•as the world caves in•

•i hate red-heads•

The next day, the car ride to Manhattan was silent until Percy said, "Bad dreams?"

I shook my head. "Iris-message from Eurytion. Nico left the ranch last night, heading back into the maze. He thinks Nico is talking to Minos again."

Percy told us about his dream, about Luke, Quintus, who turned out to be bad, and finding a half-blood in the maze.

Annabeth's jaw clenched. "That's very, very bad."

"Guess it's a good thing you have a plan to guide us, huh?" I mumbled.

"Cor..." Percy tried.

I looked away from him.

•.•.•.•

When we arrived at Ms. Jackson's apartment, she hugged Percy so tight I think his ribs cracked. "I told them you were alright."

She insisted on feeding us her blue chocolate chip cookies while we told her about the quest, making it sound more dangerous than it was.

She huffed. "I can't get him to clean his room, but he'll clean a hundred tons of horse manure out of some monsters stables?"

I laughed, really laughed.

We finished telling her, when she said, "What happened now?"

I snapped my cookie in half. "Percy had this plan."

And Percy told his mom, who glanced between the two of us, before nodding. "Sounds dangerous, but it could work. I could see through the Mist when I was younger, it's harder now. Just be careful, promise me you'll be safe."

"We'll try." I said, but I glared out the window. "Keeping your son safe is a big job." And Annabeth made a noise of agreement.

"What is going on with you guys? Have you been fighting?"

We didn't say anything but I bit the inside of my cheek.

"I see." She sighed, and I looked back to see her giving me a sympathetic look before frowning at Percy. "Try talking about it? Just remember, Grover and Tyson are counting on you. Percy, you'd better use the phone in the hall, good luck."

When Percy dialed her number right away, even though the number was washed off his hand, my jaw dropped and I looked to Annabeth, who looked like she wanted to punch him, and to his mom who had about the same expression.

•.•.•.•

We met in Times Square where Rachel was dressed in all gold. We stood in front of her and she didn't move from her pose, pretending to be a statue. "Maybe if we push her over she'll react."

Annabeth snorted while Percy frowned in confusion.

A kid in silver took her spot and Rachel grinned at Percy. "Hey, Percy! Let's get some coffee."

I ordered a fruit smoothie, and Percy copied me. He didn't seem to notice, or care, that I was barley talking to him, especially after what happened in the forge.

We sat at a table and Rachel looked at me. "It's Catherine right?"

I squeezed my smoothie. "Coriane. Do you always dress in gold?"

"Not usually, we're raising money for our group. We do-"

"We don't care." Annabeth said.

"Right. You're a half-blood too?"

"Announce it to the world, how about you?"

"Okay." Rachel stood and said really loud, "Hey everybody, these three aren't human! They're half Greek god!" Nobody looked. "They don't seem to care."