The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)

by Rick Riordan

“Think positive. Tomorrow you’re off to camp! After orientation, you’ve got your date—” “It’s not a date!” I protested. “It’s just Annabeth, Mom. Jeez!” “She’s coming all the way from camp to meet you.” “Well, yeah.” “You’re going to the movies.” “Yeah.” “Just the two of you.” “Mom!” She held up her hands in surrender, but I could tell she was trying hard not to smile. “You’d better get inside, dear. I’ll see you tonight.”

A marching band played an out-of-tune fight song that sounded like somebody hitting a bag of cats with a metal baseball bat.

It had never occurred to me. Whenever I thought about her (and I’m not saying I thought about her; she just like crossed my mind from time to time, okay?), I always figured she lived in the Hoover Dam area, since that’s where I’d met her.

DONT DO IT PERCY.

“I am senior empousa,” she growled. “No hero has bested me in a thousand years.” “Yeah?” I said. “Then you’re overdue!”

TRIPLE G RANCH FRAGILE THIS END UP Along the bottom, in smaller letters: OPEN WITH CARE. TRIPLE G RANCH IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR PROPERTY DAMAGE, MAIMING, OR EXCRUCIATINGLY PAINFUL DEATHS.

“Uh, okay,” I said, though I wasn’t sure about the “excruciatingly painful death” part.

“No, no.” Annabeth patted her shoulder. “He’ll be fine, Juniper.” Annabeth looked at me and mouthed the words Grover’s girlfriend.

“Wrong fight, girlie,” Clarisse muttered. “Wait.”

Silena was nice, but she was an absolute neat freak, the worst inspector. She liked things to be pretty. I didn’t do “pretty.”

“You are okay?” he asked. “Not eaten by monsters?” “Not even a little bit.” I showed him that I still had both arms and both legs, and Tyson clapped happily. “Yay!” he said. “Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!”

I couldn’t help smiling, he was so enthusiastic about everything.

“Lots of bad people above the sea, too,” Tyson said. “We can make them go boom.”

Nico di Angelo would come looking for me.

Grover shuddered. “Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!”

REALL

“Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase.” “Nice.” I grinned at Annabeth.

We’d fought together so many times we knew each other’s moves. We could do this, easy. But it all went wrong when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods.

Annabeth’s hand slipped into mine. Under different circumstances I would’ve been embarrassed, but here in the dark I was glad to know where she was. It was about the only thing I was sure of.

Annabeth turned toward me, her eyes dark with worry. “An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp.”

“Wait a second,” I said. “If we’re worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?” “Great idea!” Grover said. “I’ll get the dynamite!”

Then she did something that really surprised me. She blinked back tears and put out her arms. I stepped forward and hugged her. Butterflies started turning my stomach into a mosh pit.

At least I got a good night’s sleep before the quest, right? Wrong.

Me rn...

He dropped the rest of the Cokes into the grave and pulled out a white paper bag decorated with cartoons. I hadn’t seen one in years, but I recognized it—a McDonald’s Happy Meal. He turned it upside down and shook the fries and hamburger into the grave. “In my day, we used animal blood,” the ghost mumbled. “It’s perfectly good enough. They can’t taste the difference.” “I will treat them with respect,” Nico said. “At least let me keep the toy,” the ghost said.

Nico had summoned the dead with Coke and cheeseburgers.

Oh, my dad is the all-powerful evil Titan lord who wants to destroy Western Civilization. I want to be just like him when I grow up!

“I’m your best friend,” the right face said. “I’m your worst enemy,” the left face said. “I’m Janus,” both faces said in harmony. “God of Doorways. Beginnings. Endings. Choices.”

You have to rise above the squabbling and chaos, and keep believing. You have to always keep your goals in mind.”

“I know this place,” Annabeth told me. “This is Alcatraz.” “You mean that island near San Francisco?” She nodded. “My school took a field trip here. It’s like a museum.”

RICK. PERCY. ANNABETH. GROVER. TYSON. WHY YALL STALKING ME...

“I told you,” he said sadly. “I always—” His face morphed to confusion. “What is that you made?” “A gun,” I told him, showing him my finger gun. It was a trick Paul Blofis had pulled on me, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “A gun beats anything.”

I picked up my bedroll and dragged it over to where Annabeth was sitting, keeping watch. I sat down next to her.

Oh boy, more people to torture!

She was scared of tiny spiders, but not of plummeting to her death from a set of monkey bars. Go figure.

“A demigod!” one snarled. “Eat it!” yelled another. But that’s as far as they got before I slashed a wide arc with Riptide and vaporized the entire front row of monsters.

“New lesson, class,” I announced. “Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to you right now if you don’t BACK OFF!”

“I’ll be fine. Besides, we’ve got no choice.” Annabeth glared at me like she was going to punch me. And then she did something that surprised me even more. She kissed me.

“Be careful, Seaweed Brain.” She put on her hat and vanished. I probably would’ve sat there for the rest of the day, staring at the lava and trying to remember what my name was, but the sea demons jarred me back to reality.

If I saw that face on somebody walking down a highway intersection asking for money, I would’ve locked the car doors.

“You talk in your sleep.” I blushed. “Yeah. I’ve been…uh, told that before.” “Yes. Who is Annabeth?” “Oh, uh. A friend. We were together when—wait, how did I get here? Where am I?”

“But…I’m just…I mean, I’m just me.”

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me on the forehead, like a blessing. “Then come to the beach, my hero. And we will send you on your way.”

Her eyes were puffy from crying, but she managed to say, “He was probably the bravest friend I’ve ever had. He…” Then she saw me. Her face went blood red. “He’s right there!”

“Well,” he sighed with obvious relief. “I don’t believe I’ve ever been happier to see a camper return. But you must tell me—” “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” Annabeth interrupted, shoving aside the other campers. I thought she was going to punch me, but instead she hugged me so fiercely she nearly cracked my ribs. The other campers fell silent. Annabeth seemed to realize she was making a scene and pushed me away. “I—we thought you were dead, Seaweed Brain!”

Annabeth glared at me. “You are the single most annoying person I have ever met!” And she stormed out of the room.

Annabeth laughed. It was the first time I’d heard her laugh in a long time, and it was nice to hear.

“Shhh!” Annabeth said, looking around. “Just announce it to the world, how about?” “Okay.” Rachel stood up and said really loud, “Hey, everybody! These two aren’t human! They’re half Greek god!”

“That’s it,” Annabeth said. “You know Greek?” “No,” Rachel said. She pulled a big blue plastic hairbrush from her pocket and started brushing the gold out of her hair. “Let me get changed. You’d better come with me to the Marriott.” “Why?” Annabeth asked. “Because there’s an entrance like that in the hotel basement, where we store our costumes. It’s got the mark of Daedalus.”

Oh uhm ok.

“That’s not true! There was something wrong with him. He looked…nervous. He told his monsters to spare me. He wanted to tell me something.” “Probably, ‘Hi, Annabeth! Sit here with me and watch while I tear your friends apart. It’ll be fun!’”

Quintus stared at me. “My boy, you need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly. I am Daedalus.” There were a lot of answers I might’ve given, from “I knew that” to “LIAR!” to “Yeah right, and I’m Zeus.”

“That’s true,” Rachel said. “Like I can paint with my feet as well as my hands.” “You see?” Quintus said. “A girl of many talents.”

“None of us know how to fly!” Nico protested. “Great time to find out,” I said. And together, the four of us jumped out the window into open sky.

“Thanks.” I remembered the last time Annabeth and I had parted ways, when she’d given me a kiss for luck in Mount St. Helens. This time, all I got was the hat.