KILLING DOGS DIDN'T TAKE MUCH EFFORT. And after stabbing a good fifteen hellhounds over the course of the battle in Manhattan, Alex no longer felt guilty when they burst into little clouds of ash and smoke. But somehow Mrs. O'Leary had the constitution, and luck, of a cyclops in Hephaestus's forge. Percy rode on her back like a horse jockey, avoiding every attempt by the Lydian Drakon to kill them.

As Alex decapitated another dracaena, he risked a glance up at the two-hundred-foot long serpent currently smashing lamp posts on 34th Street. Percy and Annabeth leapt out of its snapping jaws. Mrs. O'Leary howled, slamming into the drakon's head like she, not Percy, had bathed in the River Styx.

None of this mattered, though. Unless Chris and Silena could convince Clarisse to get over herself and help save the world, they'd all be drakon meat before long. Alex ducked as a scythe swung towards his head. Rolling into a pedestal that must've held one of Daedelus's automatons, he hissed in pain. Stupid.

Alex scrambled back. He licked the blood off his lips, too focused on swinging his sword to use his arm. Iron tang filled his mouth. A hellhound twice the size of Mrs. O'Leary bounded through the still-settling corpse dust of a dracaena. With a frustrated scream, Alex hurled a large piece of broken concrete at the hellhound's face. It yelped. Adrenaline flooded his senses as he tried to stand.

His boot slipped on gravel and glass shards. Alex winced as some of the debris cut into his palms. His sword clattered to the ground. Biting his cheek to even out the pain, he grabbed it, pulled himself up with a spoke of rebar poking out from building debris, and turned back to the growling hellhound. It leapt at him, red eyes sunken and glowing in it's sleek black fur. Alex stopped breathing. 

He swung. The sword sunk into the dog's body. Hot, sulfuric breath filled his nose as Alex ducked away from a maw of sharpened teeth as big as a shark's. With all his strength, he drove the sword deeper. He felt muscles and tendons slice. The hound shrieked before disintegrating into ash and dust the color of the void.

Alex fell to the ground. The drakon's roar reverberated all around him.  Sweat mixed with blood, cut lines down his grimey face.

Ok. Maybe killing dogs hurt more than he had been admitting to himself. Alex looked around them. He tried to ignore the massive serpent destroying building corners and attempting to eat Percy and Annabeth. Instead, he tried to read the field. It didn't go well.

The campers continued losing ground. Alex already stood a stone's throw from the entrance to the Empire State Building. Most demigods in the field had been wounded in previous fights, fed ambrosia, and pushed back out to defend the entrance. Katie Gardner tied up and strangled dracaenae in ivy and vines. He could see Travis and Connor working in tandem, swords flashing with their speed. Nyssa from the Hephaestus cabin looked to be repairing or altering some of the vacated mortal vehicles, maybe rigging a car bomb?

But with every minute that passed, they found themselves inches closer to the doors. His arms burned. But he parried another dracaena's blade before sending her back to Tartarus. He had a job. He couldn't stop. He couldn't fail Camp Half-Blood. Not again.

An arrow flew by his ear. A scream and then a thud followed. Alex turned. The feathered shaft stuck out from Nyssa's shoulder. Gritting his teeth, Alex vaulted over a wrecked car. He grabbed the writhing girl by the strap of her brown leather armor.

Just a few steps later he dropped her in the lobby hall. He screamed for the medics. But he couldn't wait. An explosion rocked the ground. Alex turned back to the fight.

Kronos's forces had them pinned. If it hadn't been for the cars barricading the door like metallic sandbag walls, they would've been picked off like fish in a barrel. Like Nyssa. Katie Gardner cradled her bleeding arm against her chest. Looked like claws or teeth. She ducked past him, tears in her eyes, opting to take cover in the entrance way.

Alex looked out at the sea of monsters. Dracaenae, hellhounds, demigods. Drakon. Travis and Connor fell back. He nodded at them, locking eyes. No humor. No pranks.

"It's been an honor," Alex said.

Connor and Travis both nodded back. The latter patted Alex on the back a single time. Tears filled Alex's eyes but he didn't let them fall. He didn't want to die crying. He wouldn't go to the Fields of Punishment anything but proud.

They raised their swords. The few remaining campers and Hunters stood side by side by side, facing down death. Monstrous shrieks of glee joined the drakon's terrible roar.

A rumbling filled the air. It started low first, like a vibration. But it grew steadily, different from anything else Alex had heard. He tried to place it. The monsters stopped advancing.

A scream cut through the cacophony of battle. A single word, a name.

"Ares!"

War chariots. Hooves pounded asphalt and concrete. Alex's mouth fell open as a dozen mahogany and bronze war chariots crashed into Kronos's armies. They scattered as two dozen skeletal horses and thirty fresh fighters with lances of celestial bronze, wielded with deadly accuracy by the children of the god of war, descended upon them screaming. Crimson banners danced in the wind behind them.

Six broke off. A girl in familiar red armor led them, crackling electric spear held up in challenge at the drakon. It spat, flailing, sending Mrs. O'Leary crashing into crumbling concrete and rebar. Alex watched Percy dive for his dog.

But Clarisse had eyes for the drakon, only. The serpent hissed and spat, managing to paralyze two of Clarisse's six chariots. But she didn't stop. She charged like a maniac, shrill voice screaming orders.

"About time!" Connor shouted, grin back on his face. He lifted his sword. "Let's go!"

Alex laughed. His muscles ached, blood dropped into his right eye making it hard to see. But he also raised his sword. "Let's go!"

The few remaining warriors, bolstered by the arrival of Ares's children, hacked and slashed in defense of the doors. Alex narrowly dodged a strike from a sword covered in acid.

"Ares!"

"Clarisse!"

Alex tried to see what was happening. Cutting his way through the remaining dracaenae, he tried to get to the drakon. It wriggled and writhed in agony and anger. But it still fought.

A blur of blades, Percy seemed to be trying to kill it. Alex gritted his teeth. Had Clarisse fallen? The worm had to die by a child of Ares! Percy couldn't do it. What was he thinking?

Alex kicked a dracaenae in the chest, sending it stumbling back. He swung. Its head disintegrated a foot from the ground. He tried to wade towards the commotion by the drakon. On his right, a girl screamed in rage and agony, spitting curses. It sounded like Clarisse.

But Clarisse had fallen to the ground by the drakon... on the left?

Alex's stomach dropped. He offed another dracaena and clawed forward. If Clarisse hadn't led the charge, then who had? He saw her running towards Percy, Annabeth, and the Ares campers. Behind, Chris Rodriguez.

"Look out!" Chris shouted.

The ground shook as the two-hundred-foot drakon turned to the group of demigods, away from Percy.  Alex felt his legs turn to jelly as he joined them, sharing in the drakon's wrath. He turned away. Don't get paralyzed.

Instead, he looked at the ground. The girl in Clarisse's armor had blue eyes and a lither frame. As Clarisse knelt next to her, she began shaking. Alex paused.

Not shaking in fear. In fury.

She whipped around, hand gripping her electric spear so tight her knuckles turned white. "You want death?" Clarisse planted her feet wide and pointed the spear at the drakon's remaining eye. "Well, come on!"

Without armor, without shield, Clarisse charged the drakon alone. Alex's eyes widened. He raised his sword, stepping forward and seeing Percy do the same, but they were too slow.

Clarisse vaulted up the drakon's face, dodging acid and fangs, and stood atop its head. Her scream filled the entire city block. With one massive thrust, she drove Maimer into the drakon's remaining eye. It crackled and sparked. An explosion of magic and electricity and celestial bronze added percussion to the war cry of the daughter of Ares.

The drakon smoked. It twitched. But Clarisse slid down its face without effort, rage radiating from her very presence. As she stepped off the drakon and turned to look at her prey, she screamed. It crumpled to nothing. Only armor and dust remained of the Lydian Drakon.

Alex couldn't find words. His gaze stayed glued to the spot the drakon had just occupied. Only Clarisse slamming into his shoulder to reach the girl on the ground tore him from his awe.

Ares campers, free from the monster's spell or otherwise drawn by their leader's fury, crowded in with them as Annabeth removed the girl's helmet. Chris stood next to him. Alex saw the blue eyes, the pale skin, the dark hair.

Silena. A lump filled his throat. Silena Beauregard.

Shocked, Alex missed most of the conversation. He tried to make sense of it all. She'd gone to get Clarisse. Clarisse must've said no. Somehow, someway, she'd tricked the Ares cabin.

"All my fault," she said, voice strangled. "The drakon, Charlie's death, camp endangered."

Oh no. Alex didn't need to hear the rest. He didn't need Clarisse's stubborn objections or the silence of the Ares cabin. He didn't need Percy to confirm it.

"You were the spy."

Silena cried. She couldn't nod, body broken and neck being cradled by Clarisse. "Before, before I like Charlie," she said, "Luke was nice to me."

Forgetting all about the dracaenae and hellhounds and arrow storms around them, Alex felt his heart constrict. Luke. His brother, his mentor. His leader. He missed some of what she said, but not the last of it.

"I wanted to stop helping him, but he threatened to tell. He promised… he promised I was saving lives. Fewer people would get hurt."

Silena's choked sobs tore at his heart. This was why he fought with the camp. For demigods. For demigods like Silena and Ophelia and the Stoll brothers. He hated the gods, but the Titans would destroy them all. Like they'd destroyed Luke.

"He told me… he wouldn't hurt Charlie."

Luke had forgotten their purpose. Or, or maybe Alex had been blind to Luke's.

"He lied to me."

Shame washed over Alex. He could see the glances between the others, and after a moment Clarisse disbanded her own cabin, sending them off to help the battle and away from Silena. Beside him, Alex felt rather than saw Chris wobble.

"Forgive me."

He grabbed Chris's arm at Silena's words. They steadied each other, Alex's strong grip not enough but at least something to remind themselves that they were not alone. They'd both left Luke. The Luke Alex had known had died after Thalia, daughter of Zeus, kicked him from Mount Othrys.

