The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

83. The God Of Messengers

As he looked at their faces—all these campers he'd known for so many years—a nagging voice whispered in his mind: One of them is a spy.

He remembered Kronos's evil smile. You can't count on friends. They will always let you down.

One of the Athena kids came up to Annabeth and gave her Daedalus's computer, which was inside a bag she slung over her shoulder—ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first.

Percy turned to the group. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

Their old mentor shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

Chiron smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

Percy seemed about to protest. Instead, he took a deep breath. "Okay. Like I told Chiron on the phone, something bad is going to happen tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

Y/N asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.

Then he looked at the sky. He knew that beyond those clouds was Mount Olympus.

"Let's go," he said.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover. He glanced up when they all filed in with their weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."

"No," Percy said. "Six-hundredth floor."

The security guard checked them out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. Y/N couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice their weapons, so he mustn't have been fooled by the Mist.

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it as if it were a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."

Y/N leaned across the desk. Slowly so the guard could see everything, he took off his ring, held it before the guard's eyes, and put it on the desk.

He saw the security guard staring at the peacock engraved in the metal. The guy moistened his lips and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Please, I'm only doing my job."

Y/N patted his shoulder. "Of course. And you're doing just fine. I'll tell my mother about it. No need to have us going through the metal detectors."

"Yes, sir," the security guard agreed. "Elevator on the right."

"I know the way," Y/N said.

He tossed the guard a golden drachma and they marched through.

"I love it when you do that," Ethan said.

They decided it would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator. Y/N went with the first group. Different elevator music was playing since his last visit—that old disco song "Stayin' Alive." A terrifying image flashed through his mind of Apollo in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt.

He was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of them, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.