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

BONUS: THE DAY SHE LEFT HIM

"You've been toying with us all along," Percy said. "You wanted us to bring you the Fleece and save you the trouble of getting it."

Luke scowled. "Of course, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"

"Traitor!" Percy threw his gold drachma out of his pocket and at Luke. As I expected, he dodged it easily.

The coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-colored water.

"You tricked all of us!" Percy yelled at Luke. "Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"

Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer, but I was too tired of all of this. I didn't care. Percy opened Riptide.

Luke just sneered. "This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny little sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later."

"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?"

"I did, of course," he snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."

"You little-" I began.

"Chiron had nothing to do with it?" Percy interrupted me.

"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."

"You call it guts?!" I asked, taking a step forward. "Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"

Luke raised his sword. "You don't understand the half of it," he told me, "I was going to let them take the Fleece.... once I was done with it."

Percy hesitated at once.

"I care," Luke said. "I just needed my job done."

"And that means you can just poison your friend?" I asked. "Had I been there, would you have poisoned me as well?"

"What? No-" Luke started.

"You were going to heal Kronos," Percy said.

"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."

"And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up—all to help Kronos destroy the gods."

Luke gritted his teeth. "You know that! Why do you keep asking me?"

"Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you."

"What audience?"

Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same. They gasped and stumbled back.

Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Dionysus, Tantalus, and the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching us.

"Well," said Dionysus dryly, "some unplanned dinner entertainment."

"Mr. D, you heard him," Percy said. "You all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."

Mr. D sighed. "I suppose not."

"The Iris-message could be a trick," Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands.

"I fear not," Mr. D said, looking with distaste at Tantalus. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."

Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn't bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world. "I got it!" he cackled.