The whole thing had started because of a knife.
"Are you kidding me?" Nico yelled, then winced because the outburst had caused a sharp pain from the wound in his chest. "A knife?"
"Yes." Thalia's shoulders were slumped, her head in her hands. "When we got back from the funeral, Brittney noticed one of her knives was missing. One of our owls reported a figure in black entering the cabin and leaving in the night. The hunters marched out to search the other cabins immediately."
"What happened then?" Annabeth asked.
"They just stormed in and started overturning things." Thalia sounded as exhausted as she looked. "When you do that to the Ares cabin…"
"Some of the other cabins came out fighting as well." Jason reported. "The whole thing spilled over into a massive brawl."
"And the Hermes cabin?" Chiron asked. "Why did they set it on fire?"
"That's where they found the knife." Thalia sighed.
"Thankfully the Hermes campers were out at sword practice." Percy said. "If they had been in the cabin when it blew up…"
"There was one guy inside." Nico said darkly. "My butlers managed to pull him out."
"Dead?" Thalia asked, afraid of the answer.
"No," Nico snarled. "Just third degree burns covering fifty percent of his body."
"Oh, shit." Thalia covered her face with her hands. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't tell that to me," Nico growled. "Tell it to him."
"The Aphrodite cabin managed to evacuate without injuries." Piper reported. "But the entire cabin is gutted. We need somewhere else to sleep until the interior is replaced."
"They can have the rooms in the Big House," Chiron offered.
"What about Hermes?" Percy asked. "They don't even have a cabin."
"They'll have to room in the Big House as well." Chiron decided. "There's nowhere else to go."
"Infirmary's sent a report." Jason slid a piece of paper across the table. Twenty beds occupied, the same again in discharged wounded. And that's not including the Hunters, who refused our treatment."
"About half that number from the Hunt," Thalia's muttered. "We've got our own healers."
"This is a catastrophe," Annabeth said. "We're lucky nobody died."
"Thanks to Nico's skeleton army." Percy gave the son of Hades a nod.
"You did well to take control of the situation immediately." Chiron told him. "If your skeletons had arrived even a moment later, someone might have been killed."
"We need to find a way to prevent this from happening again." Annabeth declared.
"Remove their weapons and they're harmless as dolls." Nico said.
"That's not enough." Jason shook his head slowly. "They can't remain in Cabin Eight, not with what's happened. That's too close to the other cabins."
"Where else can they go?" Percy asked. "The Big House is already full with Hermes and Aphrodite campers."
"Bunker Nine?" Annabeth suggested, referring to the massive hangar in the woods.
"The Hephaestus campers would never allow that." Chiron shook his head.
"They're hunters," Nico pointed out. "Ask them to camp in the woods."
"Bad idea." Thalia shook her head slowly. "Keeping them under house arrest or moving them out of Cabin Eight is one thing. Denying them a roof altogether? You're asking for another riot."
"After what they did to that Hermes guy, I might just want one." Nico snarled.
"Not that I'm trying to make things hard for you," Percy told Thalia. "But what else can we do? It's either that or the beach."
"Hunters love the woods," Nico sneered. "They'll feel right at home."
"We can't do that." Thalia glanced around the table, looking for support, but nobody would meet her eye. "This…no!"
Chiron put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Thalia," he said gently. "We have no choice."
The commons area was silent as the Hunters filed out of Cabin Eight. Chiron had declared a full curfew, carrying his longbow and quiver to enforce the rule. Alongside him stood Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Nico. There were also twenty skeletons in Roman armour, all with weapons drawn. Nico wore a black stab-proof vest over padded impact-resistant armour. He carried three long knives in addition to an arsenal of throwing blades, enough to take down the whole hunt if necessary. He knew the hunters still thought he was responsible for the deaths of the girls in the woods. He would leave nothing to chance despite the presence of lethal archer Chiron.
Each hunter threw her weapons to the ground in front of the door as she passed. Nico eyed the growing pile of weapons, shining in morning sun, then shifted his gaze to the sullen girls, some of whom were wearing silver jackets despite the summer heat. His eyes narrowed.
When everyone had emerged from the cabin, Annabeth and Piper approached with metal detectors.
"What's this?" Lanesra's head snapped up at the sight of the flashing wands.
"Please place all articles of metal into this tray." Annabeth announced. "Rings, Jewellery, piercings."
"We already surrendered all our weapons." Lanesra growled.
"You might have forgotten a couple of things," Piper said in a measured voice.
"Are you kidding me?" Lanesra clenched her fists.
Nico's skeletons took a collective step forward, iron studded boots thumping into the ground with deliberate force. "Don't make her ask again." The son of Hades shouted.
Lanesra swore and removed her boots, revealing four small knives hidden in them, then pulled off her jacket that had two short swords, six grenades and a glittering array of polished throwing stars hidden in the lining.
Annabeth and Piper went down the line, collecting an incredulous amount of folding knives, throwing blades and silver darts. Almost every hunter had concealed weapons under their clothes and Annabeth's tray soon became so full that the piled items began to slide off.
"Forget it." Annabeth stopped one hunter who was about to deposit six hunting knives onto the almost-cascading pile. "Just dump your stuff on the ground.
The next hunter put her arms out for Piper's metal detector. Piper swept up one leg, stopped at her abdomen, then the wand beeped just as she was about to pass it down the other. Piper frowned. "What's that?"
"I have a piercing." the hunter said flatly.
Nico rolled her eyes. "Good one."
"You want me to show you?" the hunter glared at him.
"Yes." Nico glared back.
"No," Annabeth countered before the hunter could explode. "On to the next one."
"Can't be hiding much down there anyway," Jason, standing beside Nico, muttered. "She's wearing tight jeans.
Nico gave him a glance, wondering if he was making a joke of some sort, but the son of Jupiter was his usual serious self. Nico scoffed.
"You never know. Depends on how big…" he trailed off, suddenly remembering that some of the hunters had superhuman hearing.
Percy slapped a palm to his forehead. "Nico, that's just your big imagination going where it shouldn't."
"What's big?" Jason asked cluelessly, then his eyes widened. "You can't mean…" His eyes darted to the girl, then down to the pocket knives in Annabeth's tray. "I thought that they, um, they were…they've never…had anything in there before?"
"Nonsense," Nico's eyes were narrow slits under the shadow of his helmet as he scrutinised the hunters. "Could be an extendable baton in there. Secret service agents do that all the time."
Jason opened his mouth, then closed it again. Hardly anyone ever won these debates with Nico.
Thalia was the last one in the line, but Annabeth waved her off. "You can keep your weapons."
Scowling, furious and completely unarmed, the hunters headed off towards the woods, Nico's skeletons and Chiron at their backs. Two vans filled with their wounded followed. Nico sheathed his sword.
"That's over," Jason murmured.
Nico grunted in response, then trudged off toward his cabin. His head was sore and his wound had begun to ache. He decided he needed another bath before his afternoon nap.
"How're you holding up?" Annabeth asked as she stepped through the doorway of the tent.
"Hi." Thalia had her back to the doorway and turned around as Annabeth came in, zipping her black jacket up to her neck and pulling the hood onto her head. "Great timing. We're headed to the beach."
"In that outfit?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," Thalia huffed. "Until my hair grows out long enough for me to chop the pink part off."
"You could shave your head." Piper suggested as she came into the tent behind Annabeth.
"Ha ha." Thalia buckled on her knife belt and slung her bow over her shoulder. She grabbed her silver bracelet from her desk, clipping it onto her wrist. "Let's go."
Unfortunately the beach was a popular hangout. Almost half of Camp Half-Blood was camped on the sandy shore, soaking up the sun and warmth. Unfortunately, that meant that the twenty hunters didn't have much room.
"Oh, heyyy," a few Apollo campers, who were the closest to the newly-arrived hunters, grinned at them from their blankets.
Annabeth marched up to them. "Move."
"What for?" one asked.
"Move, or you'll be moved." Thalia arrived beside Annabeth, her shadow looming over the Apollo campers'.
"You can't lay a finger on us," an Apollo girl smiled. "We'll tell Chiron."
There had been a strict no-brawling rule ever since the bloody battle three days ago.
"I'll move you," Annabeth threatened. "You want to fight me?"
The Apollo campers glared at her, then grumbled and started packing up. Annabeth went off to evict a few other groups, eventually creating enough space for the hunters.
Thalia sighed, feeling her stress levels lower by about ten percent. The Hunters tossed a silver square of cloth the size of a hand towel onto the sand, which expanded into a giant blanket the size of a volleyball court. A buffet table popped up on one end of the blanket, several cooler boxes on the other. Thalia grinned as she opened one.
"Coke?" she held up a can. "Help yourselves. I'm in the mood for champagne."
At the other end of the cooler boxes, a hunter pulled out a champagne bottle and popped the cork. Annabeth caught sight of campers gaping incredulously from the other half of the beach and laughed.
"Wow." Piper stared in awe as Percy rode the wave to its peak, doing a three-sixty spin as he launched off the crest into the air.
"Not bad." Thalia said.
"He's good." Annabeth smiled.
Then all three of them cracked up laughing as Percy overbalanced on the way down and smacked face first into the water.
"Still working on the landing." Annabeth shook her head. "Oh, Seaweed Brain."
Percy resurfaced, shaking water out of his eyes, and clambered back onto his board. Another wave began to form as he started paddling out to sea.
"Go ahead." Thalia saw the look on Annabeth's face. "Join him."
"I'd be leaving you here though," Annabeth said politely.
"It's fine." Thalia raised her champagne glass. "I've got company."
"Thanks," Annabeth stood, brushing sand off her clothes. "Be back soon."
"Think I'll give it a go as well." Piper drained her champagne flute and tossed it onto the sand. "I never get good waves unless Percy is around."
"Show him how it's done," Thalia grinned.
Campers whistled and called as the two girls rode waves. Thalia rolled her eyes, then flicked her hand, causing a strong gust of wind to topple all three surfers at the top of a wave. She cackled with laughter as they went under, sputtering and flailing.
"THALIA!" Annabeth yelled as she resurfaced.
"What are you gonna do about it, Chase?" Thalia yelled back.
Annabeth yelled something unintelligible and turned away, swimming to retrieve her board. Thalia chuckled and poured some more champagne. She was sweating in her hood and grabbed an orange juice box from a cooler box, stabbing the straw in and downing half the pack in two long sucks.
A shadow fell over her. "Nice afternoon for the beach, isn't it?"
Thalia squinted up, seeing only a boy's silhouette against the glare of the sun. After a few seconds she recognised the tousled hair. "Nico?"
"A serial killer is on the loose and you're having a beach party?" Nico looked furious. "You might as well kill yourselves right now."
"Well what else can we do?" Thalia tossed her juice box onto the sand. "We don't have any leads."
"That's because you haven't bothered looking for one." Nico snarled. He glared at the large blanket with the buffet table and drinks. "Bean brains, all of you. Come with me. I've been talking to your dead hunters. You'll want to hear what they said."
"Arrows." Thalia repeated. "You're sure it was arrows?"
"Yes." Cynthia's ghostly form shone like a hologram. "Someone shot me from behind as I was trying to get up. "I felt it."
"So, an archer." Nico concluded.
"Did you see who it was?" Thalia asked.
"No," Cynthia replied. "But as I was lying on the ground she walked past me. She has small feet."
"It's a she?" Thalia asked. "How do you know?"
"I heard her voice. She said, 'enjoy Elysium, bitches'."
"Thank you, Cynthia," Nico told her. "That's all."
"You're welcome." the dead hunter replied. "And, Nico?"
"Yeah?"
"When you catch her, make it painful."
"Of course." Nico flicked his wrist and Cynthia's holgram evaporated.
"At least that narrows it down." Thalia sighed. "But why did the assassin summon a hellhound if she could do it herself?"
"Because she can't be in two places at once." Nico guessed. "Also, what better way to disguise the cause of death?"
"Makes sense." Thalia agreed. "So what now?"
"A girl with small feet who can shoot." Nico pounded his fist into his palm. "There are thirteen suspects who fit the bill in Camp Half-Blood. Ten of them have an alibi."
"And you didn't tell all of us because…?"
"Call it a hunch." Nico sounded troubled. "I've been feeling uneasy ever since the attack. I don't think it's that simple." He stood.
"Suspect number one is currently at the archery range. Number two is at the beach."
"Number three?" Thalia asked.
"She never arrived at Camp." Nico flexed his jaw. "After this I'm going to find her."
"We should tell Chiron and the others." Thalia said. "They could help us—"
"They wouldn't believe me." Nico scoffed. "These girls are twelve, thirteen years old. No one will think they're killers."
"Then why are you going after them?"
Nico scoffed. "When has anything stopped me from doing anything? Age is just a number."
Things are heating up. There will be some action coming in the next chapter. There's gonna be a twist, though. As always, thanks for viewing!