Chapter 19.
Lexi passes me a mug filled with hot chocolate. I take a sip and the warmth fills my mouth.
"Thanks," I whisper.
"Oh my God, Katy I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you!" Grace cries. "This is all my fault I didn't realise, I though you were a wolf."
"There was only me in there." I state.
"Wolves can turn invisible, you idiot." She yells.
"Since when?" Thalia throws her hands flat out in front of her.
"Well, I don't know do I? And how was I supposed to know it was her?"
"Quick question, who else here can turn invisible?" Liam asks.
"will you stop ganging up on 'is. I said I was sorry, man. And you never said sorry for blaming me!" Grace crosses her arms and tilts her chin up.
"Are you actually having a laugh?" I retort. This is why I dislike my sister.
"Well, it's over now. Lycaon is gone, and no one is dead." Thalia breathes.
I cough some more and pull the blanket further down my shoulders as Liam holds my drink.
"Liam and Grace, if you could come with me. Nico, Lexi and Katy, you three stay in here, and we'll pack up e tent with you in it. Katy needs to rest, again, and you two watch her. If anything goes wrong, we'll come get you, and you shout." Thalia plans and four of us nod our heads.
"Can I stay in here too?" Grace asks.
"No, I need you and Liam to show us the way to the train station."
"Why d'you need both of us then?"
"because Katy here has the best memory, no doubt but she's ill, and I only remember parts of it, it will be better of if we both go Grace." Liam argues.
With a huff, Grace gets off her bed and drags her feet outside. "Come on then!" She calls.
"We'll check up in an hour." Thalia says before Nico turns his head. "Come on then." She slips out of the ten before Liam. "If we run out of medical supplies, it'll be on you." Liam points at me before leaving.
"Are we Ok for-" I ask, I hope I'm not a drain in the supplies.
"oh, yeah. Will let me borrow his first aid kit, it's magic. Whenever you use some thing up, it refills itself." Nico assures me.
"When will we know when the tent is collapsed?" Lexi asks.
"Well, the entrance has gone so I guess it already has." Nico says.
I turn and see he's correct. The gap in the wall where the entrance was has been sealed. It's darker too, but the moon at the top gives out enough light so the difference is slight.
"Well, this is weird." I laugh. Then I start coughing again.
"Should I call Will?" Nico laughs then. Then he passes me a hot water bottle which I hug tightly to me chest.
"Where would he sleep?" I ask jokingly. Nico answers with a smile so I hit him lightly on his shoulder. "No!" I laugh.
"What if he has a note from his doctor?"
"Then his boss might have to slap you silly. Remember when you tried to pull that one when Apollo was at Camp Half-Blood though?" Lexi giggles
"He wanted to be mad, but he couldn't." Nico laughs.
Despite almost drowning again (long story) I felt normal. Like a teenage girl having friends round and just doing normal teenage girl things in a magic tent that is currently the size of a napkin. I forgot about the quest.
But then it all hit me.
That young girl unconscious at the bottom of the lift. My sister who I had never met was trapped in some underground bunker and here I was. I was careless. I make a promise to myself not to be so reckless anymore. I will stay focused on killing monsters and finding my old house, which I hope will lead us to the seven, no eight now.
"It was Hades." Nico says.
"Hmmm" I turn my head,
"My dad's Roman form is called Pluto which the planet was named after. After NASA took away Pluto's planetary status he was pretty mad, Persephone told me. I think it was you going on about how Pluto is a real planet that made him decide to help us. He told me in my dream last night that he'd shadow travel us North." He says.
"Oh, em, could you tell him thank you. And, no offence to all the gods and that, but why didn't they just teleport us here to begin with?" I wonder.
"No idea. Maybe it's so, or. Yeah, I don't know." He says.
"Our parents usually want us to fight our own battles, or get our own flights in this case. I remember once, our cabin councillor, Clarisse. Our dad got her a ship with warriors of bone for her quest. I guess it's so that we learn to be independent and rely as little as possible on the gods incase they're unavailable again, like during the giant war." Lexi reasons.
"Will and I started dating because of that war." Nico smiles.
"Yeah, and you started smiling." Lexi laughs. "How is Daniella, by the way?"
Nico beams. "Her parents ask me to babysit her often. Since she likes me so much. My my though, how the tables have turned."
"Who's Daniella?" I ask.
"My older sister, Bianca." Nico scratches the back of his head. "She, joined the hunters five years ago, when she was twelve and I was ten. But, she, she died." His voice cracks but doesn't stop. "I tried to make her come back but she told me not to every time. Four years ago, she reincarnated, to put it simply. I thought that I had lost her forever. Last year, I found her reincarnation, in this life she's called Daniella. Don't ask me how I know, I guess it's some underworld thing. But it's her, no doubt about it. And I finally have my big sister back. I want to protect her, make sure that she doesn't end up in the underworld again for a long, long time."
"And she won't." Lexi reassures him.