The Enchantress' Curse

 

Percy was playing a chess game by himself in boredom. He was alone right then, and he admitted the loneliness was getting to him again.

 

He would even confess that he missed Hermes and Apollo.

 

And of the others who snuck into his home –lying, horrible Hestia, who Percy saw through almost immediately after she’d come (Hades had given him a straight account of the entire thing from the Olympian end, and he had no reason to not believe the god), stern Athena who made him feel conflicted because he was upset with her like all the others…but didn’t deserve the cruel treatment Percy was bestowing on her, and Hades…whose presence Percy could say he tolerated more than anyone else right now.

 

Having them was better than having no one.

 

He wished there was some form of water there that he could use to contact his father. He knew they were circumventing every way and everything his father was trying to attempt, in an effort to reach him. Triton had told him that and also that they were doling every excuse they could to prevent his father from even being in Olympus.

 

He’d almost contacted Triton, but the special mirror was to be used sparingly, in case of being caught with it and because the components making it required a large amount of recharge in order to be used again.

 

All in all, he hated having to be in this castle with no one to keep him company.

 

“Lonely?” a familiar voice purred, and he turned in surprise to face the woman.

 

Eris waved cheekily, from her perch on his windowsill, winking playfully.

 

He looked around, but didn’t see Morpheus or Nemesis anywhere, so assumed she was there by herself. He wondered what had become of her after the ‘Bridge Incident’, as he hadn’t seen her since and he couldn’t exactly ask about her or the others to his godly visitors, when he wasn’t even sure he was supposed to know them or have met anyone in the time he’d left the Olympic Hospital.

 

Percy tilted his head, eyes still a little bitter, but Eris had nothing to do with the ordeal so he had nothing to really rally against her for.

 

“A bit,” he said mockingly, even though it was the truth.

 

She chuckled and pushed herself off the windowsill to land on her feet on the floor.

 

“Someone’s gone a bit darker than last,” she smirked. “It’s kinda hard getting in here, ya know? I hadn’t expected all them enchantments and whatnot all over your grounds. It’s almost a basic deathtrap, if you don’t know how to navigate the place. I bet you anything –some of that is Hecate’s work,” Eris nodded surely.

 

Percy frowned, having not known that, and made a mental note about it to ask Hades about. He knew neither Athena nor Hestia would tell him, and he wasn’t too sure about Apollo or Hermes. Athena, oddly enough, was uncharacteristically needy when around him, and didn’t talk much about the outside and only about him. Hestia was who he had been using to hear what was going on in the camp, as well as the occasional blurb about his family. Apollo would be close, but wouldn’t tell him because he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to. There was some things the gods and goddesses were currently forbidden to do, and though they would disobey the order to not visit him, it was all a very close thing.

 

And Hermes? He knew the god would just get blinded by guilt and blunder about.

 

“Percy, look what I got,” he was brought back to the present because of Eris, who held up a bowl with some type of liquid in it.

 

When he looked in it, his lips twitched and he grinned widely. It was water, and by the smell of it –saltwater. And then Eris even held up a drachma.

 

“Oi, I had to make Iris shut her trap about this little shindig, so you better get ready to repay me for this,” Eris huffed, rolling her eyes at his excitement, but grinning along with him.

 

She tossed the drachma at him and he caught it, before he looked it over in awe and relief, somehow exhaustion just crumpling in on him. He could finally talk to someone, someone he chose to talk to and needed to.

 

The problem was, it was only one drachma.

 

He was torn between contacting his father…or being able to contact his mother. In the end, he chose Poseidon, because there was no guarantee that his mother would be around any water for him to contact her with. He tossed the coin in and it wasn’t too long until he saw Poseidon, who looked haggard and worn down.

 

The utter relief and joy that colored his father’s face at the sight of him made him smile happily, an emotion he hadn’t really thought he’d be able to feel any time soon.

 

“Perseus, you have no idea how glad I am to see you now. But how?”

 

Percy glanced to the side, seeing Eris leaning against his wall and feigning not listening in.

 

“I…have a friend that managed to help me out with the Iris-message,” Percy said carefully.

