Well, don't you just love clicking on my story and coming to this? I know I do. Lol. Right, now, what exactly are Hecate's plans? Sure, we know she wants to take down the gods, and probably Alice too, but how is she going to do it? Maybe she's gonna invade camp and kill Alice? Or maybe she'll disguise herself as a god and slaughter the camp from the inside? Why am I asking myself questions? Why are you asking me questions? Don't ask me, just read, will you?

10/

I heard Parker's scream, the crack of another building, the crumbling of the asphalt. I dug my fingers into the dirt, concentrating so hard I swear my head was going to explode. Suddenly, it all stopped. The air grew deathly still and silent. I was exhausted, but I ran over to help Peter pull Parker out from under the roof piece.

Mortals are strange creatures, I thought as I looked around. Less than three minutes ago, the ground had been shaking, the windows shattering, people screaming. But when the earthquakes stopped, mortals, looking confused, just started going about their business again.

It was really strange. Everybody had puzzled looks on their faces, but they went back to whatever they were doing before the earthquakes.

It confused me, but Peter saw something and beckoned to us. He took off, running toward an old bus on a street corner. Parker and I exchanged looks, and then ran after Peter. He was climbing aboard a gross-looking bus, talking to the bus driver as he went. I quickly checked, and we had more than enough mortal money to pay. I handed Peter a few bills, and he stuffed them into the fat bus driver's hand. "Keep the change," he told the man.

We sat spread over three bus seats. I wrinkled up my nose; the bus was stuffy and smelly. I tried to ignore it and looked up and down the bus, looking for any demons.

I didn't see anything, but that didn't mean they weren't there. I played with my ring nervously, twisting it around and around my finger. The bus braked at another stop and Peter slid into the seat next to me.

He handed me a bottle of water, which I took gratefully. I took a swig, then gave it back. He drank some, then tossed it to Parker in the seat behind ours.

I saw a field out the window and yanking the bell, jumped up. Parker, Peter, and I walked back to that open meadow I had spotted so I could call for Castor.

See, Hunters of Artemis generally attract wolves. It's like magnets. Wolves have unusually good hearing; you just whisper, and they'll be there. Normally wolves are connected to one Hunter specifically. Like Castor is my wolf, and I'm his Hunter. Once the Hunter and the wolf are linked, you can't undo it unless one of them dies. The wolf knows their Hunter's call on hearing.

So when I whistle for Castor, he's the only wolf that can hear me. He flashed to the field in a blur of gray and licked my face. I wiped it off and calmed him down.

Parker, Peter, and I climbed on Castor's back.

"Oh, Alice, can we please stop at the Smithsonian? Please?" Parker begged.

I was puzzled, but I nodded. Peter flashed me a warning look. Parker clapped her hands.

She pulled on a cap to hide her blond hair and ran inside the museum as soon as we were there, a large black duffel bag I had never seen before over her shoulder. Castor sidled up to a fountain and started lapping up water. Peter and I jumped off his back and sat on the edge of the fountain. Castor turned a few times and plopped down, resting his massive head in his paws. His tail moved around restlessly.

Ten minutes later I started to get worried. "Why—" I began.

"Alice, she's fine," Peter said. "She's Parker." Then he realized something. "Oh, gods, she's Parker."

I furrowed my brow. "What?"

Peter didn't hear me. "She's probably ransacking some poor exhibit right now—"

"Who's ransacking?" a voice said.

Peter and I jumped and looked to the left; Parker was seated next to me, strapped into a harness and her bag over her shoulder.

"Parker," Peter said sternly. "What did you steal?"

"Oh," she said, smiling. "Nothing."

I grabbed Peter's arm. "If she stole something from a museum, we should leave before they figure out what happened," I said.

He nodded. I woke Castor. We climbed on his back and went back to Camp Half-Blood. As soon as Castor stopped running, Peter turned around to look at Parker. "What did you steal?"

Parker's smile widened as she pulled something from her duffel bag. It was a black velvet case. I cocked my head, puzzled. Then Parker opened it, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

Nestled in the velvet was a diamond pendant about the size of a river stone. It looked blue, and was rimmed with small two-carat diamonds—as was the chain.

I put a hand over my mouth. "Oh my gods," I whispered. "The Hope Diamond." I looked up at Parker. Her expression was smug and she was smiling and nodding at the same time. I took my hand away from my mouth. "Parker," I said slowly. "You walked into the Museum of Natural History and stole the Hope Diamond in the middle of the day?"

"Yep."

"And no one saw you?" Peter exploded.

"I'm just very good at what I do," she said, smiling.

"Mortals will be all over the place looking for us," Peter worried.

Parker waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, don't worry; I left them a replica that's good enough to fool me."

"What are you going to do with it?" I asked, astonished.

"Add it to my collection," she answered.

"What collection?"

Parker took us into the Hermes room and opened a secret panel in the wall, revealing a large safe. She opened it in a flash. My jaw dropped. "Is that the Sancy diamond?" I asked shakily.

"Uh-huh."

"But that's supposed to be in the Louvre," I protested.

"My mom took me on a trip to Paris when I was five," she shrugged.

I gasped. "The Star of the South? And the diamond necklace? The diamond necklace of France? Like the Affair of the Diamond Necklace?"

"You betcha," Parker said happily. I put a hand to my forehead and sat down on Parker's bed.

"Whoa, what's 'the Affair of the Diamond Necklace?'" Peter asked, puzzled.

"In the 1780s, King Louis XVI had a diamond necklace made for his mistress, Countess Jeanne du Barry. It took years to complete, but in the middle of that time King Louis died of smallpox and Countess du Barry was banished from court. They offered the necklace to Queen Marie Antoinette, but she refused," I explained. "It was supposed to be broken up between dukes after the French Revolution."

"Nope," Parker smiled. "I stole it from one of the descendants of the dukes."

Footsteps sounded and Parker quickly set the Hope Diamond in her compartment and shut the door, locking it and replacing the panel. It looked just like all the other walls of the cabin.

I gazed up at Parker in wonder. "You are a true daughter of Hermes," I said, awed. "Your father would be proud."

Parker smiled widely. I got up, patted her on the back, and went out into the hall. Connor Stoll, son of Hermes, ran up to me. "Alice," he said breathlessly. "I just caught sight of Elijah Andrews and Miranda Bowman on a raft. I think they're stranded." Connor was the lookout since his father is the god of travelers—he switches out posts with his brother Travis.

I ran outside and to the side of the camp, which was on the very edge of New York, right by the water of the Pacific Ocean. I shielded my eyes from the sun with my hand to see three tiny figures on a raft.

"Are you sure that's them?" I asked Connor.

He put his right hand over his heart. "As sure that I'm the best prankster in the world," he said with a perfectly straight face.

I squinted harder as a fourth figure appeared on Elijah and Miranda's raft. "Who is that?"

"I have no idea," Connor answered. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go switch Maggie Collins's perfume with beetle juice." He started to walk away.

"Connor!" I called after him. "Maggie's Parker's target. Go for Elizabeth. She loves her perfume like it's her wardrobe." I winked at him and turned back to the water.

I asked the water to bring them to me. The ocean rippled and the raft lurched. Then the water pushed it at a steady pace until the raft slid up on shore.

Elijah Andrews collapsed onto the sand.

"Let's get some water over here!" I yelled.

Peter, Elizabeth Bentley (unaware of Connor's plan), and Sophie Salazar ran over. Elizabeth threw a bottle of water at me; I caught it and let Sophie take care of Elijah.

Miranda Bowman was lying on the sand, coughing heavily. Elizabeth propped her up and poured water into her mouth.

I turned back to the raft; a boy was lying unconscious on it, his lips cracked and swollen. A woman was sitting next to him, wearing a white chiton, gold bands around her forearms, and inspecting her reflection in a bronze mirror.

I bowed to her. "My lady."

"Morning, Alice, my dear," Aphrodite said without looking up from her reflection. "Elizabeth."

"Mother," Elizabeth said, ducking her head.

The goddess tapped the edge of her mirror with a single fingernail; it evaporated with a gold sheen. She sighed, shook her gold hair out of her face and stood up daintily from the raft. I went over, picked up the boy's arm, and put it around my neck.

I looked up at Sophie Salazar. "Sophie, will you please take Lady Aphrodite to the living room and give her a glass of nectar?" Sophie nodded and gestured for Aphrodite to go first.

I watched them go for a second, then pulled the boy up in my arms and took him inside. I scooped up some ambrosia and started spooning it into the boy's mouth. It fell out. I scraped it off his chin and put it back in. I fed him the rest of the bowl.

I wrinkled my nose at his dirty shoes and pulled them off. I draped a blanket over him, then got up to rinse a piece of linen with water. I came back and sat on the edge of the bunk, wiping his face gently with it. I was just about to get up and leave when his eyes opened. He looked at me, puzzled and tried to get up. I shoved him back down. "Stay down," I said sternly. I set down the rag and picked up a crystal glass. "Nectar."

I put a straw in it and stuck it in between his lips. He took a sip, pulled back and looked at it curiously, then sucked it down. "Nectar," he said to it excitedly.

I tugged it out of his hand and held it out of his reach. "Whoa, don't drink too much. I don't want to clean up ashes," I said.

"Wh—what?"

"Ah." I smiled sympathetically. "Poor child."

He sat up, looking around. "Where am I? How did I get here? Who are you?"

