The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

81. The Consequences Of A Mistake

They emerged in Central Park just north of the Pond. Mrs. O'Leary looked pretty tired as she limped over to a cluster of boulders. She started sniffing around, and Y/N was afraid she might mark her territory, but Nico said, "It's okay. She just smells the way home."

Percy frowned. "Through the rocks?"

"The Underworld has two major entrances," Nico said. "You know the one in L.A."

"Charon's ferry," Y/N remembered.

Nico nodded. "Most souls go that way, but there's a smaller path, harder to find. The Door of Orpheus."

"The dude with the harp," Percy said.

"Dude with the lyre," Y/N corrected.

"Yeah, him," Nico said. "He used his music to charm the earth and open a new path into the Underworld. He sang his way right into Hades's palace and almost got away with his wife's soul."

Y/N remembered the story. Orpheus wasn't supposed to look behind him when he was leading his wife back to the world, but of course he did. It was one of those typical "and-so-they-died/the-end" stories that always made them demigods feel warm and fuzzy.

"So this is the Door of Orpheus." He tried to sound impressed, but it still looked like a pile of rocks to him. "How does it open?"

"We need music," Nico said. "Does any one of you sing?"

"Um, no," Y/N and Percy said at the same time.

"Can't you just, like, tell it to open?" Percy said. "You're the son of Hades and all."

"It's not so easy," Nico said. "We need music."

Y/N was pretty sure if he and Percy tried to sing, all they would cause was a storm.

"I have a better idea," Percy said. He turned and called, "GROVER!"

They waited for a long time. Mrs. O'Leary curled up and took a nap. Y/N could hear the crickets in the woods and an owl hooting. Traffic hummed along Central Park West. Horse hooves clopped down a nearby path, maybe a mounted police patrol. They'd love to find three kids hanging out in a park at one in the morning.

"It's no good," he said at last.

"Wait," Percy said. "I've got a feeling. My empathy link is tingling, which either means a whole lot of people have suddenly switched on the Nature Channel, or Grover's close."

Y/N stared at him. "After all those years, I'm used to weird stuff, you know. But that's just nonsense."

Percy shut his eyes and frowned as if concentrating. He made weird faces and pricked up his ears one side or the other. Perhaps he was having connection problems.

Suddenly he fell over.

"What happened?" Nico asked.

"I got through," Percy said. "He's . . . yeah. Grover's on his way."

A minute later, the tree next to them shivered. Grover fell out of the branches, right on his head.

"Grover!" Percy yelled.

"Woof!" Mrs. O'Leary looked up, probably wondering if they were going to play fetch with the satyr.

"Blah-haa-haa!" Grover bleated.

"You okay?" Y/N said.

"Oh, I'm fine." Grover rubbed his head. His horns had grown so much they poked an inch above his curly hair. "I was at the other end of the park. The dryads had this great idea of passing me through the trees to get me here. They don't understand height very well."