"you must follow your heart, and accept what comes your way."
Cassandra wasn't exactly happy with Percy at the moment.
Yes, she knew that he was going to bathe in the River Styx. But to leave for an entire day without any communication besides an ominous voicemail on Annabeth's phone, telling them to send the entirety of Camp Half-Blood to the Empire State Building, was not exactly the best way to get on her good side.
They were going to have a serious talk later on.
She sat in the camp van driven by Argus, the security chief, between Annabeth and Drew. She was wearing black camouflage, Moonlace strapped to her thigh, and her silver charm bracelet on her wrist. Her hair was pulled back in two french braids with two pieces pulled out to frame her face.
Two other vans followed behind them, driven by the cleaning harpies. The entirety of Camp Half-Blood (besides the Ares cabin, and younger kids) had answered Percy's call.
Annabeth's phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket, slightly shaking her head and passing it over to Cassandra.
"What?" Cassandra asked.
"It's Percy" Annabeth answered.
She sighed, and answered the phone, holding it up to her ear. "Have a nice swim, Shark Boy?"
"Shark Boy?" Percy asked. "And what do you mean, swim?"
"You know exactly what I mean" Cassandra grumbled. "Where have you been? Everyone's been worried sick."
"Does 'everyone' include you?" Percy asked, with an obvious grin.
"A secret I'll never tell" Cassandra said. "But you didn't answer my question. Where have you been?"
" Clearly you know where I've been. But I'll fill you in later" Percy said. "Did you get my message?"
"I wouldn't be wearing this ugly camouflage if we hadn't" Cassandra replied, examining the fabric on her pants with a sour look.
"Where are you?" Percy asked, sounding like he wanted to say something else.
"Stalker much?" She questioned, before answering, "Almost to Queens—Midtown Tunnel."
"Giving out your location to stalkers probably isn't the greatest idea" Percy joked.
"I live life on the edge" Cassandra deadpanned. "But Percy, what are you planning? The camp is virtually undefended, and the gods—"
"Just trust me, okay?" Percy pleaded. "I'll see you there, Snow Queen."
He hung up before she could argue.
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It was late afternoon when the three vans pulled up in front of the Empire State Building. The vans were using the camps cover name, Delphi Strawberry Service, which were normally used to send fresh produce into the city.
The doors slid open, and Cassandra climbed out, along with the rest of the campers, some still looking green from the long drive. Chiron exited last, his horse half compacted into his magic wheelchair, forcing him to use the handicap lift.
The Ares Cabin wasn't there. Cassandra tried not to be too mad about it. Clarisse had made her standings clear, and if she wanted to sit back and watch her fellow campers die, that was on her.
They had forty campers. That was it. Cassandra knew that it wasn't enough, but it would have to work. Everyone looked nervous, and she knew why. They were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew they were there.
Annabeth and Cassandra walked up to Percy. Annabeth was dressed in matching black camouflage, with her Celestial Bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Huh?" Percy asked.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Like what?"
She rolled her eyes, "Nevermind."
Percy realized he was thinking about his vision of Cassandra pulling him out of the Styx. "Sorry. It's nothing." He turned to the rest of the group. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."
Chiron shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point to never visit Olympus unless I am summoned."
"But you're our leader."
He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."
Percy wanted to argue, but everyone was looking at him expectantly. Even, Cassandra seemed to raise her eyebrows slightly.
He took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."
He asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them seemed very happy about.
Chiron shook Percy's free hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses.
It was strange. Chiron was usually very encouraging.
Percy nodded, trying to give him a confident smile.
"Let's go" Percy told the campers.
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A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading New Moon. Cassandra wanted to shudder, as memories of reading Twilight came flooding back to her. He glanced up when the campers all filed in with their weapons and armor clanking.
"School group? We're about to close up."
"No" Percy said. "Six-hundredth floor."
He checked them out. Cassandra wasn't sure if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice their weapons, so she guessed he wasn't fooled by the Mist.
"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid" He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."
Cassandra pushed forward, and leaned across the desk. "All these demigods are going to attract a ton of monster. I'm not sure you want us hanging out in your lobby. Six-hundredth floor."
