How Do You Say Gods- Last Olympian

17: PIGS FLY

A belated happy birthday to Percy and anniversary to Percabeth. I would have liked to have finished this book by now, it was the original goal in mind, but work's been murder on me and I've been lucky to keep my updating consistent as is.

Almost done with one whole series though! Like, just take a moment and bask at how far this has come already, and still with tons to go! I'm so excited I feel like I could fly!

PJOPJOPJOPJO

"Pigs fly?" Magnus read blankly, imagining a cop car sailing through the air as the next weapon of choice for a monster.

"You fly?!" Alex yelped, before she sat back in her seat with an actual look of embarrassment for once. "Sorry, reflex."

"How often does someone say the words, pigs fly to you, that you have a reflex for that?" Thalia asked in concern.

"More than you'd think," she chuckled.

Back at the Plaza, Thalia pulled me aside.

Percy threw his hands up to cover his face.

Thalia just stared at him, unimpressed.

"Sorry, reflex," he smirked as he slowly dropped his hands.

"Mock me all you like," Alex sniffed, "at least I know how to throw hands the right way."

...rubbed her thigh like she was remembering the old wound.

Thalia ground up her teeth and resisted the urge to do the same thing now. That burn mark on her leg had vanished when she'd come out of the tree. She remembered standing in the mirror and seeing her skin smooth from every old scar.

She'd been pissed at her father for that. His blessing that had molded her into another person, somehow years older yet not nearly as much as she should have been with the passing of time.

...don't think she understood. She just knew Luke was upset."

"Kids absorb more than you think they do Thals," Annabeth said softly.

"Yeah, I got that the second time around," Thalia nodded. She'd done nothing to protect Annabeth from that, but a part of her was relieved for it. It made the following weeks of Luke's anger and Annabeth not questioning it make retroactive sense, rather than just thinking the kid was blindly going along with this new rash behavior.

... "Do you know what happened to May Castellan?"

... "I never saw her have an, episode, but Luke told me about them... made me promise never to tell."

"I see that worked out great for you," only Annabeth could have told her that without making her feel like she should be devoured by her own wolves.

"Yeah, my life's been pretty swell since then," Thalia nodded, only half mocking.

...Prometheus was showing you what happened in the worst possible light.

Percy glanced from Thalia to the book and back several times. She wasn't wrong. The most disturbing part of that to him, in the large array of options he had, was the moment he'd just shared with her. Of course Prometheus could have conjured that whole thing from thin air, or just that face-melting moment where the Titan had flopped what had really been on the god of messangers face and nothing else.

Either way, he had nothing to decide but the miserable feeling of what he was supposed to do with the outcome, a god's mess. As usual.

Hermes did love Luke. I could tell just by looking at his face.