My Secret Life

Chapter 16

I PLUNGE TO MY DEATH

Ares looked excited about that while Poseidon, Nico, Thalia, Regulus and James all went very pale.

"You do what?" Poseidon asked in a much higher voice than usual. He basically broke his neck to look his daughter in the eye. Daria gave him a sheepish smile as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Not my actual death." Daria said. "Just...you know, kinda close."

"Not feeling much better about that." Regulus said. Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks, Daria had never given them the full story about what had happened up on the arch. Now they weren't sure they wanted to know. Of course, they knew about the fall but what led up to it was a bit vague.

We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.

We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax.

I felt that we were travelling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.

The comment about being watched reminded Daria of Ares' little side quest for them and she scowled at the floor.

I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers.

The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.

The picture's caption read:

eleven-year-old Daria Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of her mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where she accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the girl may be travelling with two teenage accomplices.

"It's unbelievable that they believe a child like Daria would be involved in her mother's disappearance," Dorea stated with a frustrated expression on her face. That is really imprudent of them.''

Daria gave the elderly woman a glance. I couldn't agree more, Lady Potter . Unfortunately, there will be plenty more instances of the general public's stupidity in the future."

Dorea sighed in exasperation at this. She smiled sympathetically at Daria, though, and said, "Well, I'm sorry you have had to deal with so much of it." You can refer to me as Dorea, heiress Jackson, we are to be a family my dear." The demiwitch acknowledged with a nod , "Of course, Dorea you may refer to me as Daria."

"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.

The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.

Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted for lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.

Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer.