"Annabeth XXXVI," Artemis read.
Trying to maintain her composure, Annabeth took a deep breath before letting it out.
I'm almost there... It was meant to be comforting but the thought made her feel more anxious than anything. She was almost there, but she was going to be at a clear disadvantage when facing Arachne.
THE TUNNEL RAN STRAIGHT AND SMOOTH, but after her fall, Annabeth decided to take no chances. She used the wall for support and tapped the floor in front of her with her crutch to make sure there were no traps.
"Good idea," Will approved.
"I can't afford to make any more mistakes," Annabeth grimaced, still thinking about her ankle. If the weaver decided to attack her head-on.
She gulped, suppressing a shiver.
...The sound of running water faded behind her. In its place came a dry chorus of whispers like a million tiny voices.
They seemed to be coming from inside the walls, and they were getting louder.
Everyone tensed.
"More ghosts?" Katie said cautiously.
"Seriously? How many cults are down here?" Travis complained.
"Don't make assumptions. We can't say for certain that they are ghosts," Athena reminded the demigods. "They could be something else."
The teens frowned.
"If they aren't ghosts, what else can they be?" Percy said worriedly.
"I don't know, but I'm not sticking around to find out." Annabeth replied warily.
Annabeth tried to speed up, but she couldn't go much faster without losing her balance or jarring her broken ankle.
Annabeth glared at her feet. Stupid ankle.
She hobbled onward, convinced that something was following her. The small voices were massing together, getting closer.
Annabeth wished she would just turn her head and see what they were, or at least hear what they were saying.
She touched the wall, and her hand came back covered in cobwebs.
Annabeth let out an undignified yelp. She sat up so quickly, she surprised the demigods around her.
When she noticed the glances in her direction (some sympathetic), Annabeth's ears went pink with embarrassment. She ducked her head and avoided eye contact with the others.
Get a hold of yourself, it's just a cobweb. she thought bitterly, forcing herself to relax. How was she supposed to fight the weaver if she couldn't even touch a spiderweb?
Percy squeezed her hand comfortingly.
She'd expected spiders. She knew what was ahead: The weaver. Her Ladyship. The voice in the dark.
Annabeth felt her heart racing. She took a deep breath and shakily let it out. Now that her future-self brought it up, it was weird that she had gotten this far without seeing a single spider. You'd think that with who she was facing, they would be swarming the tunnels, ready to attack her the moment she turned her back.
Maybe she was counting on the cultists to stop me. she thought.
But the webs made her realize how close she was.
Her hand trembled as she wiped it on the stones. What had she been thinking? She couldn't do this quest alone.
"Don't say that. The fact that you've come this far proves you can do this," Percy told her seriously.
Annabeth nodded her head. "You're right."
...The whispering sounds got louder behind her until they sounded like millions of dried leaves swirling in the wind.
The demigods scowled, fidgeting impatiently.
"Just tell us what these voices are already!" Travis groaned.
"I know, right? Stop keeping us in suspense!" Connor added. "Can't Annabeth take a quick peek?"
Clarisse snorted. "Haven't you seen horror movies? Watch, the moment she looks behind her, she's going to trip or something."
Annabeth grimaced. "Yeah, it's probably best that I don't." Knowing her luck, she'd fall and end up breaking her other ankle.
The cobwebs became thicker, filling the tunnel.
Annabeth shuddered.
Soon she was pushing them out of her face, ripping through gauzy curtains that covered her like Silly String.
Annabeth felt nauseous just thinking about the webs touching her. She resisted the urge to gag.
"Are you okay?" Percy asked, giving her a concerned look.
"I'll be fine," she assured softly, face slightly pale.
Finally the corridor ended in a doorway filled waist-high with old lumber. It looked as if someone had tried to barricade the opening.
Annabeth sighed. "Really? The stairs have rotted to a point that the wood falls apart from just touching it, but there's still a barricade here after all these years?"
"It could be newer than the stairs," Athena pointed out, looking just as unhappy.
That didn't bode well, but Annabeth used her crutch to push away the boards as best she could. She crawled over the remaining pile, getting a few dozen splinters in her free hand.
Everyone grimaced.
Annabeth resisted the urge to groan. "Splinters? Sure, why not? It's not like I had worse." Despite her words, she glared at the book.
On the other side of the barricade was a chamber the size of a basketball court. The floor was done in Roman mosaics. The remains of tapestries hung from the walls.
Athena snorted. "'Remains', that's what Arachne's work looks like."
...At the far end of the room, the Mark of Athena burned over another doorway. Unfortunately, between Annabeth and that exit, the floor was bisected by a chasm fifty feet across. Spanning the pit were two parallel wooden beams, too far apart for both feet, but each too narrow to walk on...
This time Annabeth did groan, throwing her head back until it thumped lightly on her chair.
It's like the wooden beams were put there to taunt her. "How am I going to get across this?"
Clicking his pen, Leo considered the description. "I don't know, it's weird. My first thought was that it used to be a bridge. But that can't be right, the beams are too narrow."
Annabeth blinked, the thought just now occurring to her.
"You're right," she said, now seeing the beams in an entirely different light. Annabeth crossed her arms, thinking it over. "They had to be used for something else."
"But what? They sound like ordinary beams of wood." Jake said. Nyssa was mulling it over with a frown.
"I know," Annabeth said feeling a flare of annoyance. Between the whispering voices and these beams, this chapter was being annoyingly vague. Com'on Future Annabeth, give me something to work with.
The corridor she'd come from was filled with hissing noises.
Everyone tensed.
Annabeth cursed under her breath. Great, they've caught up with me.
Cobwebs trembled and danced as the first of the spiders appeared: no larger than gumdrops, but plump and black, skittering over the walls and the floor.
Annabeth stiffened, her face visibly paled and her hands began to shake.
Spiders... she thought, heart beating frantically. Of course it had to be spiders...
She took a deep breath and let out a shaky sigh. Calm down Annabeth. This hasn't happened yet.
Still... the thought of being trapped in a dead end, being surrounded by spiders, made her shudder.
Percy pulled her into a one-armed hug.
What kind of spiders?
"Hard to say with the description," Demeter mused.
"Who cares? They're spiders!" Annabeth said incredulously. Percy patted her shoulder consolingly.
She only knew they were coming for her, and she only had seconds to figure out a plan.
Annabeth wanted to sob. She wanted someone, anyone, to be here for her. She wanted Leo with his fire skills,
Leo faltered in the middle of his pen clicking, expression softening. He couldn't help but feel flattered that he was the first person she wanted for this situation. Even if it was to set a bunch of bugs on fire... Arachnids... whatever.
or Jason with his lightning, or Hazel to collapse the tunnel. Most of all she wanted Percy. She always felt braver when Percy was with her.
Percy gave Annabeth a quick peck on the cheek.
Aw! Aphrodite thought to herself.
I am not going to die here, she told herself. I'm going to see Percy again.
"Yeah, that's the spirit! Don't give up!" Travis cheered.
"Anna-beth! Anna-beth!" Connor chanted.
The other demigods were saying similar words of encouragement and small cheers.
Annabeth gave them a strained smile.
The first spiders were almost to the door. Behind them came the bulk of the army—a black sea of creepy-crawlies.
Annabeth shuddered.
Annabeth hobbled to one of the wall sconces and snatched up the torch. The end was coated in pitch for easy lighting. Her fingers felt like lead, but she rummaged through her backpack and found the matches. She struck one and set the torch ablaze.
She thrust it into the barricade. The old dry wood caught immediately. Flames leaped to the cobwebs and roared down the corridor in a flash fire, roasting spiders by the thousands.
Annabeth let out a sigh of relief. Thank you, Dad.
The demigods burst out into cheers.
