Distance was shorter in the Labyrinth. Still, by the time Rachel got them back to Times Square, it felt like they'd pretty much run all the way from New Mexico.
They climbed out of the Marriott basement and stood on the sidewalk in the bright summer daylight, squinting at the traffic and crowds.
Percy led the way into an alley, where he could get a nice echo. Then he whistled as loud as he could, five times.
A minute later, Rachel gasped. "They're beautiful!"
A flock of pegasi descended from the sky, swooping between the skyscrapers. Blackjack was in the lead, followed by five of his friends.
Lilia watched as a cream coloured Pegasus, Honey, made her way over to her and neighed happily. Lilia spent a lot of time in the stables and had become quite attached to Honey.
"Hi, girl," Lilia stroked the horses neck. "How are you?" Honey neighed in reply, Lilia didn't understand her but Percy was busy talking horse to black jack.
"Well," Rachel said, "I guess this is it."
Percy nodded uncomfortably. He looked toward Lilia who was giving him a look that said, 'she can't come to camp.'
"Thanks, Rachel," Percy said. "We couldn't have done it without you."
"I wouldn't have missed it. I mean, except for almost dying, and Pan..." Her voice faltered.
"He said something about your father," Lilia spoke up, it might have been a rude question but the ADHD made it hard for her to restrain herself .
"What did he mean?"
Rachel twisted the strap on her backpack. "My dad.. My dad's job. He's kind of a famous businessman."
"You mean.....you're rich?"
"Well, yeah."
"So that's how you got the chauffeur to help us? You just said your dad's name and—"
"Yes," Rachel cut him off. "Percy...my dad's a land developer. He flies all over the world, looking for tracts of undeveloped land." She took a shaky breath. "The wild. He he buys it up. I hate it, but he plows it down and builds ugly subdivisions and shopping centers. And now that I've seen Pan...Pan's death"
"Hey, you can't blame yourself for that."
"You don't know the worst of it. I—I don't like to talk about my family. I didn't want you to know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."
"No," Percy said. "It's cool. Look, Rachel, you did awesome. You led us through the maze. You were so brave. That's the only thing I'm going to judge you on. I don't care what your dad does."
Rachel looked at him gratefully. "Well... if you ever feel like hanging out with a mortal again..you could call me or something."
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
She knit her eyebrows.
"I mean...I'd like that," he said.
"My number's not in the book," she said.
"I've got it."
"Still on your hand? No way."
"No. I kinda... memorized it."
Her smile came back slowly, but a lot happier. "See you later, Percy Jackson. Go save the world for me, okay?"
She walked off down Seventh Avenue and disappeared into the crowds.
Nico was having trouble. His Pegasus kept shying away from him, reluctant to let him mount.
"Go without me!" Nico said. "I don't want to go back to that camp anyway."
"Nico," Percy said, "we need your help."
He folded his arms and scowled. Then Lilia put her hand on his shoulder.
"Nico," she said. "Please."
Slowly, his expression softened. "All right," he said reluctantly. "For you. but I'm not staying."
Percy raised an eyebrow at her, like, 'How come all of a sudden Nico listens to you?' She stuck her tongue out at him.
At last they got everybody on a Pegasus. They shot into the air, and soon they were over the East river with Long Island spread out before them.
➳
They landed in the middle of the cabin area and were immediately met by Chiron, the potbellied satyr Silenus, and a couple of Apollo cabin archers.
Chiron raised an eyebrow when he saw Nico, but if they expected him to be surprised by their latest news about Quintus being Daedalus, or Kronos rising, they were mistaken.
"I feared as much," Chiron said. "We must hurry. Hopefully you have slowed down the Titan lord, but his vanguard will still be coming through. They will be anxious for blood. Most of our defenders are already in place. Come!"
"Wait a moment," Silenus demanded. "What of the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks overdue, Grover Underwood! Your searcher's license is revoked!"
Grover took a deep breath. He stood up straight and looked Silenus in the eye. "Searcher's licenses don't matter any more. The great god Pan is dead.
He has passed on and left us his spirit."
"What?" Silenus's face turned bright red. "Sacrilege and lies! Grover Underwood, I will have you exiled for speaking thus!"
"It's true," Percy said. "We were there when he died. All of us."
"Impossible! You are all liars! Nature-destroyers!"
Chiron studied Grover's face. "We will speak of this later."
