This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―xxii. betrayed by one who calls you friend

"You're as crazy as Ares."

Luke's nails dug into Naomi's shoulder, so hard she could feel him breaking skin. "Ares is a fool. He never realized the true master he was serving. If I had time, Percy, I could explain. But I'm afraid you won't live that long." 

The scorpion crawled onto Percy's leg. 

"Kronos," Percy said. "That's who you serve."

The air got colder. 

"You should be careful with names," Luke warned. 

"Kronos got you to steal the master bolt and the helmet. He spoke to you in your dreams." 

Luke's eye twitched. "He spoke to you, too, Percy. You should've listened."

"He's brainwashing you, Luke."

"You're wrong. He showed me that my talents are being wasted. You know what my quest was two years ago? My father, Hermes, wanted me to steal a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides and return it to Olympus. After all the training I'd done, that was the best he could think up."

"That's not an easy quest," Percy said. "Hercules did it." 

"Exactly," Luke said. "Where's the glory in repeating what others have done?  All the gods know how to do is replay their past. My heart wasn't in it. The dragon in the garden gave me this"—he pointed angrily at his scar with his free hand—"and when I came back, all I got was pity. I wanted to pull Olympus down stone by stone right then, but I bided my time. I began to dream of Kronos. He convinced me to steal something worthwhile, something no hero had ever had the courage to take. When we went on that winter-solstice field trip, while the other campers were asleep, I snuck into the throne room and took Zeus's master bolt right from his chair. Hades's helm of darkness, too. You wouldn't believe how easy it was. The Olympians are so arrogant; they never dreamed someone would dare steal from them. Their security is horrible. I was halfway across New Jersey before I heard the storms rumbling, and I knew they'd discovered my theft."

The scorpion was sitting on Percy's knee now. "So why didn't you bring the items to Kronos?"

"I... I got overconfident," he said. "Zeus sent out his sons and daughters to find the stolen bolt—Artemis, Apollo, my father, Hermes. But it was Ares who caught me. I could have beaten him, but I wasn't careful enough. He disarmed me, took the items of power, threatened to return them to Olympus and burn me alive. Then Kronos's voice came to me and told me what to say. I put the idea in Ares's head about a great war between the gods. I said all he had to do was hide the items away for a while and watch the others fight. Ares got a wicked gleam in his eyes. I knew he was hooked. He let me go, and I returned to Olympus before anyone noticed my absence." Luke drew his new sword, too close to Naomi for comfort. "Afterward, the Lord of the Titans... h—he punished me with nightmares. I swore not to fail again. Back at Camp Half-Blood, in my dreams, I was told that a second hero would arrive, one who could be tricked into taking the bolt and the helm the rest of the way—from Ares down to Tartarus."

"You summoned the hellhound, that night in the forest," Naomi realized. 

"We had to make Chiron think the camp wasn't safe for Percy. We needed him to start you on your quest. We had to confirm his fears that Hades was after you. And it worked."

"The flying shoes were cursed," Percy said. "They were supposed to drag me and the backpack into Tartarus."

"And they would have, if you'd been wearing them. But you gave them to the satyr, which wasn't part of the plan. Grover messes up everything he touches. He even confused the curse."