An Undertow of Sand

Trace's body hit the concrete with a heavy thud.

"Great googly moogly." Aaron's eyebrows shot all the way up before coming back down. "It all went to shit."

He was barefoot with a silver Gameboy Advance, curled up on the hood of the red Porsche behind his fiancée like he was five years old gaming in a corner. In front of Hiraya with a corpse at our feet and Luke at my back felt just like standing in front of the principal of my last school with my father, waiting to get expelled.

By the way.

'Disturbed child' my ass.

I drew some pictures of my classmates' ghosts, so what? Who thought a loaded and armed cannon any idiot could set off in the front yard of an elementary school was a good idea?

Not me.

"Mission failed successfully," Rabbit deadpanned. He nudged Trace's body with his sneaker. "Operation FUBAR'd, associates secured."

"Foobar?" I whispered, leaning towards Luke.

Luke huffed, a little exasperated, a little amused. He bumped my shoulder with his elbow.

"Fucked up beyond all recognition," he said back just as softly.

"Two traitors," Cross rushed ahead. "They were after the mission objective for an unknown benefactor from the beginning." The woman was cringing. "Our only clue was - was a Latin phrase…" Cross swallowed. "I think it was from the Bible?"

Technically, 'fiat lux' is found in the Roman translation of it and Romans are the mythological world's Hot Topic.

Hiraya frowned. "But you did retrieve the package?"

"Um, not exactly?" Cross was making her six foot frame as small as possible. You could tell she wanted to be anywhere but an underground garage lined up in front of a disappointed Filipino vampire.

Which, same.

Cross was jumpy because Hiraya was her blood sucking employer. I was nervous because I felt like the gold bead 'coin' of my deal was burning a hole in my pocket. It's been a while since we were at Camp, but do you remember when I told Athena I've never done readings for other people?

Yeah.

I had my visions, but I couldn't control when I got them. Apollo figured out I could read cards by accident while teaching me Poker (Prophecy and Probability don't get along). I don't know how that works either. Trying to bluff might not be a good idea.

I was an Oracle now, so I can probably figure it out!

Eventually.

"You said the demigods were a priority so…" Cross nodded down at the body. "Trace was human, Torus was…" She hesitated and looked around at the rest of us. "Not?"

"Not, " Luke agreed. His face dropped into a scowl. "And she robbed me."

I elbowed him. Hard. "Will you let that go al - "

"No," he snarled back.

"Her file said she was a half-blood, no pantheon or type specified. Might have been a magic user too," Rabbit mused thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "Those are always a bitch." Soldier boy was talking like a normal person with full sentences and everything. All it took was discussing who or what just fucked us over. "Can't be a monster, da?"

"She wasn't. Definitely a god, one hundred percent," I said, but then I thought about it. "Well, okay, maybe she was possessed - "

'Possessed?' Luke mouthed, confused.

"So more like fifty-fifty?" Rabbit concluded as Cross' blue eyes ping ponged between us. "Sixty-forty?"

"Ninety-ten," I denied. "Come on, you were planning for three weeks. She should have burned up unless she -

"Could have been a spy and only offered to be a vessel for the actual mission - "

"... what?" Hiraya croaked as she stared at us with this bewildered, horrified expression. It was a rare kind of monster that wanted gods to look anywhere in their general direction.

"Divine asshole jumped us for an exam cheat sheet," I clarified for her. "We got nothin'."

Aaron snorted.

dun-dun-dun-DUN-DUN-DUN!

The airy MIDI tones of the Pokémon Emerald theme rang out from his silver Gameboy Advance before he muted it.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, stubbornly staring at his screen, holding his Gameboy up like it was a shield.

Luke started to laugh, but it turned into a gurgle when the vampire cut us this look. My hair stood on end and it had nothing to do with my Spidey Sense.

"Not our fault!" I blurted out.

"What he said!" Luke said just as quickly.

Artemis just squeaked and hid behind us.

"A god intervened," Hiraya said slowly. She was giving me a considering look. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." I shrugged. "Pretty sure. Not many can pull off a casual time stop and their eyes were - "

"You saw them?" Artemis interrupted from behind me.

"Yeah?" I twisted around to look down at the bunny. "I couldn't really do anything though?" And that was still annoying. "But they said they weren't after us - " Where do they get off calling me an abomination? Rude. "And that the page was authentic and - "

"Stop." Hiraya looked pained. "Stop." Her purple eyes slowly moved between the quiet mercenaries, then me and Luke (totally innocent), the cringing small bunny on the floor before finally rolling towards the ceiling.

"Hoping you can tell us what the fuck is going on this time," Rabbit said shortly and then let out a delayed, "Boss."

"...I do not know," Hiraya admitted. She looked down at Trace's body uneasily. "There was no indication that the package was of particular importance…"

It was just a page from some book.

