𝐂œ𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬é𝐬 [Percy Jackson]

114

"HADRIAN!" Percy pulled him back just as his foot hit the edge of a drop-off. He almost pitched forward into who-knew-what, but Percy grabbed him by the back of his tshirt. Hadrian heard it rip a little.

Percy wrapped his arms around him.

"It's okay," he promised.

"You know, pretty boy, if you want to take off my clothes, all you have to do is ask"

"I hate you so much"

Hadrian was trying to distract himself from his trembling hands and legs. He pressed his face into the crook of Percy's neck, lips just grazing his skin. He was trembling, but not just from fear. Percy was warm, he felt real, like a tether to the real world. Without him, Hadrian had no idea how he would've survived down here.

But they couldn't afford to relax. He couldn't lean on Percy any more than he had to. He needed Hadrian, too.

"Thanks..." He gently disentangled himself from his arms. "Can you tell what's in front of us?"

"Water," he said. "I'm still not looking. I don't think it's safe yet."

"Agreed."

"I can sense a river... or maybe it's a moat. It's blocking our path, flowing left to right through a channel cut in the rock. The opposite side is about twenty feet away."

Hadrian mentally scolded himself. He'd heard the flowing water, but he had never considered he might be running headlong into it.

"Is there a bridge, or—?"

"I don't think so," Percy said. "And there's something wrong with the water. Listen."

Hadrian concentrated. Within the roaring current, thousands of voices cried out—shrieking in agony, pleading for mercy.

Help! they groaned. It was an accident!

The pain! their voices wailed. Make it stop!

Hadrian didn't need his eyes to visualize the river—a black briny current filled with tortured souls being swept deeper and deeper into Tartarus.

"The River Acheron," he guessed. "The fifth river of the Underworld."

"I liked the Phlegethon better than this," Percy muttered.

"Annabeth said it's the River of Pain. The ultimate punishment for the souls of the damned—murderers, especially."

Murderers! The river wailed. Yes, like you!

Join us, another voice whispered. You are no better than we are.

Hadrian's head was flooded with images of all the monsters he'd killed over the years.

That wasn't murder, he protested. I was defending myself!

The river changed course through his mind— his mom who died because he'd been terrified and not known what to do. She begged him for help.

He saw Kira- their hair whipping in the wind as the bridge splintered and crashed.

You could have prevented it, the river told Hadrian. You should have seen a better way.

Their blood is on your hands! the river wailed. There should have been another way! And now you align yourself with the boy that killed her!

You murdered them! the river cried. Jump in and share her punishment!

Percy gripped his arm. "Don't listen."