❝ 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...
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𝖂e arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town, nestled in the mountains. The sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. It was situated in a valley surrounded by large evergreen forests and snow.
Even with my lion-skin coat, I was freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As we walked, I told Grover and Brooke about my conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told me to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.
Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."
I tried not to get too depressed about our chances. I didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but I knew we had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods. The General had said Andi and Annabeth would only be kept alive until the winter solstice. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice. I didn't like the sound of that at all.
Sacrifices meant trouble.
We stopped in the middle of town. You could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.
"Great," Brooke looked around hopelessly. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."
"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.
"Yes," Zoe said. "Coffee is good."
"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."
Brooke sighed. "Fine. How about you two go get us some food. Luke, Bianca, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."
We agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with us, but she did.
Inside the store, we found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out of town unless you had your own car.
"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "That's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."
The clerk looked so lonely, I bought a rubber rat. Then we headed back outside and stood on the porch.
"Wonderful," Brooke grumped. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."
