Chapter 52

A Strike Means a Strike

Mount Othrys was changing by the day.

When Daedalus and I arrived months back, the palace had seemed like a construction zone. Now I wasn't even sure palace was the right word.

The imposing walls were filled in— no more spots of mist swirling around empty gaps. Every rampart was sculpted perfectly. Even if an army laid siege to it, the stone walls were so smooth ladders could've slid straight off. As tall as the walls were, the central building stood about ten times higher. I'd been all the way to the top once, when I first arrived. At the time most of the elevator buttons had been empty, blank gaps with nothing but mist to press. I had a suspicion, now, that every one had become its own floor.

The craziest part was, things weren't finished. Other buildings had started to spring up. A city was growing, the fortress and walls at the center, and it was happening in real time. Before long I wouldn't be surprised to wake up one morning and find a McDonalds outside my window, or maybe a Target.

Returning to base we passed everything quickly. Victoria pulled to a stop at the courtyard's gate and the rest of us spilled out. As soon as the doors shut, the car squealed away.

"She's trying to return the car fast enough to catch up and see Luke, isn't she?" I said.

Nobody disagreed.

"Young love," Po said sagely.

"Are you even older than her?" Bianca asked.

Po walked ahead, entering the courtyard first. "A shinobi's true age is his wits."

As he disappeared, Bianca turned to me. "Did you understand that?"

"He sounded confident saying it," I said.

"So… no."

Inside the courtyard things were pretty much the same. Now that the walls were complete, there were no more beams of sun to penetrate the shade, but that only added an extra chill. There was just one major difference. Along the West wall, nestled in the coolest bit of shade, were rows of oversized white tents. They stood empty for now, but I'd spent enough time inside them to know how lively they could get. The Hyperboreans had shipped out the week before to deal with a nature spirit uprising North of Lake Eerie, but before that every soldier from Alaska had been packed inside, eating and sleeping and, somewhat often, partying. It'd only been five days, but base felt empty without them.

I guess Bianca was thinking the same thing, because she said, "I'm sure Hector's alright."

"I'm not worrying about him," I said. "I know how much he can take. I just wish they'd finish the mission quicker."

"So you just want to see him," Bianca summed up. "You know, speaking of wanting to see people…"

I knew right away what she was getting at. There were three leaders at Mt. Orthrys— Atlas, who you only reported details to if you felt like getting laughed off; Prometheus, a titan about as honest as a con man in court who'd tried about a dozen ways of killing me off; and Luke, my old friend who hadn't tried to kill me yet, but the same couldn't be said for Bianca. Of the three Prometheus was off-base with the Hyperboreans, seeing if he could sweet-talk any of those rebellious nature spirits into switching sides. Atlas was never an option. Which left Luke. I didn't have to ask to know how Bianca felt about the prospect of talking with him for a whole afternoon.

"Don't sweat it," I said. "Po and I have got this."

She flashed a thankful smile. "Catch you at dinner."

She hung a left. When I got to the main door, Po turned back and noticed I was alone.

"Is Bianca practicing her stealth?"

"It'll just be the two of us," I said. "She had something come up."

"I see." Po nodded. "That is exactly what one would say if their friend was practicing stealth. A commendable cover story. I will pretend I do not notice a thing."

"You know what," I said, "sure. Let's go with that."

We crossed the cavernous entry room no problem. The Dracaena manning the desk never looked up from her issue of 1001 Ways to Roast a Demigod! It was the spring issue, so all the recipes featured carrots. I frowned. If anyone was going to be cooking me, they better at least get something fancy, like Artichoke.

"I believe Victoria was angry with me."

I hadn't really been expecting Po to start a conversation, so it took me a second to answer.

"Only a little," I said.

"Had you seen her after our target nearly escaped, you would not be saying that. She was quite… irate."

I could see that. To Victoria, completing a mission meant winning, and failing meant losing. That was about as serious as things got for her.

"What was all that about, anyway?" I wondered. "You had an opening. You could've ended the fight. Why didn't you?"

"Because I am a shinobi."

