Target Chap 12: Fire

Chapter 12
Fire
Jace

"Phoebe," I muttered as soon as the counselor gave us the news.

"Did you say something, Jace?" Maggie asked, but I pushed past her and retrieved my gear from the couch where I left it, strapping on my breastplate and belting my sheath and sword around my hips.

"Hermes!" Conner Stoll shouted over to commotion of demigods prepping themselves. "We defend the Queensboro Bridge! We leave in five minutes!"

The other counselor's came running in with similar commands, each naming a different entrance to Manhattan or place in Central Park. A few Hephaestus kids tossed helmets to everyone. I walked over to Travis who was helping some of the younger campers put on their armor.

"It'll be fine," he reassured them, but there was a slight quiver in his voice.

"What of the campers on watch?" I asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"Did they come back yet?"

He shook his head, placing a helmet on the young camper's head and patting him on the shoulder before standing up and facing me. "Annabeth was the one who told us about the army. She saw it in the shield. As far as I know, the ones on guard duty are still out there."

My heart skipped a beat. Phoebe was stationed near the Empire State Building, and that was the obvious place where the army was headed.

"Thanks," I muttered and walked into Tempest's room, where she was having a heated argument with Eric.

"You need to stay here," he insisted. "Your arm isn't healed yet."

"Screw you!" she shouted, standing up and getting in his face. "They need me! I can't sit back when I can HELP!"

"You can help by healing!"

"Eric, for once stop being an overprotective pussy," I hollered at them. Tempest's eyes widened and his face fell.

"What did you say?" he asked, a hint of anger in his voice.

"You heard me. She broke up with you. If she wanted your help, she would've asked. Tempest is one of the best swordspersons I've ever met. We need her more than ever. She can use her left arm just as well as her right. Just give her a sling and she'll be fine. Zeus almighty!"

He stared at me for another moment and clamped his mouth shut tight before turning back to her and strapping her arm in a sling. He gave me one last look and exited the room.

Tempest had the biggest smile on her face. "Jace Wheeler! When did your heart grow three sizes?"

"Oh, shut it," I answered, but grinned back. "I may lie a lot, but I know the truth when I see it. You seriously are one of the best. Not to mention," I jabbed my thumb in the direction of the door, "Eric is just a douche. I don't know why you ever dated him."

She shrugged. "Me either. Can you help me get ready? I can't do this one handed."

"ONE MINUTE, GUYS!" Katie Gardner shouted.

"Yeah, but you have to do me a favor." I responded and picked up the breastplate.

"So that's why you came to me." She stroked her chin with her good hand. "What can sensei do for young grasshopper?"

I shoved her arm down and started strapping the plate. "I need you and Twister to go get Phoebe from the Empire State Building and bring her to the bridge."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Why? She's perfectly fine there."

I narrowed my eyes and gave her a look. It must've been something special because her face fell. "That's where the army is headed. I need to protect her."

"She's a strong, competent woman," she argued quietly. "She can protect herself.

"Tempest," I grabbed her shoulders and bent down so we were eye level. "Please."

Her green-brown eyes darted back and forth as she looked at me. "But's she's fine." She was barely arguing at this point.

"Temp—" my voice cracked. I was getting desperate. "I will feel more safe if she is by my side. Please."

She glanced at me a bit longer, then nodded. "Okay."

I smiled weakly at her, a small weight lifted off my shoulders. "Thank you. Now what are you gonna bring to the battlefield today?"

She pointed to a large duffle bag covered in rainbow paint splatters sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. I walked over and grabbed it, pulling a celestial bronze mug and a few pencils out of it.

"You have way too much time on your hands to make these."

"Just give me the bag. And quick!"

I tossed it to her and she swiftly caught it, rummaged through it and pulled out her sword and a circular string with a bunch of detached pipes on it. "It's time to bring out the big guns."

"Is that your hula-hoop?" I asked, almost laughing. "Gods, that thing was hysterical during the Battle of the Labyrinth."

Her smile was cheeky and she snapped the string, the pipes forming together as a celestial bronze hula-hoop. "I'll get Phoebe, but don't start the party without me."

"I'll win like last time."

"We'll see."

"CAMPERS!" Conner yelled. "TO BATTLE!"

