(Alleya's POV)
I watched as Genesis disappeared into a plume of golden smoke. The snakes that danced around her feet had vanished and I was able to move my limbs again. I hurried to the cliff face to help Will retrieve Nathan.
I took his arm and heaved him back onto solid ground. Only, in the direction he was pulled, his body ended up crushing mine. I exhaled loudly as his weight was dumped on me. Nathan gave me a sneaky smile and placed his hands on either side of my head. I grinned up at him, and reached up to touch his face. My fingers had just brushed his cheek, when I heard Willow cough.
I bolted up, flinging Nathan off me. He almost fell off the cliff again. I felt blood rush to my cheeks as I went to help my friend off the ground.
"Sorry," I mumbled in her ear.
After Will was safely on her feet, I went over to Nathan to make sure he was okay. We then headed over to the center of camp, where Luke was standing, totally awestruck. I walked over and put my hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
He looked at me, tears in his eyes. His mouth was still hanging slightly open, the words lost in his sadness. Luke made a strangled, choking noise and flung himself into my arms.
I cradled his head against my shoulder and let him cry. I felt his tears soak my shirt, but I didn't care. My friend had turned into some sort of monster. It was something I had trouble dealing with, so I could only imagine how Luke was feeling right now.
I stroked his hair and whispered soothing words into his ear, totally forgetting our previous argument.
I hadn't really meant what I said. I was just mad. Mad at Gen for kissing Percy back. Mad at Percy for kissing her. Mad at the fish people for capturing me and taking me away from my friends. Mad at my parents for bringing me into this crazy world. And most of all, mad at myself.
Why did I have to fall for the wrong people?
People say you fall for the people you think you deserve, and I guess thats true in my case. If I had been more careful, than none of this would have happened. I fell in love with Percy because I was careless. Just like he was careless.
I had to try to make Luke feel better to make up for all my mistakes.
"So what do we do now?" Nathan asked as we started packing up camp.
I folded up Gen's sleeping bag and attempted to stuff it in it's tiny case. It just spilled right back out. I threw my arms up in exasperation and screamed at the sky.
"Screaming sounds good," he commented.
I saw my two other companions look over at him. They smiled and gave him a shrug. Soon enough we were all screaming.
After a few seconds of this, my throat became sore. I silenced my screams and went into serious mode.
"So back to Nat's question: What do we do?" I asked.
"I say we go for Gen," Luke replied immediately.
"Did you not see what she just did? I say we go for Nico," Willow retorted.
"I think Willow is right. Wherever Genesis is, she's probably safe. If not, well, she can fend for herself," Nathan pointed out.
"He's right. We should go-" I was interrupted when extremely clumsy person with dark hair and blue eyes came bursting through the bushes.
"Oh. Hi," was all he said.
This is so not what I need right now. Could this day get any worse?
