I knew things were bad by the way Zeus was scowling down at me. We weren't exactly the closest, but he respected me enough to not scowl at me every time I was in his presence.

Standing in front of the Olympian Council was by far one of the scariest things I ever had to do in my life. It doesn't matter how many times I've done it, I always feel like I'm going to be sick from the amount of power overload that is the throne room when full of its inhabitants.

From the way some of the gods were seated at the edge of their thrones, their bodies tense as if expecting an attack, I could tell the pressure in the room had been extremely high before my appearance. To my left, Poseidon was gripping his trident so tightly I thought the bronze pole would snap in half. Sitting next to Poseidon, Zeus glowered at his older brother, sparks leaping in between his fingers.

Then I realized that the throne room was missing a familiar hum that always came from Zeus. As I expected, when I looked at the holster on Zeus' throne that was supposed to hold his symbol of power, it was empty, devoid of the Master Bolt.

"Oh, gods," I said, paling at what I was seeing. It's one thing to read about the Master Bolt being stolen, but witnessing it yourself, especially when you had become used to its presence, was terrifying. Luke was definitely crazy if he thought he could get away with stealing from Zeus and Hades and not get caught.

"Indeed," Zeus spoke angrily, never breaking his glare with Poseidon. "It seems as if someone has decided to steal my Master Bolt."

"Why do you look at me, brother?" Poseidon spat out the word venomously. "Stealing a god's symbol of power is prohibited by the most ancient of laws."

"Come on, Dad," Apollo said, pulling out his headphones. "It's not like Uncle P to steal."

"He tried to usurp me before!"

"So did your wife," Athena pointed out, never looking up from the book she was reading.

"As if you're so innocent," Hera hissed, her knuckles white as she gripped the edge of her throne, fully prepared to launch herself at the wisdom goddess.

"Who would Poseidon even turn to?" Demeter pointed out through a mouthful of cereal, earning her some looks of disgust from some of the gods. "It's not like he's broken that oath of yours."

Poseidon did an excellent job of masking his fear, not even moving a muscle at being unknowingly called out. However, Demeter's accusation only made the situation worse, as now Zeus was debating smiting the entirety of Camp Half-Blood, earning himself death threats from every Olympian that had kids living at camp.

I waited out this argument next to Hestia, feeling safer beside the hearth than by gods who were struggling to keep their divine forms in control. Honestly, if they're going to play the blame game, I didn't want to be here to listen to them argue like children.

"Let's ask Andromeda what she thinks," Hera said at last, silencing the roar of voices that had started to give me a headache. "What do you make of this situation?"

"Hear me out before jumping to conclusions," I asked, making sure that the two main dissidents in this case understood what I was asking of them. "I don't think Lord Poseidon stole the Master Bolt or had someone do it to usurp your throne, Lord Zeus. In my honest opinion, I believe whoever stole the bolt did it in the hopes that you two would tear each other apart."

"Why would anyone do such a thing?" a horrified Aphrodite asked, fanning herself with her hand. "There's no tragic love story anywhere in this scenario, so it's not a real war!" Although the love goddess wasn't an airhead like many people made her out to be, she'd say stuff like this that made it much harder to defend her.

"To cause chaos," I continued. "Think about it. Who would stand to gain from Lord Zeus and Lord Poseidon going to war with each other?"

The throne room was shockingly silent, only the crackling of the hearth indicating that I hadn't accidently froze everyone where they sat. At last, Ares looked up from sharpening his nails with a knife and said, "Are you all really that dense? It's Hades!"

I felt all the blood drain from my face.

"How's that possible?" Hermes demanded. "He's only ever here on the winter solstice, and we were watching him the whole time. He was never left alone with the Master Bolt at any time."

"Why don't you ask Hades yourselves?" I suggested, earning many weird looks from the Olympians. It saddened me that the mere thought of having Hades on Olympus any day that wasn't the winter solstice seemed absurd to them.

"No, there is a reason he is only permitted on Olympus during the winter solstice," Zeus thundered. "We will not bring him into this. Not when it's so clear that you've done this, Poseidon."

"Why you little-!" The sudden appearance of vines around Poseidon's chest was the only thing keeping him lunging forward to attack his younger brother.

Poseidon turned to glare at me, but I held up my hands in surrender. I hadn't been the one to restrain him, because I wasn't suicidal. You could earn the respect of all the gods, but the moment you became a threat to them, they wouldn't hesitate to kill you where you stood.

"Leave Angelina alone," Dionysus yawned, closing his fist tighter, forcing the vines to press Poseidon against the back of his throne, giving him no wiggle room. "She would never do such a thing."

