Hopeful - Luke Castellan [1]

10 ~ I Ruin A Perfectly Good Bus

It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin. I made sure that I had Pallas's whip that I had learned was called Maelstrom. I only hoped that I would be worthy of it.

Luke met me at my cabin with backpacks for both of us. When I raised an eyebrow he told me "gifts from my father. We can't lose the packs and they'll disappear when we don't need them plus they have food and water." I stared at the bag impressed that could do all of that.

We both walked to the tree where Chiron was already with Annabeth and Grover. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals.

Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally. Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on.

In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

And Luke carried a sword that shrunk into a pocket knife. Another gift from his father Luke had told me. Honestly, if this was how many gifts Luke had been given by Hermes, I could feel for Alex as Hermes made it clear who was the favorite.

"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."

I heard footsteps behind us. Alex came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes. "Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."Annabeth blushed, the way I noticed she always did when Alex was around. "Just wanted to say good luck," Alex told Luke. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."

He handed Luke the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal. Luke smiled and said, "Maia!" White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I stepped back. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Alex shook hands with me and Luke. He then gave a goodbye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out. After Alex was gone, Luke and I both told her, "You're hyperventilating."

"Am not." She spoke and flipped us off before heading to the van.

Luke and Grover followed her but before I could Chiron grabbed my arm "stay behind for a moment." Luke looked at me concerned and questioning silently whether he should stay.

I shook my head indicating I would be alright. I looked at Chiron who sighed "I should have trained you better, Adelaide," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."

I almost wanted to say well if you had spent less time gaslighting me into thinking what I was seeing wasn't real. I stopped myself because I was about to sound quite harsh.  "What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. "Adelaide, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."