[Percy's POV]
"This way!" Rachel yelled. "Why should we follow you?" Annabeth demanded. "You led us straight into that death trap!"
"It was the way you needed to go," Rachel said. "And so is this. Come on!"
Annabeth didn't look happy about it, but she ran along with the rest of us. Rachel seemed to know exactly where she was going. She whipped around corners and didn't even hesitate at crossroads. Once she said, "Duck!" and we all crouched as a huge ax swung over our heads. Then we kept going as if nothing had happened.
I lost track of how many turns we made. We didn't stop to rest until we came to a room the size of a gymnasium with old marble columns holding up the roof. I stood at the doorway, listening for sounds of pursuit, but I heard nothing. Apparently we'd lost Luke and his minions in the maze.
Then I realized something else: Mrs. O'Leary was gone. I didn't know when she'd disappeared. I didn't know if she'd gotten lost or been overrun by monsters or what. My heart turned to lead. She'd saved our lives, and I hadn't even waited to make sure she was following us.
Ethan collapsed on the floor. "You people are crazy." He pulled off his helmet. His face gleamed with sweat.
"Oh, you have no idea." Y/N huffed, putting his hands on his knees and bending over. Annabeth gasped. "I remember you! You were one of the undetermined kids in the Hermes cabin, years ago."
He glared at her. "Yeah, and you're Annabeth. I remember." his voice sounded malicious.
Y/N stepped in front of her cautiously. "Yeah, so what?" he asked. Ethan rolled his eye as Annabeth peeked over Y/N's shoulder, and asked, "What- what happened to your eye?"
Ethan looked away, and I got the feeling that was one subject he would not discuss. "You must be the half-blood from my dream," I said. "The one Luke's people cornered. It wasn't Nico after all."
"Who's Nico?"
"Doesn't matter," Y/N saved it. "What were you doing trying to get in with Luke?"
Annabeth followed with, "Yeah, why were you trying to join up with the wrong side?" Ethan sneered. "There's no right or wrong side. The gods never cared about us. Why shouldn't I-"
"Sign up with an army that makes you fight to the death for entertainment?" Annabeth said. "Gee, I wonder." Ethan struggled to his feet. "I'm not going to argue with you. Thanks for the help, but I'm out of here."
"We're going after Daedalus," I said. "Come with us. Once we get through, you'd be welcome back at camp."
"You really are crazy if you think Daedalus will help you."
"He has to," Annabeht said. "We'll make him listen." Ethan snorted and turned to wander off into the darkness. "Yeah, well. Good luck with that." Y/N grabbed his arm with an expression I'd never seen him wear.
Genuine terror.
"You can't go in there alone, dude." he said, his eyes panicked and his jaw clenched.
Ethan looked at him with barely controlled anger. "Watch me." and ripped his arm from Y/N's grip. His eye patch was frayed around the edges and the black cloth was faded, like he'd been wearing it a long, long time. "You shouldn't have spared me, Jackson. Mercy has no place in this war."
Then he ran off into the maze, back the way we'd come.
* * *
[Y/N's POV]
We were so tired from running that we made camp right there in a huge room. The labyrinth seemed like an all encompassing darkness when I was alone. But with friends, I felt like I could do this.
We lit fires with nearby scrap wood, shadows dancing around us like branches in the wind. If I needed to sink back into the shadows, I easily could. But I really didn't want to do that again.
"Something was wrong with Luke," Annabeth muttered, poking at the fire with her knife. "Did you notice the way he was acting?"
"He looked pretty fine to me," I said. "Like he'd spent a nice day making people fight to the death."
"That's not true! There was something wrong with him. He looked... nervous. He told his monsters to spare me. He wanted to tell me something."
"Probably, 'Hi, Annabeth! Sit here with me and watch while I tell people to tear your friends apart. It'll be fun!'"
"You're impossible," Annabeth grumbled.
"But isn't that why you love me?" I whispered into her ear. Her face flushed. She sheathed her dagger and looked at Rachel. "So which way now, Sacagawea?" Rachel didn't respond right away. She'd become quieter since the arena.
Now, whenever Annabeth made a sarcastic comment, Rachel hardly bothered to answer. She'd burned the tip of a stick in the fire and was using it to draw ash figures on the floor, images of the monsters we'd seen. With a few strokes, she caught the likeness of a dracaena perfectly.
