"It's not her fault," Jax said defensively.

He scooped the pegapiglet up. Bibi shivered in his arms, her ears pricked up and swivelling. The scarecrow was lurching towards them, like a drunken sailor sloshing across a deck; that lopsided smile was still affixed to its face.

"I will kill that pig," Asa muttered. "I actually will."

"She can't help it." Jax pulled her closer. "There's a scarecrow in our garden and it fell on her once. Broke her wing and everything."

He felt it best not to mention that his father — the famed Antonius Blackwater — had been the one to push the scarecrow over. He'd denied it later, but Jax had watched the whole thing happen through the window. Bibi's wing had never recovered.

"How do we kill it?" Romes asked.

They all looked to Xander. He shrugged.

"You can't," Xander said.

Romes clutched her knife. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you can't kill it like this," Xander clarified. "You have to stop being afraid of the thing. The squidarium monster loses its power, and it's forced to change back to its original form. Then you can cut off its head and burn it."

Romes considered this. "Sounds simple enough."

She stepped forward. The monster whipped its head around. Romes raised her knife; the metal flashed like a star in the darkness.

"What are you doing?" Jax demanded.

Her voice was grim. "Making it change."

The creature rippled.

The monster began to shrink, sprouting nails and teeth and skin. Black hair sprouted from its head, skittering down its forehead like spider legs. Veins bulged in its arms. Romes didn't move, but her shoulders tensed. The knife gleamed in her hand.

"Who is that?" Asa asked.

He was staring at the man with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. Jax's throat felt dry. He knew exactly who the monster had changed into.

Jax swallowed. "It's..."

He couldn't bring himself to say it. Wasn't sure that Romes wanted him to say it.

"My father," Romes finished.

She didn't turn. Her eyes were fixed on Roan, who smiled at them with yellowing teeth. The butcher was dressed in a filthy white apron, and there was dried blood on his wrists. He stroked his red beard.

"Hello, Romes," Roan said.

Jax's stomach plunged. "It can talk?"

"Is it just me," Asa muttered, "or did you prefer when its mouth was sewn shut?"

Romes took a step forward. There was something determined about her, Jax thought; something that made him think of moonshine flowers, a periwinkle bloom that sprouted even in tough rock or frozen deserts.

"I'm not afraid of you," Romes said, her voice steady.

"No?" Roan raised an eyebrow. "And who are these lovely young gentlemen?" He looked over her shoulder. "Suitors? Lovers? Men that you roll around in the fields with? Maybe you have more than one of them at once." That yellow smile grew. "I bet you'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?"

Romes raised her knife. "Bugger off."

"Oh, I see." Roan's voice was amused. "You think they're your friends. But you had to trick them into letting you come along, didn't you? Sensible. I can read their minds too, you know. They never wanted you here. Still don't."

"What's it doing?" Jax demanded.

He could see that Romes' hand was shaking slightly. Xander's face was tight. "It's accessing her memories. Playing on her worst fears."

"You're not real," Romes said.

Her voice had lost some of its conviction. Roan drew closer, shaking his head. "Oh, Romes." He sounded disappointed. "You oversalted the meat again. Now it's gone all leathery. You stupid, silly girl."

She looked away. "Stop."

"You know what happens now, don't you?"

The knife trembled. "Don't come any closer."

"Stupid girls deserve to be punished." Roan's voice was soft. "I know you believe that, too." He reached out a bloodstained hand, stroking her cheek. "Where shall I start today? Your arms? Your legs?"

Romes shuddered. "I said, stop."

She thrust her hand forward.

Red bloomed from Roan's chest, unfurling like the petals of a poppy. Romes' face was white. She staggered back, and it took Jax a moment to realize that the knife was no longer in her hand, that it was embedded in her father's chest.

Roan sighed. Ripped out the knife.

"Oh, poppet." Roan threw the weapon to the floor. "Weren't you listening to your little companion earlier? You can't hurt me. Not like this."

"Blackwater," Asa murmured.

Jax reached for his sword. Wind-Singer felt slick in his hands, heavy and awkward, like an ill-fitting sock. Romes was moving backward, her eyes fixed on her father. Blood pounded in his ears.

"Blackwater," Asa hissed.

He turned, irritated. "What?"

Asa spun him to face the trees. And that's when Jax saw it: another hulking, shadowy figure, stumbling toward the clearing. Ice slithered down his spine. No; it wasn't possible. He must be seeing things. But then the shadow drew closer, and Jax swallowed.

"Bugger," Jax muttered.

The monster burst into the clearing. The creature seemed to fold in on itself like a fan, ripping through space. Jax blinked. He was staring at a pale, milky sky, populated with nothing but the occasional cloud.

"What is that?" Asa demanded.

Xander's voice was stiff. "Kenophobia."

"In English, Bird Boy."

"An empty sky," Xander said.

Asa raised an eyebrow. "You're afraid of... air?"

For the first time, Xander looked mildly miffed. "I wouldn't expect you to understand the nuances. Kenophobia is a complex condition that people experience in varying forms and my experience of the phobia—"

"Guys," Jax said, his eyes on the trees.

"—is directly tied to my passion for ornithology—"

His grip on his sword tightened. "Guys."

"—with the empty sky being a metaphor for—"

"Guys!" Jax shouted.

A third monster burst into the clearing. Jax couldn't see what shape it had taken — his vision wasn't that good — but Asa let out a string of colorful curses, including the phrases shove a canoe and my saggy left bollock.

The monster drew closer.

It was a man, Jax realized; he was dressed in pale blue robes, and something gold glittered around his neck. He was also holding something. A leatherbound book of sorts. His face was painted with bloody symbols.

"What is that?" Jax demanded.

Asa's mouth tightened. "Hell."

The creature drew closer. Jax studied its face, trying to identify the symbols: an arrow; a flame; a sharp fang. Not drawn in blood, Jax realized, but in red paint. He nudged Xander. "Do you know what that is?"

"Yes," Xander said.

He glanced at Asa. There was surprise on Xander's face, alongside something that looked a lot like pity. Asa's eyes didn't move from the monster.

"Bird Boy?" he asked.

Xander's voice was gentle. "Yeah?"

"If you keep looking at me like that," Asa said, "I will punch you in the face."

"Right," Xander said. "Understood."

A scream split the air.

They all turned. Roan had Romes by the hair, and he was half-dragging her across the clearing, making for the trees. She was kicking and thrashing, a fish caught in a net. Panic flooded every cell of Jax's body.

"What do we do?" Jax demanded.

Xander held up his hands. "I don't know!"

"There must be something!" His heart thundered in his ears. "A way to hurt them or— or slow them down—"

"There's nothing." Xander's lips were bloodless. "You can either kill them or be killed. Those are the only options."

"Jaxon Blackwater," a voice said.

Everything stopped.

Roan stopped moving. The man with the strange symbol cocked his head, his eyes gleaming back in the moonlight. That voice... A chill trickled down Jax's spine. He knew that voice. Knew it better than the freckles on the back of his hand.

"Jaxy." The voice was a singsong. "Where are you?"

Slowly, all three monsters advanced. Jax held up the sword, his palms slick with sweat.

"I don't like this," Jax muttered.

The voice began to sing. It was coming from that milky sky, Jax realized, although it felt like it was vibrating across the dark forest, shaking every leaf and stream and hollow log. He could feel it settling in his bones.

"Jaxyyyy."

Jax took a step back. "I really don't like this."

Roan released Romes.

The butcher strode across the clearing, his yellow teeth bared. His form rippled. Jax steeled himself. He knew who it was going to be. Even before the shining golden hair and tanned skin and bulging muscles, he just knew.

Percy smiled.

"Hello, Jaxy," his older cousin said. "Great to see you again."