ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter four

━━ ELISA HOPED SHE would have a peaceful sleep—it'd be the nice thing to do considering she was about to go on a quest to save some godly butt.

But whoever said the gods were nice?

That night, she dreamed of Nico. He was no longer in the Underworld. He was standing in a graveyard under a starry sky. Giant willow trees loomed all around him.

He was watching some gravediggers at work. Elisa heard shovels and saw dirt flying out of a hole. Nico was dressed in a black cloak. The night was foggy. It was warm and humid, and frogs were croaking loudly nearby. A large Wal-Mart bag sat next to Nico's feet.

"Is it deep enough yet?" he asked. He sounded irritated.

"Nearly, my lord." It was the same ghost Elisa had seen Nico with before, the faint shimmering image of a man. "But, my lord, I tell you, this is unnecessary. You already have me for advice."

"I want a second opinion!" Nico snapped his fingers, and the digging stopped. Two figures climbed out of the hole. They weren't people, they were skeletons in ragged clothes.

"You are dismissed," he said. "Thank you."

The skeletons collapsed into piles of bones.

"You might as well thanks the shovels," the ghost complained. "They have as much sense."

Nico ignored him. He reached into his Wal-Mart bag and pulled out a twelve-pack of Coke. He popped open a can. Instead of drinking it, he poured it into the grave.

"Let the dead taste again," he murmured. "Let them rise and take this offering. Let them remember."

He dropped the rest of the Cokes into the grave and pulled out a white paper bag decorated with cartoons. Elisa had seen one in years, but she still recognized it—a McDonald's Happy Meal. Nico turned it upside down and shook the fries and hamburger into the grave.

"In my day, we used animal blood," the ghost mumbled. "It's perfectly good enough. They can't taste the difference."

"I will treat them with respect," said Nico.

"At least let me keep the toy," the ghost said.

"Be quiet!" Nico ordered. He emptied another twelve-pack of soda and three more Happy Meals into the grave, then began chanting in Ancient Greek. Elisa was only able to catch some of the words—a lot of stuff about the dead, memories, and returning from the grave. She was really happy her lessons on Ancient Greek with some of the Athena kids were going that well now.

The grave started to bubble. Frothy brown liquid rose to the top like a boiling pot. The fog thickened; the frogs stopped croaking and the grasshoppers stopped singing. Dozens of figures began to appear among the gravestones; bluish, vaguely human shapes. Nico had summoned dead with Coke and cheeseburgers.

"There are too many," the ghost said nervously. "You don't know your own powers."

"I've got it under control," Nico said, though his voice sounded frail. He drew a sword—a short blade made of solid black metal. Elisa had never seen anything like it. She didn't know what the sword was made of, but she knew it certainly wasn't Celestial bronze. The crowd of darkness retreated at the sight of it.

"One at a time," Nico told the crowd.

A single figure floated forward and knelt at the pool. It made slurping sounds as it drank. Its ghostly hands scooped French fries out of the pool. When it stood again, Elisa could see it much more clearly—a teenage boy in Greek armor. He had curly hair and green eyes, a clasp shaped like a seashell on his cloak. He looked a lot like Percy with a set of powerful features and a brooding stare.

"Who are you?" asked the son of Hades. "Speak."

The young man frowned, as if trying to remember. Then he spoke in a voice like dry, crumpling paper: "I am Theseus."

No wonder this guy looked so much like the son of Poseidon Elisa knew. This ghost was another son of Poseidon. He was the Theseus, one of the greatest heroes from Ancient Greece. The one who had fought the Minotaur. He was also the one who used Ariadne as a means of navigating the Labyrinth—he also left her for dead after using her. So, not that great, actually.

"How can I retrieve my sister?" Nico asked.

Theseus's sea-green eyes were lifeless. "Do not try. It is madness."

"Just tell me!"

"My step-father died," the hero of Athens remembered. "He threw himself into the sea because he thought I was dead in the Labyrinth. I wanted to bring him back, but I could not."

Nico's ghost hissed. "My lord, the soul exchange! Ask him about that!"

Theseus scowled. "That voice. I know that voice."

"No you don't, fool!" the ghost said. "Answer the lord's questions and nothing more!"

"I know you," Theseus insisted. He was struggling to recall.

"I want to hear about my sister," said Nico. "Will this quest into the Labyrinth help me win her back?"

Theseus was looking for the ghost, but apparently couldn't see him. Slowly he turned his glassy eyes back on Nico. "The Labyrinth is treacherous. There is only one thing that saw me through: the love of a mortal girl. The string was only part of the answer. If was the princess who guided me."

He loved her so much he left her for dead? Elisa thought, knowing the ghost was talking about her stepmother. Not that Ariadne and Elisa had any sort of relationship that started off on a good foot ( Elisa was a child that Dionysus had out of wedlock and proudly declared her as his offspring ), but Theseus was lying on his and Ariadne's history.

"We don't need any of that," the ghost said. "I will guide you, my lord. Ask him if it is true about an exchange of souls. He will tell you."

"A soul for a soul?" Nico asked Theseus. "Is it true?"

"I—I must say yes. But the specter—"

"Just answer the question, knave!" the ghost yelled.

Suddenly, around the edges of the pool, the other ghosts became restless. They stirred, whispering in nervous tones.

"I want to see my sister!" Nico demanded. "Where is she?"

"He is coming," Theseus said fearfully. "He has sensed your summons. He comes."

Nico only looked confused. "Who?" he demanded.

"He comes to find the source of this power," Theseus said. "You must release us!"

Elisa's view grew black. She felt like she was falling. Falling until she woke with a start, covered in a layer of sweat. She felt like she jumped out of her skin when the door of Cabin Twelve shook with heavy knocks. Elisa tripped over herself getting out of bed to open the door. She pulled it back, finding Percy standing there with wide eyes and pale skin.

"Nico and that ghost," he whispered to her, but with the stillness in the air, it almost sounded like he was yelling.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded. "You know what happens if cleaning harpies find us out of bed after curfew!"

"Don't yell," Percy hushed her. "I had another I.M., he was summoning ghosts. And he talked to my brother, Theseus—"

"I know!" Elisa held a hand up.

The boy backed away as she exited Cabin Twelve. Shutting the door softly behind her, Elisa turned to face the son of Poseidon. She said, "The soul for a soul thing is possible. Which means—"

"Nico's after me, I'm sure of that." Percy nodded. When he sat down on the front porch of Cabin Twelve was when Elisa got a good look at him. He wore a blue hoodie that had frayed drawstrings, so old that the printed pattern on it had washed off. He had on old basketball shorts but were too big so he had the white drawstrings tied tightly.

Elisa rubbed her arms, sitting beside him. "All I want to do is talk to Nico. I'm worried about him," she admitted into the night air. "I know what he's going through. And I could be to him what I didn't have but needed but ... That's why I agreed to go on the quest."

"Not to save Camp from Luke and his minions?" Percy asked, trying his best to smile.

She rolled her eyes at the comment. "That's the last reason I went on this quest."

"What are the other reasons?" Percy pried.

"I only have two reasons."

Percy snorted. But soon, his grin faded, and Elisa knew what he was gonna talk about next. "About earlier? I'm sorry for questioning you like that. I was an asshole."

The girl shrugged half-heartedly. "S'okay," she said. "I was an asshole back."

"So are you and Drew really—" Percy cut his own question off.

Elisa raised her eyebrows. She gave the night time to seep in, waiting to see if Percy would finish his question. "Dating?" she asked when he didn't.

"... Yeah."

"No. We're not dating. We're not 'more than friends', or whatever you said."

"Do you like girls then?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, I do," said Elisa. "Just not Drew—or any girl at the moment, actually."

"Do you like guys?"

"Why the sudden interest?" Elisa looked at Percy from the corner of her eye.

Percy's face heated up. He shrugged, shifting around. "Just wondering, I guess ..."

Elisa scratched the back of her neck, her hair was tickling the back of her neck. Her hair had to look like a rat's nest, she wallowed around in her sleep. "I never really paid much attention to what my crushes were—like, if they were a girl or guy or not. Silena said that was pansexual or something."

"Bisexual is where you like guys and girls, right?" asked Percy.

"I think so," said Elisa. "Why?"

"I heard these girls talking about it in school one day," said Percy. "Personally, I never really cared too much about it. But ... if I had to pick a label—or whatever they called it—I think I'd be bisexual."

Elisa narrowed her eyes. "Who was the first guy you liked?" she pried.

"I'll tell you as long as you tell me the first girl you liked," said Percy.

That didn't matter much to Elisa. She had no problem admitting past crushes, had no problem admitting feelings she had long gotten over. "Deal."

"It was this comic character," said Percy. "He was really cool. I remember I begged Mom to go see the movie that came out about him. The movie kinda sucked, but he was hot."

Elisa snorted. "The first girl I liked ..." she mumbled. "Oh, gods, what was her name—? Kat! It was a nickname, of course, but I didn't even realize I liked her until way after. She moved away and I didn't realize until randomly one day why I felt queasy around her."

Percy was smiling slightly. "So you and Drew really have nothing?"

"Nothing," Elisa promised. "But I want to know why you care."

Percy's eyes widened. "Well, since we're friends, I need to know if the person you're seeing—or are interested in—is a good person. That's all. I mean, I hope you'd do that for me."

Elisa leaned back slightly, resting her hands on the wooden boards behind her. "Okay," she said. She licked the corner of her dry lip, looking to Cabin Eleven across from them. "You looked really shaken when you knocked earlier, what made you so shaken? I mean, I know what you saw, but what about it?"

