"IS...IS THAT FUCKING WOLVES?" Blaire was the first to speak after the chilling sound of howls rang through the frigid night. She was almost one hundred percent sure it was in fact wolves, but she figured there was no harm in asking.

"Language!" Coach Hedge scolded, though Blaire's foul mouth was the least of their worries. The Sullivan girl shot him an annoyed glare in return, fighting back the urge to do something much more aggressive.

She really didn't like this Satyr.

"Yeah, it sounds like wolves to me," Piper confirmed, as if Blaire and Hedge weren't bickering like children mere feet away. "They seem close."

At that, they all stood, quickly unsheathing their respective weapons. Besides Piper, who winced upon attempting to pull herself up from her seated position.

"Stay there," Jason demanded, though his tone was gentle and brimming with worry. "We'll protect you."

  Maybe it was his choice of words that evidently filled Piper with physical unease, or his savior-ish behavior, either way, Blaire could tell she didn't like this. She narrowed her eyes at the boy, but ultimately decided on sitting back.

Recalling Jason and Piper's previous conversation, the one Blaire had accidentally eavesdropped on, Blaire fought back the urge to spit, look who's not doing anything now, Mclean. Or something along the cruel lines of that.

  She didn't though. Not because she felt like sparing Piper's feelings, but because she'd rather focus on the clan of wolves making their way towards her.

Suddenly, just outside, at the mouth of the cave, a pair of glowing red eyes became visible, illuminated by the light of the fire.

More wolves edged into the firelight—black beasts bigger than Great Danes, with ice and snow caked on their fur. Their fangs gleamed, and their glowing red eyes looked disturbingly intelligent. The wolf in front was almost as tall as a horse, his mouth stained as if he'd just made a fresh kill.

Blaire blinked as if it would make the monsters disappear suddenly. She really wasn't in the mood to fight.

Before anyone— or anything— was able to make another move, Jason stepped forward. He muttered something in what Blaire assumed to be Latin, his voice stern and unwavering.

Apparently, this seemed to have some sort of effect on the wolves, though Blaire didn't understand how. For, Latin was a dead language.

The alpha wolf curled his top lip up and the fur stood up along his spine. One of his lieutenants tried to advance, but the alpha wolf snapped at his ear. Then all of the wolves backed into the dark, leaving the confused group to glance at each other in question.

"Damn, I gotta study Latin." Leo's hammer shook in his hand as he spoke. "What'd you say, Jason?"

Hedge cursed aloud. "Whatever it was, it wasn't enough. Look."

The wolves were coming back, but the alpha wolf wasn't with them. They didn't attack. They waited—at least a dozen now, in a rough semicircle just outside the firelight, blocking the cave exit.

The coach hefted his club. "Here's the plan. I'll kill them all, and you guys escape."

  "Okay," Blaire agreed, though she was the only one who seemed to like his plan.

  "No, Coach, they'll rip you apart," Piper protested.

  "Nah, I'm good."

  Then, Blaire saw the silhouette of a man wading his way through the wolf pack.

  "Stick together," Jason said. "They respect a pack. And Hedge, no crazy stuff. We're not leaving you or anyone else behind."

  Blaire wondered if that rule applied to her as well. She suspected they'd be more than happy to leave her alone, to fend for herself against these wolves.

  The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. His hair was greasy and ragged, the color of fireplace soot, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. His robes were tattered fur—wolf, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and several others Blaire couldn't identify. The furs didn't look cured, and from the smell, they weren't very fresh. His frame was lithe and muscular, like a distance runner's. But the most horrible thing was his face. His thin pale skin was pulled tight over his skull. His teeth were sharpened like fangs. His eyes glowed bright red like his wolves'—and they fixed on Jason with absolute hatred.

  "Ecce," he snarled, and the others looked to each other, not in fear— but in confusion. "filli Romani."

  "Speak English, wolfman!" Hedge bellowed.

  The wolfman scoffed, baring his ugly teeth. "Tell your faun to mind his tongue, son of Rome. Or he'll be my first snack."

  Faun was the Roman name for Satyr. And he'd just called Jason the son of Rome. Something was definitely off about Jason.

   The wolfman studied their little group. His nostrils twitched. "So it's true," he mused. "A child of Aphrodite. A son of Hephaestus. A faun. And a child of Rome, of Lord Jupiter, no less. And the cursed daughter of Hecate. All together, without killing each other. How interesting."

