OH, CHÉRIE!¹ percy jackson

013

❛013❜

IT WAS ANNABETH'S idea.

she loaded them into the back of a vegas taxi as if they actually had money, and told the driver, "los angeles, please."

the cabbie chewed his cigar and sized them up. "that's three hundred miles. for that, you gotta pay up front."

"you accept casino debit cards?" annabeth asked.

he shrugged. "some of 'em. same as credit cards. i gotta swipe 'em through, first."

annabeth handed him her green lotuscash card.

he looked at it sceptically.

"swipe it," annabeth invited.

he did.

his meter machine started rattling. the lights flashed. finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.

the cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. he looked back at them, his eyes wide. "where to in los angeles...uh, your highness?"

"the santa monica pier," annabeth sat up a little straighter. ivy could tell she liked the your highness thing. "get us there fats, and you can keep the change."

maybe she shouldn't have told him that.

the cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the mojave desert.

on the road, they had plenty of time to talk. percy shared about his last dream, but seemed to forget the more he tried to recall them.. the lotus casino had short-circuited all of their memories.

"the silent one?" annabeth suggested when percy described some special name or title from the pit.

"the rich one?" said ivy. "both of those are nicknames for hades."

"maybe..." percy said unsurely.

"that throne room sounds like hades's," grover said. "that's the way it's usually described."

percy shook his head. "something's wrong. the throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. and the voice from the pit... i don't know. it just didn't feel like a god's voice."

but maybe... her blood ran cold. no. it couldn't be. by annabeth's expression, she was thinking the same. the crooked one.

"what?" percy asked them.

"oh... nothing." annabeth said. "i was just– no, it has to be hades. maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong–"

"like what?"

"i–i don't know," she continued. "but if he stole zeus's symbol of power from olympus, and the gods were hunting him, i mean, a lot of things could go wrong. so this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. anyway, he failed to bring it to hades. that's what the voice said in your dream, right? the guy failed. that would explain what the furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."

wishful thinking, but ivy prayed she was right.

"but if i'd already retrieved the bolt,' percy said, "why would i be travelling to the underworld?"

"to threaten hades," grover suggested.

ivy hummed. "to bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."