Comments:

Thank you to everyone who commented on my short chapter last time! It really means a lot lol.

As thanks, you're getting the opposite of a short chapter, perhaps my un-shortest chapter ever.

I hope you enjoy!

Armani P.O.V.

We'd arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. The air was cold and thin. Everything in sight was completely and utterly caked in snow, there were dirty mounds of it piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, even with how sunny it was.

My thin haori did nothing to help with the biting chill, I didn't usually get cold but by the time we got to Main Street I was starting to feel it. As we walked, I absently listened to Percy explain his conversation with Apollo—how he'd told him to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.

I felt extremely uneasy, 'A god appears and I have my own weird meeting?'

I tried not to let it distract me. I didn't want to send any of the others into a panic, but it was hard not to think of the looming deadline right in front of us, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods. The General had proved to be a much bigger threat than he had at first glance. Not to mention, the deadline was the winter solstice. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice.

None of it made sense.

We stopped in the middle of town. You could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.

"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."

"What do you mean? We have all we need right here." I said, jokingly pointing to a coffee shop, which I thought sounded so good at that moment.

"Yes," Zoe said. "Coffee is good."

"And some actual food," Percy said wearily.

Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you two go get us some food. Armani, Bianca, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

We agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with us, but she did.

Inside the store, we found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out of town unless you had your own car.

"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "That's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."

The clerk looked so lonely, I bid him a good day and waved goodbye. Then we headed back outside and stood on the porch.

"Wonderful," Thalia grumped. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."

"Thalia, the clerk said-"

"I know," she told me. "I'm checking anyway."

I let her go. I got it, it's hard to stand still while being as restless as demigods are. All half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of our inborn battlefield reflexes. We couldn't stand just waiting around, according to Percy, and that would honestly explain so much. Also, I had a feeling Thalia was still somewhat weirded out after last night.

Bianca and I stood together awkwardly. I mean… I had made my opinions on the matter very clear when she made her decision, and I'd never been alone with Bianca before. I wasn't sure what to say, especially now that she was a Hunter and everything.

'Hunters…'

"So… how do you like being a Hunter so far?" I asked, getting annoyed by the silence, leaning against the porch railing of the store.

She pursed her lips. "You're not still mad at me for joining, are you?"

"It was your decision," I closed my eyes and started feeling out the environment, "the only way I'd be mad is if you regretted it. But if you're happy then more power to ya."

"I'm not sure 'happy' is the right word, with Lady Artemis gone. But being a Hunter is definitely cool. I feel calmer somehow. Everything seems to have slowed down around me. I guess that's the immortality."

I cracked open an eye to look at her, trying to see the difference. She did seem more confident than before, more at peace. She didn't hide her face under a green cap anymore. She kept her hair tied back, and she looked me right in the eyes when she spoke. In all honesty, the difference was negligible, if anything it was the boost of confidence she got from being a hunter. But other than that, she still seemed exactly the same.

The same as she would centuries from now.

"Nico didn't understand my decision," Bianca murmured. She looked at me like she wanted assurance it was okay.

I choose to stay silent for a moment, trying to figure out how to word my statement without making her feel guilty, "I'm not the best one to ask, I only recently arrived at camp half-blood myself, I stayed with Percy before that."

Bianca looked at me like I'd grown a second head, "But you're so skilled!"

I snorted, "Yeah, like all that 'skill' helped back at the museum."

"But you took out the Ne-"

"That wasn't me!" I shouted, breathing heavily.

'That wasn't me that wasn't me that wasn't me'

I tried to reassure myself, but all I could remember was the feeling of my own hands ripping through flesh and bones, effortlessly coming apart as I pulled and slashed and-

I sighed, shaking my head, "Sorry, I just- can we move on please?" I asked.

She looked startled, but nodded regardless.

I sat up suddenly as I felt Zoe and Percy approaching from a couple hundred yards away, Zoe laughing at something, probably at Percy's expense based on the emotions he was giving off.

They both held pastry bags and drinks. I kind of didn't want them to come back yet. It was weird, but just being there with someone who didn't know me too well, even if it was Biance, was somewhat calming to my senses.

"So what's the story with you and Nico?" I asked her. "Where did you go to school before Westover?"

She frowned. "I think it was a boarding school in D.C. It seems like so long ago."

"You never lived with your parents? I mean, your mortal parent?"

"We were told our parents were dead. There was a bank trust for us. A lot of money, I think. A lawyer would come by once in a while to check on us. Then Nico and I had to leave that school."

'More questions…'

"Why?"

She knit her eyebrows. "We had to go somewhere. I remember it was important. We traveled a long way. And we stayed in this hotel for a few weeks. And then… I don't know. One day a different lawyer came to get us out. He said it was time for us to leave. He drove us back east, through D.C. Then up into Maine. And we started going to Westover."

It was… odd, to say the least. Then again, with Bianca and Nico nothing seemed normal, even for demigod standards.

"So you've been raising Nico pretty much all your life?" I asked. "Just the two of you?"

She nodded. "That's why I wanted to join the Hunters so bad. I mean, I know it's selfish, but I wanted my own life and friends. I love Nico—don't get me wrong—I just needed to find out what it would be like not to be a big sister twenty-four hours a day."

It still irked me slightly to think about, as someone who had no family before Percy, and before that…

What was before that? I racked my mind momentarily before giving up reluctantly.

'Weird.'

"Zoe seems to trust you," I said after a moment. "You should take pride in that at least, don't back away from your decision, it's something you'll carry for the rest of your life."

