A god in disguise

15

"If it isn't my two favorite cousins," A son of Hermes smiled, and under that charming, scarred smile was a feral grin of a wolf. Annabeth and Percy exchanged worried looks, and they both walked behind Luke, Tyson trailing along behind them, whimpering slightly.

They stepped into a big hall with two monsters staring sinisterly down at them. Giants, Percy supposed, and they were twins. He gulped.

Luke sat down in the middle of the room, where a grand mahogany table and the chair were placed. Off to the side, a humming glow radiated light into the room.

Luke stroked his desk. "Now, why are you three here? Going on a quest?"

Percy balled his fists, and Annabeth scowled. The trio moved into a defensive position and Annabeth asked, "You poisoned the tree."

Luke laughed. "Why not? It's actually a pretty reasonable way of scaring the demigods into joining me. They already proved their loyalty, well, this is about the only way, isn't it?"

Percy growled. "You'll regret this. When the demigods know this they'll never join you."

Luke sneered. "What makes you say that?"

Percy stepped forward. "Because we demigods stick together."

The twin giants said, "Strange."

Luke whirled around to the twins and said, "What is strange?"

The stupid giant turned his club toward Percy and said, "Strange smell."

Annabeth whipped her head to Percy and stared. Percy, for once being cool-headed, tried not to panic and locked eyes with his teammates. He looked back at Luke and said, "You'll regret this." On an unspoken agreement, the three of them busted the doors and ran.

"FOLLOW THEM, YOU KNUCKLEHEADS!" Luke roared. 

Annabeth's head was busy spinning. Why would Percy smell strange? 

It could have been a false alarm. Maybe Percy was just too close to the hippocampi that he smelled like a mythical creature instead of a demigod. But demigod smell isn't that easy to cover. And she'd been close to her ride as well. She would smell different too.

Could it be, the giants were trying to throw them off balance? If so, it definitely worked for her. She wasn't going to trust Percy for a few days, maybe even completely on this whole quest. But the giants, like Luke said, were complete knuckleheads when it came to strategic stuff like this. Either Kronos or Luke planned this, but it was also unlikely since they wouldn't have acted so genuinely. This leaves her the third possibility, which she dreaded.

Could this Percy be an impostor? 

Her thoughts were flushed out of her mind as soon as the monsters onboard started attacking them. A slug-like monster that oozed disgusting goo out of its body advanced towards her, its body mass hulking and towering over her. She raised her bronze knife threateningly, but she doubted a little bronze toothpick would do anything to it. 

She insisted on standing her ground, but how could celestial Bronze kill liquid? A fleeting blur of black crashed into her and sent her sprawling into more monsters, then before she knew it she was carried by the waist and flew into the cold night wind.

She barely registered the person who was carrying her onto the boat. She was barely able to make out the silhouette of the boat, the yelling of more monsters, and she didn't see the blur of bronze and gold, the sea-green orbs. She could only remember one thing.

She lost her knife on the boat.

And they were speeding towards the open sea, away from the blade Luke gave her all those years ago, away from the cruise.