Trapped | ✓

Chapter 10

Annabeth's POV

The second Emily screamed, Percy shouted and ran at Phobos. All of us went instantly into attack mode. We charged Phobos and Deimos, but Phobos vanished into thin air. Upon seeing his brother leave, Deimos copied, but the dumb brute that he was was a little slow. Jason got him with his spear and golden ichor leaked from his ankle. He howled in pain, but disappeared before anyone could get another strike. Cowards.

Percy shouted an order to help Emily, and rushed off down the alleyway to try and find the two. Jason followed him. We rushed to Emily and I began my attempt to lift her up. Frank helped me and lifted her like she weighed nothing. To be honest, however, she practically did.

We all sat on the ground in the alleyway, out of reach of the still startled pedestrians.

Frank set Emily down on the floor, but Piper shouted at him.

"She can't just lie on the floor!"

"Well where do you expect me to put her?"

"Have her lean on someone's shoulder or something! I don't know! But the ground is cold, and hard, and Phobos has attacked her. Everyone else got the hospital bed. She shouldn't deserve the ground."

Nico was sitting nearest her, and he scooted over to the right a little, and Frank lay her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Nico." Piper said.

Soon Percy and Jason returned. "Nothing?" I asked.

Percy shook his head as he plonked himself down next to me and put his arm around me.
"The cowards are gone who knows where," he said miserably. "She okay?" he indicated to Emily.

"We think so," Frank said. "I mean, she passed out from fright. That's not a good thing."

"No," Nico agreed. "But what do we do now? They're gods, we've watched them disappear into thin air. If they're gonna leave every time we try and fight them, how will we ever win?"
Hazel shook her head.

"I don't know. But they can't keep doing this. This is really bad."

"No kidding," Leo said miserably.

"Alright. Here's the plan. We wait for Emily to wake up, and once we're ready, we just keep going. We've got to. We can find them somehow." I tried and failed to give a pep talk. Everyone still looked forlorn and defeated.

"She's right. In my first quest, when we had to rescue Hera and Piper's dad, we had no idea where they were. But we still found them. Maybe something will come to us in a dream. Happens often for demigods, right?" Jason sighed. "I don't know, but it could happen. I think we need to rest, anyway." No one argued with him.

Hazel said, "Let's, like, do shifts. So no one has to sleep on the floor," she shot a glance at Piper. "And people can keep watch, you know. Just in case. I'll stay up first."

"Me too," Leo said.

"And me," Percy added.

I saw Piper already asleep, Jason's arms around her, sleeping peacefully. Hazel's head was in Frank's lap, and she was just closing her eyes. Nico was still awake with Emily on his shoulder. Leo was awake too, and Percy was going to stay up aswell. I rested my head on Percy's shoulder and he held me closer to him. I drifted off to sleep easily, with my seaweed brain holding me.

I dreamt of my mother. She was standing there, on an empty street in Olympus.

"Mom!" I called. I crossed the street and stood opposite her.

"Hello, Annabeth."

"Mom, please help me. We're all so stuck. What do we do?"

"Tell me what you know about Ares."

"Um, alright. He's the god of war, he's strong, he's large, he has a temper, he hates Percy just a little more than probably the rest of us, he-"

"Yes. He hates Percy more than the rest of you."

"So, what are you asking us to do, leave him behind?" I demanded.

"Not at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Use Percy as some sort of bait."

"I don't understand."

"It's Percy. It's always been Percy."

"But how do we get to them?"

And then I woke up. Typical.

When I woke, everyone else had already swapped. Nico was curled up in Hazel's lap, and Emily was on Leo's shoulder. Leo was insisting to keep awake.

"No! Get some sleep!" Piper insisted.

"I don't need any sleep! I'm fine. I don't need any sle-"

And then he was snoring, his head on top of Emily's. I laughed.

"Sleep shifts. We are wasting so much time on sleep shifts."

"Oh my gods, I know, right?" Piper rolled her eyes.

"But my mom spoke to me."

"She did? Good. Because Aphrodite didn't speak to me."

"Yeah, but my mum only said to have Percy battle Phobos. Because if Ares dislikes Percy, his child will too. So if Percy battles Phobos, Percy will win."

"Nothing on how to find them?" Piper asked hopefully.

"No. I hope someone else got some advice from a god, too. Although mine was good advice, thanks mom," I added hastily. Piper chuckled.

"Yeah, thaaanks mom!" she called with a laugh.

When everyone - safe for Emily - had stirred, I told them of my dream. Jason was about to speak, when Emily lifted her head.