little bird - Percy Jackson

chapter thirty two

Naturally, everything went wrong almost instantly.

The giants vanished in twin puffs of purple and green smoke, pulling a fucking Houdini as they reappeared halfway across the room, each on a different side. 

Percy sprinted towards Ephialtes, Jason towards Otis, and Wren couldn't tell you what Piper was doing as she hopscotched across the floor. The Kelley girl dashed towards Nico, not an ounce of hesitation in her as she noticed the two leopards pondering the dazed son of Hades like he was prey.

A metal wall shot up in front of her, Wren barely able to sidestep the new board before running smack into the one that appeared just barely to its side and directly in her way.

The collision has her seeing stars, eyes completely glazed as her head whacked off the metal at full speed. She cursed as she stumbled backwards, a series of expletives that even Thalia Grace would find shocking, and then a metal wall rushed up behind her.

Wren yelped as the floor surrounding the metal seemed to drop, leaving her sliding down the diagonal metal plank like it was a slide from some park from hell. She turned, digging the edge of her celestial bronze blade into the metal to try and stop herself, only succeeding in filling the hypogeum with the screeching sound of metal being torn as she continued to slide.

"Piper! Get Nico!"

"On it!"

At Piper's response, Wren ripped her sword back out of the metal and practically launched herself off the plank, hand just barely grabbing one of the rotating hooks on the ceiling above. When she spotted Percy once more she used the hooks like those traveling rings you see at the beach to try and get to him.

Otis was shouting something about the girl climbing on the hooks at his brother, but Ephialtes was busy with the control panel by the Jackson boy, "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?"

Ephialtes pulled a lever, Wren dropped to the ground, Percy chucked Riptide as it it was a boomerang.

And the hydra spilled out of its cage right in front of Wren.

"Oh, what the fuck."

"You are a spoilsport, Jackson!" Ephialtes growled as the Jackson boy inched towards Wren slowly as to not set off the hydra, "Very well. Battle in here, if you must, but your death won't be nearly as good without the cheering crowds."

"I'd like a cheering crowd to watch me kick your fucking a-"

All eight hydra heads spit acid and Percy tackled Wren out of the way, the two rolling off to the side as the spot Wren once stood was now a crater of melted stone. His body practically covered hers as they crashed to the floor, and Wren was admittedly grateful that he had instinctively covered her head amidst the fall as she was still seeing stars in the corners of her eyes from when she ran into the metal wall.

"Thanks for that." Wren breathed.

They'd almost just been melted by acid, yet Percy gave her a Boy Scout smile, "Anytime."

"We should probably move."

"I agree."

They were quick to push themselves off of the floor as the hydra lashed out towards them, acid flying over their heads as Wren gave the boy a hard shove to hide behind one of the giant hamster wheels. She couldn't help but be just a little thankful that Percy had just chucked his weapon across the room, knowing that his first instinct in a fight was to slice first and get screwed over later. Had he started slashing at the hydra heads, two new ones would have immediately regrown in its place.