𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐈𝐋¹ || 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍

𝐋𝐗𝐗𝐕𝐈𝐈

✦ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃 ✦

THEY RAN UNTIL THEY WERE EXHAUSTED. Rachel steered them away from traps, but they had no destination in mind – only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.

They stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. Percy couldn't hear anything behind them, but he didn't feel any safer. He could still remember those unnatural golden eyes staring out of Luke's face, and the feeling that his limbs were slowly turning to stone.

"I can't go any further," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.

Annabeth had been crying the entire time they had been running. Now she collapsed and put her head between her knees. Her sobs echoed in the tunnel. Aurora was quiet, still trying to process what she had just seen. The daughter of Apollo was trying to keep it together for Annabeth's sake who was a sobbing mess right next to her.

Percy and Nico sat next to each other. He dropped his sword next to Percy's and took a shaky breath.

"That sucked," he said, which Percy thought summed things up pretty well.

"You saved our lives," Percy said.

Nico wiped the dust off his face. "Blame the girls for dragging me along. That's the only thing they could agree on. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up."

"Nice that they trust me so much." Percy shone his flashlight across the cavern. Water dripped from the stalactites like a slow-motion rain. "Nico... you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."

"What do you mean?"

"That wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now – a child of the Underworld."

Nico frowned, "Big deal."

Percy let it drop. He figured Nico was just trying to hide how scared he was, and Percy couldn't blame him.

Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "What ... what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

Percy told them what he'd seen in the coffin, the way the last piece of Kronos' spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan Nakamura pledged his service.

"No," Annabeth said, "That can't be true. He couldn't–"

"He gave himself over to Kronos," Aurora said, more so to herself.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone." Percy said.

"No!" Annabeth insisted, "You saw when Rachel hit him."

Percy nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."

Rachel looked embarrassed. "It was the only thing I had."