Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Argo II  was externally perfect: a large Greek warship straight out of Leo's childhood dreams. Soon, within the Argo II, the demigods of the Great Prophecy would be assembled, whoever they were. (Leo still couldn’t quite believe that he was one of the Seven. If Jason was correct, the famed Percy Jackson would be too.) 

Sure, there were some finishing touches to be made, like attaching Festus and setting up Buford, but it was the perfect warship from the outside. 

However, the inside was barren. The mess hall was decorated like Camp with enchanted tableware and spread, but every other hallway and cabin was a blank slate. 

Leo momentarily thought about leaving it that way, to let each of the Seven decorate their own rooms and bring a little of home with them. Then he thought better about it. What demigod out there carried their personal belongings with them, or even had enough to decorate a room with?

Leo found Jason and Piper hanging out by the lake, probably on some sort of date. Now normally he wouldn’t interrupt, but there was work to be done. Like interior design, for example.

Leo cleared his throat as he approached. “Hey lovebirds,” he greeted.

“Hey, what’s up Leo?” Piper responded. 

“You guys up for some interior designing? The Argo II might look awesome outside, if I do say so myself, but the inside’s pretty bleak.”

“Sounds good,” Jason said, brushing himself off and helping Piper up. “Where do we start?”

“The attic of the Big House has all those relics from people’s quests, maybe we could hang some up?” Piper suggested. That way, they’d bring something of Camp Half-Blood with them. Perhaps the spirits of past, successful quests would also be with them. 

Leo shivered. “It’s freaky up there, but good idea Pipes.”

“Alright, to the Big House we go,” Jason said.

Upon noticing them, Chiron trotted over from where he was persuading Harley, one of Leo’s siblings, to take cold medicine. “Leo, Piper, Jason, how can I help you all?” he smiled warmly.

Piper explained the idea, and Chiron nodded. “Percy and Annabeth retrieved many things from their quests. I’m sure most would bring back humorous memories. Do try to avoid stepping on anything that might impale you.”

Leo wasn’t sure that reminding Percy or Annabeth of their past quests would bring humorous memories, but turned to his friends. “On that happy note, upwards and onwards,” he gestured to the stairs.

Chiron wasn’t kidding when he said Percy and Annabeth brought back a lot of things. It seemed like half of the relics had their names. It was also obvious that the names of the items made no sense whatsoever to anyone who hadn’t been on said quest. 

Like “Aphrodite's Scarf from Waterland, Denver”, whatever that was. Since the gods were real, was that actually Aphrodite’s? If so, why didn’t the goddess take it back? 

There was also “Ladon’s Claw, Garden of the Hesperides” from some guy named Luke Castellan. Leo didn’t recall meeting anyone named Luke Castellan so far. 

Others were from decades ago, brought by names that were probably long gone. There was even a whole section of the attic dedicated to jars, which seemed to hold the pickled heads from various monsters. Leo didn’t get close enough to check which ones. 

“Guys, what do you think this is?” Jason called from a corner. Piper and Leo carefully stepped around items to get to him.

It was a little cardboard box, with messy handwriting scrawled in Sharpie on the outside.

The first line was a horribly misspelled phrase that was crossed out. Leo was pretty sure it was supposed to read: Substitute 4 Orientation Film. Being dyslexic though, he wasn’t so sure. 

“The first thing says ‘substitution for orientation film’,” Jason read aloud. “The phrase under is ‘just open and listen if quests and Camp scare you’.”  

“Hm, well I have to say, I dunno about you guys, but this Big Prophecy is kinda scaring me. Maybe this is some guide?” 

“Yeah, I’m scared too. I know Annabeth knows how quests work, and you seem to too, Jason, but I’m still scared,” Piper admitted.

“Guess we should open it,” Jason shrugged, taking the masking tape off.

The three peered inside. There were five cassette tapes, all labeled one through five, and a Walkman Cassette player.

“Gods,” Jason said. “These things are ancient.”

“What ancient person made this?” Leo agreed. “Chiron?”

“Maybe we could just ask him.”

Leo shrugged. He was itching to get his hands on the tapes and figure out if there was anything special about them. 

Piper picked up the box, though, setting it aside for later. She'd probably caught the gleam in his eyes, the one that said he would have disassembled them before she could even say 'Valdez'. “We can listen to this later. We’ll bring it on the Argo II.”

Her tone of finality meant that the conversation was over, so Leo went back to searching through the Big House. 

After a while, the three decided that although the items were interesting, they didn’t seem like the best things to decorate with. Leo wanted the ship to feel like a second home, not an old person’s antique collection. 

Though they took the box of tapes with them, Leo quickly forgot all about them as he got to work making magical panels that would show real-time footage of Camp Half-Blood. 

ADHD would do that to a demigod — you could focus or miss out on the weirdest details. 

.

.

.

As he was searching for extra supplies for Festus, Leo found the box they had abandoned. Feeling guilty about basically blowing up New Rome, he hoped that whatever the tapes were about could boost the confidence of the entire group. Maybe it would work so well that they would even forgive him. Even better, they could forget that it had even happened. 

He remembered that some of the campers had stared at them weirdly when they walked out of the Big House holding a cardboard box, like it was some secret weapon. Leo just hoped it was a secret weapon to feel better about this whole quest.

He knew that he and Piper were in the same boat, possibly Frank and Hazel. They were new to the whole ‘saving the world thing’, unlike Jason, Annabeth, and Percy. (Especially Percy. Leo hadn’t been able to walk far in Camp without hearing about Percy Jackson .)

Leo and Piper had shared their insecurities about how inexperienced they felt. Facing their seemingly impossible task ahead, Frank and Hazel probably felt the same way. Any support, like whatever these tapes were, would hopefully help.

Leo was brought out of his thoughts by voices up on the deck. Wait, was that the sound of hooves? He wasn’t sure, since Coach Hedge was not supposed to be above deck at this moment. He also couldn’t seem to recognize some of the voices he was hearing. Perhaps that was because they were muffled, coupled coupled with the fact that Leo had only met some of them hours before. 

Either way, Leo stood up and dusted himself off. Although, being a son of Hephaestus, he was never that clean. Other demigods wouldn’t really care though, except maybe the Aphrodite kids. Fighting monsters wasn’t the most hygienic thing to be doing all day. 

Stepping out onto the deck, Leo was met with a weird scene. 

Reyna, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, was standing to the side speaking with Annabeth. She looked positively crossed and the two leaders were having what seemed to be an intense discussion. It didn’t look to be antagonistic though, more like they were complaining about the same thing. (Leo hoped that it was that crazy Roman named Octavian and not himself.)

Jason, Piper, and Frank stood on the other side of the deck. Jason seemed to be staring at Reyna and Annabeth with concern, probably hoping that the two leaders wouldn’t go full Amazon on each other. Apparently the Amazons were real too; Leo found out the first time he'd made that joke. Piper was glancing at her boyfriend every so often, but most of her energy was focused on keeping Coach Hedge from whacking someone with a baseball bat. Frank, being the bulky guy he was, did a good job of physically blocking everyone else from Coach Hedge’s line of sight. 

In another corner stood Hazel, speaking to a guy that Leo had never seen before. The guy was dressed in all black, looking like the poster child for emo street style. His hair was a messy mop, like he had just gotten out of bed. Along with an all-black outfit, he was wearing a silver ring and had a black sword strapped to his belt. While Leo wouldn’t call this new pale dude a ghost , the temperature seemed to drop just by noticing him. 

Before Leo could make his presence known and pray that Reyna wouldn’t gut him on sight, Percy climbed up from the side of the boat. Behind him were another two new faces, a guy and a girl. Or at least, it was a guy at first glance. He was actually a satyr wearing a rasta cap, with curly brown hair and a wispy beard. 

The girl, Leo realized, he did recognize. It was Thalia, Jason’s sister, who he had met months ago. She still had short, spiky black hair and electric blue eyes. Unlike emo boy, she looked like she was confused between going punk or goth and had chosen to be both. She was extremely pretty though, her features accentuated by the silver circlet on her head. 

Percy's eyes immediately focused on Annabeth, but as he was about to run over, his eyes glanced over to the corner where Hazel and emo boy were standing. His face did a little twitch and he went, "Nico."

It was hard to read the emotions within the tone, but Percy's voice was loud and clear. Was there happiness, relief, or anger? Maybe all three. 

Either way, all conversation on deck stopped.

Probably hearing his name, emo boy turned toward the sound and his face seemed to pale even further. The poor guy, Nico, looked like he was unsure whether Percy wanted to punch him back to Camp Half-Blood or crush him in a hug. 

Eventually, Percy’s face seemed to settle on relief and confusion. “You’re weren’t captured by the giants…?”

There were a couple beats of awkward silence as the guy, Nico, seemed ready to bolt. Neither he nor Hazel explained anything.

Annabeth broke the tension with a clap of her hands. “Alright, why don’t we find a place to sit down and talk. We can go to the mess hall. Leo, why don’t you get us flying? We shouldn’t stay in one place for too long.”

It was a bit awkward deciding where and how everyone should sit, since Leo had designed the space to only comfortably fit seven demigods and one satyr. Of course, there was room for more and conditions could be worse. 

(Percy joked that the overcrowded seating reminded him of his first days at Camp Half-Blood.)

No, most of the tension came from where everyone would sit and who they sat next to. Just earlier that day, Percy and Jason had tried to sit in the same spot at the head of the table. After some silent staring, both boys had been kicked out of the spot and Annabeth had been nominated the de-facto leader. 

Now, everyone on board seemed to know Percy and Annabeth, but Reyna didn’t look too happy to be sitting in the Argo II. Leo thought that was understandable, given that New Rome was probably a pile of rubble at the moment. Still, he didn’t appreciate the death glare pointed his way.

Once everyone settled down, Annabeth nudged Percy with her elbow. The guy groaned. 

“Well, I think everyone knows who I am. Just in case any of you guys also had amnesia, I’m Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon.” 

Annabeth didn’t look too happy about the amnesia joke, but Percy didn’t seem to care. 

“I’m not going to give any titles or anything, though feel free to add your own. Though, I could probably spout some fun facts about myself. Maybe I should be as dramatic as Chiron.”

(A small part of Jason wanted to dislike Percy. Maybe it was jealousy, maybe it was the Greek-Roman thing, maybe it was a Big 3 thing. Either way, Jason was going to ignore it.)

“Shut up, Seaweed Brain.” Annabeth went next. “I’m Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena.”

“Grover Underwood, a satyr from Camp Half-Blood,” said the satyr. “Lord of the Wild.”

The new girl spoke next. “Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant of Artemis.” She looked over at Jason. “For those of you wondering, I don’t like to use my last name. But yes, Jason is my brother.”

Jason smiled. “I also had my memories stolen, but I’m Jason Grace, son of Jupiter.” He hesitated a little, looking at Reyna and then at Percy. “Praetor of the Twelfth Legion.”

Percy laughed. “No worries, dude. I’m a Graecus.”

Reyna did not seem to find that funny, glaring at both of them. “The leadership of New Rome is a serious matter.”

There was another beat of silence before Piper introduced herself. “Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite.”

“Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus. You may call me Supreme Commander of the Argo II, the Super-sized McShizzle, Bad Boy Supreme.”

Percy snorted at the names. “Alright, Admiral Leo.”

Leo hit a button on his Wii remote and gave himself some fake applause. 

Most of the tension in the room broke. 

“Gleeson Hedge, call me Coach Hedge. Satyr.” Despite being seated, the satyr swung his baseball bag. Or at least, attempted to. “Now don’t you cupcakes break any rules under my watch!”

Coach Hedge would have hit someone with his bat, but the other satyr, Grover, spoke up before that could happen. “It’s nice to see you again, Gleeson. I hope everything is well.”

Coach Hedge seemed embarrassed by something and muttered to himself. 

“Okay then, I’m Frank Zhang, son of Mars. Centurion of the Fifth Cohort.” The big guy glanced at Percy, then added, “I’m also a descendent of Poseidon.”

Percy beamed at him. “We don’t have to talk about the family tree.”

Thinking about all the ancient heroes they were technically related to, the other demigods grimaced. 

“Reyna, daughter of Bellona.” Sitting next to Frank, Reyna shot another glare at Leo before speaking. “Praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata.”

(Piper’s eyes seemed to glint, but it was hard to tell with her kaleidoscope eyes.)

Hazel spoke before anything could happen. “Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto.”

Last but not least was emo boy. “Nico di Angelo. I’m a son of Hades.” He looked around the room, but avoided everyone’s eyes. “To the Romans, I’m the Ambassador of Pluto.”

Reyna’s eyes hardened. “You’re a Greek?”

Annabeth turned on him too. “How long have you known about both Camps?”

Nico glanced at Percy, half-pleading and half-expecting the other to turn on him too.

Percy stared at Nico for a few moments, before giving the other a look that said ‘this isn’t over’. “Lay off him, he probably had to swear an oath of silence.”

Nico nodded quickly. “Please don’t kill me.”

“But don’t you want to be called the Ghost King?” Percy teased him, turning his head to the side.

“No,” Nico bit out, but he seemed to be blushing.

After Percy finished chuckling, there was another bout of silence. 

“So….,” said Leo.

Everyone turned their eyes to him and he lost his train of thought. It was also possible that he hadn’t been thinking. 

“Uhm, great talk guys. I know we’re on this important quest and all, but I think we could use some cheering up.” Leo winced as he snuck a glance at Reyna, sounding guilty. “Jason and Piper, remember that old box we found in the Big House’s attic? I still have it. I think it’s a good time to listen to the tapes now.”

Piper nodded. “I think that’s a good idea, might be good on our nerves.”

Annabeth didn’t look so convinced. “Is it really a good time to listen to tapes right now? We can’t keep everyone on board and we need to start heading for the Ancient Lands.”

Percy made a strange face. “Wait, hold on. Did you say ‘tapes’? From the attic of the Big House?”

Jason looked at him, “Yeah.”

Percy furrowed his eyebrows but didn’t say anything else so Leo shrugged and grabbed the box.

Scowling at it, Percy said, “I think we’ll be just fine, Annabeth. No need to worry about wasting time.”

Annabeth seemed just as confused as everyone else, but Grover snorted. Neither the satyr nor Percy offered any more information about the tapes, so Leo brought the first one out and pressed play. 

With a whirring sound, the recording began.

Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.

“Mood.” 

“I don’t think anyone does.”

Annabeth discreetly glanced at Percy, who was still scowling. 

If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is… Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It’s scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways… if you recognize yourself in these… stop … immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it’s only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they’ll come for you.

“Well isn’t that dramatic.”

“Can’t say they’re wrong though.”

“This is depressing, maybe we should stop listening.”

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“You didn’t warn me.”

“A little late for that now,” said Piper.

“I don’t think this is making me feel more confident,” Leo muttered, already regretting his decision.

My name is Percy Jackson.

Everyone turned to look at Percy, who grimaced. Shooting the tapes a dirty look, he said, “I thought Chiron got rid of that.”

“Is this what you made for him when he asked?” Annabeth wondered. 

“Yeah,” sighed Percy. “It turned into more of a long diary entry, so we got rid of it.”

“You already know that Chiron hoards things in the Attic, for posterity or something.”

Grover snickered. “This is going to be embarrassing for you then.”

“Well, I think they were enchanted at some point. While they don’t stop time, they can at least slow down time. As long as you all don’t care about missing any sleep or anything, we can just listen to this.”

“Hit the hay and have nightmares?” said Leo. “No, thanks.”

Everyone but Percy seemed excited to listen now. The newer Greek campers wanted to know how much about the legendary Percy Jackson was the truth. The Romans just wanted to know more about their new friend, what he’d been like before his amnesia. The long-time friends of Percy just wanted to understand the inner workings of his brain. 

Am I a troubled kid?

“Yes”, said half of the group.

Yeah. You could say that.

The entire group laughed as Percy grumbled at his past self. “You weren’t supposed to agree.”

I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan … heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

Annabeth visibly perked up at the sound of that. A visit to that Met sounded wonderful to her. 

I know – it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.

There were sounds of agreement from multiple people in the room. Annabeth, however, made a gasp of offense and glared at Percy.

But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes… I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn’t get in trouble.

“By the way,” Percy said, “Mr. Brunner is Chiron.”

He didn’t give anyone time to respond.

See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn’t aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. 

“How do you accidentally fire a canon?” asked Frank. “Especially if you’re in fifth grade?” 

The others just stared at Percy, who shrugged.“I probably pressed the wrong button.”

And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. 

“The sharks were telling me to push the wrong lever,” Percy explained, before anyone could ask him. “I didn’t know that I was the only one who could hear them. I thought it was the teacher who told me.”

Reyna looked at him weirdly. “You can speak fish?”

“No, I can speak Frank.”

And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.

“Holy Hephaestus, dude! Can we have a story-time?” 

“No, that’s what this is.”

Leo was visibly disappointed by Percy’s succinct answer. He’d hoped they could toast some marshmallows over a campfire or something. Then again, that would probably make them miss Camp Half-Blood.

This trip, I was determined to be good.

“Don’t jinx yourself like that,” muttered Thalia.

All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Grover blushed, realizing that this wasn’t going to be the greatest for him either. “Honestly, I can still smell that sandwich she threw in my nightmares.”

“Grover, oh my gods.”

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must’ve been held back several grades… On top of all that… he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don’t let that fool you. You should’ve seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.

Those who had only recently met Grover stared at him, comparing the current him to the one described.

“Jeez Percy, could you be any nicer with your description? I thought I was your best friend.”

“You’re welcome, G-man.”

Anyway…I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death-by-in-school-suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

Leo, the only one in the room who understood what that felt like, groaned in agreement. Anything that had to do with sitting silently and doing homework was torture for anyone with ADHD or dyslexia. 

The other demigods weren’t so sure what to think about it, as most of them had not gone to school. While Piper had gone to school, her problems were more on the ‘trying to get my parent’s attention’ sort. 

“No wonder you got along so well with the Stolls,” mused Annabeth. 

Looking back on it, I wish I’d decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would’ve been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.

“Do you think I actually could have avoided everything if I punched her?” Percy asked, pausing the tape for a moment.

Annabeth thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No. Considering Mrs. Dodds, I don’t think you would have lasted that much longer.”

Grover nodded in agreement. “They were just waiting for you to mess up. Given the weather, it wouldn’t have taken much longer. Plus, if you punched Nancy Bobofit, Mrs. Dodds would have called you out for that too.”

“Mrs. Dodds can suck it.” Percy sighed. “Anyways, I can title the sections of the recordings with little made up names if you would like? They might spoil the story though.”

“Do it.”

“I Accidentally Vaporize My Maths Teacher.”

Frank looked at Percy weirdly. “How do you accidentally vaporize someone?”

“You’ll see.”

[Mr. Brunner] told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

Mrs.Dodds was this little maths teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last maths teacher had a nervous breakdown… 

“You know, looking back, I’m pretty sure Mrs. Dodds caused that mental breakdown.”

Grover nodded at Percy’s comment.

Nico had the vague feeling that this ‘Mrs. Dodds’ should be familiar to him.

One time, after she’d made me erase answers out of old maths workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn’t think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me real serious and said, ‘You’re absolutely right.’

“Good job, Grover,” Thalia said. “Way to blow your cover.”

Grover snorted. “Percy didn’t notice, so it was obviously fine.”

“No, that’s just him being stupid.”

“Hey!”

Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.

“We do love seeing signs about death.”

All the people sighed in agreement. Why did most of the stories told have to end in pain and sorrow? Couldn’t a hero just get a ‘happily ever after’?

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. ‘Perhaps you’ll tell us what this picture represents?’

I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. ‘That’s Kronos eating his kids, right?’

“Although I’m proud you remembered the story, I’m not sure how I feel about the field trip basically telling the future,” Annabeth commented.

Those that had not been at Camp Half-Blood were startled. Kronos? 

Some of them, like Reyna and Jason, looked grim as they remembered their own part in the Second Titan War. 

‘Yes,’ Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. ‘And he did this because…’

‘Well…’ I racked my brain to remember. ‘Kronos … he didn’t trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters –’

“Ew”, said Leo.

‘Eeew!’ said one of the girls behind me.

The group laughed.

‘– and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans,’ I continued, ‘and the gods won.’ 

“I do like that part of the whole foreshadowing thing,” nodded Annabeth, smiling. 

Thalia hummed in agreement. “Though, I wouldn’t say it was the gods against the Titans.”

Percy was caught between feeling incredibly flustered and depressed as he remembered the battle fought in Manhattan and his role in all of it. 

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, ‘Like we’re going to use this in real life. Like it’s going to say on our job applications, “Please explain why Kronos ate his kids”.’

“Imagine if it did though, like we had to apply to become demigods or something.”

“It wouldn’t happen because no one would apply.”

“You don’t know that. Some people are suicidal like that, like adrenaline junkies, you know.”

‘And why, Mr. Jackson,’ Brunner said, ‘to paraphrase Miss Bobofit’s excellent question, does this matter in real life?’

“Busted,” some of them chorused.

‘Busted,’ Grover muttered.

The group laughed. 

I thought about his question, and shrugged. ‘I don’t know, sir.’

‘I see.’ Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. ‘Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine… The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it’s time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?’

“On a happy note?” Hazel questioned. “How is that happy ?”

“The gods won and Kronos became string cheese.”

Grover stopped eating the piece of cheese he was holding. “Stop, you’re gonna make me lose my appetite.”

Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, ‘Mr. Jackson.’ … I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned towards Mr. Brunner. ‘Sir?’

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn’t let you go – intense brown eyes that could’ve been a thousand years old and had seen everything.

“I mean…,” said Thalia. “He is pretty old.”

‘You must learn the answer to my question,’ Mr. Brunner told me… ‘What you learn from me,’ he said, ‘is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.’

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, “I’m surprised that you didn’t get any weird ideas about yourself considering he said that.”

“Well, what can I say? I’m special like that.”

I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard… Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. 

“Never been above C-level,” laughed Leo.

The whole group groaned as Leo started cackling. 

“C-level, like sea-level. Son of the sea god and all. Get it?”

“Shut up, Valdez,” said Piper, but she couldn’t help but laugh too. “That was terrible.”

“You know it’s bad when you have to explain yourself,” said Jason, fighting a smile. 

Nico snorted and even Reyna cracked a small smile. 

No – he didn’t expect me to be as good ; he expected me to be better… I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he’d been at this girl’s funeral.

“He probably was at the funeral.”

“That’s depressing.”

Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I’d ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas… I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. 

Nobody else seemed to notice. 

“Of course not, the Mist is powerful,” commented Hazel.

“Well it’s not like I knew that then. I didn’t have a very good understanding of the Mist, I probably still don’t.”

I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom’s apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat… She’d send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn’t be able to stand that sad look she’d give me.

“Dude, six schools in six years?” Leo shouted. “And I thought I was a wreck.” 

Leo, of course, did not mention the fact that he was basically on the run from the authorities every year though. 

Piper nodded in agreement. She’d had her fair share of school-switching, but it hadn’t been entirely as terrible. Guess it was a Big 3 thing. 

“That’s what the guys in the Hermes cabin said when they knew. I think it’s a record.”

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.

“It’s like Buford the Table!” Leo’s eyes gleamed.

I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends… I tried to stay cool. The school counsellor had told me a million times, ‘Count to ten, get control of your temper.’ But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.

“I like how you describe it as a wave . You really only think about the sea,” Thalia joked. 

“The sea and Annabeth!” Grover added on. 

“Shut up.”

I don’t remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, ‘Percy pushed me!’

… All I knew was that I was in trouble again.

As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I’d done something she’d been waiting for all semester. 

“She had been waiting for it all semester,” said Grover. “That’s why she was there.”

‘Now, honey –’

Nico thought he knew what sort of monster Mrs. Dodds was. To his knowledge, there was only one monster who loved calling demigods ‘honey’. 

‘I know,’ I grumbled. ‘A month erasing textbooks.’

That wasn’t the right thing to say.

“No, it wasn’t. You should never guess your punishment.”

“That’s what the Stolls said too. Apparently it’s like a rule that they are taught once they’re claimed.”

‘Come with me,’ Mrs. Dodds said.

‘Wait!’ Grover yelped. ‘It was me. I pushed her.’

I stared at him, stunned. I couldn’t believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs Dodds scared Grover to death.

She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

‘I don’t think so, Mr. Underwood,’ she said.

‘But –’

‘You – will – stay – here.’

Grover looked at me desperately.

‘It’s okay, man,’ I told him. ‘Thanks for trying.’

“Thanks,” Percy said to Grover. “I really did appreciate it, you know.”

“I was just trying to save you from death. All in a day’s work, it was no problem.”

‘Honey,’ Mrs. Dodds barked at me. ‘ Now. ’

Nancy Bobofit smirked.

I gave her my deluxe I’ll-kill-you-later stare. 

The people who had seen Percy angry and glaring winced. 

Leo, especially, cringed in his seat. They seemed to be all good now, but he remembered just how angry Percy had looked once Leo had first gotten back in control of his body.

I then turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn’t there.

She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

How’d she get there so fast?

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I’ve missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.

I wasn’t so sure.

“Sometimes,” Annabeth said, “You’re smarter than you let on.”

“Did you just call me smart?”

“Shut up, Seaweed Brain.”

I went after Mrs. Dodds.

Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.

I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.

“I really hate ADHD sometimes,” muttered Leo. He was currently fiddling with a piece of metal, spinning and molding it into different shapes. 

“Dude, I know right?”

“I think,” Annabeth commented, “You and Percy have some of the worst cases of ADHD I’ve seen, even for demigods.”

I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.

Except for us, the gallery was empty.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. 

“Of course she had to choose to do it in front of the gods.”

“Well duh, how else would she get all the glory from attacking an unarmed 12-year-old.”

She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling… ‘You’ve been giving us problems, honey,’ she said.

I did the safe thing. I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’

“Wow, that’s a first,” said Thalia.

“Hey!” 

Percy protested but quickly gave up as he looked at his friends. Apparently, he had little instinct for self-preservation.

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. ‘Did you really think you would get away with it?’ The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.

“Well,” said Nico, speaking for the first time since the recording had started. “I wouldn’t say she’s ‘evil’. I think she just really hates you.”

“No,” said Percy. “She hates me because of this.”

“Wait, you know Mrs. Dodds?” asked Piper, looking at Nico weirdly.

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“I’m the son of Hades.”

“Thanks man,” answered Leo. “Thank you for the thoughtful insight.”

She’s a teacher, I thought nervously. It’s not like she’s going to hurt me.

“Ha ha,” Nico laughed dryly. “Of course not.”

“I mean,” Percy said, “I don’t think she was genuinely trying to kill me, so that’s a plus.”

I said, ‘I’ll – I’ll try harder, ma’am.’

‘We are not fools, Percy Jackson,’ Mrs. Dodds said. ‘It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.’

“To be honest, they kind of were fools,” said Thalia. 

“Spoilers!” yelled Percy and Grover.

That really didn’t seem like a spoiler, considering everyone sitting there already knew about the Second Titan War. 

“So, confess to what?” asked Jason. 

The ones who knew only shrugged, indicating for the others to wait and listen.

I didn’t know what she was talking about.

All I could think of was that the teachers must’ve found the illegal stash of candy I’d been selling out of my dorm room. 

“Dude!” yelled Leo. “Get that cash money!”

Or maybe they’d realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.

Annabeth turned and frowned at Percy, who shrank back a bit. “I have dyslexia, you know. I didn’t want to torture myself.”

Annabeth smacked him on the arm for that. “I have dyslexia too.”

“Well, not everyone is you , Wise Girl.”

‘Well?’ she demanded.

‘Ma’am, I don’t…’

‘Your time is up,’ she hissed. 

“What!” protested Frank. “That wasn’t fair, she didn’t give you any time at all!”

Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn’t human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

“A Fury,” said Nico. “Even though I already knew that, part of me still can’t believe that your first monster was a Fury.”

Percy could only shrug. Honestly, the monsters only got worse from there.

Piper, Leo, and the Romans stared at Percy in shock. 

“A Fury?” Hazel’s voice was a higher-pitched than normal. “But aren’t you weaponless?”

Then things got even stranger.

Mr. Brunner, who’d been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

‘What ho, Percy!’ he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

“I think the next time I throw something at anyone, I’m going to say that,” Leo said. 

“Can you imagine Clarisse doing that?” Percy asked Grover. “Like going ‘what ho’ as she throws a punch and knocks someone’s lights out?”

“Percy, I think that some ideas should stay in your head.” 

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

“Dodge!”

Several people shouted at the same time, forgetting that this was just a recording of past events.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air—

“How’s that pen going to help you?” asked Jason.

but when it hit my hand, it wasn’t a pen any more. It was a sword – Mr. Brunner’s bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

“Oh,” said Jason, very intelligently. 

Annabeth smiled, though it seemed tinged with a bit of pity. “Yeah, it’s like your old sword.”

“ Old sword? What happened to it?” asked Reyna, confused.

“Enceladus destroyed it,” Jason responded, not willing to go into details. 

Mrs. Dodds spun towards me with a murderous look in her eyes.

My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

“I probably would have,” commented Frank. There was truth to that statement, considering Percy’s age at the time. After all, Frank knew how clumsy he was. The trip to Alaska had been his first quest and he’d been scared to mess up. He’d even gotten a month of training in!

She snarled, ‘Die, honey!’

And she flew straight at me.

Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. 

The others stared at him. Was swinging the sword the natural move? They weren’t so sure. 

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“Use the sword as a shield,” responded Jason.

“Drop the sword,” offered Hazel.

“Scream in terror,” Leo suggested.

The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water… Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulphur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.

The others gaped at Percy, who shivered as he remembered the feeling. Had that really happened?

“You killed a Fury in one hit?” Reyna’s eyes were wide. 

“Yeah.”

“Without training whatsoever?”

Percy shrugged. “Yeah.” He hadn’t really gotten much formal training, period. Most of his subsequent summers were spent on quests, mostly hands-on experience. 

I was alone.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

Mr. Brunner wasn’t there. Nobody was there but me.

My hands were still trembling. My lunch must’ve been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.

“I wonder what I would see if I ate magic mushrooms.”

“Don’t try it.”

Had I imagined the whole thing?

I went back outside.

It had started to rain.

Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, ‘I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt.’

“Who?” chorused most of the people in the room.

Percy snorted.

I said, ‘Who?’

Thalia and Nico groaned at the realization that they thought like Percy. 

‘Our teacher. Duh!’

I blinked… I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

He said, ‘Who?’

“Grover isn’t too great at lying though,” said Annabeth. Thalia nodded in agreement.

Grover blushed. “I’m getting better at it.”

“Why are you practicing lying?”

“Blame the Hermes cabin.”

But he paused first, and he wouldn’t look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.

‘Not funny, man,’ I told him. ‘This is serious.’

I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he’d never moved.

I went over to him.

He looked up, a little distracted. ‘Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson.’

“For your information, I was known to always lose pens, so it was pretty normal for me to ask and borrow pens and pencils. It wasn’t so normal for me to return them though.”

I handed it over. I hadn’t even realized I was still holding it.

‘Sir,’ I said, ‘where’s Mrs. Dodds?’

He stared at me blankly. ‘Who?’

Thalia nodded. “Chiron is much better at lying.”

“It’s because he gets practice from lying to all the demigods,” muttered Grover.

Thalia smacked him. “Don’t say that, even if it’s true.”

‘The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The maths teacher.’

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. ‘Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?’

Chapter Text

“Well, let’s keep going!” Percy smiled, as if he hadn’t just described himself killing a Fury. “The next one I shall title ‘Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death’.”

Everyone else was still slightly in shock, so he just allowed the recording to continue. 

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but… For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me… Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

“You’re not psychotic,” said Thalia. 

“Thanks—”

“But you do say the dumbest things sometimes.”

“The Mist can be quite powerful, though,” said Hazel.

“Yes,” agreed Annabeth. “Especially if used by someone with a lot of experience.”

It got so I almost believed them – Mrs. Dodds had never existed. Almost.

Thalia sighed. “It was Grover, wasn’t it?”

But Grover couldn’t fool me… Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

I didn’t have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

“Sometimes, I almost wished that those were the only nightmares that I got,” Percy muttered.

All the other demigods grumbled in assent. Their dreams were never the best but they all remembered their first monsters and subsequent nightmares.

The freak weather continued, which didn’t help my mood… I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time… 

“You know, you seem to have a strong connection with Poseidon. Based on your emotions, I mean. Then again…” Annabeth snuck a glance at Thalia. “There aren’t any other children of Zeus or Poseidon I can ask about that period of time.”

Jason glanced quizzically at Thalia, who shook her head. She wasn’t in commission that summer, but it would be explained later on. 

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn’t even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.

“It means an old drunk,” said Annabeth.

… As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn’t forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn’t sure why, but I’d started to believe him.

“Well thank god you studied for Latin at least,” said Annabeth.

On the other hand, Grover muttered, “It didn’t really help him that much in the end though.”

To that, Annabeth could only agree. Percy studied the Greek myths, but it probably hadn’t helped him much that summer. 

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon—

“I think you know the difference now,” laughed Annabeth and Grover.

“Bet he didn’t like that,” said Nico.

Percy nodded in agreement. 

or Polydectes and Polydeuces…

“Polydectes was the king of the island Perseus and his mother washed up upon. Polydeuces, better known as Pollux, was one of the Twin Heroes,” Annabeth reminded everyone.   

I paced the room… Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers… I walked downstairs to the faculty offices… I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover’s said, ‘… worried about Percy, sir.’

I froze. I’m not usually an eavesdropper—

“I don’t know about the part about not being an eavesdropper,” muttered Nico.

Percy protested, “Hey! You can’t say that.”

Nico grimaced, shooting a glare at the elder. . 

but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.

“I would listen,” agreed Leo. 

‘… alone this summer,’ Grover was saying. ‘I mean, a Kindly One in the school ! Now that we know for sure, and they know too –’

‘We would only make matters worse by rushing him,’ Mr. Brunner said. ‘We need the boy to mature more.’

“And when would that be?” asked Thalia. 

… ‘Sir, I… I can’t fail in my duties again.’ 

Duties? What duties did a faun-satyr have? The Romans mulled over this question. 

Grover’s voice was choked with emotion. ‘You know what that would mean.’

“What do you mean again, Grover,” said Thalia. “You didn’t fail the first time either.”

Grover just shook his head sadly. Sure, all’s well that ends well, but the guilt was still there. 

‘You haven’t failed, Grover,’ Mr. Brunner said kindly. ‘I should have seen her for what she was. Now let’s just worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn –’

The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

“Oops,” said Leo. “You shouldn’t have given your location away.”

“No duh.”

Mr. Brunner went silent.

My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall… I opened the nearest door and slipped inside… A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

“Actually,” said Grover. “I’m pretty sure we knew you were there. At least, I think Chiron did. My nerves really weren’t too good that summer.”

… Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he’d been there all night… I turned so he couldn’t read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.

“It didn’t work,” said Grover. “Although we didn’t have an Empathy Link back then, I could read your emotions pretty well.”

“Can all satyrs do that?”asked Piper.

Reyna looked over, rather interested in the difference between fauns and satyrs.

“Some are better than others, but I think most satyrs can.”

The others looked at Coach Hedge, who only stared back at them. “What are you cupcakes looking at me for? Any one of you wish to say ‘hello’ to my bat?”

“Gleeson is more of a physical protector,” continued Grover. “He was Clarisse’s protector, after all. But he has some nice healing magic.”

Coach Hedge didn’t say anything to that description. It was the truth, he just focused on a different aspect of nature compared to other satyrs. Jason, Piper, and Leo remembered the old satyr’s ‘sports medicine’ and also held their tongues. 

“By the way, Gleeson, you can IM home if you would like. It’ll still work. There won’t be too much action for the time being so you won’t miss a thing.”

Coach Hedge got up, looking at the demigods as if daring them to act up while he was gone. Then he walked out of the mess hall and down the corridor, towards his own room. 

I didn’t understand what I’d heard downstairs… But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.

“You really were in a lot of danger. I don’t really understand why Chiron wanted you to stay there, and not at Camp Half-Blood,” said Grover. “Though, you wouldn’t be safe at Camp either.”

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I’d misspelled—

“Three hours?” yelled Leo. “Man, how are you alive?”

Mr. Brunner called me back inside… ‘Percy,’ he said. ‘Don’t be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It’s… it’s for the best.’

“Chiron,” said Annabeth, “isn’t really the best at giving these kinds of talks, is he?”

“No,” Percy answered. “He really isn’t.”

Thalia shrugged. “At least he’s trying his best.”

‘I mean…’ Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn’t sure what to say. ‘This isn’t the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.’

“Ouch, that must have hurt,” said Piper.

“It did. Looking back on it though, he probably struggled not saying ‘demigod’ or explaining it in a way that wouldn’t hurt,” Percy explained.

‘No, no,’ Mr Brunner said. ‘Oh, confound it all. What I’m trying to say… you’re not normal, Percy. That’s nothing to be –’

“But you aren’t normal,” joked Thalia.

“Thanks,” Percy drawled in response. “I’m flattered.”

With a more serious edge to her voice, Annabeth said, “No, Percy. You aren’t really a normal demigod either.”

The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover but, as it turned out, I didn’t have to. He’d booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

“Grover, that’s kind of creepy,” Leo noted. 

“Eh,” Percy shrugged. “I think I was so used to being with Grover that it didn’t really register as creepy. You know, best friends go everywhere together.”

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he’d always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen… Finally… I said, ‘Looking for Kindly Ones?’

“You probably gave him a heart attack.” Annabeth and Thalia laughed together, while Grover blushed.

“He did.”

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. ‘Wha – what do you mean?’

I confessed about eavesdropping… Grover’s eye twitched. ‘How much did you hear?’

“Oh, only basically everything.”

‘Oh… not much. What’s the summer-solstice deadline?’

“What is the summer-solstice deadline?”

The others looked at Percy, who didn’t answer. 

“Just keep listening.”

He winced. ‘Look, Percy… I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon maths teachers… And I was telling Mr Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs Dodds, and…’

‘Grover, you’re a really, really bad liar.’

“Oh! He called you out!” yelled Leo, like he wanted to instigate a fight. 

Grover’s ears turned pink. 

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. ‘Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.’

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes… 

“Why is it in a fancy script?” asked Frank.

“I think Mr. D made it that way.”

“Yeah,” said Percy. “He hates us. It must be entertaining for him.”

“Well—”

Leo was confused, there was no Mr. D that he knew of. “Who’s Mr. D?” 

Annabeth answered, “He’ll come up soon, I think.”

‘What’s Half –’

‘Don’t say it aloud!’ he yelped. ‘That’s my, um… summer address.’

My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I’d never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.

“Oh,” said Grover, looking at Percy. “I didn’t think you would see it that way. Sorry Perce.”

“No worries, I think it was the weather getting to me.”

He nodded. ‘Or… or if you need me.’

‘Why would I need you?’

Thalia frowned. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“I know. I didn’t mean it like that. I always need Grover to help me.”

It came out harsher than I meant it too.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam’s apple. ‘Look, Percy, the truth is, I – I kind of have to protect you.’

I stared at him.

All year long, I’d gotten in fights keeping bullies away from him. I’d lost sleep worrying that he’d get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me .

“Percy, I didn’t know you thought so much about me.”

Percy looked a little uncomfortable, but smiled. “I was worried. But yeah, defending against bullies is different from monsters.”

“I think we met plenty of bullies,” muttered Annabeth.

Grover, Thalia, Nico, and Percy all agreed to that statement. 

 ‘Grover,’ I said, ‘what exactly are you protecting me from?’

“Don’t jinx yourself like that.”

“Thanks Jason, I don’t think I ever learned that lesson.”

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway… We were on a stretch of country road – no place you’d notice if you didn’t break down there… across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand… There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I’d ever seen… All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

All the demigods present gasped, a chill crawling down their spines. They did not like the sound of those three ladies. 

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

‘Grover?’ I said. ‘Hey, man –’

‘Tell me they’re not looking at you. They are. Aren’t they?’

‘Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?’

“Not the time, Percy,” said Annabeth, her breaths coming out a little pained. 

‘Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.’

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors – gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

‘We’re getting on the bus,’ he told me. ‘Come on.’

“Good idea, Grover. He shouldn’t watch what happens.”

‘What?’ I said. ‘It’s a thousand degrees in there.’

‘Come on!’ He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.

Annabeth sighed. “At least you tried.”

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. 

There was a sharp inhale of breath as everyone stared at Percy in shock. Obviously, Percy was sitting there in front of all of them, so he was alive and well. (Okay. Maybe not well, but present and breathing.) Still, no one survived an encounter with the Fates, the ones where they cut a life-string.

“How are you…” Thalia couldn’t finish the question. Percy had taken on the burden of the Prophecy while that life-string loomed above his head?

Nico shook his head too. He had his fair share of burdens and problems, but Percy had attempted to save the world knowing that he would likely die in the process. 

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life… Once we got going. I started feeling feverish, as if I’d caught the flu.

Grover didn’t look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

“Hey, Grover.”

“Yeah?”

“How much of that do you think was the effect of the Fates?”

“Instead of… oh.” Grover thought for a while. “You think he’d already noticed you then?”

Annabeth had caught on to what they were talking about. “It is possible, considering that a Kindly One was watching him. If the gods knew, he might have also known.”

‘Grover… What are you not telling me?’

‘Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?’ 

“Three old ladies knitting the socks of death. Weren’t you paying attention, Grover?” Percy snarked. “I do kind of wonder why it was a fruit stand.”

Grover laughed, but the tension in the room didn’t ease. “No idea.”

‘You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They’re not like… Mrs. Dodds, are they?’...I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. 

“Well… not worse, per se. Though I wouldn’t recommend an encounter with them.”

Nico interjected then. “Alecto isn’t that bad. She tutored me in math.”

“That’s because you’re a son of Hades. And because she posed as a math teacher for months.”

He said, ‘Just tell me what you saw.’ 

‘The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.’

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might’ve been crossing himself, but it wasn’t. It was something else, something almost – older.

“Observant.”

He said, ‘You saw her snip the cord.’

‘Yeah. So?’ But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

‘This is not happening,’ Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. ‘I don’t want this to be like the last time.’

‘What last time?’

‘Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.’

Thalia and Annabeth looked over at Grover sadly, but they didn’t say anything. 

‘Grover,’ I said, because he was really starting to scare me. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.’

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. ‘Is this like a superstition or something… Grover – that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?’

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I’d like best on my coffin.

“The Demeter cabin would be happy to help pick flowers for your funeral,” said Leo.

“I wonder why they aren’t more like their mom,” wondered Percy.

Nico grimaced. “I’m honestly glad the Demeter kids aren’t.”

“It’s just because people don’t know what she’s really like.”

“You’ve met Demeter?” Jason sounded surprised. 

Leo had to take a moment and think about meeting one of the Olympian gods, especially one that was not your godly parent. Heck, he hadn’t even met Hephaestus in person yet. And according to what Jason had said about the Roman versions, Vulcan was taking the hands-off approach. 

“Yes, I’ve met Demeter.” Nico said that in a way that made it very clear how he thought about the meeting. Not good.

Percy nodded. “She’s not how you imagine the goddess of agriculture to be like, especially if you base it off the Demeter kids. A bit insane, if I do say so myself.”

Jason stared at him incredulously. “Did you just call a goddess insane ?”

“I’ve done worse. Most of the major Olympians are, though some of the minor gods and goddesses are too.”

How many immortals had Percy met? Most of the crew hadn’t even interacted with their godly parents yet. (That was probably because Zeus closed off Olympus. But, still.)

After the silence became too much for Leo, he said, “Well, anyone want some Lucky Charms?”

Percy and Nico looked at each other, then groaned.

Chapter Text

The crew settled for popcorn instead of cereal, as Percy and Nico seemed to have some bad experiences with the grains. Weirdly, Leo noticed that Hazel and Frank also seemed relieved that the crew had stuck to popping corn instead of variety grains. 

As they settled back down, Annabeth pressed the play button and the recording continued. 

Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.

Leo nodded. “I probably would have too.”

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering, ‘Why does this always happen?’ and, ‘Why does it always have to be sixth grade?’

“Dude,” said Leo. “That’s really creepy.”

Piper and Hazel nodded in agreement. 

“Grover, it wasn’t your fault the first time,” comforted Thalia. 

Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. … 

A word about my mother, before you meet her.

“The best person in the world,” said Percy.

“I love Aunt Sally,” said Annabeth.

Nico and Thalia nodded their agreement. 

Leo chimed in, “Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never-the-same, totally unique, completely-not-ever-been-done-before—”

“Shut up, Leo.” Piper interrupted him. “You all know her?”

“My mom’s a mortal, but she has clear sight. She’s a safe house now, so many demigods from Camp Half-Blood stop by on their way to or from quests. Maybe, when this is all over, you can all meet her.”

Her name is Sally Jackson and she’s the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn’t care much about her… Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school in her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family and no diploma.

Everyone hissed in sympathy. 

The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.

Percy smiled. 

I don’t have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile—

This made the other demigods wonder if their godly parents had ever visited them. Probably not. 

My mom doesn’t like to talk about him because it makes her sad… She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.

“Since your mom has clear sight, she obviously knew who your father was,” Annabeth stated.

“Yeah,” said Percy, with a questioning tone.

“So she didn’t really lie to you about what happened to him. Or about anything else regarding his identity either.”

“No, I guess she didn’t.”

Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colours as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe… The guy reeked like mouldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.

Percy wrinkled his nose. 

Most of the females, despite being demigods, blanched. Piper looked like she wanted to vomit. Hazel also looked a little green, though that might have been from the rocking of the ship. 

Between the two of us, we made my mom’s life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along… well, when I came home is a good example.

I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television was blaring. Crisps and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

If it were possible, Piper seemed to pale even further at the description. Given how neat she liked to be, even Annabeth had turned a bit white. 

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, ‘So, you’re home.’

‘Where’s my mom?’

‘Working,’ he said. ‘You got any cash?’

Frank seemed upset by that. “He didn’t ask how you were or anything? And why is he asking a 12-year-old for cash?”

That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

Piper essentially dry-heaved, shaking her head. Although she wasn’t too fond of being a daughter of Aphrodite, this Smelly Gabe seemed too revolting. She didn’t think that even Aphrodite’s blessing could fix him. 

He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time… Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our ‘guy secret’. Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.

“Has he ever actually hit you?”

Everyone turned to look at Percy with concern in their eyes. 

Said demigod seemed to shrink under the looks. “No.”

They didn’t believe him, but didn’t push it. 

‘I don’t have any cash,’ I told him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow… ‘You took a taxi from the bus station,’ he said. ‘Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?’

“He’s surprisingly smart,” muttered Annabeth.

“Only when it came to getting cash from me.”

‘Fine,’ I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. ‘I hope you lose.’

“I hope he lost too.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. 

I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn’t my room. During school months, it was Gabe’s ‘study’…I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.

“Was that sarcasm?”

“Not really.”

Gabe’s smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady’s shears snipping the yarn… A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone – something – was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

All the demigods in the room shivered. They all understood the feeling. Being a demigod was exhausting, having to move around in constant fear of an attack. Not fun at all. 

Then I heard my mom’s voice. ‘Percy?’

She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room… When she looks at me, it’s like she’s seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I’ve never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.

“She really is the best.”

The others also smiled. No one made fun of him for being a momma’s boy, since Sally Jackson seemed like the best mother in the world. 

‘Oh, Percy.’ She hugged me tight. ‘I can’t believe it. You’ve grown since Christmas!’

… While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn’t put in my letters…

… For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn’t too down about the expulsion. I’d lasted almost the whole year this time… I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself…Until that trip to the museum… 

‘What?’ my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. ‘Did something scare you?’

‘No, Mom.’

I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.

Grover glared at Percy. “You should have told her.”

“I know. I was twelve and stupid. Also, I had no idea about being a demigod.”

She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn’t push me. ‘I have a surprise for you,’ she said. ‘We’re going to the beach.’

My eyes widened. ‘Montauk?’

Annabeth smiled. Her boyfriend really loved the beach, but Montauk was special to him. He’d taken her there once on a date. While it wasn’t the most beautiful place, she’d felt connected to him and his life outside of Camp. 

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, ‘Bean dip, Sally? Didn’t you hear me?’

“I want to punch him.”

Everyone, especially Hazel, stared at Frank in shock. That wasn’t something the son of Mars would typically say. 

“What?” said Frank, looking at them. “He deserves it.”

‘I was on my way, honey,’ she told Gabe. ‘We were just talking about the trip.’

Gabe’s eyes got small. ‘The trip? You mean you were serious about that?’

‘I knew it,’ I muttered. ‘He won’t let us go.’

‘Of course he will,’ my mom said evenly. ‘Your stepfather is just worried about money. That’s all. Besides,’ she added, ‘Gabriel won’t have to settle for bean dip. I’ll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works.’

Gabe softened a bit. ‘So this money for your trip… it comes out of your clothes budget, right?’ 

A little part of Piper died at that. Even though she protested it, that part of Aphrodite did not like that. 

‘Yes, honey,’ my mother said.

‘And you won’t take my car anywhere but there and back.’

‘We’ll be very careful.’

Gabe scratched his double chin. ‘Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip… And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game.’

Frank positively growled. The others didn’t say anything this time. After all, no one liked Smelly Gabe. 

‘I’m sorry,’ I muttered. ‘I’m really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now.’

Gabe’s eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. ‘Yeah, whatever,’ he decided.

He went back to his game.

“Tch. My mother wouldn’t have blessed him with enough brains to detect sarcasm.”

‘Thank you, Percy,’ my mom said. ‘Once we get to Montauk, we’ll talk more about… whatever you’ve forgotten to tell me, okay?’

For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes – the same fear I’d seen in Grover during the bus ride – as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. 

“You really should have told her about everything.”

‘Not a scratch on this car, brain boy,’ he warned me as I loaded the last bag. ‘Not one little scratch.’

“Like he’d be the one driving,” said Frank.

Percy smirked. 

Like I’d be the one driving. I was twelve. 

The others in the room chuckled. 

But that didn’t matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he’d find a way to blame me.

Watching him lumber back towards the apartment building… I made the hand gesture I’d seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement towards Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he’d been shot from a cannon. 

“Woah.” Grover looked shocked and confused. “How did that work?”

Everyone turned to Annabeth, who also contemplated. “Not sure.”

… Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

Percy sighed. “East Coast beaches.”

Annabeth and the Romans smirked. “West Coast best coast.”

I loved the place.

We’d been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she’d met my dad.

“That’s sweet.”

As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the colour of the sea.

“Could she have any immortal blood in her?” wondered Annabeth. “Like a naiad or something?”

Percy wasn’t sure, he’d never thought about it. 

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin’s windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.

“What’s with the blue?”

Everyone nodded. Even though it had only been a couple hours, they’d all seen his obsession with blue anything. 

“Yeah, why not sea green?”

I guess I should explain the blue food.

See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue… This – along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano – was proof that she wasn’t totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.

Percy smirked. “The sea does not like to be restrained.”

“It’s not just a rebellious streak, it’s a lifestyle commitment. You've got a problem with authority.”

“Don’t make it sound worse than it is.”

…Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk – my father… ‘He was kind, Percy,’ she said. ‘Tall, handsome and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes.’

The crew all looked at Percy. 

Those who had never seen Poseidon, or Neptune, looked at him and thought what an older version would look like. 

The ones who had met the sea god compared Percy with his father. 

“You do look alike,” concluded Thalia. 

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. ‘I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud.’

I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.

“Well, he’s proud of you now.”

Percy smiled happily. 

‘How old was I?’ I asked. ‘I mean… when he left?’

She watched the flames. ‘He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin.’

‘But… he knew me as a baby.’

‘No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born.’

I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember… something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.

I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I’d felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he’d never even seen me…

I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He’d left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.

Many of the others looked down, they’d dealt with many of the same feelings. Though it wasn’t totally fair to their godly parents, they felt abandoned and resentful. 

“I understand why, now. They weren’t supposed to have too much contact with mortals and demigods. Also, I think it was also partially resenting Smelly Gabe.”

‘Are you going to send me away again?’ I asked her. ‘To another boarding school?’

‘I don’t know, honey.’ Her voice was heavy. ‘I think… I think we’ll have to do something.’ 

‘Because you don’t want me around?’ I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

My mom’s eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. ‘Oh, Percy, no. I – I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away.’

Her words reminded me of what Mr Brunner had said – that it was best for me to leave Yancy. ‘Because I’m not normal,’ I said.

“Yeah,” echoed Thalia. “You’re not normal.”

‘You say that as if it’s a bad thing, Percy. But you don’t realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you’d finally be safe.’

‘Safe from what?’

She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me – all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I’d tried to forget.

During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.

Percy made a thoughtful humming sound and they turned to him. It took a moment for him to realize they were waiting for his thoughts. “I’m pretty sure it was a cyclops that Poseidon sent to check on me, not a monster out to harm me. Considering it was a cyclops, it must have shielded me from other monsters while it was there. Still freaked me out though.”

Before that – a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I’d somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.

Jason looked over at Percy, surprised. “You strangled a snake, like Hercules?”

Percy scowled at the mention of the son of Zeus, which confused those who had not met him. “Yes, I did.” He stole a subtle glance in Thalia’s direction, spinning his pen in his right hand. “Not that I want to be like him.”

In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.

Piper and Leo both groaned in understanding. 

I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum… But I couldn’t make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn’t want that.

“You not telling her also ended the trip to Montauk. Shoulda thought of that, huh?”

“Grover, shut up. You’re going to make another cool appearance real soon.”

‘I’ve tried to keep you as close to me as I could,’ my mom said. ‘They told me that was a mistake. But there’s only one other option, Percy – the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can’t stand to do it.’

‘My father wanted me to go to a special school?’

‘Not a school,’ she said softly. ‘A summer camp.’

My head was spinning. Why would my dad – who hadn’t even stayed around long enough to see me born – talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn’t she ever mentioned it before?

“You didn’t think about how I handed you a card about Camp?” Grover looked a little upset, though his voice told them it was a joke. “Is that how quickly I leave your mind?”

“Aww, G-man, you know it’s not like that. You’re always on my mind.”

Thalia gagged. 

‘I’m sorry, Percy,’ she said, seeing the look in my eyes. ‘But I can’t talk about it. I – I couldn’t send you to that place. It might mean saying goodbye to you for good.’

‘For good? But if it’s only a summer camp…’

“Only a summer camp,” echoed the Greeks, thinking of Camp Half-Blood. Every one of them had quickly taken to the place. It was home. 

That night I had a vivid dream.

Percy grimaced. 

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf… As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

I ran towards them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse’s wide eyes, and I screamed, No!

I woke with a start.

“It’s really interesting how your dreams are like that…” Annabeth seemed to be deep in thought. “You often see things you shouldn’t know about.”

Percy could only shrug. “They’ve always been like that, even after I learned to control my dreams. It honestly only gets weirder. Especially during the second summer, I think.”

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses… With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, ‘Hurricane.’

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never saw hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. 

“I’m assuming that Zeus and Poseidon were really fighting, so what’s gotten them so angry at each other?”

“That would be a spoiler, my guy.”

“You know,” mumbled Leo, “I used to hate people who gave spoilers. Now I’m about ready to shake one out of you.”

Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.

Grover shivered. “Dude, he was so close that night. Still, I can’t believe you heard him.”

“I think it might have been my imagination, but thanks for coming for me man.”

Grover nodded. “That’s my job.”

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice – someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door… Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn’t… he wasn’t exactly Grover.

‘Searching all night,’ he gasped. ‘What were you thinking?’

My mother looked at me in terror… ‘Percy,’ she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. ‘What happened at school? What didn’t you tell me?’

I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.

“Ah, Grover,” laughed Thalia, trying to sound upbeat. “You’ve made poor little Percy Jackson go into shock.”

‘O Zeu kai alloi theoi!’ he yelled. ‘It’s right behind me! Didn’t you tell her?’

I was too shocked to register that he’d just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I’d understood him perfectly… Because Grover didn’t have his trousers on – and where his legs should be… where his legs should be…

“I really love that you got your priorities straight,” muttered Annabeth. 

“You’re welcome, it’s the ADHD talking.” Percy then turned and beamed at Grover. “Also, I think learning that Grover was a satyr was earth-shattering.”

My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she’d never used before: ‘Percy. Tell me now!’

I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, ‘Get to the car. Both of you. Go!’

Grover ran for the Camaro – but he wasn’t running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.

“Percy, you’re so dramatic sometimes.”

“Thanks, I live to be your entertainment. The theatrics run in the family, by the way.”

Thalia scowled at that comment. Jason, Nico, and Hazel looked a little bit confused. 

“You’ll see,” Percy promised, still laughing. “You’ll see.”

Chapter Text

“Oh! The last section was called ‘Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Trousers’. This upcoming one… I don’t want to talk about it.”

The others could see that Percy wasn’t too happy about this next part. 

We tore through the night along dark country roads… Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I’d gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet trousers… 

“Were you?”

“Why, yes, of course I was,” said Grover sarcastically. 

“Cool! I want a pair!” Leo interrupted. “Where’d you get them?”

All I could think to say was, ‘So, you and my mum… know each other?’

“Percy,” groaned Thalia. “Why are you so awkward?”

Hazel and Frank laughed at that. 

Grover’s eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. ‘Not exactly,’ he said. ‘I mean, we’ve never met in person. But she knew I was watching you.’

“Grover!” Thalia turned on the satyr this time. “You’re not any better with words either.”

“Yeah,” chimed in Leo, “That sounded real creepy.”

‘Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn’t faking being your friend,’ he added hastily. ‘I am your friend.’

“That makes you sound even more suspicious.”

‘Um… what are you, exactly?’

‘That doesn’t matter right now.’

‘It doesn’t matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey –’

Grover let out a sharp, throaty ‘Blaa-ha-ha!’ ‘Goat!’ he cried.

‘What?’

‘I’m a goat from the waist down.’

“You just said it didn’t matter though,” muttered Frank. 

‘You just said it didn’t matter.’

Percy laughed at the blank expression on Frank’s face. 

‘Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!’ 

The crew nodded at that. Coach Hedge was a good example of one such satyr. 

‘Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?’ 

‘So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!’

Annabeth groaned. “Why are you still thinking about that?”

“Hey!” Percy protested. “If everyone had been making you think like it was all a hallucination, you’d want confirmation of your sanity too.”

‘The less you knew, the fewer monsters you’d attract,’ Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. ‘We put Mist over the humans’ eyes. We hoped you’d think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are.’

‘Who I – wait a minute, what do you mean?’

“It does sound weird the first time you hear about everything,” agreed Piper. “Especially if you’re not at Camp.”

Leo nodded. It was really weird to have the whole Ancient Greek world sprung on you out of the blue, especially right after you almost got killed by a monster. 

The Romans looked at the Greeks with interest. Their introduction to the world of gods and demigods was obviously quite different from their counterparts’. 

‘Percy,’ my mom said, ‘there’s too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety.’

‘Safety from what? Who’s after me?’

‘Oh, nobody much,’ Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. ‘Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions.’

“Grover!”

Grover still seemed miffed, even now. “I love how I was wrong, but also completely right.”

Some of them looked at him weirdly — that comment hadn’t made much sense. 

‘Grover!’

‘Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?’

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn’t do it. I knew this wasn’t a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.

“I stand by my statement. I have no imagination.”

‘Where are we going?’ I asked.

‘The summer camp I told you about.’ My mother’s voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. ‘The place your father wanted to send you.’

“Ah, so Camp Half-Blood.”

"Where else?”

‘The place you didn’t want me to go.’

‘Please, dear,’ my mother begged. ‘This is hard enough. Try to understand. You’re in danger.’ 

‘Because some old ladies cut yarn.’

“Stop calling them old ladies."

‘Those weren’t old ladies,’ Grover said. ‘Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means – the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you’re about to… when someone’s about to die.’

‘Whoa. You said “you”.’

‘No I didn’t. I said “someone”.’

‘You meant “you”. As in me.’

‘I meant you, like “someone”. Not you, you.’

“Ah, semantics.”

“Still sort of confused how you’re still alive.”

Percy smiled. “Not sure. But probably friends. And a little luck.”

Grover complained, “What luck? You have terrible luck!”

Percy silently retaliated by chucking a piece of popcorn. 

‘Boys!’ my mom said. ‘We’re almost there,’ my mother said, ignoring my question. ‘Another mile. Please. Please. Please.’

I didn’t know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

… the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried and hosed down all at the same time… I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn’t dead. The car hadn’t really exploded. We’d swerved into a ditch… Lightning… We’d been blasted right off the road. 

Thalia scowled at the mention of lightning. Jason looked more confused. “Why did Zeus blast you with lightning?”

“You’ll see, probably in like the next section.”

[Grover] was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you’re my best friend and I don’t want you to die!

“Thanks Perce, that’s real sweet of you.”

Percy laughed, but he looked a little embarrassed. “You were, are my best friend.”

Then he groaned, ‘Food,’ and I knew there was hope.

Everyone laughed at that and Grover’s ears turned pink. He glared at Percy. 

… In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering towards us on the shoulder of the road… It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

Some of the demigod’s eyes widened, realizing what the monster chasing after Percy was. 

‘Climb out the passenger’s side!’ my mother told me. ‘Percy – you have to run. Do you see that big tree?’

“Hey! That’s me!” Thalia laughed. 

Grover grimaced a little as everyone stared at her weirdly. 

“What?” Jason looked at his sister in concern and confusion. 

‘That’s the property line,’ my mom said. ‘Get over that hill and you’ll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don’t look back. Yell for help. Don’t stop until you reach the door.’

‘Mom, you’re coming, too.’

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

‘No!’ I shouted. ‘You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover.’

… The man with the blanket on his head kept coming towards us, making his grunting, snorting noises…’He doesn’t want us ,’ my mother told me. ‘He wants you. Besides, I can’t cross the property line.’ 

‘But…’

‘We don’t have time, Percy. Go. Please.’

Annabeth and Thalia sighed. “Fatal flaw.”

Grover looked a little embarrassed at the fact that he had basically done nothing during this event other than pass out and drag everyone else down.

I got mad, then – mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering towards us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull…I didn’t wait for her answer… Together, we draped Grover’s arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine… His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns – enormous black- and-white horns with points you just couldn’t get from an electric sharpener.

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. 

“Well, at least one of Chiron’s Latin lessons was useful to you.”

“No,” countered Percy. “It didn’t really help me beat it.”

“Recognition is the first step.”

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. ‘That’s –’

‘Pasiphae’s son,’ my mother said. ‘I wish I’d known how badly they want to kill you.’

‘But a he’s a min–’

‘Don’t say his name,’ she warned. ‘Names have power.’

“Yeah, Percy,” mimicked Grover. “Names have power.”

Annabeth shook her head, “When will you ever learn not to just say their names like that.”

“Never.” Then Percy seemed to pout. “Plus, I give nicknames to the monsters and you guys get upset over what I call them, then get upset if I use their actual name. So what am I supposed to do?”

… The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows – or not looking, exactly…He picked up Gabe’s Camaro by the torn roof… and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

All the people in the room gave a collective “oops”. 

‘Percy,’ my mom said. ‘When he sees us, he’ll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way – directly sideways. He can’t change direction very well once he’s charging. Do you understand?’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘I’ve been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me.’

Percy smiled sadly. “She read all about the gods and monsters to keep me safe.”

The other demigods also smiled softly, though tinged with bitterness. Not all of their parents cared enough about them to study about the immortals. 

‘Keeping me near you? But –’

… My mother must’ve been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. ‘Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said.’

I didn’t want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right – it was our only chance. 

“She is right.”

“He’s literally half-bull, so he shares the characteristics of an actual bull.”

“Ever watched bull fighting?”

I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate… He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn’t work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration —

There was a collective sigh of relief. 

turned, but not towards me this time, towards my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

This time, there was a collective gasp. 

… The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back towards the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

‘Run, Percy!’ she told me. ‘I can’t go any further. Run!’

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she’d told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

‘Mom!’

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: ‘Go!’

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother’s neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply… gone.

“No!” Almost all the crew members yelled out at once. Hazel sounded a little choked up. 

Percy gripped his hands into fists, trying not to get too weighed down by the memories of watching his mother disappear like that. Annabeth slipped her hands into his and he relaxed slightly. 

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs – the same rush of energy I’d got when Mrs. Dodds grew talons… 

‘HEY!’ I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. ‘Hey, stupid! Ground beef!’

“That was a poor insult.”

“Shut up, Pinecone Face.”

‘Raaaarrrrr!’ The monster turned towards me, shaking his meaty fists.

I had an idea – a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. 

“Most of your ideas are stupid,” agreed Annabeth, smiling sweetly at Percy.

“At least I had an idea. Plus, it worked.”

I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I’d jump out of the way at the last moment. 

“Ah, so apparently you have watched bull fighting videos.”

“Coach Hedge would have loved this part.”

But it didn’t happen like that.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge… My legs tensed… I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature’s head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair and landing on his neck.

“How did you do that?” Frank asked, “You said you had no training.”

“Uh…”

… A millisecond later, the monster’s head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

Percy and Thalia both winced. 

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown…He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

“Have you ever ridden a rodeo bull?” Leo looked over, interested. He’d lived in Texas when he was younger so he’d seen others try it before, though he had never tried himself. 

Piper looked over interested, too. While she’d never ridden a bull, she had tried to ride a wild bronco back on the Rez. It had worked out quite well for her, but she was realizing now that her charmspeak may have helped.

Percy shook his head. 

… The bull-man wheeled towards [Grover], pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge… rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backwards with all my might. 

“That’s not going to work,” muttered Jason. 

The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then – snap!

“Woah!” Frank and Jason said at the same time.

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air… I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

The monster charged. 

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate… 

“Seriously man,” said Jason. “How did you do that?”

Percy shrugged. “I think it was mostly anger. The rain might have helped too.”

“The rain?” Annabeth looked over at Percy. “Either way, the rain hasn’t helped you at any other time.”

“Water is water is water.”

…  I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I’d just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help… I held on to Grover – I wasn’t going to let him go.

Grover smiled sadly. 

“I’ll never let go,” said Leo, mimicking Rose’s voice from Titanic .

Piper and Annabeth glanced at him. “Both of them could have fit.”

The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch… and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blonde hair curled like Cinderella’s. 

Percy and Annabeth both blushed as the others laughed.

“You thought I was pretty, even back then?”

Percy didn’t answer her, only looked away in embarrassment. He squeezed her hand a little tighter though. 

They both looked down at me, and the girl said, ‘He’s the one. He must be.’

“Really, Annie?” Thalia teased. “You weren’t really wrong there.”

“No,” responded Annabeth, her cheeks flaming. “He was the one.”

Percy gave her a sweet peck on the cheek and the others gagged at the show of affection, smiling at the reunited couple. 

‘Silence, Annabeth,’ the man said. ‘He’s still conscious. Bring him inside.’

Chapter Text

Annabeth looked around the room, then decided, “Let’s listen to one more section and then get up and stretch for a few moments. We can restock on snacks then too.”

Leo sighed in relief. No cliff-hangers for now. 

Percy looked more upbeat too. “This part’s called ‘I Play Pinochle With a Horse’.”

Everyone nodded so the session continued. 

To the side, Grover muttered, “You can't just call him a horse. That's like calling me a goat!”

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.

Grover chuckled awkwardly. 

I must’ve woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. 

“Nectar?” asked Piper. 

Annabeth shook her head. “Ambrosia.”

The girl with curly blonde hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon. When she saw my eyes open, she asked, ‘What will happen at the summer solstice?... What’s going on? What was stolen? We’ve only got a few weeks!’

Thalia frowned at Annabeth. “You shouldn’t ask him about things you shouldn’t know. Especially if it was obvious he didn’t know anything about it.”

Annabeth shrugged. “I was young and too excited about a new camper.”

… When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance… On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.

My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.

‘Careful,’ a familiar voice said.

Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn’t slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy.

Leo and Piper nodded. They remembered how much of a shock it had been to see Coach Hedge without his pants and fake feet on. 

‘You saved my life,’ Grover said. ‘I… well, the least I could do… I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this.’

Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.

Inside was a black-and-white bulls horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood… 

‘The Minotaur,’ I said.

The others, especially Annabeth and Grover, all sighed. 

‘Um, Percy, it isn’t a good idea –’

‘That’s what they call it in the Greek myths, isn’t it?’ I demanded. ‘The Minotaur. Half man, half bull.’

“You even repeated it twice!”

Some of the other demigods became more alert, as if the Minotaur might just pop into existence on the Argo II right then and there. 

Grover shifted uncomfortably. ‘You’ve been out for two days. How much do you remember?’

‘My mom. Is she really…’

He looked down.

I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

Thalia smiled. “Thanks.”

‘I’m sorry,’ Grover sniffled. ‘I’m a failure. I’m – I’m the worst satyr in the world.’

Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia all turned to Grover. “You’re not.”

The satyr smiled. “I know that now, but sometimes I still feel guilty.”

“Well, G-man,” Percy patted him on the back. “As long as you realize how much you’ve accomplished…”

… I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.

Nico and Hazel frowned. That didn’t seem like death to them. Dead people didn’t ‘dissolve into yellow light’, they just stopped breathing.

Also, Nico had met Sally Jackson before, so she was obviously still alive. 

I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with… Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I’d do something.

Annabeth and Grover snorted. Thalia shook her head. “You? Join the army? You were so scrawny you barely looked your age!”

“Thalia, you saw him after he at least got some training at Camp! Imagine what he was like before that!”

Percy groaned. “It wasn’t that bad.”

Grover shook his head, laughing. “Annabeth was taller than you back then!”

The others all looked at Percy sitting in front of them, trying to imagine what he looked like so many years ago. 

It was hard. 

The current him was tall, handsome, and lean. When they first met, Hazel had almost mistaken him for a Roman god. 

Reyna tried to remember what Percy had looked like back then, when he’d visited Circe’s Island. However, she hadn’t interacted with him, so she couldn’t remember much. 

Nico, too, had only met Percy after he became a hero of Camp Half-Blood. Even one summer of hard training would shape you up nicely. 

Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid – poor goat, satyr, whatever – looked as if he expected to be hit.

“Were you?”

“No.”

I said, ‘It wasn’t your fault.’

‘Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you.’

“For the record, G-man, you did protect me. As best as you could, at least. Just showing up at the cabin probably saved my life.”

‘Did my mother ask you to protect me?’

‘No. But that’s my job. I’m a keeper. At least… I was.’

‘But why…’ I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.

‘Don’t strain yourself,’ Grover said. ‘Here.’

He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.

I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. 

Piper nodded. It really was weird to expect an iced drink and getting something warm instead. 

It wasn’t that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies – my mom’s homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. 

“How do you make blue cookies?” asked Frank.

“Shh,” said Thalia. “Aunt Sally’s cookies are the best.”

… Before I knew it, I’d drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I’d just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn’t even melted.

‘Was it good?’ Grover asked.

I nodded.

‘What did it taste like?’ He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I should’ve let you taste.’

His eyes got wide. ‘No! That’s not what I meant. I just… wondered.’

‘Chocolate-chip cookies,’ I said. ‘My mom’s. Homemade.’

“Wait, is that now how it tastes to everyone?” asked Jason. Reyna and the other Romans nodded at the question. 

“Ah, right. Ambrosia is the food of the Greek gods.” Annabeth paused, then continued. “What do the Romans use then?”

“Powdered unicorn horn,” answered Reyna, sounding quite smug.

Leo gasped. “You have unicorns?”

“Anyways,” interrupted Annabeth, “Ambrosia tastes like the user’s favorite foods. Whatever is most comforting.”

He sighed. ‘And how do you feel?’

‘Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred metres.’

‘That’s good,’ he said. ‘That’s good. I don’t think you should risk drinking any more of that stuff.’

‘What do you mean?’

“Having too much can make a demigod feverish. Mortals would just burn up and die,” explained Annabeth. 

He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table.

Grover grumbled. “It’s not safe for satyrs to consume. We’d immediately burn up and die.”

 ‘Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting.’

… We must’ve been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to Long Island Sound, which glittered about a mile in the distance… The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture – an open-air pavilion, an amphitheatre, a circular arena – except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover’s were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.

The Romans tried to imagine what Camp Half-Blood looked like, turning to look at the magical panels Leo had installed for a better idea. The Greeks looked at the panels longingly. 

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table… The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes and curly hair so black it was almost purple… He looked like a cherub who’d turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would’ve fitted right in at one of Gabe’s poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could’ve out-gambled even my stepfather.

The Romans stared blankly at the description given. 

Percy hummed. “Mr. D probably could out-gamble Smelly Gabe.”

Annabeth thought for a moment. “He always lost against Chiron, though maybe gambling is different from pinochle.”

‘That’s Mr. D,’ Grover murmured to me. ‘He’s the camp director—

Most of the crew was startled. The guy Percy had just described was the camp director?

Be polite. The girl, that’s Annabeth Chase. She’s just a camper, but she’s been here longer than just about anybody—

Most of the crew stared at Annabeth. 

“How long?” asked Piper, trying to remember how many beads the other had on her necklace. 

Percy smiled, glancing at Jason’s arms. “Wise Girl over here is basically the Jason Grace of Camp Half-Blood.”

“Hmm,” agreed Annabeth. “I was older than him when I arrived at Camp though.”

The others nodded in understanding. Not everyone could be like Jason, delivered to Camp Jupiter when he was around three or four. 

And you already know Chiron…’

He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.

First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.

‘Mr. Brunner!’ I cried.

Grover shook his head. “Why you still called him that when I just introduced him as ‘Chiron’ still baffles me.”

Nico piped up. “He still refers Alecto as Mrs. Dodds too.”

‘Ah, good, Percy,’ he said. ‘Now we have four for pinochle.’

“That's the first thing he says to you…?”

He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. ‘Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now don’t expect me to be glad to see you.’

Jason, Piper, and Leo didn’t know how to feel about this Mr. D. How would they have felt if that was how they were welcomed to Camp? 

‘Uh, thanks.’ I scooted a little further away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

Thalia turned on Percy. “You swear that he’s never hit you before?”

Percy nodded slowly and the daughter of Zeus relaxed. 

‘Annabeth?’ Mr. Brunner called to the blonde girl.

She came forward and Mr Brunner introduced us. ‘This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don’t you go check on Percy’s bunk? We’ll be putting him in Cabin Eleven for now.’

Annabeth said, ‘Sure, Chiron.’

She was probably my age, maybe a couple of centimetres taller, and a whole lot more athletic- looking. 

“Imagine that,” snickered Grover. “You were real scrawny back then. There was a reason we were always bullied.”

“Yo, not the self-diss.”

With her deep tan and her curly blonde hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. 

Annabeth turned on Percy, who held his hand up in a ‘wait’ gesture.

They were a startling grey, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.

The blonde smiled, satisfied. “I was.”

Jason nodded at Percy. “Nice save, bro.”

She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a Minotaur! or Wow, you’re so awesome! or something like that.

Thalia rolled her eyes. “Not everything is about you, Kelp Head.”

Instead she said, ‘You drool when you sleep.’

Everyone laughed and Percy flushed. 

Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blonde hair flying behind her.

‘So,’ I said, anxious to change the subject. ‘You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?’

‘Not Mr. Brunner,’ the ex-Mr. Brunner said. ‘I’m afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron.’

‘Okay.’ Totally confused, I looked at the director. ‘And Mr. D… does that stand for something?’ 

“Yes,” said Thalia, Annabeth, Nico, and Grover in deadpan. 

Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I’d just belched loudly. ‘Young man, names are powerful things. You don’t just go around using them for no reason.’

‘Oh. Right. Sorry.’

“You didn’t listen then, you don’t care now.”

Percy could only shrug.

‘I must say, Percy,’ Chiron-Brunner broke in, ‘I’m glad to see you alive. It’s been a long time since I’ve made a house call to a potential camper. I’d hate to think I’ve wasted my time.’

Grover turned to Annabeth. “How long had it been?”

“A long time, at least a few decades.” She looked unsure. “It wasn’t a Big 3 thing, since he didn’t do that for Thalia.”

Thalia didn’t look offended by that statement. 

‘House call?’

‘My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to… ah, take a leave of absence.’

‘You came to Yancy just to teach me?’ I asked.

Chiron nodded. ‘Honestly, I wasn’t sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that’s always the first test.’

“Didn’t really learn anything, useful” muttered Percy and Grover. 

‘Grover,’ Mr. D said impatiently, ‘are you playing or not?’

‘Yes, sir!’ Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn’t know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.

Piper wrinkled her nose at the description of the outfit, thinking that Aphrodite probably did not like that. 

But Mr. D could wear whatever he wanted. 

“Doesn’t Poseidon also wear a Hawaiian-print shirt?” Annabeth looked at Percy weirdly. 

“Well yeah, but it’s still a loud print.”

‘You do know how to play pinochle?’ Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.

‘I’m afraid not,’ I said.

‘I’m afraid not, sir, ’ he said.

‘Sir,’ I repeated.

“Ah,” commented Thalia. “When you were still so respectful to the gods.”

The Romans looked startled at that. Thalia’s statement seemed to imply that Percy no longer respected the Olympians. What did that mean?

Also wait, was the camp director a god…?

I was liking the camp director less and less.

“Oh, that was definitely a mutual thing. He hates all of us though, really.”

‘Well,’ he told me, ‘it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules.’

“That’s a wide range of games he gave there,” commented Leo. “Personally, not so sure about the gladiator fighting, but Pac-Man is a classic.”

‘I’m sure the boy can learn,’ Chiron said.

‘Please,’ I said, ‘what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr Brun – Chiron – why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?’

Mr. D snorted. ‘I asked the same question.’

The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.

“Hey, Grover?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you still that afraid of him?”

“Kinda. But my standing at Camp is also drastically different.”

Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer. ‘Percy,’ he said. ‘Did your mother tell you nothing?’

‘She said…’ I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. ‘She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn’t leave. She wanted to keep me close to her.’

‘Typical,’ Mr D said. ‘That’s how they usually get killed.

Percy made a growling sound from the back of his throat. 

Young man, are you bidding or not?’ 

‘What?’ I asked.

He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.

"I still can't believe you’re playing pinochle during your camp orientation.”

‘I’m afraid there’s too much to tell,’ Chiron said. ‘I’m afraid our usual orientation film won’t be sufficient.’

Annabeth turned to Percy. “Wait, you didn’t watch the orientation film?”

“No?”

“Oh my gods, no wonder you were so clueless. Sorry, I thought you’d already watched it!”

“Orientation film?” echoed Jason, Leo, and Piper. 

Nico grimaced at the mention of the film. Percy laughed at him. “You liked it though!”

The son of Hades shook his head. “Only the first time.”

Percy could only agree. He looked at the newer Greek campers. “Honestly, it was traumatizing. That’s why we have the Camp Half-Blood Confidential , which Apollo helped make. Well, actually, he made the original orientation film too.”

‘Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know –’ he pointed to the horn in the shoebox – ‘that you have killed a Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods – the forces you call the Greek gods – are very much alive.’

I stared at the others around the table.

I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, ‘Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!’ He cackled as he tallied up his points.

“You know,” said Grover hesitantly. “Mr. D is funny sometimes.”

‘Mr. D,’ Grover asked timidly, ‘if you’re not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?’ 

The others stared at Grover. Frank hesitantly asked, “You eat cans?”

The satyr shrugged, as if it was perfectly normal. “Satyrs can eat recyclable materials.”

‘Eh? Oh, all right.’

Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminium can and chewed it mournfully.

‘Wait,’ I told Chiron. ‘You’re telling me there’s such a thing as God.’

‘Well, now,’ Chiron said. ‘God – capital G , God. That’s a different matter altogether. We shan’t deal with the metaphysical.’

‘Metaphysical? But you were just talking about –’

‘Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavours: the immortal gods of Olympus. That’s a smaller matter.’

‘Smaller!’

“I still can’t believe he called the Olympians a smaller matter right in front of Mr. D.”

“Well, it’s Mr. D.”

‘Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class.’

‘Zeus,’ I said. ‘Hera. Apollo. You mean them.’

“You didn’t mention Poseidon.”

“Eh. Oh well. I also didn’t mention Dionysus.”

And there it was again – distant thunder on a cloudless day.

‘Young man,’ said Mr. D. ‘I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you.’

Frank protested again. “What else were you supposed to say?”

‘But they’re stories,’ I said. ‘They’re – myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They’re what people believed before there was science.’

The old Greek campers cringed. Science wasn’t the best thing to bring up to most of the Olympians, unless you wanted a lecture. 

‘Science!’ Mr. D scoffed. ‘And tell me, Perseus Jackson –’

I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody.

Jason paused the recording, looking over. “Wasn’t Perseus a son of Zeus?”

“Mom chose him as my namesake because he was one of the few heroes who had a happy ending. She hoped it would give me good luck.”

“Good luck…”

‘– what will people think of your “science” two thousand years from now?’ Mr. D continued. ‘Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That’s what. Oh, I love mortals – they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they’ve come so far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me.’

I wasn’t liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if… he wasn’t… 

‘Percy,’ Chiron said, ‘you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?’

I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron’s voice made me hesitate.

The ones who had been with Percy at the end of the Battle of Manhattan looked at him, wondering if this conversation had influenced his decision at all. 

Thalia looked to the side. She was essentially immortal, but it was too early to say if she regretted the decision or not. So far, the answer was a resounding no .  

‘You mean, whether people believed in you or not,’ I said.

Annabeth, Percy, and Grover looked down sadly. 

‘Exactly,’ Chiron agreed. ‘If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?’

Thalia looked stern. “That wasn’t a very nice thing for him to say.”

My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn’t going to let him. I said, ‘I wouldn’t like it. But I don’t believe in gods.’

‘Oh, you’d better,’ Mr. D murmured. ‘Before one of them incinerates you.’

The group finally exclaimed, “Mr. D is a god?”

Grover said, ‘P-please, sir. He’s just lost his mother. He’s in shock.’

‘A lucky thing, too,’ Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. ‘Bad enough I’m confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don’t even believe!’

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine. My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.

‘Mr. D,’ he warned, ‘your restrictions.’

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise. ‘Dear me.’ He looked at the sky and yelled, ‘Old habits! Sorry!’

“I swear that was on purpose.”

“Probably.”

Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.

Chiron winked at me. ‘Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits.’

‘A wood nymph,’ I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.

‘Yes,’ Mr. D confessed. ‘Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time – well, she really was pretty, and I couldn’t stay away – the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. “Be a better influence,” he told me. “Work with youths rather than tearing them down.” Ha! Absolutely unfair.’

Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.

“Ah, I love Mr. D,” Percy said in a voice that made it known he thought the exact opposite. 

‘And…’ I stammered, ‘your father is…’

‘Di immortales, Chiron,’ Mr D said. ‘I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course.’

‘You’re Dionysus,’ I said. ‘The god of wine.’

“Wait, Dionysus is your camp director?” Reyna looked at the Greeks, surprised that a god interacted so much with the campers. The Roman aspects were very hands-off at Camp Jupiter. 

Percy looked slightly amused. “Yeah, though I’m not sure who the punishment is for: Mr. D or us.”

Mr. D rolled his eyes. ‘What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, “Well, duh!”?’ 

‘Y-yes, Mr. D.’

‘Then, “Well, duh!” Percy Jackson—

“He called me Percy!”

Most of the others looked at him weirdly, since Percy was his name. Why did he have to sound so surprised?

Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?’

“I’m a little offended,” Piper admitted quietly.

‘You’re a god.’

‘Yes, child.’

“At least he said 'child' and not ‘brat’.”

‘A god. You.’

He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature… 

‘Would you like to test me, child?’ he said quietly.

‘No. No, sir.’

“Mr. D really does scare me sometimes. It’s probably because it’s so weird for me to think he cares or can be serious.” No one said anything, so Percy kept talking. “He was helpful sometimes too. In conclusion, not the worst.”

The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. ‘I believe I win.’

‘Not quite, Mr. D,’ Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, ‘The game goes to me.’

I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose… ‘I believe I’ll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment.’ 

… Mr. D turned to me. ‘Cabin Eleven, Percy Jackson—

“That makes it twice!” Percy cheered. 

And mind your manners.’ He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.

“I think he went easy on you because it was your first day…”

‘Will Grover be okay?’ I asked Chiron.

Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. ‘Old Dionysus isn’t really mad. He just hates his job. He’s been… ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can’t stand waiting another century before he’s allowed to go back to Olympus.’

Grover turned to look at Percy. “Do you think Chiron would become camp director when Dionysus leaves?”

“I hope so.”

‘Mount Olympus,’ I said. ‘You’re telling me there really is a palace there?’

‘Well now, there’s Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there’s the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It’s still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do.’

‘You mean the Greek gods are here? Like… in America?’

‘Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West.’

‘The what?’

‘Come now, Percy. What you call “Western civilization”. Do you think it’s just an abstract concept… You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn’t possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know – or as I hope you know, since you passed my course —

“Huh, I guess I passed Latin that year.”

Annabeth smirked at her boyfriend, but still kissed him on the cheek. 

the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps – Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on – but the same forces, the same gods.’

Percy and Jason both shook their heads. The gods weren’t really the same at all. Sometimes, it was jarring how different the Roman and Greek versions could be. 

‘And then they died.’

‘Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved… Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there… All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods… America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here.’

‘Who are you, Chiron? Who… who am I?’

“That sounds philosophical.”

“You’re Percy Jackson, or did you have momentary amnesia?”

“Well, Mr. D would beg to differ.”

‘Who are you,’ he mused. ‘Well, that’s the question we all want answered, isn’t it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in Cabin Eleven—

“Cabin Eleven?” Piper looked at Annabeth in confusion. The blonde only smiled at her sadly. 

… And then he did rise from his wheelchair… ‘What a relief the centaur said. ‘I’d been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let’s meet the other campers.’

“Wait a minute, it’s the Chiron?” 

Annabeth responded that, yes, it was that Chiron, the one who had trained all the ancient Greek heroes. 

“Disney did him dirty,” Percy said. “Though I honestly wish they hadn't even made that movie.”

Percy also added that Lupa was the Roman counterpart for Chiron, so it wasn’t too weird. 

“Well, I agree with Chiron.”

Everyone turned their heads to look at Leo. 

“I’ve been sitting in one place for too long. Like, this is fascinating and all, but I need to move.”

Chapter Text

After around 15 minutes, everyone had settled back into the room. Coach Hedge had also finished his call with Mellie, but he was a lot quieter than usual. The demigods sat in the same seats as before, but there were some new snacks conjured up by the enchanted tableware. 

Percy fished for the blue jelly beans. 

Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse—

“He’s a centaur, not a horse.”

“Potato potato.”

we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him… We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the Minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, ‘That’s him .’..

Percy hummed, “I think it might have been Will Solace.”

I wasn’t normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a cartwheel or something.

Annabeth winced, but Percy didn’t seem to care. “Want me to do a cartwheel now?”

Leo laughed. “I’ll add in some pyrotechnics as extra effects if you do.”

“I’ll do it if Frank joins me.”

Said demigod gracefully declined and the discussion ended there. 

I looked back at the farmhouse… I was checking out the brass eagle weathervane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.

Thalia looked over. “You saw it move then? I thought the first time was…”

Percy hummed in agreement. 

Thalia shrugged. “I guess that just means you were always the one in the Great Prophecy.”

‘What’s up there?’ I asked Chiron.

He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. ‘Just the attic.’

‘Somebody lives there?’

‘No,’ he said with finality. ‘Not a single living thing.’

I got the feeling he was being truthful. 

Annabeth shivered. “Technically, he was.”

But I was also sure something had moved that curtain. ‘Come along, Percy,’ Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. ‘Lots to see.’

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe… Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. ‘It pays our expenses,’ he explained. ‘And the strawberries take almost no effort.’

“Delphi Strawberry Service,” winked Percy. 

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. 

"With the Demeter cabin and the satyrs around, growing strawberries is a breeze year-round."

I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, being lectured by Mr. D.

‘Grover won’t get in too much trouble, will he?’ I asked Chiron. ‘I mean… he was a good protector. Really.’

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horse’s back like a saddle. ‘Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable—

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover sighed. Nico also looked down. 

To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill.’

‘But he did that!’

‘I might agree with you,’ Chiron said. ‘But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I’m afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there’s the unfortunate… ah… fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The Council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover’s part.’

Thalia snorted. “Grover has more courage than all the elders of the Council combined.”

Nico nodded his head in support. 

I wanted to protest. None of what had happened was Grover’s fault… ‘He’ll get a second chance, won’t he?’

Chiron winced. ‘I’m afraid that was Grover’s second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He’s still so small for his age…’

‘How old is he?’

‘Oh, twenty-eight.’

Everyone turned to Grover. How old was he now? 

Piper then turned to Coach Hedge, how was he ?

‘What! And he’s in sixth grade?’

‘Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years.’

‘That’s horrible.’

“It was horrible,” agreed Grover. “I hated middle school.”

Percy, Piper, and Leo fervently agreed. Middle school was the worst. 

‘Quite,’ Chiron agreed. ‘At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic—

Percy grinned. “You’ve gotten so much better.”

Grover gratefully smiled back. 

Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career…’

‘That’s not fair,’ I said. ‘What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?’

Chiron looked away quickly. ‘Let’s move along, shall we?’

But I wasn’t quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother’s fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea – a tiny, hopeful fire – started forming in my mind.

“You were already thinking about it then?”

“Yeah.”

‘Chiron,’ I said. ‘If the gods and Olympus and all that are real…’ 

‘Yes, child?’

‘Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?’

“No,” deadpanned Nico. “The Underworld is just a figment of your imagination.”

“We all die and go to Hell,” agreed Leo. 

Chiron’s expression darkened. ‘Yes, child.’ He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. ‘There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now… until we know more… I would urge you to put that out of your mind.’

‘What do you mean, “until we know more”?’ 

‘Come, Percy. Let’s see the woods.’ Chiron said, ‘The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed.’ 

‘Stocked with what?’ I asked. ‘Armed with what?’

‘You’ll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?’ 

“Why would he have those? He just got there?”

‘My own –’

‘No,’ Chiron said. ‘I don’t suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I’ll visit the armoury later.’

I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armoury, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. 

“Chiron didn’t do a good job of telling you that you were a demigod,” Annabeth noted. No wonder Percy had been so slow, even after Chiron gave him a personal tour. 

We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables… ‘Cabin challenges and all that,’ he explained. ‘Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there’s the mess hall.’

“I hate when they say that something is not usually lethal.”

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

‘What do you do when it rains?’ I asked.

Chiron looked at me as if I’d gone a little weird.

‘We still have to eat, don’t we?’ 

“I asked that too,” said Nico. “I think I got the same response.” He frowned. “It was a valid question!”

I decided to drop the subject.

Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them—

“Twelve?” Jason, Leo, and Piper all asked in confusion. There had been way more than just twelve when they were in Camp Half-Blood. 

Thalia, Annabeth, and Nico looked over at Percy. The demigod looked embarrassed for a moment, then his expression morphed into one of determination. 

“You’ll probably hear the long story, but a lot has changed.”

nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I’d ever seen.

The Greeks nodded at this. Each cabin was unique, so none of the buildings matched each other. It wasn’t like the Roman camp at all. 

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike… They all faced a common area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

In the centre of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smouldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

“You saw her?” Annabeth looked at him. 

Percy nodded. “I didn’t know who she was at the time though, so I didn’t go say hello.” He tilted his head towards Nico, “Unlike you.”

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. 

Thalia and Jason Grace couldn’t disagree with that statement. Staying in Cabin One was very uncomfortable. 

Cabin One was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a holograph, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin Two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

‘Zeus and Hera?’ I guessed.

‘Correct,’ Chiron said.

‘Their cabins look empty.’

‘Several of the cabins are. That’s true. No one ever stays in One or Two.’

Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians.

Nico scowled, but didn’t say anything. 

The Romans looked confused, too. Why would you build cabins if they were just going to be empty?

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, Cabin Three… The outer walls were of rough grey stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor…  I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone… The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Come along, Percy.’

“I guess it called to me.”

Annabeth absently agreed, wondering how they hadn’t noticed his identity earlier. She decided it was probably Chiron’s fault, as he didn’t voice his thoughts before he was 100% sure. 

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.

Number Five was bright red – a real nasty paint job, as if the colour had been splashed on with buckets and fists… 

“Gross.”

I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron’s hooves. ‘We haven’t seen any other centaurs,’ I observed.

‘No,’ said Chiron sadly. ‘My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I’m afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won’t see any here.’

“Party Ponies!” cheered Percy and Grover. 

“Is that why you and Tyson were so upset during the attack on Camp Jupiter?” Hazel asked. 

Percy nodded. 

‘You said your name was Chiron. Are you really…’

He smiled down at me. ‘ The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am.’

‘But, shouldn’t you be dead?’

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. ‘I honestly don’t know about should be. The truth is, I can’t be dead… I’m still here, so I can only assume I’m still needed.’

‘Doesn’t it ever get boring?’

‘No, no,’ he said. ‘Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring.’ 

‘Why depressing?’

“I understand why it would be depressing now. But no, I guess it wouldn’t be boring.”

‘Oh, look,’ he said. ‘Annabeth is waiting for us.’

… When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled… 

“I wasn’t. I’m not that creepy.”

Frank laughed. “At least you aren’t like Edward Cullen.”

“Who?”

“He’s from the Twilight series.”

“What’s it about?” asked Annabeth. “Maybe I’ll read it.”

“Vampires.”

Annabeth and Percy shuddered. She shook her head. “Nevermind.” 

I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn’t make out the title… The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.

Annabeth said that it was an architecture book. 

‘Annabeth,’ Chiron said, ‘I have masters’ archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?’ 

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Cabin Eleven,’ Chiron told me, gesturing towards the doorway. ‘Make yourself at home.’

Out of all the cabins, Eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old . The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling… Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation centre.

Again, the new Greek campers looked over at Annabeth in confusion. Percy only smiled sadly. 

Chiron didn’t go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

‘Well, then,’ Chiron said. ‘Good luck, Percy. I‘ll see you at dinner.’

He galloped away towards the archery range.

I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren’t bowing any more. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I’d gone through it at enough schools.

‘Well?’ Annabeth prompted. ‘Go on.’

So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.

“I’m pretty sure it was one of the Stolls that laughed.”

“Who knows. They were used to people embarrassing themselves.”

Annabeth announced, ‘Percy Jackson, meet Cabin Eleven.’

‘Regular or undetermined?’ somebody asked.

Percy tapped his chin. “I think that was Chris Rodriguez.”

I didn’t know what to say, but Annabeth said, ‘Undetermined.’

Everybody groaned.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. ‘Now, now, campers. That’s what we’re here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there.’

The old Greek campers all flinched. Until then, it hadn’t dawned on them that they’d be reminded of him . 

The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short- cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals and a leather necklace with five different-coloured clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

Piper looked at Jason’s sister and tried to read the emotions on her face, as Annabeth and Percy were keeping their faces carefully blank. Thalia seemed to be wavering between anger and longing. 

‘This is Luke,’ Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could’ve sworn she was blushing. 

In real life, Annabeth glared at Percy for his description of her. 

She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. ‘He’s your counsellor for now.’

‘For now?’ I asked.

‘You’re undetermined,’ Luke explained patiently. ‘They don’t know what cabin to put you in, so you’re here. Cabin Eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors.

Leo and Piper frowned. That wasn’t how orientation and initiation was now. Based on Annabeth’s looks at Percy, it seemed that the son of Poseidon had been the cause of the changes. 

Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers.’

I looked at the tiny section of floor they’d given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur’s horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.

I looked around at the campers’ faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.

“Oh they definitely were. I don’t know what they would have done with the horn though.”

‘How long will I be here?’ I asked.

‘Good question,’ Luke said. ‘Until you’re determined.’

‘How long will that take?’

The campers all laughed.

Leo and Piper looked confused. “Why did they laugh?”

Nico shook his head. Again, he was reminded of how much better Percy had made Camp Half-Blood with his request. 

‘Come on,’ Annabeth told me. ‘I’ll show you the volleyball court.’

‘I’ve already seen it.’

‘Come on.’

She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of Cabin Eleven laughing behind me.

When we were a few metres away, Annabeth said, ‘Jackson, you have to do better than that.’ 

“Sorry, I thought that you’d watched the orientation film.” Annabeth apologized, cringing at her younger self’s actions. 

‘What?’

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, ‘I can’t believe I thought you were the one.’ 

‘What’s your problem?’ I was getting angry now. ‘All I know is, I kill some bull guy –’

‘Don’t talk like that!’ Annabeth told me. ‘You know how many kids at this camp wish they’d had your chance?’

“To not get killed?” suggested Frank.

‘To get killed?’

“See,” said Percy. “We’re family.”

‘To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?’

“To not die?”

I shook my head. ‘Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories…’ 

‘Yes.’

‘Then there’s only one.’

‘Yes.’

‘And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So…’ 

‘Monsters don’t die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don’t die.’

“Gee, that makes so much sense,” Leo snarked. 

‘Oh, thanks. That clears it up.’

Leo smiled. Maybe he and Percy would be able to get along just fine. 

‘They don’t have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you’re lucky… Eventually, they reform.’

I thought about Mrs. Dodds. ‘You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword –’

‘The Fu… I mean, your maths teacher. That’s right. She’s still out there. You just made her very, very mad.’

Nico tilted his head. “I’m not sure if she hates you the most or if you’re one of her favorites.”

“She probably hates me, which ironically makes me a favorite. But she was definitely one of the monsters that reformed the fastest.”

“Don’t jinx anything.”

‘How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?’

‘You talk in your sleep.’

Grover agreed. “Though most of your sleep-talking is about your nightmares, so not too funny.”

‘You almost called her something. A Fury? They’re Hades’ torturers, right?’

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. ‘You shouldn’t call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all.’

‘Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?’ I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn’t care. ‘Why do I have to stay in Cabin Eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there.’

I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. ‘You don’t just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or… your parent.’

“Pause,” said Reyna. “Are the cabins based on your godly parentage? Wouldn’t that make everything uneven?”

“Yeah. We believe it fosters close bonds with your siblings. It also helps when one of the gods decides to pay a visit to their children, since they’re all in one place. ” 

Leo and Piper nodded to themselves. It was nice to be surrounded by people who were just like you, literally. Most siblings shared the same interests too. (Mostly. Piper was an exception to the Aphrodite cabin, but that was fine by her.)

Looking at the Praetor, Annabeth asked, “How do the Romans do it then?”

Reyna shrugged, not wanting to get into it at the moment. “The Cohort system.”

She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.

“I didn’t.”

“You didn’t.”

“He didn’t.”

‘My mom is Sally Jackson,’ I said. ‘She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to.’

‘I’m sorry about your mom, Percy. But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about your other parent. Your dad.’

‘He’s dead. I never knew him.’

Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she’d had this conversation before with other kids. 

“Being one of the long-time campers, I did. But most of them went through a proper orientation, film and all.”

‘Your father’s not dead, Percy.’

‘How can you say that? You know him?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Then how can you say –’

‘Because I know you . You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of us.’ 

‘You don’t know anything about me.’

‘No?’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them.’

‘How –’

‘Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too.’

I tried to swallow my embarrassment. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’

‘Taken together, it’s almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That’s because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. 

“Or Latin,” Annabeth amended.

“Are you all dyslexic?” asked Frank.

“Yes,” they chorused. “Are you not?” 

Frank stared longingly across the table, where Percy was eating some blue ice cream. “No, just lactose intolerant.”

And the ADHD – you’re impulsive, can’t sit still in the classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they’d keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that’s because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal’s. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don’t want you seeing them for what they are.’

“According to Chiron, most of them aren’t monsters. But still.”

‘You sound like… you went through the same thing?’

‘Most of the kids here did. If you weren’t like us, you couldn’t have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar.’

‘Ambrosia and nectar.’

‘The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would’ve killed a normal kid. It would’ve turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you’d be dead. Face it. You’re a half-blood.’

Piper made a face. Being a Cherokee, she didn’t really like that word. It sounded derogatory. ‘Demigod’ was a much better term. 

Then a husky voice yelled, ‘Well! A newbie!’

Percy smirked. “Well aren’t I glad Clarisse isn’t here to listen to this.”

I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering towards us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean-looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.

‘Clarisse,’ Annabeth sighed. ‘Why don’t you go polish your spear or something?’

‘Sure, Miss Princess,’ the big girl said. ‘So I can run you through with it Friday night.’

‘ Errete es korakas, ’ Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for “Go to the crows”, though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. 

“Ah, it was.”

‘You don’t stand a chance.’ 

‘We’ll pulverize you,’ Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn’t sure she could

follow through on the threat. She turned towards me. ‘Who’s this little runt?’ 

‘Percy Jackson,’ Annabeth said, ‘meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares.’

I blinked. ‘Like… the war god?’

“Not like the war god. It is the war god.”

“Sorry,” apologized Percy, chuckling. “I was pretty confused.”

Clarisse sneered. ‘You got a problem with that?’

‘No,’ I said, recovering my wits. ‘It explains the bad smell.’

Clarisse growled. ‘We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.’

“Somehow that nickname has stuck.”

“She didn’t give me an initiation ceremony,” said Leo.

“You don’t want one.”

‘Whatever. Come on, I’ll show you.’

‘Clarisse –’ Annabeth tried to say.

‘Stay out of it, Wise Girl.’

Some of them looked at Percy weirdly. 

“Percy calls Annabeth ‘Wise Girl’ as a term of endearment now, I guess,” Grover explained. “That’s where you got it from?”

“I mean, it was supposed to be an insult at first. That changed when our relationship changed.”

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn’t really want her help… but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me towards a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.

“You forgot you were scrawny.”

Leo scowled, he was scrawny, even now. Whatever, he could just set his opponent ablaze. 

… She dragged me into the girls’ bathroom… It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking…  that if this place belonged to the gods, they should’ve been able to afford classier toilets.

“No, Mr. D believes the bathrooms are our problem. Not sure why we don’t upgrade.”

“It adds to the whole ‘sleep-away camp’ vibes.”

Clarisse’s friends were all laughing… ‘Like he’s “Big Three” material,’ Clarisse said as she pushed me towards one of the toilets. ‘Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid-looking.’

Her friends snickered.

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.

“Why were you watching?”

“Morbid fascination.”

Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head towards the toilet bowl… I was looking at the scummy water thinking, I will not go into that. I won’t.

Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder… Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me… The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.

… The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn’t been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn’t been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.

Leo turned to Percy and made a dramatic bow. “All hail, Percy Jackson, Supreme Lord of the Bathroom.”

Percy graciously accepted the bow. “Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Now, Leo, never call me that again.”

Leo laughed. “Do you think you could swirl Jason out of a shower stall.”

“Probably.”

Frank groaned. “Do whatever, just please don’t randomly shut off the water supply during my showers.”

I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn’t have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.

“Wait, do you get wet from the rain then?”

Percy hesitated, then answered. “It’s more of a concentration thing. I can get wet if I want to. It’s nice to feel the water sometimes.”

Annabeth said, ‘How did you…’

‘I don’t know.’

Annabeth sighed. “Really, how did I not notice?”

“Because it wasn’t supposed to be an option,” Thalia offered helpfully. 

We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud… She gave me a look of absolute hatred. ‘You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead.’

I probably should have let it go, but I said, ‘You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth.’

“Ooh, got ‘em!”

Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her towards Cabin Five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

“And that,” gestured Percy, “is why the Ares cabin hates me.”

Annabeth shook her head in disagreement. “You know that’s not the reason.”

“Spoilers!” yelled Grover and Percy. 

Annabeth stared at me. I couldn’t tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.

“Oh I was grossed out.”

‘What?’ I demanded. ‘What are you thinking?’

‘I’m thinking,’ she said, ‘that I want you on my team for Capture the Flag.’

“Ah,” said Thalia, “The start of a wonderful partnership.”

Chapter Text

Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet…

“It was both. I should have changed, but I didn’t because the day was nice.”

“If I’d understood my powers better I could have dried it for you.”

Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

‘I’ve got training to do,’ Annabeth said flatly. ‘Dinner’s at seven thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall.’

‘Annabeth, I’m sorry about the toilets.’

‘Whatever.’

‘It wasn’t my fault.’

“It was your fault,” everyone said at the same time. 

She looked at me scepticaly, and I realized it was my fault. I’d made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn’t understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.

Percy smirked at the crew of the Argo II. “Don’t use the toilets if you ever make me upset. I will passive aggressively prevent you from living comfortably.”

‘You need to talk to the Oracle,’ Annabeth said.

“Why’d you suggest that if you weren’t sure of my parentage?”

“Not sure, just a feeling.”

‘Who?’

‘Not who. What. The Oracle. I’ll ask Chiron.’

I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.

I wasn’t expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about five metres below… They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.

“I guess you kind of were, being the son of the sea god and all.”

I didn’t know what else to do. I waved back.

‘Don’t encourage them,’ Annabeth warned. ‘Naiads are terrible flirts.’

“Annabeth,” Piper teased. “Was that jealousy? Already?”

‘Naiads,’ I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. ‘That’s it. I want to go home now.’ 

Frank stared quizzically. “Out of everything, why was it the naiads that were the last straw?”

“I’m not sure, but it made me think of Montauk… Which reminded me of my mom and how I got to Camp Half-Blood.”

Annabeth frowned. ‘Don’t you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us.’

Annabeth glanced around the hall. “I was sort of wrong, I guess. But maybe that can change in the future.”

No one said anything, they had to have a future first. 

‘You mean, mentally disturbed kids?’

‘I mean not human. 

“Hey Annabeth,” said Piper, “you sound really creepy there.”

Not totally human, anyway. Half-human.’

‘Half-human and half-what?’

‘I think you know.’

‘God,’ I said. ‘Half-god.’

“Sorry, it took me a long time to figure out. I think I was walking around in shock most of the tour. Didn’t really hit me that Mr. D was a god.”

Annabeth nodded. ‘Your father isn’t dead. Percy. He’s one of the Olympians.’

‘That’s… crazy.’

‘Is it? What’s the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they’ve changed their habits in the last few millennia?’

‘But those are just –’ I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron’s warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. 

Piper hummed. Percy Jackson had basically become a legend at Camp Half-Blood and stories about him swirled around all the cabins. Now, he was sitting before her. Based on how the current tape was going, each one would retell a quest. 

She glanced at Jason and Leo. How many of the rumors would be true?

Leo grabbed a piece of celery off the table in front of them, acting like it was a microphone. In his best announcer’s voice, he said, “The man, the myth, the legend. Please welcome, Percy Jackson!”

‘But if all the kids here are half-gods –’

‘Demigods,’ Annabeth said. ‘That’s the official term. Or half-bloods.’

“Are all the campers demigods?”

Percy looked at Reyna, then spoke slowly. “Unlike at Camp Jupiter, we don’t have any legacies. I wouldn’t say all campers are demigods, but the vast majority are. There isn’t a city for families to live in. Most Greek demigods will stay on as head counselors or try their best at a life outside of camp. The mortality rate is high, many don’t even make it to Camp… That’s why I was so surprised walking around New Rome.”

Whispering to Annabeth, Percy added, “I saw a possible future there. For us.” 

‘Then who’s your dad?’

Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I’d just trespassed on a sensitive subject.

‘My dad is a professor at West Point,’ she said. ‘I haven’t seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history.’

‘He’s human.’

Piper frowned. “That was sexist.” 

Reyna nodded. 

‘What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?’

‘Who’s your mom, then?’

‘Cabin Six.’

“Why aren’t the cabins just called by their immortal patron?” Leo complained.

“Not sure, but they’re ordered based on the Olympian council.”

‘Meaning?’

Annabeth straightened. ‘Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle.’

Okay, I thought. Why not?

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

‘And my dad?’

‘Undetermined,’ Annabeth said, ‘like I told you before. Nobody knows.’

‘Except my mother. She knew.’

‘Maybe not, Percy. Gods don’t always reveal their identities.’

‘My dad would have. He loved her.’

“That wasn’t the greatest reason to give, though it was true. A better reason would be that she could see past the Mist. She can probably do it better than I can.”

Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn’t want to burst my bubble. ‘Maybe you’re right. Maybe he’ll send a sign. That’s the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.’

‘You mean sometimes it doesn’t?’

Piper and Leo glanced at each other. They had been told that they would be claimed by the end of the day, and then they had been. 

Again, it seemed they would just have to wait and see how the changes came to be. 

Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. ‘The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don’t always… Well, sometimes they don’t care about us, Percy. They ignore us.’

The Romans thought about how different Camp Jupiter was from Camp Half-Blood. Most of their campers were claimed around the age of sixteen, at the age Roman adulthood. Many of them were also legacies, so they came to camp knowing their parentage. It probably also helped that the Roman gods didn’t normally interact with the legionnaires. 

I thought about some of the kids I’d seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I’d known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn’t have the time to deal with them. 

Piper flinched. She knew now that her dad loved and cared for her, but there was a reason she had always acted up. 

But gods should behave better.

Annabeth smiled at Percy. “They do behave better, at least try to now.”

‘So I’m stuck here,’ I said. ‘That’s it? For the rest of my life?’

‘It depends,’ Annabeth said. ‘Some campers only stay the summer. If you’re a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you’re probably not a real powerful force.

“Hey!” Piper protested. 

“Sorry Piper,” Annabeth apologized. “I meant that you smell less strongly and thus attract fewer monsters.”

The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it’s too dangerous to leave… [monsters] ignore us until we’re old enough to cause trouble – about ten or eleven years old – but after that most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you’d know them. Some don’t even realize they’re demigods. But very, very few are like that.’

Annabeth smiled proudly. “For example, George Washington was a son of Athena.”

‘So monsters can’t get in here?’

Annabeth shook her head. ‘Not unless they’re intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside.’

“I hate the foreshadowing…”

“Spoilers!”

‘Why would anybody want to summon a monster?’

‘Practice fights. Practical jokes.’

‘Practical jokes?’

‘The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm.’

“Unless they have clear-sight,” Annabeth conceded. “But even then, they aren’t allowed in without special permission.”

“No, no,” Percy suddenly piped up. “There was a pizza delivery guy who entered Camp by being really lost.”

“Wait, I thought he was sent by Apollo. He doesn't count.”

‘So… you’re a year-rounder?’

Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colours… ‘I’ve been here since I was seven,’ she said. ‘Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I’ve been here longer than most of the counsellors, and they’re all in college.’

Annabeth smiled at the Romans. “It’s like another normal summer camp, since many demigods treat it like such.” She glanced at Percy’s arm, where the SPQR tattoo was forever burned into his skin. “So we only use beads. It might be explained later on, but the beads depict a memorable event so that we can look at it and remember that summer.”

Annabeth’s necklace currently held nine beads, while Percy’s held four. 

“I wonder what the bead for this year will be,” hummed Piper. 

“Let’s survive until summer to find out.”

“Way to ruin the mood.”

‘Why did you come so young?’

She twisted the ring on her necklace. ‘None of your business.’

‘Oh.’ I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. ‘So… I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?’

Leo laughed. “Percy really said, ‘I’m outta here’.”

‘It would be suicide—

“Well, boy am I suicidal.”

“Percy!” Half the group turned on him. “Don’t even make a joke like that.”

but you could, with Mr. D’s or Chiron’s permission. But they wouldn’t give permission until the end of the summer session unless…’ 

‘Unless?’

‘You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time…’

Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn’t gone well.

Annabeth and Grover hissed. It hadn’t. 

‘Back in the sick room,’ I said, ‘when you were feeding me that stuff –’

‘Ambrosia.’

‘Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice.’

“No, I just mention things and hope others will explain it to me.”

Annabeth’s shoulders tensed. ‘So you do know something?’

‘Well… no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn’t have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?’

She clenched her fists. ‘I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won’t tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal.’

“You’ve been to Olympus?” Almost everyone in the room turned towards Annabeth. 

“ Been to Olympus? Annabeth desi—”

Annabeth interrupted Percy. “I have. Again, after all this is over, maybe we can develop some sort of exchange program with the Romans? Take a field trip of sorts to Mount Olympus, tour through New Rome.”

‘You’ve been to Olympus?’

‘Some of us year-rounders – Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others – we took a field trip during winter solstice. 

“Bring your child to work day,” commented Frank. 

“Well…”

That’s when the gods have their big annual council.’

‘But… how did you get there?’

‘The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six-hundredth floor.’ She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. ‘You are a New Yorker, right?’

“ That’s where Mount Olympus is?” Leo exclaimed. “Could I send something to the gods with that address?”

Annabeth, Percy, and Grover looked at each other. They burst into laughter. 

“You sure can, Leo.”

‘Oh, sure.’ As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.

‘Right after we visited,’ Annabeth continued, ‘the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting…  The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn’t returned by summer solstice, there’s going to be trouble… I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something.’

I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.

‘I’ve got to get a quest,’ Annabeth muttered to herself. ‘I’m not too young. If they would just tell me the problem…’

Thalia frowned at Annabeth, who only shook her head. She had been young and inexperienced. Plus, she’d had cabin fever — she hadn’t left Camp for years.

Back at Cabin Eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner… The counsellor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.

‘Found you a sleeping bag,’ he said. ‘And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store.’ I couldn’t tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.

“He definitely wasn’t,” clarified Grover. “But I also don’t think the camp store really cares. I think most people just ask the Hermes kids to steal.”

I said, ‘Thanks.’

‘No prob.’ Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. ‘Tough first day?’

“He seems like a nice guy,” noted Jason.

The others just smiled sadly. 

“He was.”

‘I don’t belong here,’ I said. ‘I don’t even believe in gods.’

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘That’s how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn’t get any easier.’

The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easy going guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.

Thalia and Annabeth sighed, Thalia’s sounding a lot more frustrated. 

‘So your dad is Hermes?’ I asked.

He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. ‘Yeah. Hermes.’

‘The wing-footed messenger guy.’

‘That’s him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That’s why you’re here, enjoying cabin eleven’s hospitality. Hermes isn’t picky about who he sponsors.’

I figured Luke didn’t mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.

“I think it was both.”

“No,” snickered Percy. “I’m not Nobody. Annabeth is Nobody.”

‘You ever meet your dad?’ I asked.

‘Once.’

I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he’d tell me. Apparently, he didn’t. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.

Luke looked up and managed a smile. ‘Don’t worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they’re mostly good people. After all, we’re extended family, right? We take care of each other.’

He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him – even if he was a counsellor – should’ve steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He’d even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.

“Hey, Seaweed Brain! I took you on a tour!”

“Yeah, but you weren’t all that nice to me.”

Annabeth tried to remain light-hearted, but it was clear that Luke was still a sore subject. It was the case for most of the old Greek campers, especially for those that knew him from before he committed. 

I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon.

‘Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being “Big Three” material. Then Annabeth… twice, she said I might be “the one”. She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?’

Luke folded his knife. ‘I hate prophecies.’

Percy grumbled, “I hate them too.”

Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement. 

‘What do you mean?’

His face twitched around the scar. ‘Let’s just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour—

Leo suddenly remembered the dragon tooth he’d seen in the big house, the one that was apparently from the Garden of the Hesperides. It had been under the name ‘Luke’, hadn’t it? Was this the ‘Luke Castellan’?

He kept his thoughts to himself. 

Chiron hasn’t allowed any more quests. Annabeth’s been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He’d had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn’t tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn’t destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until… somebody special came to the camp.’

‘Somebody special.’

‘Don’t worry about it, kid,’ Luke said. ‘Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she’s been waiting for. —

“Wow Annabeth, I thought I was special.”

“You weren’t.” She winked at him. 

Now, come on, it’s dinnertime.’

The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I’d never heard one before.

“Probably because conches are from the sea.”

Luke yelled, ‘Eleven, fall in!’

The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last… We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion… In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

Those sitting around the table in the mess hall were startled. That wasn’t many campers at all. 

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but Cabin Eleven’s was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.

“Hey, Leo? Could you speak to Hephaestus or your cabin about building some magical tables? Ones that would magically elongate to fit more people if need be?”

Leo’s eyes positively sparked. 

… Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. ‘To the gods!’

Everybody else raised their glasses. ‘To the gods!’

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, ‘Speak to it. Whatever you want – non- alcoholic, of course.’

I said, ‘Cherry Coke.’

The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid. Then I had an idea. ‘ Blue Cherry Coke.’

The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.

Everyone stared at the goblet in front of Percy, which was currently empty. 

The son of Poseidon smirked. 

“Blue Cherry Coke,” he told the glass and it filled with food-colored soda. 

‘Here you go, Percy,’ Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.

I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates towards the fire in the centre of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.

Hazel frowned at him. “Before they even started eating?”

‘Come on,’ Luke told me.

As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.

Luke murmured in my ear, ‘Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell.’

‘You’re kidding.’

His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn’t help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.

Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. ‘Hermes.’

I was next.

I wished I knew what god’s name to say.

Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.

I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.

“Do you ever offer your food to different gods?” Percy suddenly wondered aloud. 

“Uh, Percy. Not really?”

“Huh.” Percy titled his head. “Sometimes I make offerings to different gods. It’s usually to my dad, but I’ve made offerings to Apollo and Hermes before. Artemis too.” 

When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn’t gag.

It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn’t have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.

“I bet that Apollo or Ares has tried.”

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. ‘Yes, I suppose I’d better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin Five presently holds the laurels.’

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

‘Personally,’ Mr. D continued, ‘I couldn’t care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson.’

Chiron murmured something.

‘Er, Percy Jackson,’ Mr. D corrected. 

“Was that on purpose…? He obviously called you by the correct name earlier in the day."

“I am 100% sure that Mr. D does it on purpose.”

Annabeth agreed. “It is on purpose, he hates us. It’s harmless, but he finds it entertaining.”

‘That’s right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on.’

Everybody cheered. We all headed down towards the amphitheatre, where Apollo’s cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate toasted marshmallows and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn’t feel that anyone was staring at me any more. I felt that I was home.

Jason, Piper, and Leo smiled. The campfire was one of the best parts of Camp Half-Blood. Being there and seeing everyone else made them feel seen and accepted. 

“Oh, things couldn’t be worse, when your folks run the universe,” Grover quietly sang. 

“Dude, you still remember that song? We stopped singing that one didn’t we?”

“Well, yeah. It was a little depressing. And then there was the whole war and no one really had time to toast marshmallows.”

“Aw, but the ending was sweet. Didn’t it go like, ‘We don’t care where our parents may be, as long as you are here with me!”

… I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag… When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.

That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.

“Oh, I forgot to mention,” Percy said. “The Hermes cabin threw me into the lake.”

“They what?”

“Threw me into the lake. They said it was a tradition for newcomers.”

“Uh,” said Leo. “I don’t think it was.”

Annabeth also looked confused. 

Percy shrugged. “Well, they chanted and made a series of hand-gestures I didn’t understand any better than the words and then tossed me into the lake.”

I wish I’d known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.

“Well doesn’t that sound promising?”

Jason, Leo, and Piper knew the feeling. They had left for their quest just a few days after they first arrived at Camp Half-Blood. 

Chapter Text

The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal… Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird… The rest of the day, I’d rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn’t any good with a bow and arrow. He didn’t complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.

Percy glanced at Frank, who had arched an eyebrow, and laughed. “I’m really bad at archery. Somehow, that arrow hit Chiron, even though he was standing behind me.”

Nico looked confused. “But you…”

Percy waved him aside. “I had godly help that one time.”

Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They’d had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. 

“Dude,” said Leo. “I love hearing your thoughts.”

But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.

“I, I’ve never thought about it like that…” muttered Leo. “Now I feel bad too.”

And wrestling? Forget it… 

“Oh, right. You were skinny as a stick.”

The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn’t the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.

Grover and Annabeth sighed. “We really should’ve realized.”

I knew the senior campers and counsellors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren’t having an easy time of it… Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn’t know what to make of me either.

… I started to understand Luke’s bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn’t they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? 

“Lord Zeus made a lot of thunder that summer,” Grover pointed out. 

“That’s not my point.”

“Okay, then… Poseidon caused a lot of storms too.”

Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn’t my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?

“Okay,” amended Percy. “Maybe not a phone. But you know what I mean.”

Thursday afternoon, three days after I’d arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson… We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armour… The problem was, I couldn’t find a blade that felt right in my hands…

“It’s because it has to be a blade forged beneath the sea,” Percy explained. “Not one forged on land. I can still use normal swords just fine, they just don’t feel quite right.”

Silently, Nico and Jason wondered to themselves if that was why practice swords felt off in their hands too. 

We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.

“Uh…”

‘Good luck,’ one of the campers told me. ‘Luke’s the best swordsman in the last three hundred years.’

Thalia and Annabeth disagreed. “You’re better than him.”

Percy didn’t seem too convinced by that. Based on what he remembered, he had never once bested Luke in a sword fight. 

Frank though, remembered how Percy had fought off an entire legion of resurrecting ghosts by himself. Sure, the Romans weren’t used to the fighting style of the Greeks, but it was still an impressive feat. 

Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. ‘Keep your guard up, Percy,’ he’d say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. ‘No, not that far up!’ Whap! ‘Lunge!’ Whap! ‘Now, back!’ Whap!

“He definitely did that on purpose,” Thalia muttered. 

By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same… 

Thalia glanced at Percy. “That’s totally cheating.”

“Shh, I didn't know that then.”

‘Okay, everybody circle up!’ Luke ordered. ‘If Percy doesn’t mind, I want to give you a little demo.’

“I would have minded,” commented Frank. “You basically just got beat up.”

“I was a little oblivious. And used to bullies like Nancy Bobofit.”

… He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy’s blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.

“Useful.”

‘This is difficult,’ he stressed. ‘I’ve had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique.’

“Key word: most.”

He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.

‘Now in real time,’ he said, after I’d retrieved my weapon. ‘We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?’

I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword… The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn’t right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so… I tried the disarming maneuver.

My blade hit the base of Luke’s and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust. Clang.

Luke’s sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was a couple of centimetres from his undefended chest.

The other campers were silent.

The Argo II crew was also silent. 

I lowered my sword. ‘Um, sorry.’

For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.

Thalia huffed. “Bet he regretted teaching you that move.”

‘Sorry?’ His scarred face broke into a grin. ‘By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!’

I didn’t want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted. This time, there was no contest… After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, ‘Beginner’s luck?’

“Nope, just water.”

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He apprised me with an entirely new interest. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword….’

Percy shook his head and sighed. First impressions really did matter; he would always see Luke as a mentor.   

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall… I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.

‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Just great.’

‘So your career’s still on track?’

He glanced at me nervously. ‘Chiron t-told you I want a searcher’s license?’

“What’s a searcher's license?”

No one answered. 

‘Well… no.’ I had no idea what a searcher’s license was, but it didn’t seem like the right time to ask. ‘He just said you had big plans, you know… and that you needed credit for completing a keeper’s assignment. So did you get it?’

Grover looked down at the naiads. ‘Mr. D suspended judgement. He said I hadn’t failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he’d consider the job complete.’

“That’s quite lenient of him.”

My spirits lifted. ‘Well, that’s not so bad, right?’

‘Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest… and even if you did, why would you want me along?’

“Why would I not?”

‘Of course I’d want you along!’

Grover stared glumly into the water. ‘Basket weaving… Must be nice to have a useful skill.’

Annabeth agreed. “Weaving is a nice skill to have.”

… Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.

‘Number Eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis,’ he said. ‘She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn’t have one, she’d be mad.’

Thalia spoke up. “It’s used by the Hunters when we stay at Camp.”

“Emphasis on the ‘when’.”

‘Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?’

Grover tensed… ‘No. One of them, number two, is Hera’s,’ he said. ‘That’s another honorary thing. She’s the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn’t go around having affairs with mortals. That’s her husband’s job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos.’

‘Zeus, Poseidon, Hades.’

‘Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what.’

“Can you imagine the gods drawing cards?” Leo cackled. “Not sure why, but I find that thought hilarious.”

‘Zeus got the sky,’ I remembered. ‘Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘But Hades doesn’t have a cabin here.’

“I was just wondering about that,” Hazel thought aloud. 

‘No. He doesn’t have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here…’ Grover shuddered. ‘Well, it wouldn’t be pleasant. Let’s leave it at that.’

“Sorry Nico,” muttered Grover. “I think differently now.”

Nico nodded, though he could still tell that not everyone aboard the Argo II was comfortable with him being there. He sighed. 

‘But Zeus and Poseidon – they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?’

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. ‘About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn’t sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. … swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx.’

I said, ‘That’s the most serious oath you can make.’

Percy looked at Jason, who was about to ask a question. “I’m pretty sure that the Roman versions weren’t held by the Big 3 Pact.”

“That makes a bit more sense.”

‘And the brothers kept their word – no kids?’

Grover’s face darkened. ‘Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon… a little girl named Thalia—

The demigods all looked at Thalia, who stared back blankly back at them.

well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he’s immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter.’

“Not us always having to solve their problems, simply because they’re immortal,” Thalia muttered sardonically. 

‘But that isn’t fair! It wasn’t the little girl’s fault.’

Grover hesitated. ‘Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods… A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve… He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she’d befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill.’

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I’d fought the Minotaur. 

‘All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds… Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That’s why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill.’

“Oh my gods. Thalia. Thalia’s Pine.”

Jason gasped. “You were a pine tree?”

Thalia looked unperturbed. “At least I didn’t actually die.”

“Still!”

The story made me feel hollow, and guilty, too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn’t seem like much. 

“You make me sound like a hero.”

“You are a hero.”

‘Grover,’ I said, ‘have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?’

‘Sometimes,’ he said. ‘Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini.’

“He went to the Underworld? Wait, Houdini was a demigod?!”

Annabeth nodded at Frank’s question. “Yeah, though I’m not sure who his godly parent was.”

‘And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?’

Percy glanced at Nico, who was avoiding all eye contact. 

‘No. Never. Orpheus came close…. Percy, you’re not seriously thinking –’

‘No,’ I lied. ‘I was just wondering. So… a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?’

Grover studied me warily. I hadn’t persuaded him that I’d really dropped the Underworld idea.

“No, I could read your emotions. Plus, after those months at Yancy? I could tell when you were lying, at least half of the time. ”

‘Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems.’

‘And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special.’

Grover looked as if I’d just led him into a trap. 

“It was a leading question!”

‘I didn’t… Oh, listen, don’t think like that. If you were – you know – you’d never ever be allowed a quest, and I’d never get my license. You’re probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. 

“Nemesis is a goddess,” corrected Annabeth. “And how would he have been a son of Nemesis…?”

Don’t worry, okay?’

I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.

“I was.”

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

“By the way,” said Percy. “I think Capture the Flag is more fun than War Games, though they’re basically the same thing.”

Percy was the only in the group that had participated in both, so they decided to trust him on that. 

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables. Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner… From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar’s head.

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, ‘Those are the flags?’ 

‘Yeah.’

‘Ares and Athena always lead the teams?’

‘Not always,’ he said. ‘But often.’

“Not anymore.”

‘So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do – repaint the flag?’

He grinned. ‘You’ll see. First we have to get one.’

‘Whose side are we on?’

He gave me a sly look… ‘We’ve made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help.’

“The Hermes cabin usually allied with us,” Annabeth added. 

"Because of Luke?”

“Because of Luke.”

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins… Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite and Hephaestus…  

“How were alliances made?” Reyna wondered. 

“Traded chores and activities time-slots. Some people might have also traded smuggled goods, but by some people, I only mean Cabin Eleven.”

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

‘Heroes!’ he announced. 

“Love that he didn't call us campers.”

‘You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed… No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!’

“The punishment for maiming wasn’t very harsh.”

“No,” agreed Grover. “But that was also Mr. D’s fault.”

“What was it?”

“Like no dessert for a few days or something.”

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

‘Whoa,’ I said. ‘We’re really supposed to use these?’

Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. ‘Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in Cabin Five. Here – Chiron thought these would fit. You’ll be on border patrol.’

… I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. 

“You still looked really funny.”

‘Hey.’

She kept marching.

‘So what’s the plan?’ I asked. ‘Got any magic items you can loan me?’

Her hand drifted towards her pocket, as if she were afraid I’d stolen something.

“Sorry, I was still hoping that maybe you were a child of Hermes.”

‘Just watch Clarisse’s spear,’ she said. ‘You don’t want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don’t worry. We’ll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?’

‘Border patrol, whatever that means.’

“Uh, Percy, had you never played Capture the Flag?” asked Frank. 

“Shut up, big guy. I was still disoriented by the whole real weapons and ‘no maiming’ rules. How was I supposed to know if Camp rules were different from mortal rules?”

‘It’s easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan.’ She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.

“Athena always has a plan”, mimicked Percy. 

‘Okay,’ I mumbled. ‘Glad you wanted me on your team.’

“Sorry,” apologized Annabeth. “Telling you the plan might have ruined the whole thing.”

… Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there alone… I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I’d tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.

“Percy really out there standing like.”

… Great, I thought. I’ll miss all the fun, as usual.

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

Grover and Annabeth turned to Percy. “It was there that early into the game?”

… On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark… I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.

I managed to sidestep the first kid’s swing, but these guys were not as stupid as Minotaurs. They surrounded me… 

‘The flag is that way,’ I told her. 

Percy rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, I pointed in the wrong direction.”

‘Yeah,’ one of her siblings said. ‘But see, we don’t care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid.’

‘You do that without my help,’ I told them. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say.

“No self-preservation at all."

Two of them came at me… [Clarisse’s] spear stuck me straight in the ribs…  the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut… He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash… 

“And… they just lost the fight.”

The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I’d just had a bag of my mom’s double-espresso jelly beans.

“Ah, caffeine.”

“Right? ADHD and caffeine?”

“Wait, Percy,” Frank suddenly thought of something. “If you drink a cup of coffee, are the effects like doubled? You know, from the water plus the caffeine…?”

“Not sure. Hard to tell.”

Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them… As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

“The second reason Clarisse hates me so much.”

‘Ah!’ she screamed. ‘You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!’

“No, that’s Nico.”

Nico glared at Percy. 

She probably would’ve said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backwards out of the creek.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing towards the boundary line with the red team’s banner lifted high… The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of Cabin Eleven… 

“Oh… it magically changes design. That’s cool!”

The game was over. We’d won.

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth’s voice, right next to me in the creek, said, ‘Not bad, hero.’

Piper winked at Annabeth. 

I looked, but she wasn’t there.

“…”

"Creepy."

‘Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?’ she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she’d just taken it off her head.

“Awesome!” yelled Leo. “You can turn invisible?”

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn’t even fazed by the fact that she’d just been invisible. ‘You set me up,’ I said. ‘You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out.’

Annabeth shrugged. ‘I told you. Athena always, always has a plan.’

Again, Percy mimicked Annabeth. “Athena always has a plan.”

‘A plan to get me pulverized.’

‘I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but…’ She shrugged. ‘You didn’t need help.’ Then she noticed my wounded arm. ‘How did you do that?... Step out of the water, Percy.’ 

‘What –’

‘Just do it.’

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

‘Oh, Styx,’ she cursed. ‘This is not good. I didn’t want… I assumed it would be Zeus….’

“Why did you assume it would be Zeus?”

Annabeth blushed. “Because I wanted to go on a quest with you, Seaweed Brain. Remember how I was about the whole Athen and Poseidon rivalry?”

“Oh.”

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before… The campers’ cheering died instantly… Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers. It was looking straight at me.

Nico gasped. “A hellhound!”

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, ‘Percy, run!’

… It leaped over her… felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armour, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds… The monster fell dead at my feet.

… Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim… ‘Someone summoned it,’ Chiron said. ‘Someone inside the camp.’

The others turned to Percy and Annabeth. “Who?”

‘You’re wounded,’ Annabeth told me. ‘Quick, Percy, get in the water… Chiron, watch this.’

I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me. Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped… 

“It’s actually quite fascinating to watch,” agreed Frank. “Weirdly morbid, but fascinating.”

But they weren’t watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head. 

Jason, Leo, and Piper nodded in understanding. “He’s being claimed.”

‘Percy,’ Annabeth said, pointing. ‘Um…’

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

‘Your father,’ Annabeth murmured. ‘This is really not good.’

Thalia rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t very nice Annie.”

‘It is determined,’ Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn’t look happy about it.

Jason looked at Annabeth. The campers hadn’t done that when he’d proven himself as a son of Jupiter. 

Annabeth explained, “Percy was the first child of the Big 3 other than Thalia that the Camp had seen in decades. By the time you arrived, we’d had more experience with children of the Big 3. Plus, Percy technically wasn’t supposed to exist.”

‘Poseidon,’ said Chiron. ‘Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God.’

Percy shook his head. “Chiron was so dramatic.”

What the demigods didn’t mention, were the lines of the Prophecy of Seven. 

To storm or fire the world must fall.

Chapter Text

No one wanted to think about why the Argo II had been built, so they just let the recording continue. 

The next morning, Chiron moved me to Cabin Three… 

I was absolutely miserable.

Just when I’d started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in Cabin Eleven and I might be a normal kid – or as normal as you can be when you’re a half-blood – I’d been separated out as if I had some rare disease.

All the Big 3 kids, especially Jason, could relate on some level. Though it could be seen as positive, the Romans had projected expectations onto Jason for being the son of Jupiter. There was a reason Thalia stayed with the Hunters when she visited Camp and Nico avoided Camp in general. 

The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible… my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn’t afraid to bruise me up in the process.

‘You’re going to need all the training you can get,’ he promised as we were working with swords and flaming torches. ‘Now let’s try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions.’

“That’s harsh.”

“He probably regretted giving you all those lessons,” bit Thalia. 

Annabeth only looked at her sadly. 

Percy shrugged. “I still need the practice.”

Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me… she would walk away muttering to herself: ‘Quest… Poseidon?… Dirty rotten… Got to make a plan…’

Annabeth blushed at her younger self. 

Even Clarisse kept her distance… I’d rather get into fights every day than be ignored.

“You should’ve just asked her. She would have happily obliged.”

I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a New York Daily News , opened to the Metro page…

“Do you think it was Luke?” whispered Annabeth. 

“It might have been. He wanted me to get out of Camp, as soon as possible.”

The ones not in the know looked at each other. Wasn’t Luke one of the good guys? Percy had called him a mentor and friend. 

That night, I had my worst dream yet.

The other demigods frowned. 

“Ugh,” Percy groaned. “Can we please invent pillows that block out dreams or something? Leo, please do that. Each dream I have is just worse than the other.”

I was running along the beach in a storm… About a hundred metres down the surf, two men were fighting… They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

I had to stop them. I didn’t know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running on the spot, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.

Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

Percy sighed. “Why are half the Olympians literally children?”

… I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!

The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.

‘Come down, little hero,’ the voice crooned. ‘Come down!’

The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the centre of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.

I woke up, sure I was falling.

“Ugh, I hate dreams that end that way.”

“Right? I always jolt up in bed and end up hitting something.”

I was still in bed in Cabin Three… I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold. ‘Come in.’

Grover trotted inside, looking worried. ‘Mr. D wants to see you.’

‘Why?’

‘He wants to kill… I mean, I’d better let him tell you.’

“You almost said he wanted to kill me.”

“I mean, he did want to kill you.”

Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble. For days, I’d been half expecting a summons to the Big House… I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive… 

“After the story of Thalia, I was waiting for me to get blasted into a tree or something.”

Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.

‘No,’ he said. ‘It never rains here unless we want it to.’

I pointed at the storm. ‘What the heck is that, then?’

He glanced uneasily at the sky. ‘It’ll pass around us. Bad weather always does.’

“I jinxed it, didn’t I?” asked Grover. 

“Always.”

… Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day… Well, well,’ Mr. D said without looking up. ‘Our little celebrity.’

I waited.

‘Come closer,’ Mr. D said. ‘And don’t expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father… Blah, blah, blah,’ Dionysus said. ‘If I had my way,’ Dionysus said, ‘I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We’d sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm.’

“Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm,” said Leo, though he conjured a little flame in his palm. 

Frank flinched at the flame. 

‘Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D,’ Chiron put in.

‘Nonsense,’ Dionysus said. ‘Boy wouldn’t feel a thing. Nevertheless, I’ve agreed to restrain myself. I’m thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father.’

‘Mr. D –’ Chiron warned.

“Poseidon probably would have turned me back.” Percy shrugged. “Or maybe not. He probably thinks dolphins are cute.”

“Dolphins are cute.”

‘Oh, all right,’ Dionysus relented. ‘There’s one more option. But it’s deadly foolishness… If the boy is still here when I get back, I’ll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you’re at all smart, you’ll see that’s a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do.’

Percy cheered. “I guess that counts as three times! It’s nice to know he remembers my name, even if he hates me.”

… Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained… You’ll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you’re done.’

‘Done… with what?’

‘Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?’

I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.

“What did you want me to choose?”

Grover glanced at Percy like he’d grown two heads. “I wanted to complete a quest with you. What do you think I wanted?”

‘Um, sir,’ I said, ‘you haven’t told me what it is yet.’

Chiron grimaced. ‘Well, that’s the hard part, the details.’

‘Poseidon and Zeus,’ I said. ‘They’re fighting over something valuable… something that was stolen, aren’t they?...The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she’d overheard something about a theft. And… I’ve also been having these dreams.’

‘I knew it,’ Grover said.

‘Hush, satyr,’ Chiron ordered.

‘But it is his quest!’ Grover’s eyes were bright with excitement. ‘It must be!’

“Shouldn’t have been so excited.”

‘Only the Oracle can determine.’ Chiron stroked his bristly beard. ‘Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt.’

The demigods gathered laughed nervously at the mention of a lightning bolt. 

I laughed nervously. ‘A what?’

‘Do not take this lightly,’ Chiron warned. ‘I’m not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you’d see in a second-grade play. I’m talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives.’

‘Oh.’

“Oh,” the others chorused. 

‘Zeus’s master bolt,’ Chiron said, getting worked up now. ‘The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers.’

‘And it’s missing?’

‘Stolen,’ Chiron said.

‘By who?’

‘By whom ’ Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. ‘By you.’ My mouth fell open.

“Wait, what?”

“But…”

“Unreliable narrator?” commented Leo. 

‘At least’ – Chiron held up a hand – ‘that’s what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument… Afterwards, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon… Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it.’

“But you didn’t—”

‘But I didn’t –’

‘Patience and listen, child,’ Chiron said. ‘Zeus has good reason to be suspicious… The only thing Zeus wasn’t sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus… ’

“That’s crazy!” protested Hazel. “He lived in New York!”

‘But I’ve never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!’

‘Er, Percy…?’ Grover said. ‘We don’t use the c -word to describe the Lord of the Sky.’

“C*nt.”

“Stop!” Percy exclaimed, covering Nico’s ears. “There are children present.”

Nico batted his hands away. “I'm not a child.”

Hazel looked like she was about to faint. 

‘Perhaps paranoid,’ Chiron suggested. ‘… Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you’ve come along – the proverbial last straw.’

‘But I’m just a kid!’

‘Percy,’ Grover cut in, ‘if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he’s fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you… Wouldn’t that put a twist in your toga?’

“No, “Percy huffed. “And Poseidon never did anything against the other children of the Big 3 though, I think.”

“Well Hades never even broke the oath,” Nico rebutted. 

‘But I didn’t do anything. Poseidon – my dad – he didn’t really have this master bolt stolen, did he?’

Chiron sighed. ‘Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon’s style. But the sea god is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That’s June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. 

The demigods nodded thoughtfully. Ten days wasn’t the worst deadline. Frank and Hazel had just visited Alaska with Percy on a shorter deadline. 

… Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?’

‘Bad?’ I guessed.

‘Imagine the world in chaos… make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight.’

“So, bad,” said Leo. 

‘Bad,’ I repeated.

Leo and Percy laughed, high-fiving each other across the table. 

‘And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus’s wrath.’

It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.

“Oh…”

"Nice timing…”

I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.

“You got angry a lot that summer.”

“I got angry a lot every summer. I just had so much more to worry about.”

Thalia and Nico looked at Percy with expressions tinged with guilt. Percy had had to shoulder the Great Prophecy. 

‘So I have to find the stupid bolt,’ I said. ‘And return it to Zeus.’

‘What better peace offering,’ Chiron said, ‘than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus’s property?’

‘If Poseidon doesn’t have it, where is the thing?’

‘I believe I know.’ Chiron’s expression was grim. ‘Part of a prophecy I had years ago… well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle.’

“Annabeth, did Chiron ever tell you what that prophecy of his said?”

“Nope.”

“I wonder what it was.”

‘Why can’t you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?’

‘Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge.’

I swallowed. ‘Good reason.’

“You know, I think it might actually have motivated me more. Considering my personal reasons for going…”

“Yes, well. We’ve established you aren’t exactly the typical demigod.”

‘You agree then?’

I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.

Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.

‘All right,’ I said. ‘It’s better than being turned into a dolphin.’

‘Then it’s time you consulted the Oracle,’ Chiron said. ‘Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you’re still sane, we will talk more.’

“Assuming he’s still sane?”

Piper and Leo looked at each other. Rachel Elizabeth Dare had been quite weird in her own ways, but it didn’t seem like she would cause anyone to go insane. 

Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor… I held my breath and climbed. The attic was filled with Greek hero junk… 

By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. 

“Oh.”

Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk… she’d been dead a long, long time.

Piper shivered. 

“ That’s your Oracle?” Reyna was surprised.

“For a while, yes.” Annabeth shrugged, then spoke as if she’d swallowed something nasty. “You have Octavian as an Augur.”

Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. 

“Oh my gods…”

“That's a horror movie waiting to happen."

A green mist poured from the mummy’s mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty-thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trapdoor, but it slammed shut. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.

Jason, Piper, and Leo were suddenly glad that the Oracle was Rachel Elizabeth Dare and not the mummy. 

I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. 

“I wonder if anyone has ever done that.”

“I mean… the door slammed shut, so you were trapped inside. Plus,” Annabeth continued, “The Oracle would have followed you if it really needed to talk to you.”

The mummy wasn’t alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist… It felt more like the Three Fates I’d seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.

I got up the courage to ask, ‘What is my destiny?’

“Well isn’t that dramatic?”

Percy snorted. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to say. Like was it okay if I just said ‘wassup’ or should I have been more like ‘tell me about my quest’?”

The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars… 

You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.

You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.

And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.

“Creepy.”

‘Well?’ Chiron asked me… ‘What did the Oracle say exactly?’ Chiron pressed. ‘This is important.’

My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. ‘She… she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned.’ 

‘I knew it,’ Grover said.

Chiron didn’t look satisfied. ‘Anything else?’

I didn’t want to tell him… What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you’ll fail.

How could I confess that?

“Yeah, I understood how Clarisse felt.”

“Percy! That’s a spoiler!”

‘No,’ I said. ‘That’s about it.’

He studied my face. ‘Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle’s words often have double meanings. Don’t dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass.’

“That’s so true,” all the demigods groaned. Prophecies really sucked. 

‘Okay,’ I said, anxious to change topics. ‘So where do I go? Who’s this god in the west?’

‘Ah, think, Percy’ Chiron said. ‘If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?’

‘Somebody else who wants to take over?’ I guessed.

‘Yes, quite. Someone who harbours a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided aeons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions… ’

I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. ‘Hades.’

Nico frowned. “He’s not evil .”

“Sorry. But the other one…”

“I get it.”

Chiron nodded. ‘The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility.’

Nico groaned. “Why do you always assume it’s Hades?”

“Well, Camp Half-Blood and the Olympians weren’t too educated about Hades at that point. Also, we were all actively avoiding the worse option.”

The old Greek campers shivered. They had really hoped the other option didn’t exist. 

A scrap of aluminium dribbled out of Grover’s mouth. ‘Whoa, wait. Wh-what?’

‘A Fury came after Percy,’ Chiron reminded him. ‘She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades.’

“I guess that's true.”

‘Yes, but – but Hades hates all heroes,’ Grover protested. ‘Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon…’

‘A hellhound got into the forest,’ Chiron continued. ‘Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp…’

“Just not for Hades.”

‘Great,’ I muttered. ‘That’s two major gods who want to kill me.’

“Haha.” Grover laughed drily. “Why stop at only two major gods? Plus, you’d forgotten about Mr. D. He wanted to kill you too.”

‘But a quest to…’ Grover swallowed. ‘I mean, couldn’t the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine’s very nice this time of year.’

‘Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt,’ Chiron insisted. ‘He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon… Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth.’

“Spoiler, not spoilers. We did visit the Underworld, we did find the master bold, and we did reveal the truth.” Percy smiled at Annabeth and Grover.

A strange fire burned in my stomach… desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur and the hellhound… I was ready to take him on… Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You’re a kid. Hades is a god. 

Nico snorted. “Like that stopped you.”

The others stared. Had Percy actually tried to fight Hades, Ruler of the Underworld?

Grover spoke in agreement. “You threw that reasoning away real quick.”

‘Look, if we know it’s Hades,’ I told Chiron, ‘why can’t we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads.’

‘Suspecting and knowing are not the same,’ Chiron said. ‘Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades – and I imagine Poseidon does – they couldn’t retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other’s territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they’re bold enough and strong enough to do it. 

Nico, Annabeth, and Grover looked at Percy, as if assessing him. “Bold enough to do it.”

No god can be held responsible for a hero’s actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?’

‘You’re saying I’m being used.’

“We’re always being used,” groaned the demigods. 

‘I’m saying it’s no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It’s a very risky gamble, but he’s in a desperate situation. He needs you.’

… I didn’t know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.

“Chiron was not expecting that reaction from you. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be encouraging.” 

I looked at Chiron. ‘You’ve known I was Poseidon’s son all along, haven’t you?’

‘I had my suspicions. As I said… I’ve spoken to the Oracle, too.’

‘So let me get this straight,’ I said. ‘I’m supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead… Find the most powerful weapon in the universe… And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days.’

“I don’t know if it’s the most powerful weapon in the universe…”

… I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts… ‘You don’t have to go,’ I told him. ‘I can’t ask that of you.’

‘Oh…’ He shifted his hooves. ‘No… it’s just that satyrs and underground places… well…You saved my life, Percy. If… if you’re serious about wanting me along, I won’t let you down.’

I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn’t think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I’d ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn’t sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he’d be with me.

Grover smiled at Percy, who nodded back. 

‘All the way, G-man.’ I turned to Chiron. ‘So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west.’

 ‘The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it’s in America.’ 

‘Where?’

Chiron looked surprised. ‘I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles.’

The Romans looked surprised. “The entrance to the Underworld is in LA? Why have we never noticed?”

Hazel turned to Nico. “Is that why you can pop up every now and then?”

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Naturally. So we just get on a plane –’

‘No!’ Grover shrieked. ‘Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?’ I shook my head, feeling embarrassed… 

‘Percy, think,’ Chiron said. ‘You are the son of the Sea God. Your father’s bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an aeroplane. You would be in Zeus’s domain. You would never come down again alive.’

“Oh.” Hazel and Frank suddenly realized why Percy had been so nervous back on that plane to Alaska. Though Percy hadn’t remembered his past, it must have been a subconscious life-saving instinct. Alaska being the land-beyond-the-gods had probably saved his life. 

‘Okay… So, I’ll travel overland.’

‘That’s right,’ Chiron said. ‘Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help.’

‘Gee,’ I said, feigning surprise. ‘Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?’

‘I’ve been waiting a long time for a quest, Seaweed Brain,’ she said. 

Percy smiled sweetly at her. “I think that was the first time you used that nickname. How long did it take for you to think of it?”

‘Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you’re going to save the world, I’m the best person to keep you from messing up.’ 

‘If you do say so yourself,’ I said. ‘I suppose you have a plan, Wise Girl?’

“And that’s the first time you called me by that nickname,” Annabeth retorted. 

Her cheeks coloured. ‘Do you want my help or not?’

The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get.

‘A trio,’ I said. ‘That’ll work.’

‘Excellent,’ Chiron said. ‘This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own… ‘No time to waste,’ Chiron said. ‘I think you should all get packing.’

“And that was the start of the best questing trio.”

“Nah,” Leo said. “I think Jason, Pipes, and I will disagree on that.”

Percy seemed to think of something. Turning to the other two, he said, “Did we ever go on another quest, just the three of us?”

Grover shook his head. “Spoilers, but no.”

“Huh.” He turned back to Leo. “I think we can argue about who is the better trio after you’ve heard the whole story about this quest.”

Chapter Text

“And that,” summarized Percy, “was how I was offered a quest. Next up, ‘I Ruin A Perfectly Good Bus’.”

“I mean… You didn't really have a choice.”

It didn’t take me long to pack… The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. 

“It wasn’t a loan,” said Annabeth. “That’s the allowance on a quest.”

… Chiron said the coins might come in handy for nonmortal transactions – whatever that meant. 

“He should have explained it to me.”

He gave Annabeth and me each a flask of nectar and an airtight bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt… 

“Did you bring normal, like mortal, first aid supplies…?”

"Well, duh.”

“No, we used nectar when we could have just used a Band-Aid,” Percy snarked. 

Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. 

Annabeth still had the cap with her, but frowned as she remembered her argument with Athena. The cap’s abilities seemed to be frozen now. 

She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored—

“When you got bored?”

Annabeth held her hands up. “I was naive.”

and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.

“Did no one explain about the Mist?” queried Hazel.

“Nope, Grover mentioned it maybe once in passing.”

Grover wore his fake feet and his trousers to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap… In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff’s ‘So Yesterday’, both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

“Hey!”

“Sorry, G-man. You’ve gotten way better.”

We waved goodbye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

“Why do you keep saying it like that? Like just call it, me , ‘Thalia’s Tree’ or something.”

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I’d seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp’s head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised…

“I don’t know,” Percy said. “I’ve never asked if it was true.”

‘This is Argus,’ Chiron told me. ‘He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things.’

“That was a bad pun.”

I heard footsteps behind us.

Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.

‘Hey!’ he panted. ‘Glad I caught you.’

Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.

“Shut up,” glared Annabeth. 

‘Just wanted to say good luck,’ Luke told me. ‘And I thought... um, maybe you could use these.’

He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.

“What do you mean they smelled normal?”

“You know, like a pair of slightly used sneakers do.”

Piper wrinkled her nose. 

Luke said, ‘Maia!’

“Mother…?”

“What?”

“Doesn’t ‘Maia’ mean ‘mother’?”

“Oh, yeah. She was the mother of Hermes.”

White bird’s wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

‘Awesome!’ Grover said.

“Not awesome,” muttered Grover. 

Luke smiled. ‘Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. 

“I think that some of the other Hermes kids also have a pair.”

“Those definitely got confiscated.”

Of course, I don’t use them much these days...’ His expression turned sad.

I didn’t know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say goodbye. I’d been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.

“Did you have a crush on him?”

Nico tried not to look interested. He wasn’t sure how to feel about this forced proximity with Percy. On one hand, hearing Percy’s innermost thoughts made the other seem much more normal. On the other hand, it had so far only proven that Percy, although imperfect, was a hero. 

Nico’s hope was quickly quashed though. 

“No, though I’m sure half of Camp did at some point. I just had like zero friends, especially ones that were older and cooler.”

‘Hey, man,’ I said. ‘Thanks.’

“No thanks,” Percy silently amended.

‘Listen, Percy...’ Luke looked uncomfortable. ‘A lot of hopes are riding on you. 

“Yeah,” muttered Percy. “ A lot of hopes.”

So just... kill some monsters for me, okay?’

Grover smiled. “He did that.”

We shook hands. Luke patted Grover’s head between his horns, then gave a goodbye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.

After Luke was gone, I told her, ‘You’re hyperventilating.’

‘Am not.’

“You were.”

‘You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn’t you?’

‘Oh... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?’

“Because you liked him?” teased Piper. She didn’t want to be like the rest of the Aphrodite cabin, but this was cute. 

I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. 

“I was right, but for the wrong reasons,” mumbled Percy. 

I looked at Chiron. ‘I won’t be able to use these, will I?’

He shook his head. ‘Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air... that would not be wise for you.’

Jason looked surprised. “Even flying shoes count?”

Percy shrugged. “I’m not sure. But Zeus was a little touchy that summer.”

"But the Argo II is fine?”

“The Argo II is a boat, albeit a flying boat. And Olympus is MIA at the moment.” 

“If I made you a pair of flying shoes, would you try them out?" Leo asked, suddenly looking exited. 

Percy made a face. “Uh, thanks, but no thanks. But maybe Grover will try them on…?”

I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. ‘Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?’

Grover shook his head slightly. “Not really.” To Leo, he added, “I don’t want your flying shoes either.”

His eyes lit up. ‘Me?’

Pretty soon we’d laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world’s first flying goat boy was ready for launch.

‘Maia!’ he shouted.

He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass… Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading towards the van.

Leo laughed. “You have a way with words.”

Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm… I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke’s flying shoes, or Annabeth’s invisible cap.

“Something as good as Luke’s flying shoes,” Grover echoed. 

‘What am I thinking?’ Chiron cried. ‘I can’t let you get away without this… Percy, that’s a gift from your father. I’ve kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one.’

“He didn’t tell anyone about his prophecy.”

“I seriously wonder what it was.”

… I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.

Percy smiled, still twirling the pen in his hands. 

‘The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into,’ Chiron told me. 

Thalia and Percy looked at each other, thinking of their friend. Annabeth looked down at the table. 

‘Its name is Anaklusmos.’

‘“Riptide”,’ I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.

“Why were you surprised it came so easily? I already explained that it would be like your first language?”

“Not sure.”

‘Use it only for emergencies,’ Chiron said, ‘and only against monsters… The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It’s deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don’t kill you first… And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable.’

“Nice.”

‘Good to know.’

‘Now recap the pen.’

I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.

‘You can’t,’ Chiron said.

‘Can’t what?’

‘Lose the pen,’ he said. 

“Can he read minds or something?” asked Leo. 

“No, just a teacher for thousands of years.”

‘It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it.’

I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.

‘It may take a few moments,’ Chiron told me. ‘Now check your pocket.’

Sure enough, the pen was there.

‘Okay, that’s extremely cool,’ I admitted. 

Leo nodded. “I need to figure out how to do that.”

“Right? I wish more weapons were like that.”

“Would be useful in combat.”

‘Mist is a powerful thing, Percy… Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans… Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality.’

“Of course,” continued Annabeth, “there are those who can see past the Mist. Some mortals, especially children, are clear-sighted.”

For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone… I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.

“Well that sounds optimistic.”

‘Chiron...’ I said. ‘When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time before them, right… what was it like... before the gods?’

“Why were you curious about that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I guess you were always the one .”

Chiron pursed his lips. ‘Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. 

“Glad he realized that eventually,” murmured Percy. 

It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. 

Percy snorted. “Good Titan, my ass. Plus, it’s really all Zeus’s fault.”

Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born.’

‘But the gods can’t die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they’re alive. 

Grover smiled sadly. Gods couldn’t die , per say, but they could still disappear. 

So... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?’

“Way to be confident, Perce.”

“Shut up, it was my first quest.”

“And, ah ha, if the quest failed, everything would be messed up.”

Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. ‘No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans… May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past… Relax,’ Chiron told me. ‘Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history.’

Annabeth chuckled. “Chiron hasn’t gotten any better at his motivational talks.”

“Yeah, dude,” added Leo. “No stress.”

‘Relax,’ I said. ‘I’m very relaxed.’

When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus—

“Again? Stop it!” yelled Thalia. 

“Maybe I should introduce you as ‘Thalia, daughter of Zeus who used to be a pine tree’ now.”

“Try it. I dare you.”

Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.

“Very typical,” echoed the Romans. “Very normal.”

Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island… After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy…

“That’s so true.”

“Imagine what it was like for me,” said Annabeth. “I hadn’t left camp for years.”

‘So far so good,’ I told Annabeth. ‘Ten miles and not a single monster.’

She gave me an irritated look. ‘It’s bad luck to talk that way, Seaweed Brain.’

“Yeah,” nodded Grover. “You seriously jinxed it.”

‘Remind me again – why do you hate me so much?’

‘I don’t hate you.’

‘Could’ve fooled me.’

She folded her cap of invisibility. ‘Look... we’re just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals.’ 

‘Why?’

She sighed. ‘How many reasons do you want? One time… My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her.’

‘They must really like olives.’

“Olives are gross.”

“I second that.”

“Hey!”

“To each their own.”

‘Oh, forget it.’

‘Now, if she’d invented pizza – that I could understand.’

“I stand by that thought. Whoever invented pizza deserves a reward.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “What you call pizza is a disgrace to authentic Italian cuisine.”

‘I said, forget it!’

Thalia snickered. “You guys argue like an old married couple.”

In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn’t say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.

“See? Argus saw the connection before you two even realized it yourselves!”

… Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe’s apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

“No,” chorused the demigods. “Never seen him before.”

“Wow. We’re all terrible people,” laughed Frank. 

“What are you talking about? I am a gem to society.”

“Very precious indeed. Want to visit the Underworld? Lord Pluto could personally measure your worth.”

Leo shut up. 

I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.

“We did notice.”

“Thanks for not bringing it up then.”

Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away… I thought about how close I was to my old apartment… Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. ‘You want to know why she married him, Percy?’

“Why did Aunt Sally marry him?”

I stared at him. ‘Were you reading my mind or something?’

‘Just your emotions.’ He shrugged. ‘Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?’

I nodded, wondering what else Grover might’ve forgotten to tell me.

“I ‘forgot’ to tell you a lot of things.”

“Thanks, man. Real helpful.”

"Sorry. I thought you got a good orientation too. The stress was getting to all of us.”

‘Your mom married Gabe for you,’ Grover told me. ‘You call him “Smelly”, but you’ve got no idea. The guy has this aura... Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven’t been near him for a fortnight.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Where’s the nearest shower?’

“Perce, it literally would’ve taken months for it to go away if we hadn’t gone on a quest.” Grover wrinkled his nose with disgust. “It was bad.”

‘You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod… If you hadn’t lived with him every summer, you probably would’ve been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you… ’

It didn’t, but I forced myself not to show it. 

“Thanks for trying though,” Percy told Grover.

“That’s what friends are for.”

I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. 

"I couldn’t,” Grover admitted. “They were really jumbled."

I was glad he and Annabeth were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn’t been straight with them. I hadn’t told them the real reason I’d said yes to this crazy quest.

“We both knew, but we were waiting for you to tell us. After all, we all had our own selfish reasons to take the quest,” Annabeth said. “I wanted to get out, explore the real world. I wanted to be seen.”

“My grand plan is that I will be remembered,” sang Leo’s figuring in a mechanical voice. “My grand plan, just you wait and see!”

“Sorry,” apologized Leo. “It like to spontaneously burst into song.”

The boy hurriedly tried to disassemble the figurine as it continued to sing off-key: “You better wise up, ‘cause I’ll rise up. Bring on any challenge. And someday soon the world will notice me—“

“I don't sound like that,” frowned Annabeth. 

“And the world did notice you,” smiled Percy. 

“Percy, if you say ‘cause I’m your world’, I am going to vomit.”

The truth was, I didn’t care about retrieving Zeus’s lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support cheque. He’d only claimed me because he needed a job done.

Percy smiled. “I don’t think that way now.”

All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.

You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, the Oracle whispered in my mind. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.

Shut up, I told it.

“Uhm,” said Frank. “Are you sure you’re okay? Most people don’t talk to the voices inside their head.”

… Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favourite school cafeteria delicacy – enchiladas.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he said tensely. ‘Maybe it’s nothing.’

But I could tell it wasn’t nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.

The trio groaned. “We should’ve listened to our instincts more.”

I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus… As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. ‘Percy.’

An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. 

It was Mrs. Dodds… 

“Why are monsters and stuff always dressed up as old ladies?”

“The ugliest old ladies,” grumbled Grover in agreement. 

Behind her came two more old ladies… Triplet demon grandmothers… sent a clear message: nobody leaves.

“All three Furies?” 

“Why are you so surprised, Thals? They went after you too.”

‘She didn’t stay dead long,’ I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. ‘I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime.’

“If you’re lucky, which you’re not.”

‘I said if you’re lucky,’ Annabeth said. ‘You’re obviously not.’

‘All three of them,’ Grover whimpered. ‘Di immortales!’

‘It’s okay,’ Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. ‘The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. 

“Uh huh, no problem at all.”

“Well they got out of there, so it should be fine,” reasoned Hazel. “There’s gotbe another exit to the bus.”

No problem. We’ll just slip out the windows.’

‘They don’t open,’ Grover moaned.

“I hope,” said Hazel. 

‘A back exit?’ she suggested.

There wasn’t one. Even if there had been, it wouldn’t have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.

“Or maybe not,” conceded Hazel.

‘They won’t attack us with witnesses around,’ I said. ‘Will they?’

“Most monsters will leave the mortals alone, but they’ll attack us whether there’s mortals there or not.”

‘Mortals don’t have good eyes,’ Annabeth reminded me. ‘Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist.’

‘They’ll see three old ladies killing us, won’t they?’

“No,” corrected Percy. “They’ll see us attacking three old ladies.”

She thought about it. ‘Hard to say. But we can’t count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof...?’

“Was there one?”

“I don’t remember. Not like we had time to check.”

We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.

Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she’d rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: ‘I need to use the restroom.’

“There wasn’t even a restroom on the bus,” complained Grover. “It was so creepy.”

‘So do I,’ said the second sister.

“Creepier,” said Frank.

‘So do I,’ said the third sister.

“Creepiest,” concluded Leo. 

‘I’ve got it,’ Annabeth said. ‘Percy, take my hat.’

‘What?’

‘You’re the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away.’

Annabeth sighed. “That was a smart plan. Too bad I didn’t know Percy that well when I thought of it.”

‘But you guys –’

‘There’s an outside chance they might not notice us,’ Annabeth said. ‘You’re a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering.’

“Your smell is overpowering and they were mostly after you.”

‘I can’t just leave you.’

‘Don’t worry about us,’ Grover said. ‘Go!’

My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on… I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the

Furies walked past.

Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me… Apparently she didn’t see anything. She and her sisters kept going.

“Is her sense of smell that bad?” Percy asked Nico. 

“I’m not sure.”

I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row. The old ladies were not old ladies any more… The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: ‘Where is it? Where?’ … 

“Where is it ?” asked Nico, concerned. “Not where is he ? What are they talking about?”

‘He’s not here!’ Annabeth yelled. ‘He’s gone!’

The Furies raised their whips.

Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.

Reyna looked at Grover. “What would a tin can do?”

Grover blushed. 

What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should’ve been named ADHD poster child of the year.

“Oh,” laughed Leo. “Must have been impulsive then. I’m pretty sure I’m the poster child for ADHD.”

… Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.

“It wasn’t. That was me and Annabeth hitting the windows.”

Percy winced. “Sorry.”

… We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars ploughed aside like bowling pins… There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right and the driver seemed to be veering towards the river.

“You should probably crash into the river,” suggested Hazel. “One, you’re the child of the sea god, so water is good. Two, wouldn't it cushion the fall?”

Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.

Hazel sighed. “I should’ve known better.”

The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet tar and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open… I stepped into the driver’s seat and let them pass.

“You should have exited the bus too.”

The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.

Jason looked at Grover this time. “I really don’t think the tin cans help.”

I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn’t leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. ‘Hey!’

The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly sounded like an excellent idea… ‘Perseus Jackson,’ Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere further south than Georgia. 

Nico snickered. “ Way further south.”

‘You have offended the gods. You shall die.’

‘I liked you better as a maths teacher,’ I told her.

“That wasn’t the smartest thing to tell her.”

“Hey,” Percy protested. “According to Nico, Mrs. Dodds is fine with teaching maths.”

Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.

I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.

The Furies hesitated.

“As any monster should.”

‘Submit now,’ [Mrs. Dodds] hissed. ‘And you will not suffer eternal torment.’

“No thanks,” said Leo. “I’d rather not die at all.”

‘Nice try,’ I told her.

“I agree with Leo. I’d rather stay alive.”

‘Percy, look out!’ Annabeth cried.

Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me… As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler’s hold and yanked her backwards while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands… The Fury I’d hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.

Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back… Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn’t have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.

‘Zeus will destroy you!’ she promised. ‘Hades will have your soul!’

“No, they wouldn’t have. At least, not for a while. They’d be too scared of Poseidon.”

‘Braccas meas vescimini!’ I yelled.

The Romans chuckled. 

I wasn’t sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant ‘Eat my pants!’

Jason nodded. “It did. Why Latin thought?”

“Not sure.”

Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.

‘Get out!’ Annabeth yelled at me. ‘Now!’ 

I didn’t need any encouragement.

We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, ‘We’re going to die!’ A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.

“Ah,” said Percy, voice blank. “The start of another fun story.”

‘Our bags!’ Grover realized. ‘We left our –’

BOOOOOM!

The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof—

“Damn it, dad!” Thalia yelled at the ceiling, since she couldn’t see the sky outside. 

but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.

‘Run!’ Annabeth said. ‘She’s calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!’

“I wonder what the reinforcements were.”

“Shut up, Percy.”

We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us and nothing but darkness ahead.

“So yeah,” gestured Percy, “I ruin a perfectly fine bus. I really wish I had better luck.”

Chapter Text

“I have the worst luck though,” continued Percy. “Which is why “We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium’.”

“Where?”

“You’ll see.”

In a way, it’s nice to know there are Greek gods out there—

“Why?”

because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. 

“Makes sense.” The other demigods nodded in agreement. 

For instance, when you’re walking away from a bus that’s just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it’s raining on top of everything else, most people might think that’s just really bad luck; when you’re a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.

“I wouldn’t say they’re trying to mess your day up… More like, you’re a demigod and that’s just life.”

“That’s depressing.”

So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods on the New Jersey riverbank… Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: ‘Come on! The further away we get, the better.’

“You probably saved our lives doing that.”

‘All our money was back there,’ I reminded her. ‘Our food and clothes. Everything.’ 

‘Well, maybe if you hadn’t decided to jump into the fight –’

“What was he supposed to do?” asked Piper. 

‘What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?’

‘You didn’t need to protect me, Percy. I would’ve been fine.’

“I don’t think I like your definition of ‘fine’ then,” said Leo. “Not sure sliced into ribbons is my definition of ‘fine’.”

“Shut up, Valdez.”

‘Sliced like sandwich bread,’ Grover put in, ‘but fine.’

‘Shut up, goat boy,’ said Annabeth.

Grover brayed mournfully. ‘Tin cans... a perfectly good bag of tin cans.’

“Yes, Grover. Forget about everything else. Forget the mortal money, drachmas, food, medical supplies. The tin cans, many of which you threw at the Furies, are what’s important.”

… After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. ‘Look, I...’ Her voice faltered. ‘I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave.’

‘We’re a team, right?’

In real life, Percy and Annabeth smiled at each other. She kissed him on the cheek. “The best team.”

She was silent for a few more steps. ‘It’s just that if you died... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world.’

“You just said that it would suck for him if he died…” Thalia looked at Annabeth, exasperated.

Annabeth blushed. “I wasn’t too great at words… and I was still struggling to call myself his friend.”

‘You haven’t left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?’ I asked her.

‘No... only short field trips. My dad –’

‘The history professor.’

‘Yeah. It didn’t work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home… but the real world is where the monsters are. That’s where you learn whether you’re any good or not.’

Thalia frowned at Annabeth. 

If I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn I heard doubt in her voice. ‘You’re pretty good with that knife,’ I said.

‘You think so?’

‘Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me.’

“I agree,” spoke Reyna. “That is impressive for a twelve-year-old.”

Everyone else at the table nodded. 

‘You know,’ she said, ‘maybe I should tell you... Something funny back on the bus...’

Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot̃ toot̃ toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.

Annabeth looked at Percy, horrified. “A what ?”

‘Hey, my reed pipes still work!’ Grover cried. ‘If I could just remember a “find path” song, we could get out of these woods!’

“Oh my gods,” Grover blushed, looking mortified. 

He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.

"Nobody believes me when I tell them you're out of your mind," sang Leo’s figurine. 

With a ‘ smack’ the son of Hephaestus destroyed the figurine before it could continue singing ‘Stranger’ by Hilary Duff. 

“Nice song, but wrong one.”

Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head. 

Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.

“Only have that underwater!”

“Wait, you can see clearly underwater?”

Percy rolled his eyes. “Frank, if you wanted to see underwater you could just turn into marine life.”

“It’s not the same!”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ll probably hear a description of what it’s like real soon.”

After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colours of a neon sign. I could smell food… This boy needed a double cheeseburger.

The girls shared a look that read, boys . 

We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees… It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that… The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there’s anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it’s red cursive neon English.

To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROIUM . 

“What?” asked Frank. “How did you even pronounce that?”

“I don’t know, my brain works in mysterious ways.”

‘What the heck does that say?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Annabeth said.

She loved reading so much, I’d forgotten she was dyslexic, too. 

Grover translated: ‘Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium.’

Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.

I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers. ‘Hey...’ Grover warned.

‘The lights are on inside,’ Annabeth said. ‘Maybe it’s open.’ 

‘Snack bar,’ I said wistfully.

‘Snack bar,’ she agreed.

‘Are you two crazy?’ Grover said. ‘This place is weird.’

“Listen to the satyr,” recommended Reyna.

We ignored him.

“No one listens to the satyr,” said Grover, looking mournful.

The front garden was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.

‘Bla-ha-ha!’ he bleated. ‘Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!’

Grover looked even sadder. “It was Uncle Ferdinand.”

We stopped at the warehouse door.

‘Don’t knock,’ Grover pleaded. ‘I smell monsters.’

‘Your nose is clogged up from the Furies,’ Annabeth told him. ‘All I smell is burgers. Aren’t you hungry?’

‘Meat!’ he said scornfully. ‘I’m a vegetarian.’

Piper smiled at the satyrs, since she was also vegetarian. 

‘You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminium cans,’ I reminded him.

‘Those are vegetables. 

“How are those vegetables?” Frank protested. 

Annabeth intervened before anything could happen. “Let’s not argue about what is or isn’t a vegetable or we’ll be here forever.”

Come on. Let’s leave. These statues are... looking at me.’

Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman – at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled… I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.

“Like I said,”grumbled Percy, “Why is every monster disguised as an old lady?”

Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, ‘Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?’

‘They’re... um...’ Annabeth started to say.

“Please be a good lie,” prayed Thalia. 

‘We’re orphans,’ I said.

“That’s not too bad.”

‘Orphans?’ the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. ‘But, my dears! Surely not!’ 

‘We got separated from our caravan,’ I said. ‘Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we’re lost. Is that food I smell?’

“And you lost it,” narrated Thalia. “Try again next time.”

‘Oh, my dears,’ the woman said. ‘You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area.’

We thanked her and went inside.

Annabeth muttered to me, ‘Circus caravan?’

‘Always have a strategy, right?’

‘Your head is full of kelp.’

Percy nodded sagely. “Kelp is of utmost important to many aquatic ecosystems.”

“Shut up, Seaweed Brain.”

The warehouse was filled with more statues… But mostly I was thinking about food.

Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady’s shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. 

“You’re an idiot,” they all chorused. 

Plus, you’ve never smelled Aunty Em’s burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist’s chair – it made everything else go away. 

Annabeth nodded. “We were pretty out of it. The enchantment was strong, especially since we weren’t expecting it at all.”

I barely noticed Grover’s nervous whimpers, or the way the statues’ eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.

“I’m not liking this,” muttered Frank.

All I cared about was finding the dining area. And, sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.

Leo sighed in amazement. “That sounds amazing…”

‘Please, sit down,’ Aunty Em said.

‘Awesome,’ I said.

‘Um,’ Grover said reluctantly, ‘we don’t have any money, ma’am.’

… ‘No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans.’

“Uh…”

‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Annabeth said.

Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must’ve been my imagination.

‘Quite all right, Annabeth,’ she said. ‘You have such beautiful grey eyes, child.’ 

“Did you already introduce yourself…?”

Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth’s name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.

“She’s a monster, isn’t she?”

Annabeth nodded. 

Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking… I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe. Annabeth slurped her shake.

Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray’s waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.

‘What’s that hissing noise?’ he asked.

… ‘Hissing?’ Aunty Em asked. ‘Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover.’

“At least she made a believable excuse. She’s smarter than most monsters.”

‘I take vitamins. For my ears.’

“Grover,” continued Thalia. “Not so much.”

‘That’s admirable,’ she said. ‘But please, relax.’

Aunty Em ate nothing… I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.

“Your manners always kick in at the weirdest times,” noted Annabeth. 

‘So, you sell gnomes,’ I said, trying to sound interested.

Grover shook his head. “You did a poor job at that.”

‘Oh, yes,’ ‘Aunty Em said. And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know.’

‘A lot of business on this road?’

‘Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get.’

“Turning people into stone isn’t what I would consider ‘cherishing every customer’,” Annabeth muttered angrily. 

Nico’s eyes widened when he caught the words. 

My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket… It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.

‘Ah,’ Aunty Em said sadly. ‘You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face.’

Annabeth continued talking under her breath. “Of course. It’s hard to smile if you’re getting turned to stone.” 

‘You make these statues yourself?’ I asked.

“She sure did.”

‘Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company.’... 

Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, ‘Two sisters?’

Thalia sighed in relief. “At least Annie got it, even if it took longer than usual.”

‘It’s a terrible story,’ Aunty Em said. ‘Not one for children, really… ’

“I mean… I’ve heard worse stories.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy… 

‘Percy?’ Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. ‘Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting.’

“Yeah,” said Jason. “Listen to her.”

‘Such beautiful grey eyes,’ Aunty Em told Annabeth again. ‘My, yes, it has been a long time since I’ve seen grey eyes like those.’

“That’s really creepy.”

She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth’s cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.

‘We really should go.’

‘Yes!’ Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. ‘The ringmaster is waiting! Right!’

I didn’t want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.

“She had you good.”

“Probably because she focused a lot on me.”

‘Please, dears,’ Aunty Em pleaded. ‘I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won’t you at least sit for a pose?’

‘A pose?’ Annabeth asked warily.

‘A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children.’

Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. ‘I don’t think we can, ma’am. Come on, Percy –’ 

‘Sure we can… It’s just a photo, Annabeth. What’s the harm?’

“What’s the harm,” mimicked Annabeth. 

‘Yes, Annabeth,’ the woman purred. ‘No harm.’

“No harm at all,” continued Annabeth. 

… Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘I’ll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side.’

‘Not much light for a photo,’ I remarked.

‘Oh, enough,’ Aunty Em said. ‘Enough for us to see each other, yes?’

"Why does she sound like the wold in Little Red Riding Hood ?” asked Frank. “Like you know ‘grandmother, what big eyes you have’ and she's all ‘the better to see you with, my dear’.”

“I guess she read the story before we visited.”

“Can she even read…?”

‘Where’s your camera?’ Grover asked.

Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. ‘Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?’

Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, ‘That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand.’

“I wonder why.”

‘Grover,’ Aunty Em chastised, ‘look this way, dear.’

She still had no camera in her hands.

‘Percy –’ Annabeth said.

Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady’s voice.

“Yes, listen to Annabeth,” said Thalia. 

Percy agreed. “Listening to Annabeth is often the right choice.”

“ Often ?”

‘I will just be a moment,’ Aunty Em said. ‘You know, I can’t see you very well in this cursed veil...’

‘Percy, something’s wrong,’ Annabeth insisted.

‘Wrong?’ Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. ‘Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?’

“Oh, nothing much. Only, everything.”

‘That is Uncle Ferdinand!’ Grover gasped.

‘Look away from her!’ Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap on to her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.

“Thank the gods for Annabeth,” praised Thalia. 

I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em’s sandaled feet… My eyes rose to Aunty Em’s hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.

I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, ‘No! Don’t!’

“Good.”

More rasping – the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from... from about where Aunty Em’s head would be.

‘Run!’ Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, ‘ Maia!’ to kick-start his flying sneakers.

“Uhm, Grover, were your eyes still closed?”

I couldn’t move. I stared at Aunty Em’s gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.

‘Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face,’ she told me soothingly. ‘Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up.’

I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens – a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em’s dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.

Aunty Em.

Aunty ‘M’.

How could I have been so stupid?

Reyna nodded. “Medusa.”

Frank and Hazel looked at each other, then at Percy. “Is that why the gorgons were so intent on killing you?”

Percy nodded at them. “Apparently they could still smell her blood on me. I got lucky with that one.”

Jason looked over too. “How’d you beat her?”

“You’ll see.”

Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?

But I couldn’t think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus… 

“Well at least your namesake killed her, that should give you better luck.”

‘The Grey-Eyed One did this to me, Percy… Annabeth’s mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this.’

‘Don’t listen to her!’ Annabeth’s voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. ‘Run, Percy!’

‘Silence!...You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy’s daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer.’

“She was probably partially telling the truth. I look a lot like Poseidon, so she was trying her best to get me to stay behind.”

“That’s desperate, but also a little sad. Mostly desperate."

‘Do you really want to help the gods?’ Medusa asked. ‘Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain.’

Percy smiled sadly. Medusa had been right about that. 

‘Percy!’ Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a ninety-kilogram hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, ‘Duck!’

Leo laughed, easing some of the tension. “These comparisons. Man, I like how your brain works!”

I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o’clock with his winged shoes fluttering – Grover… navigating by ears and nose alone.

‘Duck!’ he yelled again. ‘I’ll get her!’

That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he’d miss Medusa and nail me. I dove to one side.

“Hey!”

Thwack!

At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage. ‘You miserable satyr,’ she snarled. ‘I’ll add you to my collection!’

‘That was for Uncle Ferdinand!’ Grover yelled back.

“I got lucky.”

I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass. Ker-whack!

‘Arrgh!’ Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.

Reyna nodded in appreciation. As the story continued, she was realizing more and more how different fauns and satyrs were. 

Right next to me, Annabeth’s voice said, ‘Percy!’

I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. ‘Jeez! Don’t do that!’

Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. ‘You have to cut her head off.’

‘What? Are you crazy? Let’s get out of here.’

‘Medusa is a menace. She’s evil. I’d kill her myself, but...’ Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. ‘But you’ve got the better weapon. Besides, I’d never get close to her. She’d slice me to bits because of my mother. You – you’ve got a chance.’

“Ah,” said Thalia. “It was probably hard for her to admit that.”

‘What? I can’t –’

‘Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?’

She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.

“Way to go, Annabeth. You’ve got him,” said Grover. “Hook, line, and sinker.”

Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. ‘A polished shield would be better.’ 

“You don’t have one of those,” said Thalia. “Check.”

She studied the sphere critically. ‘The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection’s size should be off by a factor of –’

“What?” said almost everyone. “Speak in more simple terms.”

‘Would you speak English?’

‘I am! ’ She tossed me the glass ball. ‘Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly.’ 

‘Hey, guys!’ Grover yelled somewhere above us. ‘I think she’s unconscious!’

“Wooh!” cheered Leo.  

‘Roooaaarrr!’

“Nevermind.”

‘Maybe not,’ Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.

‘Hurry,’ Annabeth told me. ‘Grover’s got a great nose, but he’ll eventually crash.’

Grover looked at them. “Thanks for the trust in me.”

Annabeth smiled sweetly at him. “I trusted you. Just trusted that you’d mess up at some point.”

I took out my pen and uncapped it…I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa’s reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.

Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful ‘Ummphh!’

“Ouch.”

Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, ‘Hey!’

I advanced on her… she let me approach – ten metres, five metres.

Reyna shook her head. “She shouldn’t have done that.”

… ‘You wouldn’t harm an old woman, Percy,’ she crooned. ‘I know you wouldn’t.’

I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass – the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.

Annabeth looked at him. “From her voice or from her gaze.”

“I think it was an effect from her gaze, even indirectly.”

From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, ‘Percy, don’t listen to her!’

Medusa cackled. ‘Too late.’

She lunged at me with her talons.

I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock! , then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern – the sound of a monster disintegrating.

“You took out Medusa with one sword swipe?” Jason looked at him, amazed. 

Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.

“Ew.”

‘Oh, yuck,’ Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. ‘Mega-yuck.’

“Nice vocabulary, goat boy.”

Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa’s black veil. She said, ‘Don’t move.’

Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster’s head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice. 

“Ew, that’s so gross.”

‘Are you okay?’ she asked me, her voice trembling.

‘Yeah,’ I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. ‘Why didn’t... why didn’t the head evaporate?’

‘Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war,’ she said. ‘Same as your Minotaur horn. But don’t unwrap the head. It can still petrify you.’

Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue… 

‘The Red Baron,’ I said. ‘Good job, man.’

He managed a bashful grin. ‘That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun.’

Coach Hedge looked like he wanted to try. 

… Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse…  and double-wrapped Medusa’s head… 

Finally I said, ‘So we have Athena to thank for this monster?’

“Oh great,” complained Thalia. “You just had to bring it up.”

Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. ‘Your dad, actually. Don’t you remember?...You probably reminded her of him.’

My face was burning. ‘Oh, so now it’s my fault we met Medusa.’

Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: ‘ “It’s just a photo, Annabeth. What’s the harm?” ’

‘Forget it,’ I said. ‘You’re impossible.’

‘You’re insufferable.’

‘You’re –’

“You guys were so tiring back then,” grumbled Grover. 

“Only back then?”

“It’s a little different now. Now, they know they’re flirting.”

‘Hey!’ Grover interrupted. ‘You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don’t even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?’

“Solid question. You're not going to carry it with you all the way to LA, right?”

“Oh right, you lost your bags on the bus.”

I stared at the thing… I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we’d never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.

Leo whistled. “Way to stay positive.”

What had Medusa said?

Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue .

I got up. ‘I’ll be back.’

“What are you about to do…?”

‘Percy,’ Annabeth called after me. ‘What are you –’

I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa’s office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone’s garden. 

Nico frowned. Had all the statues from Persephone’s garden been from Medusa? 

According to one freight bill, the Underworld’s billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California… 

Percy looked at the Romans. “And now you know the approximate location of the entrance to the Underworld. If you would ever like to visit.”

They shook their heads. 

In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.

“Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?”

“How am I supposed to know what you're thinking?”

I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa’s head, and filled out a delivery slip:

The Gods Mount Olympus 

600th Floor, Empire State Building 

New York, NY

With best wishes, 

PERCY JACKSON

Percy shot a smile over at Leo. “The address is usable. But I wouldn’t recommend sending anything. Hermes would get annoyed and Zeus might zap you.”

‘They’re not going to like that,’ Grover warned. ‘They’ll think you’re impertinent.’

"Percy is impertinent."

"Oh my gods though. Did you actually send it?"

I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!

‘I am impertinent,’ I said.

“At least he agreed.”

"Dude, don't they already want to kill you?"

"Why would you anger them more?"

I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.

She didn’t. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. 

“You do,” said Annabeth. 

Anyone who had known Percy for more than 15 minutes agreed. 

‘Come on,’ she muttered. ‘We need a new plan.’

Chapter Text

“I hope this section goes by quickly. But uh, ‘We Get Advice From A Poodle.”

We were pretty miserable that night.

We camped out in the woods… littered with flattened soda cans and fast- food wrappers.

Grover and Piper frowned. 

We’d taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em’s… We decided to sleep in shifts. 

“Smart.”

I volunteered to take first watch.

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.

‘Go ahead and sleep,’ I told him. ‘I’ll wake you if there’s trouble.’

He nodded, but still didn’t close his eyes. ‘It makes me sad, Percy.’

“That was a little random.”

‘What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?’

‘No. This makes me sad.’ He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. ‘And the sky. You can’t even see the stars. They’ve polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr.’

‘Oh, yeah. I guess you’d be an environmentalist.’

“Does it not make you sad?”

He glared at me. ‘Only a human wouldn’t be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast... ah, never mind. It’s useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I’ll never find Pan.’

“Pam?” asked Leo. “Did I hear that wrong?”

‘Pam? Like the cooking spray?’

“At least I didn’t ask something quite as stupid.”

‘Pan!’ he cried indignantly. ‘P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher’s licese for?’

“I mean… How was he supposed to know…?”

A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might’ve once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I’d never known.

Grover looked at Percy. “I didn’t know he showed his presence to you that night,” he said softly. 

‘Tell me about the search,’ I said.

Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.

‘The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago,’ he told me. ‘A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, “Tell them that the great god Pan has died!” When humans heard the news, they believed it… But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master… We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden and wake him from his sleep.’

Grover smiled sadly, remembering how Lord Pan had looked in his final moments. Maybe the satyrs had only brought him more pain. 

‘And you want to be a searcher.’

“As did almost every satyr.”

‘It’s my life’s dream,’ he said. ‘My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand... the statue you saw back there –’

‘Oh, right, sorry.’

Grover shook his head. ‘Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I’ll succeed. I’ll be the first searcher to return alive.’

“Wait. The first to return alive?"

‘Hang on – the first?’

Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. ‘No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They’re never seen alive again.’

‘Not once in two thousand years?’

‘No.’

‘And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?’

‘None.’

Grover sighed. At least he had an idea of what happened to the other satyrs now. 

‘But you still want to go,’ I said, amazed. 

Reyna agreed. “That’s really brave of you, satyr.”

‘I mean, you really think you’ll be the one to find Pan?’ 

‘I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It’s the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened.’

Again, Grover looked down at his plate sadly. “Every one of the satyrs had to hold onto the belief of ‘if not me, who else’? There was no other way to make it through searching."

… ‘How are we going to get into the Underworld?’ I asked him. ‘I mean, what chance do we have against a god?’

“A good one,” smiled Grover.

‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘But back at Medusa’s, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me –’

“You really have an issue with names."

‘Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out.’

“No need to sound so sarcastic.”

“Sorry.”

‘Don’t be so hard on her, Percy. She’s had a tough life, but she’s a good person. After all, she forgave me...’ His voice faltered.

Annabeth frowned. “There was nothing to forgive.”

‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘Forgave you for what?’

Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.

‘Wait a minute,’ I said. ‘Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn’t... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong –’

‘I can’t talk about it,’ Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he’d start crying if I pressed him. ‘But as I was saying, back at Medusas, Annabeth and I agreed there’s something strange going on with this quest. Something isn’t what it seems.’

“We really should have listened more to our instincts.”

“Yes,” agreed Annabeth. “But what could we have even done?”

Percy sighed. “Nothing, probably.”

‘Well, duh. I’m getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took.’

‘That’s not what I mean,’ Grover said. ‘The Fu – The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren’t as aggressive as they could’ve been.’

“Was that not aggressive…?”

Thalia shook her head. 

‘They seemed plenty aggressive to me.’

Grover shook his head. ‘They were screeching at us: “Where is it? Where?”’

‘Asking about me,’ I said.

‘Maybe... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren’t asking about a person. They said “Where is it?” They seemed to be asking about an object.’

Nico looked confused now. Were the Furies working for Zeus or Hades? It didn’t seem likely that the two gods were working together and the Furies were controlled by Hades. So what were they looking for?

‘That doesn’t make sense.’

‘I know. But if we’ve misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt...’ 

… ‘I haven’t been straight with you,’ I told Grover. ‘I don’t care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother.’

“Which was fine, because I literally just told you I went on the quest partially because I wanted a searcher's license.”

Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. ‘I know that, Percy. But are you sure that’s the only reason?’ 

‘I’m not doing it to help my father. He doesn’t care about me. I don’t care about him.’

Grover gazed down from his tree branch. ‘Look, Percy, I’m not as smart as Annabeth. I’m not as brave as you. But I’m pretty good at reading emotions. You’re glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he’s claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That’s why you mailed Medusa’s head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you’d done.’

“You were right. I wanted him to notice me, though not all of it was because I wanted him to be proud.”

‘Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you’re wrong. I don’t care what he thinks.’

“I do care.”

Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. ‘Okay, Percy. Whatever.’

‘Besides, I haven’t done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we’re stuck here with no money and no way west.’

Frank looked at him, shocked. “Do you call killing all three Furies and Medusa in one day ‘nothing’?”

Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. ‘How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep.’

I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.

Grover chuckled. “That song always works on you, Perce.”

In my dreams—

The listeners groaned. Not another dream. 

I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Grey mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.

They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.

Nico frowned. “Why would you go towards the pit if even the dead are afraid of it?”

“No comment."

Looking down made me dizzy.

Thalia looked like she was dizzy too. 

The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.

The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.

The older Greek campers looked at him. “ He visited you so early?”

Percy nodded. 

The voice felt ancient – cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.

They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.

A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she’d dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!

I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn’t work.

Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.

An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.

Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!

“Which gods is it talking about? Like all the gods, or just the Olympians?”

The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!

“Did you not have doubts considering the dead were on your side?” asked Hazel. 

The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me. I realized it wasn’t interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.

Good, it murmured. Good.

Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!

Someone was shaking me.

My eyes opened, and it was daylight.

“ That’s why we couldn’t wake you up?” asked Annabeth. “We just thought you were a deep sleeper or something.”

‘Well,’ Annabeth said, ‘the zombie lives.’

I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. ‘How long was I asleep?’

‘Long enough for me to cook breakfast.’ Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavoured corn chips from Aunty Em’s snack bar. 

“Yum.”

‘And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend.’ My eyes had trouble focusing.

Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed anima… It was a pink poodle.

“Oh the poor poodle,” sympathized Piper. 

The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, ‘No, he’s not.’

I blinked. ‘Are you... talking to that thing?’

The poodle growled.

‘This thing ,’ Grover warned, ‘is our ticket west. Be nice to him.’

“You wanted him to be nice to a poodle that just growled at him?” asked Frank. 

‘You can talk to animals?’

“Yes. It’s part of being a satyr.”

Grover ignored the question. ‘Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy.’

I stared at Annabeth, figuring she’d crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.

‘I’m not saying hello to a pink poodle,’ I said. ‘Forget it.’

‘Percy,’ Annabeth said. ‘I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle.’

The poodle growled.

I said hello to the poodle.

“Of course he did. Annabeth told him to.”

Grover explained that he’d come across Gladiola in the woods and they’d struck up a conversation… Gladiola didn’t really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

‘How does Gladiola know about the reward?’ I asked.

‘He read the signs,’ Grover said. ‘Duh.’

“Oh,” said Frank. “Should’ve known that.”

‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Silly me.’

‘So we turn in Gladiola,’ Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, ‘we get money and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple.’

I thought about my dream… ‘Not another bus,’ I said warily.

‘No,’ Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, towards train tracks I hadn’t been able to see last night in the dark. ‘There’s an Amtrack station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon.’

Chapter Text

We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.

We weren’t attacked once, but I didn’t relax… 

I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus… 

Percy sighed. “Yeah, I was super unlucky. Literally every monster on the East Coast knew what I looked like because of that.”

“As did every mortal.”

‘Don’t worry,’ Annabeth told me. ‘Mortal police could never find us.’ But she didn’t sound so sure… 

“The picture was literally everywhere on the news. It was kind of concerning.”

Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved… 

“You should’ve shown me,” complained Annabeth. 

Percy shrugged. “You weren’t next to me.”

Another time, towards evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could’ve sworn it was a lion, except that lions don’t live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a tank. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.

“You saw the Nemean lion?” Thalia said, surprised. 

Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver… Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. 

“Sorry, Perce.”

“It’s fine. Probably would have had a nightmare anyways.”

Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.

“Thanks, man.”

‘So,’ Annabeth asked me, once we’d got Grover’s trainer readjusted. ‘Who wants your help?’ 

‘What do you mean?’

‘When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, “I won’t help you.” Who were you dreaming about?’

I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I’d dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered me so much I finally told her.

“Good choice,” the others laughed. 

Annabeth was quiet for a long time. ‘That doesn’t sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs.’

“He laughs, sometimes,” Nico defended. He trailed off at the end though, so it wasn’t very convincing. 

“And if it were Lord Hades, wouldn’t the dead spirits be trying to push you towards the pit, not wake you up?”

‘He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?’

“That is true…”

‘I guess... if he meant, “Help me rise from the Underworld.” If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?’

I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer… 

Annabeth shook her head in real life too. “We should have thought about the answer more. I guess we were just all focused on the wrong things.”

Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. ‘Percy, you can’t barter with Hades. You know that, right? 

Nico nodded. “That’s true.”

He’s deceitful, heartless and greedy. 

Nico stayed silent at the description, though he didn’t look happy.

I don’t care if his Kindly Ones weren’t as aggressive this time –’

‘This time?’ I asked. ‘You mean you’ve run into them before?’

Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. ‘Let’s just say I’ve got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can’t be tempted to make a deal for your mom.’

‘What would you do if it was your dad?’

‘That’s easy,’ she said. ‘I’d leave him to rot.’

“Ooo-kaaay then,” said Leo. 

‘You’re not serious?’

Annabeth’s grey eyes fixed on me. She wore the same expression she’d worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. ‘My dad’s resented me since the day I was born, Percy...’

‘But how... I mean, I guess you weren’t born in a hospital...’

Annabeth laughed awkwardly. “Children of Athena are born the way their mother was…”

‘I appeared on my father’s doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You’d think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right?...He got a “regular” mortal wife, and had two “regular” mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn’t exist.’

Annabeth smiled. “I don’t think that way about him now. Thanks for convincing me to try again.”

I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn’t know how.

“That’s sweet.”

‘My mom married a really awful guy,’ I told her. ‘Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that’s what your dad was thinking.’

“It wasn’t,” answered Annabeth. “But thank you for trying.”

...She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father’s. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.

“Because he’s still my dad .”

‘He doesn’t care about me,’ she said. ‘... I took the hint. I wasn’t wanted. I ran away.’

‘How old were you?’

‘Same age as when I started camp. Seven.’

“Damn,” said Leo. “That’s young.” Then he looked at Jason and was about to say something, but didn’t.

‘But... you couldn’t have got all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself’

‘Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me towards help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway.’

Thalia and Grover smiled at Annabeth, though it was tinged with sadness.

… Towards the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice—

“Why do you keep mentioning how many days there are left?” asked Jason. 

“Dates are important.”

we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis.

Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping-bag handle stuck on the city.

Annabeth frowned at her boyfriend, who only smiled at her. 

“Am I wrong though?”

‘I want to do that,’ she sighed.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?’

“How would he have, if he’s not supposed to fly on a plane?”

“Pictures exist, Frank.”

‘Only in pictures.’

Frank blushed. “Oh, right.”

‘Someday, I’m going to see it in person. I’m going to build the greatest monument to the gods ever. Something that’ll last a thousand years.’

I laughed. ‘You? An architect?’

Percy held up his hands in surrender before Annabeth could turn on him again. “It’s not for any reason you’re thinking about. Plus, I think you accomplished your goal.”

I don’t know why, but I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.

Annabeth relaxed, letting herself rest back against Percy. 

Her cheeks flushed. ‘Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention.’

“That wasn’t very nice,” Thalia chided. 

‘Sorry,’ Annabeth said. ‘That was mean.’

‘Can’t we work together a little?’ I pleaded. ‘I mean, didn’t Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?’ 

Annabeth had to think about it. ‘I guess... the chariot,’ she said tentatively. ‘My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete.’

‘Then we can cooperate, too. Right?’

We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.

‘I suppose,’ she said at last.

“You make a nice duo.”

Frank and Hazel smiled, remembering how Percy had helped get them to and from Alaska with Arion. 

We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we’d have a three-hour stopover before departing for Denver.

Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, ‘Food.’

‘Come on, goat boy,’ Annabeth said. ‘Sightseeing.’

‘Sightseeing?’

“We shouldn’t have done that.”

“Should have known there’s no time for sight-seeing on a quest.”

“There’s always time to appreciate the beauty of the world.”

“Let’s not get philosophical.”

‘The Gateway Arch,’ she said. ‘This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?’

“Didn’t really have a choice there.”

… I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, we couldn’t very well let her go alone. 

Grover shrugged. ‘As long as there’s a snack bar without monsters.’

“We didn’t even make it to the snack bar,” muttered Grover. 

Thalia huffed. “When is there ever a snack bar without monsters.”

The Arch was about a mile from the train station… It wasn’t all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me jelly beans, so I was okay.

“The jelly beans were blue,” nodded Percy. 

“I got you.”

I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. ‘You smell anything?’ I murmured to Grover.

He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. ‘Underground,’ he said distastefully. ‘Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn’t mean anything.’

“No,” said Grover. “It meant something.”

But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn’t be here.

“Another instance of when we should have listened to our instincts.”

‘Guys,’ I said. ‘You know the gods’ symbols of power?’

“That’s a weird question to spring out of nowhere.”

Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. ‘Yeah?’

‘Well, Hade –’

Grover cleared his throat. ‘We’re in a public place... You mean, our friend downstairs?’

“Stop!” snickered Leo, who soon started laughing uncontrollably. “I-I can’t stop laughing. Oh my gods. Why is this so funny? I-It shouldn't be funny.” 

‘Um, right,’ I said. ‘Our friend way downstairs. Doesn’t he have a hat like Annabeth’s?’

‘You mean the Helm of Darkness,’ Annabeth said. ‘Yeah, that’s his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting.’

‘He was there?’ I asked.

Nico didn’t look too happy. “Only time he was allowed on Olympus.”

She nodded. ‘It’s the only time he’s allowed to visit Olympus – the darkest day of the year. But his helmet is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I’ve heard is true...’

‘It allows him to become darkness,’ Grover confirmed. ‘He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can’t be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?’ 

“Good to know that none of us are rational.”

‘But then... how do we know he’s not here right now, watching us?’ I asked. Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.

‘We don’t,’ Grover said.

“That’s comforting,” said Frank. 

‘Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better,’ said. ‘Got any blue jelly beans left?’

I’d almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts.

“Claustrophobic?”

“Sort of. More like ‘the sea doesn’t like to be constrained’.”

The others nodded in understanding. 

We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.

“Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh is right.”

We started going up, inside the Arch. I’d never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn’t too happy about it.

‘No parents?’ the fat lady asked us.

“Please make a better lie this time,” pleaded Thalia. 

‘They’re below,’ Annabeth told her. ‘Scared of heights.’

“Oh, not too shabby.”

‘Oh, the poor darlings.’

The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, ‘Now, now, sonny. Behave.’ 

I said, ‘Sonny. Is that his name?’

‘No,’ the lady told me.

She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.

“What was his name?”

“You’ll see.”

Annabeth and Grover frowned too. Percy had never told them what had happened after they left. 

At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting…  if there’s anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space two hundred metres in the air… 

Percy shivered slightly, remembering the feeling of being stuck in the arch. “Being there was basically the opposite of what the ocean, and thus me, wanted.”

Annabeth… probably could’ve stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.

“Luckily?” asked Annabeth. “I really do wish I could have stayed longer. Maybe we should go back.”

Percy shook his head vehemently. “Bad memories. Let’s not.”

I steered Grover and Annabeth towards the exit, loaded them into the elevator and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.

The park ranger said, ‘Next car, sir.’

‘We’ll get out,’ Annabeth said. ‘Well wait with you.’

“Should’ve done that.”

But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, ‘Naw, it’s okay. I’ll see you guys at the bottom.’

“We really shouldn’t have split up.”

Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.

“Uhm.” Percy looked at Grover and Annabeth. “I never told you guys what happened at the Arch, so you’ll hear about it now too. I didn’t really want to scare you guys. Plus, I felt pathetic afterwards. Anyways, I’m still alive now.”

Annabeth looked concerned, but nodded. 

Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.

I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth. 

“ Forked tongue?”

Wait a minute. Forked tongue?

“Okay so the fat lady is definitely a monster.”

“Why is it always an old lady?”

“Can never trust a smiling old lady.”

Before I could decide if I’d really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.

‘Now, now, sonny,’ the lady said. ‘Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here.’

‘Doggie!’ said the little boy. ‘Look, a doggie!’

His parents pulled him back.

“The poor mortals.”

The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.

‘Well, son,’ the fat lady sighed. ‘If you insist.’

“So if ‘sonny’ isn’t it’s name…”

Ice started forming in my stomach. ‘Um, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?’

‘Chimera, dear,’ the fat lady corrected. ‘Not a Chihuahua. It’s an easy mistake to make.’

“Chimera?!” Annabeth, Reyna, and Jason all startled. 

“You fought a Chimera after we left?”

… The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew… It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail… CHIMERA – RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS - IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS - EXT. 954.

“Why would you take the time to read that, Seaweed Brain?” Annabeth exclaimed, sounding exasperated. 

“Sorry, ADHD. I take in a lot of details, though some of them are unnecessary in action.”

“Has anyone tried to call the number?” Leo asked. “Like, what if someone just decided to prank call them? Or just like, ‘hey, I found your lost not-Chihuahua’.”

I realized I hadn’t even uncapped my sword… The snake lady made a hissing noise that might’ve been laughter. ‘Be honoured, Percy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. 

“Zeus sent it?” Thalia yelled. 

For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!’

“Isn’t that an anteater?” asked Piper. 

“Oh, don’t let her hear that,” laughed Percy. “She wouldn’t like it.”

I stared at her. All I could think to say was: ‘Isn’t that a kind of anteater?’

She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. ‘I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!’

“Uhm, on a side note,” Percy interrupted. “I think I’ve fought with most of her children…”

“How many?” asked Jason. 

“Hold up, maybe not fought or killed , but I’ve encountered many of them.”

“Still, a lot,” supplied Annabeth. 

“Chimera, Hydra, Sphinx, Nemean Lion, Clazmonian Sow, and the Manticore I fought ,” Percy said, counting on his fingers. “Cerberus and Orthrus were fine though, I didn’t fight the dogs. Well, except for the not-a-Chihuahua-Chimera.”

The others stared at him in shock. That was literally all of the monsters that Echidna had borne. 

Percy looked uncomfortable. “Like I said, I didn’t actually kill most of them.”

Leo could only shake his head. No wonder this guy had become so legendary to Camp Half-Blood. (Also, no wonder basically every monster in the mythological world wanted to rip him to pieces.)

The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.

I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.

“There’s emergency doors on the Arch?”

“Where do they even lead? A staircase?”

“Probably. But can you imagine having to run down the entire Arch?” 

I couldn’t let them get hurt. 

“Of course you wouldn’t.”

Percy frowned. “It didn’t work too well.”

I uncapped my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, ‘Hey, Chihuahua!’

The Chimera turned faster than I would’ve thought possible.

“Oops.”

Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world’s largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me… the heat was so intense, it seared off my eyebrows.

Despite the serious atmosphere, Leo laughed. 

“Sorry, I was imagining him without eyebrows.”

Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.

Great , I thought. We just blow-torched a national monument .

“Oops times two.”

Riptide was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.

“No!” shouted Annabeth. 

That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion’s mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf… my blade flew out of my hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down towards the Mississippi River.

“Damn,” murmured the listeners. 

I managed to get to my feet, but I knew I had lost… 

“You can’t summon the river from that height, right…?”

“Well, I’m not sure now. But back then? Definitely not. I had no idea what my powers as a son of Poseidon entailed.”

Maybe [Riptide] only returned when it was in pen form. I didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to live long enough to figure it out.

“How did you survive then?” 

I backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. ‘They don’t make heroes like they used to, eh, son?’

“No,” growled Thalia. “They make them better .”

Percy, looking down at his pen, smiled. 

The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten.

… There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.

‘If you are the son of Poseidon,’ Echidna hissed, ‘you would not fear water. Jump, Percy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline.’

“Uh,” said Leo. “Isn’t that, like, not safe?”

Yeah, right, I thought. I’d read somewhere that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid tar. From here, I’d splatter on impact.

“No,” said Frank. He remembered how he’d seen Percy plummet from the tip of a glacier into the icy water below in Alaska. “You won’t. Jump.”

“Okay, well, I didn’t know that then. To be fair, the only thing I’d learned at that point was that I was good at canoeing.”

The Chimera’s mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast.

‘You have no faith,’ Echidna told me. ‘You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart.’

The older Greek campers sighed. Though Echidna wasn’t talking about that , it still seemed relevant. So many of the campers had felt abandoned, the feeling poisoning their hearts. 

She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. Nobody could save me, not even the gods.

“Jump!” yelled the listeners. 

I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father’s smile… Poseidon had claimed me as his son.

But this wasn’t the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead centre of the USA. There was no sea god here.

“Jump,” repeated Frank. Percy had been fine in Alaska, after all, and that was the land beyond the gods. 

What had Percy told him afterwards? That the fall from the glacier had been nothing, that he’d fallen twice as far from the St. Louis Arch? Frank and Hazel had been appalled at the son of Poseidon’s nonchalance, but compared to this, the fall in Alaska really had been nothing. 

‘Die, faithless one,’ Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame towards my face. 

‘Father, help me,’ I prayed.

I turned and jumped. My clothes on fire, poison coursing through my veins, I plummeted towards the river.

"Aha, and so 'I Plunge to My Death'."

"You're not funny."

Chapter Text

I’d love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.

The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!

“Ahhhhh!” Leo screamed along with the recording. 

Piper shivered as she remembered how it had felt to plummet towards the bottom of the Grand Canyon. She would have died upon impact, if Jason hadn’t grabbed her halfway down. 

Thalia had paled. 

The river raced towards me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

“Were you going feet first…?”

And then: Flaaa-boooom!

Leo made a little explosion gesture with his hands. 

A whiteout of bubbles… my impact with the water hadn’t hurt… Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage – beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags – swirled up all around me.

Grover and Piper wrinkled their noses. “That’s disgusting.”

Percy looked apologetically at Grover, as if the pollution were his fault. 

At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I couldn’t even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins any more. I was alive, which was good.

“Why would you have been barbecued? You don’t even barbecue pancakes.”

“My mind makes weird connections, but the Chimera had blasted a column of flame at me right as I jumped..”

Second realization: I wasn’t wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.

I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.

“Dude, no way.” Frank and Jason looked at him, amazed. 

No way, I thought.

I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi… 

“That’s so cool!”

“No, Valdez! You and Jackson are not going to try anything funny at the bottom of the ocean!” shouted Coach Hedge. 

He’d been so uncharacteristically quiet before this comment that everyone jumped, having forgotten he was there. 

But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.

“Why is that your last thought?”

Percy shrugged. “Because it felt natural, like breathing on land.”

“Aw…,” complained Leo. “So you didn’t get gills.”

“Reminds me of this weird show for some reason, I think it was called ‘H2O: Just Add Water’ or something,” Piper added. 

I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should’ve been dead. The fact that I wasn’t seemed like... well, a miracle. I imagined a woman’s voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?

Um... thanks . Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. Thank you... Father .

No response… 

“He couldn’t have. Or at least, he wasn’t supposed to. Gods aren’t supposed to interfere directly on quests.”

“They aren’t?” Leo, Jason, and Piper looked at each other. They’d gotten plenty of interference from the gods on their quest.

Percy growled, “They’re not supposed to, emphasis on the ‘supposed to’. But they do it anyway.”

Why had Poseidon saved me? The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I’d got lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera… I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.

The others all looked at him, thinking of how to comfort him. “You tried your best, Perce.”

“Yeah, it was really brave.”

There, not two metres in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud. 

“Well that’s a nice sign for you to pick it up and keep going,” smiled Grover. 

I heard that woman’s voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you . 

This time, I knew the voice wasn’t in my head. I wasn’t imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.

‘Where are you?’ I called aloud.

Then, through the gloom, I saw her – a woman the colour of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.

A lump formed in my throat. I said, ‘Mom?’

No, child, only a messenger, though your mother’s fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.

‘What?’

It is your father’s will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.

“Is that why you said we had to go to Santa Monica?” asked Grover.

‘But...’ I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. ‘Who – how did you –’ There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.

Percy sighed. “I think my mom sent her thinking it would make me feel better. Seeing someone that looked like my mother didn’t really help though.”

Annabeth looked thoughtful. “The woman looked like your mother? Do you think your mother has some immortal blood in her?”

Percy thought about it. “Maybe that’s what drew dad to her, but I don’t know.”

I cannot stay, brave one , the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts ...

‘Gifts?’ I asked. ‘What gifts? Wait!’

“All the gifts,” muttered Grover. 

She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.

I felt like drowning myself. 

“A little drastic, but okay.”

The only problem: I was immune to drowning.

“Well, you could stay there with the catfish.”

“And life says, ‘suck it up, buttercup’.”

“Life, 1. Percy, 0.”

‘More like life, a gajillion. Percy, 1.”

Your father believes in you , she had said.

She’d also called me brave... unless she was talking to the catfish.

“She might have been talking to the catfish,” stage-whispered Leo. 

I waded towards Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt… I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. ‘Thank you, Father,’ I said again to the dark water.

Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.

I came ashore next to a floating McDonald’s.

“Ew.” Grover and Piper wrinkled their noses in distaste. 

A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year’s Eve. A little girl said, ‘Mama! That boy walked out of the river.’

‘That’s nice, dear,’ her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

‘But he’s dry!’

‘That’s nice, dear.’

“Every parent ever,” groaned many demigods. 

A news lady was talking for the camera: ‘Probably not a terrorist attack… no confirmed fatalities...’

The others looked at Percy, smiling. “That’s good.”

I backed away… I’d almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover… I turned and got tackled by Grover’s bear hug… Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me. ‘We can’t leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?’

‘I sort of fell.’

‘Percy! Two hundred metres?’

Annabeth scowled. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us any details.”

“We didn’t really have time, even if I wanted to,” reasoned Percy. 

“It was hard to believe, since you were completely dry,” added Grover. 

Behind us, a cop shouted, ‘Gangway!’ The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher… she saw me. ‘There he is! That’s the boy!’

The demigods sighed. “Your luck really is bad.”

I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd. ‘What’s going on?’ Annabeth demanded… I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, the underwater lady’s message.

“You didn’t tell us the whole story!” protested Annabeth and Grover. “You watered it down!”

“We were in a hurry!”

… Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, ‘Percy Jackson. That’s right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by the authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago… ’

“And now you’re famous.”

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

‘First things first,’ I told Grover. ‘We’ve got to get out of town!’

Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.

Percy chuckled. “And that’s how ‘I Become a Known Fugitive’. I was on the news everywhere. Did no one notice?”

All the other demigods shook their heads. 

“Probably on the run or stuck in school,” Leo answered. "You know how boarding school is."

“Didn’t pay attention to this type of news,” Piper shrugged. “I also kind of hated the news and similar media sources.”

“Basically never left camp,” said Jason.

"Living in an oasis away from modern society," Reyna said, not wanting to get into her back story. Percy shot her a semi-guilty look. 

“Stuck in time,” responded Thalia and Nico. 

Everyone understood that Thalia had been transformed into an un-dead pine tree, but the son of Hades? Why was he stuck in time?

“I was in the Underworld,” explained Hazel. They stared at her, but she didn’t feel like explaining at the moment. 

Everyone then turned to face Frank, who blankly answered, “I’m Canadian.”

Chapter Text

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver… 

“Still continuing with the dates,” noted Jason. 

‘Let’s try to contact Chiron,’ Annabeth said. ‘I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit.’

‘We can't use phones, right?’

‘I’m not talking about phones.’

“What are you talking about then?” The Romans looked confused. Did the Greeks use eagles too, or had they invented some useful tools? After all, Leo had sent a magical scroll to the Roman camp through the wind spirits. 

The Greek demigods smiled mysteriously. 

We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn’t sure what Annabeth was looking for… Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash… 

“A car wash?” questioned Reyna. 

‘What exactly are we doing?’ I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.

“What exactly are you doing?”

‘It’s seventy-five cents,’ he grumbled. ‘I’ve only got two quarters left. Annabeth?’

‘Don’t look at me,’ she said. ‘The dining car wiped me out.’

I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa’s place.

“When he’s poor,” sniffled Leo, wiping fake crocodile tears from his face. 

“Not my fault.”

“It was, in fact, entirely your fault.”

‘Excellent,’ Grover said. ‘We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn’t as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping.’

‘What are you talking about?’

He fed in the quarters and set the knob to fine mist. ‘I-M’ing.’

“Like instant messaging…? In a car wash?”

‘Instant messaging?’

“Chiron really should have shown you the orientation film,” Annabeth groaned. “You didn’t know anything.”

“Well,” Thalia said, “It is a logical guess given the abbreviation.”

The blonde hummed. “It’s more like video calling, though.”

‘ Iris -messaging,’ Annabeth corrected. 

“Oh,” said Frank and Hazel. They suddenly remembered how Percy had asked the goddess Iris if she could send a message. The goddess had said that it was a Greek thing. 

‘The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she’s not too busy, she’ll do the same for half-bloods.’

“Oh,” said Reyna. She now remembered how Hazel had Iris-messaged her, catching her while she was in the bath house. That had been a weird experience, but it had been nice to pass a message while face-to-face, or at least being able to see the other’s face. 

Still, the Romans would probably stick to their giant eagles. Except, maybe she would ask Leo for more of those enchanted video scrolls. 

‘You summon the goddess with a spray gun?’

“We don’t summon the goddess, we just ask for her help,” corrected Annabeth. 

Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. ‘Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow.’

“There actually was an easier way to make a rainbow,” Grover piped up, looking over at Percy. “We just didn’t know it at the time.”

Percy made some jazz hands. 

Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapour and broke into colours.

Annabeth held her palm out to me. ‘Drachma, please.’

I handed it over.

“And now I’m left with 10¢ in my pockets.”

She raised the coin over her head. ‘O goddess, accept our offering.’

“By the way,” said Hazel. “Apparently Fleecy, the wind spirit, does most of the delivering now. You can use her direct number: ‘O Fleecy, do me a solid.’”

She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.

‘Half-Blood Hill,’ Annabeth requested.

For a moment, nothing happened.

“Has it ever not worked?” asked Reyna.

Annabeth shrugged. “Not to me, at least. Maybe if you pissed her off.”

“If you insulted her, and I quote, ‘ gluten-free, no-sugar-added, vitamin-enriched, soy-free, goat-milk-and-seaweed-based cupcake simulation’ she’d probably block you,” said Frank.

Percy nodded. “Not sure why it doesn’t always work, but I tried to call Annabeth while I still had amnesia. It didn’t work, but that was probably more of Hera’s fault.” 

Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance… 

‘Luke!’ I called.

‘Percy!’ His scarred face broke into a grin. ‘Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?’

‘We’re... uh... fine,’ Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. ‘We thought – Chiron – I mean –’

Annabeth glared at the others, mildly embarrassed. 

‘He’s down at the cabins.’ Luke’s smile faded. ‘We’re having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?’

‘I’m right here,’ Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke’s line of vision. ‘What kind of issues?’

Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip- hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.

‘Chiron had to – what’s that noise?’ Luke yelled.

‘I’ll take care of it!’ Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. ‘Grover, come on!’

‘What?’ Grover said. ‘But –’

‘Give Percy the nozzle and come on!’ she ordered.

Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth.

The male demigods looked at each other, nodding in agreement.

“Grover, the Oracle of Delphi is female too,” Annabeth corrected. 

Percy groaned. “That’s probably part of the reason why the prophecies make less sense than they should.”

The others rolled their eyes. 

I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.

‘Chiron had to break up a fight,’ Luke shouted to me over the music. ‘Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus–Poseidon stand-off… Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus.’

“I wonder who leaked the news,” muttered Percy, tone sarcastic. 

… ‘So what’s your status?’ Luke asked me. ‘Chiron will be sorry he missed you.’

“Why do I get the feeling that Chiron won’t be hearing about this Iris-message until much later?” Jason asked nervously. 

“Right? Why doesn’t he just call Chiron over?”

I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. 

“I shouldn’t have told him anything.”

It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn’t realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.

Grover teased him, “You sure you didn’t have a crush on Luke?”

“Give me a break, man. It was my first train-wreck, er, bus-wreck of a quest.” Percy rolled his eyes, winking. “I literally just said that talking to him reminded me of Camp, of home.”

‘I wish I could be there,’ Luke told me. ‘We can’t help from here, I’m afraid— 

“Well thank the gods for that, we didn’t want your help,” bit Annabeth.

but listen... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him.’

“Of course he was there,” grumbled Nico. “That’s the only day he’s allowed to visit.”

‘But Chiron said the gods can’t take each other’s magic items directly.’

‘That’s true,’ Luke said, looking troubled. ‘Still... Hades has the helmet of darkness.

“ Helm of Darkness,” corrected Nico, looking cross. “And it turns the user into darkness, which is different from invisibility.”

How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You’d have to be invisible.’

Everyone turned to look at Annabeth, the only one they knew who had the ability to turn invisible. “Did he just…”

‘Oh, hey,’ he protested. ‘I didn’t mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never... I mean, she’s like a little sister to me.’

I wondered if Annabeth would like that description. 

“At the moment,” she said, “I’m okay with that. At the time? I probably would have been crushed.”

In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash. 

Percy turned to Grover and Annabeth. “You never told me what you did to that guy?”

She winked at him. “A girl has to have some secrets.”

Reyna looked intrigued. “Let’s compare notes sometime.”

Annabeth nodded, also gesturing at Hazel and Piper. “Bonding time.”

If it were any other girl saying that, Leo probably would have laughed. But seeing that it was Annabeth, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know how fast she could punch his lights out. Considering that she’d judo-flipped Percy Jackson, his chances of surviving that weren’t great. 

‘You’d better go see what that was,’ Luke said. ‘Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I’ll feel better if I know they’ve done you some good.’

Grover growled, or as close to a growl a goat could make. “Some good they did.”

‘Oh... uh, yeah!’ I tried not to sound like a guilty liar. ‘Yeah, they’ve come in handy.’

“I mean,” said Frank, “That wasn’t exactly a lie. You just also haven’t really used them at all.”

Hazel nodded hesitantly. “They did help in killing Medusa.”

Leo laughed. “Yeah, go flying goat-boy!”

‘Really?’ He grinned. ‘They fit and everything?’

“I wonder if they were meant to fit me.”

“No,” said Grover. “I think they were magically set to fit whoever wore them.”

The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.

‘Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver,’ Luke called, his voice getting fainter. ‘And tell Grover it’ll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just –’

Thalia slammed the table. “How dare he try and bring that up! It’s not Grover’s fault!”

But the mist was gone, and Luke’s image faded to nothing. I was alone in a wet, empty car-wash stall.

Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face.

Annabeth’s smile faded. ‘What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?’

‘Not much,’ I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin. ‘Come on, let’s find some dinner.’

Annabeth and Grover turned to Percy. “You didn’t tell us what he said.”

“I didn’t think that I should. It wouldn’t have lifted our spirits. If anything, it would have made you even more worried about the whole situation.”

A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking milkshakes and sodas.

Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow sceptically. ‘Well?’

I said, ‘We, um, want to order dinner.’

‘You kids have money to pay for it?’

“If 10 cents can buy you anything, then sure,” said Leo. 

… I was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.

All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle’s headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather – but leather that looked like... well, Caucasian human skin.

“I’ve never asked if it was, been too scared he was going to curse me or something. I’m also afraid that I wouldn’t like the answer.”

Frank looked horrified. 

The guy on the bike would’ve made pro wrestlers run for Mama. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh…The biker said, ‘It’s on me.’ 

“Uhm, do you know the guy?”

He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.

Annabeth shook her head. “Did not appreciate it.”

He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, ‘Are you still here?’

He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she’d been spun around, then marched back towards the kitchen.

“So he’s not a mortal biker with a penchant for helping poor children.”

The biker looked at me. I couldn’t see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?

Percy answered the question. “Yeah so not-so-spoiler-alert, ‘A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers’.”

Frank groaned. His guess was confirmed, the biker was the Greek version of the War God. 

He gave me a wicked grin. ‘So you’re old Seaweed’s kid, huh?’

I… wanted to rip this guy’s head off. ‘What’s it to you?’

“Why do you always say the wrong thing?” Thalia shook her head. 

“It’s a talent.”

Annabeth’s eyes flashed me a warning. ‘Percy, this is –’

The biker raised his hand. ‘S’okay,’ he said. 

Annabeth breathed in slowly. “You know, I was so scared he was going to get angry and blast you to pieces or something.”

Percy shrugged. “That just shows how desperate he was.”

‘I don’t mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who’s the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?’

“That’s weird,” commented Jason. “Usually it’s the demigod who mentions the lineage or family connection, not the god.”

“Uh,” said Percy, thinking. “I think a lot of gods and immortals have mentioned it to me. Though that’s probably because I don’t know how they’re related to me in the first place.”

“Weird.”

Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five.

‘You’re Clarisse’s dad,’ I said. ‘Ares, god of war.’

Annabeth sighed. “That’s also not how you usually introduce a god.”

“Oops,” laughed Percy. “Did that more than once.”

Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should’ve been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. ‘That’s right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse’s spear.’

‘She was asking for it.’

“Throughout the whole exchange, I feared for your life. How can you just say things like that?”

“It was the aura. I was angry.”

“Makes sense…”

“Paired with the whole Zeus-Poseidon thing? And then add a quest to the Underworld to bring back my mom? My emotions were a mess.”

‘Probably. That’s cool. I don’t fight my kids’ fights, you know? What I’m here for – I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you.’

The waitress came back with heaping trays of food – cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings and chocolate shakes.

Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.

She looked nervously at the coins. ‘But, these aren’t...’

Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. ‘Problem, sweetheart?’

Reyna wrinkled her nose, though she quickly schooled her expression. 

The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.

Frank frowned. He wasn’t liking the Greek version of the War God very much, not that he liked the Roman version either. 

‘You can’t do that,’ I told Ares. ‘You can’t just threaten people with a knife.’

Ares laughed. ‘Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don’t you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. 

“Why did he bother saying that? To be relatable? He knew we all had weapons on us.”

“I don’t know. Might have worked if we were in Texas or something.”

“I don’t know if I should be offended or not,” said Leo. 

Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favour.’

‘What favour could I do for a god?’

All the demigods grumbled. There were too many things they could do. 

‘Something a god doesn’t have time to do himself. It’s nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park… want you to fetch it for me.’

“That doesn’t seem too bad,” offered Piper. 

‘Why don’t you go back and get it yourself?’

“Percy!”

The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.

‘Why don’t I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don’t feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?’ He leaned forward. ‘Or maybe you only fight when there’s a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you.’

“Why do they keep acting like they’re giving us a choice? We never have a choice,” Leo complained. 

“Life’s a multiple choice question with only one right answer,” Percy monotoned, face solemn. 

“That’s deep, bro.”

‘We’re not interested,’ I said. ‘We’ve already got a quest.’

Ares’s fiery eyes made me see things I didn’t want to see – blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield. ‘I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis and me, naturally. If I couldn’t sniff out a weapon that powerful...’ He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. 

“What a dirty liar. And it wasn’t the thought of the bolt that got him all excited.”

‘Well... if I couldn’t find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I’m trying to give you the benefit of a doubt. Your dad and I go way back. 

“So do all the other Olympian gods,” muttered Annabeth. 

After all, I’m the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath.’

‘You told him Hades stole the bolt?’

‘Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest.’

“If you recognized such a trick, you should have realized someone was using it on you,” Annabeth said angrily. “No brains and all brawn. We had a lot to thank you for on this quest.”

‘Thanks,’ I grumbled.

‘Hey, I’m a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I’ll help you on your way. I’ll arrange a ride west for you and your friends.’

“The ride west wasn’t very generous either,” Grover mumbled. 

Percy patted him on the shoulder. “At least some good came out of that, though.”

‘We’re doing fine on our own.’

‘Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you’re up against. Help me out, and maybe I’ll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom.’

‘My mom?’

He grinned. ‘That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can’t miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride.’

‘What interrupted your date?’ I asked. ‘Something scare you off?’

Ares bared his teeth… ‘You’re lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They’re not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. 

“Actually,” said Percy. “They’re alright. Except maybe Hera. They’re all scared of Poseidon.”

Thalia shook her head. “No, some of them are scared of what you can do too.”

“Yeah,” added Nico. “It’s a love-hate relationship. Most mostly because of the Great Prophecy.”

“The Great Prophecy?” asked Jason. “Isn’t the current prophecy the ‘Great Prophecy’?”

“For the Romans, maybe,” explained Annabeth. “The Greeks call it the ‘Prophecy of Seven’ or the ‘Second Great Prophecy’ because there was another ‘Great Prophecy’. You’ll likely hear it mentioned here or there.”

Percy scowled. “Chiron kept the prophecy from me until basically the climax of the Second Titan War. After it, I just hoped that the Prophecy of Seven wasn’t going to be in my lifetime. Just my luck, it started not even a year later.”

He looked over at the daughter of Athena. “Should we talk about the Great Prophecy now, or?”

“No,” she decided. “We can talk about it later.”

I’ll meet you back here when you’re done. Don’t disappoint me.’

… ‘Not good,’ Grover said. ‘Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good.’

“It wasn’t good,” agreed Grover. “For another reason, too.”

… Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me… 

‘It’s probably some kind of trick,’ I said. ‘Forget Ares. Let’s just go.’

‘We can’t,’ Annabeth said. ‘Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don’t ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn’t kidding about turning you into a rodent.’

“Again, my dad would hopefully have turned me back. And if you hadn’t realized, my luck is bad anyways.”

I looked down at my cheeseburger, which suddenly didn’t seem so appetizing. ‘Why does he need us?’

“He needed an excuse to give us a reward .”

The others didn’t like the sound of that. 

‘Maybe it’s a problem that requires brains,’ Annabeth said. ‘Ares has strength. That’s all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes.’

Annabeth smiled. “That’s still true, but the Ares and Athena cabins do work well together.”

‘But this water park... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?’ Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.

Annabeth said, ‘I’m afraid we'll have to find out.’

The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND… With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.

‘If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date,’ I said, staring up at the barbed wire, ‘I’d hate to see what she looks like.’

Piper was sure that was not the right thing to say. Her mother would not like that comment. 

“Sorry, Piper. But it really wasn’t a romantic spot for a date night.”

‘Percy,’ Annabeth warned. ‘Be more respectful.’

‘Why? I thought you hated Ares.’

‘He’s still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental.’ 

Piper nodded. That was a good, safer word to describe Aphrodite. 

‘You don’t want to insult her looks,’ Grover added.

‘Who is she? Echidna?’

Piper sighed. It seemed like Percy had no idea who he was talking about. 

‘No, Aphrodite,’ Grover said, a little dreamily. ‘Goddess of love.’

“Goat boy, what is with you and liking goddesses?”

Grover blushed. 

‘I thought she was married to somebody,’ I said. ‘Hephaestus.’

‘What’s your point?’ he asked.

‘Oh.’ 

Leo looked at Piper. “Does that make us, like, half-step siblings or something?”

Piper held a hand to her forehead. “Let’s not think about it.”

I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. ‘So how do we get in?’

‘ Maia! ’ Grover’s shoes sprouted wings.

He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he’d planned the whole thing. 

“Of course I planned it that way!” Grover protested. 

“Sure,” laughed Percy. 

‘You guys coming?’ Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.

“Did you let her go first?” teased Jason. 

“Of course, ladies first.” Percy laughed. “What can I say? I’m a gentleman.”

He got smacked on the head by his girlfriend. 

The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie and Dude, Where’s My Swimsuit?

Leo shook his head, disappointed. “With names like that, no wonder the park was abandoned.”

… We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards and racks of – ‘Clothes,’ Annabeth said. ‘Fresh clothes.’ 

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘But you can’t just –’ 

‘Watch me.’

“Annabeth,” said the other demigods, staring at her in shock. Jason was especially surprised, not expecting the serious daughter of Athena to ever steal something. 

Annabeth looked a little embarrassed. “It was abandoned! Plus, I hadn’t changed my clothes in days . I felt disgusting .”

The other girls nodded in understanding. 

… ‘What the heck.’ Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.

… ‘So Ares and Aphrodite,’ I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, ‘they have a thing going?’

‘That’s old gossip, Percy,’ Annabeth told me. ‘Three-thousand-year-old gossip.’

“Wait, did you really not know?” asked Piper. 

Percy shrugged. “As you can tell, I wasn’t so up to date on what were myths and what wasn’t.”

‘What about Aphrodite’s husband?’

‘Well, you know,’ she said. ‘Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. 

“That’s a false myth,” said Annabeth, almost hatefully. “Hera threw him off Mount Olympus because she thought he was too ugly.”

Leo wanted to protest that his dad wasn’t ugly, but he thought back to the dream of his dad. Hephaestus wasn’t exactly the most good-looking guy out there. Still, no one deserved to be thrown off a mountain for being ‘too ugly’. 

So he isn’t exactly handsome. Clever with his hands and all, but Aphrodite isn’t into brains and talent, you know?’

‘She likes bikers.’

“Aphrodite likes whatever is romantic. You know, war and sacrifice. Or like screaming teenage girls and the ‘good girl changes the bad boy’ tropes we see on TV. That kind of thing.”

“So, bikers.”

‘Whatever.’

‘Hephaestus knows?’

‘Oh sure,’ Annabeth said. ‘He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That’s why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like...’

She stopped, looking straight ahead. ‘Like that.’

Annabeth groaned. She had just been explaining how Hephaestus liked to trap the two gods, so the idea of a trap should have been at the front of her mind. How it took so long for her to realize was beyond her. 

In front of us was an empty pool that would’ve been awesome for skateboarding… The sign above it read: THRILL RIDE O’ LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS’ TUNNEL OF LOVE!

“That doesn’t sound promising.”

“You mean the actual water park attractions, or…?”

Grover crept towards the edge. ‘Guys, look.’

Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares’s shield, a polished circle of bronze.

‘This is too easy,’ I said. 

“Too easy,” agreed Reyna and Jason. “ Way too easy.”

‘So we just walk down there and get it?’ 

Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. ‘There’s a Greek letter carved here,’ she said. ‘Eta. I wonder...’ 

Annabeth wanted to go back in time and smack herself. How did she not see the clues earlier? It was so obvious. 

“Eta… Hephaestus,” concluded Leo. 

Annabeth nodded. 

‘Grover,’ I said, ‘you smell any monsters?’

He sniffed the wind. ‘Nothing.’

“Looking back,” commented Annabeth, “There weren’t any monsters because they’d know to stay away from godly power.”

‘Nothing – like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn’t-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?’

“That wasn’t very nice.”

“Sorry, G-man. You were right, too. There really were no monsters.”

Grover looked hurt. ‘I told you, that was underground.’

‘Okay, I’m sorry.’ I took a deep breath. ‘I’m going down there.’

‘I’ll go with you.’ Grover didn’t sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.

“A little…”