All characters xcept my own belong to either Rick Riordan or J.K. Rowling. Or Ancient Greece.
***
I stared out the window of the camp van, watching my home slowly disappear as we descended down the rough road.
"So," Albus broke the silence, "why exactly are you guys so scared?" His voice was quiet, as per usual, though it seemed as if our nervousness was infecting him.
I played with my camp necklace in my lap, not looking at the boy. "Because," I began with my vague explanation, "when you're summoned by the gods, it's usually a bad thing. Like, a really bad thing. Unless you've, I don't know, saved the world."
Will continued my explanation. "The gods' word is law. So, let's say they accuse you of murder. Even if you weren't involved, you can't argue with the gods. They're gods."
"What he's trying to say is that we're probably going to be accused of Nico's disappearance," I injected. "Or, at the very least, you will."
"Hannah!" Will scolded. "Don't say that."
"It's true, though," I said quietly.
We dropped the topic, and sat in a nervous silence as the car descended into the city.
***
The security guard at the Empire State Building looked bored and uninterested as we walked up to the desk. He was playing some game on an iPhone.
"Six hundredth floor," I said more like an order than a question.
He looked up at me and raised his eyebrow. "No such thing, kid," he said with such little conviction that it sounded like a lie even he didn't believe.
This wasn't the first time I've done this, though. In one swift motion, I ripped off my necklace and it morphed into a sword while Albus nearly jumped five feet in the air. I dropped it on the counter and repeated my request, "Six hundredth floor."
"Third elevator on the left," the guard said, seemingly unfazed by my sudden weapon, and hit a buzzer on his desk. "Good luck, kid," he said as the gate swung open. "I heard that they're pretty mad right now."
"I know," I replied coolly, tossing him a drachma. "It's kind of our fault."
I strode off with the two boys quickly following after me, just as I had hundreds of times before. Will and Nico were the smart ones, I was just the more confident one. Or, at least, I was better at faking confidence.
I glanced back at Albus as we walked into the elevator, who looked like he, too, was familiar with this situation.
"Well, that went well," Albus said nervously as the doors shut behind us.
"It went better than the first time we did that," Will objected.
"Yeah," I laughed. "That was awful. Remember how they almost called the cops on us?"
Albus raised an eyebrow.
Will laughed. "Yeah, it didn't help that they didn't tell us how to get up there and it was a new guy."
"Wait, what exactly happened?" Albus asked, finally opening up.
"Alright," I started, beginning to recall the memory, "so Will, Ronan, and I were sent off on a quest to go retrieve one of Aphrodite's golden apples. And once we finally returned to New York, it was the solstice, so we decided to just go to Olympus, which, now thinking back on it, was a pretty stupid idea. But, anyway, the three of us walked into the building, and those two were too nervous to talk to the guy, so they made me. So, I go up there and ask to go to the sixth hundredth floor, and the guy's like, "There's no such thing." And I'm like, "Yeah, there is." So we start arguing about it and he threatens to call the cops. And then Ronan has the idea for Will to make him let us in with his powers. So we get in after, like, an hour and we give Aphrodite her apple and tell her about our journey, 'cause she wanted to hear it, and she's like, "You know you could've just shown him your weapons?" And then we all got mad because apparently Ronan knew that and just forgot."
