𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 [Jason Grace]

52

𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 before, but he'd never seen it rain cars.

As the roof of the cavern collapsed, sunlight blinded him. He got the briefest glimpse of the Argo II hovering above. It must have used its ballistae to blast a hole straight through the ground.

Chunks of asphalt as big as garage doors tumbled down, along with six or seven Italian cars. One would've crushed the Athena Parthenos, but the statue's glowing aura acted like a force field, and the car bounced off. Unfortunately, it fell straight toward Dante and Annabeth.

They separated, jumping to different sides. Dante tried to catch himself, but landed on the floor. Another wave of agony almost made him pass out. Chest aching and burning, he flipped on his back in time to see a bright red Fiat 500 slam into Arachne's silk trap, punching through the cavern floor and disappearing with the Chinese Spidercuffs.

As Arachne fell, she screamed like a freight train on a collision course; but her wailing rapidly faded. All around them, more chunks of debris slammed through the floor, riddling it with holes.

The Athena Parthenos remained undamaged, though the marble under its pedestal was a starburst of fractures. Dante was covered in cobwebs. He trailed strands of leftover spider silk from his arms and legs like the strings of a marionette, but somehow, amazingly, none of the debris had hit him.

Dante hobbled over to Annabeth, he didn't like straying far. The army of spiders had disappeared. Either they had fled back into the darkness, or they'd fallen into the chasm. As daylight flooded the cavern, Arachne's tapestries along the walls crumbled to dust. Dante was glad for it, at least the reminder of his first kiss wasn't continuously in his face.

Percy's voice shouted from above, "Annabeth! Dante!"

"Here!" Annabeth choked out in a mixture of laughter and sobs.

All the terror gripping him like Arachne's chinese spider trap left him in one instance. His friends were there. As the Argo II descended, he saw Percy, Hazel and Frank leaning over the rail. If Dante's entire body hadn't been in pain, he would have celebrated.

The room kept shaking, but Annabeth and Dante managed to stand. The floor at their feet seemed stable for the moment. Annabeth's backpack with Daedalus' laptop had fallen into the pit along with Dante's bottle, but he didn't care. They were alive!

Annabeth edged closer to the gaping hole made by the Fiat 500.

"Careful," Dante warned her. "Do you see her?"

"Nothing," Her voice quivered.

Carefully, Dante stepped next to her, looking into the chasm. Jagged rock walls plunged into the darkness as far as he could see. A few small ledges jutted out here and there, but Dante saw nothing on them—just strands of spider silk dripping over the sides like Christmas tinsel.

Dante wondered if Arachne had told the truth about the chasm. Had the spider fallen all the way to Tartarus? Good. A monster where she deserved to be.

It was thoughts like these which cemented his fatal flaw as excessive wrath. He always took it too far.

Arachne had made some beautiful things. She'd already suffered for eons. Now her last tapestries had crumbled. After all that, falling into Tartarus seemed a harsh end.

Dante pulled Annabeth away from the ledge. He was dimly aware of the Argo II hovering to a stop about forty feet from the floor. It lowered a rope ladder, but Annabeth stood in a daze, staring into the darkness. Percy was the first off the ship, sprinting over to them as fast as he could over the unstable floor.