Forsaken Chapter Six

There were a lot of places that Cassandra Jackson had been on her adventures, most of them less than enjoyable given the circumstances that she had found herself visiting them. It was quite hard to enjoy the Hoover Dam when you’re being relentlessly hunted by the immortal skeleton warriors, for example, and that was before you even factored in the whole ‘defying a prophecy to save to lives oh God what the hell am I doing’ thing that she had been dealing with at the same time.

New York, even with the knowledge that the physical anchor of Mount Olympus was looming over her head, had always been home. It had always been safe. Untouched, unmarred, unmolested by the difficulties that came with being a demigod. Even when that bastard Ugliano had been around, home had still been safe.

Now it was anything but, monsters and demigods alike looking to deliver Kronos her head on a platter. Which would have been dangerous enough as it was, but she had to worry about safeguarding her mother and Paul at the same time.

“We could run for Olympus. As long as we get into the Empire State Building, the divine protections warding the entrance will protect us long enough for the gods and camp to respond.” Bianca offered, fully aware that her suggestion wouldn’t be accepted but needing to make it all the same. Unsurprisingly, her cousins shook their heads in instant denial, though she was somewhat gratified to see that Cassandra’s denial was somewhat less strident than Thalia’s.

“We could, but all they’ll do is send us right back to Camp and do who know’s what with mom and Paul. I don’t think Camp is the safest place for us right now, and being there might just bring monsters down on everyone’s heads. And the risk to Mom and Paul goes without saying.” The daughter of Poseidon explained her position, and Bianca grimaced faintly. She had a point about Camp being safe, especially when it came to Cassandra. She’d already had multiple monsters summoned into the camp to attack her, from the stories that she had heard during her time there, and none of them were naïve enough to believe that all of the demigods that were sympathetic to Luke’s goals had left it’s borders either. ‘Burning’ a resource like a hidden traitor to hurt or kill or, gods help them, kidnap Cassandra would strike Luke and his master as more than worth it.

And yes, as much as she cared for Cassandra, her being kidnapped would be the worst possible result, because if Luke could twist Cassandra to Kronos’ service, Olympus was done. Thalia wouldn’t stand against Cassandra, Bianca couldn’t be the hero of Prophecy now that she had joined that Hunt, and Nico…well, Bianca loved her brother desperately, but Nico would stand as much chance at beating Cassandra in a fight as a regular human did at killing a member of the Big Three.

Her mouth twisted in a bitter parody of a smile. Yes, Cassandra turning against the Olympians would need their end, but if she was going to be honest with herself, she was sure that Kronos’ fall would come soon thereafter. Either Cassandra would decide that he needed to go for the laundry list of offenses he had committed against her, or The Crooked One would be stupid enough to act against her while she was in his service. He wouldn’t recognize in Cassandra the kind of strength that could topple dynasties, only see her as a weapon to be wielded.

He wouldn’t understand that Cassandra’s strength wasn’t power, though she had that in spades. It was her loyalty and her implacable determination, her devotion to those that she cared for and her willingness to press forward through any adversity, that truly defined her cousin. The traits that had allowed her to twice defy divine prophecy, saving not just her own life but Zoe’s.

Something that was still damn-near impossible to understand. Something that shouldn’t have been possible, and she didn’t have a single idea how the other girl had done it.

“Where can we run to, then? The three of us together, monsters will be able to find us easily, our scent is too strong!” Bianca pointed out, somewhat exasperated, the stress sharpening her tone, and Cassie frowned for a long moment before smiling a sly smile. A smile that filled her companions with no small amount of trepidation, familiar as they were with the way that their friend’s mind worked. Especially when she was making things up on the fly.

“I know exactly where we can go. Ogygia. I always promised Kalypso that I’d come back and visit her, after I convinced her to help me leave instead of staying with her. She always said no man could ever reach the island twice, but I’m not exactly a man anymore, am I? And I wish the monsters luck trying to chase us there. Mom and Paul will be safe, and we can figured out what we’re doing next, because they obviously knew where we were. I don’t know how, but they knew, and that means trying to get back to camp could be suicide.” she explained, sounding quite satisfied, and it was easy to understand why. While neither Thalia nor Bianca had been with her on that particular quest, with both of them still trapped in a tree and a casino respectively, Camp Half-Blood had been more than happy to regale them -repeatedly- with the stories of her previous adventures. And, at times, to complain about ‘how much luck that Jackson bastard has with the girls’, and honestly the pair had to admit there was something to acknowledge there.

“Of course you somehow ended up meeting Kalypso, and of course she wanted you to stay with her.” Thalia groused quietly, rolling her eyes in aggrieved exasperation, and Bianca resisted the urge to either giggle or voice her own agreement with the sentiment. Then she frowned, because…

“Will Kalypso be alright with that? She’s been imprisoned there, alone, by the gods for thousands and thousands of years. I can’t imagine she’s particularly fond of them after all this time.”

“Whether she is or not, she’s fond of me, and that’s what matters.” was the rather blunt response, which didn’t do a thing to improve the mood of her fellow demigoddesses, even if it was a perfectly accurate statement. Or, perhaps, because it was an accurate statement. “The only thing we need to do is find a boat that can take us there, I’ll take care of the rest.”

“You really think that you can find a way back there? Man or not, no one that I know of has ever found Ogygia deliberately. You have to be lost to find it.” Paul remarked, somewhat skeptically, as he tried to continue coming to terms with how much his life was changing, yet provide some manner of assistance and parental guidance at the same time.

“‘Not all who wander are lost.’” Cassie quoted dryly, before shrugging lightly. “Seriously though, I promised Kalypso that I would come back someday. Promises mean something for people like us, and once we’re on the water things will get a whole lot easier. The real problem is, you know, finding a boat. Unlike Luke, I don’t have my own personal cruise ship hanging around. Anyone have any bright ideas?”

“I think…” Paul started respond, only to be cut off by a sickening crunch and the shriek of tortured metal as something massive slammed into the car from the side. The impact threw the car off the road, and off of it’s wheels, leaving it to tumbled uncontrollably across the pavement and slam into the building on the far edge, it’s occupants dazed and battered.

“M-,” Cassandra started, only to cough and whine softly as her probably-bruised, possibly-broken ribs screamed in protest at the action. Shaking her head, another distinctly painful motion, she tried again. “Mom, are you okay?”

Silence greeted Cassandra's question, broken only by the hiss of steam and the crackle of flames. The acrid smell of gasoline and burning rubber filled the air, making it hard to breathe. Cassandra blinked, trying to clear her vision of tears born from pain and scent both, as she struggled to orient herself in the overturned wreckage.

"Mom?" she called again, her voice hoarse and desperate. A weak groan answered her, coming from the front of the car. “Mom?!”

"I'm... here, baby. I’m stuck…the dashboard." Sally managed, her voice tight with pain, and as Cassandra’s eyes finally cleared she could see that her mother was right. She pinned against the dashboard, a twisted piece of metal from the car's frame pressing against her chest. Blood trickled from a gash on her forehead, matting her hair, but it seemed to be the only obvious sign of injury. Cassie tried very hard not to think about what sort of injuries that she couldn’t see could happen in an accident like that. "Paul... check on Paul."

Cassandra's heart was in her throat as she turned her attention to the driver's seat, her breath catching as what she saw made her blood run cold. Paul's body was a mangled mess, crushed and impaled by the twisted metal of the car's frame. A jagged shard of the steering column had pierced his chest, dark blood pooling beneath him.

The sight was grotesque, a nightmare made real. Bits of glass from the shattered windshield glittered in his hair like a macabre crown. His eyes, once so full of warmth and kindness, now stared blankly at nothing, and his expression was frozen in a rictus of surprise and pain. His left arm was bent at an impossible angle, white bone protruding through torn flesh, and she felt her gorge rise sharply as the smell of copper and gasoline mingled in the air, creating a sickening cocktail that made Cassandra's stomach churn. She had killed monsters more times than she cared to count, seen some terrible things in the time that had passed since she had found out about her heritage, but none of that could have prepared her for this.

"Paul?" she whispered, her voice trembling, knowing that she wasn’t going to get an answer already, knowing that she was never going to hear his voice again. Looking away shakily, she checked on Thalia and Bianca, unable to find the words to tell her mom what had happened. They seemed to have faired best of anyone in the car, and she clenched her teeth before turning her attention to what had once been her door. A couple of solid kicks later and the twisted wreckage was out of her way, allowing her to crawl clear and get her eyes on what had attacked them. When she did, she let out a low, growling snarl of rage and recognition. “Polyphemus. You couldn’t do something useful and eat Luke or something?”

“Heh heh heh.” her half-brother, another enemy -a more recent one than The Minotaur- chuckled darkly, his meaty fingers flexing around the haft of the massive hammer that he had likely used to do the deed. “I would have. Did eat a couple of his little friends, but then he told me that you had escaped, that he could help me get revenge on you at my traitorous fiancé. Given the option between a quick meal, or a meal and revenge, it was an easy choice. I was afraid that you’d get away from me before I could get what I wanted.”

He inhaled deeply, his single, milky-white eye staring at her blankly. Still half-blind, it seemed, which was a damn good thing under the circumstances. He didn’t need any more advantages at the moment.

“Hmm. Heh. I can smell blood and fear coming from behind you. I wonder who I killed. The huntress brat? The sky-girl?” he rumbled, before sniffing again and looking faintly disappointed. “No, not demigods. A mortal. Shame. I was hoping for an easy feast. Mortal meat just isn’t the same, and there’s a limit to how much you can beat meat before it’s not worth eating anymore. By the time I finish killing the three of you…ugh.”

Cassandra's vision went red with fury, a storm brewing behind her eyes, her fingers tightened around Riptide as she glared at the monstrous Cyclops. Every fiber of her being screamed for vengeance, but a small part of her mind warned caution. Polyphemus was dangerous, she was injured, and she couldn't risk her mother or friends getting hurt further. Likewise, she couldn’t just hope that he was alone or that he would stay that way, which meant she couldn’t drag things out until Thalia and/or Bianca pulled themselves together.

"You're going to pay for this." she snarled, her voice low and deadly. "I swear it on the River Styx."

Thunder rumbled in the distance, sealing her oath. Polyphemus merely laughed, his massive frame shaking with mirth, a cruel grin creasing his lips, not intimidated in the slightest. Not that she could blame him, given the circumstances. He certainly had the advantage here.

"Big words from such a small demigod." he taunted, well aware of it and clearly feeling that he had the time and the ability to gloat a bit. "But you're alone now. No friends to fight for you, no ship to take you away, no hand-outs from Father. Just you against me, little sister.”

Cassie took a step forward, intent on starting the fight -and hopefully ending it- as quickly as possible, Polyphemus raising his mace in response, their bodies tensing for battle, but before either of them could strike a blow they paused. Paused and looked in the direction from which Cassandra’s group had come, as each heard -and felt- a rhythmic thunder approaching them, and both of their eyes widened (his in delight, her’s in horror) at the sight of the towering, armored form of the Minotaur approaching at high speed. Polyphemus started to chuckle, shouldering his hammer as he waited for his ally to arrive, and Cassandra began to desperately plan for how she could possibly kill the both of them alone, only for the Minotaur to not slow down one iota, nor attempt to change his course. Her erstwhile, monstrous brother had all of a few heartbeats to realize what was about to happen before he was gored through the chest by the other monster’s horns, leaving him crumpling to the ground.

