Y/N sat in the middle of the living room, cross-legged beside the coffee table. He licked his fingers before grabbing another cookie. Then he moved his remaining bishop across the chessboard.
"Did you really go to the Underworld?" Matthew asked him.
"Of course," he said distractedly.
"Did you ever meet Zeus?" Bobby asked.
"First time I did, he threatened to kill me."
"Is it true that Ares cursed you?" Matthew went on.
"Mmm. . . ." Y/N moved one of his rooks. "Yeah."
The boys gaped. "That's so cool!"
Y/N chuckled and glanced up at Annabeth. Sitting on the other side of the table, she looked focused on the game, but a tiny smile stretched her lips. Obviously, she was trying hard not to laugh.
"Come on, tell me if I've already lost," he said.
She raised an eyebrow. "When I'm about to win? No." She moved her queen, took his now ex-knight, and said, "Check."
He sighed, and moved a pawn. "I must've been completely out of my mind to accept a game against you."
She smiled mischievously, said, "Yes," and moved her queen again, taking his pawn. "Mate."
He flicked his king down and pushed the last bits of his cookie into his mouth.
"Another game?" Annabeth offered.
"I think I'll pass this time."
Bobby tugged at his sleeve. "Do you want to build Legos?"
"We've got a new robot!" Matthew added.
At that moment, a woman with Asian features, her red-highlighted hair tied up in a bun, walked into the living room. Mrs. Chase wasn't Annabeth's mother. Annabeth was the daughter of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Mrs. Chase was her stepmother, and Matthew and Bobby's mom.
Seeing her two sons pulling at Y/N's arms, she smiled. "Bobby, Matthew, stop bothering Y/N. He didn't come here to play with you. He came to spend time with Annabeth."
"But Annabeth has been playing with him all day," Matthew complained. "It's our turn."
"It doesn't work like that," Mrs. Chase said. "Come on, boys. I've made some more cookies."
"Great!" Bobby exclaimed.
He jumped onto his feet and ran toward the kitchen, Matthew one step behind him. Mrs. Chase went out of the living room after them.
Annabeth stood up and grabbed Y/N's hand. "Come, I have something to show you."
He followed her through the house. A smell of cookies wafted from the kitchen, and Y/N thought about all the delicious food that Bobby and Matthew were eating without him. O despair! How cruel the world could be.
Like the first time he'd been here, there were Lego robots on the stairs. One of the two cats slept on a drawer. The other walked between Y/N's legs as he climbed the stairs—he almost fell face forward trying not to step on it. Upstairs, jazz music came from the office of Annabeth's father, Dr. Chase.
Annabeth's room was a mess. But it was an organized mess, with everything in its place. Books were in disarray on the bookshelves. Other books lay with blueprints on the desk—projects that kept bubbling up from her mind. Pictures and posters of her favorite buildings covered the walls; she'd complained once that she couldn't put more. One poster showed a view of the Hoover Dam, with the cafeteria. It reminded Y/N of a dam burrito fight.
He expected Annabeth to show him a new drawing or something related to architecture. She always did.
But not this time.
She barely waited for him to be inside and kissed him.
At first, he was so surprised that he stepped back. Annabeth grabbed him by the shirt and came closer. He gave in.
"Hum, hum."
Annabeth whirled around. Over her shoulder, Y/N could see a window floating in the air, in the middle of the room. Not a real window, of course. More like a portal made of vapor. An Iris-message. And what did this message show? Ethan's head from up close, with the inside of Percy's cabin in the background.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Ethan said.
Annabeth's voice was tightly reined. She wasn't pleased at all. "No. Nothing." A smile grew on Ethan's face, and her face turned red. "What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing much," Ethan said. "Percy and I just thought we'd call you real quick."
Percy's face appeared in the window. "Hey," he said. "I saw everything."
Y/N cursed silently. What had he hoped for? It would've been too easy otherwise.
"And why are you calling?" Annabeth said. "Can't you see—"
"That you're busy?" Ethan suggested.
Annabeth's face turned redder. "Don't change the subject!"
Ethan burst out laughing. "All right, all right," he said. "We were just calling to say we're leaving, with Chiron. So get your stuff together, Y/N. We're not even an hour away."
You might have wondered how Ethan and Percy could come so quickly. After all, they were at Camp Half-Blood, on Long Island, while Y/N was at Annabeth's in San Francisco. The answer was so simple no mortal would've understood it: on the back of a centaur. Chiron, the activities director, and Y/N's adoptive father in the eyes of the state since he was thirteen, was a centaur. And centaurs go fast. An airplane doesn't compare, that's to say.
So when Ethan said he and Percy would be there with Chiron in under an hour, he didn't lie.
Y/N and Annabeth were waiting under the front door's porch. As the house was on a hill, you could see far away; the immensity of San Francisco gave way to the Pacific on the horizon. Y/N made out the Embarcadero Building, a place that brought back memories—especially the smelly one of Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea. Towering over the landscape was Mount Tamalpais, where the palace of Kronos was at that very moment.
Suddenly, Chiron was in front of them. He must've been braking so hard, so to speak, Y/N was surprised his hooves didn't screech like tires.
Two boys were on his back.
The first said, "Hi!"
Ethan Moore, satyr by trade, was in full battle gear. He wore a bronze breastplate over a T-shirt and a banana sunhat on his head. Despite appearances, he was twenty-nine years old—satyrs age slower than humans.
Behind Ethan was Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon and future savior—or destroyer; better to think positive—of Olympus, according to a prophecy that was to come true on his sixteenth birthday. That was in a week. No worries, they got time. Y/N had met Poseidon once. Percy looked more and more like him, with his sea-green eyes and tanned skin, as if he'd spent the summer at the beach.
"You didn't get too bored waiting for us, I hope?" Percy asked.
"Oh, don't worry about that," Ethan said. "They were having fun earlier, weren't they?"
Chiron looked amused. But his face quickly turned serious. "Ready, Y/N?"
Y/N shrugged. "As ready as I can be."
He turned to Annabeth."Okay, well . . . I'm going."
"You better be back at camp when I get there." She kissed him before he could react. "Go kill some monsters for me."
His last view of her was her back as she went inside.
Ethan was about to open his mouth, but Y/N held up a finger. "Nothing happened," he muttered.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ethan said. "Come on, big guy. Let's go save the world."
They joined Charles Beckendorf and Blackjack and two of other pegasi on the South Shore.
Charles Beckendorf, senior counselor for the Hephaestus cabin, would make most monsters cry for their mommies. He was this huge African American guy with ripped muscles from working in the forges every summer. He was two years older than Y/N, and one of the camp's best armorsmiths. He made some seriously ingenious mechanical stuff. A month before, he'd rigged a Greek firebomb in the bathroom of a tour bus that was carrying a bunch of monsters across the country. The explosion took out a whole legion of Kronos's evil meanies 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.
He gave Y/N his coat, which was made of the Nemean lion's skin. Nothing could go through it, swords, spears, and bullets alike.
It was almost dark by the time they spotted their target. The Princess Andromeda glowed on the horizon—a huge cruise ship lit up yellow and white. From a distance, you would think it was just a party ship, not the headquarters for the Titan lord. Then as you got closer, you might notice the giant masthead—a dark-haired maiden in a Greek chiton, wrapped in chains with a look of horror on her face, as if she could smell the stench of all the monsters she was being forced to carry. Definitely not a nice place to party.
Seeing the ship again, Y/N gritted his teeth. He'd almost died twice on the Princess Andromeda, but that wasn't what bothered him. Luke had beaten him two times on that bloody boat.
"You all know what to do?" Beckendorf yelled over the wind.
Y/N simply kept flying—he couldn't do much more in eagle shape. They had done dry runs at the dockyards in New Jersey, using abandoned ships as their targets. He knew how little time they would have. But he also knew this was their best chance to end Kronos's invasion before it ever started.
"Blackjack," Percy said, "set us down on the lowest stern deck."
Blackjack whinnied, and his horse friends and he folded their wings.
Y/N followed them. He plummeted toward the boat like a tiny comet. The wind whistled in his ears. He saw monsters patrolling the upper decks of the ship—dracaenae snake-women, hellhounds, giants, and the humanoid seal-demons known as telekhines—but they zipped by so fast that none of them raised the alarm. They shot down the stern of the boat, and he spread his wings, lightly coming to a landing on the lowest deck. As Ethan, Percy and Beckendorf climbed off the pegasi, Y/N changed back to human form.
Ethan had his celestial bronze in his hand, and Riptide sprang to full size in Percy's. Both the weapons glowed in the dusk.
Beckendorf pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. It was a photograph. He stared at it in the dim light—the smiling face of Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite. They'd started going out last summer, after years of the rest of the campers saying, "Duh, you guys like each other!" Even with all the dangerous missions, Beckendorf had been happier this summer than ever before.
Looking at him, Y/N wondered what he looked like with Annabeth. He brushed the thought away. It wasn't the time to get distracted; Annabeth would tear his ears off if she learned he'd got distracted.
"We'll make it back to camp," Percy promised.
For a second there was worry in Beckendorf's eyes. Then he put on his old confident smile. "You bet," he said. "Let's go blow Kronos back into a million pieces."
They split into two groups. Percy and Beckendorf would take the service stairwell toward the engine room to set the Greek fire. Y/N and Ethan would keep hundreds of monsters and the Titan lord busy until everything blew up.
Y/N led the way. He and Ethan climbed up flights and flights of steps, reaching the ninth level.
"Do you remember?" Ethan murmured.
"What?" Y/N asked in hushed tones.
Ethan pointed at the open door of a suite. "First time we got on, we slept there. Remember?"
Y/N looked inside and nodded.
"Come on," he said. "We must bring all the monsters on the other side of the ship before Percy and Beckendorf get down there, else—"
"I don't care what your nose says!" a half-human, half-dog voice snarled—a telekhine. "The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!"
Y/N and Ethan jumped into the suite and closed the door behind them. A few seconds later, footsteps came from the other side.
"Meatloaf sandwiches are good!" a second voice snarled. "But this is half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!"
"Bah, your brain isn't on board!"
They continued to argue, then their voices started to fade.
Finally Ethan opened the door and glanced outside. "The way's clear."
Farther down the corridor, they found another stairwell.
"We split here," Ethan whispered.
"I'll wait for your signal," Y/N said.
"Well, when you hear it, be quick. I know I'd be delicious once cooked, but I don't want to end up as food yet."
Then he hurried down the stairwell.
Y/N forged ahead down the corridor.
Back on his first visit to the Princess Andromeda, Y/N had seen dazed tourists on board kept on board for show, shrouded in Mist so they didn't realize they were on a monster-infested ship. Now he didn't see any sign of tourists. He hated to think about what had happened to them, but he doubted they'd been allowed to go home with their bingo winnings.
He reached the promenade, a big shopping mall that took up the whole middle of the ship, and he stopped cold. In the middle of the courtyard stood a fountain. And in the fountain squatted a giant crab.
Not giant like $7.99 all-you-can-eat Alaskan king crab. Giant like bigger than the fountain. The monster rose ten feet out of the water. Its shell was mottled blue and green, its pincers longer than a grown man's body.
A crab's mouth, all foamy and gross with whiskers and snapping bits, is already pretty unappealing. Blown up to billboard size, this one didn't look any better. The crab's beady black eyes glared at Y/N, and he could see intelligence in them—and hate. The fact that he was the son of the Queen of the Gods was not going to protect him from Mr. Crabby.
"FFFFfffffff," it hissed, sea foam dripping from its mouth. The smell coming off it was like a garbage can full of fish sticks that had been sitting in the sun all week.
Alarms blared. Ethan's signal!
Gods! Y/N thought. He had to keep moving.
His ring took the form of a golden sword in his hand. The crab looked at it and must've figured it was nothing more than a toothpick, because it made a sound close to a snicker.
"There!" a voice said from a balcony above him. "Intruder!"
If Y/N had wanted to create a distraction, he'd succeeded. He glanced up where the voice had come from—and barely dodged death.
The crab moved with amazing speed. It scuttled out of the fountain and came straight at him, pincers snapping. With a great lateral blow, it smashed the glass walls of a gift shop and propelled him in the air.
Praise the Nemean lion's skin coat! Y/N felt in a daze, breathing heavily, and several shards of glass had cut his skin where it was uncovered, but he was alive. And he still held his sword. Now, time to end this and run toward wherever Ethan was.
The demonic crustacean lunged at him. He sliced with his sword, taking off the tip of its claw. It hissed and foamed, but didn't seem very hurt.
You want pain? Y/N thought, raising his free hand. Oh, you'll have it.
Crabs are resistant, but they've got some weak points. For instance, their eyes. They're completely helpless when facing hundreds of glass shards thrown all at once by a small hurricane.
Mr. Crabby reared in pain as his eyes got burst, revealing crabs' second weak point—a chink in their armor, right in the middle of their ugly belly.
Y/N hit the ground baseball-style and slid on the wet marble floor straight under the crab. It was like sliding under a seven-ton armored vehicle. All the crab had to do was sit and squash him, but before it realized what was going on, he jabbed his sword into the chink in its armor, let go of the hilt, and pushed himself out the backside.
The monster shuddered and hissed. Its shell turned bright red as its insides evaporated. The empty shell clattered to the floor in a massive heap.
Y/N didn't have time to admire his handiwork. He ran to the nearest stairs while all around him monsters and demigods shouted orders and strapped on their weapons. He was empty-handed. His sword, being magic, would appear in his hand sooner or later, but for now it was stuck somewhere under the wreckage of the crab, and he had no time to retrieve it.
In the elevator on deck eight, a couple of dracaenae slithered across his 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 he knew from experience they could use them.
"What isss thisss?" one said. "A prize for Kronosss!"
He wasn't in the mood to play break-the-snake, but in front of him was a stand with a model of the ship, like a YOU ARE HERE display. He ripped the model off the pedestal and hurled it at the first dracaena. The boat smacked her in her face and she went down with the ship. He jumped over her, grabbed her friend's spear, and swung her around. She slammed into the elevator, and he kept running toward the front of the ship.
"Get him!" she screamed.
Hellhounds bayed. An arrow from somewhere whizzed past his face and impaled itself in the mahogany-paneled wall of the stairwell.
He didn't care—as long as he got the monster away from the engine room, from Percy and Beckendorf, and found Ethan.
As Y/N was running down the stairwell, a kid charged down.
He looked as if 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 twelve—about the same age Y/N was when he first went to Camp Half-Blood.
Later, Y/N would've liked to say that the thought depressed him. 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.
But the reality was, in the heat of the action Y/N's mind worked as hard as it could and there was no time for hesitation. The kid was lucky his sword still wasn't in his hand.
He stepped inside the kid's strike and grabbed his wrist, slamming it against the wall. His sword clattered out of his hand.
Then Y/N did something he hadn't planned on. He felt it was stupid enough not to tell Annabeth about it later.
He grabbed the kid's collar, pulled him down the stairwell with him and onto the deck. Then he shoved him overboard and sent him tumbling in the air toward the sea.
At least the kid wouldn't die in the explosion.
You're fifteen, a voice murmured in Y/N's mind. You're a kid, too.
Shut up.
He kept hurrying down the stairs.
Bad memories: a hallway ran past the cafeteria. He had sneaked here two years ago on his first visit, with Annabeth, Ethan, Percy, and Tyson.
Y/N 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.
Where was Ethan? This was their rendezvous point. Ethan should've been facing a whole lot of monsters by now.
Y/N was halfway across the deck when the sound of a voice made him freeze. "So here's the intruder."
Luke stood on the balcony above him, a smile on his scarred face. He wore jeans, a white T-shirt, and flip-flops, as if he were just a normal college-age guy, but his eyes told the truth. They were solid gold.
"You're late. We've been expecting you for days." At first he sounded normal, like Luke. But then his face twitched. A shudder passed through his body as if 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 Y/N's spine like a knife blade. "Come, bow before me."
"Where's Ethan?" Y/N said.
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 tattoed arms, leather armor, and spiked clubs. Demigod archers appeared on the roof above Luke. Two hellhounds leaped down from the opposite balcony and snarled at Y/N. That was impressive; Y/N could barely imagine the number of rehearsals needed to get monsters to wait into position.
He looked up at Luke. No. Kronos. He didn't know if Luke's consciousness was even still alive inside that body. Maybe, the way his voice had changed . . . or maybe not. It didn't matter. Luke had been twisted and evil long before Kronos possessed him.
A voice in his head said: Fight him. In the Labyrinth, you could stand your ground against him. Now that you've had time to train, you can beat him.
But he had learned to recognize that voice. It was the voice of anger, a very bad advisor. Since Ethan had blurted out how he had rushed to fight Luke in the maze, Chiron never stopped to lecture him about that.
Y/N, Chiron would say. I know you don't like Luke, and I can't blame you for hating him. But I beg you, don't let him kill you. If you go against him now, it will be Kronos that you will be fighting. The Titan lord knows all about your hatred. He will use it. If you let yourself get carried away for even a moment. . . . Just don't let him kill you, please.
Y/N breathed deeply. According to that big prophecy, Percy would face Kronos in the end, on his sixteenth birthday. In seven days, Kronos and Luke would be no more. All he had to do was leave the lead role in this Greek tragedy to Percy.
The voice came back: Why not end it now? Did you hear that prophecy? Maybe it's not about Percy, maybe it's about you. Why would you let a prophecy choose for you? You're free. You want to go against Luke. You want to kill him. Do it. He's right there, in front of you.
Luke smiled, as if reading his thoughts. Kronos could surely do that.
"Come forward," he said. "If you dare."
The crowd of monsters parted. Y/N's sword materialized in his hand. His heart pounded in his chest. So simple. All he had to do was run straight ahead. He would turn into an eagle, fly to Kronos, turn back to human shape. He would use the power of the wind. He would be like the wind. Like the wind he would blow without Kronos being able to stop him.
Before Y/N could make a mistake, Ethan's voice saved his life. "Hey, you jerks! Yes, I'm talking to you, you snot-nosed trolls!"
Everybody turned toward where Ethan's voice came from. He stood on the roof above Y/N, a hand on his banana sunhat to keep it from flying away, the other holding his spear.
It seemed even Kronos was taken aback. When he spoke, it was Luke's voice: "What are you doing? Don't walk on my roof."
Suddenly the entire boat lurched sideways, throwing monsters off their feet. Four thousand gallons of salt water surged out of the swimming pool, dousing Y/N and Kronos and everyone on the deck. Percy.
No time to lose. Y/N lunged forward. He struck at Kronos, but he was still too slow.
Kronos sliced downward with his scythe. He leaped back, and the evil blade missed by an inch, cutting a gash in the deck right between his feet.
Y/N kicked Kronos in the chest. He stumbled backward, but he was heavier than Luke should've been. It was like kicking a refrigerator.
Kronos swung his scythe again. Y/N intercepted with his sword, but the Titan's strike was so powerful that he could only deflect it. The edge of the scythe grazed the back of his hand. It should've been a serious cut, but the entire side of his body exploded with pain. He didn't see his wound, but he knew that he wasn't just losing blood. He could feel his strength, his will, his identity draining away. As if his soul and body were severed from one another.
He stumbled backward, falling flat on the deck floor. His sword was only two inches away, but he was already too weak to reach out for it. It could as well have been on the other side of the United States.
Kronos raised his scythe.
Out of nowhere, Percy lunged desperately. His blade should've run Kronos through, but it deflected off his stomach as if hitting solid marble. There was no way Kronos should've survived that.
Kronos laughed. "A poor performance, Percy Jackson. Luke tells me you were never his match at swordplay."
Y/N's vision was a blur. Why had he gone against Kronos? Now he wouldn't be able to jump out of the Princess Andromeda and would end blown up by Greek fire. As long as Beckendorf managed to get out of the ship—Boom!
"Luke had a big head," Percy 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."
Ethan trotted to Y/N. He brought a canteen up to his lips. A delicious taste filled his mouth, flowing down his throat. Nectar. At once Y/N felt alive again. He grabbed the flask with both hands and drank as much as he could. Ethan took it away from him before the divine drink melted him from the inside.
"You'll never get this boat to Manhattan," Percy told Kronos.
"And why would that be?" Kronos's golden eyes glittered. His face—Luke'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. Y/N knew him: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis. They had saved his life in the Labyrinth last summer, and in return, the little punk had helped Kronos come back to life.
"Success, my Lord," Nakamura called. "We found him just as we were told."
He clapped his hands, and two giants lumbered forward, dragging Beckendorf between them. Y/N's 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!" Percy yelled.
Beckendorf met Y/N's eyes. He glanced at his hand as if he were trying to tell Y/N 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 Nakamura. "Are you sure he didn't set the explosives?"
"He was going toward the engine room, my Lord."
"How do you know that?"
"Er. . . ." Nakamura shifted uncomfortably. "He was heading in that direction. And he told us. His back is still full of explosives."
In a gust of wind, Y/N understood. Beckendorf had fooled them. When he'd realized he was going to be captured, he'd 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 them any good unless they could get off the ship and detonate it.
Kronos hesitated. "Open his bag," he 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, they would've all blown up. But what fell out were a dozen cans of peaches.
You could hear Kronos breathing, trying to control his anger.
"Did you, perhaps," he said, "capture this demigod near the galley?"
Nakamura turned pale. "Um—"
"And did you, perhaps, send someone to actually CHECK THE ENGINE ROOM?"
Nakamura scrambled back in terror, then turned on his heels and ran.
Y/N heard Percy curse. Now they had only minutes before the bombs were disarmed. If Beckendorf managed to press the detonator button, the ship would blow at once. They'd never be able to get far enough away before using it. The monsters would kill them first, or disarm the explosives, or both.
Kronos turned toward Y/N, Ethan, and Percy with a crooked smile. "You'll have to excuse my incompetent help, 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's lord symbol.
"Communication device," Ethan said unbelievingly. "You've got a spy at camp."
Kronos chuckled. "You can't count on friends. They will always let you down. Luke learned that lesson the hard way. Now drop your weapons and surrender to me, or your friend dies."
Y/N swallowed. One of the giants had his hand around Beckendorf's neck. He was in no shape to rescue him, and even if he tried, Beckendorf would die before he got there. They would, all four of them.
Beckendorf mouthed one word: Go.
Impossible. How could they 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.
Y/N wanted to scream, NO!
Then down by the swimming pool, one of the dracaenae hissed, "What isss he doing? What isss that on hisss wrissst?"
Beckendorf closed his eyes tight and brought his hand up to his watch.
No choice. Y/N, Ethan and Percy had the same instinctive movement: they all threw their weapons like javelins at Kronos. They bounced harmlessly off his chest, but it did startle him. They pushed through a crowd of monsters and jumped off the side of the ship—toward the water a hundred feet below.
Y/N heard a rumbling deep in the ship. Monsters yelled from above. A spear sailed past his ear. An arrow would have pierced his thigh but for his wielding of the wind. He plunged into the sea without pain thanks to Percy's powers, and the currents took him far, far away—a hundred yards, two hundred yards.
Even from that distance, the explosion shook the world. Heat seared the back of his head. The Princess Andromeda blew up from both sides, a massive fireball of green flame roiling into the dark sky, consuming everything.
Suddenly the ocean around him collapsed, as if Percy had lost control. The currents tossed Y/N about; water rushed down his throat.
Beckendorf, he thought.
Then he blacked out, drifting on the surface, pushed by the waves.
Drowning is so easy at sea.
A/N: Hey! Here's the first chapter of book 5. I hope you liked it and that you'll like all the others. I've got so many things drafted for this book, I can't wait to finally publish everything!
By the way, I've had my wisdom teeth extracted today. I'm pretty exhausted, but that shouldn't keep me from publishing the next chapter on time.
Also, I'm writing the three final chapters in French now, so I'm focusing more on the French version that the English one at the moment. It'll take me a week to finish it all, I think.
Anyway, again, hope you like this book. Thank you for reading.
See you next time and happy reading!