Knock Knock

It was a stupid idea, since most people just barged into the infirmary, but the last time Mari had been there she'd made quite an... overdramatic exit. Being polite was probably the least she could do.

"Come in!" her brother called. Will technically was supposed to be taking a well-deserved rest, but when Mari had woken up his bed had been made and he'd left a note on the door saying he was 'packing a few things up'. She didn't know if he was overworking himself because it was a bad habit, or because he was avoiding her. She didn't know if it sounded selfish that a tiny part of her hoped it was that first one. Either way, she knew she needed to apologise.

She stepped through the door. "Hi." When he saw that it was her, Will's eyes briefly darted over to a small stack of three boxes on the counter. "I'm not gonna break anything, I swear."

Will nodded, frowning slightly. "Why are you here then?"

Mari shrugged, feeling awkward. Mostly when she'd apologised in the past, it was to some adult yelling at her, and that hadn't been her fault (mostly). She had been very good at it, then, so why was she struggling so much now? Was it because she actually cared about what Will thought of her, or because she'd done something genuinely wrong this time?

"I wanted to say... sorry. For breaking the medical stuff." She gestured to a small brown stain on the floor, probably from a bottle or something that she'd broken.

Will looked a little surprised. "Oh. It's okay.' His eyes were on the brown stain too. "That was just tree sap. It's really easy to get hold of. After all, forest." He gestured to the various trees outside of the window.

"What do you need tree sap for?" Mari asked.

Will shrugged. "Sometimes the dryads get hurt when they're running around the woods. Tree sap, blood and a little ambrosia is like a transfusion for them."

"That's really smart."

Will grimaced. "It wasn't my idea. It was..." He trailed off.

It was fairly obvious whose name he was avoiding. "Did Mason enjoy the infirmary?" Mari asked quietly.

Will looked kind of helpless. "Well, I didn't know the guy for very long... but, I don't think he really enjoyed much of anything. He was always really reclusive. Either he was here or he was with..."

Mari walked over to the little stack. Will started following after her, a hand reaching out in panic as Mari took the top box and turned it over, glancing at the Ancient Greek.

Anchovies.

Oh. They were snacks. Disgusting snacks.

"Where do these go?" she asked.

Will looked confused for a second. "What?"

Mari put the box back on the stack. Thankfully the other ones looked different. There were no Jaffa Cakes though, which was a huge let-down.

"I wanted to help you put stuff away. It's kind of the least I could do, since I'm probably the reason most of this is out of place now. And, you asked if I wanted to help yesterday..."

Will frowned and Mari's heart sank. "I can go, if you want, too. That is also fine."

Will shook his head. "No, sorry. I wasn't frowning at the fact you're trying to help. Uh, I was wondering why the Hades you'd want to keep the Anchovies. That's actually the trash pile."

Oh. "Oh, thank the gods." Mari wasn't sure if she said that because Will seemed okay with her general presence, or because he did in fact have taste buds.

"Why would you have these, anyway? If you hate them?"

Will grimaced. "Lee adores them. I have no idea why, but I was hoping that I could say that the naiads stole them. Or that we ran out. The other two boxes are stale animal crackers."

"What are animal crackers?" she asked.

"Oh, right. England!" Will nodded to himself. "They're kind of sweet cookie-things shaped like animals. We keep them for younger kids, since they're healthier than most candy. What do they have in England instead?"

Mari smiled wistfully, her stomach rumbling. "We have Jaffa Cakes. They're little mini cakes with orange jelly in the middle and dark chocolate on top."

"I'd like to try some," Will said.

Mari helped Will clean stuff up in the infirmary for another few hours before they both heard sounds of the rest of the camp waking up. Will told her to go shower because she smelled gross. She couldn't be offended given the fact that the last time she showered had been when she was in the middle of the ocean.

When she got back to the cabin, there was a pile of clean clothes on her bed. A few leaves and a vaguely woodsy smell made her suspect that Juniper had left them.

Gods bless showers. I forgot what having soft hair felt like, wow, Mari thought as she walked through camp towards the dining pavilion. It was barely seven am, so only a few campers were making their way over.

Nobody paid her any attention, which she was grateful for. She only realised why when she arrived at the pavilion and saw the huge crowd surrounding Clarisse as she talked animatedly. Mari took the opportunity to grab some breakfast without having to wait in line.