“One more Child of Poseidon dead. One more to go.” The Minotaur rumbled with dark satisfaction, lifting one cloven hoof and smashing it through Polyphemus’ head, cratering the pavement below as the half-blind cyclops crumbled into dust. Banished to Tartarus, like every other monster, and Cassandra found herself torn between relief and fear, because as much as she only had a single enemy now -or so it seemed, at any rate-, that enemy was a powerful and uninjured one. And, unlike Polyphemus, his eyesight was just fine. Turning to look at her and unholstering his massive axe, the Minotaur bared his teeth. “I owe you a death, girl, for killing me back then. And I owe you a painful one for being one of Poseidon’s brats.”

“You know it’s all your dad’s fault for thumbing his nose at the gods, not mine, right? He’s the one who pissed Dad off enough to get you born, and he’s the one that locked you up in the Labyrinth afterwards.” she tried, dredging up what little she remembered about the Minotaur’s story, but her old enemy simply snorted in a distinctly bull-like fashion and leered at her.

“I don’t care. It was Poseidon who cursed my mother, it was your brother Theseus that killed me all those millennia ago, and it’s you who killed me again. I swore that I would stamp out every trace of that wretched god’s bloodline, without exception, and I have no interest in breaking that oath.” he dismissed her words without hesitation, running his thumb along the blade of his axe with a blood-thirsty and malicious air. “Lord Kronos has promised me Poseidon’s entire house, including the sea god, to torture and slaughter as my reward for service. A well-made bargain.”

“I killed you once, I will kill you again if I have to.” Cassie threatened, and he snorted again.

“You killed me when I was a brute summoned to capture your mortal mother for Hades.” he refuted, sounding both amused and contemptuous, shaking his great horned head. “I tire of talking. Defend yourself, Child of Poseidon. I want a good story to tell my master when he sees your beads dangling from my axe.”

With that, he attacked, and the battle was on.

A massive overhead swing had Cassie darting aside, stumbling slightly over her brother’s abandoned hammer, a chance accident that -against all sense- ended up saving her life as it forced her into a reverse somersault. Which meant that Asterion’s follow-up diagonal uppercut blow cut a shallow grove across her left hip instead of bisecting her.

Cassandra hissed in pain as the axe blade sliced across her hip, but she used the momentum of her somersault to roll back to her feet, retreating quickly to gain the distance she needed. The Minotaur's axe embedded itself in the pavement where she had been just moments before, sending chunks of asphalt flying, and she cursed softly. She had already known she couldn't match the monster's raw strength, something that would have been beyond her even when she was still Perseus, so she had expected to rely on superior speed and agility. Unfortunately, he seemed capable of startlingly, explosively, fast movement...but maybe not deft movement. As the Minotaur wrenched his axe free, Cassandra darted in close, slashing with Riptide at his exposed flank. The celestial bronze blade bit deep, drawing a bellow of rage from her foe, and she dug her feet into the pavement and threw herself backwards in an attempt to avoid any counter-attack.

But the Minotaur was deft enough and she was slow, hampered by her injuries. His massive fist lashed out, catching her in the ribs and sending her flying back into the wreckage of the car. The impact drove the air from her lungs, and she was pretty sure she felt something crack, before she slumped to her knees on the ground beside it.

“You’ve gotten better, girl. If you weren’t hurt, you might even be able to beat me.” he rumbled, stepping towards her slowly, menacingly, seeming to savour the moment. “But I can see that you’re tired. I can smell your blood, your pain. You are in no condition to fight so much as a single hell-hound, never mind me.”

Cassandra gritted her teeth, fighting through the pain as she struggled to her feet, leaning heavily against the wreck behind her as she struggled to keep her grip on Riptide. The Minotaur was right - she was in no condition for this fight. But she had no choice, no other option. Her mother, Thalia, and Bianca were still trapped, helpless and unable to defend themselves. She was all that they had, their last line of defense. She’d win because she had to win.

"I don't need to be in perfect condition to beat you," she spat, tightening her grip on Riptide and pushing away from the car, raising her sword and pointing it at him resolutely. "I just need to be good enough."

The Minotaur laughed, a deep, rumbling sound full of such maliciousness that she felt chills streak up and down her spine. "Brave words, girl, I would applaud you for them if it mattered in the least. But bravery alone won't save you, even if it might earn you a better place in Hades’ domain…for however long it takes Lord Kronos to finish his work and cast you into Tartarus, at any rate."

He hefts his axe and advances, more deliberately this time, and Cassandra wonders if this time, this time, she’s finally in a fight that she can’t win with her brawn or her brains. It’s obvious, even without his words, that Asterion has no intention of letting her escape alive this time. She could live with that -in a manner of speaking- if she had any faith at all that her family would escape in one piece afterwards, but she didn’t. She didn’t, which meant that she had to wing, she had to win, but how could she? How could…

A blaze of silver flickers past her head, ricocheting off of Asterion’s right pauldron with a sharp screech, and a slender form drops down beside her, stumbling slightly as she hit the ground.

“Bianca, you’re alright!” she breathed in relief and delight as she watched her cousin steady herself. She was battered and bloody, with bruises that promised to be truly spectacular blossoming across her skin and more than a few scratches and cuts, but she was moving well enough and seemed better coordinated than Cassie herself was.

“We both are. Kind of.” Thalia answers for both of them as she thuds to the ground on Cassie’s other side, her bracelet spiraling out into the gorgon-faced form of Aegis, lightning already crawling up and down the length of her spear. “So. Asterion, the Minotaur. First monster you ever killed. Hey, Asterion, I always wanted to ask if I had the chance: are you monsters all, like, physical in Tartarus? Talk shop, that sort of thing?”

“…what?” the Minotaur grunted, thoroughly nonplussed by bizarre non-sequitur, not that Thalia seemed to care as she smirked at him and absently wiped at her slightly-blood forehead, and Cassie felt a premonition of wickedness in the moment before she continued.

“See, I was just wondering if the other monsters gave you a lot of shit for getting killed by a brand-new, untrained demigod by getting stabbed in the chest with your own horn. Kind of embarrassing, don’t you think?”

Asterion's eyes flashed with rage at the taunt, nostrils flaring and shoulders flexing as he visibly seethed. With a bellow that shook the ground, he charged forward, axe raised high.

"Scatter!" Cassandra yelled, diving to the side as Thalia and Bianca leapt in opposite directions, avoiding the deadly arcing blow of the strike.

"Nice one, Thals, really." Cassandra muttered, wincing at her protesting injuries as she rolled to her feet. "Piss off the giant, angry, bull-man even more. Why not?"

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Thalia shot back with a grin, electricity crackling around her spear, a bolt of lightning leaping off of it as she jabbed it in Asterion’s direction, getting a bellow of outrage and a brief scent of singed flesh and hair. "He's not thinking straight now."

The Minotaur's axe slammed into the pavement where they had been standing, sending chunks of asphalt flying. Cassandra rolled to her feet, wincing as her injuries protested, but forced herself to focus. They had to work together if they wanted to survive this, and Thalia was right that his focus had been lost. It might not be the best idea to make him angrier, but any advantage was a good one under the circumstances.

"Thalia, help me keep him distracted!" she called out the instructions, feeling considerably more confident about the fight now that she had support. Now the goal was to finish things quickly before more monsters arrived. "Bianca, aim for weak spots! We’re counting on you!"

Thalia nodded, brandishing Aegis as she circled to the Minotaur's left. "Hey, steak-for-brains! Over here! I’ve got a nice electric grill with your name on it!"

Cassandra moved to flank the Minotaur's right side, Riptide gleaming in her hand. The monster's head swiveled between them, nostrils flaring as he tried to decide which threat to focus on first.

"What's the matter, Asterion?" Cassandra taunted, her voice strained but defiant, mocking. "Can't decide which demigod to fail at killing first? I thought you had a beef with children of Poseidon? Or are you scared now that you’re not facing off with one injured girl? After all, the only thing you’re famous for is murdering helpless peasants your Daddy fed to you, and dying like a cow in the slaughterhouse against my big brother!"

