Before Thalia could ask what happened, I told her about Nyx's plan to take down the gods and destroy the camps. Thalia stared at me the entire time as if she wasn't really hearing what I was saying.
"So Nyx is going to kill everybody?" she summed up.
I shook my head. "No, Nyx is dead. Her army is going to kill everybody," I clarified.
"Nyx is dead? When did that happen?" she asked.
"I don't remember, some time in the past month or two. It's hard to tell."
"How did she die?"
I glanced at Charlie, who just shrugged. "She threatened somebody I care about, so I killed her," I said.
"You killed Nyx? What the hell happened?"
"Long story," Charlie replied.
One of the hunters ran up to us, panting slightly. "There's somebody yelling for Jason and Charlie outside the woods," she reported.
Charlie and I jumped up. "They're going to kill us," he said.
"Us?" I retorted. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who convinced them we'd be fine and we weren't even going to leave the hillside!"
"That's before we were attacked by giant snakes with faces and met a group of immortal lady badasses!" he shot back.
"What are you talking about?" Thalia hissed.
We finally looked at her, realization striking. Thalia didn't know about Luke. I, for one, did not want to be the one to tell her.
"We have to go!" I said instead. Charlie and I scrambled up and bolted. "Get to Camp! We'll meet you there!" I yelled over my shoulder.
"Like Hell you will!" she yelled back.
I flinched but kept running, fully aware of Thalia and her hunters following us. Luke and Grover were searching frantically by the hillside where they'd left us.
"Luke!" I yelled. He whipped towards us and a grin of relief spread across his face.
"What happened? We were gone for an hour!" he said. He took Charlie and I in a grip an arm's length and looked us over. Grover bleated beside him and ruffled my hair. The pair seemed to be a bit more comfortable with each other than before. Success.
"We were attacked by giant snakes that had human faces! Have you ever seen that one episode of Avatar with the face stealing monster spirit thing? It was like that!" Charlie rushed.
Luke laughed and shook his head. "No, I haven't. But you can tell me all about it once we get back on the road. We aren't too far off Long Sound, I think it should only take us a day or so to make it to Camp," he said. "Are you two hurt?"
Just then, the army of hunters appeared behind us. Thalia led the group, her bow steady at her side. "What the hell is going on here?" she demanded.
"Uh, yeah," I whispered. "We also found the hunters."
Luke turned an even lighter shade of pale. He gripped my shoulder like a vice and turned to face Thalia. "Hi, Thalia."
Thalia didn't lower her bow. She knocked an arrow and aimed it at Luke's heart without even a second of hesitation.
"Woah woah woah!" I yelled, jumping in front of Luke with my arm outstretched in front of me.
"It's ok, Jase. Let her do what she needs to do," Luke told me.
"Are you crazy? She's going to shoot you in the face!" I argued.
"I wouldn't expect anything less." He was very calm as he walked past me. Thalia wore a stone cold expression. I didn't doubt that she would shoot him. Maybe she wouldn't kill him, but she would definitely maim him.
"Thalia, don't!" I boomed. My voice startled her and she took her eyes off of Luke for a moment.
"Luke saved Charlie and I, he risked himself so Nyx wouldn't get to us, he waited forty years to save Mom and Dad. If you shoot him, you might as well shoot me."
Thalia hesitated. "You're willing to put your life on the line to vouch for him? How could you trust him after what he did?" she yelled.
Luke had a torn look on his face.
Charlie took a stand beside me. "Because he's our friend, and if you can't accept that, then we'll get back to Camp on our own," he warned.
Thalia bit the inside of her cheek. "Fine." She put her bow back in its place and ordered the hunters to stand down. "But you better explain to me exactly what's going on and how he's here."
"Fair enough." I nodded. I motioned for her to follow me and we started walking.
Luke decided to give us some space and walked ahead with Charlie. Grover mingled with the hunters, finding some daughters of Demeter to converse with about the local plant life.
"When Luke sacrificed himself, he and Kronos both went to Tartarus. As punishment, the fates told him that Percy and Annabeth were bound to fall into Tartarus. He stumbled upon Daedalus, who had opened the Labyrinth in hopes of escaping. He made a deal with Daedalus to find my parents and make sure they stayed safe so he could bring them to the Labyrinth, where Luke would help them escape," I began to explain.
"How do you know he wasn't just trying to escape?" Thalia growled.
I glared at her for interrupting and continued. "For forty years, Luke stayed in the Labyrinth and slowly mastered it. After we stumbled upon him and told him what had happened, he helped us escape. When Nyx found us, he told us all to run. Daedalus opened a doorway and Luke pushed us through, but I stayed behind to fight with him. Luke is the same guy you knew all those years ago. Just a bit more... broken," I explained.
Thalia stared ahead to where Luke and Charlie were playing a thumb war game as they walked. She didn't say anything. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not, so I chose to ignore it. We walked in silence for a bit, which seemed not to bother Thalia. It bothered me.
"So, any new recruits?" I asked after five minutes of silence.
Thalia rolled her shoulders and let out a long breath. "Almost got your sister, but she decided not to at the last minute," she said.
"Casey tried to join the hunters?"
Thalia nodded. "Yeah. After your arm showed up on Half Blood Hill, we decided to hunt down whatever monster brought it there and interrogate it. Casey wanted to join, but I told her only hunters were going. She's going through a rebellious streak with your parents and told me she'd like to join. Later she said she'd rather stay at Camp with her family, but I think it was that Nathan kid that changed her mind."
Casey had always been rebellious. It wasn't hard to believe she'd become more difficult to handle since I last saw her. But Nathan, he'd always been a good kid. I was looking forward to meeting him again.
You won't get the chance