound so hurt, I'd attempt to call him out further. But after Piper was able to finally forgive Jason and Gwen, I figured I at least owed the guy a chance to defend himself.

"Annabeth, sit down."

She gave me an incredulous look, but scoffed and did as I said.

"Thank you." Grover groaned and fiddled with his horn. "Okay. Now, I'm going to ask you guys to at least listen the whole way through. After that, if you want to judge me… I won't hold it against you."

Annabeth kept her arms crossed, but her expression grew conflicted. "I'm listening."

I simply nodded.

"So… As a premise… Percy, how would you say you've handled these past couple weeks?"

"Um… I mean… I guess as well as I could, all things considered. What does that have to do with this?"

"I'm getting to that. But I mean… How would you say you handled yourself… during the act?"

Annabeth snorted. "Oh, gods. It was night and day with him. Almost every girl told the same thing. He was super nervous and shy around them at first, then once things actually got started… well… pretty much everyone he's been with was left a drooling mess by the end of it."

"Yeah." Grover hung his head. "I figured as much. And let me guess, things got easier for you to do during the last couple days, right?"

"Well… that's kind of how these things work. You get used to it after a while."

"But it hasn't been a while. Guys, it's only been like two weeks. That's not nearly enough time for people like us to get used to that kind of situation."

"That… was actually because of Aphrodite. She made sure to… oh, how did she say it? 'Ease me into the situation.'"

"I suppose that makes sense." He grabbed his horns and groaned. "Okay. Well… I may have been responsible for the first part. All that anxiety and everything? Obviously, I wasn't fully responsible, but I definitely played a part in it?"

Annabeth quirked her eyebrow. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"No! It's…" He glanced up and eyed me miserably. "The empathy link is still active."

… Shit.

"Wait, so…" Annabeth's eyes widened. "Oh, no."

"Yeah… You guys know we are crazy about each other. We wanted to do things the mortal way. Get married. Raise a family. All that good stuff. We even came under a lot of heat from other nature spirits because of it. They don't really get the concept of exclusivity. So they'd often harass us."

"... Okay?"

"Well… I'd been trying to keep that ideal alive even after I became lord of the wild. Not an easy task in and of itself. Most nymphs tried to ignore me most of the time, except for Juniper of course. But after the fact, they started throwing themselves at me.

"I managed to fend them off, with Juniper's help. I always pictured that little family we'd have together. It helped… for a while.

"Then you two got together. Not a problem at first, but when you two started sleeping together… that made things more difficult. I knew exactly what was happening and when it was happening."

Annabeth blanched. "So… so…"

"Yes. I know you two went at it like rabbits. Not that I blame you, given everything we've been through. I don't know the exact details or anything. I can't just see everything Percy sees, but I could feel the emotions. The love. The lust. The aggression. The anxiety. All of it."

"That… complicates things…" I considered the people I still needed to sleep with. Just the idea of Grover essentially 'tuning in' while I tried taking care of Sierra or Phoebe…

"You're telling me. It was hard enough with just you and Annabeth, but still manageable. That picture of the family still kept me strong. But then the harem came along…"

"And it increased the issue exponentially…" Annabeth said. "Gods, I never thought about that."

"Yeah… I tried fighting back at first. Really, I did. No doubt, Percy got to feel the full force of my anxiety. But combine that with the nymphs still throwing themselves at me… That image of a family cracked… and so did I."

He turned to me imploringly. "I don't blame you, by the way. I don't think any of us realized this would happen. It's not that I don't care about Juniper. She's incredible! Seriously, I'd do anything I could to make her happy."

"Happy isn't the word I'd use to describe how she feels about this." Annabeth leaned into her palm. "In fact, she was trying to join the harem explicitly because of this. She's afraid of being hurt by you. And… while she doesn't know about the empathy link, she also said she doesn't blame you either. In fact, she told me she knew it was inevitable."

"When was this?" I cocked my head. "She didn't say that to me."

"While we were flying here. Yeah… most of the harem knows now. And most of them urged caution about joining. Especially when she doesn't know the full truth."

"As much as it kills me to say this, it should probably stay that way…"

Both of us leaned back from Grover with a mutual exclamation. "What?!"

