Nothing is mine.

After all this time, Percy gets to see her again!

Fallen Grace

Beneath the thick, dust-stained, scratched metal rail, the ground plunged away, a sheer rocky slope down to the shallow river rushing south below the road. Clarisse tugged Katie back along it a dozen yards, keeping a firm grip on Katie's elbow as she scowled back at Percy.

'You look older.' Zoë leant forward beside him on the elbows of her silver parka, dropping small stones over the edge. 'Stronger.'

'You look just the same,' Percy whispered. 'Are you—' he reached out for her arm '—can I…?'

She let the last few stones fall and took his hand. 'You are not dreaming, Percy.'

'I thought… I dreamt of you again a couple of days ago,' he confessed. 'When she saved you, Zoë of the Nightshade.'

'You dreamt of me.' Zoë's red lips quirked. 'And here I am.'

'How?' Percy asked. 'You died smiling, without regret. You were in Elysium. Artemis was so proud of you, she put you in the stars so everyone could admire your heroism forever—'

'I had one regret.' She gave his hand a soft squeeze. 'What good is Elysium when you are alone? To spend eternity without love is far from paradise, Percy.'

Love. The word sent a small ripple of unease through him, like a drop of water shattering the clear still surface of a woodland pool.

'But I would have come to join you. You only needed to wait…'

'I spent a long time choosing what Artemis wanted, what others needed,' Zoë murmured. 'I gave all I had to make her proud, but I wanted something for myself for once. I think it is fair even for a hero to be a little selfish sometimes, Percy; everyone is. Someone else can choose. Not me.' She leant against his shoulder. 'Not you.'

'It doesn't matter if it's me,' Percy said. 'All that matters is I choose well.'

'Forget choosing well,' Zoë whispered. 'Choose me.'

You don't sound like Zoë. You don't feel like her. Percy slipped one hand off the railing and let it hang beside his pocket. Aphrodite, maybe. This is the sort of thing she would do.

'I can't.' He watched her from the corner of his eye, studied every inch of her face as she stared down into the water with dark eyes. 'I'm part of the quest. I have to choose.'

'Leave it behind.' Zoë's red lips crooked. 'Be mine. I came back for you; a hero deserves to follow his heart, Percy.'

Percy blinked. 'You always called me Perseus before—' his gaze dipped to where she held his hand in smooth, unmarked copper-tanned fingers '—and you talk differently. And you don't have your ring, the bow Artemis gifted you.'

'I have left her,' Zoë said. 'To follow my own heart.'

It's not her. Percy drew Anaklusmos from his pocket, tucking it behind his wrist. All this talk of hearts; it must be Aphrodite.

'I'm not going to fall,' he said. 'To disappoint, fight and fail, but not to fall. Not even in love. You said it yourself, Aphrodite.' He drew his hand back from beneath hers. 'At least you're just messing with me and not Katie, I guess.'

Zoë threw her head back and laughed, but Bianca's familiar quiet giggle left her lips and her face shifted. 'You have seen through the guise, I see.' Bianca's face blurred into Annabeth's, her dark eyes lightening to sharp grey and her black hair shivering into golden curls. 'I have many more familiar faces I could wear—' Annabeth's features twisted into Calypso's, into Ethan's, into Luke's, bubbling through them like molten tar '—but let me speak to you honestly. From the heart.'

Percy stared back into his own sea-green eyes. 'Who are you? You're not Aphrodite, either. I wouldn't see myself in her.'

'Would you not? A hero can fall in love with his own legend a little, you know.'

'No. Who are you?'

'I am Alcyoneus.' Percy's own grin flashed across Alcyoneus's face, but his teeth near burnt, bright and blinding, bright as bronze in the sun, bright as blades reflecting the flickering light of flames, shining like golden dust, endless dunes of it heaped as far as the horizon and beyond. 'Come to champion the birthing world. Come to usher in a new age of heroes. Come to you.'

He's the Gigantes. He must be.

'Clarisse,' Percy called.

'Strategos.' Her brown eyes flicked between the two of them and her hoplon sprang into her left hand. 'Who the hell is that?'

'I am Alcyoneus.'

Katie scowled. 'Stop impersonating Percy.'

'Im-Percy-nating,' Percy quipped.

'I am the true God of Heroes,' Alyconeus replied. 'Who else ought I appear to be but the greatest of Olympus's champions?'

'If you've come to try and kill him—' Clarisse dropped her bag at her feet and pulled her helm from it, clapping it upon her head and smoothing out the cloven, crimson crest '—you'll have to go through me first. And I'm not like this idiot. He's nice; I'll pull your spine out with my bare hands.'

Katie snatched her leaf-bladed sword from her bag. 'Get away from him.'

Alcyoneus laughed. 'Don't be foolish. You cannot slay an immortal; no mortal can defeat one alone, right, Percy?'

'Right,' Percy murmured. 'He's the Gigantes. We can't defeat him, but he can't attack us unless we set the terms of a challenge.'

Katie's blade dipped. 'Well, now what?'

'If you challenge me, Heracles will come to your aid.' Alcyoneus drew a slender, curving steel blade lined with shining gold from the air; he wrapped both hands around the golden hilt and raised it up to level at Percy's chest. 'But you will not be able to assist him and I will cut him down.'

From the trees behind them stalked a horde of empusae, snarling black-furred hellhounds prowling at their heels.

'There are hundreds,' Katie whispered, her green eyes wide. 'Percy—'

'Doesn't matter how many there are.' Clarisse pounded her fist against the lambda of golden ichor daubed across her shield. 'It only matters how many of them I can take with me.'

Alcyoneus thrust his blade into the tarmac. 'I would rather talk than spill blood,' he said, watching the crimson tassels flutter from the golden skull upon the pommel of his blade. 'No heroes are an enemy of mine. Heroes deserve laurels. They ought to be rewarded, to live happily ever after with all their wishes fulfilled. After all, what's the point of being a hero if you profit naught by it?'

'I don't think that's the point of being a hero at all,' Percy replied. 'You don't do it for yourself.'

'Of course not,' Alcyoneus said. 'But after you've saved them all, surely then it's only fair you expect to get your wishes granted. A beautiful girl. Gold. Perhaps even Godhood…' He pointed a finger at Percy. 'But instead here you are, fighting on and on and on. No rest. No respite. No reward for all the great deeds you have performed but the expectation of further woe.'

'I just try to choose well,' Percy replied. 'That's all. If I left them to fight alone, I'd disappoint everyone.'

'Everyone?' Alcyoneus's eyes flicked to Katie as he lowered his arm and he offered her Percy's own grin. 'Truly?'

Katie flushed pink and sidled a few steps toward Percy.

'Leave her be,' Clarisse snapped.

'You chose well,' Alcyoneus said. 'You saved Olympus and defeated Kronos. Forget the girl Artemis placed in the stars. She is dead. You still have a chance to live a full and happy life. Take it. Take the girl who offers you her heart freely. Take what you are owed from Olympus. If they do not offer it fairly but in the form of some impossible labour, take it from them at the tip of a sword.' He ripped his weapon from the tarmac by the blade and offered Percy the hilt. 'Here. With my own arms, with my aid, not even the Gods could stand before you.'

A little ripple of rage swept through Percy. 'Forget Zoë? Forget how brave she was? How kind? How could I be a hero at all if I forget why I'm fighting?'

Alcyoneus's smile faded from his face. 'So be it, Percy.' He flipped his blade in his hand, catching it by the hilt. 'You have chosen. Before you die, you will feel nothing but bitterest regret.' He burst into a scatter of crows, vanishing into the trees.

The hellhounds slunk forward to the end of the bridge.

Clarisse glanced over her shoulder. 'We're not outrunning them to Phoenix, Sea-boy.'

If you stay, you'll all die. Percy's heart sank into that bottomless black, crushed beneath all the weight of the waves, less than a grain of sand below the breaking tide. Because I chose.

He extended Anaklusmos into a xiphos.

'Percy no,' Katie whispered, her lip trembling. 'Please don't. Please don't go.'

'Go?' Percy mustered a small smile for her. 'I won't be gone, Katie; I'll just be waiting. You'll see me again in green fields and eternal summer.'

