There were only a few people in front of us now. I bowed my head and closed my eyes.
Hecate, I thought. We need your help. Just this small thing, to navigate the mist. We need to do this to get the Seven. I will pay your price. Me personally, nobody else. Just this once, I am asking for your help.
I opened my eyes as we were called forward. There were four people per cart so we had one to ourselves. Everybody else secured their seats, but we didn't. I did the sign of horns with my hand, a greek good luck symbol similar to crossing your fingers. The park officer walked by our cart and glanced at our seats, then walked away without another word.
Thank you.
The ride took off and I held tight to the seat so I wouldn't fall off. We went through a few loops and quick turns until it evened out for a moment. I took my chance and jumped from the ride. The others followed suit. This part of the ride was dementors, large black cloaked figures. They were all machines, but freaky nonetheless. Every once in awhile one would lunge forward and Jon would jump. Nico calmly turned towards each one and glared as if it were annoying him.
"How much further?" Kat asked after she ducked behind one to the cloaked figures to avoid being seen by riders.
"I think we're close. It should be just around the corner. But we're going to have to hurry, there's nothing to hide behind there and the park police will find out pretty quickly. So we get the goblet and we run. If we get split up, go straight to the Argo. If you can't, give us a sign and we'll find you," I said.
Jonathan raised his hand as if in school. "What kind of sign?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Probably an explosion. Just make a big boom."
Kat smirked and elbowed her brother, then we were off. I tried to be sneaky but there wasn't really a point. There was nowhere to hide. We were in a stone corridor next to the track that was made to look like a hallways from Hogwarts. The giant showcase was about six feet tall, just high enough for me to reach it.
"How do we break it?" Jonathan asked.
Kat smiled and raised her sword. "Imperial gold," she answered. She swung at the case and it cracked open like a can.
"I thought it was made of bulletproof glass?" Nico wondered out loud.
"Plastic is thicker, harder to break," I explained.
"Johnny, stick your skinny little arm in there and grab it," Kat said. Only Kat could get away with calling him Johnny. Jonathan glared at his sister but did as he was told. As soon as he reached inside, alarms went off.
"Grace, now!" Nico yelled. Jon yanked the goblet from the case and threw it at me, and I stuffed it in my bag. We ran towards the exit. There was a crowd of people at the exit, all talking to the park workers about a group of kids running around the ride.
"I take that as a sign that we should go," Jonathan said. I nodded in agreement.
"That's them!" A random woman yelled, pointing at us.
"Yep, run!"
So we bolted. Kat and Jon ran towards one of the park's exits and Nico ran in the other, so I ran towards the other side of the park where Casey, Max, and Charlie were. Once I got a reasonable distance away from the officers who were chasing me, I slowed my pace. I didn't want to seem suspicious. It took me a good fifteen minutes to get to the other side of the park and when I did, it took me another ten minutes to find the others.
"Ok but what if we just stopped real quick in the candy store, like two minutes! Max, you're on my side, right?" I heard Charlie first. I came up behind them and grasped Max's shoulder.
"Sorry Chuck, but we have to go. Now."
Max jumped. "Jase! Give a guy some warning!" he said.
"Ok," I answered. "Warning, we have to go. The security guards are after us. The twins and Nico already took of towards the exits and I suggest we follow suit."
"You hurt?" Casey asked. I shook my head and she added, "Do you have the goblet?"
"Yep. And just by holding it, I can tell you that it definitely isn't a mortal prop. I can feel the godly energy just by being near it. You guys good?"
Max nodded. "We're fine, nothing bad happened except a kid puked on Charlie," he said. I looked over and noticed that Charlie was wearing a touristy shirt with Disney characters on it. I rolled my eyes and took my sister's hand, pulling the group away, smirking playfully at the grandson of Hephaestus.
"Are the others out already?" Casey asked.
I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I told them to make an explosion or something if they were stuck and so far I haven't heard any explosions. The twins were closest to an exit so I'm assuming they're out by now. If Nico was caught he would have shadow traveled so he's probably out too."
"So," Charlie started. "I guess this means we can't stop at Honeydukes?"
