Chapter Text
Shattered glass and the stench of liquor followed me out of the house, not for the first time. A particularly large shard nearly cut my face (thankfully it didn't), but there was nothing to be done about the stink of cheap whiskey clinging to my pants. No one spares me a glance, though, as this could be considered a normal occurrence for the people who lived on my street.
Had school been much farther from my house I think I might have slept on my front steps, but it’s not, so I go. Stuffing a fresh bagel into my jacket pocket for later, I run the rest of the way to school hoping nobody smells the odd mixture of baked goodies and alcohol that follows me everywhere these days.
“Merrily!” I cringe and glance up at my science teacher. “You’re late.”
I slide into my seat and slip an earbud in once Mr. Ellington turns back to the board. There’s a new video on some military strategies used in Ancient Greece, which are hard to come by. Most videos recommend me to books that I can’t even read thanks to my dyslexia and limited options for books with larger text.
Two more classes pass mostly uneventfully, and I eat my bagel ignoring the copious amounts of everyday seasoning in my pockets. Slurping sounds broke the brief respite I had, and I almost threw up what was left of my bagel. I glance at Lana, one of the smarter girls in class who also happens to be quite blessed in the looks department practically eating the face of a senior boy.
“Could you do that anywhere else?” I ask, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
Lana glares at me. “I’m sorry, do you smell something?” Wrinkling her nose, she turns back to whats-his-face.
“Just a stupid jerk,” I mutter, shoving the rest of my bagel in my mouth.
“What did you say?” Lana hisses, whipping her head back over to me. A shiver runs down my spine and something feels off in my chest, so I turn and run to my next class, giving Lana a harried wave.
Greek Mythology. Mr. Avon is one of my nicer teachers who gives me the supplemental materials and extra help I need in the classroom for my ADHD and dyslexia. Also, we got to act out parts of the Odyssey in class one time, which was way more fun than having to read the book. What a man.
Mr. Avon was late, which isn’t unusual, but Lana was early and kept making retching noises in my direction and whispering to her friends whose names I couldn’t remember for the life of me. Mr Avon finally arrived with two boys trailing behind him.
“Hey everyone!” Mr. Avon said cherrily. “We have two new students today, so say hello to Leo Valdez and Nico McAngel, was it?”
The boy with dark brown hair and what looked like guyliner sighed. “Nico di Angelo.”
“Sorry about that.” Mr. Avon clapped him on the back. Mr. Angel, you can sit next to Lana and Mr. Valencio can sit behind Merrily... yep right there!”
Leo, who looked like he came straight from a mechanic shop, slid into the seat behind me. “Hey, nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too,” I smile back. I turn back towards the front, half noticing Lana trying (and failing) to flirt with Nico. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was sinking into the floor, but I understand Lana’s intentions. The guyliner works for him. As Mr. Avon started his lesson, I kept hearing sounds of metal clinking together and a foot tapping behind me.
“Can you stop that?” I ask, only slightly annoyed.
“Sorry.” Leo had the grace to look embarrassed. “It helps me stay focused.”
I huff. “It’s fine, just... quieter? I can barely focus on a normal day.” Leo smiled endearingly and gave me a thumbs up, brown curls bouncing across his forehead. The tinkering sounds got quieter, and I was enjoying today’s discussion on Hephaestus's qualms with Hera and Ares and how that related to relationships today. During a break in the class, I glanced over at Leo again and was surprised to see a perfect, mechanical bird perched in his hand, the remains of a set of eyeglasses and a toy car scattered across his desk. His fingers moved faster than I could process as he continued to construct the tiny masterpiece.
I must have been staring because Leo glanced sideways at me and smirked. “Close your mouth or you’ll catch flies.” I snap my mouth shut.
“Why do you have all that stuff?”
“I told you,” he says. “It helps keep me focused.” I bite the inside of my mouth, but before I can reply, I feel a tap on my shoulder.
“Lana?”
“Hey, M!”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Listen,” Lana begins. “I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. Want to come over today?”
