First Lie || Deception Book I ||

Arrival

The howling of the wind outside the car sounded like a pack of hellhounds. I shook my head. The tension was making me imagine things.

"So," Percy started.

I felt Grover wince.

"You two know my mother?"

"Not exactly, I responded. "I mean, we never met in person, but she knew Grover was watching you. Me, well," I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Watching me?" Percy asked.

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay, but the friendship part wasn't faked," Grover responded. "I'm your friend. All of us are."

"What are you exactly?" Percy asked.

Grover grunted. "Doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter? My best friend is half donkey-"

I winced again. "Percy-"

"Blaa-ha-ha!" Grover bleated. "Goat!"

"What?" Percy asked in confusion.

I shook my head. Let them have the conversation. Percy and Grover were still talking, but I zoned out. I hope Ally is okay, I thought fervently. She's fine, my brain said. That girl can take care of herself. Plus, there's a hellhound-sized wolf with her. Stop worrying!

"-Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions," Grover said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked. "Hades-"

Percy's mom shot me a look through the rearview mirror. "Sorry."

I zoned out again, twisting the snake ring on my right hand. I peered into the darkness ahead. "We're almost there," I said. "Just another mile. Mrs. Jackson, can you please drive faster?"

Suddenly the hair on the back of my neck raised, and before I could help myself, I vanished in a cloud of black smoke. Crap, I thought. I hope I can push it off as an ability related to the mist. Just as I dematerialized, I sensed a blinding flash and a thundering boom!.

I rematerialized at the side of the road, searching for the car. "Come on, come on," I muttered to myself. "Not now."

Just then, I glimpsed the car in a ditch at the side of the road, not six metres away from me. I sprinted towards it, and that was when I saw it.

"Shit," I cursed. I uncoiled Pyrkagia and willed it to channel the hellfire that Hades had said was infused in the whip. A spark crackled at the start of the celestial bronze whip, and a moment later, the entire whip blazed with hellfire, burning even in the torrential rain. I lashed out with the whip and sheared the side of the car off.

The door of the car now reduced to molten rubble, I turned back to the hulking silhouette lumbering towards us. "Go!" I yelled behind me. I heard Percy and his mother climb out of the gaping hole in the car, carrying Grover. "I'll take care of it!"

"Wait!" Percy started. "No! You're coming too!"

I turned around, but before I could say anything, blood-curdling howls pierced the air. No, no, this couldn't be happening. I cursed and flicked my wrist, the whip turning back into a silver bracelet, and sprinted towards Percy and his mother.

"Hellhounds and that," I gasped. "We gotta get to the tree. Come on!" I said, grabbing Grover. "Percy, you and your mother as well. No one's getting left behind."

"But I can't-" Percy's mother started.

"Mom!" Percy cut off.

We started stumbling up the hill through the long grass. Grover was a dead weight in my arms. "Don't say his name," I said, as Percy opened his mouth in recognition. "Names have power."

We continued up the hill, but it was over a hundred yards uphill, and the Minotaur was coming closer.

"Can't he see us?" Percy gasped out.

"Terrible sight and hearing," Percy's mother responded. "Relies on smell. But-"

Just then, the Minotaur picked up the car and threw it down the road, where it skidded for about half a mile before exploding.

Percy's mother whispers some instructions to him, probably about how to defeat the bull, but I was too focused on not dropping Grover to pay attention. When we reached the crest of the hill, the Minotaur attacked.

I dropped Grover and rallied my power, prepared to strike him down, but the Minotaur somehow sensed that Percy was the one that was the weakest and charged him. I watched, unable to strike with Percy there, as the Minotaur came closer. At the last moment, Percy jumped to the side, and the Minotaur charged past like a very fast, very angry bulldozer (no pun intended).

I loosed a sigh of relief. Then, the Minotaur charged Percy's mother, who had been slowly retreating downhill, and grabbed her by the neck.

"Go!" she choked out, before the monster closed his hand, turning her into a shimmering golden form, which then dissolved in a blinding flash of light, blinding me.

When I opened them again, Percy was on top of the bull's head. "What are you doing?!" I screamed at him. There was no reply, but I watched as he was flung through the air, holding something in his hand - was that a horn?- and drove the weapon into the Minotaur's rib cage.

I stared in shock as the monster disintegrated into crumbling sand. "Percy," I started. Just then, I heard the howls again. Hellhounds. Damn it. I ran over to where Percy was struggling with Grover and helped him haul Grover up. He looked at me with wide, fearful eyes, and I knew he had heard the hellhounds too. "Go, Percy," I said, "straight down the hill to the farmhouse. You'll be safe there."

"But there are things-" he protested.

I shook my head. "You're done. If you stay here, you'll be more of a liability than a help. Besides, Grover's unconscious. You need to get him to safety."

Percy grabbed my arm. "What about you? I can't just let you die! Not after my mom-" he choked on a sob.

I gently took Percy's hand off my arm. "The monsters can't kill me. I promise you that. I'll be fine. Serious!" I added, after the doubtful look he shot me. The howls came closer. "Go!" I yelled at him.

Wordlessly, Percy took Grover and staggered down the hill, towards the light of the farmhouse.

He's safe, I thought. Now Hades and I are going to talk. I stepped forwards to meet the growling hellhounds that emerged like shadows from the trees. 

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