Clarisse set her jaw. 'No.'

'Clarisse—'

'No. Not one step back. I will not.' Her knuckles whitened about her spear. 'I will not run. Honour and immortality await us together.'

'I've made my choice, but someone has to warn camp about Alcyoneus and all these monsters,' Percy said. 'Someone has to safeguard hope—' he pulled the ring from his finger and held it out '— so give me your shield, Clarisse.'

'No.' Clarisse shook her head. 'That's not what it means! And you're not the leader of the quest. Katie…' She twisted about, but Katie only stared back, her arms wrapped about her chest, tears flowing down her cheeks to drip onto her amaranth-red hoodie. 'How am I supposed to tell them all that I left you to die?!'

He thrust the ring into her chest. 'Tell them I chose what I was always going to choose. You keep promising to follow me, Clarisse, and I never asked you to, but this one time I am giving you a command. So yield.'

'Strategos,' she whispered, dashing a few tears away on her forearm and holding out her hoplon. 'I will be back,' she vowed as she took the ring, cupping the gentle orange glow of the glyph for Elpis in her hands. 'We will fight until the last drop of our blood is spilt if we must.'

'No,' Katie begged; her voice shook like a leaf and the tips of her fingers turned black. 'No!'

'Look after those flowers for me, Katie,' Percy said, strapping Clarisse's hoplon to his arm and stepping back toward the end of the bridge. 'And don't forget what you promised.'

Clarisse dragged a sobbing Katie away.

You'll be happier with sisters.

He turned away to face the ranks of empusae as the hellhounds streaked forward across the bridge. 'Artemis,' he murmured, pressing Anaklusmos to his lips. 'I hope I made you proud.'

Even if I couldn't do it for as long as Zoë did.

I am ever proud of you Perseus. Artemis's words tore through his thoughts like the wind across the mountaintops, fierce as the scream of a hunting hawk soaring high in the sky. I send you no ally, no aid, only my wrath; the pure fury of the wilderness will slay you as eagerly as it would another.

A vast boar burst from the trees with a thunderous squeal, smashing through the neat ranks of empusae as they raised their bows. Golden dust exploded across the road, trailing from its huge, curving tusks as it swung its head from side to side, goring monster after monster.

Dad. Look out for mom for me. And her new baby. And Paul. He took a long deep breath. And I'm sorry if you wanted me to take up Zeus's challenge and do the whole golden apple be like Heracles thing, it just… I didn't want to disappoint anyone.

Percy. Poseidon's voice swept in upon his thoughts like the gentle warm white wash of foam-edged summer waves across golden sand. Your choices have always been your own. And no father has ever been more proud of their son than I.

A small hot lump settled in Percy's throat. Thanks, Dad.

'It's time for things to end, right, Zoë?' He spun Anaklusmos in his hand. 'I'll see you soon.'

The first hellhound leapt at his head, claws outstretched.

He slammed the edge of the hoplon into its skull and leapt through the golden dust, drawing all the ocean back inside him, flowing around the slashing claws and fangs, slicing a line of bright bronze through the horde pouring forward.

The hellhounds sprang at him from all sides, but he cut them down one by one in a swirl of Anaklusmos's sharp edge, grinding the horde down monster by monster as the sea wears the rocks on the beach down to dust, enduring the dull ache settling deep into his muscles.

The sea knows no pity.

Percy ignored the arrows hissing past, letting them ping off Clarisse's hoplon and bounce off his chest and shoulders. Some tore through the slathering horde of hellhounds surrounding him, leaving little puffs of golden dust behind. He clenched his jaw against the fatigue, but it clung to him like thick, cold sea-fog, dragging from his limbs like kelp with each step and swing of his sword.

The storm knows no mercy.

A dozen hellhounds remained, circling him over heaps of golden dust beneath the swindling rain of barbed arrows; the gold clung to their dark fur, glittering as they prowled around him.

The empusae scattered down the bridge toward Percy, fleeing the stampeding boar; they fired arrows back at the towering creature as it trampled them beneath its huge, dark, sharp hooves. Hundreds of shafts bristled from its hide, but it tore through the fleeing monsters like a tornado of tusks and deafening squeals.

