ELIMINATE | Percy Jackson & Twilight Saga |

65 | THE ORACLE PLAYS CAPTURE THE FLAG

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE | THE ORACLE PLAYS CAPTURE THE FLAG

"The Mother of Dragons, who's heart is of gold."

—

THAT NIGHT AFTER DINNER, Malia was seriously ready to beat the Hunters at capture the flag. It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca di Angelo, and about the same number of campers.

Zoë Nightshade looked pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe he was making her do this. The other Hunters didn't look too happy, either. Unlike last night, they weren't laughing or joking around. They just huddled together in the dining pavilion, whispering nervously to each other as they strapped on their armor. Some of them even looked like they'd been crying. Malia guess Zoë had told them about her nightmare.

Malia wondered, if she actually did become a goddess herself, if any of her children or followers would be so passionate about her.

On Malia's team, they had Beckendorf and two other Hephaestus guys, a few from the Ares cabin (though it still seemed strange that Clarisse wasn't around), the Stoll brothers and Nico from Hermes cabin, and a few Aphrodite kids. It was weird that the Aphrodite cabin wanted to play. Usually they sat on the sidelines, chatted, and checked their reflections in the river and stuff, but when they heard they were fighting the Hunters, they were raring to go.

"I'll show them 'love is worthless,'" Silena Beauregard grumbled as she strapped on her armor. "I'll pulverize them!"

That left Thalia, Percy, and Malia.

"I'll take the offense," Thalia volunteered. "You take defense."

"Oh." Percy hesitated, because he was about to say the exact same thing, only reversed. "Don't you think with your shield and all, you'd be better defense?"

Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even their own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa.

"Well, I was thinking it would make better offense," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defense and the Hunters basically worship the ground Mal walks on."

Judging by his expression, Malia could only guess Percy wasn't sure if Thalia was teasing him. He'd had some pretty bad experiences with defense on capture the flag. His first year, Annabeth had put him out as a kind of bait, and he'd almost been gored to death with spears and killed by a hellhound.

"Yeah, no problem," Percy lied.

Malia patted her brother on the back comfortingly, then turned to help some of the Aphrodite kids, who were having trouble suiting up their armor without breaking their nails. At the same time, Nico di Angelo ran up to her with a big grin on his face.

"Percy, Malia, this is awesome!" His blue-feathered bronze helmet was falling in his eyes, and his breastplate was about six sizes too big. Malia remembered Percy during his first game, he'd looked just as ridiculous. But in time, Percy'd gotten taller and buffed, Malia was pretty proud of her older brother's progress in physical fitness.

Nico lifted his sword with effort. "Do we get to kill the other team?"

The question kind of worried Malia—Nico was way too eager to get blood on his hands. That got her thinking, his godly parent must've been, like, Ares or something.