Kronos sat on top of his horse and looked at us. He looked the same. The young collage boy with his blond hair. Except now he was dressed in full battle gear.

Annabeth and the Apollo campers faltered. The monsters we'd been pursuing reached the Titan's line and were absorbed into the new force. Kronos gazed in our direction. He was a quarter mile away, but I swear I could see him smile.

"Now," Percy said with a sign. "we pull back."

"Good idea."

The Titan lord's men drew their swords and charged. The hooves of their skeletal horses thundered against the pavement. Our archers shot a volley, bringing down several of the enemy, but they just kept riding. I yanked my bow off and pulled the string back, the anger behind it sent the arrow slicing so fast through the air it hit one of the demi gods and he flew off his horse and flew ten feet backwards and landed with an arrow in his chest, through the breast plate. Kronos flicked his eyes down at the dead demigod. Regarding him in mild interest. He flicked his golden eyes up to me. And he smiled again.

"Retreat!" I told my friends. "I'll hold them."

"We." Percy corrected. "We will hold them." He signed. His face set. I just nodded.

"Michael! Kayla! Austin! Get back! Where in Hades is Will?!"

In a matter of seconds the enemy was on Percy and I. Michael and his archers tried to retreat, but Annabeth stayed right beside me and Percy, (which was stupid) fighting with her knife and mirrored shield as we slowly backed up the bridge. I slipped my bow back and grabbed both my blades and Percy and I stood on each side of Annabeth and we held the army of reinforcements, trying to give Michael and the rest a chance to retreat.

Kronos's cavalry swirled around us, slashing and apparently yelling insults. The Titan himself advanced leisurely, like he had all the time in the world. Being the lord of time, I guess he did.

I noticed Percy was trying to wound the men, not kill. That slowed him down. They were demigods who'd fallen under Kronos's spell, and not monsters. But I was the opposite. I wasn't sparing anyone. Did that make me a terrible person? Probably. But they had chosen their side. I was furious with the gods. (Well not all of them...just most) Yet I was still standing defending their stupid home. I hadn't joined Kronos. And I learned my mother was killed. Luke still had his mother, he had no excuse. Sure she was nuts, but she was still there.

I slashed at another skeleton horse making the rider fall. As they did her helmet came off. Her big blue eyes caught mine. She looked frightened for a second and then they hardened in pure hate. I plunged my knife down and she opened her mouth and screamed. I yanked it out and I saw her vital signs stop and become obsolete. I spun to the next victim. I didn't bat an eye. Maybe I was just as bad as Luke. Just fighting on the opposite side now. Taking my anger and bitterness and resentment out on an army of demon monsters from Tarterus.

I couldn't see faces under their battle helmets, but some of them had probably been Percy and Annabeth's friends. I slashed the legs off another horses and made the skeletal mount disintegrate. After that, demigods figured out they'd better dismount and fight us on foot.

Annabeth, Percy and I stayed shoulder to shoulder, facing opposite directions. A dark shape passed over me, and I dared to glance up. Blackjack, Porkpie and Glitter were swooping in, kicking our enemies in the helmets and flying away like very large kamikaze pigeons. Glitter left a few demigods on fire from her sparking hooves.

We'd almost made it to the middle of the bridge when something strange happened. I felt a chill down my spine- like that old saying about someone walking on your grave. I didn't see what happened, but I saw Percy's face twist in fear for the first time.

"Annabeth!" Out of the corner of my eye I saw him scream.

I turned in time to see her fall, clutching her arm. A demigod with a bloody knife stood over her.

In a flash I understood what had happened. He'd been trying to stab Percy. Judging from the position of his blade, he would've taken Percy in the small of his back. Annabeth had intercepted the knife with her own body.

But why? He had been fighting all night with no armour, so why now would she take a knife for him, she knew he was invincible. Except...it hit me. That was his weak spot- his mortal spot. How did she know? Did Percy tell her? It didn't matter. She was done.

I locked eyes with the enemy demigod. He wore an eye patch under his war helm: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis. I snarled. Somehow he'd survived the mountain crumbling on him last year and then the explosion on the Princess Andromeda. I went to lung forward, but Percy got there first.

He slammed Ethan in the face with his sword hilt so hard it dented his helm.

"Get back!" I slashed the air in a wide arc, driving the rest of the demigods away from Annabeth. Percy doing the same. He finally dropped to his knees beside her. While I stood over both of them. My blades were bathed in monster dusted and demigod blood, and glowed with a wild flame, that flickered up my arms.

"No one touches her!"

"Interesting," Kronos said.

He towered above me and Percy on his skeletal horse, his scythe in one hand. He studied the scene with narrowed eyes as if he could sense that Percy had just come close to death, the way a wolf can smell fear.

"Bravely fought, Percy Jackson," he said. "But it's time to surrender. Hand over your sister. Or the girl dies."

I glanced down quickly. "Percy, don't," Annabeth groaned. Her shirt was soaked with blood. Percy's shirt was also soaking with her blood.

"Glitter! You and Blackjack take her! Now!"

"Yes Lady!"

As fast as light, the Blackjack swooped down and clamped his teeth on the straps of Annabeth's armor. He soared back into the sky, lowering Annabeth onto Glitters back and Glitter was gone in a flush of brilliant firey light. It happened so fast even Kronos, Lord of Time couldn't react.

Percy scrambled to his feet, Riptide clenched in his fist. He stood shoulder to shoulder with me.

Kronos snarled. "Some day soon, I am going to make pegasus soup. But in the meantime . . ." He dismounted.

"Might have a kick to it. Glitter is pretty hot."

Kronos snarled again. Percy glanced at me. Kronos smiled. "Ahhh. He can't hear us. Right. Your curse." He looked at Percy and then back at me. He snapped his fingers and my ears popped so hard I yelped in pain and shook my head.

"Whoa. Nora! You can talk again!"

"And hear, apparently."

"Ahh...simple curse to reverse. For now.."

"I liked it better when I couldn't hear you." I snapped.

"Hmm. Where is that boy of yours? Did you not take on this curse because of him? And he leaves you alone. Abandons you to fight and die alone. So much for love and loyalty."

"I told you to shut up!" I screamed. Finally I was able to release all my anger.

His scythe glistening in the dawn light. "I'll settle for another dead demigod. And then I'll use you as a host!"

He attacked. Percy met his first strike with Riptide. The impact shook the entire bridge, but he held his ground. Kronos's smile wavered. I leapt into the fight. My blades crossing in an X as he tried to swing the syrh back up into my face. I screamed in defiance. It was nice to be able to scream and tell again. I'm sure it wouldn't last long.

With a yell, Percy kicked his legs out from under him. His scythe skittered across the pavement. I stabbed downward with both knives and Percy did with his sword. Kronos rolled aside and regained his footing. His scythe flew back to his hands.

"So..." He studied us, looking mildly annoyed. "You two had the courage to visit the Styx. I had to pressure Luke in many ways to convince him. If only I had got ahold of you sooner."

"You had me trapped for a week in a magic box on your monster infested boat. I had already gone to the Styx, you idiot. You had a full week. Now? You're too late."

I could see the realization of his error on Luke's face. I didn't know what he had waited for. Maybe he was just using me as bait at the time. It wasn't lining up, he knew I had Titan blood ready by then, so I wasn't sure what the week of waiting was.

"I am still more powerful. I am a TITAN."

"Big whoop. I'm an Heir of a Titan. So kiss.my.ass." I screamed, my blades lit up in fire. My hair rippled down my back in sheets of fire and my eyes danced with the wild blaze of the hot devastating sun. I screamed as I ran towards him.

He struck the bridge with the butt of his scythe, and a wave of pure force blasted me backward. Cars went careening. Demigods- even Luke's own men- were blown off the edge of the bridge. Suspension cords whipped around, and I stayed on my feet, but I skidded halfway back to Manhattan. Percy rumbled after me.

I got unsteadily to my feet. My remaining brothers and Kayla had almost made it to the end of the bridge, except for Michael, who was perched on one of the suspension cables a few yards away from me. His last arrow was notched in his bow.

"Michael, go!" I screamed. He whipped his head in my direction. Shocked to hear my voice again.

"Nora! Percy! The bridge!" he called. "It's already weak!"

At first I didn't understand. Then I looked down and saw fissures in the pavement. Patches of the road were half melted from Greek fire. The bridge had taken a beating from Kronos's blast and the exploding arrows.

"Break it!" Michael yelled. "Use your powers, together!"

It was a desperate thought- no way it would work- I had no idea how our powers would work together. Fire and water. Earthshaker and pure burning heat. Percy glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. I nodded. He stabbed Riptide into the bridge. The magic blade sank to its hilt in asphalt. Salt water shot from the crack like he'd hit a geyser. He pulled out the blade and the fissure grew. I lit my hands on fire and with a scream if pain and heartache from everything that had happened, everyone I had lost to get here, from what Kronos wanted to do, I let it out. Fire erruoted from me, it consumed me, and I released it. Sending it into the water Percy made erupt. The water mixed with my fire and heat.

The bridge shook and began to crumble. Chunks the size of houses fell into the East River. Kronos's demigods cried out in alarm and scrambled backward. Some were knocked off their feet. Some were consumed by the water or the fire or both mixing together forming some kind of magma lava rock.

Within a few seconds, a fifty-foot chasm opened in the Williamsburg Bridge between Kronos and us. Percy and I were left standing shoulder to shoulder, panting hard.

The vibrations died. Kronos's men crept to the edge and looked at the hundred-and-thirty-foot drop into the river.

I didn't feel safe, though. The suspension cables were still attached. The men could get across that way if they were brave enough. Or maybe Kronos had a magic way to span the gap.

The Titan lord studied the problem. He looked behind him at the rising sun, then smiled across the chasm. He raised his scythe in a mock salute. "Until this evening, Jackson. Sleep well...My Dear."

He mounted his horse, whirled around, and galloped back to Brooklyn, followed by his warriors.

I turned to thank Michael, but the words died in my throat. Twenty feet away, a bow lay in the street. Its owner was nowhere to be seen.

"No!" I tried to scream.

My voice was gone. And only now did I realize, I had no hearing. Again.

No! No no no! Not Michael too. Percy looked just as devastated. We searched the wreckage on my side of the bridge. I stared down at the river. Nothing.

I yelled, silently, in anger and frustration. I kept searching. Percy slammed his fist into a car hood. The silence pressed in on me, the rising sun, which was always a symbol of hope for me, a sign of healing, it kicked my pain. I quite possibly just killed my own brother. I was about to call Glitter to help me search, when my mom's phone vibrated. I pulled it out. The LCD display said I had a call from Finklestein & Associates- probably a demigod calling on a borrowed phone.

I tossed it to Percy who answered, I wanted his mouth, hoping for good news. Of course I was wrong.

He cursed as he hung up.

"That was Selina. I ..I'm sorry Nora." He signed. "I need to..."

"Go. It's fine. I'll search a bit longer. Take Will." I signed back. I went to turn away, when he grabbed my arm.

"Keep the phone. If we need, I'll message you."

I nodded. "Go. Your girl needs you."

He looked like he was going to say something but closed his mouth and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. He looked at me quick with his sad sea green eyes and turned and raced back down the bridge.

Kayla and Austin slowly crept closer. I was not in a good mood and no one wanted to get to close. I had hear rippling from me. Glitter galloped back over to help search as well. We didn't say much. My curse weighed heavy on me. I hated how it came and went. Kronos could mess with me. The underworld messed with me.

We spent a good chunk of the morning searching for any sign of Michael. Kayla finally took my hand and pulled me towards Glitter.

"Come on. Time to rest and regroup."

"What about you guys?" I signed. "I'm not leaving until you're all gone."

"Blackjack is bringing the other Pegasus."

"I'll stay until your all picked up."

And I did. I watched as my remaining brothers and Kayla were picked up and carried back.

"Time to go My Lady."

"But-"

"Lady. There are wounded campers who need attending. I am sorry about your kin."

"No...no your right. This is war. And it was going to happen. Losing people I love."

I felt my throat get tight. And my eyes burnt. I pulled myself on to her back and she kept into the air. We were back, touching down at The Plaza- an old-fashioned white stone hotel with a gabled blue roof, sitting at the southeast corner of Central Park.

Tactically speaking, the Plaza wasn't the best place for a headquarters. It wasn't the tallest building in town, or the most centrally located. But it had old-school style and had attracted a lot of famous demigods over the years, like the Beatles and Alfred Hitchcock, so I figured we were in good company.

Glitter swooped down and landed lightly. I had just slid off when Will came sprinting out of the front door and threw his arms around me.

I pressed my face into his shoulder and finally let the tears fall. It didn't last long. There was no time for tears. I sniffed and pulled away. Using the back of my hand I wiped them away and stepped back. I held his face and checked him for any major damage. He was covered in blood, but seemed to be in one piece, so I figured it was other campers.

"I'm fine, Nora." He signed.

"But others aren't. And I need your help."

"I'm right beside you." I forced a smile and followed him inside to see the damage.

🔆

Percy & Nora death Styx duo.