"We'll follow the path," she said. "The brightness on the floor."
"The brightness that led us straight into a trap?" Annabeth asked. "Lay off her, Annabeth," Percy said. "She's doing the best she can."
Annabeth stood. "The fire's getting low. I'll go look for some more scraps while you guys talk strategy." And she marched off into the shadows. I wanted to go with her, but I could tell she wasn't exactly in a talking mood.
"She's usually not like this," I told her. "I don't know what's eating at her." Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure you don't know?"
"What do you mean?"
"Boys," she muttered. "Totally blind."
"Hey, don't you get on my case, too! Look, I'm sorry we got you involved in this."
"No, you were right," she said. "I can see the path. I can't explain it, but it's really clear." She pointed toward the other end of the room, into the darkness. "The workshop is that way. The heart of the maze. We're very close now. I don't know why the path led through that arena. I- I'm sorry about that. I thought you guys were going to die." She sounded like she was close to crying.
"Hey, I've almost died like eight times, and actually died once," I promised. "Don't feel too bad."
She studied my face. "What?" I shrugged. "I can't really sugarcoat that for you. Sorry, Rach." I sighed. The redheaded girl shook her head and looked between me and Percy.
"So you guys do this every summer? Fight monsters? Save the world? Don't you ever get to do just, you know, normal stuff?"
I'd never really thought about it like that. The last time I'd had something like a normal life had been... Well, not really ever. I'd always been at camp, or on a quest. I'd gotten maybe four months worth of being a regular mortal, and then I was thrust into hell for two months after that. I sighed.
"Half-bloods get used to it, I guess. Or maybe not used to it, but..." I shifted uncomfortably. "What about you? What do you do normally?"
Rachel shrugged. "I paint. I read a lot." I sighed. "We all have dyslexia, so reading is really difficult for us." Percy replied. "What about your family?"
I could sense her mental shields going up, like this was not a safe subject. "Oh... they're just, you know, family."
"You said they wouldn't notice if you were gone." Percy replied. She set down her drawing stick. "Wow, I'm really tired. I may sleep for a while, okay?"
"Oh, sure," he said. "Sorry if..."
But Rachel was already curling up, using her backpack as a pillow. She closed her eyes and lay very still, but I got the feeling she wasn't really asleep. Percy decided to go curl up into a ball in the corner as well, probably thinking about his own stuff.
A few minutes later, Annabeth came back. She tossed some more sticks on the fire. She looked at Rachel, then Percy, and then at me. "I'll take first watch," she said. "You should sleep, too."
"Yeah? When's that ever happened?" Annabeth let out a heavy breath. "You know, Rachel is just doing her best, right?" Annabeth sighed tiredly, sunk down against the wall and onto the ground, and looked up at me.
Her eyes held that look she gave me in the volcano. A sort of 'pleading' expression. I took a deep, shaky breath, and scooted myself to sit as close as possible to her. I took her hand in mine. It was something that I figured out calmed her, and kept me grounded. It worked really well. And it felt very nice.
"Annabeth, if something's bothering you, you can tell me, you know that, right?" I asked. She looked up, tears threatening to fall, and I took my other hand, wiping the droplet off her cheek. She shook her head. "I can't talk about it now." she whimpered.
I was a bit miffed that she wasn't going to let me in on what it was at the moment, but was grateful she was still here with me.
"Well, then you should get rest. I'll take watch. It'll be like old times." She frowned. "Don't worry. I'm not going to run off into the labyrinth by myself again. That would be stupid."
Annabeth pushed herself against my side, laying her head on my shoulder. I smiled softly, watching her nod off as soon as her head hit me. I gently pressed my lips against the top of her head.
Annabeth smiled in her sleep as I swept my eyes among our surroundings, all the while, the fire flickered, echoing off the walls. I watched the flames for a while, gently rubbing my hand in little circles on Annabeth's back.
In the haze, I hadn't even realized that the fire was gone. And so were the others. And I wasn't in the labyrinth either.
I was dreaming.
In front of me now, was a dusty old room. Light barely shone through past the piles of stacked trophies and boxes. I was shorter than I would be now. This wasn't just a dream. It was a memory.
I'd come up here by accident, playing hide and seek with Annabeth and Luke.
None of us had ever been in the attic before, so I thought it would be a great spot to hide. I had no idea what was going to happen.
I was quietly laughing to myself. "No one's gonna find me in here." And I hid behind a stack of boxes stuck between two cluttered tables.
A good bit of time passed. The already dim light shining in the attic was getting darker. The sun had started to go down. And I was starting to feel myself getting tired. I yawned.
If I remember right, I was eight, almost nine when this happened. I heard a raspy voice in the back of my mind. It was an old woman's voice.
"Approach, child." it told me.
I got scared. I didn't have any clue what was going on, but I jumped from my hiding place, and knocked over a table, only to reveal something that looked dead.
It was an ancient looking mummy on a stool. The weak light shining through the attic windows wrapped around her, making the Oracle look like a mirage.
"Closer..."
I obeyed, my tiny heart racing as my breathing picked up. "H- Hi... I'm... I'm Y/N."
Given hindsight, introducing myself felt stupid. But cut me some slack. I was eight.
The closer I got, the more the mummy seemed to shine. It was almost like ghostly green fog was drifting from out of the mummy's wrappings.
I stood in front of the oracle, unsure of what it wanted, and unsure of what it even was at the time. But she asked me to get closer, so I took another step.
Then, the mummy's eyes shot open. I jumped back in terror, not having the wherewithal to even scream.
Her eyes glowed that same green as the mist spreading around her. That, combined with the glinting sunlight reminded me of the sun peeking out from behind a cloud. Only this cloud was a thick smoke. It started to swallow me too.
Inside the fog, the voice spoke again. It started off as just some random mumbling that I could only guess was Ancient Greek, then it turned into incoherent phrases in English, and finally, it settled on:
"The echo of nature pleads.
A man of twilight on his knees."
A series of misty images started forming from the swirling green smoke.
"Lightning strikes in the night.
The sea propels the darkness' might."
Another set of images. A boy who, at the time I didn't recognize. I knew him now. It was Percy. And Thalia's image frozen as she rescued me from the clutches of the giant just before she died.
"At a parent's hand his strength falls.
Yet his torment never stalls."
Now, a horrifying cackle filled my ears. I couldn't quite place it at the time. Then, the sound of water dripping onto an empty stone floor, quietly, as someone cried, clearly in pain.
"Marks of war stain his skin.
The destruction of the old he may begin."
A flash in my mind. The pulsing black tendrils of the demon flaring on my skin. Then an eruption. My ears rang and my vision was full of spotty light.
"The shadows show the end of his day. Commanded by the darkest decay."
Now, my head was starting to kill me. I fell down to my knees as the fog slowly started to recede. My head pounded as cackling started to shake the cabin walls around me. I felt white hot pain coasting through every part of my body as the cackling picked up in intensity.
"Tick, tock, Y/N... The time is coming."
The voice faded with his laughter. But that never happened before. That was wasn't what happened then. He didn't speak to me before... before Scylla...
I tried to scream but nothing was coming out. My ears were ringing and tears streamed down my face.
The quaking and the ringing seemed to come to a sudden and violent halt when another voice said, "Stand, Y/N."
I wiped my tears and turned to see Dionysus standing at the trap door for the attic. He looked concerned. "Come, boy. We must speak with Chiron. Quickly."
I couldn't bring myself to stand. My body was shaking with terror. Dionysus rolled his eyes and walked over, dropping to a knee and offering a hand to grab. The stubby and not yet calloused hands that belonged to me of the past reached out and grabbed hold.
"How did you even end up in here?" The god asked. I sniffed and replied, "Hide and seek." He scoffed and chuckled lightly. "Yes, well. Next time you're seeking, come find me and I'll tell you where they're hiding. So we can avoid this mess happening again.
I started laughing. It was higher pitched, and joyous. I swear I saw Dionysus crack a smile. "But first, we must find Chiron. We must tell him what you just heard."
"Okay." I muttered, wiping my nose. Dionysus shook his head and opened the trap door.
The world started shaking again. It wasn't the dream this time. Dionysus kept speaking and walking as his voice cut out. That same ringing filled my ears. Like I'd gone deaf.
I woke up fast this time. The labyrinth was rumbling.
* * *
[Percy's POV]
In my dreams I heard laughter. Cold, harsh laughter, like knives being sharpened.
I was standing at the edge of a pit in the depths of Tartarus. Below me the darkness seethed like inky soup. I'd seen Y/N hanging off the edge before, as if he were swallowed by the darkness below.
"So close to your own destruction, little hero," the voice of Kronos chided. "And still you are blind." The voice was different than it had been before. It seemed almost physical now, as if it were speaking from a real body instead of... whatever he'd been in his chopped-up condition.
"I have much to thank you for," Kronos said. "You have assured my rise." The shadows in the cavern became deeper and heavier. I tried to back away from the edge of the pit, but it was like swimming through oil. Time slowed down. My breathing almost stopped.
"A favor," Kronos said. "The Titan lord always pays his debts. Perhaps a glimpse of the friends you abandoned..." The darkness rippled around me, and I was in a different cave. "Hurry!" Tyson said.
He came barreling into the room. Grover stumbled along behind him. There was a rumbling in the corridor they'd come from, and the head of an enormous snake burst into the cave.
I mean, this thing was so big its body barely fit through the tunnel. Its scales were coppery. Its head was diamond-shaped like a rattler, and its yellow eyes glowed with hatred. When it opened its mouth, its fangs were as tall as Tyson.
It lashed at Grover, but Grover scampered out of the way. The snake got a mouthful of dirt. Tyson picked up a boulder and threw it at the monster, smacking it between the eyes, but the snake just recoiled and hissed.
"It's going to eat you!" Grover yelled at Tyson. "How do you know?"
"It just told me! Run!"
Tyson darted to one side, but the snake used its head like a club and knocked him off his feet. "No!" Grover yelled. But before Tyson could regain his balance, the snake wrapped around him and started to squeeze.
Tyson strained, pushing with all his immense strength, but the snake squeezed tighter. Grover frantically hit the snake with his reed pipes, but he might as well have been banging on a stone wall.
The whole room shook as the snake flexed its muscles, shuddering to overcome Tyson's strength. Grover began to play with pipes, and stalactites rained down from the ceiling. The whole cave seemed about to collapse...
I woke up with Y/N shaking my shoulder. "Percy, wake up!"
"Tyson- Tyson's in trouble!" I said. "We have to help him!"
"First things first," Annabeth said. "Earthquake!"
Sure enough, the room was rumbling. "Rachel!" I yelled. Her eyes opened instantly. She grabbed her pack, and the four of us ran. We were almost to the far tunnel when a column next to us groaned and buckled.
We kept going as a hundred tons of marble crashed down behind us. We made it to the corridor and turned just in time to see the other columns toppling. A cloud of white dust billowed over us, and we kept running.
"You know what?" Annabeth said. "I like this way after all." It wasn't long before we saw light up ahead, like regular electric lighting. "There," Rachel said.
We followed her into a stainless steel hallway, like I imagined they'd have on a space station or something. Fluorescent lights glowed from the ceiling. The floor was a metal grate.
I was so used to being in the darkness that I had to squint. "This way," Rachel said, beginning to run. "We're close!"
"This is so wrong!" Annabeth said. "The workshop should be in the oldest section of the maze. This can't-"
She faltered, because we'd arrived at a set of metal double doors. Inscribed in the steel, at eye level, was a large blue Greek ∆. "We're here," Rachel announced. "Daedalus's workshop."
Annabeth pressed the symbol on the doors and they hissed open. "So much for ancient architecture," I said. Annabeth scowled. Together we walked inside.
The first thing that struck me was the daylight, blazing sun coming through giant windows. Not the kind of thing you expect in the heart of a dungeon. The workshop was like an artist's studio, with thirty-foot ceilings and industrial lighting, polished stone floors, and workbenches along with windows.
A spiral staircase led up to a second-story loft. Half a dozen easels displayed hand-drawn diagrams for buildings and machines that looked like Leonardo da Vinci sketches. Several laptop computers were scattered around on the tables. Glass jars of green oil, Greek fire, lined one shelf.
There were inventions, too, weird metal machines I couldn't make sense of. One was a bronze chair with a bunch of electrical wires attached to it, like some kind of torture device. In another corner stood a giant metal egg about the size of a man.
There was a grandfather clock that appeared to be made entirely of glass, so you could see all the gears turning. And hanging on the wall were several sets of bronze and silver wings.
"Di immortales," Annabeth muttered. She ran to the nearest easel and looked at the sketch. "He's a genius. Look at the curves on this building!"
