32Chapter 12: Sea Monsters Are Terrible Allies
Alex let out a breath and clapped his hands together. "So, how's it going guys?"
Brooke stepped forward, her face set in a way that made it hard to tell if she was surprised, annoyed, or ready to wring her cousin's neck. Probably all three.
"Alex," she muttered, narrowing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
His eyes flicked nervously from her face to the sword still in her grasp. "Uh, yeah, that's a good story. Trust me, you're…you'll laugh about this, Brooke."
The scowl plastered on her face made me seriously doubt that. I couldn't blame Alex for taking a step back, or the girl for sliding over to hide behind him.
"Start explaining," Brooke growled, tightening her grip on her blade.
"Well, see, we've sort of been following you guys since you left camp," Alex told her. He hunched his shoulders a bit and held up his hands to look as non-threatening as possible. Unfortunately for him, Brooke didn't seem to be buying it.
"And what exactly made you think that was a good idea? Especially with her?" Brooke pointed to the girl cowering behind Alex.
"Oh, her," he glanced over his shoulder for a second. He flashed one of his annoyingly playful smiles usually reserved for pranks and jokes. "That's another story. As for whether or not this was a good idea… Well, I was kind of hoping you'd be so caught up with the quest that you wouldn't notice us."
The look Brooke was giving him made me want to curl into a ball. Aside from the smile melting off his face, Alex didn't react. How he stood his ground without so much as a flinch was fairly impressive, and probably fairly stupid.
Brooke ran her cold eyes over the boy's face, like she was trying to pull the details out of his mind by sheer will. "Seriously?" she grumbled. "You really thought that would work?"
Alex shrugged and tried for another grin, though at this point it looked more like a plea for mercy.
After a few seconds of staring silently, Brooke nodded. "I'm going to kill you."
Alex scrambled back, knocking the girl behind him off balance and sending her to the ground. Aaron jumped forward and latched on to Brooke's wrist, getting a hard death glare in return.
"Let it go," he said. "Beating up Alex won't change anything."
Alex's companion squealed from the ground. When she looked up, I saw absolute horror in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" I asked, glancing around the clearing and expecting to find a monster.
She stared up at Alex. "You…you made me fall in mud." The girl jumped to her feet and started frantically wiping at her clothes. "Ew, gross! My jacket is ruined!"
Brooke raised an eyebrow and looked to Alex. "Really? This is who you're traveling with?"
He raised his hands in defeat. "I didn't really have a say in that."
"Ugh." The girl stamped her foot and pouted like a toddler. "First my pants get slimed, then my shoes get toasted, and now my jacket is covered in mud. I am never doing another quest!"
"Thank the gods," Alex mumbled.
"Alright, enough," Brooke snapped, rubbing her forehead. "What are you two doing out here?"
"We came to help find Nick."
Brooke closed her eyes and shook her head. "No. This isn't your quest, Alex. You aren't part of it. You need to let us do our job. Go back to camp, and take her with you."
"No."
"Alex—"
"Brooke, I'm not going back. I'm going to help find him." A pained scowl crossed her face as she kept shaking her head. "Look, Brooke, I know he's your brother. But in case you forgot, he's my cousin, too. He's my best friend."
"Alex, please…"
He shook his head. "I won't go back, and there's nothing you can do to force me. Even if you drag me back to camp yourself, I'll just leave and come after you again."
Alex shouldered his backpack and moved past her. Dropping the bag beside him, he crouched by the fire and held his hands out to the flames. The girl walked over, avoiding eye contact with the rest of us, and squatted down next to him.
"Kind of weak, isn't it?" she said, glancing back over her shoulder. "I thought you were the fire guy."
Aaron blinked at the girl blankly. With a flick of the wrist, he sent the flames ten feet high and turned them a blazing orange that was nearly impossible to look at.
The girl yelped and scrambled back. Alex fell flat on his back and sat up to yell at the other half-blood.
"This is bad," Brooke muttered at Aaron and I. "We can't let them come."
"Why not?" Aaron asked. "If we're going into a monster lair, couldn't we use the man power?"
Brooke shook her head. "Not this kind of help. Sure, Alex could be helpful, but his powers still drain him too fast. She's the problem, though." Brooke pointed to the girl still trying to flick lumps of mud of her coat. "Ashley Pinchotte, daughter of Aphrodite."
I recognized the name. She was the pink-braces-girl who'd come up to me at camp. "What's so wrong with her?"
