¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

019.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter nineteen

━━━━━ THEY RAN UNTIL they couldn't. Rachel steered the others away from traps, but there was no destination in mind—only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.

               They stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. AJ couldn't hear anything behind them, but he didn't feel any safer. He could still remember those unnatural golden eyes staring out of Luke's face, and the feeling that his limbs were slowly turning to stone. Even—just faintly right underneath his skin—that cold sensation of dousing himself in darkness.

               "I can't go any further," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.

               Annabeth had been crying the entire time they had been running. Now she collapsed, and AJ landed beside her, his chest feeling like it was ready to cave in. The daughter of Athena started sobbing harder and put her head in the space between AJ's neck and shoulder. He froze for a moment, but wrapped an arm around her. Any spats from over the years were completely forgotten at this moment.

               Violet's legs gave out and tears stained her face. She took a shaky breath, and AJ could tell she was trying not to cry. Luke used to be a mentor to her, he was the first one who ever welcomed her to Camp. So to see him go down this road ...

               Annabeth's sobs echoed in the tunnel. Nico sat next to Violet, dropping his sword on the floor with a CLANK!

               "That sucked," Nico said simply as Percy sat down hard.

               Percy nodded to Nico from across the corridor. "You saved our lives."

               Nico wiped the dust off his face. "Blame the girls for dragging me along. That's the only thing they could agree on. We needed to help you or you and AJ would mess things up."

               "Nice that they trust us so much." Percy shone his flashlight across the cavern. Water dripped from the stalactites like a slow-motion rain. "Nico ... you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."

               Violet looked over at him, eyes rimmed red. "What are you talking about?"

               "That wall of black stone, Vi?" said Percy, eyes lingering. "Nico—that was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now—a child of the Underworld."

               Once again, Violet and Nico shared a glance. Nico swallowed harshly. "Big deal," he said, trying to sound casual as he shrugged.

               Percy didn't look like he agreed with Nico's assessment, but Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "What ... what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

               AJ sighed, but he and Percy recountered what they had seen; Luke's body in Kronos's coffin, the way the last piece of Kronos's spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan Nakamura pledged his service.

               "No." Annabeth shook her head. "That can't be true. He couldn't—"

               "He gave himself over to Kronos," said Percy. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone."

               Annabeth's grey eyes hardened. "No! You saw when Rachel hit him."

               Percy nodded, looking at Rachel with respect; Violet's teeth started grounding together. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."