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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Percy took the lead as we crawled down the drainage pipe. After thirty feet, it opened into a wider tunnel. To our left, somewhere in the distance, I heard rumbling and creaking, like a huge machine needed oiling. Sadly, we ended up going towards the rumbling and creaking. Several hundred feet later, we reached a turn in the tunnel.
Percy held up his hand, signaling us to wait. He peeked around the corner to see if it was safe. I gnawed the inside of my cheek. My fingers started to tap against the tunnel floor and cringed with the sound echoed. I immediately stopped.
"Anything?" I muttered to my boyfriend, trying to peek over his shoulder to see nothing.
All I was able to see was that on the other side was a room. The tunnel blocked me from seeing anything else inside. Percy didn't respond. He was too caught up staring at something in the other room.
"What is it?" Piper whispered.
Percy gestured for us to come look. We made our way over to check it out. About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.
"What the heck?" Jason murmured.
We stepped inside. I scanned the room. There were a hundred different things to look at and most of them were in motion. Luckily, with my ADHD, I was able to do well with this chaotic mess and take it all in. My brows furrowed when I noticed stage props and gear.
"Where's Nico-oh." I stopped when I saw the big bronze jar standing between two empty praetor chairs on a raised dais. A sinking feeling settled in my stomach. My hand reached out to grip Percy's arm. "Oh, gods...Nico."
"Look." Percy pointed out the jar to the others.
"That's too easy." Piper frowned.
"Of course." Percy said.
"But we have no choice." Jason stated. "We've got to save Nico."
"What's the plan?" I glanced at everyone.
"I distract." A smile tugged at the corner of Percy's lips as he glanced at me.
"I collect." I finished, giving him a nod.
"Yeah." Percy said as the both of us started to make our way to Nico.
Jason and Piper followed. We had to move around the conveyor belts and moving platforms. I almost stopped in my tracks when I noticed the hellhounds in giant hamster wheels. They didn't pay any attention to us, too busy running and panting, their red eyes glowing like headlights. There were more animals in cages that gave us bored looks. My heart ached for them to be trapped like that.
I kept an eye out for any traps. Our way to Nico seemed way too easy and we knew this was a trap. Anything could've honestly been a trap and it brought back a memory of the labyrinth. I started to wonder if maybe we needed Hazel to help us navigate underground to avoid any surprise traps. We jumped over a water trench and ducked under a row of caged wolves.
