Chapter 13:

It Will Only Grow Stronger

Percy's POV

"Percy. Seaweed Brain! Hey, get up!" Someone roughly shook my shoulder.

"What?" I answered groggily, my eyes still closed.

"It's morning. C'mon, we overslept! Everybody's going to breakfast right now!" Annabeth said urgently.

My eyes flew open, memories from yesterday's past events flooding back into my mind. "What? Already?" I sat up.

"We'll get caught if we stay here. Come on!" she said, standing up and pulling me up with her.

We ran hand-in-hand into the woods by Thalia's tree to avoid being seen, which was a mistake.

After we'd run about 10 yards, a loud, deep growl came from behind us. Annabeth and I froze. Immediately, I uncapped Riptide, and the 3-foot-long celestial bronze sword grew in my hands.

We turned, and a giant hellhound about the size of a large truck stared us in the face. How did it get past the boarder? It lunged for Annabeth.

I stepped in front of her, and I was about to slice the monster to bits when, somehow, I ended up on the ground with the hellhound's front paws on my chest. This thing was faster than normal.

"Percy!" Annabeth cried, unsheathing her dagger.

The hellhound raked its giant claws across my face, and I smiled as I felt absolutely no pain. With a yell, I kicked the over-sized dog off me, sending it flying.

It hit the floor, but quickly jumped back onto its feet. It swiped at Annabeth, who sidestepped and stabbed the dog with her knife.

With a yelp, the thing disintegrated into dust. I ran over to her, scared she had been hurt.

"Oh gods, are you alright?" I asked with more concern than necessary, pecking her on the lips.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, Seaweed Brain! You?"

"Invulnerable, remember?" I said, smugly.

"Oh, that's right. But-" she suddenly looked worried, "how did that thing get on the camp grounds? It couldn't have gotten past the borders unless-"

"Someone in camp summoned it," I finished her sentence grimly for her.

She swallowed. "We have to get to the dining pavilion. Besides, who cares if people know we slept outside together? We need to report this to Chiron. It looks like we have another traitor among us."

Annabeth's POV

As Percy and I entered the dining pavilion, hand-in-hand, the campers began whispering among themselves and giggling. I couldn't care less. Percy had been right: He loved me. I loved him. I shouldn't care how other people acted around us.

We'd decided we would tell Chiron about the hellhound incident after breakfast, so I began walking towards the Athena table to join my siblings. When I'd arrived at my table, I realized that Percy was still holding onto my hand, right next to me.

For some reason, my face grew warm. "Er, Percy, shouldn't you go to your table? You'll get in trouble if you stay here," I said, sad that we couldn't sit together, but not wanting to get him in trouble.

I could feel my siblings' gazes burning into my back. Percy smiled mischievously. "Yeah, I probably should," he said, wrapping his arms around my waist in full view of the other campers. He pulled me in and kissed me slowly, at first I was surprised, but then I kissed him back eagerly, placing my hands on his shoulders. The universe seemed to disappear; suddenly, there was nothing in my world but Percy and I. Too soon, he pulled away, and I was suddenly back in the dining pavilion.

I pecked him on the lips quickly before he completely let me go. "Love you," I said unabashedly, not caring what the other campers thought.

He smiled. "Love you."

I turned unwillingly to sit down with my siblings, not meeting their curious gazes.

"Love, Annabeth? With a son of Poseidon, of all gods? I don't mean to make you unhappy, but Mother will not be pleased," my half-brother Matthew warned.

I glared at him. "I don't care what Mother thinks."

He shrugged, but still looked troubled.

Slightly irritated, I got up to serve myself some food, then headed over to the fire to sacrifice a part to the gods. Percy had beaten me there.

He dropped in a piece of barbecue, not noticing me. "To Athena," he said. "Please, don't be angry with your daughter," he whispered. He turned and walked back to his table, still without having noticed me. I felt my chest glow with warmth. He really was the sweetest. Not that I would ever admit that to him.

I walked up to the fire and dropped in the biggest, juiciest-looking grape on my plate. I thought. "To Aphrodite," I decided. "Please, let this relationship work," I begged.

Up on Mount Olympus...

"How cute!" Aphrodite squealed, watching over the scene in the camp.

"What is it now?" Athena asked irritably, walking over to where Aphrodite was standing.

Aphrodite smiled. "Your daughter Annabeth just requested that I let her relationship work," she said, "and I will, just because I quite like her."

Athena's eyes sparkled with interest. "Really? My Annabeth, is in a relationship? With whom?"

"Take a look for yourself." Aphrodite grabbed a remote control and rewound a scene from last night on the giant TV in the throne room, which served as a device to spy on the mortals below. Nothing more amusing than spying on your children's personal lives.

The scene showed Percy and Annabeth, laying in the grass together by Thalia's tree. "Goodnight, Percy," Annabeth whispered, hugging Percy.

Percy put his arms around her. "Goodnight. Eh…love you." He said shyly.

"Love you too." She said, blushing and ducking her head down.

Percy grinned at her, love in his eyes. Annabeth smiled broadly back at him.

Percy leaned in and pecked her cheek, causing Aphrodite to squeal. "Goodnight," he whispered.

Aphrodite hit the pause button. "Well, what do you think?"

Athena was staring at the giant TV screen in disbelief. "Perseus Jackson? Son of Poseidon? That is who my daughter…thinksshe is in love with?"

Aphrodite smiled smugly. "She does not think she is in love. She knows it. I've been watching over these two for quite a while, and they've each been sure of their love for each other for a few years now. She may be a daughter of the wisdom goddess, but love always powers over wisdom in the end, my lady. Nobody can stop it, not even I. I simply enhance it. Their love for each other right now is far beyond what they should be feeling at their age, and it will only grow stronger."

Chapter 14:

Surprise!

Annabeth's POV

"Okay, campers, breakfast is now over!" Chiron announced. "I'm going to be playing a serious game of pinochle with Mr. D in a few minutes, so I will need to be undisturbed for the next few hours while Mr. D and I battle it out. Campers, you all know that the camp is soon to be under attack, and battle strategies will be discussed later today with the cabin leaders. I request you all practice offense attack in the mean time. Now, does anybody have anything they'd like to say?"

Percy and I locked eyes. I nodded. Simultaneously, we stood up. "Chiron, we have serious news," Percy announced. Chiron nodded for us to continue.

"There is another traitor among us," I said, locking eyes with a few of the other campers.

Chiron frowned. "And how are you sure of this?" he challenged.

"This morning, Annabeth and I were attacked by a hellhound," Percy stated. "It was in the woods, inside the camp's borders.It couldn't have gotten in unless somebody inside the borders summoned it. A double agent."

Chiron sighed. "The camp is under attack...we have another betrayal...There is too much going on right now. Thank you for telling me this, children, but I'm afraid there is not much we can do about this traitor. Kronos will eventually do away with them. Everyone, you are dismissed."

Everybody got up noisily and began to go their separate ways outside, and I walked over to the Poseidon table.

"It's better that we told him," I said as I held out my arms and Percy hugged me sweetly.

"I know." He sighed. "But I'm really not looking forward to finding out exactly who it is. We never know; it could be one of our friends."

"We'll worry about it later." I tried to sooth him by gently pulling his face closer and softly kissing his lips, reassuring him.

He smiled lightly after I let him go, snaking his arms around my waist. "I just…this past day has been one of my absolute happiest." he whispered suddenly, softly caressing my cheek. "I've been waiting four years to get you. Now I do…with this battle coming up…I might loose you." He was looking into my eyes the whole time, albeit blushing. I was blushing too, but I had soft smile on his face. This was one of the few times he had been completely open with his feelings. I knew there was some vulnerability in his eyes, so I knew I had to tell him just what I felt too.

"Doyouhave any idea at all how much you mean to me? I have just as much to loose. But we don't need to think about that. Let's focus on the now and how we're gonna stop this army." I countered, putting my hand over the one on my face, holding it there. I looked him steely in the eyes, forcing me to say this without looking away or stammering.

His eyes shone with happiness, but the wariness was still there, just put away for now. "You're right." He said smiling softly.

"Hey, get a room, lovebirds! C'mon, people have to eat here!" a familiar voice called, quite ruining the moment.

I turned, Percy and I releasing our hold on each other. "Thalia!" I cried, remembering her promise from last night."You campers won't be fighting the battle alone. The Hunters will be by your side."How could I have forgotten that?

The daughter of Zeus herself was walking up to us from about 5 yards away, wearing her Hunter's uniform, her skull earrings and a Girls are BetterT-shirt. The blessing of Artemis, a heavenly light, radiated from her.

"Hey, you two." She smiled that same, friendly old smile. How I had mistaken Kronos for her, I have no idea.

"Hey, Thalia. Get a room, huh?" Percy greeted in a friendly tone.

"Geez, I was just kidding!" she laughed.

"Where are the rest of the Hunters? And Artemis?" I asked.

"They're moving into Artemis's cabin, and Artemis is helping them. What do you guys feel like doing? Or... do you two feel like being left alone? Because I have to go help them with their things anyway."

"No, of course not, Thalia!" Percy insisted.

She laughed. "Good. I was afraid you guys would always want to be alone now and... do whatever it is you do when you're alone," she said with humor.

"Um…no, that's okay." I rolled my eyes. "We've had plenty alone time," I reassured her, my face slightly warm.

"Calm down, I was just messing with you. So-"

The ground suddenly began to tremble with a rough up-and-down motion, cutting off whatever she was about to say. I struggled to stay balanced. Al the cabins were shaking, the grass roof of the Demeter cabin was raining dirt. I held onto Percy's arm for support.

Percy's eyes widened in surprise. "An earthquake? Right now?"

"No, Kelpface, earthquake tomorrow!" Thalia retorted sarcastically.

"FOR THE TITANS!" a booming, cold voice bellowed. I felt all the blood drain run out of my face as I froze up.

Suddenly, hellhounds were everywhere. They came from the cover of the forest, stalking forward evilly shoulder-to-shoulder in synchronization in the front line. They individually growled and swiped their huge paws, and a camper standing too close was immediately wounded. I had never seen so many at once.

Behind them came an entire phalanx of dracaena,shields locked together,with their spear points bristling over the top. I didn't look to see what kind of terrible monster came next.

The entire camp suddenly became a madhouse. Campers ran back and forth, some panicking, unsure of what to do. Percy and I met each other's gazes, and I could detect slight fear in even his sea-green eyes.

"Campers, prepare for battle!" Chiron ordered, shock leaking through his calm voice. Nobody had expected this to happen tonight.

This was no earthquake. It was the marching of the enemy that shook the ground.

The invasion was starting.