DRAGONS & HORSES || [d. malfoy]

ii. Final Tranquility

two.

∘₊✧─➶──𓆩𝞇𓆪──➴─✧₊∘

❝I spent my whole life running in circles. They told me that I had changed, that I'd grown, that I learned— but never once had they told me the truth.❞

"BULLSHIT," THE CURSE slipped through her slips, her nails digging into the parchment enough to create small rips along the edge. "What in the name of Hades is this?" her voice was like shattered glass as water glistened in her eyes.

No one replied. In the chamber of the gods, there was only silence. Rare, abnormal silence. But none dared to speak as the two-time savior of Olympus stood with the paper in her hand, a heart scarred with betrayal, and a broken soul.

"Tell me!" Perceval Jackson screamed, "Someone tell me what this means!" Her voice broke in the midst of her screams and shouts, coarse from all her commands on the battlefield. "This is why he locked me up before the battle?"

Andreas couldn't have written this... there's just no way... thinking that I'd understand if he kept me here while our friends died?

Even the Zeus, the king of the gods, didn't dare utter a single sound as he watched the look of pure rage come over the face of the demigod daughter of Poseidon. Then came a look of satisfaction emerged on his own bearded features. An expression of satisfaction that was brimmed with malicious intent and twisted amusement.

Percy knew this. She knew screaming at the council of emotionless beings who only knew schadenfreude would do nothing. "Fine," her sea-green eyes flared, "You all won't explain." There was turmoil on her mind. Her thoughts froze in her head. She refused to accept what was the truth because she had had enough of loss. Andreas would never do this to me. But... the handwriting... the tone... She shook her head before turning her gaze back to the gods, "I'll find someone who will."

"Percy..." the first voice to echo through the mass palace of the gods. Poseidon. Her father... who did nothing as her friends and family fell. Just the same asshole in her mind as all the rest.

"Shut the fuck up."

Her vision was blurred from the tears filling up her eyes but she could see her father clearly, his old age crinkling up his same-colored eyes. She could still catch a whiff of the sea-water scent he had on him as he gave her rare hugs over the years. He did nothing. He did fucking nothing. Tears tell against the marble floor. This beautiful, unscathed floor of the gods that countless have died to keep clean. She fought their wars. She did everything they had asked. In the end, she was just another hero who would come and go.

Did he? Did her dad ever love her? Percy wanted to ask so bad. The question was on the tip of her tongue but she swallowed it down. No. I'm just a hero. Never his daughter. Because if he really ever truly saw her as his daughter, she wouldn't be like this. Her mother wouldn't be like that. Nothing would be the way it currently is.

"I'm sorry, Percy." Poseidon's voice broke, "But—"

"You, Perceval Achilles Jackson, are restricted within the boundaries of Camp Half-Blood until you have gathered enough evidence to prove your innocence," Zeus interrupted, thinking it was a good time to announce the final verdict, "You have two months to prove against your crimes of killing Sally Jackson and Andreas Chase."

"I told you I didn't kill—!"

"No interrupting!" Zeus roared for order, sending shoots of electricity into Percy's limbs, causing searing pain spiking all the way up to her skull. She could only clench her teeth as she heard his finishing words, "If you do prove your innocence within the two months, you will be granted two extra years of life before the gods take it for your disobedience."