Chapter 21

The instant I opened the door to step outside, I regretted it.

The air was despicably hot and dry, and it hit me in the face like a bag of bricks. I felt myself begin sweating immediately. Even though I hadn't been hooked on the casino in the first place, I found myself itching to go back inside. But I stepped out anyways, holding the door open and not missing the others' despondent glance back into the game room. I ushered them away from the entrance. And, feeling that my meager people skills were being stretched beyond their fullest extent, I gave some very strained comfort. "I know it's probably hard to leave that behind, but I promise you won't be bored where we're headed. Your dad keeps a very interesting household."

"Have you been in his house before?" Nico asked in awe.

I didn't answer the question directly, but I did say, "Your dad works from home."

"Cool! So we'll see him a lot?"

I was staring into the street, looking for a cab to hail. I wasn't in the expert class like Percy in that regard, but I could certainly draw one over and, thanks to the handy little cash card in my pocket, I had plenty of money to get us to L.A. I was trying to concentrate, but here Nico was, asking more of the hard questions.

"You'll see more of your dad than a lot of other kids do." I was, of course, referring solely to demigods. And orphans.

Bianca had been pretty quiet. I glanced up and down the street for a cab once more and gave a huge wave at one passing by. Then I turned back to her. She wasn't quite gaping, but she definitely seemed confused by everything in front of her: scantily clad women walking the streets, new cars (and even "old" ones, which were technically younger than her), shopfronts, several different songs blasting at the same time, and an Elvis impersonator across the street from us.

I didn't ask her if she was okay, but I did raise my eyebrows at her, like I wasn't sure what had her so freaked. I could hear the cab pulling to the curb, and I gestured them to follow as I opened the door. Nico slid right into the back seat. Bianca hesitated a little more and then crept in almost fearfully. Feeling suddenly much more secure, I followed suit and slammed the door.

"It's changed so much," I heard her mutter.

"DOA Studios, Los Angeles," I told the driver confidently, buckling in my seatbelt and crossing my legs. Maybe I should have used the bathroom before we left.

I saw the driver raise his greasy eyebrows in the rearview. "That's a long way. Sure you can afford that, Missy?"

I wordlessly passed him the card from my pocket.

"Yeah. Think you can get us there fast, Mister?" I wasn't sure if I could bear to be as generous as Annabeth, but I saw no reason to be a lousy tipper.

"How fast are you talkin', Missy?" he said after making a surprised noise and handing back the card. He looked rattled, and I couldn't fault him for it.

"Don't get us pulled over," I answered carelessly as he pulled out of park and began to drive.

"Is that your name? Missy?" Bianca asked, having apparently zoned back in from staring out of the window over Nico's shoulder.

My eyes widened in surprise. I didn't even introduce myself? Geez, that's shady. "Oh, wow! Um, my name's Easterling. Amara Easterling. I'm sorry; I was so concerned about tracking the two of you down that I must have been distracted."

Bianca believed me, I guess. She looked out the window some more, worrying her lips with very white teeth.

"How long have you worked for Dad?" Nico asked, swinging his legs and kicking the driver's seat. I guess the driver was too impressed by my cash card to comment, but Bianca put a gentle hand on his leg.

"Not very long," I answered, glancing through the window at all the traffic falling behind us. We definitely weren't booking it at ninety, but this wasn't a slow ride either. "It's a new setup." I was such a liar. But it was necessary in the moment. I didn't like the idea of carting around two half-blood children of Hades who knew they were two half-blood children of Hades. It would be like travelling with two Percys. One was enough. None was enough, actually.

Which meant that the fewer questions they asked, the better. I knew several strategies that were meant to discourage conversation (for instance, subtly holding one's breath while the other person is talking). But these tactics are meant to make someone lose interest and walk away. In that instance, all I wanted was to redirect the conversation. So I said, "I know he was hoping the two of you would be very comfortable in the casino. How was it?"

At this, even Bianca brightened, and she and Nico both conceded that they'd a remarkable time. Then Nico started babbling about that Mythomagic game. I tried to listen even though I didn't care. Like, at all. Maybe it was because I knew the kid directly to my left was going to die because of one of the game figures unless I could figure out how to worm her out of trouble.

Given that the prophecy in the third book singled her out as one who would die in the land without rain, it seemed unlikely.

At first I was unconsciously zoning him out. He wasn't asking for a response or anything, and Bianca was engaging. So every once in a while, I would mind him, and he'd say something like:

"And they have all these crazy cool attacks and defenses and stuff! So you have to track their HP…"

"... attacked by wolves, that can do almost four hundred damage, depending on the number of power-ups!"

"Use Melinoe and your opponent loses a turn, 'cause they're scared of ghosts! Except the ones in the Underworld and the…"

"—cate has this really powerful one where she can summon this weird green fire—it's, like, melty! And…"

"Sometimes the really powerful ones can be really hard to find, even in the game room. I still don't have Hades, but I have like three of Janus…"

Forgive me if I was a little at my wits end with it. Eventually I started zoning him out on purpose, instead opting to watch the speedometer when we got on the interstate. It was only then that we hit ninety. It kind of freaked me out. What would be more pathetic than me, a normie forced through interdimensional soul travel into the body of a demigod in a fictional world, dying in a car accident? The idea was almost amusing considering that I had plans to visit the Underworld in only a couple of hours.

"You'll be surprised at how a game like that'll come in handy," I muttered without thinking, almost forgetting that there were even others with me.

Bianca broke the spell. She already had her doubts. And these last two hours of silence from me must have weirded her out. She squirmed in her seat, pretting me uncomfortably to the door. "What?"

I thought about giving her some crap about how the information could be used in a history class one day. I thought about saying that it was a great way to make connections and friends with the same interests. I even thought about saying that Mythomagic had been invented by their father. But I hadn't told them a lie about their father yet, and for some reason I couldn't make myself start, especially since I'd retreated into full introvert mode. So I did possibly the worst thing and said, "You'll find out."

"What does that mean? How could his dumb game ever come in handy?" she demanded. There it is. It was that discomfort I'd been waiting for. The sense of unease. The distrust. All the well-placed paranoia that meant Bianca would stand a chance of survival at this stage in the game. The forties good girl listening to Daddy's every order wasn't going to work. Not that it was a convenient thing right then.

"I said you'd find out, didn't I?" I said coolly, meeting her eyes. "You're right, Bianca. Mythomagic is just a game. Mythomagic is nothing to be worried about."

Nico was quiet, missing the nuances but seeing the argument about to arise. We'd kind of sucked the joy out of talking about his game, at least for now.

"Then what should I be worried about?" she asked. "The fact that I… oh, God. I just left the casino with some girl my age that I don't even know…"

"Who do you know?" I asked her, hoping to distract from myself at least a little.

She looked up. Bianca was afraid now. I hoped she wouldn't ask to stop the cab out here in the middle of nowhere. "What?"

"Who do you know, Bianca? Who in the world would your recognize on sight right now?" I pressed, leaning towards her a little.

"You expect me to name everyone I know personally?" She looked almost offended.

"Bianca, what's happening?" Poor Nico. He looked almost confused.

"I know… well, Nico. And… the bellhop and the doorman. And…" She was so deep in thought. Her brows were furrowed in concentration, and she nibbled her lip. Her nose wrinkled cutely, and she met my eyes. Almost as quickly, the contact was gone. The longer she thought, the more freaked out she became. I wondered what that fear was like. Not knowing who you were or where you'd come from. Not knowing anything about… anything. "I know…"

"The lawyer?" I suggested.

"Yes, the lawyer… and, um…"

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked, sounding as if he'd leeched off some of his sister's alarm and taken it upon himself.

I wasn't going to patronize him. "Your sister thinks it was unwise of her to trust me to take you to your father, since you don't know me. So who do you know."

"We know loads of people," Nico said confidently.

"Oh?" I asked, leaning comfortably back in my chair.

"Yeah," he said, and began to sound less confident with each word. "We know each other and that lawyer and the staff from the hotel, and I know the guys I played Mythomagic with, and then there's, um…" He faltered, stuck exactly were his sister was.

Someone honked their horn at us a good few times. We must have really sped up. Good. "Teachers? People at school?" I suggested, looking at each of them in turn.

Bianca, already troubled, just shook her head.

"I don't know," said Nico. His voice was quiet; he was really thinking it over.

"What about… neighbors?"

"I don't know," said Nico again, trembling.

I'm spoiling everything, I thought. If they figure this out we're all in danger.

But I kept going.

"Any shops you used to go to? Servants or employees?"

"I don't know!"

"Come on. Anyone, guys. Aunts, uncles, cousins."

"I can't—I don't…"

"Parents?"

There was a moment of silence. A weird kind of snuffling noise came from Bianca. "I don't remember. I don't remember anything."

At that, I said nothing. I didn't need to say anything. My point was already made. Bianca di Angelo didn't really know anyone except her brother and vice versa. Even that relationship was more shallow than it had been in book three; the casino had been doing all the parenting for them at this point. The world was full of strangers to them. And if they could trust unknown lawyers and distant acquaintances like the doorman at the casino, why not trust me, a peer who claimed to know their father?

It wasn't fantastic logic by any means, but the di Angelos were both emotionally vulnerable. It didn't need to be perfect.

"I'm scared," sniffled Nico.

In the life that had taken away from me, that would have been the end of it. If my little brother, Elijah, had looked at me, lost, and voiced his fear, tears in his eyes and with a quavering voice, that would have been it. The problem would be swiftly vanquished and forgotten. But the River Lethe had stolen some of the di Angelo's closeness, and Bianca was much younger than I. Not to mention that old me faced problems that were mediocre to some of the smallest issues on any demigod's plate, much less this one.

So when Bianca wasn't able to address her brother, I couldn't make myself judge her too intensely.

"If you want to put the pieces together as well as possible, it's a good idea to stay with me for now," I told them firmly. I wasn't going to tell Nico he had no reason to be scared. His sister I was not, and anyways, that would be a lie. I was scared, and I'd been putting up with this for months now.

"What do you mean? You can help us, really?" Perhaps out of desperation, the younger girl no longer sounded so skeptical. Good for me.

"I can explain some things. Just not right now. It would be… ill-advised," I said.

"If not now, when?" she asked, frustrated, glaring daggers at me. Her faces was bare of tear tracks, but her eyes were wet. I felt mostly unmoved.

"It won't be long. Less than thirty minutes, I'd say," I told her at the sight of a road sign alerting us that our exit was just a few minutes away.

So when would I explain? And what would I explain? Should I wait until we're right inside the lobby? Bad idea. Out in the street is just as bad. And this cab driver is already ignoring us for a tip. I knew that I was already pushing it, given that I was basically vaguely threatening a couple of kids, and we were pretty young to be going cross country. He'd probably run straight to the cops after dropping us off.

Demigods? That would give him quite the story to tell. And judging by the way his eyes kept darting to the rearview, he was still waiting for something really edgy.

"That's not good enough," Bianca snapped, back straight against the seat. "You could be lying about everything. You're my age. Why would our father send you to get us?"

Nico fiddled with one of his Mythomagic figures, a dark-haired figure with two torches. "She said she could help us understand," he mumbled.

"Be quiet, Nico. Don't you see? This is crazy!" Bianca cried, scooting obnoxiously away from me.

"I know it is," I defended. "But if you go back to the Hotel, they won't let you back in. No one wants you there anymore. You'll be stranded, and I won't help you. I'll wash my hands of you and be done with it." These were all varying degrees of dishonest. I wasn't sure if they would be able to get back into the Lotus. On one hand, Odysseus, the di Angelos, and my questmates had all been singled out and set up by a god or gods. On the other hand, there had been a lot of people in there. Was it really plausible that none of them had just walked in? And even if the di Angelos did run off, I'd go after them. Hades wanted a shot at controlling the prophecy, and my own tail was on the line if he didn't get it.

"Are you threatening me?" We'd slowed. We were on the exit.

"I think 'warning' is a better word," I hissed. My temper was starting to pique again. Lovely, and so soon. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it would be to turn around right now?' I paused, considering, and then added the mightily nuanced: "You don't even know what kind of world you're in."

"I know enough to know that my brother and I shouldn't have run off with some little girl we just met," she snapped.

"I don't think that's what she means," said Nico, who had been ignored for most of the argument.

And he was ignored again. "That's rich coming from a twelve-year-old girl who doesn't have the wisdom to observe the most basic facts without having them pointed out for her. You didn't even notice your own amnesia. What do you think somebody so clueless and naive is going to do all on her own in the middle of the city? You'll get you and your brother killed." Especially if that gang from the books was around.

"Go to the police," she said smartly.

"And how are you going get there? Are you going to walk? Because you know your way around, don't you?"

"Bianca…"

"I'll take a cab. This one, even."

"I'm not paying your fare," I said coolly, "so with what money? Unless you brought your cash cards with you, too."

Her confidence faltered, and in the background, Nico's voice became more insistent. "Bianca, I think…"

"Nico, you're ten. Nobody cares what you think right now," she snapped at him. And though Nico knew she was distressed, he looked hurt. Like Nico in the books, however, he was determined. The sharp glint in his eyes told me he wasn't giving up.

"But this is important," he pressed.

"Stop the cab," Bianca said.

The driver's bushy eyebrows shot up in surprise. "We're in the middle of city traffic. How—"

"Don't," I snapped, "I'm paying you."

"Bianca!"

"I said stop the cab!"

In a bizarre twist of fate, the driver had been so distracted by our shouting that he'd missed the yellow light ahead. So when he looked up and saw it go red, he slammed the brakes, bringing us to a screeching halt in the middle of the intersection. My shoulder was jerked with bruising force against my seatbelt; the driver swore; Nico screamed and dropped the action figure; Bianca made some undignified sound, like, "Urp!"

And just as the cabbie turned around to yell at us, and horns began going off from all directions, Bianca leaned over her brother, opened his door, and dragged them both out, darting between cars to the sidewalk. More horns.

"Hey!" said the driver. I picked up my bag, unclicked my seatbelt, and slid across the seat. "Hey! Kid, you can't just…"

I paused for only an instant and then grabbed the Mythomagic thing off the floor. Then I ran too.

"Hey! What about my tip?!"

I guess you aren't getting it, pal.

The car horns were really getting annoying. And I was freaking out. I couldn't really see the di Angelos, and I could only hear their shouting when the cars weren't honking at each other. So I only knew the general area towards which they were headed, and I had to run through thankfully stopped cars to see if I was even close to right. Luckily, unless they turned a corner, it would be clear where they were once I got to the sidewalk.

Less luckily, I was pretty sure Bianca was at least smart enough to turn a corner.

So when I reached the sidewalk, I asked an alarmed looking passerby, "Which way did those two kids go? Their dad's going to kill me."

Apparently I was believably genuine, since it was the truth. He pointed. "Left after Guitar World. Do I need to call someone?"

I couldn't (and wouldn't) spare him the time to answer before dashing off in that direction. I was in good shape, and I'd done a lot of running since getting here. This gave me a distinct advantage over a girl who'd spent the last sixty years playing video games and was hauling her little brother behind her. I knew I would catch up even though I was still panicking. And the feeling got even worse when I realized that I couldn't hear Nico's yelling anymore.

Which meant…

Either they somehow got away (unlikely)... or they stopped to hide somewhere. She's out of breath, and he can finally say what he wants without being interrupted. Deciding that the second option was more likely, I gradually slowed to a walk, brushing by someone as I did. He snapped something in annoyance; I ignored him. This was fine, since he wouldn't have been able to hear a carelessly mutter apology over the group of tourists behind him anyways.

If I was a scared kid in a hurry, with no time to think, where would I hide? Out of sight, out of mind. Not in a shop or restaurant.

My mind went straight to all the movies I'd seen where people hid out by the bins. I thrust my way through the crowd to the nearest restaurant I could find. It was directly connected to others on each side, which meant that their dumpster was probably around the back. I needed something in an alley or off to the side, easily accessible. And, following that line of reasoning, I ignored restaurants or really any kind of shop at all and began glancing into the mouth of any dark alley I crossed until I had been searching for a good ten minutes.

It was at this point that I wondered whether one of them had accidentally shadow travelled, sort of like how book-Percy had accidentally waterlogged Nancy or how I had accidentally blinded myself. That kind of accident would land them in nothing but trouble, since they would be stranded, practically beacons to any monsters around them; not to mention it would practically be a death sentence for me.

My mouth felt very dry, and I could feel myself moving on from hope to despair. I could barely make myself look anymore. There was almost a sense that they were already lost. So when I headed back the direction from whence we'd all originally come, I was almost surprised to hear voices from exactly the place I would have expected them. Nico di Angelo's voice was urgent, though it was far enough off that it almost sounded like a mumble. I quieted my footsteps, ducked a little, and tried to stay out of sight. My grip on the Mythomagic figure tightened. Now that I'd found them, it seemed appropriate to eavesdrop. Just a little, of course.

"... not saying it's not crazy. It is. Did you see her eyes?"

A tired sigh. "What about them?"

"What do you mean? They were really gross. It was like they were bleeding or something."

"... I'm not sure what you're talking about, Nico. She had dark eyes."

"How could you not see that?" I could practically see Nico throwing up his arms in exasperation. I was exasperated too. How had he seen them and not his sister.

"Her eyes weren't the weird thing, Nico. Everything else was," Bianca explained tensely. "She's really young to be escorting us so far. And she didn't name our father, or his company, whatever it is. And she won't—we already talked about this. You know how a feel. How on earth can you possibly think we need to follow this girl around?!"

"It just didn't seem like she was lying. She seemed really stressed out. And if Dad didn't send her, she wouldn't have been able to check us out of the hotel."

His defense sounded a little unenthusiastic, and if the moment of quiet was any indication, Bianca noticed too. "That doesn't really mean anything," she said. "She could have lied at the front desk." There was no front desk. "Maybe they believed her."

"Even if she was lying, something she said freaked me out."

"Everything she said should have freaked you out, Nico. She was trying to kidnap us or something."

"I don't know… I mean, she said something about us not knowing anyone or anything, and it made me think…"

"Think what? She was trying to scare us, Nico. Amara's probably working for some kind of creep."

Well, she's right about that.

"No, not like that. I mean… I was trying to ignore you guys arguing, and I looked outside, and I realized everything was different! Like the cars, and the buildings, and…"

There was a moment of unhappy quiet. Bianca must have silently realized the same, because her next words came forced. "We barely remember anything from before, Nico. How would we know what's different?"

"I remember travelling to the hotel with that creepy lawyer. There weren't as many cars and the road was smaller. There weren't as many tall buildings. And I don't think that city was there."

"What? This city? We've… we've never been here." Blatant denial in her voice. It was obvious and interesting, since I didn't really know what he was talking about either.

"Quit playing dumb, Bianca! The hotel moved! That city we left wasn't there when the lawyer brought us!" I was glad I couldn't see Nico. Maybe I was hearing a glimpse of the son of Hades, the occasionally fierce and terrifying that I'd once marvelled over as a reader. It almost made me miss the statement. The hotel moved. Las Vegas would have been on the brink of a population explosion in the forties. The hotel could have moved there, or the city could have been built up around it. Either way, it would have been a noticeable change.

Apparently, one not even Bianca could deny. "It has changed a lot," she muttered softly. I imagined her hugging her knees, curled in on herself.

"Yeah," said Nico, suddenly much quieter. He sounded subtly smug, though which shocked me until I realized that at this point, he was just a normal kid.

"What are we gonna do, Nico?"

I decided that this was my cue. I rose up from my crouch and swallowed.

"Someone's coming," said Nico. He sounded alarmed, almost like he expected to be pounced on. Actually, that was a risk now. They might not have known everything, but they were more aware than before.

Still, when it was me that rounded the dumpster and not some terrible monster, I was surprised to see that they looked relieved (or resigned, in Bianca's case). I held out the Mythomagic figure. "You dropped Hecate," I said coolly, staring down at them both as Nico almost hesitantly took the figure.

"Sorry," he said, staring at her painted on eyes and glancing at the asphalt by his feet, looking almost abashed for some reason. Like it was his idea to run off.

I let the silence stew a little, making momentary eye contact with Bianca before adjusting the straps on my shoulders. Then, in what I felt was a momentary stroke of genius, I turned on the heel of the ratty flying Converses and began to walk away. I heard Nico stand up almost right away, could practically see him jerking on his sister's sleeve as she, too, rose to her feet. "Wh—where are you going?" she called, not moving from where she stood.

I stopped where I stood and glanced back at her over my shoulder. The barrel of my gun gleamed in the corner of my eye. I wondered why they hadn't asked about it. Couldn't they see through the Mist yet? I think Nico can… a little. A gun's a far cry from a weird set of eyes. "Like I told you, if you decide to run off, I'm washing my hands of you. Your dad told me to bring you from the hotel to him. I can't exactly drag you there, and I didn't agree to a wild goose chase."

"So, what?" she snapped. "You came back to… to chastise us?"

I resisted the urge to grin slyly at her."I came back to give your brother his toy. It would be a shame if he didn't have something to entertain him on the long walk to the hotel… or wherever you're going."

"Where's our dad?" Nico asked, letting go of his sister only for her to grip his sleeve.

"In town," I said. "Which is fortunate, because it won't take me long to turn in my resignation."

"What's resignation?" asked Nico as I began walking away.

Bianca ignored him. Poor kid; we were making a habit of that. "Take us to our dad."

It was a demand, and when I turned around, Bianca seemed full of a determination I could admire. Maybe I'd misjudged her and she was more like her brother than I'd thought. I didn't mind, as long as she was determined with me and not against me. "Why now? You didn't seem very keen on the idea earlier, Bianca."

She crossed her arms, stepping in front of her brother, like she was shielding him. "We have a lot of questions, Amara. We need answers. You implied you could help us, or that our dad could."

"Depends on the question," I said. They were following me now, and we were getting close to the sidewalk.

"Let's start with this one," she said sharply. "Why are you carrying a gun?"

For the millionth time that day, I froze where I stood. My shotgun felt especially heavy on my back. And, as if the Fates themselves were working against me, a massive shadow passed over us. My shoulders tensed; I looked up.

"It's a bird!" I heard someone say from the streets.

"It's a plane," another person corrected. They continued walking as if nothing was there.

The thing screeched.

"It's definitely a bird," said Nico. He sounded stressed.

So am I. Di immortales. Is this from Zeus, or the Romans?

I looked up at us. Swooping over the roofs of the buildings around us but much too big to fit in the alley was a golden eagle that almost seemed to have the wingspan of a school bus. I felt distinctly ill. Something told me this wasn't Zeus himself, but it probably wasn't meant to be an early birthday present either. Actually, something told me Zeus had sent this eagle so that the di Angelos wouldn't reach their next birthdays at all.

Zeus was cagey right now, after all. He probably wasn't keeping a close eye on the question, but even so, it would have been hard for him not to notice his brother's mysteriously vanished children suddenly reappearing at the same ages and shapes in which they disappeared.

I decided I didn't really like Zeus.

"No," I said. "That's the reason I carry a shotgun."

And, dropping my bag on the ground, aiming my gun to the sky, I set my sets on the monstrous symbol of Zeus and sent the beast its swift dispatch in the form of carefully aimed, Celestial Bronze birdshot.

Trying my hand at some more dialogue based chapters; can't say I like them. Dialogue has never been my strong suit, ya know? But I guess practice makes perfect. Right?

In other news, this is really the only story for which I have any enthusiasm right now. So I'm getting a decent amount of writing done. I hope you all are enjoying it thus far (: