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Annabeth’s heart was beating erratically in her chest as she chased after Percy, Grover right by her side. They were both panting yet refusing to slow down as Percy kept on trying to grasp at everything around him, desperately attempting at slowing himself down and prevent the flying shoes from dragging all the way into the dark pit.
She could almost feel the anticipation of the being down below as it waited for Percy to fall, eagerly pulling at him to get him down, down, down. It made her sick, the thought of anyone—let alone a friend of hers—falling down to that place, but seeing as Percy was failing at stopping his advance toward the pit, she figured this was unavoidable, even it she couldn’t believe this was actually happening to her.
“Percy!” cried Grover as he reached out to try and grab hold of his friend’s hands, but Percy’s hands slipped right out of his grasp as he huffed from impacting the floor again. “Hold something—anything! You can’t fall down there!”
“Kick the shoes off somehow!” suggested Annabeth as she reached out to Percy, too.
“I can’t! They’re not coming off!” he said.
She managed to wrap her fingers around one of his hands, but instead of being able to help, it only meant that she was being dragged toward the chasm right along with him. “Come on, come on… you’re not falling there, Seaweed Brain! I won’t let you!”
He winced when she tried to hold her ground and ended up pulling at his hands, his legs still tugging in the opposite direction. But however painful it was, Annabeth knew that a fall from into the pit would be a thousand times worse. So she had to do something to prevent Percy from falling down, no matter what—there had to be something.
But she couldn’t hold her ground—even with Grover wrapping his hands around her waist to help her stand in place. Soon enough, the shoes’ pull intensified and Percy yelped when he was jerked toward the chasm once more, Annabeth getting dragged right after him, her mind screeching at her to hold on and not let go no matter what. Grover tripped and accidentally let go of her, grumbling behind as he tried to get back up and follow them.
“Annabeth, this isn’t going to work,” said Percy.
She set her jaw. “No, there has to be a way. Maybe if we slow you down enough, Grover will be able to get the shoes off and—”
He shook his head at her, his eyes wide and terrified. “No, listen to me—you can’t help me. This is never going to work, okay? You have to get to Hades and get the master bolt back to Zeus. You—you have to save my mom, okay? Just make sure she’s safe!”
Her head was spinning as she shook it from side to side, her eyes watering as Percy’s feet slipped over the edge. He was left dangling over the mouth of the chasm, Annabeth holding on to his hands with all her might, her muscles straining as she kept on fighting the flying shoes and gravity.
“I’m here, I’m here!” said Grover as he wrapped his hands around one of Percy’s hands, too. “Come on, let’s pull. We can do it!”
But they couldn’t do it. It was like the force down below was effectively countering their strength—they weren’t capable of pulling Percy back up and taking his shoes off. He was going to fall down, whether they liked it or not. Annabeth couldn’t believe this was happening as she just barely held herself back from crying in frustration and fright.
“Guys, please,” said Percy, his voice strained and his face scrunched up from the forces pulling him in different directions. “Get the bolt—save my mom,” he told them. “Please, just finish this quest! I’ll—I’ll be okay.”
She could see the doubt sparkling in his eyes as he tried to offer them a reassuring smile unsuccessfully.
“No way,” protested Grover as he tugged again uselessly. “Percy, you’re not falling. This is your quest, and you’re going to complete it, okay? And you’ll save your mom and appease Zeus and—”
“Guys,” Percy pressed; pain, fear and determination were swirling in his gaze. “Let go. Come on, just let go. I’ll find a way back up, I swear, but you don’t have much time left. Just get to Hades. Please, please—someone has to save my mom.”
He wrestled his hand out of Grover’s grip and reached into his pocket, pulling out the three pearls his father had given him. He handed them to Annabeth. She stared down at them, though, refusing to let go of Percy in order to take them. They were his—a gift from his dad. How could she possibly take them from him and leave him behind?
“Use them,” she told him. “Use one to get out of here,” she urged him, voice wobbly.
