𝐈𝐅 𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐑 ― p. jackson ⁴ [ COMPLETED UNTIL SEPTEMBER ]

neuf

★ 。＼｜／。★

𝗜𝗙 𝗜 𝗖𝗔𝗡'𝗧 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗥

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖗𝖊 𝖓𝖊𝖚𝖋:
GARY

★ 。／｜＼。★

THE AFTERNOON AFTER their adventure in Downtown Yonkers with herbal tea and rainbows, they returned the staff to Iris. Which was a relief for everyone in the Jackson apartment, because it glowed and shot out rainbows in the apartment whenever they thought of messages, or if the mail truck drove by.

No, Belle was completely serious. The staff almost beat up the FedEx guy when delivering a box of books for Sally from her publisher.

Belle and Percy met up with Annabeth once school was over. Grover wasn't with them this time since he was doing his photo shoot with Blanche downtown. Apparently, he was going to be wearing a kilt of withered palm leaves, laying him across a burnt log, and be photographed with dead insects (and can Belle, daughter of Demeter and nature enthusiast, just say, not cool?). Grover was going to put the picture in a frame and give it to Juniper as her bloom day present in January.

Finding Iris was the easy part. Instead of just aimlessly walking around the city, Percy willed the staff to take them to Iris. It pointed north and pulled them along First Avenue, and miraculously, did not turn the three of them into a rainbow and beam them to Wisconsin. Eventually, it led them into lower Harlem, where the Goddess was selling her crystals among the sidewalk produce sellers. There was no way the vendors on each side of her knew she was actually the immortal Goddess of the rainbow, but it probably wouldn't have been too surprising. Street vendors in Manhattan see pretty much everything.

"Oh, my!" Iris exclaimed with a gasp when she saw them. She took her staff and gave it a full, close inspection. "Mercedes, you look amazing!"

"You named your staff Mercedes?" Annabeth asked.

Belle elbowed her quickly and smiled at Iris. "It's a beautiful name."

"She seems so happy!" Iris said, rainbow tears falling from her eyes down her cheeks. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you."

Obviously, she was talking to her staff. Not them. Typical.

"Oh, my sweet." She continued to weep while cradling her staff. "I should have had you cleaned years ago! I will never use you as a display rack again!"

"The quest went well," Percy told her. "Completely cruelty-free."

Iris snapped out of it slightly. "What? Oh, yes. Cruelty-free. Of course. Good."

Belle had a feeling that Iris wouldn't have known if Percy destroyed all of those snakes, but she was glad he didn't. Those snakes were deadly, and she would like to keep her boyfriend alive.