νεκρός || Annabeth Chase x Fem!OC

Vol. 1-11: I'm holding out for a hero

ANNABETH

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So much had happened within those twenty minutes, my mind was reeling as we free-fell towards the ocean. With surprising ease, Tempest ripped all three arrows out of her bag and threw them into the sea, then slung her bag on her back.

"Thermos!" Percy screamed as we hurtled toward the water.

I was fairly certain he'd lost his mind. "What?!" I was a little busy holding on for dear life. The wind was drying my eyes and my mouth up and my hair was shooting straight up, and I almost felt like I was about to lose my hair tie, or even the contents in my stomach.

I glanced at Tempest- maybe hoping she understood what Percy was saying- who mostly seemed to be doing fine. I mean, she was clinging to the sides of the boat, but she looked mildly bored.

But Tyson understood. He managed to open Percy's duffel bag and take out Hermes's magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat. Arrows and javelins whistled past us.

Percy grabbed the thermos, but he didn't seem to know if this was a great idea, so I got a bad feeling. "Hang on!"

"I am hanging on!" I yelled.

"Tighter!"

Percy hooked his feet under the boat's inflatable bench, and as Tyson grabbed Tempest and me by the backs of our shirts, Percy gave the thermos cap a quarter turn.

Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled us sideways, turning our downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing. The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free. As we hit the ocean, we bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then we were whizzing along like a speed boat, a salty spray in our faces and nothing but sea ahead.

I heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind us, but we were already out of weapon range. The Princess Andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.

Tyson burped, which wasn't pleasant since his head was right next to mine. I yanked myself free and dug through my bag to make an Iris-message to Chiron. Percy seemed to gather what I was doing, and he handed me a golden drachma. We figured it was important we let somebody know what Luke was doing, and we didn't know who else to trust.

On that thought, I found myself glancing at Tempest. I had to admit, she was... suspicious, to say the least. She shows up the same day Chiron is leaving, immediately started antagonizing campers and getting into fights, suddenly comes on this quest, acts friendly with Luke, doesn't get called out for it, and someone fed Luke the exact coordinates we need? Plus, she stalks off alone at night, usually into the woods (not that I was watching her), and she just happened to go to the beach the same night Percy did? You have to admit that's suspicious.

Part of me considered waiting to make the message. Maybe I didn't want her to hear this if we ended up making the plan. But at the same time, why would she save my life if she was a spy? I finally decided I would wait for more evidence, and I made the call.

The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight-  perfect for an Iris-message- but our connection was still poor. When I threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show us Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.