𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

xxii ━━ buried down and deep and out of your reach

03. chapter twenty-two

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

THINGS WENT WRONG IMMEDIATELY.

the giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. they reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot.

nico was being stalked by a pair of leopards while he was laying dazed and weaponless.

between nico and i laid a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits. i jumped from the ground where i stood over the pit of fire and landed on the first platform.

i heard the sound of footfall behind me and wheeled around, expecting to find an enemy. it wasn't an enemy, it was piper. she held up her cornucopia and pointed to the leopards. to distract them.

i nodded. we were pretty close together. the platform was only about five feet in each direction.

i bent my legs and leapt to the second platform.

in the corner of my eye, i could see jason, charging at otis, who pulled his spear and heaved a great sigh, as if he would much rather dance swan lake than kill another demigod.

i personally would much rather dance swan lake than have to kill another giant, so i felt like there was an easy truce i could make with the giant. too late for that though.

i could also see percy— he had somehow ended up swinging through the air and dropping in a grove of painted plywood trees. the trees changed positions as he tried to run through them, so he slashed down the whole forest with riptide.

i jumped to the third platform, piper at my heals.
           
"wonderful!" i could hear ephialtes cried. he stood at his control panel about sixty feet to percy's left. "we'll consider this a dress rehearsal. shall i unleash the hydra onto the spanish steps now?"

the fourth platform was raised slightly, so i had to use extra force to reach it. i thought about how much i would've struggled to simply jump from each platform if i hadn't bathed in the styx in my dream vision. i didn't realize how much i had missed my strength until i had gotten it back.

the fifth platform was an easy jump. the sixth, a little more difficult. there was a wide distance between the fifth and sixth. the seventh and eighth were like the first three, simple and clean jumps. the ninth platform was small, so only one of us could jump at a time.

i jumped onto the ninth platform, but i hadn't accounted for how easy it would have been. my balance failed me and i lurched forward. my heart escaped my body. i heard piper yell.

i would have fallen into the pit of fire if i hadn't been quick. i jumped at about the same time i fell, resulting in me throwing my weight forward across the chasm.

my upper body landed on the tenth platform painfully. i held on with my arms folded, my sword in my right hand. my legs dangled over the fiery pit. i moved my arm to raise my sword and thrust it into the platform.

now with the help of my sword planted into the platform, i was able to hoist myself up. i collapsed, panting on the largest of the platforms.

piper, with much more gracefulness than i had, landed on the tenth platform. she knelt down next to me and grabbed my face to inspect for any issues.

"are you okay?" her voice was breathless and worried.

i nodded. "i'll be alright. thanks. we just need to get to nico."

i turned my attention back to the distance between us and nico. the final jump, from the tenth platform onto the dais, would be the most difficult. the dais was raised and about six feet away.