Bloodlines || Percy Jackson

I. The End of the Beginning

WHEN ASKED LATER IN LIFE, whether or not she regretted what she'd done, Ariana would purse her lips and smile, voice like a double edged sword. "Does the fire regret burning? Does the lion regret the gazelle?"

The truth was this; Ariana had made good choices and bad choices. But, standing tall above all, it came back with the decision to kneel. Juno had summoned her into a dream and declared her champion, and her life truly began.

There were days Ariana wished she'd have woken up, rebuked this promised fate. And there were days she was standing in a graveyard where she knew every name.

But there were days she was glad she'd swallowed her pride, and she was glad she'd asked when this plan would start. It would start that next day, a two week trip from California to Westover Hall, Maine.

Ariana would spend the first term there, a period of three months away from her duties as Praetor. It was the end of the fall term now, and it was time to return home—hopefully with Nico and Bianca di Angelo in tow.

It wasn't that she was any good at chemistry, but the school had assigned her to be Bianca's tutor regardless (and of course her little brother would tag along). Ariana couldn't explain what it was, but she was certain they were demigods. If a faun was following them, and if the vice principal was trying so hard to give them detention, something had to be off about it all. And, of course, there was the ADHD.

Juno had told her to wait, to "expect the unexpected", and Ariana certainly hadn't planned on them. Still, something tugged at her. Why would Juno create this whole mission simply to collect them? Were they that important to the legion's future? It wouldn't compute inside Ariana's head.

No. There had to be some grander reason to all of this, some real reason Juno wanted her here. And that reason wasn't Nico, or Bianca, or the vice principal Dr. Thorn. The only option that remained was Grover Underwood, the suspected faun.

He struck Ariana as odd for a number of reasons. If he was a faun in disguise, as his limping and constant smell of nature made her think, why was he here? Why was he looking out for Nico and Bianca as much as she was? He'd taken the fall for their accidents a number of times and with no explanation, ending up on the other side of Dr. Thorn's glare (and Ariana was sure their vice principal was some kind of monster). So the faun, Grover, knew what was happening. Yet why was he being remotely helpful? Either fauns stayed at camp, or they were out looking for Faunus. Grover, it seemed, was doing no such thing.

So she reasoned Grover Underwood must be the crux of her mission (the why still eluded her); wasn't it just so fitting that he had left the dance and not returned? And, when he did return, it was with people Ariana had never yet set eyes on.

But that would be a few minutes from now. At the moment, Ariana was trading her miniature Ares away, plus three trading cards, for a figurine of Poseidon. Nico glared at her over his cards, and she imagined him scowling.

"You drive a hard bargain." Slowly, he extended his fist. His palm opened like a flower, and the figure was inside. "Use it well, soldier."

Ariana laughed, her shoulders shaking. She handed over her own cards, Ares in tow. "The deal is the deal."

Bianca shook her head, sitting on the bleachers behind and higher than them. She'd been antsy for a while, perhaps even more so than herself, and Ariana wished she could say something comforting—yet "you'll be okay" felt like a lie. If she was right, Dr. Thorn wasn't about to let Ariana and the di Angelos leave without a fight.

She planned to lead them away as the party died down, steering them into an empty room to explain who they were. Ariana just had to hope they would believe her, and that was the biggest question.