A/N sorry, a day late. I hope i held enough suspense. Please review.
The room explodes in shards of glass and fire and I instinctively throw Nico to the ground and protect him with my body, I then cover my own eyes with my arms to shield them from the glass. I feel a burning prickle run up my back and an equally intense prickle in my stomach, only the latter is algedonic. I just kissed this boy and now I'm protecting him with my own body. I just kissed this boy and now I'm protecting him with my own body.
I stand up painfully and grab riptide from my pocket. Uncapping it, I run toward the monster which is attacking us. It's a...well I don't know what it is. Annabeth would know. I shake my head to clear my thoughts, I can't think of her in battle, especially now that I've moved on.
It has the body of a lion, with a lion's head in the usual place, but not in the usual place, namely the middle of its back, is a goat's head spraying fire. Where its tail would normally be, there is a massive snake, spewing out venom and lashing viciously, threatening to inject anyone in its path with it.
Only Hazel, Will and I have brought our weapons so Piper and Jason are leading everyone else out of the room. It won't help us if even more people get injured. We all stand at the far wall, trying to make the most of the few seconds before it realises we're here.
"A chimera" I whisper to myself more than anyone else. "Long time no see."
"In its myth wasn't it shot by an arrow?" Will says, "I need higher ground to shoot from, it's too tall. Should I climb the chandelier then? Can someone give me a leg up?"
"I can do better than that!" Hazel replies and brings her fingers to her lips, smiling, a sharp, high-pitched sound is released and I hear he clip-clop, clip-clop of galloping hooves quickly progressing in our direction. Next, Hazel reached to the ground and produces a lump of gold, holding it out at the exact moment Arion reaches us. "You know what to do."
"Defend me?" he asks.
"sure." Hazel replies as they both mount her horse and start to gallop around the circumference of the walls, tilting to their sides as they gradually make their way to the centre.
The chimera has now noticed me and is walking towards us, threatening me with its heads and spewing warning shots of fire and poison, the lion head roars like the MGM lion, which I take as a cue to start distracting it while Will tries to get a good angle.
Will gets his bow out and prepares an arrow to fire. While distracting the chimera, I see him takes aim and, at just the right moment, from behind the monster, he releases an arrow. It clears the space between them and passes through all three heads in a split second. I dive out of the way just as it passes through its glabella.
As it disintegrates, it falls to the ground, leaving behind a snake fang like in harry potter and the chamber of secrets, which I run to and pocket it. I'll give it to Will later; after all, he was the one who killed it.
"Hazel!" I hear will shout. With dread, I sprint in her direction.
Oh gods. What I see is worse than I'd ever expected.
A/N I'm so torturing you guys, but don't worry, the next chapter will be up much sooner.