"We will speak of it now!" Silenus said. "We must deal with this-"
"Silenus," Chiron cut in. "My camp is under attack, the matter of Pan has waited two thousand years. I fear it will have to wait a bit longer. Assuming we are still here this evening."
And on that happy note, he readied his bow and galloped toward the woods, leaving them to follow as best they could.
It was the biggest military operation Lilia had ever seen at camp. Everyone was at the clearing, dressed in full battle armor, but this time it wasn't for capture the flag.
The Hephaestus cabin had set up traps around the entrance to the Labyrinth razor wire, pits filled with pots of Greek fire, rows of sharpened sticks to deflect a charge. Beckendorf was manning two catapults the size of pickup trucks, already primed and aimed at Zeus's Fist. The Ares cabin was on the front line, drilling in phalanx formation with Clarisse calling orders. Apollo's and Hermes's cabins were scattered in the woods with bows ready.
Many had taken up positions in the trees. Even the dryads were armed with bows, and the satyrs trotted around with wooden cudgels and shields made of rough tree bark.
Annabeth went to join her brethren from the Athena cabin, who had set up a command tent and were directing operations. A gray banner with an owl fluttered outside the tent. Our security chief, Argus, stood guard at the door.
Some of Lilia's siblings from the Aphrodite's cabin were running around straightening everybody's armor and offering to comb the tangles out of their horsehair plumes. The other half were pulling out all the weapons they had disguised as jewellery and hair clips, and sorting through them.
Lilia squeezed Percy's had, a look of dread crossed her face, before she went to join the archers at the forest edge.
Even Dionysus's kids had found something to do. The god himself was still nowhere to be seen, but his two blond twin sons were running around providing all the sweaty warriors with water bottles and juice boxes.
It looked like a pretty good setup, but Chiron muttered next to Percy. "It isn't enough."
Over at the edge of the clearing, Grover was talking to Juniper. She held his hands while he told her their story. Green tears formed in her eyes as he delivered the news about Pan.
Tyson helped the Hephaestus kids prepare the defenses. He picked up boulders and piled them next to the catapults for firing.
"Stay with me, Percy," Chiron said. "When the fighting begins, I want you to wait until we know what we're dealing with. You must go where we most need reinforcements."
"I saw Kronos," Percy said, still stunned by the fact. "I looked straight into his eyes. It was Luke...but it wasn't."
Chiron ran his fingers along his bowstring. "He had golden eyes, I would guess. And in his presence, time seemed to turn to liquid."
Percy nodded. "How could he take over a mortal body?"
"I do not know, Percy. Gods have assumed the shapes of mortals for ages, but to actually become one...to merge the divine form with the mortal. I don't know how this could be done without Luke's form turning into ashes."
"Kronos said his body had been prepared."
"I shudder to think what that means. But perhaps it will limit Kronos's power. For a time, at least, he is confined to a human form. It binds him together. Hopefully it also restricts him."
"Chiron, if he leads the attack—"
"I do not think so, my boy. I would sense if he were drawing near. No doubt he planned to, but I believe you inconvenienced him when you pulled down his throne room on top of him." He looked at him reproachfully. "You and your friend Nico, son of Hades."
"I'm sorry, Chiron. I know I should've told you. It's just—"
Chiron raised his hand. "I understand why you did it, Percy. You felt responsible. You sought to protect him. But, my boy, if we are to survive this war, we must trust each other. We must..."
His voice wavered. The ground underneath them was trembling Everyone in the clearing stopped what they were doing. Clarisse barked a single order: "Lock shields!"
Then the Titan lord's army exploded from the Labyrinth.
➳
Lilia shivered as she watched the army appear, she'd been in combat before but this was a full-scale battle.
The first thing she saw was a dozen Laistrygonian giants erupting from the ground, yelling so loudly her ears felt like bursting. They carried shields made from flattened cars, and clubs that were tree trunks with rusty spikes bristling at the end. One of the giants bellowed at the Ares phalanx, smashed it sideways with his club, and the entire cabin was thrown aside, a dozen warriors tossed to the wind like rag dolls.
"Fire!" Beckendorf yelled. The catapults swung into action. Two boulders hurtled toward the giants. One deflected off a car shield with hardly a dent, but the other caught a Laistrygonian in the chest, and the giant went down.
Lilia and the archers fired a volley, dozens of arrows sticking in the thick armour of the giants like porcupine quills. Several found chinks in armor, and some of the giants vaporized at the touch of celestial bronze.
