"It's a camp ground, Nico. This is literally why it exists."

"Will..."

I went outside to start a new fire. Julia Feingold was there, catching me by surprise. "What are you doing?"

She had the nerve to be flustered. "It's not fair!"

"Okay?"

"How do you guys get to spend the night out here?"

"Didn't you sneak out?"

"Yeah..."

"You know how it is. Year-round demigods don't have the same rules that the summer kids have. Even then, we can get away with a lot. Like when you stole all that makeup from Sephora and Chiron made it go away."

"Right." She seemed to be thinking about something else already. "Is it true that Kronos is back?"

"We're not talking about it."She looked confused and scared but I cut her off. "Sorry but not right now." The moment passed. She murmured, "See you."

"What was that about," Nico asked." No idea." He had already started a fire. "Someone brought hot chocolate and parfait." We sat close to the fire as the night went on.

The temperature dropped and the silence grew but we hardly noticed. We'd been out here almost a week so far and Nico opened little by little. As if we hadn't been through everything already.

If only I had my father's prophecy.

Something had been going on in the main grounds but we weren't been paying attention until one of the nymphs found us. "Oh you're here," she said, watching Nico as though he'd tricked her. I almost said something but she continued, "Someone set your dad's cabin on fire."

"What," we said together. Nico didn't seem to notice.

"They can't figure out how to stop it."

I managed to grab his wrist before he could leave. "Stop," he said, trying to get away. "Not going to happen."

When we got there the other stranded demigods had gathered by the Hades cabin. Julia Feingold turned and looked at shouted her name. She flinched but then looked defiant. I watched her slip from the crowd and leave with Juniper.

There was only a smoldering skeleton frame left. Nico stood in the ruins of what he almost had. But he wouldn't look at us yet.

"It was Julia," one of the Aphrodite kids whispered. I tried to ignore them and went to Nico. I regretted it right away, wondering how the heat wasn't bothering him.

I told him what I knew and how Julia had been expelled from camp. "What I don't understand is that she'd been arranging to move to the Waystation for weeks. Why didn't she just move?"

"I can't do anything about it." He kicked what was left of the Dante's Inferno he had left there. "There was a time all I could think about was having my own cabin here. Instead you invited me into yours. And then you took me home with you." He kicked the book again. "I didn't need him either."