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

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

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

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Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html<br />

“Oh, sure.Sorry if…”<br />

But Rachel was already curling up, using her backpack as a pillow. She closed her eyes and lay very<br />

still, but I got the feeling she wasn’t really asleep.<br />

A few minutes later, Annabeth came back. She tossed some more sticks on the fire. She looked at<br />

Rachel, then at me.<br />

“I’ll take first watch,” she said. “You should sleep, too.”<br />

“You don’t have to act like that.”<br />

“Like what?”<br />

“Like…never mind.” I lay down, feeling miserable. I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as my eyes<br />

closed.<br />

In my dreams I heard laughter.Cold, harsh laughter, like knives being sharpened.<br />

I was standing at the edge of a pit in the depths ofTartarus . Below me the darkness seethed like inky<br />

soup.<br />

“So close to your own destruction, little hero,” the voice of Kronos chided.“And still you are blind.”<br />

The voice was different than it had been before. It seemed almost physical now, as if it were speaking<br />

from a real body instead of…whatever he’d been in his chopped-up condition.<br />

***<br />

“I have much to thank you for,” Kronos said. “You have assured my rise.”<br />

The shadows in the cavern became deeper and heavier. I tried to back away from the edge of the pit,<br />

but it was like swimming through oil. Time slowed down. My breathing almost stopped.<br />

“A favor,” Kronos said. “The Titan lord always pays his debts. Perhaps a glimpse of the friends you<br />

abandoned…”<br />

The darkness rippled around me, and I was in a different cave.<br />

“Hurry!”Tyson said. He came barreling into the room. Grover stumbled along behind him. There was a<br />

rumbling in the corridor they’d come from, and the head of an enormous snake burst into the cave. I<br />

mean, this thing was so big its body barely fit through the tunnel. Its scales were coppery. Its head was<br />

diamond-shaped like a rattler, and its yellow eyes glowed with hatred. When it opened its mouth, its<br />

fangs were as tall as Tyson.<br />

It lashed at Grover, but Grover scampered out of the way. The snake got a mouthful of dirt. Tyson<br />

picked up a boulder and threw it at the monster, smacking it between the eyes, but the snake just<br />

recoiled and hissed.<br />

“It’s going to eat you!” Grover yelled at Tyson.

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