Under the Water(Fem. Percy)

Chapter 25

"Is this why you were in my office?"

I flinch back, only to find water blocking my escape. This is bad. "I--I wanted to--"

"Don't you dare try to lie to me."

"You won't tell me anything!" Emotion bubbles up in my voice. Normally, it would spread to my powers, but the water around me is deathly still. I dig my nails into my legs. Deep breaths. Swallowing, I calmly say, "How am I supposed to do anything when you won't talk to me?"

"You aren't supposed to be doing other than what I tell you to. Have I told you to fight anything? Have I told you to put yourself in danger?"

"And you're not supposed to be treating me like I matter." Because I don't. When have I ever been a person to the gods? Someone who has things they want? "My safety means nothing. My life means nothing to you, and you can't even say it does because this"--I gesture at the solid walls and locked door-- "is no different than--"

"You are still a guest in my home. Do not forget that, child." Dad jabs a finger at me.

"I'm pretty sure hospitality laws went out the window when you had Triton drag me out of my bed. I didn't come here through my own will, Triton almost gave me a fucking heart attack, and every time I've been in danger, you're the reason I've gotten hurt."

"If you would have listened, you wouldn't have been in those situations in the first place."

My hands clench. Is he serious? Countless monsters chasing me down, countless gods demanding my help, and he says it's my fault? My fault, as if I could control being born. As if he wasn't the one who cheated on his wife to have me: the proclaimed wrongdoing.

"What does that say?"

Dad crumples the paper, and it disappears in a burst of light. "I don't think you're in any position to be making demands at the moment."

"And yet I'm making them anyway." The human part of me wants to run. The immortal part to curl against him. It's giving me a headache. "Are you telling Mom I died or something? Just so I can't leave?"

"I'd never do that to her."

"But you'll make me wonder why you even took me in the first place."

"I've--"

"I am a demigod. You aren't supposed to care about me. You aren't supposed to want to spend time with me. Everything I do is supposed to prove that I-- that I'm useful to you so you don't decide to kill me. Every other god does it. How many times have I had my life dangled over my head? Is this just to see how perfect of a child I can be? So if you don't like how I act you can just have another kid and raise them like you wanted?

"But you won't even let me leave the palace so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to prove any of that to you. I'm--I'm strong enough to do whatever you need me to do, so would you stop trying to indebt me to you and just tell me what you want me to do already."

He makes a sound not unlike a grumble and presses my shoulders. I shut up and look anywhere but him. One of the plants in the corner is blooming. Small pink and red blossoms sway. "Do not judge me by my family's actions. Or would you like me to judge you based on your brothers?"

"People have already done that."

"Perseus," he says softly. He grabs my chin. "Then you should know how unfair that is to do."

"The difference is one of these groups cursed me with existence."

Dad's face flickers through different expressions. Anger. Confusion. More anger. Sadness. Resolve. The last one's the scariest, because it means he won't leave that alone. He'll keep trying and trying to show me that 'no, your life where you're in constant threat of dying isn't that bad'. But it is. Because even if I ignore everything else that my parentage has brought on me, this---him taking me and keeping me locked up like a rare specimen---never would have happened if my dad had been lost at sea and drowned.