Gaea was stopped a decade ago, the monsters now reside in Tartarus, and the surviving heroes of Olympus have begun new generations of demigods. Fifteen year old Yvette Grimes doesn't know anything about this, but she does know something is different...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The unpleasant cushions my butt was sinking in almost made me forget that Apollo had been singing the entire ride to Chicago. After Apollo gratefully let us wash off the muck stained onto our skin and change our clothes, he bandaged us up and pushed us in his car. Ahem, his red 1991 z28 Chevy Camaro. Which he corrected me on. Repeatedly.
It wasn't even that cool. It only had a cassette player, the paint was chipping on the outside, and the passenger door had the handle broken off. Out of all the cars in the world, why this?
Apollo stopped singing, adjusting his rear view mirror so he was looking at Gwen. The three of us opted to all sit in the back, no one had the nerve to sit next to the sun god. Especially me, I was still uneasy about how he reacted to my necklace. My hand went up to cradle it, like I was protecting it even though he knew about it.
"So, you're like 80?" Apollo asked with curiosity. His left hand was on the wheel, and his right was fingering the golden curls atop his head. "I should visit my sister's girls more often, I didn't realize they'd be so pretty.
Gwen, her face plastered with a scowl, opened her mouth to speak. Apollo beat her to it. "But you're gay right? I knew it." He looked in the rear view mirror with an evil glint in his eye. "You know though, I have the perfect daughter who seems like your type. You know a Heidi Simons back at camp?"
I've never seen Gwen's face flush so fast. Red crept up her neck, and she hid her face in her hands. My eyebrows shot up; Gwen was embarrassed. I never thought I'd see the day. Apollo chuckled, and fixed his eyes on the road-I mean sky.
Right now, we were flying in the sky. In a car. I drove 2,000 miles across the country in a second, traveled down the Underworld, and this was the craziest thing to me. Apollo's Camaro wasn't going as fast as the taxi, but we were going fast enough that the snow was passing us entirely. The cold still got under my skin, and luckily Cash never asked for his jacket back.
My eyes flickered to him, he laughed alongside Apollo, pausing for a second to shift in his uncomfortable seat. He didn't look very cold although he had on just a jean jacket atop flannel; but I knew Cash enough to know that he was just pretending. He did that a lot-pretended. Maybe he'll end up telling me why he does that to hide pain.
"How long till Chicago?" Cash chimed in, his eye meeting mine for a split second. I looked down at my lap, embarrassed to be caught staring. It had never bothered me before, why am I doing it all of the sudden?
"We've been driving for two hours or so, it depends on how fast I'm going honestly," Apollo said smugly, not giving a definite answer. I looked out the window; outside was going fast as heck, but inside was like we were going 30 miles per hour on the highway. Gods, you know, it was great being in a car not going 50+ the speed limit.
I tapped my fingers against my jeans, looking straight out the windshield. I had no idea what awaited us in Chicago, or why Hades was sending us on this... goose hunt. For a second I wondered if Hades was working with the same guy Finn and Mother were working with. I exhaled, gripping onto the fabric of my jeans. If one of The Big Three was working with the bad guy, then that wasn't good for a trio of demigods-or the world.
