_-Addie-
I woke up with a start, my heart beating out of my chest.
"Addie, are you okay?"
Percy had grabbed my shoulders, and I held on to his arm to steady myself. I felt in panic around my neck, but my fingers touched the nimble silver chain.
Leto's necklace was still there, the pendent resting against my chest. I breathed a sigh of relief. My emotions were all over the place. I could still feel the heat on my cheek where Apollo had kissed me. That was a brotherly gesture, right? If it was, then why was my heart fluttering the way it was?
I would have to deal with that later.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just talked to Apollo."
"They never let anyone get any sleep, do they?" Annabeth said knowingly. She looked at me, rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes.
"Did someone contact you?" I asked her.
"My mom," she said with a small smile. "She was Greek, she was Athena. Not Minerva!"
"They must have gotten the Parthenos to the camp," I reasoned. Annabeth nodded her head.
"We need to get moving. We can share stories on the way. Mom said we are running out of time."
Percy helped Annabeth up and then did the same for me. I got the bottle of nectar out of my bag and took a quick swig. I felt the rush of heat through me, and I knew that if I was going to be able to do this, I would have to take a little at a time.
We exited the cavern. There were a few choices in what direction we could go. I felt a pulse in my left side of my chest, and I turned towards the alley that started there. A warm tingle spread throughout me, telling me that I had picked the right direction.
"So what happened with you and Apollo?" Percy questioned.
I told them everything, but I left out the personal parts. I just could not bring myself to say those to them. One, I was ashamed that I had that moment of weakness where I did not care if I died in Tartarus. That would have been the easy way out. Two, I still was not sure how I felt about all of it. I felt it was best to keep it to myself until I did.
"So this necklace will lead us to Phoebe and the Danaids?"
I felt a pulse in my chest, and I took a turn into a tunnel on the right.
"That's what he said. So Annabeth, what did Athena have to say?"
"She said the Parthenos was back on Greek soil, and that it was essential to keep their Greek and Roman selves from contradicting each other. They are in war councils now. She also said that if we want more than one answer from Phoebe, it will come with a price. She's what she is for a reason. She also had a message for you," she added. Annabeth sounded uneasy, and it made my insides squirm.
"What was it?" I asked apprehensively.
"She said he's growing impatient, that we have to hurry."
"Oh fantastic," I muttered sarcastically.
That meant Ares was wondering where his little slave was. Gods are forgetful about all sorts of things; you would think he would manage to forget about me for more than a few days. I could count on Athena to make sure he was distracted a while longer. After all, the things they got on best about were war and strategy. Apollo may not have to find two more. Ares might convince them all to call me back to kill me himself.
"Do you hear that?" Percy asked.
I listened for just a minute, closing my eyes. Something was flowing, and I could feel the turbulence of-
"Water," I said out loud with a smile.
"I can't hear anything!" Annabeth said exasperatedly.
"Child of Poseidon thing, Wise Girl," Percy said as he playfully swatted at Annabeth. She hit him in the arm, hard enough for him to wince, but the smile never fully left his face.
Percy darted ahead, following the sound of the water. He was closer to that element than I was, and I smiled, thinking of my brother. He always felt better around water. I'm sure Percy was glad to have some form of the element back in his life.
"DO NOT DRINK IT!" I yelled up to him. He waved back playfully and darted around the corner.
"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said beside me.
I laughed, but it hurt, so I quickly stopped. I reached into my bag and took another sip of nectar.
"How do you really feel, Addie?"
I took inventory of how I felt. I was sore all over, and I still had a slight sheen of sweat all over me. I was cold, colder than I should have been. I was okay doing the necessary magic, but I knew that using more of my gifts would make it worse.
"I'm okay, not great," I muttered to her.
"Was Apollo not able to help?"
I shook my head, that annoying flutter coming into my chest again.
"Annabeth, there's something I haven't told you, and I want to tell you, but you cannot tell Percy."
She nodded her head, a wondering look on her face. I proceeded to tell her about the prophecy Apollo had told me. She did not say anything at first. We took a left turn. The tunnel started slanted downward, a chill emanating from the depths. Percy was about 25 yards or so ahead of us.
"That's weird. A few of the lines sound exactly like the lines from our prophecy." She had her thinking face on, and I looked at her speculatively.
"Your prophecy?"
"Yeah, the prophecy of seven," she said as we rounded the corner. The crash of the waves and roar of the river could be heard now. Percy was standing at the edge, looking more alive than I had seen him the whole time down here. I had to admit, they both did not look good themselves. I placed the spell to protect them from the harshness of Tartarus, but still, some of it leaked in.
"The River Cocytus," I said aloud.
"The river of wailing," Annabeth added. I nodded my head, and Percy turned, a sad look on his face.
"I can hear them. I can hear the souls in the water."
Annabeth came beside him and took his hand. I nodded downstream, and we started walking. Annabeth and Percy walked in front of me, and they were speaking to each other in low tones, their conversation flowing easily from one to the other. Annabeth set her head against his shoulder, and Percy turned to her, quickly placing a kiss on her hair.
I looked down at my feet and took a deep breath. I really missed that.
The pendant on my chest gave a painful throb, and I stopped. A small part of the river flowed off into a tamer stream, and I turned to follow it. It flowed into a grotto, and I had to stop.
About fifty girls, ranging from ages twelve to around twenty-one, congregated around the river. They each had a jar, filling it in the stream, and moving to pour it into a huge tub. The tub had numerous holes in it, and the water they poured trickled back down into the stream.
"What if we all poured it at the same time?" one of them cried.
"We tried that already, Albia!"
"Um, excuse me?"
Annabeth walked up to the nearest girls, who looked at her hungrily.
"Oh my gods, another girl besides my sisters! And a mortal! We haven't seen a mortal in so long!" cried the girl who had to be Albia.
"Shut up! What do you want, mortal?"
"We are looking for Phoebe," Annabeth explained.
"She's up there," she said, nodding towards a sickly looking tree. It looked out of place down here. "Just stay out of our way, okay? We have a job to do!"
"Fannia, you ruin all the fun," Albia muttered petulantly.
We worked our way around the girls, careful not to bump or disrupt them.
"What are they doing?" Percy whispered.
"Eternally filling the tub. There were fifty of them, and their father told them to kill their husbands. All of them did except Hypermnestra. This was their punishment," Annabeth whispered back quietly.
"Oh," Percy replied. He looked a little green when he said this.
I was only half-listening, because I had already locked eyes with Phoebe.
She was absolutely beautiful. Her soft blonde hair flowed down her chest and back in delicate waves. Her eyes were the color of amethyst, sparkling and sinister. She had a body any girl, including me, would have killed for, all slender curves. It was accented by a Greek toga, the same deep purple as her eyes. I knew Phoebe use to be a friend to the gods. However, in this past titan war, she came to Kronos, and she got tossed into Tartarus for her disloyalty the first time.
"Hello, Euadne. I knew that you would come to me while down here."
"Hello, Phoebe."
Percy and Annabeth stood behind me, and I felt their unease. Phoebe radiated ancient power.
"I have a couple of questions I need answering," I asked her.
"I only owe you one favor, Thýella," she said smugly.
"Well, let's see if you can answer both of them, and if you can, then I will choose."
Phoebe nodded her head regally, waiting for me to speak again.
"I got bit by Arachne, and Gaia said that the only cure is to join her."
"Oh, mother is at her games again. Shame that, really, deadly from what I hear. Is that why your aura is so dim?"
I grit my teeth, biting back my angry retort. It would not do for me to make her angry. She was a Titaness after all.
"I wanted to know about this poison, and if there is a cure for it."
"And your other question, Euadne?"
"I need to know what words created the Doors of Death so I can close them."
She regarded me carefully for a minute or two. I was not really sure; time in Tartarus is so hard to judge. Her gaze finally slid past me, and landed on the demigods behind me.
"Who are your friends?"
"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon," Percy said as he stepped forward. "This is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."
She nodded her head thoughtfully, her eyes lingering on Percy.
"Hmm, you two are wild cards, thanks to my great-great-granddaughter. She has your fates tangled up in hers now. But that is to your betterment. Do you know why I owe the Thýella my favor?"
I saw Percy and Annabeth shake their heads, and Phoebe turned back towards me. It kind of creeped me out, how tangled my family was with the gods. On one side, she was my great Aunt. On the other, she was my great-great-grandmother.
It was weird.
"She saved me from the wrath of one of my brothers, Oceanus. The act earned her the title she bears, so to speak. I had never seen a mortal do what she could do, it was very… Interesting." A small smile graced her lips. Percy opened his mouth to ask me a question, but I held up my hand.
"Trying to change the subject will not work. Do you know the answers or not?"
Phoebe sat down on one of the tree's roots, looking at me thoughtfully. She adjusted her toga so that it sat better on her body. She reminded me so much of Aphrodite in that moment that I wanted to puke.
"I can answer both for you. You can only pick one for your favor. The other, I will answer if your friends perform a task for me."