chapter fourty-four

─── at my core, i'm a hater

          𝔗he old man hadn't gone far from where we'd left him, sitting on a picnic bench and eating a plate of greasy food, his weed whacker at his side. Both Hazel and Frank tensed up on either side of me.

"Welcome back!" He called cheerfully. "I hear the flutter of nervous little wings."

"She's here." I agreed, nodding reassuringly at Ella. She had to put a lot of trust in me, and I knew she was terrified but she had to believe in me for this. "But she's not yours."

Phineas sucked the grease off his fingers, eyes staring straight at me even though I knew he couldn't. It was disconcerting in a sense, for him to know where I was with pinpoint accuracy from a few sentences alone. I wondered what he was like in a fight.

"I see..." The way he said it didn't sit right with me, cruelty dripping from his words. "Have you come to kill me, then? A helpless old man? If so, good luck completing your quest." 

"I've come to gamble." The old man's mouth twitched, putting down the food and leaning towards me. 

"A gamble, how interesting. Information in exchange for the harpy? Winner takes all...?" I could see the gears in his brain whirring.

"No." I shook my head. "The harpy isn't part of the deal."

Phineas laughed at me.

"Really? Perhaps you do not understand her value."

"She is a person. That is value enough." I stopped him. "And she is not for sale."

"Oh please! You're from the Roman camp, aren't you? Tell me, how do you think Rome was built." Phineas spat. "Do not go and get all high and mighty with me. And human? Barely. She is a monster. A wind spirit, a minor minion of the king of the gods."

Ella whimpered, fluttering backwards as Hazel reached for her hand, squeezing gently. Frank stayed beside me, gripping onto his spear tightly, as if ready in a moment to strike the man down.

"I have a different wager." I carried on. "We've got two flasks of gorgon's blood. One kills. One heals. They look exactly the same. Even we cannot tell the difference. If you choose the right one, well, let's just think of what that could cure for you." 

Phineas almost launched towards me, hands outstretched.

"Let me feel them." He snatched, as I darted backwards. "Let me smell them."

"No. First, you agree to the terms." I held them behind me, as Frank shot me a nervous look.

"Terms..." Phineas was breathing shallowly, as if itching to start gambling with me. "Prophecy and sight, I would be unstoppable. I could own this city, build my palace here and I wouldn't need some useless demigod, I could capture the harpy myself."

"No, no, no..." Ella shook her head, trying to back away as Phineas cackled.

"Very well, girl. What are your terms?" He said it so condescendingly that I considered cutting his tongue out, but he needed to tell us the location.

"You get to choose a vial." I offered, doing a pretty good job at hiding my annoyance in my humble opinion. "No uncorking, no sniffing before you decide."

"That's not fair."

"I never said it was fair. It's a gamble." I grinned. "You can hold the vials. And I'll swear on the River Styx that they look identical and I haven't tampered with them. River Styx oath is still binding, I'd imagine. Hazel?"

"Yes." Hazel nodded, shooting me a panicked look. She was asking me whether I was sure that this was a good idea. But I knew what I was doing, I think.

"I choose which vial to drink. You have to drink the other one. We swear to drink at the same time." Phineas confirmed.

"Right." I nodded. 

"The loser dies, obviously." Phineas said, and for some reason, I wasn't even scared that I would die. If it came down to it, I doubted there was another version of me running around and I seemed pretty useful. I wondered if that curse I had extended to poison. "That kind of poison would probably keep me from coming back to life for a long time at least. My essence would be scattered and degraded, so I'm risking quite a lot."

"But if you win, well, you said it, you'd be unstoppable." He seemed to puff his chest at that, thinking of what he would do if he won. "If I die, my friends will swear to leave you in peace and not take revenge. You have your sight back, think of all the things you could do."

He was almost there, one more push and he'd agree.

"If I lose," The old man was still trying to find excuses. "I'll be dead, unable to give you the information. How does that help you?"

"Write it down, the location of Alcyoneus' lair ahead of time. Keep it to yourself, but swear that it's specific and accurate on the Styx. You also swear that if you lose, the harpies will be released from their curse."

"Those are high stakes." Phineas grumbled. "You face death, Andromeda Jackson. Wouldn't it be simpler just to hand over the harpy?"

"I don't dabble in slavery." I shook my head. 

"So, you are starting to understand her worth. Once I have my sight, I'll capture her myself you know." Got him. Hook, line and sinker. "This gamble will make me a king ahead."

"Do we have a deal?" Phineas tapped his nose thoughtfully.

"I can't foresee the outcome. Annoying how that works." He sighed. "A completely unexpected gamble...it makes the future cloudy. But I can tell you this, Andromeda Jackson, a bit of free advice, if you survive today, you won't like the future. A big sacrifice is coming, and you will not have the courage to make it. It'll cost you everything."

I didn't let his words scare me, squaring my shoulder and glaring down my nose at him.

"If I were you, I'd pick the poison."

I could feel Frank and Hazel's eyes on me, studying me, but I hadn't told them that I had a plan.

"Do we have a deal?"

"I swear onthe River Styx, to abide by the terms, just as you have described them. Frank Zhang, you are the descendant of an Argonaut, and a man. I trust your word." Frank looked horrified and annoyed. "If I win, do you and the little girl swear to leave me in peace and not seek revenge?"

Frank looked like he was about to snap his spear.

"I swear it on the River Styx." Frank grumbled out, and I stopped Hazel from swearing too. We didn't need everyone making promises on the Styx.

"In that case, find me something to write with girl. Let's get started." Frank stopped Hazel, stomping off to borrow a napkin and pen from a vendor. Phineas scribbled something on the napkin and put it in his bathrobe pocket. "I swear the location of Alcyoneus' lair is written and placed in my pocket. Not that you'll live long enough to read it."

I swept the food to the side, sitting opposite Phineas. 

"Let me feel the vials." I obliged him, before staring past the man to the trees, the wind going through it, and the hills in the distance. Now, the question here was who was more important, me or the seer?

I let the old man feel it, leaning back in a relaxed manner. I would walk out of this alive. I knew that I would, because I was needed by both the gods and Phineas' patron. They would not allow me to die. He set the vials in the middle of the table, placing a hand over each as a tremor passed through the ground. It didn't scare me. 

Phineas grinned wickedly. He closed his fingers around the left-hand vial.

"You were a fool, Andromeda Jackson. I choose this one, now we drink." I picked the right vial up, uncorking it as the old man did.

"A toast, to the children of Neptune."

"Let us see who's dad's favourite." I smiled at him, before we both downed it. Immediately, a burning slid down my throat, gasoline coating my tongue and clogging my windpipe.

"Oh gods." Hazel tried to reach for me.

"No!" Ella shook her head as I doubled over, clutching at my stomach.

"Yes!" Phineas was grinning in triumph, sitting up straighter, blinking his eyes in anticipation. "I win."

I laughed, the pain starting to lessen. Phineas looked unnerved at that.

"I won."

"Romy?" Frank reached for me as my vision cleared and my throat opened. Taking a deep breath, I watched as Phineas darted upright, grasping onto his throat. He began to choke, his face going white, to red, to purple.

"No!" I stood up, as Phineas screamed. Frank and Hazel both watched on in horror. "You tricked me."

"I won fair and square." I watched as he tried to claw the piece of paper from his pocket, but he began to crumble, steadily turning to sand. I had predicted right. I was too powerful a pawn for the gods to lose. My memory hadn't returned, but the pain had stopped.

"No one tricked you." I reminded him. "You made your choice freely, and I hold you to that oath. Tell your patron I said thank you."

The blind king wailed in agony, disintegrating until there was nothing left of him but the old, stained bathrobe and a pair of bunny slippers.

"Those are the worst spoils of war ever." Frank muttered, as I got my lighter out, setting the slippers on fire. "Romy!"

Scraping some of the food into the fire, I knelt down.

"Thank you, dad." I stood back up, looking around as the wind seemed to curl around me, putting the fire out in an instance, and tugging at my hair.

A dangerous game, Andromeda Jackson. The voice was cold, though I sensed some admiration in there. You forced me to choose. When your death comes, I will make it more painful than gorgon's blood. 

It wasn't the first time I'd been promised a horrible death I think.

"That was either the bravest thing I've ever seen, or the stupidest." Hazel slammed into my back, hugging me tightly as I snapped out of watching the wind, grinning at her.

"Romy, how did you know?" Frank turned to me, eyes wide. "You were so confident he'd choose the poison."

"They went through all the trouble of kidnapping me, wiping my memories, getting me to Camp Jupiter and onto this quest, you think the gods would allow me to die before they had their use of me?" I questioned them, patting Frank's shoulder. "I'm important. To both their plans and the enemies."

"The patron would rather her own servant die than you?" Frank looked, in horror, at the remains ahead of him. "That was your bet."

"I bet on myself." I told Frank, grinning. "It works every time."

Ella was circling, squealing in joy, as I grabbed a whole bag of jerky from my bag, holding it up for her to grab.

"Phineas, nope. Food and words for Ella, yep!" She giggled, beaming as I crouched by the bathrobe, using Riptide to open the pocket and grabbing the note.

"Hubbard glacier." All that risk for two words. I shook my head, standing and handing it to Hazel.

"I know where this is." Hazel nodded. "It's pretty famous. But we've got a long, long way to go."

All around us, the harpies seemed to overcome their shock, diving towards the food vans to raid it as we watched on.

"Let's get back to the boat." I urged the others on, as shouts began to sound. "We're running out of time."

They started on ahead, as I shrugged my pack over my shoulder. Turning round, I spat to the side.

"May your soul never know peace." I muttered, making a claw gesture with my three fingers and directing it at the bathrobe. I hoped there was a special place in hell for this man.

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, Andi is both cocky and spiteful simultaneously. We all hate Phineas in this house, Hazel and Frank are sweethearts and I love Ella so much, she's so cute. Sorry, I know updates have been weird, I had two exams last Monday and have two more Monday and Tuesday, so am a bit all over the place with revision and work. Hope this was alright.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx