WORTH | jason grace¹

31

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31. Earthquake

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Time seemed to slow down as Lorna yelled, "No!"

She couldn't lose him. She had already experienced the  lost of so many, she didn't want to have one more.

The fire-breathing giant was about to impale Jason when Leo's voice yelled, "Heads up!"

A large black metal wedge slammed into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit.

"Jason, get up!" Lorna called.

He sat up, his head groggy, while Lorna grabbed him under his arms and hauled him to his feet.

"Don't die on me," she ordered. "You are not dying on me."

"Yes, ma'am."

Leo was standing over a piece of construction equipment—a long cannonlike thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off. Then Lorna looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the hydraulic ax had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an ax blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate. Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the ax blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armor, but Enceladus stood. Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear.

"Good try." The giant winced. "But I cannot be beaten."

As they watched, the giant's armor mended itself, and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason had worked so hard to make, were now just pale scars. Leo ran up to them, saw the giant, and cursed.

"What is it with this guy? Die, already!"

"My fate is preordained," Enceladus said. "Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes."

"Only by both," Lorna said.

The giant's smile faltered, and Lorna saw in his eyes something like fear. "It's true, isn't it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you."

"You will not live long enough to try!" The giant started stumbling up the crater's slope, slipping on the glassy sides.

"Anyone have a god handy?" Leo asked.

Lorna's heart filled with dread. She looked at the giant below them, struggling to get out of the pit.

"Leo," Jason said, "if you've got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready."

He leaped at the giant with no weapon but his bare hands.

"Enceladus!" Piper yelled. "Look behind you!"

It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even Lorna bought it.

The giant said, "What?" and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.

Jason tackled his legs at just the right moment. The giant lost his balance. Enceladus slammed into the crater and slid to the bottom. While he tried to rise, Jason put his arms around the giant's neck. When Enceladus struggled to his feet, Jason was riding his shoulders.

"Get off!" Enceladus screamed.

He tried to grab Jason's legs, but Jason scrabbled around, squirming and climbing over the giant's hair.

Suddenly Lorna could smell the metallic scent of a storm. Darkness swallowed the sun. The giant froze, sensing it too. Jason yelled to his friends, "Hit the deck!"

Piper and Leo dived down but Lorna had a better idea. She got Tremor and raised it, running towards the edge of the cliff. She brought Tremor down and stabbed it into the ground. The ground shook violently.

Crack!

Lightning surged through Jason's body, straight through Enceladus, and into the ground. 

Lorna flinched at the light flash, the trauma taking over her.

The giant's back stiffened, and Jason was thrown clear.

Lorna looked around for Jasona and saw that he was slipping down the side of the crater, and the crater was cracking open.

The earth rumbled and tore apart, and Enceladus's legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold on to the edge, his hands trembling. He fixed Jason with a look of hatred.

"You've won nothing, boy. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the gods at their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with—"

The giant lost his grip and fell into the crevice. The earth shook. Jason fell toward the rift.

"Grab hold!" Leo yelled.

Jason's feet were at the edge of the chasm when he grabbed the rope, and Leo and Lorna pulled him up. They stood together, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulling at their feet. For now, Gaea was gone. The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air. Lorna spotted a helicopter—maybe firefighters or reporters—coming toward them. All around them was carnage. The Earthborn had melted into piles of clay, leaving behind only their rock missiles and some nasty bits of loincloth, but Lorna figured they would reform soon enough. Construction equipment lay in ruins. The ground was scarred and blackened. Coach Hedge started to move. He sat up with a groan and rubbed his head. His canary yellow pants were now the color of Dijon mustard mixed with mud. He blinked and looked around him at the battle scene.

"Did I do this?"

Before Lorna could reply, Hedge picked up his club and got shakily to his feet. "Yeah, you wanted some hoof? I gave you some hoof, cupcakes! Who's the goat, huh?"

He did a little dance, kicking rocks and making what were probably rude satyr gestures at the piles of clay. Leo cracked a smile, and Lorna couldn't help it—she started to laugh. It probably sounded a little hysterical, but it was such a relief to be alive, she didn't care.

Then a man stood up across the clearing. Tristan McLean staggered forward. His eyes were hollow, shell-shocked, like someone who'd just walked through a nuclear wasteland.

"Piper?" he called. His voice cracked. "Pipes, what—what is—"

He couldn't complete the thought. Piper ran over to him and hugged him tightly, but he almost didn't seem to know her.

"We need to get him out of here," Jason said.

"Yeah, but how?" Leo said. "He's in no shape to walk."

Lorna glanced up at the helicopter, which was now circling directly overhead.

"Can you make us a bullhorn or something?" she asked Leo. "Piper has some talking to do."