SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

69 - haha 69

THINGS WENT WRONG immediately. Naturally. The giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Percy sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under his feet, and metal walls shot up on either side.

Briar looked over at Reyna, nodded toward Ephialtes, then she searched for Nico. When she found where he was, she swore under her breath, and started leaping her way across fiery pits toward him, trying not to get him killed by a pair of leopards that were coming after him.

Meanwhile Jason charged at Otis, who pulled his spear and heaved a great sigh, as if he would much rather dance Swan Lake than kill another demigod.

"Wonderful!" Ephialtes cried. He stood at his control panel as Reyna cut through a random forest of plywood trees that showed up. "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?"

Briar sincerely hoped that Reyna and Percy could handle that, because she finally got to Nico and stood over him, flicking her knife out from where she'd hidden it in her dress.

The leopards advanced. Briar suddenly knew why she liked dogs better as she got her cornucopia out.

Come on, please give me something good, Briar prayed. Literally, fucking Arby's would work. Give me the meat.

It seemed to work, because she shot a pot roast over the leopards' heads. It smelled very good, and she was suddenly hungry. But at least the leopards ran away. That was a plus.

Briar saw glimpses of her friends. Currently, Reyna was fending off the now loose hydra while Percy dashed around, seemingly without his sword, looking for something to destroy it.

Closer to Briar, Jason battled Otis, sword against spear. Otis had lost his diamond tiara and looked angry about it. He probably could have impaled Jason several times, but the giant insisted on doing a pirouette with every attack, which slowed him down.

Meanwhile Ephialtes laughed as he pushed buttons on his control board, cranking the conveyor belts into high gear and opening random animal cages.

Briar looked down at Nico, knelt down, and used her charmspeak. "Wake up. More than you already are, at least."

His eyes fully opened, and his eyes darted around nervously. "What—"

"I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Briar Lovelace," Briar said quietly, talking to Nico calmly but trying not to make him feel like a child. "And I need to take you somewhere safe. Because, uh, there's a lot of fighting around us, and Hazel would kill me if I got you killed. Can you cooperate with me?"

Nico stared at her for a long second, before nodding.

"Cool. Sorry about this, I'm not the strongest," she tucked her hands under his armpits and started dragging him away. "Come on, Briar, this is just like when you had to drag Percy and Jason onto Blackjack after they got possessed by power-hungry ghosts. You've gained some muscles since then. Just fucking—"

"Duck and cover!" She heard Percy's voice call out.

What the fuck? Briar thought, just as a bunch of explosive weapons fired. A chunk of ceiling collapsed and crushed a waterwheel. More cages snapped off their chains, unleashing two zebras and a pack of hyenas. A grenade exploded over Ephialtes's head, but it only blasted him off his feet.

Sandbags rained down around Briar and Nico. She swore, forcing her feet to move and pull him to safety, but then she felt something crash into her shoulder, hard. She fell on the ground and tried not to scream in pain.

"Briar!" She heard a familiar voice cry out. She didn't know. Her eyesight was just red. She felt exactly like she did when she'd broken her ankle in Detroit, which only meant trouble.