𝐂œ𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬é𝐬 [Percy Jackson]

92

Percy had never taken anyone on romantic walks before. He hoped he was doing it right.

"Livin' the dream" Hadrian mumbled, "Alone with a pretty boy in Tartarus, with no adult supervision, what more could you want?

They followed the River Phlegethon, stumbling over the glassy black terrain, jumping crevices, and hiding behind rocks whenever the vampire girls slowed in front of them.

It was tricky to stay far enough back to avoid getting spotted but close enough to keep Kelli, Valentina and their comrades in view through the dark hazy air. The heat from the river baked Percy's skin. Every breath was like inhaling sulfur-scented fiberglass. When they needed a drink, the best they could do was sip some refreshing liquid fire.

Yep. Percy definitely knew how to show a guy a good time.

At least Hadrian's shoulder seemed to have healed. He had slung off his bow, happy that his arm didn't hurt. His various cuts and scrapes had faded. His t-shirt was in tatters, sleeveless and half torn into a crop top. Percy wasn't sure if he'd made his hair dark orange or if that was just the lighting. Despite being beat-up, sooty, and dressed like a homeless person, he looked great. Fucking amazing, even in Tartarus the guy managed to look like a model.

So what if they were in Tartarus? So what if they stood a slim chance of surviving? They alternated cracking jokes, that way they could stay sane.

Physically, Percy felt better, though his clothes looked like he'd been through a hurricane of broken glass. He was thirsty, hungry, and scared out of his mind (though he wasn't going to tell Hadrian that), but he'd shaken off the hopeless cold of the River Cocytus. And as nasty as the firewater tasted, it seemed to keep him going.

He truly had no idea why he jumped in after Hadrian, but the thought of letting the boy go never even occurred to Percy. Hadrian had asked him if he'd done the same for Leo, Jason, Hazel, Nico... and Percy wasn't sure about the answer. 

Sure they were friends. But the only other person Percy would do this for was Annabeth. His best friend. Did that mean Hadrian was his best friend? 

Time was impossible to judge. They trudged along, following the river as it cut through the harsh landscape. Fortunately the empousai weren't exactly speed walkers. They shuffled on their mismatched bronze and donkey legs, hissing and fighting with each other, apparently in no hurry to reach the Doors of Death.

Once, the demons sped up in excitement and swarmed something that looked like a beached carcass on the riverbank. Percy couldn't tell what it was—a fallen monster? An animal of some kind? The empousai attacked it with relish.

When the demons moved on, Percy and Hadrian reached the spot and found nothing left except a few splintered bones and glistening stains drying in the heat of the river. Percy had no doubt the empousai would devour demigods with the same gusto.

"Come on." He led Hadrian gently away from the scene. "We don't want to lose them."

As they walked, Percy thought about the first time he'd fought the empousa Kelli at Goode High School's freshman orientation, when he and Rachel Elizabeth Dare got trapped in the band hall. At the time, it seemed like a hopeless situation. Now, he'd give anything to have a problem that simple. At least he'd been in the mortal world then. Here, there was nowhere to run.

Wow. When he started looking back on the war with Kronos as the good old days—that was sad. He kept hoping things would get better for him, but their lives just got more and more dangerous, as if the Three Fates were up there spinning their futures with barbed wire instead of thread just to see how much demigods could tolerate.