Despite the fact that the sun hadn't finished setting yet, the forest made it seem like it was the middle of the night, the trees' shadows blocking out any remaining sunlight. The only thing that kept Cleo and I from running into trees and tripping over our own two feet was the faint bronze glow that came from my sword, giving us just enough illumination to see.
"I hear something," Cleo whispered, holding a hand out for us to stop. Silently, she nocked and arrow and tilted her head to the sideways, craning to listen.
I tightened my grip on Epithymia, turning around in a small circle to get my bearings. Something was nearby, I could sense it from the way that the dryads fled into their trees, meaning that one of the six monsters Quintus had released was coming our way.
"There!" Cleo whisper shouted, drawing back her bow and shooting between a few bushes, where something had just rushed past, causing for the leaves to rustle together.
The monster hissed, revealing that Cleo's arrow had hit its mark. It pushed through the forest, standing in front of us, forcing Cleo and me to back up before its pinchers could snap us up.
Quintus had ordered six scorpions from the Triple G Ranch, each one about ten feet long. Even in the fading sunlight, I could see that the scorpion appeared to be made out of pure amber with jagged pinchers, an armored tail, and a nasty barb that was easily three feet long. Its beady black eyes were the size of a small shield, the kind we gave to the younger kids during training to keep the Ares kids from skewering them in the arena.
On its back, I could see the white silk wrapped package, which may or may not have contained the gold laurels. Cleo eyes the packaged, quickly nocking another arrow, drawing her string back, and releasing the string. Her arrow hit one of the scorpion's legs, causing it to hiss angrily and charge us.
My eyes widened, and I practically tackled Cleo aside to avoid being run over. I brought my sword down behind me, hearing the scorpion hiss even more as the blade cut into its armored hide and got stuck there.
"Styx," I swore, drawing my daggers as Cleo clambered up a tree, shooting at the scorpion's unprotected back. I'd get my sword back later, but right now, I was more concerned about not being snapped in half by pinchers or stabbed by a poisoned barb.
The scorpion whirled around, clearly annoyed by the arrows landing in its hide, but while the front was focused on trying to shoo Cleo out of her tree, its three feet long barb was trained on me. I didn't think it was possible for the tail of an animal to be so coordinated while the head fought something else, but clearly that didn't apply to scorpion monsters.
I had to cross my daggers together in an X to prevent the scorpion's barb from stabbing my chest. Even then, the best I could do is push against it as it fought back, causing my feet to dig into the dirt.
Then, I stopped pushing against the barb and ducked to the side, causing for the scorpion's tail to dig into the ground. Before the scorpion could recover, I slashed downward, severing the barb from the rest of the tail. Now, while it was distracted by the loss of its tail, I raced forward and yanked my sword free from its side.
The scorpion lurched sideways, and I heard a feral growl pierce through the air before Cleo leaped from her tree, landing onto the scorpion's back. I kept the pinchers away from her by taking point and slashing at the scorpion's front, forcing it to choose between attacking me or Cleo.
"Got it!" Cleo announced triumphantly.
"Good job! But we kind of have to kill this thing first!" I shouted, chopping off one of the scorpion's pinchers.
Moments later, where the scorpion had been, gold dust littered the ground as Cleo landed flat on her stomach, muttering curses in Ancient Greek as she stood up and dusted herself off. She sheathed her dagger against her thigh, before tearing into the silk package, swearing when she realized that the laurels were not in this package.
"Time to find another scorpion," I said, tucking the silk into my belt to dispose of later.
"Oh, joy," Cleo said, rolling her eyes as she nocked another arrow onto her bow.
On this one scorpion, she'd already used half of her quiver, so I knew we needed a better strategy than straight up fighting. Quintus had never mentioned anything about powers, so they must've been fair game. At least, that's what made the most sense.
"To Zeus's Fist," I said, pushing branches aside as we ran to the pile of rocks.
"Why there?"
"Just a feeling."
"You and your premonitions," Cleo sighed, and I knew she was shaking her head even though she was behind me.
But I was proven right when we found three of the scorpions guarding Zeus's Fist, the scorpions seeming very ticked off at the large piles of rocks. They tried to pull the pile apart with their pinchers, and occasionally, they'd stab their barb at it, like that would change anything.
This time, before the scorpions could attack, I waved my hands towards the monsters, wrapping them up in thick vines. Surprisingly, all three packages were still on the scorpion's back, meaning that no one else had found them yet.
But I knew that none of these scorpions had the laurels, because Clarisse and Lee were destined to win tonight's evening activity. Still, for pretenses, Cleo and I attacked the scorpions, killing them and tearing into the packages, scowling when none of them had the laurels.
"Seriously?" Cleo muttered, tucking some of the excess silk into her own belt. "We killed two-thirds of the scorpions, and none of them have the laurels?"
Before I could say anything, the whistle blew, signaling the end of tonight's evening activity. Cleo brushed her hair out of her face, scowling as she tucked her arrow back into her quiver, stomping back towards camp.
I didn't know why she was so upset about losing tonight. I'd never seen Cleo so angry, especially over evening activity. We've lost capture the flag and other sparring matches before, but she seemed to take this loss personally. She was gone before I could ask what was wrong.
When the thirty-ish of us returned back to the dining pavilion, Clarisse and Lee were standing on one of the tables, gold laurels resting loftily on their heads. Cleo was standing by Will, her arms crossed over her chest while Will patted her back in an attempt to comfort her.
"Congratulations to Lee and Clarisse for taking the laurels and slaying the beast!" Quintus announced, earning a few scattered applauses from the rest of us.
"We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me," Grover mumbled.
"Was an accident!" Tyson retorted before sneezing.
"Wait," I said, looking around. "Where are Percy and Annabeth?"
Chiron frowned. "They didn't hear the whistle?"
"Apparently not. I'll go search for them, if you want."
"No, we shall all search for them together. Come on, campers, grab some torches, and let's go."
We all turned back towards the forest, yelling Annabeth and Percy's names as we walked. I lit a fire in my hands and headed back for Zeus's Fist, which was the opposite direction that everyone else was walking.
When I got back to Zeus's Fist, I climbed up the rocks, stopping over one of the large cracks. It was the same one I'd felt back in December, after Mr. D told me to stop by to investigate. This time, I could feel the tunnel underneath the rocks, and seeing that it was sturdy, I knew it wasn't going to disappear any time soon.
While the voices of the campers got fainter, I took note of the time and started to wait. A perk about being Kronos' daughter was that I had a perfect internal clock, so I always knew what time it was no matter where I was. And while I could've gone into the Labyrinth to get Percy and Annabeth back, one, Chiron forbade it, and two, according to the books, they were gone for an hour after evening activity ended. And as much as I've enjoyed changing this timeline, I knew there were some things that had to stay as they were, this being one of those times.
I extinguished my fire, choosing to wait inconspicuously on top of Zeus's Fist. Eventually, an hour passed, and the rest of the campers had almost made it to my location. They'd been searching so long that some of their torches went out, and I had to relight them.
"Percy! Annabeth!" Tyson shouted, his voice overpowering the rest of ours.
A few minutes later, I watched as Percy and Annabeth crawled out of Zeus's Fist, running right into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers. While Clarisse, Grover, and Tyson interrogated the duo, I walked over to Chiron, whispering, "They found it," under my breath.
Like clockwork, Clarisse asked Annabeth, "You found it, didn't you?"
Annabeth bit her lip. "I-Yeah. Yeah, we did."
Campers began asking questions, totally lost as to what the two were talking about. I bit my lip, holding myself back from joining their conversation. I'd found some stuff out that I wasn't sure that they had known the first time around, but Chiron had pulled me off the research team at the same time he forbade me from entering the Labyrinth. He knew what I'd learned but told me to keep quiet, which was really out of character for him. I'd tried to ask why, but he decided to go hard of hearing and ignored everything else I had to say.
Chiron raised his hand, silencing everyone. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at the boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"
There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking amongst themselves and giving Percy and Annabeth suspicious looks.
"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Kyle is after."
"Wait a second," Percy said. "What do you mean? What did we find?"
"I warned you guys," I told Annabeth and Clarisse. "It was only a matter of time until the passageway opened."
