"I told you to bring back a child of the Big Three, and you retrieve a daughter of Athena?" Atlas bellowed, his voice echoing through the ruins of Othrys.
"G-general," Thorn stuttered, bowing his head again from where he was kneeling on the dirt. "There was interference. From the Hunters, and Zoe-"
"Don't speak her name," Atlas warned, fury lighting his eyes.
"My lord, if I may," Luke interjected, glancing at Thorn the way one would look at trash, "Annabeth is still useful."
"Is she now," Atlas grumbled.
"She may not be a child of the Big Three," Luke replied, "but both Percy and Thalia are her friends. She's useful leverage."
"How, exactly?" Thorn challenged. "They might think she's dead and not even come for her."
"Oh, Percy will. I know him. Nothing in this world would stop the son of Poseidon from searching for her."
"What's your plan then?" I ventured, though a shape, horrible and disastrous, was already forming in my mind. From the gleam in Luke's eyes, I knew that he already knew that I knew what he was planning.
"You're usually the strategist, Rianna," he said, causing a knot of dread to form in my stomach. "I know you already have a plan. Why don't you tell the General?"
A flare of annoyance shot up over the terrible plan that was now fully fleshed in my mind. I knew Luke was asking me to present it to Atlas to cement the titan's trust in me, but I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to give them a plan, especially not one that would risk Annabeth's life, a goddess, and gods knew how many more demigods.
But I had no choice. Even if I didn't say anything, Luke would. And then there'd be the issue of me being killed.
I swallowed, my mouth dry, and laid out the plan to the Titan in front of me. The appreciation and acknowledgment in his eyes did little to comfort me because I couldn't help feeling that even as I gained more footing in the stronghold of my enemy, it was coming at the cost of my allies.
"Who's going to take it?" Atlas said intently, eyeing Luke and then me. "This wretched burden."
"I'll do it," Luke said without hesitation. "I'll take it."
A 'no!' sprung up in my mouth, panic sweeping through me as I realized what Luke intended to do, but I shoved it down, so violently I nearly choked. I could not, for any reason, take the burden of the sky. Not without revealing my shadows, identity, and then dooming the fate of the world as I knew it.
"Boy, it could very well kill you," Atlas warned. "It'll crush you."
"I'll do it," Luke repeated, determination lacing his blue eyes though his face was pale.
"Wait-" I started despite myself, but he cut me off with a shake of his head.
"Annabeth will take it for me. I know she will. I have far more personal ties to her than you do, Rianna."
"That may be," Atlas rumbled, "But you're far more important. We can't afford to lose you."
There it was, again. I gritted my teeth silently. What in the name of Tartarus was this importance Atlas kept mentioning?
Whatever it was, it was critical enough for a titan to be concerned about the life of a demigod. Which meant that it was a part of the ultimate goal. Bringing Kronos back.
Bringing Kronos back.
Slowly, ever so slowly, a wisp of horror, the likes I've never felt before, started blooming in my body, filling my mind with terror so deep it froze my bones. This was not the terror I'd felt when I'd been forced to battle Ladon at the age of twelve, not the terror when I'd first dreamed of Kronos two years ago, not the terror when Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had almost plummeted into Tartarus, not the terror of knowing that there were two more variables in play determining the fall of Western Civilization.
This was a bone-numbing, chilling, desperate terror that sank down to my very core, icing over everything and leaving me feeling like someone had taken a very large, very hungry vacuum and sucked out my essence. Sucked out life itself. This was fear, worse than the likes I've ever known, that was starting to grow in my mind, a cobweb out of reach no matter how hard I tried to grab it.
My mask, a result of over a decade of honing, was the only shield between me and the cause of that core-rattling horror. Even as it rose up in a tidal wave, sweeping away everything inside me, my mask never faltered, my outward expression as cool and neutral as stone even as everything inside crumbled. With half the attention, I listened as Luke tried to convince Atlas that he could take the burden, turning away instead to the nagging in my head as I tried to shove down the spiralling nightmare unfolding before my eyes.
The thought kept slipping between my fingers like water, forever out of reach. I felt like I was trying to recall a word that was on the tip of my tongue. It was as if the very thought of this importance was so abhorrent my mind refused to even consider it.
Water slipping out of my fingers, cobwebs turning into dust beneath my touch, long-forgotten words on the tip of my tongue, memories buried beneath centuries of existence, all blown away with the breath of the wind. It was like I was running a race, yet every time I reached the finish line, my fingers an inch from the line, some immortal zapped me back to the start.
Chasing something that refused to be found.
Or maybe the answer was already there, and I was simply refusing to look at it, acknowledge it, desperate for an alternative, any alternative, then this incomprehensible act of atrocity worse than anything in the history of immortality. Any explanation. Anything but this.
I nearly screamed as I felt something grab my wrist, jolting into my body from the dark confines of my mind to see Luke staring at me. "I'm sorry, but you know I can't let you take this burden," he said, his gaze flicking to where Atlas watched us hungrily.
There was a split-second pause that seemed to stretch into eternity as my mind tried to catch up with the surroundings around me, and I blinked, realizing what was happening.
"You could have," I replied, the anger and fear in my voice as real as the boy standing in front of me. "I have magic. You don't. I'd be able to use it if I-"
"I know," Luke murmured, so softly I could barely hear him. "But I can't put you in a situation like that. I'd sooner die first."
"How do you think I feel right now?" I demanded, glaring at him even as tears pricked the corner of my eyes.
"I'm sorry," he muttered, releasing his grip on my wrist. "But I have to do this."
I shook my head, the fear spreading faster than hoarfrost on spring-tender leaves. But I knew there was no other option, so I sighed, yielding the fight. "All right, fine."
"We will wait until you return with the goddess," Atlas rumbled, his eyes flickering with anticipation for when he'd finally be free of his burden. "And then our plans will be in motion, and none shall stop the rise of his Lordship again!"
I wish I could have said anger, determination, dread, anything, flashed through me at his words, but there was only silent, empty cold, a cold breeze snapping through barren fields of ice. Even my shadows, which usually slumbered softly within me, were silent.
The truth of what was about to happen was looming in my face, but I ignored it, freezing it with the rest of me, and left the black mountain again to search for the goddess of the Hunt.
***
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