𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 ✦ JACKSON

𝐱. 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬?

"Thanks," I put the rat in my pocket. "So... how is being a Hunter?"

She pursed her lips. "You're not still made at me for leaving Nico, are you?"

"Nah. If you're happy then I can't say much."

"Can I ask you for a favour?" She uttered out.

"Sure."

"Please, take care of Nico for me. I'm not sure how he'll do without a big sister." She looked down. "Maybe you could replace me for him. Just so he has somebody."

I wasn't sure what to say. "I cant replace you." I smiled at her. "Besides, I'm sure you'll be able to visit him from time-to-time."

"Thanks," she smiled at me. "By the way, being a Hunter is awesome. I feel calmer. Everything seems to have slowed down around me. I guess that's the immortality."

I stared at her, she was so confident and at peace now. Her face wasn't covered by a green cap now, but pulled back into a braid.

I shivered at the thought that Bianca would look the exact same five hundred or a thousand years from now.

"Plus, Nico will be fine at Camp Half-Blood." I said. "I was younger than him when I got there."

"You came to camp with, Thalia, Annabeth and Luke, right?"

"Yeah," I cringed at the name Luke.

Bianca nodded. "I hope we find her. Annabeth, I mean. She's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Lots of good it did her."

"Don't blame yourself. You and Percy risked your life to save Nico and I. I wouldn't have felt okay about leaving Nico there if I didn't meet you."

The compliment took me by surprise.

A couple hundred yards away, Grover, Zoe and Percy came out of the coffee shop loaded down with pastry bags and drinks.

"I got you a croissant," Percy gave me a croissant with butter and jam put into it messily and it was a bit flattened.

"Did you murder it?" I asked.

"I did my best, but... it looks a bit 2D," he laughed and I couldn't help but join in.

"We should do the tracking spell," Zoe said and gave us a death stare. "Grover, do you have any acorns left?"

"Umm," Grover mumbled. He was chewing on a bran muffin, wrapped and all. "I think so, I just need to—"

He froze.

I was going to ask what wrong when a warm breeze rustled past, like a gust of springtime in the winter. That made me think of my mother.

"Beware," a feminine voice said inside my head.

"Did you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" Percy looked at me like I was going crazy.

"Never mind."