Sorry for procrastinating, but no one's reading this anyway.

Emma pushed through the grand double doors of the NYC library, marveling at the polished stone and high arches. She didn't have time to get used to it, though, because her priority was to find Hermione Granger.

Emma walked to the back of the library, passing many people. Unlike the few libraries she'd ever visited, this place was huge and crowded, with humming pieces of technology in the center of the first room. Computers, she supposed, although they looked different than the ones she'd seen so far.

This was one of the reasons that it had been hard for her to leave the past. She had been stuck in the past for decades and decades, and now the world was a stranger to her.

Emma spotted Hermione down an isle titled "Middle Grade". Hermione was flipping through some books fervently, a pile of significantly older works at her feet.

Emma walked over to her, standing with her hands on her hips. Hermione looked up from her seat on the floor in confusion.

"Are they upset?" she said anxiously. "I'm sorry, but I just had to see if I was right."

Her face was somewhat pallid, now that Emma noticed. Then she wondered if people nowadays used the word pallid.

"And it seems that I am," Hermione said gravely. "The others are in horrible danger."

Max

We trooped down Something-Avenue, and pretty soon we reached the McDonald's restaurant where Holly had said Artemis, Percy, Jacob, and Harry were. Sure enough, her magic tracker thingy hadn't lied.

Artemis was saying something to the others when we got there.

"I believe I have a plan for how we should proceed."

Holly rolled her eyes, walking around the corner to face him. "A plan, Artemis?"

Annabeth whispered, pulling me back around the corner and out of sight, "Let's just hang back here."

Artemis didn't look surprised; rather, his shoulders drooped and he sighed. "Good to see you too, Holly. What do you mean?"

Holly frowned. "Did you know I was coming?"

Now Artemis smiled slightly. "Of course. Did you think I didn't know about the tracker?"

Holly glared at him, looking irritated. "Stupid Foaly," she muttered, then to him, she said, "What do you mean, 'What do you mean?'"

I blinked, trying to figure out that statement, but Artemis replied, "You said, 'A plan?' Was there a reason for your mocking tone?"

Holly snorted. "For as long as I've known you, you've been the one to come up with the plan. I should have bet money that you'd be talking about it the exact moment we found you."

Artemis sounded slightly offended when he spoke next, although I couldn't understand why he cared. "Where are the others and Maximum?"

"Yeah," put in Percy, who hadn't spoken this whole time. "Where's Annabeth?"

There was a pause, where I assumed Holly was turning around and finding us missing, and then Annabeth pulled me around the corner and tackled Percy.

I was surprised, but Harry whispered, "Boyfriend and girlfriend," so I didn't stare when they hugged each other.

"Where's Emma?" Jacob demanded, looking from face to face. Annabeth broke free from Percy to answer him.

"She's with Hermione at the library." Annabeth glanced at Percy worriedly. "Hermione kind of just bolted, saying there was something she had to do, and we didn't want her to go alone."

"Sounds like Hermione," Harry said.

Jacob cursed. "Why didn't you all go with her?"

Annabeth shrugged helplessly.

This was going on too long. I curled my hands into fists, ignoring the Happy Meal poster in the window behind us that somehow detracted from the situation.

"Guys! How about instead of wasting time talking about all this, we actually go to the library and get them?"

Annabeth, Percy, and Jacob looked like they'd forgotten I was there, to my extreme annoyance. Artemis, Harry, and Holly just turned their attention to me.

"Brilliant plan," Harry said at last. "Why doesn't she become leader, huh, Artemis?"

Eventually, I corralled them into walking in the general direction of the library, which they did with plenty of talking. I was getting a migraine serious enough to rival what Angel gave me constantly.

It was because of all that chatter that I failed to notice the shadows.

Jacob was just saying, "It's getting late, we should hurry," when he stopped dead in his tracks.

Annabeth bumped into him. "What is it?"

"This is not good," he said. "Oh, no."

He actually said something a lot worse, but I'm editing that part out.

"What?" I asked tensely, already in fight-or-flight mode. I unzipped my windbreaker for a faster getaway, if needed.

"Hollows," he said.

"Huh?"

His impatience with me seemed to be ruled out by worry. "Monsters. Creatures of the dark. They're invisible except for their shadows, and they are always deadly. But I thought they were all dead?"

"Yeah, well, it looks like people are coming back from the dead lately," Holly grumbled, making a move as if to grab her gun before forgetting that it wasn't there.

I scanned the busy street of New Yorkers. Here and there, I thought I saw an unjustified shadow slip over a patch of fading sunlight, but it was probably just my imagination. "How can you tell?"

"It's complicated," Jacob said. "I have this… feeling. You know how Emma can use fire? I can... work with Hollows."

"Work with?" I repeated. "Can you make them go away?"

"I can try –" His words were drowned out by a new, colder voice.

"You cannot control these Hollowgasts. They are under my control now."

"Is that Voldemort?" I asked, half joking.

"No," said Percy, and Annabeth answered, "That's Kronos."