Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Let's start from the beginning."

The warm lights of the courtroom burned my eyes and made them water. I hated that I looked like I was crying, since then the jury would think I was guilty- which I wasn't. I dug my fingernails into my palms, feeling my skin get ready to split. After I swallowed the spit in my mouth, I looked back at the judge. She stared down at me with such disappointment and authority in her eyes I felt reminded of someone.

"You lived alone with your..." The judge looked back down to her papers, "...mentally broken mother, correct?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Your father has been absent since birth."

"Yes."

The judge adjusted her glasses. "You acted out, as your neighbors said. Often breaking valuable objects, screaming, destroying the... piping around your house? Leaving for days at a time and letting your mother stay all by herself, do you think that sounds fair?"

"No," I said. "I don't."

"Then why did you do those things?"

"I was upset."

"Upset doesn't even begin to cover it." The judge skimmed over the papers again. "The neighbors and your extended family have reported all your mood swings, episodes, tantrums, and even your self harm. So, does 'upset' fit?"

I didn't feel like answering her. I had been through this conversation multiple times, and I still hated it. But people just didn't know my side; they didn't know the truth.

I just couldn't tell them.

The judge stared at me disappointingly. She sighed and picked up her papers. "Bipolar disorder, ADHD, and anxiety. I know you're very problematic, but you need to make an effort, young lady."

I hated being called that. I bit my tongue to avoid lashing out at the old fart.

"Moving past your recklessness, juvenile crimes, and mental illnesses, we still have your accusation." The judge glanced up at me for a moment. Whispers broke out among the jury.

"Go on," I said.

Ms. Judge scowled. She took off her glasses and looked me dead in the eye. "Did you- in any way, shape, or form- kill or conspire to kill your mom?"

"I did not!" I yelled. I could feel my face grow hot with my anger. I balled my fists, trying to contain my hatred.

"Then why did you suddenly run away the night she died? Why did you not report her death to the police or call paramedics?" The judge asked.

"Because I didn't want that responsibility anymore." I dug my nails deeper into my palms. "I was so young when I had to take care of her. For once, I could leave it to someone else. I was twelve, for God's sake. I couldn't handle any of that. I couldn’t handle anything. I had nowhere else to go… my family didn’t want me."

"Just like her dad," someone whispered.

I had to stop myself from running to the jury stands and strangling whoever made the comment.

The judge sighed and sat back. "There is no evidence that proves you guilty, but that's just your mother's death. You have openly admitted to your juvenile crimes, and therefore must have punishment. But, since you pleaded guilty, you now get a choice."

I shifted uncomfortably in my stand, waiting for the judge to tell me what I could pick.

She cleared her throat and put her glasses on. "Two years in juvenile prison. You get out on parole, then you're free to head to some foster care or college; though you won't have any money."

"Or?" I asked.

"Or," the judge continued, "you enroll at the Wilderness Academy in Nevada. You spend your last years of high school there, then off to whatever your next plan is. The school is for juvenile delinquents like yourself, and acts as a reform for you. You won't need juvy or parole."

"I'll take that, then." I looked into the judge's eyes. "Send me there."

"Okay." The judge smacked her hammer onto her desk. "You are to be sent to Nevada and enrolled at the Wilderness Academy. There will be a worker there who will continue to update us on your progress."

"Thank you," I said, being guided away by the security.
-

I had nothing to take with me, since my mom's house had long since been vacated. I had left everything there, and only took one thing with me when I ran from my post. So, upon arriving at the Wilderness Academy and told to unpack, I turned and stared at my counselor.

She bit her lip and looked toward the bodyguard who had escorted us. He sighed and turned toward me.

"You are covered by your 'sentence' to get clothes. Tell your counselor your size and we'll go to some thrift store and get you some," he said.

I nodded and thanked him, quickly telling my counselor my sizes in clothes. She wrote it down on a notepad and gave it to the body guard who promptly took it and left.

"By the way," my counselor started, "this is a dorm room. No weird behavior, please. Of course, no boys mixed in with the girls, but there will be maybe one or two more people in here. Try and get along, okay? We'll have your clothes ready and washed by tonight."

"Okay," I said. "Thank you."

"No problem!" My counselor smiled and scurried off.

I shut the door and sighed, scanning the beds in the room and deciding to pick the one by the window. Thank god this place didn't have bunk beds, I get such bad anxiety around them. I always felt like they were going to fall on me.

I tossed myself onto the stiff bed. It was just some sort of padding- like the ones on floors in martial arts rooms- and a thin sheet. For August, it was a blessing, but my body was used to southern California summer. It was 110° before I left, but Nevada was a crisp 86°. I was almost freezing to death.

I decided to stand up and pace the room until my clothes arrived. Maybe getting my blood flowing would warm me up.

I walked all around the room, getting a good feel for the layout and finding places where I could stash things. It tended to come in handy at times, since I did have a lot of secrets to hide. But, all I had on me was my pen. I couldn’t leave it, no matter how much I wanted. Such a bullshit blessing from my dad.

After a short minute, my ears picked up the sound of footsteps. I tensed and tried to hide, but realized the whole room was open, so I was doomed to face whoever was coming.

I bit my lip as a knock sounded at the door. I watched it creak open, my counselor popping her head in. “Hello! You have a roomie!”

“Oh,” I said. “I forgot.”

My counselor opened the door fully, and standing next to her was the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. I tried to hide my blush, but I probably failed.

The girl looked about as old as me. Her skin was a beautiful tawny brown with a red glow underneath. Her hair was thick, long, and dark. She looked at me with eyes that seemed to be every color at once.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” she replied.

The counselor smiled at us. She told the girl my name and grade, and told me the same about her. “Piper McLean. She’s about your grade. You two get along! I don’t seem to have any more girls coming to this room until next semester.” Then she turned back to me and gave an apologetic smile. “Your clothes will be here soon, hun. Try and stay cool in this heat.”

“I’m freezing,” Piper and I said in unison.

We stared at each other for a moment before cracking a small smile. The counselor left us quickly so we could talk.

Piper set her designer bag onto the bed next to mine. “Where are you from?”

“Redlands, California,” I said. “Pretty unknown place, I’d say, but it’s in SoCal. You?”

“Los Angeles,” Piper said, unzipping her bag.

“I’m right next to there!” I exclaimed. “Well, I was. I ended up running away to northern California for a few years, but… I guess I came back. Ah, complicated. Anyways, we’re from the same area. How old are you?”

“Fifteen,” Piper said. “Almost sixteen. You?”

“Sixteen, just turned it.”

Piper smiled softly and sat on her bed. “I hate being here.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “It was either this or juvy.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” Piper admitted. “But, at least I’ll be out of my dad’s hair.”

I chuckled. “I’d give anything to be in my dad’s hair, right now. I hate that bastard.”

“Why?” Piper asked, leaning on the foot of her bed.

I grimaced and rubbed my forearm that was thankfully covered by my sleeve. “He pulled a Houdini when I was a baby and then when I found out who and where he was- nothing. Never met the man once. I sure got his temper though. What about yours?”

Piper scoffed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “It’s a lot.”

“No fair,” I said. “I told you my shit.”

“Fine,” Piper said, a small smile on her face. “But don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling the odd sensation to do as she said.

“He’s… a movie star. Tristan McLean. I don’t like telling people because all they do is label me after that. Moviestar daughter, Tristan McLean’s kid, whatever. I hate it. I just want a normal relationship with him. No fancy shmancy shit, you know?”

I shrugged. “I get it. Daddy-daughter time is a must, especially if you have a shit mom.”

“How’d you know?” Piper asked, her eyes wide.

I put my hands up. “Didn’t say anything about you. Just talking from my own experience. My mom was such shit.”

“What’s she like?” Piper asked, sitting up a bit more.

“You mean was. She died a few years ago.” I chewed on the corner of my thumbnail as Piper put her hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have-”

“Nah.” I looked up at her and grinned. “I don’t really have a problem. I sort of got caught looking after her for years because she got all fucked up in the head. It was exhausting. A child shouldn’t have to look after their parents. But, when she died, I ran as far as I could. People think I killed her, but nah. She just up and died like a hamster.”

Piper snorted, then her eyes went wide. “I’m sorry-”

“I love it when people laugh about it,” I said. “Makes me feel a bit better.”

I smiled at Piper, and she seemed to ease herself. “Well, I’m not as cool as you, I guess. I just did wild stuff for my dad’s attention, but never got it. Last thing I did before getting here was…”

“What?” I asked.

Piper lowered her voice. “Promise not to tell anyone.”

“Sure,” I said.

She leaned closer to me and whispered, “I asked a sale’s man to give me a BMW and I crashed it.”

“You got sent to a juvenile school for asking for a car?” I asked.

Piper nodded, somewhat embarrassed. “I don’t know what it is. People just do what I want. Probably because of my dad.”

“Nah,” I said. “Try me! I have crazy will-power! I won’t do anything anyone says.”

Piper thought for a moment, then nodded her head. “Okay. Um… let me think…” She tapped her finger to her chin, then looked at me and grinned. “Cut a chunk of your hair off.”

I felt the odd urge to do what she said, but it was easy to stop myself. “Gotta try harder than that.”

Piper frowned, then kept thinking. She strained herself, and I could see her face getting red. “Go… into the hall and shout…as loud as possible!”

Immediately, I walked to the door and swung it open. I ran to the middle of the hall and cupped my hands around my mouth. I screamed the most vulgar cuss word I could think of before running back into my dorm room.

Piper giggled with me as we heard heavy stomping patrolling the hallway, trying to search for the potty-mouth.

“See?” she asked. “People just do what I say.”

“I might have just wanted to do that on my own,” I said. I flopped on my bed and let out the last of my laughs. “Man, I hope this year isn’t so bad.”

“Not with you here,” Piper said, a small blush on her face.

I turned to her and grinned. “Well, the first day is tomorrow. As long as I get my clothes from that stupid guard, I can go with you.”

“You don’t have clothes?” Piper asked. “Well, I might have stuff that-”

“No, hun,” I said, standing up. “I don’t like taking things from people. Makes me feel like I'm in debt.”

“Nobody can ever be in debt to me, I don’t want anything in return,” Piper scoffed, digging through her bag. “What size shirt are you?”

I told her my size, and she quickly fished out a cute sweater. I shook my head and held up my hands. “No way, girl, I-”

Piper threw it over me and huffed. “You’re taking it. I don’t like it that much, anyways. Too flashy.”

“You like to tone yourself down?” I asked, begrudgingly putting on the sweater.

Piper nodded. “I guess I'm super pretty. I don’t like people staring at me that much, so I like to dress more… casual? I can wear whatever since you know, I’m rich, but I like to humble myself, you know?”

“I grew up in bum central,” I said. “I can teach you all I know.”

“Thank god,” Piper groaned. “Oh, you’re going to be so much fun!”

“You wanna stay up all night and talk?” I asked. “Like, get to know each other more?”

“Yes!” Piper grabbed my hand and smiled. “I’m so glad I’m not stuck with the shitty girls!”

I smiled, feeling heat rise to my face. Piper was seriously gorgeous, but I was super excited to make her my friend- especially since I never had a real one. I felt overjoyed as we flopped onto our beds and began chatting all night.

-

The next day was absolutely terrible. I had gotten my clothes delivered, so thankfully I could dress myself, but going to the shitty classes with the shitty people drove me insane. I had zero classes with Piper, and had to rely on finding her at lunch. But in the meantime, I was being tormented by the horrible people at the academy.

Some of the guys were serious asshats. They loved causing chaos and making a wreck. I already had my papers shredded up and used as spitwads by them. The girls, though? Even worse. I swear, they would look at you and pick you to pieces in seconds. I walked past a group of girls sitting at the front of my class and immediately one of them whispered, “fatherless behavior.” What behavior?? My walk? My clothes? I nearly killed her that second, but I knew I had to be nice. If I got kicked out of here, then I’d be sent to juvy for good. I’d rather die than go there for two years.

Doing my best to ignore the animals around me, I buried my face in my arms to drown out their noise pollution. I ended up coming close to sleep, until I felt something cold on my neck. I spun around and found one of the guys holding my pen that I kept in my pocket. He laughed and held it in the air.

“What is this garbage? Why is it gold?”

“Is it real gold?” someone asked, immediately coming to his side.

“Yo, seriously?” another kid asked, crowding the two of us.

I glared at the boy holding my pen. “Give it back.”

“Or what?” the boy asked, holding my pen higher.

“Or this!” I grabbed the boy’s other hand and squeezed as hard as possible, twisting it over to pull him to my height. I felt his hand and wrist break easily. He cried out in pain, dropping my pen which I quickly grabbed.

He screamed and clutched his broken wrist. “What the fuck?! I’m going to kill you!”

“Hey!” the teacher yelled, pulling our attention. “Dylan! Get over here, now! You’re going to the principal’s office!”

I smirked at the injured boy as he stalked toward the front of the room. He glared at me and tried to explain what happened, but the teacher didn’t care.

I thought I got off safe, but as soon as the bell rang, his buddies dragged me outside and beat me up in the hallway. I kicked and punched at them, but there wasn’t enough room in the fight circle to defend myself. I took the beating until they had enough and decided to walk away. But, I hadn’t been defeated yet. I stuck out my hand and clenched my fist. The boy’s bodies stopped and began convulsing in pain. I managed to break a few inconspicuous bones that made it seem like they fought each other.

They ended up whimpering off to the health office. I stood up and limped all the way to lunch, wiping the blood from my busted brow.

It didn’t take long for Piper to find me. She was apparently searching all over the lunch room for me until one of the goon boys told her what happened. She dragged me to a corner and tried to clean my wounds with her water bottle. It was almost like she knew it was good for me. I tried to push her off so she wouldn’t exactly see what was happening, but she was very strong and stubborn.

I groaned and sat up, most of my wounds gone. Piper seemed a bit shocked, but shook her head and forgot about it.

“We wasted most of lunch,” I said. “I doubt they have anything good, now.”

Piper shrugged. “They didn’t have anything vegetarian. I figured we’d just sneak out tonight and get food?”

I smiled at my friend and nodded. “Sounds great. Now, I’m going to see who I can pay to buy us stuff”

“Drugs?” Piper asked. “I don’t-”

“Oh, hell no!” I laughed. “Not in this place. I mean like cool things, you know. Trinkets and shit. Or things we can stash in our room. Food reserves and what not.”

“Trinkets?” Piper asked.

I nodded and unzipped my jacket. “Come on, follow me.”

We wandered around the lunch hall for a good while, asking people if they knew anything they could get for twenty dollars- all I had on me at the time. Most of them shook their heads, the others nodded and offered drugs. Turns out, everyone can buy drugs.

I groaned and leaned against a wall. Piper joined me, picking at her nails. “All you’re going to find in this school is a bunch of druggies.”

“Obviously,” I sighed. “Whatever. This is dumb. Why don’t we ditch until-”

“Her!” cried a loud voice. “She’s the one that beat us up!”

I turned my head and found the group of goons I had broken earlier, including their leader- the one who stole my pen.

Piper looked at me in amazement. “Are you serious?”

I stepped away from the wall and faced the group. “Wanna go again?”

“Yeah!” shouted the leader. “We’ve got a special treat for you!”

The group shoved forward a short, curly-headed boy who looked way too scrawny for the job. I snorted as he looked back at his group.

“Come on,” said the leader. “You said you could take her!”

“Yeah,” said the short boy, “but you guys didn’t describe her properly! You said she was weak! Look at her! ¡Mira a esta muñeca ososa!”

One of the boys tilted his head. “Doll?”

“Aw, does Leo have a crush?” teased another boy.

The boy- Leo, I guess- blushed and shook his head.

The leader huffed and glared down at him. “You got nothin’ to show?”

I groaned and walked up to the group. “Listen, I don’t care about any of you,” I said. I didn’t try to sound edgy or anything since I was honestly just tired, but I knew a good threat would send them off. “You’re not worth a single nano-second of my time. Scurry off, or I’ll carve you in the back and you’ll never be seen again.”

That got them shaking. They ran off with their tails tucked between their legs. The leader, Dylan, looked over his shoulder at me and scowled before following his group.

Leo looked over at me. “Well, uh-”

I introduced myself and stuck out my hand. Leo took it and shook vigorously.

“You should get a better crowd,” I said. “Why not stick with me and Piper?”

Leo looked over at the other girl and blushed. “Well-”

“No is not an answer. You’ll get eaten alive here,” I said.

“Oh, bullshit,” Leo said. “I’ve seen more shit than the two of you combined. I know how to take care of myself.”

I looked over at the boy and scoffed. “Please. You’re nothing to these guys but entertainment.”

“Exactly,” Leo said. “It works. I won't get eaten.”

Piper cleared her throat. “Just hang out with us for the rest of the day, please?”

Leo looked back at her and grinned. “Anything for the pretty ladies.”

“Oh,” I said, a slight blush on my face. “Well, whatever. Let’s get to next period. Piper, I’ll see you later. Leo, where are you headed?”

“Ms. Celoni’s math,” Leo said. “You?”

“The same,” I told him.

“Isn’t it your first day here?” Leo asked. “That’s what Dylan said.”

“It is,” I replied, walking with Leo down the hall.

“How do you not need a map?” Leo asked.

“Photographic memory,” I scoffed. “Duh.”

“I wish,” Leo groaned. “I’ve got the worst ADHD like meds can’t even help.”

“Have you tried caffeine?” I asked.

“Yeah, it doesn’t even do anything except slow my thoughts. There’s still the same amount.”

I laughed. “I get it.”

When we made it to our classroom, Leo opened the door and peeked his head inside. “Shit. Pop quiz.”

“Are you for real?” I gasped. “On the first day?”

“Dude, Celoni sucks!” Leo shifted his cross-body bag and sighed. “I’ll see you on the other side, soldier.”

I jokingly saluted him before we walked inside. Celoni sat at her desk, marking a clipboard as we came in. At the top of the chalkboard were the words ‘POP QUIZ’, making me cringe as I read it. Leo and I sat next to each other and leaned onto our desks.

When the bell rang, Celoni stood up and greeted the class. “Hello ladies and gentlemen. I am Mrs. Celoni. I will be your integrated math two teacher this semester.”

“Math two?” I asked Leo while Celoni continued her rant. “There’s more than one?”

“Yeah,” Leo whispered. “Freshman year, usually.”

“Dude, I haven’t been in school since like sixth grade,” I told him.

Leo shrugged. “I’ll help you out-”

“Mr. Valdez, was it?” Celoni bellowed, snapping us out of our conversation. “Would you like to answer the first question?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Leo stood up, extremely peppy. “Where’s the chalk?”

“Let me write out the equations first,” Celoni sighed, grabbing her thin stick of chalk. She quickly made up some hellish looking equations and handed the stick to Leo. “Go on.”

The shorter boy took the chalk enthusiastically and began solving the first equation. I watched in pure shock as he wrote down letters and numbers I had no idea the meaning of. He sped through the first question and circled his answer. Ms. Celoni readjusted her purple glasses and stared in disbelief.

“That’s correct. Very good, Mr. Valdez,” she praised. She looked over to me and opened her mouth. “Now, Ms.-”

“Here, let me do the other ones!” Leo grinned, shooting me a quick wink. He picked the chalk back up and worked on the rest of the problems with lightning speed. Our teacher stood back, completely in disbelief as she watched Leo solve them perfectly. Even his handwriting was perfect- though it was a little scrunched together.

My jaw must have been on my desk because Leo walked over and shut it for me. He winked and looked back at Ms. Celoni. “Can I solve more? I love math!”

Celoni blinked. “I- well… the other students-”

“Oh, they already know this stuff!” Leo looked around the class and raised his arms. “Right?”

“Yes!
“Absolutely!”
“Learned this in second grade!”
“Way too easy!”

Leo gave me a Cheshire cat smile then turned back to our teacher. “Come one, I just wanna keep solving these!”

Celoni gawked at him before shuffling back to her desk and handing Leo the math book. “W-Well, I suppose.”

Leo happily took the book from her and erased the board, using the rest of the class time to solve many more equations.

When the period ended, I grabbed my bag and stood up. Leo returned the now tiny piece of chalk to the teacher and her math book before coming over to me.

“You’re incredible, Leo,” I said.

“Yeah, I get called that a lot,” Leo said, slinging his bag over his shoulder and walking out of the door with me.

“Incredible?” I asked, walking next to him.

“No, Leo.” He pulled a pipe cleaner out of his pocket and began bending it.

I laughed and gently hit his shoulder. “Man, seriously, that was insane. What was that?”

“Just simple math equations, really. I was always advanced when I was younger so I really did learn that in second grade. When I was eight I started doing college math,” Leo said, a small smile on his lips. His eyes didn't match his delight, though.

I knew that look. He wasn’t really thinking about math, he was thinking about someone or something else. His younger years must have been important to him. I made a mental note of that.

“Well, still,” I leaned toward him and rested my head on his shoulder, “I still appreciate it.”

Leo became insanely hot within a second. He pulled away and rushed to a water fountain, where he began to gulp down a stream of water. I blinked and shifted my weight.

“Thirsty?” I asked.

Leo pulled away and wiped his mouth, and I swear I saw steam come off him. “Yeah, doing math makes my mouth, uh, dry.”

I laughed and turned away, beginning to walk down the hall again. “Well, whatever you say. Anyway, thanks for bailing me out of math. I just don’t know how I’m going to do it from now on.”

“Oh, I’ll keep doing all the problems, hun,” Leo grinned, coming to my side. “Just sit and look pretty.”

“What about tests?” I asked, brushing off his comment.

Leo thought for a moment. “Do you know Morse code?”

“Duh,” I replied. “I learned it in Cam- in California, I mean.”

Leo cocked an eyebrow. “You’re from Cali?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Why’s it matter?”

“No reason,” Leo said, looking forward again. “Anyway, during tests I’ll tap out the answers to you. You’ll pass this class easy.”

I smiled at Leo and nodded. “Thanks a lot dude. Hey, I gotta go to my last period but Piper and I are gonna sneak out later. Wanna come with?”

Leo grinned. “Yeah, for sure! Where should I meet you?”

“The stairs that connect the girl’s and boy’s dorms, okay?” I winked at Leo. “See you around midnight, math nerd!”

“Hey!” Leo laughed as I hurried away. “Don’t call me that!”

I laughed and waved goodbye to Leo before I scurried to my next class.

-

When it came time to meet with Leo, Piper and I slipped into some hoodies and quietly snuck out of our dorm. We tip-toed down the hallway and slipped down the stairs, where Leo waited at the bottom.

“Hey,” I whispered. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much,” Leo whispered back. “How’re you two ladies?”

“Fine,” Piper said. “Wanna go get some food?”

Leo nodded and put his hands in his jacket pockets. “I’m starving. What do y’all want?”

“Anything,” I said. “I could fucking devour a burger right now.”

Leo moaned and nodded. “Yes, yes. Piper, what do you want?”

“I’m vegetarian,” Piper said, “But I could fuck with some fries and a shake.”

“I’ve never been here before,” I admitted. “I don’t know where the nearest burger place is.”

“We can order it online,” Piper suggested. “I can use my dad’s money, I don’t think he would care.”

“Wanna wait outside?” Leo asked, shifting his weight to his other leg. “Yo, I bet I could find us the best spot to chill.”

“I’ve got no objections,” I grinned. “Let’s go.”

And so, the three musketeers snuck out of the academy while Piper took our orders on her phone. Leo used his short guy ability to sneak around the corners to see where we were going and when to hide from a security guard. He’d somehow already made sure there were no cameras where we were going and before we knew it, we’d escaped.

We giggled to ourselves as we hurried into the parking lot, hiding behind one of the bigger cars. Piper kept her phone open so we could track the delivery guy while Leo and I played with his pipe cleaners.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to stick with those pinches culeros,” Leo sighed. “You guys are fun. But are you sure I can stick with you?”

“No objections,” I said. “You’re pretty fun. Plus, I should stay on good terms with you since you’re helping me pass math.”

Leo laughed softly. “For sure. And what about Piper?”

“Yeah, I’m cool,” Piper said. “Just don’t hit on me.”

“Alright, alright,” Leo said, holding up his hands. “By the way, who’s your dad? You said you’re using his money. Is he rich?”

Piper looked over at him and frowned. “I don’t really wanna talk about it.”

“Oh, sorry,” Leo said. “Just curious. Sorry if it’s a sore subject.”

“Not really,” Piper said, looking at her phone again. “Just, people treat me differently after. I wanna be viewed as my own person.”

Leo nodded and leaned against the car. “I feel you. So what’d you get in here for?”

“Asking for a BMW and crashing it,” Piper said nonchalantly.

Leo covered his mouth to avoid bursting out with laughter. “Oh my god. Are you serious?”

Piper nodded. “Everyone thinks I stole it but I literally asked for it and the guy let me have it so I don’t know.”

“I literally just kept running away so the foster homes got tired and sent me here,” Leo admitted. “I wish I stole a car.”

“You ran away, too?” I asked. “That’s how I got caught.”

Leo grinned. “Foster home?”

I shrugged. “Sort of.”

Leo nodded. “I getcha. Hey Piper, how’s the food?”

“Just pulling in,” Piper said, stepping out from behind the car. A white truck turned into the driveway and shined its lights on us. Piper waved her hand and the truck stopped. A short woman came out with a few paper bags and a drink holder. Us teens took them and thanked her kindly for giving us our nutrience.

“Of course!” the lady smiled. “And thank you for the tip! It sure does help.”

Piper smiled and nodded. “No problem!”

The lady hopped back in the truck and drove off. Leo turned to Piper. “What did you tip her?”

“A hundred dollars,” Piper said. “I’m thinking that I still want to annoy my dad.”

Leo laughed. “Sweet. Where should we eat this?”

I looked back to the dormitory building and squinted. “You guys see that ledge over there? ‘Bout three stories up?”

My two friends looked and nodded.

“We can climb that tree to get to it. What do you say?”

“Yeah!” Leo said. “I love climbing trees.”

“Well, what about the food?” Piper asked.

Leo put the handle of the paper bag in his mouth and looked at Piper like it was obvious.

“Well,” she looked back at me and blinked. “Can you carry those drinks?”

“Trust me,” I said. “It won’t spill.”

Piper exhaled and nodded. “Well.. last one there is a rotten egg!”

The three of us took off as fast as possible, me in the lead. I made it to the tree first and threw the drinks in the air. I jumped up the tree and swung onto the first giant branch, catching the drink holder before it fell. I knew I was cheating, but it was still funny watching Leo and Piper hold in their screams as they thought their beverages were going to spill.

I laughed to myself before climbing up to the second giant branch, Leo now climbing up the trunk. I balanced myself as I walked along the branch over to the balcony railing.

Piper shoved the paper bag into her mouth as she tossed herself into the tree, cutting off Leo. The shorter boy almost fell off.

As I hopped over the railing and onto the balcony, I placed the drinks on the ground and offered my hand to Piper and Leo as they came to me.

They hopped the railing to my side and collapsed on the ground. Leo heaved a sigh before tearing open his bag and picking out his food. The rest of us followed his example and began to chow down.

We talked and laughed as we ate, and eventually the night slipped away. Right before dawn when we usually had to wake up, Leo and Piper followed me back into the building. We bid farewell to Leo before we went back up to our dorm and collapsed onto our beds for a solid forty minutes before we had to get dressed.

-

The rest of the semester played out the same. Leo and Piper became two of my very best friends, and everything felt good for a change. Leo had helped me pass my harder classes and made good company to Piper in their physical education classes. Piper gave me some of her older clothes and gave me style tips that seemed to freak her out, while also keeping Leo out of huge trouble.

I was like the big sister of the group. I kept the bullies away from Leo and Piper, but I also let them take care of themselves. We also became super close with each other like we were family, and by the last week of school before winter, we felt comfortable enough to tell each other anything.

On the last day of school, we were supposed to take a field trip to Arizona to the Grand Canyon. The P.E. teacher was going to be our chaperone, and Leo and Piper didn’t seem enthralled about it.

But, before the hellish day, Piper and I snuck Leo into our dorm to have a mini-sleepover. We dressed in our pajamas and sat in a circle eating some amazing snacks Leo somehow got. He also managed to bring a piercing kit, so we all took turns giving each other some cool piercings. I got a septum and two cartilage piercings on each ear; Piper got a side labret, a nose ring, and an eyebrow piercing; and Leo did his ears and I gave him an eyebrow piercing as well. He seemed to get really flustered when I got upclose to give it to him. I thought it was cute.

After we cleaned that up, we sat around and talked about our lives. The conversation slowly became a bit more personal, and eventually we found it time to talk about some things that upset us.

“I always hated my foster homes,” Leo said. “It made me realize how much people sucked. Everyone who took me in was just… horrible. This one chick- oh my god I hated her. She was the worst. She hit me and said horrible things about me. That was my last straw, and I ran away for good that time. I had longer hair, so I cut it all off. I didn’t want to be found this time. It was tough- real tough. But you know, I managed to get caught and someone decided I should go here.”

“I’m sorry, Leo,” Piper said. “I wish we knew you sooner.”

“Me too,” Leo said. “But I’m glad to know you guys now.”

“I feel bad,” Piper admitted. “Like, my life wasn’t even that bad. My dad… he’s Tristan McLean.”

“Really?” Leo asked. “The movie star? Ew, did you have to see him naked in that one movie-”

“Don’t remind me,” Piper said. “My dad being a sex idol to middle aged woman makes me gag.”

“Well, that is pretty tough,” Leo said. “I mean, that meant he wasn’t around as much.”

Piper nodded and hugged her knees to her chest. “It just sucked since I never knew my mom and all I ever got from my dad was a tiny conversation once a week. I acted out to get his attention but it just never worked. And after all that, I get sent here with a bunch of racist kids who want me to ‘go back to where I came from’. I’m literally Cherokee, this is where my people came from!”

Leo and I nodded in agreement. “People just suck ass,” I said. “You can't change idiots but you sure can try.”

“Not really,” Leo said. “Too complex in the brain. Serious damage to be that dumb.”

“Sometimes you just gotta smack them,” I said. “Like a TV. It might work after that.”

My friends laughed and laid back. “How was your life?” Piper asked me. “I know it was ass but, I think it might help to tell us some more?”

I frowned and rubbed my forearm. “Well, like you guys, I also never knew one of my parents. My dad left my mom and I right after I was born. The dickwad broke my mom’s heart, and she became just worse as I got older. I inherited my dad’s temper and well… it didn’t end well for either of us. When my mom died when I was twelve, I just ran. I ended up going to some pretty crazy places but…”

I paused. I hated thinking about it. It was just torment being there, and it gave me nothing but bad memories. I bit my lip and looked back up to my friends.

“I wound up in this shitty place where a ton of people like me went. It was like boot camp but everyone who ran it was, like, on speed.” I rubbed my forearm again and sighed. “While I was there, I found out who my dad was, and I still never heard from him. He left me some stupid gift that I can’t even get rid of. I hate it so much. But one day, I met this bumbling idiot who ended up being my group leader.”

“Who?” Leo asked. “What was she like?”

“He,” I corrected. “And he was the worst person I ever met. He made me feel like shit, and then I had to take orders from him! I couldn’t stand him. But then he just… he vanished. He left and everyone looked at me for some reason because I hated him the most. I got shut out again. I couldn’t take it, so I left. That was basically treason so… if I ever go back I’ll be executed or somethin’.”

My friends laughed like it was a joke, but I didn’t want to tell them it wasn’t.

“Well, that was only a day after he left. I ran and the day after that, the cops found me and I ended up in court. I got the choice of juvy or WA, and I chose the academy,” I explained. “Pretty dumb, right?”

“No, that sucked,” Leo said. “I’m sorry you went through that.”

“Well, not like you caused it,” I joked. “I don’t know. I feel like I have the shittiest story. I mean Leo, your mom died right in front of you when you were eight.”

Leo shrugged, though I knew he was hurting. “Fate happens, I guess.”

“Nah, Leo,” Piper said. “That really sucked. All of our lives sucked. But, together we can probably do better, right?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “I mean, let's not let the past shape us, yeah?”

Leo and Piper nodded. “We can kick anyone's asses,” Leo said. “And I can bite ankles.”

We laughed at his joke before shushing each other to not get in trouble. Leo smiled at Piper and I before standing up.

“Well, it was a great night with you ladies,” he said. “Try and get some sleep, because I’m going to be annoying you guys the whole bus ride.”

Piper crawled over to her bed after wishing Leo a goodnight. I decided to walk Leo to his dorm before going to sleep.

We stopped right in front of Leo’s door and I waved at him. “You still gonna fuck with Coach?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Leo said. “I never break a promise. I’ll see you tomorrow in the lunchroom, okay?”

I nodded and pecked his cheek. “See you then, math nerd.”

Leo blushed and rubbed his cheek. “F-For sure…”

I smiled to myself and hurried back to my dorm. Piper had already knocked out, so I was free to change into some more comfortable pajamas. I took off my tank top and threw on an oversized shirt with Garfield on it. I looked down to my forearm which was covered by a sports sleeve. I bit my lip as I took it off, throwing it with my clothes for tomorrow.

I stared down at the tattoo of the trident with four lines beneath it, feeling my gut twist. No matter how much I wanted to escape it, my real identity would always follow, engraved into my skin.

I tried to shake the thought off as I crawled under my covers, placing my pillow over my head and knocking out.

Chapter Text

I often have a dream where I re-do the worst night of my life. The issue is, I don’t know if this event happened to me in real life or not. Like all dreams, I can’t remember the beginning. It always picks up somewhere in the middle, like this:

I was running down the street barefoot, cutting the soles of my feet on the harsh terrain. I needed to bleed. If I didn’t get the excess water out of me before it diluted into my blood then I would die.

My body felt weak as I ran; from what, I wasn’t sure. I felt sick to my stomach, but as I lurched forward to clear my gut, my nose gushed blood like a fountain. The iron-tasting liquid dripped to the back of my throat and rolled off my tongue with the vomit. Gross.

I picked myself back up and ran some more. I felt my head becoming fuzzy and my vision began to spot. I would begin to seize soon. Panicking, I dropped to my knees and began scouring the street for something sharp. With all the trash laying around in Southern California, there had to be something.

Like a blessing from the gods, a shard of broken glass seemed to appear before me. I desperately took it with vibrating hands. Whatever disease you get from cutting yourself on broken glass didn’t seem as terrible as dying from water intoxication, so I took the shard and squeezed my eyes shut.

The pain that went up my wrist was searing hot, but once I had finished, I opened my eyes and saw pure water bursting out of my arm like a fountain. This was not normal; nothing that happened to me was normal. I watched as the excess water burst out of my body and began to slow down, filling the clear liquid with my dark red blood.

Stupidly, I hadn’t thought about how much my wound would actually bleed, and now I had nothing to help me. My gash would eventually soak the black street red and I would die. There was honestly no way out of my situation. This dream forced me to feel myself die every time I had it.

The saving grace was that I always fainted before I bled to death.

I expected to awake, but instead I was brought to a familiar house. I remember waking here after I left my dead mom, but I usually never dreamed about it. The broken down house had just served as my training place before that wolf kicked me out. It was a tough time living there, but I feel it made me stronger.

The Wolf House stood before me, though more broken than before. The snow on the ground began to freeze my feet through my boots. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself, looking around for any sign of Lupa and her pack. Strangely, I couldn’t move around. I felt glued in place.

I opened my mouth to call out, but a woman’s voice answered before I could ask anything.

She said my name with such grace I knew she had to be a goddess, but I picked up a hint of hostility, which told me she wasn’t mine. I didn’t know that was possible, considering I was a Roman demigod. No other types of gods would want to speak to me, right?

“Aid me,” she said. Her voice came from all around me, yet I saw nobody in the snow or the house. “I need your saving. You must come with the other three. I have delivered the boy to gather you all. Now, come to me.”

I tried to speak again, but my dream abruptly ended, whisking me back to my reality.

I felt rumbling underneath me, and a bright ray of sun fell upon my eyelids. I squinted and looked away from the blinding light, trying to see where I actually was.

I sat on the leather seats of a bus. Other teenagers were talking to each other in front of me, saying something about winter break after a field trip. My brain felt weird and fuzzy, like I had forgotten a large chunk of my memories. I felt something squeeze my hand, and quickly my brain fog dissipated.

The Wilderness Academy field trip to the Grand Canyon. I had gone to sleep in my bed, but somehow made my way onto the bus. When did I get here? And that weird voice in my dream… What was that about?

I looked down to my hand and saw someone holding it. I felt strangely calmed by it, but also knew that I shouldn’t have anyone holding my hand. I moved my gaze up to see who it was, and found none other than Leo Valdez staring at me. I felt a blush creep onto my face, but my gut churned.

“Good afternoon, princess,” he said with a cornball grin. “Have a good four hour nap?”

“Stop touching me!” I yelled, pulling my hand from his. “What do you think you’re doing? Gross!”

Hurt flashed across Leo’s face and I began to feel bad, but I had no idea why he was holding my hand or calling me ‘princess’ (though I knew the nickname was a joke). He leaned away from me slightly and bit his lip, showing his adorable tooth gap. Ew. Why was I thinking like this?

“Did you have a bad dream?” Leo asked. “If it’s another one of those ones where I cheated on you, I swear I would never because babe, you’re already out of my league-”

“Ew!” I scooted my back toward the window, grimacing at Leo. “Dude, knock it off. This prank is weird.”

“It’s not a prank,” Leo said. “Are you okay? Wait- you’re pranking me, right?”

“No,” I said. “Leo, we aren’t dating. I just-”

“Yeah you are,” Piper said, peeking her head over the seat. “You were the one who asked him to be your boyfriend.”

I looked up at Piper and couldn’t help blushing as well. The light was hitting her beautifully and shining into her multi-colored eyes like a stained glass window. Her fresh piercings seemed to be doing well and gave her a whole new look to her gorgeous face. I hated being attracted to her.

“Thank you,” Leo said, grinning that stupid cute grin of his. His dimples were perfectly symmetrical, and his freckles were perfect. His chocolate brown eyes reflected the sun just as amazingly. Though, his curly hair was a wreck. I hated being attracted to him, too. “Piper, she just woke up and began acting weird. Is it… that time of month?”

“Gross!” I punched Leo in the arm and looked back up to Piper. “Dude, we aren’t dating. We’ve been friends since the beginning of the semester- the three of us. I couldn’t possibly date either of you, because that would totally break the friend code.”

“Three?” Piper asked. “I know you don’t really like him, but that’s kind of rude to exclude him.”

“What?” I asked. “Who?”

Piper rolled her eyes. “You know who. This joke isn’t funny. It’s not fair to Leo or Jason.”

My gut dropped. There was no way that it was that Jason. But the voice in my dream said… nope. Not possible. I refuse.

“I don’t like this joke,” I said. I looked between Piper and Leo, trying to see if they would break. Neither of them cracked a smile, twitched their eyes, or did anything that gave away the joke. This was serious. My face dropped. “How are you two being real right now? Don’t you remember?”

“Don’t you?” Piper asked. “Come on, stop playing with us.”

The girl sat back down in her seat, leaving me and Leo alone.

The boy looked at me with a glint of sadness in his eyes. He spoke my name quietly, and I knew he was letting his guard down. He was serious for me.

I put my hands on his shoulders. “ Am I going crazy?”

“I don’t know,” Leo said. “Look, maybe-”

“Jason, you okay?” Piper asked from behind us.

I whipped my head around, feeling my heart speed up. I swear to god if it was somehow actually him, I was going to crash the bus.

A voice that sounded too much like his spoke. “Uh, I don’t-”

In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, “All right, cupcakes, listen up!”

The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he’d eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were spotless white. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would’ve looked pretty scary if he hadn’t been five feet zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, “Stand up, Coach Hedge!”

“I heard that!” The coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fixed behind me, and his scowl deepened.

A jolt went down my spine. I was sure the coach knew this ‘Jason’ didn’t belong there just as I did. I felt my hand go to my pocket, ready to pick up my pen.

But Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. “We’ll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don’t lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes causes any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way.”

He picked up a baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer.

I squeezed my pen for dear life as the voice of Jason said, “Can he talk to us that way?”

Piper replied to him. “Always does. This is the Wilderness School. ‘Where kids are the animals.’”

She said it like it was a joke they’d shared before, even though it was mine and Piper’s.

“This is some kind of mistake,” Jason said. “I’m not supposed to be here.”

So he knew as well. Thank the god’s I wasn’t insane, but what was happening with Piper and Leo?

Leo grabbed my hand, then turned and laughed. “Yeah, right, Jason. We’ve all been framed! I didn’t run away six times. Piper didn’t steal a BMW.” He lifted me up from my seat and turned me around, too. “She didn’t run from bootcamp.”

My worst fears came true. As I locked eyes with Jason, my gut twisted. I felt sick with rage. I glared into Jason’s blue eyes, and he squinted back at me. His blonde hair was untrimmed, and that dumb scar on his lip was just as noticeable. His pale skin turned paler.

Piper blushed. “I didn’t steal that car, Leo!”

“Oh, I forgot, Piper. What was your story? You ‘talked’ the dealer into lending it to you?” He raised his eyebrows at Jason like, Can you believe her?

But Jason didn’t take his eyes off mine. He looked like he was in pain, which I found somewhat enjoyable. I grit my teeth together.

“You,” Jason and I said in unison.

Piper and Leo looked at the two of us like something bad was about to happen. Jason and I stayed quiet, like the one word we spoke was enough for the rest of our lives. Hopefully it was.

“Anyway,” Leo said toward Jason, “I hope you’ve got your worksheet, ’cause I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Somebody draw on my face again?”

“I don’t know you,” Jason said.

Leo gave him a crocodile grin. “Sure. I’m not your best friend. I’m his evil clone.”

“Leo Valdez!” Coach Hedge yelled from the front. “Problem back there?”

Leo winked at Jason and me. “Watch this.” He turned to the front. “Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?”

Right. Leo promised me last night he was going to mess with Coach. And after that… I…

I tried to not explode.

Coach Hedge grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader’s. The kids cracked up. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: “The cow says moo!”

The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone. “Valdez!”

Piper stifled a laugh. “My god, Leo. How did you do that?”

Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. “I’m a special boy.”

I punched Leo in the arm as he laughed stupidly. “You know you liked it,” he said.

“Shut up,” I huffed, a small grin on my face.

“Guys, seriously,” Jason pleaded. “What am I doing here? Where are we going?”

Piper knit her eyebrows. “Jason, are you joking?”

“No! I have no idea—”

“Aw, yeah, he’s joking,” Leo said. “He’s trying to get me back for that shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren’t you?”

I looked at Leo strangely. “You did that to me,” I said,

Piper bit her lip. “She’s been weird, too, Jason. Did you guys plot something this morning?”

Jason stared at her blankly.

“No, I think they’re serious.” Piper tried to take Jason’s hand, but he pulled it away.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t—I can’t—”

“That’s it!” Coach Hedge yelled from the front. “The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!”

The rest of the kids cheered.

“There’s a shocker,” Leo muttered.

But Piper kept her eyes on Jason, like she couldn’t decide whether to be hurt or worried. “Did you hit your head or something? You really don’t know who we are?”

Jason shrugged helplessly. “It’s worse than that. I don’t know who I am.”

I felt my stomach drop. “Then how do you know me?”

Jason looked at me and squinted again. “I don’t know. I feel like I know you. Are we… are we friends?”

“Far from it!” I snorted. “I hate you with a passion. You hate me, too.”

“But…” Jason glanced away. “But I don’t.”

“You ruined my life,” I said. “Maybe you deserve this amnesia.”

Piper gasped and yelled my name like I just killed someone. “How could you?”

I looked at my best friend and stared at her in shock. “You seriously believe this? What’s wrong with you guys?”

Piper looked at me with the same look my mother used to give me. I felt myself begin to hate her.

The bus dropped us in front of a big red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that’s what it was: the National Museum of Nowhere, I thought. A cold wind blew across the desert. I hadn’t paid much attention to what I was wearing, but it wasn’t nearly warm enough: jeans and boots, a black tank-top, and a red jacket. I began to feel embarrassed since I recognized this as Leo’s jacket. When did he give it to me?

“So, a crash course for the amnesiac,” Leo said, in a helpful tone that made me think this was not going to be helpful. “We go to the ‘Wilderness School’”—Leo made air quotes with his fingers. “Which means we’re ‘bad kids.’ Your family, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this lovely prison—sorry, ‘boarding school’—in Armpit, Nevada, where you learn valuable nature skills like running ten miles a day through the cacti and weaving daisies into hats! And for a special treat we go on ‘educational’ field trips with Coach Hedge, who keeps order with a baseball bat. Is it all coming back to you now?”

“No.” Jason glanced apprehensively at the other kids: maybe twenty guys, half that many girls. None of them looked like hardened criminals, but he seemed to wonder what they’d all done to get sentenced to a school for delinquents, and I wondered why everyone thought he belonged with them.

Leo rolled his eyes. “You two’re really gonna play this out, huh? Okay, so the four of us started here together this semester. We’re totally tight. You do everything I say and give me your dessert and do my chores—”

“Leo!” Piper snapped.

“Fine. Ignore that last part. But we are friends. Well, Piper’s a little more than your friend, the last few weeks—”

“Leo, stop it!” Piper’s face turned red. Jason looked as red as my sweater. Mine was probably red, too, considering how mad I was that Jason Grace was fake dating my best friend.

“He’s got amnesia or something,” Piper said. “We’ve got to tell somebody.”

Leo scoffed. “Who, Coach Hedge? He’d try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head.”

The coach was at the front of the group, barking orders and blowing his whistle to keep the kids in line; but every so often he’d glance back at Jason and scowl.

“Leo, Jason needs help,” Piper insisted. “He’s got a concussion or—”

“Yo, Piper.” One of the other guys dropped back to join them as the group was heading into the museum. The new guy wedged himself between Jason and Piper and knocked Leo down. I felt my heart beat increase as my blood boiled “Don’t talk to these bottom-feeders. You’re my partner, remember?”

The new guy had dark hair cut Superman style, a deep tan, and teeth so white they should’ve come with a warning label: do not stare directly at teeth. permanent blindness may occur. He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, Western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was God’s gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere. I remembered breaking his wrist a few months ago, but my brain was spinning so fast between all of today’s events that I didn’t think to do it again.

“Go away, Dylan,” Piper grumbled. “I didn’t ask to work with you.”

“Ah, that’s no way to be. This is your lucky day!” Dylan hooked his arm through hers and dragged her through the museum entrance. Piper shot one last look over her shoulder like, 911.

I couldn’t help but feel that after my incident with Dylan a while back, he’d changed to become more charming in an attempt to get me and Piper closer. Though, he mostly went for Piper. His behavior sickened me, but Piper never liked me fighting for her.

Leo got up and brushed himself off. “I hate that guy.” He offered Jason his arm, like they should go skipping inside together. “‘I’m Dylan. I’m so cool, I want to date myself, but I can’t figure out how! You want to date me instead? You’re so lucky!’”

“Leo,” Jason said, “you’re weird.”

“Yeah, you tell me that a lot.” Leo grinned. “But if you don’t remember me, that means I can reuse all my old jokes. Come on!”

We walked through the building, stopping here and there for Coach Hedge to lecture us with his megaphone, which alternately made him sound like a Sith Lord or blared out random comments like “The pig says oink.”

Leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts, and pipe cleaners from the pockets of his army jacket and putting them together, trying to keep his hands busy at all times. I thought that habit of his was stupid. And cute. But more stupid than cute.

I was too distracted to pay much attention to the exhibits, but they were about the Grand Canyon and the Hualapai tribe, which owned the museum.

Some girls kept looking over at Piper and Dylan and snickering. I knew those girls as the popular clique. They wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a Halloween party.

One of them said, “Hey, Piper, does your tribe run this place? Do you get in free if you do a rain dance?”

The other girls laughed. Even Piper’s so-called partner Dylan suppressed a smile. Piper’s snowboarding jacket sleeves hid her hands, but I knew she was clenching her fists. I wished she would just go for it, but I knew she wouldn’t stoop to their level.

“My dad’s Cherokee,” she said. “Not Hualapai. ’Course, you’d need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel.”

Isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction. “Oh, sorry! Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that’s right. You never knew your mom.”

I had enough. I charged her, but before a fight could start, Coach Hedge barked, “Enough back there! Set a good example or I’ll break out my baseball bat!”

The group shuffled on to the next exhibit, but the girls kept calling out little comments to Piper.

“Good to be back on the rez?” one asked in a sweet voice.

“Dad’s probably too drunk to work,” another said with fake sympathy. “That’s why she turned klepto.”

Piper ignored them, but I was too ready to punch them myself. Jason seemed to feel the same.

Leo caught his arm. “Be cool. Piper doesn’t like us fighting her battles. Besides, if those girls found out the truth about her dad, they’d be all bowing down to her and screaming, ‘We’re not worthy!’”

“Why? What about her dad?” Jason asked.

Leo laughed in disbelief. “You’re not kidding? You really don’t remember that your girlfriend’s dad—”

“Look, I wish I did, but I don’t even remember her, much less her dad.”

Leo whistled. “Whatever. We have to talk when we get back to the dorm.”

We reached the far end of the exhibit hall, where some big glass doors led out to a terrace.

“All right, cupcakes,” Coach Hedge announced. “You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it. The skywalk can hold the weight of seventy jumbo jets, so you featherweights should be safe out there. If possible, try to avoid pushing each other over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork.”

The coach opened the doors, and we all stepped outside. The Grand Canyon spread before them, live and in person. Extending over the edge was a horseshoe-shaped walkway made of glass, so I could see right through it.

“Man,” Leo said. “That’s pretty wicked.”

I had to agree. Despite Leo and Piper’s behaviors and the fact that Jason didn’t belong there, I couldn’t help being impressed.

The canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. We were up so high that birds circled below our feet. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. Banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while we’d been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as I could see in any direction, red and gray ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.

A crazy god. I hated myself for still carrying my old life with me. Well, Jason being here definitely sparked it back up but… I couldn’t help feeling like something was wrong. My demigod senses were going off all day, and with the whole dream and Jason situation, I had the unmistakable feeling we were in terrible danger.

Next to me, the man of the hour became pale and sweaty. I grimaced and scooted away.

“You all right?” Leo asked him. “You’re not going to throw up over the side, are you? ’Cause I should’ve brought my camera.”

“Ew,” I said. “I hate barf. Jason, you better not get it on me or I will throw you over the edge.”

Jason grabbed the railing. He was shivering and sweaty, but it looked like it had nothing to do with heights. He blinked, then suddenly relaxed.

“I’m fine,” he managed. “Just a headache.”

Thunder rumbled overhead. A cold wind almost knocked him sideways.

“This can’t be safe.” Leo squinted at the clouds. “Storm’s right over us, but it’s clear all the way around. Weird, huh?”

I looked up and saw Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the skywalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. I had a bad feeling about that.

“All right, cupcakes!” Coach Hedge yelled. He frowned at the storm like it bothered him too. “We may have to cut this short, so get to work! Remember, complete sentences!”

The storm rumbled, and Jason’s face began to pale again. Suddenly, he reached into his jeans pocket and brought out a coin—a circle of gold the size of a half-dollar, but thicker and more uneven. Stamped on one side was a picture of a battle-ax. On the other was some guy’s face wreathed in laurels. The inscription said something like ivlivs.

I glared at Jason and opened my mouth to shout at him.

“Dang, is that gold?” Leo asked, stopping me from rampaging. “You been holding out on me!”

Jason put the coin away, but it unsettled me when he pulled it out. He must have been feeling uneasy about the storm, too. I gripped the pen in my pocket with anxiety.

“It’s nothing,” Jason said. “Just a coin.”

Leo shrugged. His mind had to keep moving as much as his hands. “Come on,” he said. “Dare you to spit over the edge.”

We didn’t try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, I was too distracted by the storm and my own mixed-up feelings. For another thing, I didn’t have any idea how to “name three sedimentary strata you observe” or “describe two examples of erosion.”

Leo was no help. He was too busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners.

“Check it out.” He launched the copter. Jason probably figured it would plummet, but the pipe-cleaner blades actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiraled into the void.

I applauded my friend as he jokingly bowed.

“How’d you do that?” Jason asked.

Leo shrugged. “Would’ve been cooler if I had some rubber bands.”

“Seriously,” Jason said, “are we friends?”

“No,” I mumbled.

“Last I checked,” Leo said.

“You sure?” Jason asked. “What was the first day we met? What did we talk about?”

“It was …” Leo frowned. “I don’t recall exactly. I’m ADHD, man. You can’t expect me to remember details.”

“But I don’t remember you at all. I don’t remember anyone here. What if—”

“You’re right and everyone else is wrong?” Leo asked. “You think you just appeared here this morning, and we’ve all got fake memories of you?”

I looked at Jason, and his eyes sparkled. “That’s exactly what I think,” I said. “I’m not the only one apparently missing memories here.”

But it sounded crazy. Everybody here took them for granted. Everyone acted like Jason was a normal part of the class—except for Coach Hedge.

Jason and I read each other's minds.

“Take the worksheet.” Jason handed Leo his paper. “We’ll be right back.”

Before Leo could protest, Jason and I headed across the skywalk.

Our school group had the place to themselves. Maybe it was too early in the day for tourists, or maybe the weird weather had scared them off. The other Wilderness School kids had spread out in pairs across the skywalk. Most were joking around or talking. Some of the guys were dropping pennies over the side. About fifty feet away, Piper was trying to fill out her worksheet, but her stupid partner Dylan was hitting on her, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving her that blinding white smile. She kept pushing him away, and when she saw me, she gave a look like, Throttle this guy for me.

I motioned for her to hang on. Jason and I walked up to Coach Hedge, who was leaning on his baseball bat, studying the storm clouds.

“Did you do this?” the coach asked Jason.

Jason took a step back. “Do what?” It sounded like the coach had just asked if he’d made the thunderstorm.

Coach Hedge glared at him, his beady little eyes glinting under the brim of his cap. “Don’t play games with me, kid. What are you doing here, and why are you messing up my job?”

“You mean...you don’t know me?” Jason said. “I’m not one of your students?”

Hedge snorted. “Never seen you before today.”

I was so relieved I almost wanted to cry. At least I wasn’t going insane. I woke up and everyone was pretending I was in the wrong place. “Look, sir, I don’t know how Jason got here. I just woke up on the school bus and everyone was acting weird. Then, he showed up. I know where he should be but.... Well, I assume you know. All he knows is that he’s not supposed to be here.”

“Got that right.” Hedge’s gruff voice dropped to a murmur, like he was sharing a secret. “You got a powerful way with the Mist, kid, if you can make all these people think they know you; but you can’t fool me- or her. I’ve been smelling monster for days now. I knew we had an infiltrator, but you don’t smell like a monster. You smell like a half-blood. So—who are you, and where’d you come from?”

Jason decided to answer honestly. “I don’t know who I am. I don’t have any memories. You’ve got to help me.”

Coach Hedge studied his face like was trying to read Jason’s thoughts.

“Great,” Hedge muttered. “You’re being truthful.”

“Of course I am! And what was all that about monsters and half-bloods? Are those code words or something?”

“I have no clue how you forgot,” I mumbled angrily. “What is with you? You did this on purpose, huh? Trying to find me and bring me back? Fuck you.”

“Language!” Hedge yelled. He looked me up and down and gruffed. “You know more than the other two.”

“Been around a while,” I said.

“Look, kid,” Hedge said, looking at Jason. “I don’t know who you are. I just know what you are, and it means trouble. Now I got to protect four of you rather than three. Are you two the special package? Is that it?”

“What are you talking about?” Jason and I asked.

Hedge looked at the storm. The clouds were getting thicker and darker, hovering right over the skywalk.

“This morning,” Hedge said, “I got a message from camp. They said an extraction team is on the way. They’re coming to pick up a special package, but they wouldn’t give me details. I thought to myself, Fine. The three I’m watching are pretty powerful, older than most. I know they’re being stalked. I can smell a monster in the group. I figure that’s why the camp is suddenly frantic to pick them up. But then you pop up out of nowhere and she” he pointed at me “seems to have history with you. So, are you two the special package?”

Jason stumbled, and Coach Hedge caught him. For a short guy, the coach had hands like steel. “Whoa, there, cupcake. You say you got no memories, huh? Fine. I’ll just have to watch you, too, until the team gets here. We’ll let the director figure things out.”

“What director?” Jason said. “What camp?”

“Don’t send me back,” I mumbled, almost begging. “They’ll kill me.”

“Just sit tight,” Coach said. “Reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully nothing happens before—”

Lightning crackled overhead. The wind picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails.

“I had to say something,” Hedge grumbled. He bellowed into his megaphone: “Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!”

“I thought you said this thing was stable!” I shouted over the wind.

“Under normal circumstances,” Hedge agreed, “which these aren’t. Come on!”

The storm churned into a miniature hurricane. Funnel clouds snaked toward the skywalk like the tendrils of a monster jellyfish.

Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Jason skidded across the slick floor.

Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but I grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.

“Thanks, babe!” Leo yelled.

“Go, go, go!” said Coach Hedge.

Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper’s snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. I thought she must’ve been freezing, but she looked calm and confident—telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving.

Me, Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge ran toward them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight us, pushing us back.

Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut, closing off the skywalk.

Piper tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.

“Dylan, help!” Piper shouted.

Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm.

“Sorry, Piper,” he said. “I’m done helping.”

He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck.

“Piper!” Jason tried to charge forward, but the wind was against him, and Coach Hedge pushed him back.

“Coach,” Jason said, “let me go!”

“Jason, Leo,” the coach nodded at me, apparently not knowing my name yet, ”stay behind me,” the coach ordered. “This is my fight. I should’ve known that was our monster.”

“What?” Leo demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. “What monster?”

The coach’s cap blew off, and sticking up above his curly hair were two bumps—like the knots cartoon characters get when they’re bonked on the head. Coach Hedge lifted his baseball bat—but it wasn’t a regular bat anymore. Somehow it had changed into a crudely shaped tree-branch club, with twigs and leaves still attached.

Dylan gave him that psycho happy smile. “Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you’re getting too old for this. Isn’t that why they retired you to this stupid school? I’ve been on your team the entire season, and you didn’t even know. You’re losing your nose, grandpa.”

The coach made an angry sound like an animal bleating. “That’s it, cupcake. You’re going down.”

“You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?” Dylan laughed. “Good luck.”

Dylan pointed at Leo, and a funnel cloud materialized around him. Leo flew off the skywalk like he’d been tossed. Somehow he managed to twist in midair, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold. Finally he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by his fingertips.

“Help!” he yelled up at us. “Rope, please? Bungee cord? Something?”

I felt my heart drop. I wanted to help Leo but I knew we had bigger matters at hand. Could I leave Jason or Hedge to fight Dylan? I didn’t know. My options were to save my fake boyfriend or finish my fight with the monster.

Before I could decide, Hedge did it for me.

He cursed and tossed Jason his club. “I don’t know who you are, kid, but I hope you’re good. Keep that thing busy”—he stabbed a thumb at Dylan—“while I get Leo.”

“Get him how?” Jason demanded. “You going to fly?”

“Not fly. Climb.” Hedge kicked off his shoes, and I almost had a coronary. The coach didn’t have any feet. He had hooves—goat’s hooves. Which meant those things on his head, I realized, weren’t bumps. They were horns.

“You’re a faun,” Jason and I said.

“Satyr!” Hedge snapped. “Fauns are Roman. But we’ll talk about that later.”

Hedge leaped over the railing. He sailed toward the canyon wall and hit hooves first. He bounded down the cliff with impossible agility, finding footholds no bigger than postage stamps, dodging whirlwinds that tried to attack him as he picked his way toward Leo.

“Isn’t that cute!” Dylan turned toward Jason and me. “Now it’s your turn, kids.”

Jason threw the club. It seemed useless with the winds so strong, but the club flew right at Dylan, even curving when he tried to dodge, and smacked him on the head so hard he fell to his knees.

Piper wasn’t as dazed as she appeared. Her fingers closed around the club when it rolled next to her, but before she could use it, Dylan rose. Blood—golden blood—trickled from his forehead.

“Nice try, boy.” He glared at Jason. “But you’ll have to do better.”

The skywalk shuddered. Hairline fractures appeared in the glass. Inside the museum, kids stopped banging on the doors. They backed away, watching in terror.

Dylan’s body dissolved into smoke, as if his molecules were coming unglued. He had the same face, the same brilliant white smile, but his whole form was suddenly composed of swirling black vapor, his eyes like electrical sparks in a living storm cloud. He sprouted black smoky wings and rose above the skywalk. If angels could be evil, I decided, they would look exactly like this.

“You’re a ventus,” I said. “A storm spirit.”

Dylan’s laugh sounded like a tornado tearing off a roof. “I’m glad I waited, demigods. Leo and Piper, and her-” he pointed at me, “I’ve known about for weeks. Could’ve killed them at any time. But my mistress said a fourth was coming—someone special. She’ll reward me greatly for your death!”

Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan and turned into venti—ghostly young men with smoky wings and eyes that flickered with lightning.

Piper stayed down, pretending to be dazed, her hand still gripping the club. Her face was pale, but she gave Jason and me a determined look, and I understood the message: Keep their attention. I’ll brain them from behind.

Cute, smart, and violent. I bet Jason wished she really was his girlfriend.

He clenched his fists and got ready to charge, but he never got a chance.

Dylan raised his hand, arcs of electricity running between his fingers, and blasted Jason in the chest.

I sighed and shoved my hand in my pocket. “As usual.”

Jason fell flat on his back. He lifted his head and saw that his clothes were smoking. The lightning bolt had gone straight though his body and blasted off his left shoe. His toes were black with soot.

The storm spirits were laughing, even I felt a chuckle come up my throat. The winds raged. Piper was screaming defiantly, but my heartbeat drowned it out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Coach Hedge climbing the cliff with Leo on his back. Piper was on her feet, desperately swinging the club to fend off the two extra storm spirits, but they were just toying with her. The club went right through their bodies like they weren’t there. And Dylan, a dark and winged tornado with eyes, loomed over Jason.

“Stop,” Jason croaked. He rose unsteadily to his feet, and the storm spirits were shocked.

“How are you alive?” Dylan’s form flickered. “That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!”

“My turn,” Jason said. He always was one for cheesy lines.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out the gold coin. He let his instincts take over, flipping the coin in the air like I’d seen him done a thousand times. He caught it in his palm, and suddenly he was holding a sword—a wickedly sharp double-edged weapon. The ridged grip fit his fingers perfectly, and the whole thing was gold—hilt, handle, and blade.

“I’m glad you remember that,” I said. “But you better remember how to fight, too. If you die, I’m not carrying you back.”

Jason looked over at me and a small smile caught his lips. “I almost remember you now.”

“Oh yeah?” I said, taking the golden pen out of my pocket. “Any fond memories?”

“Did we train together?” Jason asked.

I shook my head and spun my pen between my fingers. “No, but we fought to the death a few times. Here-”

My father gifted me my golden pen when I arrived at camp. I found it on my bed after I was claimed, but it couldn't have been a normal pen- no. It didn’t uncap, it twisted. What kind of loser has a twisty pen? Me.

I twisted the end of my pen, and suddenly it shot out from the sides of my closed palm. The pen extended until it was about six feet long, then at the tip it forked out. I spun around my golden trident a few times, just to show off, then slammed the hilt in the ground.

“-you take left, I take right, then whoever finishes first gets to kill Dylan. Cool?” I asked Jason.

The blonde boy nodded and looked back to the monsters at hand.

Dylan snarled and backed up. He looked at his two comrades and yelled, “Well? Kill them!”

The other storm spirits didn’t look happy with that order, but they flew at us, their fingers crackling with electricity.

I smirked and stuck my hand out. The storm spirit stopped in its tracks and wailed. “What are you doing to me?”

See, why most people back at camp hated me was because I didn’t play fair. I didn’t use their dumb roman rules. I had the power to do what I wanted, and so I did. I can manipulate water, right? But everything has some amount of water inside it. So, why don’t I control that, too? Easiest way to win a fight.

“You’re vapor and clouds,” I said. “That’s pretty much all water. Bye-bye!”

I closed my hand, and the spirit folded in on itself before exploding into yellow dust. I waved my hands in front of me so the monster remains wouldn’t get in my eyes.

Jason swung at his spirit. His blade passed through it, and the creature’s smoky form disintegrated and dissolved into gold powder.

Dylan wailed in outrage. He looked down as if expecting his comrades to re-form, but their gold dust remains dispersed in the wind. “Impossible! Who are you, half-bloods?”

Piper was so stunned she dropped her club. She looked at Jason and me in complete shock. “How…?”

Then Coach Hedge leaped back onto the skywalk and dumped Leo like a sack of flour. I felt a bit enraged at his handling of the boy.

“Spirits, fear me!” Hedge bellowed, flexing his short arms. Then he looked around and realized there was only Dylan.

“Curse it, kids!” he snapped at Jason and me. “Didn’t you leave some for me? I like a challenge!”

Leo got to his feet, breathing hard. He looked completely humiliated, his hands bleeding from clawing at the rocks. “Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are—I just fell down the freaking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!”

Dylan hissed at us, but I could see fear in his eyes. “You have no idea how many enemies you’ve awakened, half-bloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This war you cannot win.”

Above us, the storm exploded into a full-force gale. Cracks expanded in the skywalk. Sheets of rain poured down, and I had to crouch to keep my balance.

A hole opened in the clouds—a swirling vortex of black and silver.

“The mistress calls me back!” Dylan shouted with glee. “And you, demigods, will come with me!”

He lunged at Jason and me, but Piper tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was made of smoke, Piper somehow managed to connect. Both of them went sprawling. Leo, Jason, me, and the coach surged forward to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. He let loose a torrent that knocked us all backward. Jason and Coach Hedge landed on their butts. Jason’s sword skidded across the glass. Leo hit the back of his head and curled on his side, dazed and groaning. Piper got the worst of it. She was thrown off Dylan’s back and hit the railing, tumbling over the side until she was hanging by one hand over the abyss.

I started toward her, but Dylan screamed, “I’ll settle for this one!”

He grabbed Leo’s arm and began to rise, towing a half-conscious Leo below him. The storm spun faster, pulling them upward like a vacuum cleaner.

“Help!” Piper yelled. “Somebody!”

Then she slipped, screaming as she fell.

“Jason, go!” I yelled, even though I barely trusted him. “Save her!”

I launched myself at the spirit with some serious rage— stabbing with my trident attempting to drain some extra gold blood from Dylan’s body, knocking Leo free from the spirit’s grasp. Leo dropped safely to the floor, but Dylan grappled my arms instead. I lowered my trident, which Coach Hedge caught hold of and used to pull me from Dylan’s grip. He used a little extra momentum which ended up swinging him into the spirit’s arms. Hedge tried to head-butt him, then kicked him and called him a cupcake. They rose into the air, gaining speed.

Coach Hedge shouted down, “Save McLean! I got this!” Then the satyr and the storm spirit spiraled into the clouds and disappeared.

I gripped my trident until my knuckles began to split. Hedge just sacrificed himself for me and I was just sitting there while Jason probably failed to catch Piper. I grit my teeth together and spun around, running to the railing.
Jason and I jumped over the side at the same time.

I wasn’t scared of heights. I was scared of being smashed against the canyon floor five hundred feet below. I knew that if anything went south, I could just use the water at the bottom to save us, but I didn’t trust my emotions right now. I could heat the water and boil us alive. Despite my thoughts, I tucked in my arms and plummeted headfirst. The sides of the canyon raced past like a film on fast-forward. My face felt like it was peeling off.

In a heartbeat, Jason and I caught up with Piper, who was flailing wildly. Jason tackled her waist and closed his eyes. Piper screamed. The wind whistled in my ears. I knew Jason was having one of his stupid inner monologue moments, but his flight was taking too long to start up. I yelped and used my trident to spear through his pants. When we hit the water, I was prepared to launch us back up- if Jason didn’t drop Piper and if my trident held onto his jeans.

I closed my eyes and prepared for impact.

Suddenly the wind died. Piper’s scream turned into a strangled gasp. I thought, great, we died, but I didn’t feel any sort of pain.

“J-J-Jason,” Piper managed.

I opened his eyes. We weren’t falling. We were floating in midair, a hundred feet above the river.

Jason hugged Piper tight, and she repositioned herself so she was hugging him too. They were nose to nose. I couldn’t help but feel a little angry. I honestly just wanted to be dropped.

I squinted up and the blonde and my best friend. “Hey! I’m literally holding on by a thread! Let’s go!”

Jason gave an apologetic smile as I latched onto his ankle. Piper yelped as we shot a few feet higher. We weren’t exactly floating, I decided. I could feel pressure under Jason’s feet like he was balancing at the top of a geyser.

“The air is supporting us,” Jason said.

“Well, tell it to support us more! Get us out of here!” Piper wailed.

I looked down. The easiest thing would be to sink gently to the canyon floor. Then I looked up. The rain had stopped. The storm clouds didn’t seem as bad, but they were still rumbling and flashing. There was no guarantee the spirits were gone for good. I had no idea what had happened to Coach Hedge. And we’d left Leo up there, barely conscious. I couldn’t help feeling like an asshole.

“We have to help them,” Piper said, as if reading my thoughts. “Jason, can you—”

“Let’s see.” Jason blinked, and instantly we shot skyward.

The fact he was riding the winds might’ve been cool under different circumstances, but I was too much in shock. As soon as we landed on the skywalk, I dropped my trident and ran to Leo.

I turned the boy over, and he groaned. His army coat was soaked from the rain. His curly hair glittered gold from rolling around in monster dust. But at least he wasn’t dead.

I sighed with relief and moved his curls from his face. “Okay, idiot. How do you feel?”

“Stupid … ugly … goat,” he muttered.

“Where did he go?” Piper asked.

Leo pointed straight up. “Never came down. Please tell me he didn’t actually save my life.”

“Mine, too,” I said.

Leo groaned even louder. “What happened? The tornado guy, the gold sword and trident… I hit my head. That’s it, right? I’m hallucinating?”

Jason had forgotten about his sword, I guess. He walked over to where it was lying and picked it up. The blade was well balanced. He flipped it, and midspin, the sword shrank back into a coin and landed in his palm.

“Yep,” Leo said. “Definitely hallucinating.”

Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. “Jason, those things—”

“Venti,” he said. “Storm spirits.”

“Okay. You two acted like… like you’d seen them before. Who are you?”

He shook his head. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I don’t know.”

I looked away from my friends, feeling a little ashamed. Maybe I should have told them who I was sooner? Considering they actually saw the monsters, they have to be demigods, too. But, they wouldn’t have believed me before either way. At least I somewhat managed to protect them.

The storm dissipated. The other kids from the Wilderness School were staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guards were working on the locks now, but they didn’t seem to be having any luck.

“Coach Hedge said he had to protect four people,” Jason brilliantly remembered. “I think he meant us.”

“And that thing Dylan turned into…” Piper shuddered. “God, I can’t believe it was hitting on me. He called us... what, demigods?”

Leo lay on his back next to me, staring at the sky. He didn’t seem anxious to get up. “Don’t know what demi means,” he said. “But I’m not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?”

“Never did,” I said, gently nudging Leo.

There was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen.

“We need to get off this thing,” Jason said. “Maybe if we—”

“Ohhh-kay,” Leo interrupted. “Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses.”

At first I thought Leo had hit his head too hard. Then I saw a dark shape descending from the east—too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. As it got closer I could see a pair of winged animals—gray, four-legged, exactly like horses—except each one had a twenty-foot wingspan. And they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot. That was definitely not someone from camp. Only one person rode a pegasus and it was not gray.

“Reinforcements,” I said. “Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us.”

“Extraction squad?” Leo struggled to his feet with my help. “That sounds painful.”

“And where are they extracting us to?” Piper asked.

I watched as the chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. The flying horses tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it was near breaking. Two teenagers stood in the chariot—a tall blonde girl maybe a little older than me, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. They both wore jeans and orange T-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs. The girl leaped off before the chariot had even finished moving. She pulled a knife and ran toward my group while the bulky dude was reigning in the horses.

“Where is he?” the girl demanded. Her gray eyes were fierce and a little startling.

“Where’s who?” Jason asked.

She frowned like his answer was unacceptable. Then she turned to Leo and Piper. “What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?”

The coach’s first name was Gleeson? I might’ve laughed if the morning hadn’t been quite so weird and scary. Gleeson Hedge: football coach, goat man, protector of demigods. Sure. Why not?

Leo cleared his throat. “He got taken by some… tornado things.”

“Venti,” Jason said. “Storm spirits.”

The blonde girl arched an eyebrow. “You mean anemoi thuellai? That’s the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?”

Jason did his best to explain, though I bet it was hard to meet those intense gray eyes. About halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot came over. He stood there glaring at them, his arms crossed. He had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little unusual.

When Jason had finished his story, the blonde girl didn’t look satisfied. “No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I’d find the answer.”

“Annabeth,” the bald guy grunted. “Check it out.” He pointed at Jason’s feet.

I hadn’t thought much about it, but Jason was still missing his left shoe, which had been blown off by the lightning. His bare foot looked like a lump of charcoal.

“The guy with one shoe,” said the bald dude. “He’s the answer.”

“No, Butch,” the girl insisted. “He can’t be. I was tricked.” She glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong. “What do you want from me?” she screamed. “What have you done with him?”

The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.

“Annabeth,” said the bald dude, Butch, “we gotta leave. Let’s get these four to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back.”

She fumed for a moment. “Fine.” She fixed Jason with a resentful look. “We’ll settle this later.”

I began to like her since we already seemed to share resentment toward Jason. She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot, stopping when she saw my discarded trident. “Who’s is this?” she asked.

“Mine,” I said.

The blonde looked at me strangely, then bit her lip. “We will talk later.” She turned around and continued marching toward the chariot.

Piper shook her head. “What’s her problem? What’s going on?”

“Seriously,” Leo agreed.

“We have to get you out of here,” Butch said. “I’ll explain on the way.”

“I’m not going anywhere with her.” Jason gestured toward the blonde. “She looks like she wants to kill me.”

Butch hesitated. “Annabeth’s okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem.”

“What problem?” Piper asked.

“She’s been looking for one of our campers, who’s been missing three days,” Butch said. “She’s going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he’d be here.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Her boyfriend,” Butch said. “A guy named Percy Jackson.”

-

I stood in back of the chariot with Leo and Jason, while the bald guy, Butch, handled the reins, and the blonde girl, Annabeth, adjusted a bronze navigation device next to Piper. We rose over the Grand Canyon and headed east, icy wind ripping straight through my jacket. Behind us, more storm clouds were gathering.

The chariot lurched and bumped. It had no seat belts and the back was wide open, so I wondered if Jason would catch Piper again if she fell. That had been the most disturbing part of the morning—not that Jason was back or I almost died dangling to his bare foot, but that he’d held Piper in his arms and yet didn’t know who she was.

I wanted to scream. Jason stood right next to me: those sky blue eyes, close-cropped blond hair, that stupid little scar on his upper lip. His face was kind and gentle, but always a little sad. And he just stared at the horizon, not even noticing me.

I couldn’t believe I used to like this guy.

Meanwhile, Leo was being annoying, as usual. “This is so cool!” He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth. “Where are we going?”

“A safe place,” Annabeth said. “The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood.”

“What?” I asked. “Hold on, I thought-”

“Half-Blood?” Piper was immediately on guard. I knew she hated that word. She’d been called a half-blood too many times—half Cherokee, half white—and it was never a compliment. “Is that some kind of bad joke?”

“She means we’re demigods,” I said. “Half god, half mortal.”

Annabeth looked back at me. “You seem to know a lot. But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess.”

Athena? I thought. That’s not Roman. Was I supposed to be in this batch of demigods?

Leo choked. “Your mom is a rainbow goddess?”

“Got a problem with that?” Butch said.

“No, no,” Leo said. “Rainbows. Very macho.”

“Butch is our best equestrian,” Annabeth said. “He gets along great with the pegasi.”

“Rainbows, ponies,” Leo muttered.

“I’m gonna toss you off this chariot,” Butch warned.

“Hey, only I can do that!” I yelled at the boy.

Leo sighed dreamily. “You’re so sweet, babe. Wait, I forgot, uh-”

“Demigods,” Piper said. “You mean you think you’re … you think we’re—”

Lightning flashed. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, “Left wheel’s on fire!”

“Way to state the obvious!” I exclaimed, smacking the back of Jason’s head.

Sure enough, the wheel was burning, white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.

The wind roared. I glanced behind us and saw dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot—except these looked more like horses than angels.

Piper started to say, “Why are they—”

“Anemoi come in different shapes,” Annabeth said. “Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on. This is going to get rough.”

Butch flicked the reins. The pegasi put on a burst of speed, and the chariot blurred. My stomach crawled into my throat. My vision went black, and when it came back to normal, we were in a totally different place.

A cold gray ocean stretched out to the left. Snow-covered fields, roads, and forests spread to the right. Directly below us was a green valley, like an island of springtime, rimmed with snowy hills on three sides and water to the north. I saw a cluster of buildings like ancient Greek temples, a big blue mansion, ball courts, a lake, and a climbing wall that seemed to be on fire. But before I could really process all I was seeing, the wheels came off and the chariot dropped out of the sky.

Annabeth and Butch tried to maintain control. The pegasi labored to hold the chariot in a flight pattern, but they seemed exhausted from their burst of speed, and bearing the chariot and the weight of six people was just too much.

“The lake!” Annabeth yelled. “Aim for the lake!”

I had zero time to think about not being wet, so I figured this was going to be a horrible experience.

BOOM.

The biggest shock was the cold. I was underwater, so disoriented that I didn’t know which way was up.

Faces appeared in the green murk—girls with long black hair and glowing yellow eyes. They smiled at me, grabbed my shoulders, and hauled me up.

They tossed me, gasping and shivering, onto the shore. Nearby, Butch stood in the lake, cutting the wrecked harnesses off the pegasi. Fortunately, the horses looked okay, but they were flapping their wings and splashing water everywhere. Jason, Leo, Piper, and Annabeth were already on shore, surrounded by kids giving them blankets and asking questions. Somebody took me by the arms and helped me stand. Apparently kids fell into the lake a lot, because a detail of campers ran up with big bronze leaf blower–looking things and blasted me with hot air; and in about two seconds my clothes were dry.

There were at least twenty campers milling around—the youngest maybe nine, the oldest college age, eighteen or nineteen—and all of them had orange T-shirts like Annabeth’s. I looked back at the water and saw those strange girls just below the surface, their hair floating in the current. They waved like, toodle-oo, and disappeared into the depths. A second later the wreckage of the chariot was tossed from the lake and landed nearby with a wet crunch.

“Annabeth!” A guy with a bow and quiver on his back pushed through the crowd. “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!”

“Will, I’m sorry,” Annabeth sighed. “I’ll get it fixed, I promise.”

Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up me, Piper, Leo, and Jason. “These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven’t they been claimed already?”

“Claimed?” Leo asked.

Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, “Any sign of Percy?”

“No,” Annabeth admitted.

The campers muttered. I had no idea who this guy Percy was, but his disappearance seemed to be a big deal. Strangely, though, I felt connected to his name. Maybe when he was found I could see why I felt this way.

Another girl stepped forward—tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and perfect makeup. Somehow she managed to make jeans and an orange T-shirt look glamorous. She glanced at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason like he might be worthy of her attention, then curled her lip at Piper and me as if we were week-old burritos that had just been pulled out of a Dumpster. We knew this girl’s type. Piper and I had dealt with a lot of girls like this at Wilderness School and every other stupid place we’d been. I looked at Piper, and she seemed to know they were going to be enemies.

“Well,” the girl said, “I hope they’re worth the trouble.”

Leo snorted. “Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?”

“No kidding,” Jason said. “How about some answers before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?”

“Jason,” Annabeth said, “I promise we’ll answer your questions. And Drew”—she frowned at the glamor girl—“all demigods are worth saving. But I’ll admit, the trip didn’t accomplish what I hoped.”

“Hey,” I said, “we didn’t ask to be brought here.”

Drew sniffed. “And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?”

Piper stepped forward, ready to smack her, but Annabeth said, “Piper, stop.”

Piper did. She wasn’t a bit scared of Drew, I could tell, but Annabeth didn’t seem like somebody she wanted for an enemy. I put my hand on Piper’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring look.

“I can handle myself,” I told her.

“We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome,” Annabeth said, with another pointed look at Drew. “We’ll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they’ll be claimed.”

“Would somebody tell me what claimed means?” Piper asked.

Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. At first I thought she’d done something wrong. Then I realized everyone’s faces were bathed in a strange red light, as if someone had lit a torch behind us. I turned and almost forgot how to breathe.

Floating over Leo’s head was a blazing holographic image —a fiery hammer.

“That,” Annabeth said, “is claiming.”

“What’d I do?” Leo backed toward the lake. Then he glanced up and yelped. “Is my hair on fire?” He ducked, but the symbol followed him, bobbing and weaving so it looked like he was trying to write something in flames with his head.

“This can’t be good,” Butch muttered. “The curse—”

“Butch, shut up,” Annabeth said. “Leo, you’ve just been claimed—”

“By a god,” Jason interrupted. “That’s the symbol of Vulcan, isn’t it?”

All eyes turned to him.

“Jason,” Annabeth said carefully, “how did you know that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Vulcan?” Leo demanded. “I don’t even LIKE Star Trek. What are you talking about?”

“Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus,” Annabeth said, “the god of blacksmiths and fire.”

“Greek?” I asked. “But I thought we used roman gods?”

“Not really,” Annabeth told me. “More Latin terms are used in English than Greek, so I see your confusion.”

I knew that wasn’t why I was confused. My camp had been Roman, and since these teens seemed to have the same knowledge as me, I assumed they were maybe a reservoir camp, somewhere far out to gain more ground. But the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. Besides, none of them knew me, which meant they definitely weren’t part of the original camp.

If they didn’t care that I was a traitor, then I didn’t care that they were Greek. As simple as that.

The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. “The god of what? Who?”

Annabeth turned to the guy with the bow. “Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine.”

“Sure, Annabeth.”

“What’s Cabin Nine?” Leo asked. “And I’m not a Vulcan!”

“Come on, Mr. Spock, I’ll explain everything.” Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins.

Part of me wanted to follow my friend, but he was already on his way. Maybe I’d meet up with him later.

Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason. She studied him like he was a complicated blueprint. Finally she said, “Hold out your arm.”

I saw what she was looking at, and my eyes widened.

Jason had taken off his windbreaker after his dip in the lake, leaving his arms bare, and on the inside of his right forearm was his tattoo. The tattoo was the same as the last I saw it; dark, impossible to miss. A dozen straight lines like a bar code, and over that an eagle with the letters SPQR.

“I’ve never seen marks like this,” Annabeth said. “Where did you get them?”

Jason shook his head. “I’m getting really tired of saying this, but I don’t know.”

The other campers pushed forward, trying to get a look at Jason’s tattoo. The marks seemed to bother them a lot—almost like a declaration of war.

“They look burned into your skin,” Annabeth noticed.

“They were,” Jason said. Then he winced as if his head was aching. “I mean … I think so. I don’t remember.”

No one said anything. It was clear the campers saw Annabeth as the leader. They were waiting for her verdict.

Not wanting to be the next center of attention, I readjusted my hoodie sleeve to make sure my tattoo was covered. I didn’t want to be the roman freak, so I let the fall land on Jason.

“He needs to go straight to Chiron,” Annabeth decided. “Drew, would you—”

“Absolutely.” Drew laced her arm through Jason’s. “This way, sweetie. I’ll introduce you to our director. He’s … an interesting guy.” She flashed Piper a smug look and led Jason toward the big blue house on the hill.

The crowd began to disperse, until only Annabeth, Piper and me were left.

“Who’s Chiron?” Piper asked. “Is Jason in some kind of trouble?”

Annabeth hesitated. “Good question, Piper. Come on, I’ll give you a tour. We need to talk.”

Then she looked at me and nodded for me to follow as well. So much for catching up with Leo. I sighed and shoved my hands in my pocket, feeling my golden pen as I trudged along with the blonde and my best friend.

Chapter Text

I soon realized Annabeth’s heart wasn’t in the tour.

She talked about all this amazing stuff the camp offered—magic archery, Pegasus riding, the lava wall, fighting monsters —but she showed no excitement, as if her mind were elsewhere. She pointed out the open-air dining pavilion that overlooked Long Island Sound. (Yes, Long Island, New York; we’d traveled that far on the chariot.) Annabeth explained how Camp Half-Blood was mostly a summer camp, but some kids stayed here year-round, and they’d added so many campers it was always crowded now, even in winter.

I wondered who ran the camp, and how they’d known me and my friends belonged here. I wondered if I’d have to stay full-time, or if I’d be any good at the activities. This was a Greek place, so would the fights be the same? Could you flunk out of monster fighting? A million questions bubbled in my head, but given Annabeth’s mood, I decided to keep quiet.

As we climbed a hill at the edge of camp, I turned and got an amazing view of the valley—a big stretch of woods to the northwest, a beautiful beach, the creek, the canoe lake, lush green fields, and the whole layout of the cabins—a bizarre assortment of buildings arranged like a Greek omega, Ω, with a loop of cabins around a central green, and two wings sticking out the bottom on either side. I counted twenty cabins in all. One glowed gold, another silver. One had grass on the roof. Another was bright red with barbed wire trenches. One cabin was black with fiery green torches out front.

All of it seemed like a different world from the snowy hills and fields outside.

“The valley is protected from mortal eyes,” Annabeth said. “As you can see, the weather is controlled, too. Each cabin represents a Greek god—a place for that god’s children to live.”

She looked at Piper like she was trying to judge how she was handling the news.

“You’re saying Mom was a goddess,” Piper said

Annabeth nodded. “You’re taking this awfully calmly.”

Piper took a shaky breath. “I guess after this morning, it’s a little easier to believe. So who’s my mom?”

“We should know soon,” Annabeth said. “You’re what—fifteen? Gods are supposed to claim you when you’re thirteen. That was the deal.”

“The deal?” I asked.

“They made a promise last summer… well, long story… but they promised not to ignore their demigod children anymore, to claim them by the time they turn thirteen. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but you saw how fast Leo was claimed once he got here. Should happen for you soon. Tonight at the campfire, I bet we’ll get a sign.”

“Why thirteen?” Piper asked.

“The older you get,” Annabeth said, “the more monsters notice you, try to kill you. ’Round thirteen is usually when it starts. That’s why we send protectors into the schools to find you guys, get you to camp before it’s too late.”

“Like Coach Hedge?” I asked.

Annabeth nodded. “He’s—he was a satyr: half man, half goat. Satyrs work for the camp, finding demigods, protecting them, bringing them in when the time is right.”

I had no trouble believing Coach Hedge was half goat. I’d seen the guy eat. I’d never liked the coach much, but I couldn’t believe he’d sacrificed himself to save me.

“What happened to him?” Piper asked. “When we went up into the clouds, did he… is he gone for good?”

“Hard to say.” Annabeth’s expression was pained. “Storm spirits… difficult to battle. Even our best weapons, Celestial bronze, will pass right through them unless you can catch them by surprise.”

“Jason’s sword and her trident just turned them to dust,” Piper remembered, pointing at me.

“He was lucky, then. If you hit a monster just right, you can dissolve them, send their essence back to Tartarus,” Annabeth said. Then she gave me a strange look like she wanted to say something but was probably waiting for the right time. Her eyes told me she was suspicious of me.

“Tartarus?” Piper asked.

“A huge abyss in the Underworld, where the worst monsters come from. Kind of like a bottomless pit of evil. Anyway, once monsters dissolve, it usually takes months, even years before they can re-form again. But since this storm spirit Dylan got away—well, I don’t know why he’d keep Hedge alive. Hedge was a protector, though. He knew the risks. Satyrs don’t have mortal souls. He’ll be reincarnated as a tree or a flower or something.”

I tried to imagine Coach Hedge as a clump of very angry pansies. That made me feel even worse.

I gazed at the cabins below, and an uneasy feeling settled over me. Hedge had died to get us here safely. My dad’s cabin was down there somewhere, which meant I probably had brothers and sisters- or half-siblings, I guess- more people I’d probably drive away. I tucked my hands under my arms, trying to stop them from shaking.

“It’ll be okay,” Annabeth promised. “You have friends here. We’ve all been through a lot of weird stuff. We know what you’re going through.”

I doubt that, I thought.

“I’ve been kicked out of five different schools the past five years,” Piper said. “My dad’s running out of places to put me.”

“Only five?” Annabeth didn’t sound like she was teasing. “Piper, we’ve all been labeled troublemakers. I ran away from home when I was seven.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah. Most of us are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or dyslexia, or both—”

“Leo’s ADHD,” Piper and I said.

“Right. It’s because we’re hardwired for battle. Restless, impulsive—we don’t fit in with regular kids. You should hear how much trouble Percy—” Her face darkened. “Anyway, demigods get a bad rep. How’d you get in trouble?”

Usually when someone asked that question, Piper started a fight, or changed the subject, or caused some kind of distraction. But for some reason she told the truth.

“I steal stuff,” she said. “Well, not really steal…”

“Is your family poor?”

Piper laughed bitterly. “Not even. I did it … I don’t know why. For attention, I guess. My dad never had time for me unless I got in trouble.”

Annabeth nodded. “I can relate. But you said you didn’t really steal? What do you mean?”

“Well… nobody ever believes me. The police, teachers—even the people I took stuff from: they’re so embarrassed, they’ll deny what happened. But the truth is, I don’t steal anything. I just ask people for things. And they give me stuff. Even a BMW convertible. I just asked. And the dealer said, ‘Sure. Take it.’ Later, he realized what he’d done, I guess. Then the police came after me.”

Piper and I waited. I was used to people calling her a liar, but when I looked up, Annabeth just nodded.

“Interesting. If your dad were the god, I’d say you’re a child of Hermes, god of thieves. He can be pretty convincing. But your dad is mortal…”

“Very,” Piper agreed.

Annabeth shook her head, apparently mystified. “I don’t know, then. With luck, your mom will claim you tonight.”

“Yeah, and then you can be one of the big kids,” I joked. Piper smiled softly, a little relieved that I was still with her. But Annabeth kept giving me the weirdest look, like she knew something I never said. Annabeth was studying me hard. I decided I was going to have to be careful what I said from now on. Annabeth was obviously pretty smart. If she knew about me before the rest…

“Do you have any questions? You’re more calm than Piper and you seem to know more,” Annabeth said.

I shook my head, biting my tongue. I seriously just wanted this tour over with so I could go talk to Piper and Leo alone. I knew they probably had more questions about me. I’m sure Piper felt strange standing next to me.

“Come on,” Annabeth said at last. “There’s something else I need to check.”

We hiked a little farther until we reached a cave near the top of the hill. Bones and old swords littered the ground. Torches flanked the entrance, which was covered in a velvet curtain embroidered with snakes. It looked like the set for some kind of twisted puppet show.

“What’s in there?” Piper asked.

Annabeth poked her head inside, then sighed and closed the curtains. “Nothing, right now. A friend’s place. I’ve been expecting her for a few days, but so far, nothing.”

“Your friend lives in a cave?” I asked.

Annabeth almost managed a smile. “Actually, her family has a luxury condo in Queens, and she goes to a finishing school in Connecticut. But when she’s here at camp, yeah, she lives in the cave. She’s our oracle, tells the future. I was hoping she could help me—”

“Find Percy,” I guessed.

All the energy drained out of Annabeth, like she’d been holding it together for as long as she could. She sat down on a rock, and her expression was so full of pain, I felt like a voyeur.

I forced myself to look away. My eyes drifted to the crest of the hill, where a single pine tree dominated the skyline. Something glittered in its lowest branch—like a fuzzy gold bath mat.

No … not a bath mat. It was a sheep’s fleece.

Okay, I thought. Greek camp. They’ve got a replica of the Golden Fleece.

Then I noticed the base of the tree. At first I thought it was wrapped in a pile of massive purple cables. But the cables had reptilian scales, clawed feet, and a snakelike head with yellow eyes and smoking nostrils.

“That’s—a dragon,” Piper stammered. She must have been looking in the same direction as me. “That’s the actual Golden Fleece?”

Annabeth nodded, but it was clear she wasn’t really listening. Her shoulders drooped. She rubbed her face and took a shaky breath. “Sorry. A little tired.”

“You look ready to drop,” I said. “How long have you been searching for your boyfriend?”

“Three days, six hours, and about twelve minutes.”

“And you’ve got no idea what happened to him?” Piper asked.

Annabeth shook her head miserably. “We were so excited because we both started winter break early. We met up at camp on Tuesday, figured we had three weeks together. It was going to be great. Then after the campfire, he—he kissed me good night, went back to his cabin, and in the morning, he was gone. We searched the whole camp. We contacted his mom. We’ve tried to reach him every way we know how. Nothing. He just disappeared.”

Piper looked like she was thinking. “How long were you guys together?”

“Since August,” Annabeth said. “August eighteenth.”

“Almost exactly when I met Jason,” Piper said. “But we’ve only been together a few weeks.”

I looked at Piper. “No, that’s when you and I met,” I said.

Annabeth winced. “Piper… Maybe you should sit down.”

Piper knew where this was going. “Look, I know Jason thought—he thought he just appeared at our school today, same with her,” she pointed at me. “But that’s not true. I’ve known him for four months.”

“Piper,” Annabeth said sadly. “It’s the Mist.”

“Missed… what?”

“M-i-s-t. It’s a kind of veil separating the mortal world from the magic world. Mortal minds—they can’t process strange stuff like gods and monsters, so the Mist bends reality. It makes mortals see things in a way they can understand —like their eyes might just skip over this valley completely, or they might look at that dragon and see a pile of cables.”

Piper swallowed. “No. You said yourself I’m not a regular mortal. I’m a demigod.”

“Even demigods can be affected. I’ve seen it lots of times. Monsters infiltrate some place like a school, pass themselves off as human, and everyone thinks they remember that person. They believe he’s always been around. The Mist can change memories, even create memories of things that never happened—”

“But Jason’s not a monster!” Piper insisted. “He’s a human guy, or demigod, or whatever you want to call him. My memories aren’t fake. They’re so real. The time we set Coach Hedge’s pants on fire. The time Jason and I watched a meteor shower on the dorm roof and I finally got the stupid guy to kiss me....”

She started rambling, telling Annabeth and me about her whole semester at Wilderness School. She’d aparently liked Jason from the first week they’d met. He was so nice to her, and so patient, he could even put up with hyperactive Leo and his stupid jokes or me and my temper. He’d accepted Piper for herself and didn’t judge her because of the stupid things she’d done. They’d spent hours talking, looking at the stars, and eventually- finally- holding hands. All that couldn’t be fake to her.

Annabeth pursed her lips. “Piper, your memories are a lot sharper than most. I’ll admit that, and I don’t know why that is. But if you know him so well—”

“I do!”

“Then where is he from?”

Piper looked like she’d been hit between the eyes. “He must have told me, but—”

“Did you ever notice his tattoo before today? Did he ever tell you anything about his parents, or his friends, or his last school?”

I felt a little happy knowing I was right, but I knew my friend must have been in pain.

Piper stammered. “I—I don’t know, but—”

“Piper, what’s his last name?” Annabeth asked.

Piper started to cry. She must have felt like a total fool, but she sat down on the rock next to Annabeth and just fell to pieces.

“Hey,” Annabeth said. “We’ll figure it out. Jason’s here now. Who knows? Maybe it’ll work out with you guys for real.”

Not likely, I thought. But I couldn’t say that.

Piper brushed a tear from her cheek. “You brought me up here so no one would see me blubbering, huh?”

Annabeth shrugged. “I figured it would be hard for you. I know what it’s like to lose your boyfriend.”

I sighed and sat on the ground next to the two girls, feeling mixed up inside. I hated Jason, and I hated that Piper thought they were dating, but even more than that I hated seeing my friend in pain.

I was the only one who knew about Jason and his past. I knew his last name and his life prior to meeting Piper and Leo. I knew that it was them who set Coach’s pants on fire and Jason was never there. There wasn’t even a meteor shower in the past few months.

“But I still can’t believe… I know we had something. And now it’s just gone, like he doesn’t even recognize me. If he really did just show up today, then why? How’d he get there? Why can’t he remember anything?” Piper asked.

“Good questions,” Annabeth said. “Hopefully Chiron can figure that out. But for now, we need to get you settled. You ready to go back down?”

“Yeah,” Piper lied. “I’m ready.”

On the central green, a group of campers were playing basketball. They were incredible shots. Nothing bounced off the rim. Three-pointers went in automatically.

“Apollo’s cabin,” Annabeth explained. “Bunch of showoffs with missile weapons—arrows, basketballs.”

We walked past a central fire pit, where two guys were hacking at each other with swords.

“Real blades?” Piper noted. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“That’s sort of the point,” Annabeth said. “Uh, sorry. Bad pun. That’s my cabin over there. Number Six.” She nodded to a gray building with a carved owl over the door. Through the open doorway, I could see bookshelves, weapon displays, and one of those computerized SMART Boards they have in classrooms. Two girls were drawing a map that looked like a battle diagram.

“Speaking of blades,” Annabeth said, “come here.”

She led Piper and me around the side of the cabin, to a big metal shed that looked like it was meant for gardening tools. Annabeth unlocked it, and inside were not gardening tools, unless you wanted to make war on your tomato plants. The shed was lined with all sorts of weapons—from swords to spears to clubs like Coach Hedge’s.

“Every demigod needs a weapon,” Annabeth said. “Hephaestus makes the best, but we have a pretty good selection, too. Athena’s all about strategy—matching the right weapon to the right person. Let’s see…”

Piper probably didn’t feel much like shopping for deadly objects, but I knew Annabeth was trying to do something nice for her.

Annabeth handed her a massive sword, which Piper could hardly lift.

“No,” we all said at once.

Annabeth rummaged a little farther in the shed and brought out something else.

“A shotgun?” I asked.

“Mossberg 500.” Annabeth checked the pump action like it was no big deal. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt humans. It’s modified to shoot Celestial bronze, so it only kills monsters.”

“Um, I don’t think that’s my style,” Piper said.

“Mmm, yeah,” Annabeth agreed. “Too flashy.”

She put the shotgun back and started poking through a rack of crossbows when something in the corner of the shed caught Piper’s eye.

“What is that?” she said. “A knife?”

Annabeth dug it out and blew the dust off the scabbard. It looked like it hadn’t seen the light of day in centuries.

“I don’t know, Piper.” Annabeth sounded uneasy. “I don’t think you want this one. Swords are usually better.”

“You use a knife.” Piper pointed to the one strapped to Annabeth’s belt.

“Yeah, but…” Annabeth shrugged. “Well, take a look if you want.”

The sheath was worn black leather, bound in bronze. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy. The polished wood handle fit beautifully in Piper’s hand. When she unsheathed it, she found a triangular blade eighteen inches long—bronze gleaming like it had been polished yesterday. The edges were deadly sharp. Her reflection in the blade caught her by surprise.

“It suits you,” Annabeth admitted. “That kind of blade is called a parazonium. It was mostly ceremonial, carried by high-ranking officers in the Greek armies. It showed you were a person of power and wealth, but in a fight, it could protect you just fine.”

“I like it,” Piper said. “Why didn’t you think it was right?”

Annabeth exhaled. “That blade has a long story. Most people would be afraid to claim it. Its first owner… well, things didn’t turn out too well for her. Her name was Helen.”

Piper let that sink in. “Wait, you mean the Helen? Helen of Troy?”

Annabeth nodded.

Suddenly Piper felt like she should be handling the dagger with surgical gloves. “And it’s just sitting in your toolshed?”

“We’re surrounded by Ancient Greek stuff,” Annabeth said. “This isn’t a museum. Weapons like that—they’re meant to be used. They’re our heritage as demigods. That was a wedding present from Menelaus, Helen’s first husband. She named the dagger Katoptris.”

“Meaning?”

“Mirror,” Annabeth said. “Looking glass. Probably because that’s the only thing Helen used it for. I don’t think it’s ever seen battle.”

Piper suddenly paled and dropped the blade.

“Piper?” I shouted to the Apollo kids on the court, “Medic! I need some help over here!”

“No, it’s—it’s okay,” Piper managed.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I just …” Piper swallowed. With trembling fingers, she picked up the dagger. “I just got overwhelmed. So much happening today. But … I want to keep the dagger, if that’s okay.”

Annabeth hesitated. Then she waved off the Apollo kids for me. “Okay, if you’re sure. You turned really pale, there. I thought you were having a seizure or something.”

“I’m fine,” Piper promised, though her heart was still racing. “Is there … um, a phone at camp? Can I call my dad?”

Annabeth’s gray eyes were almost as unnerving as the dagger blade. She seemed to be calculating a million possibilities, trying to read Piper’s thoughts.

“We aren’t allowed phones,” she said. “Most demigods, if they use a cell phone, it’s like sending up a signal, letting monsters know where you are. But… I’ve got one.” She slipped it out of her pocket. “Kind of against the rules, but if it can be our secret…” She winked at me and Piper.

Piper took it gratefully, trying not to let her hands shake. She stepped away from Annabeth and me then turned to face the commons area.

Annabeth looked over to me. “Now that we have some time, why don’t we talk a bit?”

I already knew where this was going. I sighed and put my hands in my coat pocket. “Ask away.”

“Who are you?” Annabeth asked. “Why do you know so much?”
I told the blonde my name and a bit about myself. “I grew up in SoCal, and around age twelve I ran away and ended up in boot camp. Good enough?”

“What happened in boot camp?” Annabeth asked.

“I learned stuff.”

“About Greek monsters? Demigods?”

“Maybe.”

“Why are you being so mysterious?”

“What if I don’t want you to know?”

“Fine, then how did you meet Leo and Piper? Jason?”

At the very mention of his name, I tensed.

“You know more about him then he does, right?” Annabeth asked.

I cursed myself and looked away, crossing my arms. “I do. I met him in my special boot camp. We have matching tattoos and weapons, and I even know his last name. I know everything about him, but I’m not saying because I hate him and I get immense satisfaction from watching him suffer.”

Annabeth stared at me, a bit taken aback. “Wh… Why?”

“Because he ruined my life,” I said, my voice threatening to break. “So until he can remember that and apologize, I’m not helping him.”

The blonde bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”

“Whatever,” I said. “You mentioned my trident, so here.” I dug my pen from my pocket and laid it in Annabeth’s hands. Her eyes flashed with shock.

“It’s just like Percy’s,” she said. “How do you uncap it?”

“Twist,” I mumbled. “Dad gave me the worst gift.”

“So it is your father who’s the god?” Annabeth asked. “Are you already claimed?”

Piper saved me when she walked back to Annabeth and me and handed the blonde the phone.

“No luck?” Annabeth asked, clutching my pen.

Piper didn’t answer. She looked on the verge of tears.

Annabeth glanced at the phone display and hesitated. “Your last name is McLean? Sorry, it’s not my business. But that sounds really familiar.”

“Common name,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess. What does your dad do?” Annabeth asked.

“He’s got a degree in the arts,” Piper said automatically. “He’s a Cherokee artist.”

Her standard response. Not a lie, just not the whole truth. Most people, when they heard that, figured her dad sold Indian souvenirs at a roadside stand on a reservation. Sitting Bull bobble-heads, wampum necklaces, Big Chief tablets—that kind of thing.

“Oh.” Annabeth didn’t look convinced, but she put the phone away. “You feeling okay? Want to keep going?”

Piper fastened her new dagger to her belt. “Sure,” she said. “I want to see everything.”

-
All the cabins were cool, but none of them struck my attention. We continued wandering around the half circle of cabins, getting the full rundown of each from Annabeth. She was still holding my pen for dear life.

Cabin Eight was entirely silver and glowed like moonlight.

“Artemis?” Piper guessed.

“You know Greek mythology,” Annabeth said.

“I did some reading when my dad was working on a project last year.”

“I thought he did Cherokee art.”

Piper bit back a curse. “Oh, right. But—you know, he does other stuff too.”

Piper probably thought she’d blown it: McLean, Greek mythology. Thankfully, Annabeth didn’t seem to make the connection.

“Anyway,” Annabeth continued, “Artemis is goddess of the moon, goddess of hunting. But no campers. Artemis was an eternal maiden, so she doesn’t have any kids.”

“Oh.” That kind of bummed Piper out.

“Well, there are the Hunters of Artemis,” Annabeth amended. “They visit sometimes. They’re not the children of Artemis, but they’re her handmaidens—this band of immortal teenage girls who adventure together and hunt monsters and stuff.”

Piper perked up. “That sounds cool. They get to be immortal?”

“Unless they die in combat, or break their vows. Did I mention they have to swear off boys? No dating—ever. For eternity.”

“Oh,” Piper said. “Never mind.”

Annabeth laughed. For a moment she looked almost happy, and I thought she’d be a cool friend to hang out with in better times.

Forget it, I reminded myself. You’re not going to make any friends here. Not once they find out.

We passed the next cabin, Number Ten, which was decorated like a Barbie house with lace curtains, a pink door, and potted carnations in the windows. We walked by the doorway, and the smell of perfume almost made me gag.

“Gah, is that where supermodels go to die?” I asked.

Annabeth smirked. “Aphrodite’s cabin. Goddess of love. Drew is the head counselor.”

“Figures,” Piper and I grumbled.

“They’re not all bad,” Annabeth said. “The last head counselor we had was great.”

“What happened to her?”

Annabeth’s expression darkened. “We should keep moving.”

We looked at the other cabins, but Piper just got more depressed. Even here, where everyone was supposed to find a lost parent, she probably thought she would still end up the unwanted kid. I frowned and put my arm around her. She leaned into me and sighed.

“We started with the twelve Olympian gods,” Annabeth explained. “Male gods on the left, female on the right. Then last year, we added a whole bunch of new cabins for the other gods who didn’t have thrones on Olympus—Hecate, Hades, Iris—”

“What are the two big ones on the end?” Piper asked.

Annabeth frowned. “Zeus and Hera. King and queen of the gods.”

Piper headed that way, and Annabeth and I followed, though we didn’t act very excited. The Zeus cabin reminded me of a bank. It was white marble with big columns out front and polished bronze doors emblazoned with lightning bolts.

Hera’s cabin was smaller but done in the same style, except the doors were carved with peacock feather designs, shimmering in different colors.

Unlike the other cabins, which were all noisy and open and full of activity, the Zeus and Hera cabins looked closed and silent.

“Are they empty?” Piper asked.

Annabeth nodded. “Zeus went a long time without having any children. Well, mostly. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, the eldest brothers among the gods—they’re called the Big Three. Their kids are really powerful, really dangerous. For the last seventy years or so, they tried to avoid having demigod children.”

“Tried to avoid it?” I asked. Poseidon was the Greek equivalent of Neptune, right? I knew it was bad with me and Jason back then, but here it seemed like we were curses.

“Sometimes they… um, cheated. I’ve got a friend, Thalia Grace, who’s the daughter of Zeus. But she gave up camp life and became a Hunter of Artemis. My boyfriend, Percy, he’s a son of Poseidon. And there’s a kid who shows up sometimes, Nico—son of Hades. Except for them, there are no demigod children of the Big Three gods. At least, not that we know of.”

My stomach churned. Thalia Grace? Grace was Jason’s last name. That couldn’t be right. I tried to push the thought away, but it stayed resiliently. No way there were two of them. I didn’t care much for the Pluto kid, but Percy- that’s why I was so worried. His name connected to me because he was a Neptune kid, too. Or, Poseidon or whatever. That’s why Annabeth kept holding onto my pen. If Big Three kids were so bad, yet there were already three, then I definitely couldn’t be here. I was bad luck enough, they’d send me back as fast as they could.

My knees buckled. Annabeth looked back at me with a worried expression. “Hey, are you alright?”

“I need to shit,” I gasped. “Bathroom?”

Annabeth looked embarrassed. “Oh, see around that building over there? It’s the small building- the girl’s side is on the right.”

I nodded and ran off. I sprinted as fast as possible to the bathroom and ducked behind it. I collapsed to my knees and covered my mouth, breathing heavily. I didn’t know why I felt so scared, but I had a horrible feeling about the other kids. That Nico seemed a little odd, and I had a feeling I knew his name from somewhere. Two Graces would actually kill me, and having a brother terrified me for some reason. Would we get along or hate each other? Would he be scared of me because of the things I’ve done? Is he just as fucked up as me? Hell, which one of us was older?

I buried my head in my knees. I’d been fine when I was at the academy with Leo and Piper. Everything felt so okay then. I was totally fine with never using my powers or fighting again. I would have been okay with graduating with my friends and moving in with Piper and Leo, getting a job, then renting an apartment with them in LA- something other than this. I never wanted to go back, but the gods said no and sent me to bootleg C.J., where I was forced to relive the worst time of my being. I had four good months of my life.

I screamed into my jacket sleeve and picked my head back up, wiping my eyes. I refused to cry, and I haven’t since I was a baby. I slowly stood up and wiped my clothes off, taking a deep breath. I have a half-brother- whatever. Maybe I can just trust that he’s safe and saving the world again and I don’t have to do anything else. I can wait until everyone celebrates his return and run away again. Nobody would care either way.

