chapter twelve

─── i question my sanity because we're taking advice from a poodle

          𝔖leeping outside of the cold hard floor, after it had just rained, with no fire and soggy clothes was terrible and demoralising. Especially when you still felt sick. I was so sure that my stomach twisting and the chattering of my teeth would draw every monster to us.

Finally, I gave in and sat up.

"You alright?" A heavy jacket hit my shoulders, and suddenly I was cocooned in warmth. I pushed the hood off of my head, looking around to watch as Luke sat down next to me, left in his hoodie and jeans. Slowly, I began to stop shivering. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." I muttered. "I killed someone."

"Andi...I know that you feel like you blame yourself. But, she wasn't a human being. She was a monster and a dangerous one at that." Luke sighed. "You did the right thing."

"Does it get easier?" Grover snored next to us as I stared up at the stars.

"The first time is hard, but after that, it get's better." Luke shrugged. "It's not murder if you're saving others."

"Who told you that?"

"I made it. When I was younger." Luke shook his head. "I've killed a lot of monsters in my time. But it gets easier, I promise."

He shot me a warm look, a half-smile playing on his face as I nodded and pulled his coat tighter around me. The wind picked up and I subconsciously shuffled closer to Luke to steal more of his body warmth. 

"How do we speak with Hades?"

"I don't know." Luke shook his head. He didn't seem to notice as his fingers brushed against mine, but I was sure I was bright red.

"And what chance do we have against a god?" I hoped my words didn't trip over themselves as his thumb began to trace circles across the back of my hand.

"Look, Annabeth has an idea, and I agree with her. She and Grover figured something out whilst you were searching Medusa's office," Luke began, as my eyes narrowed and I looked between Grover, Annabeth and Luke again, something clicking in my head. They were all so close, there must be a reason.

"Were you guys Grover's first assignment?" Luke paled, before shaking his head.

"Let's not talk about it." His fingers started to interlace with mine, distracting me from my thoughts. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."

"What? Apart from the fact that I'm being blamed for stealing something I didn't steal?" Luke winced, shaking his head.

"No, something else," He replied. "The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy...why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."

"I'd beg to differ."

"They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'" Luke replied, tightening his grip. The metal of his rings was freezing against my hand, and he started to drum his fingers onto my palm.

"Maybe they were asking about me?" I was staring at our hands, praying that my cheeks weren't bright red. How was he so casual about this?

"Maybe...but Annabeth, Grover and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it ?' They seemed to be asking about an object."

"Got to love objectification." I looked up at him, finding the start of a smirk on his face. "What?"

"I can let go of your hand if it's distracting you so much." He joked. "Thought you'd said you were able to handle my flirting."

"I'm perfectly capable of thinking straight." I smiled, before shuffling closer so that I could rest my head in his lap. It was his turn to freeze, staring down at me with wide eyes as I winked. "How you holding up, Luke?"

"I think we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt...." He chewed on his lips, stumbling over his words, and I could feel his fingers twitching. Then, I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. 

Is it too early to consider death as an option to get out of this responsibility?

"I haven't been straight with you," I told Luke slowly, as he looked down at me, his other hand detangling the end of my ponytail. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go on this quest so I could bring back my mother."

Luke smiled softly, squeezing my hand gently once more. "I know you did, Andi."

"You did?"

"You talk so highly about your mom that I knew your first thought would be getting her back." Luke shrugged. "But are you sure that's the only reason?"

"I'm not doing it to please my dad." I shook my head. "I mean, yeah, I care about his opinion but suddenly I've got a dad and that doesn't solve all of my problems from the last seventeen years."

"I get it, Andi." Luke nodded. Sometimes I did forget that he'd been in the exact same both of me, raised without his father who had turned out to be an Olympian god. "You're happy that your dad claimed you, that you finally know why things have been odd all your life and you want to make him proud. It's understandable. I wanted to do the same thing to impress my dad when he sent me on my quest."

"But how can I hope to make him proud when I know of all the bad things he's done in his life? With all the stories and mythology?" I shook my head. "At points, the gods just seem evil."

"They're gods." Luke shrugged. "We can remember and call out the bad, but some of things they did was 3,000 years in the past. It shouldn't be on us, who weren't there, to be apologising for their sins. That's their job to atone, not ours. Don't take on the burden of what your father has done."

I let that process, shuffling until I could stare at the stars once more.

"We're gonna be fine, Andi." Luke tilted my face so that I was looking at him. "We're gonna save your mom, prove you're a worthy daughter of Poseidon and get the Master Bolt to the Winter Solstice."

"You think we can do it?"

"I know we can." I scratched at my chest, were the scars from the hellhound sat, before nodding my head. "Go on, sleep. I'll take first watch."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." I went to take his coat off, but he shook his head, wrapping it back around me as I drifted off to sleep, still clinging onto Luke's hand like a lifeline.

In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Grey mist creatures churned all around me, tugging at my clothes and trying to pull me away from the chasm. I knew they were warning me, but I had to step closer.

Looking down made me dizzy, even though I didn't have a fear of heights.

The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that some-thing was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.

The little heroine, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.

The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead and I was not liking the spooky vibe of this place.

They have misled you, girl, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.

A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, as I stumbled back. I tried to call for her, but I could barely breathe let alone make a sound.

Cold laughter echoed from the chasm. An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.

Help me rise, girl. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!

The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!

The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me. I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.

Good, it murmured. Good.

Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!

Someone was shaking me gently.

My eyes snapped open, and it was daylight.

"Well," Annabeth was leaning over me, hands on her hips and a slight scowl on her face, "she lives."

I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. I groaned, rubbing my head, as Luke helped me sit up. He was in the exact same position as when I had fallen asleep the night before, but he didn't look tired. "How long was I asleep?"

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast," Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavoured corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."

My eyes had trouble focusing. Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal. No. It wasn't a stuffed animal.

It was a pink poodle.

The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, she's not."

I blinked. "Are you...Are you talking to the thing?"

The poodle growled, as Luke laughed and took his coat back from me, pulling it on. I could guess that the coat was probably the reason for Annabeth's glare.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored the question. "Romy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Romy."

I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious. I turned to raise an eyebrow at Luke, who nodded as well and I sighed.

"This is weirder than the time I got crazy drunk on vodka and had to get my stomach pumped," I murmured, as Luke turned around to look at me slowly, his eyes narrowing. "Hello Gladiola. It's nice to meet you."

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Grover could talk to a poodle.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Of course," I said. "Silly me. Should have known."

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. From there onto Hades. Simple."

"It's a solid plan," Luke nodded his head in thought, as I thought about my dream—the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.

"Not another bus," I said warily, as the others nodded.

"No," Annabeth agreed. She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west-bound train leaves at noon."

"Let's get to it then."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

Luke and Andi are so cute and she fell asleep on his lap and he gave her a jacket to keep her warm and that's sooooooo adorable. I've also just realised that Luke and Andi's ship dynamic is tired and in love with a chaotic dumbass x chaotic dumbass

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx