Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

020, she do NOT fw his ass!!!!

CHAPTER TWENTY
FINLEY        BRIGGS

Even if Finn hadn't been drunk, she still would've felt completely out of it.

She kept thinking about Phineas, the stupid, fat, old, big, blind, annoying seer that he was. The entire interaction with him displaced Finn so far that Percy, Hazel, and Frank had actually noticed her despondency. It took Percy nudging her and Finn chugging the rest of her flask for Finn to even be able to resort back to her usual behavior.

Your insanity will kill even yourself. Join that alcoholic of yours in being Gaea's suffering victim, Phineas had said. I heard an interesting little fun fact about Gaea, you, and your mother—

As the boat sped down the Columbia River, Finn tried to forget. She tried to drink more. Unfortunately, the latter didn't always result in the former. To distract herself, Finn watched as Ella and Hazel made Ella a nest out of old books and magazines they'd liberated from the library's recycling bin.

They hadn't really planned on taking the harpy with them, but Ella acted like the matter was decided.

"Friends," she muttered. "'Ten seasons. 1994 to 2004.' Friends melt Phineas and give Ella jerky. Ella will go with her friends."

Now she was roosting comfortably in the stern, nibbling bits of jerky and reciting random lines from Charles Dickens and 50 Tricks to Teach Your Dog.

Percy kneeled in the bow, steering them toward the ocean with his freaky mind-over-water powers. Hazel sat next to Frank on the center bench, their shoulders touching. Finn was on the bench she shared with Percy before, but now that he wasn't sitting on it, she thankfully had a bit more of space. She never seemed to be able to get enough space. No matter how much she drank, no matter how much Finn pressed the stupid heels of her hands to her stupid temples, she always felt like she was being suffocated by the weight of her existence.

Every second of every day of every life, Gaea's voice reminded her, you are afraid. I have known you since you were born. I have known since your first breath that I am going to break you.

Finn's eyes squeezed shut, as if that would drown out the Earth Mother's words. She'd heard it all before. She didn't need to be reminded of it, nor did she want to.

Predictably, when her magical flask refilled with water, Finn turned it into wine.

She wished she wasn't so predictable. She wished she was unknown. She wished Gaea had never found her, and never knew her, and never learned—just like Gaea had said—how to break her.

The river widened into the ocean. The Pax turned north. As they sailed, Frank tried cheering Hazel from her seasickness by telling stupid jokes—Why did the Minotaur cross the road? How many fauns does it take to change a lightbulb? Finn tuned him out completely, because if she heard one more, she probably would have cursed Frank.