Heads Up! This chapter contains manipulation and attempted seduction (don't worry, this isn't why we have that M rating).

Sometimes, it really sucked being a light sleeper.

That night was not one of those times. Or maybe it was. Brenna honestly wasn't sure. All she knew was it was Kieran's turn on watch when an empousa strolled into their semi-legal camp. Had to be an empousa, she might've looked kinda familiar but normal teenage girls didn't walk like that, nor did their sneakers make clanging and clopping noises. It figured, just when she'd finally managed to actually fall asleep, but that was just her life.

And since Brenna was not dumb enough to sleep with a loaded gun, she was unarmed. The empousa was standing in between her and her bag. Gods, usually she at least had her knife, but she'd never even unpacked it. But… Arianna was sleeping in the tent, way closer to the bags. Maybe if she'd wake the fuck up, she could do something. If Brenna caused a distraction first.

Oh shit, Diego was already up (that's probably what woke her up in the first place), she'd need a really good distraction. Why'd it have to be an empousa? She'd rather fight literally anything else. It wasn't that she didn't trust Diego to not get controlled, but… oh, who was she kidding, that's exactly what she was worried about, the monster was literally dressed like – fuck.

As the she-demon stepped closer to their fire, Brenna could see words on her v-neck. Cursive, of fucking course, but she knew what these words said because Jess had the exact same fucking shirt.

Roosevelt High School Teddies. It had to be Staci. Unless there was another murderous vampire who'd had an extremely messy breakup with Jess and also happened to go to school with her (which, now that she thought about it, was totally possible). Shit, she wasn't ready to deal with this, not at all, why was this happening?

"Hey," Staci purred. "Sorry to just come up to your campsite like a total creeper, but my car broke down a little ways down the road. I think the battery's dead. Mind helping a girl out? I'll make it worth your while." She seemed to be talking to Kieran, so hopefully there was a little time before –

"I'm sorry, what do you need us to do?" No, no, Diego, why? Kieran didn't say anything, he was just grinning and nodding like an idiot, which confirmed that the bitch had gotten to him; there was no other way he would've noticed she was flirting.

They weren't wearing jackets anymore, probably because Staci didn't wanna try biting through those. Brenna didn't see a weapon in either of their hands but that meant nothing – even if they weren't hiding any (she knew for a fact that Diego, at least, was) they were both stronger than her.

That was about to be a problem.

Staci had the audacity to giggle like she wasn't trying to lure them to their deaths. "Oh, I just need help pushing it off the road. No one else should be around at this hour, but I'd hate to cause any accidents, don'tcha know?"

"Oh ya," Diego replied. "You betcha." Then he laughed. "You know, most people from Minnesota don't actually talk like that. Or so I'm told."

"Oh? How'd ja –" Staci's eyes suddenly looked even more sinister than before. "She did make it to Camp!" Yep, that confirmed it, though even if Staci was right she really shouldn't have just assumed Jess was the only camper from Minnesota. That Brenna knew of, anyways.

"Who made it to what camp?" Brenna asked, yawning for good measure. The last thing she wanted was for Staci to decide she was a threat. "Some of us are trying to sleep, y'know!"

"Ah, so you're not advertising it. Normally I'd say that's smart, except these studs are wearing the t-shirts." Damn it, Staci was right, they were. Okay, Kieran had a sweatshirt, but still. Only Arianna had not done that… but maybe that was a good thing.

Brenna made a show of looking over to her. "They're not supposed to be, we're just normal camping with our mortal friend."

"Yep. Camping," Diego agreed. He was standing behind her now which would've been reassuring if he wasn't acting so weird.

"Yeah? Well now you're coming with me. She's not worth my time, but your boyfriend clearly knows my girlfriend and if he answers my questions well enough I might even let you have him back." She'd lowered her voice to a whisper and she was still going. "I thought he was putting up too much resistance to be single… for someone who dates men, you've got good taste."

Okay, gross, that'd be like dating her brother, but at least Staci hadn't figured out who Diego was actually dating yet and by the gods Brenna was gonna keep it that way. "No, please… you don't know how much he means to me –"

"Chillax, girl, here's the thing: your other friend's already mine. I don't need to kill them both if you can tell me what I need to know. His blood will be enough to sustain me until I can reunite with my beloved. Who I'm sure you know? She must've mentioned me."

Oh, she had, but they'd agreed to never speak of that day again. Wait, fuck, did Diego even know that Jess's "monster ex" was a literal monster? He sure would after all this bullshit. Gods, if they survived this, Jess was gonna kill her.

"Oh my gods, only every day. 'Brenna, I've made a horrible mistake, leaving my schmookie bird all by herself in Minneapolis – I can't even write to tell her how sorry I am and beg for her forgiveness because she doesn't have an address! Oh, curse this infernal war that's driven us apart!' – seriously, she'll be thrilled to see you again. But, uh, if I can give you just one little piece of advice?"

"What is it?" Uh, okay, Staci's face was getting way too close to hers. At least her attention was off the guys, which was what Brenna was going for. The less they were involved in the conversation, the better.

"I heard the two of you had a little lover's spat after she walked in on you, uh, feeding on Martin. So it might not be the best thing if another one of her friends 'disappeared' right before you finally reunite." Okay, calling Kieran and Jess "friends" was a stretch, but she wasn't about to let him die either.

And there was the Danger Grin that Brenna was all too used to seeing on monsters, and suddenly Staci was pulling her even closer and she could feel the searing heat of her fire hair. "Oh? You seem to know… more than you should. Hey, what's my name?"

No, no, no, gods, no, why was her first response to fear still freezing in place? Staci's lips brushed against her hair, right over her ear, and if she survived this she was never, ever not sleeping with her knife ever again. "S-Staci. I swear, we were just roommates –"

"I know my history. Try again."

Oh my gods, we were roommates though… "I'm telling the truth! You want me to swear on the Styx? I will! I, Brenna Stevenson, swear on the River Styx that I have never dated or tried to date Jessica Ava Victoria Ramos-Castillo Correa-Vasquez."

Thunder boomed in the distance and that seemed to be enough for Staci. She moved her head away, like, six inches. "Well then. Like, I do get what you're saying…" Shit, she'd just moved to get a better angle and oh gods that was her tongue. Brenna shuddered involuntarily – that wasn't just super gross, it felt like her skin was peeling back from where she'd been licked. "So don't read too much into this, 'kay? I don't usually feed on girls, I'm just so thirsty."

"So drink some water then!"

Neither of them had actually stopped whispering but they'd been heard. Not all that surprising in a group where everyone had ADHD; like, she honestly should've expected that someone would decide to care about their conversation.

She just hadn't expected that someone to be Diego, who was holding out his canteen to Staci. He seemed upset, almost but not quite like he actually understood what was going on – she'd take it.

Staci froze, her fangs a millimeter from Brenna's neck. "Yeah, that's right, you'd better stop," Brenna said because gods, did she not know when to shut up. "If you kill me in front of him, you lose whatever hold you have, and your only chance to see your girlfriend again."

"Don't be such a drama queen, I wasn't gonna take all of your blood," she hissed back quietly. But she did back off, sort of; she was only using one arm to restrain Brenna and if she just had a clear path to her gun it'd be worth breaking that hold. Louder, Staci giggled, "Oh, right, water – well, if you can spare some for me, that'd be lovely."

"Oh! I've got some!" Kieran called, holding up his own open canteen and starting to run closer to them – without capping it first. Predictably, he tripped on something 'cause it was dark out, but instead of catching himself like he usually would he went down and it spilled everywhere. It was impressive, he'd managed to get Staci (whose flaming hair turned it into steam), the campfire (which thankfully didn't go out completely), and pretty much everything else within a 40-foot radius. "Uh…oops?"

"Great job, Kieran!" Brenna praised. She said it sarcastically to keep up appearances but she honestly meant it, because he'd finally managed to do what all the ruckus so far hadn't – he woke Arianna. "You know what, why don't you two go help Staci with her car now? I'm sure she doesn't wanna be stuck out here all night." She didn't think what she'd said was a good idea, like, at all, but she just needed a couple minutes to explain the situation to Arianna and retrieve her gun and then it wouldn't matter anymore.

Kieran was standing again in a heartbeat. "Staci? Of course! Where'd you leave it? I'll get it moving again in no time!" That was doubtful, considering the car thing was probably a lie, but he at least kinda knew how cars worked. Maybe.

Diego hesitated. "Staci?" he repeated. "Why does that name sound so… familiar?"

Well fuck, how was she supposed to respond to that? If she mentioned Jess, he might reveal the truth and if he couldn't break free Staci would kill them all for lying to her. But if she didn't… ugh, Jess was absolutely gonna kill her. "Because she's dating our friend, duh, you've heard her name loads of times."

Of course that was only half-true and Diego might still give them away but it was the best she could come up with. "Oh." He sounded disappointed, and against her better judgment Brenna decided to play off that.

"What do you mean, 'oh'? You're spoken for, remember?" she teased. She may not have ever dated or had a crush in her life, but she did spend a lot of time with Jess and Diego, so she should be able to fake this "person in a relationship" thing. Staci still hadn't let go of her damn it she needed to be convincing (nothing less than the fury of Hades himself would ever get her to say "babe", though).

"I am?" he asked. "By Staci?" She… she'd said he'd tried to put up a fight before, right? What if… he was such a bad liar, he couldn't possibly be faking… could he? He wasn't looking at her, so he might've been, but he wouldn't do that, it made no sense… ugh, damn it, and there were the tears.

She made no reply, she just turned and looked directly at Staci; she knew she looked absolutely devastated, she was devastated and Staci was gonna pay for fucking with her friends. "Wow," Staci said, and Brenna couldn't tell if she'd managed to move her or if she was getting some sort of sick pleasure out of seeing all her emotional pain. "You're giving up?"

"I know I can't compete with you. Just… the sooner you go away, the sooner I can maybe get him back." Okay, crying was absolutely working in her favor here so it was acceptable just this once. "I can't even fight you 'cause I don't have a weapon!"

"Hm, you could, I'd just kill you," Staci reminded her. She didn't sound too sure about that, though – wait, was her strategy actually working? "I guess… I don't have to drain them, you were right, I don't wanna piss her off right when we're about to make up… but I'll have to make up the extra, you dig?"

Eh, why the fuck not, she wasn't intending on letting that bitch collect anyways. "Of course, anything you want, and I bet you have a message you want me to deliver?"

"Oh, I do, but we'll talk linguistics once you recover. C'mon, we've got a car to fix."

We? "You're… you're making me watch?"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna leave a daughter of Hermes alone with access to who knows what, no thanks. You're going first."

There it was. How unfair was it that monsters could always tell? And what the hell was Arianna doing, she'd had plenty of time to do something! Well, Brenna would just have to hope Staci was still dumb enough to hurt her in front of Diego so he'd maybe snap out of it. And if she wasn't or he didn't… she'd be buying Arianna more time, at least.

Speaking of, it was time to see if she was a decent actress. "Oh no, our mortal friend's awake, I gotta tell her something or she'll follow us!"

"Will she see me?" Staci asked. That was actually a great question 'cause Brenna never even saw her façade clearly, but regardless she knew what she had to say.

"She won't, but she'll still see her friends going off with a stranger in the middle of the night and she's got a gun. It won't hurt you but I don't wanna get shot." There, that should cover all her bases, now she just had to hope Arianna was smart.

"Ugh, yeah, that could be an issue, you've got one minute. And you will be back, or the boys will pay the price."

She finally let go and Brenna wasted no time running over to Arianna. She crouched down so she could whisper 'cause she couldn't let Staci hear what she was gonna say. "Listen up, I don't know if you know what's going on and I don't have time to explain it well so here's what you've gotta do: find gun, shoot monster. Don't use your weapon, she'll know that's a threat and I told her you were a mortal. I'll do my best to keep her here a little longer but she's already getting impatient so we'll see how that goes. You get one question, but keep it down."

"Oh boy… uh, is your gun locked and how different is it from shooting a rifle?"

Not the question Brenna had expected, but a way more important one. "Unlocked, and oh shit you've never used a pistol? Get close, hold it at arms' length, there will be recoil. Try not to shoot any of us, and don't count on the guys to be any help, she's got them under her spell. Got it? Now say something she can hear, I just told you we're gonna go jump her car." She stood back up and turned to walk away.

"Hey, I know cars better than you, sure ya don't want help?" Good, and she didn't hide that she was nervous, so even better – that's what Staci would expect.

"Nah, we'll be fine, and someone's gotta watch the stuff. Don't worry if we're not back right away, I wanna make sure her battery gets a decent charge before she leaves. It'd suck if she just got stuck again before she can make it to town," Brenna called back over her shoulder.

As soon as she made it back to where Staci was standing, she felt herself being grabbed by the arm. That was probably supposed to look friendly. "Like, seriously, thanks a bunch, guys! I got so lucky anyone was even out here, 'cause who goes camping in December, right?" Staci was grinning like the fucking Cheshire Cat.

"We do!" Kieran answered proudly.

"Yep, we were so prepared for it, too. Like, who knew it got so cold up here?" Come on, you know which one my bag is, it's the only one that doesn't have a Camp logo…

"It's… it's not even below zero, yeesh, where are you from, Florida? Wait… are you wearing two jackets?" It was working, thank the gods. Even monsters from the Midwest couldn't resist making fun of her for just how much she couldn't handle the cold. Like, there was a reason she'd been sleeping next to Diego… oh. No wonder Staci thought they were together.

"Gods, not all of us have our own built-in heat source, Staci. And I'm from L.A."

Staci actually shuddered. "That's somehow worse."

"I'm from Florida!" Kieran volunteered. "It is way colder out here, can we get going?"

Really, dude? So much for stalling. "Oh, of course! Here, it's this way."

The four of them started walking in the opposite direction of where the parking lot was (but actually towards the county road they'd driven in on). Brenna looked back towards their campsite when she thought she could get away with it, and she couldn't even see it through the trees. She could see all their footprints in the snow so it'd be really easy to follow them.

Arianna shouted something from way back there that Brenna couldn't quite make out… something about their car? She didn't see why that'd be important, but apparently it was because when she turned her head back, she could hear the snow crunching real loud like Arianna was running after them.

"You said she wouldn't follow us," Staci hissed, picking up the pace. Yeah, well, she wasn't supposed to be yet. So one of them must've made a mistake somewhere. Oh, wait, one of them had!

"Hey, I said we were just gonna go jump your car. Y'know, 'cause you said yours died? Guess what: you need a working car to do that, and ours is that way," Brenna said, pointing in the direction they should've gone if her story had been legit. She should've caught that sooner, but as long as Arianna actually brought the gun it'd be fine.

"Ugh, say that again but louder and less condescending," Staci commanded.

She didn't have to; Diego did it for her. "She's right, our car's over there. We'll need it." Oh, so suddenly the guy who didn't know you could get pulled over for speeding knew things about cars and driving? Yeah, no, he'd heard her explanation, but what did that mean?

"Oh, right, silly me, we can drive over from where you guys parked then!" Staci said way too loudly as they abruptly turned towards the parking lot.

That made it a lot easier for Arianna to catch up with them. "Seriously, what's going on?" she asked. "And oh my gosh you must be freezing! Do you need a jacket?" Oh, thank the gods, she'd found the gun. There was no way she had a clear shot, though. They'd have to fix that.

Staci glared at Brenna like it was her fault this was happening (which, to be fair, it kinda was). "No, I'm fine, thanks. And like we said, we've just gotta go jump my car!"

"Okay, so if you're not cold, why are you holding Brenna's arm like that?"

Well, shit, she hadn't expected that at all. Suck it, Staci. "Um…"

"Is she a hostage?" Okay, wow, she wanted to cut to the chase, huh.

"What? Nooo… that's ridiculous!" Staci replied.

"Not at this hour, it isn't. Let her go. Now." Arianna aimed Brenna's gun at Staci.

Brenna thought Staci would comply to keep up the charade, but instead she said, "You can't harm me, mortal. Go back to your campsite. This is your only chance."

"Uh, what? Everyone's mortal," Arianna said, taking a couple steps to her left. There, that would be a clear shot. If she could aim decently.

Brenna just needed to help her out a bit. "Now!" she commanded, suddenly going limp (which yeah, hurt when she fell on her back, but way less than getting shot).

It was a great thing she did drop, 'cause Arianna's shot went a bit lower than she was probably expecting it to. She was knocked back a bit by the recoil, but she'd managed to hit a large target fifteen feet in front of her. "Ohmygosh," Arianna whimpered as Staci exploded into dust. "Let's never do that again."

"Hey, you did great!" Brenna told her, easily snatching her gun from the younger girl's shaking hands. "Check on Kieran, will ya?" Unfortunately, she knew from experience how best to distract people from the knowledge that they'd just killed something.

"That went better than I thought it would," Diego commented. She barely stopped herself from whirling around.

"Will you ever stop scaring me when I'm holding a loaded gun?" Brenna sighed. "Wanna explain that?"

"You scare easy?"

Really not a good time for him to mess with her. "You know what I meant."

"Yeah," he admitted. "I do. Can I just ask what you were gonna do first, though?"

"I was trying to get to my weapons. That didn't work, so I had to improvise."

"Okay, I figured it was something like that. So…"

"Hold that thought," Brenna interrupted. "We're gonna go make sure there's not more!" she called to the other two.

That was something they probably needed to do anyways. Without waiting for any kind of reply, they started walking. "I don't care if they hear," Diego muttered as he turned on his flashlight.

"I know, but…"

"I'm not sorry. You still should've stayed at Camp."

Ouch. "Okay, I wasn't gonna ask for an apology, but you know I can die at Camp too, right?"

"It's not that! Well, it's partly that. But let's go back to what we were talking about before you interrupted me."

"Gladly." She actually was looking for any signs of monsters, they really didn't need any more. "When did you realize what was going on and why didn't you stab her?"

"She was hot."

"Diego!"

He rolled his eyes (she didn't need good lighting to tell). "That's the easiest way to explain it. Even when I knew she was dangerous, which I guess was when she went for you, I went for my canteen instead of my knife. My senses were all shot to hell, so that was probably a good thing. I saw her and maybe a meter radius around her, and that was when I had the most control."

"But you heard what we were talking about… kind of…"

"Yeah," he agreed, "Parts of it. So did you tell her we were together or was that something she just assumed?"

"She assumed and I rolled with it," Brenna replied. Why was that his priority? She'd said a lot of things that'd had to have sounded messed up. "You know who she was, right?"

"I do now. I thought the name thing was a coincidence at first. We have some shit luck, huh."

That was one way to put it. "Jess has horrible taste in women," she commented.

"She had a crush on you for a while," he pointed out.

"Like I said…"

"Oh, shit, we're gonna have to tell her about this."

Of course he wanted to tell her. Brenna would rather never speak of the past ten minutes or so again, but maybe Jess would wanna know that they killed her ex. Well, that Arianna killed her ex. "We don't know where she is, and it's way too dark to make a rainbow right now."

"Okay, but we're gonna tell her. Gods, I hated… all of that. Next time we see an empousa and I… and that happens, just let it kill me."

"I doubt Jess is gonna be mad, it's not like you kissed her or anything. And even if you had… I mean, she kissed her."

"When they were dating. It's totally different!"

Hm, he had her there. But she knew an easier way to get off their current topic: agreeing with him. "Yep, this is absolutely what she'll break up with you for. You guys made it through all the war and claiming bullshit, but you'll never recover from making goo-goo eyes at her ex because you were fucking mind-controlled."

"Shut up," he responded. "Like you'd do better if there were guy empousae."

"I totally would, 'cause I'm not a hormonal wreck."

"I will turn this flashlight off."

He said it good-naturedly, but she felt a moment of panic all the same. "No, don't… I'll behave."

"Wha- uh, okay. I wouldn't have, it's really dark out."

"Well, they say it's always darkest before the dawn," she said before realizing that they did actually care when dawn came. "Fuck, what time is it?"

"Weird expression, but… it's almost five forty. Pretty sure there's nothing else out here, we should start heading back before they try looking for us."

While Brenna recognized that it was kind of important to say that he didn't think there were other monsters around, she would've preferred that he hadn't. People tempted the Fates all the time, but it seemed like every time Diego did they took it as a challenge. She half-expected something to jump out at them from behind the next tree they passed.

Fortunately, nothing did, which was great 'cause her adrenaline was wearing off and she wanted to go back to sleep, nightmares be damned. But before they got too much closer, there was something else she needed to know, and she didn't know when she'd get another opportunity to ask. "Why don't you want me around?"

He stopped abruptly. "I never said that."

"Yeah? Then what do you think it means when you ask people not to ask me on… whatever we're calling these now. Before you ask, Sean told me."

"That figures… honestly, I'm surprised Kieran didn't pick him over me, they hang out all the time. Maybe he tried, I don't know. But why do you think I wouldn't want you to go?"

"Uh…" She hadn't been prepared for that to get turned back on her. "I think I shouldn't've told you I'm not gonna see my next birthday."

"You don't know that's how it's gonna go," he protested. "Prophecies are weird."

Oh, she was pretty sure she did know what And never shall you come of age meant, but if he'd rather live in denial that was his call. Though she kinda hoped he was right. They started walking again, they really needed to get back. "Whatever. Did I get it?"

"Look, I just… I figured you deserved a break. After everything that's happened." Translation: I'm trying to make sure you don't get more fucked up than you already are. Well, too late.

"I… what, and you don't? I know why you really went on so many missions. That 'if I don't do it, someone who knows people on the other side'll have to' bullshit. It's not your job to protect everyone!"

It took him way too long to respond, and she was worried she'd gone too far, but then he said, "You're right, it's not. That doesn't mean I can't try, though. There are actual children in my cabin, Brenna. Don't tell me I should've let them volunteer."

"No, of course not!"

"There you go. And when Clarisse told us we weren't allowed to lead these things? I was relieved. I wouldn't have to watch my siblings risk their lives for people who didn't give a shit if we lived or not."

"Wait –"

"I know, I know, not everyone's like that," he interrupted. "What am I even saying, your cabin gets stereotyped almost as bad as mine."

Yeah, she'd still take "untrustworthy backstabbing thief" over "expendable violent asshole" any day though. "You're fine. So what changed your mind?"

"Jess getting one of these helped, but it was really just that I couldn't turn Kieran and Arianna down. There's no way I was their first choice for a third, Kieran knows monsters won't leave me alone, so who else could they have asked?"

"Uh…" She wanted to say "me", but if Diego hadn't left camp, she probably wouldn't have wanted to either. Like she was gonna tell him that, though. "Okay, you have a point."

"Are we getting close? I didn't really pay attention to where we were," he admitted.

Well fuck, she hadn't been paying attention either… but that was one up-side to being a daughter of Hermes, she couldn't get like lost-lost if she tried. It might take her way longer than it should, but she'd get where she wanted to go eventually. "We are. I think we'll see the campsite soon. How long have we been gone?"

"Twelve minutes."

"Shit. They've definitely started worrying."

"Yeah, but they would've worried if it'd been two minutes," he pointed out. "You remember yesterday. The first time." Like he even needed to clarify, the second time he'd been worried too for completely valid reasons.

"Oh my gods, you knew where I was though. But… fuck."

There was an obvious joke opportunity there that he thankfully didn't take. "What now?"

"You saw that Arianna actually got the kill, right?"

"Yeah? I know she's new to this and all, but… uh… maybe she's handling it well?"

Maybe? Possibly? "I fucked up."

"Yup. But hey, if she's not, it's not like we left her alone."

"We left her with Kieran. Now what'd he just do?"

"I don't know. I think he was on watch before – gods, we're horrible friends."

"We suck," she agreed.

Well, she sucked, anyways, but he'd followed her! "So, why the interrogation? If…"

"You really fucking scared me back there. Like, it wasn't your fault, but you said some things."

"You did, too," he pointed out. "Anything else?"

"…yeah, but I think I hear the others and it's really sappy, so I'll tell you later, okay?"

And of course he was fucking smirking, she only looked up for a second but she caught that. "Save it for my eulogy, I don't think Jess will want to give it since she's gonna be the one killing me."

He nudged her shoulder; he was giving her an out. They could let the others assume they were far more okay than they actually were after that. "Uh, you say that like I want to? Hell no, Chris can do it."

"He'd turn it into a roast session. Actually, that sounds –"

"If you say anything about putting the 'fun' in 'funeral' I'll kill you myself."

"I was gonna make a cremation joke."

"Okay, but I'm watching you."

Oh yeah, they were definitely getting closer and thank the gods they only had to deal with one person panicking. "I'm pretty sure we woulda heard if there was a fight, Kieran. Guns are loud," she heard Arianna say.

"I know, I know, but what if she only had the one bullet? Why'd they leave their other weapons?"

"Well if walking around in the woods with something above your head sucks for me…"

"I get why they left, I'm the worst lookout ever, I wouldn't trust me either –"

"That's not it! Doing a perimeter check just makes sense; they maybe shoulda waited a bit, but it's not 'cause you're a bad lookout!"

Brenna started running; she could guess how he was gonna respond to that. Diego followed her lead, which was great 'cause he had the light source. "See? You agreed with me!"

"That's not – look, they're back! Is it clear?"

"Yep," Brenna replied. "But we need to douse the fire and pack up, it's getting close to – oh what the fuck, really, guys?"

"He tried to run off, what was I supposed to do?" Arianna asked.

Like, Brenna didn't have a real answer for that, but she was pretty sure it wasn't "grab his leg like a kid throwing a tantrum." "Go for the ankles and pin him when he's down," Diego suggested. "So you were halfway there. Kieran, why were you running?"

"I thought you'd be mad, 'cause I messed up."

"Does it look like any of us are mad?" Brenna shot back. "We beat her, so it's fine."

"I didn't even help," he grumbled.

"Uh, yeah, you did," she told him. "If you hadn't tripped and spilled your water – did you sleep with it or something? – we'd at least all be dealing with blood loss right now, and that's assuming she was being honest with me. Probably what would've happened is she would've killed all of us."

While he thought that over, Arianna released him. It looked like he wasn't gonna bolt, at least. "But –"

"Blaming you for getting hit with pheromones or however the fuck empousae get you would be like blaming me for not sleeping within reach of my gun, or blaming Arianna for being a heavy sleeper, or blaming Diego for probably being the reason she found us in the first place," Brenna stated. "One of those things was something we could control."

"Not really, you move too much for putting that thing anywhere near you to be a good idea," Diego said. "So really, none of this was anyone's fault, glad we cleared that up, let's break camp 'cause we still have to drive out there."

It took them all of ten minutes to take care of that; no one talked. Which was super weird, she didn't like it, but she also didn't wanna start anything 'cause she was running on fumes already and she doubted arguing in front of Apollo would get them anywhere.

After another frustrating half hour of near-silence (Arianna had to talk to give Kieran the driving directions) they finally got to their destination: West Quoddy Head Lighthouse. "Uh, isn't the sun chariot usually a Maserati?" Kieran asked when they pulled into the almost-empty parking lot.

"Maybe he isn't stopping," Brenna responded. "Maybe he… oh, fuck me."

"What – oh, great," Diego groaned.

The sun chariot was absolutely some kind of car, she'd heard it from Travis who'd heard it from Percy and Thalia. The vehicle coming towards them was an actual chariot, being pulled by blindingly white horses. It was being driven by a woman with reddish orange hair who looked painfully familiar.

"Dawn still comes before sunrise, guys," Arianna said like they needed the reminder.

Author's Note: This chapter was fun to write. I, uh, don't own "Jolene", but I do own too many flannels so I've got that going for me. We're at the halfway point, y'all!