 

Poseidon nodded. “I see. Yes, it’s best if you don’t say much, in case we’re overheard. I’ve been wanting to tell you, Sally is pregnant with Paul’s baby. A girl, I believe. They didn’t know how to contact you, so they told me so I could pass it on.”

 

Percy felt excitement bubble up in him at the news, and the urge to see his mother and Paul rose up stronger than ever. He also felt sadness, because he just knew he wouldn’t be able to see the baby or be there for her birth, or even see his mother.

 

“Would I…would I be able to see them at all? Can I come to the birth?” he asked hesitant.

 

And he knew, even before Poseidon had said anything, just from the hesitant look on his father’s face, that it wouldn’t be a yes.

 

“I’m sorry, Perseus,” Poseidon said solemnly. “I do not think that will be allowed. But I will…see what I can do.”

 

“Thanks, Dad,” Percy gave him a small, wry smile that he didn’t feel like making.

 

“They also wanted you to know that they were naming her middle name after you –Perseas,” and Percy’s mood lifted up somewhat. “They would have named you godfather as well, but they weren’t sure if it was allowed since you are a god now and all.”

 

“Is it? Allowed?” Percy asked hesitantly.

 

There was a moment, where nothing was said and Percy’s mood started to drop again, but Poseidon gave him a grim smile.

 

“No one will know,” he promised Percy, and Percy was back to grinning because at least he would get to be godfather to his sister.

 

It was unusual, he knew, but it happens and he didn’t care much. He was going to be brother, godfather, and anything else his little sister needed. He would have to find a way to make it work, but he was determined he would.

 

He wanted his life back, and he wanted her to be in his life.

 

He talked a little more with his father, for as long as they could talk, until it was time for the message to end and they said goodbyes. Once the image of Poseidon faded, Percy sighed and looked mournfully at the water.

 

“Can I take my payment now?” Eris said cheerfully, cutting into his somber mood.

 

He looked at her with his eyebrows scrunched up. “And what do you want?”

 

“A kiss,” she said bluntly.

 

He gaped at her and she just smirked back. “You see, your Olympians are a right possessive bunch. I figure it’ll piss ‘em off, if your first godly kiss is taken from them,” she snickered. “Even if I can’t brag about it to them, since I’m not supposed to be here and all.”

 

Percy thought on it and looked at her closely, actually making her fidget at the scrutiny.

 

“I suppose,” he reluctantly agreed. “Though I don’t get what is wrong with them, or why they are so insistent on getting close to me. The whole ‘Consort of the Gods’ makes no sense, though. Where did that come from?”

 

“You mean you don’t know?” she asked curiously. At the shake of his head, she adopted a more serious attitude and straightened. “I suppose they wouldn’t wanna pressure you after everything else they did. The thing is –you’re their soul mate. It’s a really big thing. You see, it’s rare enough for anyone, immortal or not, to be able to meet their soul mate or recognize them. And the Olympians, they weren’t supposed to have one. For the longest time, they were supposed to never have one.

 

“And then one day, the Fates visited them and said that there would come a time where they finally had a soul mate. You can imagine they were utterly ecstatic when they heard the news…but years passed and nothing. They kept unhappy, grew a little bitter and just a little bit more harsher every century passing by. Then you came, and the rest they say is history,” she shrugged.

 

Percy frowned at that, though he admitted it answered a lot of questions for him. It didn’t make him any less upset with the others, but it made him at least a little less angry. Which felt good, because being so angry, even if it was a passive anger most of the time, was just draining and exhausting to be feeling.

 

“Ares hates me. And I thought Athena disliked me,” Percy wanted just a few more clarifications.

 

“He sure did seem like he did, the big lug,” Eris mocked her brother. “And that bint has no social awareness. The two may have disliked you in the beginning, but things change. All of the Olympians probably have had formed feelings for you at some point…but some are better at hiding it than others, or at least want to hide it. Why are some of them more showy now? Like I said, being a soul mate is a big thing. And soul mates aren’t limited to the romance kind, you know. There are familial ones and friendship, etc.”

 

Percy hmmed, though the idea that he had a familial soul mate in his father sounded brilliant. He wondered if it was possible he could have the same in Triton, or even his mother, Paul, or new sister.

 

“My kiss?” she brought him back from his thoughts again, tapping his nose mischievously.

 

And yet…

 

“How badly do you want to upset the Olympians?” Percy murmured, and an intrigued expression entered Eris’ face.

 

“Badly,” she grinned, up to making more discord and trying to make as much disharmony as she could amongst them.

 

And Percy leaned over and pressed his lips firmly against hers. He grasped the back of her head and crushed her closer, opening his mouth against hers and coercing her to echo him. She was damned surprised at his initiative and force, but she wasn’t complaining and merely gave a wolfish grin against his lips.

 

His tongue licked at her upper lip, and she was sure she hadn’t expected him to be such a good kisser or to be so experienced in it, given his age (she hadn’t even thought he’d know how to use his tongue in kissing or even done it before). Pleasant surprises kept cropping up, and the urge to brag about it kept growing stronger.

 

She mentally pouted at the lost opportunities.

 

His hand glided down her side, sliding down the length of her thigh, before hooking underneath a knee and maneuvering it to catch around his waist. Her wolfish grin tinged hungry, and she caught onto his idea with relish.

 

Instead of stealing the Olympian gods’ kiss, she can go a little further and be a little more greedy and take more from them.

 

So she pushed back hard, because she gave as good as she got, and she wasn’t going to let some baby god outshine her in this department. The gravity-defying hair she yanked roughly at, the sea-green eyes that she heard her brother reluctantly mutter to himself about when he thought he was alone, the soft, untouched (as a god) lips that actually managed to dominate hers…

 

All hers for right then, and the Olympians couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

 

It was such a shame that she couldn’t brag and boast about this, and taunt it to their faces. Watch them bicker amongst themselves over the decisions they had made, that had led to her being able to worm her way into who was supposed to be theirs.

 

She loved the feel of chaos erupting in this supposed paradise, and drew tantamount euphoria from it all.

 

It really was a damn shame Chaos didn’t want to let go of his title, because she craved it now more than ever.

 

As she licked a hot trail up Percy’s neck and to his jaw, she nuzzled his jaw as her smirk returned.

 

“Sweet dreams, Paradisian,” she purred and captured his lips again.

 

And so he did that night afterwards, courtesy of their mutual friend.

 

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Though Hades didn’t show it, he was unnerved and taken aback at the disarray of the room and the languid and naked position of his fellow god on his bed, lying on his side and head propped up by a hand. It was empty of any other occupant, but Percy was awake and humming along to a song as his eyes kept closed and he kept tracing seemingly meaningless patterns on the sheets tangled around him.

 

“Seven devils all around me, seven devils in my house. See they were there when I woke up this morning~” Percy’s eyes opened suddenly, and bore straight into Hades’.

 

Hades tilted his head in acknowledgement, but didn’t bare any other reaction or emotion through his face or body.

 

“Seven devils…Athena, Hermes, Apollo, Hestia, and myself…That makes five. You’re missing three,” Hades murmured, tracing a smooth path over objects as he made his way over.

 

He took a seat on the bed next to Percy, without revealing anything, and Percy continued to observe him with sea-green eyes that glittered.

 

With what, Hades could not ascertain. With anger…with malevolence…with playfulness…with secrets…

 

Hades was very good at uncovering people and divulging every little mystery and knowledge whispered from their very own lips, but for once he was unable to detract a single trace of anything from the God of Humility.

 

“I’ll be dead before the day is done,” Percy said the next bit of the song in answer to him, along with a smile reminiscent of Mona Lisa’s enigmatic tilt of lips.

 

Hades looked him over, and knew he couldn’t pry it out of him. Now wouldn’t even be the time for that to be a good idea. But he can deduce.

 

The smell in the air, the other god’s position, and three lingering presences –one like faint wisp, another strong and physically still demanded presence there, and another dark, secret, always at the edge of his senses…

 

Gods not of the ones he listed, that he knew visited Percy regularly, had come into this place and made their stake in his life –had made their precedence to Percy over all Olympians.

 

Hades took a deep breath, but his already onyx eyes darkened considerably.

 

Without warning, he pushed Percy onto his back and hovered over him, arms trapping him to the bed as they placed firmly on either side of Percy. Though Percy looked surprised for a moment, his face immediately waned into mere curiosity.

 

“What a curious boy. You want to hurt them, but you feel remorse.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

“Silly godling. The Olympians are at your feet, even when most of them keep away. Take advantage of that power; stop feeling sorry for them. Have they not betrayed you? Make them tremble and beg for you.”

 

‘But it’s not like me.’

 

“‘Til I tear the walls, ‘til I save your heart,” Percy hissed, and it was so unlike him that Hades shivered. “And to take your soul for what has been done, cannot be undone. In the evil’s heart, in the evil’s soul~”

 

“Then hurt us, little one,” Hades said remorselessly, almost pleadingly, but Hades does not plead. At least he won’t admit to. “Hurt us to your heart’s content, and make gods cry.”

 

“How much power do I have over you and the others?” Percy glared resentfully. “How much power does a soul mate have over immortal beings, enough to make them beg on their knees?”

 

“You have all the power over us, for you can bring heaven to collapse all around the world, or make it towering in brilliance and passion,” Hades spoke truth, and didn’t cower away.

 

Percy was the only one with the ability to force them all to vulnerability, and it was his choice to do so. It would always be up to him.

 

“Then get off me and get on your knees on the ground,” Percy pushed him away angrily.

 

And to his surprise, Hades did just that, looking up at him with eyes that waited next for what Percy wanted.

 

“You…”

 

“You are the God of Humility. Make us humble,” Hades murmured.

 

Another torrent of anger jolted through Percy, and the former demigod angrily raised up a hand and smacked it straight across Hades’ face. In shock, Percy stared at the mark that blossomed quickly on pale skin, and then at his aching hand. He’d hit hard…

 

He wasn’t…he wasn’t this angry. He didn’t act like this. This wasn’t him.

 

Even before, angry and upset as he was with all of the Olympians, he hadn’t felt the need to be like this –to strike so harshly with his hands, and even with his words. But something was toiling with his emotions, pushing his anger to the forefront, and increased all the negativity in him until he was blinded by rage and could lash out at opportune moments.

 

What was happening? What was happening to him?

 

Hades stayed quiet and continued looking straight at him, waiting and just waiting. Percy swallowed in panic.

 

This was a god far older and more powerful than he, and yet Percy was capable of making him go down onto his knees and submit to him with only just a few words.

 

It was wrong.

 

It was all wrong.

 

Shaking, Percy dropped to his knees in front of Hades, and threw his arms around the god’s neck, sobbing quietly because he was afraid of himself and what was happening.

 

There was something wrong with him.

 

Yes, he was angry and upset and he wanted to lash out at the others…but this wasn’t like him at all, and all the tumultuous feelings boiling in him (even now, they were there simmering and ready to take control and make him hurt everyone around him) wouldn’t stop screaming at him to make everyone pay.

 

He felt Hades take a shaky (wrong, so wrong) breath and the other god wrapped strong arms around him, and inwardly Percy felt like he was the one making this paradise a complete hell.

 

“I…” he heard Hades’ voice choke, and it was so wrong to have Hades be like this when it wasn’t like the other. He was used to a cool, indifferent and calm Hades. And yet this was something Percy could do to him. “I came here, wondering if you’d like me to sneak you to the Underworld. I’m not as closely watched as Poseidon, and even though it’ll probably only be for a little bit, I thought you’d like some time out of here. Persephone would love to see you.”

 

“And how does she feel about this?” Percy muttered against Hades’ neck.

 

“She understands. She’s not nearly as aggravated as everyone thought she would be. She even likes you.”
 

“That’s…good. I’d…I’d like to go with you there. I’d like to see her too.”

 

Hades wrapped his arms tighter around him, and Percy could just barely see the shadows coalesced all around them before engulfing them. He closed his eyes and next he saw, he’d opened his eyes to see he was at the Los Angeles entrance to the Underworld. He and Hades stood up, and Hades deftly escorted him into the familiar building, with the dark god’s hands firmly against his back and on his shoulder. He saw Charon see them, bowing nervously to Hades and give a friendly wink and a smirk to him, and then he and Hades were in the elevator and traveling the rest of the way to Hades’ realm.

 

It wasn’t long until he was in the dark palace, and a flutter of golden hair and a dark dress was all he saw before he was being tightly embraced by Persephone. She pulled back and gave him a small smile.

 

“Hello, Perseus. I apologize for that. How have you been, dear?” she was such a pretty little thing, dressed up as Queen of the Underworld.

 

She at once looked like she did and didn’t belong there.

 

Percy gave her a soft smile, which she beamed at, and couldn’t help sugar coating it all, because she didn’t seem like she should be marked with any sort of darkness.

 

“Oh, I should check to make sure they don’t serve anything of here to you, for dinner tonight,” Persephone remembered, and cast him a quick smile and a kiss to both his cheeks, before quickly kissing her husband’s cheek and fluttering away like a beautiful butterfly.

 

Percy smiled sadly after her.

 

He felt Hades wrap his arms around him again, and felt an unexpected, soft kiss to his temple.

 

“I would like to keep you as innocent as well.”

 

Percy’s smile tinged bitter. “I doubt I am at all, now.”

 

Hades shook his head. “Angry, yes. But you’re still pure-hearted and sweet, and I know once you’ve stopped feeling all that anger and when the hurt will hopefully wane, you’ll be the Percy we all know and that you have kept locked away in your resentment.”

 

“It’ll be a long time probably,” Percy said, suddenly feeling tired, and he felt himself slump a little in Hades’ arms.

 

“Then that’s just how it’ll be.”

 

“Would you wait?”

 

“Of course.”

 

And Percy turned slightly in Hades’ arms, and burrowed his face into Hades’ chest.

 

“You know, Persephone’s had her fair share of dark moments. She’ll be quite amused to know of your thoughts of her,” Hades informed him, a little playfully.

 

“Was I that obvious?” Percy asked wryly.

 

“Just a bit,” Hades answered amusedly. “You should ask her all about Minthe. She will tell of the tale of her in great detail and morbid humor.”

 

That peaked Percy’s interest, but he decided he’d wait and that he would ask Persephone of this Minthe. If the slight coloring of Hades’ cheeks meant anything, it was a tale that greatly embarrassed the other god, if even a slight showing of emotion had been able to seep through Hades’ hard façade.

 

“Perhaps I should eat something of your realm, Hades. I could stay in your realm, and I would have company in you and I would be able to keep Persephone company,” Percy unexpectedly said.

 

Hades was tempted, extremely so, but he knew that it could not be so.

 

“But then I would cause a civil war. And though I am feeling vengeful still, I don’t want to be the cause of a civil war,” Percy finished.

 

It was with regret that Hades kissed his temple once more.

 

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When he was returned, Hades was reluctant to part with him. But he had to soon, and he knew that it wouldn’t be long until either Apollo or Hestia came. Perhaps even Hermes, who could be done with his work early.

 

In either case, Hades must not dawdle and linger long in Percy’s abode.

 

Percy, in the meanwhile, had begun to clean up a little bit. Now that he was less rash and angered, it was a little embarrassing to see how his room was and to remember how he’d been seen in it.

 

“Are you well, little one?”

 

The dark-haired woman in the midst of his room looked at him with fathomless eyes, an emotionless smile gracing her lips, though a tint of cruelty accompanied her features.

 

“I’m…okay,” Percy had never seen her before, but something called out to her from inside of him.

 

“Very good,” she murmured, striding slowly closer.

 

“Who are you?” he asked breathlessly, and unknowing to him, his eyes were starting to glaze over.

 

“You may call me Adrasteia,” she said gently, and she looked so much sweeter…like…sweet nectar…

 

“Perseus,” she intoned gravely. “Hardened your soul and ice your heart. Make your fortress impenetrable, and let no one in.”

 

She kissed his lips lightly.

 

“Except me.”

 

His eyes fluttered and he felt a chill through his room.