"Intel was wrong," Rabbit concluded.

"Yessss," Hiraya hissed softly. "Ignorance or did someone lie?" Cross took a step back at the flash of the vampire's fangs. "The usual post-mission details apply." The monster said flatly. "You will be paid the full amount as agreed."

"Really?" Cross blurted out and Rabbit twitched as Hiraya knelt down. The vampire hooked a finger in the back of Trace's bulletproof vest and easily hauled the body up to look him in the face. At least two hundred pounds, balanced on a pinky finger. His glasses had fallen off. Trace looked just like one of my ghosts: dried blood down the side of his slack face, waxy looking skin and his eyes were still open.

"You're still paying us?" Cross continued. I think Rabbit's increasingly obvious twitching was some kind of signal to shut up, but she kept going. "Just like that?"

"She's a good boss," Aaron said defensively, glancing up from his quest to be the very best. "She's not going to punish you for something that's not your fault." He sounded very reasonable as he pointed his Gameboy at the corpse his fiancée was inspecting. I was impressed. Even Dad would be a bit disgruntled. "So relax."

"And I'm only paying two people and not four," Hiraya murmured absently. She raised her free hand to Trace's face as the purple in her eyes seemed to glow. I felt Damocles jump around a bit on my necklace. "Competent help is hard enough to - "

(Looking back, it's scary how quickly my luck could turn on a dime.)

My Spidey Sense screamed.

"Down now! "

I didn't recognize my own voice.

"Wha - " Cross started.

Time slowed to a crawl.

My vision tilted as I fell, Luke pulling me down with him. I saw Hiraya react even faster than we did, throwing Trace's body back into the armored truck. His face was just starting to swell up with cracks of light breaking through his skin when the doors closed on him. Even in slow motion, the vampire was just a dark blur bursting out of her skin. I could see the shock on Aaron's face as he was yanked right off the hood of the Porsche onto the ground before they were both enveloped in large blood red wings.

Rabbit hit the ground beside us. Artemis dove for Luke's side. Cross turned.

The truck exploded.

My world was still spinning. I felt like I was at the top of the drop slide at the water park. Just starting to slip. I looked up and I was underwater, watching the explosion rip the boat apart. I felt my stomach sink and from the corner of my eye I saw my step-nephew look at me. The skulls in his eyes chattered, grinning. I felt the pressure ripple through the water to wash over me. I couldn't tell if the shrapnel that bounced off my hip as I turned away was just the vision or not. I felt around with my hands trying to ground myself.

The cold concrete pressing back and a rough sea floor my fingers sunk into mixed sensations, making me feel a little sick. I squeezed my eyes shut. The water around me made it easy to think of an endless ocean just like Apollo taught me.

Sapphire waves stretching all the way back to a distant horizon.

A fire alarm screeched and the vision broke. The ocean surrounding me was just the ice cold drops of water from the fire suppression pouring down on us.

"Stay down," Luke hissed at me. I could hear him shift and look around. A second later, a wet rabbit was shoved into my arms. "Okay," he murmured. Artemis whimpered. "Careful."

I rolled over onto my side. The armored truck we had just come out of had four or five steaming vents peeling off the vehicle, half-melted and charred along the edges. Like a hotdog or a burrito put in the microwave for too long. The blast had melted a hole right through the drooping back doors, scorching the Porsche and cracking its windshield. The small bulletproof windows had completely blown out.

Rabbit was already up, kneeling over Cross. He pulled back with a slight shake of his head. I looked over her body too. Rabbit glanced over at me. I thought he was going to tell me to look away, but he didn't.

"She's dead?" I asked, but I already knew she was. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. You couldn't really tell what killed her, the shrapnel or the fire.

Rabbit inclined his head. "She hesitated."

I swallowed, hard. "Because I'm a kid?"

"Hoped she'd have the time to really understand," Rabbit said shortly. I thought there might have been a bit of regret in his voice. "You're only half- human."

" You get it." Luke nodded in approval, but there was a mean curl to his mouth as he glanced over Cross' body. "Just half."

The fire alarms were still blaring, making a headache pulse behind my eyes. Artemis' wet nose burrowed into my neck. I shifted my grip on her as I stood up. Luke bounded up and peered into the truck, waving away some of the acrid smoke.

"Just ash," he reported.

I hugged Artemis closer. She was still shaking. She was murmuring something in Greek into my collar. It sounded like some kind of prayer. I don't know to who, because my ears were still ringing.

"You okay?" I whispered to her. I remembered something about rodents getting heart attacks and dying from fear.

Going through all this trouble only for her to keel over from stress would be lame .

"I hate all of this," Artemis muttered. "Hate it."

"Boss?" Rabbit called out. He had a hand on his gun as he looked around the garage. "Orders?"

