When Two Worlds Collide | pjo & fhdw ✔︎

Chapter 23

chapter twenty three - p e r c y

On the lawn, Kendra, Seth, Warren, and Sehvi returned with a new woman and slender, sky-high man.

"Percy, meet Bai and Daveigh," Warren said.

"I prefer Dave," the slender man said as Bai curtsied.

"Where is everyone else?" Kendra asked.

"Inside," I admitted. "It was getting stuffy, so I came outside."

"Well let's go inside to confer with everyone," Warren started forward.

"I prefer the open air," Dave stayed where he was as Bai shot him a death glare.

"Okay, well then, I guess we'll set up out at the pond," Warren conceded. "Percy, can you get the others?"

"Sure," I said, eyeing Dave.

"Oh, may you also fetch a chair?" Dave asked, "I prefer to sit."

"No," I ground my teeth. "We aren't a hotel."

"Percy," Warren warned.

"No he's right," Bai said. "It wouldn't kill Daveigh not to act like a snobby jerk for once."

"Wow," Dave said. "And you wonder why we broke up?"

"Oh, I was the problem?"

Saving my ears, I left the discussion. Within minutes, I returned with Annabeth, Stan, Ruth, and a chair. The chair was for me.

"We're meeting out here?" Stan had asked me as we walked out.

"Per request."

"By who?"

"You'll see."

-

"I brought lemonade," Stan offered as we conversed in one of the gazebos lining the pond.

"Actually, I prefer sw--"

Bai cuffed him on the ear. "Be grateful for once."

Seth, Annabeth, and Ruth asked for some. Sehvi said she had helped us enough and then preceded to walk into the trees.

"To start off, how many Wardens are there?" Warren asked.

"Five originally. Only three left. One turned murderous, we had to eliminate her. Another engaged in a fight with Daveigh. Unfortunately, Daveigh was who survived," Bai informed. "Chrysie took the gem of the former and Daveigh of the latter."

"So we have three gems and Chrysie has two. Her own and the other woman's," Percy verified.

"Correct."

"We need Chrysie's two gem-keys to take down the barrier properly," Grandma Sorenson said. "How will we get those?"

Bai's eyes darkened. "I might have an idea."

b a i

I shrugged off hidden knives and small guns. Where I'm heading, they won't matter. The weapons would be stripped of me the moment I step in Chrysie's palace and would raise suspicion. The only weapons I can use are the ones around me.

I've assassinated many people over the years, its true, but somehow going into this one felt different. It's definitely going to be my final assassination. Maybe that's why I feel weird.

It's also an interesting assassination—Chrysie's palace is in the dream realm. I patted my pocket to make sure I had the key on me. You can only enter if you have a key.

Chrysie gave me one a long time ago. We did use to do everything together. She's like a sister.

But she needs to go. I can't have her go through with destroying the barrier without all the gems. It'll unravel the magic. And you know what happens when large amounts of magic are suddenly free.

Ka-boom.

With that in mind, I laid down on the couch and soon fell asleep.

I woke up in front of a gleaming, gold castle. Well, if you can wake up in a dream. Besides the castle, white nothingness went in all directions.

I pushed open the door. There were no guards nor locks. There were only two keys anyway. It was just made for us.

I found Chrysie in the living room with a lay-out of Fablehaven. Her former furiously-workig hands stilled.

"You dare come to our castle." She didn't take her eyes off the the replica but her mouth snarled.

I didn't answer and she moved quickly to press a golden blade up against my throat. "Answer me!"

I couldn't because I couldn't breathe, I'd like to tell her. But I settled for the next best thing and unfurled my hand, revealing my silver gem-key.

"You...you didn't really join them against me. Oh, Bai."

I hugged her back and felt her tears fall down my back.
"Shh, it's okay."

She pulled back and smiled. "I'll go get some wine and appetizers and I'll tell you the plan."

The plan was horrific. To fill in the missing gemstones, a blood sacrifice was required. Demigods and mortals. Now I understand why she led the demigods to the preserve and let them in. Which shouldn't be possible without dark magic, by the way. The blast from using dark magic sacrifices to break the barrier will hurt so much more. Chrysie expects the number to be in the millions. She assured me it didn't matter. We'd be long gone anyway.

As we talked, I slowly crafted a silver knife behind my back. It took a lot of effort out of me to create silver out of nothing and it showed. Chrysie asked if I was okay and I said I might've picked up a cold from the humans and then she started talking about the horrid time she had the black plague but couldn't die.

The double-edged knife was almost complete. I hesitated. She's my closest friend. Am I really about to murder her for strangers? I steeled my nerves. I signed up for this. When I took that oath as a Warden, it included keeping the others in line. I'm part of the only two who can even scratch her.

"Chrysie," I stopped her mid-sentence. "You got something on your face. Here, let me get it."

"Really? I tried to be careful, but you know me, I'm pretty messy with food."

I didn't laugh as my throat was tight. I leaned forward, with one hand brushing away crumbs, and used the other to arc upward and through her heart. The silver dagger embedded itself in her and her eyes seemed to say "How could you? We were all we had." Her body turned to stone, but not before a tear escaped her eyes. I'm sorry I mouthed as the stone turned to dust and left a gold nugget and a rough, raw diamond.

I took a step backward and collapsed to the ground. I started to hyperventilate as my tears made trails down my face.

I hope it was worth it, the gem-keys seemed to taunt.

It wasn't.

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We're almost to the end. I'm predicting two more chapters!

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