𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ! [jason grace]¹

C H A P T E R ⬩ T W O

O C E A N U S

C H A P T E R   T W O

( the patron )

⟶⬩⬥⬩⟵

          JASON WANTED MALIA to come back. Simple as that. He felt like without her there, his life was in danger of ending with the way the centaur was looking at him. Plus, Malia had this calming aura surrounding her, and when he looked into her eyes, he felt like he was on the beach, waves lapping against his bare feet. He felt serene around her, like his memory loss wasn't as big of a deal.

Whatever that meant for him, he didn't know. But having a centaur glaring down at him wasn't fun.

The centaur trotted over to the empty wheelchair on the porch. He slipped off his quiver and bow and backed up to the chair, which opened like a magician's box. Chiron gingerly stepped into it with his back legs and began scrunching himself into a space that should have been much too small. Jason imagined a truck's reversing noises—beep, beep, beep—as the centaur's lower half disappeared and the chair folded up, popping out a set of fake human legs covered in a blanket, so Chiron appeared to be a regular mortal guy in a wheelchair.

"Follow me," he ordered. "We have lemonade."

The living room looked like it had been swallowed by a rain forest. Grapevines curved up the walls and across the ceiling, which Jason found a little strange. He didn't think plants grew like that inside, especially in the winter, but these were leafy green and bursting with bunches of red grapes.

Leather couches faced a stone fireplace with a crackling fire. Wedged in one corner, an old-style Pac-Man arcade game beeped and blinked. Mounted on the walls was an assortment of masks—smiley/frowny Greek theater types, feathered Mardi Gras masks, Venetian Carnevale masks with big beaklike noses, carved wooden masks from Africa. Grapevines grew through their mouths so they seemed to have leafy tongues. Some had red grapes bulging through their eyeholes.

But the weirdest thing was the stuffed leopard's head above the fireplace. It looked so real, its eyes seemed to follow Jason. Then it snarled, and Jason nearly leaped out of his skin.

"Now, Seymour," Chiron chided. "Jason is a friend. Behave yourself."

"That thing is alive!" Jason said.

Chiron rummaged through the side pocket of his wheelchair and brought out a package of Snausages. He threw one to the leopard, who snapped it up and licked his lips.

"You must excuse the decor," Chiron said. "All this was a parting gift from our old director before he was recalled to Mount Olympus. He thought it would help us to remember him. Mr. D has a strange sense of humor."