The leathery cocoon by the Porsche shuddered. It was badly burned, dripping black blood around bubbling, crispy sores. A clicking, melodic chirping sound came from everywhere, like it was being bounced off every corner in the room. It was the kind of sound that trickled down your back.

'I absolutely despise -' The wings unfurled in a spiral like a flower as Hiraya stood. 'Overly thorough enemies!'

If you're wondering what Mandurugo look like when they're not hiding? Bride of Dracula, from back when the movies were still in black and white.

The pointy ears, gray skin, the flat bat-like nose, and sharp cheekbones. She still had her long, dark hair. There was a bloody cleft splitting her bottom lip and running all the way down her chin. She had a mouth full of fangs with a gap between the middle teeth just big enough for her barbed tongue. Her clawed bird feet shredded her heels.

She had wings. Four of them.

Alright, so…

Look.

I am not gonna lie.

She was kind of pretty like this? Her eyes were a shifting translucent purple in shadow with pupils the shape of a slowly spinning four armed galaxy. Her blood red wings were just cool.

Guess I have to stop questioning Aaron's sanity.

"Damn it," Luke muttered.

I glanced over at him. He was digging the heels of his palms into his eye sockets like he was trying to blind himself.

"Why did you have to tell me about Herakles and monsters?" He moaned.

Because Artemis was wrong? Why was he bringing that up now?

"You asked?"

"I said I was wondering about it, not asking!"

Another screech of the fire alarm made Hiraya flinch. She held out a clawed hand.

Aaron handed her his Gameboy without another word. Damocles danced as she snapped it in half and all of the fire alarms died with ringing pops and sparks. There was a grinding sound and then the water cut off too.

Oh, she's a sorceress.

That's -

Well, fuck.

Wish I'd known the vampire had this reality's Konami Code before I gave her my blood. Bad news was, after this Quest, Hiraya was gonna own my ass. No wonder she was being so nice.

Good news? That's a problem for Future Percy.

Who was not me, Present Percy, protected by Amaterasu. I'm sure Future Percy will figure something out, because he's awesome like that. The guy just can't lose!

In my defense, no one likes True Magic users.

There are whole pantheons that have been trying to wipe them out for centuries, okay? What are the fucking odds? Somewhere in my peanut sized hyperactive brain, I knew monsters could have magic too, but I -

I forgot.

Hello, twelve year old demigod with ADHD here. I can't think of everything, give me a break.

"Soooo…" I began.

A near-murdered experience when you don't know who to kill back?

Do not recommend.

"What now?"

Aaron raised his hand like he was in math class.

"Can you guys do that hypnosis thing?" He asked us curiously.

"It's called Mist manipulation," Luke said in his best impression of a brat of Athena (don't tell Annabeth I said that) as he crossed his arms. "And yeah, I can."

"Good at lying?"

Luke tilted his head. "Decent. Why?"

"Great." Aaron grinned with false cheer and shook water out of his dark hair like a dog. "Let's go make some false statements to the police."

"The police?"

"So we can make insurance pay for this?" Aaron looked at us like it was obvious before heading for the elevator. Luke reluctantly followed him. "They won't do anything without a paper trail, it's crazy."

I was back to questioning his sanity.

"Hn." Hiraya spat a glob of black blood onto the floor. She frowned as she looked around her absolute mess of a garage. I blinked, so I missed it when she shifted to look human again. The burns on her wings transferred to the right side of her body, but they were fading really fast. Ugly blackened skin becoming pinkish scars and then flawless in seconds.

She was a vampire. Stabbing or staking with something sharp was the way to go.

She burns to death, I remembered. I looked back at Cross' body and Thanatos' grinning skull eyes came to mind again. It was probably just the vision, but I found myself wondering. Rabbit and his team had been planning for three weeks. They would have gone with the traitors, unaware.

What would have happened if we hadn't been here?

"Boss?" Rabbit ventured, cautious.

Which, same.

Her garage floor was soaked. The carpet lining the walls had darkened to a muddy brown color. The front of her Porsche was half-melted and some shrapnel had taken out her Hummer's front light and side mirror. The BMW looked okay from behind the bombed out shell of the armored truck. She was going to have to replace all her fire alarms and probably the sprinklers. Trace was a pile of ash, Torus was missing, Cross was dead, her boyfriend nearly died, our hands were empty and she had a sun goddess making sure she didn't back out of her deal that had already cost her a lot.

For her, this might be the event that sours the rest of your decade.

For us, uh, I think today was Thursday?

It might be Wednesday.

Wednesdays suck.

"I stand corrected," Hiraya replied slowly.

Her eyes darted over to him. They were still a radiant purple as she quirked an eyebrow.

"I am only paying one."

We bunked down in Hiraya and Aaron's living room out of an unspoken agreement to remain paranoid.

Their house was one of those hub homes where the living room was huge and tall and the rest of the house was arranged around it with the second floor being a balcony running along the ring. The only wall was completely made out of glass facing the driveway so we could see if we were going to get any more nasty surprises. Rabbit was still checking the perimeter obsessively.

We ended up taking a blow dryer to Artemis.

"Gods, I hope your idea for getting back her godhood works." Luke powered down the blow dryer as he grinned at the resigned ball of auburn puff on Hiraya's coffee table. She looked like a fluffy toy twice her size.

"So I can never live this down?" Artemis said miserably. Luke just grinned wider in a good mood as he held up his rabbit comb and wiggled it at her. The bunny groaned. "Just kill me." She had her paws over her eyes again. "End it, please."

You almost couldn't tell Luke had spent the last fifteen minutes talking circles around some police officers. They came to check on the wealthy couple and their grandmother's nephew's neighbor's second cousins and their rabbit that were visiting when they nearly got blown to kingdom come.

Gas mains are deadly.

"You don't mean that," I said, glancing up from the Gameboy Colors I was balancing on my lap with a link cord between them. Aaron had a Seadra Pokémon with a Dragon Scale and I'm not passing that up.

Don't judge me.

"Enough bitching, more brainstorming."

"There is no one, I am telling you," Artemis sighed as Luke ran the comb over her forehead and ears. "Everyone I can think of with a Name I could use, there is either no point to asking or I am too scared to ask."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Too scared?"

"Is that so surprising?" she asked quietly. "Even if I were whole, I would hesitate. And I am decidedly not. "

"Archery - " I started.

"Not changing my mind," she cut me off.

I rolled my eyes. "Wilderness?"

Her mouth fell open a little. "No one even knows where Pan is."

Wait, really?

Huh.

"Okay, uh, Hunting?"

"My nephew Aristaeus would not be able to afford it and my uncle… " Artemis went quiet.

"Your uncle?" I prodded.

"Is unavailable," she said shortly.

It took me a minute or two to figure out who she was talking about.

Lelantos, the Titan of Moving Unseen, Leto's twin brother? I must have read about him because Mom only remembered her Chosen and I can't remember Apollo even mentioning the guy. Then again, Zeus got a hold of the twins early and Lelantos was a second generation Titan.

Olympus tended to be unhealthy for second generation Titans.

And for first generation Titans.

And at least half of the third generation, honestly.

Maybe he was imprisoned? I don't think he was imprisoned. Odds are, he didn't like his sister getting Zeus' pimp hand, tried to do something about it and it didn't end well for him.

Dude.

Artemis really was like her father.

Both of them were professionals at screwing people over thousands of years down the line, including themselves .

"Maidens?" I tried weakly.

"Hera."

Luke and I both winced.

I was getting tired of this rabbit having a point.

"You do not understand what you are asking." She sighed again. "It has been millennia since we have reached equilibrium. We are no longer worshiped across civilizations. To ask someone to give up a Name…"

"Big ask?"

"Monumental," she whispered. "I have taken enough from my brother already. I will not do it." She shrunk into herself. "And I am not so loved that I could expect others to make that sacrifice for me."

Luke nudged me with his shoulder and caught my eye. He made an exaggerated grimace and I copied him. It turns out, the problem with being an asshole is that no one likes you. Who could have possibly seen that one coming?

That didn't leave Artemis with a lot of options.

'Not a lot' didn't mean 'none' though.

"If you are too scared to ask," I said. "Then let me."

"...if you insist." Artemis looked up at me with wide silver eyes. "I suppose you do come by your irreverence honestly," she said quietly. "That could only help."

"Um, what?"

"It - nothing," she changed her mind. "You are worth more than me. Your words will at least be heard, is all." Luke nudged her. Artemis' ears went flat as she narrowed her eyes at him. He wiggled the comb again and loomed over her.

"You can ruuu-uun," he sing-songed.

With a sigh, Artemis reluctantly presented her other flank for brushing. "I hate you."

"That gives me joy," Luke said unrepentantly.

Selene was gone, but the Greek pantheon still had two goddesses of the Moon. Artemis inherited the Pale Moon. I opened my mouth to ask about the Dark Moon when my Gameboy chimed.

I was now the proud owner of an adorable Kingdra Water-Type Pokémon.

"Awesome."

"Let me see," Luke said as he leaned over. He had the same soft half-smile he had when us younger Campers pulled off a sword move he'd been teaching us. Or when we were trying to get out of trouble even though Chiron caught us red-handed trying to put sawdust in the horse-pigeon feed because they deserved it.

"Almost makes me wish I had the time for videogames," he said wistfully as I showed my new Pokémon off. "And…batteries. And electricity. And money." He thought about it as he brushed the rabbit. "And demigod proofing."

