Chapter One

All it took was a little precision, a bit more accuracy, and the skill handed down by my father, Apollo. The wind was a little bit stronger than wanted, but there was no reason that I could not get the arrow on the bulls-eye. The target was black and blue, just like the fletching on my arrow. One more breath and –

"Hey, pretty lady," a voice said to my left, right as I released the arrow.

I watched my arrow veer off into the bushes before turning to the voice.

"Connor!" I gritted my teeth. "I'm trying to work on my archery skill."

"Oh, Penny, don't you already have the best skill that you can get?" He asked. "I mean, your father is the God of Archery after all."

I walked back to the benches that were behind the archery field. I shook my head as I laid my bow against the bench.

"There is always room for improvement," I mumbled.

I turned back around to see Conner twirling one of my arrows between his fingers.

"I don't think that that is necessarily true, though," he chuckled. "Not with our gods-given talents at least."

I snatched the arrow back and put it in the quiver on my shoulder. I cracked my knuckles and shook my head.

"I don't know if stealing counts as a talent," I said while wrinkling my nose. "That doesn't take skill and practice. Archery takes skill, basketball takes practice, and your little stealing quips don't."

"Oh, I'd like to see you steal something successfully right now," Connor said as he ran his hand through his curly, brown mop that he called hair.

I shook my head. "My dad isn't the God of Thieves."

He walked over and put his arm around my shoulders. "So, now who's talking about the gods and how we do what we do?"

I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. "Okay, fine I get your point."

Connor gave the small, crooked smile that he and his brother, Travis, were famous for.

"Finally."

I tried not to smile back, but ultimately failed.

"Whatever, hotshot," I said as I hit his chest.

He laughed almost evilly as he took his arm off of me. He moved his hand under my chin and put his thumbs on my lips.

"How did I meet a girl like you?" Conner asked in a whisper.

I smiled and said, "You met me when I had to heal your ass because you decided that you were going to pull some idiotic prank on the Aphrodite cabin."

He chuckled. "Ah, yes, the 'prettiest girl' competition." He moved his thumb down onto my chin. "Little did I know, the prettiest girl was you."

"Now, your father is not the God of Love, last time I checked."

Connor shrugged before gently placing his lips on mine for a few seconds. I put my hand on his side and grabbed his shirt gently.

"Lunch is soon. I should probably get out of my work out clothes and into my other ones," I told him.

He nodded. "I should probably find Travis before he gets himself in trouble. You know how he is."

"I know how you are. Travis hasn't exactly warmed up to me since that time I cursed him to speak in couplets."

He laughed. "I remember that. It was because he put mud in your shoes, right?"

I shook my head. "No, he cut into my basketball when it rolled over to him."

"Great first impression for the both of you, huh?"

"Yeah, sure."

"You wouldn't think that the two of you were sixteen with how you guys are acting."

"I'm fifteen, and he's almost seventeen. You can't blend our ages together."

He nodded and shrugged. "You get my point."

I nodded and pecked a kiss to his cheek. "I'll see you at lunch, okay?"

Connor kissed my cheek as well. "Yeah, see you then."

I grabbed my bow and started back towards the cabin. It was the second day of winter vacation at the camp, and it was a good feeling to work out my arms again by shooting a few arrows. I had hoped to shoot some more, but the pleasant surprise from Connor was nice.

Mine and Connor's relationship was still relatively new. It wasn't until the end of the last summer when we realised that there was some feelings circulating between us. I was more of the oblivious one in that pitfall. It took sixteen trips for me to realise that Connor was getting hurt on purpose just so he could see me. Then, after being flattered, the only way I knew how to flirt or even attempt to show my feelings back was to challenge him to a basketball game, and that only ended up with him getting hurt again.

When summer ended, we only managed to awkwardly kind of say that we kind of like each other. I went back to school, whereas Connor and Travis stayed at the camp.

Unlike most people that go away from the camp for the school year, I chose to come back over the weekends. One weekend, I was sitting next to the campfire, writing poetry, and Connor came up behind me with a handful of honeysuckle flowers.

"I heard they are pretty sweet."

"Oh, yeah?" I chuckled.

He held one out to me. "Do you want to try one?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm good. I really need to focus on my writing."

"Penny, come on," Connor said. "It's not like I'm feeding you out of those many bottles that you keep in that place of yours."

"That place that you keep finding yourself in?"

He took my notebook out of my hands. "What are you writing anyway? A love letter to some kid at school?"

I shook my head and reached for it as he pulled it out of my reach. "Connor, give that back!"

"So it is a love letter."

