Annabeth was worried. She had thought, maybe, that she might get somewhere close to...she wasn't sure. Not happily ever after, no, but maybe just some peace. For a little. Gods knew that she'd earned it. But now it was starting up again. The madcap adventures that nobody really escaped unscathed from. And Annabeth had learned a lot since she was twelve. She had been really naïve then, wanting nothing more than to fling her relative safety at Camp Half-Blood away to the wind in search of glory. And she had been sure that she could do it all. Hubris, her fatal flaw. But now, she was dying to get some peace. Okay, bad choice of words. Annabeth prayed that Hades wouldn't take that as a personal invitation.
There was more. What if this was all a trick? Her intuition told her that it wasn't. But it had failed her before. The Cyclops, when she was seven...her dad's voice...Annabeth's blood still ran cold at that recollection, even after all these years. Maybe it was some monster preying on her protection-of-family instincts. Kind of like Percy's so-called fatal flaw. Annabeth didn't see it that way. Olympus knew that if it hadn't been for that flaw or quality or whatever you wanted to call it, she wouldn't be speeding along the interstate in a strawberry delivery truck. She'd be hanging out with Hades.
Annabeth owed Percy her life, but it was reciprocated, so it all evened out.
That was another thing. Percy. He had been acting strange lately. There was something going on that Annabeth couldn't quite put her finger on, but it still disturbed her. To anyone else, her boyfriend was still totally normal. They were still flouting a dozen camp rules by sitting at his table together, sipping blue cola and planning a hot date at the sword-fighting arena. His sea-green eyes still sparkled when he saw her, and he still spontaneously kissed her on the canoeing lake. But something was wrong, Annabeth sensed, with the way his eyes wandered, staring deeper into the distance that any kid with ADHD should. And, just...she knew something was wrong. And Annabeth was not a jealous person (Rachel had been another story). She didn't see romantic connections where they didn't exist. It wasn't that.
Suddenly, Annabeth was in Lancaster. Rachel the Oracle had lent a hand and found an address through her mysterious Delphian powers. It was just a barn, really. A couple silos lunged for the sky several hundred yards away. Annabeth sensed another demigod here, too, but also at least one monster. The barn, Annabeth thought. If she's any daughter of the wisdom goddess, she'll have set up camp in the loft. Also, defense mechanisms.
Annabeth drew her dagger. Through a knothole, she glimpsed a barbed wire net near the entrance, obviously triggered by opening the wide doors. The demigod was resourceful, you had to give her that. But Annabeth had been scaling the Camp Half-Blood earthquake/lava/deadly stuff climbing wall since she was seven, so climbing up the barn wall, with its many imperfections and footholds, was tiddlywinks. Annabeth dropped into the loft after removing some loose boards.
Suddenly, a flying projectile came soaring at her head.