¹𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 ━ 𝗽. 𝗷𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝗼𝗻

027

⋆ ˚｡⋆ʚ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 ɞ⋆ ˚｡⋆
─── ❛ betrayal ❜ ───

ANNABETH VOLUNTEERED TO go alone since she had the cap of invisibility, but isabella convinced her it was too dangerous. either they all went together, or nobody went.

"nobody!" tyson voted. "please?"

the daughter of aphrodite wanted to laugh.

but in the end, he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. they stopped at their cabin long enough to gather their stuff. they figured whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo. percy made sure riptide was in his pocket and the vitamins and thermos from hermes were at the top of his bag. he didn't want tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and annabeth told him not to worry about it. tyson could carry three full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as a normal human could carry a backpack.

they sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's 'you are here' signs toward the admiralty suite. annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. they hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people they saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

as they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, annabeth hissed. "hide!" and shoved them into a supply closet.

isabella heard a couple of guys coming down the hall.

"you see that aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.

the other laughed. "yeah, it's awesome."

annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed isabella's arm hard. she winced. she got a feeling she should know that second guy's voice.

"i hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "they keep arriving at this rate, oh, man—no contest!"

the voices faded down the corridor.

"that was chris rodriguez!" isabella said, percy looked at her, confused. "you remember—from cabin eleven."

he sort of recalled chris from the summer before. he was one of those undetermined campers who got stuck in the hermes cabin because his olympian dad or mom never claimed him. now that percy thought about it, he realize he hadn't seen chris at camp this summer. "what's another half-blood doing here?"

annabeth shook her head, clearly troubled.

they kept going down the corridor. isabella didn't need maps anymore to know they were getting close to luke. she sensed something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil.

"guys." annabeth stopped suddenly. "look."

she stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. at the bottom was the promenade—a mall full of shops—but that's not what had caught annabeth's attention.

a group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen laistrygonian giants like the ones who'd attacked percy with dodge balls, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures—humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.