❝they're breaking your heart? then try to hear it pound ❞
Hina was startled awake by a banging on her door.
"Hina, are you in there?"
It was Jason.
She unlocked the door unsure what was so important he had to wake her. Hina's hair was a rat's nest on top of her head, and her face was covered in lines from her pillow. Despite the horrible news Jason had, he let out a small chuckle.
Hina frowned, starting to close her door. "If you came to laugh, I'm going back to bed."
"Wait!" Jason grabbed the closing door and pushed it back open. "We have a problem. A big one. Annabeth and Percy are missing."
"You should have started with that!" Hina scolded, rushing out of her cabin.
The entire ship was being searched furiously. Everyone ran around the Argo II, fears of the worst possibilities in their minds: Annabeth and Percy were the blood sacrifices.
The group split up, everyone taking a section of the ship.
As soon as the chaos started, it was over. Frank had found the missing demigods asleep in the stables together.
When everyone was gathered in the mess hall, there was a whirlpool of emotions. Hazel's face was red, and she kept fanning herself in shock- the notion of Annabeth and Percy together too much for her to cope with. Jason and Piper were relieved. Hina had a small frown on her face, but forgave the two. In contrast, Leo couldn't wipe the grin off his face as he mumbled, "Classic, classic."
Naturally, Coach Hedge was ballistic. He was jumping up and down, waving his fists in the air.
"Never in my life!" Coach bellowed, waving his bat and knocking over a plate of apples. "Against the rules! Irresponsible!"
"Coach," Annabeth said, "it was an accident. We were talking, and we fell asleep."
"Besides," Percy said, "you're starting to sound like Terminus."
Hedge narrowed his eyes. "Is that an insult, Jackson? 'Cause I'll—I'll terminus you, buddy!"
"It won't happen again, Coach. I promise. Now, don't we have other things to discuss?"
Hedge fumed. "Fine! But I'm watching you, Jackson. And you, Annabeth Chase, I thought you had more sense—"
Jason cleared his throat. "So grab some food, everybody. Let's get started."
Since the previous night, Hina was doing what she did best: avoiding her problems. She wedged herself between Piper and Annabeth at the table, instead of her usual spot beside Leo.
Their meeting was a tense discussion with a plate of donuts circling the room. Percy told everyone of his dream about twin giants in an underground parking lot, planning a reception for themselves. He talked about Nico di Angelo trapped in a bronze jar, slowly dying from asphyxiation surrounded by pomegranate seeds.
Hazel choked back a sob. "Nico... Oh, gods. The seeds."
"You know what they are?" Annabeth asked.
Hazel nodded. "He showed them to me once. They're from our stepmother's garden."
"Your step... oh," Percy said. "You mean Persephone."
"The seeds are a last-resort food," Hazel explained. She must have been nervous because all the silverware was slowly creeping towards her. "Only children of Hades can eat them. Nico always kept some in case he got stuck somewhere. But if he's really imprisoned—"
"The giants are trying to lure us," Annabeth said. "They're assuming we'll try to rescue him."
"Well, they're right!" Hazel looked around the table, her confidence apparently crumbling. "Won't we?"
"Yes!" Coach Hedge yelled with a mouthful of napkins. "It'll involve fighting, right?"
"Hazel, of course we'll help him," Frank said. "But how long do we have before... uh, I mean, how long can Nico hold out?"
"One seed a day," Hazel said miserably. "That's if he puts himself in a death trance."
"A death trance?" Annabeth scowled. "That doesn't sound fun."
"It keeps him from consuming all his air," Hazel said. "Like hibernation, or a coma. One seed can sustain him one day, barely."
"And he has five seeds left," Percy said. "That's five days, including today. The giants must have planned it that way, so we'd have to arrive by July first. Assuming Nico is hidden somewhere in Rome—"
"That's not much time," Piper summed up. She put her hand on Hazel's shoulder. "We'll find him. At least we know what the lines of the prophecy mean now. 'Twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death.' Your brother's last name: di Angelo. Angelo is Italian for 'angel.'"
"Oh, gods," Hazel muttered. "Nico..."
Hina peered around Piper, giving Hazel a faint smile.
"We'll find him, Hazel," she promised.
"We'll rescue him,"Percy promised her. "We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless death."
"That's right," Piper said encouragingly. "Hazel, your brother went searching for the Doors of Death in the Underworld, right? He must've found them."
"He can tell us where the doors are," Percy said, "and how to close them."
Hazel took a deep breath. "Yes. Good."
"Uh..." Leo shifted in his chair. "One thing. The giants are expecting us to do this, right? So we're walking into a trap?"
Half the table shot Leo murderous glances as Hazel cried out, "We have no choice!"
"Don't get me wrong, Hazel. It's just that your brother, Nico... he knew about both camps, right?"
"Well, yes," Hazel said.
"He's been going back and forth," Leo said, "and he didn't tell either side."
Jason's expression grew grim. "You're wondering if we can trust the guy. So am I."
Hina agreed with Jason, but she didn't speak up for fear of upsetting Hazel anymore.
Hazel shot to her feet. "I don't believe this. He's my brother. He brought me back from the Underworld, and you don't want to help him?"
Frank put his hand on her shoulder. "Nobody's saying that." He glared at Leo. "Nobody had better be saying that."
Leo blinked. "Look, guys. All I mean is—"
"Hazel," Jason said. "Leo is raising a fair point. I remember Nico from Camp Jupiter. Now I find out he also visited Camp Half-Blood. That does strike me as... well, a little shady. Do we really know where his loyalties lie? We just have to be careful."
Hazel was shaking. A silver platter shot towards her, smashing into the wall behind her, scattering pulverized eggs everywhere. "You.. the great Jason Grace... the praetor I looked up to. You were supposed to be so fair, such a good leader. And now you..." Hazel stomped her foot and stormed away.
"Hazel!" Leo called after her. "Ah, jeez. I should—"
"You've done enough," Frank growled, standing to follow after Hazel.
In sync, Piper and Hina both stopped him in his tracks.
"Let's give her a moment," Hina advised, pleading Frank to understand.
Piper nodded, turning to face Jason and Leo with a frown. "You guys, that was pretty cold."
Jason looked genuinely shocked. "Cold? I'm just being cautious!"
"Her brother is dying," Piper said.
"I'll go talk to her," Frank insisted.
"No," Piper said. "Let her cool down first. Trust me on this. I'll go check on her in a few minutes."
"But..." Frank huffed. "Fine. I'll wait."
Hina wasn't sure if Piper was using her charmspeak or exercising her leadership abilities. Regardless, Hina was proud of her for taking control of the situation. Frank sunk into his chair.
From upstairs a loud whirring sound caught everyone's attention.
"That's Festus," Leo explained. "I've got him on autopilot, but we must be nearing Atlanta. I'll have to get up there... uh, assuming we know where to land."
Everyone turned to Percy.
Jason raised an eyebrow. "You're Captain Salt Water. Any ideas from the expert?"
There was still a small edge in Jason's tone, possibly still thinking of the duel in Topeka.
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "Somewhere central, high up so we can get a good view of the city. Maybe a park with some woods? We don't want to land a warship in the middle of downtown. I doubt even the Mist could cover up something that huge."
Leo nodded. "On it." He raced for the stairs.
"When we land, I'll scout around in Atlanta," Percy said. "Frank, I could use your help."
"You mean turn into a dragon again? Honestly, Percy, I don't want to spend the whole quest being everyone's flying taxi."
Hina recognized the defeat in Frank's voice. He was feeling like an outsider on the ship. The spiteful looks him and Leo kept exchanging must have made it hard for Frank to function.
"No," Percy said. "I want you with me because you've got the blood of Poseidon. Maybe you can help me figure out where to find salt water. Besides, you're good in a fight."
Frank seemed to brighten up. "Sure. I guess."
"Great," Percy said. "We should take one more. Annabeth—"
"Oh, no!" Coach Hedge barked. "Young lady, you are grounded."
Annabeth's mouth fell open as if the word was foreign to her. "Excuse me?"
"You and Jackson are not going anywhere together!" Hedge insisted. Despite the somber tone of their previous conversation, Hina let out an airy laugh as the satyr fixed Percy with a glare. "I'll go with Frank and Mr. Sneaky Jackson. The rest of you guard the ship and make sure Annabeth doesn't break any more rules!"
"This is going to be so much fun," Percy said.
"Well, Pipes I need you to- um, help me with the med bay," Hina grinned, waving Piper to follow. She marched the girl to her cabin, shutting the door behind her.
Hina leaned against the door, her heart racing. "Nowhere is safe."
"What?" Piper furrowed her brow. "You're not making sense, Hina."
"The Eidolons were on the Argo. They were biding their time, and in Kansas if you hadn't stopped their fighting I could have been taken before anyone could do anything. And the thing they said, about going after the one Gaea wants, I think it was me and I'm scared. I don't know what she wants from me."
The girls sat in silence for a moment.
"We'll keep you safe. We all need to look out for each other. Hina, I think it's time we told everyone," Piper decided.
"But-"
"We can't keep you protected if only I know about this. We need everyone's help. We're a team now, it's not just you against the world anymore,"
Hina sighed in defeat, sinking to the floor. "Fine. Next meeting I'll tell everyone."
Piper pulled Hina to her feet and sat her on the bed. The blonde brought her knees to her chest, hugging them tightly.
"What's going on with you and Leo?" Piper asked, sitting beside her friend. Over the months it took to build the Argo II, Hina and Piper became like sisters to each other. They'd been through so much together, and talked about their pasts a lot.
"I honestly don't know anymore. He's been acting weirder than usual. I think something happened with Hazel that they're not telling us. It's driving me insane, Piper! You and Jason are so happy, Annabeth and Percy are made for each other, and I just don't understand. At camp, he would look at me and my heart would skip a beat, now it feels like he's looking right past me."
Hina fell back against her bed, the constellations above her head seemingly shining to mock her. Piper glanced at the labelled clusters of stars.
"I'm pretty sure if someone creates a program that shows all the fake constellations you made up just to make you feel safe at night, they care about you a lot. And that doesn't go away so easily," Piper smiled.
"How are you so sure?" Hina asked.
"It's an Aphrodite thing."
Piper wrapped Hina in a hug as she considered smacking Leo with his Wii controller. The moment was interrupted as footsteps stomped past Hina's closed door, Frank voice following soon after.
"Annabeth!"
The girls shared a look, rising from their beds to see what the commotion was.
On the deck, Percy and Hedge were laying looking exhausted. Hedge had lost his shoes but he was grinning wildly muttering, "Awesome." under his breath repeatedly. Percy was covered in nicks and scratches but otherwise looked unharmed.
Annabeth, Jason and Leo, who had been eating in the mess hall, ran up the stairs.
"What? What?" Leo cried, holding a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. "Can't a guy even take a lunch break? What's wrong?"
"Followed!" Frank yelled again.
"Followed by what?" Jason asked.
"I don't know!" Frank panted. "Whales? Sea monsters? Maybe Kate and Porky!"
Hina hoped Frank wasn't always so vague and delirious or the ride to Greece would be a painfully long one.
"That makes absolutely no sense. Leo, you'd better get us out of here," Annabeth ordered looking exasperated.
Leo shoved his sandwich in his mouth, holding it with his teeth as he rushed to the helm.
In no time, the Argo II was in the air while Annabeth manned a crossbow on the side of the ship. Hina stood, eyes searching the horizon. There was no sign of being followed by whales, sea monsters or any other oddities Frank had mentioned.
"Charleston," Percy mumbled as he hobbled around the deck like an old man. He still sounded shaken up.
"Set course for Charleston."
"Charleston?" Jason said the name as if it brought back bad memories. "What exactly did you find in Atlanta?"
Frank unzipped his backpack and starting bringing out souvenirs. "Some peach preserves. A couple of T-shirts. A snow globe. And, um, these not-really-Chinese handcuffs."
Annabeth took a strangled breath. "How about you start from the top—of the story, not the backpack."
The group migrated to the quarterdeck so Leo could listen while he navigated, his grilled cheese no longer hanging from his mouth. Percy and Frank took turns relaying the events, with Hedge occasionally jumping in to express his heroics.
Percy talked about the captive sea creatures and his eyes shone with anger.
"That's terrible," Annabeth said. "We need to help them."
"We will," Percy promised. "In time. But I have to figure out how. I wish..." He shook his head. "Never mind. First we have to deal with this bounty on our heads."
Coach Hedge had lost his interest in the conversation as it was no longer about fighting and wandered to the bow of the ship where he began practicing his roundhouse kicks.
Annabeth gripped the hilt of her dagger. "A bounty on our heads...as if we didn't attract enough monsters already."
"Do we get WANTED posters?" Leo asked, sounding too excited by the prospect of being hunted. "And do they have our bounties, like, broken down on a price list?"
Hazel wrinkled her nose. "What are you talking about?"
"Just curious how much I'm going for these days," Leo said. "I mean, I can understand not being as pricey as Percy or Jason, maybe...but am I worth, like, two Franks, or three Franks?"
"Hey!" Frank complained.
"Knock it off," Annabeth ordered. "At least we know our next step is to go to Charleston, to find this map."
"A map?" Hina asked.
"Map to what?" Piper chimed in.
"The Mark of Athena." Percy nervously looked to Annabeth as if he was afraid to overstep.
"Whatever that is," he continued. "We know it leads to something important in Rome, something that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks."
"The giants' bane," Hazel added.
Percy nodded. "And in my dream, the twin giants said something about a statue."
"Um," Frank rolled his not-so-Chinese handcuffs between his hands. "According to Phorcys, we'd have to be insane to try to find it. But what is it?"
Hina turned to Annabeth, knowing she'd have the answer, regardless of if she wanted to share it. Jason was studying Annabeth, his face pale.
"I—I'm close to an answer," she said. "I'll know more if we find this map. Jason, the way you reacted to the name Charleston...have you been there before?"
"Yeah," he admitted. "Reyna and I did a quest there about a year ago. We were salvaging Imperial gold weapons from the C.S.S. Hunley."
"The what?" Piper asked.
"Whoa!" Leo said. "That's the first successful military submarine. From the Civil War. I always wanted to see that."
"It was designed by Roman demigods," Jason said. "It held a secret stash of Imperial gold torpedoes—until we rescued them and brought them back to Camp Jupiter."
Hazel frowned. "So the Romans fought on the Confederate side? As a girl whose grandmother was a slave, can I just say...not cool?"
At this point in time, Hina wasn't sure how important those facts were but she let it slide after everything Hazel was dealing with.
Jason put his hands up in defense. "I personally was not alive then. And it wasn't all Greeks on one side and all Romans on the other. But, yes. Not cool. Sometimes demigods make bad choices." He looked sheepishly at Hazel. "Like sometimes we're too suspicious. And we speak without thinking."
It slowly seemed to dawn on Hazel that Jason was apologizing.
Jason slammed his elbow into Leo's ribs.
"Ow!" Leo yelped. "I mean, yeah...bad choices. Like not trusting people's brothers who, you know, might need saving. Hypothetically speaking."
Hazel pursed her lips. "Fine. Back to Charleston. Are you saying we should check that submarine again?"
Jason shrugged. "Well...I can think of two places in Charleston we might search. The museum where they keep the Hunley—that's one of them. It has a lot of relics from the Civil War. A map could be hidden in one. I know the layout. I could lead a team inside."
"I'll go," Leo said. "That sounds cool."
Jason turned to Frank who was wrestling with the Chinese handcuffs.
"You should come too, Frank. We might need you."
Frank looked surprised. "Why? Not like I was much good at that aquarium."
"You did fine," Percy assured him. "It took all three of us to break that glass."
"Besides, you're a child of Mars," Jason said. "The ghosts of defeated causes are bound to serve you. And the museum in Charleston has plenty of Confederate ghosts. We'll need you to keep them in line."
Frank didn't look too happy with the thought of talking to Confederate ghosts.
"Okay." Frank relented. "Sure." He struggled against the trap. "Uh, how do you—?"
Leo chuckled. "Man, you've never seen those before? There's a simple trick to getting out."
Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel was trying not to laugh. Hina covered her mouth, suppressing a laugh.
"Okay, okay. This is hurting me," Hina complained, watching Frank continue to struggle. She grabbed his hands, trying to get him to relax.
Frank frowned in concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared, making Hina jump back. On the deck, where Frank once stood was an iguana crouched beside the Chinese handcuffs.
"Well done, Frank Zhang," Leo said dryly, impersonating Chiron. "That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas."
Everyone burst in laughter. Frank turned back into a human, and shoved the contraption into his bag with an embarrassed smile.
"Anyway," Frank said, clearly anxious to change the subject. "The museum is one place to search. But, uh, Jason, you said there were two?"
Jason's laugh died, his face turning dark.
"Yeah," he said. "The other place is called the Battery—it's a park right by the harbor. The last time I was there...with Reyna..." He glanced at Piper, then rushed on. "We saw something in the park. A ghost or some sort of spirit, like a Southern belle from the Civil War, glowing and floating along. We tried to approach it, but it disappeared whenever we got close. Then Reyna had this feeling—she said she should try it alone. Like maybe it would only talk to a girl. She went up to the spirit by herself, and sure enough, it spoke to her."
Everyone waited, but Jason was finished.
"What did it say?" Annabeth asked.
"Reyna wouldn't tell me," Jason admitted. "But it must have been important. She seemed...shaken up. Maybe she got a prophecy or some bad news. Reyna never acted the same around me after that."
Hina frowned. She had had her fair share of ghost encounters and the idea of news bad enough to change someone was not to appealing. Annabeth, however, had different thoughts.
"A girls' adventure, then," Annabeth said. "Piper, Hazel, and Hina can come with me."
All three nodded, although Hazel seemed reluctant. Piper's eyes were blazing with determination, presumably wanting to show she could do whatever Reyna could. Hina just sighed, accepting the order.
"So that's settled." Annabeth turned to Leo who was whispering to Festus, the dragon creaking over the intercom.
"Leo, how long until we reach Charleston?"
"Good question," he muttered. "Festus just detected a large group of eagles behind us—long-range radar, still not in sight."
Piper leaned over the console. "Are you sure they're Roman?"
Leo rolled his eyes. "No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course they're Roman! I suppose we could turn the ship around and fight—"
"Which would be a very bad idea," Jason said, "and remove any doubt that we're enemies of Rome."
"Or I've got another idea," Leo said. "If we went straight to Charleston, we could be there in a few hours. But the eagles would overtake us, and things would get complicated. Instead, we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles. We take the ship on a detour, go the long way to Charleston, and get there tomorrow morning—"
Hazel started to protest, but Leo raised his hand. "I know, I know. Nico's in trouble and we have to hurry."
"It's June twenty-seventh," Hazel said. "After today, four more days. Then he dies."
"I know! But this might throw the Romans off our trail. We still should have enough time to reach Rome."
Hazel scowled. "When you say should have enough..."
Leo shrugged. "How do you feel about barely enough?"
Hazel buried her face in her hands. "Sounds about typical for us."
Annabeth took that as a green light. "Okay, Leo. What kind of decoy did you have in mind?"
Leo's face lit up, he went into a frenzy hitting buttons on the console, rotated a turn table and then rapidly pressed the A button on his Wii remote. He called into the intercom, "Buford? Report for duty, please."
Frank stumbled away. "There's someone else on the ship? Who's Buford?"
A puff of steam shot over the deck and Leo's automatized table crawled forward.
Hina had barely seen Buford since the beginning of the trip. Leo had stowed the table away in the engine room, insisting Buford had a crush on the engine. Buford was a three legged table, with a mahogany top. His bronze base had several drawers, spinning gears, and a set of steam vents. Buford was toting a bag like a mail sack tied to one of his legs. He clattered to the helm and made a sound like a train whistle.
"This is Buford," Hina announced, resting a hand on the table.
"You two name your furniture?" Frank asked incredulously.
Leo snorted. "Man, you just wish you had furniture this cool. Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?"
Buford blew steam. His mahogany tabletop split into four quarters as he stepped to the railing. The quarters of wood elongated into blades. They begun spinning rapidly, and Buford took off.
"A helicopter table," Percy muttered. "Gotta admit, that's cool. What's in the bag?"
"Dirty demigod laundry," Leo said. "I hope you don't mind, Frank."
Frank choked. "What?"
"It'll throw the eagles off our scent."
"Those were my only extra pants!"
Hina couldn't comprehend how ridiculous the demigods were. For people who were supposed to save the world, the eight demigods were extremely dysfunctional.
Leo shrugged. "I asked Buford to get them laundered and folded while he's out. Hopefully he will." He rubbed his hands and grinned. "Well! I call that a good day's work. I'm gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!"
He disappeared into the ship, his laugh echoing through the halls.