Annabeth turned towards Percy, a worried expression on her face clear as day. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of camp." She sighed and said, "Clarisse, I need to talk with you. In private," she added, after seeing the looks that Percy and I were giving her.
The two demigoddesses walked off, conversing with each other about the newly made discovery and what that meant for the camp. I rolled my eyes, remembering that I had a notebook chock full of information about everything related to the Labyrinth in my possession, which Chiron told me to keep secret until further notice.
I figured he meant until we were a hundred percent sure of the Labyrinth's existence, so I'd give Annabeth the notebook at the next counselor meeting. Technically, I wasn't supposed to attend any of the meetings since I wasn't the head of any cabin, but seeing that I was the oldest demigod at camp, Chiron made an exception for me.
On the way back to cabin three, I finally had my talk with Percy, the one that I told him we'd have during dinner. But it wasn't until we were inside cabin three that he really opened up, saying everything in a rushed breath, like he was afraid that I'd cut him off.
"I'm so scared of everything all the time," Percy confessed, glaring daggers at the abalone walls, unable to meet my eyes. "I'm always in danger in the mortal world, and now we're about to go to war with the Titan King, who just so happens to have an entrance into camp. And then there's the whole thing with the Great Prophecy, which no one wants to tell me about. All I know is that bad things are going to happen next year, and I'm going to be caught in the middle of it all."
He was tugging at his hair again, a nervous habit of his. "I never wanted to be a hero, Andy. I never wanted this life."
I sat down on Percy's bunk, enveloping in a proper hug this time. He exhaled deeply and wrapped his arms around me, like he was trying to ground himself to reality. I hummed under my breath, which seemed to soothe him.
"Whatever happens within the next year," I said, pressing a sisterly kiss onto Percy's forehead, "know that I'll stand by you. We'll defeat my father, Percy. And if you ever need a reminder that the mortal world exists, let me know. I'll take you to visit your mother, if you want, or we can literally go anywhere in the world. Just, remember to enjoy this next year, okay?"
"You make it sound like I'm going to die when I turn sixteen," Percy grumbled.
"Not if I can help it." I pulled away from the hug. "But we've got more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. Get some sleep. And feel free to wake me if you get a bad nightmare."
Percy blushed and hid his face behind his pillow. "Am I really that noisy when I dream?"
I chuckled at his embarrassment and stood up from Percy's bed. "Nah, I'm just a really light sleeper. Plus, I get some nasty dreams myself, so I wake up pretty frequently during the night. Being powerful isn't all it's cracked up to be, huh?"
"Preach it, sister," Percy laughed, getting up to change into his pajamas. We really didn't care about changing in front of each other anymore, but we still respected each other's privacy. I'd face one way while I changed, and Percy did the same.
I wasn't all that worried about Tyson seeing me, as he was snoring soundly in his bunk, an oil-stained cloth still gripped firmly in his hand. Seriously, nothing could wake a sleeping Cyclops other than the promise of peanut butter sandwiches. Thankfully, the enchanted plates in the dining pavilion could provide an unlimited amount of peanut butter sandwiches, something Tyson absolutely adored.
Percy turned off the lights and climbed under his covers, staring at the bottom of the bunk above him. I did the same thing, and though it took me a while to fall asleep, I finally did.
I dreamt I was back at Zeus's Fist, dressed in full combat armor like I'd wore tonight. This time, however, all the campers, satyrs, and some nymphs were armed and clutching onto their weapons, facing the rocks. The Hephaestus cabin had set up some catapults a couple feet behind us, their own supply of boulders ready to be fired.
The Ares cabin had split up into two major phalanxes, standing with their spears and swords and shields right in front of Zeus's Fist, prepared to take the brunt of the attack. The Apollo cabin had also split up, backing up the Ares cabin from behind with their bows. Athena and Hermes campers filled in the gaps between Ares and Apollo.
Even the Demeter, Dionysus, and Aphrodite cabins were all suited up for battle, though many of the Demeter and Aphrodite kids stayed towards the back, standing by the Hephaestus children. The two sons of Dionysus, Castor and Pollux, were quickly lost in the crowd, taking stand with Athena and Hermes.
I was standing next to Percy and Chiron, who had kept the two of us back as reinforcements. Percy was fidgeting with Riptide, his entire body visibly on edge as we waited for the whole army of nasties to burst through the rocks. I wasn't much better, but I managed to stay still as long as I clenched my jaw.
My dream then fast-forwarded, by passing most of the battle. My arms ached, and I felt like I was breathing fire, which meant I'd either hurt my ribs or I'd been fighting for a long time without ever getting a reprieve.
I dodged an empousa, stabbing the she-demon through the chest as my vision tunneled, finding Cleo all alone in the middle of a group of dracaenae. Her bow lay on the floor, the limbs completely snapped and the string nowhere to be found. Her empty quiver was by her feet, no longer of any use to her. All she had was her dagger against three dracaenae, all of whom had a trident and a fishing net.
If Cleo wasn't the best archer, she sure as hell wasn't the best swordsman, only using her dagger in dire situations, which this clearly was. I screamed in frustration, charging towards Cleo, my sword laced with fire as I sliced down anything in my way.
But I was too late.
One of the dracaenae trapped Cleo's arm in her net, leaving the daughter of Apollo unable to defend herself. She tried to free herself by punching the offending dracaena and sweeping her snake legs out from underneath her, but one of the other two took the opportunity and speared Cleo right through the chest.
Cleo looked down at the bronze trident tips sticking out of her ribcage in shock, blood immediately beginning to pour from her mouth.
This time when I screamed, it was out of anguish. I pointed my sword in the direction of the three dracaenae that had hurt Cleo and poured all my emotions into my fire, watching as the color shifted from red-orange to a dangerous lime green, allowing it to consume the snake women as they crumpled into dust, returning to the depths of Tartarus.
Despite the battle going on around us, I ran to Cleo's side, cradling her like a newborn in my arms.
"You're okay," I said, brushing her hair out of her face. "You're going to be fine."
But I knew I was lying to myself, because she was already gone.
Her sky blue eyes had already glazed over, forever fixated on the sun, where her father was. She had little rivulets of blood out of the corners of her mouth, signaling punctured lungs. She had a hole the size of my fist in the center of her chest, where the trident had pierced her heart and lungs.
"Cleo Bethany Russo," I said, my voice cracking on her name. Tears formed in my eyes and began falling onto her lifeless face. And even though she was Greek, I figured that my goodbye couldn't hurt any more than it already did. "Ave atque vale."
I held her and sobbed, ignoring the battle going on around me. However, nothing could get close to me, as in reaction to my emotions, my fire had surrounded me in a protective dome, lashing out at anything that approached within a five-foot radius.
I let a few more tears fall before shadow-traveling Cleo's body somewhere safe, where I was sure I could take care of her up until her shroud burning. I stood up, wiped away my tears, and picked up my sword once more.
My father was going to pay for killing my best friend.
I woke up with a start at four in the morning, furiously wiping away at the tears I'd cried while I slept.
I'd been having this same reoccurring nightmare for the past six months, but as the events quickly approached, more and more details revealed themselves. For example, when I first started having this nightmare, I couldn't make out any major details other than I knew I was somewhere in the forest at Camp Half-Blood. Slowly, faces came into detail, one by one until I was able to give you the names of every single camper, satyr, and nymph that would fight that day.
For the past six months, I've known that Cleo was one of the campers that was fated to die during the Battle of the Labyrinth. And the Fates had shown up the next day after I found out about Cleo, warning me that if I interfered with her death, they'd kill Bianca instead. And then they'd kill Cleo anyways.
What was I supposed to do? I didn't want Cleo to die, but I wasn't going to let the Fates kill Bianca for something I had done.
That brings me to my current situation, checking off the days I still have left with my best friend. That's why I'd invited her to Fountains Plaza and why I was so worried about why she was taking tonight's loss so seriously. I mean, I would've done either of these things anyways, but even more so now than ever before because of what I knew.
I tried to fall back asleep, but after thirty minutes of tossing and turning in my bed, I sat up and rubbed my eyes, deciding to get started with my day even though the sun wouldn't rise for another couple of hours.
