Annabeth Chase and the Sea of Monsters

Chapter 31 - I breathe underwater

I did the normal thing when something grabs your ankle. Scream and kick.

My foot made contact with something soft and squishy over and over, but the grip on my ankle didn't lessen. I could feel myself being dragged backwards against my will, no matter how hard I struggled and tried to swim forwards. My parents and Luke got further and further away until I could barely see them anymore.

"NO!" I screamed, gurgling as water splashed into my mouth.

The Siren's song was still strong in my ears, drowning out anything else. Then suddenly, it was gone. At first, I didn't know what happened or where it had gone, then when my lungs started to burn, I realised that I was underwater. For that moment, I felt relaxed, free from the spell. Next moment, my head broke the surface of the water and the song came back, louder than ever. This time, I was determined to make it to shore.

I screamed harder than ever and struck out, throwing all my strength forward. My arms and legs swung wildly and I even used my head as a weapon. But whatever held me was not letting go. It was a battle of determination; who wanted it more.

I lost.

A pair of arms wrapped around my waist and dragged me down, deep deep down into the water. The Sirens song dulled the further I got and all the fight went out of me, until I lost all my breath. Then the fight came back stronger than ever as my lungs tightened, filling with water as black spots began to dance in front of my eyes.

I was about to lose consciousness, my head spinning when my lungs suddenly filled with air. Stale, thickly air, but air nonetheless.

I coughed and spluttered all the water out of my body, making a horrible retching noise as my eyes stung with tears. It was the weirdest sensation as I was positive I was breathing air, yet I could feel water around me and see the surface far above.

I'm dead, I realised suddenly.

I looked up, prepared to face the Underworld only to see a pair of familiar concerned sea-green eyes gazing at me. Then I broke down.

Percy held me, letting me cry into his shoulder as I sobbed over everything the Sirens had shown and promised me. It hurt worse to know that that was exactly what I wanted, all of it. I wanted my family reunited. I wanted Luke to be good and to see me as more than a friend. And I wanted to rebuild the world, bigger and better than before. I just had never realised all that before now.

Percy was good. He didn't say anything and he didn't move, although I doubted he liked having a girl cry on him. I was glad that he was there rather than anyone else.

"I'll get us back to the ship," he told me when my tears had dried up.

I sniffed, wiping my nose and eyes on my sleeve before nodding to show him that I was ready. "Don't let me go," I whispered to him until I remembered he couldn't hear me.

The water swirled around us as Percy used his fish powers to float us back up. As we neared the surface I started to hear the Sirens song again, but the temptation had lessened. There was nothing left for them to sing about than what they already had.

Percy steered us to the Queen Anne's Revenge, which was sailing slowly away from the island. He kept us underwater, safe in our water/air bubble as we followed the ship out of hearing of the Sirens. He kept looking at me as we floated along underwater, but I steadily kept my eyes down, not wanting to talk or look at his worried face. It would just make me want to cry again.

Finally, I nodded to show him I couldn't hear the song underwater any more. He surfaced us and called a ladder down from the ship. Only a few strains of the song came to me as I climbed onto the ship and huddled down beside the mast. Percy brought a thick blanket over to me and dropped it over my shoulders as I was dripping wet, although he was completely dry.

He looked at me inquisitively, pointing to his ears. I cocked my head and listened hard, but could hear nothing but the slap of waves against the wooden hull and some birds calling.

"Safe," I said miserably.

Percy pulled out his earplugs and flicked them away then came and sat beside me. We didn't speak for a moment, me huddled in my blanket and him studying the sky. I was content like that, but of course he wanted to talk.

"You okay?" he asked, concern evident in his voice.

"I didn't realise," I mumbled, only half-aware of him beside me.

"What?"

"How powerful the temptation would be."

Percy paused for a moment. When I sneaked a glance across at him, I saw that his face was coloured pink and he was licking his lips nervously. I didn't think I was going to like what he was going to say next.

"I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan," he said, clearing his throat awkwardly. "And Luke and your parents."

Yep, I really didn't like it.

I 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?"

I tightened the blanket around me, feeling like it was my safety line. "My fatal flaw. That's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris."

Percy looked confused. "That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?"

I rolled my eyes, although secretly I was relieved. This sort of conversation I was familiar and comfortable with. "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?" He sounded shocked.

I looked down, feeling ashamed of myself. "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 added the last one just to make sure he was keeping up with me.

"I'm listening," he said.

"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 all this down, I would do it better.' Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job is you ran the world?"

"Um . . . no. Me running the world would kind of be a nightmare." He actually sounded kinda horrified.

"Then you're lucky," I said miserably. "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."

We fell silent after that. It was kind of a conversation stopper.

I thought back on what I had said. I'd known that hubris was my fatal flaw some years ago, but this was the first time I realised how bad it could be. If I didn't control it, I could turn out like Luke. That was something I didn't even want to contemplate.

"So was it worth it?" Percy asked, looking at me curiously. "Do you feel . . . wiser?"

I thought about that. "I'm not sure. But we have to save the camp. If we don't stop Luke . . ."

That too I didn't want to think about. I wasn't the only demigod with hubris as a fatal flaw. And not all of them would refuse like me.

Beside me Percy looked deep in thought, which was scary. But as I looked forward, I saw that the landscape ahead was changing, another island up ahead. But this one was different from the Sirens island. It looked beautiful.

It had rolling hills and white beaches and green meadows. It was like a paradise.

And it sent a thrill of fear through me. "Percy," I said warningly.

He looked up and his eyes widened. He looked about as enthusiastic of reaching it as I.

It was the land of the Cyclops.