“Uh, since when?”
“Since now.”
Lana looks impatient, but before I can reply, Leo is standing next to me. “She’s actually busy today, right?” He looks at me.
“Oh, yeah, we were gonna hang out later, so sorry Lana,” I say quickly, accepting the out.
Looking suspicious, Lana crosses her arms. “You can reschedule can’t you?” she asks, her voice sickly sweet. “It’s not like it’s a date or anything.”
“It is actually.”
“What??”
“Do you want to die?” Leo hisses under his breath.
What kind of question is...? “No, I mean—”
“Okay, then follow my lead.” I hadn’t been looking him in the eyes, but now that I was, any previous lightheartedness had vanished and suddenly Leo was looking far too serious.
“So, a date?” Lana questions.
“Yeah, and I’ll tag along, Leo doesn’t mind.” Dang. I didn’t even see guyliner walk up. “I can always play Mythomagic or something... and eat cheese fries.”
Cheese fries are sounding pretty good right about now. My stomach growls. I feel like this isn’t the time for cheese fries.
“What’s Mythomagic?” I ask instead.
“Oh, it’s this card game where you can play as Greek Mythology characters and...” Nico starts on a very long winded discussion about Mythomagic, which to be completely honest, I would 100% play. And now that we’re up close, the guyliner isn’t too bad.
Mr. Avon comes back and finishes up the lesson citing a family emergency as the reason for his extended absence. I’d buy it since his dog has cancer or something. Nico winds up in the rest of my classes and I only see Leo in passing a few more times. Lana, who now that I think about it, I don’t remember all that well, keeps finding excuses to pass me in the hall or stand next to me in the bathroom (weird). I hardly notice though, because Nico has a really cool collection of Mythomagic cards, and the special edition ones look extra nice.
The end of the day rolls around though, and Leo bounces up to us looking nervous. “How was you guys’ day?”
“It was a day,” I reply absentmindedly, glancing at the glossy Hades card Nico gave me. “Lana was being super weird though.”
“I thought she might,” Leo frowned. “We should go.”
I stop in my tracks. “Woah, I thought you were just kidding.”
“No?” Leo turns to look at me. “What part of ‘do you want to die’ did you miss?”
“Yeah, but I thought you meant like, as a joke.”
Nico cursed and grabbed my hand. “We have to go.”
“What?”
“Look!” I turn my head to see Lana standing at the top of the school steps. Except she doesn’t look like Lana. This Lana had a donkey leg and flaming hair.
The things I said were probably not very nice, but when someone you thought was a random girl at your school turns out to be half donkey, I think it’s allowed. Leo, Nico and I dash down the street and into the crowd.
“Don’t worry!” Leo yells. “Let’s get some distance.”
“What’s happening??” I scream.
“Monster!”
“Not helping!”
We keep running.
“Hey look, there’s my chauffer!” Nico calls back to us. A sleek, black car is stopped at the light ahead. The suburban moms walking along the street look at us oddly, which I can’t blame them. Nico jumps in the front seat while Leo and I get in the back. Faintly, I can smell smoke and donkey. The car pulls away and I lean back in my seart, but before I can relax too much, I notice the chauffer in question looks a little too dead.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I screamed.
“Dude, chill.” Leo pulled his bird out of his... tool belt? “That’s just Jules-Albert.”
“Who?”
Nico turns around in his seat. “My dad gave me a chauffer so I’d have friends.”
“Did it work?”
Nico shrugs. “Not really.”
“Gee, I wonder why.” And that’s when it hit me. Not only had I not gotten cheese fries, Lana had flaming hair and a donkey leg. “Oh my god. What just happened?”
Leo snaps his fingers and smiles weakly at me. “And there it is. You’re a demigod!” He does jazz hands. “Yay!”
“So, one problem with that.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
I scowl. “Demigods are a myth, losers. And right now, you’ve just kidnapped me, so you better start talking before I call the cops.”
Nico huffs at me. “You don’t even have a phone.”
“I could,” I sniff.
