Chapter Text
Park Chaeyoung knew she was different from the other kids when she told a boy who was bullying her on the playground to go jump off the top of the monkey bars. He broke his arm in two places and never bothered her again.
Still, it wasn’t until these kinds of things kept happening that she began to suspect that something was well and truly off. She’d confronted her father about it multiple times only for him to brush her off and dismiss it as a result of an overactive imagination. But she’d seen the look on his face: he wasn’t telling her everything.
Things had eventually gotten so bad that one day she’d broken down in front of her father and told him that this wasn’t the kind of life she wanted to live. He’d finally taken the hint and within a few weeks she found herself traveling all the way from Australia to New York to a place her father had called Camp Half-Blood.
It was there that her entire world had turned upside-down. And yet despite the turmoil that had come from finding out she was legitimately part-god (though her father had never told her how he met Aphrodite) everything suddenly began to make sense.
She had half-siblings that took her under their wing, teaching her the ins and outs of being a demigod. She was given private classes on how to control her persuasion ability, which her siblings called charmspeaking. Sure, her father was no longer a part of her daily life but she’d found a new family.
Her life was going pretty well too, until the day Kang Seulgi arrived at camp. When Seulgi had gotten claimed by Apollo after their team had won the capture the flag game it seemed like that would be the end of it. Until Seulgi had run away with an unclaimed demigod named Son Seungwan in order to hijack someone else’s quest. The rest of the details were a little murky to everyone not intimately involved in the quest but all Chaeyoung knew was that Seulgi had run away and then a few days later their camp had come under siege.
The strange shadow creatures began assaulting the camp’s borders relentlessly, wearing everybody down and even seriously injuring a few campers. A squad of Apollo campers had even gone missing, and it wasn’t until Joohyun and her girls had returned that they’d learned of their true adversary: Nyx.
A primordial goddess hellbent on recovering the four missing shards of her scepter. No one knew what her true objective was but even after Seulgi and Joohyun had defeated the goddess it was plain to see that Camp Half-Blood would have to prepare for the possibility of war.
So they prepared. The time set aside for combat classes had doubled, and the various campers had been divided into brackets based on their combat power. Chaeyoung didn’t mind honing her skills, but thanks to her rather unique ability she’d been given a place in the highest tier combat class.
She wasn’t by any means the best fighter at camp, her combat prowess was far outstripped by both the Ares and Athena kids, as well as a few other notable campers (namely Joohyun, Seulgi, Seungwan, Sooyoung and Yeri). Still, her charmspeaking was strong enough to earn her a place in the top combat class at camp, where she learned how to weaponize her power in close quarters to do things like force her opponents to surrender their weapons.
Unfortunately for her, that meant her instructor was Joohyun and the daughter of Hades was well-known for driving her class to the brink of exhaustion every lesson.
Which was why she was currently sprawled on a chaise lounge in front of the Aphrodite cabin in her swimsuit, enjoying the warm sunlight with a couple of her siblings and trying to ignore the heavy, tired feeling in her limbs. Next to her, her brothers Seokjin and Jinyoung were also sunning themselves. The two of them had begun joining Chaeyoung when she sat out here and had begun attracting the gazes of interested demigods. The three of them had since formed an unofficial club out of the activity, though Chaeyoung was pretty sure the boys had ulterior motives, judging by the small group of demigods that were pretending to hang out by one of the nearby weapons lockers and were instead taking turns looking at the boys in their swim trunks.
As a child of Aphrodite Chaeyoung had quickly become accustomed to some of the rather unfortunate stereotypes that came from being a child of the goddess of love and beauty. Not the least of which was the power of Amokinesis, an ability that allowed them absolute power over love and desire. Some of her siblings took full advantage of it and loved being the center of attention, and Chaeyoung never judged them for it. It just simply wasn’t her style.
She wanted to find a partner organically, without the help of any of her powers. So many demigods seemed to harbor a sort of idol-complex against Aphrodite kids, always looking but never caring to really try and get to know them. Chaeyoung had long since accepted her journey to find a partner would be an uphill battle and only hoped that she would find someone who saw her for who she truly was.
Luckily for her though, not everyone was enamored with her. Chaeyoung was easily able to make friends with people who were already in committed relationships for obvious reasons, which was why she enjoyed spending time with Joohyun and Seulgi. Being the third wheel didn’t bother her in the slightest. And just because many demigods were afraid to approach her didn’t mean all of them were.
Case in point: Kim Jisoo, daughter of Hecate.
“I take it Joohyun didn’t take it easy on your class today?”
Chaeyoung opened her eyes to see a shadow blocking out her sunlight. She furrowed her brows and pouted. “Jisoo unnie, you’re blocking my sunshine.”
Kim Jisoo, daughter of Hecate and Chaeyoung’s best friend leaned over her with a smile on her face. “You always sun yourself out here when you’ve had a rough day, but now’s not the time to sit around and look hot. Didn’t you hear? We’re wanted up at the Big House.”
That piqued Chaeyoung’s interest. She peered over her sunglasses at the raven-haired girl, looking skeptical. Jisoo was fond of getting her excited over things and then ruining the moment but this time the older girl looked dead serious. “Wait, really?”
Jisoo held out her hand and easily hauled the younger girl to her feet. “Yup. So hurry up and go put on some actual clothes, I think today is finally our day.”
XXX
“New Jersey? How the Hades are we supposed to get there?” Jisoo asked, looking at the dossier Director Kim handed her and skimming over the girls’ information. They’d arrived at the Big House only to be greeted by Director Kim Jong Kook, who ushered them into the parlor and handed them two thick manila folders.
They hadn’t been called on an official quest, much to their disappointment but they had been given an important mission. Usually whenever a demigod was discovered the camp had enough time to send a couple of agents to slowly introduce the person to the world of the gods but sometimes whatever system the camp used to locate demigods didn’t pick up a usable trace until the camper was much older.
Which was the case with Kim Jennie and Lalisa Manoban. Both sixteen, and for whatever reason they hadn’t been picked up before now. The whole situation seemed fishy to Chaeyoung, who recalled that the last person who’d been picked up at a late age was none other than Kang Seulgi. Who ended up being the Dawnbreaker.
“Usually I’d grant you access to call upon Iris but since this academy is only a couple of hours from here I’d rather not bother her. Besides, Miss Park already has a car.”
Ten minutes later saw Jisoo and Chaeyoung out by the stables, getting ready to head out. Chaeyoung’s car wasn’t technically classified as a mount but the camp lacked an official garage so she’d taken to parking the car with the camp’s Pegasi and other stabled beasts.
“You know when Director Kim said ‘car’ I was expecting a heap of crap on wheels, maybe a sedan if we were lucky…”
“My mom gave it to me,” Chaeyoung said proudly, running a loving hand over the hood of her precious car.
“Aphrodite gave you a Tesla?” Jisoo sounded skeptical, but honestly things like this were pretty on brand for Aphrodite. Chaeyoung remembered waking up on her sixteenth birthday to find the keys on her bedside table and the rest was history.
“What? She gave Jinyoung three different Rolexes for his sixteenth birthday,” Chaeyoung countered, like it was normal for kids to receive lavish gifts like she had. “And Seokjin got a wardrobe full of Givenchy for his.”
“You Aphrodite kids are not normal,” Jisoo shook her head in disbelief. Still, the daughter of Hecate couldn’t help but stare at the fancy blue car in front of her. She could only dream of her godly parent being as devoted as Aphrodite was to her children. It’s not that Hecate wasn’t a good mother as far as gods went, she did a hell of a lot more for her children than some of the other gods, but Aphrodite was on another level. “Seriously, I think this thing is worth more than my entire family.”
XXX
Their first snag came as soon as they reached the locked gates of the fancy academy where the girls were rumored to attend.
“Huh. Wow, these rich people really want to keep everyone else out, huh?” Jisoo said, leaning out the window of the Tesla and looking around to see if there was a way to get in. It didn’t look like it would be easy; the imposing wrought-iron gates stood more than fifteen feet high, and the walls surrounding the school had warning signs plastered every few feet that promised a shocking consequence if touched. “What’s our plan, Rosie? I could try and magic the security system, but electronics are pretty fickle and I have no idea if it would work or not.”
“Don’t worry, I got this,” Chaeyoung replied, gesturing to the glove box on the passenger side. “There should be a box in there, can you hand it to me? Oh and be careful, it’s rather fragile.”
Confused, Jisoo reached in and pulled out a tiny black box and slowly handed it to Chaeyoung, as if she was afraid that it might blow up. “What’s this?”
“A little present courtesy of Yeri and Felix. It’s amazing what kinds of things the Hephaestus kids can make, especially when they’re being inspired by chaos incarnate.” Chaeyoung gently opened the box and turned it around so Jisoo could see. Nestled in the box were three round silver spheres. “Behold, their latest creation.”
“Ball bearings?”
Chaeyoung snorted. “No, but you’re right, they look similar. I forget what stupid name Yeri came up with but they’re basically teeny tiny EMP bombs.”
Jisoo recoiled. “Bombs?!”
Chaeyoung picked up one of the spheres and stepped out of the car, sticking it onto the gate’s security system. A second later there was a tiny boom and a bright pulse of electricity and the gates opened. Jisoo nodded appreciatively as Chaeyoung slid back into the driver’s seat, leaving behind the faintly smoking wreckage of the security system.
“As Kim Yerim is fond of telling anyone, ‘You never know when you’ll have to break into something.’” Chaeyoung chuckled.
“No wonder everyone’s low-key terrified of her,” Jisoo shuddered, taking back the box with the remaining two bombs and tucking it in the glovebox again. “There, I think I see them.”
Chaeyoung looked over at where the daughter of Hecate was pointing and saw two figures casually passing a ball around underneath the bright lights of the school’s soccer field. Dimming the headlights so they wouldn’t be seen, she pulled into an empty parking space.
“Well, they’re already outside, that makes this first part pretty easy.” Chaeyoung was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to show off her charm speaking, but she had to admit it made their plan a lot easier. “Hey, hide the car, would you? I don’t have a permit for this place and I am not getting my baby towed.”
Jisoo rolled her eyes but complied nevertheless, laying her hand on the hood of Chaeyoung’s car. Wisps of silvery energy emanated from her fingertips and with a muttered word in Ancient Greek the car disappeared from view.
As a daughter of Hecate, one of Jisoo’s abilities was the power to manipulate the Mist. The Mist was what allowed the world of the gods to stay hidden from mortal sight, turning the extraordinary into the mundane and meaningless. Chaeyoung’s car was still there, Jisoo’s power wasn’t true invisibility like Hades’ Helm of Darkness but it did make for a pretty powerful magical smokescreen. That combined with Jisoo’s natural spell-casting ability made her the ideal companion to take along on a rescue mission.
Together the two of them snuck across the parking lot and towards the soccer field, where the two girls were still playing. Everything about them seemed normal, which piqued Chaeyoung’s interest. These girls seemed to be around her age, so how was it that their demigod status had managed to stay hidden for so long? She had her theories. Well one theory. Seulgi had been in a similar situation and she turned out to have this super rare Apollo ability. One of them was probably a Big Three kid or something equally as unlikely.
Both girls were absolutely breathtaking, that much was obvious. But she found herself drawn to the girl that was around her height, with short black hair that just barely reached her jaw and a bright smile. Lisa, according to the dossier she had been given back at camp. Lisa kicked the ball towards her friend (Jennie, Chaeyoung said in her head) and burst into a fit of giggles when the other girl missed the easy shot and tripped over her own feet.
Wow, she’s really cute. The thought popped up unbidden in her head and she could feel the tips of her ears beginning to turn pink with embarrassment. One of the other traits she’d “inherited” from her mother was an almost uncanny ability to tell when someone had feelings for another person, as well as their romantic status in life. Unfortunately, it also extended to herself.
“Really? We haven’t even talked yet…” Chaeyoung muttered under her breath. At least she knew Lisa was single.
“What?” Chaeyoung cringed; Jisoo must have heard her. Luckily for her though, the older girl decided not to press the issue in favor of returning to the mission at hand. “Anyway, so now what, we just wait? I don’t think just approaching them to say ‘hey, you’re part god’ is a good idea.”
Chaeyoung nodded her head in agreement, willing herself to ignore any thoughts of Lisa. There would be time to confront that after they’d brought both girls back to camp. In order to do that though…how would they play this? Having a good approach would be the deciding factor that determined whether or not these girls believed them. At this point she was thinking she’d just strike up a friendly conversation with them and then segue into Jisoo showing off her powers.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, a decision was made for them.
“Uh, Rosie?” Jisoo stuttered, tapping her friend on the shoulder. “I don’t think we have time to think of a plan anymore.”
“Why?”
The decision had come in the form of one very angry Catoblepas.
XXX
Their second snag didn’t turn out to be Chaeyoung’s sudden interest in Lisa but rather the giant twelve-foot long wildebeest-like creature that lumbered out of the darkness and towards the unsuspecting girls.
“What the hell?” Chaeyoung muttered. Behind her she heard the sound of Jisoo unsheathing her weapons and knew the daughter of Hecate was waiting for her order to strike. “These things aren’t usually this openly aggressive, what’s this one’s problem?”
“I sense malignant magic,” Jisoo replied, and sure enough, if Chaeyoung squinted her eyes, she could see that a strange purple rune had been crudely carved into the poor beast’s hide. “Ugh, that’s barbaric.”
“They haven’t noticed him yet,” Chaeyoung glanced worriedly at the two girls who were still absorbed in their game and hadn’t become aware of the Catoblepas.
There was a scream.
“You were saying?” Jisoo replied dryly. Chaeyoung rolled her eyes.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Jennie yelped, spinning Lisa around so she could see the monster. The Catoblepas huffed angrily, its tail swishing back and forth as it stamped its hooves.
“A cow?” Lisa responded, staring at Jennie like she had grown two heads. Was she unable to see through the Mist? “I dunno why you’re worried about a cow, unnie. What’s it gonna do, moo at us?”
Jennie shot Lisa a scathing look and Chaeyoung was reminded of Joohyun doing the same to Seulgi after the last capture the flag game. There was something off about Jennie but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it yet. But now wasn’t the time to ruminate on her suspicions. There was a giant wildebeest stalking the girls she was supposed to rescue.
Now was the time to act.
“Jisoo, hold it off for as long as you can,” Chaeyoung dashed forward out of their hiding place while Jisoo snapped her fingers and blinked in front of the charging beast. With an almost bored look on her face the daughter of Hecate summoned a protective shield and braced herself for the incoming hit.
The Catoblepas crashed into the magical shield, bouncing off the potent barrier and careening to the left before crashing into a nearby tree. Chaeyoung couldn’t see a tell-tale puff of yellow dust however, so the beast was by no means defeated. In fact they’d probably only made it even angrier.
“Who the hell are you guys?” Jennie asked, craning her neck to see the Catoblepas stumbling to its feet, clearly injured but by no means defeated.
“We’re friends,” Chaeyoung replied, eyes still trained on the beast. “But long story short, you two aren’t human.”
“Excuse me?”
Well this could have gone better. Ideally Chaeyoung wanted at least an hour to break the news to the two girls but they definitely didn’t have time on their side. With the Catoblepas recovering from the surprise attack it meant she had to go to plan H.
Which was basically just a crash course in demigod.
“You’re demigods,” Jisoo took over, seeing Chaeyoung’s panicked expression. “Half human, half god. Basically you’re giving off a scent that attracts monsters so if you want to continue living you really should come with us.”
Lisa nodded, clearly interested in what Jisoo said. Jennie on the other hand looked completely unconvinced.
“Yeah, sure and I’m secretly a brand ambassador for Chanel,” the shorter girl scoffed. She turned to look at Chaeyoung, who was busy digging around in her bags for something. “What are you doing?”
“Finding my weapon,” Chaeyoung replied, pulling out what appeared to be a tube of lipstick from her bags with a triumphant grin on her face. Charmspeak may be her main weapon of choice but she had the feeling that only violence would serve against this maddened enemy.
“I don’t think a tube of lipstick is gonna do much good against whatever the fuck that is,” Jennie deadpanned.
Chaeyoung merely smirked and opened the lipstick, enjoying the surprised expressions on both Jennie and Lisa’s faces when the lipstick tube shimmered and turned into a celestial bronze bow. She ran her fingers along the bowstring and a single silver arrow appeared. Magical ammo. A lifesaver in battle and one of the most useful weapons the Hephaestus cabin had ever created.
“Never mind, I take that back,” the dark-haired girl amended.
“That is so cool!” Lisa clapped her hands gleefully, having apparently forgotten about the angry manticore stalking towards them in favor of making grabby hands at Chaeyoung’s prized bow. “I want one.”
The Catoblepas roared, causing all four girls to jump. Chaeyoung nocked the arrow and inhaled, firing the weapon and watching as the arrow shot through the air and bit into the Catoblepas’ tough hide, causing it to bellow in pain.
“Jisoo, now!” Chaeyoung called out and the daughter of Hecate snapped her fingers. Chains sprouted from the arrow’s point of impact and sank into the ground, immobilizing the Catoblepas and causing it to trip over its own hooves.
The beast struggled, trying to break the chains to no avail. Chaeyoung knew Jisoo’s magic wouldn’t last for very long so time was of the essence. They needed to get out of there now.
“You can believe whatever you want, Jennie,” Chaeyoung said, enjoying the look of surprise on the other girl’s face when she heard her name. “But wouldn’t you rather not be dead?”
Jennie looked from Chaeyoung to Jisoo and finally to Lisa before nodding her head reluctantly. “Fine. But you two have a lot of explaining to do.”
