CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

₊˚࿐࿔ 𖥧‧₊⚘ ❀༉. 𓏲｡

"What's that in your hand?" Grover asked inquisitively as Sylvie walked up to him, Percy, and Thalia. "And what did Artemis want?"

Sylvie flinched when she realized the brochure was still in her hands. For some reason, her face flamed and she felt miserable at the thought of actually answering Grover's questions.

She stuffed the pamphlet in her backpack hastily. "Uh—Nothing, really."

Sylvie didn't know why Artemis's offer had her so scrambled up in the head. It wasn't the thought of being a Hunter in particular, but the fact Artemis wanted her to be at all. She was Sylvie, just Sylvie, and she couldn't see what the goddess saw in her. Sure, she did some pretty okay plant stuff today, but she was still that awkward, clumsy demigod underneath. For Artemis to extend that gracious offer so easily (I don't see why I wouldn't, she'd said), it sort of had Sylvie rethinking everything.

Speaking of Artemis:

She assured them that dawn was coming, but you could've fooled Sylvie. It was colder and darker and snowier than ever. Up on the hill, Westover Hall's windows were completely lightless. Sylvie wondered if the teachers had even noticed the di Angelos and Dr. Thorn were missing yet. She didn't want to be around when they did.

The Hunters broke camp as quickly as they'd set it up. Sylvie, Percy, Grover, and Thalia stood shivering in the snow (unlike the Hunters, who didn't seem to feel at all uncomfortable), and Artemis stared into the east like she was expecting something. Bianca sat off to one side, talking with Nico. Sylvie could tell from his gloomy face that Bianca was explaining her decision to join the Hunt. She felt horrible for the little dude.

"Anyways," Sylvie hastily tried changing the subject, and instead elected on telling Grover and Thalia the other stuff Artemis told her. Percy, too.

Grover turned pale. "The last time the Hunters visited camp, it didn't go well."

"How'd they even show up here?" Percy wondered. "I mean, they just appeared out of nowhere."

"And Bianca joined them," Thalia said, disgusted. Sylvie felt a twinge of guilt. "It's all Zoë's fault. That stuck-up, no good—"

"Who can blame her?" Grover said. "Eternity with Artemis?" He heaved a big sigh.

"I think you're in love, Grover," said Sylvie in a dreamy voice. With the back of her hand to her forehead, she pretended to faint, and Percy caught her.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "You satyrs. Don't you get that she'll never love you back?"

"But she's so... into nature," Grover swooned.

Percy looked confused, and a little weirded-out. "But—Sylvie is into nature, too?"

"That's different."

"You're nuts," said Thalia.

"Nuts and berries," Grover said dreamily. "Yeah."

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Finally the sky began to lighten. Artemis muttered, "About time. He's so-o-o lazy during the winter."

"You're, um, waiting for sunrise?" Percy asked.

"For my brother. Yes."

Sylvie didn't really get it, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. She obviously knew the legends about Apollo—or sometimes Helios—driving a big sun chariot across the sky. But she also knew that the sun was really a star about a zillion miles away. She'd gotten used to some of the Greek myths being true, but still... Sylvie didn't see how Apollo could drive the sun.

"It's not exactly as you think," Artemis said, like she was reading Sylvie's mind.

"Oh, okay." She started to relax. "So, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a—"

There was a sudden burst of light on the horizon. A blast of warmth.

"Don't look," Artemis advised. "Not until he parks."

Parks?

Sylvie averted her eyes and saw that the other kids were doing the same. The light and warmth intensified until Sylvie's winter coat felt like it was melting off her. Then suddenly the light died.

Sylvie looked. And she couldn't believe it. It was a car—some convertible sports-car that Sylvie didn't know the name of. The metal was so hot that it was glowing. The snow had melted around the sports-car in a perfect circle, which explained why Sylvie was now standing on green grass and her shoes were wet.

The driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, and Sylvie found herself smiling, too. This guy had sandy hair and nice, outdoorsy good looks. He was tall, with a bright and playful smile. The sports-car driver wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt. Sylvie didn't have many complaints.

"Wow," Sylvie muttered.

Thalia gawked, "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god," Percy said dumbly.

