COMPARED TO OLYMPUS, Manhattan was quiet.
It was the Friday before Christmas, but it was early in the morning, and hardly anyone was on Fifth Avenue. Argus, the many-eyed security chief, picked up Annabeth, Grover, Percy, and Rose at the Empire State Building and ferried them back to camp through a light snowstorm. The Long Island Expressway was almost deserted.
As they trudged back up Half-Blood Hill to the pine tree where the Golden Fleece glittered, Rose half expected to see Thalia there, waiting for them. But she wasn't. She was long gone with Artemis and the rest of the Hunters, off on their next adventure.
The first place Rose went (along with Percy) was the infirmary.
"What the fuck happened?" Lee demanded, seeing Rose limp in... with a torn sweater that revealed her bleeding side, several cuts, a broken ankle, and a multitude of bruises.
"Good question," Rose said, lying down on one of the cots.
Lee put his hand on her ankle. "Oblique non-displaced. You couldn't see this swelling? Why did you keep walking on it?"
"It was dark!"
"I can help you heal it. I'll put a boot on it so you can still walk, because I know how much you love crutches. I'm going to have to set it first."
"Lee."
"Or I can just cut off your leg. Saves me a lot of time."
"Fuck, fine, get it over with."
While he set it, Rose squeezed Percy's hand until his fingers turned purple. She wasn't sure she'd ever felt that much pain.
Lee put a boot on her and sent her out with ambrosia and mortal pain medications. The first person Rose looked for was Love.
She let out a dramatic gasp and ran a hand through Rose's hair. "Your hair!"
"Yeah," she said sheepishly, "Percy and I held up the world and it turned our hair gray."
"What? And why do you have a boot?"
"I broke my ankle."
"Rose."
She kissed Love's cheek and said, "I have to go, Chiron wants to talk at the Big House. I'll tell you everything later!"
Chiron greeted her at the Big House with hot chocolate and toasted cheese sandwiches. Grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about their strange encounter with the magic of Pan. Within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.
Annabeth, Percy, and Rose sat with Chiron and some of the other senior campers—Beckendorf, Silena, and the Stoll brothers. Even Clarisse from the Ares cabin was there, back from her secretive scouting mission. Rose vaguely remembered Annabeth saying something about it before... everything, but she didn't remember what. She knew she must've had a difficult quest, because Clarisse didn't even try to pulverize Percy. She had a new scar on her chin, and her dark hair had been cut short and ragged, like someone had attacked it with a pair of safety scissors.
"I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news."
"I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is you have prevailed. And you saved Annabeth!"
Annabeth smiled gratefully.
For some reason, Rose found herself thinking about Hoover Dam, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She didn't know why, but Rachel's annoying comments kept coming back to her.
Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?
"Luke is alive," Rose said. "Annabeth was right."
Annabeth sat up. "How do you know?"
Rose tried not to feel annoyed by her interest. She told her what Apollo had said to her at Olympus.
"Well." Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "If the final battle does come when Percy is sixteen, at least we have two more years to figure something out."
Rose had a feeling that when she said "figure something out," she meant "get Luke to change his ways," which clearly annoyed everyone. Rose had been friends with Luke before he betrayed the camp, but even she knew there was no getting him back.
"Two years may seem like a long time," Chiron said. "But it is the blink of an eye. I still hope you are not the child of the prophecy, Percy. But if you are, then the second Titan War is almost upon us. Kronos's first strike will be here."
"How do you know?" Percy asked. "Why would he care about camp?"
"Because the gods use heroes as their tools," Chiron said simply. "Destroy the tools, and the gods will be crippled. Luke's forces will come here. Mortal, demigod, monstrous... we must be prepared. Clarisse's news may give us a clue as to how they will attack, but—"
There was a knock on the door, and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red from the cold.
He was smiling, but he looked around anxiously. "Hey! Where's... where's my sister?"
Dead silence. Rose looked at Percy, who silently begged her for help. She shook her head. You have to do this.
"Hey, Nico." Percy got up from his chair. "Let's take a walk, okay? We need to talk."
Rose had been out of the shower for five minutes when there was a knock at her door.
"Fuck," she mumbled. She was still in a towel. "Give me five minutes!"
Once she's dressed in a hoodie (that actually belongs to Love) and a pair of leggings, she swings the door open.
It was Percy, and he (once again) looked like he might have an anxiety attack.
"Nico," he was saying. "He just ran off— I swear I didn't do anything—"
"Hey, breathe," Rose said.
"Ce qui se passe?" asked Lacy, Rose's eleven year old sister, who was reading on her bunk.
"Mettre des écouteurs," rose told her.
Percy took a few deep breaths before saying, "I was telling Nico about Bianca and then he got angry and said he could feel his sister was being judged in the underworld and the skeletons showed up—"
"How did they get into camp?"
"I don't know! I swear I haven't seen them since the dam, but then Nico accused me of trying to kill him and this big crack opened up in the ground and swallowed the skeletons and then he ran away."
Rose stared at him for a moment, trying to process everything, before saying, "Come inside. I'll get you some water."
She lit a candle, an enchanted one meant to calm people, and handed Percy a glass of water. They sat together on her bed for a few minutes before rose said, "We can't tell Chiron."
Percy shook his head. "No fucking way. But we have to tell Annabeth and Grover."
"Of course."
Percy stood and put his water on a bedside table. "We should start looking now, before it gets dark."
Rose nodded, and blew out the candle before following him out.
Annabeth and Grover helped them search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo.
"We have to tell Chiron," Annabeth said, out of breath.
"No," Rose said. "Absolutely not."
Annabeth and Grover both stared at her.
"Um," Grover said nervously, "what do you mean... no?
"We can't let anyone know. I don't think anyone realizes that Nico is a—"
"A son of Hades," Annabeth said. "Rose, do you have any idea how serious this is? Even Hades broke the oath! This is horrible!"
"I don't think so," Percy said. "I don't think Hades broke the oath."
"What?"
"He's their dad," he said, "but Bianca and Nico have been out of commission for a long time, since even before World War II."
"The Lotus Casino!" Grover said, and he told Annabeth about the conversations they'd had with Bianca on the quest. "She and Nico were stuck there for decades. They were born before the oath was made."
"But how did they get out?" Annabeth protested.
"I don't know," Percy admitted. "Bianca said a lawyer came and got them and drove them to Westover Hall. I don't know who that could've been, or why. Maybe it's part of this Great Stirring thing. I don't think Nico understands who he is. But we can't go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out—"
"It might start them fighting among each other again," Annabeth said. "That's the last thing we need."
Grover looked worried. "But you can't hide things from the gods. Not forever."
"I don't need forever," Percy said. "Just two years. Until I'm sixteen."
Annabeth paled. "But, Percy, this means the prophecy might not be about you. It might be about Nico. We have to—"
"No," he said. "I choose the prophecy. It will be about me."
"Why are you saying that?" she demanded. "You want to be responsible for the whole world?"
"I can't let Nico be in any more danger," he said. "I owe that much to his sister. I... let them both down. I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more."
"The poor kid who hates you and wants to see you dead," Grover reminded him.
"Maybe we can find him," Percy said. "We can convince him it's okay, hide him someplace safe."
Annabeth shivered. "If Luke gets hold of him—"
"Luke won't," he insisted. "I'll make sure he's got other things to worry about. Namely, me."
Rose wasn't sure Chiron believed the story they told him. He could tell they were holding something back about Nico's disappearance, but in the end, he accepted it. Unfortunately, Nico wasn't the first half-blood to disappear.
"So young," Chiron sighed, his hands on the rail of the front porch. "Alas, I hope he was eaten by monsters. Much better than being recruited into the Titans' army."
That idea made Rose really uneasy.
"You really think the first attack will be here?" Percy asked.
Chiron stared at the snow falling on the hills. Rose could see smoke from the dragon guardian at the pine tree, the glitter of the distant fleece.
"It will not be until summer, at least," Chiron said. This winter will be hard... the hardest for many centuries. It's best that you all go home to the city; try to keep your mind on school. And rest. You will need rest."
Percy looked at Rose as Chiron and Annabeth walked away, talking in hushed whispers. "What about you?"
"I'm staying here until winter break is over."
Percy frowned. "You're not going home for Christmas?"
Rose thought for a moment. She didn't want to go home, not yet. but she didn't want to be alone at camp. "My dad is gone filming something. I don't want to be alone for Christmas."
"What about Mitchell?"
"He's staying here too."
Percy nodded understandingly. "Maybe we could hang out sometime, before we go back to school."
She smiled. "That'd be nice. But I think Chiron's right. The attack won't be until the summer. Luke'll need time to regain his strength. My dad's moving up here next summer, though. He wanted to give Mitchell and I the chance to finish at our middle school in DC before he moved cities."
"Alright," he said. "Just take care of yourself, okay?"
She smiled tentatively. "Deal. And by the way— I wouldn't have joined the Hunters."
Percy opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by Grover, who stumbled out of the Big House onto the porch, tripping over tin cans. His face was haggard and pale, like he'd seen a specter.
"He spoke," Grover cried.
"Calm down, my young satyr," Chiron said from the lawn, frowning. "What is the matter?"
"I... I was playing music in the parlor," he stammered, "and drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee! And he spoke in my mind!"
"Who?" Annabeth demanded.
"Pan!" Grover wailed."The lord of the Wild himself. I heard him! I have to... I have to find a suitcase."
"Whoa whoa whoa," Percy said. "What did he say?"
Grover stared at them. "Just three words. He said, 'I await you...'"
END OF ACT ONE.