The Mark of Athena,Heroes of Olympus, Book 3

Percy X


When he finally caught up with Annabeth, her first words to Percy were, "We need to leave as soon as possible."

"I couldn't agree more!" gushed Octavian. Annabeth glared daggers at him as he walked past.

"So, what exactly are you doing, Octavian?" called Annabeth stiffly.

"Going to see what the future holds, of course! Perhaps it shows a great victory for the Romans!"

"Sounds like a plan, no matter how idiotic." Annabeth smiled, mimicking perfectly Octavian's pleasant grin that told you he was up to no good.

"Ah, yes. The daughter of Minerva thinks she knows plans."

"Thinks? I know."

Octavian chuckled and rolled his eyes, continuing to temple hill.

"Percy!" Reyna called, riding up to them on Skippy.

"Yeah?"

"I just needed to know which side you'll be on tonight for the war games." Reyna smirked.

"Greek."

"I don't even know why I asked that. The fifth cohort is working with the Greeks tonight, so, either way, you'll be on their team. Good luck." Reyna smiled at Percy and shot Annabeth an impressed look.

"You know Octavian hates you now, right?" Reyna asked, raising an eyebrow at Annabeth.

"I don't even care. He's just an idiot with a knife and a few teddy bears," Annabeth said with a shrug.

"Well, watch your back. It would be a shame if Octavian killed you in war games."

"'Kay. See you, Reyna." Annabeth waved. Reyna nodded and flew off on Skippy. Percy thought about what Reyna had asked him just a week before and immediately decided Annabeth didn't get to know about it. Annabeth and Reyna seemed to have respect for each other, and Percy didn't want to mess that up. He wasn't sure who would win in a fight between them. And he didn't want to find out.

"Percy! Annabeth!" yelled Frank, running from Temple Hill. "Octavian is praying that the Romans will destroy every last Greek-starting with Miss I-adjourn-meetings-whenever-I-want-to... er... no offence."

"Oh, none taken," Annabeth said sincerely.

Frank obviously was trying not to laugh, but he continued, "Anyway, you people need to watch out."

"Oh, yeah. We got the memo from Reyna," chuckled Percy. "We'll be fine. It's just Octavian, right?"

"At the moment... but you know him. A couple denarii and he'll have the fauns working for him. A few more and... well, you know how kids are easy to manipulate."

"Kids? You're telling me that Octavian would use innocent, mindless, children to do his dirty work?" Annabeth was horrified at the fact.

"Remember, this is Octavian. He just swore on the river Styx that he would destroy you," reminded Frank. Percy shot him a look. Annabeth hadn't been there when Octavian had said that.

"He what?" exclaimed Annabeth. She composed her expression, which had become contorted in a mix of fear and surprise. "Well, he'd better think about things worse than death, because that is not going to happen. Ha!"

THAT EVENING

Percy and Annabeth stood with the Greeks and the Fifth Cohort. Percy glared at Octavian, who gave him a very fake look of surprise at his anger.

"Plan A," Annabeth whispered, "disarm Octavian. Plan B... we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Percy was shocked. He expected Annabeth to have thought of everything from disarming not working to an alien invasion.

Jason blew the horn and Percy and Annabeth ran straight towards Octavian, who was busy with a ring of gold that suddenly had wrapped around his head. Hazel was snickering as she fought off a boy from the Second Cohort. Frank was in eagle form, flying over Percy and Annabeth's heads.

"Is that Frank?" Annabeth yelled. Percy nodded, while effectively causing Octavian a few shallow wounds in his arms and making him drop his weapon. Octavian grabbed his spear and threw it at Frank, who crumpled to the ground.

Congratulations, Octavian, Percy thought. You've just lost both your weapons and succeeded in making me angry!

Percy hit Octavian with the flat of his blade, causing Octavian to fall.

"Nice." Annabeth grinned. "Come on, we need to get to the fortress!"

Before Annabeth could begin to run, Octavian had grabbed his sword and swung it at her ankle. The blade cut into her skin and she cried out in pain. Annabeth gripped her knife and drove it into Octavian's hand.

"Take that, romaios ilithios!" yelled Annabeth. Percy helped her up.

"Gods, that idiot!" Annabeth muttered, followed by words that weren't typically used in polite company. The blood that had been a trickle before was now a steady stream.

"I'll be fine-just go find Frank." Percy nodded and ran towards his friend.

"Dude, you okay?" Frank was back to himself again. He grunted.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Where's Annabeth?" Frank asked.

"Octavian stabbed her," Percy muttered, gritting his teeth. "He's dying tonight."

"Well, I sure hope so." Frank grinned, and the two set off towards the fortress, with only about three dozen worried looks over their shoulders at Annabeth.