DEVOTION, percy jackson

They Go To a Pretty Beach

The group squeezed into the back of a taxi. "To Los Angeles please." Annabeth said. The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized the kids 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 skeptically. "Swipe it," Annabeth invited. He did. The lights on his machine flashed and 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, a smirk present on her face at the nickname. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."

Tallulah had never seen someone drive so fast. This man must have been very money motivated. The group had plenty of time to talk, so Tallulah asked Percy about his nightmare that he had on the way to Vegas.

"How did you know I had a nightmare?" Percy asked her. Tallulah shrugged and looked at her lap. "I don't know. I could feel your distress on the truck when you woke up." Annabeth just stared at her, thinking hard.

Percy went on to tell them his nightmare. Percy said that person in the dream had a nickname used by the "pit". "The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades." "Maybe . . ." Percy said.

"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." Tallulah felt anxiety spike.

Annabeth's eyes widened. "What?" Tallulah 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." Annabeth rambled on. Tallulah just nodded along with her.

Tallulah wasn't sure what was wrong. Annabeth looked pale. "But if I'd already retrieved the bolt," Percy said, "why would I be traveling to the Underworld?" "To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."

 The car was silent for a second. "You have evil thoughts for a goat." Percy told him, astonished. "Why, thank you." Grover said with a sweet smile.

"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items," Percy said. "If the master bolt is one, what's the other?" Grover shook his head, clearly mystified. Annabeth was looking at Percy as if she knew what he was going to say. The despair and anxiety riddled the taxi cab, so much so it threatened to choke Tallulah.

"You have an idea what might be in that pit, don't you?" Percy asked her. "I mean, if it isn't Hades?" Tallulah cut him off, trying to ease the tension. "Percy . . . let's not talk about it." Annabeth mumbled trying to convince the group and probably herself, "Because if it isn't Hades . . . No. It has to be Hades."

The group eventually calmed as the wasteland rolled by. They passed a sign that said CALIFORNIA STATE LINE, 12 MILES. Tallulah felt like she was doing a puzzle but there were pieces lost somewhere.