The rest of the gods stared at Dionysus like he'd grown a second head. The wine god's hatred of heroes was no secret to anyone, so to see him defend me was a sight to behold. When he had trained me, it had been deep in the forest of Camp Half-Blood with the one rule that I was prohibited from interacting with any camper. While we touched on vine growing, he really focused on teaching me how to destroy an enemy from the inside out. Having the domain of insanity was seriously powerful, even if it appeared that the laziest god wielded it.

"Can't you just send a quest to get the bolt back?" Hephaestus grunted, wiping a grimy hand across his face, leaving behind a streak of oil. "Or get Andy to do it."

"The Master Bolt shall not be touched by mortal hands!" Zeus declared, glowering down at me as I ducked behind Hestia. Not my proudest moment.

"What do you propose then?" Artemis asked. "That we blow up the entire world in search of the Master Bolt?"

"No, that's ridiculous. But all of you will search for my bolt. And as for you, Poseidon," Zeus cut himself off, leaning dangerously close to his restrained brother's face, "You better hope that I get it back, or else there will be war."

Zeus didn't give anyone a chance to react as his declaration before flashing out, leaving the entire throne room in uproar. Dionysus finally released Poseidon of his restraints, making the sea god more pissed off than he already was.

I watched as the gods stood up, still in their godly height of fifteen feet, and began shouting at each other, shoving each other around, yelling about who they thought was right. Athena and Hera were the most outspoken against Poseidon, while Ares, Hermes, and Apollo were quick to accuse Zeus of being paranoid.

Meanwhile I stood next to Hestia, my hands clapped tightly over ears. All this screaming couldn't possibly be good for my hearing, not when I felt like I was standing next to a speaker that was full volume at a death metal concert.

Hestia took pity on me and handed me some cooled wax from the edge of her hearth. Where'd it come from, I didn't know, but I quickly shaped them into ear plugs and thanked her when they helped make the screaming a little more bearable.

I was about to leave the throne room for my own safety when all of a sudden I felt as if someone had slammed a crowbar into my temples. I didn't even have enough time to say "Ow" before my knees buckled and fell face forward towards the ground.

I was standing on top of a creaky wooden plank that was precariously positioned over the mouth of a large black hole. Suddenly, I was grateful for all those gymnastics classes Artemis had forced me to take, allowing me to keep my balance even though the wood felt like it was going to break under my weight if I tried to take a step.

I tried to shadow-travel out of there, but as soon as a shadow touched my skin, it burned, leaving the flesh there blistering and red. I couldn't light a fire, either, the darkness consuming the light the second that it was produced. There was no water for me to try to manipulate or mist-travel, and forget about any sort of plants. I could try to fly, but with the way the pit was pulling at me, I figured you'd have a better chance of getting a lead bowling ball in the air. And I couldn't really control time to help me in my favor either, leaving me trapped overlooking this pit.

Tartarus, I thought darkly as a sharp gust of wind blew by, almost knocking me over. I went down into a crouch, giving me a better center of gravity as well as decreasing the likelihood of getting pushed around by the wind.

"We meet again, daughter," Kronos said, amusement clear in his voice even though he sounded like a sword getting dragged across jagged rocks. "Such a shame it had to be under these circumstances."

"It was you!" I accused, my fingers digging into the wood as another gust of wind caused the wooden plank to swing from side to side. "You sent someone to get the Master Bolt to get the Olympians to ruin themselves from the inside out!"

Kronos' laugh was worse than his normal speaking voice. When he laughed, the entire cavern rumbled, dust and rocks falling from above. If his voice alone was that powerful, I never wanted to confront him face to face.

"You truly are a child of mine, Andromeda. No other child would think so far ahead. They would think of only the short term effects of their actions, not the big picture like you."

"So, who is the poor child you corrupted?" I asked, trying to take a step in the direction towards the edge of the pit, where I figured this wooden plank had to start.

"I didn't need to corrupt anyone," Kronos said smugly, chuckling as I swore under my breath as a large crack appeared in the wood underneath my feet. "All I needed was to confirm their beliefs about those traitorous gods. The rest was simple."

"You're sick."

"Thank you, darling."

Oh, gag me with a spoon. Someone hand me the brain bleach.

That's it, I'm banning the word darling from my vocabulary for the rest of my life.

"I will never help you, if that's why you brought me here," I said with more confidence than I felt, the crack underneath my feet growing bigger with every passing second. "You'd have a better chance of discovering life on Mercury."

"We'll see about that," Kronos crooned, and the wood finally broke, sending me falling into the most terrifying place in all the known world. I screamed my head off, flailing like an injured bird as the darkness zoomed past me, the voices of damned souls telling me that I was fated to die down there.

And the scariest part is that I believed them.

When I finally came to, I sat up with a jolt, flinching violently as I realized that I was still in the throne room, the remaining gods watching me in a mixture of curiosity and concern. Mainly concern.

And then I was crying, openly sobbing in front of the Olympians as I wrapped my arms around my chest, trying to convince myself that I was safe. Kronos was still in Tartarus, the exact opposite of where Olympus was located, meaning I was as far as humanly possible from my father.

Apollo, who now appeared to be in his mid-thirties, was the first one to intervene. He sat down next to me and pulled me close, running a hand through my hair while I sobbed into his chest. Even in the few seconds I experienced falling into Tartarus, I saw the pit for what it really was, the way Nico would see it when Gaea's forces would capture him.

Let's just leave it as Tartarus is the most horrific thing that Chaos could have ever created.

How was anyone who fell in there supposed to survive with their sanity intact? I suddenly had newfound respect for Nico, Percy, and Annabeth as they'd been strong enough to make it out of Tartarus and still keep going on with their lives.

"You're okay," Apollo whispered softly, not saying anything as I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, assuring myself that I wasn't falling to my death. "You're okay."

It took me a while before I could regain my composure, and when I did, I was embarrassed to say the least. To make matters worse, none of the gods had left while I had my panic attack, watching me with pitiful expressions.

I vehemently wiped the wetness off my face with the back of my hand, refusing to show weakness longer than I already had. Even when I seriously hurt myself in training, I never cried because of the pain. In a real fight, you don't have time for that type of reaction if you want to make it out alive.

Honestly, the last time I really cried was the day that I watched Luke and Thalia turn into a pine tree, the guilt having eaten me up inside. I still feel guilty about their fates even today, but I knew that by next year, they'd be alive and kicking one more time.

Still, this was the first time that I could remember that the Olympians had caught me breakdown and cry like that. My face was positively burning, and if I were to look in a mirror, I knew I could beat out the shade of Demeter's prized apples any day of the week.

Once Apollo figured that I was stable enough to be on my own, he pulled away reverting back to his eighteen-year-old body and standing next to Artemis, who was staring at Apollo like he had told her to go lick a smelly boot. I guess she hadn't been expecting him to act so maturely, probably thinking that he would record my breakdown and post it on Hephaestus-Tube (H-Tube for short).

"I'm good," I said once I'd caught my breath, my chest hurting from how intense that cry had been. "I think I'll be fine."

"What happened?" Athena asked, a pen and notepad in her hand as her gray eyes looked at me like a specimen under a microscope.

"Father hijacked my mind," I replied with a scowl, glaring at the floor. "Asked me to join him, and when I said no, he…"

The gods all looked at each other, their faces ashen. Aphrodite looked like she was about to faint. Even Dionysus seemed concerned, holding a stick adorned with a pinecone in his hand. I thought that was something Bacchus had, but I wasn't going to start the whole Greco-Roman schism at the moment, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Is he still in there?" Hermes asked cautiously, obviously trying not to push me too far, something which I thought was really sweet.

"Alive and kicking," I confirmed. "And he's really angry, too. He wants Olympus burned to the ground."

"But what did he do to you?" Hera questioned. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

I shook my head, my hands instinctively balling into fists at my sides. As my nails bit into my palms, the pain helped me focus on the task at hand and not my feeling of helplessness. "I was on this fragile wooden plank," I began, shutting my eyes, the scenery becoming crystal clear. "He told me that he was proud to be my father, that I was just like him, but when I refused to help him, he pushed me off the plank with a gust of wind. I fell into Tartarus and saw unspeakable things, and this was the upmost layer, right where the entrance located near the Underworld is."

Cue the collective gasps of horror. No one, god or not, ever wanted to find themselves within the pit.

"Did you see anything?" Apollo asked, earning him a whack to the back of the head, courtesy of none other than Artemis. "Hey, it's a valid question!"

I nodded my head and bit my lip, not really wanting to elaborate what I'd seen. Honestly, with the way that Annabeth and Percy had described Tartarus, I expected to see webbing that could pass off as veins, noxious red clouds, the five rivers of the Underworld flowing down the jagged landscape as the aimlessly made their way down to the heart of the pit. Instead, I saw horrors that made the Fields of Punishment look like an amusement park.

"No more of that," Hera said in an almost motherly tone, shooting a scathing glare at Athena and Apollo, who were about to ask me more questions. "Leave Andromeda alone. If she wishes to speak, she'll do so when she is ready."

"Thank you, Lady Hera," I said, wincing as I felt the taste of blood fill my mouth. Guess I bit my lip too hard.

That seemed to end the conversation once and for all as the gods began leaving the throne room, only leaving Aphrodite behind as she gave me a look of pity. I didn't acknowledge her pity, or anyone else's for that matter, as we walked back to her palace, the two of us having decided it was a nice night to walk through Olympus.

When we arrived at her palace, Aphrodite sighed and snapped her fingers, a pink nightgown replacing her dress as well as removing all her makeup and leaving her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. For some reason, Aphrodite's appearance didn't change for me, and I didn't know why.

To me, she was an exact replica of Salina, the only difference being that Aphrodite had kaleidoscope eyes while Salina's were as blue as the Mediterranean Sea. Aphrodite didn't seem to know or care about my situation, so I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to insult the highly temperamental goddess.

After what had happened in the throne room, I was fully prepared for Aphrodite to have Ares over tonight (they usually met up after council meetings), but she shook her head and directed me back to the vanity I'd been sitting at this morning, telling me that our day wasn't done until I could flawlessly apply eyeshadow.

I was so mentally and physically exhausted that I didn't protest, silently picking up the color palate Aphrodite had picked out for me and following her instructions. She seemed happy enough after my tenth attempt, clapping her hands together in delight before handing me another makeup wipe to add to my ever growing pile.

"What are we doing tomorrow?" I asked, wiping gently at my eyes, having learned the hard way that if the liquid within the wipes got in your eyes, it tended to burn as badly as if you used tabasco sauce as eye drops. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating, but it still stung.

"We aren't going to do anything," Aphrodite said while putting away all the makeup she had planned for us to use today. "Before you were summoned to the council, we decided that you're going to go back to Camp Half-Blood for the time being, at least until this whole Master Bolt situation is solved."

"Really?" I stopped wiping my eyes to look at Aphrodite. "I'll get to spend the summer at camp?"

"First we've got to deal with this possible war, but there is a very good chance you may be able to spend the entire summer at camp. Gods knows that you've earned a break."

"Before I leave, do you mind if I go ask Lord Hephaestus something first?"

Aphrodite winced at the mention of her husband but gave me her silent approval anyways, telling me that my midnight curfew still stood. It was only nine, so I wasn't too worried about my curfew, calmly walking the half mile that would take me to Hephaestus' palace.

The god of the forges usually resided elsewhere, never feeling that content on Olympus, especially since he is the only major god who was severely disabled. He liked spending time at his forges, forgoing ambrosia and nectar for crazy amounts of time when he was deeply invested in one of his projects. It wasn't uncommon for me to remind Hephaestus that he needed to eat when the two of us worked in the forge together, to which I usually would get a grunt that meant, "Later."

But I knew he was inside his palace from the amount of smoke billowing out of the four chimneys he had protruding from the ceiling, reminding me a bit of how Willy Wonka's factory from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looked in terms of the silhouette.

I used the large brass knocker on the door, waiting for a few seconds before one of Hephaestus' many automatons opened the door, leading me straight to the god himself. Unsurprisingly, he was hunched over one of his many workbenches, scowling to himself as he compared the metal in his hands to the blueprints he'd sketched out.

Behind him, the forges were fully burning, the heat so intense that I was already starting to sweat. The room itself was brightly illuminated with LED lighting, contrary to popular belief that said Hephaestus worked better in the dark. Off in the far corner was my own workbench, where Hephaestus would let me work on projects that interested me, giving me constructive criticism whenever he thought it was needed.

The automaton who had led me in stood at attention besides Hephaestus, grabbing the god's attention. He looked up, his dark brown eyes giving off a calculating glint as he set down his project onto his table, wiping the oil on his hands off on his apron that had his name embroidered across the middle.

"What are you doing here, young one?" Hephaestus asked, his booming voice echoing around the room. "It hasn't been three days already, has it?"

"No, my lord," I replied, smiling at his latter question. Sometimes he'd get so consumed by a project he lost track of the days.

One time after my week with Aphrodite, I came to Hephaestus, only to learn that he had gone over three weeks without sleeping or eating as he tried to build a butler automaton. Now, while gods don't need to eat or sleep like mortals or demigods, they were considerably weaker if they forwent such basic necessities.

"All I came for was to ask permission to visit a child of yours."

"And why would you ask me for this?" Hephaestus said, scratching his chin, which set his beard on fire. I'd grown immune to Hephaestus' appearance, so I wasn't too concerned about his beard catching fire.

"He doesn't know he's a demigod yet," I explained. "But I know he's in a rough place right now, and I want to be his friend."

"Is that all?"

"Were you expecting something else, my lord?"

Hephaestus gave me a lopsided grin, flashing his stained and crooked teeth at me. I smiled back, even though I was deeply disturbed by his smile as this was the first time I'd ever witnessed it. "You continue to surprise me, girl, so I shall give you permission to visit my unclaimed son. Just promise me one thing."

"Anything, my lord."

"If you happen to run into any monsters, keep him safe."

"Absolutely." I felt my smile widen, the muscles in my face starting to hurt from prolonged use. "Thank you."

Hephaestus made a shooing motion, letting me know that I was overstaying my welcome. I followed the same automaton back to the front door, trying to suppress a really stupid amount of laughter at the prospect of meeting one of my favorite people of all time.

Guess who's going to meet Leo Valdez tomorrow!