The Battle of the Labyrinth

laughed. The scar on his face rippled.
    “Luke feared you,” the Titan’s voice said. “His jealousy and hatred have been powerful tools. It has kept him obedient. For that I thank you.”
    Ethan collapsed in terror. He covered his face with his hands. The telekhines trembled, holding up the scythe.
    Finally I found my nerve. I lunged at the thing that used to be Luke, thrusting my blade straight at his chest, but his skin deflected the blow like he was made of pure steel. He looked at me with amusement. Then he flicked his hand, and I flew across the room.
    I slammed against a pillar. I struggled to my feet, blinking the stars out of my eyes, but Kronos had already grasped the handle of his scythe.
    “Ah . . . much better,” he said. “Backbiter, Luke called it. An appropriate name. Now that it is re-forged completely, it shall indeed bite back .”
    “What have you done to Luke?” I groaned.
    Kronos raised his scythe. “He serves me with his whole being, as I require. The difference is, he feared you, Percy Jackson. I do not.”
    That’s when I ran. There wasn’t even any thought to it. No debate in my mind about—gee, should I stand up to him and try to fight again? Nope. I simply ran.
    But my feet felt like lead. Time slowed down around me, like the world was turning to Jell-O. I’d had this feeling once before, and I knew it was the power of Kronos. His presence was so strong it could bend time itself.
    “Run, little hero,” he laughed. “Run!”
    I glanced back and saw him approaching leisurely, swinging his scythe as if he were enjoying the feel of having it in his hands again. No weapon in the world could stop him. No amount of celestial bronze.
    He was ten feet away when I heard, “PERCY!”
    Rachel’s voice.
    Something flew past me, and a blue plastic hairbrush hit Kronos in the eye.
    “Ow!” he yelled. For a moment it was only Luke’s voice, full of surprise and pain. My limbs were freed and I ran straight into Rachel, Nico, and Annabeth, who were standing in the entry hall, their eyes wide with dismay.
    “Luke?” Annabeth called. “What—”
    I grabbed her by the shirt and hauled her after me. I ran as fast as I’ve ever run, straight out of the fortress. We were almost back to the Labyrinth entrance when I heard the loudest bellow in the world—the voice of Kronos, coming back into control. “AFTER THEM!”
    “No!” Nico yelled. He clapped his hands together, and a jagged spire of rock the size of an eighteen-wheeler erupted from the ground right in front of the fortress. The tremor it caused was so powerful the front columns of the building came crashing down. I heard muffled screams from the telekhines inside. Dust billowed everywhere.
    We plunged into the Labyrinth and kept running, the howl of the Titan lord shaking the entire world behind us.

SEVENTEEN

THE LOST GOD SPEAKS
    We ran until we were exhausted. Rachel steered us away from traps, but we had no destination in mind—only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.
    We stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. I couldn’t hear anything behind us, but I didn’t feel any safer. I could still remember those unnatural golden eyes staring out of Luke’s face, and the feeling that my limbs were slowly turning to stone.
    “I can’t go any farther,” Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.
    Annabeth had been crying the entire time we’d been running. Now she collapsed and put her head between her knees. Her sobs echoed in the tunnel. Nico and I sat next to each other. He dropped his sword next to mine and took a shaky breath.
    “That sucked,” he said, which I thought summed things up pretty well.
    “You saved our lives,” I said.
    Nico wiped the dust off his face. “Blame the girls for dragging me along. That’s the only thing they could agree on. We needed to help you or you’d mess things up.”
    “Nice that they trust me so much.” I shined my flashlight across the cavern. 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.”
    I let it drop. I figured he was just trying to hide how scared he was, and I couldn’t blame him.
    Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. “What . . . what was wrong