TRUTH TO be told, the General looked like every ugly part of Zoë Cassie had hated at first. But she was her friend, so she ignored the similarities and focussed on the impeding danger.
"Let Artemis go," Zoë demanded.
Atlas walked closer to the chained goddess. "Perhaps you'd like to take the sky for her, then? Be my guest."
Zoë opened her mouth to speak, but Artemis said, "No! Do not offer, Zoë! I forbid you."
Atlas smirked. He knelt next to Artemis and tried to touch her face, but the goddess bit at him, almost taking off his fingers.
"Hoo-hoo," Atlas chuckled. "You see, daughter? Lady Artemis likes her new job. I think I will have all the Olympians take turns carrying my burden, once Lord Kronos rules again, and this is the center of our palace. It will teach those weaklings some humility."
Cassie looked at Annabeth. She was desperately trying to tell her something.
The blonde motioned her head toward Luke. But all Cassie could do was stare at her.
She hadn't noticed before, but something about her had changed. Her blond hair was now streaked with gray.
"From holding the sky," Percy muttered, as if he'd read her mind. "The weight should've killed her."
Atlas approached them, studying Thalia, Percy and her. "So these are the best heroes of the age, eh? Not much of a challenge."
Cassie wanted to show him how much of a challenge they could be.
"Fight us," Percy said. "And let's see."
"Have the gods taught you nothing? An immortal does not fight a mere mortal directly. It is beneath our dignity. I will have Luke crush you instead."
"So you're another coward," he said.
Atlas's eyes glowed with hatred. With difficulty, he turned his attention to Thalia, totally ignoring Cassie.
Which the girl found unbelievable, she was gorgeous!
"As for you, daughter of Zeus, it seems Luke was wrong about you."
"I wasn't wrong," Luke managed. He looked terribly weak, and he spoke every word as if it were painful.
Cassie almost felt bad for him. "Thalia, you still can join us. Call the Ophiotaurus. It will come to you. Look!"
He waved his hand, and next to them a pool of water appeared: a pond ringed in black marble, big enough for the Ophiotaurus.
"Thalia, call the Ophiotaurus," Luke persisted. "And you will be more powerful than the gods."
"Luke..." Her voice was full of pain. "What happened to you?"
"Don't you remember all those times we talked? All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world!"
Thalia shook her head. "Free Annabeth. Let her go."
"If you join me," Luke promised, "it can be like old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don't agree..." His voice faltered. "It's my last chance. He will use the other way if you don't agree. Please."
Cassie didn't know what he meant, but the fear in his voice sounded real enough. She even believed that Luke was in danger.
His life depended on Thalia's joining his cause. And Cassie was afraid Thalia might believe it, too.
"Do not, Thalia," Zoë warned. "We must fight them."
Luke waved his hand again, and a fire appeared. A bronze brazier, just like the one at camp. A sacrificial flame.
"Thalia please," she said. "Don't."
Behind Luke, the golden sarcophagus began to glow.
"We will raise Mount Othrys right here," Luke promised, in a voice so strained it was hardly his.
"Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak."
He pointed toward the ocean, and her heart fell.
Marching up the side of the mountain, from the beach where the Princess Andromeda was docked, was a great army.
Dracaenae and Laestrygonians, monsters and half-bloods, hell hounds, harpies, and other things Cassie couldn't even name.
The whole ship must've been emptied, because there were hundreds, many more than she'd seen on board last summer.
And they were marching toward them. In a few minutes, they would be there.
"This is only a taste of what is to come," Luke said. "Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help."
For a terrible moment, Thalia hesitated. She gazed at Luke, her eyes full of pain, as if the only thing she wanted in the world was to believe him.
Then she leveled her spear. "You aren't Luke. I don't know you anymore."
"He'll destroy you Thalia," he pleaded. "Please. Don't make me... Don't make him destroy you."
There was no time. If that army got to the top of the hill, they would be overwhelmed.
Percy met Cassie's eyes and then Annabeth's eyes again. The three nodded.
"Now," he said.
Together, they charged.
Cassie went straight for Luke. The power of Kairos was so great that his dragon-women bodyguards fled in a panic, dropping the golden coffin and leaving him alone.
