Invisible ― Jason Grace

xx. a spectacle

TO NO ONE'S SURPRISE—least of all Camilla's—things went wrong immediately.

The giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke, reappearing halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Percy and Camilla sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under their feet, and metal walls shot up on either side, separating the siblings from their friends.

The walls started closing in on them like the sides of a vice grip. Percy jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the hydra's cage, grabbing Camilla's hand and hauling her up after him. She caught a brief glimpse of Piper leaping across a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits, making her way toward Nico, who was dazed and weaponless and being stalked by a pair of leopards.

Meanwhile, Jason charged at Otis, who pulled his spear and heaved a great sigh, as if he would much rather dance Swan Lake than kill another demigod.

All of this Camilla registered in a split second, but there wasn't much she could do about it. The hydra snapped at her hands, earning a startled yelp that she hoped no one could hear over the sounds of fighting. She swung her feet out and let go of the cage, landing in a grove of painted plywood trees that sprang up from nowhere, Percy right beside her. The trees changed positions as they tried to run through them, so Percy slashed down the whole forest with his sword.

"Wonderful!" Ephialtes cried. He stood at his control panel about sixty feet to Camilla and Percy's left. "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?"

He pulled a lever, and Camilla glanced behind her. The cage she and Percy had just been hanging from was now rising toward a hatch in the ceiling. In three seconds it would be gone. If they attacked the giant, the hydra would ravage the city.

"You take the giant, I'll take the hydra?" Camilla suggested, tightening her grip on Hurricane.

"Have you ever fought a hydra before?" Percy asked.

"No," she admitted.

Percy cursed. He threw his sword like a boomerang. Camilla wasn't sure what he was thinking for a moment, then she realized his plan as the blade sliced through the chains suspending the hydra. The cage tumbled sideways. The door broke open, and the monster spilled out—right in front of the siblings.

"Oh, you are a spoilsport, Jackson!" Ephialtes called. "Very well. Battle it here, if you must, but your deaths won't be nearly as good without the cheering crowds."

Camilla looked at Percy, noticing his lack of weapon. "Do you have a plan?" she asked, lifting Hurricane as she faced the monster.

"Don't die!" Percy shouted as all eight hydra heads spit acid. "And don't cut their heads off!"

"What, do I look like an idiot?" Camilla shouted back, diving in the opposite direction as her brother as they dodged the acid. Camilla glanced at the spot they'd just been standing in, swallowing nervously at the steaming crater the floor had been reduced to.

Camilla might not have any personal experience fighting hydras—thank gods—but she'd learned enough about them in monster class to know better than to try to cut off any of its heads. Though, in her adrenaline-fueled state, she couldn't quite remember what she was supposed to do instead.

The hydra lashed out at her, and she barely jumped out of the way in time, having to fight the instinct to cut its head off.

She really hoped Percy had a plan.

At the dais, Piper stood guard over Nico as the leopards advanced. She aimed her cornucopia and shot a pot roast over the cats' heads. It must have smelled pretty good, because the wild cats ran after it immediately.