I woke up.

The disorientation that hit me on seeing the roof of the train car was real. I guess some part of me still needed to get with the program. I wasn’t going to be seeing my star studded bedroom wallpaper, or the Celestial Bronze banded ceiling of my room at Camp Half-Blood for a while.

I thought about going back to sleep.

What time was it?

I had no idea when Nemesis’ vengeance would kick in and stop our train. So that meant...go back to sleep.

After I used the bathroom!

I learned a long time ago that there was zero point to holding it. Use the toilet now, so you don’t have to use a bush or the back of a dumpster later. Sometimes you’ll get stuck in that awkward moment of waiting for something to happen, but trust me, it beats needing to hide from a hungry hydra, trying to be absolutely still and then suddenly realizing you needed to pee.

Bad.

I put my sunglasses on and slipped off my bunk.

Then I rushed to the bathroom. Amtrak was guilty of the same crime frequently committed by airports and medical clinics:

Putting the air conditioning five degrees above freezing.

The cold does funny things to your bladder.

After I finished my business, I crept back into the main compartment and blinked in surprise.

Luke in the bottom bunk bed slept like he expected to be attacked. He was curled around his pillow with his back to the wall and oddly tense. Like he was trying to stop himself from moving in his sleep and wanted to take up as little space as possible. It wasn’t until I saw Artemis’ small form at the foot of his bed that I remembered that kids in Cabin 11 shared bunks. There weren't enough beds for them all, and some still had to sleep on the floor. That was what he was doing. Luke trained himself to sleep like that. To not bother anyone and to be as small as his six foot, eighteen year old frame could be. I had never felt more spoiled in my entire life.

I slowly walked towards the bunk bed.

Artemis woke up as soon as the step ladder to the top bunk creaked under my foot. She panicked a little, swinging her head and ears around as she tried to free her front paw from the sheets.

“Hey,” I called softly. “It’s just me.”

She slowly calmed down, then shuffled even further towards the end of Luke’s bunk like she would catch on fire if he so much as twitched in her general direction. I smiled a little.

“Comfy?” I teased her.

The rabbit’s eyes narrowed.

“Sorry,” I said quickly. “Were you cold?” I got a very reluctant nod. “Okay, give me a second.” I quickly climbed the ladder just enough to grab my jacket from under my pillow. “Here,” I whispered as I threw it over her. The jacket reshaped itself into a red woolen rabbit sweater with a hood fitting around her ears and a small stitched golden reindeer chasing a crescent moon on the side. “It can’t be cut or torn,” I said uncomfortably as the rabbit stared at me. “It absorbs some of the impact too, not all of it, but it will help.” I shuffled from one foot to the other. “Help you not die, I mean. Just don’t get hit really hard. Or at all.” I needed to stop talking. “Um...yeah. Good night.”

I escaped back to my bed.

I tried to Dream when I fell back asleep, but I wasn’t headed for the Dreamlands. Morpheus burbled at me curiously. Something that felt like ‘back again?’

It took me a bit to respond properly.

It wasn’t really a language thing. I could talk to Hypnos just fine. I’m not sure what it was, exactly. Maybe a mindset thing? You don’t really ‘speak’ while Sleeping. The physical isn’t a thing and you’re way too far in Hypnos’ influence for that. It’s like the difference between talking to Poseidon as a person and talking to Poseidon as a clam in his realm. English is useless.

Hypnos and I got on just fine though. And his mom seemed to understand me pretty well even if the other way around was a bit odd. The thing is, there has always been a separation between Morpheus and I. We were still buddies, don’t get me wrong.

It’s just that his father Hypnos and I were Greek.

Morpheus was Roman.

The difference between Hypnos of the Greek pantheon and Somnus of the Roman was...they used different letters to spell their name. There wasn’t a difference. Hypnos wasn’t a Young God. The Roman Name was just an avatar. I think the only reason he even bothered was his wife preferring her Roman Name. I don’t know if Nyx even knew she had a Roman name. It was kind of new. Mom knew about hers. She acknowledged it was a thing.

Her Celtic dudebros got kind of shit stomped by the Romans. Many of whom also had Greek Names.

Like Jupiter had Zeus.

Made things a little awkward for her at one point.

‘Somnus’ gave his son a Greek name because he didn’t give a shit about the pantheon divide.

It mattered to Morpheus though.

Good Dream? I carefully mumbled at him. The lesser dream spirits avoided me. If I wanted to Dream like a mortal, I had to have some help. Morpheus responded with surprise and concern as he drew me close. Please?

More of his concern sparkled on me, but he shifted. His presence solidified, twisting and then I was looking at a man in long black robes with permanent bed-head gray hair, scruff on his chin and blue eyes the same shade as Clovis’.

He studied me for a long moment.

Just when I thought he was going to refuse, he reached for me and then -

I woke up in my bed.

My actual bed. The one I had at home, in our apartment under the sparkling band of the Milky Way on my ceiling as space ships like the Battlestar Galactica, the Event Horizon, the Death Star, Lego Millennium Falcon, and Lego Enterprise hung on their transparent strings.

I got up and noticed I was in fuzzy Wookie pajama pants and a white T-shirt. My pants were a little too short on me. Dad made me throw these out, I remembered. I exited my room and saw a hazy Manhattan skyline underneath sleepy, gray clouds and falling snow in our windows.

I heard someone’s voice. Was that - ?

With my heart in my throat, I crept into the living room.

“ - he’ll be fine,” Dad was saying sleepily with his head leaning against Mom’s. I reflexively looked away, before remembering that I was Dreaming. This was an illusion. I wouldn’t see their ghosts. I cautiously turned back. They were sitting on the loveseat by the couch sharing a duvet blanket in front of the lit fireplace like they were on the Hallmark channel in their matching black pajama shirts. Sitting side by side, the white arrows on their chests pointed towards each other. I didn’t have to read it to know what it said. I know the shirts. It just said: Mine.

“I believe that,” Dad murmured into Mom’s black hair. “We raised a badass.”

Mom hummed as she snuggled into his shoulder. “Because I insisted. You kept saying he was too young.”

“He was!” Dad protested, pulling back a little. “I reserve the right to be concerned about my three year old with a huge scorpion in his crib. That’s not a sign he’s ready to be killing monsters.”

“That three year old didn’t scream or cry when he killed it,” Mom pointed out smoothly, taking his hand in hers. “Unlike someone I know.”

I blinked back tears as I heard Dad groan and half-heartedly try to defend himself before finally grumpily admitting,

“That’s fair.”

The corner of my mother’s lips curled up in amusement as she looked away and saw me standing there, staring at them like they were going to disappear. She held her arm out and I carefully squeezed in next to her. Her arm settled around my shoulders and I knew I was crying.

It’s stupid.

I’m stupid.

I’ve only been away for a month.

“Is that Percy?” Dad sounded very tired and sleepy.

“It is,” Mom said softly as she rubbed the tears off my cheek with her thumb.

“He’ll be fine, right?” My father slurred as his eyes closed and he slumped against us. “You promised.”

Mom just smiled this little smile and squeezed his hand.

“I greatly prefer your father physically and mentally well enough to raise you,” she said without prompting and Dad snorted softly. I heard a faint ‘love you too, beautiful’ from him, making her expression soften. “He is important to me,” she said quietly. “But not as important as you.”

I looked up in surprise.

And saw a hundred bloody, painful deaths in her black diamond eyes.

That - wait.

This wasn’t an illusion.

“Mom?”

She was actually here. In my Dream.

“And…” Suddenly, Dad’s question - ‘he’ll be fine, right?’ - meant so much more. “Dad?”

“We are in his Dream,” my mother confirmed as her eyes drifted back to her husband. She laid her head back onto his shoulder. “Try not to wake him,” she whispered. “He needs this.”

“But - “ I sputtered. I had no idea how I ended up here. “I didn’t - “

“Morpheus,” Mom said absently. “He sent you to me reeking of doubt and…” I swallowed thickly, curling into her. “Fear.”

I flinched.

“It’s nothing,” I said quietly into her side. “Just a bit homesick.”

“I understand.” She hummed and gently rubbed the back of my neck. We sat like that for a while. All three of us before the fireplace like we had turned back the clock and it was just a few days before Christmas again. Back then, I was trying to guess what my Christmas presents were, was looking forward to Dad’s days off work and was slowly writing out holiday cards to my grandparents. Like any other kid.

Now, I couldn’t stop thinking about how that snowy Manhattan skyline would change if Olympus went to war.

It wasn’t even about the Quest. Not really. Even if I didn’t die for Zeus’ ego, and even if Sam beat up Kronos, Athena wasn’t going to wait forever.

And there was this Prophecy…

“I can hear you thinking,” Mom said softly.

I bit my lip.

“Percy?” She prompted, squeezing me about my shoulders.

“I’m a little scared,” I admitted.

“About?”

I shrugged uncomfortably. “Dying, I guess.”

Mom blinked and dragged her eyes away from Dad’s face. “...why?”

I frowned.

Why?

I had to take a second to remember that my mother was literally older than dirt and all of my siblings were gods.

“Pain is pretty bad,” I said dryly. I watched her eyes light up as she glanced back at my father. Uh oh. I knew that look.

"You know, actually - " she began.

“Filter,” I warned her. “I don’t need to know.”

That one side of her lips curled up. "How did I raise such a prude - "

“Mom, filter.” 

She rolled her eyes. "I put a lot of effort into insuring you never feared pain," she said instead, letting me off the hook. "Are you sure that is it?"

I shrugged again and picked at the fuzzies on the duvet blanket.

I guess not.

Pain was bad, but...I wasn’t scared of it. If I got hurt enough to die, that would suck, but then it would be over and I knew there was an afterlife. It wasn't like I was going to disappear. Dying trying to help someone would probably be enough to push me over the line to qualify for Elysium? That wouldn’t be too bad. I wouldn’t be able to leave the Underworld, but I could still get visits! Cliff would end up in Tartarus maybe, but that wasn’t too far away. My other friends were aiming for Elysium too. I would have to wait for Dad, but Mom could see me whenever.

There was a painful lump forming in my throat.

“Figured it out?”

I did.

Dying wasn’t the problem.

I was afraid…

I was afraid of proving my half-sisters, the Fates, right. That Mom never should have had me. That I wasn’t worth it. That I didn’t make a difference and didn’t matter. I was afraid of being forgotten. I was afraid of disappointing her. I was afraid that Mom didn’t expect much from me, compared to her immortal children. My siblings.

I wasn’t afraid of death.

I was afraid...that if I put myself into a dangerous situation and I actually died, that meant Mom didn’t love me like I thought she did.

It was stupid.

Wasn’t it?

“I just don’t want to disappoint you,” I mumbled.

“Oh, Percy,” Mom sighed fondly. “You may fail me, but you could never disappoint me.”

My breath caught and I looked up at her. “Really?”

“Really really,” she said easily. “You exceeded even my wildest hopes the moment you were born.”

“How?”

Even as I asked, I just knew it was going to be something full of Kraft cheese about parents and their kids, or mother’s and their sons or whatever.

But instead, Mom gestured and the wall and windows of our penthouse fell away, replaced by an image of the swirling cosmos. Have you ever been in a planetarium? It was like that, except everything was HD. I felt like if I reached out, I would burn myself on some of these stars. I stared in awe at the planets and nebulas around and eventually, my gaze was drawn to the very center.

Where there was nothing.

A large void hung there in the center of the sparkling beauty. Just an empty hole.

No.

Not empty.

The more I stared, the more the void started to gain details and texture, even if everything in my mind was screaming that there was nothing there, I could see it. Some massive, dark thing was in the center, mindless devouring everything that was helplessly drawn into its reach. Clouds of space dust, asteroids, planets...stars.

Mom was looking up at it too.

“The moment you were born, I could tell that your mortality allowed you to take after your grandfather.” My grandfather? I thought - well, myths say Ananke was born from Chaos, but Ananke herself was just a name for an older Elder God. Maybe she meant Chaos though?

Chaos is my granddad?

Whoa.

“My little Perseus,” Mom murmured as she held me close. “I could not be more pleased with you.”

I grinned at her, but I couldn’t keep my eyes away from that devouring void. There was something about it. Something captivating. And familiar.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Mom whispered into my ear.

I absently nodded.

We watched it together for who knows how long. An hour? Maybe two? Then the sound of a loud, piercing alarm ran through my head and the Dream shattered like glass.

I woke up to the lights of our private train car flickering on as the brief alarm died. I snatched my glasses up. There was a thump under my butt and a curse as Luke hit his head. I smiled a little, but the ice growing in my chest made it wither. The intercom crackled.

“Hello, this is your conductor speaking,” a man’s voice said calmly as I slipped off my bunk with my backpack. “I’m sure you all heard that alarm, but please do not be concerned. We are having some technical difficulties and will be pulling into Plattsburgh Amtrak Station.”

Luke caught my eye as he shoved his feet into his sneakers, but he didn’t say anything. I didn’t either. Artemis whimpered, beginning to tremble in place. Hermes' son raised his eyebrows when he saw her sweater, but that didn’t stop him from picking her stiff form up and putting her back in her carrier as the conductor continued speaking.

He didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.

We didn’t reach the border. They had called ahead and there would be a regular train that would take us through customs at Rouses Point all the way to St. Lambert in Montreal. Amtrak would meet us there for the rest of the trip to Quebec City and back down to New York for those with round trip tickets.

Expected layover time: ten minutes.

It was still dark out with the faint glow in the horizon that said it was maybe three to four o’ clock?

Of course it’s dark, I thought. Nemesis was still the daughter of the Night and my half-brother, the Darkness. If it wasn’t like she couldn’t send monsters after a rabbit in broad daylight, because she could. It didn’t need to be nighttime for Nemesis to use a shadow to drop a monster on us. It’s just - I don’t know.

Artemis had been scared from the start. She knew what Nemesis wanted.

It was dark.

I have a bad feeling about this.

Really bad.

I quickly ran through my morning routine and even offered Luke my spare toothbrush. It helped with the anxiety. If I was going to be eaten by a monster, at least I would still have my sparkling smile!

Luke sighed as he wrapped his toothbrush in a napkin and shoved it into his backpack’s front pocket. “You’re still going to try to protect her, aren’t you?”

I nodded slowly.

“Fine,” Luke said shortly and pursed his lips. “How? Take her on the train with you?”

My gut clenched.

“Can’t,” I said quietly. “That would put everyone else in danger.”

There were more than a few monsters in Greek mythology that could casually derail a moving train. That was assuming it wasn’t derailed by my niece herself by breaking the track or something. Remember, no direct smiting, but that kind of shit was fair game and I was sure in a train full of people, there would be at least one Nemesis wouldn’t mind getting rid of as well to justify it.

Which sucks for everyone else on that train, but hey, she’ll make it up by blessing others with good fortune to maintain the Balance so it…

It would still suck for everyone else on that train.

Luke eyed me. “So no train, you can’t fly, your only real option is stealing a car and do you even know how to drive?”

“The basics,” I defended myself weakly. I mean, it would be very illegal, but demigod. Obeying mortal laws come a really far third to getting the Quest done and not dying. “But, uh, don’t suppose you have a How To For Dummies book hidden somewhere on hotwiring cars?”

“You’re going to hoof it,” Luke said flatly. “Across the border to Quebec City, on foot, while defending a rabbit from monsters.”

Remember when I said I accepted a lethal escort quest?

Literally what I did.

“I guess,” I mumbled. There was a faint, high pitched squeal as the train put on the brakes and began to slow down.

Almost there.

Luke stared at me disbelievingly. “Why are you risking so much for that?”

I rocked back a little in surprise. His ‘that’ came out really strong as he jabbed a finger towards Artemis in her carrier. It wasn’t enough to replace the word with a curse, like shit or something. The anger behind it was raw and disgusted and bitter. He said ‘that’ the same way that butthurt-over-Germany-losing neighbor of my grandparents said ‘Jew.’

Luke seemed to realize it, taking a calming breath and shaking his head once. “Millions of innocent people are on the line here, Percy,” he said in this even, soothing voice. “Her Domains can be covered by others. Hecate the Moon, Lelantos the Hunt and Wilderness - “ That Name sounded familiar. “Perhaps Hestia can watch over Maidens in her stead?”

Yes, but -

But actually no?

“I’m not worried about that, it’s just - “ I shifted from one foot to the other. “What about her Hunters?”

“Hestia can take care of them too,” Luke said easily. “She’s the goddess of Virginity and Family, after all.” Luke’s blue eyes looked straight into mine. For a second, I forgot I was wearing my sunglasses. “Have you thought about how your parents would react if you got yourself killed?”

I didn’t want to.

I could almost see Mom’s face.

She never looked disappointed. Mom didn’t really do the angry parent thing. She’s never grounded me in my entire life, no matter what kind of stupidity I got up to. It probably helped that she knew sometimes I’m just a dumbass and she could see it coming. Instead I would just get this blank, almost confused look for a few seconds like she didn’t know who I was.

Or couldn’t believe I was hers.

The ice in my chest was so cold, it was hard to breathe.

Ringing in my head was Dad’s sleepy “He’ll be fine, right? You promised.’

I was a demigod.

But Dorian Stele had never wanted his son to be anyone’s hero.

He would say that I should think of keeping myself safe first. I’m twelve. It’s not my responsibility. Do what I had to, survive, and come home. Heroes are for stories, songs and tabletop campaigns. He’s never been shy about letting me know that Mom and I were his world. The rest of it can burn, as long as we’re okay.

He doesn’t understand that I just can’t.

Mom would protect Dad, but if I die, I think he will break. I can’t do that to him. I can’t disappoint Mom. Apollo asked me to protect his sister. I can’t hurt my father. Apollo would be devastated. I can’t fail Mom. I can’t. I can’t.

Ï̵̝ ̷͕̂ć̴̰a̷͈͝ǹ̵̘'̴͎̤̚t̸̪̺͐.̶̢̒̈́

“Percy!”

I snapped out of...whatever just happened to see Luke looking down at me in concern. He had both hands on my shoulders and they ached a little, so he must have been shaking me. I blinked slowly up at him.

“Hi,” I said blankly. “What the fuck just happened?”

Luke eyed me as he slowly let go of my shoulders. “You tell me. It was like you were having a seizure.”

“And you shook me?”

Luke threw up his hands. “I didn’t know what else to do! Slap you out of it?”

I was saved from having to answer by our private car door opening. On the other side was our attendant ‘Alice’ who wore a pleasant smile and an elderly couple with suitcases.

“We have reached Plattsburgh, New York,” the disguised Fury said simply. I bit my lip. I hadn’t even noticed we’d stopped. “We are requiring all passengers to disembark.”

Luke and I exchanged glances.

I picked up Artemis’ carrier and followed the tall blond demigod out into the train corridor where we were shuffled along to the open doors out into open air. I stared up at the building. The Plattsburgh Amtrak Station was an old looking building made out of red brick with some kind of turret and towers like it was a castle. A big orange sign with an arrow pointing towards the doors leading into the building was in front of us.

“All passengers of Adirondack Amtrak Line are invited to use the waiting rooms in the station until the replacement train arrives,” Alecto said, saving us the trouble of having to read. She checked the elderly couple for their tickets and identification for customs, then ushered them forwards. She then turned to me. “Have you decided?”

I can’t just leave my brother's sister to die.

“Yeah,” I nodded. Then I blurted out, “It’s not you coming after her, is it?”

Alecto just smiled and dismissed us with a polite wave, her eyes fixed on the carrier in my hand. “Bye, honey.”

I tried to feel good about it as we entered the building. Sam hadn't hung me out to dry when we went to see my mother on the moon, right? He even got banished for it! How could I do less than my cat? And - and Dad said Mom promised I would be fine, right? And she said I would be back at Trinity for the next school year! So I’m definitely going to live through this. She must know I’m going to be a bit stupid, so this was fine.

And I’ve got that Prophecy! Apollo knew how those worked. If the Great Prophecy was about me, it would be hard to die at sixteen if I was already dead at twelve.

And Prophecies always mean what we think they do, don’t they? Kronos’ voice mocked me.

You shut up.

Mom does not lie.

I was going to get through this.

The real problem was making sure Artemis does too.

Luke stopped at some empty seats in the lounging area of the train station. They were old style square chairs with right angle arm rests and plaid cushions. I stopped too, but for a different reason.

“You go on ahead, Luke,” I said as confidently as I could. “We’ll catch up.”

Luke froze in the act of putting his bag down by his chair. “Percy,” he said, completely exasperated. “You’re being a dumbass.”