"HA! Take that !" Travis said smugly.
"What do you got to say now? Go on, I'm listening," Connor cupped his ear and tilted his head to the side, pretending that he was trying to pick up on the spiders' whispering.
"That shouldn't have killed all of them, but it would at least buy me some time," Annabeth said, leaning against Percy. "Now I can focus on how to get across."
...She stepped to the edge of the chasm.
She shined her light into the pit, but she couldn't see the bottom. Jumping in would be suicide.
"Not happening," Annabeth said.
She could try to cross one of the bars hand over hand,
Will made a face. "With a backpack and a broken ankle?"
"Yeah, I don't trust my arm strength." Annabeth agreed, making a face along with him. Com'on Annabeth, I know those beams have to be used for something else. Take a closer look at it so I can learn more details.
...She crouched and studied the beams.
"Finally!" Annabeth said in exasperation. She, Jake, Nyssa, and Leo listened closely for the description.
Each had a set of iron eye hooks along the inside, set at one-foot intervals. Maybe the rails had been the sides of a bridge and the middle planks had been removed or destroyed. But eye hooks? Those weren't for supporting planks. More like...
"A loom," Annabeth finished in surprise. It made sense now that she thought about it, something had to help make the tapestries hanging on the walls.
Athena snorted and smirked to herself. That's her loom? How pathetic.
The demigods frowned.
"That's what that is?" Percy said in disappointment. "How's a loom going to help you cross the chasm?"
"Maybe this is a dead end and the Mark of Athena took her in a wrong direction?" Travis spoke up. "Ya'know, like when a GPS leads a car into a lake?"
"I wouldn't put it past that owl..." Annabeth muttered darkly in the middle of her train of thought.
"The Mark of Athena does not make mistakes," Athena hurriedly said, not liking the direction of this conversation. "If this is where it says to go, then this is where you must go."
"But how can she use the beams to get across?" Mitchell asked.
An idea began to form in Annabeth's head. A stupid idea, but she didn't have a lot of options.
"What if I used the string in my backpack to weave a bridge?" she dared to suggest, inwardly cringing. Even out loud it sounded dumb. Build a bridge out of string? She was chosen by her mother for being the wisest of her children, and here she is coming up with plans that even Percy would have second-guessed.
As predicted, her thought was met with skeptic frowns.
"Weave a bridge?" Chris repeated as if he misheard, Annabeth wished that he had, but it was too late to take back what she had said. "Can you do something like that?"
"Why not? She's already made a ladder. It can't be that hard." Leo shrugged.
"Says the son of Hephaestus," Nico said dryly.
"I don't know, Leo could be right..." Annabeth said, feeling nervous. Leo nodded along, giving Nico a smirk as she spoke. The other boy rolled his eyes. "I don't have a choice... It's either that or wait for the spiders to get me."
She shuddered.
...Annabeth threw her flaming torch to the other side of the chasm. She had no faith her plan would work, but she pulled all the string out of her backpack and began weaving between the beams...
Here goes nothing... Annabeth thought, cringing. She couldn't believe she was actually doing this.
Her hands moved with blazing speed. She stopped thinking about the task and just did it, looping and tying off lines, slowly extending her woven net over the pit.
...She inched over the chasm. The weaving held her weight. Before she knew it, she was halfway across.
The demigods listened in stunned silence.
Annabeth was staring at the book in pure disbelief. It's actually working?
"You're a natural!" Leo said excitedly, tucking his pen behind his ear. "Seriously? You could've done this this whole time?"
"Apparently." Annabeth blinked, dazed.
"And you've never tried this before? You never got curious?" Leo pressed. He hadn't wanted to previously, but he couldn't stop himself now. To see such raw talent being shown only to later be dismissed and never used again was beyond frustrating to him. It was like watching someone claim that they couldn't draw after doodling a perfect replica of the freakin' Mona Lisa.
Leo tilted his head to the side and groaned. "Oh my go- Annabeth! A couple chapters ago you were talking about being the only person without special powers! But you do have one! You've just never used it! I don't know why, but you haven't!"
"I-I wasn't interested!" Annabeth said, feeling embarrassed. The thought of doing something so domestic like weaving or sewing never appealed to her, especially when she was younger. She had wanted to go on her first quest, to the point that she was practically obsessed. She wouldn't stop bothering Chiron about it for weeks on end. "And I never needed to use it on my adventures," she shrugged. "I thought that my ability was pointless."
Athena looked disappointed. Craftsmanship has always been underrated.
Leo gawked at her. "Are you kidding? Does this sound useless to you?" he gestured to the book. "I think it sounds awesome! I'm telling you, you got to test your ability, see how far it can go. Can you imagine the things you could do if you found a way to infuse magic into your weaving? I don't even like magic, but that would be so cool. You could make sweaters with the durability of armor! Mittens that work like grappling hooks!Oh! No wait!" He paused, dramatically holding his hands out, as if trying to settle his already silent audience. "A jacket with endless pockets. Think of the possibilities!"
Pinching out the small flame on his nose, Leo excitedly wondered if they could ask Calypso to give Annabeth a few lessons. She was bossy, so that might annoy the daughter of Athena (not that Leo would blame her), but she was a skilled weaver who knew magic, she was perfect for the job. Who knows? Maybe it would give the girls an opportunity to become friends. They had a lot in common.
Including Percy Jackson. a voice in his head reminded. Leo cringed.
Right... That... that was going to be awkward, but things could still work out. Reyna and Annabeth managed to get along before the eidolon ruined everything, the same could happen for her and Calypso.
Things will work out, Leo thought trying to feel confident. He put out tiny flames that had sprouted from his earlier excitement.
"He has a point, magical clothes would be easier to have on a quest than carrying around bulky armor." Mitchell mused.
"And more fashionable." Lacy added with a nod in agreement.
"True..." Annabeth admitted, more about Mitchell's point than his sister's. If her mother would ever decide to take away her cap's magical ability again, it would be a good idea to have a backup magical equivalent.
But how would I be able to make that? she wondered if Malcolm or Chiron would have any advice.
...She glanced behind her. The barricade fire was dying. A few spiders crawled in around the edges of the doorway.
Annabeth felt a shiver run down her spine.
Desperately she continued weaving, and finally she made it across. She snatched up the torch and thrust it into her woven bridge. Flames raced along the string. Even the beams caught fire as if they'd been pre-soaked in oil.
For a moment, the bridge burned in a clear pattern—a fiery row of identical owls.
Athena smiled. "Owls. A nice touch, Annabeth."
"Thanks," she replied with a frown. Annabeth doubted she had done that on purpose.
...as the spiders began to cross, the beams crumbled and collapsed into the pit.
"That's one problem dealt with," Connor said with a grin.
"But aren't they spiders? Can't they... ya'know, climb on walls and ceilings? Why would a bridge stop them from coming across?" Chris pointed out.
His brother frowned. Travis dismissively waved at his concern.
"Let them try. Annabeth will just burn them to a crisp."
"Or run," Connor added.
"Or run." Travis agreed with a shrug.
Annabeth held her breath. She didn't see any reason why the spiders couldn't reach her by climbing the walls or the ceiling. If they started to do that, she'd have to run for it, and she was pretty sure she couldn't move fast enough.
Annabeth grimaced.
"Seriously, can't she get a break?" Percy complained under his breath.
For some reason, the spiders didn't follow. They massed at the edge of the pit—a seething black carpet of creepiness. Then they dispersed, flooding back into the burned corridor, almost as if Annabeth was no longer interesting.
"Oh." Percy blinked in surprise. "'Kay?" he glanced at the others, sharing confused looks.
"That's weird..." Chris frowned. "They were following her before, why stop now?"
