Ivy Pittaluga had always made a solemn vow to keep her distance from Percy Jackson, determined to keep her world separate from the camp hero.
However, she realizes that fate has a mischievous plan in store for her. Suddenly thrown together as unlik...
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I was hit with a lot of curses, but the worst one was watching Percy dying slowly because of gorgon's blood and me not being able to do anything. I would take bearing all the others and have Percy be okay than see him in pain like this. It breaks my heart every time I glance at him.
Bob slung Percy over his shoulder like a bag of sports equipment while Small Bob curled up on Percy's back and purred. I remember reading somewhere that when a car purrs on your chest, it's their way of trying to heal you. Hopefully, that's Small Bob's intention. Bob lumbered along at a fast pace, making it impossible for me to keep up.
My lungs rattled. Blisters started to appear on my skin again. I probably need another drink of firewater to help heal myself, but we had left the Phlegethon River behind. My body was so sore and battered that I'd forgotten what it was like not to be in constant pain.
"How much longer?" I wheezed out. "Are we close?"
"Almost too long." Bob called out. "But maybe not."
I felt too winded to respond. We continued to walk in silence. My eyes drifting to Percy constantly to make sure he's still breathing. I started to count the seconds between each of his inhales.
The landscape changed again. We were still going downhill, but the slope was too treacherous. The surface was sometimes loose gravel, sometimes patches of slime. I stepped around bristles sharp enough to impale my foot and clusters of what appeared to be warts the size of watermelons. The air got thicker and stank of sewage.
Percy flopped around, causing Small Bob to readjust his nest on Percy's back. Occasionally Percy would groan in pain, and it felt like a fist was squeezing my heart. My mind thought about what Aphrodite had said about the trials Percy and I would face. Going through Tartarus was definitely one of the biggest trials. Now watching Percy slowly die...
I clenched my hands into fists. Biting my lip, I decided to think about something positive. Percy's dream of us going to New Rome together-the two of us settling down there, going to college together. The idea was sweet and thoughtful. If we fix our relationship with the Romans, I would love to spend my life there with Percy.
But that's only if we survive this. If Reyna actually accepts the message both Annabeth and I send her. I shook my head of those thoughts. I glanced at Percy once again. His eyes were half open. He groaned and muttered something incoherently.
"Look." Bob stopped suddenly.
Ahead in the gloom, the terrain leveled out into a black swamp. Sulfur-yellow mist hung in the air. Even without sunlight, there were actual plants - clumps of reeds, scrawny leafless trees, even sickly-looking flowers bloomed in the muck. Mossy trails wound between bubbling tar pits. Directly in front of me, sunk in the bog, were footprints the size of a trash can lid with long pointed toes. The footprints reminded me of fighting it back at the Battle of Manhattan.
