Zach watched Cammie try to wriggle out of the bonds, but he knew the only thing she'd get out of that would be a rope burn. But he couldn't tell her that.

She had always thought the circle was after her, but this wasn't the circle keeping her.

This was a power she should never have gotten involved with. But it was all his fault that she was.

"Why is she alone?" Noland asked.

To everyone around here, she was boss. She was Noland James, the daughter of Hades who could unleash the hell of the Underworld with just a snide comment. But Zach knew her as more than that

He knew her as Nola. The little girl he had seen at Camp. The one with long black hair and bright blue eyes that made you want to stop and stare. As a little kid, she had been adorable, but she had grown up to be beautiful. And she had also grown up to be the leader everyone needed.

If it hadn't been for Cammie, he probably would have loved Nola. He and Nola were perfect for each other in every way, and Nola was the only person in the entire world who really knew his story. And he knew hers.

He knew the truth, not the one she tells to get more respect.

"Why do you think?" Zach told Nola.

"Right," she nodded, remembering their big secret.

Who they really were…

"Do we have to do this?" Zach asked, "Can't we just make her forget?"

Nola hesitated.

For Zach, she would do anything, and their relationship had been like that since they were little kids.

Zach had been the boy to tell the Ares boys to shut the Hades up and stop picking on her. It was a small thing compared to the things they went on to do, but that moment had made them cling together. They always knew that no one would have their back like the other would.

But she couldn't do this, even if she did wish she could for Zach.

Not with everyone watching.

"I'm sorry, Zach," she hugged him tightly, trying to keep from crying for her best friend, "They'll find her. We have to do this now."

But it was Cammie who deserved to cry.

Everything she had ever known had just been taken away, and she was stuck thinking about every moment in her past to see if it really happened or if she had just seen things wrong.

Cammie had always known that Zach had secrets, but she couldn't have imagined this in her wildest dreams.

And the worst part was that it had nothing to do with any of their spy work, and it had everything to do with who his father was.

Tears were beginning to fall as she struggled in the rope, but she knew it wouldn't do any good. She was a good enough spy to know that they had more than rope to keep her back. The rope was just a warning, something to keep away the harsher enforcement.

She kept waiting for them all to appear.

To rescue her like in a movie and run off to their old lives, where none of this was true.

Cammie began to wonder where Liz was. Where Bex was. Where everyone was…

A few months ago, this was impossible.

In Cammie's world, this didn't happen. Humans were her problem.

But, in Nola and Zach's world, humans were being protected. Their battles were petty compared to what monster was threating this time, and Nola and Zach kept the world on a tight ship, never letting anything bad happen. They had worked to get there, and they had made sacrifices to make sure everything went on like every other day for the humans.

A Few Months Ago,

Nola tapped the table impatiently as she waited for him.

He was late.

He always had a good reason for being late, but it drove her mad all the same.

She didn't have long before she had to wriggle into the cute dress that her friend, Katie, had sent with her to fit the part of Gallagher Girl student. The daughter of Aphrodite had insisted that Nola wear it first, but Nola didn't want to be Gallagher Girl when she saw him again.

She wanted to be Nola.

Not Noland, the leader.

But Nola.

This was her time off, she was told.

To learn some things from the human side, take a break.

But Nola knew that this was no vacation. She was getting even more secrets to keep, and she wouldn't have him there to help her along. She wouldn't have anyone, not even her mom to try to remind her that she was still a teenager.

Nola was determined to enjoy it though.

She wanted to just go to class. And to laugh at lunch with her friends. And be the closest thing to normal she could be.

But that waited at Gallagher. For now, she was being the busy girl she had always been.

Nola adjusted her Perry the Platypus baseball cap that she had taken from her best friend and had never gotten around to giving back, and she made sure that the curls she had spent forever doing this morning were still intact.

She had to admit that she liked looking this pretty.

Not dirty and tired but pretty.

