𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝐏𝐉 𝟐

𝟎𝟏𝟗.𝟑

Percy was not feeling the love.

Bad enough he'd been run out of Atlanta by evil sea gods. Then he had failed to stop a giant shrimp attack on theArgo II. Then the ichthyocentaurs, Chiron's brothers, hadn't even wanted to meet him.

After all that, they had arrived at the Pillars of Hercules, and Percy had to stay aboard ship while Jason the BigShot visited his half brother.

Hercules, the most famous demigod of all time, and Percy didn't get to meet him either.

Though if Juliet asked he was happy staying aboard with her, but he'd still wanted to see the dude who came up to par to Achilles.

Okay, sure, from what Daphne said afterward, Hercules was a jerk, but still...Percy was getting kind of tired of staying aboard ship and pacing the deck. The date had kept his mind of things, and while he loved his friends his Adhd was making him jittery wanting to let loose.

The open sea was supposed to be his territory. Percy was supposed to step up, take charge, and keep everybody safe. Instead, all the way across the Atlantic, he'd done pretty much nothing except make small talk with sharks and listen to Coach Hedge sing TV theme songs.

To make matters worse, Juliet had been distant ever since she came back. She did try her best to hive him all the attention he wanted, made gifts for him and talked to him for hours, but she wouldn't let him touch her.

Whenever Percy tried to go beyond harmless touches she distracted him away. It was becoming torture, he wanted to hold the love of his life without her leaving him every 15 minutes as if to breathe air.

It'd gotten bad. So bad he even talked Augustus about it, yeah that bad.

While Augustus couldn't quite relate to Percy's situation, he told him that it was probably Juliet's PTSD that was making her so distant, and how Percy should go easy.

He'd been going easy for a while now, but Juliet hadn't even kissed him properly since their reunion in camp jupiter. Sure he somehow stole some kisses and pecks here and there but she wasn't as affectionate as she used to be. It was killing him inside that he'd somehow pissed her off.

After leaving the Pillars of Hercules—unscathed except for a few coconuts lodged in the hull's bronze plating—the ship traveled by air for a few hundred miles.

Percy hoped the ancient lands wouldn't be as bad as they'd heard. But it was almost like a commercial: You'll notice the difference immediately!

Several times an hour, something attacked the ship. A flock of flesh-eating Stymphalian birds swooped out of the night sky, and Festus torched them. Storm spirits swirled around the mast, and Jason blasted them with lightning.

While Coach Hedge was having dinner on the foredeck, a wild pegasus appeared from nowhere, stampeded over the coach's enchiladas, and flew off again, leaving cheesy hoof prints all across the deck.

"What was that for?" the coach demanded.

The sight of the pegasus made Percy wish Blackjack were here. He hadn't seen his friend in days. Tempest and Arion also hadn't shown themselves. Maybe they didn't want to venture into the Mediterranean.

If so, Percy couldn't blame them. Finally around midnight, after the ninth or tenth aerial attack, Jason turned to him. "How about you get some sleep? I'll keep blasting stuff out of the sky as long as I can. Then we can go by sea for a while, and you can take point."

Percy wasn't sure that he'd be able to sleep with the boat rocking through the clouds as it was shaken by angry wind spirits, but Jason's idea made sense. He went below decks and softly opened his cabin door, not wanting Juliet to be disturbed.