Hermes downed his fifteenth bottle that night and pretended like his sister wasn't there.

Artemis didn't take the hint. Not after the sixteenth, not after the twentieth, not after the fiftieth, and she would have probably waited until he passed out. Which would be around the thousandth drink. And considering how stubborn the huntress could be, that might be a very real possibility.

But eventually, she spoke. "Hermes, I would have words with you." Her tone was laced with disappointment and disgust."

"Really?" he spoke into the bottle. "I only have two for you: go away."

"Your behavior at the Solstice, there's no excuse for it."

"I showed up and didn't speak a word. I didn't cause a scene. I even voted when prompted. So forgive me if I don't see the problem."

"You were here, drinking yourself into oblivion," Artemis crossed her arms. "Attending with a Zoom call is not the same."

He slammed his empty bottle onto the counter and glanced around for the bartender. "Another one."

"Sir, I don't think I'm legally allowed to—"

"I own this bar. I sign your paycheck. And last time I checked, I didn't pay you to tell me what the fucking law is."

"R-right away," the mortal stammered as scurried to provide the alcohol.

Artemis wrinkled her nose as she snatched the bottle away before Hermes could take it.

"C'mon, you know better than to try and steal from me."

"I do not care. There are more important matters that require your full undivided attention."

"Like what? The meeting's over, there's nothing left to discuss. So if you would be so kind…" he lifted the bottle to his lips. Artemis didn't seem surprised that he took it from her grasp without her notice. "I'd like to be left alone for a while. Preferably for the next century, I'm a bit tired after having to clean up your mess."

"Why did you want my lieutenant dead?" she demanded, her gaze colder than the dark side of the moon.

"Hmm?" he took a long sip. Even the burn of the liquor failed to quell the bitterness in his voice. "Did I? I'm pretty sure she died on that mountain top. A bad case of internal bleeding and domestic abuse. A very nasty combination from what I hear. Maybe you should be yelling at Apollo, he probably could've stabilized her. Oh right, that would've been too fucking obvious!

"Is that why you're here? Because we didn't help out against Atlas? Sorry, take it up with Dad. Blame him for the death of your lieutenant. Or maybe yourself, if you never walked into that trap, she would probably still be here. But I have to say, a bit rude of you to come all this way to lecture me. Especially when you couldn't be bothered to remember how to show your appreciation. It's 'thank you' by the way, a little bit of gratitude goes a long way."

Hermes felt the temperature spike, the same way it did when an immortal began to assume divine form. He definitely pushed a lot of buttons that he shouldn't have. But at this point, he didn't care. Either he drank himself into unconsciousness or she knocked him to next week. It didn't matter, he wouldn't have to think about what happened.

But after a few seconds, and a few more sips from him, Artemis managed to calm herself down. "I'll forgive you just this once," she hissed. "For your role in my rescue and your current… mental state. But you represent a lingering danger to my Hunt and I will not leave until this matter is resolved."

"Artemis, the only thing in danger is my liver and that'll grow back."

"You voted to kill Thalia Grace," she stood stalwart, silver eyes demanding answers.

"Can you blame me?" he muttered.

Just thinking about Thalia Grace… it spiked his blood pressure, made the ichor boil in his veins. He couldn't help but ramble. About every single stupid decision the half-blood made.

"I mean what kind of fucking idiot tries to electrocute a damn skeleton? Hello? It doesn't have flesh! Not to mention the fiasco at Hoover Dam! Spent so long looking at the statues that Apollo had to wake them up for her! And don't get me started on the damn Ophiotaurus! If It wasn't for the ten pizza delivery guys I sent to that location, she probably would've died! Or worse, killed it! Because that's the type of person she is! A moody brat who only thinks about herself!"

The bottle shattered in his grip, sending glass and alcohol spraying across the bar. The young man behind it made a squeaking noise. "I-I'll call an ambulance—"

"You'll bring me every bottle you have and you'll go the fuck home."

"Y-yes, sir. Right away, sir." If the mortal was smart, he'd leave before things went nuclear.

Hermes took in a deep sigh before turning to glare at his half-sister.

"Thalia does not deserve your anger," Artemis frowned. "You have always been reasonable, despite your proclivity for foolishness. So why did you do it?"

"Why don't you ask Athena?" he countered. "Or Ares? Or Dionysus? Or Hera? They all voted the same way! Maybe, and this might surprise you, maybe she's a liability!"

He regretted leaving George and Martha with Apollo. Sure, it stopped him from leveling New York with laser beams, but he really wanted to blast Artemis. "Why did it have to be her? Why didn't you offer it to Apollo's daughter?"

"Thalia has more potential than Phoebe—"

"Yeah, the potential to fail," he tossed another empty drink into the rapidly growing pile. "It's her specialty after all. Thalia lets down the people that count on her."

Artemis' silver eyes narrowed. "You blame her for what happened to your son."

"Shut up."

"It was not her responsibility to save him—"

"She was his friend," Hermes seethed. "He loved her. And what did she do when he needed her? She turned her back on him. And instead of trying to bring him back… she pushed him over the edge."

The image of Luke's body colliding against the mountain's base, it would haunt him for eternity. Just like May's screams still do. Another reminder of his failures.

"Your son was beyond redemption," Artemis stated, nothing in her tone was cruel or mocking. But that didn't matter to him, he ended up breaking half of the bar, causing a good dozen bottles to tumble off and break. "And you alone are responsible for it."

The bartender let out a yelp as he dashed out the door.

"You don't understand anything," Hermes stood from his seat, towering over the young form that his sister favored so much. "Not about my son and not about me."

"No, but I can infer based on what I've gathered from Apollo," she didn't back down. "You fell in love with another mortal, one May Castellan—"

"Stop," he cautioned her.

"And without a single care in Hades, pursued a relationship with her. You got her involved with our world. You had a son together, one you had to stay away from because of father's proclamation, never once looking after him. But not before you ruined their lives."

"I'm warning you."

"And I ask that you not delude yourself, brother," she used that infuriatingly self-righteous tone. "You rely on others to do what you cannot, pushing your burdens onto them. Like you did with Thalia. Once upon a time, they were friends, yes, but no longer. He is not the person she knew and I suspect that he has never been the person you love so much. Let go of that fantasy."

"You think it's that simple?" he snarled. "Little miss Artemis, who has never been forced to stay away from the people you care about? Do you want to know why I have to look to others for help? Because I can't reach him! There is no one he hates more than me and I know that it's all my fault. Thalia could've been the one to change all that… and she failed. But don't you think for a second that I'll ever stop trying. No matter how far gone he is, he'll always be my son. I can't give up on him."

"Then you let your heart bleed for nothing."

He let another deep sigh and levied another withering glare at his sister. He didn't have the motivation to keep arguing with her. "You already got what you wanted, the council voted to let her live. I'm not one to act on grudges, you know this. Just keep Thalia on a short leash and you'll have no problems." Not lethal ones, at least. There were going to be a lot of glitter bombs in her future.

"Do I have your word on that?"

"Just don't expect me to fulfill any of your deliveries."

"Amazon is more than an adequate replacement."

"You piece of shit," Hermes changed his mind. He was going to let Eris have a field day with the Hunt. "Just leave me alone."

Her gaze softened ever so slightly. "You are better than this." She turned on her heel and made her way for the exit. Artemis' steps echoed across the empty building. Each one was like a judge's gavel slamming against the wooden floor. Condemning him for his behavior. And it was the door closing with a thud that let him know he was finally alone once more.

Another drink. Then another. One more. The only company he had was the clinking of glass bottles as they littered the floor.

His phone was vibrating, it had been doing so since before the Solstice meeting. Probably Apollo or Athena. If it was the former, then he most likely wanted to complain about being ditched. If the latter, well he didn't care, she got her daughter back safely, he didn't owe her anything else.

As he muted his phone, the front door opened with a chime.

"Seriously?" he groaned. "Who is it this—Paul?"

"Hermes?" the mortal looked bewildered.

Not that Hermes could fault him. Broken bar table. Broken glass all over the place. Puddles of alcohol. There was also a staggering number of empty bottles, which were currently in the triple digits. It was a bad look, especially since he was the only person in the building.

There was an awkward pause as Paul Blofis contemplated his next words. "I'm not even sure how you're still conscious, let alone alive."

"I have a high alcohol tolerance." Extremely high when it came to mortal liquor since alcohol was basically poison and gods burnt it off at an astounding rate. The only exception was Dionysus' batch, which was potent. And he was currently banned from making anything, so Hermes was left with the cheap stuff.

"And I thought I had a long week," Paul carefully navigated through the sea of glass to take a seat at one of the stools. "You alright?"

"Of course I am." He wasn't.

"Right," Paul gave him a pat on the back. "Sometimes I ask that question to my students and never once do they tell me the truth. Not at first. I'm not an expert on lying or anything. Hell, I've never won a game of poker in my life. But I can tell when someone is hurting."

Hermes bit back a bitter remark. He need to remind himself that this wasn't just any mortal. This was Sally's boyfriend. And she made really good cookies. "I don't know you that well."

"And maybe that's for the best," Paul hummed. "I don't have a stake in whatever it is that's going on with your life. I probably don't know anyone involved, unless it's Sally, so if you want… I can listen. Give you a third party opinion, without any judgment."

"Don't suppose you'll leave if I ask, will you?"

"I cannot, in good conscience, leave you alone in this state."

"I'm not even tipsy." A few hundred bottles in and he was unfortunately still sober.

"I have eyes and I'm choosing to believe what I see."

If only you knew how wrong that was, Hermes mused to himself.

"So, a penny for your thoughts?" Paul asked.

"Fine, fine," Why was everyone being so damn nosy today? "My son was… badly injured today." Luke wasn't dead. Hermes would be able to tell, he was psychopomp.

"And I wasn't able to do anything about it." Zeus would've caused a nationwide blackout if he had.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Paul knit his eyebrows. "But why aren't you with him now? I can drive you to the hospital if you—"

"He wouldn't want me to be there," Hermes admitted. "Because of my job, I'm not able to be around all the time. He hates me because of it."

"What about his mother? Is she with him right now?"

"No, she—she can't," Hermes tried hard not to think about that day. "May isn't… her condition doesn't allow her to."
Paul tapped his fingers against the counter, chewing on his cheek as he thought. "Can I ask you something?"

"Depends."

"How long has he been angry at you?"

"Since he ran away from home." Probably since before that. But the moment Luke packed up his things and left was when he knew for certain.

Despite Paul's earlier admission, Hermes thought he had a pretty good poker face. He could barely make out the disappointment. That was pretty much confirmed once Paul grabbed a bottle and popped the cap.

"I know I said no judgment, but you're going to have to tell me the whole story."

"It's complicated."

"Then it's going to be a long night for the both of us."

"Well, it started with my dad. He's a bit of a bastard. Got a huge ego, and I mean undeservedly huge…"

He was going to have to leave out the bits about being gods. That would only complicate the matter. And convince Paul that Hermes was crazy. And maybe he would omit the part about his other two sons being lost in a death trap called the Labyrinth. But those two were smart and resourceful, they took after him. They were probably already out, having the time of their lives.


Connor shuddered as Lou Ellen's muffled screams filled the cave.

It made the ringing in his ears worse, like knives were scraping against each other, it was probably from not using hearing protection while firing his revolver. Percy and Travis blanched as they looked anywhere but where Lee was performing first-aid on the daughter of Hecate, who was biting down a rolled-up t-shirt. Bianca covered her ears and slumped against the wall. The torchlight was casting sinister shadows that grew long on the floor in front of him.

Lee's silhouette made an incision with a dagger and again, Lou Ellen let out another cry.

Connor heard wood hit stone and the shadows shifted, lower and flatter against the ground.

"Nectar!" Lee shouted, never once taking his eyes away from his patient.

Connor moved in a daze, reaching for his canteen to give to the older boy. Lee's movements were practiced and mechanical, he took it without looking and continued his work. Connor didn't know how, but the Apollo counselor didn't flinch as the girl in front of him struggled to hold still. Her body seized as Lee's dagger sliced the ruined flesh open without remorse. Raw exposed muscular tissue greeted Connor and he fought back the nausea that it provoked within the pits of his stomach.

He stumbled away, not wanting to see anymore, but something caught his eye. That torch that they took from the frozen cavern, the same one responsible for their friend's injuries. Black marks stained its pristine handle: the part where Lou Ellen's skin had charred and clung to the material. It was so innocuous, but something about it unsettled him. He felt it when he picked it up, and once more in its presence, it was… hungry.

He shook his head, edging away from the fallen flame, and made his way back to where Percy and his brother were standing.

"What's he doing?" the son of Poseidon whispered to Travis, careful not to let Lee and Lou Ellen overhear.

"Removing her skin."

"I can see that!" Percy hissed. "Why? He's hurting her!"

"It's our best bet," Connor said in a hush. He didn't like hearing his friend in pain, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "Notice how it's only the skin that's pitch-black? All of that is dead, there's no salvaging it."

"We have nectar and ambrosia!"

"You can't grow back skin if you don't get rid of the dead cells first," Travis explained. "It'll just get infected if he doesn't remove it. Nectar and ambrosia won't do much if Lee doesn't clean it up. Besides, too much of that and she'll be a pile of ash."

Small doses. That was the rule with nectar and ambrosia, they all knew it. Chiron made sure they knew. If your body temperature started rising, stop. If you've had more than a few bites, stop. More than three sips, stop. Demigods only find out their bodies' limits with divine foods when they've bitten off more than they can chew.

Percy sighed and leaned against the wall. "I just—I hate all this sitting around. I feel so… helpless."

"I know what you mean," Connor winced as Lou Ellen whimpered in the background. "We're lost, we don't know where we're going, and everyone is depending on us."

They had fled into the tunnel, trying desperately not to get crushed by falling rocks, only to immediately be presented with a fork in the road. They chose the left path, which curved and snaked through the darkness only to open up into another split. No matter which way they went, it just continued to branch off.

Left turn.

Right turn.

Center path.

Right again.

Another right.

Left after that.

Dead end, turn back, try another path.

They kept stumbling, blind to the nature of their surroundings.

It ended up with them standing where they were now: another cavern, much emptier but with several exits ready to lead them astray. Lee had asked for a quick rest, because they were all worn down, and needed to stop before they collapsed. Especially Lou Ellen, who seemed… shaken, for lack of a better term. No doubt, unsettled by news that her brother was delivering a weapon to destroy Camp.

Connor felt… anxious. Something about these tunnels felt different from the one that led them to Westover. It felt alive. Like they were scrambling around the intestines of a massive monstrosity.

Like everything around them was intentionally getting them as lost and disoriented as possible. It just kept going and going, never seeming to stop, and on rare occasions that it did, it was just dead ends, forcing them to retrace their steps and go down another path. Almost like… a maze.

"H-hey, Travis?" He called out.

"What is it?"

"The map, get it out!"

Travis facepalmed. "Of course!" His brother unslung his backpack and pulled out the folded chart and began to lay it out on the floor. He paled at what he saw, "Oh, shit."

Connor could only nod in agreement, this only confirmed his suspicions.

No markers or identifying labels. Just crisscrossing tunnels, over and under each other, zig-zagging back and forth. So many twists and turns that it was impossible to keep track of. And the worst part?

It moved.

The place where they were? It was a dot, a small insignificant dot in a maze that was cheating. The lines on the map kept breaking off, rotating around, snapping together, rearranging themselves, it was alive. And it was toying with them.

"That's impossible," Percy said in disbelief.

"No, it's the Labyrinth," Connor stated. "That's why it's so hard to navigate this place. It's changing as we go through it!"

He felt a headache coming, inviting itself to torment him along with that damn ringing in his ears.

"Wait, you know where we are?"

"You don't?"

"He goes to school in the fall, remember?" Travis explained.

"Right," Connor sighed "He missed the meeting. Of course he did! Okay, listen up, Percy. This place? It's the Labyrinth. And us? We shouldn't be here. And the enemy? They definitely shouldn't be here."

"Then how are we supposed to find them?" Percy demanded.

"That's the problem," Lee muttered. "No one knows."

Connor turned his head to see a very weary son of Apollo, wiping his hands clean with a rag. Lou Ellen stood shakily beside him, both her arms were carefully bandaged, fingers individually bandaged. She must've been in a lot of pain. Yet she had picked the torch back up like some sort of trophy, cradling it like a doll. Considering what she went through because of it, she could keep it for all he cared.

"But forget about that for a moment," Lee continued. "We need to talk about this." He gestured to their light source. "This is a problem."

"It's a torch," Percy said slowly, clearly dubious of any potential threat. "It's just a stick on fire."

"No," Lou Ellen said, her voice raw and hoarse. "It's the first fire ever lit. Like before human civilization. It's ancient, there are gods out there that are younger than it is. It's never once stopped burning."

"Is that why…" Connor didn't finish his sentence, he just looked at her injuries.

She shook her head. "I—I don't want to talk about it."

"Lou…"

"Please don't make me," her green eyes pleaded with him. She resembled a puppy that had been kicked.

"Alright, alright," he relented. "I won't pry."

"Thank you."

Travis cleared his throat, "Prometheus was the one who stole it right?"

"And gave to humanity, yes," Lee confirmed. "Which begs the question: what was the Titan army doing with it in the first place?"

"He's on their side," Percy said. "It's that simple, isn't it?"

"Sure, I think we all gathered that. But that's not what I meant. Why this in particular? It's not exactly a weapon, so what were they planning to do with it?"

"The Ophiotaurus," Travis said, without a doubt in his mind. "The Titan, he mentioned it. They're looking for it, and we all know what that means."
Connor shivered.

"Actually, I don't," Percy looked at them expectantly. "Mind filling me in?"

"Are you serious?" Lee asked. "You don't know?"

"Nope."

"Don't you pay any attention to the Greek Mythology courses?"

Percy winced. "We have those?"

"Chiron taught at your school for a year and you don't know?"

"I think I barely got a C."

Connor shared an exasperated look with Travis and Lee. "You know what the Titanomachy was?"

"Yeah, the first war between the Titans and the gods."

"The Ophiotaurus was a monster," Travis explained. "Half bull, half snake, one of the most important parts of the war. Huge threat, the gods wanted it gone as soon as possible."

"So it's a big scary monster—"

"It's not," Lee interrupted the son of Poseidon. "It's harmless, pretty much helpless. Killing it is the easy part. But here's the problem, it's literally the bane of the gods. Why? Because whoever kills it and sacrifices it can kill the gods!"

"And it's not the dismembering into a thousand pieces with Ouranos and Kronos," Lou Ellen whispered. "We're talking about actual death."

Percy paled at the realization. "That sounds bad."

"Yeah, no kidding," Lee said. "Now, get this, the Olympic torch that we just stole back from the Titans? It was used by humans to perform sacrifices to the gods. Usually just bones and fat, thanks to Prometheus, but the point still stands. It was done to honor the gods for the gift of fire."

"It'd be the greatest insult," Lou Ellen said quietly. "Their downfall, brought about by their own stolen fire. It's petty, you could use any fire and get the same result. The fact that they had this at all… it's personal."

"Prometheus was chained to a rock for his theft," Lee said. "Where an eagle ate his liver every day until Heracles freed him. Supposedly, he buried the hatchet with the Olympians after that. But I guess some people don't let things go so easily."

"Okay," Percy ran a hand through his hair. "Things are getting really bad. I get that, but what about this?" He looked around the dark tunnel. "The Labyrinth. Why is it here? Why are the Titans using it? And how do we track them down?"

Connor spun the chamber of his revolver, watching as it caught the light of the torch. "You know how mythological things tend to move with Western Civilization?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, the Labyrinth never moved. It's still in its original location: Crete."

"That doesn't—"

"Let me finish. It's there, here, and everywhere. It didn't move, it grew. It's the largest tunnel system in the world. And as for why the enemy is down here? My guess is transportation."

Percy just looked confused. "It's a maze, they're purposely hard to navigate."

"Not if you know how to," Travis explained. "Harriet Tubman used it for the Underground Railroad. Freed a lot of people by sneaking them to free states by doing so. There are thousands of entrances and exits, it can take you anywhere in the world. And that probably also includes our Camp. Fortunately and unfortunately, no one alive knows how this place works."

"We sent someone to scout it out," Lee said. "A while ago, we found an entrance somewhere in Arizona. Chiron wanted it kept under wraps, to avoid idiots wandering around where they shouldn't. But now we're here, so it looks like it's up to us to figure it out."

Connor looked around. "Any ideas?"

"Apollo said something about knowledge and facing the past," Percy muttered. "Also something about dying, but I'm starting to get used to that. He didn't need to be so fucking cryptic about it."

"Knowledge, information, we definitely need them."

"Like on who we're going after," Lee caught Travis' eye. "Hey, what happened back at Westover, I know it's bothering you, but do you know who that guy was? The one with the golden sword? He's leading them. If you know… we're going to run into them."

We're going to have to fight them. He left it unsaid, but Connor understood and so did his brother.

Another chance for them to fail miserably.

"I do," Travis said nervously. He didn't look at Lee but tried to meet Lou Ellen's gaze, asking for her permission.

She didn't look up from the ground.

"Who is it?" Lee asked gently.

There was an uneasy silence.

"Travis."

Lou Ellen's bandaged hands trembled.

"We need to know what we're up against."

Her breathing picked up. Her lips quivered. She shut her eyes tightly, barely holding back tears.

"Hey, it's not important," Connor spoke up. He knew Lee wasn't doing it on purpose, but he was stressing her out.

"Listen, I know what you're trying to do," Lee's gaze contained nothing but pity as he looked at both Connor and Travis. "But you can't risk everything for people who refuse to be helped." They won't come back. His eyes seemed to say. "We're going to be outnumbered, they're going to try and kill us, we need information on them. What are their powers? How do they fight?"

Another anxious minute passed until finally, someone spoke. He didn't expect it to be her.

"Alabaster C. Torrington," Lou Ellen was barely audible. "That's his name."

"Lou, are you sure?" Connor asked. "I can explain instead—"

"He uses an enchanted gold sword, just as sharp as Celestial bronze," she continued, voice still dry and trembling. "You'll never see him without a bulletproof vest. On it are protective runes, enough to survive Greek fire explosions. Alabaster's an expert at magic, a true prodigy."

Lee's shoulders slumped as he realized where her description was headed. "Is he…"

"He's Hecate's most powerful child," Lou Ellen's whisper was hollow. "And my older brother."

The son of Apollo seemed to grow even more tired at her admission. "All we can do is keep moving forwards."

She nodded hesitantly before taking a shaky breath. "A long march to the end." Lou Ellen said, almost like a spell. Chanted in an even, deliberate intonation.

Connor opened his mouth to say something, but the ringing in his ears returned with a vengeance. A sharp shearing noise as if the sound originated next to his eardrums. So loud it caused his vision to become blurry and dotted.

"Make it stop," Bianca whimpered. She'd been completely silent the entire conversation, so quiet that he forgot she'd even been there. Her hands were still covering her ears, eyes still shut as she curled into a small ball. "It's so loud."

"Like giant scissors," Travis took uneven breaths.

"You too?" Connor looked around their group.

Everyone had a similarly pained expression on their face.

"Like back in the cave," Lee winced.

"Everyone time someone dies…" Percy reached for his pen. "She cuts a thread. To mock us. And they laugh."

The earth beneath them began shaking, just like the cave-in from earlier. The entrance and exit of the cavern closed in on them as the tremors got more vicious. Dust sprung into the air, small pebbles bounced as the stone seemed to bend and warp around them. Before finally going still as two larger tunnels appeared, each large enough to pull three or four trains through with room to spare.

"We need to go," Lou Ellen choked out. "We need to go. We need to go. We need to go. We need to go." Her green eyes darted around, pupils were shrunken with terror. Every facet of her vibrated with fear. Her breathing was rapid and shallow as if her body was trying to take in as much air as possible. One bandaged hand desperately swung the torch around like she was warding off a wild animal, and the other clutched at her chest as if her heart might explode.

She was having a panic attack.

Connor stumbled forwards, to try and calm her down. But then he saw what her eyes were following: six moths that had no business being down here with them.

Two small brown ones in synchronized flight.

A pair of golden wings glittering in the darkness.

A large black shadow as ominous as death.

A fluttering white ghostlike apparition.

And a blue moth with all the resemblance of a bee.

And before he could process what to do next, a tremor surged beneath his feet, causing his legs to wobble. A roar, somewhere between a hiss and cannon fire drowned out even the ringing in his ears. It came from one of the large tunnels.

In the darkness, two bright yellow eyes with slit pupils glared at them, each the size of basketballs. The torchlight partially illuminated it, revealing large scales the size of kites. Its giant forked tongue flicked the air in front of it.

Then came two more hisses. One from the serpentine beast. The second was from the ignition of gas flowing out the creature's mouth as a torrent of flames surged towards them.


Preview:

"You can see them too, can't you?" Bianca asked, her eyes flicked between Lou Ellen and the spot that the daughter of Hecate was staring at.

Lou Ellen blinked owlishly. She already thought that she was going insane. It was the ghosts that cemented the thought in her mind. But if Bianca saw it... then what did that mean?

"Little girl? She's dressed for winter but is missing a glove? There's a dog sitting next to her but only half its face is there?"

Bianca swallowed nervously. "Behind them is a policeman, he's in a wheelchair. But for some reason he's got roller skates on his hands."

"Okay, we're definitely seeing the same thing."

"What's that mean?"

"We're both crazy."