Annabeth managed to make it up to the deck before Piper, negating the need for an excuse about where she'd been. That was something of a relief, because Annabeth was positive there wasn't one good enough to convince her. Hazel and Fai, sure, Jason, maybe, but absolutely not Piper. She would've seen through her immediately.

Piper and Jason weren't up yet, but Hazel and Fai were. They'd spent the night on guard duty, so Annabeth assumed they'd simply never left the deck. It was barely morning, the sun just starting to peer over the horizon, but with the flatness of the ocean it felt much brighter than it would have in the hilly terrain they'd just left.

Hazel greeted her with a smile, albeit a tired one. Fai had some scratches on his arm that Annabeth didn't think had been there the previous day, but she didn't get the chance to ask about them before Piper and Jason emerged from below deck. Perseus and Leo appeared behind them a few moments later.

They sat in a loose circle on the deck. It seemed a little silly and informal to Annabeth, but there wasn't a space below to hold all of them comfortably. Not to mention they still needed to be on watch, and the deck was really the only place to do that.

Besides the unorthodox seating arrangement, the air felt serious and charged. Annabeth supposed that was inevitable, what with so many demigods gathered together in one place. Annabeth sincerely hoped her own aura was getting lost in the general atmosphere of power floating around.

It was also the first time they were all together, besides those first few moments on the ship. Someone had set out some food in the middle of the circle, but nobody was eating.

"Is this all of us?" Leo asked. His hands were playing with a fraying scrap of rope, tying it into knots and then untying it. His fingers moved without him looking down. Annabeth had gathered from playing dice the other day that he was a jittery sort of person, but this seemed even more hyperactive than he'd been the day before.

"Unfortunately," Fai mumbled. Annabeth got the impression he hadn't meant to say that out loud, because he blushed as everyone turned their confused gazes towards him.

"Sorry, it's just- seven. It's a bad number. Unlucky," he said.

"Why?" Annabeth asked. Maybe it would have been better to just let it go, but her curiosity got the better of her.

"The seventh month is when the spirit world and mortal world are closest. The ghost month," Fai explained, "It also sounds like 'cheat'. So it's uh- not very auspicious."

Annabeth's mouth suddenly felt very dry. It was still the sixth month, but somehow that didn't make her feel better.

"Oh."

Fai just shrugged.

"Could be worse. Could be four."

"What's wrong with four?" Jason asked. He was already grimacing in anticipation of Fai's answer.

"It sounds like 'death,'" Fai said plainly.

Jason's frown deepened. Annabeth wondered if Jason was thinking the same thing as her— that the quest had started with four people, and ended up with seven. If Fai's superstitions were anything to go by, luck was not in their favor.

"As promising as all that sounds, don't we have other things to discuss?" Leo asked.

"Oh! Right," Fai said, jumping slightly, "We were attacked last night. Sort of."

"Sort of?" Perseus asked. Annabeth had been avoiding looking at him thus far, worried that once she took a glance at his face she would lack the strength to look away. But she found her eyes drawn towards him anyways. He had a troubled expression, which was to be expected.

"Giant eagles," Hazel said. Annabeth needn't have worried about her eyes lingering on Perseus, because as soon as the words left Hazel's mouth, they snapped over to Jason. He was waiting for them, expression grim.

"I'm sure they were following us; we're the only thing around for miles," Hazel continued.

"Octavian," Jason and Annabeth said, simultaneously. Everyone looked at either Jason or Annabeth in confusion.

"Those are our eagles," Jason said, drawing the group's split attention towards himself, "Or they were, I suppose. If Octavian is acting as governor, he has control over them now."

"They're trained to track their prey, so I'd say Hazel was correct in her assumption that they're following us," Annabeth added.

"I shot at a few of them," Fai said, nudging his bow, which was now on the ground in front of him, "They did not particularly like that."

Well, that explained the scratches, anyway. But if the eagles had only attacked when provoked, that meant that they probably were only there to watch them and report back.

Annabeth had a sickening feeling that her previous theory was right, that whatever or whoever that voice was whispering in Octavian's ear wanted nothing more than for their quest to make it to Athens. The eagles were checking up on them, making sure they were on schedule.

"A few of them still got away," Hazel said.

"So Octavian knows where we are now," Piper said. She had been uncharacteristically quiet, just listening to the conversation and twirling her knife point down on the deck of the ship.

Perseus cleared his throat, pulling everyone's eyes towards him.

"I think he already knew."

Annabeth had known what he was going to say, but she still tried to look surprised. She doubted it mattered, because nobody was looking at her anyways, but she felt like she should try and keep up the act regardless.

"How?" Jason asked. He sounded more curious than confused, but Annabeth noticed Piper frowning beside him.

"I had a dream," Perseus said, "Or, I guess you could call it a vision."

He started to describe what Annabeth had seen, in just as much detail as Annabeth had relayed it to him. She knew he was purposefully not looking towards her, trying to avoid drawing suspicion to either of them, but it still felt strange to be so detached from him as he recounted her own dream.

Annabeth noted that he left out the part about Octavian trying to kill her against the voice's orders, just explaining instead how Octavian had been supposed to kill Jason and take Perseus prisoner. Annabeth knew why he was doing it; it wasn't wise to draw attention to this connection between them, which was almost certainly due to the fact that they were both born of Greek gods. It felt a little deceptive to keep it from everyone else, but at the same time Annabeth didn't see a way around it. Apparently Perseus hadn't either, because he'd omitted it completely.

Every word he spoke seemed to sap the energy from the group. Nobody interrupted him to ask questions, though Annabeth could see everyone's expression's dipping deeper into confusion or distress, or both. When he finished, nobody spoke.

"Well, that sounds bad," Leo said finally, breaking the heavy silence.

He took an apple from the arrangement of food in the middle of the circle and bit into it. Annabeth suspected it had less to do with him being hungry and more to do with the fact that his little scrap of rope had finally broken, and he needed something to do with his hands.

"How can we be sure that what you saw is real?" Piper asked. She had her blank expression on again, and she hadn't stopped meddling with her knife. At this rate there was going to be an indentation on the deck when she finally took it away.

Annabeth wondered how she hadn't noticed Piper's distrust in Perseus before, since she was showing it so plainly now. With a stab of guilt she realized it was probably because her focus had been on almost nothing but Perseus since they'd met. She'd barely been paying attention to Piper at all. Maybe if she had, she could have anticipated this.

"It's real," Jason said, drawing Annabeth out of her thoughts. Annabeth noticed a little flicker of surprise in Piper's expression before she hid it away. Jason continued, oblivious, "Demigods, especially powerful ones, we all get these types of dreams from time to time. I'm surprised more of us haven't had some by now, to be honest."

Despite having just slept an inordinate amount of time, Jason looked exhausted. The injury on his head was healing though, the very edges of it returning to his normal color. The rest was still a sickly yellow, but at this point, Annabeth knew it looked worse than it probably actually was.

"You were right then, Annabeth," Piper said, turning to her. Annabeth looked back at her, surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"A few days ago, you said Octavain probably wasn't really in charge, that he was answering to someone higher up. You were right."

Annabeth had actually been wrong about that, looking back on it. Octavian had probably been the one the others referred to as their master, because he was the one who wanted her dead, not the voice. He was more arrogant than she'd realized, and as a result she'd been right about the general idea, but wrong about the semantics. But Piper didn't know that, and Annabeth wasn't about to tell her.

She felt the group's eyes on her, waiting for a response.

"I— I guess," she said, "But we sort of already knew that. I mean, we thought it was higher ups in the capitol, not whatever this is, but still."

"It still could be. I doubt Octavian of all people is the only one this voice decided to seek out. It knows too much to just be isolated there," Jason said.

"And it seems to be recruiting," Hazel mused, "I mean, it said my mistress and I would be joining him, which seems a little presumptuous to me."

She didn't seem particularly bothered by the assessment— if anything she seemed to find it amusing. Annabeth had brushed off any worries she'd had about what the voice had said about her in the dream under the pretense that she wouldn't be joining them on the quest. Now that she was here though, it felt a little more troubling.

"Your mistress being Hecate?" Perseus asked. Annabeth remembered that he'd guessed the same thing when she'd first relayed the dream to him. Hazel nodded, confirming he was right.

"Yes," she said, "Though she hardly ever aligns herself in these sorts of things. I doubt she would start now."

"Well, what sort of thing even is this? We have no idea who or what this voice is," Fai said.

"Fair point," Hazel shrugged. That did not leave Annabeth feeling particularly confident about where Hecate's loyalties stood.

"And what about you?" Perseus asked. He was looking at Hazel, who seemed to grasp exactly what he was asking.

"Personally, I have no desire to ally myself with someone like Octavian," she said. She remained unbothered despite his query, which Annabeth took to be a good sign. "I won't pretend to want to be on this quest, but if I am here, I intend to help."

"Which is more than we could ask for," Piper said.

Anyone else might have just taken this as a note of support for Hazel, and maybe it was, but Annabeth suspected it had more to do with trying to make Perseus look bad for even asking in the first place. Clearly their earlier conversation had dissuaded Piper from mistrusting him less than Annabeth had thought.

"We've got other things to worry about, though," Leo said. He'd been so quiet Annabeth had almost forgotten he was there, though that seemed to be in part because he'd been methodically eating his apple, which was now finished. He lobbed the core over the side of the ship before continuing.

"Like, why was the voice so happy to let Hazel help us? Not that I'm complaining, obviously."

"It wants us to get to Athens," Annabeth said. Now was as good a time as ever to bring up her theory, even if it did mean having everyone's eyes on her. She was tempted to find Perseus's gaze, but she looked towards Jason instead. His eyes were familiar, and his reactions were easy to anticipate.

Now, for example, he was frowning. Predictable as a sundial.

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Think about it," Annabeth said. She was very aware of the fact that everyone was paying attention to her, but she soldiered on regardless, "We have how many godlings travelling together, and only one monster attack? They ambushed you at the river, but they probably weren't expecting us to be split up. If all of us had been there, their forces never would have been enough. They weren't enough. Octavian would have known that."

"You're right. It's been too easy," Piper said. Her knife clattered to the deck. She'd drawn her hand away from the hilt mid-spin, not even bothering to watch as it fell.

"Easy?" Fai said, incredulously, "We've almost died at least three times so far."

"And that's low, all things considered," Perseus cut in, "Annabeth is right. Leo and I had a worse time getting here, and that was just the two of us."

"It was about a monster a day," Leo agreed. He'd moved on to playing with the ends of his shirt, looping and unlooping a loose thread around his finger.

Hazel didn't look entirely convinced. The gold flecks in her eyes looked especially prominent in the morning sun, even as she was frowning.

"But who could have such control over monsters, enough to keep them away? Especially when things have been stirring?"

That was a truly worrying question, one Annabeth had been avoiding thinking about. Not even the gods had such control over monsters, besides a few particular ones related to their domains. Even those they rarely bothered to keep at bay, preferring heroes deal with them instead.

"I don't know," Annabeth admitted.

"Something powerful. And evil," Jason said.

Leo snorted, but for once his expression held little humor.

"Someone remind me why we're going to Athens again, if this powerful and evil thing seems to really want us to be there? Are we not just sailing right into a trap?"

"We probably are," Annabeth said, trying and failing to ignore the dread pooling in her stomach, "But we can't just ignore the quest. We've accepted it, we have to see it through."

"And it's not like we can turn around, even if we wanted to. Octavian would have us all killed," Piper added.

"We have to keep going," Jason agreed. His expression was determined, but Annabeth knew him well enough to detect the barely perceptible waver in his voice, the slight pinch between his brows that meant he wasn't quite as sure about this as he was letting on.

"But what's waiting for us when we get there?" Hazel asked.

Annabeth expected silence to follow that question. To her surprise, Perseus answered it.

"I think… I might have something of an idea."

Annabeth's stomach flipped. This had to be the secret he'd been keeping from them. She glanced over at Piper, who was now looking at Perseus with a mixture of apprehension and something else Annabeth couldn't quite read on her face.

"I didn't say anything earlier, because I didn't entirely understand. I still don't, really. But… I've heard that voice before. In other dreams, ones I had months ago. Years ago, even."

This was news to Annabeth. He'd given absolutely no indication of recognizing the voice when she'd first relayed her dream to him, and even now— the dream wasn't even his, so how could he know it was the same voice? He sounded sure though, somehow, and she obviously couldn't question him here with everyone around.

He wouldn't meet her eye as he continued.

"Whatever this is, it's been trying to rise for years. I've— I've seen people answering to his commands, just like Octavian. They don't worship the gods, even though I'd swear some of them are half-bloods like us."

"How many?" Jason asked. His expression was unreadable, even to Annabeth.

"Dozens, at least, though there could be more I haven't seen," Perseus said.

"And why were you the only one to see these things? And why for so long?" Piper asked, the barest edge of accusation in her voice.

Perseus finally met Annabeth's gaze, giving her a very deliberate look as he answered.

"I don't know," he said.

He did know, or he suspected. He and Annabeth were the only ones to have dreams of this voice, the only ones who were wanted alive. Did it want them to join their cult? Had it been feeding these dreams to Perseus to try and make him sympathetic to their cause, whatever it was? It obviously had not been successful, but the connection wasn't lost on Annabeth.

It was, however, lost on everyone else. For a good purpose, she tried to convince herself, since the rest of them knowing this would do very little to help. Still though, she hated to lie.

That was a strange thought. She'd been lying for a very long time, long enough that she'd grown numb to it. Telling just one person her secret had pulled back that emotional armor a touch.

"But you think they have the stolen god?" Piper continued, oblivious to Annabeth's internal conflict.

Perseus nodded. "I've honestly suspected ever since Apollo sought me out and delivered the quest. But I wasn't sure until this new dream."

Annabeth half suspected Piper to challenge that too, to ask why he hadn't brought it up until now if he was so sure. But Hazel spoke before she had the chance.

"The Summer Solstice… it's a powerful day for magic," Hazel said, frowning, "If whatever this is is trying to fully resurrect itself, that might be an ideal day to try."

"How much time do we have?" Annabeth asked. The days were starting to blend together, and if she was honest she had no idea what the date was.

"The Summer Solstice is still four days from now," Jason said.

"If we keep going at this speed, we can be there in two," Perseus said.

"Early, then," Piper noted.

This is too easy, Annabeth thought to herself. If anyone else shared the sentiment, they didn't say it. A cold breeze swept over the deck, and Annabeth had to suppress a shiver.

There had to be another reason the voice wanted them there. Annabeth suspected that it had to do with it needing Perseus and her alive.

She could feel Jason's gaze on her. He could always tell when something having to do with strategy was troubling her, and apparently this was no exception. But she couldn't risk him asking about it, not in front of everyone.

"We should figure out a guard schedule," Annabeth said. It was an obvious change of subject, but seeing as there wasn't much left to say about the other situation, it was as good a thing to discuss as any.

It was easily agreed that at least two people should stay on deck at all times. Even knowing that their journey to Athens was welcome to whomever their enemy was, nobody trusted that they would be left entirely alone.

Jason and Piper volunteered to take the first shift. Fai and Hazel went down below deck to sleep, and Annabeth decided to follow them. Even though she'd barely been up a few hours, between her dream, the conversation she'd had with Perseus and the group meeting, she felt like she'd lived a full day and then some.

She could have sought him out again. The idea was a little tempting, but it felt risky to be sneaking around alone with him for the second time that day. And considering she had volunteered to take watch during the night, she knew she should sleep as much as she could, when she could.

Annabeth barely had time to think that she had made the right decision, because she was asleep almost as soon as her head hit her makeshift pillow.