Állaxe //HOO x m.oc\\ (ON HOLD)

19

Jace Anderson wasn't fooled by the princess.

But he had to pretend like he was. He's tried shoving it to Piper too— but it seemed like she didn't notice it, or maybe she was being smart and trying not to get him caught.

Jace left her alone with the woman as he followed Jason and Leo to check out the living fur coats. He couldn't lie, the coats looked sick. Like cool-sick and not bad-sick. It would be a wild statement piece to have the face of a lion on your crotch— maybe he couldn't pull it off. He should leave the wild clothes to the kids that like being the center of attention.

Leo laughed as he tried on a hat that seemed to be made from enchanted raccoon fur. Its ringed tail twitched, and its little legs wiggled frantically as Leo walked and Jace had to say, it was kind of funny, but he didn't laugh at it, that would be too much. Jason was ogling the men's sportswear when Jace looked at what he was doing and it seemed like he was a few seconds away from pulling off his clothes and changing into them right in front of them.

Jason called out once he'd moved away from the sportswear, "Hey, check it out!" From a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up a purple T-shirt like the one he'd worn when he arrived at camp—except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers. Jace narrowed his eyes. Why was there another shirt like that? He could feel a vague memory bubbling up from the depths of his brain of seeing a shirt like that before.

Who was this woman? He knew she was Greek, evil, a woman and that her name started with an M.

The minotaur?

Medusa?

She was a princess, right? Of Colchis.

Marse?

Megara?

Meline?

Medea?

Wait...Medea? She was the princess of Colchis, right? Curse him for not remembering her story! She was the...princess of Colchis— well that was fucking obvious. She helped Jason (the old one) to get the golden fleece, and then he betrayed her? Was he right? He didn't have the chance to think about it any more when Jason spoke up.

"Why does this look so familiar?"

"Jason, it's like yours," Piper said and Jace focused his attention on the blonde boy instead of his thoughts. "Now we really have to leave." Jace agreed with her, they had to leave, now!

"Nonsense," the princess said. "The boys aren't done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular —trade-ins from previous customers. It suits you." Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Jace froze in his steps.

What?

He looked at the shirt with wide eyes. He stepped next to Leo and grasped the bottom of the shirt to look at it more closely. It was from camp. It had the same texture his own shirt had and he could recognize it anywhere. The burning bright orange was so fucking eyecatching.

Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion—acid, maybe?—and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood. A Roman toga? The breastplate? The purple shirt that looked so fucking familiar to him?

"Your Highness," Piper said, Jace could hear a slight shakiness in her voice. "Why don't you tell the boys how you betrayed your family? I'm sure they'd like to hear that story." Jace, along with the other two boys, turned towards Piper and the princess. Seemed like she also figured out who she was. He walked over to her and leaned down slightly to be closer to her ear. "Medea?"