²𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃𝐘✸ percy jackson

XLIV

𝐿𝒰𝒞𝐼𝒜 𝒪𝐹 𝒮𝒫𝒜𝑅𝒯𝒜

LUCIA HAS DEALT WITH A LOT OF SURPRISES in her time as a demigod.

But there's nothing quite like being bombarded by ancient spartans and being told you're their queen.

"What the fuck?" the words left her mouth before her brain could stop them.

The woman who'd called her Princess didn't flinch. Still kneeling, still reverent. Still deadly.

The all waited. Expecting her to speak as if her words were sacred.

Lucia's hands were clenched at her sides. "I'm not a princess," she said flatly. "I'm not your princess."

"You are Hyacinthus's blood," A Spartan man with hazel eyes and chestnut hair said. "His last direct heir."

Lucia rubbed her temples, like she could press the absurdity of the moment out through her skull. "You're Spartans. Actual Spartans."

"Yes, my Princess," the kneeling woman replied without a hint of sarcasm. "We are what remains. My name is Xanthe."

"What remains?" Lucia turned to Percy. Despite being tied up a few minutes ago he was now
standing beside her, watching with that very specific "what-did-I-just-miss" face he always made when monsters exploded or gods dropped in for brunch.

"uh" Percy looked at Annabeth on the other side of Lucia "I thought sparta was gone."

"Yes," Annabeth said, eyes narrowing. "I studied the Battle of Leuctra. It was in 371 BC."

Xanthe, at Lucia's left, answered. "We are not all demigods, though many of us are. Nor are we merely mortals who remember old glory."

Annabeth leaned forward,"What does that mean?"

Xanthe glanced briefly toward one of the men standing behind her, but it was she who answered. "Not all of us were born as we are now. When Sparta began to fall, we sought the favor of gods who still listened. Artemis protected the wild-born. Apollo preserved the gifted. Hades..."

She hesitated, just for a moment. "Hades gave us endurance."

Lucia frowned. "Endurance?"

"We do not age," said a burly Spartan men with ash eyes. his voice was calm, low, and certain—like a blade sliding back into its sheath. "We do not sicken. We fight, we survive. That is the shape of it."

"You must introduce yourself to the queen." Xanthe demanded.

"Forgive me. I am Gorgo."

"Really?" Percy said.

"Yes," the man replied, without a hint of humor.

"We are forever stuck remembering who we were but now we can never fall in battle and have rest. That is our curse." Xanthe picked up the thread again. "We're called Aithreioi. It means we are of the "upper air.' We do not become solid until you accept us."

Lucia's brow furrowed. "What? Until I accept you into what."

"We can discuss that another time alone but—"

Suddenly, Leo walked over and quickly poked a spartan man's nose. Lucia gasped at Leo's boldness until she noticed what he figured out.

Leo's hand went right through the man's face. The blonde spartan sneezed when suddenly he stopped kneeling and grabbed leo by the shirt.

"We don't like that." grumbled the blonde man with a scar straight down his left cheek. He let him go by shoving him down. When he looked up at Lucia, he bowed and got back into position.