"I don't understand."

"None do. I've learned that. But this is my choice, my conviction. A true shinobi is a master of stealth. They attack suddenly, without warning. Their enemies cannot see them coming. It is the perfect way of fighting— to not allow a fight to start in the first place."

"When you put it that way," I said, "it does sound pretty cool."

"Not only cool." Po pinned me with his eyes, and I noticed for the first time how old they seemed, almost ancient. "Safe."

I didn't really have an answer for that.

We finally tracked Luke down to the empty Mt. Orthrys bowling alley, gesturing at the barren lanes while talking to a girl I'd never seen before.

"—and, if you get it in the gutter, the lane fires your ball back at you. It's great reflex training, and perfect motivation for improving your technique."

The girl cocked her head. "What about if I get a strike?"

"That's the best part. Then the ball gets fired at your opponent. If they aren't paying attention, you can even win the game early."

"Ahem," I said.

Luke turned. His smile widened to a grin.

"Welcome back," he said. "Everything went smoothly, I hope?"

"The snake's flying with harpies in Tartarus," I confirmed. "No more poisoned demigods stumbling back to base."

"Eh, I wouldn't put money on that," he said. "But at least we've gotten rid of one of the things that can do it. Speaking of demigods… Percy, meet Kate. She's new, was just getting the tour."

The girl he'd been talking to waved, and I really looked at her for the first time.

She had short, neatly cut brown hair. I couldn't pin down her age. Older than me, definitely. Her shirt looked like a souvenir, something about a big magic show in Vegas. Other than not having a single pimple — trust me, that was a big deal at that age, especially for demigods like us who tended to miss showers — there wasn't anything remarkable about her.

"Hi," she chirped. "The name's Kate."

"Percy," I said. "Nice to meet you."

"Hey, are you coming back from a mission?"

I looked to Luke. I wasn't always the best about keeping my mouth shut, but I figured I should at least check how much I was allowed to say. He nodded to tell me 'No big deal.'

"Sure am," I said.

"Was the monster difficult to kill?"

"Eh, so-so."

"Wow, you're so cool!"

Luke snickered as I shifted uncomfortably. "It was a real team effort."

"Hey," Kate said, "I have another question."

"Uhhh, sure?"

"If you had to let one of your team members be slaughtered in order to win, which would you have chosen?"

"Excuse me?" I thought I'd heard her wrong. But something in the way she was staring at me, curious and not blinking as often as a person should, convinced me that I had heard exactly right.

"Oookay, I think it's about time the tour kept moving."

Luke inserted himself between us, laying a hand on Kate's shoulder. He steered her toward the door. "Po here can take over for me. Ask him any questions you might have… but try to avoid anything that could get you stabbed. And remember, dinner is at six sharp. Don't be late."

Po seemed surprised at first, but he shook it off.

"If you are going to follow, try to keep up," he said, before turning and striding from the room at a normal pace.

"Okay." Kate trailed behind him. "Hey, do you always wear that mask? What about when you eat? Does it ever get sweaty? Can you use it as a tissue? How about–"

Their voices trailed off down the hallway.

"Whew." Luke leaned back, sighing. "You guys showed up at the right time. That girl is…"

"Unnerving?"

"Exhausting," he said. "So many questions."

"Why were you even giving the tour in the first place?"

Sure I'd gotten mine from a regiment leader, but even that was something of a special case. And there was a massive jump between Luke and someone like Victoria.

Luke walked around me, studying one wrack of bowling balls. Then he laid a hand on a speckled blue one and said, "Play while we talk?"

I shrugged. It wasn't like I was doing anything else. And, really, he was kind of my boss. I wasn't sure I was allowed to say no.

"I'm a pretty busy guy. You're right, usually giving tours doesn't make my schedule… and I don't have any reason to make room." Luke lined up with a lane and swung his arm back. He sent the bowling ball spinning down it, and three-quarters of the pins clattered to the ground. He clicked his tongue, turning back to me. "That girl is a special case."

I picked a bowling ball of my own, a green size 7 nearly the same shade as my eyes. "Is she powerful?"

