BLACK RAVEN [ piper mcLean ]

Spitting some Facts

LETTING WHOEVER TAKE her was the stupidest thing she'd ever done. Ali was dragged into a place with bronze doors. They were about ten feet tall, emblazoned with a pair of crossed swords. From behind them came a muffled roar, like from a crowd.

"Oh, yessssss," said the snake woman on her left. "You'll be very popular with our hossssst."

I'm I going to get eaten by a snake or something?

The person who was holding onto her kept marching forward. Alison looked up eventually. Finally noticing exactly where she was headed. Right over to Luke Castellan.

She began to fight back, trying to plead not to be taken over there. She tried punching and kicking and everything she could think of without using her nonexistent powers. But non of that worked. 

She was then thrown down next to Luke, a sinister grin upon his face as he looked down at her.

Her captive then began to tie her up, bounding her arms and legs. And her captive was non other then Ethan Nakamura.

Luke then bent down next to her, cupping her face in order so that she'd look at him.

"I know you've received a phrocacy. No doubt it predicted your death. But remember, there's always a place for you here."

Luke was asking her to join the Kronos' army.

His face was so close to her's already. So she did the only thing she could think of.

She spat right in his face. "Get lost"

He pushed her back hard into the wall, a disgusted look across his face. Alison thought he was about to kill her or something from how angry he looked. But he didn't. 

"You'll see what I mean soon enough." Luke spat back, before walking away to go and talk to one of his many monsters.

It gave Alison the opportunity to take in her surroundings finally. Maybe even push her damn phrocacy out of her head.

She guessed it wasn't the largest arena she'd ever been in, but it seemed pretty spacious considering the whole place was underground. The dirt floor was circular, just big enough that you could drive a car around the rim if you pulled it really tight. In the center of the arena, a fight was going on between a giant and a centaur. The centaur looked panicked. He was galloping around his enemy, using sword and shield, while the giant swing a javelin the size of a telephone pole and the crowd cheered.

The first tier of seats was twelve feet above the arena floor. Plain stone benches wrapped all the way around, and every seat was full. There were giants, dracaenae, demigods, telekhines, and stranger things: bat-winged demons and creatures that seemed half human and half you name it—bird, reptile, insect, mammal.

But the creepiest things were the skulls. The arena was full of them. They ringed the edge of the railing. Three-foot-high piles of them decorated the steps between the benches. They grinned from pikes at the back of the stands and hung on chains from the ceiling like horrible chandeliers. Some of them looked very old—nothing but bleached-white bone. Others looked a lot fresher. It reminded Ali of the underworld. A place she never wanted to go back to.

In the middle of all this, proudly displayed on the side of the spectator's wall, was something that made no sense to her—a green banner with the trident of Poseidon in the center. 

Above the banner, sitting in a seat of honor, was the enemy.

"Luke," came a voice from the other side of the arena. Everyone looked up. It was Percy. He had Annabeth by his side. And a random red headed girl as well. They were being lead by what appeared to be a vampire. Although Alison couldn't be sure.