𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞 (Annabeth X Malereader)

[6] The bear twins

Annabeth slowly glanced around the corner, her cap of invisibility keeping her hidden. They sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite, while Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved them into a supply closet.

"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" A voice said. It sounded like a regular guy. Another laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome." Y/N gasped. "I hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man... no contest!" The voices faded down the corridor.

"That was Chris Rodriguez!" Y/N hissed. Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible.

"Who?" Percy frowned.

"Remember? from Cabin Eleven?"

"I... sort of."

"What's another half-blood doing here?" Y/N looked at Annabeth. She shook her head, clearly troubled. They kept moving along. As they ventured down the hall, the cold made Y/N's skin crawl. They were getting closer to Luke, and... something else. Something evil.

"Guys." Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look." She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade—a mall full of shops. But that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention. A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures. Humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs. "Scythian Dracaenae," Annabeth whispered. "Dragon women."

The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. The dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. The guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled. Annabeth stepped away from the window, her face ashen.

"Come on," Y/N said, trying to sound braver than he felt. "The sooner we find Luke the better." At the end of the hallway were massive double oak doors. As they got closer, Tyson stopped.

"Voices inside." He whispered.

"You can hear that far?" Percy asked. Tyson nodded, closing his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Luke's.

"...the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn." Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the other guy we'd heard talking to Luke outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?" Tyson laughed Luke's laugh. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw."

Annabeth shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy."

Tyson opened his eye and looked puzzled. "Just listening."

"Keep going," Y/N said. "What else are they saying?"

Tyson closed his eye again. He hissed in the gruff man's voice: "Quiet!" Then Luke's voice, whispering: "Are you sure?" "Yes," Tyson said in the gruff voice. "Right outside."

Percy realized what was happening. "Run!" He exclaimed. The doors of the stateroom suddenly burst open and there was Luke, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at Percy and Y/N.

"Well, well, well..." Luke said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my three favorite cousins. Come right in."

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The stateroom was beautifully horrid. Huge windows curved along the back wall, looking out over the stern of the ship. Green sea and blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon. A Persian rug covered the floor, with two plush sofas occupied the middle of the room, with a canopied bed in one corner and a mahogany dining table in the other. The table was loaded with food, with pizza boxes, bottles of soda, and a stack of roast beef sandwiches on a silver platter.