Percy's eyes turned brooding again instead of animated and lively. "All the talk about the Labyrinth and what it does to people ... You know, insanity and madness."

"Oh, yeah, that ..." muttered Elisa. "That's part of the reason Annabeth and Clarisse got me involved: What the Labyrinth does to people."

"Makes them insane?" asked Percy.

Elisa nodded. "You saw Chris earlier. I hate to say it—but he was so much worse when I first got to him. I know Clarisse wants me to do more, but there's only so much I can do."

"You've been trying to curse Chris?" asked Percy.

"Key word: Trying. If Dionysus was here, Chris would have been cured instantly. But if I ... If something goes wrong, because of me, Chris could be put in a much worse state."

"Do you think your dad would've helped Chris?"

The daughter of madness shrugged. "If he was in a good mood, maybe."

Percy was hunched over, resting his elbows on his knees. "Why is Mr. D not here?"

"I told you," said Elisa. "Zeus needed him for something. Dionysus never really told me." She shrugged, hoping Percy would drop the subject. But she knew him well enough to know he wasn't going to do that. She knew he would ask again, eventually, he always did.

The boy was silent for a moment, so Elisa waited for him to gather his thoughts. She was busy listening out for the cleaning harpies that would be making another round.

"It was like someone other than Iris was letting me view Nico," Percy said, breaking the silence. "I didn't have to give a drachma, I didn't have to say anything. That fountain Poseidon gave me just showed me Nico summoning Theseus."

Elisa started frowning. They didn't have many people on their side. Sure, the Olympians, but the gods never put that much effort in until death was knocking on the shores again.

"Do you think it was Iris?" she asked. "That Iris thought you needed to see what was happening that bad that she just showed it to you?"

The son of Poseidon shrugged. "She's never done anything like that before—to me or anyone else that I know of."

"If it wasn't Iris, who else could it be?" Elisa asked. "Could it be Hades? Maybe he wants us to help Nico?"

A cloud covered the moon, causing a dark shadow to be cast upon Percy's face. "Hades wouldn't ask me for help," he said. "I'd be the last person he'd ask for help."

Elisa shifted uncomfortably, knowing that she had crossed into dangerous topics with Percy. He had a shitty past filled with dangerous quests from the gods, and Elisa knew what Hades had tried to do to the Jackson family, Grover, and Annabeth two summers ago. Percy was right, the God of the Dead would go to anyone else before ever asking the son of Poseidon.

She stood up, brushing off the back of her thighs. Elisa was ending their conversation on a heavy note. Percy looked up at her, the shadow no longer covering his face.

"Get some sleep—or try to, anyway," Elisa told him. "Gods know how much sleep we'll be able to get down in that maze."

She knew, however, that neither of them would be able to fall back asleep.

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Just after dawn, the quest members met at Zeus's Fist. Elisa packed a bag—Thermos filled with nectar, a bag of ambrosia, bedroll, rope, clothes, and flashlights with lots of extra batteries. She still had Acantha in the back pocket of her shorts and Scion in the waistband, too.

It was all thanks to Castor, Pollux, and Drew that Elisa had any kind of bag with her. She had no idea what to take on a quest, the only quest she had ever been on was one she hijacked without a second thought and no supplies on her.

It was a clear morning. The fog burned away with the sun and the sky was a clear blue. Campers would be having their lessons for the day, flying pegasi and practicing archer, and scaling the lava wall. Meanwhile, they would be heading underground.

Juniper and Grover stood apart from the group. Juniper had been crying again, but she was trying to keep it together for Grover's sake. The dryad kept fussing with his clothes, straightening his Rasta cap, and brushing goat fur off his shirt. Since they had no idea what they would encounter, he was dressed as a human, with a cap to hide his horns, jeans, fake feet, and sneakers to hide his goat legs.

Chiron, Quintus, and Mrs. O'Leary stood with the other campers who'd come to wish them well, but there was too much activity for it to feel like a happy send-off. A couple of tents had been set up by the rocks for guard duty. Beckendorf and his siblings, other kids of Hephaestus, were working on a line of defensive spikes and trenches. Chiron had decided they needed to guard the Labyrinth exit at all times. Just in case.

Annabeth was doing one last check on her supply pack. Elisa shrugged her bag over her shoulder after the blonde was finished rifling through it. Tyson and Percy walked over, making Annabeth frown.

"Percy, you look terrible," she noted to the son of Poseidon.

"He killed the water fountain last night," Tyson confided.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

Before Percy could answer, Chiron trotted over. "Well, it appears you are ready!"

So Elisa's brave face was working perfectly. She wasn't sure of a moment in time when she had felt so nervous about anything.

The centaur was trying to sound upbeat, but Elisa could tell he was also anxious.

Percy said, "Hey, uh, Chiron, can I ask you a favor while I'm gone?"

"Of course, my boy."

"Be right back, guys," said Percy, nodding towards the woods. Chiron raised an eyebrow, but followed the boy out of earshot.

Elisa watched as the two shared a tense conversation, unable to catch on to what was being shared between them. She looked to her left, about to ask a question to Annabeth, but found the blonde gone. She caught Drew's stare, and the daughter of Aphrodite raised her eyebrows.

"No sneaking onto this quest?" Drew asked casually, shuffling over to Elisa.

Elisa shifted her backpack's weight. "No," she said. "Spread any lies recently? Y'know—about us?"

Drew didn't look ashamed. She didn't look baffled that Elisa knew. She only looked accomplished, as if those lies were all some bigger plan she had.

"Percy asked you about that?" she asked.

"Why the hell you say that kind of stuff?" Elisa demanded.

The daughter of love shrugged. "People already think it's true."

"But it's not," said Elisa. "And we're not gonna play into those lies like they are true. And don't go lying to my friends about me, either!"

"Friends ..." Drew blew a raspberry. "I'm trying to help, Elisa. Think about why Percy would care so much."

"You didn't help Drew," said Elisa. "Look, you may have had good intentions, but if you're gonna do anything about this ... If you're planning anything with Silena again, how about you run it by me before you just start doing shit? I don't want to tell Percy about my feelings for him, but I don't want to lose my friendship with him, either."

Drew's expression of accomplishment faded away. "You really don't want to tell him?"

"No." Elisa shook her head. "I don't."

"You don't want to know if he feels the same way?"

Elisa shook her head again. "I'm too worried about other things to worry about my love life—but that doesn't mean you can go fucking around with my love life, okay? I get you we're trying to 'help'" —she made air quotes around the word— "but don't. Please."

Drew swallowed heavily. "Okay," she said. "No more meddling. I'm sorry. I assumed you'd want to tell Percy."

Elisa tucked her hands in the front pockets of her shorts. "It's fine," she said. "I just wanted to make that clear before I go."

"Yeah ..." Drew glanced at Zeus's Fist. Her perfectly-shaped eyebrows furrowed. "You really want to go on this quest?"

"Yes," Elisa said with certainty. "Nico's out there, I'm sure of it. And ... I can't just leave him. We came to Camp together, and I intend to bring him back."

Drew knew—knew as in knew that Elisa and Nico had a sibling-like relationship—but she didn't know about Nico's parentage. No one could know, but the four who had searched for him and Nico himself. Still, Drew knew of the time Elisa had put in over the months to try and find him. The black-haired girl never questioned Elisa; if any of her siblings ever got lost, she'd do anything to try and find them.

"You think Nico might be in the Labyrinth?" asked Drew.

Elisa shifted her weight from foot to foot. There were times Drew had gotten dangerously close to asking the wrong questions; questions that could make Elisa reveal things that she shouldn't.

"It'd make sense as to why I can't find Nico," said Elisa.

Drew's gaze wavered. She blinked a couple of times, glancing away. She never wanted to bring up the possibility that Nico was dead, as she didn't want to set the daughter of Dionysus off. And for a long time, Elisa was grateful, she really didn't know if Nico was alive or dead—until a few days ago, that is.

"Well," Drew grabbed Elisa's forearm, squeezing it tightly, "Annabeth's looking over here like she wants to get you and Percy moving."

Elisa glanced in the direction of the daughter of wisdom. Annabeth met Elisa's eye, nodding to Percy.

"Yeah," said Elisa, giving Drew a strained smile. "I'll see you later."

The daughter of love let go of Elisa's arm, her smile waving slightly. Her eyes grew glassy in the sunlight. "You better," she said, nudging the girl beside her. "You don't want to die down there, gods know how you'll look. I'd hate for you to die ugly."

"Feeling the love here," said Elisa. "I won't die down there, promise. I'll die in a place where you can fix my hair."

"And your makeup!" added Drew.

"Not a fucking chance!" Elisa said, walking in Percy and Chiron's direction.

Percy and Chiron's conversation was definitely still tense. She shuffled over, saying before she got too close to hear them, "Percy? You ready? I think Annabeth wants to go now."

The teacher and student separated. Percy stuffed his hands inside his pockets, walking over to her. Chiron lagged behind the two campers.

"What were you talking about?" Elisa asked.

Percy looked ahead of them, looking to the Labyrinth entrance. "About another dream I had. And ... something Annabeth and Chiron were talking about. But I know Chiron is keeping an eye on Quintus."

"That's good." Elisa nodded.

"Take care," Chiron told the questers when they had all reached Zeus's Fist. "And good hunting."

"You, too," Percy said.

They walked over to the rocks, where Tyson, Annabeth, and Grover were waiting. Elisa stared at the crack between the boulders—the entrance that was about to swallow them whole.

"Well," Grover said nervously, "goodbye, sunshine."

"Hello, rocks," agreed Tyson.

And together, the five of them descended into darkness.

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They made it a hundred feet before they were hopelessly lost.

