Chapter 15

Lachlan ran up and knelt in front of it. In between some of its teeth was a small piece of paper. The wolf opened its mouth and the piece of paper fluttered to the ground.

Lachlan picked it up and saw some writing on the back. He read it repeatedly until Jason finally said, "Lachie. What is that?"

Lachlan whipped around and grabbed Jason by the front of his shirt. "Jason. Do NOT call me Lachie. I have only ever let one girl call me that before and now she's dead. She's dead and it's all my fault." Lachlan's voice started cracking and his eyes swelled up with tears as he remembered the way she used to smile at him, and the way she brushed her hair behind her ear.

Lachlan let go of Jason and sat on the ground where he began crying into his hands. Annabeth reached down and gave Lachlan a hug. "Hey. It's okay Lachlan."

Lachlan stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Sorry Jason. I guess I overreacted a bit there."

Jason held up his hands. "Hey, no harm done."

Annabeth looked ahead at the winding streets that led to the peak of Olympus where the palace of the gods rested. "It's quiet."

"And?" Lachlan asked.

"It's never quiet on Olympus." Jason looked around trying to find any source of life. The braziers were cold and empty, the streets covered in leaves and the statues covered in a layer of dust.

Annabeth took off running up toward the palace with Lachlan and Jason hot on her heals.

They all struggled to push open the two giant bronze doors that led into the throne room of the Gods.

Which was empty. Except for Zeus, Aphrodite and Hephaestus lying on the ground, unconscious.

Lachlan and Jason sprinted over to Zeus while Annabeth knelt beside Hephaestus. Annabeth pulled a canteen of nectar from her backpack and lobbed it over to them. Jason pulled open Zeus's jaw a Lachlan trickled some nectar into his mouth.

Half a canteen of nectar later, Zeus stirred and sat up against his throne. He groaned and opened his eyes.

"Father. Who did this to you?" Jason looked around for any potential threat before looking back at Zeus.

Zeus coughed. "I don't know, my sons. One second it was there, the next it wasn't." He looked around and only saw Hephaestus and Aphrodite. "Where are the other Gods?"

Hephaestus grunted and sat up. "Yeah Zeus. I'm fine. Don't ask."

"Well I'm not. Just look at my hair!" Aphrodite's high pitched voice rang out through the throne room.

Hephaestus stood up, his leg brace creaking and squeaking. "Woman. If you talk about your hair again, I will personally shove a socket wrench into your mouth."

"Well at least I have proper hair to worry over."

Hephaestus started to walk towards Aphrodite but Annabeth grabbed his shoulder.

"Hephaestus, she's not worth it." Annabeth shot Aphrodite an angry look then went to look around the room for any other Gods or Goddesses.

Aphrodite made a brush appear in her hands and she went to work making her hair look better. Hephaestus limped around the room, looking for any scraps that he could build something with.

Lachlan opened his mouth to ask Zeus a question when the air in front of himself shimmered. Maya, Rowan, Piper and Chiron appeared and fought off an army of hellhounds, dracnae and espousai. Lachlan saw the mass of the monster army and stood in the same spot for a few minutes with his mouth hanging open. Piper noticed Lachlan through the Iris message (as Annabeth had told him when they were doing Ancient Greek stuff) and opened her mouth, letting out a string of cuss words.

After Piper calmed down a notch, she yelled at Jason for leaving her behind at the camp with a weird creepy dude. Then she yelled at Lachlan for leaving Maya behind, which he disagreed with as they weren't even dating.

In the background of the Iris message, Lachlan caught a glimpse of a hellhounds claws rake across the breastplate of Maya's armour and shred it completely. Maya crumpled to the ground with blood soaking out of her chest and onto the ruins of her armour. Lachlan howled with fury and sprinted out the doors of the throne room and to the side of the mountain tip. He hurled himself off the edge and plummeted down. Lachlan didn't think it through well enough though but luckily Jason had chased after him and was now free-falling next to Lachlan.

