❝In a fight, they're lethal. Around each other, they melt❞
"I'm fine." I said, trying to hide the frown and tears that threatened to spill.
Percy looked at me once.
"I'm not going anywhere, unless you tell me what's wrong," he declared and I would h...
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I HAD TROUBLE FALLING ASLEEP.
Coach Hedge spent the first hour after curfew doing his nightly duty, walking up and down the passageway yelling, "Lights out! Settle down! Try to sneak out, and I'll smack you back to Long Island!"
He banged his baseball bat against a cabin door whenever he heard a noise, shouting at everyone to go to sleep, which made it impossible for anyone to go to sleep. I figured this was the most fun the satyr had had since he'd pretended to be a gym teacher at the Wilderness School.
I stared at the bronze beams on the ceiling. My cabin was pretty cozy. Leo had programmed their quarters to adjust automatically to the occupant's preferred temperature, so it was never too cold or too hot. The mattress and the pillows were stuffed with pegasus down (no pegasi were harmed in the making of these products, Leo had assured me), so they were über-comfortable. A bronze lantern hung from the ceiling, glowing at whatever brightness I wished. The lantern's sides were perforated with pinholes, so at night glimmering constellations drifted across my walls.
I had so many things on my mind, I thought I'd never sleep. But there was something peaceful about the rocking of the boat and the drone of the aerial oars as they scooped through the sky.
Finally my eyelids got heavy, and I drifted off.
I almost wish I didn't.
The moment I landed in my dream, I knew something was wrong.
I landed in the middle of the hotel my momma used to stay at. I saw Nico and Bianca as little children, playing in the lobby of an elegant hotel, chasing each other around marble columns. Caelan and I were close on their tails. I remembered this moment, like it was preserved in amber in my mind. We had been playing tag that day. The same day that Mom was killed.
I stood silent and still, afraid that if I moved or spoke, it would start the events.
A woman sat on a nearby sofa. She wore a black dress, gloves, and a black veiled hat like a star from an old 1940s movie. She had Bianca's smile and Nico's eyes. Momma looked so pretty, it had been so long since I had listened to her singing us to sleep.
On a chair next to her sat a large oily man in a black pinstripe suit, Dad. He was leaning toward the woman, using his hands as he talked, like he was agitated.
"Please, my dear," he said. "You must come to the Underworld. I don't care what Persephone thinks! I can keep you safe there."
"No, my love." She spoke with an Italian accent. "Raise our children in the land of the dead? I will not do this."
"Maria, listen to me. The war in Europe has turned the other gods against me. A prophecy has been made. My children are no longer safe. Poseidon and Zeus have forced me into an agreement. None of us are to have demigod children ever again."
