I think I would've preferred doing loop-de-loops on Blackjack all the way back to the ship than what Luke had in mind. We hiked a little ways out to the road in silence, Luke clutching his drachma tightly in his fist. When we reached the curb, he muttered a prayer that sounded suspiciously like, "Stop, O Chariot of Damnation", and tossed his drachma into the middle of the road. I expected it to bounce and roll away, but instead it lodged itself in the asphalt and sunk into it like quicksand.

I blinked, waiting for something to happen. Seconds later, the road around it began to sizzle and boil. Wisps of gray haze emerged from the ground and began to take shape. Distinctive features such as wheels and a taxi cab sign began to form out of the fog. It read GARY ISSTRES TXAI SRECVIE. I looked towards Luke, uncertain.

"I used them once a few years ago, back when Annabeth, Thalia, and I were bumming around. They're fast," he explained.

The physics of it didn't seem entirely correct, but the smoky, passenger side window rolled down to reveal three hideous, ancient ladies sitting in the front seats. I was nearly jolted out of my skin when I realized two of them didn't have eyes. Only the one in the middle had a single eye, and she regarded the two sitting next to her cautiously as if they might try to steal it right from her face at any point.

"Two to Camp Half-Blood, please," Luke said, as if all of this was perfectly normal.

The one closest to the passenger door scowled at us. She opened her mouth to speak, revealing a singular, yellowed tooth.

"Usual range is the Greater New York City area. Extra fees for out-of-metro pickup and destination," she demanded.

Luke looked annoyed but sighed in resignation, fishing around in his pocket for more coins, muttering something about "highway robbery" and how "he knows a thief when he sees one." He handed them an extra two drachmae, and the one with the single tooth bit into them, bending them a little bit. She turned to the lady next to her, who had the only eye between the three of them, and nodded. She turned back to us and tilted her head towards the rear doors.

"Get in."

Luke climbed in first, and I got in after him. As soon as the door was closed, my head smacked against the headrest behind me like a rollercoaster, and we accelerated away faster than any sports car I ever dreamed of driving. Before I knew it, towns and countryside were passing by in the blink of an eye. We swerved this way and that, nearly careening off the road multiple times to avoid traffic. The one in the middle was navigating, but she wasn't just giving street directions. She was calling out when we were about to run into something.

"Umm, shouldn't the driver be the one with the eye?" I suggested.

"Yes, exactly!" the driver exclaimed. "Anger, give me the eye!"

"No, Wasp, you had the eye all of yesterday," the lady in the middle replied, whose name must have been Anger. "It's my turn with the eye. Truck!"

We swerved into the left lane, over the median, and into oncoming traffic. I scrambled to find the seatbelt and realized that it was a black, metal chain. If we crashed into anything, I'd be sliced to ribbons. I decided I wasn't that desperate… yet.

Luke, for his part, looked completely relaxed. He leaned back in his seat, hands resting calmly on the Python fang laying in his lap.

The three sisters continued to bicker in the front. I shot Luke a why-did-you-do-this-to-me look. He chuckled.

"Just relax," he said. "The Gray Sisters have been doing this for millennia. They know what they're doing."

"Yes!" said the lady on the right. "We've had many famous people in here. Perseus! You know him? Probably not. You're too young to know who he is."

"Shh, Tempest," said Anger, who was trying to bat away Wasp's attempts to take her eye. "We don't speak of him! Took weeks to find our eye after he threw it into that lake. Never again!"

Anger's eye hungrily watched Tempest bite into one of the drachmae. She reached out to Tempest's face, but her sister jerked her head back.

"Tempest, give me the tooth! I want to bite the coin."

"Only if you trade me for the eye!" Tempest screeched.

"No, give me the eye!" Wasp cried. "I'm driving!"

Anger lazily waved a hand through the air, not that any of her sisters could see it. "Bah, excuses," she said. "Turn! That was your turn!"

We skidded around a corner, over the curb with a jaw-rattling thump, and drifted back onto the road. As we came around the corner, the New York City skyline came into view. I knew in reality we'd only been in the taxi for a few minutes, so travelling that distance should have been impossible, but to me it felt like we'd been in that cab for an eternity, so I decided not to question it. The sooner we got there, the better.

The sisters were fighting for real now, arguing and shoving their hands in each other's faces. Tempest bit Anger's hand, causing her to recoil and smack her head into Wasp, which sent us swerving off-road briefly. Luke gazed out his window, admiring the skyline. I held onto my seat for dear life.

Wasp furiously struck back at Anger, smacking the back of her head with a glorious open palmed strike. A sickening POP met my ears as I watched something fly off of Anger's face, bounce against the headrest, and land in my lap. I looked down at it and blinked, and nearly hit my head on the roof when it blinked back at me.

"Aaagh!" someone screamed. It might have been me.

The eye fell to the floor and rolled under the passenger-side seat. For a moment, I was relieved that it was out-of-sight, because I thought I'd throw up if I had to look at it anymore. But then the cab began accelerating wildly, and the orb came rolling back to my feet.

"Waaagh!" Anger wailed. "No fair! Wasp, give me back the eye!"

"I don't have it, you old hag!"

Anger spun to her other sister, grabbing her hair and shaking. "Tempest!"

"I don't have it either!"

"It's back here!" I supplied helpfully.

Immediately, three gnarled, gray hands were shoved my way.

"Give it back to me, boy!" Anger cried. "It's still my turn with the eye."

Wasp tried to bat Anger's hand away, and it occurred to me that none of them could see the road anymore. It was a miracle we hadn't crashed yet. "No, no, give me the eye, so I don't crash the damned cab!" Wasp demanded.

Tempest was doing her best to fight off her sisters. "No, I want the eye!" she said. "Wasp and Anger never share it with me. If you give it here, I'll tell you what you want to know. The location you seek!"

That got my attention. Immediately, the other two hands that were shoved in my face went to beating on Tempest.

"No fair!" Wasp cried. "He didn't even ask yet!"

"Dirty cheater!" Anger cried. "No eye for you!"

The location I seek. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they meant by that. I turned and gave Luke a pointed stare. Now, he was the one looking troubled. He fiddled with the fang, drops of venom oozing out and melting into the smoky gray interior of the cab.

"Percy, you have to give them back the eye," he said. "They won't be able to navigate New York City without it."

I glanced through the windshield and realized he was right. It would only be a minute before we wound up in the Hudson River, or in the side of some skyscraper. Crashing and getting stranded so close to the entrance to Olympus didn't seem like the best of ideas at the moment, given our fugitive statuses.

"But you heard what she said," I replied. "'The location you seek.' They know where the Golden Fleece is!"

Without waiting for Luke's response, I steeled my resolve and tore off a piece of my shirt, using it to pick up the eyeball. I snatched the Python fang out of Luke's hand and held it out in front of me, a drop of venom threatening to spill onto the cloth.

"Alright, I'll give it back," I told them. "But first you have to tell me where the Fleece is, or I melt the eye. It'll take a lot longer than a few weeks to get it back this time."

"No time!" Wasp yelled. "Going to crash!"

"Hurry, give it back!" Anger yelled.

"Not until you tell me what I need to know," I answered calmly, trying to sound more confident than I really felt. Ahead of us, the bridge was approaching fast. "Oh, and if you crash the car, I'm giving you a 4-star rating."

"Noo!" Tempest screeched. "We've never gotten lower than a 5!"

Wasp glanced back at me, panicked. "Fine, fine! 30, 31, 75, 12!"

I stared at them, feeling like I must have missed part of that sentence. "What?"

"30, 31, 75, 12!" the Gray Sisters screamed in terrifying unison.

"What the heck does that mean?" I asked.

"Percy," Luke said urgently. "You have to give them the eye now."

I decided not to argue. The bridge was right on us now, and we were starting to veer off the road. A few seconds longer and we'd end up in the river. Which wouldn't really be a problem for me, but then we'd lose our ride to Camp Half-Blood.

I tossed the eye into Wasp's lap. She plucked it up, popped it into her eye socket like she was putting in a contact lens, and screamed "Woah!".

We swerved back onto the road at the last second, narrowly avoiding the wall of the bridge. Luke sat back in his seat, relieved. I handed him back the fang, and he went back to looking bored. But there was an edge to his expression now. He shot me a sideways glance, and I tried my best to look apologetic.

My heart felt like a jackhammer against my chest as I slowly leaned back into my seat. With the chaos of the last few minutes finally over, I began to ponder what the numbers she gave me could mean.

The cab grew silent as we wound our way through the city streets. Even the Gray Sisters must have realized how close we'd all come to dying, because they stopped bickering over the eye and allowed Wasp to drive at a reasonable speed. It wasn't close to the speed limit by any means, but compared to what we'd just gone through, I wasn't going to complain.

30, 31, 75, 12. What did those numbers mean? A phone number? Country codes? A winning lottery ticket?

I had to figure it out quickly. If we knew where the Fleece was, then we could go get it ourselves rather than going through with Luke's half-baked plan to get the campers to do it. I felt like I should've known what those numbers meant, but the answer remained on the tip of my tongue.

I leaned forward and tapped Anger on the shoulder. Her head snapped to the side, and I gulped when I came face-to-face with her now empty eye-socket.

"Eh? What is it?"

"Um, would you mind telling me what those numbers mean?"

She paused, working her jaw around in consideration. I remembered her berating Tempest for mentioning the Fleece without me even asking. Maybe now that I was asking politely, she'd be a bit more forthcoming.

"We've already told you too much," she decided. "However, I could be persuaded to have a loud conversation about it with my sisters," she added, rubbing her thumb and forefinger together.

My hands immediately went for my wallet, but I paused when it occurred to me that they probably didn't accept USD.

"Luke, you got any more drachmae?"

Luke turned his pockets inside out and shook his head. "They cleaned me out. Sorry."

I frowned, biting back a curse. I turned back to the Gray Sisters. "Please, isn't there anything you can tell me about those numbers? They don't make any sense to me."

Anger gave me an apologetic smile, which I would've appreciated more if she had teeth. "Sorry, boy. We don't work for free."

"Bah, kids these days!" Tempest mocked. "Don't even know how to read a map. Jason could navigate using just the stars!"

"Oi, would you shut up already?" Wasp growled.

I leaned back in my seat, eyes staring out the window. So the numbers were related to a map in some way, according to Tempest, but that still didn't help much. Addresses, scaled measurements, postal codes…

"Coordinates!" I shouted a little louder than I meant to. I turned to Luke excitedly. "Those numbers are coordinates. We just have to find where they point to on the map, and we'll find the Fleece."

Luke smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Well, that'll certainly make it easier for the campers to find it," he said.

My initial excitement quickly gave way to confusion. "Well, no," I said. "It'll make it easier for us to find it. Because we don't have to rely on the campers getting a prophecy anymore. We can go and find the Fleece ourselves."

The false smile on his face dropped away, and he sighed wearily. "Percy," he began, and I was instantly wary of his tone. He sounded like he was about to break some bad news to a child, like their trip to Disney World was canceled. "Look, I appreciate your faith in our abilities, but there's a pretty big difference between finding the Fleece, and coming back with it alive. There's a reason nobody's seen it in the last two thousand years, and right now, we just can't afford to go in blind. The two of us, we're pretty much all that stands between Kronos and the gods. If something were to—"

"Kronos?!"

Whatever Luke was going to say was cut off when both of our heads slammed into the seats in front of us. The brakes screeched, and the smell of burning rubber assaulted my nostrils. The cab screeched to a halt at the top of a hill.

"A thousand curses upon that name!" Anger wailed.

"Out, out, out!" cried Wasp, batting at us with her lethal open-palm strikes.

Luke and I both threw our doors open and frantically climbed out. The front windows rolled down, and Wasp stuck her head out the driver side, her eye narrowed at Luke and I.

"Don't ever summon us again!" she growled. Our doors both slammed shut seemingly on their own, and the tires spun in a cloud of smoke as the cab sped away. I watched it go for a few seconds before it sank back into the ground, leaving us on a random stretch of road in the middle of Long Island.

Luke rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Guess they weren't big fans of the Titan king."

"Great," I said. "Now what?"

Luke scanned our surroundings, the Python fang held loosely in his fingertips. "I recognize this hill," he said. "We're actually not too far from camp."

I looked around, trying to get my bearings, but I hadn't really been paying attention to the road the past couple of times I was driven to camp. The first time, I'd been too distracted by the thought of getting gored by the Minotaur to focus, and the second time… The second time was when I'd gotten back from Olympus, just after I'd learned about my mom. I'd been in a daze the entire ride back to camp.

Forests covered the edges of the clearing on either side of us, and the road continued winding down into the valley below before disappearing behind some trees. I didn't see any landmark that Luke could've recognized, but then he pointed off in the distance.

"See the top of that really tall tree over there? That's Thalia's pine," he said. "We can walk the rest of the way for sure."

I studied the fang in his hand. Somehow, it looked more wicked with Luke holding it than it did in the mouth of the Python. "You still want to poison the tree?" I asked him. "Even though we know how to find the Fleece now?"

"Those were the orders we were given."

I paused for a moment, confused. "But wasn't the whole reason you and Kronos came up with this plan because we didn't know where the Fleece actually was?"

"That was only part of the problem. It has more to do with the fact that wherever it is, it'll likely be too dangerous for us to retrieve it," he explained. "Like I was saying there's a reason why nobody has seen it in the last two thousand years and lived to tell about it. Kronos simply doesn't want to take that risk with us. Now, come on. It's getting late. Let's get this over with."

He began walking down the side of the road, but I stayed rooted to my spot. "No, wait."

Luke turned back to me, annoyance crossing his features. He raised an eyebrow.

"If you and Kronos think getting the Fleece will be so difficult that we'll likely die trying, then what chance do the campers have? I don't mean to brag, but you and I have more experience leading quests than anyone else at camp. We have the best odds of succeeding, and you want to trust someone else to do this quest? Do you even want to bring Thalia back?"

"Of course I want her back," he snapped, eyes lit with indignation. "Believe me, I'd love to be the one to heal her. But you have to consider Kronos's position. He's still reforming, which means he completely depends on us for his long term plan to work, and you even more so. Sending us into danger right now would be like going all-in before he's even read his cards."

"So what you're saying is that we're not expendable…"

"Right."

"...but the campers are?"

Luke sighed and closed his eyes. His voice lowered to a deadly calm. "In Kronos's eyes, yes."

So that was it. I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised that Kronos was so flippant with the lives of the demigods at camp. It was definitely the smart move, having your enemies do your dirty work for you. If the campers succeeded, he'd have another piece on his chessboard. If they failed, then that was one less tool in the gods' shed.

What did surprise me was that Luke was just going along with it. I just couldn't accept that he'd put the whole camp in danger—his brothers and sisters, Silena, and especially Annabeth—when there was another option. Why would he gamble with Thalia's life like that? It wasn't that he didn't care. I could sense as much. But it was like there was something holding him back. Almost as if...

"You're afraid," I said.

Luke scowled at me, his scar rippling, and I knew I was treading on thin ice. "What?"

"You're afraid," I said again. "You're afraid of failing another quest."

He bristled, and I knew I hit a little too close to home.

"I'm not afraid, Percy. I'm just being practical. My first quest? It didn't matter that I failed. Nothing was riding on it. Losing the bolt? It set our plans back a bit, but nothing we couldn't recover from. But now? One wrong move could mean the Sixth Age never comes. We have to play it smart. And safe."

I scoffed. "What about sending us after the Python? You call that safe?"

"Evidently, Kronos thought it was less dangerous than wherever the Fleece is."

He turned and resumed following the road, only now there was a stiffness to his gait. I heard him mumble something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said, it's not like you know anything about failure anyways."

Now, to most people, that little comment might have seemed like a good thing. But the way Luke said it made me feel like it wasn't meant to be taken as a compliment. He made it sound like I was some naive, inexperienced little kid who had never faced adversity before in his life.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked indignantly, moving to catch up.

"It means you don't know what it's like to blow your one chance at making people proud of you. Your quest was a success. You didn't have to deal with all the pitying looks, the awkward condolences. The entire freaking camp celebrated when you got back. All I got was a half-hearted pat on the back and a "Good try, you'll get 'em next time." So don't pretend like you understand how I feel."

Every word he said brought me closer and closer to boiling over. Is that what he thought? Had he really forgotten already?

"You're wrong," I said.

"About what?"

"My quest wasn't a success."

Luke's eyebrow quirked up. "What do you mean? Of course it was. You returned the bolt safe and sound and prevented the largest civil war in history. Everyone at camp treated you like a hero the rest of the summer."

I shook my head slowly and let my eyes rest on the painted white line we were walking along. "It was never about the bolt," I said. "For me, at least."

Luke stared at me from the corner of his eye, his eyebrows furrowed, until realization dawned on his face. "Your mom," he said.

"I failed to save what mattered most. It was right there in the prophecy. I knew from the very beginning that I was going to fail my quest, but I had to try. Because if I didn't do everything I possibly could, then I'd never be able to live with myself." I paused, hoping Luke understood my point. His fingers curled around the Python fang, testing his grip as he considered my words. "It's the same way now," I continued. "We can't just push this off on somebody else."

Luke fell silent for a moment, his thoughts bringing him from a brisk pace to a steady plod to a full stop. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Look," he said. "If you want to ignore a direct order from Kronos, then fine. Be my guest. You can go back to the ship and try to convince him to let you go after the Fleece yourself. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did."

He tucked the fang under his arm and resumed his trek down the hill, leaving me staring after his retreating figure. "But I'm going to finish the task Kronos gave us," he continued. "He's punished me for failing him once before. I'm not too keen on going through that again."

I stood frozen in place, realizing I'd been right. Luke was afraid. He was so afraid of screwing everything up that he was willing to blindly follow Kronos's orders, even if that meant putting his friends at risk. This way, if the quest failed and Thalia wasn't healed by the Fleece, he had the campers to shift the blame to. At least, that's what I figured he was telling himself.

Making up my mind, I called down to him. "I'm not letting you do this, Luke."

He belted out a laugh that didn't sound the slightest bit amused. "Go back to the ship, Percy," he said, not even turning around. "I'll meet you there soon."

I extended a hand towards him, searching for that tugging sensation in my gut. I felt the distinct shape of the fang, the venomous liquid sloshing around inside, and concentrated on it. Luke stopped and spun back towards me, his eyes widening.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice slightly panicked.

I focused on increasing the pressure inside the fang, feeling it growing stronger and stronger until CRACK. Luke must've realized what was happening just in time, because he dropped the fang and jumped back just as it burst, sending globs of corrosive venom onto the asphalt where it sizzled in the heat.

Luke's expression morphed from shock to cold rage. He glared hard at me. "You shouldn't have done that," he said, his tone low and threatening.

"I killed the Python, so the fang belonged to me." I said. " It was my decision what to do with it. That's how it works, right?"

"Kronos won't be happy when he hears of your insubordination."

My thoughts immediately drifted back to the conversation I'd overheard in my dreams the night I boarded the Princess Andromeda. Kronos had questioned my loyalty towards him over the camp. With a sinking feeling in my chest, I realized this was the sort of situation he had foreseen. He'd see this as me siding with the camp over him.

Only, I wasn't betraying the Titan king. We still had the same goals. I was just disagreeing with the best way to achieve them. Maybe he'd even see the merit in my way of doing things.

"Yeah?" I told Luke. "I guess we'll see about that."

Satisfied that the camp was now safe for the time being, I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled. I knew that Blackjack would've gotten Chris safely back to the ship by now, and I had a feeling he wasn't the type of pegasus who liked to sit on his haunches all day, not so soon after being released from his prison in the stables.

Sure enough, a few moments later a shadowy blur appeared overtop the trees and glided down to the road, wings kicking up dust off the asphalt.

Hey boss, you look like you could use a ride. He glanced towards Luke, snorting distastefully. Can't carry both of you, though.

I mounted the black stallion hoping he'd be too exhausted to perform any more crazy stunts.

Luke continued to glare at me. I did my best to ignore him. His father was the god of travelers. He'd find his own way back to the ship, one way or another.

"Where are you going?" Luke demanded, an uneasiness in his voice. It reminded me of the way he sounded when I angrily stormed away after Kronos gave me his first "test".

I met his gaze as Blackjack got ready for take off.

"Back to the ship," I said. "I've got a quest to prepare for."

With a running start, the pegasus leapt into the air and thrust his wings downwards, leaving in the dust a very displeased son of Hermes.