This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―xxi. the great god pan

THEY RAN UNTIL THEY WERE EXHAUSTED. Rachel steered them from traps, but they had no destination in mind—only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.

They stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. Naomi couldn't hear anything behind them, but she didn't feel any safer. Her throat still ached from Kronos's grip.

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

Annabeth had been crying the entire time they'd been running. Now she collapsed, and all Naomi could do was collapse next to her and let the girl sob into her neck, their earlier disagreement forgotten in the face of more tragedy.

Naomi wasn't sure how long they sat there before Annabeth's sobs died off.

When she lifted her head, her eyes were red. "What... what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

Percy told her what he'd seen in the coffin, the way the last piece of Kronos's spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan pledged his service.

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

"He gave himself over to Kronos," Percy said. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone."

"No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."

Percy nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."

Rachel looked embarrassed. "It was the only thing I had."

"But you saw," Annabeth insisted. "When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."

"So maybe Kronos wasn't completely settled in the body, or whatever," Percy said. "It doesn't mean Luke was in control."

"You want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth yelled. "You didn't know him before, Percy. I did!"

"What is it with you?" he snapped. "He almost strangled Naomi! Why do you keep defending him?"

"Whoa, you two," Rachel said. "Knock it off!"

Annabeth turned on her. "Stay out of it, mortal girl! If it wasn't for you..."

Whatever she was going to say, her voice broke. She put her head down and sobbed miserably.

Naomi struggled to her feet. She couldn't get the image of Ethan's face out of head, the conviction in his eye.

She'd been so sure she could bring him back, and even now, an irrational voice in her mind told her maybe next time. This was the third time she'd lost him—how many betrayals would it take for her to accept that he didn't want to be saved?

Her throat ached, and she couldn't tell if it was from sorrow or the memory of Kronos's grip.

"We have to keep moving," Nico said. "He'll send monsters after us."

Nobody was in any shape to run, but Nico was right. They couldn't stay still down here.

As Percy tried to help Rachel and Annabeth up, Nico looked at Naomi. "Are you... okay?"

Naomi wiped her cheeks—she hadn't even realized she was crying, too.

"I'm fine," she muttered. 

Nico frowned like he didn't believe her.

"Just leave it," she said, her voice cracking—she blamed the trauma to her windpipe. "Please."

To her relief, he did.