Connor reached the book back even farther, but opened it to read it. I reached over him, but I ended up tripping over his foot and falling on him.

"Time and time will tell again, about how I feel, when romancing bruises and cuts, especially in places I know so well," he read from the book, slowing down as he reached the end of the line.

I gave up trying to reach for the book.

"Penny," Connor started to say.

I shook my head and looked up at him, still awkwardly laying on him. "I'm embarrassed enough. Please don't say anything."

He let go of the book and put the hand on my back. "I was just going to ask if I could kiss you."

"I heard they are pretty sweet."

"Oh yeah?"

I walked into my cabin and placed my bow and quiver on my bed. I glanced around at the empty cabin before taking off my tank top, leaving me in my sports bra and jeans. I walked over to grab my Camp Half-Blood shirt, before glancing at myself in the mirror on the wall.

My short, blonde hair was spiked up a little bit towards the front from the mix of sweat and wind that it had gone through. My eyeliner smudged around my dark eyes, which only made me look paler. I put my hand on my stomach and traced my fingers over a scar that I got from an accident on the sword training field.

I started to put my shirt on as someone walked into the cabin.

"How were the targets?"

I looked over at Will Solace, one of my few half-brothers.

"They were okay. I mean, the wind was pretty gruesome, but that never stops us, huh?"

He chuckled. "I can tell by your hair."

I looked in the mirror to see that my hair was messed up even more after putting on my shirt. I ran my hand through my hair to smooth it down.

"Don't you have some hoops to be shooting?"

Will laughed. "And don't you have a boy to be kissing?"

I blushed. "Don't you?"

He blushed as well. "Shut up."

He covered his face by taking off his sweaty shirt that he had been wearing while playing basketball. He soon replaced it with his own orange camp shirt.

"We should be getting to lunch," he sighed.

I nodded. "Yeah, we should."

Will held his arm out to escort me. I linked arms with him and walked out of the cabin. Cabin 7 shined in the sun, which warmed my skin and helped me regain some of the energy I lost.

"What is it like dating a son of Hermes?" Will asked.

I smiled at him. "Why? Are you interested?"

"No, but they aren't exactly known for their romance, and especially with everything that's going on outside this camp for them."

"Connor is good. Don't worry," I told him. "He isn't like Luke."

He nodded. "Right."

We walked up to the lunch table we usually sat at, and I unlinked arms with him. I patted his shoulder and walked over to the table that Connor and Travis were sitting at.

I stood next to Connor and watched the boys. It was scary how much the brothers looked alike, even though they were not twins. They both had the same hair, same crooked smile, and even some of the same mannerisms.

Connor gave me his usual loving, crooked smile, and Travis gave me an un-genuine smile.

"Hey," I said to the boys. "Long time no see."

Travis scoffed. "I'm sure."

Conner hit his arm and reached over and grabbed my hand. I rubbed his knuckles with my thumb.

"I heard that lunch is going to be really good today," Connor said.

I chuckled "Lunch is always good, Connor."

"Yeah, well, who said there won't be something super special today?" He laughed and kissed my hand.

Travis scooted a little bit away from Connor and rested his chin on his palm. He rolled his eyes and looked around the lunch area.

I reached over and patted Travis's arm. "I'm sure there is something special for you, too?"

Travis glared over at me and shook his head.

"Are you going to be mad at me forever?" I asked him. "It was only for a couple of days. If anyone should be mad about the whole ordeal, it should be me."

"It was a stupid basketball."

I shrugged and said through my teeth, "But it was my stupid basketball. It was not the cabin's ball. I brought it from home that weekend."

Travis stood up. "You cursed me to speak in couplets! You could have replaced your ball, but I couldn't replace my form of speech!"

"You just don't understand the concept of personal property, just like all of you stupid children of Hermes!" I snapped.

Connor stood up as well to interject. "Hey! Both of you calm down before you say something that you'll regret."

I looked over at Connor and took a deep breath before sitting back down. I sighed and watched the brothers as they had a silent argument with each other using facial expressions.

Eventually, both of the boys sat down, and we were joined by other campers. Travis moved over and started conversing with them. Connor and I went back to holding hands and having pleasant conversations.

After hearing enough about what the other Hermes campers had stolen throughout the day or what new video game they wanted to play, I walked back over to the Apollo Cabin's table and sat next to one of the shier girls, Amanda.

"Hey, Penny," she said in a quiet voice. "I saved you a goblet."

I smiled at her. "Thanks, Amanda."

I took the goblet from her and commanded it to have water in it. The goblets were pretty nifty since you could command them to have whatever drink in it, as long as it was non-alcoholic, and then, the goblet was never empty.