"The opposite, actually." Luke's ball was fed back out from the machine, and he got set for his second shot. "Since showing up a few days ago she hasn't shown anything. No powers, no skills, can't even focus long enough for a swordsmanship lesson. And she claims to have survived on her own for a year, without ever going near Camp Half-Blood."

"That isn't possible."

"It is," Luke disagreed. "There's a much likelier possibility, though."

He sent his ball spinning into the remaining pins. Luckily, spares didn't come with any bonuses like strikes did. Nothing fired at my face.

"You think she's lying?"

"In a sense," Luke said. "We think that she's a spy."

Emmitt had talked about those once, back when we were on the feat. He mentioned that there were kids at Camp Half-Blood who'd changed sides, but still stuck around. They pushed disgruntled campers toward the titans, and probably fed information back when they needed to as well. I'd wondered if there were any on the Titan side, doing the opposite. Now I knew I wasn't the only one who'd thought of that.

"The first thing you do with spies is give them a tour? I guess that way they might leave you a five-star review… after they spill all of your secrets."

Luke rolled his eyes. "We think she's a spy, Percy. You can't turn away an extra body off of suspicions. Are you going to take your shot?"

"Don't rush me." Lining up against the pins, I rolled my ball hard down the center. All but the pin on the end tumbled down.

"Close," Luke offered with a smirk.

"Save it," I told him. As the spare pins were cleared, I thought about what he was saying.

"You're trying to figure out if she's a spy or not. The tour, keeping close to her… it's all a test. That's why you're doing it yourself. You don't trust anyone else to be able to tell."

"I wouldn't go that far," Luke said. "I just have a little more experience with these sorts of things than, well, anyone else that we have."

"I guess you would. How long were you undercover at Camp for again?"

"Too long."

"Do you ever miss it?"

"Not once." Luke glared down the lane so hard, I half expected my last pin to be telekinetically blasted away. "Next month can't come soon enough."

"Next month?"

I froze halfway through the wind-up for my second shot. He seemed to catch himself. Some of that raw emotion cooled, or at least got tucked away under a calm exterior.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "Things are moving quickly is all I was saying. Skirmishes are being fought all over the US, and we're winning most of them. Soon, we can start to back them into a corner."

Knocking over the last pin for a spare of my own, I tried not to snort. I didn't buy that for a second. However the war went, it couldn't really start until one of me, Thalia, or Bianca got close to sixteen. I wasn't too sure how Thalia's age even worked these days, but if she'd aged normally in tree form this wouldn't have been a conversation, so I figured she had to be at least a little bit younger. Which meant we had, at minimum, a good handful of months before any corners would be getting backed into. Something else was up.

"Funny you mention things coming up," I said. "See, on the way back to base, this thing that called itself a Theoroi showed up."

Luke forgot to even reach for his bowling ball. "Tell me everything."

I noticed, for all his curiosity, he didn't sound surprised. More like wary.

I told him about the Theoroi's appearance and strength. I explained the images, as many as I could remember, and only left out the details about Minos. Somehow, those felt personal.

"We'll need to issue a mission," Luke said when I'd finished. "These games… this will be big. We can't miss afford to miss out."

"Why?" I had to ask.

Luke thought about how to answer. He held his bowling ball in his hands, peering at it like a crystal ball that would magic an answer to his brain.

"There are forces at play here," he said. "Old ones. Powerful ones. Some monsters in this world… They aren't anything you want to tangle with. Unless, that is, you can get them onto your side. I can't say more than that. Not here."

"Why? It's only the two of us."

"It's not about how many people there are, Percy."

"Oh, got it. You just don't trust me."

"It's not—" Luke gave a frustrated sigh. "Just give it time. I'm working on things, you'll see. All you've got to do is believe in me."

Maybe at one point that might have made me feel better. But the fact was, Luke had gone behind my back. He'd tried to kill Bianca multiple times. He wanted what he wanted and was willing to step on anything that got in the way of it. I couldn't help wondering now, whenever I talked with him, if this was the time I would finally fall under that 'anything'.

I was so caught up worrying, I hardly noticed Luke take his shot, or the rattle of pins that followed it.

Fwoosh!

Luke's bowling ball flashed like a rocket, just a blur in my peripherals, until— CRUNCH! My left had snapped up, metal fingers pounding trenches into the hard plastic surface. It dropped to the floor, cracked to pieces.

"Good reactions," Luke said, staring at me. Behind him all ten pins lay scattered across the lane. A strike.

"I have experience," I said. We both looked at his ball. Bowling balls were supposed to have holes, but not the kind this one had. It was totally shattered. "Maybe we postpone the rest of the game for a rematch?"

It was the politest way I could think of to say I wasn't in the mood to be around him any longer. He nodded, and I ducked into the hall with a quick goodbye. Even after I was out of sight, I wasn't sure if I'd managed to keep the relief off my face.

O-O-O

"You got to talk to Luke, one-on-one with nobody around, and even played a game of bowling? It's official. I hate you."

Victoria glared at me across her leafy salad and the Bronze Regiment table, arms crossed. I sipped my soda— a fizzy Dr. Pepper.

"You're overreacting. It wasn't that big of a deal."

"It basically would've been a date."

"But if you went, too, then we both would've been there. And besides, you had to return the car. I can't even drive."

Victoria huffed. "Don't bring logic into this. I'm trying to be jealous."

"If it's about being around Luke," said a voice from the end of the table, "then I was stuck to him the entire day. Just the two of us."

I wouldn't ever call dinners with the bronze regiment boring, but there was a routine to them, even in Vera feeding the sleeping Aurora and Po inhaling food without ever getting caught with his mask off. They might've been weirdos, but it was always the same weirdos. Until tonight.

Victoria turned to where, at the end of the bench, Kate was smiling innocently. She seemed conflicted. On one hand, the girl wasn't trying to hide her bragging. On the other, that girl had had the choice of our regiment of Kurt's, and she'd picked ours. That was everything Victoria had been working toward for years.

"You're lucky he made time for you," Victoria settled on. "He's very busy."

"Or he was lucky to spend a relaxing day with a girl like me," Kate said. "Maybe that was why he did it. My charms work fast."

Victoria's smile grew forced. "I guess it's possible."

"What I'm curious about," Emmitt broke in, leaning forward, "is this Theoroi stuff. You said Luke seemed to know about it?"

In the last two months Emmitt had changed more than anyone, and all of it for the better. He'd grown his hair out till it was shaggy, almost reaching his shoulders. He wore brighter colors and shirts with collars, except when he was working on his growing garden. When he talked, he did it without insulting himself. Gone were the afternoons of swinging swords and forcing himself to spar. Now he read. Troop reports, mission briefings, key myths— all of it got tucked inside his head and stayed. Nobody took a mission these days without checking in with him. He'd send you on your way with an info sheet, a strategy, and some gardening trivia. The last was never too helpful, but the first two saved lives.

"Luke definitely knew something," I confirmed. "I know our lives are crazy, but he was way too calm about this. And the way he was talking… he was certain something big was coming. Something more than the visions the Theoroi showed us."

Emmitt picked a cherry tomato from his salad and popped it between his teeth, eyebrows furrowed. "Even that name is strange. The Theoroi were ambassadors. Nine of them would be sent out to different city-states whenever the Panhellenic games were coming up, to spread the word."

"The Panhellenic games are a real thing then?" Bianca asked.
"Sure they were… Two-thousand years ago. All of them fell out of favor about the time Olympus moved to Rome. For a while, at least. In 1896, one of the four made a comeback. You might've heard of it. It's called the Olympics."

My knowledge of pop culture was about as bad as you'd expect for a kid that lived underground from the age of seven, so the fact that even I knew the name said something. "That's the thing with the rings."

Before Emmitt could even answer, Victoria gasped like I'd called her dad a nasty name.

"The Olympics are no thing," she said. "They are a global forum. An international event. The culmination of lifelong efforts from athletes and years of training for one specific purpose: to call themselves the best in the world. It's the ultimate competition with the ultimate prize on the line, the gold medal!"

Kate yawned, fanning her mouth. "More like the ultimate waste of time. Are you honestly implying any sane person cares about pole vaulting?"

"That's not the point! And anyway, pole vaulters care."

"What, all two of them?"

Victoria's nostrils flared. Before we could get any more sidetracked, I broke in.

"I get these sorts of tournaments are a big deal, but they don't rank super high on my list of sinister forces. So somebody's trying to advertise their running race. What does that have to do with deciding the war? And, while we're at it, how does that end up as the sort terrifying monsters Luke was talking about?"

"When the Olympics came back they were a lot different," Emmitt said. "They weren't making sacrifices to the gods anymore, women could compete, and athletes even wore clothes."

"That's a long way from adding world-destroying powers," Bianca pointed out.

Emmitt held his hands up. "I'm not saying these changes are the same— just that the games coming back doesn't mean they're actually those games. It's just a name. If I had to guess, someone is holding a huge tournament, and they chose the name that would bring them the most eyes. Whatever else has changed, that's all up in the air. And, from the sound of this Theoroi, highly dangerous."

The table was quiet. Even the ones who hadn't been talking, like Vera and Alyssa, seemed sullen. It wasn't helped by the atmosphere.

I was used to the dining hall sounding like a warzone. When I first saw it dozens of monsters had lined the outer tables, scarfing down raw meat while shouting and bellowing and jeering. The only thing they never were was quiet.

Now those tables stood nearly empty. The ones that were there, like a few Cyclops and a Blemmyae — think a regular human but with razor-sharp teeth, no head, and one eye at the center of its chest — ate in subdued silence. Little wounds or bandages marked their bodies. Even the other regiments had kids showing wear and tear. If you were fit and could fight, the odds were high you'd been posted somewhere.

Like she read my mind, Kate said, "I expected there to be more forces. Surely there can't be any lack of monsters."

"There are plenty," Emmitt said. "Just not here. Small battles are being fought all over the country."

"I heard," Kate said. "From listening to Luke talk, a constant stream of victories."

Emmitt and Victoria shared a look without answering. Kate watched them carefully.

"Could it be that was a lie?"

"Not a lie," Emmitt said quickly. "More like an exaggeration. There's way more monsters than there are demigods, but a lot of them have been dragging their feet joining up. They aren't good at understanding organization, or teamwork, or strategy. Mostly, though, it's the other side. They're more organized than expected, more disciplined. It's almost like Camp has turned into a real army. It's killing our numbers advantage and, really, leaving things at kind of a stalemate."

"Maybe it's an issue with our leadership?"

Victoria took that as a jab at her, and frowned. Then she realized it could be directed at Luke, and that only made things worse.

"I know you're new here," she said, "but be careful with your tone. You never know when something will be taken as insulting Kronos. And if you really do insult him, you won't like the results."

"Scary," Kate said. "I suppose I should be careful with my words. That sounds serious."

She didn't sound very serious. Or thankful for the warning.

"Even some of our regiment are out on missions," I said, returning to her original question. It was the reason, looking down the table, that John and Lucas were nowhere to be seen. "Trust me. When everyone's at base, this place is packed."

"What are they doing?"

"All sorts of stuff," I said evasively. The whole conversation she'd been a little too curious. Asking about troop numbers, where they were and what they were doing… if she was a spy, I wasn't sure I could call her a good one. She wasn't even trying to hide her questions.

"Can I guess?" Kate asked.

"Uhhh, if you want to."

"Let's see. I'll bet they're looking for someone."

I was careful not to look surprised. The effect was ruined by Emmitt immediately choking on his salad.

"Actually, maybe they're even looking into a group. That would be exciting. Like a spying mission."

