Shattered

Curse

Inside the store, they found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out of town unless you had your own car.

"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk suggested doubtfully. "That's down at the bottom of the mountain, and it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."

The clerk looked so lonely, Percy bought a rubber rat. Then we headed back outside and stood on the porch.

"Wonderful," Thalia grumped. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."

"But the clerk said—"

"I know," she told me. "I'm checking anyway."

Percy let her go. He knew how it felt to be restless. All half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of their inborn battlefield reflexes. They couldn't stand just waiting around.

Bianca and Percy stood awkwardly outside the store.

"Nice rat," she said at last.

He set it on the porch railing. Maybe it would attract more business for the store.

"So... how do you like being a Hunter so far?" He asked.

She pursed her lips. "You're not still mad at me for joining, are you?"

"Nah. Long as, you know... you're happy."

"I'm not sure 'happy' is the right word, with Lady Artemis gone. But being a Hunter is definitely cool. I feel calmer somehow. Everything seems to have slowed down around me. I guess that's the immortality."

Percy stared at her. She did seem more confident than before, more at peace. She didn't hide her face under a green cap anymore. She kept her hair tied back, and she looked him right in the eyes when she spoke.

"Nico didn't understand my decision," Bianca murmured. She looked at Percy like she wanted assurance it was okay.

"He'll be all right," he replied. "Camp Half-Blood takes in a lot of young kids. They did that for Annabeth."

She nodded in distress, "You risked your life to save my brother and me. I mean, that was seriously brave. If I hadn't met you, I wouldn't have felt okay about leaving Nico at the camp. I figured if there were people like you there, Nico would be fine. You're a good guy."

A couple hundred yards away, Annabeth and Zoe came out of the coffee shop loaded down with pastry bags and drinks.

"So what's the story with you and Nico?" Percy asked her. "Where did you go to school before Westover?"

Of course, he already knew the answer. He was simply making conversation.

She frowned. "I think it was a boarding school in D.C. It seems like so long ago."

"You never lived with your parents? I mean, your mortal parent?"

"We were told our parents were dead. There was a bank trust for us. A lot of money, I think. A lawyer would come by once in a while to check on us. Then Nico and I had to leave that school."

"Why?"

She knit her eyebrows. "We had to go somewhere. I remember it was important. We traveled a long way. And we stayed in this hotel for a few weeks. And then... I don't know. One day a different lawyer came to get us out. He said it was time for us to leave. He drove us back east, through D.C. Then up into Maine. And we started going to Westover."