𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

chapter forty-six ☄︎. *. ⋆

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NOBODY BELIEVED ME when I told them Aphrodite didn't want anything from me. I'm pretty sure they were all onto me, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to tell anyone what she told me.

I was at the back of our group as we began our trudge through the junkyard. Apparently, Aphrodite had told Percy it's not as much of a landfill as it is a bunch of Hephaestus's old scraps and trinkets that he no longer needed. If that was all Aphrodite wanted with Percy, then I was jealous.

I'd hoped that my falling behind and staying out of everyone's way would give them all the hint that I didn't want to talk, but before we made it to the entrance of the junkyard, Grover came over and began asking me what was wrong. I wanted to tell him nothing, but then I remembered satyrs can detect feelings the same way they can smell monsters. It was no use lying to him.

I gripped my bow. "Don't worry about it," I told him, after his fourth time asking. I'd given up on telling him that I was fine. "It was nothing. She just wanted to tell me she's glad Connor and I are together."

I could tell he didn't believe me, though. "Aphrodite wouldn't make a special trip just to tell you that." His voice was sad. "You.. you don't have to tell me what she said, but, Theo—she's big on leading heroes astray. Please don't let her get to your head."

"Yeah, no," I scoffed, my voice bitter. "I'm definitely not letting love blind me."

Grover frowned. "You know, I still have an empathy link with Percy, but I don't have to be able to read his mind to know whatever Aphrodite told him was along the same lines as what she told you. And..." He sniffed the air around me, then leaned back and scrunched up his nose. "Phew! Yeah.. you smell like you've been bathed in hormones. Gross."

I smirked, hiding my laugh with a sniff. "And you smell like a lying satyr. Go catch up with the rest of them, Grover. I want to check this thing out."

As Grover jogged up to chat with (see also: talk at) Zoë, I veered to the side. I wasn't sure that this thing was, but it sure had caught my attention from afar. It was like a hill of metal... but more than one. Five of them, all clustered together, like—

Like toes.

I shuddered and stumbled over a scrap of metal, rushing back to catch up with the rest. "Guys," I called. "I found a shortcut."

     Thalia inspected it closely. Everyone else just stared at it in silence, until Grover picked up a pebble and threw it at the toes—it ricocheted off with a ping.

     "Why did you do that?" Zoë asked.

     Grover cringed. "I don't know. I don't, uh, like fake feet?"

     "It's probably best to go around," Thalia said, ignoring Grover. She scowled, taking a few steps back and placing a hand on her wristwatch. "Far around."

     "But the road is right over there," Percy said. "I agree with Theo—it's quicker to climb over."

     "Well, if the two of them are agreeing over something," said Grover, "maybe it's best to go along with it."

     Thalia shook her head. "Those are freaky. Let's just go around."

     Percy frowned. "But Theo said—"

     "It's fine. We can just go around," I said. Sure, the toes freaked me out, but what freaked me out more was how much Percy was advocating for me. He was being oddly protective. And after his talk with Aphrodite.... Ew. No. I chose to ignore that particular thought.

     Now with a slight awkward tension renting the air, we went all the way around the giant metallic set of toes. It wasn't much longer than it probably would have taken for all of us to get over the toes. We made it to the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt before us.

"We made it," Thalia said.

"Thank the gods," I muttered.

But apparently the gods weren't in a good mood. The moment the words left my mouth, I heard a sound like a thousand trash compacters crushing metal.

I whirled around. Behind us, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. The ten toes tilted over, and I realized why they looked like toes. They were toes. The thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armor. He was impossibly tall—a skyscraper with legs and arms. He gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at us, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off. His joints creaked with rust, and across his armored chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words WASH ME.

"Talos!" Zoë gasped.

"Who's Talos?" Percy stammered.

"One of Hephaestus's creations," I answered, frowning in anticipation of the upcoming fight. "He's—he's supposed to be a lot bigger, though. Maybe this is a prototype. Or a defective model."

The metal giant didn't like the word defective. He moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. The sound of it coming out of its sheath was horrible, metal screeching against metal. The blade was a hundred feet long, easy. It looked rusty and dull, but I didn't figure that mattered. Getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a battleship.

"Someone took something. Who was it?" Zoë glared at Percy, but I intervened.

"Hey, Percy's a lot of things, but he's not a thief," I said.

He shot me a shocked but grateful glance. Bianca didn't say anything. I could swear she looked guilty, but I didn't have much time to think about it, because the giant defective Talos took one step toward us, closing half the distance and making the ground shake.

"Run!" Grover yelped. It was great advice from my satyr friend, except that it was hopeless. At a leisurely stroll, this thing could outdistance us easily.

We split up, the way we'd done with the Nemean Lion. Thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded in sparks and scattered across Thalia's path.

Zoë's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed like a baby goat and went climbing up a mountain of metal. Percy rolled behind a sheet of metal and took cover. Bianca wasn't moving, so I took her by the shoulder and dragged her to squat behind a broken chariot.

"You took something," I guessed. "That Hunter's bow you were looking at?"

"No!" she said, her voice quivering.

"Give it back," I said. "Throw it down!"

"I didn't take the bow!" she insisted. "And.. and besides, it's too late now."

"What did you take?"

Before she could answer, I heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky.

"Move!" I tore down the hill, Bianca right behind me, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd been hiding.

"Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and me. Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. I understood what Grover was going to do a split second before it happened. One of the poles with power lines still attached flew toward Talos's back leg and wrapped around his calf. The lines sparked and sent a jolt of electricity up the giant's backside.

"Awesome!" I shouted. "Like Star Wars!"

I pulled Bianca by the arm, but she stayed firmly where she was. From her pocket, she brought out a small figurine, a statue of gold. "It.. it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."

"Bianca," I said hurriedly, "how are you thinking about Mythomagic at a time like this? Just put it down, maybe Talos will forget about us."

     She dropped it hesitantly, but nothing happened. The giant kept coming after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then I couldn't see him anymore.

     "No!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again. It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. There weren't any emotions in its half-melted face, but I got the sense that it was about as ticked off as a twenty-story-tall metal warrior could be.

     "Thalia, move!" I shouted, as the monster raised its sword again to bring it down on her. I shot a helpless arrow that I knew wouldn't do anything, just to try to get Talos's attention on me instead of Thalia. When the arrow collided with his metallic shoulder, a blinding slice of light burst from beneath its tip that caused everyone, even me and Talos, to stumble out of order.

     "How'd you do that?" Bianca asked me, her eyes wide.

     I didn't want to tell her I didn't know how, so I just shook my head and said, "Don't worry about it. We need to focus on shutting down that robot."

     "It's not technically a robot." I shot Bianca a look that told her now was not the time, but she had lit up like she had an awesome idea. "Shut it off! There's a maintenance hatch on the bottom of its foot! I can get down there, easy."

     My eyes widened in shock. "Bianca, no. You're too young. This is your first quest—I can do it."

     "It's my fault the monster came after us, Theo," she said. "It's my responsibility. Here." She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into my hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him... tell him I'm sorry."

     I shouted, "Bianca, no!" but she wasn't waiting for me. She charged at the monster's left foot.

     Thalia had its attention for the moment. She'd learned that the giant was big but slow. If you could stay close to it and not get smashed, you could run around it and stay alive. At least, it was working so far.

     Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.

     Zoë yelled, "What are you doing?"

     "Get it to raise its foot!" Bianca instructed.

     "Bianca!" I yelled, starting after her, but I couldn't get ten feet before Zoë aimed an arrow for Talos's foot and he lifted it, just as planned.

     Bianca darted beneath his foot, and I couldn't see her much after that. All I knew was I needed to help her. I shot arrows at the speed of light, I'm pretty sure—I'd never had such speed and precision when shooting. Under different circumstances, it would have been cool.

     I shot everywhere I could see. All of my arrows pinged uselessly off of his metallic skin and landed limply in the dirt. I'd done one thing, though—I'd managed to get his attention. Great.

     The foot Bianca hadn't run under stomped down about two inches behind me and the force of impact threw me into the air. I knocked into something and heard an 'oof'—when I stood, I realized I'd run straight into Percy.

     I helped him up hurriedly. "Shit, sorry, Percy," I said, but he didn't seem too interested in my apology. He was looking at Talos with raised eyebrows. I spun and immediately recognized what Percy found weird—Talos had cocked his head to one side, like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, dancing like a chicken. Then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.

     "Oh my gods," I muttered. "Bianca.."

     Percy gaped at me. "She's in there?"

     The monster staggered around, and I realized we were still in danger. Percy and I grabbed Grover and ran with him toward the highway. Thalia and Zoë were already ahead of us. Zoë yelled, "How will Bianca get out?"

     The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines.

     "Bianca, get out of there!" I yelled, but it was too late.

     The giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. I hoped the inside was insulated. I had no idea what was going on in there. The giant careened back into the junkyard, and his right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible CLANG! His left arm came loose, too. He was falling apart at the joints. He began to run.

     "Wait!" Zoë yelled. We ran after him, but there was no way we could keep up. Pieces of the robot kept falling off, getting in our way.

     The giant crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed. When we reached the wreckage we searched frantically, yelling Bianca's name. We crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. We searched until the sun started to rise, but no luck.

     Everyone reacted in their own ways. Zoë sat down and wept. Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giant's face. Percy insisted that we could find her, now that there was light, but Grover gave him a sad look and shook his head.

     "Why not?" Percy asked, determined. "We can find her, I know we can—"

     "No," I said, my voice scratchy. I swallowed and shook my head. "No, it happened like the Oracle said it would."

     Percy looked at me with a grief-filled expression. "What do you mean?"

"In the prophecy." Tears stung my eyes. "One shall be lost in the land without rain. She's gone."