"It's a good morning. Wake up to a brand new day. This morning, I'm stepping, stepping, Stepping on my way."

I perk up to the chorus of one of my favorite songs. I use Good Morning by Mandisa as my alarm most mornings, but it's not my alarm this time.

Laughing, Annabeth dances her way across the cabin. "You got it stuck in my head," she teases when she sees me watching from my bunk, "so I made it my general ringtone."

I chuckle at her as she grabs the phone and ducks into the Athena library to answer it.

We're at Camp Half-Blood for now, even though it's early January. Annabeth had some family issue going on which called her to this side of the country, and I was spending a couple days here to avoid the monsters hunting me in the city. Right now, we're the only ones in the cabin. Neither of us felt like a snowman making contest, so we were hanging out here.

Turning back to my computer, I resume my surfing. I was scrolling through my email and Facebook for now, though news articles usually sidetrack me as I browse.

Let's see. American Ninja Warrior. School shooting, ugh. Another? Uncle Rick moves to Boston. Court case. Missing child. Hey, what's this? "Rick Riordan announcing new book! Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard to be released in October."

Asgard? No way! I thought. Yet another mythology is true? Huh. Well, that's interesting. Wait, Chase? Wonder if Annabeth—

My thought process abruptly ended as I heard Annabeth coming out of the library, winding up her call.

"Thanks for calling, Magnus…Yeah, I'll meet you at Beacon and Brimmer in Boston tomorrow, 5 o'clock." She hung up and went to her bunk, apparently not realizing I'd heard her from across the room.

I went back to staring at my computer screen. Magnus Chase, I thought. More blasted gods to deal with. How many mythologies are real, God?

It was almost dinnertime, so I quickly sent out a message to Mom, Machaela, and Jesse. I told Mom I was going to be a bit late tomorrow night, and forwarded the link for the book announcement to Machaela and Jesse. With the announcement, I added a note, "Don't tell anyone, but Annabeth knows something. More information to come. Be on the lookout, though. If it's important enough to warrant a book, doomsday is stirring. Be careful. And do me a favor, stay out of Boston."

The next day, Annabeth disappeared just after lunch. I went back to the cabin to find her stuff packed and gone, so, after looking up where Beacon and Brimmer was, I packed up too.

Jellybean wasn't at camp, and didn't immediately respond to my calls, so I told her where I was going in case the messages were going through, but ended up using a portal to get to Boston. I came out at a conveniently placed dining pavilion and hurried west.

I noticed a large group of people dispersing from around the pond nearby, but I went around to reach the north side of the park.

Just as I reached the intersection, a taxi pulled over to the curb. Annabeth stepped out and waved to a teenager coming from the crowd near the pond. They exchanged a few words, and stepped back into the cab. Having no way to reach the cab, and not sure I wanted to be caught anyway, I was at a loss as to how to keep up. That is, until I noticed a familiar shape coming in for a landing in the group of trees to my left.

Jellybean landed and cantered up next to me.

"There you are!" I told her.

Sorry. Where to?

I thought about asking for an explanation, but it's not like she's my pegasus. I pointed out the taxi just pulling away from the curb.

"Help me follow that taxi?" I asked her.

I mounted and we took off. "I'm turning us invisible so we don't cause a traffic jam, alright? No running into birds or planes."

She nickered, the pegasus equivalent of a laugh. "Got it."

We followed Annabeth and Magnus about twenty minutes south to the Blue Hills Reserve, where they had the taxi drop them at the visitor center.

Magnus stepped out the back driver's door, tossing his long-for-a-boy hair out of his eyes. Fair skin, nearly shoulder-length blonde hair, semi-stocky build, he looked a lot like one of my mom's favorite artists. What was his name? Oh, Kurt Cobain. Yeah, he looked like Kurt Cobain. If my mom ever sees him, she'll go nuts.

Annabeth leaned into the cab to pay the driver, then they both picked a trail that I knew lead to a cliff.

Once they were out of sight, I got off Jellybean, asking her to stay in the area if she could, and followed the two invisibly down the path.

About a half mile down, they veered off the trail, stopping on a rock outcropping that overlooked a low valley. Magnus opened a ceramic jar that had been hidden beneath his coat, and they started a memorial service that I was a bit embarrassed to have listened in on. I crept out of earshot until they finished, only coming back after Annabeth laughed.

"Magnus, if you had any clue about how weird my life is—"

"Okay, but being here with you?" he cut in. "This is the most normal I've felt in years."

I crept around to a new hiding place and missed the next bit, but I did catch him say, "I was hoping we could make our generation of the family not so messed up."

"That kind of normal I like." She held her hand out. "To us, the Chase cousins. Here's to being less messed up."

They shook on it.

"Now spill," Annabeth demanded, telling him she might even be able to help and betting anything she was going through would make his life look normal.

"How much you want to bet?"

"Bring it on, cousin."

They decided to bet on lunch, Magnus claiming he knew a great falafel place. Ick. All for you. I hate falafel.

"Let's hear what you've been up to," she said.

"Oh, no," was his quick reply. "Your story is so amazing? You go first."

She laughed. "Fine. I'll go first." Sitting down, she started telling her story from running away to meeting Sadie and Carter. None of it seemed to surprise her cousin. Then again, why should it? Every indication said he'd just postponed Ragnarok.

When she finished, Magnus admitted he owed her lunch "only because you've had several years to build up." Knowing he was about to start his story, which is what I was interested in, I moved to get a better view of their faces.

"Let's hear it," Annabeth told him.

Magnus grinned. "Let's start out with my state of being."

"Your—state of being?"

He nodded. "My state of being," he repeated. "I'm dead."

She looked at him like he'd just told her she was dead too. "No, you're not. You're right here."

"I died on that bridge. That body was real. I gave my life to protect all the innocent people on that bridge."

She crossed her arms, looking at him skeptically. "Then how are you here with me right now?"

"Have you ever heard of Valhalla?" Her eyes widened and Magnus nodded again. "Your Greek gods are not the only ones around. I am a demigod too. I'm the son of Frey and I just spent the last nine days preventing Ragnarok." Annabeth knows about the Norse. Magnus didn't have to explain very much as he told the story. He explained the wolves killing his mom, being homeless for two years, Blitz and Hearth adopting him, and facing Surt on the bridge. He shared Sam the Valkyrie taking him to Valhalla, and everything else he'd done from running from the other Valkyries to binding Fenris. She took it all calmly, so calmly, in fact, I noticed Magnus had to double check she hadn't fallen asleep a few times.

When he stopped talking, I noticed Annabeth had to rouse herself out of what I call her "listening position." Whenever anyone told her a story she was particularly interested in, she grew very still and relaxed. This happening was one of the few times I ever saw her hold completely still.

She gave herself a shake and asked a question. "So what now?"

"I don't know," Magnus replied. "I'll be going back to Valhalla to stay. I can't be seen here too often, and especially not by my uncle. We'll just have to keep in touch. Dad said I'd need your help. I don't know what that would entail, but I think I trust him more than the other gods."

She nodded slowly, thinking. "So, I guess this is goodbye for now?"

"Yeah, I guess it is." He held out his hand to her. "To cousins?"

They shook on it again, and he left, presumably to find his way back to Valhalla.

Annabeth stared off over the valley, probably thinking about the story she just heard. I expected her to leave, but she managed to surprise me. Right as Magnus got out of earshot, she said calmly, "You can come out now."

My heart nearly stopped when Magnus glanced back. Maybe he wasn't out of earshot after all. I decided to stay hidden.

When Annabeth spoke again, Magnus definitely was out of hearing range. "Come on, Grace. Do you really think I didn't hear you laugh earlier?"

Okay, yes, there'd been several times when I had to stifle a laugh at part of his story. It was never that loud though.

"It wasn't loud," she said. Since when can she read my mind? "But I know you."

"Oh, alright," I grumble as I turn visible, crawling out of my bush.

She laughed as she turned around to face me. "So why'd you follow me?"

I shrugged as I plopped down on the rock. "What did you expect? Uncle Rick announced a new book coming out next October named Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and at the same time, you get a phone call from someone named Magnus. The name's not that common, you know. As soon as I noticed the last name, I wondered if you knew him, a question you answered a second after I read it as you came out of the library."

"You heard that?"

I nodded grudgingly. "I heard you signing off, confirming your plans today. When you disappeared after lunch and had all your stuff packed, I quickly followed."

She didn't have an immediate reply to that, so after a quiet moment, I spoke again, "I won't let the word get out, I hope you know that. The only ones I'll tell are Machaela and Jesse, because they're my siblings. They won't tell anyone if I ask them not to."

She nodded. "Yeah, I know that. You managed to keep your knowledge of Carter and Sadie hidden for about a year before the kidnapping incident brought it out. I just don't know how to take this new knowledge of Norse gods."

"I know what you mean. They're not like the ones we're used to. The Norse didn't have the intense detail of the Greek or Roman or the organization of the Egyptian. They're harder to pin down, probably because Midgard isn't the only world. We'll just have to wait and see how it works out—"

"Which is so much harder than jumping into the action," she broke in.

I smiled at her. "Yes, it is, especially for children of Athena. We can do it, though."

"Yeah, we can." We lapsed into silence, enjoying the view and the company.

I'd send a summary to Machaela and Jesse tomorrow about what was going on, plus the places we need to avoid. They'd both take it about like I had. A little bit of shock and a little bit of "where do we go from here," but it wouldn't affect them that much. They'd also agree on keeping it quiet. Plus, soon we'd be worrying more about class schedules and grades than Norse gods and doomsday as class started up again. For now though...

"What do you say to some dinner?"

She grinned. "I say that's a good idea. Where are we going?"

"You pick. Anywhere but Boston. I've been chased enough this week."

Her grin turned into a laugh. "Fair enough. Let's get out of here. I don't want to know what roams this place after dark."

"I hear you."

Hello, readers! I hope you enjoyed the story!

I wasn't sure which category to put this into. Since Annabeth is in MCA, though, I'm thinking this could go in any of three categories: MCA, PJO, or MCA/PJO crossover. I stuck it in MCA to give than one more stories.

If you're confused on who Grace is, check out my main story, Life of a Demigod.

Don't forget to review!