²𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃𝐘✸ percy jackson

XXXVIII.

ΉӨЦƧΣ ӨF ΉΛDΣƧ

LUCIA HAD BEEN SCARED OF THE DARK FOR MOST OF HER LIFE.

But normally, when that alarming sensation creeped up on her, the dark was not forty feet tall. It did not have large black wings, a whip made out of stars, and a shadowy chariot pulled by vampire horses.

Nyx was almost too much to take in. Looming over the chasm, she was a churning figure of ash and smoke, larger than any Olympian, giant, or titan she had ever encountered, and very much alive and moving.

Her dress was void black, mixed with the colors of a space nebula as if galaxies were emerging in her bodice. Her face was hard to see except for the pinpoints of her eyes, which shone like quasars. Lucia swallowed, the longer she stared the more panic that arose in her.

When her wings beat, waves of darkness rolled over the cliffs, making Lucia feel her eyelids get heavy as exhaustion took over, her eyesight dimmed seeking complete darkness as she drifted off into eternal sleep. Fear pierced through her chest. She widened her eyes and looked up.

The goddess's chariot was made of the same material as Nico's sword—Stygian iron. It was pulled by two massive horses, all black except for their pointed silver fangs. The beasts' legs floated in the abyss, turning from solid to smoke as they moved.

The horses snarled and bared their fangs at Lucia. The goddess lashed her whip—a thin streak of stars like diamond barbs and the horses reared back.

"No, Shade," the goddess said. "Down, Shadow. These little prizes are not for you."

Percy eyed the horses as they nickered. He was still shrouded in Death Mist, so he looked like an out-of-focus corpse which caused Lucia to wince every time she looked over at him, her heart was racing, slamming against her ribcage.

It couldn't have been a very effective disguise, since Nyx could see them. Though, Lucia hoped it was just her primordial goddess status, she really hoped so.

She couldn't read the expression on Percy's ghoulish face very well. But apparently, he didn't like whatever the horses were saying.

"Uh, so you won't let them eat us?" he asked the goddess. "They really want to eat us."

Nyx's quasar eyes burned. "Of course not. I would not let my horses eat you, any more than I would let Akhlys kill you. Such fine prizes, I will kill myself!"

Lucia was tired of being on the top of Tartarus' kill list. Sure, as a demigod she was used to her life being at risk everywhere she went. But in this place, someone was trying to kill her at every corner and she was starting to take it very personally.

She didn't feel particularly courageous, but her instincts told her to take the initiative and come up with something, or this conversation would die down fast.

Literally.

"Oh, come on now no need to kill yourself!" she cried. "We're not that terrifying. Plus it would totally ruin this trip. I mean I came for a good time."

The goddess lowered her whip. "What? No, I didn't mean—"

"Well, I'm glad!" Lucia looked at Percy and forced a harmonious laugh. "We wouldn't want to scare Nyx to death, now would we?"

"Ha, ha," Percy delivered weakly. "No, we wouldn't."

The vampire horses looked confused. They reared and snorted and knocked their dark heads together. Nyx pulled back on the reins.

"Do you know who I am?" she demanded.

"Well, duh you are the personification of Night, I guess," said Lucia. "I mean, I can tell because you're dark and everything, though they didn't say much about you in the reviews. Hmm soooo? what do you got to show? The stage is yours."