mastermind - percy jackson

xx. laughing

"styx begins her long awaited reign"

The rest of the summer was strangely normal. 

The daily activities continued: archery, rock climbing, pegasus riding. They played capture the flag (but no one went anywhere near Zeus's Fist), singing songs at the campfire, racing chariots, and playing practical jokes on the other campers. Cassandra spent most of her time researching the Luke/Kronos situation, and talking with Silena and Drew on the beach.

Percy and Cassandra avoided each other at pretty much all costs, only really speaking to each other for capture the flag. 

He wanted to ask her about the research she had been doing, but that brought up Kronos, which brought up Luke, which made Annabeth angry, which then made Cassandra angry at him for angering Annabeth.

July passed, with fireworks on the beach for Independence Day. August turned so hot the strawberries started baking in the fields. And finally, the last day of Camp arrived. 

Cassandra and Annabeth both hiked up the hill to see Percy off, where the camp van would take him back to his apartment.

They had both made arrangements to stay at camp for a little bit longer, before going back to their families for the rest of the year. 

"There's a private school out there that I'll be going to. I'll probably hate it, but..." Annabeth shrugged.

"Yeah, well, call me, okay?" Percy said.

"Sure" She said halfheartedly. "I'll keep my eyes open for..."

Luke. The one subject they couldn't seem to tackle. Annabeth couldn't even say his name without a wall of hurt, worry, and anger slamming into her.

"Annabeth" Percy said. "What was the rest of the prophecy?"

She fixed her eyes on the woods in the distance, but didn't say anything.

"You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze" Percy recited. "The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise. We raised a lot of the dead. We saved Ethan Nakamura, who turned out to be a traitor. We raised the spirit of Pan, the lost one."

Annabeth shook her head like she wanted him to stop.

"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand" Percy pressed on. "That wasn't Minos, like I'd thought. It was Nico. By choosing to be on our side, he saved us. And the child of Athena's final stand—that was Daedalus."

"Jackson" Cassandra warned.

"A single choice will destroy her name. Styx begins her long awaited reign"  Percy continued. "We don't really know what that means but—"

"It's about me" Cassandra interrupted. "Now maybe you should stop."

Percy paused for a minute, clearly wanting for her to elaborate. 

But she didn't. And instead raised her eyebrows, daring for him to continue.

"Destroy with a hero's final breath." Percy said. "That makes sense now. Daedalus died to destroy the Labyrinth. But what was the last—"

"And lose a love to worse than death" Annabeth had tears in her eyes. "That was the last line, Percy. Are you happy now?"

The sun seemed colder than it had a moment ago. "Oh" he said. "So Luke—"

"Percy, I didn't know who the prophecy was talking about. I—I didn't know if..." She faltered hopelessly, looking at Cassandra for help. "Luke and I—for years, he was the only one who really cared about me. I thought..."