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Bondage didn’t really stick when it came to children of Hermes. The cyclops that bound Luke, Thalia, and Grover didn’t know this or didn’t care. Within seconds of being tied up, Luke was free again.
“Now to find the last one,” the cyclops said. He marched off into the old, decrepit house, searching for Annabeth and calling her using Thalia’s voice.
Hearing that voice coming from the monster sent a shiver down Luke’s spine.
Thalia kicked Luke with her boot. “Find Annabeth! Save her!” she hissed. “We’ll figure a way out.” Her dark, pine green eyes begged Luke to do this.
Luke hesitated, then cursed himself and ran deeper into the house. Out of the main room, he crept along the walls like a mouse aware that the cat was awake and very much present.
The cyclops kept switching voices, using Grover and Luke’s own voice to call out to Annabeth. It was terrifying. Luke never knew something so horrific could exist. Why did the gods make such a creature?
Luke searched for Annabeth but he saw no signs of her. The reek of the monster covered up the usual demigod scents that he normally used to keep track of his girls. He didn’t want to risk calling out because of the cyclops. It didn’t know that Luke was free and he was nauseous at the idea of it stealing Annabeth’s voice to lure him out.
Luke went from room to room and found no signs of Annabeth. He was beginning to think that she escaped without them. He couldn’t fault her for that. He was just considering turning around to go back for Thalia and Grover when something wrapped around Luke’s throat from behind, pulling taut and cutting off his oxygen. Luke tasted blood almost immediately, the wire cutting into his skin and bruising his throat. He tried to pull it off but there was no slack.
The attacker’s fingers were slick with blood. They panted and grunted with the effort of strangling Luke.
Faster than expected, Luke’s vision went black. His eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his sockets. He gave one last feeble attempt at scratching his attacker but Luke’s legs gave out. The wire was sharp enough to cut through his skin like clay.
The coppery scent of his blood filled the air.
Sometime later, Luke opened his eyes. He couldn’t make sense of what he saw.
The cyclops dead.
Annabeth kneeling in front of Thalia, trying to stick something onto Thalia’s bloody fists.
Thalia screaming Luke’s name, screaming at Annabeth to help him.
Grover throwing up in the corner.
Luke closed his eyes again.
It was raining when Luke woke up again. His throat hurt. He raised a hand to it, expecting to find that it was flayed open...but found instead a thick line of scar tissue. Luke coughed, rolling over and curling into a ball. He tasted blood in his mouth.
“Luke!” Thalia was at his side in an instant. Her eyes were wide with fear, glistening with tears. It was the first time that Luke ever saw her cry. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I didn’t know it was you!”
And Luke realized what happened. Thalia attacked him. She tried to kill him. He wasn’t sure if he felt more proud of or betrayed by her. On one hand, it was good to know she could defend herself. On the other, how could she not recognize him? Luke swallowed and winced. His throat was tender. He sat up slowly, vision going back at the edges. “W-what happened to your hands?” His voice was a rasp.
Each of Thalia’s fingers had discolored scar tissue around the knuckle where they met with her hand. She looked at her scarred hands and then back up at Luke. Her green eyes sparkled with tears. “I...I cut them off. The wire…” She took a deep breath. “The wire I used on your neck sliced my fingers off. It was a piano wire or something. Really sharp.”
Luke’s eyes went wide. He reached out and pulled her into a hug. For a few seconds they just held each other, trembling and scared in the wake of what happened. Then Luke asked, “Where are Annabeth and Grover?”
Thalia pointed a little ways away. “Grover fainted as soon as he saw us. Annabeth helped me with my fingers…”
Annabeth and Grover were asleep together under a blanket. They appeared unharmed.
“They’re okay?”
“Yes,” Thalia said. “Annabeth killed the cyclops.”
They looked at each other, digesting that information. She was only seven. That cyclops was twelve feet tall and five hundred pounds.
Luke decided he didn’t want to know the details right now. He reached for Thalia again.
“I’m so sorry, Luke,” Thalia whispered. She wrapped him in her trembling arms. “I didn’t know it was you. That cyclops kept using your voice and -”
Luke coughed again, tasted blood once more. He wondered if he should worry about that. “It’s alright. I’m alive, you’re alive.” Barely. “The kids are alive. We’re okay.”
They held each other for a long time after that. As Luke slumped back onto the floor, exhaustion overtaking him, Thalia went with him. She laid his head on her chest and gently stroked his hair.
“Do your fingers still hurt?” Luke rasped.
“They’re stiff,” Thalia admitted in a scared whisper. If she couldn’t use her hands, then she couldn’t fight and she was essentially helpless.
“We’ll find a way to fix them,” Luke promised even though he shouldn’t have. He had no way of keeping that promise.
Thalia didn’t call him out on it. “What about your throat?”
“It hurts to talk,” Luke admitted. He hesitated, then added, “All I can taste is blood.”
Thalia took a deep breath. She held him tighter. “We can fix that too,” she promised even though she shouldn’t have.
Luke didn’t call her out on it. It had been a bad day and they were hurt maybe irreparably but they were alive to heal and fight another day. Luke clung to that thought as tightly as he clung to Thalia.