Shadow travel was horrible. Lilia had her arms wrapped so tightly around Percy that she was beginning to lose feeling in them.
One minute she couldn't see anything. She could only feel Percy's body pressed up against hers.
In other circumstances she would have been blushing like crazy, but her mind couldn't think about that right now.
The next minute the shadows melted into a new scene. They were on a cliff in the woods of Connecticut. Lots of trees, low stone
walls, big houses. Down one side of the cliff, a highway cut through a ravine. Down the other side was a backyard. The property was huge-more wilderness than lawn. The house was a two-story white Colonial. Despite the fact that it was right on the other side of the hill from a highway, it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. Lilia could see a light glowing in the kitchen window. A rusty old swing set stood under an apple tree.
Mrs. O'Leary staggered. They remembered what Nico had said about shadow travel draining her, so Percy slipped off her back, helping Lilia down after.
She let out a huge toothy yawn that would've scared a T. rex, then turned in a circle and flopped down so hard the ground shook.
Nico appeared right next to them, as if the shadows had darkened and created him. He stumbled, but Percy caught his arm.
"I'm okay," he managed, rubbing his eyes.
"How did you do that?" Percy asked.
"Practice. A few times running into walls. A few accidental trips to China."
Mrs. O'Leary started snoring. If it hadn't been for the roar of traffic behind them, Lilia was sure she would've woken up the whole neighborhood.
"Are you going to take a nap too?" Percy asked Nico.
He shook his head. "The first time I shadow traveled, I passed out for a week. Now it just makes me a little drowsy, but I can't do it more than once or twice a night. Mrs. O'Leary won't be going anywhere for a while."
"So we've got some quality time in Connecticut." Percy gazed at the white Colonial house. "What now?"
"We ring the doorbell," Nico said.
Lilia sighed, this was a terrible idea.
The sidewalk was lined with familiar little stuffed beanbag animals you see in gift shops. There were miniature lions, pigs, dragons, hydras, even a teeny Minotaur in a little Minotaur diaper. Judging from their sad shape, the beanbag creatures had been sitting out here a long time since the snow melted last spring at least. One of the hydras had a tree sapling sprouting between its necks.
The front porch was infested with wind chimes. Shiny bits of glass and metal clinked in the breeze.
The front door was painted turquoise. The name CASTELLAN was written in English, and below in Greek: Alonths poupíov.
Nico looked at them. "Ready?"
He'd barely tapped the door when it swung open.
"Lilia! You're back, and you brought my son!" the old lady cried happily. "Luke!"
Lilia smiled sadly at the woman, the two boys gave her wide eyed looks.
Her white hair stuck out in tufts all over her head. Her pink housedress was covered in scorch marks and smears of ash. When she smiled, her face looked unnaturally stretched, and the high-voltage light in her eyes made me wonder if she was blind.
"Oh, my dear boy!" She hugged Nico.
Then she smiled at Percy and said, "Luke!"
She forgot all about Nico and gave him a hug. She was as thin as a scarecrow, but that didn't stop her from almost crushing him.
"Come in!" she insisted. "I have your lunch ready!"
She ushered them inside. The living room was even weirder than the front lawn. Mirrors and candles filled every available space. Above the mantel, a little bronze Hermes flew around the second hand of a ticking clock.
Lilia noticed the framed picture on the mantel, and she froze-Luke around nine years old, with blonde hair and a big smile and two missing teeth. The lack of a scar on his face made him look like a different person— carefree and happy.
"This way, my dear!" Ms. Castellan steered me toward the back of the house. "Oh, I told them you would come back. I knew it!"
She sat them down at the kitchen table. Stacked on the counter were hundreds—actually hundreds of Tupperware boxes with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches inside. The ones on the bottom were green and fuzzy, like they'd been there for a long time.
On top of the oven was a stack of cookie sheets. Each one had a dozen burned cookies on it. In the sink was a mountain of empty plastic Kool-Aid pitchers. A beanbag Medusa sat by the faucet like she was guarding the mess.
Ms. Castellan started humming as she got out peanut butter and jelly and started making a new sandwich. Something was burning in the oven. Lilia got the feeling more cookies were on the way.
Above the sink, taped all around the window, were dozens of little pictures cut from magazines and newspaper ads pictures of Hermes from the FTD Flowers logo and Quickie Cleaners, pictures of the caduceus from medical ads.
Lilia's heart sank. She wanted to get out of that room, but Ms. Castellan kept smiling at themas she made the sandwich, like she was making sure they didn't bolt.
