This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―v. another deadly quest is issued

"Percy! Annabeth! Naomi!" Tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, but others were calling out, too.

The three looked at each other nervously. Then they began to climb.

❊

They made their way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.

"Where have you three been?" Clarisse demanded. "We've been looking forever."

"But we were only gone a few minutes," Percy said.

Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.

"Percy!" Tyson said. "You are okay?"

"We're fine," Percy told him. "We fell in a hole."

The others looked at him skeptically, then at Annabeth and Naomi.

"Honest!" Percy said. "There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only gone a minute."

"You've been missing for almost an hour," Chiron said. "The game is over."

"Yeah," Grover muttered. "We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me."

"Was an accident!" Tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

Clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she didn't even brag about winning them, which wasn't like her. "A hole?" she said suspiciously.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked around at the other campers. "Chiron...maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

Clarisse gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "I—Yeah. Yeah, we did."

Naomi's stomach twisted with dread.

A bunch of campers started asking questions, looking confused, but Chiron raised his hand for silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking among themselves and giving the trio suspicious looks.

"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Luke is after."

"Wait a second," Percy said. "What do you mean? What did we find?"

Annabeth turned toward him, her eyes dark with worry. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

❊

As the campers headed back to their cabins, Silena fussed over Naomi like the big sister she was.

"I thought Percy and Annabeth snuck off to canoodle or something," Drew said boredly, even though she was watching Silena check Naomi over with just as critical an eye. "'Til we realized you were missing, too."

Silena scowled at her sister. "Hush, Drew."

Connor Stoll squeezed in between Drew and Naomi, earning a scowl from the former. "Sucks being the third wheel, doesn't it?" he said. "If I have to listen to my brother and your aunt threaten to kill each other with those stupid puppy-dog eyes one more time—"

"Get lost, Stoll," Drew said, shoving him back toward his own cabin.

"You love me, Tanaka!" Connor called as he walked away.

"I'd sacrifice you to Hades for a stale Cheez-it!" Drew shouted back. She snorted a laugh once he was out of earshot. "He's right, though. Being the third-wheel sucks." She looked pointedly at Silena over Naomi's head. "We'll have to find you someone by the time Percy and Annabeth finally admit they're in love and start dating. Sherman Yang's single."