chapter ninety
─── never trust small kids, a good life lesson
𝔐y landlord hated me. He wouldn't let me keep my dog in the apartment, nor let me bring my uncle's dog over, so instead, I had to cope with only seeing them whenever I was at camp.
"Hi baby!" I cooed as my dog came barrelling over, almost knocking me flat on my back as I cuddled her.
Of course, my landlord might have banned them because Mrs O'Leary was the size of a small truck and Cerberus had 3 heads. He was discriminating against dogs. Or maybe it was because both of their breeds were quite scary. Cerberus was a mastiff, an English mastiff, pitch black with white spots on his chest, hence the name. Mrs O'Leary on the other hand was a hellhound, but to imagine them, think of a Belgian Shepherd, also pitch black.
Look, yes a hellhound had tried to kill me once but that was because Luke didn't know how to respond to having a crush on me, so I'd moved past it. It wasn't the breeds fault and I loved my beautiful Mrs O'Leary.
She'd once belong to Daedalus, but he'd given her to me when he'd died and now, she was mine. I'd trained her up with all sorts of tricks, finding that it helped me to get my mind off my impending death, prophecies, school work and everything else that was going on in my life.
"Come on then." She pads along beside me, leading me towards the woods but I'm not too freaked out. I'm confident in my own abilities and realistically, who was going to attack me with Mrs. O'Leary here?
She lead me to a familiar clearing where the Council of Cloven Elders had once put Grover on trial. It didn't look great, the grass having turned yellow and leaves shedding at an alarming rate, considering it was summer. In the middle stood Juniper, Nico and a very old, very fat satyr. Juniper and the satyr both jumped at the sight of the dog, but I motioned for Mrs O'Leary to sit and approached.
"Will someone-what is this underworld creature doing in my forest?" The satyr crowed, trotting around and waving his arms. "You there, Andromeda Jackson! Is this your beast?"
"She's a dog and she's well trained." I cut him off, turning to Nico. "I thought you were with my mom. Better not have given her a heart attack with leaving."
"No." He scowled at that, as I tilt his head back and forth, looking for scratches. "Romy..."
"Nico..." I drawl out his word in the same way. "Mom knows you're here?"
"Yes." I ruffle his hair as his scowl deepens. But he accepts it al the same. I'd been ignoring the centaur, Leneus, who was now hopping mad.
"Make it go away! Juniper, I will not help you under these circumstances!" Juniper is my close friend Grover's girlfriend, and she turns to me, eyes watery.
"Romy, I was just asking about Grover. I know something's happened!" She put into words the fears already in my head. "He wouldn't stay gone this long if he wasn't in trouble. I was hoping that Leneus-"
"I told you! You are better off without that traitor!" Leneus cuts her off.
"He is not a traitor! I want to know where he is." Juniper stamps her foot as Mrs O'Leary barks at a squirrel in the tree, her tail wagging. Leneus' knees start knocking.
"I-I won't answer questions with that beast there."
"She's still not a beast." I correct, before picking some grass from Nico's hair as he scowls and rolls his eyes.
"I'll walk the dog." He takes the treats from my hand, whistling for the dog and both disappear to the end of the grove.
"Now, as I was trying to explain, young lady, your boyfriend has not sent any reports since we voted him into exile."
"Tried to." I correct once more. "Chiron and Mr. D stopped you."
"They are honourary Council members. It wasn't a proper vote." Leneus scoffed.
"I'll be sure to let them know when I next see them." He pales at that which I take satisfaction in. No one gets to disrespect one of my closest friends and think they can get away with it.
"I only meant..." He trails off, before changing his tone. "Now, see here Jackson, this is none of your business."
"He's my friend, it's my business." I shrug, before squaring my shoulders. "He wasn't lying to you about Pan's death. I saw it myself. You're just too scared to accept the truth."
"No! Grover's a liar and good riddance. We're better off without him." My anger flairs and I whistle for Mrs O'Leary to trot back to my side.
"Take a look around, Leneus. Is this was things going well looks like?" I cock an eyebrow, not in the mood for his blatant refusal to accept the situation that we were in. "Everything is about to get more unsettling. We need Grover. You can find him with magic, do it."
"I'm telling you, I've heard nothing. Perhaps he's dead." Leneus must have been one of the most insensitive people I've ever met to consider saying that in front of Juniper, who was now crying.
"He's not dead. I can feel that much."
"Empathy links are very unreliable."
"So ask around. There's a war coming. Grover was preparing the nature spirits, someone's seen him." I counter.
"Without my permission! It's not our war!"
"Listen, Leneus..." He was pissing me off now. "When Kronos attacks, he's not gonna stop and ask you whether or not this is your war. He'll just kill everyone. You're a leader so lead! Get out there and do something. Now!"
He didn't move.
"Now!" I thunder, watching as he scrambled into the bushes. I glared after him before taking a deep breath as I felt my bones start to rub together. I had to calm down.
"I'm sorry, Romy." Juniper dried her tears. "I didn't meant to get you involved. Leneus is still a lord of the Wild. You don't want to make an enemy of him."
Consider I was dying soon, making an enemy of him wasn't that high on my list of priorities.