Nico looks at Leo. “You said she didn’t have a phone!”
“I thought she didn’t!” Leo hissed back, before turning to me. “Listen, okay, just hear us out before you call the cops, okay?”
I lean a little closer to the door wondering how much it would hurt to jump out of a moving car. “You have like, two minutes.”
“Uh... ah...”
Nico shakes his head. “You’re so bad at this.” He looks right in my eyes. I don’t blush. “My name is Nico di Angelo and I’m the son of Hades. That’s Leo Valdez and he’s a son of Hephaestus, and a fire starter. You are a demigod, and the reason we know that is because you could actually see Lana.”
“That’s great, but my dad is just some dude who had a one night stand and my mom dipped,” I explain. “I’m just a normal person.”
Leo puts his bird down momentarily. “Your mom didn’t necessarily dip. I mean she did, but it’s because your mom was most likely a god. A Greek god.”
I stare at him. “Seriously?”
“Here, let me take a guess at some things,” Leo says, fully putting the bird away. “You have ADHD and dyslexia. As a kid you kept getting into trouble because you were seeing things that weren’t there and people thought you were seeking attention. One of your parents is mysteriously absent and your other parent never talks about them, and while you can’t read English, I bet reading Greek was a whole lot easier, since I know you like that stuff. What did I miss?”
A small noise escapes my throat. “You could have been stalking me.”
“Listen, we’re here,” Nico says. “You can leave now, but you’ll die. So, you can either come with us, willingly or I will personally drag you across that barrier myself.”
“You saw Lana.” I glance at Leo who’s back to fiddling with his toy. “You know we’re not lying.”
The thing was, I did know they weren’t lying. And the problem was, I didn’t mind. I got out of the car.
“This way.” Nico leads us through a wooded area and we start up a hill.
“Where are we going?”
“Camp Half-Blood,” Nico replies. “See that tree? That’s the barrier that protects demigods from monsters and everything else.”
SCREECH
Lana appears at the bottom of the hill and locks eyes with us. Then, like a gazelle, she starts to leap up the hill at an astonishing speed. Leo whips out a giant hammer while throwing a stream of fire in her direction. It misses and he turns to us.
“Nico, we have to get her across the border!” Nico grabs my arm, and we start to run up the hill, Leo shooting fire down at Lana. He’s not missing for lack of accuracy, though; Lana is just scary fast. We make it to the top, and I feel a sheet of cool air pass over me.
“Was that it? Did we make it?” I ask excitedly, turning to Leo. “Wait, where’s Nico?” We turn around and see Lana pinning Nico to the ground, her mouth open, fangs replacing what should have been teeth. Looking around for any weapon, I spot a gold dagger peeking out from Nico’s discarded bag. Grabbing it, I run after Leo through the barrier.
Lana’s fangs are sunk deep into the fleshy softness of Nico’s neck by the time we make it to them. Leo shoves Lana off Nico and she stumbles back. Before Leo can react, I lunge forward and swing sloppily at her with my dagger. Lana jumps at me, and her long claws cut my arm as I jump out of the way. Something hard hits my head, and everything goes black for a second before I’m shoved to the ground. Above me, Lana’s fangs are dripping blood and her eyes are glowing ferociously. My dagger is pinned to my chest and as Lana leans down, I twist my wrist painfully shoving the tip into Lana’s chest. It doesn’t work at first, but then she’s pulled back a little and I manage to shove the dagger the rest of the way in.
A shower of gold dust rains down on me. Leo’s face swims in front of mine. “You good?”
“No,” I groan.
“C’mon.” He offers me a hand and I take it. “Nico’s gonna be okay.”
I look to where Nico is and see him being carried through the barrier by a boy with floppy blonde hair. We follow them and Nico is laid on the ground once he’s through.
“What are they giving him?” I ask curiously, looking at what looks like golden liquid in a plastic cup.
“That’s nectar; food of the gods,” Leo explains. “It has healing properties, but we can only use a little.”
Nico, who had been bleeding and pale moments before, now had the little olive color he’d had before returning to his face. Groaning, he tried to sit up, but the blonde boy gently pushed him back down. “Chill out, you’re headed straight for the infirmary.”
“What?” Nico groans. “That’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair.” The boy turns to me and holds out a hand. “I’m Will, that’s one of my best friends, Nico.”
I smile. “I’m Merrily. Merrily Evans.” I glance at Nico who’s still on the ground. “Will he be okay?”
“Oh him?” Will glances over his shoulder. “Yeah, a day or so in the infirmary and he’ll be all good.” We head back over to Nico and Leo. Leo grins back up at me. “How about I give you your tour since Nico’s out of commission?” He smacks Nico’s shoulder and he grimaces. I grab my backpack and we start walking. As we walk over the hill, we pass a giant pine tree with a golden fleece and a dragon. Somehow, this doesn't freak me out. At this point, golden sheepskins and dragons are the least of my worries.
As we pass through the forest we come upon a circle of cabins each unique in their own way. Leo leads me to the one that looks the most like a camp cabin.
"This is the Hermes cabin. New demigods stay here until their godly parent claims them." Before opening the door, Leo gives me a warning. "Look out for the Stoll brothers. Real tricksters those two." I nod my head seriously as Leo opens the door.
Inside is very crowded and slightly messy. Tons of campers mill around talking and laughing. I'm pretty sure I saw a neat stack of tomatoes, but I wasn't entirely sure.
"Hey," a boy with brown hair and an upturned nose comes up to us. "This a newbie?"
"Yep," Leo says. "Merrily Evans. She just needs a spot to sleep and then I'll continue the tour."
The boy leads us over to a rather cozy corner on the floor. "Here," he says. "I'll get you a sleeping bag and anything else you need before we turn in for the night." I set my duffel down.
"By the way," I say. "I never got your name."
"Travis Stoll," he says, extending a hand. Leo slaps my hand away.
"Trap," he says. I look up at him confused.
"Trap?" I say.
Leo nods. "Yup," he says. "One of my powers is that I can sense traps and Travis here had one of those electric things on his hand."
I look up at Travis. "Seriously dude?" I say. Travis has the grace to look slightly guilty. Leo and I quickly leave. We walk through the camp and Leo points out everything of interest: the dining pavilion, the cabins, the climbing wall, the strawberry fields, the training arena, and the list goes on.
A horn blares out. "That'll be the dinner horn," Leo says. "You'll eat with the Hermes cabin."
"Okay." I walk over to where who I think is Travis is sitting. Only, this Travis is slightly smaller. "Woah, are you Travis's twin or something?" I ask.
"Nah, I'm Connor," he says.
"I'm Merrily," I say. "How do we get food?" "Just picture your absolute favorite meal," Connor instructs. I close my eyes and picture a delicious bowl of coconut lime soup and a steaming plate of rice.
"Open your eyes," Connor says. I open my eyes. There is a.... half plate of soup and rice? Then I look at Connor's plate and find the other half of my food.
"Connor!" I protest. Connor doesn't answer and leads me over to some brass bowls with fire. I freeze. Fire.
"Hey, are you okay?" Connor asks, snapping me out of my trance.
"Uh yeah," I say. "Do I just burn some?"
"You learn quickly my little grasshopper," Conner grins. I scrape part of my food into the bowl, trying to ignore the waves of heat emitting from the bowl. I whisper a silent prayer and then go back to my seat. I quickly imagine up some more food and eat it before Connor has the chance to steal it.
Then the room goes silent as a.... woah is that a centaur? Connor later tells me his name is Chiron and he runs the camp now that Mr. D is back at Olympus.
"I hope you all have had a very enjoyable afternoon," the centaur says. "Tonight's game will be Capture the Flag!" The room erupts in cheers. "Team Red will be Posioden, Demeter, Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Apollo, and Hermes and Team Blue will be Aphrodite, Hades, Iris, Hypnos, Nike, Hecate, and Tyche."
Everyone in the dining pavilion disperses after that and heads off to go get ready. Connor leads me over to the armory.
After getting myself fitted for armor, Connor walks over to me with the dagger I used to kill Lana. “Here. Leo says you were pretty handy with this earlier.” I take the offered weapon and now that I’m not fighting for my life, I find that it fits me perfectly. I dig around until I find a sheath and stick it in.
Capture the Flag is boring, at least when you’re on river patrol. Some people said that its an honor since some guy Percy apparently got claimed on river patrol.
I hear something in the bushes and Nico materializes out of nowhere. “What-- where did you come from?” I sputter.
Nico has the grace to look embarrassed. “I uh... don’t tell Will.” He’s blushing hard and looking anywhere but my face. I’m sure I’m looking just as flustered. He’s pretty cute in armor, I won’t lie about that. “Don’t worry, I’m on your team. Unofficially.”
I smirk and go to say something else, but the sound of tearing skin and Nico crying out distracts me. I see a broad figure sprint away and dart past me across the river.
“Help!” I cry. Nico’s leg is bleeding profusely and I’m sure whoever it was hit a vein. I sling one of Nico’s arms over my shoulder and start making my way slowly through the woods. If Nico had been any heavier, I wouldn’t have made it. Will spots me and pales considerably.
“What happened?” he demands.
“I...” I’m shaking, I notice. “I don’t know, someone just stabbed him.” There’s blood all over my hands and it’s extremely disorienting. Will picks Nico up much easier than I could have.
“I’ve got him, go tell Chiron.”
Chiron, who Connor introduced me to earlier is already declaring the winner (not my team), and seems to be unaware of Nico’s fate. I run forward and tug him over.
“What happened?” he asks seriously, noting my blood slicked arms.
I scowl, now less nervous and more angry. “Someone stabbed Nico di Angelo.” Chiron turns to address the crowd, but I beat him to it.
“Hey!” I shout. “Someone stabbed Nico di Angelo, my protector, during Capture the Flag. I want to know who.” My eyes narrow and I’m no longer shaking. In fact, the exhaustion I’d been feeling earlier from carrying Nico was nowhere to be found. “If you don’t come forward, I will find you and I will kill you.”
Someone stepped forward out of the crowd. “I’m a lot of things, a coward isn’t one of them. David Geltz.” A tall, stocky boy with amber eyes and mud colored hair steps forward. An Ares kid. “Wasn’t he supposed to be in the infirmary anyway?”
“If you think that’s an excuse, you’re a sorry excuse for a human being,” I snarl. “I challenge you to a duel.” The crowd goes quiet and the boy laughs.
“You?” he snorts. “You’re like, a baby camper, you couldn’t.”
“What are you, chicken?” I step down and brandish my dagger.
David pulls out a longer blade and flips it around in his hands, his face twisting into a scowl as his siblings laugh and leer at him. “No way. Let’s do it.” He lunges at me and I jump out of the way, stabbing forward with my knife. He moves, and swings at me, which I block and stab again. This all with a grace I sure didn’t have this morning. We parry for a little while longer, the campers cheering and booing behind us. Chiron is silent.
I glance down and notice David’s stance. He is using a common fighting stance with his legs at shoulder width and I notice that whenever he lunges, he almost overextends his legs placing him off balance. So the next time he makes a move, I go low and kick one of his legs instead. He wobbles enough for me to grab his other leg as I crawl under, knocking him flat on his back. Using my own legs, I wrap them both around his and flip him onto his stomach. Finally, I put my foot on the back of his neck and lean foward.
“You done?”
David struggles under me for a minute before giving up. Maybe I stomped on his leg a few times, but we don’t have to talk about that.
“Thought so.” I stand up, out of breath and see the whole camp staring at me in awe. “What, do I have something on my face?”
Leo steps forward. “Look up Evans.”
I do and see a gray, glowing owl floating above my head. “What?”
I turn and see Chiron walking towards me.
“All hail, Merrily Evans, daughter of Athena.”