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ARION HIT THE DECK AND THE THREE OF THEM STUMBLED ONTO THE ARGO II.

They carried the fifty-pound sheet of bronze belowdecks. Charging down the hallway until they stopped at the doorway of Jason's Cabin. The door was open to reveal Piper at the foot of the bed.

"Gods of Olympus," Piper said. "What happened to you."

"Long story," Leo said. "Are the others back?."

"Not yet," Piper said.

Lucia cursed. Then she noticed Jason sitting up, and her face brightened. "Hey, you're up! Looks like the great Jason Grace can't be taken out by brick after all."

"You doubted me?"

"Let's just say for a moment there I thought the brick won."

Jason scoffed, but a grin stitched his lips,

Leo rushed out his words, "Hey man, Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room."

He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel and Lucia in the doorway.

Piper raised an eyebrow at them. "Team Leo? LV?"

"We met Narcissus," Hazel said, which didn't explain much. "Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess."

Jason sighed. "I miss all the fun."

On the deck above, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature had landed.

"Uh Oh," Lucia muttered, she began to rub vigorously at the ink on the back of her hand.

Percy entered the hallway toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Annabeth had patches of black sticky stuff in her hair. Percy's shirt was covered in it.

"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.

Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of black sludge down his face.

"Ran into some tar monsters," Annabeth said. "Hey, Jason, glad you're awake."

"Thanks—"

"What does LV stand for?" Percy asked, looking down at Lucia's collarbone. He hadn't even said hello to anyone yet.

"Would you believe me if I said, Lucia Verano?."

"Where Leo?" Annabeth asked the group,

His eyes widened in realization. "Valdez?"

Lucia pointed down the hall for Annabeth. "Engine room." She then quickly turned her attention to her boyfriend, "It's a long story. But trust me. It was not my idea."

His eyebrows were knitted together, and he failed at hiding his frown "That's washable right?"

She deadpanned, "Duh!"

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. The demigods stumbled.

Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.

"Uh, what was that?" He demanded.

"Oh..." Hazel looked embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like...all of them."

"Great." Percy handed the bucket of tar to Annabeth. "You guys help Leo. I'll hold off the water spirits as long as I can."

"On it!" Frank promised.

The three of them ran off, leaving Hazel at the cabin door.

Waves crashed against the hull as angry voices came from above. Percy shouted, Coach Hedge yelled at the lake.

Festus the figurehead breathed fire several times. Hazel was miserably seasick in her cabin. In the engine room below, it sounded like Leo and them were doing an Irish line dance with anvils tied to their feet. Echoes of Lucia, Annabeth, and Leo yelling back and forth in Spanish rang throughout the entirety of the ship. (Let's just say, Poor Frank)

After what seemed like hours, the engine began to hum. The oars creaked and groaned, and Lucia felt the ship lift into the air.

The rocking and shaking stopped. The ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. Finally, Leo emerged from the engine room. He was caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. His T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. The TEAM LEO on his chest now read: AM LEO. But he grinned like a madman and announced that they were safely underway.

"Meeting in the mess hall, one hour," he said. "Crazy day, huh?"

༄

LUCIA SHOWERED AT THE FIRST CHANCE SHE GOT. She scrubbed herself spotless under the steaming water. Making sure all the marker ink was washed off her. She massaged her brunette curls, using multiple pumps of conditioner and leave-in before she was satisfied.

Once she was clean, she pulled on a pair of white cotton shorts and an oversized graphic T-shirt she stole from Percy's closet last summer.

After everyone had cleaned up, Coach Hedge took the helm and the demigods gathered below for dinner. It was the first time they'd all sat down together—just the eight of them. Maybe their presence should've reassured Lucia, but seeing all of them in one place only reminded her that the Prophecy of eight was unfolding at last.

No more waiting for Leo to finish the ship. No more easy days at Camp Half-Blood, pretending the future was still a long way off. They were underway, with a bunch of angry Romans behind them and the ancient lands ahead. The giants would be waiting. Gaea was rising. And unless they succeeded in this quest, the world would be destroyed.

The others must've felt it too. The tension in the mess hall was like an electrical storm brewing, which was possible, considering Percy's and Jason's powers.

In an awkward moment, the two boys tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table. Sparks literally flew from Jason's hands. There was a brief silent standoff, like they were both thinking, Seriously, dude.

Lucia rolled her eyes, She blocked the wave of testosterone by waltzing in between the two men and sitting down without a word, They looked down, ceding the chair to her, and sat on her opposite sides.

The crew compared notes on what had happened in Salt Lake City, but even Leo and Lucia's ridiculous story about how they tricked Narcissus wasn't enough to cheer up the group.