"And an artist," Rachel said in amazement. "These wings are amazing!"
The wings looked more advanced than the ones I'd seen in my dreams. The feathers were more tightly interwoven. Instead of wax seals, self adhesive strips ran down the sides. I kept my hand on Riptide. Apparently Daedalus was not at home, but the workshop looked like it had been recently used.
The laptops were running their screensavers. A half-eaten blueberry muffin and a coffee cup sat on a workbench. I walked to the window. The view outside was amazing. I recognized the Rocky Mountains in the distance. We were high up in the foothills, at least five hundred feet, and down below a valley spread out, filled with a tumbled collection of red mesas and boulders and spires of stone.
It looked like some huge kid had been building a toy city with skyscraper-size blocks, and then decided to knock it over. "Where are we?" I wondered.
"Colorado Springs," A voice said behind us. "The Garden of the Gods." Standing on the spiral staircase above us, with his weapon drawn, was our missing sword master Quintus.
[Y/N's POV]
"You," Annabeth said. "What have you done with Daedalus?"
The old guy smiled faintly. I had no idea who this was, but if Annabeth is that mad about it, he's probably bad news. "Trust me, my dear. You don't want to meet him."
"Look, Mr. Traitor," she growled, "I didn't fight a dragon woman and a three-bodied man and a psychotic Sphinx to see you. Now where is DAEDALUS?"
The guy came down the stairs, holding his sword at his side. He was dressed in jeans and boots and a counselor's T-shirt from Camp Half-Blood. So using deductive reasoning, since I didn't know him, and Percy and Annabeth seemed, he'd probably been at camp in the last few months or so.
"You think I'm an agent of Kronos," he said, looking at Annabeth and Percy. "That I work for Luke."
"Well, duh," said Annabeth. "You're an intelligent girl," he said. "But you're wrong. I work only for myself."
"Luke mentioned you," Percy said. "Geryon knew about you, too. You've been to his ranch."
"Of course," he said. "I've been almost everywhere. Even here."
He walked past me like I was no threat at all and stood by the window. "The view changes from day to day," he mused. "It's always some place high up. Yesterday it was from a skyscraper overlooking Manhattan. The day before that, there was a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. But it keeps coming back to the Garden of the Gods. I think the Labyrinth likes it here. A fitting name, I suppose."
"Alright, who is this?" I asked. Annabeth and Percy gave me the rundown. Former swordsmanship assistant at camp. Mysteriously snuck off. "So, you've been here before," I said.
"Oh, yes."
"Is that an illusion out there?" I asked. "A projection or something?"
"No," Rachel murmured. "It's real. We're really in Colorado."
Quintus regarded her. "You have clear vision, don't you? you remind me of another mortal girl I once knew. Another princess who came to grief."
"Enough games," I said. "What have you done with Daedalus?" Quintus stared at me. "My boy, you need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly. I am Daedalus."
So, I'll lead you into the next paragraph with this.
In my life, I've heard some pretty funky things. I've heard stuff that made me laugh, stuff that made my cry. But nothing filled me with just as much pure, and unfiltered rage as this did.
I drew my swords without even consciously knowing about it and was about to run the inventor through right then and there, were it not for the other three straining, physically holding me back.
"They were looking for you, this whole time! And you were right there?! You could have saved them from ever having to go into this stupid maze in the first place!" I shouted, spitting at the old bastard.
Daedalus sighed tiredly. "They would have gone looking for you anyway, Y/N. I had to return. This is my home. My punishment." he replied. "But you're not an inventor! You're a swordsman!" Percy exclaimed, struggling to hold me back.
"I am both," Quintus said. "And an architect. And a scholar. I also play basketball pretty well for a guy who didn't start until he was two thousand years old. A real artist must be good at many things."
"That's true," Rachel said. "Like I can paint with my feet as well as my hands." I don't know how that was relevant, but it was an interesting skill.
"You see?" Quintus said. "A girl of many talents."
"But you don't even look like Daedalus," Percy protested. "I saw him in a dream, and..." Suddenly a horrible thought dawned on me.
"Yes," Quintus said. "You've finally guessed the truth."
"You're an automaton. You made yourself a new body."
