We entered the Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel. There was a long line of people at the desk to get a hotel room.
"You ready, Piper?" I asked.
"Ready." she answered. She walked forth. "Go to sleep." she commanded. "Everyone but my friends, just lie down. Take a nap." she commanded.
Everyone except for us fell into a deep sleep.
"Perfect. Now we have to figure out where Khione is." Percy stated.
"There are seven floors. But if we stick together, it'll take forever to search every hotel room. Also, if we bust down the doors, the humans will call the cops." I said. "Let's split into groups of two. I'll go with Piper and search the first three floors. Percy and Jason will search the upper floors. If any of us find Khione, contact the other group immediately." I ordered. "Now let's get going."
Percy and Jason took an elevator to search the upper floors. We started looking around. Soon I got a videochat call from Percy.
"Ok, how do we determine where Khione is?" he asked.
"Keep track of the room numbers. The ones you see someone other than Khione enter, cross it off." I said. "That would be a good place to start."
Me and Piper looked at the Grand Alexander restaurant, the fitness center, pool and several other areas. Then I realized something. If Khione was staying in a hotel, she would have used an alias to hide her true identity!
I'm an idiot! We'll never find her like this! I thought to myself.
"I just realized something bad. We'll never be able to find Khione because she went under a different alias. I'm such a fool!" I exclaimed.
"Now what do we do?" Jason asked.
"I don't..." I began to say, before Jason screamed.
He was being dragged away by ice chains bound to his ankles. Percy followed him.
"Where are you guys?" I asked.
"Seventh floor. East end." Percy answered, running with his phone in hand. He hung up. I tried running, but I couldn't keep up with Piper. Due to my pregnancy, I found myself running out of breath quicker than I thought I would. This was not good. I dropped to my knees and gasped for air.
"Come on!" Piper exclaimed.
She grabbed me by the wrist as she sprinted up the steps, dragging me along. Eventually, we found the room where Khione was staying. It was a normal hotel room, except for the fact that the walls were ice blue and the fan had been replaced by an ice chandelier.
"You are fools to try and confront me!" Khione exclaimed. With sheer force, she shut the door. "Why do you dare confront me after all these years?"
"Don't play dumb, Khione!" Jason exclaimed.
"We know that you caused my mother to go insane and that you stole the Golden Fleece!" I exclaimed.
"What are you talking about?" Khione asked.
"You have the Golden Fleece! Where is it?!" Piper asked.
"I don't have any fleece. And I haven't spoken to Athena in several moons. How dare you accuse me!" she screamed.
Oh no, I thought. We were wrong. And now the Daughter of Boreas is about to unleash her wrath on us!
"So Khione never stole anything or controlled Athena with her power." Percy stated.
"You accuse me of crimes I never committed. Why are you such fools? Do you want to freeze to death?!" Khione asked.
"You're under oath." I said. "How are you going to kill us?"
"You swore on the River Styx not to kill us or hunt us down!" Percy exclaimed.
"I swore never to hunt you down." Khione said. "I never said I swore not to kill you."
"What?!" we all exclaimed in unison.
Khione threw a beam of ice at us and we barely dodged it.
"I don't get it! I thought Ares said she couldn't kill us without facing severe consequences!" Percy exclaimed.
"Ob..." I began, before Khione formed several snowballs and threw them right at our faces. "Obviously he was wrong!" I brushed the snow off my face.
"We're dead. So very very dead." Jason said.
"Don't say that, Jason!" I scolded.
Khione threw an ice beam at the light switch, and the power went out. Then Khione made it snow in her bedroom. She fired blasts of snow and ice at us. Percy dodged them and attempted to strike her with his blade Riptide, but she sidestepped and made his sword so cold that it felt like it burned him. He dropped his sword and she knocked him into the wall.
"Percy!" I exclaimed.
Khione tripped me up and then my head started spinning. Another symptom and it just had to occur now of all times. Did the Fates just want to torture me? It was four against one, this should have been easy. It wasn't! I got punched right in the face and soon I realized that Percy was trapped in a block of ice. I felt like crying, but my sorrow soon turned to anger. I growled and ran towards the goddess. She twisted my arm and threw me face first to the floor, but I quickly stopped myself by putting my arms on the floor. I got up and tried to hit her with my sword, but she dodged my every move. She created an ice shield and used it to deflect the sword attacks from me, Jason and Piper.
"You're outnumbered, Khione! So give it up!" Jason exclaimed.
"You may outnumber me, but what you and your friends fail to realize is that you're outmatched." Khione retaliated.
The ice goddess threw a huge ice ball at Piper and Jason, turning them into ice sculptures. I gasped in terror. I then noticed that Percy was starting to freeze to death. This was very very bad.
"And know you're all alone." Khione said, looking at me. "You will eventually die from the cold, just like your friends are dying now!"
I growled and unsheathed my dagger (the one Luke used to kill himself with had been retrieved via a magical friend of mine), and wielded it in my right hand. I had to stop her before she killed my friends. I charged towards her and stabbed her in the arm and the stomach. She shrieked in agony. I could see the Ichor (or golden blood of the immortals) flow from her wounds. She dropped to her knees.
"I'm never alone." I said. "Now release my friends!"
"You... you have bested me." she said.
"Well, aren't you going to unfreeze them and run?" I asked.
"You don't get it, Annabeth. I have nowhere else to go." she said. "I'm not welcome in the world of the gods."