Percy pulled me back and I fell into his arms. Andromeda placed her hand on my arm. I was shaking and I didn't even know it. "It's okay." Percy promised, rubbing soothing circles on my back.
I pressed my face into his shirt, one hand over Andromeda's hand. I trembled, not just from fear. My heartbeat hasn't returned to normal. "It's okay, Annabeth." Andromeda whispered, gentler than I had ever heard. Caring, concerned, lovingly. I calmed as she whispered reassuring words in my ear. "We're right here. We won't let the river get you."
"I- yeah." I disentangled myself from his arms, missing the warmth already. I wish I could stay in it forever, but it wasn't the time. "It's the River Acheron." Andromeda said, still not moving her hand away. In a way, I was grateful for the touch. Her hand felt too thin against my skin, delicate yet rough at the same time, but it was a constant reminder I wasn't alone. I think she knows it as well, moving her thumb back and forth on the back of my palm.
"The- the river of pain, isn't it?" I asked.
"The worst punishment for the souls of the damned." Andromeda nodded. At least I think she did. There was a long pause, and I almost opened my eyes. But then, Andromeda spoke up again, quieter than before, in reminscient. "So many times, they threatened to throw me inside but never did. They did, however, dip their knives in here and stab me with it. You never get used to the pain no matter how many times it is done to you."
"Sephie…" I didn't know how, but I felt as Percy moved and hugged Andromeda. Guided by her hand, I did the same.
"You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to. We understand." It was odd, I will not deny that. After what felt like an eternity, I was being nice to someone who would have killed me without regret a month ago. I wasn't just being nice, I was being a friend. It all felt so natural to me. All the pointless jealousy just washed away. I didn't need to feel jealous of Percy for giving Andromeda all his attention, because I would have done the same if I was in his position. It felt like instinct to comfort her, not just because she had just saved me from tumbling to my death. In a way, I thought of her like a sister. It started when she openly told me she might like me, and it continued with the empousai, when she defended us even though she didn't need to. So many times, she helped us. She helped me. She didn't need to. She didn't have to reassure me when I thought the drakon would attack us. She didn't need to go full out with Akhlys. She didn't need to have used up her favour with Nyx. Yet she still did. And most of that time, I acted like she was the enemy. Something always felt off, now I know why. Because Fate didn't intend for us to be enemies.
"I never liked visiting Nyx… because I didn't want to see the Acheron." Andromeda shook in our arms. "It is like a taint on my body, I could always feel it. Shadows were crawling on me, there were bugs. I was suffocated. I was exposed. I felt so… so…"
"No." Percy said harshly. "Sephie, no. Do not finish that sentence. You aren't. Whatever you're about to say just now, it isn't true."
"Andromeda, listen to me." I said sternly, pulling away slightly. "You aren't tainted, you're beautiful. Anyone who says otherwise, I'll kick them in the podex. You are amazing. Courageous. Resilient. Do you understand me? I need a verbal answer."
"I couldn't have said it better, Wise Girl." Percy muttered as I heard Andromeda whisper a "yes."
"Good." I moved away, careful not to step close to the edge. "Now that we got that in your brain, how do we go across?"
"There's no way to walk across if that's what you're thinking of." Andromeda said. "The river flows from left to right through a channel cut in the rocks so no way to walk around. It's too far anyways."
"A- a boat?" Even I knew our luck wasn't that good.
"I don't think so." Percy said as Andromeda asked, "what's a boat?"
Percy told her he would explain later before telling me, "it's like twenty feet away, the opposite side."
"Listen. They talk." Andromeda said suddenly. I concentrated. Along with the roaring currents, there were also thousands of voices crying out—shrieking in agony, pleading for mercy.
Help! they groaned. It was an accident!
The pain! their voices wailed. Make it stop!
Join us, another voice whispered. You are no better than we are.
My head was flooded with images of all the monsters I killed over the years.
That wasn't murder, I protested. I was defending myself!
But was it? Was all of it? All the monsters over the year, I slept it off because I knew they can't die. Instead they come here…with hate in their blood. How many had harmed Andromeda in response to what we did? How many didn't actually do anything?
The river showed other images, showing me Zoë Nightshade, who had been slain on Mount Tamalpais because she'd come to rescue me from the Titans.
I saw Nico's sister, Bianca di Angelo, dying in the collapse of the metal giant Talos, because she also had tried to save me.
Michael Yew and Silena Beauregard… who had died in the Battle of Manhattan.
You could have prevented it, the river told me. You should have seen a better way. I began to listen to the river.
Most painful of all: Luke Castellan. I remembered Luke's blood on my dagger after he'd sacrificed himself to stop Kronos from destroying Olympus.
His blood is on your hands! the river wailed. There should have been another way!
"Another way that would've ended up with all of you dying." Andromeda's sharp voice cut through the wailing. "Luke Castellan made his choice, he had to live with it. Or rather, die with it." She turned to me. "I do not pretend to know you, Annabeth, but you cannot listen to them. They take the regret and guilt in your heart and twist it. You tried to save Luke. And I do not know Zöe Nightshade, but Nico told me about Bianca. Her death is not on you. Even if you weren't captured, Artemis was. She would've gone on the quest either way."
"How do you—"
"Because you are saying everything out loud and I can hear the river talking. Don't, Annabeth." Percy joined in. "But—"
"I know." His voice sounded as brittle as ice. Even colder. "They're telling me the same stuff."
"One day, I'll teach both of you how to block out these sounds." Andromeda said. "For now, we'll have to jump. Percy? Are you up for it?" Jump?!
"I think so." He sounded way too unsure of this. I grabbed his hand, entangling our fingers.
"Annabeth, hold on to Percy." Andromeda said, sighing heavily. "There is a slight possibility we won't make it. I'll have to fly us across if it comes to that but I am tired as it is. Hold on tight." I remember the winds she summoned that pushed me away from them. I remember how I could barely see anything because of how furiously they beat. If anything, the winds she created were way too wild, but anything was better than falling.
I wrapped my arms around Percy's neck, careful not to cut off his windpipe.
I couldn't tell how they jumped with my eyes closed. Maybe they controlled the river. After all, Andromeda could control Akhlys's poisons and Percy controlled Lethe while injured. Or maybe they were charged with adrenaline. When Percy jumped, it was with more strength than I had thought was possible. We sailed through the air as the river churned below us. I could feel the wind at our feet, easing us before our feet touched solid ground. Andromeda was there as well, wrapping her arms around herself and breathing heavily. "Sephie, you alright?" Percy asked after I let go.
"One day, I will get a permanent vacation." Andromeda muttered. Tearing my eyes away from the siblings, I looked around. After the darkness of Nyx, even the dim red glow of Tartarus seemed blinding.
Before us stretched a valley big enough to fit the San Francisco Bay. The booming noise came from the entire landscape, as if thunder were echoing from beneath the ground. Under poisonous clouds, the rolling terrain glistened purple with dark red and blue scar lines.
"It looks like..." I fought down my revulsion. "Like a giant heart."
"The heart of Tartarus," Percy murmured.
The centre of the valley was covered with a fine black fuzz of peppery dots. They were so far away, it took me a moment to realise I was looking at an army—thousands, maybe tens of thousands of monsters, gathered around a central pinpoint of darkness. It was too far to see any details, but I had no doubt what the pinpoint was. Even from the edge of the valley, I could feel its power tugging at my soul.
"The Doors of Death." It called at me, almost hypnotizingly.
"The way to cheat death." Andromeda murmured as Percy helped her up. Percy still had the pale, wasted complexion of a corpse...which meant he looked about as good as I felt. Even Andromeda wasn't spared, looking like she was just drowned in the Acheron. Her hair was plastered to her back, there were new cuts all over her body and her clothes were somewhat torn. She was way too pale for a normal human but she still looked better than the two of us. Come to think of it, that didn't say much.
I was about to ask them how they had jumped so far when I heard the skittering of a rockslide in the hills to their left. I drew my dagger. Percy raised Riptide. Andromeda raised her hands.
A patch of glowing white hair appeared over the ridge, then a familiar grinning face with pure silver eyes.
"Bob?" I was so happy I actually jumped. "Oh my gods!"
Dimly, I was aware of Percy putting a hand on Andromeda's shoulder as Andromeda straightened up. I never did get to find out why she hates Bob though.
"Friends!" Bob lumbered towards us, looking worse for wear but still the same titan. The bristles of his broom had been burned off. His janitor's uniform was slashed with new claw marks, but he looked delighted. On his shoulder, Small Bob the kitten purred almost as loudly as the pulsing heart of Tartarus.
"I found you!" Bob gathered Percy and I in a rib-crushing hug. Andromeda sidestepped him before she was included in the hug. "You look like smoking dead people. That is good!"
"Yes…well we should get going." Andromeda said.
"How did you get here? Through the Mansion of Night?"
I could see Andromeda giving her brother an incredulous look, although it still looks like a glare. "Really, brother? Unless Bob has the power of invisibility, I think we would've seen him."
"No, no." Bob shook his head adamantly. "Andy is right. That place is too scary. Another way—only good for Titans and such."
"Let me guess," I said. "You went sideways."
Bob scratched his chin, evidently at a loss for words. "Hmm. No. More...diagonal."
"Wow. Even I know more than that." Andromeda laughed. I smiled as well, hearing how genuine it was. Here at the heart of Tartarus, facing an impossible army—I would take any comfort I could get. I was glad to have Bob the Titan with us again.
I leaned up and kissed his immortal nose, which made him blink.
"We stay together now?" he asked.
"Yes," I agreed, ridiculously happy. "Time to see if this Death Mist works."
"And if it doesn't..." Percy stopped himself. Or maybe Andromeda elbowed him. I like this girl.
I was glad she did. There was no point wondering about that. We were about to march in the middle of an enemy army. If we were spotted, we were dead.
Despite that, I managed a smile. Our goal was in sight, we were going out of this hellhole soon. We had a Titan with a broom and a very loud kitten on our side, not to mention the daughter of Poseidon. We weren't alone. That had to count for something, right? I whirled around to face the army of monsters.
"Doors of Death," I said, lifting my head, "here we come."
A/n: wow. That was such a short chapter. But could you blame me? I love the way Rick ended this chapter! Of course, I added my own little bits.