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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I was never afraid of the dark, or at I thought I wasn't until now. The shadowy figure was forty feet tall. She had black wings, a whip made of stars, and a shadowy chariot pulled by vampire horses. Night was a churning figure of smoke and ash. Her dress was void black, mixed with colors of a space nebula. Her face was hard to see except for her eyes that shone like quasars. When her wings beat, waves of darkness rolled over the cliffs, making me feel heavy and sleepy.
The chariot was made of Stygian iron and pulled by two massive horses that were all black except for their fanged teeth. The beasts' legs floated in the abyss, turning from solid to smoke as they moved. The horses snarled and bared their teeth at me. Nyx lashed her whip and the horses reared back.
"No, Shade." The goddess said. "Down, Shadow. These little prizes are not for you."
Percy eyed the horses as they nickered. He was still shrouded in Death Mist, so he looked like an out-of-focus corpse-which broke my heart every time I looked at him. It also must not be very good camouflage since Nyx could see us still. I couldn't read Percy's expression well with the Death Mist. All I could see was that I knew Percy didn't like what the horses were saying.
"Uh, so you won't let them eat us?" Percy asked the goddess. "They really want to eat us."
"Of course not." Nyx's eyes burned. "I would not let my horses eat you, any more than I would let Akhlys kill you. Such fine prizes, I will kill myself!"
"Oh, don't kill yourself!" I blurted out. I didn't know where I was going, but all I knew was I had to distract her long enough to get answers and find a better plan. "We're not that scary."
"What?" The goddess lowered her whip. "No, I didn't mean-"
"Well, I'd hope not!" I continued, looking at Percy and forced a laugh. My eyes pleaded for him to follow along. "We wouldn't want to scare her, would we?"
"Ha, ha." Percy weakly laughed. "No, we wouldn't."
The horses looked confused. They reared and snorted and knocked their heads together. Nyx pulled back on their reins.
"Do you know who I am?" She demanded.
"You're Night, I suppose." I said with a shrug. "I mean, I can tell because you're dark and all do that, though the brochure didn't say much about you."
"What brochure?" Nyx's eyes winked out for a second.
"Let me..." I patted my pockets and pretended I lost the brochure. A frown grew on my face before glancing at Percy. "We had one, didn't we? Did I have it last?"
"Uh-huh." Percy licked his lips.
"Anyway," I flicked my hand in dismissal and gave Nyx a smile, "I guess the brochure didn't say much because you weren't spotlighted on the tour. We got to see the River Phlegethon, the Cocytus, the arai, the poison glade of Akhlys, even some random Titans and giants, Nyx...hmm, no. You weren't really featured."
