How Do You Say Gods- Titan's Curse

20: I GET A NEW ENEMY FOR CHRISTMAS

Despite Percy triumphing again, and his goal of bringing Annabeth home safely assured, there was a sense of melancholy as Jason thumbed to what should be the last chapter of the book.

Between Zoe and Bianca's death, and Thalia not even coming back to Camp, it didn't seem like a rousing Christmas after-party was going to be followed up.

He read the new chapter title out loud out of habit, then snapped his mouth shut and swallowed an uneasy, but steady sense of doom at what he'd just said.

Silence hung for a few tense seconds as they all tried not to glance at Nico, the obvious suspect.

"And here I was hoping it would be a hippopotamus," Alex happily broke the tension.

Percy gave a nervous laugh and corrected, "Chiron would never let me keep that in the stables," but he was most guilty of all about side eyeing Nico now. All his silly worries and fears about Thalia's true motives down here had always felt ridiculous no matter how often they occurred to him, but now he wondered if he'd been misplacing them.

The worst part was, if Nico really did blame him for Bianca's death and wanted revenge, he couldn't blame the kid! He blamed himself too!

If this was some multipurpose scheme for him being down here though, Nico had really missed his chance and was a laughable 'enemy.' The guy had done nothing to him at any point in time, even now he looked more likely to pass out he was so pale rather than stick that sword anywhere near him.

Then again, there had been that really awkward moment he thought Nico was going to stab him...

Jason finally started reading and Percy was grateful nobody was trying to linger on the context of it all this time. He really hoped he was wrong and maybe it was just some rabbit that decided it wanted to have vengeance against him.

I decided to make a call to my brother, Tyson, under the sea.

The smile that lit around the room always gave the soft, natural lighting an extra glow for a second. Making the destruction Percy had caused to the place look like thoughtful, homey decorations instead of something he was capable of doing.

...I told him of Bessie, he loved every detail of the cute baby cow serpent...

"It is a travesty you don't have pictures," Alex groaned as if in actual pain.

"I promise I'll introduce you someday," Percy said.

... "Yay!" Tyson said. "That means it was good! It saved your life!"

"Tyson still over here being the most sensible person in this one and he wasn't even in this one!" Jason busted out laughing with a very obvious look at Percy and Thalia, just begging them to argue.

They exchanged sheepish looks and knew they couldn't

..."Not ruined!" Tyson promised. "I will visit and fix it next summer."

Percy was grinning again as naturally as ever, without a care in the world. Nico wavered between heart-broken and offended like he was skipping rope. Even now, in the literal last chapter of this very important book on his life, one conversation with his brother made Percy forget he was supposed to be worried about him in any capacity?

"Look at that," Will murmured gently, "Percy obviously knows not too deep down you're no enemy of his."

Nico fiddled with his skull ring for a moment and wasn't sure if that made him feel better. It certainly didn't make him feel worse.