𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀 [𝐩𝐣𝐨 𝐱 𝐡𝐩]

❝ ROCK PAPER SCISSORS ❞

|| CHAPTER FORTY TWO ||

❝ ROCK PAPER SCISSORS ❞

THE GOOD NEWS: the left tunnel was straight with no side exits, twists or turns.

The bad news: it was a dead end. After sprinting a hundred metres, they ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their path. Behind them, the sounds of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor.

Something —definitely not human — was on their trail.

"Tyson," Percy said, "can you —"

"Yes!" He slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

"Hurry!" Evelyn said. "Don’t bring the roof down, but hurry!"

The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room, and they dashed through behind it.

"Close the entrance!" Lilith said.

They all got on the other side of the boulder and pushed. Whatever was chasing them wailed in frustration as they heaved the rock back into place and sealed the corridor.

"We trapped it," Percy said.

"Or trapped ourselves," Grover said.

Lilith turned. They were in a six-metre-square cement room, and the opposite wall was covered with metal bars.

Evelyn and Lilith shared a grave glance. They had tunnelled straight into a cell.

"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. They didn’t budge. Through the bars Lilith could see rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard — at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks.

"A prison," Percy said. "Maybe Tyson can break —"

"Shh," said Grover. "Listen."

Somewhere above them, deep sobbing echoed through the building. There was another sound, too — a raspy voice muttering something that Lilith couldn’t make out. The words were strange, like rocks in a tumbler.

"What’s that language?" Lilith whispered.

Evelyn let out a gasp, "I think I—"

"Can't be." Tyson’s eye widened and he shared a glance with Evelyn who nodded in confirmation.

"What?" Lilith and Percy asked, sharing a confused glance.

Evelyn and Tyson shared another glance and Tyson grabbed two bars on their cell door and bent them wide enough for even a Cyclops to slip through.

"Wait!" Grover called.

"Eve, stop!" Lilith called out after Evelyn but Evelyn and Tyson wasn’t about to wait.