"From breaking?" The demigod proofing had to be really thorough. Moni(que) in Cabin 11 could make metal rust by looking at it wrong. "Or from stealing?"

Luke conceded that with a nod of his head. "Can't have any of the portable stuff. Nail everything down."

"Maybe a game room in the Big House?" I pitched the idea, getting a bit into it. "Can you imagine making Zeus pay for some game consoles and a flat screen TV for Camp? Or Hera?"

Luke huffed a laugh as he cleaned his comb of rabbit fur.

"In her capacity as Queen of Olympus?" I said in my best obnoxious voice.

The rabbit honked softly.

I messed around in my game a little. Aaron had a leveled Haunter and I was really tempted to nab it. I think Luke found brushing the rabbit relaxing.

Then, to our surprise, she hesitantly spoke up. "Is…the Camp really that bad?" As Luke blinked down at her, she rushed out, "I know - I know Hermes has complained a few times, but on the train, the way you both were talking about it…"

"What do you think Camp Half-Blood is like for us?" Luke said sharply. His anger boiled up just enough to singe.

Artemis shrunk a little.

"I…honestly do not know," she admitted.

If she wouldn't even save her own half-sister and niece from monsters, why would she care about how her family treated their random demigods? All the kids she would ever bother with were the ones that would swear to follow her forever.

"My Hunters complain, but they - "

"Are never there long," Luke growled. "That's the problem."

I had a hard time trying to put it into words how everything was not quite big enough, not quite good enough, not quite enough . Annabeth trying to raise herself and all her siblings was wrong. Maybe Olympus was strong enough that their demigods didn't have to worry about the other pantheons and their monsters, but when Olympic demigods aren't even taught about their own pantheon…

At some point, Camp Half-Blood's ignorance crossed the line from neglect to something almost cruel.

"It's a fun summer camp," I said quietly. Because it was. The three weeks I had with Castor, Pollux, Annabeth, Clovis, Ethan and Luke were great. I could see myself rushing home after school let out next year, excited to see my friends again.

But I had a home to come back to. "Summer camps are for the summer, not forever."

"We could make due," Luke said just as quietly. "If we just knew someone gave a shit."

The rabbit's ears drooped. "I see."

"Do you?" Luke said bitterly. He smashed the loose auburn fur he combed off into a little ball and went back to brushing her.

Soldier boy Rabbit drifted in and out of the room, but not before giving Luke a business card.

"Great benefits," was all he said as he looked out the big window. "Training, equipment, elite teams are the best of the best." Under his eye protection, his eyes were a bright amber color. "The Yellow takes care of its own. If you're interested."

Luke flipped the card over and over in his free hand. It was fancy looking, a silver framed holographic card. It vanished up his sleeve when he had to clean off his comb again.

"Maybe," Luke said softly.

Artemis wasn't very happy about it. Something about how Greek demigods were never supposed to need to become mercenaries, only for Luke to shoot back,

"Apparently, I'm supposed to just die."

She didn't say anything after that.

I don't do well with silence. I wondered what was being done about Cross' body and then I wondered if it would be a good idea to call Rhea and ask if Aura was there yet. Or maybe I should just focus on getting us across the wasteland of desert between here and San Francisco where the Mist got thinner and thinner the further West you went because one of the Doors to the Underworld was right there.

It was only going to get worse.

I didn't want to think about it.

"Hey, Luke, have you ever heard of Mythomagic?" I asked as I reached for my backpack.

"A little," he perked up. "Collectible card game, right?"

"That's right." I saved my game and unhooked the Gameboys. I swapped my own Gameboy Color for the embossed aluminum card tin in my bag. It felt weird in my hands, like I haven't held it in forever and now it was heavier than I remembered. I opened the tin and flipped over the first card.

Moros, the God of Doom.

A little shiver went down my spine. It was the same card Hecate had given me. I hurriedly flipped over the next one.

Poseidon, the God of the Seas.

Oh, nevermind.

"You okay?" Luke asked.

"Yeah. It was nothing." I guess I just put Hecate's card back into the tin and never reshuffled?

"Are you certain?" Artemis asked next. "When my brother was young, he could not even throw a stick without it being some sign or portent."

"He's, like, an actual god of Prophecy though? No way I'm that bad." I showed her the cards.

Then I had a horrible thought.

"But I swear to God if you screwed over your Uncle P, tell us now because the Gulf is right there - "

"Not…that badly?" Artemis said weakly. She raised a pleading paw and then dropped it. "My father did worse?"

Luke and I both groaned.

Luke picked the rabbit up and looked her right in the face, nose to nose. "Stop. Being. Terrible."

Artemis squirmed. "I did!"

"It's probably nothing." I cut in before they got into an argument. Again.

And I just want to say, honestly, if Artemis thought she wasn't terrible anymore because she was comparing herself to Zeus , that explained a lot.

"Look, if I just shuffle these…" One smooth blackjack shuffle later (Apollo would be proud), I flipped the first card.

Moros, the God of Doom.

"Huh," I said.

"I hate prophecies," Luke muttered.

Considering what he's been through?

Fair.

"Not a prophecy," I grumbled. "Just some weird coincidence."

At least the next card was different. Triton, the Messenger of the Seas.

I sighed in relief. "See?"

"Whooooo wants a mug of hot chocolate?" Aaron padded through the doorway to the dining room carrying a tray. He was a young looking guy, maybe a few years older than Luke, an inch taller with pianist's fingers. "You better, because I made three mugs at once and now the microwave is a mess."

"Thanks, man." I put my cards down and held up his black Gameboy Color with the gray Pokémon Silver cartridge in it. "For this too."

Aaron shrugged. "You saved my life speaking up like you did, that's gotta be worth a Pokevolve or two."

Aaron put down the tray. There were two mugs for me and Luke and one for him and they were perfectly, painstakingly spaced on the crisp white doily. There were even some meticulously complicated folded napkins with a stick of biscotti next to each mug. It looked like some OCD French chef had gotten a hold of his kitchen which was completely at odds with how the drinks had been nuked during World War 2 and the marshmallows had just fucking surrendered. Aaron's hot chocolate looked like my first attempt at copying Dad's cocoa recipe when I was younger. It was pitch black with crusty trails down the sides and the vague balls of white foam were still bubbling. I could almost hear their screams.

Luke peered into his mug suspiciously.

Maybe he doesn't like chocolate.

"Hiraya's a bit upset actually," Aaron said calmly. The dude was the Filipino ideal of a British stiff upper lip. "I can tell. You probably saved her too. Thank you."

"No problem, man." I waved it off. "Didn't want to break her streak. She hasn't survived this long being easy to kill."

"You're right, she hasn't," he said with a small smile. "Still, I'm grateful. I'd give you a wedding invitation, but that might be weird."

"A little."

"Oh well," he sighed. "Got any ideas for working off my debt?" He made an okay sign with his right hand. "Money is no object."

I almost waved it off again, but then I realized that I actually really wanted him to owe me. "Okay, just to make super sure, Hiraya's magic is innate, right?" At her man's nod, I swallowed. "So I'm hoping her specialty isn't blood curses?"

Because that was Mom's and you really don't want to be on the wrong end of one.

"What?" Luke blurted out. " Blood curses?"

"She's a witch," I muttered. "That blood bag? Nooooot a Capri Sun. Sorry."

Luke made that constipated expression I was just going to call his God, Why from now on.

"Percy, why?"

I blinked. "Why what?"

Luke directed the God, Why at the rabbit.

Artemis' ears shrugged at him. " I do not have anything to lose and Perseus seems to know what he is doing."

"I totally know what I'm doing," I lied. "We're all acting in good faith here."

"That's right." Aaron ducked his head, smiling. "All in good faith. She's a necromancer - " Thank God. " - but good with sympathetic magic too."

Crap.

Sympathetic magic was basically voodoo. That was how she was able to break his Gameboy to break his fire suppression. One electronic 'belonging' being swapped for another.

And she had our blood -

"Wait, necromancy?" I thought back to the garage and the minute before the explosion. "So she was going to reanimate Trace? To ask questions?"

Aaron nodded. "He was booby trapped."

"Does that mean someone was prepared for that?" Luke asked, sounding worried.

"Or just prepared," Aaron said with a strange quirk to his lips. "It's the only thing Hiraya will ever take personally: being overly thorough."

"Riiiight," I said slowly. "We gave her some of our blood, so I was wondering…"

"Don't want anything nefarious happening to it?" Aaron's head rocked back as he gave me this slow, almost too wide smile. The kind that narrowed his eyes to slits. The change in lighting hitting his brown eyes made them look rust colored.

"I got you."

Phew. One crisis averted. "Thanks."

"I got a question though."

"Shoot."

"How come you know a lot more than those other demigods?"

"Those other demigods?" Luke said dumbly.

"You don't act like them either," Aaron said happily, flashing me a thumbs up. "They were always so panicky and got scared too easily. Too normal. " He sounded disappointed. "You know some can't even defend themselves? Only a couple even had powers."

Aaron leaned forward eagerly looking like he just saw his next science fair project and couldn't wait to get started. Luke tensed up for some reason, holding his mug like he was a second away from turning it into a knuckle duster. Artemis was hunched down too.

"Are Greeks just built different?"

