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☠︎ Percy.
It was Annabeth's idea.
She loads us into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we actually have money, and tells the driver, "Los Angeles, please."
The cabbie chews his cigar and sizes us up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay upfront."
"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asks, sitting next to the driver. He shrugs. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."
Annabeth hands him her green LotusCash card. He looks at it skeptically. "Swipe it," Annabeth invites. He does.
His meter machine starts rattling. The lights flash. Finally an infinity symbol comes up next to the dollar sign. The cigar falls out of the driver's mouth. He looks at Annabeth, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles. . . uh, Your Highness?"
"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sits up a little straighter. I glance at Morana, her expression tells me that she too could tell Annabeth likes the "Your Highness" thing.
"Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."
Maybe she shouldn't have told him that. The cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.
On the road we had a lot of time to talk. I could tell Morana was tired. The way her eyes drooped from time to time and how I had to ask if she's listening to actually make her listen.
But when I mentioned my dream about, who I thought to be Hades, she woke up.
"That's his throne room", she tells me, which I'd already sorta figured but needed confirmation on. Didn't exactly make me feel any better tho.
"But that couldn't have been Hades", she continues, making my brows knit together. "Who else would it be?"
She thinks for a moment, her eyes gaining that far away look. I can tell Grover wants to say something, but doesn't dare interrupting Morana. Annabeth keeps glancing back at us, too afraid to talk with the driver next to her.
But I enjoy listening to just Morana. This is probably the first time I've heard her speak without someone constantly talking over her just to argue with her facts. Argue with the facts that have so far proven to be correct.
"You said the voice sounded like it came from a chasm", Morana repeats and I nod, "A big one. And it didn't sound like a god."
