Percy Jackson The Complete Collection (120 page)

‘Make a wish,’ she said.

‘Did you bake this yourself?’ I asked.

‘Tyson helped.’

‘That explains why it looks like a chocolate brick,’ I said. ‘With extra-blue cement.’

Annabeth laughed.

I thought for a second then blew out the candle.

We cut it in half and shared, eating with our fingers. Annabeth sat next to me and we watched the ocean. Crickets and monsters were making noise in the woods, but otherwise it was quiet.

‘You saved the world,’ she said.

‘We saved the world.’

‘And Rachel is the new Oracle, which means she won’t be dating anybody.’

‘You don’t sound disappointed,’ I noticed.

Annabeth shrugged. ‘Oh, I don’t care.’

‘Uh-huh.’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘You got something to say to me, Seaweed Brain?’

‘You’d probably kick my butt.’

‘You
know
I’d kick your butt.’

I brushed the cake off my hands. ‘When I was at the River Styx, turning invulnerable … Nico said I had to concentrate on one thing that kept me anchored to the world, that made me want to stay mortal.’

Annabeth kept her eyes on the horizon. ‘Yeah?’

‘Then up on Olympus,’ I said, ‘when they wanted to make me a god and stuff, I kept thinking –’

‘Oh, you
so
wanted to.’

‘Well, maybe a little. But I didn’t, because I thought
– I didn’t want things to stay the same for eternity, because things could always get better. And I was thinking …’ My throat felt really dry.

‘Anyone in particular?’ Annabeth asked, her voice soft.

I looked over and saw that she was trying not to smile.

‘You’re laughing at me,’ I complained.

‘I am not!’

‘You are
so
not making this easy.’

Then she laughed for real, and she put her hands around my neck. ‘I am never,
ever
going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it.’

When she kissed me, I had the feeling my brain was melting right through my body.

I could’ve stayed that way forever, except a voice behind us growled, ‘Well, it’s about time!’

Suddenly the pavilion was filled with torchlight and campers. Clarisse led the way as the eavesdroppers charged and hoisted us both onto their shoulders.

‘Oh, come on!’ I complained. ‘Is there no privacy?’

‘The lovebirds need to cool off!’ Clarisse said with glee.

‘The canoe lake!’ Connor Stoll shouted.

With a huge cheer, they carried us down the hill, but they kept us close enough to hold hands. Annabeth was laughing, and I couldn’t help laughing, too, even though my face was completely red.

We held hands right up to the moment they dumped us in the water.

Afterwards, I had the last laugh. I made an air bubble
at the bottom of the lake. Our friends kept waiting for us to come up, but hey – when you’re the son of Poseidon, you don’t have to hurry.

And it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.

Camp went late that summer. It lasted two more weeks, right up to the start of a new school year, and I have to admit they were the best two weeks of my life.

Of course, Annabeth would kill me if I said anything different, but there was a lot of other great stuff going on, too. Grover had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods. So far, the gods had kept their promise. New demigods were popping up all over the place – not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.

‘We can hardly keep up,’ Grover admitted one afternoon as we were taking a break at the canoe lake. ‘We’re going to need a bigger travel budget, and I could use a hundred more satyrs.’

‘Yeah, but the satyrs you
have
are working super hard,’ I said. ‘I think they’re scared of you.’

Grover blushed. ‘That’s silly. I’m not scary.’

‘You’re a Lord of the Wild, dude. The chosen one of Pan. A member of the Council of –’

‘Stop it!’ Grover protested. ‘You’re as bad as Juniper. I think she wants me to run for president next.’

He chewed on a tin can as we stared across the pond at the line of new cabins under construction. The U-shape
would soon be a complete rectangle, and the demigods had really taken to the new task with gusto.

Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool – solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate and several others I didn’t recognize. They kept adding new ones to the blueprints every day. It was going so well Annabeth and Chiron were talking about adding an entirely new wing of cabins just so they could have enough room.

The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now, because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents. It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them, but almost all of them made it through.

‘It’s going to be a lot different next summer,’ I said. ‘Chiron’s expecting we’ll have twice as many campers.’

‘Yeah,’ Grover agreed, ‘but it’ll be the same old place.’

He sighed contentedly.

I watched as Tyson led a group of Cyclops builders. They were hoisting huge stones in place for the Hecate cabin, and I knew it was a delicate job. Each stone was engraved with magical writing, and if they dropped one, it would either explode or turn everyone within half a mile into a tree. I figured nobody but Grover would like that.

‘I’ll be travelling a lot,’ Grover warned, ‘between protecting nature and finding half-bloods. I may not see you as much.’

‘Won’t change anything,’ I said. ‘You’re still my best friend.’

He grinned. ‘Except for Annabeth.’

‘That’s different.’

‘Yeah,’ he agreed. ‘It sure is.’

In the late afternoon, I was taking one last walk along the beach when a familiar voice said, ‘Good day for fishing.’

My dad, Poseidon, was standing knee-deep in the surf, wearing his typical Bermuda shorts, beat-up cap and a real subtle pink-and-green tropical shirt. He had a deep-sea fishing rod in his hands, and when he cast it, the line went way out – like halfway across Long Island Sound.

