My Boyfriend is a Dead Roman Hero | Jason Grace

I Am Getting Sick of Dragons

Julie thinks she has a right to say she's lived a weird life.

Still, nothing could have prepared her for seeing the soldierly, straight backed love of her life hanging over a cyclops' stove like a blonde rotisserie chicken.

She's a little ashamed to admit that, before leaping to Jason's and Piper's aid, she and Leo sit crouched behind a pile of boxes, holding their breath and slapping each other furiously on the arms as they struggle to keep from losing their shit and giving themselves away.

The situation becomes significantly less funny when the three cyclops start talking about eating said rotisserie chicken. The first move one of the male cyclops makes towards Jason is met with a lethal snake bite to the throat, and his family is left staring in horror at a pile of golden dust at the feet of a spitting angry wyvern.

"MY SON!" Ma Gasket cries, gaping at Juliette's hissing form. "You...you..."

With ear piercing shrieks, the two remaining cyclops charge Juliette with various improvised weapons from their kitchenette. She bats them both away with powerful swipes of her wings and vaults over to where her friends are hanging to bite through the bonds holding Piper. Her sister falls, arms still chained to her sides, from the ceiling with a scream and lands caged in Julie's waiting claws.

Ma Gasket howls in anger and leaps into the air, bodyslamming down on Juliette's back and sending all three of them crashing to the floor. Julie struggles in her hold, thrashing her head and wings back to smack against the cyclops' face. The remaining male cyclops rears back with a kitchen knife, and Julie braces to be thoroughly skewered. Last second, the arm of a crane comes out of nowhere and collides with the monster's head. He dissolves into sawdust, and she hears Leo cheer in triumph.

Enraged, Ma Gasket reaches out an enormous hand and grabs onto Juliette's serpentine neck. Julie starts to choke, hissing and thrashing, but the monster only tightens her grip. She can't quite reach the cyclops' arm with her fangs, and her back feet are busy keeping Piper from being squashed in the struggle. Black dots start dancing in her eyes.

She hears a metallic creaking come swooshing closer, and suddenly she's being flung across the room, Ma Gasket's grip broken. She collides with a line of old car frames, and pain explodes through her torso. The injuries knock her out of her transformation, leaving her to shrink down, groaning, beside Piper. The both of them look up blearily at the cyclops on the other end of the room.

She's getting up too, standing between a defiant looking Leo and the still-captive Jason.

"Any more tricks, demigod?" The cyclops spits down at him.

Leo grins. "Heck yeah, I got tricks! Take one more step, and I'll destroy you with fire."

No, you dummy.

Julie struggles to sit up, choking on the pain crackling up her extremely broken ribs. She squeezes as much air into her protesting lungs as possible and tries to call out to him. "Immune...to fire!"

Leo glances over at her (stupid, stupid idiot), and Ma Gasket takes the opportunity to snatch up a handful of red hot coals from the stove.

"You want to play with fire?!" Laughs the cyclops as she raises her prize over her head. "Let me help!"

She chucks the coals at Leo, and he dodges them lazily, quirking an eyebrow at her. "You missed." He taunts.

Then, the cyclops grins at him grotesquely and holds up a barrel. A barrel that says "kerosene" on the side. Ribs forgotten, Julie hoists up onto her hands and knees and lets out a horrified scream as the monster slams the barrel down at Leo's feet, and the whole area erupts into flames.