Lost

17

There was barely any traffic which wasn't unusual as it was early in the morning.

The sun had started to rise when Grover and I arrive back at Camp Jupiter. That didn't mean anything to the campers, though, as it seemed like almost everybody was already up.

"What's g-going on?" Grover asked as we walked past several frantic campers running past.

"I dunno...Tyson! Tyson, what's happening?" I asked as I spotted my brother amongst the crowd. Ella was at his side. He quickly rushed over to me. "What's happening?"

"Reyna's missing," he said as he led me and Grover down the crowded streets of Camp Jupiter. "Room empty. All messy, too."

I frowned and peered at Grover, who was twitching at my side. "What do you mean? We—we need to talk to her!"

He shrugged and led us to Reyna's room, which was completely disheveled. The bed was unmade and sheets were thrown around everywhere throughout the room.

Books had been taken off the bookshelf and thrown across the room. Her furniture was all knocked over and clothes were strewn all over.

"It l-looks like s-she was t-taken," Grover said nervously. "She-she wouldn't h-have done this..."

I nodded in agreement and placed my hands on my hips. "Yeah, but not without a fight. Look at it in here...any clue where she went?"

"No sign," Ella piped up quietly as she stared at the ground. "We don't know. Dakota is calling an emergency meeting soon about this."

"Percy Jackson!"

I tensed up as Dakota rushed over to us, his mouth stained red. He looked angry for some reason. He clapped a strong hand on my back and started to pull me out of the room.

"I need to speak with you," he said. "Alone."

"Uh...sure," I said as I followed him out of the disheveled room and towards the panicked streets of New Rome. "What about?"

He shook his head as he pulled me away from the streets. "Not here..."

He led me to some fountain with a statue of some God in it. It looked suspiciously familiar with grape vines and a crown of leaves on its head.

"Can we talk now?" I asked as he stopped walking and started pacing back and forth in front of the bubbling fountain.

"Yes, this seems pretty deserted," Dakota commented. "This is the fountain of Bacchus."

"Cool, what do you wanna talk about?" I asked, although I couldn't stop glaring at the creepy statue of Bacchus.

"Reyna, you spoke with her last before her disappearance," he said as he pointed at me accusingly. "What did you two talk about? And where is she?"

I frowned as I peered into the fountain. There were several gold coins at the bottom. "How should I know where she is? All we talked about was Annabeth. She told me she'd been trying to reach me for months to tell me about Annabeth. Chiron kept it a secret from me."

Dakota rolled his eyes as he took a swig from a flask he had on him, which I assumed was filled with Kool Aid. "That old horse doesn't know anything. Is that all Reyna talked to you about?"

"She told me I'm the only one who can find Annabeth," I replied truthfully. "And that it's a waste of time for anyone else to try."

"I agree with her," Dakota admitted. "We were wasting too much time on her. Are you sure she didn't mention anything else? Like a trip she was going to take?"

I laughed bitterly and shook my head. "You're an idiot if you think she left by choice, Dakota. It's not like Reyna to leave last minute without notice. And have you seen her room? She was taken, and not without a fight."

He sighed as he furrowed his eyebrows in frustration and placed threw his hands up in the air. "I know, I just couldn't believe it. Who could even take her without notice?"

"Arachne," I suggested. Dakota frowned at me. "She's an immortal spider, turned—"

"I know who she is!" Dakota protested. "What would she want with Reyna?!"

Suddenly it all made sense to me. "Revenge, Dakota. Reyna helped move the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood. Arachne hates Athena, so she's getting her revenge one by one. First was Annabeth, then Reyna."

Dakota nodded intensely, but his gaze didn't lighten. "I think you're onto something. Wasn't there other people who helped Reyna transport the statue, though? Some boy and a faun, I think."

"Nico," I said, my eyes wide in fright. "They're going to after him and Coach Hedge next. And he's a satyr, by the way."

"Whatever, Percy. Do you know where she is then?" asked Dakota, still frantically pacing.

I shook my head. "No, I don't. But I need to get back to New York, to Camp Half Blood. I need to warn Nico and Coach Hedge about Arachne, and soon."

Before Dakota could question me further I ran away from him and towards Grover. He called after me, but didn't chase me as I had disappeared in the crowd.

After filling Grover in about everything of what I thought was going on, we quickly got back in the car, not even bothering to say our goodbyes.

We had some serious work to do.