Nico coughed. "Urm, Ms. Castellan?"
"Mm?"
"We need to ask you about your son."
"Oh, yes! They told me he would never come back. But I knew better." She patted Percy's cheek affectionately, giving him peanut butter racing stripes.
"When did you last see him?" Nico asked.
Her eyes lost focus.
"He was so young when he left," she said wistfully. "Third grade. That's too young to run away! He said he'd be back for lunch. And I waited. He likes peanut butter sandwiches and cookies and Kool-Aid. He'll be back for lunch very soon..."
Lilia stared sadly at the woman.
Then she looked at Percy and smiled. "Why, Luke, there you are! You look so handsome. You have your father's eyes."
She turned toward the pictures of Hermes above the sink. "Now, there's a good man. Yes, indeed. He comes to visit me, you know."
The clock kept ticking in the other room. Lilia looked at the two boys pleadingly, trying to ask, 'now do you see why we shouldn't have come?'
"Ma'am," Nico said. "What, uh ... what happened to your eyes?"
Her gaze seemed fractured — like she was trying to focus on him through a kaleidoscope. "Why, Luke, you know the story. It was right before you were born, wasn't it? I'd always been special, able to see through the .... whatever-they-call-it."
"The Mist?" Percy said.
"Yes, dear." She nodded encouragingly. "And they offered me an important job. That's how special I was!"
The two boys glanced at Lilia in confusion.
"What sort of job?" Percy asked. "What happened?"
Ms. Castellan frowned. Her knife hovered over the sandwich bread. "Dear me, it didn't work out, did it? Your father warned me not to try. He said it was too dangerous. But I had to. It was my destiny! And now ... I still can't get the images out of my head. They make everything seem so fuzzy. Would you like some cookies?"
She pulled a tray out of the oven and dumped a dozen lumps of chocolate chip charcoal on the table.
"Luke was so kind," Ms. Castellan murmured. "He left to protect me, you know. He said if he went away, the monsters wouldn't threaten me. But I told him the monsters are no threat! They sit outside on the sidewalk all day, and they never come in." She picked up the little stuffed Medusa from the windowsill. "Do they, Mrs. Medusa? No, no threat at all."
She beamed at Lilia . "I'm so glad you brought him home. I knew you could, I told them he wasn't ashamed!"
She shifted in her seat. She imagined being Luke sitting at this table, eight or nine years old, and just beginning to realize that my mother wasn't all there.
"Ms. Castellan," Lilia said.
"Yes dear?" she said.
"Um, have you seen Luke since he left home?"
"Well, of course!"
She didn't know if she was imagining that or not. For all they knew, every time the mailman came to the door he was Luke. But Nico sat forward expectantly.
"When?" he asked. "When did Luke visit you last?"
"Well, it was ... Oh goodness..." A shadow passed across her face. "The last time, he looked so different. A scar. A terrible scar, and his voice so full of pain....."
"His eyes," Percy said. "Were they gold?"
"Gold?" She blinked. "No. How silly. Luke has blue eyes. Beautiful blue eyes!"
So Luke really had been here, and this had happened before last summer- before he'd turned into Kronos.
"Ms. Castellan?" Nico put his hand on the old woman's arm. "This is very important. Did he ask you for anything?"
She frowned as if trying to remember. "My—my blessing. Isn't that sweet?" She looked at them uncertainly. "He was going to a river, and he said he needed my blessing. I gave it to him. Of course I did."
Nico looked at them triumphantly. "Thank you, ma'am. That's all the information we—"
Ms. Castellan gasped. She doubled over, and her cookie tray clattered to the floor. They jumped
to their feet.
"Ms. Castellan?" Lilia cried out.
"AHHHH," She straightened. They scrambled away and almost fell over the kitchen table, because her eyes— her eyes were glowing green.
"My child," she rasped in a much deeper voice. "Must protect him! Hermes, help! Not my child! Not his fate—no!"
She grabbed Lilia by the shoulders and began to shake her as if to make her understand. "Not his fate!"
Lilia made a strangled scream and pushed her away as gentle as she could.
"Guys, we need to get out-"
Suddenly Ms. Castellan collapsed. Lilia lurched forward and caught her before she could hit the edge of the table. With the help of Percy, she managed to get her into a chair.
"Ms. C?" Percy asked.
She muttered something incomprehensible and shook her head. "Goodness. I ... I dropped the cookies. How silly of me."
She blinked, and her eyes were back to normal— or at least, what they had been before. The green
glow was gone.
"Are you okay?" Lilia asked.
"Well, of course, dear. I'm fine. Why do you ask?" He glanced at Lilia and Nico, who mouthed the word Leave.
"Ms. C, you were telling us something," Percy said. "Something about your son."
"Was I?" she said dreamily. "Yes, his blue eyes. We were talking about his blue eyes. Such a handsome boy!"
"We have to go," Nico said urgently. "We'll tell Luke ... uh, we'll tell him you said hello."
"But you can't leave!" Ms. Castellan got shakily to her feet, and Lilia backed away. It felt silly being scared of a frail old woman, but the way her voice had changed, the way she'd grabbed her, Lilia had stopped coming for a reason...
"Hermes will be here soon," she promised. "He'll want to see his boy!"
"Maybe next time," Percy said. "Thank you for-" he looked down at the burned cookies scattered on the floor. "Thanks for everything."
She tried to stop them, to offer them Kool-Aid, but Lilia had to get out of that house. On the front porch, she grabbed Percy's wrist and he almost jumped out of his skin. "Luke, at least be safe. Promise me you'll be safe."
"I will ... Mom."
That made her smile. She released his wrist, and as she closed the front door she could hear her talking to the candles: "You hear that? He will be safe. I told you he would be!"
As the door shut, they ran. The little beanbag animals on the sidewalk seemed to grin at them as they passed.
"You've been there before?" Percy asked as they ran.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Nico asked.
"I told you it was a bad idea." Lilia said her heartbeat racing.
Back at the cliff, Mrs. O'Leary had found a friend.
A cozy campfire crackled in a ring of stones. A girl about eight years old was sitting cross-legged next to Mrs. O'Leary, scratching the hellhound's ears.
The girl had mousy brown hair and a simple brown dress. She wore a scarf over her head so she looked like a pioneer kid-like the ghost of Little House on the Prairie or something. She poked the fire with a stick, and it seemed to glow more richly red than a normal fire.
"Hello," she said.
Lilia's first thought was: monster. When you're a demigod and you find a sweet little girl alone in the woods-that's typically a good time to draw your sword and attack. Plus, the encounter with Ms.
Castellan had rattled her pretty bad.
But Nico bowed to the little girl. "Hello again, Lady."
She studied Percy and Lilia with eyes as red as the firelight. They decided it was safest to bow.
"Sit, Percy Jackson, Lilia Monroe," she said. "Would you like some dinner?
After staring at moldy peanut butter sandwiches and burned cookies, she didn't have much of an appetite, but the girl waved her hand and a picnic appeared at the edge of the fire. There were plates of roast beef, baked potatoes, buttered carrots, fresh bread, and a whole bunch of other foods she hadn't had in
a long time.
Her stomach started to rumble. It was the kind of home-cooked meal people are supposed to have but never do. The girl made a five-foot-long dog biscuit appear for Mrs. O'Leary, who happily began tearing it to shreds.
Lilia sat between Percy and Nico. They picked up their food, and Lilia was about to dig in when she thought better of it.
She scraped part of her meal into the flames, the way they do at camp. "For the gods," she said.
The little girl smiled. "Thank you. As tender of the flame, I get a share of every sacrifice, you know."
"I recognize you now," Percy said. "The first time I came to camp, you were sitting by the fire, in the middle of the commons area."
"You did not stop to talk," the girl recalled sadly. "Alas, most never do. Nico talked to me. He was the first in many years. Everyone rushes about. No time for visiting family."
"You're Hestia," Lilia said. "Goddess of the Hearth."
She nodded.
"My lady," Nico asked, "why aren't you with the other Olympians, fighting Typhon?"
"I'm not much for fighting." Her red eyes flickered. Lilia realised they weren't just reflecting the flames.
They were filled with flames—but not like Ares's eyes. Hestia's eyes were warm and cozy.
"Besides," she said, "someone has to keep the home fires burning while the other gods are away."
"So you're guarding Mount Olympus?" Lilia asked.
'' 'Guard' may be too strong a word. But if you ever need a warm place to sit and a home-cooked meal, you are welcome to visit. Now eat."
Percy and Nico scarfed down their food like they hadn't eaten for days, Lilia picked at hers.
"That was great," Percy said. "Thank you, Hestia."
She nodded. "Did you have a good visit with May Castellan?" Her eyes stayed on Lilia, like she was reading her every thought.
"What's wrong with her, exactly?" Percy asked.