It was one-hundred-percent right. Since a month or two back, the Hunters of Artemis had been traveling further West. Reports said they were moving around the country systematically, like they were searching for something. John and Lucas's job was to trail them for a bit, see if they could discover what it was the hunters were after, and get back without getting caught. If anyone could manage it, it was those two— Lucas had plenty of practice hiding, even if it was usually to jump out and scare someone, while John got forgotten about as soon as anyone looked away from him. It was an important mission, a sign of how far the Bronze Regiment had come, and something that a new recruit should never have known about.

"How—" Emmitt said.

"Wait, was I right?" Kate giggled. "I always have been good at guessing games."

"Guessing, huh?"

Sitting beside Kate, Bianca looked at the new girl. I was the only one who'd heard Luke's suspicions, and apparently even he trusted her enough to let her pick a regiment. But something about the atmosphere at the table still said Kate needed to answer carefully.

"Anything else you feel like guessing about?" Bianca asked.

"Hmmmm, let's see." Kate pointed right at Bianca's chest. "Family issues." Her finger pivoted to Victoria. "Family issues." Then I was being pointed at. "Family issues." Finally, she aimed at the end of the bench, where Po stared down at an empty plate. "Annnnd, family issues."

Everything was silent, nobody said anything, until eventually Kate started to laugh.

"Don't tell me you really believed that," she said. "Of course everyone here has family issues. We're all demigods, aren't we?"

Maybe I was imagining things, but I thought she emphasized the "aren't we" just a little bit, her finger still aimed toward Po.

"And the mission?" she said. "That wasn't even a guess, just a little joke. Luke told me everything."

"He wouldn't do that," Victoria said.

Kate waved her off. "Must have been my good looks, then."

"Next time," Bianca said, "I would choose what to joke about more carefully. Giving away information is serious stuff. Very serious."

"You're talking like it might kill someone," Kate said.

"It has," Bianca said darkly. "And it always could again."

Deliberately, she reached out and gave Kate's shoulder two pats. The borderline-threat hung on the air, heavy enough to make me want to gulp. Somehow, though, it seemed to satisfy Kate.

"I'm sorry," Kate said, and this time she sounded like she meant it. "Won't happen again. A new place and all, I'm acting out for no good reason. It must've been the on-rush of emotions."

CLANG!

All of us jumped at the sound of metal striking the floor. At one end of the table, Po had stood up so suddenly that his cup tumbled off, bouncing and rattling.

"I will eat later," he announced, and strode from the room without looking back.

Kate looked at the rest of us. "Was it something I said?"

Any other time during the meal, and the answer would've been yes. But this time she'd been good. She apologized, and nothing else seemed out of the ordinary.

"Don't stress about it," I said. "He's just had a long day."

Kate smiled at me. "You're nice. Do you ever have long days, Percy?"

I didn't even have to answer. Bianca did it for me.

"He's a demigod," she said with a snort. "With all those family issues you were talking about, every day's a long day."

O-O-O

I knew it was going to be another of those "long days" as soon as Victoria pulled me out of bed before breakfast time.

"Up and at 'em," was all she'd say. "We've got orders."

I groaned something real intelligent back, like "Gruh?"

After pulling on real clothes and stumbling down the stairs, I followed her across the courtyard. It wasn't until we'd passed the lobby that I woke up enough to form the question I'd been wondering.

"So… what exactly is it we're doing?"

Victoria looked way fresher than I must've. Her hair was combed, her clothes weren't wrinkled, and she'd even found a coffee from somewhere, sipping it as we walked. "Remember when you said Luke seemed to know something about the Theoroi?"

I nodded.

"Well, it seems like it wasn't limited to him. We got word at the crack of dawn. Regiments are on standby, ready to ship out on short notice."

"All of us?"

That just seemed like asking for trouble. Safety in numbers wasn't a saying that applied to demigods. A dozen of us would be like a beacon summoning every rogue monster in a three-hundred-mile radius. Now imagine what it would be like with over 50…

"Definitely not," Victoria said. "Four per regiment, at most. Probably less for the others, considering how many of them are off on missions. A big group, but not huge."

That made more sense. "Still doesn't explain what it is we're on standby for. Or why we're heading somewhere now, so early. Me and super secret missions don't really mix until at least ten A.M."

