The screams of the dead people filled our ears and the warmth from the flames licked at our backs. "Woah! Wait! We have a deal, right - you have the Bolt." Percy frowned and drew his sword.
Hades looked over the five of us with a look of distaste and nodded at Persephone. "Call the Hounds." Smirking, Persephone called out to the hounds in Greek, summoning them almost instantly.
"Olive, you got this.. right?" Anna cried, stepping away from the advancing Hounds, but every step away was still a step towards the flaming souls behind us.
The Hound growled and nipped at our heels angrily and I yelled at them to stop multiple times, but I knew it was no use. They only would listen to Persephone once she gave them a direct order. An order to kill.
Hades admired the Bolt with a grin and muttered something to Persephone. I could hear Miss Jackson behind me yelling at the Hounds to stay put and kicking at their faces. In the corner of my eye I watched as Persephone began kissing Hades and while they were distracted, I took a deep breath and figured Greek may work on them. I quickly thought back to my few Greek lessons and remembered the one word which may help me. "αριθ."
The Hounds continued growling, but they stayed back, no longer advancing. To which I was extremely shocked and happy.
As I looked up, Persephone had yanked the Bolt off of Hades and was prancing around with it with a diabolical smirk on her face. "Come on, give it b-" Hades began, but wouldn't finish. With an angry roar, she pointed the Bolt at Hades and shot a bolt straight at his chest - electrifying him and causing him to pass out.
Staring at what she did, she jumped for joy and laughed at the top of her lungs, then muttered something in Greek, making the vortex disappear and convert back into the wall it was. Smirking as walked over to Hades's body and nudged him with the edge of her toe, chuckling as she did. "He won't remember a thing."
Percy drew his sword and pointed it defensively at Persephone who was still grasping them bolt. "Why did you do that?"
She gave him a look of utter shock and anger. "Are you serious? Because he's mean and angry and abusive! The only time I look forward to is my allotted time away from this Hell-hole. You try living with this guy for nine months out of a year and see how you like it. A war of the gods would put an end to it! And I'd be alone with only him. That's why, I am letting you go-and giving you back this." She gave Percy the Bolt and nodded. "Now, leave. Take the Bolt and your mother."
Percy nodded and capped his sword, then pulled out the three pearls we had collected.
Persephone gave me a look of knowing. "I expect I'll see you very soon, will I not?" I just straightened my back and looked away. "Only three?" She looked around with a cocked brow. "There are five of you. Each pearl only transports one, so two will have to stay." She walked over to a couch and sat down comfortably. "I volunteer the saytr." She smirked seductively, but let us choose amongst ourselves.
"Alright guys, so we know who's staying and whose going right?" Percy asked and we all nodded, he then turned to his mother and hugged her goodbye. "Mom, Grover will protect you - he will lead you out, kay?"
"Alright, Percy." She smiled and nodded then looked at Annabeth and I with a small smile. "Who are your friends?"
"Mom..." Percy sighed and rubbed his forehead. "We really don't have time - "
"Now, Percy - I can at least know their names, not their backstories." She chuckled and looked at him expectantly. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Okay, okay." Percy sighed with a small smile then pointed at Annabeth who was keeping a safe distance from everything and admiring the architecture. "That is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and my friend. And she," Percy pointed at me and I held out my hand for Miss Jackson with a smile. "Is Olivia Smith, daughter of Apollo -and Artemis- ...and she's got some Ares too," He chuckled a little as his mom nodded with a slightly amused smile on her face. "And she's mine - I-I mean, she's my ..." I rose a brow at the slip of 'mine' and smirked a little, feeling a small blush forming.
"Oh! Oh..." Miss Jackson giggled and shook my hand once more, with a knowing smile. "Woah, that was quick, Percy. She's pretty too -"
I blushed and Percy whined. "Mom." I chuckled and shook my head at the two of them, he was really good with his mother and it made me feel good to see him happy, and bad to know that he felt so strongly towards me when I knew I wasn't going to be able to be around for him much longer. I felt a pang in my heart and I knew I couldn't leave him like this - I needed to let him know everything, I needed to tell him everything some how after I died.
As Percy bickered back and forth with his mother I walked towards a black coffee table and picked up a black pen then looked around for some thing to scrawl a letter on. The weight of a firm hand on my shoulder made me jump, but I calmed down once I saw that it was Persephone holding out a sheet of parchment and an envelope. "Here, if it is any consolation - I think what you are doing is very brave. If I knew I would be here, I wouldn't have the courage to accomplish what needs to be done - I'd run as far away as possible."
I sighed and gave her a defeated smile. "You can't run from fate."
She cocked her head to the side with an outraged face and a knowing smirk. "Of course you can!" She chuckled and shook her head. "You don't know it yet, but even in this very moment you are. Every moment you breathe, Oliviae, you are fighting fate."
I frowned and sat down on the leather couch next to her. "I don't understand..."
She chuckled and placed her hand on my cheek lovingly. "You will soon enough. Death cannot hold that which is a god."
"I-I'm not a god... I'm just.."
"Just 14/16ths." She rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Do not be afraid, You are living proof of the impossible - you should have been dead the moment Zeus found out about you, but you are here, now - there is a specific reason why. And I'd be damned -well I can't be any more damned now- if I thought you wouldn't be able to over come this."
My heart was having conniptions. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to soar with hope, sink with the unknowing, or just break in half at all the things I had still left undone - my mission was uncompleted. Persephone just gave me a half-hearted smile and left me alone to jot down my thoughts to Percy and the others.
In a matter of minutes, I had filled up a full page and shoved it messily into the envelope, then signed Percy's name on it with my untidy scrawl. Sighing, I got up and walked over to the bickering trio and his mother. Miss Jackson gave me a worried look over and walked to me with a concerned glimmer in her eye. "Are you alright, hun?"