"We're lucky," I told him. "Our parents give a shit." I went to take a sip of my hot chocolate, but Luke stole my mug right out of my hands leaving me to mouth around at the air like a demented fish. "Um."

A door opened loudly up on the second balcony.

The vampire walked into sight from deeper in the house and casually hopped over the second floor railing. She had ditched the tattered clothes, now in slim jeans and a jean jacket. She said a rapid fire something that was probably Tagalog and then paused. Her eyes fell on the mugs, then she sighed and finished tying her hair back.

"Aaron, no. They're leaving."

"Aww." His shoulders slumped. "But I just made them hot chocolate. You sure we can't keep them?"

Hiraya smiled slyly. "We can't."

I made a grab for my mug, but Luke lifted it out of my reach. "And it was great," he said casually. He put both mugs down on the coffee table and tugged me into standing. "But we're on a deadline, so we really should get going."

"Nice touch with the marshmallows," I offered. I don't know what Luke had against hot chocolate all of the sudden. It didn't look that bad (okay, maybe it did). I stuffed my cards back into its tin and threw it into my backpack. Luke grabbed our rabbit. "Wish we could stay longer, but you know how it is."

Aaron nodded sadly. "Alright. Don't die."

"Great advice," I told him. "Can't go wrong with that one."

As we headed out the door, I whined under my breath. "But hot chocolate?"

"It was probably poisoned ," Luke muttered back.

I frowned at him.

"Just…" Luke palmed his face. "He's marrying a vampire . Trust me on this one."

There was a glint on the roof of the mansion of Rabbit's stake out. Or a sniper's nest. His hand popped into view to wave at us. "So," I started when we caught up to Hiraya beside her singed BMW. The white headlights glared. "Are we just going to ask for another errand?"

"You are not," she said sharply. "I am going to get answers from the Bishop." Understandable. "You are coming in case I need to kill him."

"Whoa, okay," I mumbled.

That escalated quickly.

"What is he?" Luke asked. "The better informed we are, the better we can help you," he continued smoothly. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"I would," Hiraya turned back to us from the car. "We have always called him the Bishop. He is a priest." A chill ran down my back. A Priest. I knew she didn't mean that he was a Methodist or something. "A supplicant of some old god at sea."

Luke glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "A god at sea."

My stomach was sinking.

"Uh, how old?" I asked.

"Old."

Coming from a vampire that called us 'hemitheos,' that meant real old. "Oh."

The vampire inclined her head. "I don't know the Name of his patron and I never asked."

Sea gods are fickle. Probably a good idea.

"And it doesn't matter," Hiraya snarled, her fangs glinting in the smothered light. "I don't believe he wouldn't know what he asked for my people to retrieve and he saw fit not to inform me. I will have answers from his mouth or his corpse."

Sea gods are fickle. Probably not a good idea.

"Well maybe we all can just skip the guy - "

"You agreed to an exchange of favors," the vampire said coolly. I winced. Like with everything, there were rules. She was definitely old enough to know them. "If he is innocent, does he not deserve to hear of the failure from you?"

"I'll send him a letter."

"Perseus," Artemis said worriedly and the tight feeling in my stomach got worse.

"Our priority is the Quest," I said eventually. "Look, maybe it's breaking faith with Cage-Head." I glanced over at Luke and to my relief, he just looked thoughtful. "But you said it yourself." I turned back to Hiraya. "Something is fishy and letting him break faith first in his territory sounds risky."

She raised a hand and the weak white light of the high beams shattered around her fingers. "I would be compelled to defend you."

"Yeah, and you burn," I snapped back without thinking.

The vampire's purple eyes studied me.

"I - I mean…" I trailed off. "That's…that's how you die and Trace…"

I don't know how my cards worked. Maybe drawing Moros twice with two sea deities was a coincidence. Sometimes probability was like that. Prophecies mean what we think they mean. I could just think it really was nothing. Would that work?

Did I want to risk it?

I looked at Luke.

"Oh, now you'll listen to me?" The jerk raised an eyebrow. I scowled at him.

"We will make another enemy," Artemis cautioned. "But then, that is nothing new."

"And whose fault is that?" Luke couldn't resist.

"I said I was sorry!"

Mom? I asked. A sign?

The feeling I got from her prickled over my scalp. It was cold, it was black, it was thoughtful and it was proud. The feeling settled on the bridge of my nose, spreading both ways to my temples like a blindfold. I was so used to wearing them, of not wanting to know, that I forgot it was a power I could use.

I took off my glasses.

Oh.

"Before you agreed to help us, your Fate was to burn to death, Hiraya." I stood as tall as I could, which wasn't very tall, looking her right in the eyes. "And it has changed." Her ghost stared right back at me, bloated, anguished. I could just faintly see a shadow of something behind her. "Now you drown."

The Bishop was a Priest of a sea god.

Hiraya sucked in a breath.

The silence was almost painful.

I half-expected her to demand her coin back and toss our blood back in our faces, but then she turned away from us and gestured towards the backdoors of her car. We hesitantly clambered into the back seats. I made sure to buckle in. Safety First.

"You will follow my lead and not speak unless spoken to," Hiraya said coldly from the front seat. Her eyes bored into my forehead through the rear view mirror. "And if you are spoken to, you will be polite. Do not hide your eyes. You - the blond one - "

"My name is Luke." There was a hard edge to his voice.

"Do not show fear, do not ask questions and do not get separated from the dark boy. In any circumstances, by any means necessary. "

Luke's eyes widened.

"If you have to, you will say you are valuable and belong to the dark one."

"Where are you taking us?" Luke's voice shook a little.

"California."

The vampire smiled joylessly.

"That is what you wanted?"

The vampire went to the same driving school my mother did. Dad calls it the You Only Live Forever Academy. Speed Limits were more like Speed Suggestions. Luke stared out of the window. Artemis paced for the first couple of minutes, working herself up only to then fall asleep quickly, curled up into a little ball on the middle seat. She was in a six month old body. All kids need to sleep.

"She should be okay sleeping," I said to myself. "She knows. She remembers."

I don't know where we are going. That worried me.

"You really think getting back her godhood is going to work?" Luke said softly, so he didn't wake her up. I looked at him, but he was still looking out the window, like he didn't want to be caught showing Artemis any concern over anything.

"I hope so," I answered. "I can't know for sure, but she keeps arguing about it. Like she doesn't want it to work or is afraid of it working - "

"Or like she refuses to let herself hope it will work?" Luke asked, like he knew the answer already. "You ever get the feeling she thinks she's made her peace with dying, but it just looks kind of suicidal instead?"

I stared at him, confused.

I had godly eyes, but I felt like I was still fucking blind. Artemis noticed Luke right under my nose and he noticed her right back. He looked down at his lap and the lighter he was turning over and over in his hand. "If she could, she'd rather go out in a reckless blaze of glory just to affirm her existence?"

Okay, dude. Getting a little deep there.

"How'd you - "

"Know?" He gave me a wry smile. "It might be a daughter of Zeus thing." His smile shrunk as he finally dragged his eyes just a few inches further to the sleeping moon rabbit. I felt my chest clench. He sighed. "Let me handle her."

Uh, what?

I grimaced. "But, you hate her?" I tried. "Really obviously?"

"That just means when I tell her to pull her head out of her ass," Luke almost growled. "She won't think I'm doing it just to be nice."

"Thalia?" I regretted asking as soon as it came out. Me and my big mouth. It was Zeus and Hades and everyone caught in the middle, but it started with my sisters and their Prophecy.

I watched Luke's expression shutter closed.

I wondered what it was like for them, for all of them. Luke, Thalia and Annabeth, just trying to make it to Camp, to safety with an army of monsters at their heels. I imagined Grover trying to tell them that if it was just a little farther - if she could just make it to the top of that hill…I don't know what she looked like. Black hair, maybe, like her dad. Electric eyes. Camp Half-Blood didn't have the barrier back then. The whole Camp would have had to fight off the monsters the daughter of Zeus led right to them.

Athena said she died with the intent to sacrifice.

I imagined the realization flashing over her face and then it flashing over Luke's when she planted her feet and turned around.

"Like I said," Luke said quietly. "Daughter of Zeus thing."

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"It's okay," he sighed. He lifted his lighter so that the weak light from the windows splashed all over the shining bronze in rainbow. "I spent - gods, I don't know how long, thinking about the what ifs afterwards. If I trained Annabeth better, if I was just better, if we got any other satyr, if I wasn't so angry… at the gods, at my father."

Click.

The smokeless brilliant yellow flame of his lighter was bright enough to burn away some of the darkness.

"I don't know what's worse yet," he whispered. "Thinking my father abandoned me, or knowing he didn't. That he wanted to help me so bad, it didn't matter that Brandon and Chloe died for me. Then I get back to Camp and it's just like, that's it. You had your chance. Ride's over, have a nice life. Which is worse?"

I couldn't answer him.

Luke snapped the lighter shut. "If he just said - "

But Hermes couldn't.

Luke didn't continue. He went back to his window. I pulled out my card tin. Still don't know how this works, but we could really use a hint, so maaaaaybeeee?

I breathed out and flipped the first card.

Chiron, Trainer of Heroes.

Maybe not?

I know why you wanted me to use Granddad's power so much now, I sent in my mother's general direction. It's because your powers suck.

Her response was shocked and indignant.

I was probably going to pay for that.

The lights of Houston were as bright as ever, flashing past my window in streams of color against a pitch black sky.