FIVE — Mayfair.

Jason was looking worse for the wear.

May hated it, seeing him like this. Jason was supposed to be the long-lost Roman praetor, the son of Jupiter, raised by freaking wolves; practically immune to worldly things like bricks. But the gash just above his eyebrow said otherwise.

Before the rest of the crew had left to find materials, Theo had stitched him up as best she could. For a daughter of Apollo, she was, frankly, ridiculously incompetent when it came to medicine. May had met some of her Cabinet Seven siblings back at camp that could heal a skinned knee better than Theo. She couldn't even tell if Jason would wake ever up.

Jason's face was so pale, he might've actually been dead. May remembered the awful sound of that brick hitting his forehead—an injury that had happened only because he'd tried to shield her from the Romans.

Even with the nectar and ambrosia they'd managed to force-feed him, Theo said they couldn't be sure he would be okay when he woke up. That worried May most of all, the thought of if he'd lost his memories again.

When he woke up on the bus with her, Leo, and Piper all those months ago, May had seen right through the Mist and called him out for the liar he was (though, in hindsight, he hadn't really lied about anything—he was just as confused as May had been). Eventually, when a very whiney Theo and her brother Will came to collect them at the Grand Canyon, Piper and Leo saw through the Mist, too, and came to the conclusion that Jason had never been apart of their group at the Wilderness School. May wanted to scream I told you so! but she withheld.

But that wasn't the end of it. Will explained the cause of Theo's little hissy fit was not just because she's a drama queen, but because her boyfriend, this guy named Percy Jackson, had gone missing and she was beside herself trying to find him. That, at least, May could understand. She tried to sympathize with Theo, but it only ended in scathing comments from both ends and a mutual disliking of each other that ran deeper than anyone could try to fix.

Fortunately, Theo didn't accompany them on their quest. Unfortunately, Piper didn't, either. Chiron, the mentor of Camp Half-Blood—who, by the way, was a freaking centaur—told Jason that he could only have two questmates tag along with him. Piper and Mayfair had argued over who would stay behind, because Piper had been Jason's Mist-appointed girlfriend; but she pointed out that May was the smartest of the four of them and Jason and Leo would've been walking circles without her. In the end, Piper stayed behind, and May had to admit that there were times when she thought Jason and Leo would've died without her.

But they were her best friends; Leo, because they'd known each other for so long now—middle school together had been their closest bonding experience (nobody survives it alone, especially not two people as geeky as Leo and Mayfair); and Jason, because he and May grew inexplicably close over the course of their quest.

May still didn't know why she had such a bond with Jason, but she did. Maybe it was because he had the calmest head out of any demigod she knew, and he listened well when she ranted out every thought in her mind. Maybe it was because he made her laugh sometimes. Maybe it was because of how quickly he had stuck up for her at the Wilderness School.

It was his first day there, which they all know now as when Hera dumped him on their field trip and planted fake memories about him in everyone's mind. Mayfair tried so hard to point out the holes in the plots, but even with Jason's help, nobody believed her. She thought she was going crazy. Then one of the jerk guys from the exact type of group Mayfair never wanted to interact with piped up and made some dumb comment about May; namely, calling her a girl-kisser and the like. Dumb. Jason—who hadn't even known May for an hour—stuck up for her immediately, and ended up getting into a fight with the asshole.

Said asshole actually ended up being a storm spirit set out to destroy May, Jason, Piper, and Leo, so Jason took out two birds with one stone: A homophobe, and a Greek monster. Go figure that they ended up being the same thing, huh?

That's probably why May was so close with Jason, anyway. Not because she liked him like that—if anything, she had her eyes on someone else—but because he had a golden heart that he, surprisingly, wore on his sleeve. May admired that about a dude like Jason, because usually all the guys his type were like Dylan.

If she ended up losing Jason because he'd taken a hit for her, she didn't think she could ever forgive herself. She already owed him what felt like a trillion times over.

She heard Coach Hedge in his room next door, humming a military song—something patriotic, like "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." Since the cable was out, he was probably lounging in his bed reading the back issue of a Guns & Ammo magazine. He wasn't a bad chaperone, but he was definitely the most warlike old goat May had ever met.

Of course she was grateful to the satyr. He had helped her dad get back on his feet when Mayfair left for Camp Half-Blood permanently, because May was all he had left now. She didn't want to leave him, originally, and she still wished she was home with him; but Hedge was the one to convince her that Camp Half-Blood was the only safe place. Plus, she'd be endangering her dad if she stayed with him—more than she already had, which was saying a lot. Finally, she left with Hedge, but her dad still kept contact as best he could. Demigods weren't allowed phones because they attract monsters like crazy, but the Hermes kids at camp could steal like it was nobody's business.

May exhaled a sigh, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. She had to admit, she was tired. Sleep didn't come easy to her on this warship. When it did, she was plagued with nightmares—visions of what was to come, she had learned. Something her mother had passed down to her. (Metaphorically, because gods didn't have genetic traits to give their offsprings—that whole take on all Athena kids having grey eyes was taken way out of proportion, and May thought it was because of Annabeth.)

Most recently, ever since they'd started their trip to Camp Jupiter in the hopes of collecting Percy, May had seen some pretty miserable visions. Some were small, like Jason riding into battle on horseback, but his eyes were gold instead of blue; a woman in an old-fashioned Southern belle dress, standing in an oceanside park with palm trees; a bull with the face of a bearded man, rising out of a river; and two giants in matching yellow togas, hoisting a rope on a pulley system, lifting a large bronze vase out of a pit.

Some weren't as tame: She saw herself with Jason and Percy, standing waist-deep in rising water at the bottom of a giant well. Mayfair clawed at the walls, trying to escape, but there was nowhere to go. The water reached their chests. Jason was pulled under. Percy stumbled and disappeared.

Then, of course, there was the vision that hadn't yet occurred, but she knew was coming anyway—her death.

The Great Prophecy foretold that a child of wisdom would be taking her last breath. May was the only child of Athena on the quest; it would be a miracle if the line didn't pertain to her. But she knew it did, and she knew there wasn't anything to do but wait for it to happen.

She shook the thought from her mind, instead focusing on what she'd dreamt in the hour of sleep she'd managed last night: A mileage marker read Topeka 32. On the shoulder of the road stood a man in khaki shorts and a purple camp shirt. His face was lost in the shadow of a broad hat, the brim wreathed in leafy vines. He held up a silver goblet and beckoned to May. Somehow she knew he was offering her some sort of gift—a cure, or an antidote.

She didn't know who it was, but he didn't seem like a monster. Though May knew by now to never trust a book by its cover. Especially not a Greek mythology book.

"Hey," croaked Jason.

May startled out of her thoughts. "You're awake!"

"Don't sound so surprised," he said, his voice raspy and tired. He touched his bandaged head and frowned. "What... what happened? I remember the explosions, and—"

"You remember who I am?"

His eyes shifted to her warily. "P–Piper?"

Her stomach probably dropped all the way to the bottom of the ship, but Jason started laughing like something was funny. She fumed and hit his shoulder.

Jason held up his hands. "I'm only kidding." He laughed again, then winced, like it hurt to do so.

Mayfair helped him sit up and gave him some nectar to sip while she brought him up to speed. She was just explaining Leo's plan to fix the ship when she heard horse hooves clomping across the deck over their heads. Moments later, Leo and Hazel stumbled to a stop in the doorway, carrying a large sheet of hammered bronze between them.

"Gods of Olympus." May stared at Leo. "What happened to you?"

His hair was greased back. He had welding goggles on his forehead, a lipstick mark on his cheek, tattoos all over his arms, and a T-shirt that read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO.

"Long story," hot stuff said. "Others back?"

"Not yet," May said. "You get the stuff?"

Leo nodded. Then he noticed Jason sitting up, and his face brightened. "Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room."

He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel in the doorway.

May raised an eyebrow at her. "Team Leo?"

"We met Narcissus," Hazel said, which didn't really explain much. "Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess."

Jason sighed. "I miss all the fun."

On the deck above, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature had landed. Theo and Percy came running down the hall. Percy was toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Theo had a patch of black sticky stuff in her hair; Percy's shirt was covered in it.

"Tar?" May guessed, scrunching her nose.

Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.

"Ran into some goop monsters," Theo said. She smiled. "Hey, Jason, super glad you're alive. Hazel, where's Leo?"

She pointed down. "Engine room."

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. The demigods stumbled. Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar. "Uh, what was that?" he demanded.

"Oh..." Hazel looked embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like...all of them."

"Great." Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank and Theo. "You guys help Leo. I'll hold off the water spirits as long as I can."

Frank nodded. "On it."

The three of them ran off, leaving Hazel at the cabin door. The ship listed again, and she hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick.

"I'll just..." She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway, and ran off.

For a hero, Mayfair felt pretty useless. Unless they needed some wicked war plans, she couldn't do anything besides sit by Jason while the rest of the crew fought off crazed water spirits and wrangled a furious engine. Waves listed against the sides of the ship, and May could hear angry voices shouting from above—Percy and Coach Hedge, mostly. Finally, the crashing and banging from below came to a slow stop, and the engine began to hum. May felt the ship lift into the air.

The rocking and shaking stopped. The ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. Finally Leo emerged from the engine room. He was caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. His T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. The Team Leo on his chest now read am Leo. But he grinned like a madman and announced that they were safely under way.

"Meeting in the mess hall, one hour," he said. "Crazy day, huh?