The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 73

Seeing all of these enemies made me panic. My heart started beating faster, and my palms became clammy. After all of this effort, I had to be captured now?

No, I told myself. It was too late to give up now. Either I succeeded . . . 

Or I died trying.

So I did the stupidest thing I had ever done in my life; trying to escape a primordial by physical means.

Jessica wasn't holding me—it appeared as though she thought the sword at my throat would be enough of a deterrent to escaping.

But she didn't know how desperate I was.

I quickly elbowed her in the solar plexus, then spun out of her reach, immediately running for the edge of the wall.

However, I hadn't expected her to grab me by the arm a second later. In a moment, I found myself in the exact position as before, but with Jessica's free arm restraining me.

"Don't try anything stupid," Jessica hissed in my ear. "I won't hesitate to cut you down."

To be honest, there wasn't anything else I could do. My water power had been gone for weeks now, and I was facing primordials while I was a mere demigod.

I didn't know why I had thought joining this mission was a good idea.

Before I could say anything, I spotted something rolling on the ground. It was Void's orb. My heart squeezed.

It came to a stop next to Psi's foot. I bent down and grabbed it, then smiled at me. "Thanks for this," he said.

My hands tightened into fists. "Give it back."

"Why should I?" Psi taunted. "Jessica lost it the same way you did."

"Don't talk about that, idiot," Jessica snapped.

Psi stiffened. "Don't call me 'idiot'."

"Then don't talk about me, idiot."

I watched in amazement as Jessica and Psi transitioned into a full-blown argument. The soldiers surrounding us looked at one another, not knowing what to do. Meanwhile, I saw Chaos facepalm. 

"Let's not do this in front of Percy—" he tried but got interrupted as Jessica and Psi's voices raised up over his.

Jessica's grip on me loosened as she focused on Psi. This was the best chance I was going to get.

I slowly guided my hand into my pocket. I fumbled a bit, but eventually found the metal tip of Riptide in pen form. My hand tightened on it as Jessica's voice grew so loud I figured she was permanently damaging my ear. 

Chaos' eyes widened in surprise as I pulled out the pen—but it was too late. I uncapped Riptide as I ducked underneath Jessica's arm and dove forward.

Surprised, Jessica threw out her sword in a wild swing to try and stop me. It almost worked, but I barely brought Riptide up in time to deflect it. However, the impact caused me to lose my balance and crash onto the ground. 

Within a second, Psi and Jessica were in front of me, their swords glinting in the light. 

"That was very stupid of you," Jessica snarled. "Fortunately for us, we don't have to keep you alive anymore."

 Psi and Jessica lifted their swords in unison. I closed my eyes, bracing for impact.

There was no reason for me to try to defend myself; even if I dodged their swings, I would still have to get out of this precarious situation, which was near impossible.

Instead, it was better to just accept death—

Jessica gasped. I didn't know why, but I didn't want to open my eyes to find out.

A second ticked by.

Then another. I was still alive.

I pried my eyes open, curiosity finally winning out.

And I saw something I never would've expected.

Jessica and Psi were facing away from me, their attention diverted.

There were three figures in golden armor behind Chaos, their engraved swords gleaming in their hands.

"Don't you dare touch him," a familiar female voice said. The voice of my once-nemesis-turned-ally.

I whipped my neck to the other side so fast that I almost got a whiplash injury. But I didn't care when I found myself staring at Eon, flanked by two of her other Generals.

The Chaos soldiers surrounding them looked upon them with fear, as though they'd just set their eyes on them, and didn't know how they'd got up without anybody realizing. They looked at their superiors helplessly.

Unfortunately for them, Jessica, Psi, and Chaos seemed to be at a loss for words. "H-how did you find us?" Jessica stammered out.

"This is our city," Eon said, her eyes glinting with anger. "We know everything that goes on here."

Jessica seemed to regain back her confidence. Her surprise at seeing the Generals disappeared as she straightened up. "You're much too late now," she said.

"I'll be the judge of that," Eon replied. "Seems like we've just joined the action."

"No. Really." Jessica pointed to Psi, who held up Void's orb. "We're done here. We were just going to kill Percy and leave."

Jessica had a point. If the Generals did know what happened in the city at all times, then why did they leave me to my own devices for so long? And why did they choose to appear now in all places? 

Eon simply said, "You don't know everything, fool." 

Jessica bristled at the jab to her intelligence. "Maybe not," she said coldly. "But I know how to defeat you." With that, she signaled to Psi.

Psi lifted the orb once again. He brought his arm down in a flash, throwing the orb over the wall.

Jessica smiled in triumph as the Generals rushed, forward—but it was too late. They watched as it plummeted towards the Chaos soldiers not the ground.

"You'll never get it back," she said, laughing.

But she forgot about one other enemy: me.

Unfortunately for Jessica, Psi had thrown to a point of the wall farthest from the generals—which translated to right above my head.

The second I saw the blur of green, I dove after it.

I didn't know what I was doing; my body had taken over. All I knew was that I had to get that orb—otherwise everything would have been in vain.

The ground turned into a blur and the wind made my eyes smart. I faced the sky, then the ground, then the sky over and over again, and it took me a moment to realize I was rolling.

As I was plummeting, I saw something greenish blue in my peripheral vision. Void's orb was only a few centimeters below me. I tried to grab it, but since I was tumbling uncontrollably, I only knocked it away. I cursed.

I looked down and gulped. I only had a few more seconds before I splattered on the ground—and into the soldiers.