Grover nodded eagerly. “Yes. Yes, Percy—use a pearl to—”
“No, the third pearl is for my mom, it has to be. And the other two are for you guys. Just take them.” He gave Annabeth a stern look after wincing as the shoes he was wearing tugged at him insistently, nearly making him slip out of her grasp. “Promise me—promise me you’ll save her for me.”
She shook her head and Grover bleated in distress, looking around to try and figure out how to save his friend.
“Wise Girl,” said Percy, the trust in his eyes making her heart squeeze, “promise me. Please, if anyone can save her, it’s you.”
“I…”
“No, Percy,” Grover said with a frantic shake of his head. “Come on, man, you can’t just…”
Percy kept his eyes solely on Annabeth as he strained to shove the pearls onto the ground next to their feet. They looked so normal, just lying there. Annabeth wondered if they really held the power to save Percy right now, but she could also see that he would never forgive her if she used a pearl to save him instead of his mom.
Her vision turned blurry. “I promise on the Styx,” she murmured. “Promise you’ll be fine, too, Percy. Promise you’ll come back.”
She could see he wasn’t all that optimistic about it, but he still offered her and Grover a weak smile as he nodded and muttered his own promise. She knew, deep inside, he would most likely not get the chance to make it come true, but at least she made him promise, right? At least he would be bound to it for as long as he lived.
And she had to believe… believe she would see him again.
“Let go,” said Percy.
Annabeth blinked and uncurled her fingers. Her insides filled with horror and self-loathing, but she just squeezed her eyes shut so as not to watch Percy as he got sucked down into the pit, Grover’s shouts making her body tremble as the boy screamed after his best friend.
A thud coming from next to her made her blink her eyes open and wipe the tears from her cheeks. Grover looked numbly down into the pit, his entire body shaking as he gaped down at the darkness below. And next to his hooves rested the bag Ares had given them—Percy must have thrown it up to them, so they’d have the supply inside for the rest of the quest.
Her stomach twisted unpleasantly at the thought that he’d given them the supply that she figured he would need even more desperately than the two of them.
She sent a look down, searching, but Percy was nowhere in sight. His mom would surely kill them for allowing her son to fall to the pit. Not to mention his father. Gods, if Grover and Annabeth ran into him, they’d be in serious trouble, she figured, seeing as they were right here, yet helpless against the shoes that insisted on dragging Percy toward his death.
“No, no, no…” murmured Grover repeatedly as he shook his head from side to side. “This didn’t just happen. Tell me it didn’t just happen—not again.”
Again. Because last time it was Thalia who had sacrificed herself. Only she got turned into a tree by her father who took merci on her. Would Percy ever receive a painless death by his father? Would Poseidon interfere to save Percy from the dangers in the pit? Could he get him out? Would he get him out?
She didn’t know. She felt lost, utterly useless. Her brain was foggy, her body numb. Still, they had a quest to finish and a promise to fulfil. Annabeth was not going to go back on her word.
“Come on, Grover,” she said grimly as she got up shakily, picking up the pearls and the backpack as she went. “Let’s finish this thing already.”
“This is the direction of the workshop,” said Rachel as she pointed down a certain path, although Annabeth couldn’t see anything different about it. “And that one…” Rachel looked at the other tunnel of the Labyrinth and shuddered. “I don’t know what’s down there, but it feels… weird. Bad. We really shouldn’t go there.”
She went to walk toward the Labyrinth but stopped when she realized Annabeth was no longer following her. Instead, the girl was staring at the mouth of the second tunnel, a spark of curiosity and hope shining in her eyes. Her hands clenched around the straps of her backpack and she took a small step in the direction of the tunnel, wariness and faith rolling off her in waves.
“Annabeth?” said Rachel. “Hey, that’s definitely not the way. This feels… almost evil. We should stay away from what’s in there, okay? Let’s just go on. You said we were on a time limit with this—”
“No, but—” said Annabeth, her knuckles turning white as she kept on staring at the tunnel. “What if this is it? What if this is how we get him back?”
“Get who back?”
She hasn’t said his name out loud since the day he fell down there, into the pit. It’s already been two years since that day, but Annabeth still couldn’t bring herself to say it. Names had power, she’d been taught, and saying his name when he was stuck down in that hellish nightmare made her skin crawl. What if it made more monsters come after him? What if it led to his demise? No, she was always so careful, so cautious.
Grover was the same—neither of them could even bring themselves to talk about that incident. Even when Thalia came back from being a tree, Annabeth couldn’t help but feel a pang in her chest, knowing that one person she cared about was back with her, but another one was still alive, still fighting… all by himself.
They knew he was alive thanks to Grover. He’d ignored every warning thrown his way and had created an empathy link with him, just to make sure he was alive. And if he ends up dying, he’d told Annabeth once, then at least… at least we’ll know, right? Although they were both determinedly refusing to believe there would ever be a day when they would suddenly find out he’s been killed.
Honestly, after two years living in Tartarus, Annabeth would kind of be impressed if anything could kill him. How could she not when she’s been spending all her free time researching as much as she could about Tartarus, reading every scrap of information she could find to try and figure out how to rescue him, how to pull him back out to safety?
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much. The pit was an unknown. Nobody has ever come back out of there—no mortal, at least. She wanted to believe he would be the first, but with every new piece of information she got about that mortifying place, Annabeth found herself curling more into herself, losing faith that it was even possible to survive down there for longer than a day.
Gulping, Annabeth took another step toward the tunnel Rachel warned her about. “Evil?” she said.
“Yes. As in—you shouldn’t go there, no matter what.”
“No matter what…” echoed Annabeth.
Rachel’s head tilted to the side as she stared at her. “What’s up with you? What’s so special about an evil tunnel? We should just avoid it. We’re on our way to Daedalus’s workshop, remember? Your quest? Saving your camp?”
Blinking, Annabeth bit her lip. Saving camp was important… but so was saving him.
Her eyes filled with tears when she forced herself to step away from the tunnel and toward Rachel, who was looking at her strangely, clearly confused as to why Annabeth was acting in such a way. Still, she didn’t say anything as they kept on going silently, slowly making their way toward the workshop that might give Camp Half-Blood a chance of surviving Kronos’s near attack.
“Wait,” said Annabeth before Bianca could send Daedalus’s soul to the Underworld. She dragged Grover over and said, “Hold up. We need to use the Labyrinth one more time before it gets destroyed.”
“We do?” said Grover, looking twitchy.
Chiron frowned at them. “You want to go down there again?” he asked. “Annabeth, we stopped the attack. The best course of action now would be to make sure it could never happen again, and if Daedalus is ready to willingly go to the Underworld—as he should have done a long time ago—then we shouldn’t derail—”
She locked eyes with him. “Rachel found a tunnel that I think might lead to Tartarus.”
It made everyone go silent. Bianca and Nico glanced at each other, although they were both the least familiar with Annabeth and Grover’s story; Chiron’s eyebrows sank as he grimly looked at Annabeth with a look of understanding laced with hesitation; Daedalus’s expression morphed into one of utter shock, since he obviously had no idea why Annabeth would ever want to go to the pit.
Next to her, though, Grover perked up at the words, suddenly looking way less wary than he did moments earlier, his body vibrating like he was getting ready for another round of fighting endless monsters. He stared at Annabeth with a look of so much hope that it made her skin tingle.
“Oh, gods…” he muttered. “It could. It could actually work.”
“Why on earth would you want to go to Tartarus?” asked Daedalus.
Chiron shook his head. “I cannot let you go there,” he said. “This could end with you two ending up dead, as well. Not to mention how you’ll need a guide again, and I don’t think taking a mortal to Tartarus is a good idea. Annabeth, you will find a different way, I’m sure of it, but do not use the Labyrinth to bring him back.”
“Bring him back?” repeated Daedalus. “Not a monster, I presume?”
“No,” said Chiron, his voice cracking sadly. “A camper. He’d gone on a quest two years ago and fell into Tartarus.”
The inventor blinked at them all. “Then he’s probably dead by now!”
Grover glared at him. “I share an empathy link with him,” he said. “He’s not dead. Just… really angry, most of the time. And desperate. And lonely. But he’s alive—and we’re going to get him back here, no matter what it takes. If Rachel won’t help us, I’m sure someone else will.”
“His mom is clear-sighted,” noted Annabeth as she turned to look at the satyr. “She’ll agree—I know she will. She’d do anything to bring him back here.”
He nodded eagerly, then his smile dimmer a little. “But, er, he’ll also kill us if she ended up getting hurt because of us.”
“She won’t get hurt.”
“She might. You know, considering where we want to go—”
“Annabeth, Grover!” called Chiron, knocking his hoof on the ground to get their attention. “You mustn’t use the Labyrinth to find him. It is far too dangerous.”
Annabeth glared at him. “It’s dangerous to let him stay there, too!”
“Look,” said Bianca before Annabeth and Chiron could argue further, “we can just let Daedalus be for now. Death will come for him eventually. We’ll let him have a bit more time here until you, uh, figure this all thing out, okay? Just… there are injured people around—shouldn’t we tend to them right now?”
Reluctantly, Annabeth listened to Bianca, but she and Grover kept on glancing at each other, the same kind of determination gleaming in their eyes—they weren’t going to give up this opportunity, even if it did sound more than insane.
She dreamed about the back of that zoo truck they had taken to Las Vegas on their quest. She could see Grover asleep not too far away; the antelope, albino lion and the zebra were all snoozing in their cages, too. She was glad when she couldn’t smell the stench that she remembered filling the place, although it didn’t surprise her in the least. Not when this was nothing more than a dream. Not when she’d had this dream countless times before.
Each time with a little twist.
Her eyes drifted to the side and she found herself smiling in relief at the sight of him sitting there, right next to her, his sea-green eyes already trained on her. He smiled back, the same kind of relief she was feeling shining back at her through his gaze. When he offered her half an Oreo cookie, she took it and they both bit into it, even though neither one could actually taste it.
“I’m not dead,” he declared cheerfully before swallowing his cookie.
“You also still don’t seem to have any manners,” she noted.
He shrugged. “Manners aren’t really all that helpful down here. And my mom can’t tell me what not to do if she’s not around for it.” He said it lightly, but she could hear the pain deep in his voice.
She didn’t comment on it, though.
“We think we found something,” she said instead, and he looked at her curiously. “When we walked through the Labyrinth, the mortal girl I was with described one of the tunnels we shouldn’t take and… it sounded like it was leading down there—to you. If we could find it again… if we could follow it…”
His face turned blank as he turned to look at Grover’s sleeping form in the corner. She wished she could know what he was thinking about, but he got really good at keeping his thoughts to himself since he’d fallen down to the pit, and Annabeth didn’t want to admit it by asking for him to explain what was going through his mind.
“This sounds really dangerous,” he said eventually.
She scoffed.
“I’m serious,” he said, furrowing his brows as he turned to look back at her. “Annabeth, this is insane. Don’t come down here. It’s bad enough that I’m stuck here—I don’t want you to end up being trapped in this place, too. It’s…” He shuddered and shook his head. “This place is bad—it’s worse than bad—it’s changed me. I don’t want it to change you, too.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Well, too bad. Grover and I are going to find that tunnel again no matter what you or Chiron or Daedalus have to say,” she said, squaring at jaw determinedly. “We’re not about to pass up on the only opportunity we might ever get of getting you out, even if you don’t like it.”
He shook his head. “Maybe I shouldn’t be saved. Maybe I belong down here.”
“Don’t say that. Of course you don’t belong there.”
“I’ve… I’ve done some stuff I’m not proud of,” he said, voice hoarse. He closed his eyes tightly. “Annabeth, I hurt a lot of people here. Even if they are monsters, even if they attacked me first… I don’t think I should get out of here. At this point, I probably belong here just as much as they do.”
“Don’t say that,” she said again.
He smiled sadly at her. “Remember Akhlys?” he said gently.
Annabeth shivered. She remembered it, all right. She wasn’t even there to see it, but she saw the haunted look in his eye during their dream-chat; she saw the way he kept on looking down at his hands like he couldn’t recognize them; she saw the fear on his face as he recounted the story of how he’d made a goddess choke on her own poison while feeling not a hint of remorse.
But he did feel bad about it—after it had come to pass, maybe, but still. The fact that he’d lost himself in the moment didn’t mean he was a bad person. It meant he was terrified and alone and utterly desperate to save himself from the goddess who was trying to murder him. It was… it was self-defense, wasn’t it?
“You said you haven’t done it again,” she said. “You promised me you haven’t done anything like it again.”
His lips pursed. “But it doesn’t change the fact that it had happened!” he said in frustration.
He brushed his hair back with his hand. It was long—longer than it had been when they were twelve—although not as much as it would have been had he not used Riptide to do his best to cut it in order to actually see properly. Annabeth had laughed at him a little the first time she’d seen the haircut, but he’s gotten better at it with time, so now it almost looked normal.
“We’re rescuing you,” she stated firmly. “I don’t care how much you think you don’t deserve to come back up here—we want you back. Your mom misses you more than anything. Poseidon has been in such a terrible mood since you’d fallen down there that people all over the world stopped sailing overseas, fearing some freak storm would make them all sink. Everyone at camp wants to have you back—Grover and I are going to make it happen. You would’ve done the same for us.”
He stared at her blankly for a moment or two, then he was suddenly kissing her.
Her eyes snapped shut even though she couldn’t exactly feel the kiss. She could tell where he was touching her because her brain sent her the information, but she couldn’t feel it. Still, she clutched his Waterland T-shirt to keep him close, ignoring the part of her brain that whispered to her that none of this was actually real—well, other than the emotions, maybe.
“You’re right,” he said a moment later with a sad smile. “I would’ve done the same thing if it was either of you guys.”
She returned his smile for a second before she turned to shuffle closer. Leaning her head on his shoulder, she tried to convince herself that this wasn’t only a dream. That the fact that she was actually talking to him was enough to make this somewhat real despite it not actually taking place anywhere other than their minds.
“We’ll get you out,” she muttered.
“Maybe bring some pizza with you,” he murmured back tiredly. “The options down here are limited.”
“Or cheeseburgers.”
He hummed. “Or cheeseburgers…”
They ended up falling asleep inside the dream, so when Annabeth woke up the next time, she was in the Athena cabin rather than the zoo truck, and she was all alone in her bed, surrounded by her sleeping half-siblings.
Rachel agreed to help them. She looked more than a little wary at the idea of looking for that evil tunnel, but the moment she heard that someone was stuck in there and that Grover and Annabeth were determined to use their only chance of getting him back… well, she still wasn’t thrilled about the whole idea, but she agreed to help them navigate through the Labyrinth, which was already great.
Sneaking out of camp without Chiron noticing them wasn’t easy. And Bianca and Nico catching them both on their way back to the city to meet Rachel wasn’t great, but they both swore not to tell, so Annabeth decided to take it and just leave already—the sooner they made it to Tartarus, the sooner they could find Percy and leave.
Walking through the Labyrinth was just as bad as it was before. Annabeth and Grover had to fight their way out of numerous dangers while keeping Rachel safe. The girl looked shaken up, but mostly fine. She’d seen Kronos come back to life through Luke—Annabeth figured she could stand to look at a couple of monster fights without losing her head completely.
“Here!” said Rachel.
She pointed down to a tunnel that led further and further down. Annabeth couldn’t see a thing down there, but at this point she trusted Rachel to be right. Grover sent the tunnel a look of terror, yet when his eyes locked with Annabeth’s, she could see the determination shining in them—neither one of them was going to back down right now; not when they were finally getting somewhere.
So they followed Rachel down the tunnel, twisting and turning according to her directions which became more and more worried the further down the road they walked. They encountered a couple of monsters, but Annabeth stabbed most of them with her knife before they could do much damage. Grover was shaking a little, but he still kept on following, his hooves clicking against the ground, the sound echoing around them ominously.
And then they saw it—red light in the distance. It wasn’t warm or cozy, but rather chilling to the bone. The temperature rose the closer they got to the end of the tunnel, which made the three of them sweat profoundly, though no one commented on it. Rachel’s steps faltered as she eyed the red in the distance, her face turning a nasty shade of green.
“Oh, this is horrible…” she muttered.
“What? What do you see?”
Rachel opened and closed her mouth, but nothing came out. She just shook her head, looking sick as she leaned against the wall and stopped walking altogether and bend down with her hands on her thighs, like she was going to throw up at any moment. Annabeth looked from her to the red, ominous exit of the Labyrinth in the distance—they were so close.
“Annabeth, you go,” said Grover. He looked only slightly better than Rachel as he tossed a water bottle toward Annabeth. “I’ll stay here with Rachel, make sure she’s safe. You go and find him, okay? We’re not moving from this spot.”
She wanted to protest, but the thought of finding Percy made Annabeth turn around at once. She clutched the water bottle in one hand and her dagger in the other. She wasn’t sure whether she’d need to drink the water or use them to heal him up or… or what, but she and Grover had decided ahead of time that going into Tartarus with some water to rescue a child of Poseidon would be a good idea.
Luckily, the Labyrinth didn’t play any more tricks on her—maybe because it thought it was already leading her toward the worst thing it could have picked. Either way, she was glad when she got to the end of the tunnel and found herself staring at what seemed to be a hut in the middle of a muddy clearing. The hut was made of bones, she realized, and greenish leather which she didn’t want to know which creature it belonged to.
She blinked at the strange sight, absently noting the fact that she was breathing in, yet feeling like she was inhaling more acid than actual air. Her skin prickled uncomfortably as she looked around at the red skies and the strange surface she was standing on. Her gut feeling was to turn right back around and escape this place as soon as possible.
But then she saw the dracaenae lurking outside the hut.
“Come out, come out!” they taunted. “It’ssss time you finally died, Perssseussss Jackssson!”
Oh, well, that was easy.
Annabeth tightened her grip on her dagger. She glanced back toward the Labyrinth once, spotting Grover and Rachel a fair distance away. Grover raised his hand and sent her a thumb’s up while supporting Rachel.
She turned back to the hut and the dracaenae, ignoring the painful way the air down here stung on its way in and out of her lungs, and lunged forward.
The first dracaena was too surprised to see Annabeth to react in time. She fell down when the dagger stabbed her in the chest, hissing in pain before going completely still. The second and third dracaenae put up more of a fight, but still not enough to prevent Annabeth from killing them, too. Unfortunately, she couldn’t keep this up for long, though, and there were almost ten more of them, all turning away from the hut and toward Annabeth, hissing angrily.
“Oh, great…” she muttered to herself as she backed up a bit, trying to figure out which monster to attack next. “Uh… now would be a good time for you to come out and help me!” she called in the direction of the hut.
Nothing.
She took in another acidic breath, then raised her knife to prevent a dracaena from raking open her face with her talons. She used the hilt of her knife to knock her back a bit, then twisted out of the way of a different snake lady, kicking her backward as she tried to stab a third one that moved out of the way and ended up only getting slashed in the arm.
“Any time now…” murmured Annabeth.
She dropped the water bottle when a dracaena surprised her, slashing forward with a simple sword Annabeth had no idea how she even got in the first place. It left a nice gush across Annabeth’s shoulder, but other than dropping her bottle, she didn’t react to it. Instead, she brought up her dagger to fight the snake lady properly. It took her a moment or two, but she managed to force her to drop the sword before she stabbed the wailing dracaena.
The others kept on advancing on her, though, even as she bent down to pick up the abandoned sword.
“Come on… I need you, I need you…” she muttered.
Behind her she thought she could hear Grover calling out to her in alarm, but she couldn’t turn around now—not when she was facing a bunch of monsters that wanted to kill her. Annabeth raised both the sword and the dagger, but she figured they would still overwhelm her. This wasn’t the same as fighting with more people around—she was all alone, and she could barely even breathe.
Whimpering, she took in another deep breath—a mistake, really, considering how toxic the air felt. “Percy!” she called.
The nearest dracaena lunged at her, but before she could reach Annabeth, she stumbled and fell with a hissed yelp. They all blinked down at the water bottle on the floor. Annabeth’s confusion only intensified when a blur flashed by her side before something warm closed around her wrist and pulled her back in the direction of the Labyrinth.
“Okay, time to go!”
Her head whirred around to see who was pulling her and her breath nearly got knocked out of her lungs. He looked just like he did in her dreams—somewhat long, wild and dirty hair, pale skin, chapped lips. He was around her height, maybe only a tiny bit taller. Unlike his dream self, now he was wearing a tattered white T-shirt that was covered in dirty and, to Annabeth’s dismay, blood. His jeans were scuffed and ripped, looking like they’ve been through quite a bit of rolling around on the ground in a sea of jagged stones.
“Oh, my gods!” she breathed out, slightly worried she was actually dreaming right now.
He threw her a look over his shoulder and even though his smile wasn’t as innocent and carefree as it had once been, it was still very much the same guy in there. He looked haunted, true, and there were visible scars both on his face and down his arms from everything he must have been through, but somehow she could still see some of the light shining in his eyes, even after all of this.
“Not really a god, but I’ll take it,” he said, then turned back around and somehow he sped up even more, forcing Annabeth to keep up—and to think she used to be in better shape than him when they’d met.
Glancing over her shoulder at the dracaenae, Annabeth noticed they were getting knocked down over and over again by the water bottle that rolled on the ground or flew up to knock them in the face repeatedly, like it was possessed. Of course, she knew that wasn’t actually the case—he was just controlling the water inside to keep the monsters far away from them.
Who knew a single water bottle could cause this much damage?
“Come on, we’re nearly there…” he said.
“I can’t breathe!” she shot back at him.
He huffed. “Try living like this for longer than ten minutes.”
She didn’t say anything back to that. Instead she focused on making her legs carry her forward. The moment her foot landed inside the Labyrinth again, Annabeth felt the change in the air—she no longer felt like she was breathing acid, but rather just… very hot air. Still, they couldn’t stop—the dracaenae were still right behind them, and there was evidently no way of closing the tunnel before they could reach them.
“Annabeth!” called Grover. His eyes weren’t focused on her, though. “Oh, gods…”
“Again, not a god, but thanks,” he said cheekily.
Rachel gave him one look, then she noticed the dracaenae and blanched. “What, you couldn’t lead an entire army after you? You had to bring only a few monsters back?”
He blinked at her, then stopped running, meaning Annabeth slammed right into him.
“Why are we stopping?” she demanded.
“Hold on,” was all he said before the water bottle shot toward them, knocking into his leg. Then he closed his eyes, a look of concentration on his face.
“What—”
“Shh.”
“But why are you—”
“I said shh!”
Rachel looked around at all of them. “Uh… shouldn’t we be running?” she asked, though she looked like she would faint if she was actually forced to run anywhere right now.
And then the ground shook.
Annabeth yelped as she got knocked into the tunnel wall, wincing in pain as her wounded shoulder connected with the stone. Grover grunted as he lost his balance and dropped to the ground, his eyes wide open. Rachel screamed, her red hair bouncing around her head as she flailed with her hands to try and catch herself, alarm written all over her face—she may have looked less terrified while facing Kronos, to be honest.
They all stared, open-mouthed, as the tunnel shook, like there was… like there was an earthquake happening right then and there. Annabeth brought her hands up over her head, just in case, as the tunnel started collapsing—mostly near the exit leading to Tartarus. The dracaenae took a moment, before they all turned tail and slithered back toward the pit, hissing in distress.
The violent vibrations only stopped once the exit was blocked, though.
“Poseidon is the god of earthquakes,” she mumbled dumbly, staring up at the only person who was still standing rather steadily in the tunnel that was now even darker than before. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
He turned to her, his face swallowed by the shadows. “Oh, uh… yeah, I didn’t really… know I could.” Then he collapsed to his knees with a groan. “Okay, that took a lot out of me. Duly noted.”
“Gods…” muttered Grover again.
“You can stop saying that,” he said as he crawled closer to where Annabeth was standing so he could lean against the wall there. “Can someone give me that water bottle again? I haven’t touched real water in so long, I thought I was hallucinating when I first felt it earlier.”
Annabeth quickly bent down to grab the bottle, then she sat down next to him and handed it over. She watched, almost in fascination, as he eyed the liquid inside for a moment instead of drinking it, as if wary of it. Or maybe he was trying to wrap his head around the fact that this was actually happening. Then he looked at Annabeth, his eyes sparkling a little in the dim light that was coming off her dagger—not enough to light up their entire faces, but enough.
She smiled. “Wanna share?”
She thought she could see his lips quirking up a little.
“Water? No,” he said before he took a careful gulp. His exhale of relief echoed around the tunnel. “but if you guys have cookies or something, I wouldn’t mind sharing with you guys.”
“I have cookies,” said Grover. “Your mom heard where we were going and put them in my bag before I could react.”
“Don’t give him cookies,” objected Annabeth. “He’s being so rude.”
“Excuse me, I just came out of literal hell after… how long has it been? I couldn’t tell in there, since without the stars there are no days and nights. It was getting really confusing.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I’m allowed to be a little rude. Besides, I said I’d share them! Just not the water.”
“Unbelievable,” she said, though she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
Grover started searching through his bag, though he pulled out a Ziploc of ambrosia squares and a canteen of nectar rather than the promised blue cookies. When he handed them over, there were no objections.
“I know these aren’t my mom’s cookies,” he said as he took a bite from an ambrosia square cautiously, “but it literally tastes the same, so I can’t say I’m disappointed.” Then he took a sip from the nectar and his body shifted a little as he hummed and pulled the canteen away in order to look at it. “Wasn’t expecting that.”
She nudged his side lightly, but pulled back when he flinched away. “What does it taste like?” she asked.
She tried not to sound worried about his reaction—he’s been through a lot; it makes sense he’d take time to get adjusted to human contact again after two years of only being around monsters.
“Oreos,” he said, then took another careful sip.
“Oreos?” said Rachel blankly.
He shrugged, then gave her another look in the darkness. “Um… I don’t think we’ve met before.” He put the ambrosia and nectar aside. “I’m Percy.”
“Rachel.”
Head swiveling to look at all of them, he said, “Thanks for coming to get me.” His eyes landed on Annabeth and didn’t move again. “I really thought I was going to be stuck in there until something finally managed to kill him.” His voice sounded raw.
Bleating, Grover moved a little closer to the light of the dagger—enough for Annabeth to see that he was shaking his head from side to side in exasperation as he looked down at him. And if she wasn’t mistaken, the satyr’s eyes were slightly misty, which made sense—she kind of wanted to cry in relief, too.
“Can’t believe you actually thought we wouldn’t come back for you, man,” said Grover.
Hesitating and shifting a little, he moved next to Annabeth, then said—slowly, as if testing the words on his tongue, “Sorry I ever doubted you, G-man.”
Instead of touching him without any warning this time around, Annabeth raised her hand in front of him, allowing him to make the choice of whether or not to take it or not. To her relief, he only took a split moment to blink at the offered hand; then he reached over and grabbed it in his. It was calloused and warm to the touch, but it was real. She could actually feel his touch, which was infinitely better than any dream could ever be.
“Of course we came for you. You’re our friend, Seaweed Brain,” she said with as much exasperation as she could muster. “Any more stupid things to say?”
Percy actually laughed at that.