"That's not what we meant."

"Little sister!" Apollo called. If his teeth were any whiter, he could've blinded them without the sun car. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"

Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."

"Hey, I'm not the one who looks like a fourteen-year-old."

"We're twins! I helped give birth to you! How many millennia do we have to argue—"

"So what's up?" he interrupted. "Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some tips on archery?"

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."

"Sure, sis!" Then he raised his hands in a stop everything gesture. "I feel a haiku coming on."

The Hunters all groaned. Apparently they'd met Apollo before.

He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.

"Green grass breaks through snow.
Artemis pleads for my help.
I am so cool."

He grinned at them, waiting for applause.

"That last line was only four syllables," Artemis said.

Apollo frowned. "Was it?"

"Yes. What about I am so big-headed?"

"No, no, that's six syllables. Hmmm." He started muttering to himself.

Zoë Nightshade turned to Sylvie and them. "Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. 'Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a goddess from Sparta—"

"I've got it!" Apollo announced. "I am so awesome. That's five syllables!" 

He bowed, looking very pleased with himself.

"And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."

"These demigods will also need a ride," Artemis said, pointing to them. "Some of Chiron's campers."

"No problem!" Apollo checked them out. "Let's see... Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."

Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

"Zeus's girl, yes? Makes you my half-sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—"

"Brother," Artemis said. "You should get going."

"Oh, right." Then he looked at me, and his eyes narrowed. "Silviana Henriette Duvall, isn't it?"

The color rushed out of Sylvie's body at once. Fun, ogling time was over. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"Silviana Henriette?" she heard Percy question, like he'd been hit with ten hundred bricks.

"Not. A. Word," Sylvie hissed through gritted teeth.

Her face was flaming, and it wasn't because of the heat or Apollo's good looks. Sylvie's worst fear had just come alive—not being forgotten, but something a million times more terrible like her full name getting revealed—in front of the last ever people she wanted it to happen with.

Still, she said to the sun god, "I sort of go by Sylvie, but—yeah."

"I think I have to sit down," Percy muttered, but everyone ignored him. "I think I have to lie down."

"Ah, Sylvie. My bad," Apollo winked, and Sylvie suddenly forgave him. "You've gotta cut me some slack, I was really focused on the last name. It's quite familiar among us Olympians, you know?"

Sylvie tensed. She had a good idea as to why.

"Anyways," he waved a hand, "you're a good kid, I see. You've been making your mom proud, and whatnot. Hope you're prepared for everything coming your way!"

"Um—Pardon, what was that?"

Then he looked away from Sylvie and narrowed his eyes elsewhere. "Percy Jackson?"

"Yeah. I mean... yes, sir."

Apollo studied him, but he didn't say anything. After Sylvie's interaction with Apollo, she sort of wished that happened to her. Like—Hope you're prepared for everything coming your way! Seriously? Whatever the hell that meant.

"Well!" Apollo said at last. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way—west. And if you miss it, you miss it."

Sylvie looked at the sports-car, which would seat two people max. There were about twenty of them.

"Cool car," Nico said.

"Thanks, kid," beamed Apollo.

"But how will we all fit?"

"Oh." Apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time. "Well, yeah. I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose..."

He took out his car keys and beeped the security alarm button. Chirp, chirp!

For a moment, the car glowed brightly again. When the glare died, the sports-car had been replaced by one of those Turtle Top shuttle buses.

"Right," he said. "Everybody in."

Zoë ordered the Hunters to start loading. She picked up her camping pack, and Apollo said, "Here, sweetheart. Let me get that."

Zoë recoiled. Her eyes flashed murderously.

"Brother," Artemis chided. "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."

Apollo spread his hands. "Sorry. I forgot. Hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"

"Hunting," Artemis said. "It's none of your business."

"I'll find out. I see all. Know all."

Artemis snorted. "Just drop them off, Apollo. And no messing around."

"No, no! I never mess around."

Artemis rolled her eyes, then looked at them. "I will see you by winter solstice. Zoë, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do."

Zoë straightened. "Yes, my lady."

Artemis kneeled and touched the ground as if looking for tracks. When she rose, she looked troubled. "So much danger. The beast must be found."

She sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows.

Apollo turned and grinned, jangling the car keys on his finger.

"So," he said. "Who wants to drive?"

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The Hunters piled into the van. They all crammed into the back so they'd be as far away as possible from Apollo and the rest of the highly infectious males. Bianca sat with them, leaving her little brother to hang in the front with Sylvie and them, which seemed cold to her, but Nico didn't mind. Sylvie didn't either.

"This is so cool!" Nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?"

"Downsizing," Apollo said. "The Romans started it. They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. My sis got the moon. I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."

"But how does it work?" Nico asked. "I thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"

Apollo chuckled and ruffled Nico's hair. "That rumor probably got started because Artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. Seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. You want to talk astronomy? Bah, what fun is that? You want to talk about how humans think about the sun? Ah, now that's more interesting. They've got a lot riding on the sun... er, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. This chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun. It's as old as Western Civilization. Every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. The chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. Make sense?"

"No," Nico shook his head. "But—"

"You guys!" Percy freaked out, as if he hadn't been paying attention to anything because he was too caught up in his own thoughts. "Sylvie's full name is Silviana Henriette Duvall?!"

Sylvie exhaled miserably. "Percy, not now."

"I've genuinely never felt more deceived in my life!"

"What, you just thought my name was actually Sylvie?"

"I didn't think it was Silviana Henriette!"

Her face screwed up in disgust. "Well, can you please stop saying it? Because it's horrible."

"Oh, no, Silviana," he pointed an accusing finger at her. "You started this. Now these are the consequences of your own actions!"

"I didn't even do anything—!"

"Children, children," Apollo swung an arm over either of their shoulders. He grinned down at them, shaking his head like a sentimental grandma. They both looked up at him with identical, disgruntled faces. "You can save your cute little bickering for later. For now, I have to see who's manning the sun chariot!"

Sylvie restrained an eye roll at Apollo's dramatics. He was almost (almost) as dramatic as Percy—who, speaking of, sent Sylvie one last betrayed glare before he sat in the row across from her.

He was such a dork.

"Can I drive?" Nico asked eagerly.

"No. Too young."

"Oo! Oo!" Grover raised his hand.

"Mm, no," Apollo said. "Too furry."

He looked past Sylvie and focused on Thalia.

"Daughter of Zeus!" he said. "Lord of the sky. Perfect."

"Oh, no." Thalia shook her head. "No, thanks."

"C'mon," Apollo said. "How old are you?"

Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."

It was sad, but true. She'd been turned into a tree when she was twelve, but that had been seven years ago. So she should be nineteen, if you went by years. But she still felt like she was twelve, and if you looked at her, she seemed somewhere in between. The best Chiron could figure, she had kept aging while in tree form, but much more slowly.

Apollo tapped his finger to his lips. "You're fifteen, almost sixteen."

"How do you know that?"

"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week."

"That's my birthday! December twenty-second."

"Which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"

Thalia shifted her feet nervously. "Uh—"

"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

Apollo laughed good-naturedly. The rest of them didn't join him.

Thalia tried to protest, but Apollo was absolutely not going to take no for an answer. He hit a button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up along the top of the windshield. Sylvie had to read it backwards (which, for a dyslexic, really wasn't that different than reading forward). She was pretty sure it said WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER.

"Take it away!" Apollo told Thalia. "You're gonna be a natural!"

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Sylvie was so glad she wasn't Thalia—she never wanted to start driving. She could already drive a tractor, and that was enough for her. It was safe and secluded, just like the farm. The thought of being on the road with other cars, in charge of so many lives, around so many people—Well, you know Sylvie: it made her freak the fuck out.

"Speed equals heat," Apollo advised. "So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up."

Thalia gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"What's wrong?" Sylvie asked her.

"Nothing," she said shakily. "N-Nothing is wrong."

Sylvie didn't believe that for a second. Thalia was acting like if Sylvie were to be the one behind the wheel, and not herself—but Thalia was so very different from Sylvie, so that behavior was making Sylvie worried.

Thalia pulled back on the wheel. It tilted, and the bus lurched upward so fast Sylvie fell onto her ass hard enough she was sure it started to bruise.

