~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Non Plus Ultra

{Piper}

Judging from their half-eaten breakfasts—especially Kiara; Piper had noticed that the daughter of Pluto didn't eat much at all—the others still felt uneasy; but Leo managed to shake them out of it. He pushed a button, and a loud blast of steam exploded from Festus's mouth, making everyone jump.

   "Well!" he said. "Good pep rally, but there's still a ton of things to fix on this ship before we get to the Mediterranean. Please report to Supreme Commander Leo for your superfun list of chores!"

Piper and Jason took charge of cleaning the lower deck, which had been thrown into chaos during the monster attack. Reorganizing sickbay and battening down the storage area took them most of the day, but Piper didn't mind. For one thing, she got to spend time with Jason. For another, last night's explosions had given Piper a healthy respect for Greek fire. She didn't want any loose vials of that stuff rolling through the corridors in the middle of the night.

   As they were fixing up the stables, Piper thought about the night Annabeth and Percy had spent down here accidentally. Piper wished that she could talk with Jason all night—just curl up on the stable floor and enjoy being with him. Why didn't they get to break the rules?

   But Jason wasn't like that. He was hardwired to be a leader and set a good example. Breaking the rules didn't come naturally to him.

   No doubt Reyna admired that about him. Piper did too... mostly.

   The one time she'd convinced him to be a rebel was back at the Wilderness School, when they had sneaked onto the roof at night to watch a meteor shower. That's where they'd had their first kiss.

   Unfortunately, that memory was a trick of the Mist, a magical lie implanted in her head by Hera. Piper and Jason were together now, in real life, but their relationship had been founded on an illusion.

   Now she wasn't quite so sure about him. Did she really love him, or did she just admire him for being so... heroic?

   Being with Jason hadn't felt exactly right for the last couple of months, but she didn't want to break up with him. Jason was amazing, and Piper loved him.

   Or did she? She pushed the thought away and swept the hay into piles. Jason fixed a broken door on one of the stables. The glass floor hatch glowed from the ocean below—a green expanse of light and shadow that seemed to go down forever.

   Piper kept glancing over, afraid she'd see a monster's face peeping in, or the water cannibals from her grandfather's old stories; but all she saw was an occasional school of herring.

   As she watched Jason work, she admired how easily he did each task, whether it was fixing a door or oiling saddles. It wasn't just his strong arms and his skillful hands, though Piper liked those just fine, but the way he acted so upbeat and confident.

   He did what needed to be done without complaint. He kept his sense of humor, despite the fact that the guy had to be dead on his feet after not having slept the night before. Piper couldn't blame Reyna for having a crush on him. When it came to work and duty, Jason was Roman to the core.

   But so was Kiara. Piper was probably the only one who noticed that the daughter of Pluto had a habit of muttering the Roman names of the gods or monsters whenever someone used the Greek terms.

   Piper thought about her mother's tea party in Charleston. She wondered what the goddess had told Reyna a year ago, and why it had changed the way Reyna treated Jason. Had Aphrodite encouraged or discouraged her to like Jason?

   Piper wasn't sure, but she wished her mom hadn't appeared in Charleston. Regular mothers were embarrassing enough. Godly glamor moms who invited your friends over for tea and guy talk—that was just mortifying.