"Ay-yay-yay," I groaned, closing my eyes in despair. "How many more surprises can I take?"

"Don't tell me you're surprised!" Thalia exclaimed. "You really thought I'd just leave you and Percy to die?"

"What was the point of keeping it a secret if you knew you were going to come back for us?" Percy asked her, ticked off. "You could've at least told us!"

Artemis stepped in front of Thalia, explaining, "She didn't know if summoning the army was possible yet."

I shook my head in shock. "I still can't believe this...how did you get this many girls to fight with you?"

Thalia opened her mouth to tell me, but Bianca's loud sigh stopped her.

"As fun as this pow-wow is," she complained. "The Labyrinth is being raised tomorrow, and we have three thousand eight hundred and four soldiers without a place to spend the night."

"Ghosts sleep?" Percy asked, intrigued.

"Yes! Now shut up!"

"I see your point," Artemis acknowledged Bianca. "Let's see what we can do. Excuse me, Aunt H!"

She waved to the sweetly smiling brunette goddess, who was busy tending the flames of the fireplace. With a glance our way, she set down her coal-poker and swished over to us.

"Aunt Hestia is the goddess of the home and hearth," Artemis explained. "I'm sure she can help us find a place for all of the troops." She sent Hestia a look that plainly said, please.

Hestia nodded gently. "Of course," she said, waving her hand over the glass where we stood. "You might want to let it rise, now," she told us warningly.

"Huh?" I said, then leaped out of the way as the glass bubbled beneath me. "Woah!"

A huge square of the glass stopped bubbling and shot up one, two, three, five, eleven, twenty-something stories high. "A glass hotel," Percy noted. "Smart."

Artemis thanked Hestia, then guided the army into the hotel, from which light was already glimmering.

"Okay, in through the revolving doors, now...pick whatever room you want..." Thalia repeated over and over, pushing a couple of ten-year-olds in. She looked at both of us. "I'd get some sleep, too, if I were you. Big day tomorrow."

Percy and I exchanged glances. "Yeah, I'm going to bed," I told him. "You too?"

"Actually, I think I'll hang around a little longer," he looked pointedly at Thalia. "But I'll see ya."

I shrugged, trying not to show jealousy. Because I wasn't jealous, you know, of him and Thalia. "'Kay," I said indifferently, turning around to go the the revolving glass doors.

"Wait--" he touched my shoulder so I'd turn around. Then he pulled me into a hug. "G'night," he finally said, letting me go.

I half-smiled and waved. "Bye."

The last thing I heard as I pushed through the door into the shining crystal lobby was Thalia: Oh, disgusting! You two are bad enough as it is...

Smiling, I walked into an elevator and chose a floor...seven. I supposed any room would do. Number 714 was empty, so I opened the door, turned on the lamp, and grinned at what I saw on the bedspread.

"Thanks, Hestia," I mumbled as I changed into the flannel pajamas she must've put out for us. "You really thought of everything."

I climbed under the thick luxury blankets and prepared to turn off the light, exhausted. Gently, I took the magnolia out of my hair and laid it on the nightstand. True, it was one of the cheesiest things he had ever done for me. But it was also one of the sweetest.

But the moment I turned the light off, something was strange. My hand flew to my pajama collar and I choked back a cry. I don't cry.

But my necklace from Camp Half-Blood was gone.

"RISE AND SHINE, SLEEPING BEAUTY!"

Six hours later, I groaned and peeped out the window. "The sun's not even out, Thalia!" I moaned. "Go away!"

I buried my face in my pillow and tried to kick her out of the suite.

"Tough," she said, plopping onto the bed. "There's your clothes. Get dressed, it's raised at sunup."

"Whatever," I muttered, grabbing the shorts and t-shirt Hestia had prepared. "What's this 'raising' thing have to do with it?"

"You'll see," she said slyly, which annoyed me.

I slipped on the sneakers messily and snapped my bedhead hair into a ponytail. "There," I narrowed my eyes at her. "Happy?!"

She snorted. "Gorgeous. Percy'll love it."

"What does he have to do with it?" I slammed the door behind us as we started hopping down the stairs -- faster than the elevator. I patted Thalia's head like a puppy. "You've been gone a little too long, Thal,"

"Oh? I've been gone too long?" she laughed. "Who's the one who's totally oblivious?"

We pushed our way out of the revolving door, into the still-dark morning, and I tried to ignore her comments. "Come on, let's find the rest of the army," I told her, looking around.

"You are oblivious," she continued, stopping even as I kept walking forward determinedly. "Percy's totally in love with you, and you can't even see it!"

I froze. Slowly, turning around, I spoke softly and quickly. "He does not love me and this isn't helping us at all. C'mon."

It seemed that all of the thousands of troops were there all ready. I filed in toward the front, where Bianca and Artemis stood.

I tried to say, "Lady Arte--"

"SHHH!" Thalia and Bianca shushed me violently.

I shrugged apologetically and stepped back. "Sorry, but what's so shhh?"

"Watch," Bianca whispered, pointing to the the square where we'd gathered -- where the ball had been last night. Except now, at all four corners of the square and lined up on all four sides, the twelve gods towered silently.

On this side, it happened to be Poseidon on the left, then Artemis, then my mother. I gulped. Nice coincidence.

"And what are they doing?"

I just got another shushing. Suddenly, even the whispers of the army behind me fell silent and the wind stopped. All at once, twelve pairs of hands raised high in the air.

"Liono!" All of the gods and godesses cried together in Greek. I nearly jumped as a great rumble went throughout the Platform. In one smooth motion, the glass pavillions, temples, and the huge new hotel turned to liquid crystal. They quickly melted back into the Platform floor, as if they were water. Now, the whole thing was just one smooth expanse of glass.

"Wow," a voice behind me said. "Impressive. Was anybody still in the hotel?"

I whipped around to face a messy head of black hair. Ah, Percy. I rolled my eyes. "What do you think, Jellyfish?"

"Makraino!"

They'd done it again. The north and west edges of the now-blank Platform lengthened and grew, stretching out and out and out until you could barely see the end. We were on the southern side, so our part of the Platform didn't change much.

"Also impressive," Percy continued. "And good morning to you too, Wise Girl."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically. "Sleep well before coming to your doom?"

"As always."

"Labyrinthos..."

I stopped talking and held my breath. Labyrinthos -- the Labyrinth.

"...Xypno!"

Immediately, one long, pure note hummed through the air, as if someone struck a bell. Now, the glass floor a couple hundred yards in front of our square really did slosh like water, and its waves began sloshing higher and higher. But it wasn't an accident where they were getting higher -- the floor was becoming the walls of the Labyrinth.

I wanted to say oh, I get it, or something to the effect, but nobody was talking.

Soon, the watery walls had grown to over two stories high. Another bell-like note rang out and they solidified, cooling crystal.

The gods and goddesses cried, "Teleiono," clapped their hands at once, and walked away from their square formation. People went back to whispering nervously.

"Uh, okay," I turned to Percy nervously. "That was weird."

"Ohhh, boy," he pulled me along as he began running. Thalia, Bianca, and Artemis had already started towards the beginning of the Labyrinth. "It's beginning."

"Thanks for all the warning time," I scoffed as we jogged toward the entrance. "Are you ready?"

"Of course I'm not ready."

"Well, that makes two of us."

"Guys!" Thalia called, waving us over. "Percy, you and Annabeth and us are going to lead the troops. We decided."

I was about to say okay, but an ungodly cough from behind me made me stop.

"Annabeth," Athena said softly, come from who knows where. "I need to speak with you for a moment."

I looked up at her in terror. What did she want, now of all times?

"Um," I began. "Yes, Athe--Mom?"

"Come over here," in ten-foot form, she pushed me to the side, then knelt down so her eyes were at the same level mine were. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw Poseidon ambling over to Percy, and Artemis turned to Thalia seriously.

"So," my mother began. "I see you were about to begin the Labyrinth with your, ah, friend, Percy Jackson. Correct?"

"Yes," I felt a lump growing in my throat again.

She nodded, apparently trying with difficulty to not say something. "Well. I understand that you have friendships with other half-bloods, which is good. Yes, good. But...did you hear about the other prize at the end of the Labyrinth?"

I nodded. "Kronos' tomb...but Percy's supposed to kill him." I resisted adding duh to the end.

She waved the thought away. "Yes, but other than that?"

I shook my head.

"New York City."

My eyes widened. "Oh, my..."

"Exactly. You understand."

I did understand, too well, I think. I looked at Percy again, whose father was talking low and fast to him like he was in a football huddle. I turned back to my mom.

Oh, no. This same thing, sort of, had happened with the city of Athens. Zeus had put on the spectacle. Athena, of course, had won that city because her gift (olive tree) was greater than Poseidon's (horses). But now, since gods cannot fight Kronos' army, I guess it's whoever has the better son or daughter wins the prize.

But New York? Ay, caramba.

Exactly what would a New York taken over by Athena or Poseidon look like?!

"Ath...Mom," I said meekly. "What are you saying I have to do?"

She stared me down. "Please, Annabeth. I'm counting on you to get to the center of the maze first, and at any cost. Do not start at the same place as Percy or I will -- we will -- be disqualified by Zeus himself. Do not collaborate with him. Do not ask him for help."

"But--"

"Please."

I wiggled away from her. "No, Mom! This is about killing Kronos -- not getting a prize!"

"That it is, obviously, and it is our primary concern above this...er, competition. So you will, of course, not try to open the tomb first -- you may let the half-blood of the prophecy take care of that. Just touch it is all I'm asking."

"I still don't want to have to avoid Percy."

"Dear Annabeth," she looked me sadly in the eyes. "I don't like taking you away from your friends, but tell me truthfully: which do you value more? Someone you've only known for a few years..." she looked at Percy and Poseidon. "Or your mother? Who's known you all your life, and who needs your help now more than ever?"

In retrospect, there were a thousand things I could've said then. Something along the lines of, Oh yeah? Well, if you've known me so long, how come you never drop by and visit? Or, if I was feeling gutsy, Percy's been a heck of a lot better friend in three years than you have my whole life! But when she looked at me like that, my fists just clenched. It was like she was asking me to choose forever. Family or friends, family or friends...

"Okay," I said weakly.

Her face unfolded into a bright smile. "That's my girl," she pulled me into a slightly awkward hug. Mostly because she was ten feet and I was under six. "Make me proud, Annabeth," she whispered, waving goodbye as she dissolved into the crowd.

"What was that about?" Bianca asked as I joined them again.

"Nothing," I muttered. "I'm going to need to start at another entrance. Where can I find one?"

She looked shocked, but pointed to the left. "Just keep going and-- wait, why do you need to start somewhere different than us?"

I didn't answer Bianca except to say thanks. "Thalia," I tugged on her shirt.

"What?"

"Can you come with me?"

Instead of asking why like I expected, she just looked miserably back at Artemis. "Do I have to?"

"I'd really like it if you could," I pleaded. "C'mon. I'll die in there without someone else and you know it."

She sighed and whispered something to Artemis. The goddess looked sadly at Poseidon and Athena, then nodded slowly. Thalia bowed and jogged back over to me.

"Let's go," she slung her bow over her shoulder. "They're starting any second."

Just as we started running toward the other entrance, we nearly bowled over into someone.

"Sorry," I said automatically. But then, "Percy!"

"Annabeth," he looked at me uncomfortably. "What was all that with your mom?"

"What was all that with your dad?" I replied.

He started to say something, but I stopped him.

"Please," I mumbled. He didn't know a rhetorical question when he heard one. "Let's not talk until this is over."

He looked a little hurt, a little aggravated as we continued to another identical entrance. Thalia and I stopped in front of the glassy but dark opening. How had they managed to make a glass maze in the middle of the day so dark? I exhaled, tried to loosen up a little bit, but Thalia stopped me.

"You're tense, get over it," she said gently. "Zeus...he's about to announce the beginning of the, uh, race."

"Race?"

"That's what it's turning out to be, isn't it?"

I must have looked as ready to barf as I felt, because she patted my shoulder and smiled. "We'll be fine."

The thundering voice of Zeus came rumbling down the glass floor, as if microphoned. "ALL DEMIGODS AND LESSER BLOODS, PLEASE STEP FORWARD."

I gulped, and stepped toward the doorway with Thalia.

"ALL GODS AND GODDESSES, PLEASE LEAVE THE LABYRINTH PREMISES."

Our parents and Artemis walked quickly away to the edge of the Platform.

My breath came in spasms. I didn't know what was wrong with my lungs, so I held my breath for a second until my mind calmed. Good, calm, rational.

"SOLDIERS OF OLYMPUS..." Zeus called. You could've heard a pin drop. "BEGIN!"

A shotgun fired and I sprinted off from the entrance. Thalia looked at me, amused.

"I don't think you're supposed to run all five miles of the Labyrinth," she informed me. "At least, you'll be the only one running."

Blushing, I slowed to a quick walk and took out my bronze knife. "Let's see..."

The opening part of the Labyrinth was just a cut crystal straight path -- but it stopped abruptly and you could go left or right.

"Left!" Thalia cried quickly.

"How do you know?" I asked skeptically.

She pointed to her left hand, crackling with an electric energy. "It doesn't hurt. How else are you going to interpret this?"

I looked closely at the webbed lightning around her hand. "That could be a fluke."

"Doubt it. Let's go left."

Grumbling, I followed her into the left passage. "Fantastic," I moaned. "Now there's three ways to go!"

"I don't have three hands," Thalia said stupidly.

"I noticed," I strode to the dark passage on the far left. I couldn't see anything. "Can you see down there?"

"Nope," Thalia told me. "None of them."

Picking up one of the rough balls of quartz that littered the labyrinth floor, I tossed it as hard as I could down the invisible walls of the pass. No sound. "That one's not a dead end," I muttered, picking up another stone and heading to the middle passage. Throw. No sound. I went over to the third pass, the last one, and picked up my final stone.

Thalia clearly thought this was a waste of time. "Hey, Annabeth," she tried. "I don't think any of them are dead..."

Splunk. The rock hit a wall somewhere at the end of the pass. I raised my eyebrow at Thalia.

"Ooo-kay," she said. "Just kidding, then."

"It's one of these two," I pointed to the two on the left. "Can you stand right in the middle of them?"

She did, and soon her right wrist was glowing with spiky lightning. "Right," she nodded as we headed down that direction.

The glass opened to a huge, circular room with no less than eight possible directions. I let out a deep breath. "All right, no big deal," I strained my voice. "Just...eight...ways...to choose from."

So the rock-throwing started again.

Luckily for us, we narrowed it down to two passages again. "Whew," I sighed as Thalia did a wrist-test in front of the last two. "How do you suppose the Jellyfish and the rest of them are getting through this?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. My guess is, Percy's dead meat without much help. I'm sure the rest of the Hunt won't be having a lot of trouble, though...Artemis must have given them some kind of hints."

My ears perked up. "Did she give you hints?"

"Right again."

"She did?"

"No, I mean, the direction is right. Again."

Disappointed, I followed her down the passageway and hoped this wouldn't take too much longer. I was a little anxious about Percy. Gosh, I hoped he wasn't dead. I couldn't take much more drama.

"Woah!" Thalia yelled as we entered the dark, glassy room. "Dead end!"

She was right -- no ways out but the way we came in. Not even a closed door.

I took a couple steps forward. "What in the world..."

But I soon leaped back in pain. A small tile of glass below my left foot had vanished without a trace, leaving a bubbling square of lava. "Ouch!" I screamed, clutching my melting shoe. "Thal, the floor...I think it just burned me!"

She looked at my shoe, horrified. "How?"

"The floor--" I took off the shoe and stamped on it to put out the flames. "The floor went away...and lava..." My words trailed off as I focused on the floor. There was something funny about it.

"Let's go back," she said, already turning.

"Wait!" I grabbed her collar without moving my head from the ground. "Do you see that?"

She gave me a sarcastic look. "No, Annabeth, I don't see a thing. What's the brilliant idea?"

I pointed to a pattern on the glass floor. After nearly dying from it, it was easier to spot. "See it's there--don't step on it!" I cried as Thalia took a step forward. "Just listen: those are runes."

"Runes," she repeated.

"Yes," I replied. "But they're Phoenician, not Icelandic."

"Meaning...?"

I shook my hands excitedly. "It means that they'll look like letters! See?"

She studied a rune carefully, then shrugged. "Yeah. How does this help us again?"

I bit my lip. "This has to mean something." I scanned the walls. "Ha! Look here!"

We huddled in front of a barely visible etching in the walls. With a swipe of her hand, Thalia removed most of the crystal bits from its surface so we could read.

Το όνομα της αγάπης πιο κακόβουλη παιδί

"Greek," Thalia said satisfactorily. "Which we can really read."

"Yep," I squinted closer. "The...name of love's most...mischeivous...child," I finished with some difficulty. I turned to Thalia. "So what's the name of love's most mischievous child?"

Thalia looked like she was supressing a giggle.

"What, Thal?" I groaned.

She did giggle this time. "It's really easy -- Cupid, of course," she laughed out loud. "Which really fits you and Percy--"

"Oh, shut up," I rolled my eyes as I shoved her shoulder and faced the runes. I didn't know Phoenician, but they were close enough to English alphabet-based letters that you could tell which was which. A bunch of letters were scrambled in a random order. "I think we have to spell it."

Thalia stepped forward. "I'll go," she offered confidently.

"No," I stopped her. "I mean, thanks, but you're stronger than me. If I...go down, it'll be better if you survive."

She frowned at me.

"To help Percy," I finished lamely.

She gave me a look. "Annabeth, in case you start to fall again, I'm going one step behind you."

I didn't want to argue with her anymore. "Fine," I agreed, turning to the first rune I was going to step on. "Cupid...'C'..." I put my foot gingerly on the first tile. "Aaaaaayyy!"

The lava blistered my shoe until I was fanning the flames all over again.

"What did we do wrong?" Thalia peered at the lava. "Are the runes supposed to be confusing?!"

"No," I muttered angrily. "I was stupid. Actually, you were too, but mostly me. Cupid is the Roman name for Eros. We have to spell Eros!" I searched for an E. "Found it," I told her. "E..."

I hardly put my toe on the tile this time. Miraculously, it remained glass. No lava. No fire.

We laughed in disbelief. "Awesome," she congratulated me.

"Thanks," I said, finding the R. "Okay, R..." I stepped on the tile and Thalia followed on the E. "O..." I caught my breath. S was in the dead center of the tiled floor. "Can you jump on this at the same time as me?" I asked her.

"What, because it's the last one?"

I nodded. "And it's in the middle. I'll bet it leads out of the room."

"All right," Thalia bent her knees. "One...two...jump!"

We leapt to the middle tile together, and just in time. The second our toes brushed the glass, all the other tiles crumbled with a sound like a small earthquake.

"W-w-w-w-woa-a-a-ah-h!" she grinned, shaking up and down. "G-g-guess it was r-r-r-ight-t-t."

In place of the tiles, a glass staircase blossomed gracefully from the floor. But the staircase led down -- as if into a basement.

"Sweet," I exclaimed as the shaking stopped. I hopped from the tile onto the staircase. "After you, madam," I told Thalia.

She jumped in a very un-ladylike manner to the stairs and bounced down two at a time. "More choices," she sighed as we came to a room of two passageways. "I'll do it."

She stood in front of them and showed me her left hand crackling with energy. "Left."

But just as we began to enter the left passageway, two screams -- our screams --pierced the air.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" we shrieked, hands fumbling madly for our weapons.

Three large, hairy creatures had pounced from the archway.