An Undertow of Sand (Percy Jackson and the Cthulhu Mythos)

I apologize for the delay, got and still am very sick.​

An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction​

“Wait,” Luke said. He held up both hands. “Wait, wait, wait.”

I sighed. “Where’d I lose you?”

I was pretty sure I lost him somewhere between Hiraya getting annoyed at her buddy for what she called ‘his usual cryptic nonsense’ and Aaron inviting us over while she did what he called ‘her anal-retentive thing.’ She was not amused, but hey. We got blueberry muffins out of it.

I’m never going to say no to free food!

That meant I lost him before we even got here and I don’t think it was anything I actually said. It was all in one ear and out the other.

By ‘here’ I mean Aaron and Hiraya’s home. The fancy underground garage we were in looked like it was lifted from a Beverly Hills mansion with the ramp down and nice wood paneling. Which was fair, because the Beverly Hills mansion right in the middle of Houston, TX was just above it. Remember when I said she looked like someone from the Fortune 500? Apparently, she’s actually a Fortune 500 CEO, because people expect those to be sociopathic blood suckers.

Hiraya told us that.

I was hoping that didn’t mean her Board of Directors knew too.

“Is it the monster house thing still?”

“...no?” Luke tried.

“There are communities where monsters and demigods live together, you know.”

The closest one I knew of was called New Rome. It was in California.

Luke gave me a helpless look.

“My best friend is a monster,” I shared. “Cliff. He’s the one that made my phone for me to get around the Curse.” Luke’s eyebrows rose, then dropped. “We’ve had sleepovers.”

His Mastiff-headed mom makes a mean goulash. If you leave dirty dishes around though, her bark will scare years off your life.

“Even cyclops can eventually figure out refinancing mortgages are a scam - “

“Cyclops homes are usually demigod traps,” Artemis said moodily from on top of her sleek Porsche perch. She didn’t get a muffin, but she did get some blueberries. She was still a sore loser about it. “Most monster homes are.”

“But not all of them,” I countered. “Even for Greeks.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “And maybe if you guys cleaned up after yourselves - “

“The Ancient Laws - “ she began and I raised my eyebrow harder. I knew for a fact Artemis’ old Hunting Domain was an exception when it came to gods and monsters. She shrunk back. “It is not that simple. I cannot exterminate children of Poseidon without consequence, even if they are monsters. Or children of the Night. Or servants of my father. Or -”

“Politics, really?”

Her rabbit ears flattened before she said very sweetly, “And why am I a rabbit, Perseus?”

So.

I’m not a monster, but if everything else were the same, would Mom care about that technicality?

Would my father?

“Alright,” I admitted grudgingly. “You got me with that one.”

Luke snorted.

“It’s not just monsters either.” I moved on. “All the gods I know - “ I turned back to the rabbit. “You have joined the 21st century too, right? You don't just have your palace on Olympus.”

“There is nothing wrong with our palaces,” Artemis said stiffly as Luke rolled his eyes. “Naturally they offer any appliance or amenity we wish.”

“And they are all tied to your godhood,” I pointed out.

They were dollhouses.

They weren’t homes, meant to be lived in. They were places to show off with rooms of nothing but trophies or statues or housing sacred animals. No bathrooms, or closets or anything unnecessary, every inch of it dripping with power because immortal god. Apollo snuck me into his once. After Mom left.

It was the closest he ever came to blinding me.

“My Dad cosigned a condo for Apollo,” I told her. “He’s paying rent with real money and everything.”

Complete with the freeloading cat he swears isn’t his.

“You…” Artemis stared at me. “...is that why his temples have gone unused lately?”

I smiled at that.

So the Greek sun god doth protest too much about his condo’s Homeowners Association.

“So?”

The bunny shuffled a little.

“A log cabin,” she admitted in a near-whisper.

“...yup,” I said after a moment. “Should’ve seen that coming.”

“What did you think she’d have?” Luke asked curiously. “A treehouse? An RV?”

“Shut up.”

I didn’t actually think that far ahead when I asked.

The Norse had a luxury hotel. Saule had waterfront property whenever she was on this side of the pond, Mom adored our penthouse and Eva’s Dad was fixing up a nice Colonial.

“Really isn’t that big of a deal,” I finished.

“I - “ Luke looked around.

A plush speckled gray and maroon carpet lined the underground garage outside of the concrete center where the vehicles were parked in a large semicircle. The Night reached here too. The yellow lights in the ceiling weren’t as bright as they should have been, casting a sick, eerie glow on everything. It still left super dark shadows like pools of ink in the corners and underneath the trucks and expensive looking cars. Luke had looked at the dark glass wall that was the entire side of the big house as we drove up and the cared for green lawn and the aging woman that fussed over us and gave us muffins the same way he’d looked around Rhea’s place.

Like he’d found himself on another planet.

“This is…a lot,” he said helplessly. He waved a hand around at everything. “Alliances with monsters, other pantheons and their monsters, the primordials. I’m trying, but…I’m overwhelmed right now,” he admitted. He took another deep breath and then in a very small voice said, “Nothing is going how I thought it would. It makes me wish - ” He stopped.

I didn’t know what to say.

“Sorry,” I said uncomfortably.

He looked away. “Just want something familiar, you know?”

I thought about how I’d be if Mom made Dad raise me alone. Maybe I wouldn’t even know I was a demigod until a satyr like Grover found me. If Mom only showed up to Claim me after I already turned twelve and spent the summer at Camp Half-Blood and then sent me on this Quest…

Then I realized I didn’t have to imagine what Luke was going through. He was feeling exactly what I had been feeling when Hermes showed up at my front door and I had no idea what Mom wanted me to do.

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “I know what you mean.”

Luke took a fortifying breath.

“So this is normal too,” he said.

“Uh, no,” I said. “Not the…uh, not the millionaire with a mansion thing, but she’s really old so...makes sense?”

Luke looked constipated again. “Percy.”

“Same difference.” I insisted. “Sometimes gods don’t live in palaces…”

“And sometimes monsters do,” Luke finished. “I just - “ His face twisted up unhappily as he watched the small group of mercenaries or soldiers huddled against an armored truck. The truck was the same kind you’d see on the streets of Manhattan transporting jewelry or blocks of cash for casinos or banks. Someone over there turned on the truck’s radio and the song that came out immediately made me roll my eyes. It made the Top 100 billboards this year, which meant it was everywhere. That one month at Camp away from normal life was even better than I thought.

Luke’s nose scrunched, but Artemis’ ears stood up, rotated in their direction. I stared at her, more disgusted with anyone than I’ve ever been in my entire life. I didn’t have to say anything, but I wasn’t about to let this atrocity slide.

“I can’t believe you like this crap.”

“I do not!” Artemis denied, but her ears didn’t lie so easily. “What is it?”

“The Backstreet Boys,” I snarled.

“I knew someone that hated them too.” Luke snorted again, but there was hurt in his eyes for a second. “Big Green Day fan. Was.”

Artemis’ nose twitched. “Those names are ridiculous.”

I flapped a hand at her. “Yeah, okay, Ariste.”

Her ears flattened again as Luke turned to her. “You named yourself ‘the best?’”

“I did not Name myself!” She whined and I held up a finger.

“You literally did.”

“No,” she said snippily. “Apollo thinks I did and he is still jealous I managed it and he did not.”

I squinted at her.

The bunny made her eyes go big and innocent looking, every inch of her furry face screaming ‘believe me’ as she stared back.

“I will get back to you on that one,” I said, pointing at her. “By the way, do you still have your ‘I’m Awesome’ Okeanid choir you extorted your dad for way back when or did you fire everyone?”

“Please do not call it that,” she muttered, scrunching a little like I’d just poked her in the stomach. I noticed she did not deny extorting Zeus. Not that she could deny it. Because that is literally what she did. At three years of age. Let's face it, everyone's a brat at that age. You'd want a choir singing your praises 24/7 if you could get away with it too. “I did not ‘fire’ them.”

“So you still have them.”

The rabbit looked shifty. “I did not say that.”

“Oh, so they quit,” I said. “All sixty of them.”

Artemis’ ears flattened, but she didn’t say anything.

“They quit?” Luke asked. When she still didn’t respond, he threw back his head and laughed.

He laughed long and loud like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. Luke was the kind of guy that would smirk or chuckle at things, but this was the first time I’ve seen him really let it go. The yellow light of the garage caught the dark blond stubble on his chin and he didn’t look like his dad at all just then.

His mom probably laughs like that, I thought. He never really spoke of her.

Artemis stared at him for a few seconds. Then she turned away, actually thumping the hood of the Porsche as she huddled into an annoyed rabbit loaf.

“Glad you find my misfortune amusing.”

“It is kind of funny,” I needled her. “How’d long it take? A month? Two?”

“I am not talking to you anymore.”

“They quit,” Luke wheezed, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes. “They fucking quit.” When he finally came back down, he kneaded his cheeks and then gave us a small, genuine smile. “I needed that. Thanks.”

I grinned back. Mission accomplished. “No problem.”

Artemis huffed.

“Alright!” Luke clapped his hands, energized. “What the Styx am I even stealing?”

“A piece of paper in an envelope,” I said. “It’s a page from some old book or something,” I offered when he turned to stare blankly at me. I dug out the paper Cage-Head gave me and handed it over, because he could read it a lot better than I could. Times New Roman, size 12.

Not even once.

“On loan from Harvard for a bit.”

“Harvard,” Luke said. “As in the university?”

“Yeah?”

It was the school I was aiming for. I just got out of sixth grade, but according to Grandpa, it was never too early to start thinking about college. I have no idea what degree I wanted, but it was Dad’s old school. I wanted to go too.

“Harvard has things the mythological world wants?” Luke said slowly. Then he shrugged. “Sure, okay, why not…”

“Maybe Harvard even knows,” I said. “You get gods like Khione who want a degree or two. You think she bothered with all the paperwork?” I mean, maybe. That same maybe was practically stamped on Luke’s forehead. “And it’s not like a clear-sighted person can't tell anybody. There are millions of them.”

“And be believed?”

I shrugged. “Academic types are a coin toss. Some won’t no matter what, but some will.”

“Sometimes this happens.” Artemis volunteered. Oh, so she won’t talk to me, but Luke was fine? What an ingrate. “The Mist cannot hide everything, but mortals have always been a curious lot.”

Luke frowned at that.

“And sometimes it’s just on accident.,” I picked up. “We’ll visit the Natural History museum in Manhattan sometime,” I offered. “Mom took me to their dinosaur exhibit? Wild.”

It made me wonder if there was anything to Dad’s stories about his school years. It was probably nothing, right? But he never could remember what those Greek texts he was translating were. The ones that gave him headaches.

Then again, Dad was under a lot of stress at the time and Mom at the end of his last year really didn’t help. It was probably nothing.

Luke rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Think of it this way,” I said. “Do you really think the gods wouldn’t leave random important crap around for just anyone to get their hands on?”

The tension in Luke’s shoulders abruptly disappeared.

“You’re right,” Luke said in wonder as his eyebrows jumped. “Why should demigods be the only ones stumbling over it? That’d mean they have to be responsible. That’s actually not weird at all. It’s obvious.”

Artemis grumbled wordlessly.

He started reading the mission dossier. His eyebrows started rising again as he drifted over the page. “...this is a lot of security for a library.”

“Secret library,” I corrected him.

“Sorry, secret library.” Luke rolled his eyes. Artemis’ ears wiggled as she raised her head curiously. “Why is this piece of paper worth stealing though?”

“That’s a good question!” A cheerful female voice chirped and we all turned. “Careful asking those.”

One of the (maybe) humans in the underground garage with us had wandered over. ‘Incomplete’ by the Backstreet Boys had blissfully ended and now it was Shakira. Don’t ask me what song it was and don’t ask me how I know that (Cliff. It’s Cliff). I know a lot of things because I have a very good memory and sometimes it's a curse.

The woman was wearing a long sleeved red shirt under a ballistic vest with cargo pants and boots I was sure were steel-toed. She was a tall short haired brunette, which just made the tactical vest she was wearing carrying two pistols and some grenades stand out.

“Uh, hi,” I said.

“Hello!” She said back happily. “Tell me you are a small fourteen year old. Please.”

“You ain’t police.” Luke stepped in front of me. His accent was rough again. “Back off.”

She held up her hands in surrender and took a step back. “Just wondering if you know what you’re getting him into.”

Luke gave her a narrow-eyed look. “Nun of yer business.”

She tried to look over his shoulder at me, but Luke cut her off. “Right, right. Rule one!” She said loud enough to carry, like she was signaling the others. “No questions.”

At the back of the room, the elevator lights lit up as the doors started opening.

“No, no, no!” One of the men behind her called back, waving a pack of Skittles as he leaned against the armored truck. “The first rule is don’t be good at what you don’t wanna do!”

“What was that?” Hiraya’s snarl cut through the air as she stepped out of the elevator.

The woman grimaced, hurrying back to where the small human group scrambled to look somewhat professional. The joker cringed and hid behind a taller man who was standing at military rest with a small scowl and a half-eaten Kit Kat bar.

“Nothing!” He squeaked.

The tall man turned his head and straightened even more. Even though he was dressed the most casually with a short-sleeved shirt, jeans and sneakers with a baseball cap, he still looked like a professional soldier.

“Boss?”

The vampire glanced over us before her purple eyes turned on the mercenaries (?). “The demigods come first, understand?”

The soldier nodded. “Boss.”

“They’re not coming with us?” Luke said in alarm.

Hiraya raised one eyebrow.

“And why not?” She asked mildly as she threaded around a Jeep towards us, kicking off her shoes to lean against her black Hummer. “I do not know you. If I trust in your success just because you are a demigod, that would make me negligent.”

Luke and I both turned to look at Artemis. The rabbit shrunk down on her Porsche perch.

“So,” Luke began. “A monster can figure that out - “

“I know!” The rabbit hissed back as her ears dropped. “I know.”

Hiraya eyed the rabbit thoughtfully. “If I did not ensure the Bishop did not price gouge you, that would betray your trust, making me dishonest.” She flashed a small fanged grin. “And if I turned down the opportunity to observe you for future reference, that would make me an idiot.”

Dude.

I know Mandurugos don’t do well against blades, but, like…does that even mean anything with this one? She saw our swords. My confidence in that mattering is now in the negatives.

Have I mentioned not fighting her yet?

I don’t think I have.

Luke was giving the vampire a thoughtful look. “You take this seriously.”

“Force of habit,” she answered simply, but the purple in her eyes brightened for a second. “I do not know how things here usually are, but where I come from a demigod may be meat like any other human. Or they may be a Hindu.”

I winced.

“Yes,” she said. “That is a mistake one will never make again.”

That would be like if Hermes decided to bully Mom when he ticketed her, because Zeus’ favorite son could get away with actual murder. And then Ananke was the one who got tired of his shit. Hindus were Matryoshka dolls and they got real good at hiding it. The one guy you thought was just a mortal demigod?

Maybe not so much.

Hiraya’s lips pursed as she looked me over. “I have yet to decide which you are.”

Huh?

“Just a demigod,” I said brightly.

“Hmm.” I don’t think she believed me. “Regardless, your blood is very valuable. I would also prefer no debts.”

My blood was valuable? I…did not know that.

Huh.

Sweet.

“Kapwa remains important, of course.” She waved off our curious looks. “Interpersonal relationships are resources, use them or lose them. And you were polite,” she added as an afterthought. “I do like that.” Before I could wrap my head around the mystical powers of manners, she clapped her hands to get the mercenaries' attention. “Go time, people!”

When she walked off, Luke turned to me. “I don’t like this.”

He was eyeing the humans warily.

“What was that about? Earlier?” I asked him. “You were okay with Corey.”

“Corey could See,” Luke said sourly. “People like him, like us, don't have a choice about the mythological world. They’re part of it. People like them.” He sneered. “It’s all a game or a profitable secret. Something they can just put down and forget whenever they want. Something to play with. To exploit. It's not real to them.” He looked down at me. “They’ll say they’ll believe it, but they don’t. They can’t see it.”

“You cannot see it either,” Artemis said bluntly. “Not truly.”

Luk’s blue eyes cut to her angrily, before his eyes dropped.

“Not yet,” he whispered. He looked back at me. “Mortals like them are unreliable. You can’t trust them, not when it counts. That’s what no lasting consequences do to people.”

I looked back at the armored truck. Luke was making a lot of sense. I looked at them and saw a fact of reality I learned about in case I needed to use it. Luke looked at them and saw pretenders. Their jobs they chose to do were ideal for adult demigods that had nothing else.

If they lived that long.

“Oh,” I said quietly.

“Looks like I can still teach you stuff, huh?” He gave me a weak smile. “Just…” Luke sighed. “Keep an eye on them. I’d rather rely on the vampire.”

“Really? The vampire?” I couldn’t stop the smug. And I didn’t want to. “So you admit it was a good idea!”

He didn’t even look at me.

“I can’t,” was all Luke said and just started walking towards the truck.

“Stop doubting me.” I said to his back as I grabbed our rabbit and followed. “I know a lot of things!”

At least three people snorted at me.

I was never going to get any respect on this Quest.

I give up.

Riding in an armored vehicle with a bunch of professionals with pistols, grenades and actual assault rifles felt a little weird. The inside of the truck reminded me of those war movies that showed off the inside of carrier jets. Two rows of seats facing each other on opposite sides of the truck with harnesses instead of seatbelts and hard cushions. I buckled in, because Safety First, but I was too short. My harness was really uncomfortable.

Luke’s words were still rattling in my head.

Unreliable.

My Celtic foster-brother had never been shy about involving mortals. I think it was how he met Eva’s mom, but I really only knew of them. Apollo hired people to make his movies, but I don’t think they knew what he was. Mortals working for monsters or gods and aware of it existed.

Somewhere.

Now they were right in front of me, double checking their wrap around sunglasses, night vision goggles and guns in case anything went wrong.

Well.

“Oh, you’re adorable.”

Most of them were.

“Who’s a gorgeous wittle bunny?” The joker from earlier was a grown ass man with a Wildcats beanie on and a big box between his feet cooing over Artemis.

His short sleeved shirt showed off his biceps and a tattoo of the same pyramid you see on the back of a dollar bill with some dude in a chariot with winged horses flying around the top. The rabbit shrunk away, burrowing in the small space between me and Luke.

The man just grinned. “How old? Looks about five - six months?”

“Six,” Luke guessed uncomfortably.

My stomach sank a little. That was why she was so small. If rabbits were anything like cats or dogs, they weren’t fully grown until they were at least a year old. Artemis used to look like a girl my own age and now she was a young rabbit.

“Trace,” the man introduced himself. “It’s a code name, don’t ask.”

Luke and I both nodded.

Code names were a smart idea. Names matter to mortals too.

You didn’t think it was a coincidence that Iris could just find my father behind divine wards with just his name? Or that all I needed to call Corey was his name? Some guys out there could really make you regret giving your name away.

“Is demigod official?” Trace asked curiously. “Like, you call yourselves that? And not like metahuman or halfa or anything.”

I perked up. “Halfa?”

Trace nearly bounced in his seat as the woman next to him rolled her eyes. “Daughter’s a big Danny Phantom fan,” he explained. “Don’t have the heart to tell her that’s not how it works.”

“Technically - “ I started but Luke clapped a hand over my mouth.

“No,” he hissed at me. “They don’t need to know.” I pouted. Fine. Unreliable. I’ll try to shut up. He raised his voice to speak to the mercs. “Please don’t encourage him.”

Artemis protested being squished with a squeak, making Trace go all gooey again. The short haired happy woman on their team laughed while the other just snorted.

‘Cross’ was the bubbly one with a nice sleeve tattoo of horses and other farm animals that you could only see when she rolled her sleeve up. Otherwise just the edge of it peaked out above her collar. ‘Torus’ was a quiet pale pony-tailed brunette that looked at us like she was taking us apart in her mind. ‘Rabbit’ was ironically the soldier guy with the submachine gun and Air Jordan sneakers. He was driving and was the leader of the small team. They belonged to an actual private military company called Carcosa Security Solutions, like Blackwater if you know them, but for our side of the world.

“It’s not really money laundering,” Cross said.

I wondered about that. Maybe she was right? It’s not like getting paid by mythological beings was illegal, right? And half the time what they did wasn’t illegal either and as long as it was reported for taxes…

You know?

I think this is the first time in my life that I need to ask my father a question about how the mythological world works.

“The contracts are real, we just can’t tell anyone else who hired us. The money is real too.”

“Kind of,” Trace said.

“Not even kinda,” Cross snipped back primly. “Gold is gold. It’s not going to disappear.”

“Yet,” Trace mock-whispered. “It hasn’t disappeared yet.” Cross hit him. “Ow! I’m just saying, all this Harry Potter shit is cool, but magic money? Come on, at least we get paid in cash.”

“It’s not magic money,” I couldn’t help saying. Luke twitched and I knew why. Trace was someone who didn’t really believe. “Look.”

I dug into my backpack, found my wallet and pulled out a gold Drachma. I tossed it to the guy and watched him lift his eye protection to boggle at it.

“Is this - ?” He nibbled on it and then examined the teeth marks. “Well. Shit.”

“Why are you slobbering all over his money - “ Cross snatched the coin from him when he went to chew on it more, wiped it off with her shirt and tossed it back. “You could have just used your fingernails,” she told him. “I apologize for him. He was dropped on his head a few times as a baby.”

“Wrong!” He said cheerfully. “However, I might have exploded myself a few times.” He nodded down at his box. “You need demolitions, I’m your guy!”

“It’s a university,” Luke said. The unasked question ‘Why would I need to blow anything up?’ was clear in his voice.

“It’s one of those private, fancy ones that opened after it’s namesake got murdered,” Trace said in a theatrical spooky voice. Fingers wiggling at us and everything. “I - “ He stopped. “I was about to ask if you believe in ghost stories, but wow, I’m stupid.”

Luke rolled his eyes.

“I won’t need your help,” he said with a small sneer.

Cross’ eyebrows jumped. “That confident, huh?”

“There’s a billion alarms,” Trace cut in. “Motion sensors, cameras, infrared lasers - “

“The local police are real serious about any goings on,” Cross said grimly. “Always have been since the place was founded.”

Luke turned to the window where the bright lights of a city trying to fight back against the darkness blurred past in a constant stream of color.

“My father is a god of Thieves,” he said softly. “I’ll be fine.”

The mercenaries all exchanged looks until the quiet woman, Torus, inclined her head.

“Sure, kid,” Cross said gently and Luke bristled, but he didn’t say anything. “We’ll be ready though, just in case.”

“I’ll be fine,” Luke snapped stubbornly.

About a ten minute drive later, Luke was looking a lot less fine.

We all stared at abandoned long tables with a blue and white banner hanging from it congratulating recent graduates. Rice University had a really medieval look, more like a castle of red brick than a school. The main campus was in a square with little towers rising in the corners of long, stately buildings boxing in a simple courtyard. The main building in the center looked like it was just missing a portcullis and maybe some archers with boiling oil to be ready for an invading dragon. The school even had a medieval coat of arms.

Three white Athenian owls on a blue shield glared back at us from the banner.

Actual Athenian owls, no joke. Like the ones you find on coins from Greece’s Classical period. Suddenly, this place having super rare books or pages monsters wanted didn’t seem so weird.

“So, uh,” Trace said quietly from behind us. “I can spare a couple of bombs.”

Then he yelped, so I think someone kicked him.

Luke palmed his face.

“Stealing from gods,” he muttered as he dragged his hand down, pulling at his cheeks. “This is just my life now.”

I opened my mouth.

“No,” he said.

“Oh come on!” I threw up my hands.

“If it helps,” Artemis ventured quietly at his feet. We all ignored Trace squealing ‘Disney rabbit!’ “This was likely just dedicated to her and not anything close to a sacred site. She is also very busy right now.”

Luke looked constipated.

“It’s practice,” he said eventually, convincing himself. “For California.” He turned back to the mercs. “I could…use a few grenades,” he said hesitantly. “And a smoke one, if you have it.”

“We gotcha, kid,” Cross said.

I inspected the school.

There were wards.

I could feel them. They felt like they were sleepy. The kind of half-awake dozing off when you want to say you’re looking out for trouble but don’t expect anything to actually happen. That could change really quickly though.

The crunch of boots on the pebbly ground of the massive courtyard told me one of the mercs was approaching. When I looked, it was Torus.

“Feel them?” She said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Sensitive,” she observed. I didn’t have to see her eyes through the eye protection to feel her look through me. It felt a lot like how Athena looked at me. I was pretty sure she wasn’t a god, but I was going to trust my gut. And my gut said something was off about her. I thought that maybe she was a demigod, but they’ve never had enough power to stand out before.

Some other kind of half-blood?

“Why do you feel them?”

“Sensitive,” was all she said.

At some point, the team gave up on Luke’s pockets and just shoved him into one of their tactical vests. He was twisting around, rolling his shoulders and getting used to how it affected his movement when one of the doors into the school opened up in a side building. He froze but Cross held out a hand.

“The Bishop arranged for one of the current students to let you into the buildings,” she said quietly as the tall figure in a white and blue blazer over a dark hoodie jogged towards us. “Something about the protections on the place.”

“You will be on your own after you get in,” Trace warned.

Luke nodded.

The student was the type of guy who could audition for every football jock in every Disney show that ever existed with brown hair, eyes and a square jaw. He looked at us nervously. I don’t think he knew what to make of a SWAT team dressed like they were at a backyard BBQ under their gear, a middle schooler, a rabbit and Luke.

“The moneh?” He shoved his hands into his blazer pockets, hunched over. He had a softer Texan accent than J.D had.

Rabbit held up his cellphone, making Luke shuffle away from him like it was contagious. “Sent.”

His head bobbed. “Who am I takin’?”

“Me.” Luke stepped forward.

I watched him disappear into the building.

“I don’t like this,” Trace said, which did not help the sinking feeling in my stomach. At all. “We’ve been planning for three weeks.”

“He said he didn’t need help,” Cross said, but she was just as unhappy.

“A lot of those traps are lethal - “

“Trace.”

“We still don’t know how to get around that recording - “

“Trace.”

He went quiet, but only for a second. “Rabbit. Back me up here.”

The soldier grunted. “...should have cut power.”

Cross groaned. “Not you too.”

Rabbit grimaced. “And given him the floor plans. NVG. Walkie talkie.”

“Radios would bring down monsters,” I cut in because the Curse was stupid like that.

It’s why my phone was made by Cliff instead of getting a regular cell phone from my parents like normal kids. It was Hera’s last laugh. The Curse affected all Olympic demigods, but monsters were suspiciously sensitive to a demigod messing with air or electricity or both and it didn’t age well.

“We’ve got reports of some perro negros in there,” Trace said flatly. “I don’t think that matters.”

Okay.

So.

Spanish hellhounds were slightly more concerning.

“He can take them,” I said, but I bit my lip.

He can. They were nothing compared to Ladon, but if he was expecting them to fight like their Greek counterparts just because they looked similar…Artemis nudged my ankle. She didn’t complain when I sat down on the gravelly courtyard next to her and straightened her jacket. And rubbed her ears a little.

She was very fluffy.

“Hermes is proud of his son for a reason,” she said quietly. “Have faith.”

But if anything went wrong, we wouldn’t hear anything.

The Night dragged on.

I don’t know how long I sat there waiting. Maybe it was a little over a half hour? Or maybe a full hour and a little bit? All I knew was that my ass was beyond numb. I was cold, my stomach had finally settled somewhere in my big toe and I was going crazy.

There are only so many times you can play rock, paper, scissors with a rabbit before you want to break your own fingers.

The first sign something was happening was when Torus’ head turned.

Then an explosion blew out the wall way down at the end of a side building opposite from where Luke entered. It was nothing more than a quiet ‘whump’ sound, but the bricks blowing out with billowing dark smoke told the whole story.

I don’t remember the run. I must have gotten up and started sprinting before everyone else reacted. That’s how getting from Point A to Point B works. I dove right into the smoke. My eyes started burning immediately. There was this smell, like rotting garbage left out in the hot sun for a few hours. There was this thing on the ground. What I could see of it looked like a twisted, starving werewolf mid-transformation, but it was missing its head. I opened my mouth to shout when my Spidey Sense screamed.

My arms shook as I blocked Luke’s shining Celestial Bronze sword with Damocles. “Uh, Luke?”

I’m hoping this was Luke and he was just jumpy.

Luke wouldn’t hurt me.

I don’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t him at the wheel.

He blinked cloudy blue eyes at me.

“Oh hey, Percy,” Luke said with a wide, almost manic grin. He stopped trying to kill me. That was appreciated. “You came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, sure.” I said. I didn’t lower my sword until he did, but I kept it drawn. “You good?”

“This ring.” Luke held up his hand, not noticing that I was still pointing my sword at him. “Air flow!” Luke laughed out loud. “I could see things before I entered the room! And my lighter!” He waved his sword around.

I leaned back out of his reach. “Can we - can we not.”

I was starting to wonder where he found the Red Bull.

“Percy.” Luke said very seriously. “I can explode things!”

Or the drugs.

Maybe he blew up a few blocks of some professor’s cocaine stash and breathed in the smoke because his pupils were dilated. He couldn’t seem to stop smiling. He dug into his vest and pulled out a squashed manilla envelope “I got it.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “Can we get out of here?”

He blinked again. “Oh. Right.”

He tripped on a few of the bricks, before he seemed to realize that the ground wasn’t flat anymore because of the debris. He coughed once as he stumbled clear of the smoke.

“Are you okay?”

“Great!” He exclaimed as he whirled back towards me, hands flung out to his sides like a conquering general. A shining sword in one of his hands with the threads of adamantine in it almost glowing and the other clutching the envelope. “I missed this!”

Behind him, the mercenaries were just catching up at a jog. I vaguely registered Artemis running up too and the relief on Cross’ face as she said something, Rabbit on his phone, but my world had already shrunk down to Trace. Some ADHD hyperfocus thing, or maybe it was just the adrenaline still going from the explosion. Because joking, concerned Trace -

Trace was pulling out his pistol.

I want to say that I reacted like a stone cold badass. Someone pulled a gun on me a couple feet away?

No problem.

But the truth is my mind went something like this: WAGLBLARGHWAGHGUN!

Twelve year old Arnold Schwarzenegger with cerebral palsy.

I charged him, sword out. The moment his target switched from Luke to me shivered down my neck. I didn’t see the bullet, but I must have felt it. My arms snapped up. The impact vibrating through the hilt was almost gentle and then I was on him.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Trace yelped as he tried to spin away. He was too slow. The only thing that saved him was his bullet proof vest cracking under Damocles’ edge.

Get the gun, I thought. I lashed out with a hand. He was fast for a human. I missed the fingers I was aiming for, but when I closed on his forearm I could feel it give under my fingertips. He cried out and dropped the pistol anyway. I kicked it away, but my neck was still screaming. I brought my sword around immediately and the steel blade of a Ka-Bar knife in his other hand shattered on the silver-gold rippled edge. I thought I was doing really good until he dropped that too to jab me in the face. I felt my nose break under his knuckles as stars exploded in my eyes.

Note to self: Spidey Sense is only for shit that will kill me.

Trace couldn’t follow up on it, throwing himself backwards on the ground to avoid Luke. The Celestial Bronze of Reclaim would pass right through a normal person, but Trace didn’t need to know that.

“Now, that wasn’t very nice,” Luke said slowly. He was still smiling as he lazily spun his sword in his hand, but it had that mean edge I’d only seen a few times before. He looked around at the stunned faces of the other mercs. “I thought we were all in this together.”

In a second, they realized what had happened.

Trace went for his dropped gun, but Rabbit stomped on his hand and he shouted, “Torus!”

Fuck -

I was already moving, lunging towards her when a brilliant flash of light swept over me.

I froze.

Not by choice. My body stopped moving, like I had gotten caught by Weird Girl’s voice back at Camp again. I tried to fight against it. It felt like trying to break handcuffs when your muscles wouldn’t even respond.

My stomach did.

A low vibration, like it was rumbling with hunger.

Be at peace, whoever was in Torus spoke with a genderless voice. Her eye protection was gone, showing eyes of fractal patterns like a cut gemstone. Mom’s black diamond, but each facet was a different color as they turned in increments, grinding against each other like gears in a clock.

I am not here for you, abomination.

You think I give a shit? I thought as I kept trying to move. I was trying to do something with my power, but my stomach was still stitched shut. I was caught like a fly in a spider web as Torus walked through the frozen mercenaries, over Artemis towards Luke. Even Trace was still on the ground, teeth still bared in the ‘s’ sound of ‘Torus.’ The whole world, or maybe just our little slice of it, was frozen in time.

She passed me and I had horrid thoughts of Luke being killed right behind me while I sat here, unable to do anything. I just needed to move!

I blinked.

My heart leapt. I didn’t try to say anything. My stomach felt like it was starting to cramp, but I didn’t care. My brother said I had the key, right? I needed this door open. Right now.

My raised foot was inching towards the ground when Torus sighed.

Authentic. Good.

Then it was over.

I nearly fell forward onto my face. My stomach hurt like I had too much ice cream. Time stops are bullshit. I hoped I wasn’t going to throw up.

“Pers - “ Artemis had started to cry out, tripping over her own paws as she was suddenly in motion again.

“What the fuck - “ that was Cross.

Trace snarled at all of us like a cornered animal. “Fiat lux!”

Rabbit’s gun spoke for him. It was a muted crack. Someone stepped on a Lego and broke it. Then Trace slumped over onto the ground, a bloody hole in his head.

“What just happened?” Cross yelled. Rabbit just shot the body a second time before turning back to his cellphone. I spun around to check on Luke. He looked unhurt, but was staring at his empty left hand where a manilla envelope used to be.

“Luke?” I asked.

“What happened?” He whimpered and I got worried, stepping closer. Was he hurt? Did Torus do something to him?

“I think a god interfered.”

“I was robbed?” Luke murmured. “By a - a god robbed me?”

Yeah, no.

He’s fine.

“Looks like it?”

He sounded way more offended at being robbed of the thing he just stole than worried or hurt. I let myself relax. We’re fine. Threat was gone.

And if it showed up again, I was going to eat it.

“Do you know who that was?” I asked Artemis as she bounded up.

The rabbit shook. “No. I was trapped. Completely.”

So I was the only one who saw anything.

Unless her code name was a clue, all we had was Trace. But he was left behind and if he knew his accomplice was a god, he wouldn’t have needed to pull a gun on us, right? So maybe he didn’t know. Two traitors in a small team of four would have the element of surprise.

But she was...

Something.

“And you!” Luke derailed my train of thought, pointing at me incredulously. “Did you just deflect a bullet? From ten feet away?”

I think I remembered that being a thing that happened. I fiddled with my sword pendant necklace.

“I think so?”

“Nice,” Luke said appreciatively. “Don’t do it again.”

“You’d rather I be shot?”

“I’d rather you dodge.”

Alright.

That was fair.

“You sound like my father,” I complained anyway, crossing my arms, because fuck you, blocking a bullet was awesome.

I was absolutely going to do it again.

“I am your Camp Counselor,” Luke reminded me. “I can ground you too.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can.”

“Chiron would never let you.”

“You think I care what Chiron thinks?” I opened my mouth. Luke raised an eyebrow. I closed my mouth. “Good boy.”

“Oy.”

Luke shook his head and smiled a little. “Want to hear about the theft?”

“Hell yeah.”

Artemis let out a wheezing bunny sigh.

“Shake a leg!” Cross yelled at us. “ETA on police is five minutes!”

We all scrambled after the mercenaries. This time Cross claimed shotgun in the passenger side as Rabbit tossed Trace’s corpse into the back with us. A roar of the engine and crunching of the tires on the gravely pavement, then a harsh bump as I tried to buckle my harness. Artemis huddled in the small space between me and Luke again and I could feel her trembling.

Luke hunched over in his seat, elbows on his knees. His lighter in one hand. He flicked the flame on and then turned it off. The city lights streamed by in the small windows of the truck. Eventually, he clenched his empty hand into a fist trembling with rage.

“When I find out who that was - do we know who that was?”

“No.”

There was Latin involved. Which didn’t actually mean anything.

Everyone and their grandmothers thought the Romans were cool.

“When I find out who that was - “ Luke continued, like he hadn’t stopped to ask. “I will be the biggest pain in their ass - “

“Please do not declare war on foreign gods during this Quest,” Artemis murmured. “I am begging you, Zoë.” I felt the bunny immediately stiffen as Luke’s head whipped towards her. “Luke. I meant, Luke.”

Too bad Luke was not interested in letting her get away with anything.

“What did you just call me?”

“It was an accident!” The bunny sounded shaken. “You are just…similar. Nothing was meant by it. It - It is a compliment.”

“Like Hades it is,” Luke snarled at her. “Being compared to one of your people is the second to last - “

“You are protective of Perseus,” the bunny said loudly. “You have thrown yourself into situations that should have killed you without hesitation. You are constantly getting on my nerves, but you are still helping me and your rage scares me. I do not want you to declare war on foreign gods because I am very sure you will actually do it!”

Luke’s mouth opened and then he closed it.

I had to close my mouth too.

I knew about him getting on her nerves. It wasn’t like that was subtle, but I didn’t think she really noticed him beyond that.

“How do you know that I will?” Luke said softly.

“Perseus told me about the boon,” she said meekly. “And you told me that I was a disappointment. My throne only fit to be ground to dust.”

Luke took a deep breath.

“Since then, you have nearly died for it, but you have not complained. You do not hesitate. Even Perseus has hesitated.” Artemis shrunk into a little ball. “I know you despise me. I am not stupid. You still do not hesitate. Do you know how terrifying that is?”

So this was awkward.

“And Zoë…” Artemis went quiet. She shuddered once. “Only two of my former Hunters were made monsters. She made me stop.” Her voice drifted. “She made it all stop. By being the person who came the closest to killing me since my father.”

“Ballsy,” my mouth said ahead of my brain. “Isn’t she mortal?”

I remembered the Persian princess look-alike with the fractured nebula swirling in her eyes. I especially remember the sneer she pinned me with for the crime of volunteering while male before handing a small bunny rabbit to Luke.

“Yes,” the rabbit said almost fondly. “She has always been a very brave girl.”

“Zoë?” Luke said incredulously. “Zoë Nightshade, your lieutenant. Tried to kill you.”

“It - it was a long time ago,” Artemis sighed. Her voice picked up with a bit of humor. “At one point, I was fending off assassination attempts from her every day for about three weeks.”

“What did you do?”

And just like that, the humor died.

