"Right," I started, straightening out and setting my jaw. "That's it." Percy, Annabeth and Grover exchanged a look and Sasha stared up at me. "I'm losing patience. Fast."

"Acacia, there's nothing we can do but keep moving," Annabeth said carefully.

"How long will it take us to get to Los Angeles?" Percy asked her, as I turned and headed for the side of the road.

"Longer than a day," she groaned, shaking her head. "We're doomed. We failed."

"Hey!" I shouted, whistling. The three turned and jumped as the cab pulled over at the side of the road and I opened the back door. "Are you guys getting in or what?"

"Acacia, there's no way," Grover started, almost pitifully.

"Would you just get in the car?" I asked impatiently. Annabeth and Grover exchanged another glance, but Percy nodded at me and clambered into the back. With a sigh, Annabeth and Grover followed him. I slammed it shut and opened the front, squeezing in and shifting my feet to let Sasha slip into the foot-well.

"Hey, no dogs," the driver frowned.

"She's a wolf," I corrected simply. The guy's eyes widened and his face paled slightly, but I pulled out my LotusCash card and held it out for him. "Los Angeles. Quickly."

He snorted, eyes still hovering on Sasha. "That's three hundred miles away," he frowned. "You going to pay for that, girlie?"

I frowned. "One, don't call me girlie. Two, why in the name of the gods would I be holding out a casino debit card if I couldn't pay?" The guy gawped at me for a second, then snatched the card out of my hands and shoved it into the his machine.

When the lights stopped flashing, the infinity sign came up beside the dollar.

The look on the guy's face was priceless.

"Um... where about, Your Highness?" he stammered. Behind us, Percy choked, smirking at me with a wink. One of my eyebrows rose.

"The Santa Monica Pier," I answered. "The faster the better." The guy never let the car get below ninety.

I shuffled in my seat, trying unsuccessfully to block out whatever problem the others were talking about in the back. I didn't want to know, especially while I was trying not to fall asleep. Well, part of me was anyway. The other part of me thought I might finally get the answers I wanted so badly. After all, it was only a dream, only sleep. How badly could it affect me?

Then again, they don't say ignorance is bliss for nothing.

The dream-me was stood in the middle of what looked like a clearing in a forest, and looked around fourteen years old. Trees surrounded me, making me feel a little claustrophobic. The grass was covered in a fine layer of snow, but my footprints left no mark, my breath didn't stir the air around me.

Through the trees to the left, I could see a camp site. Tents were pitched around the outer edge, circling a large fire in the middle. A dozen white wolves prowled around, as though they were on guard duty. Girls hurried around, all wearing silver jackets and jeans, all armed with a bow and arrows. But just as dream-me was about to take a closer look, something materialised right in front of her. And when I say something, I mean someone.

Apollo looked exactly the same in my dream as he did in real-life; tall, tanned and strong with bright brown eyes and ruffled sandy hair. My stomach twisted at the thought of dreaming about a god, but I didn't get much time to contemplate that as he stepped forward with an uneasy smirk.

"Artemis called," he told dream-me in a careful voice. "Surprised she thought it was a good idea letting me within a hundred yards of you."

"She didn't," her hoarse voice replied as she folded her arms tight over her chest. "But since Thalia and Percy are about to kill each other, she didn't see much other choice."

Thalia? My heart hammered furiously in my chest. This was the second time she'd appeared in one of my dreams, and in both, it didn't seem possible that she could be there; one where I was sixteen, and now with Percy. Percy had never and can never meet Thalia. So how . . .

"I noticed," Apollo was saying, a frown deepening above his eyes. "They almost caught you in the crossfire."

"Don't," she warned, shaking her head furiously and taking a step away from him. He shifted nervously, like every movement she made was painful. "This is all hard enough as it is, I don't need you trying to protect me."

"They're supposed to care about you, and they're going to get you killed," he scowled.

"And what about you?" she snapped back. Snapping at a god . . . maybe I suddenly developed suicidal tendencies at fourteen years old. "If Zeus sees you here-"

"You're too close," he interrupted, shaking his head. "The amount of tests you've completed, you're too close to finishing. We don't have time to find someone else."

"Oh, that's brilliant!" she as good as yelled. "What about you? You saw what he was like over summer, Apollo, and as easily as you can forget, I can't. He wasn't kidding. You shouldn't be anywhere near me."

"You want me to stand back and watch you die?" he frowned quietly. I watched her face fall and shoulders sag, taking deep breaths in a vain, unsuccessful attempt to calm down. Apollo pursed his lips, taking a cautious step forward. When she didn't move away, he moved closer again. "I'll stay away, if that's what you want," he said, and she bit the inside of her lip to stop herself replying. "I won't stop Thalia and Percy arguing, I won't getting in the way of your tests, and I won't treat you any differently while you're at camp."

The dream-me shuffled. "Erm . . . thanks," she said uncertainly.

Apollo almost smiled, a strange expression I'd never seen before. "Doesn't mean anything's changed," he muttered. Then he stepped forward and kissed her. And, worse than that, she caved almost instantly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

The car jerked to a halt just as I snapped out of my dream, bolting upright with wide eyes, a hammering heart and no breath to speak of. Sasha had her head rested on my knee, staring at me in concern as I reached up and pulled the burning locket off my skin with a loud wince.

Beside me, the driver mumbled something, pointing out of the window and reluctantly pulling the LotusCash card out of machine. I stretched out with a yawn, shaking my head. "Keep it. You did good." He raised an eyebrow at me, but I just smiled and pushed the door open, letting Sasha out before following her with weak knees.

Percy, Annabeth and Grover clambered out beside me, all stretching out and yawning widely. "You should go and see what your father wants," Annabeth told him, pointing at the sea. "We'll wait on the beach for you, okay?" Slowly and nervously, Percy nodded and turned to head down the beach. He hesitated on the edge of the water, then started striding into the surf. Soon, his head went under and he disappeared from sight.

"So," Grover started as we walked down to the beach, staring after Percy in silence. "I guess we just sit?"

"Guess so," Annabeth shrugged.

"Acacia Grace?" a voice came, and the three of us spun, automatically reaching for weapons. But the girl stood in front of us just smiled. At the sight of her, Sasha barked cheerfully, plodding forward and settling at her feet as her tail dusted the sand. The girl must have been about twelve years old, with oddly silver eyes and auburn hair, dressed in grey jeans, combat boots and a silver t-shirt. I knew instantly that this was Artemis, the goddess of the Hunt.

She knelt down and took Sasha's face in her hands, ruffling her fur affectionately. "You have done remarkably well, Sasha," the goddess praised. "Miss Grace has passed many expectations."

I raised an eyebrow, flicking my gaze uncertainly toward Grover and Annabeth. Very deliberately, they both took a step back, shrugging with glistening eyes. Rolling mine in their sockets, I turned my attention back to the goddess as she straightened out, still smiling. "Acacia Grace," she smiled. I gulped once, vaguely remembering how well my last encounters with gods had gone. "May I speak with you in private?"

I hesitated, but nodded once and followed her as she turned to walk down the beach. Sasha swiftly moved to Annabeth's side, sitting down and watching the two of us walk away with her head tilted to the side.

"You've done very well, Acacia Grace," Artemis started, not bothering to look at me as we walked. There was a lump in my throat I couldn't talk past, but since my mind was a mixed up jumble of thankful prayers that I was still alive by some miracle, I figured it might not be a bad thing. Artemis flicked her gaze toward me with a curious frown. "But you don't think so, do you?"

I cleared my throat a few times before I found it in me to speak. "I just . . . I think Thalia would have been better at this than me," I admitted. "She was always stronger than I was."

"You think so?" Artemis questioned, looking mildly intrigued by the idea. "Didn't your sister constantly fight with your mother?"

I blinked. "Well, yeah, but-"

"And she ran away when you were quite young, didn't she?"

I thought I could feel an unusual anger building in the pit of my stomach. It took me awhile to figure out how to keep my face straight. "Yes," I replied in monotone.

Artemis glanced sideways at me. "And you spent three years protecting your mother?"

"And failed," I finished sourly.

"Three years is much longer than anyone thought you could last," she told me simply, and I stuffed my hands into my pockets before I could clench them. "In fact, I believe Ares was even stupid enough to bet Apollo you wouldn't last more than a few months."

I opened my mouth to protest, but found the words I was looking for had disappeared. I blinked a few times, then dropped my gaze to my feet. Why was it that the mention of Apollo made me so uncomfortable? After all, it was just a dream . . .

I wasn't sure what Artemis saw when she looked at me, but it can't have been good. Sighing heavily, she sat herself down on the sand, and motioned for me to do that same. I did as she asked, sitting beside her and curling my legs up beneath my chin. "May I ask you why you stayed?" she started softly.

I met her gaze for a moment, resisting the urge to run my necklace through my fingers with great difficulty. "It was my Mum," I shrugged. "She was so devastated when Thalia walked out, I thought so was going to hurt herself. I didn't want to leave her to look after herself. I knew she wouldn't be able to cope. So I stayed."

"Despite how many monsters found you under Hades's orders," Artemis finished. I didn't say anything, fixing my gaze on the sandy beach ahead of me. Over the past week, I'd got a lot of my memories back and very few of them were anything good. "And now you're travelling to the Underworld again."

"If we don't get that bolt back, they will go to war," I pointed out.

Artemis smiled sadly. "I was aware. The gods are already choosing their sides."

"Sides?" I breathed weakly.

"Everyone but Ares is supporting Poseidon," she said, almost regretfully. "It seems that it's working out the same at Camp Half-Blood."

I thought about that for a moment; going to war with at least three quarters of camp with Clarisse and her gang of thugs stood beside me. It wasn't a nice picture. "I can't fight them," I said in a hoarse voice. "I don't get on with Clarisse anyway, let alone when everyone's at war!"

The goddess looked torn for a moment. "Then I suppose you had better find the Master Bolt, or you're going to have to make some very difficult decisions. Zeus cannot force you to fight for him, after all."

The thought made me shudder on the spot, and I found myself shaking my head furiously. "I won't fight," I protested. "I can't. I can't fight a war where both sides are innocent, it's insane!"

She scanned my expression for a moment. "It is rather pointless, isn't it? And yet, neither side will concede without the bolt being returned by Perseus Jackson."

"He didn't steal it," I told her.

"You seem very certain," she frowned.

"I know Percy," I gulped. "He wouldn't do this. He wouldn't start a war!"

Something flickered in her expression. "If that is true, it is certainly a welcome thought," she said with a heavy sigh. "However, I'm afraid it will take more than the word of his daughter to convince Zeus. And I'm sure Hera would be most distressed if your word was all it took."

I snorted, pursing my lips to stop myself commenting. Instead, I searched for a change of subject, and found myself wondering again about the strange dreams I'd been having. Flicking my gaze toward her awkwardly, I lifted my hands and unclasped my locket from around my neck. "Do you recognise this?" I asked.

She held her hand out and I dropped the locket into it, suddenly feeling oddly bare without it around my neck. For a moment, she threaded the chain through her fingers. But when her eyes fell onto the locket, she went rigid on the spot, staring at it with a stunned expression.

"Where did you get this?" she asked slowly.

I squirmed. "Daniel Law," I replied. "He was at my school in Scotland. He gave it to me when a Kindly One showed up at our hotel over here."

"And I hear you met my dear brother, Apollo?" I tried not to react to his name, but by the look on her face, I didn't do so well. "Acacia, my brother . . . Apollo is a very unpredictable god. When he isn't busy being a complete fool, he can be remarkably intelligent. But being the god of prophecy is harder than he makes it appear to most people. Sometimes, he tries a little too hard to make certain prophecies come true, while others he keeps as quiet as he possibly can. I'm afraid that, for you at least, it would be incredibly dangerous to have anything to do with him."

"You're not the first person to tell me that," I told her honestly.

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

I nodded. "Chiron told me to stay away from him when he was telling Percy and me about the Master Bolt. No one will tell me why."

She paused, frowning thoughtfully as though debating how honest she should be with me. "You are a remarkable demigod, Acacia," she finally said. "Remarkable demigods attract a lot of attention, not all of it good. With all the attention you are already receiving, I would not suggest attracting anymore is a good idea."

"That was a very . . . vague answer," I told her.

She chuckled lightly. "Yes, but I'm afraid that is as much as I can tell you right now. In time, many of your questions will be answered. For now, I think it is best you keep focused on the Underworld. I daresay you understand the, err, delicacy of the situation."

A shudder ran down my spine, but I nodded as she stood back up. I hurried to my feet, just as the sound of a wave crashing sounded in my ears and Percy stumbled back onto the shore, bone dry and frowning in confusion. "I believe that is your cue to leave," Artemis smiled. "But I am sure we will meet again."

I almost snorted, nodding once and turning away as her form glowed bright gold. Sighing inwardly, I made my way back toward Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Sasha, my hands in my pockets as I kicked the sand dejectedly.

"Tell me it isn't bad news," Percy moaned, staring at the spot Artemis had disappeared from over my shoulder.

I scoffed. "I was about to tell you the same thing." He stared at me expectantly. "No, it isn't bad news. You?"

Sighing, he held out his palm, where four pebbles seemed to be shining in the sun. I raised an eyebrow, glancing at Annabeth and Grover. "Our ticket home," Percy explained.

"Pebbles?" I questioned. He frowned. "Sorry, but it sounds as odd as the poodle thing. Maybe not as bad."

"Can we just go?" Annabeth groaned as Percy opened his mouth to argue. "We don't really have time for this."

"Lead the way," I said, indicating at Percy. He slipped the pebbles into his pocket, sending me a pointed look before making his way back up the beach.