Staring at me like I was an idiot, Brooke crossed her arms. "Don't you remember the prophecy? Love-struck dove, the servant shall take. Dove, meaning Aphrodite or one of her children. If we let her come with us, it'd be like declaring open season. And even if that weren't the case, she's all but useless to us. She's not a good fighter, she's not particularly talented, and she cries when she gets dirty."
I had to hand it to Brooke on that one. The Aphrodite kids were generally weak warriors, and most of what they did centered around fashion and manicures. Besides, if having her with us meant attracting the servant, I'd be the first to box her up and send her home. Especially since the next death after an Aphrodite child was a mix-blood, two of which we now had in our group.
"Well, we don't have to let her officially join the quest," Aaron suggested. "I mean, if she's not technically part of the quest, then she's not part of the prophecy, right?"
I glanced over at Brooke, not sure if that sort of reasoning made any sense. (Not that sense particularly mattered in our world…)
"Besides," Aaron continued. "It said 'love-struck dove.' Does she seem particularly in love to you guys?"
"She's Aphrodite's child," Brooke mumbled. "Everything they do is either love or glamor." She rubbed at her forehead and cast a glance at Aaron. "So, what are you saying? You want them to come?"
He shrugged and held up his hands. "I'm just saying that they seem pretty determined. If they're going to follow us anyway, wouldn't you rather they be close by where we can keep an eye on them?"
"I'd rather they be back at camp where they aren't in danger at all," Brooke countered.
Aaron sighed. "We all know that's not going to happen."
Brooke raised an eyebrow. "I'll drag Alex back to camp, tie him to a tree, and have the dragon keep guard if that's what it takes. And tie up Caleb just to make sure he wouldn't let Alex out."
"Sorry, Brooke," Aaron said with a shrug. "You know there's no way for us to make them go back. I'm quest leader, and I say we let them hang around. I'd rather…"
Brooke didn't wait for him to finish before she spun around and stormed off, anger and disbelief shining in her eyes. She waved her hand, making the water bottles by our bags explode and dousing the fire as she stalked into the woods.
I patted Aaron on the shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it. She just doesn't want anyone getting hurt." Especially since it concerned her cousin's life.
I felt a twinge of guilt as I moved toward the smoldering remains of the fire. Still, I was glad that it was Aaron who'd had to make the call, not me. Either decision could endanger lives, and I certainly didn't want to be the one to make that choice.
The train ride south was about as comfortable as taking a taxi with a giant. (Take my word; I've done it.) Brooke sat in a corner of the cargo box by herself, the open hostility in her eyes keeping the rest of us at bay. Aaron had tried to approach her, but the murderous glare she'd given him had been a pretty good warning to back off. He'd eventually wandered over to Alex to talk about gods knew what. Which left me to deal with Ashley.
"I can't wait to get home," she pouted. "Where there's heating and mirrors and stain removal." She reached up and pulled a piece of a leaf out of her hair.
"Why'd you tag along then?" I asked, not that I was overly interested. I'd figured out, though, that if I didn't respond, she'd keep droning on about the same thing until I acted like I cared.
Ashley shrugged and brought her knees up around her cheeks. "I have my reasons."
"A ten-year-old with reasons?" I said, arching an eyebrow. "Spill it, kid."
Her face flared bright red. "I'm almost twelve. And if you're so curious about my reasons, maybe you should tell me yours."
Loyalty, guilt, and revenge. I turned my face away from her, hoping I wasn't blushing as badly.
My eyes landed on Brooke, who was still staring cold, hard knives into Aaron's back. Every few minutes, he'd glance over his shoulder at her, making the rage in her eyes flare, before turning back to Alex.
"It's kind of funny, huh," Ashley said.
"What is?"
"How they act. It's cute."
I flicked my eyes from Brooke to Aaron and back a few times.
"Are you insane?" I finally asked the girl. "They're powers are polar opposites, along with half their personalities. And then there's the fact that she could kill him."
She shrugged and turned her eyes toward them. "So? That just makes it more interesting. Trust me on this. I'm pretty good at reading emotions. I'm almost certain he likes her."
A devilish smile played on her lips. "I could tell you who likes you if you want."
I rolled my eyes and bit back my frustration. "Ashley, do you know where you're at?"
"On a train," she answered slowly.
"You're on a quest," I corrected. "These are serious. People can die on these things, okay? Unless you want to end up like that, I'd quit messing around so much."
The girl huffed and crossed her arms. "None of you are any fun," she grumbled.
Gods of Olympus, I thought, help me not strangle her.
"How did Alex never just ditch you at camp or along the way?" I asked her.
"He wanted to leave me behind," she said. "I just did the same thing he did to Brooke. He thought if I was going to follow him anyway, I'd be safer with him. He didn't want me getting caught by monsters or something, I guess."
Or the servant. Like Brooke, Alex knew how dangerous it was for Aphrodite's daughter to be outside of camp. He'd faced the servant himself; he knew its power. Like Brooke, he knew Ashley would be safer at camp. But like Aaron, he'd realized she wouldn't stay there, and that she was better off tagging along with someone else.
"So where are we going now?" Ashley asked.
"Fort Sumter," I mumbled. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. "Shouldn't you know that since you've been following us?"
She shook her head. "We never got close enough to hear you guys talk. Alex didn't want to risk being seen, so we just trailed you as best as we could." She looked at me with an accusatory glare. "That whole mess in Virginia wasn't fun, by the way. Do you know how many times poor Alex had to shadow-travel to keep up? If it weren't for him being so tired, I bet we wouldn't have gotten caught."
"Better that you did," I told her. "If you guys had gotten lost along the way, or someone had gotten hurt, you could've gotten into real trouble."
Thoughts of Alex passed out in the middle of the woods with only Ashley to defend them, or the two of them wandering through some city hundreds of miles away from us sent chills down my spine. I was starting to realize just how much better it really was for them to stick with us.
The screech of the wheels locking up against the tracks filled the air. Our boxcar jerked and shuddered as the brakes screamed out. When we finally trundled to a halt, Brooke stood and wrenched the door open, letting the blinding winter sunlight spill in.
We trudged through the shipping yard, ducking behind train cars now and then to hide from workers.
"I'm hungry," Ashley whimpered as we walked through the local town.
Brooke tensed next to me, digging her nails into the straps of her bag. I could see in her face the temptation to smack somebody, which was a little nerve-wracking since I was the closest person.
Thankfully, one of the boys unzipped their backpack and pulled something out for Ashley to eat. I was fairly certain that, at this point, if she said just the right thing and made Brooke snap, not even the gods would be able to save her.
We opted to walk across town to the fort, mostly because we couldn't find a taxi and didn't want to risk calling for one. Unfortunately, it gave me plenty of time to think and mull over Brooke's thoughts.
What if she was right? What if the monsters did know where we were going, and were just waiting for us? For all we knew, we were walking headlong into an ambush. The clouds boiling up far out at sea didn't make me feel any better. Us walking down the street, heading straight for a trap, a storm building around us—it felt like something out of a bad horror film.
"Nervous yet?" I whispered to Brooke, trusting her instincts to be sharper than my own.
"I always am," she grumbled under her breath. "You know I don't trust anything."
After a few seconds, she sighed lightly. "Sorry. Just in a bad mood." Her eyes scanned the street before us. "Nothing noteworthy yet. Just the constant demigod nerves."
We passed by a café just opening its doors for the day. The smell of coffee and fresh muffins wafted out into our path. Someone's stomach growled loud enough to catch the attention of the teen putting out a sign with the day's specials.
"Ya'll hungry?" she asked with a shy smile. "Just made up some hot chocolate. The banana bread should be done soon."
I begged for the grumbles building in my stomach to quiet down, but we'd gone too long without a decent meal for it to listen. I glanced over my shoulder. Aaron had taken interest in a crack in the sidewalk, probably trying to hide his own hunger. Alex and Ashley, though, made no attempt to hide the longing in their eyes. I wondered when they'd last eaten.
"A quick breakfast wouldn't hurt," Brooke said, throwing on a convincing smile for the mortal before walking in.
Alex and Ashley stuffed down three muffins and a cup of hot chocolate each in minutes. I tried to act more civilized, but I couldn't pretend it wasn't tempting to just inhale one little pastry after the other. Brooke, who'd barely nibbled on a danish, sat with her face buried in the map and talking about the next destination with Aaron, who was busy with a second cinnamon roll.
A bell rang out as the front door opened, letting in a gust of icy air. A chill crawled down my spine, and I tried not to shiver at it.
I would've let it go—put it down to the wind—but Brooke dropped the map to the table and threw a glance over her shoulder. The newcomer—a tall figure hidden in a too-small long coat and an ugly brown hat—stopped and stared. Brooke smiled faintly and wagged her fingers in greeting before turning back to us.
"Brooke…" I started, my eyes still on the stranger.
She giggled lightly, though anyone who knew her would have known it was forced. A strained smile crossed her lips. "Eyes to yourself. Don't panic; we're fine. Just finish your food and we'll leave. Act natural."
I wanted to run. I wanted to get out of the shop as fast as my feet could move, and, by the gods, I was ready to drag the others along behind me.
