CHAPTER SIX:
BE ON YOUR WAY

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ANNAIS' FIRST THOUGHT OF the townhouse was that danger lies in plain sight. While innocuous enough, something didn't sit right with her. There was a large greenhouse in the front room instead of a kitchen or a living area. It smelled of fertiliser, with dense green plants lining the walls and flowing over tabletops, while the back room was laid out like some kind of garage-computer lab-bedroom combination. Annais caught a glimpse of a glowing bank of computers pushed up beside a single bed, a series of gardening tools -- pitchforks, shovels and the like -- sticking out of a closet. She wanted to get a closer look, that dreaded feeling never fading, but she was interrupted by the strange man blocking her view.

"They can't get in," he told them as the monsters on the other side of the door bellowed and smashed their bodies against the walls. "You're safe now!"

"Safe?" Frank and Annais echoed incredulously. Hazel was hanging from Frank's arms like a ragdoll, and the man's disturbing lack of concern seemed to anger him. He yelled, "Hazel is dying!"

Still, Annais glimpsed no prominent shadows, just a blurry fog that seeped from her skin like heat radiating in the air. The strange man, who couldn't see this, glowered back at Frank. "Yes, yes. Bring her this way." With that, he ushered the group down the hallway towards the back room Annais had noticed earlier. He seemed reluctant to reveal its secrets to them, his shoulders tensing beneath the weight of Annais' watchful gaze. "Set your friend here," he gestured over to the bed.

As Frank obliged, removing Hazel's sword from her side so she would be more comfortable, Annais did a slow lap of the room, ignoring the man's grumbles as she stopped a few feet away from a giant python snoozing in the back of a red chariot.

"What were those cow things?" Frank's voice rose frantically from behind her. "What did they do to her?"

"Katoblepones," answered the man, finally kneeling at Hazel's side to observe her. "Singular: katobleps. In English, it means: 'they're always looking down.'"

Huh. Fitting.

"Right," Nico mumbled to himself as realisation dawned. "I remember reading about them."

Frank's glare turned to him next. "Now you remember?"

Annais elbowed his arm harshly. "Frank," she hissed in warning as Nico hung his head.

"I, uh... used to play this stupid card game when I was younger--"

Annais huffed out a laugh at the reminder. "Baby Nico would hate that you called his game stupid. You were obsessed--"

"Yeah, yeah," Nico scowled at her, cheeks flushing pink beneath the dim yellow globe that hung from the ceiling. "It was called Mythomagic. The katobleps was one of the monster cards."

Some of the heat faded out of Frank's glare. He blinked at Nico, caught off guard by yet another admission. "I played Mythomagic. I never saw that card."

"... It was in the Africanus Extreme expansion deck."

"Oh."

If Ezra was there, she would've snorted, ruffled Nico's hair and called him a dork. Lovingly, of course. She used to sit there and listen for hours on end about Mythomagic, always recalling what their brother shared despite having no interest in the game. Right after Bianca died, he stopped playing. Annais actually missed those stupid cards sometimes.

The strange man cleared his throat, looking between them with furrowed brows. "Are you two done, ah... 'geeking out' as they say?"

"Right, sorry... anyway, katoblepones have poison breath and a poison gaze. I thought they only lived in Africa."

"Well, that's their native land," said the man, shrugging. "They were accidentally imported to Venice hundreds of years ago. You've heard of Saint Mark?"

"Saints?" Frank muttered. "They're not part of Greek mythology."

The man chuckled. "No, but Saint Mark is the patron saint of this city. He died in Egypt, oh, a long time ago. When the Venetians became powerful... Well, the relics of saints were a big tourist attraction back in the Middle Ages. The Venetians decided to steal Saint Mark's remains and bring them to their big church of San Marco. They smuggled out his body in a barrel of pickled pig parts."

"That's... disgusting," Frank blurted, but Annais wasn't surprised. That was history for you.

"Yes," he agreed with a smile. "The point is, you can't do something like that and not have consequences. The Venetians unintentionally smuggled something else out of Egypt -- the katoblepones. They came here aboard that ship and have been breeding like rats ever since. They love the magical poison roots that grow here; swampy, foul-smelling plants that creep up from the canals. It makes their breath even more poisonous! Usually the monsters ignore mortals, but demigods... especially demigods who get in their way..."

