While Frank and Hazel led Percy to the principia, flanking Reyna, I stayed on crowd control, ushering everyone back to their duties despite Reyna having ordered them to leave seconds ago. Once I was sure no one followed the group, I waited for the four of them inside the principia, shadow-traveling myself so that I sat atop the long, messy table, popping a few of the jellybeans from the bowl into my mouth.
Reyna swore in Latin when she saw me, flinching imperceptibly in fright. "Mars Almighty, I hate when you do that," she grumbled, taking a seat in one of the two high-backed chairs.
"Do what?" Percy asked. "She's just sitting there."
Hazel glanced at Percy like she couldn't believe that he'd just spoken out of turn. She went to explain, but at the sight of Reyna and her two metal greyhounds, Hazel kept her mouth shut.
"I shadow-traveled without telling Reyna," I explained, hopping down from the table, placing some of the fallen, discarded papers back where they belonged. "Most people don't like when I shadow-travel, but oh, well, it's a convenient form of travel."
"Must you be here?" Reyna asked wearily, her eyes flickering between me and Percy.
"Fine, I'll be with Octavian if you need me. Gods know I need to take that dagger away from him before he murders every last stuffed animal in California." I noticed the panda pillow jutting out of the bag on Percy's back. "If you value that panda," I told Percy, pointing to the pillow, "you'll keep it away from Octavian."
"Who's Octavian?"
"You'll meet him soon enough," Hazel grumbled, her expression darkening at the thought of the arrogant legacy of Apollo.
"Andy, please," Reyna said, her tone as cold as ice. "Not now."
"As you wish." I turned back to Percy and gave him a two-fingered salute. "Welcome to Camp Jupiter."
I took a few steps before shadow-traveling as far as the second floor, concealing myself behind one of the many marble pillars that lined the perimeter. And even though Aurum and Argentum were some of the best hunting dogs in all of existence, they couldn't detect non-mortal humans (aka gods), so I was free to eavesdrop without being caught.
"That," Reyna said, gesturing to where I'd been moments earlier, "is shadow-traveling. You can see why it would be unnerving to most people. You get used to it, or so I'm told."
"Who was that?" Percy asked. "She can't possibly be one of your-?"
"Legionnaires?" Reyna supplied. "No, she's not. Andy is our...well, let's just say that she's our resident goddess. She shows up in times of need or when she is particularly bored and wants to spend time with some of her friends here.
"However the subject at hand is not about Andy but the events that led you here under the blessing of two goddesses. I want to hear Hazel's version of the story first and then your own. But let me warn you that you shouldn't lie." Aurum and Argentum growled in response. "My dogs don't like liars."
After I thought that Percy would be fine on his own, I left the principia, and as I'd told Reyna, I landed on Temple Hill, right between Pluto's and Neptune's shrines. I cringed at the sight of Neptune's, cursing myself that I hadn't restored it ages ago.
I walked over to the oxidized, cobwebbed-covered trident, which had been nailed to a small blue building the size of a tool shed. The paint peeled away in places, mold grew in most of the corners, and a very heavy scent of mildew and dampness permeated through the air, making me scrunch my nose in disgust. On a little platter in the middle of the shed were three dried-up, moldy apples, which reeked something awful.
YOU ARE READING
Changing the Future
Fanfiction"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood..." With one sentence, her life would be changed forever. Andy Collins could never have expected how her love of reading turned into something right out of her favorite series, plunging her into a world where...