"If we rush out, we'll draw attention," Brooke whispered under her breath, taking a chunk out of her danish. "It's smelt us by now, no doubt. But hanging around a bit, acting normal—we might convince it that we don't know what it is. Play dumb, and we might be able to get any monsters around to drop their guard."
Ashley squeaked, almost like she'd just realized what was going on. The color drained from her face.
"I said stay calm," Brooke hissed.
Alex snorted and laughed like he'd just heard a joke. He reached across the table to Brooke and raised his hand for a high-five, which she gave him after a moment of confusion.
We stayed in the café for three more of the worst minutes of my life, forcing ourselves to laugh at nonexistent jokes and smile like we were having a good time.
"I'm full," Brooke said after she'd managed to put down half of her pastry. She held it out across the table. "Anybody want the rest?"
We all stared at her nervously. Her eyes begged for someone to do something.
"Dibs," Alex called, snatching the danish out of her hand and taking a giant bite out of it. He swallowed hard, then screwed his face up in disgust. "Are there raisins in this? Gross."
Brooke stared back at him, searching for words. "How can you not like raisins? You eat trail mix all the time."
"Yeah, but I can pick around the gross stuff."
She shrugged. "Well, if you don't want it, just throw it out." Her eyes darted to Ashley, who sat frozen in her seat, having hardly said a word.
Alex stood and grabbed his bag. "Hey, Ash, do you know where the trashcan is?"
"Uh…"
"Come on. I don't see it." He pulled her to her feet and started walking, still pretending to look around hopelessly for the trashcan clearly sitting by the front door.
"Are you guys ready?" Brooke asked Aaron and I. "We should get moving. We've got a busy day."
I stood anxiously and pulled on my backpack, not able to get moving fast enough. We moved for the door, Alex and Ashley already waiting outside for us. I'd just grabbed the door handle when I heard a yelp.
Hand flying to my wrist, I whipped around and found Brooke on the ground with Aaron staring down at her in confusion. She sat up, shaking her head and smiling.
"Sorry," she said. "Tripped on my own feet." She looked up at the strange person she'd fallen next to. "Sorry, sir. Hope I didn't bother you."
She clambered to her feet and walked out the door, motioning for Aaron and I to follow as if we were children distracted in a toy store.
Outside, Brooke led us along at a brisk pace, fast enough to get us moving, but not too fast to draw attention.
"What happened?" Alex asked.
"I pretended to fall," Brooke said. "I needed to get under that stupid hat to see what he was."
"And?"
Her face paled ever so slightly. "Giant. Gods, I told you they'd be waiting for us."
"When did we discuss that?"
Brooke glanced over her shoulder at her cousin. "In Virginia, while you were stalking us."
"We weren't…" Alex sighed and shook his head. "Do you actually know they're waiting for you, or is it just a guess?"
"No, I don't," Brooke spat. "I haven't exactly had time to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with a snake-woman." She shook her head. "We need to get to the fort, now."
So, as much as we hated having to resort to public transportation again, Brooke found a taxi to take us into Charleston.
"Why didn't it attack us?" Ashley asked after we'd squeezed all five of us into the backseat of a cab.
"Not sure," Brooke answered. "It might have just been out on recon duty, sniffing around to see if we'd come in yet."
"Well, I'd say the monsters found us," Alex muttered. "So what now?"
"We stick to the plan," Aaron told him. "We go to the fort, get in, get out, and hopefully figure out why we even have to go there."
"Great plan. Want to try being more vague?"
"It's the best we've got, Alex," Brooke mumbled. "We haven't figured out the point of anything yet."
By the time we reached the ferry that would take us to the island the fort sat on, bruised clouds stretched out above us as far as we could see. Deep booms of thunder rolled in the distance, and flashes of lightning danced through the sky here and there.
The few mortals boarding the boat seemed undaunted by the storm threatening to let loose on them. Whether they didn't notice or simply didn't care, I wasn't sure.
"Aaron, come on," Brooke said, gesturing when he'd stopped right at the edge of the dock. "We need to go. If we're going to face monsters, I'd rather do it before the storm breaks."
He sucked in a breath and hesitantly boarded with us.
"Not a fan of water?" Ashley asked.
Aaron stared down at her. "Weren't you the one who called me 'the fire guy'? Water isn't exactly a safe thing for me."
"Eh, that just makes surviving more interesting," Brooke said with a shrug.
"Says the girl who can best everything I could throw at her."
Brooke allowed for a faint smile to cross her face before walking toward the other end of the ship. Rolling his eyes, Aaron followed her, keeping his distance from the ferry's railing as we pulled away from the dock. Ashley flashed an impish grin at me. I ignored her and moved toward the railing.