That boar mustn't go after Katie and Clarisse.

Percy drew the sea in, swept it up into a wave so high it scraped the sky and stomped upon the bridge as it broke.

A great shiver rippled through it and the hellhounds sprawled across the tarmac. He glanced over his shoulder, at the dwindling figures of Katie and Clarisse, and clawed the sea back, dragging it up higher, so high the steaming cold dark waters brushed the heavens, and let every last drop of his remaining strength crash down with.

The bridge shattered beneath his foot like glass.

He plummeted, smashing into the water, and Anaklusmos slipped from his grasp.

Exhaustion swallowed him; it poured down, an endless flood, all the weight of the world upon his shoulders as he drifted down into the dark depths of the river.

Stand. He clawed his way up toward the light. Stand.

Percy dragged himself to his feet upon the rushing white waters.

Golden dust gleamed in the river all around him, but more empusae swarmed down the rocky slope, unleashing a hail of shafts at the huge boar wading through the deep water where the pieces of bridge lay in the river bend.

'My lord.' A blue-haired and bearded, broad figure rose from the waters and held Anaklusmos out by the blade in a dozen weed-draped hands.

Percy groped for the sea, clutching the last dregs in his fist.

The boar released a thunderous squeal and charged, pounding upstream; it sprayed water all across the shore and the shattered concrete and bits of twisted steel.

Artemis always keeps her word. He took a deep breath and wrapped his fingers around Anaklusmos's hilt. She said she would not let me fall too far. And here is her wrath to make sure of it. That's why I don't fall; she kept her promise.

Percy pressed a kiss to the gleaming wet bronze blade and stepped to meet the boar, sweeping every drop of his strength at it.

The river surged, smashing into it in a gushing wall of foaming white water.

The boar broke through, slamming one massive tusk into Clarisse's shield and ripping a deep gouge through the thick bronze with an ear-splitting screech. Percy leapt aside as it tossed its head and rolled forward, slashing at its legs, but it reared up and hammered its huge hooves down upon him.

Clarisse's shield shattered.

It drove a tusk into his belly and hurled him across the river into the concrete, smashing the wind from him.

A fierce tingle swept across the spot upon his spine.

Percy staggered to his feet, slicing free the straps and the last pieces of broken bronze hoplon hanging from them. 'I can't believe my final foe is just a huge angry pig.' He managed a single step forward, but his left leg buckled and he slipped to one knee with an exhausted grin. 'It was the closest thing to a guinea pig you could manage, wasn't it, Artemis?'

The Erymanthian boar is no mere pig; Heracles alone has bested it. Her whisper was soft as the rustle of the forest, sombre, and full of such terrible sadness his heart wrenched. You are in mighty company, Perseus. Among those who deserve to stand among the stars.

'Stand up,' Percy hissed as the heavy hooves of the boar pounded closer. 'Stand.'

Don't make her sad. Make her proud.

One last drop of the sea remained in his grasp; he held it tight, rising up to stare into the savage crimson eyes and foaming maw, and levelled Anaklusmos at it. The boar snorted and lowered its head, stampeding through the shallows as it charged.

Percy clutched the last trickle of the sea close and held his breath.

The boar smashed a chunk of concrete aside with a toss of its head, showering the river with pieces of grey rock.

He leapt, slashing Anaklusmos with all his strength.

Something gave before it with a crack as loud as thunder and the boar let out a high pitched, panicked squeal, trampling through the empusae upon the shore and fleeing into the forest.

Percy slid to his knees in the water, leaning forward against the huge severed tusk lying in the shallows. 'Take that, Heracles.' Exhaustion slurred the words, turned the world to a blur beyond the smooth ivory; it drew him down, all the weight of the waves dragging him under into the dark. 'I've nearly caught you up now.'

'You have proven his equal by almost every measure.' A crimson tassel flashed before his eyes and the cold tip of a blade pressed itself into the tingling ghost of a handprint between his shoulder blades. 'But now just as it once did for Heracles, Percy, comes bitterest regret.'

AN: More of this and more via the linktree!

linktr . ee / mjbradley