Annabeth gave us the side-eye as we waited for the bus.
"That was 200 feet?" I whispered. "Is she exaggerating?"
"I don't speak measurement, but it was pretty far," Percy bounced a hacky-sack on his foot.
"Wow," I said quietly. I guess I had to be more careful if I didn't want to be reported to the FBI or something. I wonder if the government actually does have a task force that experiments on kids with superpowers. I shuddered, hoping that was just in the movies.
We waited in silence, feeling the heat come off Annabeth.
"Hey," Percy said, catching his ball. "Can you actually see into the future?"
"I guess so."
"Okay, what am I about to do?"
"Percy, don't act like a child!" Annabeth sighed. All boys are the same. How Annabeth liked
Percy, I'll never know.
"Come on." Percy ignored Annabeth.
I decided to give it a shot. I mean, I had nothing better to do and felt like I needed to get good at my abilities if we were going to be meeting monsters all the time.
I tried listening to the voices but was interrupted when a hacky-sack hit me in the face.
"Ow!"
"Too slow." Percy grinned. I punched him in the side.
Annabeth narrowed her eyes, so I stopped.
"Try again."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not stupid!" I hissed.
He hit me again with the ball.
"You piece of-"
Annabeth glared at me. I huffed and turned the other way as Percy snickered.
"Okay but seriously, try."
"I was the first time, and you hit me." I didn't look at him.
"Yeah, because you have to be faster."
"Why?" I scoffed.
"If you're in a battle, don't you want to know what your enemy will do before it happens?"
I gaped at him. Every time I think I've grasped how dumb he is, he keeps on surprising me.
"Is that the only purpose you think this power has? You realize it's not easy to read the future, right? I am literally telling the future. That's not cool enough for you?"
He shrugged. "If you can do it, might as well use it. Okay, try again."
I sighed. I closed my eyes, trying to hear the voices.
Again, I was hit in the face.
"Ugh, would you cut it out?!"
"You can't close your eyes in a battle, genius."
I clenched my teeth. "Fine."
I kept my eyes open and waited. It was a lot harder to concentrate when there was so much to look at. I tried just looking at the tracks. Tune out everything else...381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPHEooa9lKq
381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5hc0HMnZOG
Left, something whispered.
Without thinking twice, I moved to the left.
"Why-"
Then, Percy got doused in some nice, hot coffee.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" A man behind us frantically picked up his dropped to-go cup and papers that flew all around the concrete floor.
Percy just stood there, like a deer in headlights. I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Annabeth peeked her head up from her book, and I swear she snorted.
The man handed Percy a fistful of napkins and hurried off. He dabbed at the brown spots on his t-shirt, glaring at me.
"What?" I smirked. "If I can do it, might as well use it, right?"
He just sighed. Boys were incredibly stupid.
The bus arrived, and now we only had six more hours to go. I sighed.
"Hey, at least we haven't run into any-"
"Don't jinx it," both Annabeth and Percy said.
The bus ride was boring, and again I wish I had cellular data for my phone. I wonder how many missed calls I'd gotten from my dad. I found myself staring out the window, trying not to think about him.
The bus suddenly came to a halt, which jerked me out of my trance.
"Um, this isn't New Orleans," Percy said.
"Yeah, I know. We have to walk." Annabeth grabbed her bag.
"Oh come on," Percy groaned. "New Orleans is a huge city! There must be a bus that takes you right there."
"There is," Annabeth shoved him out the doors. "But it costs money we don't have."381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvtwZVrcCPt
"Great," I sighed. "Remind me again why we have a budget when we're trying to save America?"
"The camp can only provide so much," Annabeth sighed. "Anway, we're at Eden Isle. It's only about two hours away."381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYEec4Nds6D
"Walking for two hours?!"
"Suck it up."
I sighed. I think I got more exercise in the past two days than I have my entire life.
But it wasn't all bad. Eden Isle was like exotic beaches you'd see on TV. Lots of streams and rivers flowed around neighborhoods, and sand was pretty much everywhere. I'm pretty sure I could hear the sea. The only thing that sucked was the number of seagulls.