It might have just been my inexperience with boats (it wasn't exactly a common mode of transportation in my everyday life), but I wasn't sure why were still being allowed to sail through the harbor. Waves lifted and dropped without a pause, making the boat and my stomach lurch in every direction. Once in a while, a wave would lift high enough to spray passengers in the face. The storm was on top of us now, black clouds hanging in the sky and waiting to let their fury loose.
"I don't like this," Alex muttered. The wind made it hard to hear him, despite us standing side by side. He glanced sideways at me. "Can you feel it?"
I grimaced and stared out across the water. I wasn't sure what I was feeling; all I knew was that it creeped me out.
"You never feel good on the water," Ashely put in from behind us. "That's what you get for being related to Hades."
Alex hushed her and looked over the faces of the mortals, checking to see if anyone had overheard.
"We don't use names like that around the humans, remember?"
Ashley sighed and leaned on the railing. "I'm just bored."
"Be glad for that," I said. "If you're bored, you probably aren't fighting for your life."
She sighed again, not seeming to be convinced. I wondered just how much time she'd spent outside of camp, how often she'd actually dealt with monsters.
"Look, Mama, dolphins!" A little boy ran up beside me and leaned over the side to point at the water.
Sure enough, there was a group of shadows moving under the waves next to us. More kids clamored up to the rail to get a look, and I couldn't help but smile wistfully. What I wouldn't have given to be so young and naïve…
Ashley grinned and bent over the rail to get a closer look.
"You, too?" I said, half-laughing.
She blushed. "It's not my fault dolphins are cute." She turned back to the waves and leaned closer.
Alex tensed next to me. "Wait. Those are…"
He cut off, pushing me away and pulling Ashley back from the rail. The water exploded, and something shot up, barely missing their heads before landing on the deck.
A pair of beady eyes turned on us, staring out from a seal-dog face. The monster bared its teeth and barked out a call.
"Telekhine!" Alex shouted, but I could barely hear him over the noise.
The ship had broken out into absolute mayhem. Children screamed and cried, fleeing in every direction as parents tried to grab for them. More spouts of water burst behind us as a pack of monsters boarded the ferry. The chaos danced across the deck as more passengers yelled and scrambled to get away. I wondered if Brooke and Aaron were okay wherever they'd wandered to, but I had my own problems to deal with.
The telekhines were gathering up in front of us, inching forward until there were only a few inches of space between my friends and me and the edge of the boat,
"Half-blood," one of them spat, staring down Alex. "I had perfect aim, too."
"Bring it on, dog-face," Alex shot back. "I'll send you straight to Hades!"
The monsters cackled and yipped. "Have you forgotten? This is the sea; the lord of the dead has no power here."
Alex sneered back, though the way he tensed up made me wonder how much truth was in the sea demon's words.
"Do something, Alex," Ashley whimpered.
"Like what?" he muttered. "I can't exactly raise the dead from thin air."
"Destroy them," the pack leader howled, and the monsters leaped at us.
My hands were up in a second, freezing the telekhines in time. Half were blasted into sand under a single arc of Alex's sword. I yelled to Alex as my hold broke and summoned my own sword.
I turned one monster to dust before he'd had enough time to react to my magic. Another swung a clawed hand, forcing me to roll to the side.
I heard a yelp of pain, and panic welled up in my throat. Alex was pinned to the deck under a huge telekhine, its canines moving in toward his throat. Ashley, with more bravery than I would have expected, stepped in and slammed her foot straight into the monster's face, sending it reeling with a pitiful squeal.
A growl brought me back to my own fight, where three demons had grouped up and were bearing down on me. I backed away toward my friends, keeping my sword pointed at the monsters.
"Are you guys alright?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the monsters.
"Alex…" Ashley whimpered, making me tense in dread.
"I'm fine," he managed to say, the pain in his voice impossible to ignore.
The telekhines before me laughed, and I could hear the cackle of more from behind.
"Tell us where he is," one said, "and we'll make your deaths quick."
I would have tried for some witty comeback, or maybe a simple 'who', but the ship suddenly jolted to the side, tossing everyone off balance.
The monsters howled and snarled at each other, apparently as confused as the rest of us.
Passengers screamed again as something whipped and flashed over the ship. It whistled over my head before slamming into a telekhine, sending him skipping across the water.
"Gah!" a monster yelped. "No fair. This is our catch."
The group split in half, some running toward the other end of the ship where a huge beast was rising up out of the waves.
Alex cursed. (Whether because of the pain or the monster, I wasn't sure.)
I was ecstatic to see the creature. It was nice to have some back up to handle the monsters. Then the mass of screaming mortals parted enough for me to catch sight of Brooke defending against one of the tentacles while Aaron dealt with more telekhines.
"What's happening?" Ashley shouted over the noise.
One of the telekhines snarled at us. "There are too many of you brats. You're attracting others."
The ship shuddered again and tilted forward with a huge ripping noise. I dared a glance long enough to see that the sea monster had taken a chunk out of the boat, which probably meant that we were sinking now. Sirens sounded from police boats as they raced toward us, and a few sailboats in the harbor had stopped to gawk at the scene.
The monsters snapped and snarled at each other some more, and I realized they were talking.
One narrowed its eyes at me. "Next, time, half-blood. You'd all better survive to finish this." With a final howl, all the telekhines raced for the side of the ship and hurtled into the water.
I hesitated for a second, waiting for them to come back.
"Krystol…" Ashley started.
Another sound of tearing went through the air as the ship jerked to the side.
I bit down a curse, told Alex and Ashley to keep back, and rushed toward the sea monster.
Mortals were still running in circles across the deck, their screams only adding to the mayhem. I skidded to a halt next to Brooke, briefly glancing over her face dotted with nicks and scratches from splintering wood.
"Is it too late to join the party?" I called. "Mine got cancelled."
Brooke rolled her eyes. "Sea monsters are babies. If I can get just one good hit…"
The creature reared back, twin tentacles flailing in the wind before crashing down on the deck. Brooke and I crashed down on top of each other, watching the mortals scream and fall.
Brooke's shriek pierced the air. I watched in horror as a boy stumbled and lost balance at the edge of the shredded boat. Aaron reached out to grab his shirt, swinging the kid back around to land on deck. His own foot missed the deck though, and he fell back with a shout toward the churning water.
Brooke launched to her feet, covering the deck in a few strides. With a rage-filled scream, she jumped from the boat, a spout of water catching her up and catapulting her toward the monster. She swung her sword at its eye, and the creature wailed loud enough to drown out the cries of the mortals. It pulled back from the boat, sinking below the waves. I ran to the railing, watching the shadow of the monster swim out toward the open water.
The water spout collapsed, and Brooke dropped with a splash into the water.
Alex and Ashley stumbled to a stop next to me. We inched as close to the edge as could without getting pitched overboard by the waves. I saw Aaron clinging to a scrap of the deck and coughing his lungs up. Brooke was nowhere to be seen.
Yellow masses burst out of the water, launching into the air before settling back on the rolling waves. Life boats, I realized.
The message passed around the boat quickly, and passengers were suddenly throwing themselves into the water after the inflatable boats.
Brooke clambered into one of the boats and forced it to drift toward Aaron. While he dragged himself onboard, Brooke waved at the three of us.
"She's crazy if she thinks I'm getting in that freezing water," Alex muttered, wincing and clutching at his arm.
The ship lurched under our feet again as more water rushed in. Thunder cracked like a whip overhead.
Grumbling, I gulped down a breath and jumped into the churning waves.
By the time Brooke had helped pull me on board, I was certain I'd gotten half the bay up my nose. Alex and Ashley climbed in after me, choking and spitting up water.
"Nice of you to join us," Brooke said.
Alex glared daggers at her before turning away, reaching to hold his arm. "What now?"
"We're going to the fort." Brooke said it like it should have been obvious.
"How?" Ashley asked. She waved at the sinking boat behind us. "It's gone."
Brooke rolled her eyes and smiled faintly. She dipped her fingers in the water. "I've got this."
Just in case anyone was curious, sleeping in cold, empty hallways of two-hundred-year-old forts is not my recommended form of lodging. Brooke had dried us all once we'd landed, but without anything to make a fire and the chilly air seeping in between the stones, there was no getting warm.
I curled tighter into a ball, the cold keeping me from sleeping for very long at a time. I groaned and rolled over, my bones and muscles complaining.
"Um, Alex?" Ashley's timid voice echoed down the hallway.
"What?"
"Why is your friend here?"
I sighed through my nose and pulled the hood of my jacket tighter around my face.
"Whoa!"
I bolted up at the shout, looking around for monsters. I yelped when my eyes landed on the ghost.
I'd never really considered the Olympians might have ghosts in their world, too. Sure, I knew there were souls in the Underworld. I'd seen Alex summon the bodies of the dead plenty of times before. But for some reason, the idea of there being actual ghosts—the dead in the world of the living—had never really crossed my mind.
And yet, here was one of them standing before me, transparent body and all. He was dressed in a war uniform, though it was so faded by time and death that I wasn't sure which army it belonged to.