"So, is it nice having a boyfriend from the Hermes table?" Asked Amanda, her face flushing.

"Why does everyone want to date a child of Hermes all of the sudden?" I asked after taking a sip of my water.

Amanda covered her face. "Never mind."

I laughed. "Is there a specific kid in mind?"

She nodded with her face still in her hands.

I hit her arm playfully. "No way! Who?"

She looked over at me and giggled, "Andrew."

I looked over at the Hermes table and looked around the faces. I didn't know which one was Andrew, but I found that Connor was already looking over at me. I winked at him.

'Which one is Andrew?' I mouthed.

He nodded to the kid across from him. Andrew had curly, red hair and a face covered in freckles. I smiled at him.

"He's cute," I laughed.

Connor raised an eyebrow, so I turned my gaze back to Amanda. She gave me a wide smile back.

"Yeah," she murmured.

I nodded and took another sip of my water. Will reached over and gently tapped the bottom of my goblet, making some of the water drip onto my chin. I quickly put the goblet down and wiped my chin.

"Hey, after lunch, want to play a match?" Will asked. "You and your boyfriend against me and Travis? I'm sure they will be up for it."

I nodded. "I'll ask."

Will chuckled. "Cool."

Lunch passed by shortly and so did the match. Will and Travis won by one free shot. Connor didn't care about the loss since he wasn't really the one with the basketball skill. I cared because I was competitive.

Eventually dinner passed as well, and we were all in our free time. Connor and I were sitting on the shore of the lake. My head was resting in Connor's lap as I played my ukulele. There weren't any songs that needed playing, but I was just playing a few chords.

Connor smiled down at me and ran his fingers through my hair.

"Cut your hair any shorter, and it might be shorter than mine," he teased.

I stopped playing and laughed. "Remember when my hair was almost down to my butt, and I had to braid it and put it up in a bun?"

He laughed and nodded. "Yes, I do. I also remember pulling on said hair."

"You were such a tease back then," I smirked.

Connor nodded and chuckled. "Back then?"

I rolled my eyes and sat up. "Yeah, and you're still a pain in my ass." I moved closer to him and put my legs over his. "But you're my pain in the pass."

He put his arm around my waist and kissed my temple. "Good, then I'm still doing my job."

I looked up at him. "When was the last time that you left camp?"

"Some point during the summer, I think. Before everything went all crazy with Percy and all of that."

I put my hand on his chest. "Well, it's dark out, so what say you and I go out and hang out somewhere downtown. There's a lot to do for kids like us."

He smiled. "That sounds liked fun."

"Travis could come if he wants. I'm sure it's been just as long for him as it has been for you."

He nodded. "I'll ask him if you want him to come, but if you don't, then the night out might be more romantic."

"When have we ever been romantic?" I laughed. "It's up to you."

Connor smiled. "You already know what he's going to say if I do ask. He's not exactly your biggest fan."

"Well, he did beat me today during that match, so that might have lessened his ego."

He shrugged. "Let's have a date night."

I nodded. "Okay, maybe we could stop by my mom's house and see if she is willing to cough up a few bucks so we could get dinner or something, but downtown New York is nice enough to just walk around and have fun."

"I haven't met your mom yet," he said with a smile.

"And you only know my dad because of the fact that we, sometimes, get to go up to Olympus."

Connor rubbed the small of my back before standing up, slipping his legs out from under mine. He reached his hand out to me and helped me stand up. I kissed his cheek and slipped my ukulele into its case and put it over my shoulder.

"Do you think your mom would like me?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I mean, there isn't really anything to suggest that she wouldn't. If any parent wouldn't like you, it would be my dad. Our dads don't have the best past."

He gave a curt nod. "Ah, yes."

I grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the shore. "Come on, Conner. Let's go."

He laughed. "Okay, okay. I'm coming."

I guided him through the camp and to the entrance. He guided me out of the entrance, but not without a glancing back at the camp, almost like he was regretting not asking his brother to tag along. They usually did everything together, unless I was there.

I knew that mine and Connor's relationship was more of a life change for him instead of me. They weren't twins, but they could have fooled everyone else because of how they acted around each other. I felt like an outsider when I was around the two of them. It sometimes felt like I was committing a crime by taking him away.

I began to make my way out of the woods, still holding onto Connor's hand. We started to reach the edge when we heard a few sticks breaking behind us.

I looked around before glancing at Connor.

"What was that?"

He shrugged, continuing to look around. "Maybe leaving camp wasn't such a good idea."

I continued forward. "No, we'll be fine. I'm sure it's a deer or something."

We walked and talked for another five minutes without hearing another sound. Connor was just laughing at a joke he cracked before we heard another stick snap to our right.

"Penny…"

"Connor, we'll be okay. Like I said earlier, it is probably just a deer or some other wildlife. We are still kind of in the woods."

Connor frowned. "Are you sure?"

"No, I'm not, Connor," I grunted. "We've barely been gone from camp for ten minutes, and you are freaking out more than Will when he misses a shot, which is saying something."

Connor nodded. "You're right."

As soon as he said that, we heard a deep throated growling sound behind us. I slowly turned around and saw what made the noise.

The sound came from a fox, but the fox was the size of a bear. I gulped.

"Penny," Connor started.

"Yeah, I know," I whispered. "Run."

We both let go of each other's hands and bolted in different directions. The fox couldn't chase down the both of us.

Luckily, the camp trained us to always be ready for an attack, but this attack wasn't in large numbers, so only pieces of our training would actually come in handy.

As I ran, I tried not to focus on whether or not the Fox had followed me, but I was too concentrated on trying to run back to the camp's entrance. That was the only safe place for Connor and I right now.

But in the midst of running and trying to concentrate on running away, I lost which direction the camp was in.

I reached back to my ukulele bag and twisted the zipper. Then, I pulled on the zipper to open the case. One unfortunate thing about this case was that it was almost damn near impossible to open while on the move.

Eventually, I got the zipper down and pulled the ukulele out. It was an impractical weapon in a high speed chase, but it was better than nothing in this time of need.

I struck an A minor chord, and my ukulele slowly shifted into a bow. As it did that, my case turned into a quiver full of arrows. Pretty nifty for a child of Apollo.

I looked back for a second and saw that the fox wasn't chasing after me, which only meant that it went after Connor. I stopped running and stopped to catch my breath, looking around.

I grabbed an arrow from my quiver and got ready to notch it as I started off in the direction that I saw Connor run off in. I didn't hear any screams, so I assumed the best. All I knew was that Connor's only weapon that he kept on him was a small dagger that he stole from the shed of knives we keep, and I had no idea if he remembered to put it in his pocket today.

I heard some rustling ahead of me, so I hid behind a nearby tree. I notched my arrow and looked around the tree. I took a deep breath and waited for a sign of movement or that it was okay for me to be back out in the open.

After a few moments of nothing, there was some movement in the bushes ahead of me. I strengthened my aim and took another deep breath.

Then, Connor walked out of the bushes.

I put my bow on my shoulder and my arrow back in my quiver. I ran over to him and hugged him tightly.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, are you?"

He kissed my forehead. "Yeah, I'm fine. I turned around at some point and saw that the fox wasn't chasing me, so I came back to make sure you were okay."

I looked up at him with a surprised look. "Wait, what? I thought it was chasing you, so I came back to make sure you were okay."

Connor returned my strange look. "I mean, I knew you were okay because I knew you had this." He pointed to my bow.

"Yeah," I sighed and took a step back from him. "Did you have your knife?"

He shook his head. "No, it's still in my cabin. What was that thing, though?"

I took a deep breath. "It's the Teumessian Fox. It's supposed to be a constellation, but with everything that's going down in the godly world, I'm not surprised that it's not where it's supposed to be."

"How did it get here?"

"The camp does attract monsters, and they love demigods just walking around like we were."

Connor bit his lip before nodding. "We really should get back to camp. Our little night out is over."

I nodded. "I agree. Come on."

Connor headed off in the direction of the camp. I looked around, with my bow and arrow still in hand. Slowly, I followed him, listening for any noises to determine where the fox went.

There was no sign of the fox after Connor and I split up. Everywhere I looked, there were no paw prints, no broken branches, there wasn't anything. I took a deep breath.

"Where did it go?" I whispered.

Connor looked back at me. "I think you can put your bow back. I don't think it's still here."

I nodded and put the arrow back in my quiver. I looked around once more before raising my bow over my shoulder. After it turned back into a ukulele, I turned the zipper back and zipped the case up.

Connor reached over and held my hand.

"You never did tell me why you chose what you did for your bow," he chuckled. "Like, I understand why the bow, but not why you made it a secret ukulele."

I shrugged. "Like most children of Apollo, I created my own bow and when I could pick the enchantment, I was just really getting into playing the ukulele, so I chose the enchantment for it to appear to be a ukulele." I looked up at him. "I got to pick the colours of my fletching, though. Black, just like the ukulele, and blue, just like the tuning pegs."

He laughed. "I think I would have gone with a guitar."

I shook my head. "No, honestly, guitar isn't my favourite instrument. No matter how similar to the ukulele it is."

Connor smiled and kissed my temple. "I see."

It was really weird, the way things turned out between the two of us. Not many of the Apollo kids got along with the Hermes kids, and even if they did, no one wanted to be anything more than friends. All because of some grudge between our fathers. It was an understandable grudge, considering everything that Hermes did to Apollo, but that didn't mean that we kids couldn't interact in peace.

The camp worked well that way, though. Even if some of our godly parents had a few fights, a lot of the kids kept those fights to the gods and just held onto some of the prejudices. A few of the kids took every fight between the gods seriously and expected hate from everyone.

Although, even kids in their own cabins get into fights. It was mostly seen in the Aphrodite cabin, like over who was the prettiest, but the Ares kids also fought amongst themselves, especially over who could create the best battle plan.

Snap.

I turned back around. "How far are we away from camp?"

"Like two minutes away, I'm guessing," he said, his blue eyes filling with worry.

I started running in the direction of the camp, dragging Connor with me. I wasn't taking any chances after what happened before.

"Penny- Penny!" Connor shouted. "Slow down! There isn't anything there."

I slowed down to a jog. "I don't want to risk it, Connor."

Connor sighed. "I understand, but-"

"Connor, the line is right there. Come on," I groaned.

A growl sounded behind us. I continued to run as I looked back. There it was, the Teumessian Fox, running towards us.

Connor started running again. "Shit, shit shit," he mumbled as we ran.

I could see the camp line getting closer and closer, almost mocking us as we ran toward it. The line seemed like it was getting farther and farther away.

Connor's grip slowly loosened on mine. We were a few steps away.

As we crossed the line, Connor fell onto the ground. I looked back at the forest, and just like before, there was nothing there. I needed to talk to Chiron and warn him about the fox in case there were any other campers that felt like going out for a night.

I looked down at Connor, who was still on the ground. He had his head buried in his shoulder and his hand on his side.

"Connor?" I trembled.

I knelt down next to him and moved his hand. There was a giant gash that was about an inch deep down his side.

"Was this from the fox?" I stammered.

He glanced up at me. His eyes were full of pain. "Does it matter?"

I nodded and stood up. "I'll go get some help."

I ran over to the cabins and ran to the medicine hut. I looked around for some bandages and wound cleaning supplies before walking back to the exit. Will was walking in as I was walking out.

"Hey, Will," I stammered. "Can you track down some ambrosia or something? I could find any and Connor is really hurt. He's on the ground at the camp line. Please meet us out there."

I ran past him, not waiting for a reply. Connor wasn't close to dying, but he was seriously hurt and losing a lot of blood, fast. I held the bandages in my teeth as I juggled the rest of the bottles full of antiseptic liquids and gels.

Once I reached Connor, I knelt next to him. I moved his orange shirt up and away from the wound. I grabbed an antiseptic wipe and cleaned most of the blood off. I soaked a rag in some antiseptic liquid and pressed it to the cut. Then, I took the bandages and wrapped it around his torso, keeping the rag to his side.

Connor hissed. "This really hurts."

I put my hand over his mouth to shush him.

I started to sing,

"I call to Apollo, radiant and beautiful god,

Son of fair Leto and lightning-wielding Zeus,

Brother of swift-footed, true-shooting Artemis.

In ancient Delphi you lent your wisdom to all,

In Delos and in far-off shrines your words did sound;

Across the land, in all the provinces, Phoebus,

Were temples raised in your name, did men and women

Gather in your honor, wreathed in sweet flowers,

Words of prayer upon their lips. Many loves were yours,

Bright Apollo, and many noble sons and daughters;

Father of kind Asklepios, your healing hand

Can cease the most poisonous of plagues. Apollo,

We see you in beauty–in art and in song,

In the perfection of numbers, in the words of poets,

In the drive toward truth. Apollo, I call to you."

Connor shivered and coughed. "How do you even do that?"

I shrugged. "It just comes naturally to us, I guess."

All of the Apollo cabin could heal patients by singing a hymn to our father in Ancient Greek, but there was no real logic behind it. We all knew the hymns in English, but somehow we could just translate it without any real prep necessary.

Connor sat up and winced. He rubbed his side.

"It's sore, but it'll be okay," he sighed. "Thank you, Penny, really."

I smiled and messed up his already messed up hair. "You're welcome, honey. Will should be on his way with ambrosia."

I grabbed another antiseptic wipe and wiped the blood, which I had put on his face when quieting him, off.

"What are we going to do, Connor?"