The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

82. On The Bank Of The River Styx

Annabeth woke up with a start.

The memories of her dreams were already fading, but the last one remained clear in her mind. Y/N, with Percy and Nico, facing Hades. She hadn't heard what they were saying to each other, but she didn't care. A dream like this couldn't bode well. Quite the opposite. The last time she'd dreamed of Y/N like that was a year ago, when he was lost in the Labyrinth.

It was still dark. She could hear faint rustling sounds every time one of her siblings stirred in their bed. She reached for her watch on her bedside table. Two in the morning. She wasn't sleepy at all now, but she would've to find a way to get back to sleep if she wanted to be up and about when the sun rose.

Suddenly, a hand pressed over her mouth. She was about to punch randomly in the dark when Ethan's voice whispered, "It's me. Sorry, but I couldn't risk waking everyone else up."

She pushed him away. "Who do you think you are, Ethan Moore? What do you want? It's two o'clock, let me sleep."

"Oh, believe me, you won't want to sleep when you'll hear what happened." She heard Ethan swallow. "Come on, Grover's waiting outside."

"Grover?" she exclaimed.

"Shh!" Ethan pressed his hand over her mouth again.

She pushed him away again. "You stop that."

"And you whisper," Ethan retorted.

"But Grover—"

"Yeah, he's come back," Ethan interrupted. "I know, it's crazy, but he'll explain everything better than I would. Come on, hurry up."

Ethan went out first. In the dark, Annabeth grabbed a random T-shirt and a pair of jeans. She felt her invisibility cap and her bronze knife on her bedside table. Something told her there was a problem. She took them.

When she went outside, Ethan and Grover were waiting for her by the light of a torch.

She hugged Grover. "Where have you been? Why weren't you answering our Iris-messages? Oh, Juniper is going to be so happy! She's been worried sick about you, you know? Really, Grover, you're going to apologize—"

"Annabeth," Ethan interrupted, and she felt the urgency in his voice.

"What happened?" she asked.

Grover began to speak very quickly. "Well, I've been put to sleep by Morpheus. He's on Kronos's side, now. Most of the minor gods are. But you already know that. I was in Central Park. I thought I'd just taken a short nap. I found Percy and Y/N there. Nico was with them, too. They told me it'd been two months since anyone heard from me. I was stunned. Then I asked them why they were there, and they said they wanted to go to the Underworld so Percy could bathe in the River Styx and—"

"What?" Annabeth exclaimed. "What are they going to do?"

"Annabeth, calm down," Ethan said, looking over his shoulder. "The harpies might hear you."

"Oh, they can hear me if they want to! The whole camp can hear me if they want to! They went to the Underworld so Percy could bathe in the River Styx? What a bunch of idiots, morons, and— Argh!"

She would've said more, but her brain made the connection to her dream. "We have to go get them out of there. They're in danger."

"That's exactly what we wanted to tell you," Ethan said. "We've got the camp van ready, come on."

They ran to the top of Half-Blood Hill. They were about to descend the other side when a voice called out, "Grover?"

It was Juniper.