A God Takes Responsibility
"Do not despair, I will go find her myself," Artemis said in a serious tone, looking straight at Percy. "After all, I was the one who gave the wrong order, interrupting another hunt. So I will take responsibility. And to answer your question, to make it as fast as possible, I will go alone. It shouldn't take me more than a week to find her," she added.
Percy didn't say much, he just looked at her.
Zoe, on the other hand, hearing that the goddess of the hunt planned to leave them, couldn't help but say:
"But, my lady…"
Before she could continue, Artemis raised her hand, silencing her.
"It's the least I can do. He has every right to be angry, just like I would be if something happened to you," Artemis said, then gave Percy a cold look. The threat was there, unspoken… and if not for the protection Percy had as a champion, he would probably be facing the goddess's wrath right now.
But Percy didn't care about her threat.
Not even a little.
After all… how many gods had threatened him already? Zeus was probably chewing thunder right now… thinking about how to kill him.
At this point… if Olympus ended up destroyed, it would be their fault.
But of course… they were gods. They would never admit that.
"If it's the goddess of the hunt, then she'll definitely find Annabeth," Grover said quickly, trying to lift Percy's mood, since the atmosphere felt stuck.
But Percy didn't really feel like playing along, and just turned around, walking over to the soldiers lying on the ground nearby, as if looking for something useful.
Artemis gave Percy one last look before turning to the Hunters.
"For now, it's better to rest for a while. Someone will come take you to camp. And it will be good for the two new ones to go there as well, so they can stay somewhere safe," Artemis said calmly, looking at Nico and Bianca.
Even though they had understood most of what they had been told, they still needed time to process it… especially Bianca, who still looked completely confused.
And Nico… well, being so young and innocent, he seemed a lot happier about it than he probably should have been.
He stepped slightly away from his sister and ran over to Percy, who was now looking inside one of the military vehicles, after not finding anything among the soldiers' clothes on the ground… the ones his friends had taken down.
"Hey, can you show me that sword you used earlier?" he asked, approaching Percy with interest.
Percy, who seemed to be searching for clues inside the vehicles, glanced at him for a moment.
He reached into his bag and, from the two swords he carried, pulled out Riptide, since it was safer to show to a nine-year-old. After all, he didn't want to pull out his black sword and accidentally cut Nico, turning his soul into some kind of soul stone used to recharge his enchantments.
Normally, he kept Riptide in sword form; it was easier to carry it like that in his bag and draw it during a fight. But to keep the kid entertained for a bit, he turned it into its pen form and handed it over, explaining how it worked.
"Awesome," Nico said, pulling the cap off the pen, which transformed into the sword Riptide.
For a moment, a gaze locked onto the sword… filled with resentment.
Percy turned and met Zoe's eyes, who, ever since being defeated so brutally by him, hadn't stopped looking at him like that. Percy just ignored it.
Meanwhile, he opened one of the bags inside a military vehicle, finding it filled with weapons, stacked together, along with military knives. But there was no clue as to where these guys had come from.
"Percy, what do we do? Do we pause the trial and wait for Annabeth, or do you want to go look for her?" Grover asked, with the kind of look that said he already knew his answer.
Malcolm stepped closer as well to hear his answer, just like Thalia. Even though technically they were opponents in this trial, both had formed a temporary alliance so Luke wouldn't reach the Ophiotaurus first. But the new problem was that they had lost one of Thalia's team members… and they hadn't even started looking for her.
Percy thought for a moment and looked at Malcolm, then Grover, and finally Thalia.
At this point… he didn't really care who won the trial. As long as it wasn't Luke.
But now… it was different.
"No… it's better if we keep going with the trial," Percy said.
Grover hadn't expected Percy to sound like he was choosing the trial over Annabeth. Only Malcolm nodded, like he understood something.
Thalia frowned.
Luckily, Percy explained right away:
"Luke is looking for the Ophiotaurus too. If he's looking for it… we'll run into him."
"I see," Grover said, cutting in, getting what he meant. "If we find Luke first, we can ask him where Annabeth is," he added.
"You think he'll tell us?" Malcolm said, glancing at Grover with a faint smile.
"If he doesn't… I'll beat it out of him… and if that doesn't work, I'll rip his limbs off one by one until he does," Percy said with a soft smile… but his words were anything but.
Everyone there who had seen him almost kill one of Artemis's Hunters right in front of the goddess felt a chill run down their spines.
Especially Thalia, who went serious for a moment as she looked at Percy. She connected the dots silently, her expression shifting through several emotions in an instant. Then she let out a small sigh, like she was accepting whatever might be coming.
She turned away, looking at Clarisse for a moment… then at Bianca.
But before anyone could do anything, suddenly, something like a falling star came crashing down from the sky, heading straight toward where they were gathered at incredible speed… while the temperature began to rise sharply.
All of them instinctively felt the flash of light, forcing them to cover their eyes, their vision burning, like if they tried to keep looking, their eyes might actually get scorched.
The light intensified… so did the heat… to the point it felt like their clothes were about to catch fire at any second.
Luckily… that didn't happen.
And just as suddenly, the light faded away, vanishing completely… and without anyone noticing exactly when, a luxury car appeared parked right at the edge of the street, beside where Artemis stood with her arms crossed.
A Maserati Spider… deep red… though with its natural color, it almost looked like it was literally burning.
"About time. You're so lazy in winter," Artemis said, as the driver's door opened.
The one who stepped out was a young man with an athletic build, reddish blond hair… and a playful, amused smile, his clothes way too summery for the cold… or at least, for how cold it had been before he showed up.
"Little sister," the young man said with an easy grin… one that, if his teeth were any whiter, would probably blind everyone there.
"Great… another one," Percy muttered, immediately recognizing who it was.
The god Apollo.