ARES AND THE TUNNEL OF LOVE
The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, their train rolled into Denver. They hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas.
They hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and Ariana was sure that was obvious.
"Let's try to contact Chiron." Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
"We cant use phones, right?" Percy asked
"I'm not talking about phones."
They wandered through downtown for about half an hour. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St Louis.
Everywhere they turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at her, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.
Finally they found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. They veered towards the stall furthest from the street, keeping their eyes open for patrol cars.
They were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure they were up to no good.
"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked as Grover took out the spray gun.
"It's seventy-five cents." he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"
"Don't look at me." she said. "The dining car wiped me out and Ariana is the only one with a backpack remember."
Ariana sighed as she fished out some change and passed Grover a quarter.
"Excellent." Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."
"What are you talking about?" Sometimes Ariana forgets Percy was new to all of this.
Grover fed in the quarters and set the knob to fine mist. "I-M'ing."
"Instant messaging?"
"Iris-messaging." Ari corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."
"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"
Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."
Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapour and broke into colours. Annabeth held her palm out to Ariana
"Drachma, please."
"Yeah just rob me that's fine!" Still, she gave Annabeth to Drachma.
She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."
She threw the drachma into the rainbow.It disappeared in a golden shimmer.
"Half-Blood Hill." Annabeth requested.
For a moment, nothing happened.Then Ariana was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance.
They seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to them at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top.
He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.
"Luke!" Ariana called, gaining his attention quickly.
He turned, eyes wide. "Ari!" His scarred face broke into a grin.
"Is that Annabeth and Percy too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"
"We're... uh... fine," Annabeth stammered.
She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought - Chiron - I mean."
"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"
"I'm right here." Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"
Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.
"Chiron had to - what's that noise?" Luke yelled.
"I'll take care of it!" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Grover, come on!"
"What?" Grover said. "But -"
"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!"she ordered.
Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed Percy the spray gun and followed Annabeth.
He readjusted the hose so he could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.
"Chiron had to break up a fight." Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon stand-off. We're still not sure how - probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound.
Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."
In the next stall, Ariana heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.
"So what's your status?" Luke asked them. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."
Percy told him pretty much everything, including his dreams.
"I wish I could be there." Luke told Ariana and Percy.
"We can't help from here, I'm afraid, but listen... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."
"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly." Percy reminded him.
"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled.
"Still... Hades has the helmet of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible."
They were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.
"Oh, hey." he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."
Ariana wondered if Annabeth would like that description. In the stall next to them, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.
"You'd better go see what that was." Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."
"Oh... uh, yeah." Percy said. "Yeah, they've come in handy."
"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"
The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.
"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver." Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time. Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just-"
But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. Percy and Ariana were alone in a wet, empty car-wash stall.
Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw his face. Annabeth's smile faded.
"What happened, Percy? What did Luke say"
"Not much," he lied. "Come on, let's find some dinner."
A few minutes later, they were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around them, families were eating burgers and drinking milkshakes and sodas.
Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow sceptically. "Well?"
Percy said. "We, um, want to order dinner?"
"You kids have money to pay for it?"
Grover's lower lip quivered. Ariana was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger.
She was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the kerb.
All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns.
The seat was leather - but leather that looked like.. well, Caucasian human skin. The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama.
He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh.
He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruellest, most brutal face she'd ever seen - handsome, she guessed , but wicked - with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights.
As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again.
Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain.
She asked them again. "You kids have money to pay for it?"
The biker said. "It's on me."
He slid into their booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.
Ares. God of war had decided to pay them a little visit.
He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said. "Are you still here?"
He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back towards the kitchen.
The biker looked at Percy. Ariana couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in her stomach.
He gave him a wicked grin. "So you're old
Seaweed's kid, huh?"
"What's it to you?"
Annabeth's eyes flashed him a warning. "Percy, this is -"
The biker raised his hand.
"S'okay," he said, "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"
He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five.
"You're Clarisse's dad." Percy guessed. Ares, god of war?"
"Get this dude a gold medal." Ariana said, patting him on the back.
For once, Percy Jackson had used his brain.
Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions.
"That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."
"Apologies. I'm sure she'll forgive me, she did last time." Ariana responded sarcastically but Ares didn't pick up on it."
"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids fights, you know? What I'm here for - I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."
The waitress came back with heaping trays of food - cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings and chocolate shakes.
Ares handed her a few gold drachmas. She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't.."
Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"
The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.
"You can't do that." Percy told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."
Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favour."
"What favour could I do for a god?"
"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town.I was going on a little... date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."
"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"
The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.
"Why don't I turn you into prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."
"We're not interested." Percy said." We've already got a quest."
Ariana knew hew was stupid but she didn't know he was stupid enough to reject a gods request.
"I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful..." He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of a doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."
"You told him Hades stole the bolt?" Percy questioned.
"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."
'Thanks." he grumbled.
"Hey, i'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and l'll help you on your way. l'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."
"We're doing fine on our own."
Ariana and Annabeth gave one another a look as if to say: this guy is going to get every single one of us killed one day.
"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe l'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."
"My mom?" That seemed to get Percy's attention.
He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride!"
"What interrupted your date?" He asked. "Something scare you off?"
Ares bared his teeth, but Ariana seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.
"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."
"Not good." Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good!"
Ariana stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.
"It's probably some kind of trick." Percy said.
"Forget Ares. Let's just go."
"We cant." Ariana said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."
"Why does he need us?"
"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."
"But this water park... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"
Ariana, Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.
Ariana shrugged. "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."
The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time they found the water park.
Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.
The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry watersides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools.
Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the tarmac. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.
"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date." Percy said, staring up at the barbed wire. "I'd hate to see what she looks like."
"You are practically begging to have all the gods hate you." Ariana told him.
"Percy." Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."
"Why? I thought you hated Ares."
"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."
"You don't want to insult her looks." Grover added.
"Who is she? Echidna?"
"No, Aphrodite." Ariana said. "Goddess of love and beauty."
"I thought she was married to somebody." Percy said. "Hephaestus."
"What's your point?" She asked.
"Oh." Percy said. "So how do we get in?"
"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.
He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side.
He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"
Annabeth, Ariana and Percy had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as they crawled over the top.
The shadows grew long as they walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?
No monsters came to get them. Nothing made the slightest noise. They found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards and racks of -
"Clothes." Annabeth gawked like an orphan. "Fresh clothes."
"Yeah." Percy said. "But you can't just -"
"Watch me." Ariana said, taking it as a bet or a challenge.
Ariana snatched an entire row of stuff off the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt and commemorative Waterland surf shoes.
A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.
"What the heck." Percy eyes widened and he looked at Grover.
Grover shrugged.
Soon, all four of them were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.
The group continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. Ariana got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath.
"So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy said, to keep his mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"
"That's old gossip, Percy." Annabeth told him.
"Three-thousand-year-old gossip." Ariana added, shrugging.
"What about Aphrodite's husband?"
"Well, you know." Ariana said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"
"She likes bikers."
"Whatever." Annabeth waved him off.
"Hephaestus knows?"
"Oh sure." Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like.."
Ariana stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."
In front of them was an empty pool. It was at least fifty metres across and shaped like a bowl.
Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire.
On the opposite side from them, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full.
The sign above it read: THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!
Grover crept towards the edge. '"Guys, look."
Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it.
In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.
"This is too easy." Percy said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"
Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.
"There's a Greek letter carved here." she said. "Eta. I wonder.."
Ariana knew what was happening. It was a trap. Hephaestus was trying to capture Ares and Aphrodite in the act.
"Grover," Ariana said, "you smell any monsters?"
He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."
"Nothing - like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?" Percy asked.
Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground!"
"Okay, I'm sorry." He took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."
"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but Ariana got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St Louis.
"No," Percy told him, "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."
Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure.
But what could go wrong?"
"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me -"
"Are you kidding?" She looked at Percy as if he had just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.
"What's the problem now?" He demanded.
"Me, go with you to the... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"
Ariana laughed.
"Who's going to see you?" But his face was burning now, too.
"Fine." He told her. "I'll do it myself."
But when he started down the side of the pool, Annabeth followed him, muttering about how boys always messed things up.
