Five
𖧷
Back At Home
I'd never seen Camp Half-Blood in winter before, and the snow surprised me.
See, the camp has the ultimate magic climate control. Nothing gets inside the borders unless the director, Mr. D, wants it to. I thought it would be warm and sunny, but instead the snow had been allowed to fall lightly. Frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they seemed to be balls of real fire. More lights glowed in the woods, and weirdest of all, a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle dwelt, imprisoned in an old mummified body. I wondered if the spirit of Delphi was roasting marshmallows up there or something.
"Whoa," Nico said as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Why is there lava pouring down it?"
"Little extra challenge. Come on. I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoe, have you met—"
"I know Chiron," Zoe said stiffly. "Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me."
"I'll show you the way," Grover offered.
"We know the way."
"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here, if you don't"—he tripped over a canoe and came up still talking—"like my old daddy goat used to say! Come on!"
Zoe rolled her eyes, but I guess she figured there was no getting rid of Grover. The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. As Bianca was leaving, she leaned over and whispered something in her brothers ear. She looked at him for an answer, but Nico just scowled and turned away.
"Take care, sweethearts!" Apollo called after the Hunters.
I glared at him and he looked back at me with a wink. "Watch out for those prophecies, (y/n). I'll see you soon."
"What do you mean?"
Instead of answering, he hopped back in the bus. "Later, Thalia," he called. "And, uh, be
good!"
He gave her a wicked smile, as if he knew something she didn't. Then he closed the doors and revved the engine. I turned aside as the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. When I looked back, the lake was steaming. A red Maserati soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight.
Nico was still looking grumpy. I wondered what Bianca had told him.
"Who's Chiron?" he asked. "I don't have his figurine."
"Our activities director," I said. "He's… well, you'll see."
"If those Hunter girls don't like him," Nico grumbled, "that's good enough for me. Let's go, baby."
The second thing that surprised me about camp was how empty it was. I mean, I knew most half-bloods only trained during the summer. Just the year-rounders would be here—the ones who didn't have homes to go to, or would get attacked by monsters too much if they left. But there didn't even seem to be many of them, either.
I spotted Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin stoking the forge outside the camp armory. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, from the Hermes cabin, were picking the lock on the camp store. A few kids from the Ares cabin were having a snowball fight with the wood nymphs at the edge of the forest. That was about it. Even my old rival from the Ares cabin, Clarisse, didn't seem to be around.
The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn't seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D, the camp director, and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.
Chiron's brown beard was shaggier for the winter. His curly hair had grown a little longer. He wasn't posing as a teacher this year, so I guess he could afford to be casual. He wore a fuzzy sweater with a hoofprint design on it, and he had a blanket on his lap that almost hid his wheelchair completely.
He smiled when he saw us. "Percy! (y/n)! Thalia! Ah, and this must be—"
"Nico di Angelo," I said. "He and his sister are half-bloods."
Chiron breathed a sigh of relief. "You succeeded, then."
"Uhm, well…"
His smile melted. "What's wrong? And where is Annabeth?"
"Oh, dear," Mr. D said in a bored voice, "Not another one lost."
I'd been trying not to pay attention to Mr. D, but he was kind of hard to ignore in his neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and his purple running shoes. (Like Mr. D had ever run a day in his immortal life.) A golden laurel wreath was tilted sideways on his curly black
hair, which must've meant he'd won the last hand of cards.
"What do you mean?" Thalia asked. "Who else is lost?"
Just then, Grover trotted into the room, grinning like crazy. He had a black eye and red lines on his face that looked like a slap mark. "The Hunters are all moved in!"
Chiron frowned. "The Hunters, eh? I see we have much to talk about." He glanced at Nico. "Grover, perhaps you should take our young friend to the den and show him our orientation film."
"But… Oh, right. Yes, sir."
"Orientation film?" Nico asked. "Is it G or PG? 'Cause Bianca is kinda strict—"
"It's PG-13," Grover said.
"Cool!" Nico happily followed him out of the room.
"Now," Chiron said to Thalia and me, "perhaps you two should sit down and tell us the whole story."
When we were done, Chiron turned to Mr. D. "We should launch a search for Annabeth immediately."
"I'll go," Thalia and I said at the same time.
Mr. D sniffed. "Certainly not!"
Me and her started complaining, but Mr. D raised his hand. He had that purplish
angry fire in his eyes that usually meant something bad and godly was going to happen if we didn't shut up.
"From what you have told me," Mr. D said, "we have broken even on this escapade. We have, ah, regrettably lost Annie Bell—"
"Annabeth," I snapped. She'd gone to camp since she was seven, and still Mr. D pretended not to know her name.
"Yes, yes," he said. "And you procured a small annoying boy to replace her. So I see no point risking further half-bloods on a ridiculous rescue. The possibility is very great that this Annie girl is dead."
I wanted to strangle Mr. D. It wasn't fair Zeus had sent him here to dry out as camp director for a hundred years. It was meant to be a punishment for Mr. D's bad behavior on Olympus, but it ended up being a punishment for all of us.
"Annabeth may be alive," Chiron said, but I could tell he was having trouble sounding upbeat. He'd practically raised Annabeth all those years she was a year-round camper, before she'd given living with her dad and stepmom a second (third) try. "She's very bright. If… if our enemies have her, she will try to play for time. She may even pretend to cooperate."
"That's right," Thalia said. "Luke would want her alive."
"In which case" said Mr. D, "I'm afraid she will have to be smart enough to escape on her own."
I got up from the table and slammed my hands in the wood.
"(y/n)." Chiron's tone was full of warning. In the back of my mind, I knew Mr. D was not somebody to mess with. Even if you were an impulsive ADHD kid like me, he wouldn't give you any slack. But I was so angry I didn't care. I never actually did. But now, my mind was chattering so much the shadows all around the room were shaking.
"You're glad to lose another camper," I growled. "It'd be a dream to you if we all just disappeared!"
Mr. D stifled a yawn. "You have a point?"
"Yeah," I roared. "Just because this is supposed to be your punishment, it doesn't fucking mean you can just be a lazy bitch and leave us die like that. We are your people. Try making an effort to get that in your thick, empty skull!"
For a second, there was no sound except the crackle of the fire. The light reflected in Mr. D's eyes, giving him a sinister look. He opened his mouth to say something—probably a curse that would blast me to smithereens—when Nico burst into the room, followed by
Grover.
"SO COOL!" Nico yelled, holding his hands out to Chiron. "You're… you're a centaur!"
Chiron managed a nervous smile. "Yes, Mr. di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer to stay in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."
"And, whoa!" He looked at Mr. D. "You're the wine dude? No way!"
Mr. D turned his eyes away from me and gave Nico a look of loathing. "The wine dude?"
"Dionysus, right? Oh, wow! I've got your figurine."
"My figurine."
"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you've only got like five hundred attack points and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card, I totally think your powers are sweet!"
"Ah." Mr. D seemed truly perplexed, which probably saved my life. "Well, that's… gratifying."
"(y/n)," Chiron said quickly, "you and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we'll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening."
"Capture the flag?" I asked. "But we don't have enough—"
"It is a tradition," Chiron said. "A friendly match, whenever the Hunters visit."
"Yeah," Thalia muttered. "I bet it's real friendly."
Chiron jerked his head toward Mr. D, who was still frowning as Nico talked about how many defense points all the gods had in his game. "Run along now," Chiron told us.
"Oh, right," Thalia said. "Come on, (y/n)."
She hauled me out of the Big House before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill me.
"You've already got Ares on your bad side," Thalia reminded me as we trudged toward the cabins. "You need another immortal enemy?"
She was right. My first summer as a camper, I'd gotten in a fight with Ares, and now he and all his children wanted to kill me. I didn't need to make Dionysus mad, too.
I huffed. "It's not my fault."
I started kicking the snow under me around with anger. "He's impossible to handle. Why do we have to just go with it when he's so lazy and–"
"(y/n), chill."
"Chill? You want me to fucking CHILL?!"
Thalia stumbled on her words, not knowing how to calm me down exactly.
"Everything is just getting on my nerves today! We had to revisit bad memories at that poor excuse of a school! Annabeth vanished! Bianca just left! What do you want me to do?! Huh?! Tell me!"
I kicked the snow again and the ground bounced.
Thalia places her hand over my shoulder carefully. "Okay, it's fine. I'm sorry."
I breathed in shakily, slowly retreating the shadows that only now had I noticed were pointing straight for Thalia with pointy tips, ready to shoot.
"You alright?" she whispered once I had stopped my heavy breathing.
"Yeah," I nodded. "Sorry. It's just... unfair, I guess."
She stopped by the armory and looked out across the valley, toward the top of Half-Blood Hill. Her pine tree was still there, the Golden Fleece glittering in its lowest branch. The tree's magic still protected the borders of camp, but it no longer used Thalia's spirit for power.
"(y/n), everything is unfair," Thalia muttered. "Sometimes I wish…"
She didn't finish, but her tone was so sad I felt sorry for her. With her ragged black hair and her black punk clothes, an old wool overcoat wrapped around her, she looked like some kind of huge raven, completely out of place in the white landscape.
"We'll get Annabeth back," I promised. "I just don't know how yet."
"First I found out that Luke is lost," she said. "Now Annabeth—"
"Don't think like that."
"You're right." She straightened up. "We'll find a way."
Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second, and a bow and arrow near someone who was related to Artemis wasn't a good idea for anyone on the opposite end of it.
"I'll break that up," Thalia said. "You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about capture the flag tomorrow."
"All right. You should be team captain."
"No, no," she said. "You've been at camp longer. You do it."
"We could maybe… co-captain?"
She looked at me thoughtfully, but she nodded.
As she headed for the court, I said, "Hey, Thalia."
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about what happened at Westover. I should've waited for you guys," I said. "And I'm never letting you drive again."
"‘S okay, (y/n). I probably would've done the same thing. And, yeah, pretty reasonable." She gave me a meaningful smile and headed out. She trudged off toward the court, where the Ares camper and the Hunter were trying to kill each other with a sword and a basketball, not the best weapon, may I add.
The cabins were the weirdest collection of buildings you've ever seen. Zeus and Hera's big white-columned buildings, Cabins One and Two, stood in the middle, with five gods' cabins on the left and five goddesses' cabins on the right, so they all made a U around the central green and the barbecue hearth.
I made the rounds, telling everybody about capture the flag. I woke up some Ares kid from his midday nap and he yelled at me to go away. When I asked him where Clarisse was he said, "Went on a quest for Chiron. Top secret!"
"Is she okay?"
"Haven't heard from her in a month. She's missing in action. Like your butt's gonna be if you don't get outta here!"
I decided to let him go back to sleep.
Finally, I reached Cabin Eight, the tall cabin made out of plain wood and metal at day, and bright silver at night. It was coated in thin layers of snow, including the small porch, I guess because I wasn't there, the snow had piled up with no one else to clean it.
I kicked a small path to pass by the snow with my boots and entered the cabin, visiting the cabin that didn't feel as empty anymore. Instead of just plushies I stored, on the ground were an ordered layer of different colored backpacks, and the cabin was not the least bit messy. The Hunters had fixed up the small places I was too lazy to clean up last summer on the cleaning duty.
For example, all the beds were done, sheets straightened over the bed and blankets folded at the end. Everything seemed more occupied, except for the top bunk on the right to the door, where I had placed a monster horn onto the wall above. That place was as common as ever.
I took Annabeth's baseball cap out of my backpack and set it on my nightstand. I'd give it to her when I found her. And I would find her.
I sighed as I started fidgeting with both of my necklaces. One of them had two beads, one being a circle half-black and half-white, with Percy's and mine's parent symbols, the other was Thalia's tree with the Fleece on its lowest branch. The other had a sun clock in form of a miniature arrow head.
I pressed the button on the small arrow and heard the creaks as the shield struggled to open and spiraled out. Dr. Thorn's spikes had dented the brass in a dozen places. One gash kept the shield from opening all the way, so it looked like a pizza with two slices missing. The beautiful metal pictures that my cousin had crafted were all banged up. In the picture of me and Annabeth fighting the Hydra, it looked like I had my head missing from a meteorite. I hung the shield on its hook, next to the Odontotyrannos tooth, but it was painful to look at now. Maybe Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin could fix it for me. He was the best armorsmith in the camp. I'd ask him at dinner.
I let my backpack somewhere around and went out before the Hunters came back.
I was pretty bored at dinner that night.
I mean, the food was excellent as usual. You can't go wrong with delicious food, and never-empty soda goblets. The torches and braziers kept the outdoor pavilion warm, but we all had to sit with our cabin mates, which meant Percy was alone at the Poseidon table. Thalia sat alone at the Zeus table, but we couldn't sit together. Camp rules. At least the Hephaestus, Ares, and Hermes cabins had a few people each. Nico sat with the Stoll brothers, since new campers always got stuck in the Hermes cabin if their Olympian parent was unknown. The Stoll brothers seemed to be trying to convince Nico that poker was a much better game than Mythomagic. I hoped Nico didn't have any money to lose.
