CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

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They rode the boar until sunset, which was about as much as Sylvie's back could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's how uncomfortable boar-riding was.

Sylvie had no idea how many miles they covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and shrub brushes got sparser until they were galloping (do boars gallop?) across the desert.

As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.

"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."

Nobody needed convincing. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then they waddled away as best as they could with their saddle sores.

After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy watter, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.

"It likes the mountains better," Percy guessed.

"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of them was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoë Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills... but then Sylvie noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Woah," Sylvie said.

"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you've got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to Sylvie, but Grover looked concerned.

"That's us," he said. "Those six nuts right there."

"Which one is me?" Percy asked.

"The little deformed one," Zoë suggested. Sylvie laughed.

"Oh, shut up."

"That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense, But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..."

He pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.

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They decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of them wanted to go Dumpster-diving in the dark.

Zoë and Bianca produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. Sylvie didn't know how they did it, because the packs were tiny, but must've been enchanted to hold so much stuff. She'd noticed their bows and quivers were also magic. She never really thought about it, but when the Hunters needed them, they just appeared slung over their backs. And when they didn't, they were gone.

Sylvie thought that was pretty cool.

The night got chilly fast, so Percy and Grover collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon they were about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

"The stars are out," Zoë said.

She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.

"This is what the sky looks like back home," Sylvie found herself grinning.

"That's amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."

"This is nothing," Zoë said. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."

"You talk like you're not human," Percy said.

Zoë raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"

"For you," Thalia corrected. "Not thee."

Zoë threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often!"

Grover sighed. He was still looking up at the stars like he was thinking about the light pollution problem. "If only Pan were here, he would set things right."

Zoë nodded sadly.

"Maybe it was the coffee," Grover said. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee..."

Sylvie was pretty sure coffee had nothing to do with what happened in Cloudcroft, but she didn't have the heart to tell Grover. She thought about the rubber rat and the tiny birds that had suddenly come alive when the wind blew.

"Grover," Percy started, "do you really think that was Pan? I mean, I know you want it to be."

"He sent us help," Grover insisted. "I don't know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of coffee. It's the best lead we've gotten in two thousand years. I was so close."

Sylvie patted his back with an encouraging smile. "You're gonna find him soon, dude."

"What I want to know," Thalia said, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them."

Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."

"Maybe there's something special about your knife," Percy said.

"It is the same as mine," Zoë said. "Celestial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."

"Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot," Percy said.

Bianca looked uncomfortable with everybody paying attention to her.

"Never mind," Sylvie tried helping Bianca out, because she knew what Bianca felt like, and it wasn't fun. "We'll find the answer, but that's not important right now."

"Sylvie is right," said Zoë. "We should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."

"No!" Bianca protested . "Not there!"

She looked really freaked out, like she'd just been dropped off the steep end of a roller coaster.

Zoë frowned. "Why?"

Bianca took a shaky breath. "I... I think we stayed there for a while. In a hotel. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember..."

Sylvie didn't understand why Bianca was always so disoriented when it came to her past. She looked around, wondering what her quest-mates thought, and she saw Percy and Grover sharing a particular look.

"Bianca," Percy said. "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"

"Oh, great," Percy said.

"Wait," Sylvie interrupted. "What's the Lotus Casino?"

"A couple of years ago," he said, "Grover, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."

"No," Bianca said. "No, that's not possible."

"You said somebody came and got you out," Sylvie remembered.

"Yes."

"What did he look like?" questioned Sylvie. "What did he say?"

"I... I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."

Zoë sat forward, her eyebrows knit with concern. "You said that Washington, D.C., had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."

"Yes, but—"

"Bianca," Zoë said, "can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"

"Don't be silly," Bianca said. She told them the correct name of the president.

"And who was the president before that?" Zoë asked.

Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt."

Zoë swallowed. "Theodore or Franklin?"

"Franklin," Bianca said. "F.D.R."

"Like FDR Drive?" Percy asked dumbly.

Sylvie threw her head back, pleading to the gods for a moment. Because there was no way this was the guy she was so infatuated with.

"Bianca," Zoë said. "F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years ago."

"That's impossible," Bianca said. "I... I'm not that old."

She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.

Thalia's eyes turned said. Sylvie guessed she knew what it was like to get pulled out of time for a while. "It's okay, Bianca. The important thing is you and Nico are safe. You made it out."

"But how?" Percy said. "We were only in there for an hour and we barely escaped. How could you have escaped after being there for so long?"

"I don't know." Bianca looked about ready to cry. "A man came and said it was time to leave. And—"

Before she could answer, they were hit with a blazing light from down the road. The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. Sylvie was half hoping it was Apollo, come to give them a ride again, but the engine was way too silent for the sun chariot, and besides, it was nighttime. They grabbed their sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of them.

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The back door of the limo opened right next to Percy. Before he could step away, the point of a sword touched his throat.

Sylvie instantly held Halcyon in her right fist, and Zoë and Bianca drew their bows. As the owner of the sword got out of the car, Percy moved back very slowly. He had to, because the man was pushing the point under his chin.

The man smiled cruelly. "Not so fast now, are you, punk?"

He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes.

"Ares," Percy growled.

The war god glanced at Sylvie, Zoë, and Bianca. "At ease, people."

He snapped his fingers, and their weapons fell to the ground. Sylvie didn't mind—she hadn't realized she pulled a weapon on a god. Now she was panicking, because if she'd known, she never would have done it. Ares was probably going to smite her now. Sylvie didn't want to be smitten... smited? smote?

"This is a friendly meeting." He dug the point of his blade a little farther under Percy's chin. "Of course I'd like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"What lady?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her. "Well, well. I heard you were back."

He lowered his sword and pushed Percy away.

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus," Ares mused. "You're not hanging out with very good company."

"What's your business, Ares?" she said. "Who's in the car?"

Ares smiled, enjoying the attention. "Oh, I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoë and Bianca. "Though, she is very interested in her." He nodded at Sylvie. "Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait? Only take Percy a few minutes."

"We will not leave him alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoë said.

"Besides," Sylvie managed, "the taco place is closed."

Ares snapped his fingers again. The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "You were saying, grain girl?"

"Go on," Percy told his friends, though he was looking Sylvie right in the eyes. "I'll handle this."

Sylvie exhaled shakily, but she forced a nod.

"You heard the boy," Ares said. "He's big and strong. He's got things under control."

Percy's friends reluctantly headed over to the taco restaurant. But Sylvie couldn't help herself from looking back one more time. Ares was regarding him with loathing then opened the limousine door like a chauffeur.

"Get inside, punk," she heard Ares say. "And mind your manners. She's not as forgiving of rudeness as I am."

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When Percy saw her, his jaw dropped.

He forgot his name. He forgot where he was. He forgot how to speak in complete sentences.

She was wearing a red satin dress, and her hair was curled in a cascade of ringlets. Her face was the second most beautiful he'd ever seen: perfect makeup, dazzling eyes, a smile that would've lit up the dark side of the moon.

There was only one person's smile he thought was brighter.

Ironically, it was exactly who this woman looked like:

Sylvie.

They had the same color hair and eyes—an auburn-like brown. The only difference Percy could find, was that this woman was flawless. Her eyes were shining bright in the sun, whereas Sylvie's eyes only got brighter during the warm seasons. Her hair was styled perfectly in the curls, whereas Sylvie's hairstyles had an austral aesthetic from growing up on a farm. He also spotted that this lady's few freckles lay perfectly across her nose and cheeks, whereas Sylvie's were littered all over in a much larger quantity.

The woman was perfect. Too perfect. It was kind of unnerving to Percy, because he much preferred the little imperfections that could only be spotted from looking hard enough.

"Ah, there you are, Percy," the woman said. "I am Aphrodite."

Percy slipped into the seat across from her and said something like, "Um uh gah."

She smiled. "Aren't you sweet. Hold this, please."

She handed Percy a polished mirror the size of a dinner plate and had him hold it up for her. She leaned forward and dabbed at her lipstick, though Percy couldn't see anything wrong with it.

"Do you know why you're here?" she asked.

Percy wanted to respond. Why couldn't he form a complete sentence? She was only a lady. A seriously beautiful lady. Who looked like Sylvie. Percy had no issue talking to the daughter of Demeter, so therefore he should be able to talk to Aphrodite. But... Woah.

He pinched his own arm, hard.

"I... I don't know," Percy managed.

"Oh, dear," Aphrodite said, looking sad for someone, though Percy didn't know who. "Still in denial?"

Outside the car, he could hear Ares chuckling. Percy had a feeling Ares could hear every word they said. The idea of Ares being out there made Percy angry, and that helped clear his mind.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.

"Well then, why are you on this quest?"

"Artemis has been captured!"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Oh, Artemis. Please. Talk about a hopeless case. I mean, if they were going to kidnap a goddess, she should be breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? I pity the poor dears who have to imprison Artemis. Bo-ring!"

"But she was chasing a monster," Percy protested. "A really, really bad monster. We have to find it!"

Aphrodite made him hold the mirror a little higher. She seemed to have found a microscopic problem at the corner of her eye and dabbed at her mascara. "Always some monster. But my dear Percy, that is why the others are on this quest. I'm more interested in you."

