𝒊𝒊. 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆

𝒙𝒊.

Percy woke on the lifeboat, Noelle sitting across from him. All the belongings she'd salvaged were on the floor of the boat between them.

Percy tried to sit up, but his head felt dizzy as he did.

"Rest," Noelle said, her voice raspy as if she had been crying. "You'll need it."

Percy didn't listen. When he sat up he noticed the tear tracks on his girlfriend's face. Clutched tightly in her hands was Annabeth's Yankee cap.

"Annabeth...?" Percy asked, referring to the cap in Noelle's hands.

"She was on the other boat," Noelle croaked. "We got separated."

"And Tyson?"

Noelle shook her head. "I didn't see him come up. You know, there's a chance both of them are alive. Tyson's immune to fire and Annabeth is the most resourceful person I know."

Percy nodded, but he felt she was saying it to reassure herself more than him.

They sailed for hours. Now that they were in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too— as if a thunderstorm were coming. Or something even more dangerous. Percy knew exactly what direction they needed to go. He knew they were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of their destination. But that didn't make him feel any less lost.

No matter which way they turned, the sun seemed to shine straight into their eyes. They took turns sipping from the Dr. Pepper, shading themselves with the sail as best they could. And they talked about Percy's latest dream of Grover.

Noelle wasn't as smart as Annabeth, but she figured her blond best friend would've come to the same conclusion as her. That conclusion being that they had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover, summing Percy's dream was accurate, and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn't change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier.

"Yeah," Percy said bitterly. "You can never trust a Cyclops."

Noelle stared at the cap in her hands. "Percy, Annabeth knows she was wrong about Tyson. She would tell him if she could."

Percy had looked at the rest of their possessions, now only being the empty wind thermos and bottle of multivitamins.

"Noelle, what's Chiron's prophecy?"

She pursed her lips. "Percy, I shouldn't—"

"I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell me. But you didn't promise, did you?"

"Knowledge isn't always good for you."

"Says the girl whose read the entirety of the books in the Big House."

"Percy, every time a hero learns the future, they try to change it, and it never works."

"The gods are worried about something I'll do when I get older," Percy guessed. "Something when I turn eighteen."

Noelle twisted the Yankees cap in her hands. "Percy, I don't know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three— the next one who lives to the age of eighteen. That's the real reason Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three who reaches eighteen will be a dangerous weapon."

"Why?"

"Because that hero will decide the fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods, or destroys it."

Percy let that sink in. He didn't usually get seasick, but suddenly he felt ill. "That's why Kronos didn't kill me last summer."

Noelle nodded. "You could be very useful to him. If he can get you on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble."