Hopeful - Luke Castellan [1]

11 ~ We Visit The Garden Gnome Emporium And Run Into Poseidon's Ex

Luke's pov:

I'll reiterate what I said when Adelaide first showed up. I hate prophecies. Hell, I hate quests.

However, in a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.

So there we were, Annabeth, Adelaide, Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses. Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

I was pretty much in shock myself and I could tell that Adelaide was the same. I felt bad for her. Losing her mother, fighting the Minotaur, a Fury, a Hellhound, and then all three Furies again. Not to mention gaining a weapon that hadn't been used in thousands of years. No wonder she was feeling the pressure.

We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry. After a few minutes, Annabeth fell in line next to Adelaide. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

Adelaide smiled "We're a team, right?"

Annabeth was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

I resisted the urge to face-palm at what Annabeth said. The thunderstorm finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. "You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" Addy asked her.

"No ... only short field trips. My dad—"

"The history professor."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Bloodis  my home." She was rushing her words out now as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp, you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."

Addy chuckled. "You're pretty good with that knife," she said.

"You think so?"

"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me." I saw Annabeth smile before Addy continued "I'm sorry about the rant I went on before we left camp. I have little loyalty to my father but the reason I have some loyalty to him is because I don't think he ever left."

I looked at Annabeth before looking back to Adelaide "what do you mean?"

"He left when I was a baby like most gods but this necklace," she held the blue crystal up. "According to my mom, it just appeared in a box on my birthday labeled Adelaide. It's protected me ever since. I think I know why our parents left and don't really talk to us but I have to ask to make sure it's true."

Annabeth and I nodded before Annabeth went to speak but whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot,  like the sound of an owl being tortured. "Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"

He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff. Instead of finding a path, Adelaide and I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-sized knot on our heads. Add to the list of superpowers we did not have: infrared vision.