"You're at Camp Half-Blood," I told him. "I don't know how you got here, exactly. Miranda Bowman and Elijah Andrews haven't woken up yet. Oh, and I'm Alice." The boy looked flustered.

"Don't worry, child, you're safe now." I stood up and pulled the curtains of the window closed. "Rest. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting with an Olympian goddess."

I walked out into the hall, closing the door behind me. I started walking down one of the staircases but froze when I saw Travis and Connor Stoll crouching on the steps, peering into the living room.

I put my hands on my hips and cleared my throat. Travis and Connor looked up in surprise. I raised my eyebrows at them. "Really, guys?"

Identical grins appeared on the twins' faces. "Can you blame us? She's the goddess of love," Connor said cockily.

I rolled my eyes. "Men." I shooed them out of my way with a flick of my hand and continued down the stairs.

Aphrodite was sitting on the couch with her legs crossed, sipping nectar and checking her reflection in her bronze mirror. Peter and Sophie were sitting on the couch across from her, fidgeting nervously. I walked in and bowed to the goddess. "Lady Aphrodite."

"Mmm," she responded. She tapped the edge of the mirror with her fingernail again and it vanished.

"What is it you need, my lady?" I asked her.

Aphrodite turned her glass of nectar, studying it. "I have good news: Apollo has finally" she rolled her eyes "found Hecate. Her most recent magic trick slipped a little."

"Where?" Peter leaned forward.

The goddess sighed. "The Atlantic ocean."

I blinked. "That's not too far away." I looked at Aphrodite. "How long?"

"With her tricks? I'd give it about a week," Aphrodite said, raising her glass to her lips.

Peter's jaw dropped and Sophie's already pale face whitened. I glanced over her shoulder and saw the Aphrodite kids' faces at the window, straining to catch a glimpse of their mother.

Aphrodite set her empty glass down and stood up, straightening her chiton and her hair. "But then, perhaps I'm overestimating I've never had a very good brain, you know. Now that Apollo's found her, Zeus has no intention of letting her even look at this camp, let alone you children." Everyone let out a sigh. "Well, dear, thank you for the nectar," Aphrodite said. She handed me a mirror. "Give that to Maggie, please."

I bowed to her. "Thank you, my lady."

Peter bowed too. "Thanks for the update, Lady Aphrodite."

Sophie followed our example. We saw the goddess to the water, where she told us she was heading back to Cythera for her yearly visit. Then she evaporated into golden dust and blew away.

Her children stood on the edge of the water in a daze, staring after their mother. I looked at the mirror in my hand. It was made of beaten silver and had an engraving of Aphrodite on the back. I put it in Maggie Collins's hand. "A gift from your mother," I said.

Instantly all the Aphrodite kids crowded around her, their voices a jumble of sounds. I smiled as I walked away, heading for the arena.

I tapped my bracelet. I was there for who-knows-how-long, shooting arrows mainly for amusement. My aim and perception was perfect, no conceitedness intended.

I heard footsteps behind me (as a trained huntress my ears had to be aware of everything), but I didn't turn. I recognized them as Peter's. An arrow that wasn't mine thudded on the target.

Peter didn't talk. I glanced at him and noticed his hair was mussed, as it always was when he was worried or anxious. I sprayed the target mercilessly with silver, still pretending the red circle was one of Hecate's heads. "What is it?" I said to Peter.

"What?"

"What are you worried about?" I repeated.

Peter stared at me. "How—"

"You have a tell."

Peter responded with an arrow to his target. I quickly bored with the practice, and since I was already good at it, tapped my bow, and climbed the nearest tree.

I sat on a high branch and drew a silver arrow from my quiver. I thought about Aphrodite's report, spinning the arrow in my fingers absently.

Hecate and her army were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and they were coming. We had only forty demigods—that's wasn't even close to enough to take on Hecate. Then I remembered that we had Seekers all over the mortal schools to bring back demigods, and the fact that the gods would do everything in their power to protect us. I relaxed a little. But only a little.

Peter was shooting the target halfheartedly. He lowered his bow and started rubbing his head, as he always did when he was worried.

He dropped the bow and climbed the tree, sitting on the branch slightly below mine. His hand went into his hair like a magnet, and it didn't leave. A ray of sunlight poked through the leaves and landed on his hair, so it looked like it was glowing. His hand was still unconsciously messing with it.

Peter looked up at me, coming out of his trance. "Don't worry," I said. "Aphrodite said it'll probably be more than a week. Besides, Hecate won't be allowed within ten miles of us."

"I know." But he didn't seem so reassured.

I smiled. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll cut off her head if she gets near us."

He smiled too. "Which one?"

"Take your pick."

But then Peter's smile shrank a little. "Isn't she immortal, though?" he asked. "So we can't kill her."

