Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book Six
“The Dark Olympians”
Chapter Two: I Fight
Death, and He’s As Annoying As Apollo
“Thanatos is the
name; death is my game.”
Thalia and I groaned. “Not another Apollo,” I said. “Come on, man. We already deal with one crazy god poet. We totally don’t need two.”
Thalia already pulled her bow. “I can stop you.”
“You can’t cheat death, or kill it, pest,” Thanatos said evenly, fiddling with his torch. “It’s the one thing that bites you best. Oh, and taxes. They do, too, right in your—”
“So do farts and nuclear weapons,” I interrupted.
Thalia shot me a shocked glare.
“Hey, it’s true.”
“I’ve got your weapon of mass destruction, right here for me to function.” He pointed his torch at us, and I pretty much knew it was no good. So I leapt at Thalia. We crashed to the metal flooring as a crackle of black lightning sizzled overhead. It was a pervasion of Zeus’s lightning bolt.
Thalia had obviously been learning on the Hunt, and still armed, she let arrow after arrow fly, even while laying on her back. Thanatos tried to flap and dodge, but his wings weren’t nearly as fast as Hermes himself. Even though Thanatos managed to throw more lightning at us, one of Thalia’s arrows zinged him right in the shoulder. His growl of pain and momentary lack of concentration allowed us a breather, and I grabbed Thalia’s arm.
“Come on!”
I don’t know if you know this about me yet, but I’m a brain surgeon and a rocket scientist, and while I’m at it, I’ve even been the president.
Which is why I ran straight up the fire escape. I mean, if you were being chased the personification of death that can fly, wouldn’t you run toward the sky?
“Per—Percy!” Thalia cried, and I turned, seizing her wrist before she fainted. Yeah, Thalia’s afraid of heights. Weird for the daughter of the Sky God, right?
Anyway, I pushed her in front of me as Thanatos fought with the arrow in his shoulder. We thankfully made it to the top of the stairs and onto the roof—where Thanatos stood. He was missing his torch, but everything else in place, down to the dark T-shirt. When he spoke, though, his voice was an octave lower. His forefinger pressed against Thalia’s forehead.
“Sleep.”
Though she fought the command, Thalia’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she slumped.
My battle reflexes granted me just enough time to catch her before she smacked the concrete roof.
I met the god’s dark eyes before me. “Hypnos.”
The god’s eyes twinkled with looked like the stars in a night sky during a new moon. He looked past me to watch his brother flap onto the roof, finally tearing the arrow from his shoulder.
“That was easier than expected, Brother,” Hypnos muttered. “How you could let a little girl tag you—”
“She is a hunter for the Goddess of the Moon,” Thanatos growled. “She’ll get her due from me soon.”
Hypnos shook his head and unsheathed his sword. “I already took care of her. Now all we have to worry about is the son of the sea god.”
Thanatos snickered. “Son…son of the sea god. Oh, what fun!”
I held onto Thalia and sought desperately for a water tower, a hot tub, a freakin’ glass of water. The power to make water from the air would be too much for me to handle right now.
I glared back at Thanatos, and in his eyes, I was paralyzed.
I suddenly
wasn’t kneeling on the roof of my apartment building. I was now kneeling in the
throne room of
But who shocked me more than everyone was the woman with blonde hair and stormy eyes.
Annabeth.
She was beautiful, stunning, and she was crying.
Before me stood Thanatos, a cunning smile etching upon his cheeks. “Your soul belongs to me, Percy Jackson,” he whispered, but everyone heard him.
Then, I was once more on the roof, and I knew at that moment I would die.
I pulled Riptide.
But I wasn’t going without a fight.
Thanatos lunged, and I whirled to meet his blade when a trident made of hard water tore through his feathers. A second one snagged his neck and carried him over the edge of the building.
Whirling, I could hardly believe my eyes. I hadn’t used the conch, but there stood Triton, his legs held tightly in leather pants, his golden trident in front of him ready to impale. Standing to his left was an older man, about twenty, twenty-two like Thalia had described in her dream. He had a hairstyle like Triton’s, his black hair tied back in a tail. His tanned face made him look like a beach bum, and his drawstring shorts and Adidas sport sandals added to the appearance. His sweatshirt, however, made him look like a New Yorker.
In his hand was my sword.
Oh, gods.
“It…It can’t be…” Hypnos stuttered. A god stuttered? That was something new, and if I wasn’t just saved from the clutches of Death (literarily), I would have savored this moment.
“Y—You can’t be here…”
I stepped—I mean, the older me stepped forward. “You’re not the only one who can bribe a god, Hypnos.”
Hypnos gulped, his sword wringing in his hand. “You—You can’t scare me, Perseus Jackson. I—I know the truth!”
“The truth?” Triton guffawed. “The truth is that you’re a minor god. Just what can you do?”
“Yes,” Hypnos hissed, “what can I do?”
Then, Hypnos pivoted toward me, a hungry look in his eyes. Oh, great. And here I hoped he’d forgotten about me.
He flew faster than his brother, or I had gotten slower. I wasn’t quite sure what happened next other than my mom’s shriek, “PERCY!”
The fight stilled as I whirled toward Mom, who stood on the edge of the fire escape. She must have heard the fight and come to see what she could do to help.
“Mom! Get out of here!” I screamed, but it was too late. Hypnos soared over my head, darting straight for her. Even before he hit her, she leaned back to distance herself from him, and the force took over the edge.
Before I could scream, Old-me ran past me, his hand straight out.
“This isn’t over,” Hypnos whispered as he disappeared, which didn’t matter at the moment. All that mattered was my mom, who would become a human pancake in the alley fifteen stories below.
Or not.
Old-me perched his knee on the ledge and forced a hand straight out in front of him. From everywhere, broken pipes tore through the brick buildings. Sinks cracked. Toilets barfed, and water gathered under my mom, cradling her body. Right before she would have slammed into the concrete, she hovered in the air for a fraction of a second. The water then helped her to her feet, and she looked up with a grateful wave.
I looked over at Old-me, his face set, his eyes dark, like olives now. He had a scar that sliced over his eyelids but didn’t touch the actual eyeball.
And he wasn’t even huffing. The power, the control of water like that—that might have given me a doosey of a head/stomach ache.
Him? Not even shortness of breath.
Whoa.
Old-me turned to Triton, never even glancing my way.
“We have to
get back to
“Their assault?” I asked. That didn’t sound good.
Triton ignored me. “They went after Percy—ah, you. Do you think—?”
“I don’t want to think.” His tone was terse in a way I would never have thought of my own, and he looked back at Thalia. Suddenly, worry swept through me, and I ran to Thalia’s side, shaking her gently. I murmured a few words, but nothing woke her.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked.
Old-me shook his head. “She went up against the god of sleep and lost. She’ll be all right,” he added quickly, “but we won’t be able to wake her.”
“Then how will we?”
Old-me met
my glare, and it was eerie. His eyes were different than mine,
different from how they looked in the mirror. Old-me seemed to feel the same
way and turned his dark gaze toward Triton. “I need you to get in contact with
the
The way he said “the Oracle” sounded so formal, and I was ready to tell this guy Rachel was my friend. But then I watched as he scooped Thalia up in arms and carried her from the roof.
The way he looked at her—broken and lost—I realized he was anything but distant.
*^*^*
Paul lent us his car—a new hybrid Escape. Like I said, Paul was cool, but he still pulled me aside. I thought he was going to remind me not to get Pegasi hoof dents in the hood. Instead, he sent Triton a few, curt glares.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he whispered.
I shrugged. “Fighting evil gods usually has a high death rate, but I’ll be okay.”
Paul studied me for what seemed like forever before I patted his tense hand on my shoulder. “Paul, it’ll be okay. If I get into any trouble, I’ll pray to the gods.”
“Yes, that is sound advice,” he agreed as he grabbed my wrist and tied a silver band about it. For a moment, I thought lightning bolts shimmered within it, but…that was impossible, right? I mean, the rivalry between my dad and my uncle Zeus was one for the ages.
Literarily.
He winked and drew me into a quick hug. “Just make sure you’re praying to the right gods.”
I blinked when he released me. What in Hades did he mean by that? Before I could decide, Mom drew me into a longer embrace. “Call me as soon as you get there, and if you need anything—”
“I’ll be fine, Mom,” I moaned, but I didn’t protest too hard.
Then, as if he felt our concern, the baby kicked, even hitting me in the stomach. I rubbed my mom’s belly.
“Hey, I didn’t forget you, guppy,” I laughed. “Don’t come early, okay? I want to be there.”
As I took
the pack of blue candy for Triton and me, I glanced back to see Paul with an
arm around my mom. I loved going to
Old-me waited around the corner for apparent reasons. He said seeing Mom this way would just freak out her more, and both Triton and I agreed. I kinda wondered how Triton appeared to others since he was, y’know, green, but the way girls sighed when he walked by—I kinda figured it was something close to Logan Lerman.
Old-me laid Thalia across the backseat, and I pulled her legs onto my lap. We rode in silence until finally my ADHD couldn’t take it anymore.
“So, like, why are you here?”
Old-me didn’t even glance in the rearview mirror. “To stop the prophecy.”
“So myself in three or so years is going to come back and save my ass?”
Old-me coughed. “I’m thirty-one.”
Thirty-one? That made no sense. There was no way I looked over twenty, let alone a whole decade older than that. I finally said so.
Old-me shrugged.
“So why do you look twenty-ish then?”
“That was the year the prophecy began to come true.”
“So that makes you look twenty?”
He never answered my question.
Dusk crept upon us, and Old-me grounded his teeth and pumped the gas pedal. We were already on Route 25A with farmhouses passing us and the saltwater calling to me. Still, Old-me wasn’t satisfied.
“Come on,” he growled. “Come on!”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Calm down, Percy.” Triton shook his head. “We’re almost there.”
“I am calm,” I said.
“Not you. The other Percy.”
Old-me hit the steering wheel with frustration. “We need to get to camp before nightfall.”
“What’s so wrong with the night? Artemis is the goddess of the moon, and she’s all right.” I looked between Old-me and Triton. It was kinda eerie how much they looked alike and how dangerous they both appeared.
This couldn’t be me. There’s no way I could ever be this…formidable.
Don’t tell anyone, but…it scared me.
Old-me glanced up into the sky. “Do you see the moon?”
No. In the hues of dark blue and orange, I didn’t. Where was Artemis?
I scooted up to lean my elbows on either seat. “Does someone want to fill the blanks here?”
Neither immediately jumped to answer, but eventually, Triton gave in. “The Dark Gods—you’d know them as Eris and Thanatos and Hynpos and even Charon—they came before the time of the Olympians.”
“So? Aren’t they minor gods?”
Old-me laughed dryly. I hated feeling dumb in front of myself. “I wouldn’t call Strife and Death minor.”
“But they aren’t the Big Three.”
Several Greek curses rolled off Old-me’s tongue.
Triton shook his head. “The Dark Gods have decided the time of the Olympians has ended. Kronos proved how precarious it was.”
“So what do we do?”
Old-me’s face darkened and not just because it was night. “We collect the half-bloods of the prophecy and destroy the usurpers.”
That seemed okay with me except for one thing. “If that’s such a great plan, then why are you here? Why didn’t you stop them the first time around?”
The car jerked to the left, and we careened to a stop in the middle of the road, my door toward oncoming traffic—or what would have been oncoming traffic if someone were coming. Instead, all I saw was a dark road toward an endless abyss of trees.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry. It doesn’t matter what happened be—”
“Shhh!” Old-me ducked, his head below the steering wheel. “Do you hear that?”
Triton bent as well and through the silence, muttered, “Uh, no.”
I stared out into the darkness of night, and suddenly, I saw some movement coming toward us.
Then, I heard them.
“Peeerrrcccceeee,” a soft trio of voices called in a singsong tone. They didn’t sound older than seven. “Peeerrcccceee Jackson of the Olympians.”
They looked older. From the curtain of darkness sauntered three girls. Each looked no older than my age with black skirts that hardly reached mid-thigh and striped socks that stretched from their white sneakers to their knees. They had tight T-shirts on with rock bands like Metallic and Nickelback across their chests. Black gloves squeezed their forearms but cut at their knuckles to show their manicured nails. Even their hair was cool with tints of blue, red, and purple, tied up in puppytails.
Cool? I meant scary.
Totally.
They reminded of Thalia.
“Peeerrrccceee…” they continued to coon. “Come out and play.”
Their eyes suddenly glowed a venomous red.
“We have to
go.” Old-Me kicked opened his door. “Triton, take Percy and Thalia
and get to
“No way,” Triton growled and pulled his trident. “I’m going with you.”
Old-Me whirled so fast, I thought I had to be part Hermes somewhere. “Listen to me. I’m—Percy—he’s still a half-blood. The Ancient Laws protect him.”
“Like they still work.”
“They’re the best things we have. Hades, they’re the only things we have, and if I die here, then there will be no one to stop the Dark Gods.”
“Um…hi.” I raised my hand. “Person in question here. Don’t I get a say?”
“No,” both snapped before looking at each other. Suddenly, a ball of black lightning formed between the three girls, and Old-me jumped out of the car.
“Get out!” He threw open the door and grabbed Thalia while Triton lugged me out the other side.
Paul’s car blew up a second later.
Uh. First hooves, now this? Oh, I was so going to be grounded.
Handing Thalia over to Triton, Old-me drew Riptide. “GO! NOW!” he yelled before lunging at the three girls.
“Come on!” Triton commanded.
I wasn’t one for taking orders, but the fear in his voice ordered more than any shout could.
“What’s going on?” I demanded as we scrambled up the mountainside toward Half-Blood Hill.
To be honest, Triton was my brother, but I didn’t know him very well. I had been avoiding him ever since he made me drink the Eternal Nectar, and he’d ignored me before that. But I could see the concern in his eyes, and I felt the same way toward him. I wanted to kick myself for being a jerk to him. He was just trying to save me—in his own selfish way.
“The prophecy’s coming true, just not the way anyone imagined,” Triton bit out as his boots dug into the soft ground. “You are, of course, at the center of it.”
“What can I tell you?” I laughed dryly. “I’m just special.”
The smack upside the back of my head hurt. Apparently, gods hit pretty hard. “You do not understand, Percy. This is the end of the world.”
“Like it hasn’t been before?”
Triton averted his now olive eyes. They seemed to shift with the tide of his emotions, and they narrowed at the dragon curled about Thalia’s tree. As we crossed over the magical boundaries of the camp, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and bent down to rest my hands upon my knees.
Triton didn’t stop. He simply ran past the dragon and headed inward.
“Hey—Hey! Where are you going?” I demanded, but he kept running.
So I followed him.
“You think you’re safe now?” Triton snorted. He wasn’t even winded.
“Of course I’m safe,” I huffed. How did he run like that? “The magical barriers protect the camp from monsters.”
“They’re not monsters. They’re gods!”
A burning, crushing pain seared through my shoulder and down my back, and I cried out, tearing away from the person behind me. The blue-highlighted girl smirked at me with her glowing eyes and devilish grin, and now her manicured nails were long and claw-like, ready to tear from my heart from my chest.
“Ah, young and innocent.” She bent down towards me, and the pain was too crippling to even drag me away. Her bloodied fingernail scraped down my cheek. “You will do, for they will lose.”
“Not yet, demon!” Triton swiped with his trident, but the girl slashed at his neck, drawing blood. He staggered back, but by the time he went to strike again, her hand was on my throat. “Quiet now. Stop your resistance. You, little god, are only pittance.”
She focused those glowing red eyes upon me, and I wanted to run. I wanted to scream, but somehow, I knew there was nothing I could do. She would grant me a painful death, and I couldn’t stop it.
“You know pain, and you know fear,” she sung. “You know what you have to lose, my dear. You must give to our mother; you must pay the toll. Your body is unable.” Her lithe fingers tickled my chin, and my mouth dropped open. “—only your soul.”
Coldness—it seeped into my body from the wound she inflicted, burrowing deep within my stomach and forcing a heat up my throat, a warm glow that felt right, that —
“Not today, Keres!” Riptide tore through her back, and Triton finished the job, slicing off her head for good measure.
Her guts splashed upon my sneakers. Gross, but considering the options, I was okay with it.
Before me, for the first time, Old-me looked winded. His T-shirt was torn from the sisters’ claws. Similar scrapes decorated his arms and legs, and I guessed the jeans weren’t supposed to look like that. However, frayed was in style this season.
“Come on.” He offered me a hand, and I reluctantly took it. “We have to keep moving.”
Old-me once more took Thalia, and Triton wrapped an arm about my shoulders, keeping me erect. For the first time since our battle, I felt completely comfortable in Triton’s presence. Before, he was my godly kin, another threat, a stranger. Today, he became my brother.
He wiped the blood from my cheek as we finally exited the strawberry patch and made it to the main area of camp. As we trekked toward the big house, we ignored the gasps and gazes of bewilderment from the campers as we passed. There weren’t many there so close after summer vacation, but I saw a few of the Ares’s clan, especially Clarisse. Aphrodite’s daughters practically drooled over Old-me, but for some reason, he looked no one in the eye. He acted like they weren’t even there. It was…creepy.
Nico was there from the Hades’s bunk, running over to grab my arm.
“Percy, the infirmary! You have to get to the infirmary! I felt her soul.”
I’ve seen the kid panic, but he hadn’t been like this since Bianca. “Nico, what are you—”
And then I walked into the infirmary.
On the first bed with bruises and bandages laid a still Annabeth. Her face was deathly pale, too much like an angel’s for comfort. I prided myself away from Triton and went to her side, unsure of what to do but knowing I had to do something. I should have known something was wrong. She didn’t text me. I should have gone looking for her, done something—
“There was nothing you could have done.”
I refused to look up at Chiron, refused to wonder when he got there or how long I’d been holding her hand. “What happened?”
“Her car hit a pole on Broadway. Apparently, she lost control of the wheel.”
“Annabeth lose control?” I glared up at him. “You know that’s not what happened.”
I followed Chiron’s gaze as he looked over my head. Behind me stood Old-me, bleeding nnd looking tired, languid. He suddenly looked ancient, like thirty, but he still had his young features.
“Hello, Chiron.”
Chiron cocked his head to the side. “Hello…Percy.”
“Perhaps for clarification, you can call me ‘Jack.’”
“All right. Jack. Triton. May I ask just what is going on here, and why I have the daughter of Zeus asleep one bed, a daughter of Athena unconscious on the other, and one-third of Keres dead in the strawberry patch?”
Jack shrugged. “Fertilizer?”
“Chiron!” Grover dashed into the infirmary. When Chiron met his gaze, Grove did a double-take at me. “How’d you get here?” Then he looked at Jack. “And why is there an old dude of you?” At last, he shook his head. “They’re here, and they’re looking for Percy.”
“Who?” I stood up. Just seeing Annabeth like this restored my strength. If they attacked her—oh, they would pay.
Jack seemed ahead of me, which I gotta admit, annoyed me to no end. He jumped out of the infirmary and stopped dead—literary. Before him hovered Thanatos and Hypnos.
“Percy Jackson, you are in fashion,” Thanatos greeted. “Perhaps it’s time you made up your mind. Come and join our side.”
Riptide grew Jack’s hand. “Never.”
“Fine, have it your way.” Hypnos rolled his eyes. “Mother said he’d be wanting a job during the recession, but no.”
I had enough. I tore forward, my own sword in my hand, but before I swiped, Jack put out his leg. I tripped, and he swiped the blade from my hand. In return, I ate dirt.
Then, I raised my head and watched him work. However good I thought I was at fighting, Jack proved he was ten times better. He sliced at Thanatos, though the god blocked with his torch, and whirled to combat Hypnos. As I started to get up, to help in some way, I ducked at the clanging of metal just above my head. Turning, I saw Triton had stopped a sword from freeing my head from my neck, a woman with bleached blonde hair and an actress’s smile my potential killer.
She winked at me. “Nothing personal.”
Triton clenched his teeth. “It is to me, Eris.”
“Stay back!” Chiron warned the campers as Triton forced Eris away with one vicious swipe after another. Grover came behind me and helped me up, but I was mystified. With two swords, Jack countered Thanatos and Hypnos, while Triton slowly lured Eris toward the battle.
Then, I knew it was over. The Dark Gods trapped Triton and Jack back to back, and it was only a matter of time before one of them landed a deadly blow. After all, Jack had to fight up to attack the hovering twins.
I was about to pray to my dad for help when suddenly water sloshed over Triton and Jack’s boots. They stood in ankle-high water, which slowly raised them to be even with the twins and Eris. Then, I knew we would win.
Triton and Jack watched each other’s back perfectly. When Thanatos sliced for Jack’s right side, Triton stepped in and parried the sword. Jack then whirled to take on Eris, who made the mistake of stepping into the water.
It overpowered her, flooded her, suffocated her, and the brief distraction allowed Jack to disarm Thanatos. Triton stabbed Hypnos’s wrist, causing him to drop his sword.
When finally Eris was tossed onto the ground, soaking wet, a trident made of hard water formed in Jack’s hand. He forced the prongs down on either side of Eris’s neck, pinning her to the ground.
“You will heal Annabeth Chase,” he demanded.
Eris laughed. “And why would I do that?”
Jack bent down to be even with her. “Because you know I’m not afraid to give you Strife.”
Her eyes narrowed, and as if a reminder, Triton pressed his trident’s prongs against Thanatos’s throat. Apparently, brother and sister were close, and she snapped her fingers. “It is done, but it is not over.”
“You’re right. It’s not,” Jack admonished and turned toward Hypnos. “You will release Thalia Grace from her coma.”
He snapped
his fingers. “You may have stopped us for now,
Eris and Hypnos dissolved into
dust and blew away with the wind but not Thanatos.
With his torch in his hand, he aimed it directly at Jack. “Do not forget,
Black lightning once more ripped through the air, hitting cabin after cabin, lighting them ablaze. Campers dashed from their houses. Kids screamed as some lost the only home they’d known, and with a growl, Triton stabbed Thanatos, who had already dissolved to dust.
I knew what I had to do. As son of Poseidon, I could control water, but the amount to put this out—I was afraid it would kill me.
Still, I had to try.
I felt the pit of my stomach sink, but I stopped trying when I saw Jack fall. His hands and knees in the dirt, his head bowed, he looked to be praying.
That was when everyone screamed. A two-hundred foot tidal wave loomed just before the edge of camp, and we were just doomed.
Well, I wouldn’t have been, but pretty much everyone else should have drowned when the wave crested against the shore.
They didn’t. In fact, I watched as the water raged over everyone’s head, as it avoided everyone, even Clarisse, to devour the fire. Only after the water receded did I see Triton. He came to my side, his eyes wide like mine.
“Triton…?”
“It…It isn’t possible,” Triton muttered, looking at me like I had the answers. “Gods are immortal, and the only way to replace them is for them to die.”
“But you said you were Dad’s heir.”
“I am, but I never thought…there’s no way…”
He looked seasick, but I was too worried myself to notice it. “What’s ‘no way’?”
“Percy, don’t you get it? The only one who controls the water like that is—”
“Who dares to control my sea?” a booming, god voice thundered throughout camp.
Standing over twenty feet tall in the water stood my dad, his trident ready to stab the person responsible.
Jack tossed his head back rebelliously and slowly pushed to his feet. He cocked a smile. “Hey, Dad.”
“—the God of the Sea,” Triton finished.
“Percy?” Dad asked.
I could only blink. I was…I had become…the God of Sea?
To Be Continued…