Apov
"So," I said ducking under a tree branch as James slashed through a curtain of vines with his sword. "You never explained how you found us."
Despite the fact that it was nighttime, the weather was still hot on the island, and the further we got into the jungle, the more humid it seemed to get. It felt like walking into the bathroom after one of the twins had taken a shower. Both of them liked their water to be unreasonably hot.
"I didn't." he said cutting through more vines, before sparing me a glance over his shoulder.
We'd decided it was better not to stay on the shore like sitting ducks for any monsters that might be in the area to find us, figuring it was probably better to try to find a safe space further in on the island to make camp for the night. I hadn't liked the idea at first, but, as he pointed out, neither of us knew where Harper was, and it wasn't as if I could stop him from getting away from me if I wanted to. Our odds of surviving, for now, were better if we stuck together, and I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity of keeping an eye on him.
It wasn't as if I could exactly bring him to Olympus either. Neither of us had any idea where we were and seeing as, though I hated to admit it, he was stronger than me and Harper had ended up with the magic teleporting olives, I couldn't make him go anywhere.
Why she hadn't used them to get back to me was something I was trying not to focus on at the moment. Hopefully she was ok. And, considering who I was stuck with, maybe it was better that she wasn't here.
"You found me." He continued, snapping me out of my reverie.
"What?"
"You never read any of those scrolls, did you?" he asked, distain in his voice as he kept pushing through the massive leaves, this time not even bothering to look at me.
"No." I admitted, not sure James of all people was in the position to be seeming superior. He was the asshole here after all.
"Did you never think to ask Harper about them?" he asked gruffily.
"Of course we talked about them." I said irritated. "But in case you haven't noticed. Pretty much everyone, including Harper and her siblings, thought the library was a myth. And combing through moldy old literature isn't really my thing."
He let out a scoff, one that told me he very clearly knew it wasn't my thing.
"There's three major trials each a person can face before they're deemed worthy of becoming Keeper of the Key." He said tonelessly. "One of fire, one of water, and one of air. Depending on who you are and how close you are to finding the key, you could go through one or all of them. I failed the first."
"The fire." I said and just from the way he set his shoulders, I could see he was rolling his eyes.
"Yes. Obviously. Harper didn't. And ever since Athens, I knew you guys weren't far behind me."
"So I did see you." I said wincing as I remembered the Iris message with Charlie and Annie right after.
"Yes." He agreed.
By his tone, it sounded as if his patience were being tried but I couldn't imagine what he was so annoyed about.
"But, as I was saying I knew you guys weren't far behind me in the search for the key, and with Harper calling the shots, I knew you'd probably catch up." He continued, clearly trying to keep his voice neutral and mostly succeeding. "So, I figured, after failing the first trial I might stick around a while. And I was right." He sighed. "You turned up."
"You wanted to cheat." I said narrowing my eyes at the back of his head. "To see how she did it, or take the scroll from her if she did."
He didn't answer which had me figuring I was pretty much right.
"She didn't say anything about this to me."
"Yeah well, she wouldn't." he said and again, I heard a pointed dislike in his tone that surprised me. "With her brother about to pass out every time she gets a hang nail, and you so eager to play doctor, I can't imagine why she might keep her involvement in a series of challenging and dangerous trials to herself."
The sarcasm in his words was palpable, and I felt a stab of anger to through me.
"You don't know anything about me." I said darkly. "And you don't know anything about the twins. You barely know Harper."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah actually." I said, nettled.
I hadn't known James all that well at camp, but I did know was that I hadn't liked him. It never had occurred to me, however, that maybe James hadn't liked me either. I'd seen glimpses of it now and then, especially in the conversation he and I had had on the court when we were alone, but it hadn't really registered. When around other campers, he'd always hidden it well.
He wasn't bothering now.
"You don't know what Charlie's been through." I said thinking of the anger and terror on Charlies face when he realized what was happening, the real danger Harper was in.
"Don't say that to me." He spat, his words like venom.
"James, this is bigger than you realize. And Charlie-"
"His sister wasn't driven half mad at the hands of Kronoss's monsters!" He shouted turning, his hands curled into fists with rage. "And while he's off safe and sulking behind the camp boundaries I was the one who protected her from that fate!"
He was shaking with anger but after a few second, he seemed to regain his composure because after a deep breath, his voice returned to normal volume.
"Do you know what they would have done to Harper if they'd gotten their hands on her? If I hadn't gotten you both out of there?" he asked his voice quiet but dark.
He was glaring at me, but behind the fury was pain and suddenly, no matter how much I disliked the son of Hermes before me, I couldn't help but feel a sick sense of pity.
"Believe me." He said softly. "Giving Harper to the Gods would have been merciful compared to what they have planned for her, so don't tell me I don't know what Charlie has been through." He said acidly, putting a derisive significance on the name. "He doesn't have to worry every time he sees her, she might not recognize him because he's years older than she thinks he is. That if he's not there to stop her, she might pick up a book she'll never be able to put down. Read something meant for a god, that, as a mortal, might burn her mind from the inside out. He has no idea."
"Maybe not." I said quietly. We'd stopped walking now, and a cool, heavy breeze was rustling through the trees no doubt off the ocean. I could smell the salt water among the green of the leaves and the damp soil. "But he did have a reason to be worried about someone like you."
At this he scoffed.
"It's true. You and Lucy aren't the only casualties getting caught up in the business of the Gods."
This seemed to catch his attention because he narrowed his eyes, but he didn't look angry as he said.
"What do you mean?"
It was at this point, I found myself doing something I never in a thousand life times expected to. I told James, of all people, about the prophecy surrounding the Davis twins and all the screwed-up things that were happening because of it.
By the time I'd finished speaking, we were walking through the jungle again, and he was wearing a bitter smile.
"That's damn near poetic." He said with a humorless laugh. "Charlie spends his whole life using his sister as an excuse to be a complete knob, only to be completely betrayed by his enabling best friend. The one person he made any exceptions for in his fraternal attempts to put a straitjacket over his sister's personal life."
"Betrayed?" I asked indignantly.
"Yeah." He said with another laugh. It had some amusement in it this time. "I mean, everyone at camp knew you fancied his sister. But sneaking out of camp with her, even I think that's pretty low."
"I didn't-"
"Yeah you did." He said and I saw him smirking a little at this. "Big time."
"Because we had to." I said incredulously. "Charlie was freaking out. He would have just been in the way."
"Of you and Harper?"
"Of what needed to be done." I said ignoring his jibe, finding my anger and calling it to my defense. "You don't realize the amount of fallout you caused when you left camp. Charlie was freaking out, a wreck, he wasn't ok. Putting him on something like this, a quest, he would have completely fallen apart." I continued determinedly. "He could have gotten someone killed."
"And in all this alone time you've had together, hopping around the world, being there with her when she first uncovered a legend she'd been keeping tabs on practically her whole life, you totally respected your friendship with Charlie right? Didn't make a move?"
An image flashed behind my eyes, Harper and I in my room, sitting in my computer chair her lips against mine.
"Thought so." James said his smirk growing. "You know, Charlie's not very good at the whole, over protective big brother thing. He's lucky Harper's pretty tough."
He looked at me and I was surprised to see he was grinning, but there was something about it that I didn't like. It didn't reach his eyes.
"If I was in his shoes, I'd have seen you coming a mile away."
It was eerie how threatening he could make a smile look, and I found myself wondering if in another life, Charlie might have gotten along very well with James. If Charlie had ever looked at me like that, I might have tried to forget Harper's name as fast as possible when we'd all first met.
'Well… not really.' An unusually honest voice said in the back of my mind.
But still it was freaky.
"Don't worry dude. You're sister's not really my type." I said suppressing a shudder and continuing to walk.
He followed.
"You don't have a type." He said flatly. "You have Harper Davis. That's all you were ever interested in, even Jasmine figured that out after a while." he continued sounding something between exasperated and reluctantly impressed. "And she was really into you. Which is good for you, because if you did come near my sister-"
"I'm so glad were still talking about this." I said sarcastically, trying, and failing, not to roll my eyes. "Is that why you don't like me?" I asked, glancing sideways at him, and I could tell by his expression that he was caught a little off guard. "You think I'm some demon demigod going around harassing nerdy girls like your sister? Or you're jealous because Harper likes me, and hates you now?"
He stopped and looked at me for a moment as if I was insane.
"You think I'm jealous of you and Harper Davis?" he asked incredulously.
"Well… aren't you?" I asked a little confused. He'd made it clear over the summer he'd liked her.
"I don't like you because you don't stick up for anything." He said calmly. "Not yourself, not to your friends, not even for Harper. Who, by the way, is insanely out of your league." He scoffed. "And no, I don't have a crush on her, so you can stop looking at me like that."
"You don't?" I asked incredulously.
"No."
"But I heard you talking to her when you asked her out. You said-"
"I lied Wells," he said cutting me off. "If you haven't noticed, I'm rather good at it."
I stared at him, a mix of feelings going through me at this revelation. Disgust, anger, relief, back to disgust. I mean, I knew he was a dirt bag for what he'd done to Harper. No one who cared about her could have, but I realized that as James had been putting together pieces of his past, and realizing how it was all fitting together with what was going on with Harper, I'd almost started to feel sorry for him.
"That's I look I probably deserve." He said catching my expression. "But if it makes you feel any better, I don't think she really liked me all that much either. Not in that way. It was obvious she was into you."
"Well then why'd she agree to go to the fireworks with you?" I asked feeling ridiculous at the question.
There were so many other things to worry about right now. So many things that were so much more important were crashing together all at once, but I found I'd stopped moving again, and was looking at James, really determined to hear his response.
He was looking at me as if he wasn't sure I was kidding or not, but when I continued to stare he shrugged, and incredulous expression on his face as he said.
"Because I asked." He'd said this as if it were obvious, as if it had been as simple as that and there wasn't about fifteen thousand ways something like that could have gone wrong, but before I could even begin to wrap my head around making a response, he continued with. "And if you had, she would have gone with you."
He continued to walk, clapping my shoulder as he walked by me, saying.
"It really isn't that complicated mate."
Not knowing what to say to this, I followed after him as he continued to hack his way through the jungle.
"You know, you never did explain how you got wrapped up in all this." I said eventually.
We'd been silent for the last several minutes, but the more I thought about it, the weirder I thought it was.
"You and your sister I mean."
"Lucy." He said sounding irritated.
"Yes Lucy." I muttered impatiently. Gods he might be even worse than Charlie… "You said she was a mortal, right?"
James didn't answer this, but his head jerked a little which told me that Harper had been right when she'd suggested it.
"How'd she end up in the library?"
He didn't respond at first, and so much time passed after I asked the question that I thought he wasn't going to, but eventually, he said.
"My mother didn't know who my father was when she met him, in fact, I'm pretty sure she never knew. And she sure as hell didn't know what I was. But it didn't take long after the monsters started turning up for me to figure it out. What I couldn't figure out though, was why Lucy could see them."
"She was clear sighted?"
"Is clear sighted." He corrected stiffly. "She can see through the Mist better than even I could when we were young, but she's not a demigod."
He shook his head, as if getting into his past was more exhausting than anything either of us had been through over the last several days could ever be.
"It made her vulnerable. Vulnerable in ways that two little kids running around the in the mortal and mythological worlds wouldn't think to expect. Being a single mother, our mum didn't have a ton of money to take us places, but the library was free. We spent a lot of time there growing up, read through everything in the kids sections pretty quickly and the librarians started giving us new things to read. They were always really sweet, keeping an eye on us if our mother had to go run errands. That sort of thing. So I didn't think twice when one of the new hires, this batty old lady, approached me with a book to read."
He reached into his bag and pulled out a dark book, bound in scaly black leather and stained pages that looked as if they'd been exposed to years of monster venom and decay.
I reached for it automatically, but he pulled it back.
"Don't open it." he warned. "Trust me." He shook his head and something about his expression went slightly bitter. "There's stuff in here that… that you'd rather not see. Look at the cover though."
He released the book and though it took me a moment to decipher in the dark of the jungle, eventually, I was able to make out a few words in the moon light that I recognized, even in the ancient greek.
"Kronos." I said quietly.
He nodded and snatched the book out of my hands as if I would have been tempted to read it.
"There's a lot more in the Library than just ancient poetry." James said his tone a little bitterly. "You can find yourself scanning the pages of some very powerful magic. And if you're not careful," he nodded towards the book he was holding. "You might come across something that might really mess you up."
I glanced at the book for a moment, and hesitated, a thousand questions on my mind, none I was sure I wanted to ask.
"Was she one of his monsters? The librarian, I mean."
"I never found out." He said shaking his head. "She vanished after that day, but she told me there were others. Books like this and it needed to be returned. Since it was written in a dead language I couldn't really read any of it, but after I looked over the pages… I started seeing things. Things even Lucy couldn't, markers, signs." He pulled an expression as if thinking about them was painful. Considering it was ancient magic, maybe it was. "It wasn't long until I realized they were leading me somewhere. And when I found this massive hidden library, one no one else could see and bigger than any of the ones we'd ever been to combined, I just had to share it with the one person I knew would love it even more than I would."
"Lucy." I guessed and he laughed, there was no humor in it however.
"Yeah." His voice was calm, but he took a vicious swing at a branch before continuing with. "She was ecstatic. We visited whenever we thought we could get away with it. There wasn't much we could read, but it wasn't hard to find things that could help us translate. And it wasn't long until I realized that you could reach the library from multiple places."
He paused for a moment and frowned, and his expression surprised me when he looked at me.
"There's a lot more entrances into the library than I think people realize, even Harper."
"And that book, whatever it did to you, it helps you see them." I said suddenly remembering something Harper had said. "Harper mentioned you seemed to have more control jumping from place to place than she would have expected."
"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "Honestly, if she knew what she was looking for, my guess is she'd be able to find them too."
"So it really was you who got in and out of Olympus." I said in amazement and his expression went sour.
"That was an accident."
"But it was you." I pressed and the look he gave me made me think James wasn't very impressed with my intelligence.
"Yes." He said eventually.
"And that's how you got away. You just jumped back into the library. Or, wherever it was that you ended up."
"If you jump around the world enough, eventually the doors will chuck you out in some really unfortunate places. I once ended up in a covert military base just outside of the arctic circle. I fear the gods less than a dark site operative with a machine gun and a snowmobile."
"How are you not dead?" I asked him, thinking of all the craziness that had happened to Harper and I over the last few days and wondering how he'd manage to stay alive going through it for years. "When I got thrown out of the Interrealm, I got dumped out into the sky. My father almost ran me over in the stratosphere. And what does all this have to do with Kronos? His essence was scattered. He shouldn't be able to reform."
"I told you Wells." He said shaking his head. "There are doors to the library everywhere. And with no one controlling access, if you can find them, you can come and go as you please. I was eleven when I stumbled across the library. Lucy was eight. If you go through the doors enough, eventually you'll get close to where you want to go. Our mother was busy working, we had a lot of free time on our hands. I've been all over the world, so has Lucy. We'd been jumping around the world for almost two years when the voice started."
"You started hearing voices?" I asked, curious despite myself.
"Lucy, started hearing them."
I looked at him in confusion, wondering what a Titan's interest could have been in a young mortal girl, but James looked bitter.
"I told you." he said tonelessly. "Being a mortal made Lucy vulnerable. I might have been young but I was still a demigod. It was enough to have some sort of resistance to an ever-present force whispering in the background of the mythological world. Kronos, his essence might have been scattered, but he's not gone Ashton. And, well, it isn't hard for an immortal to start solidifying around a defenseless mortal who's bouncing all over the world, especially if she's carrying an anchor around."
"The book." I said glancing at the volume in his hands and he nodded.
"I might have been young, but when I realized what it was doing to me, I knew better than to keep messing with it. I returned it to the library, told Lucy that was where it would have to say, but you of all people should know how often sisters are willing to put up with orders from their brothers."
He sighed and looked away, sadness, exhaustion, and most of all, guilt, in his gaze.
"She was young, she was curious, and I was too afraid of what had happened to me to tell her why she couldn't look through the book that had led us to this magical, amazing place. The one that let us see amazing creatures, and take us all over the world."
"She read it?"
"She looked through it at least, and others, and it was enough to start attracting bits and pieces of his essence to her. It was subtle at first, so slow that even though we spent almost all our time together, I didn't notice when the voices started to talk to her. Or when she started listening. But they sent her looking for more titles, showing her more things and by the time I realized Lucy wasn't the only person in her head anymore, it was too late."
His voice was quiet, but I could hear the suffering behind it. Years of agonizing and worrying over a sister that was fading further and further under the influence of a power like Kronos. Something ancient and evil. And feeling like it was his fault.
"Sometimes, it was like she didn't know I was there, wandering around the library looking for darker, more powerful magic and spells, others, you could see that she was losing her mind, having nightmares, screaming fits, it was like she was at war with herself. When I finally realized what had happened, and that she'd been carrying around this accursed book, he'd gotten such a grip into her, she completely lost touch with reality when I tried to take it away."
"What did she do?" I asked horrified.
"She followed the voices." He said softly. "I'm older than Lucy, a demigod, stronger. I could keep the book away from her if I wanted, and I did, but I couldn't stop her from running away. After I took the book, we argued, we used to fight when we were younger, but I'd never heard her scream so much. When she realized she wasn't getting it back, she ran off, ran for the doors. I tried to go after her, tell her not to jump back into the world without me in case we got separated, but it wasn't the door to the mortal world she'd gone through."
"Where did she end up?" I asked, but some how, I had a feeling I already knew.
"Tartarus." He said bitterly. "She fell into the darkest hellhole the Underworld had to offer and Kronos's monsters were there waiting for her. Thrilled to find the half-crazed mortal that had stumbled into their ranks was acting as a beacon for their master's essence. I followed her of course, but ended up just outside the Gates. By the time I got to her…"
James's sentence faded, but I found that whatever he'd been about to say, I didn't want to hear. I could only imagine what James had been forced to see when he'd found his sister. Honestly, the only thing that surprised me was that Lucy was alive today for her brother to worry about.
I tried to picture a younger version of James, thirteen or fourteen, breaking into Hades, trying to save his sister from an army of monsters in the most dangerous place a demigod could find themselves.
'Gods.' I thought a little unwillingly. Being honest, if any of this was true, even the tiniest part of it, seeing what James had been through, I couldn't believe he wasn't more messed up.
"How did you find her?" I asked frowning. "I know you're good at navigating through the doors, but you didn't know where she went."
"No." he agreed shaking his head. "I was a kid, stupid and scared, I didn't know anything about fighting or weapons. But, being a consistent visitor to the library, I did know about the legends. Who had probably taken her."
Almost as if he did it without thinking, James glanced at the book, a mixture of wariness and disgust in his expression.
"I might have been powerful enough to resist Kronos's influence, but, it's not hard to hear it if you listen closely. It was enough to help me find her, and by then, he'd solidified enough around Lucy's life force to be in a position to offer me a deal."
"What did he want?" I asked suspiciously, but I thought I might have already known. Lucy might have been clear sighted but she was a mortal, an extremely young mortal at the time. Kronos, even in just bits and pieces of his essence couldn't survive in such a host for long. His power would have killed her long before he could have formed in any meaningful way. But an inexperienced, desperate demigod…
Well… it wasn't as if he hadn't turned to a son of Hermes before.
"You?" I asked when James hesitated to answer, but he shook his head.
"No. I might have been a step above Lucy as a host as a demigod, but I wasn't exactly a top pick. I was young, half dead from trying to find my sister, completely untrained in combat. I had never even heard of Camp Halfblood, let alone met any other demigods. He made it clear I was no use for him as a host or to help him build an army, besides," he smiled a little bitterly. "He tried that before, and it didn't work. No. I wasn't any use to a Titan as a demigod, but I'd been all over the world. He told me my talent for navigating through the doors was far from the usual, and though I might not be helpful for him as a warrior, there was something he thought I could do for him."
"What? Be a spy?" I asked bitterly, suddenly remembering the fact that Harper and I were in this mess was because of James and his actions.
"Be a scout." He said quietly. "I told you Wells. I didn't know if there were other demigods in the world apart from me. I assumed I couldn't be the only one, but it was a gods damn revelation to me when I was informed by Kronos and his army that there were enough to fill a summer camp, and maybe even more. But I'd spent so much time in the library, and my sister and I had been influenced by Kronos so much, it hardly seemed like a fantastic idea to send me to the greatest center of the gods influence apart from Olympus itself. No I was told to avoid camp, instead, I'd be doing something else."
"Which is?"
"Finding a way to control the library." He said with a bitter grin. "Kronos doesn't need an army to take over Olympus if he can walk through an unlocked door. He just had to find away to control where that door led, and I was in a unique position to start looking for one. No one knew I was doing it, and he had my sister to keep me quiet. He offered me a deal, find a way to control the Interrealm, control it completely and he would leave me and my sister alone."
He sighed.
"And of course, I agreed. He remained in Tartarus with his army, relinquishing Lucy's from his grasp just enough to give her back some of her sanity, but not enough for me to forget what would happen if I abandoned the plan. It might have slowed his ability to reform, but all he had to do was bide his time while I spent the next few years combing through the library darting all over the world looking for the information that we eventually realized the Athenian demigods had been collecting for years. Passing down from generation to generation of demigods until it finally ended up in the unfortunate hands of the one girl who actually sat down and read it all."
A stab of fury went through me as I realized what he meant by this, who he was talking about.
"Did you know?" I asked feeling my body start to shake with anger.
"Did I know what?" he asked, seeming confused at my obvious rage.
"Did you know who Harper was when you got to camp? Did you go to camp just to target her?"
He looked irritated for a moment, as if he thought I was being ridiculous, and seemed about to respond as such when he hesitated, and a new emotion flashed across his features. It was hard to tell what it was, but it looked almost like regret.
"No." he said eventually. "No I had no idea. I figured I'd have to figure out a way into talking to the Athena campers eventually, but to be honest, I kind of avoided all of you when I realized I had no other choice but to join the camp."
"Why?" I asked a little surprised.
"Well if you want the truth," He said and he looked momentarily a little awkward. "I didn't want to deal with you."
I felt a pang of shock go through me at this.
"With me?"
"Well, not you specifically, mostly Charlie and his chaos." He rolled his eyes. "I don't know how you guys aren't aware of it, but the Davis twin drama, especially if it involves you is pretty much everyone's favorite thing to gossip about at camp if it's not one of the Aphrodite campers. It's actually a little annoying." He said with a shrug and I remembered what the Ares camper had said the night we'd all been in the infirmary together. "I wasn't at camp to make friends, or to get pulled in that sort of petty nonsense. I had a job to do and, well, I actually really tried to not get Harper involved." He grinned a little at this, but it was brittle. "She reminded me of my sister a little, ever since I saw her almost walk into a Satyr on my first day, head stuck in a book. It's selfish, but I was hoping that if I couldn't help Lucy, I could at least kept her from getting involved."
