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"Annabeth! Annabeth, look out!"
"Hmm?" I'm still sleepy.
"Roll, Annabeth!"
I recognize Pipers voice, so I roll to the left and stand. A sword hits the ground where I was laying. I look for the owner of it, but all I see is gray stone wall.
"What—" I turn. Piper, Reyna, and Hazel are all huddled against the other wall. I realize we're in a cell. "Where—what—"
"We're in a prison, Annabeth." Piper says, looking exhausted. They don't move, and I see cuffs, holding them against the wall. "That woman must have taken us here. We've been here a couple of hours, at least. They wouldn't tell us anything until you were awake."
"Where's Per—the boys?"
"We don't know."
I bite my lip. "What have you tried?"
"What?"
"To get out or talk to them? What have you tried?"
"Um…nothing."
"Why?"
"Well…"
I sigh. "Doesn't matter. We'll try now."
They all look at me expectantly.
"Where are our weapons?" I ask, noticing my empty sheath.
"No idea."
I reach down into my boot. At first I feel nothing, but then I feel part of the hilt. Hearing footsteps, I take my hand out quickly. A man is standing in the hallway.
"Well, well. Glad you're awake…princess."
I say nothing, staring at him defiantly.
"Oh? Strong and silent, eh?"
He gets nothing.
"Well, we have a few questions…"
I roll my eyes.
"Oh, yes?" He grins and makes a gesture with his hand. I hear more footsteps, and a bigger man comes into view. "Annabeth here is having a hard time adjusting… could you help persuade her?"
The big man unlocks the door and steps in, closing the door behind him.
"We're having a similar problem with another boy…Percy, is it? Maybe you could help convince him as well."
I'm sneering at him when the other man grabs me by the neck and forces me on the wall, holding me up with one giant hand. I try to gasp but get nothing, no air. The man outside the bars laughs.
"Annabeth!" Hazel charges forward, but the man holding me up punches her in the face before she can reach him. She goes flying back and hits the wall with a crack. Piper scrambles to her and feels her head.
"Thomasin," The man outside warns. The man holding me grunts.
Black spots start to appear in my vision.
"Are you going to help?" The man asks.
I gasp out something negative, and he snarls. "Go ahead and strangle her, Thomasin. The others will use her as an example."
Thomasin squeezes harder, and the black spots get bigger. Frantically, I grab at his hand and pull his pinkie finger. He drops me when his finger bends back farther than should be possible. I sit on the floor, gasping for air. He grunts and reaches for me again, but I duck under his hand and roll between his legs, grabbing at his belt as I go. He grumbles and turns, and I whip my knife up, out of my boot, and into his privates. He roars in pain and I throw the keys I snagged to Piper. She unlocks her cuffs and the others.
I turn to the other man. He looks stricken. I grab his collar and pull him to the bars, holding my knife at his throat.
"Where's Percy?" I growl. He giggles. I grab his hand and hold my knife to his thumb, pressing enough to draw blood. "You tell me where he is or I'll cut your thumb off!"
He gulps. "Several cells to the east."
"Our weapons?"
"In between your cells…you'll pass them."
"Good." I let him go and swirl out of the cell. He glares at me and I push him into the cell and lock it.
"Don't be so cocky next time," I say. We start running down the corridor.
"Sh," I hiss. "There's some commotion." We peek around the corner and see the boys rifling through the weapons locker.
"Percy!" I run out. He looks up.
"Where've you been?" He asks.
"In a cell. Stabbed some guy in the privates. Almost cut off the other one's thumb. You?"
"Bout the same. Didn't stab anyone, though. Just bashed his head in."
"They didn't take Riptide?"
"Oh, no, they did. The guy who interrogated us had a hammer on his belt. Leo has claimed it."
I look at Leo, who hefts a 3-pound war hammer. I instinctively take a step back.
"Way out?"
"Back that way," He says, pointing down the way we came. He hands me my sword and a quick kiss.
"Let's go," I say, leading the way. Piper is right behind me, then Malcom,Hazel and Frank, Reyna, Jason, and Percy takes up the rear.
It's quiet when we reach our cell. All the other ones are empty, and so is the one the two men should have been in.
"They're gone," I say, looking in. The door's shut, and the cuffs are curled neatly instead of flung everywhere like the girls left them.
"Maybe it was a different cell?" Frank questions. Hazel shakes her head.
"Look, there's the blood from that Thomasin guy. This is the correct cell."
"Let's just keep moving," Piper suggests. We keep moving with a silent agreement.
After a while of jogging, the cement floors change to rock, and we reach a large cavern. It's full of the things that brought us here: women, from the waist up, but with two snake bodies instead of legs, and I'm sure if we got close enough to see their mouths, they'd have forked tongues.
"Dracaena," I whisper. "Be careful, they're—"
Malcom takes a step forward for a better look and sends a pebble skittering down the steep side.
Our group holds its breath, watching. It slides to a stop right near a trunk of a woman who's stepping back and forth.
"Back up," I hiss. They start creeping back as she steps on the pebble. I'm stepping back when she looks up. Our eyes meet; she lets out an ear-splitting shriek.
All the dracaena stop what their doing and look up. They all see me, and I stay frozen for a second. They start to run toward us, but their legs aren't meant for climbing. It takes them a few seconds to find even the slightest purchase on the wall, but the do, slowly and surely.
"Annabeth!" Percy grabs the back of my tunic and yanks me back. I start to run, him holding onto my arm. We're in the back now, and I can hear the thundering of the dracaena running after us.
"Faster, faster!" Percy cries. "Don't stop—"
Piper stops. We're right in front of our old cell, but I ignore it and shoulder forward.
"What's the matter—"
More dracaena are headed toward us. I look back desperately—they're closing in on that side, too.
"We're trapped," Jason says, hopeless.
"Into the cell!" I say, shoving everyone in. I close the door just as the first of the dracaena reach us.
"There has to be a secret passage somewhere!" I yell. "Otherwise, the other two would never have—"
"They probably went to the cavern, Annabeth!" Reyna cries. She's busy chopping fingers off any monster that gets to close.
"No, we would have met them! Thomasin was stabbed between the legs, he wouldn't be very fast! We would have seen—"
I stop. I see the spot where I stabbed him. It trails toward the wall… and disappears.
"Here!" I cry, banging on the wall. "It's got to be here somewhere!"
A cry goes up from the dracaena. One of them found an axe, and they pass it up and start hammering on the door. It shakes. Percy leaves my side to help kill them.
"Leo!" I shout. He runs over.
"We're a little busy, Annabeth!"
"No, the wall! It's got to be a passage! Look at the blood! Help me!"
We feel the wall, pushing and pulling every little crack. Nothing. But then—I feel a small knob to my right, and twist it. The wall slides back just as the cell door brakes.
"Here!" I scream over the dracaena. The others back up slowly, taking small hits under the pressure. Frank and Hazel disappear first, then Malcom and Reyna. Jason and Piper are right after, then it's just Percy, me, and the monsters.
"Come on!" Percy yells at me. I turn to go, and I feel long claws on my leg. I cry out and fall forward, letting Percy catch me. He holds me up with one arm, and slashes once, slicing any dracaena close. He backs us up and kicks the door closed. The dracaena hammer against it, the wall shaking. Percy swings me up over his shoulder and runs. He catches up with the others in seconds, and they keep running.
"No!" Percy shouts, coming to a stop. He sets me down, and I look out of the opening.
At first I think it's okay, but then I realize the end of the passage opens over open air. The ocean is below us, and there's no place to go except back.
"Maybe we missed something!" Reyna says. Jason shakes his head.
"No, I was trailing my hands on the walls. No doors or openings, as far as I could tell.
"We could jump," Percy suggests.
"We'll never make it. It's like hitting the ground from this height." I say, looking to see if we could climb the wall.
"Maybe…maybe the dracaena will give up and leave," Leo offers.
We hear a roar then, and the ground starts to shake.
"Yeah…They aren't giving up," Reyna gulps. "They just got through."
"We're trapped," Piper says in disbelief.
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