But despite his sickly appearance, Luke was still quick with his sword. He snarled like a wild animal and counterattacked.
When his sword, Backbiter, met Cassie's, sparks flew between them.
Out of the corner of her eye, Cassie saw Percy and Thalia going for the General.
Good, she could focus only on Luke. Make him suffer for all that he had caused and for Annabeth.
He laughed. "I see you have improved with your left."
Cassie pressed against him. "I see you're still sloppy with your right."
Luke laughed again, Cassie wanted to punch him. "Ever so sweet."
He seemed... happy Cassie was there. As if everything was going to plan, as if he already knew the outcome.
He was being vicious with her, but she knew he could he even worse.
And then it happened, the sun appeared from in between the clouds, Luke didn't expect that.
Cassie took advantage of his surprise and kicked him and his sword away, he was at the edge of the cliff, she pressed the tip of her sword against his throat.
"It's over Luke."
It would be so easy to kill him or push him, but Cassie didn't want to hurt him so badly, after all he was still Luke and human. She didn't want to be heartless, she wanted to be compassionate.
"Give up Luke and I'll let you live."
He smiled. "But Cassie, why would you do that?"
Suddenly the sun blinded her vision, she couldn't see a thing. Fear gripped Cassie's heart, all of a sudden the world wasn't there anymore.
White, that's all, and the noise in the background.
Something gripped her feet while she tried to get away, but the sun was still blinding her.
Next thing she knew, she smashed her head against the rocks, Cassiopeia Bradbury was dead.
~|[🫀]|~
COLD, THAT'S what she first noticed. But it wasn't too cold, not enough to be uncomfortable at least.
Her head hurt but soon the pain faded away. There was nothing around, only darkness, but somehow she could see.
"Cassiopeia."
She whipped around, her father was there.
"Where am I?"
He seemed uncomfortable, which was weird seeing how her father had unwavering confidence. "You're dead, dear."
The prophecy came to her like a slap: mother and daughter shall meet at the same place.
"Where's mom?"
He didn't answer.
"Where is my mother?"
His silence confirmed it, her mother was dead.
For a second she didn't believe it, he hadn't said it, it was just her imagination.
"I'm sorry Cassiopeia- she's happier now if that gives you any peace."
"No, you're lying." He wasn't.
Cassie replayed the last hour, she was dead. Her biggest fear, dying- and she was only fifteen. She had so much to live for.
"I can't be dead."
Her father stepped closer, she stepped back. "You can still go back to the land of the living if you wish, I came here to make you an offer."
Cassie was shaking with rage. "The sun blinded me"
"Ah yes, Apollo had a bone to pick and a threat to neutralise. Do you remember that hobo that burnt you?"
Yeah, before they went to the ski town and Bianca had died.
"That's the graze of the sun, he found you because of that. Obviously he hadn't used it with his sister, but the demigod of his biggest rival..."
"A threat? I'm just a teenage girl."
Daughter of desire by the sun will be grazed.
She was dead because of a foolish god. Cassiopeia felt something ugly and burning under her skin, it was wrath.
"Are you always so involved in your children's lives?" She said it with the intention to hurt, but he didn't mind.
"The last kid I had messed it up with Athena because I wasn't present enough."
Cassie didn't want to hear his story, she was angry and tired, her mother was dead and at the moment, she was too.
Ages ago when Percy, Annabeth, Grover and her, went looking for the lighting bolt, Percy promised her they would both make it alive.
Only one of them was still fighting and the other one was closer to becoming what she had always feared.
A ghost, like her mother.
"I want to live." She stated.
He tskd. "Don't we all?" But he sighed. "If you do it you'll die anyways Cassiopeia."
Die anyways?
She shook her head. "I don't care."
He looked directly at her. "Why give you life to die again?"
She knew she could change her future. "How will I die?"
"Someone you hold dear in your heart will kill you."
"I don't care," she just wanted to live. "I'll live."
His father looked at her, sadly, as if he had lived that moment hundreds of times.
"If you wish."
Eros snapped his fingers, and suddenly, Cassiopeia Bradbury was back.
- so this may seem out of
pocket but necessary for plot
- like she said, she's just a girl
- i'm so excited to write
dark cassie :)
flo <3