CHAPTER ONE —
girl with the golden bow

VALERIE ATKINS HAD ONE JOB – monitor the boy and make sure he was safe from the horrors that only Hades could procure.

One job.

In all fairness, Valerie had done her job particularly well. A year had passed and nothing had tried to kill the boy.

In Valerie's eyes, she saw that as a success.

But that changed one day when the school she was blending in decided to go on a school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for Mr. Brunner (who was actually Chiron, the activities director at Camp-Half Blood and mentor to Valerie) had organised his class to go to.

The class of twenty-nine troubled kids were now on the bus journey to the museum and Valerie watched intently from a few rows behind as Nancy Bobofit, a nasty and rabid bully in their class, threw her lunch repeatedly at Grover Underwood, one of her closest friends.

Watching Nancy bully Grover was one of the many things that made Valerie furious, but she couldn't say anything – she had to keep a low profile.

Grover's job as a satyr was to also protect the boy and make sure he made it to camp-half blood safely, so they both knew that since Nancy Bobofit was mortal (somehow), her unfunny antics weren't putting them in mortal peril and that they just had to put up with it.

However, Valerie didn't care about the rules, and she didn't really say anything to Nancy.

She just made the light above her spark out and explode.

The light bulb was small so the mini explosion didn't harm Nancy, not that it ever meant to (hurting mortals was like the one rule demigods had), it was just meant to scare her.

Valerie giggled at Nancy's shrill scream and the incredulous look on her face as her head whizzed around, trying to find the culprit.

The small commotion had caused Grover and Percy – the boy she was looking out for – to get up from their seats and look back. Valerie ducked her head down very quickly: she couldn't let her cover be blown now, out of all times.

It wasn't like Valerie had to be hidden from the boy, it was just better for the both of them. She felt it was just more morally correct, not having to befriend him then lie to him for the entire year – she had never been a very good liar. Also, Valerie found it extremely amusing whenever he would frantically look around for the girl with the deep cherry red hair haunting him around the school every time she'd accidentally catch his eye. His dumbfounded expression killed her every time.

Percy Jackson stared at the spot where the flash of red he could have sworn had just been there. It was the red haired girl, he knew it, but no one seemed to believe that she was there. This time, he didn't dwell on it too much, as Nancy was nearly in hysterics and he ducked back down to avoid her eye line.

"Karma." Percy said to Grover as he laughed, "It's definitely real."

"It's real alright," Grover replied, with a small smile, looking back in the aisle.

Mr. Brunner was leading the museum tour.

He gathered them all around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling them how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about their age. He told them about the carvings on the sides.

Valerie knew all of this, and was beginning to get a little bored and began fiddling with the gold bracelet around her wrist. It had a couple of different beads from the few years she had spent at the camp, but the best thing about the bracelet was the beautiful red ruby gem on it, a gift courtesy of her father.

She began to shiver and she looked up from her arm and realised why: she was standing next to Mrs. Dodds, their algebra teacher. Oddly, Valerie always seemed to get slightly colder whenever she was in her classroom or, like she was right now, standing right next to her. Mrs. Dodds turned to look at Valerie, her beady eyes almost peering into her soul and she had to consciously repress a shudder.

"Will you shut up?"

Valerie snapped out of her thoughts while the whole group laughed. Percy seemed to be considerably more interested in Chiron's (Mr. Brunner's) talks, than any of the other students.

"Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner said, "did you have a comment?"

"No, sir." Percy said and from a little way behind him, Valerie could see that his ears were as bright as red as her hair.

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, and Valerie sensed that he was testing Percy, "And he did this because..."

"Well... Kronos was the king god, and—"

Valerie cringed. Basic, basic knowledge.

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan," Percy corrected himself, "And...he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Eeew!" said one of the girls next to Valerie.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," Percy continued, "and the gods won."

Some snickers came from the group. Valerie heard Nancy Bobofit mumble to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

Valerie rolled her eyes. If only they knew.

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover and Valerie muttered at the same time, but only Grover heard Valerie. He turned around and caught her eye and she winked back at him.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her ginger hair.

"I don't know, sir." Percy told Chiron.

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

Valerie sat eating her lunch alone and out of the way, like she always did. This quest had made her quite lonely, and whenever she wasn't looking out for Percy or talking secretly with Grover or reading, she was thinking of her brother and her friends back at camp. It had been a while since she had last seen them, and she missed them terribly.

Well, no one had said to her that this quest would be that easy.

Suddenly, Valerie heard a large splash.

"Percy pushed me!" Nancy Bobofit was screaming. She was sitting in the fountain, completely drenched. Percy Jackson was in front of Nancy and was looking incredibly confused.

Mrs. Dobbs was now next to them, beckoning Percy to come with her, and the hairs on the back of Valerie's neck stood on end. A sinking feeling in her stomach began to form and she stood up quickly, making to follow them.

Valerie watched Grover protest to Mrs. Dobbs and when she dismissed him, he turned and gave Valerie a quick look of panic, signalling with his eyes that he was in desperate need for her to follow them.

She nodded to Grover and began to walk behind Mrs. Dobbs and Percy as discreetly as she could without drawing any attention to herself.

Halfway up the steps of the museum entrance, Percy took a look back. Panic filled Valerie as she quickly threw herself behind a pillar.

Percy blinked, like he had just seen her there but had missed it. He turned back around and continued following Mrs. Dobbs into the museum. Valerie did the same.

They ventured deeper and deeper into the museum until they were back in the Greek and Roman section. There was no one in there, just Mrs. Dodds and Percy (and Valerie behind another pillar inside, but they didn't know that).

"You've been giving us problems, honey," Valerie heard Mrs Dodds say to Percy.

"Yes, ma'am." Percy said.

"Did you really think you would get away with it?"

"I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building.

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said menacingly. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

Valerie began tugging at her gold bracelet, getting ready.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't..."

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Valerie shot out from behind her pillar, stretching out her gold bracelet, which had now morphed into a golden bow with a set of arrows.

Mrs. Dobbs was now in her hag form: with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs.

She lunged for Percy.

"No!" Valerie yelled, pulling the bow back, preparing to fire.

Percy looked up, finally being able to look at Valerie properly. It was only moments before Mrs. Dobbs lunged at Percy again.

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

Her talons didn't get to reach Percy, as a gold arrow pierced her neck and passed through her like water. She screamed as she exploded into yellow powder, vaporised on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulphur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air.

Percy looked up to thank the girl with red hair who had shot whatever that was, but there was no one there.

He was alone. There was no red-haired girl with the golden bow.

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note—
yayayayayay chapter 1
like all my books, slow updates bc I have exams sorry guys :((