Percy Jackson Series. Annabeth Chase X Male Reader Story

We Let the Blind Lead The Blind

Percy's POV

Once everyone was eating, Chiron and Grover came over to visit. Grover was bleary-eyed. His shirt was inside out. He slid his plate onto the table and slumped next to me. Tyson shifted uncomfortably. "I will go . . . um . . . polish my fish ponies."

He lumbered off, leaving his breakfast half eaten. Chiron tried for a smile. He probably wanted to look reassuring, but in centaur form he towered over me, casting a shadow across the table. "Well, Percy, how did you sleep?"

"Uh, fine." I wondered why he asked that. Was it possible he knew something about the weird Iris-message I'd gotten? "I brought Grover over," Chiron said, "because I thought you two might want to, ah, discuss matters. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Iris messages to send. I'll see you later in the day."

He gave Grover a meaningful look, then trotted over to his table. "What's he talking about?" I asked Grover. Grover chewed his eggs. I could tell he was distracted, because he bit off the tines of his fork and chewed those down, too.

"He wants you to convince me," he mumbled. Somebody else slid next to me on the bench: Annabeth. "I'll tell you what it's about," she said. "The Labyrinth. You can get anywhere through the Labyrinth." "If you don't get lost," Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Grover, there has to be a way," Annabeth said. I got the feeling they'd had this conversation before. "Clarisse lived." "Barely!" Grover said. "And the other guy—" "He was driven insane. He didn't die." "Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much better."

"Even (Y/N) almost died going in there, and dark spooky places are like...his thing." "Whoa," I said. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?" Annabeth glanced over toward the Ares table.

Clarisse was watching us like she knew what we were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate. "Last year," Annabeth said, lowering her voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron." "I remember," I said. "It was secret." Annabeth nodded.

"It was secret," Annabeth agreed, "because she found Chris Rodriguez." "The guy from the Hermes cabin?" I remembered him from two years ago. We'd eavesdropped on Chris Rodriguez aboard Luke's ship, the Princess Andromeda. Chris was one of the half-bloods who'd abandoned camp and joined the Titan army.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house." "What do you mean he just appeared?" "He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armour, babbling about string."

"String," I said. "He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."

I shivered, though I wasn't sure exactly why. Poor Chris . . . he hadn't been that bad a guy. What could've driven him mad? I looked at Grover, who was chewing up the rest of his fork. "Okay," I asked. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because . . . well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favourite subjects. The architecture involved—"

Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?" "Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters." "But not if you had Ariadne's string," Annabeth said.