Wow. There's a LOT of profanity in this chapter. I mean, more than usual. You've been warned.

PERI'S POV

I don't know why she was wearing those ridiculous clothes or how she got all the way here from Chicago, but that was most definitely Miss Lich. That long, crooked nose; her busted up teeth; the three moles on her oily face. The only person who could look more jacked up than her was Nanny McPhee herself. And even she looked cute at the end of the movie!

I lunged for her instantly, but to my surprise Leo held me back fast. I struggled furiously against his strong arms, and I couldn't help but feel a bit of deja-vu at the whole situation.

As he restrained me, he stared at Miss Lich with a dumb look on his face. "Aunt Rosa?"

"Is that what you see?" Miss Lich asked, her nasally voice piercing my ears.

"Aunt Rosa?" I stopped fighting Leo and instead looked up at his face. "No! That's Miss Lich! She's evil!"

"So that's what you see, Peri? My, you have such an animosity towards this woman." Miss Lich noted.

"Don't speak in the third person! You're her!" I spat at her.

She ignored me, and instead turned to Hazel. "And what about you, Hazel, dear? What do you see?"

"How did you-?" Hazel stepped back in alarm. "You- you look like Mrs. Leer. My third grade teacher. I hated you."

Miss Lich cackled like some crazy ass witch. "Excellent. You resented her, eh? She judged you unfairly?"

"You- she taped my hands to the desk for misbehaving," Hazel said, her voice shaking just the slightest. "She called my mother a witch. She blamed me for everything I didn't do and- No. She has to be dead. Who are you?"

"Oh, Leo knows," the greasy woman said. "How do you feel about Aunt Rosa, mijo?"

I felt Leo stiffen, but I was too busy reacting to someone else to really comprehend it.

"Shut the fuck up!" I screamed. "You bitch, I'll kill you!"

"You're so vulgar." Miss Lich muttered. "Young ladies shouldn't use such profanity."

She always said that. I thought distantly. She always called me vulgar and unlady-like. That's why she sent me to Charm School.

Yes, it was all Miss Lich.

That's why I despised her so much.

I wanted her very essence to crumble into nothingness and blow away in the wind.

After Gram. . .died, there arose the matter of where I would go. I was an orphan then, no one to take me in. They sent me a social worker.

Miss Lich.

Right off the bat, I could tell she hated me. The way she scowled at me. The way she would tell me I was worthless. The way she said, "It should have been you." I think that's the one that really killed me the most. Partly because I believed it myself.

But that's not what made me hate her. No, she could treat me however she wished, and I wouldn't care.

No, I hated her because of what she did to Gram.

She didn't even give Gram a proper funeral. She burned her ashes and tossed her in an urn. She said a child couldn't be trusted with remains, so she sent the urn on a ship to some far off island. She didn't even let me say good-bye.

And the worst part, was that she sold every last trinket in the pawn shop. Miss Lich sold every single thing to various people from across the world, spreading Gram's precious mementos far and wide. Gram spent her whole life collecting all those gorgeous pieces, and Miss Lich just gave them all away for a fraction of the cost. And with the money, she sent me to Charm School where I would spend the rest of my schooling years. St. Mary's School For Girls, where you "walk in a girl, and come out a lady".

I wasn't one to say this word unless I truly meant it; but I hate Miss Lich.

"Nemesis," Leo said suddenly. "You're the goddess of revenge."

"You see?" The goddess smiled, showing off her missing teeth. "He recognizes me."

Nemesis/Miss Lich cracked another cookie and wrinkled her nose. "You will have great fortune when you least expect it," she read. "That's exactly the sort of nonsense I hate. Someone opens a cookie, and suddenly they have a prophecy that they'll be rich! I blame that tramp Tyche. Always dispensing good luck to people who don't deserve it."

Leo looked at the mound of broken cookies. "Uh. . . you know those aren't real prophecies, right? They're just stuffed in the cookies at some factory-"

"Don't try to excuse it!" Nemesis snapped. "It's just like Tyche to get people's hopes up. No, no. I must counter her." Nemesis flicked a finger over the slip of paper, and the letters changed to red. "You will die painfully when you most expect it. There! Much better."

"That's horrible!" Hazel cried.

Nemesis sneered, just like Miss Lich always did to me when nobody was looking. "My dear Hazel, haven't you ever wished horrible things on Mrs. Leer for the way she treated you?"

"That doesn't mean I wanted them to come true!"

"Bah." The goddess resealed the cookie and tossed it into her basket. "Tyche would be Fortuna for you, I suppose, being Roman. Like the others, she's in a horrible way right now. Me? I'm not affected. I am called Nemesis in both Greek and Roman. I do not change, because revenge is universal."

I growled angrily. "Yeah, yeah, that's all fine and dandy. But why are you even here?"

"The gods are in a terrible shape, Omega-Blood."

I broke away from Leo in surprise. "How did you-?"

"Oh please," She waved her hand lazily as she cracked open another fortune cookie. "Word spreads quickly about prophecies. Especially ones as important as yours. You are the key to bringing down Gaea. Without you and the other seven, the world shall be destroyed."

"But. . .why are you here?" Leo asked once more.

"Why, to offer my help!" Nemesis smiled wickedly.

"Your help," Leo repeated.

"Of course!" said the goddess. "I enjoy tearing down the proud and powerful, and there are none who deserve tearing down more than Gaea and her giants. Still, I must warn you that I will not suffer undeserved success. Good luck is a sham. The wheel of fortune is a Ponzi scheme. True success requires sacrifice."

"Sacrifice?!" Hazel's voice was tight. "I lost my mother. I died and came back. Now my brother is missing. Isn't that enough sacrifice for you?"

I nodded my head in agreement. I had a feeling every single one of us demigods had a story to tell, full of anguish and pain.

Leo clenched his fist tightly, and I could see the muscles in his jaw contracting. "Right now," he said, trying to control his anger, "all I want is some Celestial Bronze."

"Oh, that's easy," Nemesis said. "It's just over the rise. You'll find it with the sweethearts."

"Wait," Hazel said. "What sweethearts?"

Nemesis popped a cookie in her mouth and swallowed it, fortune and all. "You'll see. Perhaps they'll teach you a lesson, Hazel Levesque. Most heroes cannot escape their nature, even when given a second chance at life." She smiled. "And speaking of your brother Nico, you don't have much time. Let's see. . . it's June 25? Yes, after today, six more days. Then he dies, along with the entire city of Rome."

Hazel's eyes widened. "How. . . what-?"

"And as for you, child of fire." She turned to Leo. "Your worst hardships are yet to come. You will always be the outsider, the seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren. Soon you will face a problem you cannot solve, though I could help you. . . for a price."

I sniffed.

Smoke? Is something burning?

Then, I saw it.

Leo's fingers on his left hand were ablaze.

"Leo!" I shrieked.

Now, I wasn't professionally trained in fire safety, so I had no idea what to do in this situation.

He just stood there, staring off into space like he didn't even feel it. Hazel stood next to me watching him, absolutely petrified.

"Leo!" I cried. "You're- you're on fire!"

He jolted, then looked down at his flaming fingers. He shoved his hand into his pocket and smothered the flames.

I made a move for his left hand, but he recoiled.

"Aren't you hurt?" I asked him. "Leo, we need to treat your burns-"

"No." He murmured, staring hard at the ground. "I'm the fire guy. . . I-I can summon fire at will, and I never get burned."

Like Hazel and her powers, Leo didn't seem too happy about his ability. He looked like he would rather not talk about it, so I didn't push him. Instead, he faced Nemesis.

"I like to solve my own problems." He said confidently.

"Very well." Nemesis brushed cookie dust off her jacket, like Leo's fire summoning was nothing.

"What sort of price are you talking about?" I asked her.

The goddess shrugged nonchalantly. "One of my children recently traded an eye for the ability to make a real difference in the world."

I glared at her in spite of myself. "How could you take one of your own kids' eyes? Have you no loyalties to anyone?!"

She snorted at the very idea, and my eyes narrowed even more. "Son of Hephaestus," she addressed Leo, and handed him an unbroken fortune cookie. "If you need an answer, break this. It will solve your problem."

Problem?

Leo's hand trembled as he held the fortune cookie. "What problem?"

Nemesis smirked. "You'll know when the time comes."

"No thanks," Leo said firmly. But his hand slipped the cookie into his tool belt anyway.

Nemesis chuckled at him deviously and rose from the rock, slinging her sack of cookies over her shoulder. "Give my offer some thought, Valdez. You're a good child. A hard worker. We could do business. But I have detained you too long. You should visit the reflecting pool before the light fades. My poor cursed boy gets quite. . . agitated when the darkness comes."

I raised my eyebrows at that, but the goddess climbed onto her motorcycle.

Just before she drove off, she called over her shoulder. "Oh, and Omega-Blood? Don't die. They need you" She smirked. "Some more than others."

Before I could say anything, she revved up the engine and disappeared in a mushroom cloud of black smoke.

Hazel bent down. All the broken cookies and fortunes had disappeared except for one crumpled slip of paper. She picked it up and read, "You will see yourself reflected, and you will have reason to despair."

"Fantastic," Leo grumbled, starting down the hill. "Let's go see what that means."