The Minotaur roared in fury, charging at Cassandra with his axe raised high. She dove and rolled, feeling the whoosh of air as the massive weapon missed her by inches. As she came up, she slashed at the back of the monster's knee, drawing a bellow of pain. He turned on her, lashing out with the pommel of his axe, only to stagger with a shout as a trio of silver arrows flashed towards him. Two glanced off of his armor, but the third found a gap in the abdomen and tore a bloody, seared-edged wound in his side. As he was reeling, Thalia charged in and buried her lance in the back of his thigh, using it as a conduit to slam a massive electrical shock right into the inside of his body. The sound he made in response was far louder, and at a far higher ,ear-tearing pitch, than anything he had ever made before. More than it should have been possible to make for a creature of his size and bulk.

An instant later, Thalia was hurtling away, hitting the ground with a shriek and tumbling violently across the grass on the far side of the street, and Bianca was scrambling to avoid the axe hurtling her way. Concrete dust exploded across her form as it struck, and obliterated, several feet of the building corner behind her.

God, I barely saw him move! Cassie stared, having only just been able to spot the powerful kick that had thrown Thalia, as she watched Asterion -bloodied, but clearly not out of the fight- roll his shoulders and rise from the half-crouch that he had fallen into, drawing a pair of shortswords from his waist in the effort. The Minotaur's eyes blazed with fury, his nostrils flaring as he snorted steam. Despite the wounds they'd inflicted, he seemed more enraged than weakened, and she doubted he was going to be any less dangerous from giving up his axe. On the contrary, a pair of smaller, faster blades could prove even more deadly.

"You’ll pay for that, demigods." Asterion growled, his voice a rumble of thunder as he slowly looked between them. "I'll hang your heads from my horns!"

He charged at Cassandra, perhaps unsurprisingly, moving quickly for someone with the leg injury he had just sustained. She barely managed to bring Riptide up in time to deflect his first strike, the force of the blow sending shockwaves up her arms. She stumbled back, desperately parrying his follow-up attacks as best she could.

"Bianca! Thalia! A little help here!" Cassandra called out, her voice thick with strain and pain, before sighing softly in relief as an arrow promptly hammered itself into the spear-wound that Thalia had created, sending Asterion down to one knee with a snarl. A bolt of lightning flickered in from the other side, using his right-hand sword as a lightning rod, and as he shuddered and bellowed Cassandra darted forward to plant Riptide blade-first into one of his thighs. A moment later, Bianca was burying her daggers in his shoulder blades, and Thalia -who was barely standing, and seemed to be running purely on rage and adrenaline at this point- slammed her shield into his head three times, the sound of metal hitting metal ringing across the street.

Yes! We’re winning! We can do this! Cassandra cheered in her mind as she stabbed again, as she felt the monster falter beneath the tri-fold assault, and she allowed herself a small smile of exhilarated joy at the thought. All they had to do was finish him off, then they could get her mom to safety, and after that…!

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The last monster, a Telekhines, shrieked in mingled fear and hate in the instant before it’s head exploded in a burst of silver light as Artemis’ arrow plowed through it’s right eye, freeing the -relatively- fresh Huntress that it had just been fighting. The Moon Goddess took a moment to quickly scan her surroundings with eyes and divine power both, before relaxing infinitesimally as both revealed nothing.

“That’s all of them. Phoebe, see to the injured. Zoe, Naomi, with me!” she barked, banishing her bow and calling her daggers to her hands as she rushed towards the apartment building before them, following the faint trail -of scent and power both- of the three missing demigoddesses inside, only to jerk to a halt as Zoe and Naomi gasped in surprise as they saw why.

Blood slicked the ground, staining the linoleum and seeping into the rugs, as it flowed from the bodies of a half-dozen other demigods. To her eyes, it seemed like the building had been partially ransacked as well, drawers torn open and furniture in disarray. In fact, the longer she looked, the more she noticed. A once-plush sofa lay overturned, its cushions slashed and leaking stuffing. Shards of glass from a shattered coffee table glittered on the floor, reflecting the dim light filtering through tattered curtains. Picture frames hung askew on the walls, some smashed to pieces, leaving fragments of happy memories scattered across the bloodstained carpet.

