PHILOXENIA ➸ Percy Jackson¹

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The cup of water only helped to relieve her parched throat and did little to make her think clearly. If she were to take her dream literally, something had poisoned Thalia's pine tree. Or someone.

His name came to her mind, and she hated that it did. It was incredulous to think that he would willingly harm the only thing keeping Camp Half-Blood safe and endanger his fellow demigods. His siblings. All the people he knew. Those he had talked and laughed and trained with.

And the tree was also once his friend and companion.

Lux felt her head spinning. The images of a laughing Luke whose scar did nothing to hide the twinkle in his eyes clashed with a stone-faced Luke as he stood before the tree that was once a brave demigod, holding a vial of the deepest purple in his hands.

After some more thinking on what to do, Lux set down the cup of water and walked back to her room to rustle for some spare drachmas. She figured it was better to take her chances contacting someone at camp rather than being a sitting duck.

But as she would learn time and time again, a certain daughter of Athena was always three steps ahead.

Just as she was about to throw the golden coin into the air, a misty rainbow appeared in the middle of her room.

"Lux!"

She dropped the coin onto the floor at the sound of her name. She turned to see Annabeth's face looking at her.

"Annabeth!" Her relief was temporary. There were only a few reasons why she would send an Iris-message this early. "Is something up?"

The smile fell from Annabeth's face concerningly quickly. "Yeah, there is. Listen, there's something important I need you to do. I need you to bring Percy back to camp today."

Her urgent tone made Lux's eyebrow crease and a feeling of worry to pump through her veins. "Did something happen?"

Upon a closer look into the rainbow, Lux could see that Annabeth was at camp. There was panicked shouting in the distance and the shadow of campers whizzing by behind her back.

"Something bad has happened." Her face was grave. "There's no time to explain. We need you both at camp."

"Okay, okay." Lux took several deep breaths in as her mind raced to calculate how fast they could get there. "But even if we leave right now, it would take us a few hours to get to camp."

"Take the Gray Sisters' Taxi. Do you remember how to call them?"

Lux tilted her head in thought. "Something about a chariot? Chariot of hell?"

"Stêthi, ô hárma diabolês," Annabeth said. Right, the Chariot of Damnation. It was a pretty hardcore name for a taxi car.

"That only leaves how I'm going to pull Percy out of school." Lux glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It was nearly 6:30.

"I've got that covered. You should be receiving a delivery from me soon."

As soon as she finished the sentence, a package appeared on her bed—a small cardboard box with Annabeth's handwriting on the mailing slip. Lux tore it open to see the daughter of Athena's Yankees cap nestled in the bubble wrap.

"I wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't important," Annabeth said. Her head turned when someone yelled her name. For a terrifying moment, they both heard the roar of a beast. "I have to go. I'll see you later?"

"Don't worry, we'll be at camp safely."

Annabeth waved a hand through the rainbow, disconnecting the message.