"You were told about us?" Jason asked, narrowing his eyes in disbelief. "By whom?"

The man snarled—perhaps a laugh, perhaps a challenge. "Oh, we've been patrolling for you all across the west, demigod, hoping we'd be the first to find you. The giant king will reward me well when he rises. I am Lycaon, king of the wolves. And my pack is hungry."

The wolves all growled, slightly advancing.

Out of the corner of her eye, Blaire spied Leo putting up his hammer with shakey hands and slipping something else from his tool belt—a glass bottle full of clear liquid. She wondered what the hell it was and how Leo would use it against these feral wolves.

Lycaon glared at Jason's sword. He moved to each side as if looking for an opening, but Jason's blade moved with him, slashing him away in defense of him and his friends. The others hoisted their weapons in warning.

"Leave," Jason ordered sternly. "There's no food for you here."

"Unless you want tofu burgers," Leo offered. Blaire was surprised to find herself biting back a laugh at one of Leo's untimely jokes.

Lycaon bared his fangs. He wasn't a tofu fan. And Blaire couldn't blame him, she didn't really fancy fake meat.

  "If I had my way," Lycaon said with regret, "I'd kill you first, son of Jupiter. Your father made me what I am. I was the powerful mortal king of Arcadia, with fifty fine sons, and Zeus slew them all with his lightning bolts."

  "Ha," Coach Hedge protested. "For good reason!"

  Jason glanced over his shoulder at the goat. "Coach, you know this clown?"

  "I do," Piper interjected from where she sat.

  "Lycaon invited Zeus to dinner," she explained. "But the king wasn't sure it was really Zeus. So to test his powers, Lycaon tried to feed him human flesh. Zeus got outraged—"

  As Piper told the story, it all came back to Blaire. Another lesson she'd absentmindedly skimmed through that would prove itself useful in the long run.

  "And killed my sons!" Lycaon howled. The wolves behind him howled as well, backing up their leader. Much like the way the other demigods crowded around Jason.

  "So Zeus turned him into a wolf," Piper finished. "They call... they call werewolves lycanthropes, named after him, the first werewolf."

  "The king of wolves," Coach Hedge finished. "An immortal, smelly, vicious mutt."

  Lycaon growled. "I will tear you apart, faun!"

  "Oh, you want some goat, buddy? 'Cause I'll give you goat. "

  "Stop it," Jason shouted. "Lycaon, you said you wanted to kill me first, but...?"

  "Sadly, Child of Rome, you are spoken for. Since this one" —he waggled his claws at Piper—" has failed to kill you, you are to be delivered alive to the Wolf House. One of my compatriots has asked for the honor of killing you herself."

  "Who?" Jason interrogated, and though he was clearly afraid, he wasn't backing down.

  The wolf king snickered. "Oh, a great admirer of yours. Apparently, you made quite an impression on her. She will take care of you soon enough, and really I cannot complain. Spilling your blood at the Wolf House should mark my new territory quite well. Lupa will think twice about challenging my pack."

Piper struggled to her feet, squinting with the effort it took. When she spoke, Blaire could tell she was trying for her charmspeak, however it wasn't working. The words wielded absouletly no power.

"You're going to leave now," Piper tried, "before we destroy you."

Lycaon's red eyes crinkled with humor. "A brave try, girl. I admire that. Perhaps I'll make your end quick. Only the son of Jupiter is needed alive. The rest of you, I'm afraid, are dinner."

Blaire cursed beneath her breath. Getting eaten by wolves was certainly not on her new years bingo card.

Jason took a heroic step forward. "You're not killing anyone, wolfman. Not without going through me."

Lycaon howled and extended his claws. Jason frantically slashed at him, but his golden sword passed straight through as if the wolf king wasn't there.

Lycaon laughed, but the sound was obviously driven by cruelty. "Gold, bronze, steel—none of these are any good against my wolves, son of Jupiter."

Blaire strained her mind, scavenging through the endless knowledge within her mind in search of an anwser. Then, she found it.

"Silver," Blaire said aloud, "The only way to hurt werewolves is silver!"

"We don't have any silver!" Jason said.

Wolves leaped into the firelight. Hedge charged forward with an elated "Woot!"

But Leo struck first. He threw the glass bottle the Blaire wondered about, it shattered on the ground and splattered all over the wolves, dousing their fur and filling the cave with the unmistakable aroma of gasoline. Then he lifted a singular hand, shooting a great amber burst of flames toward the creatures. A wall of flames rose, engulfing several wolves, and Leo smirked. For a second, beneath the fatal firelight he caused, Blaire thought he almost looked intimidating.

Several yelping wolves backwd away, toward the promise of safety that was the thick snow just outside the cave's entrance. Even Lycon looked uneasy, glaring at the barrier of flames that separated the wolves from the demigods.

"Aw, c'mon," Coach Hedge complained like a wounded child. "I can't hit them if they're way over there."

Every time a wolf dared to take a step closer, Leo shot another bout of flames toawrd the pack. His face was turning red with effort, and he seemed visibly deflated. The gasoline was beginning to recede.

"I can't summon any more gas!" Leo warned. "Wow, that came out wrong. I mean the burning kind. Gonna take the tool belt a while to recharge. What you got, man?"

"Nothing," Jason said. "Not even a weapon that works."

Blaire focused on the dying flames, wher mind suprisingly wishful. She knew the wolves wouldn't stay away if the flames completely dwindled. The matter of the fire truly was life or death. If only—

Suddenly, with a loud roar, the wall errupted again, this time the flames burned higher and brighter. Everyone, even the demigods jumped back in suprise, the heat of the flames warming their exposed skin.

"How did you do that?" Jason shouted to Leo, "I thought you said—"

"I didn't!"

Blaire shook her head in silent confusion, turning her focus away from the embers and toward Leo. The fire died down completely, spluttering for a second before aprubtly stopping.

Jason cursed and dropped his sword. He crouched like he was ready to go hand- to-hand. Leo pulled his hammer out of his pack. Piper raised her dagger—not much, but it was all she had. Coach Hedge hefted his club, and he was the only one who looked excited about dying. Blaire frowned, levelling her sword.

Then a ripping sound cut through the wind—like a piece of tearing cardboard. A long stick sprouted from the neck of the nearest wolf—the shaft of a silver arrow. The wolf writhed and fell, melting into a puddle of shadow.

More arrows. More wolves fell. The pack broke in confusion. An arrow flashed toward Lycaon, but the wolf king caught it in midair. Then he yelled in pain. When he dropped the arrow, it left a charred, smoking gash across his palm. Another arrow caught him in the shoulder, and the wolf king staggered.

"Curse them!" Lycaon yelled. He growled at his pack, and the wolves turned and ran. Lycaon fixed Jason with those glowing red eyes. "This isn't over, boy."

The wolf king disappeared into the night, never to be seen again.

Seconds later, Blaire heard more wolves baying, but the sound was different—less threatening, more like hunting dogs on the scent. A smaller white wolf burst into the cave, followed by two more.

"Kill it?" Hedge suggested.

"No!" Piper said. "Wait."

The wolves tilted their heads and studied the campers with huge golden eyes. A heartbeat later, their masters appeared: a troop of hunters in white-and-gray winter camouflage, at least half a dozen. All of them carried bows, with quivers of glowing silver arrows on their backs.

The Hunters of Artemis. Thailia Grace.

Their faces were covered with parka hoods, but clearly they were all girls. One, a little taller than the rest, crouched in the firelight and snatched up the arrow that had wounded Lycaon's hand.

"So close." The voice of Thalia chided. She turned to her companions. "Phoebe, stay with me. Watch the entrance. The rest of you, follow Lycaon. We can't lose him now. I'll catch up with you."

The other hunters mumbled agreement and disappeared, heading after Lycaon's pack.

Again, she spoke, her face still hidden in her parka hood. "We've been following that demon's trail for over a week. Is everyone all right? No one got bit?"

"Thalia," Blaire said bitterly, stepping forward. "Long time no see."

She pulled down her hood, grinning. Her hair was spiky black, with a silver tiara across her brow. Her face had a super-healthy glow to it, as if she were a little more than human, and her eyes were brilliant blue.

"Hey, Sullivan."

  A few years ago, when the Hunters had came to Camp after a mission gone wrong alongside Percy Jackson, they'd attempted to recruit Blaire. It didn't end well.

Then, Piper asked, "You're Thalia?"

"Do I know you?" Thalia questioned, tilting her head.

"Thalia." Jason stepped forward, his voice trembling. "I'm Jason, your brother."

What the hell?

  Thalia had a brother? She'd never before mentioned that. And her brother was.... Jason? The two were completely different.

