"Who are these two?" Dean asked, gesturing to Johnny and Aaron after our main conversation, and curse removal, had been completed. "And where'd the other two go?"

"Oh, you'll probably get a call from them soon asking if you've seen me. You haven't, by the way. Where I'm going they can't follow, but these two can." I glanced back and snatched an object from Aaron's hand before he could lick it.

He shuddered, looking at it with a curious frustration.

"Theoretically, anyway."

Johnny took Aaron's hand and put a candy in it. "Try that, dude."

Aaron had it in his mouth before the sentence was finished.

"So the curse…?" Johnny asked, looking at you.

"We removed it. Shouldn't be giving you any more trouble, but we never found a link between victims," Sam explained, sizing up the two boys. "Isn't it a school day?"

"I disappear all the time," Aaron said easily. "My school never comes looking because I always turn back up eventually. Usually with some new scars since the reason I went missing was because I was seeking."

"Seeking?" Dean asked, clearly concerned.

"I have a sensory disorder, and I'm the seeking type, which means I touch things, lick things, burn myself because I can't feel heat, almost freeze because I can't feel cold…." He fixated on something beyond Dean.

I tried to see what he was seeing, but didn't notice anything out of place.

"Yeah, by the way, he licked the monument," Johnny folded his arms.

I made a face. "Aaron, there's mouthwash in my bag."

"Ok. We need to leave. Now." He pushed us toward the car. "Right now."

I started walking quickly toward the car. "Why?"

"There's an aos sí here. They're like fairies, definitely aligned with the Dans. They're also known as daoine sídhe," he answered, his voice an odd mixture of calm and anxious that made my head hurt.

"You want us to take care of it?" Sam asked, looking between us as we reached the car.

"Would you mind? I'm kind of on my way to stop a war." I gave them a pleading look. I felt bad for asking them to go out of their way to fight one of the sídhe when they'd already been kind enough to come way out of their way and meet me here, and not tell Travis or Nico where I was, but we were short on time.

"Just point us in the right direction," Dean said with a smile.

Aaron nodded and didn't point but he did gesture fairly specifically. "Okay, by the sign over there, wearing red shoes. Iron will hurt her, but not kill, at least, not that I know of. I'm not sure of her exact type, but I know she's one of the Sidhe. Thankfully she doesn't look like one that's too dangerous. If she was a bean sidhe she would be wearing white and washing blood out of a garment. And crying."

"Banshee?" Same muttered.

Aaron nodded. "But I don't think she is one. If she was, we would know by now. I would know by now."

Dean nodded. "We'll take care of it." He caught my arm while the other two climbed into the car. "You going to be okay?"

I nodded. "I know what I'm doing, and if I don't do it…let's just say the veil between reality and what most consider fiction could be destroyed. When the whole world knows about ghosts…."

"Chaos," Sam agreed. "We're familiar."

I kissed both of them on the cheek. "You better hurry and take care of that fairy. But also be taking care of yourselves."

"Don't let the world end," Dean replied, walking away with Sam.

I quickly ducked into the car. "Go."

Johnny pulled out of the parking space and onto the road. "Now to Montana?"

"Now to Montana."

"Where in Montana?"

"Uncertain. I'll know when I see it." I watched the scenery pass, feeling uneasy. I knew that Johnny had insisted on driving to try and let me sleep, but towns were making me nervous. There were way more monsters and we'd just spotted a fairy, who knew what was lurking around the next turn?

Unlike Pocahontas, I didn't want anything to be around the riverbend. I didn't want the anxiety of anything being around the riverbend and it felt too ironic that I was like this and going on a quest where literally anything could be just around the riverbend.

We only made one stop–at a grocery store–and the boys made me wait in the car and try and nap (it wasn't going to happen, but I appreciated it anyway).

I turned my phone on, wincing at the notification of 57 missed called, 49 new voicemails, and too many missed texts to count.

"Is this the mouthwash?" Aaron asked, shoving a bottle under my nose.

I flinched and then studied the bottle. "Yeah. Only but a little bit in the cap and then add some water though. It's supposed to be diluted."

"And then spit it out…?"

"Yes. There are empty bottles here," I told him distractedly, and then turned my attention back to my phone, opening the texts first.

A bunch from Travis, Nico, Reyna, and Will.

One from Grandpa Stoll that simply read, "GO FOR IT SWEETIE! DON'T LOOK BACK! I'm so proud of you" that I had to stare at and reread about eight times before finally going to check the other messages.

One popped up from Connor while I was scrolling through Nico's threats to kill me when he found me.

"Faverell Hospital, Montana."

I quickly looked up the name, and the moment the image popped up, I knew that's where we needed to go. "I've got directions."

"Awesome." Johnny handed over his phone. "Where are we heading?"

"An abandoned hospital that leads down into a section of what might be old labyrinth, but might also be some sort of celtic tunnel system. Probably both since we're headed there. It's called Faverell Hospital."

"Sounds lovely," Aaron quipped.

Johnny looked disturbed. "I've heard about that place."

"Yeah?"

He nodded. "We're pretty sure that's where my cousin disappeared."

"Sorry," I said softly. "But that's our destination. When we get there, you don't have to come with us."

"Yes, I do." Johnny tightened his grip on the wheel. "I'm all in."

I took a deep breath. "Alright. Then next stop we make, you need to learn some fighting techniques."

He nodded.

I turned my attention to the texts from Travis, scrolling through the worried ones until I reached the last text again.

"Look, I get it. I'm still going to worry, it's kind of my job, but at least…at least tell me you aren't going alone. There's a lot at play here. I'm not trying to meddle, I just want to know that you've thought this through."

Meddle.

Right.

I sent back a brief text saying that I wasn't alone, and that I was trying to meddle.

In fact, I had large intentions of meddling.

I just needed to figure out how I was going to meddle.

Johnny and Aaron were my companions for a reason, but I still wasn't sure what role they played. They were both mortals, both could see through the mist (if Aaron's ability to spot monsters and weapons were any indication), but they were, decidedly, unusual for companions in a quest.

"We should stop for gas soon," Johnny murmured. "There's a place up ahead."

"No way, it's too colorful," Aaron objected.

I turned to look at him, wondering what color had to do with anything.

"Uh, explain quickly?" Johnny asked.

"I see everything in black and white except the magical or godly," Aaron spat out, glaring at the gas station.

"Please don't pull into that gas station," I agreed. "If it is one of the gods trying to meet up with us, they can do it at a less magical place."

"Well, there should be another ahead, anyway. We've got time."

"Seriously, though?" I asked, turning to face Aaron.

He nodded. "I told you about it before."

"Sorry, it's been…a long few months."

The car made an ungodly noise and shook.

"Oh…no…."

Johnny glanced back. "Um…."

"Guess we're pulling into the magical gas station," I muttered.

Aaron glared out the window. "Right. Everyone on guard."

Johnny pulled into the colorful gas station. "You two stay in…the…." He slumped forward.

Aaron grabbed my wrist, forcing me to meet his gaze. "It's too bright to be anything but a godly entity. Be careful and—"

I winced as he slumped over as well.

The doors to the gas station opened.

I huffed, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut behind me. "I swear, if this isn't life or death, someone's going to get a lifetime subscription to Apollo's daily haikus."

Then I really hoped it wasn't Apollo.

And I entered the godly gas-station.

AN: Been a while, didn't mean to leave it this long. Doing my best to figure out where I left off and what I had planned to hopefully finish this story in a way that is still satisfying. I'm moving forward ignoring the books that followed the first in the Trials of Apollo series because they completely turned me off of this world, but I want to finish what I started. I probably lost all of my prior readership, but if you've made it this far, thank you.