gone girl.
━━━ chapter seventeen

❀

Annabeth handed Percy the parchment and he began to read the Prophecy. Around him, everyone went quiet. "A half-blood of the eldest dogs..."

"Er, Percy?" Annabeth interrupted. "That's gods, not dogs."

"Oh, right," he said. He was clearly so nervous that it affected his reading. It happened a lot to Amaryllis as well, one of the many wonders of being a demigod with dyslexia. "A half-blood of the eldest gods... shall reach sixteen against all odds..."

He hesitated. Amaryllis remembered how she felt the first time she heard the Prophecy. Hades insisted that she should know what she was dealing with from the start, so he had shown it to both her and Nico. It wasn't one of the good memories.

"And see the world in endless sleep... the hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap."

"Percy," Chiron urged. "Read the rest."

"A single choice shall... shall end their days. Olympus to per-pursue-"

"Preserve," Annabeth said gently. "It means to save."

"I know what it means," he grumbled. "Olympus to preserve or raze."

The room was silent. Finally Connor Stoll said, "Raise is good, isn't it?"

"Not raise," Silena said. Her voice was hollow, but Amaryllis was startled to hear her speak at all. "R-a-z-emeans destroy."

"Obliterate," Annabeth said. "Annihilate. Turn to rubble."

Percy looked like he wanted to throw up. "Got it, thanks."

Everybody was looking at him - with concern, or pity, or maybe a little fear. Amaryllis thought it was cruel to make Percy read the prophecy that they all thought meant that he was going to die in front of other people. When Amaryllis had first read it, she remembered sobbing at the realization that she was going to die. Of course, time had passed, so she had accepted it. She was a daughter of Hades after all, what kind of fate would be more suitable for her rather than death?

But Percy didn't know anything about Hades' plan. He didn't know that Amaryllis was planning on being the hero of the Prophecy. He thought he was the only child of the Big Three that it could be referring to, he thought he was going to be the one to die.

Chiron gazed at him sadly. The guy was three thousand years old - he'd seen hundreds of heroes die. He might not like it, but he was used to it and he knew better than to try to reassure him.

"Percy," Annabeth said softly. "You know prophecies always have double meanings. It might not literally mean you die."

"Sure," he said. "A single choice shall end his days. That has tons of meanings, right?"

"Maybe we can stop it," Jake offered. Amaryllis looked at him curiously. "The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. Maybe we could find this cursed blade and destroy it. Sounds like Kronos's scythe, right?"

"Perhaps we should let Percy think about these lines," Chiron said. "He needs time-"

"No." He folded up the prophecy and shoved it into his pocket angrily. "I don't need time. If I die, I die. I can't worry about that, right?"

Annabeth's hands were shaking a little and Amaryllis wouldn't meet his eyes. She knew how he felt better than anyone and it was breaking her heart that she couldn't tell him the truth, to reassure him.

"Let's move on," Percy said. "We've got other problems. We've got a spy."

Michael Yew scowled. "A spy?"

Percy explained what had happened on the Princess Andromeda - how Kronos had known him and Beckendorf were coming, how he'd shown him the silver scythe pendant he'd used to communicate with someone at camp. Silena started to cry again, and Amaryllis put an arm around her shoulders.

"Well," Connor Stoll said uncomfortably, "we've suspected there might a spy for years, right? Somebody kept passing information to Luke - like the location of the Golden Fleece a couple of years ago. It must be somebody who knew him well," he let his eyes drift to Amaryllis, "or someone who has been known to disappear at random times with no reason."

Amaryllis' eyes widened. "Are you suggesting that I'm the spy, Connor?" she said angrily, though her expression was hurt. She knew that her secret meetings with Nico would appear to be suspicious, but she couldn't believe that someone would actually accuse her of siding with Kronos. If they knew that she was a child of Hades, they probably wouldn't even question it.

"You've been away from Camp for four years and now you're back and you're just-"

Michael didn't let him finish before grabbing him from the shirt. "Watch what you're saying about my sister, Stoll."

Connor's brother, Travis, tried to pull him away, but Michael pushed him. "And maybe it's one of you. You're Luke's siblings after all," Katie chimed in.

"Stop!" Silena banged the table so hard her hot chocolate spilled. "Charlie's dead and... and you'reall arguing like little kids!" She put her head down and began to sob. Hot chocolate trickled off the Ping-Pong table.

Everybody looked ashamed."She's right," Pollux said at last. "Accusing each other doesn't help. We need to keep our eyes open for a silver necklace with a scythe charm. If Kronos had one, the spy probably does too."

Michael grunted. "We need to find this spy before we plan our next operation. Blowing up the Princess Andromeda won't stop Kronos forever."

"No indeed," Chiron said. "In fact his next assault is already on the way."

Percy scowled. "You mean the 'bigger threat' Poseidon mentioned?"

The centaur and Annabeth looked at each other like, It's time. "Percy," Chiron said, "we didn't want to tell you until you returned to camp. You needed a break with your... mortal friends."

Percy glanced at Amaryllis, but she pretended to suddenly be very interested at the design of the rec room door. "Tell me what happened," he said.

Chiron picked up a bronze goblet from the snack table. He tossed water onto the hot plate where they usually melted nacho cheese. Steam billowed up, making a rainbow in the fluorescent lights. Chiron fished a golden drachma out of his pouch, tossed it through the mist, and muttered, "O Iris, Goddess ofthe Rainbow, show us the threat." The mist shimmered and Amaryllis saw the image of a smoldering volcano; Mount St. Helens. As they watched, the side of the mountain exploded. Fire, ash, and lava rolled out. A newscaster's voice wassaying "-even larger than last year's eruption, and geologists warn that the mountain may not be done."

Amaryllis knew that Percy was the one that had caused last year's eruption. It was how he had ended up in Ogygia. But this explosion was much worse - the mountain tore itself apart, collapsing inward, and an enormous form rose out of the smoke and lava like it was emerging from a manhole. Amaryllis hoped the Mist would keep the humans from seeing it clearly, because what she saw would've caused panic and riots across the entire United States. The giant was bigger than anything she had ever encountered. Even her demigod eyes couldn't make out itsexact form through the ash and fire, but it was vaguely humanoid and so huge it could've used the Chrysler Building as a baseball bat. The mountain shook with a horrible rumbling, as if the monster were laughing.

"It's him," Percy said. "Typhon."

Chiron nodded. "The most horrible monster of all, the biggest single threat the gods ever faced. He has been freed from under the mountain at last. But this scene is from two days ago. Here is what is happening today." He waved his hand and the image changed. They saw a bank of storm clouds rolling across the Midwest plains. Lightning flickered. Lines of tornadoes destroyed everything in their path — ripping up houses and trailers, tossing cars around like King Kong.

"Monumental floods," an announcer was saying. "Five states declared disaster areas as the freakstorm system sweeps east, continuing its path of destruction." The cameras zoomed in on a column ofstorm bearing down on some Midwest city. Inside the storm they could see thegiant — just small glimpses of his true form: a smoky arm, a dark clawed hand the size of a city block. His angry roar rolled across the plains like a nuclear blast. Other smaller forms darted through the clouds, circling the monster. They saw flashes of light, and I realized the giant was trying to swat them. Amaryllis squinted and thought she saw a golden chariot flying into the blackness. Then some kind of huge bird — a monstrous owl — dived in to attack the giant.

"Are those... the gods?" Amaryllis asked.

"Yes, Amaryllis," Chiron said. "They have been fighting him for days now, trying to slow him down. But Typhon is marching forward - toward New York. Toward Olympus."

"How long until he gets here?" Percy asked.

"Unless the gods can stop him? Perhaps five days. Most of the Olympians are there... except your father, who has a war of his own to fight."

