How Do You Say Gods- Titan's Curse

15: I WRESTLE SANTA'S EVIL TWIN

Magnus read the new title with that usual feeling he was taking two steps forward and one step back in the constant insanity of this book. "Santa's real?" He repeated. "And has a twin?" Okay, fine, can't get any stranger. "Percy can wrestle?" Nope, the trifecta left him forgetting how to function like a normal human. Which he probably wasn't...

"Deep breaths Magnus," Alex always had such a domineering way of speaking, always being so easy for her to keep everybody's attention. Especially his. "Maybe Percy gets an early Christmas present if he wins. Like Annabeth. With a bow around her neck."

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" He asked blearily, even though it had. It was a nicer way to think about than the constant insanity like getting past the fact that every stupid sitcom that never questioned where the magic presents came from were more right than their reality somehow.

"Yes," Alex said as confidently as ever. "Now hop to the part where Percy uses cookies and that beard to put saint nick in a headlock or I will."

He knew if she'd really wanted to she would have snatched the book away from him to read it herself. Instead he found himself smiling as he took a breath and firstly informed, "I don't know anything about wrestling, so I hope the rules get explained first."

"When is it ever that easy?" Percy reminded as he lounged back in his chair and kept doing his best to remind Thalia she wasn't being abducted by angels flying off with her right now by making gusts of water soak into her socks and then absorbing it back. She had a pretty specific scowl on him as she kept trying to kick him for doing it, so his plan was at least working.

... Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"It was," Thalia promised, she still looked a tad green around the edges just remembering the feeling. Her hands were in a strangle motion though because she was still considering wringing Percy's neck if he didn't cut it out.

"Everything's fine," I promised. "... are we very high?"

"Lie again," Jason mock whispered, but he was completely serious.

... I stretched out my foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks.

Thalia went from green to the ugly pale of glue gone wrong.

"At least you knew Zeus wouldn't strike you down for this one," Will clearly thought he was being helpful while Thalia tried to get in a shuddering breath. "This was sanctioned by him."

Percy rubbed the back of his head and muttered an awkward apology, quickly waving Magnus on before they had to linger on this long enough for Thalia to come back to herself and pulverize him for sharing that.

"Nah, not that high."

"Good man," Jason sighed, resisting the urge to squeeze Thalia's shoulder for comfort. She probably wouldn't take well to anybody but Percy right now as she sat as far back in her seat as she could with her feet planted firmly on the ground.

...She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue.

Thalia gulped at the visual she hadn't needed and took a deep breath. Then another, this kind of situation called for it.

..."We gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said.

"What kind of Toy Story shenanigans caused security not to notice whatever I just heard," Magnus rubbed at his ear like that one physically pained him.

"That's an interesting one," Will grinned as he considered. "Would the Mist have the statues there when they weren't so as not to have the humans freak out they could move? Or were they programmed to have memories and personalities? I'll ask a few Hephaestus kids when we get to Camp if they have any insights."