Nico watched as the Kanes left with the Hermes cabin once breakfast was over. They would be safe with the Hermes cabin. Probably.

"So what now?" asked Percy as he sat down across from Nico. "This changes everything."

Nico nodded. Karena the Hunter's death was causing them quite a bit of inconvenience. He knew that he should have felt guilty about thinking of it like that, but he had a couple living people to worry about who he cared about a lot more than some Hunter he didn't even know. It was going to be a lot harder to get Sadie and Carter out of camp without causing some sort of fuss about it now.

"I don't know yet," said Nico. He sighed and closed his eyes. "How is it that everything I do gets so screwed up?"

"It's part of being a demigod," said Percy comfortingly.

"No other demigod here has lost their entire family, spent 60 years in a time warp, lost all their memories, been betrayed by everyone they ever trusted, with the exception of one cousin who they accidentally got imprisoned in the Underworld once, and got their soul fused to an Egyptian god's," said Nico.

"Well, lucky for you I got over that Underworld mishap," said Percy. "And you've also had some good things happen to you too. You've flown with Dedalus' wings. You saved the camp from being burned to the ground. And you turned the tide of the Battle of Mount Olympus. And you have a couple new friends now who I seriously doubt will betray you. Sadie hit Drew for you."

Nico nodded, feeling a bit better, and picked up his glass of orange juice to finish it off.

"I think she might have a crush on you."

"Mmph! Augh!" Nico choked. He nearly sprayed his juice all over Percy, which would have been good payback for the blue Coke incident from the day before, but he was too busy struggling to breath to take advantage.

"Hey! Calm down. Take it easy," said Percy, hitting him on the back.

What's wrong? demanded Anubis. Nico felt the god raking through his thoughts. ? He thinks that Sadie likes you?

He's a moron, Nico told the god.

. . . Anubis said nothing, but somehow Nico felt like that silence was disapproving.

"She does not like me," said Nico when he was able to breath again.

Percy held up his hands in surrender. "I could be wrong."

"You are!"

"Okay," said Percy. "I was wrong. No need to drown yourself in orange juice because of it. Are you finished with breakfast?"

"Yes."

"Then come on." Percy cast a nervous look in the Athena cabin's table. "I can't come up with a plan while Annabeth is glaring at me like that."

Nico stood and followed Percy away from the pavilion.

You should have spit your orange juice on him, said Anubis darkly.

I know, said Nico. I missed my chance.

You could still go back for more orange juice.

We have other things to do, Nico reminded him. And I'm trying not to hold grudges, remember?

Wordless disapproval was the only response that Nico got to that before Anubis withdrew back into the shadows of his mind again.

"We should try to get them out of here before the investigators arrive," said Nico as he and Percy headed toward the weapons training area.

"You don't think it'll look like they're running because they're guilty?" asked Percy.

"It might. But if the investigators find out they're magicians, they might decide that they're guilty and that the investigation is over," pointed out Nico. "They'll realize they're wrong when someone else gets killed, but I don't want anything bad to happen to Sadie and Carter in the meantime. And I'd rather no one else have to die to prove them innocent."

"Good point."

"I'll take them somewhere that they can't be tracked," said Nico. "Australia maybe. That's far enough away."

"You'll be going with them?" asked Percy.

Nico shrugged. "I think I should. If any Greeks come after them before the killer's caught, I can protect them. I know what to expect from other demigods."

"And what do you want me to tell Chiron and everyone else?"

"That Sadie and Carter thought it was more dangerous here than out in the world, and decided to take their chances as loners again. And I went with them because . . . because I like them better than anyone else here at camp, except you. Just do your best to make sure they don't send anyone after us."

Percy nodded. "You do your best not to have anymore emergencies. I don't want to leave camp until they've caught the killer. If something happened to Annabeth -"

"It won't," said Nico. "You won't let it."

They'd reached the weapons practice court and Nico realized with wry amusement that both he and Percy had headed there without even seeming to realize where they were going or having to discuss it.

"I guess we can get a few practice bouts in before anyone else comes and starts gawking at us," said Percy.

