The King

Chapter 38

Chapter 38: A dam Mortal

Percy's POV

I ran after the tour group, through a tunnel carved out of solid rock. It seemed to run forever. The walls were moist, and the air hummed with electricity and the roar of water. I came out onto a U-shaped balcony overlooking this huge warehouse area. Fifty feet below, enormous turbines were running. It was a big room, but I didn't see any other exit, I had no idea where I was to be honest.

Another tour guide was speaking into the microphone, explaining water supplies in Nevada. I hoped that Thalia, Zoe, and Grover were okay. They might already be captured, or eating at the snack bar, completely unaware that we were being surrounded. And stupid me: I had trapped myself in a hole hundreds of feet below the surface.

If it were just me I could have created a portal that would lead me out of this dam problem, but I couldn't leave without the rest of them I didn't know where they were.

I decided to continue moving.

I worked my way around the crowd, trying not to be too obvious about it.

There was a hallway at the other side of the balcony, I kept my hand on Riptide, ready to strike in case I was jumped before I found Zoe, Thalia and Grover

By the time I got to the opposite side of the balcony, my nerves were shot. I backed into the little hallway and watched the tunnel I'd come from.

Then right behind me I heard a sharp Chhh! like the voice of a skeleton.

Almost instinctively, I uncapped Riptide and spun, slashing with my sword.

The girl I'd just tried to slice in half yelped and dropped her Kleenex.

'You know I'm recording this right? You're scared of skeletons, hehe~'

I decided to ignore the snickering behind my head.

"Oh my god," she shouted. "Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?"

The first thing that went through my head was that the sword hadn't hurt her. It had passed clean through her body, harmlessly. "You're mortal" When did I become paranoid?

She looked at me in disbelief. "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I'm mortal! How did you get that sword past security?"

"I didn't—Wait, you can see it's a sword?"

The girl rolled her green eyes. She had frizzy reddish-brown hair. Her nose was also red, like she had a cold. She wore a big maroon Harvard sweatshirt and jeans that were covered with marker stains and little holes, like she spent her free time poking them with a fork.

"Well, it's either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world," she said. "And why didn't it hurt me? I mean, not that I'm complaining. Who are you? And whoa, what is that you're wearing? Is it shimmering? And what's on your head is that a floating crown."

"Are you a fairy?"

She asked so many questions so fast, it was like she was throwing rocks at me. I couldn't think of what to say. I looked at my sleeves to see if the clothes I was wearing had somehow changed back to chaos material, but it still looked like a black hoodie to me and NO ONE was supposed to be able to see the crown

I knew the skeleton warriors were still chasing me. I had no time to waste. But I just stared at the redheaded girl. Then I remembered what Thalia had done at Westover Hall to fool the teachers. I manipulated the Mist to confuse her

I concentrated hard and snapped my fingers. Feeling the mist moving to my words "You don't see a sword," I told the girl. "It's just a ballpoint pen."

"Pretty sure that's a sword weirdo."