"Lee," Finley insisted as she got her things together for her quest. "I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" He persisted in a worried tone as he spoke to his little sister. "You've been working harder than anyone else. Finny, you could use a break. You don't need to go on this quest-"

"I'm fine, Lee," she hissed, as she zipped her bag quickly. "I'll rest when Kronos is gone and Luke's head is on a stick."

"That's my point, Finny!" Lee called as he followed her. "You're going to run yourself to the ground in exhaustion."

"I'm not sitting out on this quest," Finley stated as she continued to make her way across camp. "I've been on countless quests within the past three years-"

"But your death is more likely in this one than the others!" the blonde finally caught up to his stubborn light brown-haired sister. 

"People die in war, Lee-"

"Finley! Stop!" Lee grabbed her arm, spinning her around to look at him. He towered over her by a few inches, but he knew she could easily have him whimpering in pain. 

"What?" Her hazel eyes bore into her brother's blue ones. 

"Please be careful," he said softly. "No risks-"

"I don't take risks-"

"That's a lie, Finny," Lee said. He attempted to make it lighthearted, but it didn't work too well. "No risks. No dying on me."

"I won't," Finley nodded at her brother's soft tone. 

"Finny," he said urgently. "I mean it. I can't lose my little sister-"

"Lee," Finley teased. "You have tones of little sisters. And judging by dad's rate of reproduction-"

"Don't finish that sentence."

"-you'll have more!"

"And you finished it," Lee gave her a sarcastic look. 

Finley grinned, thankful for the moment of amusement. 

"Finley," Lee began again in a serious tone. "Please be careful."

"What am I gonna do? Hang out in a volcano?" Finely joked. "Maybe watch it blow up?"

Lee didn't look impressed. 

Knowing Finley, and her best friends, it was a great possibility. 

"Finley," Lee pulled his sister into his arms. "Please come back. The war is coming and out of all of my siblings, I want you to come out the other end. You need to survive. I can't lose you."

"I'll try, Lee," Finley agreed. "And don't go all soft on me."

Lee ended up following Finley all the way to Zeus's Fist, where the quest group agreed to meet. 

"Do you have everything?" Lee asked his little sister. 

Percy, who was off to the side, listened. He loved the idea of having a sibling who clearly cared more than it normally appeared. To have someone to fall back on. To have a sibling. He had Tyson, of course, but with Finley and Lee, it was different. Finley didn't have her mom, but Lee had clearly been looking out for her for years. 

"Yes," Finley nodded, twirling Light Bringer on her finger. 

"Ambrosia?" Lee raised a brow. 

"Okay, so I may have forgotten something..." Finley frowned. 

Much to Percy's amusement, Lee held out a brown paper bag and a water bottle that looked to be holding nector. 

"This has your ambrosia and nector," Lee explained as he handed her the bag. "There's a sandwich in there along with some snacks-"

"Goldfish?" Finley asked hopefully. 

"Of course," Lee nodded. "And I also snuck tampons and pads into your pack-"

Finley turned bright red as she shushed her brother. Lee laughed loudly at his sister's face, leading her to glare at him. 

As Finley walked away to join Annabeth with her face still bright red, Percy made to follow her. Unfortunately, Lee stuck his arm out, stopping the boy. Knowing Apollo campers were generally nice, he began to fear his life when Lee glared at him. His sea-green eyes darted around, hoping not to find a bow anywhere. 

"Keep her safe, Jackson," he whispered lowly. 

Percy didn't need to ask who he was talking about. He'd be beyond stupid to not know he was talking about Finley. 

"I will," he nodded before leaving to talk to Chiron briefly about his dream last night; there's a spy at camp and Luke knows about the quest. 

Then, the quest entered the endless maze.

***

We made it a hundred feet before we were hopelessly lost.

The tunnel looked nothing like the one Finley and Percy had stumbled into before. Now it was round like a sewer, constructed of red brick with iron-barred portholes ever ten feet. Finley shined a light through one of the portholes out of curiosity, but she couldn't see anything. It opened into infinite darkness. She thought she heard voices on the other side, but it may have been just the cold wind.

Annabeth tried her best to guide them. She had this idea that they should stick to the left wall.

"If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it," she said, "we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course."

Unfortunately, as soon as she said that, the left wall disappeared. They found ourselves in the middle of a circular chamber with eight tunnels leading out, and no idea how they'd gotten there.

"Um, which way did we come in?" Grover said nervously.

"Just turn around," Finley suggested. 

They each turned toward a different tunnel. It was ridiculous. None of them could decide which way led back to camp.

"Left walls are mean," Tyson said. "Which way now?"

Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as Finley could tell, they were identical.

"That way," she said.

"How do you know?" Percy asked.

"Deductive reasoning."

"So...you're guessing," Finley added. 

"Just come on," the blonde said.

The tunnel she'd chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to gray cement, and the ceiling got so low that pretty soon they were hunching over. Tyson was forced to crawl.

Grover's hyperventilating was the loudest noise in the maze. "I can stand it anymore," he whispered. "Are we there yet?"

"We've been down here maybe five minutes," Annabeth told him.

"It's been longer than that," Grover insisted. "And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite of the wild!"

Finley wasn't much better. She began to sweat and her breaths were labored. She was having flashbacks to her time locked in the basement...and the storm cellar...and the pantry. She was glad to have been in the back. She didn't want her friends to think she was weak or couldn't go on this quest. 

Percy's eyes caught hers. His sea-green eyes studied her, clearly asking if she were alright. Even though she had nodded, it was clear she wasn't. Even in the dim light, he could see her abnormally pale complexion and wide fearful eyes. 

Hoping to convince him, she gave him a weak, wavering smile. 

And Percy was convinced she wasn't alright. 

Nonetheless, he knew she might vaporize him with beams of light if he suggested she returned to camp. Therefore, he stayed silent. 

They kept shuffling forward. When the tunnel became so narrow Finley was convinced it would squash them, it opened into a huge room. Percy shined his light around the walls and said, "Whoa."
The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but I could still make out the colors—red, blue, green, gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast. There was Percy's dad, Poseidon, with his trident, holding out grapes for Dionysus to turn into wine. Zeus was partying with satyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals. The pictures were beautiful, but they weren't very accurate. Finley had seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes's nose wasn't that big.

In the middle of the room was a three-tiered fountain. It looked like it hadn't held water in a long time.

"What is this place?" Percy muttered. "It looks—"

"Roman," Finley breathed out. "Those mosaics are about two thousand years old."

"But how can they be Roman?" Percy asked. 

"The Labyrinth is a patchwork," Annabeth said. "I told you, it's always expanding, adding pieces. It's the only work of architecture that grows by itself."

"You make it sound like it's alive."

A groaning noise echoed from the tunnel in front of them.

"Let's not talk about it being alive," Grover whimpered. "Please?"

"All right," Annabeth said. "Forward."

"Down the hall with the bad sounds?" Tyson said. Even he looked nervous.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "The architecture is getting older. That's a good sign. Daedalus's workshop would be in the oldest part."

That made sense. But soon the maze was toying with them—they went fifty feet and the tunnel turned back to cement, with brass pipes running down the sides. The walls were spray-painted with graffiti. A neon tagger sign read MOZ RULZ.

"I'm thinking this is not Roman," Percy said helpfully.

Annabeth took a deep breath, then forged ahead.

Every few feet the tunnels twisted and turned and branched off. The floor beneath them changed from cement to mud to bricks and back again. There was no sense to any of it. They stumbled into a wince cellar—a bunch of dusty bottles in wooden racks—like they were walking through somebody's basement, only there was no exit above them, just more tunnels leading on.

And Finley hated it. 

She keeps seeing the dark and cold basement in her mother's house. She couldn't help but feel small and afraid. She could help but wanna curl in on herself in fear. She hated it. 

Happy thoughts, Finley, she told herself. Think of happy thoughts.

Her thoughts drifted to the people in front of her; Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover. 

Tyson was pretty cool, but she wasn't as close to him as she was the others. She drifted from Grover seeing as he was constantly searching for Pan, not that it bothered her too much. He was doing what he wanted, and that's all she could've asked for. 

Annabeth was her best friend, and they did everything together. 

Percy was...well he was her friend that she so happened to have a crush on. 

Pain shot through her mind as a vision came. 

She saw herself with the same group of people as her last vision. This time, however, they were all fighting in a battle. Except, she noticed, she and Percy had this haunted look in their eyes. Annabeth wasn't too far away. They fought fiercely and with great determination. 

Suddenly, Percy's nose started to bleed. 

"Sunny?" Percy questioned quietly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Are you sure-?"

"'m good," she assured. 

The concerned look he sent her reminded her of the last time she had been at the Jackson's apartment with Percy. 

She had fallen asleep while watching a movie. She woke up suddenly gasping for breath. Percy, who was sitting on the opposite couch, instantly rushed to her side, looking deeply concerned. When she waved him off, he refused to ignore it. Luckily, she was saved by Sally returning.

That was the same day she met Paul Blowfis, Sally's boyfriend. Finley liked Paul. He was nice and it was clear he cared a lot about Percy and Sally.

"I'm Finley," She had introduced as she held out her hand for him to shake.

"Percy's girlfriend, right?" Paul asked as she shook his hand. Both teenagers blushed a deep scarlet. Percy became a stuttering mess while Finley answered.

"No. Just a close friend," Finley chuckled nervously through her blush.

"Oh...my bad. It's just-" Paul had stopped talking and gave the flustered Percy a fist bump.

Dinner that night, against what Finley had originally thought, wasn't awkward. Paul, obviously, doesn't know about halfbloods. Meaning Finley had to be careful of the stories she told. She did, however, find it was easy to talk to the adults. 

Later the ceiling turned to wooden planks, voices and creaking footsteps could be heard above the group, as if they were walking under some kind of bar. It was reassuring to hear people, but then again, they couldn't get to them. They were stuck down here with no way out. Then they found their first skeleton.

He was dressed in white clothes, like some kind of uniform. A wooden crate of glass bottles sat next to him.

"A milkman," Annabeth said.

"What?" Percy asked.

"They used to deliver milk."

"Yeah, I know what they are, but...that was when my mom was little, like a million years ago. What's he doing here?"

"Some people wander in by mistake," Annabeth said. "Some come exploring on purpose and never make it back. A long time ago, the Cretanssent people in here as human sacrifices."

Grover gulped. "He's been down here a long time."

He pointed to the skeleton's bottles, which were coated with white dust. The skeleton's fingers were clawing at the brick wall, like he had died trying to get out.

"Only bones," Tyson said. "Don't worry, goat boy. The milkman is dead."

"The milkman doesn't bother me," Grover said. "It's the smell. Monsters. Can't you smell it?"

Tyson nodded. "Lots of monsters. But underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people."

"Oh, good," Grover whimpered. "I thought maybe I was wrong."

"We have to get deeper into the maze," Annabeth said. "There has to be a way to the center."

Percy noted Finley's silence but said nothing. 

Annabeth led them to the right, then the left, through a corridor of stainless steellike some kind of air shaft, and they arrived back in the Roman tile room with the fountain.

This time, they weren't alone.