𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐈𝐋¹ || 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍

𝐋𝐗𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐗

✦ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐔𝐑 ✦

FORTUNATELY, BLACKJACK WAS ON DUTY. Percy did his best taxicab whistle, and within a few minutes, two dark shapes circled out of the sky. They looked like hawks at first, but as they descended, Percy could make out the long galloping legs of pegasi.

Yo, boss. Blackjack landed at a trot, his friend Porkpie right behind him. Man, I thought those wind gods were gonna knock us to Pennsylvania until we said we were with you!

"Thanks for coming," Percy told him. "Hey, why do pegasi gallop as they fly, anyway?"

"You really found the need to ask that question?" Aurora deadpanned.

Blackjack whinnied. Why do humans swing their arms as they walk? I dunno, boss. It just feels right. Where to?

"We need to get to the Williamsburg Bridge," Percy said.

Blackjack lowered his neck. You're darn right, boss. We flew over it on the way here and it don't look good. Hop on!

On the way to the bridge, a knot formed in the pit of Percy's stomach. The Minotaur was one of the first monsters he had ever defeated.

Four years ago it nearly killed his mother on Half-Blood Hill. The raven-haired boy still had nightmares about that. Percy had been hoping it would stay dead for a few centuries, but he should've known his luck wouldn't hold.

They saw the battle before they were close enough to make out individual fighters. It was well after midnight now, but the bridge blazed with light. Cars were burning. Arcs of fire streamed in both directions as flaming arrows and spears sailed through the air. They came in for a low pass, and Percy saw the Apollo campers retreating.

They would hide behind cars and snipe at the approaching army, setting off explosive arrows and dropping caltrops in the road, building fiery barricades wherever they could, dragging sleeping drivers out of their cars to get them out of harm's way. But the enemy kept advancing.

An entire phalanx of dracaenae marched in the lead, their shields locked together, spear tips bristling over the top. An occasional arrow would connect with their snaky trunks, or a neck, or a chink in their armor, and the unlucky snake woman would disintegrate, but most of the Apollo arrows glanced harmlessly off their shield wall.

About a hundred more monsters marched behind them. Hellhounds leaped ahead of the line from time to time. Most were destroyed with arrows. Aurora managed to shoot one straight on the forehead with her arrow before the hellhound got hold of an Apollo camper and drag him away.

"There!" Aurora called from the back of her pegasus.

Sure enough, in the middle of the invading legion was Old Beefhead himself. The last time Percy had seen the Minotaur, he'd been wearing nothing but his tighty whities. He doesn't know why. Maybe he'd been shaken out of bed to chase him.