GOLD RUSH ↬ p. jackson x reader {book one}

ANNABETH GETS WISER

THE THOUGHT OF JUMPING OFF DECK AND DROWNING MYSELF WAS STARTING TO GET MORE TEMPTING, THE CLOSER WE GOT TO OUR DESTINATION.

I mean this because we were approaching the Land of the Sirens. Annabeth wanted to hear the song, and at first I believed she was a crazy person but she explained her plan to me and I had to admit, her intelligence was intimidatingly scary.

As soon as the rocky coastline of the island came into view, Percy ordered one of the ropes to wrap around Annabeth's waist, tying her to the foremast.

"Don't untie me," she said, "no matter what happens or how much I plead. I'll want to go straight over the edge and drown myself."

"Are you trying to tempt me?"
"Ha-ha."

Percy and I made makeshift earplugs out of some candle wax, and I swear I could've stayed that way forever. Silence. Magical, sweet, unfindable silence. I could've disintegrated right there, happily.

As we approached the island, jagged rocks loomed out of the fog. If we sailed any closer, those rocks would shred our hull like blender blades.

I watched Annabeth with a terrifying focus. At first, Annabeth seemed totally normal. Then she got a puzzled look on her face. Her eyes widened.

She strained against the ropes. She called our names— when did I get so good at lip reading?
Her expression was clear: She had to get out. This was life or death.

She seemed so miserable and I saw in Percy's eyes that it was hard for him not to cut her free.
"Percy, don't." I warned, though it was hardly any use to speak.
I still couldn't see much of the island—just mist and rocks—but floating in the water were pieces of wood and fiberglass, the wreckage of old ships, even some flotation cushions from airplanes.

Annabeth was pleading with us. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She strained against the ropes, as if they were holding her back from everything she cared about.

The misty island was mesmerising. But I kept Annabeth in my peripheral. It was when she equipped her bronze knife and began to saw away desperately at the ropes, and began waving it at me (and yelling curse words, I know them hard of hearing or not) in threat. I began to shout at Percy, but when I turned, I felt her absence as she leaped off the boat.

He finally noticed and rushed to the side of the boat and saw her, paddling madly for the island, the waves carrying her straight toward the jagged rocks.

He screamed her name, but if she heard him, it didn't do any good. She was entranced, swimming toward her death.

Percy looked at me and the ship, shouted 'stay!' then jumped over the side. The further they struggled, the more I squinted, the weaker the mist was as it dissipated. Then I saw them. The Sirens.

Basically, before them was a flock of vultures the size of people— with dirty black plumage, gray talons, and wrinkled pink necks. But with human heads on top of those necks, and the human heads keep changing.
They floated in and above the waves, until I couldn't spot either of them. The boat began to drift away, and I fought the urge to rip out my earplugs and shout for help.

After a disturbingly extended amount of time, the two arrived on the boat. Annabeth was distraught, shell shocked— I could see it in her eyes. We sailed until the island was completely out of sight. I fetched a blanket and wrapped it around a sat, hudded Annabeth on the forward deck. Finally she looked up, dazed and sad, and mouthed, safe.

I took out the earplugs. The afternoon was quiet except for the sound of the waves against the hull. The fog had burned away to a blue sky, as if the island of the Sirens had never existed. I kind of wanted the silence back, but after seeing the Sirens... it was more eerie than it was soothing.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I didn't realize," she murmured.
"What?"
Her eyes were the same color as the mist over the Sirens' island. "How powerful the temptation would be."

"I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan," He told her. "And Luke and your parents."
She blushed. "You saw that?"
"What Luke told you back on the Princess Andromeda, about starting the world from scratch ...that really got to you, huh?"
She pulled her blanket around her. "My fatal flaw. That's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris."

He blinked. "That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?"
She rolled her eyes. "No, Seaweed Brain. That's hummus. Hubris is worse."
"What could be worse than hummus?"
"Hubris means deadly pride, Percy. Thinking you can do things better than anyone else ... even the gods."

"You feel that way?"
She looked down. "Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch? No more war. Nobody homeless. No more summer reading homework." "I'm listening."

"I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did— that's why the fire is still burning. That's why Olympus is still around. But sometimes you just see the bad stuff, you know? And you start thinking the way Luke does: 'If I could tear this all down, I would do it better.' Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?"

"Um ... no. Me running the world would kind of be a nightmare."
"Then you're lucky. Hubris isn't your fatal flaw."
"What is?"
"I don't know, Percy, but every hero has one. If you don't find it and learn to control it ... well, they don't call it 'fatal' for nothing."

I thought about that. Mine would probably be deadly laziness. Deadly... awkwardness. Deadly homeliness? No, that's not it. I'm too strange for that.

"So was it worth it?" I asked Annabeth gently. "Do you feel... wiser?"

She gazed into the distance. "I'm not sure. But we have to save the camp. If we don't stop Luke ..." She didn't need to finish. If Luke's way of thinking could even tempt Annabeth, there was no telling how many other half-bloods might join him.

I thought about something. A dream. Of a girl. She looked like Silena Beauregard, but... wasn't. Something about her eyes was different. And the air tasted like betrayal. I knew she wasn't on whatever the winning side was.

Suddenly Annabeth's eyes widened. "Guys."
Percy turned. I turned.
Up ahead was another blotch of land— a saddle-shaped island with forested hills and white beaches and green meadows.

"Holy sh—"

"Shh.." I whispered. "It's so beautiful."