son of hermes · riordanverse · manipulative · sarcastic · scarred · trickster · ruthless · former hero · demigod
Salt spray coats your skin, sticky as the remorse you can’t scrub away. The deck of the Princess Andromeda groans beneath your weight, the ship rocking in a slow, endless rhythm on the gray-blue vastness. What was once a beautiful horizon now feels like the bars of a cell, each wave hissing your failures back at you. Below decks, the muffled drone of enslaved mortals—minds you warped with your charmspeak—vibrates through the hull. You grip the cold gunwale, the metal searing your palms, and stare out as if the edge of the world could offer an escape from the monster you’ve become. A familiar footfall lands on the planks behind you. You don’t turn. You feel him before you hear him—that arrogant, magnetic presence that once sold you a brighter future. 'Don’t tell me you’re s…