gone girl.
━━━ chapter twenty seven
❀
They heard the army before they saw it.
The noise was like a cannon barrage combined with a football stadium crowd — like every Patriots fan in New England was charging them with bazookas. At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods — a warrior in golden armor leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them.
"Positions!" Annabeth yelled next to him.
Her cabinmates scrambled. The idea was to make the enemy army break around the reservoir. To get to them, they'd have to follow the trails, which meant they'd be marching in narrow columns on either side of the water.
At first, the plan seemed to work. The enemy divided and streamed toward the demigods along the shore. When they were halfway across, their defenses kicked in. The jogging trail erupted in Greek fire, incinerating many of the monsters instantly. Others flailed around, engulfed in green flames. Athena campers threw grappling hooks around the largest giants and pulled them to the ground.
In the woods on the right, the Hunters sent a volley of silver arrows into the enemy line, destroying twenty or thirty dracaenae, but more marched behind them. A bolt of lightning crackled out of the sky and fried a Laistrygonian giant to ashes, and Percy knew Thalia must be doing her daughter of Zeus thing.
Grover raised his pipes and played a quick tune. A roar went up from the woods on both sides as every tree, rock, and bush seemed to sprout a spirit. Dryads and satyrs raised their clubs and charged. The trees wrapped around the monsters, strangling them. Grass grew around the feet of the enemy archers. Stones flew up and hit dracaenae in the faces.
Amaryllis had been summoning her powers so she could strangle the monsters with their own shadows. Percy stared at her, amazed at how powerful she was. She suffocated two giants and a few dracaenae, barely breaking a sweat and with a small smirk on the corner of her lips.
Not that Percy was looking at her lips.
It was amazing to see her so confident during a battle. Last year, when she thought she had no powers, she seemed a lot more self conscious in the way that she fought. But now she simply looked like a goddess of some sort, ready to kick Kronos' ass.
The enemy slogged forward. Giants smashed through the trees, and naiads faded as their life sources were destroyed. Hellhounds lunged at the timber wolves, knocking them aside. Enemy archers returned fire, and a Hunter fell from a high branch.
"Percy!" Annabeth grabbed his arm and pointed at the reservoir.
The Titan in the gold armor wasn't waiting for his forces to advance around the sides. He was charging toward us, walking straight over the top of the lake. A Greek firebomb exploded right on top of him, but he raised his palm and sucked the flames out of the air.
"Hyperion," Annabeth said in awe. "The lord of light. Titan of the east."
"Bad?" Percy guessed.
"Next to Atlas, he's the greatest Titan warrior. In the old days, four Titans controlled the four corners of the world. Hyperion was the east — the most powerful. He was the father of Helios, the first sun god."
"If we're up against the ray of sunshine, then I should take him," Amaryllis said and startled Percy, who hadn't even noticed her creeping up behind him. "Shadow powers and all. Agree?"
Percy turned to Annabeth. "We'll keep him busy."
She looked like she was about to argue with them, but then sighed, probably realising Percy and Amaryllis was their best chance at beating a Titan. "I'll keep our forces together," she finally said.
"Come on, water boy," Amaryllis said.
They had set up at the reservoir for good reason. Percy concentrated on the water and felt its power surging
through him. He advanced toward Hyperion, running over the top of the water. Yeah, buddy. Two can play that game.
Twenty feet away, Hyperion raised his sword. His eyes were just like I'd seen in my dream — as gold as Kronos's but brighter, like miniature suns.
"The sea god's brat," he mused. "You're the one who trapped Atlas beneath the sky again?"
"It wasn't hard," Percy answered. "You Titans are about as bright as my gym socks."
Hyperion snarled. "You want bright?"
His body ignited in a column of light and heat. Percy looked away, but he was still blinded.
"Percy, your sword!" he heard Amaryllis yell and he raised Riptide —just in time. Hyperion's blade slammed against his. The shock wave sent a ten-foot ring of water across the surface of the lake.