Victoria ignored my whining. "They haven't revealed what's happening yet… But I have my guesses. This timing can't be a coincidence."

"The Panhellenic Games," I said, putting two and two together. "You think they're sending us to compete?"

"It's possible. Or to raid it, to pick off other competitors, anything. The Titans aren't known for playing by others' rules. But something major is going on with these games. I know that for sure."

"How?"

Victoria grimaced. She downed the rest of her coffee, crushed the paper cup it had been in, and tossed the remnants into a trash can outside a passing room. "Because she's involved."

"She being…?"

"My mom."

I was totally confused for about half a second, then it came to me. The blond woman from the Theoroi's visions, the one with armor and a penchant for gold, had had the exact same eyes as Victoria. Now I knew why. That was where Victoria got hers from.

"You mean the woman in those visions was—"

"Nike? The one and only." Victoria didn't look thrilled. I thought, considering their past, that that was being generous. "If there's one thing I know about mommy dearest, it's that she doesn't bother with the minor leagues. If these games weren't serious, and I mean really serious, she wouldn't be caught anywhere near them. She's good at that, ducking out of the lives of losers."

Her voice sounded so bitter, I couldn't think of a single thing to say that would cheer her up. So I settled for moving the conversation on.

"Are we on our way to meet her then, you think? I mean, she is on our side and all, so it should be possible."

"I hope not," Victoria said. "The message this morning asked for you specifically. Mom taking an interest in someone… well, it rarely ends well."

We stopped before a door I didn't recognize. It was the kind that swings open with a push, like you'd see in a hospital, except instead of white and sterile this one was painted black, and seemed to leak cold. Victoria didn't hesitate to step up and slip inside, and I had no choice but to follow.

On the other side we found ourselves in a hallway. The floor was stone, and so were the walls. There wasn't much light, just a few torches, all burning low. Doors stood on either side— tall, metal, and firmly locked.

"Last room on the left," Victoria said, leading the way.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"I've never been here before," she said. "But, if I had to guess, it looks like a—"

"Prison!" The last door on the left swung open before we could reach it. A grinning face appeared from inside.

I recognized the face.

It did not fill me with warm bubbly feelings.

"Hi, guys!" Kelli waved energetically. "It's been a while. Happy to see me, Percy?"

"Kelli," I greeted reluctantly. "I'm gonna be honest here. I hoped whatever rock you crawled under tipped over and crushed you."

"Awww. I love it when boys talk to me about crushes."

"Don't tell me you're the one who asked for me," I said.

Kelli giggled. "Don't worry. If I called you out, I'd have picked somewhere way better." She suddenly leaned in, bringing her fangs uncomfortably close to my neck. I felt hot breath on my ear as she whispered, "Somewhere more private."

I shoved her away and she went with it, smirking. Placing a hand on the iron door, she held it open for Victoria and I.

"Don't use up your energy too soon," she said. "You still have one more reunion for today… And boy, is he excited to see you."

"He?" I wondered.

Victoria shrugged and stepped inside. Kelli beckoned me to hurry up. Rather than waste time theorizing, I forced myself to walk into the room.

It was a cell. Cold seeped from the gaps in the rough stones. The floor felt slippery. Chained to the far wall, arms and ankles fastened, lay a boy.

He looked up, and his shaggy hair shifted. I got a look at his face, unshaven and unkempt but not, like it should've been, dead. My hand was around Aelia before I realized it.

"You—!"

The prisoner's thin lips grinned. He looked genuinely happy to see me, which made my fingers tighten.

"Hello Percy," said Mark, the Phonoi's mortal student. "Killed anything decent recently?"

(-)

My bad for the delayed upload. I was traveling most of this week and knew I wouldn't have time to write, but thought I could get this chapter up before I left. Long story short, I couldn't- the draft I had just wasn't good enough to publish, so I made the call to delay and fix it up. Hopefully, going forward, I can get back to a weekly schedule.

Anyway, this chapter was mostly set up, as will be the next two. Not as action-packed, but necessary for what comes later to work.