I lay down on the carpet, groaning.
"Dude, who knew organizing could be so exhausting?" Nico asked.
Travis just barely managed to raise his hand, then it dropped back to his side. "I'm still trying to organize the mess that was left to Cassie. With the help of lawyers. Plural."
Will must have been out.
"On the bright side, we finished a lot earlier than I thought we would. I mean, it's Monday, barely after noon. I assumed we would be doing this until the cows came home."
"What does that even mean?" Nico asked, squeaking slightly in protest.
"A long time," I explained.
"How do you even know that phrase?"
"I'm from Michigan. Our agriculture is primarily corn, cow products, soybeans, sugar beets, pigs, wheat, and potatoes, I think. You can't drive five miles—"
"Without hitting a body of water," Travis tried to fill in the rest of the sentence.
"Without seeing at least one farm of some sort. Travis, what the heck?"
"I don't… I don't know."
"Take a nap. I'm going to go get cleaned up since I have to go meet Percy, Annabeth, her cousin and his friends."
"Want us to come with?" Nico asked, suddenly looking alert.
"I'll be fine," I told him. "It's Percy and Annabeth. If something happens, she'll outwit them to death and Percy will drown them. Besides, I know you're a text away."
He nodded slowly and relaxed again.
"Try not to make a mess, guys." I hurried upstairs to change out of my grungy clothes and into nicer ones, do my hair, and my makeup. Then I grabbed my purse and hurried back downstairs, out to the car and back into town.
When I arrived at the address Annabeth had given me, I waited for a moment or two, taking in the manor before me. "Okay then." I went inside.
A short man greeted me. "This is a safe place for everyone," He started the spiel.
"Sorry, um, before you continue, I'm not in trouble, I'm not lacking in resources, I'm here because Annabeth and Percy are here. I'm Cassie."
"Oh, welcome! I'm Blitzen, I'm a good friend of Magnus'. Follow me, they're in the lounge."
"Love your vest," I commented casually.
He straighted in and fussed with the sleeves of his shirt. "It's part of my own line."
"Impressive."
"You're the one that's funding the safe houses for…your kind?"
"Yeah, well, a lot of the lands we're using are part of my inheritance and I wanted to make a difference. Demigods have so few resources. Places like this, make a difference. People like this make a difference. I guess I want to be one of those kinds of people."
He looked at me strangely.
"Cassie!" Annabeth saw me and waved from across the room.
Percy smiled beside her.
The other guy looked a bit like Annabeth, blond hair and grey eyes, but he also looked different, which was to be expected.
The person on his other side was dressed in green and pink, had short green hair, and I couldn't decide if they were a boy or a girl. Maybe that's what s/he was going for.
Then there was a guy just to the left of Percy, pale skin and pale blonde hair, tall and skinny. Almost sickly looking and dressed entirely in black except for the scarf around his neck.
Annabeth hugged me. "How are you? I meant to check on you forever ago but I've been so busy with classes…"
"Don't worry about it. I'm doing good. I'm managing crowds. School is still tough, but the rest of life seems to be falling back into something resembling order." I shrugged.
Percy gave me a quick hug.
"Cassie, this is my cousin, Magnus, his friend Alex, and this is Hearth. You met Blitzen."
I nodded. "I interrupted him. I apologized for interrupting, right?"
He nodded. "She's got a way with words," He told Magnus and the others.
"I get it from my mom," I told them, shrugging.
"Who's your mom? Athena?" Alex (the one in pink and green) asked.
"That would make me dating a son of Athena pretty dang awkward," I answered. "My mom was mortal. She was a writer."
"A famous writer. I've been reading one of her books. It's really good. Mom had it on her shelf at home," Percy told them and then me.
"Glad you like it."
"What's her name? Maybe I've read something of hers?" Alex asked, arching an eyebrow.
I noticed Blitzen signing for Hearth, and waited for him to catch up a bit. "Juliet Dellaro."
Alex's eyes widened. "No way! I loved her book 'Transitioning Guard'!"
"That is a good one." I smiled.
Magnus frowned a bit. "Is she the one that wrote 'Cedar Dawn'?"
"Unless there's another book out there with that title, then yes. It's the one with the artist who goes to cedar swamps all over and draws what he sees and who he meets?"
"Yeah," Magnus confirmed, lighting up a bit with a smile. "My mom would read it to me in the winter when we both wanted to be outside in nature. It was always like we were actually there."
"Well, she did write it by going to a bunch of different cedar swamps. Dragged me with her. I'm joking, I dragged her. I went through this obsession with cedar trees after doing a research paper on them. I'm glad to hear you guys like her books."
"She's one of the few female authors that was already on these shelves before we came." Alex smiled. "You really don't like talking about her, do you?"
I glanced at the ceiling. "It's still a little raw."
They looked confused.
"Cassie's mom died in…May?" Annabeth looked for confirmation.
"Late May, yeah."
Magnus looked apologetic immediately. "I'm so sorry. I know how rough that can be."
"What was it? Car crash? Drugs?" Alex pressed in.
I shifted.
"Cancer? Some other medical thing?"
"A knife, stabbing her. Multiple times while I watched in horror," I answered, surprised by how calm I managed to stay. "The police are just now closing in on the people they think kidnapped us and killed my mom."
"So when Annabeth said she meant to check on you earlier," Magnus gave Alex a glare.
"She meant because I got drugged and raped. Can we not? I really just… can we just go to the safe house? I'm kind of done with talking about what happened. I already have to do it with a shrink, and frankly I don't know you two that well. I don't know these two that well, either, but I know of them more so…" I shrugged.
Alex actually looked apologetic. "Sorry, yeah. Let's see this place for heroes."
Magnus looked extremely uncomfortable and he was either blushing or red with fury. My guess was blushing.
Percy and Annabeth had a bit of fire in their eyes over the topic of what happened.
I led the way out to my car since that's what we would be taking. "I'm sorry, I don't know sign language otherwise I would use it. I only know like…three letters from when I tried to learn back in fifth grade."
"It's okay," Blitzen put on some gloves and some sort of veil thing, signing as after he finished.
Hearth signed something quickly.
"He says that you at least tried."
I gave him a smile, then we went outside and I flinched back as a large group raced past us on the sidewalk.
Annabeth put an arm around my shoulders in what looked like a friendly gesture, but was really a sort of comforting, protective gesture to help force myself forward. She must have talked to Travis. Or Nico.
We piled into the van and I started driving us back to the Burrow.
"Did you finish your work?"
"Yeah, it's done. We finished just before I came to get you guys. I'm going to need all of y'alls input on how comfortable you guys feel in it, the decor, everything. We even made these little survey filler things, they're in my purse."
Alex had snagged the passenger seat and went into my purse to get them. "The Burrow?"
"It's what I've been calling it. I know, it's dorky."
Percy smiled. "Could be worse, you could have named a dragon 'Happy'."
"That's true," Annabeth confirmed.
Annabeth somehow directed the conversation in the back seats back to Thanksgiving.
Alex glanced at me. "Sorry about your mom. It must have been tough going through all of that."
"Must have been tough making sure Ragnarok didn't occur. Life is tough. You either learn to carry more weight or break. Or you have an awesome team to help you carry the load until you're strong enough to carry it yourself. I will never save the world, not like every other person in this van. I have a quieter calling, I think."
Alex turned around in her seat. "I see what you mean, Blitz." Then he looked at me. "Who is your godly parent?"
"Hermes," I answered.
"And he is…?"
"The god of thieves, travelers, merchants, messenger of the gods, communication, and a ton of other crap. There's also his roman form, his Celtic forms, and just an overall ambiguity in the lines between the worlds when it comes to him. It's seriously frustrating and really cool all at once." I was surprised when I realized we were already at the turn onto the road. "Um, there is no way we've been talking for an hour and a half."
"Nope."
"Then what the heck, how did we get here so quickly?" I squeaked.
The others were paying attention now, looking around.
Travis came running out onto the road, saw us and waved for us to enter the driveway.
I did as he said, rolling down the window once we were over the border. "What the actual heck?"
"Eithne, thought she'd speed things up."
I felt my eyes widen. "She's here?"
"Just a bit. And she carries with her a list of things that you need to break the curse on New Year's Eve."
"Oh lovely. How bad is it inside?"
"She realized you had guests and took to the woods. Something about fairy rings. You have to meet her in a few hours."
"But I'm safe to bring these guys in?"
"Oh yeah, I just came out to make sure you knew it was safe." He back away and then jogged ahead of us, then broke into a sprint and disappeared around the bend of the driveway while I put the van back into gear.
"Okay, everything is good. Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about." I took us in and parked the van, getting out and grabbing my purse.
They piled out as well, then stood looking at the place.
"Looks like good architecture," Annabeth grinned. She had been consulted over the general design.
I nodded. "There's going to be some landscaping done but not the kind you guys are thinking. Go ahead and go in. Remember, the surveys are actually going to be used for the next safe house in New York."
"The next one is in New York?" Percy asked.
"Yeah, well, it's a loft in New York, but it's still better than nothing. There will also be a house on the fringe of the city if we manage to get what we want. I'm watching the real estate around there." I followed them in.
"Nice, can we sit on the furniture?" Magnus asked.
"No, you can just stare at it."
He turned a bit pink.
"Of course, Will slept on the black couch last night. Nico's already slept in the recliner. And Travis has napped in all of it. Not a very good sign that you think you can't sit on the furniture."
"I love the sign, it's actually decently easy for someone with dyslexia to read."
"Nico made that."
"You wrote it," Nico argued, appearing from the kitchen, holding the yellow and white patterned bean bag. "I found it." He tossed it into place.
"I love the lockers, practical and yet stylish in an industrial sort of way." Blitzen was examining the room with a critical eye.
"Nice TV." Percy looked like he wasn't sure what he was doing in the survey group.
"But if you guys came in knowing that this was a safe house and needing refuge, would you feel comfortable just taking advantage of what's here?"
Percy nodded. "I mean, it's nicer than any place I've ever lived, but if I had come here as a kid on a quest…"
"It might have been a little weird at first, but we would have gotten over it once we got food. Does the fridge really work?" Annabeth asked.
Magnus, Alex, Blitz, and Hearth quickly read the sign.
I nodded. "Yeah, we can go in there next."
"What's the kitchen theme?" Annabeth asked.
"Honestly, lemons."
Percy laughed.
We went into the kitchen, me demonstrating how the fridge worked, showing them that there were pots, pans, some foods in the cupboards that kept for long periods of time, dishes; everything anyone would need if they were living here.
"Hearth wants to know what magic was used to create all of this." Magnus translated.
"Celtic and Greek, mixed, there might be others too. I honestly don't know and I did not ask because it's better if I don't."
"Who's Eithne?" Alex asked.
"An acquaintance, a Celtic one."
"There's an understatement," Nico muttered, standing beside me.
"What is?" Eithne seemed to appear by the sink with a glass of water in her hand. She looked around at us like nothing had happened.
We all jumped, going for our weapons before the ones that recognized her realized who it was.
"Eithne, don't do that. We're jumpy people with weapons."
She tilted her head. "Meaning?"
"Meaning someone might try to kill you." I told her.
She glanced around then shrugged. "Sumarbrander might stand a chance, and the rune-master." She signed something to Hearth, then continued signing as she spoke. "It takes something special to really get me. Plus there's Faolan."
"Who?" Percy asked. He looked at her warily.
"Faolan, he's…my body guard." She played with the necklace that had a wooden charm on it, a Celtic design, of course. Her other necklace was the Celtic tree of healing. It was a strange contrast to her Mickey Mouse T-Shirt, the red feather earrings, the rainbow bracelets, the the peacock and blue hair feathers. "He stays close."
I rolled my eyes. "Eithne."
She smirked.
Travis came in, going straight to the fridge. "I lost track of Eithne."
I arched an eyebrow.
She waved a hand in his face and he didn't react, which caused her to grin.
Her mistake was trying to pick his pocket.
He caught her wrist, did some sort of twist and had a strange-looking knife to her throat in seconds. "Eithne," He growled.
"Bain do scian, dathúil."
He slowly moved away. "No magic, Eithne."
"I'm sorry, she did just tell you to remove your knife and then called you handsome, right?" I asked, making sure my head had translated it correctly.
"Ooh, much better, mo chara." Eithne gave me a grin. "But how's your old english?"
I shrugged. "Sê ðâ ðe spr¯æc gîetonæðele me. Stîðfindan bêga wihtâl¯æran ðæge pro." This language more natural to me. Hard to find a person to teach it.
"True, very true."
Annabeth was frowning. "That was old english?"
"As close as I can get right now, yes."
Blitzen was studying Eithne with a wary eye. "What are you? An elf?"
She laughed her musical laugh. "I am a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann. What you call elves we consider part of the sidhe."
Magnus looked confused.
"S-I-D-H-E," I clarified. "Banshee is derived from it."
Percy looked less confused after that.
"She's technically a goddess."
Magnus and Alex had pained expressions when they looked at her.
"You two okay."
"Um, she sort of has this…light about her." Magnus sort of explained.
"Oh," Eithne said, looking slightly apologetic. "That's right. You're dead." She got quiet and frowned a bit.
Nico took two big steps away from them, looking concerned. "I wondered why you two felt off."
"Solas agus Dorchadas, meascán agus meascán. Déan beagán dorcha do mo chairde marbh." Eithne glowed green for a moment, then it faded.
Alex smirked. "Teach me."
Travis shook his head. "You'd be less impressed if you understood what she said."
Eithne shrugged. "I go with what works."
Her necklace suddenly glowed with red light.
She winced. "Crap." She pulled the charm off and tossed into the open floor space.
Faolan appeared, landing on his feet. "Dáiríre? Cén fhad a bhí tú ag dul a choinneáil dom ann?" I recognized the first part as being something like 'Seriously?' the second part was something along the lines of how long and something else that I really just didn't follow.
"English, Faolan."
He glared at her. "How am I supposed to protect you if you keep me trapped?"
"I'm not the one who got their soul bound to a wooden charm!" Eithne folded her arms, returning his glare.
"I wouldn't have been bound to a wooden charm if you hadn't insisted on defying your parents and getting us both banished!"
"You chose banishment with me, do not blame me for your own plight."
"You are the future queen of the Danann! Of course I chose to protect you! It is my duty!"
"Nobody asked you to protect me! I can take care of myself!"
I winced. This was not what was supposed to be happening. "Eithne, Faolan; either shut up or go outside." Crap, I was shaking.
Nico had noticed, and was glaring daggers at them.
Eithne calmly looked at Faolan.
He pointed toward the door. "This will continue. Now."
They headed for the door.
"Eithne, what happened to Aaron?"
"He had presentation to do today. Don't worry. He's fine for now. His trips to Tír na nÓg have been helping him."
Faolan dragged her out the door before she could continue.
Nico grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
"I'm fine," I said through gritted teeth.
"Okay." He didn't let go, gods bless him.
"Why don't we just go check out the rest of the place?" Annabeth suggested.
I nodded, trying to keep control. Of course this would happen now. Of freaking course. I didn't even know what triggered it.
They moved out, ushered by Annabeth.
Percy paused while the others went out. "I almost forgot, I have pictures of my little sister if you want to see."
I managed a little smile and a slight nod.
He got out his phone and pulled up a picture.
I smiled a little more. "She's adorable."
He grinned. "She is. Do I have to fill out a survey?"
I laughed a bit and almost started crying. "No. Definitely not after that."
"We should watch that movie." Nico squeezed my hand again.
"Wonder woman? Or Spider man?" Will asked as he appeared.
"Wonder Woman, I don't think we have Spider Man yet."
I shook my head.
Percy nodded. "Let's do it. Annabeth is going to be looking at the architecture of the place for probably twenty minutes. Then I think we were just planning on hanging out for a while. She doesn't get to see Magnus very often."
Nico gently pulled me into the living room and to the couch while Will got the movie into the DVD player.
We watched in relative silence, me trying not to have a full-blown panic attack, and the others making sure I didn't notice them noticing me having a panic attack.
Because that's what friends are for.