In which Percy Jackson finds himself tied up with the mischievous daughter of Apollo.
or
In which Juliet Alexander would do anything to make the son of Poseidon smile.
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𝟎𝟏𝟐.𝟒
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The metal door was half hidden behind a laundry bin full of dirty hotel towels. Juliet didn't see anything strange about it, but Rachel showed them where to look, and she recognized the faint blue symbol etched in the metal.
"It hasn't been used in a long time," Annabeth said.
"I tried to open it once," Rachel said, "just out of curiosity. It's rusted shut."
"No." Juliet stepped forward. "It just needs the touch of a half-blood."
Sure enough, as soon as she put her hand on the mark, it glowed blue. The metal door unsealed and creaked open, revealing a dark staircase leading down.
"Wow." Rachel looked calm, but Juliet couldn't tell if she was pretending or not. She'd changed into a ratty Museum of Modern Art T-shirt and her marker-colored jeans, her blue plastic hairbrush sticking out of her pocket. Her red hair was tied back, but she still had flecks of gold in it, and traces of the gold glitter on her face. "So...after you?"
"You're the guide," Annabeth said with mock politeness, exchanging a look with Juliet. "Lead on."
The stairs led down to a large brick tunnel. It was so dark they couldn't see two feet in front of them, Juliet stepped forward shaking her hand before illuminating it behind her the rest of them switched on their flashlights making Rachel stare.
"Your hand? What?" She questioned pointing at Juliet making her look down and realise that it wasn't really common for normal people to see glowing body parts.
"Oh, yeah, dad's Apollo,"
"God of the sun," Rachel murmured in awe.
They took few steps forward and Rachel yelped.
A skeleton was grinning at them. It wasn't human. It was huge, for one thing—at least ten feet tall. It had been strung up, chained by its wrists and ankles so it made a kind of giant X over the tunnel. But what really sent shivers down her spine was the single black eye socket in the center of its skull.
"A Cyclops," Juliet said. "It's very old. It's not...anybody we know."
It wasn't Tyson, she meant. But that didn't make Percy feel much better. He still felt like it had been put there as a warning. Whatever could kill a grown Cyclops, he didn't want to meet.
