SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

41 - regret

THERE WAS NO more talking as they followed the table tracks deeper into the woods. The birds were silent. No monsters growled. It was as if all the other living creatures in the woods had been smart enough to leave.

Finally they came to a clearing the size of a mall parking lot. The sky overhead was heavy and gray. The grass was dry yellow, and the ground was scarred with pits and trenches as if there had been explosions. In the center of the clearing stood a pile of boulders about thirty feet tall. Briar recognized this place.

"Oh," she said. "This isn't good."

"Why?" Leo asked.

"It's bad luck to be here," Jason said. "This is the battle site."

Leo scowled. "What battle?"

Briar raised her eyebrows. "How can you not know about it? The other campers talk about this place all the time."

"Been a little busy," Leo said.

"The Battle of the Labyrinth." Briar rolled her eyes, but she explained to Leo how the pile of rocks used to be called Zeus's Fist, back when it looked like something, not just a pile of rocks. There'd been an entrance to a magical labyrinth here, and a big army of monsters had come through it to invade camp. The campers won — obviously, since camp was still here — but it had been a hard battle. Several demigods had died. The clearing was still considered cursed.

"Great," Leo grumbled. "Buford has to run to the most dangerous part of the woods. He couldn't just, like, run to the beach or a burger shop."

"Speaking of which . . ." Jason studied the ground. "How are we going to track him? There's no trail here."

Briar casually strolled into the clearing. They searched for table tracks, but as they made their way to the pile of boulders they found nothing.

"If I had more time," Leo said, "I could make a tracking device, but—"

"Does Buford have a round tabletop?" Briar interrupted, spotting something in the distance. "With little steam vents sticking up on one side?"

Leo stared at her. "How did you know?"

"Because he's right over there." She pointed.

Buford was waddling toward the far end of the clearing, steam puffing from his vents. As they watched, he disappeared into the trees.

"That was easy." Jason started to follow, but Leo held him back.

The hairs on the back of Briar's neck stood up. She realized she could hear voices from the woods on their left.

"Someone's coming!" Leo warned.

He pulled her and Jason behind the boulders.

Jason whispered, "Leo—"

"Shh!"

A dozen barefoot girls skipped into the clearing. They were teenagers with tunic-style dresses of loose purple and red silk. Their hair was tangled with leaves, and most wore laurel wreaths. Some carried strange staffs that looked like torches. The girls laughed and swung each other around, tumbling in the grass and spinning like they were dizzy. They were all really gorgeous, but Briar wasn't tempted to flirt. She had a girlfriend.

She sighed. "They're just nymphs, Leo."

Leo gestured frantically at her to stay down. He whispered, "Crazy cousins!"

Her eyes widened. Right. How could she have been so dumb, even for a second?

As the nymphs got closer, Briar started to notice odd details about them. Their staffs weren't torches. They were twisted wooden branches, each topped with a giant pinecone, and some were wrapped with living snakes. The girls' laurel wreaths weren't wreaths, either. Their hair was braided with tiny vipers. The girls smiled and laughed and sang in Ancient Greek as they stumbled around the glade. They appeared to be having a great time, but their voices were tinged with a sort of wild ferocity. If the Aphrodite cabin could sing, Briar thought they would sound like this.