TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

forty four.

VAL DIDN'T WANT to see Annabeth.

Which was an incredible hot take, but honestly she was scared. Her beloved was alive — her lifeforce was there, strong, but Val would've known if Annabeth had died anyway because of her curse — but the thought of seeing her made her feel like she was about to throw up.

And she did, in fact, do that. But just with flowers. Nico glanced at her worriedly, but she wiped her mouth and walked up to the rope ladder where he was waiting.

"We could stay up here," he said to her, quietly. Val could feel a stare on them — discreetly glancing up, she saw Hazel looking at them worriedly. "We don't have to go down there."

Nico understood. Of course he did. Sometimes, their connection was on par with Val and Annabeth's. A perk of being siblings. Well, something close to that.

But she needed to be in the loop. She was a part of this quest, after all.

"Thank you, but we can't," Val held his hand and helped him down the ladder. "Saving the world is more important than my feelings."

They hobbled to the crew, where Annabeth was talking about something — her mission, probably. She immediately pulled Val closer to her when they'd made it, and Val didn't complain as she listened to the amazing story of how Annabeth Chase defeated Arachne.

"Gods of Olympus," Jason said. "You did all that alone. With a broken ankle."

"Well . . . some of it with a broken ankle."

Percy grinned. "You made Arachne weave her own trap? I knew you were good, but Holy Hera — Annabeth, you did it. Generations of Athena kids tried and failed. You found the Athena Parthenos!"

Everyone gazed at the statue.

"What do we do with her?" Frank asked. "She's huge."

"We'll have to take her with us to Greece," Annabeth said. "The statue is powerful. Something about it will help us stop the giants."

"The giants' bane stands gold and pale," Hazel quoted. "Won with pain from a woven jail." She looked at Annabeth with admiration. "It was Arachne's jail. You tricked her into weaving it."

Leo raised his hands. He made a finger picture frame around the Athena Parthenos like he was taking measurements. "Well, it might take some rearranging, but I think we can fit her through the bay doors in the stable. If she sticks out the end, I might have to wrap a flag around her feet or something."

Val shivered. She imagined the statue jutting from their trireme with a sign across her pedestal that read: WIDE LOAD.

"What about you guys?" Annabeth asked. "What happened with the giants?"

Percy told her about rescuing Nico, the appearance of Bacchus, and the fight with the twins in the Colosseum. Nico didn't say much, and Val reached out to tap her fingers along his hand. Percy explained what Nico had found out about the Doors of Death, and how they had to be closed on both sides. Even with sunlight streaming in from above, Percy's news made the cavern seem dark.

"So the mortal side is in Epirus," Annabeth said. "At least that's somewhere we can reach."

Nico grimaced. "But the other side is the problem. Tartarus."

The word seemed to echo through the chamber. The pit behind them exhaled a cold blast of air. The chasm went straight to the Underworld.

Percy guided Annabeth a little farther from the edge. Her arms and legs trailed spider silk like a bridal train. Val looked over at the pit and grimaced.