chapter ninety-eight
─── we've got enough spies to rival the cia
𝔑ow, I love my horse, I truly did, but if she kept threatening to kill Luke whilst flying towards an out of control helicopter I was going to kill her. I had enough stress in my life without her trying to add to it. It didn't help that Blackjack's murderous thoughts were accompanied by Rachel screaming from inside.
"Do you have any ideas?" I shouted to Luke, cutting Blackjack off as my horse snorted.
"Yeah, got one. You take Blackjack and get out, I'll deal." He muttered as I turned to my horse.
"There's a doughnut shop two blocks away, you pull this off and it'll be my treat." Blackjack perked up at that, pitching herself into a nose dive and almost taking Luke's head off on the rotors. I didn't have time to shout at her, because Luke was already jumping into the helicopter as we went soaring past it.
I pulled Blackjack up from her dive, watching with my heart in my throat, as the helicopter spun around, seconds away from slamming into the side of the building. Then, it righted itself, spinning in a circle and hovered.
Very slowly, it began to descend and I moved Blackjack out of the way, both of us hovering over the top of it as we watched to see what would happen. Finally, it landed in the middle of Fifth Avenue and I landed with a scowl, having caught sight of who was piloting it on the way down.
Count on it being Luke that was the one to know how to fly a helicopter.
He clambered out first, looking pale as Blackjack trotted over and attempted to bite him. I yanked her head away, clambering off and putting myself between them.
"Play nice." I hissed, pointing a warning finger at her as she huffed. "Why didn't you tell me you could fly a helicopter?"
"Because I can't." Luke pointed out, taking another deep breath. "I flew Apollo's flying chariot once, just same principle, different machine."
"You're so cool." I looked up at him with wide, awe struck eyes as he blushed.
"Thanks." He nodded before paling again. "I think I'm going to have a heart attack."
Good!
"You're not going to have a heart attack." I pointed out.
Boo! Blackjack sighed, glaring as I turned to her. What?
"Can you not?" She shook her head as Rachel appeared, looking slightly green.
"You saved my life." She turned to Luke, looking up at him with stars in her eyes as Luke got closer to me.
"Yeah, you remember my girlfriend, Andi, right?" He squeezed my shoulders. "What are you doing here? Most people don't go flying into a war zone."
"I-" Rachel trailed off. "I had to be here."
"I'm going to go. Rachel, you've got a message for Andi." He turned to me, kissing me quickly. "I'm going to take Blackjack for doughnuts."
"Don't give her too many!" I called as Luke took Blackjack's reins and the pair hurried off. I could still hear Blackjack, even when they were leaving;
You know, have I ever mentioned that you're amazing and you should definitely give me like twenty doughnuts!
"Okay." I turned back around, rolling my eyes at my horse. "What's the message you want to deliver?"
Rachel tugged at her beach shorts, which I had only just notices were covered in drawings of monsters, gods and strangely enough, camp beads. I didn't know how she knew this, considering she'd never seen the Olympians or Camp Half-Blood.
"I've been seeing things, I mean like not just through the Mist." She hummed, finally meeting my eyes. Now I didn't think I was that tall, but she had to tilt her head to look up at me. "This is different. I've been drawing pictures, writing lines in Ancient Greek."
"Can you repeat or draw them? I can translate." I point out.
"I can't."
"Then we talk to Chiron." I pointed out, taking my hands out my pocket to look for the centaur as Rachel grabbed my arm.
"Andromeda, something is about to happen. A trick that ends in death."
"What do you mean? Who's death?"
"I don't know." She looked around nervously, her eyes flickering as I narrowed my own. "Don't you feel it. Look, I don't know much, but the words, I-You have to hear it. It said, Andromeda, you are not the hero?"
I cocked an eyebrow.
"You came thousands of miles to deliver that?"
"It's important." She insisted. "It will affect what you do."
"Not the hero of the prophecy? Of this story? Not the one who defeats Kronos?" I almost threw my hands in the air. There were so many things that this could mean.
"I'm sorry, I had to tell you but that's all I know..." Chiron chose that moment to canter over.
"Well, this must be Miss Dare?"
"Yeah." I nodded, looking up at the centaur. "This is Chiron, Rachel."
"Hello." Rachel said glumly.
"You are not asleep, Miss Dare." He noticed. "And yet you are mortal."
"I don't know why. The pilot fell asleep as soon as we passed the river. I just knew I had to be here." Rachel explained. "I had to warn everyone..."
"She's been seeing things, writing lines, making drawings." I explained, trying to make it sound less creepy than it actually was. Chiron hummed, motioning for her to tell him and so she did. Chiron stroked his beard.
"Miss Dare...perhaps we should talk." I got an odd feeling from that, watching them carefully. "Andromeda, go and rest. We've moved your mother's car to safety. The enemy seems to be staying put for now. We've set up bunks in the Empire State Building. Get some sleep."
"Everyone says that, and it's annoying me." I muttered. "I don't need sleep."
"Have you looked at yourself, Andromeda? Go and get changed, eat and sleep." I looked down at my shirt, seeing that it was kind of ripped, and scowled before relenting and stomping off.
Inside the lobby, I found Luke about to sleep, and joined him where he was. He winced, pulling his shirt off and grabbing a new one for both him and me. I winced at the sight of the bruises all down his back, rubbing them softly.
"You need ambrosia." I pointed out as he shook his head.
"Let the younger ones have it, I'll survive." He promised, as I traced the bruises and kissed his forehead. I yanked my ripped shirt over my head, before slumping down beside Luke. He huffed, wincing slightly before wrapping an arm around my waist and sighing. "We'll be alright, Andi."
"I hope so." I muttered, telling him what Rachel had said to me, before sinking down to sleep. His hand squeezed mine once, and I tapped his pulse point in return.
I had some hope that I wouldn't dream, but foolish twenty year old me should have given up hoping for things like that years ago. I was standing outside the United Nations, about a mile northeast of out base. The Titan army had set up camp there, hanging trophies of their kills onto flagpoles. Giants sharpened their axes, telkhines repaired armor at the makeshift forges. Kronos stood at the top of the plaza, swinging his scythe as Ethan Nakamura and Prometheus stood just outside of kill range.
Ethan was fidgeting but Prometheus, still in a full tuxedo, stayed calm and collected.
"I hate this place!" Kronos growled. "United Nations. As if mankind could ever unite. Remind me to tear this building down after the battle."
"Yes, lord." Prometheus smiled, the sort of smile that made you want to smack someone. "Shall we tear down the stables in Central Park too? I know how much horses can annoy you-"
"Do not mock me, Prometheus!" Kronos turned, anger in his eyes as I pulled a face. Someone hadn't got enough sleep. "Those cursed centaurs will be sorry they interfered. I will feed them to the hellhounds, starting with that son of mine, the weakling Chiron."
"He did destroy an entire legion of telkhines with his arrows."
Kronos cut a flagpole in half in response.
"We shall destroy them!" He turned, before grabbing Ethan's armor. "It's time to unleash the drakon. Do this."
"Yes lord. At sunset?" Ethan stuttered.
"No. Immediately!" He hissed. "The defenders of Manhattan are badly wounded. They will not expect a quick attack. Besides, we know this drakon they cannot beat."
"My lord?" Ethan and I shared the same confused face it seemed.
"Never you worry, Nakamura. Do my bidding. I want New York in ruins by the time Typhon reaches us. We will break the gods utterly!"
"But my lord. Your regeneration?" Ethan muttered.
"Does it seem..." Kronos hissed, yanking the boy closer and tightening his grip, "...that I need to regenerate?"
Ethan was immobilised so couldn't respond. He let go, letting the boy collapse before rolling his shoulders.
"Soon," the Titan growled, "this form will be unnecessary. I will not rest with victory so close. Now, go!"
Ethan scrambled away, leaving Prometheus.
"This is dangerous, my lord," Prometheus warned. "Do not be hasty."
"Hasty? After festering for three thousand years in the depths of Tartarus, you call me hasty? I will slice Andromeda Jackson into a thousand pieces."