The tunnel looked nothing like the one Percy and Elisa had stumbled into before. Now it was rounded like a sewer, constructed of red bricks with iron-barred portholes every ten feet. Percy shone a light through one of the portholes, but the light was strong enough to show anything. It opened into infinite darkness. Elisa thought she heard voices on the other side, grabbing Percy's arm to drag him away.

"We don't know what could be in here," she whispered to him.

Percy's face paled in the flashlight's light. "Thanks," he hissed back sarcastically. "I needed to hear that."

Elisa gave him an annoyed look. "You're welcome."

Annabeth tried her best to guide them. She had this idea that they should stick to the left wall.

"If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it," she said, "we should be able to find our way out again by reversing corners."

It seemed the Labyrinth could hear and was a jokester. As soon as she said that, the left wall disappeared. They found themselves in the middle of a circular chamber with eight tunnels leading out, and no idea how they'd gotten there.

"Um, which way did we come in?" Grover asked nervously.

"Just turn around," said Annabeth.

They each turned towards a different tunnel. It was ridiculous. None of them could decide which way led back to camp.

"Left walls are mean," Tyson decided. "Which way now?"

Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as Elisa could tell, all eight were identical.

"That way," said the blonde.

Elisa raised her eyebrows. "How did you decide that?"

"Deductive reasoning."

"You mean, guessing," corrected Elisa.

The daughter of Athena rolled her eyes. "Just come on," she urged.

The tunnel she'd chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to grey cement, and the ceiling got so low that pretty soon, the questers were hunching over. Tyson was forced to crawl.

Grover's hyperventilating was the loudest noise in the maze. "I can't stand it anymore," he whispered. "Are we there yet?"

"We've been down here maybe five minutes," Annabeth told him.

"It's been longer than that," Grover insisted. "And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite of the wild!"

They kept shuffling forward. Just when Elisa was sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would squish them, it opened into a huge room. Elisa shone her flashlight around the wall. Percy gasped beside her.

The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but Elisa could still make out the colors—red, blue, green, and gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast. There was Poseidon with his trident, holding out grapes to Elisa's father, Dionysus, to turn into wine. Zeus was partying with satyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals. The picture was beautiful but no longer accurate to how the gods chose to look in the twenty-first century. Which Elisa supposed was going to happen, the gods always chose to keep up with the times on certain things; looks were a big one.

In the middle of the room was a three-tiered fountain. It looked like it hadn't held water in a long time.

"What is this place?" Elisa muttered. "It looks almost—"

"Roman," Annabeth answered. "Those mosaics are about two hundred years old."

"But how can they be Roman?" Percy asked.

"The Labyrinth is a patchwork," said Annabeth. "I told you, it's always expanding, adding pieces. It's the only work of architecture that grows by itself."

Elisa's look of wonder melted and her features contorted with discomfort. "You're making it sound alive," she said.

A groaning noise echoed from the tunnel in front of them.

"Let's not talk about it being alive," Grover whispered. "Please?"

"All right," said Annabeth. "Forward."

"Down the hall with the bad sounds?" Tyson said. Even he looked nervous at the proposition.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "The architecture is getting older. That's a good sign. Daedalus's workshop would be in the oldest part."

That sounded reasonable. It made sense. But the maze was made to fuck with you—to play with someone's mind and their sense of reasoning. And it did just that. They went fifty feet and the tunnel turned back to cement, with brass pipes running down the sides. The walls were spray-painted with graffiti. A neon tag sign read: MOZ RULZ.

"I'm thinking this is not Roman," Percy said.

"Nor older," added Elisa helpfully.

Annabeth took a deep breath, then forged ahead.

Every few feet, the tunnels twisted and turned and branched off. The floor beneath them changed from cement to mud to brick and then back to cement. There was no sense, no pattern, no semblance. It was driving Annabeth crazy, Elisa could just tell. They stumbled into a wine cellar—a bunch of dusty bottles in wooden racks—like they were walking through somebody's basement, only there was no exit above them, just more tunnels leading on.

Percy picked up a bottle, covering the label so Elisa couldn't see. "Your dad's the God of Wine, right?"

She grew a little nervous at his odd question. "Yeah ...?"

"Then, tell me what type of wine this is," said Percy, grinning from ear to ear.

"I'll tell you after I smash the bottle over your head," Elisa snapped. "Give me the fucking bottle!"

She lunged for it, but Percy danced out of her way, jumping up high to put the bottle on a higher shelf than what he got it from. He pushed Elisa along before she could grab any of the other bottles to break over his head.

Later the ceiling turned to wooden planks, and Elisa could hear voices above them and the creaking of footsteps, as if they were walking under some kind of bar. It was almost reassuring to hear other people, but still, Elisa was trapped in the Labyrinth.

Then, they found their first skeleton.

He was dressed in white clothes, like some kind of uniform. A wooden crate of glass bottles sat next to him.

"A milkman," said Annabeth.

"What?" Percy asked.

"You don't know what a milkman is?" Elisa raised her eyebrows.

"I know what a milkman is!" Percy insisted. "But ... that was when my mom was little, like, a million years ago. What's he doing here?"

"He got trapped," said Elisa. "He got really unlucky by finding this place and got trapped. Really unlucky."

"Some people do wander in by mistake," agreed Annabeth. "Some come exploring on purpose and never make it back. A long time ago, the Cretans even sent people in here as human sacrifices."

Grover gulped. "He's been down here a long time." He pointed to the skeleton's bottles, which were coated with white dust. The skeletons fingers were clawing at the brick wall, like he had died trying to get out.

"Only bones," Tyson said. "Don't worry, goat boy. The milkman is dead."

"The milkman doesn't bother me," Grover said. "It's the smell. Monsters. Can't you smell it?"

Tyson nodded. "Lots of monsters. But underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people."

"Oh, good," Grover whimpered. "I thought maybe I was wrong."

"We have to get deeper into the maze," said Annabeth. "There has to be a way to the center."

She led the questers to the right, then the left, through a corridor of stainless steel like some kind of air shaft, and they arrived back in the Roman tile room with the three-tiered fountain.

Except for this time, they weren't alone.

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What Elisa noticed first were his faces. Both of them. They jutted out from either side of his head, staring over his shoulders, so his head was much wider than it should've been. He almost looked like a hammerhead shark to her. Looking straight at him, all Elisa saw were two overlapping ears and mirror-image sideburns.

He was dressed like a New York City doorman: A long black overcoat, shiny shoes, and a black top hat that somehow managed to stay on his double-wide head.

"Well, Annabeth?" said his left face. "Hurry up!"

"Don't mind him," said the right face. "He's terribly rude. Right this way, miss."

Annabeth's jaw dropped. "Uh ... I don't ..."

Tyson frowned. "That funny man has two faces."

"The funny man has ears, you know!" the left face scolded. "Now come along, miss."

"No, no," the right face said. "This way, miss. Talk to me, please."

The two-faced man regarded Annabeth as best he could out of the corners of his eyes. It was impossible to look at him straight on without focusing on one side or the other. And suddenly, Elisa realized that's what he was asking—he wanted Annabeth to choose.

Behind him were two exits, blocked by wooden doors with huge iron locks. They hadn't been there their first time through. The two-faced doorman held a silver key, which he kept passing from his left hand to his right hand. Elisa wondered if they had stumbled into a completely different room, but the frieze of the gods looked exactly the same.

Behind the questers, the doorway they'd come through had disappeared, replaced by more mosaics. They wouldn't be going back the way they'd come.

"The exits are closed," Annabeth said.

"Duh!" the man's left face said.

"Where do they lead?" she asked.

"One probably leads the way you wish to go," the right face said encouragingly. "The other leads to certain death."

"Oh, great," Elisa muttered under her breath.

"I—I know who you are," Annabeth said.

"Oh, you're a smart one!" the left face sneered. "But do you know which way to choose? I don't have all day."

"Why are you trying to confuse me?" Annabeth asked.

The right face smiled. "You're in charge now, my dear. All the decisions are on your shoulders. That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"I—"

"We know you, Annabeth," the left face said. "We know what you wrestle with every day. We know your indecision. You will have to make your choice sooner or later. And the choice may kill you."

Elisa stared at the double-faced man, trying her hardest to focus on only one. She had her ideas of what the god meant, and who the god was: Janus, the God of Choices.

He was the God of Choices, and that's what he came here to make happen. Or—to warn about upcoming choices. Did he mean Annabeth siding with Kronos? As far as Elisa knew, Annabeth had been one of the leading forces in trying to stop Kronos at Camp Half-Blood. But maybe that was a ploy, Elisa liked to believe that wasn't the case. Elisa was sure she knew the daughter of Athena better than that; she knew that Annabeth would never join Kronos, even if Luke was Kronos's right-hand man.

All color had drained out of Annabeth's face. "No ... I don't—"

"For the gods sake, leave her alone," Elisa snapped. "You don't have anything better to do?"

The two sets of eyes slid over to Elisa. She struggled to pick which side to look at; she settled for the right face, that face seemed like the nicer out of the two.

"Elisabet Bardales ..." the left face mused with a scowl. "You decided what you were going to do to him, didn't you?"

Elisa's eyes flashed angrily. Her jaw clenched and her knuckles whitened as she clenched her fists. "Who the fu—?"

Percy pulled Elisa back before she could launch herself as the god. "Who are you, anyway?" he demanded.

"I'm your best friend," the right face said.

"I'm your worst enemy," the left face said.

"I'm Janus," both faces said in harmony. "God of Doorways. Beginnings. Endings. Choices."

Elisa was right. The hammerhead god before them was Janus. "Fucking weirdo," she muttered under breath.

"I'll see you soon enough, Perseus Jackson," the right face promised. "But for now it's Annabeth's turn." He laughed giddily. "Such fun!"

"Shut up!" his left face said. "This is serious. One bad choice can ruin your whole life. It can kill you and all your friends. But no pressure, Annabeth. Choose!"

With a chill up her spine, Elisa remembered the words of the prophecy: The child of Athena's final stand.

"Don't do it," Percy told Annabeth.

"I'm afraid she has to," the right face said cheerfully.

Annabeth licked her lips. "I—I choose—"

Before she could point to a door, a brilliant light flooded the room.

Janus raised his hands to either side of his head to cover his eyes. When the light died, a woman was standing at the fountain.

She was tall and graceful, with long hair the color of chocolate, braided in plaits with gold ribbons blended in. She wore a simple white dress, but when she moved, the fabric shimmered with colors like oil on water.

"Janus," she said, "are we causing trouble again?"

"N-no, milady!" Janus's right face stammered.

"Yes!" the left face admitted quickly.

"Shut up!" the right face said.

"Excuse me?" the woman asked.

"Not you, milady! I was talking to myself."

"I see," the lady said. "You know very well your visit is premature. The girl's time has not yet come. So I give you a choice: Leave these heroes to me, or I shall turn you into a door and break you down."

"What kind of door?" the left face asked.

"Shut up!" the right door yelled.

"Because French doors are nice," the left face mused. "Lots of natural light."

"Shut up!" the right face wailed. "Not you, milady! Of course I'll leave. I was just having a bit of fun. Doing my job. Offering choices."

"Causing indecision," the woman corrected. "Now begone!"

The left face muttered, "Party pooper," then he raised his silver key, inserted it into the air, and disappeared.

The woman turned towards them, and fear grabbed Elisa's heart and gave it a tight tug. The lady's eyes shone with power. 'Leave these heroes to me.' That didn't sound good. For a second, Elisa almost wished they had taken their chances with Janus. But then, the woman smiled.

"You must be hungry," she said. "Sit with me and talk."

She waved her hand and the old Roman fountain began to flow. Jets of clear water sprayed into the air. A marble table appeared, laden with platters of sandwiches and pitchers of lemonade.

"Who ... who are you?" Percy asked.

"I am Hera." The goddess smiled. "Queen of Heaven."

ˋˏ [ 👑 ] ˎˊ

Elisa had seen Hera once before, at the council of the gods the previous winter. And if the girl was honset, she hadn't paid much attention to the Goddess of Marriage. In her defense, Elisa had just lost Zoë and lost Bianca a few days before that.

But the one thing Elisa definitely remembered was that Hera didn't look so normal. Of course, gods are usually twenty feet tall when they're at Olympus, so that makes them look a lot less normal. But, now, Hera almost looked like a regular mother, ready to welcome them with open arms after a long, hard day of fighting for their lives.

The goddess served them sandwiches. She even poured them lemonade.

"Grover, dear," she said. "Use your napkin. Don't eat it."

"Yes, ma'am," said Grover.

"Tyson, you're wasting away. Would you like another peanut-butter sandwich?"

Tyson stifled a belch. "Yes, nice lady."

"Queen Hera," Annabeth said. "I can't believe it. What are you doing in the Labyrinth?"

Hera smiled. She flicked one finger and Annabeth's hair combed itself. All the dirt and grime disappeared from her face.

"I came to see you, naturally," the goddess said.

Annabeth and Elisa made nervous eye contact. The gods never really talked to demigods out of the goodness of their hearts. They came to talk because they needed something done.

Still, that didn't exactly keep Elisa from taking full advantage of the food offered. She chowed down on the sandwiches, forgetting to breathe at times. Percy was chowing down on turkey-and-Swiss-cheese sandwiches, Tyson was inhaling one peanut-butter sandwich after another, and Grover was loving the lemonade, eating the Styrofoam cup like an ice cream cone.

"I didn't think—" Annabeth faltered. "Well, I didn't think you liked heroes."

Hera smiled indulgently. "Because of that little spat I had with Hercules? Honestly, I got so much bad press because of that disagreement?"

Elisa took a huge bite of a turkey sandwich to keep herself from spouting out something that'd get her killed on the spot.

"Didn't you try to kill him, like, a lot of times?" asked Annabeth.

Hera waved her hand dismissively. "Water under the bridge, my dear. Besides, he was one of my loving husband's children by another woman. My patience wore thin, I'll admit it. But Zeus and I have had some excellent marriage counseling sessions since then. We've aired our feelings and come to an understanding—especially after that last little incident."

"You mean when he sired Thalia?" Percy guessed.

There was a loud thud and Percy flinched. Elisa was glaring at him over her half-eaten sandwich. The boy placed down his sandwich, rubbing his shin where the daughter of Dionysus had kicked him.

