The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

83. The God Of Messengers

He'd seen Olympus several times, but it still took his breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. Then he realized the mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.

Annabeth studied him. "Are you okay?"

He frowned. "Yeah. Why?"

"You look . . . different," she decided. "You look more—" She stopped, as if she'd realized she was about to say too much.

"I look more what?" he asked curiously.

Annabeth looked away. "Forget what I just said."

He grinned. It was funny, to see Annabeth embarrassed—though he didn't know why she was.

The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined them.

"Come on," Percy said.

They made their way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be into it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted them from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

They passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.

"Hate her," she muttered. Then she quickly added, "No offense. I know she's your mother, but still."

He tried not to smile. "Has she been cursing you or something?" Last year, Annabeth had gotten on Hera's bad side, but Annabeth hadn't really talked about it since.

"Just little stuff so far," she said. "She sends cows after me."

Y/N barely managed not to burst out. "Cows? In San Francisco?"

"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place—in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

Y/N was trying to figure out how a cow could go inside a school without anyone noticing when Pollux pointed toward the horizon and cried, "Look! What is that?"

They all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. They watched them for several minutes and the lights didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."

"Let's get to the palace," Percy said.

No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Their footsteps echoed as they walked into the throne room.

"Room" didn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam an old friend, half-cow, half-serpent.

My Lord! Bessie said happily, turning in a circle.

"Hey, girl!" Despite all the serious stuff going on, Y/N waved and smiled.

Two years ago they'd spent a lot of time trying to save Bessie—some called her the Ophiotaurus, which was a mistake; Bessie was a cow, not a bull—from the Titans, and he'd gotten kind of fond of her. She seemed to like him, too.