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chapter twenty-three. ( the battle of the labyrinth ) ❝ taurus comes for a visit!❞
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Cain and I followed the light through multiple twists and turns. The wooden floors at our feet disappeared into mosaics━chipped, broken, dirty, but I could tell they used to be beautiful. Or maybe they hadn't. Maybe that was the point. Either way, we entered an old part of the maze. The walls were brick━or not, I don't know. Annabeth knows this stuff, but all I know is that they're the same material they used in the temples.
Cain narrowed his eyes at the light that hovered in front of us. He dragged his fingers along the side of the corridor. He looked very tired━he always did, but I realised that while I slept and told us to move straight away, he hadn't.
"We'll stop again soon," I told him. "Rest, have something to eat."
"I'm fine," said Cain. "I'll just go on watch again."
"You need to sleep," I frowned at him. "You can't just not sleep, Cain."
He shrugged. "I can't sleep anyway."
"Why not?"
Cain's face darkened. "Everyone's scared of something, Claire."
And with that, he spoke no more. Cain was a troubling person. You think you knew a lot about him after going on quest after quest, but then at the same time, you don't. I only know the surface of who Cain was. He was very closed off━even more closed off than Percy was. And that was saying something. I knew that he never had friends before now, I knew that he liked ice-cream sandwiches and that he hated the idea of growing a moustache; however, I knew nothing about his mother, or about his home life, or why he was at a military school. I didn't know his birthday, what he wanted to do with his life, or what he was scared of. Cain just liked to keep that part of him to himself.
Sometimes, it worried me. Other times, I have to let it go.
We followed the light into a clearing. The narrow hallway opened up wide into a round wide room with ceilings painted with visions of what looked like Hercules' Twelve Labours. There was the Nemean Lion, the Hydra, The Cretan Bull ... in the middle, sat a shrine. In the distance, I could smell sea-salt, and I knew what shrine this was dedicated to.
"That's weird," muttered Cain. "Just a random shrine to Poseidon in the middle of the maze."
"Well, the light led us here," I watched it as it hovered over the dead fire basin. "I don't know what it wants us to do, though."
