𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐄𝐍𝐃! percy jackson ²

xxxii. The Ghost King

    "Sign up with an army that makes you fight for the death for entertainment?" I arched a brow. "Wow, I wonder. If I knew that ... well ..."

     Ethan struggled to his feet. "I'm not going to argue with you," he told us. "Thanks for the help, but I'm out of here."

    "We're going after Daedalus," Percy stopped him quickly, stepping forward. "Come with us. Once we get through, you'd be welcome back at camp."

    He stared at us. "You really are crazy if you think Daedalus will help you."

   "He has to," said Annabeth. "We'll make him listen."

    Ethan snorted. "Yeah, well. Good luck with that."

    Percy grabbed his arm as he spun on his heel to leave, "You're just going to head off alone into the maze? That's suicide."

     Ethan looked at him with barely controllable anger. His eye patch was frayed around the edges and the black cloth was faded━he had been wearing it for a long, long time. "You shouldn't have spared me, Jackson. Mercy has no place in this war."

    Then he ran off into the darkness, back the way we'd come.

    (I had a strange feeling this wouldn't be the last time we would see him). 

    Percy, Annabeth, Rachel and I were so exhausted we made camp right there in the huge room. Percy found some scrap wood and started a fire. Shadows danced off the columns rising around us like trees, so I just brightened the room up with a ball of light. Rachel watched it, quite in awe. I frowned. Why is she so annoying?

    I felt someone shuffle in beside me. Looking over, I saw Annabeth pull her knees to her chest. Her pretty face was forlon━a look she held whenever she was thinking and trying not to cry at the same time. I immediately pushed away my anger for Rachel to shuffle in closer next to her, knowing that if she wanted to talk to me, she wouldn't want others overhearing.

    "Hey, what's up?"

    "Something was wrong with Luke," she muttered, meeting my gaze briefly. She poked at the fire with her knife. "Did you notice the way he was acting?"

     This was dangerous waters. I didn't want to fall back into the stream of me believing that Luke can be saved. I just managed to get out of it, and while every other time I had jumped back in at any sign, this time, I refused to allow myself to even think that the old Luke was still there. But I also didn't want to upset Annabeth.

     So, I sighed. "I don't know," I murmured. "I don't━I don't want to think that about that, though ... I've just managed to accept that the Luke we knew is gone, and there's nothing we can do about it."

    "But what if we could?" Annabeth whispered, glancing nervously at Percy. "Claire, I saw it. There was something wrong with him. He looked ... nervous. He told his monsters to spare us. He wanted to tell us something."

     It was tempting. Gods, it was so tempting. But I couldn't let myself fall into that trap again. I couldn't. So, I quickly changed the subject. Narrowing my gaze back onto Rachel, I said, "So, which way now, Little Red Riding Hood?"

    Rachel didn't reply straight away. She was quiet━which was unusual. Now, whenever I made a sarcastic comment, she hardly bothered to answer, which was only more annoying. She had burned the tip of a stick in the fire and was using it to draw ash figures on the floor, images of monsters we had seen. WIth a few strokes she had caught the likeness of a drcaena perfectly. I pursed my lips. She must be pretty shaken up from what had happened ... a mortal amongst all of this━