In Between Two Worlds (HP/PJO Crossover)

Chapter 16: We Become Known Fugitives.

I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.

The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!

The river raced toward us at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

And then: Flaaa-boooom!

A whiteout of bubbles. We sank through the murk, sure that we were about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.

But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly next to Percy. A catfish the size of Smelly Gabe lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage-beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags-swirled up all around us.

At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I was alive, which was good.

Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my shirt, it felt perfectly dry.

We looked at the garbage floating by and Percy snatched an old cigarette lighter.

No way, I thought.

He flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.

I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. Percy lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.

But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally. Poseidon had blessed me!

We stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like...well, a miracle. I thought I heard a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like Sally: Percy and Karlee, what do you say?

"Um...thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you, Poseidon."

Percy followed my lead."Thank you...Father

No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.

Why had Poseidon saved me? I wasn't even his child. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance. Those poor people in the Arch were probably toasted. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero.

Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above us, swirling the silt around.

There, not five feet in front of us was Percy's sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.

I heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in our heads. We weren't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like a dolphin sonar. Percy and I looked at each other.

"Where are you?" Percy called aloud.

Then, through the gloom, we saw her-a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like Percy's.