Ivy Pittaluga had always made a solemn vow to keep her distance from Percy Jackson, determined to keep her world separate from the camp hero.
However, she realizes that fate has a mischievous plan in store for her. Suddenly thrown together as unlik...
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We ran until we were exhausted. Rachel steered us away from traps, but we had no destination in mind. The only thing we did prefer was the growing distance between us and Luke. We stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave.
"I can't go any farther." Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.
Annabeth had been crying the entire time we'd been running. Now she collapsed and put her head between her knees. Her sobs echoed in the tunnel. I gave Percy's hand a squeeze and walked over to check on Annabeth. I touched the purple gem on the spear. It turned back into a grape and I placed it in the cluster of my necklace.
"Come here." I sat next to her.
Annabeth leaned her head on my shoulder as she cried. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed soothing circles on her arm. Percy and Nico sat near each other. Nico dropped his sword to Percy's and took a shaky breath.
"That sucked." Nico said.
"You saved our lives." Percy told him.
"Blame the girls for dragging me along." Nico wiped the dust off his faces. "That's the only thing they could agree on. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up. Plus, Ivy kinda of demanded we go, so..."
"Nice that they trust me so much." Percy shine his flashlight across the cavern. You could hear the dripping of the water from the stalactites echo in the cave. "Nico...you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."
"What do you mean?"
"That wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now-a child of the Underworld."
"Big deal." Nico frowned.
Percy didn't bother pressing Nico about it. It seemed Nico was trying to hide how scared he truly was. There was a slight glint of fear in his eyes. Annabeth lifted her head from my shoulder. Her eyes were red from crying.
"What...what was wrong with Luke?" She asked. "What did they do to him?"
Percy told us what he'd seen in the coffin. The way the last piece of Kronos's spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan Nalamura pledged his device. The color drained from Annabeth's face.
"No." Annabeth said. "That can't be true. He couldn't-"
"He gave himself over to Kronos." Percy told her. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone."
"No!" She insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."
"You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush." Percy nodded in respect to Rachel.
"It was the only thing I had." Rachel looked embarrassed.
"But you saw." Annabeth continued. She looked at me for help. "When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."