"It sounds like I passed some sort of test," Annabeth realized. Her frown deepened. "I must be getting closer."
...She made her way down the next corridor, hopping to keep the weight off her bad foot.
She didn't have far to go.
The readers sat on the edges of their seats in suspense.
After twenty feet, the tunnel opened into a cavern as large as a cathedral, so majestic thatAnnabeth had trouble processing everything she saw. She guessed that this was the room from Percy's dream, but it wasn't dark. Bronze braziers of magical light, like the gods used on Mount Olympus, glowed around the circumference of the room, interspersed with gorgeous tapestries.
Athena rolled her eyes.
"If you want to see real tapestries, look at my work." she told her daughter. "My tapestries make hers look like doilies."
Poseidon rolled his eyes.
The stone floor was webbed with fissures like a sheet of ice. The ceiling was so high, it was lost in the gloom and layers upon layers of spiderwebs.
Everyone tensed, knowing what would happen if the floor were to ever give out.
Leo hastily ducked his head, busying himself with his shoelaces. Annabeth noticed his reaction, and tried not to think to deeply about it.
He's just nervous like the rest of us, she told herself firmly. Stop being paranoid.
She forced herself to pay attention to the book.
...Webs also surrounded the centerpiece of the shrine, which was so intimidating that Annabeth had trouble raising her eyes to look at it. Looming over her was a forty-foot-tall statue of Athena, with luminous ivory skin and a dress of gold.
Athena gasped, eyes widening. Different emotions flashed on her face; astonishment, joy, but the one that stood out the most was longing. Just hearing its description made her chest ache.
A few gods were pleasantly surprised. After all these centuries they had considered the Athena Parthenos as good as gone.
In her outstretched hand, Athena held a statue of Nike, the winged victory goddess—a statue that looked tiny from here, but was probably as tall as a real person. Athena's other hand rested on a shield as big as a billboard, with a sculpted snake peeking out from behind, as if Athena was protecting it.
The demigods were listening in awe. A few were beaming and sharing smiles. It wasn't long before the teens started to cheer.
"Yay, Annabeth!"
"We knew you could do it!"
"You found it!" Connor exclaimed, leaning over Percy's back to give the girl a high-five. Annabeth rolled her eyes at the gesture, but smiled and obliged him.
The goddess's face was serene and kindly...and it looked like Athena.
"Kindly?" Poseidon snorted. Athena was too enraptured in her statue to respond to her rival.
Annabeth had seen many statues that didn't resemble her mom at all, but this giant version, made thousands of years ago, made her think that the artist must have met Athena in person. He had captured her perfectly.
Athena's eyes welled up, she blinked furiously and crossed her arms.
Soon. she told herself. Annabeth will find it soon.
"Athena Parthenos," Annabeth murmured. "It's really here."
All her life, she had wanted to visit the Parthenon. Now she was seeing the main attraction that used to be there—and she was the first child of Athena to do so in millennia.
"I can't believe I actually did it," Annabeth breathed, still smiling. A thought suddenly occurred to her, and her smile disappeared. "But where's the weaver?"
When she said that, the others froze. The demigods exchanged uneasy glances.
The gods grimaced.
...She had found the Athena Parthenos. Now, how could she rescue it from this cavern?
"I have to find a way to get it above ground..." Annabeth muttered, still anxious. Was Arachne somewhere hiding on the ceiling?
Strands of web covered it like a gauze pavilion. Annabeth suspected that without those webs, the statue would have fallen through the weakened floor long ago. As she stepped into the room, she could see that the cracks below were so wide, she could have lost her foot in them. Beneath the cracks, she saw nothing but empty darkness.
Annabeth and the others paled.
Leo shuddered. He straightened the creases on his jacket.
A chill washed over her. Where was the guardian? How could Annabeth free the statue without collapsing the floor? She couldn't very well shove the Athena Parthenos down the corridor that she'd come from.
"That's way too heavy to push," Travis stated, frowning. "Seriously, how did the Romans even steal it?"
