𝒊𝒗. 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔

𝒊𝒙.

Noelle glared at Geryon as he flipped burgers on a huge barbecue cooker made from an oil drum. Eurytion lounged at a picnic table, picking his fingernails with a knife. The two-headed dog sniffed the ribs and burgers that were frying on the grill.

Noelle shuffled, wincing as the rope burned her wrists. If she wasn't gagged like a pig for the slaughter she would have a few choice words for how Geryon should treat his hostages, starting with not hog-tying them.

"Let them go!" Noelle's head whipped towards Percy who was finishing running up the deck's steps. "I cleaned the stables!" 

Geryon turned. He wore an apron on each chest, with one word on each, so together they spelled out: KISS— THE—CHEF. "Did you, now? How'd you manage it?" 

Percy was pretty impatient but he told him about how he went down to the river and his interaction with the river's naiad. How she gave him a seashell and told him about the "water within." How he used the other shells in the soil to summon seawater geysers, basically evaporating all the horse manure.

Geryon nodded appreciatively. "Very ingenious. It would've been better if you'd poisoned that pesky naiad, but no matter." 

"Let my friends go," Percy said. "We had a deal." 

"Ah, I've been thinking about that. The problem is, if I let them go, I don't get paid." 

"You promised!" 

Geryon made a tsk-tsk noise. "But did you make me swear on the River Styx? No you didn't. So it's not binding. When you're conducting business, sonny, you should always get a binding oath." 

Noelle's eyes widened as Percy drew his sword. Orthus growled. One head leaned down next to Grover's ear and bared its fangs. 

"Eurytion," Geryon said, "the boy is starting to annoy me. Kill him." 

Eurytion studied the demigod. Percy didn't like his odds against him and that huge club.

"Kill him yourself," Eurytion said.

Geryon raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?" 

"You heard me," Eurytion grumbled. "You keep sending me out to do your dirty work. You pick fights for no good reason, and I'm tired of dying for you. You want to fight the kid, do it yourself." 

It was the most un-Areslike thing Percy had ever heard a son of Ares say. 

Geryon threw down his spatula. "You dare defy me? I should fire you right now!" 

"And who'd take care of your cattle? Orthus, heel." 

The dog immediately stopped growling at Grover and came to sit by the cowherd's feet. 

"Fine!" Geryon snarled. "I'll deal with you later, after the boy is dead!"

He picked up two carving knives and threw them at Percy, making Noelle shriek in alarm. He deflected one with his sword. The other impaled itself in the picnic table an inch from Eurytion's hand. 

Percy went on the attack. Geryon parried his first strike with a pair of red-hot tongs and lunged at his face with a barbecue fork. Percy got inside his next thrust and stabbed him right through the middle chest. 

"Aghhh!" He crumpled to his knees. Percy waited for him to disintegrate, the way monsters usually do. But instead he just grimaced and began to stand up. The wound in his chef 's apron started to heal. 

"Nice try, sonny," he said. "Thing is, I have three hearts. The perfect backup system." 

He tipped over the barbecue, and coals spilled everywhere. One landed next to Annabeth's face, and she let out a muffled scream. Tyson strained against his bonds, but even his strength wasn't enough to break them. Percy had to end this fight before his friends got hurt.