No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps must have echoed as we walked into the throne room. It was big and open and cold.

Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. It still made me mad that there was no throne for Hades. A lot of issues would be gone if these stupid gods and goddesses just accepted everyone equally. Or if Zeus could just keep it in his pants. Just being in this room, my anger bubbled to the surface. I clamped my fists tight and tried to breath. I wished Raph was here, he had a way to keep my anger at bay, and he seemed to be the only one who could read my moods and intervien before I did something I would regret.

Will stepped up beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder. He made the hand gesture to inhale and the hold and exhale. I did my best. I looked around the big empty stupid room. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half-serpent, Percy told me about.

"Moooo!" The thing said happily, turning in a circle. At least I figured it said moo, it was half cow.

Despite all the serious stuff going on, I had to smile. Percy had told me about the grand rescue of the baby calf serpent monster; two years ago they'd spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and he'd gotten kind of fond of him. He seemed to like Percy too, even though he'd originally thought he was a girl and named him Bessie.

We walked toward the thrones. I stopped, a grown woman in a simple brown dress appeared. She looked frail. No one seemed to notice her yet. Even Percy.

"Lady Hestia." I signed, and bowed low.

"Hello again, Eleanora Blofis." She signed with a small smile.

"Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome." She signed and I saw her mouth moving, as she spoke to these of the campers.

Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. 

Percy bowed. "Lady Hestia."

Everyone else followed our examples.

Hestia regarded Percy and I with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You now both bear the curse of Achilles."

The other campers started muttering among themselves, I could read their lips without problems: What did she say? What about Achilles? What curse?

"You must be careful," Hestia warned us. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."

Annabeth nudged Percy. "Um . . . what is she talking about?" She looked at me with narrowed eyes and inches away slightly.

I stared into Hestia's eyes, and an image rushed into my mind:

I saw a dark alley between red brick warehouses. A sign above one of the doors read RICHMOND IRONWORKS.

Two half-bloods crouched in the shadows- a boy about fourteen and a girl about twelve. I realized with a start that the boy was Luke. The girl was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I was seeing a scene from back in the days when they were on the run, before Grover found them.

Luke carried a bronze knife. Thalia had her spear and shield of terror, Aegis. Luke and Thalia both looked hungry and lean, with wild animal eyes, like they were used to being attacked.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.

Luke nodded. "Something down here. I sense it."

A rumble echoed from the alley, like someone had banged on a sheet of metal. The half-bloods crept forward.

Old crates were stacked on a loading dock. Thalia and Luke approached with their weapons ready. A curtain of corrugated tin quivered as if something were behind it.

Thalia glanced at Luke. He counted silently: One, two, three! He ripped away the tin, and a little girl flew at him with a hammer.

"Whoa!" Luke said.

The girl had tangled blond hair and was wearing flannel pajamas. She couldn't have been more than seven, but she would've brained Luke if he hadn't been so fast.

He grabbed her wrist, and the hammer skittered across the cement.

The little girl fought and kicked. "No more monsters! Go away!"

"It's okay!" Luke struggled to hold her. "Thalia, put your shield up. You're scaring her."

Thalia tapped Aegis, and it shrank into a silver bracelet. "Hey, it's all right," she said. "We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke."

"Monsters!"

"No," Luke promised. "But we know all about monsters. We fight them too."

Slowly, the girl stopped kicking. She studied Luke and Thalia with large intelligent gray eyes.

"You're like me?" she said suspiciously.

"Yeah," Luke said. "We're . . . well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters. Where's your family?"

"My family hates me," the girl said. "They don't want me. I ran away."

Thalia and Luke locked eyes. I knew they both related to what she was saying.

"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth."

Luke smiled. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth—you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You could?"

"Oh, yeah." Luke turned his knife and offered her the handle. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

Maybe under most circumstances, offering a seven-year-old kid a knife would not be a good idea, but when you're a half-blood, regular rules kind of go out the window.

Annabeth gripped the hilt.

"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained. "They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

Annabeth stared at him with adoration. "I am!"

Thalia grinned. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."

"You're... you're not going to take me back to my family?" she said. "Promise?"

Luke put his hand on her shoulder. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Annabeth said happily.

"Now, come on," Thalia said. "We can't stay put for long!"

The scene shifted.

The three demigods were running through the woods. It must've been several days later, maybe even weeks. All of them looked beat up, like they'd seen some battles. Annabeth was wearing new clothes—jeans and an oversize army jacket.

"Just a little farther!" Luke promised. Annabeth stumbled, and he took her hand. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield like she was driving back whatever pursued them. She was limping on her left leg.

They scrambled to a ridge and looked down the other side at a white Colonial house—May Castellan's place.

"All right," Luke said, breathing hard. "I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here."

"Luke, are you sure?" Thalia asked. "You swore you'd never come back here. If she catches you-"

"We don't have a choice!" he growled. "They burned our nearest safe house. And you've got to treat that leg wound."

"This is your house?" Annabeth said with amazement.

"It was my house," Luke muttered. "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency—"

"Is your mom really horrible?" Annabeth asked. "Can we see her?"

"No!" Luke snapped.

Annabeth shrank away from him as though his anger surprised her.

"I... I'm sorry," he said. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back—"

A brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods. The demigods winced, and a man's voice boomed: "You should not have come home."

The vision shut off.

My knees buckled. I fell into Percy, and Annabeth caught us both, yet she only to talk to Percy. "Percy! What happened?"

"Did...did you see that?" I signed to Percy once I was back on my feet. My legs felt shaky. Percy just nodded. He looked as shaky as I felt.

"See what?" Annabeth asked, eyeing us up.

I glanced at Hestia, but the goddess's face was expressionless. I remembered something she'd told me in the woods: If you are to understand your enemy Luke, you must understand his family. But why had she shown us those scenes?

"How long were we out?" I signed. My hands were shaking, so it was like I was slurring.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "Uhh, you weren't out at all. You just looked at Hestia for like one second and both collapsed."

I could feel everyone's eyes on you me. They flicked back and forth between Percy and I. We couldn't afford to look weak. Whatever those visions meant, we had to stay focused on our mission. I shook my head and shook my hands out.

"Um, Lady Hestia," I signed, "we've come on urgent business. We need to see-"

"We know what you need," a man's voice said, it rattled around in my head. I shuddered, because it was the same voice I'd heard in the vision. I frowned. The last time I had seen Hermes, he was neat and tidy and put together, he had an easy laid back way about him. Today, not so much. Today he spoke in my head, unlike the other gods or goddess they signed or looked for a translator, right now, he just broke into my head. I felt a violation like when Kronos spoke in my head.

A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.

"I will leave you now," Hestia signed. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. I understood why she was so anxious to go. Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy.

"Hello, Percy. Eleanora."

His brow furrowed as though he was annoyed with us, and I wondered if he somehow knew about the vision Percy and I had just seen.

I wanted to ask why he'd been in May Castellan's house that night, and what had happened after he caught Luke.

Percy bowed awkwardly. "Lord Hermes."

I didn't move, I inclined my head slightly, and folded my arms tight over my chest. I narrowed my eyes.

"Oh, sure," one of the snakes said in my mind. "Don't say hi to us. We're just reptiles."

"George," the other snake scolded. "Be polite."

"Hello, George," I said. "Hey, Martha."

"Did you bring us a rat?" George asked.

"George, stop it," Martha said. "They're busy!

I decided it was better not to get into it with George.

"Um, Hermes," Percy said and signed for me. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."

Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"

I clenched my jaw and narrowed my eyes. "Get out of my head. Only Kronos does that. And it's unwanted." I signed.

I saw a few campers slowly inch away from me, scared to be smitted. Hermes seemed to grow in size and his anger rippled from him. I didn't move, and I didn't back down. Behind me, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned. Maybe if we tried to speak with Hermes in private... Percy glanced at me and we had a split second silent conversation. Percy turned to the others.

"You guys," Percy said, he signed as he spoke, it was second nature now to sign and speak. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Annabeth, Nora and me back here in thirty minutes."

Silena frowned. "But-"

"That's a good idea," Annabeth said.

"Connor and Travis, you two lead." I signed.

The Stolls seemed to like that- getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids. "We're on it!" Travis said and signed. Conner saluted me. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Annabeth, Percy and me with Hermes.

"What did you say to me half-blood?" Hermes snarled inside my head.

"I said. Get out of my fucken head Hermes!" I signed slowly. "I know you understand my ASL. Now stop being lazy and get out of my head. I thought you gods were better then the Titans?"

"You better watch it demi god." He finally signed, his face twisted in rage.

"Oh trust me. I'm watching. I'm keeping a close tally of those who piss me off and-"

"My lord," Annabeth said interrupting me. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Apollo also knows it's a trap! And Artemis, Zeus would just listen for once in his life! " I added.

The room shook with angry thunder. I rolled my eyes. It was true.

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He ignored me all together now, and didn't bother to sign, he just spoke, making me lip ready, until Percy started to sign for me so I could understand. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother and your father," he finally turned his angry eyes on me for a second, "they kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' They wanted to come back themselves, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist and archer leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?" Her hands flew as she signed.

Thunder rolled through the sky. Annabeth got angry at me for mouthing off, and yet she does the same thing. Double standards. But I agreed with her.

"I'd watch the comments, girls," Hermes warned. "Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."

"But there are these blue lights-" Percy interjected.

"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage." Everyone forgot to sign for me, so I was forced to lip read. "Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."

I raised my hand. "Um...question. What about that materializing- teleporting thing you guys do?"

Hermes eyes flicked to me for a second before looking away.

"That's a form of air travel too, Blofis. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"

"Yes." I answered. Though Percy and Annabeth both looked like they were mulling it over; Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous- hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive."

I didn't like it.

"Maybe just a few of you could come back," Percy suggested after a minute.

Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."

"I thought that was Kronos." I asked.

The god's eyes glowed. "No, Eleanora. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna—"

"Met her at the Arch," Percy signed to me "Not nice."

"So you told me." I signed back.

"- and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us!"

"Couldn't have been that hard." I signed. Percy pressed his lips together trying not to laugh.

The thrown room shook and Hermes shook with anger.

"We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead-"

"Maybe you could...I don't know...ASK him for help. You guys do tend to ignore Hades."

"It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant." He went on ignoring me. "We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."

"Progress?" Percy said. "He nearly destroyed St. Louis."

"Yes," Hermes admitted. "But he destroyed only half of Kentucky. He's slowing down. Losing power."

I wanted to argue, but it sounded like Hermes was trying to convince himself. He was angry, but he looked desperate too.

"Please, Hermes," Annabeth signed and spoke, it was also becoming second nature for her to sign and speak when I was around, despite her unknown anger and suspicions with me. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"

"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages.”

"Huh. Kinda like us demigods. Weird." I signed with all the snark and sass I could muster.

The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray-eyes thing. And then flicked his eyes to me and narrowed to Percy who looked slightly confused.

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