I made my bed before walking over to the emptier side of the cabin, starting to silently workout right then and there. I didn't stop until I heard Percy gasp and sit up, breathing heavily as frantically looked around.
"You okay, squirt?" I asked quietly, wiping away my sweat with my towel as I popped a squat by Percy's bed.
"Yeah, fine," he replied shakily, fisting his blankets tightly in his hands.
I pursed my lips together, knowing he was lying to me. "How bad was it?"
"It was just some king terrorizing an old inventor and his son. I don't know why I'm so shaken up about it."
"Probably because you saw Daedalus," I explained. "It'd make sense, especially since we're facing the threat from the Labyrinth. Context is helpful sometimes."
Percy looked at me with wide eyes. "How were you able to decipher that from what I told you?"
I shrugged. "Not many kings terrorized old inventors and their sons in the myths other than Minos. Plus, demigod dreams tend to reflect what's going on in our lives. Morpheus, god of dreams, tends to work that way."
"Wish he didn't," Percy grumbled, stretching his arms above his head as he got out of his bed. "I'd enjoy some decent sleep on a more frequent basis."
"You and me both," I said with a smile, peeling off my workout tank top in favor of a camp shirt.
Then Tyson woke up, slowly sitting up as to not bang his head on the bunk above him. He yawned and rubbed his eye, a toothy grin resting easily on his face. "Good morning!" he said happily, getting out of bed, still fully dressed in his armor from last night.
"Uh, Tyson," Percy said, "you can take your armor off now, bud. Back to normal activities today."
Tyson glanced down, genuinely surprised by the fact that he was still wearing his armor. "Oh. Yes. I'll take it off now."
While the boys finished getting dressed for the day, somebody knocked on our front door. Seeing that I was the only one not half naked, I opened the door, surprised to find Silena Beauregard. It wouldn't have been a surprise if it was Grover, Annabeth, or Cleo, because they always swung by to check in on Percy and me. But Silena never dropped by unless she had cabin inspection duty, so it was strange having her on our front doorstep.
"Morning, Silena," I greeted, making sure to only have the door as ajar as it needed to be.
Although I knew Silena wouldn't peek, other Aphrodite children had no qualms about gawking at Percy while he got dressed. It got so bad at one point that I had to add a second lock and blackout curtains to our window after I caught the Stoll brothers recording Percy getting dressed to sell the video to the Aphrodite girls.
"Hi, Andy," Silena responded, as friendly as ever. "Chiron's calling for a war council in the arena in fifteen minutes. He wants you, Percy, and Tyson to be there."
"We'll be there," I promised her. "The boys are almost done getting ready, so we should be in the arena in anywhere between five to ten minutes."
"Great! See you there." She gave me one last dazzling smile before turning on her heel and walking off in the direction of the arena.
Sure enough, by the time Silena had disappeared from my line of sight, Percy and Tyson were fully dressed. I told them about the war council, to which they responded, "What about breakfast?"
I smiled and rolled my eyes, summoning my bag. Ever since the Sea of Monsters, I'd been preparing for situations like this. I handed Percy a blueberry muffin that was in perfect condition, which seemed like a miracle considering how many things I had shoved away in here. As for Tyson, I had a ton of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my bag because of Pete and Joe.
I swear to gods, those two were always hungry. I couldn't go anywhere with them without them having some sort of snack in their hand or stopping somewhere to buy food. As a result, I started keeping sandwiches in my bag, something they were both happy about.
And seeing that I'd recently made these sandwiches, and my bag's magic kept food from spoiling, the bread hadn't gone moldy, and the peanut butter and jelly still retained their distinctive tastes.
I grabbed a chocolate chip granola bar for myself, eating it as the three of us walked to the arena.
Once we got to the arena, I took a seat between the Stoll brothers and Juniper. Also in attendance were Silena, Beckendorf, Annabeth, Lee, Grover, Clarisse, Luke, Katie, Pollux, Castor, and even Argus, our hundred-eyed head of security. Chiron and Quintus stood at the front by the weapon racks.
Clarisse and Annabeth led the briefing, bringing everyone up to speed on what they'd learned about the Labyrinth in the past six months. During that time, I gave Annabeth my notes, adding onto what she and Clarisse had said.
Juniper revealed to us that Kyle had been checking out Zeus's Fist since before he turned, which made no sense to me as the tunnel had only recently established itself there. I seriously doubted Kronos could look so far into the future to tell Kyle about the future Labyrinth entrance, but then again, he was the Titan of Time, so maybe it was feasible for him.
Then came the conversation about Kyle wanting to navigate the Labyrinth, and for those who didn't know the story of Daedalus, I gave them a brief summary. While the rest of the campers kept debating about what to do, Percy asked, "Why don't you just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?"
"I'll go grab the dynamite!" Grover said excitedly, already halfway out of his seat before Annabeth gestured for him to sit back down.
"Don't you think we already tried that, punk?" Clarisse asked gruffly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Did that to the entrance I found back in Phoenix, but it moved a few feet away from the building I destroyed."
"Clarisse is right," Annabeth agreed. "The Labyrinth's architecture is magical, Percy. We'd need a ton of power to seal one of the entrances. Our best hope is to keep Kyle and his goons from learning to navigate the maze."
"Then we better find Ariadne's string before they do," I said. "Daedalus may still be in his workshop, so if we can convince him to help us, that'll slow Kyle down."
"Just to be clear, we're setting up defenses, right?" Lee Fletcher asked.
"Absolutely," Chiron said. "I'll have the Hephaestus and Hermes cabins set up traps immediately, but if Kyle can bypass the camp's magical borders, I'm afraid we may not have the strength to defeat them."
That statement earned a lot of gasps from the people seated around the table. Even at the bleakest of times, Chiron tried to stay upbeat and hopeful, so hearing him say that we might not stand a chance…well, it was depressing to say the least.
Eventually, Chiron sent Annabeth to visit the Oracle, finally giving the daughter of Athena the chance to lead her own quest – a dream of hers ever since she came to camp. Clarisse had stormed out of the arena after Travis accused her of being too scared to return back into the Labyrinth, leaving the older Stoll brother slightly shaken up.
While we waited for Annabeth to come back, I conversed with Chiron about his conditions about my being in the Labyrinth, but he stood firm in his decision, prohibiting me from going in under any circumstances.
"But I can navigate underground," I protested, still unhappy. "Am I supposed to turn Annabeth down if she asks me to come along?"
Chiron sighed, clearly exhausted of having the same argument over and over again. "Andromeda, I can't spell this out for you any clearer – you are not allowed to enter the Labyrinth, not even if Annabeth requests you as a companion. Stay here to train, go visit Chris Rodriguez in the Big House to help with his insanity, or hang out with your friends here, but I forbid you from going into the Labyrinth."
"What are you so afraid of, Chiron?" I growled, my hands clenching into fists. "If you're afraid of my chronokinesis being the reason I get hurt, then I won't use it. Gods knows I haven't manipulated time in two years." The last time had been a complete accident, preventing Leo from getting run over by a car.
"That's not my only reason."
"Then what else? Why are you keeping me out of the Labyrinth when you-know-who is threatening our home?"
"I will not lose my sister by her own recklessness," Chiron said in a steely voice, revealing how angry he was. "I need you here to help prepare the campers for this upcoming battle. I guarantee you that there will be casualties, but with your help, perhaps we can minimize them."
I blinked twice, unsure of what I was hearing. "I'm sorry, did you just call me-?"
Chiron sighed. "Yes, you heard me correctly. I've known you too long to not acknowledge you correctly, Andy, and gods know you've earned that right. Please, stay to help out. That's the real reason I don't want you going into the Labyrinth."
"We could've avoided this whole fight if you told me this earlier," I said, causing Chiron's face to turn red in embarrassment. "All I ever want to do is help. That's why I was so adamant about going into the Labyrinth."
"Yes, well, I'm glad we've sorted this issue out. Ah, here comes Annabeth."
I returned to my seat, leaning back and waiting for the fallout that would happen as Annabeth recounted her experience with the Oracle.
Gods, I just love prophecies, ugh.