A/N: Hey y'all! I've been gone a while, plus summer's busy (in a good way! :D), so I've been waiting a while to do this chapter. But now it's here! Sorry it's short. The next chapter will be longer...with A LOT of drama, I think. Enjoy! OH YEAH -- and thanks a billion for the reviews! You guys write the best!

We inspected the dark, glassy wall, and even Percy forgot all about the minotaur and his underwear. Etched deep into the crystal was a criss-crossing web of lines, dotted with one glowing spot of light. The lines formed an intricate pattern inside a rectangle -- exactly like the labyrinth -- and in the middle was a large room.

"A map," I repeated. "To the tomb room."

"The 'tomb room'?" Percy crossed his arms. "What are you, Dr. Seuss?"

I shoved him and pointed to the middle of the map. "This is where we're trying to go. And this is where we are, right...here," I moved my finger to the left, to the light spot. "I think."

"Do we have some paper or something?" Thalia asked. "I don't know about you, but I can't memorize a map just by seeing it."

"Same goes for me," Grover agreed.

"And me," Percy said.

"You don't need to memorize it," I smiled. Finally, something was going right. "If I'm right..."

"Again," muttered Percy.

I ignored him. "If I'm right, then you just -- touch it."

"Wait," Grover looked confused. "Touch what? The light?"

"No, where you want to go. This is how you get through the Labyrinth so quickly. You find these maps, and you don't have to find your way through the maze."

Thalia nudged me away. "Well, let's try it, then!" she moved her hand to touch the tomb room on the map.

"Thalia, wait--!"

But with a bright flash and a swoosh, she'd already left.

Percy's eyes grew huge. "Woah."

I wasn't so amused. "Oh, isn't this fantastic!" I grumbled, kicking the wall in despair. "Ow!"

Percy touched his pocket, making sure Riptide was ready. "Let's go," he said, moving his hand to the wall. "We can't let her stay alone."

Grover and I sighed together and got ready to touch the map. "On three?" Percy said.

"Fine," I muttered. "THREE."

I could only see a glimpse of Percy looking annoyed before our hands hit the wall and a flash of white light nearly blinded me. You know that feeling you get when you're on a roller coaster before the huge drop, and your stomach kind of does a backflip or two? Yeah. That happened. The white light didn't go away as we flew into who-knows-where. But finally...

"Oof!" I squeaked as we hit the glass floor.

Percy had landed beside me, wincing. "That's gonna hurt tomorrow."

"No kidding," I checked my elbow, which was now flaming red with a big, round scrape. Great -- a strawberry burn. "Where's Grover?"

No sooner had the words left my mouth than a huge flash brightened the room. A tall, gawky satyr came spinning and screaming through the light, and we heard a crunch as he flopped to the ground.

"Ow," he whispered weakly.

A skinny girl with a shiny black bob and freckles jogged over to us. "Hey," Thalia said. "Where's the tomb?"

"Good question," I scanned the huge-but-empty glass room we'd fallen into. It seemed to be above ground, because there was no ceiling anymore. There was also no tomb. "Nowhere."

"Maybe Kronos went out for a coffee break?" Percy suggested hopefully.

I paced the room. "Ancient architecture laws say the tomb should be in the center," I reasoned. "Symmetry and all that. It should be right there." I stomped my foot on the ground in the middle of the room.

Quickly, I jumped back like I'd just lit a firework. The ground rumbled, shaking beneath me, and a long shape of the glass floor melted into molten gold. As the golden coffin rose from the floor, my heart sank.

"Gee," I half-smiled. "Looks like we found it after all, huh, Percy?"

I turned to look at him. Percy's face was quickly changing to the uncomfortable color of pale mushrooms, which isn't a color anyone's face should be.

"Let's check the maze map again," he mumbled. "I don't think we've found the right room. This feels...weird."

Grover stopped nursing his scrapes and popped up beside Percy. "Good idea!"

"Hold up, you can't just turn away from what we've been looking for all this time!" I cried.

"The guy has a point," Thalia stroked her chin thoughtfully. "We come all this way and now we just open the tomb and stab him? It's too easy."

"We can at least try," I pressed, and Percy nodded grimly.

But then Thalia sighed, "Well, Grover, I'll race you to the exit when that tomb pops open."

The word bit into my mind like a fang -- race.

Suddenly, my mother's words that I'd long forgotten about rushed back to me.

Please, Annabeth, I'm counting on you to get to the center of the maze first, the words echoed in my head. Just touch it is all I'm asking.

