LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . pjo

II.

THE NEXT MORNING there was a lot of excitement at breakfast.

Apparently around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. Mia slept right through the noise, because always she slept like a rock. The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in their defenses, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Lee Fletcher from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows got lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armor, it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned them during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. Its eyes—" he shuddered.

"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves.

Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that their attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers. Four years ago, when Mia had started, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke, like she had. Some had just disappeared.

Of course, the rest of camp didn't have the knowledge that Mia had. They didn't know that Luke was in the Labyrinth, ( which was a real thing, by the way ) trying to find Ariadne's string so he could find a way to camp and either kill everyone or make them join him.

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Yes . . ." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."

They all raised their glasses and repeated the blessing.

Mia was eating with the rest of her cabinmates, arguing about pancakes vs waffles ( waffles are elite, especially real good Belgian waffles ) when she heard her name being called, and she looked back to see Annabeth sitting at Percy's table along with Grover.

"What?" Mia yelled.

"Come over here!" Annabeth told her.

"Isn't that breaking the rules?" Mia's lips curled into a confused pout.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "When have you cared about rules?"

That was a pretty good point. Mia sighed, got up with her plate, and sacrificed her extra waffle toppings to the gods before going over to Percy's table and sitting down next to Annabeth, knocking her foot against Percy's shin once in greeting.

"Hey, guys." Mia cut her waffle with her knife, before sending Annabeth a glare. "You're not going to stop me from eating this."

"Fine," Annabeth said. "So! Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating."

Percy's eyebrows furrowed, the way he does when he's thinking especially hard. "You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"Exactly," Annabeth said.

"So . . . it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore," Percy guessed. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Under a building? Please, Percy. The Labyrinth is huge. It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."