𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 ༄ ᴘercy ᴊᴀᴄᴋꜱᴏɴ

my future is foretold (pain)

The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. I was half hoping it was Apollo, come to give us a ride again, but he had said he wasn't able to come back. We grabbed our sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of us.

It could have run us over.

The back door of the limo opened right next to Percy. He started to step away, but the point of a sword was against his throat.

I took Daios out.

I heard the sound of Zoë and Bianca drawing their bows. Both Percy and the man walked backwards, the sword never leaving Percy's throat.

As the man got closer, a weird anger formed inside of me. Suddenly I felt these violent urges, to fight and fight, to kill and die as a warrior. I wanted to attack the strange man, and whoever was in the car and I wanted to attack my questmates too.

Most of all though, I wanted to kill this man. Dig my sword deep in his throat, till he was spluttering blood.

He smiled cruelly at Percy. "Not so fast now, are you, punk?"

He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes.

"Ares," Percy growled.

Ares. The God of Destruction.

The man glanced at the rest of us. "At ease, people."

He snapped his fingers, and my weapon fell to the ground. Everyone else's did so too.

"This is a friendly meeting. Of course I'd like to take your heads for trophies but someone wants to see you." He said, directing his words at Percy. Then he glanced at me. "You too. Although I think she'd hate me less if I killed Percy. Luckily for both of you snotwipers, I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

Lady? I recalled something Lillith had said to me. How her best friend was an Aphrodite boy, and no-one expected it, but it made sense because of their parent's relationship. Could Aphrodite be the lady?

"What lady?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her. "Well, well. I heard you were back."

He lowered his sword and pushed Percy away.

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus," Ares mused. "You're not hanging out with very good company."

"What's your business, Ares?" she said. "Who's in the car?"

Ares smiled, enjoying the attention. "Oh, I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoë and Bianca. "Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait for Sparrow? Only take her a few minutes. Percy a little longer, most likely."

"We will not leave either alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoe said.

"Besides," Grover managed, "the taco place is closed."

Ares snapped his fingers again. The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "You were saying, goat boy?"

"It's fine." I told my friends. "I can deal with this."

I didn't want them to leave, but I had a feeling Ares would not take no for an answer. Besides, I already had a guess of who was in the car and they were much more approachable than Ares. Unless she cursed me.

"You heard the girl," Ares said. "She's big and strong. She doesn't need you to protect her. I like you." He told me.

My friends reluctantly headed over to the taco restaurant. Ares regarded me with interest, then opened the limousine door like a chauffeur.