I exhaled and continued on. I was sure Piper and Annabeth finished whatever they were doing, so I decided to maybe find Leo.

As I began walking, a loud horn sounded across the valley. I felt my heart drop. Were we being attacked? I shoved my hand in my pocket and found my pen had returned to me. As I pulled it out, I noticed that nobody seemed to be rushing from the cabins. Instead, they filed out in a thin line and made their way toward the dining pavilion I saw earlier. So, this camp didn’t have a war horn, but instead had a dinner horn? Weird.

I sighed and relaxed as I watched what looked like Vulcan- or Hephaestus- kids pile out of a giant building. I took a bet that Leo was there and headed over.

The forge looked like a steam-powered locomotive had smashed into the Greek Parthenon and they had fused together. White marble columns lined the soot-stained walls. Chimneys pumped smoke over an elaborate gable carved with a bunch of gods and monsters. The building sat at the edge of a stream, with several waterwheels turning a series of bronze gears.

The forge was dead silent seeing as all the kids had left, but I didn’t see Leo in the crowd of kids. No doubt he had stayed behind to shovel all the bolts and washers into his pockets.

As I walked through the forge, I stepped over weapons and projects that I had no idea what they were or what they were for. I hopped over puddles of oil and hopefully-not-blood, I wasn’t sure.

I went deeper into the forge. All I heard was the sounds of the bellows, the waterwheels, and small machines clicking and whirring. It was kind of eerie, but I could see why Leo would want to stay there.

I turned a corner and found him staring at a map on the wall. He looked a little sad, or really focused. I couldn't tell between the two.

I stepped forward to say hello, but stopped when he held out his hand and studied his fingers. They were long and thin, not callused like you’d expect from an inventor like him. Leo had never been the biggest or the strongest kid. He’d survived in tough neighborhoods, tough schools, tough foster homes by using his wits. He was the class clown, the court jester, because he’d learned early that if you cracked jokes and pretended you weren’t scared, you usually didn’t get beat up. Even the baddest gangster kids would tolerate you, keep you around for laughs. Plus, humor was a good way to hide the pain. And if that didn’t work, there was always Plan B. Run away. Over and over. That’s what he told me once.

I figured maybe that’s what he was thinking about. He was upset about something, and all he could think about was the past. I hated how much he and I were alike.

I took a breath and started to speak, but he extended his fingers and flames flickered to life, curls of red-hot fire dancing across his palm.

I choked on my words.

Leo must have heard me struggling, and he perked his head up. I turned and ran away, hoping he didn’t see me.

I whipped around the corner and beelined for the entrance, but something heavy and hard smacked me in the head. I yelped and fell face flat. I heard footsteps run up to me, and I went into full fight-mode.

I turned over and quickly grabbed my pen, twisting it open and thrusting it in front of my body. The trident extended to full length as Leo skidded to a stop in front of me. His eyes looked wild as he stared down at my own, the trident nearly hitting his throat. The two of us were breathing heavily, equally as scared and angry. Neither of us could speak for a moment.

I caught my breath and started yelling. “Why did you attack me?”

“I didn’t know what you were going to do!” Leo yelled back. “You can’t tell anyone about this!”

“So you hit me in the back of my head with a wrench?!”

“I aimed for your back!”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Leo asked, gesturing to me and my weapon.

I huffed and set my trident down. “Fair point…”

“You can’t tell anybody,” Leo said, taking a step back and offering me his hand. “You swear it.”

“Why?” I asked, gripping his hand and standing up.

“It’s a curse,” Leo explained. “Nyssa- she’s my half-sister or something- she just told me that fire users are a bad omen. I don’t want anybody to know.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” I asked. “I mean, shit, Piper told us she’s got mind control.”

“I never believed her,” Leo said. “I thought it was dumb.”

“Oh, so you think fire hands are normal but not making people do things you want?” I asked.

Leo threw his hands up. “I didn’t know! Why didn’t you tell me you were some freaking fish warrior?”

“I’m not a fish warrior!” I yelled, though a smile broke onto my face. “And I didn’t tell because nobody was ready. Neither you or Piper would have been okay with this.”

“Is that what your boot camp was?” Leo asked, calming down a bit.

I picked up my trident and nodded. “It’s so weird. It was exactly like this place but not. I don’t know.”

“You knew Jason there?”

I bit my lip and turned away. “I’m done talking about this, dude. I don’t want everyone to know my past because I know they’ll kill me. I can’t.”

“Well, me too,” Leo said, moving into my line of sight. “They’ll burn me at the stake or something. Though, I doubt it will do anything.”

I snorted and punched Leo’s shoulder. “Whatever. Point is, I’m mad at you, but I guess you have your reasons. I won’t tell, but don’t you ever fucking throw a wrench at me again or I’ll shove my foot up your ass.”

Leo laughed and covered his eyes. “No! I won’t.”

I turned my trident back and shoved it in my pocket, walking out of the forge with Leo. “Dude, I have a brother.”

“I’ve got like twenty,” Leo said. “No biggie.”

I shook my head. “He’s some sort of curse, too. That means I am. I don’t want to be kicked out or something.”

“I’ll vouch for you if it comes to that.” Leo stepped in front of me and dramatically put his hand over his chest. “No! She saved me! She’s a good guy!”

I rolled my eyes a pushed past him. “Whatever. Let’s go see if the food here is any good.”

“Bet you it’s school food,” Leo said.

“Then we’d better run away again,” I said. “No home for us.”

Leo laughed softly, but I saw his smile drop. I wanted to ask him about it, but we’d already arrived at the dining pavilion. We were forced to part ways and sit at different tables.

-

The whole campfire idea freaked me out. It made me think of the fires we used to burn fallen Romans in back in California.

What I got instead was almost as terrifying: a sing-along. The amphitheater steps were carved into the side of a hill, facing a stone-lined fire pit. Fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners.

I spotted Jason in the front next to Annabeth. Leo was nearby, sitting with a bunch of burly-looking campers under a steel gray banner emblazoned with a hammer. Standing in front of the fire, half a dozen campers with guitars and strange, old-fashioned harps—lyres?—were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. It was quite possibly the weirdest thing I had ever seen—one of those campfire songs that would’ve been completely embarrassing in daylight; but in the dark, with everybody participating, it was kind of corny and fun. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turning from red to orange to gold.

Finally the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. A guy on a horse trotted up. At least in the flickering light, I thought it was a guy on a horse. Then I realized it was a centaur—his bottom half a white stallion, his top half a middle-aged guy with curly hair and a trimmed beard. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows. “Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I’m happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we’ll get to the s’mores, but first—”

“What about capture the flag?” somebody yelled. Grumbling broke out among some kids in armor, sitting under a red banner with the emblem of a boar’s head.

I knew their type. I hated Mars kids- they were always so loud and annoying. All they wanted to do was fight, but couldn’t take being hit once. I knew I had anger problems, but they went above and beyond.

“Yes,” the centaur said. “I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games.”

“And kill people!” one of them shouted.

“However,” Chiron said, “until the dragon is brought under control, that won’t be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?”

He turned to Leo’s group. Leo winked at me and shot me with a finger gun. The girl next to him stood uncomfortably. She wore an army jacket a lot like Leo’s, with her hair covered in a red bandanna. “We’re working on it.”

More grumbling.

“How, Nyssa?” an Ares kid demanded.

“Really hard,” the girl said.

Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones—bang, bang, bang—and the campers fell silent.

“We will have to be patient,” Chiron said. “In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss.”

“Percy?” someone asked. The fire dimmed even further, but I didn’t need the mood flames to sense the crowd’s anxiety- or my own.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

“I didn’t find Percy,” she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. “He wasn’t at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we’re not giving up. We’ve got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis —everyone’s out looking. We will find him. Chiron’s talking about something different. A new quest.”

“It’s the Great Prophecy, isn’t it?” a girl called out.

Everyone turned. The voice had come from a group in back, sitting under a rose-colored banner with a dove emblem. They’d been chatting among themselves and not paying much attention until their leader stood up: Drew.

Everyone else looked surprised. Apparently Drew didn’t address the crowd very often.

“Drew?” Annabeth said. “What do you mean?”

“Well, come on.” Drew spread her hands like the truth was obvious. “Olympus is closed. Percy’s disappeared. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with four new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?”

I turned to a red-headed girl, who sat next to me with Piper, and whispered, “What’s she talking about—the Great Prophecy?”

Then I realized everyone else was looking at her, too.

“Well?” Drew called down. “You’re the oracle. Has it started or not?”

The girl’s eyes looked scary in the firelight. I was afraid she might do something unpredictable as a supposed oracle and all, but she stepped forward calmly and addressed the camp.

“Yes,” she said. “The Great Prophecy has begun.”

Pandemonium broke out.

I caught Jason’s eye. He mouthed, You all right? I glared at him and went to flip him off, but I put my hand down and looked at Piper. I knew she wouldn't want me to be rude to him- especially since she’s all mixed up about him

When the talking finally subsided, the oracle- who’s name I did not know- took another step toward the audience, and fifty-plus demigods leaned away from her, as if one skinny redheaded mortal was more intimidating than all of them put together.

“For those of you who have not heard it,” she said, “the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It arrived in August. It goes like this:

“Eight half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—”

My eyes widened. She couldn’t be talking about that prophecy- the one I heard long ago in California.

Apparently, someone else recognized it, too.

Jason shot to his feet. His eyes looked wild, like he’d just been tasered.

Even the oracle seemed caught off guard. “J-Jason?” she said. “What’s—”

“Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum dejuremus,” he chanted. “Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem.”

An uneasy silence settled on the group. I could see from their faces that several of them were trying to translate the lines.

“You just … finished the prophecy,” Rachel stammered. “—An oath to keep with a final breath/And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. How did you—”

“I know those lines.” Jason winced and put his hands to his temples. “I don’t know how, but I know that prophecy.”

“In Latin, no less,” Drew called out. “Handsome and smart.”

There was some giggling from the Aphrodite cabin. God, what a bunch of losers, I thought. But it didn’t do much to break the tension. The campfire was burning a chaotic, nervous shade of green.

Jason sat down, looking embarrassed, but Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder and muttered something reassuring.

The oracle still looked a little shaken. She glanced back at Chiron for guidance, but the centaur stood grim and silent, as if he were watching a play he couldn’t interrupt—a tragedy that ended with a lot of people dead onstage.

“Well,” the oracle said, trying to regain her composure. “So, yeah, that’s the Great Prophecy. We hoped it might not happen for years, but I fear it’s starting now. I can’t give you proof. It’s just a feeling. And like Drew said, some weird stuff is happening. The eight demigods, whoever they are, have not been gathered yet. I get the feeling some are here tonight. Some are not here.”

The campers began to stir and mutter, looking at each other nervously, until a drowsy voice in the crowd called out, “I’m here! Oh … were you calling roll?”

“Go back to sleep, Clovis,” someone yelled, and a lot of people laughed.

“Anyway,” the red head continued, “we don’t know what the Great Prophecy means. We don’t know what challenge the demigods will face, but since the first Great Prophecy predicted the Titan War, we can guess the second Great Prophecy will predict something at least that bad.”

“Or worse,” Chiron murmured.

Maybe he didn’t mean everyone to overhear, but they did. The campfire immediately turned dark purple.

“What we do know,” the oracle (I seriously needed to ask someone her name) said, “is that the first phase has begun. A major problem has arisen, and we need a quest to solve it. Hera, the queen of the gods, has been taken.”

Oh. So that’s who was in my dream this morning.

Shocked silence. Then fifty demigods started talking at once. I took the quick time to turn to Piper and ask who the oracle was. She looked at me like I was dumb, then quickly realized I had left before meeting her. She told me her name, and we continued watching the chaos of the camp.

Chiron pounded his hoof again, but Rachel still had to wait before she could get back their attention.

She told them about the incident on the Grand Canyon skywalk—how Gleeson Hedge had sacrificed himself when the storm spirits attacked, and the spirits had warned it was only the beginning. They apparently served some great mistress who would destroy all demigods.

Then Rachel told them about Piper passing out in Hera’s cabin. Piper tried to keep a calm expression, even when she noticed Drew in the back row, pantomiming a faint, and her friends giggling- I seriously wanted to kill them. Finally Rachel told them about Jason’s vision in the living room of the Big House (man, why did I have to miss everything?) The message Hera had delivered there was so similar that I got a chill.

“Jason,” Rachel said. “Um… do you remember your last name?”

He looked self-conscious, but he shook his head.

“We’ll just call you Jason, then,” Rachel said. “It’s clear Hera herself has issued you a quest.”

Rachel paused, as if giving Jason a chance to protest his destiny. Everyone’s eyes were on him; there was so much pressure, I thought I would’ve buckled in his position. Yet he looked brave and determined. He set his jaw and nodded. “I agree.”

“You must save Hera to prevent a great evil,” Rachel continued. “Some sort of king from rising. For reasons we don’t yet understand, it must happen by the winter solstice, only four days from now.”

“That’s the council day of the gods,” Annabeth said. “If the gods don’t already know Hera’s gone, they will definitely notice her absence by then. They’ll probably break out fighting, accusing each other of taking her. That’s what they usually do.”

“The winter solstice,” Chiron spoke up, “is also the time of greatest darkness. The gods gather that day, as mortals always have, because there is strength in numbers. The solstice is a day when evil magic is strong. Ancient magic, older than the gods. It is a day when things… stir.”

The way he said it, stirring sounded absolutely sinister—like it should be a first-degree felony, not something you did to cookie dough.

“Okay,” Annabeth said, glaring at the centaur. “Thank you, Captain Sunshine. Whatever’s going on, I agree with Rachel. Jason has been chosen to lead this quest, so—”

“Why hasn’t he been claimed?” somebody yelled from the Ares cabin. “If he’s so important—”

“He has been claimed,” Chiron announced. “Long ago. Jason, give them a demonstration.”

At first, Jason didn’t seem to understand. He stepped forward nervously. He glanced at Piper, and she nodded encouragingly. She mimicked flipping a coin. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

Jason reached into his pocket. His coin flashed in the air, and when he caught it in his hand, he was holding a lance—a rod of gold about seven feet long, with a spear tip at one end.

The other demigods gasped. Rachel and Annabeth stepped back to avoid the point, which looked sharp as an ice pick.

“Wasn’t that…” Annabeth hesitated. “I thought you had a sword.”

“Um, it came up tails, I think,” Jason said. “Same coin, long-range weapon form.”

“Dude, I want one!” yelled somebody from Ares cabin.

“Better than Clarisse’s electric spear, Lamer!” one of his brothers agreed.

“Electric,” Jason murmured, like that was a good idea. “Back away.”

Annabeth and Rachel got the message. Jason raised his javelin, and thunder broke open the sky. Every hair on my arms stood straight up. Lightning arced down through the golden spear point and hit the campfire with the force of an artillery shell.

When the smoke cleared, and the ringing in my ears subsided, the entire camp sat frozen in shock, half blind, covered in ashes, staring at the place where the fire had been. Cinders rained down everywhere. A burning log had impaled itself a few inches from the sleeping kid Clovis, who hadn’t even stirred.

Jason lowered his lance. “Um … sorry.”

Chiron brushed some burning coals out of his beard. He grimaced as if his worst fears had been confirmed. “A little overkill, perhaps, but you’ve made your point. And I believe we know who your father is.”

“Jupiter,” Jason said. “I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky.”

I clicked my tongue, watching the moron get embarrassed as everyone gawked at him. Back in the day, he would have loved the attention. Piper was grinning ear to ear, probably thinking: Oh yes, the son of the most powerful god, it must make sense!

Apparently, the rest of the camp wasn’t so sure. Everything broke into chaos, with dozens of people asking questions until Annabeth raised her arms.

“Hold it!” she said. “How can he be the son of Zeus? The Big Three … their pact not to have mortal kids… how could we not have known about him sooner?”

Chiron didn’t answer, but I got the feeling he knew. I didn’t like the feeling he was giving me. Or the look, too. Wait-

Chiron extended his hand to me. “Jason told me about you, too. I have a feeling you and Jason are very… similar. Come up, young one.”

I glared at Jason as harshly as possible. He just gave me a stupid sorry smile as I walked up to him.

“Well,” I said. “I definitely don’t blow up campfires with lightning.”

Chiron laughed softly. “But you do strike down monsters with a golden trident, yes?”

I blushed. Of course Jason had to spill everything. My little undercover mission was already failing, and then I would have to run away again.

I shoved my hand in my pocket and pulled out my pen. Murmurs went through the crowd behind me, and I got the feeling that they saw something like this before. Chiron’s eyes only confirmed my fear.

“Uh, do you want me to use it?” I asked.

Chiron gestured to Jason’s lance. “I get the feeling you two like to compete. Why not give him a challenge?”

I grinned and shrugged. This old dude just met me and has already read me like an open book. I hated it, but at the same time felt very appreciated.

I took a step back and twisted my pen open. Out came the long golden trident, extending into the air and glistening as I spun it around. I slammed the hilt into the ground, shaking the dirt beneath us. I exhaled, waiting for my applause.

One of the Ares kids booed. “Lame! Blow something up like blondie!”

I squinted at the kid and sucked in my cheeks, letting my mouth fill with spit. When I had enough, I spat it and used my powers to launch it into the kid’s face. He screamed and stomped his foot in rage.

“Oh,” Chiron said. “Well, I didn’t expect that.”

I shrugged. “I still did what I needed to, right? What are you gonna say?” I asked, turning my head toward the old centaur.

Chiron sighed. “Just like Jason, she has been claimed by a god long ago.”

I struggled to think of the Greek name. “Uh. Poseidon, yeah?”

The campers in front of me went silent. Some seemed shocked, but more seemed sad. My eyes glanced over to Annabeth, who stared at me with an emotion I couldn’t read.

I changed my trident back into a pen and shoved it in my pocket. “Let’s just get on with it. Jason’s here, hooray! Keep it going.”

“The important thing,” Rachel said, a bit uncomfortable, “is that Jason’s here now. He has a quest to fulfill, which means he will need his own prophecy.”

She closed her eyes and swooned. Two campers rushed forward and caught her. A third ran to the side of the amphitheater and grabbed a bronze three-legged stool, like they’d been trained for this duty. They eased Rachel onto the stool in front of the ruined hearth. Without the fire, the night was dark, but green mist started swirling around Rachel’s feet. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing. Emerald smoke issued from her mouth. The voice that came out was raspy and ancient—the sound a snake would make if it could talk:

“Child of lightning, beware the earth, The giants’ revenge the eight shall birth, The forge and dove shall break the cage, And death unleash through Hera’s rage.”

On the last word, Rachel collapsed, but her helpers were waiting to catch her. They carried her away from the hearth and laid her in the corner to rest.

“Is that normal?” Piper asked. Then she realized she’d spoken into the silence, and everyone was looking at her. “I mean… does she spew green smoke a lot?”

“Gods, you’re dense!” Drew sneered. “She just issued a prophecy—Jason’s prophecy to save Hera! Why don’t you just—”

“Drew,” Annabeth snapped. “Piper asked a fair question. Something about that prophecy definitely isn’t normal. If breaking Hera’s cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death… why would we free her? It might be a trap, or—or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She’s never been kind to heroes.”

Jason rose. “I don’t have much choice. Hera took my memory. I need it back. Besides, we can’t just not help the queen of the heavens if she’s in trouble.”

A girl from Hephaestus cabin stood up—Nyssa, the one with the red bandanna. “Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful. She threw her own son—our dad—down a mountain just because he was ugly.”

“Real ugly,” snickered someone from Aphrodite.

“Shut up!” Nyssa growled. “Anyway, we’ve also got to think —why beware the earth? And what’s the giants’ revenge? What are we dealing with here that’s powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?”

No one answered, but I noticed Annabeth and Chiron having a silent exchange. I thought it went something like:

Annabeth: The giants’ revenge … no, it can’t be.

Chiron: Don’t speak of it here. Don’t scare them.

Annabeth: You’re kidding me! We can’t be that unlucky.

Chiron: Later, child. If you told them everything, they would be too terrified to proceed.

I knew it was crazy to think I could read their expressions so well—two people I barely knew. But I was absolutely positive I understood them, and it scared the shit out of me.

Annabeth took a deep breath. “It’s Jason’s quest,” she announced, “so it’s Jason’s choice. Obviously, he’s the child of lightning. According to tradition, he may choose any two companions. Though, we may have to bend the rules and allow four, since this quest seems too dangerous.”

Someone from the Hermes cabin yelled, “Well, you, obviously, Annabeth. You’ve got the most experience.”

“No, Travis,” Annabeth said. “First off, I’m not helping Hera. Every time I’ve tried, she’s deceived me, or it’s come back to bite me later. Forget it. No way. Secondly, I’m leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy.”

“It’s connected,” Piper blurted out, not sure how she got the courage. “You know that’s true, don’t you? This whole business, your boyfriend’s disappearance—it’s all connected.”

“How?” demanded Drew. “If you’re so smart, how?”

Piper tried to form an answer, but she couldn’t. I gave her a sympathetic look before glaring as the living barbie doll.

Annabeth spoke up. ”You may be right, Piper. If this is connected, I’ll find out from the other end—by searching for Percy. As I said, I’m not about to rush off to rescue Hera, even if her disappearance sets the rest of the Olympians fighting again. But there’s another reason I can’t go. The prophecy says otherwise.”

“It says who I pick,” Jason agreed. “The forge and dove shall break the cage. The forge is the symbol of Vul—Hephaestus.”

Under the Cabin Nine banner, Nyssa’s shoulders slumped, like she’d just been given a heavy anvil to carry. “If you have to beware the earth,” she said, “you should avoid traveling overland. You’ll need air transport.”

I was about to call out that Jason could fly to embarrass him, but thought maybe carrying three people would be impractical and I definitely didn’t want to touch him.

“The flying chariot’s broken,” Nyssa continued, “and the pegasi, we’re using them to search for Percy. But maybe the Hephaestus cabin can help figure out something else to help. With Jake incapacitated, I’m senior camper. I can volunteer for the quest.”

She didn’t sound enthusiastic.

Then Leo stood up. He’d been so quiet, I had almost forgotten he was there, which was totally not like Leo.

“It’s me,” he said.

His cabinmates stirred. Several tried to pull him back to his seat, but Leo resisted.

“No, it’s me. I know it is. I’ve got an idea for the transportation problem. Let me try. I can fix this!”

Jason studied him for a moment. I was sure he was going to tell Leo no. Then he smiled. “We started this together, Leo. Seems only right you come along. You find us a ride, you’re in.”

“Yes!” Leo pumped his fist.

“It’ll be dangerous,” Nyssa warned him. “Hardship, monsters, terrible suffering. Possibly none of you will come back alive.”

“Oh.” Suddenly Leo didn’t look so excited. Then he remembered everyone was watching. “I mean … Oh, cool! Suffering? I love suffering! Let’s do this.”

I snickered at my friend. I wondered what he had in mind for transportation, maybe a giant pipe cleaner helicopter? I laughed to myself.

Jason turned to me, and I immediately went quiet. “What?”

“Well,” he started, a nervous blush on his face. “I think you should come, too. You know who I am, and you can help me figure it out. Also, you’re wicked strong. You’d be a great help.”

I furrowed my brows. Oh, how badly I wanted to say no and watch his quest fail. But, Leo was going with him, and probably Piper, too. I had zero faith in Jason to keep them safe.

I feigned a smile as best as I could. “Of course,” I said through my teeth. “I would love to.”

Annabeth nodded. “Then, Jason, you only need to choose the fourth quest member. The dove—”

“Oh, absolutely!” Drew was on her feet and flashing Jason a smile. “The dove is Aphrodite. Everybody knows that. I am totally yours.”

I gagged and shook my head at Jason.

Piper stepped forward. “No.”

Drew rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, Dumpster girl. Back off.”

“I had the vision of Hera; not you. I have to do this.”

“Anyone can have a vision,” Drew said. “You were just at the right place at the right time.” She turned to Jason. “Look, fighting is all fine, I suppose. And people who build things…” She looked at Leo in disdain. “Well, I suppose someone has to get their hands dirty. But you need charm on your side. I can be very persuasive. I could help a lot.”

The campers started murmuring about how Drew was pretty persuasive. I could see Drew winning them over. Even Chiron was scratching his beard, like Drew’s participation suddenly made sense to him.

“Well…” Annabeth said. “Given the wording of the prophecy—”

“No!” Piper’s own voice sounded strange in her ears—more insistent, richer in tone. “I’m supposed to go.”

Then the weirdest thing happened. Everyone started nodding, muttering that hmm, Piper’s point of view made sense too. Drew looked around, incredulous. Even some of her own campers were nodding.

“Get over it!” Drew snapped at the crowd. “What can Piper do?”

Piper tried to respond, but I could see her confidence starting to wane. What could she offer? She wasn’t a fighter, or a planner, or a fixer. She had no skills except getting into trouble and occasionally convincing people to do stupid things.

“Well,” Drew said smugly, “I guess that settles it.”

Suddenly there was collective gasp. Everyone stared at Piper like she’d just exploded. I wondered what she’d done wrong. I turned back to my friend, then shot to my feet. I felt my jaw hanging open.

“What?” Piper demanded.

She looked above her, but there was no burning symbol like the one that appeared over Leo. Then she looked down and yelped.

Her clothes… what in the world was she wearing? She despised dresses. She didn’t own a dress. But now she was adorned in a beautiful white sleeveless gown that went down to her ankles, with a V-neck so low it was totally embarrassing. Delicate gold armbands circled her biceps. An intricate necklace of amber, coral, and gold flowers glittered on her chest, and her hair…

“Oh, god,” she said. “What’s happened?”

A stunned Annabeth pointed at Piper’s dagger, which was now oiled and gleaming, hanging at her side on a golden cord. She unsheathed Katoptris and stared at her reflection in the polished metal blade. Her hair was perfect: lush and long and chocolate brown, braided with gold ribbons down one side so it fell across her shoulder. She even wore makeup, better than she or I would ever know how to do—subtle touches that made her lips cherry red and brought out all the different colors in her eyes. Her piercings had been replaced with gold jewelry instead of the silver.

She was...she was...

“Beautiful,” Jason exclaimed. “Piper, you … you’re a knockout.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I told Jason. “Piper, you look fantastic!”

Drew’s face was full of horror and revulsion. “No!” she cried. “Not possible!”

“This isn’t me,” Piper protested. “I—don’t understand.”

Chiron the centaur folded his front legs and bowed to her, and all the campers followed his example, even me.

“Hail, Piper McLean,” Chiron announced gravely, as if he were speaking at her funeral. “Daughter of Aphrodite, lady of the doves, goddess of love.”

Chapter Text

I didn’t stick around after Piper turned beautiful. Sure, it was amazing and all—She’s got makeup! It’s a miracle! —but I had Leo to deal with. He ducked out of the amphitheater and ran into the darkness, and I was wondering what he’d gotten himself into.

He’d stood up in front of a bunch of stronger, braver demigods and volunteered—volunteered—for a mission that would probably get him killed.

I knew whatever he had in store for transportation was going to be stupid and crazy; I knew I had to follow him.

I ran after him as he trudged into the darkness of the woods, probably about to get himself into some big trouble. I could tell he was deep in thought as he barely noticed I was behind him. He kept his head down and was mumbling like crazy.

Oh boy, I knew where this was going.

“Hera,” Leo muttered, “you’re not even here, are you? You’re in a cage somewhere.”

“Probably,” I responded.

Leo jumped ten feet into the air and let out a girlish scream. “Hijo de su puta madre!” He spun around toward me, his eyes wild. “What the fuck?!”

I laughed and patted my scared friend on the back. “Man, you are easy to scare!”

“When the hell did you get behind me?” Leo swiped my hand off him and stepped back. “Man, the hell?”

I shrugged and began walking, Leo on trail. “I followed you, and you didn’t notice. You seriously think I wouldn’t want to see you get us some epic transportation? Come on, man, what do you have in plan?”

My friend sighed. “You hear about that dragon yet?”

I flipped my hand, making a so-so sign. “Here and there, why?”

Leo came to my side. “Well, my cabin wants to find it and kill it. I say no way, ‘cause like, it’s the sickest thing ever, but also because I don’t think it should be decommissioned, y’know?”

“Wait, it’s a robot?” I asked.

Leo nodded frantically.

“Dude, that’s sick as hell,” I said. “Yeah, let’s go get it-”

“But, it’s crazy,” Leo said. “Like anyone who gets near it ends up in a full-body cast. You’ve seen my cabin-mates.”

“Yeah, they look like a trainwreck,” I said. “Real nasty wounds there. So, you want to tame this dragon and use it as our ride even when you know it will probably kill you? It’s a good thing I came with.”

Leo frowned and shrugged. “I mean, I guess. But I just… I feel like this quest has to have me in it. I know this dragon could seriously help us and honestly? I just don’t want to know it got shredded when I could have done something.”

I nodded. “I getcha. Well, no biggie, ‘cause I’m going to help you.”

Leo looked toward me and smiled, flashing his tooth gap and dimples. “Thanks, man.”

I looked into his eyes and felt my heart drop. The question had begged on my mind all day, but I didn’t know quite how to ask.

Leo seemed to sense my odd feeling. His smile faltered and he looked down. “This is tough.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because…” Leo bit his lip and kicked a stick on the ground. “Well, I don’t know. It’s hard to look at you knowing that we, uh…”

“Aren’t dating?” I suggested.

Leo nodded. “I mean, I can’t be crazy, but I just have a scrambled brain. It seemed so real man, I swear. I’ve got all these memories, but they seem to be, like, fading away now? I mean, they don’t feel as right as before. I’m just mad that this happened and stuff and honestly I don’t even know why I’m telling you this because it shouldn’t matter anymore. Ha! Ignore everything I just said.”

I shook my head and let out a chuckle. “Well, I get it. I felt crazy, too.”

“Well, I kind of wish I was dating you! So that’s why this hurts so bad. And with all those memories, finding out you’re some superfish solider was so fucking weird, dude!”

I burst out laughing. “I am not a superfish solider! Stop calling me that!”

Leo shook his head, and I swear I saw his cheeks burning vermillion. “I mean, you’re all crazy strong and you have your giant trident! Wild!”

I quietly snuffed out my laughter with my sleeve and sighed. “Okay, you can believe whatever you want about me and keep your little fantasies-” I flicked Leo on the forehead, “but you are not going to keep making fish jokes about me. ‘Kay?”

Leo rubbed his forehead and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, Water Girl, now let’s keep searching for our ride.”

I rolled my eyes at the nickname and continued on my feet. Leo did the same, and I heard a sigh of relief escape his mouth. He probably didn’t think I heard his comment about how he wished we were dating, but I most definitely did. I felt a little embarrassed about it, too, but I knew how he felt.

“And by the way,” I said, “I wouldn’t hate dating you, but I’d like this quest to be over first. Then, you better convince me on why I should date you. Just wait for me until then.”

Leo looked over to me, his eyes wide. He frantically nodded and in the corner of my eye I swear I saw him grin.

And almost as fast as it came down, his walls went back up. That was enough vulnerability for Leo.

The boy cracked a few jokes as we kept walking, searching for our dragon.

The woods weren’t like anyplace I’d been before. I had been raised in SoCal. The wildest things I’d ever seen were teenagers fighting and my neighbor in her nightgown, until I was sent to Wilderness School.

Even there, the school had been in the desert. No trees with gnarled roots to trip over. No streams to fall into. No branches casting dark, creepy shadows and owls looking down at me with their big reflective eyes. This was the Twilight Zone.

We stumbled along until Leo was sure no one back at the cabins could possibly see us. Then he summoned fire. Flames danced along his fingertips, casting enough light to see. I was still amazed by this ability but I could see guilt in his eyes.

We kept walking, looking for dragon-type clues—giant footprints, trampled trees, swaths of burning forest. Something that big couldn’t exactly sneak around, right? But we saw nada. Once I glimpsed a large, furry shape like a wolf or a bear, but it stayed away from Leo’s fire, which was fine by me.

Then, at the bottom of a clearing, I saw the first trap—a hundred-foot-wide crater ringed with boulders.

Even Leo had to admit it was pretty ingenious. In the center of the depression, a metal vat the size of a hot tub had been filled with bubbly dark liquid—Tabasco sauce and motor oil. On a pedestal suspended over the vat, an electric fan rotated in a circle, spreading the fumes across the forest. Could metal dragons smell?

The vat seemed to be unguarded. But Leo and I looked closely, and in the dim light of the stars and his handheld fire, we could see the glint of metal beneath the dirt and leaves—a bronze net lining the entire crater. Or maybe see wasn’t the right word—Leo seemed to sense it there, as if the mechanism was emitting heat, revealing itself to him. I struggled to see the six large strips of bronze stretched out from the vat like the spokes of a wheel, but my friend had no problem, seeing as his eyes were darting all over the structure.

Leo edged closer. He put his foot on the nearest trigger strip. Unexpectedly, nothing happened. Whoever set the trap had to have set the net for something really heavy. Otherwise they could catch an animal, human, smaller monster, whatever. Leo must have known that, otherwise he would not have stepped down.

“How do you know everything about it?” I asked. “The trap, I mean.”

Leo looked up at me and shrugged. “I’unno. Keep an eye out for me, will you?”

He picked his way down the crater and approached the vat. The fumes were almost overpowering even from the top, and my eyes started watering. I tried to flick away the tears, but only more came.

Leo continued to search, but it seemed like whatever he was looking for wasn’t there. I started to get upset- but then I heard the sound.

It was more of a tremor—the deep sort of rumbling you hear in your gut rather than your ears. My stomach dropped.

“Leo,” I said. “My guy, we gotta go.”

Leo waved me off, then kept searching the dirt. I felt the ground beneath me shaking, and I called to Leo once more. The boy looked up and shook his head like I was distracting him.

Then we heard a grinding snort, like steam forced out of a metal barrel.

My neck tingled. We turned slowly. At the edge of the pit, fifty feet away, two glowing red eyes were staring at Leo. The creature gleamed in the moonlight, and I couldn’t believe something that huge had sneaked up on us so fast. Too late, I realized its gaze was fixed on the fire in Leo’s hand, and he extinguished the flames.

I could still see the dragon just fine. It was about sixty feet long, snout to tail, its body made of interlocking bronze plates. Its claws were the size of butcher knives, and its mouth was lined with hundreds of dagger-sharp metal teeth. Steam came out of its nostrils. It snarled like a chainsaw cutting through a tree. It could’ve bitten Leo in half, easy, or stomped him flat.

“You don’t have wings,” Leo said.

The dragon’s snarl died. It tilted its head as if to say, Why aren’t you running away in terror?

“Hey, no offense,” Leo said. “You’re amazing! Good god, who made you? Are you hydraulic or nuclear-powered or what? But if it was me, I would’ve put wings on you. What kind of dragon doesn’t have wings? I guess maybe you’re too heavy to fly? I should’ve thought of that.”

The dragon snorted, more confused now. It was supposed to trample Leo. This conversation thing wasn’t part of the plan. It took a step forward, and Leo shouted, “No!”

The dragon snarled again.

“It’s a trap, bronze brain,” Leo said. “They’re trying to catch you.”

The dragon opened its mouth and blew fire. A column of white-hot flames billowed over Leo, and I let out a scream. I shoved my hand in my pocket and found my pen, pulling it out quickly. I was about to jump into the pit when the flames died, and Leo was perfectly fine. Even his clothes were okay, which I didn’t understand, but for which he seemed grateful. He liked his army jacket, and having his pants seared off would’ve been pretty embarrassing for the both of us.

The dragon stared at Leo. Its face didn’t actually change, being made of metal and all, but I thought I could read its expression: Why no crispy critter? A spark flew out of its neck like it was about to short-circuit.

“You can’t burn me,” Leo said, trying to sound stern and calm. He’d never had a dog before, but he talked to the dragon the way you’d talk to a dog. “Stay, boy. Don’t come any closer. I don’t want you to get caught. See, they think you’re broken and have to be scrapped. But I don’t believe that. I can fix you if you’ll let me—”

Maybe it was my nerves, or maybe the fact that Leo was trying to tame a metal dragon, but I twisted my pen and let out a defiant yell, jumping into the pit to fight.

The dragon creaked, roared, and charged. The trap sprang. The floor of the crater erupted with a sound like a thousand trash can lids banging together. Dirt and leaves flew, metal net flashing. Leo and I were knocked off our feet, turned upside down, and doused in Tabasco sauce and oil. I found myself sandwiched between the vat and the dragon with Leo on the other side as it thrashed, trying to free itself from the net that had wrapped around us all.

The dragon blew flames in every direction, lighting up the sky and setting trees on fire. Oil and sauce burned all over them. It didn’t hurt Leo, but it most definitely hurt me. I kept in my howls of pain as my flesh burned.

“Will you stop that!” he yelled at the dragon.

The dragon kept squirming. I realized Leo and I would get crushed if we didn’t move. It wasn’t easy, but Leo managed to wriggle out from between the dragon and the vat. He squirmed his way through the net, then pulled me out and whacked me with his jacket to snuff out the fire on me. I could see the fear and panic in his eyes, but I managed to stick my thumb out before I collapsed on the ground.

Leo ran to the dragon’s head. It tried to snap at him, but its teeth were tangled in the mesh. It blew fire again, but seemed to be running out of energy. This time the flames were only orange. They sputtered before they even reached Leo’s face.

“Listen, man,” Leo said, “you’re just going to show them where you are. Then they’ll come and break out the acid and the metal cutters. Is that what you want?”

The dragon’s jaw made a creaking sound, like it was trying to talk.

“Okay, then,” Leo said. “You’ll have to trust me.”

And Leo set to work.

It took him almost an hour to find the control panel. It was right behind the dragon’s head, which made sense. He’d elected to keep the dragon in the net, because it was easier to work with the dragon constrained, but the dragon didn’t like it.

While he worked on the dragon, I used all the power I had in me to try and spurt some water from the ground. All I managed was a trickle, but it was been enough to save me from the wicked burning. I would need more before I could actually heal, but that was enough to put me out of my pain.

“Hold still!” Leo scolded.

The dragon made another creaking sound that might’ve been a whimper.

Leo examined the wires inside the dragon’s head. I was distracted by a sound in the woods, but when I looked up it was just a tree spirit—a dryad, I thought they were called—putting out the flames in her branches. Fortunately, the dragon hadn’t started an all-out forest fire, but still the dryad wasn’t too pleased. The girl’s dress was smoking. She smothered the flames with a silky blanket, and when she saw Leo looking at her, she made a gesture that was probably very rude in Dryad. Then she disappeared in a green poof of mist.

Leo returned his attention to the wiring. “Ha,” he said. “Well, no wonder.”

Creak? the dragon asked with its jaw.

“You’ve got a corroded control disk. Probably regulates your higher reasoning circuits, right? Rusty brain, man. No wonder you’re a little … confused.” He almost said crazy, but he caught himself. “I wish I had a replacement disk, but …this is a complicated piece of circuitry. I’m gonna have to take it out and clean it. Only be a minute.” He pulled out the disk, and the dragon went absolutely still. The glow died in its eyes. Leo slid off its back and began polishing the disk. He mopped up some oil and Tabasco sauce with his sleeve, which helped cut through the grime, but the more he cleaned, the more concerned he looked.

He tried to work quickly. He probably wasn’t sure how long the dragon’s control disk could be off without damaging it—maybe forever—but he didn’t want to take chances. Once he’d done the best he could, he climbed back up to the dragon’s head and started cleaning the wiring and gearboxes, getting himself filthy in the process.

“Clean hands, dirty equipment,” he muttered. By the time he was through, his hands were black with grease and his clothes looked like he’d just lost a mud-wrestling contest, but the mechanisms looked a lot better. He slipped in the disk, connected the last wire, and sparks flew. The dragon shuddered. Its eyes began to glow.

“Better?” Leo asked.

The dragon made a sound like a high-speed drill. It opened its mouth and all its teeth rotated.

“I guess that’s a yes. Hold on, I’ll free you.”

Another thirty minutes to find the release clamps for the net and untangle the dragon, but finally it stood and shook the last bit of netting off its back. It roared triumphantly and shot fire at the sky.

“Seriously,” Leo said. “Could you not show off?”

Creak? the dragon asked.

“You need a name,” Leo decided. “I’m calling you Festus.”

I let out a weak laugh. “Happy the Dragon?”

The dragon whirred its teeth and grinned. At least I hoped it was a grin.

“Cool,” Leo said. “But we still have a problem, because you don’t have wings and Water Girl is half dead.”

Festus tilted his head and snorted steam. Then he lowered his back in an unmistakable gesture. He wanted Leo and I to climb on.

“Where we going?” Leo asked. He looked back at me, and his eyes flashed concern again. “We need to get you up, can you move?”

“Barely,” I said. “If Happy here can take me to a river, we’ll be fine.”

Leo frowned and tried to pick me up gently. I winced here and there, but he managed to get me standing in just a few minutes. Most of my clothes had burned off, which left a lot of skin exposed to the cold air. I couldn’t decide if it hurt more or less.

I grabbed the shambles of Leo’s hoodie and wrapped it around my shoulders before struggling to get onto the dragon’s back. The seating was surprisingly comfortable.

Leo climbed onto the dragon’s back, and Festus bounded off into the woods.

I lost track of time and all sense of direction. It seemed impossible the woods could be so deep and wild, but the dragon traveled until the trees were like skyscrapers and the canopy of leaves completely blotted out the stars. Even the fire in Leo’s hand couldn’t have lit the way, but the dragon’s glowing red eyes acted like headlights.

Finally we crossed a stream and came to a dead end, a limestone cliff a hundred feet tall—a solid, sheer mass the dragon couldn’t possibly climb.

Festus stopped at the base and lifted one leg like a dog pointing.

“What is it?” Leo slid to the ground and helped me down. We walked up to the cliff—nothing but solid rock. The dragon kept pointing.

“It’s not going to move out of your way,” I told him.

The loose wire in the dragon’s neck sparked, but otherwise he stayed still. Leo put his hand on the cliff. Suddenly his fingers smoldered. Lines of fire spread from his fingertips like ignited gunpowder, sizzling across the limestone. The burning lines raced across the cliff face until they had outlined a glowing red door five times as tall as me. We backed up and the door swung open, disturbingly silently for such a big slab of rock.

“Perfectly balanced,” Leo muttered. “That’s some first-rate engineering.”

The dragon unfroze and marched inside, as if he were coming home.

Leo and I stepped through, and the door began to close. Leo had a flash of panic run across his face. But then lights flickered on—a combination of electric fluorescents and wall-mounted torches. When Leo and I saw the cavern, we forgot about leaving.

“Festus,” Leo muttered. “What is this place?”

The dragon stomped to the center of the room, leaving tracks in the thick dust, and curled up on a large circular platform.

The cave was the size of an airplane hangar, with endless worktables and storage cages, rows of garage-sized doors along either wall, and staircases that led up to a network of catwalks high above. Equipment was everywhere—hydraulic lifts, welding torches, hazard suits, air-spades, forklifts, plus something that looked suspiciously like a nuclear reaction chamber. Bulletin boards were covered with tattered, faded blueprints. And weapons, armor, shields—war supplies all over the place, a lot of them only partially finished. In the corner of the room next to a desk, I saw what looked like a crate of water reserve. I ran with all of my power before collapsing in front of it and cracking open every bottle. I didn’t hesitate to pour every drop onto myself. Immediately, my skin felt better and the burning subsided. I watched my wounds fade into my regular skin; no scars or anything.

When I finished my shower, I hurried back to Leo, who kept his eyes off my wet and barely clothed body. He stared at the far end of the room, where hanging from chains far above the dragon’s platform was an old tattered banner almost too faded to read. The letters were Greek, but Leo told me what they said: Bunker 9.

Did that mean nine as in the Hephaestus cabin, or nine as in there were eight others? I looked at Festus, still curled up on the platform, and it occurred to me that the dragon looked so content because it was home. It had probably been built on that pad.

“Do the other kids know … ?” Leo’s question died as he asked it. Clearly, this place had been abandoned for decades. Cobwebs and dust covered everything. The floor revealed no footprints except for his, and the huge paw prints of the dragon. He was the first one in this bunker since … since a long time ago. Bunker 9 had been abandoned with a lot of projects half finished on the tables. Locked up and forgotten, but why?

Leo and I looked at a map on the wall—a battle map of camp, but the paper was as cracked and yellow as onionskin. A date at the bottom read, 1864.

“No way,” I muttered.

Then Leo spotted a blueprint on a nearby bulletin board, and he choked on his breath. He ran to the worktable and stared up at a white-line drawing almost faded beyond recognition: a Greek ship from several different angles. Faintly scrawled words underneath it read: prophecy? unclear. flight?

“I saw that ship in my dreams—the flying ship! Someone had tried to build it here, or at least sketched out the idea. Then it was left, forgotten … a prophecy yet to come. And weirdest of all, the ship’s masthead was exactly like the one I had drawn when he was five—the head of a dragon,” Leo told me. “Looks like you, Festus,” he murmured. “That’s creepy.”

The masthead gave me an uneasy feeling, but my mind spun with too many other questions to think about it for long. Leo touched the blueprint, seemingly hoping he could take it down to study, but the paper crackled at his touch, so he left it alone. He looked around for other clues. No boats. No pieces that looked like parts of this project, but there were so many doors and storerooms to explore.

Festus snorted like he was trying to get our attention, reminding us we didn’t have all night. It was true. I figured it would be morning in a few hours, and we’d gotten completely sidetracked. Leo had saved the dragon, but it wasn’t going to help us on the quest. We needed something that would fly.

Festus nudged something toward Leo—a leather tool belt that had been left next to his construction pad. Then the dragon switched on his glowing red eye beams and turned them toward the ceiling. Leo and I looked up to where the spotlights were pointing, and we yelped when we recognized the shapes hanging above us in the darkness.

“Festus,” Leo said in a small voice. “We’ve got work to do.”

I looked back to the boy with wide eyes. “Dude, how-”

Leo put his finger over my lips. “No worries, Water Girl. You nap, I work. Besides, you’re half naked and soaked. That’s not to code.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed his hand away. “Dude, come on, I-”

Leo shoved his finger to my lips again. “Sleep! I’m going to be working!”

He pushed me away gently, leaving me shocked and wondering why he was being to weirdly protective of me. He knew how strong I was, and I was pretty good in Auto Shop. But, he still wanted me away.

I hated it, but part of my brain knew where he was coming from. He seemed to be nervous that I’d get hurt again. It was cute, but also stupid.

I groaned and punched Leo in the shoulder. “Fine, but if I get woken up once, I’m going to help.”

Leo shushed me and shooed me away. I rolled my eyes and laid on the floor, knocking out almost instantly.

Chapter Text

I had the same dream I usually did; running down the street, cutting open my arm, passing out from blood loss- I was used to it at this point. But, something new happened that night. As my dream faded out and I began to wake up, I saw a few strange things- a monstrous hand reaching out of a dark pit, a man with holes where his eyes and mouth should have been with a snake crawling through them, some sort of clay jar that I swore started singing opera to me, and a figure taller than the tree tops with a hole in it’s chest and clay on its hands. I don’t know what any of them meant, but I hated the feeling they gave me. I felt uncomfortable as I woke from my dream.

Unfortunately, I was never met with a peaceful morning.

“Wakey, wakey!” A goggled face covered in grease grinned over me. “Buenos Dias, Water Girl!”

“Drop the nickname before I drop you,” I groaned, turning over. “I’m tired.”

“Me, too, but we gotta go!” Leo grabbed me and pulled me up, covering me with his nasty army jacket. It was a nice gesture since I was cold and had my clothes charred yesterday, but now I was getting oil and grime and Leo’s sweat all over me. I shuddered, but kept the jacket on. It smelled strangely nice.

Leo pulled his goggles up, leaving a black ring around his blood-shot eyes. “It’s early morning. I stayed up all night fixing our ‘ride’ and now we gotta get going so we can start this quest!”

I sighed and slowly rose to my feet. “You stayed up all night? Wait- and I didn’t even wake up?”

“Slept like a baby,” Leo cooed. “You kept moving your mouth open, so it kinda made you look like a fish.”

“Shut up!” I punched Leo in the arm, felling stupidly embarrassed. “I did not!”

“Did too!” Leo laughed, shoving his hand in his brand new leather toolbelt. “Breakfast?”

“We don’t have time, right?” I asked.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Leo said. “The belt.”

“What?”

Leo retracted his hand from his toolbelt and shoved some blueberry Belvitas and an orange juice box toward me. “The belt has food.”

“Shut up,” I said, taking the food. “How? Wait, is it expired? Extra wait, how did you do that?”

“Magic belt!” Leo screamed, almost blowing my eardrums. “I can pull out almost anything I want. Anyway! We gotta go cuz we gotta goooo!”

“You are batshit crazy,” I said, opening my breakfast. “You need sleep.”

“NO!” Leo yelled, giving me that stupid grin of his. “I can shake this off. But hey, I think we should keep this Bunker 9 bizz our secret. I don’t know if this is a bad place to be or not.”

I nodded, already finished with the Belvitas. “Fine by me. We should get going then.”

“Festus is outside,” Leo said. “He’s a little… bonkers, you could say. Not perfect but the best I could do. Cross your fingers and hope he doesn’t malfunction!”

Leo grabbed my arm and dragged me outside the bunker, where our glorious bronze winged steed was waiting. When Festus looked at me, he made a sound that was a cross between a burp and a whine.

“Huh?” I asked. “You gonna torch me again?”

“He’s apologizing,” Leo said, helping me onto the dragon’s back. “He said sorry.”

“He better be, that hurt!” I sighed, settling into the seat on his back. “But I forgive you.”

Festus whirred his teeth, and Leo hopped on in front of me. I wrapped my arms around him, and we took off into the air.

It had somehow never occurred to me how scary flying was. I had never flown on a plane before or done any sort of air travel. I could barely stand being in tall buildings or on high up mountains. I guess being scared of heights wasn’t my issue, but more like being so high in the air in the first place. It made sense, me being the daughter of Neptune and all, but I never fucking thought about it until I got thrown into the sky on the back of a malfunctioning dragon.

I probably screamed. A lot. I probably held onto Leo so tight I felt his back pop. This is all ‘probably’ and I will not be disclosing the truth at any time.

Sure enough, there we were, sitting atop a giant bronze death machine and grinning/screaming like lunatics while flying over camp. Even before we landed, the camp alarm went up. A conch horn blew. All the satyrs started screaming, “Don’t kill me!” Half the camp ran outside in a mixture of pajamas and armor. The dragon set down right in the middle of the green, and Leo yelled, “It’s cool! Don’t shoot!”

Hesitantly, the archers lowered their bows. The warriors backed away, keeping their spears and swords ready. They made a loose wide ring around the metal monster. Other demigods hid behind their cabin doors or peeped out the windows. Nobody seemed anxious to get close, except for our friend, Piper.

I couldn’t blame them. The dragon was huge. It glistened in the morning sun like a living penny sculpture —different shades of copper and bronze—a sixty-foot-long serpent with steel talons and drill-bit teeth and glowing ruby eyes. It had bat-shaped wings twice its length that unfurled like metallic sails, making a sound like coins cascading out of a slot machine every time they flapped.

“It’s beautiful,” Piper muttered. The other demigods stared at her like she was insane.

The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. Campers scrambled away and hefted their weapons, but Leo slid calmly off the dragon’s back. He held up his hands like he was surrendering, except he still had that crazy grin on his face.

“People of Earth, we come in peace!” he shouted. He looked like he’d been rolling around in the campfire. His white shirt and his face were smeared with soot. His hands were grease-stained, and he wore his new tool belt around his waist. His eyes were bloodshot. His curly hair was so oily it stuck up in porcupine quills, and he smelled strongly of Tabasco sauce. But he looked absolutely delighted, and somewhat cute. “Festus is just saying hello!”

“That thing is dangerous!” an Ares girl shouted, brandishing her spear. “Kill it now!”

“Stand down!” someone ordered.

To my surprise, it was Jason. He pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth and that girl from the Hephaestus cabin, Nyssa.

Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement. “Leo, what have you done?”

“Found a ride!” Leo beamed. “You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!”

“It—has wings,” Nyssa stammered. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face.

“Yeah!” Leo said. “I found them and reattached them.”

“But it never had wings. Where did you find them?”

Leo hesitated, and I knew I had to speak up.

“In the woods,” I said. “Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire.”

“Mostly?” Nyssa asked.

The dragon’s head twitched. It tilted to one side and a stream of black liquid—maybe oil, hopefully just oil—poured out of its ear, all over Leo.

“Just a few kinks to work out,” Leo said.

“But how did you survive…?” Nyssa was still staring at the creature in awe. “I mean, the fire breath…”

“I’m quick,” Leo said. “And lucky.”

“Not so much me!” I said. “That is why my clothes-”

“Are we on this quest, or what?” Leo butt in, clearly embarrassed.

Jason scratched his head. “You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, ‘festus’ means ‘happy’? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?”

“That’s what I said!” I yelled.

The dragon twitched, shuddered and flapped his wings.

“That’s a yes, bro!” Leo said. “Now, um, I’d really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the—um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous.”

Jason frowned. “But we haven’t planned anything yet. We can’t just—”

“Go,” Annabeth said. She was the only one who didn’t look nervous at all. Her expression was sad and wistful, like this reminded her of better times. “Jason, you’ve only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!”

Jason nodded. Then he smiled at Piper. “You ready, partner?”

Piper looked at the bronze dragon wings shining against the sky, and those talons that could’ve shredded her to pieces.

“You bet,” she said.

I rolled my eyes and gagged, pulling Leo back onto the dragon’s back.

-

Flying on the dragon was the most amazing and worst experience ever, I thought.

Up high, the air was freezing cold; but the dragon’s metal hide generated so much heat, it was like we were flying in a protective bubble. Talk about seat warmers! And the grooves in the dragon’s back were designed like high-tech saddles, so they weren’t uncomfortable at all. Leo showed us how to hook our feet in the chinks of the armor, like in stirrups, and use the leather safety harnesses cleverly concealed under the exterior plating. We sat single file: Leo in front, then me, then Piper, then Jason, and I was very aware of Leo right in front of me. I couldn’t loosen my grip on him, and from time to time, I would let out a yelp or a short scream. Leo didn’t mind, and would only mumble over his shoulder that I was safe, but my so called ‘friends’ behind me wouldn’t stop laughing.

“You okay?” Piper asked, a giggle on her lips.

“Shut up!” I whimpered. “AHH!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so scared,” Jason said.

“You don’t even remember me!”

Leo used the reins to steer the dragon into the sky like he’d been doing it all his life. The metal wings worked perfectly, and soon the coast of Long Island was just a hazy line behind us. We shot over Connecticut and climbed into the gray winter clouds.

Leo grinned back at us. “Cool, right?”

“What if we get spotted?” Piper asked.

“The Mist,” Jason said. “It keeps mortals from seeing magic things. If they spot us, they’ll probably mistake us for a small plane or something.”

I glanced over my shoulder. “You sure about that?”

“No,” he admitted. Then I saw he was clutching a photo in his hand—a picture of a girl with dark hair.

I gave Jason a quizzical look, but he blushed and put the photo in his pocket. “We’re making good time. Probably get there by tonight.”

I wondered who the girl in the picture was, but I didn’t want to ask, no matter how much I wanted to embarrass him.

Piper turned back toward the blonde. “Where are we heading?”

“To find the god of the North Wind,” Jason said. “And chase some storm spirits.”

“Boo,” I said. “You’re even worse at your Marvel-esque power sentences.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jason asked.

I squeezed Leo even tighter as we dipped down a bit. He mumbled some reassurance my way.

“It means,” I said, regaining my composure, “that you suck at acting cool.”

“He’s plenty cool,” Piper said in defense.

“You met yesterday,” I said. “Relax.”

Piper looked down, obviously upset. Part of me felt bad, but part of me also knew she needed my reminder. I knew it was tough, but Piper used to tell me that she hated when people would fall in love on the first day of knowing someone. But whatever- in her mind she knew him for months. It was ridiculous.

“Anyway,” I said. “Jason, you need to get better at speaking cool.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Jason asked, offence in his voice.

“Because if you sound lame, I’m not going to listen to you,” I said. “So, better practice!”

I turned back to the boy in front of me to see how he was doing. To nobody’s surprise, Leo was buzzing.

He was bouncing in his seat, gripping the reins so tight his knuckles were about to split. I could see his eyes darting around, and I sensed his pulse was way higher than it should be. Leo must have been deep in thought.

I wondered if he was thinking about Festus or our quest. I wish I knew what he was thinking, but I was pretty sure I’d die on the spot from how fast his brain moved.

“Shut up, me,” Leo said out of the blue.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Long night. I think I’m hallucinating. It’s cool.”

Leo must have assumed from our silence that we were not pleased to have a sleepless, hallucinating dragon driver.

“Just joking.” Leo said. He decided it might be good to change the subject. “So what’s the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?”

As we flew over New England, Jason laid out the game plan: First, find some guy named Boreas and grill him for information—

“His name is Boreas?” Leo had to ask. “What is he, the God of Boring?”

Second, Jason continued, we had to find those venti that had attacked us at the Grand Canyon—

“Can we just call them storm spirits?” I asked. “Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks.”

And third, Jason finished, we had to find out who the storm spirits worked for, so we could find Hera and free her.

“So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose,” Leo said. “The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds.”

“That’s about it,” Jason said. “Well… there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she’s friendly. She probably won’t eat us, unless we show weakness.”

Jason told us about his dream—the big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.

“Uh-huh,” Leo said. “But you don’t know where this place is.”

“Nope,” Jason admitted.

I had this odd feeling inside me. I knew what Jason was talking about, but if we flew straight there, I didn’t think we would have enough information about what was going on. Sure, it would save time, but would it actually help us? I felt like there was more to this quest than just saving Hera and bailing. Plus, Jason wouldn’t get his memory back without some crazy experiences that reminded him of things. Honestly, I was stuck. I decided that I’d keep quiet until we came too close to our time limit.

“There’s also giants,” Piper added. “The prophecy said the giants’ revenge.”

“Hold on,” Leo said. “Giants—like more than one? Why can’t it be just one giant who wants revenge?”

“I don’t think so,” Piper said. “I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants.”

“Great,” I muttered. “Of course, with our luck, it’s an army. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn’t you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?”

“Your dad’s an actor?” Jason asked.

Leo laughed. “I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That’s funny. But yeah, her dad’s Tristan McLean.”

“Uh—Sorry, what was he in?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Piper said quickly. “The giants—well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology. But if I’m thinking of the right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff. I think they were related to the Titans. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war—I mean the first Titan war, thousands of years ago—and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we’re talking about the same giants—”

“Chiron said it was happening again,” Jason remembered. “The last chapter. That’s what he meant. No wonder he didn’t want us to know all the details.”

Leo whistled. “So… giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn’t the time to bring up my psycho babysitter.”

“Is that another joke?” Piper asked.

Leo told us about Tía Callida- who I had already been told of months ago- who was really Hera, and how she’d appeared to him at camp. He didn’t tell the others about his fire abilities. That was still a touchy subject, especially after he had been told fire demigods tended to destroy cities and stuff. He did manage to tell about the night his mom died, explaining how the machine shop collapsed. It was the most I had ever heard him talk about it. I could tell it was hard on him since he never looked at us, just keeping his eyes straight ahead as we flew.

And he told us about the strange woman in earthen robes who seemed to be asleep, and seemed to know the future.

I estimated the whole state of Massachusetts passed below us before anyone spoke.

“That’s… disturbing,” Piper said.

“’Bout sums it up,” Leo agreed. “Thing is, everybody says don’t trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we’d cause death if we unleash her rage. So I’m wondering… why are we doing this?”

“She chose us,” Jason said. “All four of us. We’re the first of the eight who have to gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger.”

That didn’t make me feel any better, but I couldn’t argue with Jason’s point. It did feel like this was the start of something huge. I just wished that if there were four other demigods destined to help us, they’d show up quick. I didn’t want to hog all the terrifying life-threatening adventures.

“Besides,” Jason continued, “helping Hera is the only way I can get back my memory. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera’s energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera—”

“Not a good trade-off,” Piper agreed. “At least Hera is on our side—mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos. She’s the main one who keeps peace in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War.”

Jason nodded. “Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all—something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who’s controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods—”

“Might be that weird sleeping lady,” Leo finished. “Dirt Woman fully awake? Not something I want to see.”

“But who is she?” Jason asked. “And what does she have to do with giants?”

Good questions, but none of us had answers. We flew in silence for a while. I had subconsciously loosened my grip on Leo, feeling somewhat more relaxed. But Leo’s body was shaking, and not from the cold. I could tell that talking about his mom had a rough impact on him. I squeezed him a little tighter in reassurance.

The forge and dove shall break the cage. Wasn’t that the prophecy line? That meant Piper and Leo would have to figure out how to break into that magic rock prison, assuming they could find it. Then they’d unleash Hera’s rage, causing a lot of death. Well, that sounded fun! Leo had explained Tía Callida in action; she liked knives, snakes, and putting babies in roaring fires. Yeah, definitely let’s unleash her rage. Great idea.

Festus kept flying. The wind got colder, and below us snowy forests seemed to go on forever. I didn’t know exactly where Quebec was. Leo’d told Festus to take us to the palace of Boreas, and Festus kept going north. Hopefully, the dragon knew the way, and we wouldn’t end up at the North Pole.

But Leo was a whole different story. I could see his head bobbing around, and on the occasion I could feel his arms go slack then tighten again. The poor boy was knocking out, and he hadn’t even rested in over thirty hours.

“Why don’t you get some sleep?” I said in his ear. “You were up all night.”

Leo wanted to protest, but the word sleep probably sounded really good to him. “You won’t let me fall off?”

I patted his shoulder. “Trust me, Fire Boy. I got you.”

“Right,” he muttered. He leaned back into my chest and closed his eyes. I wrapped my arms around him and used his body heat to keep me warm. Part of this was cringe as hell and was totally embarrassing, but Leo was seriously warm. I still hadn’t managed to get any better clothes. I had to hope Piper packed an extra outfit in her backpack.

Speaking of Piper, she was knocked out behind me, leaning against Jason’s front. When I looked back, I scowled at the blonde. “Really?”

“I guess,” Jason said. I could tell he was embarrassed, but his energy was off. He was tired- thinking about something too hard. I could have said anything to him and I would have gotten zero reaction.

I softened my gaze. “What’s the matter, blondie?”

Jason squeezed his eyes shut, trying to help the dryness from the wind. “I’m just thinking.”

“‘Bout?”

“I…” Jason looked down at Piper, making sure she was still resting, then he looked back up at me. “You know where we have to go.”

I stared at the blonde. “Yeah. I do.”

“I figured.” Jason rubbed his temple gently. “You aren’t going to tell, huh?”

“We don’t know enough yet,” I said. “And I think it will help your memory to remember it on your own.”

Jason let out a soft chuckle. “Are you being nice to me?”

“This won’t be a normal thing, you know,” I said, a smile prying my lips.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jason sighed.

The two of us went quiet for a moment, and I felt an odd sensation lay in my gut. I felt a soft spark in the air, and the soft flutter of my stomach- the same thing I felt a few years ago, when I had liked Jason.

The blonde must have been feeling the same thing. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked up at me. “You and I… we weren’t like…”

“A thing?” I asked, my smile fading. “Well, we almost were. Maybe we eventually did become a pair. But you-”

I stopped myself. I felt my rage bubble up again, but it wasn’t time for an argument. My friends were finally sleeping, and this was probably the only time we’d get to rest on this trip. I dug my fingernails into my palms.

“You need to remember it for yourself. I can’t forgive you until you know what you did. Until then…” I looked down and turned back to the front of Festus. “Until then, I won’t let you know a thing.”

I could feel the sadness radiate off Jason. He went silent, and in a short moment, I could hear him softly snoring.

That idiot seemed like he wanted to try again, but I know he had missed his chance long ago. With how he threw me aside, I was going to hold him to it until one of us died.

A yawn rose to my mouth. I felt my eyes grow heavy. Normally, I was ready to stay up and be on guard, but the cold wind and Leo’s soft, warm body found a way to lull me to sleep. I hated it, but I quickly gave in and shut my eyes.

For probably the only time in my life, I didn’t dream. I woke up to Piper tapping me on the shoulder. I groaned and looked back at her. “What?”

Piper pointed below us. “Look.”

I shifted my eyesight down, and my gut churned.

It wasn’t anything bad below us, no. There weren’t any monsters (that we could see) or an army of bowmen aiming up at us. It was just the city of Quebec, with busy streets and tall buildings. The thing is, we were so far in the air the architecture looked like the size of legos.

The reality of how high up we were hit me like a truck, and I didn’t like it.

I squeezed Leo’s torso so tight I was pretty sure I cracked a rib. The poor sleeping boy woke up instantly.

“Boa constrictor, yo! Release me!” he cried.

“Piper, why would you tell me that?” I wailed, burying my face into Leo’s back. “Oh my god, I can’t!”

“You’re afraid of heights?” Piper asked.

“Not normally, but we are way too high!”

“It’s a Nep- uh, Poseidon thing,” Jason explained. “Uneasiness in Zeus’s realm.”

Leo gripped my hands in assurance, giving me the courage to look back down at the city below us.

Quebec sat on a cliff overlooking a river. The plains around it were dusted with snow, but the city itself glowed warmly in the winter sunset. Buildings crowded together inside high walls like a medieval town, way older than any place I had seen before. In the center was an actual castle—at least I assumed it was a castle—with massive red brick walls and a square tower with a peaked, green gabled roof.

“Tell me that’s Quebec and not Santa’s workshop,” Leo said.

“Yeah, Quebec City,” Piper confirmed. “One of the oldest cities in North America. Founded around sixteen hundred or so?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Your dad do a movie about that too?”

She made a face at me, which I was used to, but it didn’t quite work with her new glamorous makeup. “I read sometimes, okay? Just because Aphrodite claimed me, doesn’t mean I have to be an airhead.”

“Feisty!” Leo said. “Since you know so much, what’s that castle?”

“A hotel, I think.”

Leo laughed. “No way.”

But as we got closer, I saw she was right. The grand entrance was bustling with doormen, valets, and porters taking bags. Sleek black luxury cars idled in the drive. People in elegant suits and winter cloaks hurried to get out of the cold.

“The North Wind is staying in a hotel?” I said. “That can’t be—”

“Heads up, guys,” Jason interrupted. “We got company!”

I looked below and saw what Jason meant. Rising from the top of the tower were two winged figures—angry angels, with nasty-looking swords.

Festus didn’t like the angel guys. He swooped to a halt in midair, wings beating and talons bared, and made a rumbling sound in his throat that I began to recognize. He was getting ready to blow fire.

“Steady, boy,” I muttered. Something told me the angels would not take kindly to getting torched.

“I don’t like this,” Jason said. “They look like storm spirits.”

At first I thought he was right, but as the angels got closer, I could see they were much more solid than venti. They looked like regular teenagers except for their icy white hair and feathery purple wings. Their bronze swords were jagged, like icicles. Their faces looked similar enough that they might’ve been brothers, but they definitely weren’t twins.

One was the size of an ox, with a bright red hockey jersey, baggy sweatpants, and black leather cleats. The guy clearly had been in too many fights, because both his eyes were black, and when he bared his teeth, several of them were missing.

The other guy looked like he’d just stepped off a mom’s 1980s rock album covers—Journey, maybe, or Hall & Oates, or something even lamer. His ice-white hair was long and feathered into a mullet. He wore pointy-toed leather shoes, designer pants that were way too tight, and a god-awful silk shirt with the top three buttons open. Maybe he thought he looked like a groovy love god, but the guy couldn’t have weighed more than ninety pounds, and he had a bad case of acne.

The angels pulled up in front of the dragon and hovered there, swords at the ready.

The hockey ox grunted. “No clearance.”

“’Scuse me?” Leo said.

“You have no flight plan on file,” explained the groovy love god. On top of his other problems, he had a French accent so bad I was sure it was fake. “This is restricted airspace.”

“Destroy them?” The ox showed off his gap-toothed grin.

The dragon began to hiss steam, ready to defend them. Jason summoned his golden sword, but Leo cried, “Hold on! Let’s have some manners here, boys. Can I at least find out who has the honor of destroying me?”

“I am Cal!” the ox grunted. He looked very proud of himself, like he’d taken a long time to memorize that sentence.

“That’s short for Calais,” the love god said. “Sadly, my brother cannot say words with more than two syllables—”

“Pizza! Hockey! Destroy!” Cal offered.

“—which includes his own name,” the love god finished.

“I am Cal,” Cal repeated. “And this is Zethes! My brother!”

“Wow,” I said. “That was almost three sentences, man! Way to go.”

Cal grunted, obviously pleased with himself.

“Stupid buffoon,” his brother grumbled. “They make fun of you. But no matter. I am Zethes, which is short for Zethes. And the ladies here—” He winked at Piper and me, but the wink was more like a facial seizure. “They can call me anything they like. Perhaps they would like to have dinner with a famous demigod before we must destroy you?”

I resisted the urge to tell him to ‘fall on his sword’.

Piper made a sound like gagging on a cough drop. “That’s… a truly horrifying offer.”

“It is no problem.” Zethes wiggled his eyebrows. “We are a very romantic people, we Boreads.”

“Boreads?” Jason cut in. “Do you mean, like, the sons of Boreas?”

“Ah, so you’ve heard of us!” Zethes looked pleased. “We are our father’s gatekeepers. So you understand, we cannot have unauthorized people flying in his airspace on creaky dragons, scaring the silly mortal peoples.”

He pointed below, and I saw that the mortals were starting to take notice. Several were pointing up—not with alarm, yet—more with confusion and annoyance, like the dragon was a traffic helicopter flying too low.

“Which is sadly why, unless this is an emergency landing,” Zethes said, brushing his hair out of his acne-covered face, “we will have to destroy you painfully.”

“Destroy!” Cal agreed, with a little more enthusiasm than I thought necessary.

“Wait!” Piper said. “This is an emergency landing.”

“Awww!” Cal looked so disappointed, I almost felt sorry for him.

Zethes studied Piper, which of course he’d already been doing. “How does the pretty girl decide this is an emergency, then?”

“We have to see Boreas. It’s totally urgent! Please?” She forced a smile, which I figured must’ve been killing her; but she still had that blessing of Aphrodite thing going on, and she looked great. Something about her voice, too—I found myself believing every word. Jason and Leo were nodding, looking absolutely convinced.

Zethes picked at his silk shirt, probably making sure it was still open wide enough. “Well… I hate to disappoint a lovely lady, but you see, my sister, she would have an avalanche if we allowed you—”

“And our dragon is malfunctioning!” I added. “It could crash any minute!”

Festus shuddered helpfully, then turned his head and spilled gunk out of his ear, splattering a black Mercedes in the parking lot below.

“No destroy?” Cal whimpered.

Zethes pondered the problem. Then he gave me another spasmodic wink. “Well, you are pretty. I mean, you’re right. A malfunctioning dragon—this could be an emergency.”

“Destroy them later?” Cal offered, which was probably as close to friendly as he ever got.

“It will take some explaining,” Zethes decided. “Father has not been kind to visitors lately. But, yes. Come, faulty dragon people. Follow us.”

The Boreads sheathed their swords and pulled smaller weapons from their belts—or at least I thought they were weapons. Then the Boreads switched them on, and I realized they were flashlights with orange cones, like the ones traffic controller guys use on a runway. Cal and Zethes turned and swooped toward the hotel’s tower.

Leo turned to us. “I love these guys. Follow them?”

Neither of my friends looked eager.

“I guess,” I decided. “We’re here now. But I wonder why Boreas hasn’t been kind to visitors.”

“Pfft, he just hasn’t met us.” Leo whistled. “Festus, after those flashlights!”

As we got closer, I worried we’d crash into the tower. The Boreads made right for the green gabled peak and didn’t slow down. Then a section of the slanted roof slid open, revealing an entrance easily wide enough for Festus. The top and bottom were lined with icicles like jagged teeth.

“This cannot be good,” Jason muttered, but Leo spurred the dragon downward, and we swooped in after the Boreads.

We landed in what must have been the penthouse suite; but the place had been hit by a flash freeze. The entry hall had vaulted ceilings forty feet high, huge draped windows, and lush oriental carpets. A staircase at the back of the room led up to another equally massive hall, and more corridors branched off to the left and right. But the ice made the room’s beauty a little frightening. When Leo slid off the dragon, the carpet crunched under his feet. A fine layer of frost covered the furniture. The curtains didn’t budge because they were frozen solid, and the ice-coated windows let in weird watery light from the sunset. Even the ceiling was furry with icicles. As for the stairs, I was sure Leo would slip and break his neck if he tried to climb them.

“Guys,” Leo said, “fix the thermostat in here, and I would totally move in.”

“Not me.” Jason looked uneasily at the staircase. “Something feels wrong. Something up there …”

I slid off the dragon and landed next to Leo. The room was freezing, and my lack of unburned clothes wasn’t helping to keep me warm. However, being the kid of a water god made it seem embarrassing to admit being chilly, so I kept still from shivering or warming my numb fingers.

But one creepy look from Zethes and I quickly covered myself. Leo noticed my uncomfortability and stepped next to me, guarding me from the purple boy. I seriously needed to get some extra clothes.

Festus shuddered and snorted flames. Frost started to form on his scales.

“No, no, no.” Zethes marched over, though how he could walk in those pointy leather shoes, I had no idea. “The dragon must be deactivated. We can’t have fire in here. The heat ruins my hair.”

Festus growled and spun his drill-bit teeth.

“’S’okay, boy.” Leo turned to Zethes. “The dragon’s a little touchy about the whole deactivation concept. But I’ve got a better solution.”

“Destroy?” Cal suggested.

“No, man. You gotta stop with the destroy talk. Just wait.”

“Leo,” Piper said nervously, “what are you—”

“Watch and learn, beauty queen. When I was repairing Festus last night, I found all kinds of buttons. Some, you do not want to know what they do. But others… Ah, here we go.”

Leo hooked his fingers behind the dragon’s left foreleg. He pulled a switch, and the dragon shuddered from head to toe. Everyone backed away as Festus folded like origami. His bronze plating stacked together. His neck and tail contracted into his body. His wings collapsed and his trunk compacted until he was a rectangular metal wedge the size of a suitcase.

Leo tried to lift it, but the thing probably weighed about six billion pounds. “Um… yeah. Hold on. I think—aha.”

He pushed another button. A handle flipped up on the top, and wheels clicked out on the bottom.

“Ta-da!” he announced. “The world’s heaviest carry-on bag!”

“That’s impossible,” Jason said. “Something that big couldn’t—”

“Stop!” Zethes ordered. He and Cal both drew their swords and glared at Leo. Their hostility quickly put me on edge and I grabbed my pen, ready to open it at any second.

Leo raised his hands. “Okay… what’d I do? Stay calm, guys. If it bothers you that much, I don’t have to take the dragon as carry-on—”

“Who are you?” Zethes shoved the point of his sword against Leo’s chest and I had to restrain myself from stabbing my trident through him. “A child of the South Wind, spying on us?”

“What? No!” Leo said. “Son of Hephaestus. Friendly blacksmith, no harm to anyone!”

Cal growled. He put his face up to Leo’s, and he definitely wasn’t any prettier at point-blank, with his bruised eyes and bashed-in mouth. “Smell fire,” he said. “Fire is bad.”

“Oh.” I could see the fear in Leo’s eyes. “Yeah, well… my clothes are kind of singed, and I’ve been working with oil, and—”

“No!” Zethes pushed Leo back at sword point. “We can smell fire, demigod. We assumed it was from the creaky dragon, but now the dragon is a suitcase. And I still smell fire… on you.”

If it hadn’t been like three degrees in the penthouse, Leo probably would’ve started sweating. “Hey… look… I don’t know—” He glanced at us desperately. “Guys, a little help?”

I already had my pen in hand. I stepped forward, my eyes on Zethes. “I think you’d find it best to put down your sword and let him explain himself. He isn’t a fire guy. Right, Leo?”

“Um…”

“Zethes?” Piper tried her dazzling smile again, though she looked a little too nervous and cold to pull it off. “We’re all friends here. Put down your swords and let’s talk.”

“The girl is pretty,” Zethes admitted, “and of course she cannot help being attracted to my amazingness; but sadly, I cannot romance her at this time.” He poked his sword point farther into Leo’s chest, and I could see the frost spreading across his shirt.

I gripped my pen tighter. “Okay, boys. Looks like this is it,” I said, my voice low.

“Destroy him now?” Cal asked his brother.

Zethes nodded. “Sadly, I think—”

“No,” Jason insisted, pulling me back by my wrist. He sounded calm enough, but I figured he was about two seconds away from flipping the coin in his hand and going into full gladiator mode with me. “Leo’s just a son of Hephaestus. He’s no threat. Piper here is a daughter of Aphrodite. I’m the son of Zeus. We’re on a peaceful …”

Jason’s voice faltered, because both Boreads had suddenly turned on him.

“What did you say?” Zethes demanded. “You are the son of Zeus?”

“Um… yeah,” Jason said. “That’s a good thing, right? My name is Jason.”

Cal looked so surprised, he almost dropped his sword. “Can’t be Jason,” he said. “Doesn’t look the same.”

Zethes stepped forward and squinted at Jason’s face. “No, he is not our Jason. Our Jason was more stylish. Not as much as me—but stylish. Besides, our Jason died millennia ago.”

“Wait,” Jason said. “Your Jason… you mean the original Jason? The Golden Fleece guy?”

“Of course,” Zethes said. “We were his crewmates aboard his ship, the Argo, in the old times, when we were mortal demigods. Then we accepted immortality to serve our father, so I could look this good for all time, and my silly brother could enjoy pizza and hockey.”

“Hockey!” Cal agreed.

“But Jason—our Jason—he died a mortal death,” Zethes said. “You can’t be him.”

“I’m not,” Jason agreed.

“So, destroy?” Cal asked. Clearly the conversation was giving his two brain cells a serious workout.

“No,” Zethes said regretfully. “If he is a son of Zeus, he could be the one we’ve been watching for.”

“Watching for?” Leo asked. “You mean like in a good way: you’ll shower him with fabulous prizes? Or watching for like in a bad way: he’s in trouble?”

A girl’s voice said, “That depends on my father’s will.”

I looked up the staircase. My guts twisted. At the top stood a girl in a white silk dress. Her skin was unnaturally pale, the color of snow, but her hair was a lush mane of black, and her eyes were coffee brown. She focused on Leo with no expression, no smile, no friendliness. But it didn’t matter. I looked over at the boy, and saw he was in love.

So much for waiting.

Then she skipped over me and looked at Jason and Piper, seemingly understanding the situation immediately.

“Father will want to see the one called Jason,” the girl said.

“Then it is him?” Zethes asked excitedly.

“We’ll see,” the girl said. “Zethes, bring our guests.”

Leo grabbed the handle of his bronze dragon suitcase. I had no idea how he planned to lug it up the stairs, but with him when there’s a will, there’s a way. I couldn’t believe him.

Before he could take a step, she froze him with a look. Not literally froze, but she might as well have.

“Not you, Leo Valdez,” she said.

In the back of my mind, I wondered how she knew his name; but mostly I was focusing on how pleased I was that Leo didn’t get to chase Miss Elsa up the stairs.

“Why not?” He sounded like a whiny kindergartner, and I couldn't help rolling my eyes.

“You cannot be in the presence of my father,” the girl said. “Fire and ice—it would not be wise.”

“We’re going together,” Jason insisted, putting his hand on Leo’s shoulder, “or not at all.”

The girl tilted her head, like she wasn’t used to people refusing her orders. “He will not be harmed, Jason Grace, unless you make trouble. Calais, keep Leo Valdez here. Guard him, but do not kill him.”

Cal pouted. “Just a little?”

“No,” the girl insisted. “And take care of his interesting suitcase, until Father passes judgment.”

The four of us looked at eachother, our expressions asking a silent question: How do you want to play this?

“It’s fine, guys,” Leo said. “No sense causing trouble if we don’t have to. You go ahead.”

I looked back at my two other friends and the ice lady at the top of the stairs. I shook my head and glanced back at my friends. “You know what? I’ll stay with him. You two go ahead. I don’t think I’m wanted up there anyways. No biggie.”

Leo gave me a grateful smile, then flashed his thumbs up to Piper and Jason. “We’re all safe then.”

“Listen to your friend,” the pale girl said. “Leo Valdez and… the girl will be perfectly safe. I wish I could say the same for you, son of Zeus. Now come, King Boreas is waiting.”

I watched Piper and Jason walk up the stairs with ice girl until they vanished from my sight, then turned toward Leo and crossed my arms. “Seriously?”

“Dude, she’s so pretty,” Leo said. “Come on, you know it!”

I shook my head, glaring at the boy. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Who’s ready for hockey?” Cal said, grinning at Leo and me.

“No thanks, man,” I said. “You just wanted to destroy us. Plus, do I even look hockey ready?” I gestured to my burnt clothes.

“Aww,” Cal whined. “Then, how about we go down to the hotel’s valet service? Get clothes there, then the boy and you can shower!”

“What?!”

“That doesn’t sound bad,” Leo said. “I mean, about the clothes! Separate showers, I promise!”

I punched Leo’s arm, feeling my face flush. “Nasty!”

“Yay!” Cal lifted up both Leo and me, flying off to some other room and dropping us off in an elevator. “Let’s go!”

-

Leo and I ended up in a strange adventure with Calais, running around the Hotel and picking up spare clothes for me, finding the showers (which had lovely warm water that I relished, even letting myself get wet), then having our clothes freshly washed and ready when we got out. Hell, I even had some spare time to do my hair.

By the time we got back to the icy room, I had calmed down and decided to give Leo another chance. Maybe I had come off the wrong way when I said we could date sometime down the line and he didn’t really get what that meant. I just had to hope that ice lady turned out to be a bad person or something.

I sighed, relaxing into my black sweater for warmth. Somehow Cal had managed to pick the best clothes for me, even giving me some gray cargo pants and black boots. It was a simple look that kept me warm, which meant I had no use for Leo’s jacket now. It was a little sad, but the poor boy was still freezing.

“Leo,” I said, walking up to him. “Here’s your jacket back.”

“Sick, thanks!” Leo took his army coat from me and slipped into it. “How do I look?”

Leo had done his hair as well, perfectly conditioning it and letting his curls flow down his face. His dimples were symmetrical, as usual, and his smile was perfect. Though, I was sure only I saw him like that. I saw his handsomeness, but I also knew he was a huge fucking dork.

“Stupid,” I said. “Keep it up!”

Leo pouted. “Oh, come on! I’m trying!”

“They’re back!” Cal said. “Yay!”

Leo and I whipped our heads toward the stairs, where Piper and Jason were coming down, the icy girl leading them.

Leo started combing his hair back with his hands. I bit my lip and glared at him, trying to get him to stop.

At the bottom step, Elsa turned to Piper. “You have fooled my father, girl. But you have not fooled me. We are not done. And you, Jason Grace, I will see you as a statue in the throne room soon enough.”

“Boreas is right,” Jason said. “You’re a spoiled kid. See you around, ice princess.”

Icy’s eyes flared pure white. For once, she seemed at a loss for words. She stormed back up the stairs—literally. Halfway up, she turned into a blizzard and disappeared.

“What was that all about?” I asked. Jason just shook his head, telling me that the story would come later.

“Be careful,” Zethes warned. “She never forgets an insult.”

Cal grunted in agreement. “Bad sister.”

“She’s the goddess of snow,” Jason said. “What’s she going to do, throw snowballs at us?”

Leo looked devastated. “What happened up there? You made her mad? Is she mad at me too? Guys, that was my prom date!”

I punched Leo in the arm. “Dude!”

“We’ll explain later,” Piper promised, but when she glanced at Jason, I realized she expected him to explain.

What had happened up there? I wasn’t sure. But it seemed to make the whole snow family upset. Jason probably did it.

The blonde looked away from Piper, trying not to show how unnerved he really was. “Yeah,” he agreed, “we’ll explain later.”

“Be careful, pretty girls,” Zethes said. “The winds between here and Chicago are bad-tempered. Many other evil things are stirring. I am sorry you will not be staying. You would make lovely ice statues, in which I could check my reflection.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But I’d sooner play hockey with Cal.”

“Hockey?” Cal’s eyes lit up.

“Joking,” I said.

“The storm winds aren’t our worst problem, are they?” Piper spoke up.

“Oh, no,” Zethes agreed. “Something else. Something worse.”

“Worse,” Cal echoed.

“Can you tell me?” Piper gave them a smile.

This time, the charm didn’t work. The purple-winged Boreads shook their heads in unison. The hangar doors opened onto a freezing starry night, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet, anxious to fly.

“Ask Aeolus what is worse,” Zethes said darkly. “He knows. Good luck.”

He almost sounded like he cared what happened to us, even though a few minutes ago he’d wanted to make Piper and me into an ice sculpture.

Cal patted Leo on the shoulder. “Don’t get destroyed,” he said, which was probably the longest sentence he’d ever attempted. “Next time—hockey. Pizza.”

“Come on, guys.” Jason stared out at the dark. He seemed anxious to get out of that cold penthouse, but I had a feeling it was the most hospitable place we’d see for a while. “Let’s go to Chicago and try not to get destroyed.”

Chapter Text

I didn’t relax until the glow of Quebec City faded behind us. I could tell the rest of my crew felt the same, seeing how rigid everyone was.

“You were amazing,” Jason told Piper, finally starting a conversation.

The compliment should’ve made Piper’s day, but all I could feel coming off her was sadness. She fidgeted with her lip ring and shrugged, mumbling something in French- when did she learn French?

“What’d you say?” I asked. “And since when do you speak cigarettes and sewer stink?”

“I said I only talked to Boreas. It wasn’t so amazing.” Piper looked at me with a half hearted smile. “And I guess it’s a talent of Aphrodite to know French.”

I smiled softly back at her, then looked over her shoulder at Jason and nodded.

“Hey,” the blonde said, picking up on my signal, “you saved me from joining Khione’s subzero hero collection. I owe you one, Piper.”

My friend sighed. “I guess. I just… I don’t know anymore.”

Leo passed us some sandwiches from his pack. He’d been quiet ever since they’d told him what happened in the throne room. “I still can’t believe Khione,” he said. “She looked so nice.”

I wanted to laugh in his face, but I held myself back. The news had been good to me, and only confirmed things I had already suspected, but I had felt as if the snow goddess’ eyes were still pinned on us. I didn’t like it, but I knew it was just my nerves.

“Trust me, man,” Jason said. “Snow may be pretty, but up close it’s cold and nasty. We’ll find you a better prom date.”

I smiled, but Leo didn’t look pleased. We hadn’t said much about our time in the palace, or why the Boreads had singled Leo out for smelling like fire. I could tell it still was scaring him, and his mood seemed to be affecting Festus, who grumbled and steamed as he tried to keep himself warm in the cold Canadian air. Happy the Dragon was not so happy.

We ate our sandwiches as we flew. I much appreciated the magic toolbelt for giving me my favorite ham sandwich, but I had no idea how it knew what I liked. Even Piper got an avocado sandwich, which she also looked surprised about.

Nobody talked. Whatever we might find in Chicago, we all knew Boreas had only let them go because he figured we were already on a suicide mission. I had my suspicions from the start, but the ice king solidified them. We were completely doomed.

But I still was the only one who knew where we had to go, and I could direct us there. The issue was, we’d be giving up the quest of the winds and let more demigods be killed and leave Coach Hedge- who Jason mentioned was somewhere with the wind spirits- for good.

Suck it up, cupcake! Coach Hedge would’ve yelled at me. Don’t be a wimp!

I had been thinking about the coach ever since I’d heard he was still alive. I’d never liked Hedge, but he’d leaped off a cliff to save Leo, and he’d sacrificed himself to protect us on the skywalk. I now realized that all the times at school the coach had pushed my friends and I, yelled at me to run faster or do more push-ups as punishment in detention, or even when he’d turned his back and let me fight my own battles with the goonies, the old goat man had been trying to help me in his own irritating way—trying to prepare all of us for life as a demigod, though I didn’t need his help. The gesture was still… sweet. Almost like how a parent should be.

On the skywalk, Dylan the storm spirit had said something about the coach, too: how he’d been retired to Wilderness School because he was getting too old, like it was some sort of punishment. I wondered what that was about, and if it explained why the coach was always so grumpy. Whatever the truth, now that I knew Hedge was alive, I had a strong compulsion to save him, whether it killed our time or not. Plus, I could tell my friends felt the same.

But I still had a horrible feeling. This quest would end in some sort of failure; a death- or even running out of time stood too much of a possibility. I hated it, but I knew for certain we would not win this 100%.

I leaned into Leo and tried my best to relax, still finding it impossible. There was a feeling of evil that had clung onto me since the day before. I had no idea what it was, but the only thing of slight relevance could have been that odd dream from the night before- the one with the hand and the snakes in the mouth and the tall dude. It was too short to be a demigod dream, and not enough information to be a vision. Whatever it was, it pestered me and caused an anger to form in my gut.

I was sick of this bullshit. I couldn’t just run away and be free, no! The gods had to pluck me and throw me into this stupid quest. Why? I had no fucking clue, but I better have some huge role like saving the entire universe from a rouge god because that would be better than this stupid death trap.

Leo reached back and rubbed my thigh. “You should rest up dude. Jason and Piper are already out, and we’ve got a long while until Chicago.”

“Yeah,” I sighed, putting my hand over his. “Yeah, okay. Please make sure I won’t fall.”

“Of course, Water Girl.” I could feel his smirk even from behind him.

I bit his shoulder in retaliation to the dumb nickname before burrowing into his back, quickly falling asleep.

-

My nightmare repeated. Running, falling, cutting, bleeding, dying. I was too used to it at this point. I hated relieving that moment every day, but what bugged me was how much the dream persisted. What normal brain would do that to someone? Wouldn’t it rather forget something in order to protect itself and the body? That was how painful memories worked. For me, though, not so much. As I passed out in the middle of the street, the dream faded away while I tried to think of why my dream was still persisting years later.

Now, some people are lucky enough to wake up to sunshine and breakfast in bed. I’m not some people. I woke up to screaming, free-falling through the air.

I thumbled through the sky. Far below I saw city lights glimmering in the early dawn, and several hundred yards away the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like a badly wired lightbulb.

A body shot past me—Leo, screaming and frantically grabbing at the clouds. “Not coooooool!”

Maybe some of you forgot, so I’ll say it again. I hate heights. I hate being in the sky- the domain of my father’s rival. I had been afraid of falling this whole time, and because I am the luckiest person alive, the fear just had to come true.

I screamed. It was literally the only thing my body let me do, otherwise I would have passed out. I kept screaming, screwing my eyes shut and flailing myself around. My gut flipped inside my stomach, and the cold wind didn’t help my shocked state.

Somewhere above me, Jason yelled, “Hey, level out! Extend your arms and legs!”

I wailed as I fell through the air. I was too focused on how terrifying this experience was to even retaliate against the blonde boy. Sobbing and screaming, I tried to do as he said and spread my limbs out. I regained some balance, but my stomach was still knotting itself. With my eyes shut tight and more screams escaping my lips, I prepared myself to die. Then Jason was there, wrapping his arms around my waist.

I hate to recall what happened. I buried my face in his neck and sobbed, clinging to his chest and grabbing a fist full of his shirt. I could feel myself shaking against him, the sound of my whimpering echoing back into my ear. Jason’s familiar scent wafted into my nose, calming my nauseated stomach. I felt the static pour off his skin and vibrate into my body.

He somehow felt exactly the same as the last time he held me.

I momentarily relaxed. My eyes peeled open, and I looked up to my savior. Jason’s blue eyes were focused, scanning his surroundings as he flew through the air, watching Leo and Piper. He dove for my girl friend first, scooping her into his arms and pulling her into him by her waist. Piper clung to him just as I did.

“We have to get Leo!” she shouted.

Our fall slowed as Jason controlled the winds, but we still lurched up and down like the winds didn’t want to cooperate.

“Gonna get rough,” Jason warned. “Hold on!”

I locked my arms around him, and Jason shot toward the ground. Piper and I probably screamed, but the sound was ripped from our mouths. My vision blurred.

And then, thump! We slammed into another warm body—Leo, still wriggling and cursing.

“Stop fighting!” Jason said. “It’s me!”

“My dragon!” Leo yelled. “You gotta save Festus!”

Jason was already struggling to keep the four of us aloft, and I knew there was no way he could help a fifty-ton metal dragon. But before I could try to reason with Leo, I heard an explosion below us. A fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobbed, “Festus!”

I grabbed the boy and pulled him into me, keeping my face between his and Jason’s chest. Leo leaned into me and wrapped his arms around the three of us, creating a human ball that was falling through the air at mach ten.

Jason’s face reddened with strain as he tried to maintain an air cushion beneath us, but intermittent slow-downs were the best he could manage. Rather than free-falling, it felt like we were bouncing down a giant staircase, a hundred feet at a time, which wasn’t doing my stomach any favors.

As we wobbled and zigzagged, I could make out details of the factory complex below—warehouses, smokestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. We were still high enough so that hitting the ground would flatten us into roadkill—or skykill—when Jason groaned, “I can’t—”

And we dropped like stones.

We hit the roof of the largest warehouse and crashed through into darkness.

Unfortunately, I tried to land on my feet. My feet didn’t like that. Pain flared in my left ankle as I crumpled against a cold metal surface.

For a few seconds I wasn’t conscious of anything but pain—pain so bad that my ears rang and my vision went red. I couldn’t even scream.

Then I heard Jason’s voice somewhere below, echoing through the building. “Hey! Where is she?”

“Ow, bro!” Leo groaned. “That’s my back! I’m not a sofa! Water Girl, where’d you go?”

The three of them called my name as I worked myself out of the shock of pain.

My throat was shredded from my screaming, causing my voice to be quiet and hoarse. “H-Here,” I managed.

I heard shuffling and grunting, then feet pounding on metal steps.

My vision began to clear. I was on a metal catwalk that ringed the warehouse interior. Leo, Piper and Jason had landed on ground level, and were now coming up the stairs toward me. I looked at my foot, and wave of nausea swept over me. My toes weren’t supposed to point that way.

Oh, god. I forced myself to look away before I threw up. Focus on something else. Anything else.

The hole we’d made in the roof was a ragged starburst twenty feet above. How we’d even survived that drop, I had no idea. Hanging from the ceiling, a few electric bulbs flickered dimly, but they didn’t do much to light the enormous space. Next to me, the corrugated metal wall was emblazoned with a company logo, but it was almost completely spray-painted over with graffiti. Down in the shadowy warehouse, I could make out huge machines, robotic arms, half-finished trucks on an assembly line. The place looked like it had been abandoned for years.

Jason, Piper and Leo reached my side. They each looked scuffed up, with cuts and welts all over their bodies. Piper’s beauty charm had somehow helped her get the least damage, while Leo was bleeding from his nose and lip, holding his wrist which I assumed was broken or fractured.

But when my eyes met Jason’s, tears pooled in my waterline. Bad memories were resurfacing because of him, and I hated it. I sucked back in my tears and looked back to Leo.

He started to ask, “You okay … ?” Then he saw my foot. “Oh no, you’re not.”

“Thanks for the reassurance,” I groaned.

“You’ll be fine,” Jason said, though I could hear the worry in his voice. “Leo, you got any first aid supplies?”

“Yeah—yeah, sure.” He dug around in his tool belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape—both of which seemed too big for the belt’s pockets.

“How did you—” Piper touched a cut on her arm and winced. “How did you pull that stuff from an empty belt?”

“Magic,” Leo said. “Haven’t figured it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff.” He reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. “Breath mint?”

Jason snatched away the mints. “That’s great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?”

“I’m a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car …” He snapped his fingers. “Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp—Rambo food?”

“Ambrosia, dummy,” Piper said. “There should be some in my bag, if it’s not crushed.”

Jason carefully pulled her backpack off her shoulders. He rummaged through the supplies the Aphrodite kids had packed for her, and found a Ziploc full of smashed pastry squares like lemon bars. He broke off a piece and knelt down to feed it to me.

The taste was nothing like I expected. It reminded me of the popsicles my mom used to give me on hot summer days. We’d sit in the kitchen and eat them as we tried to cool off. The memory relaxed me, though it made me feel strange. The pain in my ankle subsided.

“More,” I said.

Jason frowned. “No, we shouldn’t risk it. They said too much could burn you up. I think I should try to set your foot.”

My stomach fluttered. “Have you ever done that before?”

“Yeah … I think so.”

Leo found an old piece of wood and broke it in half for a splint. Then he got the gauze and duct tape ready.

“Hold her leg still,” Jason told him. “This is going to hurt.”

Piper knelt on my other side, opposite of Leo. She put her hand on my shoulder and started to use charm speak to calm me down.

When Jason set the foot, I let out a blood curdling scream, squirming around and digging my nails into the metal under me. When my vision cleared and I could breathe normally again, I found that my foot was pointing the right way, my ankle splinted with plywood, gauze, and duct tape.

“God!” I wailed. “Fuck! My god!”

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Piper said in an attempted soothing voice.

“Fuck you!” I screamed, then immediately threw my arms around her.

“You did great.” Jason found a canteen in Piper’s pack and gave me some water. After a few minutes, my stomach began to calm down.

Once I wasn’t screaming in pain, I could hear the wind howling outside. Snowflakes fluttered through the hole in the roof, and after their meeting with Khione, snow was the last thing I wanted to see.

“What happened to Festus?” I asked. “Where are we?”

Leo’s expression turned sullen. “I don’t know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall.”

My chest tightened. I knew that Festus was wonky, but he wouldn’t do something like that. No, something bigger must have been at play. I was sure of it.

Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. “As far as where we are …” It was hard to see through the graffiti, but I could make out a large red eye with the stenciled words: Monocle Motors, Assembly Plant 1.

“Closed car plant,” Leo said. “I’m guessing we crash-landed in Detroit.”

I had heard about closed car plants in Detroit, so that made sense. But it seemed like a pretty depressing place to land. “How far is that from Chicago?”

Jason handed me the canteen. “Maybe three-fourths of the way from Quebec? The thing is, without the dragon, we’re stuck traveling overland.”

“No way,” Piper said. “It isn’t safe.”

I sipped some more water, thinking about how nice it would be if it could heal my bones and not just cuts. “She’s right. Besides, I don’t know if I can walk. And four people—Jason, you can’t fly that many across country by yourself.”

“No way,” Jason said. “Leo, are you sure the dragon didn’t malfunction? I mean, Festus is old, and—”

“And I might not have repaired him right?”

“I didn’t say that,” Jason protested. “It’s just—maybe you could fix it.”

“I don’t know.” Leo sounded crestfallen. He pulled a few screws out of his pockets and started fiddling with them. “I’d have to find where he landed, if he’s even in one piece.”

“It was my fault.” Piper said.

“Piper,” Jason said gently, “you were asleep when Festus conked out. It couldn’t be your fault.”

“Yeah, you’re just shaken up,” Leo agreed. He didn’t even try to make a joke at her expense.

I nodded and leaned against my friend. “I mean, why would you do this to me, right? You’re one crazy girl, Pipes, but you wouldn’t do this. You’re just in pain.”

“Says you!” Piper laughed, though I could tell she was still sad.

Leo stood. “Look, um, Jason, why don’t you stay with them, bro? I’ll scout around for Festus. I think he fell outside the warehouse somewhere. If I can find him, maybe I can figure out what happened and fix him.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Jason said. “You shouldn’t go by yourself.”

“Ah, I got duct tape and breath mints. I’ll be fine,” Leo said, a little too quickly, and I realized he was a lot more shaken up than he was letting on. “You guys just don’t run off without me.”

“Wait-” I shoved my hand in my pocket and pulled out my pen. Naturally that was the one thing I’d always have on me. I twisted it and out came my golden trident. Piper and Jason cleared the way as I used my weapon to help myself up, grunting and whining as I did. God it hurt so bad, but I knew Leo needed someone. Also, I didn’t think being around Jason was a good idea for the time being. I didn’t think I could handle it.

“Water Girl, easy,” Leo said, coming to my side to help steady me.

“I’m coming with you,” I said through clenched teeth. “We got the dragon together, so let’s find it together.”

I saw a gleam flash in Leo’s eye, and he smiled softly at me. “Right.”

Leo reached into his magic tool belt, pulled out a flashlight, and we headed down the stairs, leaving Piper and Jason alone.

I used my trident like a walking stick, keeping its sharp edge in the ground and leaning my weight into it for support. Leo kept pace with me, though I could tell he was antsy to find Festus.

We made our way to the junkyard, and Leo let out the breath he was holding. “So… you and Jason?”

I played it dumb. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Leo moved his flashlight around. “You and him, y’know?”

“What, when I was falling?” I gripped my trident’s shaft so hard my knuckles almost split. “You were the one who promised wouldn’t let me fall.”

“Hey, I know,” Leo huffed. “I couldn’t help that.”

“Well I couldn’t help that Jason was the one who saved me,” I said, stopping in my tracks to catch my breath.

Leo kept his back to me. “I saw how you looked at him.”

“Oh yeah?”

“It was how you looked at me in my fake memories.”

I didn’t look at Leo. The two of us were quiet for some time.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, starting to walk again.

Leo scanned another trash pile with his flashlight. “You used to love him.”

I turned around to Leo in disbelief. “You- You’re insane!”

“No, it’s cool,” Leo said, keeping his eyes away from mine. “That’s why you hate him, right?”

I bit the inside of my cheek and looked away. “I… I’m just- I’m afraid of heights. He caught me, and that’s the end of the story.”

“Right, yeah sorry.” Leo wiped his face and caught up with me. “I didn’t mean anything, you know, rude.”

“I get it,” I said. “But that- that’s not cool.”

Leo nodded and exhaled, completely shifting his attitude. “How you liking trash land?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s whatever.”

We kept wandering around until a horrid stench caught my nose.

“Ugh! What curled up and died over there?” Leo asked.

“It’s like if shit caught on fire,” I said, my eyes watering. I pointed in the direction of the smell, and Leo turned his flashlight onto it.

“Oh, come on!” Leo yelled.

Of all the places to crash, a line of Porta-Potties would not have been my first choice. A dozen of the blue plastic boxes had been set up in the factory yard, and Festus had flattened them all. Fortunately, they hadn’t been used in a long time, and the fireball from the crash incinerated most of the contents; but still, there were some pretty gross chemicals leaking out of the wreckage. We had to pick our way through and try not to breathe through our noses. Heavy snow was coming down, but the dragon’s hide was still steaming hot. Of course, that didn’t bother Leo.

After a few minutes climbing over Festus’s inanimate body, Leo started to get irritated. The dragon looked perfectly fine. Yes, it had fallen out of the sky and landed with a big ka-boom, but its body wasn’t even dented. The fireball had apparently come from built up gasses inside the toilet units, not from the dragon itself. Festus’s wings were intact. Nothing seemed broken. There was no reason it should have stopped.

“He looks great,” I said.

“Not my fault,” Leo muttered. “Festus, you’re making me look bad.”

Then he opened the control panel on the dragon’s head, and Leo’s expression sank. “Oh, Festus, what the hell?”

I used my trident to push myself up, peeking over the dragon and seeing what Leo was looking at.

The wiring had frozen over. I knew it had been okay yesterday. Leo’d worked so hard to repair the corroded lines, but something had caused a flash freeze inside the dragon’s skull, where it should’ve been too hot for ice to form. The ice had caused the wiring to overload and char the control disk. I couldn’t see any reason that would’ve happened. Sure, the dragon was old, but still, it didn’t make sense.

Leo could replace the wires. That wasn’t the problem. But the charred control disk was not good. The Greek letters and pictures carved around the edges, which probably held all kinds of magic, were blurred and blackened.

The one piece of hardware Leo couldn’t replace—and it was damaged. Again.

“Oh, shit,” I mumbled. “Leo, I’m so sorry.”

“Right,” he muttered, brushing the snow off his shoulders. “Gimme a nylon bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves, and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent.”

“Wh- me? Or-”

Leo shoved his hands into his tool belt. The tool belt obliged. Leo couldn’t help smiling as he pulled out the supplies.

“Oh,” I said, now less confused. “How exactly does that thing work?”

“The belt’s pockets do have limits,” Leo explained, picking up his supplies. “They wouldn’t give me anything magic, like Jason’s sword, or anything huge, like your trident. I’d tried asking for both. And if I ask for too many things at once, the belt needs a cooldown time before it can work again. The more complicated the request, the longer the cooldown. But anything small and simple like you might find around a workshop—all I have to do is ask.”

“Wow,” I blinked. “Um, can I have some water?” I asked, shoving my hand into the toolbelt.

Leo squirmed. “Yo! Get your hands away from the forbidden area!”

I laughed, pulling my hand away with a small plastic water bottle. I cracked it open and gulped it down.

Leo began cleaning off the control disk. While he worked, snow collected on the cooling dragon. Leo had to stop from time to time to summon fire and melt it away, but mostly he went into autopilot mode, his hands working by themselves as his thoughts wandered. I watched in amazement, my eyes unable to keep track of how fast his hands were working.

When I looked up to the boy’s face, I saw his brow furrowed as he was deep in thought. Leo never got that way. When he was hyper focused on building, he could still talk and usually just had a blank face. But when Leo knit his brows together, I knew he was thinking really hard about something unrelated to what was right in front of him- usually something bad.

I wished I could read his thoughts, but as I said before, I’d probably be unable to handle it.

“Enough, Valdez,” Leo scolded himself. “Nobody’s going to play any violins for you just because you’re not important. Fix the stupid dragon.”

I frowned as Leo spoke his thoughts. “No, Leo…” I mumbled.

“No, what?” He asked. “I… no, I was thinking stupid thoughts. Ugh, just gotta fix the dragon…”

I leaned my head into him, trying to think of ways I could help. I knew Leo was upset but I couldn’t figure out what set it off. If it was about the Jason thing, Leo was a hypocrite. Just a few hours ago he was fawning over the goddess of snow who tried to kill our friends. But what he mumbled about not being important was probably the issue, I just didn’t know what he was really thinking. I wished I could help him feel better, but I didn’t know how to help with his dragon or his emotions if he wouldn’t tell me about them.

Sometimes I wished he could let me know what he was really thinking. Even when he let his walls down for a few seconds, I never really got a full view of his heart. I hated it, but it was dumb for me to say that since I was the same way. Only Jason had seen my heart in full display, and I knew how that went.

I sighed and leaned away from Leo, suddenly somewhat agitated with him. “I should take a quick walk around. See if Jason and Pipes are okay. You gonna be okay for a few minutes?”

Leo shrugged, not looking up from his work. “Doesn’t matter to me.”

I furrowed my brows and turned, staring my way back through the junkyard. My ankle really fucking hurt, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I just leaned against my trident and swung my good leg over, using it as a crutch. My great-aunt had taught me how to use one when I was little, but it was easier for her since she’d used one her whole life, and her crutch had the top bar for her armpit. I had to use my trident like an oversized walking stick while still keeping up my bad leg and not walking on it. Needless to say, this was harder than any training I’d done, and I needed a break after a few minutes.

I exhaled, leaning against a giant mound of trash while I regained my energy. I had only made it maybe ten feet away from the area with Festus and Leo, but was around a corner of trash, so I was probably out of eyesight.

However, not out of ear shot.

I heard a voice from behind me- a woman’s voice, saying something to Leo.

“You’re wrong, Leo,” she said.

I had never heard the woman’s voice before, but something about it made me shiver. I peeked around the trash heap behind me and looked to Leo, where the toxic sludge on the ground started to come together, forming a giant face in the ground. She was facing Leo, but from my angle it looked like she may have been… asleep?

Her lips didn’t move when she spoke, but her voice was loud and clear.

“They need you desperately,” she said. “In some ways, you are the most important of the eight—like the control disk in the dragon’s brain. Without you, the power of the others means nothing. They will never reach me, never stop me. And I will fully wake.”

Leo had his eyes fixated on the face. He looked scared for a moment, then his fear turned into burning rage.

“You,” Leo said. “You killed my mom.”

My eyes widened. That was how his mom died? He never explained what had happened to her when he was little, just that he’d seen her die in front of him. Now it’s revealed that it was this… face in the ground that killed her? What was really going on here?

The face shifted. The mouth formed a sleepy smile like it was having a pleasant dream. “Ah, but Leo. I am your mother too—the First Mother. Do not oppose me. Walk away now. Let my son Porphyrion rise and become king, and I will ease your burdens. You will tread lightly on the earth.”

Leo bawled his fists. Even from my distance I could see him trembling. I decided I had enough of the sludge face and stepped out from behind the trash mound. I hefted up my trident and yelled, throwing it directly into the sleeping woman’s face. “Leave him alone!”

My trident sank deeper into the liquid earth. Snow and sludge rippled, and the face dissolved. My trident fell over, clanging into the ground.