"But then who's guarding Olympus?"

Connor Stoll shook his head. "If Typhon gets to New York, it won't matter who's guarding Olympus."

"It's a trick," Percy said. "We have to warn the gods. Something else is going to happen."

Chiron looked at him gravely. "Something worse than Typhon? I hope not."

"We have to defend Olympus," Percy insisted, like he knew something that he wasn't saying. "Kronos has another attack planned."

"He did," Travis Stoll reminded him. "But you sunk his ship."

Percy glanced at Annabeth. Amaryllis could tell they were thinking the same thing as her: What if the Princess Andromeda was a ploy? What if Kronos let them blow up that ship so they'd lower their guard? But they couldn't say this out loud, especially not in front of Silena, whose boyfriend had sacrificed himself on that mission.

"Maybe you're right," he said, though he didn't sound like he believed it.

"Well," Chiron said, "I think that's enough for one night."

He waved his hand and the steam dissipated. The stormy battle of Typhon and the gods disappeared and the war council adjourned. Amaryllis wanted to go up to Percy and talk to him, but she didn't know what to say. Instead, she helped Silena get up and walked her to her cabin.

❀

The next morning, Annabeth and Amaryllis had planned on inspecting the cabins together. It was how they usually did their chores, so it wouldn't be so boring. But then, instead of Annabeth, Percy showed up. They hadn't talked ever since he came back at Camp, but he seemed happy to be around her nevertheless.

"Annabeth said she had something to work on," he explained. "So she sent me."

"Mhm." Amaryllis looked at her inspection scroll with a small smile. "Your cabin is first. I don't have high expectations, but-"

He nudged her with his elbow, faking offense. "You've seen my house. It's perfectly clean."

"Yeah, every room except your bedroom," she teased him.

When they got to the Poseidon cabin, she realised it wasn't as bad as she had imagined. He had made my bunk bed that morning and straightened the Minotaur horn on the wall, but there were still some clothes on the floor. "See? Not that bad," Percy said. "I don't even have Tyson cleaning up after me this summer."

"Well, Tyson isn't your maid," Amaryllis said. "You just came here, how did you manage to make this mess?" She pointed at the stack of clothes that he shoved under his bed, but badly enough to be visible.

"One of my many talents?"

"Three out of five." He tried the puppy eyes, but Amaryllis rolled her eyes, even though she found him adorable. "Won't work, Fish Breath," she told him. As they moved along, she secretly changed the three to a four.

Next was the Aphrodite cabin. Amaryllis was generally lenient with her ratings, never giving less than three points, unless the cabin was so bad that it made her physically ill - so far, that had only happened with the Hermes cabin. But Aphrodite's was always so perfect that Amaryllis would give it six stars if she could. The beds were perfectly made, the clothes in everyone's footlockers were color coordinated and fresh flowers bloomed on the windowsills. Percy wanted to dock a point because the whole place reeked of designer perfume, but she ignored him.

"Perfect as always, Lena," Amaryllis told Silena, who was sitting on her bunk that was burried under boxes of chocolate. She nodded listlessly.

"You want a bonbon?" Silena asked. "My dad sent them. He thought- he thought they might cheer me up."

"No thanks," Amaryllis said. "I've eaten so many chocolates from your father's store that I expect my teeth to fall off any day now."

"Are they any good?" Percy asked.

"They're fine."

He tried one. Before they left, they promised her to come see her later and kept going. As they crossed the commons area, a fight broke out between the Ares and Apollo cabins. Kayla and some more of her siblings armed with firebombs flew over the Ares cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi. Soon, the roof of the Ares cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow water on it. Then the Ares campers called down a curse, and all the Apollo kids' arrows turned to rubber. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids, but the arrows bounced off. Two archers ran by, chased by an angry Ares kid who was yelling in poetry: "Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay! I don't want to rhyme all day!"

"I'm guessing you're not involved in this fight," Percy said when he saw her rolling her eyes.

