I stared at the burning city, my chest aching from the smoke and Percy's sacrifice.
The bag on my back was so heavy, weighted with an object, that order to return it on time was the cost of Ms. Jackson's freedom.
But it was also the item that caused all the strife.
Everyone blamed Percy for stealing it, but really, it was the annoying god of war.
I reached over and grabbed Percy's hand as I stared at the buildings on fire, silhouetted by the sunrise.
"I don't believe it," Annabeth breathed from my other side. "We went all that way—"
"It was a trick," Percy said, his voice angry. "A strategy worthy of Athena."
"Hey."
"You get it, don't you?"
Annabeth dropped her burning gaze to the ground, her features melting into one of despair, "Yeah, I get it."
"Well, I don't!" Grover bleated. "Would somebody—"
"Percy," I said quietly, looking at my brother. "I'm sorry about your mother...I'm so sorry."
He didn't answer, and I knew he was struggling not to cry.
Instead, he said, "The prophecy was right. 'You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt and Hades's helm and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."
He started to walk, pulling me with him, not for a second letting me go.
"But who would be that sneaky?" Grover asked, obviously missing the point. "Who would want war that bad?"
My eyes lifted, and I groaned in disgust, "Gee, let's rule out some people, shall we? Ope! Actually! Would you like at that?!"
Just down the beach stood Ares in his stupid leather duster, with his stupid aluminum baseball bat on his shoulder and his stupid motorcycle rumbling beside him.
"Hey, kids," Ares smirked at Percy and me. "You were supposed to die."
"You tricked me," Percy snarled at him. "You stole the Helm and the Master Bolt."
Ares continued to grin meanly at us, "Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."
"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."
"Doesn't matter," Ares waved my brother off. "The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this ..."
My eyes widened as he pulled a ski cap from his pocket, dropping it between the handlebars of his bike.
It flashed and changed into a bronze war helmet.
But not just any helmet it was—
"The Helm of Darkness," Grover gasped my exact thoughts.
"Exactly," Ares smirked at the satyr. "Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."
"But they're your family!" Annabeth shouted at him.
The god shrugged, "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say." He looked at me and winked, "This one right here has been super fun to watch. All those fights. Especially that one where your cousin was—"
"I didn't do that," I growled. "And you know that."
I knew he was trying to get a rise out of me as I tried to ignore the quick glances from my friends and my brother.
"Whatever you say, pequeña lirio de aqua."
My blood was thrumming in my ears at the nickname as I took a step towards him, my voice dangerous, "You gave Percy the backpack in Denver. The Master Bolt was in there the whole time."
I saw just the slightest flinch in his features at my voice, but he swung his bat around, trying to seem unbothered, "Yes and no. It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the Master Bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. The Bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pocket, right? And your ring?"
He looked at Percy and me expectantly.
We glanced at one another, not saying anything but letting our glares be the responses.
"Anyway," Ares sighed dramatically. "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the Bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades...Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way–no loss. I still had the weapon."
"But why not just keep the Master Bolt for yourself?" Percy questioned. "Why send it to Hades?"
Ares's face twitched, and suddenly his face slackened as he murmured, "Why didn't I ... yeah ... with that kind of fire-power ..."
He silenced and stood there for about four seconds.
The four of us looked at one another, confused and nervous.
"I didn't want the trouble," Ares started to speak again, pulling out of his trance. "Better to have you caught red-handed, holding the thing."
"You're lying," Percy shook his head. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea, was it?"
"Of course it was!"
Smoke drifted up from his sunglasses where the plastic had caught fire.
And in that reaction, our suspicions were confirmed.
"You didn't order the theft," Percy continued from his spot beside me. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the two items. Then, when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn't turn him over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until another hero could come along and complete the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around."
"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"
My brows shot up as I glanced at Percy quickly before saying, "Who said anything about dreams, Hot Wheels?"
He was crumbling under pressure, but he tried to cover up it with a smirk, "Let's get back to the problem at hand, kids. You're alive. I can't have you taking that Bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hard-headed idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal."
Without warning, a huge wild boar launched out of the sand at the snap of the god's fingers.
It stared at us, huffing and pawing at the sand.
And it was definitely thinning about skewering us on its tusks
Percy and I moved slowly to the water behind us, my brother demanding, "Fight us yourself, Ares."
He laughed at us, but in the noise, I could hear an edge, a nervous tremble.
"You've only got one talent, kid, running away," Ares sneered at us. "You ran from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld. You don't have what it takes."
"Scared?" I crossed my arms as I shifted my weight onto one hip.
"In your adolescent dreams. No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."
"Percy, Sally, run!" Annabeth cried just as the boar charged.
The fight didn't last long as Percy and I pulled out our swords, and then Percy made the ocean swallow the pig.
For a moment, I felt a chill run up my back, and I was suddenly looking at Percy and me from a few feet away.
I blinked, and it vanished, leaving me disoriented as Percy snapped, "Are you going to fight me now? Or are you going to hide behind another pet?"
The god's face went purple with rage, "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into—"
"A raccoon?" I snapped at him, recovering from whatever that spell was. "Or a cockroach. Yeah, we're sure. That'd save you from getting your butt whipped by a couple of demigods, wouldn't it?"
The flames dancing on top of the glasses made him look like he was wearing a Mardi Gras mask as he snarled, "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."
"If we lose, turn us into anything you want. Take the Bolt. If we win, the Helm and the Bolt are ours, and you have to go away," Percy explained simply.
The god swung his bat off his shoulder, snarling, "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?" My brother and I raised our swords, making Ares bristle. "That's cool, dead kids. Classic it is."
The baseball bat changed into a two-handed sword with a hilt made into a large silver skull, a ruby in its mouth.
"Percy, Sally. Don't do this," Annabeth begged us. "He's a god."
"He's a coward," I replied. "And a bully. And I hate bullies."
"Ditto," Percy nodded.
Annabeth bit her lip before she said, "Wear this, at least, for luck." She pulled her necklace off and stepped up to Percy, tying it around his neck. Then she turned to me and pulled what looked like a friendship bracelet from her wrist and offered it to me. "Reconciliation. Athena and Poseidon together."
I slid the bracelet onto my wrist as I watched Percy's face turn a little pink, "Thanks."
"And take these," Grover offered us two flattened tin cans. "The satyrs stand behind you."
I took it, slipping it into my pocket, giving him a smile, "Thanks."
"Grover, I don't know what to say," Percy replied, obviously trying not to chuckle.
Our friends smiled worriedly at us before Ares snapped, coming toward us, "You all done saying goodbye? I've been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited, and I cannot die. What have you got?"
I passed Annabeth the backpack with the Bolt inside and muttered, "Friends."
Percy and I were now in the surf, the water lapping around our ankles as we watched Ares launch toward us.
He swiped at us, probably trying to lop our heads off, but he only met air, and I met water.
I don't know what happened, but the water wrapped around me and dragged me into the surf, the feeling of an arm around my waist holding me in place.
"LET ME GO!" I shouted as I watched my brother and Ares fight beyond the wall of water. "I NEED TO HELP HIM!!!"
The water shifted, and I was suddenly looking into the reflection of a girl with features similar but not similar to mine.
But it wasn't me.
I examined her face: obsidian eyes, dark braided hair, strong jaw, and a slightly arched nose. And she was wearing a white chiton, which gave her an almost ancient look.
But she looked around my age, which was why I was so confused.
We stared at one another until she suddenly reached out her hand, making me blink, and I was watching my brother fight Ares again.
What the heck is wrong with the water?
I shook away my confusion and called upon the water around me, begging it to let me go, "Please..."
A gentle warm current brushed against my face, almost like a caress of a hand, and the pressure against my waist vanished, and my body jerked into action.
Raising my right hand, I pulled the water to form a wall behind me, leaving me completely dry beside my brother, who had stepped back into the water.
"What were you doing?" Percy asked me, his face drenched in sweat. "You know, in the water?"
"The water was holding me captive, and I think I'm going crazy, but that's not the point," I answered, the tug in my gut growing more taunt the longer I held the tide back against its will.
The war god moved towards us with confidence, staring at us with his eyes ablaze.
"I'm guessing you have a—" Percy started saying to me.
"He didn't even have time to finish as I released the tide, and a six-foot wall of water slammed him full in the face.
As he cursed and sputtered on a mouthful of salty water and seaweed, I used the ocean to lift Percy and me over his head and behind him.
He spun on us, and I lifted my sword, meeting his own blade, which was loose in his slippery hand, as Percy ducked and stabbed the tip of his sword into the god's heel. My head spun as the bellow that erupted from Ares's mouth shook the whole world, and the water around us blew away, leaving the god in a circle of wet sand about fifty feet wide.
Percy and I stood side by side, both standing in defensive positions, staring down the god of war who glowered at us with the fire of a thousand suns.
Gold blood, Ichor, dripped into the sand as he limped towards us, muttering Greek curses.
Then—he stopped.
And so did everything else.
The sun went dark, sound and color vanished, and a violently cold presence fell over the beach.
For a second, I was sure the world was about to end as hopelessness swirled deep within me, but when the darkness vanished as quickly as it came, I blinked in surprise.
And so did Ares.
The sound of sirens suddenly found my ears, and I turned to spy police cars on fire and a group of people running away.
What the heck happened?
Ares lowered his sword as he growled at my brother and me, "You have made an enemy, godlings. You have sealed your fates. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson, Beware." His eyes fell on me, and for the briefest second, his body flickered just like Hades's did earlier. I furrowed my brows as he pointed at me, "Watch yourself, Elway. Watch it."
His body began to glow.
"Percy! Sally! Don't watch!" Annabeth shouted.
My brother and I turned as heat seared our backs from the light.
And when it faded, Ares was gone, leaving behind Hades's helm in the surf.
My brother and I stared at it for a second before looking at one another.
"Well...that was interesting..." I said in a shaky voice, exhaustion hitting me in the face like a brick.
"Yeeeaaahhhh," Percy coughed. He knelt down and picked up the helmet, "This thing is shiny for being a helm of darkness."
"Oh, gods..."
He snickered as we turned and made our way back to our friends.
We barely made it a few steps when the sound of flapping wings found our ears.
The three Furies from the Underworld dropped down in front of us, looking just as ugly as always.
Mrs. Dodds, the middle Fury, stepped forward, looking disappointed as she hissed, "We saw the whole thing. So ... it truly was not you? Either of you?"
Percy tossed the helmet to her, saying, "Return that to Lord Hades. Tell him the truth. Tell him to call off the war."
"Please," I finished for him, even though it was definitely sarcastic.
Mrs. Dodds licked her forked tongue over her lips, "Live well, Percy Jackson, Sally Elway. Become true heroes. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again ..."
She laughed evilly at us before lifting up with a flap of her wings.
I glowered at her sister, the one that tried to kidnap me that night at school, and she just hissed at me before flying off into the smoke-riddled sky.
Percy wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and we just silently finished our trek back to Annabeth and Grover.
They stared at us in shock.
"Percy, Sally..." Grover bleated. "That was so incredibly—"
"—terrifying," Annabeth finished.
"Cool!" Grover corrected her.
I wanted to laugh, but I was too tired now standing on dry land, so I just gave my friend a tired grin.
"Did you guys feel that...whatever it was?" Percy asked us.
We all nodded nervously.
"Must've been the Furies overhead," Grover reasoned.
It definitely wasn't the Furies, and the shared look between Annabeth, Percy, and I confirmed that.
I took the bag from Annabeth, unzipping it and glowering at the stupid Master Bolt, "Gods...I cannot wait to get rid of this."
"Me too," Percy bobbed his head, shouldering the backpack. "We have to get back to New York. By tonight."
"That's impossible," Annabeth shook her head, her sweaty and gross curls swinging around, "Unless we-"
"Fly," I murmured, my stomach clenching.
My blonde friend stared at me in shock, as if I had grown another head, "Fly, like, in an airplane, which Percy was warned never to do lest Zeus strike him out of the sky, and carrying a weapon that has more destructive power than a nuclear bomb? Which would probably all apply to you because you're definitely not legal in the world of the gods?"
"Wow, thanks for that," I chuckled tiredly.
"But yeah," Percy shook his head with a solemn but delirious grin, "Pretty much exactly like that. Come on."