Hera turned toward Percy, her eyes frosty. "Percy Jackson, isn't it? One of Poseidon's ... children." Elisa got the feeling the goddess meant something a lot worse than "children". "As I recall, I voted to let you live at the winter solstice. I hope I voted correctly."

She turned back to Annabeth with a sunny smile. "At any rate, I certainly bear you no ill will, my girl. I appreciate the difficulty of your quest. Especially when you have troublemakers like Janus to deal with."

Annabeth lowered her gaze. "Why was he here? He was driving me crazy."

"Trying to," Hera agreed. "You must understand, the minor gods like Janus have always been frustrated by their small parts to play in the universe. Some, I fear, have little love for Olympus, and could easily be swayed to support the rise of my father."

"You're father?" Percy asked. Elisa pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh. Right."

Elisa knew that Percy had forgotten that Kronos was Hera's father, too, while also being Zeus, Poseidon, and all of the eldest Olympians' father. That made Kronos Elisa's great-grandfather, Zeus being her grandfather. It made her brain hurt so bad she never dwelled on it.

"We must watch the minor gods," said Hear. "Janus. Hecate. Morpheus. They give lip service to Olympus, and yet—"

"That's where Dionysus went," said Elisa. "He was assigned to check on the minor gods by Zeus—er, Lord Zeus."

"Indeed." Hera stared at the fading mosaics of the Olympians. "You see, in times of trouble, even gods can lose faith. They start putting their trust in the wrong things, petty things. They stop looking at the big picture and start being selfish. But I'm the Goddess of Marriage, you see. I'm used to perseverance. You have to rise above the squabbling and chaos and keep believing. You have to always keep your goals in mind."

"What are your goals?" Annabeth asked.

The goddess smiled. "To keep my family, the Olympians, together, of course. At the moment, the best way I can do that is by helping you. Zeus does not allow me to interfere much, I am afraid. But once every century or so, for a quest I care deeply about, he allows me to grant a wish."

"A wish?" Elisa asked.

"Yes, my dear." Hera nodded. "Now, before you ask, let me give you some advice, which I can do for free. I know you seek Daedalus. His Labyrinth is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. But if you want to know his fate, I would ask my son Hephaestus at his forge. Daedalus was a great inventor, a mortal after Hephaestus's heart. There has never been a mortal Hephaestus admired more. If anyone would have kept up with Daedalus and could tell you his fate, it is Hephaestus."

"But how do we get there?" Annabeth asked. "That's my wish. I want a way to navigate the Labyrinth."

Hera looked disappointed. "So be it. You wish for something, however, that you have already been given."

"I don't understand."

"The means is already within your grasp." Hera looked at the son of Poseidon. "Percy knows the answer."

Elisa looked at the boy across the table from her. "He does?"

"I do?" His face had gone blank.

"But that's not fair," said Annabeth. "You're not telling us what it is!"

Hera shook her head. "Getting something and having the wits to use it ... those are two different things. I'm sure your mother, Athena, would agree."

The room rumbled like distant thunder. The Goddess of Marriage stood. "That would be my cue. Zeus grows impatient. Think on what I have said, Annabeth. Seek out Hephaestus. You will have to pass through the ranch, I imagine. But keep going. And use all the means at your disposal, however common they may seem."

She pointed towards the two doors and they melted away, revealing twin corridors, open and dark. "One last thing, Annabeth. I have postponed your day of choice. I have not prevented it. Soon, as Janus said, you will have to make a decision. Farewell!"

The goddess waved a hand and turned into white smoke. So did the food, just as Tyson chomped down on a sandwich that turned to mist in his mouth. The remaining bit of a sandwich turned to dust in Elisa's hands. The fountain trickled to a stop. The mosaic walls dimmed and turned grungy and faded again. The room was no longer any place to have a picnic.

Annabeth stamped her foot. "What sort of help was that? 'Here, have a sandwich. Make a wish. Oops, I can't help you!' Poof!"

"Poof ..." Tyson agreed sadly, looking at his empty plate.

"Well," Grover sighed, "she said Percy knows the answer. That's something."

They all looked at the son of Poseidon.

"But I don't," he protested. "I don't know what she was talking about."

Annabeth sighed. "All right. Then we'll just keep going."

"Which way?" Elisa asked.

Grover and Tyson both tensed. They stood up together, as if they'd rehearsed it. "Left," they said in unison.

The blonde frowned. "How can you be sure?"

"Because something is coming from the right," said Grover.

"Something big," agreed Tyson. "In a hurry."

"Left is it," Elisa decided.

"Left is sounding pretty good," Percy agreed.

The five plunged into the dark corridor, trying to get away from whatever was coming from the right.

👑 OCT. 6TH, 2022 / really looong chapter,, sorry lmao

i still don't like hera (the only gods i really liked in pjo was hermes, dionysus, and artemis tbh) but i am def a hera apologist tho like,, if my husband was like zeus, i'd be bitter and a little crazy