Percy Jackson: Daughter of Shadows

21. Chocolate Cake and Good Friends (Also Giant Dogs)

Here's what you don't expect to find in a kitchen: A giant three headed Rottweiler lying on the floor next to a constantly ringing Monster Message with your old friends on the other side. "Okay, what the-CERBERUS?!" I had to do a one-eighty at the time. Looking back, it wasn't that shocking based on what Viktor had told me. Cerberus barked happily, wagging his tail. "Alright, that's cool. Now, who's calling?" I checked the 'caller ID' in the smoke. Celeste Hayes and Antonio Smith. "Augh, not now. I can't talk to them right now" I sighed and sat down, burying my face in my hands. "Why couldn't I have died instead of Bianca? Maybe Nico would still be here at camp" Cerberus whined and stuck his heads under my arm. "Did Dad send you?" Cerberus shook his heads. I remembered something Persephone had told me a while back. "I will remember you, Lilly. You remind me of someone I know and someone I knew very well, if you're anything like them, I believe I should be able to help you" "Well, clearly, she was referring to Hades, as he's her husband, and somehow, she must have known my mother" I groaned and got up. "Well, Mr. D said I could make something, so might as well." 

  "Well, there we go!" I took a steaming chocolate cake out of the oven. "Frosting or no frosting?" Cerberus tried to get up on the counter. "No, none for you. Wait, can immortal dogs have chocolate?" Cerberus whined, annoyed. "Never mind, not going to risk it. Don't need that worthless bastard showing up here" I grabbed a block of cream cheese and dropped it in the mixer with butter, sugar, and brown sugar. I popped the cake out of the pan and used some light mist from my finger to cool it. "Benefits of having multiple powers, I can cool food off easier" I stared at the back of the Devil's Food Cake box. For some reason, a memory of my mom came into my thoughts. "Honey, don't eat the batter! At least wait until it's fully mixed" "But Mama, it's so good!" "I know, but you need to wait" "Finnnnne" I smiled a bit. I turned off the mixer and slathered the cake in the frosting. I dug around in the pantry to look for something else to add to it. Cerberus growled. "Hush, I'm comfort eating." 

Why did I get the weird feeling that he had seen my dad do the same thing back in the day?

  "Aha!" I pulled out a small bag of M&M's. "Score! And there's purple, this is amazing!" Yes, the daughter of Hades getting excited about finding purple M&M's. I'm strange, sue me. I poured them over the top and took a large slice. "Well, might as well answer the call, could be important" I slid to the right on the smoke and two people came into view. A girl with black skin and bright green eyes was wearing a denim jacket, a LORDE tee-shirt, jeans, and wore a bronze necklace of with the constellation of Sagittarius in the pendant. Her hair was braided and dyed white at the ends. The boy had pale skin and hazel eyes. His curly hair was done up in a ponytail. He wore a beige satin shirt and baggy pants. "Lilly!" Celeste yelled, waving her hands in front of me. "Hey, Celeste. What's up?" "WHAT'S UP?! WE HAVE TO HEAR FROM CHRIS THAT YOU GOT CLAIMED BY HADES AND YOU SAY, "WHAT'S UP?!" DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW CRAZY YOU ARE?!"  Antonio screamed, taking control of the call. "Oh, shut up, do you think I'm happy about this?" Antonio sat down. "No. I know you don't care for this" "Don't care for this? I just found out I'm a daughter of Hades, I watched my half-sister die and didn't even know she was my half-sister, and now my half-brother is gods know where because I couldn't keep my fucking word!" Tears fell down my face, splattering the table. "Hey, hey! Don't cry, geez, I'm sorry, Lilly" Antonio said, panicking. "Antonio, how about you go get Chris, and I'll talk to Lilly, okay?" "Alright, starlight" I did a double take. "Starlight?" Antonio and Celeste blushed. Antonio ran off, yelling something about 'shut up', and 'stupid, idiot'. "Sorry about that" Celste said. "Starlight?" Celeste's ears burned. "Um, it's not, um-" "Celeste, calm down, I already took a guess about you guys" "Thank Hecate. Oh, by the way, Circe came here a while ago. She said she sent you a baby that's a daughter of Hecate?" 

  At that exact moment, the baby crawled into the room. "goo ga" "Hey there, sprog!" Celeste cooed. The baby giggled and reached her hands up.  I heaved her onto my lap. She looked at me, tilting her head. I stared at her. She looked a bit like "Bianca" "What?" "The kid, she looks like Bianca" Celeste smiled. "She does, doesn't she?" I bounced the baby on my knee. "Celeste?" "Yeah?" "What would you want me to do, if you died?" Celeste grabbed a Sprite and popped it open. "If you mean, would I want you to revive me, my answer is no" I stared at her in surprise. "Why not?" "Lilly, I've been a demigod for a lot longer than you. You learn that with death, there's a certain peace to it. And if anything, I'd choose to be reborn. Living another life seems exciting" She took a sip and smiled at me. "You're thinking about how you could save Zoe but not Bianca" "How did you-" "Lilly, I've known you since you were eight, I can always tell what you're thinking" I groaned. Celeste laughed. "Fine, I was" "Knew it. If I had to guess though, I'd say Hades is blocking you from her, or blocked your powers" "WHAT?!" "Please don't yell. Think about it, Lilly. Bianca, the sister you didn't even know existed, dies during a quest that was given by the Oracle herself, who was cursed by Hades, and then your powers don't work" Fire blazed in my eyes. "Okay, let's cool it with the flames, your hair's going to catch fire again" "Ugh, don't remind me. I looked like Hades from the Hercules movie" "Yeah, because that should be your concern" "Hey, I got them!" Antonio came back into view. Behind him was someone with familiar black hair and red eyes in an apron... "CHARLEY?" 

  "Wait, Lilly, you know this person?" "Yeah, I met them at the beginning of the quest! Untie them!" Charley held up a piece of rope. "I untied myself twenty minutes ago. You people really need to get better at your jobs" "Can it robo-jerk!" Antonio yelled, and the two of them got into a rather heated argument that I'd rather not repeat while children are reading and were present. "Shut it you idiots! Chiron's going to lose his crap if the kid starts saying curse words!" "Sorry, Lilly" Antonio and Charley said, rubbing the back of their necks. "Somehow I'm not surprised. What with Charley being the child of Ares and Antonio being the son of Hermes, you two were always going to fight at some point" Celeste said, taking a glug of Sprite. "Shut up, all of you!" Eros came into view. His long black hair framed his slightly tanned skin in shingles. He wore an MHA sweater with sweatpants and chunky sneakers. "Hey, Lilly" "Hi, Eros. How's everything there?" "Fine. How are you, you know, with everything?" "Moderately fine" "So not doing so well" "How'd you guess?" I asked, taking a huge bite of chocolate cake. "Well, A, Cerberus is with you, so that leads me to B, I know Persephone, and she sends him to Hades whenever he's being mentally unstable, which is at least every other day, and C, I can see the cake. The last thing you are right now my friend, is mentally stable" "I'm hanging up now" "DON'T!" Charley grabbed a hold of the Monster Message (I was starting to get the feeling they were using a candle) "Do you have any orders you need carried out?" "Like what?" "Like for the war, duh! I've got demigods and monsters at the shop, your friend Chris and my nephew-" "Weird" "I know, have demigods and monsters here, along with the fact that you have Polyphemus, Circe, Medusa-" "Not yet. I still need to talk to Athena about that" "Anyways, you have a whole lot of people to help you with this. Just give us an order, Black" I grinned. "I will never regret having Zephyrs stop the van. Alright, here's what you need to do."