Nico and I walked back through the cool forest. Nico whistled for Miss O'Leary, who came bounding through the shadows of the trees. She trotted beside us as we made our way back to see if Percy was done.

We were almost there when the fat old satyr came trotting from as fast as his legs would carry his large body. The look of terror on his face made me laugh. Nico also chucked. We continued into the grove of trees. Percy was still talking to Juniper, I had to really concentrate on Juniper's mouth. Most nature spirits were harder to lip read.

"I'm sorry, Percy. I didn't mean to get you involved. Leneus is still a lord of the Wild. You don't want to make an enemy of him." Juniper was say, as she wiped her eyes.

"No problem," Percy said. "I've got worse enemies than overweight satyrs."

Nico and I walked back over. "Good job, Percy. Judging from the trail of goat pellets, I'd say you shook him up pretty well."

"Doubt he'll be back. You literally scared the shit out of him!" I signed howling with silent laughter.

Percy pursed his lips, trying not to laugh at us. But I could see him eyeing Nico. He looked at me, and then back at Nico. I could tell Percy had an idea of why Nico was here, but was also trying hard not to smile.

"Welcome back." He said and signed for my benefit. "Did you come by just to see Juniper?"

Nico blushed. "Um, no. That was an accident. I kind of ...dropped into the middle of their conversation."

"He scared us to death!" Juniper said. "Right out of the shadows. But, Nico, you are the son of Hades and all. Are you sure you haven't heard anything about Grover?"

Nico shifted his weight, I could feel his unease, it radiated off of him like cartoon stink lines. "Juniper, like I tried to tell you... even if Grover died, he would reincarnate into something else in nature. I can't sense things like that, only mortal souls."

"But if you do hear anything?" she pleaded, putting her hand on his arm. "Anything at all?"

Nico's cheeks got even brighter red, he glanced at me for help. "Uh, you bet. I'll keep my ears open."

"We'll find him, Juniper," Percy was promised. "Grover's alive, I'm sure. There must be a simple reason why he hasn't contacted us."

She nodded glumly. "I hate not being able to leave the forest. He could be anywhere, and I'm stuck here waiting. Oh, if that silly goat has gotten himself hurt-"

Mrs. O'Leary bounded back over and took an interest in Juniper's dress.

Juniper yelped. "Oh, no you don't! I know about dogs and trees. I'm gone!"

She went poof into green mist. Mrs. O'Leary looked disappointed, but she lumbered off to find another target, leaving Nico, me and Percy alone.

Nico tapped his sword on the ground. A tiny mound of animal bones erupted from the dirt. They knit themselves together into a skeletal field mouse and scampered off. "I was sorry to hear about Beckendorf."

A lump formed in my throat. "How did you-"

"I talked to his ghost. Also, Nora told me what happened."

"What?" I sighed, my jaw dropped, "you didn't tell me about his ghost!"

"Sorry...you needed to uhh...take care of that problem first."

I narrowed my eyes, but wasn't too mad. The fact Nico talked to Beckendorf's ghost made me feel a bit better. Percy looked slightly uncomfortable. I was used to Nico spending more time with the dead then with the living. I guess I just spent more time with him, I understood him more then most.

"Did he say anything?"

"He doesn't blame you guys. He figured you'd be beating yourselves up, and he said you shouldn't."

"Is he going to try for rebirth?" Percy asked.

Nico shook his head. "He's staying in Elysium. Said he's waiting for someone. Not sure what he meant, but he seems okay with death."

I nodded. Percy sighed in defeat. It wasn't much comfort, but at least he didn't blame us. I guess he knew what he was getting into when he left for a mission on Kronos's boat.

"I had a vision you were on Mount Tarn," Percy told Nico. "Was that-"

"Real," I said. "I was also there."

"I didn't mean to be spying on the Titans, but I was in the neighborhood." Nico shrugged.

"Doing what?"

Nico tugged at his sword belt. "Following a lead on...you know, my family."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Do tell. Find anything?"

"Later."

I nodded, but narrowed my eyes as I watched him shift. I knew his past was a painful subject. Until two years ago, he and his sister Bianca had been frozen in time at a place called the Lotus Hotel and Casino. They'd been there for like seventy years. Eventually a mysterious lawyer rescued them and checked them into a boarding school, but Nico had no memories of his life before the casino. He didn't know anything about his mother. He didn't know who the lawyer was, or why they'd been frozen in time or allowed to go free. After Bianca died and left Nico alone, he'd been obsessed with finding answers.

"So how did it go?" Percy asked. "Any luck?"

"No," he murmured. "But I may have a new lead soon."

"What's the lead?"

Nico chewed his lip. "That's not important right now."

"Nico!"

"I'll...I'll tell you later."

"I'll hold you to it!"

"You know why I'm here. Nora told you about it. So...what do you say?"

"Nico, I don't know," Percy said. "It seems pretty extreme."

"You've got Typhon coming in, what... a week? Most of the other Titans are unleashed now and on Kronos's side. Maybe it's time to think extreme."

"Agreed. It's saved my butt on the ship. Percy. You know as well as I do we need more help!"

Percy looked back toward the camp. Even from this distance I knew Percy could hear the Ares and Apollo campers fighting again, yelling curses and spouting bad poetry. They must have noticed by the chariot was destroyed.

"They're no match for the Titan army," I said said. "You know that."

"This comes down to you two and Luke. And there's only one way you can beat Luke."

"Remember the fight on the Princess Andromeda? You were hopelessly outmatched. Kronos had almost killed you with a single cut on the arm! And your sword glanced right off!"

"We can give you the same power," Nico urged, going off my persuasive arguments. "You heard the Great Prophecy. Unless you want to have your soul reaped by a cursed blade..."

"You know-"

"-about the prophecy? Ya." Nico cut him off.

Percy just rolled his eyes. "You can't prevent a prophecy," Percy said. He looked rather gloomy, resigned to his death.

"But you can fight it." Nico had a strange, hungry light in his eyes. "You can become invincible."

"Maybe we should wait. Try to fight without-"

"No!" Nico snarled. "It has to be now!"

Percy stared at him. I raised an eyebrow, I hadn't seen his temper flare like that in a long time. "Urn, you sure you're okay?"

Nico closed his eyes for a second. "Fine. Sorry."

"You need to sit down and tell me everything."

"Ya...I know '

"We need to get Percy on board first. Why is he stalling?"

I turned to look at Percy. "Look Percy. We both know when the fighting starts, we won't be able to make the journey. This is our last chance. I'm sorry if we're being too pushy-"

"-two years ago my sister gave her life to protect you." Nico interrupt. His hands flying as he signed. "I want you to honor that. Do whatever it takes to stay alive and defeat Kronos."

"I won't lose a brother. I did it and lived. Sure it's not present, but I'm ready to fight Kronos. Are you?"

I folded my arms and waited for him to mull over our arguments. I could see Percy work through it. I wondered if he was thinking of Annabeth calling him a coward. I could almost see it as his face hardened. His eyes flashed dangerously and he looked at me. I gave him a nod.

"All right," Percy decided. "What do we do first?"

Nico's cold creepy smile made me smile too and I held a hand out for Nico's high five. Percy looked sorry he'd agreed.

"First we'll need to retrace Luke's steps. We need to know more about his past, his childhood." Nico said.

I shuddered, thinking about Rachel's picture from Percy's dream I crashed- a smiling nine-year-old Luke.

"Why do we need to know about that?" I asked, with a frown. I didn't wanna know about Luke's passed. I already had to understand his anger acroding to Persephone, why would I need to understand his past trauma? Uhg. I internally groaned. His childhood trauma was probably the reason for his anger.

"I'll explain when we get there," Nico signed. "I've already tracked down his mother. She lives in Connecticut."

Percy and I stared at him. I'd never thought much about Luke's mortal parent. I'd met his dad, Hermes, but his mom...

"Luke ran away when he was really young," Percy said. "I didn't think his mom was alive."

"Oh, she's alive." The way his face contorted it made me wonder what was wrong with her. What kind of horrible person could she be?

"Okay..." Percy said. "So how do we get to Connecticut? I can call Blackjack, Nora can use Glitter-"

"No." Nico scowled, shaking his head. "Pegasi don't like me, and the feeling is mutual. But there's no need for flying." He whistled, and Mrs. O'Leary came loping out of the woods.

"Your friend here can help." Nico patted her head. "You haven't tried shadow travel yet?"

"Shadow travel?" Percy asked, looking back and forth between Nico and me. We had matching evil smiles.

"Come on Percy. It'll be fun!"

"You've done this?" Percy signed in disbelief.

I nodded, my smile not leaving.

"Of course you have."

Nico whispered in Mrs. O'Leary's ear. She tilted her head, suddenly alert.

"Hop on board," Nico told him.

I had already grabbed Miss O'Leary's collar and gracefully hopped up onto her back. She lay down to make it easier. I held a hand out to Percy. He hesitantly grabbed mine and I helped hauled him up. He climbed up and settled in front of me.

"This will make her very tired," I warned, remembering my first trip to Central Park.

"You can't do it often. And it works best at night. But all shadows are part of the same substance. There is only one darkness, and creatures of the Underworld can use it as a road, or a door."

"I don't understand," Percy said.

"Don't worry about it. Miss O'Leary knows what she's doing." I signed, trying to calm Percy's nerves. I patted his shoulder.

Nico grinned, "It took me a long time to learn. But Mrs. O'Leary knows. Tell her where to go. Tell her Westport, the home of May Castellan."

"You're not coming?"

"Don't worry," he signed. "I'll meet you there."

Percy gave him a leery look and then glanced at me, I gave him a thumbs up and wrapped my arms around his waist while he leaned down to Mrs. O'Leary's ear.

Mrs. O'Leary stood up sniffing the air. She looked into the gloom of the forest. Then she bounded forward, straight into an oak tree.
Just before we hit, we passed into shadows as cold as the dark side of the moon.

One minute I couldn't see anything. I could only feel Mrs. O'Leary's fur under me and Percy's t shirt under my fingers, I felt him suck in a sharp breath and his heart rate spiked.

The next minute the shadows melted into a new scene. We were on a cliff in the woods of Connecticut. At least, it looked like Connecticut from the few times I'd been there: lots of trees, low stone walls, big houses. Down one side of the cliff, a highway cut through a ravine. Down the other side was someone's backyard. The property was huge- more wilderness than lawn. The house was a two-story white Colonial. Despite the fact that it was right on the other side of the hill from a highway, it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. I could see a light glowing in the kitchen window. A rusty old swing set stood under an apple tree.

I couldn't imagine living in a house like this, with an actual yard and everything. I'd lived in a tiny apartment or a school dorm my whole life. If this was Luke's home, I wondered why he'd ever wanted to leave.

Mrs. O'Leary staggered. I remembered what Nico had said about shadow travel draining her, so I slipped off her back. She let out a huge toothy yawn that would've scared a T. rex, then turned in a circle and flopped down so hard the ground shook.

Nico appeared right next to us, as if the shadows had darkened and created him. He stumbled, but I caught his arm.

"I'm okay," he managed, rubbing his eyes.

"How did you do that?" Percy asked.

"Practice. A few times running into walls. A few accidental trips to China."

"Showing up in the bathroom while I was in the shower..."

"I said I was sorry!" He signed desperately, his face bright red.

"Good thing I ain't your cup of tea, huh?"

"Shut up." He hissed in my head.

I snickered as he went bright red.

"Chill out. You know I would never say anything out loud."

I saw his eyes flick to mine, his angry narrowed eyes, full of fear hidden behind anger. I turned to face him and straightened up and stared him down in challenge. He finally deflated and looked away.

"Ya. Ya I know. You're the only one who knows."

"I know Nico."

We finally turned to Percy as he waved a hand as he tried to get our attention. Nico and I had been staring at each other, having our own conversation.

"Does he know we can talk to each other?"

"I...I can't remember if we told anyone."

"Weird."

"You two okay? You've been glaring at each other for like a solid 3 minutes!" Percy signed.

"Sorry Percy. What can we do for you?"

Mrs. O'Leary had curled up and started snoring. If it hadn't been for the roar of traffic behind us, I'm sure she would've woken up the whole neighborhood, going by the way the ground vibrated under my feet.

"Are you going to take a nap too?" Percy asked Nico.

He shook his head. "The first time I shadow traveled-

"He passed out for a week on the couch. You were off on some mission." I interupted while Nico's ears went pick.

"What?" Percy asked looking back and forth between us. "Our place?"

"Dad helped me move him to Mr Miles and Raph's place, they had an extra bed. Long story." I waved a hand dismissively.

"Now it just makes me a little drowsy, but I can't do it more than once or twice a night. Mrs. O'Leary won't be going anywhere for a while."

"So we've got some quality time in Connecticut." I gazed at the white Colonial house. "What now?" I asked Nico. Percy looked quite pale and very apprehensive.

"We ring the doorbell," Nico answered.

🔆

If I were Luke's mom, I would not have opened my door at night for two strange kids. But I wasn't anything like Luke's mom, and neither was Sally. Sally was the queen among woman and mom's. So no one could surpass her. Luke's mom...was nothing like I was prepared for.

I knew that even before we reached the front door. The sidewalk was lined with those little stuffed beanbag animals you see in gift shops. There were miniature lions, pigs, dragons, hydras, even a teeny Minotaur in a little Minotaur diaper. Judging from their sad shape, the beanbag creatures had been sitting out here for a long time- since the snow melted last spring at least, probably longer. One of the hydras had a tree sapling sprouting between its necks.

The front porch was infested with wind chimes. Shiny bits of glass and metal clinked in the breeze. Brass ribbons and wind chimes blew in the light wind. If I could hear, it would have driven me bonkers as a child if Apollo, useless noise drove me bonkers. I didn't know how Ms. Castellan could stand all the noise.

The front door was painted turquoise. The name CASTELLAN was written in English, and below in Greek: Διοικητής φρουρίου.

Nico looked at us. "Ready?"

"No. I think I left the stove on...we should probably go ba-"

He'd barely tapped the door when it swung open.

"Luke!" the old lady cried happily.

🔆

Getting into the meat of stuff.  What do we think?