Our Family

Chapter 3

"Thalia!" Luke yelled, momentarily drawing Annabeth's attention away from the hellhound she was fighting.

Annabeth glanced over at the daughter of Zeus, horrified to see the girl on the ground and clutching a heavily bleeding leg. A hellhound towered over her hungrily, only held at bay by Thalia's fearsome aegis shield. With newfound determination, Annabeth made quick work of the hellhound and raced over to Thalia, joined by Luke as soon as he had killed his hellhound as well. Together, they showed the remaining hellhound no mercy.

When they were done, they both knelt next to Thalia, who was groaning and cursing like a sailor. The wound did not look good, but Annabeth didn't know how to treat it. She was about to take off her old-but-new-to-her army jacket to wrap the wound in but Luke beat her to it with his own jacket. He made Thalia eat a tiny square of ambrosia.

"That's the last of our godly food. It'll stop the bleeding, but it won't heal your leg completely. Our closest safe house is in another state since those telekhines burned the last one." Luke said worriedly.

Through gritted teeth, Thalia said, "What about—"

Luke never let her finish, "No." He growled, uncharacteristically hostile and Annabeth recoiled. He noticed her reaction and his gaze softened. "I just, I don't want to go back there."

"Then we'll just have to make do with what we've got until we get to our next safe house." Thalia announced, standing up with Annabeth and Luke's help. When she tried to take a step, she stumbled and would have fallen if Luke hadn't caught her.

"All right, fine." He grumbled. "We'll never make it if we have to support you like this. We'll go back just to grab some food and medicine, and then we're gone again."

Luke draped Thalia's arm over his shoulders and together they started hobbling out of the food court they had been ambushed in while passing through Norwalk, Connecticut. The mortals that had been around when the hellhounds attacked were either cowering underneath tables or counters, or had run away immediately. They needed to make a quick getaway before the adults tried to take them to the hospital or worse—the police.

Annabeth followed closely behind Luke and Thalia. "Where are we going?" She asked, excited and nervous at the same time.

Luke sighed. "Home."

*

Of course, what should have been a simple trip to May Castellan's house in Westport, Connecticut became complicated when more monsters caught their scent. That was the life of a demigod, always running to survive.

"Just a little farther!" Luke promised, leading the way through the woods.

Annabeth stumbled so Luke grabbed her hand to help her keep going. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield in an attempt to scare off the monsters on their tail. She could walk on her own now, but she was still limping badly.

They reached the top of a ridge and looked down at the other side to see a white Colonial house. Luke stared at it with a mixture of emotions on his face—relief, anger, regret, sadness, and betrayal.

"All right," Luke said between deep breaths. "I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here."

Thalia shook her head. "Luke, are you sure? You swore you'd never come back here. If she catches you—"

"We don't have a choice!" Luke exclaimed. "They burned our nearest safe house. And you've got to treat that leg wound."

Even though she was a child of Athena, Annabeth was still only seven years old. As such, she was exhausted and simply stared at the house in wonder, oblivious to the tense discussion beside her. "This is your house?" She asked, her eyes wide with awe.

"It was my house," Luke said under his breath. "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency—"

Annabeth frowned. "Is your mom really horrible? Can we see her?"

"No!" Luke snapped and Annabeth shrunk away from him. He had been doing this more frequently in the past few weeks, especially once they made the decision to go back to his mother's house. "I . . . I'm sorry." Luke apologized. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back—"

Suddenly, a bright golden flash like the one that had accompanied Athena when she had appeared to Annabeth shone through the woods. Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia all winced and then a deep voice boomed, "You should not have come home."

With the voice came a man, materializing in front of them out of thin air. He looked like someone you might see around town taking a jog at night in a navy blue tracksuit, except for a weird staff that seemed to have two wriggling snakes on it in his hands, and winged Reeboks on his feet. Annabeth knew that none of them had met him before, but she also knew without a doubt that this was Hermes, Luke's father. Luke knew it too.

Without a word, they followed Hermes into Luke's mother's house. The tension in the air was thicker than chocolate fudge. The walkway up to the house was decorated with little beanbag characters representing Greek heroes and monsters. The door was opened by a frail looking woman with white hair and cloudy eyes. She gasped when she saw Luke and shouted, "My boy!" She wrapped him in a tight hug, and Luke reluctantly returned it.

They entered the house, walking through the living room which was illuminated by candles on the fireplace mantel, which flickered in the many mirrors on the walls. After explaining briefly to his mother that they would like some food and bandages for Thalia's leg, Luke stayed in the living room with Hermes while Annabeth and Thalia joined May Castellan in the kitchen.

Spotting a Medusa beanbag toy, Annabeth grabbed it and began playing with it while Ms. Castellan tended to Thalia's leg. She couldn't tell what Luke and Hermes were talking about, but Luke's voice rose and then quieted at one point, so she knew it wasn't going well. Ms. Castellan gave them Kool-Aid and cookies and told them stories about Luke as an infant, which were fun to hear, but Annabeth felt on edge. There was something . . . off about this place. Thalia was rubbing her leg nervously so Annabeth knew she could feel it too.

She turned to face Luke, holding up a horribly burned cookie for him to see, and mouthed, "Can we go now?"

Luke smiled softly back at her as if to say, "Soon," and turned to finish his conversation with his father. Annabeth tried to ignore them and keep playing with the mini-Medusa, but Luke's voice grew louder again and this time Ms. Castellan noticed.

"Luke? Is that you? Is my boy all right?" She called, as if she didn't remember she had just welcomed him into her house.

"I'm fine." Luke insisted, and Annabeth and Thalia joined him in the living room. "I have a new family. I don't need either of you."

"I'm your father," Hermes said.

"A father is supposed to be around." Luke bit out. "I've never even met you. Thalia, Annabeth, come on! We're leaving!"

"My boy, don't go! I have your lunch ready!" May Castellan pleaded, but Luke was already out the door with Thalia and Annabeth hot on his heels.

Every time Thalia tried to talk to Luke about that night, he shut her down immediately. Annabeth didn't know why, but she was always annoyed when Thalia kept trying to get him to talk about it.

He was different after that night too, but good different. He became stronger, more determined, more confident. Every monster they crossed paths with was taken care of swiftly by him, and Luke became Annabeth's personal hero, like the ones she had read about when she lived with her father.

And then they ran into Zoë Nightshade.