"Smell that?" Percy asked over the sound of the crying birds.
"I smell bird poop, if that's what you mean," I said, stepping over a pile of feces.
"No, the ocean."381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvi9anhfHoY
Percy and Annabeth walked ahead of me, while I took everything in. It was like a TV show. I'd never actually been to the beach before, so to me, this was a tropical paradise.
I heard something rustling in the tall grass behind me. I whipped around, then turned back to see if Percy or Annabeth had heard it too. I guess they didn't because they kept walking. I slowed down, trying to peer through the thick grass. Black smoke...?
"Agh!" I toppled over, and a friendly face -or tongue, rather- kissed my face. "Kalos? How come you can't ever come back normally?" I said, sitting up and wiping my face of fox drool.
"Are you kidding?" Annabeth grumbled. "Not this crazy dog again... how did you even get here?!" She stood on the tips of her toes and clung to Percy as Kalos yipped and bit at her ankles.
"Hey, look who it is!" Percy said, bending down on one knee to pet Kalos, who flopped on his belly. Something was up. Why was he pretending to want affection?
"Oh, sweet. I've always wanted a dog. Can he stay?" he looked at Annabeth.
Annabeth huffed. "If Bella wants to, then fine. Just keep him away from me." she snapped.
Percy played with Kalos for a bit, then we started walking again. Kalos fell back to where I was.
"Okay, what was that?" I whispered to him, narrowing my eyes. "You don't like affection. What are you doing? Are you still helping me? Whose side are you on?"
Kalos just sneezed and dismissed my questions with his nose in the air.
"Rude."
After about an hour, Kalos got tired and hopped into my arms. I was happy that he actually wanted to be near me, but that happiness turned into irritation when my arms got sore.
"'Kay, we've been walking forever," Percy said. "Let's take a break."
"We can't. We haven't seen the city yet, or the damage the titan's done." Annabeth said although I could tell she was ready to sleep.
We passed a couple of people walking the other way, carrying sandbags.
"Woah," Percy said.
I looked over to see a neighborhood with collapsed houses and flooded streets.
"What happened here?" I whispered as we passed people trying to salvage the mess.
"Looks like an earthquake, but I didn't feel any aftershock. Probably the titan."
"We have to stop a guy who can do this?"
They fell silent. I wasn't feeling too good about this.
"Percy?" someone asked.
Kalos and I looked up to the person in front of us.
"Nico? What are you doing here?" Percy smiled.
A boy with shaggy black hair shrugged. "Helping out some friends. I guess my suspicions were right after all," he said.
"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked.
"Well, if you guys are here, that means this isn't just a natural disaster, right?"
"Yeah, definitely not. On official titan business here," Percy winked.
"Whatever. So, brought some reinforcements?" he nodded in my direction.
"Oh yeah, this is Bella."
"Um, hey," I said, struggling to keep Kalos in my arms.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Nico, son of Hades," he said. "So who's your godly parent?"
I bit my lip and looked to Annabeth for help.
Percy laughed. "Oh, she's actually not a-"
"We don't know yet," Annabeth interrupted.
"Oh," Nico looked surprised. "I thought you needed to be claimed before you could go on a quest."
I laughed nervously. "Haha, yeah... things just sort of happened." Annabeth nodded.
I'm pretty sure Kalos rolled his eyes.
Percy, still looking confused, not-so-secretly raised his eyebrows at Annabeth.
"Anyway, where are you guys headed?" Nico didn't seem to notice.
"New Orleans," Annabeth said.
"That's pretty far away."
Just then, the ground shook, making me lose my balance. Everyone struggled to stay on their feet, and people called out in the distance.
"Jesus, what was that?" I put my hands out, half expecting to fall.
"Must be the titan," Annabeth winced as Percy helped her off the ground. "We need to hurry."
"I wish I could help, but..." Nico shrugged. "Four people is a bit much."
"What do you mean?" I asked, putting Kalos on the ground.
"Shadow traveling. It's pretty fast, the only problem is I can barely do it with just me." Nico shrugged.
"You... need help," Annabeth said. I could tell her gears were turning, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
"Well, yeah, but it's not like you can get any around here."