Leo and I stared at my weapon, waiting for the face to reappear. But it didn’t.

I looked up at the boy. “You okay?”

Leo started. “I-”

Then from the direction of the factory, we heard a crash—like two dump trucks slamming together. Metal crumpled and groaned, and the noise echoed across the yard. Instantly we knew that Jason and Piper were in trouble.

Walk away now, the voice had urged.

“Not likely,” Leo growled. “Gimme the biggest hammer you got.”

He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a three-pound club hammer with a double-faced head the size of a baked potato. Then he jumped off the dragon’s back and grabbed my trident from the dirt. “Come on,” he said.

I took my trident from him, and together we took off toward the warehouse.

We stopped at the doors and I tried to power through the pain in my ankle. The voice of the earth woman still rang in my ears, reminding me of what she said about Leo. I didn’t doubt that he was special, but what she had said about him being the most important in the prophecy struck me as odd. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t doubt Leo would choose the right path.

But that didn’t make me any less scared. I took a deep breath and peered inside. Nothing looked different. Gray morning light filtered through the hole in the roof. A few lightbulbs flickered, but most of the factory floor was still lost in shadows. I could make out the catwalk above, the dim shapes of heavy machinery along the assembly line, but no movement. No sign of our friends.

I almost called out, but something stopped me—a sense I couldn’t identify. Then I realized it was smell. Something smelled wrong—like burning motor oil and sour breath.

Something not human was inside the factory. I was certain. My body shifted into high gear, all my nerves tingling.

Somewhere on the factory floor, Piper’s voice cried out my name. “Help!”

Leo looked at me. I could see in his face that he felt as nervous as me. I shook my head at him.

We slipped inside and ducked behind a cargo container. Slowly, gripping his hammer, Leo worked his way toward the center of the room, hiding behind boxes and hollow truck chassis. I wanted to follow him, but my ankle was about to give out. I figured I’d be better help from the side. Finally Leo reached the assembly line. He crouched behind the nearest piece of machinery—a crane with a robotic arm.

Piper’s voice called out again: “Leo?” Less certain this time, but very close.

I peeked around the machinery. Hanging directly above the assembly line, suspended by a chain from a crane on the opposite side, was a massive truck engine—just dangling thirty feet up, as if it had been left there when the factory was abandoned. Below it on the conveyor belt sat a truck chassis, and clustered around it were three dark shapes the size of forklifts. Nearby, dangling from chains on two other robotic arms, were two smaller shapes—maybe more engines, but one of them was twisting around as if it were alive.

Then one of the forklift shapes rose, and I realized it was a humanoid of massive size. “Told you it was nothing,” the thing rumbled. Its voice was too deep and feral to be human.

One of the other forklift-sized lumps shifted, and called out in Piper’s voice: “Leo, help me! Help—” Then the voice changed, becoming a masculine snarl. “Bah, there’s nobody out there. No demigods could be that quiet, eh?”

The first monster chuckled. “Probably ran away, if they know what’s good for them. Or the girl was lying about two more demigods. Let’s get cooking.”

Snap. A bright orange light sizzled to life—an emergency flare—and I was temporarily blinded. I ducked behind the crate until the spots cleared from my eyes. Then I took another peep and saw a nightmare scene even I couldn’t have dreamed up.

The two smaller things dangling from crane arms weren’t engines. They were Jason and Piper. Both hung upside down, tied by their ankles and cocooned with chains up to their necks. Piper was flailing around, trying to free herself. Her mouth was gagged, but at least she was alive. Jason didn’t look so good. He hung limply, his eyes rolled up in his head. A red welt the size of an apple had swollen over his left eyebrow.

On the conveyor belt, the bed of the unfinished pickup truck was being used as a fire pit. The emergency flare had ignited a mixture of tires and wood, which, from the smell of it, had been doused in kerosene. A big metal pole was suspended over the flames—a spit, I realized, which meant this was a cooking fire.

But most terrifying of all were the cooks.

Monocle Motors: that single red eye logo. Why hadn’t I realized?

Three massive humanoids gathered around the fire. Two were standing, stoking the flames. The largest one crouched with his back to Leo and I. The two facing us were each ten feet tall, with hairy muscular bodies and skin that glowed red in the firelight. One of the monsters wore a chainmail loincloth that looked really uncomfortable. The other wore a ragged fuzzy toga made of fiberglass insulation, which also would not have made my top ten wardrobe ideas. Other than that, the two monsters could’ve been twins. Each had a brutish face with a single eye in the center of his forehead. The cooks were Cyclopes.

I’d been in fights with monsters before, but in all honesty it had been a long time since I’d seen a cyclops. I never liked them, considering the smell and that horrible voice mimic they had. I couldn’t stand cyclopes, and fighting them just added onto the hate. They never went down easy.

I looked over to Leo, who’s emotions seemed to be swirling in his head. I pitied him. He’d seen too much weird shit this week, and I didn’t doubt it was starting to mess with him.

He was probably so terrified he could hardly think. If only we had Festus. We could use a fire-breathing sixty-foot-long tank about now, though cyclopes are immune to fire. But all we had was a tool belt and a backpack. His three-pound club hammer looked awfully small compared to those Cyclopes, and I doubted I could throw my trident at three enemies that would probably snap it in half.

Leo and I locked eyes. We couldn’t just walk away like the dirtt face had said, but there wasn’t much we could do. I motioned to my trident and shrugged. Leo bit his lip and pointed at his brain. He slipped off his backpack and quietly started to unzip it.

The Cyclops in the chainmail loincloth walked over to Piper, who squirmed and tried to head-butt him in the eye. “Can I take her gag off now? I like it when they scream.”

The question was directed at the third Cyclops, apparently the leader. The crouching figure grunted, and Loincloth ripped the gag off Piper’s mouth.

She didn’t scream. She took a shaky breath like she was trying to keep herself calm.

Meanwhile, Leo found what he wanted in the pack, though I couldn’t see what they were from my distance. He slipped a screwdriver from his tool belt and went to work, but he had to go slowly. The leader Cyclops was only twenty feet in front of him. The monsters obviously had excellent senses. Pulling off his plan without making noise seemed impossible, but he didn’t have much choice.

The Cyclops in the toga poked at the fire, which was now blazing away and billowing noxious black smoke toward the ceiling. His buddy Loincloth glowered at Piper, waiting for her to do something entertaining. “Scream, girl! I like funny screaming!”

When Piper finally spoke, her tone was calm and reasonable, like she was correcting a naughty puppy. “Oh, Mr. Cyclops, you don’t want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go.”

Charmspeak, I thought. But it doesn’t sound powerful enough yet. She’s not confident.

Loincloth scratched his ugly head. He turned to his friend in the fiberglass toga. “She’s kind of pretty, Torque. Maybe I should let her go.”

Torque, the dude in the toga, growled. “I saw her first, Sump. I’ll let her go!” Sump and Torque started to argue, but the third Cyclops rose and shouted, “Fools!”

I almost dropped my trident. The third Cyclops was a female. She was several feet taller than Torque or Sump, and even beefier. She wore a tent of chain mail cut like one of those sack dresses my great-aunt used to wear. What’d they call that—a muumuu? Yeah, the Cyclops lady had a chainmail muumuu. Her greasy black hair was matted in pigtails, woven with copper wires and metal washers. Her nose and mouth were thick and smashed together, like she spent her free time ramming her face into walls; but her single red eye glittered with evil intelligence.

The woman Cyclops stalked over to Sump and pushed him aside, knocking him over the conveyor belt. Torque backed up quickly.

“The girl is Venus spawn,” the lady Cyclops snarled. “She’s using charmspeak on you.”

Piper started to say, “Please, ma’am—”

“Rarr!” The lady Cyclops grabbed Piper around the waist. “Don’t try your pretty talk on me, girl! I’m Ma Gasket! I’ve eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!”

I feared Piper would get crushed, but Ma Gasket just dropped her and let her dangle from her chain. Then she started yelling at Sump about how stupid he was.

I looked back to my other friend. Leo’s hands worked furiously. He twisted wires and turned switches, hardly thinking about what he was doing. He finished whatever it was, then he crept over to the next robotic arm while the Cyclopes were talking.

“—eat her last, Ma?” Sump was saying.

“Idiot!” Ma Gasket yelled, and I realized Sump and Torque must be her sons. If so, ugly definitely ran in the family. “I should’ve thrown you out on the streets when you were babies, like proper Cyclops children. You might have learned some useful skills. Curse my soft heart that I kept you!”

“Soft heart?” Torque muttered.

“What was that, you ingrate?”

“Nothing, Ma. I said you got a soft heart. We get to work for you, feed you, file your toenails—”

“And you should be grateful!” Ma Gasket bellowed. “Now, stoke the fire, Torque! And Sump, you idiot, my case of salsa is in the other warehouse. Don’t tell me you expect me to eat these demigods without salsa!”

“Yes, Ma,” Sump said. “I mean no, Ma. I mean—”

“Go get it!” Ma Gasket picked up a nearby truck chassis and slammed it over Sump’s head. Sump crumpled to his knees. I was sure a hit like that would kill him, but Sump apparently got hit by trucks a lot. He managed to push the chassis off his head. Then he staggered to his feet and ran off to fetch the salsa.

Now’s the time, I thought. While they’re separated.

I looked to Leo and saw he finished wiring the second machine and moved toward a third. As he dashed between robotic arms, the Cyclopes didn’t see him, but Piper did. Her expression turned from terror to disbelief, and she gasped.

Ma Gasket turned to her. “What’s the matter, girl? So fragile I broke you?”

Thankfully, Piper was a quick thinker. She looked away from Leo and said, “I think it’s my ribs, ma’am. If I’m busted up inside, I’ll taste terrible.”

Ma Gasket bellowed with laughter. “Good one. The last hero we ate—remember him, Torque? Son of Mercury, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, Ma,” Torque said. “Tasty. Little bit stringy.”

“He tried a trick like that. Said he was on medication. But he tasted fine!”

“Tasted like mutton,” Torque recalled. “Purple shirt. Talked in Latin. Yes, a bit stringy, but good.”

What? I looked back over the crate. Camp had been out this far? Apparently, Piper must have been thinking something similar. “Purple shirt? Latin?”

“Good eating,” Ma Gasket said fondly. “Point is, girl, we’re not as dumb as people think! We’re not falling for those stupid tricks and riddles, not us northern Cyclopes.”

I bit my lip and mentally cursed. I had sworn to not talk about CJ, so Piper had to figure this out on her own. The more I thought about that place, the closer I brought myself to it. I had to push my thoughts down. I decided to start moving to a better position, ducking under the crate again and crawling to the next.

Piper kept talking, laying on the praise. “Oh, I’ve heard about the northern Cyclopes!” Which I figured was bull, but she sounded convincing. “I never knew you were so big and clever!”

“Flattery won’t work either,” Ma Gasket said, though she sounded pleased. “It’s true, you’ll be breakfast for the best Cyclopes around.”

“But aren’t Cyclopes good?” Piper asked. “I thought you made weapons for the gods.”

“Bah! I’m very good. Good at eating people. Good at smashing. And good at building things, yes, but not for the gods. Our cousins, the elder Cyclopes, they do this, yes. Thinking they’re so high and mighty ’cause they’re a few thousand years older. Then there’s our southern cousins, living on islands and tending sheep. Morons! But we Hyperborean Cyclopes, the northern clan, we’re the best! Founded Monocle Motors in this old factory—the best weapons, armor, chariots, fuel-efficient SUVs! And yet—bah! Forced to shut down. Laid off most of our tribe. The war was too quick. Titans lost. No good! No more need for Cyclops weapons.”

“Oh, no,” Piper sympathized. “I’m sure you made some amazing weapons.”

Torque grinned. “Squeaky war hammer!” He picked up a large pole with an accordion-looking metal box on the end.

He slammed it against the floor and the cement cracked, but there was also a sound like the world’s largest rubber ducky getting stomped.

“Terrifying,” Piper said.

Torque looked pleased. “Not as good as the exploding ax, but this one can be used more than once.”

“Can I see it?” Piper asked. “If you could just free my hands—”

Torque stepped forward eagerly, but Ma Gasket said, “Stupid! She’s tricking you again. Enough talk! Slay the boy first before he dies on his own. I like my meat fresh.”

No! I thought. Just a few more minutes!

“Hey, wait,” Piper said, trying to get the Cyclopes’ attention. “Hey, can I just ask—”

My arm twitched in anticipation, accidentally hitting my trident against a rock. The Cyclopes froze and turned in my direction. Then Torque picked up a truck and threw it at me.

I rolled as the truck steamrolled over the crates. If I’d been a half-second slower, I would’ve been smashed.

Well, the jig is up.

I shot to my feet, a terrible pain shooting through my ankle as Ma Gasket spotted me.

She yelled, “Torque, you pathetic excuse for a Cyclops, get her!”

Torque barreled toward me. I hefted my trident up.

I hadn’t been in a real, serious fight in a long time. I was scared of what would happen if I let myself back into my roman ways. But, there was no more running. CJ had already come to me, and there was no more keeping myself under control. If I was going to fight, I was going to do it right.

I yelled, throwing my trident as hard as possible. It shot through the air as fast as an arrow, landing directly in Torque’s chest. The cyclops was thrown backwards by the force, flying toward Leo’s side of the room.

Whatever he had been working on pulled through. The first robotic arm whirred to life. A three-ton yellow metal claw slammed the Cyclops in the back so hard, he flew back toward me. I ran toward him and ducked, grabbing my trident and spinning around. My weapon came out of his chest, but Torque got slammed into the ground. Before he could recover, Leo’s robotic hand grabbed him by one leg and hurled him straight up.

“AHHHHH!” Torque rocketed into the gloom. The ceiling was too dark and too high up to see exactly what happened, but judging from the harsh metal clang, I guessed the Cyclops had hit one of the support girders.

Torque never came down. Instead, yellow dust rained to the floor. Torque had disintegrated.

I sniffled and wiped my nose. Gods, I missed this feeling.

Ma Gasket stared at me in shock. “My son … You … You …”

As if on cue, Sump lumbered into the firelight with a case of salsa. “Ma, I got the extra-spicy—”

He never finished his sentence. I whipped around and speared my trident into Sump’s chest. The salsa case exploded like a piñata and Sump flew backward, right into the base of Leo’s third machine. I held up my hand, and my trident flew right back to me.

Sump may have been immune to getting hit with truck chasses, but he wasn’t immune to robotic arms that could deliver ten thousand pounds of force. The third crane arm slammed him against the floor so hard, he exploded into dust like a broken flour sack.

Two Cyclopes down. Leo was probably beginning to feel like Commander Tool Belt when Ma Gasket locked her eye on him. She grabbed the nearest crane arm and ripped it off its pedestal with a savage roar. “You busted my boys! Only I get to bust my boys!”

Leo punched a button, and the two remaining arms swung into action. Ma Gasket caught the first one and tore it in half. The second arm smacked her in the head, but that only seemed to make her mad. She grabbed it by the clamps, ripped it free, and swung it like a baseball bat. It missed Piper and Jason by an inch. Then Ma Gasket let it go—spinning it toward Leo. He yelped and rolled to one side as it demolished the machine next to him.

Leo started to realize that an angry Cyclops mother was not something you wanted to fight with a universal remote and a screwdriver. The future for Commander Tool Belt was not looking so hot, but luckily he had me.

I ran up to her backside and thrusted my trident forward. Ma Gasket turned and grabbed my weapon, snarling as she picked it up. “What’s this toothpick supposed to do?”

I grinned, dangling from the other end of the trident. “Nothing!”

Using my core, I swung myself and kicked her straight in her ugly jaw. She howled and bent back, blood spurting from her missing tooth. “How dare you!” she yelled, lifting the trident higher. “That did nothing!”

“Not till now!” I laughed. I raised my hand and closed my fist. Ma Gasket tried to speak, but I had her jaw on lock. I only needed a little blood to control it all. As I moved my hand around, I contorted her face, pulling her by the bloody socket in her mouth. Cyclopes usually had too much muscle and not enough water in their bodies for me to control, but as I said, I only needed an opening.

“Stahp is, ouh itch!” Ma screamed. She swung my trident up and straight back down, causing me to bail out. I jumped off and rolled back, watching the ugly cyclops slam my trident into the ground. She let go, and I pulled my trident back to my hand.

She stood about twenty feet from me now, next to the cooking fire. Her fists were clenched, her teeth bared. She looked ridiculous in her chainmail muumuu and her greasy pigtails—but given the murderous glare in her huge red eye and the fact that she was twelve feet tall, Leo and I weren't laughing.

“Any more tricks, demigods?” Ma Gasket demanded.

I stood up, feeling my ankle scream at me. I tried to not let the pain control me, but I had worked a little too hard. My face twitched in pain, and Ma Gasket noticed. She snarled a grin and started for me.

“Hey!” Leo yelled and raised his remote control. “Take one more step, and I’ll destroy you with fire!”

Ma Gasket turned and laughed. “Would you? Cyclopes are immune to fire, you idiot. But if you wish to play with flames, let me help!”

She scooped red-hot coals into her bare hands and flung them at Leo. They landed all around his feet.

“You missed,” he said incredulously. Then Ma Gasket grinned and picked up a barrel next to the truck. I just had time to read the stenciled word on the side—kerosene —before Ma Gasket threw it. The barrel split on the floor in front of him, spilling lighter fluid everywhere.

Coals sparked. Leo closed his eyes, and Piper screamed, “No!”

I saw red. But this time, it wasn’t from anger.

A firestorm erupted around him. Leo was bathed in flames swirling twenty feet into the air.

Ma Gasket shrieked with delight, but Leo didn’t offer the fire any good fuel. The kerosene burned off, dying down to small fiery patches on the floor. Leo was completely fire resistant. I couldn’t help but smile.

Piper gasped. “Leo?”

Ma Gasket looked astonished. “You live?” Then she took that extra step forward. “What are you?”

“The son of Hephaestus,” Leo said. “And I warned you I’d destroy you with fire.”

He pointed one finger in the air and he shot a bolt of white-hot flames at the chain suspending the engine block above the Cyclops’s head.

The flames died. Nothing happened. Ma Gasket laughed. “An impressive try, son of Hephaestus. It’s been many centuries since I saw a fire user. You’ll make a spicy appetizer!”

“I don’t think so,” Leo said.

Ma Gasket didn’t even have time to look up.

Smash! No more Cyclops—just a pile of dust under a five-ton engine block.

“Not immune to engines, huh?” Leo said. “Boo-yah!”

“Yeah!” I yelled. “That’s my Fire Boy!”

Leo flushed. “Your what?”

I laughed and took a step forward. I quickly collapsed and fell flat on my face. “Ugh.”

Leo tried to run to me, but he collapsed as well.

Piper yelled. “Hey! Are you alright? Can you move?”

Leo stumbled to his feet. Apparently that fireball had completely drained him. I guessed he didn’t use his powers much.

He moved over to me and helped me stand, getting my trident up for my leg support. “You shouldn’t have done that. But damn, you got some moves, fish soldier.”

“Maybe you should have burned in that fire,” I joked, slapping Leo on the back. He snickered with me, helping me over to our chained friends.

It took us a long time to get Piper down from her chains. Then together we lowered Jason, who was still unconscious. Piper managed to trickle a little nectar into his mouth, and he groaned. The welt on his head started to shrink. His color came back a little.

“Yeah, he’s got a nice thick skull,” I said. “I think he’s gonna be fine.”

“Thank god,” Piper sighed. Then she looked at Leo with something like fear. “How did you—the fire—have you always … ?”

Leo looked down. “Always,” he said. “I’m a freaking menace. Sorry, I should’ve told you guys sooner but—”

“Sorry?” I punched his arm. I grinned at him, laying my hand on his shoulder. “That was amazing, Valdez! You saved our lives. What are you sorry about?”

“Yeah, seriously!” Piper said. “I don’t care about all that weird elemental stuff you guys do. What I care about is that you’re my friends and you saved us.”

Leo blinked. He started to smile, but his sense of relief was ruined when he noticed something next to Piper’s foot. I followed his gaze.

Yellow dust—the powdered remains of one of the Cyclopes, maybe Torque—was shifting across the floor like an invisible wind was pushing it back together.

“They’re forming again,” I said. “Look.”

Piper stepped away from the dust. “That’s not possible. Annabeth told me monsters dissipate when they’re killed. They go back to Tartarus and can’t return for a long time.”

“Well, nobody told the dust that.” Leo said.

We watched as it collected into a pile, then very slowly spread out, forming a shape with arms and legs.

“Oh, god.” Piper turned pale. “Boreas said something about this—the earth yielding up horrors. ‘When monsters no longer stay in Tartarus, and souls are no longer confined to Hades.’ How long do you think we have?”

I thought about the face that had formed in the ground outside—the sleeping woman who was definitely a horror from the earth.

“I don’t know,” I said. “But we need to get out of here.”

“What’s the plan?” Piper asked.

I turned to her and Leo. “You two pick up Jason. We’ll go to Festus and we all get on. Leo, once we’re all set, get that guy into the air. Ready, go!”

Chapter Text

Jason’s eyes snapped open. “Cyclops!”

“Whoa, sleepyhead.” Piper sat behind him on the bronze dragon, holding his waist to keep him balanced. Leo sat in front of me, driving. We flew peacefully through the winter sky as if nothing had happened.

“D-Detroit,” Jason stammered. “Didn’t we crash-land? I thought—”

“It’s okay,” Leo said. “We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?”

Jason blinked, obviously confused. “How did you—the Cyclops—”

“Leo and Water Girl ripped them apart,” Piper said. “They were amazing. Leo can summon fire—”

“It was nothing,” Leo said quickly.

Piper laughed. “Shut up, Valdez. I’m going to tell him. Get over it.”

“That’s incredible,” Jason said. “Leo has powers? And wait, you fought with a broken ankle?” he asked me.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, when the other only trained demigod passes out in battle, someone has to step up.”

Jason frowned. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m used to it,” I said. “It’s not a battle if you aren’t knocked out.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, man,” I said. “I cannot wait for you to remember our old days together.”

“Speaking of that,” Piper started. “When we were tied up, the cyclopes started talking about their last demigod. He spoke Latin and had a purple shirt. They said he was a son of Mercury.”

I looked down to my forearm, my markings starting to burn. I rubbed it through my sleeve, trying to ease my memories.

Jason watched me, his blue eyes holding an emotion I couldn’t read. “We aren’t alone, then. There are others like us.”

I scoffed. “I’m well aware.”

“I had a dream…” Jason said. “I can’t really understand it, so maybe you could help?”

He explained his dream to us. He was inside an earthen cage with Hera, tendrils all around him inside an empty pool. Hera called it her prison. She said something about the earth stirring against us. The enemy we were after could not be defeated, Jason told us. She could only be kept asleep. That made me think of the face in the toilet sludge, but I decided to skip over that. Before Jason woke up, Hera called him and I an exchange; a peace offering, a bridge. The only reason either of us had survived was because Jason’s memory was stolen by Hera. Then, before she left, she warned that Chicago would be dangerous.

The dream left a sick feeling in my stomach.

“An exchange?” Piper asked. “What does that mean?”

Jason shook his head. “But Hera’s gamble is the both of us. Just by sending us to you, to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way-”

“Or save us,” Piper said hopefully. “That bit about the sleeping enemy—that sounds like the lady Leo told us about.”

Leo cleared his throat. “About that … she kind of appeared to me back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge.”

Jason looked confused. “Did you say … Porta-Potty?”

Leo told them about the big face in the factory yard. “I don’t know if she’s completely unkillable,” he said, “but she cannot be defeated by a trident. I can vouch for that. She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, ‘Pfft, right, I’m gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.’”

“Sure,” I said. “You were thinking about it.”

“Nu-uh!” Leo huffed. “I wouldn’t leave you guys for anything!”

“She’s trying to divide us.” Piper said, her voice shaky.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I just … Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?”

“Enceladus?” I didn’t think I’d heard that name before.

“I mean …” Piper’s voice quavered. “That’s one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember.”

I got the feeling there was a lot more bothering her, but I decided not to press her. She’d had a rough morning.

Leo scratched his head. “Well, I dunno about Enchiladas—”

“Enceladus,” Piper corrected.

“Whatever. But Old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?”

“Porphyrion?” I asked. “He was the giant king, I think.”

“I’m going to take wild guess,” Jason said. “In the old stories, Porphyrion kidnapped Hera. That was the first shot in the war between the giants and the gods.”

“I think so,” Piper agreed. “But those myths are really garbled and conflicted. It’s almost like nobody wanted that story to survive. I just remember there was a war, and the giants were almost impossible to kill.”

“Heroes and gods had to work together,” Jason said. “That’s what Hera told me.”

“Kind of hard to do,” Leo grumbled, “if the gods won’t even talk to us.”

We flew west, and I became lost in my thoughts—all of them bad. I wasn’t sure how much time passed before the dragon dove through a break in the clouds, and below us, glittering in the winter sun, was a city at the edge of a massive lake. A crescent of skyscrapers lined the shore. Behind us, stretching out to the western horizon, was a vast grid of snow-covered neighborhoods and roads.

“Chicago,” I said.

“One problem down,” Leo said. “We got here alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?”

I saw a flash of movement below us. At first I thought it was a small plane, but it was too small, too dark and fast. The thing spiraled toward the skyscrapers, weaving and changing shape—and, just for a moment it became the smoky figure of a horse.

“How about we follow that one,” I suggested, “and see where it goes?”

I was afraid we’d lose our target. The ventus moved like … well, like the wind.

“Speed up!” Jason urged.

“Bruh,” Leo said, “if I get any closer, he’ll spot us. Bronze dragon ain’t exactly a stealth plane.”

“Slow down!” Piper yelped.

The storm spirit dove into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was way too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Leo pulled up.

“Get above the buildings,” I suggested. “We’ll track him from there.”

“You want to drive this thing?” Leo grumbled, but he did what I asked.

After a few minutes, Jason spotted the storm spirit again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose—blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.

“Oh great,” Piper said. “There’re two.”

She was right. A second ventus blasted around the corner of the Renaissance Hotel and linked up with the first. They wove together in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down toward the street.

“Those guys do not need any more caffeine,” Leo said.

“I guess Chicago’s a good place to hang out,” I said. “Nobody’s going to question a couple more evil winds.”

“More than a couple,” Jason mentioned. “Look.”

The dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. Storm spirits were converging—at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.

“Which one do you think is Dylan?” Leo asked. “I wanna throw something at him.”

But I focused on the art installation. Two five-story monoliths rose from either end of a long granite reflecting pool. The monoliths seemed to be built of video screens, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spewed water into the pool.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it looked like a high-tech, super-size version of that ruined reflecting pool Jason had described from his dreams, with those two dark masses jutting from either end. As I watched, the image on the screens changed to a woman’s face with her eyes closed.

“Leo …” I said nervously.

“I see her,” Leo said. “I don’t like her, but I see her.”

Then the screens went dark. The venti swirled together into a single funnel cloud and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the monoliths. They got to its center, popped off a drain cover, and disappeared underground.

“Did they just go down a drain?” Piper asked. “How are we supposed to follow them?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Leo said. “That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren’t we supposed to, like, beware the earth?”

I felt the same way, but we had to follow. It was our only way forward. We had to find Hera, and we now had only two days until the solstice.

“Put us down in that park,” Jason suggested. “We’ll check it out on foot.”

Festus landed in an open area between the lake and the skyline. The signs said Grant Park, and I imagined it would’ve been a nice place in the summer; but now it was a field of ice, snow, and salted walkways. The dragon’s hot metal feet hissed as they touched down. Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice. The wind coming off the lake was bitter cold. Anyone with sense would be inside. My eyes stung so badly, I could barely see.

We dismounted, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet. One of his ruby eyes flickered, so it looked like he was blinking.

“Is that normal?” Jason asked.

Leo pulled a rubber mallet from his tool bag. He whacked the dragon’s bad eye, and the light went back to normal. “Yes,” Leo said. “Festus can’t hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They’ll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle …”

He rummaged in his tool belt, but came up with nothing.

“Too specialized?” he guessed. “Okay, give me a safety whistle. They got that in lots of machine shops.”

This time, Leo pulled out a big plastic orange whistle. “Coach Hedge would be jealous! Okay, Festus, listen.” Leo blew the whistle. The shrill sound probably rolled all the way across Lake Michigan. “You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, you fly wherever you want. Just try not to barbecue any pedestrians.”

The dragon snorted—hopefully in agreement. Then he spread his wings and launched into the air.

I took one step and winced. “Ah!”

“Your ankle?” Jason asked, his arms already on me to stabilize. “That nectar we gave you might be wearing off.”

“It’s fine.” I shoved his hands off me. I took a few more steps with only a slight limp, trying to keep the expressions of pain off my face.

“Let’s get out of the wind,” Jason suggested.

“Down a drain?” Piper shuddered. “Sounds cozy.”

We wrapped ourselves up as best we could and headed toward the fountain.

Jason tried to keep to my side, but I limped ahead of him toward Leo. “Hey,” I greeted.

Leo turned to me, trying to get his hair away from his ear piercings. “Hey! Little help?”

I sighed and pushed his hair behind his ears. “Better?”

“Yeah, except for that,” Leo said, pointing to my chest. “There’s something on your sweater.”

“What?” I looked down to where he was pointing, but Leo quickly lifted his finger up, bringing my chin with him so I looked into his eyes.

He pulled away and gave me a stupid smile.

“Did you just rizz me?” I asked.

Leo laughed and started to run away, knowing I would try and punch him.

“You idiot!” I said, a laugh on my tongue. “Come back here!”

“Try and catch me, gimpy!”

“Oh, you son of a-”

I tried to chase the boy, hopping on one leg. I gave up after I fell flat on my face, having to be helped up by Piper and Jason.

“What was that?” Piper asked me, trying not to snort.

“Bro thinks he’s the rizzler,” I said. “He’s just being stupid.”

“Right,” Piper said. “Well, here we are.”

According to the plaque, it was called Crown Fountain. All the water had emptied out except for a few patches that were starting to freeze. It didn’t seem right to me that the fountain would have water in it in the winter anyway. Then again, those big monitors had flashed the face of our mysterious enemy Dirt Woman. Nothing about this place was right.

We stepped to the center of the pool. No spirits tried to stop us. The giant monitor walls stayed dark. The drain hole was easily big enough for a person, and a maintenance ladder led down into the gloom.

I went first. As I slid down the ladder, I braced myself for horrible sewer smells, but it wasn’t that bad. The ladder dropped into a brickwork tunnel running north to south. The air was warm and dry, with only a trickle of water on the floor.

Jason, Piper, and Leo climbed down after me.

“Are all sewers this nice?” Piper wondered.

“No,” Leo said. “Trust me.”

Jason frowned. “How do you know—”

“Hey, man, I ran away six times. I’ve slept in some weird places, okay? Now, which way do we go?”

Jason tilted his head, listening, then pointed south. “That way.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked.

“There’s a draft blowing south,” Jason said. “Maybe the venti went with the flow.”

It wasn’t much of a lead, but nobody offered anything better.

Unfortunately, as soon as we started walking, I stumbled. Jason had to catch me.

“Stupid fucking ankle,” I cursed.

“Let’s rest,” Jason decided. “We could all use it. We’ve been going nonstop for over a day. Leo, can you pull any food from that tool belt besides breath mints?”

“Thought you’d never ask. Chef Leo is on it!”

Piper and Jason sat on a brick ledge while Leo shuffled through his pack. As badly as I needed to sit, I fought the pain and walked towards Leo’s direction. When I got to his side, I punched him in his bicep.

“Ow!” Leo whined. “Man, why do you have such hard hits?”

“Because I’m strong,” I said. “Anyway, don’t do that weird shit again.”

“Aw, I thought it was funny.” Leo shrugged his shoulders and gave me a thumbs up. “Alright, Water Girl. Get down here and help me cook.”

I sighed, quickly seating myself on the cold tiles. Leo lit a small cooking fire with some wood from his toolbelt, humming as he grabbed supplies from his bag.

“What’s on the menu?” I asked, helping him set up a pan above the fire.

“Tacos,” Leo said. “Tofu, though, because you know Pipes.”

“Yep,” I said. “Well, let’s start cooking.”

Together, Leo and I threw some tofu in the pan and crumbled it up. Leo threw in some spices and flavor packets while I chopped up some veggies. Surprisingly, Leo didn’t have a cutting board. So, I sliced the bell peppers in my hands with a small knife, constantly getting a small amount of my skin with the blade. I threw in the produce and flicked my hand around.

“Jesus,” I said. “That was a sharp knife.”

“Yeesh,” Leo seethed. “That one’s bleeding pretty bad. Need a bandaid?”

“Gimme some water,” I ordered.

Leo nodded and got me a small water bottle from his toolbelt. I cracked it open with my teeth and poured the liquid on my hand. Immediately, the cuts healed and the burning stopped. “Better,” I said.

“That’s crazy.” Leo stirred in some onion to the tofu mix. “I wish fire could heal me like that.”

“You should see the other things I can do,” I said, a small sense of pride in my chest.”

“You know, when we first met, I had no idea where we would go,” Leo admitted. “And it was really scary, since I was sure I’d be kicked out of the school or you guys would find something out about me and leave.”

“I think I was more afraid.” I began preparing the four plates with corn tortillas and some chips. “I had a pretty big secret, as you can see.”

“But at least yours was cool and could help people,” Leo said. His voice tried to play it off as a joke, but I could hear the pain behind it.

“Fire is helpful,” I said. “It’s literally making us food right now.”

I looked at Leo, and saw a soft smile on his face. I grinned and shoved my finger into his dimple. “And it's warm and bright.”

Leo shoved my hand away, cracking open a jar of salsa. “Shut up, fish girl.”

“Yeah, well fish girl was raised as a killing machine. Look at these guns!” I rolled up my sleeve and flexed my arm, making Leo’s jaw drop.

“Dude, you are fucking ripped!” He yelled. “Oh my god, I don’t think I’ve ever seen your arms before! Like, not in full.”

I laughed and dropped my arm. “Well, it comes in handy to cover up to get a reaction like that.”

Leo laughed with me, scoping salsa onto the plates. His eyes slowly drifted to my forearm, and his smile faded. “You have one too.”

I frowned and lifted my arm up, brandishing it in the light. “We all do,” I said.

Leo got closer and studied my tattoo. “A trident and four lines. Jason had twelve.”

“Mhm,” I said. “He had more years.”

“He was a leader, right?” Leo said. “Because you… oh wow.”

“What?”

Leo blinked and shook his head. “I think my mist memories just wore off. The night before the field trip you talked about your bootcamp. The guy you hated was Jason, and you took orders from him.”

“Yep,” I said. “And that bootcamp is where he was before this.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell him?” Leo asked. “You knew him before this.”

“It’s not fair, and it’s not right.” I pulled my sleeve down and scooped some tofu mix onto the tortillas. “He needs to figure this out on his own, and I feel like it would only confuse him. He knows stuff that he technically shouldn’t right now, and it only fogs his brain. If I told him more, he’d kinda…. Short circuit.”

Leo helped me prepare the tacos. “What… what made you hate Jason so much?”

I picked up some plates and shifted to my knees. Leo helped me up and grabbed the remaining plates. I sighed and looked at Jason sitting next to Piper, talking softly to each other. My heart ached watching them.

“He hurt me,” I said. “Badly.”

Leo frowned. “Well, we can just try and move forward, right?”

“Sometimes,” I said. “But sometimes, you get hurt so bad you can’t walk anymore.”

“Right,” Leo agreed. “But there’s always wheelchairs. Come on!”

He linked our arms together and walked me toward the others.

“Bingo!” Leo yelled, grabbing Piper and Jason’s attention. They stared at our plates with hungry eyes.

“Leo,” Piper said in amazement. “How did you—?”

“Chef Leo’s Taco Garage is fixing you up!” he said proudly. “And by the way, it’s tofu, not beef, beauty queen, so don’t freak. Just dig in!”

I wasn’t sure about tofu, but the tacos tasted as good as they smelled. While we ate, Leo tried to lighten the mood and joke around. I was grateful Leo was with us. It made being with Jason a little less intense and uncomfortable.

After Piper ate, Jason encouraged her to get some sleep. Without another word, she curled up and put her head in his lap. In two seconds she was snoring.

I looked at Leo, who was obviously trying not to laugh. It was hard to contain ourselves when our eyes met.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking lemonade Leo had made from canteen water and powdered mix.

“Good, huh?” Leo grinned.

“Gods, yes,” I said, shoving the rest of my food in my mouth. “I haven’t had food this good since I was living with my mom. Dude, we had so many Mexican restaurants in my city, it was insane. It was like the only thing to eat there until we had a bunch more people move in.”

Leo grinned. “I should visit and rate it sometime, huh?”

I wanted to agree, but a flood of bad emotions rushed over me. My city. Leo shouldn’t come to that. It was something I needed to leave behind anyways. Why did I bring it up?

“You should start a stand,” Jason said. “Make some serious coin.”

But as Jason stared at the embers of the fire, something began to bother him. “Leo … about this fire stuff you can do … is it true?”

Leo’s smile faltered. “Yeah, well …” He opened his hand. A small ball of flame burst to life, dancing across his palm.

“That is so cool,” I said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Leo closed his hand and the fire went out. “Didn’t want to look like a freak.”

“I have lightning and wind powers,” Jason reminded him. “Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs. I don’t even remember what Water Girl can do, but it’s crazy. You’re no more a freak than we are. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell, ‘Flame on!’”

Leo snorted. “If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than ‘Flame on!’ Trust me, Hephaestus cabin doesn’t see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they’re super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad.”

“Maybe it’s the other way around,” Jason suggested. “Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that’s when they’re needed most.”

Leo cleared away the plates. “Maybe. But I’m telling you … it’s not always a gift.”

Jason fell silent. “You’re talking about your mom, aren’t you? The night she died.”

This fucking idiot.

Leo didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. The fact that he was quiet, not joking around—that told Jason enough.

“Leo, her death wasn’t your fault. Whatever happened that night—it wasn’t because you could summon fire. This Dirt Woman, whoever she is, has been trying to ruin you for years, mess up your confidence, take away everything you care about. She’s trying to make you feel like a failure. You’re not. You’re important.”

“That’s what she said.” Leo looked up, his eyes full of pain. “She said I was meant to do something important—something that would make or break that big prophecy about the eight demigods. That’s what scares me. I don’t know if I’m up to it.”

My brain suddenly went electric. I thought about the prophecy Rachel had told us the night before we left. The opening lines were something about storm and fire and the world. It couldn’t be what I was thinking of, but the thought wouldn’t leave me alone. My brain didn’t like letting go of things, I was finding that out the hard way.

Leo poked at the remnants of his fire, turning over red-hot coals with his bare hand. “You ever wonder about the other four demigods? I mean … if we’re four of the ones from the Great Prophecy, who are the others? Where are they?”

The three of us went silent. I had thought about it, but I felt… anxious. I didn’t like big groups of people, or teaming up with people. It was embarrassing, but I had a hard time with friends in school. Be it because of my heritage, or just how I acted. It was hard to make and keep friends. The whole time I was at the Wilderness Academy, I feared losing Piper and Leo because of something stupid. People scared me, because people always hurt me. And yeah, whatever, we have a quest to do so it’s not like togetherness is a whole key factor. I just wouldn’t be any help if I didn’t have people I wanted to help.

“I don’t know,” Jason said at last. “I guess the other four will show up when the time is right. Who knows? Maybe they’re on some other quest right now.”

I grunted. “I bet their sewer is nicer than ours.”

The draft picked up, blowing toward the south end of the tunnel.

“Get some rest, guys,” Jason said. “I’ll take first watch.”

Leo nodded and cleared our plates. He squeezed my arm in reassurance before laying down. Soon after that, his breath went shallow, and he was asleep.

I sighed and rubbed my legs, feeling Jason staring at me. “You have something to say?”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “It’s a bit personal, though.”

“Figured,” I sighed, shifting on the ground. “What is it?”

“We knew each other,” Jason started, “back wherever we were from before this. You said that like we were almost… you know. But, now we’re like this. What… What happened? Why do you hate me so much?”

I looked at the brick tiles beneath us. “You really know how to start a conversation, I guess.”

“I’m serious,” Jason said. “I want to apologize now. I don’t know if we’ll be okay on this quest or not, and I can’t wait until I get my memories back. Please.”

“Fine,” I said. “But you won’t like it.”

“Anything,” Jason pleaded.

I looked over at Jason. “I know you felt it again, because I did too. When you caught me… the feeling came back.”

The blonde’s eyes shifted around. He looked at Piper, and I could see his brain trying to do some sort of equation. But when he looked at me, I saw a glint of bright light. “Yes,” he admitted. “But where did it come from?”

“From just a few years ago,” I said. “You and I…we…”

“I know,” Jason said. “But what changed?”

“You lied,” I said. “You did dumb stuff, like you always do.”

“Just tell me the story,” Jason said. “I can’t even remember it.”

“What’s the point then?” I asked. “Like any of it would matter to you.”

“Because I want to apologize!”

“It wouldn’t be sincere!” I yelled, struggling to my feet. “You have no idea how much shit you put me through.”

“So tell me what went wrong,” Jason begged, cupping his hand over Piper’s ear.

I glared at the boy, my heart pounding in my ears. My anger was flaring up, and I knew there was no stopping it. “This is how I built a mountain with my failed attempts to love you. It became the color dust and like a fox, it would hide too.”

I got closer to Jason, moving my arms around as I talked. That way, I wouldn’t punch him and completely lose my cool. Jason stared at me as I ranted, clearly not remembering enough to understand what I was saying.

“I would murder hours,” I said, “hands inside the earth pulling perfect stones, who when I begged them to convince you of their shape, only seemed to refuse!”

Jason blinked. “I don’t-”

“Save all your effort that cannot be measured,” I sneered. “Currently, you’re just a man selling vapor.”

The two of us went quiet, but blood was still rushing in my ears. I was still enraged, and the waves during a storm are hard to calm. I stepped back from Jason, waiting for his response. He’d never knew what I meant since I had coded my words to purposefully confuse him and not give him any stupid memories to fog his brain.

But he looked into my eyes, and the bright light inside them flashed.

He didn’t understand, but there was a memory in there.

“Arson eyes,” he said, “see a world made of paper.”

My eyes went wide. My heart stopped beating for a moment. “You…”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t know what went on, but I just remember that. That’s all I could think of, I’m sor-”

“Shut up,” I said, my voice cracking. “Just shut up. Stop talking. God, you… just… fuck. Shut up.”

I whipped around and walked down the sewer, far away from Jason and my friends. I didn’t look over to him. I refused it. I hated him more than anything.

Curling up on the bricks below me, I covered my ears and forced myself to sleep.

-

I woke up from my regular nightmare to see Leo above me. “Hey, Water Girl. You okay?”

I blinked and sat up, pushing Leo aside. “Yeah, why?”

“You just seemed upset,” Leo said. “But, it’s time to get going. You good to walk?”

I forced myself to my feet, nodding at leo. “The sooner the better.”

Finally we broke camp and started down the tunnel.

It twisted and turned and seemed to go on forever. I wasn’t sure what to expect at the end—a dungeon, a mad scientist’s lab, or maybe a sewer reservoir where all Porta-Potty sludge ends up, forming an evil toilet face large enough to swallow the world.

Instead, we found polished steel elevator doors, each one engraved with a cursive letter M. Next to the elevator was a directory, like for a department store.

“M for Macy’s?” Piper guessed. “I think they have one in downtown Chicago.”

“Or Monocle Motors still?” Leo said. “Guys, read the directory. It’s messed up.”

Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer Level

Furnishings and Café M: 1

Women’s Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2

Men’s Wear and Weaponry: 3

Cosmetics, Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4

“Kennels for what?” I said. “And what kind of department store has its entrance in a sewer?”

“Or sells poisons,” Leo said. “Man, what does ‘sundries’ even mean? Is that like underwear?”

Jason took a deep breath. “When in doubt, start at the top.”

He pushed a button on the elevator, and the doors slid open. We piled in, and hit the first button.

The doors slid open on the fourth floor, and the scent of perfume wafted into the elevator. I stepped out first, trident ready.

“Guys,” I said. “You’ve got to see this.”

Piper joined me and caught her breath. “This is not Macy’s.”

The department store looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope. The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic with astrological signs around a giant sun. The daylight streaming through it washed everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around a huge central atrium, so we could see all the way down to the ground floor. Gold railings glittered so brightly, they were hard to look at.

Aside from the stained glass ceiling and the elevator, I couldn’t see any other windows or doors, but two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels. The carpeting was a riot of oriental patterns and colors, and the racks of merchandise were just as bizarre. There was too much to take it at once, but I saw normal stuff like shirt racks and shoe trees mixed in with armored manikins, beds of nails, and fur coats that seemed to be moving.

Leo stepped to the railing and looked down. “Check it out.”

In the middle of the atrium a fountain sprayed water twenty feet into the air, changing color from red to yellow to blue. The pool glittered with gold coins, and on either side of the fountain stood a gilded cage—like an oversize canary cage.

Inside one, a miniature hurricane swirled, and lightning flashed. Somebody had imprisoned the storm spirits, and the cage shuddered as they tried to get out. In the other, frozen like a statue, was a short, buff satyr, holding a tree-branch club.

“Coach Hedge!” Piper said. “We’ve got to get down there.”

A voice said, “May I help you find something?”

All four of us jumped back.

A woman had just appeared in front of us. She wore an elegant black dress with diamond jewelry, and she looked like a retired fashion model—maybe fifty years old, though it was hard for me to judge. Her long dark hair swept over one shoulder, and her face was gorgeous in that surreal super-model way—thin and haughty and cold, not quite human. With their long red-painted nails, her fingers looked more like talons.

She smiled. “I’m so happy to see new customers. How may I help you?”

We glanced at Jason like, All yours.

“Um,” Jason started, “is this your store?”

The woman nodded. “I found it abandoned, you know. I understand so many stores are, these days. I decided it would make the perfect place. I love collecting tasteful objects, helping people, and offering quality goods at a reasonable price. So this seemed a good … how do you say … first acquisition in this country.”

She spoke with a pleasing accent, but I couldn’t guess where from. Something about the way she spoke made me angry. I should have been listening to her, but she sounded so commanding. It made my blood boil.

“So you’re new to America?” Jason asked.

“I am … new,” the woman agreed. “I am the Princess of Colchis. My friends call me Your Highness. Now, what are you looking for?”

I had heard of rich foreigners buying American department stores. Of course most of the time they didn’t sell poisons, living fur coats, storm spirits, or satyrs.

Piper poked Jason in the ribs. “Jason …”

“Um, right. Actually, Your Highness …” He pointed to the gilded cage on the first floor. “That’s our friend down there, Gleeson Hedge. The satyr. Could we … have him back, please?”

“Of course!” the princess agreed immediately. “I would love to show you my inventory. First, may I know your names?”

I started to say, “No, I wouldn’t—”

Jason introduced me. “This is Piper,” he said, going down the list. “This is Leo. I’m Jason.”

I slapped the back of the blonde’s head, looking at Leo like, Are you kidding me? But the boy was almost in a trance. Only Piper seemed to share my concern.

The princess fixed her eyes on him and, just for a moment, her face literally glowed, blazing with so much anger, I could see her skull beneath her skin. Then the moment passed, and Her Highness looked like a normal elegant woman again, with a cordial smile and a stupid voice.

“Jason. What an interesting name,” she said, her eyes as cold as the Chicago wind. “I think we’ll have to make a special deal for you. Come, children. Let’s go shopping.”

Chapter Text

I wanted to run for the elevator

My second choice: attack the weird princess now, because I was sure a fight was coming. The way the lady’s face glowed when she’d heard Jason’s name had been bad enough. Now Her Highness was smiling like nothing had happened, and Jason and Leo didn’t seem to think anything was wrong. Piper, however, was on my side.

The princess gestured toward the cosmetics counter. “Shall we start with the potions?”

“Cool,” Jason said.

“Guys,” I interrupted, “we’re here to get the storm spirits and Coach Hedge. If this—princess—is really our friend—”

“Oh, I’m better than a friend, my dear,” Her Highness said. “I’m a saleswoman.” Her diamonds sparkled, and her eyes glittered like a snake’s—cold and dark. “Don’t worry. We’ll work our way down to the first floor, eh?”

Leo nodded eagerly. “Sure, yeah! That sounds okay. Right, Piper?”

Piper glared daggers at him: No, it is not okay!

“Of course it’s okay.” Her Highness put her hands on Leo’s and Jason’s shoulders and steered them toward the cosmetics. “Come along, boys.”

Piper and I didn’t have much choice except to follow.

I hated department stores—mostly because I’d gotten caught stealing from several of them. I knew it was the same for Piper, except she wasn’t really caught and wasn’t really stealing (not me though, LOL). She’d talked salesmen into giving her computers, new boots, a gold ring, once even a lawn mower, though I had no idea why she wanted one. Piper never kept the stuff. She just did it to get her dad’s attention, she said. Usually she talked her neighborhood UPS guy into taking the stuff back. But of course the salesmen she duped always came to their senses and called the police, who eventually tracked her down.

Anyway, neither of us were thrilled to be back in a department store—especially one run by a crazy princess who glowed in the dark.

“And here,” the princess said, “is the finest assortment of magical mixtures anywhere.”

The counter was crammed with bubbling beakers and smoking vials on tripods. Lining the display shelves were crystal flasks—some shaped like swans or honey bear dispensers. The liquids inside were every color, from glowing white to polka-dotted. And the smells—ugh! Some were pleasant, like fresh-baked cookies or roses, but they were mixed with the scents of burning tires, skunk spray, and gym lockers.

The princess pointed to a bloodred vial—a simple test tube with a cork stopper. “This one will heal any disease.”

“Even cancer?” Leo asked. “Leprosy? Hangnails?”

“Any disease, sweet boy. And this vial”—she pointed to a swan-shaped container with blue liquid inside—“will kill you very painfully.”

“Awesome,” Jason said. His voice sounded dazed and sleepy.

“Jason,” Piper said. “We’ve got a job to do. Remember?” I could tell she tried to put power into her words, to snap him out of his trance with charmspeak, but her voice sounded shaky to me. This princess woman scared her too much, made her confidence crumble.

“Job to do,” Jason muttered. “Sure. But shopping first, okay?”

The princess beamed at him. “Then we have potions for resisting fire—”

“Got that covered,” Leo said.

“Indeed?” The princess studied Leo’s face more closely. “You don’t appear to be wearing my trademark sunscreen …but no matter. We also have potions that cause blindness, insanity, sleep, or—”

“Wait.” Piper was still staring at the red vial. “Could that potion cure lost memory?”

I whipped my head toward my friend. “Piper! Are you serious?!”

Piper looked back at me. “What? I’m just trying.”

The princess narrowed her eyes. “Possibly. Yes. Quite possibly. Why, my dear? Have you forgotten something important?”

I tried to keep my expression neutral, but if that vial could cure Jason’s memory …

Do I really want that?

If Jason found out who he was, he might grab me and turn me in. Hera had taken away his memories for a reason. She’d told him it was the only way the both of us could survive at Camp Half-Blood. What if Jason found out that we were their enemy, or something? He might come out of his amnesia and decide he hates everyone. He’d turn against my friends and force me to kill him.

“How much?” Piper asked.

I stared at her in shock. “You’re serious?”

The princess got a faraway look in her eyes. “Well, now … The price is always tricky. I love helping people. Honestly, I do. And I always keep my bargains, but sometimes people try to cheat me.” Her gaze drifted to Jason. “Once, for instance, I met a handsome young man who wanted a treasure from my father’s kingdom. We made a bargain, and I promised to help him steal it.”

“From your own dad?” Jason still looked half in a trance, but the idea seemed to bother him.

“Oh, don’t worry,” the princess said. “I demanded a high price. The young man had to take me away with him. He was quite good-looking, dashing, strong …” She looked at me. “I’m sure, my dear, you understand how one might be attracted to such a hero, and want to help him.”

I tried to control my emotions, but I probably turned red. Partly from anger, but partly from embarrassment. I could see Piper staring at me from the corner of my vision.

I found the princess’s story disturbingly familiar. Pieces of old myths I had learned started coming together, but this woman couldn’t be the one I was thinking of.

“At any rate,” Her Highness continued, “my hero had to do many impossible tasks, and I’m not bragging when I say he couldn’t have done them without me. I betrayed my own family to win the hero his prize. And still he cheated me of my payment.”

“Cheated?” Jason frowned, as if trying to remember something important.

“That’s messed up,” Leo said.

Her Highness patted his cheek affectionately, which made my gut churn. “I’m sure you don’t need to worry, Leo. You seem honest. You would always pay a fair price, wouldn’t you?”

Leo nodded. “What were we buying again? I’ll take two.”

Piper broke in: “So, the vial, Your Highness—how much?”

The princess assessed Piper’s clothes, her face, her posture, as if putting a price tag on one slightly used demigod.

“Would you give anything for it, my dear?” the princess asked. “I sense that you would.”

Piper summoned all her willpower. “No, I won’t pay any price. But a fair price, maybe. After that, we need to leave. Right, guys?”

Just for a moment, her words seemed to have some effect. The boys looked confused.

“Leave?” Jason said.

“You mean … after shopping?” Leo asked.

I wanted to scream, but the princess tilted her head, examining Piper with newfound respect.

“Impressive,” the princess said. “Not many people could resist my suggestions. Are you a child of Aphrodite, my dear? Ah, yes—I should have seen it. No matter. Perhaps we should shop a while longer before you decide what to buy, eh?”

“But the vial—”

“Now, boys.” She turned to Jason and Leo. Her voice was so much more powerful than Piper’s, so full of confidence, Piper didn’t stand a chance. “Would you like to see more?”

“Sure,” Jason said.

“Okay,” Leo said.

“Excellent,” the princess said. “You’ll need all the help you can get if you’re to make it to the Bay Area.”

“The Bay Area?” I said. “Why the Bay Area?”

The princess smiled, turning her gaze to Piper. “Well, that’s where they’ll die, isn’t it?”

Then she led them toward the escalators, Jason and Leo still looking excited to shop.

I stood frozen, watching her walk away.

Piper turned to me. “Listen-”

In a heartbeat, Piper’s arm was stuck in my hand’s grip. “Piper, I swear to all the gods-”

“Stop!” she cried, tears in the corner of her eyes.

“What did she mean by that?” I demanded.

Piper put her hand on mine. “I-I don’t know! Let me go!”

I shoved Piper away, glaring daggers at her. “I swear. I swear.”

Piper looked to her feet and hurried after the group. I followed close behind.

After we got off the escalators, Piper cornered the princess while Jason and Leo went off to look at the fur coats. I grouped up with the boys to make sure neither picked up something dangerous.

Leo laughed as he tried on a hat that seemed to be made from enchanted raccoon fur. Its ringed tail twitched, and its little legs wiggled frantically as Leo walked. Jason was ogling the men’s sportswear. Boys interested in shopping for clothes? A definite sign they were under an evil spell.

I glanced over to Piper and the princess, keeping a close eye on the girls. They seemed to be arguing or something, then Piper looked like she was going to be sick.

She opened her mouth to say something but before she could even turn her thoughts into words, Jason called, “Hey, check it out!”

From a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up one of our camp shirts—except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers.

Jason frowned. “Why does this look so familiar?”

My gut churned. “Jason, it’s like yours. Now put it down. We really have to leave.”

“Nonsense,” the princess said, suddenly behind me. “The boys aren’t done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular—trade-ins from previous customers. It suits you.”

Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion—acid, maybe?—and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

“Your Highness,” Piper said, trying to control her nerves. “Why don’t you tell the boys how you betrayed your family? I’m sure they’d like to hear that story.”

Her words didn’t have any effect on the princess, but the boys turned, suddenly interested.

“More story?” Leo asked.

“I like more story!” Jason agreed.

The princess flashed Piper an irritated look. “Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn’t for her—but I can’t hold a grudge against a goddess, can I?”

The princess’s tone made her meaning clear: I can take it out on you.

“But that hero took you with him when he fled Colchis,” Piper remembered. “Didn’t he, Your Highness? He married you just as he promised.”

“At first,” Her Highness admitted, “it seemed he would keep his word. But even after I helped him steal my father’s treasure, he still needed my help. As we fled, my brother’s fleet came after us. His warships overtook us. He would have destroyed us, but I convinced my brother to come aboard our ship first and talk under a flag of truce. He trusted me.”

“And you killed your own brother,” I said, the horrible story all coming back to me, along with a name—an infamous name that began with the letter M.

“What?” Jason stirred. For a moment he looked almost like himself. “Killed your own—”

“No,” the princess snapped. “Those stories are lies. It was my new husband and his men who killed my brother, though they couldn’t have done it without my deception. They threw his body into the sea, and the pursuing fleet had to stop and search for it so they could give my brother a proper burial. This gave us time to get away. All this, I did for my husband. And he forgot our bargain. He betrayed me in the end.”

Jason still looked uncomfortable. “What did he do?”

The princess held the sliced-up toga against Jason’s chest, as if measuring him for an assassination. “Don’t you know the story, my boy? You of all people should. You were named for him.”

“Jason,” I said. “The original Jason. But then you’re —you should be dead!”

The princess smiled. “As I said, a new life in a new country. Certainly I made mistakes. I turned my back on my own people. I was called a traitor, a thief, a liar, a murderess. But I acted out of love.” She turned to the boys and gave them a pitiful look, batting her eyelashes. I could feel the sorcery washing over them, taking control more firmly than ever.

“Wouldn’t you do the same for someone you loved, my dears?”

“Oh, sure,” Jason said.

“Okay,” Leo said.

“Guys!” I ground my teeth in frustration. “Don’t you see who she is? Don’t you—”

“Let’s continue, shall we?” the princess said breezily. “I believe you wanted to talk about a price for the storm spirits—and your satyr.”

Leo got distracted on the second floor with the appliances.

“No way,” he said. “Is that an armored forge?”

Before I could stop him, he hopped off the escalator and ran over to a big oval oven that looked like a barbecue on steroids.

When we caught up with him, the princess said, “You have good taste. This is the H-2000, designed by Hephaestus himself. Hot enough to melt Celestial bronze or Imperial gold.”

Jason flinched as if he recognized that term. “Imperial gold?”

The princess nodded. “Yes, my dear. Like those weapons so cleverly concealed in your pockets. To be properly forged, Imperial gold had to be consecrated in the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill in Rome. Quite a powerful and rare metal, but like the Roman emperors, quite volatile. Be sure never to break that blade or trident…” She smiled pleasantly. “Rome was after my time, of course, but I do hear stories. And now over here—this golden throne is one of my finest luxury items. Hephaestus made it as a punishment for his mother, Hera. Sit in it and you’ll be immediately trapped.”

Leo apparently took this as an order. He began walking toward it in a trance.

“Leo, don’t!” Piper warned.

He blinked. “How much for both?”

“Oh, the seat I could let you have for five great deeds. The forge, seven years of servitude. And for only a bit of your strength—” She led Leo into the appliance section, giving him prices on various items.

I followed the two, keeping a close eye on the witchy princess. Behind me, Piper began yelling at Jason. I tried to listen in, but the princess whipped around and started dragging me back with Leo. I tried to shove her hand off me, but she had some crazy grip.

“Children.” The princess interrupted Piper mid sentence. “If you please, we will now see what you came for. That is what you want, yes?”

I had to choke back a scream. I was tempted to pull out my pen and take on this witch myself, but I didn’t like my chances—not in the middle of Her Highness’s department store while my friends were under a spell. I couldn’t even be sure they’d take my side in a fight. I had to figure out a better plan.

We took the escalator down to the base of the fountain. For the first time, I noticed two large bronze sundials—each about the size of a trampoline—inlaid on the marble tile floor to the north and south of the fountain. The gilded oversize canary cages stood to the east and west, and the farthest one held the storm spirits. They were so densely packed, spinning around like a super-concentrated tornado, that I couldn’t tell how many there were—dozens, at least.

“Hey,” Leo said, “Coach Hedge looks okay!”

We ran to the nearest canary cage. The old satyr seemed to have been petrified at the moment he was sucked into the sky above the Grand Canyon. He was frozen mid-shout, his club raised over his head like he was ordering the gym class to drop and give him fifty. His curly hair stuck up at odd angles. If I just concentrated on certain details—the bright orange polo shirt, the wispy goatee, the whistle around his neck—I could imagine Coach Hedge as his good old annoying self. But it was hard to ignore the stubby horns on his head, and the fact that he had furry goat legs and hooves instead of workout pants and Nikes.

“Yes,” the princess said. “I always keep my wares in good condition. We can certainly barter for the storm spirits and the satyr. A package deal. If we come to terms, I’ll even throw in the vial of healing potion, and you can go in peace.” She gave me a shrewd look. “That’s better than starting unpleasantness, isn’t it, dear?”

Don’t trust her, warned a voice in my head. If I was right about this lady’s identity, nobody would be leaving in peace. A fair deal wasn’t possible. It was all a trick. But my friends were looking at me, nodding urgently and mouthing, Say yes! Piper and I needed more time to think.

“We can negotiate,” Piper said.

“Totally!” Leo agreed. “Name your price.”

“Leo!” Piper snapped.

The princess chuckled. “Name my price? Perhaps not the best haggling strategy, my boy, but at least you know a thing’s value. Freedom is very valuable indeed. You would ask me to release this satyr, who attacked my storm winds—”

“Who attacked us,” I interjected.

Her Highness shrugged. “As I said, my patron asks me for small favors from time to time. Sending the storm spirits to abduct you—that was one. I assure you it was nothing personal. And no harm done, as you came here, in the end, of your own free will! At any rate, you want the satyr freed, and you want my storm spirits—who are very valuable servants, by the way—so you can hand them over to that tyrant Aeolus. Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it? The price will be high.”

I could see that her friends were ready to offer anything, promise anything. Before they could speak, Piper played her last card.

“You’re Medea,” she said. “You helped the original Jason steal the Golden Fleece. You’re one of the most evil villains in Greek mythology. Jason, Leo—don’t trust her.”

Piper put all the intensity she could gather into those words. She was utterly sincere, and it seemed to have some effect. Jason stepped away from the sorceress.

Leo scratched his head and looked around like he was coming out of a dream.

“What are we doing, again?”

“Boys!” The princess spread her hands in a welcoming gesture. Her diamond jewelry glittered, and her painted fingers curled like blood-tipped claws. “It’s true, I’m Medea. But I’m so misunderstood. Oh, Piper, my dear, you don’t know what it was like for women in the old days. We had no power, no leverage. Often we couldn’t even choose our own husbands. But I was different. I chose my own destiny by becoming a sorceress. Is that so wrong? I made a pact with Jason: my help to win the fleece, in exchange for his love. A fair deal. He became a famous hero! Without me, he would’ve died unknown on the shores of Colchis.”

Jason—our Jason—scowled. “Then … you really did die three thousand years ago? You came back from the Underworld?”

“Death no longer holds me, young hero,” Medea said. “Thanks to my patron, I am flesh and blood again.”

“You … re-formed?” Leo blinked. “Like a monster?”

Medea spread her fingers, and steam hissed from her nails, like water splashed on hot iron. “You have no idea what’s happening, do you, my dears? It is so much worse than a stirring of monsters from Tartarus. My patron knows that giants and monsters are not her greatest servants. I am mortal. I learn from my mistakes. And now that I have returned to the living, I will not be cheated again. Now, here is my price for what you ask.”

“Guys,” I said. “The original Jason left Medea because she was crazy and bloodthirsty.”

“Lies!” Medea said.

“On the way back from Colchis, Jason’s ship landed at another kingdom, and Jason agreed to dump Medea and marry the king’s daughter.”

“After I bore him two children!” Medea said. “Still he broke his promise! I ask you, was that right?”

Jason and Leo dutifully shook their heads, but I wasn’t through.

“It may not have been right,” I said, “but neither was Medea’s revenge. She murdered her own children to get back at Jason. She poisoned his new wife and fled the kingdom.”

Medea snarled. “An invention to ruin my reputation! The people of the Corinth—that unruly mob—killed my children and drove me out. Jason did nothing to protect me. He robbed me of everything. So yes, I sneaked back into the palace and poisoned his lovely new bride. It was only fair—a suitable price.”

“You’re insane,” I said.

“I am the victim!” Medea wailed. “I died with my dreams shattered, but no longer. I know now not to trust heroes. When they come asking for treasures, they will pay a heavy price. Especially when the one asking has the name of Jason!”

The fountain turned bright red. Piper drew her dagger, but her hand was shaking almost too badly to hold it. “Jason, Leo—it’s time to go. Now.”

“Before you’ve closed the deal?” Medea asked. “What of your quest, boys? And my price is so easy. Did you know this fountain is magic? If a dead man were to be thrown into it, even if he was chopped to pieces, he would pop back out fully formed—stronger and more powerful than ever.”

“Seriously?” Leo asked.

“Leo, she’s lying,” Piper said. “She did that trick with somebody before—a king, I think. She convinced his daughters to cut him to pieces so he could come out of the water young and healthy again, but it just killed him!”

“Ridiculous,” Medea said, and I could hear the power charged in every syllable. “Leo, Jason—my price is so simple. Why don’t you two fight? If you get injured, or even killed, no problem. We’ll just throw you into the fountain and you’ll be better than ever. You do want to fight, don’t you? You resent each other!”

“Guys, no!” I said. But they were already glaring at each other, as if it was just dawning on them how they really felt.

Leo scowled. “Jason’s always the star. He always gets the attention and takes me for granted.”

“You’re annoying, Leo,” Jason said. “You never take anything seriously. You can’t even fix a dragon.”

Leo glared and pointed to me. “How come you got to date her and didn’t even keep her?”

“Are you jealous?” Jason asked, a smirk on his lips.

“What?!” I yelled.

“Stop!” Piper pleaded, but both boys drew weapons—Jason his gold sword, and Leo a hammer from his tool belt.

“Let them go, Piper,” Medea urged. “I’m doing you a favor. Let it happen now, and it will make your choice so much easier. Enceladus will be pleased. You could have your father back today!”

I turned back to Piper. “What is she talking about? Piper!”

“You work for Enceladus,” she said.

Medea laughed. “Serve a giant? No. But we all serve the same greater cause—a patron you cannot begin to challenge. Walk away, child of Aphrodite. This does not have to be your death, too. Save yourself, and your father can go free.”

Leo and Jason were still facing off, ready to fight, but they looked unsteady and confused—waiting for another order. Part of them had to be resisting, I hoped. This went completely against their nature.

“Listen to me, girl.” Medea plucked a diamond off her bracelet and threw it into a spray of water from the fountain. As it passed through the multicolored light, Medea said, “O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me the office of Tristan McLean.”

The mist shimmered, and I saw a study. Sitting behind a desk, talking on the phone, was an assistant in her dark business suit, her hair swirled in a tight bun.

“Hello, Jane,” Medea said.

Jane hung up the phone calmly. “How can I help you, ma’am? Hello, Piper.”

“You—” Piper could hardly talk.

“Yes, child,” Medea said. “Your father’s assistant. Quite easy to manipulate. An organized mind for a mortal, but incredibly weak.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Jane said.

“Don’t mention it,” Medea said. “I just wanted to congratulate you, Jane. Getting Mr. McLean to leave town so suddenly, take his jet to Oakland without alerting the press or the police—well done! No one seems to know where he’s gone. And telling him his daughter’s life was on the line—that was a nice touch to get his cooperation.”

“Yes,” Jane agreed in a bland tone, as if she were sleepwalking. “He was quite cooperative when he believed Piper was in danger.”

Piper looked down at her dagger. The blade trembled in her hand. She couldn’t use it for a weapon any better than Helen of Troy could, but it was still a looking glass.

“I may have new orders for you, Jane,” Medea said. “If the girl cooperates, it may be time for Mr. McLean to come home. Would you arrange a suitable cover story for his absence, just in case? And I imagine the poor man will need some time in a psychiatric hospital.”

“Yes, ma’am. I will stand by.”

The image faded, and Medea turned to Piper. “There, you see?”

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. Piper’s dad was missing in the world of monsters and being held as bait for Piper. No wonder she had been so off. And all that about Enceladus?

“You lured my dad into a trap,” Piper said. “You helped the giant—”

“Oh, please, dear. You’ll work yourself into a fit! I’ve been preparing for this war for years, even before I was brought back to life. I’m a seer, as I said. I can tell the future as well as your little oracle. Years ago, still suffering in the Fields of Punishment, I had a vision of the eight in your so-called Great Prophecy. I saw your friend Leo here, and saw that he would be an important enemy someday. I stirred the consciousness of my patron, gave her this information, and she managed to wake just a little—just enough to visit him.”

“Leo’s mother,” I said, my blood boiling.

“Leo, listen to this!” Piper yelled. “She helped get your mother killed!”

“Uh-huh,” Leo mumbled, in a daze. He frowned at his hammer. “So … I just attack Jason? That’s okay?”

“Perfectly safe,” Medea promised. “And Jason, strike him hard. Show me you are worthy of your namesake.”

“No!” Piper ordered. She knew it was her last chance. “Jason, Leo—she’s tricking you. Put down your weapons.”

The sorceress rolled her eyes. “Please, girl. You’re no match for me. I trained with my aunt, the immortal Circe. I can drive men mad or heal them with my voice. What hope do these puny young heroes have against me? Now, boys, kill each other!”

“Jason, Leo, listen to me.” Piper put all of her emotion into her voice. “Medea is charming you. It’s part of her magic. You are best friends. Don’t fight each other. Fight her!”

They hesitated, and I could feel the spell shatter.

Jason blinked. “Leo, was I just about to stab you?”

“Something about my mother … ?” Leo frowned, then turned toward Medea. “You … you’re working for Dirt Woman. You sent her to the machine shop.” He lifted his arm. “Lady, I got a three-pound hammer with your name on it.”

“Bah!” Medea sneered. “I’ll simply collect payment another way.”

She pressed one of the mosaic tiles on the floor, and the building rumbled. Jason swung his sword at Medea, but she dissolved into smoke and reappeared at the base of the escalator.

“You’re slow, hero!” She laughed. “Take your frustration out on my pets!”

Before Jason could go after her, the giant bronze sundials at either end of the fountain swung open. Two snarling gold beasts—flesh-and-blood winged dragons—crawled out from the pits below. Each was the size of a camper van, maybe not large compared to Festus, but large enough.

“So that’s what’s in the kennels,” Leo said meekly.

The dragons spread their wings and hissed. I could feel the heat coming off their glittering skin. One turned his angry orange eyes on me.

“Don’t look them in the eye!” Jason warned. “They’ll paralyze you.”

“Indeed!” Medea was leisurely riding the escalator up, leaning against the handrail as she watched the fun. “These two dears have been with me a long time—sun dragons, you know, gifts from my grandfather Helios. They pulled my chariot when I left Corinth, and now they will be your destruction. Ta-ta!”

The dragons lunged. Leo and Jason charged to intercept. I was amazed how fearlessly the boys attacked—working like a team who had trained together for years.

Medea was almost to the second floor, where she’d be able to choose from a wide assortment of deadly appliances.

I spun around toward her and pulled out my pen. “Oh, no, you don’t!”

I twisted my pen and threw my trident at Medea, taking off faster than lighting.

Medea was pinned by her dress, my trident keeping her in place. When she saw me bounding toward her, she squealed and ripped her dress, climbing in earnest.

She was quick for a three-thousand-year-old lady. I climbed at top speed, taking the steps three at a time, and still I couldn’t catch her. Medea didn’t stop at floor two. She hopped the next escalator and continued to ascend.

The potions, I thought. Of course that’s what she would go for. She was famous for potions.

Down below, I heard the battle raging. Leo was blowing his safety whistle, and Jason was yelling to keep the dragons’ attention. Piper was using her reflective dagger against the dragons’ eyes, momentarily paralyzing them for the boys to attack.

I reached the top floor and summoned my trident to my hands. Madea was behind the potions counter, her back toward me. I sprinted up to her as she grabbed a swan shaped vial- the blue one that caused painful death.

Medea turned triumphantly just as I hopped upon the counter. I swung my trident back and smacked it into her like a baseball bat. She stumbled backward, crashing into the wall, breaking vials and knocking down shelves. When the sorceress stood from the wreckage, her dress was stained a dozen different colors. Many of the stains were smoldering and glowing.

“Fool!” Medea wailed. “Do you have any idea what so many potions will do when mixed?”

“Kill you?” I said hopefully.

The carpet began to steam around Medea’s feet. She coughed, and her face contorted in pain—or was she faking?

Below, Leo called, “Jason, help!”

I risked a quick look, and almost sobbed in despair. One of the dragons had Leo pinned to the floor. It was baring its fangs, ready to snap. Jason was all the way across the room battling the other dragon, much too far away to assist. Piper was on the floor below him, bleeding from a gash on her shoulder.

“You’ve doomed us all!” Medea screamed. Smoke was rolling across the carpet as the stain spread, throwing sparks and setting fires in the clothing racks. I hopped off the counter and backed away toward the railing. “You have only seconds before this concoction consumes everything and destroys the building. There’s no time—”

CRASH! The stained glass ceiling splintered in a rain of multicolored shards, and Festus the bronze dragon dropped into the department store.

He hurtled into the fray, snatching up a sun dragon in each claw.

“That’s my boy!” Leo yelled.

Festus flew halfway up the atrium, then hurled the sun dragons into the pits they’d come from. Leo raced to the fountain and pressed the marble tile, closing the sundials. They shuddered as the dragons banged against them, trying to get out, but for the moment they were contained.

Medea cursed in some ancient language. The whole fourth floor was on fire now. The air filled with noxious gas. Even with the roof open, I could feel the heat intensifying. I backed up to the edge of the railing, keeping my trident pointed toward Medea.

“I will not be abandoned again!” The sorceress knelt and snatched up the red healing potion, which had somehow survived the crash. “You want your Jason’s memory restored? Leo to love you? Your mother alive and normal? Your father to be a father? Take me with you!”

I glanced behind me. Leo, Piper and Jason were on board Festus’s back. The bronze dragon flapped his mighty wings, snatched the two cages with the satyr and the storm spirits in his claws, and began to ascend.

The building rumbled. Fire and the smoke curled up the walls, melting the railings, turning the air to acid.

“You’ll never survive your quest without me!” Medea growled. “Your boy hero will stay ignorant forever, and Piper’s father will die. Take me with you!”

“No,” I said. “You’re a wretched woman.”
Medea snarled. “Fine! Pick and choose your advice! You can’t escape the fate of the tide anyway!”

“Choke on your fumes and shut up already!” I jumped over the side. I plummeted for only a second before Leo and Jason caught me, hauling me aboard the dragon.

I heard Medea screaming in rage as we soared through the broken roof and over downtown Chicago. Then the department store exploded behind us.

Chapter Text

I kept looking back. I half expected to see those nasty sun dragons toting a flying chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions, but nothing followed us.

Leo steered the dragon toward the southwest. Eventually, the smoke from the burning department store faded in the distance, but Leo didn’t seem to relax until the suburbs of Chicago gave way to snowy fields, and the sun began to set.

“Good job, Festus.” He patted the dragon’s metal hide. “You did awesome.”

The dragon shuddered. Gears popped and clicked in his neck.

I frowned. I didn’t like those noises. If the control disk was failing again—No, hopefully it was something minor. Something Leo could fix.

“I’ll give you a tune-up next time we land,” Leo promised. “You’ve earned some motor oil and Tabasco sauce.”

Festus whirled his teeth, but even that sounded weak. He flew at a steady pace, his great wings angling to catch the wind, but he was carrying a heavy load. Two cages in his claws plus four people on his back—the more I thought about it, the more worried I got. Even metal dragons had limits.

“Leo.” I patted my friend’s shoulder. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah … not bad for a brainwashed zombie.” He looked back at me, a sort of embarrassment in his smile. “Thanks for saving us back there, Water Girl. And Pipes, if you hadn’t talked me out of that spell—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Piper said.

But I worried a lot. I knew what Piper was going through, but I couldn’t even imagine how she was feeling. I wanted to do something to help my friend, but what? How could we get her dad and save Hera? How long had she been holding this in?

“We’re going to have to put down soon,” Leo warned us. “Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea’s not following us. I don’t think Festus can fly much longer than that.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. Question is—where are we going?”

“The Bay Area,” Leo guessed. “Didn’t Medea say something about Oakland?”

Piper didn’t speak up. I glanced back at her and noticed she had a few tears in her eyes.

“Piper’s dad,” Jason put in. “Something’s happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap.”

Piper let out a shaky breath. “Look, Medea said you would all die in the Bay Area. And besides … even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Boreas said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go.”

I grunted. “So how do we find Aeolus?”

Jason leaned forward. “You mean you don’t see it?” He pointed ahead of us, but I didn’t see anything except clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.

“What?” Leo asked.

“That … whatever it is,” Jason said. “In the air.”

I glanced back. Piper looked just as confused as I was.

“Right,” Leo said. “Could you be more specific on the ‘whatever-it-is’ part?”

“Like a vapor trail,” Jason said. “Except it’s glowing. Really faint, but it’s definitely there. We’ve been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it.”

Leo shook his head. “Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?”

“Well, it’s a magic trail in the wind,” Jason said. “Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we’ve got prisoners for him. He’s telling us where to fly.”

“Or it’s another trap,” Piper said.

Her tone worried me. She didn’t just sound nervous. She sounded broken with despair, like we’d already sealed our fate, and like it was her fault.

“Pipes, you all right?” I asked.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Okay, fine. You don’t like any of the names we make up for you. But if your dad’s in trouble and we can help—”

“You can’t,” she said, her voice getting shakier. “Look, I’m tired. If you don’t mind …”

She leaned back against Jason and closed her eyes.

All right, I thought—pretty clear signal she didn’t want to talk.

We flew in silence for a while. Festus seemed to know where he was going. He kept his course, gently curving toward the southwest and hopefully Aeolus’s fortress. Another wind god to visit, a whole new flavor of crazy—Oh, boy, I couldn’t wait.

Leo sat silently, watching the sky above us fly by. I watched as his body seemed to shut down for sleep. His head started to nod.

“Tired?” I asked.

Leo shook his head. “Nah. Gotta drive.”

“Catch a few Z’s,” Jason said. “It’s cool. Hand me the reins.”

“Nah, I’m okay—”

“Leo,” I said, “you’re not a machine.”

“Besides, I’m the only one who can see the vapor trail. I’ll make sure we stay on course,” Jason said.

Leo’s eyes started to close. “All right. Maybe just …”

He didn’t finish the sentence before slumping forward against the dragon’s warm neck.

I handed Jason the reins and sighed.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he asked.

“Like a bitch,” I said, rubbing my ankle. “It’s infuriating.”

“You never stop going, huh?”

“I can’t.”

“But you can. You just never give yourself the time.”

“Because what time is there?” I asked. “I mean, seriously. I break my ankle and I have to fight cyclopes right after. I need to heal, but instead we go to Chicago and I have to chase Medea up three flights of escalators. Now we have to go find Boreas and do whatever dumb shit with the giants and- ugh! See?”

Jason nodded, holding onto Piper. “Well, what else can we do?”

“I don’t know, die?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Were you always like this?”

I shrugged. “Guess it’s something you’ll have to figure out.”

“For that, I’d have to go backwards.”

I looked over my shoulder at the blonde boy. “You are making no sense. Are you trying to get your weird metaphorical speeches back?”

“Was I really that corny?”

“Gods, you still are!”

Jason laughed. “Well, I’ll work on it. And, thanks.”

I blinked. “For what?”

“For still giving me a chance,” Jason said. “You could have killed me the second I appeared on that bus. And I have the feeling you would have.”

“Nah,” I said. “Totally felt like it, but nah. I don’t really want to be the kill-on-sight person anymore.”

“Anymore?”

“You have to go backwards, just like you said.”

Jason nodded, a small smile on his lips. “Why don’t you get some rest? Should help your ankle.”

“I can try,” I said. “But if we fall one more time-”

“I will catch you every time,” Jason interrupted. “Doesn’t matter if you want to or not. I’ll catch you.”

I felt my gut… flutter? Ew. Ewewewewewewewewewewew. Nope.

“I’d rather die,” I said, face completely flushed.

“Whatever,” Jason said, a laugh in his voice. “Go to sleep.”

“Yes, mommy,” I huffed, turning back around.

After laying my head on Leo’s back, I found his warmth quickly putting me to sleep.

-

My nightmare always played out the same. It was starting to annoy me- waking world and dream world. As I ran down the street, I felt anger bubbling inside me. Why did I always have this dumb dream? What was I running from? What was I trying to remember?

My stomach churned, but it didn’t feel like I was going to be sick. Why was memory so important right now? Wasn’t I just talking about it?

My running pace slowed as my brain paced around. I was talking about it before I went to sleep. It was Jason and his dumb memory. You have to go backwards to remember.

I stopped in the middle of the road. The heartbeat in my ears stopped. This wasn’t part of the dream. This wasn’t even a dream. This was some stupid demigod thing, and I needed to stop running away and start going backwards.

I looked behind me for the first time. The street looked the same, but just a few yards away, a giant black door stood tall. Right, backwards.

As I took my few first steps, the dream started pulling me, like I wasn’t supposed to go that way. I struggled against the powerful force, but my efforts were futile. I was sucked out of my dream before I could figure out what happened.

Then I snapped awake to Jason, Leo, and Piper screaming.

We spiraled through the dark in a free fall, still on the dragon’s back, but Festus’s hide was cold. His ruby eyes were dim.

“Not again!” Leo yelled. “You can’t fall again!”

I held onto Leo with such desperation I was sure I was breaking his ribs. I could barely hold on. The wind stung my eyes.

“Jason!” Leo screamed. “Take Piper and her and fly out of here!”

“What?” I screamed.

“We need to lighten the load! I might be able to reboot Festus, but he’s carrying too much weight!”

“What about you?” I cried. “If you can’t reboot him—”

“I’ll be fine,” Leo yelled. “Just follow me to the ground. Go!”

Jason grabbed Piper and me around the waists. We both unbuckled our harnesses, and in a flash Leo and Festus were gone— we were shooting into the air.

I dug my fingernails into Jason's arm. “D-Don’t you fucking dare-”

“I won’t,” he promised. “Just hold on.”

I gathered all my strength to look down. Leo worked on Festus as they fell at terminal velocity. They quickly grew closer to the city lights below them, obviously putting Leo under high pressure. He kept trying to light a fire in his hands, but the wind snuffed it out.

After a few seconds, Festus’s lights went back on and he spread his wings. Instead of falling, they were now on a steep glide. They were still flying in way too hot, and the ground was too close. Leo needed a place to land—fast.

There weren’t any good places to land a bronze dragon, especially any in a secluded area. Then, a white mansion with a huge snowy lawn inside a tall brick perimeter fence—like some rich person’s private compound, all of it blazing with light came into view. A perfect landing field. Leo did his best to steer the dragon toward it, and Festus seemed to come back to life. I felt a small spark of hope. They could make this!

Then everything went wrong. As they approached the lawn, spotlights along the fence fixed on them, blinding all of us. I heard bursts like tracer fire, the sound of metal being cut to shreds—and BOOM.

The light shut off and I screamed.

Festus was shredded to pieces, falling all over the snowy lawn. Leo crashed somewhere in the mix.

That was it for me. I leaned over and bit Jason’s arm. He yelped and dropped me, but soon realized his mistake.

I didn’t have time for a proper landing. Whatever damage I took I was going to have to heal by melting the snow. With a deep breath, I zeroed in on my target- Leo's unconscious body- and tried to aim myself.

I was only a few yards off. I crashed into the snow shoulder first, completely popping it out of its socket. I turned onto my back and whined, grabbing my injury. I bit my tongue as I snapped my joint back into place, quickly turning back over and lunging toward Leo.

He was completely out. His eyelids were open but his eyes were rolled back. Snow and ice was matted in his hair. Dirt and grass had clumped into his teeth.

I picked up the boy and wiped him off. He hadn’t sustained any injuries except for a burn mark of some sort, like a laser grazed right across his cheek. It wasn’t bleeding, which told me the second it hit his skin, it cauterized. Well, Leo’s first scar didn’t look too bad. Definitely gave him a more bad-boy look, which I was sure he always wanted.

His pulse was steady, so pretty much all I had to do was wait. I took my spare time to bury my wounded ankle in the snow, hoping that the cold would help numb the pain and whatever water melted against my skin did some amount to heal me.

Jason and Piper landed after another minute or so. Piper hopped out of Jason’s arms and ran to my side. “Why did you do that?! Oh, gods, is Leo okay?”

“He’s fine,” I said, rubbing my shoulder. “Just give him a second to wake up. Should be any second now.”

Jason came up next to me, his fingers grazing over the bite mark on his arm. “You have one strong jaw.”

“And you have a weak hold,” I joked. “But-”

“I get it,” Jason said. “You got to him before us.”

I looked up at Jason. I could see in his eyes that some of his memories of me had started to return. But, instead of hatred in his eyes, he had… respect. Like he valued me as an equal. Jason had never looked at me like that, not in any of the years I had known him. Maybe it actually was a good thing his memory was stolen. For some reason it made me feel almost connected with Jason. Like we could repair our relationship. Like maybe we could actually work out.

My heart fluttered. I liked the idea, but…

Looking over at Piper, her eyes reflected betrayal and sadness. She really did like Jason, even if most of her memories with him were fake. But it didn’t make sense to me. She knew how much I hated him and yet still loves him. That felt like a betrayal to me.

I sighed and looked back at Leo. He seemed to be slowly waking up. His eyes rolled back to the front and blinked. He spit a clump of frozen grass out of his mouth.

“Where—”

“Lie still.” Piper had tears in her eyes. “You rolled pretty hard when—when Festus—”

“Where is he?” Leo sat up, but his eyes began to spin. He was dizzy.

“Seriously, Leo,” Jason said. “You could be hurt. You shouldn’t—”

Leo pushed himself to his feet. Then he saw the wreckage. Festus must have dropped the big canary cages as he came over the fence, because they’d rolled in different directions and landed on their sides, perfectly undamaged.

Festus hadn’t been so lucky.

The dragon had disintegrated. His limbs were scattered across the lawn. His tail hung on the fence. The main section of his body had plowed a trench twenty feet wide and fifty feet long across the mansion’s yard before breaking apart. What remained of his hide was a charred, smoking pile of scraps. Only his neck and head were somewhat intact, resting across a row of frozen rosebushes like a pillow.

“No,” Leo sobbed. He ran to the dragon’s head and stroked its snout. The dragon’s eyes flickered weakly. Oil leaked out of his ear. “You can’t go,” Leo pleaded. “You’re the best thing I ever fixed.”

The dragon’s head whirred its gears, as if it were purring. I sat next to him, with Jason and Piper behind us, but Leo kept his eyes fixed on the dragon.

“It’s not fair,” he said.

The dragon clicked. Long creak. Two short clicks. Creak. Creak. Almost like a pattern … triggering an old memory in my mind. I realized Festus was trying to say something. He was using Morse code. I listened more intently, translating the clicks into letters: a simple message repeating over and over. Reuse me.

“Yeah,” Leo said. “I understand. I will. I promise.”

The dragon’s eyes went dark. Festus was gone.

Leo cried. Piper and Jason patted his shoulder and tried to reassure him, but nothing went through to Leo. I felt bad. I wasn’t the best at comforting people, especially when they cried. The best I could do was lean into Leo and wrap my arms around him without a word.

He reciprocated the hug, crying into my neck.

We pulled away after Leo stabilized his breathing. He wiped his face, not even caring about the wound on his cheek. I patted his shoulder and helped him to his feet.

Finally Jason said, “I’m so sorry, man. What did you promise Festus?”

Leo sniffled. He opened the dragon’s head panel, but the control disk was cracked and burned beyond repair.

“Something my dad told me,” Leo said. “Everything can be reused.”

“Your dad talked to you?” I asked. “When was this?”

Leo didn’t answer. He worked at the dragon’s neck hinges until the head was detached. It probably weighed about a hundred pounds, but Leo managed to hold it in his arms. He looked up at the starry sky and said, “Take him back to the bunker, Dad. Please, until I can reuse him. I’ve never asked you for anything.”

The wind picked up, and the dragon’s head floated out of Leo’s arms like it weighed nothing. It flew into the sky and disappeared.

Piper looked at him in amazement. “He answered you?”

“I had a dream,” Leo managed. “Tell you later.”

I looked around. The large white mansion glowed in the center of the grounds. Tall brick walls with lights and security cameras surrounded the perimeter.

“Where are we?” Leo asked. “I mean, what city?”

“Omaha, Nebraska,” Piper said. “I saw a billboard as we flew in. But I don’t know what this mansion is. We came in right behind you, but as you were landing, Leo, I swear it looked like—I don’t know—”

“Lasers,” Leo said. He picked up a piece of dragon wreckage and threw it toward the top of the fence. Immediately a turret popped up from the brick wall and a beam of pure heat incinerated the bronze plating to ashes.

Jason whistled. “Some defense system. How are we even alive?”

“Festus,” Leo said miserably. “He took the fire. The lasers sliced him to bits as he came in so they didn’t focus on you. I led him into a death trap.”

“You couldn’t have known,” I said. “He saved our lives again.”

“But what now?” Jason said. “The main gates are locked, and I’m guessing I can’t fly us out of here without getting shot down.”

Leo looked up the walkway at the big white mansion. “Since we can’t go out, we’ll have to go in.”

We would have died five times on the way to the front door if not for Leo.

First it was the motion-activated trapdoor on the sidewalk, then the lasers on the steps, then the nerve gas dispenser on the porch railing, the pressure-sensitive poison spikes in the welcome mat, and of course the exploding doorbell.

Leo deactivated all of them. It was like he could smell the traps, and he picked just the right tool out of his belt to disable them.

“You’re amazing, man,” Jason said.

Leo scowled as he examined the front door lock. “Yeah, amazing,” he said. “Can’t fix a dragon right, but I’m amazing.”

“Hey, that wasn’t your—”

“Front door’s already unlocked,” Leo announced.

I stared at the door in disbelief. “It is? All those traps, and the door’s unlocked?”

Leo turned the knob. The door swung open easily. He stepped inside without hesitation.

Before Jason could follow, I caught his arm. “He’s going to need some time to get over Festus. Don’t take it personally.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “Yeah, okay.”

I shoved past him and walked inside. He stayed back with Piper to chat a bit.

My first impression of the house: Dark.

From the echo of my footsteps I could tell the entry hall was enormous, even bigger than Boreas’s penthouse; but the only illumination came from the yard lights outside. A faint glow peeked through the breaks in the thick velvet curtains. The windows rose about ten feet tall. Spaced between them along the walls were life-size metal statues. As my eyes adjusted, I saw sofas arranged in a U in the middle of the room, with a central coffee table and one large chair at the far end. A massive chandelier glinted overhead. Along the back wall stood a row of closed doors.

“Where’s the light switch?” My voice echoed alarmingly through the room.

“Don’t see one,” Leo said.

“Fire?” Piper suggested.

Leo held out his hand, but nothing happened. “It’s not working.”

“Your fire is out? Why?” Jason asked.

“Well, if I knew that—”

“Okay, okay,” Piper said. “What do we do—explore?”

Leo shook his head. “After all those traps outside? Bad idea.”

My skin tingled. I hated being a demigod. Looking around, I didn’t see a comfortable room to hang out in. I imagined vicious storm spirits lurking in the curtains, dragons under the carpet, a chandelier made of lethal ice shards, ready to impale us.

“Leo’s right,” I said. “We’re not separating again—not like in Detroit.”

“Oh, thank you for reminding me of the Cyclopes.” Piper’s voice quavered. “I needed that.”

“It’s a few hours until dawn,” Jason guessed. “Too cold to wait outside. Let’s bring the cages in and make camp in this room. Wait for daylight; then we can decide what to do.”

Nobody offered a better idea, so we rolled in the cages with Coach Hedge and the storm spirits, then settled in. Thankfully, Leo didn’t find any poison throw pillows or electric whoopee cushions on the sofas.

Leo didn’t seem in the mood to make more tacos. Besides, we had no fire, so we settled for cold rations. It reminded me of my first mission with my team.

As I ate, I studied the metal statues along the walls. They looked like Greek gods or heroes. Maybe that was a good sign. Or maybe they were used for target practice. On the coffee table sat a tea service and a stack of glossy brochures, but I couldn’t make out the words. The big chair at the other end of the table looked like a throne. None of us tried to sit in it.

The canary cages didn’t make the place any less creepy. The venti kept churning in their prison, hissing and spinning, and I got the uncomfortable feeling they were watching me. I could sense their hatred for the children of Neptune—the lord of the sea who was an enemy to their kind. The venti would like nothing better than to tear me apart.

As for Coach Hedge, he was still frozen mid-shout, his cudgel raised. Leo was working on the cage, trying to open it with various tools, but the lock seemed to be giving him a hard time. I decided not to sit next to him in case Hedge suddenly unfroze and went into ninja goat mode.

Despite how wired I felt, once my stomach was full, I started to nod off. Jason looked the same. The couches were a little too comfortable —a lot better than a dragon’s back—and Jason had taken the last two watches while we slept. He must have been exhausted.

Piper had already curled up on the other sofa. I wondered if she was really asleep or dodging a conversation about her dad. If Piper had risked her own dad to save us, that made me feel even guiltier.

And we were running out of time. If I had my days straight, this was early morning of December 20. Which meant tomorrow was the winter solstice.

“Get some sleep,” Leo said, still working on the locked cage. “It’s your turn.”

Jason took a deep breath. “Leo, I’m sorry about that stuff I said in Chicago. That wasn’t me. You’re not annoying and you do take stuff seriously—especially your work. I wish I could do half the things you can do.”

Leo lowered his screwdriver. He looked at the ceiling and shook his head like, What am I gonna do with this guy?

“I try very hard to be annoying,” Leo said. “Don’t insult my ability to annoy. And how am I supposed to resent you if you go apologizing? I’m a lowly mechanic. You’re like the prince of the sky, son of the Lord of the Universe. I’m supposed to resent you.”

“Lord of the Universe?”

“Sure, you’re all—bam! Lightning man. And ‘Watch me fly. I am the eagle that soars—’”

“Shut up, Valdez.”

Leo managed a little smile. “Yeah, see. I do annoy you.”

“I apologize for apologizing.”

“Thank you.” He went back to work, but the tension had eased between them. Leo still looked sad and exhausted—just not quite so angry.

“Go to sleep, Jason,” he ordered. “It’s gonna take a few hours to get this goat man free. Then I still got to figure out how to make the winds a smaller holding cell, ’cause I am not lugging that canary cage to California.”

“You did fix Festus, you know,” Jason said. “You gave him a purpose again. I think this quest was the high point of his life.”

Jason was probably afraid he’d blown it and made Leo mad again, but Leo just sighed.

“I hope,” he said. “Now, sleep, man. I want some time without you organic life forms.”

I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but Jason didn’t argue. He closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

I shook my head. “Hope you don’t mind me staying up. Everytime I sleep, we end up falling or something. Best if I stay up.”

“Whatever,” Leo said, keeping his eyes on the cage. “Not like I mind your company. I feel like you get me.”

“Known you the longest,” I said. “And my friend senses tell me you’ve been thinking too much.”

“You could say that,” Leo sighed.

I repositioned myself so I was laying on my stomach facing Leo. “Spill it.”

Leo bit his lip. His screwdriver began to tremble in his hands. “Medea set Jason and I up too easy. But I see it because those feelings didn’t just come out of anywhere. I really am jealous of him. But whatever now, right? We’re over that.”

“Mhm,” I said, sitting up on my knees. “But now what?”

“But… my mom. Medea said she saw the future from down in the Underworld. That’s how Dirt Lady…”

Leo choked on his words. He bit his lip, and tears flew down his face.

He told me everything. He told me the real story of the night his mom died. He didn’t leave out a single detail this time. The story turned my stomach to ice. Leo had been living with that day for so long, not telling anyone and dealing with that pain and trauma on his own.

“Medea sent her to ruin my life,” Leo said. “To scare me so bad that I wouldn’t stand up against Dirt Lady. She came to me seven years ago because of something I might do someday. Might! So in a weird way, even if my fire powers weren’t to blame for my mom dying, it’s still my fault.”

I watched my friend try to hide his hysterical sobs, trying to keep quiet so Jason and Piper could sleep. He sniffled and wiped his face, but more tears kept coming.

“When we left Medea in that exploding store, I felt too good. I hoped she wouldn’t make it out, and would go right back to the Fields of Punishment, where she belonged.” Leo gripped his screwdriver until his knuckles split. “And I hate feeling like that, and thinking like a freak. With all these souls coming back, I wondered if maybe my mom could? But that’s Frankenstein thinking. Medea was fucked up when she came back. Besides, my mom is long gone. Any other thinking just drives me crazy, but the thought is just still there.”

I nodded. “I understand.”

“I don’t think you do,” Leo said. “Whatever. I just don’t feel right. Festus just felt like the last straw. I feel so fucked up. Like a broken machine. Off balance, never calibrated correctly. And I don’t think anybody gets it.”

“I do,” I said. “I swear it. Maybe it’s not the same as you but I mean I’ve lost loads of people. Don’t you think I want them back, too? I would go to the underworld right now to get my mom back if I could.”

“I thought you hated your mom,” Leo said.

“Sometimes. She was really shitty to me.” I sat back and started pulling at loose threads on my sweater.

“Then why would you miss her?” Leo asked.

“Because I miss who she was, Leo,” I said. “She’s still my mom. We still had fun together before all this dumb shit set in. I loved her so much, but sometimes people change. For better or for worse. Pretending that I hate her just makes things easier.”

Leo wiped his face. “I guess I get it.”

“You don’t have to,'' I sighed. “People don’t always have to understand each other. They just have to try, and they have to listen. And Leo, I listened and I understand. But, none of that was your fault. You are not responsible for other people’s choices and actions.”

“But-”

“No, Leo, Listen. Everybody has some free will unless, you know, they’re under a spell. But still, you didn’t control Medea and Shit Sludge Girl to go to you that night. That’s on them. Festus wasn’t your fault either. Something went wrong, and Festus was not in his perfect condition. You did so well trying to save him, and it’s not your fault that these stupid lasers were here. You did great. It’s not your fault at all. And I know you’re going to be sad, but I hope you find some condolence in knowing none of this is on you, okay?”

Leo was silent for a moment. I felt like I had said something wrong and was about to apologize, but Leo stopped me with a hug.

I tried not to freeze and make it awkward, but I hadn't expected the warm embrace. I was completely embarrassed.

“I just want this quest to be over,” Leo said, face buried in my shoulder.

“Why?” I asked, finally able to wrap my arms around him.

“Because then I can ask you out,” Leo replied.

Emergency alarms went off in my head. I had zero idea how to handle any of this, and I had never been so easily swept off my feet. I couldn’t tell if I wanted to punch Leo or kiss him. But if I couldn’t figure it out soon, I was probably just going to explode.

Leo pulled away and wiped his eyes. “Thanks, Water Girl. You’re pretty good at comforting people.”

“Yeah,” I said, no other response in my head. “Fish.”

Leo snorted. “Did I break you too?”

I snapped out of my lame trance and punched Leo on the arm. “Dude!”

“Ow!” Leo rubbed his arm and laughed. “I’ve finally left you speechless.”

I grew angry. But I was only angry because it was true. I had never been left without words in my entire life, and this dumb little elf boy suddenly does it? How lame of me!

I shoved Leo toward the canary cage with Hedge and handed him his screwdriver. “Fix it.”

Leo shrugged, a smirk on his lips. “Okay, okay.”

Clearly, Leo was just mentally blocked from opening the cage because in seconds he popped off the lock and Hedge came flying out.

“Ahhhggggggh!”

Jason leaped to his feet.

“Coach is awake,” Leo said, which was kind of unnecessary.

Gleeson Hedge was capering around on his furry hindquarters, swinging his club and yelling, “Die!” as he smashed the tea set, whacked the sofas, and charged at the throne.

“Coach!” Jason yelled.

Hedge turned, breathing hard. His eyes were so wild, I was afraid he might attack. The satyr was still wearing his orange polo shirt and his coach’s whistle, but his horns were clearly visible above his curly hair, and his beefy hindquarters were definitely all goat. Could you call a goat beefy? I put the thought aside.

“You’re the new kid,” Hedge said, lowering his club. “Jason.” He looked at Leo, then Piper, who’d apparently also just woken up. Her hair looked like it had become a nest for a friendly hamster.

“Valdez, McLean,” the coach said. “What’s going on? We were at the Grand Canyon. The anemoi thuellai were attacking and—” He zeroed in on the storm spirit cage, and his eyes went back to DEFCON 1. “Die!”

“Whoa, Coach!” I stepped in his path, which was pretty brave, even though I’ve done crazier things. “It’s okay. They’re locked up. We just sprang you from the other cage.”

“Cage? Cage? What’s going on? Just because I’m a satyr doesn’t mean I can’t have you doing plank push-ups, Water Girl!”

“Seriously, who’s spreading that nickname!”

Jason cleared his throat. “Coach—Gleeson—um, whatever you want us to call you. You saved us at the Grand Canyon. You were totally brave.”

“Of course I was!”

“The extraction team came and took us to Camp Half-Blood. We thought we’d lost you. Then we got word the storm spirits had taken you back to their—um, operator, Medea.”

“That witch! Wait—that’s impossible. She’s mortal. She’s dead.”

“Yeah, well,” Leo said, “somehow she got not dead anymore.”

Hedge nodded, his eyes narrowing. “So! You were sent on a dangerous quest to rescue me. Excellent!”

“Um.” Piper got to her feet, holding out her hands so Coach Hedge wouldn’t attack her. “Actually, Glee—can I still call you Coach Hedge? Gleeson seems wrong. We’re on a quest for something else. We kind of found you by accident.”

“Oh.” The coach’s spirits seemed to deflate, but only for a second. Then his eyes lit up again. “But there are no accidents! Not on quests. This was meant to happen! So, this is the witch’s lair, eh? Why is everything gold?”

“Gold?” I looked around. From the way Leo and Piper caught their breath, I guessed they hadn’t noticed yet either.

The room was full of gold—the statues, the tea set Hedge had smashed, the chair that was definitely a throne. Even the curtains—which seemed to have opened by themselves at daybreak—appeared to be woven of gold fiber.

“Nice,” Leo said. “No wonder they got so much security.”

“This isn’t—” Piper stammered. “This isn’t Medea’s place, Coach. It’s some rich person’s mansion in Omaha. We got away from Medea and crash-landed here.”

“It’s destiny, cupcakes!” Hedge insisted. “I’m meant to protect you. What’s the quest?”

Before I could decide if I wanted to explain or just shove Coach Hedge back into his cage, a door opened at the far end of the room.

A pudgy man in a white bathrobe stepped out with a golden toothbrush in his mouth. He had a white beard and one of those long, old-fashioned sleeping caps pressed down over his white hair. He froze when he saw us, and the toothbrush fell out of his mouth.

He glanced into the room behind him and called, “Son? Lit, come out here, please. There are strange people in the throne room.”

Coach Hedge did the obvious thing. He raised his club and shouted, “Die!”

It took all three of us to hold back the satyr. “Whoa, Coach!” Jason said. “Bring it down a few notches.”

A younger man charged into the room. I guessed he must be Lit, the old guy’s son. He was dressed in pajama pants with a sleeveless T-shirt that said cornhuskers, and he held a sword that looked like it could husk a lot of things besides corn. His ripped arms were covered in scars, and his face, framed by curly dark hair, was undeniably handsome with all the scars on it. I couldn’t lie, this guy was pretty cute.

Lit immediately zeroed in on Jason like he was the biggest threat, and stalked toward him, swinging his sword overhead. “Hold on!” I stepped forward, trying for a calming voice. “This is just a misunderstanding! Everything’s fine.”

Lit stopped in his tracks, but he still looked wary. It didn’t help that Hedge was screaming, “I’ll get them! Don’t worry!”

“Coach,” Jason pleaded, “they may be friendly. Besides, we’re trespassing in their house.”

“Thank you!” said the old man in the bathrobe. “Now, who are you, and why are you here?”

“Let’s all put our weapons down,” Piper said. “Coach, you first.”

Hedge clenched his jaw. “Just one thwack?”

“No,” Piper said.

“What about a compromise? I’ll kill them first, and if it turns out they were friendly, I’ll apologize.”

“No!” Piper insisted.

“Meh.” Coach Hedge lowered his club.

I gave Lit a friendly sorry-about-that smile. I was sure my hair was completely tangled and riddled with cowlicks, and my clothes were stained with dirt and blood, but I still tried to look appealing.

Lit huffed and sheathed his sword. “You speak well, girl—fortunately for your friends, or I would’ve run them through.”

“Appreciate it,” Leo said, a hint of malice and jealousy in his voice. “I try not to get run through before lunchtime.”

The old man in the bathrobe sighed, kicking the teapot that Coach Hedge had smashed. “Well, since you’re here. Please, sit down.”

Lit frowned. “Your Majesty—”

“No, no, it’s fine, Lit,” the old man said. “New land, new customs. They may sit in my presence. After all, they’ve seen me in my nightclothes. No sense observing formalities.” He did his best to smile, though it looked a little forced. “Welcome to my humble home. I am King Midas.”

“Midas? Impossible,” said Coach Hedge. “He died.”

We were sitting on the sofas now, while the king reclined on his throne. Tricky to do that in a bathrobe, and I kept worrying the old guy would forget and uncross his legs. Hopefully he was wearing golden boxers under there.

Lit stood behind the throne, both hands on his sword, glancing at me and flexing his muscular arms. I couldn’t help blushing.

Piper sat forward. “What our satyr friend means, Your Majesty, is that you’re the second mortal we’ve met who should be—sorry—dead. King Midas lived thousands of years ago.”

“Interesting.” The king gazed out the windows at the brilliant blue skies and the winter sunlight. In the distance, downtown Omaha looked like a cluster of children’s blocks —way too clean and small for a regular city.

“You know,” the king said, “I think I was a bit dead for a while. It’s strange. Seems like a dream, doesn’t it, Lit?”

“A very long dream, Your Majesty.”

“And yet, now we’re here. I’m enjoying myself very much. I like being alive better.”

“But how?” Piper asked. “You didn’t happen to have a … patron?”

Midas hesitated, but there was a sly twinkle in his eyes. “Does it matter, my dear?”

“We could kill them again,” Hedge suggested.

“Coach, not helping,” Jason said. “Why don’t you go outside and stand guard?”

Leo coughed. “Is that safe? They’ve got some serious security.”

“Oh, yes,” the king said. “Sorry about that. But it’s lovely stuff, isn’t it? Amazing what gold can still buy. Such excellent toys you have in this country!”

He fished a remote control out of his bathrobe pocket and pressed a few buttons—a pass code, I guessed.

“There,” Midas said. “Safe to go out now.”

Coach Hedge grunted. “Fine. But if you need me …” He winked at Jason and me meaningfully. Then he pointed at himself, pointed two fingers at their hosts, and sliced a finger across his throat. Very subtle sign language.

“Yeah, thanks,” I said.

After the satyr left, Piper tried a diplomatic smile. “So … you don’t know how you got here?”

“Oh, well, yes. Sort of,” the king said. He frowned at Lit. “Why did we pick Omaha, again? I know it wasn’t the weather.”

“The oracle,” Lit said.

“Yes! I was told there was an oracle in Omaha.” The king shrugged. “Apparently I was mistaken. But this is a rather nice house, isn’t it? Lit—it’s short for Lityerses, by the way—horrible name, but his mother insisted—Lit has plenty of wide-open space to practice his swordplay. He has quite a reputation for that. They called him the Reaper of Men back in the old days.”

“Oh,” I said. “How nice.”

Lit’s smile was more of a cruel sneer. He looked quite impressed with himself for earning such a title.

“So,” Leo said. “All this gold—”

The king’s eyes lit up. “Are you here for gold, my boy? Please, take a brochure!”

I looked at the brochures on the coffee table. The title said GOLD: Invest for Eternity. “Um, you sell gold?”

“No, no,” the king said. “I make it. In uncertain times like these, gold is the wisest investment, don’t you think? Governments fall. The dead rise. Giants attack Olympus. But gold retains its value!”

Leo frowned. “I’ve seen that commercial.”

“Oh, don’t be fooled by cheap imitators!” the king said. “I assure you, I can beat any price for a serious investor. I can make a wide assortment of gold items at a moment’s notice.”

“But …” Piper shook her head in confusion. “Your Majesty, you gave up the golden touch, didn’t you?”

The king looked astonished. “Gave it up?”

“Yes,” Piper said. “You got it from some god—”

“Dionysus,” the king agreed. “I’d rescued one of his satyrs, and in return, the god granted me one wish. I chose the golden touch.”

“But you accidentally turned your own daughter to gold,” Piper remembered. “And you realized how greedy you’d been. So you repented.”

“Repented!” King Midas looked at Lit incredulously. “You see, son? You’re away for a few thousand years, and the story gets twisted all around. My dear girl, did those stories ever say I’d lost my magic touch?”

“Well, I guess not. They just said you learned how to reverse it with running water, and you brought your daughter back to life.”

“That’s all true. Sometimes I still have to reverse my touch. There’s no running water in the house because I don’t want accidents”—he gestured to his statues—“but we chose to live next to a river just in case. Occasionally, I’ll forget and pat Lit on the back—”

Lit retreated a few steps. “I hate that.”

“I told you I was sorry, son. At any rate, gold is wonderful. Why would I give it up?”

“Well …” Piper looked truly lost now. “Isn’t that the point of the story? That you learned your lesson?”

Midas laughed. “My dear, may I see your backpack for a moment? Toss it here.”

Piper hesitated, but she wasn’t eager to offend the king. She dumped everything out of the pack and tossed it to Midas. As soon as he caught it, the pack turned to gold, like frost spreading across the fabric. It still looked flexible and soft, but definitely gold. The king tossed it back.

“As you see, I can still turn anything to gold,” Midas said. “That pack is magic now, as well. Go ahead—put your little storm spirit enemies in there.”

“Seriously?” Leo was suddenly interested. He took the bag from Piper and held it up to the cage. As soon as he unzipped the backpack, the winds stirred and howled in protest. The cage bars shuddered. The door of the prison flew open and the winds got vacuumed straight into the pack. Leo zipped it shut and grinned. “Gotta admit. That’s cool.”

“You see?” Midas said. “My golden touch a curse? Please. I didn’t learn any lesson, and life isn’t a story, girl. Honestly, my daughter Zoe was much more pleasant as a gold statue.”

“She talked a lot,” Lit offered.

“Exactly! And so I turned her back to gold.” Midas pointed. There in the corner was a golden statue of a girl with a shocked expression, as if she were thinking, Dad!

“That’s horrible!” I said.

“Nonsense. She doesn’t mind. Besides, if I’d learned my lesson, would I have gotten these?”

Midas pulled off his oversize sleeping cap, and I didn’t know whether to laugh or get sick. Midas had long fuzzy gray ears sticking up from his white hair—like Bugs Bunny’s, but they weren’t rabbit ears. They were donkey ears.

“Oh, wow,” Leo said. “I didn’t need to see that.”

“Terrible, isn’t it?” Midas sighed. “A few years after the golden touch incident, I judged a music contest between Apollo and Pan, and I declared Pan the winner. Apollo, sore loser, said I must have the ears of an ass, and voilà. This was my reward for being truthful. I tried to keep them a secret. Only my barber knew, but he couldn’t help blabbing.” Midas pointed out another golden statue—a bald man in a toga, holding a pair of shears. “That’s him. He won’t be telling anyone’s secrets again.”

The king smiled. Suddenly he didn’t strike me as a harmless old man in a bathrobe. His eyes had a merry glow to them—the look of a madman who knew he was mad, accepted his madness, and enjoyed it. “Yes, gold has many uses. I think that must be why I was brought back, eh Lit? To bankroll our patron.”

Lit nodded. “That and my good sword arm.”

I glanced at my friends. Suddenly the air in the room seemed much colder.

“So you do have a patron,” I said. “You work for the giants.”

King Midas waved his hand dismissively. “Well, I don’t care for giants myself, of course. But even supernatural armies need to get paid. I do owe my patron a great debt. I tried to explain that to the last group that came through, but they were very unfriendly. Wouldn’t cooperate at all.”

I slipped my hand into my pocket and grabbed my gold pen. “The last group?”

“Hunters,” Lit snarled. “Blasted girls from Artemis.”

“When?” Jason demanded. “What happened?”

Lit shrugged. “Few days ago? I didn’t get to kill them, unfortunately. They were looking for some evil wolves, or something. Said they were following a trail, heading west. Missing demigod—I don’t recall.”

Percy Jackson, I thought. Annabeth had mentioned the Hunters were looking for him.

Midas scratched his donkey ears. “Very unpleasant young ladies, those Hunters,” he recalled. “They absolutely refused to be turned into gold. Much of the security system outside I installed to keep that sort of thing from happening again, you know. I don’t have time for those who aren’t serious investors.”

Jason stood warily and glanced at us. We got the message.

“Well,” I said, managing a smile. “It’s been a great visit. Welcome back to life. Thanks for the gold bag.”

“Oh, but you can’t leave!” Midas said. “I know you’re not serious investors, but that’s all right! I have to rebuild my collection.”

Lit was smiling cruelly. The king rose, and Leo and Piper moved away from him.

“Don’t worry,” the king assured them. “You don’t have to be turned to gold. I give all my guests a choice—join my collection, or die at the hands of Lityerses. Really, it’s good either way.”

Piper tried to use her charmspeak. “Your Majesty, you can’t—”

Quicker than any old man should’ve been able to move, Midas lashed out and grabbed her wrist.

“No!” Jason and I yelled in unison.

But a frost of gold spread over Piper, and in a heartbeat she was a glittering statue. Leo tried to summon fire, but he’d forgotten his power wasn’t working. Midas touched his hand, and Leo transformed into solid metal.

“You motherfucker!” I screamed. I twisted my pen into a trident and hopped over the coffee table, throwing my weapon at Midas’s head.

The king yelped and ducked out of the way. I landed on the ground and grabbed my trident, but before I could pull it out, my whole body went cold.

-

Air rushed into my lungs. I snapped my eyes open, gasping for my breath. My whole body was cold and soaked from the rain pouring on me. I was laying on rock of some sort, and the jagged stones poked into my back.

Leo sat over me. He was also soaked from head to toe. When I came to myself, he smiled at me and helped me sit up. “Come on, come on. Let’s get inside before the snow blows in. Hedge says there’s going to be a storm.”

“What happened?” I asked. I grabbed Leo by the face and squished him around. “You’re not gold?”

“Not anymore,” Leo said, grabbing my hand and dragging me into a cave. “But you were, for a really long time.”

He led me to a fire, where Hedge sat with Jason. Piper was wrapped in a towel, being dried off. She looked like she was asleep.

Leo sat me in front of the fire and joined me at my side. “You feeling okay?”

“I don’t- what happened? I’m confused,” I said, putting my hands in front of the fire.

“You tried to get Midas, but you left an opening for yourself and turned to gold,” Jason explained. “But you were gold for a long time. Dunked you in the river, let you fly in the rain, even let you soak for a whole hour out there. You just woke up. Piper's been out, but even she turned back to normal after the first dunk in the river.”

“I see,” I said. “Probably my water resistance.”

“That’s the only thing I could think of,” Jason sighed. “Why don’t you dry off? Leo, another towel-”

“I’m fine.” I stood up and pointed my hand to my feet. Feeling a familiar tug in my gut, I used my powers to drag all the water on my clothes and body to one large blob.

“You’re like a water bender,” Leo said in awe.

I laughed, tossing the water outside. “That’s where I got some of my powers from. If I can control water, why not use it in every way possible? Look-”

I waved my hand over Leo and sucked all the water off him, creating another large blob. With a twitch of my hand, I froze the water completely solid. Then with another twitch, melted the ice and heated it to boiling point. In a flash, the water evaporated.

“Pretty cool, right?” I asked.

Leo nodded. “You make me jealous. I wanna lightning bend like Zuko! Jason, hit me!”

“No,” Jason answered. “Could you get the water off Piper?”

I nodded and helped my friend dry off. In an instant, everyone in the cave was dry.

“Thanks,” Hedge said. “I’m gonna take watch. The rain is turning into sleet.”

The short satyr got up and trudged to the entrance of the cave, where a blizzard was starting to storm. I turned back to my friends and sighed. “Did you guys kill Midas or something?”

Jason shook his head. “Took him out alone. I fought Lit first, knocked him back, made Midas help him up, and that turned Lit to gold. Then I blasted the ceiling with lighting, causing the rain storm- which is unrelated to the one over here since we kinda left-, and the rain ungolded everybody Midas froze. We left real quick.”

I nodded, putting my feet in front of the fire. “So I was bested. That’s a first.”

“Really?” Leo asked. “Even when you were at your, uhm, bootcamp?”

I nodded. “Well, I lost a few spars with you-know-who,'' I said, glancing playfully at Jason. “But I also whooped him a good amount.”

“What was our hardest enemy?” Jason asked. “Or yours or whatever.”

“Well besides you,” I started, “Probably Thalassa.”

“You’re kidding,” Jason gawked. “The sea itself?”

I nodded, leaning into the cave wall. “I don’t really want to get into it. Rough day. Might bring up too many confusing memories for you, Jason.”

Leo frowned. “Dude, one story, please!”

“I have too many!” I laughed. “Jason couldn’t even pick one if he remembered.”

“Do Thalassa,” Jason said. “I would like to hear it.”

“You sure?” I asked. “Might mess with your head.”

Jason nodded. “I’ll be okay.”

I sighed, feeling the memories come flooding back. “Well, it was this August. Some trouble was stirring with the titans, you could say. A war was starting, so our fearless leader, Jason, led us into battle…”

-
I walked behind Jason and Reyna, leading the Fifth Cohort. I didn’t have any time to talk to Jason, since we were quickly scooped up and sent to take down the Titan army off the shore, but the conversation we were having was too important for me to drop.

“I don’t understand,” I said, walking out of pace with the other cohorts. Octavian was giving me stink eye. “You can’t leave me like that.”

“Back in line,” Reyna commanded me. “We don’t need your impulsivity now, daughter of Neptune.”

“Reyna, I’m serious, I need to talk to Jason!” I pleaded. “I can’t fight like this!”

“Yes, you can,” Reyna said. “Now focus, we are about to cross the sea.”

I grabbed Jason’s arm and tugged him back, making him finally look at me. “You can’t leave me. You said you wouldn’t!”

“I’m sorry,” Jason said. “I don’t want to talk about this in front of the legion.”

“You wanted to break up with me right before the war?” I asked. “Why, because you think you’re going to die?”

“No!” Jason whisper-yelled. “Because I can’t date you! I can’t even stand it. We just aren’t meant for eachother! Now fall back into line.”

“I can’t believe you!” I cried. Jason shoved my arms off him and cleared his throat.

“Twelfth Legion! Lead your cohorts into these boats and sail to Mount Tamalpais. I will meet you there at the rebuilt Mount Othrys-”

Jason’s words faded away as my heart raced. I didn’t care if we were about to go to war, he knew the timing. He did that on purpose. My gut churned, and I gripped the pen in my pocket. My armor felt tight against my chest. I hated Jason. I hated everything about him. How could he do this to me?

I felt nothing but rage.

“No!” a powerful voice broke me out of my thoughts.

As the legion made their way onto the boats, the ocean beneath them began to swirl and come together. The seafoam, coral, seaweed, and tide all pulled together, pushing and swirling around in the air until the upper body of a woman formed. She towered over the twelfth legion, easily three hundred feet tall. A storm began swirling above her

“Mare!” Reyna yelled. “Cohorts, falls back! She’ll sink you-”

I screamed. My trident formed in my hand, and I dashed into the sea.

Thalassa raised her hand and slammed it toward me. I jumped and dove into her waters, forcing her currents to push me up her arm.

I could see through her murky water the twelve boats of my legion paddling around Thalassa to Mount Tamalpais. Jason flew above them with Reyna in his arms. My blood boiled.

Resurfacing from Thalassa’s arm, I dug my trident into her shoulder.

“You cannot control me, Neptune girl!” she roared, turning her face toward me. Her eyes were bright white and shone on me like a lighthouse. “I am the sea itself!”

“I am the descendant of the ruler of the sea!” I screamed. “You belong to me!”

Thalassa laughed, a sound like waves crashing against rocks and the drowning screams of many mortals. “I pity you.”

I could feel the hair rise on my skin. “How dare you!”

Before her next attack, I held onto my trident. Thalassa went up a few more feet before sinking straight into the tide below. She pushed and shoved me around, slamming me against the jagged rocks at the bottom. There was no real way to defeat her, and I realized I had only become a distraction for the rest of the legion. While they fought the Titan Krios, I was stuck playing pretend with the sea. How unfair!

The only idea I had was to take the sea away from the sea. It made no sense, but it worked for me. I pointed my trident toward the sand and commanded the water to shoot me up. The current tried to fight me, but I refused to let the sea reject me- only I could do that. With all of my will, I forced the raging water to blast me above the sea and into the air.

I didn’t think about how high up I was, I was too focused on my anger and attacks. I willed the water to wrap around the forks of my trident and swung it above me, feeling the tension from the sea.

Thalassa finally came up from the water, sucking the boats back toward her waist for a moment.

“You’re distracting me!” Thalassa screamed, grabbing my trident and holding me into the air. “I was supposed to stop you Romans from reaching the base!”

“Too bad!” I screamed. “You made me angry, therefore you must die!”

“You’re ridiculous,” Thalassa laughed. “A puny human like you? Killing me, the primordial goddess of the sea? Fool!”

“Keep running your mouth!” I swung myself around my trident and held onto it like a pullup bar. “You will obey me or you will die!”

“Feisty little runt!” Thalassa hissed. “Let’s fix that!”

I watched the storm raging above me. Light flashed inside the clouds.

Thalassa laughed, taking my silence for fear. “Little girl is afraid of heights?”

She pulled herself further out of the sea, pushing me closer toward the clouds. I felt the air grow thin and full of static. Thalassa had no idea what she was doing, but she somehow managed to fall into my trap.

Jupiter did not want me in his domain, and the sky was clearly reflecting it. The lightning in the clouds grew more aggressive. Thalassa laughed at me. All the hair on my body stood straight up. My ears popped.

I swung off my trident right as the lightning struck. The white rod of heat struck my weapon and immediately conducted the electricity through the gold and straight into Thalassa. Her entire body flooded with the blinding light.

The goddess seized with the electrical current running through her body as I flew toward her face, a deafening clap of thunder roaring overhead. I summoned my trident into hy hand from hers and swung it back.

I held out my hand, still falling toward Thalassa. The blast of lightning was enough to fry her mind, momentarily giving me full control over her. Using my powers, I pulled some of her waters toward me, which immediately turned into a smaller womanly body. Her larger form began to fall apart, so I froze the water closest to me and used the leverage to jump into the sky once again.

I held onto the small Thalassa on my way up. Being so far away from her source of power, she grew weaker; I could sense it as I used my powers to fling her infront of me and into the clouds.

On my fall down, I saw nothing but red. All my anger and hate built itself up to boiling point inside me. Thalassa opened her eyes for the last time as I crashed down toward her.

With one swift movement and a scream that could shatter the earth, I drove my trident through Thalassa’s chest.

The goddess evaporated right before my eyes. I breathed in her mist before I crashed into the ocean below.

The lightning had left the waters electric, so when I crashed in I was immediately shocked. My body tensed and seized, and I passed out watching another blast of lightning strike overhead. Jason had defeated Krios.

-

I stared into the firelight, trying to move past the memories of my old life. “Thalassa never appeared again after that. Her physical form had been destroyed, as well as her mental aspect. The ocean is now just the ocean, purely under the control of my father.”

“What happened after that?” Leo asked. “Like, did you die from the electrical water?”

“No, stupid, how do you think I’m still here?”

Jason laughed softly, but I could tell the story bugged him. Obviously he didn’t like hearing about his past life as much as I did, which is something that struck me as odd. Had he changed that much in just these few months?

I cleared my throat, trying to advert my attention. “No, Leo, I heal in water. So whatever damage was done to me, simply was reversed the second it happened. I woke up on the shore where the rest of my group was. Jason and I were celebrated as heroes, but I had to touch a lot of metal to get the leftover lighting out of my body.”

“But that’s still amazing,” Leo said. “I’m so retelling this as soon as Piper wakes up.”

“Yeah, let her know her best friend, a fish soldier took out the entire sea,” I joked.

The three of us stared at the fire for a few minutes longer. There was a slight tension in the air, and I could tell it was on the topic of Jason and I. Even Leo seemed upset over it.

Jason took a deep breath and sat up. “What happened after that?”

I leaned back into the cave wall, feeling my gut become unsettled. “Well, about a week went by and I resented you the whole time. Even though the group-” I made sure to call CJ that since I didn’t want Jason remembering too much, “- thought of the both of us as heroes, I was still hated. I always was. But I think without you, that was when everyone really turned. Then, you vanished. I was immediately blamed. Few days later, I left too. You’ve got a silly excuse, but I’ll be executed if I return or I get found.”

Jason looked disturbed, then his face turned more stern. “I’ll make sure they won't. I’ll keep you safe, promise.”

I realized that maybe Hera had made a good decision. Jason had definitely changed, and I was starting to think it was for the better. His memory loss really was the whole reason we were getting along.

I felt a smile form on my face. “Yeah, well I hope so.”

The cave went quiet again, and I felt my face grow warm. I couldn’t stop smiling, and it was beginning to annoy me. How could Jason make me feel this way even after he hurt me? It was so much worse than a breakup, it was literally him saying he hated me even after all we had been through.

So why was I falling back in love?

After a few more minutes of silence, Piper stirred in Jason’s arm, and I was brought back to the reality where Jason still didn’t love me.

The coach returned from the entrance of the cave and sat at the fire. We watched in silence as Piper woke up.

“Oh, god.” Her teeth chattered. “He turned me to gold!”

“You’re okay now.” Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her, but she still looked as cold as a Boread.

She blinked, looking at the campfire, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. We were in a shallow cave, but it didn’t offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It might’ve been day or night. The storm made it too dark to tell.

“L-L-Leo?” Piper managed.

“Present and un-gold-ified.” Leo was also wrapped in blankets. He didn’t look great, but better than Piper. “I got the precious metal treatment too,” he said. “But I came out of it faster. We got all the water off you, but … it’s really, really cold.”

“You’ve got hypothermia,” Jason said. “We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—”

“Sports medicine.” The coach loomed over her. “Kind of a hobby of mine. Your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it’ll pass. You probably won’t die. Probably.”

“Thanks,” Piper said weakly. “How did you beat Midas?”

Jason told her the story, putting most of it down to luck.

The coach snorted. “Kid’s being modest. You should’ve seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!”

“Coach, you didn’t even see it,” Jason said. “You were outside eating the lawn.”

But the satyr was just warming up. “Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told him, ‘Kid, I’m proud of you! If you could just work on your upper body strength—’”

“Coach,” said Jason.

“Yeah?”

“Shut up, please.”

“Sure.” The coach sat down at the fire and started chewing his cudgel.

Jason put his hand on Piper’s forehead and checked her temperature. “Leo, can you stoke the fire?”

“On it.” Leo summoned a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire.

“Do I look that bad?” Piper shivered.

“Nah,” Jason said.

“You’re a terrible liar,” she said. “Where are we?”

“Pikes Peak,” Jason said. “Colorado.”

“But that’s, what—five hundred miles from Omaha?”

“Something like that,” Jason agreed. “I harnessed the storm spirits to bring us this far. They didn’t like it—went a little faster than I wanted, almost crashed us into the mountainside before I could get them back in the bag. I’m not going to be trying that again.”

“Why are we here?”

Leo sniffed. “That’s what I asked him.”

Jason gazed into the storm as if watching for something. “That glittery wind trail we saw yesterday? It was still in the sky, though it had faded a lot. I followed it until I couldn’t see it anymore. Then—honestly I’m not sure. I just felt like this was the right place to stop.”

“’Course it is.” Coach Hedge spit out some cudgel splinters. “Aeolus’s floating palace should be anchored above us, right at the peak. This is one of his favorite spots to dock.”

“Maybe that was it.” Jason knit his eyebrows. “I don’t know. Something else, too …”

“The Hunters were heading west,” I remembered. “Do you think they’re around here?”

Jason rubbed his forearm as if the tattoos were bothering him. “I don’t see how anyone could survive on the mountain right now. The storm’s pretty bad. It’s already the evening before the solstice, but we didn’t have much choice except to wait out the storm here. We had to give you girls some time to rest before we tried moving.”

He didn’t need to convince Piper. The wind howling outside the cave probably scared her, and she couldn’t stop shivering.

“We have to get you warm.” Jason sat next to her and held out his arms a little awkwardly. “Uh, you mind if I …”

“I suppose.” She tried to sound nonchalant.

He put his arms around her and held her. They scooted closer to the fire. Coach Hedge chewed on his club and spit splinters into the fire.

I couldn’t help feeling a pain in my heart. It made me really sad, seeing as Jason had changed right before my eyes into the hero I was always in love with. But I guess as people change, so do their hearts. Jason had clearly fallen for Piper.

And I could see in her eyes that she had fallen for him as well- the real him and not her fake memories.

I couldn’t hate Jason anymore. He had shown me a new side to him in these few days. I could feel his honesty, and I knew he would treat Piper right.

He had earned my approval.

I sniffed and wiped one of my eyes. Leo turned to me. “You good?”

“Smoke in my eyeball,” I lied. “Why don’t you use that fire to cook us up some food? I’m craving cheeseburgers.”

Leo grinned. “How about some cooking and some story time? Papa Leo’s got something tonight.”

I nodded and sat up, taking the blanket off Leo’s back.

He broke out some cooking supplies and started frying burger patties on an iron skillet, suddenly dropping his goofy mood. “So, guys, long as you’re cuddled up for story time … something I’ve been meaning to tell you. On the way to Omaha, I had this dream. Kinda hard to understand with the static and the Wheel of Fortune breaking in—”

“Wheel of Fortune?” I assumed Leo was kidding, but when he looked up from his burgers, his expression was deadly serious.

“The thing is,” he said, “my dad Hephaestus talked to me.”

Leo told us about his dream. In the firelight, with the wind howling, the story was even creepier. I could imagine the static-filled voice of the god warning about giants who were the sons of Tartarus, and about Leo losing some friends along the way.

Piper shifted in her seat. “I don’t understand. If demigods and gods have to work together to kill the giants, why would the gods stay silent? If they need us—”

“Ha,” said Coach Hedge. “The gods hate needing humans. They like to be needed by humans, but not the other way around. Things will have to get a whole lot worse before Zeus admits he made a mistake closing Olympus.”

“Coach,” Piper said, “that was almost an intelligent comment.”

Hedge huffed. “What? I’m intelligent! I’m not surprised you cupcakes haven’t heard of the Giant War. The gods don’t like to talk about it. Bad PR to admit you needed mortals to help beat an enemy. That’s just embarrassing.”

“There’s more, though,” Jason said. “When I dreamed about Hera in her cage, she said Zeus was acting unusually paranoid. And Hera—she said she went to those ruins because a voice had been speaking in her head. What if someone’s influencing the gods, like Medea influenced us?”

I shuddered. I’d had a similar thought—that some force we couldn’t see was manipulating things behind the scenes, helping the giants. Maybe the same force was keeping enemies informed about our movements, and had even knocked our dragon out of the sky over Detroit. Perhaps Leo’s sleeping Dirt Woman, or another servant of hers …

Leo set hamburger buns on the skillet to toast. “Yeah, Hephaestus said something similar, like Zeus was acting weirder than usual. But what bothered me was the stuff my dad didn’t say. Like a couple of times he was talking about the demigods, and how he had so many kids and all. I don’t know. He acted like getting the greatest demigods together was going to be almost impossible—like Hera was trying, but it was a really stupid thing to do, and there was some secret Hephaestus wasn’t supposed to tell me.”

Jason shifted. I could feel the tension in the air.

“Chiron was the same way back at camp,” he said. “He mentioned a sacred oath not to discuss—something. Coach, you know anything about that?”

“Nah. I’m just a satyr. They don’t tell us the juicy stuff. Especially an old—” He stopped himself.

“An old guy like you?” I asked. “But you’re not that old, are you?”

“Hundred and six,” the coach muttered.

Leo coughed. “Say what?”

“Don’t catch your panties on fire, Valdez. That’s just fifty-three in human years. Still, yeah, I made some enemies on the Council of Cloven Elders. I’ve been a protector a longtime. But they started saying I was getting unpredictable. Too violent. Can you imagine?”

“Wow.” I tried not to look at my friends. “That’s hard to believe.”

Coach scowled. “Yeah, then finally we get a good war going with the Titans, and do they put me on the front lines? No! They send me as far away as possible—the Canadian frontier, can you believe it? Then after the war, they put me out to pasture. The Wilderness School. Bah! Like I’m too old to be helpful just because I like playing offense. All those flower-pickers on the Council—talking about nature.”

“I thought satyrs liked nature,” Piper ventured.

“Shoot, I love nature,” Hedge said. “Nature means big things killing and eating little things! And when you’re a —you know—vertically challenged satyr like me, you get in good shape, you carry a big stick, and you don’t take nothing from no one! That’s nature.” Hedge snorted indignantly. “Flower-pickers. Anyway, I hope you got something vegetarian cooking, Valdez. I don’t do flesh.”

“Yeah, Coach. Don’t eat your cudgel. I got some tofu patties here. Piper’s a vegetarian too. I’ll throw them on in a second.”

The smell of frying burgers filled the air. Piper usually hated the smell of cooking meat, but her stomach rumbled like it wanted to mutiny. I held in my laughter, smiling at my friend. “Hungry, much?”

Piper smiled softly and nodded, but her eyes looked too sad. Staring into the fire, I could see tears form. I took that as a sign that Piper needed a second.

Leo put tofu patties on the skillet. The wind kept raging. The sound vibrated in my eardrums, and it was starting to tick me off. I pulled Leo’s blanket over myself and wrapped up.

Eventually, my friend plated up our food. He handed Jason and I real beef patty burgers and tofu ones to Piper and Hedge. Immediately, I dug in. I shoved the food into my mouth as fast as I could, feeling my stomach gurgle in happiness.

Leo laughed at me. “Dude, relax! You’re gonna choke!”

“I haven’t had a real burger since the first day of school, remember?” I gulped down the bit in my mouth and sighed. “Gods, that is the best.”

“Hey,” Hedge scolded. “That’s not very appropriate.”

“Oh, my bad,” I said. “Would you like me to belch after?”

“Precisely!” Hedge folded his plate like a taco. “Gives compliments to the chef. Attagirl!”

I rolled my eyes and went to keep eating, but Piper sat up.

“We need to talk. I don’t want to hide anything from you guys anymore.”

We looked at her with our mouths full of burger.

“Three nights before the Grand Canyon trip,” she said, “I had a dream vision—a giant, telling me my father had been taken hostage. He told me I had to cooperate, or my dad would be killed.”

The flames crackled.

Finally Jason said, “Enceladus? You mentioned that name before.”

Coach Hedge whistled. “Big giant. Breathes fire. Not somebody I’d want barbecuing my daddy goat.”

I gave him a shut up look. “Piper, go on. What happened next?”

“I—I tried to reach my dad, but all I got was his personal assistant, and she told me not to worry.”

“Jane?” Leo remembered. “Didn’t Medea say something about controlling her?”

Piper nodded. “To get my dad back, I had to sabotage this quest. I didn’t realize it would be the four of us. Then after we started the quest, Enceladus sent me another warning: He told me he wanted you three dead. He wants me to lead you to a mountain. I don’t know exactly which one, but it’s in the Bay Area—I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit. I have to be there by noon on the solstice, tomorrow. An exchange.”

Jason scooted next to her and put his arm around her again. “God, Piper. I’m so sorry.”

Leo nodded. “No kidding. You’ve been carrying this around for a week? Piper, we could help you.”

“That’s what Medea meant?” I asked. “Piper, really, I’m sorry.”

She glared at us. “Why don’t you yell at me or something? I was ordered to kill you!”

“Aw, come on,” Jason said. “You’ve saved us all on this quest. I’d put my life in your hands any day.”

“Same,” Leo said. “Can I have a hug too?”

“You don’t get it!” Piper said. “I’ve probably just killed my dad, telling you this.”

“I doubt it.” Coach Hedge belched. He was eating his tofu burger folded inside the paper plate, chewing it all like a taco. “Giant hasn’t gotten what he wants yet, so he still needs your dad for leverage. He’ll wait until the deadline passes, see if you show up. He wants you to divert the quest to this mountain, right?”

Piper nodded uncertainly.

“So that means Hera is being kept somewhere else,” Hedge reasoned. “And she has to be saved by the same day. So you have to choose—rescue your dad, or rescue Hera. If you go after Hera, then Enceladus takes care of your dad. Besides, Enceladus would never let you go even if you cooperated. You’re obviously one of the eight in the Great Prophecy.”

“So we have no choice,” Piper said miserably. “We have to save Hera, or the giant king gets unleashed. That’s our quest. The world depends on it. And Enceladus seems to have ways of watching me. He isn’t stupid. He’ll know if we change course and go the wrong way. He’ll kill my dad.”

“He’s not going to kill your dad,” Leo said. “We’ll save him.”

“We don’t have time!” Piper cried. “Besides, it’s a trap.”

“We’re your friends, beauty queen,” I said. “We’re not going to let your dad die. We just gotta figure out a plan.”

Coach Hedge grumbled. “Would help if we knew where this mountain was. Maybe Aeolus can tell you that. The Bay Area has a bad reputation for demigods. Old home of the Titans, Mount Othrys, sits over Mount Tam, where Atlas holds up the sky. I hope that’s not the mountain you saw.”

Piper tried to remember the vista in her dreams. “I don’t think so. This was inland.”

Jason frowned at the fire, like he was trying to remember something.

“Bad reputation … that doesn’t seem right. The Bay Area …”

“You think you’ve been there?” Piper asked.

I felt my gut drop. Jason and the group were getting a bit too close to figuring out what CJ was.

“I …” He looked like he was almost on the edge of a breakthrough. Then the anguish came back into his eyes. “I don’t know.”

“Mount Orthys,” I mumbled.

Hedge took another bite of paper and burger. “Well, Kronos built a new palace there last summer. Big nasty place, was going to be the headquarters for his new kingdom and all. Weren’t any battles there, though. Kronos marched on Manhattan, tried to take Olympus. If I remember right, he left some other Titans in charge of his palace, but after Kronos got defeated in Manhattan, the whole palace just crumbled on its own.”

“No,” I said.

Everyone looked at me.

“What do you mean, ‘No’?” Leo asked.

“That’s not what happened. My story-” I tensed, looking toward the cave entrance. “Did you hear that?”

For a second, nothing. Then I heard it again: howls piercing the night.

Chapter Text

“Wolves,” I said. “They sound close.”

Jason and I rose, summoning our weapons. Leo and Coach Hedge got to their feet too. Piper tried, but she winced and sat back down.

“Stay there,” Jason told her. “We’ll protect you.”

Piper looked upset, and I could understand why. She hated feeling useless, and that was probably exactly how she felt at that moment.

Then, just outside the firelight at the entrance of the cave, I saw a pair of red eyes glowing in dark.

More wolves edged into the firelight—black beasts bigger than Great Danes, with ice and snow caked on their fur. Their fangs gleamed, and their glowing red eyes looked disturbingly intelligent. The wolf in front was almost as tall as a horse, his mouth stained as if he’d just made a fresh kill.

I readied my trident to attack.

Then Jason stepped forward and said something in Latin. It took me a second to translate since it had been a while, but it was something along the lines of ‘Back off’.

I didn’t think a dead language would have much effect on wild animals, but the alpha wolf curled his lip. The fur stood up along his spine. One of his lieutenants tried to advance, but the alpha wolf snapped at his ear. Then all of the wolves backed into the dark.
“Well, I guess that did it,” I said.

“Dude, I gotta study Latin.” Leo’s hammer shook in his hand. “What’d you say, Jason?”

Hedge cursed. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. Look.”

The wolves were coming back, but the alpha wolf wasn’t with them. They didn’t attack. They waited—at least a dozen now, in a rough semicircle just outside the firelight, blocking the cave exit.

The coach hefted his club. “Here’s the plan. I’ll kill them all, and you guys escape.”

“Coach, they’ll rip you apart,” Piper said.

“Nah, I’m good.”

Then I saw the silhouette of a man coming through the storm, wading through the wolf pack.

“Stick together,” I said. “They respect a pack. And Hedge, no crazy stuff. We’re not leaving you or anyone else behind.”

The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. His hair was greasy and ragged, the color of fireplace soot, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. His robes were tattered fur—wolf, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and several others I couldn’t identify. The furs didn’t look cured, and from the smell, they weren’t very fresh. His frame was lithe and muscular, like a distance runner’s. But the most horrible thing was his face. His thin pale skin was pulled tight over his skull. His teeth were sharpened like fangs. His eyes glowed bright red like his wolves’—and they fixed on Jason and I with absolute hatred.

“Ecce,” he said, “filli Romanis.”

“Speak English, wolf man!” Hedge bellowed.

The wolf man snarled. “Tell your faun to mind his tongue, children of Rome. Or he’ll be my first snack.”

A roman wolf, I thought, trying to rack my brain of mythology I’d already learned.

The wolf man studied our little group. His nostrils twitched. “So it’s true,” he mused. “A child of Aphrodite. A son of Hephaestus. A faun. A child of Rome, of Lord Jupiter, no less. And the fabled daughter of Neptune. All together, without killing each other. How interesting.”

“You were told about us?” Jason asked. “By whom?”

The man snarled—perhaps a laugh, perhaps a challenge. “Oh, we’ve been patrolling for you all across the west, demigod, hoping we’d be the first to find you. The giant king will reward me well when he rises. I am Lycaon, king of the wolves. And my pack is hungry.”

The wolves snarled in the darkness.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Leo put up his hammer and slip something else from his tool belt—a glass bottle full of clear liquid.

I racked my brain trying to place the wolf guy’s name. I knew I’d heard it before, but I couldn’t remember details.

Lycaon glared at Jason’s and my golden weapons. He moved to each side as if looking for an opening, but our deadly points moved with him.

“Leave,” Jason ordered. “There’s no food for you here.”

“Unless you want tofu burgers,” Leo offered.

Lycaon bared his fangs. Apparently he wasn’t a tofu fan.

“If I had my way,” Lycaon said with regret, “I’d kill you first, son of Jupiter. Your father made me what I am. I was the powerful mortal king of Arcadia, with fifty fine sons, and Zeus slew them all with his lightning bolts.”

“Ha,” Coach Hedge said. “For good reason!”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Coach, you know this clown?”

“I do,” Piper answered. “Lycaon invited Zeus to dinner, but the king wasn’t sure it was really Zeus. So to test his powers, Lycaon tried to feed him human flesh. Zeus got outraged—”

“And killed my sons!” Lycaon howled. The wolves behind him howled too.

“So Zeus turned him into a wolf,” Piper said. “They call… they call werewolves lycanthropes, named after him, the first werewolf.”

“The king of wolves,” Coach Hedge finished. “An immortal, smelly, vicious mutt.”

Lycaon growled. “I will tear you apart, faun!”

“Oh, you want some goat, buddy? ’Cause I’ll give you goat.”

“Stop it,” Jason said. “Lycaon, you said you wanted to kill me first, but...?”

“Sadly, Children of Rome, you are spoken for. Since this one”—he waggled his claws at Piper—“has failed to kill you, you are to be delivered alive to the Wolf House. One of my compatriots has asked for the honor of killing you both herself.”

“Who?” I asked.

The wolf king snickered. “Oh, a great admirer of yours. Apparently, you made quite an impression on her. She will take care of you soon enough, and really I cannot complain. Spilling your blood at the Wolf House should mark my new territory quite well. Lupa will think twice about challenging my pack.”

My heart tried to jump out of my chest. I had no idea who Lycaon was talking about, but at the very mention of the Wolf House, my gut went wild. I almost spit up Leo’s burgers. Rome had found me.

Piper struggled to her feet. “You’re going to leave now,” she said, “before we destroy you.”

She tried to put power into the words, but she was too weak. Shivering in her blankets, pale and sweaty and barely able to hold a knife, she couldn’t have looked very threatening.

Lycaon’s red eyes crinkled with humor. “A brave try, girl. I admire that. Perhaps I’ll make your end quick. Only the son of Jupiter and daughter of Neptune are needed alive. The rest of you, I’m afraid, are dinner.”

Jason took a step forward. “You’re not killing anyone, wolf man. Not without going through me.”

Lycaon howled and extended his claws. Jason slashed at him, but his golden sword passed straight through as if the wolf king wasn’t there.

The wolf laughed. “Gold, bronze, steel—none of these are any good against my wolves, son of Jupiter.”

“Silver!” Piper cried. “Aren’t werewolves hurt by silver?”

“We don’t have any silver!” I said.

Wolves leaped into the firelight. Hedge charged forward with an elated “Woot!”

But Leo struck first. He threw his glass bottle and it shattered on the ground, splattering liquid all over the wolves—the unmistakable smell of gasoline. He shot a burst of fire at the puddle, and a wall of flames erupted.

Wolves yelped and retreated. Several caught fire and had to run back into the snow. Even Lycaon looked uneasily at the barrier of flames now separating his wolves from the demigods.

“Aw, c’mon,” Coach Hedge complained. “I can’t hit them if they’re way over there.”

“Nice save, Fire Boy,” I said. “Now we have time to think.”

Every time a wolf came closer, Leo shot a new wave of fire from his hands, but each effort seemed to make him a little more tired, and the gasoline was already dying down. “I can’t summon any more gas!” Leo warned. Then his face turned red. “Wow, that came out wrong. I mean the burning kind. Gonna take the tool belt a while to recharge. What you got, man?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Not even a weapon that works. I mean, I can try something but it involves a lot of blood.”

“Lightning?” Piper asked.

Jason concentrated, but nothing happened. “I think the snowstorm is interfering, or something.”

“Unleash the venti!” I said.

“Then we’ll have nothing to give Aeolus,” Jason said. “We’ll have come all this way for nothing.”

Lycaon laughed. “I can smell your fear. A few more minutes of life, heroes. Pray to whatever gods you wish. Zeus did not grant me mercy, and you will have none from me.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. I dropped my trident and grabbed a sharp rock on the ground. “Don’t look, I have an idea.”

I rolled up my sleeve, about to take the sharp edge of the rock to my arm. But Leo grabbed my hand and took the rock away from me.

“What the hell? There’s no way you’re going to kill yourself right now!” Leo yelled.

“No!” I shouted. “We don’t have any other option. I can make something that might pierce them, but I need liquid, and we’re fresh out of water!”

“If there’s no water, there’s no healing,” Leo said. “I’m not letting you bleed out.”

The flames began to sputter out. Jason cursed and dropped his sword. He crouched like he was ready to go hand-to-hand. Leo pulled his hammer out of his pack. Piper raised her dagger—not much, but it was all she had. Coach Hedge hefted his club, and he was the only one who looked excited about dying.

Then a ripping sound cut through the wind—like a piece of tearing cardboard. A long stick sprouted from the neck of the nearest wolf—the shaft of a silver arrow. The wolf writhed and fell, melting into a puddle of shadow.

More arrows. More wolves fell. The pack broke in confusion. An arrow flashed toward Lycaon, but the wolf king caught it in midair. Then he yelled in pain. When he dropped the arrow, it left a charred, smoking gash across his palm. Another arrow caught him in the shoulder, and the wolf king staggered.

“Curse them!” Lycaon yelled. He growled at his pack, and the wolves turned and ran. Lycaon fixed Jason and me with those glowing red eyes. “This isn’t over, Romans.”

The wolf king disappeared into the night.

Seconds later, I heard more wolves baying, but the sound was different—less threatening, more like hunting dogs on the scent. A smaller white wolf burst into the cave, followed by two more.

Hedge said, “Kill it?”

“No!” I said. “Wait.”

The wolves tilted their heads and studied us with huge golden eyes.

A heartbeat later, their masters appeared: a troop of hunters in white-and-gray winter camouflage, at least half a dozen. All of them carried bows, with quivers of glowing silver arrows on their backs.

Their faces were covered with parka hoods, but clearly they were all girls. One, a little taller than the rest, crouched in the firelight and snatched up the arrow that had wounded Lycaon’s hand.

“So close.” She turned to her companions. “Phoebe, stay with me. Watch the entrance. The rest of you, follow Lycaon. We can’t lose him now. I’ll catch up with you.”

The other hunters mumbled agreement and disappeared, heading after Lycaon’s pack.

The girl in white turned toward us, her face still hidden in her parka hood. “We’ve been following that demon’s trail for over a week. Is everyone all right? No one got bit?”

Jason stood frozen, staring at the girl. I realized something about her voice sounded familiar. It was hard to pin down, but the way she spoke, the way she formed her words, reminded me of Jason, but cool.

“You’re her,” Piper said. “You’re Thalia.”

“Fuck, he does have a sister?” I asked. “Gods, two Graces?”

The girl tensed. I was afraid she might draw her bow, but instead she pulled down her parka hood. Her hair was spiky black, with a silver tiara across her brow. Her face had a super-healthy glow to it, as if she were a little more than human, and her eyes were brilliant blue. She was the girl from Jason’s photograph.

“Do I know you?” Thalia asked.

Piper took a breath. “This might be a shock, but—”

“Thalia.” Jason stepped forward, his voice trembling. “I’m Jason, your brother.”

When I first saw Thalia, I immediately thought she was way too pretty to be Jason’s sister. Then I thought I’d better not say that or I’d get in trouble. I liked her dark hair, her blue eyes, and her confident attitude. She looked like the kind of girl who could stomp anybody on the ball court or the battlefield.

For a minute, Jason and Thalia faced each other, stunned. Then Thalia rushed forward and hugged him.

“My gods! She told me you were dead!” She gripped Jason’s face and seemed to be examining everything about it. “Thank Artemis, it is you. That little scar on your lip—you tried to eat a stapler when you were two!”

I laughed. “Seriously?”

Hedge nodded like he approved of Jason’s taste. “Staplers —excellent source of iron.”

“W-wait,” Jason stammered. “Who told you I was dead? What happened?”

At the cave entrance, one of the white wolves barked. Thalia looked back at the wolf and nodded, but she kept her hands on Jason’s face, like she was afraid he might vanish. “My wolf is telling me I don’t have much time, and she’s right. But we have to talk. Let’s sit.”

Piper did better than that. She collapsed. She would’ve cracked her head on the cave floor if Hedge hadn’t caught her.

Thalia rushed over. “What’s wrong with her? Ah—never mind. I see. Hypothermia. And the other girl has a broken ankle.” She frowned at the satyr. “Don’t you know nature healing?”

Hedge scoffed. “Why do you think they look this good? Can’t you smell the Gatorade?”

Thalia looked at Leo for the first time, and of course it was an accusatory glare, like Why did you let the goat be a doctor? As if that was Leo’s fault.

“You and the satyr,” Thalia ordered, “take this girl to my friend at the entrance. Phoebe’s an excellent healer. And you,” she pointed at me, “follow them.”

“It’s cold out there!” Hedge said. “I’ll freeze my horns off.”

But I knew when we weren’t wanted. “Come on, Hedge. These two need time to talk.”

“Humph. Fine,” the satyr muttered. “Didn’t even get to brain anybody.”

I carried Piper toward the entrance with Hedge in trail. Leo was about to follow when Jason called, “Actually, Leo, could you, um, stick around?”

I looked back and saw something in Jason’s eyes I didn’t expect: Jason was asking for support. He wanted somebody else there. He was scared.

Leo grinned. “Sticking around is my specialty.”

I exhaled, shifting Piper in my arms. “At least he didn’t ask for me. I need some time alone.”

One of the hunter girls had already set up a few tents, which I was completely amazed by since they’d only been here for three minutes. I dropped Piper off in one of them and crawled inside the other.

I was treated to some fabulous hot cocoa, which I chugged down, despite the heat. Then, I don’t know how she did it, Phoebe unwrapped my ankle and slathered some silver goop on it. I literally felt my bone mend back together. The pain was immediately relieved, and I exhaled with relief.

The second the hunter left my tent, I flopped back and knocked out. It would have been the best sleep of my life if I didn’t immediately get sucked into a nightmare.

Halfway down the street, I pulled my consciousness back and stopped my motion. Spinning on my heel, I ran behind me toward the giant black door. I was just a few feet in front of it before I woke up. I cursed myself, promising that I would get it next time.

When I woke up, Leo was in my tent next to me, tapping out morse code. Before I could get the full sentence, he stopped and looked at me.

“God, finally,” he said. “I could not get you awake for the life of me.”

“Good nap,” I said with a yawn. “What’s up?”

“Well, Thalia and Jason finished their little chat and…”

I sat up, immediately on edge. “What?”

Leo bit his lip. “Not a great childhood he had. I’ve definitely gotten over my jealousy.”

“What happened to him?” I asked.

Leo took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I should be telling you this so I’ll give you the quick version. His mom wasn’t exactly stable. She caught Zeus’s eye because she was a television actress, and she was beautiful, but she didn’t handle the fame well. She drank, pulled stupid stunts. She was always in the tabloids. She could never get enough attention. She knew their dad was Zeus, and that was too much for her to take. It was like the ultimate achievement for her to attract the lord of the sky, and she couldn’t accept it when he left. The thing about the gods… well, they don’t hang around. But he ended up coming back again and then Jason was born. When Zeus left for the final time, their mom lost it. She went cuckoo.”

I looked down to my lap, feeling memories of my own mom resurface. In a way, I had a similar experience. Though, mom and I had some good times, she did abuse substances. A year or two before she died, she completely lost her marbles and succumbed to mental illnesses.

I dug my nails into my palm. “My mom was the same.”

Leo frowned. “It made me remember my own mom, the way she’d assured me over and over that my dad would be back someday. But she’d never acted mad about it. She didn’t seem to want Hephaestus for herself—only so I could know my father. She’d dealt with working a dead-end job, living in a tiny apartment, never having enough money—and she’d seemed fine with it. As long as she had me, she always said, life would be okay.”

“Mhm,” I replied. “My younger days were like that, too. My mom was so happy, but I was sure it was because she couldn’t break down when I was that young.”

Leo scooted closer to me. I noticed him tapping out a Morse code message on his knee: Love you. “I felt bad for Jason, not having memories like that—not having anything to fall back on.”

“Right,” I said, getting to my feet. “Let’s drop the mom stuff before… Nevermind. Are we leaving yet?”

“Oh,” Leo said, standing up. “Actually, Thalia wants to talk to you.”

I sighed, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Why?”

Leo looked ashamed. “Well I sort of mentioned other kids like Jason and Roman stuff and that you and Jason were the same and that you remembered your life before this and that you’re related to a friend of hers and-”

“And what, my whole life story?” I threw my head back and groaned. “Great. Well, no better time to get interrogated.”

Leo apologized quietly as I walked out of the tent. I had to admit, my ankle had never felt better.

Thalia stood with Jason, neither of them talking. I couldn't tell if it was because they were waiting for me, or because it was just awkward. I wanted to chuckle, but realized I was going to be in the same situation whenever Percy was found.

“Okay,” I said, walking to the pair. “Mama’s up from her nap. What did you need?”

Thalia looked into my eyes, and I felt like she’d cracked open my skull and began reading my thoughts. “The boys said you were like Jason.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Show me your arm.”

“Yeesh.” I pulled up my sleeve, brandishing my trident tattoo with four lines underneath.

Thalia grabbed my arm and examined the marking. “A trident?”

“Neptune,” I said. “So to answer the question I already know you have, yes, that makes me Percy’s half-sister.”

Thalia let go of my arm and glanced at Jason. “You’ve known him for how long?”

“Four years,” I said.

“Where were you two residing?”

“California.”

“How?” Thalia asked. “I’ve been all over the country, and yet I’ve found no evidence of other demigods like you two. Still …” Her voice trailed off, like she’d just had a troubling thought.

“What?” Jason asked.

Thalia shook her head. “I’ll have to talk to the goddess. Maybe Artemis will guide us.”

“She’s still talking to you?” I asked. “Most of the gods have gone silent.”

“Artemis follows her own rules,” Thalia said. “She has to be careful not to let Zeus know, but she thinks Zeus is being ridiculous closing Olympus. She’s the one who set us on the trail of Lycaon. She said we’d find a lead to a missing friend of ours.”

“Percy Jackson,” I guessed. “The guy everyone is looking for.”

Thalia nodded, her face full of concern.

I wondered if anyone had ever looked that worried all the times I’d disappeared. I kind of doubted it.

“So what would Lycaon have to do with it?” Leo asked, finally speaking up. “And how does it connect to us?”

“We need to find out soon,” Thalia admitted. “If your deadline is tomorrow, we’re wasting time. Aeolus could tell you—”

The white wolf appeared again at the doorway and yipped insistently.

“I have to get moving.” Thalia stood. “Otherwise I’ll lose the other Hunters’ trail. First, though, I’ll take you to Aeolus’s palace.”

“If you can’t, it’s okay,” Jason said, though he sounded kind of distressed.

“Oh, please.” Thalia smiled and helped him up. “I haven’t had a brother in years. I think I can stand a few minutes with you before you get annoying. Now, let’s go!”

The Hunter Phoebe had set up our silver tent pavilion thing right outside the cave. Inside was a kerosene heater keeping them toasty warm and a bunch of comfy throw pillows. Piper looked back to normal, decked out in a new parka, gloves, and camo pants like a Hunter. She and Hedge and Phoebe were kicking back, drinking hot chocolate.

“Oh, no way,” Leo said. “We’ve been sitting in a cave and you get the luxury tent? Somebody give me hypothermia. I want hot chocolate and a parka!”

Phoebe sniffed. “Boys,” she said, like it was the worst insult she could think of.

“It’s all right, Phoebe,” Thalia said. “They’ll need extra coats. And I think we can spare some chocolate.”

Phoebe grumbled, but soon Leo, Jason, and I were also dressed in silvery winter clothes that were incredibly lightweight and warm. The hot chocolate was first-rate.

“Cheers!” said Coach Hedge. He crunched down his plastic thermos cup.

“That cannot be good for your intestines,” Leo said.

Thalia patted Piper on the back. “You up for moving?”

Piper nodded. “Thanks to Phoebe, yeah. You guys are really good at this wilderness survival thing. I feel like I could run ten miles.”

Thalia winked at Jason. “She’s tough for a child of Aphrodite. I like this one.”

“Hey, I could run ten miles too,” Leo volunteered. “Tough Hephaestus kid here. Let’s hit it.”

Naturally, Thalia ignored him.

It took Phoebe exactly six seconds to break camp, which I could not believe. The tent self-collapsed into a square the size of a pack of chewing gum. Leo looked like he wanted to ask her for the blueprints, but we didn’t have time.

Thalia ran uphill through the snow, hugging a tiny little path on the side of the mountain, and soon Leo was regretting trying to look macho, because the Hunters left him in the dust.

Coach Hedge leaped around like a happy mountain goat, coaxing us on like he used to do on track days at school. “Come on, Valdez! Pick up the pace! Let’s chant. I’ve got a girl in Kalamazoo—”

“Let’s not,” Thalia snapped.

So we ran in silence.

I fell in next to Jason and Leo at the back of the group. “How you doing, man?”

Jason’s expression was enough of an answer: Not good.

“Thalia takes it so calmly,” Jason said. “Like it’s no big deal that I appeared. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but … she’s not like me. She seems so much more together.”

“Hey, she’s not fighting amnesia,” Leo said. “Plus, she’s had more time to get used to this whole demigod thing. You fight monsters and talk to gods for a while, you probably get used to surprises.”

“Maybe,” Jason said. “I just wish I understood what happened when I was two, why my mom got rid of me. Thalia ran away because of me.”

“Hey,” I started, “whatever’s happened, it wasn’t your fault. And your sister is pretty cool. She’s a lot like you.”

Jason took that in silence. Leo looked like he wanted to say more, but couldn’t think of how to put his words together. I could see his mind was racing faster than his feet.

He was so lost in thought, he didn’t realize the Hunters had stopped. He slammed into Thalia and nearly sent them both down the side of the mountain the hard way. Fortunately, the Hunter was light on her feet. She steadied them both, then pointed up.

“That,” Leo choked, “is a really large rock.”

We stood near the summit of Pikes Peak. Below us the world was blanketed in clouds. The air was so thin, I could hardly breathe. Night had set in, but a full moon shone and the stars were incredible. Stretching out to the north and south, peaks of other mountains rose from the clouds like islands—or teeth.

But the real show was above us. Hovering in the sky, about a quarter mile away, was a massive free-floating island of glowing purple stone. It was hard to judge its size, but I figured it was at least as wide as a football stadium and just as tall. The sides were rugged cliffs, riddled with caves, and every once in a while a gust of wind burst out with a sound like a pipe organ blast. At the top of the rock, brass walls ringed some kind of a fortress.

The only thing connecting Pikes Peak to the floating island was a narrow bridge of ice that glistened in the moonlight.

Then I realized the bridge wasn’t exactly ice, because it wasn’t solid. As the winds changed direction, the bridge snaked around—blurring and thinning, in some places even breaking into a dotted line like the vapor trail of a plane.

“We’re not seriously crossing that,” I said.

Thalia shrugged. “I’m not a big fan of heights, I’ll admit. But if you want to get to Aeolus’s fortress, this is the only way.”

“Is the fortress always hanging there?” Piper asked. “How can people not notice it sitting on top of Pikes Peak?”

“The Mist,” Thalia said. “Still, mortals do notice it indirectly. Some days, Pikes Peak looks purple. People say it’s a trick of the light, but actually it’s the color of Aeolus’s palace, reflecting off the mountain face.”

“It’s enormous,” Jason said.

Thalia laughed. “You should see Olympus, little brother.”

“You’re serious? You’ve been there?”

Thalia grimaced as if it wasn’t a good memory. “We should go across in two different groups. The bridge is fragile.”

“That’s reassuring,” Leo said. “Jason, can’t you just fly us up there?”

Thalia laughed. Then she seemed to realize Leo’s question wasn’t a joke. “Wait … Jason, you can fly?”

Jason gazed up at the floating fortress. “Well, sort of. More like I can control the winds. But the winds up here are so strong, I’m not sure I’d want to try. Thalia, you mean … you can’t fly?”

For a second, Thalia looked genuinely afraid. Then she got her expression under control. I realized she was a lot more scared of heights than she was letting on, which was something I could understand.

“Truthfully,” she said, “I’ve never tried. Might be better if we stuck to the bridge.”

Coach Hedge tapped the ice vapor trail with his hoof, then jumped onto the bridge. Amazingly, it held his weight. “Easy! I’ll go first. Piper, come on, girl. I’ll give you a hand.”

“No, that’s okay,” Piper started to say, but the coach grabbed her hand and dragged her up the bridge.

When they were about halfway, the bridge still seemed to be holding them just fine.

Thalia turned to her Hunter friend. “Phoebe, I’ll be back soon. Go find the others. Tell them I’m on my way.”

“You sure?” Phoebe narrowed her eyes at Leo and Jason, like they might kidnap Thalia or something.

“It’s fine,” Thalia promised.

Phoebe nodded reluctantly, then raced down the mountain path, the white wolves at her heels.

“Jason, Leo, ... Percy’s sister, just be careful where you step,” Thalia said. “It hardly ever breaks.”

“It hasn’t met me yet,” Leo muttered, but he and Jason followed us up the bridge.

Halfway up, things went wrong, and of course it was Leo’s fault. Piper and Hedge had already made it safely to the top and were waving at us, encouraging us to keep climbing, but I almost pissed myself a few times by accidentally looking down. At one pint, I thought I actually did wet myself because my Neptune-senses went off and I felt water. But the water wasn’t on me, it was under me- on the bridge. I turned around and saw Leo had stopped moving.

“Why do they have a bridge?” he asked.

I frowned. “Leo, this isn’t a good place to stop. What do you mean?”

“They’re wind spirits,” Leo said. “Can’t they fly?”

“Yes, but sometimes they need a way to connect to the world below,” Thalia said.

“So the bridge isn’t always here?” Leo asked.

Thalia shook her head. “The wind spirits don’t like to anchor to the earth, but sometimes it’s necessary. Like now. They know you’re coming.”

I could tell Leo's mind was racing. His eyes shifted around like he was looking at equations in his head.

“Leo?” Jason said. “What are you thinking?”

“Oh, gods,” I said. “Keep moving. Look at your feet.”

Leo shuffled backward. With horror, he realized his body temperature really was rising. His pants steamed in the cold air. His shoes were literally smoking, and the bridge didn’t like it. The ice was thinning.

“Leo, stop it,” Jason warned. “You’re going to melt it.”

“I’ll try,” Leo said. But his body was overheating on its own, running as fast as his thoughts. “Listen, Jason, what did Hera call you two in that dream? She called you a bridge.”

“Leo, seriously, cool down,” Thalia said. “I don’t what you’re talking about, but the bridge is—”

“Just listen,” Leo insisted. “If Jason and Water Girl are a bridge, what are they connecting? Maybe two different places that normally don’t get along—like the air palace and the ground. You had to be somewhere before this, right? With Water Girl? And Hera said you were an exchange.”

“An exchange.” Thalia’s eyes widened. “Oh, gods.”

Jason frowned. “What are you two talking about?”

Thalia murmured something like a prayer. “I understand now why Artemis sent me here. Guys—she told me to hunt for Lycaon and I would find a clue about Percy. You two are the clue. Artemis wanted us to meet so I could hear your stories.”

“I don’t understand,” Jason protested. “I don’t have a story. I don’t remember anything.”

“But Leo’s right,” Thalia said. “It’s all connected. If we just knew where—”

Leo snapped his fingers. “Jason, what did you call that place in your dream? That ruined house. The Wolf House?”

My eyes widened. Thalia nearly choked. “The Wolf House? Jason, why didn’t you tell me that! That’s where they’re keeping Hera?”

“You know where it is?” Jason asked.

Then the bridge dissolved. Leo would’ve fallen to his death, but Jason grabbed his coat and pulled him to safety. The three of us scrambled up the bridge, and when we turned, Thalia was on the other side of a thirty-foot chasm. The bridge was continuing to melt.

“Go!” Thalia shouted, backing down the bridge as it crumbled. “Find out where the giant is keeping Piper’s dad. Save him! I’ll take the Hunters to the Wolf House and hold it until you can get there. We can do both!”

“But where is the Wolf House?” Jason shouted.

“You know where it is, little brother!” She was so far away now that we could barely hear her voice over the wind. I was pretty sure she said: “I’ll see you there. I promise.”

Then she turned and raced down the dissolving bridge.

We had no time to stand around. The three of us climbed for our lives, the ice vapor thinning under our feet. Several times, Jason grabbed Leo and I and used the winds to keep us aloft, but it was more like bungee jumping than flying.

When we reached the floating island, Piper and Coach Hedge pulled us aboard just as the last of the vapor bridge vanished. We stood gasping for breath at the base of a stone stairway chiseled into the side of the cliff, leading up to the fortress.

I looked back down. The top of Pikes Peak floated below us in a sea of clouds, but there was no sign of Thalia. And Leo had just burned their only exit.

“What happened?” Piper demanded. “Leo, why are your clothes smoking?”

“I got a little heated,” he gasped. “Sorry, Jason. Honest. I didn’t—”

“It’s all right,” Jason said, but his expression was grim. “We’ve got less than twenty-four hours to rescue a goddess and Piper’s dad. Let’s go see the king of the winds.”

Jason had found his sister and lost her in less than an hour. As we climbed the cliffs of the floating island, he kept looking back, but Thalia was gone.

The golden backpack of winds was strapped over his shoulders. The closer they got to Aeolus’s palace, the more the bag moved. The winds struggled, rumbling and bumping around.

The only one who seemed in a good mood was Coach Hedge. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down. “Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!”

As we climbed, Leo, Piper, and I left Jason in his silence. We could sense his bad mood. Piper kept glancing back, worried, as if he were the one who’d almost died of hypothermia rather than she. Or maybe she was thinking about Thalia’s idea. We’d told her what Thalia had said on the bridge—how we could save both her dad and Hera—but I didn’t really understand how we were going to do that, and I wasn’t sure if the possibility had made Piper more hopeful or just more anxious.

Leo kept swatting his own legs, checking for signs that his pants were on fire. He wasn’t steaming anymore, but the incident on the ice bridge had really freaked me out. Leo hadn’t seemed to realize that he had smoke coming out his ears and flames dancing through his hair. If Leo started spontaneously combusting every time he got excited, we were going to have a tough time taking him anywhere. I imagined trying to get food at a restaurant. I’ll have a cheeseburger and—Ahhh! My friend’s on fire! Get me a bucket!

Mostly, though, I worried about what Leo had said. I didn’t want to be a bridge, or an exchange, or anything else. I just wanted to escape. And Thalia had looked so unnerved when Leo mentioned the burned-out house in Jason’s dreams—the place the wolf Lupa gave us Romans our starting point. How did Thalia know that place, and why did she assume Jason could find it if his memories were busted?

Finally we arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though I couldn’t imagine who would possibly attack this place. Twenty-foot-high gates opened for us, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel—a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like one of the monuments in Washington, D.C.—except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

“That’s bizarre,” Piper said.

“Guess you can’t get cable on a floating island,” Leo said. “Dang, check this guy’s front yard.”

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season.

The section on our right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so I wasn’t sure if they were decorations or alive.

To our left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns—gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves.

In the distance, I could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: Watch Aeolus Nightly!

“One section for each of the four wind gods,” Jason guessed. “Four cardinal directions.”

“I’m loving that pasture.” Coach Hedge licked his lips. “You guys mind—”

“Go ahead,” I said. I was actually relieved to send the satyr off. It would be hard enough getting on Aeolus’s good side without Coach Hedge waving his club and screaming, “Die!”

While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Jason, Leo, Piper, and I walked down the road to the steps of the palace. We passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read Olympian Weather Channel, and some that just read OW!

“Hello!” A woman floated up to us. Literally floated. She was pretty in that elfish way I associated with nature spirits at Camp Half-Blood—petite, slightly pointy ears, and an ageless face that could’ve been sixteen or thirty. Her brown eyes twinkled cheerfully. Even though there was no wind, her dark hair blew in slow motion, shampoo-commercial style. Her white gown billowed around her like parachute material. I couldn’t tell if she had feet, but if so, they didn’t touch the floor. She had a white tablet computer in her hand. “Are you from Lord Zeus?” she asked. “We’ve been expecting you.”

Jason tried to respond, but it was a little hard to think straight, probably because he’d realized the woman was see-through. Her shape faded in and out like she was made of fog.

“Are you a ghost?” he asked.

Right away I knew he’d insulted her. The smile turned into a pout. “I’m an aura, sir. A wind nymph, as you might expect, working for the lord of the winds. My name is Mellie. We don’t have ghosts.”

Piper came to the rescue. “No, of course you don’t! My friend simply mistook you for Helen of Troy, the most beautiful mortal of all time. It’s an easy mistake.”

Wow, she was good. The compliment seemed a little over the top, but Mellie the aura blushed. “Oh … well, then. So you are from Zeus?”

“Er,” Jason said, “I’m the son of Zeus, yeah.”

“Excellent! Please, right this way.” She led us through some security doors into another lobby, consulting her tablet as she floated. She didn’t look where she was going, but apparently it didn’t matter as she drifted straight through a marble column with no problem. “We’re out of prime time now, so that’s good,” she mused. “I can fit you in right before his 11:12 spot.”

“Um, okay,” Jason said.

The lobby was a pretty distracting place. Winds blasted around us, so I felt like I was pushing through an invisible crowd. Doors blew open and slammed by themselves.

The things I could see were just as bizarre. Paper airplanes of all different sizes and shapes sped around, and other wind nymphs, aurai, would occasionally pluck them out of the air, unfold and read them, then toss them back into the air, where the planes would refold themselves and keep flying.

An ugly creature fluttered past. She looked like a mix between an old lady and a chicken on steroids. She had a wrinkled face with black hair tied in a hairnet, arms like a human plus wings like a chicken, and a fat, feathered body with talons for feet. It was amazing she could fly at all. She kept drifting around and bumping into things like a parade balloon.

“Not an aura?” Jason asked Mellie as the creature wobbled by.

Mellie laughed. “That’s a harpy, of course. Our, ah, ugly stepsisters, I suppose you would say. Don’t you have harpies on Olympus? They’re spirits of violent gusts, unlike us aurai. We’re all gentle breezes.”

She batted her eyes at me.

“’Course you are,” I said.

“So,” Piper prompted, “you were taking us to see Aeolus?”

Mellie led us through a set of doors like an airlock. Above the interior door, a green light blinked.

“We have a few minutes before he starts,” Mellie said cheerfully. “He probably won’t kill you if we go in now. Come along!”

My jaw dropped. The central section of Aeolus’s fortress was as big as a cathedral, with a soaring domed roof covered in silver. Television equipment floated randomly through the air—cameras, spotlights, set pieces, potted plants. And there was no floor. Leo almost fell into the chasm before Jason pulled him back.

“Holy—!” Leo gulped. “Hey, Mellie. A little warning next time!”

An enormous circular pit plunged into the heart of the mountain. It was probably half a mile deep, honeycombed with caves. Some of the tunnels probably led straight outside. I remembered seeing winds blast out of them when we’d been on Pikes Peak. Other caves were sealed with some glistening material like glass or wax. The whole cavern bustled with harpies, aurai, and paper airplanes, but for someone who couldn’t fly, it would be a very long, very fatal fall.

“Oh, my,” Mellie gasped. “I’m so sorry.” She unclipped a walkie-talkie from somewhere inside her robes and spoke into it: “Hello, sets? Is that Nuggets? Hi, Nuggets. Could we get a floor in the main studio, please? Yes, a solid one. Thanks.”

A few seconds later, an army of harpies rose from the pit—three dozen or so demon chicken ladies, all carrying squares of various building material. They went to work hammering and gluing—and using large quantities of duct tape, which didn’t reassure me. In no time there was a makeshift floor snaking out over the chasm. It was made of plywood, marble blocks, carpet squares, wedges of grass sod—just about anything.

“That can’t be safe,” Jason said.

“Oh, it is!” Mellie assured him. “The harpies are very good.”

Easy for her to say. She just drifted across without touching the floor, but Jason decided he had the best chance at surviving, since he could fly, so he stepped out first. Amazingly, the floor held.

Piper gripped his hand and followed him. “If I fall, you’re catching me.”

“Uh, sure.” Jason was blushing.

Leo stepped out next. “You’re catching me, too, Superman. But I ain’t holding your hand.”

I followed last, desperately holding onto Leo's arm.

Mellie led us toward the middle of the chamber, where a loose sphere of flat-panel video screens floated around a kind of control center. A man hovered inside, checking monitors and reading paper airplane messages.

The man paid us no attention as Mellie brought us forward. She pushed a forty-two-inch Sony out of our way and led us into the control area.

Leo whistled. “I got to get a room like this.”

The floating screens showed all sorts of television programs. Some I recognized—news broadcasts, mostly—but some programs looked a little strange: gladiators fighting, demigods battling monsters. Maybe they were movies, but they looked more like reality shows.

At the far end of the sphere was a silky blue backdrop like a cinema screen, with cameras and studio lights floating around it.

The man in the center was talking into an earpiece phone. He had a remote control in each hand and was pointing them at various screens, seemingly at random.

He wore a business suit that looked like the sky—blue mostly, but dappled with clouds that changed and darkened and moved across the fabric. He looked like he was in his sixties, with a shock of white hair, but he had a ton of stage makeup on, and that smooth plastic-surgery look to his face, so he appeared not really young, not really old, just wrong—like a Ken doll someone had halfway melted in a microwave. His eyes darted back and forth from screen to screen, like he was trying to absorb everything at once. He muttered things into his phone, and his mouth kept twitching. He was either amused, or crazy, or both.

Mellie floated toward him. “Ah, sir, Mr. Aeolus, these demigods—”

“Hold it!” He held up a hand to silence her, then pointed at one of the screens. “Watch!”

It was one of those storm-chaser programs, where insane thrill-seekers drive after tornados. As I watched, a Jeep plowed straight into a funnel cloud and got tossed into the sky.

Aeolus shrieked with delight. “The Disaster Channel. People do that on purpose!” He turned toward Jason with a mad grin. “Isn’t that amazing? Let’s watch it again.”

“Um, sir,” Mellie said, “this is Jason, son of—”

“Yes, yes, I remember,” Aeolus said. “You’re back. How did it go?”

Jason hesitated. “Sorry? I think you’ve mistaken me—”

“No, no, Jason Grace, aren’t you? It was—what—last year? You were on your way to fight a sea monster, I believe.”

“I—I don’t remember.”

Aelous laughed. “Must not have been a very good sea monster! No, I remember every hero who’s ever come to me for aid. Odysseus—gods, he docked at my island for a month! At least you only stayed a few days. Now, watch this video. These ducks get sucked straight into—”

“Sir,” Mellie interrupted. “Two minutes to air.”

“Air!” Aeolus exclaimed. “I love air. How do I look? Makeup!”

Immediately a small tornado of brushes, blotters, and cotton balls descended on Aeolus. They blurred across his face in a cloud of flesh-tone smoke until his coloration was even more gruesome than before. Wind swirled through his hair and left it sticking up like a frosted Christmas tree.

“Mr. Aeolus.” Jason slipped off the golden backpack. “We brought you these rogue storm spirits.”

“Did you!” Aeolus looked at the bag like it was a gift from a fan—something he really didn’t want. “Well, how nice.”

Leo nudged him, and Jason offered the bag. “Boreas sent us to capture them for you. We hope you’ll accept them and stop—you know—ordering demigods to be killed.”

Aeolus laughed, and looked incredulously at Mellie. “Demigods be killed—did I order that?”

Mellie checked her computer tablet. “Yes, sir, fifteenth of September. ‘Storm spirits released by the death of Typhon, demigods to be held responsible,’ etc… yes, a general order for them all to be killed.”

“Oh, pish,” Aeolus said. “I was just grumpy. Rescind that order, Mellie, and um, who’s on guard duty—Teriyaki?—Teri, take these storm spirits down to cell block Fourteen E, will you?”

A harpy swooped out of nowhere, snatched the golden bag, and spiraled into the abyss.

Aeolus grinned at Jason. “Now, sorry about that kill-on-sight business. But gods, I really was mad, wasn’t I?” His face suddenly darkened, and his suit did the same, the lapels flashing with lightning. “You know … I remember now. Almost seemed like a voice was telling me to give that order. A little cold tingle on the back of my neck.”

I was tense. A cold tingle on the back of the neck … Why did that sound so familiar? “A … um, voice in your head, sir?”

“Yes. How odd. Mellie, should we kill them?”

“No, sir,” she said patiently. “They just brought us the storm spirits, which makes everything all right.”

“Of course.” Aeolus laughed. “Sorry. Mellie, let’s send the demigods something nice. A box of chocolates, perhaps.”

“A box of chocolates to every demigod in the world, sir?”

“No, too expensive. Never mind. Wait, it’s time! I’m on!”

Aeolus flew off toward the blue screen as newscast music started to play.

Jason looked at us and seemed just as confused as we were.

“Mellie,” he said, “is he … always like that?”

She smiled sheepishly. “Well, you know what they say. If you don’t like his mood, wait five minutes. That expression ‘whichever way the wind blows’—that was based on him.”

“And that thing about the sea monster,” Jason said. “Was I here before?”

Mellie blushed. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember. I’m Mr. Aeolus’s new assistant. I’ve been with him longer than most, but still—not that long.”

“How long do his assistants usually last?” Piper asked.

“Oh …” Mellie thought for a moment. “I’ve been doing this for … twelve hours?”

A voice blared from floating speakers: “And now, weather every twelve minutes! Here’s your forecaster for Olympian Weather—the OW! channel—Aeolus!”

Lights blazed on Aeolus, who was now standing in front of the blue screen. His smile was unnaturally white, and he looked like he’d had so much caffeine his face was about to explode.

“Hello, Olympus! Aeolus, master of the winds here, with weather every twelve! We’ll have a low-pressure system moving over Florida today, so expect milder temperatures since Demeter wishes to spare the citrus farmers!” He gestured at the blue screen, but when I checked the monitors, I saw that a digital image was being projected behind Aeolus, so it looked like he was standing in front of a U.S. map with animated smiley suns and frowny storm clouds. “Along the eastern seaboard—oh, hold on.” He tapped his earpiece. “Sorry, folks! Poseidon is angry with Miami today, so it looks like that Florida freeze is back on! Sorry, Demeter. Over in the Midwest, I’m not sure what St. Louis did to offend Zeus, but you can expect winter storms! Boreas himself is being called down to punish the area with ice. Bad news, Missouri! No, wait. Hephaestus feels sorry for central Missouri, so you all will have much more moderate temperatures and sunny skies.”

Aeolus kept going like that—forecasting each area of the country and changing his prediction two or three times as he got messages over his earpiece—the gods apparently putting in orders for various winds and weather.

“This can’t be right,” Jason whispered. “Weather isn’t this random.”

Mellie smirked. “And how often are the mortal weathermen right? They talk about fronts and air pressure and moisture, but the weather surprises them all the time. At least Aeolus tells us why it’s so unpredictable. Very hard job, trying to appease all the gods at once. It’s enough to drive anyone …”

She trailed off, but I knew what she meant. Mad. Aeolus was completely mad.

“And that’s the weather,” Aeolus concluded. “See you in twelve minutes, because I’m sure it’ll change!”

The lights shut off, the video monitors went back to random coverage, and just for a moment, Aeolus’s face sagged with weariness. Then he seemed to remember he had guests, and he put a smile back on.

“So, you brought me some rogue storm spirits,” Aeolus said. “I suppose … thanks! And did you want something else? I assume so. Demigods always do.”

Mellie said, “Um, sir, this is Zeus’s son.”

“Yes, yes. I know that. I said I remembered him from before.”

“But, sir, they’re here from Olympus.”

Aeolus looked stunned. Then he laughed so abruptly, Jason almost jumped into the chasm. “You mean you’re here on behalf of your father this time? Finally! I knew they would send someone to renegotiate my contract!”

“Um, what?” Jason asked.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Aeolus sighed with relief. “It’s been what, three thousand years since Zeus made me master of the winds. Not that I’m ungrateful, of course! But really, my contract is so vague. Obviously I’m immortal, but ‘master of the winds.’ What does that mean? Am I a nature spirit? A demigod? A god? I want to be god of the winds, because the benefits are so much better. Can we start with that?”

Jason looked at us, mystified.

“Dude,” Leo said, “you think we’re here to promote you?”

“You are, then?” Aeolus grinned. His business suit turned completely blue—not a cloud in the fabric. “Marvelous! I mean, I think I’ve shown quite a bit of initiative with the weather channel, eh? And of course I’m in the press all the time. So many books have been written about me: Into Thin Air, Up in the Air, Gone with the Wind—”

“Er, I don’t think those are about you,” Jason said, before he noticed Mellie shaking her head.

“Nonsense,” Aeolus said. “Mellie, they’re biographies of me, aren’t they?”

“Absolutely, sir,” she squeaked.

“There, you see? I don’t read. Who has time? But obviously the mortals love me. So, we’ll change my official title to god of the winds. Then, about salary and staff—”

“Sir,” Jason said, “we’re not from Olympus.”

Aeolus blinked. “But—”

“I’m the son of Zeus, yes,” Jason said, “but we’re not here to negotiate your contract. We’re on a quest and we need your help.”

Aeolus’s expression hardened. “Like last time? Like every hero who comes here? Demigods! It’s always about you, isn’t it?”

“Sir, please, I don’t remember last time, but if you helped me once before—”

“I’m always helping! Well, sometimes I’m destroying, but mostly I’m helping, and sometimes I’m asked to do both at the same time! Why, Aeneas, the first of your kind—”

“My kind?” Jason asked. “You mean, demigods?”

“Oh, please!” Aeolus said. “I mean your line of demigods. You know, Aeneas, son of Venus—the only surviving hero of Troy. When the Greeks burned down his city, he escaped to Italy, where he founded the kingdom that would eventually become Rome, blah, blah, blah. That’s what I meant.”

“I don’t get it,” Jason admitted, though I fully understood he was talking about us being Roman.

Aeolus rolled his eyes. “The point being, I was thrown in the middle of that conflict, too! Juno calls up: ‘Oh, Aeolus, destroy Aeneas’s ships for me. I don’t like him.’ Then Neptune says, ‘No, you don’t! That’s my territory. Calm the winds.’ Then Juno is like, ‘No, wreck his ships, or I’ll tell Jupiter you’re uncooperative!’ Do you think it’s easy juggling requests like that?”

“No,” Jason said. “I guess not.”

“And don’t get me started on Amelia Earhart! I’m still getting angry calls from Olympus about knocking her out of the sky!”

“We just want information,” Piper said in her most calming voice. “We hear you know everything.”

Aeolus straightened his lapels and looked slightly mollified. “Well … that’s true, of course. For instance, I know that this business here”—he waggled his fingers at the four of us—“this harebrained scheme of Juno’s to bring you all together is likely to end in bloodshed. As for you, Piper McLean, I know your father is in serious trouble.” He held out his hand, and a scrap of paper fluttered into his grasp. It was a photo of Piper with a guy who must’ve been Tristan McLean, her father.

Piper took the photo. Her hands were shaking. “This—this is from his wallet.”

“Yes,” Aeolus said. “All things lost in the wind eventually come to me. The photo blew away when the Earthborn captured him.”

“The what?” Piper asked.

Aeolus waved aside the question and narrowed his eyes at Leo. “Now, you, son of Hephaestus … yes, I see your future.” Another paper fell into the wind god’s hands—an old tattered drawing done in crayons.

Leo took it as if it might be coated in poison. He staggered backward.

“Leo?” I said. “What is it?”

“Something I—I drew when I was a kid.” He folded it quickly and put it in his coat. “It’s … yeah, it’s nothing.”

Aeolus laughed. “Really? Just the key to your success! Now, where were we? Ah, yes, you-” he pointed at me, and the winds brought him another slip of paper. He handed it to me.

Looking at it, I furrowed my brows. It was a picture of a woman- my mom- and she was pregnant. She stood in front of a reflective surface, and though the glare from the camera flash blocked most of the reflection, the one holding the camera was a man. He wore a dark fisherman’s trench coat and seemed to be smiling through a thick beard, though I couldn't see the rest of his face.

“I’ve never seen this before,” I said.

“Yes, well, your mother threw it away after you were born and your father left,” Aeolus said. “But a great picture nonetheless. Where were we? Right, you wanted information. Are you sure about that? Sometimes information can be dangerous.”

He smiled at Jason and I like he was issuing a challenge. Behind him, Mellie shook her head in warning.

“Yeah,” Jason said. “We need to find the lair of Enceladus.”

Aeolus’s smile melted. “The giant? Why would you want to go there? He’s horrible! He doesn’t even watch my program!”

Piper held up the photo. “Aeolus, he’s got my father. We need to rescue him and find out where Hera is being held captive.”

“Now, that’s impossible,” Aeolus said. “Even I can’t see that, and believe me, I’ve tried. There’s a veil of magic over Hera’s location—very strong, impossible to locate.”

“She’s at a place called the Wolf House,” I said.

“Hold on!” Aelous put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. “I’m getting something! Yes, she’s at a place called the Wolf House! Sadly, I don’t know where that is.”

“Enceladus does,” Piper persisted. “If you help us find him, we could get the location of the goddess—”

“Yeah,” Leo said, catching on. “And if we save her, she’d be really grateful to you—”

“And Zeus might promote you,” I finished.

Aeolus’s eyebrows crept up. “A promotion—and all you want from me is the giant’s location?”

“Well, if you could get us there, too,” Jason amended, “that would be great.”

Mellie clapped her hands in excitement. “Oh, he could do that! He often sends helpful winds—”

“Mellie, quiet!” Aeolus snapped. “I have half a mind to fire you for letting these people in under false pretenses.”

Her face paled. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“It wasn’t her fault,” Jason said. “But about that help …”

Aelous tilted his head as if thinking. Then I realized the wind lord was listening to voices in his earpiece.

“Well … Zeus approves,” Aeolus muttered. “He says … he says it would be better if you could avoid saving her until after the weekend, because he has a big party planned—Ow! That’s Aphrodite yelling at him, reminding him that the solstice starts at dawn. She says I should help you. And Hephaestus… yes. Hmm. Very rare they agree on anything. Hold on …”

Jason smiled at us. Finally, we were having some good luck. Our godly parents were standing up for us- well, except mine, apparently.

Back toward the entrance, I heard a loud belch. Coach Hedge waddled in from the lobby, grass all over his face. Mellie saw him coming across the makeshift floor and caught her breath. “Who is that?”

I stifled a cough. “That? That’s just Coach Hedge. Uh, Gleeson Hedge. He’s our …” I wasn’t sure what to call him: teacher, friend, problem? “Our guide.”

“He’s so goatly,” Mellie murmured.

Behind her, Piper poofed out her cheeks, pretending to vomit.

“What’s up, guys?” Hedge trotted over. “Wow, nice place. Oh! Sod squares.”

“Coach, you just ate,” Jason said. “And we’re using the sod as a floor. This is, ah, Mellie—”

“An aura.” Hedge smiled winningly. “Beautiful as a summer breeze.”

Mellie blushed.

“And Aeolus here was just about to help us,” Jason said.

“Yes,” the wind lord muttered. “It seems so. You’ll find Enceladus on Mount Diablo.”

“Devil Mountain?” Leo asked. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“I remember that place!” Piper said. “I went there once with my dad. It’s just east of San Francisco Bay.”

“The Bay Area again?” The coach shook his head. “Not good. Not good at all.”

“Now …” Aeolus began to smile. “As to getting you there—”

Suddenly his face went slack. He bent over and tapped his earpiece as if it were malfunctioning. When he straightened again, his eyes were wild. Despite the makeup, he looked like an old man—an old, very frightened man. “She hasn’t spoke to me for centuries. I can’t—yes, yes I understand.”

He swallowed, regarding Jason as if he had suddenly turned into a giant cockroach. “I’m sorry, son of Jupiter. New orders. You all have to die.”

Mellie squeaked. “But—but, sir! Zeus said to help them. Aphrodite, Hephaestus—”

“Mellie!” Aeolus snapped. “Your job is already on the line. Besides, there are some orders that transcend even the wishes of the gods, especially when it comes to the forces of nature.”

“Whose orders?” Jason said. “Zeus will fire you if you don’t help us!”

“I doubt it.” Aeolus flicked his wrist, and far below us, a cell door opened in the pit. I could hear storm spirits screaming out of it, spiraling up toward us, howling for blood.

“Even Zeus understands the order of things,” Aeolus said. “And if she is waking—by all the gods—she cannot be denied. Good-bye, heroes. I’m terribly sorry, but I’ll have to make this quick. I’m back on the air in four minutes.”

Jason and I summoned our weapons. Coach Hedge pulled out his club. Mellie the aura yelled, “No!”

She dived at our feet just as the storm spirits hit with hurricane force, blasting the floor to pieces, shredding the carpet samples and marble and linoleum into what should’ve been lethal projectiles, had Mellie’s robes not spread out like a shield and absorbed the brunt of the impact. The six of us fell into the pit, and Aeolus screamed above, “Mellie, you are so fired!”

“Quick,” Mellie yelled. “Son of Zeus, do you have any power over the air?”

“A little!”

“Then help me, or you’re all dead!” Mellie grabbed his hand. They had to control our fall and head for one of the open tunnels. The storm spirits were following us down, closing rapidly, bringing with them a cloud of deadly shrapnel.

Jason grabbed Piper’s hand. “Group hug!”

Hedge, Leo, Piper, and I tried to huddle together, hanging on to Jason and Mellie as we fell.

“This is NOT GOOD!” Leo yelled.

“Bring it on, gas bags!” Hedge yelled up at the storm spirits. “I’ll pulverize you!”

“He’s magnificent,” Mellie sighed.

“Concentrate?” I prompted.

“Right!” she said.

They channeled the wind so our fall became more of a tumble into the nearest open chute. Still, we slammed into the tunnel at painful speed and went rolling over each other down a steep vent that was not designed for people. There was no way we could stop.

Mellie’s robes billowed around her. The others and I clung to her desperately, and we began to slow down, but the storm spirits were screaming into the tunnel behind us.

“Can’t—hold—long,” Mellie warned. “Stay together! When the winds hit—”

“You’re doing great, Mellie,” Hedge said. “My own mama was an aura, you know. She couldn’t have done better herself.”

“Iris-message me?” Mellie pleaded.

Hedge winked.

“Could you guys plan your date later?” Piper screamed. “Look!”

Behind us, the tunnel was turning dark. I could feel my ears pop as the pressure built.

“Can’t hold them,” Mellie warned. “But I’ll try to shield you, do you one more favor.”

“Thanks, Mellie,” Jason said. “I hope you get a new job.”

She smiled, and then dissolved, wrapping us in a warm gentle breeze. Then the real winds hit, shooting us into the sky so fast, I blacked out.

Chapter Text

This time, it was easy. The minute I entered my dream, I was prepared to turn around.

I was only a few steps down the street before I stopped and spun 180 degrees on my heels. I bolted straight for the black door, not knowing how long I was going to be asleep this time.

I reached the door quickly, and I was somewhat surprised I did. Reaching my hand toward the knob, my heart began to race. Was this an entrance, or an exit? What was on the other side?

Only one way to know. I thrust the door open.

There wasn’t any time to process what was on the other side, because my vision went dark, and I felt like I was falling. I couldn’t see anything around me, but my gut felt light as if I was speeding down a rollercoaster. When the feeling stopped, my vision cleared and a world sprawled around me.

It was my bedroom in California. Beige carpet under my bare feet. My items scattered across the floor because I never could keep my shit organized. My bed looked like it had been a nest for a family of wild boar.

The fog in my brain cleared, and was quickly replaced by anger- not because of my surroundings, but because of what was happening. I was reliving a memory.

Fists pounded at my door. My mom shouted my name. “Open the door! Open the door!”

“I hate you!” I screamed, picking up one of my converse and throwing it at my door. “You’ve ruined my life!”

“Please!” my mother cried. “You don’t understand! You need to calm down!”

“Shut up! You gave me all these problems! You passed your stupid mental shit down to me- dad too! Did you fuck a crack bum to get me?!” I shouted.

Suddenly, my mom burst through the door, breaking the lock and part of the wall. “Stop it!” She tried to grab my arm, but I shoved her back and ran out of my room and down the hall. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Out!” I cried. “I’m leaving until you can get your shit together!”

My mother stood in front of the door and stared at me with eyes like a wild animal. “You can’t go!”

“I can!” I shouted, trying to get past her. Mom grabbed me and pushed me away from the front door.

“You won’t find him, you won’t find him!”

“I will, and I’ll kill him!”

“He’s nothing like you’d ever know!”

“Shut up!” I pushed myself away from my mom and balled my fists. “You can’t still seriously care for that man, can you? He made you like this!”

“He loves me,” my mom sobbed. “He promised me!”

“He hates both of us!” I screamed. “Why can’t you get that through your head? He left us, he wanted nothing to do with us!”

“Baby, stop it-”

“Stop what? All you ever want me to do is stop! What the fuck am I supposed to do? Be stunted here with you, waiting for that deadbeat to come back when he’s been gone with with zero contact for twelve fucking years!”

My mom hitched her breath as she watched me have a full screaming fit. Her fingers curled, and her body slowly leaned forward.

“I couldn’t care less what you think of me!” I jabbed a finger at my mom’s chest. “Because everything inside your brain is rotted fucked up narco garbage, you cigarette slut!”

“Stop it!” my mom pushed me away from her.

For the first time, I watched what was really happening in this memory. Through the argument, I thought that it was maybe my shouting that made my gut tight, but looking back I see it so clearly.

I was using my powers in a way I never had before.

The air turned dry as bone. Tiny molecules of water gravitated toward me as I screamed at my mom, getting sucked under my skin faster than I could see.

As I raged, my mother watched me in a dazed state. I thought it might have been the drugs she was on, but as I watched through my own memory, I saw the water pooling off her skin and into me as well.

I was killing my mom, and I didn’t notice at all.

My screaming continued as I scolded my mom about her stupid imagination about my dad coming back, and how as soon as she realized it too, we could actually love each other. But my mom didn’t look like she was listening, which made me even more mad. I yelled even more. My throat became hoarse.

I shoved my mom back, but somehow she went flying into the door, cracking the wood. Where did all this strength come from? I could see my veins bulging through my skin.

I began to feel wild, almost animalistic. I was beyond angry at this point, and all the water entering my body was only boosting me up. It wasn’t long now until I’d have too much inside me and water poisoning intoxication would set in.

My mom’s eyelids began to flutter. I thought maybe she was crying, but she was about to pass out. I couldn't see through my rage. I shouted vulgarities at her until my voice disappeared, and then my vision went red.

It was almost as if I blacked out. The next second, my mom was on the floor, her skin dry and splitting. My anger began to subside, but there was still a wild energy flowing through me, like a crashing tidal wave against a rocky shore.

I leaned down to my mom and grabbed her shoulder, but as soon as my skin made contact, even more liquid pooled off her and into my skin. I jumped back, not knowing what I had just seen. Afraid, I grabbed my mom and tried to shake her awake. I called out her name, but my voice was completely gone. Why had I screamed at her so much? I was awful!

I began to hyperventilate. My veins pulsating under my skin. The more I touched my mom, the more water I absorbed. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but I knew I was taking in too much liquid. I began to feel sick.

Too many thoughts ran through my brain. Would I get caught? Did I kill her? What if dad came back now? Will anyone take me? God, what do I do?

God doesn’t want me anymore! I just killed someone!

I bolted out the door and down the street. The night seemed darker and more ominous than it had ever been before. The crescent moon above me seemed to be smiling as it watched me try to escape what I had just done.

And thus, my nightmare ended in the same way it always began, but this time I knew the truth. I knew why I was forced to relive this nightmare for years every night, and why it was so important for me to figure it out. I forced myself to forget what I had done, but now I knew.

In reality, if I had just stayed with my mom, helped get some water into her system, maybe she would have lived. But the more I panicked, the more I stole from her. I really was a horrible person.

My nightmare ended the same way. I watched the fountain of water burst from my vein as I collapsed on the street, inches away from death myself.

I woke at a table at a sidewalk café.

For a second, I thought I was still dreaming. It was a sunny morning. The air was brisk but not unpleasant for sitting outside. At the other tables, a mix of bicyclists, business people, and college kids sat chatting and drinking coffee.

I could smell eucalyptus trees. Lots of foot traffic passed in front of quaint little shops. The street was lined with bottle-brush trees and blooming azaleas as if winter was a foreign concept.

In other words: I was in California.

I could feel my heart clanging inside my chest. My eyes welled with tears. I tried to convince myself it was all just a dream and couldn’t have been a reality, but the memory was too clear now. I really was a monster. What would my friends think? Why was I so vicious? What was wrong with me? What is wrong with me?

I felt sick to my stomach. I tried to focus on anything else. I studied where I was sitting, and who I was with, and then I saw Piper staring back at me. She smiled that gorgeous smile of hers, and all I could do was nod, because if I smiled I probably would have just cried.

My friends sat in chairs around me—all of them with their hands calmly folded across their chests, dozing pleasantly. And they all had new clothes on. Piper looked down at her own outfit and gasped. “Mother!”

She yelled louder than she meant. Jason flinched, bumping the table with his knees, and then all of them were awake.

“What?” Hedge demanded. “Fight who? Where?”

“Falling!” Leo grabbed the table. “No—not falling. Where are we?”

Jason blinked, trying to get his bearings. He focused on Piper and made a little choking sound. “What are you wearing?”

Piper blushed. She was wearing a turquoise dress with black leggings and black leather boots. She had on her favorite silver charm bracelet and her old snowboarding jacket from her dad, which amazingly went with the outfit pretty well. She pulled out Katoptris and studied the beautiful braid her hair was done in. Even her piercings had been swapped for silver jewelry.

“It’s nothing,” she said. “It’s my—” She paused, then cleared her throat. “It’s nothing.”

Leo grinned. “Aphrodite strikes again, huh? You’re gonna be the best-dressed warrior in town, beauty queen.”

I looked at the boy next to me and almost burst out laughing.

“Hey, Leo.” Jason nudged his arm. “You look at yourself recently?”

“What … oh.”

All of us had been given a makeover. Leo was wearing pinstripe pants, black leather shoes, a white collarless shirt with suspenders, and his tool belt, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a porkpie hat.

“God, Leo.” Piper tried not to laugh. “I think my dad wore that to his last premiere, minus the tool belt.”

“Hey, shut up!”

“I think he looks good,” said Coach Hedge. “’Course, I look better.”

The satyr was a pastel nightmare. Aphrodite had given him a baggy canary yellow zoot suit with two-tone shoes that fit over his hooves. He had a matching yellow broad-brimmed hat, a rose-colored shirt, a baby blue tie, and a blue carnation in his lapel, which Hedge sniffed and then ate.

“Good lord,” I said.

Leo nudged me. “Not too bad yourself!”

I blinked and looked down at myself. I don’t know what Aphrodite was thinking, seeing as she put me in a black button down vest, black dress pants that had cerulean accents on them, and black kitten heels. I was decked out in classy gold jewelry, my nails had somehow been colored blue, and my nose piercings had been switched out for gold jewelry as well. “Well, at least it’s not a dress.”

“You look like you’re here for a business meeting,” Piper said. “Like, fuck, are you firing me?”

“Keep playing with me and I just might,” I said.

“Well,” Jason said, “at least your mom overlooked me.”

I knew that wasn’t exactly true. Looking at him, my heart did a little tap dance. Jason was dressed simply in jeans and a clean purple camp T-shirt, like he’d worn at the Grand Canyon. He had new track shoes on, and his hair was newly trimmed. His eyes were the same color as the sky. Aphrodite’s message was clear: This one needs no improvement.

And I agreed.

“Anyway,” I said uncomfortably, “how did we get here?”

“Oh, that would be Mellie,” Hedge said, chewing happily on his carnation. “Those winds shot us halfway across the country, I’d guess. We would’ve been smashed flat on impact, but Mellie’s last gift—a nice soft breeze—cushioned our fall.”

“And she got fired for us,” Leo said. “Man, we suck.”

“Ah, she’ll be fine,” Hedge said. “Besides, she couldn’t help herself. I’ve got that effect on nymphs. I’ll send her a message when we’re through with this quest and help her figure something out. That is one aura I could settle down with and raise a herd of baby goats.”

“I’m going to be sick,” Piper said. “Anyone else want coffee?”

“Coffee!” Hedge’s grin was stained blue from the flower. “I love coffee!”

“Um,” Jason said, “but—money? Our packs?”

Piper looked down. Our packs were at our feet, and everything seemed to still be there. She reached into her coat pocket and brought out money.

Leo whistled. “Allowance? Piper, your mom rocks!”

“Waitress!” Hedge called. “Six double espressos, and whatever these guys want. Put it on the girl’s tab.”

It didn’t take us long to figure out where we were. The menus said “Café Verve, Walnut Creek, CA.” And according to the waitress, it was 9 a.m. on December 21, the winter solstice, which gave us three hours until Enceladus’s deadline.

We didn’t have to wonder where Mount Diablo was, either. We could see it on the horizon, right at the end of the street. After the Rockies, Mount Diablo didn’t look very large, nor was it covered in snow. It seemed downright peaceful, its golden creases marbled with gray-green trees. But size was deceptive with mountains, I knew. It was probably much bigger up close. And appearances were deceptive too. Here we were—back in California—supposedly my home—with sunny skies, mild weather, laid-back people, and a plate of blueberry waffles with orange juice. And only a few miles away, somewhere on that peaceful mountain, a super powerful, super-evil giant was about to have a father for lunch.

Leo pulled something out of his pocket—the old crayon drawing Aeolus had given him. Aphrodite must’ve thought it was important if she’d magically transferred it to his new outfit.

“What is that?” I asked.

Leo folded it up gingerly again and put it away. “Nothing. You don’t want to see my kindergarten artwork.”

“It’s more than that,” Jason guessed. “Aeolus said it was the key to our success.”

Leo shook his head. “Not today. He was talking about… later.”

“How can you be sure?” Piper asked.

“Trust me,” Leo said. “Now—what’s our game plan?”

Coach Hedge belched. He’d already had three espressos and a plate of doughnuts, along with two napkins and another flower from the vase on the table. He would’ve eaten the silverware, except Piper had slapped his hand.

“Climb the mountain,” Hedge said. “Kill everything except Piper’s dad. Leave.”

“Thank you, General Eisenhower,” Jason grumbled.

“Hey, I’m just saying!”

“Guys,” Piper said. “There’s more you need to know. In my dream… I don’t know what exactly was happening, but I figured it out. I see it clearly now who our enemy is- our real enemy, not Enceladus, but Hera’s captor. It’s Gaea.”

“Gaea?” Leo shook his head. “Isn’t that Mother Nature? She’s supposed to have, like, flowers in her hair and birds singing around her and deer and rabbits doing her laundry.”

“Leo, that’s Snow White,” I said.

“Okay, but—”

“Listen, cupcake.” Coach Hedge dabbed the espresso out of his goatee. “Piper’s telling us some serious stuff, here. Gaea’s no softie. I’m not even sure I could take her.”

Leo whistled. “Really?”

Hedge nodded. “This earth lady—she and her old man the sky were nasty customers.”

“Ouranos,” I said. I couldn’t help looking up at the blue sky, wondering if it had eyes.

“Right,” Hedge said. “So Ouranos, he’s not the best dad. He throws their first kids, the Cyclopes, into Tartarus. That makes Gaea mad, but she bides her time. Then they have another set of kids—the twelve Titans—and Gaea is afraid they’ll get thrown into prison too. So she goes up to her son Kronos—”

“The big bad dude,” Leo said. “The one they defeated last summer.”

“Right. And Gaea’s the one who gives him the scythe, and tells him, ‘Hey, why don’t I call your dad down here? And while he’s talking to me, distracted, you can cut him to pieces. Then you can take over the world. Wouldn’t that be great?’”

Nobody said anything. My blueberry waffles didn’t look so appetizing anymore. Even though I’d heard the story before, I still couldn’t quite get my mind around it. I tried to imagine a kid so messed up, he would kill his own dad just for power. Then I imagined a mom so messed up, she would convince her son to do it. Then I imagined myself, who killed my mom for nothing. My stomach churned even more.

“Definitely not Snow White,” Piper decided.

“Nah, Kronos was a bad guy,” Hedge said. “But Gaea is literally the mother of all bad guys. She’s so old and powerful, so huge, that it’s hard for her to be fully conscious. Most of the time, she sleeps, and that’s the way we like her—snoring.”

“But she talked to me,” Leo said. “How can she be asleep?”

Gleeson brushed crumbs off his canary yellow lapel. He was on his sixth espresso now, and his pupils were as big as quarters. “Even in her sleep, part of her consciousness is active—dreaming, keeping watch, doing little things like causing volcanoes to explode and monsters to rise. Even now, she’s not fully awake. Believe me, you don’t want to see her fully awake.”

“But she’s getting more powerful,” Piper said. “She’s causing the giants to rise. And if their king comes back—this guy Porphyrion—”

“He’ll raise an army to destroy the gods,” Jason put in. “Starting with Hera. It’ll be another war. And Gaea will wake up fully.”

Gleeson nodded. “Which is why it’s a good idea for us to stay off the ground as much as possible.”

Leo looked warily at Mount Diablo. “So … climbing a mountain. That would be bad.”

“Guys, I can’t ask you to do this,” Piper said. “This is too dangerous.”

“You kidding?” Gleeson belched and showed us his blue carnation smile. “Who’s ready to beat stuff up?”

-

I hoped the taxi would take us all the way to the top.

No such luck. The cab made lurching, grinding sounds as it climbed the mountain road, and halfway up we found the ranger’s station closed, a chain blocking the way.

“Far as I can go,” the cabbie said. “You sure about this? Gonna be a long walk back, and my car’s acting funny. I can’t wait for you.”

“We’re sure.” Leo was the first one out. He seemed to have a bad feeling about what was wrong with the cab, and when I looked down I saw he was right. The wheels were sinking into the road like it was made of quicksand. Not fast—just enough to make the driver think he had a transmission problem or a bad axle—but I knew different.

The road was hard-packed dirt. No reason at all it should have been soft, but already Leo’s shoes were starting to sink. Gaea was messing with us.

I hurried out after him. While our friends got out, Leo paid the cabbie. He was generous—heck, why not? It was Aphrodite’s money.

“Keep the change,” he said. “And get out of here. Quick.”

The driver didn’t argue. Soon all we could see was his dust trail.

The view from the mountain was pretty amazing. The whole inland valley around Mount Diablo was a patchwork of towns—grids of tree-lined streets and nice middle-class suburbs, shops, and schools. All these normal people living normal lives—the kind I had never known.

“That’s Concord,” Jason said, pointing to the north. “Walnut Creek below us. To the south, Danville, past those hills. And that way …”

He pointed west, where a ridge of golden hills held back a layer of fog, like the rim of a bowl. “That’s the Berkeley Hills. The East Bay. Past that, San Francisco.”

My heart started to beat rapidly. Was Jason remembering? Gods, were there scouters out here?

“Jason?” Piper touched his arm. “You remember something? You’ve been here?”

“Yes … no.” He gave her an anguished look. “It just seems important.”

My heart slowed just a bit. I patted Jason’s shoulder, trying to keep my eyes on the ground.

“That’s Titan land.” Coach Hedge nodded toward the west. “Bad place, Jason. Trust me, this is as close to ’Frisco as we want to get.”

I tried to move my foot, but my heels were now completely embedded in the dirt.

“Hey, guys,” I said. “Let’s keep moving.”

The others noticed the problem.

“Gaea is stronger here,” Hedge grumbled. He popped his hooves free from his shoes, then handed the shoes to Leo. “Keep those for me, Valdez. They’re nice.”

Leo snorted. “Yes, sir, Coach. Would you like them polished?”

“That’s varsity thinking, Valdez.” Hedge nodded approvingly. “But first, we’d better hike up this mountain while we still can.”

“How do we know where the giant is?” Piper asked.

Jason pointed toward the peak. Drifting across the summit was a plume of smoke. From a distance, I had thought it was a cloud, but it wasn’t. Something was burning.

“Smoke equals fire,” Jason said. “We’d better hurry.”

The Wilderness School and CJ had taken me on several forced marches. I thought I was in good shape. But climbing a mountain when the earth was trying to swallow my feet was like jogging on a flypaper treadmill.

I felt embarrassed as sweat dripped down my exposed arms. It was weird to have my muscles out in the open for the first time in years, and I was starting to wonder if this was why Aphrodite had given me no jacket, despite the cold breeze. Did she… want me to have my muscles out?

I turned my head to Leo. He slipped his hands into his tool belt and started summoning supplies—gears, a tiny wrench, some strips of bronze. As he walked, he built—not really thinking about it, just fiddling with pieces.

By the time we neared the crest of the mountain, I was the most fashionably dressed sweaty, dirty hero ever. I was thankful that my clothes were black so nobody could see my sweat marks.

I sighed and looked back at Leo. The little object he’d made was like a windup toy—the kind that rattles and walks across a coffee table. I wasn’t sure what it could do, but he slipped it into his tool belt.

Finally Jason crouched behind a wall of rock. He gestured for us to do the same. Leo and I crawled up next to him. Piper had to pull Coach Hedge down.

“I don’t want to get my outfit dirty!” Hedge complained.

“Shhh!” Piper said.

Reluctantly, the satyr knelt.

Just over the ridge where we were hiding, in the shadow of the mountain’s final crest, was a forested depression about the size of a football field, where the giant Enceladus had set up camp.

Trees had been cut down to make a towering purple bonfire. The outer rim of the clearing was littered with extra logs and construction equipment—an earthmover; a big crane thing with rotating blades at the end like an electric shaver—must be a tree harvester, I thought—and a long metal column with an ax blade, like a sideways guillotine—a hydraulic ax.

Why a giant needed construction equipment, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t see how the creature in front of me could even fit in the driver’s seat. The giant Enceladus was so large, so horrible, I didn’t want to look at him.

But I forced myself to focus on the monster.

To start with, he was thirty feet tall—easily as tall as the treetops. I was sure the giant could’ve seen us behind the ridge, but he seemed intent on the weird purple bonfire, circling it and chanting under his breath. From the waist up, the giant appeared humanoid, his muscular chest clad in bronze armor, decorated with flame designs. His arms were completely ripped. Each of his biceps was bigger than me. His skin was bronze but sooty with ash. His face was crudely shaped, like a half-finished clay figure, but his eyes glowed white, and his hair was matted in shaggy dreadlocks down to his shoulders, braided with bones.

From the waist down, he was even more terrifying. His legs were scaly green, with claws instead of feet—like the forelegs of a dragon. In his hand, Enceladus held a spear the size of a flagpole. Every so often he dipped its tip in the fire, turning the metal molten red.

“Okay,” Coach Hedge whispered. “Here’s the plan—”

Leo elbowed him. “You’re not charging him alone!”

“Aw, c’mon.”

Piper choked back a sob. “Look.”

Just visible on the other side of the bonfire was a man tied to a post. His head slumped like he was unconscious, so I couldn’t make out his face, but Piper didn’t seem to have any doubts.

“Dad,” she said.

I swallowed. I wished this were a Tristan McLean movie. Then Piper’s dad would be faking unconsciousness. He’d untie his bonds and knock out the giant with some cleverly hidden anti-giant gas. Heroic music would start to play, and Tristan McLean would make his amazing escape, running away in slow motion while the mountainside exploded behind him.

But this wasn’t a movie. Tristan McLean was half dead and about to be eaten. The only people who could stop it—four fashionably dressed teenaged demigods and a megalomaniac goat.

“There’s five of us,” Hedge whispered urgently. “And only one of him.”

“Did you miss the fact that he’s thirty feet tall?” I asked.

“Okay,” Hedge said. “So you, me, Leo, and Jason distract him. Piper sneaks around and frees her dad.”

We all looked at Jason.

“What?” Jason asked. “I’m not the leader.”

“Yes,” I said. “You are.”

We’d never really talked about it, but no one disagreed, not even Hedge. Coming this far had been a team effort, but when it came to a life-and-death decision, we knew Jason was the one to ask. Even if he had no memory, Jason had a kind of balance to him. You could just tell he’d been in battles before, and he knew how to keep his cool. I didn’t, so without him I would have gotten us killed by the cyclopes.

“I hate to say it,” Jason sighed, “but Coach Hedge is right. A distraction is Piper’s best chance.”

Not a good chance, I thought. Not even a survivable chance. Just our best chance.

We couldn’t sit there all day and talk about it, though. It had to be close to noon—the giant’s deadline—and the ground was still trying to pull us down. Leo’s knees had already sunk two inches into the dirt.

Leo looked at the construction equipment and his eyes went wide. He brought out the little toy he’d made on the climb.

“Let’s boogie,” he said. “Before I come to my senses.”

-

The plan went wrong almost immediately. Piper scrambled along the ridge, trying to keep her head down, while Leo, Jason, Coach Hedge, and I walked straight into the clearing.

Jason summoned his golden lance. He brandished it over his head and yelled, “Giant!”

Enceladus stopped chanting at the flames. He turned toward us and grinned, revealing fangs like a saber-toothed tiger’s.

“Well,” the giant rumbled. “What a nice surprise.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. My hand closed on the pen in my pocket, which made me realize that’s probably why Aphrodite gave me pants instead of a dress.

Coach Hedge shouted, “Let the movie star go, you big ugly cupcake! Or I’m gonna plant my hoof right up your—”

“Coach,” I said. “Shut up.”

Enceladus roared with laughter. “I’ve forgotten how funny satyrs are. When we rule the world, I think I’ll keep your kind around. You can entertain me while I eat all the other mortals.”

“Is that a compliment?” Hedge frowned at Leo. “I don’t think that was a compliment.”

Enceladus opened his mouth wide, and his teeth began to glow.

“Scatter!” Leo yelled.

Jason and I dove to the left as the giant blew fire—a furnace blast so hot even Festus would’ve been jealous. Leo dodged behind the bulldozer, wound up his homemade device, and dropped it into the driver’s seat. Then he ran to the right, heading for the tree harvester.

Jason rose and charged the giant, with me following behind him. Coach Hedge ripped off his canary yellow jacket, which was now on fire, and bleated angrily. “I liked that outfit!” Then he raised his club and charged, too.

Before we could get very far, Enceladus slammed his spear against the ground. The entire mountain shook.

The shockwave sent everyone sprawling. I blinked, momentarily stunned. Through a haze of grassfire and bitter smoke, I saw Jason staggering to his feet on the other side of the clearing. Coach Hedge was knocked out cold. He’d fallen forward and hit his head on a log. His furry hindquarters were sticking straight up, with his canary yellow pants around his knees—a view I really didn’t need.

The giant bellowed, “I see you, Piper McLean!” He turned and blew fire at a line of bushes to my right. Piper ran into the clearing like a flushed quail, the underbrush burning behind her.

Enceladus laughed. “I’m happy you’ve arrived. And you brought me my prizes!”

My gut twisted. This was the moment Piper had warned us about. We’d played right into Enceladus’s hands.

The giant must’ve read my expression, because he laughed even louder. “That’s right, daughter of Neptune. I didn’t expect you all to stay alive this long, but it doesn’t matter. By bringing you here, Piper McLean has sealed the deal. If she betrays you, I’m as good as my word. She can take her father and go. What do I care about a movie star?”