For the first time in probably years, she had actually gotten sleep. Real, restful sleep, and her body was taking to it well. Even her blue eyes looked brighter, and she was definitely more relaxed, even if she was getting angry.

None of this went unnoticed by him.

Brain always noticed things about her, but that came along with who his mother was. The son of Athena noticed everything, but it was different when it came to Nola.

Maybe it was because he knew her.

He knew her twitches. Her idles. Her emotions. Everything.

Brain had met Nola when they were ten years old. After an incident in Britain, where Nola had been born, her mom decided to start over in America with her little daughter. Brain could almost see the moment when he had first seen her. His father was a college professor and had a lecture that day, leaving Brain to be babysat by the sixteen year old neighbor who was too busy texting to take notice of him. Playing in the front yard while his babysitter talked on the phone, Brain was the first one to see the moving van and was the first to see Nola.

It hadn't taken long before Brain and Nola had become friends, and they had been that way ever since through all of the crazy things their heritage brought with them.

"Brain!" Nola smiled, jumping up from the table and running towards him like she hadn't seen him in years, and, as she dug her face into his shoulder blade and hugged him tightly, she smiled that he still smelled of peppermints and old books.

Usually, Brain would have been mad for her calling attention to them, but he didn't care. It wouldn't be long until they were all staring anyway…

And he didn't mind hugging her either.

It was so rare for her to show any affection to anyone besides the dog from the Hades Cabin, Willa, Zach, her mother, or Brain.

"Retirement's treating you well," Brain smiled as he noticed this was probably the first time he had seen her relaxed since they joined The Halflings.

"Not full retirement, mind you. Just a break," Nola tsked that he had forgotten something, the one who never admitted that he was wrong about anything, "It won't be long until the next problem, and you and I will be right back out there."

Brain didn't like the sound of that though.

The real reason she was on her retirement was the injury that almost took her away from him. Though she had pushed past it just fine, Brain hadn't been the same. But he knew that the only way she'd ever stop this job was the day that someone else needed her more than The Halflings.

And they definitely needed her…

Brain smiled at her and nodded for them to sit at the table of the milkshake shop, where everyone was staring at them by now.

"So, what's up, Brain?" Nola asked. She hadn't seen him in almost a month, but Brain was the kind of guy who could change everything in a week.

"I'm good," Brain shrugged, "Boarding school this year since my dad is on that thing to Egypt."

"Bryan Chaplin? In real school?" Nola laughed, leaning on the table to look at him, "I don't believe it."

Brain, being the mature one, stuck his tongue out at her, and she laughed like a normal teenage girl, not the leader of a secret organization. Seeing her like this reminded him of how she used to be before she joined the Halflings, how fun she was.

He was excited to be able to spend the entire school year with this new Nola, though he couldn't tell her about that yet.

"Noland James," he nudged her, bringing his voice to a whisper, "In a spy school? I believe it completely."

Nola chuckled.

"You're crazy, Brain."

Crazy for you… Brain mentally added.

Ever since her injury, Brain had been thinking long and hard about what he would do without her, and he had realized he couldn't do anything without her. And that he didn't want to either.

Across the room, at the cash register, Cammie couldn't help but stare at the two people.

They were just kids, she knew that, but there was something about them, especially that girl.

Despite how the girl's relaxed demeanor that took most attention, Cammie's eyes were glued to the scar hidden mostly by a scarf. She had never seen anything that could look like that, and she found herself trying to figure out which weapon caused that.

Whatever it was, it had almost been lethal.

Cammie was still staring when the cashier snapped her out of it.

"You okay, Cammie?" DeeDee smiled, and Cammie forced herself to do the same.

"Yeah, just trying to remember where I know that girl. Do you know her?" Cammie nodded towards the girl who was laughing as her friend stole her hat.

"Her? Definitely not," DeeDee shook her head, and I had to force myself not to stare again.

"Well thanks anyway. I'll probably remember it later."