This chapter is dedicated to Calefe

Jason

I am glad when Artemis decides it is time to attack. The constant glares and scowls from the Hunters are tiring and irritating. It's not like we asked to be placed in their camp! Artemis brought us here! I think I'd we had stayed any longer, the Hunters would have 'accidentally' shot one of us.

The plan is for our quest to go in first with the Hunters covering our backs. When the Hunters have dealt with the monsters that are milling around the Wolf House, they are going to help us inside. Thalia and Phoebe volunteered to come with us instead of going with the majority of the Hunters and Artemis had grudgingly allowed it.

The Wolf House is like a giant castle. An uninhabited and abandoned one. It's like how they show them in pictures, with the vines hanging down the walls, the massive doorway without the door. But minus the guard towers, and the moat with crocodiles, and the drawbridge. It was clear that the architect had been going for for a castle/wooden hut look. The abandoned mansion has wooden corners and edges, which probably had looked good back in the day. But now, it just looks unstable, the wood is crumbling away and the stone bricks are covered in cracks.

This is the place where I started my journey. The place where my mother left me with Lupa. The wolf had protected and trained me for all of a year. A year is a long time to stay, normally demigods come at older ages and are able to go to Camp Jupiter in a few days, a week being the longest.

I creep up behind Calypso, who had been spying on the Wolf House for the past five minutes. "Well?" I whisper. "Can we go in yet?"

Calypso nods and leads us out of hearing to where Piper, Leo, Phoebe and Thalia are waiting. "As far as I can see, there are no titans or giants. The monsters aren't particularly strong." Calypso smiles at me, "Which means no drakons or centaurs."

Thalia snickers behind me and I shove her playfully, "Shut up."

"Okay, this time," Calypso says, giving Leo a pointed look. "We all go in together, no charging in by yourself and if you get hurt, come immediately to me to be healed."

"Yeah, yeah yeah," Phoebe says, rolling her eyes. "We know, Calypso. Now let's fight."

"Phoebe is a child of Ares," Thalia murmurs in my ear. "They are generally bloodthirsty and always itching for a fight."

We all reach the tree line. "Alright," Calypso whispers. "Remember, we don't have to watch our backs or deal with the monsters outside. We just need to get in quietly and-"

"Screw this." Phoebe mutters, pushing past the tree line and drawing her bow as she runs. She sends two swift arrows into the eyes of two cyclopes that are right by the door. Phoebe turns to us. "Well?" She shouts, getting our attention as well as several hundred monsters'. "Are you coming?"

We start a quick jog over to her. "Well," Leo pants. "At least it wasn't me this time."

"We've already drawn too much attention," Calypso says. "We still need to get in and the monsters are already attacking us." Calypso's point is proven when she shoves me out of the way of an oncoming spear. "We're going to need to seal off the door."

"Think. Think!" Calypso mutters to herself in frustration.

Her eyes travel to the wooden doorframe and continue upwards, to the unstable and crumbling stone bricks. "Jason!" Calypso yells at me. "Fly Lit over to Phoebe now!"

I grab Lit and lift him up bridal style. He glares at me as we fly above the monsters and doesn't stop scowling until I drop him next to Phoebe. He immediately joins her in defending the door while I fly back to a slowly approaching Calypso, Leo and Piper.

"Take Piper and go help Phoebe and Lit!" Calypso yells before I can even land.

"Wait, what about us?" Leo asks, confused.

"We, Valdez, are going to make our own entrance," Calypso grins.

I pick up Piper without any protests and fly over to Phoebe and Lit, leaving Vena and Dix with Calypso and Leo. I drop Piper behind their small line of defence and immediately bend over, resting my hands on my knees.

"Are you okay Jason?" Piper says, concerned.

"Yeah, it isn't exactly easy carrying two people through the air," I say. "Give me a moment and I'll be good."

"Alright," I say, after a few seconds. "First to die painfully owes the other person ten drachma."

Piper smiles beautifully at me, "You're on."

Piper

Calypso and Leo's entrance is one worthy of Zeus. Our only warning is the grunts of falling cyclopes, the yells of dying empousi and, of course, the smoke.

The fire spreads through the monsters, creating a wide path of fire, only leaving the cyclopes standing. But even those are quickly shot down by Thalia, Phoebe and Calypso. Leo and Calypso stride through the flames and we back up into the mansion as the area around the door is slowly surrounded by fire.

Suddenly, a cyclops breaks free of the surrounding monsters and charges Leo and Calypso from behind. Before Thalia or Phoebe can put an arrow through it's head, the cyclops makes it to Leo and Calypso.

Leo, catching the alarm in Thalia and Phoebe's eyes, turns around just to be smacked in the chest with a cyclops' club. Leo goes flying through the air and lands at my feet. I quickly pull him out of the fire and through the door.

Calypso, spins, notching an arrow as she turns and shoots the cyclops in the throat. Now that Leo is groaning at my feet, the fire trail starts to disappear rapidly. Now this isn't like a movie where she sprints out of a collapsing building while dramatic music plays in the background. No, instead she disappears.

Soon, a loud crack is heard as a deep stab mark appears on the top of the doorframe, cutting all the way through the wood. I only have time to pull Thalia and Phoebe back as the previously crumbling stone brick above the door collapses, filling in the space of the doorway. The room is enveloped in dust and I vaguely hear Phoebe curse.

When the dust clears, I immediately look to Leo, who is still lying on the floor but now with a smirking Calypso kneeling over him. "Bruised ribs," she announces. "Nothing to bother wasting my energy on healing."

"Wow, thanks Cal," Leo rasps out.

Calypso's smirk grows even wider and she stands, offering Leo her hand. He takes it and Calypso pulls him up.

"Why, did you not tell me that cyclopes are immune to fire?"

"Because it's general demigod knowledge. Besides, if I had, would you have gone through with it?" Calypso asks.

Leo grumbles and brushes himself off, getting out his dagger.

"Alright," Calypso says, staring at the former doorway. She turns around and looks at the two paths that go further into the house. "It should take them a few minutes to figure out that there are other ways in and hopefully before then, the Hunters will have made an appearance. Let's go find Hera"

"Great," Leo grumbles. "Let's go explore the creepy and most likely haunted mansion. This is like a typical scene in a movie. Let's all split up to complete the feeling, shall we?"

Calypso looks surprised, "Good idea, Leo. Thalia, Phoebe, Lit and I will go through the door on the left and you, Jason and Piper go through the one on the right."

"No, that's not what I meant!" Leo yells, but Calypso, Thalia and Phoebe are already gone.

Leo turns to Jason and I. "And this, my friends, is how we end up being picked off one by one," Leo says dramatically.

Jason snickers and I shove Leo through the door on the right, both of us soon following him. "Shut up, Repair Boy."

Jason

We walk through various rooms before we find anything remotely interesting. So far we have found a set of creepy stairs that Leo refused to go up, several sets of claw marks and a bunch of rodents.

No sign of Hera, no sign of Calypso and the others and no sign of any bloodthirsty monsters. Right now I'm not sure whether that's good or not.

By now Leo has started placing bets on who's going to be 'picked off' first. He's ruled off Calypso, Thalia and Piper as possibilities but he can't decide which out of me, Phoebe and himself that's going to die first.

After an agonising five minutes of this I groan loudly. "Remind me, Leo, why I'm on this list?"

"Because, Jason," Leo says slowly, like he's speaking to a three year old. "After Diablo, you'll probably jump in front of a sword or get yourself killed in some equally heroic way. Phoebe will charge into battle like she did before and a monster will get her. And I was just screwed from the start. If I am going to die though, it will be in some really stupid way. Like I trip over and crack my skull. Or a meteor will land on my head. Or, the most likely one is that Calypso will kill me."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "Really, Leo?"

Piper clasps a hand onto his shoulder, "He's just nervous. Don't worry Leo. If a meteor lands on your head, I'm pretty sure we'd be dead as well."

"Thanks, Beauty Queen. That's really reassuring," Leo mutters.

Suddenly Venator and Vindix start growling at the upcoming door. Piper quietens them while I sneak up to the door. I peer through to the next room and quickly scan it before backing away.

"Alright," I whisper. "The next room is gigantic. There are at least a hundred monsters there, plus Lycaon and a dozen of his wolves. A lot of Hellhounds and Cyclopes, as well as a good amount of empousa and dracaena. Leo, watch out for the ghosts and the crazed axe murderer in the corner."

"Yeah, yeah. Real funny Jason," Leo hisses lowly.

"Hera's cage is right in the middle of the room, so there is no point in subtlety. We can't wait around all day for Calypso, Thalia and Phoebe. For all we know, they could be waiting for us to attack."

Piper snorts, "I doubt that. You saw Phoebe last time."

"Either way, let's go." I reply.

Leo

So Jason said that there are around about a hundred monsters? That's what, thirty-three monsters each? That's actually pretty good odds for a demigod.

Jason is the first to charge in, closely followed by Piper and then me. Jason slices off the head of a cyclops and I stab a lunging hellhound as we make a direct path to Hera's cage.

I grin at the sight of her in the cage, "Hello, Tia Callida. Need some help?"

Hera scowls at me, "Shut up and get me out of here, Valdez."

You're probably wondering how I know her, aren't you? Well let me share the story of my life. When I was little, my mother needed a babysitter. The only person she could find was a strange old lady called Tia Callida. She wasn't really my aunt of course. She was too old to be my mother's sister, and I never knew my father. She always wore this old black shawl and a hideous black dress.

I guess the first time that she tried to kill me was when I was two. My mother had just gone out to the machine shop and she was looking after me. I was really sleepy and she had put me down to sleep. I had been nestled in a blanket, a strangely orange and red blanket. The bed was basically a hole in the wall. It had a metal slot over my head and strange black bricks. Directly above me was the night sky, I could see the stars and moon.

Everything was fine until my mother came home. She had screamed and snatched me up, all the while screaming at Tia Callida. But the lady had disappeared.

Only later had I realised that I had been sleeping in a fireplace.

The second time was when I was three. She had somehow kept her position as a babysitter and was looking after me again while my mother was out. This time she had let me play with knives, insisting that I had to 'learn my blades early'. Yeah, you could say that she was slightly insane.

The third time was when I was four. Tia Callida had found a rattlesnake in a cow pasture and she had encouraged him to poke it with a stick. I couldn't bring myself to poke the snake. What had it ever done to me?

And the next time, was when I was fi- well, you get it. I had I psychotic babysitter with some serious mental issues. And well, the old hag also happened to be Queen of the Heavens, problem?

"Leo?" Jason says incredulously. "You know Hera?"

"Yeah," I nod. "She's my former psychotic babysitter. My mum eventually had to fire her for getting me to play with knives and poke a sleeping snake. You could say that I know her."

"Poke a sleeping snake? Play with knives?" Piper says faintly.

"Yeah, among other things, she also put me to sleep in the fireplace, but that's beside the point."

Jason stares at Hera, "That's really messed up."

Hera hisses, "Stop talking like I am not here!"

"I know," I answer, ignoring Hera. "How do we free her?"

"Um, the prophecy said that you and Calypso had to free her together.," Jason says.

"Great, so what do we do? Wait around for Calypso, Thalia and Phoebe to make an appearance?" I reply, annoyed.

A tinkling laugh sounds from behind us, "I'm afraid not, demigod. You won't live long enough to see them again."

Jason, Piper and I spin around and Jason levels his sword at the woman. She was probably around twenty, she had a silver crown resting on top of her black hair. She had a snowy white dress and icy blue eyes.

I laugh, "Who the heck are you, lady?"

She scowls at me, "Leo Valdez, Hera's newest little pawn."

I raise an eyebrow at her, "Firstly, that's my name, so get your own! And secondly, I am not Hera's little chess piece. And you didn't answer my question."

Her glare intensifies, "I am Khione, goddess of snow. And you, demigod, will not survive the rest of this night."

-Stars