A week after my birthday, I moved in with Mrs. Jones – sorry, Selena or Mom – and my life couldn't be going better. Sure, I was still bullied at school by Holly and Carol, but none of that mattered as I got to return to my favorite place in the world after school.
I helped Selena out in the bookstore after school, and when no one was in the store, I was free to read as many books as I wanted. I know, a paradise, right?
I should've known something would go wrong soon, and it came in the form of Mr. Jones. He didn't necessarily care about my existence in his household, but he and Selena would have heated arguments late at night, when I was supposed to be sleeping.
"What are you thinking?" I overheard him screaming at Selena one night. "This is a dangerous game you're playing. Even the scribe agrees that this is too dangerous to be messing with!"
"She is the one who is destined to save them all," Selena fired back in her perpetual calm tone, never raising her voice. "I am positive of this."
"How? How can you be so sure this won't backfire on you?"
"I will train the girl myself. She will be powerful beyond all shadow of a doubt. Under my guidance, she will set things right."
"You're crazy," Mr. Jones decided, a tone of finality in his voice. "We'll discuss this more later."
I had scrambled back to my room just in time to hear his footsteps echo outside my door before the door to their room slammed shut. I pulled up my covers and turned to face the wall, pretending to be asleep as Selena entered my room, releasing a gentle sigh.
She sat on my bed and brushed my hair away from my face. "I never wanted to bring this fate upon anyone," she said softly, still stroking my hair. "But it must be done."
That night, after the argument, Selena began closing the store earlier than normal, choosing to shift the hours from eight to six rather than from eight to nine. I quickly found out why, as once we closed shop, we walked to an abandoned warehouse with a blue mountain logo spray painted into the metal walls.
"What's going on?" I asked, following Selena as she pushed a few buttons and the lights sprung to life, leaving the room illuminated as brightly as a clear summer day.
"We must begin your training," Selena told me solemnly, clearing out a patch on the ground of about twenty feet in diameter. She then crouched down to long box, about seven feet in length, and opened the lid, the hinges screeching as if they were being tortured.
Imagine to my horror when I saw that the box was full to the brim of weapons that belonged in the middle ages. Swords, maces, knives, daggers, and many other dangerous things filled the box. Selena then walked over to another box and opened it as well, revealing full body armor. It was bronze and clearly built for a female by the way that the breastplate had been designed, but what surprised me the most was that the bronze was gleaming brightly instead of being tarnished like the armor you'd find in a museum.
"Go ahead," Selena said, gesturing towards the box-o-weapons. "Take your pick."
"You're crazy!" I said, backing away from my new guardian and inching my way closer to the door. "No way am I going to join whatever medieval cult this is!"
Selena merely sighed, grabbed me by the wrist, and dragged me back into the mini-arena she had made. She closed her eyes and held her hand over the box, as if expecting for the right weapon to fly into her hand. Sure enough, a sword about three feet long flew directly into her hand without disturbing any of the other weapons.
"What was in that omelet?" I muttered to myself, rubbing my eyes to see if they were deceiving me. Sadly, they were not, and there was Selena holding a sword for me to grab.
"I'm so sorry, my child," she said, her voice genuinely apologetic for me. "I didn't want to bring you into this world, but I fear you're the only one capable of fixing his mistakes."
"Whose mistakes? What's going on?" I questioned, my heart hammering in my chest.
"I think you know what's happening, even if you won't admit it to yourself."
I shook my head and walked away from Selena in disbelief. "Those were just stories," I protested. "He said it himself that those books were for his sons and other children to learn to like reading. They're not real!"
"You're right," Selena agreed with me, "in this world, that is."
"What?"
"We live in a world devoid of magic, Andromeda, and that was predestined by the creator himself. However, that scribe was brought here from another universe where the gods exist. Everything he wrote down in those books happened on another Earth," Selena explained.
"But something happened on his transport here. He was attacked by some of the most ferocious interplanetary beasts known to exist. They took him prisoner, altered some of his memories."
