Scarred Siblinghood - A Percy Jackson And The Titan's Curse Fanfiction

7 - I Almost Kill Zoe, But Kill A Tree Instead

Whilst Percy and Grover took the Oracle back into the attic, Will pulled me into the Apollo Cabin. I hadn't realised how bad the state of my hands were in the moment, but they were horribly burned, bloods was bubbling, my flesh had sizzled, and my skin had either peeled back or charred.

Now that I had nothing else to focus on, it did hurt.

You might ask why my hands were burned from soul fire, and that was because – even though I could control it – I wasn't immune. My body was still mortal, and soul fire is powerful enough to kill titans.

In a way, I was glad the Oracle had come when it did, because I could have killed Thalia. I tried to recall the incident, but my memory was hazy – that happened when I got really angry. My vision would go red, then I'd lose complete control over myself and my memory would black out completely.

Anyway, Will applied a burn slave to my hands, fed me some ambrosia and muttered something about how I was always getting hurt. Then we made our way to the big house for a council meeting.

Even though the Stoll's were there, I always came up to council meetings with them – we figured, since the Hermes Cabin had so many unidentified campers, one cabin leader for Hermes kids, and one for unidentified kids. The council was held around a Ping-Pong table in the rec room. Dionysus waved his hand and supplied snacks: Cheez Whiz, crackers, and several bottles of red wine. Then Chiron reminded him that wine was against his restrictions and most of us were underage. Mr. D sighed. With a snap of his fingers the wine turned to Diet Coke. Nobody drank that either. Mr. D and Chiron (in wheelchair form) sat at one end of the table. Zoe and Bianca di Angelo (who had kind of become Zoe's personal assistant) took the other end. Thalia, Grover and Percy sat along the right, and the other head councillors – Beckendorf, Selena Beauregard, Travis and Connor and I – sat on the left. Aaron tried to sit next to me, but Travis and Connor sandwiched me between them and he was forced to sit next to Grover.

Zoe started the meeting off on a positive note. "This is pointless."

"Cheez Whiz!" Grover gasped. He began scooping up crackers and Ping-Pong balls and spraying them with topping.

"There is no time for talk," Zoe continued. "Our goddess needs us. The Hunters must leave immediately."

"And go where?" Chiron asked.

"West!" Bianca said. I was amazed at how different she looked after just a few days with the Hunters. Her dark hair was braided like Zoe's now, so you could actually see her face. She had a splash of freckles across her nose, and her dark eyes vaguely reminded me of someone famous, but I couldn't think who. She looked like she'd been working out, and her skin glowed faintly, like the other Hunters, as if she'd been taking showers in liquid moonlight. "You heard the prophecy. Five shall go west to the goddess in chains. We can get five hunters and go."

"Yes," Zoe agreed. "Artemis is being held hostage! We must find her and free her."

"You're missing something, as usual," I said. "Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We're supposed to do this together."

"No!" Zoe said. "The Hunters do not need thy help."

"Your" Thalia grumbled. "Nobody has said thy in, like, three hundred years, Zoe. Get with the times."

Zoe hesitated, like she was trying to form the word correctly. " Yerrr. We do not need yerrr help."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Forget it."

"I fear the prophecy says you do need our help," Chiron said. "Campers and Hunters must cooperate."

"Or do they?" Mr. D mused, swirling his Diet Coke under his nose like it had a fine bouquet. "One shall be lost. One shall perish. That sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? What if you fail because you try to cooperate?"