"Thrice you've fought her," Prometheus pointed out. "And yet you've always said it is beneath the dignity of a Titan to fight a mere mortal. I wonder if your mortal host is influencing you, weakening your judgment."
Kronos turned his golden eyes on the other Titan and I too shot Prometheus a look of confusion.
"You call me weak?"
"No, my lord. I only meant—"
"Are your loyalties divided?" Kronos asked. "Perhaps you miss your old friends, the gods. Would you like to join them?"
Prometheus paled. "I misspoke, my lord. Your orders will be carried out."
He turned, beginning to shout out calls for the army to prepare, and I could hear the drakon waking, so much so that it woke me. Luke was also up, both of us sharing a look.
"What did you dream?"
"Drakon." I muttered as he hummed and paled. "You?"
"Underworld."
"Great." Both of us stood, yanking our armor on and joining the rest of our ranks.
Nine was out of Greek Fire, Seven and the Hunters were scrounging for arrows and if we took anymore ambrosia and nectar, I think we might explode. There were sixteen campers, fifteen Hunters and half a dozen satyrs, so we were running low on people too. The rest had taken refuge in the conference area above the Empire State Building and the Party Ponies were struggling to form ranks.
"Your friend has useful insight." Luke and I turned from helping the others into ranks. Chiron trotted over with Rachel. "A drakon. A Lydian drakon, to be exact. The oldest and most dangerous kind."
"Our day gets better." Luke muttered, rolling his eyes.
"But this drakon has a particular fate. It will be killed by a child of Ares." Annabeth crossed her arms at Rachel's explanation.
"How can you possibly know that?"
"I just saw it. I can't explain."
"Well, let's hope you're wrong," I said. "Because we're a little short on children of Ares..."
A horrible thought occurred to me, and I cursed in Ancient Greek.
"What?" Annabeth asked.
"The spy," I told her. "Kronos said, We know they cannot beat this drakon. The spy has been keeping him updated. Kronos knows that Five isn't with us. He intentionally picked a monster we can't kill."
Thalia scowled. "If I ever catch your spy, he's going to be very sorry. Maybe we could send another messenger to camp—"
"I've already done it," Chiron said. "Blackjack is on her way. But if Silena wasn't able to convince Clarisse, I doubt Blackjack will be able—"
A roar shook the ground. It sounded very close.
"Rachel," I said, "get inside the building."
"I want to stay." A shadow blotted out the sun. Across the street, the drakon slithered down the side of a skyscraper. It roared, and a thousand windows shattered.
"Rachel, get in the building." Luke turned, eyes like steel and Rachel disappeared.
Okay, difference between dragons and drakons. Easy peasy. Dragons are young, have wings and breathe fire, drakons are the opposite with the added bonus of poisonous, immensely strong, turn you to stone with one look. AKA the one monster that we can't prepare ourselves to fight.
So, whist the drakon slithered towards us, the enemy army advanced behind it down Fifth Avenue. Our ranks looked worried and I sighed, rolling my shoulders and cracking my neck.
"I'll take the drakon!" I offered, knowing no one else would. "Everyone else, hold the line against the army!"
Luke opened his mouth, but I shook my head.
"Help the army. They need you." His eyebrows furrowed, face growing worried for a second, before he pulled his helmet on and began shouting orders. I turned to Annabeth. "With me, Wise Girl?"
"Till the end, Seaweed Brain." She nodded.
"Go invisible, look for cracks in the armor, but be careful." She nodded, disappearing. "Mrs O'Leary! Here girl! How's my baby? Ready?"
She barked, as I drew my sword and we charged the monster.
The drakon was three stories above us, slithering sideways along the building as it sized up our forces. Wherever it looked, centaurs froze in fear. From the north, the enemy army crashed into the Party Ponies, and our lines broke. The drakon lashed out, swallowing three Californian centaurs in one gulp before I could even get close. Mrs. O'Leary launched herself through the air, hackles raised.
Her claws raked harmlessly off the drakon's scales. She bit the monster's throat but couldn't make a dent. Her weight, however, was enough to knock the drakon off the side of the building. It flailed awkwardly and crashed to the sidewalk, hellhound and serpent twisting and thrashing. The drakon tried to bite Mrs. O'Leary, but she was too close to the serpent's mouth. Poison spewed everywhere, melting centaurs into dust along with quite a few monsters, but Mrs. O'Leary weaved around the serpent's head, scratching and biting.
I took my cue, now that the drakon was at my level. Flipping Riptide, I plunged it deep into the monster's eye. It hissed, pulling back to strike but I rolled aside as it ate pavement instead of me. When it looked at me, I watched its teeth as Mrs O'Leary tried her best to keep it distracted. She leaped onto the serpent's head and scratched and growled, biting where she could.
The rest of the battle wasn't going well. The centaurs had panicked under the onslaught of giants and demons. An occasional orange camp T-shirt appeared in the sea of fighting, but quickly disappeared. Arrows screamed. Fire exploded in waves across both armies, but the action was moving across the street to the entrance of the Empire State Building.
We were losing ground.
Suddenly Annabeth materialized on the drakon's back. Her invisibility cap rolled off her head as she drove her bronze knife between a chink in the serpent's scales. The drakon roared. It coiled around, knocking Annabeth off its back. I launched forward, diving so that her head landed on my arms, yanking her aside as the drakon rolled.
"I told you to be careful!" I yelled, pushing her down as the teeth snapped over our head. "This doesn't look careful!"
Mrs. O'Leary body-slammed the drakon's face to get its attention, and we rolled out of the way. Meanwhile our allies had retreated to the doors of the Empire State Building.
The entire enemy army was surrounding them. We were out of options. No more help was coming. Annabeth and I would have to retreat before we were cut off from the others.
Then I heard a rumbling in the south. It wasn't a sound you hear much in New York, but I recognized it immediately: chariot wheels. A girl's voice yelled, "Ares!" And a dozen war chariots charged into battle. Each flew a red banner with the symbol of the wild boar's head. Each was pulled by a team of skeletal horses with manes of fire. A total of thirty fresh warriors, armor gleaming and eyes full of hate, lowered their lances as one—making a bristling wall of death.
"The children of Ares!" Annabeth said in amazement. "How did Rachel know?"
I didn't have an answer, shrugging my shoulders.
But leading the charge was a girl in familiar red armor, her face covered by a boar's-head helm. She held aloft a spear that crackled with electricity. Clarisse herself had come to the rescue as I hoped she would.
While half her chariots charged the monster army, Clarisse led the other six straight for the drakon. The serpent reared back and managed to throw off Mrs. O'Leary. My poor pet hit the side of the building with a pained yelp and I ran to help her, but the serpent had already zeroed in on Five.
Even with only one eye, its glare was enough to paralyze two chariot drivers. They veered into a line of cars. The other four chariots kept charging. The monster bared its fangs to strike and got a mouthful of Celestial bronze javelins. It screamed.
"Five, to me!" Clarisse's voice sounded different but I shrugged, maybe it was adrenaline.
Across the street, the arrival of six chariots gave the Party Ponies new hope. They rallied at the doors of the Empire State Building, and the enemy army was momentarily thrown into confusion. Meanwhile, Clarisse's chariots circled the drakon. Lances broke against the monster's skin. Skeletal horses breathed fire and whinnied. Two more chariots overturned, but the warriors simply leaped to their feet, drew their swords, and went to work. They hacked at chinks in the creature's scales. They dodged poison spray like they'd been training for this all their lives, which of course they had.
No one could say Five weren't brave.
Clarisse was right there in front, stabbing her spear at the drakon's face, trying to put out its other eye. But as I watched, things started to go wrong. The drakon snapped up one Ares camper in a gulp. It knocked aside another and sprayed poison on a third, who retreated in a panic, his armor melting.
"We have to help," Annabeth said. She was right.
I'd just been standing there frozen in amazement. Mrs. O'Leary tried to get up but yelped again. One of her paws was bleeding.
