Child of lightning-Percy Jackson X reader-Book three

A death in the desert

"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked, after Percy and I had finished explaining our conversation with the goddess of love.

Now that I was back with my friends, Aphrodites whole presence almost disturbed me in a way. The thought of her voice made my skin crawl with the feeling that something wasn't right. As I kept thinking though, Grovers words eventually filtered through my head, how he had pointed to the exact spot we now stand, 'That's trouble.'

"Oh, uh, not sure," Percy lied. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard.

"Yeah," I perked up. "She didn't want us to touch anything."

Zoe narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Joey, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."

I felt a shiver run through my bones.

"For once I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

I felt eyes on me and as I looked, sure enough Grover was starring in my direction. Grover can almost always tell exactily what a person is feeling, literally, he's an empath. For some reason though, in that momment I couldn't help but feel like he could sense more than that. That somehow he knew exactily what had actually happened in the backseat of that limo.

I loudly cleared my throat, anxious to change the subject. "Yeah, we'll definitely keep that in mind. Right, Percy?"

"Of course," he said quickly. "So, how do we get out of here?"

"That way," Zoe said, pointing twords the biggest pile of junk. "That is west."

I nodded my head, "okay-"

"How can you tell?" Percy interrupted.

Zoe sent me a look that I read as, 'is he serious?' Then she clasped her hands together as if she were a teacher getting ready to speak to a very young child.

"Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west."

She pointed off towards the west again, then moved her finger slightly to show off a constellation. Or at least I was pretty sure it was a constellation. It kinda just looked like a big blob of stars to me with no real image to be shown.

"Oh, yeah," Percy said. "The bear thing."

I squinted my eyes really hard. "The what?"

He grabbed my hand and moved my fingers as if he were tracing the sky with a pencil. "See, that's the body, and I think that part is a really misshapen tail-"

"Show some respect." Zoe announced, glaring into Percy's soul. "It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

He laughed a little. "You act like it was real."

Something about the way Zoe looked like she had to restrain herself from strangling Percy made me think that maybe it was. I met her eyes for a momment but noticed that her gaze hadn't exactily come to meet my own but more so where Percy was still lightly gripping my wrist. My face sudently felt somewhat warm and before I could really think anything through, I broke free from Percys comforting grasp. A form of confusion washed over me but it was too late to take anything back. Besides, it's not like I really did anything...right?

"Guys," Grover broke me out of my head. "Look!"

I must have lost some time while I was thinking because when I looked up again we had reached the top of our first trash mountain. A real accomplishment for the group, I know. There was something odd below us though, something that felt utterly misplaced in a junkyard. A mile down, metal and bronze and what even seemed to be gold shone in the beautiful moonlight. Swords and shields laid among the trash, along with some of the most beautifully sculpted chariots I had ever seen (they may have even topped the one Percy, Annabeth, and I had made last summer.) Other than the ancient stuff, there were also a lot of modern day treasures, like sports cars and computer monitors, and really expressive looking refrigerators.