Grover looked at Ariana who simply shrugged.
"What young love am I right?"
They reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. Ariana tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride.
Percy picked up the scarf. He smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against his cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of his hands and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."
"What?"
"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."
The moment he touched the shield, Ariana knew they were in trouble. His hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard.
A tripwire.
"Wait." Annabeth said.
"Too late."
"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."
Noise erupted all around, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.
Grover yelled. "Guys!"
Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Ariana was suddenly glad that she was sat beside them and not in front.
Before she could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at Annabeth and Percy. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool.
Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk.
Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.
"We have to get out!" Percy said.
"Duh!" Annabeth said.
Percy grabbed the shield and they ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.
"Come on!" Ariana shouted, giving them encouragement.
Grover was trying to hold open a section of the net for them, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.
The Cupids' heads popped open. Out around the pool, blinding them with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight."
"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid! Eta is "H". He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"
Ariana laughed even louder. "This is hilarious!"
"Nothing about this is hilarious Ariana Parker!" Annabeth screamed.
They'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic... things poured out.
Annabeth screamed.
It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling towards the pairin a wave of clacking, whirring metal.
"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp - sp - aaaah!"
She fell backwards in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before Percy pulled her up and dragged her back towards the boat.
The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding towards the centre of the pool, completely surrounding them: Ariana they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral them and bite them and make them look stupid.
Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And they weren't gods. Annabeth and Percy climbed into the boat. He started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard.
He yelled at Annabeth to help him, but she was too paralysed to do much more than scream.
"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.
The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie them down.
The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. He kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.
Grover hovered above the pool in his flying trainers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.
"Think." Arianna shouted at them, still chilling next to the Cupid statues on the rim. "Think."
"THATS EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!" Percy was now yelling.
She continued to laugh.
The tunnel of love entrance was under the net. They could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.
"Fifteen, fourteen." The loudspeaker called.
Then Ariana saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from.
And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.
"Grover!" He yelled. "Get into that booth!
Find the 'on' switch!"
"But-"
"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was their only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. Percy had to get them out of here.
Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.
"Five, four -"
Grover looked up at Percy hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting them know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.
Percy closed his eyes.
"Two, one, zero!"
Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders.
He pulled Annabeth into the seat next to him and fastened her seatbelt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing them.
The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.
The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.
Spotlights glared down at them. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.
"How cute! The two lovers are on a ride together." Ariana laughed out. The pair sent her a death glare. "Mate, I need some popcorn."
They spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred them against the metal net.
Then the boat's nose turned towards the tunnel and they rocketed through into the darkness.
Annabeth and Percy held tight, both of them screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.
Then they were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through their hair as the boat barrelled straight towards the exit.
If the ride had been in working order, they would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained.
Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before them were now piled against the barricade - one submerged, the other cracked in half.
"Unfasten your seat belt." He yelled to Annabeth.
"Are you crazy?"
"Unless you want to get smashed to death." Percy strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it."
Percy's idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, they would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate.
Ariana heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown ten or fifteen metres away from an accident. With luck, they'd would land in the pool.
Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped his hand as the gates got closer.
"When I say go." He said.
"No! When I say go." Annabeth demanded.
"What?"
"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle -"
"Fine!" Percy shouted. "When you say go!"
She hesitated... then yelled. "Now!"
Crack!
Annabeth was right.
Their boat smashed into the pileup and they were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down towards solid tarmac.
Something grabbed them from behind.
Annabeth yelled. "Ouch!"
"Grover!"
In midair, he had grabbed Percy by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull them out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and Percy had all the momentum.
"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"
They spiralled towards the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.
They smashed into a photo-board, Ariana winced, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale.
Annabeth and Percy tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on his arm. Ariana quickly rushed down to meet them there.
Once they caught their breath, Annabeth and Percy got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives, they looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love.
The water was subsiding. Their boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.
A hundred metres away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swivelled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.
Ariana smirked. "Come back for the next episode where they may or may not kiss!"
"Show's over!" Percy yelled, nudging her. "Thank you! Goodnight!"
The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool.
Ariana wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if their ratings had been any good.
"We need to have a little talk with Ares."