Annabeth bit her lip. "But what if we had help?"
"What do you mean?" Percy asked, confused.
"Well, can't children of Persephone and Hecate shadow travel? With a bit of training?"
I glared at Annabeth. I literally just learned how to see the future a day ago! What makes her think I can shadow travel?
She leaned over in my direction. "Didn't you basically shadow travel in the deli?" she whispered.
"That was by accident!"
"Well we need to get to New Orleans fast, and this is our best bet."
Nico raised his eyebrows."Well yeah, technically. But who are we gonna find who's a child of Persephone or Hecate?"
"Well, I was trying to tell you that Bella is basically a daughter of Hecate. Ta-da!" Percy smiled and made jazz hands like I was some trophy he'd won.
Nico just stared at me. "Basically?"
"It's a long story," Annabeth sighed. "Can she help you?"
"I mean, I guess we can try," Nico said. "Do you know how to do it?"
"Uh..." I looked to Kalos for help, and of course, I received none.
"She can read the future," Annabeth smiled confidently.
"And, she teleported an entire NASCAR Camaro like 200 feet ahead of where we were!" Percy put his arm around me, which I promptly pushed off.
"...How did you guys get a Camaro?"
"She also warps time and space." Percy ignored that question.
"No, she manipulates time and reality." Annabeth corrected.
"Whatever, space and time sound cooler."
Nico just stared at them, obviously confused. "Okay, well shadow traveling and teleporting doesn't sound all that different. We might as well try."
"Okay, how do we do that?" I asked.
"Um, I'm not sure. I've never done this with another person before."
"Okay... how do you do it?" I felt dumb.
"Uh... I just close my eyes and think about what it would be like to slip into the shadows and seal myself in darkness."
"That sounds like a Fall Out Boy song," I said without thinking first.
He laughed. "Ouch, yeah it does, doesn't it?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean- Um, okay, let's just try this."
I closed my eyes and tried to imagine traveling with the shadows.
"Um, this is not working."
"Do you have a destination in mind?" he asked.
"Oh. I guess that would help."
Dumbass.
I closed my eyes again, then opened them. "Um, I don't know what New Orleans looks like."
"It's a big city with most of its architecture thought of as 'French Colonial', but some buildings also have influences of Spanish and Caribbean." Annabeth recited as if she had been preparing for this. Maybe she had, actually.
"Um... okay..."
I closed my eyes again and tried hard to think of bringing everyone to New Orleans. Hot, humid, crazy, festive, colourful New Orleans. My headache came back, and I could feel the purple haze swarming me, even with my eyes closed.
"Gods!" I heard Annabeth gasp. I opened my eyes, and here we were, in the middle of a busy sidewalk in what hopefully was New Orleans.
Wow, I have some serious luck.
"Gods is right. I barely had to do a thing!" Nico laughed. "Well, I mean, you got us here, but I had to direct us."
"What does that mean?" I said, stepping out of the way of some people passing on the busy sidewalk. Some guy smoking on a nearby bench looked at us shocked, then back at his joint, which he threw away quickly in the ash pit.
"Well, you were kind of all over the place. We almost ended up in between some walls of a house. And then we could have landed in a communal pool, and then just barely missed a van on the highway."
"Oh, that would have been a problem. I feel exhausted." I sighed.
"Yeah, I bet. With some practice, I'm sure you'll get better! As for now, I know a friend who owns a motel around here."381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenTyRpctRd
"Jeez, I felt like I was going a million miles an hour!" Percy looked like a kid in a candy shop. Annabeth smiled but frowned when she turned to look back at me.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah," I said, pushing Kalos' mouth off my face. "Just tired. Kalos, cut it out!" He kept licking my face.
"You... look a little green."
"Nope, all good," I said airily.
"You should be all good after you rest a bit."
"Oof," I huffed as Kalos decided he wanted to be carried and jumped into my arms.
"Want some help?" Percy offered and gladly took Kalos out of my arms. Kalos yipped happily and stuck his tongue out at me.
"Traitor," I muttered under my breath. 381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2KHbhU5DVX
381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo3sX0dDOxT
