Ethereal

IV

"The older you get," Annabeth said, "the more monsters notice you, try to kill you. 'Round thirteen is usually when it starts. That's why we send protectors into the schools to find you guys, get you to camp before it's too late."

"Like Coach Hedge?" Piper asked.

Annabeth nodded. "He's—he was a satyr: half man, half goat. Satyrs work for the camp, finding demigods, protecting them, bringing them in when the time is right."

Alessandra remembered how Coach saved Leo and how he risked his life for them, she couldn't believe he sacrificed himself for kids like them.

"What happened to him?" Alessandra asked. "When he went up into the clouds, did he...is he gone for good?"

"Hard to say." Annabeth's expression was pained. "Storm spirits...difficult to battle. Even our best weapons, Celestial bronze, will pass right through them unless you can catch them by surprise."

"Jason's sword just turned them to dust," Piper remembered.

Alessandra nodded. "He sliced right through them."

"He was lucky, then. If you hit a monster just right, you can dissolve them, send their essence back to Tartarus."

"Tartarus?"

"It's in the underworld, right? This huge abyss where Kronos was chopped into pieces and locked in there, right? In the stories that's what it was." Alessandra said, looking at Annabeth.

"Right, it's where the worst monsters come from. Kind of like a bottomless pit of evil. Anyway, once monsters dissolve, it usually takes months, even years before they can re-form again. But since this storm spirit Dylan got away—well, I don't know why he'd keep Hedge alive. Hedge was a protector, though. He knew the risks. Satyrs don't have mortal souls. He'll be reincarnated as a tree or a flower or something."

Alessandra couldn't imagine Coach as a flower, maybe angry pansies or a Venus trap.

She turned her gaze to the cabins below, and an uneasy feeling settled over her. Hedge had died to get them here safely. Her parent's cabin was down there somewhere, which meant she most likely had brothers and sisters, more people she'd have to hurt. Do what we tell you, the voice had said. Or the consequences will be painful. She bit her lip and crossed her arms, she didn't like this at all.

"It'll be okay," Annabeth promised. "You guys have friends here. We've all been through a lot of weird stuff. We know what you're going through."

No, you don't, Alessandra thought.

"I've been kicked out of all my schools, I'm pretty sure I'm banned from several places in Italy and France. And I've been arrested multiple times."

Annabeth nodded. "Alessandra, we've all been labeled troublemakers. I ran away from home when I was seven."

"Seriously?" She asked bewildered.

"Oh, yeah. Most of us are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or dyslexia, or both—"

"Leo and Alessandra have ADHD," Piper piped in and Alessandra nodded.

"Right. It's because we're hardwired for battle. Restless, impulsive—we don't fit in with regular kids. You should hear how much trouble Percy—" Her face darkened. "Anyway, demigods get a bad rep. How'd you get in trouble?" She asked Piper.

"I've been kicked out of five different schools the past five years," she said. "My dad's running out of places to put me."

Alessandra was surprised when Piper told the truth, usually when someone asked that question she'd start a fight or change the subject or cause some kind of distraction.