Chapter Text
Percy Jackson’s POV
The evening tide lapped at our bare feet like an old friend and the salt-kissed breeze carrying the last warmth of the day as the sun dipped below the horizon. Montauk had always been my sanctuary, but tonight, with Simon beside me, it felt like something more—like the world had finally stopped holding its breath.
I glanced at him. The fading light caught the scar on his cheek, the way his golden-brown hair tangled in the wind and the glint in his blue eyes. He looked so much like Luke so much so, I kept forgetting they weren’t related, (Well, not biologically at least) it sometimes made my chest ache—not just with guilt, but with something sharper, something that whispered, You could’ve saved him too.
But tonight?
Tonight, the resemblance didn’t twist me up inside. There was just the sea, the sky, and Simon’s quiet presence grounding me like an anchor.
Things had started to settle—or at least, they’d stopped crumbling for five damn minutes. Simon’s hands still trembled sometimes when he reached for things, like his body hadn’t caught up with the fact that the world wasn’t ending anymore. But he was healing. Slowly. Stubbornly. The way demigods—or in his case, Animalgam shifters—always did.
I slid an arm around his waist, pulling him closer. He tensed, just for a heartbeat, before leaning into the touch. A tired smirk tugged at his lips.
“You’re staring,” he murmured, nudging me with his shoulder. “Either I’ve got seaweed on my face, or you’re about to say something stupid.”
I grinned, even as something twisted in my chest. “Can’t it be both?”
He huffed a laugh, but his eyes stayed fixed on the darkening waves. “Slipped out of L.A.I.R. again,” he admitted before I could ask. “Mother and Malcolm are buried in meetings with the other leaders. Easier to disappear when they’re busy playing politics.”
I still remembered the day Simon had told me about L.A.I.R.—the Leading Animalgam Institute for the Remarkable, hidden under Central Zoo. A secret academy for animal shifters that he’d been attending since Simon was twelve after our first quest.
At first, I’d almost laughed—but then again, I’d fought gods, titans, and giants. Different mythologies existed. Why not this?
“Hey, Seaweed Brain. Birdie.”
I groaned. I hated that nickname.
Simon, though? He kind of liked Birdie. Keyword: Kind of. Simon told me that Luke had given him that name after knowing him for a few days—the reason? No one knows, not even Simon himself. Luke had spun so many stories of its origins, no one knew what was true and a lie.
Now it felt… weird.
He was the Bird Prince—Orion Sky’s heir—and something called a Hybred, an Animalgam of two species. Mrs Thorn was a golden eagle. His father, they say, was a wolf—at least, that’s what’s known to the public.
Thalia dropped down beside me with a grunt, the sand shifting under her boots. She nodded at Simon, who offered a small smile, his fingers absently twisting the edge of his camp necklace.
“Thought you were with Artemis,” I said.
She shook her head. “Not a chance. She’s with dear old dad right now, and…” She didn’t finish, but she didn’t need to.
The water churned slightly in response to my irritation, and Thalia shot me a knowing look. Simon let out a soft chirp—his default sound when he was tired and annoyed—and Thalia snorted in agreement.
Then, Nico appeared and plopped down cross-legged next to us, brushing sand off his black jeans. I ruffled his hair, and he swatted at me, grumbling.
Thalia rolled her eyes but looped an arm around my back, tugging me into her side. Nico sprawled in the sand beside us, nearer to Simon, and for once, we just… were. Just kids, under a sky full of waking stars.
Then—without warning—everything vanished in a flash of light.