𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀, percy jackson!

𝐕𝐈𝐈. garden gnomes are creepy

──★ Chapter seven

Adira felt relieved that she hadn't been injured in the recent events. Now, thanks to a certain someone, they were trudging through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, with rain pouring down like a relentless storm.

The cold rain made her shiver uncontrollably, her body already prone to low temperatures, making it even worse. Beside her, Grover was shivering too, his large goat eyes narrowing into terrified slits. While Grover was clearly scared by what had happened, Adira's feelings were different—she wasn't terrified; she was mad.

"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once," Grover muttered from behind her, his voice trembling.

"Come on! The farther away we get, the better," Annabeth urged, ignoring his fear and pushing ahead. Her determined stride cut through the downpour, her eyes fixed on the path ahead.

"All our money was back there," Percy reminded them. "Our food and clothes. Everything."

Adira abruptly turned around, her eyes blazing as she faced Percy. "Because a certain someone chose to jump into the fight," she snapped, her voice cutting through the steady drumming of the rain.

Percy's sea-green eyes narrowed, a mixture of anger and defensiveness flashing in them. "What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?!"

"I was doing fine on my own! And so was Annabeth. We didn't need your protection!" Adira shot back, glaring into his sea-green eyes. Her voice was fierce as she stared him down, rain pouring over them, adding to the tension in the air. She was about to turn around, before Percy grabbed her wrist and raised his voice again.

"What is your problem with me?!" he demanded, frustration evident in his tone.

"My problem is that you're impulsive and don't think a single thing through! I waited years for a chance like this, and now you're going to ruin everything!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the woods. The rain continued to pour down with increasing intensity.

"What chance are you even talking about? Maybe if you weren't so secretive all the damn time, we would actually get along! " he yelled, taking a step closer to her, fed up with her constant snapping.

"Ugh, just forget it, Jackson! You wouldn't get it anyway!" Adira snapped, turning sharply, yanking her wrist out if his grasp and marching ahead. She hated talking about her desperate desire for her mother's acknowledgment, and she certainly wasn't about to talk to Percy Jackson about it.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans... a perfectly good bag of tin cans," he muttered.

Annabeth quickly caught up to Adira, resuming their pace through the relentless downpour.

"Seriously, Grover. What did I do to her?"

"It's not you, she just..." he trailed off. "Okay, maybe it is you. Look, she'll warm up. It'll just take a little bit of time." he tried to reassure his friend. If she actually will, well, that wasn't for sure.

Percy watched the girl talking with Annabeth. He couldn't understand why he cared so much about earning her approval—he didn't even like her. She had been nothing but mean to him, so why did he care?

Percy was about to ask Grover another question, when a shrill toot-toot-toot shattered the silence, like the sound of an owl being tortured.

"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a "find path" song, we could get out of these woods!"

He puffed out a few notes, but instead of finding a path, Percy immediately crashed into a tree, earning a sizable knot on his forehead. "Ow," he mumbled, rubbing the sore spot where his head had collided with the bark.