Briares had left.
They told him everything about Kronos and Camp but the Hundred Handed One still left. Tyson was in shambles. Briares was his hero and his hero had let him down.
They'd chosen to camp for the night in a corridor made of huge marble blocks that looked as if it was part of a Greek tomb. Cressida was prepping the area since she'd taken first watch, making herself comfortable before lobbing a small ball of purple flames onto the ground as a light source.
Annabeth was out pretty quickly as she rested her head on her pack. Grover didn't need to be told twice. He pulled a heap of straw out of his pack, ate some of it, made a pillow out of the rest and was snoring in no time. Tyson took longer getting to sleep. He tinkered with some metal scraps from his building kit for a while, but whatever he was making, he wasn't happy with it. He kept disassembling the pieces.
"I'm sorry I lost the shield," Percy said to his brother. "You worked so hard to repair it."
Tyson looked up. His eye was bloodshot from crying. "Do not worry, brother. You saved me and Pretty Girl. You wouldn't have had to if Briares had helped."
"He was just scared," Percy said. "I'm sure he'll get over it."
"He is not strong," Tyson said. "He is not important anymore."
"As someone speaking from experience," Cressida said as she knelt in front of Tyson. "Now that he's free from the creature that was terrifying him, it's going to take a while for his strength to come back. He'll be there when it counts," she said and Tyson's bottom lip quivered. "But as for you, you need some rest." She reached up to kiss his cheek as her palm glowed. "So relax and go to sleep."
And Tyson's eye began to droop as he obeyed and fell back and began to snore.
Cressida just shook her head at him as she began carefully packing up the metal pieces in his hand. She placed them carefully into her pocket as she moved back over to her bedroll and Percy dragged his next to her.
"You should sleep," Cressida said.
"Can't. We have too much to talk about."
She sighed as she leaned back against the wall next to him. "Alright. Go."
"Also, we're just here to talk, not argue. I think we do that enough."
"We bicker. I don't think we argue, argue," Cressida said and Percy only rolled his eyes at her as he nudged her shoulder. "Why did you lie to me?"
"I genuinely don't know," he said. "Firstly, I swear to you, that I don't know what Hera meant that I knew how to navigate the maze. And second, I was with Rachel for like five minutes at the Dam. I forgot about her for the most part. And when I did remember her, it just felt like she didn't belong in a conversation between you and me."
She stared at him strangely.
"I told you I didn't know. It's not like it makes sense to me either," he defended. "But since I know actions speak louder than words with you, I swear on the River Styx -"
She slapped her hand over his mouth. "Don't," she pleaded, her eyes glassy. "Don't you dare."
Percy gently lowered her hand from his mouth. "Why?"
"Is it not obvious?" she said with a broken smile as she played with her charm bracelet, the pinecone charm having reappeared a while ago. "People I care about are going to die in this prophecy. Janus was going to make me choose between them. And I can tell you right now that if I was faced with a choice to choose who dies, I'd pick myself. Every time."
"If I can't swear on the Styx, then you can't sacrifice yourself. You almost did with Kampê and -"
"But Percy if it saves you, if it saves my brothers, Books, Grover, Tyson, Camp, I have to do it. There is no other choice, no other logical choice."
"Nothing about this quest is logical! We walked from New York to California in a day!"
"I know, but this can be."
Percy looked conflicted, so very, extremely conflicted. And then he stood.
"We're going to drive ourselves crazy debating what the prophecy could mean. We did that last year and we thought you were going to die. We're not gonna do that this time and we're not gonna argue over it anymore," he proclaimed.
"I told you, we don't argue, we bicker and -" She was cut off when she was offered something.
Percy's hand.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she stared at the hand that was asking for hers.
"Do you trust me?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Do you ask stupid questions?"
He rolled his eyes back. "Then take my hand."
Gods above, Percy was trying to do something nice here and she had the ability to make his breathing uneven with the way her fingers slid up his palm, softer than silk before they took hold, and he helped her up. And he was really fighting against himself so she wouldn't notice, because rather than let go of her hand, he slid that one and her other around his neck before he rested his on her back and he pulled her close.
And Percy Jackson swayed slowly with Cressida Lynn, in a maze that was probably going to kill them.
There was no music. No light besides the faint glow of Cressida's fire. It was just them, the sound of their breathing, the sound of their heartbeats. And it was absurdly perfect.
"You remember how we were on Circe's Island?" he asked after a time.
She snorted, her lips pressed to his shoulder. "How could I forget? You were a cute guinea pig. Probably the only time you were cute."
"Well, that was probably the only time you were ever beautiful," he retorted as he made her smile by dropping her into a dip. Her braid dangled down towards the floor as she looked up at him, her hands still on his shoulders. And she raised a brow as her lips stretched into a smirk.
"You thought I was beautiful?"
And Percy's eyes widened as he realised his error and he yanked them both up, not wanting her to see his blush. "My point being, it's exactly like Waterland. Remember how you got us thrown off that ride?"
"Me?! That was you?! If you had waited, you wouldn't have tripped the trip wire and -"
"What I'm trying to say," Percy interrupted as he squeezed her sides. "Is that we had absolutely no idea what we were doing both times, and probably over a dozen other times over the last three years, and it was fine. It worked out. It's gonna be ok."
Cressida readjusted her grip on Percy, hugging him tighter. "I hope so," she murmured.
It was a comfortable silence that settled between them as they swayed from side to side, their feet shuffling together in a slow circle.
"You really scared me today, you know? You almost didn't make it into the tunnel," Percy admitted after a while.
"Not my intention. And hey, that's another tally for you for saving me," she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice.
"Did you really make a tally?" he laughed.
"No. We really should though. I want proof that I'm better than you."
You don't need proof. You are better. You're too good, in fact.
But instead, he blew a raspberry of disbelief and said, "You wish."
"I know."
Percy shook his head but didn't say anything else for a while.
Her eyes drifted shut as she rested her cheek on his shoulder, the movements unbelievably relaxing as all the tension seemed to just flow out of her body.
"I hate to ruin the moment, I really do," Percy said after he got lost in this, in her, resting his head atop hers, her hair smelling like heaven even after all they'd been through so far. "But Nico's down here," he said, and her eyes opened but she didn't move. "That's how he disappeared from camp. He found the Labyrinth. Then he found a path that led down even further – to the Underworld. But now he's back in the maze. He's coming after me.'
Cressida gripped his shirt. "I won't let him. If Nico comes after you the only thing that will happen is that I'll be adding another tally to my side of the board."
And Percy let out an amused exhale through his nose before he stopped dancing and let go of Cressida enough so he could look at her and the sleepy look in her eyes.
"How about I take first watch?" he suggested. "You've done enough today. I'll wake you if anything happens. I promise."
She bit her lips, as she debated it. "Ok. Ok," she relented as she let him walk her back to their bedrolls. And while she lay down, and closed her eyes, Percy sat next to her as he looked down at her. He began playing with her braid as he sat next to her. And Cressida fell asleep pretty easily after that.