Hera's Daughter | Luke Castellan¹

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕊𝕚𝕩

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𝐼 𝐵𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝒶 𝒦𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐹𝓊𝑔𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒

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Selene, Annabeth, and Grover walked along side of the river bank, trying to find any sign of Percy.

As they searched for the missing boy, emergency service vehicles arrived and surrounded the Arch. Police helicopters even showed up, circling overhead.

Selene eventually started to search the crowd that gathered in front of the Arch, trying to see if Percy was amongst them. As she searched, a hand wrapped itself around her upper arm.

"Looking for something?" A police officer asked, recognizing her from the newspaper in his other hand.

Selene swore under her breath. "You have to let me go, Sir. I can't find my cousin. He was in the Arch when it happened. No one from my family can find him either." She forced a tear to slide down her cheek.

The officer held the newspaper up to Selene's face, comparing the image to her. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I thought you were this girl in the newspaper. I hope you find your cousin." He let her go.

"Stupid mortal." She muttered as she rushed off, wiping the tear from her cheek.

On the other side of the crowd, Percy had been found by Annabeth and Grover.

"Perrr-cy!" Grover bleated out as he tackled Percy in a bear hug. "We thought that you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

Annabeth stood behind Grover, trying to look angry, Percy could tell that she was relieved to see him. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I sort of fell." Percy chuckled nervously.

"Selene watched you fall two hundred meters!" Annabeth stated.

Percy looked around for the older teenager. "Selene saw that? Wait, where is she?"

"You haven't seen her?" Grover asked. "She went look inland for you."

"Wait, I see her!" Annabeth then started jumping and waving her arms to get Selene's attention.

It worked, and Selene started running over. "Percy Jackson, I swear to you if that Hades doesn't kill you, I will do the job myself. What on earth were you thinking?!" She ranted, grabbing Percy by the shoulders. She paused before pulling the boy into a hug. "You scared me, kid."

Somehow, they arrived back at the Amtrak station without getting spotted and recognized as a handful of eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the group. They got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled West as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St Louis skyline behind them

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The next afternoon, June 14th, seven days before the solstice, their train rolled into Denver.

"Let's try to contract, Chiron." Annabeth spoke up. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"We can't use phones, right?" Percy asked, confused.

"She's not talking about phones." Selene replied, fiddling with a golden drachma.