   For a second, the girl froze, as if taking in his words, then she surged forward, crushing him with a steely embrace.

  "My gods! She told me you were dead!" She gripped Jason's face and seemed to be examining everything about it. "Thank Artemis, it is you. That little scar on your lip—you tried to eat a stapler when you were two!"

  Blaire smirked— she'd have a new reason to make fun of him with this knowledge in the known.

  Leo laughed. "Seriously?"

  Hedge nodded like he approved of Jason's taste. "Staplers —excellent source of iron."

  "W-wait," Jason stammered. "Who told you I was dead? What happened?"

  At the cave entrance, one of the white wolves barked. Thalia looked back at the wolf and nodded, but she kept her hands on Jason's face, like she was afraid he might vanish. "My wolf is telling me I don't have much time, and she's right. But we have to talk. Let's sit."

  Piper did one better, she collapsed. If it weren't for Coach Hedge, who caught her before she could hit the floor, she would have certainly cracked her skull.

   They all rushed over to Piper, worried. Even Blaire had a slight pinch between her brows.

  What's wrong with her? Ah—never mind. I see. Hypothermia. Ankle." Thalia frowned at the satyr. "Don't you know nature healing?"

  Hedge scoffed. "Why do you think she looks this good? Can't you smell the Gatorade?"

  Then Thalia accusatory looked at Leo as if it were his fault Hedge had tried to heal Piper with nature magic.

  "You and the satyr," Thalia ordered, "take this girl to my friend at the entrance. Phoebe's an excellent healer."

Hedge wanted to protest, but Leo frowned at his shoes, tugging on the Satyr's arm. Leo looked so dejected, Blaire couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. She didn't understand why Thalia was sending him away anyways.

"It's cold out there!" Hedge said. "I'll freeze my horns off."

"Come on, Hedge. These two need time to talk."

"Humph. Fine," the satyr muttered. "Didn't even get to brain anybody."

Hedge carried Piper toward the entrance. Leo was about to follow when Jason called, "Actually, man, could you, um, stick around?"

Leo grinned. "Sticking around is my specialty."

   Thalia didn't look too happy about it, but the four of them sat at the fire. For a few minutes, nobody spoke. Jason studied his sister like she was a scary device—one that might explode if handled incorrectly. Thalia seemed more at ease, as if she was used to stumbling across stranger things than long-lost relatives. But still she regarded Jason in a kind of amazed trance, maybe remembering a little two-year-old who tried to eat a stapler. From beside Blaire, Leo took a few pieces of copper wire out of his
pockets and twisted them together, finding desperate ways to distract himself. And Blaire studied his hands intently, pretending to be absolutely mystified.

   Leo was the first to grow fed up with the silence. So ... the Hunters of Artemis. This whole 'not dating' thing—is that like always, or more of a seasonal thing, or what?"

  Thalia stared at him as if he'd just evolved from pond scum. Blaire found she really related to her.

  Jason kicked him in the shin. "Don't mind Leo. He's just trying to break the ice. But, Thalia ... what happened to our family? Who told you I was dead?"

  Thalia tugged at a silver bracelet on her wrist. In the firelight, in her winter camouflage, she almost looked like Khione the snow princess—just as cold and beautiful. But Blaire knew better. Sure, Blaire might not have liked Thalia much, but she was better than the princess.

  "Do you remember anything?" she asked.

Jason shook his head. "I woke up three days ago on a bus with Leo and Piper."

  "Which wasn't our fault," Leo added hastily. "Hera stole his memories."

  Thalia tensed. "Hera? How do you know that?"

   Jason explained about their quest—the prophecies at camp, Hera getting imprisoned, the giant taking Piper's dad, and the winter solstice deadline. Leo chimed in to add the unimportant stuf in hopes of impressing Thalia: how he'd fixed the bronze dragon, could throw fireballs, and made excellent tacos.

  Thalia was a good listener. Nothing seemed to surprise her—the monsters, the prophecies, the dead rising. But when Jason mentioned King Midas, she cursed in Ancient Greek.

  "I knew we should've burned down his mansion," she said. "That man's a menace. But we were so intent on following Lycaon—Well, I'm glad you got away. So Hera's been ... what, hiding you all these years?"

  "I don't know." Jason brought out the photo from his pocket. "She left me just enough memory to recognize your face."

  Thalia looked at the picture, and her expression softened. "I'd forgotten about that. I left it in Cabin One, didn't I?"

  Jason nodded. "I think Hera wanted for us to meet. When we landed here, at this cave ... I had a feeling it was important. Like I knew you were close by. Is that crazy?"

  "Nah," Leo assured him. "We were absolutely destined to meet your hot sister."

  Blaire cringed, embarrassed for the boy. While he looked rather pleased with himself.

  "Jason," she contiued, ignoring Leo. "when you're dealing with the gods, nothing is too crazy. But you can't trust Hera, especially since we're children of Zeus. She hates all children of Zeus."

  "But she said something about Zeus giving her my life as a peace offering. Does that make any sense?"

  The color drained from Thalia's face. "Oh, gods. Mother wouldn't have ... You don't remember—No, of course you don't."

  What?" Jason asked.

  Thalia's features seemed to grow older in the firelight, like her immortality wasn't working so well. "Jason ... I'm not sure how to say this. Our mom wasn't exactly stable. She caught Zeus's eye because she was a television actress, and she was beautiful, but she didn't handle the fame well. She drank, pulled stupid stunts. She was always in the tabloids. She could never get enough attention. Even before you were born, she and I argued all the time. She ... she knew Dad was Zeus, and I think that was too much for her to take. It was like the ultimate achievement for her to attract the lord of the sky, and she couldn't accept it when he left. The thing about the gods... well, they don't hang around."

    They certainly didn't hang around. Hecate left Blaire's father, deep in poverty, to deal with a child all by his lonesome. It was a selfish move, yet a typical one for the gods.

  "So ..." Jason didn't seem able to finish the question.

  "Jason, you got friends," Leo told him. "Now you got a sister. You're not alone."

  Thalia offered her hand, and Jason took it.

  "When I was about seven," she said, "Zeus started visiting Mom again. I think he felt bad about wrecking her life, and he seemed—different somehow. A little older and sterner, more fatherly toward me. For a while, Mom improved. She loved having Zeus around, bringing her presents, causing the sky to rumble. She always wanted more attention. That's the year you were born. Mom ... well, I never got along with her, but you gave me a reason to hang around.You were so cute.
And I didn't trust Mom to look after you. Of course, Zeus eventually stopped coming by again. He probably couldn't stand Mom's demands anymore, always pestering him to let her visit Olympus, or to make her immortal or eternally beautiful. When he left for good, Mom got more and more unstable. That was about the time the monsters started attacking me. Mom blamed Hera. She claimed the goddess was coming after you too—that Hera had barely tolerated my birth, but two demigod children from the same family was too big an insult. Mom even said she hadn't wanted to name you Jason, but Zeus insisted, as a way to appease Hera because the goddess liked that name. I didn't know what to believe."

    Blaire felt like an intruder. It wasn't a conversation she was nesecarily involoved in, so it felt strange listening. However, she did begin to see Jason in a new light. He wasn't the perfect savior she'd always thought he was. He was a traumatized child like her.

  "How did you guys get separated?" Leo asked.

  Thalia squeezed her brother's hand. "If I'd known you were alive ... gods, things would've been so different. But when you were two, Mom packed us in the car for a family vacation. We drove up north, toward the wine country, to this park she wanted to show us. I remember thinking it was strange because Mom never took us anywhere, and she was acting super nervous. I was holding your hand, walking you toward this big building in the middle of the park, and ..." She took a shaky breath. "Mom told me to go back to the car and get the picnic basket. I didn't want to leave you alone with her, but it was only for a few minutes. When I came back ... Mom was kneeling on the stone steps, hugging herself and crying. She said—she said you were gone. She said Hera claimed you and you were as good as dead. I didn't know what she'd done. I was afraid she'd completely lost her mind. I ran all over the place looking for you, but you'd just vanished. She had to drag me away, kicking and screaming. For the next few days I was hysterical. I don't remember everything, but I called the police on Mom and they questioned her for a long time. Afterward, we fought. She told me I'd betrayed her, that I should support her, like she was the only one who mattered. Finally I couldn't stand it. Your disappearance was the last straw. I ran away from home, and I never went back, not even when Mom died a few years ago. I thought you were gone forever. I never told anyone about you—not even Annabeth or Luke, my two best friends. It was just too painful."

  "Chiron knew." Jason's voice sounded far away. "When I got to camp, he took one look at me and said, 'You should be dead.'"

  "That doesn't make sense," Thalia insisted. "I never told him."

   "Hey," Leo said. "Important thing is you've got each other now, right? You two are lucky."

Blaire could not help but agree. After her dad passed, she had no real family. She had no one to rely on. But Jason had a sister, and for that, she envied him.

  "But where have I been?" Jason stammered. "How could I be missing all that time? And the Roman stuff ..."

   Blaire, although it really wasn't any of hee buisness, too wondered about the Roman stuff. She'd never met someone like Jason before.

  Thalia frowned. "The Roman stuff?"

  Your brother speaks Latin," Leo said. "He calls gods by their Roman names, and he's got tattoos." Leo pointed out the marks on Jason's arm. Then he gave Thalia the rundown about the other weird stuff that had happened: Boreas turning into Aquilon, Lycaon calling Jason a "child of Rome," and the wolves backing off when Jason spoke Latin to them.

  Thalia plucked her bowstring. "Latin. Zeus sometimes spoke Latin, the second time he stayed with Mom. Like I said, he seemed different, more formal."

  There was no way...

  "You think he was in his Roman aspect?" Jason asked. "And that's why I think of myself as a child of Jupiter?"

  "Possibly," Thalia said. "I've never heard of something like that happening, but it might explain why you think in Roman terms, why you can speak Latin rather than Ancient Greek. That would make you unique. Still, it doesn't explain how you've survived without Camp Half-Blood. A child of Zeus, or Jupiter, or whatever you want to call him—you would've been hounded by monsters. If you were on your own, you should've died years ago. I know I wouldn't have been able to survive without friends. You would've needed training, a safe haven—"

  "He wasn't alone," Leo blurted out, suprising them all. "We've heard about others like him."

   The gears in Blaire's head shifted into motion. If there were others like Jason, training and living amongst eachother in a safe haven, and Jason turned up here, maybe— just maybe... Percy was wherever Jason came from. It was a stretch, Blakre knew, but a possibility.

  Thalia looked at him strangely. "What do you mean?"

  Leo told her about the slashed-up purple shirt in Medea's department store, and the story the Cyclopes told about the child of Mercury who spoke Latin.

  "Isn't there anywhere else for demigods?" Leo asked. "I mean besides Camp Half-Blood? Maybe some crazy Latin teacher has been abducting children of the gods or something, making them think like Romans."

  Thalia looked at Leo like he'd just said the stupidest thing ever, but Blaire was suprised to find herself nodding in agreement.

  "I've been all over the country," Thalia mused. "I've never seen evidence of a crazy Latin teacher, or demigods in purple shirts. Still ..." Her voice trailed off, like she'd just had a troubling thought.

  "What?" Jason asked, desperate for anwsers.

  Thalia shook her head. "I'll have to talk to the goddess. Maybe Artemis will guide us."

  "She's still talking to you?" Jason asked. "Most of the gods have gone silent."

  "Artemis follows her own rules," Thalia said. "She has to be careful not to let Zeus know, but she thinks Zeus is being ridiculous closing Olympus. She's the one who set us on the trail of Lycaon. She said we'd find a lead to a missing friend of ours."

  "Percy Jackson," Leo guessed. "The guy Annabeth is looking for."

  At the mention of her friend, her breath lodged in her throat. Percy didn't deserve it, she wished she was the one who'd gone missing in his place. She assumed the camp wouldn't be half as frantic if that were the case though.

  Thalia nodded, her face full of concern.

  "So what would Lycaon have to do with it?" Leo asked. "And how does it connect to us?"

  Soon, Leo would come to learn that in a world of mythology, everything was always connected in one way or another.

  "We need to find out soon," Thalia admitted. "If your deadline is tomorrow, we're wasting time. Aeolus could tell you—"

   The white wolf appeared again at the doorway and yipped insistently.

  "I have to get moving." Thalia stood. "Otherwise I'll lose the other Hunters' trail. First, though, I'll take you to Aeolus's palace."

   "If you can't, it's okay," Jason said, though he sounded kind of distressed.

  "Oh, please." Thalia smiled and helped him up. "I haven't had a brother in years. I think I can stand a few minutes with you before you get annoying. Now, let's go!"

LYN SAYS / this is a day late :( and there's no bleo NOT even crumbs But i had to get it out. i had a busy weekend (family function, sleepover, nail appointment, baby sitting) so the writing process of this was drug TF out. i hope u enjoy anyways ! vote and comment for a cookie or two! UNEDITED!