Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)

CHAPTER 27

(Ella's POV)

It was Annie’s idea. She loaded us into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we had money, & told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."

The cabbie chewed his cigar & kept looking at us. "That’s three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."

"You accept casino cards?" Annie asked.

"Some of 'em. I gotta swipe 'em first."

She handed him her green Lotus Cash card. He looked at it skeptically.

"Swipe it," Annabeth invited. He did. His meter machine started rattling. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign. The cigar fell out of the driver’s mouth. He looked back at us, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles...uh, Your Highness?"

"The Santa Monica Pier." Annie sat straight. I knew she liked the "Your Highness" thing. "Get us there fast, & keep the change."

Maybe she shouldn’t have told him that. The cab’s speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert. We had plenty of time to talk. Percy told us about his latest dream.

"The servant had called the monster in the pit something other than "my lord"...some special name or title…." He said.

"The Silent One?" Annie suggested. "The Rich One? Both are nicknames for Hades."

"Maybe..." he said.

"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's how it’s described."

Percy shook his head. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit...I don’t know. It just didn’t feel like a god's voice."
My eyes widened. Could it really be..?

"What?" He asked me.

"Oh...nothing. I just-No, it must be Hades. He sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the bolt, & something went wrong-"

"Like what?"

"I-I don't know," I said. "But if he stole dad's bolt from Olympus, & the gods were hunting him, a lot could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching, when they came after us on the bus. They thought we had the bolt."

"But if I already retrieved the bolt," he said, "why would I travel to the Underworld?"

"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him to get your mom back."

I whistled. "You have evil ideas for a goat."

"Why, thank you."

"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items," Percy said. "If the master bolt is one, what’s the other?"

I looked at Percy cause I knew his next question, & silently willed him not to ask it.

"You know what might be in that pit, don’t you?" he asked me. "If it isn't Hades?"

"Percy...let's not talk about it. Because if it isn't Hades...No. It has to be Hades."

Even though I said it, I knew it wasn't Hades. Wasteland rolled by. We pass a sign that said California State Line, 12 Miles.

The more I thought about the quest, the more I was sure that confronting Hades wasn't the real answer.

There was something else going on, someone else had taken the bolt, but the problem was that no one would even believe me if I said who it was.

To top it off we were hurtling toward the Underworld at ninety-five miles an hour. If we got there & find out we were wrong, we wouldn’t have time to correct ourselves. The deadline would pass & war would begin.

"The answer is the Underworld," Annie said. "You saw spirits of the dead, Percy. There's only one place. We’re doing the right thing."

She tried to boost our morale with strategies to get in the Underworld, but my heart wasn’t in it. I kept thinking about my hunch. The cab sped west.

At sunset, the taxi dropped us at the beach in Santa Monica. The four of us walk down to the edge of the surf.

"What now?" I asked.

The ocean was gold in the sunset. I thought about how long it had been since I’d been on the beach at camp with...Percy. Speaking of Percy I see him step into the surf.

"Percy?" I said. "What are you doing?"

He kept walking, up to his waist, then his chest. I called after him, "You know how polluted that water is? There’re all kinds of toxic wastes in there." but he was already in.

We sat on the shore waiting for him to come back. After a while he came & told us what had happened, & showed us 4 pearls. Annie grimaced. "No gift is without a price."

"They were free." he said.

"No." She shook her head. "There's no such thing as a free lunch.' That's an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait."

On that happy thought, we took the bus into West Hollywood with some spare change from Ares's backpack.

"You remind me of someone I saw on TV," he told Percy. "You a child actor or something?"

"Uh...I’m a stunt double...for a lot of child actors." he replied.

"Oh! That explains it."

We thanked him & got off quickly at the next stop. We wandered for miles on foot, looking for DOA recording studios. Nobody seemed to know where it was.

Twice, we ducked into alleys to avoid cops. Percy froze in front of an appliance-store because a television was playing an interview with someone who looked just like Percy had described-his stepdad, Gabe.

He was busy making up a sob story to convince the reporter & was doing a pathetic job at it.

C’mon,” I told Percy. He held his hand & pulled him away before he could punch a hole in the appliance-store window.

As we hurried passed an alley, a voice from the darkness said, "Hey, you."

We stopped & before we knew it, we were surrounded by a gang of kids. Six white kids with expensive clothes & mean faces. Percy uncapped Riptide.

When the sword appeared out of nowhere, the kids backed off, but the leader was really stupid or really brave, because he came at him with a switch blade. Percy swung his sword. The kid yelped. But he was a hundred percent mortal, because the blade passed harmlessly right through his chest.

He looked down. "What the..."

I figured we had about three seconds before his shock turned to anger. "Run!" I screamed.

We pushed two kids out of the way & raced down the street, not knowing where we were going. We turned a sharp corner.

"There!" Annie shouted. Only one store on the block was open. The sign said something like: CRSTUY’S WATRE BDE ALPACE.

"Crusty's Water Bed Palace?" Grover translated.

We burst through the doors, ran behind a water bed, & ducked. A split second later, the gang kids ran past outside.

"I think we lost them," Grover panted.

A voice behind us said, "Lost who?"

I just love a good cliffhanger ;)

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Take care my lovely readers.❤
Alice signing off.
XOXO.