Chapter 30: PJ

"This is stupid. What taxi service ends at 5pm!?" Delphi kicked at the ground, a cloud of gravel and dirt dust went up before settling once again.

"This one apparently." Rachel replied, sitting on the curb.

"Don't get smart with us Rachel, I've been waiting just as long as you have for them." Annabeth replied.

We had been waiting for Kassidy and Harry to come out of the woods for a while, and the sun was setting.

Suddenly, a cry came from within the woods and we were all on our feet.

Is it a monster? What's wrong? Are Harry and Kassidy okay?

Questions raced through my mind just as fast as I raced through the woods. We found Kassidy and Harry next to each other, Harry standing around her protectively while she was slumped against the tree, tears running down her face. We decided to watch them from a distance, not alerting them to ourselves.

When she stopped screaming and we could hear her hiccups, we decided that they would be fine together and we slunk back to the village without them.

"It was a death sentence. Chaining myself to you. Yet I did it. I serve her still, my body a bound vessel to serve their purposes." As we left, we heard Kassidy speak quietly, to herself or to Harry, I didn't know.

A few minutes later they emerged from the woods holding hands, Kassidy's eyes were red from crying but she didn't have tear tracks down her cheeks. They dropped their hands to their sides when they saw us waiting for them, likely having expected us to have gone inside with the dropping temperature.

"What-" Annabeth sent Delphi a quick glare, shutting her up.

Annabeth coughed once, and then spoke, "The taxi service stopped at 5pm, so we'll have to stay the night." She looked at the setting sun. "We should check in soon."

We stood outside for a little longer, even though we all knew that we should head in, the sooner the better, but we still waited, finally, Cassandra wrapped her arms around herself and started walking towards the front doors.

I blinked as I entered the lobby, bright florescent lights contrasting the warm glows of the street lamps lighting the outside path startled me, blinding myself for a moment.

The receptionist's desk was at the other end of the hall which was crowded with a storm of people, some with bags still on their shoulders.

We pushed our way through the swarm trying to reach the desk, when Nico was pulled aside by a man with greying hair and wire-framed glasses.

"Hello, Nico, it's good to see you again, how are you and Will doing?" Now this confused me, Nico only let a few people call him by his name, and I had never seen him before.

"Mr. Riordan, we are doing wonderfully, just on another quest..." Nico shook his hand and moved on, glancing back at him.

"Who was that?" Rylie asked before I could ask it.

"Oh, him? He's just the-" Nico was cut off by a blinding light, folding itself around us.