"But what does that have to do with anything?" I asked again. "So what if he messed up some of the details? If they're just stories on this planet, then that doesn't mean a thing."
Selena shook her head like I was a naïve child, which in this case, I was. Even though I had wished to be a part of the demigod world, I never really thought it was true. I wasn't ready to face any monster, titan, or giant that Rick Riordan had described. Being a demigod is only cool in theory, not so much in practice.
"Mr. Riordan was the scribe of the gods, recording their history since the beginning of time," Selena began to explain. "He's existed since Chaos formed Gaea and Ouranous, his sole purpose being to record the truth. When he was attacked and his memory was messed up, this gravely changed our former home. You see, anything that he writes comes to pass."
"So you mean to tell me that my favorite author is over ten thousand years old?"
"That's what you decide to focus on?"
I shrugged. "Sue me."
"Anyhow," Selena continued, visibly irritated now, "The attack caused for him to record some false information. People who shouldn't have died are now dead, and there are some who should be dead yet are still freely roaming the planet."
"I thought as much. But what does that have to do with me?"
"All in due time," Selena said, ending the conversation. "If you are to survive, we must begin your training. Now, pick up the sword, and let's begin."
If I thought volleyball conditioning was the worse punishment in the world, I was extremely wrong. After sword training for three hours straight, my arms felt as if they were made of Jell-O, hanging limply at my sides. Even the parts of my body we hadn't trained were sore: my legs cried at every step I took, my feet ached, and my head was pounding with a forming headache.
And this was merely learning how to hold a sword. Selena refused to teach me to spar today, saying, "If you are to learn to fight, you must learn to control your blade and body first."
Selena had ended training when I blacked out from overexertion, my vision still splotchy from how hard I had hit the dirt. According to her, I was fine and what had happened was to be expected from a mortal body.
Sorry that I'm not a demigod, I thought to myself afterwards, helping clean up even though all I wanted to do was lay on the floor in a motionless heap. The two of us walked home, the crisp air feeling wonderful against my slightly feverish skin.
Little did I know how much of a common occurrence would training be. Selena forced me to show up at the warehouse every day at six promptly for training, determined to make me skilled in every weapon under the sun and moon. The only time I could be late was if volleyball practice ran late, and even then, she compensated by making me stay later and pushing me harder.
"You must be able to fight even when exhausted," she told me as the two of us sparred with our matching swords, "otherwise, you'll be killed."
Once summer break came around, Selena devoted her whole day dedicated to training me. As for the bookstore, she had gotten Mr. Jones to accept her choice to train me and was now running the store, using the excuse that the two of us were bonding to get out of any questions about our location.
During one of my short breaks, I asked Selena, "What about my friends at the orphanage? What will happen to them?"
"What do you mean?" Selena asked, setting down her water bottle.
"I mean, if this is one of many universes, what will happen to my friends when I leave? Will this world still exist? Will they remember me?"
"This is a world without magic," Selena reminded me for the umpteenth time. "But, I still have enough influence to make it as if you never existed in this town. By the way, when we depart from this world, our scribe will be joining us."
My eyes nearly popped out of my head. "But what about his books?" I asked. "Will they cease to exist?"
"I'm afraid so, my child. This world will be wiped clean of his existence. Don't dwell on such thoughts, though. We don't have time for that."
Selena ended our break and we moved onto the next weapon: hunting knives.
Eventually, I learned to stop asking questions and simply follow Selena's directions. I found myself growing stronger every passing week and my skills growing. I got to the point where I was able to defeat Selena some of time with certain weapons, such as my sword or my hunting knives.
I was better with melee fighting, but that didn't mean I couldn't hold my own with ranged fighting as well. Personally, I found it much more effective to stab or slash at someone with a blade than shoot an arrow that may miss, but hey, that's just my opinion.
A year quickly passed, and I eventually was able to defeat Selena every single time we sparred. The day I had stood over her with her wrists and ankles pinned under me while I had a dagger pointed at her throat, she gave me the biggest smile in the world.
