σɾɳιƚԋαʂ (ρʝσ x ɱαʅҽ σƈ)

The First Night of the Battle of Manhattan

Mrs. O'Leary barked. I hoped that meant Sure I do! And not, Do you have more hot dogs?

Percy: I need you to find him. Make sure he's still awake. We're going to need his help. You got that? Find Grover!

Mrs. O'Leary gave me a sloppy wet kiss, which seemed kind of unnecessary. Then she raced off north.

Pollux crouched next to a sleeping policeman.

Pollux: I don't get it. Why didn't we fall asleep too? Why just the mortals?

Silena: This is a huge spell. The bigger the spell, the easier it is to resist. If you want to sleep millions of mortals, you've got to cast a very thin layer of magic. Sleeping demigods is much harder.

Zoe: How do you know so much about magic?

Silena: I don't spend all my time on my wardrobe.

Annabeth: Percy, Theo. You'd better see this.

The bronze image showed Long Island Sound near La Guardia. A fleet of a dozen speedboats raced through the dark water toward Manhattan. Each boat was packed with demigods in full Greek armor. At the back of the lead boat, a purple banner emblazoned with a black scythe flapped m the night wind. I'd never seen that design before, but it wasn't hard to figure out: the battle flag of Kronos.

Theo: Shit.

Percy: Scan the perimeter of the island. Quick.

Annabeth shifted the scene south to the harbor. A Staten Island Ferry was plowing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hellhounds. Swimming in front of the ship was a pod of marine mammals. At first, I thought they were dolphins. Then I saw their doglike faces and the swords strapped to their waists, and I realized they were telekhines—sea demons.

The scene shifted again: the Jersey shore, right at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. A hundred assorted monsters were marching past the lanes of stopped traffic: giants with clubs, rogue Cyclopes, a few fire-spitting dragons, and just to rub it in, a World War II-era Sherman tank, pushing cars out of its way as it rumbled into the tunnel.

Percy: What's happening with the mortals outside Manhattan? Is the whole state asleep?

Annabeth: I don't think so, but it's strange. As far as I can tell from these pictures, Manhattan is totally asleep. Then there's like a fifty-mile radius around the island where time is running really, really slow. The closer you get to Manhattan, the slower it is.

She showed me another scene—a New Jersey highway. It was Saturday evening, so the traffic wasn't as bad as it might've been on a weekday. The drivers looked awake, but the cars were moving at about one mile per hour. Birds flew overhead in slow motion.

Theo: It's Kronos. He's slowing down time.

Katie: Hecate might be helping. Look how the cars are all veering away from the Manhattan exits like they're getting a subconscious message to turn back.

Annabeth: I don't know. But somehow, they've surrounded Manhattan in layers of magic. The outside world might not even realize something is wrong. Any mortals coming toward Manhattan will slow down so much they won't know what's happening.

Jake: Like flies in amber.

Theo: So, we're on our own.

Annabeth: (nods) Yeah.

I turned to my friends. They looked stunned and scared, and I couldn't blame them. The shield had shown us at least three hundred enemies on the way. There were forty of us. And we were alone.