Thank you for the reviews, as per usual! I'm sorry about how late this chapter is. In my head I'd like to post every Monday, but this week I scrapped a chapter and decided to restart to try and make it perfect- and then I got wrapped up in a real life writing project I actually have a time frame for... So sorry! And to top it off I'll be in the maritimes for the next two weeks so the posting may not be regular.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below.

What about Angels

IV

Baby Steps

The first quest was the demigod equivalent of a first girlfriend or a first job. But demigods had those too, so ultimately they just lived ultra-stressful lives.

Like right now? Jason was incredibly anxious. Not only was he leading an incredibly small party compared to the vast numbers of the legion he was used to (they were three people on this quest to be exact), but he had just been promoted to the rank of centurion to be able to lead this quest. Twelve, he was twelve. He was the first person to become a centurion under the age of thirteen since Franklin D Roosevelt. But when they'd held the senate meeting on the subject, Praetor Stanford (or as he called her my old babysitter Joelle) looked at him fondly and said that she knew he could handle it.

Of course she did. Everybody did. Never mind that he was from the fifth cohort and that his voice still squeaked when he shouted orders (that was embarrassing). Nevermind that the only people who liked Jason in the senate were his own centurions, Joelle, and her co-praetor Raj Rapali. They were praetors, so they were enough, and everybody still wanted Jason to save the world. He didn't know about that just yet. Right now he was focusing trekking up Mount Othrys to make sure that the guardian Lares there were still in position.

Usually this would have been one of the legion's annual recognition missions, but lately the children of Proserpina and Trivia and virtually every other god even vaguely associated with the underworld had been having nightmares. It was unsettling- demigods always had strange dreams, but to receive a direct broadcast from gods? Joelle and Raj had decided that something was fishy, and when Octavian had ripped open a stuffed giraffe and confirmed their gut feelings a smaller search party had been elected. Jason had been selected as leader since he'd been the first to report nightmares (Roman demigods had to fill in forms nowadays to keep the praetors updated) and since his position as a child of Jupiter made mountain-climbing a piece of cake. Recently Joelle and Lupa were starting to think that Jason's father's blood also made Jason hyperaware of divine presences.

Anyways, he and Bobby and Octavian were slashing through the jungles. Bobby was Jason's pic for the quest- he'd needed someone close, someone reliable, someone calm who wouldn't overwhelm him. Octavian was a representative from the first cohort. Kind of overwhelming Jason just by existing at his side, to be honest.

Thankfully he was quiet at least for now. Jason kept saying that they weren't alone in the woods: someone else was lurking, so they advanced with swords drawn and steps quiet. Jason held out his arm, ready to signal for them to stop or drop or charge.

The mysterious presence was driving him crazy. He had trouble pinning down who it was. He couldn't sense monsters (unfortunately), but whoever was close wasn't emitting enough power to be a god. It was stronger than a nature spirit though. Possibly a minor river god or something?

Then he stopped when he heard a branch crack. He'd developed a sharp ear by living around wolves, and forest sounds had been his lullabies growing up. That branch had cracked under something wider and heavier than an animal's paw. Something like a sneaker.

"Demigod," Jason said suddenly. "There's a demigod here."

He supposed that she'd been going for secrecy and subtlety, because the demigod in question dropped down from a tree like a panther once she realised that she'd been caught. She reached into a pouch at her waist and threw a handful of dark powder at Bobby who staggered off, screaming and covering his eyes. She threw another handful at Octavian, but before she managed to blind him Jason brought up his arms and a quick breeze blew the dust back in the girl's face. She hissed, but drew her sword anyways and came close to decapitating Jason even with her eyes closed. The resulting duel was tough, and when Jason pinned her down he realised that he could see her collarbone and there were dark circles under her eyes and she probably hadn't eaten and slept in days. It made her scarier, that even weakened they were still evenly matched.

Was she a runner from the wolf house? A loner? A lost half-blood?

Something about the way she tried drilling a hole through Jason's head with her eyes even after she'd failed at murdering him told him she was something a bit more intense. She was pinned down and completely immobilised under his knees, so Jason took the time to pat her down. He dug his fingers into the pouch at her waist and brought a sample of black powder to his nose.

"Gun powder?" Jason asked.

"Cannon powder," she said. Her black hair was pillowed under her head- very tangled, very dirty. Along her ear she had several piercings that looked crooked and tender as if she'd done them herself. The buds and loops and arrows were all gold and antique, as if she'd pulled them from a treasure chest. But what Jason noticed more was the eyes. There was no way to describe the way Reyna looked at him, but it was as unsettling as if a dog in a cage were to look angry.

"I know," Bobby said. He was using a water bottle to wash out he and Octavian's eyes.

"Where the hell did you get that? Who are you?" Jason asked.

She spat in his face. Jason rubbed it off with the back of his hand and pressed his golden sword to her neck.

"Elegant," Jason said. "Real elegant."

"You assaulted three authorised questers on Legion business, all of which are of superior ranks," Octavian blabbered on. "What is your business…"

"Octavian," Jason said. "Save it. She might not even know about the Legion."

"With that kind of fighting style?" Octavian asked.

"Superman's right, I'm self-taught," she said. Her accent was incredibly strange. It was a mix of something fluty like Spanish, and something heavier and more posed like an English accent- as if she'd stepped out of a romantic period film with swordfights and pirates and royal courts. "Who are you clowns?"

"I'm actually a Centurion," he said. "My name's Jason. Who do you think you are?"

"Well I know my name's Reyna," she said. "He says you're from the Legion?"

"Yes," Jason said. "Are you looking for Camp Jupiter right now?"

"I was making my way," Reyna said.

"Then you will so be punished when you get there for this attack!" Octavian said. "We'll have to file an official report for the praetors and…"

"You were coming down from the Mountain," Jason said. "From Mount Othrys. I mean, Mount Tamalpais."

"I thought that was where the camp was," Reyna said. "Lupa said that most half-bloods could sense large magical presences, and there was something on the mountain."

"You've been up there?" Bobby asked. "Alone? And you lived to come down?"

"I didn't have to go all the way to the top or be a genius to figure out that something was wrong," Reyna said. "I only saw the buildings from afar."

"No, camp's further down south," Jason said. "The mountain is for something… else."

"There's something… wrong with it," Reyna said. "With the mountain. Bad blood, bad intentions. It was streaked with red, I think there was a massacre or something."

A chill ran across Jason's back. Was that why Mount Othrys' guardian lares weren't responding to camp's communication attempts? Jason hoped not. How did you massacre ghosts?

"Are you a child of Mars?" Bobby asked. They all looked at him. "Sorry. I'm a son of Mercury. I'm good at figuring these things out."

"Bellona," Reyna said.

"That's rare," Bobby said.

"That's not good," Octavian said. "If she can sense a war with her instincts, we shouldn't go. We should alert the legion. We should-"

"Yes, take me to the Legion," Reyna said, her eyes fiery. "I need to get there now."

"What, you being chased?" Bobby joked. Reyna's glare was an answer in itself.

"Nobody's going to camp right now," Jason said. "The trek back is just as long as the trek to Othrys. We're going to finish this, especially if we already know that something's wrong. We aren't going back to camp with incomplete information and a half-ass quest."

Joelle would be so dissapointed. The senate would never forgive me.

"I'm not signed up for any quest," Reyna said. "Get your knife and your hands off of me."

"I was including you in this," Jason said. "You know your way up the mountain, away from tourists and mountaineers. If something's wrong, we need that. We were sent for subtlety and discretion- no mortals need to know if something goes sour."

"You were including me in this," Reyna echoed. "Well, sorry to disappoint."

"Good, you won't have to," Jason said. "Octavian's right, for attacking a legionnaire we could get you refused from Rome or assigned to the worst cohort."

Bobby shifted uncomfortably and Jason could feel his glare in the back of his head. They were from the worst cohort.

"There has to be something in Roman law about being unaware," Reyna said.

"There is," Jason said drawing back to the hours he'd spent as Joelle and Raj's personal slave in the principia, filing away papers and copying notes and writing up building permits and statements for them… "Ignorantia legis neminem excusat."

"Ignorance of the law does not excuse," Reyna translated.

"Very good," Jason said. "So why don't you settle down a bit, stop trying to kill us, and cooperate so we can forget about reporting you? Then maybe you can last at camp and get away from whoever's chasing you."

If looks could kill, Jason would be a dead man but he didn't care what or who was chassing this girl right now. He'd just solved one of their biggest problems.

"I'm going to take your silence as an answer," Jason said. "So I'm going to take my sword away from your neck and get off of you. You're going to get up slowly and put the sword away."

"Dump the cannon powder," Bobby said rubbing at his eyes. "Jesus, where did you even steal that from?"

"It was useful wasn't it?" Reyna snapped.

"Baby steps," Jason said. "Keep the powder, put the sword away."

"Baby steps," Octavian said. "Excellent. Maybe she won't murder us today, and tomorrow she won't even think about it."

"Maybe we'll all be best friends this time next year," Reyna said. "It's a magical world isn't it?"

"Sure is," Jason said.

To be honest, Reyna made him uncomfortable. She looked at Jason like she could see right through him, and that was a first. Usually he was unreadable and firm and secretive like the smooth marble statues Joelle said he'd grow up to look like. Usually people instantly trusted him and liked him and thought great things about him- but Reyna was treating him as if he was any other idiot in the world. It was good in a way, but destabilising. Reyna was silvertongued and fierce and merciless and so good with a sword. He wasn't sure how he felt about her, but he was pretty sure he didn't want to be her friend. Not with a girl who leaped down from trees and attacked so fiercely and had piercings all over her ears and seemed so shady and furtive. He was worried enough about having to spend the next few days with her.

Thankfully it really was a magical world, despite rough starts.