SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

66 - visions come true

FINDING THE PLACE was easy. Percy led them right to it, on an abandoned stretch of hillside overlooking the ruined Forum.

Getting in was easy too. Reyna's Imperial Gold sword cut through the padlock, and the metal gate creaked open. No mortals saw them. No alarms went off. Stone steps spiraled down into the gloom.

"I'll go first," Jason said.

"Wait!" Briar blurted.

They all turned toward her.

"Bri, what is it?" Reyna asked. "That image in the blade . . . you've seen it before, haven't you?"

Briar nodded, staring at their entwined hands. "I didn't know how to tell you. I'm sorry. I saw the room down there filling with water. I saw the four of us drowning."

She could practically feel their confusion.

"I can't drown," Percy said, though he sounded like he was asking a question.

"Maybe the future has changed," Jason speculated. "In the image you showed us just now, there wasn't any water."

Briar wished he was right, but she suspected they wouldn't be so lucky.

"Look," Percy said. "I'll check it out first. It's fine. Be right back."

Before Briar could object, he disappeared down the stairwell.

She counted silently as they waited for him to come back. Somewhere around thirty-five, she heard his footsteps, and he appeared at the top, looking more baffled than relieved.

"Good news: no water," he said. "Bad news: I don't see any exits down there. And, uh, weird news: well, you should see this . . ."

They descended cautiously. Percy took the lead, with Riptide drawn. Briar followed, with Reyna holding her hand behind her, and Jason was guarding their backs. The stairwell was a cramped corkscrew of masonry, no more than six feet in diameter. Even though Percy had given the "all clear," Briar kept her eyes open for traps. With every turn of the stairs, she anticipated an ambush. She only had Mars's knife and her cornucopia on a leather cord over her shoulder. If worse came to worst, Jason, Percy, and Reyna's swords wouldn't do much good in such close quarters. Maybe Briar could shoot their enemies with high-velocity smoked hams.

As they wound their way underground, Briar saw old graffiti gouged into the stones: Roman numerals, names and phrases in Italian. That meant other people had been down here more recently than the Roman Empire, but Briar wasn't reassured. If monsters were below, they'd ignore mortals, waiting for some nice juicy demigods to come along.

Finally, they reached the bottom.

Percy turned. "Watch this last step."

He jumped to the floor of the cylindrical room, which was five feet lower than the stairwell. Why would someone design a set of stairs like that? Briar had no idea. Maybe the room and the stairwell had been built during different time periods.

She wanted to turn and exit, but she couldn't do that with Reyna and Jason behind her, and she couldn't just leave Percy down there. She accepted Percy's outstretched hand and hopped down, Reyna and Jason following.

The room was just like how Briar had seen it in Katoptris's blade, except there was no water. The curved walls had once been painted with frescoes, which were now faded to eggshell white with only flecks of color. The domed ceiling was about fifty feet above.

Around the back side of the room, opposite the stairwell, nine alcoves were carved into the wall. Each niche was about five feet off the floor and big enough for a human-sized statue, but each was empty.