𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

chapter eighty-nine. ☄︎. *. ⋆

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WE HEARD THE ARMY BEFORE WE SAW IT. The noise was like a cannon barrage combined with a football stadium crowd—like every Patriots fan in New England was charging us with bazookas.

At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods—a warrior in golden armor leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them.

"Positions!" Annabeth yelled.

Her cabinmates scrambled. The idea was to make the enemy army break around the reservoir. To get to us, they'd have to follow the trails, which meant they'd be marching in narrow columns on either side of the water.

At first, the plan seemed to work. The enemy divided and streamed toward us along the shore. When they were halfway across, our defenses kicked in. The jogging trail erupted in Greek fire, incinerating many of the monsters instantly. Others flailed around, engulfed in green flames. Athena campers threw grappling hooks around the largest giants and pulled them to the ground.

In the woods on the right, the Hunters sent a volley of silver arrows into the enemy line, destroying twenty or thirty dracaenae, but more marched behind them. Most of my siblings were back at the base trying to help heal, but those who were more well-versed on the battlefield were trickled throughout the Hunters. A bolt of lightning crackled out of the sky and fried a Laistrygonian giant to ashes, and I knew Thalia must be doing her daughter of Zeus thing.

Grover raised his pipes and played a quick tune. A roar went up from the woods on both sides as every tree, rock, and bush seemed to sprout a spirit. Dryads and satyrs raised their clubs and charged. The trees wrapped around the monsters, strangling them. Grass grew around the feet of the enemy archers. Stones flew up and hit dracaenae in the faces.

The enemy slogged forward. Giants smashed through the trees, and naiads faded as their life sources were destroyed. Hellhounds lunged at the timber wolves, knocking them aside. Enemy archers returned fire, and a Hunter fell from a high branch.

Then over the bridge, something caught my attention. I cursed and grabbed Percy's arm, pointing to the reservoir. The Titan in the gold armor wasn't waiting for his forces to advance around the sides. He was charging toward us, walking straight over the top of the lake.

A Greek firebomb exploded right on top of him, but he raised his palm and sucked the flames out of the air.

"Hyperion," I said, a bitter taste in my mouth. "The lord of light. Titan of the east."

"Bad?" Percy guessed.

"Next to Atlas, he's, like, the greatest Titan warrior. In the old days, four Titans controlled the four corners of the world. Hyperion was the east—the most powerful. He was the father of Helios, the first sun god. My great-great-great grandfather, or something like that. Whatever. My point is—he's bad news."

"We can take him," Percy said, and I admired his bravery. "C'mon."

I moved to follow, but an arrow whizzed right past my shoulder. I turned to see the status of our archers; they were falling short, running low on ammo. I winced and turned back to Percy, taking a few steps back and shaking my head.

"Just wait him out," I suggested. "You can't take him by yourself."

He just smiled. "Watch me. I'll keep him busy. You go deal with that."

And he ran off on the water's surface before I could even argue. I rolled my eyes, remembering back when I'd called him a coward. Maybe coward hadn't been the right word—he was just an idiot.

I turned back and rushed over to join the rest of our archers, shooting from the ground and ducking behind debris. Not to toot my own horn, or anything, but I was on a roll. I was shooting arrow after arrow with absolutely no hesitation for a good minute or two.

Then, suddenly, I nocked an arrow and released, barely even following through to see if it had hit my target, but I was knocked off-balance by some invisible force. The arrow whizzed so far to the right it almost hit Annabeth. For a second, I had no idea what was going on. Then it hit me.

Ethan. He was screwing with me.

My eyes darted around the battlefield for a sign of him, but it would have been impossible to narrow him down in such a chaotic situation. But I knew it was him. It had to be. I'd never missed a target a day in my life.

I tried shooting again, but my fingers grew tingly and numb, and I could barely hook the arrow next to the string to even prep to shoot. I grew frustrated, straining with all my effort to try and nock the arrow, but it kept fumbling away. I groaned in anger and cursed loudly.

My fingers started to move of their own accord, and I could only watch as I finally nocked an arrow successfully. I pulled back my arm and took aim—right at a Hunter. I fought against my own body as hard as I could, but there was nothing I could do. My fingers released. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping limited vision would stop the arrow from reaching its destination, but I heard the thud of the Hunter's body hitting the ground. I let out a choked, frustrated scream, my fingers itching for another shot.

"Lose an arrow?" The voice came from my right and I spun as quickly as I could to see Ethan leaning against a tree, holding the first arrow I'd lost control of, dangling it out next to him. "I thought you were supposed to be the best archer on camp."

"I am," I growled. I had learned my lesson last time: I couldn't waste any time chit-chatting when it came to Ethan. So I did the last thing he expected me to do so soon: I dove forward and tackled him by the waste, since it was the only thing I could do that didn't require any focus.

I'd caught him by surprise, which was probably the only reason I was able to get him down. I straddled him and pinned his arms down with my knees, and had my dagger to his neck in the blink of an eye. I smiled down at him, panting.

"Listen, Nakamura," I said, spitting out his name. "We're going to play fair. That means you give me my soul back. If not..."

I shifted my gaze to the dagger and both Ethan and I watched as the tip of it began to grow red-hot in my hand, a manifestation of both my anger and my adrenaline taking root in the conductive iron and turning the dagger deadlier than before. I looked back down to Ethan, tilting my head slightly.

"I'll have to take it back," I finished.

    Ethan stared up at me from beneath the red tip of my dagger, and what infuriated me was the pleased smirk on his lips. He rolled his jaw, then exhaled a sigh and nodded. I was surprised he had given in so easily, but I wasn't about to complain.

     "There's only one way I can do that," he said, and nodding to my body pinning him down. I rolled my eyes and stood, but didn't extend a hand to help him up like I usually would have. He leaned in. I leaned back, my eyes wide. He just held up his hands. "Well, I told you there's only one way."

     My fingers clenched into fists and I set my jaw, glaring at him. "Not. Happening."

     Ethan shrugged. "Your loss."

     "There has to be another way," I said, unconvinced. I narrowed my eyes. "There is. You just don't want to tell me."

     "Of course there's another way," he said, scoffing. He shrugged. "It's just not nearly as fun. If you don't want to go by my rules, then—"

     I'm not really sure what happened next. I remember being really, really angry—like more so than I can ever really remember being—and my fingertips tingled, but it was a different type of tickling sensation than I was used to. I could feel power rolling beneath my skin. I was about to burst, I could tell, but I had no idea what was going to happen when I did.

     Ethan took a step back, cutting himself off, an almost startled expression on his face.

     "How'd you do that?" he asked me, waving a finger loosely in the direction of his own eyes. "Your.. your—"

     I had no idea what he was talking about, but I took a few steps forward, closing the gap between us with electricity. My chest grew warm. I didn't know what was about to happen, but I was fine with whatever it was, if it meant Ethan would leave me alone for good.

     "Fix whatever you did to me," I said, my voice sounding not like my own. "Now, Ethan."

     He managed a cocky smile. "Or... what?"

     And that was my boiling point. I don't know exactly what happened from there, but I felt some sort of trickling feeling wash over me, and my mouth suddenly tasted bitter and sour like I'd just swallowed battery acid. Without warning, Ethan's back straightened and his face contorted in what looked like pain.

     "What are you doing?" he asked, but his voice began to rasp, like his throat was drying out. He clutched his neck. "Stop!"

     I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't know how to stop it. His skin paled. My brow furrowed, my head tilting to the side. A vision of some sort of green fluid flowing through veins flashed across my mind. My lips parted in almost-recognition. It couldn't be what I thought it was, right? But Ethan was writhing around now, crying out in pain as I imagined some sort of plague scouring through his body.

     Somebody called my name. I turned to see Annabeth staring at me with a horrified expression on her face. She held her dagger limply at her side, all her attention on whatever I was doing to Ethan.

     He stopped crying. I looked back down at him, and he stared up at me, glaring and breathless. But beneath his death stare was something else—a mix of fear underneath his attempt of hatred. I tilted my head to the side and knelt in front of him.

     "Now," I said, my voice low, "will you give me my soul back?"

     His eyes were wide, frightened beneath his furrowed brow. He twisted his lips to the side and I thought he would've been an idiot to still resist, even after whatever I'd done to him. But before he could give me a reply, the wind picked up, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prick. Ethan and I both sensed it.

     I turned over my shoulder and found myself gazing at where Percy had run off to, battling Hyperion on the horizon. But where I'd left Percy, I found a hurricane of a fighter—literally. I could only assume it was him. A wave of water crashed down onto Hyperion and I heard him howl in anger, even from the distance I was away.

     "Percy," I muttered, my eyebrows furrowing in an impressed confusion.

     When I looked back to the ground to finish my business with Ethan, I remembered why never taking your eyes off the enemy was an important rule of thumb. He was gone. No trace behind. And he'd taken a third of my soul with him, once again. I had no idea how he had managed to scurry away so quickly and quietly after whatever I'd done to him, but he had, and I was furious.

     Frustrated beyond my wits, I stormed off to meet Annabeth on the perimeter of the battlefield. She stabbed her dagger right into a dracaena's gut as I approached and we watched as it withered away with a hiss. Annabeth turned back to me, and her eyes widened. She put her dagger back in its strap.

     "Theo," she said apprehensively, eyeing me up and down like I was about to repeat whatever I'd done to Ethan on her. "What—?"

     "He was pissing me off." I didn't need to tell her—or anyone, for that matter—the whole story. Nobody needed to know. I wanted it to stay in the dark. I wished the whole plague thing could, too, but Annabeth was sure to ask questions about it.

     And that was exactly what she did. "What in Tartarus was that?"

     I raised my eyebrows, then offered a shrug. "What was... what?"

     She just glared at me. "Theo."

     "Gods, I don't know!" I threw my hands up defensively. "It just started happening, okay? I didn't know how to stop it."

     "Like.. what, a defense mechanism?"

     I shrugged dismissively. "I mean, yeah, sure."

     Annabeth looked puzzled, which didn't seem at all like her. She normally always knew the answer to things like this. She twisted her lips and stared at me, though her eyes looked more harsh than usual, like she was... I dunno, judging me. I wasn't sure I liked that.

     "We'll talk later," she decided hesitantly, before we were both forced to duck as a flying debris blew over us and almost took our heads off. She strode off, back into battle.

     But I stood there for a moment, staring after her, worried I'd just lost my best friend over something I couldn't control.