The Titan's Daughter | complete

17. I Learn To Hate Girls With Mismatched Legs

Ahomana's POV

THE AMUSEMENT PARK proved to be a good free sleeping area. Nothing attacked us all night.

I woke up bright and early as the morning sun blasted in my face.

It groggily sat up and decided to go for a short walk. I nodded to Thysía, who was on watch, and started going through random paths.

I started to think about Dallas. She'd changed over that night with the Brigadier. She didn't talk about him. But something about her. She hardly looked at either me or Thysía. And I'd just started to get her to open up. I would have told her about my own story before Camp Half-Blood, as she'd told me hers, but she didn't seem to want to know.

I could only guess what the Brigadier had done to her.

I tripped on s stray brick and tumbled to the ground, grazing my hands and knees. I cursed, before standing up and walking back the way I'd come. As I walked into the gift shop, I saw Dallas yawning and rubbing her eyes, while Thysía raided the cash register.

"Hey, mate, there's a lot of money in here." He looked up at me with his dark eyes, "Maybe enough to get us to Los Angeles."

I grinned and clasped my hands together. "Great."

"We'd better get moving though." Dallas yawned, "We wouldn't want to keep Hades waiting."

I shuddered. "I don't like this. Hades never dies anything helpful without a price."

"Does he ever do anything helpful I the first place?" Thysía muttered, pocketing the money.

I rolled my eyes and started packing up my bedroll and stuffing it into my duffel.

Soon the three of us and our faithful pegasus were trudging out of the broken waterpark and heading towards the train station.

I started to feel nostalgic for the repetitive days at Camp Half-Blood. We didn't almost die every two seconds there.

We turned down a street in silence. A car drove past. There weren't many people there.

I heard a familiar clop, scrape, clop, scrape. The sound was multiplied, as if there were several limping automatons walking down the street.

I glanced over my shoulder and immediately realised why the sound was familiar. There was a trio of pretty teenaged girls chatting and waking behind us. All three of them were walking weirdly, as if they were in pain, and wore covered shoes and jeans.

I turned back to the front and saw my companions a few metres ahead. I jogged to catch up and muttered, "Empousai."

They were smart enough not to reply and keep walking as if nothing had happened.

Someone tapped on my shoulder. Like an idiot, I turned. The girls had caught up quickly.

"Hey hottie." The one who'd tapped me said. She batted her eye lashes.

"Hey beautiful." I gave her a lopsided smile.

She really was beautiful. The more I looked at her the more her dark features and pale eyes and freckles seemed mesmerising. She was tall and thin, maybe only an inch shorter than me.

Wait whoa, Mana she's trapping you. I blinked and snapped out of the lull. I moved to turn away but she reached out and ran a finger across my jawline. She had fake nails on, and it made me shiver.

"Aw, where're you going?" She purred.

"Hmm, somewhere quiet?" I winked.

"Mm that's sounds nice..." She reached up her other arm and cupped by jaw with both hands. I couldn't quite decide what colour her eyes were. They were just light.

Sh brought herself closer too me and I leaned towards her. I heard a vague shout and the sound of metal clanging in the background. But I didn't care, and our lips connected. I kissed her and she kissed me back passionately.

She wasted no time in leaving a trail of kisses down my chin and my jawline and towards my neck.

Suddenly she was ripped away and she let out an inhuman screech.

I felt her spell shattering. "Ew!" I yelled and started furiously wiping my mouth and jaw.

I glanced around to see three pokes of yellow dust and Thysía and Dallas panting.

"Honestly mate." Thysía rolled his eyes.

"I can't believe I-" I shuddered and kept running at my face with my shirt.

"Was she good?" I looked up to see Thysía grinning at me.

I smirked, about to make a dirty joke, but before I could say anything Dallas screeched and covered her ears.

The two of us burst out laughing.

•••

The train ride, we learned, was a twenty one hour trip. Chrysós refused to board it, preferring to fly ahead of us.

We couldn't afford the sleeper car, so we all just laid on each other overnight. Thysía and I chatted about random things, but Dallas sat by the window and barely said a word.

By the time the train got to Los Angeles, our butts were numb and out backs were aching. We stepped out of the train and immediately started stretching.

We walked out of the train station, earning us a lot of looks, because why would a couple of homeless kids be getting off an expensive train trip?

Chrysós found us almost immediately. He just flew in and landed in front of us in the middle of the street, making the three of us nearly jump out of our skins.

We wandered the streets, asking about the DOA Recording Studio. But apparently it didn't exist. No one had heard of it. Luckily Thysía realised our invitation had the address or we would have been wandering around forever.

We rode Chrysós across Los Angeles and I couldn't help but wish I had more time too look around. But no, we had to go into the Land of The Dead.

Chrysós stopped outside a regular looking building and we all sat in silence for a moment.

"I guess Chrysós can stay outside." Dallas broke the silence and dismounted, follow by Thysía and I. We gave one last look at the regal pegasus and walked towards our deaths.

The doors in the lobby said: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING. The words made me shiver.

Inside the lobby, muzak played and the carpet and walls were steel grey. There was black leather furniture and an elevator. The whole place was filled with transparent people. Well, they were only transparent if I saw them out of the corner of my eye. They didn't say anything. They just sort of milled around.

We searched around and found the actual studio, where a guy was standing on a raised podium. He was tall, elegant, and handsome, with chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair, shaved military style. He wore tortoise-shell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag. I could only just make sense of it, but I guessed the guy was Charon.

He turned to look at us. A cruel smile spread across his face.

"Ah, which one of you is Ahomana Kahue?"