Half-Blooded, Half-Chosen

Maryse dragged me thorough the office door by my arm, practically throwing me into the sitting room that Percy was in. He turned halfway, looking between me and Maryse inquisitively, and I shook my head. "I told her."

He uncrossed his arms and faced us, his green eyes shifting from curious back to exhausted. "That may not have been a bad decision, though I'd rather not involve you in the matter at hand right now." He said slowly, shifting back and forth on his feet.

Maryse tapped her foot, bristling with anger. "Clashing the two worlds is a bad decision, Percy. You should have turned her away the minute she tried to find you." She frowned, noting his unusual tiredness and lack of energy. "But, something tells me that I'm not going to like what you have to say."

Percy's eyes were burning holes into my own, and he finally quit staring at me when Maryse stopped talking. "The worlds as we know them, the separate mythical and magical realms, are collapsing. Ties between them have frayed, and it's not going to be long before everything goes to hell. To put it lightly." He kicked at the edge of a carpet, his black hair in disarray. "Chiron is worried about the boundaries that are keeping the realms apart, and how they might affect the...wars...raging right now." He paused, looking at Maryse for a reation.

"Things are tense already." Maryse commented, her forehead furrowing with worry. "I doubt the divine would get along well since they've been in disagreement for awhile now." She held her hands behind her back. "I don't know about your situation, but we've been suffering more demon attacks and downworlder squabbles than usual. The Seelie court has all but retreated into the darkness and the vampires and werewolfs are trying to kill each other more often than not these days."

I tightened my lips, chewing on the side of my cheek. "What about me, though?"

Maryse stopped in her tracks. "Damn."

Percy rubbed his jawline with his thumb, "Anything or anyone that has more than one tie between worlds may be at risk. Even minor shifts like the Greek Gods have been having with their Roman counterparts are ripping camp apart. The more unusual the bond is, the more danger there is to be hurt."

A knock came from the other side of the door. "Not now!" Maryse shouted, tense from worry.

"Mother, please." Alec's voice from the other side was tinged with fear. "There's a problem with the Portal."

Maryse looked back at Percy. "This may be moving faster than we thought." She shook her head, the usually tight clip of hair on top of her head falling out in loose gray strands. "At this point, we need to fix this from here. There's no use keeping the different realms apart here on Earth." She mused. "Better come with us, Percy. This may involve you." She said over her shoulder, as she opened the door to an abnormally frazzled Alec.

"I don't know what happened." He tried to explain to her as she stalked down the hallways. "Izzy and I were responding to a call that we got from Jace a few moments ago, and we went into the Portal room, and..." He shook his head, gaining back his calculated air. "The Portal opened up like it usually did, but it slowed down, and began to make a cracking noise." We rounded a corner, Alec's jaw tightening as he stopped speaking.

"And?" I prompted, earning a look from Percy.

"Well..." Alec let out a breath. "it was like someone froze it over, and then hit it with a super heated flame. It evaporated, but we received something in return."

Maryse stopped before the doors to the Portal room. "What do you mean by that?"

Alec cocked his head. "Just open the doors."

Maryse pushed them open, and as she did so, I was hit by a stabbing headache. "Really?" I muttered under my breath, rubbing my temples and following Percy and Alec inside the scalding hot room. A burst of steam escaped through the open doors, and once the fog cleared some, there was more than one figure apparent.

"What the hell?" Maryse murmured, making her way down the steaming steps. Isabelle was crouched over a blonde girl I had never seen before, but it was apparent Percy knew her. He ran past Maryse, kneeling down by the girl's side.

"Where did she come from?" He demanded. "How did she get here?"

Isabelle looked confused. "We don't know." She looked at the empty doorway that the Portal was usually in. "When the Portal vaporized, she kinda just...fell into the room from the fog. "

Percy's face tightened, looking back down at the girl. She was pretty, with what appeared to be fair skin and long hair, but she looked like death. Her lips were blue, and her hands were shaking, yet she was covered in burns and her hair was twisted at the ends like someone had held a lighter under her braid.

"Get her out of here." Maryse instructed, but as Percy went to pick her up, she twitched and her eyes opened, revealing their color as a stormy grey. She tried to speak, but the only noises coming out of her dry mouth were incomprehensible. She coughed, her burned skin cracking and bleeding. "Ow..." She managed.

"Annabeth..." Percy gently touched her forehead. "You're ice cold." He looked back to Maryse in confusion. "Should we move her or not?"

Alec shifted. "Her skin is destroyed. Moving her may cause more damage, but leaving her here would probably be worse."

Maryse nodded in agreement. "We need to carefully move her out of here, causing her as little pain as possible." She told Alec and Isabelle. Percy stood up, his expression unreadable. I looked to Maryse for an answer as to why this had happened, but her eyes offered me no reasoning. I looked back to the girl, and her head slipped to the side, her throat convulsing, and when her eyes met mine, I felt nothing but fire inside. My vision faded in and out, and I hit the floor with a thud, trying to regain control of my body. Muffled noises around me faded into the silence of crashing waves.

Notes