"Annabeth is in trouble?" Percy tried, though deep down he knew that wasn't good enough.

"Keep going," she encouraged.

His heart pounded. He didn't want to answer, but her eyes drew an answer right out of his mouth. "Sylvie's in the prophecy."

Aphrodite beamed. "Exactly!"

"I'm just trying to help her," he defended himself. "She gets caught up in her head too much sometimes, and then she can't calm down."

"Ah, you even know to calm her! That's so cute!"

"No! I mean... That's not what I meant."

She made a tsk-tsk sound. "Percy, I'm on your side. I'm the reason you're here, after all."

Percy stared at her. "What?"

"The poisoned T-shirt the Stoll brothers gave Phoebe," she said. "Did you think that was an accident? Sending Blackjack to find you? Helping you sneak out of camp?"

"You did that?"

"Of course! Because really, how boring these Hunters are! A quest for some monster, blah blah blah. Saving Artemis. Let her stay lost, I say. But a quest involving Sylvie's heart to break? A quest for true love—?"

"Wait a second, I never said—"

"Oh, my dear. You don't need to say it. You do know Artemis has invited Sylvie to join the Hunters, don't you?"

Percy blushed. "I wasn't sure—"

"She could very well throw her life away! And you, my dear, you can save her from that. It's so romantic!"

"Uh..."

"Oh, put the mirror down," Aphrodite ordered. "I look fine."

Percy hadn't realized he was still holding it, but as soon as he put it down, he noticed his arms were sore.

"Now listen, Percy," Aphrodite said. "The Hunters are your enemies. Forget them, Artemis, the monster, and Annabeth. That's not important. You must concentrate on being there for Sylvie."

"Do you know what's going to happen to her?"

Aphrodite waved her hand irritably. "No, no. I leave the details to you. But it's been ages since we've had a good tragic love story."

"Woah, first of all, I never said anything about love. And second, what's up with tragic?"

"Love conquers all," Aphrodite promised. "Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?"

"Didn't they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?"

"Pfft. That's not the point. Follow your heart."

"But—Sylvie's just my friend," Percy protested.

Aphrodite raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "A friend that you give your jacket to, even though it's ripped, just because you want to warm her up as much as possible?"

Percy's face flamed. He'd done that platonically just to be nice. "I don't—That wasn't—No. I don't like her like that."

She smiled sympathetically. She really was beautiful, and—just like Sylvie—that went bone-deep. Aphrodite believed in love so much, it was impossible not to feel giddy when she talked about it.

"I must admit," cooed Aphrodite, "I've always had a soft spot for Sylvie. Born of a Greek tragedy. Befriending one of my favorite daughters. Adoring so beautifully... I think she's had enough pining to save her a lifetime—It's exquisite, but also extremely painful."

Percy's head shook, bewildered. "Pining? For who?"

"My, you really are dense," Aphrodite shook her head solemnly. "Not knowing who you love, who they love, and who loves you? Oh, you kids! It's so cute I'm going to cry."

"No, no," he said. "Don't do that."

"And don't worry," she said. "I'm not going to let this be easy and boring for you. No, I have some wonderful surprises in store. Anguish. Indecision. Oh, you just wait."

"That's really okay," Percy told her. "Don't go to any trouble."

"You're so cute. I wish all my daughters could break the heart of a boy as nice as you." Aphrodite's eyes were tearing up. "Now, you'd better go. And do be careful in my husband's territory. He is awfully fussy about his trinkets and trash."

"What?" he asked. "You mean Hephaestus?"

But the car door opened, and Ares grabbed Percy's shoulder, pulling him out of the car and back into the desert night.

Percy's audience with the goddess of love was over.

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BAILEY YAPS...

Ironic Zoë is asking about the US president as I am writing this... in the summer of 2024... Um.

Everybody thank aquamcnti for the Percy POV!! She asked so she shall receive. I love my soulmate. We did this for you guys.

"I think she's had enough pining to save her a lifetime" Aphrodite is us SYLVIE WE'RE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU GIRL!!!

Aphrodite didn't talk to Sylvie because Sylvie is already Very Aware of her feelings. The only thing she really needs to be told is to Get a fucking grip and Quit being so nervous and Make a move on him. But that's more hopeless of a cause than Percy realizing his feelings. So.

Also please take note of the fact I had Aphrodite say Mickey is one of her favorite daughters. And please remember Mickey was scared that her mom hated her because she was asexual. This is me promising you assurance that Aphrodite loves her very much. Regardless of sexuality. 'Cus there's nothing wrong with being who you are. BAM! Woke flayedcrank for the timeline.

Anyways I would change Percy's faceclaim to @gdig728 on TikTok if there were good pictures of him out there but alas.