"Like I said, I want her to be happy. I want her to be safe." He turned to me, lip quivering. "As much as I'd love to stay with her, she'd be miserable. She wouldn't be able to let go of what I've done. Let's say we dissolve the empathy link. Let's say I'm able to go back to normal, and you guys don't have to worry about me knowing what you're up to whenever you sleep with someone. This kind of black mark on our relationship won't just go away. She won't be able to forget it even if she doesn't hold it against me. It would tear her apart before she ever brings it up."

His shoulders sagged. "But if she goes with you, she gets a fresh start. A new attempt at having a happy, healthy relationship. And Percy, let's be honest, for all of the women you have right now, you still make them happy. I know you do. They feel safe with you. Juniper… she deserves that."

"Are… are you just giving her over to Percy?" Annabeth said, incredulous.

"No. She's her own person, and is free to make her own choices. I'm saying that if she chooses to join the harem, and you let her in, I'll be content knowing she's happier for it."

Annabeth hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. "I want to be angry with you… But knowing all this… I just can't. Still though, she deserves to know the truth."

"And then what? If you tell her it was because of the empathy link, she'll be all alone. She won't have anyone to turn to. Like this though, at least she knows she can trust you guys."

"Based on a lie?"

"No. If she asks, tell her. But if she doesn't, there's no point in leading her to cut herself off from the world. She's tough, but she needs people like you to support her."

I rested my hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Though that brings up another question. Do you want to dissolve the empathy link? There's no better time than now. You won't have to worry about me knowing, and my own emotions from… this kind of stuff won't spill over to you. Not to mention, we can stop putting each other in danger every time we have a brush with death. Seriously, what have you guys been up to these past two weeks? You were mangled three times!"

I shared a knowing smile with Annabeth. "Tell you what. Let's go find Juniper so you can tell your story and say your goodbyes. We'll tell you all about how some gods made our lives even more difficult than we expected."

We decided against dissolving the empathy link. At this point, the damage was done.

And talk about your awkward reunions. When we managed to track down Juniper speaking to another dryad in the garden, both she and Grover managed to clear the air between them. Most of the truth came out, save for the detail regarding the empathy link. Tears were shed. Hugs traded.

By the time the two of them made their peace with one another, Juniper had turned my shirt into her personal handkerchief.

"It's good you both were able to talk things through," Annabeth said, rubbing Juniper's shoulder. "You both needed closure."

"Yeah…" Grover fidgeted, as if trying to will a tin can into existence for him to chew on. "I… don't think I would have been able to do this on my own, so… thanks."

"Anytime, G-Man." I motioned to hug him, but Juniper made that a little difficult, what with her pulling at my sleeve to wipe away her green tears. "While you're here though, why not stop by the barracks to say hello? Thalia would flip."

He glanced over at Juniper, who wept while Annabeth stroked her hair.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, yeah. I think I'd like that."

Juniper sniffled and wiped her eyes. "It's not a problem. You're still my friend. It will take a while for me to get used to this though."

Grover nodded, his gaze sullen.

"Come on. If anyone knows how to lighten the mood, it's Thalia."

We didn't quite make it to the barracks. At least, not before we found ourselves facing a very displeased dryad, along with an exasperated Zoë.

"What's wrong with you?!" Ashe screeched.

All four of us jumped back. Annabeth and I shared a perplexed glance while Grover tried to sneak behind us.

"Um…"

"Sierra is suffering, and you're just going to let it happen?! Do you like the fact that she's in pain?!" Angry tears simmered on her cheeks.

"No," I said. "It kills me that she's going through this. If I knew of another way to solve this, I would have done it already."

"But you already know how! You know what you need to do!"

"I'm not raping her," I stated. "I offered. Everyone was there to see that. She made it quite clear that she doesn't want that. Has she changed her mind since we left?"

She went quiet.

"No," Zoë said. "She refuses to say anything now. Though… I fear she is looking worse for wear. Her life will not be at risk for a number of days, assuming we cannot find a place to secure her lifeline. After that however… well… there are too many factors working against her."

My shoulders sagged. "How are the others handling this?"

"Not well."

"Of course not!" Ashe screeched. "Nimba just got her sister back! Less than a day later, she's in more pain than ever! Rose is starting to fall into a depression again! Palírroia is trying to keep things together. And Thŷella, bless her heart, tried numbing her pain. That backfired… badly."

"What happened?"

"Her electricity," Zoë said. "Instead of numbing her, it only made the pain worse. And it caused some sort of recoil. Thŷella was given a taste of what Sierra is enduring."

"Is she okay?"

