Chapter 20
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.
"What are you talking about Lucas? She's alive and at a spa resort in New York." I say.
"No. She died three and a half weeks ago. Not me. She was in a car crash and was killed on impact. I came here on a business trip a few days after the funeral. I was only supposed to be here for the weekend. Don't you remember?" Lucas asks, looking extremely confused.
It dawned on me what Callie had done. She had someone do a sleeping trance on my mom and then a memory spell on Lucas. I was seriously getting tired of this chick.
"No. You have to listen. We thought you were dead. After the funeral, I went up to my room to grab my bag and then I went downstairs to get some lunch money from mom. She was in the bathroom and, at the time, I thought Callie was going to kill her. Somehow though, she cast a type of sleeping trance on her that made her forget about me and John. Callie's objective was to make me miserable. Mom still remembers you though. She just thinks you're dead." I say.
"All we have to do, sir, is take you to the spa and you need kiss her. Then she'll remember." Nico says.
"I have no idea why Callie hates me so much. This is like her way of getting even for something." I say.
"But I saw-" Lucas says. He still didn't get it.
I sigh and pull out my phone. I go to John's number and call him. It rings a few times before he answers.
"Hello?" he says.
"John, I'm in New York and I found Lucas." I say.
The line went silent then exploded with questions. He was asking them so quickly that I didn't have time to answer any of them.
"John. John… JOHN!" I yell over the phone.
"What?" he asks, innocently.
I roll my eyes and say, "Listen. I need to you tell me the number of the resort mom is staying at. Actually, just tell me where the resort is."
"She's staying at The Emerson. It's in Mount Tremper, New York. From where you are, that's about two hours away." John says.
"It's no problem. Nico can shadow travel, remember?" I ask.
"Oh yea. It's kinda hard to get used to that. Please call me when you get everything sorted out." John says, worriedly.
"I will, I will." I say.
"I'll talk to you soon, okay?" he says.
"Bye, John." I say, then end the call.
I stand up from the chair I had been sitting in and look to Nico and Lucas. Nico looked anxious and a bit fierce at the same time. It was a weird kind of expression. Lucas still looked shocked that I was actually here.
"Well, we might have a problem." I say.
"What?" they ask, simultaneously.
"Lucas might not be able to travel since the city is basically his prison." I say.
"Most trapping spells don't work on shadow travel." Nico says.
"Um, what about the time you were tapped in that jar?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"That was different. Gaea had cast that one and those giants had helped. They reinforced that spell every day so it never weakened. But this one, it's been up for three and a half, almost four, weeks. It has to have weakened by now." Nico says.
"We can give it a try." I say, still not quite sure about this. I didn't know what would happen if the spell hadn't weakened. I didn't know if Lucas would just end up back in the parking space or if he'd just disappear in the shadows forever.
"Nico, can you take two people with you instead of just one?" I ask.
"I don't know. I've never tried. If I can, it will probably drain me, like that thing in the Underworld did to you earlier." he says.
I was so thankful he hadn't said what exactly had drained me. Lucas already didn't look so sure about the whole situation and I didn't want to make it worse by telling him that I can bring recently deceased people back from the dead with my healing powers. Or that I could capture sunlight and glow for that matter.
"Let's give it a try." I say.
A/N:
SURPRISE UPDATE! I'm in a good mood today and I just finished writing the last chapter to this story! Six more chapters and then it's on to the next part of this series. Soooooo excited! I already have the beginning of part four mapped out in my head and the story's title. That was one of the tricky things I had to come up with for the last two. But I've had this idea in my head for about a month now. Okay, okay. I'll stop torturing you guys about plans for the next part.
XOXO,
Mrs-diAngelo25