I could see Piper’s dad more clearly now. He wore a ragged dress shirt and torn slacks. His bare feet were caked with mud. He wasn’t completely unconscious, because he lifted his head and groaned—yep, Tristan McLean all right. I had seen that face in enough movies. But he had a nasty cut down the side of his face, and he looked thin and sickly—not heroic at all.

“Dad!” Piper yelled.

Mr. McLean blinked, trying to focus. “Pipes … ? Where …”

Piper drew her dagger and faced Enceladus. “Let him go!”

“Of course, dear,” the giant rumbled. “Swear your loyalty to me, and we have no problem. Only these others must die.”

Piper looked back and forth between us and her dad.

“He’ll kill you,” Leo warned. “Don’t trust him!”

“Oh, come now,” Enceladus bellowed. “You know I was born to fight Athena herself? Mother Gaea made each of us giants with a specific purpose, designed to fight and destroy a particular god. I was Athena’s nemesis, the anti-Athena, you might say. Compared to some of my brethren—I am small! But I am clever. And I keep my bargain with you, Piper McLean. It’s part of my plan!”

Jason was on his feet now, lance ready; but before he could act, Enceladus roared—a call so loud it echoed down the valley and was probably heard all the way to San Francisco.

At the edge the woods, half a dozen ogre-like creatures rose up. I realized with nauseating certainty that they hadn’t simply been hiding there. They’d risen straight out of the earth.

The ogres shuffled forward. They were small compared to Enceladus, about seven feet tall. Each one of them had six arms—one pair in the regular spot, then an extra pair sprouting out the top of their shoulders, and another set shooting from the sides of their rib cages. They wore only ragged leather loincloths, and even across the clearing, I could smell them. Six guys who never bathed, with six armpits each. I decided if I survived this day, I’d have to take a three-hour shower just to forget the stench.

Leo stepped toward Piper. “What—what are those?”

Her blade reflected the purple light of the bonfire. “Gegenees.”

“In English?” Leo asked.

“The Earthborn,” she said. “Six-armed giants who fought Jason—the first Jason.”

“Very good, my dear!” Enceladus sounded delighted. “They used to live on a miserable place in Greece called Bear Mountain. Mount Diablo is much nicer! They are lesser children of Mother Earth, but they serve their purpose. They’re good with construction equipment—”

“Vroom, vroom!” one of the Earthborn bellowed, and the others took up the chant, each moving his six hands as though driving a car, as if it were some kind of weird religious ritual. “Vroom, vroom!”

“Yes, thank you, boys,” Enceladus said. “They also have a score to settle with heroes. Especially anyone named Jason.”

“Yay-son!” the Earthborn screamed. They all picked up clumps of earth, which solidified in their hands, turning to nasty pointed stones. “Where Yay-son? Kill Yay-son!”

Enceladus smiled. “You see, Piper, you have a choice. Save your father, or ah, try to save your friends and face certain death.”

Piper stepped forward. Her eyes blazed with such rage, even the Earthborn backed away. She radiated power and beauty, but it had nothing to do with her clothes or her makeup.

“You will not take the people I love,” she said. “None of them.”

Her words rippled across the clearing with such force, the Earthborn muttered, “Okay. Okay, sorry,” and began to retreat.

“Stand your ground, fools!” Enceladus bellowed. He snarled at Piper. “This is why we wanted you alive, my dear. You could have been so useful to us. But as you wish. Earth-born! I will show you Jason.”

My heart sank. But the giant didn’t point to Jason. He pointed to the other side of the bonfire, where Tristan McLean hung helpless and half conscious.

“There is Jason,” Enceladus said with pleasure. “Tear him apart!”

My biggest surprise: One look from Jason, and all four of us knew the game plan. When had that happened, that we could read each other so well?

Jason and I charged Enceladus, while Piper rushed to her father, and Leo dashed for the tree harvester, which stood between Mr. McLean and the Earthborn.

The battle had started well enough. My instincts kicked in, and knowing I’d fought tougher opponents boosted my confidence. Size and strength equaled slowness, so I just had to be quicker—go all out, wear out my opponent, and avoid getting smashed or flame-broiled.

Jason and I rolled away from the giant’s first spear thrust and jabbed Enceladus in the ankles with our weapons. We managed to pierce the thick dragon hide, and golden ichor—the blood of immortals—trickled down the giant’s clawed foot.

Enceladus bellowed in pain and blasted us with fire. Jason and I scrambled away, rolling behind the giant, and struck again behind his knees. Though we were made to be rivals, we mirrored each other perfectly. It was just like the good old days.

It went on like that for seconds, minutes—it was hard to judge. I heard combat across the clearing—construction equipment grinding, fire roaring, monsters shouting, and rocks smashing into metal. I heard Leo and Piper yelling defiantly, which meant they were still alive. I tried not to think about it. I couldn’t afford to get distracted.

Enceladus’s spear missed me by a millimeter. Jason and I kept dodging, but the ground stuck to our feet. Gaea was getting stronger, and the giant was getting faster. Enceladus might be slow, but he wasn’t dumb. He began anticipating our moves, and our attacks were only annoying him, making him more enraged.

“I’m not some minor monster,” Enceladus bellowed. “I am a giant, born to destroy gods! Your little gold toothpicks can’t kill me, children.”

I didn’t waste energy replying. I was already tired. The ground clung to my feet, making me feel like I weighed an extra hundred pounds. The air was full of smoke that burned my lungs. Fires roared around me, stoked by the winds, and the temperature was approaching the heat of an oven. For a child of the ocean, that’s a death sentence.

I raised my trident to block the giant’s next strike—a big mistake. Don’t fight force with force, a voice chided me—the wolf Lupa, who’d told me that long ago. Why do I never listen to people? I managed to deflect the spear, but it grazed my shoulder, and my arm went numb.

I backed up, almost tripping over a burning log. Jason ran over and joined me.

We had to delay—to keep the giant’s attention fixed on us while our friends dealt with the Earthborn and rescued Piper’s dad. We couldn’t fail.

We retreated, trying to lure the giant to the edge of the clearing. Enceladus could sense our weariness. The giant smiled, baring his fangs.

“The mighty Jason Grace,” he taunted. “Yes, we know about you, son of Jupiter. The one who led the assault on Mount Othrys. The one who single-handedly slew the Titan Krios and toppled the black throne. And Neptune’s daughter, who defeated the sea itself!”

“How do you know that?” I asked. I realized my mistake when Enceladus breathed fire.

Distracted, Jason and I moved too slowly. The blast missed us, but heat blistered our backs. We slammed into the ground, our clothes smoldering. I was blinded from ash and smoke, choking as I tried to breathe.

Jason scrambled back as the giant’s spear cleaved the ground between his feet.

Jason managed to stand and pulled me up with him.

If he could only summon one good blast of lightning—but he was already drained, and in this condition, the effort might kill him. I didn’t even know if electricity would harm the giant.

Death in battle is honorable, said Lupa’s voice.

That’s real comforting, I thought.

One last try: I took a deep breath and charged with Jason

Enceladus let us approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and we rolled between the giant’s legs. We came up quickly, Jason thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back while I threw my trident at his upper back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move. I recalled my trident last second.

He swept his spear sideways, met Jason’s javelin—and with a snap like a shotgun blast, the golden weapon shattered.

The explosion was hotter than the giant’s breath, blinding me with golden light. The force knocked me off my feet and squeezed the breath out of me.

When I regained my focus, I was sitting at the rim of a crater with Jason. Enceladus stood at the other side, staggering and confused. The javelin’s destruction had released so much energy, it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick glassy substance. I wasn’t sure how I’d survived, but my clothes were steaming. I was out of energy. Jason had no weapon. And Enceladus was still very much alive.

I tried to get up, but my legs were like lead. Enceladus blinked at the destruction, then laughed. “Impressive! Unfortunately, that was your last trick, demigods.”

Enceladus leaped the crater in a single bound, planting his feet on either side of us. In one last attempt to win, I threw my trident up at the giant. Enceladus flicked it aside. He raised his spear, its tip hovering six feet over my chest.

“And now,” Enceladus said, “my first sacrifice to Gaea!”

Time seemed to slow down, which was really frustrating, since I still couldn’t move. I felt myself sinking into the earth like the ground was a waterbed—comfortable, urging me to relax and give up. I wondered if the stories of the Underworld were true. Would I end up in the Fields of Punishment or Elysium? Well, there was only one option. I’d agree with my placement. Maybe I should die.

I couldn’t feel my arms. I could see the tip of the spear coming toward my chest in slow motion. I knew I should move, but I couldn’t seem to do it. Funny, I thought. All that effort to stay alive, and then, boom. You just lie there helplessly while a fire-breathing giant impales you.

Leo’s voice yelled, “Heads up!”

A large black metal wedge slammed into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit.

“Jason, get up!” Piper called. Her voice energized him, shook him out of his stupor. He sat up, his head groggy, while Piper grabbed him under his arms and hauled him to his feet.

Leo ran to my side and flipped me over, picking me up by my armpits. My back slumped against his chest and I looked up at him.

He said my name. “Don’t die on me. You are not dying on me.”

“Yes, sir.” I felt light-headed, but Leo was about the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. His hair was smoldering. His face was smudged with soot and clay. He had a cut on his arm, his shirt was torn, and he was missing a shoe. My heartbeat increased.

About a hundred feet behind us stood a piece of construction equipment—a long cannon like thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off. That was probably what Leo had used on Enceladus.

Then I looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the hydraulic ax had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an ax blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.

Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the ax blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armor, but Enceladus stood.

Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear.

“Good try.” The giant winced. “But I cannot be beaten.”

As we watched, the giant’s armor mended itself, and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason and I had worked so hard to make, were now just pale scars.

Leo hissed. “What is it with this guy? Die, already!”

“My fate is preordained,” Enceladus said. “Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes.”

“Only by both,” I said. The giant’s smile faltered, and I saw in his eyes something like fear. “It’s true, isn’t it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you.”

“You will not live long enough to try!” The giant started stumbling up the crater’s slope, slipping on the glassy sides.

“Anyone have a god handy?” Leo asked.

My heart filled with dread. I looked at the giant below us, struggling to get out of the pit, and I knew what had to happen. One look over at Jason, and he knew as well.

“Leo,” he said, “if you’ve got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready.”

We leaped at the giant with no weapon but our bare hands.

“Enceladus!” Piper yelled. “Look behind you!”

It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even I bought it. The giant said, “What?” and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.

Jason and I tackled his legs at just the right moment. The giant lost his balance. Enceladus slammed into the crater and slid to the bottom. While he tried to rise, Jason put his arms around the giant’s neck while I took out my trident and stabbed into the giant’s chest. When Enceladus struggled to his feet, Jason was riding his shoulders and I was dangling off my trident.

“Get off!” Enceladus screamed. He tried to grab Jason’s legs, but I was too much of a distraction. He couldn’t decide which of us to get rid of first.

He grabbed my trident and pulled it out, but just before he threw the weapon and I across the clearing, I pulled some of his blood out and formed it into chains. I dropped from my weapon and latched on as he tossed my trident away.

Suddenly I could smell the metallic scent of a storm. Darkness swallowed the sun. The giant froze, sensing it too.

Jason yelled to us, “Hit the deck!”

And every hair on my head stood straight up as I swung off the blood chains on Enceladus, landing next to my cowering friends.

Crack!

Lightning surged through Jason’s body, straight through Enceladus, and into the ground. The giant’s back stiffened, and Jason was thrown clear. He landed on the side of the crater and was slipping down. The crater was cracking open. The lightning bolt had split the mountain itself. The earth rumbled and tore apart, and Enceladus’s legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold on to the edge, his hands trembling.

He fixed Jason with a look of hatred. “You’ve won nothing, boy. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the gods at their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with—”

The giant lost his grip and fell into the crevice.

The earth shook. Jason fell toward the rift.

“Grab hold!” Leo yelled.

Jason’s feet were at the edge of the chasm when he grabbed the rope, and Leo, Piper, and I pulled him up.

We stood together, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulling at our feet.

For now, Gaea was gone.

“Fuck,” I exhaled.

The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air. I spotted a helicopter—maybe firefighters or reporters—coming toward us.

All around us was carnage. The Earthborn had melted into piles of clay, leaving behind only their rock missiles and some nasty bits of loincloth, but I figured they would re-form soon enough. Construction equipment lay in ruins. The ground was scarred and blackened.

Coach Hedge started to move. He sat up with a groan and rubbed his head. His canary yellow pants were now the color of Dijon mustard mixed with mud.

He blinked and looked around him at the battle scene. “Did I do this?”

Before I could reply, Hedge picked up his club and got shakily to his feet. “Yeah, you wanted some hoof? I gave you some hoof, cupcakes! Who’s the goat, huh?”

He did a little dance, kicking rocks and making what were probably rude satyr gestures at the piles of clay.

Leo cracked a smile, and I couldn’t help it—I started to laugh. It probably sounded a little hysterical, but I didn’t care. Jason laughed with me. Even Piper had a smile on her face, though it quickly fell.

Then a man stood up across the clearing. Tristan McLean staggered forward. His eyes were hollow, shell-shocked, like someone who’d just walked through a nuclear wasteland.

“Piper?” he called. His voice cracked. “Pipes, what—what is—”

He couldn’t complete the thought. Piper ran over to him and hugged him tightly, but he almost didn’t seem to know her.

He had too many memories, too much trauma his mind just couldn’t handle. He was coming apart.

“We need to get him out of here,” I said.

“Yeah, but how?” Leo said. “He’s in no shape to walk.”

Jason glanced up at the helicopter, which was now circling directly overhead. “Can you make us a bullhorn or something?” he asked Leo. “Piper has some talking to do.”

-

Borrowing the helicopter was easy. Getting Piper’s dad on board was not.

Piper needed only a few words through Leo’s improvised bullhorn to convince the pilot to land on the mountain. The Park Service copter was big enough for medical evacuations or search and rescue, and when Piper told the very nice ranger pilot lady that it would be a great idea to fly them to the Oakland Airport, she readily agreed.

“No,” her dad muttered, as we picked him up off the ground. “Piper, what—there were monsters—there were monsters—”

She needed all our help to hold him, while Coach Hedge gathered our supplies. Fortunately Hedge had put his pants and shoes back on, so we didn’t have to explain the goat legs.

It broke my heart to see Piper’s dad like this—pushed beyond the breaking point, crying like a little boy. I didn’t know what the giant had done to him exactly, how the monsters had shattered his spirit, but I didn’t think we wanted to find out.

“It’ll be okay, Dad,” Piper said, making her voice as soothing as possible. She didn’t want to charmspeak her own father, but it seemed the only way. “These people are my friends. We’re going to help you. You’re safe now.”

He blinked, and looked up at helicopter rotors. “Blades. They had a machine with so many blades. They had six arms …”

When we got him to the bay doors, the pilot came over to help. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked.

“Smoke inhalation,” I suggested. “Or heat exhaustion.”

“We should get him to a hospital,” the pilot said.

“It’s okay,” Piper said. “The airport is good.”

“Yeah, the airport is good,” the pilot agreed immediately. Then she frowned, as if uncertain why she’d changed her mind. “Isn’t he Tristan McLean, the movie star?”

“No,” Piper said. “He only looks like him. Forget it.”

“Yeah,” the pilot said. “Only looks like him. I—” She blinked, confused. “I forgot what I was saying. Let’s get going.”

Jason raised his eyebrows at Piper, obviously impressed, but Piper looked miserable. She didn’t want to twist people’s minds, convince them of things they didn’t believe. It felt so bossy, so wrong—like something Drew would do back at camp, or Medea in her evil department store. And how would it help her father? She couldn’t convince him he would be okay, or that nothing had happened. His trauma was just too deep. I felt bad for my friend.

Finally we got him on board, and the helicopter took off. The pilot kept getting questions over her radio, asking her where she was going, but she ignored them. We veered away from the burning mountain and headed toward the Berkeley Hills.

“Piper.” Her dad grasped her hand and held on like he was afraid he’d fall. “It’s you? They told me—they told me you would die. They said … horrible things would happen.”

“It’s me, Dad.” Piper held in her tears. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

“They were monsters,” he said. “Real monsters. Earth spirits, right out of Grandpa Tom’s stories—and the Earth Mother was angry with me. And the giant, Tsul’kälû, breathing fire—” He focused on Piper again, his eyes like broken glass, reflecting a crazy kind of light. “They said you were a demigod. Your mother was …”

“Aphrodite,” Piper said. “Goddess of love.”

“I—I—” He took a shaky breath, then seemed to forget how to exhale.

I couldn’t watch anymore. It just felt rude. My friends caught on. Leo fiddled with a lug nut from his tool belt. Jason and I gazed at the valley below—the roads backing up as mortals stopped their cars and gawked at the burning mountain. Gleeson chewed on the stub of his carnation, and for once the satyr didn’t look in the mood to yell or boast.

I tried to block out the rest of their conversation as I watched the Californian lands below us. I heard Piper try to relax her dad by telling him our stories together—her time at the Wilderness School with Leo and me, her cabin at Camp Half-Blood. She told him how Coach Hedge ate carnations and got knocked on his butt on Mount Diablo, how Leo had tamed a dragon, how I had taken out Thalassa (which I guess Leo did retell her the story), and how Jason had made wolves back down by talking in Latin. Each of us smiled reluctantly as she recounted our adventures.

As we passed over the hills into the East Bay, Jason tensed. He leaned so far out the doorway I was afraid he’d fall.

He pointed. “What is that?”

I looked down. A highway cut through a tunnel in the hills, connecting the East Bay with the inland towns. My stomach tossed around inside me. I pulled myself back inside and buried my head in my lap. “Fuck…”

“What?” Piper asked.

“That road,” Jason said. “The one that goes through the hills.” He looked over at me and his face fell.

Piper picked up the com helmet the pilot had given her and relayed the question over the radio.

“She says it’s Highway 24,” Piper reported. “That’s the Caldecott Tunnel. Why?”

Jason stared intently at the tunnel entrance, but he said nothing. It disappeared from view as we flew over downtown Oakland, but Jason still stared into the distance, his expression almost as unsettled as Piper’s dad’s.

Leo put his hand on my shoulder, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “That’s it, huh?”

“Dude, stop,” I said. “I don’t want to think about it.”

Leo frowned and pulled me into him, giving me a soft embrace. I leaned into his warmth. I don’t know why, but Leo’s kindness seemed to have a different effect on me.

I knew I liked Jason. It was stupid, but I couldn’t help it. He’d turned into the man I had fallen for long ago, the one who I pretended he was when I was younger. But Jason liked Piper, and she liked him. Who was I to deny my friend the romance she deserved? Jason was a good guy. I trusted him to take care of her.

But strangely, Leo was everything I had wanted Jason to be. I wanted Jason to have his kindness, his idiocy, his charm, even his warmth. Jason had lacked Leo’s best qualities when we were together, leading me to pretend he had what he didn’t.

Leo wasn’t heroic- not in the way Jason was. He was weak and flimsy. But Leo didn’t need to be big and tough. He was kind and sweet, and a hell of a good cook too. I liked it. I liked him. And as I realized that our quest was coming to an end, I realized that maybe Leo was going to stick by his words.

Maybe he really was going to ask me out.

I blushed pretty profusely. I hoped nobody noticed.

-

Air traffic control didn’t want to let an unscheduled helicopter land at the Oakland Airport—until Piper got on the radio. Then it turned out to be no problem.

We unloaded on the tarmac, and everyone looked at Piper.

“What now?” Jason asked her.

“First thing,” Piper said, some shakiness to her voice. “I—I have to get my dad home. I’m sorry, guys.”

Our faces fell.

“Oh,” Leo said. “I mean, absolutely. He needs you right now. We can take it from here.”

“Pipes, no.” Her dad had been sitting in the helicopter doorway, a blanket around his shoulders. But he stumbled to his feet. “You have a mission. A quest. I can’t—”

“I’ll take care of him,” said Coach Hedge.

I stared at him. The satyr was the last person I’d expected to offer. “You?” I asked.

“I’m a protector,” Gleeson said. “That’s my job, not fighting.”

He sounded a little crestfallen, and I realized maybe Piper shouldn’t have recounted how he got knocked unconscious in the last battle. In his own way, maybe the satyr was as sensitive as her dad.

Then Hedge straightened, and set his jaw. “Of course, I’m good at fighting, too.” He glared at us all, daring us to argue.

“Yes,” Jason said.

“Terrifying,” Leo agreed.

The coach grunted. “But I’m a protector, and I can do this. Your dad’s right, Piper. You need to carry on with the quest.”

“But …” Piper’s eyes watered. “Dad …”

He held out his arms, and she hugged him.

“Let’s give them a minute,” I said, and we took the pilot a few yards down the tarmac.

I glanced over my shoulder and watched my friend talk to her dad. They looked a little sad, then Piper pulled something from her pocket. It looked like a potion, which I had no idea how she got. Did Aphrodite give it to her? Whatever it was, Piper’s dad took it and drank the pink liquid. Then, he slumped over.

I gasped and ran toward them, Leo and Jason on my trail.

“Got him,” Hedge said. The satyr stumbled, but he was strong enough to hold Tristan McLean upright. “I already asked our ranger friend to call up his plane. It’s on the way now. Home address?”

Piper checked her dad’s pocket and pulled out his BlackBerry. It seemed bizarre that he’d still have something so normal after all he’d been through, but I guessed Enceladus hadn’t seen any reason to take it.

“Everything’s on here,” Piper said. “Address, his chauffeur’s number. Just watch out for Jane.”

Hedge’s eyes lit up, like he sensed a possible fight. “Who’s Jane?”

By the time Piper explained, her dad’s sleek white Gulf-stream had taxied next to the helicopter.

Hedge and the flight attendant got Piper’s dad on board. Then Hedge came down one last time to say his good-byes. He gave Piper a hug and glared at Jason and Leo. “You cupcakes take care of this girl, you hear? Or I’m gonna make you do push-ups.”

“You got it, Coach,” Leo said, a smile tugging at his mouth.

“No push-ups,” Jason promised.

Piper gave the old satyr one more hug. “Thank you, Gleeson. Take care of him, please.”

“I got this, McLean,” he assured her. “They got root beer and veggie enchiladas on this flight, and one hundred percent linen napkins—yum! I could get used to this.”

Trotting up the stairs, he lost one shoe, and his hoof was visible for just a second. The flight attendant’s eyes widened, but she looked away and pretended nothing was wrong. I figured she’d probably seen stranger things, working for Tristan McLean.

When the plane was heading down the runaway, Piper started to cry. She’d been holding it in too long and she just couldn’t anymore. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. She returned my embrace, crying into the crook of my neck. Jason rubbed her back, and Leo stood uncomfortably nearby, pulling Kleenex out of his tool belt.

“Your dad’s in good hands,” Jason said. “You did amazing.”

She sobbed into my vest. I held her for a few more counts until she seemed ready to pull away. I wiped her face dry and patted her hair down. Piper smiled at me and held my hand. It was about time we headed off. The helicopter pilot was already looking uncomfortable, like she was starting to wonder why she’d flown them here.

“Thank you, guys,” Piper said. “I—”

Piper struggled on her words, but we already understood. I gave her a silent nod, and she squeezed my hand.

Then, right next to Jason, the air began to shimmer. At first I thought it was heat off the tarmac, or maybe gas fumes from the helicopter, but I’d seen something like this before in Medea’s fountain. It was an Iris message. An image appeared in the air—a dark-haired girl in silver winter camouflage, holding a bow.

Jason stumbled back in surprise. “Thalia!”

“Thank the gods,” said the Hunter. The scene behind her was hard to make out, but I heard yelling, metal clashing on metal, and explosions.

“We’ve found her,” Thalia said. “Where are you?”

“Oakland,” he said. “Where are you?”

“The Wolf House! Oakland is good; you’re not too far. We’re holding off the giant’s minions, but we can’t hold them forever. Get here before sunset, or it’s all over.”

“Then it’s not too late?” I cried. Hope surged through me, but Thalia’s expression quickly dampened it.

“Not yet,” Thalia said. “But Jason—it’s worse than I realized. Porphyrion is rising. Hurry.”

“But where is the Wolf House?” he pleaded.

“Our last trip,” Thalia said, her image starting to flicker. “The park. Jack London. Remember?”

Jason looked like he’d been shot. He tottered, his face pale, and the Iris message disappeared.

“Bro, you all right?” Leo asked. “You know where she is?”

“Yes,” Jason said. “Sonoma Valley. Not far. Not by air.”

Piper turned to the ranger pilot, who’d been watching all this with an increasingly puzzled expression.

“Ma’am,” Piper said with her best smile. “You don’t mind helping us one more time, do you?”

“I don’t mind,” the pilot agreed.

“We can’t take a mortal into battle,” Jason said. “It’s too dangerous.” He turned to Leo. “Do you think you could fly this thing?”

“Um …” Leo’s expression didn’t exactly reassure me. But then he put his hand on the side of the helicopter, concentrating hard, as if listening to the machine.

“Bell 412HP utility helicopter,” Leo said. “Composite four-blade main rotor, cruising speed twenty-two knots, service ceiling twenty-thousand feet. The tank is near full. Sure, I can fly it.”

Piper smiled at the ranger again. “You don’t have a problem with an under-aged unlicensed kid borrowing your copter, do you? We’ll return it.”

“I—” The pilot nearly choked on the words, but she got them out: “I don’t have a problem with that.”

Leo grinned. “Hop in, kids. Uncle Leo’s gonna take you for a ride.”

Chapter Text

Fly a helicopter? Sure, why not. Leo had done plenty of crazier things that week.

The sun was going down as we flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and I couldn’t believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.

Piloting the chopper, Leo went back and forth between confidence and panic. If he didn’t think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing back on the stick, and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started freaking out. He’d start to hyperventilate, and the chopper would tilt about.

“Going okay?” I asked from the copilot’s seat.

“Aces,” Leo said, putting on a brave face. “So what’s the Wolf House?”

“Uh,” I said. “I’m not answering that.”

Jason and Piper knelt between our seats. “An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it—Jack London.”

Leo squinted. “He an actor?”

“Writer,” Piper said. “Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “He was a son of Mercury—I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion—the Wolf House.”

“Named that ’cause he wrote about wolves?” Leo guessed.

“Partially,” Jason said. “But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves—he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There’re a lot of holes in his life story—how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much—stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod.”

The bay slipped behind us, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of us, yellow hills rolled out as far as I could see.

“So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood,” Leo guessed.

“No,” Jason said. “No, he didn’t.”

“Bro, you’re freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?”

“Pieces,” Jason said. “Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It’s where London started his journey as a child—where he found out he was a demigod. That’s why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn’t meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site.”

“So,” Piper said, “how do you know all this?”

A shadow crossed Jason’s face. Probably just a cloud, but I could swear the shape looked like an eagle.

“We started our journey there, too,” Jason said, looking over at me. “It’s a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion—that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully.”

Leo kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed—racing toward the north. I could see some weather ahead—a spot of darkness like a cloudbank or a storm, right where we were going.

“Thirty minutes out,” Leo told us, though I wasn’t sure how he knew. “If you want to get some rest, now’s a good time.”

Jason and Piper strapped into the back of the helicopter and passed out almost immediately. Leo and I stayed wide-awake.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Leo said, “You knew where the Wolf House was this whole time?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I just… don’t want to go back. I couldn’t just tell Jason because he’d be too confused.”

Leo nodded. “He’s starting to remember. That’s got to make him a little edgy.”

“But what if … what if he’s a different person? The one I used to know?” I asked.

Leo looked a little worried. I could tell the thought was bugging him too. I wondered if he could sense my growing anxiety. I didn’t normally act this shut down. The closer we got to my past, the more I wanted to freak out. Even this morning with the dream… I still couldn’t get my stomach to settle.

“Nah,” Leo decided after a few seconds. “After all we’ve been through? I can’t see it. We’re a team. Jason can handle it.”

I smoothed my black pants, which were tattered and burned from our fight on Mount Diablo. “I hope you’re right. I need him …” I cleared my throat. “I mean I need to trust him…”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Leo said. “Water Girl, you’re the strongest, most powerful girl I’ve ever met. You can trust yourself. For what it’s worth, you can trust me too.”

The helicopter dipped in a wind shear, and Leo almost jumped out of his skin. He cursed and righted the chopper.

I laughed nervously. “Trust you, huh?”

“Ah, shut up, already.” But he grinned at me, and for a second, it felt like we were just relaxing comfortably as friends.

I shifted in my seat. “And how are you doing?”

Leo sighed, keeping his eyes straight ahead. “Piper’s dad had called me a hero earlier. And I couldn’t believe some of the things I’ve done. I mean, smacking around Cyclopes, disarming exploding doorbells, battling six-armed ogres with construction equipment. It seems like it happened to another person. I’m just Leo Valdez, an orphaned kid from Houston. I’ve spent my whole life running away, and part of me still wants to run. What am I thinking, flying toward a cursed mansion to fight more evil monsters?”

I nodded. “I run, too. Hell, why do you think I’m so afraid of all this? I’ve never been more scared of going back. Even if I’m okay being back here… are you guys? I’m so scared to lose you, too.”

Leo looked at me suspiciously, then his gaze softened. He understood what I meant. “Seeing Piper and her dad back together really drives it home, huh? We don’t… we don’t have anyone else to go back to. Even if we survive this quest and save Hera, we won’t have any happy reunions. We won’t be going back to a loving family. I won’t see my mom.”

We stared ahead at the approaching storm, the two of us seeming to realize that we really had nothing but each other.

I sniffled and sighed. “Well maybe we don’t have any family to reunite with, but that’s okay. You’ve got some half-sibs at camp and I’ve got a long lost brother to find.”

Leo chuckled, flipping a switch on the controls. “Are you even ready for that?”

“No,” I admitted. “Not one bit.”

“Oh, but you’d be a perfect sister,” Leo teased. “You’re strong, funny, kind-”

“And I’m a crazy fish girl soldier,” I said. “Miss that part?”

Leo waved his hand in front of him. “That was then, this is now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, you’ve changed a lot. We all have.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah!” Leo sat forward a bit and tilted his head back. “See Pipes for instance. Her presence is stronger. She seems more … here. At Wilderness School she’d spent the semester trying not to be seen, hiding out in the back row of the classroom, the back of the bus, the corner of the lunchroom as far as possible from the loud kids and instead chose to be around us. Now she's impossible to miss. It don’t matter what she's wearing —you have to look at her. She’s confident and powerful. It’s crazy how much has changed in three days.”

“And me?” I asked.

Leo shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it. You’ve just changed. You went from this big tough brute kid to someone I feel like I actually know. I mean, we were all close before, but now it feels like I know you. I know where you came from, what you’ve been through, why you are the way you are. But… you just seem calmer?”

“Calmer?” I asked. “Dude, my heart is beating faster than hummingbird wings.”

“No,” Leo laughed. “I mean, you’re not so angry or quick to violence.”

“Well, because it would actually kill us.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “Can you just accept that we’ve all changed through the power of friendship.”

I laughed. “Even Jason?”

“You know he’s different, too! Why do you think you can actually stand him now?”

I felt myself blush a bit. “Yeah, I guess so. And you?”

“I dunno,” Leo said. “I feel the same.”

“Nah,” I said. “You actually fight your own battles now.”

“Shut up!” Leo laughed.

I smiled. It was the first time I felt a genuine ease this whole trip. Leo looked over at me, flashing his tooth gap and perfect dimples. In his eyes, I saw a spark of light, almost the same I saw in Jason’s eyes. Except with Leo, I didn’t just see confidence and heroism. I saw warmth. Genuine warmth and happiness.

For a moment, it felt like it was just us. Like Leo and I were together and nobody was around, and that there was no stupid quest or threat against our lives. It felt like Leo and I were just regular people, talking together and falling in love.

So maybe that’s why my heart cast aside Jason and chose Leo at that exact moment.

I exhaled. Before I could say anything, the storm finally hit us.

At first, I thought rocks were pelting the windshield. Then I realized it was sleet. Frost built up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blotted out our view.

“An ice storm?” I shouted over the engine and the wind. “Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?”

I wasn’t sure, but something about this storm seemed conscious, malevolent—like it was intentionally slamming us. My stomach tossed.

“No way it’s her,” I said.

Jason and Piper woke up quickly. they crawled forward, grabbing our seats for balance. “We’ve got to be getting close,” Jason said.

Leo was too busy wrestling with the stick to reply. Suddenly it wasn’t so easy to drive the chopper. Its movements turned sluggish and jerky. The whole machine shuddered in the icy wind. The helicopter probably hadn’t been prepped for cold-weather flying. The controls refused to respond, and we started to lose altitude.

Below us, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill loomed in front of us and Leo yanked the stick, just clearing the treetops.

“There!” I shouted.

A small valley opened up before us, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around us were flashes of light that reminded me of the tracer fire at Midas’s compound. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist. Combat seemed to be everywhere.

Leo set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and killed the engine. I was about to relax when I heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurtling toward us out of the mist.

“Out!” Leo screamed.

We leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking me off my feet and splattering ice all over me.

I got up shakily and saw that the world’s largest snowball—a chunk of snow, ice, and dirt the size of a garage—had completely flattened the Bell 412.

“You all right?” Jason ran up to me, Piper and Leo at his side. They looked fine except for being speckled with snow and mud.

“Yeah.” I shivered, rubbing my exposed arms for warmth. “Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter.”

Piper pointed south. “Fighting’s over there.” Then she frowned. “No … it’s all around us.”

She was right. The sounds of combat rang across the valley. The snow and mist made it hard to tell for sure, but there seemed to be a circle of fighting all around the Wolf House.

Behind us loomed Jack London’s dream home—a massive ruin of red and gray stones and rough-hewn timber beams. I could imagine how it had looked before it burned down—a combination log cabin and castle, like a billionaire lumberjack might build. But in the mist and sleet, the place had a lonely, haunted feel. I tried to suppress my nerves.

“Jason!” a girl’s voice called.

Thalia appeared from the fog, her parka caked with snow. Her bow was in her hand, and her quiver was almost empty. She ran toward us, but made it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre—one of the Earthborn—burst out of the storm behind her, a raised club in each hand.

“Look out!” Leo yelled. We rushed to help, but Thalia had it under control. She launched herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivoted like a gymnast and landed in a kneeling position. The ogre got a silver arrow right between the eyes and melted into a pile of clay.

Thalia stood and retrieved her arrow, but the point had snapped off. “That was my last one.” She kicked the pile of clay resentfully. “Stupid ogre.”

“Nice shot, though,” Leo said.

Thalia ignored him as usual. She hugged Jason and nodded to Piper and me. “Just in time. My Hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we’ll be overrun any minute.”

“By Earthborn?” Jason asked.

“And wolves—Lycaon’s minions.” Thalia blew a fleck of ice off her nose. “Also storm spirits—”

“But we gave them to Aeolus!” I protested.

“Who tried to kill us,” Leo reminded me. “Maybe he’s helping Gaea again.”

“I don’t know,” Thalia said. “But the monsters keep re-forming almost as fast as we can kill them. We took the Wolf House with no problem: surprised the guards and sent them straight to Tartarus. But then this freak snowstorm blew in. Wave after wave of monsters started attacking. Now we’re surrounded. I don’t know who or what is leading the assault, but I think they planned this. It was a trap to kill anyone who tried to rescue Hera.”

“Where is she?” Jason asked.

“Inside,” Thalia said. “We tried to free her, but we can’t figure out how to break the cage. It’s only a few minutes until the sun goes down. Hera thinks that’s the moment when Porphyrion will be reborn. Plus, most monsters are stronger at night. If we don’t free Hera soon—”

She didn’t need to finish the thought.

Leo, Jason, Piper, and I followed her into the ruined mansion.

Jason stepped over the threshold and immediately collapsed.

“Hey!” Leo caught him. “None of that, man. What’s wrong?”

“This place …” Jason shook his head. “Sorry … It came rushing back to me.”

“So you have been here,” Piper said.

“We both have,” Thalia said. Her expression was grim, like she was reliving someone’s death. “This is where my mom took us when Jason was a child. She left him here, told me he was dead. He just disappeared.”

“She gave me to the wolves,” Jason murmured. “At Hera’s insistence. She gave me to Lupa.”

“That part I didn’t know.” Thalia frowned. “Who is Lupa?”

My heart started to pound out of my chest, but I couldn’t say anything. I’d never been more afraid in my life.

An explosion shook the building. Just outside, a blue mushroom cloud billowed up, raining snowflakes and ice like a nuclear blast made of cold instead of heat.

“Maybe this isn’t the time for questions,” Leo suggested. “Show us the goddess.”

Once inside, Jason seemed to get his bearings. The house was built in a giant U, and Jason led us between the two wings to an outside courtyard with an empty reflecting pool. At the bottom, just as Jason had described from his dream, two spires of rock and root tendrils had cracked through the foundation.

One of the spires was much bigger—a solid dark mass about twenty feet high, and to me it looked like a stone body bag. Underneath the mass of fused tendrils I could make out the shape of a head, wide shoulders, a massive chest and arms, like the creature was stuck waist deep in the earth. No, not stuck—rising.

On the opposite end of the pool, the other spire was smaller and more loosely woven. Each tendril was as thick as a telephone pole, with so little space between them that I doubted I could’ve gotten my arm through. Still, I could see inside. And in the center of the cage stood the goddess Hera.

She didn’t glow or radiate any sort of power. She looked like a regular mortal woman, Leo’s good old psychotic babysitter.

Leo dropped into the pool and approached the cage. “Hola, Tía. Little bit of trouble?”

She crossed her arms and sighed in exasperation. “Don’t inspect me like I’m one of your machines, Leo Valdez. Get me out of here!”

Thalia stepped next to him and looked at the cage with distaste—or maybe she was looking at the goddess. “We tried everything we could think of, Leo, but maybe my heart wasn’t in it. If it was up to me, I’d just leave her in there.”

“Ohh, Thalia Grace,” the goddess said. “When I get out of here, you’ll be sorry you were ever born.”

“Save it!” Thalia snapped. “You’ve been nothing but a curse to every child of Zeus for ages. You sent a bunch of intestinally challenged cows after my friend Annabeth—”

“She was disrespectful!”

“You dropped a statue on my legs.”

“It was an accident!”

“And you took my brother!” Thalia’s voice cracked with emotion. “Here—on this spot. You ruined our lives. We should leave you to Gaea!”

“Hey,” Jason intervened. “Thalia—Sis—I know. But this isn’t the time. You should help your Hunters.”

Thalia clenched her jaw. “Fine. For you, Jason. But if you ask me, she isn’t worth it.”

Thalia turned, leaped out of the pool, and stormed from the building.

I turned to Hera with grudging respect. “Intestinally challenged cows?”

“Focus on the cage, girl,” she grumbled. “And Jason—you are wiser than your sister. I chose my champion well.”

“I’m not your champion, lady,” Jason said. “I’m only helping you because you stole my memories and you’re better than the alternative. Speaking of which, what’s going on with that?”

He nodded to the other spire that looked like the king-size granite body bag. Was I imagining it, or had it grown taller since we’d gotten there?

“That, Jason,” Hera said, “is the king of the giants being reborn.”

“Gross,” Piper said.

“Indeed,” Hera said. “Porphyrion, the strongest of his kind. Gaea needed a great deal of power to raise him again —my power. For weeks I’ve grown weaker as my essence was used to grow him a new form.”

“So you’re like a heat lamp,” Leo guessed. “Or fertilizer.”

The goddess glared at him, but Leo didn’t care. This old lady had been making his life miserable since he was a baby. He totally had rights to rag on her.

“Joke all you wish,” Hera said in a clipped tone. “But at sundown, it will be too late. The giant will awake. He will offer me a choice: marry him, or be consumed by the earth. And I cannot marry him. We will all be destroyed. And as we die, Gaea will awaken.”

I frowned at the giant’s spire. “Can’t we blow it up or something?”

“Without me, you do not have the power,” Hera said. “You might as well try to destroy a mountain.”

“Done that once today,” I said.

“Just hurry up and let me out!” Hera demanded.

Jason scratched his head. “Leo, can you do it?”

“I don’t know.” Leo tried not to panic. “Besides, if she’s a goddess, why hasn’t she busted herself out?”

Hera paced furiously around her cage, cursing in Ancient Greek. “Use your brain, Leo Valdez. I picked you because you’re intelligent. Once trapped, a god’s power is useless. Your own father trapped me once in a golden chair. It was humiliating! I had to beg—beg him for my freedom and apologize for throwing him off Olympus.”

“Sounds fair,” Leo said.

Hera gave him the godly stink-eye. “I’ve watched you since you were a child, son of Hephaestus, because I knew you could aid me at this moment. If anyone can find a way to destroy this abomination, it is you.”

“But it’s not a machine. It’s like Gaea thrust her hand out of the ground and …” Leo staggered. “Hold on. I do have an idea. Piper, I’m going to need your help. And we’re going to need time.”

The air turned brittle with cold. The temperature dropped so fast, my lips cracked and my breath changed to mist. Frost coated the walls of the Wolf House. Venti rushed in —but instead of winged men, these were shaped like horses, with dark storm-cloud bodies and manes that crackled with lightning. Some had silver arrows sticking out of their flanks. Behind them came red-eyed wolves and the six-armed Earthborn.

I grabbed my pen and summoned my trident. Piper drew her dagger. Jason grabbed an ice-covered plank off the pool floor. Leo reached into his tool belt, but he was so shaken up, all he produced was a tin of breath mints. He shoved them back in, and drew a hammer instead.

One of the wolves padded forward. It was dragging a human-size statue by the leg. At the edge of the pool, the wolf opened its maw and dropped the statue for us to see—an ice sculpture of a girl, an archer with short spiky hair and a surprised look on her face.

“Thalia!” Jason rushed forward, but I pulled him back. The ground around Thalia’s statue was already webbed with ice. I feared if Jason touched her, he might freeze too.

“Who did this?” Jason yelled. His body crackled with electricity. “I’ll kill you myself!”

From somewhere behind the monsters, I heard a girl’s laughter, clear and cold. She stepped out of the mist in her snowy white dress, a silver crown atop her long black hair. She regarded us with those deep brown eyes Leo had thought were so beautiful in Quebec.

“Bon soir, mes amis,” said Khione, the goddess of snow. She gave Leo a frosty smile. “Alas, son of Hephaestus, you say you need time? I’m afraid time is one tool you do not have.”

After the fight on Mount Diablo, I didn’t think I could ever feel more afraid or devastated.

Now Thalia was frozen at our feet. We were surrounded by monsters. Jason had broken his golden sword and replaced it with a piece of wood. We had approximately five minutes until the king of the giants busted out and destroyed us. Jason had already pulled his biggest ace, calling down Zeus’s lightning when he’d fought Enceladus, and I doubted he’d have the strength or the cooperation from above to do it again. Which meant our only assets were one whiny imprisoned goddess, one chick with a dagger, and Leo, who apparently thought he could defeat the armies of darkness with breath mints.

On top of all this, my worst memories were flooding back. I knew for certain I’d done many dangerous things in his life, but I’d never been closer to death than I was then.

The enemy was beautiful. Khione smiled, her dark eyes glittering, as a dagger of ice grew in her hand.

“What’ve you done?” I demanded, the snow melting at my feet.

“Oh, so many things,” the snow goddess purred. “The girl’s not dead, if that’s what you mean. She and her Hunters will make fine toys for our wolves. I thought we’d defrost them one at a time and hunt them down for amusement. Let them be the prey for once.”

The wolves snarled appreciatively.

“Yes, my dears.” Khione kept her eyes on Jason. “Your sister almost killed their king, you know. Lycaon’s off in a cave somewhere, no doubt licking his wounds, but his minions have joined us to take revenge for their master. And soon Porphyrion will arise, and we shall rule the world.”

“Traitor!” Hera shouted. “You meddlesome, D-list goddess! You aren’t worthy to pour my wine, much less rule the world.”

Khione sighed. “Tiresome as ever, Queen Hera. I’ve been wanting to shut you up for millennia.”

Khione waved her hand, and ice encased the prison, sealing in the spaces between the earthen tendrils.

“That’s better,” the snow goddess said. “Now, demigods, about your death—”

“You’re the one who tricked Hera into coming here,” Jason said. “You gave Zeus the idea of closing Olympus.”

The wolves snarled, and the storm spirits whinnied, ready to attack, but Khione held up her hand. “Patience, my loves. If he wants to talk, what matter? The sun is setting, and time is on our side. Of course, Jason Grace. Like snow, my voice is quiet and gentle, and very cold. It’s easy for me to whisper to the other gods, especially when I am only confirming their own deepest fears. I also whispered in Aeolus’s ear that he should issue an order to kill demigods. It is a small service for Gaea, but I’m sure I will be well rewarded when her sons the giants come to power.”

“You could’ve killed us in Quebec,” Jason said. “Why let us live?”

Khione wrinkled her nose. “Messy business, killing you in my father’s house, especially when he insists on meeting all visitors. I did try, you remember. It would’ve been lovely if he’d agreed to turn you to ice. But once he’d given you guarantee of safe passage, I couldn’t openly disobey him. My father is an old fool. He lives in fear of Zeus and Aeolus, but he’s still powerful. Soon enough, when my new masters have awakened, I will depose Boreas and take the throne of the North Wind, but not just yet. Besides, my father did have a point. Your quest was suicidal. I fully expected you to fail.”

“And to help us with that,” Leo said, “you knocked our dragon out of the sky over Detroit. Those frozen wires in his head—that was your fault. You’re gonna pay for that.”

“You’re also the one who kept Enceladus informed about us,” Piper added. “We’ve been plagued by snowstorms the whole trip.”

“Yes, I feel so close to all of you now!” Khione said. “Once you made it past Omaha, I decided to ask Lycaon to track you down so Jason could die here, at the Wolf House.” Khione smiled at him. “You see, Jason, your blood spilled on this sacred ground will taint it for generations. Your demigod brethren will be outraged, especially when they find the bodies of these two from Camp Half-Blood. They’ll believe the Greeks have conspired with giants. It will be … delicious.”

Piper and Leo didn’t seem to understand what she was saying. But Jason and I knew. My memories were returning enough for me to realize how dangerously effective Khione’s plan could be.

“You’ll set demigods against demigods,” I said.

“It’s so easy!” said Khione. “As I told you, I only encourage what you would do anyway.”

“But why?” Piper spread her hands. “Khione, you’ll tear the world apart. The giants will destroy everything. You don’t want that. Call off your monsters.”

Khione hesitated, then laughed. “Your persuasive powers are improving, girl. But I am a goddess. You can’t charm-speak me. We wind gods are creatures of chaos! I’ll overthrow Aeolus and let the storms run free. If we destroy the mortal world, all the better! They never honored me, even in Greek times. Humans and their talk of global warming. Pah! I’ll cool them down quickly enough. When we retake the ancient places, I will cover the Acropolis in snow.”

“The ancient places.” Leo’s eyes widened. “That’s what Enceladus meant about destroy the roots of the gods. He meant Greece.”

“You could join me, son of Hephaestus,” Khione said. “I know you find me beautiful. It would be enough for my plan if these other three were to die. Reject that ridiculous destiny the Fates have given you. Live and be my champion, instead. Your skills would be quite useful.”

Leo looked stunned. He glanced behind him, like Khione might be talking to somebody else. For a second I was worried. I figured Leo didn’t have beautiful goddesses make him offers like this every day.

Then Leo laughed so hard, he doubled over. “Yeah, join you. Right. Until you get bored of me and turn me into a Leosicle? Lady, nobody messes with my dragon and gets away with it. I can’t believe I thought you were hot.”

Khione’s face turned red. “Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold.”

She shot a blast of wintry sleet at us, but Leo held up his hand. A wall of fire roared to life in front of us, and the snow dissolved in a steamy cloud.

Leo grinned. “See, lady, that’s what happens to snow in Texas. It—fucking—melts.”

Khione hissed. “Enough of this. Hera is failing. Porphyrion is rising. Kill the demigods. Let them be our king’s first meal!”

I lifted my trident. Jason hefted his icy wooden plank—a stupid weapon to die fighting with—and the monsters charged.

A wolf launched itself at me. I stepped back and swung my trident into the beast’s snout with a satisfying crack. Maybe only silver could kill it, but a good old-fashioned smack could still give it a Tylenol headache.

Another wolf came up on me and grabbed my weapon in its jaws, ripping my trident from my hands. I sneered and crouched low to the ground. As the wolf charged again, I melted the snow around me and threw a punch, using the water to follow my hand. I hit the wolf in its face then grabbed its jaw and pinned it to the ground. The water froze right before it hit the beast and cut into its neck, keeping it wounded on the floor.
I summoned my trident and charged into battle, swinging my weapon, knocking aside wolves and plunging straight through venti. I could feel energy pulsing through my body. I didn’t even have to concentrate to melt and attack with the snow. I felt like a waterbender as I stabbed with my weapon and beheaded with a water guillotine.

Through the chaos, I caught glimpses of my friends. Jason was riding around on a stallion venti, Piper was surrounded by Earthborn but she seemed to be holding her own. She was so impressive-looking as she fought, almost glowing with beauty, that the Earthborn stared at her in awe, forgetting that they were supposed to kill her. They’d lower their clubs and watch dumbfounded as she smiled and charged them. They’d smile back—until she sliced them apart with her dagger, and they melted into mounds of mud.

Leo had taken on Khione herself. While fighting a goddess should’ve been suicide, Leo was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he’d been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.

I realized that Leo was the only reason we were still alive. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, countering Khione’s winter magic. Without him, we would’ve been frozen like the Hunters long ago. Wherever Leo went, ice melted off the stones. Even Thalia started to defrost a little when Leo stepped near her.

Khione slowly backed away. Her expression went from enraged to shocked to slightly panicked as Leo got closer.

I was running out of enemies. Wolves lay in dazed heaps. Some slunk away into the ruins, yelping from their wounds. Piper stabbed the last Earthborn, who toppled to the ground in a pile of sludge. Jason rode a storm spirit through the last ventus, breaking it into vapor. I stabbed my trident through two monsters and wheeled around to see Leo bearing down on the goddess of snow.

“You’re too late,” Khione snarled. “He’s awake! And don’t think you’ve won anything here, demigods. Hera’s plan will never work. You’ll be at each other’s throats before you can ever stop us.”

Leo set his hammers ablaze and threw them at the goddess, but she turned into snow—a white powdery image of herself. Leo’s hammers slammed into the snow woman, breaking it into a steaming mound of mush.

Piper was breathing hard, but she smiled up at Jason. “Nice horse.”

The spirit reared on his hind legs, arcing electricity across his hooves. A complete show-off.

Then I heard a cracking sound behind me. The melting ice on Hera’s cage sloughed off in a curtain of slush, and the goddess called, “Oh, don’t mind me! Just the queen of the heavens, dying over here!”

Jason dismounted and told his horse- Tempest, he called it- to stay put. The four of us demigods jumped into the pool and ran to the spire.

Leo frowned. “Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?”

“No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry!”

As much as I disliked Hera, what I saw inside the cage alarmed me. Not only was Hera sinking, the ground was rising around her like water in a tank. Liquid rock had already covered her shins. “The giant wakes!” Hera warned. “You only have seconds!”

“On it,” Leo said. “Piper, I need your help. Talk to the cage.”

“What?” she said.

“Talk to it. Use everything you’ve got. Convince Gaea to sleep. Lull her into a daze. Just slow her down, try to get the tendrils to loosen while I—”

“Right!” Piper cleared her throat and said, “Hey, Gaea. Nice night, huh? Boy, I’m tired. How about you? Ready for some sleep?”

The more she talked, the more confident she sounded. I felt my own eyes getting heavy, and I had to force myself not to focus on her words. It seemed to have some effect on the cage. The mud was rising more slowly. The tendrils seemed to soften just a little—becoming more like tree root than rock. Leo pulled a circular saw out of his tool belt. How it fit in there, I had no idea. Then Leo looked at the cord and grunted in frustration. “I don’t have anywhere to plug it in!”

The spirit horse Tempest jumped into the pit and whinnied.

“Really?” Jason asked.

Tempest dipped his head and trotted over to Leo. Leo looked dubious, but he held up the plug, and a breeze whisked it into the horse’s flank. Lighting sparked, connecting with the prongs of the plug, and the circular saw whirred to life.

“Sweet!” Leo grinned. “Your horse comes with AC outlets!”

Our good mood didn’t last long. On the other side of the pool, the giant’s spire crumbled with a sound like a tree snapping in half. Its outer sheath of tendrils exploded from the top down, raining stone and wood shards as the giant shook himself free and climbed out of the earth.

I hadn’t thought anything could be scarier than Enceladus.

I was wrong.

Porphyrion was even taller, and even more ripped. He didn’t radiate heat, or show any signs of breathing fire, but there was something more terrible about him—a kind of strength, even magnetism, as if the giant were so huge and dense he had his own gravitational field.

Like Enceladus, the giant king was humanoid from the waist up, clad in bronze armor, and from the waist down he had scaly dragon’s legs; but his skin was the color of lima beans. His hair was green as summer leaves, braided in long locks and decorated with weapons—daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of them bent and bloody—maybe trophies taken from demigods eons before. When the giant opened his eyes, they were blank white, like polished marble. He took a deep breath.

“Alive!” he bellowed. “Praise to Gaea!”

I made a heroic little whimpering sound I hoped my friends couldn’t hear. I was very sure no demigod could solo this guy. Sure, I’d taken down the sea, but that was different. Porphyrion could lift mountains. He could crush me with one finger.

“Leo,” I said.

“Huh?” Leo’s mouth was wide open. Even Piper seemed dazed.

“You guys keep working,” Jason said. “Get Hera free!”

“What are you going to do?” Piper asked. “You can’t seriously—”

“Entertain a giant?” I said. “We’ve got no choice.”

“Excellent!” the giant roared as Jason and I approached. “An appetizer! Who are you two—Hermes? Ares?”

I thought about going with that idea, but something told me not to.

I introduced myself like normal. “I’m the daughter of Neptune.”

“I’m Jason Grace,” he said. “Son of Jupiter.”

Those white eyes bored into me. Behind us, Leo’s circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. “Outstanding!” He looked up at the cloudy night sky. “So, Zeus, Poseidon, you sacrifice a child to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you.”

The sky didn’t even rumble. No help from above. We were on our own.

Jason dropped his makeshift club. His hands were covered in splinters. We had to buy Leo and Piper some time, and he couldn’t do that without a proper weapon. I looked from him to the weapon’s in Porphyrion’s hair, my gut sinking. There was no way that was Jason's idea.

It was time to act a whole lot more confident than we felt.

“If you knew who I was,” Jason yelled up at the giant, “you’d be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I’m going to send you right back to Tartarus.”

The giant’s eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. “So … we’ll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tartarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus’s queen.” He grinned at the goddess’s cage. “Hello, Hera.”

“My husband destroyed you once, monster!” Hera said. “He’ll do it again!”

“But he didn’t, my dear! Zeus wasn’t powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth—and we will destroy you at the roots.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Hera said, but she was weakening. I could hear it in her voice. Piper kept whispering to the cage, and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera’s prison, covering her up to her waist.

“Oh, yes,” the giant said. “The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned.”

The giant frowned at Piper and Leo, as if he’d just noticed them working at the cage. I stepped forward and yelled to get back Porphyrion’s attention.

“You said a demigod killed you,” I shouted. “How, if we’re so puny?”

“Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus’s replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, child, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!”

He rose to his full height and held out his hand. A twenty-foot spear shot from the earth. He grasped it, then stomped the ground with his dragon’s feet. The ruins shook. All around the courtyard, monsters started to regather—storm spirits, wolves, and Earthborn, all answering the giant king’s call.

“Great,” Leo muttered. “We needed more enemies.”

“Hurry,” Hera said.

“I know!” Leo snapped.

“Go to sleep, cage,” Piper said. “Nice, sleepy cage. Yes, I’m talking to a bunch of earthen tendrils. This isn’t weird at all.”

Porphyrion raked his spear across the top of the ruins, destroying a chimney and spraying wood and stone across the courtyard. “So, children of the gods! I have finished my boasting. Now it’s your turn. What were you saying about destroying me?”

I looked at the ring of monsters, waiting impatiently for their master’s order to tear us to shreds. Leo’s circular saw kept whirring, and Piper kept talking, but it seemed hopeless. Hera’s cage was almost completely filled with earth. I looked back to Jason as he took a deep breath

“I’m the son of Jupiter!” he shouted, and just for effect, he summoned the winds, rising a few feet off the ground. “I’m a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion.” Jason recited his lines I’d heard many times before. He held out his arms, showing the tattoo of the eagle and SPQR, and the giant seemed to recognize it.

For a moment, Porphyrion actually looked uneasy.

“I slew the Trojan sea monster,” Jason continued. “I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands.”

Porphyrion snarled, then pointed at me. “The girl’s turn, now.”

I let the raging waves inside me take over. I had no other choice.

“I am the daughter of the sea god!” I shouted, brandishing my golden trident- Megacyma, or Tsunami. I never liked to acknowledge her name, but in this moment it was fitting. “The only living mortal daughter of the sea. I destroyed the spirit of the ocean, Thalassa, with my bare hands! And now I’m going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves!”

“Wow, dude,” Leo muttered. “You been eating red meat?”

Jason and I launched at the giant, determined to tear him apart.

The idea of fighting a forty-foot-tall immortal bare handed was so ridiculous, even the giant seemed surprised. Half flying, half leaping, Jason landed on the giant’s scaly reptilian knee and climbed up the giant’s arm before Porphyrion even realized what had happened. Meanwhile, I kept Big Ugly distracted by stabbing his shins.

“You dare?” the giant bellowed.

Jason reached his shoulders and ripped a sword out of the giant’s weapon-filled braids. He yelled, “For Rome!” and drove the sword into the nearest convenient target—the giant’s massive ear.

Lightning streaked out of the sky and blasted the sword, throwing Jason free. He rolled when he hit the ground. When I looked up, the giant was staggering. His hair was on fire, and the side of his face was blackened from lightning. The sword had splintered in his ear. Golden ichor ran down his jaw. The other weapons were sparking and smoldering in his braids.

I took the initiative and stabbed my trident into the ground, reaching my hand out and feeling that familiar tug in my gut. I used the giant’s blood to drag him down.

Porphyrion almost fell. The circle of monsters let out a collective growl and moved forward—wolves and ogres fixing their eyes on Jason and me.

“No!” Porphyrion yelled so loud, I flinched and unfocused on his blood. He regained his balance and glared at us. “I will kill them myself.”

The giant raised his spear and it began to glow. “You want to play with lightning, boy? You forget. I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you.” Then his eyes locked with mine, and he smiled. “You aren’t even a fly to me.”

Something in Porphyrion’s voice told me he wasn’t bluffing.

My friends and I had a good run. The four of us had done amazing things. Yeah, even heroic things. But as the giant raised his spear, I knew there was no way we could deflect this strike.

This was the end.

“Got it!” Leo yelled.

“Sleep!” Piper said, so forcefully, the nearest wolves fell to the ground and began snoring.

The stone and wood cage crumbled. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage’s connection to Gaea. The tendrils turned to dust. The mud around Hera disintegrated. The goddess grew in size, glowing with power.

“Yes!” the goddess said. She threw off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewelry. Her face was both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glowed in her long black hair. “Now I shall have my revenge!”

The giant Porphyrion backed away. He said nothing, but he gave Jason and me one last look of hatred. His message was clear: Another time. Then he slammed his spear against the earth, and the giant disappeared into the ground like he’d dropped down a chute.

Around the courtyard, monsters began to panic and retreat, but there was no escape for them.

Hera glowed brighter. She shouted, “Cover your eyes, my heroes!”

I wanted to turn, but I was still in fight mode. For some reason, I just wouldn’t listen to anyone.

I watched as Hera turned into a supernova, exploding in a ring of force that vaporized every monster instantly. I fell, light searing into my mind, and my last thought was that my body was burning.

I knew I was dead, but I was nowhere near the ferry of the Underworld. I saw nothing but blinding light all around me.

I heard something hiss behind me. I wanted to turn, but my body wasn’t with me. Then I heard a sound like twigs snapping, and I realized it was the sound of popping joints. Very large joints. A figure taller than the tree tops with a hole in it’s chest and clay on its hands came into my vison. He kneeled on his left knee, and his joints cracked again. His face went straight into mine, and in his dark, soulless eyes I saw a spark of fire.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the voice that came out was different. He said my name in Piper’s voice, then pleaded, “Wake up.”

I gasped, and my eyes flew open. Leo later told me that for a moment they were full of light—glowing pure gold. Then the light faded and my eyes were normal again. “What—what happened?”

“Impossible!” Hera said.

Piper wrapped me in a hug until I groaned, “Crushing me.”

“Sorry,” she said, so relieved, she laughed while wiping a tear from her eye.

Jason gripped my hand. “How do you feel?”

“Hot,” I muttered. “Mouth is dry. And I saw something… really terrible.”

“That was Hera,” Thalia grumbled, now unfrozen. “Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon.”

“That’s it, Thalia Grace,” said the goddess. “I will turn you into an aardvark, so help me—”

“Stop it, you two,” Piper said. Amazingly, they both shut up.

Piper helped me to my feet and gave me the last nectar from our supplies. Leo squished himself between Jason and I, then wrapped me in another tight hug. I returned the embrace and exhaled shakily.

“Now …” Piper faced Thalia and Hera. “Hera—Your Majesty—we couldn’t have rescued you without the Hunters. And Thalia, you never would’ve seen Jason again—I wouldn’t have met him—if it weren’t for Hera. You two make nice, because we’ve got bigger problems.”

They both glared at her, and for three long seconds, I wasn’t sure which one of them was going to kill her first.

Finally Thalia grunted. “You’ve got spirit, Piper.” She pulled a silver card from her parka and tucked it into the pocket of Piper’s snowboarding jacket. “You ever want to be a Hunter, call me. We could use you.”

Hera crossed her arms. “Fortunately for this Hunter, you have a point, daughter of Aphrodite.” She assessed Piper, as if seeing her clearly for the time. “You wondered, Piper, why I chose you for this quest, why I didn’t reveal your secret in the beginning, even when I knew Enceladus was using you. I must admit, until this moment I was not sure. Something told me you would be vital to the quest. Now I see I was right. You’re even stronger than I realized. And you are correct about the dangers to come. We must work together.”

Piper blushed. She probably wasn’t sure how to respond to Hera’s compliment, but Leo stepped in.

“Yeah,” he said, “I don’t suppose that Porphyrion guy just melted and died, huh?”

“No,” Hera agreed. “By saving me, and saving this place, you prevented Gaea from waking. You have bought us some time. But Porphyrion has risen. He simply knew better than to stay here, especially since he has not yet regained his full power. Giants can only be killed by a combination of god and demigod, working together. Once you freed me—”

“He ran away,” Jason said. “But to where?”

Hera didn’t answer, but a sense of dread washed over me. I remembered what Porphyrion had said about killing the Olympians by pulling up their roots. Greece. I looked at Thalia’s grim expression, and guessed the Hunter had come to the same conclusion.

“I need to find Annabeth,” Thalia said. “She has to know what’s happened here.”

“Thalia …” Jason gripped her hand. “We never got to talk about this place, or—”

“I know.” Her expression softened. “I lost you here once. I don’t want to leave you again. But we’ll meet soon. I’ll rendezvous with you back at Camp Half-Blood.” She glanced at Hera. “You’ll see them there safely? It’s the least you can do.”

“It’s not your place to tell me—”

“Queen Hera,” Piper interceded.

The goddess sighed. “Fine. Yes. Just off with you, Hunter!”

Thalia gave Jason a hug and said her good-byes. When the Hunters were gone, the courtyard seemed strangely quiet. The dry reflecting pool showed no sign of the earthen tendrils that had brought back the giant king or imprisoned Hera. The night sky was clear and starry. The wind rustled in the redwoods.

“Jason, what happened to you here?” Piper asked. “I mean—I know your mom abandoned you here. But you said it was sacred ground for demigods. Why? What happened after you were on your own?”

Jason shook his head uneasily. “It’s still murky. The wolves …”

“You were given a destiny,” Hera said. “You were given into my service.”

Jason scowled. “Because you forced my mom to do that. You couldn’t stand knowing Zeus had two children with my mom. Knowing that he’d fallen for her twice. I was the price you demanded for leaving the rest of my family alone. ”

“It was the right choice for you as well, Jason,” Hera insisted. “The second time your mother managed to snare Zeus’s affections, it was because she imagined him in a different aspect—the aspect of Jupiter. Never before had this happened—two children, Greek and Roman, born into the same family. You had to be separated from Thalia. This is where all demigods of your kind start their journey.”

“Of his kind?” Piper asked.

“She means Roman,” I said. “Demigods are left here. We meet the she-wolf goddess, Lupa, the same immortal wolf that raised Romulus and Remus.”

Hera nodded. “And if you are strong enough, you live.”

“But …” Leo looked mystified. “What happened after that? I mean, Jason and Water Girl never made it to camp.”

“Not to Camp Half-Blood, no,” Hera agreed.

Piper looked dizzy. “You went somewhere else. That’s where you’ve been all these years. Somewhere else for demigods—but where?”

I looked over at Leo, and he looked back into my eyes. I knew that he understood fully now, and that something had changed. He thought of me differently. I wasn’t just his silly mysterious buff friend anymore. No, I was something he was scared of.

Jason turned to the goddess. “The memories are coming back, but not the location. You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“No,” Hera said. “That is part of your destiny, Jason. You must find your own way back. But when you do … you and her will unite two great powers. You will give us hope against the giants, and more importantly—against Gaea herself.”

“Me?” I asked. “I thought it was just Jason.”

“Well, he was the one in my plan,” Hera said. “But I thought you might help.”

“You’re why the cops found me so fast?” I asked. “Dude!”

“You want us to help you,” Jason butt in, “but you’re holding back information.”

“Giving you answers would make those answers invalid,” Hera said. “That is the way of the Fates. You must forge your own path for it to mean anything. Already, you four have surprised me. I would not have thought it possible …”

The goddess shook her head. “Suffice to say, you have performed well, demigods. But this is only the beginning. Now you must return to Camp Half-Blood, where you will begin planning for the next phase.”

“Which you won’t tell us about,” I grumped.

“And I suppose you destroyed my nice storm spirit horse,” Jason said, “so we’ll have to walk home?”

Hera waved aside the question. “Storm spirits are creatures of chaos. I did not destroy that one, though I have no idea where he went, or whether you’ll see him again. But there is an easier way home for you. As you have done me a great service, so I can help you—at least this once. Farewell, demigods, for now.”

The world turned upside down, and I almost blacked out.

When I could see straight again, I was back at camp, in the dining pavilion, in the middle of dinner. We were standing on the Aphrodite cabin’s table, and Piper had one foot in Drew’s pizza. Sixty campers rose at once, gawking at us in astonishment.

Whatever Hera had done to shoot us across the country, it wasn’t good for my stomach. I could barely control my nausea. Leo wasn’t so lucky. He jumped off the table, ran to the nearest bronze brazier, and threw up in it—which was probably not a great burnt offering for the gods.

“Jason?” Chiron trotted forward. No doubt the old centaur had seen thousands of years’ worth of weird stuff, but even he looked totally flabbergasted. “What—How—?”

The Aphrodite campers stared up at me with their mouths open. I figured I must look awful.

“Hi,” I said, as casually as I could. “We’re back.”

I don’t remember much about the rest of the night. We told our story and answered a million questions from the other campers, but finally Chiron saw how tired we were and ordered us to bed.

Truth be told, I was too scared to go to the Poseidon cabin. My heart started pounding so fast I was sure I was about to explode. I’d fought two giants in the same night, but I couldn’t fathom going into Percy’s space. I was too scared of what would happen. And honestly? I couldn’t do the night alone. Not after my last dream, not after this quest.

As my friends began to leave, I faked a black-out. The other campers gasped and crowded me, but Leo was the first to my side. He lifted me up, and I realized just how strong he was. Chiron took me from there and said something about sleeping in the Big House for the night. I had a feeling he knew what I was doing.

I felt a happiness arise in my chest. As Chiron took me to the Big House for the night, I imagined he was my dad carrying me to my bedroom after falling asleep in the car. I’d never thought about something like that before.

It was comforting.

Luck was on my side as I slept. I had no dreams and saw no freaky tall demons. When I woke up, sun shone on my face and warmed me up. I sat up on the couch and yawned. There was a pile of clothes on the floor- an orange camp shirt and blue jeans.

Chiron wheeled himself into the room and gave me a soft smile. “Good morning, Water Girl.”

I wasn’t even annoyed by the nickname. I laughed out loud. “Even you?”

The older man looked out the window, taking in the view of the camp in the morning light. He took a deep breath and looked back at me. “There will be a meeting here later today with the senior cabin counselors. I figured since your brother-”

“Percy,” I said, standing from the couch and grabbing my clothes. “He’s not my brother.”

Chiron’s brow furrowed, but his gaze remained soft. “I see, well since Percy is not here to fill in for the Poseidon cabin, I suppose you will have to take his place.”

“Roger,” I said. “I’ll be back then.”

-

The camp wasn’t up yet, but breakfast was already being prepared. I seemed to be the first one awake and strolling the camp grounds. Often, I’d take a peek at Cabin three and catch my breath. I wasn’t ready yet, and didn’t know if I ever would be.

I tried not to think about Percy, but he couldn’t leave my mind. What did he look like? Sound like? How did he act? Would he hate me? Love me? Why did I care so much?

I had nobody. I was used to nobody. Now there’s someone new, and it bugged me, but I knew my mind was clinging onto him already. I hated it.

I continued my stroll until I reached the dining pavilion. I ate my breakfast alone at the cabin three table until someone else came. I looked up from my pancakes to find my blonde friend, Jason Grace.

“Hi,” he said.

His tone had changed. He remembered me.

“Jason,” I said.

The boy said my name back to me.

I dropped my fork and stood up. I was tense, unknowing of how he would react. Would he hate me? Try and take me back? Would he just kill me right now?

Jason stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me. He breathed in deep and exhaled shakily.

To my surprise, I returned his embrace comfortably.

“You remember,” I said.

Jason nodded, pulling away somewhat so he could look at me. “I remember it all. You-”

“Don’t,” I said, my voice threatening to break. “Jason, I-”

“I’m sorry.”

The words shocked me.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “But we weren’t good for each other.”

I nodded, still in shock.

Jason cupped my cheek tenderly, though it wasn’t out of love. I could feel the static in his body stay neutral.

“I was wrong to say that to you, and to do that to you,” Jason continued. “But you were different then. I was too. We’ve changed, and I can say for certain that you are not the girl I knew just a few months ago.”

“I had some help,” I said softly.

Jason smiled and pulled me into another hug.

I leaned further into him, trying to keep the tears in my waterline. “You’ve changed too.”

We stayed in eachothers arms for a few more seconds, then we pulled away.

Jason wiped his eyes- was he crying? Then he patted my shoulder, a sort of see-you-later gesture.

I caught his hand before he turned. He stared into my eyes with his sky-blue orbs.

“Piper is my best friend,” I said. “You better fucking treat her good.”

Jason’s cheeks flushed, and he nodded. “I will.”

“Give her the new you,” I said. “Not what I had.”

My friend smiled. “I promise. Otherwise, you can break my arm again.”

“You remember that?” I laughed.

“I remember it all!” Jason laughed with me as he began walking backwards. “Let’s talk more later. How about a spar?”

“If you wanna get your ass beat again,” I said.

Jason smiled one more time, then nodded and walked away.

I sat back down to my breakfast, more hungry than I had been before.

A weight had been lifted off my chest.

-

I sat on the steps of Cabin three, my back turned toward the door. I had been waiting there most of the day, watching campers run around and eavesdropping on their conversations.

I had my hand in the grass, moving the dew droplets between my fingers like a snake. I was so lost in thought I didn’t notice someone coming up to me.

Leo waved a hand in front of my face, finally snapping me out of my racing thoughts.

“What?” I asked, looking up at my friend.

Leo smiled down at me, showing off his dimples and gapped front teeth. His grin was mischievous and playful. “Do you remember?”

“Remember what?” I asked as I stood up.

“What did you say about dating me? Hm? Was it that you wanted to wait after our quest? Hm?” Leo batted his eyelashes at me, raising his voice into an annoying tone.

I threw my head back and laughed, momentarily distracting me from my thoughts about Percy. Leo’s face fell slightly.

“My gods,” I said. “You’re so funny, Leo.”

“Wait, so-” Leo stuttered. “You didn’t mean it.”

“No,” I said. “I meant what I said. After our quest, I would date you. If, however, you manage to convince me why.”

“Convince you?” Leo asked, looking somewhat miffed. “What does that mean?”

“I’ll be playing hard to get,” I said. “So give it your best.”

Leo groaned. “Dude, come on-” Then he shook his head and sighed. “Okay, Water Girl. But I won’t leave you alone!”

I smiled and ran my hand through Leo’s wet hair. “Sure thing.”

The boy seemed to shiver as I grabbed the moisture from his freshly washed hair, tossing the water blob aside. “There’s more, right?” I asked

Leo gasped. “Right! Come with me to the bunker. I’m telling everyone everything. I have an idea.”

He grabbed my hand and the two of us ran off.

-

Leo hadn’t been this jumpy since he offered tofu burgers to the werewolves. When we got to the limestone cliff in the forest, he turned to the group and smiled nervously. “Here we go.”

His hand lit on fire, and he set it against the door.

His cabinmates gasped.

“Leo!” Nyssa cried. “You’re a fire user!”

“Yeah, thanks,” he said. “I know.”

Jake Mason, who was out of his body cast but still on crutches, said, “Holy Hephaestus. That means—it’s so rare that—”

The massive stone door swung open, and everyone’s mouth dropped. Leo’s flaming hand seemed insignificant now. Even Piper and Jason looked stunned, and they’d seen enough amazing things lately. I tried to hold in my laughter.

Only Chiron didn’t look surprised. The centaur knit his bushy eyebrows and stroked his beard, as if we were about to walk through a minefield.

That made Leo even more nervous, but he couldn’t change his mind now. I rubbed his shoulder, trying to calm his nerves. He gave me an appreciated look.

“Welcome to Bunker Nine,” he said, as confidently as he could. “C’mon in.”

The group was silent as they toured the facility. Everything was just as Leo and I had left it—giant machines, worktables, old maps and schematics. Only one thing had changed. Festus’s head was sitting on the central table, still battered and scorched from his final crash in Omaha.

Leo went over to it, a bitter taste in his mouth, and stroked the dragon’s forehead. “I’m sorry, Festus. But I won’t forget you.”

I put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Hephaestus brought it here for you?”

Leo nodded.

“But you can’t repair him,” Jason guessed, also at Leo’s side.

“No way,” Leo said. “But the head is going to be reused. Festus will be going with us.”

Piper came over and frowned. “What do you mean?”

Before Leo could answer, Nyssa cried out, “Guys, look at this!”

She was standing at one of the worktables, flipping through a sketchbook—diagrams for hundreds of different machines and weapons.

“I’ve never seen anything like these,” Nyssa said. “There are more amazing ideas here than in Daedalus’s workshop. It would take a century just to prototype them all.”

“Who built this place?” Jake Mason said. “And why?”

Chiron stayed silent, but Leo focused on the wall map we’d seen during our first visit. It showed Camp Half-Blood with a line of triremes in the Sound, catapults mounted in the hills around the valley, and spots marked for traps, trenches, and ambush sites.

“It’s a wartime command center,” I said. “The camp was attacked once, wasn’t it?”

“In the Titan War?” Piper asked.

Nyssa shook her head. “No. Besides, that map looks really old. The date … does that say 1864?”

We all turned to Chiron.

The centaur’s tail swished fretfully. “This camp has been attacked many times,” he admitted. “That map is from the last Civil War.”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one confused. The other Hephaestus campers looked at each other and frowned.

“Civil War …” Leo said. “You mean the American Civil War, like a hundred and fifty years ago?”

“Yes and no,” Chiron said. “The two conflicts—mortal and demigod—mirrored each other, as they usually do in Western history. Look at any civil war or revolution from the fall of Rome onward, and it marks a time when demigods also fought one another. But that Civil War was particularly horrible. For American mortals, it is still their bloodiest conflict of all time—worse than their casualties in the two World Wars. For demigods, it was equally devastating. Even back then, this valley was Camp Half-Blood. There was a horrible battle in these woods lasting for days, with terrible losses on both sides.”

“Both sides,” Leo said. “You mean the camp split apart?”

“No,” Jason spoke up. “He means two different groups. Camp Half-Blood was one side in the war.”

My gut churned. I glanced at Jason, and our eyes met. We both knew who the other side was.

Leo didn’t. He asked, “Who was the other?”

Chiron glanced up at the tattered bunker 9 banner, as if remembering the day it was raised.

“The answer is dangerous,” he warned. “It is something I swore upon the River Styx never to speak of. After the American Civil War, the gods were so horrified by the toll it took on their children, that they swore it would never happen again. The two groups were separated. The gods bent all their will, wove the Mist as tightly as they could, to make sure the enemies never remembered each other, never met on their quests, so that bloodshed could be avoided. This map is from the final dark days of 1864, the last time the two groups fought. We’ve had several close calls since then. The nineteen sixties were particularly dicey. But we’ve managed to avoid another civil war—at least so far. Just as Leo guessed, this bunker was a command center for the Hephaestus cabin. In the last century, it has been reopened a few times, usually as a hiding place in times of great unrest. But coming here is dangerous. It stirs old memories, awakens the old feuds. Even when the Titans threatened last year, I did not think it worth the risk to use this place.”

Suddenly Leo’s sense of triumph turned to guilt. “Hey, look, this place found me. It was meant to happen. It’s a good thing.”

“I hope you’re right,” Chiron said.

“I am!” Leo pulled the old drawing out of his pocket and spread it on the table for everyone to see.

“There,” he said proudly. “Aeolus returned that to me. I drew it when I was five. That’s my destiny.”

Nyssa frowned. “Leo, it’s a crayon drawing of a boat.”

“Look.” He pointed at the largest schematic on the bulletin board—the blueprint showing a Greek trireme. Slowly, his cabinmates’ eyes widened as they compared the two designs. The number of masts and oars, even the decorations on the shields and sails were exactly the same as on Leo’s drawing. My jaw dropped.

“How did you see that when you were five?” I gawked.

“That’s impossible,” Nyssa said. “That blueprint has to be a century old at least.”

“‘Prophecy—Unclear—Flight,’” Jake Mason read from the notes on the blueprint. “It’s a diagram for a flying ship. Look, that’s the landing gear. And weaponry—Holy Hephaestus: rotating ballista, mounted crossbows, Celestial bronze plating. That thing would be one spankin’ hot war machine. Was it ever made?”

“Not yet,” Leo said. “Look at the masthead.”

There was no doubt—the figure at the front of the ship was the head of a dragon. A very particular dragon.

“Festus,” I said. Everyone turned and looked at the dragon’s head sitting on the table.

“He’s meant to be our masthead,” Leo said. “Our good luck charm, our eyes at sea. I’m supposed to build this ship. I’m gonna call it the Argo II. And guys, I’ll need your help.”

“The Argo II.” Piper smiled. “After Jason’s ship.”

Jason looked a little uncomfortable, but he nodded. “Leo’s right. That ship is just what we need for our journey.”

“What journey?” Nyssa said. “You just got back!”

I ran my fingers over the old crayon drawing. “We’ve got to confront Porphyrion, the giant king. He said he would destroy the gods at their roots.”

“Indeed,” Chiron said. “Much of Rachel’s Great Prophecy is still a mystery to me, but one thing is clear. You four—the demigods we picked up from the Grand Canyon—are among the eight demigods who must take on that quest. You must confront the giants in their homeland, where they are strongest. You must stop them before they can wake Gaea fully, before they destroy Mount Olympus.”

“Um …” Nyssa shifted. “You don’t mean Manhattan, do you?”

“No,” Leo said. “The original Mount Olympus. We have to sail to Greece.”

It took a few minutes for that to settle in. Then the other Hephaestus campers started asking questions all at once. Who were the other four demigods? How long would it take to build the boat? Why didn’t everyone get to go to Greece?

“Heroes!” Chiron struck his hoof on the floor. “All the details are not clear yet, but Leo is correct. He will need your help to build the Argo II. It is perhaps the greatest project Cabin Nine has even undertaken, even greater than the bronze dragon.”

“It’ll take a year at least,” Nyssa guessed. “Do we have that much time?”

“You have six months at most,” Chiron said. “You should sail by summer solstice, when the gods’ power is strongest. Besides, we evidently cannot trust the wind gods, and the summer winds are the least powerful and easiest to navigate. You dare not sail any later, or you may be too late to stop the giants. You must avoid ground travel, using only air and sea, so this vehicle is perfect. Jason being the son of the sky god…”

His voice trailed off, but I figured Chiron was thinking about his missing student, Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon. He would’ve been good on this voyage, too.

Jake Mason turned to Leo. “Well, one thing’s for sure. You are now senior counselor. This is the biggest honor the cabin has ever had. Anyone object?”

Nobody did. All his cabinmates smiled at him, and I could almost feel their sense of hopelessness melting away.

“It’s official, then,” Jake said. “You’re the man.”

For once, Leo was speechless. I could see a bashful smile form on his face, and his eyes became glassy.

“Well,” he said at last, “if you guys elect me leader, you must be even crazier than I am. So let’s build a spankin’ hot war machine!”

-

The council was nothing like I imagined. For one thing, it was in the Big House rec room, around a Ping-Pong table, and one of the satyrs was serving nachos and sodas. Somebody had brought Seymour the leopard head in from the living room and hung him on the wall. Every once in a while, a counselor would toss him a Snausage.

I looked around the room and tried to remember everyone’s name. Thankfully, Leo, Jason, and Piper were sitting next to me—it was our first meeting as senior counselors. Clarisse, leader of the Ares cabin, had her boots on the table, but nobody seemed to care. Clovis from Hypnos cabin was snoring in the corner while Butch from Iris cabin was seeing how many pencils he could fit in Clovis’s nostrils. Travis Stoll from Hermes was holding a lighter under a Ping-Pong ball to see if it would burn, and Will Solace from Apollo was absently wrapping and unwrapping an Ace bandage around his wrist. The counselor from Hecate cabin, Lou Ellen something-or-other, was playing “got-your-nose” with Miranda Gardiner from Demeter, except that Lou Ellen really had magically disconnected Miranda’s nose, and Miranda was trying to get it back.

Rachel Dare, the oracle, sat next to Chiron at the head of the table. She was wearing her Clarion Academy school uniform dress, which seemed a bit odd, but she smiled at me.

Annabeth, who had recently returned from her search, didn’t look so relaxed. She wore armor over her camp clothes, with her knife at her side and her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. As soon as Jason and I walked in, she fixed us with an expectant look, as if she were trying to extract information out of us by sheer willpower.

“Let’s come to order,” Chiron said. “Lou Ellen, please give Miranda her nose back. Travis, if you’d kindly extinguish the flaming Ping-Pong ball, and Butch, I think twenty pencils is really too many for any human nostril. Thank you. Now, as you can see, our heroes have returned successfully… more or less. Some of you have heard parts of their story, but I will let them fill you in.”

Everyone looked at Jason. He cleared his throat and began the story. Piper and Leo chimed in from time to time, filling in the details he forgot. I told the battle stories.

It only took a few minutes, but it seemed like longer with everyone watching us. The silence was heavy, and for so many ADHD demigods to sit still listening for that long, I knew the story must have sounded pretty wild. Jason ended with Hera’s visit right before the meeting, which described some heavy stuff.

“So Hera was here,” Annabeth said. “Talking to you.”

Jason nodded. “Look, I’m not saying I trust her—”

“That’s smart,” Annabeth said.

“—but she isn’t making this up about another group of demigods. That’s where we came from.” Jason gestured to me.

“Romans.” Clarisse tossed Seymour a Snausage. “You expect us to believe there’s another camp with demigods, but they follow the Roman forms of the gods. And we’ve never even heard of them.”

I sat forward, trying to calm my racing heart. “The gods have kept the two groups apart, because every time they see each other, they try to kill each other.”

“I can respect that,” Clarisse said. “Still, why haven’t we ever run across each other on quests?”

“Oh, yes,” Chiron said sadly. “You have, many times. It’s always a tragedy, and always the gods do their best to wipe clean the memories of those involved. The rivalry goes all the way back to the Trojan War, Clarisse. The Greeks invaded Troy and burned it to the ground. The Trojan hero Aeneas escaped, and eventually made his way to Italy, where he founded the race that would someday become Rome. The Romans grew more and more powerful, worshipping the same gods but under different names, and with slightly different personalities.”

“More warlike,” I said. “More united. More about expansion, conquest, and discipline.”

“Yuck,” Travis put in.

Several of the others looked equally uncomfortable, though Clarisse shrugged like it sounded okay to her.

Annabeth twirled her knife on the table. “And the Romans hated the Greeks. They took revenge when they conquered the Greek isles, and made them part of the Roman Empire.”

“Not exactly hated them,” Jason said. “The Romans admired Greek culture, and were a little jealous. In return, the Greeks thought the Romans were barbarians, but they respected their military power. So during Roman times, demigods started to divide—either Greek or Roman.”

My leg bounced rapidly under the table. The room filled with the sound of my heel hitting the floor.

“And it’s been that way ever since,” Annabeth guessed. “But this is crazy. Chiron, where were the Romans during the Titan War? Didn’t they want to help?”

Chiron tugged at his beard. “They did help, Annabeth. While you and Percy were leading the battle to save Manhattan, who do think conquered Mount Othrys, the Titans’ base in California?”

“Hold on,” Travis said. “You said Mount Othrys just crumbled when we beat Kronos.”

“No,” I said.

Jason looked like he remembered flashes of the battle—a giant in starry armor and a helm mounted with ram’s horns. I remembered from the story told after, our army of demigods scaling Mount Tam, fighting through hordes of snake monsters. “It didn’t just fall. We destroyed their palace. I defeated the Titan Krios myself.”

Annabeth’s eyes were as stormy as a ventus. I could almost see her thoughts moving, putting the pieces together. “The Bay Area. We demigods were always told to stay away from it because Mount Othrys was there. But that wasn’t the only reason, was it? The Roman camp—it’s got to be somewhere near San Francisco. I bet it was put there to keep watch on the Titans’ territory. Where is it?”

I placed my hand over my mouth, trying to hold back my nausea. Piper placed a reassuring hand on my thigh.

Chiron shifted in his wheelchair. “I cannot say. Honestly, even I have never been trusted with that information. My counterpart, Lupa, is not exactly the sharing type. Jason’s memory, too, has been burned away…” Chiron looked at me. “But not you.”

“The camp’s heavily veiled with magic,” Jason said, trying to advert the centaur’s attention. “And heavily guarded. We could search for years and never find it.”

Rachel Dare laced her fingers. Of all the people in the room, only she didn’t seem nervous about the conversation. “But you’ll try, won’t you? You’ll build Leo’s boat, the Argo II. And before you make for Greece, you’ll sail for the Roman camp. You’ll need their help to confront the giants.”

“Bad plan,” Clarisse warned. “If those Romans see a warship coming, they’ll assume we’re attacking.”

“You’re probably right,” Jason agreed. “But we have to try. I was sent here to learn about Camp Half-Blood, to try to convince you the two camps don’t have to be enemies. A peace offering. Water Girl was sent to form the bonds.”

“Hmm,” Rachel said. “Because Hera is convinced we need both camps to win the war with the giants. Eight heroes of Olympus—some Greek, some Roman.”

Annabeth nodded. “Your Great Prophecy—what’s the last line?”

“And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.”

“Gaea has opened the Doors of Death,” Annabeth said. “She’s letting out the worst villains of the Underworld to fight us. Medea, Midas—there’ll be more, I’m sure. Maybe the line means that the Roman and Greek demigods will unite, and find the doors, and close them.”

“Or it could mean they fight each other at the doors of death,” Clarisse pointed out. “It doesn’t say we’ll cooperate.”

There was silence as the campers let that happy thought sink in.

“I’m going,” Annabeth said. “Jason, when you get this ship built, let me go with you.”

“I was hoping you’d offer,” Jason said. “You of all people —we’ll need you.”

“Wait.” Leo frowned. “I mean that’s cool with me and all. But why Annabeth of all people?”

Annabeth and Jason studied one another, and I knew she had put it together. She saw the dangerous truth.

“Hera said our coming here was an exchange,” I said. “A way for the two camps to learn of each other’s existence.”

“Yeah?” Leo said. “So?”

“An exchange goes two ways,” I said. “I hated the other camp, so when I left, Hera got me caught almost immediately. She forced me into meeting Greeks- Leo and Piper- and befriending them to see that what I was taught wasn’t right. Greeks could be my best friends. And then Jason came, and he was supposed to lead us and teach us- teach me- that Romans aren’t bad.”

“When I got here,” Jason said, “my memory was wiped. I didn’t know who I was or where I belonged. Fortunately, you guys took me in and I found a new home. I know you’re not my enemy. The Roman camp—they’re not so friendly. You prove your worth quickly, or you don’t survive. They may not be so nice to him, and if they learn where he comes from, he’s going to be in serious trouble.”

“Him?” Leo said. “Who are you talking about?”

“My boyfriend,” Annabeth said grimly. “He disappeared around the same time Jason appeared. If Jason came to Camp Half-Blood—”

“Exactly,” Jason agreed. “Percy Jackson is at the other camp, and he probably doesn’t even remember who he is.”

-

I had to stay in the Poseidon cabin that night. With the news of Percy being at my old camp, my whole body went into overdrive. I couldn’t calm my pulse, I couldn’t silence my brain. I kept thinking of him becoming the monster I used to be. I kept thinking of his mom- what had he done to her? I felt sick and scared and I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment.

I left the meeting immediately and went straight to the Poseidon cabin. I needed to sleep. It was the only way I could get my brain to stop.

As I walked up the porch steps, my anxiety grew worse. Why was I so afraid of one cabin? I was truly pathetic. But I forced myself inside, preparing for the worst.

The Poseidon cabin was low, long and solid, with all the windows facing the sea. The outer walls were rough gray stone with pieces of seashell and coral and looked like the bottom of the ocean floor. On the inside, there were six empty bunk beds and the walls glowed like abalone. There were bronze hippocampi on the ceiling as decorations, along with some underwater plants and corals, sitting in the window sill. In the back of the room, there was a fountain made out of gray sea rock with a fish that spouted water from its mouth. The bottom was filled with golden coins- drachmas.
By one of the bunks, a large horn and dented shield were hung upon the wall. The bed sheet was messy, though it hadn't been slept on recently. There were some personal items scattered about the bunk bed’s space, but the rest of the cabin was relatively… dead.

My heart kept pounding against my ribcage. As I studied objects in the room, visions played in my mind of memories surrounding them. How was I able to see this? I was just imagining it, I was sure.
But my head hurt so bad. I felt like I was going to pass out.

It was already late. I claimed a bunk farthest away from Percy’s and collapsed onto the mattress. I was hyperventilating and it was pissing me off. Why was I so scared? Why?
I squeezed my eyes shut, but it was as if my pillows were speaking to me- telling me stories of the boy who used to live in this cabin.

I did the only thing I could think of to get this fear and noise to stop. I momentarily pushed more blood toward my head, compressing my brain and making me pass out. Dangerous, I know, but it knocked me out and I was able to sleep.

I couldn’t rest well. I heard whispering voices, laughter, evil spirits rising. Scenes of death played in my mind, fights between good and evil, but the remaining vision was Percy- what I imagined he was like. I could not escape him. I was invading his space. We would have to fight to the death.

I screamed in my sleep, waking myself up. I could tell time had passed, but not much. My brain was still in overdrive, so when I saw the figure looming over me, I couldn’t even react.
The tall man with the hole in his chest bent over me, his limbs cracking. He opened his mouth, and his breath tickled my face.

“You are not Percy,” he whispered, his voice echoing in my ears. “You are not the hero he was. What have you done?”

I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t move. My body was paralyzed.

The figure stood up, but as he rose to his full height, he shrunk and changed forms. He became an elegant looking man in a tuxedo, his face very worn, and his hands still covered in wet clay. He looked at me with dark eyes.

He spoke my name and his voice was less of a whisper, though it still scared me. “I am the Titan of forethought. I know what is going to happen. I will help you.”

“Titan?” I whimpered.

“I know you are hesitant, young one,” he said, walking over to my side of the bed. Suddenly, I sat up, though I still couldn’t move. “But great dangers are coming. You are not ready.”

“Why should I trust a titan?” I sneered, feeling some of my courage come back.

A fire flared in the man’s pupils. It reminded me of Leo. “I am a humanist. I was once known for my compassion.”

This was clearly not a dream, and an actual visit from a god- or Titan, I guessed. I racked my brain of mythology, but I was still too scared to think straight.

“I gave you fire,” he said. “And that boy, his fire.”

“Leo?” I asked. “Why are you bringing him up?”

The man shook his head. “Listen, young one. You are in grave danger. I am attached to your story. I will help you.”

“Who even are you?”

The tux-man wiped his thumb across my forehead, leaving a trail of clay dust. “I am Prometheus, now listen to me.”

Chapter Text

The wolves led me over the rolling hills so we could look down upon the camp.

Lupa growled deep in her throat, telling me something about how I was on my own now.

I looked at her with betrayal in my eyes. “You’re leaving me now?”

The she-wolf snarled and turned away. Always ends like this, she had said. Now go.

I spun around and ran down the hill, infuriated that the pack had dumped me here. I didn’t care if this was how I was supposed to keep moving forward- it was stupid.

So what if this camp was the only place for me? I wanted to stay with Lupa.

I walked into the camp, already hating everything around me.

-

Being in the Fiffth Cohort was the worst. Everybody in it sucked and was too weak. After my shitface father claimed me, everything made sense. People didn’t like me that much, but it was fine since I could just fight them. The trident came in handy, and was cleverly disguised. It balanced perfectly in my hand.

I moved up my ranks until I was just behind the leader of the Fifth Cohort- Centurion, they had called him. I didn’t care much about him, but I had caught his eye.

Jason was his name.

On my way to get breakfast, Jason stepped infront of me, blocking my path. “Hey-”

“No,” I said, swerving around him. “Breakfast.”

He didn’t yell at me. He didn’t tell me to turn around and kneel or beg or anything.

Jason laughed.

I stopped and looked at him. His smile was brilliant. His eyes sparked with passion and heroism.

“Interesting, daughter of Neptune,” he said. “I apologise for interrupting your quest for a muffin, but please hear me for a moment.”

I huffed and shifted my weight onto one hip. “Yes?”

“You are…” A blush crept onto his face. “You are an interesting one. How old are you?”

“Twelve,” I said. “Just turned it.”

“You’re my age!” he said, a genuine happiness in his voice. “Finally, another high ranked kid! You just got here a month ago, right?”

I nodded. “What about it.”

“Nothing,” Jason said. “Hey, I notice you don’t seem to have many friends. Wanna be mine?”

“No.” I turned and began walking away again.

Jason caught my arm. “Fine! Atleast be my sparring partner. Nobody else wants to fight me!”

I looked back at him again, the corners of my mouth tugging up. “Because you always get knocked out, or…?”

The blonde was flustered. “No! No, not that, I can’t help that!”

I laughed, and Jason released his grip on me. “Fine, fine, I’ll spar with you from now on, son of Jupiter. Now let me get my breakfast!”

Jason smiled, his cheeks pink. “Of course, sorry. Meet me at the training grounds. Livbis and I are gonna kick your butt.”

“Just say ass, idiot,” I said, walking away.

-

Jason and I had just finished a spar with each other. The training grounds looked like a wreck. Every time we fought, we ended up going too far and a crowd would come to spectacle. It had been like this for three long years.

I dropped my trident, standing over Jason’s unconscious body. “Shit. Too hard?” I asked.

Jason stirred and squinted up at me. “Another lose? I think we’re even now.”

I laughed and offered my hand, the trident tattoo on my arm had three lines under it. Jason’s had eleven.

He took my help and managed to his feet, recalling his lance into a coin. “Why the laughter?” he teasingly asked. The crowd around us began to disperse.

“You’re far behind me, boy.” I wiped the sweat from his brow and flicked it onto the ground. The summer sun beat onto our heads, but I had already used all the water in the arena to fight Jason. “Fuck, I’m dying of thrist.”

‘‘Popsicles?” Jason asked, grabbing my hand.

“Eh,” I said. “I don’t really want anything sweet.”

“What?” Jason gasped. “Since when? You always love sweets.”

I shrugged. “Period is coming, I guess.”

Jason cringed. “Oh yeah. Need anything beforehand?”

“Just a kiss,” I said, playfully tapping my lips.

The blonde laughed and leaned down, sweetly kissing me. “Better?”

I smiled at him, staring into his beautiful blue eyes. “Better.”
-

I laid in my bed in my empty cabin, thinking about what Jason had just told me. I looked back over to the blonde boy, who was reaching for his shirt to cover his bare body.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I mean, we won’t have any time for each other.”

Jason nodded, trying to avoid my eyes. I stared at the scar on his lip instead. “I heard it being discussed. It’s kind of a rumor around the city now.”

“Right,” I said, sitting up and pulling my bed sheet over my chest. “But praetor? Jason, come on. That means I have to be Centurion of the Fifth Cohort.’’ I looked down to the four lines under my trident tattoo and frowned. “I can’t be a leader.”

“You’ll be a great leader,” Jason said, leaning over and kissing my forehead. “Just don’t… be irrational.”

“I’m not irrational!” I said, quickly becoming defensive. “Don’t say that about me. I'm not irrational, or impulsive, or whatever Reyna keeps calling me.”

Jason sighed and looked down to my neck. “That spot looks a little dark.”

I rubbed my throat and seethed. “Shit. Jason!”

“I didn’t mean to!”

-

“You can’t be serious!” I yelled. “No, Jason-”

“Stop,” the blonde protested. “For the gods’ sakes, just stop!”

“You can’t just say that to me!” I screamed, tears stinging my eyes. “Jason-”

The blonde covered my mouth with his hand, trying to quiet my fury. My praetor boyfriend had just told me about his plan to topple Krios’s throne, and that he wanted to break up- all in the same sentence.

I bit the boy’s hand and stepped away from him. “How dare you! We’ve been together for two and a half years, and now you want to throw all of that away? Why?! You’re fucking delusional, Jason! Do you think you’re going to die, or what?”

“No!” Jason said, rubbing the sore spot on his hand. “It’s not that. I just think that you-”

“That I what?” I balled my fists so tight my knuckles threatened to split. “That I love you too much? That I’m too jealous of Reyna? That I-”

“I can’t stand you!” Jason yelled.

I stopped in the middle of my rant. My throat felt cold all of a sudden.

“Gods, I can’t!” Jason said, tears in his eyes. “We just can’t be together. We’re meant to hate eachother, and the closer we get, the more I think I despise you.”

“What the fuck,” I said. “Jason, what the fuck?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I think we should just go.”

“No.” My heartbeat reverberated in my ears. “No! That’s not good enough for me. Tell me why you hate me. Why?”

I shoved the blonde away from me. The necklace he had made me for one of our anniversaries weighed on my neck like it was twenty pounds so I ripped it off and tossed it away.

Jason pushed my hands away from him and seethed. “Arson eyes see a world made of paper.”

My stomach dropped. Before I could ask him anything else, a horn sounded through the valley. Jason took that as his que and hurried away froom me.

-

It was silent on my sixteenth birthday. The camp was still mourning Jason’s dissapearance. Whenever I stepped outside, people stared at me. Octavian’s galre was the worst. I knew he was the one spreading the rumors about me, but I didn’t have the energy anymore.

I hated everything.

Leaving everything as it was, I dressed myself for an adventure. I escaped through the river. The currents pushed me up the stream and spit me out when I had reached the outskirts of the camp’s hills.

I never looked back.

-

“You will not escape unscathed today,” Prometheus’s voice whispered in my ear.

I shot up in bed, feeling my gut twisting around with anxiety.

My dreams had grown worse since we took off for Camp Jupiter. My friends tried to help me, but there was nothing that could be done. I was returning, and I had a horrible feeling that something would happen today.

Jason promised me that nothing would come of my bad thoughts, and that he would make sure the camp didn’t try to kill me. It helped a little, but the closer we got, the more I remembered our last month together. I didn’t like to look at him.

I peeled the covers off my body and stood up. I heard the engine of the ship whirring around me, and the heavy footsteps of my questmates above. No doubt I was the last person to wake. Nobody dared get me up early these days.

I rubbed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. Waking to my wardrobe, I tried to think of something to wear. It was summer, but being so high in the sky kind of made it cold. I couldn’t decide between a tank top or a t-shirt, so I blindly fished a top from my clothes.

Out came a green tank top with some sort of bird in a cage designed onto the front. I pulled out some baggy jeans and slipped into my clothes. I tied the belt loops of my pants tighter with some extra shoelace I had, fitting it to my waist. The top of my borrowed boxers poked out from my jeans.

Was it too much? Was it gross? I stood infront of my mirror overthinking my outfit. It was tomboy-like, whch I was most comfortable in. But it showed a lot, including my tattoo. Would the camp still let me have it? Would they burn it off? I felt sick over the thought.

But the camp didn’t seem to scare me so much right now.

I thought more about Percy.

Would he think this outfit was gross for his older/younger sister to wear? Would he think it was cute? Ew, would he like me without knowing I’m his sister? No, he’s dating Annabeth. He’s probably loyal, right? Fuck, why was this so hard? I was going to miss breakfast at that point.

Not like I cared. My stomach couldn’t figure out what it was going to do.

I shoved my hands in my pocket, ignoring the golden pen inside. I sighed and leaned my head forward, gently banging it into the wall.

Knocking sounded at my door. “Hello?” Piper called. “Babes, you in there?”

“What’s up?” I asked, looking toward the door.

Piper walked inside and eyed me. “Nervous?”

“Dude.”

“Sorry,” Piper said. She walked up to me and wrapped me in a hug. “You look great, there’s nothing to worry about, everything will go fine, we’ll all keep you safe, and Percy will love you.”

I felt my heartbeat slow down to a normal pace. I exhaled softly and hugged my friend back. “Thanks, Pipes.”

Piper pulled away and nodded. “I know you’re hungry. Let’s get some breakfast. Anything you want, remember?”

My stomach growled louder than Lupa. I nodded and smiled at my friend. “Fucking waffles.”

“Waffles,’’ Piper agreed.

She grabbed my hand and dragged me out to the food hall. My crewmates ran around like crazy, trying to eat breakfast and get everything settled before we flew over the Roman camp.

Piper and I sat together at the eating table, where plates already waited for us. I willed mine to have a nice waffle breakfast and began chowing down. As Piper ate, she practiced some of her “we mean no harm” lines between mouthfuls of food.

I scarfed down my meal quickly and cleaned up, trying to see if there was anything I could do to get my friends ready. Annabeth seemed to have everything handled, though I could feel her nervousness radiating off her.

Jason patted my shoulder as he walked past me. “You ready?”

“I’m gonna throw up, dude,” I said. “You can't fathom how scared I am right now.”

The blonde pulled me into a side hug. “We’ve got this, right? It can’t be that bad.”

“You just fucked up the while day, I bet.” I pulled away from my friend and sighed. “I mean, we can only hope not.”

Jason mouthed a ‘sorry’ to me before walking updeck.

I exhaled and pulled my hand to my face, beginning to chew on my nails. My mind was racing with thought after thought making my stomach began to churn even more.

Leo ran past me toward the upper deck, then skidded to a halt and spun around. “Babe!”

“Babe!” I replied.

Leo jumped into my arms and I lifted him above me. “Hi,’’ he said. “Having a good morning?”

“Did you snort crack?” I asked. “You are so hyper!”

“Trying not to spontaneously combust!” Leo said as I put him down and buried my face in his chest.

He smiled and pulled me tighter into his body.

I laughed as I breathed in his scent. “Getting the ship ready?”

“As ready as it can be,” Leo said, pulling me away from him. “I’ve gotta check the sails again and do whatever Annabeth needs. I’ll see you again soon, okay?”

“Okay,” I said. “Kiss?”

Leo smiled and leaned down, gingerly kissing my lips. “Oh, you ain’t brushed your teeth yet.”

I laughed and grabbed his face, blowing my breath straight into his nose.

My boyfriend gagged and staggered back. “Damn! Eat this!”

He grabbed his classic breathmints from his toolbelt and tossed them at me.

I thanked him and kissed his cheek before he ran off again. Opening the container, I grabbed a handful of the mints and chewed them up. Piper grabbed a few for herself, and together we ran up to the top deck.

Too late to turn back now.

The clouds broke around our hull, revealing the gold-and-green carpet of the Oakland Hills below us. Annabeth gripped one of the bronze shields that lined the starboard rail.

We all took our places.

On the stern quarterdeck, Leo rushed around like a madman, checking his gauges and wrestling levers. Most helmsmen would’ve been satisfied with a pilot’s wheel or a tiller. Leo had also installed a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet, a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii. He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album, or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast. Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD.

Piper paced back and forth between the mainmast and the ballistae, practicing her lines.

“Lower your weapons,” she murmured. “We just want to talk.”

Her charmspeak was so powerful, the words flowed over me, filling me with the desire to drop the pen in my hand and have a nice long chat.

For a child of Aphrodite, Piper tried hard to play down her beauty. Today she was dressed in tattered jeans, worn-out sneakers, and a white tank top with pink Hello Kitty designs. (Maybe as a joke, though I could never be sure with Piper.) Her choppy brown hair was braided down the right side of her head, so it kind of looked like half her hair was shaved.

Then there was Piper’s boyfriend—Jason. He stood at the bow on the raised crossbow platform, where the Romans could easily spot him. His knuckles were white on the hilt of his golden sword. Otherwise he looked calm for a guy who was making himself a target. Over his jeans and orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, he’d donned a toga and a purple cloak—symbols of his old rank as praetor. With his wind-ruffled blond hair and his icy blue eyes, he looked ruggedly handsome and in control—just like a son of Jupiter should. He’d grown up at Camp Jupiter, so hopefully his familiar face would make the Romans hesitant to blow the ship out of the sky. Well, before they saw me.

I looked over to Annabeth, who looked like she was about to be sick over the side. She looked fairly calm, but I could see the anxiety building up inside her. She must have been thinking about Percy.

Percy…who was somewhere below us right now.

Oh, gods. Panic welled up inside me. I forced it down. I couldn’t afford to get overwhelmed any more than I was.

I’m a child of Neptune, I told myself. I can’t be weak.

I felt something—a cold shiver, as if a psychotic snowman had crept up behind me and was breathing down my neck. I turned, but no one was there.

Must be my nerves. Even in a world of gods and monsters, I couldn’t believe a new warship would be haunted. The Argo II was well protected. The Celestial bronze shields along the rail were enchanted to ward off monsters, and our onboard satyr, Coach Hedge, would have sniffed out any intruders.

“You are not imagining things,” Prometheus spoke inside my mind. “Something will go wrong.”

Ever since Prometheus had showed himself to me last December, he and I would have silent conversations inside my mind. It was almost like he was bonded to me, but that wasn’t the case. The titan was usually speaking, but he allowed only me to hear his voice, or something. I don’t know how Titans work, okay?

The cold pressed closer. I thought I heard a faint voice in the wind, laughing. Definitely not Prometheus, since he felt no good. Every muscle in my body tensed. Something was about to go terribly wrong, just like the titan had said.

I almost ordered Leo to reverse course. Then, in the valley below, horns sounded. The Romans had spotted us.

“Fuck,” I said, adrenaline pulsing through my whole body. “Fuck, god!”

Ringed by the Oakland Hills, the valley was at least twice the size of Camp Half-Blood. A small river snaked around one side and curled toward the center like a capital letter G, emptying into a sparkling blue lake.

Directly below the ship, nestled at the edge of the lake, the city of New Rome gleamed in the sunlight. I recognized landmarks from my time there—the hippodrome, the coliseum, the temples and parks, the neighborhood of Seven Hills with its winding streets, colorful villas, and flowering gardens.

I saw evidence of the Romans’ recent battle with an army of monsters. The dome was cracked open on a building I knew was the Senate House. The forum’s broad plaza was pitted with craters. Some fountains and statues were in ruins.

Dozens of kids in togas were streaming out of the Senate House to get a better view of the Argo II. More Romans emerged from the shops and cafés, gawking and pointing as the ship descended.

About half a mile to the west, where the horns were blowing, a Roman fort stood on a hill. It looked just like I remembered—with a defensive trench lined with spikes, high walls, and watchtowers armed with scorpion ballistae. Inside, perfect rows of white barracks lined the main road—the Via Principalis.

A column of demigods emerged from the gates, their armor and spears glinting as they hurried toward the city. In the midst of their ranks was an actual war elephant.

Annabeth wanted to land the Argo II before those troops arrived, but the ground was still several hundred feet below. She cursed under her breath, then turned toward me. She noticed the distress on my face quickly and knit her brows. “Hey, it’ll be just fine.”

Then something behind us went BOOM!

The explosion almost knocked me overboard. I whirled and found myself eye to eye with an angry statue.

“Unacceptable!” he shrieked.

Apparently he had exploded into existence, right there on the deck. Sulfurous yellow smoke rolled off his shoulders. Cinders popped around his curly hair. From the waist down, he was nothing but a square marble pedestal. From the waist up, he was a muscular human figure in a carved toga.

My gut rose to my throat, and I fell to my knee, bowing down to the god. “Lord Terminus,” I said.

I couldn’t believe myself.

“I will not have weapons inside the Pomerian Line!” he announced in a fussy teacher voice, completely ignoring me. “I certainly will not have Greeks!”

Jason shot Annabeth a look that said, I’ve got this.

“Terminus,” he said. “It’s me. Jason Grace.”

“Oh, I remember you, Jason!” Terminus grumbled. “I thought you had better sense than to consort with the enemies of Rome!”

“But they’re not enemies—”

“That’s right,” Piper jumped in. “We just want to talk. If we could—”

“Ha!” snapped the statue. “Don’t try that charmspeak on me, young lady. And put down that dagger before I slap it out of your hands!”

Piper glanced at her bronze dagger, which she’d apparently forgotten she was holding. “Um…okay. But how would you slap it? You don’t have any arms.”

I turned to my friend and gave her a look.

“Impertinence!” There was a sharp POP and a flash of yellow. Piper yelped and dropped the dagger, which was now smoking and sparking.

“Lucky for you I’ve just been through a battle,” Terminus announced. “If I were at full strength, I would’ve blasted this flying monstrosity out of the sky already!”

“Hold up.” Leo stepped forward, wagging his Wii controller. “Did you just call my ship a monstrosity? I know you didn’t do that.”

The idea that Leo might attack the statue with his gaming device was enough to snap Annabeth out of her shock.

“Let’s all calm down.” She raised her hands to show she had no weapons. “I take it you’re Terminus, the god of boundaries. Jason told me you protect the city of New Rome, right? I’m Annabeth Chase, daughter of—”

“Oh, I know who you are!” The statue glared at her with its blank white eyes. “A child of Athena, Minerva’s Greek form. Scandalous! You Greeks have no sense of decency. We Romans know the proper place for that goddess.”

Annabeth clenched her jaw. This statue wasn’t making it easy to be diplomatic. “What exactly do you mean, that goddess? And what’s so scandalous about—”

“Right!” Jason interrupted. “Anyway, Terminus, we’re here on a mission of peace. We’d love permission to land so we can—”

“Impossible!” the god squeaked. “Lay down your weapons and surrender! Leave my city immediately!”

“Which is it?” Leo asked. “Surrender, or leave?”

“Both!” Terminus said. “Surrender, then leave. I am slapping your face for asking such a stupid question, you ridiculous boy! Do you feel that?”

“Wow.” Leo studied Terminus with professional interest. “You’re wound up pretty tight. You got any gears in there that need loosening? I could take a look.”

He exchanged the Wii controller for a screwdriver from his magic tool belt and tapped the statue’s pedestal.

“Stop that!” Terminus insisted. Another small explosion made Leo drop his screwdriver. “Weapons are not allowed on Roman soil inside the Pomerian Line.”

“The what?” Piper asked.

“City limits,” I translated.

“And this entire ship is a weapon!” Terminus said. “You cannot land! Wait-”

The statue looked down to me, kneeling at his pedestal. I could feel his burning gaze on the back of my head.

Then he said my name. “The daughter of Neptune? You’re back? So you’re the one who rescued Jason?”

I looked up to the statue. “I’m sorry?”

“No,” Terminus said. “But you’ve conspired with Greeks?”

My gut caught in my throat. “Lord-”

“Oh, by the gods!” Terminus exclaimed. “Your brother, too! Goodness, much to catch up on.”

“You’re not mad?” I asked.

Terminus laughed. “About you? No. This ship, however, YES!”

Down in the valley, the legion reinforcements were halfway to the city. The crowd in the forum was over a hundred strong now. I scanned the faces and…oh, gods. I saw him. He was easy to recognize after one picture Annabeth had showed me. He was walking toward the ship with his arms around two other kids like they were best buddies—a stout boy with a black buzz cut, and a girl wearing a Roman cavalry helmet. Percy looked so at ease, so happy. He wore a purple cape just like Jason’s—the mark of a praetor.

Annabeth must have seen him too. I felt her heartbeat spike.

“Leo, stop the ship,” she ordered.

“What?”

“You heard me. Keep us right where we are.”

Leo pulled out his controller and yanked it upward. All ninety oars froze in place. The ship stopped sinking.

“Terminus,” Annabeth said, “there’s no rule against hovering over New Rome, is there?”

The statue frowned. “Well, no…”

“We can keep the ship aloft,” Annabeth said. “We’ll use a rope ladder to reach the forum. That way, the ship won’t be on Roman soil. Not technically.”

The statue seemed to ponder this. I wondered if he was scratching his chin with imaginary hands.

“I like technicalities,” he admitted. “Still…”

“All our weapons will stay aboard the ship,” Annabeth promised. “I assume the Romans—even those reinforcements marching toward us—will also have to honor your rules inside the Pomerian Line if you tell them to?”

“Of course!” Terminus said. “Do I look like I tolerate rule breakers?”

“Uh, Annabeth…” Leo said. “You sure this is a good idea?”

I kept my eyes on the deck. That cold feeling was still there. It floated just behind me, and now that Terminus was no longer shouting and causing explosions, I thought I could hear the presence laughing, as if it was delighted by the bad choices Annabeth was making.

“It’ll be fine,” she said. “No one will be armed. We can talk in peace. Terminus will make sure each side obeys the rules.” She looked at the marble statue. “Do we have an agreement?”

Terminus sniffed. “I suppose. For now. You may climb down your ladder to New Rome, daughter of Athena. Please try not to destroy my town.”

Annabeth grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into a standing position. “Lets go,” she said. “I’ll show you Percy.”

I made a sound half between a whimper and a gag. “Okay,” I said, pushing past my nausea.

-

A sea of hastily assembled demigods parted for Annabeth and I as we walked through the forum. Some looked tense, some nervous, some eyeballed me like they couldn’t believe a Greek was turning me in. Some were bandaged from their recent battle with the giants, but no one was armed. No one attacked.

Entire families had gathered to see the newcomers. I saw couples with babies, toddlers clinging to their parents’ legs, even some elderly folks in a combination of Roman robes and modern clothes. At Camp Half-Blood, most demigods were teens. If they survived long enough to graduate from high school, they either stayed on as counselors or left to start lives as best they could in the mortal world. Here, it was an entire multigenerational community. I was sure Annabeth was confused as she dragged me by my arm.

At the far end of the crowd, I spotted Tyson the Cyclops and Percy’s hellhound, Mrs. O’Leary—who had been the first scouting party from Camp Half-Blood to reach Camp Jupiter. Annabeth had shown me them from a few other photos. They looked to be in good spirits. Tyson waved and grinned. He was wearing an SPQR banner like a giant bib.

Some part of my mind registered how beautiful the city was—the smells from the bakeries, the gurgling fountains, the flowers blooming in the gardens. And the architecture—gilded marble columns, dazzling mosaics, monumental arches, and terraced villas. Part of me had missed it, but the other part recognized my fear in being here again.

In front of us, the demigods made way for a girl in full Roman armor and a purple cape. Dark hair tumbled across her shoulders. Her eyes were as black as obsidian.

Reyna.

I didn’t know what emotion to feel. Rage? Sorrow? Fear? They jumbled into one. I was sure I looked like a mess.

Medals decorated her armor. She carried herself with such confidence the other demigods backed away and averted their gaze.

I recognized something else in her face, too, something I hadn’t seen before—in the hard set of her mouth and the deliberate way she raised her chin like she was ready to accept any challenge. Reyna was forcing a look of courage, while holding back a mixture of hopefulness and worry and fear that she couldn’t show in public.

Annabeth and Reyna considered each other. My friends fanned out on either side. The Romans murmured Jason’s and my name, staring at us in awe.

Then someone else appeared from the crowd, and my vision tunneled.

Percy smiled at Annabeth—that sarcastic, troublemaker smile that I’d seen in his picture was the same. His sea-green eyes were as vibrant as Annabeth had described. His dark hair was swept to one side, like he’d just come from a walk on the beach.

We looked nothing alike.

My hand clapped over my mouth, trying to swallow back my gut. Annabeth was completely tense next to me.

The praetor Reyna straightened. With apparent reluctance, she turned toward Jason.

“Jason Grace, my former colleague…” She spoke the word colleague like it was a dangerous thing. “I welcome you home. And the daughter of Neptune, too. These, your friends—”

Annabeth hopefully didn’t mean to, but she dropped me and surged forward. Percy rushed toward her at the same time. The crowd tensed. Some reached for swords that weren’t there. I laid on the ground, completely limp.

Percy threw his arms around her. They kissed, and I felt happy for my friend, but I had nothing else to do except vomit on the grass. What a lovely entrance on my part.

Percy pulled away and studied her face. “Gods, I never thought—”

Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward, but Reyna shouted, “Hold! Stand down!”

I giggled softly, scooting away from my outward intestines.

Annabeth put her knee on Percy’s chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat.

“If you ever leave me again,” she said, her eyes stinging, “I swear to all the gods—”

Percy had the nerve to laugh. He reminded me of Jason, somewhat.

“Consider me warned,” Percy said. “I missed you, too.”

Annabeth rose and helped him to his feet.

Jason cleared his throat, picking me up off the ground. “So, yeah.…It’s good to be back.”

Reyna looked down at me, leaning limply against Jason’s body. “Is she okay?”

Jason smiled nervously. “She’s just a bit anxious to be back. But, you know her.”

He introduced Reyna to Piper, who looked a little miffed that she hadn’t gotten to say the lines she’d been practicing, then to Leo, who grinned and flashed a peace sign.

“And this is Annabeth,” Jason said. “Uh, normally she doesn’t judo-flip people.”

Reyna’s eyes sparkled. “You sure you’re not a Roman, Annabeth? Or an Amazon?”

Annabeth didn’t know if that was a compliment, but she held out her hand. “I only attack my boyfriend like that,” she promised. “Pleased to meet you.”

Reyna clasped her hand firmly. “It seems we have a lot to discuss. Centurions!”

A few of the Roman campers hustled forward— the senior officers. Two kids appeared at Percy’s side, the same ones I had seen him chumming around with earlier. The burly Asian guy with the buzz cut was about fifteen. He was cute in a sort of oversized-cuddly-panda-bear way. The girl was younger, maybe thirteen, with amber eyes and dark skin and long curly hair. Her cavalry helmet was tucked under her arm.

I could tell from their body language that they felt close to Percy. They stood next to him protectively, like they’d already shared many adventures. I fought down a twinge of jealousy. I was somewhat angry that others had gotten to bond with Percy before me. I looked back at the shorter girl and tweaked my eyebrow.

She kept frowning in Piper and Leo’s direction, like she recognized one of them and the memory was painful. Did they know eachother before? Not fair!

Meanwhile, Reyna was giving orders to her officers. “…tell the legion to stand down. Dakota, alert the spirits in the kitchen. Tell them to prepare a welcome feast. And, Octavian—”

“You’re letting these intruders into the camp?” A tall guy with stringy blond hair elbowed his way forward, my most behated person at this camp. “Reyna, the security risks—”

“We’re not taking them to the camp, Octavian.” Reyna flashed him a stern look. “We’ll eat here, in the forum.”

“Oh, much better,” Octavian grumbled. He was the only one who didn’t defer to Reyna as his superior, despite the fact that he was scrawny and pale and had three teddy bears hanging from his belt. “You want us to relax in the shadow of their warship.”

“These are our guests.” Reyna clipped off every word. “We will welcome them, and we will talk to them. As augur, you should burn an offering to thank the gods for bringing Jason back to us safely.”

“Good idea,” Percy put in. “Go burn your bears, Octavian.”

Reyna looked like she was trying not to smile. “You have my orders. Go.”

The officers dispersed. Octavian shot Percy a look of absolute loathing. Then he gave me a suspicious once-over and stalked away.

Percy slipped his hand into Annabeth’s. “Don’t worry about Octavian,” he said. “Most of the Romans are good people—like Frank and Hazel here, and Reyna. We’ll be fine.”

I felt as if someone had draped a cold washcloth across my neck. I heard that whispering laughter again, as if the presence had followed me from the ship.

I could tell Annabeth had the same feeling. She looked up at the Argo II, and part of her probably wanted to kidnap Percy right now, climb on board, and get out of here while they still could.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong.

“We’ll be fine,” Annabeth repeated, trying to believe it herself.

“Excellent,” Reyna said. She turned to Jason, and I thought there was a hungry sort of gleam in her eyes. “Let’s talk, and we can have a proper reunion.”

-

Sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits—aurae—swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts—Lares—in togas and legionnaire armor. Around the edges of the feast, fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs. O’Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

The whole scene was so familiar yet so completely alien that it gave me vertigo.

Reyna and a few of her officers (including Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods) sat with me and the crew. Percy joined us with his two new friends, Frank and Hazel. He looked over at me, and a small smile caught his lips.

“You feelin’ better?” He asked me.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice pitching upward.

“I heard you were a Neptune kid?”

My heart caught in my throat. All I could do to respond was nod.

Percy smiled. “Cool! We can, uh, talk more later, if you want.”

It felt like he was blowing me off. He probably didn’t want a sister. Or another sibling, considering his little brother was a cyclops.

Reyna called a toast to friendship.

After introductions all around, the Romans and Greeks began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he’d arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he’d gone on a quest with Piper, Leo and me to rescue the goddess Hera (or Juno, take your pick—she was equally annoying in Greek or Roman) from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

“Impossible!” Octavian broke in. “That’s our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there—”

“They would’ve destroyed her,” Piper said. “And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish.”

Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. I really loved Piper’s charmspeak. I noticed Reyna looking back and forth between Jason and Piper, her brow creased, as if just beginning to realize the two of them were a couple.

“So,” Jason continued, “that’s how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She’s still half asleep, but she’s the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands—Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by…what did he call it? Pulling up their roots.”

Percy nodded thoughtfully. “Gaea’s been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face.”

Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name—Annabeth.

Percy told us how he’d traveled to Alaska with Frank and Hazel—how they’d defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed the death god Thanatos, and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giants’ army.

When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. “No wonder they made you praetor.”

Octavian snorted. “Which means we now have three praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!”

“On the bright side,” Percy said, “both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up.”

I snorted. Maybe Percy and I looked nothing alike, but we shared the same sense of humor.

Octavian turned as purple as a Roman T-shirt. Jason gave Percy a fist bump.

Even Reyna managed a smile, though her eyes were stormy.

“We’ll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later,” she said. “Right now we have more serious issues to deal with.”

“I’ll step aside for Jason,” Percy said easily. “It’s no biggie.”

“No biggie?” Octavian choked. “The praetorship of Rome is no biggie?”

Percy ignored him and turned to Jason. “You’re Thalia Grace’s brother, huh? Wow. You guys look nothing alike.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Jason said. “Anyway, thanks for helping my camp while I was gone. You did an awesome job.”

“Back at you,” Percy said.

Annabeth sighed. “We should talk about the Great Prophecy. It sounds like the Romans are aware of it too?”

Reyna nodded. “We call it the Prophecy of Eight. Octavian, you have it committed to memory?”

“Of course,” he said. “But, Reyna—”

“Recite it, please. In English, not Latin.”

Octavian sighed. “Eight half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—”

“An oath to keep with a final breath,” Annabeth continued. “And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.”

Everyone stared at her—except for Leo, who had constructed a pinwheel out of aluminum foil taco wrappers and was sticking it into passing wind spirits.

The big kid, Frank, sat forward, staring at her in fascination, as if she’d grown a third eye. “Is it true you’re a child of Min—I mean, Athena?”

“Yes,” she said, suddenly defensive. “Why is that such a surprise?”

Octavian scoffed. “If you’re truly a child of the wisdom goddess—”

“Enough,” Reyna snapped. “Annabeth is what she says. She’s here in peace. Besides…” She gave Annabeth a look of grudging respect. “Percy has spoken highly of you.”

The undertones in Reyna’s voice took me a moment to decipher. Percy looked down, suddenly interested in his cheeseburger.

I held down a laugh. Oh, gods…Reyna had tried to make a move on Percy. That explained the tinge of bitterness, maybe even envy, in her words. Percy had turned her down for Annabeth.

“Uh, thanks,” she told Reyna. “At any rate, some of the prophecy is becoming clear. Foes bearing arms to the Doors of Death…that means Romans and Greeks. We have to combine forces to find those doors.”

Hazel, the girl with the cavalry helmet and the long curly hair, picked up something next to her plate. It looked like a large ruby; but before I could be sure, Hazel slipped it into the pocket of her denim shirt.

“My brother, Nico, went looking for the doors,” she said.

“Wait,” Annabeth said. “Nico di Angelo? He’s your brother?”

My ears perked up. Nico was the other Big Three kid at Camp Half-Blood, but I recognized his full name as the Pluto kid that would occasionally visit. So he’d been to both camps?

Annabeth decided to let the matter go. “Okay. You were saying?”

“He disappeared.” Hazel moistened her lips. “I’m afraid…I’m not sure, but I think something’s happened to him.”

“We’ll look for him,” Percy promised. “We have to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos told us we’d find both answers in Rome—like, the original Rome. That’s on the way to Greece, right?”

“Thanatos told you this?” I tried to wrap my mind around that idea. “The death god?”

Percy took a bite of his burger. “Now that Death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to Tartarus again like they used to. But as long as the Doors of Death are open, they’ll just keep coming back.”

Piper twisted her braid. “Like water leaking through a dam,” she suggested.

“Yeah.” Percy smiled. “We’ve got a dam hole.”

“What?” Piper asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Inside joke. The point is we’ll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to Greece. It’s the only way we’ll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they stay defeated.”

Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. She turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. “You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands—and the Mare Nostrum—are dangerous?”

“Mary who?” Leo asked.

“Mare Nostrum,” I explained. “Our Sea. It’s what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean.”

Reyna nodded. “The territory that was once the Roman Empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It’s also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans and giants…and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse.”

“You said Alaska would be bad,” Percy reminded her. “We survived that.”

Reyna shook her head. Her fingernails cut little crescents into the apple as she turned it. “Percy, traveling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. It’s been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would go there.”

“Then we’re good!” Leo grinned over the top of his pinwheel. “Because we’re all crazy, right? Besides, the Argo II is a top-of-the-line warship. She’ll get us through.”

“We’ll have to hurry,” Jason added. “I don’t know exactly what the giants are planning, but Gaea is growing more conscious all the time. She’s invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. We have to stop the giants before they can wake her up fully.”

I shuddered. I’d had my own share of nightmares lately.

“Eight half-bloods must answer the call,” I said. “It needs to be a mix from both our camps. Jason, Piper, Leo, Annabeth, and me. That’s five.”

“And me,” Percy said. “Along with Hazel and Frank. That’s eight.”

“What?” Octavian shot to his feet. “We’re just supposed to accept that? Without a vote in the senate? Without a proper debate? Without—”

“Percy!” Tyson the Cyclops, who I guess also counted as my brother, bounded toward us with Mrs. O’Leary at his heels. On the hellhound’s back sat the skinniest harpy I had ever seen—a sickly-looking girl with stringy red hair, a sackcloth dress, and red-feathered wings.

I didn’t know where the harpy had come from, but I was more focused on Tyson in his tattered flannel and denim with the backward SPQR banner across his chest. I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about having a monster as my half-brother, and if we’d even get to that conversation.

But now wasn’t time for worrying. I pushed aside all other thoughts and gave Tyson my most diplomatic smile, which probably looked something like a dog barring its teeth.

Tyson stopped by our couch and wrung his meaty hands. His big brown eye was full of concern. “Ella is scared,” he said.

“N-n-no more boats,” the harpy muttered to herself, picking furiously at her feathers. “Titanic, Lusitania, Pax…boats are not for harpies.”

Leo squinted. He looked at me from over his shoulder. “Did that chicken girl just compare my ship to the Titanic?”

“She’s not a chicken.” Hazel, who sat on Leo’s other side, averted her eyes from us, as if we made her nervous. “Ella’s a harpy. She’s just a little…high-strung.”

“Ella is pretty,” Tyson said. “And scared. We need to take her away, but she will not go on the ship.”

“No ships,” Ella repeated. She looked straight at Annabeth. “Bad luck. There she is. Wisdom’s daughter walks alone—”

“Ella!” Frank stood suddenly. “Maybe it’s not the best time—”

“The Mark of Athena burns through Rome,” Ella continued, cupping her hands over her ears and raising her voice. “Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, Who holds the key to endless death. Giants’ bane stands gold and pale, Won through pain from a woven jail.”

The effect was like someone dropping a flash grenade on the table. Everyone stared at the harpy. No one spoke. Annabeth’s heart was pounding so loud, I could hear it echo in my ears.

Around us, the sounds of the feast continued, but muted and distant, as if our little cluster of couches had slipped into a quieter dimension.

Percy was the first to recover. He stood and took Tyson’s arm.

“I know!” he said with feigned enthusiasm. “How about you take Ella to get some fresh air? You and Mrs. O’Leary—”

“Hold on.” Octavian gripped one of his teddy bears, strangling it with shaking hands. His eyes fixed on Ella. “What was that she said? It sounded like—”

“Ella reads a lot,” Frank blurted out. “We found her at a library.”

“Yes!” Hazel said. “Probably just something she read in a book.”

“Books,” Ella muttered helpfully. “Ella likes books.”

Now that she’d said her piece, the harpy seemed more relaxed. She sat cross-legged on Mrs. O’Leary’s back, preening her wings.

I gave Percy a curious glance. Obviously, he and Frank and Hazel were hiding something. Just as obviously, Ella had recited a prophecy—a prophecy that concerned Annabeth.

Percy’s expression said, Help.

“That was a prophecy,” Octavian insisted. “It sounded like a prophecy.”

No one answered.

I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but I understood that Percy was on the verge of big trouble.

I forced a laugh. “Really, Octavian? I don’t remember the harpies these way. The greeks’ have just enough intelligence to clean cabins, construct bridges from glue and tape, and cook lunches. Do ours usually foretell the future? Should you consult them for your auguries?”

My words had the intended effect. The Roman officers laughed nervously. Some sized up Ella, then looked at Octavian and snorted. The idea of a chicken lady issuing prophecies was apparently just ridiculous.

“I, uh…” Octavian dropped his teddy bear. “No, but—”

“She’s just spouting lines from some book,” I said, “like Hazel suggested. Besides, we already have a real prophecy to worry about.”

I turned to Tyson. “Percy’s right. Why don’t you take Ella and Mrs. O’Leary and uh… shadow-travel somewhere for a while. Is Ella okay with that?”

“‘Large dogs are good,’” Ella said. “Old Yeller, 1957, screenplay by Fred Gipson and William Tunberg.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that answer, but Percy smiled at me gratefully.

“Great!” Percy said. “We’ll Iris-message you guys when we’re done and catch up with you later.”

The Romans looked at Reyna, waiting for her ruling. I held my breath.

Reyna had an excellent poker face. She studied Ella, but I couldn’t guess what she was thinking.

“Fine,” the praetor said at last. “Go.”

“Yay!” Tyson went around the couches and gave everyone a big hug—even Octavian, who didn’t look happy about it. Then he climbed on Mrs. O’Leary’s back with Ella, and the hellhound bounded out of the forum. They dove straight into a shadow on the Senate House wall and disappeared.

“Well.” Reyna set down her uneaten apple. “Octavian is right about one thing. We must gain the senate’s approval before we let any of our legionnaires go on a quest—especially one as dangerous as you’re suggesting.”

“This whole thing smells of treachery,” Octavian grumbled. “That trireme is not a ship of peace!”

“Come aboard, man,” Leo offered. “I’ll give you a tour. You can steer the boat, and if you’re really good I’ll give you a little paper captain’s hat to wear.”

Octavian’s nostrils flared. “How dare you—”

“It’s a good idea,” Reyna said. “Octavian, go with him. See the ship. We’ll convene a senate meeting in one hour.”

“But…” Octavian stopped. Apparently he could tell from Reyna’s expression that further arguing would not be good for his health. “Fine.”

Leo got up and looked at me. “Coming?”

“I would but, uh…” I fiddled with my thumbs.

My boyfriend looked at Percy, then nodded. “No probs.”

He gave me a kiss on my head and bounded toward Octavian. Then he turned to me, and his smile changed. It happened so quickly, I thought I’d imagined it; but just for a moment someone else seemed to be standing in Leo’s place, smiling coldly with a cruel light in his eyes. Then I blinked, and Leo was just regular old Leo again, with his usual impish grin.

“Back soon,” he promised. “This is gonna be epic.”

A horrible chill settled over me. As Leo and Octavian headed for the rope ladder, I thought about calling them back—but how could I explain that? Tell everyone I was going crazy, seeing things and feeling cold? I was already in an awkward stance.

The wind spirits began clearing the plates.

“Uh, Reyna,” Jason said, “if you don’t mind, I’d like to show Piper around before the senate meeting. She’s never seen New Rome.”

Reyna’s expression hardened.

I wondered how Jason could be so dense. Was it possible he really didn’t understand how much Reyna liked him? It was obvious enough to me, even if we weren’t dating anymore. Asking to show his new girlfriend around Reyna’s city was rubbing salt in a wound.

“Of course,” Reyna said coldly.

Percy took Annabeth’s hand. “Yeah, me, too. I’d like to show Annabeth—”

“No,” Reyna snapped.

Percy knit his eyebrows. “Sorry?”

“I’d like a few words with Annabeth,” Reyna said. “Alone. If you don’t mind, my fellow praetor.”

Her tone made it clear she wasn’t really asking permission.

“Come, daughter of Athena.” Reyna rose from her couch. “Walk with me.”

Annabeth stood up and rubbed my shoulder. “Good luck,” she whispered.

“I should tell you that,” I joked.

My blonde friend smiled at me, then waked away with the praetor. Jason and Piper split from the group as well.

I felt like throwing up again. I leaned back and exhaled a breath I had been holding.

“Thank you so much,” Hazel said, finally looking in my direction.

“For what?” I asked.

“Uh, saving our asses,” Percy said, sitting down on the couch next to me. “You totally could have sided with Octavian.”

I scoffed, looking at Percy. I finally took the time to take in his features. I guess we had some resemblances. “Why would I side with that toothpick? He made my life here living hell.”

“That’s right,” Frank said. “You were the missing Neptune girl. We heard about you after joining the Fifth Cohort.”

I seethed, rubbing my back of my neck. “Yeah. That’s me. How much did you hear?”

“I mean, the usual,” Hazel said. “Well, you disappeared the same week as Jason, and Dakota said you two used to date.”

“So you went looking for him, right?” Frank asked. “And saved him!”

I gave an awkward smile. “No….”

Percy tilted his head. “That’s what Reyna told me.”

I groaned and slumped into the couch. “Well, notice he has a different girl in his arms. Very different story.” My eyes widened, and I shot forward. “Wait, so everyone thought I went to look for him?”

Frank nodded. “You didn’t?”

“I thought the camp hated me!” I shouted. “I fled! I just happened to go on a school feildtrip with him!”

Percy nearly doubled over laughing. “What? That makes no sense! Dude, how have I not known you my whole life?”

“Roman and Greek,” I said, a small smile on my lips. “I grew up in Cali, and you grew up in New York.”

I saw a glint of sadness in Percy’s eyes, and I knew what he was thinking. His dad cheated on his mom. Looking at me, he must have seen that horrible reality come true. “Yeah,” he said. “Um… how old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

Percy squinted. “Okay. me too. When did you turn sixteen?”

“Sometime around August,” I said. “I can’t remember the exact date.”

“Well, who’s older?” Percy asked. “I’m an August baby too.”

I snorted. “Dude, what?”

Hazel smiled. “Awe, you two could be twins!”

The two of us looked at eachother, and then to Hazel. “Twins?”

Frank cleared his throat. “Well, I mean, If Neptune- or, Poseidon, I guess- had two kids around the same time with two different people then yeah, twins.”

Percy scooted closer toward me. “And how’s your mom?”

My gut flipped. “Yeah…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. I couldn’t forget that day. I wouldn’t let myself. “She’s dead.”

My brother’s smile dropped. “Oh. I’m sorry. Well, I mean, my mom probably wouldn’t mind another kid. I mean, she pretty much took Tyson in. Oh, yeah, that big guy is your brother, too.”

“I know,” I said, a small chuckle in my voice. “Annabeth told me.”

Percy momentarily melted at the very mention of his girlfriend's name. Hazel seemed to notice and giggled. “I bet you missed her.”

“No doubt,” I said.

“Oh,” Percy said, shaking himself out of his trance. “What’s up with you and Jason? He’s dating another chick, right? But that boy- uh, what was his name?”

“Sammy,” Hazel said. “I… I think.”

I burst out laughing. “Sammy? What the hell?”

The girl looked embarrassed. “It’s not Sammy?”

I shook my head, getting the last of my laughs out. “Percy, Jason and I broke up before he disappeared. And that boy up there-” I pointed toward the Argo II, “-is my boyfriend.”

A shrill sound pierced the air. Light flashed above me.

I barely had any time to turn before I was blasted out of my seat.

I couldn’t hear anything but a loud whine in my head. My vision was blurred beyond recognicion, and my whole body ached. The ground under me shook and trembled as debris flew everywhere.

Someone grabbed me and tossed me over their shoulder. I heard muffled speech and screams, then more people crowded around us. Whoever was carrying me began to run around frantically.

My head became cloudy. My vision went black, and I knew I was about to pass out.

“I told you so,” Prometheus’s voice told me before I lost consciousness.

-

I woke up wet. No, don’t take that the wrong way. I mean I woke up soaked, head to toe, as if someone had dumped several buckets of water all over me.

When my eyes opened, I saw Percy standing over me.

“Wow, that really did work,” he said. “I’m kind of surprised.”

“What happened?” I asked, struggling to sit up in my heavy clothes.

Percy’s eyes darkened, and I felt somewhat scared seeing him with an expression like that. I got the feeling it was a side not many people saw.

“Your boyfriend,” he simply stated. “But whatever, I don’t wanna talk about it anymore. How are you feeling?”

I shrugged. “Fine, I guess? Kind of sore, but that’s no biggie. Why’d you dump a bucket over me?”

Percy laughed somewhat. “Jason told me it helps? It really did miracle work on you. There’s not a single scar.”

I sat up further and swung my legs over the side of my bed. “You’re freaking me out. What happened?”

“Well,” Percy sighed. “Leo fired on New Rome.”

“What?!”

“I guess it wasn’t on purpose-”

“Fucking Octavian- Let me at him!”

Percy pushed me back onto the bed. “We left. We can’t go back. The Romans are after us.”

My gut dropped. “What? What the fu-”

“Leo doesn’t remember,” Percy said, his brows furrowed in anger. “But you were the target of the first shot. You looked rough. Frank got you, though.”

“I thought you said the Romans were against us?” I asked, pushing Percy off me.

“They are, but the Prophecy demigods came along.” Percy pushed a hand through his dark hair. “They’re getting over it. Well, the ship is damaged to high hell, so we’re going to figure that out with the rest of the crew. Feel free to come up when you’re feeling better.”

I stood up straight, my sopping wet clothes weighing me down. “I’m good, now.”

Percy looked me up and down. “Why don’t you change? Wet clothes can’t feel that great.”

I sighed and walked out of my room. “I’ve got it covered. Take me to Leo.”

“Sure thing,” Percy said, hurrying to my side and taking me to the top deck.

The ship really was a wreck. Massive chunks were taken out of the ship railing, there were holes in the floorboards, and half the shields that rimmed the sides of the boat were missing.

I looked to the end of the deck, where Frank and Leo stood, seemingly talking with Festus, our ship’s masthead. They turned when they heard us coming up the steps.

Leo’s eyes widened when he saw me. “Oh thank god, you’re okay. Oh, what about-”

“Jason’s resting,” Annabeth said, coming up behind us. “Piper’s keeping an eye on him, but he should be fine.”

I gave Leo a hard look. “Percy says you fired the ballista?”

“Babe, I—I don’t understand how it happened. I’m so sorry—”

“Sorry?” I growled.

Annabeth put a hand on my chest. “We’ll figure it out later. Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What’s the situation with the ship?”

Leo’s legs trembled. His eyes darted between mine and Percy’s, and I heard his heartbeat increase in speed.

He told us about the damage and the supplies we needed. He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.

“Perfect.” Leo sighed with relief.

“What’s perfect?” I said. “I could use some perfect about now.”

Leo managed a smile. “Everything we need in one place. Frank, why don’t you turn into a bird or something? Fly down and tell your girlfriend to meet us at the Great Salt Lake in Utah.”

-

Once we got there, it wasn’t a pretty landing. With the oars damaged and the foresail torn, Leo could barely manage a controlled descent. The others strapped themselves below—except for me and Coach Hedge, who insisted on clinging to the forward rail, yelling, “YEAH! Bring it on, lake!” Leo stood astern, alone at the helm, and aimed as best he could.

Festus creaked and whirred warning signals, which were relayed through the intercom to the quarterdeck.

“I know, I know,” Leo said, gritting his teeth.

I didn’t have much time to take in the scenery. To the southeast, a city was nestled in the foothills of a mountain range, blue and purple in the afternoon shadows. A flat desert landscape spread to the south. Directly beneath us the Great Salt Lake glittered like aluminum foil, the shoreline etched with white salt marshes that reminded me of aerial photos of Mars.

“Hang on, Coach!” I shouted. “This is going to hurt.”

“I was born for hurt!”

WHOOM! A swell of salt water washed over the bow, dousing Coach Hedge and I. The Argo II listed dangerously to starboard, then righted itself and rocked on the surface of the lake. Machinery hummed as the aerial blades that were still working changed to nautical form.

Three banks of robotic oars dipped into the water and began moving us forward.

“Good job, Festus,” Leo said. “Take us toward the south shore.”

“Yeah!” Coach Hedge pumped his fists in the air. He was drenched from his horns to hooves, but grinning like a crazy goat. “Do it again!”

“Uh…maybe later,” Leo said. “Just stay above deck, okay? You can keep watch, in case—you know, the lake decides to attack us or something.”

“On it,” Hedge promised.

Leo rang the All clear bell and we headed for the stairs. Before we got there, a loud clump-clump-clump shook the hull. A tan stallion appeared on deck with Hazel Levesque on his back.

My voice cracked. “Huh?”

“How—?” Leo’s question died in his throat. “We’re in the middle of a lake! Can that thing fly?”

The horse whinnied angrily.

“Arion can’t fly,” Hazel said. “But he can run across just about anything. Water, vertical surfaces, small mountains—none of that bothers him.”

“Oh.”

Hazel was looking at Leo strangely, the way she had during the feast in the forum—like she was searching for something in his face. When I looked back to Leo, his eyes seemed to sparkle. My gut twisted into knots.

She’s Frank’s girlfriend, I thought. And I’m your girlfriend.

Frank was still below, but I almost wished the big guy would come up the stairs. The way Hazel and Leo were studying each other made me feel uneasy and self-conscious.

Coach Hedge crept forward with his baseball bat, eyeing the magic horse suspiciously. “Valdez, does this count as an invasion?”

“No!” Leo said. “Um, Hazel, you’d better come with me. I built a stable belowdecks, if Arion wants to—”

“He’s more of a free spirit.” Hazel slipped out of the saddle. “He’ll graze around the lake until I call him. But I want to see the ship. Lead the way.”

I sneered as I followed behind them.

The Argo II was designed like an ancient trireme, only twice as big. The first deck had one central corridor with crew cabins on either side. On a normal trireme, most of the space would’ve been taken up with three rows of benches for a few hundred sweaty guys to do the manual labor, but Leo’s oars were automated and retractable, so they took up very little room inside the hull. The ship’s power came from the engine room on the second and lowest deck, which also housed sickbay, storage, and the stables.

Leo led the way down the hall. He’d built the ship with nine cabins—eight for the demigods of the prophecy, and a room for Coach Hedge (Seriously—Chiron considered him a responsible adult chaperone?). At the stern was a large mess hall/lounge, which was where we headed.

On the way, we passed Jason’s room. The door was open. Piper sat at the side of his berth, holding Jason’s hand while he snored with an ice pack on his head.

Piper glanced at Leo. She held a finger to her lips for quiet, but she didn’t look angry. That was something. I waved softly and we kept walking. When we reached the mess hall, we found the others—Percy, Annabeth, and Frank—sitting dejectedly around the dining table.

Leo had made the lounge as nice as possible, since he figured we’d be spending a lot of time there. The cupboard was lined with magic cups and plates from Camp Half-Blood, which would fill up with whatever food or drink you wanted on command. There was also a magical ice chest with canned drinks, perfect for picnics ashore. The chairs were cushy recliners with thousand-finger massage, built-in headphones, and sword and drink holders for all your demigod kicking-back needs. There were no windows, but the walls were enchanted to show real-time footage from Camp Half-Blood—the beach, the forest, the strawberry fields—although now I was wondering if this made people homesick rather than happy.

Percy was staring longingly at a sunset view of Half-Blood Hill, where the Golden Fleece glittered in the branches of the tall pine tree.

“So we’ve landed,” Percy said. “What now?”

Frank plucked on his bowstring. “Figure out the prophecy? I mean…that was a prophecy Ella spoke, right? From the Sibylline Books?”

“The what?” Leo asked.

Frank explained how their harpy friend was freakishly good at memorizing books. At some point in the past, she’d inhaled a collection of ancient prophecies that had supposedly been destroyed around the fall of Rome.

“That’s why you didn’t tell the Romans,” I guessed. “You didn’t want them to get hold of her.”

Percy kept staring at the image of Half-Blood Hill. “Ella’s sensitive. She was a captive when we found her. I just didn’t want…” He made a fist. “It doesn’t matter now. I sent Tyson an Iris-message, told him to take Ella to Camp Half-Blood. They’ll be safe there.”

I doubted that any of us would be safe, now that Leo had stirred up a camp of angry Romans on top of the problems we already had with Gaea and the giants; but I kept quiet.

Annabeth laced her fingers. “Let me think about the prophecy—but right now we have more immediate problems. We have to get this ship fixed. Leo, what do we need?”

“The easiest thing is tar.” Leo was glad to change the subject. “We can get that in the city, at a roofing-supply store or someplace like that. Also, Celestial bronze and lime. According to Festus, we can find both of those on an island in the lake, just west of here.”

“We’ll have to hurry,” Hazel warned. “If I know Octavian, he’s searching for us with his auguries. The Romans will send a strike force after us. It’s a matter of honor.”

Leo seemed to feel everyone’s eyes on him. “Guys…I don’t know what happened. Honestly, I—”

Annabeth raised her hand. “We’ve been talking. We agree it couldn’t have been you, Leo. That cold feeling you mentioned…I felt it too. It must have been some sort of magic, either Octavian or Gaea or one of her minions. But until we understand what happened—”

Frank grunted. “How can we be sure it won’t happen again?”

I cranked my head to the side. “Cold feeling? Why didn’t you say anything, Annabeth? I felt that too, but not lately.”

“I’m fine now,” Leo insisted, though I wished he could be sure. “Maybe we should use the buddy system. Nobody goes anywhere alone. We can leave Piper and Coach Hedge on board with Jason. Send one team into town to get tar. Another team can go after the bronze and the lime.”

“Split up?” Percy said. “That sounds like a really bad idea.”

“It’ll be quicker,” Hazel put in. “Besides, there’s a reason a quest is usually limited to three demigods, right?”

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, as if reappraising Hazel’s merits. “You’re right. The same reason we needed the Argo II…outside camp, eight demigods in one place will attract way too much monstrous attention. The ship is designed to conceal and protect us. We should be safe enough on board; but if we go on expeditions, we shouldn’t travel in groups larger than three. No sense alerting more of Gaea’s minions than we have to.”

“Wait,” I said. “But our first quest was four. Chiron said we could, remember?”

Percy frowned. “Well,” he took Annabeth’s hand, “as long as you’re my buddy, and she comes with, I’m good.”

Hazel smiled. “Oh, that’s easy. Frank, you were amazing, turning into a dragon! Could you do it again to fly them into town for the tar?”

“That makes four,” I said. “Can we allow that, or should we go down?”

Annabeth looked a little miffed, but she nodded. “We can expect monsters on our tails, then. Frank, you’re coming.”

Frank opened his mouth like he wanted to protest. “I…I suppose. But what about Hazel?”

“I’ll ride Arion with Sa—with Leo, here.” Thre she went again with calling Leo the wrong name. What was with that? Who the hell is Sammy? “We’ll get the bronze and the lime. We can all meet back here by dark.”

Frank scowled. Obviously, he didn’t like the idea of Leo going off with Hazel. And neither did I.

“Leo,” said Annabeth, “if we get the supplies, how long to fix the ship?”

“With luck, just a few hours,” Leo replied.

“Fine,” she decided. “We’ll meet you back here as soon as possible, but stay safe. We could use some good luck. That doesn’t mean we’ll get it.”

Chapter Text

“Oh my fucking god.”

I clung to Frank’s scales with as much force as possible. Percy tried to ease me, but he wasn’t much help.

“I hate flying,” I said. “PTSD.”

Percy nodded. “No, I feel you on that.”

My nails dug into Frank’s back, causing him to huff smoke into the air. I quietly apologized and eased my grip, but I still felt unsteady. Percy mumbled something to Annabeth, who sat at the front of us, before turning back to me.

“Hold on to my waist,” he said, a reassuring smile on his lips. “It’ll honeslty make us both feel better.”

I wasted no time as I wrapped my arms around his torso, pulling him into me as I silently panicked. I breathed in my brother’s scent, which was somehow familiar and yet completely new. It was like the sea breeze mixed with teenage boy… like Axe body spray. I hated it and liked it at the same time. Mostly because I could now affliate this smell with my brother for the rest of my life.

Percy leaned back into me and rested his hands on Annabeth’s hips. As we came closer to the town that Leo had sent us to, Frank landed somewhere discreet so the townsfolk wouldn’t see some weird flying object that dispersed three kids from it. Who knew what the Mist would do to their minds.

The big guy shifted back into his human form, a bit winded from all the flying (Ha. Get it? Winded). The four of us quickly marched into town, doing our best to get some tar before sundown without finding any Romans or monsters. Annabeth led our group, Frank following her like a lost kid, while Percy and I stayed at the back.

For some odd reason, I got the idea that Percy wanted to talk more, but we just didn’t have any idea what to say. It seemed like we’d covered the basics, and yet it just felt… awakward. There wasn’t that instant click like with Piper and Leo. It felt awakward and somehwat forced, even though it was clear we both wanted to just be together. I hated it, and I could sense that it didn’t sit well on Percy, either.

Annabeth rounded around the corner, the rest of us in tow. She scanned whatever shops were down the street, before snapping her fingers and smiling. “Got it. Right there, at the end of the street, see?”

I looked to where she had motioned, seeing a large corner sotre with lots of posters on it. One seemed to be a bucket with black liquid.

“Roofing tar,” I said. “LIke Leo wants.”

Annabeth nodded, pulling Percy closer to her. It was almost like she was afraid he’d disappear at any moment. “I think it might be some off-brand Home Depot. That would work, right?”

“Course.” I shoved my hands in my pocket, feeling my golden pen, which sent a shiver up my spine. My demigod senses started to go off, alerting me to stay on watch. I hated it, but oftentimes this gut feeling was right.

Percy shifted his weight between his legs. “So we go in, grab a few buckets of tar, pay, and then we’re home free.”

“I mean, I guess,” Frank said, his tall figure looming over us three teens. “It can’t be that simple, right?”

“Bro, shut up,” I pleaded. “Don’t jinx us.”

Even though I knew he was right, I decided to have some optimism. Our group rushed to the store- which upon closer inspection, was PURELY a roofing tar store- and headed to the shelves to grab a few buckets.

That’s when I really started to panic. The air felt really thick and stunk like shit. It was almost like I was suffocating. Maybe the water content was getting to me? But that had never happened to me before. I didn’t feel trapped and choked when I was around jello, now, did I? So why would it be like that around tar?

I shifted my gaze around the store. There were a few workers scattered about, each looking dazed and empty, wearing a bright green uniform on their bodies. There were no other customers besides us four.

Frank picked up two buckets in each hand easily, making me a bit jealous. How could he have been so strong? I mean, he didn’t look it since he was a bit chubby, but I had never seen a Mars kid lift like that.

He nervously scouted the store as I had, and it became apparent that he was as freaked as I was. Something wasn’t sitting right with either of us.

The store employees had cranned their heads to watch us, their eyes dark and hungry. As Percy and Annabeth took their own buckets, I decided to lay off and keep my eyes on the employees, who had slowly begun to make their way toward us.

We scooted toward the pay counter, where the cashier looked up at us, her mouth agape slightly like she was mouth breathing.

“Just these six buckets of tar, please,” Percy said. Even though it was a short sentence, I could tell he had some pretty good social skills.

The lady behind the counter stared at him blankly, her mouth still ajar.

Percy squinted at her. “Hello? Just these items. How much?”

The woman began to drool, and I thought I was going to be sick; especially when the drool came out thick and black.

She inhaled, her breath grumbly and wet, like she had built up phlegm in her lungs. When I looked behind me, I saw that the other employees had surrounded our group from just a few feet away. They drooled the same black ooze, and slowly, their faces began to sag and sink.

I turned back to the cashier, who now had black tar spilling from her eyes.

“This is not for demigods!” she gurgled. “Our tar is specifically for our brethren and those affiliated with our Patron!”

“Oh, Jesus Christ!” I said. “Dude, one fucking moment of peace.”

Frank held up his tar buckets and blindly swung at the closest employee to him. Their face blasted apart and smeared tar against the wall. Then, their whole body melted together until it was just one big sentient pile of tar.

“Ew!” Frank yelped, swinging again. This time, the tar monster evaded the buckets and shot its hand at Frank’s face. I quickly got out my trident and thrust it though the monster’s hand, saving the big man’s face from being smothered in the disgusting tar.

“You have a trident?!” Percy yelled, his face displaying much awe.

I felt a blush spread across my face. “Well, I guess… I mean, it’s nothing-”

One of the tar monsters grabbed my ankle and pulled me. I fell flat on my face and yelped, stabbing my weapon at the black ooze that attacked me.

The four of us ended up fighting for our lives. We each took a tar monster for ourselves, but none of our attacks managed to do anything but smear the monsters’ bodies around.

I tried to control them, but as I had expected, their water content was too low- diminished by all the chemicals and other monster ingredients in them. Trying to use my powers only made me feel like I was choking.

I decided to try again with a different approach. If I smeared the monsters far enough apart, maybe I could find some sort of weak spot. I used my trident like a baseball bat and started swinging left and right, flinging black tar and monster bits every which way. When the pile was small enough, I stomped in the center of it, trying to get some sort of tar-heart.

I had fucked up pretty bad. Honestly, I wanted to show off infront of my brother so he would think I was cool, but all I did was make a mess. And that mess combined together with another tar monster, making an even bigger ooze creature than before.

“No!” Frank yelled. “I almost had it!”

“I’m sorry!” I dashed away as the monster slammed its hands down. Frank and I leaped over the shelves of the store, doing some pretty sick parkour as we evaded the big tar demon and ran for our lives.

“Annabeth!” Percy called, hacking and slashing at his own tar thing in the corner. “Any ideas?”

Surprisingly the blonde had come up with nothing. There was only tar in the store, so we couldn’t use anything clever to destroy the monsters. And since splashing tar everywhere didn’t do anything, we were really stuck.

“I can’t think,” Annabeth said, ducking and roling away from her tar pile. “Should we just run?”

“Annabeth, you sound crazy,” Percy said.

Look at you, Promethus said in my mind. Rushing into a fight without thinking. When will you learn?

“Shut up!” I yelled.

“Me?” Percy asked.

I lost my train of thought, quickly tumbling into a shelf and knocking it over. Tar buckets fell off the shelving as it came down, and one fell directly on my knee.

I howled out in pain, causing Percy to look over. In his distracted state, the tar monster he was battling wrapped an arm around him and threw him aside. I heard him crash into the fallen shelf behind me, seething in agony.

You humans, so brave and so simple minded. Unprepared for the road ahead. I suppose I shall help you.

I whimpered, watching as the large tar creature loomed over me. It reached its hand out and shoved it into my face.

I couldn't breathe. Tar inched its way up my nose and down my throat.

It was body snatching me.

As my eyes began to roll into the back of my head, Frank charged in and tackled the tar demon. Its hand was pulled away from me, and the suffocating feeling subsided.

I coughed and spit up the taste it had left in my mouth.

“Run!” Frank said. “Get away from us!”

I whimpered, scooting away from the two. I couldn't stand with my knee dislocated, but I also couldn’t leave the Roman kid behind. Percy was injured, and Annabeth was about to be overpowered.

Then suddenly, a lone match appeared on my lap. I studied it, almost wondering if it was a hallucination.

I gave you humans fire once, Prometheus said, and I shall do it once more. Save yourselves.

How had I not thought of this? I really wished Leo had come with us, since he was good at coming up with stupid ideas all the time.

I held the match between my teeth and used my trident to help myself up. I whimpered as I hobbled to Percy, who looked like he had broken a rib when he was smashed against the shelf. I grabbed his arm and pulled him up.

Then, with one quick motion, I stabbed through a few tar buckets, spilling the liquid all over the floor. It spread through the fallen shelf and other buckets, making its way over to the big monster Frank was fighting.

Annabeth watched as she ducked and weaved around her opponent, then she realized my plan. She hopped up on the cashier's counter, kicking the monster back into the growing tar puddle.

Percy hobbled over to his girlfriend and toward the exit while I took the match from my teeth.

Frank still held onto the monster, pinning it to the ground. He glanced over and saw the large black puddle on the floor, his eyes widening. “What-”

“Frank, move!” I screamed.

In an instant, the big teen transformed into a lizard and scampered off, heading toward the door with the others.

I slowly backed up, trying not to fall over as I used my trident for support. Soon, all four of us were at the exit without buckets of tar, the large monsters trudging towards us.

With a quick swipe, I lit the match against my teeth, then tossed it into the puddle of tar.

It lit up like a pool of fire. The entire store became engulfed in flames, taking the monsters with it.

Frank grabbed the three of us in his arms, still carrying all four of his tar buckets, and sprinted out the door like a maniac. A crowd looked over at us as we dashed out of the store, and Percy quickly shouted, “Call the fire department!”

That distracted the motrals long enough for Frank to transform back into a dragon and launch toward the Argo II.

-

I couldn’t focus on anything when we landed on the ship. I knew there was some crazy stuff since the boat cept lurching in the water, like we were being attacked again. But when Franked dropped us off with our steaming buckets of tar, I collapsed almost instantly. Percy and I leaned against each other, the two of us using my trident as support as we staggered below deck to the makeshift infirmary Leo had put in.

Annabeth ran in front of us, her hair covered in tar, and her five gallon bucket slamming against the hallway walls. Piper stared at her as she came down, then eyed Percy and I.

“Roofing tar?” Piper guessed.

Frank stumbled up behind us, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.

“Ran into some tar monsters,” I said, wincing when I accidentally put too much weight on my leg. I glanced into medbay, seeing my old pal sitting on his bed. “Hey, Jason, glad you’re awake.”

Then I turned my attention to Hazel, who had gone out with my boyfriend and no doubt shared some happy sappy moment with ‘Sammy’ “Hazel, where’s Leo?” I asked, my voice on edge.

She pointed down. “Engine room.”

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. Us demigods stumbled. Percy almost dropped his bucket of tar on our feet.

“Uh, what was that?” he demanded.

“Oh…” Hazel looked embarrassed. “We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like…all of them.”

“Great.” Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank and Annabeth. “You guys help Leo. I’ll hold off the water spirits as long as I can.”

“On it!” Frank promised.

“Your rib?” I asked, turning toward my brother.

He shrugged. “I’ll try that trick of yours. Maybe that’ll help while I’m out there.”

“What trick?” I asked, watching my brother rush away, clutching his side.

Annabeth hoisted up the buckets of tar, seething under the weight. “Piper told us drowning you in water works.”

“WHAT?!”

Her and Frank rushed down the hall, carrying their heavy loads of tar.

I groaned, now being left alone with Piper, Hazel, and Jason, who sat in medbay. The ship listed again, and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick.

“I’ll just…” She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway, and ran off.

Jason, Piper, and I stayed below as the ship rocked back and forth. For a hero, I felt pretty useless as I succumbed to sitting in a medbay cot, dumping a bottle of water over my dislocated knee. It really did heal me.

Waves crashed against the hull as angry voices came from above deck—Percy shouting, Coach Hedge yelling at the lake. Festus the figurehead breathed fire several times. Down the hall, Hazel moaned miserably in her cabin. In the engine room below, it sounded like Leo and the others were doing an Irish line dance with anvils tied to their feet. After what seemed like hours, the engine began to hum. The oars creaked and groaned, and I felt the ship lift into the air.

“Thank fuck,” I moaned, laying down on the cot with my sore knee hanging off the bed.

The rocking and shaking stopped. The ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. Finally Leo emerged from the engine room. He was caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. His T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. His shirt read: AM LEO, which confused the shit out of me. But he grinned like a madman and announced that they were safely under way.

He came over and squeezed my hand, giving me a soft kiss on my forehead.

“Meeting in the mess hall, one hour,” he said. “Crazy day, huh?”

After everyone had cleaned up, Coach Hedge took the helm and us demigods gathered below for dinner. It was the first time we’d all sat down together—just the eight of us. Maybe their presence should’ve reassured me, but seeing all of them in one place only reminded me that the Prophecy of Eight was unfolding at last. No more waiting for Leo to finish the ship. No more easy days at Camp Half-Blood, pretending the future was still a long way off. We were under way, with a bunch of angry Romans behind us and the ancient lands ahead. The giants would be waiting. Gaea was rising. And unless we succeeded in this quest, the world would be destroyed.

The others must’ve felt it too. The tension in the mess hall was like an electrical storm brewing, which was totally possible, considering Percy’s/My and Jason’s powers. In an awkward moment, the two boys tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table. Sparks literally flew from Jason’s hands. After a brief silent standoff, like they were both thinking, Seriously, dude?, they ceded the chair to Annabeth and sat at opposite sides of the table.

The crew compared notes on what had happened in Salt Lake City, but even Leo’s ridiculous story about how he tricked Narcissus wasn’t enough to cheer us up.

“So where to now?” Leo asked with a mouthful of pizza. “I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there’s still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic.”

Percy was eating a piece of pie, which for some reason was completely blue—filling, crust, even the whipped cream. Seeing it made me somewhat happy. “We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter,” he said. “I spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. The Romans aren’t far behind us.”

That didn’t improve the mood around the table. Piper looked guilty. “I don’t suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans? Maybe—maybe I didn’t try hard enough with the charmspeak.”

Jason took her hand. “It wasn’t your fault, Pipes. Or Leo’s,” he added quickly. “Whatever happened, it was Gaea’s doing, to drive the two camps apart.”

I tried to keep my eyes off their display of affection. Though I was happy for both of them, I couldn't help feeling a tinge of jealousy. Jason had never comforted me like that.

Piper still looked uneasy. “Maybe if we could explain that, though—”

“With no proof?” I asked. “And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you’re saying, Piper. I don’t want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea’s up to, going back is suicide.”

“She’s right,” Hazel said. She still looked a little queasy from seasickness, but she was trying to eat a few saltine crackers. The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies, and I was pretty sure they hadn’t been there at the beginning of the meal. “Reyna might listen, but Octavian won’t. The Romans have honor to think about. They’ve been attacked. They’ll shoot first and ask questions post hac.”

I stared at my own dinner. The magical plates could conjure up a great selection of stuff. I especially liked the juicy burgers, but tonight I didn’t have much of an appetite. Part of it was because in the hour we took to get ready, Prometheus wouldn’t shut up. I kept thinking about how he helped me in the store, and how a simple match had saved our lives. I had asked if he could help more, but instead he gave me a huge lecture like a dad that just made me upset.

Blah, Blah, helping gets you tortured, blah, blah. It was like the seventeenth time he’d dumped his little story on me. Each time, I just felt worse. The titan was starting to make me depressed, and I wanted to blame it on his heartlessness.

“You’re right,” I decided, turning my mind back to the conversation at hand. “We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry.”

Hazel nodded. “Nemesis said we have only six days until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed.”

Jason frowned. “You mean Rome Rome, not New Rome?”

“I think,” Hazel said. “But if so, that’s not much time.”

“Why six days?” Percy wondered. “And how are they going to destroy Rome?”

No one answered.

“There’s more,” Piper said, deciding to add to the pile of bad news. “I’ve been seeing some things in my knife.”

The big kid, Frank, froze with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth. “Things such as… ?”

“They don’t really make sense,” Piper said, “just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins.”

Annabeth stared at the magical video feed from Camp Half-Blood on the wall. Right now it showed the living room in the Big House: a cozy fire on the hearth and Seymour, the stuffed leopard head, snoring contentedly above the mantel.

“Twins, like in Ella’s prophecy,” Annabeth said. “If we could figure out those lines, it might help.”

“Wisdom’s daughter walks alone,” Percy said. “The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth, that’s got to mean you. Juno told me…well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she’s wrong.”

Annabeth took a long breath. “Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend among the Roman praetors—something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along.”

Leo and Hazel exchanged nervous looks. I felt my heart burn with jealousy. I didn't like their closeness.

“Nemesis mentioned something similar,” Leo said. “She talked about an old score that had to be settled—”

“The one thing that might bring the gods’ two natures into harmony,” Hazel recalled. “‘An old wrong finally avenged.’”

Percy drew a frowny face in his blue whipped cream. “I was only a praetor for about two hours. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?”

Jason was still holding Piper’s hand. His fingers were probably clammy.

“I…uh, I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ll give it some thought.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re not sure?”

Jason didn’t respond.

Hazel broke the silence. “What about the other lines?” She turned her ruby-encrusted plate. “Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, Who holds the key to endless death.”

“Giants’ bane stands gold and pale,” Frank added, “Won through pain from a woven jail.”

“Giants’ bane,” Leo said. “Anything that’s a giants’ bane is good for us, right? That’s probably what we need to find. If it can help the gods get their schizophrenic act together, that’s good.”

Percy nodded. “We can’t kill the giants without the help of the gods.”

Jason turned to Frank and Hazel. “I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god’s help, just the two of you.”

“Alcyoneus was a special case,” Frank said. “He was only immortal in the territory where he was reborn—Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but…” He shrugged. “Percy’s right, we’ll need the gods.”

I gazed at the walls. I really wished Leo hadn’t enchanted them with images of Camp Half-Blood. It was like a doorway to home that I could never go through. I watched the hearth of Hestia burning in the middle of the green as the cabins turned off their lights for curfew.

I wondered how the Roman Roman demigods, Frank and Hazel, felt about those images. They’d never even been to Camp Half-Blood. Did it seem alien to them, or unfair that Camp Jupiter wasn’t represented? Did it make them miss their own home?

The other lines of the prophecy turned in my mind. What was a woven jail? How could twins snuff out an angel’s breath? The key to endless death didn’t sound very cheerful, either.

It won’t be cheerful. I mourn for you, child.

“Fucking Promethus,” I mumbled under my breath. “Go away.”

I thought you wanted help.

“You gonna solve this riddle?”

All things come in time.

“Shut up.”

“So…” Leo pushed his chair away from the table. “First things first, I guess. We’ll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs.”

“Someplace close to a city,” Annabeth suggested, “in case we need supplies. But somewhere out of the way, so the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?”

No one spoke. Piper looked down to her plate and bit her lip.

“Well,” she ventured, “how do you guys feel about Kansas?”

-

I had trouble falling asleep.

Coach Hedge spent the first hour after curfew doing his nightly duty, walking up and down the passageway yelling, “Lights out! Settle down! Try to sneak out, and I’ll smack you back to Long Island!”

He banged his baseball bat against a cabin door whenever he heard a noise, shouting at everyone to go to sleep, which made it impossible for anyone to go to sleep. I figured this was the most fun the satyr had had since he’d pretended to be a gym teacher at the Wilderness School.

I stared at the bronze beams on the ceiling. My cabin was pretty cozy. Leo had programmed our quarters to adjust automatically to the occupant’s preferred temperature, so it was never too cold or too hot. The mattress and the pillows were stuffed with pegasus down (no pegasi were harmed in the making of these products, Leo had assured me), so they were über-comfortable. A bronze lantern hung from the ceiling, glowing at whatever brightness I wished. The lantern’s sides were perforated with pinholes, so at night glimmering constellations drifted across my walls.

I sat up in bed, my restlessness getting the best of me. I rubbed my eyes and sighed. “Prometheus.”

Yes? Are you willing to converse and not shut me up?

“As long as I get a good response,” I said, swinging my legs over my bed. “I need help.”

Humans and help, Prometheus said, his large figure looming over me. I’ve told you before.

“I know, I know,” I rubbed my eyes again. “I just want advice, is all.”

Advice? The titan stared at me, his dark eyes flaring with a spark for just a second. I could try.

I nodded and scratched at my shoulder. “How do I know what to do during this quest? I mean, between keeping my relationships healthy and not flying off the rails plus actually plotting the death of a goddess… what should I do?”

Prometheus leaned back, staring at the stars on the ceiling. You remind me of my apprentice, Dolos. You should meet him someday. He would always ask for help and try to please me. One day, he took upon one of my projects while Zeus had me in a chokehold over some silly thing. But, he messed up pretty bad. My creation was ruined.

“So?” I asked. “Just make another one.”

Prometheus stared down at me, and I could feel a slight anger ripple in him. That’s not how it works.

“Okay,” I said. “Sorry.”

The titan turned around, picking up a polaroid I had on the ground. It was of me and Leo, sitting by the lake at camp.

You wanted advice on this relationship?

“No, not really. Just how to make sure I keep Leo happy while I’m fighting for my life. I don’t know what choices are right.”

If you are worried about wrongs, then never make one. Just give up.

“Sorry?” I asked, standing up on my feet. I snatched the picture out of his clay-covered hands and threw it on my bed. “What do you mean by that?”

Break up with him. That would work, right? Then get back together after Gaea is defeated. Well…

Prometheus looked to the side. It might have been my imagination, but the hole in his chest quivered.

No. Maybe. Your story is too complex. I see many outcomes. It’s too far ahead. Though, all I see is pain. I wish I could pity you.

“You’re no help,” I said. “Telling me to break up with my own damn boyfriend. Are you crazy?”

No. I’m simply trying to give an unbiased opinion.

I bawled my fists and dug my nails into my palms. “I didn't ask for an opinion, I wanted help. Help me not fuck up this dump quest and keep everyone alive! Is that too hard?”

Prometheus looked down at me, his eyes blank as always.

No, he said. But I cannot change what is already set in motion, child. I can't tell you what is next, I can only help you survive or make the outcome better. but what the fates have knitted for you is yours to keep. Their makings always fit perfectly.

“So you know what will happen?” I asked. “Then tell me!”

So you can change it? Make it worse? Poor girl. There is no such thing as a coincidence.

“You’re insane!” I couldn’t help screaming. I didn’t care if Hedge burst in and whacked me over the head with a bat, or if I woke up my crewmates. “You tell me right now! I need to know!”

Prometheus shoved his face in front of mine, his giant body cocooning me from the light of the stars.

Girl, he said, You shall suffer immense pain. Loss. Fear. Anger. You shall suffer, period. Nobody can help you. I’m not going to help you. You won’t let me be. And now you can’t give it away or pay someone else to take it for you.

He took a long, wet finger and brushed the hair away from my dampening eyes.

Beautiful. Useless. Full of excuses.

The titan stood, leaning over slightly to not hit his head on the ceiling.

I'm not going to help you, and I’m not going to save you.

“Then why even be here?” I asked, my lips quivering.

It’s my job.

Then he vanished.

I collapsed onto my bed, my limbs feeling like rubber bands. As I laid my head down on my pillow, all I could think about was what was going to happen to me.

How much I would suffer.

That just couldn’t be true, right?

But I had nobody to ask anymore.

Chapter Text

It seemed like only a few seconds had passed before I woke to the breakfast bell.

“Yo, babe!” Leo knocked on my door. “We’re landing!”

“Landing?” I sat up groggily. Slowly, the memories of the night before began coming back to me. I felt a weight sink in my chest, and I heaved softly.

Leo opened my door and poked his head in. He had his hand over his eyes, which would’ve been a nice gesture if he hadn’t been peeking through his fingers. “You decent?”

“Leo!”

“Sorry.” He grinned. “Hey, nice jammies.”

I blushed, looking down to find myself in nothing but a tanktop and my underwear. “Oh, Leo, be serious!”

“Yeah, sure. Anyway, we’re setting down a few miles outside Topeka, as requested. And, um…” He glanced out in the passageway, then leaned inside again. “Thanks for not hating me, about blowing up the Romans yesterday.”

I rubbed my eyes. The feast in New Rome had been only yesterday? “That’s okay, Leo. You weren’t in control of yourself. Sorry I was angry at first.”

Leo shook his head. “I literally blew you up, you can be more mad at me.”

“Nah,” I shook my head. “You could cut off my arm and I’d be fine.”

“Uh… thanks?”

From above, Coach Hedge yelled, “Thar she blows! Kansas, ahoy!”

“Holy Hephaestus,” Leo muttered. “He really needs to work on his shipspeak. I’d better get above deck.”

By the time I had showered, changed, and grabbed a bagel from the mess hall, I could hear the ship’s landing gear extending. I climbed on deck and joined the others as the Argo II settled in the middle of a field of sunflowers. The oars retracted. The gangplank lowered itself.

The morning air smelled of irrigation, warm plants, and fertilized earth. Not a bad smell. It reminded me of when I went on the freewaay with my mom and we passed by the cow farms.

Percy was the first to notice me. He smiled in greeting, which for some reason surprised me. He was wearing faded jeans and a fresh orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, as if he’d never been away from the Greek side. The new clothes had probably helped his mood—and of course the fact that he was standing at the rail with his arm around Annabeth.

I was happy to see Annabeth with a sparkle in her eyes. For months, Annabeth had been tormenting herself, her every waking moment consumed with the search for Percy. Now, despite the dangerous quest we were facing, at least she had her boyfriend back.

Piper came up next to me, and Annabeth jokingly took a bite out of her food, which was a running gag they had between them at CHB. “So,” Annabeth said between chewing, “Here we are. What’s the plan?”

Percy scooted closer to me as Piper spoke up, a gesture that made me more comfortable.

“I want to check out the highway,” Piper said. “Find the sign that says Topeka 32.”

Leo spun his Wii controller in a circle, and the sails lowered themselves. “We shouldn’t be far,” he said. “Festus and I calculated the landing as best we could. What do you expect to find at the mile marker?”

Piper explained what she’d seen in the knife—the man in purple with a goblet.

“Purple shirt?” I asked, crossing my arms and leaing against Percy. “Vines on his hat? Sounds like Bacchus.”

“Dionysus,” Percy muttered. “If we came all the way to Kansas to see Mr. D—”

“Bacchus isn’t so bad,” Jason said. “I don’t like his followers much.…”

I shuddered. Jason, Leo, Piper and I had had an encounter with the maenads a few months ago and almost gotten torn to pieces.

“But the god himself is okay,” Jason continued. “I did him a favor once up in the wine country.”

“Yeah, I remember,” I huffed. “You smelled like yeast for like two weeks after.”

Percy looked appalled. “Whatever, man. Maybe he’s better on the Roman side. But why would he be hanging around in Kansas? Didn’t Zeus order the gods to cease all contact with mortals?”

Frank grunted. The big guy was wearing a blue tracksuit this morning, like he was ready to go for a jog in the sunflowers.

“The gods haven’t been very good at following that order,” he noted. “Besides, if the gods have gone schizophrenic like Hazel said—”

“And Leo said,” added Leo.

Frank scowled at him, and my blood boiled. “Then who knows what’s going on with the Olympians? Could be some pretty bad stuff out there.”

“Sounds dangerous!” Leo agreed cheerfully. “Well…you guys have fun. I’ve got to finish repairs on the hull. Coach Hedge is gonna work on the broken crossbows. And, uh, Annabeth—I could really use your help. You’re the only other person who even sort of understands engineering.”

Annabeth looked apologetically at Percy. “He’s right. I should stay and help.”

They were so easy together, it made my heart ache.

Leo was great, really. But we’d just barely started dating a few weeks ago. We’d had our nights together and our really nice intimate moments, but it felt like we were still friends in a way. His flirting never changed, the way he looked at me never changed, and honestly, it didn’t seem like anything special the few times we’d messed around. I really loved Leo, but it felt almost like we weren’t actually dating. I felt scared that he felt the same, and I could almsot see it in his eyes. My heart stung, and anxiety pitted in my stomach. I really didn’t want him to break up with me.

“Should I stay?” I asked, trying to keep my mood from showing. “I mean, I could figure some of the stuff out.”

Leo’s eyes glinted with an emotion I couldn’t read, and his lips curled back. “Sure? I mean, we’ll call you if we need help but…”

Annabeth studied Leo before looking back at me. “Yeah, you should stay.”

I smiled weakly, my hands starting to fumble with each other. Percy gently rubbed my shoulder, pressing our sides together in reassurance. I didn’t really take Percy for a touch guy, but he seemed to like our contact. To him, it probably felt like bonding without the awkward words. It made me happy to know that he was trying as much as I was.

Frank slid his bow off his shoulder and propped it against the rail. “I think I should turn into a crow or something and fly around, keep an eye out for Roman eagles.”

“Why a crow?” Leo asked. “Man, if you can turn into a dragon, why don’t you just turn into a dragon every time? That’s the coolest.”

Frank’s face looked like it was being infused with cranberry juice. “That’s like asking why you don’t bench-press your maximum weight every time you lift. Because it’s hard, and you’d hurt yourself. Turning into a dragon isn’t easy.”

“Oh.” Leo nodded. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t lift weights.”

“Yeah. Well, maybe you should consider it, Mr.—”

Hazel stepped between them.

“I’ll help you, Frank,” she said, shooting Leo an evil look. “I can summon Arion and scout around below.”

“Sure,” Frank said, still glaring at Leo. “Yeah, thanks.”

My soft smile quickly turned, and I pulled away from Percy. I wondered what was going on with those three. Leo being oblivious and Frank showing off for Hazel, the two razzing each other—that I understood. But it almost seemed like Hazel and Leo had a history. So far as I knew, they’d met for the first time just yesterday. I wondered if something else had happened on their trip to the Great Salt Lake—something they hadn’t mentioned. The thought made my stomach twist.

I grabbed Leo’s shoulder as the others continued debreifing. “What was that?”

Leo looked back at me, placing his warm hand on mine. “What? Oh, Frank’s just being an asshole. He and I don’t seem to get along.”

I shook my head, trying to stop myself from grinding my teeth together. “I get it, you and Frank have some mumbo jumbo you need to work out, but it seems like that little girl has some part of it that I don't get.”

“Hazel isn’t a little girl,” Leo said, and that alone was enough to confirm my worst suspicions.

I straightned my back, taking my hand off Leo’s shoulder. “What happened yesterday?”

Leo began to look worried. “Nothing! We just went on our mission and got our stuff!”

Digging my nails into my palms, I sighed. “Leo.”

My boyfriend looked away from my eyes. “It’s nothing important.”

“Right,” I said, walking away from him and returning to Percy’s side. My brother seemed to pick up on my mood easily. He flung his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him.

“That leaves three of us to check on the mile marker,” Percy said, joining me into their conversation. “Me, Jason, Piper. I’m not psyched about seeing Mr. D again. That guy is a pain. But, Jason, if you’re on better terms with him—”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “If we find him, I’ll talk to him. Piper, it’s your vision. You should take the lead.”

“Of course,” she said, trying to sound upbeat despite her racing heart. “Let’s find the highway.”

Percy let go of me and lightly hit my shoulder. “I’ll be back soon, sis. Then maybe we can grab a bite and talk?”

I smiled softly, doing my best to shake off my ill mood. “That would be nice. Hey, get hurt out there and you owe me ten bucks!”

Percy shook his head, his grin spread wide on his face. “Oh, you’re on!”

I laughed softly, watching him and the others make their way off the ship.

Frank left to the skies as Hazel took off on her horse. Annabeth went below decks, waiting for Leo who stayed behind with me. As soon as I felt him approaching, my mood turned sour again.

Leo started off with my name, but I cut him off as I shook my head.

“No, Leo,” I said. “You don’t want to talk to me about what happened.”

“I just-” Leo sighed. “It’s a lot! I don’t really know how to explain it.”

“Then just answer this,” I turned to Leo, my fists clenched tight. “Should I be worried about you and Hazel?”

Leo hesitated, causing my gut to twist like I had food poisoning. “No, it’s different.”

“Different?” I asked. “Oh, so there is something going on?”

“No!” Leo shook his head, getting closer to me. “Babe, please-”

“I’m not in the mood,” I said. “Go help Annabeth with your stupid engine.”

Leo’s face looked shocked as I insulted his work. “Hey, don’t-”

“Shut up,” I hissed. As I said it, I immediately regretted my words, yet I kept pushing. “Just leave me alone. Go.”

My boyfriend gave me one last look- one that clearly showed the pain and guilt on his face- before turning and heading below deck.

I rubbed my face and sighed, leaning over the railing. What was I thinking? Why couldn’t I have just given him a chance to explain. Was I really jealous? Was I really that… untrusting? Leo was my own boyfriend, and yet I was so afraid that the boy who couldn’t pull anyone for years was going after someone else?

No, right?

I groaned, fisting some of my hair as I rested my head in my hands. What was it Leo was going to say? Did I just not want to know the truth, and that’s why he never told me? Oh, but I hated that! Even if the truth hurts, hiding it is what makes me more angry. And there I was, trying to remain sane as I told him to leave. I couldn't imagine how hurt he was feeling.

And I had done the same to Jason. All I ever did was push and scare people away, and its all my fault. I have nobody to blame but myself.

And Percy.. god why was I thinking of him in the middle of this? All I want is to have some sort of bond with him, but it’s so hard… There’s almost nothing for us. I found it so hard to talk to him, but I couldn’t tell if it was just because I didn’t know him. When did I become a man trapped inside a ghost?

I lowered my head into my hand, feeling a lump form in my throat. The thought of my mom came into my head. Where was the comfort of a mother when you needed it? If only she could see me, but I know I’d dissapoint her somehow.

That’s all I was. A dissapointment. Prometheus’s words had gotten to me. I was stuck living in a fantasy where… all Leo needed was me. There was no way I would keep this relationship going. I silently begged any god listening to help me kindle the fire between Leo and me. I wasn’t going to let Prometheus win this one. I would not break up with Leo, not a chance.

You can promise yourself that, Prometheus spoke, but you can’t change the tide of fate.

I looked over my shoulder, finding my titan mentor. “Yes?”

Promethus shrunk to a huamn size, though he stayed in his titan form. You may not break up with him, but who's to say he won't break up with you?

“Are you trying to make me jump off this ledge?” I asked. “Seriously, every time I talk to you I just get so depressed.”

I have that affect, Promethus said. It comes with the lack of heart.

My laugh was monotone. “Yeah, whatever. What do you want?”

Promethus stayed behind me, staring up at the sky. Do you have any hope?

“Some,” I answered. “I want to be optimistic.”

But it’s so hard, Prometheus said. I’m glad to no longer have a heart. I can see things from a realistic angle.

“Yeah, you want me to rip out my heart or something,” I said, leaning back. “God, you are so depressing.”

I’d say sorry, but I can’t really feel anything.

“Ugh!”

I moved away from the balcony, kicking a small rock on the deck into the air. I could feel my anger spiking, which made me more upset.

For a daughter of the ocean, you sure are fiery, Promethues said.

“Why are you even here?” I yelled. “You wanted to help me originally, but that was clearly a fucking lie because you haven’t helped for shit!”

Ah, so you would have liked to have drowned in tar.

I groaned, grinding my teeth together. “Now you just want to say it’s your job, so what fucking job is it!?”

Prometheus stared at me with his dark eyes. I have to keep you alive.

“Why?! Who wants me alive so bad?!” I dug my nails into my palms so hard I drew blood.

I don’t know, Prometheus said. I just feel like I have to keep you alive.

I turned my back on the titan, no longer in the mood to argue. I crossed my arms and heaved a sigh, my brows furrowed so hard it hurt.

The air was quiet between us for a moment. Prometheus moved around the deck, studying all of Leo's builds. Being a hero is hard, he spoke up after a few awkward minutes. It can get you killed. It can get your heart ripped out of you by an eagle. It can get you chained to a boulder by strength himself to be tortured till the end of time.

I turned around, facing the titan once more. “You aren’t making for a good pep talk.”

Will you shut up? Prometheus’s eyes flared for just a second. But, no matter all the pain, there’s still people who were helped at the end of the day. Humans still use fire today. That boy down there has a miraculous gift because of me. All these good things can happen because of one hero, one courageous moment. You can change the whole universe with one little action.

“And get tortured forever because of it,” I retorted. “Do I really want that?”

Prometheus stood up straight, his joints snapping as he did. You are destined for something great, he said softly. And you have a choice to do that something and edure endless amounts of pain. Or, you can give up for what will seem like the better price, and have everyone suffer for it.

I looked at my feet, silent for just a moment. All that I could hear was the sound of wet clay dripping from Prometheus’s hands onto the deck.

It may seem bleak now, he said, stepping a bit closer. But being the hero is always the better choice. Heart or no heart.

“That makes sense,” I said lowly. “But how will I know when the choice comes?”

You won’t.

“Great,'' I sighed, turning back to the railing and resting my arms against it.

It went silent again, and as I waited for Prometheus to talk I stared at the skyline. The breeze softly moved against my skin. I thought about what the titan had said and how it was somewhat smart. It made sense, despite how much it hurt to think about. I just really hoped the choice to be a hero didn’t involve Leo.

I realized that in my thoughts, a lot of time had passed, and yet Prometheus was still quiet. I turned to the titan, but found he had vanished already. I sighed softly, somehwat annoyed at his flakiness. I took a deep breath and decided I was calm enough to finally apologize to Leo, and listen to what he had to say. When I made my way to the stairs, my heartrate spiked. I turned, sensing that something was off.

Then I saw it in the sky, some sort of black bird. I thought it might have been Frank, considering he was supposed to be crircling the sky as a crow. But the black spot came closer, and it grew bigger.

It was a fucking pegasus.

In a moment of panic, I thought it was Reyna. I quickly took out my pen, summoning my trident, and took a running start, tossing my arm back.

I flung the trident as hard as possible, hearing it rip through the air as it closed in on the black pegasus. The winged beast became disrupted as it flew around my weapon, and reared back as it prepared to land on the deck.

I screamed, rushing backward as the black pegasus landed before me. In my blind fear, I swung my arm back, ready to attack with just my bare fists before the rider of the animal jumped off and pulled me away.

“Hey!” Piper yelled. “Girl, relax! It’s me!”

I took a few shaky breaths, trying to focus on the girl in front of me. I hugged her tightly and shivered. “You scared me! I thouht you were Reyna!”

Piper laughed slightly before pulling away from me. “You almost killed us with that trident throw! You’ve got a great arm.”

“Thanks,” I exhaled.

Piper suddenly straightened. “Right. Emergency! Help me get the boys down to medbay!”

My brain finally cleared, and I realized the two unconcious boys on the Pegasus’s back. I gasped, taking Percy in my arms as Piper took Jason. I silently apologized to the pegasus for almost killing it, and I ran back to the stairs. I figured I should recall my trident before heading down, so I slung Percy over my shoulder and stuck my hand out. In seconds, my trident flew back into my hand and turned back into a pen. I pocketed the golden object before running to medbay.

The others caught up with us. Piper told Frank and Hazel to care for ‘BlackJack’, which I guessed was the pegasus’s name, while Annabeth and Leo helped get the boys to sickbay with us.

“At this rate, we’re going to run out of ambrosia,” Coach Hedge grumbled as he tended their wounds. “How come I never get invited on these violent trips?”

Piper sat at Jason’s side. She herself felt fine after a swig of nectar and some water, but she was still worried about the boys.

“Leo,” Piper said, “are we ready to sail?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Set course for Atlanta. I’ll explain later.”

“But…okay.” He hurried off.

Annabeth didn’t argue with Piper either. She was too busy examining the horseshoe-shaped dent on the back of Percy’s head.

“What hit him?” she demanded.

“Blackjack,” Piper said.

“What?”

Piper tried to explain while Coach Hedge applied some healing paste to the boys’ heads. I’d never been impressed with Hedge’s nursing abilities before, but he must have done something right. Either that, or the spirits- eidolons, Piper said- that possessed the boys had also made them extra resilient. They both groaned and opened their eyes.

Within a few minutes, Jason and Percy were sitting up in their berths and able to talk in complete sentences. Both had fuzzy memories of what had happened. When Piper described their duel on the highway, Jason winced.

“Knocked out twice in two days,” he muttered, making me laugh softly since he was always like this. “Some demigod.” He glanced sheepishly at Percy. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to blast you.”

Percy’s shirt was peppered with burn holes. His hair was even more disheveled than normal. Despite that, he managed a weak laugh. “Not the first time. Your big sister got me good once at camp.”

“Yeah, but…I could have killed you.”

“Or I could have killed you,” Percy said.

Jason shrugged. “If there’d been an ocean in Kansas, maybe.”

“I don’t need an ocean—”

“Boys,” Annabeth interrupted, “I’m sure you both would’ve been wonderful at killing each other. But right now, you need some rest.”

“Food first,” Percy said. “Please? And we really need to talk. Bacchus said some things that don’t—”

“Bacchus?” Annabeth raised her hand. “Okay, fine. We need to talk. Mess hall. Ten minutes. I’ll tell the others. And please, Percy…change your clothes. You smell like you’ve been run over by an electric horse.”

I laughed as she walked out. “That reminds me of when I set my head on fire.”

Percy turned to me. “You what?!”

I shook my head, laughing again. “I was young, hanging out with people I probably shouldn’t have. They were doing my hair for fun, using a shit ton of hair spray. My older friend placed a cigarette in my mouth and lit it for me- then woosh! My whole head caught on fire!”

The others stared at me as I laughed, wipng a tear from my eye. “Oh! I stuck my head in a bucket of water and I was fine. That’s how I found out that water is my little healing juice. Oh my gods, we laughed about that for ages… Funniest thing ever, I swear.”

Piper, Percy, and Jason were silent as they stared at me. The laughter in my died as I defensively brought my arms to my chest, compressing them as my smile faded. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Yeah, you were a kid hanging out with old people who lit your head on fire lighting a cigarette,” Percy said, his tone strict like he was going to scold me.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Not like I had a parent or an older brother to stop me,” I retorted. “Whatever, that was ages ago.”

Before the others could retort, I interrupted.

“Percy, you owe me ten bucks,” I said before turning and walking out of the room.

Leo gave the helm to Coach Hedge again, after making the satyr promise he would not steer them to the nearest military base “for fun.”

They gathered around the dining table, Leo sat a seat over on my right, while Percy sat to my left. I found it hard to look at either boy. Piper explained what had happened at TOPEKA 32—their conversation with Bacchus, the trap sprung by Gaea, the eidolons that had possessed the boys.

“Of course!” Hazel slapped the table, which startled Frank so much, he dropped his burrito. “That’s what happened to Leo too.”

“So it wasn’t my fault.” Leo exhaled. “I didn’t start World War Three. I just got possessed by an evil spirit. That’s a relief!”

“But the Romans don’t know that,” Annabeth said. “And why would they take our word for it?”

“We could contact Reyna,” Jason suggested. “She would believe us.”

Hearing the way Jason said her name made Piper’s heart sink. I won’t lie, it hurt me, too. He was always so close with her…

Jason turned to Piper with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. “You could convince her, Pipes. I know you could.”

Piper looked like all the blood in her body was draining into her feet. Annabeth looked at her sympathetically, as if to say: Boys are so clueless. Even Hazel winced. I gave my bestfriend a sad shrug, telling her that I’d experienced that, too.

“I could try,” she said halfheartedly. “But Octavian is the one we have to worry about. In my dagger blade, I saw him taking control of the Roman crowd. I’m not sure Reyna can stop him.”

Jason’s expression darkened. Piper didn’t get any pleasure from bursting his bubble, but us other Romans—me, Hazel and Frank—nodded in agreement.

“She’s right,” Frank said. “This afternoon when we were scouting, we saw eagles again. They were a long way off, but closing fast. Octavian is on the warpath.”

Hazel grimaced. “This is exactly the sort of opportunity Octavian has always wanted. He’ll try to seize power. If Reyna objects, he’ll say she’s soft on the Greeks. As for those eagles…It’s like they could smell us.”

“They can,” I said. “Roman eagles can hunt demigods by their magical scent even better than monsters can. This ship might conceal us somewhat, but not completely—not from them.”

Leo drummed his fingers. “Great. I should have installed a smoke screen that makes the ship smell like a giant chicken nugget. Remind me to invent that, next time.”

Hazel frowned. “What is a chicken nugget?”

“Oh, man…” Leo shook his head in amazement. “That’s right. You’ve missed the last like, seventy years. Well, my apprentice, a chicken nugget—”

“Doesn’t matter,” I interrupted, my voice a little louder than I wanted it to be. Hazel missed the last seventy years? So, what, she was stuck in time or something? Why did Leo know this? “The point is, we’ll have a hard time explaining the truth to the Romans. Even if they believe us—”

“You’re right.” Jason leaned forward. “We should just keep going. Once we’re over the Atlantic, we’ll be safe—at least from the legion.”

He sounded so depressed, I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him or resentful.

“How can you be sure?” Piper asked. “Why wouldn’t they follow us?”

He shook his head. “You heard Reyna talking about the ancient lands. They’re much too dangerous. Roman demigods have been forbidden to go there for generations. Even Octavian couldn’t get around that rule.”

Frank swallowed a bite of burrito like it had turned to cardboard in his mouth. “So, if we go there…”

“We’ll be outlaws as well as traitors,” I confirmed, my gaze low and dark. “Any Roman demigod would have the right to kill us on sight. But I wouldn’t worry about that. If we get across the Atlantic, they’ll give up on chasing us. They’ll assume that we’ll die in the Mediterranean—the Mare Nostrum.”

Percy pointed his pizza slice at me. “You, sis, are a ray of sunshine.”

I didn’t argue. The other demigods stared at their plates, except for Percy, who continued to enjoy his pizza. Where he put all that food, I didn’t know. The guy could eat like a satyr.

“So let’s plan ahead,” Percy suggested, “and make sure we don’t die. Mr. D—Bacchus— Ugh, do I have to call him Mr. B now? Anyway, he mentioned the twins in Ella’s prophecy. Two giants. Otis and, uh, something that started with an F?”

“Ephialtes,” Jason said.

“Twin giants, like Piper saw in her blade…” Annabeth ran her finger along the rim of her cup. “I remember a story about twin giants. They tried to reach Mount Olympus by piling up a bunch of mountains.”

Frank nearly choked. “Well, that’s great. Giants who can use mountains like building blocks. And you say Bacchus killed these guys with a pinecone on a stick?”

“Something like that,” Percy said. “I don’t think we should count on his help this time. He wanted a tribute, and he made it pretty clear it would be a tribute we couldn’t handle.”

Silence fell around the table. I could hear Coach Hedge above deck singing “Blow the Man Down,” except he didn’t know the lyrics, so he mostly sang, “Blah-blah-hum-de-dum-dum.”

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Bacchus was meant to help us. The giant twins were in Rome. They were keeping something us demigods needed—something in that bronze jar. Whatever it was, I got the feeling it held the answer to sealing the Doors of Death—the key to endless death. I also felt sure we could never defeat the giants without Bacchus’s help. And if we couldn’t do that in five days, Rome would be destroyed, and Hazel’s brother, Nico, would die.

Then, my brain made a connection. If Nico was the Pluto/Hades boy, then he could help us close the doors. That meant he was in the jar.

I was about to speak up when Piper said something.

“She wants two of us,” she murmured.

Everyone turned to look at her.

“Today on the highway,” she said, “Gaea told me that she needed the blood of only two demigods—one female, one male. She—she asked me to choose which boy would die.”

Jason squeezed her hand. “But neither of us died. You saved us.”

“I know. It’s just…Why would she want that?”

Leo whistled softly. “Guys, remember at the Wolf House? Our favorite ice princess, Khione? She talked about spilling Jason’s blood, how it would taint the place for generations. Maybe demigod blood has some kind of power.”

“Oh…” Percy set down his third pizza slice. He leaned back and stared at nothing, as if the horse kick to his head had just now registered.

“Percy?” Annabeth gripped his arm.

“Oh, bad,” he muttered. “Bad. Bad.” He looked across the table at Frank and Hazel. “You guys remember Polybotes?”

“The giant who invaded Camp Jupiter,” Hazel said. “The anti-Poseidon you whacked in the head with a Terminus statue. Yes, I think I remember.”

“I had a dream,” Percy said, “when we were flying to Alaska. Polybotes was talking to the gorgons, and he said—he said he wanted me taken prisoner, not killed. He said: ‘I want that one chained at my feet, so I can kill him when the time is ripe. His blood shall water the stones of Mount Olympus and wake Earth Mother!’”

Piper began to shake. “You think the giants would use our blood…the blood of two of us—”

“I don’t know,” Percy said. “But until we figure it out, I suggest we all try to avoid getting captured.”

Jason grunted. “That I agree with.”

“But how do we figure it out?” Hazel asked. “The Mark of Athena, the twins, Ella’s prophecy…how does it all fit together?”

Annabeth pressed her hands against the edge of the table. “Piper, you told Leo to set our course for Atlanta.”

“Right,” Piper said. “Bacchus told us we should seek out…what was his name?”

“Phorcys,” Percy said.

Annabeth looked surprised, like she wasn’t used to her boyfriend having the answers. “You know him?”

Percy shrugged. “I didn’t recognize the name at first. Then Bacchus mentioned salt water, and it rang a bell. Phorcys is an old sea god from before my dad’s time. Never met him, but supposedly he’s a son of Gaea. I still don’t understand what a sea god would be doing in Atlanta.”

Leo snorted. “What’s a wine god doing in Kansas? Gods are weird. Anyway, we should reach Atlanta by noon tomorrow, unless something else goes wrong.”

“Don’t even say that,” Annabeth muttered. “It’s getting late. We should all get some sleep.”

“Wait,” Piper said.

Once more, everyone looked at her.

“There’s one last thing,” she said. “The eidolons—the possessing spirits. They’re still here, in this room.”

When she was done explaining, everyone looked at her uncomfortably. Up on deck, Hedge sang something that sounded like “In the Navy” while Blackjack stomped his hooves, whinnying in protest.

Finally Hazel exhaled. “Piper is right.”

“How can you be sure?” Annabeth asked.

“I’ve met eidolons,” Hazel said. “In the Underworld, when I was…you know.”

“What, you died?” I asked increduously, earning looks from around the table. I scoffed and crossed my arms. “Not like you guys tell me anything.”

“So…” Frank rubbed his hand across his buzz-cut hair as if some ghosts might have invaded his scalp. “You think these things are lurking on the ship, or—”

“Possibly lurking inside some of us,” Piper said. “We don’t know.”

Jason clenched his fist. “If that’s true—”

“We have to take steps,” Piper said. “I think I can do this.”

“Do what?” Percy asked.

“Just listen, okay?” Piper took a deep breath. “Everybody listen.”

Piper met our eyes, one person at a time.

“Eidolons,” she said, using her charmspeak, “raise your hands.”

There was tense silence.

Leo laughed nervously. “Did you really think that was going to—?”

His voice died. His face went slack. He raised his hand.

Jason and Percy did the same. Their eyes had turned glassy and gold. Hazel caught her breath. Next to Leo, Frank scrambled out of his chair and put his back against the wall.

“Oh, gods.” Annabeth looked at Piper imploringly. “Can you cure them?”

She focused on Leo probably because she thought he was the least intimidating.

“Are there more of you on this ship?” she asked.

“No,” Leo said in a hollow voice. “The Earth Mother sent three. The strongest, the best. We will live again.”

“Not here, you won’t,” Piper growled. “All three of you, listen carefully.”

Jason and Percy turned toward her. Those gold eyes were unnerving, but seeing all three boys like that fueled Piper’s anger.

“You will leave those bodies,” she commanded.

“No,” Percy said.

Leo let out a soft hiss. “We must live.”

Frank fumbled for his bow. “Mars Almighty, that’s creepy! Get out of here, spirits! Leave our friends alone!”

Leo turned toward him. “You cannot command us, child of war. Your own life is fragile. Your soul could burn at any moment.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but Frank staggered like he’d been punched in the gut. He drew an arrow, his hands shaking. “I—I’ve faced down worse things than you. If you want a fight—”

“Frank, don’t.” Hazel rose.

Next to her, Jason drew his sword.

“Stop!” Piper ordered, but her voice quavered. She was rapidly losing faith in her plan. She’d made the eidolons appear, but what now? If she couldn’t persuade them to leave, any bloodshed would be her fault.

“Listen to Piper.” Hazel pointed at Jason’s sword. The gold blade seemed to grow heavy in his hand. It clunked to the table and Jason sank back into his chair.

Percy growled in a very un-Percy-like way. “Daughter of Pluto, you may control gems and metals. You do not control the dead.”

Annabeth reached toward him as if to restrain him, but Hazel waved her off.

“Listen, eidolons,” Hazel said sternly, “you do not belong here. I may not command you, but Piper does. Obey her.”

She turned toward Piper, her expression clear: Try again. You can do this.

Piper mustered all her courage. She looked straight at Jason—straight into the eyes of the thing that was controlling him. “You will leave those bodies,” Piper repeated, even more forcefully.

Jason’s face tightened. His forehead beaded with sweat. “We—we will leave these bodies.”

“You will vow on the River Styx never to return to this ship,” Piper continued, “and never to possess any member of this crew.”

Leo and Percy both hissed in protest.

“You will promise on the River Styx,” Piper insisted.

A moment of tension—I could feel their wills fighting against Piper’s. Then all three eidolons spoke in unison: “We promise on the River Styx.”

“You are dead,” Piper said.

“We are dead,” they agreed.

“Now, leave.”

All three boys slumped forward. Percy fell face-first into his pizza.

“Percy!” Annabeth grabbed him.

Piper and Hazel caught Jason’s arms as he slipped out of his chair.

Leo wasn’t so lucky. He fell toward Frank, who made no attempt to intercept him. I gasped and tried to catch him with my powers, forgetting how much blood-bending hurts its victims.

“Ow!” he groaned, straining against me.

I gasped and accidentally let go of him and he hit the floor.

“Are you all right?” I asked, kneeling at his side.

Leo pulled himself up. He had a piece of spaghetti in the shape of a 3 stuck to his forehead. “Did it work?”

“It worked,” Piper said, feeling pretty sure she was right. “I don’t think they’ll be back.”

Jason blinked. “Does that mean I can stop getting head injuries now?”

Piper laughed, exhaling all her nervousness. “Come on, Lightning Boy. Let’s get you some fresh air.”

-

Later that night, Leo had met me in my cabin. We didn’t talk much. He just sat on my bed, and I laid my head in his lap. His numble fingers gently played with my hair, relaxing my high strung attitude.

It was quiet, it was peaceful. There wasn’t any stupid making out or playing around under my sheets. It felt nice to have a little connection with him like this. It was something Jason never did with me, and as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I winced.

“You okay?” Leo asked softly.

I nodded. “Stupid thought.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No," I said softly. “No, it's fine.”

I could feel Leo frown above me. His pulse spiked somewhat, and he let out a breath he seemed to be holding. “About Hazel…”

I turned over on his lap, now looking up to face him. Leo stopped messing with my hair and placed his hand over my cheek gently.

“She’s from the 1930s. She died and her brother Nico brought her back. Something like that.” Leo looked down at me, his brown eyes more dark than usual. “When she was alive the first time, she went to a segregated school and met some guy named Sammy. She says he looked and acted exactly like me.”

I closed my eyes, silently chiding myself for being so stupid. Of course Hazel would act werid around him if she thought he was a dead friend of hers.

“Right,” I said. “That would make sense.”

Leo chuckled softly, brushing the hair out of my face. “On the lake with her, that’s what she told me. Other than that, nothing happened.”

“I feel like you’re lying,” I said. “Please don’t.”

“Nothing happened with Hazel,” Leo said, and this time I felt it was true.

“Did anything happen that didn’t involve Hazel?” I asked.

Leo’s eyes became more sad. The words sat on his lips, but before he could say anything, my door opened.

I looked over and saw it was Percy. He looked between me and Leo, and a soft chuckle came from him. “Am I interrupting?”

Leo smiled softly before lifting my head off his lap. He hopped off my bed and stretched. “Nothing much, big man. I’ll let you two spend some time together.”

I smiled sadly at Leo as he left, hoping he’d tell me later what he didn’t.

Percy closed the door behind him and flopped onto my bed. I sat up next to him as he handed me a bag of doritos and a can of coca-cola.

I made a slight face at the choice of soda, but took it anyway and cracked it open. Percy looked somewhat offended. “What, are you more of a Pepsi fan?”

I shook my head, taking a sip of the soda. “Dr Pepper.”

Percy laughed softly, hitting me in the shoulder. “Dude, how are we siblings?”

I shrugged, leaning back against the wall. “We’re the same in the ways that matter.”

My brother gave me a soft smile as he opened his bag of chips. “I priomise I won’t get crumbs on the bed.”

“I don’t care if you do,” I said. “I used to sleep on a bare mattress as a kid.”

“Dude, that’s so nasty.” Percy threw his head back and laughed. “Man, after all of this, you are so living with me and my mom.”

I ate some of my own chips. “That would be nice.”

“Well, I mean… unless you want to go back to Camp Jupiter,” he said. “It’s nice there.”

I shook my head. “If they even let me back there, maybe. But honestly, I doubt it.”

Percy tilted his head. “Why?” he asked with a mouth full of chips.

I took another swig of soda. “It’s nice and all, but… there’s some tough memories.”

“Ah.”

Percy and I continued to eat our snacks in silence. Just being together was comforting. Usually, siblings always fought. But without anything to even fight over, we could just chill knowing we were closer than most people- solely because of our blood. It was a comforting feeling.

My brother finally spoke up. “So, do you plan on going to college?”

“I haven’t gone to school since about sixth grade,” I said. “I sort of went to school last winter, but that was more of a coninuational juvenile school. So…”

Percy nodded. “I went to like six differnet schools in six years, so I don’t blame you.”

I laughed. “Right, Annabeth mentioned that. How’d you manage?”

A groan left Percy’s lips. “Dude, I don’t even know. It was all so dumb.”

We laughed together for a little bit, just telling more school stories and talking about our lives. Eventually, we finished our snacks and Percy yawned.

“Alright,” he said, standing up from my bed. “I’ve got to kiss the wife goodnight and get some rest myself. You should, too.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Yes, dad,” I said jokingly.

Percy smiled and patted my back. “Night, sis. It’s great getting to know you.”

I smiled back at my brother and nodded gently. “Yeah. See you tomorrow morning, man.”

My brother smiled one last time before exiting my room and closing the door. I sighed, laying back on my pillows. I could feel that we were getting more comfortable around each other, which excited me and made me happy. For so long, I had yearned for some sort of familial connection, and now I finally had one. As close as Piper and I were, she never felt like family, and even now she was starting to drift away.

I yawned, turning over in my bed. I kicked off my pants and snuggled into my pillow, growing comfy enough for sleep. I let my tiredness take over, and soon I was knocked out.

Chapter Text

When I woke up, Leo was shaking me viciously. I snapped my eyes open with a start and sat upright, banging my face into Leo’s thick skull. We both fell back and moaned in pain, but my anxiety jump started me again and I climbed out of bed.

“What the fuck?” I yelled, getting my pen out from my pants on the ground.

Leo backed up and looked at me. “Babe, you gotta come to the mess hall- now!”

“Why?” I asked, quickly getting dressed. I was so panicked I didn’t even care that Leo was seeing me undress. “What’s going on? Monsters? Romans?”

Leo shook his head, his gaze drifting away from me as I changed. “No, no, I mean… it was almost bad, but I forgot to wake you up, and-”

I pinched Leo's arm. “Start from the beginning, you’re getting side tracked.”

Leo grabbed my hand as we began walking toward the mess hall. “So, when we woke up, we realized Percy and Annabeth were missing. But, we found them and it turns out they…”

He started to laugh, a red blush on his face. Before he could continue his story, I heard the yelling ahead of us.

It sounded like… scolding.

“No way,” I said, rushing into the mess hall.

“Never in my life!” Coach bellowed, waving his bat and knocking over a plate of apples. “Against the rules! Irresponsible!”

“Coach,” Annabeth said, “it was an accident. We were talking, and we fell asleep.”

“Besides,” Percy said, “you’re starting to sound like Terminus.”

Hedge narrowed his eyes. “Is that an insult, Jackson? ’Cause I’ll—I’ll terminus you, buddy!”

As I walked in, Percy looked at me and shook his head. “Sis, whatever they say, it’s not-”

“Found them together in the stables,” Frank says, his face red like a tomato. “They were there… all night.”

I whistled, then turned my face away to laugh. “Dude, atleast use a condom. I have a few if you want.”

Percy looked over at Leo, then back at me. “Wouldn’t fit,” he said simply.

“UNBELIEVABLE!” Coach fumed, stomping up and down on his hooves like he was about to charge into a gallop. “PERCY JACKSON, I SWEAR-”

Percy tried not to laugh. “It won’t happen again, Coach. I promise. Now, don’t we have other things to discuss?”

Hedge fumed. “Fine! But I’m watching you, Jackson. And you, Annabeth Chase, I thought you had more sense—”

Jason cleared his throat. “So grab some food, everybody. Let’s get started.”

The meeting was like a war council with donuts. Then again, back at Camp Half-Blood we used to have our most serious discussions around the Ping-Pong table in the rec room with crackers and Cheez Whiz, so it was comforting.

Percy had dreamed down in the stables, and of course it wasn’t good. He told us about his dream—the twin giants planning a reception for us in an underground parking lot with rocket launchers; Nico di Angelo trapped in a bronze jar, slowly dying from asphyxiation with pomegranate seeds at his feet. I had been right.

Hazel choked back a sob. “Nico… Oh, gods. The seeds.”

“You know what they are?” Annabeth asked.

Hazel nodded. “He showed them to me once. They’re from our stepmother’s garden.”

“Your step… oh,” Percy said. “You mean Persephone.”

“The seeds are a last-resort food,” Hazel said. I could tell she was nervous, because all the silverware on the table was starting to move toward her- from jittering, I hoped. There was still a lot about her I did not know. “Only children of Hades can eat them. Nico always kept some in case he got stuck somewhere. But if he’s really imprisoned—”

“The giants are trying to lure us,” Annabeth said. “They’re assuming we’ll try to rescue him.”

“Well, they’re right!” Hazel looked around the table, her confidence apparently crumbling. “Won’t we?”

“Yes!” Coach Hedge yelled with a mouthful of napkins. “It’ll involve fighting, right?”

“Hazel, of course we’ll help him,” Frank said. “But how long do we have before… uh, I mean, how long can Nico hold out?”

“One seed a day,” Hazel said miserably. “That’s if he puts himself in a death trance.”

“A death trance?” Annabeth scowled. “That doesn’t sound fun.”

“It keeps him from consuming all his air,” Hazel said. “Like hibernation, or a coma. One seed can sustain him one day, barely.”

“And he has five seeds left,” Percy said. “That’s five days, including today. The giants must have planned it that way, so we’d have to arrive by July first. Assuming Nico is hidden somewhere in Rome—”

“That’s not much time,” I summed up. I put my hand on Hazel’s shoulder, a bit awkwardly, I’ll admit. “We’ll find him. At least we know what the lines of the prophecy mean now. ‘Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, who holds the key to endless death.’ Your brother’s last name: di Angelo. Angelo is Italian for ‘angel.’”

“Oh, gods,” Hazel muttered. “Nico…”

Percy stared at his jelly donut, and I sensed he had a history with the mysterious son of Hades.

“We’ll rescue him,” he promised her. “We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless death.”

“That’s right,” I said encouragingly. I could only imagine how she felt. If I lost Percy, I’d want to rescue him immediately! I’d give an eye or an arm for it! “Hazel, your brother went searching for the Doors of Death in the Underworld, right? He must’ve found them.”

“He can tell us where the doors are,” Percy said, “and how to close them.”

Hazel took a deep breath. “Yes. Good.”

“Uh…” Leo shifted in his chair. “One thing. The giants are expecting us to do this, right? So we’re walking into a trap?”

I looked at Leo in shock. “We have no choice!”

“Don’t get me wrong, babe. It’s just that her brother, Nico… he knew about both camps, right?”

“Well, yes,” Hazel said.

“He’s been going back and forth,” Leo said, “and he didn’t tell either side.”

Jason sat forward, his expression grim. “You’re wondering if we can trust the guy. So am I.”

Hazel shot to her feet. “I don’t believe this. He’s my brother. He brought me back from the Underworld, and you don’t want to help him?”

Frank put his hand on her shoulder. “Nobody’s saying that.” He glared at Leo, and for once, I didn't stop him. “Nobody had better be saying that.”

Leo blinked. “Look, guys. All I mean is—”

“Hazel,” Jason said. “Leo is raising a fair point. I remember Nico from Camp Jupiter. Now I find out he also visited Camp Half-Blood. That does strike me as… well, a little shady. Do we really know where his loyalties lie? We just have to be careful.”

Hazel’s arms shook. A silver platter zoomed toward her and hit the wall to her left, splattering scrambled eggs. “You… the great Jason Grace… the praetor I looked up to. You were supposed to be so fair, such a good leader. And now you…” Hazel stomped her foot and stormed out of the mess hall.

“Hazel!” Leo called after her. “Ah, jeez. I should—”

“You’ve done enough,” Frank growled. He got up to follow her, but Piper gestured for him to wait.

“Give her time,” Piper advised. Then she frowned at Leo and Jason. “You guys, that was pretty cold.”

Jason looked shocked. “Cold? I’m just being cautious!”

“Her brother is dying,” Piper said.

“I’ll go talk to her,” Frank insisted.

“No,” Piper said. “Let her cool down first. Trust me on this. I’ll go check on her in a few minutes.”

“But…” Frank huffed like an irritated bear. “Fine. I’ll wait.”

The room calmed momentarily, and I coughed qiuetly. “So… everyone saw that plate fly, right?”

“She’s got metal powers,” Percy explained quietly.

“Ah.” I nodded, still somewhat confused.

From up above came a whirring sound like a large drill.

“That’s Festus,” Leo said. “I’ve got him on autopilot, but we must be nearing Atlanta. I’ll have to get up there… uh, assuming we know where to land.”

We all turned to Percy.

Jason raised an eyebrow. “You’re Captain Salt Water. Any ideas from the expert?”

“I’m not sure,” Percy admitted. “Somewhere central, high up so we can get a good view of the city. Maybe a park with some woods? We don’t want to land a warship in the middle of downtown. I doubt even the Mist could cover up something that huge.”

Leo nodded. “On it.” He raced for the stairs.

I watched him leave, a bitter taste in my mouth. Why was he acting so… weird? Normally, he was so caring toward people. I’d watch him give up so much for Piper and me, so what was changing now?

A terrible feeling began to settle in my gut.

“When we land, I’ll scout around in Atlanta,” Percy said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Sis, I could use your help.”

“Me?” I asked. “Last time I went with you guys, we blew up a whole store. You want me to act as an arsonist again?”

“No,” Percy said. “I want you with me because you’ve got the blood of Poseidon- er, Neptune. Maybe you can help me figure out where to find salt water. Besides, you’re good in a fight.”

I felt a little sheepish. “Sure… I guess.”

“Great,” Percy said. “We should take one more. Annabeth—”

“Oh, no!” Coach Hedge barked. “Young lady, you are grounded.”

Annabeth stared at him like he was speaking a foreign language. “Excuse me?”

“You and Jackson are not going anywhere together!” Hedge insisted. He glared at Percy, daring him to mouth off. “I’ll go with Water Girl and Mr. Sneaky Jackson. The rest of you guard the ship and make sure Annabeth doesn’t break any more rules!”

“Seriously, WHO is spreading that nickname!” I yelled to no one in particular.

“Wonderful,” Percy mumbled. “A sibling bonding day out with a bloodthirsty satyr, to find salt water in a landlocked city. This,” he paused to sigh, “is going to be so much fun.”

I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and nodded. “Should we run?”

“I’m afraid he’d start chasing us and bite our ankles,” Percy said, walking up the stairs with me.

We climbed out on deck and in unison said, “Wow.”

We had landed near the summit of a forested hill. A complex of white buildings, like a museum or a university, nestled in a grove of pines to the left. Below us spread the city of Atlanta—a cluster of brown and silver downtown skyscrapers two miles away, rising from what looked like an endless flat sprawl of highways, railroad tracks, houses, and green swathes of forest.

“Ah, lovely spot.” Coach Hedge inhaled the morning air. “Good choice, Valdez.”

Leo shrugged. “I just picked a tall hill. That’s a presidential library or something over there. At least that’s what Festus says.”

“I don’t know about that!” Hedge barked. “But do you realize what happened on this hill? Water Girl, you should know!”

I flinched. “I should?”

“A son of Ares stood here!” Hedge cried indignantly. “Your idol!”

“I’m Roman…so Mars, actually,” I said, putting my hand on my hip. “and fuck you mean, ‘my idol?’ I don’t idolize the war god just because I’m all strong and stuff-”

“Whatever! Famous spot in the American Civil War!”

“Wasn’t even alive then.”

“Whatever! General Sherman, Union leader. He stood on this hill watching the city of Atlanta burn. Cut a path of destruction all the way from here to the sea. Burning, looting, pillaging—now there was a demigod!”

I inched away from the satyr. “Uh, okay.”

I didn’t care much about history, but I wondered whether landing here was a bad omen. I’d heard that most human civil wars started as fights between Greek and Roman demigods. Now we were standing on the site of one such battle. The entire city below us had been leveled on orders of a child of Ares.

I could imagine some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood giving such a command. Clarisse La Rue, for instance, wouldn’t hesitate. But I couldn’t imagine Frank being so harsh.

“Anyway,” Percy said, “let’s try not to burn down the city this time.”

The coach looked disappointed. “All right. But where to?”

Percy pointed toward downtown. “When in doubt, start in the middle.”

“Jason always said to start at the top,” I noted. “How funny.”

Catching a ride there was easier than we thought. The three of us headed to the presidential library—which turned out to be the Carter Center—and asked the staff if they could call a taxi or give us directions to the nearest bus stop. Percy could have summoned Blackjack, but he was reluctant to ask the pegasus for help so soon after their last disaster. And besides, Percy was kind of hoping to travel like a regular mortal for a change, and I got the feeling it was so the two of us could act like normal siblings out on a day trip.
One of the librarians, whose name was Esther, insisted on driving us personally. She was so nice about it, Percy and I thought she must be a monster in disguise; but Hedge pulled us aside and assured us that Esther smelled like a normal human.

“With a hint of potpourri,” he said. “Cloves. Rose petals. Tasty!”

We piled into Esther’s big black Cadillac and drove toward downtown. Esther was so tiny, she could barely see over the steering wheel; but that didn’t seem to bother her. She muscled her car through traffic while regaling us with stories about the crazy families of Atlanta—the old plantation owners, the founders of Coca-Cola, the sports stars, and the CNN news people. She sounded so knowledgeable that I decided to try my luck.

“Uh, so, Esther,” I said, “here’s a hard question for you. Salt water in Atlanta. What’s the first thing that comes to mind?”

The old lady chuckled. “Oh, sugar. That’s easy. Whale sharks!”

Percy and I exchanged looks.

“Whale sharks?” he asked nervously. “You have those in Atlanta?”

“At the aquarium, sugar,” Esther said. “Very famous! Right downtown. Is that where you wanted to go?”

An aquarium. I considered that. I didn’t know what an Ancient Greek sea god would be doing at a Georgia aquarium, but we didn’t have any better ideas.
“Yes,” Percy said. “That’s where we’re going.”

Esther dropped us at the main entrance, where a line was already forming. She insisted on giving us her cell phone number for emergencies, money for a taxi ride back to the Carter Center, and a jar of homemade peach preserves, which for some reason she kept in a box in her trunk. That reminded me of Holes, and fuck did I always want some of the peaches. I stuck the jar in my backpack and thanked Esther, who had already switched from calling me sugar to baby.

As she drove away, I said, “Are all people in Atlanta that nice?”

Hedge grunted. “Hope not. I can’t fight them if they’re nice. Let’s go beat up some whale sharks. They sound dangerous!”

It hadn’t occurred to Percy and me that we might have to pay admission, or stand in line behind a bunch of families and kids from summer camps.

Looking at the elementary schoolers in their colorful T-shirts from various day camps, Percy looked a bit sad. “I should be at Camp Half-Blood right now, settling into my cabin for the summer, teaching sword-fighting lessons in the arena, planning pranks on the other counselors. These kids have no idea just how crazy a summer camp could be. Well, I guess we wait in line with them. Anybody have money?”

I checked my pockets. “Three denarii from Camp Jupiter, and Tsunami.”

Hedge patted his gym shorts and pulled out what he found. “Three quarters, two dimes, a rubber band and—score! A piece of celery.”

He started munching on the celery, eyeing the change and the rubber band like they might be next.

“Great,” Percy said. His own pockets were empty except for his pen/sword, Riptide. He glanced at me like he was pondering whether or not we could sneak in somehow, when a woman in a blue-and-green Georgia Aquarium shirt came up to us, smiling brightly.

“Ah, VIP visitors!” She had perky dimpled cheeks, thick-framed glasses, braces, and frizzy black hair pulled to the sides in pigtails, so that even though she was probably in her late twenties, she looked like a schoolgirl nerd—sort of cute, but sort of odd. Along with her Georgia Aquarium polo shirt, she wore dark slacks and black sneakers, and she bounced on the balls of her feet like she simply couldn’t contain her energy. Her name tag read KATE.

“You have your payment, I see,” she said. “Excellent!”

“What?” Percy asked.

Kate scooped the three denarii out of my hand. “Yes, that’s fine. Right this way!”

She spun and trotted off toward the main entrance.

Percy looked at Coach Hedge and me. “A trap?”

“Probably,” I said.

“She’s not mortal,” Hedge said, sniffing the air. “Probably some sort of goat-eating, demigod-destroying fiend from Tartarus.”

“No doubt,” Percy agreed.

“Awesome.” Hedge grinned. “Let’s go.”

Kate got us past the ticket queue and into the aquarium with no problem.

“Right this way.” Kate grinned at Percy. “It’s a wonderful exhibit. You won’t be disappointed. So rare we get VIPs.”

“Uh, you mean demigods?” I asked.

Kate winked at me impishly and put a finger to her mouth. “So over here is the cold-water experience, with your penguins and beluga whales and whatnot. And over there…well, those are some fish, obviously.”

For an aquarium worker, she didn’t seem to know much or care much about the smaller fish. We passed one huge tank full of tropical species, and when Hedge pointed to a particular fish and asked what it was, Kate said, “Oh, those are the yellow ones.”

We passed the gift shop. I slowed down to check out a clearance table with clothes and toys.

“Take what you want,” Kate told me.

I blinked. “Really?”

“Of course! You’re a VIP!”

I hesitated. Then I stuffed some T-shirts in my backpack.

“Dude,” Percy said, “what are you doing?”

“She said I could,” I whispered. “Besides, I need more clothes. I didn’t pack for a long trip!”

I added a snow globe to my stash, which wasn’t clothing, but who cares? Then I picked up a braided cylinder about the size of a candy bar.

I squinted at it. “What is—?”

“Chinese handcuffs,” Percy said. “You don’t know?”

I shook my head. “I grew up around a ton of asian kids, and I never once saw them pull this out. How is this Chinese?”

“I don’t know,” Percy said. “That’s just what it’s called. It’s like a gag gift.”

“Come along, kids!” Kate called from across the hall.

“I’ll show you later,” Percy promised.

I stuffed the handcuffs in my backpack, and we kept walking.

We passed through an acrylic tunnel. Fish swam over our heads, and I felt Percy suddenly grow anxious.

“What's wrong?” I asked quietly. “I felt your pulse quicken.”

Percy looked at me increduously. “How can you…?”

I shrugged. “Not the point. What’s wrong?”

My brother shook his head. “It’s… not a big deal.”

He was unfortunately right. The real threat was Kate. Hedge had already detected that she wasn’t human. Any minute she might turn into some horrible creature and attack us. Unfortunately, Percy and I didn’t see much choice but to play along with her VIP tour until we could find the sea god Phorcys, even if we were walking deeper into a trap.
We emerged in a viewing room awash with blue light. On the other side of a glass wall was the biggest aquarium tank I had ever seen. Cruising in circles were dozens of huge fish, including two spotted sharks, each twice my size. They were fat and slow, with open mouths and no teeth.

“Whale sharks,” Coach Hedge growled. “Now we shall battle to the death!”

Kate giggled. “Silly satyr. Whale sharks are peaceful. They only eat plankton.”

I scowled. I wondered how Kate knew the coach was a satyr. Hedge was wearing pants and specially fitted shoes over his hooves, like satyrs usually did to blend in with mortals. His baseball cap covered his horns. The more Kate giggled and acted friendly, the more I didn’t like her; but Coach Hedge didn’t seem fazed. Percy seemed to share my distaste. When I looked over, his eyes were trained only on Kate.

“Peaceful sharks?” the coach said with disgust. “What’s the point of that?”

I read the plaque next to the tank. “The only whale sharks in captivity in the world,” I mused. “That’s kind of amazing.”

“Yes, and these are small,” Kate said. “You should see some of my other babies out in the wild.”

“Your babies?” I asked.

Judging from the wicked glint in Kate’s eyes, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to meet Kate’s babies. I decided it was time to get to the point. I didn’t want to go any farther into this aquarium than we had to.

“So, Kate,” I said, “we’re looking for a guy…I mean a god, named Phorcys. Would you happen to know him?”

Kate snorted. “Know him? He’s my brother. That’s where we’re going, sillies. The real exhibits are right through here.”

She gestured at the far wall. The solid black surface rippled, and another tunnel appeared, leading through a luminous purple tank.

Kate strolled inside. The last thing I wanted to do was follow, but if Phorcys was really on the other side, and if he had information that would help our quest…I took a deep breath and followed into the tunnel.

Percy’s heartbeat spiked again, so I slowed to his pace and awkwardly grabbed his hand. It seemed to relax him somewhat.

As soon as we entered, Coach Hedge whistled. “Now that’s interesting.”

Gliding above us were multicolored jellyfish the size of trash cans, each with hundreds of tentacles that looked like silky barbed wire. One jellyfish had a paralyzed ten-foot-long swordfish tangled in its grasp. The jellyfish slowly wrapped its tendrils tighter and tighter around its prey.

Kate beamed at Coach Hedge. “You see? Forget the whale sharks! And there’s much more.”

Kate led us into an even larger chamber, lined with more aquariums. On one wall, a glowing red sign proclaimed: DEATH IN THE DEEP SEAS! Sponsored by Monster Donut.

Percy had to read the sign twice because of his dyslexia, and then twice more due to his bafflement. “Monster Donut?”

“Oh, yes,” Kate said. “One of our corporate sponsors.”

Percy gulped. I got the feeling another one of his adventures rose to his mind. I squeezed his hand in reassurance.

In one aquarium, a dozen hippocampi—horses with the tails of fish—drifted aimlessly. Percy looked disgusted. He watched them intently, and I didn’t find out until later that he tried to speak with them (a power I didn't seem to have), but they just floated around, occasionally bonking against the glass. Their minds seemed addled.

“This isn’t right,” Percy muttered.

We turned and saw something even worse. At the bottom of a smaller tank, two Nereids—female sea spirits—sat cross-legged, facing each other, playing a game of Go Fish. They looked incredibly bored. Their long green hair floated listlessly around their faces. Their eyes were half closed.

I felt so angry, I could hardly breathe. I glared at Kate. “How can you keep them here?”

“I know.” Kate sighed. “They aren’t very interesting. We tried to teach them some tricks, but with no luck, I’m afraid. I think you’ll like this tank over here much better.”

Percy started to protest, but Kate had already moved on.

“Holy mother of goats!” cried Coach Hedge. “Look at these beauties!”

He was gawking at two sea serpents—thirty-foot-long monsters with glowing blue scales and jaws that could have bitten a whale shark in half. In another tank, peeking out from its cement cave, was a squid the size of an eighteen-wheeler, with a beak like a giant bolt cutter.

A third tank held a dozen humanoid creatures with sleek seal bodies, doglike faces, and human hands. They sat on the sand at the bottom of the tank, building things out of Legos, though the creatures seemed just as dazed as the Nereids.

“Are those—?” Percy struggled to form the question.

“Telkhines?” Kate said. “Yes! The only ones in captivity.”

“But they fought for Kronos in the last war!” Percy said. “They’re dangerous!”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Well, we couldn’t call it ‘Death in the Deep Seas’ if these exhibits weren’t dangerous. Don’t worry. We keep them well sedated.”

“Sedated?” I asked. “Is that legal?”

Kate appeared not to have heard. She kept walking, pointing out other exhibits. Percy looked back at the telkhines. One was obviously a youngster. He was trying to make a sword out of Legos, but he seemed too groggy to put the pieces together. I had never liked sea demons, but now I felt sorry for them.

“And these sea monsters,” Kate narrated up ahead, “can grow five hundred feet long in the deep ocean. They have over a thousand teeth. And these? Their favorite food is demigod—”

“Demigod?” I yelped.

“But they will eat whales or small boats, too.” Kate turned to us and blushed. “Sorry…I’m such a monster nerd! I’m sure you know all this, being the kids of the sea god, and all.”
My ears were ringing like alarm bells. I didn’t like how much Kate knew about us. I didn’t like the way she casually tossed out information about drugging captive creatures or which of her babies liked to devour demigods.

“Who are you?” I demanded. “Does Kate stand for something?”

“Kate?” She looked momentarily confused. Then she glanced at her name tag. “Oh…” She laughed. “No, it’s—”

“Hello!” said a new voice, booming through the aquarium.

A small man scuttled out of the darkness. He walked sideways on bowed legs like a crab, his back hunched, his arms raised on either side like he was holding invisible plates.
He wore a wet suit that was several horrible shades of green. Glittery silver words printed down the side read: PORKY’S FOLLIES. A headset microphone was clamped over his greasy wiry hair. His eyes were milky blue, one higher than the other, and though he smiled, he didn’t look friendly—more like his face was being peeled back in a wind tunnel.
“Visitors!” the man said, the word thundering through the microphone. He had a DJ’s voice, deep and resonant, which did not at all match his appearance. “Welcome to Phorcys’s Follies!”

He swept his arms in one direction, as if directing our attention to an explosion. Nothing happened.

“Curse it,” the man grumbled. “Telkhines, that’s your cue! I wave my hands, and you leap energetically in your tank, do a synchronized double spin, and land in pyramid formation. We practiced this!”

The sea demons paid him no attention.

Coach Hedge leaned toward the crab man and sniffed his glittery wet suit. “Nice outfit.”

He didn’t sound like he was kidding. Of course, the satyr wore gym uniforms for fun.

“Thank you!” The man beamed. “I am Phorcys.”

I shifted my weight from foot to foot. “Why does your suit say Porky?”

Phorcys snarled. “Stupid uniform company! They can’t get anything right.”

Kate tapped her name tag. “I told them my name was Keto. They misspelled it as Kate. My brother…well, now he’s Porky.”

“I am not!” the man snapped. “I’m not even a little porky. The name doesn’t work with Follies, either. What kind of show is called Porky’s Follies? But you folks don’t want to hear us complain. Behold, the wondrous majesty of the giant killer squid!”

He gestured dramatically toward the squid tank. This time, fireworks shot off in front of the glass right on cue, sending up geysers of golden sparkles. Music swelled from the loudspeakers. The lights brightened and revealed the wondrous majesty of an empty tank.

The squid had apparently skulked back into its cave.

“Curse it!” Phorcys yelled again. He wheeled on his sister. “Keto, training the squid was your job. Juggling, I said. Maybe a bit of flesh-rending for the finale. Is that too much to ask?”

“He’s shy,” Keto said defensively. “Besides, each of his tentacles has sixty-two razorlike barbs that have to be sharpened daily.” She turned toward me. “Did you know the monstrous squid is the only beast known to eat demigods whole, armor and all, without getting indigestion? It’s true!”

I gagged slightly and backed away toward Percy.

“Keto!” Porky snapped—literally, since he clicked his fingers to his thumbs like crab claws. “You’ll bore our guests with so much information. Less education, more entertainment! We’ve discussed this.”

“But—”

“No buts! We’re here to present ‘Death in the Deep Seas!’ Sponsored by Monster Donut!”

The last words reverberated through the room with extra echo. Lights flashed. Smoke clouds billowed from the floor, making donut-shaped rings that smelled like real donuts.
“Available at the concession stand,” Phorcys advised. “But you’ve spent your hard-earned denarii to get the VIP tour, and so you shall! Come with me!”

“Um, hold it,” Percy said.

Phorcys’s smile melted in an ugly way. “Yes?”

“You’re a sea god, aren’t you?” Percy asked. “Son of Gaea?”

The crab man sighed. “Five thousand years, and I’m still known as Gaea’s little boy. Never mind that I’m one of the oldest sea gods in existence. Older than your upstart father, by the way. I’m god of the hidden depths! Lord of watery terrors! Father of a thousand monsters! But, no…nobody even knows me. I make one little mistake, supporting the Titans in their war, and I’m exiled from the ocean—to Atlanta, of all places.”

“We thought the Olympians said Atlantis,” Keto explained. “Their idea of a joke, I guess, sending us here instead.”

Percy narrowed his eyes. “And you’re a goddess?”

“Keto, yes!” She smiled happily. “Goddess of sea monsters, naturally! Whales, sharks, squids, and other giant sea life, but my heart always belonged to the monsters. Did you know that young sea serpents can regurgitate the flesh of their victims and keep themselves fed for up to six years on the same meal? It’s true!”

I gagged a little harder this time.

Coach Hedge whistled. “Six years? That’s fascinating.”

“I know!” Keto beamed.

“And how exactly does a killer squid rend the flesh from its victims?” Hedge asked. “I love nature.”

“Oh, well—”

“Stop!” Phorcys demanded. “You’re ruining the show! Now, witness our Nereid gladiators fight to the death!”

A mirrored disco ball descended into the Nereid exhibit, making the water dance with multicolored light. Two swords fell to the bottom and plunked in the sand. The Nereids ignored them and kept playing Go Fish.

“Curse it!” Phorcys stomped his legs sideways.

Keto grimaced at Coach Hedge. “Don’t mind Porky. He’s such a windbag. Come with me, my fine satyr. I’ll show you full-color diagrams of the monsters’ hunting habits.”

“Excellent!”

Before Percy or I could object, Keto led Coach Hedge away through a maze of aquarium glass, leaving Percy and me alone with the crabby sea god.

A bead of sweat traced its way down my neck. I exchanged a nervous look with my brother. This felt like a divide-and-conquer strategy. I didn’t see any way the encounter was going to end well. Part of me wanted to attack Phorcys now—at least that might give us the element of surprise—but we hadn’t found out any useful information yet. I wasn’t sure I could find Coach Hedge again. I wasn’t even sure he could find the exit.

Phorcys must’ve read my expression.

“Oh, it’s fine!” the god assured me. “Keto might be a little boring, but she’ll take good care of your friend. And honestly, the best part of the tour is still to come!”

Percy looked stressed. “So…” he managed. “Dionysus sent us here.”

“Bacchus,” I corrected.

“Right.” Percy tried to keep his annoyance in check. “The wine god. Whatever.” He looked at Phorcys. “Bacchus said you might know what your mom Gaea is up to, and these twin giant brothers of yours—Ephialtes and Otis. And if you happen to know anything about this Mark of Athena—”

“Bacchus thought I would help you?” Phorcys asked.

“Well, yeah,” Percy said. “I mean, you’re Phorcys. Everybody talks about you.”

Phorcys tilted his head so that his mismatched eyes almost lined up. “They do?”

“Of course. Don’t they, sis?”

“Oh…sure!” I said. “People talk about you all the time.”

“What do they say?” the god asked.

I tried not to look uncomfortable. “Well, you have great pyrotechnics. And a good announcer’s voice. And, um, a disco ball—”

“It’s true!” Phorcys clacked his fingers and thumbs excitedly. “I also have the largest collection of captive sea monsters in the world!”

“And you know stuff,” Percy added. “Like about the twins and what they’re up to.”

“The twins!” Phorcys made his voice echo. Sparklers blazed to life in front of the sea serpent tank. “Yes, I know all about Ephialtes and Otis. Those wannabes! They never fit in with the other giants. Too puny—and those snakes for feet.”

“Snakes for feet?” My jaw hung open.

“Yes, yes,” Phorcys said impatiently. “They knew they couldn’t get by on their strength, so they decided to go for drama—illusions, stage tricks, that sort of thing. You see, Gaea shaped her giant children with specific enemies in mind. Each giant was born to kill a certain god. Ephialtes and Otis…well, together they were sort of the anti-Dionysus.”

I tried to wrap my mind around that idea. “So…they want to replace all wine with cranberry juice or something?”

The sea god snorted. “Nothing like that! Ephialtes and Otis always wanted to do things better, flashier, more spectacular! Oh, of course they wanted to kill Dionysus. But first they wanted to humiliate him by making his revelries look tame!”

I glanced at the sparklers. “By using stuff like fireworks and disco balls?”

Phorcys’s mouth stretched into that wind tunnel smile. “Exactly! I taught the twins everything they know, or at least I tried to. They never listened. Their first big trick? They tried to reach Olympus by piling mountains on top of one another. It was just an illusion, of course. I told them it was ridiculous. ‘You should start small,’ I said. ‘Sawing each other in half, pulling gorgons out of a hat. That sort of thing. And matching sequined outfits. Twins need those!’”

“Good advice,” Percy agreed. “And now the twins are—”

“Oh, preparing for their doomsday show in Rome,” Phorcys sneered. “It’s one of Mother’s silly ideas. They’re keeping some prisoner in a large bronze jar. Yes, another stupid stunt,” said the sea god. “How can you show off your prisoner if he’s in a bronze jar? No entertainment value. Not like my lovely specimens!”

He gestured to the hippocampi, who were bonking their heads apathetically against the glass.

I tried to think. I felt like the lethargy of the addled sea creatures was starting to affect Percy and me. “You said this—this doomsday show was Gaea’s idea?”

“Well…Mother’s plans always have lots of layers.” Phorcys laughed. “The earth has layers! I suppose that makes sense!”

“Uh-huh,” Percy said. “And so her plan…”

“Oh, she’s put out a general bounty on some group of demigods,” Phorcys said. “She doesn’t really care who kills them, as long as they’re killed. Well…I take that back. She was very specific that two must be spared. One boy and one girl. Tartarus only knows why. At any rate, the twins have their little show planned, hoping it will lure these demigods to Rome. I suppose the prisoner in the jar is a friend of theirs or some such. That, or perhaps they think this group of demigods will be foolish enough to come into their territory searching for the Mark of Athena.” Phorcys elbowed me in the ribs. “Ha! Good luck with that, eh?”

I laughed nervously. “Yeah. Ha-ha. That would be really dumb because, uh…”

Phorcys narrowed his eyes.

Percy slipped his hand into his pocket. I figured he was reaching for his own pen, the cool one that uncaps and doesn’t twist. Even this old sea god must be smart enough to realize we were the demigods with the bounty on our heads.

But Phorcys just grinned and elbowed me again. “Ha! Good one, child of Neptune. I suppose you’re right. No point talking about it. Even if the demigods found that map in Charleston, they’d never make it to Rome alive!”

“Yes, the MAP IN CHARLESTON,” I said loudly, giving Percy a wide-eyed look to make sure he hadn’t missed the information. I couldn’t have been more obvious if I had held up a large sign that read CLUE!!!!! but my anxiety in the moment had me acting stupid.

“But enough boring educational stuff!” Phorcys said. “You’ve paid for the VIP treatment. Won’t you please let me finish the tour? The three denarii entrance fee is nonrefundable, you know.”

I wasn’t excited about more fireworks, donut-scented smoke, or depressing captive sea creatures. But I glanced at Percy and decided we’d better humor the crabby old god, at least until we found Coach Hedge and got safely to the exit. Besides, we might be able to get more information out of Phorcys.

“Afterward,” Percy said, “can we ask questions?”

“Of course! I’ll tell you everything you need to know.” Phorcys clapped his hands twice. On the wall under the glowing red sign, a new tunnel appeared, leading into another tank.
“Walk this way!” Phorcys scuttled sideways through the tunnel.

I scratched my head. “Do we have to—?” I turned sideways.

“It’s just a figure of speech, man,” Percy said. “Come on.”

The tunnel ran along the floor of a gymnasium-sized tank. Except for water and some cheap decorations, it seemed majestically empty. I guessed there were about fifty thousand gallons of water over our heads. If the tunnel were to shatter for some reason…

No big deal, I thought. I’ve been surrounded by water thousands of times. This is my home court.

But Percy’s heart was pounding so loud I didn’t even need my powers to hear it. Was he afraid of water? There’s no way. Annabeth would have mentioned if he had a bad experience, so as far as I knew, he was fine. But this type of panic emitting from him… it was trauma related. I could feel it. I wanted to ask Percy what the matter was, but now wasn’t the time. Maybe later.

Phorcys stopped in the middle of the tunnel and spread his arms proudly. “Beautiful exhibit, isn’t it?”

Percy tried to distract himself by concentrating on details. In one corner of the tank, snuggled in a forest of fake kelp, was a life-sized plastic gingerbread cottage with bubbles coming out of the chimney. In the opposite corner, a plastic sculpture of a guy in an old-fashioned diving suit knelt beside a treasure chest, which popped open every few seconds, spewed bubbles, and closed again. Littered across the white sand floor were glass marbles the size of bowling balls, and a strange assortment of weapons like tridents and spearguns. Outside the tank’s display wall was an amphitheater with seating for several hundred.

“What do you keep in here?” I asked. “Giant killer goldfish?”

Phorcys raised his eyebrows. “Oh, that would be good! But, no, Water Girl, daughter of Neptune. This tank is not for goldfish.”

At the nickname, I flinched. Normally, I’d be mad. But… Porky over here wasn’t supposed to know that nickname. I grabbed my pen in my pocket.

A sense of dread trickled down my throat like cough syrup. Unfortunately, it was a feeling I was used to.

“How do you know that nickname?” Percy demanded. “How do you know she’s Neptune's daughter?”

“Well…” Phorcys shrugged, trying to look modest. “It was probably in the descriptions Gaea provided. You know, for the bounty, Percy Jackson.”

Percy uncapped his pen. Instantly, Riptide appeared in his hand. It was really pretty upclose. “Don’t double-cross me, Phorcys. You promised me answers.”

“After the VIP treatment, yes,” Phorcys agreed. “I promised to tell you everything you need to know. The thing is, however, you don’t really need to know anything.” His grotesque smile stretched wide. “You see, even if you made it to Rome, which is quite unlikely, you’d never defeat my giant brothers without a god fighting at your side. And what god would help you? So I have a better plan. You’re not leaving. You’re VIPs—Very Important Prisoners!”

Percy lunged. I hurled my trident at the sea god’s head. Phorcys simply disappeared.

The god’s voice reverberated through the aquarium’s sound system, echoing down the tunnel. “Yes, good! Fighting is good! You see, Mother never trusted me with big assignments, but she did agree that I could keep anything I caught. You two will make an excellent exhibit—the only demigod spawn of the sea god in captivity. ‘Demigod Terrors’—yes, I like that! We already have sponsorship lined up with Bargain Mart. You can fight each other every day at eleven AM and one PM, with an evening show at seven PM.”

“You’re crazy!” I yelled.

“Don’t sell yourself short!” Phorcys said. “You’ll be our biggest draw!”

I ran for the exit, only to slam into a glass wall. Percy ran the other way and found it blocked as well. Our tunnel had become a bubble. I put my hand against the glass and realized it was softening, melting like ice. Soon the water would come crashing in.

“We won’t cooperate, Phorcys!” Percy shouted, fear iminent in his voice.

“Oh, I’m optimistic,” the sea god’s voice boomed. “If you won’t fight each other at first, no problem! I can send in fresh sea monsters every day. After you get used to the food here, you’ll be properly sedated and will follow directions. Believe me, you’ll come to love your new home.”

Over Percy’s head, the glass dome cracked and began to leak.

“We’re the children of the sea god!” I yelled, trying to get Percy to relax. “You can’t imprison us in water. This is where we’re strongest.”

Phorcys’s laugh seemed to come from all around us. “What a coincidence! It’s also where I’m strongest. This tank is specially designed to contain demigods. Now, have fun, you two. I’ll see you at feeding time!”

The glass dome shattered, and the water crashed in.

I breathed in the water, feeling just like I was in regular air. I tumbled around in the crashing liquid until the whole room filled up, and I could finally regulate myself.

Then I heard thrashing next to me. I turned, seeing Percy with his cheeks puffed out. Why the fuck was he holding his breath? I swam over to him. “Dude! Breathe! It’s okay!”

Percy looked at me with fear in his eyes. Something must have happened to him while he was at Camp Jupiter on his quest to Alaska. There was no way a son of Poseidon was afraid of the water.

I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. “It’s gonna be okay, man, I’m right here. Take a deep breath, I won’t let anyhting happen to you.”

My brother looked like he was going to pass out. Then he finally exhaled, bubbles flying around us. He breathed the water in, gasping for his breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, shaking his head. “It-”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Don’t tell me. Let’s figure out how to escape.”

Percy returned to the situation at hand and nodded.

We swam around the tank and reported no exits. The top was covered with Celestial bronze mesh, like the curtains that roll down over closed storefronts at the mall. Percy tried to cut through with Riptide, but he couldn’t make a dent. I tried to smash through the glass wall with the butt of my trident—again, no luck. Then we repeated our efforts with several of the weapons lying around the bottom of the tank and managed to break three tridents, a sword, and a speargun.

Finally we tried to control the water. We wanted it to expand and break the tank, or explode out the top. The water didn’t obey. Maybe it was enchanted, or under the power of Phorcys. I concentrated until my ears popped, but the best we could do was blow the lid off the plastic treasure chest.

Well, that’s it, Percy thought dejectedly. I’ll have to live in a plastic gingerbread house the rest of my life, fighting my sister and waiting for feeding time.

“I can hear your thoughts, you know,” I said. “When we’re underwater like this.”

“Sorry,” Percy said dejectedly.

Phorcys had promised we’d learn to love it. I thought about the dazed telkhines, the Nereids and hippocampi, all swimming in bored, lazy circles. The thought of ending up like that didn’t help to lower our anxiety levels.

Percy wondered if Phorcys was right. Even if we managed to escape, how could we defeat the giants if the gods were all incapacitated? Bacchus might be able to help. He had killed the twin giants once before, but he would only join the fight if he got an impossible tribute, and the idea of giving Bacchus any kind of tribute made Percy want to gag himself with a Monster Donut.

I furrowed my brows and turned, desperate to find some way to get us out of here and help give Percy hope.

Then I saw our chance.

“Look!” I said.

Outside the glass, Keto was leading Coach Hedge through the amphitheater, lecturing him on something while the coach nodded and admired the stadium seating.

“Coach!” Percy yelled. Then he realized it was hopeless. The coach couldn’t hear us under the water.

Hedge didn’t seem to notice. Keto walked him briskly across the amphitheater. She didn’t even look through the glass, probably because she assumed the tank was still empty. She pointed to the far end of the room as if saying, Come on. More gruesome sea monsters this way.

I realized we had only a few seconds before the coach would be gone. We swam after them, but the water didn’t help me move as it usually did. In fact, it seemed to be pushing us back. I dropped Tsunami and used both arms.

Coach Hedge and Keto were five feet from the exit.

In desperation, Percy scooped up a giant marble and hurled it underhanded like a bowling ball.

It hit the glass with a thunk—not nearly loud enough to attract attention.

My heart sank.

But Coach Hedge had the ears of a satyr. He glanced over his shoulder. When he saw us, his expression went through several changes in a matter of microseconds—incomprehension, surprise, outrage, then a mask of calm.

Before Keto could notice, Hedge pointed toward the top of the amphitheater. It looked like he might be screaming, Gods of Olympus, what is that?

Keto turned. Coach Hedge promptly took off his fake foot and ninja-kicked her in the back of the head with his goat hoof. Keto crumpled to the floor.

Percy winced. His own recently whopped head throbbed in sympathy, but he had never been happier to have a chaperone who liked mixed martial arts cage matches.

Hedge ran to the glass. He held up his palms like: What are you doing in there, kids?

I pounded my fist on the glass and mouthed: Break it!

Behind Hedge, the sea goddess began to move. Percy pointed frantically.

Hedge shook his leg like he was warming up his kicking hoof, but I waved my arms, No. we couldn’t keep whopping Keto on the head forever. Since she was immortal, she wouldn’t stay down, and it wouldn’t get us out of this tank. It was only a matter of time before Phorcys came back to check on us.

On three, Percy mouthed, holding up three fingers and then gesturing at the glass. All of us hit it at the same time.

Percy was not good at charades, but Hedge nodded like he understood. Hitting things was a language the satyr knew well.

Percy hefted another giant marble. “Sis, get that trident ready.”

I summoned my golden weapon immediately, clinging to it with immense force. “On it.”

Keto rose to her knees. No time to waste.

Percy counted on his fingers. One, two, three!

I rammed the prongs of my tident into the glass. The coach did a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick with his hoof. Percy used all his strength to slam the marble into the wall, but we did more than just those attacks. We called on the water to obey us, and this time we refused to take no for an answer. I felt all the pent-up pressure inside the tank, and we put it to use. Water liked to be free. Given time, water could overcome any barrier, and it hated to be trapped, just like Percy and me. He thought about getting back to Annabeth. We thought about destroying this horrible prison for sea creatures. I thought about shoving Phorcys’s microphone down his ugly throat. Fifty thousand gallons of water responded to our anger.

The glass wall cracked. Fracture lines zigzagged from the point of impact, and suddenly the tank burst. I was sucked out in a torrent of water. I tumbled across the amphitheater floor with Percy, some large marbles, and a clump of plastic seaweed. Keto was just getting to her feet when the diver statue slammed into her like it wanted a hug.
Coach Hedge spit salt water. “Pan’s pipes, Jackson! What were you doing in there?”

“Phorcys!” Percy spluttered. “Trap! Run!”

Alarms blared as we fled the exhibits. We ran past the Nereids’ tank, then the telkhines. I wanted to free them, but how? They were drugged and sluggish, and they were sea creatures. They wouldn’t survive unless we found a way to transport them to the ocean.

“Besides,” Percy said, almost reading my thoughts, “if Phorcys catches us, I’m pretty sure his power would overcome ours.”

“I killed Thalassa,” I said. “But that was just a nasty break up.”

Percy looked stunned.

Over the sound system, Phorcys’s voice boomed: “Percy Jackson!”

Flash pots and sparklers exploded randomly. Donut-scented smoke filled the halls. Dramatic music—five or six different tracks—blared simultaneously from the speakers. Lights popped and caught fire as all the special effects in the building were triggered at once.

Percy, Coach Hedge, and I stumbled out of the glass tunnel and found ourselves back in the whale shark room. The mortal section of the aquarium was filled with screaming crowds—families and day camp groups running in every direction while the staff raced around frantically, trying to assure everyone it was just a faulty alarm system.

I knew better. We joined the mortals and ran for the exit.

-

Annabeth was trying to cheer up Hazel, regaling her with Percy’s greatest Seaweed Brain moments, when I stumbled down the hall and burst into her cabin.

“Where’s Leo?” I gasped. “Take off! Take off!”

Both girls shot to their feet.

“Where’s Percy?” Annabeth demanded. “And the goat?”

I panted heavily, covered in sweat with my hair dishevelled. Running all the way back was staring to catch up to me. “On deck. They’re fine. We’re being followed!”

Annabeth pushed past me and took the stairs three at a time, Hazel right behind her and me trailing, still gasping for air. Percy and Hedge lay on the deck, looking exhausted. Hedge was missing his shoes. He grinned at the sky, muttering, “Awesome. Awesome.” Percy was covered with nicks and scratches, like he’d jumped through a window, which I knew he did. He didn’t say anything, but he grasped Annabeth’s hand weakly as if to say, Be right with you, as soon as the world stops spinning.

Leo, Piper, and Jason, who’d been eating in the mess hall, came rushing up the stairs.

“What? What?” Leo cried, holding a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. “Can’t a guy even take a lunch break? What’s wrong?”

“Followed!” I yelled again.

“Followed by what?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know!” I exhaled. “Whales? Sea monsters? Maybe Kate and Porky!”

Annabeth looked like she wanted to strangle me. “That makes absolutely no sense. Leo, you’d better get us out of here.”

Leo put his sandwich between his teeth, pirate style, and ran for the helm.

Soon the Argo II was rising into the sky. Annabeth manned the aft crossbow. I saw no sign of pursuit by whales or otherwise, but Percy, Frank, and I didn’t start to recover until the Atlanta skyline was a hazy smudge in the distance.

“Charleston,” Percy said, hobbling around the deck like an old man. He still sounded pretty shaken up. “Set course for Charleston.”

“Charleston?” Jason said the name as if it brought back bad memories. “What exactly did you find in Atlanta?”

I unzipped my backpack and started bringing out my souvenirs. “Some peach preserves. A couple of T-shirts. A snow globe. And Chinese handcuffs.”

Annabeth forced herself to stay calm. “How about you start from the top—of the story, not the backpack.”

We gathered on the quarterdeck so Leo could hear the conversation as he navigated. Percy and I took turns relating what had happened at the Georgia Aquarium, with Coach Hedge interjecting from time to time: “That was awesome!” or “Then I kicked her in the head!”

At least the coach seemed to have forgotten about Percy and Annabeth falling asleep in the stable the night before. But judging from Percy’s story, Annabeth had worse problems to worry about than being grounded.

When Percy explained about the captive sea creatures in the aquarium, she understood why he was so upset.

“That’s terrible,” she said. “We need to help them.”

“We will,” Percy promised. “In time. But I have to figure out how. I wish…” He shook his head. “Never mind. First we have to deal with this bounty on our heads.”

The trip we’d taken had shown me a lot about Percy. He was a great fighter, but was a lot more sensitive than he let on. I could tell just how shaken he was at the trapped sea monsters.

Coach Hedge had lost interest in the conversation—probably because it was no longer about him—and wandered toward the bow of the ship, practicing his roundhouse kicks and complimenting himself on his technique.

Annabeth gripped the hilt of her dagger. “A bounty on our heads…as if we didn’t attract enough monsters already.”

“Do we get WANTED posters?” Leo asked. “And do they have our bounties, like, broken down on a price list?”

Hazel wrinkled her nose. “What are you talking about?”

“Just curious how much I’m going for these days,” Leo said. “I mean, I can understand not being as pricey as Percy or Jason, maybe…but am I worth, like, two Franks, or three Franks?”

“Hey!” Frank complained. I rolled my eyes. Of course they were still fighting.

“Knock it off,” Annabeth ordered. “At least we know our next step is to go to Charleston, to find this map.”

Piper leaned against the control panel. She’d done her braid again today, which looked amazing as always. I wondered how she found the time. I could barely remember to brush my hair.

“A map,” Piper said. “But a map to what?”

“The Mark of Athena.” Percy looked cautiously at Annabeth, like he was afraid he’d overstepped. She must have been putting out a strong I don’t want to talk about it vibe.
“Whatever that is,” he continued. “We know it leads to something important in Rome, something that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks.”

“The giants’ bane,” Hazel added.

Percy nodded. “And in my dream, the twin giants said something about a statue.”

“Um…” Frank rolled the Chinese handcuffs- which he looked absolutely offended about- between his fingers. “According to Phorcys, we’d have to be insane to try to find it. But what is it?”

Everyone looked at Annabeth. I could see her putting the equation together in her head, and it began to worry me. I had a feeling I knew exactly what we were talking about, but I almost didn’t want to say it. Neither did Annabeth.

“I—I’m close to an answer,” she lied. “I’ll know more if we find this map. Jason, the way you reacted to the name Charleston…have you been there before?”

Jason glanced uneasily at Piper, though I wasn’t sure why.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Reyna and I did a quest there about a year ago. We were salvaging Imperial gold weapons from the C.S.S. Hunley.”

He should have looked at me instead. I was furious. I hadn’t heard about this quest, and we were still dating a year ago. Exactly how much did he keep from me? Would he do that to Piper now?

“The what?” I asked.

“Whoa!” Leo said. “That’s the first successful military submarine. From the Civil War. I always wanted to see that.”

“It was designed by Roman demigods,” Jason said. “It held a secret stash of Imperial gold torpedoes—until we rescued them and brought them back to Camp Jupiter.”

Hazel crossed her arms. “So the Romans fought on the Confederate side? As a girl whose grandmother was a slave, can I just say…not cool?”

Jason put his hands in front of him, palms up. “I personally was not alive then. And it wasn’t all Greeks on one side and all Romans on the other. But, yes. Not cool. Sometimes demigods make bad choices.” He looked sheepishly at Hazel. “Like sometimes we’re too suspicious. And we speak without thinking.”

Hazel stared at him. Slowly it seemed to dawn on her that he was apologizing.

Jason elbowed Leo.

“Ow!” Leo yelped. “I mean, yeah…bad choices. Like not trusting people’s brothers who, you know, might need saving. Hypothetically speaking.”

Hazel pursed her lips. “Fine. Back to Charleston. Are you saying we should check that submarine again?”

Jason shrugged. “Well…I can think of two places in Charleston we might search. The museum where they keep the Hunley—that’s one of them. It has a lot of relics from the Civil War. A map could be hidden in one. I know the layout. I could lead a team inside.”

“I’ll go,” Leo said. “That sounds cool.”

Jason nodded. He turned to Frank, who was trying to pull his fingers out of the Chinese handcuffs. “You should come too, Frank. We might need you.”

Frank looked surprised. “Why?”

“You’re a child of Mars,” Jason said. “The ghosts of defeated causes are bound to serve you. And the museum in Charleston has plenty of Confederate ghosts. We’ll need you to keep them in line.”

“Okay.” Frank relented. “Sure.” He frowned at his fingers, trying to pull them out of the trap. “Uh, how do you—?”

Leo chuckled. “Man, you’ve never seen those before? There’s a simple trick to getting out.”

Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel was trying not to laugh.

Frank grimaced with concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared. On the deck where he’d been standing, a green iguana crouched next to an empty set of Chinese handcuffs.

“Well done, Frank Zhang,” Leo said dryly, doing his impression of Chiron the centaur. “That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas.”

Everybody busted out laughing, but I was probably the loudest. Leo could just be so silly sometimes.

Frank turned back to human, picked up the handcuffs, and shoved them in his pocket. He managed an embarrassed smile.

“Anyway,” Frank said, clearly anxious to change the subject. “The museum is one place to search. But, uh, Jason, you said there were two?”

Jason’s smile faded. Whatever he was thinking about, I could tell it wasn’t pleasant.

“Yeah,” he said. “The other place is called the Battery—it’s a park right by the harbor. The last time I was there…with Reyna…” He glanced at Piper, then rushed on. My blood boiled. “We saw something in the park. A ghost or some sort of spirit, like a Southern belle from the Civil War, glowing and floating along. We tried to approach it, but it disappeared whenever we got close. Then Reyna had this feeling—she said she should try it alone. Like maybe it would only talk to a girl. She went up to the spirit by herself, and sure enough, it spoke to her.”

Everyone waited.

“What did it say?” Annabeth asked.

“Reyna wouldn’t tell me,” Jason admitted. “But it must have been important. She seemed…shaken up. Maybe she got a prophecy or some bad news. Reyna never acted the same around me after that.”

I clicked my tounge. “I see.”

Jason turned to me, and his face flushed. he finally seemed to realize his mistake.

“A girls’ adventure, then,” Annabeth said. “Piper and Hazel can come with me.”

Both nodded, though Hazel looked nervous. No doubt her time in the Underworld had given her enough ghost experiences for two lifetimes. Piper’s eyes flashed defiantly, like anything Reyna could do, she could do.

Huh. Why didn’t she call me?

“That leaves Coach, my sis, and me,” Percy said, quickly coming to wrap his arm around my shoulder. I guess he sensed my discomfort. “Cool.”

“So that’s settled.” Annabeth turned to Leo, who was studying his console, listening to Festus creak and click over the intercom. “Leo, how long until we reach Charleston?”

“Good question,” he muttered. “Festus just detected a large group of eagles behind us—long-range radar, still not in sight.”

Piper leaned over the console. “Are you sure they’re Roman?”

Leo rolled his eyes. “No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course they’re Roman! I suppose we could turn the ship around and fight—”

“Which would be a very bad idea,” Jason said, “and remove any doubt that we’re enemies of Rome.”

“Or I’ve got another idea,” Leo said. “If we went straight to Charleston, we could be there in a few hours. But the eagles would overtake us, and things would get complicated. Instead, we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles. We take the ship on a detour, go the long way to Charleston, and get there tomorrow morning—”

Hazel started to protest, but Leo raised his hand. “I know, I know. Nico’s in trouble and we have to hurry.”

“It’s June twenty-seventh,” Hazel said. “After today, four more days. Then he dies.”

“I know! But this might throw the Romans off our trail. We still should have enough time to reach Rome.”

Hazel scowled. “When you say should have enough…”

Leo shrugged. “How do you feel about barely enough?”

Hazel put her face in her hands for a count of three. “Sounds about typical for us.”

Annabeth decided to take that as a green light. “Okay, Leo. What kind of decoy are we talking about?”

“I’m so glad you asked!” He punched a few buttons on the console, rotated the turntable, and repeatedly pressed the A button on his Wii controller really, really fast. He called into the intercom, “Buford? Report for duty, please.”

Frank took a step back. “There’s somebody else on the ship? Who is Buford?”

A puff of steam shot from the stairwell, and Leo’s automatic table climbed on deck.

I hadn’t seen much of Buford during the trip. He mostly stayed in the engine room. (Leo insisted that Buford had a secret crush on the engine.) He was a three-legged table with a mahogany top. His bronze base had several drawers, spinning gears, and a set of steam vents. Buford was toting a bag like a mail sack tied to one of his legs. He clattered to the helm and made a sound like a train whistle.

“This is Buford,” Leo announced.

“You name your furniture?” Frank asked.

Leo snorted. “Man, you just wish you had furniture this cool. Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?”

Buford spewed steam. He stepped to the railing. His mahogany top split into four pie slices, which elongated into wooden blades. The blades spun, and Buford took off.

“A helicopter table,” Percy muttered. “Gotta admit, that’s cool. What’s in the bag?”

“Dirty demigod laundry,” Leo said. “I hope you don’t mind, Frank.”

Frank choked. “What?”

“It’ll throw the eagles off our scent.”

“Those were my only extra pants!”

I threw Frank my backpack from the aquarium and nodded silently, letting him know to take the clothes I stuffed in there. He looked at me greatfully, and decided to back off Leo.

Leo shrugged. “I asked Buford to get them laundered and folded while he’s out. Hopefully he will.” He rubbed his hands and grinned. “Well! I call that a good day’s work. I’m gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!”

I watched everyone pile out of the room, leaving Leo and I alone. I decided to take this opportunity to finally talk to him.

“Hey, babe,” Leo greeted, throwing his arm around me. I smiled and kissed his cheek, hugging his hips.

“Hey,” I said softly. “Is Festus gonna listen to us? I wanna talk for a second.”

Leo turned toward the front of the ship and sighed. “You heard the lady, Festus. Go ahead and do your thing.”

A few clicks, creaks, and squeaks later, Leo turned back to me. “What is it, hon?”

I leaned into him and sighed. “Tell me what you are hidng from me. What happened on your trip with Hazel? I can tell it’s messing with you.”

Leo frowned and let go of me, putting his hands back on the control boards. “Its… I saw Nemesis.”

“I know that part,” I said softly. “What else?”

“Well,” Leo took a deep breath and released it slowly. “She told me something that I didn’t really like. She said some stuff here and there, gave me a little cookie, and then told me… that I was basically unimportant. Forgettable. Useless. A waste of space. She called me an extra wheel.”

“Like a third wheel?” I asked.

“Go up about four more wheels, and yeah.”

I frowned, hugging Leo closer. “There’s eight of us. You can’t be an extra wheel.”

“I can if you pair up with other people,” Leo said.

“That’s not fair,” I replied. “We have to split up to do things.”

“I don’t mean that.”

Leo looked down and sighed. “You seem fairly occupied with yourself. And then… there’s Percy. And Jason- god, Jason…”

“Percy is my brother!” I said, standing up straighter. “I want to get to know him. And what do you mean? Jason?”

“I can see how you’re hung up on him,” Leo said softly, his eyes not meeting mine.

“No way!” I shouted. “Leo, he’s dating Piper.”

“But you still think a lot about him.”

I sighed and turned away. “Sometimes. But not like how you think. I’m just barely getting over hating his guts. We’re friends, maybe less than that.”

Leo stayed quiet for a moment. Then he turned and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. My back pressed into his chest.

He rested his head on my shoulder, and his voice went soft like a whisper.

“I’m scared to lose you. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me…”

I frowned and leaned back into him, resting my hands on his. We stayed still for a moment, just breathing together in the silence. Leo squeezed me a little tighter, burying his face in my neck.

“I can feel you slipping away,” he whispered. “Away from me.”

I shook my head. “Leo, I would never-”

“Not that,” he said. “Not that…”

My heart sank when I realized what he meant.

“Leo, baby…” I sighed and turned around, cupping his face in my hands. “We’re gonna be okay. Just tell me what you need. Love, space, anything…”

Leo nodded sadly, his brown eyes gazing into my own. I took a moment to study his face, to look at his freckles and the eyebrow piercing I had given him months ago. I smiled at the memory.

I took him into my arms again. “I love you so much. I won’t let anything pull us apart.”

That’s when I felt Leo break. “And what if I do?”

I tried desperately to keep my heart from shattering. I clung to the pieces and squeezed it tight.

“Well… don’t,” is all I could say.

Leo nodded, hugging me into his chest. “I’m just… overthinking. I’m so sorry, babe.”

“It's okay,” I said. “I know how you feel.”

Leo sighed and pulled away from me. “I might just marry you after this stupid quest. I’m tired of being away from you.”

I laughed softly, entwining my fingers with Leo’s. “With what money? What ring?”

“Babe, I’ll make the ring,” Leo said with a crooked grin. “It’ll match your eyes.”

“Oh, how romantic.”

I pulled Leo in for a kiss, and things went on from there.

Chapter Text

That night, I had some really weird dreams that I couldn't exactly remember when I woke up. I heard maybe two voices, both males. One sort of sounded like Prometheus but… different? More expressive? And the other kind of made my stomach churn and my head hurt. I couldn’t recall what they were talking about, but I heard one word that stuck with me- Mendacious. Maybe that was a name? It was too big of a word for me, so I’d probably have to bring it up later to Annabeth about its meaning.

When my eyes finally opened and I let my tiredness wash away, I was alone in my bed. Leo had quietly left earlier so Coach wouldn’t blow a fuse like he did with my brother and his girlfriend. It was fine by me, but it felt lonely. I missed the warmth of his arms or the stupid whistle in his nose when he breathed.

I thought about what he had said the night before. How Nemesis had called him an extra wheel and how he felt me slipping away. I think what stuck with me the most was the comment about letting himself let go of me or something. I promised that I wouldn't let anything pull us apart, but he seemed… shaken as he said otherwise. My poor boy. I could only imagine his inner turmoil. Maybe the quest was getting to him. Probably an effect of the Eidolons? I could only hope.

As I got ready for the day, I pondered more about Leo’s previous comments. I was a little upset that he thought I was ditching him for Percy or thinking about going back to Jason. Admittedly, I was plagued by afterthoughts of my ex boyfriend, and it was something I wasn’t proud of. I don’t know why I was so obsessed with him, but I could start to see it affecting my current relationship and it wasn’t looking good. I’d definitely have to do a deep dive into myself and figure out all that bullshit. It would be better for me and finally I could just let go. It’d probably make Leo feel better, too. I knew he’d had some self-worth issues regarding Jason, anyway. I mean, who wouldn’t? If some super buff hero lady turned out to be Leo’s ex, I would probably just give up. Leo must have seen himself as lucky, or thought himself as the ‘get away’ or something.

I felt the sudden urge to apologize. To wrap him in my arms and hold onto his warmth forever. I was ashamed for having made him feel that way, and maybe that was why he’s been acting so weird lately. Whenever he has something on his mind, he doesn’t think properly- well, when does he ever?

A smile came across my lips as I thought of my silly boyfriend. I quickly finished getting ready and left my room, heading to the mess hall to eat some breakfast. The ship was oddly silent, and I hadn't seen anyone. Maybe they already left? Well, what about Percy and Hedge? I grabbed a blueberry bagel and ate it as I made my way to the top deck.

Nobody was there besides Hedge. He was practicing some of his goat kicks and twirling his club around before he spotted me.

“Ah, Water Girl!” Hedge said, relaxing his fighting stance. “Care to join me for a spar?”

“Sorry, Coach, but no. You’d probably break your spine or something even if I went easy,” I said, rolling my eyes and lightly hitting his shoulder when I came up to him. He whined softly from the light tap and huffed.

“Well, there’s nothing else to do for the next few hours. Everyone’s questing or drowning,” Hedge grumbled, turning toward the waters. We were currently docked at Charleston bay, where the rest of the demigods were having a girls day or a boys day. it was just Percy, Hedge, and me- except Percy was missing.

“Drowning?” I asked, leaning against the railing

“Yeup,'' Hedge confirmed, picking his nose. “Percy said he was going to swim with the fishies and talk to the Nereids or something.”

I nodded in understanding, my eyes looking to the waves below. “I’ve never really gone under water like that before. To just explore or look around.”

Hedge glanced at me, his lips curling in either a frown or smile- kinda hard to tell with Hedge. “Wanna try?”

“I dunno,” I said. “I don’t really know what to do down there.”

Hedge shrugged. “Just look around, talk to the fishies, maybe fight a shark.”

I rolled my eyes as I hopped over the rail, my feet on the very edge of the ship. “I’ll see. Maybe I can find Percy and explore with him, too.”

“Later, Water girl,” Hedge said, quickly going back to his ninja kicks.

My feet left the ship’s deck, and my body crashed into the blue waves below.

As the bubbles faded away, I was able to look around and view the sea around me. Some fish swam around in their schools or by themselves, the seaweed that had been removed from the sand flew around in the tide, and some trash floated by- this was unsurprising.

I thought about forcing the current to move me, but I didn’t have anywhere to go that fast. I took a deep breath and let the water carry me as it wished, giving up my power as the ruler of the sea.

It felt nice.

I floated around the ocean, watching the loose sand particles come up in the undercurrent. I saw some pretty cool rocks beneath the thin blanket of beige.

A few fish swam up to me. I tried to read their minds or communicate, but all I got were blank stares from little bulging eyes. I sighed and continued floating around. The water was a good temperature today.

I spotted a jellyfish. The ribbons on it looked really pretty. I decided to make a little ring of water and watched it get sucked into it. It spun around with the ring until it fell out. It continued on its way after that.

I don’t know why I had never tried relaxing in a current like this before. It was fun to just let go and explore. I felt like I didn’t have anything to care for.

A huge school of fish swam over and around my floating body, their movements sudden and almost frightened. I sat up and watched them as they hurried away. I turned to the direction from which they came, and my heart dropped into my gut.

It was a huge shark. A great white, maybe? Its eyes were round and black, and its mouth was slightly agape, revealing its large and gorey teeth. I didn't know whether to be frightened or not.

The shark swam up to me, then started circling my body. Well… if it wanted to eat me, it would have taken a bite already. I watched it as it swam around my figure, its eyes still trained on me. It was times like this that I wished I could read their minds like Percy.

I took a big guess and swam a little upwards, gently holding onto its large dorsal fin. The shark stopped circling and continued on its way. It took us though a few reefs and cool shallow rock formations. It probably thought I was the coolest person it’d seen, since I didn’t go up for air at all.

I moved a little closer to the shark and laid my stomach against its back. Its skin was kind of rough and slimy. It was fun. I watched its gills open and close as it swam, the pink flesh beneath poking out with each breath.

The random fact that sharks keep swimming just to breathe came into my mind, and I suddenly felt saddened. It couldn’t stop, even if it wanted to. It almost reminded me of myself. That was why I never took time to just relax. Never once stopping like a shark in its sleep moving just to breathe. That's what you call ‘free?’

My heart sank as I rested my cheek against the shark’s back. It didn’t seem fair that some were predisposed to a stupid fate entwined to them by nature itself. Was everything like this? Is this really what the Fates had in mind? Was this how the gods planned it?

I suddenly felt numb, and I wondered if this was how Prometheus felt. His compassion buried under the loss of heart, his mind now programmed to think that ‘this is just the way of things’.

It hurts.

Suddenly, the shark jolted. I let go of his fin and floated away, watching it swim into the depths of the blue beneath us. When had we swam so far away? I guess I had been thinking too much…

Prometheus seemed to be plaguing my mind. His voice rang through my head, the tone somewhat pleasant like he was intrigued by my sudden onslaught of depression.

Does it get lonely spending all of your time in the future? he hummed. Even the past became a thing full of dull architecture.

“What do you want?” I mumbled, my voice somewhat hoarse. “You happy that I’m apathetic? Ugh… I should go find Percy.”

No one thinks about you even half as much as you think that they do, Prometheus heeded. Tighten your grip and it will break you apart like a cancer. You have been tricked into believing it gets you an answer.

“Are you done being cryptic?” I asked, somewhat irritated.

You seem to have figured it out, Promethus said, his voice all around me in the depth of the waters. All alone in the ocean… your little boyfriend is up there eyeing your ex as he saves the day again. Your best ‘friends’ seemed to have forgotten you. It seems only a shark can understand how you feel. Except… maybe me.

“I laid waste at a breakneck pace,” I said softly, realizing that it was possibly my fault for everyone ditching me. “I was waging war on everything including myself. I… will grind myself like a corpse.”

I like it, Prometheus hummed. You’re learning.

“I’m tired,” I said dully. “I’m going to check out the shore.”

Suit yourself.

I pushed the current to guide me upward and toward the surface. Suddenly, my skin tingled like I should be aware of something. Then I sensed a familiar body near me.

I looked to my left and saw Percy swimming toward my direction. He smiled slightly and we clasped our hands together in a handshake.

“Hey!” he greeted. “Funny seeing you here.”

“I know, right?” I said, my tone attempting to sound light. Percy somehow picked up my bad mood.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sharks make me sad,” I explained. “They can’t stop moving.”

“Or they’ll die,” Percy said, reflecting my sour mood. “I know.”

“How was your trip?” I asked, smoothing out my floating shirt.

“I can explain more later. I’m hungry.”

“All you do is eat. Where the fuck does all that food go?”

“Into my stomach, duh. Man, you should really go back to school.”

“Kill yourse-”

The two of us dropped our childish banter, seeing a bronze dagger drop between us. Annabeth’s dagger.

Percy and I looked at where it came from, seeing a dock to our right with three purpleish figures and three girls. Instantly, we knew.

Percy dove for the dagger, and together the two of us blasted above the surface of the water. Charleston Harbor erupted like a Las Vegas fountain putting on a show. I forced the water to come down on the three Romans and drag them into the sea. I dropped to the dock and grinned, seeing that it was Octavian that I was drowning.

Percy landed on the dock as the wave fell back down, holding Annabeth’s dagger.

“You dropped this,” he said, totally poker-faced.

Annabeth threw her arms around him. “I love you!”

“Guys,” Hazel interrupted. She had a little smile on her face. “We need to hurry.”

Down in the water, Octavian yelled, “Get me out of here! I’ll kill you!”

“Tempting,” I called down.

“What?” Octavian shouted. He was holding on to one of his guards, who was having trouble keeping them both afloat.

“Nothing!” I shouted back, grouping up with everyone else. “Let’s go, guys.”

Hazel frowned. “We can’t let them drown, can we?”

“They won’t,” Percy promised. “We’ve got the water circulating around their feet. As soon as we’re out of range, I’ll spit them ashore.”

Piper grinned. “Nice.”

“We could let them, though,” I offered. “Clap if we should kill them!”

Percy shook this grin off his face and looked at me seriously, trying to tell me no, but obviously he was tempted, too.

We climbed aboard the Argo II, and Annabeth ran to the helm. “Piper, get below. Use the sink in the galley for an Iris-message. Warn Jason to get back here!”

Piper nodded and raced off.

“Hazel, go find Coach Hedge and tell him to get his furry hindquarters on deck!”

“Right!”

“And Percy—you and I need to get this ship to Fort Sumter. Water Girl, you’re our guard.”

Percy and I nodded and ran to the mast. Annabeth took the helm. Her hands flew across the controls.

Percy nudged my shoulder and grinned. “Watch this.” He closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly, ropes flew on their own—releasing the dock ties, weighing the anchor. The sails unfurled and caught the wind. My eyes widened in shock.

“What are you doing?” I asked, grabbing onto the railing.

“Controlling the boat,” Percy said with a cocky smile. “What, you can’t do that?”

“Fuck you!”

Meanwhile Annabeth fired the engine. The oars extended with a sound like machine-gun fire, and the Argo II turned from the dock, heading for an island in the distance.

Three eagles circled overhead, but they made no attempt to land on the ship, probably because Festus the figurehead blew fire whenever they got close. More eagles were flying in formation toward Fort Sumter—at least a dozen. If each of them carried a Roman demigod…that was a lot of enemies. But, nothing I couldn’t handle. I was sure.

Coach Hedge came pounding up the stairs with Hazel at his hooves.

“Where are they?” he demanded. “Who do I kill?”

“No killing!” Annabeth ordered. “Just defend the ship!”

“But they interrupted a Chuck Norris movie!”

Piper emerged from below. “Got a message through to Jason. Kind of fuzzy, but he’s already on his way. He should be—oh! There!”

Soaring over the city, heading in our direction, was a giant bald eagle, unlike the golden Roman birds.

“Frank!” Hazel said.

Leo was holding on to the eagle’s feet, and even from the ship, I could hear him screaming and cursing.

Behind them flew Jason, riding the wind.

“Never seen Jason fly before,” Percy grumbled. “He looks like a blond Superman.”

“This isn’t the time!” Piper scolded him. “Look, they’re in trouble!”

I turned to Percy and leaned into his ear. “I thought it was funny.”

But Piper was right, the Roman flying chariot had descended from a cloud and was diving straight toward them. Jason and Frank veered out of the way, pulling up to avoid getting trampled by the pegasi. The charioteers fired their bows. Arrows whistled under Leo’s feet, which led to more screaming and cursing. Jason and Frank were forced to overshoot the Argo II and fly toward Fort Sumter.

“I’ll get ’em!” yelled Coach Hedge.

He spun the port ballista. Before Annabeth could yell, “Don’t be stupid!” Hedge fired. A flaming spear rocketed toward the chariot.

It exploded over the heads of the pegasi and threw them into a panic. Unfortunately it also singed Frank’s wings and sent him spiraling out of control. Leo slipped from his grasp. The chariot shot toward Fort Sumter, slamming into Jason.

I watched in horror as Jason—obviously dazed and in pain—lunged for Leo, caught him, then struggled to gain altitude. He only managed to slow their fall. They disappeared behind the ramparts of the fort. Frank tumbled after them. Then the chariot dropped somewhere inside and hit with a bone-shattering CRACK! One broken wheel spun into the air.

“Coach!” I screamed.

“What?” Hedge demanded. “That was just a warning shot!”

Annabeth gunned the engines. The hull shuddered as we picked up speed. The docks of the island were only a hundred yards away now, but a dozen more eagles were soaring overhead, each carrying a Roman demigod in its claws.

Our crew would be outnumbered at least three to one.

“Percy,” Annabeth said, “we’re going to come in hard. I need you to control the water so we don’t smash into the docks. Once we’re there, you’re going to have to hold off the attackers. The rest of you help him guard the ship.”

“But—Jason!” Piper said.

“Frank and Leo!” Hazel added.

“I’ll find them,” Annabeth promised. “I’ve got to figure out where the map is. And I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who can do that.”

“The fort is crawling with Romans,” Percy warned. “You’ll have to fight your way through, find our friends—assuming they’re okay—find this map, and get everybody back alive. All on your own?”

“Just an average day.” Annabeth kissed him. “Whatever you do, don’t let them take this ship!”

I grabbed Annabeth’s arm as she prepared to go down into the fort. “You’ll need at least some back up. I’ll go with you. You need a Roman on your side, right?”

Annabeth looked at me, and a small smile formed on her lips. “Hell yes.”

I nodded at her and let go, the two of us getting ready to bail into the fort and find the others.

The new civil war had begun.

Leo had somehow escaped his fall unharmed. I saw him ducking from portico to portico, blasting fire at the giant eagles swooping down on him. Roman demigods tried to chase him, tripping over piles of cannonballs and dodging tourists, who screamed and ran in circles.

Tour guides kept yelling, “It’s just a reenactment!” Though they didn’t sound sure. The Mist could only do so much to change what mortals saw.

In the middle of the courtyard, a full-grown elephant—could that be Frank?—rampaged around the flagpoles, scattering Roman warriors. Jason stood about fifty yards away, sword-fighting with a stocky centurion whose lips were stained cherry red, like blood. A wannabe vampire, or maybe a Kool-Aid freak? Wait, that was probably Bacchus’s kid.
As I watched, Jason yelled, “Sorry about this, Dakota!”

He vaulted straight over the centurion’s head like an acrobat and slammed the hilt of his gladius into the back of the Roman’s head. Dakota crumpled.

“Jason!” Annabeth called.

He scanned the battlefield until he saw us.

She pointed to where the Argo II was docked. “Get the others aboard! Retreat!”

“What about you?” he called.

“Don’t wait for us!”

Annabeth and I bolted off before he could protest.

I had a hard time maneuvering through the mobs of tourists. Why did so many people want to see Fort Sumter on a sweltering summer day? But we quickly realized the crowds had saved our lives. Without the chaos of all these panicked mortals, the Romans would have already surrounded our outnumbered crew.

Annabeth dodged into a small room that must have been part of the garrison. I tried to follow, but I got trampled by a crowd of people and forced to separate. I hissed, hoping that Annabeth would be okay on her own while I took a detour.

Eventually, the crowd became too much and my anger rose. I started pushing people to the ground until I could escape the hoard of tourists. I dashed back onto the field, swinging my trident against the enemy Roman soldiers, who seemed to try and back away from the blow as I attacked. I guess they never forgot my sparring days at Camp Jupiter.

I ran back around to where Annabeth was, but when my eyes caught her, my feet stuttered to a stop. She was face to face with the girl I hated the most- Reyna. She stood with her two stupid metal dogs as they barred their teeth at Annabeth.

“The quest has to succeed,” she said. “You can try to stop me, in which case we’ll have to fight to the death. Or you can let me go, and I’ll try to save both our camps. If you must march on Camp Half-Blood, at least try to delay. Slow Octavian down.”

Reyna’s eyes narrowed. “One daughter of a war goddess to another, I respect your boldness. But if you leave now, you doom your camp to destruction.”

“Don’t underestimate Camp Half-Blood,” Annabeth warned.

“You’ve never seen the legion at war,” Reyna countered.

Over by the docks, a familiar voice shrieked over the wind: “Kill them! Kill them all!”

Octavian had survived his swim in the harbor. I hissed, knowing that I should have just killed him. He crouched behind his guards, screaming encouragement at the other Roman demigods as they struggled toward the ship, holding up their shields as if that would deflect the storm raging all around them.

On the deck of the Argo II, Percy and Jason stood together, their swords crossed. I got a tingle down my spine as I realized the boys were working as one, summoning the sky and the sea to do their bidding. Water and wind churned together. Waves heaved against the ramparts and lightning flashed. Giant eagles were knocked out of the sky. Wreckage of the flying chariot burned in the water, and Coach Hedge swung a mounted crossbow, taking potshots at the Roman birds as they flew overhead. They had better chemistry than Jason and I ever had. I was a little jealous.

“You see?” Reyna said bitterly. “The spear is thrown. Our people are at war.”

“Not if I succeed,” Annabeth said.

Reyna’s expression looked the same as it had at Camp Jupiter when she realized Jason had found another girl. The praetor was too alone, too bitter and betrayed to believe anything could go right for her ever again. Annabeth waited for her to attack. I silently stood guard, ready to take down Reyna if she dared.

Instead, she flicked her hand. The metal dogs backed away. “Annabeth Chase,” she said, “when we meet again, we will be enemies on the field of battle.”
The praetor turned and walked across the ramparts, her greyhounds behind her.

I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and hurried to Annabeth’s side. “Are you okay? Did you get the map?”

Annabeth nodded, her eyes wild as she watched Reyna walk away. “Yeah. let’s go.”

The two of us sprinted back toward the ship. The winds that battered the Romans didn’t seem to affect us.

We sprinted through their lines. Octavian yelled, “Stop them!”

A spear flew toward us, which I deflected with my trident. I pulled the tide back up to sink Octavian and his men again, this time dragging them a bit deeper. The Argo II was already pulling away from the dock. Piper was at the gangplank, her hand outstretched.

I grabbed Annabeth by her waist and ran into the shore, using the water to blast us toward the ship. Annabeth grabbed Piper’s hand. The gangplank fell into the sea, and we tumbled onto the deck in a pile.

“Go!” Annabeth screamed. “Go, go, go!”

The engines rumbled beneath us. The oars churned. Jason changed the course of the wind, and Percy I called up a massive wave, which lifted the ship higher than the fort’s walls and pushed us out to sea. By the time the Argo II reached top speed, Fort Sumter was only a blot in the distance, and we were racing across the waves toward the ancient lands.

-

I thought maybe talking with my boyfriend would help me relax from the battlefield, but his ranting was too wild for me to calm down.

After raiding a museum full of Confederate ghosts, Leo didn’t think his day could get any worse. He was wrong.

They hadn’t found anything in the Civil War sub or elsewhere in the museum; just a few elderly tourists, a dozing security guard, and—when they tried to inspect the artifacts—a whole battalion of glowing zombie dudes in gray uniforms.

The idea that Frank should be able to control the spirits? Yeah…that pretty much failed. By the time Piper sent her Iris-message warning them about the Roman attack, they were already halfway back to the ship, having been chased through downtown Charleston by a pack of angry dead Confederates.

Then—oh, boy!—Leo got to hitch a ride with Frank the Friendly Eagle so they could fight a bunch of Romans. Rumor must’ve gotten around that Leo was the one who had fired on their little city, because those Romans seemed especially anxious to kill him.

But wait! There was more! Coach Hedge shot them out of the sky; Frank dropped him (that was no accident); and they crash-landed in Fort Sumter.

Now, as the Argo II raced across the waves, Leo had to use all his skill just to keep the ship in one piece. Percy and Jason were a little too good at cooking up massive storms.
I felt bad watching Leo try and hold the Argo II together. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and forget about everything, but he was moving around so much that I was scared to get in his way.

At one point, Annabeth stood next to us, yelling against the roar of the wind: “Percy says he talked to a Nereid in Charleston Harbor!”

“Good for him!” Leo yelled back.

“The Nereid said we should seek help from Chiron’s brothers.”

“What does that mean? The Party Ponies?” I had never met Chiron’s crazy centaur relatives, but I’d heard rumors of Nerf sword-fights, root beer–chugging contests, and Super Soakers filled with pressurized whipped cream. Sounded like the average summer for a SoCal kid.

“Not sure,” Annabeth said. “But I’ve got coordinates. Leo, can you input latitude and longitude in this thing?”

“I can input star charts and order you a smoothie, if you want. Of course I can do latitude and longitude!”

I tried not to laugh at Leo's sarcasm, seeing as he was just stressed, but a snort did escape me. Leo’s gaze fell onto me for a second, and his emotions momentarily shifted.

Why did it feel sad?

Annabeth rattled off the numbers. Leo somehow managed to punch them in while holding the wheel with one hand. A red dot popped up on the bronze display screen.

“That location is in the middle of the Atlantic,” he said. “Do the Party Ponies have a yacht?”

Annabeth shrugged helplessly. “Just hold the ship together until we get farther from Charleston. Jason and Percy will keep up the winds!”

“Happy fun time!”

It seemed like forever, but finally the sea calmed and the winds died.

“Valdez,” said Coach Hedge, with surprising gentleness. “Let me take the wheel. You’ve been steering for two hours.”

“Two hours?”

“Yeah. Give me the wheel.”

“Coach?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“I can’t unclench my hands.”

It was true. Leo’s fingers looked like they had turned to stone. His eyes were bloodshot from staring at the horizon. His knees shook. Coach Hedge managed to pry him from the wheel with my help.

Leo took one last look at the console, listening to Festus chatter and whir a status report. He squinted like he was forgetting something, but he was just too tired to think straight. “Just watch for monsters,” he told the coach. “And be careful with the damaged stabilizer. And—”

“I’ve got it covered,” Coach Hedge promised. “Now, go away!”

Leo nodded wearily. He staggered across the deck toward the others. I opened my arms to him, but he politely declined. I felt a little upset, but I figured he probably just needed to relax.

Percy and Jason sat with their backs against the mast, their heads slumped in exhaustion. Annabeth and Piper were trying to get them to drink some water.

Hazel and Frank stood just out of earshot, having an argument that involved lots of arm waving and head shaking. I caught a glimpse of Leo's eyes as he watched them. The emotion in his dark brown orbs looked… pleased? Ugh. Boys and their petty grudges.

Who am I to talk, though?

The argument stopped abruptly when Hazel saw Leo. Everybody gathered at the mast.

Frank scowled like he was trying hard to turn into a bulldog. “No sign of pursuit,” he said.

“Or land,” Hazel added. She looked a little green, though I wasn’t sure if that was from the rocking of the boat or from arguing.

I scanned the horizon. Nothing but ocean in every direction. That shouldn’t have surprised me. Leo’d spent six months building a ship that we knew would cross the Atlantic. But until today, our embarking on a journey to the ancient lands hadn’t seemed real. I had never been outside the U.S. before—except for a quick dragon flight up to Quebec. Now we were in the middle of the open sea, completely on our own, sailing to the Mare Nostrum, where all the scary monsters and nasty giants had come from. The Romans might not follow us, but we couldn’t count on any help from Camp Half-Blood, either.

Leo patted his waist to make sure his tool belt was still there. He looked miffed and upset for a second before he shook it off. He turned to Annabeth. “Did you find the map you wanted?”

She nodded, though she looked pale. I wondered what she’d seen at Fort Sumter that could have shaken her up so badly- besides Reyna, of course.

“I’ll have to study it,” she said, as if that was the end of the subject. “How far are we from those coordinates?”

“At top rowing speed, about an hour,” Leo said. “Any idea what we’re looking for?”

“No,” she admitted. “Percy?”

Percy raised his head. His green eyes were bloodshot and droopy. “The Nereid said Chiron’s brothers were there, and they’d want to hear about that aquarium in Atlanta. I don’t know what she meant, but…” He paused, like he’d used up all his energy saying that much. “She also warned me to be careful. Keto, the goddess at the aquarium: she’s the mother of sea monsters. She might be stuck in Atlanta, but she can still send her children after us. The Nereid said we should expect an attack.”

“Wonderful,” Frank muttered.

Jason tried to stand, which wasn’t a good idea. Piper grabbed him to keep him from falling over, and he slid back down the mast.

“Can we get the ship aloft?” he asked. “If we could fly—”

“That’d be great,” Leo said. “Except Festus tells me the port aerial stabilizer got pulverized when the ship raked against the dock at Fort Sumter.”

“We were in a hurry,” I said. “Trying to save you.”

“And saving me is a very noble cause,” Leo agreed, though he looked a little annoyed. “I’m just saying, it’ll take some time to fix. Until then, we’re not flying anywhere.”

Percy flexed his shoulders and winced. “Fine with me. The sea is good.”

“Speak for yourself.” Hazel glanced at the evening sun, which was almost to the horizon. “We need to go fast. We’ve burned another day, and Nico only has three more left.”

“We can do it,” Leo promised. “We can make it to Rome in three days—assuming, you know, nothing unexpected happens.”

Frank grunted. He looked like he was still working on that bulldog transformation. “Is there any good news?”

“Actually, yes,” Leo said. “According to Festus, our flying table, Buford, made it back safely while we were in Charleston, so those eagles didn’t get him. Unfortunately, he lost the laundry bag with your pants.”

“Dang it!” Frank barked, which I figured was probably severe profanity for him.

No doubt Frank would’ve cursed some more—busting out the golly gees and the gosh darns—but Percy interrupted by doubling over and groaning.

“Did the world just turn upside down?” he asked.

Jason pressed his hands to his head. “Yeah, and it’s spinning. Everything is yellow. Is it supposed to be yellow?”

Annabeth and Piper exchanged concerned looks.

“Summoning that storm really sapped your strength,” Piper told the boys. “You’ve got to rest.”

I frowned and crossed my arms. “Maybe I should have stayed behind. Storms aren’t as difficult for me.”

“Fuck… you…” Percy muttered weakly, a slight smile on his lips.

Annabeth rolled her eyes playfully and smiled. “Frank, Water Girl, can you help us get the guys belowdecks?”

Frank glanced at Leo, no doubt reluctant to leave him alone with Hazel. I’ll admit, I felt the same.

“It’s fine, man,” Leo said. “Just try not to drop them on the way down the stairs.”

Frank gruffed as we picked up Jason together and carried them down into sick bay… again. We set the boys on their beds and sighed.

Frank looked at me and crossed his arms. “So… you and Leo. How long?”

“Two weeks?” I said, a little unsure of myself. “Though, he’s been pining after me for months.”

Frank nodded reluctantly and sat on an empty cot, his face a little glum. “I’ve only been with Hazel for a few days. I’m worried.”

“Why?” I asked, sitting on a cot opposite of him.

“Well, you know…” Frank grumbled and rubbed his neck. “She knows him or something. Some guy named Sammy from her first time living. Looked and acted just like him. Think she loved him, too…”

I shifted in my seat, my gut churning with unease. “You think she likes him more than you?”

“Well, they have history.”

“Her and Sammy, not her and Leo.”

“Same thing, no?” Frank asked, his face now more round and sad since he’d dropped his grumpy barrier. “Like you and Jason when he woke up with amnesia. Probably feels like that to her.”

My gut lurched and I held back a gag. I knew exactly how she was feeling now, minus all the hate. God, I was so hung up on Jason back then, too. Ugh… I just had to hope Leo didn’t feel anything for Hazel.

“It… it’s not the same, I guess,” I muttered. I stood from the cot and faked a yawn. “Uhm. I’m gonna see about a nap. You can handle Jason and Percy, right guys?” I asked the group.

Annabeth cocked an eyebrow, but nodded in my direction. “I’ll let Percy know where you are. As soon as he wakes up from blacking out.”

I nodded and quickly left the sick bay, taking quick strides toward the stairs to the top deck. I hurried up the steps, and my heart dropped at the sight I saw before me.

Leo was holding Hazel’s hands, his face close to hers, like maybe they’d just kissed. Hazel was crying, a small yet sad smile on her lips.

“Hello, Hazel Levesque,” Leo said softly, his voice tender and full of… love?

My gut went cold. I didn’t even need to hear Prometheus to know that he was thinking ‘Told you so’.

I wanted to say something, shout something, even think that something else was happening.

Hazel’s eyes flitted toward me, and she gasped, letting go of Leo’s hands. The boy looked back at me, a sad and surprised expression on his face. He was about to speak, but Coach cut him off.

“Leo!” he yelled.

Festus whirred in alarm and blew flames into the night sky. The ship’s bell rang.

“Those monsters you were worried about?” Hedge shouted. “One of ’em found us!”

The ship tilted to starboard. Hazel gripped the rigging. Hedge yelled, “Valdez, which button blows up monsters? Take the helm!”

Leo climbed the tilting deck and managed to grab the port rail. He started clambering sideways toward the helm, but when he saw the monster surface, he forgot how to move.
The thing was the length of our ship. In the moonlight, it looked like a cross between a giant shrimp and a cockroach, with a pink chitinous shell, a flat crayfish tail, and millipede-type legs undulating hypnotically as the monster scraped against the hull of the Argo II.

Its head surfaced last—the slimy pink face of an enormous catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, making the bushiest nose beard I had ever had the displeasure to behold.

“Come on, Valdez!” Hedge yelled. “Take the wheel so I can get my baseball bat!”

“A bat’s not going to help,” Leo said, but he made his way toward the helm.

Behind me, the rest of my friends stumbled up the stairs.

Percy yelled, “What’s going— Gah! Shrimpzilla!”

Frank ran to Hazel’s side. She was clutching the rigging, still dazed from the monster, but she gestured that she was all right.

The sea demon rammed the ship again. The hull groaned. Annabeth, Piper, and Jason tumbled to starboard and almost rolled overboard.

Leo reached the helm. His hands flew across the controls. Over the intercom, Festus clacked and clicked.

Leo toggled the oars. They could convert into spears, which should be enough to drive the creature away. Unfortunately, they were jammed. Shrimpzilla must have knocked them out of alignment, and the monster was in spitting distance, which meant that Leo couldn’t use the ballistae without setting the Argo II on fire as well.

“How did it get so close?” Annabeth shouted, pulling herself up on one of the rail shields.

“I don’t know!” Hedge snarled. He looked around for his bat, which had rolled across the quarterdeck.

“I’m stupid!” Leo scolded himself. “Stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!”

The ship tilted farther to starboard. Either the monster was trying to give us a hug, or it was about to capsize us.

“Sonar?” Hedge demanded. “Pan’s pipes, Valdez! Maybe if you hadn’t been staring into Hazel’s eyes, holding hands for so long—”

“What?” Frank yelped.

“It wasn’t like that!” Hazel protested.

I stood in the center of the deck, stepping around to keep my balance. My mind was so fuzzy and dazed. At first, I was hit with a wave of sadness. Then I felt numb, and now that Hedge had confirmed my worst fears, I felt nothing but rage.

I grit my teeth together, my trident already in hand. Jason caught a glimpse of me, and his bloodshot eyes widened. “Hey, no, no! Don’t do it!”

It was too late. I roared in anger as the monster shot it tendrils out at the deck. I clambered over them as I charged, rearing my trident back to throw. The tentacles hit everyone else on deck, but in my blind rage I was locked on. I might have gotten hurt, but there was no memory of it in my head.

I threw my trient at one of the monster’s beady eyes, making it screech in pain and momentarily retract its limbs. At the loss of my weapon, I used quick thinking to fill Tsunami’s place momentarily. As I ran toward the edge of the ship, I stuck my arm out and grazed it against Jason’s sword tip, slicing open my skin.

As the blood seeped from my wound, I quickly gathered it and ripped it out of the cut, solidifying the red ichor and turning it into another trident. I stabbed it into the monster’s tentacle and swung over while it retracted its limb.

This wasn't my first rodeo with a huge sea demon. I recalled Tsunami and used both the gold trident and the blood trident to stab and climb up the monster’s body, getting some sort of leverage or grounding before attempting to drag it under.

I couldn’t really hear my teammates anymore. I only caught glimpses of their shocked faces as I scoured the monster’s terrible figure. Leo and Hazel ran around doing whatever- I didn’t fucking care anymore. I felt sick looking at them.

When I reached the monster’s crown, I peered over and stared into its gushing eyeball. I willed all my strength to control its blood and bend it backwards, but I didn’t pay enough attention. As the monster leaned away from the ship, its tentacles grabbed Hazel and Leo and pulled them back with us.

They rose ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet above the monster’s crown with me atop it. I yelled and pulled back further, trying to sink the monster under so I could use the currents and rip it apart with deadly jet streams.

Leo must have done something in the monster’s grasp, because it billowed in pain and opened its maw wide. Leo quickly took advantage of the situation and threw something inside its jaw.

Everything went by so fast. The green explosion, the burning on my ankle, being tossed forward and onto the deck, the loud crack and nauseating pain in my ribs, the wind knocked out of me.

When I came to and realized what had happened, I gasped and howled in pain. Greek fire. Greek- fucking- fire that Leo had thrown. I looked down at my ankle, seeing a slight burn. I had narrowly escaped the explosion, but I was still fucking tossed back onto deck. I definitely broke some ribs.

I felt wet. I looked down and saw my wrist was still gashed. Fucking awesome.

Percy was at my side immediately. “Sis! Sis, are you okay? What the fuck was that?!”

I groaned and seethed through my teeth, leaning my head back. “Ow.”

“Duh, ow! You just- oh, fucking whatever!” Percy carefully picked me up, staggering slightly. “Come on. downstairs with us. Sick bay again. We can get some pizza after, okay? Sound good.”

I laid my head into Percy’s chest, my vision blotting as I threatened to black out. “If you see that asshole Leo before I do, punch him for me. Because if I do it, I’m going to break his jaw.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Percy said softly, taking me into sick bay and setting me on a cot. “Should have aimed a little better.”

“No,” I groaned, resting my head on the pillow as Percy dumped a water bottle on my wrist, the wound sealing immediately. “No, he fucking…”

“I'd recommend blacking out now,” Percy said quietly. “Because I’m gonna start touching your ribs.”

I took his advice and quietly passed out on the cot.

-

When I was next awake, Percy sat next to me with a plate of pizza. He looked at me and smiled, handing me the meal. “Taa-daa,”

As I ate, he brought me up to speed about what happened. Something something- Leo and Hazel and Frank were with Chiron’s fish cousins that gave Annabeth a letter of introduction to Tiber, brownies, and a hint that Nico was more important than we thought. Also, Annabeth had to be alone on her quest in Rome, and her goal was to find the Athena Parthenon.

“Wow,” I said, finishing my pizza. “That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, so now we’re doing some chores to help Leo fix the ship,” Percy said.

My face dropped at the mention of Leo. “Uh huh.”

Percy frowned and leaned forward. “What happened between you two?”

“Oh, you know,” I mumbled, putting my plate away. “Just caught him staring lovingly into Hazel’s eyes while holding her hands.

“Oh.” Percy blinked and put his head in his hands. “Well, Frank isn’t too mad.”

“Frank is fucking stupid,” I snapped. “He doesn’t understand!”

“Woah, woah!”

Percy put his hands up and rested his fingers on my shoulders. “Calm down…”

I frowned and leaned forward, ignoring the immense soreness in my ribs. Water would only do so much for bones, I guess. “Whatever,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “I don’t want to talk much about Leo. Not until he can explain himself to me.”

My brother sighed and nodded silently. “Alright. Well, it might be best if you hit the hay. You’re still wounded and need to rest. I’ll get you tomorrow morning.”

He leaned in and hugged me gently. I returned the embrace. It wasn't as awkward this time.

I waved to Percy before laying back down on my cot and sleeping.

Chapter Text

The next morning I woke to a different ship’s horn—a blast so loud it literally shook me out of bed.

I wondered if Percy was messing with me to get me awake. Then the horn boomed again. It sounded like it was coming from several hundred yards away—from another vessel.

I rushed to get dressed. By the time I got up on deck, the others had already gathered—all hastily dressed except for Coach Hedge, who had pulled the night watch.

Frank’s Vancouver Winter Olympics shirt was inside out. Percy wore pajama pants and a bronze breastplate, which was an interesting fashion statement. Hazel’s hair was all blown to one side, as though she’d walked through a cyclone; and Leo had accidentally set himself on fire. His T-shirt was in charred tatters. His arms were smoking.

About a hundred yards to port, a massive cruise ship glided past. Tourists waved at us from fifteen or sixteen rows of balconies. Some smiled and took pictures. None of them looked surprised to see an Ancient Greek trireme. Maybe the Mist made it look like a fishing boat, or perhaps the cruisers thought the Argo II was a tourist attraction.

The cruise ship blew its horn again, and the Argo II had a shaking fit.

Coach Hedge plugged his ears. “Do they have to be so loud?”

“They’re just saying hi,” Frank speculated.

“WHAT?” Hedge yelled back.

The ship edged past us, heading out to sea. The tourists kept waving. If they found it strange that the Argo II was populated by half-asleep kids in armor and pajamas and a man with goat legs, they didn’t let on.

“Bye!” Leo called, raising his smoking hand.

“Can I man the ballistae?” Hedge asked.

“No,” Leo said through a forced smile.

Hazel rubbed her eyes and looked across the glittering green water. “Where are—oh…Wow.”

I followed her gaze and gasped. Without the cruise ship blocking our view, I saw a mountain jutting from the sea less than half a mile to the north. I had seen impressive cliffs before. I'd driven Highway 1 along the California coast. I’d even fallen down the Grand Canyon with Jason and Piper and flown back up. But neither was as amazing as this massive fist of blinding white rock thrust into the sky. On one side, the limestone cliffs were almost completely sheer, dropping into the sea over a thousand feet below, as near as I could figure. On the other side, the mountain sloped in tiers, covered in green forest, so that the whole thing reminded me of a colossal sphinx, worn down over the millennia, with a massive white head and chest, and a green cloak over its back.

“The Rock of Gibraltar,” Annabeth said in awe. “At the tip of Spain. And over there—” She pointed south, to a more distant stretch of red and ochre hills. “That must be Africa. We’re at the mouth of the Mediterranean.”

The morning was warm, but I shivered. Despite the wide stretch of sea in front of us, I felt like I was standing at an impassable barrier. Once in the Mediterranean—the Mare Nostrum—we would be in the ancient lands. If the legends were true, our quest would become ten times more dangerous.

“What now?” I asked. “Do we just sail in?”

“Why not?” Leo said. “It’s a big shipping channel. Boats go in and out all the time.”

Not triremes full of demigods, I thought, my mood souring at the realization of my cheating boyfriend. Depending on when we’d get some free time, I planned to chew him out on it and figure out what the actual fuck was going on in that stupid little head of his.

Annabeth gazed at the Rock of Gibraltar. I recognized that brooding expression on my friend’s face. It almost always meant that she anticipated trouble.

“In the old days,” Annabeth said, “they called this area the pillars of Hercules. The Rock was supposed to be one pillar. The other was one of the African mountains. Nobody is sure which one.”

“Hercules, huh?” Percy frowned. “That guy was like the Starbucks of Ancient Greece. Everywhere you turn—there he is.”

A thunderous boom shook the Argo II, though I wasn’t sure where it came from this time. I didn’t see any other ships, and the skies were clear.

My mouth suddenly felt dry. “So…these Pillars of Hercules. Are they dangerous?”

Annabeth stayed focused on the white cliffs, as if waiting for the Mark of Athena to blaze to life. “For Greeks, the pillars marked the end of the known world. The Romans said the pillars were inscribed with a Latin warning—”

“Non plus ultra,” Percy said.

Annabeth looked stunned. “Yeah. Nothing Further Beyond. How did you know?”

Percy pointed. “Because I’m looking at it.”

Directly ahead of us, in the middle of the straits, an island had shimmered into existence. I was positive no island had been there before. It was a small hilly mass of land, covered in forests and ringed with white beaches. Not very impressive compared to Gibraltar, but in front of the island, jutting from waves about a hundred yards offshore, were two white Grecian columns as tall as the Argo’s masts. Between the columns, huge silver words glittered underwater—maybe an illusion, or maybe inlaid in the sand: NON PLUS ULTRA.

“Guys, do I turn around?” Leo asked nervously. “Or…”

No one answered—maybe because, like me, they had noticed the figure standing on the beach. As the ship approached the columns, I saw a dark-haired man in purple robes, his arms crossed, staring intently at our ship as if he were expecting us. I couldn’t tell much else about him from this distance, but judging from his posture, he wasn’t happy.

Frank inhaled sharply. “Could that be—?”

“Hercules,” Jason said. “The most powerful demigod of all time.”

The Argo II was only a few hundred yards from the columns now.

“Need an answer,” Leo said urgently. “I can turn, or we can take off. The stabilizers are working again. But I need to know quick—”

“We have to keep going,” Annabeth said. “I think he’s guarding these straits. If that’s really Hercules, sailing or flying away wouldn’t do any good. He’ll want to talk to us.”

“Won’t Hercules be on our side?” Piper asked hopefully. “I mean…he’s one of us, right?”

Jason grunted. “He was a son of Zeus, but when he died, he became a god. You can never be sure with gods.”

“Great,” Percy said. “Eight of us against Hercules.”

“And a satyr!” Hedge added. “We can take him.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Annabeth said. “We send ambassadors ashore. A small group—one or two at most. Try to talk with him.”

“I’ll go,” Jason said. “He’s a son of Zeus. I’m the son of Jupiter. Maybe he’ll be friendly to me.”

“Or maybe he’ll hate you,” Percy suggested. “Half siblings don’t always get along.”

I looked at Percy strangely, wondering what he meant by that comment.

Jason scowled. “Thank you, Mr. Optimism.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Annabeth said. “At least Jason and Hercules have something in common. And we need our best diplomat. Somebody who’s good with words.”

All eyes turned to Piper.

She tried to conceal her fear, but I noticed her throat muscles strain and her increase.

“Fine,” she said. “Just let me change my clothes.”

Once Leo had anchored the Argo II between the pillars, Jason summoned the wind to carry him and Piper ashore.

And from there, the crew dispersed, leaving Leo and I alone on the top deck. Before Percy went down the stairs, he gave me a quick look of support and flashed me a thumbs up.

I leaned against the railing, watching Leo mess with his controls on the quarterdeck and make small talk with Festus. Clearly, the dragon was on my side as he kept creaking and jutting his head in my direction. Leo sighed and gave in, mustering a glance toward me.

“Hey,” he greeted, his voice cracking with nervousness.

“You have thirty seconds,” I said, crossing my arms.

Leo took a deep breath and looked away, leaning his head lazily. “Hazel was showing me a memory of hers- yes, showing. She has that weird power and I know you know nothing about her but there's another fact. She showed me that she knew my great grandfather, Sammy, who looks just like me and acts just like me and that's why she gets so weird around me.”

“Weird is an interesting way to describe it.” I moved a little closer to Leo, my face still in a scowl. “I’m assuming the hand holding was necessary?”

“Why are you so jealous?” Leo asked, anger behind his words.

I was a bit taken aback at his retort. “Sorry?”

Leo sighed and looked down at his conrols again. Festus went completely silent. “You’re so obsessive over small things. Hazel is just some random girl that I just met who I happen to have some weird history with. But, oh, if I’m jealous over you and Percy then I’m in the wrong?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I straightened my posture and dropped my arms to my side. “How do those two compare in the slightest? You view Percy- my brother- as a threat to our relationship? And I’m the insecure jealous one?”

The boy scowled, his brown eyes looking up into mine. “And Jason! I know you! I know how hung up on him you are, -”

“Oh, so we’re going full name now, huh?” I asked, tilting my head. A smile of disbelief fell onto my face. “Maybe I think about my relationship with Jason because it was fucking horrible and I’m still hurt by it and fucking MAYBE because I don’t want that to happen again, Leonidas.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“You started it!”

“You’re so insufferable!”

“That’s a big word for you, huh?”

“Go fuck yourself!”

“Maybe I’ll be better than you!”

“Fuck you!” Leo yelled, his hands igniting in white flame. “I’m so sick of you! I can’t stand you at all!”

My mind moved a thousand words a second, my heart beating almost out of my chest. Jason, was all I could think.

“Yeah?” I asked, breathing heavily. “Then just end it.”

Leo turned away from me, mumbling under his breath.

“Don’t you turn your back to me,” I said sternly, clenching my fists.

“That’s what I’m doing,” Leo replied, his brows set in a deep furrow. “We’re done. Do whatever now, I don’t give a fuck.”

“You’re serious?” I asked, my hands on my hips.

“Dead serious.” Leo snuffed out the flames from his hands. “Now leave me alone.”

I nodded, still struck with disbelief. “‘Kay. Have fun being the extra wheel, Math Nerd.”

Leo turned, his face struck with hurt and betrayal as I walked away.

I kept calm for a while, just to make it down the steps and past the rest of the crew. But when I was home free and just a few feet before my room, I covered my mouth and screamed into my hand. I slammed my door behind me and locked it, yelling and screaming random obscenities as I destroyed my room. I knocked everything off my dresser and ripped my sheets from my bed. I punched a few holes in the walls before subsiding to the floor completely out of breath.

I was too scared to feel anything other than anger. How could I let this happen again? Twice in a row just proved that the issue was me. Why did I do this to myself? Was pain and hurt just that fucking fun to me? Maybe if I had just shut my fat fucking mouth I wouldn’t be in this problem! I was so fucking horrible. I was a horrible fucking concoction of two horrible fucking people. I hated it. I hated everything. I hated everyone. I hate my dad. I hate my mom. But mostly, most of all, I hate myself.

When Percy had come in, it had been at least half an hour of screaming and yelling into my hands as I thrashed around. I’m sure he loved the noise and the sight; how pathetic, right?

I didn't pay attention to his words. I continued to yell curses and thrash as he lifted me to my feet and dragged me somewhere else. We went further down into the ship to the stables. Percy took me inside and gently sat with me on the floor, trying to get me to watch the ocean below us through the glass below.

By this point, I began to take my rage into myself. Percy grabbed my arms and held them steady so I wouldn't hit myself or try to slice open my skin. It was comforting, but so very very fucking embarrassing. How could I be this weak?

"Try again," Percy coaxed me. "Tell me what's upsetting you? What's in your head?"

There are times where I think that I'm hopeless; I'm disgusting. Why should anyone else love me anyway? I hate myself. The person you see is not the real me- I'm just convincing myself that it is.

"I hate it all!" I screamed. "I hate everyone! Everything!"

"No, you don't," Percy said sternly as he firmly gripped my hands and held them closer to himself. "You hate what made you feel like this. What was it?"

"I hate everything! It's so stupid, I hate it!"

Percy grabbed me and pulled me into his chest, compressing me in a tight hug. He kept me trapped in the embrace until I stopped screaming and thrashing.

"Try again," he said softly. "Tell me what happened."

I was silent for a while, my throat rough from all my unnecessary yelling. "Leo," I said after my quiet spell.

Percy furrowed his brows momentarily. "And how much are you willing to talk about Leo?"

"He broke up with me."

My brother stayed silent as he pulled me in for another embrace. I returned the gesture this time.

We hugged for a few long minutes. Eventually, Percy pulled me away to check my face for tears.

"I won't cry," I said softly.

"Why not?" Percy asked, a bit puzzled.

"Because I never cry." I looked down to the transparent floors, watching the fish swim beneath us.

"It's good to cry."

"I never cry," I quickly reiterated.

Percy put his hands up in defense. "Okay, okay. That's fine, then."

There was another long period of sustained silence. Neither my brother or I spoke, instead opting to watch the sea creatures.

"...You won't even cry for sharks?" Percy asked softly.

"How about: I can't cry," I replied, though a small smile finally graced my lips.

Percy smiled and gently hit my shoulder. "There we go, yeah?"

I rolled my eyes and leaned my head against his shoulder, feeling his strong yet gentle beat of his heart vibrate into my body.

"Can you sense heartbeats?" I asked randomly

Percy looked at me strangely and shook his head. "No. You can?"

"Yeah," I said. "Like the flow of blood, kinda. I can sense the pulsations. I use it to gauge emotions or lies."

"Like Toph from The Last Airbender," Percy noted. I laughed softly and nodded.

"That's what my powers are like. I don't get telepathy like you," I said. "I can do almost anything with water."

"Can you bloodbend?" Percy asked, looking a little nervous.

"You wanna see?" I asked playfully.

Percy squinted, almost unable to decide yes or no. "Does it hurt?"

"We can start small," I said, flicking my wrist toward him. His hand quickly began contorting to my will.

"Eugh," Percy groaned. "Feels like a cramp."

"I've heard it's worse through the whole body," I said. "That's what I understand, though, through all the groans and moans of pain."

Percy laughs softly, rubbing his hand after I let go. "Well. I'd say you have a cool range of powers. We're almost opposite."

I nodded, though my smile quickly faded. "In some ways worse than better."

Percy’s smile faded, and his hand reached for my own. “Sis… I don’t think you’re as bad as you think you are. Nobody does.”

“Tell that to Leo,” I said, my voice cracking slightly with the lump in my throat. “No matter how many times I try and convince myself that ‘I’m not that bad’, it gets proven to me otherwise. I can’t keep lying to myself, saying that I’m going to change. I’m poison. I come from poison; I have poison inside me, and I destroy everything I touch- that’s my legacy. I have nothing to show for the life that I’ve lived, and I have nobody in my life who is better off for having known me.”

I could feel Percy’s gaze on me as I stared at the ocean below. The look he was giving me was almost disappointing. Sad, maybe. I couldn't tell.

“But I’m better knowing you,” he said quietly, his hand squeezing mine.

I shook my head, pulling my knees up to my chest. “But you never needed me. Nobody did. This quest would have been perfect without me; just seven. The Prophecy of Seven sounds more right than eight, right? That’s probably how it was supposed to go. Nobody needed me here.”

My brother couldn’t find the right words to respond. He was probably too scared to say something stupid like usual. But I took his silence as an affirmative answer, and buried my face in my knees. Percy wrapped his arms around me tight.

“That doesn’t matter,” he said. “Because I like knowing you. I like having you here. I'd be really upset to never have a sister.”

I leaned slightly into Percy and released a deep breath I didn’t realize I was holding. He continued to hug me until we both felt comfortable enough to pull away. He checked me for tears once more, pushed some of my hair from my face, and rubbed my shoulders.

“We don’t really look like twins,” Percy said, “But I can still see myself in you, weirdly.”

I smiled softly and nodded. “I guess so.”

Percy grinned and rubbed my back. “Do you feel like going up with the others yet? Maybe eat a little food before we jump back into monster fighting?”

Before I could answer, Annabeth stormed into the stables.

“Guys!” she gasped. “We need to get up there! It looks like trouble on the island!”

We didn’t have much time to debrief before we went to the top deck, but it looked maybe like Jason and Piper fought a river bull god? And Hercules wanted their head, so naturally we fended off our friends as they flew aboard the ship.

Jason touched down on the deck of the Argo II. The ship’s oars were already in aerial mode. The anchor was up. Jason summoned a gale so strong, it pushed us into the sky, while Percy and I sent a ten-foot-tall wave against the shore, knocking Hercules down in a cascade of seawater and pineapples (I learned they came from Piper’s brand new cornucopia).

By the time the god regained his feet and started lobbing coconuts at us from far below, the Argo II was already sailing through the clouds above the Mediterranean.

While above deck, I clung to Percy’s side. I told him not to tell anyone what happened because who needs stupid drama on a whole ass quest, right? My brother kindly obliged and let me follow him like a lost dog.

After the tango with Hercules, he’d seemed upset. I could tell he was distraught over the recent events, but he kept mumbling about not meeting Chiron’s brothers. I got the feeling he was jealous. I could understand why.

And I also understood his upsetness over the quest so far. The open sea was supposed to be his territory. Percy was supposed to step up, take charge, and keep everybody safe. Instead, all the way across the Atlantic, he’d done pretty much nothing except make small talk with sharks and listen to Coach Hedge sing TV theme songs. I could obviously relate.

To make matters worse, Annabeth had been distant ever since we had left Charleston. She spent most of her time in her cabin, studying the bronze map she’d retrieved from Fort Sumter, or looking up information on Daedalus’s laptop.

Whenever Percy and I stopped by to see her, she was so lost in thought that the conversation went something like this:

Percy: “Hey, how’s it going?”

Annabeth: “Uh, no thanks.”

Percy: “Okay…have you eaten anything today?”

Annabeth: “I think Leo is on duty. Ask him.”

Percy: “So, my hair is on fire.”

Annabeth: “Okay. In a while.”

She got like this sometimes, according to Percy. It was one of the challenges of dating an Athena girl. Still, my brother wondered what he had to do to get her attention. He was worried about her after her encounter with the spiders at Fort Sumter (which is what I missed when I was whisked away with the crowd), and he didn’t know how to help her, especially if she shut him out.

After leaving the Pillars of Hercules—unscathed except for a few coconuts lodged in the hull’s bronze plating—the ship traveled by air for a few hundred miles.
I hoped the ancient lands wouldn’t be as bad as we’d heard. But it was almost like a commercial: You’ll notice the difference immediately!

Several times an hour, something attacked the ship. A flock of flesh-eating Stymphalian birds swooped out of the night sky, and Festus torched them. Storm spirits swirled around the mast, and Jason blasted them with lightning. While Coach Hedge was having dinner on the foredeck, a wild pegasus appeared from nowhere, stampeded over the coach’s enchiladas, and flew off again, leaving cheesy hoof prints all across the deck.
“What was that for?” the coach demanded.

Finally around midnight, after the ninth or tenth aerial attack, Jason turned to us. “How about you get some sleep? I’ll keep blasting stuff out of the sky as long as I can. Then we can go by sea for a while, and you can take point.”

Percy seemed to know I was still unstable. He walked me to my room and gave me an insanely tight hug. “If you need anything, I’ll be right by your side, okay?”

I nodded and rubbed my arm. “Thanks, Percy.”

My brother smiled softly and turned around. As I entered my room, I felt a strange twist in my stomach. I needed to say something to Percy.

I spun around and called to him. my brother turned and looked at me quizzically.

“Yeah?” He asked.

I love you, I wanted to say.

“Goodnight,” I said instead.

Percy smiled and nodded. “Night, Water Girl.”

I tried to smile at the nickname, but it came out like a sneer. I retreated into my room and sighed, ducking under my covers and falling asleep.

In the morning, a sleepy Percy knocked on my door to wake me up. Apparently we’d landed in water again, and it was our turn to take watch. Annabeth joined us as well, despite Percy’s hesitance.

We stood on deck, alone except for Leo, who was still manning the helm. The guy must have been shattered, but he refused to go to sleep.

“I don’t want any more Shrimpzilla surprises,” he insisted.

It was hard for me to look at him. I felt a whole jumble of emotions at once, and it almost felt like I was going to throw up. His brown eyes caught mine, and I looked away before I could read what emotion was in them.

It was about four in the morning. The weather was miserable for everyone but me. The fog was so thick, I couldn’t see Festus at the end of the prow, and warm drizzle hung in the air like a bead curtain. As we sailed into twenty-foot swells, the sea heaving underneath us, I could hear poor Hazel down in her cabin…also heaving.

I also didn’t know how to feel about her. I mean, if Frank wasn't mad, then maybe I was in the wrong? But everything Leo had said…

Despite my inner torment, Percy was grateful to be back on the water. He seemed to enjoy the dewey weather as much as I did. We stood with Annabeth at the forward rail while he told us about his dream- something about the giant twins and a horrible woman’s voice, working together to capture Annabeth and use her for something.

Percy looked unsure how she’d take the news. Her reaction was even more troubling than he anticipated: she didn’t seem surprised.

She peered into the fog. “Percy, you have to promise me something. Don’t tell the others about this dream.” She glanced at me, and I understood her silent words- You, too.

“Don’t what? Annabeth—”

“What you saw was about the Mark of Athena,” she said. “It won’t help the others to know. It’ll only make them worry, and it’ll make it harder for me to go off on my own.”

“Annabeth, you can’t be serious. That thing in the dark, the big chamber with the crumbling floor—”

“I know.” Her face looked unnaturally pale, and I suspected it wasn’t just the fog. “But I have to do this alone.”

Percy looked angry, but he bit back his emotions. “You know what’s in that cavern,” he guessed. “Does it have to do with spiders?”

“Yes,” Annabeth said in a small voice.

“Then how can you even…?” He made himself stop.
Once Annabeth had made up her mind, arguing with her wouldn’t do any good. My brother seemed to understand her perfectly. Despite how upsetting this was going to be for them, they both knew it was just how it had to be. They just had to stick together when they could.

That alone made me realize that Leo and I would never work.

I stared into the fog. I couldn’t see anything around us, but I had perfect bearings at sea. I used my sense of water as my second pair of eyes. I knew the depth of the ocean and which way the currents were flowing. I knew what was beneath us, around us, and I could feel it. It was like my skin.

We hadn’t been attacked since we had touched the water, but the sea seemed different. I had been in the Atlantic, the Pacific, even some rivers, but this sea felt more ancient and powerful. I could sense its layers swirling below me. Every Greek or Roman hero had sailed these waters—from Hercules to Aeneas. Monsters still dwelt in the depths, so deeply wrapped in the Mist that they slept most of the time; but I could feel them stirring, responding to the Celestial bronze hull of a Greek trireme and the presence of demigod blood.

They are back, the monsters seemed to say. Finally, fresh blood.

“We’re not far from the Italian coast,” Percy said, mostly to break the silence. “Maybe a hundred nautical miles to the mouth of the Tiber.”

“Good,” Annabeth said. “By daybreak, we should—”

“Stop.” My skin felt washed with ice. “We have to stop.”

“Why?” Annabeth asked.

“Leo, stop!” I yelled.

Too late. The other boat appeared out of the fog and rammed us head-on. In that split second, I registered random details: another trireme; black sails painted with a gorgon’s head; hulking warriors, not quite human, crowded at the front of the boat in Greek armor, swords and spears ready; and a bronze ram at water level, slamming against the hull of the Argo II.
Annabeth and Percy were almost thrown overboard. I fell straight back on my ass.

Festus blew fire, sending a dozen very surprised warriors screaming and diving into the sea, but more swarmed aboard the Argo II. Grappling lines wrapped around the rails and the mast, digging iron claws into the hull’s planks.

By the time I had recovered my wits, the enemy was everywhere. I couldn’t see well through the fog and the dark, but the invaders seemed to be humanlike dolphins, or dolphinlike humans. Some had gray snouts. Others held their swords in stunted flippers. Some waddled on legs partially fused together, while others had flippers for feet, which reminded me of clown shoes.

Leo sounded the alarm bell. He made a dash for the nearest ballista but went down under a pile of chattering dolphin warriors. I was next, grabbed from behind by a huge dolphin-man and locked in a vicious choke hold. I gagged and rasped, squirming and thrashing as my air was constricted. He had my arms pinned bent at the elbows, so I couldn’t reach for my pen.

Annabeth and Percy stood back-to-back, like they’d done it many times before, their weapons drawn. Percy tried to summon the waves, hoping he could push the ships apart or even capsize the enemy vessel, but nothing happened. It almost was like something was pushing against his will, wresting the sea from his control. I tried the same and got his exact result.

He raised Riptide, ready to fight, but we were hopelessly outnumbered. Several dozen warriors lowered their spears and made a ring around us, wisely keeping out of striking distance of Percy’s sword. The dolphin-men opened their snouts and made whistling, popping noises. I had never considered just how vicious dolphin teeth looked.

I tried to think. Maybe I could break out of the headlock and destroy a few invaders, but not without the others skewering Percy and Annabeth.

At least the warriors didn’t seem interested in killing us immediately. They kept Percy and Annabeth contained while more of their comrades flooded belowdecks and secured the hull. I could hear them breaking down the cabin doors, scuffling with our friends. Even if the other demigods hadn’t been fast asleep, they wouldn’t have stood a chance against so many.

Leo was dragged across the deck, half-conscious and groaning, and dumped on a pile of ropes. Below, the sounds of fighting tapered off. Either the others had been subdued or…or I refused to think about it.

On one side of the ring of spears, the dolphin warriors parted to let someone through. He appeared to be fully human, but from the way the dolphins fell back before him, he was clearly the leader. He was dressed in Greek combat armor—sandals, kilt, and greaves, a breastplate decorated with elaborate sea monster designs—and everything he wore was gold. Even his sword, a Greek blade like Riptide, was gold instead of bronze.

The golden boy, I thought, remembering Percy’s dream. we’ll have to get past the golden boy.

What really made me nervous was the guy’s helmet. His visor was a full face mask fashioned like a gorgon’s head—curved tusks, horrible features pinched into a snarl, and golden snake hair curling around the face. I had met gorgons before. The likeness was good—a little too good for my taste.

“Who are you?” Percy demanded. “What do you want?”
The golden warrior chuckled. With a flick of his blade, faster than I could follow, he smacked Riptide out of Percy’s hand and sent it flying into the sea.

He might as well have thrown Percy’s lungs in as well, because suddenly Percy looked dead. He’d never been disarmed so easily.

“Hello, brother.” The golden warrior’s voice was rich and velvety, with an exotic accent—Middle Eastern, maybe—that seemed vaguely familiar. “Always happy to rob a fellow son of Poseidon. I am Chrysaor, the Golden Sword. As for what I want…” He turned his metal mask toward Annabeth. “Well, that’s easy. I want everything you have.”

My heart did jumping jacks while Chrysaor walked back and forth, inspecting us like prized cattle. A dozen of his dolphin-man warriors stayed in a ring around us, spears leveled at Percy’s chest, while dozens more ransacked the ship, banging and crashing around belowdecks. One carried a box of ambrosia up the stairs. Another carried an armful of ballista bolts and a crate of Greek fire.

“Careful with that!” Annabeth warned. “It’ll blow up both our ships.”

“Ha!” Chrysaor said. “We know all about Greek fire, girl. Don’t worry. We’ve been looting and pillaging ships on the Mare Nostrum for eons.”

“Your accent sounds familiar,” Percy said. “Have we met?”

“I haven’t had the pleasure.” Chrysaor’s golden gorgon mask snarled at him, though it was impossible to tell what his real expression might be underneath. “But I’ve heard all about you, Percy Jackson. Oh, yes, the young man who saved Olympus. And his faithful sidekick, Annabeth Chase.”

“I’m nobody’s sidekick,” Annabeth growled. “And, Percy, his accent sounds familiar because he sounds like his mother. We killed her in New Jersey.”

Percy frowned. “I’m pretty sure that accent isn’t New Jersey. Who’s his—? Oh. Medusa is your mom?” he asked. “Dude, that sucks for you.”

Judging from the sound in Chrysaor’s throat, he was now snarling under the mask, too.

“You are as arrogant as the first Perseus,” Chrysaor said. “But, yes, Percy Jackson. Poseidon was my father. Medusa was my mother. After Medusa was changed into a monster by that so-called goddess of wisdom…” The golden mask turned on Annabeth. “That would be your mother, I believe…Medusa’s two children were trapped inside her, unable to be born. When the original Perseus cut off Medusa’s head—”

“Two children sprang out,” Annabeth remembered.

“Pegasus and you.”

Percy blinked. “So your brother is a winged horse. But you’re also my half brother, which means all the flying horses in the world are my…You know what? Let’s forget it. But if you’re Medusa’s kid,” he said, “why haven’t I ever heard of you?”

Chrysaor sighed in exasperation. “When your brother is Pegasus, you get used to being forgotten. Oh, look, a winged horse! Does anyone care about me? No!” He raised the tip of his blade to Percy’s eyes. “But don’t underestimate me. My name means the Golden Sword for a reason.”

“Imperial gold?” Percy guessed.

“Bah! Enchanted gold, yes. Later on, the Romans called it Imperial gold, but I was the first to ever wield such a blade. I should have been the most famous hero of all time! Since the legend-tellers decided to ignore me, I became a villain instead. I resolved to put my heritage to use. As the son of Medusa, I would inspire terror. As the son of Poseidon, I would rule the seas!”

“You became a pirate,” Annabeth summed up.

Chrysaor spread his arms, which was fine with Percy since it got the sword point away from his eyes.

“The best pirate,” Chrysaor said. “I’ve sailed these waters for centuries, waylaying any demigods foolish enough to explore the Mare Nostrum. This is my territory now. And all you have is mine.”

I growled and squirmed viciously, desperate to escape the cage of the dolphin’s arms. I yelled and tried biting the uncovered flesh of his flipper forearms, since without a good visual on my target I couldn’t try any fancy moves- also I was close to passing out from constricted oxygen and blood flow.

The dolphin-man didn’t appreciate me knawing into his arm and thrashing around. He clicked and chirped, using his less active arm to pound me in the forehead, using the butt of his sword as the force of action. Cue concussion.

I wailed in pain, a sob barely escaping my throat. I stopped flailing around, but the throbbing in my head continued. It was nauseating.

Percy looked at me, horror and anger written all over his face. But he knew he couldn’t do anything. He just had to hold out a little longer.

One of the dolphin warriors dragged Coach Hedge up from below.

“Let me go, you tuna fish!” Hedge bellowed. He tried to kick the warrior, but his hoof clanged off his captor’s armor. Judging from the hoof-shaped prints in the dolphin’s breastplate and helmet, the coach had already made several attempts.

“Ah, a satyr,” Chrysaor mused. “A little old and stringy, but Cyclopes will pay well for a morsel like him. Chain him up.”

“I’m nobody’s goat meat!” Hedge protested.

“Gag him as well,” Chrysaor decided.

“Why you gilded little—” Hedge’s insult was cut short when the dolphin put a greasy wad of canvas in his mouth. Soon the coach was trussed like a rodeo calf and dumped with the other loot—crates of food, extra weapons, even the magical ice chest from the mess hall.

“You can’t do this!” Annabeth shouted.

Chrysaor’s laughter reverberated inside his gold face mask. I wondered if he was horribly disfigured under there, or if his gaze could petrify people the way his mother’s could.

“I can do anything I want,” Chrysaor said. “My warriors have been trained to perfection. They are vicious, cutthroat—”

“Dolphins,” Percy noted.

Chrysaor shrugged. “Yes. So? They had some bad luck a few millennia ago, kidnapped the wrong person. Some of their crew got turned completely into dolphins. Others went mad. But these…these survived as hybrid creatures. When I found them under the sea and offered them a new life, they became my loyal crew. They fear nothing!”

One of the warriors chattered at him nervously.

“Yes, yes,” Chrysaor growled. “They fear one thing, but it hardly matters. He’s not here.”

An idea began tickling at the base of my skull, along with the insane throbbing. Before I could pursue it, more dolphin warriors climbed the stairs, hauling up the rest of our friends. Jason was unconscious. Judging from the new bruises on his face, he’d tried to fight. Hazel and Piper were bound hand and foot. Piper had a gag in her mouth, so apparently the dolphins had discovered she could charmspeak. Frank was the only one missing, though two of the dolphins had bee stings covering their faces.

Could Frank actually turn into a swarm of bees? I hoped so. If he was free aboard the ship somewhere, that could be an advantage, assuming we could figure out how to communicate with him.

“Excellent!” Chrysaor gloated. He directed his warriors to dump Jason by the crossbows. Then he examined the girls like they were Christmas presents, which made me grit my teeth.

“The boy is no use to me,” Chrysaor said. “But we have an understanding with the witch Circe. She will buy the women—either as slaves or trainees, depending on their skill. But not you, lovely Annabeth.”

Annabeth recoiled. “You are not taking me anywhere.”
Percy’s hand crept to his pocket. His pen must have appeared back in his jeans. He only needed a moment’s distraction to draw his sword. Maybe if he could take down Chrysaor quickly, his crew would panic.

I wished I knew something about Chrysaor’s weaknesses. Usually Annabeth provided information like that, but apparently Chrysaor didn’t have any legends, so we were all in the dark.

The golden warrior tutted. “Oh, sadly, Annabeth, you will not be staying with me. I would love that. But you and your friend Percy are spoken for. A certain goddess is paying a high bounty for your capture—alive, if possible, though she didn’t say you had to be unharmed.”

At that moment, Piper caused the disturbance we needed. She wailed so loudly it could be heard through her gag. Then she fainted against the nearest guard, knocking him over. Hazel got the idea and crumpled to the deck, kicking her legs and thrashing like she was having a fit.

Percy drew Riptide and lashed out. The blade should have gone straight through Chrysaor’s neck, but the golden warrior was unbelievably fast. He dodged and parried as the dolphin warriors backed up, guarding the other captives while giving their captain room to battle. They chattered and squeaked, egging him on, and I got the sinking suspicion the crew was used to this sort of entertainment. They didn’t feel their leader was in any sort of danger.

Percy was rusty—at least against an adversary like Chrysaor.

They battled back and forth, thrusting and parrying. The golden gorgon mask was too unnerving. The warm fog, the slick deck boards, the chattering of the warriors—none of it helped.

Percy feinted a thrust at Chrysaor’s gut, but Chrysaor anticipated the move. He knocked Percy’s sword out of his hand again, and once more Riptide flew into the sea.

Chrysaor laughed easily. He wasn’t even winded. He pressed the tip of his golden sword against Percy’s sternum.

“A good try,” said the pirate. “But now you’ll be chained and transported to Gaea’s minions. They are quite eager to spill your blood and wake the goddess.”

Nothing like total failure to generate great ideas.
As Percy stood there, disarmed and outmatched, the plan formed in my head. I refused to let this attack continue any longer.

Chrysaor couldn’t be beat. At least not in single combat. But without his crew…maybe then he could be overwhelmed if enough demigods attacked him at once.

How to deal with Chrysaor’s crew? I put the pieces together: the pirates had been turned into dolphin-men millennia ago when they had kidnapped the wrong person. I was sure Percy knew it, too. Heck, the wrong person in question had threatened to turn him into a dolphin as he’d told me. And when Chrysaor said the crew wasn’t afraid of anything, one of the dolphins had nervously corrected him. Yes, Chrysaor said. But he’s not here.

I glanced toward the stern and spotted Frank, in human form, peeking out from behind a ballista, waiting. The girls…Frank…the ice chest.

It was a crazy idea. But, as usual, that’s all I had.

“Fine!” I shouted, so loudly that I got everyone’s attention. “Take us away, if our captain will let you.”

Maybe the concussion was getting to me. I was sure the dolphin behind me was going to choke me out now.

Chrysaor turned his golden mask on me. “What captain? My men searched the ship. There is no one else.”

Percy’s eyes glinted, and he caught onto my bluff. He raised his hands dramatically. “The god appears only when he wishes. But he is our leader. He runs our camp for demigods. Doesn’t he, Annabeth?”

Annabeth was quick. “Yes!” She nodded enthusiastically. “Mr. D! The great Dionysus!”

A ripple of uneasiness passed through the dolphin-men. One dropped his sword.

“Stand fast!” Chrysaor bellowed. “There is no god on this ship. They are trying to scare you.”

“You should be scared!” Percy looked at the pirate crew with sympathy. “Dionysus will be severely cranky with you for having delayed our voyage. He will punish all of us. Didn’t you notice the girls falling into the wine god’s madness?”

Hazel and Piper had stopped the shaking fits. They were sitting on the deck, staring at Percy, but when he glared at them pointedly, they started hamming it up again, trembling and flopping around like fish. The dolphin-men fell over themselves trying to get away from their captives. The one holding me dropped me on the deck- which felt great for my banged up head- and scampered back.

“Fakes!” Chrysaor roared. “Shut up, Percy Jackson. Your camp director is not here. He was recalled to Olympus. This is common knowledge.”

“So you admit Dionysus is our director!” Percy said.

“He was,” Chrysaor corrected. “Everyone knows that.”

Percy gestured at the golden warrior like he’d just betrayed himself. “You see? We are doomed. If you don’t believe me, let’s check the ice chest!”

Percy stormed over to the magical cooler. No one tried to stop him. He knocked open the lid and rummaged through the ice. There had to be one. Please. He was rewarded with a silver-and-red can of soda. He brandished it at the dolphin warriors as if spraying them with bug repellent.

“Behold!” Percy shouted. “The god’s chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!”

The dolphin-men began to panic. They were on the edge of retreat. I could feel it.

“The god will take your ship,” I warned, finally getting up to my feet. “He will finish your transformation into dolphins, or make you insane, or transform you into insane dolphins! Your only hope is to swim away now, quickly!”

“Ridiculous!” Chrysaor’s voice turned shrill. He didn’t seem sure where to level his sword—at Percy or his own crew.

“Save yourselves!” I warned. “It is too late for us!”
Then I gasped and pointed to the spot where Frank was hiding. “Oh, no! Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!”

Nothing happened.

“I said, Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!”

Frank stumbled out of nowhere, making a big show of grabbing his throat. “Oh, no,” he said, like he was reading from a teleprompter. “I am turning into a crazy dolphin.”

He began to change, his nose elongating into a snout, his skin becoming sleek and gray. He fell to the deck as a dolphin, his tail thumping against the boards.
The pirate crew disbanded in terror, chattering and clicking as they dropped their weapons, forgot the captives, ignored Chrysaor’s orders, and jumped overboard. In the confusion, Annabeth moved quickly to cut the bonds on Hazel, Piper, and Coach Hedge.
Within seconds, Chrysaor was alone and surrounded. We had no weapons except for Annabeth’s knife, my trident, Hedge’s hooves, but the murderous looks on our faces evidently convinced the golden warrior he was doomed.

He backed to the edge of the rail.

“This isn’t over, Jackson,” Chrysaor growled. “I will have my revenge—”

His words were cut short by Frank, who had changed form again. An eight-hundred-pound grizzly bear can definitely break up a conversation. He sideswiped Chrysaor and raked the golden mask off his helmet. Chrysaor screamed, instantly covering his face with his arms and tumbling into the water.

We ran to the rail. Chrysaor had disappeared. I thought about chasing him, but I didn’t know these waters, and I didn’t want to confront that guy with a concussion.

“That was brilliant!” Annabeth kissed Percy.

“It was desperate, and my sis thought of it first” Percy corrected. “And we need to get rid of this pirate trireme.”

“Burn it?” I asked, weakly holding onto the rail.

Percy looked at the Diet Coke in his hand. “No. I’ve got another idea.”

It took us longer than we wanted. As we worked, Percy kept glancing at the sea, waiting for Chrysaor and his pirate dolphins to return, but they didn’t.

Leo got back on his feet, thanks to a little nectar. Piper tended to Jason’s wounds, but he wasn’t as badly hurt as he looked. Mostly he was just ashamed that he’d gotten overpowered again. Percy fed me a bit of ambrosia and helped dunk my head in some water.

We returned all our own supplies to the proper places and tidied up from the invasion while Coach Hedge had a field day on the enemy ship, breaking everything he could find with his baseball bat.

When he was done, Percy loaded the enemy’s weapons back on the pirate ship. Their storeroom was full of treasure, but Percy insisted that we touch none of it.

“I can sense about six million dollars’ worth of gold aboard,” Hazel said. “Plus diamonds, rubies—”

“Six m-million?” Frank stammered. “Canadian dollars or American?”

“Leave it,” Percy said. “It’s part of the tribute.”

“Tribute?” I asked.

“Oh.” Piper nodded. “Kansas.”

Jason grinned. He’d been there too when they’d met the wine god. “Crazy. But I like it.”

Finally, Percy and I went aboard the pirate ship and opened the flood valves. He asked Leo to drill a few extra holes in the bottom of the hull with his power tools, and Leo was happy to oblige.

The crew of the Argo II assembled at the rail and cut the grappling lines. Piper brought out her new horn of plenty and, on Percy’s direction, willed it to spew Diet Coke, which came out with the strength of a fire hose, dousing the enemy deck. I thought it would take hours, but the ship sank remarkably fast, filling with Diet Coke and seawater.

“Dionysus,” Percy called, holding up Chrysaor’s golden mask. “Or Bacchus—whatever. You made this victory possible, even if you weren’t here. Your enemies trembled at your name…or your Diet Coke, or something. So, yeah, thank you.”

The words were hard to get out, but Percy managed not to gag. “We give this ship to you as tribute. We hope you like it.”

“Six million in gold,” Leo muttered. “He’d better like it.”

“Shh,” Hazel scolded. “Precious metal isn’t all that great. Believe me.”

Percy threw the golden mask aboard the vessel, which was now sinking even faster, brown fizzy liquid spewing out the trireme’s oar slots and bubbling from the cargo hold, turning the sea frothy brown.

I summoned a wave, and the enemy ship was swamped. Leo steered the Argo II away as the pirate vessel disappeared underwater.

“Isn’t that polluting?” Piper asked.

“I wouldn’t worry,” Jason told her. “If Bacchus likes it, the ship should vanish.”

After our bout with the pirates, we decided to fly the rest of the way to Rome. Jason insisted he was well enough to take sentry duty, along with Coach Hedge, who was still so charged with adrenaline that every time the ship hit turbulence, he swung his bat and yelled, “Die!”

We had a couple of hours before daybreak, so Jason suggested Percy, Annabeth, and I try to get a few more hours of sleep.

“It’s fine, guys,” Jason said. “Give somebody else a chance to save the ship, huh?”

I agreed, though once in my cabin, I had trouble falling asleep.

Prometheus decided to tag along in my chase for rest. I didn’t really feel up to whatever he had to offer, so I chose to let him ramble so I could ignore him.

But now you know how it feels.
You understand this horror.
You feel the sinking weight of despondency.
And an empty chest. No heart.
Pain, pain, nothing but pain.
Except you didn’t need an eagle to pluck you. How lucky.
No one’s ever going to treat you right.
You're attracting the wrong kind.
And you’re always left with nothing with anger, and lord knows that it hurts when coming to terms with the lessons you're learning.
Harsh as it seems, maybe love means being naive.

I was too tired to respond. I let his depressive affirmations take hold as I fell asleep.

A metallic CLANG-CLANG-CLANG jolted me up. My eyes shot open. I realized I’d just heard the landing gear being lowered.

Percy stumbled into my room and grinned. “We’re in Rome!”

The sky was brilliant blue, as if the stormy weather had never happened. The sun rose over the distant hills, so everything below us shone and sparkled like the entire city of Rome had just come out of the car wash.
I had seen big cities before, but the sheer vastness of Rome grabbed me by the throat and made it hard to breathe. The city seemed to have no regard for the limits of geography. It spread through hills and valleys, jumped over the Tiber with dozens of bridges, and just kept sprawling to the horizon. Streets and alleys zigzagged with no rhyme or reason through quilts of neighborhoods. Glass office buildings stood next to excavation sites. A cathedral stood next to a line of Roman columns, which stood next to a modern soccer stadium. In some neighborhoods, old stucco villas with red-tiled roofs crowded the cobblestone streets, so that if I concentrated just on those areas, I could imagine I was back in ancient times. Everywhere I looked, there were wide piazzas and traffic-clogged streets. Parks cut across the city with a crazy collection of palm trees, pines, junipers, and olive trees, as if Rome couldn’t decide what part of the world it belonged to—or maybe it just believed all the world still belonged to Rome.

“We’re setting down in that park,” Leo announced, pointing to a wide green space dotted with palm trees. “Let’s hope the Mist makes us look like a large pigeon or something.”

It seemed to work. I didn’t notice any cars veering off the road or Romans pointing to the sky and screaming, “Aliens!” The Argo II set down in the grassy field and the oars retracted.

The noise of traffic was all around us, but the park itself was peaceful and deserted. To our left, a green lawn sloped toward a line of woods. An old villa nestled in the shade of some weird-looking pine trees with thin curvy trunks that shot up thirty or forty feet, then sprouted into puffy canopies. They reminded me of trees in those Dr. Seuss books my mom used to read me when I was little.

To our right, snaking along the top of a hill, was a long brick wall with notches at the top for archers—maybe a medieval defensive line, maybe Ancient Roman. I wasn’t sure.

To the north, about a mile away through the folds of the city, the top of the Colosseum rose above the rooftops, looking just like it did in travel photos. That’s when my legs started shaking. I was actually here. I’d thought my trip to Camp Half-Blood or Quebec had been pretty exotic, but now I was in the heart of the old Roman Empire, home territory for a Roman demigod. In a way, this place had shaped my life as much as California.

Jason pointed to the base of the archers’ wall, where steps led down into some kind of tunnel.

“I think I know where we are,” he said. “That’s the Tomb of the Scipios.”

I frowned. “Scipio…Reyna’s pegasus?”

“No,” Annabeth put in. “They were a noble Roman family, and…wow, this place is amazing.”

Jason nodded. “I’ve studied maps of Rome before. I’ve always wanted to come here, but…”

Nobody bothered finishing that sentence. Looking at my friends’ faces, I could tell they were just as much in awe as I was. We’d made it. We’d landed in Rome—the Rome.

“Plans?” Hazel asked. “Nico has until sunset—at best. And this entire city is supposedly getting destroyed today.”

Percy shook himself out of his daze. “You’re right. Annabeth…did you zero in on that spot from your bronze map?”

Her gray eyes turned extra thunderstorm dark, which I could interpret just fine: Remember what I said, buddy. Keep that dream to yourself.

“Yes,” she said carefully. “It’s on the Tiber River. I think I can find it, but I should—”

“Take me along,” Percy finished. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Annabeth glared daggers at him. “That’s not—”

“Safe,” he supplied. “One demigod walking through Rome alone. I’ll go with you as far as the Tiber. We can use that letter of introduction, hopefully meet the river god Tiberinus. Maybe he can give you some help or advice. Then you can go on alone from there.”

They had a silent staring contest, but Percy didn’t back down.

“Fine,” Annabeth muttered. “Hazel, now that we’re in Rome, do you think you can pinpoint Nico’s location?”

Hazel blinked, as if coming out of a trance from watching the Percy/Annabeth Show. “Um…hopefully, if I get close enough. I’ll have to walk around the city. Frank, would you come with me?”

Frank beamed. “Absolutely.”

“And, uh…Leo,” Hazel added. “It might be a good idea if you came along too. The fish-centaurs said we’d need your help with something mechanical.”

“Yeah,” Leo said, “no problem.”

Frank’s smile turned into something more like Chrysaor’s mask.

Hazel glanced at me and nodded. “You, too, maybe? It’s good to be in pairs, and I think you’d really help us if we got into trouble.”

I felt my gut lurch. Leo and I locked eyes for a split second. Of course, nobody knew. That’s how I wanted it, and I guess how Leo did, too.

“Sure,” I said, slipping my hands into my pockets. My pen felt oddly cold.

Piper drew her knife and set it on the rail. “Jason and I can watch the ship for now. I’ll see what Katoptris can show me. But, Hazel, if you guys get a fix on Nico’s location, don’t go in there by yourselves. Come back and get us. It’ll take all of us to fight the giants.”

She didn’t say the obvious: even all of us together wouldn’t be enough, unless we had a god on our side. I decided not to bring that up.

“Good idea,” Percy said. “How about we plan to meet back here at…what?”

“Three this afternoon?” Jason suggested. “That’s probably the latest we could rendezvous and still hope to fight the giants and save Nico. If something happens to change the plan, try to send an Iris-message.”

The others nodded in agreement, but I noticed several of them glancing at Annabeth. Another thing no one wanted to say: Annabeth would be on a different schedule. She might be back at three, or much later, or never. But she would be on her own, searching for the Athena Parthenos.

Coach Hedge grunted. “That’ll give me time to eat the coconuts—I mean dig the coconuts out of our hull. Percy, Annabeth…I don’t like you two going off on your own. Just remember: behave. If I hear about any funny business, I will ground you until the Styx freezes over.”

The idea of getting grounded when they were about to risk their lives was so ridiculous, Percy couldn’t help smiling.

“We’ll be back soon,” he promised. He looked around at us, trying not to feel like this was the last time we’d ever be together. “Good luck, everyone.”

Leo lowered the gangplank, and Percy and Annabeth were first off the ship.

Chapter Text

Being stuck with Leo was the second worst part of the day. It felt like an eternity that I had to just grin and bear it. Part of it was Hazel’s fault. For a girl with super underground senses, she wasn’t much good in Rome. She kept leading us around and around the city, getting dizzy, and doubling back, almost doubling our time together.

“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just…there’s so much underground here, so many layers, it’s overwhelming. Like standing in the middle of an orchestra and trying to concentrate on a single instrument. I’m going deaf.”

As a result, we got a tour of Rome. Frank seemed happy to plod along like a big sheepdog (hmm, I wondered if he could turn into one of those, or even better: a horse that we could ride). But Leo started to get impatient. I could relate. My feet were sore, the day was sunny and hot, and the streets were choked with tourists.

The Forum was okay, but it was mostly ruins overgrown with bushes and trees. It took a lot of imagination to see it as the bustling center of Ancient Rome. I could only manage it because I’d seen New Rome in California.

We passed big churches, freestanding arches, clothing stores, and fast-food restaurants. One statue of some Ancient Roman dude seemed to be pointing to a nearby McDonald’s.

On the wider streets, the car traffic was absolutely nuts—man, I thought people in LA drove crazy—but we spent most of our time weaving through small alleys, coming across fountains and little cafés where we were not allowed to rest.

“I never thought I’d get to see Rome,” Hazel said. “When I was alive, I mean the first time, Mussolini was in charge. We were at war.”

“Mussolini?” Leo frowned. “Wasn’t he like BFFs with Hitler?”

Hazel stared at him like he was an alien. “BFFs?”

“Never mind.”

“I’d love to see the Trevi Fountain,” she said.

“There’s a fountain on every block,” Leo grumbled.

“Or the Spanish Steps,” Hazel said.

“Why would you come to Italy to see Spanish steps?” Leo asked. “That’s like going to China for Mexican food, isn’t it?”

“You’re hopeless,” Hazel complained.

“So I’ve been told.”

She turned to Frank and grabbed his hand, as if Leo had ceased to exist. “Come on. I think we should go this way.”

Frank gave Leo a confused smile—like he couldn’t decide whether to gloat or to thank Leo for being a doofus—but he cheerfully let Hazel drag him along.

I crossed my arms as I followed behind the two. Maybe it was just because of our breakup, but Leo’s quips were getting on my nerves. If Hazel or Frank asked, I planned to just say it was the heat.

After walking forever, Hazel stopped in front of a church. At least, I assumed it was a church. The main section had a big domed roof. The entrance had a triangular roof, typical Roman columns, and an inscription across the top: M. AGRIPPA something or other.

“Latin for Get a grip?” Leo speculated.

“This is our best bet.” Hazel sounded more certain than she had all day. “There should be a secret passage somewhere inside.”

Tour groups milled around the steps. Guides held up colored placards with different numbers and lectured in dozens of languages like they were playing some kind of international bingo.

Leo listened to the Spanish tour guide for a few seconds, and then he reported to us, “This is the Pantheon. It was originally built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to the gods. After it burned down, Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it, and it’s been standing for two thousand years. It’s one of the best-preserved Roman buildings in the world.”

Frank and Hazel stared at him.

“How did you know that?” Hazel asked.

“I’m naturally brilliant.”

“Bull,” I said. “He eavesdropped on a tour group.”

Leo grinned, which bugged me; How could he be so cheerful? But, of course, I knew it was a facade. I knew him better than anyone. “Maybe. Come on. Let’s go find that secret passage. I hope this place has air conditioning.”

Of course, no AC.

On the bright side, there were no lines and no admission fee, so we just muscled our way past the tour groups and walked on in.

The interior was pretty impressive, considering it had been constructed two thousand years ago. The marble floor was patterned with squares and circles like a Roman tic-tac-toe game. The main space was one huge chamber with a circular rotunda, sort of like a capitol building back in the States. Lining the walls were different shrines and statues and tombs and stuff. But the real eye-catcher was the dome overhead. All the light in the building came from one circular opening right at the top. A beam of sunlight slanted into the rotunda and glowed on the floor, like Zeus was up there with a magnifying glass, trying to fry puny humans.

I was no architect like Annabeth, but I could appreciate the engineering. The Romans had made the dome out of big stone panels, but they’d hollowed out each panel in a square-within-square pattern. It looked cool. I figured it also made the dome lighter and easier to support.

Hazel stopped in the middle of the room and turned in a circle. “This is amazing. In the old days, the children of Vulcan would come here in secret to consecrate demigod weapons. This is where Imperial gold was enchanted.”

Leo looked like he was picturing some stupid ceremony between Vulcan kids. “But we’re not here because of that,” he guessed.

“No,” Hazel said. “There’s an entrance—a tunnel that will lead us toward Nico. I can sense it close by. I’m not sure where.”

Frank grunted. “If this building is two thousand years old, it makes sense there could be some kind of secret passage left over from the Roman days.”

That’s when Leo made his mistake of simply being too good, as he would say.

He scanned the temple’s interior, probably thinking: If I were designing a secret passage, where would I put it?

He could sometimes figure out how a machine worked by putting his hand on it. He’d learned to fly a helicopter that way. He’d fixed Festus the dragon that way (before Festus crashed and burned). Once he’d even reprogrammed the electronic billboards in Times Square to read: ALL DA LADIES LUV LEO…accidentally, of course.

Now he tried to sense the workings of this ancient building. He turned toward a red marble altar-looking thing with a statue of the Virgin Mary on the top. “Over there,” he said.

He marched confidently to the shrine. It was shaped sort of like a fireplace, with an arched recess at the bottom. The mantel was inscribed with a name, like a tomb.

“The passage is around here,” he said. “This guy’s final resting place is in the way. Raphael somebody?”

“Famous painter, I think,” Hazel said.

Leo shrugged. He had a cousin named Raphael. He told me this once while explaining his whole family tree. I wondered why I even tried to remember.

“Hold on…” I looked around to make sure we weren’t being watched.

Most of the tour groups were gawking at the dome, but one trio made me uneasy. About fifty feet away, some overweight middle-aged dudes with American accents were conversing loudly, complaining to each other about the heat. They looked like manatees stuffed into beach clothes—sandals, walking shorts, touristy T-shirts and floppy hats. Their legs were big and pasty and covered with spider veins. The guys acted extremely bored, and I wondered why they were hanging around.

They weren’t watching us. I wasn’t sure why they made me nervous.

Forget them, I told myself.

Leo slipped around the side of the tomb. He ran his hand down the back of a Roman column, all the way to the base. Right at the bottom, a series of lines had been etched into the marble—Roman numerals.

“Heh,” Leo said. “Not very elegant, but effective.”

“What is?” Frank asked.

“The combination for a lock.” He felt around the back of the column some more and discovered a square hole about the size of an electrical socket. “The lock face itself has been ripped out—probably vandalized sometime in the last few centuries. But I should be able to control the mechanism inside, if I can…”

Leo placed his hand on the marble floor. He closed his eyes and concentrated. The cylinders turned—click, click, click. Then click, click.

On the floor next to the wall, one section of marble tile slid under another, revealing a dark square opening barely large enough to wiggle through.

“Romans must’ve been small.” Leo looked at Frank appraisingly. “You’ll need to change into something thinner to get through here.” I hissed and hit his shoulder.

“That’s not nice!” Hazel chided.

“What? Just saying—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Frank mumbled. “We should go get the others before we explore. That’s what Piper said.”

“They’re halfway across the city,” Leo reminded him. “Besides, uh, I’m not sure I can close this hatch again. The gears are pretty old.”

“Great,” Frank said. “How do we know it’s safe down there?”

Hazel knelt. She put her hand over the opening as if checking the temperature. “There’s nothing alive…at least not for several hundred feet. The tunnel slants down, then levels out and goes south, more or less. I don’t sense any traps…”

“How can you tell all that?” Leo asked.

She shrugged. “Same way you can pick locks on marble columns, I guess. I’m glad you’re not into robbing banks.”

“Oh…bank vaults,” Leo said. “Never thought about that.”

“Forget I said anything.” Hazel sighed. “Look, it’s not three o’clock yet. We can at least do a little exploring, try to pinpoint Nico’s location before we contact the others. You three stay here until I call for you. I want to check things out, make sure the tunnel is structurally sound. I’ll be able to tell more once I’m underground.”

Frank scowled. “We can’t let you go by yourself. You could get hurt.”

“Frank, I can take care of myself,” she said. “Underground is my specialty. It’s safest for all of us if I go first.”

“Unless Frank wants to turn into a mole,” Leo suggested. “Or a prairie dog. Those things are awesome.”

“Shut up,” Frank mumbled.

“Or a badger.”

Frank jabbed a finger at Leo’s face. “Valdez, I swear—”

“Both of you, be quiet,” Hazel scolded. “I’ll be back soon. Give me ten minutes. If you don’t hear from me by then…Never mind. I’ll be fine. Just try not to kill each other while I’m down there.” She turned to me, her eyes pleading. “Watch them, please?”

I nodded in understanding. She dropped down the hole. Leo and Frank blocked her from view as best they could. They stood shoulder to shoulder, trying to look casual, like it was completely natural for two teenage guys and a girl to hang around Raphael’s tomb.

Tour groups came and went. Most ignored us. A few people glanced at us apprehensively and kept walking. Maybe the tourists thought we would ask for tips. Leo could unnerve people when he grinned.

The three American manatees were still hanging out in the middle of the room. One of them wore a T-shirt that said ROMA, as if he’d forget what city he was in if he didn’t wear it. Every once in a while, he would glance over at us like he found our presence distasteful.

Something about that dude bothered me. I wished Hazel would hurry up.

“She talked to me earlier,” Frank said abruptly. “Hazel told me you figured out about my lifeline.”

Leo stirred. He blinked like he forgot who was with him. Even I was surprised to hear Frank. Also, what was he talking about?

“Your lifeline…oh, the burning stick. Right. Look, man,” Leo said. “It’s cool. I’d never do anything to put you in danger. We’re on the same team.”

Frank fiddled with his centurion badge. “I always knew fire could kill me, but since my grandmother’s mansion burned down in Vancouver…it seems a lot more real.”

I felt like I shouldn’t be hearing this, but maybe the boys just didn’t care that I was there. Whatever, right?

Leo leaned back against the wall. “Your grandmother—did she die in that fire? You didn’t say.”

“I—I don’t know. She was sick, and pretty old. She said she would die in her own time, in her own way. But I think she made it out of the fire. I saw this bird flying up from the flames.”

Leo thought about that. “So your whole family has the shape-changing thing?”

“I guess,” Frank said. “My mom did. Grandmother thought that’s what got her killed in Afghanistan, in the war. Mom tried to help some of her buddies, and…I don’t know exactly what happened. There was a firebomb.”

Leo winced with sympathy. “So we both lost our moms to fire.”

He probably hadn’t been planning on it, but he told Frank the whole story of the night at the workshop when Gaea had appeared to him, and his mother had died. The story I had heard so many times.

Frank’s eyes got watery. “I never like it when people tell me, Sorry about your mom.”

“It never feels genuine,” Leo agreed.

“But I’m sorry about your mom.”

“Thanks.”

No sign of Hazel. The American tourists were still milling around the Pantheon. They seemed to be circling closer, like they were trying to sneak up on Raphael’s tomb without it noticing.

“Back at Camp Jupiter,” Frank said, “our cabin Lar, Reticulus, told me I have more power than most demigods, being a son of Mars, plus having the shape-changing ability from my mom’s side. He said that’s why my life is tied to a burning stick. It’s such a huge weakness that it kind of balances things out.”

Leo patted his toolbelt. “We’ve all got weaknesses,” he said. “Me, for instance. I’m tragically funny and good-looking.”

Frank snorted. “You might have weaknesses. But your life doesn’t depend on a piece of firewood.”

I coughed, grabbing the boys’ attention. Frank looked somewhat embarrassed.

“It’s cool,” I said. “I won't tell anyone, Frank.”

The big man looked relaxed as I assured him. Then Leo stepped up. “What about me? My tragic tale?”

His grin was infectious. I fucking hated it. I wanted to be mad.

I punched his shoulder and rolled my eyes, quickly wiping the grin off my face. “Shut it.”

Leo turned to Frank and crossed his arms. “She’d heard it like a thousand times when I go and cry in her lap-”

“Don’t try and sell it,” I scolded, glaring daggers at him.

Leo got the hint finally. His eyes turned to the floor. I wondered what emotion overtook him.

Frank looked confused. No doubt he’d never guess what was really happening between me and Leo. I sighed and returned to picking at my nails,

After a few seconds, I looked across the room and faltered. The three American tourists were coming our way; no more circling or sneaking. They were making a straight line for Raphael’s tomb, and all three were glaring at Leo.

“Uh, guys?” I asked. “Has it been ten minutes yet?”

They followed my gaze. The Americans’ faces were angry and confused, like they were sleepwalking through a very annoying nightmare.

“Leo Valdez,” called the guy in the ROMA shirt. His voice had changed. It was hollow and metallic. He spoke English as if it was a second language. “We meet again.”

All three tourists blinked, and their eyes turned solid gold.

Frank yelped. “Eidolons!”

The manatees clenched their beefy fists. Normally, I wouldn’t have worried about getting murdered by overweight guys in floppy hats, but I suspected the eidolons were dangerous even in those bodies, especially since the spirits wouldn’t care whether their hosts survived or not.

“They can’t fit down the hole,” Leo said.

“Right,” Frank said. “Underground is sounding really good.”

He turned into a snake and slithered over the edge. Leo jumped in after him while the spirits began to wail above, “Valdez! Kill Valdez!” I quickly punched one in the face and slid down the tunnel front first.

One problem solved: the hatch above us closed automatically, cutting off our pursuers. It also cut off all light, but we could deal with that. I just hoped we didn’t need to get out the same way we came in. I wasn’t sure Leo could open the tile from underneath.

At least the possessed manatee dudes were on the other side. Over Leo’s head, the marble floor shuddered, like fat touristy feet were kicking it.

Frank must have turned back to human form. I could hear him wheezing in the dark.

“What now?” Frank asked.

“Okay, don’t freak,” Leo said. “I’m going to summon a little fire, just so we can see.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

Leo’s index finger blazed like a birthday candle. In front of us stretched a stone tunnel with a low ceiling. Just as Hazel had predicted, it slanted down, then leveled out and went south.

“Well,” I said. “It only goes in one direction.”

“Let’s find Hazel,” Frank said.

We had no argument with that suggestion. We made our way down the corridor, Leo going first with the fire. After a hundred feet or so, we turned a corner and found Hazel. In the light of her golden cavalry sword, she was examining a door. She was so engrossed, she didn’t notice us until Leo said, “Hi.”

Hazel whirled, trying to swing her spatha. Fortunately for Leo’s face, the blade was too long to wield in the corridor.

“What are you doing here?” Hazel demanded.

Leo gulped. “Sorry. We ran into some angry tourists.” He told her what had happened.

She hissed in frustration. “I hate eidolons. I thought Piper made them promise to stay away.”

“Oh…” Frank said, like he’d just had his own daily happy thought. “Piper made them promise to stay off the ship and not possess any of us. But if they followed us, and used other bodies to attack us, then they’re not technically breaking their vow.…”

“Great,” I muttered. “Eidolons who are also lawyers. Now I really want to kill them.”

“Okay, forget them for now,” Hazel said. “This door is giving me fits. Leo, can you try your skill with the lock?”

Leo cracked his knuckles. “Stand aside for the master, please.”

The door was interesting, much more complicated than the Roman numeral combination lock above. The entire door was coated in Imperial gold. A mechanical sphere about the size of a bowling ball was embedded in the center. The sphere was constructed from five concentric rings, each inscribed with zodiac symbols—the bull, the scorpion, et cetera—and seemingly random numbers and letters.

“These letters are Greek,” Leo said in surprise.

“Well, lots of Romans spoke Greek,” Hazel said.

“I guess,” Leo said. “But this workmanship…no offense to you Camp Jupiter types, but this is too complicated to be Roman.”

I snorted. “Whereas you Greeks just love making things complicated.”

“Hey,” Leo protested. “All I’m saying is this machinery is delicate, sophisticated. It reminds me of…” Leo stared at the sphere, trying to recall where he’d read or heard about a similar ancient machine. “It’s a more advanced sort of lock,” he decided. “You line up the symbols on the different rings in the right order, and that opens the door.”

“But what’s the right order?” Hazel asked.

“Good question. Greek spheres…astronomy, geometry…” Leo got a warm feeling inside. “Oh, no way. I wonder…What’s the value of pi?”

Frank frowned. “What kind of pie?”

“He means the number,” Hazel guessed. “I learned that in math class once, but—”

“It’s used to measure circles,” Leo said. “This sphere, if it’s made by the guy I’m thinking of…”

Hazel and Frank both stared at him blankly.

“Never mind,” Leo said. “I’m pretty sure pi is, uh, 3.1415 blah blah blah. The number goes on forever, but the sphere has only five rings, so that should be enough, if I’m right.”

“And if you’re not?” Frank asked.

“Well, then, Leo fall down, go boom. Let’s find out!”

He turned the rings, starting on the outside and moving in. He ignored the zodiac signs and letters, lining up the correct numbers so they made the value of pi. Nothing happened.

“I’m stupid,” Leo mumbled. “Pi would expand outward, because it’s infinite.”

He reversed the order of the numbers, starting in the center and working toward the edge. When he aligned the last ring, something inside the sphere clicked. The door swung open.

Leo beamed at us. “That, good people, is how we do things in Leo World. Come on in!”

“I hate Leo World,” Frank muttered.

Hazel laughed.

Inside was enough cool stuff to keep Leo busy for years. The room was about the size of the forge back at Camp Half-Blood, with bronze-topped worktables along the walls, and baskets full of ancient metalworking tools. Dozens of bronze and gold spheres like steampunk basketballs sat around in various stages of disassembly. Loose gears and wiring littered the floor. Thick metal cables ran from each table toward the back of the room, where there was an enclosed loft like a theater’s sound booth. Stairs led up to the booth on either side. All the cables seemed to run into it. Next to the stairs on the left, a row of cubbyholes was filled with leather cylinders—probably ancient scroll cases.

Leo was about to head toward the tables when he glanced to his left and nearly jumped out of his shoes. Flanking the doorway were two armored manikins—like skeletal scarecrows made from bronze pipes, outfitted with full suits of Roman armor, shield and sword.

“Dude.” Leo walked up to one. “These would be awesome if they worked.”

Frank edged away from the manikins. “Those things are going to come alive and attack us, aren’t they?”

Leo laughed. “Not a chance. They aren’t complete.” He tapped the nearest manikin’s neck, where loose copper wires sprouted from underneath its breastplate. “Look, the head’s wiring has been disconnected. And here, at the elbow, the pulley system for this joint is out of alignment. My guess? The Romans were trying to duplicate a Greek design, but they didn’t have the skill.”

Hazel arched her eyebrows. “The Romans weren’t good enough at being complicated, I suppose.”

“Or delicate,” I added. “Or sophisticated.”

“Hey, I just call it like I see it.” Leo jiggled the manikin’s head, making it nod like it was agreeing with him. “Still…a pretty impressive try. I’ve heard legends that the Romans confiscated the writings of Archimedes, but—”

“Archimedes?” Hazel looked baffled. “Wasn’t he an ancient mathematician or something?”

Leo laughed. “He was a lot more than that. He was only the most famous son of Hephaestus who ever lived.”

Frank scratched his ear. “I’ve heard his name before, but how can you be sure this manikin is his design?”

“It has to be!” Leo said. “Look, I’ve read all about Archimedes. He’s a hero to Cabin Nine. The dude was Greek, right? He lived in one of the Greek colonies in southern Italy, back before Rome got all huge and took over. Finally the Romans moved in and destroyed his city. The Roman general wanted to spare Archimedes, because he was so valuable—sort of like the Einstein of the ancient world—but some stupid Roman soldier killed him.”

“There you go again,” Hazel muttered. “Stupid and Roman don’t always go together, Leo.”

Frank grunted in agreement. “How do you know all this, anyway?” he demanded. “Is there a Spanish tour guide around here?”

“No, man,” Leo said. “You can’t be a demigod who’s into building stuff and not know about Archimedes. The guy was seriously elite. He calculated the value of pi. He did all this math stuff we still use for engineering. He invented a hydraulic screw that could move water through pipes.”

Hazel scowled. “A hydraulic screw. Excuse me for not knowing about that awesome achievement.”

“He also built a death ray made of mirrors that could burn enemy ships,” Leo said. “Is that awesome enough for you?”

“I saw something about that on TV,” Frank admitted. “They proved it didn’t work.”

“Ah, that’s just because modern mortals don’t know how to use Celestial bronze,” Leo said. “That’s the key. Archimedes also invented a massive claw that could swing on a crane and pluck enemy ships out of the water.”

“Okay, that’s cool,” Frank admitted. “I love grabber-arm games.”

“Well, there you go,” Leo said. “Anyway, all his inventions weren’t enough. The Romans destroyed his city. Archimedes was killed. According to legends, the Roman general was a big fan of his work, so he raided Archimedes’s workshop and carted a bunch of souvenirs back to Rome. They disappeared from history, except…” Leo waved his hands at the stuff on the tables. “Here they are.”

“Metal basketballs?” I asked.

Leo couldn’t believe that we didn’t appreciate what we were looking at, but he tried to contain his irritation. “Guys, Archimedes constructed spheres. The Romans couldn’t figure them out. They thought they were just for telling time or following constellations, because they were covered with pictures of stars and planets. But that’s like finding a rifle and thinking it’s a walking stick.”

“Leo, the Romans were top-notch engineers,” Hazel reminded him. “They built aqueducts, roads—”

“Siege weapons,” Frank added. “Public sanitation.”

“Yeah, fine,” Leo said. “But Archimedes was in a class by himself. His spheres could do all sorts of things, only nobody is sure…”

Suddenly Leo got an idea so incredible that his nose burst into flames. He patted it out as quickly as possible.

He ran to the row of cubbyholes and examined the markings on the scroll cases. “Oh, gods. This is it!”

He gingerly lifted out one of the scrolls. I wasn’t great at Ancient Greek, but I could tell the inscription on the case read On Building Spheres.

“Guys, this is the lost book!” His hands were shaking. “Archimedes wrote this, describing his construction methods, but all the copies were lost in ancient times. If I can translate this…”

The possibilities were endless. For Leo, the quest had now totally taken on a new dimension. “The secrets of Archimedes,” he murmured. “Guys, this is bigger than Daedalus’s laptop. If there’s a Roman attack on Camp Half-Blood, these secrets could save the camp. They might even give us an edge over Gaea and the giants!”

Hazel and Frank glanced at each other skeptically.

“Okay,” Hazel said. “We didn’t come here for a scroll, but I guess we can take it with us.”

“Assuming,” Frank added, “that you don’t mind sharing its secrets with us stupid uncomplicated Romans.”

“What?” Leo stared at him blankly. “No. Look, I didn’t mean to insult— Ah, never mind. The point is this is good news!”

Leo’s brown orbs reflected his hopefulness. I missed that look on him.

Naturally, everything went wrong.

On the table next to Hazel and Frank, one of the orbs clicked and whirred. A row of spindly legs extended from its equator. The orb stood, and two bronze cables shot out of the top, hitting Hazel and Frank like Taser wires. Our friends both crumpled to the floor.

Leo and I lunged to help them, but the two armored manikins that couldn’t possibly move did move. They drew their swords and stepped toward us.

The one on the left turned its crooked helmet, which was shaped like a wolf’s head. Despite the fact that it had no face or mouth, a familiar hollow voice spoke from behind its visor.

“You cannot escape us, Leo Valdez,” it said. “We do not like possessing machines, but they are better than tourists. You will not leave here alive.”

Last winter we watched in horror while a family of Cyclopes prepared to roast Jason and Piper with hot sauce. We’d schemed our way out of that one and saved our friends, but at least we’d had time to think.

Now, not so much. Hazel and Frank had been knocked out by the tendrils of a possessed steampunk bowling ball. Two suits of armor with bad attitudes were about to kill us.
Leo couldn’t blast them with fire. Suits of armor wouldn’t be hurt by that. Besides, Hazel and Frank were too close. He didn’t want to burn them, or accidentally hit the piece of firewood that controlled Frank’s life.

As for me, water wouldn’t work that well on metal. How do you bloodbend a husk of a person? I wished I was Toph for a moment. Metal bending would help just about now.

On Leo’s right, the suit of armor with a lion’s head helmet creaked its wiry neck and regarded Hazel and Frank, who were still lying unconscious.

“A male and female demigod,” said Lion Head. “These will do, if the others die.” Its hollow face mask turned back to Leo. “We do not need you, Leo Valdez.”

“Oh, hey!” Leo tried for a winning smile. “You always need Leo Valdez!”

He spread his hands and hoped he looked confident and useful, not desperate and terrified. He wondered if it was too late to write TEAM LEO on his shirt.

Sadly, the suits of armor were not as easily swayed as the Narcissus Fan Club had been.

The one with the wolf-headed helmet snarled, “I have been in your mind, Leo. I helped you start the war.”

Leo’s smile crumbled. He took a step back. “That was you? You made me fire the ballista?” Leo demanded. “You call that helping?”

“I know how you think,” said Wolf Head. “I know your limits. You are small and alone. You need friends to protect you. Without them, you are unable to withstand me. I vowed not to possess you again, but I can still kill you.”

The armored dudes stepped forward. The points of their swords hovered a few inches from Leo’s face.

Leo’s fear suddenly made way for a whole lot of anger. “First: you don’t know me,” he told Wolf Head. “And second: Bye.”

He lunged for the stairs and bounded to the top. The suits of armor were scary, but they were not fast, leaving them a perfect target for me. I took out my pen and summoned my trident, slamming the hilt into the lion-head mannequin to knock it to the floor. I spun around and hit the back of the wolf’s head as hard as possible. They were downed, but not for long. I ran up to Leo’s side.

The loft had doors on either side—folding metal gates. The operators would’ve wanted protection in case their creations went haywire…like now. Leo slammed both gates shut and summoned fire to his hands, fusing the locks.

The suits of armor closed in on either side. They rattled the gates, hacking at them with their swords.

“This is foolish,” said Lion Head. “You only delay your death.”

“Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies.” Leo scanned our surroundings. Overlooking the workshop was a single table like a control board. It was crowded with junk, but most of it Leo dismissed immediately: a diagram for a human catapult that would never work; a strange black sword (we were no good with swords); a large bronze mirror (our reflections looked terrible); and a set of tools that someone had broken, either in frustration or clumsiness.

He focused on the main project. In the center of the table, someone had disassembled an Archimedes sphere. Gears, springs, levers, and rods were littered around it. All the bronze cables to the room below were connected to a metal plate under the sphere.

“One basketball to rule them all,” Leo muttered.

“Don’t allusion my joke,” I hissed, prodding my trident through the bars of the door to force the mannequins back.

“Leo Valdez!” the spirit howled. “Open this gate or I will kill you!”

“A fair and generous offer!” Leo said, his eyes still on the sphere. “Just let me finish this. A last request, all right?”

That must have confused the spirits, because they momentarily stopped hacking at the bars.

Leo’s hands flew over the sphere, reassembling its missing pieces. The eidolons started pounding on the gates again. I prodded a bit faster.

“Who is it?” Leo called.

“Valdez!” Wolf Head bellowed.

“Valdez who?” Leo asked.

Eventually the eidolons would realize they couldn’t get in. Then, if Wolf Head truly knew Leo’s mind, he would decide there were other ways to force his cooperation. Leo had to work faster.

He connected the gears, got one wrong, and had to start again.

“Hurry up!” I whined. “Electrocution for too long will kill Hazel and Frank!”

“I’m working on it!” Leo yelled back.

He continued working, but I could hear sounds of struggle. It was one machinery Leo couldn’t crack. I almost felt bad.

“Valdez!” Wolf Head pounded on the gate. “Our third comrade will kill your friends!”

Leo cursed under his breath. Our third comrade. I glanced down at the spindly-legged Taser ball that had knocked out Hazel and Frank. I had figured eidolon number three was hiding inside that thing. But Leo still had to deduce the right sequence to activate this control sphere.

“Yeah, okay,” he called. “You got me. Just…just a sec.”

“No more seconds!” Wolf Head shouted. “Open this gate now, or they die.”

The possessed Taser ball lashed out with its tendrils and sent another shock through Hazel and Frank. Their unconscious bodies flinched. That kind of electricity might have stopped their hearts. I screamed and rammed my trident into the chest of Wolf-Head. We played tug-of-war between our bodies with my golden weapon.

I looked back to the boy behind me. Leo held back tears. This was too hard. He couldn’t do it. Why wasn’t he able to concentrate?

The lock was much too complicated. Maybe if Leo had a few years, he could decipher the markings and figure out the right combination, but he didn’t even have a few seconds.
He was out of time. Out of luck. And our friends were going to die.

Leo thrust his hand in his pocket and brought out a fortune cookie- I’m assuming that was the aforementioned cookie from a few days ago. How was that supposed to help?
You’re doomed, Prometheus said in my mind.

An eye for an eye. That’s the price.

Before I could register the titan’s words, Leo spoke. “I need the access code for this sphere,” he said.

He cracked open the cookie.

Leo unfurled the little strip of paper. I couldn’t read it, but I guessed it gave him what he needed. With trembling fingers, Leo turned the rings.

Outside the gates, Wolf Head growled in frustration. “If friends do not matter to you, perhaps you need more incentive. Perhaps I should destroy these scrolls instead—priceless works by Archimedes!”

“SHUT IT!” I yelled, jamming my trident deeper into its chest.

The last ring clicked into place. The sphere hummed with power. Leo ran his hands along the surface, sensing tiny buttons and levers awaiting his commands.

Magical and electrical pulses coursed via the Celestial bronze cables, and surged through the entire room.

Leo started small. He focused on one reasonably intact gold sphere down in the main room. The gold sphere shuddered. It grew a tripod of legs and clattered over to the Taser ball. A tiny circular saw popped out of the gold sphere’s head, and it began cutting into Taser ball’s brain. Thank fuck.

Leo tried to activate another orb. This one burst in a small mushroom cloud of bronze dust and smoke.

“Oops,” he muttered. “Sorry, Archimedes.”

“What are you doing?” Wolf Head demanded. “Stop your foolishness and surrender!”

“Oh, yes, I surrender!” Leo said. “I’m totally surrendering!”

He tried to take control of a third orb. That one broke too. Leo probably felt bad about ruining all these ancient inventions, but this was life or death. Frank had accused him of caring more for machines than people, but if it came down to saving old spheres or his friends, there was no other choice. I’d skewer him if he made a wrong move.

The fourth try went better. A ruby-encrusted orb popped its top and helicopter blades unfolded. The ruby orb spun into the air and sailed straight for the cubbyholes. Thin golden arms extended from its middle and snapped up the precious scroll cases.

“Enough!” Wolf Head yelled. “I will destroy the—”

He turned in time to see the ruby sphere take off with the scrolls. It zipped across the room and hovered in the far corner.

“What?!” Wolf Head cried. “Kill the prisoners!”

He must have been talking to the Taser ball. Unfortunately, Taser ball was in no shape to comply. Leo’s gold sphere was sitting on top of its sawed-open head, picking through its gears and wires like it was scooping out a pumpkin.

Thank the gods, Hazel and Frank began to stir.

“Bah!” Wolf Head gestured to Lion Head at the opposite gate. “Come! We will destroy the demigods ourselves.”

“I don’t think so, guys.” Leo turned toward Lion Head. His hands worked the control sphere, and I felt a shock travel through the floor.

Lion Head shuddered and lowered his sword.

Leo grinned. “You’re in Leo World, now.”

“Yes!” I cheered, pulling my trident out of Wolf Head.

Lion Head turned and stormed down the stairs. Instead of advancing on Hazel and Leo, he marched up the opposite stairs and faced his comrade.

“What are you doing?” Wolf Head demanded. “We have to—”

BLONG!

Lion Head slammed his shield into Wolf Head’s chest. He smashed the pommel of his sword into his comrade’s helmet, so Wolf Head became Flat, Deformed, Not Very Happy Wolf Head.

“Stop that!” Wolf Head demanded.

“I cannot!” Lion Head wailed.

Leo was getting the hang of it now. He commanded both suits of armor to drop their swords and shields and slap each other repeatedly.

“Valdez!” called Wolf Head in a warbling voice. “You will die for this!”

“Yeah,” Leo called out. “Who’s possessing who now, Casper?”

The machine men tumbled down the stairs, and Leo forced them to jitterbug like 1920s flappers. Their joints began smoking. The other spheres around the room began to pop. Too much energy was surging through the ancient system. The control sphere in Leo’s hand grew uncomfortably warm.

“Frank, Hazel!” Leo shouted. “Take cover!”

Our friends were still dazed, staring in amazement at the jitterbugging metal guys, but they got his warning. Frank pulled Hazel under the nearest table and shielded her with his body.

One last twist of the sphere, and Leo sent a massive jolt through the system. The armored warriors blew apart. Rods, pistons, and bronze shards flew everywhere. On all the tables, spheres popped like hot soda cans. Leo’s gold sphere froze. His flying ruby orb dropped to the floor with the scroll cases.

The room was suddenly quiet except for a few random sparks and sizzles. The air smelled like burning car engines. We raced down the stairs and found Frank and Hazel safe under their table.

“You’re alive!” Leo said.

Hazel’s left eye twitched, maybe from the Taser shock. Otherwise she looked okay. “Uh, what exactly happened?”

“Archimedes came through!” Leo said. “Just enough power left in those old machines for one final show. Once I had the access code, it was easy.”

He patted the control sphere, which was steaming in a bad way. I didn’t know if it could be fixed, but at the moment Leo was too relieved to care.

“The eidolons,” Frank said. “Are they gone?”

Leo grinned. “My last command overloaded their kill switches—basically locked down all their circuits and melted their cores.”

“In English?” Frank asked.

“I trapped the eidolons inside the wiring,” Leo said. “Then I melted them. They won’t be bothering anyone again.”

I exhaled in relief. “Thank the gods,” I mumbled.

Leo and I helped our friends to their feet.

“You saved us,” Frank said.

“Don’t sound so surprised.” Leo glanced around the destroyed workshop. “Too bad all this stuff got wrecked, but at least I salvaged the scrolls. If I can get them back to Camp Half-Blood, maybe I can learn how to recreate Archimedes’s inventions.”

Hazel rubbed the side of her head. “But I don’t understand. Where is Nico? That tunnel was supposed to lead us to Nico.”

Leo had almost forgotten why they’d come down here in the first place. Nico obviously wasn’t here. The place was a dead end. So why… ?

“Oh.” A dull pain flashed behind my right eye. “Hazel, how exactly were you tracking Nico? I mean, could you just sense him nearby because he was your brother?”

She frowned, still looking a bit wobbly from her electric shock treatment. “Not—not totally. Sometimes I can tell when he’s close, but, like I said, Rome is so confusing, so much interference because of all the tunnels and caves—”

“You tracked him with your metal-finding senses,” I guessed. “His sword?”

She blinked. “How did you know?”

“You’d better come here.” I led Hazel and Frank up to the control room and pointed to the black sword.

“Oh. Oh, no.” Hazel would’ve collapsed if Frank hadn’t caught her. “But that’s impossible! Nico’s sword was with him in the bronze jar. Percy saw it in his dream!”

“Either the dream was wrong,” Leo said, “or the giants moved the sword here as a decoy.”

“So this was a trap,” Frank said. “We were lured here.”

“But why?” Hazel cried. “Where’s my brother?”

A hissing sound filled the control booth. At first, I thought the eidolons were back. Then I realized the bronze mirror on the table was steaming.

Ah, my poor demigods. The sleeping face of Gaea appeared in the mirror. As usual, she spoke without moving her mouth, which could only have been creepier if she’d had a ventriloquism puppet. I hated those things.

You had your choice, Gaea said. Her voice echoed through the room. It seemed to be coming not just from the mirror, but from the stone walls as well.

I realized she was all around us. Of course. we were in the earth. we’d gone to all the trouble of building the Argo II so we could travel by sea and air, and we’d ended up in the earth anyway.

I offered salvation to all of you, Gaea said. You could have turned back. Now it is too late. You’ve come to the ancient lands where I am strongest—where I will wake.

Leo pulled a hammer from his tool belt. He whacked the mirror. Being metal, it just quivered like a tea tray, but it felt good to smash Gaea in the nose.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Dirt Face,” he said, “your little ambush failed. Your three eidolons got melted in bronze, and we’re fine.”

Gaea laughed softly. Oh, my sweet Leo. You four have been separated from your friends. That was the whole point.

The workshop door slammed shut.

You are trapped in my embrace, Gaea said. Meanwhile, Annabeth Chase faces her death alone, terrified and crippled, at the hands of her mother’s greatest enemy.

The image in the mirror changed. I saw Annabeth sprawled on the floor of a dark cavern, holding up her bronze knife as if warding off a monster. Her face was gaunt. Her leg was wrapped up in some sort of splint. I couldn’t see what she was looking at, but it was obviously something horrible. I wanted to believe the image was a lie, but I had a bad feeling it was real, and it was happening right now.

The others, Gaea said, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and my dear friend Percy Jackson—they will perish within minutes.

The scene changed again. Percy was holding Riptide, leading Jason and Piper down a spiral staircase into the darkness.

Their powers will betray them, Gaea said. They will die in their own elements. I almost hoped they would survive. They would have made a better sacrifice. But alas, Hazel and Frank, you will have to do. My minions will collect you shortly and bring you to the ancient place. Your blood will awaken me at last. Until then, I will allow you to watch your friends perish. Please…enjoy this last glimpse of your failed quest.

I felt my heart clench as I watched Percy unknowingly stumble into his own death. How could I have let this happen? Why is it that when I have something good, it’s always taken from me? Was I just… not meant to exist?

Leo noticed my despair, and his anger took over. His hand glowed white hot. Hazel and Frank scrambled back as he pressed his palm against the mirror and melted it into a puddle of bronze goo.

The voice of Gaea went silent. Leo took a shaky breath.

“Sorry,” he told us. “She was getting annoying.”

“What do we do?” Frank asked. “We have to get out and help the others.”

Leo scanned the workshop, now littered with smoking pieces of broken spheres.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said. “But it’s going to take all four of us.”

-

I can barely remember much after that. The gut churning anxiety was just too much.

We escaped the underground tunnel working together, then ran back to the Argo II and went straight into the air. The real mission was at the Colosseum, where the arena held Nico, the twin giants, and Percy, Piper, and Jason. We sped our way over and made our descent. When Leo saw the fight, he decided to cut it short and fire the ballisate on Ephialtes. Otis was damn near taken care of by Percy and Jason… and also Bachus, since he had decided to show up!

Percy dropped into a trench just as the explosion rocked the Colosseum.

When he climbed out again, the Argo II was coming in for a landing. Jason poked his head out from behind his improvised bomb shelter of a plastic horse. Ephialtes lay charred and groaning on the arena floor, the sand around him seared into a halo of glass by the heat of the Greek fire. Otis was floundering in the lake, trying to re-form, but from the arms down he looked like a puddle of burnt oatmeal. I wished I saw the fight, because the aftermath looked too good.

Percy staggered over to Jason and clapped him on the shoulder. The ghostly crowd gave them a standing ovation as the Argo II extended its landing gear and settled on the arena floor. Leo stood at the helm, Hazel and Frank grinning at his side. Coach Hedge danced around the firing platform, pumping his fist in the air and yelling, “That’s what I’m talking about!”

I had already clambered off the ship and made my way toward Percy. There was a hefty lump in my throat as I saw that he had survived Gaea's trap.

Percy hugged me and turned to the emperor’s box. “Well?” he yelled at Bacchus. “Was that entertaining enough for you, you wine-breathed little—”

“No need for that.” Suddenly the god was standing right next to him in the arena. He brushed Dorito dust off his purple robes. “I have decided you are worthy partners for this combat.”

“Partners?” Jason growled. “You did nothing!”

Bacchus walked to the edge of the lake. The water instantly drained, leaving an Otis-headed pile of mush. Bacchus picked his way to the bottom and looked up at the crowd. He raised his thyrsus.

The crowd jeered and hollered and pointed their thumbs down. Who were they rooting for/against? I needed Percy to tell me the story.

Bacchus chose the entertaining option. He smacked Otis’s head with his pinecone staff, and the giant pile of Otismeal disintegrated completely.

The crowd went wild. Bacchus climbed out of the lake and strutted over to Ephialtes, who was still lying spread-eagled, overcooked and smoking.

Again, Bacchus raised his thyrsus.

“DO IT!” the crowd roared.

“DON’T DO IT!” Ephialtes wailed.

Bacchus tapped the giant on the nose, and Ephialtes crumbled to ashes.

The ghosts cheered and threw spectral confetti as Bacchus strode around the stadium with his arms raised triumphantly, exulting in the worship. He grinned at us demigods. “That, my friends, is a show! And of course I did something. I killed two giants!”

As our friends disembarked from the ship, the crowd of ghosts shimmered and disappeared. Piper and Nico struggled down from the emperor’s box as the Colosseum’s magical renovations began to turn into mist. The arena floor remained solid, but otherwise the stadium looked as if it hadn’t hosted a good giant killing for eons.

“Well,” Bacchus said. “That was fun. You have my permission to continue your voyage.”

“Your permission?” Percy snarled.

“Yes.” Bacchus raised an eyebrow. “Although your voyage may be a little harder than you expect, son of Neptune.”

“Poseidon,” Percy corrected him automatically. “What do you mean about my voyage?”

“You might try the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building,” Bacchus said. “Best place to break through. Now, good-bye, my friends. And, ah, good luck with that other little matter.”

The god vaporized in a cloud of mist that smelled faintly of grape juice. Jason ran to meet Piper and Nico.

Coach Hedge trotted up to Percy, with Hazel, Frank, and Leo close behind. “Was that Dionysus?” Hedge asked. “I love that guy!”

“You’re alive!” Percy said to the others. “The giants said you were captured. What happened?”

Leo shrugged. “Oh, just another brilliant plan by Leo Valdez. You’d be amazed what you can do with an Archimedes sphere, a girl who can sense stuff underground, a waterbender, and a weasel.”

“I was the weasel,” Frank said glumly.

“Basically,” Leo explained, “I activated a hydraulic screw with the Archimedes device—which is going to be awesome once I install it in the ship, by the way. Hazel sensed the easiest path to drill to the surface. We made a tunnel big enough for a weasel, and Frank climbed up with a simple transmitter that I slapped together. When he got stuck, Water Girl made a tiny jet stream to make the crevice just a little easier to traverse. After that, it was just a matter of hacking into Coach Hedge’s favorite satellite channels and telling him to bring the ship around to rescue us. After he got us, finding you was easy, thanks to that godly light show at the Colosseum.”

Percy looked like he understood about ten percent of Leo’s story, but he decided it was enough since he had a more pressing question. “Where’s Annabeth?”

Leo winced. “Yeah, about that…she’s still in trouble, we think. Hurt, broken leg, maybe—at least according to this vision Gaea showed us. Rescuing her is our next stop.”

Two seconds before, Percy had been ready to collapse. Now another surge of adrenaline coursed through his body. He probably wanted to strangle Leo and demand why the Argo II hadn’t sailed off to rescue Annabeth first, but he probably thought that might sound a little ungrateful. But, I understood where he was coming from.

“Tell me about the vision,” he said. “Tell me everything.”

The floor shook. The wooden planks began to disappear, spilling sand into the pits of the hypogeum below.

“Let’s talk on board,” I suggested. “We’d better take off while we still can.”

We sailed out of the Colosseum and veered south over the rooftops of Rome.

All around the Piazza del Colosseo, traffic had come to a standstill. A crowd of mortals had gathered, probably wondering about the strange lights and sounds that had come from the ruins. As far as I could see, none of the giants’ spectacular plans for destruction had come off successfully. The city looked the same as before. No one seemed to notice the huge Greek trireme rising into the sky.

Us demigods gathered around the helm. Jason bandaged Piper’s sprained shoulder while Hazel sat at the stern, feeding Nico ambrosia. The son of Hades could barely lift his head. His voice was so quiet, Hazel had to lean in whenever he spoke. I was glad to see he was okay. I couldn’t fathom losing my brother like that after just finding him.

Frank and Leo recounted what had happened in the room with the Archimedes spheres, and the visions Gaea had shown us in the bronze mirror. They quickly decided that their best lead for finding Annabeth was the cryptic advice Bacchus had provided: the Emmanuel Building, whatever that was. Frank started typing at the helm’s computer while Leo tapped furiously at his controls, muttering, “Emmanuel Building. Emmanuel Building.” Coach Hedge tried to help by wrestling with an upside-down street map of Rome.

Percy knelt next to Jason and Piper. “How’s the shoulder?”

Piper smiled. “It’ll heal. Both of you did great.”

Jason elbowed Percy. “Not a bad team, you and me.”

“Better than jousting in a Kansas cornfield,” Percy agreed.

“There it is!” Leo cried, pointing to his monitor. “Frank, you’re amazing! I’m setting course.”

Frank hunched his shoulders. “I just read the name off the screen. Some Chinese tourist marked it on Google Maps.”

Leo grinned at the others. “He reads Chinese.”

“Just a tiny bit,” Frank said.

“How cool is that?”

“Guys,” Hazel broke in. “I hate to interrupt your admiration session, but you should hear this.”

She helped Nico to his feet. He’d always been pale, but now his skin looked like powdered milk. His dark sunken eyes reminded me of photos I'd seen of liberated prisoners-of-war, which I guessed Nico basically was.

“Thank you,” Nico rasped. His eyes darted nervously around the group. “I’d given up hope.”

“You knew about the two camps all along,” Percy said. “You could have told me who I was the first day I arrived at Camp Jupiter, but you didn’t.”

Nico slumped against the helm. “Percy, I’m sorry. I discovered Camp Jupiter last year. My dad led me there, though I wasn’t sure why. He told me the gods had kept the camps separate for centuries and that I couldn’t tell anyone. The time wasn’t right. But he said it would be important for me to know…” He doubled over in a fit of coughing.

Hazel held his shoulders until he could stand again.

“I—I thought Dad meant because of Hazel,” Nico continued. “I’d need a safe place to take her. But now…I think he wanted me to know about both camps so I’d understand how important your quest was, and so I’d search for the Doors of Death.”

The air turned electric—literally, as Jason started throwing off sparks.

“Did you find the doors?” I asked.

Nico nodded. “I was a fool. I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaea’s trap. I might as well have tried running from a black hole.”

“Um…” Frank chewed his lip. “What kind of black hole are you talking about?”

Nico started to speak, but whatever he needed to say must have been too terrifying. He turned to Hazel.

She put her hand on her brother’s arm. “Nico told me that the Doors of Death have two sides—one in the mortal world, one in the Underworld. The mortal side of the portal is in Greece. It’s heavily guarded by Gaea’s forces. That’s where they brought Nico back into the upper world. Then they transported him to Rome.”

Piper must’ve been nervous, because her cornucopia spit out a cheeseburger. “Where exactly in Greece is this doorway?”

Nico took a rattling breath. “The House of Hades. It’s an underground temple in Epirus. I can mark it on a map, but—but the mortal side of the portal isn’t the problem. In the Underworld, the Doors of Death are in…in…”

“Tartarus,” Percy guessed. “The deepest part of the Underworld.”

Nico nodded. “They pulled me into the pit, Percy. The things I saw down there…” His voice broke.

Hazel pursed her lips. “No mortal has ever been to Tartarus,” she explained. “At least, no one has ever gone in and returned alive. It’s the maximum-security prison of Hades, where the old Titans and the other enemies of the gods are bound. It’s where all monsters go when they die on the earth. It’s…well, no one knows exactly what it’s like.”

Her eyes drifted to her brother. The rest of her thought didn’t need to be spoken: No one except Nico.

Hazel handed him his black sword.

Nico leaned on it like it was an old man’s cane. “Now I understand why Hades hasn’t been able to close the doors,” he said. “Even the gods don’t go into Tartarus. Even the god of death, Thanatos himself, wouldn’t go near that place.”

Leo glanced over from the wheel. “So let me guess. We’ll have to go there.”

Nico shook his head. “It’s impossible. I’m the son of Hades, and even I barely survived. Gaea’s forces overwhelmed me instantly. They’re so powerful down there…no demigod would stand a chance. I almost went insane.”

Nico’s eyes looked like shattered glass. I wondered sadly if something inside him had broken permanently.

“Then we’ll sail for Epirus,” Percy said. “We’ll just close the gates on this side.”

“I wish it were that easy,” Nico said. “The doors would have to be controlled on both sides to be closed. It’s like a double seal. Maybe, just maybe, all eight of you working together could defeat Gaea’s forces on the mortal side, at the House of Hades. But unless you had a team fighting simultaneously on the Tartarus side, a team powerful enough to defeat a legion of monsters in their home territory—”

“There has to be a way,” Jason said.

Nobody volunteered any brilliant ideas.

I thought my stomach was sinking. Then I realized the entire ship was descending toward a big building like a palace.

Annabeth. Nico’s news was so horrible I had momentarily forgotten she was still in danger, which made me feel incredibly guilty.

“We’ll figure out the Tartarus problem later,” I said. “Is that the Emmanuel Building?”

Leo nodded. “Bacchus said something about the parking lot in the back? Well, there it is. What now?”

“We have to get her out,” Percy said.

“Well, yeah,” Leo agreed. “But, uh…”

He looked like he wanted to say, What if we’re too late?

Wisely, he changed tack. “There’s a parking lot in the way.”

Percy looked at Coach Hedge. “Bacchus said something about breaking through. Coach, you still have ammo for those ballistae?”

The satyr grinned like a wild goat. “I thought you’d never ask.”

In just a few seconds, the ballisate fired on the parking lot, blowing up tons of cars. Whatever. Annabeth was more important.

Percy called over the side as we descended. “Annabeth!”

It was faint, but I heard it. “Here!”

Cars and debris fell into the now gaping chasm. The room kept shaking, but Annabeth managed to stand. The floor at her feet seemed stable for the moment. Her backpack was missing, along with Daedalus’s laptop. Her bronze knife, which she’d had since she was seven, was also gone—probably fallen into the pit. But Annabeth didn’t care. She was alive. That’s all we wanted.

We lowered the rope ladder, and Percy was the first down.

He turned her gently away from the pit and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest and broke down in tears.

We gathered around them, careful of the unsteady flooring. “Your leg.” Piper knelt next to Annabth and examined the Bubble Wrap cast. “Oh, Annabeth, what happened?”

She started to explain. Talking was difficult, but as she went along, her words came more easily. The trials, the spiders, Arachne…Percy didn’t let go of her hand, which also made her feel more confident. When she finished, our faces were slack with amazement.

“Gods of Olympus,” Jason said. “You did all that alone. With a broken ankle.”

“Well…some of it with a broken ankle.”

Percy grinned. “You made Arachne weave her own trap? I knew you were good, but Holy Hera—Annabeth, you did it. Generations of Athena kids tried and failed. You found the Athena Parthenos!”

Everyone gazed at the statue.

“What do we do with her?” Frank asked. “She’s huge.”

“We’ll have to take her with us to Greece,” Annabeth said. “The statue is powerful. Something about it will help us stop the giants.”

“The giants’ bane stands gold and pale,” Hazel quoted. “Won with pain from a woven jail.” She looked at Annabeth with admiration. “It was Arachne’s jail. You tricked her into weaving it.”

Leo raised his hands. He made a finger picture frame around the Athena Parthenos like he was taking measurements. “Well, it might take some rearranging, but I think we can fit her through the bay doors in the stable. If she sticks out the end, I might have to wrap a flag around her feet or something.”

I shuddered. I imagined the Athena Parthenos jutting from our trireme with a sign across her pedestal that read: WIDE LOAD.

“What about you guys?” Annabeth asked. “What happened with the giants?”

Percy told her about rescuing Nico, the appearance of Bacchus, and the fight with the twins in the Colosseum. Nico didn’t say much. The poor guy looked like he’d been wandering through a wasteland for six weeks. Percy explained what Nico had found out about the Doors of Death, and how they had to be closed on both sides. Even with sunlight streaming in from above, Percy’s news made the cavern seem dark again.

“So the mortal side is in Epirus,” she said. “At least that’s somewhere we can reach.”

Nico grimaced. “But the other side is the problem. Tartarus.”

The word seemed to echo through the chamber. The pit behind us exhaled a cold blast of air. That’s when I knew with certainty. The chasm did go straight to the Underworld.
Percy must have felt it too. He guided Annabeth a little farther from the edge. Her arms and legs trailed spider silk like a bridal train. “Bacchus mentioned something about my voyage being harder than I expected. Not sure why—”

The chamber groaned. The Athena Parthenos tilted to one side. Its head caught on one of Arachne’s support cables, but the marble foundation under the pedestal was crumbling.

Nausea swelled in my chest. If the statue fell into the chasm, all Annabeth’s work would be for nothing. Our quest would fail.

“Secure it!” Annabeth cried.

We understood immediately.

“Zhang!” Leo cried. “Get me to the helm, quick! The coach is up there alone.”

Frank transformed into a giant eagle, and the two of them soared toward the ship.

Jason wrapped his arm around Piper. He turned to Percy. “Back for you guys in a sec.” He summoned the wind and shot into the air.

“This floor won’t last!” Hazel warned. “The rest of us should get to the ladder.”

Plumes of dust and cobwebs blasted from holes in the floor. The spider’s silk support cables trembled like massive guitar strings and began to snap. Hazel lunged for the bottom of the rope ladder and gestured for Nico to follow, but Nico was in no condition to sprint. I hurried to his side to help him steady himself.

Percy gripped Annabeth’s hand tighter. “It’ll be fine,” he muttered.

Looking up, I saw grappling lines shoot from the Argo II and wrap around the statue. One lassoed Athena’s neck like a noose. Leo shouted orders from the helm as Jason and Frank flew frantically from line to line, trying to secure them.

Nico and I had just reached the ladder when a sharp yelp came from Annabeth. I whipped my head toward her and my eyes widened.

“What is it?” Percy asked.

Annabeth tried to stagger toward the ladder, but the web was too tough.

“Her ankle!” I shouted from the ladder. “Cut it! Cut it!” Annabeth looked at me dazed and confused

Apparently Percy didn’t realize what I meant either. Then something yanked Annabeth backward and dragged her toward the pit. Percy lunged. He grabbed her arm, but the momentum carried him along as well.

“Help them!” Hazel yelled.

Nico and I began hobbling in their direction, Hazel trying to disentangle her cavalry sword from the rope ladder. Our other friends were still focused on the statue, and Hazel’s cry was lost in the general shouting and the rumbling of the cavern.

This was my moment of failure. I was too scared to think straight. Trident? Let go of Nico? Risk him falling in, too? What will happen? What do I do?

Annabeth sobbed as she hit the edge of the pit. Her legs went over the side. Too late, she realized what was happening: she was tangled in the spider silk. She should have cut it away immediately. She had thought it was just loose line, but with the entire floor covered in cobwebs, she hadn’t noticed that one of the strands was wrapped around her foot—and the other end went straight into the pit. It was attached to something heavy down in the darkness, something that was pulling her in.

“No,” Percy muttered, light dawning in his eyes. “My sword…”

But he couldn’t reach Riptide without letting go of Annabeth’s arm, and Annabeth’s strength was gone. She slipped over the edge. Percy fell with her. I screamed so loud my voice cut out.

They’d fallen partway into the pit and were dangling over the void. Percy had managed to grab a ledge about fifteen feet below the top of the chasm. He was holding on with one hand, gripping Annabeth’s wrist with the other, but the pull on her leg was much too strong.

The pit shook. Percy was the only thing keeping her from falling. He was barely holding onto a ledge the size of a bookshelf.

Nico and I leaned over the edge of the chasm, thrusting out our hands, but we were much too far away to help. Hazel was yelling for the others, but even if they heard her over all the chaos, they’d never make it in time.

“Percy, let me go,” she croaked. “You can’t pull me up.”

His face was white with effort. I could see in his eyes that he knew it was hopeless.

“Never,” he said. He looked up at Nico, fifteen feet above. “The other side, Nico! We’ll see you there. Understand?”

Nico’s eyes widened. “But—”

“Lead them there!” Percy shouted. “Promise me!”

“I—I will.”

“No!” I screamed, my voice hoarse with desperation. “No, no, no, no!”

My shaky hands fumbled as I searched my pockets. I pulled out my pen, my breathing short and sharp.

Please, Dad. If you love your son… Please.

“We’re staying together,” Percy promised Annabeth, “You’re not getting away from me. Never again.”

“As long as we’re together,” she said.

“No!” I yelped, summoning my trident. “Grab it!”

Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.

I screamed, tossing my trident down into the black chasm, praying to any god that would listen.

The next moments were a blur. Weak and fragile Nico had to help me up, and together we stumbled to the rope ladder. We climbed up and collapsed on the deck. Hazel sobbed next to us as we tried to get our bearings back.

Everyone on the Argo II had no clue what happened until we could finally calm down and talk. Everyone’s eyes were shocked and bleak.

We were already sailing away, our hearts gutted in our stomachs. We all felt just absolutely terrible.

It didn’t help that Prometheus began… laughing.

Something in my mind rang, telling me to grab my trident back. I could feel that Percy and Annabeth were gone, so there was no point. Still… part of me felt like trying.

I turned and lifted my arm, summoning my trident to return back into my hand as it had many times in the past. I felt its energy surge toward me, the tsunami of pure power.

I could see it glitter in the distance as it rocketed toward me. My palm was open, ready to catch. But then It felt weird. It felt too fast, and I could sense its trajectory was off.

I didn’t have any time to stop it. I couldn't. It was out of my control now.

Tsunami shot toward me, and suddenly my right eye exploded in pain.

I let out a bloodcurdling scream as the agony overtook me.

Chapter Text

I’ll take over this part for a while. I think I remember it better than you.

That night was hard. You screamed for hours. I remember the blood. I remember the pen. I’m sorry that happened to you, and that I wasn’t able to step up and take care of you. You needed me, and I was a fool.

Jason was the only one who could handle it. He scooped you up and carried you to the sickbay to start helping as much as possible.

No matter what he did, nothing worked. It just wouldn’t close. It was like something was fighting it off. Something needed you injured.

The next few days, we tried to go about it normally. There were monster attacks, some wrong turns, and plenty of tears from the group. Everyone was distraught about what had happened. We lost Percy and Annabeth… and you, too. You were almost a stranger in those few days.

Once the screaming had passed, you tried to regain yourself. The pain was hard. You couldn’t stand anyone- not even Piper. She tried to check on you, but you screamed at her so loud, the walls of the ship vibrated.

When you finally started coming out of your room, you were in a feverish haze. The bandages over your eye were soaked through with blood, and you looked just… wrong. You stumbled into the mess hall, muttering nonsense to yourself as your sweat dripped onto the floor. Hazel tried to guide you back to your room, but that's when the fight started. You shoved her, Frank sprung up and tried to grab you, you punched him, and so on. Took pretty much the whole crew to subdue you, and then you puked… again. Your sick bucket was almost brimming. Once again, Jason was the only one who could stand it. I guess he felt like he owed it to you or something. ‘Making up for being a bad boyfriend and friend,’ as he told me.

I felt guilty, like I should do the same.

I still hadn’t told anyone about our break up, but I guessed they all eventually caught on. Of course, right? I wouldn’t visit you or check on you at all. I just let you stumble around in your hallucinatory state.

And to clear it up, I have no idea why I broke up with you. I was feeling stupid- but really, that doesn’t begin to cover it. I was upset, and for some reason the words were just coming out. I sorta felt like a puppet. I mean, the emotions were true, but the words weren’t. I really do love you, and I love everything about you. Just… something came over me, I guess. I figured out what later, though. Maybe too late.

But beside you dying below deck, not much happened above beside the several hundreds attacks per day. When we tried to cross over these mountains in Italy, some rock monsters started chucking boulders at us. Hazel narrowly avoided them, but Nico wasn’t so lucky. He liked to stay up in the mast, which was the first thing to fall when the boulders hit.

The foremast collapsed—sail, spars, and Nico all crashing to the deck. The boulder, roughly the size of a pickup truck, tumbled off into the fog like it had important business elsewhere.

“Nico!” Hazel scrambled over to him as I brought the ship level.

“I’m fine,” Nico muttered, kicking folds of canvas off his legs.

She helped him up, and they stumbled to the bow. Hazel peeked over the rail more carefully this time. The clouds parted just long enough to reveal the top of the mountain below us: a spearhead of black rock jutting from mossy green slopes. Standing at the summit was a mountain god—one of the numina montanum, Jason had called them. Or ourae, in Greek. Whatever you called them, they were nasty.

Like the others we had faced, this one wore a simple white tunic over skin as rough and dark as basalt. He was about twenty feet tall and extremely muscular, with a flowing white beard, scraggly hair, and a wild look in his eyes, like a crazy hermit. He bellowed something I didn’t understand, but it obviously wasn’t welcoming. With his bare hands, he pried another chunk of rock from his mountain and began shaping it into a ball.

The scene disappeared in the fog, but when the mountain god bellowed again, other numina answered in the distance, their voices echoing through the valleys.

“Stupid rock gods!” I yelled from the helm. “That’s the third time I’ve had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?”

Nico frowned. “Masts are from trees.”

“That’s not the point!” I snatched up one of my controls, rigged from a Nintendo Wii stick, and spun it in a circle. A few feet away, a trapdoor opened in the deck. A Celestial bronze cannon rose. We just had time to cover our ears before it discharged into the sky, spraying a dozen metal spheres that trailed green fire. The spheres grew spikes in midair, like helicopter blades, and hurtled away into the fog.

A moment later, a series of explosions crackled across the mountains, followed by the outraged roars of mountain gods.

“Ha!” I yelled.

Unfortunately, as you can guess, my newest weapon had only annoyed the numina.

Another boulder whistled through the air off to our starboard side.

Nico yelled, “Get us out of here!”

I muttered some unflattering comments about numina, but I turned the wheel. The engines hummed. Magical rigging lashed itself tight, and the ship tacked to port. The Argo II picked up speed, retreating northwest, as we’d been doing for the past two days.

We didn’t relax until we were out of the mountains. The fog cleared. Below us, morning sunlight illuminated the Italian countryside—rolling green hills and golden fields not too different from those in Northern California. I could tell Hazel had the same thought, since she looked super upset. At the same time, I wondered if you missed it, too. Life seemed simpler for you back then. I feel like I’d fucked it all up.

We stood on the quarterdeck as Nico picked mast splinters out of his arms and I punched buttons on the ship’s console.

“Well, that was sucktastic,” I said. “Should I wake the others?”

I sort of wanted to, but the other crew members had taken the night shift and had earned their rest. They were exhausted from defending the ship. Every few hours, it seemed, some Roman monster had decided the Argo II looked like a tasty treat. Plus, who knew how you were doing? For all we knew, you’d gotten an infection and were dying of brain rot. But I can understand shutting yourself away. It just worried us. Well, it worried me, but I know you would have really hated to see my face. But whatever. You slept through the monsters pretty well.

A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have believed that anyone could sleep through a numina attack, but now I knew my friends were still snoring away belowdecks. Whenever I got a chance to crash, I slept like a coma patient.

“They need rest,” Hazel decided. “We’ll have to figure out another way on our own.”

“Huh.” I scowled at my monitor. In my tattered work shirt and grease-splattered jeans, I probably looked like I’d just lost a wrestling match with a locomotive.

Ever since Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, I had been working almost nonstop. I’d been acting angrier and even more driven than usual. I know it worried the others, but I felt the change was better. Maybe this is why you always were like this. Anger is a pretty good way to concentrate.

“Another way,” I muttered. “Do you see one?”

On my monitor glowed a map of Italy. The Apennine Mountains ran down the middle of the boot-shaped country. A green dot for the Argo II blinked on the western side of the range, a few hundred miles north of Rome. Our path should have been simple. We needed to get to a place called Epirus in Greece and find an old temple called the House of Hades.

To reach Epirus, all we had to do was go straight east—over the Apennines and across the Adriatic Sea. But it hadn’t worked out that way. Each time we tried to cross the spine of Italy, the mountain gods attacked.

For the past two days we’d skirted north, hoping to find a safe pass, with no luck. The numina montanum were sons of Gaea, my least favorite goddess. That made them very determined enemies. The Argo II couldn’t fly high enough to avoid their attacks; and even with all its defenses, the ship couldn’t make it across the range without being smashed to pieces.

“It’s our fault,” Hazel said. “Nico’s and mine. The numina can sense us.”

She glanced at her half brother. Since we’d rescued him from the giants, he’d started to regain his strength, but he was still painfully thin. His black shirt and jeans hung off his skeletal frame. Long dark hair framed his sunken eyes. His olive complexion had turned a sickly greenish white, like the color of tree sap. I felt bad for the dude. I could only hope your brother wouldn’t look like that when we rescued him.

In human years, Nico was barely fourteen, just a year older than Hazel, but that didn’t tell the whole story. Like Hazel, Nico di Angelo was a demigod from another era. He radiated a kind of old energy—a melancholy that came from knowing he didn’t belong in the modern world.

Nico gripped the hilt of his Stygian iron sword. “Earth spirits don’t like children of the Underworld. That’s true. We get under their skin—literally. But I think the numina could sense this ship anyway. We’re carrying the Athena Parthenos. That thing is like a magical beacon.”

I jittered, thinking of the massive statue that took up most of the hold. We’d sacrificed so much saving it from the cavern under Rome; but we had no idea what to do with it. So far the only thing it seemed to be good for was alerting more monsters to our presence.

I traced my finger down the map of Italy. “So crossing the mountains is out. Thing is, they go a long way in either direction.”

“We could go by sea,” Hazel suggested. “Sail around the southern tip of Italy.”

“That’s a long way,” Nico said. “Plus, we don’t have…” His voice cracked. “You know…our sea expert, Percy.”

The name hung in the air like an impending storm.

“We could try his sister,” Nico suggested. “But I’m sure we all can agree on a no for that.”

“She's seriously not any better?” I asked, digging my nails into my palms.

Nico shook his head. “I can feel her, sort of. She’s fighting, but… she carries a heavy heart. I don’t know how long her struggle will continue.”

I clicked my tongue and looked back to my monitor, trying to breathe steadily to ground myself. You were a hard topic for me.

“What about continuing north?” Hazel asked. “There has to be a break in the mountains, or something.”

I fiddled with the bronze Archimedes sphere that I’d installed on the console—my newest and most dangerous toy. I could turn the wrong combination on the sphere and accidentally eject us all from the deck, or blow up the ship, or turn the Argo II into a giant toaster.

Fortunately, I got lucky. The sphere grew a camera lens and projected a 3-D image of the Apennine Mountains above the console.

“I dunno.” I examined the hologram. “I don’t see any good passes to the north. But I like that idea better than backtracking south. I’m done with Rome.”

No one argued with that. Rome had not been a good experience.

“Whatever we do,” Nico said, “we have to hurry. Every day that Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus…”

He didn’t need to finish. We had to hope Percy and Annabeth could survive long enough to find the Tartarus side of the Doors of Death. Then, assuming the Argo II could reach the House of Hades, we might be able to open the Doors on the mortal side, save our friends, and seal the entrance, stopping Gaea’s forces from being reincarnated in the mortal world over and over.

Yes…nothing could go wrong with that plan.

Nico scowled at the Italian countryside below us. “Maybe we should wake the others. This decision affects us all.”

“No,” Hazel said. “We can find a solution.”

I wasn’t sure why she felt so strongly about it, but since leaving Rome, the crew had started to lose its cohesion. We’d been learning to work as a team. Then bam…our two most important members fell into Tartarus. Percy had been our backbone. He’d given us confidence as we sailed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As for Annabeth—she’d been the de facto leader of the quest. She’d recovered the Athena Parthenos single-handedly. She was the smartest of us, the one with the answers.

If Hazel woke up the rest of the crew every time we had a problem, we’d just start arguing again, feeling more and more hopeless.

“We need some creative thinking,” she said. “Another way to cross those mountains, or a way to hide ourselves from the numina.”

Nico sighed. “If I was on my own, I could shadow-travel. But that won’t work for an entire ship. And honestly, I’m not sure I have the strength to even transport myself anymore.”

“I could maybe rig some kind of camouflage,” I said, “like a smoke screen to hide us in the clouds.” I didn’t sound very enthusiastic. I was still thinking about you. I sort of always was.

At the edge of the horizon, a flicker of movement caught my eye—something small and beige racing across the fields at incredible speed, leaving a vapor trail like a plane’s.

Hazel gasped. “Arion.”

“What?” Nico asked.

I let out a happy whoop as the dust cloud got closer. “It’s her horse, man! You missed that whole part. We haven’t seen him since Kansas!”

Hazel laughed—the first time she’d laughed in days. It probably felt so good to see her old friend.

About a mile to the north, the small beige dot circled a hill and stopped at the summit. He was difficult to make out, but when the horse reared and whinnied, the sound carried all the way to the Argo II. Hazel had no doubt—it was Arion.

“We have to meet him,” she said. “He’s here to help.”

“Yeah, okay.” I scratched my head. “But, uh, we talked about not landing the ship on the ground anymore, remember? You know, with Gaea wanting to destroy us and all.”

“Just get me close, and I’ll use the rope ladder.” Hazel’s heart was pounding. “I think Arion wants to tell me something.”

We did pretty much just that. Hazel got to the bottom of the ladder and ran toward the horse. Neither Nico nor I could hear what she was saying, but the horse seemed pretty impatient.

“Hazel!” Nico called down from the ship. “What’s going on?”

“It’s fine!” She crouched down and summoned a gold nugget from the earth. She fed Arion the nugget…his favorite snack. Then she smiled up at me and Nico watching her from the top of the ladder a hundred feet above. “Arion wants to take me somewhere.”

Nico and I exchanged nervous looks.

“Uh…” I pointed north. “Please tell me he’s not taking you into that?”

A mile away, on the crest of the next hill, a storm had gathered over some old stone ruins—maybe the remains of a Roman temple or a fortress. A funnel cloud snaked its way down toward the hill like an inky black finger.

She tightened the straps of her Imperial gold cavalry sword and climbed onto Arion’s back.

“I’ll be okay!” She called up to Nico and me. “Stay put and wait for me.”

“Wait for how long?” Nico asked. “What if you don’t come back?”

“Don’t worry, I will,” she promised.

She spurred Arion, and they shot across the countryside, heading straight for the growing tornado.

While we sat and waited, I heard you wailing below deck again. Nico winced and turned to face me.

“Hazel told me…” He cleared his throat, “she told me that you and eh… Water Girl, as you call her-”

“No,” I said, cutting him off. “We… we aren’t anymore. something happened and… I broke up with her.”

“Oh.”

“...Yeah.”

“Well… why?”

I took a breath and sighed. “I don’t really know. High tension. Maybe I said some things I didn’t really mean, but now I can’t take them back.”

“I understand,” Nico said quietly. “Hazel thinks it’s her fault.”

I really wanted to say yes, but that just wasn’t the truth. I was the one who got confused and let myself get led on or whatever. I was the one who let you slip away from me. That’s what I was afraid of for so long.

“No,” I said after a few moments of quiet (beside your wailing below deck). “It’s not.”

“Okay.” Nico looked away again and sighed. “Why did she do it?”

I squinted and looked back at Nico. “Who? What?”

“Water Girl,” Nico said. “And… you know. Stabbing her eye.”

“What?” I asked incredulously. “She didn’t do that on purpose.”

“She has control over her trident. If it wasn’t her, why else would she do that?”

I winced, looking down to my hands and seeing I’d picked just a little too much skin off my fingers. I quickly grabbed a few wires from my toolbelt and started to mess with that instead. “I… I don’t know.”

Nico sighed and looked back over the railing toward the storm cloud. “She almost died. I’m surprised she didn’t. But I’m more surprised she won’t heal. If she can really regenerate through water like that, then it should have atleast stopped bleeding by now. It’s almost like…”

He went quiet again. My thoughts ran quickly, still trying to decode what Nico was trying to say. He sounded worried, but less worried for your health and more about you. It was kind of weird considering how weak and injured he already was. Maybe he knew something I didn’t. Whatever it was, he never shared it.

Eventually, Hazel returned on Arion’s back and climbed up the ladder to the deck.

“What happened?” I asked as Hazel climbed aboard the Argo II.

Hazel glanced over the rail and saw the dust of Arion’s wake stretching across the hills of Italy. The countryside sparkled as the summer sun hit the morning dew. On the hill, the old ruins stood white and silent.

“Hazel?” Nico asked.

Her knees buckled. Nico and I grabbed her arms and helped her to the steps of the foredeck.

“I met Hecate,” she managed.

She didn’t tell us everything, I could tell. But she told us about the secret northern pass through the mountains, and the detour Hecate described that could take us to Epirus.
When she was done, Nico took her hand. His eyes were full of concern. “Hazel, you met Hecate at a crossroads. That’s…that’s something many demigods don’t survive. And the ones who do survive are never the same. Are you sure you’re—”

“I’m fine,” she insisted.

“What if Hecate is tricking us?” I asked. “This route could be a trap.”

Hazel shook her head. “If it was a trap, I think Hecate would’ve made the northern route sound tempting. Believe me, she didn’t.”

I pulled a calculator out of my tool belt and punched in some numbers. “That’s…something like three hundred miles out of our way to get to Venice. Then we’d have to backtrack down the Adriatic. And you said something about baloney dwarfs?”

“Dwarfs in Bologna,” Hazel said. “I guess Bologna is a city. But why we have to find dwarfs there…I have no idea. Some sort of treasure to help us with the quest.”

“Huh,” I said. “I mean, I’m all about treasure, but—”

“It’s our best option.” Nico helped Hazel to her feet. “We have to make up for lost time, travel as fast as we can. Percy’s and Annabeth’s lives might depend on it.”

“Fast?” I grinned. “I can do fast.”

I hurried to the console and started flipping switches.

Nico took Hazel’s arm and guided her out of earshot. I didn’t bother trying to eavesdrop. When I was done punching in the directions and messing with the sphere of Archimedes, I sat back and sighed. Festus whirred at me occasionally, making whatever small talk he could. None of it really mattered to me. All I could think about was you and how stupid I was. That was pretty much all I could hear in my head for the last few days. I hated myself more than usual. But there’s no use in self pity. Maybe that’s why I’d been so angry.

-

I spent the night wrestling with a forty-foot-tall Athena.

Ever since we’d brought the statue aboard, I had been obsessed with figuring out how it worked. I was sure it had primo powers. There had to be a secret switch or a pressure plate or something.

I was supposed to be sleeping, but I just couldn’t. I spent hours crawling over the statue, which took up most of the lower deck. Athena’s feet stuck into sick bay, so you had to squeeze past her ivory toes if you wanted some Advil. Her body ran the length of the port corridor, her outstretched hand jutting into the engine room, offering the life-sized figure of Nike that stood in her palm, like, Here, have some Victory! Athena’s serene face took up most of the aft pegasus stables, which were fortunately unoccupied. If I were a magic horse, I wouldn’t have wanted to live in a stall with an oversized goddess of wisdom staring at me.

The statue was wedged tight in the corridor, so I had to climb over the top and wriggle under her limbs, searching for levers and buttons.

As usual, I found nothing.

I’d done some research on the statue. I knew it was made from a hollow wooden frame covered in ivory and gold, which explained why it was so light. It was in pretty good shape, considering it was more than two thousand years old, had been pillaged from Athens, toted to Rome, and secretly stored in a spider’s cavern for most of the past two millennia. Magic must’ve kept it intact, I figured, combined with really good craftsmanship.

Annabeth had said…well, I tried not to think about Annabeth. I still felt guilty about her and Percy falling into Tartarus. I knew it was my fault. I should have gotten everyone safely on board the Argo II before I started securing the statue. I should have realized the cavern floor was unstable.

Still, moping around wasn’t going to get Percy and Annabeth back. I had to concentrate on fixing the problems I could fix.

Anyway, Annabeth had said the statue was the key to defeating Gaea. It could heal the rift between Greek and Roman demigods. I figured there had to be more to it than just symbolism. Maybe Athena’s eyes shot lasers, or the snake behind her shield could spit poison. Or maybe the smaller figure of Nike came to life and busted out some ninja moves.

I could think of all kinds of fun things the statue might do if I had designed it, but the more I examined it, the more frustrated I got. The Athena Parthenos radiated magic. Even I could feel that. But it didn’t seem to do anything except look impressive.

The ship careened to one side, taking evasive maneuvers. I resisted the urge to run to the helm. Jason, Piper, and Frank were on duty with Hazel now. They could handle whatever was going on. Besides, Hazel had insisted on taking the wheel to guide us through the secret pass that the magic goddess had told her about.

I hoped Hazel was right about the long detour north. I didn’t trust this Hecate lady. I didn’t see why such a creepy goddess would suddenly decide to be helpful.

Of course, I didn’t trust magic in general. That’s why I was having so much trouble with the Athena Parthenos. It had no moving parts. Whatever it did, it apparently operated on pure sorcery…and I didn’t appreciate that. I wanted it to make sense, like a machine.

Finally I got too exhausted to think straight. I curled up with a blanket in the engine room and listened to the soothing hum of the generators. Buford the mechanical table sat in the corner on sleep mode, making little steamy snores: Shhh, pfft, shh, pfft.

I liked my quarters okay, but I felt safest here in the heart of the ship—in a room filled with mechanisms I knew how to control. Besides, maybe if I spent more time close to the Athena Parthenos, I would eventually soak in its secrets.

“It’s you or me, Big Lady,” I murmured as I pulled the blanket up to my chin. “You’re gonna cooperate eventually.”

I smiled as I closed my eyes, the thought of you calling me stupid over this bringing me a quick moment of joy.

I quickly slept. Unfortunately, that meant dreams.

I was running for my life through my mother’s old workshop, where she’d died in a fire when I was eight.

I wasn’t sure what was chasing me, but I sensed it closing fast—something large and dark and full of hate.

I stumbled into workbenches, knocked over toolboxes, and tripped on electrical cords. I spotted the exit and sprinted toward it, but a figure loomed in front of me—a woman in robes of dry swirling earth, her face covered in a veil of dust.

Where are you going, little hero? Gaea asked. Stay, and meet my favorite son.

I darted to the left, but the Earth Goddess’s laughter followed me.

The night your mother died, I warned you. I said the Fates would not allow me to kill you then. But now you have chosen your path. Your death is near, Leo Valdez.

I ran into a drafting table—my mother’s old workstation. The wall behind it was decorated with my crayon drawings. I sobbed in desperation and turned, but the thing pursuing me now stood in my path—a colossal being wrapped in shadows, its shape vaguely humanoid, its head almost scraping the ceiling twenty feet above.

My hands burst into flame. I blasted the giant, but the darkness consumed my fire. I reached for my tool belt. The pockets were sewn shut. I tried to speak—to say anything that would save my life—but I couldn’t make a sound, as if the air had been stolen from my lungs.

My son will not allow any fires tonight, Gaea said from the depths of the warehouse. He is the void that consumes all magic, the cold that consumes all fire, the silence that consumes all speech.

I wanted to shout: And I’m the dude that’s all out of here!

My voice didn’t work, so I used my feet. I dashed to the right, ducking under the shadowy giant’s grasping hands, and burst through the nearest doorway.

Suddenly, I found myself at Camp Half-Blood, except the camp was in ruins. The cabins were charred husks. Burned fields smoldered in the moonlight. The dining pavilion had collapsed into a pile of white rubble, and the Big House was on fire, its windows glowing like demon eyes.

I kept running, sure the shadow giant was still behind me.

I wove around the bodies of Greek and Roman demigods. I wanted to check if they were alive. I wanted to help them. But somehow I knew I was running out of time.

I jogged toward the only living people I saw—a group of Romans standing at the volleyball pit. Two centurions leaned casually on their javelins, chatting with a tall skinny blond guy in a purple toga. I stumbled. It was that freak Octavian, the augur from Camp Jupiter, who was always screaming for war.

Octavian turned to face me, but he seemed to be in a trance. His features were slack, his eyes closed. When he spoke, it was in Gaea’s voice: This cannot be prevented. The Romans move east from New York. They advance on your camp, and nothing can slow them down.

I was tempted to punch Octavian in the face. Instead I kept running.

I climbed Half-Blood Hill. At the summit, lightning had splintered the giant pine tree.

I faltered to a stop. The back of the hill was shorn away. Beyond it, the entire world was gone. I saw nothing but clouds far below—a rolling silver carpet under the dark sky.

A sharp voice said, “Well?”

I flinched.

At the shattered pine tree, a woman knelt at a cave entrance that had cracked open between the tree’s roots.

The woman wasn’t Gaea. She looked more like a living Athena Parthenos, with the same golden robes and bare ivory arms. When she rose, I almost stumbled off the edge of the world.

Her face was regally beautiful, with high cheekbones, large dark eyes, and braided licorice-colored hair piled in a fancy Greek hairdo, set with a spiral of emeralds and diamonds so that it reminded me of a Christmas tree. Her expression radiated pure hatred. Her lip curled. Her nose wrinkled.

“The tinkerer god’s child,” she sneered. “You are no threat, but I suppose my vengeance must start somewhere. Make your choice.”

I tried to speak, but I was about to crawl out of my skin with panic. Between this hate queen and the giant chasing me, I had no idea what to do.

“He’ll be here soon,” the woman warned. “My dark friend will not give you the luxury of a choice. It’s the cliff or the cave, boy!”

Suddenly I understood what she meant. I was cornered. I could jump off the cliff, but that was suicide. Even if there was land under those clouds, I would die in the fall, or maybe I would just keep falling forever.

But the cave… I stared at the dark opening between the tree roots. It smelled of rot and death. I heard bodies shuffling inside, voices whispering in the shadows.

The cave was the home of the dead. If I went down there, I would never come back.

“Yes,” the woman said. Around her neck hung a strange bronze-and-emerald pendant, like a circular labyrinth. Her eyes were so angry, I finally understood why mad was a word for crazy. This lady had been driven nuts by hatred. “The House of Hades awaits. You will be the first puny rodent to die in my maze. You have only one chance to escape, Leo Valdez. Take it.”

She gestured toward the cliff.

“You’re bonkers,” I managed.

That was the wrong thing to say. She seized my wrist. “Perhaps I should kill you now, before my dark friend arrives?”

Steps shook the hillside. The giant was coming, wrapped in shadows, huge and heavy and bent on murder.

“Have you heard of dying in a dream, boy?” the woman asked. “It is possible, at the hands of a sorceress!”

My arm started to smoke. The woman’s touch was acid. I tried to free myself, but her grip was like steel.

I opened my mouth to scream. The massive shape of the giant loomed over me, obscured by layers of black smoke.

The giant raised his fist, and a voice cut through the dream.

“Leo!” Jason was shaking my shoulder. “Hey, man, why are you hugging Nike?”

My eyes fluttered open. My arms were wrapped around the human-sized statue in Athena’s hand. I must have been thrashing in my sleep. I clung to the victory goddess like I used to cling to my pillow when I had nightmares as a kid. (Man, that had been so embarrassing in the foster homes.)

I disentangled myself and sat up, rubbing my face.

“Nothing,” I muttered. “We were just cuddling. Um, what’s going on?”

Jason didn’t tease me. That’s one thing I appreciated about my friend. Jason’s ice-blue eyes were level and serious. The little scar on his mouth twitched like it always did when he had bad news to share.