DESPITE SHEER DUMB luck existing, Eden knew she was probably going to die.
The battle had started well enough. Perfect Jason rolled away from the giant's first spear thrust and jabbed Enceladus in the ankle. Perfect Jason's javelin managed to pierce the thick dragon hide, and golden ichor — the blood of immortals, the liquid that should've been running through Eden and wasn't — trickled down the giant's clawed foot. She stood by, waiting for an opportunity to strike because she'd thought that Perfect Jason had the giant handled.
Enceladus bellowed in pain and blasted Perfect Jason with fire. While he'd dodged that, Eden struck behind his knee — scythe, then a round of bullets.
It went on like that for seconds, minutes — it was hard to judge. Eden heard combat across the clearing — construction equipment grinding, fire roaring, monsters shouting, and rocks smashing into metal. She heard Fire Boy and Kaleidoscope yelling defiantly, which meant they were still alive. She tried not to think about it. She couldn't afford to get distracted.
Enceladus's spear missed Perfect Jason by a millimeter. Eden rolled and jabbed the heel of his foot, and he nearly kicked her aside.
"I'm not some minor monster," Enceladus bellowed. "I am a giant, born to destroy gods! Your little toothpicks can't kill me."
Eden didn't waste energy replying. She was already tired. The ground clung to her feet, making her feel like she weighed an extra hundred pounds. The air was full of smoke that burned her lungs. Fires roared around her, stoked by the winds, and the temperature was approaching the heat of an oven. Eden's worst enemy was fire that didn't come from her weapons. It weakened her too much, and she'd already done more strikes than Perfect Jason had.
Speaking of him, he raised his javelin to block the giant's next strike — a big mistake. Don't fight force with force, Luke Castellan's voice echoed in her ear, because he'd taught her how to be the most powerful swordman right now. She felt sick as she watched as Perfect Jason deflected the spear, but it grazed his shoulder, and his arm probably went numb.
He backed up, almost tripping over a burning log.
"The mighty Jason Grace," the giant taunted. "Yes, we know about you, son of Jupiter. The one who led the assault on Mount Othrys. The one who single-handedly slew the Titan Krios and toppled the black throne."
"What are you talking about?" Perfect Jason asked. Then Enceladus breathed fire.
Eden had hit the ground, but he'd had moved too slowly. The blast missed him, but heat blistered his back. He slammed into the ground.
The giant's spear cleaved the ground between his feet.
Perfect Jason managed to stand. He looked at Eden, who nodded, then he charged.
Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Perfect Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant's legs. He came up quickly, thrusting, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move.
He swept his spear sideways, met Perfect Jason's javelin — and with a snap like a shotgun blast, the golden weapon shattered.
The explosion was hotter than the giant's breath, blinding Eden with golden light. The force knocked her off her feet and squeezed the breath out of her.
When she regained her focus, she was sitting at the rim of a crater, way far away from Perfect Jason. Enceladus stood at the one of the other sides, staggering and confused. The javelin's destruction had released so much energy, it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick glassy substance. Eden wasn't sure how she'd survived, probably that sheer dumb luck, but her clothes were steaming. Fucking hell, she'd liked these.
Enceladus blinked at the destruction, then laughed. "Impressive! Unfortunately, that was your last trick, demigod."
Enceladus leaped the crater in a single bound, planting his feet on either side of Jason. The giant raised his spear, its tip hovering six feet over Perfect Jason's chest.
"And now," Enceladus said, "my first sacrifice to Gaea!"
And then Eden snapped.
* * *
Eden was about to do the fucking stupid thing that Perfect Jason did and block the giant's spear with her long ass sword ( despite Luke's lessons, fuck the dude ) but then a large black metal wedge slammed into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit.
"Jason, get up!" Kaleidoscope called. He sat up, his head groggy, while she grabbed him under his arms and hauled him to his feet.
"Don't die on me," she ordered. "You are not dying on me."
"Yes, ma'am." He nodded.
About a hundred feet behind her, Fire Boy was standing over a piece of construction equipment — a long cannonlike thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off.
Then Eden looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the thing had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an ax blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.
Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the ax blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armor, but Enceladus stood.
Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear.
"Good try." The giant winced. "But I cannot be beaten."
As they watched, the giant's armor mended itself, and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Eden had worked so hard to make, considering Perfect Jason was the distraction, were now just pale scars.
Fire Boy ran up to them, saw the giant, and cursed. "What is it with this guy? Die, already!"
"My fate is preordained," Enceladus said. "Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes."
"Only by both," Perfect Jason said. The giant's smile faltered, and Eden saw in his eyes something like fear. "It's true, isn't it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you."
"You will not live long enough to try!" The giant started stumbling up the crater's slope, slipping on the glassy sides.
"Anyone have a god handy?" Fire Boy asked.
"God, I wish," Eden snorted, her mind reeling. Her mind was a fighter's, she wasn't a diplomat. She looked at the giant below them, struggling to get out of the pit, and she knew what had to happen.
"Fire Boy," Eden said, "if you've got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready. Perfect Jason, call lightning when I give a very obvious signal off."
She leaped at the giant with no weapon but her bare hands, despite her array of weapons.
"Enceladus!" Kaleidoscope yelled. "Look behind you!"
It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even Eden bought it. The giant said, "What?" and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.
Eden tackled his legs at just the right moment. The giant lost his balance. Enceladus slammed into the crater and slid to the bottom. While he tried to rise, Eden scrambled up and put her arms around the giant's neck. When Enceladus struggled to his feet, she was riding his shoulders, which sounded wrong, but she was mega gay anyway, so.
"Get off!" Enceladus screamed. He tried to grab Eden's legs, but she scrabbled around, squirming and climbing over the giant's hair.
She brought out a gun and smirked.
"Pew pew, bitch," she whispered, and fired all of the bullets in her gun, aiming at his neck.
Ichor splattered around her, and he snarled at her, and she yelped as he was about to breathe fire on her.
The blood of the gods was on her. The blood of immortals. Blood that wasn't hers. And would never be hers.
And suddenly, just like that, she was fuming. She let out a scream and suddenly there was a hurricane flooding through the mountain, which was way above her ability level. As she jumped off the giant, she screamed, "if you don't do it now, basic boy, I swear to the gods—"
Crack!
The hurricane and the lightning bolt had split the mountain itself. The earth rumbled and tore apart, and Enceladus's legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold on to the edge, his hands trembling.
He fixed Eden with a look of hatred. "You've won nothing, girl. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the gods at their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with—"
The giant lost his grip and fell into the crevice.
The earth shook. Eden fell toward the rift.
"Grab hold!" Fire Boy yelled.
Her feet were at the edge of the chasm when she grabbed the rope, and Fire Boy, Kaleidoscope, and Muscle Boy pulled her up.
They stood together, except for Eden, who was leaned against Fire and Muscle Boy, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulling at their feet.
For now, Gaea was gone.
The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air. Eden spotted a helicopter — maybe firefighters or reporters — coming toward them.
All around them was carnage. The Earthborn had melted into piles of clay, leaving behind only their rock missiles and some nasty bits of loincloth, but Eden figured they would re-form soon enough. Construction equipment lay in ruins. The ground was scarred and blackened.
Coach Hedge started to move. He sat up with a groan and rubbed his head. His canary yellow pants were now the color of Dijon mustard mixed with mud.
He blinked and looked around him at the battle scene. "Did I do this?"
Before Eden could reply, Hedge picked up his club and got shakily to his feet. "Yeah, you wanted some hoof? I gave you some hoof, cupcakes! Who's the goat, huh?"
He did a little dance, kicking rocks and making what were probably rude satyr gestures at the piles of clay.
Fire Boy cracked a smile, and Eden snorted. Perfect Jason laughed hysterically.
Then a man stood up across the clearing. Tristan McLean staggered forward. His eyes were hollow, shell-shocked, like someone who'd just walked through a nuclear wasteland. Eden stiffened. He almost looked like her mom when she was sober.
"Piper?" he called. His voice cracked. "Pipes, what — what is—"
He couldn't complete the thought. Kaleidoscope ran over to him and hugged him tightly, but he almost didn't seem to know her.
"We need to get him out of here," Eden said as if she was the smart one.
"Yeah, but how?" Fire Boy said. "He's in no shape to walk, and neither are you."
Perfect Jason glanced up at the helicopter, which was now circling directly overhead. "Can you make us a bullhorn or something?" he asked Fire Boy. "Piper has some talking to do."