Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
FORTY, weight of the sky
❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
ASTER WAS SURE SHE was going to die once she hit the ocean, if she wasn't impaled by the dozen sharp, jaggges rocks that her and Dr. Thorn were hurtling towards. She'd only plummeted towards a body of water from a large height once before, but the first time she'd had the son of Poseidon with her—this time all she had was a manticore screaming in her ear.
"I am going to kill you, demigod! "
"I can't exactly hear you, dude!" Aster shouted over the wind.
They wrestled mid-air, as if their fight was going to go until death. Aster had the strange thought that the manticore could soften her fall, but she knew that even if getting impaled on the rocks didn't kill her, hitting the water from that height would. Only Percy could survive such a fall, and only because of his father. Aster highly doubted that Poseidon would save her; he barely even talked to his son, who may have been her friend, but the gods didn't recognize relationships like that. Poseidon and Demeter didn't have a rivalry like that of which he had with Athena or his brothers, but Aster knew that her mother was no fan of the sea god. Aster didn't think Poseidon would even notice her body floating in his domain.
As the rocks drew closer and closer, Aster squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the impact and her death, but it never came. Instead, she heard flapping, sort of like if you were waving a leather fan. Then, she was going sideways instead of going down towards the ocean.
Aster opened her eyes, and she was gliding over the water. Dr. Thorn had sprouted wings that she swore hadn't been there before, and he was flying them only a few feet above the water. In the moments that Aster had stopped fighting him (because she thought she was going to die!), Dr. Thorn had gotten control over her and held her tightly against his chest while he flew. Even Oreius—the bear monster that had held her last summer when Luke had tried to "keep her" to bring Kronos back to life—hadn't gripped her so tightly. Technically, the manticore was keeping her from drowning in the dark, churning sea below them. But that death may have been preferable to what Dr. Thorn had planned for her.
Aster struggled against his grip, but the monster held firm. "Careful, demigod," Dr. Thorn said, French accent thick. "If you want to keep your life, you should not test my patience. If I cannot deliver what my master originally wanted, I can give you to him. At the very least, he can use you for... entertainment."
His greasy smile, which Aster could barely see in the darkness, made her stomach churn, but she fought for her face to stay neutral. Although her first instinct was to fight, Aster stayed still to see what the monster wanted with her. If he just wanted to kill her, he would have just let her fall to her death. There must've been more that his master wanted with her besides "entertainment."
"Who is your master?" Aster asked. "The General? Is he Luke?"
The monster just laughed. "You know nothing, demigod." Aster was about to ask more questions, but the monster sighed. "I tire of your questions."
