Children of the Underworld

Chapter 1

Percy Jackson was in over his head. More so than usual.

He was sitting on the roof of Brooklyn House, with a Roman demigod who, by all rights, was supposed to be his mortal enemy, and his cousin, whose soul was currently lost, and whose body was being controlled by an Egyptian god, while the Egyptian apocalypse was currently in progress. And he was about to meet up with his girlfriend, who he'd been hiding things from for over a year, and the Roman demigod's sister, who was Thalia. Neither of those was going to improve this already volatile situation.

Brooklyn House was the only place he'd thought safe for this meeting. The defenses that the Egyptian magicians had put on it would keep the Greek monsters away too. The only other places he knew of that four children of the Big Three could possibly have met safely were on Mt. Olympus, at Camp Half-Blood, or at this other Roman Camp Jason had mentioned. None of those were even options, so Brooklyn House had to do.

Jason was pacing nervously. Static sparks were actually popping off him as he walked. In contrast, Nico, or rather Anubis, who was possessing Nico, sat perfectly still. His face was serene, which was an expression that the real Nico had never managed to pull off. It made Percy want to go over and strangle Anubis for this fakery, but that would only hurt Nico in the end. He'd need a body when they got his soul back, so Percy couldn't damage the one Anubis was using.

"Shouldn't they be here by now?" asked Jason, looking at Percy with a sick expression on his face.

It was the fifth time he'd asked that in the past ten minutes, and though Percy sympathized with the guy, he was starting to lose patience.

"Blackjack will get them here safely," he said through gritted teeth. "Trust me on this."

Jason wrung his hands. "Sorry Percy. I just . . . I don't know . . ."

"I get it." Percy crossed the roof to put a hand on his shoulder and got shocked for his efforts. "Ah!"

"Sorry!" said Jason. He backed away a safe distance. "Sorry."

"Don't sweat it," said Percy. "Thalia will get here safely. Worry about anyone foolish enough to attack her if you've got to worry."

Jason stared at the skyline and shook his head. "I always wondered what happened to her. I thought she was dead, or sometimes that she might not have existed at all. I never thought I'd see her again. I don't even know what to do now. What if she hates me?"

Percy wanted to laugh, but any sense of joy or mirth had left him when he'd learned that Anubis had lost Nico's soul. He tried to smile though, for Jason's sake. "She won't."

"But I'm Roman! She's Greek! And according to Nico, we've had this Soc-Greaser rivalry thing going on for thousands of years!" said Jason desperately. "What if we can't get past it?"

Percy grabbed his shoulder again, and this time held on despite the jolt of electricity that traveled through his body. He was pretty sure that his hair was standing on end, but didn't care. What he had to say was too important to worry about trivial matters. "We will get past it. I know we will. We're a family. So trust me, cousin. Everything's going to be alright."

A hopeful smile crossed Jason's face. Then it wavered. "You know . . . we're not really family."

"The heck we're not," said Percy, unable to keep a bit of anger out of his voice.

"You know as well as I do that gods don't have DNA," said Jason.

"Family's not about DNA," said Percy firmly. "It's about bonds, and being there for each other. Nico's as good as a brother to me. Thalia's more than a friend, more like a real cousin. And I promise you, she's going to love you."