"Percy," Annabeth said uneasily, "that's not possible. That- that can't be an automaton." Quintus chuckled. "Do you know what Quintus means, my dear?"
"The fifth, in Latin. But-"
"This is my fifth body." The swordsman held out his forearm. He pressed his elbow and part of his wrist popped open, a rectangular hatch in his skin. Underneath, bronze gears whirred. Wires glowed. I jumped back in surprise. Sickening to see.
"That's amazing!" Rachel said.
"That's disgusting," I seethed. "You found a way to transfer your animus into a machine?" Annabeth said. "That's... not natural."
"Oh, I assure you, my dear, it's still me. I'm still very much Daedalus. Our mother, Athena, makes sure I never forget that." He tugged back the collar of his shirt. At the base of his neck was a mark I'd never seen before, the dark shape of a bird grafted to his skin.
"A murderer's brand," Annabeth said.
"For your nephew, Perdix," I recalled. "The boy you pushed off the tower."
Quintus's face darkened. "I did not push him. I simply-"
"Made him lose his balance," I said. "Let him die. I know your story."
Quintus gazed out the windows at the purple mountains. "I regret what I did. I was angry and bitter. But I cannot take it back, and Athena never lets me forget. As Perdix died, she turned him into a small bird, a partridge. She branded the bird's shape on my neck as a reminder. No matter what body I take, the brand appears on my skin."
"You really are Daedalus," I decided. "But why did you come to the camp? Why spy on it?"
"To see if your camp was worth saving. Luke had given me one story. I preferred to come to my own conclusions."
"So you have talked to Luke."
"Oh, yes. Several times. He is quite persuasive."
"But now you've seen the camp!" Annabeth persisted. "So you know we need your help. You can't let Luke through the maze!"
Daedalus set his sword on the workbench. "The maze is no longer mine to control, Annabeth. I created it, yes. In fact, it is tied to my life force. But I have allowed it to live and grow on its own. That is the price I paid for privacy."
"Privacy from what?"
"The gods," he said. "And death. I have been alive for two millennia, my dear, hiding from death."
"But how can you hide from Hades?" I asked. "I mean... Hades has the Furies. Thanatos, aside from that one time can be pretty much everywhere."
"They do not know everything," he said. "Or see everything. You have encountered them, Y/N. You know this is true." He eyed me cautiously. "Under the right circumstances, even a powerful soul such as your own could escape detection from death's grasp."
I swallowed bile building in my throat. He was right. I had slipped through the cracks before.
"A clever man can hide quite a long time, and I have buried myself very deep. Only my greatest enemy has kept after me, and even him I have thwarted."
"You mean Minos," Percy said.
Daedalus nodded. "He hunts for me relentlessly. Now that he is a judge of the dead, he would like nothing better than for me to come before him so he can punish me for my crimes. After the daughters of Cocalus killed him, Minos's ghost began torturing me in my dreams."
He let out a long sigh, one that sounded far overdue. "He promised that he would hunt me down. I did the only thing I could. I retreated from the world completely. I descended into my Labyrinth. I decided this would be my ultimate accomplishment: I would cheat death."
"And you did," Annabeth marveled, "for two thousand years." She sounded kind of impressed, despite the horrible things Daedalus had done. Just then a loud bark echoed from the corridor. I heard the ba-BUMP, baBUMP, ba-BUMP of huge paws, and the giant hellhound from camp bounded into the workshop.
She licked Percy, tilted her head at me, as if deciding whether I was worth licking, did in fact lick my face once, then almost knocked Daedalus over with an enthusiastic leap.
"There is my old friend!" Daedalus said, scratching Mrs. O'Leary behind the ears. "My only companion all these long lonely years."
"You let her save us," Percy said. "That whistle actually worked." Daedalus nodded. "Of course it did, Percy. You have a good heart. And I knew Mrs. O'Leary liked you. I wanted to help you. Perhaps I- I felt guilty, as well."
"Guilty about what?"
"That your quest would be in vain."
"What?" Annabeth said. "But you can still help us. You have to! Give us Ariadne's string so Luke can't get it."
"Yes... the string. I told Luke that the eyes of a clear-sighted mortal are the best guide, but he did not trust me. He was so focused on the idea of a magic item. And the string works. It's not as accurate as your mortal friend here, perhaps. But good enough. Good enough."
"Where is it?" Annabeth said.
"With Luke," Daedalus said sadly. "I'm sorry, my dear. But you are several hours too late." A chill ran down my back. I felt goosebumps crawl over my arms as I stepped towards the inventor.
"You've got to be kidding!" I shouted, shoving the maze's creator against the walls of his design room. I pointed my sword angrily at the maze maker's throat. Mrs O'Leary growled at me.
With a sudden shock, I realized why Luke had been in such a good mood in the arena. He'd already gotten the string from Daedalus. His only obstacle had been the arena master, and Percy had taken care of that for him by killing Antaeus. I dropped the inventor, my eyes going wide as I backed away from him. "You didn't..."
"Kronos promised me freedom," Quintus said. "Once Hades is overthrown, he will set me over the Underworld. I will reclaim my son Icarus. I will make things right with poor young Perdix. I will see Minos's soul cast into Tartarus, where it cannot bother me again. And I will no longer have to run from death."
"That's your brilliant idea?" Annabeth yelled. "You're going to let Luke destroy your camp, kill hundreds of demigods, and then attack Olympus? You're going to bring down the entire world so you can get what you want?"
It was my turn to hold her back. It was like trying to keep a grip on a feral cat. She kicked and flailed desperately. "Your cause is doomed, my dear. I saw that as soon as I began to work at your camp. There is no way you can hold back the might of Kronos."
"That's not true!" she cried.
"I am doing what I must, my dear. The offer was too sweet to refuse. I'm sorry."
Annabeth slipped my grip, and pushed over an easel. Architectural drawings scattered across the floor. "I used to respect you. You were my hero! You... you built amazing things. You solved problems. Now... I don't know what you are. Children of Athena are supposed to be wise, not just clever. Maybe you are just a machine. You should have died two thousand years ago!"
Instead of getting mad, Daedalus hung his head. "You should go warn your camp. Now that Luke has the string-" Suddenly Mrs. O'Leary pricked up her ears. "Someone's coming!" Rachel warned.
The workshop doors busted open, and of all people, Nico was shoved inside first, his hands in chains. When he saw me, if it was even possible, he looked paler. The dracaenae, that I learned was named Kelli, along with two Canadians that marched in behind them.
The ghost of Minos floated in behind them. He looked almost solid now. His beard was pale, and his eyes were cold, with the faint hint of mist cascading off of him.
He fixed his gaze on Daedalus. "There you are, my old friend." Daedalus's jaw clenched. He looked at Kelli. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Luke sends his compliments," Kelli said. "He thought you might like to see your old employer Minos."
"This was not part of our agreement," Daedalus said. "No indeed," Kelli said. "But we already have what we want from you, and we have other agreements to honor. Minos required something else from us, in order to turn over this fine young demigod." She ran a finger under Nico's chin. "He'll be quite useful. And all Minos asked in return was your head, old man."
Daedalus went almost as ghostly white as Minos. "Treachery."
"Get used to it," Kelli said.
"Nico," I said. "Are you okay?" He nodded regretfully. "I... I'm sorry, guys. Minos told me you were in danger. He convinced me to go back into the maze."
"You were trying to help us?" I asked, feeling my heart pang with guilt. I hadn't seen Nico since he pretty clearly wanted me dead. And now I saw him again, he looked really upset with himself. "I was tricked," he said. "He tricked all of us."
I glared at Kelli. "Where's Luke? Why isn't he here?" The she-demon smiled like we were sharing a private joke. "Luke is... busy. He is preparing for the assault. But don't worry, pretty boy. We have more friends on the way. And in the meantime, I think I'll have a wonderful snack. You've run out of time, Y/N! We don't need you anymore!"
Her hands changed into claws. Her hair burst into flame and her legs turned to their true form, one donkey leg, one bronze. "Y/N," Rachel whispered, "the wings. Do you think-"
"Get them," I said. "I'll try to buy you some time." And with that, all Hades broke loose. Annabeth and I charged at Kelli.
The giants went right for the inventor. But Mrs. O'Leary leapt to his defense just as quickly. Nico got shoved to the ground, fighting against his restraints. Minos wailed, "Kill the inventor! Kill him!"
Rachel and Percy ran to grab the wings off the wall. There weren't enough enemies to pay them any mind. Kelli slashed at Annabeth, and moonlight intercepted it. I flourished, parried, and slung her claws out of the way.
I tried to lunge in to attack, but the demon didn't give me a chance. She flipped tables, destroyed some inventions, and overall caused chaos to keep us from getting close.
In my peripheral, I saw the hellhound bite a chunk out of a giant's arm. It wailed in pain, trying to shake her loose. Daedalus tried to grab his sword, but the other giant destroyed his main workbench, and sent the blade spiraling off away. A clay jar of greek fire smashed on the floor, and began to burn, with green flames spreading like... Well, like fire.
I stood back to back with Annabeth, as fire started to spiral around us. Kelli lunged at us from behind the wall of glowing heat. At one point, she lunged at Annabeth's blind side, and I jumped in front, deflecting her claws, sending her back out of the inferno.
"To me!" Minos cried. "Spirits of the dead!" He raised his ghostly hands and the air began to hum. "No!" Nico cried. He was on his feet now. He'd somehow managed to remove his shackles.
"You do not control me, young fool," Minos sneered. "All this time, I have been controlling you! A soul for a soul, yes. But it is not your sister who will return from the dead. It is I, as soon as I slay the inventor!"
Spirits began to appear around Minos, shimmering forms that slowly multiplied, solidifying into Cretan soldiers. "I am the son of Hades," Nico insisted. "Be gone!" Minos laughed. "You have no power over me. I am the lord of spirits! The ghost king!"
"No." Nico drew his sword. "I am." He stabbed his black blade into the floor, and it cleaved through the stone like butter. "Never!" Minos's form rippled. "I will not-"
The ground shook, the windows cracked, and shattered to nothing. Fresh air filled the stuffy inventor's study. The good news: A fissure rumbled open in the floor, and with a pained cry, Minos and all of his spirits were sucked into the void. Shadows danced on the wall.
The bad news: the fight was still going on all around us, and I let myself get distracted. Kelli pounced on me so fast I had no time to defend myself. My swords shimmered away and I hit my head hard on a worktable as I fell. My eyesight went fuzzy. I couldn't raise my arms.
Kelli laughed. "You will taste wonderful, pretty boy!" She bared her fangs. Then suddenly her body went rigid. Her red eyes widened. She gasped, "No... school... spirit..."
And Annabeth took her knife out of the empousa's back. With an awful screech, Kelli dissolved into yellow vapor. Annabeth offered a hand, and helped me to my feet. I felt dizzy, but we didn't have any time to spare.
Mrs. O'Leary and Daedalus were still locked in combat with the giants, and I could hear shouting in the tunnel. More monsters were coming toward the workshop.
"We have to help Daedalus!" Percy said. "No time," Rachel said. "Too many coming!"
She'd already fitted herself with wings and was working on Nico, who looked pale and sweaty from his struggle with Minos. The wings grafted instantly to his back and arms. "Now you!" she told me. I looked at the others. Percy, and Annabeth.
There were only two more sets of wings. I sighed. They weren't going to let me hear the end of this.
I grabbed a pair of wings and quickly stuck them to Annabeth. Percy had put his on, and in that moment, Annabeth seemed to realize what was going on. Her eyes widened as she looked at me, and immediately started shaking her head. The others walked so lightly that it seemed like they were actually just birds.
"Daedalus!" I yelled. "You gotta go!"
He was cut in a hundred places, but he was bleeding golden oil instead of blood. He'd found his sword and was using part of a smashed table as a shield against the giants. "I won't leave Mrs. O'Leary!" he said. "Go!"
There was no time to argue. Even if we stayed, I wasn't sure we could help. I tried to push the others, but Annabeth turned to me and panicked. "Wait! Y/N, what about you! There aren't enough wings!"
I shrugged. "I'll figure something out!" Annabeth tried to latch onto me. "I'll carry you!" she cried. I pried her iron grip free and replied, "I'd just weigh you down! Look, I promise, I'll be right out there! I always keep my promises, right!?" I asked.
Annabeth nodded, her expression trembling as she looked into my eyes. I gave her the most confident nod I could pull off. "Then let's go!" I said as I pushed them further toward the window.
"None of us know how to fly!" Nico protested. "Hell of a time to learn!" I shouted, shoving them out of the window. Into the open sky. I felt the workshop heat up tremendously, and did the last thing I really wanted to. I took a deep breath, and sunk into the darkness.