MΛЯK ӨF ΛƬΉΣПΛ
THAT NIGHT LUCIA SLEPT WITHOUT NIGHTMARES, which just made her uneasier when she woke up—like a calm breeze before the storm. Leo docked the ship at a pier in Charleston Harbor, right next to the seawall.
Along the shore was a historical district with tall mansions, palm trees, and wrought-iron fences. Antique cannons pointed at the water. By the time Annabeth met them on deck, Jason, Frank, and Leo had already left for the museum. They'd promised Lucia to be back by sunset.
The girls were ready to go, but first Lucia turned to Percy, who was leaning on the starboard rail, gazing over the bay.
Lucia took his hand. "What are you going to do while we're gone?"
"Jump into the harbor," he said casually, "I want to try communicating with the local Nereids. Maybe they can give me some advice about how to free those captives in Atlanta. Besides, I think the sea might be good for me. Being in that aquarium made me feel...unclean." His hair was dark and tangled as usual, but Lucia softly touched the single streak of faded bluish-grey in his hair.
When Annabeth, Lucia, and Percy were fourteen, they'd taken turns (unwillingly) holding the weight of the sky. The strain left them both with some gray hair. Lucia helped him dye his strand a shade of royal blue last December, which by now had faded away.
She kissed him deeply. "Good luck, Ocean eyes. Just come back to me, okay?"
"Always," he promised her. "You do the same."
Lucia tried to push down her growing unease. She turned to Piper, Annabeth, and Hazel.
Annabeth cleared her throat, "Okay, ladies. Let's find the ghost of the Battery."
༄
ACCORDING TO THE SIGNS, the seaside park was called White Point Gardens. The ocean breeze swept away the muggy heat of the summer afternoon, and it was pleasantly cool under the shade of the palmetto trees.
Lining the road were old Civil War cannons and bronze statues of historical figures, which made Lucia shudder.
She thought back to the statues in New York City during the Titan War, which had come to life thanks to Daedalus's command sequence twenty-three. She wondered how many other statues around the country were secretly automatons, waiting to be triggered.
Charleston Harbor glittered in the sun. To the north and south, strips of land stretched out like arms enclosing the bay, and sitting in the mouth of the harbor, about a mile out, was an island with a stone fort.
Lucia had a memory of that fort being important in the Civil War, but she didn't spend much time thinking about it. Mostly she breathed in the sea air and thought about Percy.
Gods forbid she ever had to break up with him. She'd never be able to visit the sea again without remembering her broken heart.
They turned away from the seawall and explored the inland side of the gardens. The park was strangely not crowded. They strolled along South Battery Street, which was lined with four-story Colonial mansions.
The brick walls were blanketed with ivy. The facades had soaring white columns like Roman temples. The front gardens were bursting with rose bushes, honeysuckle, and flowering bougainvillea. It looked like Demeter had set the timer on all the plants to grow several decades ago, then forgotten to come back and check on them.
"Kind of reminds me of New Rome," Hazel said. "All the big mansions and the gardens. The columns and arches."
The other girls didn't say much.
YOU ARE READING
²𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃𝐘✸ percy jackson
Fanfiction𝄞 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃𝐘.(n.) behold the blood of Hyacinthus, which had poured out on the ground beside him and there stained the grass, was changed from blood; and in its place a flower, more beautiful than Tyrian dye, sprang up. ❝ Near time...
