The three of them meet after the sing-along. They all look shockingly different, from their hair, their skin, their clothes.
From the moment they make eye contact, though, they know they're siblings. Their eyes are too similar, all filled with that...
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𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗔 𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗬𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 shelves. Next to her, Chris checked his watch. "Twenty minutes," he said cryptically.
She rolled her eyes. "We could just stay," she offered. "We could live in this Rite Aid, surviving off scraps."
"Bell–"
"Alright, alright!" Bella grabbed the first eyeliner she saw and slid it up her sleeve. "I'm done."
They slipped out the automatic doors. Bella managed to coat the detectors in a layer of Mist, and they were down at the dock before anyone noticed that anything was missing.
Bella didn't want to go back, but she knew that she and Chris needed to. They were in a time crunch. The Princess Andromeda was a mortal boat, after all, and needed refueling.
They'd gotten forty-five minutes on dry land before they set sail again, heading still for Miami. Somehow they'd figured it out; Bella had tried to send a message to Percy, but her shadow couldn't get through. She'd been forced to send a message to Chiron, in the hopes that something could be done.
Chris still didn't know about that one. She'd tell him later.
But for now, they joined the few stragglers still boarding the cruise ship. Most of the monsters didn't see a point in visiting the mortal world. Bella did, even if she could only escape to the nearest Rite Aid for twenty minutes to steal some makeup.
Chris tugged her up the ramp and onto the main deck. Cruise ships were confusing–they were almost like floating hotels. Bella had gotten so lost the first couple of days after she was brave enough to leave her room. Now she knew her way around well enough to be able to take the least efficient way to Luke's throne room.
She and Chris meandered through the carpeted halls, taking their sweet time. Sera and Luke could wait–at least until they'd exhausted every detour.
"We're over halfway to Miami," Chris said suddenly, in a random hallway. "Are you ready?"
Chris was the only one she'd ever told about her shadows. About checking on Percy in the middle of the night. He wasn't asking her if she was ready for the fight, he was asking if she was ready to do something incredibly stupid.
"Yeah," she said, casually, because there was a group of dracaenae walking behind them, "of course I am."
𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗔 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗟𝗨𝗞𝗘 were waiting for them at the conference table that stood right next to a glowing sarcophagus. Talk about interior design.
Bella liked to focus on other things. She often studied the grain in the wooden table, or watched Seraphina's hands as she fiddled with her gem. Bella's matching gem never left her side. She never felt safe without it.
Not for the first time, Bella wondered where the third gem was. Did Chiron still have it? Had he given it to Val, yet? Or had Sera stolen it before she dragged Bella away from camp? Was it there, in the room with them?
