Percy and Annabeth wanted to dismiss Casey's outburst as a bad dream. But the threat was too much to just ignore.

"How could Casey have had a dream like that?" Percy asked. They were all back in the big house again. Casey was curled up in Annabeth's lap under the blanket, choosing to behave more like a child than the trained demigod she was.

"It wasn't a dream," Casey insisted.

Mr. D huffed and crossed his arm lazily. "Hypnos unblocked his ability."

"So Casey could have received a message from when Hypnos blocked his abilities, and it only went though now because he unblocked them!" Annabeth said.

"No!" Casey stood up, taking the blanket with her. "It wasn't a dream, or a message! He interacted with me. I lifted my sword and he raised his hands. He looked just as surprised to me as I was to see him!"

Annabeth stood slowly and took Casey's hand. "Casey, Nico and Hades both felt him die."

"He could have come back! He could have been revived! Nico's powers told you he died but they couldn't tell you if he came back. For all we know his heart could have stopped for like a second and come back! He did say it was different than usual!"

Nobody said anything. They didn't want to burst her bubble. If Casey wanted to believe that her brother was alive, nobody could stop her. Nobody wanted to.

"We'll up security at the border and send out scouts. I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do with such little information," Chiron finally spoke. Casey's eyes were wild as she glared at the centaur and ran from the big house.

Nate was waiting outside. As soon as Casey slammed the door behind him he jumped up. "CJ! What's going on in there?" he asked.

"I saw Jase."

"What?! Where? When? How?"

"In my mirror, right after you left the cabin. I don't know how."

Nate had to jog to keep up with Casey's fast pace. He followed her up the stairs to the Poseidon cabin. She looked too angry to disagree with, but Nate couldn't help but doubt her.

"Right there," Casey said, pointing at the perfectly normal mirror in front of the bed. Her sword was still in the middle of the floor with the photo she had dropped. Nate didn't say anything.

"I know I saw him! I was just talking to myself, and he said something. I saw him in the mirror, and I saw Tartarus. Charlie was laying down behind him, I don't know if he was alive or not. Jase warned me. He said that the cyclops were coming and that it was a trap and Nyx let us go on purpose. I wasn't dreaming, it was an actual vision! I don't know how, but I know what I saw." She looked towards Nate expectantly.

Nate knew how impossible what she had seen was real. But as he stared at her, he noticed the desperosity in her eyes. She wasn't angry at the world or at her brother, she was angry with herself. She needed this to be real. But nobody believed her. They all just said she was dreaming and pushed her aside as if she didn't matter. Nate took a deep breath. He stepped forward and took Casey's hands in front of him.

"I believe you," he said.

Casey nearly sobbed in relief. Nobody else had even considered that what she had seen had been real. But Nathan, Nathan was different. Nathan was everything, he was just-

She leaned forward and kissed him.

Nate's eyes were wide in shock. A few unintelligible sounds escaped his mouth. His hands were frozen in front of him. He licked his lips. "I like your chapstick," he finally said. His voice was at least three octaves higher, making it sound as if he'd been kicked in the nuts. Casey had her eyes clamped tightly shut in what Nate just hoped wasn't regret.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry? I've been trying to get up the guts to do that for months!" Nate went bright red as he realized what he'd said.

Casey opened her eyes. "You were?"

"Uh, I mean, I don't know...Sorry?"

Casey smiled. "Sorry? Why are you sorry?" she said softly. Her gaze fell. "Nate, I am sorry. I can't do this right now."

His smile dropped. "Why not?" he tried not to sound like a toddler when he asked.

"There's a chance my brother is alive. After his warning, I just know it. I need to protect Camp. Chiron isn't going to do anything but increase security. I need to do something."

Nate wanted to tell her that Jase wasn't alive, and now was a perfectly fine time to start a relationship. He thought it was frustrating. But he didn't say anything about that, because that's what Casey wanted. Or well, didn't want.

"I know. That's ok," he said. Internally, he was screaming to run away and hide in shame. But instead, he smiled as he walked to the door of the cabin. He paused in the archway. "Where do we start?"

"What?" Casey asked, looking up.

"I'm sure you're going to come up with some far fetched dangerous plan to save Camp, and I'm going to help. So come get me when you know what we're going to do." He left the cabin with a triumphant smile. Casey Jackson had kissed him. She may not be ready a relationship, but she'd still kissed him. It didn't matter to Nathan how long it took for them to get to the bottom of what was happening, or how long it took to make sure Camp was safe. It didn't matter how many years and decades it took. Because Casey had kissed him. And nothing else mattered.