LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

X.

AFTER CARRYING OUT multiple Iris Messages, some failed ( Annabeth ) and some achieved but at what cost ( Reyna ), Iris waltzed into the room as if she had all the time in the world and told them that Frank was fighting the basilisks.

So, naturally, they rush to get out of there, weapons in their hands. Iris shoved a few things in a rainbow "masculine accessory bag" and gave it to Percy just as they were leaving.

They ran into the clearing, and Mia scanned the field for any sign of a basilisk, but there seemed to be nothing there.

"Are you okay?" Hazel asked.

Percy turned in a circle, looking for enemies. "Iris told us you were out here battling the basilisks by yourself, and we were like, What? We came as fast as we could. What happened?"

"I'm not sure," Frank admitted.

Mia frowned, crouching next to a patch of dirt. "I sense death. Either my brother somehow knew we were here and shadow traveled here or . . . the basilisks are dead?"

Percy stared at Frank in awe. "You killed them all?"

"Thanks a lot, Dad," Frank grumbled.

"What?" Hazel asked. "Frank, are you okay?"

"I'll explain later," he said. "Right now, there's a blind man in Portland we've got to see."

* * *

Percy guided the boat through the strong currents off the northern California coast. The wind was cold, even Mia could feel it. But it felt good, making her relax. The hull rattled as the Pax plowed its way north.

Mia sat on the bench next to where Percy was standing, trying not to laugh as she lazily picked through his brightly colored purse with a peace symbol and the words Hug The Whole World sewn into it. There were vitamin-enriched pastries, dried fruit leather, macrobiotic beef jerky, and a few crystals in the bag.

She refused to eat any of that shit. She'd become rather accustomed to fast food over the months. It wasn't good, but it was the best thing she and Nico could have. Even though, sometimes, she craved to be back home where her chefs would make really fucking good food. But that was something that future Mia could indulge in. Not present Mia.

Meanwhile, Hazel and Frank traded stories about the events at Rainbow Organic Foods. Frank explained about the blind seer Phineas in Portland, and how Iris had said that he might be able to tell them where to find Thanatos. Frank wouldn't say how he had managed to kill the basilisks, but Mia got the feeling it had something to do with the broken point of his spear. Whatever had happened, Frank sounded more scared of the spear than the basilisks.

When he was done, Hazel told Frank about their time with Fleecy.

"So this Iris-message worked?" Frank asked.

Hazel gave Percy a sympathetic look. She didn't mention his failure to contact Annabeth. Mia didn't, either, mostly because she didn't want to remember that incident. If they'd been able to contact Annabeth and she'd seen Mia . . . even with her new blonde hair, she'd totally be doomed. At least, more doomed than she already was.

"I got in touch with Reyna," Hazel said. "You're supposed to throw a coin into a rainbow and say this incantation, like O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Except Fleecy kind of changed it. She gave us her — what did she call it — her direct number? So I had to say, O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show Reyna at Camp Jupiter. I felt kind of stupid, but it worked. Reyna's image appeared in the rainbow, like in a two-way video call. She was in the baths. Scared her out of her mind."

"That I would've paid to see," Frank said. "I mean — her expression. Not, you know, the baths."

"Frank!" Hazel fanned her face like she needed air. She did that a lot, Mia noticed. "Anyway, we told Reyna about the army, but like Percy said, she pretty much already knew. It doesn't change anything. She's doing what she can to shore up the defenses. Unless we unleash Death, and get back with the eagle—"

"The camp can't stand against that army," Mia finished. "Not without help."

After that, they sailed in silence. Even Percy didn't try to ask her any questions. He probably had a lot of stuff on his mind.

Mia took off her makeup then took a short nap because she was bored and woke up because of a nightmare of Percy, telling her everything that she didn't want to hear at all. Traitor. Liar. Worthless. And that was just the stuff barely under the surface.

So she sat on the boat, sifting through her backpack because she was bored. When Hazel asked her to tell the story about the latest trip that she and Nico had gone on, Mia refused. Especially when a killer whale surfaced next to the boat right under her hand. She'd yelped and immediately jumped to the other side of the boat. Percy had given her an amused look, as if they were fifteen years old and on a scary ride in Coney Island. Then the moment passed when he turned to the whale and looked at it intensely, which only meant that he was speaking telepathically to it.

Soon Percy had made a makeshift rope harness and strapped it around the whale's upper body, because it was going to take them to Portland. They sped north under whale-power, and at Mia, Hazel, and Frank's insistence, Percy settled in for a nap.

Then Mia told her story, and another one after it. Then she got tired of storytelling, so she watched the whale and then the sturgeon fish swim, and she watched as the sky got lighter but also not, because it was rainy and cloudy. So she did her makeup, and that took longer than it should have. Percy even woke up by the time she was finished with her makeup.

"I thought I slept heavily," Hazel said. "Welcome to Portland."

The Pax floated on an iron-black river through the middle of the city. Heavy clouds hung low overhead. The cold rain was so light, it seemed suspended in the air. On Mia's left were industrial warehouses and railroad tracks. To her right was a small downtown area — an almost cozy-looking cluster of towers between the banks of the river and a line of misty forested hills.

Percy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "How did we get here?"

Frank gave him a look like, You won't believe this. "The killer whale took us as far as the Columbia River. Then he passed the harness to a couple of twelve-foot sturgeons."

It had been pretty creepy. Mia couldn't look at the fish without immediately looking away and ignoring their existence. Maybe it was just a weird phobia. She didn't know.

"Anyway," Frank continued, "the sturgeons pulled us for a long time. Hazel and I took turns sleeping, but Amelia didn't sleep at all."

She gave him a warning look. "Not tired," she explained, examining her eyeliner, debating if she should do it again. "It's an Underworld thing. Well, maybe. Hazel sleeps a lot."

Frank gulped at her glare. "Then we hit this river—"

"The Willamette," Hazel offered, reaching out to flick Mia's arm.

"Right," Frank said. "After that, the boat kind of took over and navigated us here all by itself. Sleep okay?"

As the Pax glided south, Percy told them about his dreams. A warship might be on the way to help Camp Jupiter. A friendly Cyclops and a giant dog — Tyson and Ms. O'Leary — were looking for him, which made Mia's stomach churn. He also described a Roman fort on the ice.

"So Alcyoneus is on a glacier," Hazel said, looking troubled. "That doesn't narrow it down much. Alaska has hundreds of those."

Percy nodded. "Maybe this seer dude Phineas can tell us which one."

The boat docked itself at a wharf. The four demigods stared up at the buildings of drizzly downtown Portland.

Frank wiped the rain off his flat-top hair.

"So now we find a blind man in the rain," Frank said.

"Yay," Mia said sarcastically.