"But she is." I said frowning. "What changed?"
"Nothing," he said sourly. "That was the problem. I didn't find anything, and the few Athenian campers that were at camp the months you three were gone weren't much help. It wasn't until you were back that I knew I had to face the fact that if anyone in that cabin could help me, it was probably the one who'd probably rather keep reading than actually talk to me."
"And that's when you went after her."
"To be honest, I didn't really think she'd be able to help." He said a little dejectedly. "I kept checking on Lucy and looking around whenever I thought I could get away with it at camp, but when I got shot into Olympus… it complicated things."
"It put Olympus on alert." I said and he nodded.
"They were looking for whoever broke into their domain, and how they did it, and unfortunately for Harper…"
"She guessed." I said because of course she had. If Harper had a theory, it was almost always correct.
"I don't think she thought about it all that seriously, but she knew exactly what happened, even if to her it was theoretical. I knew it wasn't long before she started asking questions, before the trail of who broke into Olympus would lead back to me. But even I didn't expect her to know as much as she did, or for her to be the person who had exactly what I needed to catch up to her."
This seemed like an exaggeration to me. James might not have been as terrible of a human being as I thought, but in no world did I think he'd ever catch up to the amount of hours Harper had spent learning about the library, even if he'd spent more time inside of it.
"So you stole her glasses and ran."
"I was trying to protect her, to make it so she couldn't come after me, but you're right." He shook his head. "I should have known it wouldn't be that simple."
I glared at James, not certain what to make of this last statement. He had a lot of nerve trying to claim he was hoping to protect Harper by putting her in this position. Surely he couldn't have been so naive, but if his story was true, maybe he had deluded himself with some sort of wishful thinking. He hadn't had a lot of options, and despite spending the last several years of his life in the mythological world, he hadn't had the same experience as most of us did. The protection of camp, or years of being educated of how the gods ruled around fun activities like archery and volley ball.
He'd been alone. If I was honest, I'm not sure I could have done any better. In fact, I knew I probably couldn't have.
"You never explained what he did to you." I said and James looked a little confused.
"Who?"
"Kronos." I said crossing my arms over my chest and narrowing my eyes at him. "If he didn't want you as a host, why'd he bother to make you stronger? Didn't either of you think that would raise some eyebrows at camp if some random kid with an accent just showed up and started drop kicking people out of the arena?"
This actually caused him to stop walking, just so he could turn to stare at me.
"I've got to ask Wells." He said, sounding something like the James I remembered from camp. "Do you remember me drop kicking anyone out of the arena?"
"Well, no." I admitted remembering a couple of the comments I'd heard Tamera making about James's freakish progress in the arena, and his sudden rise in popularity as he did surprisingly well on even his very first missions.
"Kronos never did anything to me. I was meant to keep a low profile," he said continuing to walk. "Ask questions, but not raise any suspicions. And you forget. Before I came to camp, I was actually never trained."
"So you were what? Holding back all your raw awesome potential this whole time?" I asked sarcastically.
"I told you." he said clearly annoyed at this point. "There's more than just poetry in the library. If you ask Harper, she'd tell you the same. Kronos didn't have to waste any of his power on me. But he didn't want me to die either, and jumping around the world as a demigod is dangerous. Especially if you're tracking down ancient information in monster infested sites of the mythological world. All he had to do was point me in the direction of the right books. And trust me, if it were you, you wouldn't thank him."
"Whys that?"
At this, he grinned but nothing about it seemed to suggest he was amused.
"We might be demigods, but that doesn't mean we're immortal. Mortals aren't supposed to mess with magic Wells, especially not the ancient kind." he said, a bleak sort of humor in his tone. "Our bodies aren't made for it. Even if we're part god."
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked hesitantly.
"Put it this way." He said his tone light, but there was a set to his shoulders that suggested he was a person under extreme stress. "Think of my abilities is a bit of a blessing in disguise. I know you don't like me very much, and the more that I use them, the more likely it is you won't have to put up with me for very long."
This stopped me in my tracks
"It's killing you?" I asked in horror and he let out a humorless laugh.
"No." he said easily, not bothering to even look back. "Not exactly. But one day if I'm not careful. Or do too much. It might."
I continued to stare after him, not certain how to take this information and he seemed to know it because he said.
"They're called curses for a reason."
We'd hit a small clearing now, a stream cutting through the dense vegetation and I glanced at James, still uncertain how I felt about him as a person, hardly able to believe I was in a situation where I was stuck with him. Having to decide if I trusted him enough try and rest tonight. The guy seemed unnaturally calm about the fact he currently had dark, ancient magic, apparently at war with his mortal DNA.
"What do you think?" I asked looking around and trying to change the subject. "Think we've gone far enough in?"
"Hold that thought." He said lifting a finger as if he meant for me to be quiet while he glanced up at something in the trees.
He continued to squint up for a moment, then shook his head.
"I think we should keep moving."
"Why?" I asked surprised, less because I wanted to argue and more out of genuine curiosity.
"Because what ever did that." He said gesturing towards a series of broken branches and vines in the canopy above us. "Probably isn't the Minotaur, but I'd be willing to bet wasn't a chipmunk either."
"Harpies?" I asked automatically reaching for my bow and scanning the trees above us for monsters, but he shook his head.
"Those can fly, whatever came through here it looks like it fell." He gestured towards the remains of the broken branches not too far away as well as signs of crushed foliage and dirt that had been disturbed. "Hard."
It was the sort of observation Charlie would have made on a mission, and the feeling was so familiar, I had to catch myself from responding with a joke, uncomfortable by the thought that if forced together on a mission, it was possible James and I might have made a good team.
He frowned as he continued to look up, apparently noticed something he hadn't earlier.
"Hey, aren't you like the human equivalent of a torch or something?"
"What?" I asked a little confused thinking of flaming superheroes and he rolled his eyes.
"Flashlight, American." He explained his tone superior and I felt my jaw set in irritation.
"Yeah." I said stiffly, a little insulted at this comparison, but not willing to get into the finer points of my abilities with James of all people.
"Can you fix a light up there?" he asked curiously, gesturing towards a space in between the branches, where it looked as if something had been caught on one of the broken sprigs.
I debated saying something smart, but on balance decided against it.
"Yeah." I said flatly, pulling what little light I could out of the darkness and sending it drifting up towards the place James had indicated. I felt a jolt of shock go through me as I realized James had been right to take a closer look.
It hadn't been very visible in the dark, but now there was light reflecting off of it, it was clear that whatever had been caught on the branches was not a bit of vine or twig, it was metal.
"What do you make of that?" he asked craning his neck, clearly trying to get a better look. "Can you see it?"
"No, it's too high up." I said aiming my bow in the direction of the object.
"Seems like a bit of an ambitious shot." He said glancing at the number of branches and other obstacles in the way. "Think you can make it?"
"Shut up." I said without emotion, to intent on my target to really care what he was saying, but irritated by the distraction nonetheless.
I took a breath before letting the arrow loose, unsurprised as it threaded seamlessly through the trees, nicked through the tangle that had caught the object, and caught it automatically as it fell.
"You really are a good shot." He said sounding impressed, but I couldn't have cared less about the complement.
My heart had gone still as I turned the object over in my hands, and realized that I recognized the little charm. A silver owl hung on a little chain with a latch that allowed it to be attached to something like a set of keys or a back pack.
"Are you alright?" James asked when he caught my expression.
"This is Harper's." I said softly, feeling my heart rate pick up as I said it, not entirely sure why I was offering the information to one person in the world that was least likely to be trusted with it. "It's from her book bag, it was attached to the zipper."
His expression changed instantly.
"Are you sure?" he asked quickly.
"Yes." I said. I'd been the one to give it to her.
"So then she's on the island." He said suddenly looking alert and almost immediately a sick sensation spread through me as I realized, despite his stories, I had no reason to trust James.
He might have said he'd never wanted Harper to be involved, and that he needed her help, but he'd never said anything about giving up on taking control of the library or turning himself into the gods in her place. He'd never even hinted at it.
"We don't know that." I said quickly. "If she thought she was alone she might have moved on, she has the olives, or she could have gotten hurt form the fall, run into a monster, or gone back to the library to regroup…"
"No." he said scanning the area his eyes narrowed, suddenly looking like a hunting dog that had caught a sent. "She's a demigod not a doll, a fall from that height would have hurt but it wouldn't have downed her." He glanced up at the branches before starting to pace the area. "No blood or ichor from a monster, no evidence of a struggle. I've seen your girlfriend in action mate," he shot me grin at this, and for the first time tonight, it seemed genuine. "If she ran into something, we'd've seen the aftermath of the fight."
He shook his head, continuing to search our surroundings pulling out a flashlight of his own as he scoured the ground.
"Footprints." He said, gesturing towards a spot near the debris of Harper's fall. "Not ours." He said forestalling my readymade excuse. "They're too small and whoever made them is far too light."
"Maybe she's looking for us."
"Us?" he asked with a terse laugh. "No. if she was looking for anyone it would be you. And she doesn't have to wander around the rain forest to do that. You said she had a way to find you right?"
"Yes." I said unwillingly. If she'd managed to keep ahold of the olives that was.
"Then my guess is she found something." He said flashing the beam of his light around the clearing before resting back on the prints and despite the bitterness he'd shown about the situation, I saw a glitter of excitement enter his eyes. As if he was expecting the trail to lead towards a bit of an adventure.
"Something worth pushing forward for," he continued. "Even if it was alone."
….
I'd thought James was being ridiculous when he'd said Kronos had wanted to use him as a sort of scout, figuring he'd used the term to circumvent words like 'traitor' or 'spy'. But even I had to admit, I was a little impressed, maybe alarmed even, at how quickly he was able to pick up a trail and determine Harper's movements.
In this terrain, it wasn't easy to find prints.
I'd always assumed from the way he'd acted at camp, he was more of a city type, into a life where things were happening, a place where he could command the attention of everyone around him like he seemed to love to do at camp. But it surprised me to see that the James that was in front of me now seemed to be in his element, collected, calm, and able to pick up on things in a literal jungle that I wouldn't have spotted in a thousand life times.
Seriously, the guy could have been thrown on any nature or survivalist show, and given the host a run for their money.
"Well." He said, the beam of his flashlight resting on the stone owl looked not unlike the charm that I was still holding. "I'm guessing we're on the right track."
"Do you often find yourself trying to find wandering demigods in the jungle?" I asked him suspiciously.
"If Harper was wandering, she would have been much easier to find." He said scowling. "She's smart. She would have stuck to the water and followed it to the coast or high ground and she would have been moving a lot slower. If she was lost, she'd have wanted to be found. She'd have left markers, made it easier."
"That's assuming she thinks like you."
"She does." He said simply and at first, I thought he'd said it to annoy me, but his tone was matter of fact, and when I turned to say something, irritated, I noticed he was looking at me.
"That mean anything to you?"
He nodded towards the pool of illumination his flash light had cast on the ground in front of the cave, and I felt a jolt of surprise flash through me like an electric current.
"Yes." I said quickly as I recognized the numbers etched into the dirt at the cave entrance and what they meant.
2. 4. 2. 4.
'It will be okay'
James was right, Harper was here and she'd wanted me to know it. That she was, at least at the time, alright. And, like James had said, had made the choice to move on.
"Is it from Harper?"
I didn't answer, but it was clear that I didn't have to.
"What is it?" he asked interestedly. "Some sort of code? A location? An S.O.S?"
He seemed far more intrigued than concerned for that last one than I would have liked, and I felt a little resentment at James trying to worm his way into a message Harper had left for me, that she knew only I would understand.
"She's fine." I said stiffly. "You're probably right," I added a little grudgingly, irritated to admit it. "She's moving forward."
I dreaded to think James was right, and he and Harper were more similar than I'd like to believe.
There was a moment where neither of us spoke, and we simply looked at the cave entrance, and for once, I was pretty sure we were thinking along the same lines.
"Any idea what's in there?"
"Probably another one of the trials." He said his tone nonchalant, but I couldn't help but smirk a little.
"Like the one you failed?"
"Most likely a different one." He said a twinge of impatience in his tone. "But yes."
He hesitated, looking at the cave entrance for a moment longer before glancing at me.
"Is this the point where you try and shoot me again? Keep me away from her, protect your lady love etcetera?"
"I tried to shoot you." I said annoyed. "It didn't work."
"Giving up so easily are you?"
"No." I said shaking my head. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually agree with Kronos."
He looked at me, clearly confused.
"Harper's going to beat you to the key." I said confidently. "You already failed one test and I know you don't think I'm very smart, but even I'm not too dumb to realize that if she's here, the easiest way to find her is by following you. You guys are after the same thing."
"Maybe not." He said frowning. "But did you realize that if I'm right, you're going to have to face the trials as well?"
I felt my stomach drop.
That I hadn't thought of, and I could tell by his expression that James had known this.
"Still feeling confident?" he asked raising an eyebrow, and without waiting for an answer, started making his way towards the cave.
I hesitated for a moment, uncertain what I should do.
Harper hadn't said anything about the trials. The only things I'd known about them were from James who said they were dangerous. I didn't know what to expect.
'Does it really matter?' I thought uncertainly.
What did it matter if the trials were dangerous? I was a demigod, a son of Apollo. Dangerous was just basically what life was, and even if I knew nothing about them, other than that I would probably fail, what I did know was that Harper was on the other side.
In the end, there was only one choice.
I grabbed an arrow from my quiver and set it to my bow, but not before I scratched in the return to the message, just on the off chance Harper stumbled across it, and she would know I was here.
Under the line of numbers in Harper's familiar hand writing, I scratched the response in the soil.
1. 4.
'I know'
I then stepped forward, bow at the ready, and entered the cave.