THE PAST FEW days had been uneventful, but that was mostly because the one mission they'd had, Eden didn't want to go on it. Like, sure, raid Odysseus's palace, cool. Whatever. She didn't really care. She'd already been on one of his adventures, through the Sea of Monsters. That had been a nightmare and a half.
But so far, her tasks had required fighting things, sitting in on strategy meetings she wanted no part of, trying to heal Perfect Jason and failing, and being Piper's bitch. Which was a task she could get behind.
And those tasks were bad. So Eden was relieved to go and get Leo, because that was the easiest task there.
"Leo!" she called, and she was totally just staring down at only his lower body, but she was gay. That shit didn't affect her, unless Piper was the one doing it. "We need you."
Leo sighed. "Talk to the pants, Water Girl! 'Cause the hands are busy!"
"I am not talking to the pants. I'm gay. Meeting in the mess hall. We're almost at Olympia or wherever."
"Yeah, fine. I'll be there in a sec."
"What are you doing, anyway? You've been poking around inside the hull for days. It's fucking loud."
Leo answered slowly. "Routine maintenance."
Silence. Eden knew he was lying. That shit hadn't been that loud before. "Fire Boy–"
"Hey, while you're out there, do me a favour. I got this itch right below my –"
"You're disgusting, I'm leaving!"
Eden left then, going up to her room to check herself out in the mirror — damn, she looked good — before going back into the mess hall.
The other six demigods were eating breakfast. Leo was still in the fucking engine room.
Percy was eating a huge stack of blue pancakes ( Eden still didn't get that shit ) while Annabeth chided him for pouring on too much syrup.
"You're drowning them!" she complained.
"Hey, I'm a Poseidon kid," he said. "I can't drown. And neither can my pancakes."
Uh huh. Rome didn't exist then.
To their left, Frank and Hazel used their cereal bowls to flatten out a map of Greece. They looked over it, their heads close together. Every once in a while Frank's hand would cover Hazel's, just sweet and natural like they were an old married couple, and Hazel didn't even look flustered, which was real progress for a girl from the 1940s. Until recently, if somebody said gosh darn, she would nearly faint, except for Eden, who she got used to swearing. Eden was okay with that. She loved swearing.
At the head of the table, Perfect Jason sat uncomfortably with his T-shirt rolled up to his ribcage as Nurse Piper changed his bandages.
"Hold still," she said. "I know it hurts."
"It's just cold," he said.
Eden could hear the pain in his voice. That gladius blade had pierced him all the way through. The entrance wound on his back was an ugly shade of purple and it steamed. Not a good sign.
"If you do it the other way, babe, it's better on the wound," Eden hopped onto her chair, kicking off her sandal heels. "Not better for him, but I presume you want that healed."
"What's up, guys?" Leo strolled into the mess hall. "Aw, yes to brownies!"
He grabbed the last one – from a special sea-salt recipe they'd picked up from a fish centaur at the bottom of the Atlantic. Long story.
The intercom crackled. Mini-Hedge yelled over the speakers, "PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"
Everyone jumped. Hazel ended up five feet away from Frank. Percy spilled syrup in his orange juice. Perfect Jason awkwardly wriggled back into his T-shirt, and Frank turned into a bulldog.
Piper glared at Leo. "I thought you were getting rid of that stupid hologram."
"Hey, Buford's just saying good morning. He loves his hologram! Besides, we all miss the coach. And Frank makes a cute bulldog."
Frank morphed back into a burly, grumpy Chinese Canadian dude. "Just sit down, Leo. We've got stuff to talk about."
Leo squeezed in between Perfect Jason and Hazel and grabbed some food.
"So . . ." Perfect Jason winced as he leaned forward. "We're going to stay airborne and drop anchor as close as we can to Olympia. It's further inland than I'd like – about five miles – but we don't have much choice. According to Juno, we have to find the goddess of victory and, um . . . subdue her."
Uncomfortable silence around the table.
"Yikes," Eden leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs.
Percy sipped his syrup-flavoured orange juice. He seemed to find it okay. "I'm cool with fighting the occasional goddess, but isn't Nike one of the good ones? I mean, personally, I like victory. I can't get enough of it."
Annabeth drummed her fingers on the table. "It does seem strange. I understand why Nike would be in Olympia – home of the Olympics and all that. The contestants sacrificed to her. Greeks and Romans worshipped her there for, like, twelve hundred years, right?"
"Almost to the end of the Roman Empire," Frank agreed. "Romans called her Victoria, but same difference. Everybody loved her. Who doesn't like to win? Not sure why we would have to subdue her."
"Oh, that's why it's my middle name," Eden sipped at her boba, because it was her new obsession. "God, I love victory."
Perfect Jason frowned. A wisp of steam curled from the wound under his shirt. "All I know . . . the ghoul Antinous said, Victory runs rampant in Olympia. Juno warned us that we could never heal the rift between the Greeks and Romans unless we defeated victory."
"How do we defeat victory?" Piper wondered. "Sounds like one of those impossible riddles."
"Like making stones fly," Leo said, "or eating only one Fonzie."
He popped a handful into his mouth. Absolutely disgusting.
Hazel wrinkled her nose. "That stuff is going to kill you."
"You kidding? So many preservatives in these things, I'll live forever. But, hey, about this victory goddess being popular and great – Don't you guys remember what her kids are like at Camp Half-Blood?"
Hazel and Frank had never been to Camp Half-Blood, but the others nodded gravely.
"He's got a point," Eden said. "Those kids in Cabin Seventeen – they're super-competitive. When it comes to capture the flag, they're almost worse than the Ares kids. Uh, no offence, Frank. But yeah, they don't even win against me, so they just suck."
Frank shrugged. "You're saying Nike has a dark side?"
"Her kids sure do," Annabeth said. "They never turn down a challenge. They have to be number one at everything. If their mom is that intense . . ."
"Whoa." Piper grabbed Eden's arm like the ship was rocking. "Guys, all the gods are split between their Greek and Roman aspects, right? If Nike's that way and she's the goddess of victory –"
"She'd be really conflicted," Annabeth said. "She'd want one side or the other to win so she could declare a victor. She'd literally be fighting with herself."
Hazel nudged her cereal bowl across the map of Greece. "But we don't want one side or the other to win. We've got to get the Greeks and Romans on the same team."
"Maybe that's the problem," Perfect Jason said. "If the goddess of victory is running rampant, torn between Greek and Roman, she might make it impossible to bring the two camps together."
"How?" Leo asked. "Start a flame war on Twitter?"
"I'd like that," Eden flipped out her phone. "A shame we don't have wifi here. Fuck you, Leo."
"Love you too," he muttered.
Percy stabbed at his pancakes. "Maybe she's like Ares. That guy can spark a fight just by walking into a crowded room. If Nike radiates competitive vibes or something, she could aggravate the whole Greek–Roman rivalry big-time."
Frank pointed at Percy, then Eden. "You remember that old sea god in Atlanta – Phorcys? He said that Gaia's plans always have lots of layers. This could be part of the giants' strategy – keep the two camps divided; keep the gods divided. If that's the case, we can't let Nike play us against each other. We should send a landing party of four – two Greeks, two Romans. The balance might help keep her balanced."
Listening to him, Eden had one of those double-take moments. She couldn't believe how much the guy had changed in the last few weeks.
Frank wasn't just taller and buffer. He was more confident now, more willing to take charge. Whatever the case, Eden had trouble seeing him as the same klutzy dude who'd once iguanaed his way out of Chinese handcuffs.
"I think Frank is right," Annabeth said. "A party of four. We'll have to be careful who goes. We don't want to do anything that might make the goddess, um, more unstable."
"I'll go," Piper said. "I can try charmspeaking."
Worry lines deepened around Annabeth's eyes. "Not this time, Piper. Nike is all about competition. Aphrodite ... well, she is too, in her own way. I think Nike might see you as a threat."
Piper may not have changed as obviously as Frank, but she had changed. She had stabbed Khione the snow goddess in the chest. She had defeated the Boreads. She'd slashed up a flock of wild harpies singlehandedly. As for her charmspeak, she'd become so powerful it made Eden proud. So, so proud, even through all of Piper's insecurities about it.
Annabeth's words didn't seem to upset her. Piper just nodded and scanned the group. "Who should go, then?"
"Jason and Percy shouldn't go together," Annabeth said. "Jupiter and Poseidon – bad combination. Nike could start you two fighting easily."
Percy gave her a sideways smile. "Yeah, we can't have another incident like in Kansas. I might kill my bro Jason."
"Or I might kill my bro Percy," Jason said amiably.
"Which proves my point," Annabeth said. "We also shouldn't send Frank and me together. Mars and Athena – that would be just as bad. And I don't think that we should send Eden and Percy together as a duo. Uh, no offense—"
Eden snorted. "I'd fight you without influence," she sipped her boba. "Besides, I'm tired of fighting alive creatures. Y'all have fun."
"You'd be down to fight a dead creature right about now?" Piper asked her, taking her boba, which was just sad, until she took a sip of it then gave it back to her. Then Eden was happy.
"As long as blood doesn't get on my heels," Eden slipped them back on. "But yeah, no, I need quality time with my girlfriend, so y'all do whatever y'all want."
"Okay," Leo broke in. "So Percy and me for the Greeks. Frank and Hazel for the Romans. Is that the ultimate non-competitive dream team or what?"
Annabeth and Frank exchanged war-godly looks.
"It could work," Frank decided. "I mean, no combination is going to be perfect, but Poseidon, Hephaestus, Pluto, Mars . . . I don't see any huge antagonism there."
Hazel traced her finger along the map of Greece. "I still wish we could've gone through the Gulf of Corinth. I was hoping we could visit Delphi, maybe get some advice. Plus it's such a long way around the Peloponnese."
"Yeah." Leo grimaced. "It's July twenty-second already. Counting today, only ten days until –"
"I know," Perfect Jason said. "But Juno was clear. The shorter way would have been suicide."
"And as for Delphi . . ." Piper leaned towards the map. The blue harpy feather in her hair swung like a pendulum. "What's going on there? If Apollo doesn't have his Oracle any more . . ."
Percy grunted. "Probably something to do with that creep Octavian. Maybe he was so bad at telling the future that he broke Apollo's powers."
Bet. Although Eden hated to agree with him.
Perfect Jason managed a smile, though his eyes were cloudy from pain. "Hopefully we can find Apollo and Artemis. Then you can ask him yourself. Juno said the twins might be willing to help us."
"A lot of unanswered questions," Frank muttered. "A lot of miles to cover before we get to Athens."
"First things first," Annabeth said. "You guys have to find Nike and figure out how to subdue her . . . whatever Juno meant by that. I still don't understand how you defeat a goddess who controls victory. Seems impossible."
"We'll see about that." Leo rose to his feet. "Let me get my collection of grenades and I'll meet you guys on deck!"