The charmspeak washed over him, and he hit a buzzer, making the security gate swing open. "Make it quick."
"You don't want us going through the metal detectors" Percy added, smiling at the blonde.
"Um, no" He agreed. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."
Percy tossed him a golden drachma and they marched through.
They decided they would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator. Cassandra went with the first group, along with Annabeth and Percy. Cassandra sang Stayin' Alive under her breath, seeing as it was playing over the elevator speakers.
The elevator doors finally dinged opened. In front of them, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.
Cassandra had seen Olympus hundreds of times before, but it still took her breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And at the top of the snow capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. The mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.
She studied Percy's face for a moment, "You look... different."
The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined them.
"Come on" Percy instructed.
They made their way across the sky bridge and into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be in it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted the demigods from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.
They passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth and Cassandra both made a face at the queen of the gods.
"Hate her" Annabeth muttered.
"Same" Cassandra said.
"Has she been cursing you two or something?" Percy asked. Last year both Annabeth had gotten on Hera's bad side, and Cassandra had made a rude comment to her, but neither really had talked about it since.
"Not me" Cassandra said. "I just don't like her, after what she did to Nico."
"It's just little stuff so far" Annabeth said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"
"Right."
"So she sends cows after me."
"Cows?" Percy asked, trying not to smile. "In San Fransisco?"
"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place—in out backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."
"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"
They all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out, not causing any damage.
"Hecate" Cassandra mumbled.
"Like infrared scopes" Micheal Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."
"Let's get to the palace" Percy said.
No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Their footsteps echoed as they walked into the throne room.
'Room' didn't really cover it, seeing as the palace was about the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around an hearth. In one corner, a house sized globe of water hovered in the air, inside swam the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half-serpent.
"Moooo!" He said happily, turning in a circle.
Cassandra smiled. She was fond of the animal, having gone on a deadly quest to save the creature.
"Hey, man" Percy said. "They treating you okay?"
"Mooo" Bessie answered.
They walked toward the thrones, a woman's voice saying, "Hello again, Percy Jackson, Cassandra Regalia. You and your friends are welcome."
Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress she had before, but appeared as a grown woman now.
Cassandra glanced nervously at the hearth, before shakily bowing. "Lady Hestia."
Ice snuffs out the immortal flame, still rang through her head.
Everyone else followed her example.
Hestia regarded Percy with red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."
The campers began muttering themselves, What did she say? What about Achilles?
"You must be careful" Hestia warned. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."
Annabeth nudged Percy. "Um... what is she talking about?"
Percy stared into the goddess' eyes, and suddenly his knees buckled. Cassandra reached forward to steady him.
"Percy, what happened?" She asked, nervously.
"Did—did you see that?" He asked.
"See what?"
He glanced at Hestia, but her face held no expression. "How long was I out?" He muttered.
Annabeth knitted her eyebrows. "Percy, you weren't out at all. You just looked at Hestia for, like, one second and collapsed."
"Um, Lady Hestia" Percy said, "we've come on urgent business. We need to see—"
"We know what you need" A man's voice said.
A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia, looking like he was in his mid-twenties, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny birds' wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.
"I will leave you now" Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. Cassandra understood why she was so anxious to leave. Hermes, the God of Messengers, didn't look happy.
"Hello, Percy" His brow furrowed like he was annoyed with him.
Percy bowed awkwardly, "Lord Hermes." He raised his eyebrows for a second, "Hello, George. Hey, Martha."
"Um, Hermes" Percy began. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."
Hermes' eyes were cold as steel. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"
Cassandra shifted uncomfortably. This wasn't going as planned.
"You guys" Percy said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left on Olympus. Meet Cassie, Annabeth and I back here in thirty minutes."
Silena frowned. "But—"
"That's a good idea" Annabeth agreed. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."
The Stolls seemed to like the idea—getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They didn't usually lead anything besides toilet paper raids. "We're on it!" Travis said, herding the others out of the throne room, leaving Cassandra, Annabeth, and Percy alone with Hermes.
"My lord" Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."
"Your mother" Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with caduceus. George and Martha didn't look very pleased. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us leaving the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."
"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"
Thunder rolled through the sky.
"I'd watch the comments, girl" Hermes warned. "Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."
"But there are these blue lights—"
"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by the insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may noticed they aren't doing any damage. Olympus has strong magical wards, besides Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his strongest minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."
Percy raised his hand. "Um... what about that materializing/teleporting thing you guys do?"
"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"
Hermes made it sound ridiculous, but Cassandra knew better. Kronos could simply leave his army down at the doors and go up the elevator himself.
She didn't dare share the idea though.
"Maybe just a few of you could come back" Percy suggested.
Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."
"I thought that was Kronos."
The gods eyes glowed. "No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is the husband of Echidna—"
"Met her at the Arch" Percy muttered. "Not nice."
"—and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead. It will take all out remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."
"Progress?" Percy asked. "He nearly destroyed St. Louis."
"Yes" Hermes admitted. "But he only destroyed half of Kentucky. He's slowing down. Losing power."
Cassandra wanted to argue, but Hermes sounded like he was trying to convince himself. The Ophiotaurus mooed sadly in the corner.
"Please Hermes" Annabeth continued. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"
"Messages" He mumbled to himself. "It'll be a great job, they told me. Not much work. Lots of worshippers. Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages."
"Quiet, both of you" Hermes grumbled to his snakes.
The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray-eyes thing.
"Bah" Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."
"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.
"She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant."
Annabeth's and Cassandra's faces both paled. She wasn't liking the sound of this. "Go on."
"She told, Cassandra to make her decision based on hope rather than fear. And to be guided by her values when the time comes" The god continued lazily. "She also said that power comes with responsibility, and that you must not let your fears control you."
He turned to Percy. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um something about staying away from Cassandra."
Cassandra wasn't sure whose face was redder: Percy's or her's.
"Anything from Aphrodite?" Cassandra asked, hoping her grandmother would give her some more advice about her curse.
Hermes rolled his eyes. "She told me to tell her lovely granddaughter that you must follow your heart, and accept what comes your way."
"Anything else?" Cassandra asked. That advice wasn't very helpful.
"Oh, right. One last thing" He turned to Percy again. "He said to ignore Athena's advice, and stay close to Cassandra. She's counting on you."
She blushed harder.
Annabeth cleared her throat. "Thank you, Hermes" She said. "And I—I wanted to say... I'm sorry about Luke."
The god's expression hardened, like he had turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."
Annabeth took a nervous step back. "Sorry?"
"SORRY doesn't cut it!"
George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.
"You should've saved him when you had the chance" Hermes growled at her. "You're the only one who could have."
Cassandra attempted to step between them. "What? Annabeth didn't—"
"Don't defend her!" Hermes turned the cattle prod toward her. "Especially after all you've done. All of this is your fault in the first place! And she knows exactly what I'm talking about."
"Maybe you should blame yourself!" Percy should've kept his mouth shut. But he couldn't. Cassandra wrapped an arm around Annabeth's shoulders as tears silently spilled out of her eyes. "Maybe if you hadn't abandoned Luke and his mom!"
Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was ten feet tall. But as he prepared to strike, George and Martha leaned in close and whispered something in his ear. Hermes clenched his teeth, lowered the cattle prod, and turned it back into a staff.
"Percy Jackson" he said, "because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again. You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much—"
His voice broke, and he shrank back to human size. "My son, my greatest pride... my poor May..."
He sounded devastated. One minute he was ready to vaporize him, but now he looked like he needed a hug.
"Look, Lord Hermes" Percy said. "I'm sorry, but I need to know. What happened to May? She said something about Luke's fate, and her eyes—"
Hermes glared at them, and his voice faltered. The look on his face wasn't made of anger. It was pain.
"I will leave you now" He said tightly. "I have a war to fight."
He began to shine. Cassandra did too, making sure Annabeth did the same, because she was still frozen in shock.
Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.
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author's note:
I love this chapter sm. I don't even know why.
Anyways, thank you guys so much for 6k reads! It feels literally insane.