Chapter 15:

Mya's POV:

'Tartarus will sense your presence,' I told myself. 'So hurry up and find the House of Nyx!'

I had prayed to Nyx and Cronus but neither of them showed up or responded in any way. Zeus probably had something with that but I didn't dare think about the king of the gods or say his name down here. It would only cause me trouble considering that most of the monsters that were down here were here because of him including me.

All I could do right now was hope that my friends were safe and try and find the House of Nyx. I stay near the edge of Tartarus hoping it would mask my presence from most monsters. It seemed to work but I didn't take any chances so any monster that was in striking distance was reduced to a pile of dust. I really wished I had thought about grabbing a new pair of clothes and maybe taking a shower before heading to Olympus but of course, it hadn't even crossed my mind.

Ahead of me, the gloom began to split and I saw the House of Nyx for the first time in a few days. I had never really seen it from the outside and I was pretty happy because its presence made me shiver. It seemed almost like the place was more alive than Tartarus. The walls of Nyx's palace seemed to expand like it was breathing. I didn't bother looking at the outside for long though because I knew I needed to get inside as quickly as possible.

"Nyx!" I shouted as I ran through the long dark hallways. "Nyx!"

She appeared in front of me in a flash and I skidded on the glossy dark floors.

"Mya?" she asked.

"Nyx! Thank gods!" I said relieved while throwing my arms around the goddess.

"Why are you here?" she asked pulling away from my embrace. "Tartarus might feel you here and if he appears he and finds you not dead he will kill you."

"He can't," I told her. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "I am a goddess now."

"Then why are you here?" she asked.

"Big 'king of the gods' banished me," I told her lowering my gaze to the floor. "But I have a plan to get back at him."

"Mya," Nyx halfheartedly warned.

"I know what I need to do," I told her. "Will you stand with me or not?"

"It depends on what you are planning to do," she told me.

"I'm going to make him pay," I stated. "If he can't accept the fact that I am a god and a strong god for that fact. Then, I'll prove it to him by going for what he cares about the most."

"Mortal women?" Nyx asked. I paused for a moment and then burst out laughing. Nyx's comment had taken me completely off guard.

"Close but not quite," I said with a laugh. "If there was a way for me to capture every mortal woman and keep them somewhere safe I would. I was thinking more about the goddess that almost always sides with him."

"The queen of the gods," she whispered finally getting what I was saying.

"There is no better option," I told her. "Of course I'm not going to… harm her in any way. That would be stupid, but who says I can't just keep her hidden away for a little bit."

"It's risky but where are you going to keep her?" I looked at the goddess for a moment.

"I was hoping here but now that I think about it that doesn't seem like the safest option," I admitted.

"Every god gets their own palace," Nyx told me. "It could be in a place where their power is the strongest or somewhere that they feel the most isolated. Where is yours going to be?"

I thought about some of the places that I would like to be located near. The ocean was a great choice but it would be too predictable. Then, I remember one of the places that I went to for a school trip. My mother by no means was rich in any way. With all of the hospital bills that overflowed our counter, there was just no way we could afford many luxuries. Yet she always wanted me to have the best schooling that I could, no matter how many schools I got kicked out of she would always find one that was so much better than the last. This school was a huge K-12 boarding school located in downtown New York. Every year the 6th graders would get to go on a big trip out into the wilderness, and the year that I got to go was when we went to the National Bridges National Monument. One of the most deserted places in the world located right at the bottom of Utah. Dylan and I had an absolute blast being so… free, and for five days we lived life to the fullest. Every night our tour guide would take us to the "bridges" so we could watch the stars, and every night I was blown away by the view. It was almost as beautiful as the ocean, and it blew my mind that the stars that we were seeing one night could be completely gone the next.

"I have a place," I said with a smile. "And it's close enough to Camp Jupiter, so if anything goes wrong there I can quickly get there."

"When shall we make our move?" Nyx asked me.

"Nyx," I whispered. "I cannot ask you to help me. If Zeus were to find out-"

"If he were to find out he would be absolutely terrified," Nyx told me. "The strongest part of my domain is in Tartarus! The king of the gods wouldn't dare getting anywhere near me!"

"I still cannot ask you to interfere," I told her. "It is much too dangerous."

"Even to dangerous for me?" I looked behind me and couldn't help but smile. Cronus was leaning on a wall with his arms crossed. A small sheathed dagger hung from his pale blue jeans. He wore a grey shirt that was trimmed with gold. His gold eyes caught mine. "Because if it is I don't believe I can let you go."

Dylan's POV:

I walked through a small portion of our ranks. Every monster stood taller when I passed.

'They're trying to win you over,' I thought. 'Don't show any mercy! Not even to your own troops!'

About halfway through the walkthrough, Liam joined my side. He had risen to his position and taken control over the Titan's domains he inherited. Every time I saw him he was dressed in golden and black clothing. The gold was supposed to represent Hyperion, and the black was supposed to represent Atlas and Iapetus. He hid away in the arena as much as he could and the work he was putting in really began to show physically on his body. He was no longer very scrawny but now his muscles popped every time he moved. About two days ago I went in and did some practice with him and I could barely keep up. I was tempted to stop time and give myself a break from his tiring attacks but I knew that was what he wanted. Eventually, I was able to get myself out of there because I needed to eat or something, but in reality, I was terrified of how dangerous he had become in just a few weeks.

"Any word about what Olympus is doing?" I asked him figuring his father would tell him anything before he told me.

"Tartarus says that they received a new god," Liam responded dully. "Supposably very powerful, but I'm sure Zeus will hide them away in fear of his domains being taken away from him."

"God or goddess?" I asked but Liam just shrugged. "Do we know their domains yet?"

"Our spy hasn't said," he told me. "Probably got too caught up with other gossips."

"I hate that we're relying on Eros," I muttered. Liam laughed at me but otherwise kept silent. We walked through the final row of hellhounds and straight to the podium in the front of the room.

I stepped up to the large black marble stand and looked out over all of the monsters. Many of them stared back at me, and for the few moments that they held their eyes on me, I began to panic. I realized that this was only a small portion of the monsters we would be using and were going to rip the camps apart.

"Stop," the voices entered my head. "These sacrifices are needed for our rise over Olympus!"

'Of course,' I whispered in my head. I straightened my back and looked back towards Liam. His expression was hard and he didn't seem to notice that I looked at him. He stared out into the sea of monsters that were only mere feet away from him. Then, I cleared my throat.

"We have received news that Olympus has received a new god," monsters growled as my voice echoed in the vast room. "I am sure that Olympus is celebrating and they do not realize what is going to happen in a matter of three days! For now, we will stay strong and when the time comes we will bring all of the gods to their knees starting with this new one!"

Cheers erupted and filled the room. Liam grabbed my arm and led me through a back exit away from the celebrating monsters.

"Who knows what they'll do when they're that excited," he mumbled. I nodded and allowed him to drag me away from the sounds of monsters.

Annabeth's POV:

Somehow Chiron was able to get three Greyhounds on a Tuesday. With all three of the camps vans and now the three buses we only had a tiny bit of trouble getting all of the weapons and campers to fit. Thank the gods that the Aphrodite children agreed that they only needed a tenth of all of their makeup. I went over everything with Chiron before we left.

"Chiron, are you sure there's nothing that Percy and I can take in the van?" I asked. "I mean maybe some weapons or something so the campers aren't so crowded."

"Annabeth," Chiron pleaded. "I've already told you that I've got everything under control."

"Are you sure?" I asked while craned my neck to get a look at the buses. Campers were cramming bags and weapons in the storage underneath the buses.

"Actually there is something you can do for me," I snapped my head towards Chiron. He was looking up and down the list in his hands. Sometimes his eyes would peak over the rim of his glasses when he heard an unusually loud noise coming from the campers near the buses. "I don't believe it would be my best interest to take Luke and Reyna on the buses with us, but I believe you said you had some room in your van, could you take them with you?"

I was stunned but I also knew I couldn't tell him no. I turned and looked down into the valley below us. I saw Reyna and Luke standing near the dunes and it looked like they were deep in conversation.

"We could also have you leave right about now if you take them with you," Chiron told me while placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah," I finally caved. "Yeah, we can take them."

I knew that it was going to be an awkward trip and I hoped that Luke and Percy wouldn't fight like they had in the Big House.

"Great!" Chiron said relieved. "You should go get them and get out of here. I'll see you at Camp Jupiter."

He galloped down the hill towards a few of the Apollo campers that were trying to take a full drum set with them.

"Great," I said mimicking Chiron. I ran down into the valley to find Percy.

Mya's POV:

I was finally able to get rid of Nyx so Cronus and I could be alone. I walked towards him and he opened his arms as if I were going to stop and give him a hug, but I brushed past him.

"Mya!" he called out for me but I kept walking. I heard his footsteps quicken to a slight jog, but I kept my eyes focused ahead of me. "Wow, what did I do? No hello, no thank you?"

"Everyone believed my death," I told him.

"Isn't that what you wanted?" he asked confused.

I kept walking and quickly remembered my way through these dark hallways. I took a few turns and ended up in the training arena. I summoned my trident and raised my hand towards the roof. I pulled a small portion of the darkness towards me and began to form it into monsters and figures.

"Mya, what's wrong?" Cronus asked.

Ignoring him I allowed the figures before me to come to life. I hacked and slashed them down until nothing else remained. I raised my arm to summon more but Cronus grabbed my wrist.

"What is wrong?" he pulled my face right towards his, and for a moment I was paralyzed by his eyes. Then, I looked back at my raised arm and saw his hand beginning to tighten around my wrist.

"Enough," I hissed.

"No," he told me. I felt his nails dig into my skin. "What is wrong?"

"Cronus, enough!" I shouted.

"I will let go when you tell me what is wrong!" he shouted back.

"Stop!" my voice held a little bit of hysteria in it. I clenched my fist and tried to twist it out of his grasp, but he just held my wrist higher.

"You are the one that needs to stop!" Cronus spat. Looking down at my free hand I saw my trident. I quickly snapped my eyes back to his gaze hoping he didn't notice that I looked down. He must have not thought anything of it because he didn't look to see what I was looking at. I wanted to curl up into a ball with how cold his eyes were.

"Something happens when everyone finds out," I whispered trying to distract him.

"When they find out what?" he scoffed.

"See the vultures circling dark clouds," I raised my eyes and looked at the top of the arena. Cronus's gaze left me for a few moments and he also looked up. "Love's a fragile little flame, it could burn out. Because they got the cages, they got the boxes, and guns. They are the hunters we are the foxes, and we run."

As he was distracted his grip on my wrist loosed a little. I took this to my advantage, so I quickly twist free from his grasp. Quickly, I lowered myself to the ground and swung my trident swiping his feet from under him. He hit the ground hard, but I didn't let that distract me. I stuck my hand out and pulled the darkness towards me. As it swirled around me I walked around Cronus hilding the points of my trident at his throat.

"Don't do that ever again," I hissed.

"Do what?" he spat back.

"Embarrass me like that," I whispered as I crouched down and brought my face dangerously close to him. "I don't care what you've done for me in the past because I've changed in the past few hours in case you haven't noticed."

"I have actually," his voice wasn't as cold as it had been.

"Zeus said 'I did something bad.' Then why'd it feel so good?" I asked him. "I don't trust Zeus and Zeus doesn't trust me, but I'll soon be the actress starring in his bad dreams!"

"Mya," Cronus pleaded. "What is wrong with you?"

"Zeus doesn't trust me!" anger flooded through my voice. "He will soon be faced with two wars with no help from the heroes." I stood back up and started pacing the room. "I will take his queen from right under his nose and he'll know I did it but he'll have no proof. Here's the best part if he blames me he will be faced with another war lead by my own father!"

"Mya, you need to be careful there are a number of things that could go wrong," Cronus told me.

"I know the risks," I told him. "But not all of us can hold onto nice things, and Zeus's karma has been long overdue."

"Are you sure you this want this?" he asked me.

"Let me think about it," I told him. "Zeus facing a possible three-way war or standing down and let him continue to bully heroes and minor gods?" I paused for a moment. "Ok, I've made my decision!"

"Then I'm going with you," he stated while getting up.

"No, you are not," I told him.

"Yes, I am," he mocked. "No matter how angry I may seem with you I will always follow you through whatever I feel is an incredibly dangerous situation."

"So basically you're going to follow me throughout my whole life?" I scoffed. He walked over to me and grabbed my waist. Breath caught as he pulled me into him. At that moment I realized I could never stay mad at him.

"If I have to, Icarus," he said grinning like a little kid that just received a candy store for free. The swirl of darkness surrounded us but every time I took a breath it would die down a little.

"I can't believe I'm actually letting you come with me to kidnap the queen of Olympus," I admitted.

"There is nothing I do better than revenge," he told me with a huge smile.

MEEEEEEEE123~ Thank you sooooooo much I absolutely adore the fact that you are loving the story and it makes it so much easier to write when I get reviews from people. (P.S. you don't have to apologize for repeating things because I literally do it all the time.)

So in case, you haven't noticed I am in a huge Taylor Swift mood right now. I have no clue why but you know it fits with the story so I'm going to run with it. Now we're getting into some of the longer chapters of the story so hope you're ready!

~Emily