:::^:::

We ran to the bridge, desperate to get there before any of Kronos's army could cross it. Needing to be at the head of the pack, I raced against my siblings, my competitiveness refusing to let me hang back and make sure everyone was keeping up. Damn my fatal flaw, I thought, annoyed. I kept glancing at the sky, hoping to see Twister with Tempest and Phoebe on his back. I needed her near me… I needed to keep my promise at all costs. My mind flipped back to the conversation we had with her dad earlier.

"Dad, I'm fine," she had said, flustered over her dad fretting about her.

"But Phoebe dear!" his voice had quivered. "Last time you called, you said you were fine and now your are in the middle of a war?"

"Technically Dad, the war started almost four years ago." She had stated. "I need to defend my mother and all the gods."

"No, no, no!" he had yelled, and then grown oddly quiet. "Phoebe, Phoebe." A tear had fallen from his eye and landed in the kitchen sink, rippling his face for a moment. "When did you get so grown up?" He had looked at me then. "Jace, protect my daughter."

"Dad, I—"

"No, Phoebe," He had interrupted. "I know you are capable of protecting yourself. I've seen your do that since you were small. But you two are a great team. I charge you in protecting Jace as well. I may have been blind to your mother's advances, but you two have something special. It's been there since you both were young."

Phoebe had become silent, her face pensive. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too." He had said. "Stay safe. Both of you."

Safe. I didn't know if safe was possible when you are charging head on into battle.

About halfway toward the bridge, I spotted an army bigger than the one from the Brooklyn Bridge but smaller than the army described headed toward Central Park. A rush of adrenaline and anger surged through me and I sped ahead. How dare they enter our territory, threaten our friends and family, our lives, and our home. If I didn't have Camp Half-Blood, I'd have nothing. Literally. There was no way I was moving back to live with the wasted whore who dares call me her son. What Hermes saw in her, I'll never know. But thinking about her was going to make me furious, and I needed to be clear headed to fight. I drew my sword just as the army met us at 59th and 3rd. A dracaenae hissed at me, but I parried her sword and jabbed at her, catching a chink in her armor. She crumbled into yellow powder, the shield and spear she was holding falling to the ground with a loud clash. I bobbed and weaved through the pack of monsters, using my speed to my advantage. The next ten minutes went by in a blur as I weaved around and cut through monsters. I caught sight of a few of my siblings, but they disappeared in the mass. Metal clashed all around me, but I couldn't hear any of it, too focused for the sound of beating wings. My prayers were answered quickly, Twister spiraling into view with two people on his back.

"Phoebe," I breathed, relieved to know she was okay.

Two empousai rounded me. I ducked under their swords when they swung and sliced my sword in a circle, cutting them both into dust. I looked back up to the sky and waved my arms. Tempest saw me and waved back enthusiastically. I rolled my eyes.

"Really?" I muttered and dodged an arrow. "She's too excited about this."

It was chaos, ugly and noisy. We train our whole lives for this, but when it actually comes to the actual battle… it's cruel. But I can't lie; I love the rush of it. The thrill of war, shoving a sword into you opponent, that feeling of power… It's terrible, but in the end, war is a competition.

And I refuse to lose.

Twister bashed in a few heads with his hooves as he landed next to me, snorting a hello. Phoebe slid off and threw her arms around me, holding me tightly. I squeezed back quickly and let go, slashing a nearing enemy half-blood. The blade collided with his breastplate and he narrowed his eyes.

"Wanna dance, punk?" I asked.

"Gleífoun to kefáli báles skatá mou!" he shouted back.

"'Lick my balls, you shithead,'" I translated, lifting an eyebrow. "That's a first I've been called that in Greek. I'm going to have to use that in the future. Erra eh korakas!" I replied, knowing full well that "go to the crows" was a lot worse than his insult.

Like I predicted, he screeched and raised his sword, clashing it with mine. The kid wasn't that half bad, but his technique was off and he clumsily swung the blade around, like it was too heavy for him. I easily cut his arm, the kid crumpling to the ground.

"If you think I'm going to kill you, don't waste your breath." I drawled. "My girlfriend is watching and I don't want her to see that." I turned and winked at Phoebe, who gave me a stop-being-an-idiot-we're-at-war look and swung her mace at a dracaenae.