I was saved from further conversation when Zoe and Percy arrived with the drinks and pastries. Hot chocolate for Bianca and me. Coffee for them. I got a blueberry muffin, and it was so good I could almost ignore the outraged look Bianca was giving me.

"We need some kind of tracking spell," Zoe said. "Armani, do you have any other abilities in your back pocket?"

I stood up and dusted myself off, "Umm," I thought. "Maybe, I can try something, but I can't guarantee—"

I froze.

A warm breeze rustled past, like a gust of springtime had gotten lost in the middle of winter. Fresh air seasoned with wildflowers and sunshine.

The amount of raw energy was overwhelming, pouring over me like an ocean, an ocean I would be crushed under.

There was something else amidst it all—almost like a voice, trying to say something. A warning.

Zoe gasped. "Armani, your cup."

I managed to look down, immediately dropping the coffee cup, which was decorated with pictures of birds. Suddenly the birds peeled off the cup and flew away—a flock of tiny doves.

I felt my legs give out from under me, I could barely make out the steam rolling off my body. Through the overflow of energy, I could feel my previous energy and fatigue being worked away, all the excess energy moving throughout my body at a rapid pace. There was something more, like someone was deliberately poking around, looking for something.

I barely registered the footfall in the snow as someone approached us rapidly.

"Hey!" Thalia said, running up from the street. "I just… What's wrong with Armani?"

"I don't know," Percy said, hovering slightly out of arm's reach, probably to avoid the steam. "She just started steaming and dropped."

"I-I'm okay, just-Urgh- A lot of raw energy started flowing," I groaned.

"Well, get her up!" Thalia said. She had her spear in her hand. She looked behind her as if she were being followed. "We have to get out of here."

Thalia and Percy helped me up and supported me as we went. We made it to the edge of the town before the first two skeleton warriors appeared.

They stepped from the trees on either side of the road. Instead of gray camouflage, they were now wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms, but they had the same transparent gray skin and yellow eyes.

They drew their handguns. I'll admit I used to think it would be kind of cool to learn how to shoot a gun, but I changed my mind as soon as the skeleton warriors pointed theirs at me.

Thalia let go of me and tapped her bracelet. Aegis spiraled to life on her arm, but the warriors didn't flinch. Their glowing yellow eyes bored right into me.

Percy drew Riptide, though I wasn't sure what good it would do against guns.

Zoe and Bianca drew their bows.

"Move," I said simply, raising my hand upwards. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but I hoped it worked

I started to feel a change in the air around us, but then I heard a rustling of branches. Two more skeletons appeared on the road behind us. We were surrounded.

I wondered where the other skeletons were. I'd seen a dozen at the Smithsonian. Then one of the warriors raised a cell phone to his mouth and spoke into it. Except he wasn't speaking. He made a clattering, clicking sound, like dry teeth on bone.

Suddenly it made sense. The skeletons had split up to look for us. They were calling their friend, and Soon we'd have a full party on our hands.

"fuck," I moaned, the energy was still rapidly spinning through my body, but I could feel it cooling off, "I need more time…"

"I'm not sure if we can manage that, Armani," Percy said.

"You don't get it," I insisted. "The Nature Energy in the area just spiked, Percy, I have more energy than I can get rid of…"

I watched his eyes widen, "Armani, What-"

"I need more time." I hissed, still trying to circle the energy through my body.

"Then we'll have to go one-on-one," Thalia said. "Four of them. Four of us. Maybe they'll ignore Armani until she's ready."

"As much as I hate relying on her, I have to agree," said Zoe.

"Let me help with that." A Voice echoed through my head, one I recognized now.

My eyes widened in surprise as the pressure began to lessen, 'Omen.'

At the same time a warm wind blew through the canyon, rustling the trees, but I kept my eyes on the skeletons. I remembered the General gloating over his assured victory, I remembered the feeling of fear as humans bore down on us.

And again I felt the world change.

I could hear a slight gasp from one of the others, but I couldn't find it in me to care.

I felt the snap and shift as the energy strengthened my body, I didn't transform this time. But I was close, I could feel it, the untamed wild aura, like it was pinned on the other side of a glass wall. I could feel the changes from the flowing energy, trying quickly to direct and channel it, feeling the animalistic instincts at the back of my mind.

But this time I was in control.

So I charged.

The Jade sword, as I had dubbed it due to its colour, materialized in my hand. The first skeleton fired. Everything felt much slower than before. I was almost sure I could see the bullet, I could definitely feel its path, the same way I felt energy move around me. I dipped under the bullet, and kept up my assault

The skeleton closest to me drew a baton, I jumped up and landed on its shoulders.

"Woah there buddy, let's not lose our heads yeah?" I grinned maniacally, feeling the energy pulse through my veins like lightning.

Then I reached down and using my hand that wasn't holding the sword, I gripped the jaw of the skeleton's head, and yanked it upward. There was a sickening crack! as I separated the head from the neck.

I hopped off and watched as the bones clattered to the asphalt in a heap. Almost immediately, they began to move, reassembling themselves. The second skeleton clattered his teeth at me and tried to fire, but I knocked his gun into the snow.

The next few minutes were a rush of spinning and dodging. I thought I was doing pretty well, until I heard two gunshots go off, followed by a scream.

"Percy!" Thalia screamed.

I whipped around, coming face to face with the muzzle of another gun. I grunted and quickly knocked it away before tearing the skeleton apart.

I looked towards the source of the scream, seeing Percy laid face down in the street. Then I realized something… he wasn't dead.

The Nemean Lion's fur! His coat was bulletproof. I sighed in relief at that, then almost Immediately I was bombarded by another skeleton.

"This is getting annoying!" I growled out, my voice having much more of an edge than usual.

"You don't have much time left. You're tearing your own body apart."

I grunted, I didn't trust Omen, but I had a feeling that any harm that came to me wasn't good for him, and he wasn't lying. I could feel the strain and pull on my muscles, the creak of my bones each time I dodged or struck, my injuries may have been healed, but the excess power was still hurting my body.

'I need to get rid of it…'

Everyone else was focused on the other two skeletons, while I fought two on my own, and even with the excess energy I still had, I could tell this wasn't going to last forever, and the others didn't have the same capacity of stamina that I had.

"We can't keep going forever!" I shouted across the street, dodging another swat from a baton, slowly making my way back towards the others. This was starting to get tricky, I couldn't do anything big without possibly catching the others in the crossfire, my jade sword wasn't of any help to me, not unless I could suddenly figure out what all the seals on it did.

I finally found myself back to back with the others.

"Plan?" Percy asked.

"Run. Now." I said, nobody said anything else and we ran. The trees behind the skeletons were shivering. Branches were cracking.

"What the-" I muttered.

And then, with a mighty roar, the largest pig I'd ever seen came crashing into the road.

It was a wild boar, thirty feet high, with a snotty pink snout and tusks the size of canoes. Its back bristled with brown hair, and its eyes were wild and angry.

"REEEEEEEEET!" it squealed, and raked the three skeletons aside with its tusks. The force was so great, they went flying over the trees and into the side of the mountain, where they smashed to pieces, thigh bones and arm bones twirling everywhere.

Then the pig turned on us.

Thalia raised her spear, but I held my hand up to block her, "Don't kill it.'"

The boar grunted and pawed the ground, ready to charge.

"That's the Erymanthian Boar," Zoe said, trying to stay calm. "I don't think we can kill it."

"This is no coincidence," I said. "I think it may be a gift."

The boar screeched "REEEEEEET!" and swung its tusk. Zoe and Bianca dived out of the way. I had to push Percy so he wouldn't get launched into the mountain on the Boar Tusk Express.

"Ok, maybe I should take that back." I said. "Scatter!"

We ran in different directions, and for a moment the boar was confused.

"It wants to kill us!" Thalia said.

"Well," I said. "It is wild!"

"So how is that a blessing?" Bianca asked.

I was about to retort, but the pig was suddenly offended and charged her. She was faster than I'd realized. She rolled out of the way of its hooves and came up behind the beast.

It lashed out with its tusks and pulverized the WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT sign. I racked my brain, trying to remember anything about the boar. I was almost completely sure Hercules had fought this thing once, but I couldn't remember how he'd beaten it. There was a fleeting memory of the boar plowing down several Greek cities before Hercules managed to subdue it. I could only chuckle inwardly at the thought.

'I hope they have insurance.'

"Keep moving!" Zoe yelled. She and Bianca ran in opposite directions. Percy danced around the boar, looking for an opening while narrowly avoiding the giant tusks, but Thalia and I won the prize for bad luck. When the boar turned on us, Thalia made the mistake of raising Aegis in defense. The sight of the Medusa head made the boar squeal in outrage.

"Fuck-" I gasped.

Maybe the ugly shield reminded the boar of itself, The boar charged us.

We only managed to keep ahead of it because we ran uphill, and we could dodge in and out of trees while the boar had to plow through them.

On the other side of the hill, I found an old stretch of train tracks, half buried in the snow.

"This way.'" I grabbed Thalia's arm and we ran along the rails while the boar roared behind us, slipping and sliding as it tried to navigate the steep hillside. Its hooves just were not made for this, thank the gods.

Ahead of us, I saw a covered tunnel. Past that, an old trestle bridge spanning a gorge. I had a crazy idea.

"Move!"

Thalia slowed down—I didn't have time to ask why—but I pulled her along and she reluctantly followed. Behind us, a ten-ton pig tank was knocking down pine trees and crushing boulders under its hooves as it chased us.

Thalia and I ran into the tunnel and came out on the other side.

"No!" Thalia screamed.

She'd turned as white as ice. We were at the edge of the bridge. Below, the mountain dropped away into a snow-filled gorge about seventy feet below.

The boar was right behind us.

"Come on!" I said. "It'll hold our weight."

"I can't!" Thalia yelled. Her eyes were wild with fear, just like in the chariot.

The boar smashed into the covered tunnel, tearing through at full speed.

"You can do this! So move!" I yelled at Thalia.

She looked down and swallowed. I swear she was turning green.

I didn't have time to process much. The boar was charging through the tunnel, straight toward us. Plan B. I tackled Thalia and sent us both sideways off the edge of the bridge, into the side of the mountain. We slid on Aegis like a snow-board, over rocks and mud and snow, racing downhill. The boar was less fortunate, it couldn't turn that fast, so all ten tons of the monster charged out onto the tiny trestle, which buckled under its weight.

The boar free-fell into the gorge with a mighty squeal and landed in a snowdrift with a huge POOOOOF!

Thalia and I skidded to a stop. We were both breathing hard. I was cut up and bleeding. Thalia had pine needles in her hair. Next to us, the wild boar was squealing and struggling. All I could see was the bristly tip of its back. It was wedged completely in the snow like Styrofoam packing. It didn't seem to be hurt, but it wasn't going anywhere, either.

I looked at Thalia. "So… you're afraid of heights."

Now that we were safely down the mountain, her eyes had their usual angry look.

"Don't be stupid."

"That explains a lot actually. It's nothing to be ashamed of, really."

She took a deep breath. Then she brushed the pine needles out of her hair. "If you tell anyone, I swear-"

"No, I'd never do that," I said. "I mean, I'm afraid of the dark, that's much stupider than being afraid of heights, so don't worry about it. Good job, by the way." I smiled slightly, watching amusedly as Thalia's face flushed.

She looked like she was about to ask me something when, above us, Percy's voice called,

"Hey, you numbskulls alive?"

"Down here!" I shouted.

A few minutes later, Zoe, Bianca, and Percy joined us. We stood watching the wild boar struggle in the snow.

"A blessing from Nature," I said, looking it over, it made me feel slightly agitated.

"I agree," Zoe said. "We must use it."

"Hold up," Thalia said irritably. She still looked like she'd just lost a fight with a Christmas tree, it was hilarious and it took all I had not to laugh, "Explain to me why you're so sure this pig is a blessing."

I looked over, thinking. "It's our ride west. Do you have any idea how fast this boar can travel?"

"Fun," Percy said. "Like… pig cowboys." The comment got him smacked in the back of the head by Zoe.

I nodded. "We need to use it. I'm more curious as to the raw energy that flowed through here a few minutes ago."

"What energy?" Thalia asked.

I ignored her for the moment. I walked over to the boar and put my hand out. The previous boost of energy was fading from my body, but the excess amount was still in my reserves, and I needed to lower the amount. Quickly.

The others watched as the boar was starting to make some headway through the drift. Once it broke free, there'd be no stopping it. I focused on the mind of the boar, directing my energy to its entire aura. I grunted at the backlash, someone I couldn't see made steps towards me.

"Stop, I need to burn energy and," I gasped slightly, trying to wrangle the boar through the link, "Someone needs to control the boar."

"Is she going to keep doing this?" Thalia murmured, hearing a low hum of agreement from Percy. "Great."

I pushed one final burst of energy through the link, feeling a snap as I broke the barrier and made it in.

Just one simple command, that's all it took.

'We need a ride.'

The boar suddenly stood calm, looking over me quizzically before lowering it's back for us to, hopefully, climb on it.

I gestured for the others, who were giving me more odd looks. I turned away and climbed onto the boar.

'Sometimes I hate these powers.'

'They fear what they cannot grasp, even demigods.'

'Yeah…'

Zoe and Bianca walked toward the boar.

"Wait a second," I heard Percy ask. "Do you two know what Armani is talking about—this energy?"

"Of course," Zoe said. "Did you not feel it in the wind? It was so strong… I never thought I would sense that presence again."

"What presence?"

She stared at me like I was an idiot. "The Lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, in the arrival of the boar, I felt the presence of Pan."

We rode the boar until sunset, which was about as much as my back could take, even being all healed up at this point. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was. What made it even worse was the tail, bouncing on the back of the boar did nothing to help either. Stupidly, I realized I could just wrap the tail around my waist, I honestly forgot it was there sometimes. I needed to figure out what to do with it once this was all over.

I have no idea how many miles we covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until we were galloping (do boars gallop?) across the desert. I took the time to sort through the flow of aura in my body, I was at about ninety-five percent capacity now. It was hard to grasp exact numbers, especially when I'm pretty sure my reserves had grown after my… metamorphosis.

As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.

"This is as far as he'll go," I said. "We should get off while he's eating."

Nobody needed convincing. We slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then we waddled away as best we could with our saddle sores. After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.

"It certainly likes the mountains much better," I muttered.

"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of us was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoe Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills… but then I noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Whoa," I said. "That's-"

"Insane." Percy finished for me, his mouth open in awe.

"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at me. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

I closed my eyes, sticking my hands out to my sides, pushing the aura in my body out as far as it could go, then pulling it back in just as quickly. I opened my eyes and held out my palm, five little lights of silver energy floated on it.

"That's us," I said. "Those five lights right here."

"Which one is me?" Percy asked.

"The little deformed one," Zoe suggested.

I snorted, "Nice one." my response got a small chuckle from Zoe, it was good to see she could still do that.

"Oh, shut up." Percy moped, "Even my own sister has sided against me."

Another bigger light appeared slightly off my palm, floating in the open air, "That cluster right there," I said, ignoring Percy's antics, "that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

I felt uneasy. "I don't know, which doesn't make sense. I should be able to feel everything, but it's like everything around here is muddied…"

"What I do know is we need to go through there," I pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.

We decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of us wanted to go Dumpster-diving in the dark.

Zoe and Bianca produced five sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. I don't know how they did it without seals, so they must've been enchanted to hold so much stuff. I'd noticed their bows and quivers were also magic. I never really thought about it, but when the Hunters needed them, they just appeared slung over their backs. And when they didn't, they were gone.

'Another similarity, will they never cease?'

'Kind of a dumb thing to ask when you know who your mother is kiddo.'

I felt my teeth grinding at the calm aura of Omen, 'Enough. Leave me alone.'

I could almost feel the shrug that Omen seemed to make, 'Whatever you say, Queen.'

And just like that, his presence was gone, leaving me alone to ponder his last word.

Queen.

The night got chilly fast, so Percy and I collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon we were about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

"The stars are out," Zoe said.

She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.

"Amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."

"This is nothing," Zoe said. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."

"You talk like you're not human," I said.

Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"

"For you," Thalia corrected. "Not thee"

"But you use you for the beginning of a sentence."

"And for the end," Thalia said. "No thou. No thee. Just you"

Zoe threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often!"

I sighed, "To answer your question Zoe, well…" I held up a hand, one that was bathed in the flickering silver light, like a transparent flame. "I think we all know where I stand."

Zoe nodded, "That still bothers me."

"What does?" I said, letting the light extinguish itself.

"Just- everything about you!" She exclaimed, "the way you use energy, the way you bend it, and… and…"

"My parent?" I asked quietly, pushing dirt around with the tip of my fingers, "Trust me, I'm not happy about it either.

"You aren't happy with your power?" Zoe asked surprised.

I scowled, taking a knife from my bag and throwing it, summoning it back to my hand a moment later, "I don't care about my power. What I care about is the dream where Artemis denied my existence, so to answer the question you're too afraid to ask. No, I'm not the biggest fan of Artemis."

I watched the others perk up at the mention of my dream and I wanted to slap myself, I said too much, and now they were going to push me for more information. So I decided to change the subject before they could.

"The surge of Nature Energy earlier topped out my reserves again," I pulled up my shirt slightly to reveal my midsection, which was littered with scars, "and healed all the injuries I got in the museum, whatever it was, I'm not complaining."

The group was quiet again, Thalia and Zoe fixed me with a look, and Percy just glanced away, and in my stupidity it took me a moment to figure out why.

'You forgot the old scars that plague you.'

I growled at the presence, feeling it dissipate again a moment later. He was right though, and I hated it. I was too comfortable, even with the arguments, sometimes in moments like this it felt like we were just a couple of kids.

And I hated it.

"What I want to know," Thalia said, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them."

Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."

"Maybe there's something special about your knife," Percy said.

"It is the same as mine," Zoe said. "Celestial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."

"Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot," I said, even though I knew that wasn't it. My eyes peered at Bianca, the same aura I felt the day I met the two siblings clung to her.

Bianca looked uncomfortable with everybody paying attention to her.

"Never mind," Zoe told her. "We will find the answer. In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."

I was about to protest that Percy had bad experiences in that town, but Bianca beat us to it.

"No!" she said. "Not there!"

She looked really freaked out, like she'd just been dropped off the steep end of a roller coaster.

Zoe frowned. "Why?"

Bianca took a shaky breath. "I… I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember…"

Suddenly I had a really bad thought. I remembered what Bianca had told me about Nico and her staying in a hotel for a while. I met Percy's eyes, and I got the feeling he was thinking the same thing.

"Bianca," Percy said. "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"

"Oh, great," I said.

"Wait," Thalia said. "What is the Lotus Casino?"

"A couple of years ago," I said, "Grover, Annabeth, and Percy got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. According to Percy, they stayed for about an hour. When they came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."

"No," Bianca said. "No, that's not possible."

"You said somebody came and got you out," I remembered.

"Yes."

"What did he look like? What did he say?"

"I… I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."

Zoe sat forward, her eyebrows knit with concern. "You said that Washington, D.C., had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."

"Yes, but—"

"Bianca," Zoe said, "can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"

"Don't be silly," Bianca said. She told us the correct name of the president. "And who was the president before that?" Zoe asked.

Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt."

Zoe swallowed. "Theodore or Franklin'?"

"Franklin," Bianca said. "F.D.R."

"Bianca," Zoe said. "F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years ago."

"That's impossible," Bianca said. "I… I'm not that old."

She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.

Thalia's eyes turned sad. I guess she knew what it was like to get pulled out of time for a while. "It's okay, Bianca, The important thing is you and Nico are safe. You made it out."

"But how?" I said. "If Percy was only in there for a few hours, and barely managed to escape, then how? Who came and got you, and what did they want?"

"I told you." Bianca looked about ready to cry. "A man came and said it was time to leave. And—"

"But who? Why did he do it?"

Before she could answer, we were hit with a blazing light from down the road. The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. I was half hoping it was Apollo, come to give us a ride again, but the engine was way too silent for the sun chariot, and besides, it was nighttime. We grabbed our sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of us.

The back door of the limo opened right next to me. Before I could step away, the point of a sword touched my throat. I growled and put my palm up to the flat of the blade and pushed it away, if they really wanted to kill me, they wouldn't have done that.

I heard the sound of Zoe and Bianca drawing their bows. As the owner of the sword got out of the car, I moved back very slowly. I wanted to make sure this guy wouldn't try anything.

He smiled cruelly. "Well you're certainly a new face, who're you punk?"

He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes, but I knew what was behind those glasses—hollow sockets filled with flames.

"Ares," Percy growled.

The war god glanced at my friends. "At ease, people."

He snapped his fingers, and their weapons fell to the ground.

"This is a friendly meeting. Of course I'd like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"What lady?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her. "Well, well. I heard you were back."

He lowered his sword and pushed me away.

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus," Ares mused. "You're not hanging out with very good company."

"What's your business, Ares?" she said. "Who's in the car?"

Ares smiled, enjoying the attention. "Oh, I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoe and Bianca. "Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait? Only take Percy, and this one here a few minutes."

"We will not leave them alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoe said.

"Besides," Percy managed, "the taco place is closed."

Ares snapped his fingers again. The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life.

The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "You were saying, fishcakes?"

"Go on," Percy told the others, "We'll handle this."

He probably tried to sound more confident than he felt. But I don't think Ares was fooled.

"You heard the boy," Ares said. "He's big and strong. He's got things under control."

The others reluctantly headed over to the taco restaurant. Ares regarded us with loathing, then opened the limousine door like a chauffeur.

"Get inside, punks," he said. "And mind your manners. She's not as forgiving of rudeness as I am."

When I saw her, my jaw dropped.

I forgot my name. I forgot where I was. I forgot how to speak in complete sentences.

She was wearing a black dress and her hair was curled in a cascade of ringlets. Her face was one of the most beautiful I'd ever seen: Shining eyes, a smile that would've lit up the dark side of the moon, nothing out of place.

Thinking back on it, I can't tell you who she looked like. And I wasn't sure I wanted to.

It was like everything you wanted in a person was taken and dialed up to eleven when you looked at her…

'Son of a bitch.'

When she smiled at me, just for a moment she looked a little like a familiar black haired girl. Which sent my mind reeling because, no not possible, definitely not… nope…

"Ah, there you two are, Percy, Armani, " the goddess said. "I am Aphrodite."

I slipped into the seat across from her and grunted, "hn." Percy was not handling himself as well but, at least he wasn't stuttering out nonsense, choosing to stay silent instead.

She smiled. "Aren't you sweet. Hold this, please."

She handed Percy a polished mirror the size of a dinner plate and had him hold it up for her. She leaned forward and dabbed at her lipstick, though I couldn't see anything wrong with it.

"Do you know why you're here?" she asked.

I wanted to respond. But in my experience, it was better to wait and let said god or goddess speak before you tried to answer them, unless you wanted to end up as a toad or something.

'Could they do that?'

I looked over at Percy, who was still floundering like a fish out of water, So I pinched his arm, hard.

"I… I don't know," He managed.

"Oh, dear," Aphrodite said. "Still in denial?"

Outside the car, I could hear Ares chuckling. I had a feeling he could hear every word we said. The idea of him being out there made me angry, and that helped clear my mind.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

"Well then, why are you on this quest?"

"Artemis has been captured!"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Oh, Artemis. Please. Talk about a hopeless case. I mean, if they were going to kidnap a goddess, she should be breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? I pity the poor dears who have to imprison Artemis. Bo-ring!"

Her gaze fell onto me, "Or at least, that's what I would have said until you came along."

I felt my entire body tense, I could feel the gaze of the goddess pouring over my body like a sheet of flowing water.

"How did she do it? If she ever fell in love I would have definitely known…" She trailed off, giving me another once over before turning back to Percy, She made him hold the mirror a little higher. She seemed to have found a microscopic problem at the corner of her eye and dabbed at her mascara.

"There's always some quest. But my dear demigods, that is why the others are on this quest. I'm more interested in you."

My heart pounded. I didn't want to answer, but her eyes drew an answer right out of my mouth. "Is this about… Me and Artemis?"

Aphrodite beamed. "Exactly!"

I swallowed, "Why?"

"I'm the god of love, in all forms, and even though you may say otherwise, you're still lon-"

"Ok, no. You have no idea what you're talking about" I said, Percy fixed a glare on me, probably for interrupting a goddess that could vaporize me with less than a look.

She made a tsk-tsk sound. "Armani, I'm on your side. I'm the reason you've been so comfortable after all."

I stared at her. "What?"

"The way you've been warming up to everyone rather quickly, when you're normally quite shy and distant," she said. "Did you think that was normal? Just suddenly feeling rather attached to a bigger group of people?"

"Excuse me?" I said, shocked.

"Of course! Because really, I can only bring those feelings to the surface after all! So deep down, you must have been very, very lonely."

I felt like I was choking on the very air itself "Stop, I never said—"

"Oh, my dear. You don't need to say it. Hmm, you know Thalia almost joined the Hunters at one point?"

I felt my face flush. "I'm not sure what that has to do with anything—"

"She was about to throw her life away! And you, it seems you have changed the entire outcome of someone's life. You just have a knack for that don't you?"

'A knack for… changing outcomes?'

"Oh, put the mirror down," Aphrodite ordered. "I look fine."

I hadn't realized Percy was still holding it, but as soon as he put it down, I noticed how he winced and flexed his arms.

"Now listen, Percy," Aphrodite said. "The Hunters are your enemies. Forget them and Artemis and the monster. That's not important. You really should just forget about them and be with annabeth."

Percy tensed, "What does she have to do with anything?"

Aphrodite waved her hand irritably. "And you Armani, be careful of how you proceed, there are many who would try and get in your way. But I have a feeling you don't care much about that, no?"

I grunted, leaning forward, "I still have no idea where any of this is going, and why you're telling me this."

"Not knowing is half the fun," Aphrodite said. "Exquisitely painful, isn't it? Not being sure who you love and who loves you? Oh, you kids! It's so cute I'm going to cry."

"No, no," I said. "Don't do that."

"And don't worry," she said. "I'm not going to let this be easy and boring for you. No, I have some wonderful surprises in store. Anguish. Indecision. Oh, you just wait."

"That's really okay," Percy told her. "Don't go to any trouble."

"You're so cute. I wish all my daughters could break the heart of a boy as nice as you." Aphrodite's eyes were tearing up. "Now, you'd better go. And do be careful in my husband's territory. Don't take anything. He is awfully fussy about his trinkets and trash."

"What?" I asked. "You mean Hephaestus?"

But the car door opened and Ares grabbed my shoulder, and then Percy's, pulling us out of the car and back into the desert night.

Our audience with the goddess of love was over.

"You're lucky, punk." Ares pushed Percy away from the limo. "Be grateful."

"For what?"

"That we're being so nice. If it was up to me—"

"So why haven't you killed me?" Percy shot back. It was a stupid thing to say to the god of war, but being around him always made you feel angry and reckless.

Ares nodded, like he'd finally said something intelligent.

"I'd love to kill you, seriously," he said. "But see, I got a situation. Word on Olympus is that you might start the biggest war in history. I can't risk messing that up. Besides, Aphrodite thinks you're some kinda soap-opera star or something. I kill you, that makes me look bad with her. But don't worry. I haven't forgotten my promise. Someday soon, kid—real soon—you're going to raise your sword to fight, and you're going to remember the wrath of Ares."

Percy grinned, "Why wait? I beat you once. How's that ankle healing up?"

He grinned crookedly. "Not bad, punk. But you got nothing on the master of taunts. I'll start the fight when I'm good and ready. Until then… Get lost."

He snapped his fingers and the world did a three-sixty, spinning in a cloud of red dust. I fell to the ground.

When I stood up again, the limousine was gone. The road, the taco restaurant, the whole town of Gila Claw was gone. My friends and I were standing in the middle of the junkyard, mountains of scrap metal stretched out in every direction.

"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked, once I'd told them about Aphrodite.

Percy was quiet, so I spoke instead "Oh," I lied, looking over at Thalia. "It was personal, and she said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up."

Zoe narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Armani. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."

"For once I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

I glanced over at Percy, I felt bad for him. Being able to read emotions and all, and Percy's were all over the place at the moment. I'd have to have a talk with him later, but that didn't mean I didn't see the glances he kept sending Zoe.

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject, "how do we get out of here?"

"That way," Zoe said. "That is west."

"How can you tell?" Percy asked, snapping out of his stupor.

In the light of the full moon, I was surprised how well I could see her roll her eyes at me. "Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west."

She pointed west, then at the northern constellation, which was hard to make out because there were so many other stars.

"Oh, yeah," Percy said. "The bear thing."

Zoe looked offended, and I winced. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

"You act like it was real."

"Guys," I broke in. "Look!"

We'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

"Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff… some of it looks like real gold."

"It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."

"Look!" Bianca said. She raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!"

She yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink, and became a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon. "It's just like Percy's sword! And Armani's!"

Zoe's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

"But—"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."

Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.

"I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear.

"You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" I heard Percy ask and I laughed, getting looks from the others. What can I say? I needed a laugh.

She gave Percy a hard look. "Zoe is right, Percy. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now come on, let's get across the yard."

"That's the second time you've agreed with Zoe," He muttered, but Thalia ignored him. We started picking our way through the hills and valleys of junk. The stuff seemed to go on forever, and if it hadn't been for Ursa Major, we would've gotten lost. All the hills pretty much looked the same.

I'd like to say we left the stuff alone, but there was too much cool junk not to check out some of it. I found a collection of pens and sketchbooks that made me think of my sketching desk back home. Percy found an electric guitar.

Finally, we saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of us, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. But between us and the road…

"What is that?" Bianca gasped.

Ahead of us was a hill much bigger and longer than the others. It was like a metal mesa, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together.

Bianca frowned. "They look like—"

"Toes," Percy said.

Bianca nodded. "Really, really large toes."

Zoe and Thalia exchanged nervous looks.

"Let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."

"But the road is right over there," Percy protested. "Quicker to climb over."

I shook my head, "I agree with Thalia, better to go around. We have no idea what the hell this thing is."

"Come on." Thalia looked at me. "Around."

I didn't argue. The toes were starting to freak me out, too. I mean, who sculpts ten-feet tall metal toes and sticks them in a junkyard? After several minutes of walking, we finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.

"We made it out," Zoe said. "Thank the gods."

But apparently the gods didn't want to be thanked. At that moment, I heard a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal.

I whirled around. Behind us, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. The ten toes tilted over, and I realized why they looked like toes. They were toes. The thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armor. He was impossibly tall—a skyscraper with legs and arms. He gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at us, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off. His joints creaked with rust, and across his armored chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words WASH ME.

"Talos!" Zoe gasped.

"Who—who's Talos?" Percy stuttered.

"One of Hephaestus's creations," Thalia said. "But that can't be the original. It's too small. A prototype, maybe. A defective model. "

The metal giant didn't like the word defective.

He moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. The sound of it coming out of its sheath was horrible, metal screeching against metal. The blade was a hundred feet long, easy. It looked rusty and dull, but I didn't figure that mattered. Getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a battleship.

"Someone took something," Zoe said. "Who took something?"

She stared accusingly at Percy.

Percy shook his head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."

Bianca didn't say anything. I could swear she looked guilty, I narrowed my eyes and was about to say something. But I didn't have much time to think about it, because the giant defective Talos took one step toward us, closing half the distance and making the ground shake.

"Run!" I yelled.

Great advice, except that it was hopeless. On a leisurely stroll, this thing could outdistance us easily.

We split up, the way we'd done with the Nemean Lion. Thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded in sparks and scattered across Thalia's path.

Zoe's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal.

Bianca and I ended up next to each other, hiding behind a broken chariot.

"You took something," I said. "That bow."

"No!" she said, but her voice was quivering.

"Give it back!" I said. "Throw it down!"

"I… I didn't take the bow! Besides, it's too late."

"What did you take?" I asked slowly.

Before she could answer, I heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky.

"Move!" I tore down the hill, Bianca right behind me, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd been hiding.

"Hey, Talos!" Percy yelled, he had ended up next to Thalia and Zoe, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and me.

Percy quickly held his hand up, From the looks of it he was trying to summon water from the air. A good plan, but the air here was too dry to draw quickly enough. I could see that he was straining, but he wasn't going to be able to do it, he simply hadn't practiced enough.

"Come on!" I told Bianca. But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god. "It… it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."

"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" I said.

There were tears in her eyes.

"Throw it down," I said. "It's possible the giant will leave us alone."

She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened.

The giant kept coming after Percy. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Percy by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then I couldn't see him anymore. "No!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again.

It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. There weren't any emotions in its half melted face, but I got the sense that it was about as ticked off as a twenty-story-tall metal warrior could be. He raised his foot to stomp and I saw that his sole was treaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole, and there were red words painted around it, which I deciphered only after the foot came down: FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY.

"Time to pull a Percy," I said. "And by that, I mean it's time to try something stupid and dangerous, you in?" I looked at Bianca.

Bianca looked at me nervously. "Anything."

I told her about the maintenance hatch. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."

"How? You'll have to stand under its foot! You'll be crushed!"

"Distract it," I said. "I'll just have to time it right."

Bianca's jaw tightened. "No. I'll go."

"You can't. You're new at this! You'll die."

"It's my fault the monster came after us," she said. "It's my responsibility-"

"Hell no! I don't care if this is your fault or not! I'm not gonna let you die, so you either distract it, or I'm sending you to Percy."

But she wasn't waiting for me. She charged at the monster's left foot.

"Fucking-!" I raced after her.

Thalia had its attention for the moment. She'd learned that the giant was big but slow. If you could stay close to it and not get smashed, you could run around it and stay alive. At least, it was working so far.

Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.

Zoe yelled, "What are you doing?"

"Get it to raise its foot!" she said.

Zoe shot an arrow toward the monster's face and it flew straight into one nostril. The giant straightened and shook its head.

"Bianca!" I yelled.

I reached her side just as Talos raised its foot "I told you I'd send you to Percy if you did that!" I slapped my hand on her back quickly, forming a seal as fast as I possibly could, cursing myself for not having done so earlier.

"Armani, what-?"

I cut her off, gathering two types of energy, one in each hand, "Tell him I'm sorry."

Her eyes widened, but she had no time to say anything as she suddenly blinked away in a flash of silver, I sighed, one down, one more to go. I looked up at the machine, it was one step away from me now.

"Well, it's time for the big one I guess."

'You realize you could scatter yourself to the winds, correct? For a friendship you learned was fabricated?'

Time felt slowed as I thought, 'Nah, even if it was fabricated, it's not anymore. I think I can go all out for them, just this once, if it means they'll get away.'

I could feel Omen grinning, a matching one fell on my own face.

'A good answer, I will assist.'

So I pushed, dredging energy up from the very depths of my core and pushing it out onto the surface of my body, an array of lines crossed up and down my body. Similar to the ones I put on my knives and friends.

'You are nearing fifty-percent capacity.'

'I'm draining faster than expected.'

Talos lifted his foot again, above my head, a few more seconds and it would be dropped on my head, I had only one chance.

'Ten percent.'

I grunted as the silver light from the seals across my body flashed, "Sorry Talos, Seems I'm gonna have to move you away from my friends, how's a little vacation sound?" I chuckled, but it was without humor, "I'm thinking the bottom of the mariana trench."

The robot brought its foot down, and I cursed myself for not keeping a closer watch on the other, ah well, at least they'd be safe from this thing.

'One.'

At the exact moment the foot made contact with me, just barely touching my upward stretched hands, I poured all the energy I had gathered from my reserves into the shell of the robot. The light flashed blindingly around me, I heard multiple yells and the sound of crashing and crumpling metal, I felt like the world had been set alight, even though it was the middle of the night.

I couldn't feel anything until the light faded, after I did I shakily looked around, Talos was gone, I smiled slightly.

"Oh, wooo, Good job Armani, you actually pulled it off." I laughed to myself, suddenly feeling extremely off, I wiped my face and looked at my hand, there was blood rolling from my nose. I was shaking, I could feel everything, my body itself felt like it was being pulled in all directions.

'Hold tight soldier, you're gonna be alright.'

I barely registered the concern that tinged his voice in the back of my mind.

"I feel… It all…" I mumbled.

I was barely aware that Percy had arrived a few feet away from me, the rest were just behind him, "Oh Armani, what did you do?" His voice was concerning.

I tilted my head, 'why?' It was just a nosebleed, and fatigue, 'I'm fine…'

Thalia spoke next, "Armani, what's happening to you?!"

I frowned, 'what is she-'

Oh

My body was vibrating, but not in a stationary way, it looked like multiple spectrums of my body were being displayed over each other, appearing and disappearing as quickly as they came, like afterimages on loop. Some of them didn't even look similar to me at all, with completely different clothing and all.

Percy tried to approach me, only to be held back by Zoe, "Armani what did you do?" He asked again, this time with more urgency.

I could only look at him and back to myself as the feeling suddenly intensified and I felt it all go haywire.

"Oops."

I was only able to register the gasp of someone before my consciousness was taken from me.

No one said anything as they stared at the spot where the silver haired girl had been, nobody could say anything, they had just watched their friend dissipate into wisps of energy onto the wind, not even an echo of what they had been

Percy collapsed down and stared at the ground, he slammed one of his fists into it, causing the entire ground around them to rumble and crack.

Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the ground, she had nothing to stab so this was her only alternative.

"We can keep searching," Bianca said. "It's light now. We'll find her."

"No we won't," Zoe said solemnly. "It happened just as it was supposed to."

"What are you talking about?" Bianca demanded.

Zoe looked at her, her eyes watering slightly, "The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain."

The group of demigods could only stay there and wonder how they all could have messed up so badly, and maybe, maybe how they could have done things differently.

'Don't worry Queen, I got you. I can put you back together.'

Author's Notes:

;)