The Sea // pjo

Chapter Seventeen // Clarisse FINALLY Wins My Help

    I don't know where I was.

    But at the same time, I knew that I had been here before.

    "Mamá, where are you?" A young voice called.

    "Over here, mi pequeña lirio de agua," My mom's voice called me back.

    I turned in the dark, watching a younger version of me rush by me, a streak of color in a purple dress.

    I remembered that dress.

    It had been my favorite when I was little because it had been a surprise birthday gift.

    I wore it until it fell apart.

    Seeing it now made my chest ache, but when I watched myself run up to Mamá, I wanted to call out to her.

    But my voice would not work as little me asked, "Where did you go?"

    "Where did you go? I have been here this whole time!" My mom teased me.

    Little me tilted her head before turning around and looking at me, her voice whispering, "I got lost."

    The words I don't remember saying echoed in my head as the images vanished. I was sitting at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, colliding against jagged rocks below.

    You could have that back... A familiar dark voice whispered in my ears. Your mother, her past, all of it...All for a small price.

    I frowned, shaking my head as my voice still wouldn't work.

    Ooohhh, come on now... The invisible titan taunted me. You would give up everything you love for a world where you don't matter?

    I pressed my lips together, and something welled inside me as I whispered, "I do matter. Just not the way you want to matter. And I am completely happy with it."

    Are you sure about that? He asked me. You sit in the shadow of your brother; can you really be happy with that for the rest of your life?

    "Yeah," I replied. "I can be..." I stood, the grass under my feet feeling real as I looked over my shoulder at the Pit of Tartarus just sitting behind me, out of place. "And just so you know, we're going to beat you."

    We'll see, young one...we'll see... The titan growled at me.

The ground started to shake as I closed my eyes and took a step off the cliff and into the water below.

†††

    "Sally! Wake up!"

    When I woke up, I jerked from my sleep, almost blinded by gold.

    I was wrapped in something warm, and I found the Fleece around me when I lifted my head. I felt more rested than ever, and I didn't fall into an episode that made me happier than ever at the moment.

    But back to the Fleece, it cut the wind that whipped around Grover and me, and I turned my head to see the sun setting behind a skyline.

    "Where—" My voice croaked.

    "Miami," Grover said in my ear. "That's what Annabeth said."

    The hippocampus under me and the satyr started to slow down and were now swimming in circles.