✦ ༉‧₊˚⋆˚( ⁿᵒᵗ ᶠʳⁱᵉⁿᵈˢ )˚⁺✧₊˚.*♡

🍪 — 011. shop till you die.

"M FOR MACY'S?" Piper guessed. "I think they have one in downtown Chicago."

"Or Monocle Motors still?" Leo said. "Guys, read the directory. It's messed up."

Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer Level Furnishings and Café M: 1
Women's Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2
Men's Wear and Weaponry: 3
Cosmetics, Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4

"Kennels for what?" Piper said. "And what kind of department store has its entrance in a sewer?" 

"Or sells poisons," Leo said. "Man, what does 'sundries' even mean? Is that like underwear?" 

Jason took a deep breath. "When in doubt, start at the top." 

"That is the worst advice." Isa said, but none the less, joined them in the elevator.

The doors slid open on the fourth floor, and the scent of perfume wafted into the elevator.

Jason stepped out first, sword ready. "Guys," he said. "You've got to see this."

Isa and Piper joined him and caught her breath.

"This is not Macy's."

The department store looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope. The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic with astrological signs around a giant sun. The daylight streaming through it washed everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around ahuge central atrium, so they could see all the way down to the ground floor. Gold railings glittered so brightly, they were hard to look at.

Aside from the stained glass ceiling and the elevator, Isa couldn't see any other windows or doors, but two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels. The carpeting was a riot of oriental patterns and colors, and the racks of merchandise were just as bizarre. There was too much to take it at once, but the girl saw normal stuff like shirt racks and shoetrees mixed in with armored manikins, beds of nails, and fur coats that seemed to be moving.

Leo stepped to the railing and looked down. "Check it out."

In the middle of the atrium a fountain sprayed water twenty feet into the air, changing color from red to yellow to blue. The pool glittered with gold coins, and on either side of the fountain stood a gilded cage ─ like an oversize canary cage. Inside one, a miniature hurricane swirled, and lightning flashed. Somebody had imprisoned the storm spirits, and the cage shuddered as they tried to get out. In the other, frozen like a statue, was a short, buff satyr, holding a tree-branch club.

"Gleeson!" Isa said. "We've got to get down there." 

A voice said, "May I help you find something?"

All four of them jumped back. A woman had just appeared in front of them. She wore an elegant black dress with diamond jewelry, and she looked like a retired fashion model ─ maybe fifty years old, though it was hard for Isa to judge. Her long dark hair swept over one shoulder, and her face was gorgeous in that surreal supermodel way ─ thin and haughty and cold, not quite human. With their long red-painted nails, her fingers looked more like talons.

She smiled. "I'm so happy to see new customers. How may I help you?"

Isa glanced at Jason like, You're in charge.

"Um," Jason started, "is this your store?"

The woman nodded. "I found it abandoned, you know. I understand so many stores are, these days. I decided it would make the perfect place. I love collecting tasteful objects, helping people, and offering quality goods at a reasonable price. So this seemed a good. . . how do you say. . . first acquisition in this country."

She spoke with a pleasing accent, but Isa couldn't guess where from. Clearly she wasn't hostile, though. Isa started to relax. Her voice was rich and exotic. She wanted to hear more.

"So you're new to America?" Jason asked.

"I am. . . new," the woman agreed. "I am the Princess of Colchis. My friends call me Your Highness. Now, what are you looking for?"

Isa had heard of rich foreigners buying American department stores. Of course most of the time they didn't sell poisons, living fur coats, storm spirits, or satyrs, but still ─ with a nice voice like that, the Princess of Colchis couldn't be all bad.

Piper poked Jason in the ribs. "Jason. . ."

"Um, right. Actually, Your Highness. . ." he pointed to the gilded cage on the first floor. "That's our friend down there, Gleeson Hedge. The satyr. Could we. . . have him back, please?"

"Of course!" the princess agreed immediately. "I would love to show you my inventory. First, may I know your names?"

Jason hesitated. 

Piper started to say, "Jason, I wouldn't ─ "

"This is Piper," he said. "This is Leo and that's Isa. I'm Jason."

The princess fixed her eyes on him and then with a cordial smile and a soothing voice. "Jason. What an interesting name," she said, her eyes as cold as the Chicago wind. "I think we'll have to make a special deal for you. Come, children. Let's go shopping."

Piper wanted to run for the elevator.

Her second choice: attack the weird princess now, because she was sure a fight was coming. The way the lady's face glowed when she'd heard Jason's name had been bad enough. Now Her Highness was smiling like nothing had happened, and Isa, Jason and Leo didn't seem to think anything was wrong.

The princess gestured toward the cosmetics counter. "Shall we start with the potions?"

"Cool," Jason said.

"Guys," Piper interrupted, "we're here to get the storm spirits and Coach Hedge. If this ─ princess ─ is really our friend ─ "

"Oh, I'm better than a friend, my dear," her Highness said. "I'm a saleswoman." her diamonds sparkled, and her eyes glittered like a snake's ─ cold and dark. "Don't worry. We'll work our way down to the first floor, eh?"

Leo nodded eagerly. "Sure, yeah! That sounds okay. Right, Piper?"

Piper did her best to stare daggers at him: No, it is not okay!

"Of course it's okay." her Highness put her hands around Isa, Leo and Jason's shoulders and steered them toward the cosmetics. "Come along, children."

Piper didn't have much choice except to follow. She hated department stores ─ mostly because she'd gotten caught stealing from several of them. Well, not exactly caught, and not exactly stealing. She'd talked salesmen into giving her computers, new boots, a gold ring, once even a lawnmower, though she had no idea why she wanted one. She never kept the stuff. She just did it to get her dad's attention.

Usually she talked her neighborhood UPS guy into taking the stuff back. But of course the salesmen she duped always came to their senses and called the police, who eventually tracked her down. Anyway, she wasn't thrilled to be back in a department store ─ especially one run by a crazy princess who glowed in the dark.

"And here," the princess said, "is the finest assortment of magical mixtures anywhere."

The counter was crammed with bubbling beakers and smoking vials on tripods. Lining the display shelves were crystal flasks ─ some shaped like swans or honey bear dispensers. The liquids inside were every color, from glowing white to polka-dotted. And the smells ─ ugh! Some were pleasant, like fresh-baked cookies or roses, but they were mixed with the scents of burning tires, skunk spray, and gym lockers.

The princess pointed to a blood red vial ─ a simple test tube with a cork stopper. "This one will heal any disease."

"Even cancer?" Leo asked. "Leprosy? Hangnails?"

"Any disease, sweet boy. And this vial" ─ she pointed to a swan-shaped container with blue liquid inside ─ "will kill you very painfully."

"Awesome," Jason said. His voice sounded dazed and sleepy.

"Jason," Piper said. "We've got a job to do. Remember?"

She tried to put power into her words, to snap him out of his trance with charmspeak, but her voice sounded shaky even to her. This princess woman scared her too much, made her confidence crumble, just the way she'd felt back in the Aphrodite cabin with Drew.

"Job to do," Jason muttered. "Sure. But shopping first, okay?"

The princess beamed at him. "Then we have potions for resisting fire ─ "

"Got that covered," Leo said.

"Indeed?" the princess studied Leo's face more closely. "You don't appear to be wearing my trademark sunscreen. . . but no matter. We also have potions that cause blindness, insanity, sleep, or ─ "

"Wait." Piper was still staring at the red vial. "Could that potion cure lost memory?"

The princess narrowed her eyes. "Possibly. Yes. Quite possibly. Why, my dear? Have you forgotten something important?"

Piper tried to keep her expression neutral, but if that vial could cure Jason's memory. . .

Do I really want that? She wondered. If Jason found out who he was, he might not even be her friend. Hera had taken away his memories for a reason. She'd told him it was the only way he'd survive at Camp Half-Blood. What if Jason found out that he was their enemy, or something? He might come out of his amnesia and decide he hated Piper. He might have a girlfriend wherever he came from. It doesn't matter, she decided, which kind of surprised her, but it also didn't. Even thought she liked him before, that spark that she felt around him, or the butterflies that were erupting in her stomach whenever he would even smile at her, were gone. She didn't feel that way towards Jason anymore. Maybe those emotions were, too, fake, planted in her brain to make Jason's appearance more believable.

"How much?" Piper asked.

The princess got a far away look in her eyes. "Well, now. . . The price is always tricky. I love helping people. Honestly, I do. And I always keep my bargains, but sometimes people try to cheat me." her gaze drifted to Jason. "Once, for instance, I met a handsome young man who wanted a treasure from my father's kingdom. We made a bargain, and I promised to help him steal it."

"From your own dad?" Jason still looked half in a trance, but the idea seemed to bother him. 

"Oh, don't worry," the princess said. "I demanded a high price. The young man had to take me away with him. He was quite good-looking, dashing, strong. . . " she looked at Piper. "I'm sure, my dear, you understand how one might be attracted to such a hero, and want to help him." 

Piper got the creepiest feeling the princess could read her thoughts. She also found the princess's story disturbingly familiar. Pieces of old myths she'd read with her dad started coming together, but this woman couldn't be the one she was thinking of.

"At any rate," her Highness continued, "my hero had to do many impossible tasks, and I'm not bragging when I say he couldn't have done them without me. I betrayed my own family to win the hero his prize. And still he cheated me of my payment."

"Cheated?" Jason frowned, as if trying to remember something important.

"That's rude," Isa said,

"And messed up," Leo said.

Her Highness patted his cheek affectionately. "I'm sure you don't need to worry, Leo. You seem honest. You would always pay a fair price, wouldn't you?"

Leo nodded. "What were we buying again? I'll take two."

Piper broke in: "So, the vial, Your Highness ─ how much?"

The princess assessed Piper's clothes, her face, her posture, as if putting a price tag on one slightly used demigod. "Would you give anything for it, my dear?" the princess asked. "I sense that you would."

The words washed over Piper as powerfully as a good surfing wave. The force of the suggestion nearly lifted her off her feet. She wanted to pay any price. She wanted to say yes. Then her stomach twisted. Piper realized she was being charmspoken. She'd sensed something like it before, when Drew spoke at the campfire, but this was a thousand times more potent. No wonder her friends were dazed. Was this was what people felt when Piper used charmspeak? A feeling of guilt settled over her. She summoned all her willpower. "No, I won't pay any price. But a fair price, maybe. After that, we need to leave. Right, guys?"

Just for a moment, her words seemed to have some effect. They all looked confused.

"Leave?" Isa said.

"You mean. . . after shopping?" Leo asked.

Piper wanted to scream, but the princess tilted her head, examining Piper with newfound respect.

"Impressive," the princess said. "Not many people could resist my suggestions. Are you a child of Aphrodite, my dear? Ah, yes ─ I should have seen it. No matter. Perhaps we should shop a while longer before you decide what to buy, eh?"

"But the vial ─ "

"Now, children." she turned to Isa, Jason and Leo. Her voice was so much more powerful than Piper's, so full of confidence, Piper didn't stand a chance. "Would you like to see more?"

"Sure," Jason said.

"Okay," Leo said.

"Yes, please." Isa said.

"Excellent," the princess said. "You'll need all the help you can get if you're to make it to the Bay Area."

Piper's hand moved to her dagger. She thought about her dream of the mountaintop ─ the scene Enceladus had shown her, a place she knew, where she was supposed to betray her friends in two days.

"The BayArea?" Piper said. "Why the Bay Area?"

The princess smiled. "Well, that's where they'll die, isn't it?"

Then she led them toward the escalators, Isa, Jason and Leo still looking excited to shop.

Piper cornered the Princess as Isa, Jason and Leo went off to check out the living fur coats.

"You want them shopping for their deaths?" Piper demanded.

"Mmm." the princess blew dust off a display case of swords. "I'm a seer, my dear. I know your little secret. But we don't want to dwell on that, do we? They are having such fun."

Leo laughed as he tried on a hat that seemed to be made from enchanted raccoon fur. Its ringed tail twitched, and its little legs wiggled frantically as Leo walked. Jason was ogling the men's sportswear. Boys interested in shopping for clothes? A definite sign they were under an evil spell. Isa was looking around at the different skirts, taking them off the hangers, putting them against her and looking in the mirror.

Piper glared at the princess. "Who are you?"

"I told you, my dear. I'm the Princess of Colchis."

"Where's Colchis?"

The princess's expression turned a little sad. "Where was Colchis, you mean. My father ruled the far shores of the Black Sea, as far to the east as a Greek ship could sail in those days. But Colchis is no more ─ lost eons ago."

"Eons?" Piper asked.

The princess looked no more than fifty, but a bad feeling started settling over Piper ─ something King Boreas had mentioned back in Quebec. "How old are you?"

The princess laughed. "A lady should avoid asking or answering that question. Let's just say the, ah, immigration process to enter your country took quite a while. My patron finally brought me through. She made all this possible."

The princess swept her hand around the department store.

Piper's mouth tasted like metal. "Your patron. . ."

"Oh, yes. She doesn't bring just anyone through, mind you ─ only those who have special talents, such as me. And really, she insists on so little ─ a store entrance that must be underground so she can, ah, monitor my clientele; and a favor now and then. In exchange for a new life? Really, it was the best bargain I'd made in centuries."

Run, Piper thought. We have to get out of here. But before she could even turn her thoughts into words, Jason called, "Hey, check it out!"

From a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up a purple T-shirt like the one he'd worn on the school field trip ─ except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers. Jason frowned. "Why does this look so familiar?"

"Jason, it's like yours," Piper said. "Now we really have to leave."

But she wasn't sure he could even hear her anymore through the princess's enchantment. 

"Nonsense," the princess said. "They aren't done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular ─ trade ins from previous customers. It suits you."

Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion ─ acid, maybe? ─ and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

"Your Highness," Piper said, trying to control her nerves. "Why don't you tell them how you betrayed your family? I'm sure they'd like to hear that story." her words didn't have any effect on the princess, but Isa, Jason and Leo turned, suddenly interested.

"More story?" Leo asked. 

"A story!" Isa clapped her hands. 

The princess flashed Piper an irritated look. "Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn't for her ─ but I can't hold a grudge against a goddess, can I?"

The princess's tone made her meaning clear: I can take it out on you.

"But that hero took you with him when he fled Colchis, "Piper remembered. "Didn't he, Your Highness? He married you just as he promised."

The look in the princess's eyes made Piper want to apologize, but she didn't back down.

"At first," her Highness admitted, "it seemed he would keep his word. But even after I helped him steal my father's treasure, he still needed my help. As we fled, my brother's fleet came after us. His warships overtook us. He would haved estroyed us, but I convinced my brother to come aboard our ship first and talk under a flag of truce. He trusted me."

"And you killed your own brother," Piper said, the horrible story all coming back to her, along with a name ─ an infamous name that began with the letter M.

"What?" Jason stirred. For a moment he looked almost like himself. "Killed your own ─ "

"No," the princess snapped. "Those stories are lies. It was my new husband and his men who killed my brother, though they couldn't have done it without my deception. They threw his body into the sea, and the pursuing fleet had to stop and search for it so they could give my brother a proper burial. This gave us time to get away. All this, I did for my husband. And he forgot our bargain. He betrayed me in the end."

Jason still looked uncomfortable. "What did he do?"

The princess held the sliced-up toga against Jason's chest, as if measuring him for an assassination. "Don't you know the story, my boy? You of all people should. You were named for him."

"Jason," Piper said. "The original Jason. But then you're ─ you should be dead!"

The princess smiled. "As I said, a new life in a new country. Certainly I made mistakes. I turned my back on my own people. I was called a traitor, a thief, a liar, a murderess. But I acted out of love."

She batted her lashes at them, "Wouldn't you do the same for someone you loved, my dears?" 

"Oh, sure," Jason said and Isa nodded.

"Okay," Leo said.

"Guys!" Piper ground her teeth in frustration. "Don't you see who she is? Don't you ─ "

"Let's continue, shall we?" the princess said breezily. "I believe you wanted to talk about a price for the storm spirits ─ and your satyr."

niki speaks!
whoa, halfway though act i already!!??
i love the lost hero, third fav book in the series
after titan's curse and last olympian
cause og >>>>

update for city love may come next tuesday or wednesday
depending when i wake up and how i'm gonna feel
cause next monday. . . this girl is becoming
a legal adult
( crying )

have a nice day/night!

bye!