"Mind if I join?" he asked in a raspy voice.
The ghost soldiers sat with us around our circle of flashlights. We all leaned away from him a little, except Alex, who seemed as comfortable with dead as with the living.
"How did you find us?" Ashley asked. "Isn't it a big fort?"
"The living and the dead operate on different energies," Alex said.
Ashley raised an eyebrow.
"Think of it like the light spectrum," Brooke explained. "All colors have a distinct emission pattern."
"Exactly," Alex agreed. "The living have their own energy output, and so do the dead. The dead can sense the different energy, and they're drawn to it."
"But why'd he come to us?" Ashley asked. "Aren't there people in here all the time?"
"Yes." The soldier's voice came out like hiss. "Yer special though. Felt the energy of the livin' dead, the son of the Underworld."
Alex scoffed. "Actually, I'm the son of the son of the Underworld. And I'm not the living dead."
"Sure you are," Brooke teased. "That's what you get for being related to Hades."
Alex rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
A strange chatter came from the soldier. "You give in too easy, boy. Don't even try fightin'."
"What, that? Please, it's not worth it."
"E'rything is worth fightin' for, boy. If you ain't fightin' for somethin', yer wastin' life."
Alex looked at the soldier skeptically. "Yeah, because you fought for such a great cause, Mr. Rebel."
The clattering sound came out again. "I fought for my family, for my home. Maybe it ain't perfect, but it's still all I have."
"And you were willing to go to war for it?" Aaron asked. "You were willing to die for it?"
The soldier turned to stare at Aaron, narrowing his eyes like he was studying him. "My Pa told me when I was young that everyone finds somethin'. Everyone has somethin' that means more to them than their own life. My Pa told me, when you find that thing, whatever it is, you fight for it with everything you got."
"Yeah, because that worked out so well for you," Alex muttered.
Rounding on the boy, the soldier let out a hiss. "You tellin' me you ain't got no lass back home to impress? No buddy you'd give up e'rything for?"
Alex dropped his gaze and started nudging one of the flashlights with his foot.
The soldier nodded his head knowingly before turning back to the rest of us. "Daybreak's comin' soon. Y'all best be getting' off the island before folks start showin', or worse, before them beasts come sniffin' again."
"Beasts?" Brooke perked up, her eyes glinting in the low light, desperate for information.
The soldier nodded. "Demons straight from Hell, if ya ask me. Dogs dark as night, hissin' witches walkin' 'round on tails. Been comin' here for days, more each time. They're lookin' for some kids. Don't know if it's y'all, but I'd hate for ya to run into 'em."
"Thanks for the warning," Brooke said. She reached for her bag, pausing to take one last look at the dark walls surrounding us. "One more place down, Aaron. Anything special?"
Aaron shrugged. "Aside from our friend here, no."
With a heavy sigh, Brooke shouldered her backpack. "Well, at least we got a break for a few hours." Her eyes flicked to the ghost. "Nice to meet you, sir. Thanks for the warning."
"Not at all, ma'am," he said, tipping his head toward her. "A pleasure speakin' with y'all. Well, most of ya." He aimed a brief glare at Alex. "Not many stop to talk with us."
Groaning from the cold and exhaustion, we climbed to our feet and shrugged on our bags, turning to make our way down the hall.
"'Member, young'ins," the soldier called after us, "you find somethin' worth fightin' for. The only thing'll get you through life is the thing you're willin' to lose it over."
I looked back one more time, waving weakly at the ghost as he faded into the shadows, returning to the lonely emptiness of the fort.
Getting away from the fort was almost as difficult as getting in. The area was still crawling with police boats and wreckage from the day before. Brooke had suggested they were looking for survivors, possibly us. I knew I wasn't on great terms with Olympus, but I prayed to any god that would listen that everyone had made it out alive. Even if most monsters didn't care about going after mortals, a sinking ship and debris were still a danger to them.
Still, we managed to get back to shore without being noticed and slipped away into the city. Within the hour, Brooke had shoved us another bus at Aaron's command heading south.
"I don't get why we stopped here?" Ashley complained. "I thought we had to go to Florida next. I wanted to party in Orlando."
Brooke looked like she was ready to let loose on the kid, but Alex jumped in before she could start.
"It's not like we're here to have fun," he told the girl. "This is a quest; you have to take things seriously unless you want to be monster chow."
"Besides," Brooke muttered, "the two of you are basically stowaways, so I don't want to hear any whining."
"But why here?" Ashley pushed.
"Because this is where the bus could stop," Brooke snapped. "I don't trust public transportation, and I'd rather not stay on it for more than a few hours."
So now we were left to wander in some town in the middle of Georgia. We made our way up and down the streets, following Aaron who seemed to have a vague notion of where he was going, eventually finding our way to an industrial area. Trains stood still on their tracks, while others blared their horns in the distance. Warehouses rose up around us, some looking a bit too abandoned for my taste.
"I hate places like this," Alex said. "It's too easy for monsters to set up shop."
"Why are we here?" I asked.
"Not sure," Aaron answered softly.
Brooke and I shared a look, and I knew we were both holding back the temptation to smack him.
"So you've just been leading us around aimlessly?" Brooke demanded.
"Not aimlessly." He looked back at us, which was the first time he'd seemed truly focused since we'd stepped off of the bus. "Can't you guys feel it?"
Brooke raised an eyebrow. "Feel what?"
Shaking his head, Aaron turned away from us and started moving again. "I'm not sure. It's like something is calling me I guess, trying to help me find it."
"In my experience," Alex said, "that's either a really good sign or a really bad one."
"Let's hope for good this time," Brooke muttered, shouldering her bag as she followed our friend.
My temptation turned into a full-blown desire to strangle Aaron when he led us into one of the warehouses. I may have only had a few months of experience, but I'd learned quickly that walking into giant warehouses was almost as bad as using public transit.
My guard went up as soon as I crossed the threshold. Brooke and Alex were just as anxious as me, while Ashley tried—and failed—to put on a brave face. Aaron, while definitely wary by now, seemed more curious than anything.
"This is it," he muttered. "I can feel it here."
I searched the building with my eyes. I didn't trust the plastic sheets hanging down, moving gently with a breeze I couldn't feel. Boxes and sheets of metal were stacked around the front door in a wide semicircle, throwing out shadows that I knew monsters would love hiding in.
"Aaron," Brooke whispered, coming to a halt at his shoulder, "I think we should leave. This place is creeping me out."
He ignored her and continued looking around.
Brooke glanced back at me, and I sent her a look that begged her to just drag Aaron out and let us leave. She turned back and reached for Aaron.
I screamed when the roof caved in.
Yes, I sounded like a wimp, and no, it wasn't the entire roof. But I challenge you not to panic when you're convinced you're about to be ambushed and chunks of metal start dropping from the sky.
Our weapons were out in a flash. Holes peppered the roof—some no bigger than my hand, others the size of the largest shields back at camp—and spots of light covered the floor, which surprisingly made things creepier by making more shadows.
Someone stood before us, in the center of the largest sunspot. They wore black denim pants, black shoes, and a hooded jacket that I couldn't figure out the color of; it shifted between every shade of yellow, red, and orange that I could ever think of.
"What do you want?" Brooke demanded, pointing her sword at the newcomer. "I'm not in a mood to mess around, so why don't you just scram."
The figure shook their head and let out a low chuckle, like we were the most amusing things they'd seen all day.
Aaron stepped forward, ignoring us when we called out to him. He approached the visitor, stopping a few feet away.
"I…I know you," Aaron said. The figure titled their head to the side, like it was asking a question.
"I know I've met you," Aaron insisted.
The figure shrugged lazily. A warm, smooth voice came out from the shadow of the hood. "Let's see."
Aaron barely ducked under the fist aimed at his head, only to take the full force of a knee to his gut. The blow dropped Aaron to his knees, where he clung to his spear and gasped for air.
We shouted and launched forward to help, but a wall of flames leapt up, blocking our way.
"Aaron!" Brooke cried angrily.
"It wasn't me!"
The figure didn't give the boy a chance to say any more. They jumped forward, aiming a punch at Aaron's chest. He spun away and whipped out his spear to catch the figure in the back. Whether Aaron was too slow and weak or they were too fast and strong, I wasn't sure, but the figure whirled around and caught the spear shaft as easily as if it was a game of catch. They titled their head, and I could almost imagine a fiendish smile spreading under that hood.
In one fluid motion, they latched on tightly to the spear, pivoted, and flipped Aaron over their shoulder. He landed hard on his back with the figure kneeling over him, shoving the spear shaft against his chest.
Brooke let out scream of pure rage, and every source of water we had on us exploded, sweeping away the flames. Sword raised, she charged forward, ready to strike down the figure.
"Brooke, stop!" Aaron choked out.
I threw out my hands and froze her in place. I was sure she'd kill me for it later, but my instincts said that was better than the alternative.
The figure tilted their head again, chuckling again. Aaron stared up at them, his face frozen in shocked recognition.
"I see you've made some friends." I could feel their eyes sliding over to us for a moment before turning back to Aaron. "It's been a while, little brother."