Heroes of Olympus (The Throne of Stone)

Chapter 30 Emma Goes Spy Mode

Chapter 30

Emma Goes Spy Mode

Emma

Okay, so if they weren't going to tell me about this mysterious thing…I couldn’t help myself. I had to figure out what they were doing. I made sure that everyone was still oblivious to whatever Leo was doing, just incase what they were keeping secret was actually worth being kept secret. Either way, I was going to find out.

I had been keeping an eye on Autumn since after dinner. I got separated from her when I had the “floating sparkle” episode. Everyone was still amazed, I was too. How I did it I had no idea. Neither did anyone else.

Autumn went back to the Athena cabin. I casually followed her, taking the opportunity to relieve myself of my heavy armor. I set my sword next to my bunk. Autumn turned to look at me, for a moment I thought I was sunk,

“Hey, have you seen a little dark blue box anywhere? It’s very important to me.” I was going to tell her something but I stopped. Earlier I had noticed that Autumn was very peculiar, she had pupils that took up more space in her eye than it should, her eyes were almost entirely pupils, you could hardly see her brown irises. I didn’t find it strange, I had gotten used to strange physical and mental flaws. But now, only a few hours later, her pupils had shrunk to normal size again. The rest of her seemed changed too, her face seemed to glow with more happiness, she seemed stronger and more sure of herself.

“Um...no, have you checked under your bed?”

“Yeah, still nothing though. I really hope I didn’t lose it!” She dug through her stuff, throwing clothes and unnamed objects everywhere, a toothbrush flew over her shoulder.

“I hear you, I’m like the most disorganized person I know.”

“I beg to differ.” Autumn kept digging, her voice cracked, “I won’t be able to forgive myself if I lost it.”

“What is it?”

“A family gift from my dad. It was a present to me on my tenth birthday, it was a necklace that my mom left behind. It was beautiful. I treasure it with all my heart. I never got to meet her, but that necklace seems to hold a part of her, and I can’t lose her.” Her words were genuine. She had a sense of what her mother was like, I had no clue. She actually seemed kind of cold. I wasn’t sure if I even liked her at all. I wish I had what Autumn has.

“What does it look like? Maybe I could help you look for it.”

‘Sure, it’s very intricate, it’s lighter reds and yellow minerals laced through gray and blue river stones. Delicate and very pretty. It has silver laced through it too.” I had an idea in my head,

“Hang on a sec, I need to talk to a pair of boys.”

~

“Explain to me again why I shouldn’t tell Autumn where I found this?” I swung the necklace around my finger gently, taunting them.

“We didn’t mean to! Some other dude gave it to us, they said that it was because of something,..but I zoned out. Do you know?” Connor asked Travis,

“Nope, nope, nope. I know nothing! I’m innocent!” I lowered my sword.

“Who was this person?”

“Are you kidding me? He was holding a shiny object! Do you think we care?” Travis murmured. True, they were typical Hermes boys, they took anything with any value in the slightest. I ignored them anyway,

“So it was a guy?”

“Yeah, dark hair, brown eyes. Actually, now that I think about it hadn’t see him at camp before.” Connor contemplated. His description didn’t do me any good. It was odd though. Very odd.

“Fine, I won’t tell. But don’t steal from us ever again.”

“Noted.” Travis nodded. I turned and headed back to our cabin. Autumn would be happy to have it back. She would have liked to give those boys a few good sized smacks upside the head, but that was understandable.

“Hey Autumn I have it!” I emerged victorious into our cabin. Autumn wasn’t there. Like nowhere to be found. Dang it! She might have snuck off with Leo when I wasn’t watching. May that necklace was supposed to be a some sort of wild goose chase. I turned on my heel and marched to the forge. If she was with Leo, that would be where they would be. And I was going to find them.

~

That’s when I got run over by a bear. Seriously, it was a bear. A pure blood brown bear, you know, the ones that eat people? That kind of brown bear. Then it did something weirder, it morphed into Frank.

“So sorry.” He apologized. “Have you seen Leo?”

“No. Have you seen Autumn?”

“Dang it! This is the wrong time for them to go missing.” Frank looked worried.

“What’s going on?”

“Another wave of attacks are on the horizon. We really need everyone on deck. Even if you is a goof ball of fire. Either way, besides, I want all my fiends together, that way we know that everyone’s okay. But without Leo, everything is out of balance.

That was when the woods exploded.

“What the-?”

“No clue.” Then we saw it. The ship. A huge bronze boat with a hundred oars flew into the sky. Hanging from the bottom of the boat were the words: Seeya Guys! We’ll Be Back Soon! :P

“Leo.” Frank and I said in unison. A girl with long brown hair leaned over the side and waved at the Romans and Greeks that had stopped what they were doing to stare.

“Autumn.” I murmured. “What in Tartarus are you doing.”

“That’s not the Argo II, so what on earth is that?” I looked at Frank,

“Like I know? Sorry, I have no clue. Probably the only ones who know are those two.” I pointed at the sky.

“Do you think they’re together? Like together, together?” Frank asked me. I don;t know. Maybe, but, I kind of felt angry and upset if that was true. I didn’t really know, did I like Leo?

“I don’t know.” Frank stopped asking questions after that.

All of the sudden a message floated out in the sky, written in dark clouds: May the Games Begin. Many will Die Today. “Do you see that?”

“Holy Apollo’s cattle.”

Those words could only mean one thing:

There’s a rat in camp.