𝑨𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑺 • 𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐶𝑌 𝐽𝐴𝐶𝐾𝑆𝑂𝑁 ²

TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY
—dumb fighting

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  —JUDITH wanted to punch a wall; wanted to launch her mortal fist into a solid slab of rock just to see what would win out in the end. She wanted to scream so loud and count the seconds before her vocal chords ruptured and her lungs gave out. And she wanted to cry — and Judith Karly Sloane never cried, never. But most of all, she wanted to fling her ax into the nearest bystander and imagine it was Kronos.

  But what she wanted most was now impossible.

  The group had been racing through the halls with Rachel in the lead, but she was slowing down, growing exhausted. They stopped abruptly in a tunnel of wet white rock, its condensation making the room muggy and humid.

"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.

Judith wanted so bad to yell at her and unleash a scorching wrath that had been building up, but she took one look at Annabeth and stopped. The girl had been crying the entire time they'd been running, silent tears racing down her cheeks and neck. She collapsed and put her head between her knees, her sobs echoing in the empty tunnel. A part of Judith wanted to yell at her to shut up because her mind was on sensory overload, but the words were stuck in her throat, festering in the depths.

Annabeth finally lifted her head, her eyes red from crying. "What ... what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

Percy gulped before answering. "There was a golden sarcophagus and when I got in there, it was closed. I thought I could maybe — maybe end it all right there, you know? But it was Luke's body, and I just — there was a hole in his chest and Ethan Nakamura had to vow himself to Kronos' allegiance in order to fill it and then Luke — Kronos woke up."

"No," Annabeth said. "That can't be true. He couldn't—"

Judith couldn't take it anymore, something about the way Annabeth was so quick to defend someone that had taken something important to her and was about to take something even more important from her in one swipe — it was enraging. Fists clenched, something in her snapped. "Luke's gone, Annabeth! He has been for a long time so you need to stop trying to defend him all the time!" Everyone was quiet at her outburst. All except Annabeth who stood up, ready to face Judith's fire head-on.

  Judith felt tendrils of tempting anger stretch to Annabeth's chest and she didn't hold back.

"No!" Annabeth looked appalled. "You saw when Rachel hit him! That was Luke!"

"So what?! He obviously isn't in control of his own body anymore. We can't keep hitting him with stupid plastic hair bushes in order to talk to Luke! He. Is. Gone!"

The world was spinning around the two and Judith knew her impulse to punch a wall could quickly turn into the urge to punch a blonde Athenian. Her head was filled with a smoke, much like the kind the Greek Fire produced, only blood red. It filled all of her senses and was slowly filtering into Annabeth.

"You just want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth yelled. "You just want any excuse to fight someone!"

"I did try to fight him! Guess what, my ax is completely kaput with one swing of his scythe! Why do you keep defending him?" Judith returned, becoming even more enraged at the thought of her beloved ax.