THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.

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“Oh,” I said.“Right.” Then it dawned on me what he was saying, and my throat felt searing hot again.
“Your deadline with the Council of Cloven Elders.”
Grover put the TV remote in his mouth and crunched off the end of it. “I’m out of time,” he said with a
mouthful of plastic. “As soon as I go back, they’ll take away my searcher’s license. I’ll never be allowed
to go out again.”
“We’ll talk to them,” I promised. “Make them give you more time.”
Grover swallowed. “They’ll never go for it. The world is dying, Percy. What you did today—saving the
ranch animals from Geryon—that was amazing. I—I wish I could be more like you.”
“Hey,” I said. “Don’t say that. You’re just as much a hero—”
“No I’m not. I keep trying, but…” He sighed. “Percy, I can’t go back to camp without finding Pan. I
just can’t. You understand that, don’t you? I can’t face Juniper if I fail. I can’t even face myself.”
His voice was so unhappy it hurt to hear. We’d been through a lot together, but I’d never heard him
sound this down.
“We’ll figure out something,” I said. “You haven’t failed. You’re the champion goat boy, all right?
Juniper knows that. So doI .”
Grover closed his eyes. “Champion goat boy,” he muttered dejectedly.
A long time after he dozed off, I was still awake, watching the blue light of the Nature Channel wash
over the stuffed trophy heads onGeryon’s walls.
***
The next morning we walked down to the cattle guard and said our good-byes.
“Nico, you could come with us,” I blurted out. I guess I was thinking about my dream, and how much
the young boyPerdix reminded me of Nico.
He shook his head. I don’t think any of us had slept well in the demon ranch house, but Nico looked
worse than anybody else. His eyes were red and his face chalky. He was wrapped in a black robe that
must’ve belonged to Geryon, because it was three sizes too big even for a grown man.
“I need time to think.” His eyes wouldn’t meet mine, but I could tell from his tone he was still angry. The
fact that his sister had come out of the Underworld for me and not for him didn’t seem to sit well with
him.
“Nico,” Annabeth said. “Bianca just wants you to be okay.”
She put her hand on his shoulder, but he pulled away and trudged up the road toward the ranch house.
Maybe it was my imagination, but the morning mist seemed to cling to him as he walked.
“I’m worried about him,” Annabeth told me. “If he starts talking toMinos’s ghost again—”
“He’ll be al right,” Eurytion promised. The cowherd had cleaned up nicely. He was wearing new jeans