CHAPTER 1 – I GET A RUDE AWAKENING

Okay, to put it politely, after battling freaky skeletons with burritos and Guacamole Grandes, trading insults with an aeons-old Titan with a severe hump that wasn't the sky resting on his back for several millennia, holding up the aforementioned sky for what felt like days and then dancing all night with the daughter of the goddess who wants to obliterate me to kingdom come, a guy like me deserves some decent sleep.

So imagine just how wound up I get when I don't.

I was lying asleep, so tired the night before that I'd slumped straight on top of the duvet instead of tucking myself into it. And I started to dream of my enemies. Now these aren't just the average school bullies – these are the ones that want to kill you and the rest of the world in the process of it. So now Nancy Bobofit and Matt Sloane are like kittens compared to these things.

Luke, the being inside the sarcophagus whispered in the deep voice that makes Darth Vader sound like a ten-year-old choirboy, you have failed me.

"It wasn't my fault!"

I turned to look at Luke. He was even worse than he had been last year. His hair had been reduced to a deathly white, to match his pasty complexion. He had grown tall, gaunt and haggard, as if you could just touch him and he'd disintegrate.

"It was Thalia – I told you that she was dangerous! And that Percy Jackson kid again!"

You know full well that I do not tolerate failure at such magnitude.

"Master, I promise that I will not fail again!"

But is that a real promise? Or does it need some – encouragement?

A long red tendril of electricity snaked out from the ajar lid of the sarcophagus, and lunged at Luke, who could not react fast enough. He could only scream as electrical energy enveloped him, and he was brought, yelling, to his knees.

He moaned with relief when the bolt relinquished, and slithered back into the coffin. The voice laughed in a kind of sick merriment.

At that moment, I could feel a twinge of sympathy in my stomach for Luke at that time. He had tried to kill me so many times, and had orchestrated a plan that could have brought down the whole of Western civilisation. Yet seeing him here, defeated and broken, brought on a tiny speck of remorse.

You are nothing to me, Luke, Cronos snarled, so I can kill you on the least of whims. After your repeated ineptitude, I shall have to use somebody to baby-sit you.

Luke's eyes widened in horror as Cronos begin to laugh once again mercilessly. He turned and stumbled from the cave, limping and terrified, with his lord's merciless laughter echoing behind him.

"Percy? Percy!"

I woke up, groaning, and my vision slid into focus to see Annabeth Chase standing over me, looking annoyed. She was wearing an expression almost identical to that of the time when I had soaked her when causing the toilets to backfire – in shock.

"Annabeth? Whuzzit?"

Annabeth pursed her lips, and her intelligent grey eyes traversed me from head to toe. I made a suitably confused noise.

"What?"

She gave a tiny cough, a re-emphasised her survey of my body. And then it hit me quite painfully that I was sitting up in front of one of my best friends in my underwear.

"I'll leave you to get dressed," she sighed, and strode out of the room. Her expression had been quite haughty, but I was sure that she was fighting to suppress a smile from spreading across her face.