"you could be the king, but watch the queen conquer"
-
Rosalyn Carter is the daughter of Aphrodite and the last thing Percy expected to find at Camp Half-Blood.
But he wouldn't want to fight deadly battles with anyone else.
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Before them were three separate entrances. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. The howling they'd hear from the boat was louder now.
The fact that they couldn't see the three-headed dog, Cerberus, worried Rosalyn.
"What do you figure?" Percy asked, looking at the EZ DEATH line that was moving much faster than the other three.
"The fast line must go to the Asphodel Fields. No contest. They don't want to risk judgement from the court," Annabeth said.
They kept walking toward the gates, the howling now shaking the ground beneath their feet. The green mist started to shimmer. Now, where the paths split, a large shadowy monster was visible.
"I'm starting to see him better," Percy spoke unsurely. "Why is that?"
"I think..." Annabeth started, but her sentence trailed off.
"We're getting closer to being dead," Rosalyn finished.
They were just before the large dog, who looked a lot like a Rottweiler, when he crouched his middle head down and sniffed. The head snarled dangerously at them.
"It can smell the living," Rosie breathed, her fingers twitching out of instant for her hairpin.
"But that's okay, because we have a plan," Grover responded hysterically.
Annabeth's voice was the smallest Rosalyn had ever heard it when she said, "Right. A plan."
Percy surprised them all by pulling out a piece of broken water bed and waving it around. The dog growled back at him, but Percy threw the stick as far as he could. He let out a frightened, "Fetch!"
Cerberus gave the boy an unimpressed look. He rose to his full height, his teeth bared.
"Um, Percy? Just thought you'd want to know... he's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that, he's hungry."
Rosalyn's face paled at Grover's words. She racked her brain for a backup plan, but nothing she could think of involved them all making it past the beast.
They'd made it this far, and now they were going to die.
"Annabeth," Rosalyn choked. "Give me the rubber ball in your backpack."
"How did you—?"
"Now," she snapped. "When I have his attention, slip through the gate. Run fast, and don't look back."
The blonde regarded Rosalyn with a look of horror while Percy and Grover were oblivious to the girls quiet conversation. Annabeth's eyes darted to the boys trembling slightly in front of her, then back to Rosalyn.
