~⚡~{[CHAPTER SEVEN}~⚡~
[Tricking The Trickster In Percy's Only Moment Of Genius Ever]
IT WAS ANNABETH'S idea.
She loaded them into the back of a Vegas taxi as if they actually had money, and told the driver,
"Los Angeles, please." The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized them up.
"That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."
"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked. He shrugged.
"Some of' em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through, first." Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card. He looked at it sceptically.
"Swipe it," Annabeth invited. He did. His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign. The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at them, his eyes wide.
"Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"
"The Santa Monica pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. Percy could tell she liked 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, they had plenty of time to talk. Percy told Daisy, Annabeth and Grover about his latest dream (though Daisy was asleep, so he doubted she heard much of it), but the details got sketchier the more he tried to remember them. The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited his memory.
He couldn't recall what the invisible servant's voice had sounded like, though he was sure it was somebody he knew. The servant had called the monster in the pit something other than 'my lord'... some special name or title...
"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."
"Maybe..." Percy said, though neither sounded quite right.
"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described." Percy shook his head.
"Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit... I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice." Annabeth's eyes widened. "What?" he asked.
"Oh... nothing. I was just – No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong –"
"Like what?"
"I – I don't know," she said. "But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt." Percy wasn't sure what was wrong with her. She looked pale.
"But if I'd already retrieved the bolt," he said, "why would I be travelling to the Underworld?"
"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back." Percy whistled.
YOU ARE READING
DAISY || P. Jackson x Fem O/C
FanfictionON HOLD - Daisy Flitworth is a completely normal ten-year-old. Sure. Except she's half God of Wine and Madness and enjoys hanging out with half-goats and children of other gods. Yeah. Maybe not so normal, after all. !Slow Burn! TLT: 🔃/✅ SOM: ✍️ TTC...