She shrugged. "As much as I love to shit on the Ares cabin, we have much bigger things to worry about."

Percy's forehead creased. "Like the spy," he said and Amaryllis tensed up, remembering Connor's accusation. As if he could read her mind, Percy stopped outside the Demeter cabin. "What Connor said yesterday about you disappearing... what did he mean?"

"You- do you think I'm the spy?" she stammered.

"Wha- Of course not. No," he frowned. "I know you, you'd never do something like that. It just sounded strange, that's all."

Amaryllis tried to calm herself down so she could figure out a good excuse for her frequent disappearances. She couldn't tell the truth about Nico and even though she hated lying to her friends, that was all she was doing for the past year. It felt exhausting.

"My aunt, the one I told you about..."

"Evaggelia?"

"No, that's the one that lives in Greece. The reason why I often disappear from the Camp is because I sneak out of Camp to see my other aunt, the one who took me in during Christmas," she lied. She was almost proud of herself for thinking something, instead of just gawking at him like an idiot. "And sometimes... I- I don't know, I feel like I have to sneak out and have some time away from here. With the preparation for the war and everything, I've been really stressed. I obviously haven't told anyone, because I know they wouldn't let me sneak out. They say it's dangerous."

Percy pressed his lips together. She couldn't read him, figure out if he believed her or not. She took a moment to really look at him - he grew taller, so he was at least 5'7, but still shorter than Annabeth and she bet it annoyed him. His dark green eyes were as gorgeous as ever and somehow he appeared to be more mature, even though he had basically spent the whole year away from Camp, in complete denial.

"You shouldn't sneak out," he finally said. "It really is dangerous."

"Gods, you sound like Michael," she said. "I can protect myself."

"I know you can. Annabeth told me you've been training like a maniac," he joked. She was glad that he changed the subject, because she wasn't sure how many more lies she could think of.

"I've improved a lot. Sparring match later to prove it to you?" she suggested with a grin.

"You know I could never say no to that."

They inspected a few more cabins. Demeter got a four. Hephaestus got afour as well and probably should've gotten lower, but with Beckendorf being gone and all, Amaryllis decided to cut them someslack. Hermes got a two, which was no surprise. All campers who didn't know their godly parentage wereshoved into the Hermes cabin, which meant that it was overcrowded, messy and always smelled like sweat. Amaryllis wanted to give them one star, still angry at what Connor had said, but she felt bad for the rest of the Hermes children that would later be forced to clean the toilets.

When they finally got to the Apollo cabin, they were greeted by Will and Michael, who were in the middle of playing a card game. It seemed like they were interrupting a sweet bonding moment, but when they saw them, Will immediately got up.

He scratched his head. "Oh, inspection. Right. Michael," he said and pulled the short boy up forcefully, despite maintaining an adorable smile, "we should definitely look for Nia and continue this game with her."

Michael scowled. "Pretty sure she's somewhere sucking Drew's face-"

"Then we should invite Drew to play as well!" Will didn't even let him finish, before dragging him out of the cabin.

"I'm watching you, Jackson!" Michael screamed from afar and Amaryllis was pretty sure she was blushing by the time her brothers had left and she was alone with Percy.

He shuffled uneasily and pretended to go through some more reports. Technically, even on inspection, itwas against camp rules for two campers to be alone in a cabin. That rule had come up a lot when Silena and Beckendorf started dating, but Amaryllis didn't feel like thinking of the implications of that.

"Which one's your bed?" Percy asked.

She quickly realised why he was asking. The cabin was pretty tidy, something that Will and Austin had personally made sure of as the resident control-freaks. All the musical instruments were inside their cases and the clothes inside the wardrobes and trunks, the vases were filled with fresh flowers and the beds were made - all except Amaryllis'. On her bed was the small sketchbook that Will had gifted her for her birthday, but it was thankfully closed.

