Half-Blood High

XV

       Jason

"Wait wait wait. Back up."

Leo was pacing back and forth in front of me. Piper was sitting on the edge of the water fountain, watching him. Her features were drawn, tense. I could tell she was still a little dizzy after what had happened with Mrs. Dodds. The nurse had said she would be fine by the end of the day.

"So you're saying that our old algebra teacher was actually a demon-."

"Fury." Piper interrupted him. "She said she was a Fury named... what was it? Alicia?"

"Alecto." I supplied.

"And you guys fought her and vanquished her or whatever?"

"She turned into dust and blew away." Piper said with an odd shudder. I didn't blame her. I was still trying to process it.

Leo threw his hands up in surrender. "And now you're saying everyone, minus you two, has forgotten who she is?!"

"Yep." I leaned back against the fountain and crossed my arms. "That's all correct."

Leo's eyes widened. "B-but, that's crazy Impossible! Did I already say crazy?" A few students nearby gave us some odd looks and left.

"I'm beginning to think impossible is only an opinion." Piper muttered. And I was beginning to agree with her.

"I just have one question."

"Okay, shoot."

"What the heck is going on at this school?!"

For once, neither of us had an answer.

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      Hazel

"So remind me why we're following Reyna down a dirt tunnel to who knows where?" I whispered. Frank was walking ahead of me, and turned to answer.

"She was acting really edgy. I was curious as to why she was coming into the cleaning closet."

I felt like smacking my head against one of the dirt walls. I had met up with Frank as requested, and he had dragged me into the janitors closet claiming he'd seen Reyna come down here. I'd had sort of just been following him the whole time, trying to make sense of it all.

Just when I was beginning to wonder if Ezra had hit Frank a little too hard, he stopped short. I ran into him by accident.

"Shhh." He guided me over to a wall and got as close to the corner as possible, like he was trying to listen for something. After a strained moment, I heard it too.

Voices.

They were barely audible, but I was pretty sure I knew two of them. I peeked around the corner and saw the tunnel split two ways. The voices were coming from the left turn.

"-need to focus on guarding the entrances." An adult male was saying. "I fear two of our students may have made contact already." There was an odd clip-clop, that reminded me of horse hooves. Did whoever was speaking have a horse?

"Of course. We will do whatever possible to protect the children."

I nearly gasped. Headmistress Pa? What was she doing down here? And was Reyna with her?

"Grover and I will make sure that no one goes into the labyrinth. We swear it on the River Styx. Can you and Miss Arellano promise the same?"

"Yes. We both swear on the River Styx to do all that we can to prevent any students from entering the labyrinth."