“What are you doing here, Trevor?” I snapped.
“Amara knew I was going to be coming here this weekend. She said you were on your way and asked me to keep an eye out for you if I saw you.”
I stared at him for a minute. Yeah, my mom trusted the guy but she knew I didn’t like him. She wouldn’t make me have him as a babysitter. Besides, there was one giant flaw to his story. “I didn’t tell my mom I was coming to Seattle.”
He frowned a little and a crease formed between his brows. He looked like he was concentrating very hard about something. “Hmm. So she was telling the truth. And here I thought Amara was just trying to protect you. I thought that you tell each other everything.”
I suddenly felt very cold. This guy was still an ass but he wasn't the same jerk that had been dating my mom. He was more dangerous. “What did you do with my mother?”
He grinned manically and my heart stopped. “Would you like to see her? I think I can offer you the luxury of seeing her one last time.”
He snapped his fingers and the guards from the Space Needle security office appeared again. Their swords were drawn and pointed directly at my group. Trevor pulled out his own bronze blade and aimed the tip right at the hollow of my throat. I highly doubted I was quick enough to get to my own weapon without being skewered, and even if I was successful I’d only succeed in dooming my friends.
“Not again,” Grover groaned behind me.
I ignored the satyr and kept my focus solely on Trevor. “You did all this? You kidnapped the Fates? You’re a Titan, aren’t you?”
He bowed dramatically. “Menoetius, Titan of violent anger, rash action, and human mortality, at your service.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, whatever. Now take me to my mom.”
His smile was downright scary, made even worse with that sword still pointing at me but I wasn’t about to show how truly afraid I was. “As you wish, Naida.”
He snapped his fingers again and the world went dark for a minute. I had the worst sense of vertigo ever and seriously wanted to puke. When everything came back into focus we were still surrounded but we definitely weren’t in Seattle anymore. I could still smell the salty breeze coming from the Pacific Ocean but it wasn’t raining and it was warm despite being winter. We were in a living room with huge windows so it was bright, white walls, two cream couches, and a 50” TV on the wall. A long counter separated the living room from the kitchen where two surfboards leaned against the wall. I knew this place in an instant.
“No way. I went back and forth across the country to end up back in my own freaking house?”
Trevor smiled again. “I thought it’d be poetic that you finish your quest where you started it. What’d you think?”
“I think you’d better tell me what’s going on.”
He nodded once before he began talking. “Kronos declared war on the gods too soon. With control of the Fates, our armies cannot fall. You know that the gods lose power when no one believes in them?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Are we randomly changing the subject now? Okay, my turn. You’re an asshole.”
I jumped when his hand met my cheek and I heard Nico screaming profanities behind me but we were all pretty helpless at the moment. “Don’t be a smartass, Naida. It’s not ladylike at all. And if you wouldn’t have interrupted I could’ve gotten to my point. That being, you can’t go after the gods until they’re too weak to fight back. No one really believes in them anymore except for the demigods. Eliminate them and you eliminate the gods’ power.”
I let that sink in for a moment. “So your big takeover plan is to murder a bunch of kids? You’re a bully. You’re really so afraid that you’ll use demigods for your dirty work?”
“Yes, and probably their parents too. Anyone that has had a relationship with the gods should probably be destroyed as well.”
My eyes narrowed dangerously at him as I got the meaning. “You leave my mother out of this.”
“Poseidon did love your mom at one point. Do you think he’ll be heartbroken when she dies or will he not even remember her?”
My heart pounded in my chest and my knees went weak. I stumbled but a huge body caught me. I didn’t have to look to know that Tyson was supporting all my weight. My mind was working rapidly, trying to find a way out of this mess but all I could think about was my mom. Screw the quest. I wasn’t risking my mom’s life for some strangers.
“You can still succeed, I guess,” Trevor continued. “The Fates are here, locked in your bedroom. Get past my armies and save them and that’s the end of it. Or you can go after you moms.”
“Moms? With an ‘s’?” I said stupidly.
“Oh, of course, I didn’t finish explaining that part, did I?”
He snapped again- which was getting really annoying- and another guard came into the room with two woman trudging in front of him at sword point. One of them was older, in her forties with her light brown hair pulled back. Her brown eyes were scared and widened in terror when she saw us. The other was younger with fire in her blue eyes. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her dark red curls looked like pissed off flames. I think I forgot how to breathe in that moment.
“Mom?” Percy choked out from my right. Shit, so it wasn’t only my mom in danger.
Trevor laughed. “Oh, poor Sally. This is the second time you’ve been used for bait, right? I believe Hades did it once.”
Both Percy and Nico stiffened at that. I glared. “You knew what I was the whole time, didn’t you? That’s why you were always such a dick to me. See, I knew you were a douche bag and I tried warning her but this is insane. My mom and Mrs. Jackson have nothing to do with this crap.”
“Sure they do,” he said easily. “They both fell in love with a god and gave birth to a couple of powerful demigods. Demigods, I might add, that have been constantly getting in the way. So it’s time to choose, Naida. How much do you love your mom? Or is your loyalty to your father enough to save the Fates and the gods of Olympus and their children? Pick, kiddo, Mom or Dad.”

Notes

thanks a ton to FJM818 Evil espresso drinks and Icarus_falling for commenting :)