"No," I said. "But I don't think a severed head would feel too good."

Peter chuckled.

"Alice! Hey, Alice!" Travis Stoll ran over, tripped on a rock, and fell on his face. He jumped up, his expression dazed, and then ran over to the base of the tree I was sitting in. "Alice," he said breathlessly. "Shawn Spencer and Diana Hunter just got back with Katherine Tyler, daughter of Aphrodite."

"Okay," I said. "So what's the problem?"

"She's not buying it," Travis replied. "I mean, she doesn't believe us about the gods. I thought that if she met a real Hunter of Artemis, she'll finally believe us."

"Fine," I jumped down from my perch and landed firmly on my feet. Rob waved at Peter and walked off with me close behind him.

I followed Robb over to a tree stump with a stubborn-looking girl who must have been Katherine Tyler. Connor Heist was high in the tree above their heads, a suspicious metal bucket in his hands. I frowned at him, but said nothing.

"So," I said to the girl. "Katherine Tyler. You refuse to accept the gods."

"For the last time, there are no such things as gods!" Katherine exploded. She glared at us.

I glanced up at the sky. No clouds. No lightning—yet. I frowned at Katherine. "You are foolish, child."

"See, Katie," Robb said. "Alice here is a Hunter."

"Don't call me that! It's Kit." But then a look of confusion came into the girl's eyes. "Hunter? What does hunting have to do with anything?"

Travis coughed out a laugh. Connor smirked, but kept silent.

Katherine—Kit—Tyler pounded her hand on a tree beside her in frustration. "No!" we all shouted.

The dryad of the tree, whom I recognized as Daphne, melted out of the trunk, wearing her usual leafy-green dress. A circle of her tree's blossoms was braided into her black hair, exposing her slightly pointed ears.

"Who dared to touch my tree?" demanded Daphne.

"Dryads," muttered Robb.

"So touchy," finished Connor very quietly from his tree. No one heard him except for me.

"It's fine, Daphne," I assured her. I looked pointedly at Kit. "Just another new demigod."

"Hmph," said Daphne.

"What's all this talk about gods?" Kit interjected. "They aren't real—" Travis ran forward and covered her mouth with his hand.

"She is ignorant, isn't she?" I remarked.

Daphne snorted. "It shall be the death of her."

I sighed. "Not if her mother has anything to do with it."

I looked up and saw Maggie Collins, sitting by Aphrodite Rock and staring into the mirror her mother had given her. "Maggie!" I called.

She looked up from her mirror, her expression dazed. She shook her head back and forth then got up and came over. "Yeah, Alice? What's up?"

"Meet Kit Tyler," I said.

Maggie took one look at Kit then said, "Cousin or sister?" She quickly decided. "Sister."

I nodded at her, impressed. "Very good." Kit had the usual confused look on her face. "Would you…?" I trailed off.

"Yeah. I got it," Maggie said. She grabbed her sister's hand and dragged her away. But not before Connor dumped his bucket of bright green syrup all over the girls.

Maggie and Kit screamed. I hid my laugh behind my hand. Connor was laughing so hard he fell out of his tree. Maggie was still screaming and trying to get off the sticky substance. Kit was furious. "My clothes!" she shrieked.

Kit was about to jump on Connor, but Maggie held her back and whispered something in her ear. Kit growled under her breath but followed her sister into the house, still covered in Connor's bright green syrup.

Connor, still laughing, got up and slapped his palm with his brother's. I pressed my lips together to stop myself from laughing with them. "Was that absolutely necessary?" I said to him.

He thought for a moment. "Yes. It was." He shared another laugh with his brother. I rolled my eyes and made my way back to Peter.

He was sitting in the same tree I'd left him in, a faraway look in his eyes as he stared of into space. As I reached the trunk, his right hand gravitated toward his hair. I grabbed his hand to stop him.

He jumped, startled. "What? What happened?"

I ignored his question. "Stop worrying." Then I sat on the branch beside his. "Hecate's actions are illogical," I said thoughtfully. "She knows the gods will punish her immensely if she tries to kill us." Peter didn't respond. "It makes no sense to attack Olympus without reason," I continued. "She is the goddess of magic—nothing major like the Olympians."

"…she wants to take over for herself?" Peter murmured.

"I suppose," I agreed. "But she has never attempted this before. Others have, certainly. Typhon and Echidna, Otus and Ephialtes, Hades, Father even, once…"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Peter said blankly.

"Typhon and Echidna were…never mind." I knew he wouldn't be listening. I twisted my ring around my pointer finger absently, thinking of Hecate's plans.

Now, you've read my intro and now you probably think I'm crazy...JK, I'm totally 70% crazy. Why do you think I spend so much time on this website? :) Review for me, peoples!

Kisses! -Alice