She was about to head back to her cabin to ask someone about the schedule when a hand grabbed her arm and dragged her backwards.

Mari's heart sped up as she twisted out of the person's grip and elbowed them, which they caught. They let go and Mari took three very big steps away.

"Calm down," Annabeth hissed. Mari collapsed onto the grass, leaning her head against a pillar. Annabeth crouched next to her. "The border is healed. There won't be any more monsters attacking camp," Annabeth tried to reassure her.

Mari shook her head. "Not the problem."

"Then why did you freak out?" Annabeth didn't sound insensitive, just curious.

Mari sighed and squeezed her eyes closed. "I don't know."

"I just wanted to say thank you," Annabeth said.

"For what?"

Annabeth glanced behind both of them, to the view of the Long Island Sound. Mari followed her gaze. The water was shining in the rising sun, but that didn't make her feel any better. She knew logically that the sea of monsters used to be in the Mediterranean sea, and was now located in the area that the mortals thought was the Bermuda triangle, and that there was no way either of them could see that from camp. It didn't make her feel any better. Mari wondered if she'd ever be able to look at the ocean the same way again.

"Helping Percy and me, on Circe's island."

Mari was surprised she was getting a thankyou for that. And, she kind of saw it the other way around. Even though she had tried to warn Annabeth, she hadn't done much else. She wouldn't have blamed either of them for leaving her, the suspicious girl in one of Circe's best chitons, behind. "I'm sure you would have found a way off that place without me," she said.

Annabeth nodded. "Ideally. But you still didn't have to."

"Yes, I did." Mari disagreed.

"Why?"

It was a simple question. Mari didn't have a answer, she could only think about Blaze Morrigan, in a perpetual waking nightmare because she'd failed him. "I just did." After a few seconds, she added, "And I need to thank you too. I'd never have escaped that island without you."

Annabeth left to get breakfast, and Mari was finally able to head back to her cabin to see what was supposed to happen for the day.

Apparently, upon asking Lee, it was a clean-up and rest day. Well, 'asking' was a very loose term. He was still asleep and she had to "ask" him twelve times before he woke up, threw a pillow at her head, and finally told her what was going on. Chiron had been very impressed with how well they'd defended camp and kept up their schedules, and was giving them all a couple days to recover. And mourn the dead.

So, Lee and most of the others were sleeping in (or Lee had been, until she'd spoiled that for him). Lucky them, Mari thought, glancing at the sun in the sky. She really would love to sleep in one day. It would probably never happen, though. Maybe if she died a hero and got to live in Elysium, the sun wouldn't work there.

So, there were only a total of thirty or so campers actually awake.

She only knew five of them. Annabeth was gone, and Mari had no idea where. Percy and Tyson were talking about something in the dining pavilion. She didn't know where Clarisse had gone after her star turn in the dining pavilion. She was probably out antagonising a monster in the woods or something. Tyson was smiling and talking about something, and Percy was grinning at him even though he looked like he didn't quite understand what was coming from the cyclops's mouth. Mari hadn't seen Will since he kicked her out of the infirmary to shower. She really hoped he wasn't still there. Or, if he was, that he was resting.

All of them could use some rest.

Over the next few weeks, Mari settled back into what it was like to be a camper. A few people gave her some weird looks, but people mostly left her to herself.

After the first week, the entire camp started preparing frantically for the chariot races. Apparently last time they'd taken place, it had gone horrifically because the entire camp had been attacked by Stymphalian birds, of all things. That wasn't the worst part, though. According to Will, the race had a terrible track record of participants being maimed or killed. Tantalus had been thrilled.

She wasn't entirely sure why Chiron was continuing with it, but she took comfort in the fact that at least she wasn't the one getting in the chariot.

Lee and Michael were.

Mari tried not to worry about them. Mason was already gone, and she was trying not to think about him too much. She didn't know what she would do if something happened to Michael or Lee. Apart from Sean, who was admittedly sweet but didn't remember squat, they were the last people at camp who knew her before... Circe.

So she reminded herself that they were older, and experienced. And they hopefully knew what they were doing. Plus, Chiron had added some safety precautions. Mari didn't understand anything about them, but she knew they were there.

The morning of the event, she and Will were tasked with waking the rest of the cabin up early to get ready. Since Will apparently also had light powers (he could make his entire body glow, which was pretty cool) he was also doomed to a life of waking up at the crack of dawn.

Anyway, they both took their responsibilities very seriously. Meaning, they snuck into the dining pavilion the night before and stole three jugs of water (plastic bottles were not allowed at camp) and when the sun woke both of them up, they cheerfully made sure their siblings didn't have to worry about grabbing a shower before the big event.

For some reason, Michael threatened to smother her the next time she was asleep before him.

"What is that?" Mari asked Sean, who was gleefully carting around a golden umbrella.

"My spear," he told her.

She narrowed her eyes. She thought weapons that could turns into objects were supposed to be more... subtle. "How does an umbrella become a spear?"

Sean grinned, twisting the handle twice. The fabric folded into the umbrella, which got a lot longer and very pointy. "Behold!" Sean announced. "Spearbrella!"

"Sean, we told you, no opening that indoors!" Michael hissed.

Sean pouted. "Sorry..." He banged his spear on the floor twice, turning it back into umbrella form, and they all left the cabin.

It was a beautiful day. The sky was the kind of deep blue that only happened when it was really hot. White fluffy clouds floated slowly over them. Despite the heat, there was a soft cool breeze in the air, which was probably only present at camp.

Cabin seven's chariot was made entirely out of gold, and shone in the sun the same way their cabin did. Mari wasn't sure how Lee had managed that, but some of the campers were shielding their eyes as they walked past. Mari wondered if that could be an advantage. It was pulled by horses with golden coats, which Will told her were called Palominos. She thought that sounded like one of Drew's beloved shoe brands, but they did look beautiful.

The plan was for Lee to drive the chariot, and Michael, who was the best archer in cabin seven, to act as defence. He was only a little upset that he wasn't allowed to fire pointed arrows at the other chariots.

Drew had lent her some gold face paint the night before, which meant that all of them left the cabin with the number seven shining on their foreheads. Well, apart from Sean. His entire face was gold. And his hands. And possibly his legs.

Drew caught up to her before the race began. She'd somehow managed to dye her camp shirt pink, or bribed a child of Iris to change the colour for her. "Here." She handed Mari a little can of neon pink face paint. "It's for you to wear when we beat you."

Mari stuck her tongue out and pushed the gold into Drew's hands. "I just was about to give this back to you for when we kick your ass. But, I'm sure you'll come in second place."

Drew made a face. "I'll allow you guys third. Silena made a bet with Charles Beckendorf and I can't betray my own sister. But, I won't hold your bragging against you when my cabin wins."

"Hey, Tanaka! Are you suggesting that a member of my cabin is going to switch sides for yours so easily?" Lee called.

"Absolutely!" Drew called back, her hands on her hips.

Mari shook her head, trying not to laugh. "Get out of here. The race is about to start."

Drew gave her a mocking salute before dashing towards her chariot, where Silena helped her in.

"Hey, guys?" Mari tugged on Michael and Lee's sleeves as they were about to get in their own chariots.

"What is it? Please don't say you have a bad feeling," Lee warned.

"Just... be careful," she pleaded.

Lee grinned at her. "Always am."

"I make no such promises," Michael said, watching the Hermes chariot with a gleam in his eyes.

They both got into position, as Mari went to sit with the rest of her siblings. Chiron blew the starting signal a few minutes later, and they were off.

Mari didn't know if she was surprised or unsurprised that Percy and Annabeth took the lead immediately. On the one hand, they were probably two of the most capable demigods out of the entire camp. On the other, Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, and Percy a son of Poseidon. It was either a perfect combination or a disaster pot. And apparently, it was the first, which was great for them and bad for basically everyone else.

Mari cheered as Lee and Michael came up behind Percy and Annabeth. Michael apparently decided that a javelin would do a lot more damage than arrows at close-range, throwing it at one of their wheels. For obvious reasons, it didn't miss. However, it shattered on impact, which meant it couldn't fully take off a wheel, even though it did slightly slow them down by damaging the spokes. Mari only knew what spokes were because Michael had gone on a full on rant about chariot building the night before. He still didn't know that Sean had slept through the rant.

Mari and the rest of her cabin cheered as Lee and Michael took the lead, but somehow Annabeth and Percy managed to catch up. The good news was that Michael only had to take out one more wheel, and then the Athena-Poseidon chariot would be eliminated. Mari supposed she should be a little upset about that since she was a legacy of Athena and all, but she wasn't that bothered if it meant that her cabin won.

"You're mine!" Michael yelled, grinning as he prepared to throw another javelin.

"Yeah, right!" Annabeth threw a javelin of her own at Lee. It knocked him out and sent him tumbling into Michael. Both of them toppled out of the chariot and onto the floor.

"Shit!" Mari yelled. Not even Will corrected her.

The chariot's horses, which were now free, went wild and made a mad dash towards the stables. Unfortunately, between the stables and the horses was one obstacle. And that obstacle just so happened to be the rest of the Apollo cabin.

"OH, SHIT!" Mari yelled again.

It was a mad dash to scramble out of the way. Mari tripped over Sean's foot and Austin helped her up, only to fall over a bench. Mari helped him to his feet and they both had to dive out of the way of the horses, which were racing back to the stables like their lives depended on it, dragging the now upside-down chariot with them.

Michael helped a half-conscious Lee to the now empty bleachers, looking very sheepish. "Sorry." he mumbled. They all nervously sat back down, glancing at the stables occasionally, to watch the match.

Mari wasn't sure what exactly she'd missed, but she caught Percy throwing a pouch of Greek fire with his sword, towards the Hephaestus chariot, which was now in the lead since Clarisse was to far behind to catch up after spending too long fighting with the Stoll brothers (who were apparently Luke's replacement) and Drew's chariot was in third place.

The Hephaestus campers dove out of the way just as their chariot was engulfed in an explosion of bright green flames. Now it was between Drew and the other two.

"GO DREW!" Mari yelled.

Michael side-eyed her. ""What?" Mari asked. "She's my friend."

Drew's sister swerved neatly around the burning remains of the Hephaestus chariot, blowing the older Hephaestus camper a kiss as she went, and began to gain on Percy and Annabeth, who had one javelin left. And Percy was not as good a thrower as Annabeth.

"Why couldn't Percy have been the defender from the start?" Michael grumbled, patting Lee's shoulder.

The chariots were now neck and neck, with a quarter of the race to go.

Drew threw something into the chariot, which then exploded in a ton of sparkles. A few campers looked confused as to the point, but Percy had to rub the glitter out of his eyes, which gave Drew time to launch her next attack.

Drew pointed a finger at the chariot. From the trees, a flock of doves emerged, flying towards their target. The other campers tensed at the birds, but then relaxed once they realised that none of them were made of gold.

They pulled Percy and Annabeth's hair, slowing them down a fraction, which put Drew and her sister neck and neck with them.

Percy and Annabeth managed to dislodge the birds without hurting any of them, but now it looked like it was going to be a tie...

Percy threw his and Annabeth's last javelin at the Aphrodite chariot.

It didn't hurt the actual chariot, but it made them pause just enough to lose drag slightly behind, as Annabeth and Percy's chariot sped over the finish line.

"Oh, come on," Mari muttered.

"JACKSON!" Clarisse roared, from a little way behind.

"At least she gets third place." Will crossed his arms at Clarisse.

Annabeth and Percy finally managed to get their chariot to stop, and were instantly mobbed by a crowd of excited half-bloods. Annabeth tried to call something over the crowd, but Mari only caught the last bit. "We owe our lives to Tyson, Percy's..." she trailed off, and Percy finished for her, tears in his eyes. "Brother!" He called, loud enough so the whole camp could hear. "Tyson, my baby brother!"

Tyson looked like he was going to cry.

Percy grinned and then Annabeth kissed his cheek. The crowd cheered even louder at that, with some clapping involved, and Mari swore she saw Percy blushing a very deep red. She also heard a happy squeal which could only have come from Drew.

The entire Athena cabin lifted Annabeth, Percy and Tyson onto their shoulders (those were some very strong shoulders) and brought them over to Chiron. It reminded Mari of those shows where people were lifted up in a crowd at concerts.

Chiron awarded Annabeth, Percy and Tyson with laurel wreaths and the race was over.

"I propose that we reverse the results," Austin suggested to Lee, who was more lucid than before.

"Great idea. You should ask Chiron about it," he suggested.

Austin looked slightly panicked at the thought. "No, no, I wouldn't go that far."

After an hour of celebration (which Mari mostly spent running from Drew, who was chasing her around with the pink face-paint) camp activities resumed as normal. Which, for the Apollo cabin, meant archery class.

They actually shared it with Percy, who somewhat sheepishly apologised for the whole knocking-Lee-out thing, even though that was technically Annabeth. Lee laughed the whole thing off, all the while Michael swore retribution at the next race.

It made Mari smile.

Chiron pulled Percy away to talk about something, and the session ended with Mari getting an arrow an inch from bullseye, and several broken nails.

It was a good day. Mari hoped there would be more of them.

The only thing that would have made it better was Mason there, teasing her along with Michael. Or just watching them practice. Or maybe hanging out in the infirmary with Will. Just him being there would have been enough.

Mari closed her eyes. He would come back. He had to. Until then, she could plan on how to convince him to return. If he gave Chiron useful information about what Luke and Kronos were planning, he'd have to be allowed back at camp, right?

That summer passed very quickly.

Mari managed to get one bullseye, towards the end. Austin got her a vegan waffle with a strawberry on it in celebration. She hadn't been able to eat any animal-foods since coming into contact with Polyphemus, and she wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to again. She kept thinking of guinea pigs, and the fact that there were other stories of gods being angered and turning mortals into animals. How could she be sure what she was eating was really an animal? The Demeter cabin was thrilled with her, which was a not unwelcome side effect, since they grew delicious strawberries.

Drew finally cornered her and made her show up to breakfast one morning with a neon-pink face. The worst part was that someone took pictures, one of which was hanging on the wall of her own cabin, courtesy of Michael - the traitor.

She even started helping Will out in the infirmary more often. Since the border was fixed, the rest of them could go back to their normal schedules, which meant that Will actually got more than four hours of sleep each night. She helped him clean the infirmary in the morning, and at the end of the day.

She only used the mist once, to help Katie Gardner catch a high-up plant.

Besides Mason's absence, there was only one other downside.

Nobody knew where Oak's poppy was. Chiron had planted it somewhere, but he couldn't quite remember the exact location. He'd tried to retrace his steps (or trots), but those trots were four and a half years ago, so he hadn't had any luck. He knew that the poppy was somewhere in a small clearing in the woods. The problem was, that clearing was entirely full of poppies, some of them also dead Satyrs. Mari visited seven times, hoping her instincts would tell her which Poppy was Oak. She never figured it out.

At the end of the summer, Chiron gave out the annual beads, as a mark of surviving another year. Lee pulled Mari aside, handing her a little gold pouch. Mari wondered if Chiron had asked Lee to give her the bead separately, since she might be contagious (she'd thrown up after dinner the night before, and Lee had already been exposed to anything she might have). Now that she thought about it, the throwing up was weird, because Demigods didn't really get sick. Maybe it was food poisoning. Did that count as getting sick? She wouldn't be complaining to Dionysus given that she continued to avoid him at all costs. It was probably just food poisoning, anyway.

"I did what you asked, Mari," Lee said, "and got Chiron to find a pleather string for your necklace instead of leather. Honestly, it's just the same one he gives to the Demeter kids. I think half of them wish you could join their cabin anyway, so it wasn't too hard to convince them to give one to you."

"What's this?" she asked.

"Open it."

She opened the pouch to reveal a string, slightly lighter than the usual camp necklaces, but other than that identical. There were five golden-painted beads on the string instead of the one she'd expected.

Lee smiled. "It was actually Chiron's idea. He's not technically allowed to have the previous year's beads re-done, but you did get to camp five years ago and survive this long, so he wanted to respect tradition. I hope you don't mind."

Mari shook her head. "No, I- I don't. Thankyou."

She studied the beads. Each had tiny writing on it, μηδέν to πέντε. One to five, in black letters. They were separated by the same little silver dividers as the rest of the beads at camp were.

Mari hugged her brother as tightly as she could.

"Mari, Demigod strength, demigod strength!" Lee protested.

She stopped, nodding. "Sorry..."

Lee shook his head and smiled some more. "It's fine. I'm glad you like it." He clapped his hands together. "But enough of this. Time to join the others so you can collect this summer's bead."

She was astonished. "You mean this isn't all?"

"No. As I explained. These are to catch you up with the five summers you missed. Off you go."

The bead of that summer was painted with a miniature version of the golden fleece, with a blue background to mirror the ocean. Chiron smiled as he gave it to Mari. "I hope it will be the first of many I present you with," he said, before moving on to the next camper.