"The student becomes the teacher," she said after yielding.
"Not by a long shot," I said, helping Selena up to her feet.
"I have taught you everything I know, my child, and you are finally prepared. I'll send a message to my husband and our scribe for us to depart."
"When do we leave?"
"At the end of the week, with the full moon. My power is strongest at night."
I nodded, sheathing my dagger at my waist before picking up my bow and began to shoot. After a year of training under Selena, I learned more about the Greek and Roman myths than any normal mortal needed to know, but I knew the knowledge would be invaluable in a fight.
At night, after training, I would stay up for hours, pouring over my sixteenth birthday presents until I had every single word memorized. If I was to correct Rick Riordan's mistakes, I needed to know what had happened leading up to certain events. I needed to change the future for the fate of that Earth.
A week passed too fast for my liking. I'd barely had a chance to say goodbye to Mrs. Stetson and my friends at the orphanage. Selena had explained our leaving by saying we were moving, taking the business with us.
Sure enough, as I walked by the bookstore that last night on the way to the warehouse, signs with various different realtor's phone numbers were plastered onto the darkened windows, making me acknowledge how real this was going to be.
I was about to plunge myself into a world where monsters that would want to kill me and temperamental gods existed, and on top of all of that, I had a list of deaths I needed to prevent as well as make sure happen.
No pressure.
I was the last one to reach the warehouse, Selena, Mr. Jones, and Rick Riordan having already been there for some time before I arrived. I saw Selena furiously drawing something on the floor that had been our arena with pieces of red, white, and blue chalk, writing in a language I didn't understand.
"That's not Ancient Greek or Latin," I noticed, watching as Selena scratched the words into the floor.
"No, it's much older than that," Rick Riordan answered, adjusting his satchel strap over his shoulder. His satchel was nothing fancy – a brown leather bag that had a brooch to keep it shut, but there was so much paper shoved in it that I was afraid the bad was going to explode. "It's the language of the creator, Chaos."
"Lovely," I muttered, taking a seat on one of the now useless wooden crates. I wonder what would happen to these weapons when they're discovered. Honestly, I seriously doubt we can open an interdimensional portal and expect for this place to not be checked out later.
"Have you prepared yourself?" he asked me, fidgeting with his glasses.
"As much as a mortal girl can," I replied, drumming my fingers absentmindedly on my leg. Rick then winced, as if I hit a sore spot. "What don't I know?"
"In order to correct my mistakes," he began, "we need to make you a demigod."
"Well, I've already been born," I quipped, "so how the heck is that supposed to work?"
"I've been in contact with some friends of mine, the Fates. They know what is to pass and are expecting your arrival, so when we appear, they will tell you who your godly parent is. And, before you ask, if the god or goddess chosen has powers, you should inherit them."
I nodded, understanding what was planned for me. Selena never did get around to tell me why she had chosen me, but I guessed it was a prophecy or dream of some sort. I mean, if the books taught me anything, prophecies and dreams dictate everything that happens on that Earth.
Geez, I needed to stop thinking of the other Earth as anything other than my new home. And, who knows, maybe my friends will be there as other people. Maybe they'll even be demigods, but then again, how much of a blessing is that really?
"The portal is ready," Selena said in a tired breath, her arms and clothes completely covered in chalk. Realizing her appearance, she blushed and changed her clothes.
"One more question before we go," I said, hopping off from the box I was sitting on. "Who are you?"
Selena gave me a sad smile before glowing blue for a second, revealing herself in her true form. By that, I mean how she normally appears as a mortal, not her divine form or I would've been dead by now.
She had long blonde hair that was pulled back into a braid dotted with different flowers that rested casually over her shoulder. Her skin was pale as snow and without flaw. Her eyes were bluer than the Mediterranean Sea when the surf was perfectly still and you could see through the water as if it were glass. A delicate gold necklace rested upon her neck and a flowing white dress adorned her body, fitting her like a glove.
"I am Salina, goddess of wishes."
I turned to Rick Riordan, who appeared rather sheepish. "Why wasn't she ever mentioned in the books?"
"Do not blame our scribe for not including me," Selena, err, Salina, said, her eyes full of millennia old sadness. "I am a minor goddess amongst the minor goddesses, and most don't even know I exist. Everyone who makes a wish on a shooting star or when they blow out their birthday candles pray to me, but alas, I've gotten so weak that I can only grant small wishes."
"Then how the heck are we supposed to jump through time and space if you can't grant wishes?"
"I've waited millennia for you to come along," Salina said, walking up to me and brushing a stray hair behind my ear in a very mother-like gesture. "I've bided my time, storing up my power in the hopes that one day you'd arrive and everything could be set right again."
"Still think you're crazy," Mr. Jones said (I know that isn't his name, but I haven't heard an introduction yet).
Salina waved off her husband's negativity, still smiling down at me. "Are you ready, my child?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Salina then arranged the three of us in the circle at specific points, took her place, and began to chant in the language of Chaos, her voice rising and falling with a very specific cadence. Something told me that if she missed so much as a single beat, this place would go nuclear, and we'd all be blown to smithereens.
The power in the warehouse started to malfunction as the lights began flickering on and off like warning signals. Underneath my feet, the floor rumbled violently, like we were standing above the epicenter of an earthquake. Then Salina started to levitate in the air, her eyes having rolled into the back of her head while a black aura surrounded her.
Just as I thought this whole place was about to go up in smoke, Salina pointed her hands to a circle she had drawn in the middle of all the strange symbols and pushed all the energy she had summoned into that circle. Amazingly, the circle seemed to consume the energy, and the symbols she had drawn began to glow silver one by one until the outer perimeter began to shine as well.
"Hold on!" Rick Riordan shouted as the floor disappeared under my feet revealing a large blue whirlpool.
The next thing I knew, the four of us were being sucked down the cosmic whirlpool, screaming our heads off as we were flung back to Earth.
When I woke up, I was alone in the middle of a pitch black forest. The sky was completely dark, the moon nowhere to be found. I stood up and steadied my breathing, knowing that if I couldn't hear anything, I'd be in much more danger.
Off to my immediate right, I heard the sounds of a babbling brook and decided to walk towards the water. If I truly was by myself, this water would be invaluable to me.
After walking into a bunch of pine trees and tripping over multiple tree roots, I found the small stream I'd heard, flowing lazily towards the sea. I sat by the shores, waiting to see if any of my companions had made it here as well.
All of a sudden, a black bag appeared in my lap with a silver star brooch keeping the whole thing closed. I opened the bag and reached inside, pulling out the single piece of loose-leaf paper I felt. The paper was a note from Salina, and somehow she had found ink that glowed silver, allowing for me to read it in the dark.
My child, our plan has worked, but I'm afraid in this world, I cannot be in direct contact with you. I can send you aid, but for the time being, this will be our last interaction. Make your way to Brooklyn. You know what to do.
Sadly, I do not know who your godly parent is in this world, either. We must wait for them to claim you or for the Fates to intervene. Sorry about that.
P.S. As you change the mistakes, the books will change as well. This purse can hold an infinite amount of things, and the books are here when you need them.
~Salina
I tucked the note back into my bag and felt around, feeling more comfortable once I felt the familiar spines of the books that were now my life.
Seeing that there was absolutely no way for me to get anywhere, I decided to follow the stream, hoping it would lead me near some houses or maybe even a road if I was lucky. I walked for about twenty minutes when I saw lights start to appear in the distance. No, it wasn't from hallucinating, they were street lights, I was certain of it.
Still, I made myself little markers to make my way back to the stream if need be by reaching into my purse and pulling out a piece of chalk to mark some trees with. The chalk was glow-in-the-dark, but it was also washable, that way Artemis didn't have an excuse to hunt me down and skin me alive for defacing nature.
As I guessed, I found a road where the lights were, but either it was really late or this was an abandoned stretch of road, because no one was here. There was a single traffic light at the intersection that didn't even work, because the lights had long since gone out. There weren't any houses or stores anywhere, which seemed kind of sketchy to me. This was New York, after all, and the closer you were to Manhattan, the more of those souvenir shops you found.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I instantly knew something was wrong. Call it a sixth-sense or whatever, but I had just enough time to duck before a huge minivan was thrown directly at my head.
"Demigod!" the thing that had tried to kill me shouted. "Come here so I can eat you!"
Instead of putting Salina's training to use, I ran back into the forest and started scaling the nearest tree. I made it to the top, thanking the gods that I had dressed in all black as I pressed myself against the trunk and held my breath. I didn't have a Celestial bronze, Imperial gold, or Stygian iron weapon with me at the moment, and I seriously doubted my bag would conjure up that kind of thing.
I counted up to five minutes, and when I heard a roar and saw another car be thrown like a Lego, I realized that thing hadn't been after me. Hesitantly, I unsheathed the dagger I had brought with me from my Earth, and to my surprise, the once steel blade now glowed bronze.
However, I didn't have time to be surprised as I heard a piercing scream break through the air. Lightning flashed across the sky in angry bursts, as if Zeus didn't know who he wanted to strike down first.
I shimmied my way down the tree and ran across the street, pressing myself against the wall of the building. Spray painted against the wall in a bright red paint was a monocle and the words underneath it read: Monocle Motors, Assembly Plant 37.
"I hate Cyclopes," I hissed under my breath, running into the building.
Crazy? Yes.
Dangerous? Absolutely.
Did I have another choice? Of course not.
The door to the entrance was sticking out through a brick wall, as if it had been thrown like a spear after being ripped off its hinges. Further inside the building, I heard three distinct voices, and even though I'd never met them before, I instantly knew who was speaking when.
"Luke! Thalia! Annabeth! Grover!" I shouted, running deeper into the building. "Where are you?"
When there weren't any responses, I climbed up a ladder that was clearly a last minute addition from the way it was messily bolted to the wall, hoping to get an overview of the maze. If I was right, this was the Cyclops that messed Grover up so badly it cost Thalia her life.
As I suspected, the Cyclops had already gotten ahold of Thalia and Luke, the two of them hanging unconsciously over a huge brazier. Their legs were tied together with rope, and their faces were so red, I wondered how long they'd been like that.
Scanning over the rest of the maze, I found Annabeth crouching behind a wall, curled up into a small ball as she tried to hide from the Cyclops. Lucky for the both of us, there was only one of the big brutes, meaning this wouldn't be completely hopeless.
I jumped over the various walls, suddenly thankful for all of Salina's training even though I had hated every single moment of it. When I was close enough to Annabeth, I jumped from my position, landing in a roll so that I didn't shatter both my ankles.
"Annabeth," I whispered urgently, waving my dagger in her direction in the hopes of catching her attention.
She didn't scream, but even from here, I could see the fear in her eyes. Right, at this time, she was only seven. I lowered my dagger to seem less threatening and lowered myself to her height. "I'm here to help," I told her.
"Who are you?" Annabeth demanded, standing up and brandishing her own dagger, clearly prepared to run me through.
"My name is Andy Collins. I'm a demigod, too. I was sent by a friend to check this place out, because he heard something going on."
Her gray eyes continued appraising me, but I guess she trusted me enough because she lowered the dagger. "My friends are in danger," she told me. "I don't know where Grover is, and I keep hearing Thalia and Luke, but I haven't been able to find them."
"Don't panic," I said, "but they're being held ransom by a Cyclops."
"A Cyclops? No wonder I heard my father's voice being used against me."
Then we heard a shrill, "Annabeth!" being called out, and the two of us winced.
"That's Thalia's voice," Annabeth told me, looking extremely pained. "We've got to save them."
"And we will," I assured her. I changed my grip on my dagger and followed Annabeth as she listened to the direction of the voices.
We eventually found the middle of the maze, where the Cyclops was smiling down at us. He was easily ten feet tall, and so many scars covered his skin that he made Frankenstein pass off as normal. A single brown eye sat in the middle of his head, and nothing but malice shone in the single iris.
"Annabeth," he purred, and instantly, I felt violated for the both of us. "And who's this? You brought me another one of your friends to eat? How kind!"
On a silent signal, the both of leaped forward, causing the Cyclops to laugh. He grabbed Thalia and Luke's ropes, dangling them dangerously close to the flaming brazier. "Take another step, and they die!" he roared.
"Okay," I shrugged. "I won't take another step."
In one fluid motion, I threw my dagger at the Cyclops, cringing despite myself as the blade landed directly in his eye. He yelled in agony, releasing Thalia and Luke as he reached the dagger in his eye and tossed it aside. Blood poured from the wound, but I knew all I had managed to do was piss him off.
Grover suddenly came running into the room, and despite wasting a few precious moments wondering who I was, Annabeth quickly got him on track by motioning the unconscious Luke and Thalia.
The Cyclops then started to charge, but I rolled out of the way and dove for the brazier, knocking it over with a satisfying thud. The fire quickly began spreading, but the Cyclops was having none of it. They're fire-proof, after all.
Annabeth charged the Cyclops from behind, driving her dagger deep into his foot, causing for him to hop around and release another shout of pain.
"I've got them!" Grover shouted as he untied Thalia and Luke's bodies, both of them hitting the floor like sacks of flour.
"Let's end this," I told the young daughter of Athena, hiding a smile as a warrior-like fire burned in her eyes.
The two of us charged the Cyclops, flanking him on both sides and carving up every piece of flesh our blades could find, adding on to his ever growing collection of scars. I then hoisted Annabeth onto my back, allowing for her to shove her dagger hilt deep directly into the Cyclops' stomach. That was the straw that broke the camel's back as he finally turned into dust, blowing away in the wind.
By now, the fire was so intense I could feel the hair on my arms begin to burn. Grover had managed to pick up Thalia, but he was unable to pick up Luke. I simply bent down and fire carried Luke across my back, promising Annabeth that I'd keep him safe.
The five of us hauled it out of that Cyclops lair. Grover then yelled, "Hit the deck!" as the building exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere.
Although Thalia was unconscious, I touched the bracelet on her wrist and used Aegis to shield us from the shrapnel. When the blast ended, my ears were still ringing like I'd stood next to a speaker during a rock concert, but I managed to deactivate Aegis, earning looks of terror from both Grover and Annabeth.
"How did you know about Aegis?" Annabeth asked, looking just as terrified of me as she had been when I first introduced myself.
"Let's just say I know a lot more than I should," I told her, rummaging through my bag for some ambrosia and nectar. Thankfully, my bag was able to produce the godly food, and I force fed both Thalia and Luke until they both woke up, fully alert to fight.
"Who are you?" Thalia demanded, her hand already at her pocket where her spear was concealed.
"I'm Andromeda, but you can call me Andy." Lightning flashed in the sky again, and as if someone had poured ice cold water down my back, I said, "The formalities can wait, we need to go now."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Luke spat, pointing his sword at my chest. "We don't know you."
"She just saved your lives!" Annabeth cried angrily. "I trust her, and if she says we need to go, we need to go!"
Both of them gave me glares, which I evenly matched until they broke it off and sighed. I then turned to Grover and said, "We don't have time for any more confusion. Get us to Half-Blood Hill."
"Just what are we facing that's so urgent?" Luke asked, begrudgingly following me as I walked behind Grover, my head on a constant swivel.
"Only the Lord of the Dead and several of his bloodthirsty minions," I said with a shrug. "Now, if you all want to make it to camp alive, you'll do what I say."