Long time no write huh?  You can thank college for that.  But without further ado, here’s the next chapter :)

Chapter Quote:
“Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.”
~Charles de Gualle
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Chapter 19: Someone Gets Judo-Flipped

Luke 

The next six days to Cozumel were extremely awkward on my part.  Shiloh didn’t say a word to me.  Then again, I tried to avoid her for her sake because I knew she didn’t want me here in the first place.  When we did cross paths, I’d always move out of her way.  Didn’t really want to get punched again.  This didn’t leave me much time to explore the yacht during the day.  At night, however, that changed.  When Shiloh went to sleep, I got up.  The first place I went to was the bridge.  It was an impressive place.  The captain’s seat was leather, the steering wheel was shining silver.  I didn’t dare touch it in case Shiloh saw my fingerprints.  The dash had gadgets and gizmos of all sorts.  I accidentally hit the button that turned some colored lights on and it took me an hour to figure out how to turn them off; I did figure out which buttons were which color.  I didn’t figure out why Shiloh had this button on her boat in the first place.  The only thing reasonable was that it was extremely cool.  One boat was labeled ‘garage’, another ‘slide’, another “Emergency only.”  Decided not to press that last one which was probably the smartest decision I’d made in a while.  After the bridge I explored the outside of the ship, making sure to stay away from the railings in case a wave decided to crash into the boat and knock me over.  There wasn’t much to explore after that.  There was a quaint seating area at the stern of the yacht, couch and table included.  There were lounge chairs a few feet away what I assumed was for relaxing and/or tanning.  Around the bow of the ship was where I found a secret compartment holding two jet skis, a canoe (oars included), scuba gear (curious considering she’s a daughter of Poseidon), a lifeboat, and some of those floating chair things.  Besides those things, there wasn’t much to see.  I went back to the living room where’d I had been living the past few days.  I kept it tidy.  One would never know someone slept on the couch every night.

Tonight was the first where I couldn’t sleep.  Usually the rocking of the boat lulled me to sleep, but the waves were almost a little too rough tonight.  I walked to the kitchen, trying to keep a straight line but that didn’t work so well.  I pulled out the electric tea kettle and waited for the water to boil.  I avoided using hot chocolate.  I remember having a conversation with Shiloh about how much she liked hot chocolate and while she had a massive tub of the powder, I didn’t want to risk using it in case she saw some was missing and wanted to kill me for it.

“Who would’ve guessed it’d be you,” a woman remarked.  I snapped my head towards the living room.  For a brief second, I thought it was Shiloh, but then she morphed into a woman with brown hair and green eyes.

“You and Percy are ridiculously stubborn when it comes to going after the woman you love.”

“Aphrodite?”

“One for you, Luke Castellan.”

“Uh, your ladyship, what are you doing here?  If Shiloh sees you, I’m pretty sure she may try to stab you, among other things.”

“Yes, she does have a particular dislike for me.”

“You did curse her.”

“She spoke ill of me.”

“No offense, but you didn’t curse me when I spoke ill of you.  None of the gods cursed me when I did, and believe me, I did it a lot in the past.  So why did you curse her?”

“You had the sense to do it behind my back.  She said it to my face, insulted me straight to my face.  So I cursed her where she would fall for a guy, he’d lead her on, and then go for another girl.  Oh but she was smart.  She figured out her curse early on.  Turned out to not be all that fun for me.  And watch your tone with me, Castellan.  I could very well curse you but your father has made sure I won’t.  He says you’ve already paid the price and still are thanks to Miss Carter. ”

“What are you doing here though?”

At this, Aphrodite seemed to soften.  Love was insane. “No matter what, I’m still a sucker for love.  I didn’t think I’d be interested in your love story but oh, I’ve changed my mind.  Didn’t believe you’d kiss her and break her curse.  But you did.  Didn’t think you’d go for Thalia.  But you did.  Didn’t think you’d go after Shiloh in the way you did.  But-”

“I did.”

“Exactly.  The gods are very interested in Percabeth-”

“They have a nickname for them?”

“You’d be surprised just how much of an eye we keep on our kids.  But back on track.  Like I said, the gods are interested in Percabeth, but I’m interested in Castellar.  I’m interested in how two outcasts, both cursed at some point in their life, have managed to become soul mates.”

“Castellar?  Soul mates?” I choked on my tea. “Shiloh and I are soul mates?  The girl who refuses to speak to me unless threatening to throw me off the ship is my soul mate?”

“Do you need an explanation of the term?” Aphrodite retorted.

“I’m just trying to wrap my head around the fact that it’s true and that you’re telling me this,” I said.  Almost as an afterthought, I added, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I may have had a change of heart,” she admitted, her expression softening even more. “Your parents have talked to me, albeit in a heated discussion, that I’ve tortured Shiloh enough and that I don’t need to torture you seeing as how she’s doing that herself.  I know how much her silence towards you is eating at you.  You’re good at hiding it.”

“You listened to my dad and Poseidon?”

“After a few weeks, yes.  Now, what are you going to do about her not talking to you?”

“I’m… working on it.”

“That’s not a plan.”

I bit back a snarky comment. “I know.  I’m working on that too.”

“Have you thought of making her nice little surprises?”

“Like what?”

“Making her a meal out of the blue, flowers are always a good thing.  She likes white stargazer lilies for future reference.  Making her hot chocolate when she comes down in five minutes.  Offering your help, even if you know she’s going to tell you to leave her alone.”

“This is the third time I’ve said.  She’ll throw me off the ship.”

“Oh she’s angry, but she won’t do that.  She still cares about you no matter what she says.  Miss Carter is having raging battles inside her head about deciding whether or not she should talk to you.  Her stubbornness is winning out so far.”

“I noticed.  You really think she’s going to give me a second chance?” I sounded like a clueless, whiny teenager in love.  It bugged me, but in reality, I really was clueless about what to do.

“I know.  I must be going, and if you see me before your wedding, you know you’ve done something wrong.  Good luck, Luke Castellan.” Aphrodite flashed me a smile.  I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, she was gone.  Then one of her statements dawned me and out loud, I said, “I’m going to live long enough to see my wedding day?”

“What?” Shiloh asked.

“What?” I repeated, looking up at her.  Her hair was sticking out in different directions, her eyeliner was a little smudged, and she wore sweatpants and a baggy sweatshirt.  She looked extremely comfortable and confused.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.  Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No, a nightmare did.  Had an unwelcome visitor.”

“Aphrodite?”

Shiloh glared at me. “How’d you know?”

“She visited me too.  Want any hot chocolate?”

“Sure… why are you up?”

“The waves were rough tonight.  I couldn’t fall asleep.  They’re not anymore but I’m wide awake so I thought I’d just watch some movies.”

“There’s melatonin in the cupboard behind you.  It helps you fall asleep in case you want some.  It works fast though so make sure you’re actually ready to use it.”

“Thanks.  When do we dock in Cozumel?”

“Tomorrow.  And we’re not really docking there, we’re just docking off the coast.  There’s a really pretty reef there.  I wanted to check it out.  I have some snorkeling gear somewhere around here if you want to go swimming.”

“I’m good.  Might just sit out and get some sun.  Kind of hard to get that back at camp when you’re wearing sweaters and jeans half the time,” I joked.

If I wasn’t mistaken, a small smile formed on her lips. “Well if you change your mind, let me know.  I won’t leave without you so if that’s what you’re worried about, don’t.”

“It’s like you read my mind or something.”

“Mostly because Annabeth and Thalia would kill me.” Shiloh paused.  Her expression told me she was debating with herself on whether or not to say what was on the tip of her tongue.  Curiosity must’ve won out because she asked, “How did you convince Thalia to let you come after me?  It’s not like she exactly likes me.”

“It’s not that she doesn’t like you.  She just doesn’t get you like Percy and Annabeth do, like I do- like I did,” I corrected myself. “Besides, she’s not my girlfriend anymore.  She broke it off.”

“Uh, what did you do?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about another girl,” I confessed, not looking in her the eye, not wanting to see the critical look in her eyes when I said it. “Considering my location now, it shouldn’t be too difficult to think of who it is.”

Shiloh remained silent, but I could feel her gaze on me.  However, when she got up, I glanced at her. “Thanks for the hot chocolate.  I’m going to head back up to bed and see if I can fall back asleep.”

She was halfway up the stairs before I called out for her to stop.  I met her there, amazed she’d actually listened.

“What?” She queried, not sounding angry, just exasperated.

“Your curse is broken, Shiloh.  Aphrodite told me as much when she came to talk to me,” I explained quickly.

She scoffed. “If it was broken, then why didn’t she tell me herself?”

“Because maybe she wants someone to prove it to you.  Maybe she wants you to figure it out yourself because you were smart enough to figure out your curse in the first place.  And gods Shi, if having me travelling hundreds of miles just so I can talk to you, to try and salvage something of our relationship that I know I ruined, then I don’t know what will.” I breathed heavily; I hadn’t stopped once during the rant.  Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I said softly, “Look, when and if you ever want to give us a shot, even if it’s just as friends, you know where to find me.  I’m willing to wait for as long as it takes.  Good night Shiloh.”

I turned around and went back down the stairs.  I didn’t think she’d follow me.

I was right.
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Shiloh 

All I could do was watch Luke disappear down the stairs and sit down on the step I’d been on.  To be honest, I thought he’d been about to kiss me.  The realization that my curse had been broken, somehow, was a blow to me.  How long had it been broken?  How many chances had I missed?  Who broke it?  Was it me or someone else?  And was Luke honestly that in love with me?  It didn’t seem fathomable to me.  We’d been friends.  I’d fallen for him when I was still cursed.  He’d been supposed to practically forget I existed.  And for a month, it seemed that my curse had held true.  But now here he was.  He’d chased me down hundreds of miles just to talk.  That spoke volumes.

Now the main question to me was I ready to forgive him?

No.  I wasn’t.  I’d been hurt before by guys, but for some gods only know reason, his ignoring me had caused more pain than all the others combined.  I’d cursed at myself for allowing me to fall for him when I knew it wouldn’t end well.  I couldn’t let him off this easy.  I felt bad doing it, and I knew it’d be difficult on my part to pull this off.  But no, I wasn’t going to give in with just one look from those puppy dog eyes of his.

I sighed and went back to my room.  I meant to sleep, but it wouldn’t come.  I ended up staying awake the rest of the night.  At seven, the sun rose.  I put on my bathing suit, grabbed a cover-up, and snuck downstairs.  Luke was still passed out on the couch.  Not wanting to wake him up to avoid an awkward conversation, I slipped outside the door.  Thankfully the door made no sound.  I threw my cover-up on the ground and jumped into the crystal blue water.  It was cold, but nothing I wouldn’t get accustomed to.

The reef itself was beautiful.  I’d parked in the perfect spot.  Fish swarmed me, all shouting hello to me.  Even if they’d never met me, all the fish apparently knew a daughter of Poseidon when they saw one.  They scattered when a tiger shark came out of the blue.  Tigers I was always wary of, but this one was friendly to me, rubbing against my leg affectionately, telling me his name was Troy.  Who knew they actually had names?  I dove down, swimming between the walls of the reef.  Eels poked their heads out to see the new visitor, fish swam above and underneath me, and the tiger shark swam above me and above the reef, acting as my bodyguard.  I didn’t mind.  It was cool having a shark bodyguard.

Word must’ve spread I was there because a few more new species came to say hello, including a pod of dolphins and a group of Nereids.  The Nereids were extremely friendly.  I’m not sure how long I talked to them, but we were interrupted by the shark saying, “There’s a frantic blonde idiot on your ship shouting for you.”

I excused myself from the conversation and swam up to the surface.  The sun had moved quite a lot, making me wonder how long I’d actually been under.

“SHILOH?!” Luke shouted frantically from the stern.  He was in swimming trunks that were dripping wet.  He must’ve taken a swim.  Funny.  I remember him saying he didn’t want to.

“Luke, what are you freaking out about?” I inquired, swimming up below him.  He looked down at me and evident relief fell onto his face.

“Gods, you had me scared,” he replied.

“Uh, why?”

“You’ve been gone for six hours.  I heard you leave this morning.  That was at eight.  I thought something had happened to you.  I went searching for you, I swam trying to find you.  Then this tiger shark tried to attack me and I had to get out.”

“You mean Troy?”

“The shark has a name?”

On cue, the shark showed its dorsal fin, circling around me.  Luke gave it a cautious gaze as I confirmed, “Yes, he has a name.”

“You’re okay though?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Okay, then I’m just going to- yeah,” Luke said, flushing a little.  He turned around and walked inside of the boat.  Figuring it was about time to get out of the water, I kissed Troy on the nose goodbye and went back under to say my farewells to the Nereids.  I got back onto the boat and threw my cover-up on.  Walking into the kitchen, I found Luke bracing himself against the kitchen counter.

“You hungry?” I asked.

“No, I made lunch already.  I saved some for you.  I’ll get it for you,” he offered.

“I can get it,” I said.

“Shiloh, please, I know you don’t want me on this trip, but tell me where you’re going, write a note, something, so I don’t think something horrible has happened to you.”

“I’m in my turf.  It’d take a lot to hurt me in this area.”

“This is you we’re talking about you.  Trouble seems to find you.”

“Like you?” I countered.  Luke stared at me.

“Yeah, like me,” he said, his expression contorting into one of him actually comprehending that the fact was true.  Luke spelled trouble for me, he always had.  And apparently I was attracted to that because, hello, three months later and I’m still madly in love with him even if I am extremely pissed off at him. “I don’t… I don’t mean to be.  Not anymore.  I’m trying Shiloh, I am.  And I’m going to make up for what I did to you.  I swear on the River Styx I will.”

Before I could say anything, Luke walked off.  I don’t know exactly where he went, a feat considering the boat wasn’t the biggest.  If we were on a cruise ship, I would understand but a yacht?  Impressive.

I called out to him that we were leaving in thirty minutes heading for Belize and left it at that.  I still wasn’t ready to face the whole situation.  The memory of him ignoring me was still too fresh.  It’d been a month of nothing after everything we’d gone through.  I wasn’t letting him off after two weeks.

Shaking my head mentally, I pulled out the lunch for me and began eating.
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Two days later… 

Belize City was bustling with tourists from cruise ships.  Luke walked with me because while I fully trusted my ability to defend myself, I still felt safer having him with me, although I didn’t tell him that.  I told him he needed to come because I didn’t trust him not to do something to my ship.  He understood, saying he needed to buy some things anyway.  We went to a flea market off the beaten path, away from the tourists so we could maybe get better prices.  Luke and I went to different stands but always kept each other within our sights in case one of us got into trouble.

I was haggling with a man on the price of a cute bag when a man came up to me.  He was drunk, which I could tell from the stench of his putrid breath.  I attempted not to gag.

“Hey sweet thang,” he slurred, grabbing me by the waist.  I pulled his arm off me.

“Keep your hands off me, please,” I told him firmly.

“Oh come on baby, don’t be that way.  Come with me.” The man tried to put his arm around me again.

“I said don’t touch me.”

“And I said come with me,” he growled, grabbing my arm in a Vulcan death grip.

“What’s going on here?” Luke demanded, suddenly appearing next to me.

“Stay out of this boy.”

“Let go of me,” I ordered.

“If you come with me.”

“You have three seconds to get your arm off me or else.”

“Oh yeah?  And what can a tiny thing like you do?”

“One, I’m not a thing.  Two, I’m trained in physical combat.  Three, your time is up.” Without giving him time to react, I judo-flipped him onto his stomach, pinning him to the ground with my knee digging into his back.

“Train your bitch of a girlfriend to show men some respect and follow orders,” the man barked at Luke.

“First off, her name is Shiloh and if you call her a bitch again, I will kill you.  You wouldn’t be the first man I’ve killed.  Second, she’s not my girlfriend although I wouldn’t mind if that happened.  Third, if I tried to pull her off of you, she would kill me and then you and I want to stay on her good side, if I’m even on it at the moment.  Fourth, men are not superior to women.  They’re our equals.  You better damn well learn that,” Luke snarled.

“Now, you’re going to listen to me and listen to me good.  I’m going to let you up and you’re going to get your drunken ass out of here.  If I pass you on the street and see you harassing another woman, I will kick you so hard in the place where the sun don’t shine that you will never be able to have children.  Understood?” The man nodded, difficult considering I had squished his face onto the filthy street. “I want a verbal yes on this.”

“Yes, yes!  Just let me up!” The man whined.  I got off of him; he staggered up.  He acted as if he was going to leave but before either I or Luke could react, the man’s fist connected with my face.  My world went black for a few seconds.  Hands caught me while there was a sickening crunch.  When my vision cleared, Luke was straight out brawling with the drunk.  The man’s nose was bleeding profusely, causing me to guess the son of Hermes had punched him directly in the nose.  Luke ducked the guy’s blow, grabbed his head, and kneed him in the head.  That knocked him out.

“An sas vlépo̱ kai páli , egó̱ tha sas skotó̱sei . Orkízomai ston potamó Stýga,” Luke spat, fury raging in his eyes, before hurrying over to me.  He cupped my cheek gingerly, his expression switching instantly to worry. “Are you okay?”

“Hurts like the dickens, but I’ll be fine.  Thanks for knocking him out.”

Luke smiled. “Any time.  Let’s get you back to the boat.”

“Do you have everything you need though?”

“Yeah, and even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t care.  Unless you need to buy more,” he said.

I shook my head. “No, I was just buying nonsense now.”

“Then you’re okay with going back?”

“Completely.” Luke took my hand and led me away from the flea market back to the boat.  He got out an ice pack and handed it to me.

“Thanks,” I said, holding it gently against my throbbing cheek.

“Your arm is bruised too,” he noticed, getting ready to make an ice pack.

“It’s fine.  It’s not that bad.  The bruises will be gone by tomorrow.  I’ll take some nectar and ambrosia and it’ll be good by the evening.  I’m going to go upstairs, set the course for the Cayman Islands, and then go take a shower, get the grime off me from that man.  His back was filthy.” I made a disgusted face, looking down at my dirt covered white tank top.

“I’ll make dinner.  Go do whatever you need to.”

“Luke, it’s three in the afternoon.  Dinner typically doesn’t start until five?” I pointed out.

“I know, but I thought I’d make a good meal considering we’ve been living off Ramen noodles and mac n’ cheese.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I thought we could have a roast or something tonight.”

“All right…” I shrugged and left him to it.
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I tried to give you a long chapter to make up for the amount of time it took to update.  Forgive me?  Review please :)