The only table that really seemed to be having a good time was the Artemis table, for the most part. The Hunters drank and ate and laughed like one big happy family. Zoe sat at the head like she was the mama. She didn't laugh as much as the others, but she did smile from time to time. Her silver lieutenant's band glittered in the dark braids of her hair. I thought she looked a lot nicer when she smiled. Bianca seemed to be having a great time. She was trying to learn how to arm wrestle from the big girl who'd picked a fight with the Ares kid on the basketball court. The bigger girl was beating her every time, but Bianca didn't seem to mind.
They tried to stay focused on the girls, but I was included in the joking around from time to time. Someone said I acted exactly like my mother, but my appearance was a little different. Like I was mini-Artemis. Zoe and Bianca laughed at that, I couldn't help but smile at how everyone seemed to be happy with me around.
The big girl who was trying to teach Bianca how to arm wrestle challenged me to a match, but even if she tried her best, my hand almost didn't move. I could just slam her hand down on the table and the Hunters cheered on me.
When we'd finished eating, Chiron made the customary toast to the gods and formally welcomed the Hunters of Artemis. The clapping was pretty halfhearted. Then he announced the "good will" capture-the-flag game for tomorrow night, which got a lot better reception.
Right after, we had to go back to our cabins and sort out where each of the Hunters would sleep. The only thing I knew was that Zoe was on the bunk under mine and all the other Hunters chose a random bed to sleep in.
I was pretty tired, so I passed out as soon as I hit the bed. That was the good part. The bad part was, I had a
nightmare, and even by my standards it was a whopper.
Annabeth was on a dark hillside, shrouded in fog. It almost seemed like the Underworld, because I immediately felt claustrophobic and I couldn't see the sky above—just a close, heavy darkness, as if I were in a cave.
Annabeth struggled up the hill. Old broken Greek columns of black marble were scattered around, as though something had blasted a huge building to rums.
"Thorn!" Annabeth cried. "Where are you? Why did you bring me here?" She scrambled over a section of broken wall and came to the crest of the hill.
She gasped.
There was Luke. And he was in pain.
He was crumpled on the rocky ground, trying to rise. The blackness seemed to be thicker around him, fog swirling hungrily. His clothes were in tatters and his face was scratched and drenched with sweat,
"Annabeth!" he called. "Help me! Please!"
She ran forward.
I tried calling her, Wait, don't! He's a traitor!
But my voice was drowned by the dream.
Annabeth had tears in her eyes. She reached down like she wanted to touch Luke's face, but at the last second she hesitated.
"What happened?" she asked.
"They left me here," Luke groaned. "Please. It's killing me."
I couldn't see what was wrong with him. He seemed to be struggling against some invisible curse, as though the fog were squeezing him to death.
"Why should I trust you?" Annabeth asked. Her voice was filled with hurt.
"You shouldn't," Luke said. "I've been terrible to you. But if you don't help me, I'll die."
Let him die, I wanted to scream. Luke had tried to kill us in cold blood too many times. He didn't deserve anything from Annabeth.
Then the darkness above Luke began to crumble, like a cavern roof in an earthquake. Huge chunks of black rock began falling. Annabeth rushed in just as a crack appeared, and the whole ceiling dropped. She held it somehow—tons of rock. She kept it from collapsing on her and Luke just with her own strength. It was impossible. She shouldn't have been able to do that.
Luke rolled free, gasping. "Thanks," he managed.
"Help me hold it," Annabeth groaned.
Luke caught his breath. His face was covered in grime and sweat. He rose unsteadily.
"I knew I could count on you." He began to walk away as the trembling blackness threatened to crush Annabeth.
"HELP ME!" she pleaded,
"Oh, don't worry," Luke said. "Your help is on the way. It's all part of the plan. In the meantime, try not to die."
The ceiling of darkness began to crumble again, pushing Annabeth against the ground.
I gasped as I sat on my bed in a hurry, I could hear Zoe groan under my bed and turn around to get back to sleep. The moonlight slipping through the closed curtains somehow told me it was past midnight.
Only a dream, but I was sure of two things: Annabeth was in terrible danger. And Luke was responsible.
»»————> Shit Post <————««
Nico: just trust me! have i ever put you in an uncomfortable or unsafe position?
Y/N: literally all the time.
Nico:
Y/N:
Nico: well, you should be used to it by now then!
๑
*how Nico and Y/N started dating*
Y/N: Hey, nice top. Doesn’t Bianca have one like that?
Nico: Yeah, the same one.
Y/N, raising a brow: You’re wearing a girl’s top?
Nico: Unisex.
Y/N, snorting: Maybe you need sex. I had sex two days ago.
Nico, laughing: No, Y/N:. U-N-I-sex.
Y/N, smirking: Well. I ain’t gonna say no to that.