Rewind

Chapter 10: Fathers Revealed!

I sat by the stream with Theo, bored out of my mind and just watching Theo pull out the grass from the ground. Hopefully the dryads won't hold a grudge at Theo for destroying the grass.

We must have sat there for a good 45 minutes before we were surrounded by the Ares cabin, our team's blue flag in one of the older girls hands. They all had cocky smirks on their faces.

"Move, pipsqueaks," one guy said, snickering and snorting. He must think that he's so cool right now.

Theo and I gave each other the "Hades no" glance and we stood up, drawing our swords.

At our actions, the Ares cabin burst into laughter. "You think you can fight us? The two of you? What morons!" A different girl said, taking out two daggers.

"Let's team them a lesson, guys!"

And just like that, it was 10-15 Ares kids against me and my brother, Clarrise charging directly at me with her electric spear. I could've sworn that it was longer than I remembered.

Theo and I were fighting side to side, refusing to let the Ares pass the stream with our flag, slowly being pushed back into the stream by them. I've got to say, the Ares cabin was like a pack of bulls. Every time Theo and I knocked one of them down, they sprung back up and charged.

It wasn't long before Theo tripped fell back into the stream, the water around him tainting with the faintest hints of red. My side was throbbing painfully, but there was no way in Order that I would surrender when I still had a chance, no matter how small that chance was.

I shove away a giggling Ares girl and felt that familiar tug in my gut. Suddenly, I was floating a good two feet off of the ground, the Ares kids still standing floating with me. While I was in my element (literally), the other kids were waving their arms around wildly, cursing profoundly and spinning and flipping in their place, unable to navigate in a zero gravity environment.

My breathing got heavy and my heart started to beat furiously fast, my body slowly heating up. Something was different about using this power. It was . . . tiring, a lot more tiring now than when I was a son of Poseidon.

I felt something wet trickle onto my lip and reach up to wipe it away, red and gold blood staining my hand after.

Schist. Was using my power speeding up the process?

A sudden wave hit all of us, soaking us from head to toe and making me sputter unattractively as I choked on the river water.

I look behind me and see Theo back in the game, standing up with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he knocked out the floating chickens -ahem- Ares kids. I followed my brother's lead, snatching back the blue flag and letting Luke run past us and into the stream with the red flag. I don't think Luke fully processed what he was seeing when he saw knocked out Ares kids floating around, wet to the bone.

Chiron blew his whistle, galloping through the woods and toward me and Theo with bugging wide eyes, his hair his the usual wild, uncontrollable curls.

I held in a laugh when Chiron stopped in front of me and Theo, his jaw hanging a bit as he tried to descifer what he was seeing, looking from me, to Theo, to the Ares kids with a pale face.

Where's the camera when you need one?

My body was still heavy with heat and the grass around me was sizzling, wilting and turning brown. Theo even took a few steps away from me, giving me a curious glance.

Look at me! I'm a star! I'm a star!

Just kidding. I didn't sparkle or anything. It was just really fricken hot!

Thankfully, the heat was cooling down, and I noticed that I started cooling down as soon as I stopped using my powers.

This is really inconvenient.

"Blue team wins," Chiron began, scratching his beard with an uncertain look. All of a sudden, everyone let out a gasp, including Chiron.

That was something I've never seen him do before. Did this timeline make him more comical or what?

"All hail Theseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, earth-shaker, father of horses, god of the sea!" Chiron said, kneeling on his horse knees with a look of astonishment.

I was surprised that my father didn't claim me, too. This would have been a--

"All hail Perseus Jackson, son of the creator of the universe, heir of the Primortal, Chaos!"

--convenient time.