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 and I fell in the endless pit into Tartarus for what felt like days. I lost track of time. It could've been hours, a day, or even days. When we first fell in, we had been holding hands. Now Percy pulled me close, hugging me tightly as we fell together. My arms latched around him as my face was buried into his chest.
Wind whistled in my ears and I wouldn't be surprised if they started to ring soon. The air grew hotter and damper, as if we were plummeting into the throat of a massive dragon. My ankle throbbed from the pain and I couldn't see if the spider web was still tied around my ankle.
Dread and fear swirled in my chest. Whenever we get to the bottom, assuming there was a bottom, Percy and I would most likely be flattened on impact. My hold around Percy tightened as I choked back a sob. He buried his face into the crook of my neck.
I knew being a demigod wasn't easy. That was a way it had been since ancient times. It was a miracle I had lasted this long when others around me have died. It was a rare thing for a Greek demigod to make it to 18. The Greeks invented tragedy. They knew the greatest heroes didn't get a happy ending.
The life of a demigod isn't fair. Falling into the pit of Tartarus with Percy wasn't fair. But I knew the gods weren't this twisted. They wouldn't have devised a fate like this. It had to be Gaea who has been taunting me in my dreams about her trying to get her dirty hands on Percy and I to be her sacrifices.
Then, the way Bacchus was behaving back in the Colosseum made sense now. He knew the fate Percy and I had falling into the depths of Tartarus. The way he made sure I was fully healed. The advice he gave Percy and I. His facial expression when I offered to go down to help Jason and Percy. He knew and he hated the idea.
I pulled Percy closer to me. My hand went up to cradle the back of his head. I pressed a lingering kiss on his head. Percy muttered something to me, his voice muffled against my neck and lost in the wind.
"I love you, Shark Boy." I told him, not knowing if he was able to hear it.
I tried to think of a plan. What would Annabeth think of? She had the wisdom to conjure a plan from almost anything. I couldn't fly like Jason or transform into an animal that could like Frank. Making vines grow would be pointless.
The darkness took on a grey-red tinge. I could actually see Percy now, the darkness lightening just a little as I hugged him. The whistling of the wind turned into a roar. The air became intolerably hot permeated with a smell of rotten eggs.
Suddenly, the chute we'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. Maybe half a mile below, I could see the bottom. I couldn't think properly from the shock. The entire island of Manhattan could fit inside- and I couldn't even see the full extent of it. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. The landscape was rocky black plains, punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms. To my left, the ground dropped off in a series of cliffs, like colossal giant steps that lead deeper into the abyss.
