The Labyrinth // pjo

Chapter Eleven // Terminator's Long Lost Brother

I collapsed against one of the marble columns in the gymnasium-sized room Rachel had led us into–getting us out of all the booby traps in the corridors of the Labyrinth.

    My chest heaved as I sat with my head between my knees–trying not to throw up any food in my system.

    Annabeth knelt next to me–placing a hand on my shoulder and offering me some water.

    I stared at it weakly–and she must have sensed that any energy I had had was gone with our sprint through the maze.

    She sat in front of me–helping me take a drink of water before giving me a corner of an ambrosia square before looking at Ethan, who had dropped next to me as well–the guy wheezing, "You people are crazy."

    Annabeth gasped–making me choke on my ambrosia square, "I remember you! You were one of the undetermined kids in the Hermes cabin years ago."

    From the corner of my eye, I could see the glare Ethan gave her. "Yeah, and you're Annabeth. I remember."

    "What—what happened to your eye?"

    It was kind of obvious that the guy didn't wanna talk about whatever had happened to his eye, so in slightly gasping words, I said, "Percy and I heard about you in our dream. We thought it was someone else."

    "We thought it was Nico or Ric," Percy stated the obvious.

    "Who are they?" Ethan furrowed his brows.

    "Never mind," Annabeth interceded Percy from speaking again. "Why were you trying to join up with the wrong side?"

    Ethan frowned at her–his voice growing hard again, "There's no right side. The gods never cared about us. Why shouldn't I—"

    "Sign up with an army that makes you fight to the death for entertainment? Gee, I wonder."

    Ethan stumbled to his feet–obviously worn out from our light jog, "I'm not going to argue with you. Thanks for the help, but I'm out of here."

    "We're going after Daedalus," Percy said from the door where he was watching. "Come with us. Once we get through, you'd be welcome back at camp."

    "You really are crazy if you think Daedalus will help you."

    "He has to. We'll make him listen," Annabeth shot back at him.

    Ethan snorted–rolling his eye. "Yeah, well. Good luck with that."

    I had managed to climb to my feet–ignoring the fact that everything was swimming in front of me and grabbed his arm lightly, "You can't just go into the maze by yourself–you'll lose your mind."

    "You sound like you're talking from personal experience."

    "I am."

    Ethan stared at me–his face twitching with anger as he pulled his arm from me and snapped, "You and your brother shouldn't have spared me. Mercy has no place in this war."

    And with that–Ethan vanished into the darkness.

    I sighed, letting my head hang to my chest before I turned to my brother and my friends and said, "We are just staying here tonight, right?"

    We did.

    Percy and I wandered around the room–finding anything we could burn to create a fire to keep us warm before rejoining Annabeth and Rachel.

    "Something was wrong with Luke," Annabeth murmured as she stabbed the fire with her knife. "Did you notice the way he was acting?"

    Oh gods–could we not do this tonight?