𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

61

Ajax was high.

There was only one time he'd drank alcohol, two days before the battle of Manhattan. He remembered his siblings and demigods on Luke's side sneaking away for the night. They shoplifted the alcohol, of course. Some times, children of Hermes were useful.

He remembered getting so drunk he felt like he was floating away. (Stay away from alcohol, kids).

He didn't remember much, just that he was really happy. And that everything seemed a little less daunting, like they could actually win the war, like they could actually have a happy ending Of course, that didn't happen, but while high, anything seemed possible

The world was fuzzier, making it seem unreal.

This felt like being absolutely wasted.

Part of him knew he was still in the cavern. Pasiphaë stood only a few feet in front of them. Clytius waited silently at the Doors of Death.

But layers of Mist enfolded Ajax, twisting his sense of reality. He took one step forward and bumped into a wall that shouldn't have been there.

Leo pressed his hands against the stone. "What the heck? Where are we?"

A corridor stretched out to their left and right. Torches guttered in iron sconces. The air smelled of mildew, as in an old tomb. On Ajax's shoulder, Gale barked angrily, digging her claws into Ajax's collarbone.

"Yes, I know," Ajax muttered to the weasel. "It's an illusion."

Hazel pounded on the wall. "Pretty solid illusion."

Pasiphaë laughed. Her voice sounded watery and far away. "Is it an illusion, Ajax Avery, or something more? Don't you see what I have created?"

Ajax felt so off-balance he could barely stand, much less think straight. He tried to extend his senses, to see through the Mist and find the cavern again, but all he felt was ridiculously underprepared.

He looked at Hazel questioningly. Could she feel if this was real? Could her powers sense the wall in front of them? Her eyes widened in realization.

"The Labyrinth," Hazel said. "She's remaking the Labyrinth."

"What now?" Leo had been tapping the wall with a ball-peen hammer, but he turned and frowned at her.

"That's.. That's not possible" Ajax took a step back, trying to steady his breathing. "The labyrinth collapsed- I was there. It was connected to Daedalus' life force. He died"

This couldn't be happening. Ajax felt like he was reliving a nightmare.

Pasiphaë's voice clucked disapprovingly. "Ah, but I am still alive. You credit Daedalus with all the maze's secrets? I breathed magical life into his Labyrinth. Daedalus was nothing compared to me—the immortal sorceress, daughter of Helios, sister of Circe! Now the Labyrinth will be my domain."

"It's an illusion," Hazel insisted. "We just have to break through it."

Even as she said it, the walls seemed to grow more solid, the smell of mildew more intense.

"Too late, too late," Pasiphaë crooned. "The maze is already awake. It will spread under the skin of the earth once more while your mortal world is leveled. You demigods...you heroes... will wander its corridors, dying slowly of thirst and fear and misery. Or perhaps, if I am feeling merciful, you will die quickly, in great pain!"

Holes opened in the floor beneath Hazel's feet. She grabbed Ajax and pushed him aside as a row of spikes shot upward, impaling the ceiling.

Ajax was too stunned to speak.