His eyes still burned. Someone needed to shut off the light.
He heard swords clashing and Amaryllis' voice saying something incoherent and suddenly he noticed that the world became darker. He opened his eyes to see the daughter of Hades cast a shadow over the Titan, which shut off his light or at least made it impossible to shine through.
Hyperion's eyes no longer blazed, but they still looked murderous. He looked ready to attack Amaryllis, who wouldn't really be able to defend herself, considering she was trying to maintain the shadow over him.
"Hey!" Percy yelled to get his attention away from her. "Hey, Mr Sunshine! Woo! How does it feel to have the one thing that makes you special ripped away from you? You're not that tough without your light, huh?"
Thankfully, that seemed to make him forget about Amaryllis. "You will burn, Jackson!" he roared. Their swords met again and the air charged with ozone.
The battle still raged around them. On the right flank, Annabeth was leading an assault with her siblings. On the left flank, Grover and his nature spirits were regrouping, entangling the enemies with bushes and weeds. Somehow Amaryllis was able to keep the shadow with her one hand and use her other hand to help the rest, but it looked like it really hurt her.
"Enough games," Hyperion told Percy. "We fight on land."
The boy was about to make some clever comment, like "No," when the Titan yelled. A wall of force slammed him through the air — just like the trick Kronos had pulled on the bridge. He sailed backward about three hundred yards and smashed into the ground. If it hadn't been for his new invulnerability, he would've broken every bone in his body.
He got to my feet, groaning. "I really hate it when you Titans do that."
Hyperion closed on him with blinding speed. Percy concentrated on the water, drawing strength from it when the Titan attacked. Hyperion was powerful and fast, but he couldn't seem to land a blow — partially because of the shadow dragging him away from Percy. The ground around his feet kept erupting in flames, but the demigod kept dousing it just as quickly.
"Stop it!" the Titan roared. "Stop that wind!" Percy wasn't sure what he meant — he was too busy fighting.
Hyperion stumbled like he was being pushed away. Water sprayed his face, stinging his eyes. The wind picked up and Hyperion staggered backward.
"Percy!" Amaryllis called in amazement. "How are you doing that?"
Doing what? he thought. Then he looked down, and he realized he was standing in the middle of his own personal hurricane. Clouds of water vapor swirled around him, winds so powerful they buffeted Hyperion and flattened the grass in a twenty-yard radius. Enemy warriors threw javelins at him, but the storm knocked them aside.
"Sweet," Percy muttered. "But a little more!"
Lightning flickered around him. The clouds darkened and the rain swirled faster. He closed in on Hyperion and blew him off his feet.
"Percy!" Grover called. "Bring him over here!"
He slashed and jabbed, letting his reflexes take over, while Hyperion could barely defend himself. His eyes kept trying to ignite, but the shadow and the hurricane quenched his flames.
Percy couldn't keep up a storm like this forever, though. He could feel his powers weakening and so was Amaryllis' — her shadow was flickering, slowly letting rays of light shining through. With one last effort, Percy propelled Hyperion across the field, straight to where Grover was waiting.
"I will not be toyed with!" Hyperion bellowed.
He managed to get to his feet again, but Grover put his reed pipes to his lips and began to play. Leneus joined him. Around the grove, every satyr took up the song — an eerie melody, like a creek flowing over stones. The ground erupted at Hyperion's feet and gnarled roots wrapped around his legs.
"What's this?" he protested. He tried to shake off the roots, but he was still weak. The roots thickened until he looked like he was wearing wooden boots. "Stop this!" he shouted. "Your woodland magic is no match for a Titan!"
But the more he struggled, the faster the roots grew. They curled about his body, thickening and hardening into bark. His golden armor melted into the wood, becoming part of a large trunk.
The music continued. Hyperion's forces backed up in astonishment as their leader was absorbed. He stretched out his arms and they became branches, from which smaller branches shot out and grew leaves. The tree grew taller and thicker, until only the Titan's face was visible in the middle of the trunk.
"You cannot imprison me!" he bellowed. "I am Hyperion! I am—"
The bark closed over his face and Grover took his pipes from his mouth. "You are a very nice maple tree," he said.
Several of the other satyrs passed out from exhaustion, but they'd done their job well. The Titan lord was completely encased in an enormous maple. The trunk was at least twenty feet in diameter, with branches as tall as any in the park. The tree might've stood there for centuries.
The Titan's army started to retreat. A cheer went up from the Athena cabin, but their victory was short-lived. Because just then Kronos unleashed his surprise.
❀
If there was something missing from the whole situation, it was the fucking Clazmonian Sow, a huge pig with wings.
While Percy left off to fight the pig, Amaryllis decided to work with her original plan, which was; teleport to every place where demigods were fighting so she could help all the fronts. She knew that if she kept using her powers so much, she'd eventually pass out from exhaustion, but she also knew her powers were the only thing that made her actually useful.
She was supposed to die at some point anyways. At least she could die knowing she had helped as much as she possibly could.
The Midtown was a proper war zone. Amaryllis tried to keep herself calm to remember exactly where each cabin was positioned at. She doubted the Hunters needed any help — they were the biggest group after all and they also had Thalia Grace.
She shadow-travelled at Park Avenue where the Hephaestus cabin was leading an army of statues against the enemy. She found them mostly intact, but missing a few campers. She knew better than to ask what happened.
The Hephaestus cabin was still in a much better shape than the Demeter cabin that Amaryllis went to help next. She almost lost consciousness as she used her powers to keep the monsters away from the injured demigods long enough for Pollux and the rest to carry them somewhere relatively more safe. Thankfully, the daughter of Hecate, Scarlett, joined her as well. She threw fire spells, shrank some hellhounds into pocket sized puppies and managed to decapitate the rest of the monsters coming their way with a simple incantation she mumbled under her breath in Ancient Greek.
Amaryllis tried to thank her, but she felt too weak to even do that. There are limitations to our powers, she remembered Nico telling her during training. Just like everyone else, we get tired when we use them a lot without taking breaks.
You can't take breaks during a war, she had told him.
His answer was a conflicted I know.
Amaryllis had a bad feeling, a metallic taste on the tip of her tongue that screamed that something bad was coming. As a daughter of Hades, she could sense death but now that death was all around them, it's like her own brain was censoring it to keep her sane. Still, the feeling persisted; they weren't dead yet, but someone was going to die soon. Someone she loved.
The first name that crossed her mind was Annabeth. Once she remembered exactly where the Athena cabin was positioned, she started running towards there, too exhausted to shadow travel. She passed through a lot of carcasses and dead bodies and she tried to keep her eyes off them as much as she possibly could as to not identify anyone.
A few feet away from where she could see Cabin Six, she noticed a demigod, desperately trying to protect a dead body. Once she came closer, she realised it was the daughter of Khione and she was losing to a pair of telekhines. There was blood all over her face and hands and a haunted look as she struggled against the weight of the enemy's weapons.
Amaryllis managed to sneak behind the monsters quite easily, even without using her shadow powers, and using both of her swords, she stabbed the telekhines. Her swords came right through their bodies as they fell and turned to dust. Noelle's eyes widened when she saw Amaryllis and she shook her head, but it could either mean 'thank you' or 'he didn't make it'.
A terrible sound came from where the Athena cabin is dealing with a giant. Under different circumstances, Amaryllis would try to comfort Noelle, check on her to make sure she was okay and could still fight, but time wasn't a luxury they had anymore.
The two demigods locked eyes. "The Hyperborean giant," Noelle said, motioning to the giant and the daughter of Hades remembered the myths about them. They were essentially ice giants, which meant that if someone could be a good opponent, it would be Noelle.
"Can you walk?"
There were tears in her eyes, but her expression was numb, probably from the shock. "Yes."
"Can you run?"
Once the daughter of Khione nodded, Amaryllis grabbed her by the hand and they started running towards Annabeth and her siblings.
Malcolm Pace was the first to notice them. "Hi guys," he said cheerfully as he avoided being stomped by the giant. He fired another arrow from his crossbow, but it hardly caused any damage. "A little help here, Yung?"
Noelle looked at Amaryllis as if she was asking for guidance. "Distract him so I find a weak spot," she told her. Before she could say anything else, the demigod pushed her away as an ice stalagmite landed inches away from her legs.
"Hey, look at me, you frosty motherfucker!" Noelle screamed at the giant. She used her powers to distract it as some of the Athena kids, including Annabeth, were trying to free their siblings from the blocks of ice the giant used to trap their lower body.
Amaryllis sneaked in behind it, swords raised. He bellowed and turned toward her, exposing the unprotected back of his legs. She charged and stabbed him behind the knee. The Hyperborean buckled and even though Amaryllis expected him to to turn, he froze, turning literally to solid ice. From the point where she'd stabbed him, cracks appeared in his body. They got larger and wider until the giant crumbled in a mountain of blue shards.
Annabeth approached her. "Thanks," she winced, trying to catch her breath. "You alright?"
The answer was no. "I'm fine. Come on, we've got plenty of enemies left."
❀
And she was right. The next hours were a blur. Amaryllis fought like she'd never fought before — wading into legions of dracaenae, taking out dozens of telkhines with every strike, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods. No matter how many she defeated, more took their place.
Even after the Party Ponies crashed to fight on their side, things were still getting progressively harder. According to Chiron who led the attack, the gods were slowly getting exhausted as well. Both Dionysus and Hephaestus were completely out of action after they got their asses handed to them and even though the rest were still fighting, Typhon wasn't slowing down anytime soon.
Once Amaryllis, Percy and Annabeth were alone, the daughter of Athena cleaned the monster slime off her knife. Amaryllis had seen her do that hundreds of times, but she'd never
thought about why she cared so much about the blade.
"At least your mom is okay," Percy offered.
"If you call fighting Typhon okay." She locked eyes with him. "Even with the centaurs' help, I'm starting to think—"
"I know."
Amaryllis had a bad feeling this might be their last chance to properly talk, and she felt like there were a million things she hadn't told both of them, especially him. But they didn't have the time to sit down and discuss feelings when people were dying left and right.
"Listen, there were some visions that Hestia showed me," Percy said.
"You mean about Luke?"
Maybe it was just a safe guess, but Amaryllis got the feeling Annabeth knew what she'd been holding back. Maybe she'd been having dreams of her own.
"Yeah," Percy said. "You and Thalia and Luke. The first time you met. And the time you met Hermes."
Annabeth slipped her knife back into its sheath. "Luke promised he'd never let me get hurt. He said... he said we'd be a new family, and it would turn out better than his."
Her eyes reminded Amaryllis of that seven-year-old girl's in the alley — angry, scared, desperate for a friend.
"Thalia talked to me earlier," Percy said. "She's afraid—"
"That I can't face Luke," she said miserably.
Amaryllis lowered her head, too guilty to admit that she had been thinking of the same thing. It wasn't a matter of weakness, but a matter of sentimentality. Sometimes she wondered if she'd freeze herself when facing him, if all the nostalgic memories from her childhood would make her unable to complete the mission.
"But there's something else you should know, both of you," Amaryllis said, remembering her vision. "Ethan Nakamura seemed to think Luke was still alive inside his body, maybe even fighting Kronos for control."
Annabeth tried to hide it, but she could almost see her mind working on the possibilities, maybe starting to hope.
"I don't want to keep things from you anymore," Amaryllis added. "But Annie... I need you to be careful. Realistic."
She looked up at the Empire State Building. "Mar, for so much of my life, I felt like everything was changing, all the time. I didn't have anyone I could rely on." Amaryllis nodded. That was something most demigods could understand. "I ran away when I was seven," she continued. "Then with Luke and Thalia, I thought I'd found a family, but it fell apart almost immediately. What I'm saying... I hate it when people let me down, when things are temporary. I think that's why I want to be an architect."
"To build something permanent," the daughter of Hades said. "A monument to last a thousand years."
She held Percy's eyes. "I guess that sounds like my fatal flaw again."
"I guess I understand how you feel," Percy said. "But Thalia's right. Luke has already betrayed you so many times. He was evil even before Kronos. I don't want him to hurt you anymore."
Annabeth pursed her lips. They both could tell she was trying not to get mad. "And you two will understand if I keep hoping there's a chance you're wrong."
Amaryllis looked away. She felt like she'd done my best, but that didn't make her feel any better. Across the street, her siblings had set up a field hospital to tend the wounded — dozens of campers and almost as many Hunters. She was watching the medics work, and thinking about our slim chances for holding Mount Olympus.
And suddenly: she wasn't there anymore.
She was standing in a long dingy bar with black walls, neon signs, and a bunch of partying adults. A banner across the bar read Happy birthday Bobby Earl. Country music played on the speakers. Big guys in jeans and work shirts crowded the bar and waitresses carried trays of drinks and shouted at each other. It was pretty much exactly the kind of place her mom would never let her go. She was stuck in the very back of the room, next to the bathrooms which didn't smell so great and a couple of antique arcade games.
"Oh good, you're here," said the man at the Pac-Man machine. "I'll have a Diet Coke."
He was a pudgy guy in a leopard-skin Hawaiian shirt, purple shorts, red running shoes, and black socks, which didn't exactly make him blend in with the crowd. His nose was bright red. A bandage was wrapped around his curly black hair like he was recovering from a concussion.
She blinked, trying to recognize the man. "Who—?"
He sighed, not taking his eyes from the game. "I guess I should be offended that not everyone recognizes me on sight. Then again, we haven't seen each other in a long time, Amalea Kalogerou."
All it took was the use of the ridiculously wrong names to realise who she was standing in front of. "Mr. D," she said, sounding very unimpressed. She didn't even try to correct him. "Where are we?"
"Why, Bobby Earl's birthday party," Dionysus said. "Somewhere in lovely rural America."
"I thought Typhon swatted you out of the sky. They said you crash-landed."
"Your concern is touching. I did crash-land. Very painfully. In fact, part of me is still buried under a hundred feet of rubble in an abandoned coal mine. It will be several more hours before I have enough strength to mend. But in the meantime, part of my consciousness is here."
"At a bar, playing Pac-Man," she said with an eyebrow raised.
"Party time," Dionysus said. "Surely you've heard of it. Wherever there is a party, my presence is invoked. Because of this, I can exist in many different places at once. The only problem was finding a party. I don't know if you're aware how serious things are outside your safe little bubble of New York—"
"Safe little bubble?" she almost screamed at him.
"— but believe me, the mortals out here in the heartland are panicking. Typhon has terrified them. Very few are throwing parties. Apparently Bobby Earl and his friends, bless them, are a little slow. They haven't yet figured out that the world is ending."
"So I'm not really here?"
"No. In a moment I'll send you back to your normal insignificant life, and it will be as if nothing had happened."
"And why did you bring me here?" she asked.
Dionysus snorted. "Oh, I didn't want you particularly. Any of you silly heroes would do. I'm just glad it wasn't Peter Johnson — gods, I hate this kid-"
"It's Percy Jackson," she said, now glaring at him. The anger inside her grew stronger. "And my name is Amaryllis Kalomiri. Considering we're out here risking our lives to defend you, you should know our names by now."
"Whatever. The point is," he said, "I pulled you into party time to deliver a warning. We are in danger."
"Wait, really?" Amaryllis said sarcastically. "I thought we were having a movie marathon with Kronos."
He glared back at her and momentarily forgot his game. Pac-Man got eaten by the red ghost dude. "Άντε μου στον διάολο, Blinky!" Dionysus cursed. "I will have your soul!"
"Back to the point?"
"Ugh! Now listen, the situation is graver than you imagine. If Olympus falls, not only will the gods fade, but everything that is connected to our legacy will also begin to unravel. The very fabric of your puny little civilization—"
The game played a song and Mr. D progressed to level 254.
"Ha!" he shouted. "Take that, you pixelated fiends!"
"Fabric of civilization," Amaryllis prompted, clenching her jaw. She couldn't understand how someone as childish and out of touch as him was a god, but then again, she shouldn't have expected anything else.
"Yes, yes. Your entire society will dissolve. Perhaps not right away, but mark my words, the chaos of the Titans will mean the end of Western civilization. Art, law, wine tastings, music, video games, silk shirts, black velvet paintings — all the things that make life worth living will disappear!"
"So why aren't the gods rushing back to help us?" she said. "We should combine forces at Olympus. Forget Typhon."
He snapped his fingers impatiently. "You forgot my Diet Coke."
"Gods, you're annoying." Amaryllis got the attention of a waitress and ordered the stupid soda. She put it on Bobby Earl's tab.
Mr. D took a good long drink. His eyes never left the video game. "The truth is, Amybeth—"
"Amaryllis."
"—the other gods would never admit this, but we actually need you mortals to rescue Olympus. You see, we are manifestations of your culture. If you don't care enough to save Olympus yourselves—"
"Like Pan," she said, "depending on the satyrs to save the Wild."
"Yes, quite. I will deny I ever said this, of course, but the gods need heroes. They always have. Otherwise we would not keep you annoying little brats around. You must save Olympus, Amaira! Leave Typhon to the Olympians and save our own seats of power. It must be done!"
"Do you even realise how out of touch you are right now?" Amaryllis snapped. "Have you seen how gigantic the Titan Army is? We're not enough!"
"You'll have to do," Dionysus says. "Because there is more. Kronos has not yet attained full power. The body of the mortal was only a temporary measure."
"We kind of guessed that."
"And did you also guess that within a day at most, Kronos will burn away that mortal body and take on the true form of a Titan king?"
"Oh."
Dionysus inserted another quarter. "You know about the true forms of the gods. You can't look at them without burning up. Kronos would be ten times more powerful. His very presence would incinerate you. And once he achieves this, he will empower the other Titans. They are weak now, compared to what they will soon become, unless you can stop them. The world will fall, the gods will die, and I will never achieve a perfect score on this stupid machine."
Maybe she should've been terrified, but honestly, she was already about as scared as she could get.
"Can I leave now?" she asked, voice suddenly small.
"One last thing. My son Pollux. Is he alive?"
Amaryllis blinked in surprise. "Yeah, last I saw him."
"I would very much appreciate it if you could keep him that way. I lost his brother Castor last year—"
"I remember," she cut him off. She stared at him, trying to wrap her mind around the idea that Dionysus could be a caring father. She wondered how many other Olympians were thinking about their demigod children right now — she doubted many of them did. "I'll... try my best."
"Your best," Dionysus muttered. "Well, isn't that reassuring. Go now. You have some nasty surprises to deal with, and I must defeat Blinky!"
"Nasty surprises?"
He waved his hand, and the bar disappeared.
❀
Just like that, she was back on Fifth Avenue. Neither Percy or Annabeth had moved. They didn't give any sign that she had been gone or anything.
Percy caught her staring and frowned. "What?"
"Uh..." She thought of telling them about her conversation with Dionysus, but then she decided not to. "Nothing."
She gazed down the avenue, wondering what Mr. D had meant by nasty surprises. How could it get any worse? And how could they possibly defeat an enemy that seemed to multiply by the minute?
