𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲.

Freaky Friday

Jumping out of a window five hundred feet above the ground, wasn't Lilia's usual idea of fun, especially whilst wearing bronze wings and flapping her arms like a duck.

They plummeted toward the valley and the red rocks below, she'd pretty much accepted the fact they were all going to become grease pots in the garden of the gods, when annabeth yelled; "spread your arms! Keep them extended!"

They followed her instructions and soon enough, slowed down, the fall become more controlled.

Percy seemed to get the hang of it quickly, he soared ahead of them yelling; "yeah!" Into the wind.

Lilia smiled, it was nice seeing him happy in a moment of chaos.

"Land!" Annabeth shouted. "These wings won't last forever!"

"How long?" Rachel asked.

"I don't want to find out!" Annabeth yelled back.

They swooped down toward the Garden of the Gods, the five of them soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of the visitor center. It was late afternoon and the place looked pretty empty, but they ripped off our wings as quickly as they could.

Looking at them, Lilia could see Annabeth was right. The self-adhesive seals that bound the wings to their backs were already melting, and they were shedding bronze feathers. It seemed a shame, but they couldn't fix them, and couldn't leave them around for the mortals, so they stuffed the wings in trash bins outside the cafeteria.

Percy used the tourist binocular camera to look up at the hill where Daedalus's workshop had been, but it had vanished. No more smoke. No broken windows. Just the side of a hill.

"The workshop moved," Annabeth guessed. "There's no telling where."

"So what do we do now?" Lilia asked. "How do we get back in the maze?"

Annabeth gazed at the summit of Pikes Peak in the distance. "Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died...he said his life force was tied into the Labyrinth.
The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."

Lilia thought about Grover and Tyson, still down there somewhere. And Daedalus...even though he'd done some terrible things and put everybody at risk, it seemed a horrible way to die.

"No," Nico said. "He isn't dead."

"How can you be sure?" Percy asked.

"I know when people die. It's this feeling I get, like a buzzing in my ears."

"What about Tyson and Grover, then?"

Nico shook his head. "That's harder. They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."

"We have to get into town," Annabeth decided.
"Our chances will be better of finding an entrance to the Labyrinth. We have to make it back to camp before Luke and his army."

"We could just take a plane," Rachel said.

Percy shuddered looking up at the sky.

"No." Lilia shook her head. "Percy can't fly."

"But you just did." Rachel said pointedly, to Percy.

"That was low flying," he said, "and even that's risky. Flying up really high that's Zeus's territory. I can't do it. Besides, we don't even have time for a flight. The labyrinth is the quickest way back."

"So we need a car to take us into the city," Annabeth said.

Rachel looked down into the parking lot. She grimaced, as if she were about to do something she regretted. "I'll take care of it."