I shrugged with one shoulder and smiled. “I know.”

I turned quickly and strode for the doors. Behind me, I heard Luke curse, but that didn’t matter. I pushed the front doors open and Plattsburgh, New York lay sprawled out before us.

It was a quaint little town, the kind that had less than twenty thousand people with that typical colonial look common in the North East United States. Old fashioned houses and buildings with wooden placards with short street lamps that had flame shaped light bulbs. The whole place looked like it would give off a nice cozy feeling in the morning, but right now the dead streets, dim lights and wide open spaces gave it the appearance of a ghost town.

By that I mean, where you can either find a ghost or become one.

I scanned the town again, looking for anything at all that could help me. I started walking along the street, looking for a good vantage point. Artemis shuddered so hard in the carrier that the entire thing vibrated against my hand.

“It’s going to be okay,” I told her. “Trust me.”

I don’t know how long I walked, maybe five or six minutes before I was able to see that there was a river running through the town. I could follow it to where it fed into Lake Champlain which separated this part of New York from Vermont.

There!

Thank god for squat colonial buildings. Far in the distance and across the river was a very tall narrow building with a tapering tip.

An obelisk.

As soon as I saw that, it was like I drank 3 large expressos with extra cream and a Red Bull energy drink. The ice melted completely, replaced by the pace of my heart speeding up as this jittery feeling ran down my limbs. A million thoughts whirled about in my head, but there was one screaming really loudly:

I can do this.

An obelisk is supposed to represent a frozen ray of sunlight, a symbol of illumination and veneration. But Apollo wasn’t the god these structures called upon.

It was Ra.

It didn’t have to be an original, but it did have to hold some meaning. And in a small, Northeastern town like this that still clung to its colonial roots? I had a good feeling that the tower was a proper monument or a memorial, not just a cheap tourist attraction. And just like the pyramids, a proper obelisk can be used as a portal using Egyptian magic. I wasn’t an Egyptian, but I did have one on speed dial.

I set Artemis’ carrier down on the curb and then searched around in my backpack for my phone.

“I have a plan,” I told the frightened rabbit. “Everything sucks, but you’re mortal and that will work in our favor.” Artemis whimpered, trembling. “I mean it,” I said breathlessly as my fingers brushed against the cold metal of my bronze and gold tablet. “You can’t just be smited now like you could before and you are on a Quest, so that gives you some protection.”

Not a lot, but it was something.

“Once the hunt for you begins, Nemesis can’t intervene.” I pulled my phone out. “You know what that means, right?”

Artemis stared at me with wide silver eyes from behind the bars of her carrier. Then she jerkily nodded twice.

This was Nemesis’ chance, but that was all it was.

A chance.

We just had to make her blow it.

“So if we stay three steps ahead of whatever she sends after us, we’ll be fine, because she can’t help her monsters catch up or track us.”

That was the rule. Just as Young Gods were limited in how much they could help a mortal on a Quest out, they were also limited in how serious their murder attempts on a Questing mortal could be. And Nemesis, despite her lineage, was Young. Artemis was mortal now and I would bet my left leg she’d been grandfathered into those rules, or else Nemesis would have just killed her on the train.

That’s why the rules of Challenge were so important. Because if you Challenge a god, all of these rules and regulations and whatever else my fucking half-sisters the Fates came up with get thrown out the window.

I rubbed my thumb against the second hieroglyph shaped like a bird.

“Hope you don’t have anything against Egyptians,” I said a second before that annoying high pitched static sound assaulted my ear drums.

“What the - Percy?” Cliff’s mumbly voice came through. A second later the noise went away. “Do you know what time it is, man?”

“Uh, no,” I said. “Early.”

“Fucking early,” Cliff agreed. “What’s the emergency?”

“My niece wants to kill my rabbit.”

There was this dead silence on the other end.

“...this is going to be good,” Cliff muttered.

I mean, I was trying to keep the details on a Need To Know basis, but if he was going to be like that, fine. “I’m on a Quest for Olympus and Nemesis has an issue with one of my companions who has been temporarily transformed into a rabbit by my mother.”

Cliff did that thing where he sucked in air through his teeth. “You have the Rhamnousia on your ass.”