Suddenly Percy bolted down the street, like he had just saw something. Amaryllis didn't even know what was happening, but she ran after him, followed by Annabeth. "Percy, where are you—" she started saying, but then she realised they were running to a beat-up blue Prius, just like the one Paul, Percy's stepfather, had.
"They... they must've seen those blue lights in the sky." He rattled the doors but they were locked. "I need to get them out."
"Percy," Annabeth said gently.
"I can't leave them here!" He sounded a little crazy, but it was justified. She would be acting the same way if she knew her mother was trapped in the battlefield.
Percy pounded on the windshield. "I have to move them. I have to—"
"Percy, just... just hold on." Amaryllis waved to Chiron, who was talking to some centaurs down the block. "We can push the car to a side street, all right?"
His hands trembled and she didn't know what to do except hold them with hers. "They're going to be fine," she told him, staring at his eyes. Her voice was soft, even though she was panicking a little too, but it seemed to relax him just a little bit.
Chiron galloped over. "What's... Oh dear. I see."
"They were coming to find me," Percy said. "My mom must've sensed something was wrong."
"Most likely," Chiron said. "But, Percy, they will be fine. The best thing we can do for them is stay focused on our job."
Then they noticed something in the backseat of the Prius. Seat-belted behind Sally Jackson was a black-and-white Greek jar about three feet tall. Its lid was wrapped in a leather harness. "No way," Percy muttered.
Annabeth pressed her hand to the window. "That's impossible! I thought you left that at the Plaza."
"Locked in a vault," he agreed.
Chiron saw the jar and his eyes widened. "That isn't— "
"Pandora's jar." He proceeded to tell him about the diplomatic meeting, while Amaryllis couldn't stop staring at the box, as if she was entranced by it.
"Then the jar is yours," Chiron said grimly. "It will follow you and tempt you to open it, no matter where you leave it. It will appear when you are weakest."
Like now, Amaryllis thought. Looking at his helpless parents.
Percy drew Riptide and cut through the driver's side window like it was made of plastic wrap. "We'll put the car in neutral," he said. "Push them out of the way. And take that stupid jar to Olympus."
Chiron nodded. "A good plan. But, Percy..."
Whatever he was going to say, he faltered. A mechanical drumbeat grew loud in the distance — the sound of a helicopter. On a normal Monday morning in New York, this would've been no big deal, but after two days of silence, a mortal helicopter was the oddest thing they'd ever heard. A few blocks east, the monster army shouted and jeered as the helicopter came into view. It was a civilian model painted dark red, with a bright green "DE" logo on the side that Amaryllis quickly recognized. Dare Enterprises.
"Rachel?" she asked Percy. "Please tell me you didn't tell her to come here." She didn't like how bitter and jealous she sounded, but they had bigger things to worry about.
"Of course not!"
Chiron looked confused. "Who? What mortal would be insane enough—" Suddenly the helicopter pitched forward. "The Morpheus enchantment!" Chiron said. "The foolish mortal pilot is asleep."
They watched in horror as the helicopter careened sideways, falling toward a row of office buildings. Even if it didn't crash, the gods of the air would probably swat it out of the sky for coming near the Empire State Building.
"She's going to die!" Amaryllis said, a panicked look on her face. She felt a shiver down her spine as she wondered if that was why she had that awful feeling before.
Percy seemed too paralyzed to move, but Annabeth whistled and Guido the pegasus swooped out of nowhere.
"Come on, Percy," Annabeth sighed. "We have to save your friend."
𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒.
▊im sorry for not updating for more than a month, but i had such a writers block!! this week im also leaving for vacation and i dont really know when ill return, so i cant make a promise that the next update will be soon :/
▊nevertheless, i hope you enjoyed this chapter <3 any thoughts and predictions on how the story will progress? for obvious reasons, some things will be different from canon and i cant wait for you to see these changes!
▊stan percyllis for a good mental health month and a happy august xoxo