"It's alright." I squeezed her shoulders.
"Good job, Romy. Think you terrified him." Nico reappeared as I shook my head. "What?"
"Why are you here, Nico? When I asked like last week if you wanted to come to camp you gave me quite a resounding no answer." Nico scowled as I remind him of that. I turn back to Juniper knowing that this is a conversation for me and Nico to have alone. "Juniper, don't worry. We'll find him, I'm sure there's a pretty simple reason he hasn't contacted us."
"I guess." She nods before saying her goodbye and disappearing as Mrs O'Leary reverses towards me until I scratch her back and base of her tail.
"I'm sorry about Beckendorf." A lump formed in my throat, but I merely took a deep breath and pushed it down.
"It's alright, kid." I ruffle his hair.
"He's staying in Elysium, waiting for someone. Said to tell you not to beat yourself up." I smile, glad that Beckendorf is waiting for Silena. She'd like that knowledge, and I made a mental note to tell her. I'd do the same to wait for Luke. Maybe Beckendorf and I could wait together.
"So, why'd you leave? What you been up to?"
"Saw the titan base. Wanted to check in." Nico shrugged as I rolled my eyes. I really couldn't judge him considering I also did stupid things on the daily. It was a cousin thing. "I was in the neighbourhood."
"Doing what?"
"Following a lead."
"On what?"
"Why am I being interrogated?" Nico huffed.
"Because you're twelve and just went to San Franscisco on a whim." I shoot back, cocking an eyebrow as he huffs and rolls his eyes. "What were you following a lead on?"
"My family."
"Any luck?"
"Do you think I'd be here if there was?" Nico pointed out, in the same somewhat snarky tone I normally had. "I have a new lead though, so we'll see."
"What lead?"
"It's not important. That's not why I'm here." Immediately, I know what he's talking about. Nico had a plan, one that was completely stupid, but it was a plan. Luke hated it, but I was starting to become desperate after everything. The plan held merit, but it was a little extreme.
"Nico, your plan is like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun." I point out. "It's like you're trying to kill me."
"Well, Typhon's coming in a week and most of the other Titans are unleashed and joining Kronos." Nico pointed out. "Maybe it's time to hope that the gun's broken and go extreme."
I turn back to camp, looking down into the valley and then contemplating if Luke will gut me if I say yes. I know that I should probably run it past him.
"They're no match for the Titan army, Romy. You know this." Nico joined my side before nudging me. "It's going to come down to you and Puck and look, I know you're a good fighter, but there's only one way that you can beat him."
I remember Riptide glancing off of Kronos' skin, the feeling of defeat as he almost killed me with a singe cut.
"You could get the same power. You heard the Great Prophecy, you know what it says and we can stop your soul being reaped-"
"You can't prevent a prophecy." I stop him there, shaking my head. "That's not how that works, Nico."
"But you can fight it." Nico shoots back. "You can become invincible."
"That's the start of every villain origin story ever."
"Romy, please, be serious, for once!" He's glaring, and as much as he's trying to be intimidating, he fails. "It has to be now. When the fight starts, you can't make the journey. They need you here! My sister died making sure that they got you back, and I have to honour that. You have to stay alive, to defeat Kronos, for her."
I narrow my eyes. He's definitely learnt the guilt trip card from living with me for so long.
"I should talk to Luke."
"No time and he'll just say no."
"Yeah, I've learnt that's normally a good thing cause it stops stupid plans from forming." I sigh. "What do we need to do?"
"Talk to Brooke." I pause, eyebrows furrowing. No one had heard or seen Brooke in about a year. She'd taken off after pushing Puck off a cliff, not that I could truly blame her. Though, possibly Luke was still in touch with her.
"I'll ask Luke for her contact, get the pegasus ready."
"No. We don't need to, there's no need for flying." Nico cut me off as if I should have known that already.
"Okay..."
"Your dog can help." He patted Mrs O'Leary's nose as my dog turned. "Haven't you tried shadow travel yet?"
"No, because unfortunately, nowhere in the manual for how to care for your dog did it say try shadow travelling." I deadpan as Nico rolls his eyes. He whispered something in my dog's ear, making her perk up as he motioned for me to climb onboard. I sighed, wondering why I couldn't have a normal life before clambering ontop of her.
"Mrs O'Leary luckily knows what she's doing. Tell her where to go. Tell her to find Brooke Evans. She'll know what to do."
"You're not coming?"
"I'll meet you there." Nico shrugs, as I pat my dog's neck. He disappears into the shadows as I consider my one final moment to back out before shrugging.
"Alright. Okay, baby. Can you take me to Brooke Evans?" Mrs O'Leary sniffed the air before looking into the gloom of the forest. Then, she bounded forward, ran straight towards and oak tree and just as I was about to scream, we hit the shadows and everything went cold.
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Hiya,
So, Andi is such a tired mom with Nico, who is all down to get her killed but I love both of them a lot and also, yes, Mrs O'Leary looks like a Beligan Shepherd instead of a mastiff because Cerberus is a mastiff and it'll all be explained. Anyway, Luke's gonna kill her so this should be fun.
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx