Golden | pjo

I GET CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE

Back at the Plaza, Thalia pulled Percy and I aside. "What did Prometheus show you?"

Reluctantly, Percy told us about the vision of May Castellan's house. Thalia rubbed her thigh like she was remembering the old wound.

"That was a bad night," she admitted. "Annabeth was so little, I don't think she really understood what she saw. She just knew Luke was upset."

Percy looked out the hotel windows at Central Park and I glanced outside. Small fires were still burning in the north, but otherwise the city seemed unnaturally peaceful. "Do you know what happened to May Castellan? I mean—"

"I know what you mean," Thalia said. "I never saw her have an, um, episode, but Luke told me about the glowing eyes, the strange things she would say. He made me promise never to tell. What caused it, I have no idea. If Luke knew, he never told me."

"Hermes knew," Percy said. "Something caused May to see parts of Luke's future, and Hermes understood what would happen—how Luke would turn into Kronos."

Thalia frowned. "You can't be sure of that. Remember Prometheus was manipulating what you saw, Percy, showing you what happened in the worst possible light. Hermes did love Luke. I could tell just by looking at his face. And Hermes was there that night because he was checking up on May, taking care of her. He wasn't all bad."

"It's still not right," Percy insisted. "Luke was just a little kid. Hermes never helped him, never stopped him from running away."

Thalia shouldered her bow. You could almost see a silvery glow around her—the blessing of Artemis.

"Percy," she said, "you can't start feeling sorry for Luke. We all have tough things to deal with. All demigods do. Our parents are hardly ever around. But Luke made bad choices. Nobody forced him to do that. In fact—"

She glanced down the hall to make sure we were alone. "I'm worried about Annabeth. If she has to face Luke in battle, I don't know if she can do it. She's always had a soft spot for him."

Percy flushed. "She'll do fine."

He said it with such conviction I almost believed him but I wasn't too sure. Annabeth is strong but her reaction last year definitely brought some doubts.

"I don't know. After that night, after we left his mom's house? Luke was never the same. He got reckless and moody, like he had something to prove. By the time Grover found us and tried to get us to camp . . . well, part of the reason we had so much trouble was because Luke wouldn't be careful. He wanted to pick a fight with every monster we crossed. Annabeth didn't see that as a problem. Luke was her hero. She only understood that his parents had made him sad, and she got very defensive of him. She still is defensive. All I'm saying... don't you fall into the same trap. Luke has given himself to Kronos now. We can't afford to be soft on him."

I looked out at the fires in Harlem while they spoke, wondering how many sleeping mortals were in danger right now because of Luke's bad choices. Even still, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. If the gods had just done something, anything, all of this could have been prevented.

"You're right," Percy said.

Thalia patted his shoulder. "I'm going to check on the Hunters, then get some more sleep before nightfall. You should crash too."

"The last thing I need is more dreams."

There we were finally in agreement. I would go the rest of the war with no sleep if it meant avoiding more of those dreams.

"I know, believe me." Thalia's dark expression made me wonder what she'd been dreaming about. It was a common demigod problem: the more dangerous our situation became, the worse and more frequent our dreams got. "But Percy, there's no telling when you'll get another chance for rest. It's going to be a long night—maybe our last night."