But just when it looked like the Laistrygonians were about to get overwhelmed, the next wave surged out of the maze: thirty, maybe forty dracaenae in full battle armor, wielding spears and nets. They dispersed in all directions. Some hit the traps the Hephaestus cabin had laid. One got struck on the spikes and became an easy target for archers. Another triggered a trip wire, and pots of Greek fire exploded into green flames, engulfing several of the snake women. But many more kept coming. Argus and Athena's warriors rushed forward to meet them.
Lilia saw Annabeth draw a sword and engage one of them. Nearby, Tyson was riding a giant. Somehow he'd managed to climb onto the giant's back and was hitting him on the head with a bronze shield-BONG! BONG! BONG!
Chiron calmly aimed arrow after arrow, taking down a monster with every shot. But more enemies just kept climbing out of the maze. Finally a hellhound, not Mrs. O'Leary, leaped out of the tunnel and barreled straight toward the satyrs.
Lilia watched from the tree she was perched in, Chiron shouted; "GO!" Percy drew Riptide and charged.
Percy raced across the battlefield, horrible things happening in every direction. An enemy half-blood was fighting with a son of Dionysus, but it wasn't much of a contest.
The enemy stabbed him in the arm then clubbed him over the head with the butt of his sword, and Dionysus's son went down. Lilia gasped pulling her arrow back and channeling all her rage into it, the golden arrow flew straight at the monster and hit him in the head, vaporising him, with a cloud of green smoke. Strange.
Then enemy warrior shot flaming arrows into the trees, near to where Lilia was, the archers and dryads clambered away in a panic.
Lilia hauled herself down from the tree her arm grazing against the flames on the way down, she winced trying to find a tree that hadn't been engulfed in flames. She needed the high ground.
She ran along the edge of the woods, shooting arrow after arrow as she went, not missing once. The ground trembled slightly and she watched, a huge wave came over the trees putting out the fire. Percy Stood close by, she gave him a nod and climbed the trees, followed by the Apollo cabin.
Several monsters caught sight of the archers in the trees and climbed up after them. Lilia noticed Celia a few trees away, desperately shooting arrows at the enemy, but he had almost reached her.
The trees were close enough to climb across so Lilia swung herself toward her friend.
"Lilia I can't hold him off any longer!" Celia cried as it reached her. Lilia's eyes widened in terror, if she didn't do something quick Celia wouldn't survive.
In a moment of panic, she threw herself at the monster, landing on his back. Realizing that she couldn't use her bow so close to him, she pulled an arrow out and stabbed it as deep into his back as possible.
Thoughts raced through her head as she twisted the arrow, she was angry. She wanted him to suffer.
The monster cried out in pain, a horrible gurgling roar. Instead of blood, a green liquid oozed from the wound, his skin began to shrivel as though being burnt by acid.
The monsters grip loosened on the tree and Lilia suddenly realised she had no way of getting off of him. She looked at the ground, then back at Celia who seemed to have the same realisation. Lilia was going to fall.
Celia desperately tried to grab for her hand but the monster was flailing around, they couldn't reach each other.
The world slowed around her as she watched his hand slip from the branch, they propelled down to the ground spin round and round. Her heartbeat roared in her ears as she closed her eyes readying for impact.
Somewhere in the distance she heard someone shout her name, the terrified voice rang through her head.
Then she hit the ground. Pain shot through her, she let out a high-pitched cry, as she felt her bones crack. She couldn't move, she couldn't open her eyes, she waited as her mind began to slow.
This was it, she thought to herself. She was going to die here.
Then the world stopped around her and she was consumed by complete darkness.
➳
AN:
Hi Guys, in case you haven't noticed I'm not good at writing battle scenes, so instead I decided to just kill off the main character!! Obviously I'm joking, I just needed to add some extra drama into the mix.
This is almost the end of the book, which means we're one step closer to them getting together, YAY.
Hope you all liked this chapter and I'm sorry you didn't get the full battle scene, that just would not have been very entertaining coming from me, so sorry!!!
Also, side-note this chapter is not agreeing with me, anytime I put the little arrows in between scenes it makes the entire format different, no matter what I do, so I'm terribly sorry but they all have to be to the side for this chapter, it's been pissing me off for days going back and forth trying to fix it!!!
Love you all, see you soon!
🤍