BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

66.

BLOWING UP A car plant was something that Eden should've been into, but her hearing was ringing.

She was impressed, but now she had to go down a ladder, to go see Annabeth, who had somehow survived by herself, which was impressive and all, but frankly Eden could care less.

Nonetheless, she went down the rope ladder, and then helped Piper down, who ran to Annabeth. Eden helped Nico get off.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. "You look a little . . ."

"I should be asking you that," Eden laughed, a little bitterly. "You look as horrible as I feel."

"Wow, thanks." He leaned on her as they made their way toward the rest of the group. Annabeth was explaining her entire life story over the past few hours, which was great and all, but Eden couldn't focus on her right now. "Glad to see you've been better than ever."

Eden scoffed. "You are the meanest person ever," she wanted to laugh, but couldn't. "But at least I have her now. She makes me want to be a hero, and to save the world willingly."

They were then quieted by Annabeth speaking up louder, about her story.

"Gods of Olympus," Perfect Jason said. "You did all that alone. With a broken ankle."

"Well . . . some of it with a broken ankle." Annabeth was flushed with embarrassment.

Percy grinned. "You made Arachne weave her own trap? I knew you were good, but Holy Hera — Annabeth, you did it. Generations of Athena kids tried and failed. You found the Athena Parthenos!"

Oh, that's what happened. In Eden's defense, she was talking to Nico.

Everyone was gazing at the statue. The gigantic thing felt odd to Eden, like she shouldn't have been in the presence of it.

"What do we do with her?" Frank asked. "She's huge."

"We'll have to take her with us to Greece," Annabeth said. "The statue is powerful. Something about it will help us stop the giants."

"The giants' bane stands gold and pale," Hazel quoted. "Won with pain from a woven jail." She looked at Annabeth with admiration. "It was Arachne's jail. You tricked her into weaving it."

Leo raised his hands. He made a finger picture frame around the Athena Parthenos like he was taking measurements. Eden smiled at him. God, she loved him. "Well, it might take some rearranging, but I think we can fit her through the bay doors in the stable. If she sticks out the end, I might have to wrap a flag around her feet or something."

Eden imagined the fucking enormous statue jutting from their trireme with a sign across her pedestal that read: WIDE LOAD. She wanted to cry thinking about it.

"What about you guys?" Annabeth asked. "What happened with the giants?"

Percy told her about rescuing Nico, the appearance of Dionysus, and the fight with the twins in the Colosseum. Eden looked down at her totally badass act of killing both giants — she totally didn't regret that now. Nico didn't say much. Percy explained what Nico had found out about the Doors of Death, and how they had to be closed on both sides. Even with sunlight streaming in from above, Percy's news made the cavern seem dark again.

"So the mortal side is in Epirus," Annabeth said. "At least that's somewhere we can reach."

Nico grimaced. "But the other side is the problem. Tartarus."

The word seemed to echo through the chamber. The pit behind them exhaled a cold blast of air. Eden shuddered. Suddenly she didn't want to be wearing just a shiny crop top and a matching skirt.