I 014. I

𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒔

❝ please ❞

SHE COULDN'T LOOK DOWN. Soaring through the air wasn't her thing, not one bit. She hated the feeling of wind in her hair as she let her mouth shut in case any bugs tried to fly in. It was a lot colder up there than on the ground, and her black sweatshirt was surprisingly warm.

"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to them die they couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"Everything's fine," Percy promised.

Even if Ariadne trudged him with her life, that didn't meant she wasn't nervous. "Are... are we very high?" she asked.

Percy looked down. Below them, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. He stretched his foot out and kicked snow off one of the peaks.

"Nah," he said. "Not that high,"

Percy was surprised to see the worried look in Ariadne's eyes. In all the time they had been friends, and since their first quest, she hadn't ever shown fear. Yet, being that high up was fearful for her, and he was surprised. If he could, he would've taken her into a big hug to calm her down.

"We are in Sierra's." Zoe yelled. She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" their angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We should visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco before?" Percy asked.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" their statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"

"Hank!" the other statue, Chuck, cut in. "They're kids, man."

"Oh, right." if bronze statues could blush, Ariadne swore Hank did. "Back yo flying."

They sped up, so Ariadne could tell the angels were excited. She tried not to feel the need to throw up and squeezed her eyes shut. First, Blackjack's flying was purposefully terrible to make her want to get off, and second, everything was moving too quickly and down below was the hard ground that she could be squashed against.

The mountains fell away into hills, and they were sipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass the turn. Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as they flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and they passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour.

Ariadne decided she would try and clear her mind of nerves by singing a few songs in her head, that usually helped her before a big test at school. As she got into it, she hadn't even realized she has started humming until Chuck spoke up.

"Man," he said, "you've got some pipes on you!"

Grover, thinking he was talking about his Reed pipes, smiled. "Thanks! I've been really practicing—" he stopped once he saw Percy, Zoe and the two statues staring at him. "You weren't talking about me, were you?"

Percy chuckled. "Sorry, G-man, they were talking about Aidan."

He glanced over at the school who had stopped humming, her eyes wide as she tried not to look at the ground in fear.

"Hey," he said, "you okay?"

She shuddered. "Aside from the fact we're hundreds of feet in the air, yeah, I'm fine."

Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying.

"You did go back there," Percy told her. "Zeus listened."

Ariadne looked at her fiends and it helped soothe her nerves slightly.

"Maybe," Thalia said. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."

He told them about the weird mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to be able to se right through the Mist. Thalia just nodded.

"Some mortals are like that," she said. "Nobody knows why."

Ariadne was reminded of her mother, who she hadn't thought about in months. It was peaceful without those thoughts, but talking about this girl who could see the Mist reminded her of her mother and the torture she went through as a kid. It also didn't help that this Rachel girl was so prominent in Percy's mind, maybe it was because she was jealous.

"Well, the girl was annoying," he said. That soothed part of Ariadne's worries. "But I'm glad I didn't vaporize her. That would've been bad."

Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal." She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought, and Ariadne knew she had.

At some point, every demigod thinks about their life if they weren't the child of a god, how different it would be. She had when she was eleven, all because her mother wasn't there to take her home at the end of summer. But she realized, it was never a possibility, that she shouldn't think about things that would never happen. It was pointless.

Ariadne only hoped that Thalia wouldn't think about it any longer, it would only hurt her even more. She also hoped that whatever that Rachel girl had seen wouldn't hurt her in the long run, because she knew first hand what it did to someone—and she's got the scars to prove it.

"Where you guys want to land? Hank asked, waking Percy from his nap. Ariadne found him adorable when he slept, weird thing to say, but she did. The only thing that grossed her out was the fact that he still drooled while flying, and his drool would roll off his face and into the wind.

He looked down and said, "Whoa." The boy switched his eyes to Ariadne who was pale. "Aidan, it's so cool! You've gotta see it."

"I'll see it when we're on land," she said, trying not to throw up.

"It'll be okay, just look down."

She trusted him, and she looked down. The girl had never seen San Francisco before, but it was a sight to see. It was beautiful, like a smaller, cleaner Manhattan—if it had been surrounded by green hills and fog. There was a hug bay and shops, islands and sailboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge sticking up out of the fog. A bird flew under them in the distance and she shut her head up.

"There," Zoe suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."

"Good thinking," Chuck said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons."

They all looked at him.

"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh,  can't statues have a sense of humor?"

As it turned out, there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. They freaked a homeless guy out on the ferry dock when they landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.

They said their goodbyes to the angels, who flew off to party with their state friends. Ariadne realized they didn't have a designated plan for what they were going to do next.

They'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was somewhere. Annabeth too, they hoped. But they had no idea how to find them, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did they have a clue what monster Artemis had been hunting.

It was supposed to find them on the quest. It was supposed to 'show the trail,' but it never had. Now they were stuck on the ferry dock with the money that Hestia had given Ariadne, no friends, and no luck.

After a brief discussion, they agreed that they needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was.

"But how?" Percy asked.

Ariadne snapped her fingers. "Nereus."

Percy looked at her. "What?"

"Isn't they what Apollo told you to do? Find Nereus?"

He nodded. "The old man of the sea," Percy remembered. "I'm supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But how do I find him?"

Zoe made a face. "Old Nereus, eh?"

"You know him?" Thalia asked.

"My mother was a sea goddess. Yes, I know him. Unfortunately, he is never very hard to find. Just follow the smell."

"What do you mean?" Ariadne asked.

"Come," she said without enthusiasm. "I will show thee."

Ariadne knew Percy was in trouble when they stopped at the Goodwill drop box. Five minutes later, Zoe has him outfitted in a rag flannel shirt and jean three sizes too big, bright red sneakers, and a floppy rainbow hat.

"Oh, yeah," Grover said, trying not to buts out laughing, "you look completely inconspicuous now."

Zoe nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant."

"Thanks a lot," he grumbled. "Why am I doing this again?"

"I told thee. To blend in."

She led the way back down to the waterfront. Ariadne walked next to Percy and tried to hold in her snickers, her smile so wide it seemed like her face was about to split.

"Say it," Percy grumbled.

She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I know you want to say something. Just say it."

Ariadne let out her laughs. "You... you don't look terrible. I say we make it a fashion statement."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha, ha. Very funny." He huffed. "Anything else."

"No," she said. A cheeky smirk crossed her face. She leaned close to his face and whispered, "Aside from the fact that you kinda look cute."

The girl chuckled when he blushed tomato red, his heart skipping a beat as she picked up her speed. He smiled at her and shook his head, wanting nothing more than to see that smile once more.

After a long time spent searching the docks, Zoe finally stopped in her tracks. She pointed down a pier where a bunch of homeless guys were huddled together in blankets, waiting for the soup kitchen to open for lunch.

Ariadne gulped down the knot in her throat. When her mother was taking her from their home in Kentucky to camp, their car broke down and her purse had been stolen. An unlucky predicament, especially for a young, single mother with a small girl.

They had gone from soup kitchen after soup kitchen for a few days. Her mother was given little help and she was forced to take her daughter who hadn't wanted to leave, liking the nice ladies who would give her coloring sheets while her mother slept.

At some point, her mother had come across a few stacks of money and they made it to camp. She had hot wired a car, how, the girl didn't know, but they made it to camp and she was left there.

"He will be down there somewhere," Zoe said. "He never travels very far from the water. He likes to sun himself during the day."

"How do I know which one is him?"

"Sneak up," she said. "Act homeless. You will know him. He will smell... different."

"Great. And once I find him?"

"Grab him," she said. "And hold on. He will try anything to get rid of thee. Whatever he does, do not let go. Force him to tell thee about the monster."

"We got your back," Thalia said. She picked something off the back of his shirt—a big chump of fuzz that came from who-knows-where. "Eww. On second thought... I don't want your back. But we'll be rooting for you."

Grover gave him a big thumbs-up.

He looked at Ariadne who smiled brightly. "I'll have to admit, I'm happy it's not me going." Percy's face dropped. "Kidding," it didn't sound like she did. "Go get him, tiger." She patted him on the shoulder, only to have a disgusted face once she shook off a clump from her hand.

Percy grumbled how nice it was to have super-powered friends. Then he headed toward the dock.

He pulled his hat done and stumbled like he was about to pass out. A few grimy dudes with plastic grocery bags for hats checked him out as he cane close. "Beat it, kid!" one of them muttered.

Ariadne felt someone staring at her and looked to her right, where a man who looked a hundred years old stare at her. He had a long beard which was a greenish color, that definitely wasn't normal. His teeth are black and yellow and he licked his lips. She stared straight ahead at Percy whirl trying to ignore the homeless man eyeing her like a piece of meat.

At the end of the pier, a guy who looked about a million years old was passed out in a patch of sunlight. He wore pajamas and a fuzzy bathrobe that probably used to be white. He was fat, with a white beard that had turned hello, kind of like Santa Claus, if Santa had been rolled out of bed and dragged through a landfill.

Percy casually say next to him. He waited a few seconds as Nereus went back to sleep. Then, Percy tackled him. They wrestled for a bit before Percy slammed his head against the wooden post, he still held on.

They rolled off the pier and the group took off, making sure they watched out for their friend. Ariadne could've sworn she had seen Percy holding onto a seal and then a killer whale, his hand on his dorsal fin.

A group of tourists watched in awe, and Percy being Percy, needed to play it off by waving at them as if it was a normal occurrence.

Finally, the old man collapsed on the edge of the boat dock, above them was one of those tourist piers lined with shops, like a mall in water. Nereus was heaving and gasping as they ran down the steps of the pier.

Ariadne was the first one to make it to them.

"You got him!" Zoe said.

"You don't have to sound amazed," he said.

Nereus moaned. "Oh, wonderful. An audience for my humiliation! The normal deal, I suppose. You'll let me go if I answer you question

"I've got more than one question," Percy said.

"Only one question per capture! That's the rule."

Percy looked at them.

This want good. They needed to find Artemis, and they need to figure out what the doomsday creature was. They also needed to know if Annabeth was still alive, and how to rescue her. How could he ask all that in one question?

Percy sighed. "All right, Nereus. Tell me where to find this terrible monster yay could bring an end to the gods. The one Artemis was hunting."

The Old Man of the Sea smiled, showing off his mossy green teeth.

"Oh, that's too easy," he said evilly. "He's right there."

Nereus pointed to the water at his feet.

"Where?" he said.

"The deal is complete!" Nereus gloated. With a pop, he turned into a goldfish and did a backflip into the sea.

"You tricked me!" Percy yelled.

"Wait." Thalia's eyes widened. "What is that?"

"MOOOOOOOO!"

Ariadne looked down, and there was a cow serpent, swimming next to the dock. She nudged Percy's shoe and have him sad brown eyes.

"Ah, Bessie," he said. "Not how."

"Mooo!"

Grover gasped. "He says his name isn't Bessie."

"You can understand her... er, him?"

Grover nodded. "It's a very old form of animal speech. But he says his name is the Ophiotaurus."

"The Ophi-what?"

"It means serpent bull in Greek," Thalia said. "But what's it doing here?"

"Moooooooo!"

"He says Percy is his protector," Grover announced.

"And he's running from the bad people. He says they are close."

"Wait," Ariadne said, looking at him. "You know this cow?" The fondness that the cow held in its eyes when it looked at Percy was honestly adorable.

Percy told them the story of rescuing it from a ship wreck the first morning of the quest, and how it followed him all the way to the Hoover Dam, and now, here.

Ariadne kneeled down and hesitantly placed her hand on the cow's head. Surprisingly, Bessie loved her. He nuzzled her face in the girl's hand as she grinned. Percy internally smiled.

Thalia shook her head in disbelief. "And you forgot to mention this before?"

"Well... yeah."

"I am a fool," Zoe said suddenly. "I know this story!"

"What story?"

"From the War of the Titans," she said. "My... my father told me this tale, thousands of years ago. This is the beast we are looking for."

"Bessie?" Ariadne asked. "But... he's too cute. He couldn't destroy the world."

"This is how we were wrong," Zoe said. "We've been anticipating a huge dangerous monster, but the Ophiotaurus does not bring down the gods in that way. It must be sacrificed."

"MMMM," Bessie lowed.

"I don't think he likes the S-word," Grover said.

Percy patted Bessie's head, trying to calm him down. He let him scratch his ear, but she could tell he was trembling.

"How could anyone hurt him?" Percy said. "He's harmless."

