Vesta's Child

Chapter 19

"No one else finds this place creepy?" Percy grumbled and Zoe nodded in agreement as she stayed close to him. His hand was on fire as he lit the path through the labyrinth, Annabeth walked beside them while Malcolm took the rear. Some of the tunnels were decorated with bones and dried blood, Percy wasn't afraid he was simply disgusted and on edge. There was a cold draft in the maze but Percy was like a personal heater and barely noticed it, Zoe shivered and Percy wrapped an arm around her. He concentrated and soon his body became warm, Zoe sighed and snuggled into his side. Annabeth adjusted the large pack of food on her back while shooting Zoe a jealous glare, Percy had forgotten to tell her about his food powers.

"If by creepy you mean fascinating then ya it's creepy." Malcolm said in awe and Percy shot him a worried look.

"I worry about you Athena kids, you find a bunch of dead things fascinating? That's totally my thing." Percy complained while Zoe chuckled.

Annabeth rolled her eyes,"We are not interested in a bunch dead things. Malcolm and I love the architecture in this maze, it's so beautiful." She said dreamily, one of the walls were sculpted in the ways of the Romans while the other was the Greek culture. Percy liked the Roman wall, it showed a picture of his father Pluto rising the dead, but then he lost interest when it showed Romans worshiping Jupiter and fearing Neptune.

"The Roman wall is amazing." He commented and Zoe laughed at what he was implying. Annabeth and Malcolm looked at the wall in disgust before turning back to the Ancient Greece wall. Percy let it slide because it was natural for Romans to hate Greeks, yet he had no problem with Greeks at all, probably because Artemis and the hunt were Greek.

"So uh, why exactly are we down here again?" Zoe asked, Percy wondered as well. He knew they needed to be here because of the oracle but he didn't understand why.

Malcolm glared at the two,"We have spy's within the camp, if we know about the labyrinth then the titans do too." He spat angrily.

Percy frowned at the blondes implications,"So what your trying to say is that I'm a spy?" He asked as calmly as possible.

Malcolm scoffed,"Sorry if I'm a little skeptical of you and Nico, the two sons of Hades. I mean, your father isn't even an Olympian so why are you helping us?" Percy clenched his jaw in the effort to keep calm, he wasn't surprised that a child of Athena doubted his loyalty.

Before he could speak Zoe beat him to it,"Listen here blondie! Percy would never betray us! How do we know you aren't the spy? Percy has been raised by three Olympians and is more loyal to the gods then you are." She spat at the now wide eyed Malcolm. Annabeth felt conflicted, she wanted to defend Malcolm but he was wrong for yelling at Percy. She wanted to yell at Zoe but couldn't argue with her logic. Percy smiled down at Zoe and gave her a kiss on the forehead, Annabeth's eyes shot open wide at the gesture. Their best friends, she assured herself but felt uncertain. Percy was happy that Zoe had defended him so fast.

"Whatever, just asking since your fathers dark and controls the dead." Malcolm grumbled angrily. Percy's eyes blazed and skeleton hands popped out of the earth and grabbed Malcolm's ankles. The son of Athena panicked and tried to move but the hands held firm, Percy grabbed him by shirt and gave him a hard punch to the face. Malcolm's head snapped back but he stayed in place by the skeleton hands. He seemed unaffected by the blow and Percy's knuckles began to hurt. He was about to fry him to a crisp as his anger grew.

"Percy stop!" Annabeth cried and grabbed his arm, he whirled around and glared at her. She flinched at his eyes and he hesitated, he didn't like scaring his friends, his whole life people have feared him, he didn't mind scaring pansies like Jacob and Octavian but he was loyal to his friends. Percy stepped back and the hands disappeared, Zoe looked at him in concern before glaring at the children of Athena. Percy massaged his hand and looked at Malcolm curiously who looked slightly hurt from the punch.