Ivy Pittaluga had always made a solemn vow to keep her distance from Percy Jackson, determined to keep her world separate from the camp hero.
However, she realizes that fate has a mischievous plan in store for her. Suddenly thrown together as unlik...
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When we reached the ledge, I wanted to back out of my crazy idea right away. The cliff dropped more than eighty feet. At the bottom was a river of fire cutting a path through a jagged obsidian crevasse, the glowing red current casting horrible shadows across the cliff faces.
Even from the top of the canyon, the heat was intense. The chill of the River Cocytus hadn't left my bones, but now my face felt raw and sunburned. Every breath took more effort. The cuts on my hands were bleeding more and my ankle was throbbing painfully.
"Uh..." Percy examined the cliff. He pointed to a tiny fissure running diagonally from the edge to the bottom. "We can try that ledge there. Might be able to climb down."
He didn't say that my plan was crazily insane. Percy managed to sound hopeful. I was grateful that, but also worried I may be leading us to our doom. It was a difficult choice to make. If we stayed where we were now, we would die anyway. If we went down to the river of fire, we had a chance of survival.
Percy went first. The ledge was barely wide enough to allow a toehold. Our hands clawed for any crack in the glassy rock. Every time I put pressure on my bad foot, I wanted to yelp. I had to swallow back the pain. I'd ripped my sleeves off my shirt to wrap my bloody palms. However, my fingers were still slippery and weak.
"So...what is this fire river called?" Percy grunted as he reached for another handhold.
"The Phlegethon." I said. "You should concentrate on going down."
"The Phlegethon?" He shinnied along the ledge. We'd made it roughly a third of the way down the cliff. "Sounds like a marathon for hawking spitballs."
"Please don't make me laugh." I bit my lip as I almost lost my grip on a handhold. "I'd laugh all the way down to my death."
"Just trying to keep things light."
"I know, thank you." I gasped, nearly missing the ledge with my bad foot. I spewed out a few cursed. Percy stopped and glanced back at me. "But let's save the laughing for safe-not-falling-to-our-death-heights, okay?"
We kept going, one step at a time. Sweat dripped into my eyes, causing them to sting. I couldn't wipe it away, the fear of my losing my hold and falling scaring me. My arms trembled. Thankfully the both of us finally made it to the bottom of the cliff.
When I reached the ground, I stumbled. Percy caught me. His skin was feverishly hot. I glanced at him with my blurry vision to see red boils in his face resembling smallpox.
"Just to the river." I said, my throat raw and blistered. I tried to keep the alarm out of my voice. We needed to hurry. "We can do this."
We staggered over slick glass ledges, around massive boulders, avoiding stalagmites that would've impaled us with any slip of the foot. Our tattered clothes steamed from the heat of the river. We kept going until we crumpled to our knees at the banks of the Phlegethon.
