❛002❜

THE NEXT MORNING there was a lot of excitement at breakfast.

apparently around three in the morning an aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. ivy had been so exhausted she slept right through the noise. the magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in our defenses, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until lee fletcher from apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. after a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armour, it got the message and withdrew.

"it's still out there," lee warned them during announcements. "twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. the thing was ten meters long and bright green. Its eyes –" he shuddered.

"you did well, lee." chiron patted him on the shoulder. "everyone stay alert, but stay calm. this has happened before."

"aye," quintus said from the head table. "and it will happen again. more and more frequently."

the campers murmured among themselves.

everyone knew the rumors: luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. it didn't help that our attendance was down. they only had about eighty campers. three years ago, there had been more than a hundred. some had died. some had joined luke. some had just disappeared.

"this is a good reason for new war games," quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "we'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"yes..." chiron said. "well, enough announcements. let us bless this meal and eat." he raised his goblet. "to the gods!"

they all raised their glasses and repeated the blessing.

ivy grabbed her plate along with her siblings to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of their food into the flames. she got extra pretty chocolate covered strawberries.

"aphrodite," ivy said. then she whispered, "help me with nico, and luke, and grover's problem..."

there was so much to worry about ivy could have stood there all morning, but she headed back to her table.

once everyone was eating, ivy noticed chiron and grover walking over percy's table. grover was bleary-eyed. his shirt was inside out. he slid his plate onto the table and slumped next to percy.

tyson shifted uncomfortably. he lumbered off, leaving his breakfast half eaten.

ivy looked towards annabeth at the athena table, raising an eyebrow. the blonde's eyes flickered between her and the poseidon table. she nodded.

standing up from her table and abandoning her food, ivy went over the percy's table. annabeth mirrored her actions.

"i brought grover over," the brunette heard chiron say as she neared them. "because i thought you two might want to, ah, discuss matters. now, if you'll excuse me, i have some Iris-messages to send. i'll see you later in the day." he gave grover a meaningful look, then trotted out of the pavilion.

"what's he talking about?" percy asked grover.

grover chewed his eggs. "he wants you to convince me," he mumbled.

ivy slid next to percy, annabeth sitting in front of them.

"i can tell you what it's about," the daughter of aphrodite said. "the labyrinth."

she hadn't realized how close she had sat to percy. it was hard to concentrate with the familiar intoxicating smell of sea breeze and musky cologne. that, plus the whisper... ivy wasn't in the conversation completely.

"you're not supposed to be here," percy said.

"we need to talk," annabeth insisted.

"but the rules..."

they all knew campers weren't allowed to switch tables. satyrs were different. they weren't really demigods. but the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. ivy wasn't even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. she'd never seen it happen. if mr d had been here, he probably would've strangled the girls with magical grapevines or something, but mr d wasn't here. chiron had already left the pavilion. quintus looked over and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything.

ivy gave him a confused look. "since when do you follow the rules, anyway?"

"since always," percy sassed.

"beating up maverick isn't following the rules," she said.

the son of poseidon's usual brood deppen at the mention of what got him expelled, but ivy knew he didn't regret beating the guy up or getting expelled. he opened his mouth to argue when annabeth interrupted.

"look," she said, looking tiredly between the two. "grover is in trouble. there's only one way we can figure out to help him. it's the labyrinth. that's what clarisse, ivy and i have been investigating."

ivy almost jumped when she felt something beneath the table touch her hand, but she kept her expression unbothered. percy slipped his hand in hers, he had a pondering expression on his face, like he wasn't holding her hand. the twitch in the corner of his mouth gave away his nonchalance. "you mean the maze where they kept the minotaur, back in the old days?"

"exactly," ivy said flatly, she wasn't going to let him see her affected.

"so... it's not under the king's palace in crete any more," percy guessed. "the labyrinth is under some building in america."

he looked proud of himself for knowing that, he tapped his fingers against her hand as if asking did you see that? and she did see that. but she was sorry to say that he was wrong.

ivy smiled at how adorable he was. "no, perce. the labyrinth is huge. it wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."

percy's mouth formed into an oh, nodding in understanding. "so... the labyrinth part of the underworld?"

"no." annabeth frowned. "well, there may be passages from the labyrinth down into the underworld. i'm not sure. but the underworld is way, way down. the labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin. it's been growing for thousands of years, lacing its way under western cities, connecting everything together underground. you can get anywhere through the labyrinth."

"if you don't get lost," grover muttered. "and die a horrible death."

"grover, there has to be a way," ivy said, they've been over this many times before. "clarisse lived."

"barely!" the satyr said. "and the other guy–"

"he was driven insane," ivy corrected, "he didn't die."

"and gabriel is helping him get better," annabeth added.

"oh, joy." grover's lower lip quivered. "that makes me feel much better."

"whoa," percy said. "back up. what's this about clarisse and a crazy guy?"

ivy glanced over towards the ares table. clarisse was watching them like she knew what they were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate.

"last year," annabeth said with a low voice, "clarisse went on a mission for chiron."

"i remember," percy said, "it was secret."

ivy nodded. "it was secret, because she found chris rodriguez."

"the guy from the hermes cabin?" percy tightened his hold on her hand in distress. he must have remembered him from two years ago. they'd eavesdropped on chris rodriguez aboard luke's ship, the princess andromeda. chris was one of the half-bloods who'd abandoned camp and joined the titan army.

"yeah," annabeth said. "last summer he just appeared in phoenix, arizona, near clarisse's mom's house."

"what do you mean, he just appeared?" the black haired boy asked.

"he was wandering around the desert, in fifty degrees, in full greek armour, babbling about string," ivy explained.

"string," percy said.

"he'd been driven completely insane," annabeth continued for her. "clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. she tried to nurse him back to health. chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. gabriel tried to help reduce the damage, and he did help a lot actually. but the only thing they got out of him: luke's men have been exploring the labyrinth."

ivy suppressed a shivered at the labyrinth conversation. chris didn't deserve this fate. he hadn't been a bad guy. she couldn't help but wonder, what could've driven him mad?

"okay," percy rolled his shoulders in discomfort. ivy rubbed a soothing circle on his hand, he relaxed at her touch. "why were they exploring the labyrinth?"

"we weren't sure," annabeth said. "that's why clarisse went on a scouting expedition. chiron kept things hushed up and only told ivy because he didn't want anyone panicking. then he got me involved because... well, the labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. the architecture involved–" her expression turned a little dreamy. "the builder, daedalus, was a genius. but the point is, the labyrinth has entrances everywhere. if luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"except it's a maze, right?"

"full of horrible traps," grover agreed. "dead ends. illusions. psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"but not if you had ariadne's string," ivy said. "in the old days, ariadne's string guided theseus out of the maze. it was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by daedalus. and chris rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"so luke is trying to find ariadne's string," percy concluded. "why? what's he planning?"

annabeth and ivy shared a look, the latter shook her head. "we don't know. at first i thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense. the closest entrances clarisse found were in manhattan, which wouldn't help luke get past our borders. clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but... it was very dangerous. she had some close calls. annabeth and i researched everything we could find out about daedalus. it didn't help much. i don't understand exactly what luke's planning, but i do know the labyrinth might be the key to grover's problem."

percy blinked. "you think pan is underground?"

"it would explain why he's been impossible to find," annabeth said.

grover shuddered. "satyrs hate going underground. no searcher would ever try going in that place. no flowers. no sunshine. no coffee shops!"

"but," ivy said, "the labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. it reads your thoughts. it was designed to fool you, to trick you and kill you; but if you can make the labyrinth work for you–"

"it could lead you to the wild god" percy said.

"i can't do it." grover hugged his stomach. "just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

"grover, it may be your last chance," annabeth said. "the council is serious. one week or you learn to tap dance! do you know how to fucking tap dance?"

over at the head table, quintus cleared his throat. ivy got the feeling he didn't want to make a scene, but the girls was really pushing it, sitting at the poseidon table so long.

"we'll talk later. annabeth stood up. "convince him, will you?"

she returned to the athena table, ignoring all the people who were staring at her. ivy ignored the way quintus's eyes remained on her as she didn't follow her actions.

grover buried his head in his hands. "i can't do it. my searcher's license. pan. i'm going to lose it all.iI'll have to start a puppet theatre."

"don't say that! we'll figure something out."

ivy nodded. "like we always do."

he looked at them, teary-eyed. "you've two have seen me underground. in that cyclops's cave. do you really think i could..."

his voice faltered. ivy remembered the sea of monsters, when he'd been stuck in a cyclops's cave. he'd never liked underground places to begin with, but now grover really hated them. cyclopes gave him the creeps, too. unlike ivy, he never got over that fear of at least tyson... grover tried to hide it, but ivy was good at reading people. she knew how he felt. grover was terrified of the big guy, like she had been what seemed a lifetime ago.

"i have to leave," grover said miserably. "juniper's waiting for me. it's a good thing she finds cowards attractive." he left with a miserable expression.

ivy heard the loud clatter of cups loudly coming from quintus. a warning. she sighed as she stood. against her wishes, she let go of percy's hand. "i'll see you later, okay?" she promised with a smile. "we'll figure it out."

she took a step towards her table, but percy grabbed her hand, holding her back from leaving. ivy turned to look at him, ignoring how the entire camp was looking at them.

"we'll be in the war game together, won't we?" percy asked.

ivy shrugged, a teasing smirk making its way to her face. she walked backwards to her table as she let go of his hand. "i dunno. better start praying if you want things going your way, seaweed brain."

that night after dinner, quintus had the campers suit up in combat armour like they were getting ready for capture the flag, but the mood among the campers was a lot more serious. sometime during the day, the crates in the arena had disappeared, and ivy had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods. it didn't feel like a fun game anymore, more like training. preparation for when luke made his move on camp.

"right," quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "gather round."

he was dressed in black leather and bronze. in the torchlight, his grey hair made him look like a ghost. mrs o'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"you will be in teams of two," quintus announced.

ivy was nudged by someone on her left, she turned. travis smiled down at her, an expected look in his eyes, he wanted to partner up. her eyes flickered further down her right, where percy was not-so-subtly looking at the interaction. she winced internally, this she hadn't planned to happen. ivy opened her mouth to respond to travis when quintus yelled, "which have already been chosen!'

"awwwww!" everybody complained.

"your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. the wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. there are six monsters. each has a silk package. only one holds the laurels. you must find the wreath before the other teams. and of course... you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

the crowd started murmuring excitedly. the task sounded pretty straightforward. they'd all slain monsters before. that's what they trained for.

"i will now announce your partners," quintus said. "there will be no trading. no switching. no complaining."

"aroooof!" mrs o'leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. beckendorf would be with silena, which beckendorf looked pretty happy about and ivy knew her sister was hiding her giddiness. clarisse was with lee fletcher from the apollo cabin – melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat.

"travis and connor stoll," quintus announced.

ivy looked at travis at her left, he shrugged with a smile. the boy was happy to be with his brother. "maybe next time?"

she gave him a nod for an answer. travis walked closer to his brother, further away from her.

names continued to be called out. tobias was paired with nyssa barrera from the hephaestus cabin. ivy rolled her eyes as she saw her brother make a move on the poor girl, good thing she was a tough one. gabriel and annabeth came next. the former send her a panic look, mouthing omg over and over again like he was meeting his celebrity crush for the first time. some time later, quintus announced, "percy jackson and ivy fitzgerald."

raising an eyebrow at the son of poseidon from a distance, ivy walked towards him. she noticed his armour was lopsided, the back was hanging loosely. as she came from behind him, she poked percy in the small of his back, the part that was exposed.

"your armour is always crooked," ivy told him.

percy grinned down at her. the brunette redid his straps, adjusting the fit of the armour. she tried not to lose all sense of reality at being so close to him. ivy could feel his minty breath hit her face softly.

"ah, fitzy, maybe it's always crooked because i like it when you fix it," he teased, or flirted? she didn't know.

rolling her blue eyes amusingly, ivy told him, "i'm not your maid. count it as the last time i do it." she looked up at him, his sea-green eyes glittered. they were standing too close for her racing heart to handle.

percy nodded slowly, "yes, ma'am."

ivy took a step away from him. she hoped nobody had seen that... moment. or whatever.

"grover underwood," quintus said, "with tyson."

grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "what? b-but–"

"no, no," tyson whimpered. "must be a mistake. goat boy–"

"no complaining!" quintus ordered. "get with your partner. you have two minutes to prepare!"

tyson and grover both looked at percy pleadingly. he tried to give them an encouraging nod, and gestured that they should move together. tyson sneezed. grover started chewing nervously on his wooden club.

"they'll be okay," ivy said. "come on. i'm not wearing one of my battle outfits to lose."

it was still light when they got into the woods, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. it was cold, too, even in summer. ivy and percy found tracks almost immediately – scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. they began to follow the trail.

"so," ivy said, thinking back about the holding-hands-under-the-table thing that he definitely did to annoy her. "how much did you pray for us to end up paired together?"

percy smirked. "a lot. i just couldn't lose the opportunity to be with the princess of camp," he said sarcastically.

cracking a smile, ivy played in the game, "you mean you jumped at the opportunity to be alone in the woods with no one else near with me."

a creek came in front of them, they jumped in easily.

"did you expect me to do anything else?" he asked.

"i expected you to have murdered me by now," ivy said. "'cause we are in the setting for a serial killer movie."

some twigs snaped nearby. dropping silent, they crouched behind a boulder. it was only the stoll brothers tripping through the woods and cursing. their dad was the god of thieves, but they were about as stealthy as water buffaloes.

ivy didn't notice percy scowling as she stifled a laugh at how travis slipped in a puddle.

once the stolls had passed, they forged deeper into the west woods, where the monsters were wilder. they were standing on a ledge overlooking a marshy pond when ivy recognized were they where, she tensed. "this is where we stopped looking."

last winter, when they'd been searching for nico di angelo, this was where they'd given up hope of finding him. grover, annabeth, gabriel, percy and ivy had stood on this rock, and the latter two convinced the rest not to tell chiron the truth: that nico was a son of hades. at the time it seemed the right thing to do. it was better if his identity was protected. ivy wanted to be the one to find him and make things right for what had happened to his sister. now, six months later, she hadn't even come close to finding him. it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"i saw him last night," percy said.

ivy knitted her eyebrows. "i saw him, too. did you have a dream?"

percy told her how he saw him in an iris-message, not a dream like her. when he was done, they concluded they both saw the same thing. ivy stared into the shadows of the woods. "summoning the dead it's not good. not good at all."

"the ghost was giving him bad advice," percy told her. "telling him to take revenge."

"i'm not surprised... spirits are never good advisers. they've got their own agendas. holding to old grudges even after death. and they resent the living."

"he's going to come after me," percy said. "the spirit mentioned a maze."

ivy raised an eyebrow. "come after you? have you thought about... i don't know... you're not that important?"

percy scrunched up his face. she hummed in acknowledgment, he hadn't thought about it. even if he was considered one of the good ones, he was still a man. men need their ego toned down once in a while.

"i'm only saying it because he hates me." he held up his hand in surrender.

"right," ivy said, "either way, we have to figure out the labyrinth.'

"maybe," percy said uncomfortably. "but who sent the iris-message? if nico didn't know i was there–"

a branch snapped in the woods. dry leaves rustled. something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

"that's not the stoll brothers," ivy whispered.

together they drew their weapons.

they got to zeus's fist, a huge pile of boulders in the middle of the west woods. it was a natural landmark where campers often rendezvoused on hunting expeditions, but now there was nobody around.

"over there," ivy whispered.

"no, wait," percy said. "behind us."

it was weird. scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions. they were circling the boulders, riptide gleamed next to her golden knife, when someone right behind us said, "hi."

they whirled around, and the tree nymph juniper yelped.

"put those down!" she protested. "dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"juniper," ivy exhaled. "what are you doing here?"

"i live here."

percy lowered his sword. "in the boulders?"

she pointed towards the edge of the clearing. "in the juniper. duh."

"are you guys busy?" juniper asked.

"well," percy said, "we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die."

"we're not busy," ivy said, giving percy a look. she noticed the nymph's distress. "what's wrong, juniper?"

juniper sniffled. she wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. "it's grover. he seems so distraught. all year he's been out looking for pan. and every time he comes back, it's worse. i thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

"no," ivy said, as juniper started crying. "i'm sure that's not it."

"he had a crush on a blueberry bush once," juniper said miserably.

"juniper." ivy smiled warmly at her. "grover would never even look at another tree. he's just stressed out about his searcher's license, that's all."

"he can't go underground!" she protested. "you can't let him."

ivy shifted uncomfortably, she tried to find the most gentle way to tell juniper how desperate they truly were. "it might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start."

"ah." juniper wiped a green tear of her cheek. "about that..."

another rustle in the woods, and juniper yelled, "hide!"

before ivy could ask why, she went poof into green mist.

percy and ivy turned. coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, three meters long, with jagged pincers, an armoured tail and a sting as long as my sword. a scorpion. tied to its back was a red silk package.

"i'll get behind it," ivy said, as the thing clattered towards them. "i cut off its tail while you distract it in front."

"alright," percy agreed. "turn invisible when you need to, princess."

she nodded. turning invisible wasn't really an accurate term, it was more bending the light to make it look like she wasn't there. ivy had been working on it since december, taking up long afternoons in percy's or her apartment in new york. it took a bit more energy than she'd like, but it left her fuel to fight well.

even if she didn't have her powers, they'd fought together so many times they knew each other's moves. they could do this, easy. but it all went wrong when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods.

"three?" ivy squeaked. "you're shitting me! the whole woods, and half the monsters come at us? are we really that tasty for them to eat?"

percy's adams apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. one, they could take. two, with a little luck. three? doubtful.

the scorpions scurried towards them, whipping their barbed tails like they'd come here just to kill them. ivy and percy put their backs against the nearest boulder.

"climb?" percy asked

"no time," ivy said.

the scorpions were already surrounding them. they were so close ivy could see their hideous mouths foaming, anticipating a nice juicy meal of demigods.

"look out!" ivy parried away a sting with the flat of her blade. percy stabbed with riptide, but the scorpion backed out of range. they clambered sideways along the boulders, but the scorpions followed them. percy slashed at another one, but going on the offensive was too dangerous. if they went for the body, the tail stabbed downward. if they went for the tail, the thing's pincers came from either side and tried to grab them. all they could do was defend, and they wouldn't be able to keep that up for very long.

percy took another step sideways, he paused, "in here."

ivy sliced at a scorpion then looked at him, wondering if he was crazy. they would not fit in the crack between the boulder that he was looking at. "in there? it's too narrow."

"i'll cover you. go!"

the brunette ducked behind percy and squeezed between the two boulders. when she went to place her foot in, there was nothing there. ivy yelped as she lost her footing and grabbed percy's armour straps, and suddenly she had dragged him into a pit that hadn't been there a moment before. she could see the scorpions above them, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera, and they were in complete darkness.

their breathing echoed against stone. it was wet and cold. ivy was sitting on a bumpy floor that seemed to be made of bricks.

ivy closed her eyes, she held her right palm up. feeling the familiar warmth in the bottom of her stomach, she summoned pink light to her will. a pink copy of the sun at a miniature scale hover above them. it illuminated them enough to show percy and the mossy stone walls on either side of them.

"wh– where are we?" ivy asked, unsettled. she didn't like the dark much.

"in a very well hidden make out spot," percy's mumbled echoed.

she glared at him. not the moment.

"or safe from scorpions."

ivy could tell he was trying to sound calm for her sake. but he was probably freaking out just as she was. the crack between the boulders couldn't have led into a cave. she would've known if there was a cave here; she was sure of it. it was like the ground had opened up and swallowed them. all she could think of was the fissure in the dining room pavilion, where those skeletons had been consumed last summer. ivy wondered if the same thing had happened to them.

percy squinted his eyes, riptide held high in alert. "it's a long room," he muttered.

ivy felt her blood turn to ice. she gripped percy's arm. "it's not a room. it's a corridor."

the darkness felt ... emptier in front of them. there was a warm breeze, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow.

percy started forward, but ivy stopped him. "don't move," she warned. "we need to find the exit."

they were really... ivy took a shaky breath to keep her cool. she didn't let percy see her fear.

"okay," percy said. "It's right–"

ivy looked up and realized she couldn't see where they'd fallen in. the ceiling was solid stone. the corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.

she slipped her hand into percy, looking for the calming sedative his presence brought her. in the dark, in here, percy was about the only thing ivy was sure of.

"two steps back," she advised.

they stepped backwards together like they were in a minefield.

"okay," she said, keeping her face hard. closing her eyes, feeling percy's hand in hers, it was easy to recall everything she knew. "help me examine the walls."

"what for?" percy asked. still, his eyes flickered across tier surroundings. he was questioning her out of curiosity, not doubt.

"the mark of daedalus," ivy said.

"uh, okay. what kind of–"

"got it!" she sighed in relief. ivy set her hand on the wall and pressed against a tiny fissure, which began to glow blue. a greek symbol appeared: Δ, the ancient greek delta.

the roof slid open and they saw night sky, stars blazing. it was a lot darker than it should've been. metal ladder rungs appeared on the side of the wall, leading up, and ivy could hear people yelling our names.

"percy! ivy!" tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, but others were calling out, too.

ivy and percy looked at each other nervously. then they began to climb.

they made their way around the rocks and ran into annabeth, gabriel and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.

"where have you two been?" annabeth demanded. "we've been looking forever."

"but we were only gone a few minutes," percy said.

chiron trotted up, followed by tyson, grover, and clarisse.

"percy!" tyson said. "you are okay?"

luna and luca burst through the crowd, the rest of the siblings behind them. the twins lounged at ivy in a hug, wrapping their arms in her middle.

"don't do that!" luca said.

luna sniffed. "don't disappear like that!"

ivy cradled them in her arms, smiling at them. "hey, i'm fine, we're fine" she said, to the twins and everyone around them.

percy nodded. "we fell in a hole."

the others looked skeptically between them. from the crowd, tobias, sydney, and lydia snickered. they did kissy motions her way. ivy glared at them.

"honest!" percy said. he didn't notice ivy's siblings. "there were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. but we were only gone a minute."

"you've been missing for almost an hour," gabriel said, his eyes frantically looking over them as he stood next to annabeth. "the game is over."

"yeah," grover muttered. "we would've won, but a cyclops sat on me."

"was an accident!" tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she didn't even brag about winning them, which wasn't like her. "a hole?" she said suspiciously.

ivy looked down at the twins wrapped around her, she pushed them towards the rest of her cabin. reluctantly, they let go of her as joined the rest. the brunette gave annabeth a silent message with her eyes. we found it. annabeth nodded, she looked around at the other campers. "chiron... maybe we should talk about this at the big house."

clarisse gasped. "you found it, didn't you?"

ivy bit her lip. "i– yeah. yeah, we did."

a bunch of campers started asking questions, but chiron raised his hand for silence. "tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." he stared at the boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "all of you, back to your cabins. get some sleep. a game well played, but curfew is past!"

there was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking amongst themselves and giving the two hole traveler suspicious or teasing looks.

"this explains a lot," clarisse said. "it explains what luke is after."

annabeth shook her head to herself. "i can't believe i didn't see it earlier."

"wait a second," percy said. "what do you mean? what did we find?"

ivy turned towards him, her blue eyes dark with worry. "an entrance to the labyrinth. an invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

A SPEAKS!

yeah im only having 5 hours of sleep before my second day of school bc i wanted to finish this chapter lol

thoughts???