Jason grabbed the collar of Lachlan's shirt and slowed his fall. They landed with a soft thump on the ground and Lachlan took off sprinting towards the army in the distance.

All the traffic seemed to be taking a different route around the battle so luckily Lachlan and Jason weren't hit by any cars or buses. Lachlan leapt into the frenzy with his sword held high above his head and slashed his way through every hellhound that he could find. Rowan, Piper and Chiron were all tired and out of Lachlan sliced through the last hellhound and he and Jason rushed to Maya's side.

It seemed as though the bleeding was getting worse as most of Maya's chest was soaked red by her blood. Lachlan carefully brought out his sword and started to cut the straps on Maya's armour. Jason gently pulled it off and then they saw the real damage. The cuts stretched from one side of her body to the other. Lachlan stared into Maya's eyes and saw the pain and fear that she was feeling. Lachlan leaned down and whispered in her ear. "You're not going to die on me. Not like her. I won't let it happen again."

The colour started to drain from Maya's face and in two ragged breaths she whispered, "kiss me."

Lachlan hesitated the gently pressed his lips against Maya's soft, cold lips. Jason and Piper were blushing a deep red as Chiron was fumbling through his medical pouch. He eventually pulled out a roll of bandages. He quickly passed them to Lachlan and he went to work, wrapping each one carefully around Maya's chest. The blood still soaked through so Lachlan unravelled the bandages and redid them.

The bleeding started to slow and the colour started to return to Maya's face but she was still very pale. Maya wrapped her arms around Lachlan's neck and he lifted her from the ground. "we must get her to the throne room. The Gods may be able to help us," Lachlan said sternly. Lachlan took one step and Maya squealed in pain.

Jason whispered something into Lachlan's ear and Lachlan gently placed Maya back on the ground. With a look of concentration on his face, Jason summoned the winds to act as a stretcher to carry Maya on. They all quickly rushed into the lobby of The Empire State Building, pushing past the cleaners, and ran towards the elevators. Rowan, who hadn't spoken the entire time, looked at Maya with deep concern. His eyes then darted from Maya to Lachlan several times and with each glance, a look of relief swept over his face.

Once inside, Lachlan frantically pressed the six hundredth floor button as the elevator started to rise. Chiron placed a hand on Lachlan's shoulder and gripped it firmly, silently telling Lachlan to stop. Over the small speakers in the elevator, Apollo sang a really cringe version of 'Turn the Beat Around' which seemed to make Lachlan's ears bleed.

The elevator dinged open and Lachlan rushed outside, sprinting up the mountainside towards the throne room. Jason started after him but Chiron placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back as Maya bobbed around the air. Jason and the others stood around for about ten minutes waiting for Lachlan to come back when they finally saw him in the distance, half carrying Zeus around his shoulders.

As Lachlan lumbered forwards, Maya started to draw in deeper breaths as if each one was her last. Lachlan and Zeus collapsed in front of them as Jason gently laid Maya on the ground in front of them. Zeus eyed Maya's wounds and drew in deep breaths. He raised his hand towards the heavens and closed his eyes.

There was a deep rumble and a single cloud floated down to them. It separated itself into long strips as Zeus guided it towards Maya. The thin strips of cloud wrapped themselves around Maya's wounds and acted as stitches. They then started to pull together while closing the gashes. They solidified and Zeus breathed out and laid on the ground.

Maya's face seemed to relax and her eyes fluttered open. She looked down at her stomach and saw Zeus's handiwork. Lachlan leant down and gently wrapped his arms around her.

"I told you I wasn't going to let you die," he whispered in her Maya's ear. Maya smiled and brushed her hair behind her ear. Lachlan went to lift her up again but Maya screamed in pain again. Lachlan gave Jason a look and he did the stretcher thing with the winds.

"You know I can't do this all day, right?" Jason asked.

"Yeah alright. We'll just have to figure something else out as we go." Lachlan looked around Olympus, trying to imagine what it looked like when there were people taking care of it.

"Where are we going?" everyone asked at the same time.

"Don't know. But Jason does."