Tap. Tap. Tap.
"What's that noise," I grumbled, shoving my head deeper into my pillow in an attempt to block it out. "It's the dead of night."
I felt the bed shift under me as Avalanche jumped off on silent feet and padded over to the window, rearing up on her hind legs to poke her fluffy head up.
"Avalanche?" I muttered, sighing as I sat up. "What is it?"
"Athena," she growled softly.
"What?" I said, jerking upright, the fog of sleep immediately vanishing from my mind. I flicked my fingers, illuminating my cabin with flickering torches, and glanced at the window to see a huge grey owl staring back at me with golden eyes.
"Oh, crap," I muttered, kicking my blankets off and rolling out of bed. I walked over to the window in my black pyjamas and unlatched the window, letting the owl hop in.
"Hey," I murmured, stroking the bird's feathers softly as my gaze landed on the pouch tied to its feet. "Thanks."
I quickly untied the string and opened the pouch, finding a scroll and a small golden card inside.
I knew what it was. A summoning card.
I picked up the card carefully, tucking it into my pocket, and unrolled the scroll, the paper crinkling softly.
It was short, in true immortal fashion, with only two lines written on it in Athena's elegant scrawl.
Olympian council meeting in two days, on July 1, at dawn. Zeus requests your presence.
A.
***
"You think we're far enough?" I whispered to Avalanche as we silently crept through the forest in Halibut Point State Park in Massachusetts. "I'm pretty sure Luke wouldn't be able to see a flash of golden light six kilometres into the forest."
After I'd received Athena's message, I'd told Luke and the rest of the crew the next day that I wanted to go visit the national park and explore some nature, by myself.
Luke had argued about safety, monster attacks, mortals, etc. etc. etc, though he quickly realized that it was futile, shrugged, and said that since we didn't really have anything to do, I might as well go enjoy myself. If anyone found it suspicious, they certainly hadn't shown it. No one had asked any questions, as if I was always prone to stopping in random places to go take a walk through the woods.
I mean, it was only a few times last year. And that was because I'd wanted to go skiing.
Regardless, here I was, before the sunrise, in an ocean-side national park in Massachusetts with Avalanche, the summoning card to Olympus in my hand.
I gulped, shoving down my anxiety at facing the Olympian gods and possibly my mother after a year, and nodded, my other hand resting firmly in Avalanche's fur. "Okay, here goes nothing."
I twirled the card in my hand and immediately felt that warping sensation as the world blurred and, a moment later, I blinked open my eyes to find myself standing on the paved marble road that wound up towards the sparkling golden palace at the top of the snow-capped mountain.
I stood still for a moment, breathing in the clean air of the home of the gods. This early, with the sun barely peeking above the horizon, colouring the sky in pale pink and gold, the streets were silent. The open-air markets were empty, street vendors closed, the parks peaceful.
Home.
After a year, I was back.
Granted, it wasn't for a good reason, but I suddenly felt tears pricking my eyelashes as I stood in the silence, the slight breeze sighing in the wind. I could almost believe that if I just closed my eyes, hearing a faint echo of the ethereal music of the nine muses drifting through the wind, I would be able to go back to those long years ago where I hadn't had a care in the world except for training with Athena, racing with Artemis, practicing magic with my mother, and bantering with Apollo.
Now, I was back home for a debrief on the army of the single immortal who was a threat to the gods, with a shredded image of who the Olympians were.
"Go, or you'll be late," Avalanche rumbled, nudging me with her nose softly. "You'll be fine."
"Yeah. I'll be fine," I said, trying to convince myself. "Okay."
I summoned my shadows, feeling them curl around me in joy after being locked down for so long on the ship and, a couple of seconds later, I stood in front of the huge golden gates of the throne room. Taking a deep breath, I pushed them open and walked in.
I felt twelve pairs of eyes following me impassively as my steps sounded softly on the marble tiles of the ginormous room, keenly aware of my heartbeat, which echoed loudly in my ears. My mother wasn't here. I kept my gaze fixed on the two gods sitting like cold marble statues in the centre of the semicircle, one with a lightning bolt in his hand, the other holding a golden staff topped with a white lotus flower.
"My lord, my lady," I murmured, bowing first to Zeus and then to Hera as I halted in front of them. "It's been a while." I wanted to ask where my mother was, but the crackling air gave me a feeling that this was probably not the best time to do so.
"Clarianna," Zeus said, his voice rumbling through the throne room like thunder.
I felt a weird sort of pang of ring through me at the sound of my name, the sound of who I really was after hearing nothing but the name of my lie. I felt like someone had justed dumped a bucket of ice water on me, bringing me back to reality from the haze of the ship. Because, no matter what I thought, the Andromeda had become a new sort of home for me and the demigods aboard it a new family. I shoved down the implication of those thoughts and reminded myself to focus. Here, more than ever, I needed to keep my cool.
A silence fell, no one knowing what to say. The level of awkwardness in the throne room was seriously reaching a new high.
"Wow, this is awkward," I muttered, shifting slightly on my feet. "Why is it so awkward?"
"Maybe because it's been a year?" Apollo suggested, leaning forward, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "Welcome back, Clari. We've - sorry, I've," he amended at the snort Ares gave, "missed you."
Just like that, the tension in the throne room was shattered. I grinned, pivoting to face him. "I can't say the same, Lord Apollo."
"You're joking, right?" Apollo said, his eyes glinting with both amusement and ire. "Because if you aren't-"
"I'm joking, I'm joking," I said quickly, holding my hands up. "Jeez. The only thing I didn't miss about you was your haiku. Please don't," I added as Apollo grinned and opened his mouth. "We're here for other business."
"Glad of you to finally remember that, Clari," Athena sighed as Apollo slumped back into his seat. "Because it is quite urgent."
"Suffice to say, the events of the past weeks have been concerning," Poseidon rumbled, his hand tightening on his trident. "Notably, the return of my brother's daughter."
Immediately, a clamour rose up, and I winced. This. This was what I had not missed. The nonstop arguing. I rolled my eyes, noting the fact that Artemis did the same, and sighed. "Will you stop yelling at each other for a moment? Please?" I added after a second thought as all the gods instantly turned to glare at me.
"She's right," Artemis chimed in. "It's pointless and gets us nowhere."
"Well, let's have Clari enlighten us then, shall we?" Dionysus yawned, fixing me with his purple gaze. "So? What's the plan?"
Are you kidding me right now? I thought, staring at him in disbelief. How the fuck would I have all the answers? Aren't you guys the gods? I screamed inside my head. Oh, how I wish I could just say that.
I sighed in resignation. "Well, the only thing I'm doing right now is pretty much nothing. And we're pretty much doing nothing except training and scouting for the next few months. However," I added as Zeus sat forward, clearly about to say something, "Luke," I glanced at Hermes unconsciously, noting his flinch, "did say something about something huge going down on the Winter Solstice this year."
"The winter solstice," Hephaestus mused. "The darkest day of the year."
"What exactly did he say?" Athena asked, leaning forwards in her throne.
"Uh, well, not much," I replied, slightly unnerved by the burning intensity in her grey eyes. "Something about . . . San Francisco?"
Silence fell, a new blanket of tension descending among the twelve immortals gathered before me. Zeus and Poseidon exchanged a glance, their faces unreadable, but I knew that it wasn't something good.
I glanced from Athena to Zeus to Artemis, who was staring at me, her eyes wide. "They're planning to use it as their base, aren't they," I asked quietly. "For Mount Othrys. Like how you use New York for Olympus."
Artemis exhaled, her grip tightening on the arms of her seat. "That's not the only problem. The Garden of the Hesperides is there. And so is their father."
Oh.
OH.
I blinked. "Fuck."