The Second Jackson- Piper McLean book 1

Insulted and Tired with a Side of Guilty

Percy

I already felt like the lamest demigod in the history of lame. The purse was the final insult.

We'd left R.O.F.L. in a hurry, so maybe Iris hadn't meant the bag as a criticism. She'd quickly stuffed it with vitamin enriched pastries, dried fruit leather, macrobiotic jerky, and a few crystals for good luck. The she'd shoved it at me: Here, you'll need this. Oh, that looks good.

The purse- sorry, masculine accessory bag- was rainbow tie-dyed with a peace symbol stitched in wooden beads and the slogan Hug the Whole World. I wished it said Huge the Commode. I felt like the bag was a comment on my massive, incredible uselessness. As we sailed north, I put the man satchel as far away from me as I could, but the boat was small.

I couldn't believe how I'd broken down when my friends needed me. First, I'd been dumb enough to leave them alone when Lani and I had run back to the boat, and Hazel had gotten kidnapped. Then I'd watched that army marching south and had some kind of nervous breakdown. Sure, so did Lani, but she was able to snap out of it for a while, and I couldn't help her after she passed out. Embarrassing? Yeah, but I couldn't help it. When I'd seen those evil centaurs and Cyclopes, it had seemed so wrong, the giant Polybotes... that giant had given me a feeling the opposite of what I felt when I stood in the ocean. My energy had drained out of me, leaving me weak and feverish, like my insides were eroding.

Iris's medicinal tea had helped my body feel better, but my mind still hurt. I'd heard storied about amputees who had phantom pains where their missing arms and legs used to be. That's how my mind felt- like my missing memories were aching.

Worst of all, the farther north I went, the more those memories faded. I had started to feel better at Camp Jupiter, remembering random names and faces. But now even Annabeth's face was getting dimmer. At R.O.F.L., when I'd tried to send an Iris-message to Annabeth, Fleecy had just shaken her head sadly.

'It's like you're dialing somebody' she said, 'but you've forgotten their number. Or someone is jamming the signal. Sorry, dear. I just can't connect you'

I was terrified that I'd lose Annabeth's face completely when we got to Alaska. Maybe I'd wake up one day and not remember her name.

Still, I had to concentrate on the quest. The sight of that enemy army had shown me what we are up against. It was early in the morning of June 21, now. We had to get to Alaska, find Thanatos, locate the legion's standard, and make it back to Camp Jupiter by the evening of June 24. Four days. Meanwhile the enemy only had a few hundred miles to march.

I guided the boat through the strong currents off the northern California coast, Lani helping out once in a while to keep the ride as smooth as possible for Hazel. The wind was cold, but it felt good, clearing some of the confusion from my head. I bent my will to push the boat as hard as I could. The hull rattled as the Pax plowed its way north.

Meanwhile, Hazel and Frank traded stories about the events at Rainbow Organic Foods. Frank explained about the blind seer Phineas in Portland, and how Iris had said that he might be able to tell us where to find Thanatos. Frank wouldn't say how he had managed to kill the basilisks, but I got the feeling it had something to do with the broken point of his spear. Whatever had happened, Frank sounded more scared of the spear than the basilisks.

When he was done, Hazel told Frank about our time with Fleecy.

"So this Iris-message worked?" Frank asked.

Hazel gave me a sympathetic look. She didn't mention my failure to contact Annabeth.

"I got in touch with Reyna" she said. "You're supposed to throw a coin into the rainbow and say this incantation like 'O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering'. Except Fleecy kind of changed it. She gave us her- what did she call it- her direct number? So I had to say, 'O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Reyna at Camp Jupiter'. I felt kind of stupid, but it worked. Reyna's image appeared in the rainbow, like in a two-way video call. She was in the baths. Scared her out of her mind."