"Got it," Frank snapped. "Can you cure her?"

"Possibly," he said.

Annais' eyes narrowed. "Possibly? Why waste time bringing us here if you can't cure her?"

"I never said I can't--"

"But you also don't know if you can," she countered.

The man shrugged again. Frank put his hand under Hazel's nose, muttering a curse when he couldn't feel her breath. "Nico," his voice shook. "Please tell me she's doing that death-trance thing, like you did in the bronze jar."

"I don't know if Hazel can do that. Her dad is technically Pluto, not Hades, so--"

Annais watched as the man's face contorted and went blood red. If it were possible, steam would've roared out of his ears from pure fury. He looked at Nico then Hazel with evident disgust, something dangerous sparking in his eyes that alarmed Annais, who shifted her sword in front of her cautiously, not that he noticed with his sights set on Nico. "Hades! So that's what I smell. Children of the Underworld? If I'd known that, I would never have let you in!"

"Wouldn't have made much of a difference," Annais sneered, bristling at the mention of her dad, casual in its cruelty, in its resentment of the Death God. "You haven't done anything."

"And I definitely won't now," he scoffed at her.

Frank stood so he was towering over the man. "Hazel's a good person," he exclaimed, voice thick with emotion, the words catching in his throat. "You promised you would help her!"

He glared obstinately, daring Frank to continue challenging him. Annais' eerie feeling returned once again, in full force. "I did not promise."

Frank's fists clenched, but it was Nico who stepped closer, hefting his sword, "She's my sister. I don't know who you are but if you can cure her, you have to, or so help me by the River Styx--"

"Oh, blah blah blah!" Much to Annais' shock, the man waved his hand and Nico disappeared. She surged forward as his body twisted and shrunk, morphing from a lanky teenage boy to a potted plant about five feet tall with a dozen ripe yellow corn-ears growing from the stalk. "There! Children of Hades can't order me around! You should talk less and listen more. Now at least you have ears..."

He was silenced by Annais' sword swinging at his head, her eyes blazing with determination. Hazel was only getting worse by the minute, and with Nico out of action, it was up to her now. Scowling, she struck again, and the man caught her sword with a calm fist.

"You missed one," she said as rivulets of gold leaked down the blade. Annais hesitated, and the man smiled, Frank edging around them warily. "You don't fuck with my siblings and get away with it."

"No?" he bared his teeth, releasing her sword with a surprising amount of strength.

He waved his hand again, leaving Annais no chance to block the movement, an invisible force smacking hard against her chest. Lungs burning, vision fading into black, Annais' mind slipped over the edge of her control. She managed to catch one last glimpse of Frank before she faded, the last one standing, scared absolutely shitless.

Well, fuck.

It was hard to explain how it felt to be a potted plant. She wasn't aware of her body, but the urge to move was a constant presence, her mind beating heavy fists against the bars of an inescapable cage. She could think and feel, but she had no eyes to see from, no ears to listen through, no mouth to control and curse with. She merely... existed, caught between life and death, and it scared her more than she cared to admit how numbing this state felt.

Annais was... free.

Adrift.

For once.

Sure, she was swamped in the shadows that accompanied her everyday. But with no beating heart, the fear didn't follow. Just a body that wasn't a body, a mind that wasn't a mind, and an empty plain of subconsciousness for Annais to wait in.

For other beings to visit.

She didn't notice her at first, but her mother was waiting. Out of sight, though not quite out of mind. Areum smiled as her daughter caught her eyes and feelings began to creep in, one by one. First, confusion, then a pang of sadness. The woes of a daughter who longed for her loneliness to end.

Sometimes, Annais envied her friends. People like Percy, who had mothers that loved them, often took it for granted. She knew Percy would never mean to, but the sting of absence was brutal as it was erratic. There one moment and gone the next. Like her mother's ghost.

Annais wished she could tell her the things that mattered. That Ezra was gone and Annais was helpless, that Hea was untouchable in her indifference, and Mel was unreachable in her sorrow. That Annais had Jason, a boy who loved her, her first ever boyfriend and a serious one at that. Annais longed for Areum to analyse him, to decide if he was good enough for her daughter and then welcome him with open arms when she realised he was. Her daughter, a rose to protect and cherish from the claws of monsters who wanted to tear her apart.

"I wish you'd go away," she said -- or thought -- instead.

Still, Areum smiled. When she spoke, she sounded like Gaea, voice earthen and ominous. "It's been a while since we spoke, Annais Min."

"Not long enough."

"You detest me," she stated, as easy as breathing. "For what I showed you in the mirror."

Something cracked in Annais' chest. Ezra's face clouded her senses; bit-by-bit, they returned beneath the surface. A muffled shout that sounded like Frank. A stuffy scent of fertiliser seeping into the man's back room. A twinge of pain in the limbs that weren't her own.

"You ruined everything," she said; whether or not Gaea was really there wearing her mother's face, it was true, and Annais needed to say it for once. To scream it until her throat was raw and the words would stop haunting her.

Areum blinked serenely. "I told you the truth."

"You destroyed my family."

"It is not my fault that Ezra lied to you. But what is family if not deceivers?" Annais hesitated, and Gaea continued, striking hard and harsh, a damaging blow. "You defend Ezra Min, and yet you let her fall. You handed her right to me."

"No."

"Deep down, I think you've always wanted to."

"No," her voice was more desperate now, but brittle. Areum had reached towards her with a gaping mouth, gouged out black eyes and claws that wrapped around the aching point of Annais' jaw. Mother drowning Daughter. "Mum, what are you doing--"

The word sounded foreign on her tongue. Childish and chiding. Annais tensed as her lungs that shouldn't have been present burned. Had her body changed back without her realising? Worse, was Gaea in her head for good? Unable to be scraped out, like gum on the bottom of a shoe--

"It's not your time yet." Suddenly, the pressure in her chest popped like a balloon. Annais wheezed, hands reaching for a mother once again lost in black shadows. They swallowed her body whole, seeping out of her eyes and mouth, a warning sign her daughter missed and shouldn't have. Again. "You know what's in your heart, Annais. Why don't you just let go?"

Annais didn't answer and Gaea didn't speak again.

This time, she fought against the numbness, hands as heavy as the sword they swung. She could feel everything rushing back, the tide's calling to return to shore. With a snap, she appeared again, with eyes that could see, limbs that could move, a heart that slammed against her ribcage in fright. Beside her, Nico also appeared in an explosion of corn husks, looking like a fish out of water as his hands traced his features in distrust.

"I -- I had the weirdest nightmare about popcorn."

Annais wished she would have dreamt of something so simple. Despite Areum and Gaea being long gone, she could still feel her mother's cold hands, a touch that would forever linger. A reminder. Subconsciously, she reached for her throat, shallow breaths cutting through shards of her skin like acid.

"Why are you taller?" Nico frowned at Frank.

It took her a moment to realise what he meant. If Frank was tall before, he was huge now. Annais had to lean her head back just to meet his eyes, and she was hardly short. He was also muscled now, toned where skin was once soft, his jaw sharp and cutting. Annais wondered how much time had passed, confused that Hazel stood beside him right as rain.

"Everything's fine," Frank promised them, having noticed Annais' distrustful stare. "Triptolemus was about to tell us how to survive the House of Hades. Weren't you, Trip?"

The man, who was a God, gritted his teeth as Annais rounded on him with a glare. So that explained the golden blood. She should've tried to stab him sooner, save her the humiliation of turning into a freaking plant.

"Fine," grumbled Trip, pouting like a petulant toddler. Frank must've done something to earn his favour... but what? "When you arrive at Epirus, you will be offered a chalice to drink from."

"Offered by whom?" Nico pressed.

Trip's nostrils flared. It was safe to say his hatred for the Children of Hades, Roman or Greek aside, ran deeper than anything Frank could ever fix. But he forced himself to answer, "Doesn't matter. Just know that it is filled with deadly poison."

"Charming," Annais sighed.

Hazel, who'd moved closer to Nico and Annais in their panic, shuddered. "So you're saying that we shouldn't drink it."

"No!" Trip huffed. "You must drink it, or you'll never be able to make it through the temple!"

"Then... what?" Annais countered. "We have to poison ourselves or just let our friends die?"