"My lady, look." Zoe whispered, kneeling beside one of the fallen demigods, a short brunette haired girl that had been killed by a pair of brutal stabs to the gut. "This one wears a Camp Half-Blood necklace. Five beads."

“Yes, she does. I recognize her, too. Amelia, a daughter of Apollo. She always hated her healing powers, as I recall, despite having a talent for it. Got quite angry with me when I tried to invite her to the Hunt. She thought I just wanted to take advantage of her skills. One of the demigoddesses that disappeared in the time before the Daughter of Poseidon recovered Hades’ Helm and Zeus’ Bolt. She must have joined Kronos’ side.” Artemis confirmed, frowning sadly down at the body of her erstwhile niece. Had she really hated the hand life had dealt her so much that she would seek the deaths of everyone she knew just out of bitterness? Her father, her siblings, her cousins? Whomever she might have loved and cherished in the mortal world?

“I wonder why she’s still wearing her necklace, then? If she joined Kronos, shouldn’t she hate the camp?” Naomi asked quietly, and Artemis’ frown deepened. It was a good question, one that she would need to consider carefully for the implications it might hold, but it wasn’t the priority at the moment. A few quick gestures had her girls spreading out to search the rest of the house as she made her way into the room where her cousin’s scent was strongest, and she inhaled deeply at both the divine smell and the utter depth of power that had sunk into this place. This was the girl’s uttermost home, nothing could be more obvious to her than that fact.

“Where are you, cousin?” she murmured, looking from picture to picture, wondering what they would have looked like before the world had begun to reweave itself. It had only been a few hours, but already they no longer showed a sea-eyed boy with black hair, but a silver-haired, wine-eyed girl. Before much longer, even she would start to feel the effects, though a part of her was looking forward to it. At least then she would know the girl’s new name, whatever it might be, and she could stop thinking of her so…so impersonally. Shaking her head, she stepped back out into the main room, just in time to meet Zoe and Naomi. “Anything?”

“Several more dead demigods, at least one of which was killed by our sister before they even knew she was coming, from the looks of the wound. Were I to guess, Bianca noticed the intruders first and roused the rest to their mutual defense.” Zoe responded promptly, pointing down to the far end of a hallway. “But nothing that says where they might be going, save a few post-cards from a place called Montauk and many pictures of a cabin on the beach.”

“I found what must be the parent’s room. It was basically the same thing there, though it doesn’t look like any of the attackers made it into that room, but were killed in the hallway just outside of it by a spear. It must have been your sister, Milady.” Naomi added next, and Artemis frowned faintly. Montauk, she knew, was practically an island, even by the standards of New York, and popular for mortals to visit the sea while getting away from the city. It made sense that the family of the sea god would go to such a place often, and it was certainly possible that they would go there now -people fled to familiar comforts in times of strife, after all-, but something about that idea didn’t quite sit right. The sound of sirens pricked her ears and she frowned. Some of them were coming towards their current location, but some were going elsewhere, closer to the water. Closer to the harbor. Was the Child of Poseidon fleeing towards the base of her father’s power?

“Outside, rally the Hunt. The mortals have noticed something, we must see what we can find out.” she ordered, swiping her hand through the air and calling upon The Mist to shroud the night’s events. Swords were replaced by guns, stab wounds and blood-spatters changing suit, obvious signs of demigodhood wiped away and placed with those of generic mortal criminality, and they raced outside to blend into the world around them just as a veritable fleet of mortal law enforcement arrived to storm into the building. Stretching out with her senses, ignoring the shouting and thunder of footfalls, she inhaled sharply as she recognized the presence of several monsters, including the the manticore responsible for the entire debacle at the school the DiAngelo children had been sheltering at. “I have their scent. Come, quickly!”

The Hunt, their blessings giving their feet wings, flitted off into the night unnoticed as they raced against time and their enemies both.