Thalia had always liked storms.

  Even as a child, they didn’t scare her one bit. Whenever the lightning flashed and the thunder roared, Thalia would instead perk up and run to the window. She would even run outside whenever her mom wasn’t watching. The rain was a small burden to bear.

  It was the only way to feel close to her father.

  And yet, holding the storm of all storms, Thalia had never felt further from Zeus.

  Just like she had so many times in the past, Thalia cursed her father.

  Unhelpful bastard.

  Thalia thought she had known pain. She had lost her entire family. She had been betrayed. She had fallen off the climbing wall at Camp Half-Blood. She had broken her arm, leg, and several of her ribs many times over.

  Nothing compared to the pain of holding the sky.

  There was nothing quite like it, really. If Thalia hadn’t been in absolute agony, she’d find it impressive how seamlessly the Titan’s curse blended the pain of being crushed, burned, and stabbed all at once.

  Her mouth was parched. She couldn’t feel her arms or shoulders anymore, and her legs refused to stop shaking. The tip of the sky dug into the small of her back like a relentless drill.

  Thalia couldn’t quite believe she was able to carry this in the first place. The sky was unimaginably heavy, even as it rested on her shoulders. The feeling of infinite weight didn’t make sense. But since she had no other choice, Thalia found strength that she never knew she had before.

  Not that it helped, of course.

  Oh, and just to add insult to the injury.

  Luke was still here.

  Just standing there, unmoving. With that stupid blank expression.

  Thalia couldn’t even spew curses and insults at him. Her throat was too dry for her to do anything more than whimper, and she had no extra energy anyway.

  How long had it been since she took the sky from him? A few minutes? A few hours? A few days?

  She couldn’t tell.

  All she could do was tremble under the weight of the sky, close her eyes, and hope the pressure would magically go away.

  And then it did.

  Kind of.

  Thalia gasped as the burden suddenly became a little lighter. Not by much–just a fraction of the infinite weight.

  But her legs regained a bit of feeling. She was able to take a deep breath for the first time in what felt like forever. And that stupid pointy bit of the sky finally moved off her back.

  She turned her head and found Luke beside her, gritting his teeth, bearing the weight of the world with her.

  Just like he always said he would.

  “W-why?”

  Thalia hated how weak her voice sounded. It’s a dry, raspy noise.

  “Us against the world, right?” Luke responded.

  “No,” she choked out the words, breathless. “ Why? ”

  Why did he steal the Bolt? Why did he poison the tree? Why did he join the Titans?

  Why did he leave?

  Luke went quiet, avoiding her gaze. He seemed to think about it, giving Thalia a chance to study him for the first time.

  He’s older. That much was for sure. And time clearly hadn’t been kind to him.

  There was a new scar on his face that Thalia didn’t recognize. His sandy blonde hair was streaked with a misty gray. He’s thin, bony, and paler than Thalia’s ever seen.

  His blue eyes were seemingly the only thing that were the same, but even those were gaunt and framed below by black circles.

  “There wasn’t a choice.”

  Thalia wanted to laugh. “T-there’s always a choice.”

  “Really?” Luke snorted bitterly. “Did you have a choice on that hill, Thalia?”

  Things went silent between them.

  After an eternity of silence, Luke began to speak again.

  “How’s everyone at camp doing?”

  Thalia just glared at him.

  Luke sighed. “This isn’t an attempt to gain information, Thalia. We already have enough.”

  Thalia’s blood boiled as she processed his words.

  “I just want to know how everyone’s doing.”

  Thalia hissed, “Why would you even care?”

  “Why would I not? I’m doing everything for them,” he said quietly, while Thalia withheld a scoff. “My siblings, Travis, Connor, Cecil…have you met them yet?”

  She had, but Thalia refused to respond. She didn’t even think Luke was allowed to care after what he did. After trying to start a war by stealing the Bolt. After trying to take down the barriers that would have left those same siblings with no protection.

  “They’re good kids,” Luke continued, unfazed. “I taught them a lot, so they should be doing alright. I wonder–”

  “Shouldn’t you know already, with all your spies?” Thalia interrupted him. She didn’t want to hear him talk like that, act like he still cared. She refused to give him sympathy.

  Luke didn’t seem upset that she cut him off–rather, he looked a little elated, almost fond. He turned to face her, shifting his knees slowly under the weight of the sky.

  “Thalia, don’t you wonder why I even have spies?”

  She gritted her teeth. Thalia didn’t want to hear him out, but what choice did she have? They were both stuck under the weight of the sky.

  “It's because there are so many like us. Abandoned by our parents, neglected by the gods,” Luke continued. “How many times have we cursed the gods together, Thalia?”

  Thalia avoided his gaze. Too many to count, she knew.

  “You think I’m exaggerating? You know, the Hermes cabin is where all the unclaimed go. Just that alone tells you how much we should ‘respect’ the gods! All their power, and they can’t even spare a glance at their kids! And guess who suffers for it!”

  Luke breathed heavily, his face contorting in anger. He was on a roll now; Thalia recognized that mood. The scar over his face seemed to glow slightly. Or was that just Thalia’s imagination?

  “I saw so many of them, Thalia. I tried to help them all because their ‘all-powerful’ parents wouldn’t. Julia–she was stuck with an abusive father for nine years before arriving at camp. Mark was homeless and fighting monsters alone for three years, and he’s got the scars and burns to prove it. And Jenna,” Luke chuckled bitterly, eyes maniacally bright. “Her mom told her she was a child of Hermes, just like me! Every night, she’d pray for a sign, but my dear old dad didn’t give her a single word of confirmation! And then, the first fall she left camp, she was killed by a hellhound!”

  Thalia trembled–whether from the weight of the sky or from Luke’s words, she couldn’t tell.

  “We never got much help from our dads, Thalia. They were as negligent as they always are,” Luke said. “But we had it so much better than we thought. We had each other. A lot of kids don’t have that. Every summer, I’d see new kids come in. And the next year, some of them wouldn’t come back. Rinse and repeat. And all along…what did the gods do?”

  Thalia closed her eyes. “Nothing.”

  “Nothing,” Luke repeated softly. “Not a single thing. You’re right; I’ve done some terrible things. I disrupted the status quo. But what choice did I have? This status quo…it’s killing us.”

  “And the Titans won’t?” She snapped her head to face him, eyes frustratingly watering. “The gods aren’t perfect. But helping the Titans means nothing but death and destruction. You really think the world ruled by them will be better for us?”

  “The Titans have promised justice. For the oppressed, the forgotten, and the overlooked. They promise freedom for those who just want to live simply,” Luke growled, eyes similarly bright. “The gods have ruined so much, Thalia. All they want is to glorify themselves and keep their flame burning–our only use to them is as tools. They force us to fight and quest for them, offering nothing in return. And when they’re finished…they toss us aside without a second thought.”

  There was so much hatred and anger in his face that Thalia wanted to cry. What happened to Luke that he turned out this way? It was horrible to see him like this, but that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that on some level, Luke was right.

  “You really believe that?” Thalia scoffed shakily. “The Titans care for us less than the gods do. They’ll turn the world over into something terrible and kill everyone who stands in their way.”

  Despite the storm pressing down on him, Luke laughed–actually laughed, throwing his head back in a crazed way.

  “Do you hear yourself, Thalia? Who were the ones who flooded the world, who killed all of mankind just cause they could? The gods obliterate anything they deem a minor threat! They’ve done it before, and they will do it again,” Luke declared. He locked eyes with Thalia, his voice going dangerously low. “When they can’t control the world, the gods throw a stone at it. And believe me, they’re winding up.”

  “Because you started it,” Thalia pointed out harshly. “Like it or not, the very blood that runs through us makes Kronos our enemy. How can you believe the Titan’s world will help us demigods?”

  Luke just shook his head. “Haven’t you wondered why in the ancient times, when the Titans first ruled the earth, it was called the ‘Golden Age’? Life was flourishing. Then, the gods took over, and humanity suffered. Does Pandora’s box ring any bells? Prometheus–a Titan–tried to help mortals, and Zeus had him tortured for a thousand years. The ‘Flame of the West’ is rotten to the core–the gods have always been rotten.”

  “So the gods are terrible!” Thalia huffed. “But the Titans are even worse! Kronos ate his children–”

  “So did Zeus.”

  “They terrorized the world–!”

  “ So did the gods! ”

  Thalia let out a loud, frustrated cry. Lightning flashed in the storm on their backs, lighting up Mt. Orthys. Thunder rumbled above as both of them went silent for a long minute.

  The sky seemed to grow heavier by the moment. When Thalia finally spoke again, she sounded broken. “Stop this, Luke. Joining the Titans won’t fix anything. Please…come back to us.”

  “I can’t,” Luke said, out of breath. “I’ve made my choice. But…we don’t have to be enemies.”

  “I’m not going to join you.”

  “Please, Thalia. It can just be like old times. Fighting for a better world. Please…if you don’t agree…” his voice faltered. He sounded…scared. “It’s my last chance…or else, he will use the other way.”

  Thalia could hear the sound of fear in his voice. It wasn’t something she heard often. She knew, right then and there, Luke’s life depended on her joining.

  “Oh, Luke.” Thalia could practically feel her heart breaking. “What have you gotten yourself into?”

  Luke tried to smile, but it was so strained it was practically a grimace. “Your father abandoned you. He doesn’t care about you. But you can gain power over him. We can rule over the world together.”

  Thalia swallowed, the reality of that statement hitting her. Of course, this wasn’t just Luke trying to recruit his best friend. Although she tried not to think about it, Thalia was the daughter of Zeus. A potential child of the prophecy.

  If she joined the Titans, she could bring down Olympus. She could rule the world.

  With Luke.

  And deep, deep down inside Thalia, that was everything she had ever wanted.

  She couldn’t form any words. The power to overthrow Olympus…

  “There was a reason Kronos brought you back to life, Thalia,” Luke said. “The poisoning, the Fleece–it was all for this. You can gain unlimited power. This is the right choice.”

  Thalia shook her head weakly. She felt like she had just woken up on Half-Blood Hill again, at the foot of the pine tree, dazed and uncertain.

  The right choice…she had no idea what the right thing to do was anymore.

  “You know how terrible the gods are. We can finally make things right. Together.”

  Thalia did want the power to defeat the gods. To make things right…it was such a tempting offer. But joining the Titans? It just didn’t make sense.

  “I can’t side with the Titans, Luke,” Thalia shook her head. “I don’t know what they’ve told you, but I can’t trust them. They’ll kill us as soon as they’re back in power.”

  Luke sagged, hanging his head. He looked devastated.

  Thalia turned away. She couldn’t look at him right now.

  It was silent for a long time again.

  “I found your brother,” Luke suddenly said.

  She blinked once, wondering if she had heard that right.

  Brother.

  Jason.

  Thalia felt her whole body go weak with shock. She almost dropped the sky–Luke grunted in pain as he took on more weight to keep the burden from crushing her.

  She stared at him with wide eyes. “What did you just say?”

  “I met him about two months ago in Charleston,” Luke said. “I confirmed it with Lord Kronos. Blonde hair, electric blue eyes. I think that girl called him Jason.”

  Thalia’s heart stopped for a moment.

  Her brother. Her baby brother.

  The memory of an old man’s prophecy rang in her ears. ‘ You will change once, and then change again. Your path will be sad and lonely. But someday you will find your family again.’

  Her eyes watered again. “I thought I lost him…”

  Luke saw her expression, and his face grew hopeful. “If you join me, we can find him.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “She told me he was dead…” Thalia couldn’t believe it. Was Luke lying? No, he couldn’t have known about Jason otherwise.

  Her brother was alive .

  “You never told me about him,” Luke gently said, careful not to push her. “What…happened?”

  Thalia’s whole body shook, full of emotion. She could barely choke the words out.

  “You know my mom…when he was two, she took us on a trip…and when I left for a moment to grab the picnic basket, Mom took him and…” Thalia took a deep breath. “When I got back, Jason was gone. Mom said…Hera claimed him. She…”

  Thalia clenched her jaw, anger slowly rising to the top of her many emotions. She thought about what Luke said about the gods. Hera, in particular, had always hated Thalia, as the only modern child of Zeus. Jason was literally named to appease the goddess…what if that wasn’t enough for Hera?

  “Hera…” Thalia hissed. “Hera took my brother from me.”

  Luke’s expression turned serious. “We can save him from the gods. You can be reunited with him. And then…we’ll have the power to make a world where we can all be together. A better world.”

  Thalia drew in a shaky breath, staring up into the literal sky. The weight of the decision felt even heavier than the weight of the crushing sky.

  She wanted to join Luke.

  Oh, she really, really wanted to.

  “How can I trust the Titans, Luke? They’ll always see me as a threat, and I them.”

  “Then don’t trust them,” Luke panted. Sweat ran down the side of his face. “Trust me.”

  “Trust you? After what you did?”

  “I betrayed the gods,” he shook his head. “I didn’t betray you, Thalia. I would never.”

  Thalia couldn’t stop her lips from tugging upward. She recognized this Luke. The stubborn, strong-willed, impatient boy. Too self-righteous for his own good.

  “Us against the world, Luke?”

  “Us against the world,” Luke repeated. “Like I promised. We’ll always be a family.”

  Thalia bit her lip, trying not to cry. Despite all he had done, she was still confident she knew Luke. And she knew Luke didn’t break promises.

  Luke had never let her down. Never.

  “I don’t want to side with the Titans. But I will side with you,” Thalia quietly said. “The gods don’t deserve to rule.”

  Luke Castellan, her oldest and best friend, smiled for the first time. Despite the pain of holding up the sky, there was a brazen glint in his eyes that Thalia knew so well. Hidden under that, Luke looked so, so relieved. As if he had just been saved.

  Thalia wanted to save him. Despite all he had done. And if this was what she had to do…

  The weight of the sky was still crushing. The weight of her decision and new responsibility; even more. Thalia knew she would reap what she sowed, and when that time came, the burden might crush her.

  But she knew that just like now, Luke would be by her side to carry that burden.

  It was an eventful day for Leo.

  An eventful day for a demigod generally did not mean a good day.

  Annabeth had left on her quest in the morning. Percy had followed soon after. Jason was probably in the clouds somewhere, and Piper was busy keeping the peace in a tense camp.

  After all, the Hunters were still here. They were even more uptight and antsy than usual, knowing Artemis was captured and not being able to do anything about it.

  A couple of them got into a fight with a few of the Ares and Aphrodite campers. Leo and Piper had to break it up, but things got deadly very quickly. Two of the campers and a Huntress went to the infirmary. Will Solace was very annoyed.

  After that, Leo was on babysitting duty. Annabeth had made them promise to look after Nico cause he was important or something. Not that Leo didn’t want to, but unfortunately, the kid was annoying.

  Leo had never played Mythomagic before, but he practically knew all the strategies, card synergies, and gimmicks of the game now.

  After all, that was literally all Nico would talk about.

  Nonstop.

  And loudly.

  It was really hard to see this kid as the broody, scary son of Hades that Leo knew from his past life.

  Still, babysitting wasn’t going to stop Leo from doing what he needed to do.

  Today was an important day.

  Leo had finally tracked down Festus.

  You would think that finding a giant bronze dragon would be easy, but it had been a frustratingly difficult process for Leo over the last year and a half. First off, there was actually shockingly little Leo knew about Festus’ origins. According to camp legends, it was made by Hephaestus campers long ago to guard the camp from monsters, but it mysteriously vanished about twenty years ago.

  Eventually, Festus would be dug up by Percy, Annabeth, and Beckendorf about a year from now. But Leo wasn’t going to wait that long.

  Annabeth had theorized that Festus malfunctioned and broke down, like all machines tended to do, and a landslide or something similar had ended up burying it. Nature and erosion did the rest.

  But if that had truly been the case, Leo could have found the dragon easily. Even deactivated, there were many ways to locate a Hephaestus-type automaton. Yet none of the metal detectors Leo made could pick it up, the electric scanners found no magnetic pulse in the woods, and even the tried and true method of Tabasco sauce didn’t seem to work.

  Leo was starting to think that Festus had been hidden on purpose.

  But on this Monday, December 15, Leo had made a breakthrough. Almost all automatons functioned on a core mechanic–inlaid Celestial Bronze circuitry. In this case, Festus’s control disk. The magical etching, usually letters or pictures, was what gave automatons that artificial intelligence and programming.

  For a simple automaton, the circuitry wasn’t too complicated. Nowadays, Leo could make them in his sleep. But something as big and sentient like Festus?

  Leo had been stumped for over a year. If he could just figure out how to recreate that control disk, he could use it to trace down a similar machine–Festus. He did his best to recall his memories of working on Festus, but not having it on hand made things unimaginably slow.

  It would have taken another year or two for him to figure it out.

  That is, until two similar automatons were handed to him on a silver platter.

  “Woah!” Nico cried out as the lights of Bunker 9 flickered on. “This is amazing!”

  “Don’t touch anything,” Leo advised. “I’m just here to grab something real quick.”

  Nico didn’t seem to hear him. He was busy gawking at anything and everything as Leo dragged him through the hall. “Did you make all these?!”

  “No, only some of them.”

  “What do they do?”

  “A lot of really cool things.”

  “Why are there scorch marks on the walls?”

  Leo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why does everyone keep asking that?”

  “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s only my second day here.” Nico shook his head excitedly. “I bet things are only going to get even more awesome.”

  “Eh, don’t get your hopes up, kid,” Leo muttered, stopping in front of two huge machines. They were suspended in the air by metal cables.

  “Woah, those are the Colchian Bulls, aren’t they? They’ve got nine hundred attack power and fire breath that do plus one hundred damage each.”

  The bulls had been given to the Hephaestus cabin after Clarisse and Percy subdued them, and Leo had been working on them throughout the fall–evident by the loose metal plating and sparking wires poking out. Nico popped out from behind Leo and reached for the automatons.

  “Don’t touch, remember?” Leo pulled his hand back. “It’s dangerous.”

  Nico grumbled but stepped back. He folded his arms grouchily.

  Great. He was moody, too.

  Leo sighed. “Buford!”

  Nico looked at him strangely. But after a few seconds came the whirring noises of the three-legged table. Buford came scuttling toward him. It popped open a drawer to reveal a shining bronze circuit disk with Greek letters carved into the sides—a prototype circuit for Festus that Leo had made by reverse engineering the control disks of the bronze bulls.

  Nico asked, “Is that a magic table?”

  “He’s Buford. Buford, Nico. Nico, Buford.” Leo quickly said, taking the disk. He shooed Buford away, and the table wheeled off to do…whatever walking tables did in their free time.

  Leo took something out of his tool belt and clipped it to the disk. It was a small bronze compass, and just like he had hoped, the needle started to spin. Hopefully, toward Festus.

  He fist-pumped. “Alright. Let’s go, Nico.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “We’re going on a treasure hunt.”

  “Really?!”

  “Really,” Leo grinned, raising his hand to the younger boy. “You wanna go find some treasure?”

  Nico high-fived him. “Let’s go!”

  They went out of Bunker 9 and began to scour the woods. Leo followed the compass, which led them a lot more north than he had expected. Wherever Festus was, it was deep in the woods. Like, really, really deep.

  “Stay close, Nico. There might be monsters here,” Leo warned.

  “I’m not afraid. I can fight them now,” Nico declared.

  Leo scoffed, half-amused. “One day, and you think you can do that? Have you ever fought monsters before?”

  The son of Hades seemed a little put off by that, shuffling closer to him. The snow crunched under his feet.

  “Well…no. We usually just ran. And then Bianca would find somewhere for us to hide. We’d wait for them to give up.”

  Leo looked at him curiously. “And that always worked?”

  Nico shrugged. “Yeah? The monsters never found us. I think they were monsters anyway. But Bianca didn’t believe me.”

  He looked down at the last words, a shadow covering his face. For a moment, Nico looked like the pale-faced Tartarus survivor Leo remembered, the one who would disappear into the shadows whenever you looked away.

  Disappear into the shadows, huh…?

  “Running and hiding can be good. Fighting monsters isn’t all fun and games, Nico,” he said. “Even I still get scared. If you can run away, run away.”

  Nico just frowned. Of all people, why was Leo the one having to give serious and cautious advice? What was the world coming to?

  “Tell that to my sister,” the son of Hades scowled. “She decided to fight. She went on the stupid quest with her new Hunter friends. Didn’t even think of me.”

  Leo hesitated. He really didn’t want to get involved with the di Angelo’s sibling drama.

  “Didn’t she talk to you before leaving?”

  “I guess. Something about responsibility and keeping me safe. Whatever. She can do whatever she wants.”

  “Are you worried about her?”

  “Why should I be? She’s got the Hunters with her, right?” Nico scoffed weakly.

  “But she’s your sister,” Leo said. “Your family.”

  Nico frowned again. He looked petulant. “Yeah.”

  “Just give her some time,” Leo ruffled Nico’s hair. “Once she comes back from the quest, you can get mad at her all you want.”

  “I won’t get mad at her,” Nico said, swatting Leo’s hand away. Still, he smiled a little.

  “Then you can brag to her that your time at camp was way more exciting than her dumb quest,” Leo said. “We’ll have so much fun she’ll be super jealous.”

  At that, Nico perked up. “I can show her the treasure we find! She’ll lose her mind!”

  “Sounds like a plan, amigo !”

  Nico put a bit of pep in his step. “How much farther?”

  “Not long, I think.” Leo looked ahead. They had to have been nearing the edge of the woods at this point.

  Nico’s teeth chattered. “Good. It’s getting really cold.”

  Leo paused and raised an eyebrow at him, surprised. He found that Nico was shivering violently despite his heavy coat. The son of Hades’ nose was redder than it probably should have been.

  It was a snowy winter, now that he thought about it. But Leo didn’t feel cold at all. In fact, he felt as warm as always.

  Oh, yeah…

  “Here,” Leo pulled Nico toward him, slinging an arm around the boy’s shoulder. “Warmer?”

  Nico blinked in surprise as he felt the heat radiating from Leo. “Y-yeah. What the heck? How are you doing that?”

  “It’s a son of Hephaestus thing,” Leo said, gesturing vaguely. “God of fire, y'know.”

  “That’s so cool,” Nico said. “I wonder what my dad’s ‘thing’ is. I wanna have powers too.”

  The compass in Leo’s hands began to tremble, making him perk up. They were getting closer. He began to walk faster with Nico in tow, who continued to rant undeterred.

  “I mean, Connor and Travis tell me I’ll be ‘claimed’ eventually, but I don’t get what’s taking so long. It’s not hard, right? I’ve been having these dreams–”

  “We’re almost there!” Leo interrupted, growing excited.

  The compass was shaking now, the needle jittering eagerly as Leo and Nico approached the buried treasure.

  “Come on!”

  He began to jog, kicking up snow as he ran past the trees. The landscape began to change, which was weird but not unheard of. The nature spirits sometimes got restless, and the woods tended to shift around from time to time.

  Leo kept a firm eye on the compass as he went, running past the cliffs and clearings. Suddenly, the needle flipped directions, making Leo skid to a stop.

  He walked around twice, and the needlepoint remained constant.

  Here it was.

  Leo looked up, elation building in his chest. It was just another spot in the woods, but somewhere underneath was Festus the Bronze Dragon. He summoned flames in his hands and blasted the snow at his feet, melting it away in minutes. Soon, he was standing in the middle of a twenty-foot wide circle of wet dirt.

  Leo whooped into the sky. “FINALLY! I told you I’d come back, Festus! I’m going to get you out of there in just a minute!”

  He reached inside his tool belt. “Nico, can you–”

  He stopped.

  Leo looked around. His smile and joy faded. It was almost comical how quickly elation crumbled into dread.

  “Nico?”

  Leo put away his machine. He looked around again, more intently, as if maybe his eyes had skipped over the small Italian boy the first time.

  Nothing.

  Oh, no.

  Leo had lost Nico.

  Jason opened the roof trapdoor, flew down into Cabin 1, and was immediately spotted by Zeus.

  Or rather, the giant Zeus statue.

  It had been a while since he had been in this cabin. It was ridiculously grand for a summer camp cabin–marble walls and floor, a dome ceiling with a moving mosaic of the cloudy sky, and alcoves with golden eagle statues.

  And, of course, the ten-foot tall hippie statue in the middle.

  Its glowering gaze swept over the entire cabin, as if about to yell ‘ Eat voltage!’ . There was nowhere in the cabin where the sculpture didn’t have sight over.

  Except for one.

  Thunder rumbled as Jason flew toward the alcoves. In the corner, one of the eagle statues had been moved out to create a sleeping niche. A bedroll and backpack were inside, and pictures were taped to the wall.

  Jason swallowed. Thalia had only been here one summer, but she clearly had considered it home. He crept into the alcove, hiding from the gaze of the hippie statue of Zeus.

  It was just like he remembered, except the photos were in much better condition, newly taped on the wall. One showed a younger Annabeth with a younger Luke, heading into a dark alleyway. Another showed the two laughing hysterically by a campfire.

  The last set of pictures was a strip of pictures from a photo booth–Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia standing side by side. They were caught mid-laugh, looking like the best of friends.

  Thalia looked the same as Jason had always known her. Choppy black hair, silver jewelry, and kind of goth. He tore off one of the photos from the strip and tucked it into his pocket.

  He wiped his wet eyes and focused on something less sad.

  Luke Castellan.

  The son of Hermes looked happy in the photos. Carefree with an unmistakable expression of adoration.

  Jason wanted to tear the pictures to shreds. How could a guy who apparently cared for his friends so much do so much to harm them? He couldn’t believe it. He remembered meeting Luke a few months ago. Unfortunately, Jason hadn’t been able to ask him much. But Luke had still referred to Thalia as a friend.

  It just didn’t make sense.

  Acta, non verba. Actions, not words. Jason believed there was a lot of wisdom in the saying. Words and thoughts were great, but action was the ultimate factor.

  Percy and Annabeth had both, to an extent, claimed that Luke wasn’t all bad. Luke had complicated motivations and was, in his words, trying to do the right thing.

  Jason tried to believe them. He did.

  But he found it very hard to reconcile.

  Because the actions just didn’t line up.

  Jason left the photos alone and grabbed Thalia’s backpack. He had never checked what was inside in his first life.

  Inside was an instant print camera and a book. Jason left the camera alone and took out the book.

  It was an old green leather book. Jason opened it and realized it was a diary by a guy named Halcyon Green.

  Why did Thalia have this diary?

  He skimmed the passages. Halcyon was a son of Apollo…and one that lived really long, it seemed. He could see the future but was warned by Apollo never to reveal it as it would anger the gods.

  Monopolizing foresight. Classic Olympus.

  Most of the passages were about his daily life, often sprinkled with Halcyon’s talking about being unable to help others with his foresight. Until it seemed he finally revealed the future to a girl to…save her life? And then…a curse?

  Jason squinted at the words. For some reason, the writing in this part was garbled. Strange.

  But from that part on, Halcyon’s passages were full of dramatic, melancholic lamentations. Depressive words wailing on paper, like the Greek tragedies of old. Jason couldn’t make sense of it at all. Only that something terrible had happened to Halcyon.

  And then. A new passage.

  ‘My name is Luke.’

  Jason inhaled sharply. No. It couldn’t be.

  ‘Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with this diary. My life is pretty crazy. But I promised the old man I would try. After what happened today…Well, I owe him.’

  Jason kept reading, and it became clear. This had become the diary of Luke Castellan.

  He immediately honed in on each and every word. These were probably the closest he could get to understanding the son of Hermes.

  And it was enlightening, to say the least.

  Luke and Thalia were very close. Like, almost Percy and Annabeth close.

  Halcyon was cursed by Apollo for using his gift to save a girl’s life. He was forced to lure demigod heroes to a magic mansion prison, where he would feed them to monsters in exchange for the dead heroes’ rations.

  It was all very strange…and very sad.

  Eventually, Luke and Thalia were lured into the trap. But Halcyon decided to sacrifice himself to kill all the monsters and save the two. He went out in a blaze of glory–literally.

  It had shaken Luke to his very core, and Jason found it hard to be unaffected as well.

  They had ended the curse, but how many demigods had died before them? How many died all because Apollo punished his son for trying to do good?

  Jason kept reading. After Halcyon sacrificed himself, Luke swore to himself that he would learn from his mistakes. If the gods treated him as badly as they did Halcyon, Luke would fight back.

  For a brief, horrible second, Jason understood.

  He understood Luke.

  Jason reached the end, where Luke and Thalia had just met Annabeth. And with trembling fingers, he turned the page to read Luke’s thoughts.

  ‘Annabeth was so young, but she’d learned a hard lesson, just like Thalia and I had. Our parents had failed us. The gods were harsh and cruel and aloof. Demigods had only each other.

  I put my hand on Annabeth’s shoulder. “You’re part of our family now. And I promise I’m not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?”’

  Jason put the diary back in the bag with shaky hands.

  A part of him wished he had never read it. After reading Luke’s experience, it had humanized the son of Hermes. Suddenly, even though Jason had rationally known it before, Luke’s motivations made a little more sense. His actions were a little more understandable.

  And Jason wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  He got out of the alcove and walked to the feet of his father’s statue. Jason didn’t resent his father often, not like Thalia or Luke. But that was mostly because Jason didn’t even think about his father often.

  He had met Jupiter exactly once–right before the end of the world. And before that, it was just a non-factor. He was the son of Jupiter, but Jupiter had barely to do with him. Oftentimes, Jason disliked the fact that he got special treatment due to being the son of Jupiter.

  It’s not as if the god had ever helped him. He was no different than everyone else in that regard, right? Reyna never met her mother either. Neither did the majority of the Fifth Cohort. They were all the same.

  As Romans, they always expected not to receive help from their parents. It just wasn’t a thing. The gods didn’t help their children, and Rome would survive on its own.

  But maybe that wasn’t as okay as Jason thought. Just because it was normal didn’t mean it was right.

  Maybe, like Luke said, the gods had failed them. And they needed to hold it against them.

  To fight alone, with no help. Was that a responsibility of Rome? Or did they have a right to expect help from their parents?

  Rights…or responsibility?

  Thunder echoed through Cabin 1.

  And the doors suddenly swung open.

  He quickly flew behind the giant hippie statue, his train of thought broken. Did he just get made?

  “Oh, you’re here! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

  Jason relaxed. It was just Piper. He flew back out, finding her and Leo at the doors looking very, very panicked. Jason narrowed his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Leo wrung his fingers nervously, flames dancing in his hair. “Uh, we have a problem. A really big problem.”

  “Yeah, I think I got that,” Jason said, tensing. “But what happened, Leo?”

  “I…I lost Nico.”

  Piper winced.

  Jason stilled.

  Leo cringed.

  And then, as thunder rumbled in the cabin again–

  “You what ?!”

  ‘Fate is made by a series of choices. Everyone has a choice; good or bad, right or wrong.

  But who decides what is good? Who determines what is bad? Who gets to say what a right choice is and a wrong choice is?

  It is not me. I am not the primordial good or evil. I am fate. I watch; I do not judge.

  Perhaps everything is just a complex series of better or worse. Shades of gray instead of black and white, as one would say.

  And then nothing is truly good. And nothing is truly bad.

  Or perhaps not.

  Perhaps there is only good and evil, and despite one’s good motivations and intentions, one may end up on the side of evil anyway. Try as they might to do good, they cause evil instead.

  Questions, questions, questions.

  Thalia Grace.

  Is she creating a new world for herself? Or is she dooming the world for all?

  Is she placing trust in a dear friend? Or is she being deceived by a traitor?

  Questions, questions, questions.

  Luke Castellan.

  Is he dragging his friend into destruction? Or is he bringing her into salvation?

  Both could be true. Both could be false.

  Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes.

  Born to live. Born to die. Born to sow chaos. Born to set order.

  Born to be a hero. Born to be a villain.

  Born for good? Or born for evil?