Prince of Riptide

stood on the cliffside

So how are y'all, fellow Wattpad readers? lol this is the last one I've written, so I'll see how long it will take for another update. Enjoy!

It wasn't Annabeth, nor her captor. But instead, Apollo.

Percy tried not to show how upset he truly was, but he supposed he wasn't succeeding much by the looks Thalia and Grover gave him.

What they'd told him was that Artemis (the little redheaded girl) didn't want them to search for him, but rather, she waited for her brother Apollo to come and pick up the rest of his friends in his sun chariot as well as the Hunters. Then they'd looked for Percy. Oh, and Bianca was now a Hunter, which felt like a slap to the face after Annabeth had fallen off a cliff only for the girl to not come with them to train at Camp Half-Blood.

Thalia had been forced to drive the sun chariot, (horrible idea, in his opinion) while Apollo nodded enthusiastically at her, not at all like his twin sister. Percy didn't trust the god, especially if he was letting Thalia drive, which would be very bad for their health.

Nico sat next to Percy since they were the only ones apart from Thalia who weren't interested in being with the immortal maidens, unlike Grover. He seemed to be eager to show off his reed pipes. The girls were not impressed.

"So," Percy said, trying to make small talk. "Your sister is with the Hunters now, huh."

Nico scowled. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Okay...Then—" The chariot bus tipped over from Thalia driving it to the side, her knuckles deathly white.

"You got this!" yelled Apollo, but even he seemed nervous.

"Anyway," Percy said. "What else do you, um, wanna talk about?"

Nico's eyes lit up. "Are you really a prince? A sea prince?"

"Uh...yeah, I am."

And so they began the conversation of how life under the sea was for him. Percy was regretting his decision to sit next to Nico.

"Do you know Ariel? Do you like surfing?"

"Who's Ariel?"

"Have you spent your whole life underwater?"

"Most of it, yeah."

"Do you like pirates?"

"Um..." Percy glanced furtively to the back where Grover was. He caught Percy's eye and shrugged. His face had some scratch marks. The hunters, maybe.

He was greatly tempted to open the window and push the ten-year-old out of it when Nico said, "Is Annabeth your girlfriend?"

"Excuse me?"

"If Annabeth's the daughter of Athena, shouldn't she know better than to jump off a cliff?"

Percy couldn't answer that.

. . .

He was glad when Thalia finally stopped at camp, even if she'd almost burned down a few cities in the process and had scared the naiads half to death. Steam curled up from the bus. Hopefully it hadn't boiled anyone.

Hesitantly, everyone trudged outside. Apollo kept that blinding grin of his, even when Thalia ran out the door to throw up.

"You did amazing, dear. A little less pressure on the wheel next time, alright?"

The rest of the girls just grumbled to themselves about staying at a camp with boys.

"Where did Artemis go, anyway?" Percy asked Artemis' lieutenant Zoë. Her posture reminded him of Rhode, critical and indifferent to the others around them.