“Was myself.” Artemis tucked her face underneath her paws. “I am my father’s favorite daughter, because I - I was just like him. In every…single…way.”

Did she mean...?

Yikes.

“Past tense?” Luke said evenly.

The bunny trembled. “I hope so, but it does not matter. It is too late.”

“Don’t give up,” I told her. Apollo said she had changed and even if she remained a rabbit, a rabbit with a Name was a lot less dead weight. “We’ll figure out something.”

We all ignored the corpse on the floor of the truck as we sped through the streets of Houston. I didn’t feel any kind of way about it. Maybe he had a life insurance policy, or maybe the kid he mentioned was made up. It was just like Luke said and he tried to kill me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to just let myself get murdered, but if you tried and then said you were sorry and you meant it, we just might get along. I don’t hold murder attempts against people.

Betrayals are a different story.

 

Being sick is not fun, at all. Sorry for the delay.​

An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction​

Trace’s body hit the concrete with a heavy thud.

“Great googly moogly.” Aaron’s eyebrows shot all the way up before coming back down. “It all went to shit.”

He was barefoot with a silver Gameboy Advance, curled up on the hood of the red Porsche behind his fiancée like he was five years old gaming in a corner. In front of Hiraya with a corpse at our feet and Luke at my back felt just like standing in front of the principal of my last school with my father, waiting to get expelled.

By the way.

‘Disturbed child’ my ass.

I drew some pictures of my classmates’ ghosts, so what? Who thought a loaded and armed cannon any idiot could set off in the front yard of an elementary school was a good idea?

Not me.

“Mission failed successfully,” Rabbit deadpanned. He nudged Trace’s body with his sneaker. “Operation FUBAR’d, associates secured.”

“Foobar?” I whispered, leaning towards Luke.

Luke huffed, a little exasperated, a little amused. He bumped my shoulder with his elbow.

“Fucked up beyond all recognition,” he said back just as softly.

“Two traitors,” Cross rushed ahead. “They were after the mission objective for an unknown benefactor from the beginning.” The woman was cringing. “Our only clue was - was a Latin phrase…” Cross swallowed. “I think it was from the Bible?”

Technically, ‘fiat lux’ is found in the Roman translation of it and Romans are the mythological world’s Hot Topic.

Hiraya frowned. “But you did retrieve the package?”

“Um, not exactly?” Cross was making her six foot frame as small as possible. You could tell she wanted to be anywhere but an underground garage lined up in front of a disappointed Filipino vampire.

Which, same.

Cross was jumpy because Hiraya was her blood sucking employer. I was nervous because I felt like the gold bead ‘coin’ of my deal was burning a hole in my pocket. It’s been a while since we were at Camp, but do you remember when I told Athena I’ve never done readings for other people?

Yeah.

I had my visions, but I couldn’t control when I got them. Apollo figured out I could read cards by accident while teaching me Poker (Prophecy and Probability don’t get along). I don’t know how that works either. Trying to bluff might not be a good idea.

I was an Oracle now, so I can probably figure it out!

Eventually.

“You said the demigods were a priority so…” Cross nodded down at the body. “Trace was human, Torus was…” She hesitated and looked around at the rest of us. “Not?”

“Not,” Luke agreed. His face dropped into a scowl. “And she robbed me.”

I elbowed him. Hard. “Will you let that go al - “

“No,” he snarled back.

“Her file said she was a half-blood, no pantheon or type specified. Might have been a magic user too,” Rabbit mused thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. “Those are always a bitch.” Soldier boy was talking like a normal person with full sentences and everything. All it took was discussing who or what just fucked us over. “Can’t be a monster, da?”

“She wasn’t. Definitely a god, one hundred percent,” I said, but then I thought about it. “Well, okay, maybe she was possessed - “

‘Possessed?’ Luke mouthed, confused.

“So more like fifty-fifty?” Rabbit concluded as Cross’ blue eyes ping ponged between us. “Sixty-forty?”

“Ninety-ten,” I denied. “Come on, you were planning for three weeks. She should have burned up unless she -

“Could have been a spy and only offered to be a vessel for the actual mission - “

“...what?” Hiraya croaked as she stared at us with this bewildered, horrified expression. It was a rare kind of monster that wanted gods to look anywhere in their general direction.

“Divine asshole jumped us for an exam cheat sheet,” I clarified for her. “We got nothin’.”

Aaron snorted.

dun-dun-dun-DUN-DUN-DUN!

The airy MIDI tones of the Pokémon Emerald theme rang out from his silver Gameboy Advance before he muted it.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, stubbornly staring at his screen, holding his Gameboy up like it was a shield.

Luke started to laugh, but it turned into a gurgle when the vampire cut us this look. My hair stood on end and it had nothing to do with my Spidey Sense.

“Not our fault!” I blurted out.

“What he said!” Luke said just as quickly.

Artemis just squeaked and hid behind us.

“A god intervened,” Hiraya said slowly. She was giving me a considering look. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Pretty sure. Not many can pull off a casual time stop and their eyes were - “

“You saw them?” Artemis interrupted from behind me.

“Yeah?” I twisted around to look down at the bunny. “I couldn’t really do anything though?” And that was still annoying. “But they said they weren’t after us - “ Where do they get off calling me an abomination? Rude. “And that the page was authentic and - “

“Stop.” Hiraya looked pained. “Stop.” Her purple eyes slowly moved between the quiet mercenaries, then me and Luke (totally innocent), the cringing small bunny on the floor before finally rolling towards the ceiling.

“Hoping you can tell us what the fuck is going on this time,” Rabbit said shortly and then let out a delayed, “Boss.”

“...I do not know,” Hiraya admitted. She looked down at Trace’s body uneasily. “There was no indication that the package was of particular importance…”

It was just a page from some book.

“Intel was wrong,” Rabbit concluded.

“Yessss,” Hiraya hissed softly. “Ignorance or did someone lie?” Cross took a step back at the flash of the vampire’s fangs. “The usual post-mission details apply.” The monster said flatly. “You will be paid the full amount as agreed.”

“Really?” Cross blurted out and Rabbit twitched as Hiraya knelt down. The vampire hooked a finger in the back of Trace’s bulletproof vest and easily hauled the body up to look him in the face. At least two hundred pounds, balanced on a pinky finger. His glasses had fallen off. Trace looked just like one of my ghosts: dried blood down the side of his slack face, waxy looking skin and his eyes were still open.

“You’re still paying us?” Cross continued. I think Rabbit’s increasingly obvious twitching was some kind of signal to shut up, but she kept going. “Just like that?”

“She’s a good boss,” Aaron said defensively, glancing up from his quest to be the very best. “She’s not going to punish you for something that’s not your fault.” He sounded very reasonable as he pointed his Gameboy at the corpse his fiancée was inspecting. I was impressed. Even Dad would be a bit disgruntled. “So relax.”

“And I’m only paying two people and not four,” Hiraya murmured absently. She raised her free hand to Trace’s face as the purple in her eyes seemed to glow. I felt Damocles jump around a bit on my necklace. “Competent help is hard enough to - “

(Looking back, it’s scary how quickly my luck could turn on a dime.)

My Spidey Sense screamed.

“Down now!“

I didn’t recognize my own voice.

“Wha - “ Cross started.

Time slowed to a crawl.

My vision tilted as I fell, Luke pulling me down with him. I saw Hiraya react even faster than we did, throwing Trace’s body back into the armored truck. His face was just starting to swell up with cracks of light breaking through his skin when the doors closed on him. Even in slow motion, the vampire was just a dark blur bursting out of her skin. I could see the shock on Aaron’s face as he was yanked right off the hood of the Porsche onto the ground before they were both enveloped in large blood red wings.

Rabbit hit the ground beside us. Artemis dove for Luke’s side. Cross turned.

The truck exploded.

My world was still spinning. I felt like I was at the top of the drop slide at the water park. Just starting to slip. I looked up and I was underwater, watching the explosion rip the boat apart. I felt my stomach sink and from the corner of my eye I saw my step-nephew look at me. The skulls in his eyes chattered, grinning. I felt the pressure ripple through the water to wash over me. I couldn’t tell if the shrapnel that bounced off my hip as I turned away was just the vision or not. I felt around with my hands trying to ground myself.

The cold concrete pressing back and a rough sea floor my fingers sunk into mixed sensations, making me feel a little sick. I squeezed my eyes shut. The water around me made it easy to think of an endless ocean just like Apollo taught me.

Sapphire waves stretching all the way back to a distant horizon.

A fire alarm screeched and the vision broke. The ocean surrounding me was just the ice cold drops of water from the fire suppression pouring down on us.

“Stay down,” Luke hissed at me. I could hear him shift and look around. A second later, a wet rabbit was shoved into my arms. “Okay,” he murmured. Artemis whimpered. “Careful.”

I rolled over onto my side. The armored truck we had just come out of had four or five steaming vents peeling off the vehicle, half-melted and charred along the edges. Like a hotdog or a burrito put in the microwave for too long. The blast had melted a hole right through the drooping back doors, scorching the Porsche and cracking its windshield. The small bulletproof windows had completely blown out.

Rabbit was already up, kneeling over Cross. He pulled back with a slight shake of his head. I looked over her body too. Rabbit glanced over at me. I thought he was going to tell me to look away, but he didn’t.

“She’s dead?” I asked, but I already knew she was. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. You couldn’t really tell what killed her, the shrapnel or the fire.

Rabbit inclined his head. “She hesitated.”

I swallowed, hard. “Because I’m a kid?”

“Hoped she’d have the time to really understand,” Rabbit said shortly. I thought there might have been a bit of regret in his voice. “You’re only half-human.”

“You get it.” Luke nodded in approval, but there was a mean curl to his mouth as he glanced over Cross’ body. “Just half.”

The fire alarms were still blaring, making a headache pulse behind my eyes. Artemis’ wet nose burrowed into my neck. I shifted my grip on her as I stood up. Luke bounded up and peered into the truck, waving away some of the acrid smoke.

“Just ash,” he reported.

I hugged Artemis closer. She was still shaking. She was murmuring something in Greek into my collar. It sounded like some kind of prayer. I don’t know to who, because my ears were still ringing.

“You okay?” I whispered to her. I remembered something about rodents getting heart attacks and dying from fear.

Going through all this trouble only for her to keel over from stress would be lame.

“I hate all of this,” Artemis muttered. “Hate it.”

“Boss?” Rabbit called out. He had a hand on his gun as he looked around the garage. “Orders?”

The leathery cocoon by the Porsche shuddered. It was badly burned, dripping black blood around bubbling, crispy sores. A clicking, melodic chirping sound came from everywhere, like it was being bounced off every corner in the room. It was the kind of sound that trickled down your back.

‘I absolutely despise -’ The wings unfurled in a spiral like a flower as Hiraya stood. ‘Overly thorough enemies!’

If you’re wondering what Mandurugo look like when they’re not hiding? Bride of Dracula, from back when the movies were still in black and white.

The pointy ears, gray skin, the flat bat-like nose, and sharp cheekbones. She still had her long, dark hair. There was a bloody cleft splitting her bottom lip and running all the way down her chin. She had a mouth full of fangs with a gap between the middle teeth just big enough for her barbed tongue. Her clawed bird feet shredded her heels.

She had wings. Four of them.

Alright, so…

Look.

I am not gonna lie.

She was kind of pretty like this? Her eyes were a shifting translucent purple in shadow with pupils the shape of a slowly spinning four armed galaxy. Her blood red wings were just cool.

Guess I have to stop questioning Aaron’s sanity.

“Damn it,” Luke muttered.

I glanced over at him. He was digging the heels of his palms into his eye sockets like he was trying to blind himself.

“Why did you have to tell me about Herakles and monsters?” He moaned.

Because Artemis was wrong? Why was he bringing that up now?

“You asked?”

“I said I was wondering about it, not asking!”

Another screech of the fire alarm made Hiraya flinch. She held out a clawed hand.

Aaron handed her his Gameboy without another word. Damocles danced as she snapped it in half and all of the fire alarms died with ringing pops and sparks. There was a grinding sound and then the water cut off too.

Oh, she’s a sorceress.

That’s -

Well, fuck.

Wish I’d known the vampire had this reality’s Konami Code before I gave her my blood. Bad news was, after this Quest, Hiraya was gonna own my ass. No wonder she was being so nice.

Good news? That’s a problem for Future Percy.

Who was not me, Present Percy, protected by Amaterasu. I’m sure Future Percy will figure something out, because he’s awesome like that. The guy just can’t lose!

In my defense, no one likes True Magic users.

There are whole pantheons that have been trying to wipe them out for centuries, okay? What are the fucking odds? Somewhere in my peanut sized hyperactive brain, I knew monsters could have magic too, but I -

I forgot.

Hello, twelve year old demigod with ADHD here. I can’t think of everything, give me a break.

“Soooo…” I began.

A near-murdered experience when you don’t know who to kill back?

Do not recommend.

“What now?”

Aaron raised his hand like he was in math class.

“Can you guys do that hypnosis thing?” He asked us curiously.

“It’s called Mist manipulation,” Luke said in his best impression of a brat of Athena (don’t tell Annabeth I said that) as he crossed his arms. “And yeah, I can.”

“Good at lying?”

Luke tilted his head. “Decent. Why?”

“Great.” Aaron grinned with false cheer and shook water out of his dark hair like a dog. “Let’s go make some false statements to the police.”

“The police?”

“So we can make insurance pay for this?” Aaron looked at us like it was obvious before heading for the elevator. Luke reluctantly followed him. “They won’t do anything without a paper trail, it’s crazy.”

I was back to questioning his sanity.

“Hn.” Hiraya spat a glob of black blood onto the floor. She frowned as she looked around her absolute mess of a garage. I blinked, so I missed it when she shifted to look human again. The burns on her wings transferred to the right side of her body, but they were fading really fast. Ugly blackened skin becoming pinkish scars and then flawless in seconds.

She was a vampire. Stabbing or staking with something sharp was the way to go.

She burns to death, I remembered. I looked back at Cross’ body and Thanatos’ grinning skull eyes came to mind again. It was probably just the vision, but I found myself wondering. Rabbit and his team had been planning for three weeks. They would have gone with the traitors, unaware.

What would have happened if we hadn’t been here?

“Boss?” Rabbit ventured, cautious.

Which, same.

Her garage floor was soaked. The carpet lining the walls had darkened to a muddy brown color. The front of her Porsche was half-melted and some shrapnel had taken out her Hummer’s front light and side mirror. The BMW looked okay from behind the bombed out shell of the armored truck. She was going to have to replace all her fire alarms and probably the sprinklers. Trace was a pile of ash, Torus was missing, Cross was dead, her boyfriend nearly died, our hands were empty and she had a sun goddess making sure she didn’t back out of her deal that had already cost her a lot.

For her, this might be the event that sours the rest of your decade.

For us, uh, I think today was Thursday?

It might be Wednesday.

Wednesdays suck.

“I stand corrected,” Hiraya replied slowly.

Her eyes darted over to him. They were still a radiant purple as she quirked an eyebrow.

“I am only paying one.”

---

We bunked down in Hiraya and Aaron’s living room out of an unspoken agreement to remain paranoid.

Their house was one of those hub homes where the living room was huge and tall and the rest of the house was arranged around it with the second floor being a balcony running along the ring. The only wall was completely made out of glass facing the driveway so we could see if we were going to get any more nasty surprises. Rabbit was still checking the perimeter obsessively.

We ended up taking a blow dryer to Artemis.

“Gods, I hope your idea for getting back her godhood works.” Luke powered down the blow dryer as he grinned at the resigned ball of auburn puff on Hiraya’s coffee table. She looked like a fluffy toy twice her size.

“So I can never live this down?” Artemis said miserably. Luke just grinned wider in a good mood as he held up his rabbit comb and wiggled it at her. The bunny groaned. “Just kill me.” She had her paws over her eyes again. “End it, please.”

You almost couldn’t tell Luke had spent the last fifteen minutes talking circles around some police officers. They came to check on the wealthy couple and their grandmother’s nephew’s neighbor’s second cousins and their rabbit that were visiting when they nearly got blown to kingdom come.

Gas mains are deadly.

“You don’t mean that,” I said, glancing up from the Gameboy Colors I was balancing on my lap with a link cord between them. Aaron had a Seadra Pokémon with a Dragon Scale and I’m not passing that up.

Don’t judge me.

“Enough bitching, more brainstorming.”

“There is no one, I am telling you,” Artemis sighed as Luke ran the comb over her forehead and ears. “Everyone I can think of with a Name I could use, there is either no point to asking or I am too scared to ask.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Too scared?”

“Is that so surprising?” she asked quietly. “Even if I were whole, I would hesitate. And I am decidedly not.”

“Archery - “ I started.

“Not changing my mind,” she cut me off.

I rolled my eyes. “Wilderness?”

Her mouth fell open a little. “No one even knows where Pan is.”

Wait, really?

Huh.

“Okay, uh, Hunting?”

“My nephew Aristaeus would not be able to afford it and my uncle…” Artemis went quiet.

“Your uncle?” I prodded.

“Is unavailable,” she said shortly.

It took me a minute or two to figure out who she was talking about.

Lelantos, the Titan of Moving Unseen, Leto’s twin brother? I must have read about him because Mom only remembered her Chosen and I can’t remember Apollo even mentioning the guy. Then again, Zeus got a hold of the twins early and Lelantos was a second generation Titan.

Olympus tended to be unhealthy for second generation Titans.

And for first generation Titans.

And at least half of the third generation, honestly.

Maybe he was imprisoned? I don’t think he was imprisoned. Odds are, he didn’t like his sister getting Zeus’ pimp hand, tried to do something about it and it didn’t end well for him.

Dude.

Artemis really was like her father.

Both of them were professionals at screwing people over thousands of years down the line, including themselves.

“Maidens?” I tried weakly.

“Hera.”

Luke and I both winced.

I was getting tired of this rabbit having a point.

“You do not understand what you are asking.” She sighed again. “It has been millennia since we have reached equilibrium. We are no longer worshiped across civilizations. To ask someone to give up a Name…”

“Big ask?”

“Monumental,” she whispered. “I have taken enough from my brother already. I will not do it.” She shrunk into herself. “And I am not so loved that I could expect others to make that sacrifice for me.”

Luke nudged me with his shoulder and caught my eye. He made an exaggerated grimace and I copied him. It turns out, the problem with being an asshole is that no one likes you. Who could have possibly seen that one coming?

That didn’t leave Artemis with a lot of options.

‘Not a lot’ didn’t mean ‘none’ though.

“If you are too scared to ask,” I said. “Then let me.”

“...if you insist.” Artemis looked up at me with wide silver eyes. “I suppose you do come by your irreverence honestly,” she said quietly. “That could only help.”

“Um, what?”

“It - nothing,” she changed her mind. “You are worth more than me. Your words will at least be heard, is all.” Luke nudged her. Artemis’ ears went flat as she narrowed her eyes at him. He wiggled the comb again and loomed over her.

“You can ruuu-uun,” he sing-songed.

With a sigh, Artemis reluctantly presented her other flank for brushing. “I hate you.”

“That gives me joy,” Luke said unrepentantly.

Selene was gone, but the Greek pantheon still had two goddesses of the Moon. Artemis inherited the Pale Moon. I opened my mouth to ask about the Dark Moon when my Gameboy chimed.

I was now the proud owner of an adorable Kingdra Water-Type Pokémon.