"Sit and stay." I kissed her head. "You're a good girl."
Her tail wagged as Annabeth and I jumped onto the monsters back, running towards its head as we tried to take its attention from Clarisse.
Her siblings threw javelins, most of which broke, but some lodged in the monster's teeth. It snapped its jaws together until its mouth was a mess of green blood, yellow foamy poison, and splintered weapons.
"You can do it!" I screamed at Clarisse. "A child of Ares is destined to kill it!"
Through her war helmet, I could only see her eyes—but I could tell something was wrong. Her blue eyes shone with fear. Clarisse never looked like that. And she didn't have blue eyes.
"ARES!" she shouted, in that strangely shrill voice. She levelled her spear and charged the drakon.
"No," I muttered, realising what had happened. "No!"
But the monster looked down at her—almost in contempt—and spit poison directly in her face. She screamed and fell.
"Clarisse!" Annabeth jumped off the monster's back and ran to help, while the other Ares campers tried to defend their fallen counsellor.
I drove Riptide between two of the creature's scales and managed to turn its attention on me. I got thrown but I landed on my feet.
"Come on, you piece of shit! Look at me!" For the next few minutes, it did indeed look at me. All I saw were teeth as I retreated and dodged poison, but I couldn't harm it! At the edge of my vision, I saw a flying chariot landing on Fifth Avenue. Someone ran over.
A girl's voice, shaken with grief.
"No! Curse you, you idiot! Why?" I dared to glance over, rolling from a strike, but what I saw didn't really make sense.
Clarisse was lying on the ground where she'd fallen. Her armor smoked with poison. Annabeth and the Ares campers were trying to unfasten her helmet. And kneeling next to them, her face blotchy with tears, was a girl in camp clothes. Clarisse?
My head spun. I had been bamboozled. The drakon and I shared a look before going back to our punch up as I tried to take note of the scene to the right of me, but it was a bit hard. The drakon wasn't very good at letting me listen to important side conversations.
I slammed it's head into a brick wall, laughing, before turning to try and find what was going on, squinting to make it out. My eyesight was a bit shit after like three days of no sleep, and I normally let that slide, but now, I really need it to work.
"Look out!" That was Chris's voice and I turned to watch the drakon yank it's head from the wall. But, instead of turning toward me, the drakon whirled toward the sound of Chris's voice. It bared its fangs at the group of demigods. The real Clarisse looked up at the drakon, her face filled with absolute hate.
"You have chosen death!" Clarisse picked her spear up. "Come on!"
With no armor or shield, she charged the drakon. I tried to close the distance to help, but Clarisse was faster. She leaped aside as the monster struck, pulverizing the ground in front of her. Then she jumped onto the creature's head.
As it reared up, she drove her electric spear into its good eye with so much force it shattered the shaft, releasing all of the magic weapon's power. Electricity arced across the creature's head, causing its whole body to shudder. Clarisse jumped free, rolling safely to the sidewalk as smoke boiled from the drakon's mouth. The drakon's flesh dissolved, and it collapsed into a hollow scaly tunnel of armor.
The rest of us stared at Clarisse in awe. I had never seen anyone take down such a huge monster single-handedly. But Clarisse didn't seem to care. She ran back to the wounded girl who'd stolen her armor.
Finally Annabeth managed to remove the girl's helmet. We all gathered around: Five, Chris, Clarisse, Annabeth, and me. The battle still raged along Fifth Avenue, but for that moment nothing existed except our small circle and the fallen girl.
Her features, once beautiful, were badly burned from poison. I could tell that no amount of nectar or ambrosia would save her. Something is about to happen. Rachel's words rang in my ears. A trick that ends in death. Now I knew what she meant, and I knew who had led the Ares cabin into battle.
I looked down at the dying face of Silena Beauregard.
∘☽༓☾∘
Hiya,
So, it's a long one, but Silena fought the drakon and that didn't go well, also, I still love Blackjack and Luke's interactions together. They're such menaces. Anyway, not much else to say but we're getting close to the end!
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx