"What happened?" Lucas said.
"I... don't know," I said.
"But you can fix this, right?" Lucas said. "I mean, you're her best friend. You have to fix this. We need our Riley."
"Yeah, I know, I'm just a little... preoccupied right now."`I said, exasperated. "Talk to her. Okay, Ranger Rick? Talk to her."
"But that's your job!" he said, but Shawn, Jeanette, and I were halfway out of the station.
I couldn't believe what had just happened. I was really hurt. I mean, she through away our friendship ring! How could she do that? I was only trying to protect her from the mess that has become my life. I had no other choice. It wasn't my fault.
"I can't believe she did that," I said while I walked out of the subway station.
"Just give her time to cool down. It's Riley, this whole thing will be gone tomorrow," Shawn explained.
I paused to look at him. "I'm not sure it will."
We walked in silence for a little while after that.
"Okay!" Jeanette said as we approached the Empire State Building. "Here we are."
"I still can't believe the gods live here," I stated.
"Well, believe it," Shawn said. "600th floor."
"I'm with you, Maya. I've never seen it in person, either," Jeanette said.
"600th floor, please," Shawn requested to the man at the front desk.
"No such thing," he said, not taking his eyes of his computer.
All Shawn did was cleared his throat. This caused the security guard to look at him.
"Shaw.. Shawn Hunter! Its really you! Please, get in the elevator. I'll personally accompany you to Olympus," he said.
Shawn showed a smug smile. "That won't be necessary, thank you."
We got in the elevator and pressed the 600th floor button that had magically appeared.
"Nice work," I said.
"I can pull a few strings," he answered.
The elevator had complementary easy-listening music. I was so relieved when we finally reached our floor.
I lost my breath when I saw the city. It was beautiful. Glowing lights covered the whole expanse. The architecture was magnificent. And everything was huge. You could describe it as, well, godly.
"Here we are, Mount Olympus," Shawn said.
"Yeah, well, nothing special. Sort of mediocre," I said, trying to keep my tough image.
"I wouldn't say that to Annabeth. She redesigned the whole city after it got destroyed in the Titan War. I, for one, think she did a great job."
I got a little embarrassed. So I led my little questeers to what was obviously the main palace, the home of the gods themselves.
"Wow," I couldn't help saying out loud.
The palace was huge. I felt like a mouse compared to it. Constellations glittered on the ceiling. The was a brazier fifteen times bigger then the one at camp in the center of the room. And the one at camp was already gigantic.
The most impressive part was the thrones. They were crafted differently for each god. You could easily tell which one belonged to which. I spotted my father's throne easily. After all, it was bright, shining gold.
But everything was deserted. The lights were only dimly lit. It was quiet and cold.
I was just about to believe that we had came here for nothing, when someone said, "Well, I rarely get visitors anymore. What brings you three to Olympus?"
"Lady Hestia," Shawn said. Then he bowed. We all followed his example.
"Um, we would like to speak to Hecate. It's rather urgent. Like, the would depends on it," Jeanette said.
"Oh, well, it's always urgent, isn't it," Hestia said.
I got a better look at her, and I was shocked. She was only a little girl, dressed in a brown cloak.
"Oh, don't mind my appearance," Hestia said, almost reading my mind. "I prefer this form over others. I believe that Hecate is in her apartment, but you can never be sure with her. I'll have a nymph show you the way. Maple!"
A girl who I presumed was the nymph came out.
"Yes, Lady Hestia?" she said.
"Please escort these demigods to Lady Hecate's apartment. They say that it is urgent," Hestia said.
"Right away, Lady Hestia," she said.
She took us to the room.
"Finally!" I thought to myself. It took us over an hour the get to the apartment. There were only a few flights of creaky, wooden stairs. They were gods, why couldn't they put it a stinkin' elevator, for crying out loud!
Anyway, Hestia's apartment was huge, like all of the gods'. It was also very dark.
"Okay, if she is not even here right now, I'm gonna lose it," I said.
"Do not worry, daughter of Apollo," Maple said. "It is always kept like this."
Suddenly, the door jerked open. But there was no one behind it who could have opened it.
"Creepy," Jeanette sing-songed.
"Come in," a voice said.
"Um, is this place haunted?" I asked.
"Remarkably similar," the nymph said, not even cracking a smile. What a grouch.
We entered the room.
I had to adjust my eyes. There were no windows. The only light in the whole room was a single burning candle, yet it seemed to cast an erie glow across the whole expanse.
"Sorry for the wait," the voice said again. This time I got a clear view of the one who spoke. She was a tall, beautiful lady. She had slick black hair pulled into a tight ponytail. She was wearing a dark purple robe. She was mysterious and frightening, but, at least I thought, I could see a flicker of kindness in her eyes.
"I am Hecate."
Shawn look a little uncomfortable, and Hecate definitely noticed it.
"Hello, son," she said.
"Hey, mom! Um, I mean Lady Hecate, uh.."
I guess even adult demigods have rocky relationships with their godly parents.
"So..." Jeanette chimed in in a high-pitched voice. It was sort of unnecessary, but at the same time, nothing would have happened if she didn't.
"For Zeus' sake, I'm a very busy goddess. Do you have something to say or not? I have a potion brewing right now and and if it is even a minute overdone, well, let's just say you won't see the end of your day, let alone your quest."
"You know about our quest?" I asked.
She just gave us an 'I know everything' look.
"We need your help," I stated.
"If you will excuse me, I have to report to Lady Hestia. Good day, Lady Hecate," Maple said with a curtsy.
She scurried down the stairs, not saying another word.
"Well?" Hecate said.
"Your followers, the empousai.."
"Please don't speak of them. I told them that my faith in the Titans were misplaced, and.."
This time, I interrupted here.
"You supported the Titians? Didn't they want to, like, destroy the world? The demigods fought against them in the Titian war!" I said, appealed.
She looked ashamed. So did Shawn.
"I tried to redeem myself in the Giant War, and I may have succeeded a little, but... I guess I'll never be fully forgiven. I can;t expect to be. I was tired of how the Olympians treated me and all the other minor gods and goddesses. I just wanted to be noticed. I was wrong," she finished.
"Hey," Jeanette said. "You realized what you did was wrong, and you sided with us when it counted. You already are forgiven. And Jason Grace from the Roman camp is already a quarter of the way done with his project to honor the minor gods. New statues, temples, and cabins are being built everyday. You got your wish!"
"Wow, daughter of Apollo, you really have a way with words," I said, half mocking Hecate.
"Hey!" both Jeanette and the goddess exclaimed, not finding my joke funny.
"Sorry," I said.
We all smiled, including Hecate.
"Okay, well if you are to succeed in your quest, we must hurry. Tell me everything," she firmly stated.
"Operation stop the evil empousai who want to avenge the earth mother and take over the world is a-go!" I said.
An hour and a half later, we were saying our goodbyes to Hestia. She had spent a lot of the time talking to us about the empousai, giving away all the weaknesses they had. Sadly, there weren't too many.
"They are very smart and fast creatures. They aren't big and they don't look dangerous, but, I promise you, they are," she said earlier. "However, an average demigod should be able to defeat one or two. And special demigods like you, well, you can destroy an army. I don't know exactly where they are located right now. Most likely, they are trying to shield it from me. They don't want me to sabotage their plan. But I have been seeing visions, and I have tried to locate them numerous times in my crystal ball. As far as I can tell, they are located in caves someone in New Jersey. I would search around there for any clues."555555
"Thanks, mom," Shawn had said.
"Your welcome," the goddess said. "But I would not expect much help from the gods. Most of them act like they are above dealing with small monsters like the empousai, even though I don't agree. Thousands and thousands of years old, and they still act like children."
"I expected that much," he had previously said.
It was nice to see Shawn come out of his shell with his mother. That's something I'm still learning to do, too. But thinking about my mother made me think about my old life, and thinking about my old life made me think about the mess I had just made, so I left it alone. We talked for only a little longer. Hecate wished us good luck, and we exited the apartment.
Now, we were finally at the bottom of the staircase, and we were about to go into the very hot streets of NYC in the summertime. We had gathered all the information we could. All that was left was to track the empousai down and fight as hard as we could.
"You ready?" Shawn said.
"Let's take on the world," I said. "Or in this case, the empousai."
Both Shawn and Jeanette smiled, but only for a moment. After all, we had a lot we were going to go through. We had to focous.
And then Jeanette spoke. "Let's see what this city has to offer!"