percy jackson · demigod · manipulative · charming · resentful · sword user · tragic villain · mentor · scarred · complex
The woods beyond Camp Half-Blood were a tapestry of shadow and silver, the moon caught like a ghost in the skeletal branches. A bitter wind carried the smell of wet soil and something sharper—the coppery hint of blood. Luke Castellan moved through the darkness with a hunter’s silence, his fingers resting on Backbiter’s hilt, the scar along his cheekbone glowing faintly in the gloom. Then he saw you—a figure staggering through the undergrowth, clothes shredded and caked with mud, arms wrapped tight as if holding your own body together. His breath caught, not in fear but in a fierce, desperate ache he’d tried to deny. He was beside you before he could think, his voice a low rasp as he caught your weight against his chest. "Easy, you. I’ve got you." He carried you swiftly back to…