A 1

Nico had just reached the ladder when a sharp pain shot up Annabeth’s bad leg. She gasped and
stumbled.
“What is it?” Percy asked.
She tried to stagger toward the ladder. Why was she moving backward instead? Her legs swept out
from under her and she fell on her face.
“Her ankle!” Hazel shouted from the ladder. “Cut it! Cut it!”
Annabeth’s mind was woolly from the pain. Cut her ankle?
Apparently Percy didn’t realize what Hazel meant either. Then something yanked Annabeth
backward and dragged her toward the pit. Percy lunged. He grabbed her arm, but the momentum
carried him along as well.
“Help them!” Hazel yelled.
Annabeth glimpsed Nico hobbling in their direction, Hazel trying to disentangle her cavalry
sword from the rope ladder. Their other friends were still focused on the statue, and Hazel’s cry was
lost in the general shouting and the rumbling of the cavern.
Annabeth sobbed as she hit the edge of the pit. Her legs went over the side. Too late, she realized
what was happening: she was tangled in the spider silk. She should have cut it away immediately. She
had thought it was just loose line, but with the entire floor covered in cobwebs, she hadn’t noticed that
one of the strands was wrapped around her foot—and the other end went straight into the pit. It was
attached to something heavy down in the darkness, something that was pulling her in.
“No,” Percy muttered, light dawning in his eyes. “My sword…”
But he couldn’t reach Riptide without letting go of Annabeth’s arm, and Annabeth’s strength was
gone. She slipped over the edge. Percy fell with her.
Her body slammed into something. She must have blacked out briefly from the pain. When she
could see again, she realized that she’d fallen partway into the pit and was dangling over the void.