Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(A Percy Jackson x OC Fanfic)

CHAPTER 31

(Ella's POV)

We left the judgment pavilion & moved into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker. The color faded from our clothes. The crowd of spirits thinned. We heard a screech in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three batlike creatures:the Furies.

"I guess it’s too late to turn back," Grover said wistfully.

"We'll be okay." I said holding his hand.

"Maybe we should search the other places first." Grover suggests. "Like, Elysium..."

"Come on, goat boy." Annie pulled him.

Grover yelped. His sneakers sprout wings & his legs shoot forward, pulling him away from her. He landed flat on his back in the grass.

"Grover." I chided. "Stop messing around."

"But I didn’t-"

He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy now. They levitated off the ground & started dragging him away from us.

"Maia!" he yelled, but the magic word had no effect. "Maia, already! Nine-one-one! Helppppp!"

I got over being stunned & made a grab for Grover’s hand, but too late. He was picking up speed, skidding downhill. We ran after him.

Percy shouted, "Untie the shoes!"

It was a smart idea, but it’s not easy when your shoes are pulling you feet first at full speed. Grover tried to sit up, but he couldn’t get close to the laces.

We kept after him, as he ripped between the legs of spirits who chattered at him in annoyance.

I was sure Grover would barrel through Hades’s palace, but his shoes veered to the right & dragged him in the opposite direction. Grover picked up speed.

We sprinted to keep up. The cavern walls narrowed on either side. I realized we'd entered some kind of side tunnel. Just rocks, & the dim light of stalactites above.

"Grover!" I yelled, my voice echoing. "Hold on to something!"

"What?" he yelled back.

He was grabbing at gravel, but there was nothing big to slow him down. The tunnel got darker & colder. The hair on my arms stood. It smelled evil down here. It made me think of things I shouldn’t even know about-blood spilled on an ancient stone altar, the foul breath of a murderer.

Then I saw what was ahead of us, & stopped dead in my tracks.

"Oh no... no, no, no.. that's.."

The tunnel widened into a huge cavern, & in the middle was a huge chasm the size of a city. Grover was sliding straight to the edge.

"Come on, Nora!" Annie yelled, tugging at my wrist.

"But that’s-"

"Grover’s going to fall if we don’t catch him." She was right, of course. Grover’s thought got me moving again.

He was yelling, clawing at the ground, but the winged shoes kept dragging him toward the pit, & it didn’t look like we could possibly get to him in time.

What saved him were his hooves. The flying shoes had always been a loose fit on him, & finally Grover hit a big rock & the left shoe came flying off. It sped down into the chasm. The right shoe kept tugging him, but not as fast.

Grover slowed himself down by grabbing on to the big rock & used it like an anchor. He was ten feet from the edge of the pit when we caught him & hauled him up the slope.