"So where to now?" Leo asked with a mouthful of pizza. "I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there's still a lot of damage. We should put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic."

Percy was eating a piece of pie, which was completely blue —filling, crust, even the whipped cream. "We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter," he said. "Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."

That didn't improve the mood around the table. 

"I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans? Maybe—maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charm speak." Piper suggested

Jason shook his head. "It wasn't your fault, Pipes. Or Leo's," he added quickly. "Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."

Piper looked grateful for his support, but still uneasy. "Maybe if we could explain that, though—"

"With no proof?" Annabeth asked. "And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."

"She's right," Hazel said. She still looked a little queasy from seasickness, but she was trying to eat a few saltine crackers. The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies. "Reyna might listen, but Octavian won't. The Romans have honor to think about. They've been attacked. They'll shoot first and ask questions post hac."

Lucia poked at her plate of Arroz con Pollo. She played with a piece of chicken as if it could grant her the answers to all her questions.  "You're right," Lucia decided. "We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry."

Hazel nodded. "Nemesis said we have only six days until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed."

Jason frowned. "You mean Rome Rome, not New Rome?"

"I think," Hazel said. "But if so, that's not much time."

"Why six days?" Percy wondered. "And how are they going to destroy Rome?"

No one answered. Piper had something else to share. "There's more," she said. "I've been seeing some things in my knife."

The big kid, Frank, froze with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth. "Things such as... ?"

"They don't really make sense," Piper said, "just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins."

Lucia stared at the magical video feed from Camp Half-Blood on the wall. Right now it showed the living room in the Big House: a cozy fire on the hearth and Seymour, the stuffed leopard head, snoring contentedly above the mantel.

"Twins, like in Ella's prophecy," Annabeth said. "If we could figure out those lines, it might help. Lucia any ideas?"

"First twins that come to mind are Apollo and Artemis. I don't think that's helpful." Lucia hummed,

"Wisdom's daughter walks alone," Percy said. "The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth, that's got to mean you. Juno told me...well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she's wrong."

Annabeth took a long breath. "Reyna was about to tell us something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend among the Roman praetors—something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along."

Leo, Lucia, and Hazel exchanged nervous looks.

"Nemesis mentioned something similar," Lucia winced once the name left her mouth. "She talked about an old score that had to be settled—"

She tried ignoring the twinge of pain that shocked her heart when she said Nemesis' name. But an image flashed in her head of a hand slipping from her fingertips. Falling into endless oblivion. I'd never bet against you Golden girl.

Lucia blinked but the image remained etched behind her eyelids. Like all her memories.

Before Ethan could take over her mind completely, Hazel picked up the conversation again and focused Lucia back on the topic at hand.

"—The one thing that might bring the gods' two natures into harmony," Hazel recalled. "'An old wrong finally avenged.'"

Percy drew a frowny face in his blue whipped cream. "I was only a praetor for about two hours. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?"

Jason stuttered. "I...uh, I'm not sure," he said. "I'll give it some thought."

Percy narrowed his eyes. "You're not sure?"

Jason didn't respond. Lucia got the feeling he was lying. She caught his eye, and he pleaded silently.

Hazel broke the silence. "What about the other lines?" She turned her ruby-encrusted plate. "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death."

"Giants' bane stands gold and pale," Frank added, "Won through pain from a woven jail."

"Giants' bane," Leo said. "Anything that's a giant's bane is good for us, right? That's probably what we need to find. If it can help the gods figure out who they are again, that's good."

Percy shook his head. "That's not it. There's more." The Fall of the Sun, The Final Verse." Percy started, "There's another Prophecy. The sun." He looked at Lucia. "What are you thinking?"

"Only the summer flower can resuscitate." She continued "A journey to the center of the earth. In which the thin line between love and hate is revealed."  Lucia finished with a sigh, "I have no fucking idea..."

"If the first Prophecies about Annabeth. Is there any way.." Jason asked, looking straight at the brunette.

Lucia sighed, " I have no clue, I have to think harder, prophecies are so complex...but what I do know is that we can't kill the giants, not without the help of the gods."

Jason turned to Frank and Hazel. "I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god's help, just the two of you."

"Alcyoneus was a special case," Frank said. "He was only immortal in the territory where he was reborn—Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but..." He shrugged. "Lucia's right, we'll need the gods."

Lucia gazed at the walls. She wished Leo hadn't enchanted them with images of Camp Half-Blood. It was like a doorway to home that she could never go through. She watched the hearth of Hestia burning in the middle of the green as the cabins turned off their lights for curfew. Lucia smiled at the one cabin that managed to shine obnoxiously in the darkness.

She wondered how the Roman demigods, Frank and Hazel, felt about those images. They'd never even been to Camp Half-Blood. Did it seem alien to them, or unfair that Camp Jupiter wasn't represented? Did it make them miss their own home?

The lines of the prophecies turned in Lucia's mind. None of them seemed very cheerful.

"So..." Leo pushed his chair away from the table. "First things first, I guess. We'll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs."

"Someplace close to a city," Annabeth suggested, "in case we need supplies. But somewhere out of the way, so the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?"

No one had any ideas except for Piper. "Well," she ventured, "How do you guys feel about Kansas?"

༄

THE ONE THING THAT MADE THAT NIGHT BETTER THAN ALL THE OTHER PREVIOUS NIGHTS was that before she got into bed, Percy kissed her goodnight. The same way he used to six months ago.

In those goosebump-inducing moments. Lucia found grace in the only real alone time she could get with Percy that day. She felt so at peace in the feel of him. It almost granted her the escape she needed from everything that began to unravel around them.

Almost.

Unfortunately, only seconds after they broke away, Coach Hedge came storming down the steps with his bat. Which left Lucia and Percy with many things to say.

Leo built his room across from hers. Which meant she didn't have to focus to hear his heartbeat. Despite feeling greedy for more than just a few lousy feet of proximity. After months without him, listening to it thud steadily across the hall was a comfort in itself.

Coach Hedge spent the first hour after curfew doing his nightly duty, walking up and down the passageway and yelling, "Lights out! Settle down! Try to sneak out, and I'll smack you back to Long Island!"

He banged his baseball bat against cabin doors whenever he heard a noise, shouting at everyone to go to sleep, which made it impossible for anyone to go to sleep. Especially Lucia.

She stared at the gold beams on the ceiling. Her cabin was pretty nice. Leo had programmed their quarters to adjust automatically to the occupant's preferred temperature, so it was never cold in Lucia's room. Some might even call it way too warm.

She had tried to make it homey. With her favorite artists' posters, and cozy orange sheets. The room was decorated with fairy lights and golden accents. A hyacinth was placed in a vase on her songwriting desk. It stood next to the scroll her grandmother gifted her for her birthday and her Ipod. Beside her desk also stood her electric guitar on display.

The mattress and the pillows were stuffed with pegasus down (no pegasi were harmed in the making of these products, Leo had assured her), so they were über-comfortable. A gold lantern hung from the ceiling, glowing at whatever brightness She wished. The lantern's sides were perforated with pinholes, so at night glimmering constellations drifted across her walls. Assuring Lucia to never be left alone in the darkness.

She had so many things on her mind, she thought she'd never sleep. But there was something peaceful about the rocking of the boat and the drone of the aerial oars as they scooped through the sky.

Finally, her eyelids got heavy, and she drifted off.

She felt instant regret.

When she slept, lamp-like eyes as large as she was stared down at her. fangs bared and glistened with bloodthirst. The hot breath hit Lucia, sending a chill down her spine and the smell of long-decayed flesh up her nostrils.  Suddenly, her heart fell to her stomach and she felt like she was free-falling.

She cried as the dream distorted and warped. Landing on her knees against a marble floor. Pain shot up her body in sparks. Ethan's hand was then tightly wrapped within hers, He looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Why did you do this? You said you loved me..."

Lucia's voice got caught in her throat, "No. E... I'm sorry..."

Then suddenly, Lucia let go of his hand. The one-eyed boy fell through the chasm once more, a cry fell from Lucia's lips as he hit the ground with a horrible thud. She gasped down at the lifeless body. A sob shattered through her chest.

"No." Lucia reassured with a deep exhale, "T-That wasn't me...I tried saving him. I did."

Suddenly Ethan's body melted into a muddy dense liquid. It spread out thin and bubbled before rising slowly around Lucia's feet. In an instant, she felt a dreadful feeling, one that told her the exact primordial being that was fucking around in her head.

"Fuck off, Gaea." She hissed,

"Lucia Verano. Daughter of Apollo, Princess of Sparta..." The voice echoed within her head, "Do be cautious of the seeds sown around you... The more they sprout and blossom, the harder they are to pull from their roots. "

"What game are you trying to play?." Lucia hissed, "I won't fall for it."

"My son was foolish." Her voice echoed hauntingly, "I am not him. I am Gaea, Mother Earth. I know all, see all, am all. Be wise, Lucia, I am not the sole being you should be fearing... Not even the strongest demigod, will survive all the hatred that's been unleashed. "

All the hatred that's been unleashed. Lucia's dream warped again. She saw herself standing in front of an empty chasm. When she looked down, the scent of sulfur filled her nostrils. Darkness was all she saw, all that overtook her. She heard a familiar scream.

"Lucy!"