Chaos Rising |BOOK 2| Harry Potter x PJO |Alexandra Marine|

PHOEBUS APOLLO

"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands," Hermes sang idiotically, not clapping. "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands."

"You know, for someone who's supposed to be sane, you're incredibly insane," I muttered.

Hermes ignored me, bored. He sang the verse again, but did not clap his hands.

Ariana smiled. "If your life's a real mess, and you're kind of really stressed, if you're very  depressed, clap your hands."

"OI VEY!" Hermes said, clapping his hands instantly, followed closely by Hecate, Rhea, Hestia, Dione, Heracles and other gods who had gathered at Mount Olympus after we'd sent the signal, as per Ariana's plan.

And now here we were, with Hermes, Ariana and I tending to the gods and Olympians who were absolutely crazy and the others on the lookout for other gods to warn them.

"Mama!" Zeus cried. "I want goat milk!"

"What the heck?!" Ariana jumped back from him. "Apollo, your dad seems to have gone much too insane for me to handle."

I looked up to see my father sucking on his thumb like a baby, energy crackling around him.

I decided that this was the best opportunity for blackmail and pulled out a smart phone at once.

"Are you serious right now?!" Ariana scolded me, turning red as I recorded on my camera her fighting a furious Athena, who was trying to chew on the cold, damp towel that Ariana had placed on her mother's forehead.

Hermes laughed, "I didn't think this would be a scene I'd ever see..."

"Please shut up," Ariana said through gritted teeth, her platinum hair falling over her face as she finally won the game and sneered at her mother angrily for being stupid.

"And what will you do?" a voice said, no, barely whispered.

I turned around. Hera was still pretty far away, playing with swords. No one in sight.

I turned back to my business, setting up the medicine that I could conjure with my magic and soaking the cloths in cold water.

Ariana was now laughing, her gray eyes sparkling in the light.

She and Hermes were singing a traditional Hawai'ian folk song.

"I can't believe you learnt the Hawaii language!" Hermes smiled in between the chorus.

And at that moment, I saw the one thing that Ariana had that made her different from her mother.

Her eyes were sparkling with a sort of mischief, joy. They were all-knowing like her mother's, but still burning with the desire to know more.

My vision flickered as I watched the two dance and high five each other now.

My ears were filled with white noise.

Then the waves crashed against the shore.

I took a step back at once.

I was standing at the edge of a cliff by the shore, two steps away from death.

Almost as though they were an ocean away, I could see the figures of people, there were maybe five or six of them, I think. And each of them were waving to me, as though trying to catch my attention.

I waved back, but the figures didn't seem to register it.

Panic filled my mind.

Had I died?