Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter fifty-two ☄︎. *. ⋆
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"WAIT, WHAT?"
I couldn't help it. I didn't care that I'd just embarrassingly blurted in front of a Titan, Luke, the General, and Luke's army. I was too stunned.
Zoë and Atlas both looked to me. I glanced between the two of them. The worst part was, now that I was looking for it, I could definitely see the family resemblance. Atlas had the same regal expression as Zoë, same cold proud look in his eyes that Zoë sometimes got when she was mad, though on him it looked a thousand times more evil. He was all the things I'd originally disliked about Zoë , with none of the good I'd come to appreciate.
"Let Artemis go," Zoë demanded.
Atlas walked closer to the chained goddess. "Perhaps you'd like to take the sky for her, then? Be my guest."
Zoë opened her mouth to speak, but Artemis said, "No! Do not offer, Zoë! I forbid you."
Atlas smirked. He knelt next to Artemis and tried to touch her face, but the goddess bit at him, almost taking off his fingers. I risked a glance to Zoë; she was seething with anger. My gaze moved to Thalia and Percy, both holding their weapons up but unsure of when to attack. I finally looked to Annabeth. Her eyes were wide, like she was trying to tell me something. She motioned her head toward Luke.
I didn't get it. I furrowed my brow and gave a subtle shake of my head, so that anybody else around wouldn't notice, but Annabeth's eyebrows shot up on her forehead. If only she didn't have that stupid gag on her mouth, then I could lip-read... But all I got was another eyebrow raise. I was lost.
I came back to the topic at hand when Luke said my name. "Theodosia knows," he was saying, and I felt all eyes shift to me. "Don't you? Of the power we can bring?"
I felt like I'd just been given a pop quiz I hadn't had time to study for. "Eat dirt," I said, because it seemed appropriate. "What are you fighting for, Luke? Do you know? Do you even agree with their terms?"
Luke smirked. "More than you could possibly imagine. We will raise Mount Othrys right here. Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Theo. We are not weak."
He pointed toward the ocean, and my heart fell. Marching up the side of the mountain, from the beach where the Princess Andromeda was docked, was a great army. Dracaenae and Laestrygonians, monsters and half-bloods, hell hounds, harpies, and other things I couldn't even name. The whole ship must've been emptied, because there were hundreds, many more than I'd seen on board last summer. And they were marching toward us. In a few minutes, they would be here.
