𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞

Chapter 17

The book opens and the screen turns on and shows the chapter title
'We Take a Zebra to Vegas'

They arrive at the Diner and Ares is waiting in the parking lot, sitting on his motorcycle. They walk to him.
Ares: Well, well. You didn't get yourself killed.
Sereia: You knew it was a trap.
Ares gives her a wicked grin.
Ares: Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV.
Sereia shoves his shield at him.
Sereia: You're a jerk

They look at her shocked. "Are you crazy?" asks Hermione "No." Hermione raises her eyebrows in disbelief before shaking her head. Ron and Sereia look at each other amused.

Annabeth and Grover catch their breaths.
Ares grabs the shield and spins it in the air like pizza dough. It changes form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slings it across his back.
Ares: See that truck over there?
He points to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner.
Ares: That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas.
The eighteen-wheeler has a sign on the back
'KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS'
Sereia turns back to Ares
Sereia: You're kidding.
Ares snaps his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatches.
Ares: Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job
He slings a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tosses it to her. She opens it and sees fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos. She closes the backpack again.
Sereia: I don't want your lousy -
Grover: Thank you, Lord Ares.
He gives Sereia his best red-alert warning look.
Grover: Thanks a lot.
Sereia clenches her jaw.

"Hermione's right, you are crazy" says Ron.

|Sereia: It is probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I don't want anything that Ares had touched.|

Reluctantly, she slings the backpack over her shoulder.

|Sereia: I know my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose. He reminds me of every bully I'd ever faced: Draco Malfoy, Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, the Dursley's, Dudley's gang, sarcastic teachers - every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd got expelled.|

Ares glares at her while she smiles.

She looks back at the diner, which has only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served them dinner is watching nervously out the window. She drags the cook out from the kitchen to see. She says something to him. He nods, holds up a little disposable camera and snaps a picture of them.

|Sereia: Oh, Great. We'll make the papers again tomorrow. I can already imagine the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENCELESS BIKER.|

They laugh.

She looks to Ares.
Sereia: You owe me one more thing. You promised me information about my aunt.
Ares: You sure you can handle the news?
He kick-starts his motorcycle.
Ares: She's not dead.
Sereia: What do you I mean?
Ares: I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept.
Sereia: Kept. Why?
Ares: You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else
She shakes her head.
Sereia: Nobody's controlling me.