•as the world caves in•

•ouch•

We ditched the Vespa as Percy opted to call his Pegasus, named Blackjack, and another named Porkpie, which I thought was a weird name, but I didn't have time to think about that. I quickly got on and we flew them to the bridge.

There was a know in my stomach. It had been four years since he was killed and I had hoped we wouldn't see him return for a while, give us more of a chance to train, but that was too much to ask for.

We could see the battle before actual people, just the Titan army. The moon was starting to fall from the sky, meaning it was past midnight, the sun would rise soon, but the bridge was ablaze like it was noon.

Finally, I saw the beast. I pointed out. "There!"

Clearly, he saw us too, and he found a limo at us. I felt bad for just a moment as I gripped onto Porkpies mane and he swerved to the left. The two landed us down and we were in the back lines of the Apollo Cabin. Micheal ran to us.

Even though his quiver was almost empty and he was decorated in bandages, he grinned at us. "Glad you could join! Where are the others?"

"We're it!" I responded and matched his grin.

His never dropped. "We're so dead."

"You have that chariot?"

"No. It wasn't worth fighting over so I gave it to Clarisse. But apparently I was too late and once she said she wasn't fighting, I called her a ton of names, that didn't help."

Percy rubbed his temple. "She'll come to her senses... hopefully. Her honor will be ruined if she refuses to fight."

Micheal scoffed. "Yeah, whatever. We have to fall back. Kayla and Austin are setting straps up down the bridge."

Percy shook his head, working something out. "Bring your campers to this position and wake for my signal. We're driving them back to Brooklyn."

Micheal snorted. "How do you plan to do that?"

"Coriane, you help Micheal with defense. I'll distract the monsters and you pick them off," he drew his sword. "I believe in you."

I nodded, although I didn't like the idea. "Alright. Let's get moving."

Micheal left, but Percy and I stayed in our spot. "Don't I get a kiss for luck?"

I softly smiled at him. He gave me the same expression as he started to lean down. I put my hands on his shoulders as I got up on my tip-toes and gave a quick kiss to his cheek and pulled back.

"Oh, c'mon," he groaned and scrunched his nose.

I giggled a little and held his cheek. "Come back to me alive and I'll give you a real kiss, hm?"

Percy grinned, and gave my forehead a soft kiss before running off.

•.•.•.•

I don't think I'd ever heard of the Minotaur being an easy beast, but watching Percy fight him was like any other monster. I helped Micheal set more traps and discuss our plan, along with gathering arrows that weren't too destroyed.

I hated it, but I had to pick up a fallen campers bow and quiver, along with the arrows they'd left. I wasn't good at archery, but with how many there were, I was sure to hit something.

The army began to become less intense as they retreated, but Percy didn't let up. I cupped my hands around my moth. "Percy! They're leaving, come back!"

I watched in confusion as Percy hesitated to running back to me. My heart twisted as I understood why.

Down the bridge was a man with gold eyes and a wicked smile.

Kronos.

"Retreat!" Percy shouted and started running back.

The Apollo cabin retreated, which was probably the smart thing to do, but I couldn't leave Percy, not now. Something felt wrong about running, like if I retreated something horrible would happen to him.

He caught up to me and there we were, fighting alongside each other as if it was another game of capture the flag. But instead of playfully sparing with fellow campers, now I was facing demigods who fell for the lies and wanted to kill us.

Percy and I were back to back, but when I had to side step to dodge an enemy, a demigod charged at Percy. Percy could survive a stab to the back, he'd gone through worse, but fear coursed in me as if this knife was a death sentence. I didn't hesitate as I leaped in front of it, taking the knife in my arm and cried out in pain.

I crashed onto the bridge, crumbling into a ball as I held onto my arm to stop the bleeding. Tears spilled from my eyes and I couldn't stop the sounds of pain coming from my mouth as I withered in pain, it becoming all too much. I knew I shouldn't have, but I looked to my arm and all I saw was red, my hand was doing little to prevent the blood.

Percy ducked down in front of me before lifting me up, one arm under my knees and the other on my mid back, propping my side against his chest. I looked up at him and could see his lips moving but didn't understand any of it, but his face was pale and he looked terrified as he set me on Blackjack and the Pegasus took off, and shortly after I subsumed to the pain.