Where the Escape Ends
It wasn't the first time Harry and Grover had traveled by Floo, though it was for Annabeth. But, as always, the trip straight to Avalon was… rough.
It felt like they were spinning inside a whirlpool of flames, barely able to make out paths forming within a kind of network that branched into different exits, all of them lit with green fire.
Traveling together only made it worse, since they kept bumping into each other while their bodies drifted in weightlessness. It was like riding a roller coaster with no safety at all.
Thankfully, in the next instant, it felt like they were suddenly spat out by a massive mouth of green flames before hitting the ground, their stomachs completely turned upside down. Luckily, Percy was unconscious and couldn't feel any of it, but Harry, who should have been used to it, barely managed to hold himself together thanks to his higher endurance. Annabeth, on the other hand, stayed on the ground for a moment, doing everything she could not to throw up in front of the others.
As she struggled to breathe, holding it in, she suddenly saw a pair of boots appear right in front of her.
Instinctively, she looked up.
And the first thing she found were two dark eyes staring straight at her… and for a moment, something deep inside her trembled, like that gaze was the most dangerous thing she had ever faced. As if she could see hatred, resentment, vengeance, doubt… and then calm. All in a single instant.
As those eyes seemed to settle, his hand moved slightly, making Annabeth lower her gaze, noticing that he was holding a sword, gripping its handle tightly… before slowly letting go.
That alone made her understand the fear from before. It felt like she had been standing in front of her executioner for a moment… and hadn't even realized it until he chose not to end her life.
The man's gaze lingered on her for another second before shifting past her.
"As always, your arrivals here are among the most dramatic, Harry, Percy," the man said calmly, his voice soft, completely different from the look Annabeth had just received.
"Dred, this is bad. Percy… Percy's poisoned," Harry said after recovering from the dizziness, his voice turning urgent as he rushed toward Dred like he was his last hope.
Hearing that, Dred lowered his gaze to Percy's unconscious body, frowning slightly. He stepped closer and quickly checked him, pressing along his body until he reached his ribs. Then he lifted his shirt and revealed a violet bruise spreading like veins across his upper body.
Harry clenched his teeth at the sight, feeling a knot tighten in his chest. That color… that wasn't normal. And he knew it. Far too well.
"I have to get Aunt Mor's medicine," Harry said, already turning to run toward the fireplace.
"No need," Dred said.
"What do you mean, no need?" Harry snapped instantly, his voice tense, almost breaking. "He's poisoned!"
"Calm down. Do you think I'd let anything happen to him?" Dred replied again, stopping him with a calmer tone, as he lifted Percy with surprising care and began walking in a direction. And even though his steps seemed relaxed, the speed at which he moved made him disappear into the distance almost instantly.
Harry, even with his injured leg, ran after him without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Annabeth was still in the same position as before, still shaken by that man's gaze, as if she were processing what had just happened in real time… slowly.
She swallowed before pushing herself up and following in the direction they had gone.
Harry hurried after Dred, but he had moved incredibly fast. By the time Harry reached where he had gone, he arrived at the island's beach, where he saw Dred suddenly dropping Percy into the shallow water, making Harry freeze in place, both shocked and confused.
"Cousin Dred, what are you doing?" Harry said quickly, rushing forward as fast as his injured leg allowed. "If this is revenge for the last time Percy ate your desserts, I don't think this is the moment," he added in a hurry, moving to save his brother from drowning in the island's false sea.
"Don't be stupid," Dred said, looking at him while stopping him from trying to pull Percy out. "A son of the sea could never drown in its waters," he explained. "Look."
He pointed at Percy, who was now floating on his back as the waves washed over him.
But every time a wave covered him, it seemed to move across his entire body, as if inspecting him from every angle. And Percy's wounds were covered by the water as they began to heal slowly.
At the same time, every wave that washed over him seemed to cleanse him of the poison, pulling it away and dragging it back into the depths.
"Remember, Avalon lies in the deepest part of the sea. You could say it's the place closest to his father's domain," Dred said, watching as the color slowly began to return to Percy's face. Even he couldn't help but let out a quiet sigh when he saw the state those two idiots had arrived in.
Then he looked at Harry.
His leg was bleeding. His shoulder was burned. His clothes were half scorched, and there were cuts across his cheeks and arms.
"Your mother is going to be really angry when she finds out what the two of you got yourselves into," Dred said, shaking his head before suddenly lifting him to carry him off to be treated.
"But Percy…" Harry said, looking back at him, still being washed over by the waves along the shore.
"He'll be fine. Even better than you when he wakes up," Dred replied as he slung Harry over his shoulder and began walking back toward the center of the island.
Harry looked at his brother, and seeing how the water was working, he couldn't help but let out a breath. More than anything, he trusted Dred. He knew he wouldn't lie to him.
And without realizing it, all the exhaustion from that day hit him like a hammer, everything around him starting to fade into darkness. He was finally able to close his eyes… though just before he did, something came back to him.
Someone was missing.
When he remembered who it was… Grover.
But his eyelids were too heavy to think clearly, and he fell into a deep sleep.
…
While Harry and the others traveled through the Floo network, Grover, who had used it before while searching across Europe for Percy and Harry, had always found this method of travel fascinating and convenient… but also incredibly dizzying. Especially for a creature like him, with far sharper senses.
To him, the network looked like a massive web.
But as he felt his horns vibrating with the flow of the journey, he suddenly saw Annabeth, Percy, and Harry being pulled away from that web, as if they were falling into the void itself, separating from him.
Grover tried to reach them mid-travel, but it was like he slammed into something that wouldn't let him pass. His body bounced back, and he felt himself being pushed toward one of the nearby fireplaces, from which he was shot out as if expelled.
Ash and dust burst into the air like an explosion, covering him completely along with the place where he landed.
"Cough, cough…" Grover coughed, feeling it fill his throat. As he pushed himself up from the ground, his eyes snapped open as he remembered what had happened to Percy, Annabeth, and Harry, quickly looking around.
"Harry, Percy… Annabeth," he called, turning in every direction while the dust still hung in the air. But, of course, he was alone.
Even the fireplace was completely dead now, no embers, as if it hadn't been used in a long time. Or rather… as if it had been shut down on purpose. It was cracked down the middle. Someone clearly didn't want it to be used.
Grover coughed a couple more times and looked around, realizing the place he had ended up in seemed to be an old mansion, completely run-down. There were even cracks in the walls letting light from outside seep in, barely illuminating the darkness.
All kinds of smells hit him at once. Dust, filth, mold…
He moved toward the fireplace, trying to use it again, but just by looking at it, even without being an expert, he could tell it was completely unusable.
So the only option left was to leave the mansion and figure out where he was.
Grover walked toward a nearby door. The moment he turned the knob and opened it slightly…
A very familiar scent reached him.
The smell of monsters.
And a lot of them.
Not only that… some of those scents were far too close.
Grover immediately shut the door again, his body starting to tremble.
"Where the hell did I end up…?" he whispered, as something outside… stopped right in front of the door.
And then it suddenly opened.
Grover only managed to see black hoods and multiple flashes flying straight toward him, striking everywhere…
before everything went black.