My Boyfriend is a Dead Roman Hero | Jason Grace

I Vacuum the Peach Trees

Every arrow Julie shoots passes right through the ghosts without a snag.

Meg and Percy are slashing their respective swords on either side of the clearing, and they don't seem to be having any more luck than her. Apollo is clinging to Julie's back, still trying to convince her to hand over her bow, and Juliette is getting very close to just tossing him to the nosoi so they can all go home.

"Don't let them touch you!" Apollo cries.

Julie sees both Meg and Percy hit the deck, rolling under swipes from the smoky black plague spirits to avoid ending up with chicken pox or something. Julie snatches Lester's arm and tugs him along behind her as she darts to the edge of the clearing for a better vantage point.

"We need to run!" shouts Meg, gold swords flashing in the moonlight.

Percy disengages from the spirit he's fighting long enough to point to the hill that rises on the other side of the orchard they're crashed in. "That's the western border of camp! We just need to make it there!"

The four of them take off (well, three. Julie's still hauling Apollo behind her like a detachable travel trailer). Thanks to the stumbling mess of a former god lagging behind her and the aching in her right shin from all this running, Juliette and Apollo end up falling behind.

Julie curses colorfully as two of the plague spirits start reaching for the back of Lester's borrowed band tee. Thankfully, the irrigation tank they're darting past erupts into a geyser that washes the ghosts away so they can keep darting forward towards the barrier to camp. Percy waves her off when she shouts a quick 'thank you!'

"I didn't even know we grew peaches in this state!" Julie shrieks as they weave through the rows of trees.

"Over 2,000 acres!" Meg shouts back.

Julie sends her a bewildered look. "Why do you know that?!"

Her sister's response is cut off when the four of them have to screech to a halt. The three spirits are manifesting right in their path again, and this time they're bigger. Towering humanoid forms of black and green gas stand over them. One immediately sucks Percy forward into its depths.

"PERCY!"

"Don't breathe!" Apollo warns.

Juliette spins on him with a snarl. "Oh, wow, great advice, is this your first day as a human?!"

"It's been a few centuries, yes."

"WE HAVE TO BREATHE, YOU FUCKING MORON!"

"THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOUT AT ME!"

Percy falls into a kneeling position, clutching at his throat as Riptide clatters to the dirt. Panic seizes Julie's chest. She looks around desperately for an option as the other two spirits advance on Meg and Apollo.

Maybe this makes her an irresponsible hero, but she really doesn't give a slippery cyclops what happens to either of them. She runs forward to Percy. "Hang on!"

Completely out of ideas, Juliette just decides to take a running stab at the spirit with the recurve of her bow. She expects it to phase right though, maybe distract the creature long enough for Percy to pry himself away.

Instead, her jaw drops as the Stygian Ice of her bow starts to shine.

The weapon is glowing white in her hands - brighter than she's ever seen before. It makes Julie's heart skip a beat, but she doesn't have the time to inspect it right now. She thrusts it forward to pierce the cloud of smoke holding Percy and, shockingly, she actually feels a resistance.

It goes sort of like she's poking a needle into the side of a full balloon. The cloud of gas bends with the strike of her weapon. The nosoi screams out a piercing howl. Then, the ice shines blinding white, and Juliette is suddenly holding a bow-shaped handheld ghost vacuum. The black and green smoke is drawn into the ice between her fingers, screeching in protest all the way until it disappears totally beneath the surface of her bow.