Daughter of Wine

Annabeth

I've seen some strange things before, but I've never seen it rain cars. 

As the roof of the cavern collapses, sunlight blinds me. I get the briefest glimpse of the Argo II hovering above. It must have used the ballistae to blast a hole straight through the ground. 

Chunks of asphalt as big as garage doors tumble down, along with six or seven Italian cars. One almost crushes the Athena Parthenos, but the statue's glowing aura acts like a force field, and the car bounces off. Unfortunately, it falls straight toward me. 

I jump to one side, twisting my bad foot. A wave of agony almost makes me mass out, but I flip on my back just in time to see a bright red Fiat 500 slam into Arachne's silk trap, punching through the cavern floor and disappearing with the Chinese Spidercuffs. 

As Arachne falls, she screams like a freight train on a collision course, but her wailing rapidly fades. All around me, more chunks of debris slam through the floor, riddling it with holes. 

The Athena Parthenos remains undamaged, though the marble under its pedestal is a starburst of fractures. I am covered in cobwebs. I trail strands of leftover spider silk from my arms and legs like the strings of a marionette, but somehow, amazingly, none of the debris has hit me. I want to believe that the statue is protecting me, though I suspect it's nothing but luck. 

The army of spiders has disappeared. Either they fled back into darkness, or they fell into the chasm. As daylight floods the cavern, Arachne's tapestries along the walls crumble to dust, which I can hardly bear to watch, especially the tapestry depicting me and Percy. 

But none of that matters when I head Percy's voice from above. "Annabeth!"

"Here!" I sob. 

"Down there!" I hear my best friend, Calli, and can just make her out over the rail of the ship, beside Percy, pointing at me. 

All the terror seems to leave me in one massive wave. As the Argo II descends, I see my friends clearer. Percy's smile is better than any tapestry I've ever seen. 

The room keeps shaking, but I manage to stand. The floor at my feet seems stable for the moment. My backpack is missing, along with Daedalus's laptop. My bronze knife, which I've had since I was seven, is also gone, probably fallen into the pit. But I don't care. I'm alive. 

I edge closer to the gaping hole made by the Fiat 500. Jagged rock walls plunge into the darkness as far as I can see. A few small ledges jut out here and there, but I see nothing on them, just strands of spider silk dripping over the sides like Christmas tinsel. 

I wonder if Arachne told the truth about the chasm. Has she fallen all the way to Tartarus? I try to feel satisfied with that idea, but it makes me sad. Arachne had made some beautiful things. She's already suffered for eons. Now her tapestries have crumbled. After all that, falling into Tartarus seems like too harsh an end. 

I'm dimly aware of the Argo II hovering to a stop about forty feet from the floor. It lowers a rope ladder, but I stand in a daze, staring into the darkness. Then, suddenly Percy is next to me, lacing his fingers in mine. He turns me gently away from the pit and wraps his arms around me. I bury my face in his chest and break down in tears. 

"It's okay." He says. "We're together." 

He doesn't say you're okay or we're alive. After all we've been through over the last year, he knows the most important thing is that we're together. I love him for saying that. 

My friends gather around us. Nico di Angelo is here, but my thoughts are so fuzzy, it doesn't surprise me. It seems only right that he would be with us.