From Eden • Percy Jackson

1.1

I PLAY PINOCHLE WITH A GOD, AN ANGEL, AND A HORSE
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The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and an angel, her light brown hair cascading down her shoulders. They both looked at me, and the angel said, "He's the one, I can feel it. Annabeth is going to freak when I tell her."
"Silence, Eden," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

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I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The angel with wavy brown hair was hovering over me, softly smiling as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.
A voice asks, "What will happen at the summer solstice?" I looked to the other side of the room where a girl with curly blonde hair stands.
I managed to croak, "What?"
She looked around, as if afraid someone else would over-hear.
"What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."
The angel spoke, "Beth, you're overwhelming him. He doesn't understand." Her voice was soft yet firm and I realized for the first time that she wasn't an angel at all. Her presence seemed to be heavenly but she was definitely a girl around my age. A beautiful girl definitely, maybe even the prettiest girl I have ever seen, but not quite an angel. She had a darkness behind her warm honey eyes.
Somebody knocked on the door and interrupted my thoughts and staring.
The next time I woke up, the girls were gone.

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When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.

On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.
My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.
"Careful." A familiar voice said.
Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops, and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, not the goat boy.

So maybe I had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And maybe that girl was really an angel. And...
"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this." Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.
Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.
"The Minotaur," I said.
"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"
"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."
Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"
"My mom. Is she really ..."
He looked down.

I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.