A lot of things went through my mind in that moment. First among them was my mom and for one wild second I knew that I’d give up this quest to save her life. But then Annabeth’s face flickered through my mind. Then I thought of that scary Clarisse from Ares cabin and the rest of the kids back at Camp. I thought of Nico and how his dad was his only family and Tyson who obviously loved our dad. And even Poseidon flickered through my head and as much as I hated him, he was still my dad.
I swallowed back tears and carefully pushed away from Tyson when I was sure I could stand on my own. I turned to Percy and bit my lip to keep from crying. I took a shaky breath. “I’m sorry,” I muttered almost inaudibly. “I can’t lose my mom, Percy. You can understand that, right?”
His eyes narrowed slightly at me and I could see the gears in his head working.
“Naida?” Annabeth said softly. Her whole thing was battle strategy so the idea of just giving up must have seemed so foreign to her.
“I get it, Naida,” Percy said after a minute. Annabeth shot him a confused look but I knew he got the message.
I ran my fingers through my hair and subtly took the clip out. I turned back to Trevor as calmly as possible. “Let our moms go.”
He grinned like he knew he’d won. “Ah, a wise choice, Naida. You and Percy can go with your moms and I won’t bug any of you four again.”
I snorted. “I don’t believe you. But do you really thing I’m that much of a traitor? Now, Percy!” I shouted.
His Riptide flew out from its pen form and he began slashing away at the guards. Okay, I had to admit that he was an impressive sword fighter. The others quickly got the message and started fighting off Trevor’s little army. Percy quickly made his way to our mothers and I knew they were in good hands. My own blade sprang to life in my hand and I used it to draw away Trevor’s. He screamed in anger but I took off running down the hallway toward my bedroom.
“It’s about time,” the three crones growled.
“Seriously?” I mumbled. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Humph,” the woman in the middle that looked to be the oldest glowered. “Are you going to get us out or not?”
I was very tempted to answer not but instead I raised my sword and brought it down toward the Celestial Bronze chains holding them captive. The sound of metal on metal rang out but it was wrong. The chains were still intact and Trevor took a swing at me with his sword. “Ha. Nice try, Naida. But now your friends are gone and you’re all alone. This house is sealed shut so that it’s just you and me.”
“I’m going to send you straight down to Tartarus,” I warned.
He laughed again. “That’s not going to happen. With the Fates here, there’s no way to get rid of me. I control who dies and who doesn’t. I do have to admit, though, that it was pretty interesting getting Percy Jackson to save your mother so you could come after the Fates. You had everyone fooled into thinking that you’d give up on the gods. Impressive. I may have use for you still. Stop all this and join me.”
I snorted. “Nope. I didn’t like you when you were just my mom’s boyfriend. And now you’re a whole lot more annoying.”
He attacked and if I wasn’t so freaking scared I might have thought that it was awesome that I could match him blow for blow. As it was, one wrong move and I’d be shish-kebob. I couldn’t keep this up and it was time for some drastic measures.
I swung wide and Trevor easily dodged my strike. He laughed so hard that he didn’t even notice the metallic ring that shot out into the air or that my arms were shaking from the impact. “You’ve failed Naida. Who really thought that you could completely this quest?”
“Guess again, asshole,” I sneered.
“Finally,” three voices shrieked simultaneously.
Trevor’s eyes widened in disbelief as the three Fates rose up as one and I had to admit that I was pretty shocked that it actually worked. The three old ladies didn’t seem quite as frail and annoying as they had a moment ago.
The woman in the middle pulled out a pair of lethal looking scissors from her pink old-lady sweater. The one to the right pulled out a ball of string and handed it to her sister on the far left so that a long length of the stuff stretched between the three. The woman with the scissors glared down at Trevor as she snipped them in the air a couple of times before placing the blades on either side of the bright gold string.
“No!” he wailed. “I will not be defeated.” He turned to me with a crazy look in his eye. “Your fault. You’re going to pay!”
I’d been too distracted by the three women to realize I was technically still in a fight with this guy. He launched himself at me and I was too slow to react. I watched as the bronze sword flew at me and flinched when it embedded itself right below my ribs. I was in pain and couldn’t even bring myself to look down at the wound in my side. I only had enough mental capacity to watch my own sword strike into his chest at the exact same time that the middle Fate cut the string.
I think I fainted after that. Or maybe died. I wasn’t sure at the moment what was going on but I knew that sleep sounded heavenly.

Notes

thank you tmcar1, Evil espresso drinks, FJM818, Thalia grace, and Leo's babe for your comments :)