"Coward," the kid hissed.

I snapped back to the kid and lifted my blade to his neck. "Excuse me?"

"Coward," he repeated, malice in his voice, his dark eyes filled with anger. "It's no victory unless your opponent is dead."

"Not in my book," I replied. "But if you insist." I dug the end of my sword in his neck. The kid squeaked and I held fast. "I think I won." I grinned broadly. "Besides, I'm not the one squealing like a little bitch."

A spark lit in his eyes and he dodged around my sword and lifted his weapon again, bringing it down on my right arm, cutting it clean off. The world was surreal, everything was in slow motion, and I felt no pain. I could conquer the universe if I wanted. My sword clattered to the ground. I saw my arm on the pavement, the fingers still twitching, blood oozing from the separation point. I looked at my shoulder. Blood gushed from the socket, soaking my shirt and pooling on the pavement. I swayed, lightheaded.

The kid was suddenly in my face. "That," he said, a smug look on his face, "is a victory."

"Hey, punk," Tempest's voice somewhere to my left said. "That was not a victory."

A shiny object whizzed past, cutting the kid's head off. It fell off and rolled somewhere. My head lolled back and I caught sight of Tempest catching a celestial bronze Boomerang. A crazed expression of wrath and bloodlust was on her normally carefree face. It looked wrong.

"That was a victory," she growled darkly.

Her face was unsettling, so I trailed my gaze until I found Phoebe, she waving her mace around like a beautiful, blonde Amazonian princess.

"Phoebe," I murmured. "Phoebe." I tried speaking louder, my voice breaking. Someone was fussing over my shoulder, asking questions and sounding worried. My ears buzzed. My head slumped down, it feeling heavy on my neck. "There's a head in front of me."

The kid's face was eternally etched with hostility. His eyes were glossy. I tried to poke them, but my arm didn't work.

Oh right. I didn't have one.

Someone was pressing something against my shoulder. I slowly turned my head. Tempest's face calmed, worry swimming in her eyes as she held a ratty t-shirt against me.

"Jace, y-you're okay," she said, smiling weakly. "We'll get you patched up. Let's get Phoebe and head back to base." She lifted her head toward Phoebe's direction and her face fell as a blood-curling scream echoed off the buildings. I turned. Time slowed down and the noise of the world stopped as she fell, her mace slipping out of her hand. A group of three telekhines clustered near her, one with blood on its claws. My senses became acute, my arm throbbing, my head pulsing, my blood pumping. Adrenaline coursed through me. Someone screamed, "NO!" Maybe it was me. I pushed Tempest off me and ran toward the monsters.

"Fae skata kai psofa rae malaka!" I hollered at them, blindly running past other monsters and enemy demigods. "How fucking dare you!"

One of the telekhines looked at me and I charged full force into it, knocking it off its feet. A voice yelled at me to get off. I didn't listen. I clawed its eyes out with my hand and pulled its ears. A pair of claws roughly yanked me off, but I fell to the ground as they suddenly released me. Tempest hula-hooped around them, the spikes on the outside cutting through their flesh and turning them to dust. I searched around for Phoebe, finally catching sight of her a few feet away.

"Phoebe!" I screeched. "PHOEBE!"

My legs could carry me so far before I collapsed in front of her. I scrabbled on the ground and dragged myself closer, sitting next to her. The once lithe and strong girl was broken and bleeding, a glassy stare in her soulful, golden eyes. I pulled her upright and held her body to mine. My Phoebe. My Phoebe. I promised to protect her. But my stupid flaw. My need to win. It cost me her life.

"Oh, Phoebe," my voice cracked. "My beautiful Phoebe. I—" My voice went silent. My face was hot and sticky, sweat and tears pouring off in torrents. My throat felt raw and my shoulder hurt and Phoebe was dead.

"Phoebe," my voice was barely above a whisper. My world came crashing down and my love was at the center, her corn-silk blonde hair streaked with blood and her eyes dead. Maybe I was dead too. There was a quiet, "Retreat!" somewhere behind me and another small voice yelling "Jace!" and a deep-rooted voice laughing at my misery and the world closed in around me and went black.