I couldn't stop shaking. Beside me, Nick seemed to be trying to decide whether or not to stay, or drag his sister off the stage.

"We need to figure out why he's here," he finally mumbled.

"He can't possibly know I'm here," I said. "Which means he's here for you."

"More likely Oly. A lot of people would love to be able to see the future."

My lips pursed sourly. "More fool them," I commented. "Can you get a message to Olympia without Luke seeing?"

Nick frowned, but cast a quick look around the room. "I think so. Are you about to do something stupid because something tells me I shouldn't let you do that."

I glowered. "I wasn't asking. We can't let Luke get to your sister. If he really is here for her, then it's for a reason. I'll distract him, you get Olympia out."

"You think you can pull it off?"

I snorted darkly, twisting to stand up. "Believe me, I'm the last person he'll expect to see."

"Why?"

"He probably thinks I'm dead already." Nick blinked at me, but I shifted to my feet and started across the room before he could stop me.

Luke had guards. On either side of him, two large, bulky bodyguards stood in cheap, badly fitted suits and for a moment, I stared, wondering why I thought they were familiar. That's when I realised they were the bear twins, Oreius and Agrius. I snorted darkly before I could help it, taking the steps down to the dance floor. If I recognised them, they'd recognise me, and if I wasn't careful, they'd have more than enough time to kill me before I, or Nick and Olympia, could get out.

Ignoring the blood boiling in my veins, I forced myself to look at Luke. He looked the same as always – tall, sandy hair, glistening scar and smart clothes. But somehow, now he looked thinner. Unhealthy, even.

Good, I thought.

You're letting your emotions cloud your judgement. Talon's voice was back, cold and calculating as ever.

He's ruined my life. He almost killed my sister, he is killing me!

Then stop him. But doing things like this will only make you make mistakes and he'll get away. You will fail, and others will be hurt.

You aren't helping. I glowered, but the anger was beginning to fade.

Neither are you, that's my point. Now get to work, Ms Grace. You're running out of time, he has back up on the way.

I scanned the room, my fingers automatically reaching for the locket around my neck. Think, Acacia, I pushed myself desperately. What would Annabeth say? She'd know a way out for sure. She'd tell me that I needed a way to get Nick and Olympia out of the room, which meant I'd have to draw Luke's attention to me. But then I'd needed a second distraction to get out myself before the back up arrived.

I flicked my gaze back to the bar to see Nick at the end, slipping past security and into the back stage area.

Now or never, Acacia, I thought to myself. Straightening my collar, I pushed my way through the group, straight past Luke's table and closer to the stage. Keeping myself angled away from him, I grabbed a partially empty glass of amber liquid from a table and ducked my head, turning back the way I'd come.

My eyes flicked and fell on Luke, who was staring intently at Olympia, still on the stage. Following his gaze for a split second, I could see Nick behind the curtains, waiting for the right time. Deep breath.

I followed my own advice, then started forward to Luke's table and strode straight into another girl. She yelped, and the glass knocked out of my hand, spilling the liquid all over one of his guards' suits. A growl ripped from his throat, and Luke turned with a scowl.

I spun to turn away from him, catching the girl's arms with a hammering heart. "Oh god, I'm so sorry!" I breathed. "Are you alright?"

She flushed with a frown, pushing her jet black hair out of her pale face irritably. "I'm fine, just … watch where you're going, alright?" Her voice sounded like venom, but I was too busy to care.

"Of course," I nodded furiously, taking a couple of steps backward. "I'm really, really sorry." She scoffed, already turning away to ignore me. I took another step backward, almost at Luke's table, before twisting in the opposite direction and continuing down the bar.

"Wait… it can't be…"

My muscles tensed. Luke was staring at me. I could feel his gaze burning through my right side. Any second now.

That back up is almost here, Talon warned from overhead. Two minutes.

"Oerius, that girl," Luke was saying.

In the distance, my eyes fell on the red box in the corner labelled 'FIRE ALARM'. As good as its going to get, I reasoned. Without hesitating, I lifted my hand to my neck and flicked the locket open. In the same second, my bow and quiver was wrapped tightly around my torso.

Behind me, Luke cursed loudly and the bear men growled, but before they had time to react, I nocked an arrow and aimed straight for Luke's head. His eyes found mine for a split second, and I just had enough time to register the shock before I released it. He dropped off the stool, avoiding it easily and beside him, the bear men roared, starting forward.

A few people closest to me screamed, but most were taking awhile to register anything was wrong. Still, when they saw a fourteen-year-old girl with a bow and arrow racing down the bar, they moved fairly quickly. I skidded straight down the wooden floor and reached for the fire alarm, yanking the lever.

Immediately, the place was in uproar. People screamed and yelled, all suddenly rushing for the door. The mass swarmed around me, carrying me with them and I had to stumble along just to keep from falling under. I tried to look back to see if Luke was taking the bait, but I was too short to see over the top of everyone else.

Talon, can you see Nicholas and Olympia?

They're here. Mr Hunt appears to be getting in his car.

The crowd pulled me out of the doors, just as the Audi swerved out of the parking lot and screeched to a halt in front of me. The rear door opened and a worried looking Olympia Hunt leant over the seats. "Hurry up!" she yelled, and I forced my way out of the crowd and bolted to the car. The second the door was shut, Nick slammed his foot on the accelerator, swerving out of the way of every other car like a manic getaway driver.

Olympia threw herself back into her seat, slumping down slightly like she was worried Luke's men were going to start shooting through the back window. Then I realised she could see the future and I found myself glancing over my shoulder anxiously.

For a moment, no one said anything, all three of us breathing hard from the rush. Then, suddenly as calm as anything, Olympia turned and stared at me. "So you're Acacia Grace?"

I tore my eyes off the window with a strange twisting in my chest. "Yes."

"You look different than I expected. Younger." I didn't know what to say to that, so I turned back to the front and settled myself down. "How old are you?"

I shifted awkwardly. "Fourteen."

"Wow. And how long have you been fighting monsters?"

"I've been at camp for two years now."

"That's not what I asked. How long have you been fighting monsters?"

My eyes found hers again. "Nine years."

Olympia raised an eyebrow. "That's an early start. I don't think I even met a monster until I was eleven, and I'm kind of a magnetic for trouble."

I couldn't help but laugh darkly, my fingers reaching up to close the locket around my throat. "When I was younger, there were three children of Zeus under one roof. We tended to attract our fair share of trouble. Even after Thalia and Jason were gone, monsters still swarmed to our house."

"Um," she nodded. "And the gods too?"

My expression must have hardened, because Nick was suddenly scowling at me in the rear-view mirror and Olympia shifted to lift her hands in surrender. "I'm just curious, I know they've taken a lot of interest in your life."

"Recently," I corrected shortly. "I never had anything to do with any of them until I was older."

"How old?"

"Does it matter?" I snapped suddenly.

"Hey," Nick interrupted, remarkably calm. "Oly, lay off her. You know the answers."

"I'm just seeing if she's comfortable talking about it, that's all!"

"Obviously not," he sighed.

Olympia pursed her lips like this upset her in some way. "That's only going to make this harder, you know," she warned me. My jaw locked. "I know you don't trust me."

"I have nothing against you."

"Yes you do. I'm everything you hate about our father – irresponsible, reckless, arrogant, a prophet." I opened my mouth to complain, but she only held a hand up to silence me. "I know my weaknesses, Acacia Grace, and I know which one of them will get me killed one day."

"Oly," Nick growled.

She just waved a dismissive hand in his direction. "He hates it when I talk about my death, like it's something either of us can stop." She gave me a look that clearly said, 'Do you believe this guy?'

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I admitted with a blink, so bewildered any anger or irritation I felt had almost entirely disappeared.

"My point is, you can't avoid what is coming. One way or the other, the end result will be the same. Whatever you try to do to stop it only brings you closer."

My irritation was back in the same second. "You know what annoys me most? People talking in riddles."

To my surprise, she laughed. "Gods, I haven't started all that mystically, mysterious nonsense, have I?"

Nick scoffed again. "Started? Have you ever stopped?"

She ignored him again. "Okay, you want me to be abrupt?"

"Is it a choice between that and vague warnings?"

She took that as a yes. "You keep trying to avoid the Olympians by avoiding Apollo, but the truth is, the further away you go the more you realise you need them as much as they need you. Over the past two years, you've found out that despite never once meeting him, your father cares much more about you that your mother ever did. You've met half bloods and gods that know what its like to lose everything just to find your place among the world's most dysfunctional family. You even fell in love, but are so terrified that you can't possibly be enough that you take every chance you get to push him further away. You know it's the only place you belong and yet you're so scared of losing everything that you spend most of your time running away. Worse still, you're scared that you'll be the reason you lose it all."

My heart was hammering. Half of what she had said didn't seem to sink in properly, but I got the general gist.

"You saw all of that, in the future?" I clarified.

"I did see it," she nodded. "You know, before it was the past. I've been trying to find out when you'd finally find us, I've been waiting to meet you for so long! It's not every day a girl gets a chance to go on a quest with-"

"Oly!" Nick scolded.

Olympia cut off, blushing slightly. "Sorry. I always get carried away at that part." She beamed at the puzzled, worried look on my face. "Don't worry, Ace. You'll get used to it."

I shuddered, horribly aware that Apollo had warned me the exact same thing about him. This time, I only sighed. "I'm sure you're right." She laughed, her eyes shining.

"Back to the quest at hand," Nick suggested from the driver's seat. "Oly, which one do we start with?"

"One?" I frowned, sitting up a little straighter. Focusing on the quest seemed like a good way to keep my mind off everything Olympia had just said. "What does that mean?"

Olympia turned in her seat to face me. "You're looking for five demigods," she told me. "Six, if we include you. All of them are different, unique in some way, and that's why we've stayed out of camp. Obviously, that didn't work out so well for you, but the rest of us-"

My cheeks flushed. "I'm not different," I blurted.

She stared for a second. "Right. Sure. Why not? Anyways, you've found Nick and me, but the others won't be so easy. I can take you right to them, but getting them to co-operate will be another matter entirely."

"Who are they?"

"Well, there's a son of Ares named Klaus, a son of Hephaestus named Myles, and a daughter of Aphrodite named Ebony."

My jaw fell before I could help it. "Let me get this straight. My hopes of rescuing Artemis and Annabeth are riding on the ability of a son of Ares, a son of Hephaestus and a daughter of Aphrodite to work together?"

"Alongside two children of Apollo and a daughter of Zeus," Olympia beamed. "Right."

I rubbed my temples. "That might be the worst combination of allies I've ever heard."

She winced. "Allies isn't exactly how I'd describe them. The last time I saw them, Ebony almost killed Myles and Nick shot three arrows into Klaus's left leg."

"In my defence, he was trying to rip my head off," Nick shrugged innocently.

"Gods, we're all going to die," I mumbled.

"That's the spirit!" Olympia grinned, leaning forward. "Nick, drive us to the airport. We're going to need to catch a flight to Vegas."

Nick didn't bother questioning her, turning the car down a narrow side street and driving back the way we'd came. Olympia herself settled back in the car, smiling widely and not in the last bit phased by how impossible our quest was beginning to seem. For a moment, I wondered if that should make me more confident, what with her ability to see the future.

Then I remembered she was insane and would probably smile anyway and tell us it was fate's plan.

Closing my eyes, I let my lips move in a soundless prayer to Artemis. I have no idea how crazed these two Apollo kids are, or how much worse the other three will make it, but if you can hear me now, I seriously hope you've thought this through.

Somehow, I didn't think I was going to like the answer much.