‘Hey, Dad,’ I said. ‘What brings you here?’

He winked. ‘Never really got to talk in private on Olympus. I wanted to thank you.’

‘Thank me? You came to the rescue.’

‘Yes, and I got my palace destroyed in the process, but you know – palaces can be rebuilt. I’ve had so many thank-you cards from the other gods. Even Ares wrote one, though I think Hera forced him to. It’s rather gratifying. So thank you. I suppose even the gods can learn new tricks.’

The Sound began to boil. At the end of my dad’s line, a huge green sea serpent erupted from the water. It thrashed and fought, but Poseidon just sighed. Holding his fishing pole with one hand, he whipped out his knife and cut the line. The monster sank below the surface.

‘Not eating size,’ he complained. ‘I have to release the little ones or the game wardens will be all over me.’

‘Little ones?’

He grinned. ‘You’re doing well with those new cabins,
by the way. I suppose this means I can claim all those other sons and daughters of mine and send you some siblings next summer.’

‘Ha-ha.’

Poseidon reeled in his empty line.

I shifted my feet. ‘Um, you
were
kidding, right?’

Poseidon gave me one of his inside-joke winks, and I still didn’t know whether he was serious or not. ‘I’ll see you soon, Percy. And remember – know which fish are big enough to land, eh?’

With that he dissolved in the sea breeze, leaving a fishing pole lying in the sand.

That evening was the last night of camp – the bead ceremony. The Hephaestus cabin had designed the bead this year. It showed the Empire State Building, and etched in tiny Greek letters, spiralling around the image, were the names of all the heroes who had died defending Olympus. There were too many names, but I was proud to wear the bead. I put it on my camp necklace – four beads now. I felt like an old-timer. I thought about the first campfire I’d ever attended, back when I was twelve, and how I’d felt so at home. That at least hadn’t changed.

‘Never forget this summer!’ Chiron told us. He had healed remarkably well, but he still trotted in front of the fire with a slight limp. ‘We have discovered bravery and friendship and courage this summer. We have upheld the honour of the camp.’

He smiled at me, and everybody cheered. As I looked at the fire, I saw a little girl in a brown dress tending the flames. She winked at me with red glowing eyes. No one
else seemed to notice her, but I realized maybe she preferred it that way.

‘And now,’ Chiron said, ‘early to bed! Remember you must vacate your cabins by noon tomorrow unless you’ve made arrangements to stay the year with us. The cleaning harpies will eat any stragglers, and I’d hate to end the summer on a sour note!’

The next morning, Annabeth and I stood at the top of Half-Blood Hill. We watched the buses and vans pull away, taking most of the campers back to the real world. A few old-timers would be staying behind, and a few of the newcomers, but I was heading back to Goode High School for my sophomore year – the first time in my life I’d ever done two years at the same school.

‘Goodbye,’ Rachel said to us as she shouldered her bag. She looked pretty nervous, but she was keeping a promise to her father and attending Clarion Academy in New Hampshire. It would be next summer before we got our Oracle back.

‘You’ll do great.’ Annabeth hugged her. Funny, she seemed to get along fine with Rachel these days.

Rachel bit her lip. ‘I hope you’re right. I’m a little worried. What if somebody asks what’s on the next maths test and I start spouting a prosphecy in the middle of geometry class?
The Pythagorean theorem shall be problem two …
Gods, that would be embarrassing.’

Annabeth laughed, and to my relief it made Rachel smile.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘you two be good to each other.’ Go figure, but she looked at
me
like I was some kind of
troublemaker. Before I could protest, Rachel wished us well and ran down the hill to catch her lift.

Annabeth, thank goodness, would be staying in New York. She’d got permission from her parents to attend a boarding school in the city so she could be close to Olympus and oversee the rebuilding efforts.

‘And close to me?’ I asked.

‘Well, someone’s got a big sense of his own importance.’ But she laced her fingers through mine. I remembered what she’d told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought – just maybe – we were off to a good start.

The guard dragon Peleus curled contentedly around the pine tree underneath the Golden Fleece and began to snore, blowing steam with every breath.

‘You’ve been thinking about Rachel’s prophecy?’ I asked Annabeth.

She frowned. ‘How did you know?’

‘Because I know you.’

She bumped me with her shoulder. ‘Okay, so I have.
Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.
I wonder who they’ll be. We’re going to have so many new faces next summer.’

‘Yep,’ I agreed. ‘And all that stuff about the world falling in storm or fire.’

She pursed her lips. ‘And foes at the Doors of Death. I don’t know, Percy, but I don’t like it. I thought … well, maybe we’d get some
peace
for a change.’

‘Wouldn’t be Camp Half-Blood if it was peaceful,’ I said.

‘I guess you’re right … or maybe the prophecy won’t happen for years.’

‘Could be a problem for another generation of demigods,’ I agreed. ‘Then we can kick back and enjoy.’

She nodded, though she still seemed uneasy. I didn’t blame her, but it was hard to feel too upset on a nice day, with her next to me, knowing that I wasn’t really saying goodbye. We had lots of time.

‘Race you to the road?’ I said.

‘You are so going to lose.’ She took off down Half-Blood Hill and I sprinted after her.

For once, I didn’t look back.