𝙇𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨 (𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙭 𝙁𝙚𝙢! 𝙊𝘾) 𝙏𝙏𝘾

Our Evil Mother Calls

That night after dinner, Sylvia was ready to lose to the Hunters for the fifty-sixth time in a row. Honestly, she just wasn't feeling competitive. She wanted to go back to what she'd been doing with her cabin and Finn earlier: brainstorming ways to save Annabeth, but apparently they needed to play or something. It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca di Angelo, and double that many campers.

Zoe Nightshade looked pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe he was making her do this. The other Hunters didn't look too happy, either. The previous night at dinner, they'd been laughing and joking, but this time they just huddled together in the dining pavilion, whispering to each other as they strapped on their armour. Some of them looked like they'd been crying. Sylvia guessed Zoe had told them about her nightmare.

On Sylvia's team, they had Beckendorf; Jake Mason; and Nyssa, all children of Hephaestus; Clarisse; Alan; and Sherman Yang, all from the Ares cabin, the Stoll brothers; Nico; Jason Trazel; Laurel Victor; Holly Victor; and the Nakamura siblings from Hermes cabin, Lux; Kayla; Austin; Will; and Sylvia from their cabin, Silena Beauregard; Mitchell Spark; Drew Tanaka; and Lacey Amora from Aphrodite, and Thalia and Percy. The last two were in charge, much to Sylvia's annoyance. Fawkes was with Chiron. Being an animal, she wasn't allowed to play.

"I'll take the offense," Thalia volunteered, turning to Percy. "You take defense."

"Oh." he hesitated. Sylvia guessed he wanted to do the opposite. "Don't you think with your shield and all, you'd be better defense?"

Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even their own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa.

"Well, I was thining it'd make better offense," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defense."

Sylvia snorted. Percy's first year, he'd almost been obliterated by Clarisse, Alan, and a few others. Annabeth had put him there on defense as bait. It'd been Sylvia's suggestion, actually, since she knew exactly what Clarisse would do. She was still kind of disappointed he hadn't died from that.

"Yeah, no problem," Percy said, obviously lying, as he sent Sylvia a look.

"Clarisse, Sylvia, Connor and Travis, you guys and your cabins come with me," Thalia instructed. Suddenly, a ringing noise was heard.

"Is that...a ringtone?" Ethan asked.

Sylvia turned to Clarisse. That was the sound of the phone they shared. But who was calling them? She watched as Clarisse picked it up and answered, her face immediately turning pale. She glanced at Sylvia, her eyes full of worry. Something was wrong. She took the phone away from her ear for a moment. "Alan, you're in charge." Then she walked away, towards Chiron, still listening to whoever was talking to her.

Sylvia frowned. Clarisse didn't act like that. Ever.

"Um..." Thalia seemed too...shocked to say anything for a moment. "Right. That happened. Well, as I was saying..."

Clarisse beckoned to Sylvia, and she ran up to her. "What's wrong?"

Clarisse was so upset, she accidentally starting talking in French. "Well, Mom called. She said she found a deranged boy in full Greek armour around her house who wouldn't leave her alone, and that she'd murder him if we didn't get him out soon. She said...she said she'd also find us for the inconvenience and...well, yeah."

Sylvia was so caught off-guard, she couldn't find her voice for a moment. "What? But...how? Who was it? We have to go, don't we? How the Hades did she even get our number? What'd you tell her? Does she know where we are? Did one of our fathers snitch?"