Mari slipped her sixth bead onto the necklace, next to the other five, and fastened the clasp.

The final night of the summer was when it all went to shit. (Really, the storm should have been the first clue. Nothing good ever happened when Zeus was involved). Mari went to sleep wearing the necklace, and woke up to a very distressed Katie banging on the door.

"What's... goin..on..." Sean murmured, still half-asleep.

"There's something happening with Thalia's tree!" Katie hissed, before running out to alert the Dionysus cabin.

All of them scrambled out of their beds, grabbing whatever armour they could find. Mari ended up with a helmet and half a chest-plate over her/Drew's outgrown pyjamas.

They rushed out of the door, along with several other campers, all of them brandishing various weapons. Mari pressed the charm on her bracelet, drawing Drys.

"Ow, you nearly stabbed me!" Michael hissed.

"Sorry." Mari held the sword as far away from everyone else as she could.

Chiron galloped past them, with a confused-looking Percy slung over his back.

If this was Luke again, Mari was going to scream. Or cry. Maybe both. She probably wouldn't be the only one. Had he stolen the fleece? No, that was what the guard was for. They would have alerted someone. Or, maybe they had, and that was why they'd all been woken? Or maybe the fleece had stopped working for some reason. But the camp still looked exactly like it should. Well, just like it should given the storm. The grass was a dark green, tinged with blue from the moon as Artemis made her way across the sky in her chariot, and occasionally showing their true green as the lightening in the distance lit up the area around them. The trees and few flowers were still blooming just like they should, soaked from the rain.

They all gathered around Percy and Chiron.

"Curse the Titan Lord," the centaur muttered. "He's tricked us again, given himself another chance to control the prophecy."

"What the fuck does that even mean?" Mari whispered to herself. Only Will and Lee heard her.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked Chiron.

"The fleece." Chiron said. "The fleece did its work too well."

Mari pulled Sean out of the way as Chiron galloped forward, with Percy still on his back.

The rest of the camp followed Chiron, and Mari had to crane her neck to get a view of what was actually going on.

The tree was fine.

Better than fine. It looked healthier than Mari remembered it from even before Luke kidnapped her. The golden fleece was still over a branch, shimmering in the moonlight.

"It healed the tree," Chiron breathed. "But poison was not the only thing it purged."

There, at the base of the tree, was a girl. Annabeth was kneeling over her, crying.

The girl had spiky black hair and a face covered in freckles. She was wearing ripped jeans, either because she liked the style or because she had been running from something. She also had a black leather jacket and shirt.

Annabeth looked up and ran towards Chiron. "It... she... just suddenly there..."

Percy jumped off Chiron's back and ran towards the girl, ignoring Chiron's cry for him to wait.

"It's true." Grover looked like he was about to cry. "I can't believe..."

The girl clearly needed medical attention.

Not even Will moved.

Percy knelt by her and put his hand on her forehead. "She needs nectar and ambrosia." He attempted to get her into a sitting position, but couldn't on his own.

"Come on!" He looked pissed off now. "What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the big house!"

Mari didn't know why she wasn't moving. She felt like she should have seen this coming, but she didn't even know what 'this' was. Why would she have-

Oh, fuck.

She didn't throw up because of the food poisoning. It was her instincts. Warning her that this was about to happen. And whatever 'this' was, it was huge.

The girl coughed and opened her eyes. They were the brightest, most electric blue Mari had ever seen. It was actually slightly unnerving. Wait. Electric- "Holy fuck." Mari whispered.

A few other campers heard her this time, but they were all too shocked by the scene in front of them to say anything. A few others, mostly from the Athena cabin, looked like they might have been figuring it out, too.

Thalia. That had to be Thalia. What else could have Chiron that freaked out? And Annabeth and Grover's reaction... it was the only thing that made sense.

The girl opened her eyes and coughed. "Who-"

"I'm Percy. You're safe now," Percy told her.

"Strangest dream... dying..." she mumbled.

"No. You're okay," Percy assured her.

"What's your name?" he asked.

Mari thought he might have figured it out a split second before she answered. From the way his eyes widened, it seemed that way. It was so quiet in that moment, that a monster could have stepped on a branch in the woods all the way on the other side of camp and they probably all would have heard it.

"I am Thalia," the girl said. "Daughter of Zeus."

"Holy fucking shit," Mari breathed, almost silently.

Will stomped on her foot.