Child of lightning-Percy Jackson X reader-Book two

This is a pickle

"One on one," Percy suddenly challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"

Luke curled his lip and the soldiers who were about to kill us hesitated, waiting for his order.

Before he could respond though, Agrius came back onto the deck. Harshly leading a flying horse in front of him. It was the first pure-black pegasus I'd ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The pegasus kicked at the air and whinnied. I felt bad for the animal. Horses might not have loved me but that didn't change the fact that I loved them.

"Sir!" Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"

Good luck, I thought to myself. I doubted that Luke could even take off on that pegasus, let alone use it to chase around Clarisse.

Luke still kept his eyes on Percy. A chilling look glued to his face.

"I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."

"And you keep avoiding one," Percy noticed. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"

With that I lowered my voice and whispered, "Percy what are you doing? You can't take him alone."

He just met my eyes for a moment before turning his attention back to the fight at hand.

Luke glanced at his men, and it became clear that Percy had walked him into a corner. After all, if Luke turned Percy down now it would just make him look like a coward. Then again, he was still smart enough to realize what Percy was doing. If he engaged then he'd just be wasting time. Letting Clarisse get away.

On the other hand there was the obvious. Luke had been called the greatest sword fighter of this century. Percy was good too but...was he really good enough? If he hadn't been so stupid, if we had all just fought then maybe we'd get out of this okay. Why did he have to be so irrational?

Luke looked up in decision. "I'll kill you quickly."

With that he raised his weapon. Backbiter was a foot longer than my own sword. Its blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human stele had been melded with celestial bronze. I could almost feel the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing magnets bound together. I didn't know how the blade had even been made, but I sensed a tragedy. Someone must have died in the process. Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.

He grinned at Percy wickedly.

That's when it was my turn to be irrational.

I jumped in front of Percy and shouted. "Wait! Fight me!"

"Joey don't," Percy tried to pull me back but I shook out of his grasp.

"You want us both dead." I stated. "So fight me."

I don't know what I was expecting. I sucked with a sword so even if Luke did accept my offer it would all be over fairly quickly. That's the moment that it hit me, that maybe Annabeth was really right about my fatal flaw. It would have explained why I made rushed decisions in front of my friends. It would have explained my slight lack of self confidence...

I guess that didn't really matter though. Because right then Luke said something that shocked us all. "No, I can't."

I arched my brow in confusion. "W-what? Why not? Are you scared?"

"Scared of you?" He almost laughed. "No, I can't fight you because I told her I wouldn't."

That just bewildered me even more. "Told who? What are you talking about!"

With that my confusion had turned to anger. He was keeping something from me. I wasn't sure what it was or how he had learned to know it but I hated secrets. He definitely didn't have a right to keep one from me.