“My rabbit has the Rhamnousia on her ass,” I corrected him. Artemis began to nibble on the carrier’s door, so I reached over to open it up. “I need to know if you got the emergency teleporter function on my phone worki - hey, wait!”

Artemis ducked under my hand and bolted.

“Wait! Artemis! I - “ Her little cotton ball tail disappeared into the brush of the small woods along the edge of the park we were in. She just - she just left. She ran away.

Trust me.

I have a plan.

I turned and kicked the carrier away, sending it crashing into the base of a street lamp.

“Fuck!”

“Percy? You okay, man?”

Luke chose that time to appear, jogging up with an annoyed expression and what might have been a folded map in his hand. My heart leapt into my throat. He followed me! He wasn't willing to just let me do something stupid without him! “Tell me you have some kind of plan, or do I have to knock you out - “ He caught sight of the carrier. His eyes narrowed as he looked around, then back at me. “Where’d she go?”

Yeah.

“She ran away,” I said dully. This empty feeling was trying to take root in my stomach. She'd rather take her chances as a rabbit alone, than let me help.

“Who’s she? The rabbit? You named your rabbit Artemis? Wait - oh shit.”

Luke crossed his arms over his chest. “You know what the gods of Olympus are like. You really thought she would accept your help? Why?”

Because Apollo wasn’t like that. Hestia isn’t.

I thought…

I guess I’m just stupid.

"She did us a favor," Luke pointed out ruthlessly. "If she doesn't want to be helped, then let her go."

“I thought she was different,” I said miserably.

“Huh?”

Oh right. “Not you.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Not you either!” I held up my phone. “I’m on a call! I had a plan, but now we’ve got to track down Artemis and make sure she doesn’t get herself killed  - “

“We?” Luke said pointedly.

Fuck.

“I - I’ll give you my wish if you help me out protecting Artemis.” I resorted to just straight bribery. 

He’s been stuck at the shit show that was Camp Half-Blood for four years and by this point, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t spit on Hermes even if the god was on fire. The first thing he noted to me about Artemis was the ‘infamous for killing men’ part which wasn’t a great first impression, I’m not gonna lie. There was nothing I could say.

"I always get a small boon at the end of a te - Quest, and this one is no different. You can have mine. You can ask for whatever you want.”

“Percy,” Cliff said low and warning. “Your mother is the Serpent, that’s not something you just give aw - “

“I know,” I cut Cliff off. She's a creator goddess and Fate and Elder God and Luke might ask for something outrageous and knowing her, she'd think it'd be hilarious to just give it to him. “I know, but I can’t - “

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

Luke and I both turned.

Oh hell.

“Is that...the Minotaur,” Luke said blankly.

I swallowed.

“No. It isn’t.”

Luke looked at me curiously, then looked back. He squinted. I knew the moment he saw through the Mist because the blood drained from his face as his pupils dilated. He stumbled back, hand flying to his jean pocket for his father’s lighter.

“What the fuck is that?”

The monster was vaguely humanoid. It was covered in thick, ropey scar tissue the color of blood, almost looking like it was something that had been flayed alive and all that was left was the muscle fibers stretching over pockmarked and pitted black bones. The main head was eyeless and noseless, just a cone jutting out from a humanoid head, but then it opened like a blooming flower. Slimy, drooling tentacles covered in gaping mouths like the suckers of an octopus waved at us. There were two shrunken heads hanging off its body as it dragged its knuckles on the ground. They were covered in wide, bloodshot eyes wildly rolling around. It stepped out of the shadow it had come in, light spilling over every disgusting detail and even though it towered above us by at least three feet, there wasn’t a single sound. Silver scraps of some kind of cloth were barely hanging on for dear life. A tendril extended from one of its mouths and it tongued, or sniffed (?) the carrier. It’s head swiveled suddenly, fixated on the direction a certain rabbit had run off in.

I was really hoping it would just ignore us.

Nemesis didn't exactly say it would, not if the 'or die with her' part meant what I thought it meant, but I was hoping.

Praying.

“Hey Cliff,” I heard myself say faintly. “I’m going to have to call you back.”

Mom? I prayed. I might need some help.

And for the first time in my entire life, there was only silence.