Accidental Beauty

Chapter Seventeen

♜ J a k e ♜

"Can someone remind me why I'm still the one driving?" I asked. My leg was getting numb from constantly pressing the gas pedal. My eyes stung from staring at the highway for so long. Cat's One Direction music was not helping with my growing migraine.

"Is Cat still asleep?" Faith answered my question with her own. Our whole 'taking shifts' plan has flown out the window. No one moved from their spot for the last hour.

"Yeah." I stated. I glanced over at Cat whose head was pressed against the glass of the window. The map acted like a blanket for her. Aphrodite's blessing was still in full effect, though I suspected it to wear off any minute now. Her perfectly curled hair fell into her eyes. Her lips were parted as her mind wandered.

She looked like a goddess. I bet she could go up to Mount Olympus and force Aphrodite herself out of her job. The thought of Cat sitting up there with the gods in shorts and a tee-shirt brought a smile to my lips.

"Eyes on the road!" Faith shouted. I snapped my attention back to the windshield and swerved to avoid colliding with another car.

Cat stirred awake. She rubbed her eyes, though her eye makeup remained intact. I don't know how girls tolerate having dust and ink covering their eyelids. I expected their eyes to become irritated but they didn't seem to mind. I shifted my hands on the steering wheel back to ten and two.

"You guys will never believe what I just dreamed about." Cat said groggily. The map crumpled as she stretched.

"What?" James asked, not even half curious.

"Well, it was more of a nightmare, but still. So I was in the Underworld and there was fire everywhere. Hades, I think it was Hades, was standing in the middle of the flames. He said something about following him, so I did-"

"Why would you follow Hades?" I questioned dryly, suppressing a yawn.

"I don't know, he seemed kinda nice." She admitted, her voice sounding like a child who just confessed to talking to a stranger.

"Hades isn't nice, Cat." Kate sighed, implying that they had this problem before, whatever this problem is.

"Do you want to hear the story or not?" Cat snapped. Even when she's mad her eyes still seemed to glisten. Okay, focus on the road not Cat's abnormally sparkly eyes.

"Not really." James quipped. He can be a real jerk most times.

"No, we do. James just doesn't like nightmares." It seemed like Faith meant more to her words, but I couldn't exactly tell. We should've just taken a bus. I suddenly strongly dislike driving and I don't even have my license yet.

"Well, I followed him and he showed me these...visions. They weren't really visions but like, pictures. But I saw an army of the dead and they didn't look friendly. Then I saw a grave, but I don't know whose grave it was. There was a heart engraved on the tombstone, though. The next one was at Camp Half-Blood. Everyone seemed to be rioting. We were all there, but something looked off with one of us, or maybe two. But at the end he looked at me. His eyes were like dark pits, I felt like I was falling into them. But he said 'choose' then I woke up." Cat recited, picking at the edges of the map.

"So the images were three different fates." I concluded the only reasonable answer.

"I guess." Cat replied. I detected fright in her voice, and even reluctance.

"It has to do with the quest. We're going to the Underworld, so maybe what we do there will trigger one of those fates." Faith thought out loud.

"Okay, so everyone avoid doing something that could lead to a grave." James ordered, as if it were that simple.