Daughter of Wine

Callida

Before I board the ship, my dad stops me.

"Callida."

I turn and see him fidgeting with the buttons on his tropical Hawaiian shirt.

"Yeah?" My voice is dry with dread.

He nods his head to the grenade on my hip. "This may be the last time we see each other."

A lump forms in my throat. "You know?"

"Of course I know." He sighs. "I keep an eye on you, you know."

I look down at my feet. "Sorry."

"Don't be." He tilts my head back up to look at him. "You have brought honor to my name. For the first time, I have sired a hero." He glances over at my crewmates. "Though I wish it could be another way, I understand your sacrifice. You want to protect your friends."

"I couldn't live with myself if it's one of them." I admit.

"Well," I could be wrong, but he looks teary-eyed. "For what it's worth, I know that Percy, Jason, Hazel, and Nico get more credit as children of the Big Three. They can summon storms and move the earth and shake the seas. But in the thousands of years that I've been alive, you are the most powerful demigod I've ever seen."

"Um, thanks." I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't know if it's a compliment. I also do my best to not point out that he used their real names.

"I'm serious." He fixes his eyes intensely on me, and I wonder if this is how I look when I'm being serious. Annabeth told me once that I have a really intense gaze. "You can bring down armies with a glance, strangle thousands with vines, and you turned five giants into dolphins with the flick of your wrist. That takes a lot of power."

I nod. "Well, let's hope it's enough to kill Gaea."

"Take that physician's cure." Dionysus insists. "Otherwise, I'll have to go to the Underworld myself, and I don't know if Hades will let me resurrect another soul."

"What?"

"Ariadne." He explains. "I pulled her out of the Underworld myself." He glances up at my friends again. "Some of my more powerful children have that ability too."

I blink, trying to process what he's saying. "Um, okay. So if I die, you'll come rescue me?"

"I said I'd try. With this whole Doors of Death fiasco, I don't think Hades will be willing to let another soul return from the Underworld."

"Noted." I nod.

"Calli!" Leo calls, waving over at me.

"Goodbye, daughter." Dionysus does the unthinkable. He bows. He bows to me. "May your journey be successful."

"Bye, dad." I also do the unthinkable. I give him a hug. "Thank you."