He was grinning like a jerk. "Shut up," she said and tried to get to her sketchbook first, but Percy was faster. He held it above his head so even though she stood on her tiptoes, she couldn't reach it. "You're such an ass, Fish Breath," she laughed. "Give it back!"

"Only if you make my cabin's three into a four!"

"Never!" she said, even though she had already done it.

Then she realised how close their faces were. Their eyes met and for some reason, Amaryllis held her breath. For a second, she thought he'd lean over, but then he pulled away, like he was electrocuted. If she was blushing before, now she was definitely the same shade as the Camp's strawberries.

"Can I, uh, give it a look?" he asked her. "Your- your sketchbook, I mean."

"Um, sure," she said.

The only person she had ever shown her drawings to was Nico, surprisingly. She had started sketching around the time she moved to the Underworld, since she wanted to keep herself sane and she figured that was the way to do it. Percy flipped the pages one by one. Amaryllis mostly enjoyed sketching people - she had realised she didn't need to look at them to draw them. It was sort of like photographic memory, that would be very useful to her in school, if it wasn't for her mild dyslexia and ADHD.

The first pages weren't that good; drawings of inanimate objects, like her sword or the Big House. Then the people started. Percy saw sketches of all her siblings and was kind enough to not comment on the teardrop that stained Lee's one. She had sketched Calypso, Silena, Jake, Grover, Tyson, Rachel, Nico, Annabeth - pretty much all of the people she liked. He'd compliment every single one of them, except the sketch of her mother, probably because he didn't want to make things awkward.

He stopped when he saw the sketch she had made of Luke, one she had actually forgotten about. It was him before Kronos, like she remembered him when she was still at Ogygia. He opened his mouth to say something, but it never came out.

"I- I'll have to erase that one," she quietly said. "I... hate looking at it."

He nodded. "You're actually really good though," he said after a while. "Alarmingly good."

She let out a chuckle. "Thanks. Check out the last page." He did as she told him and when he saw the sketch of himself, his whole face lit up. Underneath the drawing, she had written with big comic-like letters For Fish Breath.

"Do you like it?" she asked when she realised he'd been looking at it for at least a minute without saying anything.

"It's complete shit," he joked. He had that kind of lopsided smile every girl at Camp obsessed over. "So so bad that I don't think that it deserves to be here. You don't mind me taking it, right? I'd do you a favour anyway."

She rolled her eyes in a playful manner. "Ugh, I guess you can." She gently ripped the page, careful not to mess it up and gave it to him. "Consider this an early birthday present."

His smile slowly faded. At first she didn't realise what had gone wrong, but then she remembered. The Prophecy. Percy thought that he was going to die in the next days. Amaryllis knew better than that; she was going to be the one out of the two to die during the war. She also knew that the time to betray him was coming sooner than she liked to think.

That was why she had put some distance between them in the first place - so the fall would be easier. That was why she had stopped replying to his letters and denied his invitation to spend the Easter holidays with his family. That was why she shouldn't be giving him any presents or joking around with him like they were still the same people they were one year ago.

"You look different," Percy said. It was very random, but she suspected that to him it meant much more than she thought.

"Good or bad different?" she asked.

"I don't know. Just... different." Then he got up, like he had just decided that he didn't want to spend his last days sulking around and bringing everyone down with him. "Come on, we still have the Athena cabin to inspect."

She thought that the fall would be easier, but as she saw him carefully folding her sketch and putting it inside his pocket, she realised that she was already in too deep.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒.

▊hey <3 kind of a double update bc the last chapter was kinda short.

▊im not even kidding when i say that i literally teared up when i was writing this chapter. percyllis is the best thing ive ever written and the reason why my standards for love are so high. ha ha who wants to be the percy to my amaryllis? currently accepting applications.

▊anyways... fuck luke castellan. idk how that's relevant, but it is.

❛ gone girl. ❜
( part 𝒐𝒏𝒆 of gone girl series )
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