Chapter Text
I ran through the woods, slipping in the gap towards the hunters' flag. I could see it, a few feet away, when I heard screaming. It was a young voice, but that's not what scared me.
What scared me was how it suddenly cut out like someone pulled the plug on the TV.
I turned and ran towards where I last heard it, back towards our flag. What if a monster had snuck up on Nico? Was he safe? Damn it, what happened to the other guards?
I saw Thalia to my right, keeping pace. A silent agreement passed through us, this was more important than the game. We burst into the clearing, weapons drawn and looking for the threat. We were ready for anything: a hellhound, a cyclops, even a drakon. It would have to be strong to make a camper scream like that.
Instead, we saw Connor Stoll on the ground, lying motionless with a silver-fletched arrow through his eye. Charles Beckendorf was shielding something with his body, even as he bled from the neck and his bright red blood splattered the forest floor. His eyes, once bright, were now dim and lifeless.
Running up to Beckendorf, too late for him, I saw what he chose to shield even in death. Pulling him off, Thalia reveals Nico. Another silver-fletched arrow had bypassed the ten-year-old’s oversized armor completely; the fact it hit his heart was no mistake.
His already pale skin was now like paper. His tiny face frozen in terror. He spent his last moments afraid. The missing flag was an insult to injury.
The scent of ozone told me Thalia and I were on the same page. We knew who used silver arrows. They would pay. I looked at her, a plan, unspoken but fully heard, passed between us. We had no need for words right now. We would watch each other’s backs, and we would make them bleed.
She hefted her spear, I responded with Riptide, and we took off. Leaving the dead to the campers that had followed us. I forced myself to disregard Selina’s despairing cry and Travis’s look of numb shock as he collapsed at his brother’s corpse. There’d be time for condolences later. Now, it was time for the hunters to become the hunted.
As we charged through the woods back toward the creek, I noticed the trees swaying dangerously as the darkness seemed to get impossibly deeper. A storm had breached the camp's magic border, maybe an omen, maybe Thalia’s wrath. Either way, it felt right.
I felt a clarity I’d only felt in a fight. I saw a flash of silver and honed in like a bull shark to blood. Forcing my body into a burst of speed, I crashed through the undergrowth. The hunter turned to face me and leapt back, but it only bought her a moment. Riptide flashed. The first swing was dodged by mere inches due to her retreat, the second not so much, as it was accompanied by a large step forward of my own. She blocked desperately with her bow, her eyes blown wide in shock and terror. My sword cut into the wood, only getting stopped at the end, rendering it useless for the moment. I didn’t hesitate, my other hand shot out, palm open, to snap the ruined bow in two, freeing Riptide. I swung again, and this time her head hit the ground, separate from her body as blood sprayed the trees. It felt good. It felt right.
I should hate it, any other time I would. But right now, the typhoon was roaring too loudly in my ears, and I only looked for the next target.
Thalia let out a war cry as she charged another hunter. Arrows reflecting off her shield. Lightning arced down from the sky into her spear just before she drove it through the hunter’s chest. The hunter remained impaled for only a second, before she was launched back with an explosive flash and crack of thunder. Her head crashed into a tree behind her with enough force that her neck snapped back down at an unnatural angle. The only armor they had was their parkas; blessed or not, it was no use against two different breeds of storm.
I turned with a grunt as an arrow found a gap in my armor, stabbing painfully into my leg. Gritting my teeth, I saw a group of hunters by the creek. I felt the pull in my gut intensify as I lifted the entire thing. Forming a massive funnel cloud as the winds pick up to hurricane levels. The sky was alive with flashes of light, and it reflected off their silver parkas like beacons in the abyss. There would be no hiding, not from us, not tonight.
Three of the hunters were too stunned by the display to run; they were crushed under thousands of pounds of water before they could regain their minds. I sent the water at a couple of others as Thalia brought lightning down onto the nearer of the pair. The water acted as a conduit, and they both thrashed; the scent of burning flesh filled the air. The water churned violently as they were dragged under and seaward. I redirected just a bit to my leg, healing the arrow wound. The water was already bloody when it got to me, good.
I knew the dryads wouldn’t be happy with me after this, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. I didn’t think Thalia cared either, based on the multiple lightning strikes happening around us. Most weren’t even aimed at anything, as more than a few took the natural path to the ground through the tallest of trees.
“Percy! Please, you must stop this!” Chiron yelled, barely heard over the howling winds and the typhoon within me. Why was he only asking me to stop? Thalia was right beside me. Did he not consider her a threat? Or did he think only her anger was justified? Did he not care that the lightning was causing immense damage to the trees and the dryads within? Or did he think that I was going to drown them, rather than just the hunters?
I ignored him, rushing through the woods. One problem presented itself: the woods were their home environment, even if these woods were attached to the camp. But with the winds as strong as they were, I probably wasn’t going to be hit by any more arrows. I knew I’d have to thank Thalia for that, as more than one would have killed me otherwise. And for the lightning guiding my way to my prey.
I wanted to bleed them dry, to drag them into the deep and watch the pressure crush them. I wanted to rip their throats out, to tear them open and take their livers. I wanted to launch them into the sky so when they landed back into the water, they would break bones on impact, to hold them under the waves until their lungs filled with water.
The smell of grapevines mixed with the salt, blood, and burnt flesh in the air, as Thalia and I were both lifted into the air by vines restraining us as we thrashed in their grip like fish caught in a net. Dionysus appeared before us, looking oddly spooked. Like he had seen something that shouldn’t have been possible.
“Perseus, Thalia, that’s enough.” I will freely admit to being shocked when he used my actual name, but I’m a New Yorker. I knew better than to show my shock.
“Surprised you remember my name.” I snarked, Any other time, I would have called him ‘Darek’ or something, deciding it would be too weird if both of us were using the other's real name. But no clever works met my tongue, only hatred and despair.
“Damn it, Perseus! This isn’t the time!” I wouldn’t say the god lost his cool, but he definitely seemed off-balance. Like he wasn’t sure how to handle this situation. If I didn’t know better, I would say he was almost worried. But why would a god be worried about what a demigod could do?
“You need to stop the storm, more campers are going to be hurt. Please.” My anger receded like the tide at the one word I never thought I’d hear the god of wine say. I focused on the storm slowing, but I knew I couldn’t stop it. Not the category three hurricane I had apparently started. But I could slow it to just a normal storm.
“Good.” The god looked like he had years taken off his life,which I didn’t think was possible. Then he dropped me into the creek. Still restrained so I couldn’t resume my crusade of vengeance.
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the arrow, the one I had healed around earlier, as hard as I could and yanked it out. Lee yelled in shocked outrage, not that I needed it. The pain caused my vision to go black for a moment. Fuck, it’d been years since I felt something that painful, and that was back when Smelly Gabe was still living with my mom and not in a museum being gawked at. Still, not as bad as the Pit Scorpion from two summers ago.
Just after the hole in my leg closed, the temperature dropped,the darkness coalescing into a form I hadn’t seen since I was twelve.
“Lord Hades.” Chiron had more than a healthy amount of fear in his voice as he dropped to his knees.
“Chiron. Care to explain why my son is dead?” The King of the Underworld asked as he pulled Nico’s body from the shadows. I heard a strangled cry as Bianca rushed forward.
Fuck.
Any remaining fight drained out of me. What was I going to do? Fight a god to kill some more hunters? One of the big three at that. Hades pulled his apparent daughter into a hug as she cried, holding Nico in one hand as the other rubbed gentle circles on Bianca’s back. He doesn’t seem as awkward as I thought a god would be. Just mourning.
A figure emerged from the shadows. A tall, beautiful woman, clad in a black, expensive-looking dress with a veil that prevented me from seeing her eyes. I knew who this was, though I’d never met her before.
Persephone walks up to her husband, resting her hand on his shoulder before taking Bianca into her arms. Retreating into the shadows as Hades looks at our group judgmentally. His gaze seemed to linger on Thalia and my bloodstained forms with almost approval.
“Who else is dead, Lord Uncle?” Dionysus asks in the most respectful tone I’d ever heard from him.
“Two more campers, eight hunters. One Connor Stole, son of Hermes and Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephestus.” Hades paused, as though considering whether to continue, though his expression didn’t shift an inch. “I do not care to mention the hunters’ names nor their lineages, as they were at least complicit in my son’s murder.”
Dionysus followed Hades a ways away, the gods conversed for several minutes, their hushed tones doing nothing to combat the power seeping into the air. More than once, they glanced at Thalia and me, or at the hunters being kept within sight. Probably to keep the other campers from finishing what Thalia and I started.
“Percy! You’re ok! You are okay, right?” Grover asked, trotting up to me.
“H-Hey, G-man.” I couldn’t bring myself to say much more than that. And it had nothing to do with me being tied up.
“I’m so sorry, Perce. I swear I didn’t know they would ever… do anything like this.” My best friend gestured around helplessly. Like he didn’t know where to start with this situation.
Like he could have stopped Hunters of Artemis.
I knew I couldn’t let the satyr think I hated him. I needed to tell him I didn’t, wouldn't blame him. He had nothing to do with the hunt’s actions.
“Hey, there’s nothing for you to be sorry for. Like you said, you didn’t know, besides, you’d just… you’d have been hurt.” Damn it, the water around me did nothing for the burning tightness in my throat.
“I know, but… Gods, he was just a kid. He didn’t deserve this. The Artemis we get taught about would never let this happen.”
I hear a sardonic chuckle from my side, and I turn my head to see Drew Tanaka from the Aphrodite cabin standing there. “Is it really that surprising? They’re always like this; this is just the first time they’ve actually killed anyone. You know last time they were here? They burned down three cabins, they were never punished for it.”
Despite the casual way she was inspecting her nails as she spoke, her other hand was playing with her bladed whip and her shoulders were tense. She wanted to get her own revenge, and I couldn’t imagine she was alone in that.
Eventually, the gods must have come to an agreement, because Dionysus split off to stand guard by the hunters as Hades and his queen approached Thalia and me.
“You must be Perseus,” Persephone said, reaching me. “Would you please lead the way to the amphitheater?" It wasn’t a request, but it was the most polite order a god had given me. She was barely containing her rage; the power that snapped the vines restraining me felt like molten iron. I was starting to wonder if she saw Nico as her son as much as he was her husband’s.
Hades carefully lifted the too-small body, already wrapped in an elegant black-and-gold shroud. I couldn’t reconcile the body in my lord uncle’s arms with the boy from the day before. The boy who couldn’t sit still, who had so many questions, was so full of life and energy.
Turning from the grieving father, I saw a mummy trudging from the big house. This might as well happen, honestly. After the shit show that was that game, why wouldn’t the dead oracle move?
“I am the Oracle of Delphi, approach, seeker, and ask.” The spirit was looking straight at me.
“No.” I walked past the ancient oracle; whatever she has to say can wait until after Nico is buried. Someone choked in shock behind me.
A toxic green gas blocks my path. Taking the face of a young woman. “I am Pythia, Oracle of Delphi, prophet of Lord Apollo. I will not begrudge you for giving the departed their last rites. But you. Will. Ask. The prophecy is yours. You have until the eve once their last rites have been completed.”
Sure. Fine, that’s fine, I was supposed to get a prophecy before the funeral for three innocent campers was complete. I could do that.
Then, because the oracle sucks, she just collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Falling onto the forest floor as the green vapor was sucked back into her. Figures, why just inconvenience me in only one way?
I heard Zoë Nightshade start yelling behind me, probably at Dionysis, “I have done nothing wrong! When my lady is freed you shall see! This is-” She was cut off as a vine covered her mouth. The other hunters found themselves in the same boat just a second later.
All the anger that had left with Hades’ appearance came crashing back like a tsunami, I could sympathise. How dare she say murdering kids was not wrong? Was that actually how Artemis saw it? I felt my muscles tense, and heard an inhuman snarl and the deep rumbling of something massive. I guess the gods were about as happy to be reminded of her presence as I was. My ears popped from the pressure of multiple angry gods.
I felt something click in my gut, like a puzzle piece being slotted in. Campers were cowering away from the gods behind me as the storm started kicking up again. I was able to manage a single step towards the murderer and to uncap Riptide before Chiron decided to get on my case again.
“Percy, please. You’re scaring the campers.” The immortal trainer pleaded, as if I wasn’t one of the campers, doing this for the other campers. I wondered where he got the idea I would hurt the other campers. They are my friends, why would I ever hurt them? The idea made me sick. Besides, this wasn’t me. I couldn’t do stuff with pressure, right?
A large hand landed on my shoulder from behind me. Its weight was reassuring. The claws resting against my shirt told me it was a god, and they were clearly on my side. I knew I could wait to finish the job. We would both still be in camp, and I knew several campers would help me trap them in their silver cabin while we set it on fire. And I was sure at least one would survive long enough for me to sink my teeth into.
“Chiron. My son has done nothing to his fellow campers. You would do well to remember that.” My dad was a comforting presence, even though I had only met him once. The pressure dropped back to normal levels, and I felt like I just stepped out of a cooker.
I did wish he had shown up in time to save Nico, but that’s not how gods operate, was it? They really only show up when they need something, so it was weird to see so many here. Even if it was too late to do anything.
“Come along, Percy, we shouldn’t keep the dead waiting.” Poseidon steered me toward the amphitheater, his brother and Persephone behind us. Dismissing my storm with a casual wave of his hand.
Lightning struck the ground about twenty feet in front of us, because he couldn’t let his brothers have all the fun I guess. When the spots cleared from my vision, I saw Zeus in all his pinstriped glory. Wait, no. He had swapped his pinstriped suit for a fancy black three-piece. The kind a rich person would wear at a funeral, or to go to the bank, I guess.
“Zeus, don’t you think you’ve done enough damage to my family?” Hades' growling voice made it seem like he wanted to stab his youngest brother, or drag him to the underworld and toss the king of the gods into Tartarus. I realized a bit too late that I was in the worst spot possible, right between them.
“Peace, brother, I have come to stand in solidarity with you. And to ask that you grant the souls lost here Elysium.” It seemed like Zeus was feeling weirdly not tyrannical. Which was a far cry from what I had seen from him before. “On behalf of the citizens of Olympus, of course.”
There it was. I knew it was too good to expect Lord Thunderthighs to be on the side of demigods even once. Hades seemed to agree based on the low, canine-like growl coming from a couple of yards behind me.
“You would ask me to bypass my own laws for the sake of the gods of Olympus? Do not attempt to make me laugh, brother.” The King of the Underworld paused. I turned to see Persephone’s hand on his arm. It looked less like she was intending to hold him back and more like she would support him no matter his choice. Or that she was using his presence to remind herself not to rip into Zeus herself. “I have no need to alter the fate of Beckendorf, as he qualified for Asphodel or Elysium already and earned my favor when he chose to defend my son. Even if I hadn’t, his father did favor him; I could feel the marks when he entered my kingdom.”
I was confused. What about the judges? Annabeth said they would determine if someone was good enough for Elysium, mediocre enough for Asphodel, or bad enough for the Fields of Punishment. Was she wrong? Apparently, Hades wasn’t done.
“I would say Stoll was a good person, loyal to those he considered his. And admittedly, I would place him in Elysium if only to spite my son’s murderer. So if any god would claim to favor him, I would not object.”
There were several nerve-wracking seconds of silence as I guessed the gods debated if Connor was worth even a lie. Great.
“He has my favor.”
I wasn’t the only one shocked by Zeus saying that. I heard several people choke in surprise.
“As you said, he was loyal to his people, and he also did his best to make others feel welcome in his father’s cabin. The only way he could have improved my favor would be if he had been taught proper xenia. Although I cannot fault him for having poor teachers, since he was one of the best practitioners and still got a lot wrong.”
What the Hades is xenia? Is it a kind of steak? I think I had heard of that, but that wouldn’t make sense in this case. My confusion must have shown because Zeus got a really complicated mix of exasperated, annoyance, and disappointment on his face.
“Perseus, Thalia, please tell me you both know what xenia is.” I never expected to hear the Lord of the Skies sound so defeated. I could tell he knew the answer even before he asked. Thalia looked just as lost as I felt when I looked at her, so at least I wasn’t alone.
“Of course you don’t.” I had a feeling that if he weren’t trying to appear regal and collected, he would be facepalming. “Just what are you teaching them, Chiron?”
“Well, considering he decided to teach Thalia how to manipulate the mist but never even explained what the mist really is to me…” I trail off as I feel the hand on my shoulder squeeze, only barely not painful. The tips of the claws indented my standard-issue bronze cuirass. I realized I said all that out loud, so I kinda just threw Chiron under the bus. Whoops. I blamed how weirdly tired I was, and my eyes hurting didn’t help. It felt like someone was taking a blowtorch to the back of my eyeballs. I tended to talk a lot more when I was tired and trying not to fall asleep.
“Well, that just confirms that we need to look into the goings on here. Though after tonight we were going to already. Chiron, please gather all the support staff.”
We had support staff? How had I missed them? Was I just blind or something? I would need to find them and apologize for not saying anything earlier.
“Ah, well, milord, the only other staff we have onboard is Argus.” Oh, so I wasn’t crazy or just missing them for two years. Chiron just didn’t hire anyone. That explained why campers were teaching the classes. Well, other than master’s archery, which I never would have gone to considering my impressive ability to endanger those behind me with a bow.
Zeus was pinching the bridge of his nose. I wondered if gods got migraines. When my mom got them, they didn’t seem fun. He visibly took a couple of deep breaths. He didn’t seem much calmer, so I guessed that worked about as well for the gods as it did for me.
“Chiron, the stipend is half for employees. So I assume you used the rest on improvements to the camp, as it is intended to be used?”
A snort came from behind Hades, Dionysus stepping around the kronide. He seemed gleeful, as though he had been waiting years for this moment. It set off instincts I had thought long buried.
“Nope, in the time I’ve been in this accursed camp, there has been only a handful of improvements. Although I will grant that he was somewhat prompt in rebuilding the cabins that these goblins burned down last time they were here, I have no idea where the money is disappearing to.”
What? It felt like every other sentence was crafted specifically to turn my worldview upside down. The Camp has a fund for improvements? Then why does the Hermes cabin have a shortage of beds and blankets? If there is money for employees, then why are campers teaching everything? What was Chiron doing?
“Why did you never bring this to me before now?” Zeus sounded a bit hurt, like the realization his son didn’t ask for help had been a wounding one.
“When could I have?! As per the rules of my punishment, which bind me here, I cannot go to Olympus except for council meetings. And I had no power to fix any of it, as you bound my primary domain! This camp has no theater, no revelry- not that I expected any, considering they spend most of their time trying to ensure they don’t get eaten.” The god of madness sounded on the verge of hysterics, which would be fitting, I supposed.
“We will speak of this later, likely when we review the expenditure of the camp. Though we will also need to see what needs to be improved. And the multitude of other issues, several of which are visible from here. For now, we shall mourn those lost.”
“And what of my son’s murderer? Will she face justice, brother?” That sounded like bait from the eldest of the brothers. Daring his youngest to deny him.
Zeus was not foolish enough to step on that trap, though. “She will. I will ensure it, however, as part of the deal that Artemis made with me upon its inception, only she is able to dole out punishment to members of her hunt.”
Great. The only one who can punish Zoë and the other hunters is the goddess who is currently kidnapped, along with Annabeth. And I still had to get some uber important prophecy that got the oracle to be even more like a zombie than normal. But I would do it. Whatever was necessary.
I refused to lose any more of my people.