"For the most part. Shaken mostly for now. No one can touch Sierra without hurting her. Everyone knows what must be done to end this."

"Exactly!" Ashe exclaimed. "Nobody will hold this against you! They all know you're trying to help."

"Can you say that about Sierra? As much pain as she's in now, she still thinks it'll be worse for me to lay with her. If I do this, there's no telling what she'd do. How far she'd go. I'm not forcing her."

"It's not… It's…" She deflated, falling down to the ground. "She needs this. More than anything, she needs this."

I knelt down in front of her. "Look, I know you care. But she is her own person. I can't force her to feel better."

"But that's what you did with me!"

…

Zoë cleared her throat. "The circumstances were rather different."

"When I was suffering, he ordered me to take him to my tree. I didn't want to, but he made me! I didn't want anything to do with him. When he did that thing with the water, I was terrified. Angry. I screamed and begged him to stop. But he just kept going. Kept… healing me."

She trembled. Tears dripped off her cheeks. "How is this any different?! When we were at the edge, you pushed me over! You made sure I was safe and healthy! Why won't you do that for Sierra?! What did she do to deserve this?! Is it because she slapped you?!"

"Wha— No!"

"Hit me then! Whatever anger and resentment you have for her, just let it go on me! Just… just help her…"

Her words dissolved into incoherent babbles as she tried pleading Sierra's case. Eventually, she couldn't bring herself to say anymore without breaking down into sobs.

I rested a hand on her shoulder, which she clutched to her cheek almost instantly.

My heartstrings definitely felt her plucking at them, but I did my best to keep my resolve.

"Come on." I grabbed her arm and pulled her back up. "Let's get back to the others."

Like Juniper before her, she sniffled, but leaned her head on my chest as we situated ourselves.

Of course, in that incredibly tender moment, someone had to come along and smash the atmosphere to pieces.

"Woah, man! I don't think I've ever seen you around!"

Don the faun had arrived.

Grover took a step back. "Um. Yeah. I'm… from out of state."

"That's cool, that's cool. Always nice to— Woah!" He turned to Ashe and I. "It's been forever since I've seen a meliae! Especially one with curves like that!"

He reached out to touch Ashe's hair. She recoiled instantly, hugging herself closer to me. But before he ever had a chance to reach her, a gleaming silver hunting knife shimmered, stopping just short of his wrist.

"Touch her once and lose thy hand," Zoë said, her voice steely calm. "Touch her twice and lose thy head."

"Woah! No harm done!" He jumped back with his hands up. Almost instantly, he locked his gaze on Juniper. "Hey, short stuff. What do you say we ditch this place and take a ride on the wild side? Or maybe you have some denarii to spare?"

"Don," I said, my voice chilly. "Hazel isn't here. And I won't be nearly as polite as she is. So I will say this once. Please go."

He gulped. "Yeah. Sure, no problem. I'll just… Uh… Yeah."

He scampered off with his tail tucked between his legs. Even by faun standards, Don really went over the top when it came to flirting.

Annabeth rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. "I'm never going to understand how you can flip your switch like that so easily."

I frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"You just went from calm, loving, and empathetic to nearly murdering a guy in the span of seconds."

"The sea does as the sea will," Zoë said. "His father is much worse."

For what it's worth, Ashe clung to me like I was her protector. Admittedly, I was more than happy to have that role. Juniper didn't seem all too phased by Don, though she was in more or less the same position with Annabeth as Ashe was with me.

"Come on. While I'd love to help Sierra, there are other things we need to do today as well."

"Such as?"

"For one thing, we need to remove Khione's anklet."

A/N: It happened. It finally happened. The curse has officially started. You didn't think I'd just do a bait and switch, did you? Hopefully this chapter also puts an end to those who complain about how Percy is too passive during sex. With Grover's little revelation, how can things truly be brought to some manner of ease? Two best buds are both essentially in harems now.

I thank you all for your patience up to this point. Work was putting a stranglehold on the progress, though hopefully that won't be the case for now. This story shall once more continue relatively unimpeded... until something else comes along to stifle it.

Your kind words are appreciated, whether they be in public reviews, private messages, or Discord chats. If you want to really demonstrate your favor, P atreon is always an option, and is always available through the Discord server. Nevertheless, I'd be happy just to know your thoughts. There's a great deal of risks taken in this chapter. I can only pray they've paid off. This is Ronin signing off.