𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬'𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 • 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘫𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘰𝘯

Luke

Y/n Pov:

Annabeth volunteered to go alone since she had the cap of invisibility, but I convinced her it was too dangerous. Either we all went together, or nobody went. 

"Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?" 

But in the end, he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. We stopped at our cabin long enough to gather our stuff. We figured whatever happened, we would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo

We sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. We hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people we saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers. 

As we came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved us into a supply closet. 

I heard a couple of guys coming down the hall."You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said. 

The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome." 

I recognized that voice. It was Chris! Chris Rodriguez! I squeezed Percy's arm to get his attention. Maybe he'd recognize him too.

"I hear they got two more coming," Chris said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man—no contest!" 

The voices faded down the corridor. 

"That was Chris Rodriguez!" I said once they were out of hearing reach. "You remember—from Cabin Eleven."

Percy's eyes lit up, now recognizing him.

"What's another half-blood doing here?" he asked.

I shrugged. 

What is another half-blood doing here?

We kept going down the corridor. I didn't need maps anymore to know I was getting close toLuke. I sensed something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil. 

"Guys." Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look." 

She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade—a mall full of shops—but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention. 

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants, two hellhounds, and... 

"Scythian Dracaenae," I whispered. "Dragon women." 

The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armour who was hacking on a straw dummy. A lump formed in my throat when I realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. As we watched, the guy in armour stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled. 

Annabeth stepped away from the window. Her face was ashen. 

"Come on," Percy said. He grabbed ahold of my hand to comfort me. "The sooner we find Luke the better." 

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When we were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside." 

"You can hear that far?" Percy asked. 

Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Luke's. "—the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."