Chapter Text
Travis POV
Taking the book from Alex’s sister, I look at the chapter and grin.
“The party ponies!”
Connor meets my gaze, mischief flashing in his eyes.
“Boys. No.”
Katie shakes her head at both of us and we sigh but relent.
“Fine…”
“One on one,” I challenged Luke. “What are you afraid of?”… I could understand their thoughts. They were calling Agrius and Luke some names so bad Kheiron would’ve washed their muzzle out with saddle soap.
I tilt my head curiously.
“They?”
Alex shrugs.
“Well I didn’t wanna say ‘he’ or ‘she’ in case I ended up being wrong!”
“Sir!” Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof… “Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?”
Thalia groans, putting her head in her hands.
“Alex… you absolute idiot. You knew you were out of practice! You had to know you weren’t going to win this!”
The son of Poseidon shrugs.
“I needed to buy Clarisse time. This was the easiest way to do it.”
She sighs, running her hand through her hair.
“Alex. You could have died. It-“
“It would have been worth it, Thalia. If I died, it would have sucked, yeah, but it would’ve given Clarisse more distance between her and Luke, and Annabeth would have had time to come up with a plan.”
She frowns.
“Okay, but then what? You die, camp loses one of their leaders, one of their best fighters. Suddenly there’s no clear contender for the prophecy. Would that have been worth it?”
Alex meets her gaze.
“Would sacrificing myself to save my friends have been worth it? Thalia, you of all people should know that the answer to that is yes!”
Her wings flare with rage.
“Your death would never be worth it, Alex! You didn’t have to fight him! You could have just kept him talking!”
He shakes his head.
“You know just as well as I do that a fight was the only thing that would have kept him on that ship. Anyway, what’s done is done. It’s in the past now, Thalia. Let it go.”
She clenches her fists, her talons digging into the cushion under her.
“I don’t like it.”
Liam clears his throat softly and both of their eyes snap to him.
“Thalia. You don’t have to like it. No one’s asking you to like it. Alex just wants you to accept that it happened and that he made the choice that, to him, was the only available option.”
She lets out an angry chirp, but nods after a long moment.
“I… I can try to do that.”
Luke glanced at his men, and he saw I’d trapped him… Someone had died in the process.
Poseidon and Hades stiffen.
“That… that is truly his scythe…”
Demeter pales.
“We knew it was a possibility, especially given the way the last book ended, but…”
Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield… Now I was going to pay for not listening to him.
“I said it in the last book, I’ll say it again. No one appreciates my wisdom.”
“I do!”
Gods Annabeth is such a suck- up.
I look at Connor but have to quickly look away so I don’t burst out laughing because it’s obvious both of us are thinking the same thing.
Luke lunged and almost killed me on the first try. His sword went under my arm, slashing through my shirt and nearly grazing my ribs.
The Kronides pale, and I see Sally tense in fear.
Sally turns to Hestia, panic in her eyes.
“Hestia, please. Why… why is it so bad? Aside from the obvious?”
The eldest Olympian sighs. “My father’s scythe is one of the most feared weapons in our world for one specific reason. When it cuts someone, be it a demigod or immortal, it begins to rip the soul of the person away from their body. It tears them apart from the inside, destroys their soul on a spiritual level. If they die because of a wound caused by his scythe… there is no trace of them in the Underworld, or anywhere else. They're just... gone.”
I, along with every other demigod, freeze. From the looks all of us are giving each other, none of us were aware of that fact.
Hestia catches the looks on our faces, and frowns.
“Were you all not aware of this?”
My brother shakes his head.
“No. I… we all knew the scythe was bad, we knew even a light scratch would most likely kill us, but we didn’t know it could basically erase us from existence.”
The eldest Olympian stiffens and glares at Kheiron.
“Brother… make no mistake, this will be one of the things we talk about.”
I jumped back, then counterattacked with Riptide, but Luke slammed my blade away with his shield… He dropped to a crouch and jabbed at my legs.
Alex crumples onto the floor, his eyes screwed shut, and the Sea Fam instantly gathers around him.
“Apollo!”
The god of healing runs over, placing his hand on Alex’s head. Alex’s face relaxes the slightest bit, and Apollo lets out a sigh of relief.
“I knocked him out. But… continue reading. Now.”
I hurry to do what he says, not wanting Alex to suffer any more than he absolutely has to.
Suddenly my thigh was on fire, with a pain so intense I collapsed… I tried to stand, but my leg wouldn’t take the weight.
Patros… help.
Nothing happened for a moment, and I worried that he was angry at me for what happened with Polyphemus.
Then the sea erupted, and I felt myself being pulled into someone’s arms.
“Easy, Perseus. Breathe.”
“P… Patros?”
“Yes. Skýmnos.”
“Poseidon!”
I jerk my head up, and then freeze.
Because… the yell came from the direction I expected but not the person I expected.
Hera is on her feet, furious.
“You interfered?!”
He sighs loudly.
“Domain clause, Hera.”
Leo tilts his head, confused.
“Domain clause?”
Hephaestus glares at Kheiron.
“Ye dinnae tell my son abou’ the domain clause?”
Katie lets out a small cough and everyone looks at her.
“None of us found out from Kheiron. We all found out from various older campers.”
A lot of us glare at the centaur, who at least has the decency to look embarrassed.
“What’s the domain clause?”
I put down the book for a second, curious to know the answer.
“It allows gods to interfere in quests as long as it’s in their domain. There’s a bit more to it but I’ll explain later.”
Poseidon tilts his head.
“Also, even if the domain clause hadn’t been in effect, I would have come for Alex anyway. I didn’t know what he had been cut by, I didn’t realize Castellan truly had Father’s scythe, I thought he at most only had a sliver of it, but you know just as well as I the damage that even a sliver can do, sister.”
Hera goes to say something, but I quickly look back at the book and keep reading.
Bampás let out a sharp laugh as a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal hit my ears and a dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.
Demeter tilts her head in confusion.
“Po, why didn’t you take Alex under the sea immediately?”
He sighs.
“Because I knew this little menace wouldn’t cooperate unless he knew his companions were safe. So, we stayed and watched.”
“Ponies!” Tyson cried with delight… A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either side.
Leo gets a wild look in his eyes, and Hazel shakes her head.
“No. Babe, we are not letting you meet the Party Ponies.”
They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that for a moment even Luke was stunned… Facing the hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but when it’s a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat.
I nod.
“Absolutely true.”
“Come get some!” yelled one of the party ponies… Kheiron galloped toward Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back before calling for his brethren to retreat.
Satisfied that my friends were safe, I let myself succumb to unconciousnesss.
I don’t bother trying to give the book to someone else. I just turn the page.