Abracadabra | Percy Jackson

1.9

A/N: sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. Schools been rough so I haven't been writing as much. I should be updating more frequently and I hope you all like the changes I made to some of the face claims. Enjoy the story and don't forget to vote and comment

It was Annabeth's idea.

She loaded then into the back of a Vegas taxi as if they actually had enough 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 skeptically.

"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 us, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"

"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."

Atalanta shook her head at the blonde. Of course she would like the "Your Highness" thing.

Atalanta and Percy shared a look and had to hold back their laughter.

Atalanta's smile quickly dropped as she paid attention to her surroundings. The cab felt as if they were flying with how fast they were going.

Maybe Annabeth shouldn't have told him to step on it. The cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.

Atalanta took one last wary glance at the speedometer before she turned to Percy. He was telling them about his latest dream.

"Can you tell us more?" Atalanta asked.

"I don't know. Its like it keeps getting foggier." Percy replied screwing his eyes shut in concentration.

Huffing in frustration Percy opened his eyes. "I can't remember."

"Don't worry Percy there was something weird about that Casino, just relax." The golden eyed girl soothed.

"His servants called him some special name or something. I don't remember what though."

"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."

"Maybe ..." Percy said, though neither sounded quite right.

"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 that voice from the pit ... I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."

Annabeth's eyes widened.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Oh ... nothing. 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 said. "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."