Trip sighed. "The poison connects you to the world of the dead, lets you pass into the lower levels. The secret to surviving is..." He paused, eyes twinkling. He leaned closer to reveal it to them, his voice awfully grand for something that sounded so ridiculous. "Barley."

Frank blinked at him. "Barley."

Annais sneered. "Is this a joke? Seriously, after all this?"

But Trip persisted. "In the front room, take some of my special barley. Make it into little cakes. Eat these before you step into the House of Hades. The barley will absorb the worst of the poison, so it will affect you, but not kill you."

"That's it?" Nico frowned. "Hecate sent us halfway across Italy so you could tell us to eat barley?"

What a waste of fucking time. Annais was fuming, reaching for a ring that wasn't there (why was she always losing her damn weapon lately?) as Trip bid them good luck and practically sprinted towards his chariot. The python was awake now and was joined by another, each wrapped around the wheels as the God pulled the lever then paused.

"Oh, and, Frank Zhang--" Frank lifted his eyes from the ground, bemused. "--I forgive you! You've got spunk. If you ever change your mind, my offer is open. I'd love to see you get a degree in farming!"

"Yeah," Frank muttered, cheekings colouring pink as his friends all stared at him. "Thanks."

With that, Trip opened his garage door, beginning to roll his chariot forward. "Oh, to be mobile again! So many ignorant lands in need of my knowledge. I will teach them the glories of tilling, irrigation, fertilising!" As the chariot began to pick up speed, the group of four moved to watch him take to the sky, a vibrant red dot hurtling towards the sun. "Away, my serpents! Away!"

For a moment, there was silence.

"That," Hazel said. "Was very strange."

"I should've killed him," Annais mumbled, but her voice lacked conviction, each word hollowed out and tired.

"Why didn't you?" Nico asked, somewhat amused.

She scowled. "I lost my ring."

"Again?"

"Shut up, you," Nico dodged her swinging fist, smirking to himself despite the circumstances.

At the mention of her ring, Frank pulled something off his pinky finger and held out his hand to her. "Here," he said as Annais' eyes widened. "You dropped your sword when Trip changed you, it turned back into a ring... thought you might miss it if Trip took it out of spite..."

"Frank Zhang, I could kiss you."

"Please don't."

Hazel was watching them with a small smile, but as Frank stepped away from Annais, some of the softness on his face fell away. "Are you okay, really?" she asked, having to stand on her tip-toes to put a hand on his shoulder. "You bartered for our lives, Frank. What did Triptolemus make you do?"

Annais wanted to know that herself. Her ring now back in place -- she would've glued it to her finger if it didn't create more problems than it was worth trying to get it back off -- Frank's sullen expression had her full attention. Eyes shining, he mumbled to himself, "Those cow monsters... the katoblepones that poisoned you, Hazel? I had to destroy them."

He refused to look at them at first, but Annais didn't know why. The Children of Hades, of all people, had no place to judge the acts of taking a life, monster or not.

"That was brave," Nico told him. "There must have been, what, six or seven left in that herd."

"No... all of them. I killed all of them in the city..."

Annais let out a gasp. For a lingering second, Nico and Hazel stared at him in stunned silence. Still, Frank avoided their gaze, baulking when Hazel suddenly reached up and kissed his cheek. She didn't say anything, but it was personal, her eyes sad but still loving. Suddenly, Annais felt like she was intruding. Even turning her back so she was facing Nico, the two sharing a mutual grimace of disgust (was this how Ezra and Mel felt around Annais and Jason sometimes?) wasn't enough.

"Well," Nico broke the tension with a forced laugh. "Does anyone know what barley looks like?"

"Oh, sure," Annais scoffed, beginning to lead the way back towards the docks. This time, the air felt a lot lighter with the threat of the cow monsters eradicated. Thanks to Frank. Strangely, Annais was proud of him. "I'm a real plant expert, Nico, didn't you know?" He rolled his eyes, shoving her arm as she grinned. "No, really. I should've been a daughter of Demeter."

"Shut up, Annais."

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A/N: Another chapter dedicated to -trojanwar aka the reason I'm currently obsessed with Annais. Everyone say thank you Aimee <3