𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

chapter eighty-three. ☄︎. *. ⋆

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BECKENDORF'S SHROUD WAS made out of metal links, like chain mail. I didn't see how it would burn, but the Fates must've been helping out. The metal melted in the fire and turned to golden smoke, which rose into the sky. The campfire flames always reflected the campers' moods, and today they burned black.

     I hoped Beckendorf's spirit would end up in Elysium. Maybe he'd even choose to be reborn and try for Elysium in three different lifetimes so he could reach the Isles of the Blest, which was like the Underworld's ultimate party headquarters. If anyone deserved it, Beckendorf did.

     I left without a word to Percy. I promised myself to write a card to Silena to express my apologies. That is, if Clarisse ever let me near Silena enough to give her a card. I guess, since she was head counselor of Ares and I was almost head counselor of my cabin, Clarisse thought this stupid rivalry was more personal between us, but I didn't even care enough to glare at her as I left the campfire, feeling a bit more solemn than I had before.

Most of my day after that was spent avoiding the Ares campers and keeping out of my own siblings' ways, so as to not be dragged into their arguments with the Ares campers. I wasn't too involved in this fight, and I didn't want to be. My only association with this rivalry was if anyone came after my siblings personally. I may be one of the most powerful Apollo kids around, but I'm usually pretty docile, unless some punk Ares kid tried dissing my siblings.

Luckily, I managed to duck and weave every time I came close to an Ares camper. And word of my sour mood must have spread around, because most of my siblings stayed out of my way.

I still had some sort of guilt in me, though. Maybe it was because I'd compared Percy to his father. Maybe it was because that was probably the most personal argument we'd ever had. Maybe it was because I could tell how much stress he was under and I knew picking fights with him was not the way I should've handled it. But to some extent, I just plain felt bad for the things I'd said. And maybe... maybe I wanted to apologize.

But Percy went missing sometime after Beckendorf's service. I checked the sword arena, Poseidon's cabin, the Big House, even the strawberry fields—but Percy was nowhere to be found. It had been well past three or four hours since I'd last seen him by then, and I was growing more and more worried the longer it took to find him.

I was panting by the time I found Annabeth reading in a hammock. She sat up and dropped her book when I ran over, seeing how distressed I was. "Theo! What's up? Is something wrong?"

I swallowed, breathless. "It's Percy. He—"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Nope. I am not getting involved in your fights again. Figure it out."

"Annabeth!" I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. I think she saw how panicked I really was and finally came to realize it was more than a silly argument. "He's gone."

I filled her in on when I'd last seen him, then we rushed over to the Big House and told Chiron everything, and soon we had almost the entire camp searching for him. Chiron knew nothing, which surprised me—I'd figured he had sent Percy out on a secret quest or something.

The person—or wood nymph, I guess—who did have any information was Juniper, which also surprised me. She pulled me aside as Will and I were scouring the dining pavilion.

"Theodosia," she said, her voice timid and quiet, like usual. She waved me over to be somewhat concealed behind a tree like she was.

     "Juniper, I told you you don't have to call me—"

     "I know who took Percy," she said. I was stunned into silence. Her eyes were wide and earnest, and I knew Juniper wasn't exactly one to lie for a sport. Plus, Grover told me she was kinda scared of me, so I doubted she would try and get on my bad side.

     "You.. you do?" I stammered, taken by surprise. "W-who?"

     "It was Nico." Her voice was so quiet I wasn't sure I'd heard her correctly at first. "They were talking for a long time, in the clearing behind my juniper grove. I was there for the beginning of it, but Nico kind of frightens me, so I had to leave soon after. But a few minutes later I came back and they were both gone. I hadn't seen them leave, and none of my girlfriends from the surrounding groves had, either. It was like they had disappeared into thin air."

     My eyebrows scrunched together. "That can't be possible, right? Them.. disappearing?"

