RETROGRADE - luke castellan.

four.

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CHAPTER FOURHOT AND COLD

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THE RIDE TO THE airport was spent in silence. Luke didn't so much as turn to look at me. If I hadn't known that Argus wasn't much of a talker, I'd have wondered what I did to offend the both of them. The only thing keeping me company was Britney Spears on 106.1 BLI, but it was for the better. I wasn't feeling all that chatty either.

I was going over the details of my dream, turning and twisting them over in my head, looking for underlying meanings and warnings. I was trying to see past the obvious threats the fates were making. It was clear they'd found out that they'd been poisoned. It was also clear they'd traced it back to me, somehow. I could spend forever wondering how, but there was no need to. They were destiny itself. If not them, who else could figure out when and which of their threads had come loose? What I needed to know was what they were planning to do about it.

It didn't seem like they'd be able to intervene with my actions until they regained their health, but it was highly likely they'd try to meddle with this quest, make sure it went back to being run solo by Luke. And I definitely wasn't going to be getting much rest, even if I did fall asleep. I was going to have to make this quest succeed with no sleep, no muscle strength, weapons that weren't mine, and a partner that didn't even want to talk to me. The list just kept getting bigger and bigger.

The corner of my lips went up. It wouldn't have made sense if it wasn't at least this difficult. If I had been the sort of person who avoided what I feared, Hermes wouldn't have picked me to do the job. May the games begin. If the Gods wanted to play people like chess pieces, I'd just take it one step further and play 3D. There was no way I'd win if I couldn't even stand tall and hold my ground.

We made it to the airport in an hour and a half. Record time for New York traffic. I guessed all those eyes were a big help on the road. I thanked Argus, and so did Luke. We didn't leave until the car disappeared from sight. I saw a strange emotion in his eyes as he stared at the car. Ah, this was the first time Luke had been outside of camp in years, wasn't it?

"You have your passport?" I asked him. I knew Chiron somehow procured ( or forged ) documents for demigods that stayed at camp year-round, but I wondered if Luke was familiar with airport procedures.

Luke's response was curt, his eyes fixed ahead. "Yeah, I have it."

He went ahead, pulling at the strap of his backpack, and I frowned. "Good." I mumbled.

It took around fifteen minutes to get through security. My heart sped up a bit when we went through the scanners. I know celestial bronze doesn't register to mortals, but I hadn't actually ever gone through a security scan with weapons on me. My worries were for naught, the machine didn't beep even once.

The next hurdle was when security casually asked us about our parents. Luke responded charmingly, "Oh, they'll be picking us up from the airport when we land in Cali. Thank you for worrying."

I mimicked his self-assured smile, and we were let through. I exhaled.

We got to our gate half an hour early and sat down in the waiting area. As a mortal, being on time was a great practice. As a demigod, the wait drove us crazy. It wasn't just the ADHD, but the stress and paranoia that being outside the borders of camp brought. There was no place in this country safe for demigods apart from camp. The only places I felt truly comfortable in my life were camp and my house. No, not my house, it was because of my dad. There was no place on earth that felt unsafe when I was with dad.