❝ Does being a Child of Hermes automatically make you good at flirting? Or was that just a skill you picked up? ❞
Andromeda Jackson knew she was not cut out for the demigod life, and that was before she heard about her death from the creepy oracle i...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ℭoming back after not having been at camp for nine months was truly bizarre. Everything looked normal and all, but there was something off about it. On the surface, it was fine. Everything was where it should be, the colour it should have been but there was this air of danger now, and my hair stood on end at every turn I made.
Instead of playing volleyball in the sandpit, counsellors and satyrs were stockpiling weapons in the tool shed. Dryads armed with bows and arrows talked nervously at the edge of the woods. The forest looked sickly, the grass in the meadow was pale yellow, and the fire marks on the hill stood out like ugly scars.
As we made our way to the Big House, I recognized a lot of kids from last summer. Nobody stopped to talk. Nobody said, "Welcome back." Some did double takes when they saw Tyson, but most just walked grimly past and carried on with their duties—running messages, toting swords to sharpen on the grinding wheels. The camp felt like a military school.
And believe me, I know what they were like. I've been kicked out of a couple.
None of that mattered to Tyson. He was absolutely fascinated by everything he saw. "Whasthat!" he gasped.
"The stables for pegasi," I said. "The winged horses."
"Whasthat!"
"Um...those are the toilets."
"Whasthat!"
"The cabins for the campers. If they don't know who your Olympian parent is, they put you in Eleven—that wooden one over there—until you're determined. Then, once they know, they put you in your dad or mom's group."
He looked at me in awe. "You...have a cabin?"
"Three." I pointed to a low grey building made of sea stone, before turning to look up at Luke, who's face was stormy. Now, I'd seen Luke tense before, but this was a whole different sort of tense.
"You live with friends in the cabin?" Tyson asked, before I could get the chance to ask Luke.
"No. No, just me." I didn't feel like explaining. The embarrassing truth: I was the only one who stayed in that cabin because I wasn't supposed to be alive which, you know, was a bit shit.
When we got to the Big House, we found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favourite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags.
As soon as we saw him, Tyson froze. "Pony!" he cried in total rapture.
