Wrath of the Triple Goddess

Percy is furious at Grover until Grover admits that he feels responsible for everything that has happened. He wonders if he was unconsciously sabotaging Percy’s letter of recommendation because he worries about being left behind. Percy takes responsibility for not considering how his plan to leave the East Coast made Grover feel. They agree that Grover will not ground himself again, no matter how impressive it is.

Grover recalls that the squirrels said Gale “was last seen with four spirits from beyond the coast” (137), which usually means water spirits. Percy notes that his guidance counselor is a Nereid, and they head slowly toward downtown, Percy alert for anything water-related. They go to a street known for having many perfume shops. One has a Greek key design and is called Aeaea. Looking through the window at the sales clerk, Percy identifies her as a naiad. At that moment, she locks eyes with him.

The naiad, Filomena, confronts Percy outside the store. She recognizes him from Aeaea, her home island, and says that she and her sisters will not allow him to interfere. She will not be deprived “of [her] turn with the weasel” (134). She tosses a handful of vials at Grover and Percy’s feet. A toxic purple fog rises around their legs, but Percy redirects it at Filomena, who dissolves into mist. Then he concentrates on pulling the potions out of Grover and himself before collapsing. He wakes an hour later very dehydrated, as he pulled too much moisture out of both of them.

They head into Filomena’s store and question her bored sales clerk, who reveals that Filomena’s new wildly successful product line, “Miracle by Aeaea” (146), started production the day Gale disappeared. The clerk notes that Filomena was always complaining about having to share and that her most loathed competitor was Fancy Water.

Outside Fancy Water, Percy detects a naiad’s presence. Recalling that Gale was a witch in her human life, he wonders if she is hiding among the naiads and making money through her knowledge of potions. He suggests they pretend to be customers, with Grover taking the lead.

Pretending to be shopping for a gift for his girlfriend, who he says is “a juniper bush” (152), Grover chats with the naiad, Silbe, introducing himself as a Cloven Elder (a council of satyrs). When Silbe almost recognizes Percy, Grover distracts her. After she pulls out her special product, calling it an “ancient recipe” rediscovered “just this week” (153), Percy cannot help but ask how. Grover again jumps in, but Silbe has recognized Percy. She sprays him in the face with the perfume (“Spellbound”), and he crashes to the floor, paralyzed.

Silbe gloats about the effect of her potion to Grover, who asks what she has against Percy. Enraged, she accuses Percy of destroying lives but refuses to elaborate. She plans to show Percy to her sisters as proof that she should get “more time with the witch” (156), admitting that the witch is Gale. She tells Grover he is free to go and offers him a free gift for his girlfriend. He stalls for time by insisting on gift wrapping. While Silbe goes into the back room for wrapping paper, Grover slips a restorative mushroom under Percy’s tongue.

While Grover and Silbe discuss wrapping options, Percy manages to get the vial of Spellbound and spray Silbe. Percy does not want to harm her further, feeling bad for whatever he did to her and her sisters, even if he cannot remember what. He and Grover decide to wrap her. While fetching the paper, Grover finds a card with the name of her sisters’ shop, Scents Forever, by Daedra and Phaedra. As they complete their work, Annabeth comes rushing in wearing a raincoat and N95 mask.

Annabeth received their note and rushed right down. She fills Percy in on what he does not remember: The four naiads were Circe’s handmaidens when the demigods encountered her back in eighth grade (in The Sea of Monsters). These handmaidens were in charge of preparing Circe’s potions, and after Circe’s island, Aeaea, burned down, the naiads came to Manhattan to set up shop. Percy warns Annabeth to assume the naiads may recognize her on sight, and she makes a plan.

After a stop at a costume shop, the trio heads for Scents Forever, Annabeth dressed as a Roman noblewoman, Grover and Percy as her Roman-inspired bodyguards, with a faceplate for Percy. Once inside, Annabeth demands to see the manager. While the clerk goes to fetch the sisters, Annabel browses the displays and finds a locked shelf inside which are boxes labeled “Gale, By Scents Forever” (166). When the twins, Phaedra and Daedra, emerge, they recognize Annabeth, and she tells them that they “are both in serious trouble” (166).

Daedra accuses Annabeth of destroying Circe’s island, but she blames “[t]he dumb boy” she was with (167), meaning Percy. Accusing the twins of abandoning Circe, Annabeth claims to have moved on to a greater teacher, holding up Hecate’s crossed torch keychain. The twins are shocked since Hecate previously turned them away. Percy wonders about the display he saw in Hecate’s library and its connection to SEJ. The twins insist that Gale is here voluntarily. Annabeth demands to see her, and the twins bring the trio to their workshop.

There, Gale is running frantically around pursued by a swarm of robot bees that sting her anytime she stops. When she sees Grover, Gale begins barking angrily, and he bursts out that Gale is not here voluntarily. Percy considers what water sources he might use, should it become necessary for him to use his powers. Annabeth demands Gale’s immediate release in exchange for not telling Hecate what the sisters have done.

The twins realize that Annabeth is bluffing since Hecate would never accept a disciple who would withhold information from her. They recall how Annabeth tricked them on Aeaea and knock off Percy’s helmet, revealing his identity. Saying they will exact vengeance on Hecate’s behalf, Phaedra throws a vial at Annabeth’s feet.

Percy immediately redirects the liquid back at Phaedra, who collapses, paralyzed. Daedra grabs another vial, and Percy hesitates, not wanting to kill her. Daedra takes the opportunity to down a potion that transforms her into a giant bear demon. While Annabeth starts to tie Phaedra’s wrists together, Grover chases Gale, whom the bees are still chasing. In her rampage, Bear-Daedra knocks over a cauldron and backhands Annabeth into a wall. Percy rushes to Annabeth’s aid, slicing off Daedra’s right paw, which causes her to slowly shrink back into naiad form.

Grover secures Gale, but the bees turn on him. Gale hides in an air duct, watching the chaos unfold. On his way to help Grover, Percy gets stuck in the cauldron goo. While Annabeth is occupied with Daedra, Phaedra begins to regain consciousness. Grover creates a torch to smoke away the bees while Annabeth grapples with Phaedra. Daedra throws herself over Annabeth’s back, giving Phaedra time to chug a potion called Beast Breath and breathe out “a cloud of white gas” at the trio (178).

Phaedra breathed out the potion diagonally, hitting the demigods and Grover in different places and transforming their appearances. Hit in the face, Annabeth gets an owl’s head. Struck in his midsection, Percy sees his hands turn into octopus tentacles. The potion hits Grover below the belt, changing his lower half from goat to human. He is distraught at being turned into “the worst kind of beast” (180). Phaedra announces that there is no antidote. Their transformations are permanent.

With Annabeth no longer able to communicate, Percy attempts to plan. While Grover and Annabeth tie up the naiads, Percy notices the cauldron goo spreading, which Phaedra informs him will cause the entire laboratory to collapse. Reflecting on how he bonded with Hecuba, he instructs Annabeth and Grover to leave with the naiads while he speaks with Gale.

Percy tells Gale that he wants to break her chain, which the naiads used to imprison her; then she can decide what she wants to do next. He tells her that he needs her help and believes she knows an antidote to the Beast Breath. He speculates that Hecate has forgotten how good Gale was at her craft and that she turned her into a polecat because she was jealous of Gale’s power. He asks her to help him make an antidote before the lab implodes; she could even use some of it to restore herself to human form. Finally, Gale agrees. With his tentacles, Percy holds Gale steady to cut her chain, but the moment he makes physical contact with her, he is plunged into her memories.

In ancient times, Gale was a powerful witch. Hecate told her to stop and even afflicted her with a painful illness in warning, but she refused. After she used her potions to restore a young girl to life, her city turned against her, forcing her to run for her life. Hecate appeared to her, gently telling her that “a woman of [her] power” would never be accepted (188). She could choose to give up her power and live without pain, die, or retain her power and live forever but experience terrible suffering. Gale accepted the latter, and Hecate transformed her into a polecat. Percy is shocked to realize that Hecate transformed Gale out of empathy.

After Percy cuts the chain and gives her the choice to leave, Gale guides him to brew the potion the trio need. As the laboratory crumbles around them, Percy and Gale rush outside. As the hogtied naiads swear vengeance, police sirens begin to wail. The demigods, Grover, and Gale run away.

Gale and the trio stop a few blocks away to catch their breath. Percy is thankful that it’s Halloween, as it provides an explanation for their bizarre appearances. The antidote has congealed into three portions. Grover translates Gale’s instructions that they must eat these. Grover goes first, and after gagging and retching, he returns to his Satyr form. Annabeth goes next, almost choking, but Percy uses the Heimlich maneuver, and she returns to her normal self.

Only one portion remains. Percy keeps his promise, offering it to Gale, but she declines, telling Grover that she likes Percy and appreciates that he kept his word. If she took the potion, she would become mortal again. She has grown used to her polecat form and can use her eternity to continue her work with potions. She asks Percy to appeal to Hecate to allow her to have a lab and assistants, and he willingly agrees. Moved to tears, he thanks Gale, takes the potion, and is restored. After a group hug, they head back to the mansion.