After sailing through a storm for a month, a sunny cruise from Alicante to Livorno was a much-needed reprieve for them all. Lilian lounged on a deck chair, crossing one leg over the other. Xyr close-fitting khaki pants rode up a couple inches over the tops of xyr ankle boots, exposing brown skin to the gentle April sunlight.

Lilies in your April dress. Xe remembered Oliver's poem from three months ago, which had given them a deadline for the quest. A deadline, because if they didn't make it in time, the gods would die. Lilian couldn't imagine a life without xyr connection to Demeter. It wasn't that xe was obsessed with having demigod powers – though those came in handy, for sure – but rather, a connection to nature that transcended most mortals' understanding. Satyrs and nymphs felt this connection, too, because of Pan—who would disappear along with everything else in Greek mythology, essentially Greek culture. By waging war against religion, the Zealots threatened an entire people.

But Lilian didn't let the stress get to xem. The afternoon was warm and lovely, and a fiddler played folk tunes that prompted the cruise passengers to dance. Percy winked at Lilian and sidled over to Annabeth. "Wouldst thou like to dance, my wise and fair lady?"

Annabeth bopped him over the head. "Ask like a normal person, and maybe. But at least you know who to ask this time."

Lilian's stomach growled. Dancing could wait. Xe followed Leona, who was easy to spot with her scarlet dress, toward the Mariposa's banquet hall. A feast lay before xyr eyes: stuffed crab adorned with basil and cheese, a dozen different kinds of pasta, thick loaves of garlic bread for double the carbs, various soups with their respective meats—shark fin, which Lilian thought was illegal; frog, which Lilian thought was gross; slug, which Lilian thought was French. The staff promoted a limited edition of narwhal soup from a recent catch off the coast of Portugal.

Leona dug in. "Since we mostly deal with monsters, I never get to eat something I killed myself."

"Technically, Nico killed it."

"We're a team, hermoso. What one person does, we can all take credit for. Unless it's Marcus, of course."

"Of course." Lilian used the tongs provided to take a slice of garlic bread, but everything else had meat.

Leona looked at xyr plate with pity. "There are vegetarian options, too. Like salad."

"The salad has chicken in it."

"There's dessert."

"I can't just load my plate with waffles and creme."

"Hey, I'll do it, too."

Lilian eyed the waffle warily. It covered an entire dinner plate. "Do you want to share?"

"No way in hell, hermoso—this waffle's all mine."

After dinner, Leona leaned back, her belly swollen. Lilian was impressed that her dress didn't tear. "Want me to walk you back to your room?"

Leona pointed at a grand piano on a stage. "I want you to play."

More people were trickling into the banquet hall for supper, and Lilian's heart fluttered at the thought of performing in front of all these well-dressed folks. A black suit jacket didn't really make up for xyr khaki jeans and oversized SAVE THE TREES shirt depicting a cartoon tree nymph.

Nico was pushing Will onto the stage as well. Although Nico was in a loose black dress shirt over dark jeans, Will looked like a deer caught in headlights in his dark red chinos and lime-green rugby sweater, the sleeves rolled up to reveal a tattoo of a stylized parsec diagram on the inside of his left forearm. Lilian and Will smiled at each other and took the stage.

Lilian liked to test the pedals before playing, getting a feel of the friction and the way the keys shifted. When xe was ready, xe glanced up at Will, who nodded at xem.

A cocoa-rich minor thirteenth chord resonated in the banquet hall. Several patrons looked up. Will shifted his weight and pulled down his sleeves. His voice shook as he sang of a ghost in his chest. Lilian matched his timidity with a gentle monophonic texture in a high register until he gained more confidence.

"We're turning to dust; if you look away and live in a world someone else imagines, you'll never see the first of May."

This was the demigods' story. If they failed, an entire culture would fall apart by April's end. Lilian conveyed their desolation with trembling diminished seventh chords that trilled into powerful ninths to signal hope.

They concluded their song to rapturous applause. Comfortable and warm, Will pushed up his sleeves and fell into Nico's embrace. The paler boy rested his head against Will's shoulder and brought Will's forearm to his lips, kissing the spot on the tattoo where the lines from the Sun and the Earth converged at the parsec.

Lilian looked for Leona, but the scarletine girl had already left. Marcus leaned against the doorway. "You play good."

"Ah, thank you." Lilian suppressed the urge to correct Marcus's grammar.

Marcus cocked his head toward the corridor, inviting Lilian to walk with him. He was tall, so the curls on Lilian's head just barely passed the shoulder of his metal-studded denim jacket. "I played piano, too."

"Ah. I've never heard you play at Camp Half-Blood."

"I hated music. My piano teacher was physically abusive; it's like I was always meant to be related to Ares, with all the violence around me."

"We're not violent." Lilian hesitated at the last word. Xe thought of how readily demigods fought monsters. Xe also wouldn't forget the battle during the Glorious's construction. And Will taking on more than half a dozen of the Acalica on his own...

"I didn't mean that. I mean—I hated piano before coming to Camp Half-Blood, but when I hear your music—the jazz, the improv—I'm in love."

Lilian almost tripped going up the stairs. Was Marcus in love with the music, or...

Marcus turned to face Lilian, and xe gave him xyr full attention. They were blocking the narrow stairway, but there was no one nearby, anyway. "Lilian, when we get to Italy, Nico has a plan to go to Tartarus and fix what's wrong with me. When that's all done and I'm a normal person, do you want to go out with me?"

"Marcus, you'll never be normal." Marcus's eyes widened and his mouth quivered, and Lilian hastily added, "None of us will. We shouldn't even try to be normal—who wants that?" Xe reached out to hold his hand. "I don't need to wait for Tartarus, but if that's what you want, then I'll support you."

Marcus leaned against the wall and sank, looking up at Lilian with dark eyes full of wonder and hope.