Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 50

Nico di Angelo shuffled over, leaning on his black sword. "Leo, they're not dead. If they were, I could feel it."

"How can you be sure?" Leo asked. "If that pit really led to...you know...how could you sense them so far away?"

Nico and Hazel shared a look, that made him nervous.

"We can't be one hundred percent sure," Hazel admitted. "But I think Nico is right. Percy and Cressida are still alive...at least, so far."

Jason pounded his fist against the rail. "I should've been paying attention. I could have flown down and saved them."

"Me, too," Frank moaned. The big dude looked on the verge of tears.

Piper put her hand on Jason's back. "It's not your fault, either of you. You were trying to save the statue."

"I traded a stupid statue for my best friends," Annabeth said darkly and no one really know what to say to that so Nico focused on what he could fix.

"Piper's right, Jason," he said. "Even if the pit hadn't been buried, you couldn't have flown into it without being pulled down. I'm the only one who has actually been into Tartarus. It's impossible to describe how powerful that place is. Once you get close, it sucks you in. I never stood a chance."

Frank sniffled. "Then Percy and Cressida don't stand a chance either?"

Nico twisted his silver skull ring. "Percy and Cressida are the most powerful demigods I've ever met. No offence to you guys, but it's true. If anybody can survive, they will, especially if they're together. They're going to find a way through Tartarus. If anyone could do it... it's them."

Jason turned. "To the Doors of Death, you mean. But you told us it's guarded by Gaia's most powerful forces. How could two demigods possibly—?"

"I don't know," Nico admitted. "But Percy told me to lead you guys to Epirus, to the mortal side of the doorway. He's planning on meeting us there. If we can survive the House of Hades, fight our way through Gaia's forces, then maybe we can work together with Percy and Cressida and seal the Doors of Death from both sides."

"And get Percy and Cressida back safely?" Leo asked.

"Maybe."

"If Percy found her," Annabeth said, every ounce of hope in her body seeming to have fallen with her friends. "Cress fell first. Then Percy. They weren't together. Even if they did survive the fall, who knows if they even found each other, much less the Doors."

"I do," Piper spoke up and Annabeth lifted her eyes, her grey irises had never seemed so dark before. "I watched the way Cressida searched for Percy for those six months we were at Camp. And she found him. The roles may be reversed but there's not a single doubt in my mind that Percy won't find her."

"Percy is stubborn like that," Hazel admitted. "On our quest when he had no memories, he was so determined to figure out who the Cressida girl with the indigo eyes was. He used to get so offended if anyone said her eyes were purple and not indigo."

Nico took a deep breath. "And Cressida is equally as stubborn, if not more. I don't know how they'll manage it, but they'll find a way. They'll journey through Tartarus and find the Doors of Death. When they do, we have to be ready."

"It won't be easy," Hazel said. "Gaia will throw everything she's got at us to keep us from reaching Epirus."

"What else is new?" Jason sighed.

"Let her try," Annabeth said venomously. She'd lost her bronze dagger, her only weapon when it had fallen into the pit along with Daedalus' laptop, but she had always been deadly even without a weapon. No one wanted to cross her, especially now. Especially not with the way she gripped Cressida's switchblade so tightly.

Piper just nodded. "We've got no choice. We have to seal the Doors of Death before we can stop the giants from raising Gaia. Otherwise, her armies will never die. And we've got to hurry. The Romans are in New York. Soon, they'll be marching on Camp Half-Blood."

"We've got one month at best," Jason added. "Ephialtes said Gaia would awaken in exactly one month."

Whatever hope they'd built up inside Annabeth with their talk about how strong and powerful Percy and Cressida were, it went out like a light.

"August first," she muttered. "That's Cress's birthday. She's going to be seventeen - she was going to be seventeen."

No one said anything for a while after that.

Leo straightened. "We can do it."

Everyone stared at him.

"The Archimedes sphere can upgrade the ship," he said, hoping he was right. "I'm going to study those ancient scrolls we got. There's got to be all kinds of new weapons I can make. We're going to hit Gaia's armies with a whole new arsenal of hurt. Even more so, if you want to give me a hand Annabeth."

They all turned to her.

It was a good move on his part. Give Annabeth something to do to take her mind off her friends and hit Gaia where it hurts. That's if she accepted it. And Piper sought to help her do that.

She tried to do her best impersonation of Cressida's glare. She happened to think that it was pretty good considering that Cressida tended to glare at everyone a lot.

"Sure," Annabeth relented. "Anything to cause her pain."

At the prow of the ship, Festus creaked his jaw and blew fire defiantly. Jason managed a smile. He clapped Leo on the shoulder. "Sounds like a plan, Admiral. You want to set the course?"

They kidded him, calling him Admiral, but for once Leo accepted the title. This was his ship. He hadn't come this far to be stopped. They would find this House of Hades. They'd take the Doors of Death. And by the gods, if Leo had to design a grabber arm long enough to snatch Percy and Cressida out of Tartarus, then that's what he would do. Nemesis wanted him to wreak vengeance on Gaia? Leo would be happy to oblige. He was going to make Gaia sorry she had ever messed with Leo Valdez.

"Yeah." He took one last look at the cityscape of Rome, turning bloodred in the sunset. "Festus, raise the sails. We've got some friends to save."