Percy Jackson and the Curse of Lust

A lot of people seem to think, on account of all the things I've faced in my fairly short life, that nothing scares me anymore. That couldn't be further from the truth. Every duel with a Titan, every legendary monster faced and vengeful god escaped from, doesn't make the fear go away. You just get better at ignoring it. And sometimes, you end up in a situation so screwed up that even all that practice can't distract you from the way your gut is tied into more knots than the rigging behind you.

Charybdis and Scylla weren't regular monsters. Maybe they went to Tartarus to reform if destroyed… but nobody knows, because no one has ever pulled it off. They were practically forces of nature, only one step off of Typhon himself, the father of all monsters. The one time I faced them hadn't been a fight. It had been a desperate attempt to survive.

Their only weakness was that they never moved. They were the permanent guardians of the Sea of Monsters; the only way to enter or escape was to pass between them. 

So what in the name of Olympus were they doing here?

Pirates ran around the deck, barking to each other and pulling stragglers up from the deck. Beside me, Hylla had drawn her sword and pistol. I didn't know what she planned to do with those, but I appreciated the thought.

"What…?" she said.

"Charybdis and Scylla," I said. "Two of the biggest, baddest monsters of all time."

"I know that," she said. "I lost good men to them on the way out of the Sea of Monsters. There is no way I would not recognize them. What I want to know, is what is that? Look!"

She pointed at something far away, approaching fast. I was impressed she had even seen it. A handful of dark specks were flying toward us, low enough to skim the taller waves.

"What do you think?" Annabeth said. "It's what's been after us for ages."

I did a double take as my girlfriend appeared next to us with no warning. She walked really quietly. I blamed her invisibility cap for that.

That same cap was in her hand now, her dagger ready in the other. Lou, Clarisse, and Valentina were on deck, rallying panicking pirates. Artemis had climbed all the way up the crow's nest. I didn't see Emily, which was probably for the best. If anywhere would be safe for a mortal in this situation, it was tucked deep beneath the deck.

"How do we fight them?" I asked without missing a beat.

Annabeth gave me a dry look. "We don't."

"Not the answer I was hoping for."

"Percy, you remember Scylla and Charybdis," she said. "The last time we tried to fight back, it was only because Clarisse was on a mission to royally screw up her own quest."

"I heard that!"

Annabeth ignored the daughter of Ares's bellow from the other side of the deck. "You can't fight something like that. But things are different this time. We don't need to pass between them. I don't know how they got here, but this isn't the entrance to the Sea of Monsters, and we aren't trying to get there. There's no reason not to run."

I leaned off the side of the ship, looking at the dark specks Hylla had spotted— still coming closer.

"Something tells me she won't let this be that easy," I said.

A wedge of harpies flew in a V-shape. Right in the middle, Echidna rode on the back of one, looking just as heavy as ever. She held the Harpy's hair in one hand like reigns. In her other hand she gripped a white thigh-bone, gnawing it in a horribly suggestive way.

I watched her forked tongue dart over smiling lips as she came close enough to hear our voices.

She released the hair of the Harpy she was riding, hopping across onto the the next one over. The Harpy she landed on jerked in the air, just about catching herself and keeping them up. But the one Echidna had ridden for who knows how long was red in the face, eyes bulging and skin totally sweaty. She nosedived, bursting into dust from sheer exhaustion before even hitting the waves.

"Hello there Percy!" Echidna said pleasantly, not even sparing a look for the fate of her old steed. "Don't you think it's time you ought to give up?"

There were five harpies left in total, including the one she was perched atop. I wasn't too worried about them, though. They looked too tired to even swipe their claws. Besides, it was difficult to take them seriously with Scylla and Charybdis right there.

"Not even a hello for me?" asked Echidna. "And after I–"

She cut off, coughing. She bent forward, pressing a fist to her mouth, and spat out something goldish-brown.

"Whew, I'm sorry dearies," Echidna said. "My last meal was particularly bratty. It's left hair in my throat for days."

I glanced into the water, spotting a small clump of lion's hair bobbing there.

"The Sphinx…" I said.

"Don't talk about other girls right now," she chided. "I'm right here for you, after all."

"I wish you weren't," I told her honestly.

She laughed. "So full of vim. So much fire. You, Perseus Jackson, are going to be delightful to use. And the best part is, you'll offer yourself willingly."

"Go figure."

"Oh but it's true," she said. "After all, your friends are in quite a bit of trouble."

Right then Charybdis finished sucking in another dose of water. The flow reversed, and a new tidal wave roared out, even larger than the first one. I poured everything I had into opening up a gap like before, and I managed it, but I couldn't be sure how many more times that would work. Charybdis was still coming closer. All it would take was one stray piece of debris to send our ship — and everyone on it — straight to the ocean floor.

"I could get rid of them," Echidna said. "They aren't my children, but they've always been lovely girls. They dropped everything when I asked them to be here. If I told them to spare one ship, maybe snatch a few smelly unwanted pirates instead of dear little demigods, I'm certain I could get through to them. All you would have to do is give up—"

Bang!

I jumped as a miniature explosion went off right next to me. Echidna yanked her Harpy's hair, pulling the monster's face into the path of something that made it disintegrate on the spot. Another Harpy swooped in, catching their mother before she could get the slightest bit wet.

Hylla scoffed, her blunderbuss still raised and her finger squeezing the trigger.

"He will be going nowhere with you," she declared. "And my crew is not unwanted, even if they are a bit smelly."

The pirates cheered for their captain. Echidna's new mount fluttered up, elevating her back above the rim of the ship.

"Must you be difficult?" she said.

I looked at Annabeth. I could see her brain racing a million miles a minute. She nodded at me. Hylla had steel in her eyes. I looked back at the rest of the girls, and found them glaring at Echidna. Even the pirates looked up for it. Blackbeard was running a hand through his matted facial hair like it was the pull cord to an engine.

I turned back to Echidna, raising my sword. "Bring it on."

She sighed. "A pity." 

She tossed away her Sphinx bone, letting it pinwheel into the waves, and had her Harpies fly higher. 

"I can only hope you'll end up in pieces big enough to salvage," she told me. She turned her head toward the monsters. "Hear that, girls? Come and give it your all!"

Scylla's three exposed heads tilted up toward the sky and wailed in unison, sounding like a billion chipmunks screaming murderously at the same time. I know that doesn't sound scary, but trust me, this noise wormed its way straight to your brain.

Even though we were hundreds of feet away, the heads launched toward us, stretching over the entire distance. They were as fast as bullets. 

"Down!" Annabeth screamed.

Before reaching the boat, one head turned away. Arrows sprouted from its eyeballs despite the speed it was moving at. In the crow's nest, Artemis tried to notch more arrows in time. No Fates sealing her powers could take her accuracy away.

But the other two heads hit the boat. One collided with the side of the hull, busting open a wide gap to the lower deck. Annabeth grabbed my shirt and pulled me sideways. A moment later, the third head took a bite out of the deck right where I'd been.

"They're after you!" she said. 

The head with arrows in its eye was coming around for another pass. I heard a crash, and the whole ship listed sideways. The hull was taking more damage.

"The ship can't take much more of this," I said.

We made eye contact.

"Just do it," Annabeth said. "We'll manage."

Despite the situation, I grinned. Isn't it great to have a girlfriend that's used to what an idiot you are?

With a running leap, I jumped overboard.

On the way down I got a look at what was going on below deck. One of Scylla's snakelike heads was tearing away wood with jerks of her long muscled neck. 

"Hey ugly!" I shouted.

A bright pupil slid across the eye I could see, training on me.

"It's me you want, right? Trying to finish what you couldn't four years ago? Then come on… Get me!"

Loose planks decorated the waves, torn off by Scylla's teeth and Charybdis's brutal waves. I summoned one about the size of a car door, using the current to push it underneath me. Both my feet hit the board and I shot away, skimming across the surface of the ocean. 

By now, propelling something at sea was completely second nature. Dodging murderous dragon heads was a new one. But I wasn't going to let this be easy for Scylla.

All three heads that went after the boat made a U-turn, firing after me instead. One sped up suddenly, reaching out its fleshy maw, but my board skipped sideways. The head broke the surface of the ocean in a salty spray.

The other two came for me from different directions. I weaved between them. I knew I shouldn't be enjoying this, but in the moment I couldn't deny it was pretty fun.

The heads burst from the water again. They came at me from every direction. None touched me. Everytime they got close, I'd skip sideways faster than they could adjust.

With each miss they attacked faster. I could feel their frustration. Charybdis spat out a wave. My board rode it right up to the crest, and just as I hit the top, all three heads came for me from different directions.

The wave spouted like a geyser. At the last second, I propelled myself into the air, leaving Scylla's heads to crash into each other with an unhealthy crack. They wailed and tried to reel back, but there was no way to escape. As they crisscrossed each other chasing me, their necks had become wrapped together, tied into a series of scaly knots.

"Wooohooooooo!" I cried, feeling pretty great.

Something snatched me out of the air.

It hit me faster than a car, hard enough to rattle my ribs inside my stomach. The board I was riding snapped in half. Wind beat against my back as I soared toward the out-of-place mountain. I had to squint to keep my eyes from tearing up, but from the crack between my eyelids, I could make out a fourth head, this one with a large scar over one eye.

I groaned, and not just from pain. Of course. I should've known better than to assume Scylla only had three heads. From the scar on this head, it was the exact same one that snatched me off the CSS Birmingham years ago. The one I stabbed an eye out on. I would've loved to make it a matching pair, but I lost Riptide when the head hit me, and it was taking all my arms had just to keep her fangs from closing completely around my body.

It was strange that I was alive at all. If she wanted me dead, it shouldn't have been hard for Scylla to do it. All she'd have to do was slam me down on part of her mountain, and that would be it: no more Percy. But instead she seemed to be trying her best to drag me back to her cave in one piece.

It couldn't be…

Well, I had other things to worry about first. Namely escaping the powerful jaws dragging me through the air. I tried to summon a wave to help me, but we were too high up and moving too fast. Riptide would reappear soon, but reaching my pocket and uncapping it would be a challenge even if I lasted that long.

In the end, I got some help from the least likely source ever.

The whole ocean groaned again, even more loudly than when Charybdis first appeared. It took me a moment to realize that the huge mouth was screaming.

It spat out another wave, this one bigger than any of the others. It was so large and fast that it struck the hunk of mountain Scylla brought with her, rocking its whole surface like a rubber duck inside a bathtub. Scylla's grip loosened just a little bit. I pried her fangs open a couple extra inches while she was distracted, just enough to slip out.

I fell about ten feet before landing on the rocky surface of the mountain, then slid for about thirty more. My skin tore underneath my clothes, but I would take a few cuts over what would be waiting for me if Scylla successfully dragged me into her den.

In less lucky news, the ship had been hit by the same wave that rocked Scylla, and it was a whole lot smaller than a mountain. Moments before it crashed against the jagged rocks below me I threw out my hands, managing to slow it just enough. The impact couldn't have been fun, but the ship washed up on the inhospitable beach still mostly in one piece.

People spilled overboard. I saw Emily tumble out of the hole Scylla opened to the lower decks and land on the beach. Artemis was catapulted off the crow's nest. She landed on her feet, but I saw her wince. I half-ran half-skidded down the mountain to her side.

A shower of pebbles dislodged when I hit the breaks. "Are you alright?"

Artemis was standing, but keeping most of her weight on her right side.

"Sprained," she said, glancing at her left ankle.

"How bad is it?"

"It will not kill me." She glanced further up the mountain. "Perhaps it will get me killed, though?"

Two more heads had joined the scarred one that nearly pulled me into Scylla's den, totalling to six when you counted the three I left tied up in the water. They sniffed the air, trying to sense me, before turning toward us and the boat bellow us, all three in perfect sync.

The heads shrieked the same way as the other three. They came for us then, and when I tackled Artemis out of the way they passed straight over us, bearing down on the ship.

Two unlucky pirates got dragged away before they knew what hit them. The third head went straight for Emily. My blood went cold, but before its teeth could close, someone jumped in front of her. 

Edward Teach was red in the face, hefting a cannon with a shattered stand in both hands. His huge frame jolted back from the recoil as he buried a celestial bronze cannonball straight into one of Scylla's six esophaguses. 

The head coughed and flailed, forgetting all about its original target.

"Aye, you'd best be running!" Blackbeard shouted after it, waving his fist. 

"Thank you," Emily said.

He turned to her, resting his hands on his hips.

"Never let it be said that Blackbeard is a cowardly pig," he declared with a saucy grin. "A guinea pig, from time to time, but never a pig. When a lady's in danger, it's only right I step in."

Even from so far away I felt like swooning. No wonder the guy ended up with so many wives before.

"They are brave," Artemis said, watching the crew rally to fight off Scylla's heads. "But that is not enough. We will lose."

It might sound depressing, but she wasn't wrong. Blackbeard had one of Scylla's heads still choking, but the other two were readying a second pass. The three in the water were gradually fighting their way free. Charybdis sent out another wave, shoving the ship further up the beach and nearly crushing Lou underneath it before Clarisse pulled her away.

"Shouldn't you be panicking a bit more?" I asked.

"Why? Because I could not keep my nerve in the city?" Artemis sniffed. "That was because I did not know where danger might come from. Here, I can see the danger very clearly. There is no point complaining about that. I doubt I'll truly die, anyway."

She was still perched on my chest from when I tackled her. I started to ease my way up, and she reluctantly let go of her grip on my shirt.

"Besides," Artemis said when I had found my feet, "I have not hated this experience."

"Your powers have been sealed, you're a mile out at sea on a mountain that a monster dragged here, and you think there's a chance you might die this way. But you don't hate it?"

"All of that is true," Artemis said. "But I got to do things this week that I never would have otherwise. I got to know your body, its warmth and strength and the feeling of being beneath it. So yes. I cannot say this curse has been all bad."

My eyes widened. I spun, looking quickly and forth between the mountain's peak and Charybdis behind us.

"Not all bad…" I breathed. "That's it! We can use the curse!"

"I do not believe that mating here would solve our problems," Artemis said. "Although I can think of worse ways to go out."

"No, not that. I have an idea. If it doesn't work, I'll probably end up decomposing in an oversized stomach. But if I don't try it, I figure that I'll end up that way for sure."

It made me feel happier than it probably should have that Artemis immediately said, "What do you need?"

"Get Scylla's attention," I said. "The rest will be on me."

Still sitting down because of her ankle, Artemis lifted her bow and notched an arrow. She sent it arcing toward Scylla, catching one of her two healthy heads in the gum, just above its scaly lower lip. The head jerked toward us— and right away, I could see it notice me.

"Here goes," I mumbled.

"Good luck," Artemis told me as the head bared down on us.

I stepped away from her, making sure she wouldn't get caught up in this. Because, look, even I felt this was crazy.

I began to run toward the head.

I got my best look at it yet. Scylla's heads each looked like a longer version of a hydra's, with bulging eyes and a shape like a warped nuclear waste barrel. Razor teeth lined every inch inside of her mouths. I spotted drool dripping off the head in the millisecond before it struck me. I slid like a baseball player stealing home plate.

As I moved underneath the head, I wrapped my arms around her surprisingly slippery scales. No longer seeing its target, the head panicked, whipping up into the air and pulling me with it.

I let go.

My body was left with all the upward momentum and none of the mass, and I rocketed frighteningly high in the air. Scylla finally got her three tangled heads unstuck. All six of her heads trained toward me, seeing me so high up and completely defenseless. Charybdis roared. Somehow, in whatever twisted way that monster felt the world, she sensed me too. But I wasn't the only one high in the air.

Echidna had stood by, watching the scene from far above, directly in the strait between both monsters. I flew up toward her now, arcing in her general direction.

She spotted me as I came close. Her eyes widened. She held her flabby arms out wide, and yelled, "Finally! Come to Mommy!"

The Harpy carrying her flapped closer, trying to help her catch me. She thought I was giving up and running to her for safety. That was what I wanted.

The groaning from Charybdis was growing louder. Scylla's heads shot after me.

I should be dead by now, if the monsters were acting normally. But Scylla didn't kill me when she caught me. She was gentle enough to keep me alive, simply trying to drag me into her den. That failed because Charybdis intervened, spitting out a wave that saved me in the nick of time. Echidna called them good girls: emphasis on girls.

She said the monsters were here because she summoned them. She thought she could control both. I was betting everything on her being wrong.

Echidna noticed the heads behind me. I saw her smile twitch.

"Scylla dear!" she shouted. "You can back off now!"

Scylla didn't pause for a second. The other Harpies around Echidna darted further back.

That was a bad decision. The ocean that way had decided to fly.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of natural calamity lurched upward as Charybdis leaped like a dolphin. I saw thousands of teeth, hundreds of old victims, and enough driftwood to fill a forest. 

Echidna caught me.

Her clawed fingers latched around my shoulders. We stood together, suspended atop her harpy, caught between two forces of nature.

"What have you done?" she asked me.

I grinned crookedly. "I can fall six-hundred-feet and live. Can you?"

Echidna hissed and opened her mouth unnaturally wide, as if trying to eat my entire body in one go and save it for later. I kicked her in the stomach. She lost her grip, and I fell, while she remained hovering above me.

Charybdis engulfed her.

The monster had a slimy wormlike body that narrowed to a thin tale at the end. Its maw enveloped Echidna without noticing, then swallowed all of Scylla's heads. I heard Scylla shriek, but it was quiet, muffled by the thick skin in the way. If Echidna made any noise, no one but her Harpies could hear it.

I thought Charybdis might eat Scylla in one go. In a way, she did. But she wasn't used to desperate leaps like this, and having no eyes really hurts your ability to look where you're going. The top of her mouth came down on the jagged peak of Scylla's mountain, stabbing straight out the top.

There's no way to describe the sound she made properly. It was deep, and loud, and like nothing else I'd ever heard on the face of the planet. Streams ran down the mountain, all sprouting from the monster's open wound, and each was colored like muddy ichor. 

It was a flash-flood as seemingly all the blood in the monster's titanic body scraped the mountain bare, tearing away jagged stones under its current. I watched my friends and the remaining pirates clamber back onboard the ship, praying to every god I could name that they would all make it. The goldish deluge washed the ship straight off the beach, jerking it side to side so violently that the sail nearly skimmed the water.

But it stayed up. It balanced out. The rush of blood carried it away from the mountain, and the titanic monsters tangled up there.

I hit the water. I won't say it didn't hurt, but I lived, so I'm also not going to complain.

I lay there for a moment— floating in the water, aching all over, and indescribably relieved. Then I kicked my feet, propelling myself toward the surface.

I had a boat waiting for me.