     "No, it is," Will said. His voice startled me. I spun to see him behind me, nodding. "For Nico, anyway. I dunno about Percy. But Nico's the son of Hades, so he can do this thing called Shadow Jumping, I'm pretty sure. Maybe.. Shadow Travel? I'm not sure what it's actually called. My point is, he can go through shadows, use them as a portal to any shadow across the world."

     Juniper and I stared at him. Juniper's leaves rustled. "How do you know all of that?"

     Will shrugged. "Nico's good company."

     "So you're saying," I said slowly, "that Nico took Percy.. through shadows. To... somewhere."

     "Yep," Will confirmed. "We have no idea where. Oh, but it definitely has shadows."

     "Oh, great, thanks," I said, rubbing my eyes.

     It didn't make any sense. Even if what Will said about Nico's ability was true, there was no possible was Nico could have been able to Shadow-Travel both himself and Percy. But then again, I remembered last summer when the kid had summoned a wall of death upon Kronos's army. And, y'know, suddenly I was a bit more convinced that Nico could have taken Percy. But the shadow bit didn't make any sense—how were we supposed to find Percy if the only thing we know about his whereabouts is that he was somewhere with shadows?

"I'll try his mom," I decided. "Maybe he decided to visit her and left without telling anyone."

"Juniper and I will keep looking," Will promised me, nodding. He put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile. "We'll find him, Theo."

"I hope so." My stomach twisted with anxiety. "I owe that stubborn asshole an apology, and I will not have him dying while we're in an argument."

     I left for Sally's shortly after. Only Will, Annabeth, and Juniper knew of my whereabouts, so I trusted them to tell everyone, since I'd left without much of a warning. But it wasn't like I had a choice, okay? I thought the sooner I made it to his mom's, the sooner I'd find him. It was simple logic.

     Annabeth lent me her cellphone to use in case of emergency. I wasn't worried about attracting monsters with the signal on it. I figured that if any dracaenae tried coming near me, it would push me over the goddamn edge and I'd just lose my mind. You know that saying that someone 'saw red'? Yeah, that was pretty much me as I sat in the back of a van covered in strawberry ads and raced to Manhattan to talk to Percy's mom about his whereabouts. All I saw was pure red. And not because the windows had strawberries on them.

"Ms. Jackson," I said, the moment the door swung open. But when I registered who I was actually looking at, my eyes narrowed and a sour taste entered my mouth. "Oh. You must be Paul."

The man had black hair and blue eyes, so he looked like he could actually be Percy's dad. He had a thick mustache that looked straight out of the 80's. I wanted to kick him in the shins when he broke into a smile.

"And you must be Theodosia!" He was oblivious to my hatred. "I've heard so much about you. Please, come in!"

I followed him into the living room. Sally came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a washrag, smiling. "Theo! What a lovely surprise. What are you in for?"

I pursed my lips. Her expression slowly melted at my solemness. "Take a guess."

"It's Percy," she said. "What's wrong? Is he okay?"

"I was hoping you would know," I admitted, taking a seat on her couch. "I haven't seen him in hours. He's nowhere at camp. Our friend Juniper said she saw Nico and him talking, and then—"

"Oh, Nico." Sally sat down, but she leaned forward in earnest. "This wouldn't be the first time Percy disappeared with him. They left together on Percy's birthday last summer."

     "Do you know where they went?" I pressed, leaning toward her. "Do you have any idea where he could be now?"

     "I'm afraid I'm as stumped as you are," Sally said, and for the first time I noticed how nervous she seemed. I felt bad for going to her and subsequently worrying her, probably more than she needed to be.

     "I'm sure he's fine," I decided, taking a stand and shaking my head. "I'm sorry for bothering you, Ms. Jackson."

     "Theo," she chuckled, "how many times will I have to tell you to call me Sally?"

     "Right," I said, forcing a tight smile on my face. "Sally. Thank you for the help. I'll make sure Percy calls when he comes back."

     As I left her apartment, Sally called my name, and I stopped in my tracks. Her brow was furrowed and her eyes were sad. "Percy hasn't told me what was going on between you two, but I really hope you've got it figured out." She gave me another smile. "Bye, Theo."

"Gods," I whispered once the door shut behind me, rubbing my eyes. "I really hope you're not dead, Percy..."

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

IT WAS AN ENTIRE DAY LATER that I heard from him. I did notice in my call log was a missed call from him—oops. Hey, he shouldn't call me at seven in the morning and expect me to be awake, okay?

But the moment I woke up, I picked up Annabeth's phone as soon as it started buzzing on my nightstand. "Percy? What in Hades' name—?"

"No time for lecturing right now," came his voice, and relief flooded my body. When he hadn't greeted me with a 'hello,' I was starting to get worried it wasn't really him on the other side of the line. "Something bad is going to happen. I need you to grab everybody and meet me at the Empire State Building."

I almost hung up on him. "Are you kidding me? We don't hear from you for an entire day, and now you want me to uproot everybody when they're in the midst of preparing for a war, and drag them to Olympus? What is wrong with you, Perseus?"

"Like I said, no time for lecturing right now! I'll fill you in on the details when you get here."

"Leaving camp right now would mean leaving it completely defenseless," I pointed out. "And there's no way the gods—"

     "Just trust me, Theo," he said, his voice almost pleading now. "Please."

     I sighed, rubbing my neck. "Gods, Percy, whatever you're planning—it better work."

     I could hear the grin in his voice. "Thanks, Theo. I'll see you at the Empire State Building, okay?"

     "Yeah." I paused for a moment, then scoffed and admitted, "Percy, I'm glad you're okay."

     "Oh, I'm more than okay," he said, but he left me no time to ask what he meant by that. "See you later."

     And he hung up on me. I stood there for a minute, kind of dumbfounded, then gathered my wits and rushed out the door of my cabin to rally all of the campers together. Nobody asked too many questions, which made piling into the vans easy, but Clarisse and the Ares cabin still refused to join us. I knew I had no chance swaying their opinions, so the rest of us peeled out and headed for the Empire State.

The moment we got there and I laid my eyes on Percy, I was flying out of the van and throwing my arms around his neck in a hug. "Percy, you stupid idiot," I said into his shoulder. "I hate you so much."

"Worried about me?" he teased, hugging me back.

"Not on your life," I laughed, shaking my head. Percy cleared his throat as the rest of the campers unloaded from the vans. I stood in front of them all, next to Percy. "Forty total," I told him. "Clarisse wouldn't—"

Percy's jaw tightened. "She's a stubborn idiot."

"I doubt we even need their help," I said, but I wasn't convinced. There was only forty of us. Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods I'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp. Everyone looked nervous, and I understood why. We were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew we were here.

I felt Percy's eyes on me and turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. "Need something?"

"What?"

"You're looking at me all funny."

He blinked and seemed to come out of his trance. "It's, uh, nothing." He turned to the rest of the group. "Thanks for coming, everyone."

Percy paused, and I could tell he was waiting for someone with more authority to step forward and take over. But he was our leader, and we were all waiting for him to be the one to step up. He swallowed and continued, "Okay, like I told Theo on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

We had to go up to the six-hundredth floor of the Empire State Building in two groups, since the elevator couldn't fit all forty of us at once. Percy went with the first group. Annabeth and I went with the second. 

A staticky rendition of Stayin' Alive was playing over the speakers as we made our way up to Olympus. Good song, horrible timing.

I was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of us, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan. Looking down, I began to grow queasy, so I kept my eyes forward.

I'd seen Olympus several times, but it still took my breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. Then I realized the mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.

I caught up with Percy. He was gazing at the group of campers in front of him. I studied him, my lips pursed in thought. "You look different," I decided. "Where exactly did you go?"

     "Tell you later," he said distractedly. "Come on."

     We made our way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be into it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted us from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

    "Look!" Pollux cried suddenly, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"

    We all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. We watched them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

    "Like infrared scopes," Michael muttered from my left. "We're being targeted."

    I drew in a deep breath. "C'mon. Let's go get the attention of our parents."