TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

sixty nine.

THE NERVOUSNESS ATE up Val.

Not literally, but she was still nervous. What was happening down there with Annabeth and the rest? What if one of them had died? Or their mission failed? What if—

"Hey, they're fine," Hazel's voice filtered toward Val, and she relaxed. The tiniest bit. But she still relaxed.

"Yeah," Val muttered, staring down at her arms. They were at her normal color again, back to what she had been before the curse had started to overcome her. She felt power in her veins, itching to get out of her body. "I would've died already if she died. But . . . I'm still worried."

"I know," Hazel squeezed her shoulder. "Me too. But it's for the good of the world, right?"

Val nearly let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah. The good of the world."

"Valentine! Hazel!" Leo called from above deck.

"That's our cue," Hazel started walking up, and Val followed.

Soon, they were watching the carnage down below. Val's heart sank at Percy and Annabeth, both injured, but Piper was holding her own quite well for being on her own.

"Come on, then!' she yelled. 'I'll destroy you all myself if I have to!'

'The thing is,' Jason said dramatically, 'you don't have to.'

Jason's sword gleamed gold in the sun. Frank stood at his side, his bow ready. Hazel sat astride Arion, who reared and whinnied in challenge. Val stood with her knives, smirking down at the giants.

With a deafening blast, a white-hot bolt arced from the sky, straight through Jason's body as he leaped, wreathed in lightning, at the giant king.

And for the next three minutes, life was great.

So much happened at once that only an ADHD demigod could have kept track.

Jason fell on King Porphyrion with such force that the giant crumpled to his knees – blasted with lightning and stabbed in the neck with a golden gladius.

Frank unleashed a hail of arrows, driving back the giants nearest to Percy.

The Argo II rose above the ruins and all the ballistae and catapults fired simultaneously. Leo had programmed the weapons with surgical precision. A wall of Greek fire roared upward all around the Parthenon. It didn't touch the interior, but in a flash most of the smaller monsters around it were incinerated.

Leo's voice boomed over the loudspeaker: 'SURRENDER! YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY ONE SPANKING HOT WAR MACHINE!'

The giant Enceladus howled in outrage. 'Valdez!'

'WHAT'S UP, ENCHILADAS?' Leo's voice roared back. 'NICE DAGGER IN YOUR FOREHEAD.'

'GAH!' The giant pulled Katoptris out of his head. 'Monsters: destroy that ship!'

The remaining forces tried their best. A flock of gryphons rose to attack. Festus the figurehead blew flames and chargrilled them out of the sky. A few Earthborn launched a volley of rocks, but from the sides of the hull a dozen Archimedes spheres sprayed out, intercepting the boulders and blasting them to dust.

'PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!' Buford ordered.

Hazel spurred Arion off the colonnade and they leaped into battle. The forty-foot fall would have broken any other horse's legs, but Arion hit the ground running. Hazel zipped from giant to giant, stinging them with the blade of her spatha.

With extremely bad timing, Kekrops and his snake people chose that moment to join the fight. In four or five places around the ruins, the ground turned to green goo and armed gemini burst forth, Kekrops himself in the lead.