"Ow," Grover said, after Percy landed on him.

"Sorry."

"Slower!" Apollo said.

"Sorry!" Thalia said. "I've got it under control!"

Percy managed to get to his feet, looking out the window. His eyes widened in concern for whatever he saw.

"Thalia," he said, "lighten up on the accelerator."

"I've got it, Percy," she said, gritting her teeth. But she kept it floored.

"Loosen up," Percy told her.

"I'm loose!" Thalia said. 

"No, you look like me trying to interact with people!" Sylvie argued. Thalia was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood.

"We need to veer south for Long Island," Apollo said. "Hang a left."

Thalia jerked the wheel, which threw Sylvie from her seat across the row right onto Percy. Sylvie wasn't sure if the impacting oof! was him or her.

"Sorry," Sylvie turned her embarrassed face away from him.

"It's okay," Percy helped her stand up, "Silviana."

"Will you quit it with that—?!"

"The other left!" Apollo directed.

Sylvie made the mistake of looking out the window. They were at airplane height now—so high the sky was starting to look back. She instantly sat back down in her original seat, feeling like she was going to be sick.

"Ah..." Apollo said, and Sylvie got the feeling he was forcing himself to sound calm. "A little lower, sweetheart. Cape Cod is freezing over."

Thalia tilted the wheel. Her face was chalk white, her forehead beaded with sweat. Something was definitely wrong. Sylvie had never seen her like this.

The bus pitched down and somebody screamed girlishly. Maybe it was Sylvie. But it sounded a lot like Percy. Now they were heading straight toward the Atlantic Ocean at a thousand miles an hour, the New England coastline off to their right. And it was getting hot in the bus.

Apollo had been thrown somewhere in the back of the bus, but he started climbing up the rows of seats.

"Take the wheel!" Grover begged him.

"No worries," Apollo said, despite himself.

"Many worries!" panicked Sylvie.

Apollo forced a non-worried look onto his face. "She just has to learn—WOAH!"

Sylvie saw what he was seeing. Down below them was a little snow-covered New England town. At least, it used to be snow-covered. As Sylvie watched, the snow melted off the trees and the roofs and the lawns. The white steeple on a church turned brown and started to smolder. Little plumes of smoke, like birthday candles, were popping up all over the town. Trees and rooftops were catching fire.

"Pull up!" Percy yelled.

There was a wild light in Thalia's eyes. She yanked back on the wheel, and Sylvie held on this time. As they zoomed up, Sylvie could see through the back window that the fires in the town were being snuffed out by the sudden blast of cold.

"There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression."

Thalia was thundering toward the coastline of northern Long Island. There was Camp Half-Blood: the valley, the woods, the beach. Sylvie could see the dining pavilion and cabins and the amphitheater.

"I'm under control," Thalia muttered. "I'm under control."

They were only a few hundred yards away now.

"Brake," Apollo said.

"I can do this."

"BRAKE!"

Thalia slammed her foot on the brake, and the sun bus pitched forward at a forty-five-degree angle, slamming into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake with a huge FLOOOOOOSH! Steam billowed up, sending several frightened naiads scrambling out of the water with half-woven wicker baskets.

The bus bobbed to the surface, along with a couple of capsized, half-melted canoes.

"Well," Apollo said with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You have everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"

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BAILEY YAPS...

Yes I made different media references You can't stop me I'm crazy :P

And I'm not putting that damn tongue away either

Drop your favorite persylv variants mine are Nick+Jess, Julie+Bryce, Peter+Lara Jean, and perhaps even Anna+Kristoff...

Theo Scott I want your dad I am picturing him as Ross Lynch Thank your creator and my wife aquamcnti for putting that idea in my head

If they don't make Apollo sexy as hell in the adaptation then what is the point of even having a show... GIVE ME ROSS LYNCH OR GIVE ME DEATH!

PERSEUS DRAMATIC-AS-FUCK JACKSON FOUND OUT ABOUT SILVIANA HENRIETTE DUVALL I LAUGHED A LITTLE No way bro said he'd never felt more deceived as if he hadn't been genuinely betrayed a million times before this

Luke Castellan wishes he had Sylvie's effect sooo bad...