BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

63.

EDEN WAS TIRED OF LIFE.

After barely surviving the nymphaeum, she wanted to go back to the surface. She wanted to be dry and sit in the warm sunshine for a long time with Piper, because without her warmth wouldn't exist.

That might also be because Eden's cold 24/7. But it's whatever.

But she wanted to dance around with Piper. To topple more corporations that are dicks. To walk to a cafe and grab coffee. To buy an apartment in LA and go to school, for once.

Obviously that wouldn't happen anytime soon.

And Eden had this quest to worry about, which just sucked. Frank, Hazel, and Leo were missing in action. Annabeth was probably dead after looking for a fucking statue. She still had to save Nico di Angelo, assuming the guy wasn't already dead. And there was that little matter of the giants destroying Rome, waking Gaea, and taking over the world and all of the cafes and skyscrapers.

Eden took the lead as they crawled down the drainage pipe. After thirty feet, it opened into a wider tunnel. To their left, somewhere in the distance, She heard rumbling and creaking, like a huge machine needed oiling. She had absolutely no desire to find out what was making that sound, so she figured that must be the way to go.

Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn in the tunnel. Eden peeked around the corner.

The corridor opened into a vast room with twenty-foot ceilings and rows of support columns.

The creaking and rumbling came from huge gears and pulley systems that raised and lowered sections of the floor for no apparent reason. Water flowed through open trenches ( oh, great, more water ) powering waterwheels that turned some of the machines. Other machines were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds inside.

Suspended from the ceiling were cages of live animals — a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas, and even an eight-headed hydra. Ancient-looking bronze and leather conveyor belts trundled along with stacks of weapons and armor.

Fire Boy would love it, Eden thought. The whole room was like one massive, scary, unreliable machine.

"What is it?" Kaleidoscope whispered.

"A fucking disaster," Eden gestured for them to look themselves.

About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.

Perfect Jason murmured, "What the heck?"

They stepped inside. Eden scanned the room. There were several thousand things to look at, most of them in motion, but one good aspect of being an ADHD demigod was that she was comfortable with chaos. About a hundred yards away, he spotted a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chairs. Standing between them was a bronze jar big enough to hold a person.

"Look." Percy pointed it out to then, as if Eden couldn't see.

Piper frowned. "That's too easy."

"Of course," Eden said rolled her eyes.

"But we have no choice," Perfect Jason said. "We've got to save Nico."

"Yeah." Eden started across the room, picking his way around conveyor belts and moving platforms.

The hellhounds in the hamster wheels paid them no attention. They were too busy running and panting, their red eyes glowing like headlights. The animals in the other cages gave them bored looks, as if to say, I'd kill you, but it would take too much energy.