The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

74. The God Of The Wild

They ran until they were exhausted. Rachel steered them away from traps, but they had no destination in mind—only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos that never seemed to stop echoing behind them.

They stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock as if part of a natural cave. Y/N couldn't hear anything behind them, but he didn't feel any safer. He tried to shake away the thought of those unnatural golden eyes staring out of Luke's face, but he could as well have tried to stop thinking.

"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.

Sobs echoed in the tunnel. Y/N turned and realized he was still holding Annabeth's arm. He let her go, and she collapsed and put her head between her knees.

Ethan stared back the way they'd come. His eyes were slit-pupiled and his whole body shook sporadically. "He's mad. Luke's mad."

Nico dropped his sword and took a shaky breath. "That sucked," he said, which summed things up pretty well.

"You saved our lives, Nico," Percy said, as if he couldn't believe it.

Nico wiped the dust off his face. "Blame Y/N for dragging us along. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up."

"That wall of black stone. . . ." Y/N said. "You shouldn't have done that, Nico. You gave yourself away."

"What do you mean?"

"That was impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now—a child of the Underworld."

Nico frowned. "Big deal."

"Don't act like you're not scared," Y/N said. "Now Cronos will try to have you on his side."

"I know that," Nico said. "What do you want me to do about it? Stop making it sound worse than it already is."

"As long as you're with me, you won't join with Kronos. Whatever dreams he sends you, I'll make sure that you don't make that choice."

Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "What . . . what's wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

"He gave his body and soul to Kronos," Percy said bitterly.

Annabeth turned to Y/N. "That's not true, right? Y/N, tell me it isn't true."

For a moment he didn't say a word. He hated Luke, but he really liked Annabeth. He didn't want to make her any sadder.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth," he said softly, at last. "But Luke is gone."

"No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him. When the hairbrush hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."

"Annabeth, stop thinking about it. You're beating yourself up over no—"

"You want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth yelled.

Suddenly he was yelling, too. "And how would you want me to react? Do you want me to become his best friend? Annabeth, Luke tried to kill me, and he didn't wait to be under Kronos's complete control to do that!"

"Whoa, you two," Ethan said. "Knock it off."

Annabeth turned on him. "Stay out of it!" Back at Y/N she yelled, "You didn't know him before, Y/N. I did! We can still save him!"

"And how do you plan to do that? We are no match for him! It's not Luke we'd be going against, now. It's Kronos! He's far more powerful than any drakon we have ever faced! We wouldn't last two seconds against him."

"Because you're afraid of him, now?"

"You mean of Luke?" he said briskly. "No. Of Kronos? Of course I am! Didn't you see how the marble turned to ice when he walked, how he slowed time down around Percy? I may have fought monsters in the Labyrinth even while I couldn't see a thing, but this is on another level. I simply can't fight back against that."