TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

fifty one.

PERCY WAS BEING absolutely stupid. Riptide cut through the arai as though they were made of powdered sugar. One panicked and ran face-first into a tree. Another screeched and tried to fly away, but Percy sliced off her wings and sent her spiraling into the chasm.

The arai just kept coming. For every one he cut down, six more seemed to appear.

Val was frozen, staring at the massacre in front of her. Then she kept going for Annabeth, who was just out of reach, calling their names as she wandered among the demons.

A demon pounced and sank its teeth into Percy's thigh. He roared. He sliced the demon to dust, but immediately fell to his knees.

That's when Val knew that Percy was down. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was coming, and took out her knives.

"Stay back from him!" Val screamed, and the charmspeak worked. They moved toward her.

You're helping him? The arai asked her, in her head. The person who your beloved is dating?

Val knew that they said it to get under her skin. There was no way that Percy or Annabeth could've heard that, in the states they were in.

"I will kill all of you," Val raised her knives. "You couldn't curse Bob because he was already too cursed. That same rule applies to me too."

She slashed and stabbed with her knives, and the rule applied. For a little while.

Until the arai realized that their numbers were rapidly depleting, and then the curses settled on her.

Which, honestly, was so stupid. Wasn't she cursed enough?

Apparently not, because as her angelic and demonic blades sliced and jabbed, she felt pain everywhere. A migraine. Wrist cramps. Her leg was hurting like hell. It felt like someone was pricking needles in her arms, and, naturally, her sense of smell disappeared.

But she was still going, for now. She was protecting Percy and Annabeth from the arai. Everything was going great. If only her body wasn't hurting.

"Accept defeat." Val hissed as blood ran down her leg. It glistened as she glared ahead. "I have survived all of your attempts to curse me despite that I make the gods fall to their knees because of my curse, and you are nothing to me compared to what I have faced."

She spread out her hands, killing the wave of arai in front of her. And she actually felt good about herself.

At least, until she was in the air, staring up at the ceiling of monsters ahead of her.

Nothing. We are nothing, Valentina? The arai laughed. You will fall. Just as your friend had. And you will die, just like he did.

Then she dropped. Naturally, Val let out the loudest scream known to man.

A horrible feeling in her stomach from falling. She'd fallen for so long, and none of the monsters had even come near her, as if some forcefield had activated around her.

And when she reached the ground, she didn't feel most of the impact. But she winced in pain anyway, because laying down hurt. Right. She'd also increased the amount of curses she had from killing that wave of, oh, fifty arai?

Thank me later, Valentine. Ethan's voice washed over her. It took me forever to get to you, but now I can't do anything anymore.

Val sleepily grinned. Gods, she loved Ethan. She'd marry him if he was still alive.

Then she realized that it was eerily quiet. Annabeth's voice had faded. She hadn't heard a sound from Percy since she fell.

At least, until the dust settled over her.

* * *

Val opened her eyes and saw Bob.

He slashed back and forth, destroying the demons one after the other while Small Bob the kitten sat on his shoulder, arching his back and hissing.

In a matter of seconds, the arai were gone. Most had been vaporized. The smart ones had flown off into the darkness, shrieking in terror.

Val wanted to thank the Titan, but her voice wouldn't work. She laid on the ground, staring at the ceiling. Thinking about the fact that she went out too early. But also she was expecting to die sooner.

She was thankful that she'd gotten to live her seventeen years mostly happy. She'd got to spend ten years with her mom, and seven years with her friends, and she got to know her fathers. She'd made friends and gotten to travel to a lot of places. That was a pretty good life.

"Lots of curses," Bob said. "Val and Percy have done bad things to monsters."

Bob loomed over her, his broom planted like a flag. His face was unreadable, luminously white in the dark.

"Tina!" Suddenly, Annabeth was by her side, tears sliding down her face. "Oh, gods, you look even worse than he does . . ."

Wonderful. Val thought. She was more attractive than Percy, but a few curses put on her, and now she was uglier than him? Talk about curses.

"Can you fix them?" Annabeth pleaded. "Like you did with my blindness? Fix them!"

Bob frowned. He picked at the name tag on his uniform like it was a scab.

Annabeth tried again. "Bob—"

"Iapetus," Bob said, his voice a low rumble. "Before Bob. It was Iapetus."

The air was absolutely still. Val felt helpless, barely connected to the world.

"I like Bob better." Annabeth's voice was surprisingly calm. "Which do you like?"

The Titan regarded her with his pure silver eyes. "I do not know anymore."

He crouched next to her and studied Percy. Bob's face from Val's peripheral vision looked haggard and careworn, as if he suddenly felt the weight of all his centuries.

"I promised," he murmured. "Val and Nico asked me to help. I do not think Iapetus or Bob likes breaking promises." He touched Percy's forehead.

"Owie," the Titan murmured. "Very big owie."

If Percy had a pretty big owie, Val didn't went to know how many she had.

"Bob cannot cure this," Bob said. "Too much poison. Too many curses piled up. I think Val is like that too."

"What can we do, Bob?" Annabeth asked. "Is there water anywhere? Water might heal him. And Val likes darkness."

"No water," Bob said. "Tartarus is bad. But we have darkness. It will not be enough for her."

"No," Annabeth insisted. "No, there has to be a way. Something to heal them."

Bob placed his hand on Val's chest. A cold tingle like eucalyptus oil spread across her chest, but as soon as Bob lifted his hand, the relief stopped. She groaned in pain.

"Tartarus kills demigods," Bob said. "It heals monsters, but you do not belong. Tartarus will not heal Percy or Val. The pit hates your kind."

"I don't care," Annabeth said. "Even here, there has to be someplace they can rest, some kind of cure they can take. Maybe back at the altar of Hermes, or—"

In the distance, a deep voice bellowed.

"I SMELL HIM!" roared the giant. "BEWARE, SON OF POSEIDON! I COME FOR YOU!"

"Polybotes," Bob said. "He hates Poseidon and his children. He is very close now."

Annabeth struggled to get Percy to his feet. She took Val's hand and looked apologetically down at her.

"Bob, I'm going on, with or without you," Annabeth said. "Will you help?"

The kitten Small Bob mewed and began to purr, rubbing against Bob's chin.

Bob looked at Percy. Then he looked at Val.

"There is one place," Bob said at last. "There is a giant who might know what to do."

Annabeth almost dropped Percy. "A giant. Uh, Bob, giants are bad."

"One is good," Bob insisted. "Trust me, and I will take you . . . unless Polybotes and the others catch us first."