Zoe nodded. "But there is power in killing innocence. Terrible power. The Fates ordained a prophecy eons ago, when this creature was born. They said that whoever killed the Ophiotaurus and sacrificed its entrails to fire would have the power to destroy the gods."

"MMMMMM!"

"Um," Grover said. "Maybe we could avoid talking about entrails, too."

Thalia stared at the cow serpent with wonder. "The power to destroy the gods... how? I mean, what would happen?"

"No one knows," Zoe said. "The first time, during the Titan War, the Ophiotaurus was in fact slain by a giant ally of the Titans, but thy father, Zeus, sent an eagle to snatch the entráis away before they could be tossed into fire. It was a close call. Now, after three thousand years, the Ophiotaurus is reborn."

Thalia sat down on the dock. She stretched out her hand. Bessie went right to her. Thalia places her hand on his head. Bessie shivered.

Thalia's expression was unsettling to Ariadne. She almost looked... hungry.

"We have to protect him," Ariadne said. "If Luke gets hold of him—"

"Luke wouldn't hesitate," Thalia muttered. "The power to overthrow Olympus. That's... that's huge."

"Yes, it is, my dear," said a man's voice in a heavy French accent. "And it is a power you shall unleash."

The Ophiotaurus made a whimpering sound and submerged.

Ariadne looked up. They'd been so busy talking, they allowed themselves to be ambushed.

Standing behind them, his two-colored eyes gleamed wickedly, was Dr. Thorn, the manticore himself.

"This is just pairr-felt," the manticore gloated.

He was wearing a ratty black trench coat over his Westover Hall uniform, which was torn and stained. His military haircut had grown out spiky and greasy. He hadn't shaved recently, so his face was covered in silver stubble. Basically he didn't look much better than the guys down at the soup kitchen.

"Long ago, the gods banished me to Persia," the manticore said. "I was forced to scrounge for food on the edges of the world, hiding in forests, devouring insignificant human farmers for my meals. I never got to fight any great heroes. I was not feared and admired in the old stories! But how that will change. The Titans shall honor me, and I shall feast on the flesh of half-bloods!"

On the other side of him stood two armed security guys, some of the mortal mercenaries they'd seen in D.C. Two more stood on the next boat dock over, just in case they tried to escape that way. There were tourists all around—walking down the waterfront, shopping at the pier above us—but Ariadne knew that the manticore didn't care.

"Where... where are the skeletons?" Percy asked the manticore.

He sneered. "I do not need those foolish undead! The General thinks I am worthless? He will change his mind when I defeat you myself!"

"We best you once before," Ariadne said, her fists clenched. She hadn't taken her medicine in days. And her meltdown after Bianca died was most of it, but her anger was refilling, and she knew it wouldn't be pretty when she snapped.

Being an IED, she was always angry, but her therapist had helped her teach a  few ways to let it go. Trying to think of one calming thing, and she always thought of Percy's eyes.

"Ha! You could barely fight me with a goddess on your side. And, alas... that goddess is preoccupied at the moment. There will be no hope for you now."

Zoe notched an arrow and aimed it straight at the manticore's head. The guards on either side of them raised their guns.

"Wait!" Perch said. "Zoe, don't!"

The manticore smiled. "The boy is right, Zoe Nightshade. Put away your bow. It would be a shame to kill you before you witnessed Thalia's great victory."

"What are you talking about?" Thalia growled. She and her shield and spear ready.

"Surely it is clear," the manticore said. "This is your moment. This is why Lord Kronos brought you back to life. You will sacrifice the Ophiotaurus. You will bring it's entrails to the sacred fire on the mountain. You will gain unlimited power. And for your sixteenth birthday, you will overthrow Olympus."

No one spoke. A terrible dread filled them all. It made sense. Thalia was only two days away from turning sixteen. She was a child of the Big Three. And here was a choice, a terrible choice that could mean the end of the gods. It was just like the prophecy said.

Ariadne was horrified. Doomsday was happening at that very moment, and it was all up to them. She waited for Thalia to tell the manticore off, but she hesitated, as if she was completely stunned.

