It almost worked ✸ Apollo ¹

XXXIII. Belly of the beast

Soon enough, the ship became a little dot in the distance. Lydia was just now starting to lose energy. She didn't regret tearing down those monsters and yelling at Luke Castellan, but her mind was still paying the price for it. She honestly wanted to sleep for hours now.

"I can't believe you argued like that with him, Lydia" Annabeth sighed.

Before Lydia could reply, Percy defended her. "Hey! Luke deserved what he got. He was hurting you, Annabeth."

She looked away at the great ocean "He's still.. I knew him"

"Look, I get it." Lydia finally spoke up "But if he thinks that starting a war is gonna solve his problems, then he's the asshole here. It doesn't matter who he was. It matters who he chooses to be now."

As they raced over the sea, the group tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. They figured it was important to let somebody know what Luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust. The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight-perfect for an Iris-message-but connection was still poor.

When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show us Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

"Wow, is that wap?" Lydia laughed "I didn't know you were into that, Chiron."

Annabeth looked confused "What's a wap?"

Nobody replied, but they told Chiron about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on the other end, Lydia didn't know if he heard anything.

"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for—"
His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him—a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.

"What?" Percy yelled.

"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. "Annabeth, you shouldn't have let Percy leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece"

"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woo-hoooooo!"

The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate. Lydia even started humming the song. "If he fuck me and ask, "Whose is it?"
When I ride the dick, I'ma spell my name, ah."

She was pretty sure nobody heard her, but Tyson looked terrified behind her. She decided not to respond to that.

"—Miami," Chiron was yelling. "T'll try to keep watch-"

The misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone. Lydia was glad nobody else heard her singing the song. But she hoped Tyson wasn't too traumatized to continue on with this quest.

An hour later the group spotted land—a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on our starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look.

"That's Virginia Beach!" Annabeth said as they approached the shoreline. "Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That's like"

"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," Percy said.

She stared. "How did you know that?"

"I-I'm not sure."

Lydia had no idea either, but she never really liked the ocean much. Even though she's never really been near the shore all her life. It used to scare her that scientists hadn't discovered things all the way down. Like some monster would drag her underneath the water if she went on a boat.