Thalia glanced at Tommy, seeming to catch the look on his face. Tommy didn't notice she was looking, he just continued to stare at me-or so that's what I could see out of the corner of my eye.

A thought popped into my head as I gazed at Thalia. "Where's Jay?" I asked suddenly.

Nobody responded. I narrowed my eyes. "That's not a good sign." I said slowly.

Tommy blinked. "Um...er...you see..." He stammered.

"I swear to Hades if I didn't save that kid 'peed off' won't even begin to describe my feelings." I growled, shooting Leah, Tommy, and Thalia an angry glare.

"Bianca...I think he was already dead when you..." Thalia said slowly.

"No. He wasn't." I replied stubbornly. But I wasn't really trying to be stubborn. I knew he was alive. He had to be.

My cousin could not be dead. There was just no way. He was Percy and Annabeth's son. Those two had literally been to Tartarus and back. Their son couldn't just die.

I started walking around the tent, searching for him. He wasn't anywhere in the tent.

"Do you have another tent?" I asked, beginning to walk away from them and out the little flap.

"Bianca-" Thalia grabbed my shoulder and pulled me into the tent.

"Let go."
"Bianca, please-"
"I said let go."
"Bianca we already-"
"LET ME GO!" I screamed, shaking her off and running out of the tent. "Bianca!"

I ran around to the back of the tent and found a mound of freshly turned dirt. My breath caught in my throat.

Thalia, Leah, and Tommy ran out of the tent after me. They stopped and fanned out behind my back, staring at the dirt...though with less of a look of terror than I had on my face.

"Why?" I managed. "Bianca, he was dead." Tommy told me. I shook my head violently. "No, he's not."
"Yes, he is, Bianca!"
"No."
"Bianca, come on."

I walked slowly up to the mound of dirt, ignoring everyone's pleads for me to come back. I reached my hand over it.

Yeah, before you say anything, I know it was a long shot. You're really not supposed to be able to bring back the dead in the first place. The fact that I had inherited Poseidon's powers and not Hades' made it harder.

But I had to try. My parents had come back from the dead before. Maybe Hades could do us one more favor.

Okay, so Hades wasn't the most generous god. He always asked for something in return, blah blah blah.

But...he was basically my Grandfather. And my sister had his powers...who's to say that I couldn't...like...dig up his powers from the depths of my powerful depths?

What?

I literally don't even know anymore. I didn't think I could ever make myself sound so freaking stupid.

Like ever.

I need to stop saying like.

I'm annoying myself.

Like like like like.

OKAY! I'M GETTING OFF TOPIC! SORRY! I'LL CONTINUE ON WITH THE STORY!

Anyway, I tried to tap into my dark side, not so much my "oh-my-gods-I'm-as-unpredictable-as-the-sea-so-you-can't-track-me-down" side.

That side's not so great. I try to restrain it and keep it under control, but it's like restraining the sea.

It just doesn't work out.

And if it does you can't let it loose. Otherwise something will break.
Or someone will die.
Or bad, bad things will happen.

I'm really not in the mood to stay on track today.

Sorry it's my Poseidon side taking over. I'll try to focus. I promise.

I'm also crossing my fingers behind my back, but that's irrelevant to the story!

Okay, back to the present...well my past but your-never mind.

"Okay, Hades." I muttered anxiously. "Could you do me a favor, please? Just...you know...bring Jay back for me? He's a really good kid, and all. He didn't deserve to die. Plus, he's Percy's son and Percy's helped you before so you kind of owe him here..."

Nothing happened. The mound of dirt didn't so much as twitch.

Out of sheer desperation, I reached my hand over the dirt, expecting some super cool powerful thing to happen.

Yeah, that was completely hopeless.

Basically, what I got out of that was a load of disappointment. It probably weighed more than a poop pile from a Pegasus.

Sorry, that was completely disgusting.

I felt a hand lay on my shoulder. Tears dripped down my face, landing on the pile of dirt.

"We should get moving, Bianca." Thalia said gently. "We need to make sure the monsters don't catch up to us."

I let out a sob. Thalia patted my shoulder. More tears fell on the dirt mound.

Another pair of hands yanked me to my feet. Tommy turned me around to face him and held me at arms length. "I know it's hard." He said to me. "But you need to be brave."

"I don't want to be brave." I cried. Tommy pulled me towards him. I gasped as I felt his lips touch mine.

He pushed me away from himself, still holding my shoulders. "Feel braver?" He asked me.

"What the Hades was that for?" I managed to choke out. Tommy smirked. "I figured that I might as well get one in before you became a huntress. Plus, I don't want your sister to-"

I didn't hear the rest of his sentence. The word sister seemed to trigger something in my brain. I remembered the visions of her I'd been having, most of the time they happened randomly.

But what if they weren't just visions? What if it was a link, a communication?

An empathy link. I remembered Uncle Percy telling me about it. He and Grover had shared one for years.

What if, somehow, Asha and I had a built in empathy link.

I stared at Tommy. He stared back at me, his eyebrows raised. "I'm sorry." I told him. "But I have to try."

"What?" Tommy asked, confused.

I took a deep breath and focused my energy on Asha. If anyone could help me figure out how to get Jay back, it was here. It had to be.

Slowly, I felt myself drifting away. Almost like I was falling asleep, but more like I was traveling somewhere-just leaving my body behind.

I collapsed, almost falling on top of Tommy. He held me up and yelled something at Leah and Thalia, dragging me away into the tent.