Veronica Sawyer was an iconic name. And so that was what she called herself.
She would've liked to be simple, with the basic life of demigods for a backstory-mortal parent didn't want her, she ended up a year-rounder. But the Fates didn't like Veron...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝟕: 𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭
December 18, 2007
THEIR TRAIN RIDE WENT WELL. At least, Veronica thought so. She slept most of the ride off and occasionally read her weird spellbook. But the train had brought them to the edge of a ski town nestled in the mountains, so that worked out.
Veronica read the sign, which read WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. The thin air had a cold bite to it. There were cabin roofs topped with snow, dirty mounds of it piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees cast midnight colored shadows over the valley despite the sunny sky.
Half a mile away from the train tracks, they winded up in the center of town, where you could see everything. There was a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.
"Great," Thalia huffed, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."
"There's a coffee shop!" Grover said enthusiastically.
"Yes," Zoë said. "Coffee is good."
"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."
Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you three go get us some food?" She pointed to Veronica, Zoë, and Grover.
"Great," Veronica said under her breath, too tired to argue even if she didn't want to be with Zoë. "And you guys look around for help getting directions. We can meet back up in fifteen minutes. Sound good?"
Everyone seemed to agree with the plan, so Veronica walked off with Zoë and Grover. A sharp sting of a chill ran down her spine out of nowhere, catching her off guard. She froze in her tracks, looking around for a moment before picking up the pace and catching up.
"Are thee alright?" Zoë asked as they entered the cafe.
Veronica looked at the options displayed on the sign as she huffed. "Why do you care?"
Zoë gave her a sympathetic look. "Contrary to thy beliefs, Veronica Sawyer, I do not wish to be thy enemy. I wish only to help thee."
"Yeah, well, help isn't really something I need," Veronica said. "I need a vanilla bean latte."
"I'll pay!" Grover said, a little too cheerful. "Just say what else you want."
"Coffee," Zoë replied. "What do you think Percy would like?"
"Something blue," Veronica said. "He's always eating blue stuff at camp. But get me a chocolate muffin, too."
"You got it!" Grover announced. He turned to the counter.
