Ch.18

"Why is your blood the way it is?" Enyo asked me.

"How do you mean?"

"I can feel that you're not half human, theres a part of you that's beastly... Like a human that's been perverted or tainted by something."

"I-I don't know..."

'I didn't know what to say, most gods and goddesses can sense when you lie so I didm't know how I was going to prevent her from finding out.'

"Tell me is there anything strange that's happened to you as of late?" She asked.

Decieding to tell a half truth I said,

"I have these dreams where I'm fighting beasts in what can only be described as a cursed city."

"Tell me what all you know about these dreams."

"I often hear the saying "Seek paleblood to transcend the hunt." I don't know what that means though." I said, which wasn't a lie.

"Paleblood? You're connected to a fate much larger then you know, boy" She said with a worried look.

"Is there anything you can tell me?" I asked, I needed to know more since all my memories of the game were gone.

"I cannot tell you any more... If you swear to do something for me I can help you in other ways."

"What ways? And what would I need to do for you."

"For one as a goddess of war I can removed that curse of Ares, I can bless you with success in you conquests. But you must swear to train and protect my child."

"I can do that, but who is your child?"

"His name is Henryk, here give this to him," she said as she handed me a braclet. "It's a weapon, you can find Henryk in cabin eleven."

"After you help him on his first quest I'll removed Ares' curse."

"Thank you milady, I must be going now." I responded.

__

Fifteen minutes later, in a trance, I was back on the streets of Manhattan. I couldn't believe someone had noticed a change already.

I caught a taxi to my mom's apartment, rang the doorbell, and there she was—my beautiful

mother, smelling of peppermint and licorice, the weariness and worry evaporating from her face as soon as she saw me.

"Adrian! Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my baby."

She crushed the air right out of me. We stood in the hallway as she cried and ran her hands

through my hair.

I guess when Percy came back he didn't tell her why I had to stay behind. Idiot he scared her.

Gabe's voice interrupted from the living room. "Hey, Sally! That meat loaf done yet or what?"

She closed her eyes. "He isn't going to be happy to see you, Adrian. The store got half a

million phone calls today from Los Angeles ... something about free appliances."

"Oh, yeah. About that..."

She managed a weak smile. "Just don't make him angrier, all right? Come on I'll take you to Percy."

In the time we'd been gone, the apartment had turned into Gabeland. Garbage was ankle deep on the carpet. The sofa had been reupholstered in beer cans. Dirty socks and underwear hung off the lampshades.

Gabe and three of his big goony friends were playing poker at the table.When Gabe saw me, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava. "So you're here to huh? I oughta call the cops on both you and Percy."

"They're not a fugitives," my mom interjected.

Gabe looked back and forth between us. He didn't seem to think my homecoming was so

wonderful.

"Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally," he growled. "Get me the phone. I'll call the cops."

"Gabe, no!"

He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just say 'no'? You think I'm gonna put up with these punks

again? I can still press charges against them for ruining my Camaro."

"But—"

He raised his hand, and my mother flinched.

Gabe had hit my mother. I didn't know when, or how much. But I was sure he'd done it. Maybe it had been going on for years, when me and Percy wasn't around. I can't believ I'd never realized it.

A balloon of anger started expanding in my chest. I came toward Gabe,

"Mom you better divorce this human piece of waste, or I'm going to become a fugitive."

He just laughed. "What, punk? You touch me, and you are going to jail forever, you understand?"

"I can live with that."

"Hey, Gabe," his friend Eddie interrupted. "He's just a kid."

Gabe looked at him resentfully and mimicked in a falsetto voice: "Just a kid."

"I'll be nice to you, punk." Gabe showed me his tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll give you five

minutes to get yours and your brothers stuff and clear out. After that, I call the police."

"Gabe!" my mother pleaded.

"They ran away," Gabe told her. "Let him stay gone."

My mother took my arm. "Please, Adrian. Come on. We'll go to your room."

I let her pull me away, my hands still trembling with rage.

Mine and Percys room had been completely filled with Gabe's junk. There were stacks of used car batteries, a rotting bouquet of sympathy flowers with a card from somebody who'd seen his Barbara Walters interview.

"Gabe is just upset, honey," my mother told me. "I'll talk to him later. I'm sure it will work

out."

"Mom, it'll never work out. Not as long as Gabe's here."

She wrung her hands nervously. "I can ... I'll take you guys to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there's another boarding school—"

"Mom."

She lowered her eyes. "I'm trying, Adrian. I just... I need some time."

I looked at my mother. "Mom, do you want Gabe gone?

"Adrian, it isn't that simple. I—"

"Mom, just tell me. That jerk has been hitting you. Do you want him gone or not?"

She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "Yes, Percy. I do. And I'm trying to get up my courage to tell him. But you can't do this for me. You can't solve my problems."

"Oh I can and will, Percy won't help so if Gabe wants to charge me with anything I can just stay a year rounder at camp, I'll have to visit in secret but that's way better then you staying with that human pile of garbage."

Percy walked in from the restroom as I said that, "Won't help you with what?"

"Nothing man, I'll take care of it."

"Adrian you can't," she started to cry. "I can't have you leave me."

"I won't be leaving you, but you either leave Gabe or I put him in the hospital for an extremely long time." I told her, giving her only two choices.

"Poseidon called you a queen," Percy told her. "He said he hadn't met a woman like you in a

thousand years."

Her cheeks flushed. "Percy—"

"You deserve better than this, Mom. You should go to college, get your degree. You can

write your novel, meet a nice guy maybe, live in a nice house. You don't need to protect me

anymore, protect us, by staying with Gabe. Let me get rid of him." I said.

She wiped a tear off her cheek. "You guys sound so much like your father," she said. "He offered to stop the tide for me once. He offered to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea. He thought he could solve all my problems with a wave of his hand."

"He could, there's nothing wrong with that."

Her multicolored eyes seemed to search inside me. "I think you know, Adrian. I think you're enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can't let a god take care of me ... or my sons. I have to ... find the courage on my own. Your quest has reminded me of that."

We listened to the sound of poker chips and swearing, ESPN from the living room television.

"Look mom you're either going to leave him or I'll make sure he can never hurt you again."

"It's almost time for us to go," Percy said. "We need to tell Chiron."

She looked pale, but she nodded. "Where will you go?"

"Half-Blood Hill." Percy said.

"For the summer ... or forever?"

"I guess that depends. If I have to take care of Gabe I'll only see you a couple times a year if that."

I responded.

We locked eyes, and I sensed that we had an agreement. We would see how things stood at the end of the summer. If she hadn't left him by then she knew she may never see me again... Or as much as she'd like to.

She kissed our foreheads. "You guys'll be heroes. You'll be the greatest of all."

I took one last look around our bedroom. I had a feeling I'd never see it again. Then I walked

with my mother and Percy to the front door.

"Leaving so soon, punks?" Gabe called after us. "Good riddance."

I had one last twinge of doubt. How could I turn down the perfect chance to take revenge on him? I was leaving here without saving my mother.

"Hey, Sally," he yelled. "What about that meat loaf, huh?"

A steely look of anger flared in my mother's eyes, and I thought, just maybe, I was leaving

her in good hands after all. Her own. But that wasn't enough for me.

_____________________________________________

One or two more chaps before the end of arc one.

Like the chap? I don't feel like I did a good job, but I swear I tried.

Like what I did with the new goddess? Guess who her Roman counter part is.... Don't look it up cause I'll smack a bitch I swear to god.

Welp good afternoon to you all I'm going to work out.