"I know right? That had to have taken a whole army," Connor said. "And no one saw them take this statue? This forty-foot tall statue?"
"Let's not focus on that now, what happened is in the past." Hestia said, noticing how their words were angering Athena.
"Maybe I can find something that could help?" Annabeth suggested.
She scanned the chamber, hoping to see something that might help. Her eyes wandered over the tapestries, which were heart-wrenchingly beautiful.
Athena scoffed. "Please."
One showed a pastoral scene so three-dimensional, it could've been a window. Another tapestry showed the gods battling the giants. Annabeth saw a landscape of the Underworld. Next to it was the skyline of modern Rome.
Athena raised an eyebrow. "What's this? Tapestries that aren't insulting the gods? Maybe that boastful creature finally learned something."
And in the tapestry to her left...
She caught her breath. It was a portrait of two demigods kissing underwater: Annabeth and Percy, the day their friends had thrown them into the canoe lake at camp...
"That sounds like something we'd do," Travis nervously laughed.
Normally the others would have teased the couple relentlessly over the scene, but instead they sat there, eyes wide in alarm.
Percy and Annabeth stared at the book in horror.
"How long has she been spying on me?" the daughter of Athena muttered with a shudder.
Above her in the gloom, a voice spoke. "For ages I have known that you would come, my sweet."
Annabeth's breath hitched. Everyone in the room went quiet.
Athena scowled, glaring at the book.
In the webs above the statue, something moved—something dark and large.
Annabeth gulped, she couldn't stop her hands from shaking.
Percy squeezed her shoulder comfortingly.
Athena gritted her teeth. Stop hiding, show yourself.
"I have seen you in my dreams," the voice said, sickly sweet and evil, like the smell in the corridors. "I had to make sure you were worthy, the only child of Athena clever enough to pass my tests and reach this place alive. Indeed, you are her most talented child. This will make your death so much more painful to my old enemy when you fail utterly."
"Don't underestimate my daughter," Athena warned darkly. But then again, I guess you can't help it. You always were full of yourself. she rolled her eyes.
The pain in Annabeth's ankle was nothing compared to the icy acid now filling her veins. She wanted to run. She wanted to plead for mercy. But she couldn't show weakness—not now.
The goddess of wisdom nodded her head in approval.
"You're Arachne," she called out. "The weaver who was turned into a spider."
The figure descended, becoming clearer and more horrible. "Cursed by your mother," she said. "Scorned by all and made into a hideous thing...because I was the better weaver."
"Lies!" Athena hissed.
"But you lost the contest," Annabeth said.
"That's the story written by the winner!" cried Arachne. "Look on my work! See for yourself!"
"More lies!" Athena hastily denied. "After all these years, you're still so desperate to be declared the winner." She sneered. "Have you ever seen someone more pitiful?"
"King Midas ringing any bells?" Apollo said sarcastically, earning an eye roll from his sister.
"I can think of a few..." Zeus grumbled under his breath.
Annabeth didn't have to. The tapestries were the best she'd ever seen—better than the witch Circe's work, and, yes, even better than some weavings she'd seen on Mount Olympus.
Athena blinked, momentarily stunned.
She turned to her daughter, who couldn't hide her small cringe.
"You don't actually believe her, do you?" the goddess asked in disbelief.
Annabeth shifted uncomfortably. It was possible that she could have retold the story to make herself out to be the winner, but Annabeth couldn't tell her mother that.
"...No," she said, unable to keep the hesitance out of her voice. When Athena's eyes widened at her tone, Annabeth hastily added. "It doesn't matter, what's done is done."
She gave Artemis a pleading look and the goddess continued reading.
She wondered if her mother truly had lost—if she'd hidden Arachne away and rewritten the truth.
"I didn't," Athena denied again. "I'm the goddess of craftsmanship, I hadn't lost to some prideful amateur."