Nico nodded and chose a practice sword since the Stygian iron blade he used was too dangerous for sparring. He didn't want to end up accidentally draining anyone's soul. Even if Percy was almost invincible, there was still one spot that if he was hit there, he would die and Nico didn't want to risk hitting it. Even though he had a pretty good idea where it was, because Percy was predictable like that. He tried not to think about it, because he knew that Anubis had access to all of his thoughts, but it was like trying not to think about elephants. But he didn't know for certain and preferred to keep it that way. He didn't want to betray his cousin again, even indeliberately.

"Hey Nico," said Percy as they squared off.

"Yeah?"

"When this mess with the murders is over . . . maybe you should consider telling Annabeth and Thalia the truth."

Nico glared at him. "Why in Dad's name would I do that?"

"Because it's a lot easier having those girls as allies than enemies," said Percy practically.

"And the more people who know about me, the more likely it is someone's going to try to kill me."

"They wouldn't -"

"Thalia answers to Artemis. She's a Hunter. Her loyalty is to them and she'd report what she knew about me in a heartbeat."

Percy paused, considering this. "Well Annabeth -"

"Maybe."

"What?" Percy looked taken aback. He'd obviously expected a bigger fight about this.

"I said maybe," Nico said grudgingly. He really didn't want to tell Annabeth, but if he did it would probably make things easier for Percy. He didn't want to be the cause of problems between Percy and his girlfriend. He owed his cousin that much at least.

"Oh. Well. Maybe is good," said Percy.

Nico gave him a nod and raised his sword into a ready position. Percy raised his own blade but before either boy could move the sound of shouting reached their ears right before a loud explosion made everything else sound muted in comparison.

"What the crap?" asked Nico.

Nico and Percy both turned toward the magic practice grounds and saw that a large group of campers were huddled together, all speaking and shouting in excitement.

"I don't like the sound of that," said Percy.

"Me neither," agreed Nico.

Without another word they took off at a run to find out what was going on.

---------------------------------------------

Carter knew they were in trouble when Hermes cabin ended up at the rock wall with the Aphrodite Cabin. Not that the Aphrodite cabin was really climbing the wall. They were more just sitting around watching other people climb the wall, paying particular attention when the Hermes boys with more muscles scaled the rocks than anyone else.

Carter dragged Sadie to the side since this was their first chance to talk in private since that morning. "Does Nico have another plan for getting us out of here?"

"He mentioned trying again tonight," said Sadie. "He wants to shadow travel us away from here." She looked at the other Hermes campers, a thoughtful look on her face.

"What?" asked Carter.

"Hmm?"

"You look like you're thinking deep about something. You have any ideas on what we should be doing?"

"Uh, no, not really," said Sadie. "I'm all for getting out of here however Nico thinks is best. But you know . . ."

"What?"

"Have you ever thought that maybe we could use a few more like Nico and Percy?"

"Huh?" Now Carter was confused.

"Well, we're not doing so good on finding other magicians," said Sadie. "Except for the ones who want to kill us, who really aren't all that helpful. But Nico and Percy are more than a match for any of the enemies that we've made so far. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to recruit a few more demigods to our cause."

"Sadie," said Carter, "They don't like us. They hate magicians, remember? You've heard how they talk about us."

"Nico and Percy don't hate us because they know better."

"But that's them -"

"And demigods who don't have preconceived prejudices won't have anything against us either, I don't think," said Sadie. Carter followed her gaze toward the demigod girl they'd arrived at camp with, Piper, who was getting ready to climb the rock wall.

"I don't know, Sadie," he said.

"I don't think she likes it here much," said Sadie. "She hasn't been claimed yet so she's feeling left out. We could take her with us."

"For all we know she could be the murderer," said Carter.

Sadie shook her head. "Piper's cool. You're not going to make me believe otherwise without some proof."

"Okay," said Carter, "then look at it like this. Yesterday was the first murder. The first one, as in there hadn't been any others before that one. And whoever the killer is, he or she's on a spree. So either something happened yesterday that caused the killer to flip out and start murdering people . . . or the killer only just arrived here yesterday."

That made Sadie frown. "Yeah, well she's not the only one who just got here yesterday."

"Well of the five new people, there's us, her, Leo, and Maya. We know it wasn't either of us. Maya's barely four feet tall. So that leaves Leo and Piper."

"Then it's Leo," said Sadie. "Or one of those Hunters. Piper's cool."

"Because she stood up for Nico?" asked Carter dryly.

"Because she refuses to jump to conclusions about people who she doesn't know!" said Sadie. "She's a good person."

"Maybe she is, but can we really afford to take a chance?" asked Carter.

"Can we afford to go on as we are?" countered Sadie. "We need allies, Carter. Right now it's just you, me, Bast, Percy, Nico, and Anubis against the freaking apocalypse snake. We're kind of screwed, in case you haven't noticed. We're going to need more back up."

Carter hated to admit it, but Sadie had a point. But still, chances were about 50/50 that Piper was their murderer. He didn't like those odds. "If we want more demigod allies, we should check with Nico and Percy and see who they recommend bringing in," he said. "I don't think your friend Piper has much combat experience."

"A week with us will change that," said Sadie.

"Besides," continued Carter, "right now it's more important for us to get out of here in one piece than it is to recruit more allies.

"I guess you're right," she muttered with a sigh. "But I like Piper. It's too bad we have to leave, or at least leave her here. I think we could have been friends."

Carter felt bad for his sister. He remembered that she had two close friends back at her home in England, both of them girls. Now she was kind of lacking in female companionship around her own age. Bast was a friend but she was also a guardian or chaperone to them, which meant that there would always be things they'd hold back from her. Carter had Nico and Percy as guy friends he could hang out with. Sadie had them too, but Carter didn't think it was the same for her since they were guys and her best friends had always been girls.

"I'm sorry," he told her. He would have said more, but out the corner of his eye, he saw something go sailing through the air, from the direction that the Aphrodite cabin was sitting. Whoever threw it had good aim, because it went quite high, right up to where Piper was climbing and hit the rocks just above her, then it burst in a shower of powder. Piper yelped and started coughing and lost her grip on the rocks.

What Carter did next was stupid, he knew, but he reacted on instinct. He saw someone in trouble and he tried to help them, as was his nature. But thankfully everyone's attention was focused elsewhere as he pointed at Piper and sent his power at her as she fell into freefall since, apparently safety equipment was for humans rather than demigods, and the Hermes kids had sent her up the rock wall without a harness. Without thinking about what he was doing, Carter turned Piper into a fruit bat.

"Carter!" hissed Sadie, looking like she wasn't sure whether she wanted to hug him or hit him.

Fruit Bat Piper began flapping her wings, catching the air, and slowing her descent, as everyone else began shrieking or yelling, or screaming in surprise. Piper landed, none too gracefully, but at least not painfully, and while everyone's attention remained on her, Carter pointed at her again and turned her back to human.

Everyone continued talking over each other.

"What in Hades was that?"

"Did you see?"

"The new girl turned into a bat!"

"What is she? A vampire?"

"If she's a vampire does that make her the murderer?"

Sadie and Carter exchanged panicked glances. That was not how they wanted peoples' trains of thoughts to go.

"I guess I have to clean up your mess," muttered Sadie. "By the way, if anyone asks, we're Greek sorcerers."

"What?" asked Carter.

Sadie pointed toward the Aphrodite cabin. Hieroglyphics shimmered faintly around her, but thankfully everyone was still focused on Piper and no one seemed to notice. "Ha-di!"

The rock beneath all the Aphrodite kids exploded, throwing them every which way.

"What is wrong with you pug-faced, war-painted hags?" shouted Sadie, shoving people out of her way to get closer to the Aphrodite campers. "Throwing stuff at someone who's climbing without a safety line? If Carter had been any slower with that transfiguration spell she could have died!"

"Wait, that was you guys?" asked one of the Stoll brothers, though Carter couldn't tell which one.

"Yeah," said Carter, hoping that Sadie knew what she was doing. "Greek sorcery," he added. "Sorry for the shock, Piper."

"No worries," said Piper shakily.

"So you guys are like Harry Potter?" one of the other Hermes kids wanted to know.

"No you idiot, they're obviously Hecate's kids."

"Not necessarily. They could have just been trained by -"

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" shouted Sadie, advancing on the Aprhodite girls again, probably to get speculation off the source of their powers and onto the fight.

"We say that you should worry about yourself instead of other people," said the girl who Carter recognized as Drew.

"Are you threatening me?" demanded Sadie. "How about we take this to wherever you people have duels around here?"

"So that you can just blast me with your magic?" asked Drew. "I don't think so!"

"I'll beat you down with my bare fists, you ugly pig."

"What did you call me?"

"Ugly pig. Hagfish. Stoat-face!"

"Hold me back!" shrieked Drew, stepping toward Sadie, albeit slowly.

"Wus," said Sadie, as two Aphrodite girls obeyed their leader and gripped Drew's arms. Drew made a half-hearted attempt at struggling against them but it was clear that she had no intention of fighting Sadie.

Carter hoped that Sadie would let it go at that. She'd made her point, after all, and it seemed like the Kanes had come out ahead from this incident, all things considered.

"What's going on here?" demanded Percy, sprinting onto the scene.

"You're lucky that Percy came to break things up," sneered Drew, as she abandoned her struggling act.

"More like you're lucky," said Carter, even though he knew that he and Sadie should be letting things go. "You have no idea what Sadie did to our enemies the last time we turned someone into a fruit bat."

"You what?" Nico skidded to a stop beside Sadie looking horrified.

"It's okay, Nico," said Carter quickly, because he was afraid Nico might accidentally give something away. "Trust me. Everything's fine now."

"It would have been better if you and Percy waited another minute or two," muttered Sadie. "I was right about to mess that shrew's face up."

"Like you could," shot back Drew.

Nico looked warily at Drew, then reached out to Sadie. "Let it go," he said to her, taking her arm and guiding her away. "We don't need anymore trouble."

"Corpse Breath, you are trouble," sneered Drew. Her expression was malicious as she took a step forward. "If I was you, Sadie, I'd get away from him while I had the chance. But you're probably not that smart."

"Shut up," Sadie told her, but allowed Nico to pull her farther away.

"Look at what happens to everyone who hangs around him," said Drew. "They die."

Nico faltered.

"I said shut up," growled Sadie.

"First it was Mommy. Then big sis Bianca," continued Drew. "Have you ever wondered why, Nico? Have you ever thought that maybe it wasn't just bad luck? Maybe it was deliberate. Maybe they got themselves killed on purpose just to get away from you."

"Sadie, don't," said Carter quickly, but his heart really wasn't in it. If it had been, maybe he could have gotten to Sadie in time. Maybe. Probably not. Before he even finished speaking it was already too late.

Sadie came at Drew with all the fury of a lioness driven on the defensive, protecting another member of her pride. Drew started backing up, up the sloping rock, which got her a higher vantage point, but which didn't help her at all. Or at least it didn't help her much. Sadie had to punch upward to reach her. Her fist struck Drew right beneath her jaw in a vicious uppercut that snapped her head back and made the older demigod lose her balance and fall on her butt for the second time after a confrontation with Sadie, but if she and Sadie had both been on even ground Sadie probably would have broken her nose.

"Who do you think you are!" screamed Sadie. "Talking like that to someone who's only had lousy breaks his entire life! You're horrible! Goddess of love my arse! You're the most hateful bi -"

"Sadie!" Carter grabbed his sister from behind when she would have gone on to kick Drew while she was down. Not that Carter thought the shrew didn't deserve it, but if at all possible he thought they needed to avoid getting punished. It would make escaping harder.

"Let me go, Carter!" shouted Sadie. "You heard what she said! You think I should let her get away with talking like that? Now I see why Nico hates it here! Half the people in this camp suck! Ungrateful, bigoted, closed minded Yanks! Carter, let go!"

"No! Now calm down!" Carter glanced up as Percy moved to stand in between Sadie and Drew in case Sadie managed to break free, but from the expression on Percy's face it was clear that he'd rather let Sadie tear Drew apart. Percy's responsible streak seemed to be working against him now.

"Hey Connor, Travis," said Percy, "Nico and I are going to borrow these two unclaimed campers to prevent further bloodshed."

"Alright," said one of the Stoll brothers.

"We're cool with that," said the other.

"Come on," said Percy, shepherding Sadie and Carter away from the cowering Drew. "Nico, you too. Nico?" he asked again when Nico didn't react at first.

"Yeah," said Nico despondently. "I'm coming."

Sadie stopped struggling at the sound of Nico's morose tone. She looked to their friend then reached out and grabbed his arm as he moved closer. "Come on, Nico," she said. "Let's go.