"You know it is the right choice," the manticore told her. "Your friend Like recognized it. You shall be reunited with him. You shall tule this world together under the auspices of the Titans. Your father abandoned you, Thalia. He cares nothing for you. And now you shall gain power over him. Crush the Olympians underfoot, as they deserve. Call the beast! It will come to you. Use your spear,"

"Thalia," Percy said, "snap out of it!"

She looked at him the same way she had the morning Ariadne head found her on Half-Blood Hill, dazed and uncertain. "I... I don't—"

"Your father helped you," he said. "He sent the metal angels. He turned you into a tree to preserve you."

Her hand tightened on the shaft of her spear.

Percy looked to Grover desperately. Thank the gods, he knew what needed to be done. He raised his pipes to his mouth and played a quick riff.

The manticore yelled, "Stop him!"

The guards had been targeting Zoe, and before they could figure out that they should have been targeting Grover, wooden planks beneath their feet sprouted branches and tangled their legs. Zoe let loose two quick arrows that exploded at their feet in clouds of sulfurous and hello smoke.

The guards started coughing. The manticore shot spines in their direction, but they ricocheted off Percy's lion coat.

"Grover," Percy said, "tell Bessie to dive deep and stay down!"

"Moooooo!" Grover translated.

"The cow..." Thalia muttered, still in a daze.

Ariadne shook her head. "Come on!" She pulled the girl along as they ran up the stairs to the shopping center on the pier. Behind them, she could hear the manticore shouting, "Get them!" at his minions. Tourists screamed as guards shot blindly into the air.

They scrambled to the end of the pier. They hid behind a little kiosk filled with souvenir crystals—wind chimes and dream catchers and other stuff like that, all of them glittering in the sunlight. The whole of San Francisco Bay spread out before them: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and green hills and fog beyond that to the north. A perfect place to be aside from the fact that they were about to die.

"Go over the side!" Zoe told Percy. "You can escape the sea, Percy. Call thy father for help. Maybe you can save the Ophiotaurus."

She was right. Ariadne nodded at her idea, looking at Percy who didn't look ready for the suggestion.

"I won't leave you guys," he said. "We fight together."

"You have to get word to camp!" Grover said. "At lease let them know what's going on!"

Percy seemed to have thought of an idea. "Get word to camp," he muttered. "Good idea."

He uncapped Riptide and slashed off the top of the water fountain next to them. Water bursted out of the busted pipe and sprayed all over them.

Thalia gasped as the water hit her, seeming to clear the fog from her eyes. "Are you crazy?" she asked. Grover and Ariadne understood. The satyr was fishing around in his pocket for a coin, the girl positioning a few crystals to reflect the light.

Grover threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the most and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!"

The mist rippled.

"Camp Half-Blood!" Ariadne said. It was their only hope.

And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to them, was her father—wearing his leopard-skin jogging suit and rummaging through the fridge.

He looked up lazily. "Do you mind?"

"Where's Chiron!" Percy shouted.

"How rude." Her father took a swig from a jug of grape juice. "Is that how you say hello?"

"Hello, dad," Ariadne said. "We're about to die! Where's Chiron?"

Her farther considered the question. Behind them, footsteps and shouting—the manticore's Tripp's were closing in.

"About go for," her father mused. "How exciting. I'm afraid Chiron isn't here. Would you like me to take a message?"

Ariadne gave him a flabbergasted expression. Was he forgetting that she was his daughter and she was about to die?

Percy looked at them. "We're dead."

Thalia gripped her spear. She looked herself—old and angry. "Then we'll die fighting."

"How noble," her father said, stifling a yawn. "So what is the problem, exactly?"

Ariadne didn't see how that would make any difference, but Percy told him about the Ophiotaurus.

"Mmm." He studied the contents of the fridge. "So that's it. I see."

"You don't even care!" Percy screamed. "You'd just as soon watch us die!"

She tried not to let it sting. Her father didn't care, not for her or her friends, and that hurt her heart.

"Let's see. I think I'm in the mood for pizza tonight."

Her eyes narrowed. She was ready to just let the message end, she didn't want to hear his voice anymore after she realized the fact that he didn't care, but they ran out of time. The manticore screamed, "There!" And they were surrounded.

Two of the guards stood behind him. The other two appeared in the roofs of the pier shops above them. The manticore threw off his coat and transformed into his true self, his lion claws extended and his spiky tail bristling with his poison barbs.