Leaving the Catoblepas behind the four of them rushed back to Chaeyoung’s car. Jisoo quickly dispelled the Mist surrounding the Tesla and another round of excited noises came from Lisa.
“That’s a Tesla.”
Chaeyoung ushered them both into the backseat and handed her bag to Jisoo. “All right, let’s get the hell out of here before that Catoblepas frees itself.”
Putting all of her driving skills to use, Chaeyoung floored the gas pedal and bolted down the tree-lined driveway past the academy buildings and towards the security gate.
Which had closed again.
“Fuck, who’s got decent aim?” Chaeyoung looked back at her three passengers and Jennie pointed to Lisa. “Good enough for me. Jisoo, pass Lisa the bombs.”
“Bombs?” Lisa looked far too excited and Chaeyoung wondered if the girl was a daughter of Hermes. She shuddered; the last thing the world needed was another Yeri. Jisoo carefully handed Lisa the box with the remaining EMP bombs. “Wow, are these tiny EMP’s?”
“Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the cow thing is back,” Jennie warned, and everyone turned to look behind them. Sure enough, the Catoblepas had managed to free itself from the chains and was now charging straight for them.
“No time to explain, just throw it at the keypad,” Chaeyoung said, putting her car into gear and getting ready.
Lisa opened the back window and chucked the EMP bomb at the keypad, watching as it stuck to the security system and disabled the gate controls. The gates began to open and as soon as there was enough room for Chaeyoung to squeeze the Tesla through she floored it.
Just in time too, as the Catoblepas rammed into the rear bumper, leaving a large dent in the trunk area. Chaeyoung was pissed; how dare that overgrown pile of ground beef touch her baby?
With a shower of sparks, Chaeyoung squeezed past the gates and took off back towards Camp Half-Blood. She had the sinking feeling though that whatever magic was possessing the Catoblepas would come back to haunt them.
XXX
An hour later found them approaching the borders to Camp Half-Blood. So far they’d seen neither hide nor hair of the Catoblepas and Chaeyoung hoped that it hadn’t chased them all the way from the academy. The first thing Chaeyoung would do when they returned was bribe Felix to jump the line so she could get her baby fixed up.
“So let me get this straight, Chaeyoung is the daughter of Aphrodite and Jisoo is the daughter of Hecate?” Jennie said. “And you both have magical powers.”
Jisoo turned around in her seat and summoned a spark of magic. Lisa and Jennie’s eyes widened as she manipulated the spark to dance across the palm of her hand. Chaeyoung was driving and couldn’t see much in the rearview mirror but judging from the comments she heard, Jisoo’s magic show was a hit.
“Can you do something similar, Chaeyoung?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t literally have magic, that’s kind of a Hecate-exclusive thing,” she responded. “But I do have the power to compel people to do whatever I want. Mostly. There are some caveats to the whole thing that would take me ages to explain but basically? I can do things like compel people to surrender in battle and stuff like that.”
“So could you rob a bank?” was the first thing Lisa asked.
“…I wouldn’t,” Chaeyoung emphasized. “But yes. Theoretically I could.”
“Awesome.” Lisa’s smile sent Chaeyoung’s heart into a frenzy.
“I wonder who our godly parents are?” Jennie mused, looking out the window as they turned off the main road and down the path that would lead them to Camp Half-Blood.
“No idea, but once we’re at camp you’ll find out within a week.” Jisoo said. “It’s an interesting procedure. You guys will—”
The rest of Jisoo’s sentence was cut off when something huge slammed into the back of their vehicle and sent it flipping end over end. Chaeyoung felt nothing but pain in that instant as the Catoblepas they thought they’d outrun crashed into the car.
She wondered how in the Hades the damn thing had not only managed to catch up to them but still hit them despite all the damage it had taken earlier.
Chaeyoung coughed, leaning her head back against the headrest and regretting it when a jolt of pain shot through her skull. She took a look at her surroundings, noticing that she was upside down, the Catoblepas having flipped her car with the sheer power of its charge.
Groaning with pain Chaeyoung reached into her pocket and pulled out a small celestial bronze knife, sawing into what remained of her seat belt and freeing herself, tumbling ungracefully to the floor.
“Is everyone okay?” she called weakly. Her vision was still swimming and she was pretty sure she had some kind of concussion.
“Alive,” came Jisoo’s response as the older girl blinked free from her seatbelt and landed roughly on the forest floor. Her magical reserves were running low. “Damn Catoblepas...”
Chaeyoung looked around for Lisa and Jennie, some of the panic in her chest abating when she saw Lisa supporting her friend, who had fared the worst in the ensuing accident. “Are you two okay?”
“I think Jennie’s ankle is broken but otherwise we’re both alive,” Lisa said. “Can’t say the same about your car.”
Lisa was right, the Catoblepas had totaled her precious vehicle. Chaeyoung growled, first the trunk and now her whole car? She was about to hunt down that damn cow beast and slaughter it herself. Be calm, Park Chaeyoung. Assuming you survive this, you can bribe Felix to work his magic on your baby and bring her back to life.
“What matters is that we’re all okay,” Chaeyoung forced herself to shove the thoughts about her car to the back of her mind and focus on the present. They were only about a hundred feet from the camp borders and someone had to have heard the crash. Reinforcements would be coming soon.
That didn’t take care of the Catoblepas though. It bellowed triumphantly, having charged straight through the car. It was now the only thing standing between them and safety. And it looked like it was getting ready to charge again.
“We can’t kill this thing now, we’re too weak,” Jisoo panted, trying to summon her magic and failing. “And it’s standing between us and the border.”
“Wait, I have an idea you guys!” Lisa transferred her hold on Jennie to Jisoo and sank to her knees, looking under the slightly smoking remains of the Tesla’s dashboard. “Chaeyoung do you have a flashlight?”
Chaeyoung nodded and wordlessly handed over the flashlight to Lisa, who ducked under the dashboard and began fiddling with a bunch of wires. She didn’t even want to know what Lisa was doing with her baby.
“Whatever you’re planning hurry it up,” Jisoo warned, keeping a tight hold on Jennie’s waist to support her. “It’s coming!”
“Hang on, I’ve almost got it,” Lisa grunted, putting the flashlight back in her mouth and reaching under the dashboard again.
“Lisa we’re out of time!”
“I’ve got it, run!” Lisa connected the last two wires and ushered everyone as far away from the car as possible. Not a moment too soon, as they saw the Catoblepas lower its head, sharp horns aimed right for them.
Lisa was still the closest to the car and the Catoblepas locked onto her in its mad dash, intent on murdering at least one of them. She made the mistake of turning around.
The Catoblepas lifted its heavy head and fixed Lisa with a menacing gaze, causing her to freeze in her tracks, rooted to the spot and unable to move. The one thing Chaeyoung was most afraid of had happened. Lisa had been ensnared and was still way to close to the ticking time bomb that was Chaeyoung’s Tesla.
A deafening boom shook the woods around Camp Half-Blood as the jerry-rigged Tesla exploded in a ball of flame, engulfing both the monster and Lisa, who hadn’t managed to get to safety.
“LISA!”
Her ears still ringing from the explosion, Chaeyoung dropped her weapon and surged forward only to feel Jisoo’s arms wrap around her waist like a vise, preventing her from going any further. “No, let me go Jisoo, I need to see if she’s alright.”
The daughter of Hecate easily held her back with a murmured, “She’s fine, Chaeng. Look.”
The smoke began to clear and Chaeyoung’s mouth dropped open. Standing there, without a single burn or scratch mark on her body was Lisa. Above the taller girl’s head glowed a crossed hammer and anvil.
Lisa was a daughter of Hephaestus.
Which made sense, considering everything they’d been through tonight. Chaeyoung found herself wondering how she hadn’t put the pieces together before. Still, she was extremely relieved that they had all managed to get back to camp without any casualties. Or, well, any demigod casualties.
Chaeyoung’s voice was small as she looked blankly at what remained of the monster that was chasing them. And what remained of her precious Tesla. Any hopes she had of Felix and his siblings making repairs had been thoroughly dashed. “My baby…Lisa, you blew up my car!”
“HELL YEAH I DID, WASN’T THAT AWESOME!” Lisa yelled loudly, clearly deafened after standing so closely to the explosion. Hephaestus kids might be fireproof, but no one was immune from the aftereffects of a loud explosion. Especially if they were standing in the blast radius. “HEY, WHAT’S THAT ON TOP OF JENNIE’S HEAD?”
Crisis averted, Chaeyoung and Jisoo turned around to look at where Lisa was pointing.
Chaeyoung’s face paled. Oh, this was not good.
Jisoo broke the uncomfortable silence as Jennie tilted her head to stare up at the symbol floating above her head, a confused look on her face.
Staring up at the shadowy black skull hanging above her head.
“So uh, who’s gonna be the one to tell Joohyun that she’s got a sister?” Jisoo deadpanned.