"She was born with a gift," Hestia said. Percy looked around confused.
"She could see through the Mist." Lilia said quietly.
"Like my mother," Percy said. "But the glowing eyes thing—"
"Some bear the curse of sight better than others," the goddess said sadly. "For a while, May Castellan had many talents. She attracted the attention of Hermes himself. They had a beautiful baby boy. For a brief time, she was happy. And then she went too far."
"One minute she was all happy," Percy said. "And then she was freaking out about her son's fate, like she knew he'd turned into Kronos. What happened to ..... to divide her like that?"
The goddess's face darkened. "That is a story I do not like to tell. But May Castellan saw too much. If you are to understand your enemy, Luke, you must understand his family."
"No wonder Luke ran away," Percy said. "I mean, it wasn't right to leave his mom like that, but still-he was just a kid. Hermes shouldn't have abandoned them."
"She tried her best." Lilia said pointedly.
Hestia scratched behind Mrs. O'Leary's ears. The hellhound wagged her tail and accidentally knocked over a tree.
"It's easy to judge others," Hestia warned. "But will you follow Luke's path? Seek the same powers?"
Nico set down his plate. "We have no choice, my lady. It's the only way Percy stands a chance."
"Mmm." Hestia opened her hand and the fire roared. Flames shot thirty feet into the air. Heat slapped her in the face. Then the fire died back down to normal.
"Not all powers are spectacular." Hestia looked at Lilia. "Sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding. Do you believe me?"
She nodded.
The goddess smiled. "You are a good hero, Lilia Monroe. Not too proud. I like that. But you have much to learn. When Dionysus was made a god, I gave up my throne for him. It was the only way to avoid a civil war among the gods."
Lilia didn't think she was much of a hero.
"It unbalanced the Council," Percy remembered.
"Suddenly there were seven guys and five girls."
Hestia shrugged. "It was the best solution, not a perfect one. Now I tend the fire. I fade slowly into the background. No one will ever write epic poems about the deeds of Hestia. Most demigods don't even stop to talk to me. But that is no matter. I keep the peace. I yield when necessary. Can you do this?"
"I don't know what you mean."
She studied Percy. "Perhaps not yet. But soon. Will you continue your quest?"
"Is that why you're here—to warn me against going?"
Hestia shook her head. "I am here because when all else fails, when all the other mighty gods have gone off to war, I am all that's left. Home. Hearth. I am the last Olympian. You must remember me when you face your final decision.
Lilia didn't like the way she said final.
Percy looked at Lilia and Nico, then back at Hestia's warm glowing eyes. "I have to continue, my lady. I have to stop Luke ... I mean Kronos."
Hestia nodded. "Very well. I cannot be of much assistance, beyond what I have already told you. But since you sacrificed to me, I can return you to your own hearth. I will see you again, Percy, on Olympus."
Her tone was ominous, as though our next meeting would not be happy. The goddess waved her hand, and everything faded.
Suddenly they were in Percy's home. They were sitting on the couch in his mom's apartment on the Upper East Side. That was the good news. The bad news was that the rest of the living room was occupied by Mrs. O'Leary.
I heard a muffled yell from the bedroom. Paul's voice said, "Who put this wall of fur in the doorway?"
"Percy?" my mom called out. "Are you here? Are you all right?"
"I'm here!" He shouted back.
"Ow." Lilia grumbled, he'd shouted right in her ear.
"WOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary tried to turn in a circle to find him mom, knocking all the pictures off the walls.
It took a few minutes, but they finally got things worked out. After destroying most of the furniture in the living room and probably making his neighbors really mad, they got his parents out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where they sat around the kitchen table.
Mrs. O'Leary still took up the entire living room, but she'd settled her head in the kitchen doorway so she could see them, which made her happy. Percy's mom tossed her a ten-pound family-size tube of ground beef, which disappeared down her gullet. Paul poured lemonade for the rest of them while Percy explained about their visit to Connecticut.
"So it's true." Paul stared at Percy like he'd never seen him before. He was wearing his white bathrobe, now covered in hellhound fur, and his salt-and-pepper hair was sticking up in every direction. "All the talk about monsters, and being a demigod... it's really true."
Percy nodded. Last fall he'd explained to Paul who he was. My mom had backed him up. But it seemed this was the moment he really believed them.
"Sorry about Mrs. O'Leary," Percy said, "destroying the living room and all."
Paul laughed like he was delighted. "Are you kidding? This is awesome! I mean, when I saw the hoofprints on the Prius, I thought maybe. But this!"
He patted Mrs. O'Leary's snout. The living room shook—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM-which either meant a SWAT team was breaking down the door or Mrs. O'Leary was wagging her tail.
Lilia watched Percy try and restrain a smile. Paul was a pretty cool guy, even if he was his English teacher as well as his stepdad.
"Thanks for not freaking out," Percy said.
"Oh, I'm freaking out," he promised, his eyes wide. "I just think it's awesome!"
"Yeah, well," Lilia said, "you may not be so excited when you hear what's happening."
Percy told Paul and his mom about Typhon, and the gods, and the battle that was sure to come. Then he told them Nico's plan.
His mom laced her fingers around her lemonade glass. She was wearing her old blue flannel bathrobe, and her hair was tied back. Sally took a deep breath, like she was thinking how to tell me no.
"Percy, it's dangerous," she said. "Even for you."
"Mom, I know. I could die. Nico explained that. But if we don't try-"
"We'll all die," Nico said. He hadn't touched his lemonade. "Ms. Jackson, we don't stand a chance against an invasion. And there will be an invasion."
"An invasion of New York?" Paul said. "Is that even possible? How could we not see the ... the monsters?" He said the word like he still couldn't believe this was real.
"The Mist is strong." Lilia butter in. "Typhon is trampling across the country as we speak, and mortals think he's a storm system."
"Ms. Jackson," Nico said, "Percy needs your blessing. The process has to start that way. I wasn't sure until we met Luke's mom, but now I'm positive. This has only been done successfully twice before. Both times, the mother had to give her blessing. She had to be willing to let her son take the risk."
"You want me to bless this?" She shook her head. "It's crazy. Percy, please-"
"Mom, I can't do it without you."
"And if you survive this.... this process?"
"Then I go to war," Percy said. "Me against Kronos. And only one of us will survive."
He didn't tell her the whole prophecy—about the soul reaping and the end of his days. She didn't need to know that he was probably doomed. They could only hope he'd stop Kronos and save the rest of the world before he died.
"You're my son," she said miserably. "I can't just."
Percy locked eyes with Paul, and some kind of understanding passed between them.
"Sally." He put his hand over her hands. "I can't claim to know what you and Percy have been going through all these years. But it sounds to me... it sounds like Percy is doing something noble.
I wish I had that much courage."
His mom stared at her lemonade. She looked like she was trying not to cry.
"Percy," she said, "I give you my blessing."
Lilia glanced nervously at Nico, He looked more anxious than ever, but he nodded. "It's time."
"Percy," his mom said. "One last thing. If you ... if you survive this fight with Kronos, send me a sign." She rummaged through her purse and handed him her cell phone.
"Mom," he said, "you know demigods and phones-"
"I know," she said. "But just in case. If you're not able to call ... maybe a sign that I could see from anywhere in Manhattan. To let me know you're okay."
"Like Theseus," Paul suggested. "He was supposed to raise white sails when he came home to Athens."
"Except he forgot," Nico muttered. "And his father jumped off the palace roof in despair. But other than that, it was a great idea."
"What about a flag or a flare?" my mom said. "From Olympus-the Empire State Building."
"Something blue," Lilia suggested with a raised eye. Percy and Sally gave her a little smile.
The two of them had a running joke for years about blue food. It was his favorite color, and his mom went out of her way to humor him. Every year his birthday cake, his Easter basket, his Christmas candy canes always had to be blue.
Percy had let Lilia in on the joke and she'd began to do it aswell.
"Yes," Sally agreed. "I'll watch for a blue signal. And I'll try to avoid jumping off palace roofs." She gave him one last hug. Then she pulled Lilia in for a hug whilst Percy shook hands with Paul.
Then the three of them walked to the kitchen doorway and looked at Mrs. O'Leary.
"Sorry, girl," Percy said. "Shadow travel time again."
She whimpered and crossed her paws over her snout.
"Where now?" Lilia asked Nico. "Los Angeles?"
"No need," he said. "There's a closer entrance to the Underworld."
➳
AN:
I fully just realised I haven't made a character board for Nico so I gotta go do that now!!!
Anyways i really wanted to add in the part where Lilia had been to see May a few times, did you guys like that or was it a bit random??
I love Sally and Paul so much, they are the blueprint for the perfect relationship, and I love when Paul finds out about Percy, it makes him fully part of the family!!!! They're all so perfect.
Love you all, hope you enjoyed!
🤍