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Book 4- The Battle of The Labyrinth
Ayden had been following the girl for a while now. She'd left Percy's house a few days back. It didn't take her long to start tracking Esmeray. She was easy to find, but hard to keep track of. The girl moved inhumanly. Ayden almost thought she could teleport like her. She'd tracked her to Venora, Italy. It was the farthest Ayden had ever had to travel, but here she was. The girl had dark hair and she was constantly looking around. She knew she was being followed.
Esmeray went into a small shop. It had a coffee sign on the windows. Ayden waited outside for a few minutes, but she didn't come out.
"Guy this is the best time." She crossed the busy street and walked in. Esmeray was sitting in the back corner. Her back to the wall as she drank from a small cup. She tilted her head toward the chair and it moved back. Ayden slowly approached her.
"Sit down, you've been bugging me," The girl spoke as she set down her cup. There was a small red lipstick print on the lip of the cup.
"Didn't think I was."
"What do you want?"
"Esmeray Cromwell," The girl's expression dropped as she leaned back. She took a moment for herself to observe Ayden. She could see the way her aura changed.
"How do you know my last name?"
"I just wanted to meet you."
"Name." Esmeray leaned forward slowly. Ayden knew the glint in her eye.
"Ayden Rivera."
"So," She moved her hand through the air and suddenly the coffee shop changed. She wasn't sitting at a table anymore. She was seated on an old crate. Ayden looked around they were in a warehouse. She stood up and felt a breath behind her. It was hot and had a hint of smoke and something rotting.
"Why have you sought me out? Daughter of Ares. Did those gods send you?" Ayden felt something touch her back. A snout of something. She looked over her shoulders and saw the long scaly tail wrap around the building. "That's Nimbus, by the way. She loves new meat." Ayden slowly turned seeing the dragon's teeth.
"I just came to find you," Ayden offered. She teleported away from the dragon as it let out a low growl. The warm air hit her skin.
"Why? I don't like being followed. I'm not a celebrity unless giving you a picture will make you go away."
"How did you do that?" Ayden asked as she looked around. "We were on the street. We were in the coffee shop, you had a coffee."
"I'm the daughter of Hecate, I can do whatever I want," Esmeray tilted her head to the side and smirked. "Why did you want to find me? Make it quick I've got a date."
"Why did you deny becoming a conduit?" Esmeray stood up from her crate. Nimbus moved around until her head was under Esmeray's hand as she rubbed the scales.
"You took them didn't you?" Ayden pulled her sleeves up exposing the brandings.
"You're stupid," She laughed. "Only a fool would be that drunk for power."
"I did it to save my friends," Ayden pushed her sleeves down.
"And tell me," Esmery crossed her arms. "Did you save them?"
"No." Ayden covered her arms once more.
"I can't help you."
"Why didn't you take them? What did they tell you?" Ayden asked.
"Oh so you've come to save yourself," Esmeray tapped Nimbus's head. "Come sit. We've got much to talk about, but if you even try to attack me Nim here will slaughter you in an instant. That or I will even with your little magic."
"You couldn't have picked somewhere prettier," Ayden slowly approached.
"Nimbus isn't loved by everything, especially not in Europe, too many legends," She sat down. The dragon's tail wrapped around circling Ayden's leg as she sat on the crate.
"How did you get her?"
"She's my familiar," Esmeray smiled at the dragon as it brushed its head against her shoulder.
"I thought those were usually cats or something." Ayden clenched her hands. "I thought you said you had a date?"
"Oh, yes," Esmeray pulled her phone out of her pocket. It was silent as her long fingernails tapped the screen. "Nimbus was a gift from my mother."
"That's a generous and dangerous gift."
"Yeah, well yours practically gave you parts of their immortal souls," Esmeray gestured to her arms.
"What do you know about these? Please, I just want to know what I have coming to me."
"Are you freaking kidding me?!" There was a yell from behind Ayden. She turned around and saw an angry blonde. She had her hands on her hips. "What is this!"
"That's my girlfriend," Esmeray smiled. Ayden looked between the two. "Blair this is Ayden Rivera." The blonde's arms dropped as she pointed at her.
"So you're the little one causing all this trouble," Blair walked over shaking her head. "Ray, we're going to miss the movie."
"I know, B. I'm sorry, but if you were here you would have wanted me to help her." Esmeray explained as Blair stood in front of her.
"Fine," Blair sat down on one of Nimbus's large claws, the dragon seemed unbothered by the girl's action.
"Does she?" Ayden asked as she pointed at her.
"She knows about the gods and all this stupid shit. She's a daughter of Nike." Blair gave a small wave.
"What's your problem?" Blair asked. Ayden rolled up her sleeves exposing the marks. "Oh." She patted Esmeray's thigh. "Your territory, babe." She leaned back onto Nimbus as the dragon sighed. "I'll just be here."
"Yeah," Esmeray turned back to Ayden. "So what do you want to know? I will admit my knowledge will be underwhelming. I wasn't the first one approached."
"Just tell me what you know about this. Anything would help honestly, I just want to know more."
"Other than you getting a lot of unlimited power," Esmeray crossed her ankles. "All I knew at the time about conduits was that if I took the branding it would cost me more than a few odd-looking tattoos and scars on my arms. It was going to take things from my half-mortal life. Those kinds of powers are only meant for immortals. Since you aren't one, it's unclear what could happen or how fast your body will wear out."
"So I'm gonna die sooner if I use the marking more often," Ayden nodded to herself as her brain went wild with possibilities.
"I'm sorry, I really can't be more help about this, but you're the first of our kind. Everyone will be looking to you to see the damage you can do to others and yourself." Esmeray looked down at her nails picking at a few of the gems on the top.
"That's fine thank you, but you've met the primordial?" She changed the subject.
"No," Esmeray shook her head. "I was only in contact with Nyx. She also didn't seem the happiest about wanting to give me the markings so I decided against it. I'm powerful enough with Hecate as my mother, I don't need more magic. It would draw too much attention to me, to us." Esmeray looked over at Blair as the blonde scrolled through her phone.
"So you both went to camp half-blood?" Ayden changed the subject. "The primes said that no others had made it to camp."
"Oh yeah, I was there for about two weeks," Esmeray muttered. "That's how I met Blair," She smiled over her shoulder. The blonde blew her a kiss.
"Yeah, then we decided that was boring and we weren't going to serve people for the rest of our lives so we left." Blair sat up. "Soon after that Hecate let Ray here get Nimbus to protect us as we traveled."
"How many airplanes have you run into in the sky?" Ayden leaned forward. Esmeray and Blair both busted out laughing.
"Really?"
"That's what you ask?" Esmeray ran her hand over her dragon's scales. They were a deep black-purple florescent color. "Only like two and the mist hides everything so it's easy."
"I sometimes the mist forgets for mortals." Ayden looked around. "Do you always hide out in warehouses?"
"Most of the time," Blair stood up and stretched. Her top came up a little exposing a tattoo she had on her lower stomach. Ayden looked away when she saw Esmeray glaring at her.
"So do you have someone?" Esmeray asked. Blair scoffed and hit her shoulder lightly.
"Um, well it's complicated," Ayden reached up for her necklace without thinking about it.
"Oooo," Blair moved closer to Ayden grabbing her necklace. "P? Who is that? Is that him or her?" Ayden blushed a little as she took the necklace back between her fingers.
"He's um, well I probably shouldn't tell you."
"We're never going to see each other again and besides you owe me something," Esmeray crossed her legs. "I gave you information, I get something back. Nothing is for free."
"I'm starting to learn that," Ayden muttered. "His name is Percy."
"Jackson?!" Blair yelled as she covered her mouth. She turned back to Esmeray. "Oh, this is kind of cute and horrifying at the same time."
"What? Why?" Ayden asked. She was confused as to why it would be horrifying.
"Well, you both are well-known and not really liked by many of the gods. You especially," Blair ran her hand through her short hair. "What does he look like? I've ever actually seen him."
"Blair," Esmeray warned. The blonde held her hands up.
"Yep, right, sorry." She snapped her fingers and walked over to Nimbus scratching under the dragon's head as she blew out rings from her nose.
"How long have you been following me?" Esmeray asked. Ayden chewed the inside of her lip as she counted the days.
"Only about six days," She nodded. "Yeah, it was easy to find you, but it was hard to keep track of you," she gestured to Nimbus. "And now I know why."
"Can't you teleport?" Blair asked. Her head popped up over the dragon's head once again.
"She can't just teleport into the sky without knowing the place," Esmeray corrected. She looked back over at Ayden for confirmation.
"I've got a lot of abilities, but yes I have to be able to visualise where I land, solid ground is the easiest. The sky has too many risks." She nodded.
"So you can teleport back to the camp, like this?" Esmeray snapped her fingers. Ayden nodded. "wow, kind of wish I could do that." Esmeray opened her hand and a book appeared.
"What's that?"
"Her grimoire!" Blair smiled and moved closer to her. "She writes down all of her casts and hexes." Esmeray smiled as Blair looked over her shoulder reading something she wrote down. The witch didn't have a pen she was using her fingernail to write something on the pages.
"Oh I didn't know you had one of those, the other at camp that I met," Ayden paused. She'd had never officially met one of them from Hecate's cabin. They all generally kept to themselves.
"Yeah, you're going to be paused for a while. Some of them are hermits," Esmeray closed her book and it disappeared in thin air.
"Ray, if we go now, we could make it to Ireland before a half pint." Blair pointed out. Esmeray nodded and stood up. She adjusted her long skirt.
"Well Ayden, it was nice to meet you and I wish you the best for the next thirteen years of your life." She gave her a tight smile. Nimbus realized something was going on cause her head was off the floor and Ayden could see how alert the dragon truly was. It had these majestic purple eyes that followed Esmeray as she moved around to the side of the dragon.
"I'm glad I met you and I hope you and Percy make it to the end," Blair told her as she waved at her. Ayden decided it was best to leave before they tried to sneak the dragon back out onto the busy streets of Venora. She turned teleporting back to her cabin.
"Ah!" She frightened Freddy. He had thrown his tray of snacks into the air. "Jesus Ayden!" He shook his head. "Look what you did. I've been hoarding these for weeks." He pointed at the trashed snacks now.
"Sorry, Freddy," She grimaced. "I can get you more before breakfast. I promise. Where is Clarisse?"
"She went on some kind of quest or something, Chrion won't answer questions though." Freddy bench over picking up the mess on the floor.
"Okay?" Ayden turned on her heel and left the cabin. Percy wasn't here, Annabeth wasn't here. She thought maybe being with Clarisse would relax her, but Clarisse wasn't here either. She found herself in front of the cabin in the woods. Her fingers traced the initials she'd carved into he wood as she walked toward the door. There was a butterfly that had followed her inside. At first, she tried to wave it back outside, but she gave up. She decided to crack all the windows so it didn't get trapped in the cabin when she left.