created →jason grace

thirty-two

{Jason}

TIME SEEMED TO SLOW DOWN, WHICH WAS really frustrating, since Jason still couldn't move. He felt himself sinking into the earth like the ground was a waterbed—comfortable, urging him to relax and give up. He wondered if the stories of the Underworld were true. Would he end up in the Fields of Punishment or Elysium? If he couldn't remember any of his deeds, would they still count? He wondered if the judges would take that into consideration, or if his dad, Zeus, would write him a note: "Please excuse Jason from eternal damnation. He has had amnesia."

Jason couldn't feel his arms. He could see the tip of the spear coming toward his chest in slow motion. He knew he should move, but he couldn't seem to do it. Funny, he thought. All that effort to stay alive, and then, boom. You just lie there helplessly while a fire-breathing giant impales you.

Leo's voice yelled, "Heads up!"

A large black metal wedge slammed into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit.

"Jason, get the fuck up!" Lina's voice cut through the air. Her voice jolted him, his eyes rolling at her crude language. Jason sat up, his head groggy as Lina marched over to him angrily, pulling him up hastily with a surprising gentle edge.

"I swear to fucking Apollo, if you die I'll go to the Underworld myself and kill you again." Lina bit out. "You will not be dying."

"Yes, ma'am." At this point Jason was sure he was out of it, his ears ringing and his eyes never really focusing correctly. He could tell, however, that Lina looked breathtaking. Her blonde hair was all over, messed up in the most perfect way. Her skin seemed to radiate the sun, giving her an ethereal glow. She had a cut on her cheek, her crop top seemed to be missing a sleeve, and her bow held slightly in front of her, her fingers twitching as if ready to nock an arrow at any second. Gorgeous.

About a hundred feet behind her, Leo was standing over a piece of construction equipment—a long cannonlike thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off. Piper was close to him, her figure poised to strike at any moment.

Then Jason looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the hydraulic ax had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an ax blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.

Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the ax blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armor, but Enceladus stood.

Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear.

"Good try." The giant winced. "But I cannot be beaten."

As they watched, the giant's armor mended itself, and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason had worked so hard to make, were now just pale scars.

Leo and Piper ran up to them, saw the giant, as Leo cursed. "What is it with this guy? Die, already!"

"My fate is preordained," Enceladus said. "Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes."

"Only by both," Jason said. The giant's smile faltered, and Jason saw in his eyes something like fear. "It's true, isn't it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you."