──── chapter sixteen

{ 🔮 } · sibling bonding! . ݁ ٬٬ ࣪

DISTANCE WAS SHORTER IN THE LABYRINTH. Still, by the time Rachel got them back to Times Square, Endora felt like they'd pretty much run all the way from New Mexico. They climbed out of the Marriott basement and stood on the sidewalk in the bright summer daylight, squinting at the traffic and crowds. She couldn't decide which seemed less real ─ New York or the crystal cave where she'd watched a god die.

Percy led the way into an alley, where he could get a nice echo. Then he whistled as loud as he could, six times.

A minute later, Rachel gasped. "They're beautiful!"

A flock of pegasi descended from the sky, swooping between the skyscrapers. Blackjack was in the lead, followed by five of his white friends.

Yo, boss! He spoke in Percy's mind. You lived!

"Yeah," Percy told him. "I'm lucky that way. Listen, we need a ride to camp quick."

That's my specialty! Oh man, you got that Cyclops with you? Yo, Guido! How's your back holding up?

The pegasus Guido groaned and complained, but eventually he agreed to carry Tyson.

Everybody started saddling up ─ except Rachel.

"Well," she told Percy, "I guess this is it."

"Thanks, Rachel," Percy said. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"I wouldn't have missed it. I mean, except for almost dying, and Pan. . ." her voice faltered.

"He said something about your father," Percy remembered. "What did he mean?"

Rachel twisted the strap on her backpack. "My dad. . . My dad's job. He's kind of a famous businessman."

"You mean. . . you're rich?"

"Well, yeah."

"So that's how you got the chauffeur to help us? You just said your dad's name and ─ "

"Yes," Rachel cut me off. "Percy. . . my dad's a land developer. He flies all over the world, looking for tracts of undeveloped land." she took a shaky breath. "The wild. He ─ he buys it up. I hate it, but he plows it down and builds ugly subdivisions and shopping centers. And now that I've seen Pan. . . Pan's death ─ "

"Hey, you can't blame yourself for that."

"You don't know the worst of it. I-I don't like to talk about my family. I didn't want you to know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"No," Percy said. "It's cool. Look, Rachel, you did awesome. You led us through the maze. You were so brave. That's the only thing I'm going to judge you on. I don't care what your dad does."

Rachel looked at him gratefully. "Well. . . if you ever feel like hanging out with a mortal again. . . you could call me or something."

"Um, yeah, sure."

She knit her eyebrows. Percy guess he sounded unenthusiastic or something, but that's not how he meant it. He just wasn't sure what to say with all his friends standing around. And he guessed his feelings had gotten pretty mixed up the last couple of days.

He glanced back, watching Endora patting Cupcake's, the pegasus she was on ─ a beautiful horse with yellowish main ─ who seemed joyful at the sugar cubes the brunette summoned. Percy didn't even notice when a smile appeared on his face just by watching the scene unfold.

"My number's not in the book," she said.

"I've got it."

"Still on your hand? No way."

"No. I kinda. . . memorized it."

Her smile came back slowly, but a lot happier. "See you later, Percy Jackson. Go save the world for me, okay? And get your girl. Those don't wait for long."

She walked off down Seventh Avenue and disappeared into the crowds. When Percy turned around, he was watching the brunette witch trying to get the son of Hades onto the pegasus he stood close to.

"Nico, get on the pegasus." Endora said, watching as the boy inched away from the horse.

"You're not the boss of me." the younger boy shot back.

"I'm fifteen, you're twelve. I think that means you have to listen to me."

"I don't have to!"

"Boy, listen to me, and get onto the pegasus!"

Grumbling under his breath, Nico walked closer towards one of the pegasus. But as he inched closer, his pegasus kept shying away from him, reluctant to let him mount.

He smells like dead people! the pegasus complained.

Hey now, Blackjack said. Come on, Porkpie. Lots a demigods smell weird. It ain't their fault. Oh ─ uh, I didn't mean you, boss.

"See, even he doesn't want me! Go without me!" Nico said. "I don't want to go back to that camp anyway."

"Nico," Percy said, "we need your help."

He folded his arms and scowled. Endora walked away from the pegasus she stood next to and placed her hand on his shoulder. To her surprise, he didn't pull away.

"Nico," she said. "Please."

Slowly, his expression softened.

"All right," he said reluctantly. "For you. But I'm not staying."

Percy raised an eyebrow at Endora, like, How come all of the sudden Nico listens to you? She shrugged her shoulders. At last, they got everybody on a pegasus.

They shot into the air, and soon the group was over the East River with Long Island spread out before them.

They landed in the middle of the cabin area and were immediately met by Chiron, the potbellied satyr Silenus, and a couple of Apollo cabin archers which included Madeline. The black haired girl jumped onto Endora and Annabeth, pulling them into a hug. They awkwardly hugged her back, side-eyeing each other, still not over the argument the two girls had. Daughter of Apollo looked at them questionably.

Chiron raised an eyebrow when he saw Nico, but if Endora expected him to be surprised by their latest news about Quintus being Daedalus, or Kronos rising, she was mistaken.

"I feared as much," Chiron said. "We must hurry. Hopefully you have slowed down the Titan lord, but his vanguard will still be coming through. They will be anxious for blood. Most of our defenders are already in place. Come!"

"Wait a moment," Silenus demanded. "What of the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks overdue, Grover Underwood! Your searcher's license is revoked!"

Grover took a deep breath. He stood up straight and looked Silenus in the eye. "Searcher's licenses don't matter anymore. The great god Pan is dead. He has passed on and left us his spirit."

"What?" Silenus's face turned bright red. "Sacrilege and lies! Grover Underwood, I will have you exiled for speaking thus!"

"It's true," Percy said. "We were there when he died. All of us."

"Impossible! You are all liars! Nature-destroyers!"

Chiron studied Grover's face. "We will speak of this later."

"We will speak of it now!" Silenus said. "We must deal with this ─ "

"Silenus," Chiron cut in. "My camp is under attack. The matter of Pan has waited two thousand years. I fear it will have to wait a bit longer. Assuming we are still here this evening."

And on that happy note, he readied his bow and galloped toward the woods, leaving them to follow as best they could.

It was the biggest military operation Endora'd ever seen at camp. Everyone was at the clearing, dressed in full battle armor, but this time it wasn't for capture the flag. The Hephaestus cabin had set up traps around the entrance to the Labyrinth ─ razor wire, pits filled with pots of Greek fire, rows of sharpened sticks to deflect a charge. Beckendorf was manning two catapults the size of pickup trucks, already primed and aimed at Zeus's Fist.

The Ares cabin was on the front line, drilling in phalanx formation with Clarisse calling orders. Apollo's and Hermes's cabins were scattered in the woods with bows ready. Many had taken up positions in the trees and Madeline raced off to join her siblings. Even the dryads were armed with bows, and the satyrs trotted around with wooden cudgels and shields made of rough tree bark.

Annabeth went to join her brethren from the Athena cabin, who had set up a command tent and were directing operations. A gray banner with an owl fluttered outside the tent. Their security chief, Argus, stood guard at the door. Aphrodite's children were running around straightening everybody's armor and offering to comb the tangles out of our horsehair plumes. Even Dionysus's kids had found something to do, with Fredrick being with the Athena cabin, going over the strategy. The god himself was still nowhere to be seen, but Fredrick's brothers were running around providing all the sweaty warriors with water bottles and juice boxes.

It looked like a pretty good setup, but Chiron muttered next to me, "It isn't enough."

Endora thought about what she'd seen in the Labyrinth, all the monsters in Antaeus's stadium. Her heart sank. Chiron was right, but it was all we could muster. For once Endora wished Dionysus was here, but even if he had been, she didn't know if he could do anything. When it came to war, gods were forbidden to interfere directly. Apparently, the Titans didn't believe in restrictions like that.

Over at the edge of the clearing, Grover was talking to Juniper. She held his hands while he told her about the quest. Green tears formed in her eyes as he delivered the news about Pan. Tyson helped the Hephaestus kids prepare the defenses. He picked up boulders and piled them next to the catapults for firing.

When her siblings saw her, Lou Ellen and Basil jumped down from their spots on the trees and ran towards their sister. They threw their hands around the girl, hugging her and Basil crying into her shirt. Endora patted their heads, kissing their foreheads. She needed to tell them the truth.

Endora pulled away, "Guys, we should. . . talk."

By her expression, Lou Ellen and Basil knew something serious was about to happen. And it did. The three siblings moved into the forest where Hermes' and Apollo's children were, standing underneath one of the trees as Endora told them about their brother.

"I should have told you last year," Endora said with a sigh after explaining all the events that happened since seeing her brother last year, "But I didn't want to scare you even more. You already worry enough about me and the spirit, I didn't want to cause even more trouble."

Lou Ellen stopped her pacing. Her left arm hugging her stomach, while her left held her chin. "So you're telling me that he didn't disappear but rather sided with the Titans? He let us all believe he was innocent when he's a traitor to this Camp."

"I know," Endora said, "Yeah, he betrayed the Camp, he betrayed us, but that's in the past ─ "

"He's not my brother anymore." Lou Ellen decided and then she turned towards Endora, "Did you fight his last winter? Did he give you that horrible bruise on your back? A bruise from which you have a scar now."

Endora nodded slowly. Basil looked down, playing with the end of his shirt.

"That mother fucking asshole!" her sister shouted, sparks flying from her hands. She directed them towards the tree and the sparks flew, causing a ball of light to hit the tree and burn its core, "I will fight him. If he shows his ass, I swear to ─ "

"No." Endora said firmly, standing up.

Lou Ellen and Basil looked at their sister.

"What?" Basil said this time.

"I said no." Endora repeated herself, "None of you will fight him."

"Look, Dora, you don't get ─ "

"You will listen to me." the brunette girl said, her voice firm, looking between her siblings, "If fight occurs, I will fight with him ─ Lou, don't interrupt me. You know the rule ─ the more powerful, the head of the coven they are. I'm the first sibling to be claimed. I'm the one with most experience out of all of us. And I will fight if he tries to. You will stay here and defend the Camp. This is not your fight. I fought him once, I will do it the second time. Understood me?"

She held her chin high as she spook; her siblings not daring to speak up. It was a rule, and every witch knew it ─ the more powerful you are, the more authority you get. None of them ever wanted to say it, but Endora was the most powerful out of all of them; and not just from Hecate's children, but within the Camp too.

"Yes." Basil said.

Endora looked at her sister with raised eyebrow.

Lou Ellen crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Fine." she grumbled, "But if I see you losing, I will not hesitate to interrupt."

"Fair enough."

The ground underneath them was trembling. Endora looked back. Everyone in the clearing stopped what they were doing. Clarisse barked a single order: "Lock shields!"

Then the Titan lord's army exploded from the Labyrinth. Endora had been in fights before, but this was a full-scale battle.

The first thing she saw were a dozen Laistrygonian giants erupting from the ground, yelling so loudly her ears felt like bursting. They carried shields made from flattened cars, and clubs that were tree trunks with rusty spikes bristling at the end. One of the giants bellowed at the Ares phalanx, smashed it sideways with his club, and the entire cabin was thrown aside, a dozen warriors tossed to the wind like rag dolls.

"Fire!" Beckendorf yelled.

The catapults swung into action. Two boulders hurtled toward the giants. One deflected off a car shield with hardly a dent, but the other caught a Laistrygonian in the chest, and the giant went down. Apollo's archers fired a volley, dozens of arrows sticking in the thick armor of the giants like porcupine quills. Several found chinks in armor, and some of the giants vaporized at the touch of celestial bronze.

But just when it looked like the Lastrygonians were about to get overwhelmed, the next wave surged out of the maze: thirty, maybe forty dracaenae in full battle armor, wielding spears and nets. They dispersed in all directions. Some hit the traps the Hephaestus cabin had laid. One got stuck on the spikes and became an easy target for archers. Another triggered a tripwire, and pots of Greek fire exploded into green flames, engulfing several of the snake women. But many more kept coming. Argus and Athena's warriors rushed forward to meet them. Endora saw Annabeth draw a sword and engage one of them. Nearby, Tyson was riding a giant. Somehow he'd managed to climb onto the giant's back and was hitting him on the head with a bronze shield ─ BONG! BONG! BONG!

The three siblings looked at each other. With a single nod, they charged into the battle.

Endora charged at the nearest dracaenae, trusting her hand up and sending the monster into flames before it could even blink. Lou Ellen slid onto the ground, letting her hands spark up and sending two dracaenae fly away just in time for Basil, with a flick of his wrist, to crack their necks and send them into a pile of dust.

The three siblings stood next to each other, watching the Greek armor fall to the ground before charging at more monster coming their way.

As he raced across the battlefield, Percy saw horrible things. An enemy half-blood was fighting with a son of Dionysus, but it wasn't much of a contest. The enemy stabbed him in the arm then clubbed him over the head with the butt of his sword, and Dionysus's son went down. Another enemy warrior shot flaming arrows into the trees, sending their archers and dryads into a panic. A dozen dracaenae suddenly broke away from the main fight and slithered down the path that led toward camp, like they knew where they were going. If they got out, they could burn down the entire place, completely unopposed. The only person anywhere near was Nico di Angelo. He stabbed a telekhine, and his black Stygian blade absorbed the monster's essence, drinking its energy until there was nothing left but dust.

"Nico!" Percy yelled.

He looked where Percy was pointing, saw the serpent women, and immediately understood. He took a deep breath and held out his black sword. "Serve me," he called.

The earth trembled. A fissure opened in front of the dracaenae, and a dozen undead warriors crawled from the earth - horrible corpses in military uniforms from all different time periods ─ U.S. Revolutionaries, Roman centurions, Napoleonic cavalry on skeletal horses. As one, they drew their swords and engaged the dracaenea. Nico crumpled to his knees, but Percy didn't have time to make sure he was okay.

But someone did. 

He saw the boy dropping onto his knees, feeling his life source almost giving up. With Endora running into a battle away from the woods and Lou Ellen shooting arrows from the trees, Basil Lenoir ran towards the boy, sending dracaenaes into flames just like Endora does.

"You good?" Basil asked Nico, getting onto his knees to be face to face with the boy.

Nico looked up, his breath caught in his throat. The grass around him turning brown, looking almost dead.

"Fine." Nico grumbed, trying to stand up, but failing. Basil caught him before the boy could hit the ground.

"Clearly, you're not," they said, trusting their hand and sending a telekhine flying away from them, "So let me help and try not to be a self-sacrificing idiot. That's Dora's job."

Basil swears he saw Nico managing a small smile on his face.

His heart skipped a beat.

Endora hates sleeping spells. Just as she sent another telekhine into a pile of golden dust, she felt really sleepy. A wave of calmness and tiredness washed over her and all the girl could think was sleeping, laying in the comfortable bed of her side in cabin eleven after eating the warm dinner with her siblings.

No. Not today, brother.

Endora quickly shook his head. Her vision went back to normal and the adrenalin came back.

"Good morning, Dora," a familiar voice said behind her and when Endora turned, she found herself face to face with her brother, "Did I wake you up?"

Rage filled her insides. That was a spell she created; how dare he used it against her!

"You dare use my own spell against me?" Endora said though gritted teeth.

"It's in the book," Alabaster shrugged, a sly grin on his face, "You should keep things to yourself then."

"Why are you doing this Al? Why chose the Titans?" she was trying to buy some time, to not fight her brother.

But Alabaster could see right though her. One part of him never wanted to battle with his sister, a girl that welcomed him with open arms and taught him things he knew now. A girl that was so selfless even when she's suffering, never asking for help but wanting to help those that ask. He never wanted to be seen as a traitor in her eyes, but he didn't want to be the gods puppet anymore.

They didn't care for them, not one bit. So why fight for them. Titans were not much better, but at least they knew his worth. They knew what he was capable of and they knew what his sister was capable of ─ "Destroy her, that is your task during this battle."

He needed to succeed or he would burn in wrath of an angry Titan Lord.

"Mom never cared," Alabaster said in a bored tone, "She even sided with us, she knows what she's worth."

Endora kept quiet for a moment, her eyes filled with betrayal and defeat.

"We can just walk away from this."

The boy shook his head, "I'm sorry, but that is something I cannot do."

And he charged at her.

Endora got herself away from the tree as the boy came at her, his fingers sparking and mist circling his hands. The girl jumped away, sparking up her own hands as her brother slid on the ground and back at his feet. He was smirking as they both casted spells, sending hexes and jinx at each other without a second thought.

The girl didn't know when it happened. Her head was pounding, her mind swirling with voice yelling at each other, yelling at her; her body ache and her tongue rolled with spells she didn't even know she knew. She was a mess to put it simply. From her clothes to her emotional state. Drops of blood came dripping down her shirt, staining it red but she didn't care. Not that her brother was in a better condition. He wiped the blood from his hands onto his shirt, his forehead glistening with sweat, his breath uneven. His mind raced with spells he didn't use, yet nothing came to him.

He never wanted this, but now. . . he didn't know if it was better to die by Titan's or in the hands of his sister's possessed body.

"Nothing?" Endora asked, wiping away the blood that dripped from her nose.

Her veins were black and she had this kind of a lunatic look in her eyes ─ one that was hungry for power. It was not her and Alabaster knew that. He may have joined the Titans, but he never wanted to harm his sister and siblings; they were everything to him yet he ripped that apart.

"Let's call it a tie, huh?" Alabaster said, watching as Endora's hands sparked. Her mind was not in its place and the boy knew it was torturing her to fight it.

He couldn't do it.

"A tie?" she mused, "Where was that tie when you blasted me to the wall last winter? You know I have a scar on my back cuz of it."

Alabaster felt his heart clench.

"What?"

Endora laughed, but it was her laugh ─ it was more sinister. She turned and when the boy locked eyes with those almost black one he knew didn't belong to his sister, Alabaster knew he had to end the fight.

"Oh yes," Endora said, her voice on a deeper tone then her normal, "The bruise somehow turned into a scar. But I don't mind. It's just a memory of how my brother betrayed me!"

She charged at him, but Alabaster had no heart to harm his family. He grabbed some dust from the pouch he had around his neck and when the girl was near him, he blew the dust, letting it fly towards her and cover her face. Endora's movements slowly stopped and before she could hit the ground, Alabaster caught her. He laid her down carefully, casting a shielding spell so that nothing happened to her.

"I don't want to kill you, and neither you want to kill me." Alabaster said softly, "Or rather, I hope you don't. So, call this a tie and let's continue some other time and I will take my punishment," he watched as her eyes slowly closed, "Sleep tight."

The world around the girl disappeared.

niki speaks!

here's a bday chapter from me
as i just woke up to such
beautiful messages, i love u all so much !!
you gave me such an incredible experience
here on the app and i'm grateful
to have found such people

you probably won't be hearing from me
today after this, i'mma celebrate it
with my friends
but thank you all for incredible wishes !!

have a nice day/night!
bye!