lost in the labyrinth, of my mind.
☆ battle of the labyrinth
☆ book one in the 'midnight mayhem' series
[ annabeth chase x fem!oc ]
[ percy jackson x fem!oc ]
( started - 6/9/23 )
( completed - 11/25/23 )
chapter sixteen the air is thick with loss and indecision
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
IT WAS OFFICIAL: Gabriella absolutely hated running. She's never ran so much until she joined this quest. At this point, she might as well sign up for the track team.
They finally stopped running by a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. Everyone was exhausted.
"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.
Annabeth was crying the whole time they ran. She collapsed on the ground and put her head between her knees. Gabriella knelt down beside to her, and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. Annabeth looked up, and Gabriella's heart broke seeing her red glassy eyes. She wrapped her other arm around her, allowing Annabeth to sob into her shoulder.
While comforting Annabeth, she managed overhear Percy and Nico's conversation.
"That sucked," Nico spoke up. Gabriella thought it was a perfect way to sum things up.
"You saved our lives," Percy told him.
Nico wiped the dust off his face. "Blame the girls for dragging me along. That's the only thing Annabeth and Rachel could agree on. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up."
"Nice that they trust me so much." Percy shined his flashlight across the cavern. The water dripped from the stalactites like a slow-motion rain. "Nico...you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."
"What do you mean?"
"That wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now— a child of the Underworld."
Nico frowned. "Big deal."
Annabeth lifted her head from Gabriella's shoulder."What... what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"
Percy explained what happened. He explained how there was a coffin, and how the last piece of Krono's spirit entered Luke's body when Ethan Nakamura pledged his service.
"No," Annabeth said in disbelief. "That's can't be true. He couldn't—"
"He gave himself over to Kronos," Percy told her gently. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone."
"No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."
Percy nodded, and looked at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."