"You're not dying," Clarisse said.

"Charlie." Silena's eyes glazed over, voice breathy. "See Charlie…"

Silence. Clarisse held her, tears streaming down her face. Alex stared down at Silena's unmoving body, waiting for her to breathe. She had to breathe.

His hand fell from Chris's forearm as Chris joined the openly weeping Clarisse. In the pit of his stomach, Alex felt the weight of Tartarus. She had to breathe.

Clarisse screamed through her tears. Agony echoed around them. As it faded, Annabeth inched forward. She shut Silena's eyes. She wasn't going to breathe.

"We have to fight," Annabeth said. "She gave her life to help us. We have to honor her."

Regaining composure, Clarisse nodded. She pushed herself off the ground, letting go of Silena's hand and allowing Chris to place his own on her shoulder. "She was a hero, you understand? A hero."

Alex wanted to speak, but he couldn't. He had no control over his voice. Fortunately, Percy stepped up. He nodded. "Come on, Clarisse."

Celestial bronze scraped against asphalt as she replaced her shattered spear with the abandoned sword of one of her fallen siblings. "Kronos is going to pay."

Alex had never been more sure of anything in his life than that her words would come true. They had a lot of work to do, defending the Empire State Building with a handful of warriors and a group of centaurs. The arrival of the Ares cabin helped, but for hours they fought on. Fortunately, they had Clarisse La Rue.

Blessed by Ares himself, she drove back the enemy on her chariot. Alex watched her in awe. He'd thought himself one of the best swordsmen at camp. Truth be told, he was. But Clarisse could not be stopped.

Leaning against the outside wall of the Empire State Building, Alex tried to breathe. They owed Clarisse for the respite. For the first time in hours, the sounds of battle came to them on the wind, not from right before their eyes.

"Alex, I need you to do something for me."

He opened his eyes at Annabeth's voice. She looked as exhausted as he felt, and paler than normal. Did her shoulder still ache?

"Yeah," he said.

"Can you handle the defense of the wounded?" She lowered her voice. "I'm worried about all this. Clarisse is volatile on a good day. Like this…"

He nodded. "She doesn't care."

"Not about self-preservation, that's for sure." She gestured inside the doors. "We need someone to coordinate defending the wounded if Kronos manages to beat our defenses."

What she said made sense. It always did. Athena's daughter and all that. But he wanted to be on the streets. He struggled to find his words. Sacrifice. Silena had sacrificed her life for this. He could sacrifice his pride.

"You've got it," he said.

Annabeth nodded. No smile, no thank you. They weren't there yet. Still, the fact she'd put him in charge of something meant maybe, finally, she'd realized Luke was dead. That he hadn't slandered their friend upon coming back to camp by saying he was gone, or abandoned him to a fate worse than death by defecting again.

Olympus looked dead. There was no other way to describe it as he reached the 600th floor and walked into the park where they'd set up camp. The only noises in the fading light of day were moans and sobs, and the occasional light hymn to Apollo.

He looked them over. Someone laid a golden shroud across a camper under an oak tree. Nearby, a blonde girl, wearing a White Stripe's band tee, sat against the trunk.

Ophelia.

Alex rushed over. He dodged Will, offering a quick apology. "Ophelia!"

She looked up. Her eyes widened. "Alex, you look like hell."

Choking up, he tried to push down the guilt and shame and pain in his gut. He saw Silena in her blue eyes for just a moment. But he pushed it down.

"Are you okay?" He held out his hands to steady her as she stood up.

Ophelia took a deep breath in through her nose, wincing but not collapsing. "Evening helps."

Rushing footsteps caused Alex to turn from her beautiful face. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover hurried past. Sighing, Alex turned back.

"I have to go."

"Do your thing, lion man."

Alex scoffed at the dumb nickname. But he couldn't help smiling, watching her there. He grinned wider as she broke into a smile, too.

"I'll be back."

"I know."

He leaned in, kissing her as quick as he could. Which, admittedly, wasn't fast. She just smelled so good, tasted like smoke and fire, wreathed in shadows. Even broken and bleeding, it made his heart race.

Ophelia pushed him away. "Go."

He had work to do. There weren't many demigods in Olympus able to stand, but there were some. He armed them, positioned them behind cover. The wounded were moved back from the road, deeper into the park and closer together. They had to maximize their coverage.

Not a moment too soon. Thalia, bow broken and arrows gone, ran past him passing the news.

"Kronos is coming."

The sky outside turned red and purple, usually a beautiful combination but truly menacing when all he could think was red for blood, and purple for Kronos.

He felt a presence at his side. Ophelia. She wobbled only slightly, shoulder to shoulder with him.

"I need to check on the lines," he murmured. "Stay here."

She didn't respond, but he didn't have time to hesitate. Where was Kitty? They needed her. He ran off, giving out orders as the shadows deepened.

Shadows. Night. Alex stopped cold. A shiver ran down his spine. He looked back at the arched gate into the where he'd left Ophelia. She wasn't there.

How could he have been so stupid?