The Chalice of the Gods (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #6)

by Rick Riordan

I’d saved the world . . . three times? Four? I’ve lost count. You don’t need the details. I’m not sure I even remember them at this point.

Honest truth? Most of the time, being a demigod blows chunks. Anybody who tells you different is trying to recruit you for a quest.

I’d also promised my girlfriend, Annabeth. The plan was that I’d graduate on time so we could go to college together. I didn’t want to disappoint her. The idea of her going off to California without me kept me up at night. . . .

You know you’ve been a demigod too long when you’re flushed out of your school straight into the Atlantic Ocean and you’re not even surprised.

We’d been through so much together already, it was hard to imagine anything we couldn’t face. Occasionally, somebody would ask me if I’d ever dated anybody besides Annabeth, or if I’d ever thought about dating someone else. Honestly? The answer was no. When you’ve helped each other through Tartarus, the deepest and most horrifying place in the universe, and you’ve come out alive and stronger than you were to begin with . . . well, that isn’t a relationship you could ever replace, or should ever want to. Yeah, okay, so I wasn’t even eighteen yet. Still . . . no one knew me better, or put up with me more, or held me together as much as Annabeth, and I knew she could say the same about me—because if I were slacking as a boyfriend, she would let me know real quick.

We were both ADHD, but I could’ve stayed like that for hours, perfectly content, appreciating the way the afternoon sunlight glinted in Annabeth’s hair, or the way her pulse aligned with mine when we held hands.

Besides, I wanted to go to college. If I had to choose between being with Annabeth and . . . well, anything, that was no choice at all.

The coach said our first swim meet would be on Thursday. No problem, as long as I remembered not to breathe underwater, swim at Mach 5, or come out of the pool totally dry. Those things tended to get me strange looks.

“Well, you’re gorgeous,” Annabeth said. That seemed to cheer up the god, though it didn’t do much for my mood.

I am a guy of limited talents. If I can’t kill it with water, a sword, or sarcasm, I am basically defenseless. I come preloaded with sarcasm. The pen-sword is always in my pocket. Now I had access to water, so I was as prepared as I could ever be.

Even more embarrassing—when I uncapped Riptide, it remained a ballpoint pen. No sword sprang into my hands. “What the . . . Why?” I screamed at the pen, which didn’t help with my whole unheroic vibe. “Maybe it doesn’t work for kids,” Grover suggested. “You’re too young now.” “You mean my sword has a childproof cap?”

After that, I went three days without any supernatural interference. Wow. The luxury.

“Don’t hmm me.” She glanced behind her. “My roommate’s coming. Gotta go. Love you.” “You too. Don’t love your plan, though.” “Finish your homework.” “Yes, ma’am.” She nodded, satisfied, and blew me a kiss. The Iris connection dissipated into random water droplets.

“Cool.” I used my flashlight to draw a glowing smiley face on the wall. “How old are you?” Annabeth asked. “Eight just last week.” That got a smile. I loved making her smile when she was trying not to. It always felt like a victory.

We spent a few minutes painting light graffiti. Grover wrote Pan 4ever. I wrote AC+PJ.

“I have an idea,” Grover said. “It’s terrible, but it might work.” “I love it already,” I said.

“Time’s up,” Annabeth told me. “Bon voyage.” And she pushed me over the side.

Find someone who loves you the way my girlfriend pushes me off a cliff. Without hesitation. With full confidence in your abilities, with the rock-steady belief that your relationship can handle it, and with complete faith that when you come out of the water, assuming you survive, you will totally forgive them for the push. Almost certainly forgive them. Probably. Bonus points if you find someone with enough chutzpah to say Bon voyage while they do it.

I sat up and rubbed my head. My fingers came back bloody. That probably wasn’t good.

“It’s Iris’s staff, if that helps.” “Oh, in that case—” “You’re going to shut me down with sarcasm again, aren’t you?” “So you’re not a complete idiot!” Elisson smiled. “That was sarcasm, by the way.” Just my luck. I’d brought sincerity to a sarcasm fight. I guess Iris and Hebe had dulled my natural defenses.

Elisson hadn’t seemed to have noticed her yet. I wanted to keep it that way. I also didn’t want to die, but at least if I got killed down here, Annabeth would feel really bad about pushing me. Then I could tease her about it forever. Except I’d be dead. Never mind.

I wished Elisson would make up his mind. Throw me out of the water. Drag me into the water. Pummel me with sarcasm. There were so many interesting ways to kill me, he couldn’t decide. To be clear, I’m not an easy person to drown. But when there’s a river god tossing me around at the bottom of his grotto, flushing gunk through my nostrils and mouth, it’s like trying to breathe in a sandstorm.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to control my powers, more or less. Now I can make your lawn sprinklers explode on command. (I rent myself out for kids’ birthday parties. Call me.)

I thought about all the plans Annabeth and I had made about college and beyond. I thought about all the things I wanted to tell her . . . I wished I could at least let her know how much I loved her.

I just followed Annabeth’s lead, and so far that had worked out pretty well.

Sometimes I wondered if Annabeth was open to the idea of marrying me someday only because she was excited about getting Sally Jackson-Blofis as her mother-in-law. Honestly, I couldn’t blame her.

At that moment, though, both options felt okay. . . . I could make either one work. Multiple positive outcomes? Wow. There was a first time for everything.

That afternoon, I did something unusual. I visited the library. Yeah, I know. I could almost hear that turntable needle scratch in your head as you tried to process that idea. If I told you I fell into Tartarus again, or got swallowed by a giant, or had to go bungee jumping in a volcano, you’d be like, Yeah, that makes sense. But Percy visiting a library? That’s way off brand.

I leaned over and kissed her. “No conflict. No second thoughts. I told you. I’m not leaving you ever again.” “Okay.” She wrinkled her nose. “Although it’s fine if you want to leave for a few minutes to brush your teeth. Your breath is a little . . .” “Hey, you woke me up.”

Annabeth has this magic power where she can look into the future and figure out how long it will take to do certain things. She calls her power “scheduling,” which directly overrules my magic power of procrastination.

I thought about how much pain I was going to cause Annabeth. I’d promised I would never leave her again. When we left this life, I wanted it to be together, many years from now, when we were old and gray. . . .

She was quick to recognize a good strategy. And that twinkle of appreciation in her eyes was the best look I could ever hope for. It meant she was proud of me.

Grover could be super distracting when he wanted to be . . . and I was an expert on getting distracted.

All this . . . for a blank piece of paper. I could have laughed or sobbed, but that wouldn’t have done any good.

“You know,” he said, “sometimes it’s the smallest waves that knock you off your feet. Tsunamis—everybody knows they’re powerful. Tidal waves—big and impressive. But those small waves? They hold a lot of power. They prove what the ocean is capable of, even when no one is paying attention.”

“I always keep an eye on you, Percy,” he said. “Mostly from a distance, it’s true. I’ve watched you save the world multiple times, conquering enemies that would scare most immortals. But it wasn’t until today that I realized how much of a hero you truly are.” A lump formed in my throat. “Because I dared to go to brunch?” Poseidon chuckled. “No. That was just foolhardy. You’d never catch me at one of Zeus’s brunches. I mean when you accepted Geras’s challenge. You could have walked away, left Ganymede to his fate, probably even gotten Geras to write you a recommendation letter instead.” The way Poseidon spelled out what I’d been thinking at the time . . . I wondered if he could read my mind. Or maybe he just understood me the way he understood the ocean’s moods. Like the sea, I was part of him. “Instead,” he continued, “you honored your promise. You risked your life for a cupbearer you barely know. Not for a letter. Not because the fate of the world was at stake. But because that’s just who you are. Today, you created a small wave, and you showed what the ocean is capable of.” My eyes were getting watery. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to start a saltwater flood right here in the office.

“Mr. Jackson?” Margaret sounded impatient. “I gotta go,” I told Poseidon. “But hey, Dad? Thank you. Also . . . would you consider letting the river god Elisson do a yoga class at your palace sometime? I think you’d really love it.” I said good-bye and, after handing Margaret the phone, took my hall pass and left. When I glanced back through the office window, she was talking to my dad again, laughing at something he’d said. Were they flirting? I decided I didn’t want to know. Already this morning, I’d wrestled Old Age, survived a godly brunch, and gotten the demi bag to prove it. I’d saved Ganymede’s reputation, and even put in a good word for Elisson and his undersea whale yoga classes. Those were enough small waves for now. My dad was right. If you weren’t careful, they could sweep you off your feet.

Hey, Percy?” “Yeah.” “I hate to break it to you, but I think I might love you.” “Ah, crud. I was afraid of that. I love you, too.”

And as we always did, we rolled toward each other, breaking the Iris-message as we came together, but in the mist and the last flecks of light, I thought I could smell her presence, and feel the warmth of her hug. Honestly, that was enough to make me believe anything was possible. Except homework. I fell asleep almost immediately. And for once, I had pleasant dreams.