HAZEL
HAZEL DIDN'T LIKE HANGING ONTO HER BOYFRIEND'S EAGLE FEET, flying through the air.
Sure, Frank's powers were amazing. They had saved everyone countless times. But she thought it was a little weird, even by demigod standards.
Then there was Ryker. He was really cool. He had actually grown up on the streets, training himself to fight. If she didn't like Frank, she might have had a little crush on him.
Hazel pushed the thought aside as Frank descended towards the Argo II. She liked Frank Zhang, not Ryker Dalton.
She noticed that all the boys were anxious to leave. Piper had watched Ryker with rapt attention, and Jason had been very eager to leave. Leo wanted to get out of there because Reyna liked him, no doubt. Percy was the same with Annabeth. The boys were all very envious of Ryker, and wanted to leave before the girls began to fawn all over him.
A jolt in her feet sent her back to the present.
Coach Hedge stepped away from the ballista and glowered at Hazel.
"Levesque! Your freaky gems downstairs are threatening to blow up! Fix it! Cause all I can do is smash it."
Hazel knew the gods didn't like to be contained. Any Mist manipulation around the bag or trying to calm it wouldn't help. It looked like…
"Ok, Coach," Hazel sighed. "Go ahead and smash."
Hedge looked like he had just discovered his surprise party.
"You got it." He grabbed his bat and headed down the stairs, whistling the tune of 'Joy to the World, let's smash some stuff.'
Jason landed with Piper on the quarterdeck. He looked like he needed some rest. But Hazel knew that some important stuff needed to be said.
"Mess hall, now." she managed.
The eight demigods sat down to dinner, but only Percy and Frank were eating. That didn't surprise Hazel. On the trip to Alaska, the boys had eaten their weight three times over.
Hazel felt like she should speak first, since she called the meeting.
"I guess we need to discuss what happened in Central Park and Sydney," she said. "So what did happen?"
Jason and Percy began discussing Orpheus at length, mostly the part about where the musician had mentioned the Big Three.
Hazel was also worried. Her father, Hades/Pluto, was Lord of the Dead. She never tried to summon spirits before, but she guessed they wouldn't work now. If her dad had been kidnapped, she felt like she should save him.
Finally, Leo changed the subject to Sydney.
"We fought some of those ghostly showboats in the Opera House," he grinned. "But I don't think they'll stay down. They were quite angry as Beauty Queen here and I smacked them, and the Lord of the Eagles right here threw their remains into the ocean."
Hazel noticed that Frank had turned bright red.
"But after we were finished," interrupted Piper. "We met Ryker. He told us all about himself, and Leo asked him if he knew anything about the Golden Omega. I think he was lying. He knew something, he just didn't want to tell us."
Hazel didn't want to induce paranoia, considering the night Percy and Leo watched that zombie movie, and walked around the next morning yelling about conspiracies. But she had to raise the subject of the tattoo.
"Did you guys see his forearm?" she questioned. "It wasn't an SPQR tattoo. It was dark, like a black hole."
Annabeth nodded. "When I met Daedalus, we saw a murderer's brand on his neck for his nephew, Perdix. This wasn't a brand. It was more like an...enchantment. Like it was placed there for a reason, similar to the Roman tattoos."
Self-consciously, Hazel, Frank, Percy, Reyna, and Jason all looked at their forearms. Each one had a different tattoo, representing their godly parent. They also had different numbers of stripes for years. Jason had twelve over an eagle. Reyna had four lines over a torch and sword. Frank had one over an image of crossed spears. Percy had one over a trident. Hazel had one over a glyph.
Leo, Piper, and Annabeth began looking at the various tattoos. Annabeth began drawing something on a pad, while Leo stared out the window, as if trying to remember something.
Hazel couldn't shake the feeling that Ryker was unique. He wasn't like other demigods. And what was he doing Sydney? That story about escaping to Australia seemed phony to Hazel, but she kept quiet. After all, the others had unreal backstories, and she believed them.
Jason had been abandoned by his mom, forced by Juno to save her. Percy had faced almost every Greek myth there was. Frank's whole family emigrated around the globe, honing that shapshifting power. Leo had been tricked by Gaea into burning down his mother's warehouse. Piper was a Hollywood kid who'd stolen anything she had the money to buy. Reyna had vaporized her father and kidnapped by pirates. Annabeth had lived by herself for two weeks, along with Thalia and Luke, according to her. And Hazel? She had died trying to stop Gaea, who'd taken over her mother, and come back.
Finally, Reyna broke the silence. "We need to find the four pieces of the Golden Omega. But the gods scattered them all over the world, disguising the pieces into the geographical location. Any ideas?"
Annabeth put down her sketch pad, and Hazel could see that she had drawn Ryker at the Opera House, Orpheus in Manhattan, and ten possible locations with question marks. She obviously had some idea about where to look.
Sure enough, Annabeth did. "We should start here," she pointed. On her map of the world, she was pointing at London, England.
"I've been digging for clues on Daedalus' laptop, and I think London is where we should head first. Specifically, the British Museum. Mortals might've found a piece long ago and are keeping it in the museum."
Jason nodded. "It's worth a shot. The gods will probably have defenses around it, and the with that creepy darkness also racing to get there, we should send five or six people. I can volunteer to go."
Annabeth collected her papers and stood up. "I'll go too, and Seaweed Brain, you are going as well." She yanked Percy to his feet just as he was biting into a fifth slice of pizza.
"Hey! You don't need to yank. I was going to volunteer."
Frank raised his hand. "I'll venture out as well. Hazel, you in?"
Hazel grinned. "I was hoping you would go. Of course I'm going. That's five, though. Do we need a sixth?"
Annabeth solemnly nodded. "Jason, Percy, and Hazel are children of the Big Three. They have a powerful scent. We're going to attract a ton of monsters, cause the gods used to live in England. We'll need all the help we can get."
Piper stood. "I can go. I'll hold off the monsters with my charmspeak and cover us while we go. That means Leo and Reyna will have to hold down the ship till we get back."
It might have been Hazel's imagination, but she thought she saw Leo and Reyna blush slightly when Piper said they were going to be alone on board.
For a few minutes, the only sound was a few birds cawing in the clear, night sky, the sound of Coach Hedge having a clinic downstairs in the stables, and the waves lapping the still hull of the Argo II.
To Hazel, it felt like they were just a normal group of teenagers, eating dinner, and having fun. While she would have felt embarrassed to say it aloud, she enjoyed the time the gang had spent on the ship, on the run from the Romans and the impending war from the Greeks.
Now Reyna had joined the crew, and Hazel felt like they were all one, big happy family. When Hazel had heard that the ship would sail again, she was excited. Excited to see Percy, Piper, Annabeth, Leo, Jason, and the rest of the crew together on board their home. Of course, she could have done without the weight of the fate of the world on their shoulders, but high stakes were kind of exciting.
But Percy went and ruined the perfect evening with more talk of the Big Three.
"What I don't get is," he began. "Is why our powers are functioning normally? If Poseidon and Zeus and Hades have been captured, why haven't we been affected?"
Hazel had a flashback to when they were being attacked by Sciron the bandit's giant sea turtle. After Leo had gotten the ship into the strait, Piper had said, "'We're safe.'"
The one phrase a demigod should never say. Percy had just uttered a close second in the category of 'Things Demigods Should Never Say'.
But to her surprise, Hazel didn't feel like anything had happened. Maybe they were going to be alright.
Reyna shook her head. "Maybe I can talk to some people back home for clues on what happened to the gods. I can get some drachmas from the coach. The rest of you guys should get ready for London."
She got up and headed out of the mess hall, going to find Hedge. Meanwhile, Leo took a look at his portable navigation device.
"It'll take us all day tomorrow to travel to London, and then maybe you'll have the afternoon to search. We'll have to put down in Cairo, Egypt to refuel to propulsion unit, so the Museum Team, you guys will have about two hours before dark."
Then, Piper phrased a question that had been on everyone's mind.
"Leo?" she asked calmly. "Why can't we travel at night? It's valuable time. Why can't we travel?"
Leo sighed and put down his bowl of ice cream. "Hephaestus told me that we should avoid traveling at night. For one thing, most monsters are stronger at night. But the real reason is the lady of the night, Nyx, is helping the new enemy we're trying to stop. I've racked my brain, but I don't know why, just that that's what he told me."
Hazel didn't have a clue either, but she caught sight of Percy and Annabeth having a silent conversation. She would have to ask those guys later.
Just then, Coach Hedge came up into the mess hall. "Ok, cupcakes. Lights out in ten. We've a long day tomorrow, and you can't fight while you're sleeping!"
The gang slowly filed out and went to their separate cabins.
After Hazel climbed into bed, she replayed everything since Leo's reappearance. Everything pointed towards one thing, one foe, one unstoppable enemy.
Hazel knew she had to tell the others. They deserved to know what they were up against, even if it was hopeless.
But first things first. First thing was sleep.
Hazel closed her eyes, awaiting horrible dreams, yet for the first time since Nico brought her back, she had a blissful, clear, nightmare-free slumber.
