"Annabeth!" I yelled.
"Shhh!" an invisible hand clamped over my mouth and wrestled me down behind a big bronze cauldron. "You want to get us killed?"
I found her head and took off her Yankees cap. She shimmered into existence in front of me, scowling, her face streaked with ash and grime. "Percy, what is your problem?"
"We're going to have company!" I explained quickly about the monster orientation class. Her eyes widened.
"So that's what they are," she said. "Telekhines. I should've known. And they're making...Well, look."
We peeked over the cauldron. In the center of the platform stood four sea demons, but these were fully grown, at least eight feet tall.
Their black skin glistened in the firelight as they worked, sparks flying as they took turns hammering on a long piece of glowing hot metal.
"The blade is almost complete," one said. "It needs another cooling in blood to fuse the metals."
"Aye," a second said. "It shall be even sharper than before."
"What is that?" I whispered.
Annabeth shook her head. "They keep talking about fusing metals. I
wonder—"
"They were talking about the greatest Titan weapon," I said. "And
they...they said they made my father's trident."
"The telekhines betrayed the gods," Annabeth said. "They were practicing
dark magic. I don't know what, exactly, but Zeus banished them to Tartarus."
"With Kronos."
She nodded. "We have to get out—"
No sooner had she said that than the door to the classroom exploded and
young telekhines came pouring out. They stumbled over each other, trying to figure out which way to charge.
"Put your cap back on," I said. "Get out!"
"What?" Annabeth shrieked. "No! I'm not leaving you."
"I've got a plan. I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider—maybe
it'll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what's going on." "But you'll be killed!"
"I'll be fine. Besides, we've got no choice."
Annabeth glared at me like she was going to punch me. And then she did
something that surprised me even more. She kissed me.
"Be careful, Seaweed Brain." She put on her hat and vanished.
I probably would've sat there for the rest of the day, staring at the lava
and trying to remember what my name was, but the sea demons jarred me back to reality.
"There!" one yelled. The entire class of telekhines charged across the bridge toward me. I ran for the middle of the platform, surprising the four elder sea demons so much they dropped the red-hot blade. It was about six feet long and curved like a crescent moon. I'd seen a lot of terrifying things, but this unfinished whatever-it-was scared me worse.
The elder demons got over their surprise quickly. There were four ramps leading off the platform, and before I could dash in any direction, each of them had covered an exit.
The tallest one snarled. "What do we have here? A son of Poseidon?" "Yes," another growled. "I can smell the sea in his blood."
I raised Riptide. My heart was pounding.
"Strike down one of us, demigod," the third demon said, "and the rest of
us shall tear you to shreds. Your father betrayed us. He took our gift and said nothing as we were cast into the pit. We will see him sliced to pieces. He and all the other Olympians."
I wished I had a plan. I wished I hadn't been lying to Annabeth. I'd wanted her to get out safely, and I hoped she'd been sensible enough to do it. But now it was dawning on me that this might be the place I would die. No prophecies for me. I would get overrun in the heart of a volcano by a pack of dog-faced sea-lion people. The young telekhines were at the platform now, too, snarling and waiting to see how their four elders would deal with me.
I felt something burning against the side of my leg. The ice whistle in my pocket was getting colder. If I ever needed help, now was the time. But I hesitated. I didn't trust Quintus's gift.
Before I could make up my mind, the tallest telekhine said, "Let us see how strong he is. Let us see how long it takes him to burn!"
He scooped some lava out of the nearest furnace. It set his fingers ablaze, but this didn't seem to bother him at all. The other elder telekhines did the same. The first one threw a glop of molten rock at me and set my pants on fire. Two more splattered across my chest.
I dropped my sword in sheer terror and swatted at my clothes. Fire was engulfing me. Strangely, it felt only warm at first, but it was getting hotter by the instant.
"Your father's nature protects you," one said. "Makes you hard to burn. But not impossible, youngling. Not impossible."
They threw more lava at me, and I remember screaming. My whole body was on fire. The pain was worse than anything I'd ever felt. I was being consumed. I crumpled to the metal floor and heard the sea demon children howling in delight.
Then I remembered the voice of the river naiad at the ranch: The water is within me.
I needed the sea. I felt a tugging sensation in my gut, but I had nothing around to help me. Not a faucet or a river. Not even a petrified seashell this time. And besides, the last time I'd unleashed my power at the stables, there'd been that scary moment when it had almost gotten away from me.
I had no choice. I called to the sea. I reached inside myself and remembered the waves and the currents, the endless power of the ocean. And I let it loose in one horrible scream.
Afterward, I could never describe what happened. An explosion, a tidal wave, a whirlwind of power simultaneously catching me up and blasting me downward into the lava. Fire and water collided, superheated steam, and I shot upward from the heart of the volcano in a huge explosion, just one piece of flotsam thrown free by a million pounds of pressure. The last thing I remember before losing conscious was flying, flying so high Zeus would never have forgiven me, and then beginning to fall, smoke and fire and water streaming from me. I was a comet hurtling toward the earth.
I woke up feeling like I was still on fire. My skin stung. My throat felt as dry as sand. I heard three anxious voices around me.
"Is he alright?" Fretted a girl
"How'd he get here?" wondered a boy
"Was he the "meteor" that hit the lake, cause he just washed up on shore." asked a different boy.
I tried to sit up, but my muscles felt like they were melting.
"Oh my gosh he's alive!" shouted the girl
"Did you think I was dead?" I groaned, turning my head to look at a girl with bushy brown hair, who looked like Rachel with brown hair. "Rachel?"
"No, I'm Hermione." Hermione said kindly, "You should lie still, I'll get Madam Pomphrey. She's the nurse."
"Okay," I said, incredibly confused, where was I, where was Annabeth? Then I remembered, Mt St Helen's, the telekhines, the lava, the explosion. I was so overwhelmed that I felt my self slipping out of consciousness.
When I woke up again, I was in a bed in a white room, with my arms, legs and chest wrapped in bandages, but I felt fine. "Where am I?" I practically shouted, as most hospital people turned out to be monsters.
"Relax," said an women from across the room, who was striding over having seen me wake up. "You're in the hospital wing" I was confused, weren't wings usually in large manners or castles? Hanging out with Annabeth had taught me a bit about architecture. I just noticed that everyone spoke in a British accent. Had the eruption really launched him to England?
"Where is the hospital wing then?" I continued.
"In hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry." she answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Are you descendents of hectate?" I asked, immensely confused, she didn't seem like a demigod, but she was working at a school of magic.
"Hectate?" she replied, just as confused as I was. This kind of completely disproved my monster theory. Usually monsters reacted badly to the names of gods and goddesses. "Are you quite alright?" A voice in my head that sounded suspiciously like Hectate's, told me not to reveal my secret to these people. Not yet at least.
"Sorry," I apologized, "just an old myth I heard. What do you mean witchcraft and wizardry?"
"Just that." she answered. "There are witches and wizards up and down the country, hidden from the non magical world. You are a wizard as well."
I was incredibly confused. Last I checked, I was a demigod, not a wizard. But the voice told me that I was needed here, and that I been given her blessing of magic. Why not, I thought, my life can't really get any weirder. "I highly doubt that." I stated blunty.
"Really?" she asked, "never make something strange happen when you were scared or angry."
Yes, I thought, I blew up Mt St Helens. I went with the non I-just-used-my-water-powers-to-blowup-the-forges-of-Hephestus answer,
"Yeah, I've just don't exactly flaunt it after what happened when I was twelve." I guess I gave off an, I don't want to talk about it demeanor, since she didn't press me for details.
"could you tell me your name?" she requested.
"Percy Jackson." I replied, hoping that what happened at Goode hadn't spread. A look of realization dawned on her face and she walked silently from the room. Well Styx, now she was gonna call the cops.
