"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough
first day?"
"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."
"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in
them? It doesn't get any easier."
The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a
pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.
"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.
He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought
He was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal.
"Yeah. Hermes."
"The wing-footed messenger guy."
"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves.
Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin
eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."
I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his
mind.
"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.
"Once."
I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently,
he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.
Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The
campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family,
right? We take care of each other."
He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that,
because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should be steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed
me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest
thing anybody had done for me all day.
I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering
me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big
Three' material. Then Annabeth...twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She
said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"
Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."
"What do you mean?"
His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for
everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the
Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's
been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally
told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He
YOU ARE READING
Nyctophilia
Fanfiction||A person who loves night or darkness|| When during a feast in hogwart in the middle of Celeste Amaris Potter's 5th year at hogwarts there is a flash. demigods, gods, weasleys, sirius, lupin, moody, minister of magic, malfoys all are teleported int...