And Apollo is the god of music but he still lost to Pan. Annabeth thought with a troubled frown. It wasn't the idea that Athena lost the competition that bothered her, but more of the possibility that she purposely hid information to make herself the winner. As a goddess of knowledge, shouldn't she consider it wrong to hide pieces of history?
But right now, it didn't matter.
I guess not... Annabeth begrudgingly agreed.
Athena looked just as unsatisfied, but reluctantly let it go.
"You've been guarding this statue since the ancient times," Annabeth guessed. "But it doesn't belong here. I'm taking it back."
Not the best one liner, Annabeth thought, but it got the point across.
"Ha," Arachne said.
Even Annabeth had to admit her threat sounded ridiculous. How could one girl in a Bubble Wrap ankle cast remove this huge statue from its underground chamber?
Annabeth grimaced.
"I'm afraid you would have to defeat me first, my sweet," Arachne said. "And alas, that is impossible."
"You can do this," Athena told her. "You might not be able to fight her head-on, but you can outsmart her."
But how can I do that? Annabeth wondered, stomach twisting itself in knots.
The creature appeared from the curtains of webbing, and Annabeth realized that her quest was hopeless. She was about to die.
The readers stiffened.
"Don't say that..." Percy said, face paling.
"Sorry," Annabeth said softly, it was as loud she could get in her moment of fear. She could practically hear her heart hammering in her chest.
Arachne had the body of a giant black widow, with a hairy red hourglass mark on the underside of her abdomen and a pair of oozing spinnerets. Her eight spindly legs were lined with curved barbs as big as Annabeth's dagger. If the spider came any closer, her sweet stench alone would have been enough to make Annabeth faint. But the most horrible part was her misshapen face.
Annabeth could hear her heart hammering in her chest. She felt her hands were starting to shake but she couldn't stop herself even if she tried. Her throat suddenly felt dry, and when she gulped, she might as well have swallowed sand. It wasn't like it was going to make her clenching stomach any better.
Percy made a face at the description, but wasn't as disturbed by the monster's appearance as his girlfriend. He pulled her closer.
The Aphrodite girls were gagging.
"There's more?" Lacy winced.
She might once have been a beautiful woman. Now black mandibles protruded from her mouth like tusks. Her other teeth had grown into thin white needles. Fine dark whiskers dotted her cheeks. Her eyes were large, lidless, and pure black, with two smaller eyes sticking out of her temples.
Annabeth, Aphrodite, and Cabin Ten winced.
"I forgot how terrible she looked. Geez, 'Thena, you really did a number on her." the goddess of love said, scrunching up her nose.
"It's what she deserved." Athena said dismissively.
And now I have to deal with the repercussions... Annabeth thought bitterly.
The creature made a violent rip-rip-rip sound that might have been laughter.
Annabeth's stomach lurched, she could almost hear the laughter in her head.
"Now I will feast on you, my sweet," Arachne said.
Annabeth winced, she bit her lip and squeezed her necklace.
"But do not fear. I will make a beautiful tapestry depicting your death."
"That's not happening," Percy said firmly, although he couldn't help but feel unnerved by the threat.
"Yeah, Annabeth's going to do to you, what she did to your precious spiders." Travis added.
Everyone was on edge, eager to hear what happened next.
Artemis turned the page and frowned.
"That's the end of the chapter."
The demigods slumped in disappointment. Some groaned in frustration and loudly complained.
"Really? A cliff-hanger? Now?"
"Seriously?"
"The chapter can't just end on that!" Percy protested. I have to find out what happens to Annabeth!
"Let's just move on to the next chapter," Annabeth said, letting out a soft sigh of relief. "The faster we get through those, the faster we get back to my point-of-view."
She couldn't help but grimace at the idea.
"Yeah," Percy said, still annoyed. "Who's reading next?"
"I'll do it," Apollo said, taking the book from his sibling.
"Leo XXXVII,"
The demigods grumbled under their breaths.