THEY RAN UNTIL THEY WERE EXHAUSTED. Rachel steered them away from traps, but they had no destination in mind—only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.

They stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. Selena couldn't hear anything behind them, but that didn't make her feel any safer. She could still remember those unnatural golden eyes staring out of Luke's face. Those were the eyes that killed her.

"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.

There was a blur of blonde and Annabeth wrapped her arms tightly around Selena, "I thought you were dead." She pulled away, "Where did you go?"

"I fell in the maze and when I looked up, you were gone." Selena looked between Percy and Annabeth, "You thought I was dead? How long was I gone for?"

"Two weeks." Annabeth answered, tears in her eyes, "Hephaestus led me out of the Labyrinth and I went back to camp for reinforcements and to wait for you two. You never showed up."

Percy uncapped Riptide and cut through the chains, "Have you been with... Luke this entire time?"

"Mostly, yeah." Selena nodded, "The Labyrinth, it was messing with my head. Led me into a small room and closed it off until he got to me." She explained, "I didn't realize he was gonna..." 

Annabeth collapsed and put her head between her knees. Her sobs echoed in the tunnel. Selena sat down next to her, placing a hand on her best friend's back as Percy and Nico sat next to her.

"That sucked," Nico stated, 

"You saved our lives," Percy told the son of Hades,

Nico wiped the dust off his face. "Blame the girls for dragging me along. That's the only thing they could agree on. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up."

"Nice that they trust me so much," Percy shined his flashlight across the cavern. Water dripped from the stalactites like a slow-motion rain. "Nico...you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."

"What do you mean?"

"That wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now—a child of the Underworld."

Nico frowned. "Big deal."

Selena grabbed Percy's hand and squeezed it, silently telling him to let it drop. She figured he was just trying to hide how scared he was, and Selena couldn't blame him.

Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "What...what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

Percy and Selena told her what they had seen in the coffin, the way the last piece of Kronos's spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan Nakamura pledged his service.

"No," Annabeth said. "That can't be true. He couldn't—"

"He gave himself over to Kronos," Selena sighed, "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone."

"No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."

Percy nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."

Rachel looked embarrassed. "It was the only thing I had."

Selena gave her a small smile, "Way to use your resources, mortal."

"But you saw," Annabeth insisted. "When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."

"So maybe Kronos wasn't completely settled in the body, or whatever," Percy said. "It doesn't mean Luke was in control."

"You want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth yelled. "You didn't know him before, Percy. I did!"

Selena looked over at Annabeth, "I knew him, too, Annie. Let's face it-"

"No! Shut up, Selena, you don't know!" Annabeth yelled at her, "That's not Luke and you know it!"

"Luke's gone!" Selena exclaimed, "And he's about to do a lot worse than signing his soul to the devil so you better buckle up, sweetheart!"

Annabeth paused, "What are you talking about?"

"Just..." She groaned and stomped her foot, "Let it go, would you?"

"Whoa, you two," Rachel said. "Knock it off!"

Annabeth turned on her. "Stay out of it, mortal girl! If it wasn't for you..."

Whatever she was going to say, her voice broke. She put her head down and sobbed miserably. Selena wanted to comfort her, but she needed her own space. Selena had seen those eyes before. She saw them before she died, in her dreams.

Kronos was alive. He was armed. And the end of the world was probably close at hand. And she was going to die. 

"We have to keep moving," Nico said. "He'll send monsters after us."

Nobody was in any shape to run, but Nico was right. Selena began walking in front, Rachel right behind her along with the others.

"We need to get back to New York," Percy said. "Rachel, can you—"

Selena stopped and the others bumped into her, "Hey, what's-" Percy looked over her shoulder and saw what she was staring at.

A few feet in front of them, Selena's flashlight beam fixed on a trampled clump of red fabric lying on the ground. It was a Rasta cap: the one Grover always wore.