“Awesome.”

“Let me see,” Luke said as he leaned over. He had the same soft half-smile he had when us younger Campers pulled off a sword move he’d been teaching us. Or when we were trying to get out of trouble even though Chiron caught us red-handed trying to put sawdust in the horse-pigeon feed because they deserved it.

“Almost makes me wish I had the time for videogames,” he said wistfully as I showed my new Pokémon off. “And…batteries. And electricity. And money.” He thought about it as he brushed the rabbit. “And demigod proofing.”

“From breaking?” The demigod proofing had to be really thorough. Moni(que) in Cabin 11 could make metal rust by looking at it wrong. “Or from stealing?”

Luke conceded that with a nod of his head. “Can’t have any of the portable stuff. Nail everything down.”

“Maybe a game room in the Big House?” I pitched the idea, getting a bit into it. “Can you imagine making Zeus pay for some game consoles and a flat screen TV for Camp? Or Hera?”

Luke huffed a laugh as he cleaned his comb of rabbit fur.

“In her capacity as Queen of Olympus?” I said in my best obnoxious voice.

The rabbit honked softly.

I messed around in my game a little. Aaron had a leveled Haunter and I was really tempted to nab it. I think Luke found brushing the rabbit relaxing.

Then, to our surprise, she hesitantly spoke up. “Is…the Camp really that bad?” As Luke blinked down at her, she rushed out, “I know - I know Hermes has complained a few times, but on the train, the way you both were talking about it…”

“What do you think Camp Half-Blood is like for us?” Luke said sharply. His anger boiled up just enough to singe.

Artemis shrunk a little.

“I…honestly do not know,” she admitted.

If she wouldn’t even save her own half-sister and niece from monsters, why would she care about how her family treated their random demigods? All the kids she would ever bother with were the ones that would swear to follow her forever.

“My Hunters complain, but they - “

“Are never there long,” Luke growled. “That’s the problem.”

I had a hard time trying to put it into words how everything was not quite big enough, not quite good enough, not quite enough. Annabeth trying to raise herself and all her siblings was wrong. Maybe Olympus was strong enough that their demigods didn’t have to worry about the other pantheons and their monsters, but when Olympic demigods aren’t even taught about their own pantheon…

At some point, Camp Half-Blood’s ignorance crossed the line from neglect to something almost cruel.

“It’s a fun summer camp,” I said quietly. Because it was. The three weeks I had with Castor, Pollux, Annabeth, Clovis, Ethan and Luke were great. I could see myself rushing home after school let out next year, excited to see my friends again.

But I had a home to come back to. “Summer camps are for the summer, not forever.”

“We could make due,” Luke said just as quietly. “If we just knew someone gave a shit.”

The rabbit’s ears drooped. “I see.”

“Do you?” Luke said bitterly. He smashed the loose auburn fur he combed off into a little ball and went back to brushing her.

Soldier boy Rabbit drifted in and out of the room, but not before giving Luke a business card.

“Great benefits,” was all he said as he looked out the big window. “Training, equipment, elite teams are the best of the best.” Under his eye protection, his eyes were a bright amber color. “The Yellow takes care of its own. If you’re interested.”

Luke flipped the card over and over in his free hand. It was fancy looking, a silver framed holographic card. It vanished up his sleeve when he had to clean off his comb again.

“Maybe,” Luke said softly.

Artemis wasn’t very happy about it. Something about how Greek demigods were never supposed to need to become mercenaries, only for Luke to shoot back,

“Apparently, I’m supposed to just die.”

She didn’t say anything after that.

I don’t do well with silence. I wondered what was being done about Cross’ body and then I wondered if it would be a good idea to call Rhea and ask if Aura was there yet. Or maybe I should just focus on getting us across the wasteland of desert between here and San Francisco where the Mist got thinner and thinner the further West you went because one of the Doors to the Underworld was right there.

It was only going to get worse.

I didn’t want to think about it.

“Hey, Luke, have you ever heard of Mythomagic?” I asked as I reached for my backpack.

“A little,” he perked up. “Collectible card game, right?”

“That’s right.” I saved my game and unhooked the Gameboys. I swapped my own Gameboy Color for the embossed aluminum card tin in my bag. It felt weird in my hands, like I haven’t held it in forever and now it was heavier than I remembered. I opened the tin and flipped over the first card.

Moros, the God of Doom.

A little shiver went down my spine. It was the same card Hecate had given me. I hurriedly flipped over the next one.

Poseidon, the God of the Seas.

Oh, nevermind.

“You okay?” Luke asked.

“Yeah. It was nothing.” I guess I just put Hecate’s card back into the tin and never reshuffled?

“Are you certain?” Artemis asked next. “When my brother was young, he could not even throw a stick without it being some sign or portent.”

“He’s, like, an actual god of Prophecy though? No way I’m that bad.” I showed her the cards.

Then I had a horrible thought.

“But I swear to God if you screwed over your Uncle P, tell us now because the Gulf is right there - “

“Not…that badly?” Artemis said weakly. She raised a pleading paw and then dropped it. “My father did worse?”

Luke and I both groaned.

Luke picked the rabbit up and looked her right in the face, nose to nose. “Stop. Being. Terrible.”

Artemis squirmed. “I did!”

“It’s probably nothing.” I cut in before they got into an argument. Again.

And I just want to say, honestly, if Artemis thought she wasn’t terrible anymore because she was comparing herself to Zeus, that explained a lot.

“Look, if I just shuffle these…” One smooth blackjack shuffle later (Apollo would be proud), I flipped the first card.

Moros, the God of Doom.

“Huh,” I said.

“I hate prophecies,” Luke muttered.

Considering what he’s been through?

Fair.

“Not a prophecy,” I grumbled. “Just some weird coincidence.”

At least the next card was different. Triton, the Messenger of the Seas.

I sighed in relief. “See?”

“Whooooo wants a mug of hot chocolate?” Aaron padded through the doorway to the dining room carrying a tray. He was a young looking guy, maybe a few years older than Luke, an inch taller with pianist’s fingers. “You better, because I made three mugs at once and now the microwave is a mess.”

“Thanks, man.” I put my cards down and held up his black Gameboy Color with the gray Pokemon Silver cartridge in it. “For this too.”

Aaron shrugged. “You saved my life speaking up like you did, that’s gotta be worth a Pokevolve or two.”

Aaron put down the tray. There were two mugs for me and Luke and one for him and they were perfectly, painstakingly spaced on the crisp white doily. There were even some meticulously complicated folded napkins with a stick of biscotti next to each mug. It looked like some OCD French chef had gotten a hold of his kitchen which was completely at odds with how the drinks had been nuked during World War 2 and the marshmallows had just fucking surrendered. Aaron’s hot chocolate looked like my first attempt at copying Dad’s cocoa recipe when I was younger. It was pitch black with crusty trails down the sides and the vague balls of white foam were still bubbling. I could almost hear their screams.

Luke peered into his mug suspiciously.

Maybe he doesn’t like chocolate.

“Hiraya’s a bit upset actually,” Aaron said calmly. The dude was the Filipino ideal of a British stiff upper lip. “I can tell. You probably saved her too. Thank you.”

“No problem, man.” I waved it off. “Didn’t want to break her streak. She hasn’t survived this long being easy to kill.”

“You’re right, she hasn’t,” he said with a small smile. “Still, I’m grateful. I’d give you a wedding invitation, but that might be weird.”

“A little.”

“Oh well,” he sighed. “Got any ideas for working off my debt?” He made an okay sign with his right hand. “Money is no object.”

I almost waved it off again, but then I realized that I actually really wanted him to owe me. “Okay, just to make super sure, Hiraya’s magic is innate, right?” At her man’s nod, I swallowed. “So I'm hoping her specialty isn’t blood curses?”

Because that was Mom’s and you really don’t want to be on the wrong end of one.

“What?” Luke blurted out. “Blood curses?”

“She’s a witch,” I muttered. “That blood bag? Nooooot a Capri Sun. Sorry.”

Luke made that constipated expression I was just going to call his God, Why from now on.

“Percy, why?”

I blinked. “Why what?”

Luke directed the God, Why at the rabbit.

Artemis’ ears shrugged at him. “I do not have anything to lose and Perseus seems to know what he is doing.”

“I totally know what I’m doing,” I lied. “We’re all acting in good faith here.”

“That’s right.” Aaron ducked his head, smiling. “All in good faith. She’s a necromancer - “ Thank God. “ - but good with sympathetic magic too.”

Crap.

Sympathetic magic was basically voodoo. That was how she was able to break his Gameboy to break his fire suppression. One electronic ‘belonging’ being swapped for another.

And she had our blood -

“Wait, necromancy?” I thought back to the garage and the minute before the explosion. “So she was going to reanimate Trace? To ask questions?”

Aaron nodded. “He was booby trapped.”

“Does that mean someone was prepared for that?” Luke asked, sounding worried.

“Or just prepared,” Aaron said with a strange quirk to his lips. “It’s the only thing Hiraya will ever take personally: being overly thorough.”

“Riiiight,” I said slowly. “We gave her some of our blood, so I was wondering…”

“Don’t want anything nefarious happening to it?” Aaron’s head rocked back as he gave me this slow, almost too wide smile. The kind that narrowed his eyes to slits. The change in lighting hitting his brown eyes made them look rust colored.

“I got you.”

Phew. One crisis averted. “Thanks.”

“I got a question though.”

“Shoot.”

“How come you know a lot more than those other demigods?”

“Those other demigods?” Luke said dumbly.

“You don’t act like them either,” Aaron said happily, flashing me a thumbs up. “They were always so panicky and got scared too easily. Too normal.” He sounded disappointed. “You know some can’t even defend themselves? Only a couple even had powers.”

Aaron leaned forward eagerly looking like he just saw his next science fair project and couldn’t wait to get started. Luke tensed up for some reason, holding his mug like he was a second away from turning it into a knuckle duster. Artemis was hunched down too.

“Are Greeks just built different?”

“We’re lucky,” I told him. “Our parents give a shit.” I went to take a sip of my hot chocolate, but Luke stole my mug right out of my hands. “Um.”

A door opened loudly up on the second balcony.

The vampire walked into sight from deeper in the house and casually hopped over the second floor railing. She had ditched the tattered clothes, now in slim jeans and a jean jacket. She said a rapid fire something that was probably Tagalog and then paused. Her eyes fell on the mugs, then she sighed and finished tying her hair back.

“Aaron, no. They’re leaving.”

“Aww.” His shoulders slumped. “But I just made them hot chocolate. You sure we can’t keep them?”

Hiraya smiled slyly. “We can’t.”

I made a grab for my mug, but Luke lifted it out of my reach. “And it was great,” he said casually. He put both mugs down on the coffee table and tugged me into standing. “But we’re on a deadline, so we really should get going.”

“Nice touch with the marshmallows,” I offered. I don’t know what Luke had against hot chocolate all of the sudden. It didn’t look that bad (okay, maybe it did). I stuffed my cards back into its tin and threw it into my backpack. Luke grabbed our rabbit. “Wish we could stay longer, but you know how it is.”

Aaron nodded sadly. “Alright. Don’t die.”

“Great advice,” I told him. “Can’t go wrong with that one.”

As we headed out the door, I whined under my breath. “But hot chocolate?”

“It was probably poisoned,” Luke muttered back.

I frowned at him.

“Just…” Luke palmed his face. “He’s marrying a vampire. Trust me on this one.”

There was a glint on the roof of the mansion of Rabbit’s stake out. Or a sniper's nest. His hand popped into view to wave at us. “So,” I started when we caught up to Hiraya beside her singed BMW. The yellow headlights glared. “Are we just going to ask for another errand?”

“You are not,” she said sharply. “I am going to get answers from the Bishop.” Understandable. “You are coming in case I need to kill him.”

“Whoa, okay,” I mumbled.

That escalated quickly.

“What is he?” Luke asked. “The better informed we are, the better we can help you,” he continued smoothly. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“I would,” Hiraya turned back to us from the car. “We have always called him the Bishop. He is a priest.” A chill ran down my back. A Priest. I knew she didn’t mean that he was a Methodist or something. “A supplicant of some old god at sea.”

Luke glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “A god at sea.”

My stomach was sinking.

“Uh, how old?” I asked.

“Old.”

Coming from a vampire that called us ‘hemitheos,’ that meant real old. “Oh.”

The vampire inclined her head. “I don’t know the Name of his patron and I never asked.”

Sea gods are fickle. Probably a good idea.

“And it doesn’t matter,” Hiraya snarled, her fangs glinting in the smothered light. “I don’t believe he wouldn’t know what he asked for my people to retrieve and he saw fit not to inform me. I will have answers from his mouth or his corpse.”

Sea gods are fickle. Probably not a good idea.

“Well maybe we all can just skip the guy - “

“You agreed to an exchange of favors,” the vampire said coolly. I winced. Like with everything, there were rules. She was definitely old enough to know them. “If he is innocent, does he not deserve to hear of the failure from you?”

“I’ll send him a letter.”

“Perseus,” Artemis said worriedly and the tight feeling in my stomach got worse.

“Our priority is the Quest,” I said eventually. “Look, maybe it’s breaking faith with Cage-Head.” I glanced over at Luke and to my relief, he just looked thoughtful. “But you said it yourself.” I turned back to Hiraya. “Something is fishy and letting him break faith first in his territory sounds risky.”

She raised a hand and the weak yellow light of the high beams shattered around her fingers. “I would be compelled to defend you.”

“Yeah, and you burn,” I snapped back without thinking.

The vampire’s purple eyes studied me.

“I - I mean…” I trailed off. “That’s…that’s how you die and Trace…”

I don’t know how my cards worked. Maybe drawing Moros twice with two sea deities was a coincidence. Sometimes probability was like that. Prophecies mean what we think they mean. I could just think it really was nothing. Would that work?

Did I want to risk it?

I looked at Luke.

“Oh, now you’ll listen to me?” The jerk raised an eyebrow. I scowled at him.

“We will make another enemy,” Artemis cautioned. “But then, that is nothing new.”

“And whose fault is that?” Luke couldn’t resist.

“I said I was sorry!”

Mom? I asked. A sign?

The feeling I got from her prickled over my scalp. It was cold, it was black, it was thoughtful and it was proud. The feeling settled on the bridge of my nose, spreading both ways to my temples like a blindfold. I was so used to wearing them, of not wanting to know, that I forgot it was a power I could use.

I took off my glasses.

Oh.

“Before you agreed to help us, your Fate was to burn to death, Hiraya.” I stood as tall as I could, which wasn’t very tall, looking her right in the eyes. “And it has changed.” Her ghost stared right back at me, bloated, anguished. I could just faintly see a shadow of something behind her. “Now you drown.”

The Bishop was a Priest of a sea god.

Hiraya sucked in a breath.

The silence was almost painful.

I half-expected her to demand her coin back and toss our blood back in our faces, but then she turned away from us and gestured towards the backdoors of her car. We hesitantly clambered into the back seats. I made sure to buckle in. Safety First.

“You will follow my lead and not speak unless spoken to,” Hiraya said coldly from the front seat. Her eyes bored into my forehead through the rear view mirror. “And if you are spoken to, you will be polite. Do not hide your eyes. You - the blond one - “

“My name is Luke.” There was a hard edge to his voice.

“Do not show fear, do not ask questions and do not get separated from the dark boy. In any circumstances, by any means necessary.”

Luke’s eyes widened.

“If you have to, you will say you are valuable and belong to the dark one.”

“Where are you taking us?” Luke’s voice shook a little.

“California.”

The vampire smiled joylessly.

“That is what you wanted?”

The vampire went to the same driving school my mother did. Dad calls it the You Only Live Forever Academy. Speed Limits were more like Speed Suggestions. Luke stared out of the window. Artemis paced for the first couple of minutes, working herself up only to then fall asleep quickly, curled up into a little ball on the middle seat. She was in a six month old body. All kids need to sleep.

"She should be okay to sleep," I said to myself. "She knows. She remembers."

I don’t know where we are going. That worried me.

“You really think getting back her godhood is going to work?” Luke said softly, so he didn’t wake her up. I looked at him, but he was still looking out the window, like he didn’t want to be caught showing Artemis any concern over anything.

“I hope so,” I answered. “I can’t know for sure, but she keeps arguing about it. Like she doesn’t want it to work or is afraid of it working - “

“Or like she refuses to let herself hope it will work?” Luke asked, like he knew the answer already. “You ever get the feeling she thinks she’s made her peace with dying, but it just looks kind of suicidal instead?”

I stared at him, confused.

I had godly eyes, but I felt like I was still fucking blind. Artemis noticed Luke right under my nose and he noticed her right back. He looked down at his lap and the lighter he was turning over and over in his hand. “If she could, she’d rather go out in a reckless blaze of glory just to affirm her existence?”

Okay, dude. Getting a little deep there.

“How’d you - “

“Know?” He gave me a wry smile. “It might be a daughter of Zeus thing.” His smile shrunk as he finally dragged his eyes just a few inches further to the sleeping moon rabbit. I felt my chest clench. He sighed. “Let me handle her.”

Uh, what?

I grimaced. “But, you hate her?” I tried. “Really obviously?”

“That just means when I tell her to pull her head out of her ass,” Luke almost growled. “She won’t think I’m doing it just to be nice.”

“Thalia?” I regretted asking as soon as it came out. Me and my big mouth. It was Zeus and Hades and everyone caught in the middle, but it started with my sisters and their Prophecy.

I watched Luke’s expression shutter closed.

I wondered what it was like for them, for all of them. Luke, Thalia and Annabeth, just trying to make it to Camp, to safety with an army of monsters at their heels. I imagined Grover trying to tell them that if it was just a little farther - if she could just make it to the top of that hill…I don’t know what she looked like. Black hair, maybe, like her dad. Electric eyes. Camp Half-Blood didn’t have the barrier back then. The whole Camp would have had to fight off the monsters the daughter of Zeus led right to them.

Athena said she died with the intent to sacrifice.

I imagined the realization flashing over her face and then it flashing over Luke’s when she planted her feet and turned around.

“Like I said,” Luke said quietly. “Daughter of Zeus thing.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“It’s okay,” he sighed. He lifted his lighter so that the weak light from the windows splashed all over the shining bronze in rainbow. “I spent - gods, I don’t know how long, thinking about the what ifs afterwards. If I trained Annabeth better, if I was just better, if we got any other satyr, if I wasn’t so angry…at the gods, at my father.”

Click.

The smokeless brilliant yellow flame of his lighter was bright enough to burn away some of the darkness.

“I don’t know what’s worse yet,” he whispered. “Thinking my father abandoned me, or knowing he didn’t. That he wanted to help me so bad, it didn’t matter that Brandon and Chloe died for me. Then I get back to Camp and it's just like, that's it. You had your chance. Ride's over, have a nice life. Which is worse?”

I couldn't answer him.

Luke snapped the lighter shut. “If he just said - “

But Hermes couldn't.

Luke didn’t continue. He went back to his window. I pulled out my card tin. Still don’t know how this works, but we could really use a hint, so maaaaaybeeee?

I breathed out and flipped the first card.

Chiron, Trainer of Heroes.

Maybe not?

I know why you wanted me to use Granddad’s power so much now, I sent in my mother’s general direction. It’s because your powers suck.

Her response was shocked and indignant.

I was probably going to pay for that.

The lights of Houston were as bright as ever, flashing past my window in streams of color against a pitch black sky.