chapter eighty-seven
─── i am allowed no peace to go on my date night
𝕯ate nights were my favourite thing that Luke and I had put into place after hitting our 1 year anniversary. Once a week, we would do something together whether it was going to an aquarium, or to the park, or a nice date out. Tonight, Luke had thought it best to go stargazing on the beach that we had our first date at.
"Okay, come on, remember. I taught it to you!" Luke prodded at my ribs as I laughed, batting his hands away. "Look, three stars in a row."
"It's Orion. I've already told you this!" Luke then laughed, pressing a kiss to my lips as the sea calmly lapped at the shore. This was our break, especially as next week was supposedly the birthday that I destroyed Olympus on. Cheery. "Told you I knew it."
"I thought you had been ignoring me." Luke chuckled. "You normally tune out when I start speaking."
"That's because whatever you say is normally bullshit." He laughed again, wrapping his arms around my waist as we relaxed. I was distracted by my lovely boyfriend, not having noticed that a large pegasi was looming over us.
Boss gal! I screeched.
"What the actual hell?" Luke called, both of us turning to look at the horse.
Oh, it's you. Blackjack glared at Luke.
"Blackjack," I sighed. "What are you—"
Then I saw who was riding on her back, and I knew my day was about to get a lot more complicated.
"'Sup, Romy. Luke."
Charles Beckendorf, senior counsellor for the Hephaestus cabin, was smiling down at us. A month before, he'd rigged a Greek firebomb in the bathroom of a tour bus that was carrying a bunch of monsters across country. The explosion took out a whole legion of Kronos' soldiers as soon as the first harpy went flush.
Beckendorf was dressed for combat. He wore a bronze breastplate and war helm with black camo pants and a sword strapped to his side. His explosives bag was slung over his shoulder.
"Time?" I asked, both Luke and I sighing.
He nodded grimly.
A clump formed in my throat. I'd known this was coming. We'd been planning for it for weeks, but I'd half hoped it would never happen.
"Beckendorf." Luke stood up, putting our stuff away as he and Beckendorf said hello to each other.
"Would you-" I turned to Luke, who was already nodding and handing me Riptide and a spare dagger. My armor was in the car, and I was quick to pull it on. "Thank you."
"I'll see you at home." I leant up, pressing a long kiss to his lips as Luke tightened his hold on me.
"Stay safe. Don't die." He whispered, taking one last moment to memorise my face before I pulled back.
I nodded, before vaulting on Blackjack's back in front of Beckendorf. I sent Luke a soft look, before we took off into the sky.
"So," Beckendorf said, "You two seem happy."
"Thanks. How's Silena?"
"Don't." I shot him a grin, both of us chuckling to each other.
It was almost dark by the time we spotted our target. The Princess Andromeda glowed on the horizon. Seeing the ship again twisted my gut into knots. I'd almost died twice on the Princess Andromeda. Now it was heading straight for New York.
"You know what to do?" Beckendorf yelled over the wind.
I nodded. We'd done dry runs at the dockyards in New Jersey, using abandoned ships as our targets. I knew how little time we would have. But I also knew this was our best chance to end Kronos's invasion before it ever started.
"Blackjack," I said, "set us down on the lowest stern deck."
Gotcha, boss girl, she said. Man, I hate seeing that boat.
Three years ago, Blackjack had been enslaved on the Princess Andromeda until she'd escaped with a little help from my friends and me.
"Don't wait for us," I told her.
But—
"Trust me," I said. "We'll get out by ourselves."
Blackjack folded her wings and plummeted toward the boat like a black comet. The wind whistled in my ears. I saw monsters patrolling the upper decks of the ship but we zipped by so fast, none of them raised the alarm. We shot down the stern of the boat, and Blackjack spread her wings, lightly coming to a landing on the lowest deck.
Good luck, boss girl, Blackjack said. Don't let 'em turn you into horse meat!
With that, my old friend flew off into the night. I took my pen out of my pocket and uncapped it, and Riptide sprang to full size—three feet of deadly Celestial bronze glowing in the dusk. Reaching up, I touched the necklace that Luke had gotten me for Christmas, kissing it as Beckendorf stared at a picture of Silena.
Both of us were saying our final goodbyes to our loved ones just in case we didn't make it back.
"Let's go blow Kronos back into a million pieces."
Beckendorf led the way. We followed a narrow corridor to the service stairwell, just like we'd practiced, but we froze when we heard noises above us.
"I don't care what your nose says!" snarled a telkhine. "The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meat loaf sandwich!"
"Meat loaf sandwiches are good!" a second voice snarled. "But this is half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!"
They continued to argue, and Beckendorf pointed downstairs. We descended as quietly as we could. Finally we came to a metal hatch. Beckendorf mouthed the words "engine room."
It was locked, but Beckendorf pulled some chain cutters out of his bag and split the bolt like it was made of butter.
Inside, a row of yellow turbines the size of grain silos churned and hummed. Pressure gauges and computer terminals lined the opposite wall. A telkhine was hunched over a console, but he was so involved with his work, he didn't notice us. He growled and muttered as he tapped on his keyboard.
I stepped forward, and he tensed, probably smelling something was wrong. He leaped sideways toward a big red alarm button, but I blocked his path. He hissed and lunged at me, but one slice of Riptide, and he exploded into dust.
"One down," Beckendorf said. "About five thousand to go." He tossed me a jar of thick green liquid—Greek fire, one of the most dangerous magical substances in the world. Then he threw me another essential tool of demigod heroes—duct tape.
"Slap that one on the console," he said. "I'll get the turbines."
We went to work. The room was hot and humid, and in no time we were drenched in sweat.
The boat kept chugging along. Being the daughter of Poseidon and all, I have perfect bearings at sea. Don't ask me how, but I could tell we were at 40.19° North , 71.90° West, making eighteen knots, which meant the ship would arrive in New York Harbour by dawn. This would be our only chance to stop it.
I had just attached a second jar of Greek fire to the control panels when I heard the pounding of feet on metal steps—so many creatures coming down the stairwell I could hear them over the engines. Not a good sign.
I locked eyes with Beckendorf. "How much longer?"
"Too long." He tapped his watch, which was our remote control detonator. "I still have to wire the receiver and prime the charges. Ten more minutes at least."
Judging from the sound of the footsteps, we had about ten seconds.
"I'll distract them," I said. "Meet you at the rendezvous point."
"Romy—"
"Wish me luck."
He looked like he wanted to argue. The whole idea had been to get in and out without being spotted. But we were going to have to improvise.
"Good luck," he said.
I charged out the door.
A half dozen telkhines were tromping down the stairs. I cut through them with Riptide faster than they could yelp. I kept climbing, killing all but one so that he could raise the alarm and hopefully get his friends to follow me rather than head toward the engine room.
I burst through a door onto deck six and kept running.
I reached the promenade, a big shopping mall that took up the whole middle of the ship, and I stopped cold. In the middle of the courtyard stood a fountain. And in the fountain squatted a giant crab.
The monster rose ten feet out of the water. Its shell was mottled blue and green, its pincers longer than my body. Being a daughter of Poseidon wasn't going to help me now. Sea foam dripped from its mouth, and the smell coming off it was giving rotten sea food.
Alarms blared. Soon I was going to have lots of company and I had to keep moving.
"Hey, crabby." I inched around the edge of the court-yard. "I'm just gonna scoot around you so—"
The crab moved with amazing speed. It scuttled out of the fountain and came straight at me, pincers snapping. I dove into a gift shop, ploughing through a rack of T-shirts. A crab pincer smashed the glass walls to pieces and raked across the room. I dashed back outside, breathing heavily, but Mr. Crabby turned and followed.
"There!" a voice said from a balcony above me. "Intruder!"
If I'd wanted to create a distraction, I'd succeeded, but this was not where I wanted to fight. If I got pinned down in the centre of the ship, I was crab chow.
The demonic crustacean lunged at me. I sliced with Riptide, taking off the tip of its claw. It hissed and foamed, but didn't seem very hurt.
I tried to remember anything from the old stories that might help with this thing. Annabeth had told me about a monster crab—something about Hercules crushing it under his foot? That wasn't going to work here. This crab was slightly bigger than my trainers.
Then a weird thought occurred to me. Last Christmas, my mom and I had brought Paul Blofis to our old cabin at Montauk, where we'd been going forever. Paul had taken me crabbing, and when he'd brought up a net full of the things, he'd shown me how crabs have a chink in their armor, right in the middle of their ugly bellies.
The only problem was getting to the ugly belly.
I glanced at the fountain, then at the marble floor, already slick from scuttling crab tracks. I held out my hand, concentrating on the water, and the fountain exploded. Water sprayed everywhere, three stories high, dousing the balconies and the elevators and the windows of the shops. The crab didn't care. It loved water. It came at me sideways, snapping and hissing, and I ran straight at it.
Just before we collided, I hit the ground baseball-style and slid on the wet marble floor straight under the creature. It was like sliding under a seven-ton armoured vehicle. All the crab had to do was sit and squash me, but before it realized what was going on, I jabbed Riptide into the chink in its armor, let go of the hilt, and pushed myself out the other side.
The monster shuddered and hissed. Its eyes dissolved. Its shell turned bright red as its insides evaporated. The empty shell clattered to the floor in a massive heap.
I didn't have time to admire my handiwork. I ran for the nearest stairs while all around me monsters and demigods shouted orders and strapped on their weapons. I was empty-handed. Riptide, being magic, would appear in my pocket sooner or later, but for now it was stuck somewhere under the wreckage of the crab, and I had no time to retrieve it.
In the elevator foyer on deck eight, a couple of dracaenae slithered across my path. From the waist up, they were women with green scaly skin, yellow eyes, and forked tongues. From the waist down, they had double snake trunks instead of legs. They held spears and weighted nets, and I knew from experience they could use them.
"What is this?" one hissed. "A prize for Kronos!"
I wasn't in the mood to play break-the-snake, but in front of me was a stand with a model of the ship, like a YOU ARE HERE display. I ripped the model off the pedestal and hurled it at the first dracaena.
The boat smacked her in the face and she went down with the ship. I jumped over her, grabbed her friend's spear, and swung her around. She slammed into the elevator, and I kept running toward the front of the ship.
"Get her!" she screamed.
Hellhounds bayed, causing a phantom pain to strike my chest. An arrow from somewhere whizzed past my face and impaled itself in the mahogany-panelled wall of the stairwell.
I didn't care—as long as I got the monsters away from the engine room and gave Beckendorf more time.
As I was running up the stairwell, a kid charged down. He looked like he'd just woken up from a nap. His armor was half on. He drew his sword and yelled, "Kronos!" but he sounded more scared than angry. He couldn't have been more than sixteen—about the same age I was when I'd first arrived at Camp Half-Blood.
That thought depressed me. This kid was getting brain-washed—trained to hate the gods and lash out because he'd been born half Olympian. Kronos was using him, and yet the kid thought I was his enemy. No way was I going to hurt him. I didn't need a weapon for this. I stepped inside his strike and grabbed his wrist, slamming it against the wall. His sword clattered out of his hand.
Then I did something I hadn't planned on. It was probably stupid. It definitely jeopardized our mission, but I couldn't help it. I didn't want demigods to die.
"If you want to live," I told him, "get off this ship now. Tell the other demigods." Then I shoved him down the stairs and sent him tumbling to the next floor.
I kept climbing.
Bad memories: a hallway ran past the cafeteria. Luke, my half brother Tyson, and I had sneaked through here three years ago on my first visit.
I burst outside onto the main deck. Off the port bow, the sky was darkening from purple to black. A swimming pool glowed between two glass towers with more balconies and restaurant decks. The whole upper ship seemed eerily deserted.
All I had to do was cross to the other side. Then I could take the staircase down to the helipad—our emergency rendezvous point. With any luck, Beckendorf would meet me there. We'd jump into the sea.
My water powers would protect us both, and we'd detonate the charges from a quarter mile away.
I was halfway across the deck when the sound of a voice made me freeze. "You're late, Romy."
Puck stood on the balcony above me, a smile on his face. He wore jeans, a white T-shirt, and flip-flops, like he was just a normal high schooler, but his eyes told the truth. They were solid gold.
"We've been expecting you for days." At first he sounded normal, like Puck. But then his face twitched. A shudder passed through his body as though he'd just drunk something really nasty. His voice became heavier, ancient, and powerful—the voice of the Titan lord Kronos. The words scraped down my spine like a knife blade. "Come, bow before me."
"As if," I muttered.
Laistrygonian giants filed in on either side of the swimming pool as if they'd been waiting for a cue. Each was eight feet tall with tattooed arms, leather armor, and spiked clubs. Demigod archers appeared on the roof above Puck. Two hellhounds leaped down from the opposite balcony and snarled at me. Within seconds I was surrounded. A trap: there's no way they could've gotten into position so fast unless they'd known I was coming.
I looked up at Puck, and anger boiled inside me.
A voice in my head said: I have to fight him eventually. Why not now?
According to that big prophecy, I was supposed to make a choice that saved or destroyed the world when I was twenty-one. That was only seven days away. Why not now? If I really had the power, what difference would a week make? I could end this threat right here by taking down Kronos. Hey, I'd fought monsters and gods before.
As if reading my thoughts, Puck smiled. No, he was Kronos. I had to remember that.
"Come forward," he said. "If you dare."
The crowd of monsters parted. I moved up the stairs, my heart pounding. I was sure somebody would stab me in the back, but they let me pass. I felt my pocket and found my pen waiting. I uncapped it, and Riptide grew into a sword.
Kronos's weapon appeared in his hands—a six-foot-long scythe, half Celestial bronze, half mortal steel. Just looking at the thing made my knees turn to Jell-O. But before I could change my mind, I charged.
Time slowed down. I mean literally slowed down, because Kronos had that power. I felt like I was moving through syrup. My arms were so heavy, I could barely raise my sword. Kronos smiled, swirling his scythe at normal speed and waiting for me to creep toward my death.
I tried to fight his magic. I concentrated on the sea around me—the source of my power. I'd gotten better at channelling it over the years, but now nothing seemed to happen. I took another slow step forward. Giants jeered. Dracaena hissed with laughter.
Hey, ocean, I pleaded. Any day now would be good.
Suddenly there was a wrenching pain in my gut. The entire boat lurched sideways, throwing monsters off their feet. Four thousand gallons of salt water surged out of the swimming pool, dousing me and Kronos and everyone on the deck. The water revitalized me, breaking the time spell, and I lunged forward.
I struck at Kronos, but I was still too slow. I made the mistake of looking at his face— Puck's face—a guy who's sister was my close friend. As much as I hated him, it was hard to kill him.
Kronos had no such hesitation. He sliced downward with his scythe. I leaped back, and the evil blade missed by an inch, cutting a gash in the deck right between my feet. I kicked Kronos in the chest. He stumbled backward, but he was heavier than Puck should've been. It was like kicking a refrigerator.
Kronos swung his scythe again. I intercepted with Riptide, but his strike was so powerful, my blade could only deflect it. The edge of the scythe shaved off my shirtsleeve and grazed my arm. It shouldn't have been a serious cut, but the entire side of my body exploded with pain. I remembered what a sea demon had once said about Kronos's scythe: Careful, fool. One touch, and the blade will sever your soul from your body.
I stumbled backward, switched my sword to my left hand, and lunged desperately. My blade should've run him through, but it deflected off his stomach like I was hitting solid marble. There was no way he should've survived that.
Kronos laughed. "A poor performance, Andromeda Jackson. Puck tells me you were supposedly as good as the traitor, Luke Castellan."
My vision started to blur. I knew I didn't have much time. "Puck had a big head," I said. "But at least it was his head."
"A shame to kill you now," Kronos mused, "before the final plan unfolds. I would love to see the terror in your eyes when you realize how I will destroy Olympus."
"You'll never get this boat to Manhattan." My arm was throbbing. Black spots danced in my vision.
"And why would that be?" Kronos's golden eyes glittered. His face—Puck's face—seemed like a mask, unnatural and lit from behind by some evil power. "Perhaps you are counting on your friend with the explosives?"
He looked down at the pool and called, "Nakamura!"
A teenage guy in full Greek armor pushed through the crowd. His left eye was covered with a black patch. I knew him, of course: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis.
Treacherous bastard.
"Success, my lord," Ethan called. "We found him just as we were told."
He clapped his hands, and two giants lumbered forward, dragging Charles Beckendorf between them. My heart almost stopped. Beckendorf had a swollen eye and cuts all over his face and arms. His armor was gone and his shirt was nearly torn off.
"No!" I yelled.
Beckendorf met my eyes. He glanced at his hand like he was trying to tell me something. His watch. They hadn't taken it yet, and that was the detonator. Was it possible the explosives were armed? Surely the monsters would've dismantled them right away.
"We found him amidships," one of the giants said, "trying to sneak to the engine room. Can we eat him now?"
"Soon." Kronos scowled at Ethan. "Are you sure he didn't set the explosives?"
"He was going toward the engine room, my lord."
"How do you know that?"
"Er..." Ethan shifted uncomfortably. "He was heading in that direction. And he told us. His bag is still full of explosives."
Slowly, I began to understand. Beckendorf had fooled them. When he'd realized he was going to be captured, he turned to make it look like he was going the other way. He'd convinced them he hadn't made it to the engine room yet. The Greek fire might still be primed! But that didn't do us any good unless we could get off the ship and detonate it.
Kronos hesitated.
Buy the story, I prayed. The pain in my arm was so bad now I could barely stand.
"Open his bag," Kronos ordered.
One of the giants ripped the explosives satchel from Beckendorf's shoulders. He peered inside, grunted, and turned it upside down. Panicked monsters surged backward. If the bag really had been full of Greek fire jars, we would've all blown up. But what fell out were a dozen cans of peaches.
I could hear Kronos breathing, trying to control his anger.
"Did you, perhaps," he said, "capture this demigod near the galley?"
Ethan turned pale. "Um—"
"And did you, perhaps, send someone to actually CHECK THE ENGINE ROOM?"
Ethan scrambled back in terror, then turned on his heels and ran.
I cursed silently. Now we had only minutes before the bombs were disarmed. I caught Beckendorf's eyes again and asked a silent question, hoping he would understand: How long?
He cupped his fingers and thumb, making a circle. Zero. There was no delay on the timer at all. If he managed to press the detonator button, the ship would blow at once. We'd never be able to get far enough away before using it. The monsters would kill us first, or disarm the explosives, or both.
Kronos turned toward me with a crooked smile. "You'll have to excuse my incompetent help, Andromeda Jackson. But it doesn't matter. We have you now. We've known you were coming for weeks."
He held out his hand and dangled a little silver bracelet with a scythe charm—the Titan lord's symbol. The wound in my arm was sapping my ability to think, but I muttered, "Communication device...spy at camp."
Kronos chuckled. "You can't count on friends. They will always let you down. Puck learned that lesson the hard way. Now drop your sword and surrender to me, or your friend dies."
I swallowed. One of the giants had his hand around Beckendorf's neck. I was in no shape to rescue him, and even if I tried, he would die before I got there. We both would.
Beckendorf mouthed one word: Go.
I shook my head. I couldn't just leave him.
The second giant was still rummaging through the peach cans, which meant Beckendorf's left arm was free. He raised it slowly—toward the watch on his right wrist.
I wanted to scream, NO!
Then down by the swimming pool, one of the dracaenae hissed, "What is he doing? What is that on his wrist?"
Beckendorf closed eyes tight and brought his hand up to his watch.
I had no choice, one of us had to get back. I threw my sword like a javelin at Kronos. It bounced harmlessly off his chest, but it did startle him. I pushed through a crowd of monsters and jumped off the side of the ship—toward the water a hundred feet below.
I heard rumbling deep in the ship. Monsters yelled at me from above. A spear sailed past my ear. An arrow pierced my thigh, but I barely had time to register the pain. I plunged into the sea and willed the currents to take me far, far away—a hundred yards, two hundred yards.
Even from that distance, the explosion shook the world. Heat seared the back of my head. The Princess Andromeda blew up from both sides, a massive fireball of green flame roiling into the dark sky, consuming everything.
Beckendorf, I thought.
Then I blacked out and sank like an anchor toward the bottom of the sea.
∘☽༓☾∘
Hiya,
So, we're back and Luke and Andi are a very cute couple, I just really love them. Anyhow, I'm hyped to get onto this final book.
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx