mastermind - percy jackson

xiv. promises

"hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap"

The bridge to Olympus was dissolving. They stepped out of the elevator onto the white marble walkway and immediately cracks appeared at their feet.

"Jump!" Grover said, which was easy for him since he was part mountain goat.

He sprang to the next slab of stone while theirs tilted sickeningly.

Cassandra used the winds to float Annabeth over to Grover, seeing as she was in no shape to jump. Luckily, she made it over safely.

"Gods, I hate heights!" Thalia yelled as her and Cassandra leaped. Percy was last to jump, trying to make sure everyone else got over safely. But the slab stone titled even more after they had jumped. It cracked and fell, making Percy's feet slip out from under him.

He stumbled and yelled, "Cassie!"

Cassandra threw her hand out, surrounding Percy with gusts of cold winds, and levitated him up to the pavement as the slab fell, crumbling into dust.

"Um, thanks" Percy said, clearly embarrassed.

"This is why we didn't let you be, Prince Charming" Cassandra joked.

"Keep moving!" Grover tugged Percy's shoulders. They sprinted across the sky bridge as more stones disintegrated and fell into oblivion. They made it to the edge of the mountain just as the final section collapsed.

Annabeth looked back at the elevator, which was now completely out of reach—a polished set of metal doors hanging in space, attached to nothing, six hundred stories above Manhattan.

"We're marooned" She said. "On our own."

"Blah-ha-ha!" Grover said. "The connection between Olympus and America is dissolving. If it fails—"

"The gods won't move on to another country this time" Thalia said. "This will be the end of Olympus. The final end."

They ran through the streets. Mansions were burning. Statues had been hacked down. Trees in the parks were blasted to splinters. It looked like someone had attacked the city with a giant Weedwacker.

"Kronos' scythe" Percy said.

They followed the winding path toward the palace of the gods. Cassandra never remembered the road being so long. Maybe Kronos was making time go slower, or maybe it was dread slowing them down. The whole mountaintop was in ruins—so many beautiful buildings and gardens gone.

A few minor gods and nature spirits had tried to Kronos. What remained of them was strewn about the road: shattered armor, ripped clothing, swords and spears broken in half.

Somewhere ahead of them, Kronos' voice roared: "Brick by brick! That was my promise. Tear it down BRICK BY BRICK!"

A white marble temple with a gold dome suddenly exploded. The dome shot up like the lid of a teapot and shattered into a billion pieces, raining rubble over the city.

"That was a shrine to Artemis" Cassandra and Thalia both grumbled. 

"He'll pay for that" Thalia added, angrily.

They were running under the marble archway with the huge statues of Zeus and Hera when the entire mountain groaned, rocking sideways like a boat in a storm.

"Look out!" Grover yelped. The archway crumbled. Cassandra looked up in time to see a twenty ton scowling Hera topple over them. Cassandra, Percy, and Annabeth would've been flattened, but Thalia shoved them from behind and they landed just out of danger.