νεκρός || Annabeth Chase x Fem!OC

Vol. 3-33: I try to kill Luke (for the fourth time)

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Before I even got to the exit I heard voices: the growling, barking sounds of sea-demon smiths, the telekhines.

"At least we salvaged the blade," one said. "The master will still reward us."

"Yes! Yes!" a second shrieked. "Rewards beyond measure!"

Another voice, this one more human, said: "Um, yeah, well that's great. Now, if you're done with me-"

"No, half-blood!" a telekhine said. "You must help us make the presentation. It is a great honor!"

"Gee, thanks," the half-blood said, and I realized it was Ethan Nakamura, the guy who'd run away after Percy saved his sorry ass in the arena. I really wanted to kill him. I barely knew the guy from camp. I mean, we talked a few times, since we had some stuff in common (we don't like people, we're antisocial, we like The Smiths, people don't like us), but all of those things kinda made it so that we didn't like each other. I think he's whiny and stupid looking. He thinks I'm mean and stupid looking. Now, I think he's a pussy.

I crept toward the end of the tunnel. I had to remind myself I was dead, and they can't sense the dead. I kept Annabeth's Yankees cap on my head, but it didn't make me invisible. Magic doesn't affect the dead. I just took it for her sake.

A blast of cold air hit me as I emerged. I was standing near the top of Mount Tam. The Pacific Ocean spread out below, gray under a cloudy sky. About twenty feet downhill, two telekhines were placing something on a big rock- something long and thin and wrapped in a black cloth. Ethan was helping them open it.

"Careful, fool," the telekhine scolded. "One touch, and the blade will sever your soul from your body."

Ethan swallowed nervously. "Maybe I'll let you unwrap it, then." Ugh, what I wouldn't give to rip out his other eye.

I glanced up at the mountain's peak, where a black marble fortress loomed. It reminded me of an oversized mausoleum, with walls fifty feet high. I had no idea how mortals could miss the fact that it was here. But then again, everything below the summit seemed fuzzy to me, as if there were a thick veil between me and the lower half of the mountain. There was magic going on here- really powerful Mist. Above me, the sky swirled into a huge funnel cloud. I couldn't see Atlas, but I could hear him groaning in the distance, still laboring under the weight of the sky, just beyond the fortress. The sound made me happy. I hope the sky gets a lot heavier soon, since I don't like Atlas and think he deserves a lot of really worse things to happen.

"There!" the telekhine said. Reverently, he lifted the weapon, and the world seemed to freeze.

It was a scythe- a six foot-long blade curved like a crescent moon, with a wooden handle wrapped in leather. The blade glinted two different colors- steel and bronze. It was the weapon of Kronos, the one he'd used to slice up his father, Ouranos, before the gods had taken it away from him and cut Kronos to pieces, casting him into Tartarus. Now the weapon was re-forged.

Yikes.

"We must sanctify it in blood," the telekhine said. "Then you, half-blood, shall help present it when the lord awakes."

I ran toward the fortress, the wind roaring in my ears. I didn't want to get anywhere close to that horrible black mausoleum, but I knew what I had to do. I had to stop Kronos from rising. This might be my only chance. And, this time, I didn't have anyone to stop me.