I didn't have time to think out what I was doing, and the second Thalia's words were out of her mouth, Percy's head and mine whirled around to face each other. Our mouths and eyes were wide open with sudden understanding...

And then we sprinted. We'd carelessly wandered away from the tomb and it was a mad twenty-yard dash, thanks to the huge room, to touch the coffin. Percy had a small head start, but I was faster. I gained on him until we were neck-and-neck. Ten yards to go...five yards...three yards...with a last burst of speed I shot ahead and let my fingertips brush the gold surface of the tomb.

But that rush you get from winning? Yeah, it went away in about half a second.

"Thank you, Annabeth," a loud voice laughed from behind us.

We all jumped back to see who had spoken. "Who was that?" Percy muttered angrily beside me.

I held my hands up like I didn't know, but I was absolutely lying. If there was any voice in the world I could know, it was this one. I couldn't forget his voice if I wanted to.

"Luke," Thalia snarled.

"Correct. And thanks for buying the ridiculous contest I planted into your parents' heads, by the way." Luke's voice said. Black smoke gathered by the far wall, and with a whooshing noise, Luke stepped calmly out of the mist. "It's hard to find a way to get into this awful place, hm? Just so you know, Percy -- if anyone other than the child of the prophecy touches that tomb, it gives anybody from Kronos' army full entry."

"How does he do that?" Grover whined, talking about the smoke more than Luke's elaborate plan.

Luke sauntered lazily toward the coffin. "Oh, being part of the stronger army has many advantages, goat boy."

"Part of the stronger army?" Thalia said through gritted teeth. "You mean one of Kronos's tools."

"Percy," I whispered as quietly as I could, trying not to move my mouth. "Open the tomb and kill him. Now!"

Percy didn't look at me -- I don't know if that was from anger or because it would look conspicuous -- but he did slide toward the tomb as Luke kept yelling at Thalia.

"You know nothing about Lord Kronos!" he growled. "He has twice the power that all the gods have ever had!"

Beside me, Percy tugged at the coffin to no avail. It's stuck, he mouthed desperately.

"You, Thalia, could have helped us," Luke continued angrily. "I thought you would. You used to be smart before you..." His voice dwindled off and his eyes flicked to Percy, still trying to yank the top of the tomb off. He strode over and twisted Percy's arm behind his back.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow..." Percy strained against Luke's grip.

"Nice try," Luke snorted. He let go of Percy's arm and kicked him in the ribs, causing a sickening crack to echo throughout the room. Percy crumpled to the ground, clutching his side.

"PERCY!" I cried, running toward him.

"Let it go, Annabeth," Luke told me. "He'll be dead soon, once the rest of us appear."

Thalia looked horrified. "The rest of us?"

Luke turned and placed a hand gently on the coffin. "Yes," he said simply.

Behind him, something strange was happening mid-air. It was as if someone had ripped space apart. And a terrible sight came out of the gap in the air: hundreds -- wait, thousands -- of monsters of every type you could imagine, cyclopes and harpies and furies and hundreds of huge, grotesque snake that must have been Percy's cobras. They poured out like a plague of locusts into the huge room, grinning and snickering. They probably were deciding which of us looked tastiest.

Luke looked pleased at his power, but then he seemed to remember something and sombered up. "Spare that one," he ordered, pointing to me. "Don't touch her."

As much as I hated everything he stood for, the part of me that knew the real Luke melted a little bit.

He was still Luke, who still loved me even if he didn't know it. He was just confused, and I could help him.

"Kill the others," he finished tartly, waving his hand toward Percy, Thalia, and Grover.

"NO!" I shouted, guarding Percy with my arms. "You want to kill him -- them -- you'll have to kill me first," I said, trembling.

Luke looked like he was about to say something, but a beautiful sound interrupted him. We turned around to see Thalia, playing a smooth, clear note on a silver wooden flute.

"Actually," she said, putting the flute away. "You'll have to kill all of us, too."

The air shimmered behind her. Artemis' army, looking a little confused but still ready to fight, materialized around us.

"The Hunters!" Grover cried excitedly.

As soon as they saw the army facing them, they drew their bows. Some of them had knives, too, and a couple carried swords. I looked back and forth from the Hunters to the monsters, and I realized with a jolt that we were almost perfectly matched.

As the cobras to either side of him hissed, Luke's expression changed from terrified to sublimely confident. "Fine," he said quietly, standing straighter. "The battle begins."

He snapped his fingers.