cacoethes |PERCY JACKSON| [book 2]

XX

AFTER ANNABETH AND SELENA CHANGED BACK INTO THEIR REGULAR clothes, the trio ran down the hillside through the terraces, past screaming spa workers and pirates ransacking the resort. Blackbeard's men broke the tiki torches for the luau, threw herbal wraps into the swimming pool, and kicked over tables of sauna towels.

"Which ship?" Annabeth asked as they reached the docks.

Selena looked around. They couldn't very well take their old rowboat. They had to get off the island fast, but what else could they use? A sub? A fighter jet? None of them could pilot any of those things. 

"There," Percy said pointing at an old sailing vessel.

Annabeth blinked. "But—"

"I can make it work."

"How?" Selena asked,

Percy didn't answer,  grabbing both Selena's and Annabeth's hand and pulled them toward the three-mast ship. Painted on its prow was the name that Selena would only decipher later: Queen Anne's Revenge.

"Argggh!" Blackbeard yelled somewhere behind them, "Those scalawags are a-boarding me vessel! Get 'em, lads!"

"We'll never get going in time!" Annabeth yelled as they climbed aboard.

Selena looked around at the hopeless maze of sail and ropes. The ship was in great condition for a three-hundred-year-old vessel, but it would still take a crew of fifty several hours to get underway.

They didn't have several hours. Selena could see the pirates running down the stairs, waving tiki torches and sticks of celery.

Percy closed eyes and concentrated on the waves lapping against the hull, the ocean currents, the winds all around them. 

"Mizzenmast!" He yelled suddenly,

Annabeth and Selena looked at him like he was nuts, but in the next second, the air was filled with whistling sounds of ropes being snapped taut, canvases unfurling, and wooden pulleys creaking.

Annabeth ducked as a cable flew over her head and wrapped itself around the bowsprit.

"Percy, how..."

"Holy cow, Aquaman." Selena gasped.

He didn't have an answer as he willed the sails to rise as easily as if he were flexing his arm.  Percy willed the rudder to turn.

The Queen Anne's Revenge lurched away from the dock, and by the time the pirates arrived at the water's edge, they were already underway, sailing into the Sea of Monsters.

They sailed through the night.

Annabeth tried to help Percy keep lookout, but sailing didn't agree with her. After a few hours rocking back and forth, her face turned the color of guacamole and she went below to lie in a hammock.

Sometime after midnight, Selena went up on deck. They were just passing a smoking volcano island. The sea bubbled and steamed around the shore, "One of the forges of Hephaestus," Selena commented, "Where he makes his metal monsters."

"Like the bronze bulls?"

Annabeth stepped up onto the deck and stood beside them, "Go around. Far around."

They steered clear of the island, and soon it was just a red patch of haze behind them.

Percy looked at Annabeth and Selena, "The reason you hate Cyclopes so much ... the story about how Thalia really died. What happened?"

Selena froze and looked over at Annabeth. It was hard to see her expression in the dark, but she knew that the blonde felt the same as her.

"I guess you deserve to know," Annabeth said finally, "The night Grover was escorting us to camp, he got confused, took some wrong turns. You remember he told you that once?" Percy nodded, "Well, the worst wrong turn was into a Cyclops's lair in Brooklyn."

"They've got Cyclopes in Brooklyn?" Percy asked.

"You wouldn't believe how many, but that's not the point. This Cyclops, he tricked us. He managed to split us up inside this maze of corridors in an old house in Flatbush. And he could sound like anyone, Percy. Just the way Tyson did aboard the Princess Andromeda. He lured us, one at a time. Thalia thought she was running to save Luke. Luke thought he heard me scream for help. And Selena and I ... we were alone in the dark. We were seven years old and couldn't even find the exit."

Selena squeezed Annabeth's hand before continuing for her, "I remember finding the main room. There were bones all over the floor. And there were Thalia and Luke and Grover, tied up and gagged, hanging from the ceiling like smoked hams. The Cyclops was starting a fire in the middle of the floor. Annabeth and I both drew our knives, but he heard us."

Annabeth picked up where she left off, "He turned and smiled. He spoke, and somehow he knew my dad's voice. I guess he just plucked it out of my mind. He said, 'Now, Annabeth, don't you worry. I love you. You can stay here with me. You can stay forever.'"

"What did you do?" Percy shivered,

"Selena stabbed him in the foot."

Percy stared at her. "Are you kidding? You were seven years old and you stabbed a grown Cyclops in the foot?"

"What else was I supposed to do? He would've killed us. It gave Annabeth just enough time to run to Thalia and Luke and cut the ropes on her hands. She took it from there."

"Yeah, but still ... that was pretty brave of you guys."

The blonde shook her head. "We barely got out alive. I still have nightmares, Percy. The way that Cyclops talked in my father's voice. It was his fault we took so long getting to camp."

"You never told me you still had nightmares," Selena said, staring at her friend.

Annabeth sighed, squeezing Selena's hand, "All the monsters who'd been chasing us had time to catch up. That's really why Thalia died. If it hadn't been for that Cyclops, she'd still be alive today."

After that, they went silent. The trio sat on the deck, watching the Hercules constellation rise in the night sky.

"Go below," Annabeth told Percy, "You need some rest."

Once Percy left, Selena turned to her blonde friend, "I never blamed the Cyclops."

Annabeth froze, "How could you not?"

"Because Thalia sacrificed herself for us. If we would've stood our ground, helped her, we could have all made it."

"Or we could have all died." Annabeth replied,

"But at least we would have gone down together." Selena sighed, "Thalia... she died alone. I still think about it all the time. I just hope I don't die alone."

"What are you talking about, Selena? I'll always be with you."

Selena thought back to her dream and the girl's voice. Telling her she wouldn't leave her. 

She shook her head, "You can't promise that."

"Yes, I can." Annabeth replied,

Selena turned towards her, "Don't, Annabeth. Don't promise that, please."

The blonde in front of her gave her a strange look, "Why?"

"Just trust me, Annie."