"Yes, it's just been a long journey - I'll be grateful once we are done." I smiled then fingered the letter nervously, not really wanting to give it to Percy out of fear he'd open it too soon or question me about what it was. "Miss Jackson? Do you think you can do something for me?"
"Of course, what do you need?" She smiled reassuringly and I pulled her aside, explaining what it was I wanted. She agreed with a frown and pocketed the letter, giving me a mournful smile. "You're a wonderful young woman."
Percy walked over to the both of us with an amused smile and leaned in to my, hands in his pockets. "Hey, Olive - can I talk to you for a second...?"
"Uhm, yeah Perc... what is it?"
Percy nervously twisted his fingers together and walked us away from the group for a second, nervously biting his lip. "Do you... kinda-wanna...be mine?"
And in those simple words, millions of butterflies burst inside my stomach and made me squirm with happiness and sadness. "Yes." I blurted out and immediately covered my mouth with my hand in shock. "Y-Yes, ...I do, but-"
"Really?" Percy's face lit up and he hugged me with an ecstatic chuckle, planting a quick kiss on my cheek and causing me to melt just a little more for this guy. His happiness over powered my sadness for the whole situation, maybe I could just enjoy the last moments I had with Percy. "But what?" He asked, registering what I had said.
I pulled on my fingers and furrowed my brow with a grimace. "Nothing, nothing. Really." I smiled and kissed his cheek. A cough from the side of us made the both of us separate and look at a slightly annoyed Annabeth. She twirled a finger through her hair and nodded. "We need to leave now."
Nodding, we all walked over to Miss Jackson and said our goodbyes. "Goodbye you three... I'll see you soon okay?" She smiled as Percy wrapped her in a tight hug and said he loved her, and I watched with a sickening feeling as she slid the envelope deep into Percy's pocket - unnoticed.
~~~~
"Alright you guys, on the count of three, we will stomp on the pearls and think about where we want to go: Olympus - okay?" Annabeth and I nodded at Percy with determination.
Taking a deep breath, we set the pearls on the ground then crushed them under our feet. A zapping sensation filled my bones and I felt my body twisting and turning uncomfortably, shooting through time and space until finally landing on top of a freezing platform, the opposite of the sticky, hot Underworld.
"Look," Annabeth pointed up at the sky drawing both Percy and I's attention. "-Zeus and Poseidon preparing for battle."
"This can't be right...This isn't the right place!" Percy frowned and look around. "This is the Empire State building, not Olympus."
I shook my head and grabbed Percy's hand, remembering this from the field trip we'd taken earlier. "No, this is the entrance it's over here-"
Annabeth looked down at her wrist watch and cursed and rain began falling from the sky in huge heavy droplets. "We only have ten minutes until midnights you guys! Let's mov-"
"Percy Jackson!" A loud yell sounded from behind us and I turned with anger and annoyance. Luke was decending on to the scene with shoe's like the ones he had given Percy. "Man, you weren't supposed to make it out alive. I can't let you take that bolt to Olympus."
I mounted my bow and arrows and snarled at Luke angrily. "Don't give me another reason to kill you." Luke gave me a disturbed look as if I wasn't supposed to be here and shook his head at me.
"Come on, Olive, you should have known it was me all along. But it is a shame-I really do like you. You're supposed to be looking for your sister right now, I thought that if you'd figured out she was still alive, you'd abandon these guys right away."
I growled and tightened my grip on my arrow. "How did you know Penny was still alive?"
"You took the Bolt, you hid it in the shield you gave me. Why?" Percy shook his head at him, and Luke just crossed his arms over his chest with a sigh.
"Well, when you said you were going to the Underworld - it hit me, it was the perfect opportunity to get the Bolt to Hades."
"You make me sick..." I spat at him. "Why would you want that?"
Luke gave me a straight face and looked square in my eyes. "To bring Olympus crumbling down of course."
"Let's go, Percy - now." Annabeth trudged on his shirt and I kept my bow raised in defensive mode. "We're returning the Bolt." She yelled at him, her voice was hurt and she probably hasn't felt this betrayed before.
Suddenly, Luke pulled his sword from his sheath and came for us, slicing at Percy, I shot my arrow, but he dodged it in a swift turn in the air. Closing my necklace, I drew Frai from my belt and sliced at Luke angrily, shallowly cutting his leg and causing him to kick me in the face as he flew around.
Percy drew his sword and charged at Luke, hitting him with the blunt side and kicking him in the stomach, causing him to fly backwards about ten paces. Annabeth drown a knife and advanced on him, however Luke ripped the Bolt from her hands and pushed her away, a guilty glimmer in his eyes as he watched her slip and tumble onto the ground. In the corner of my eye, I watched as Luke pulled a shiny object from his pocket and chucked it at the distracted Percy.
"Watch out!" I yelled and threw myself in front of him in horror. The sudden feeling of cool steel slicing into my chest brought me to my knees and almost made the world stop spinning. I struggled to breathe and looked down that the handle sticking out from my chest in shock. It seemed so simplistic of a way to go, much less complex that all the scenarios that had been playing over and over in my head.
As rain drops pelted my skin I felt my body spasming and I fell to the wet concrete of the Empire State Building, coughing up a mouth full of blood. What felt like a matter of minutes was no less than a matter of moments, but as I looked up through the fading world around me, I watched a horrified Percy bowing his head over me while Annabeth cupped a hand over her mouth in horror as a couple of tear rolled down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Percy." I smiled up at him and touched my fingers to my lips then pressed my hand to his cheek. "I'll be seeing you soon..." I chuckled lightly, then felt my soul slowly slip away into a dream like state, this was death.