ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter twelve

━━ JUMPING OUT A window five hundred feet above the ground was never Elisa's idea of fun. She didn't hate heights, but soaring through the air with golden metal wings being the only thing keeping her in the air was making her pretty queasy.

The air was thin as Elisa took a long breath in, her nostril flaring. She kept her arms extended. Percy was flying lower to the ground and the daughter of Dionysus exchanged a nervous look with Annabeth.

The blonde yelled, "Spread your arms! Keep them extended."

Elisa did as told. She watched wearily as Percy flapped his arms once and soared away from the tips of the mountains rolling beneath them. Her stomach churned as the wind whistled in her ears. The brunette looked to her right, spotting Nico and Rachel with their glittering manmade wings. Behind them, smoke was billowing from the open windows of Daedalus's workshop.

"We need to land!" Elisa yelled, her voice being carried by the wind. "I don't want to try and see how long these will last."

If Elisa was recalling the story of Icarus and his father correctly, she knew the wings wouldn't last them any time at all.

The redhead looked at her quickly. "How long?"

"I don't know and I don't want to know!" said Elisa.

They swooped down towards the Garden of the Gods. Elisa rolled her eyes as Percy did a complete circle around one of the rock spires and scared a couple of climbers. Then the five of them soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of the visitor center. It was late afternoon and the place looked pretty empty, but they ripped off the wings as quickly as possible. Looking at them, Elisa was right—the lifespan of the wings had quickly deteriorated. The self-adhesive seals that bound the wings to their backs were already melting, and they were shedding bronze feathers. There was no way they could leave them around for the mortals, so the wings were stuffed in the bin outside the cafeteria.

Elisa swiveled the tourist binocular camera to look up at the hill, where she had last seen the Daedaelus's workshop, but it had vanished; no more smoke, no more broken windows, all it was now was a regular hill.

"It moved. The workshop, I mean," she said. "There's no way to know where, though."

"So what do we do now?" Percy asked. "How do we get back in the maze?"

Annabeth gazed at the summit of Pikes Peak in the distance. "Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died ... he said his life force was tied to the Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."

Elisa's brows furrowed. She thought about Grover and Tyson, still down there somewhere. Dying down there, being crushed to death or worse ...

"We'd know if he died, wouldn't we?" said the daughter of madness. "If, as Daedalus said, the Labyrinth is tied to his life force, wouldn't it—y'know—crumble?"

Nico said, "He isn't dead."

Percy's brows furrowed. "How can you be sure?" he asked.

"I know when people die. It's this feeling I get, like a buzzing in my ears."

Elisa avoided the son of Hades's gaze. She looked to the Pikes Peak behind her. She didn't want to think about what Nico had gone through the moments after Bianca had died.

"What about Tyson and Grover, then?" Percy said, sounding anxious for an answer.

Nico shook his head. "That's harder. They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."

"We have to get into town," Annabeth decided. "Our chances of finding an entrance to the Labyrinth will be better. We have to make it back to camp before Luke and his army."

"We could just take a plane," Rachel offered.

Percy shuddered. "I don't fly," he informed her.

"But you just did," she pointed out.

"That was low flying," the son of Poseidon said, "and even that's risky. Flying up really high—that's Zeus's territory. I can't do it. Besides, we don't even have time for a flight. The Labyrinth is the quickest way back."

Elisa got the feeling the boy was hoping they would get lucky and stumble across Grover and Tyson if they went back into the maze.

"That means we need a car into the city," she said. "We don't have the time to walk."

Rachel looked down into the parking lot. She grimaced, as if she were about to do something she regretted. "I'll take care of it."

Elisa furrowed her brows. "How?" she pried.

"Just trust me."

Elisa's face was clearly uneasy, but she relented.

Annabeth looked just as uneasy as the brunette felt. The blonde said, "Okay, I'm going to buy a prism in the gift shop, try to make a rainbow, and send an Iris Message to camp."

"I'm going with you," said the daughter of Dionysus. "Nico, c'mon."

Nico didn't look bothered by her command. Instead, he said, "I'm hungry. Can we get some food?"

Elisa nodded.

"I'll stick with Rachel, then," Percy said. "Meet you guys in the parking lot."

Rachel frowned like she didn't want Percy stuck with her. Elisa felt a rush of irritation. The redhead had a lot of nerve to completely ignore Elisa in favor of Percy and then to act like the boy was a pain.

As they separated, Elisa grabbed Nico by the shoulder and walked behind Annabeth a bit. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked him with a whisper. "You looked bad after that fight. Like—exhausted kind of bad."

"I'm fine," Nico said with a shrug. The brunette's hand fell off his shoulder. "I've just never done that before."

Elisa tried to smile as she tried to act like she wasn't bothered by the son of Hades's evasive attitude. "You've never banished a whole ghost before? A ghost that's one of the three judges?" she said with a tilt of humor in her voice.

"Nope," Nico said, popping the 'P' in the word. "Never have. I think Minos taught me a lot more than he meant to."

"Yeah ..." Elisa said slowly, rubbing her left arm. "Look—I'm sorry that you had to deal with Bianca's death on your own."

It was almost like she could see Nico's mental defense rising. It was like a rather nasty punch to the gut considering she thought they could be honest with each other.

"I went on this quest for you—to try and find you. To get you away from Minos, too," she said quickly, as if delving into a maze known to cause madness was any sort of peace offering. "Once I  knew the Labyrinth had an entrance at camp, you would've found since I never found you before. I guess it was my way of saying sorry."

Nico kept his eyes trained on the dirty ground beneath him, watching every step he took. He sighed heavily before saying, "I'm sorry I was so cold to you back at Geryon's ranch. I was just ..." he took a deep breath, as if looking for the right words, "angry that Bianca would only answer with you and Percy around. And I should've listened to you about Minos. You told me he was crazy and I just refused to listen."

Elisa grabbed his shoulder lightly, giving it a couple of squeezes. "You live and you learn," she said softly. "At least now you know when I say someone is crazy, you know they're crazy."

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When Elisa, Nico, and Annabeth reunited with Percy and Rachel, the redhead would barely look at the three. Elisa knew something had gone down in the parking lot. Percy seemed confused as to what the redhead was upset about as he shrugged when the daughter of Dionysus looked at him for answers.

"We talked to Chiron," Annabeth told the two. "They're doing their best to prepare for battle, but he still wants us back. They're going to need every hero they can get. Did we find a ride?"

"The driver's ready when we are," Rachel said.

She was looking at a man talking to another guy dressed in khakis and a polo shirt. The two were talking in front of a big black car parked at the edge of the lot. It was a Lexus, a damn nice Lexus. Elisa and Annabeth exchanged looks after seeing the car they were about to take.

Elisa couldn't hear what the man dressed in khakis was saying, but she did hear the other guy tell him, "I'm sorry, sir. Emergency. I've ordered another car for you."

"Come on," Rachel said. She led them to the car and got in without even looking at the annoyed guy who'd just been told to find a new car. A minute later they were cruising down the road. The seats were leather. There was plenty of legroom. The back seat had flat-panel TVs built into the headrests and a mini-fridge stocked with bottled water, drinks, and snacks. Percy and Nico started pigging out. Elisa sat there, tapping a finger on her knee, waiting to see if anything would be said about how Rachel could casually get them a Lexus.

"Where to, Miss Dare?" the driver asked.

"I'm not sure yet, Robert," she said. "We just need to drive through town and, uh, look around."

"Whatever you say, miss."

Percy looked at Rachel. "Do you know this guy?"

"No," she said.

Elisa peered at the redhead. "You don't know him, but he'd dropped everything to help you?" Her tone was suspicious.

Rachel swallowed the bile in her throat. "Just keep your eyes peeled," she said. "Help me look."

Elisa curled her lip at the command. She hummed, coming to her own conclusion about the mortal girl: She was rich. There was no other option in Elisa's mind. Rachel was able to get a chauffeur to drive them around ( like seriously, someone middle-class has a chauffeur? ), and not only a chauffeur, but a chauffeur who is driving them around in a Lexus ( a Lexus that had already been rented out by someone else ). Whoever Rachel Dare was, her parents were majorly fucking rich.

They drove through Colorado Springs for about half an hour and saw nothing that Rachel considered a possible Labyrinth entrance. Elisa made sure to keep her bag from the shop between her and Percy. Cold, maybe, but that was exactly the message she wanted to give. She hadn't exactly forgiven him for the island vacation.

Percy had gotten the message loud and clear. He glanced at her before rifling through the bag. The boy grinned slightly as he pulled out Elisa's bottle of grape Fanta.

"Really?" he asked, holding the bottle out to her.

The daughter of Dionysus gave him a cold look, grabbing the bottle out of his hand. "Give that to me," she snapped.

"I didn't say anything," Percy insisted. "Besides, I like that kind of drink."

"Well, it's for me and not for you," Elisa said, unscrewing the top. She took a swig of it before saying, "And of course you do, it's the best kind of drink anyways."

Percy grinned at her, setting back in his seat. The plastic bag between them suddenly felt like too much of a statement to Elisa, and she was itching to remove it. She didn't, however, and choose to screw the purple cap back on her bottle and place it back in the bag. The brunette acted like she hadn't caught Rachel watching her and Percy.

After about an hour, they decided to head north towards Denver, thinking that maybe a bigger city would be more likely to have a Labyrinth entrance, but they were all getting nervous. They were losing time.

Then, right as they were leaving Colorado Springs, Rachel sat bolt upright. "Get off the highway!" she commanded.

The driver glanced back. "Miss?"

"I saw something, I think. Get off here."

The driver swerved across traffic and took the exit.

"What did you see?" Percy asked, because they were pretty much out of the city by that point. There wasn't anything around except hills, grassland, and some scattered farm buildings.

Rachel had the driver turn down some unpromising dirt road. They drove by a sign too fast for Elisa to read it, but Rachel said, "Western Museum of Mining and Industry."

The daughter of Dionysus rolled her eyes. "Oh, great. I love museums."

The museum didn't look like much—a little house like an old-fashioned railroad station, some drills and pumps, and old steam shovels on display outside.

"There." Rachel pointed to a hole in the side of a nearby hill—a tunnel that was boarded up and chained. "An old mine entrance."

"A door to the Labyrinth?" Annabeth asked. "How can you be sure?"

"Well, look at it!" Rachel said. "I mean ... I can see it, okay?"

She thanked the driver and the five got out. He didn't ask for money or anything—more proof for Elisa to believe he was a chauffeur. "Are you sure you'll be all right, Miss Dare? I'd be happy to call your—"

"No!" Rachel said. "No, really. Thanks, Robert. But we're fine."

The museum seemed to be closed, so nobody bothered them as they climbed the hill to the mine shaft. When they got to the entrance, Elisa saw the mark of Daedalus engraved on the padlock, though how Rachel had seen something so tiny all the way from the highway the brunette had no idea. Percy touched the padlock and the chains fell away. They kicked down a few boards and walked inside. For better or worse, they were back in the Labyrinth.

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The dirt tunnels turned to stone. They wound around and split off and tried to confuse them, but Rachel had no trouble guiding them. Percy told her that they needed to get back to New York, and she hardly even paused when the tunnels offered a choice.

To Elisa's surprise, Rachel and Annabeth started up a conversation as they walked. Annabeth asked her more about her background, but Rachel was evasive so they started talking about architecture. It turned out that Rachel knew something about it from studying art. They talked about different facades on buildings around New York—"Have you seen this one?" or "How the structures on this ...?" or whatever else tumbled out of the two's mouths. All Elisa knew was that she knew none of it. She didn't understand shit like that. So the daughter of Dionysus hung back with Nico in comfortable silence.

However, the silence turned uncomfortable as Percy slowed down until he was matching their pace.

"Thanks for coming after us," he said at last, talking to Nico.

The son of Hades's eyes narrowed. He didn't seem as angry as he used to—just suspicious, careful. "I owed you for the ranch, Percy. And Minos had told me that ... I wanted to see Daedalus for myself. Minos was right, in a way. Daedalus should die. Nobody should be able to avoid death that long. It's not natural."

"So his soul is whose you were after all along?" Elisa asked.

Nico walked for another fifty yards before answering. "It hasn't been easy, you know. Having only the dead for company. Knowing that I'll never be accepted by the living. Only the dead respect me, and they only do that out of fear."

"You could be accepted," Percy said. "You could have friends at Camp."

Nico and Elisa stared at him. The brunette raised her eyebrows without a word. However, Nico said, "Do you really believe that, Percy?"

Percy's silence was a good answer.

"I get it, though," Elisa spoke up. "No one ever talks about the fact that Dionysus is the God of Madness. It's almost like if they don't talk about it, it's not real. But they can't really say anything, though, because Dionysus's at Camp, too."

Elisa got the feeling many people wouldn't look in her eye, either. Some said she had the same kind of maddening look Dionysus did; the manic fire that one couldn't tell if the person was insane or a complete genius.

It was a similar look to Nico's dark eyes. He was always a little odd, and at first, Elisa chalked it up to being raised with no parents and by his sister, but she knew now it was much more than that. But after Bianca's death, he'd become almost ... scary. And the way he'd banished Minos, and called himself the king of ghosts—Elisa didn't like the person Nico was growing into.

Before anyone said anything else, Percy ran into Rachel, who'd stopped suddenly. They had come to a crossroads. The tunnel continued straight ahead, but a side tunnel T'd off to the right—a circular shaft carved from black volcanic rock.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

Rachel stared down the dark tunnel. In the dim flashlight beam, her face looked like one of Nico's specters.

"Is that the way?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Rachel said nervously. "Not at all."

"Then why are we stopping?" Elisa asked.

"Listen," Nico said.

Elisa heard wind coming down the tunnel, as if the exit was close by. And she smelled something familiar—something that brought back bad memories. A place she never wanted to visit again. Her back straightened.

"Eucalyptus trees," Percy said. "Like in California."

Last winter, when she and some friends had faced Luke and the Titan Atlas on top of Mount Tamalpais, the air smelled just like that.

"There's something evil down that tunnel," Rachel said. "Something very powerful."

"Hit the nail right on the head," Elisa snapped coldly.

"And the smell of death," Nico added, which made the brunette feel a lot better.

The three who had survived the quest from last winter exchanged glances.

"Luke's entrance," Annabeth guessed. "The one to Mount Othrys—the Titans' palace."

"I have to check it out," Percy said.

Elisa looked at him as if he had placed a curse on her name. "Why?"

"Luke could be right there," the son of Poseidon said. "Or ... or Kronos. I have to find out what's going on."

Annabeth hesitated. "Then we'll all go."

"Or we don't go at all," Elisa offered.

"No," Percy said. "It's too dangerous. If they got hold of Nico, or Rachel for that matter, Kronos could use them. You and Elisa stay here and guard them."

Elisa knew he didn't really trust Annabeth or herself. Annabeth had been fooled by Luke too many times to count and Elisa had been tricked by them before.

"Percy, don't," Rachel said. "Don't go up there alone."

"I'll be quick," the black-haired boy promised. "I won't do anything stupid."

Annabeth took her Yankees cap out of her pocket. "At least take this. And be careful."

"Thanks," Percy said, looking at Elisa, as if thinking about the last time they had to split up. The boy didn't say anything to her, instead he put the hat on, disappearing into thin air. "Here goes nothing."

Elisa looked down the dark tunnel, unable to hear Percy's light steps. It felt like her heartbeat was ready to break her rib bones. The last time she and Percy had parted, she kissed him and he went and blew up a volcano.

It was all of five minutes when Annabeth grabbed Elisa's arm tightly. "He's taking too long. We have to check on him."

"We told him we'd stay here," Rachel protested. "What if he comes back here and finds us all gone?"

"And if he's dead?" Elisa countered with arched brows. "We're wasting valuable time here—we need to get back to camp."

Nico glanced at the daughter of madness. For her ego's sake, Elisa didn't want to know what the look meant. "If we go looking, we go together. Like Annabeth first said to do."

The blonde nodded. She started marching down the path Percy had taken, her flashlight swinging by her side. Rachel glanced between Elisa and Nico, as if waiting for them to change their minds before she hurried after the daughter of Athena. The further they walked down the tunnel, the stronger the smell of eucalyptus became. The smell of mint filled the air, a familiar scent Elisa wished she never did have to smell again.

A blast of cold air smacked her in the face as she emerged at the top of Mount Tam after Nico, the last of the group to leave the maze behind. Nico glanced back at her, as if making sure she was still around. She had to wonder what he was thinking about, but she could only dumbly hope it wasn't about the quest that had gotten his sister killed. The Pacific Ocean was spread out below them, a churning grey under the cloudy sky. About twenty feet downhill, there were two telkhines and Ethan Nakamura examining something.

It was a six-foot-long scythe. The blade curved like a crescent moon, with a wooden handle wrapped in leather. The blade glinted two different colors—steel and bronze. It was the weapon of Kronos, the one he'd used to slice up his father, Ouranos. The weapon Zeus used against him later, before sending Kronos into Tartarus. Now, the weapon was completely reformed.

Elisa glanced up at the mountain's peak, where a black marble fortress loomed above her. It was the same fortress she had seen rising from shadows last winter. It reminded her of an oversized mausoleum, with walls fifty feet high. To Elisa, it seemed cruel that people who could only see past the Mist could see something so terrible rising. She knew that everything that was visible below the summit was fuzzy to mortals, however, it was even fuzzy to Elisa, someone who could see past the Mist perfectly fine.

There was a strong magical presence—powerful enough that it seemed past the Mist and the veil that seemed to have been draped over Mount Tamalpais. Above the four, the sky swirled into a huge funnel cloud. Elisa couldn't see Atlas, but she could hear him groaning in the distance, just beyond the fortress, still laboring the weight of the sky.

Annabeth started to take a step when a scream escaped the walls of the dark palace. She froze quickly, looking to Elisa to see if she had heard the noise as well. It wasn't the daughter of Athena's imagination because Ethan and the two telkhines grabbed Kronos's scythe and ran for the fortress.

It felt like Elisa's heart got lodged in her throat; she recognized the scream. Her face was pale as she slammed her arm into Nico's back to push him along. "Move! Move!"

The four hurried through a dark foyer and into what had to be the main hall of the stronghold. The floor shined like a mahogany piano—pure black, yet still full of light. Black marble statues lined the walls. Elisa was only able to recognize some faces, but she still knew she was looking at paintings of the Titans who had ruled the world before the gods. At the end of the large room, between two bronze braziers, was a dais. On that dais was the golden sarcophagus that housed the reforming body of Kronos.

The sarcophagus was just like Elisa remembered; nearly ten feet long, and way too large for any regular person. It was carved with elaborate scenes of death and destruction, pictures of the gods being trodden under chariots, temples, and famous landmarks being burned and obliterated.

And standing in front of the coffin was Luke. His eyes shined with a bright golden color that matched the coffin. Where his feet touched the floor, the black marble was coated with a thin layer of ice. He held the scythe in his hands, leisurely swinging it around, as if he were becoming reacquainted with the weapon again.

Elisa half-expected for the scythe to come barreling towards them for the intrusion. Instead, Luke smiled gleefully at something on the other side of the room; Percy was running—or trying to run. He looked like he was running but was moving at a pace so slow, a toddler could beat him in a race.

"Run, little hero!" Luke laughed gleefully. "Run!"

It was Luke, it looked like Luke, but whatever voice was coming out of the son of Hermes was not only Luke Castellan's voice. Underneath the blond's voice was another's; a horrible sound; an ancient, cold sound, like knives being sharpened on an iron block.

The son of Hermes was only ten feet away when Rachel yelled, "Percy!" The redhead grabbed something out of her back pocket and aimed for the blond's head. A blue, plastic hairbrush—that hit Luke directly in his right eye.

The boy let out a yelp, and for a moment, there wasn't another voice layered beneath his. Percy started running at full speed, his feet barely able to keep up. He ran head-first into Elisa, and grabbed her by the bicep to either of them from falling.

Annabeth's grey eyes were wide, swirling like a stormcloud. "Luke? What—?"

Percy hadn't stopped running when he grabbed Elisa by the arm. The brunette was pulled along as the son of Poseidon ran for the first exit he could find. Nico was right behind them, never hesitating to follow. Rachel was ready to follow, but Annabeth seemed frozen with shock. The redhead grabbed her by the shirt, dragging her along.

They ran straight out of the fortress. The five were almost back to the Labyrinth entrance when Elisa heard the loudest bellow she had ever heard—and this time, there was no hint of Luke's voice anymore, only the cold, ancient one: "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. Elisa heard muffled screams from the telkhines inside. Dust billowed everywhere.

The five plunged into the Labyrinth and never stopped running, not even as the howl of the Titan lord shook the entire world behind them.

👑  NOV. 26TH, 2022  /  i don't have much to say about this chapter tbh

it's like,, meh?? it's all plot heavy w/ not much added