"Excellent," he said. He glanced at the apparition in the mist and snorted. "Alone, without any real help. Wonderful."

She glared at the monster.

"You could ask for help," her father murmured to Percy, as if it were an amusing thought. He didn't ask his daughter and was asking Percy, toying with them. "You could say please."

Zoe readied here arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Thalia raised her shield, and a year ran down her cheek. Ariadne let Lunacy twist in her hand, feeling holles as they were cornered. She sent Percy a glare.

"Say please," she said. "Say please right now or I will."

Percy seemed to be fighting himself and the girl looked at the manticore which was closing in. The best they could do was die with a good fight, and they surely would.

"Please, Mr. D," Percy muttered. "Help."

Nothing happened. She thought her father had left, that the message had disappeared and they were left to themselves.

The manticore grinned. "Spare the daughter of Zeus. She will join us soon enough. Kill the others."

The men raised their guns, and something strange happened. Her friends felt the blood rush to their heads, and she felt her body grow stronger. Sunlight tinged with purple. And a sour grapes smell flooded their senses—wine.

Ariadne looked at her hands which glowed. Lunacy transformer back into her ring as purple wove through her fingers.

SNAP!

It was the sound of many minds breaking at the same time. The sound of madness. A dark grin crossed her face as she eyed the guards. Her hands sent off a large purple wave as one guard put his pistol between his teeth like a bone and ran around on all fours. Two others dropped their guns and started waltzing with each other. The four began doing what looked like an Irish clogging dance.

Her friends watched as her hands glowed brighter. Riptide pulsed brightly along with the brunette's eyes, both swords flowing with purple.

"No!" screamed the manticore. "I will deal with you myself!"

His tail bristled, but the planks under his paws erupted into grape vines, which immeasurably began wrapping around the monster's body. Ariadne's grin grew darker as new leaves sprouted from the clusters of green baby grapes that ripened in seconds as the manticore shrieked.

Ariadne has never felt power like this. It caused her body to grow stronger. The manticore was soon engulfed in a hug mass of vines, leaves, and full clusters of purple grapes. Finally the grapes stopped shivering, the manticore was no more, she could feel it.

"Well," her father said, closing his fridge. "That was fun. Nice job." He nodded at his daughter, she sent him a dazed grin, eyeing her own hands.

Percy stared at him, horrified. "How could you... how did you—"

"Such gratitude," he muttered. "The mortals will come out of it. Too much explaining to do if I made their condition permanent. I hate writing reports to Father

He stare resentfully at Thalia. "I hope you learned your lessons, girl. It isn't easy to resist power, is it?"

Thalia blushed as if she were ashamed.

"Mr. D," Grover said in amazement. "You... you saved us."

"Mmm. Don't make me regret it, satyr. Now get going, Percy Jackson. I've bought you a few hours at most."

"The Ophiotaurus," Percy said. "Can you get it to camp?"

Her father sniffed. "I do not transport livestock. That's your problem."

"But where do we go?"

He looked at Zoe. "Oh, I think the huntress knows. You must enter at sunset today, you know, or all is lost. Now good-bye. My pizza is waiting."

"Mr. D," Percy said.

He raised an eyebrow.

"You called me by my right name," Percy said. "You called me Percy Jackson."

"I most certainly did not, Perter Johnson. Now off with you!"

He waved his hand, and his image disappeared., but not before he sent Ariadne a wink.

All around them, the manticore's minions were still acting completely it's. One of them had found the homeless guy which has given Ariadne creepy looks, and they were having a serious conversation about metal angels from Mars. Several other guards were harassing the tourists, making animal noises and trying to steal their shoes.

Ariadne looked at Zoe. "What did he mean... you know where to go?"

Her face was the color of the fog. She pointed across the bay, past the Golden Gate. On the distance, a single mountain rose above the cloud layer.

"The garden of my sisters," she said. "I must go home."

Ariadne was still looking at her hands. She glanced up and noticed how when she put them down, her friends sent one another wary looks. They were afraid.

She gulped before staring at the San Fransisco Bay before them. The girl had felt power from her father, but in the moment, she forgot how truly scary someone with an obsession over power could really be. She was no Luke or Kronos.

But maybe, if she kept wanting the need for power, she could turn into them, and that's what made her hate herself even more.