Miss Quinn

116 ~ Mount Olympus

"Where did he go?" Annabeth exclaimed, stern gray eyes piercing the sky.

"I don't know. He didn't leave you a message?" Emma asked. They were standing in the middle of the U, next to the basketball courts. Emma was looking through her latest mail, delivered via Hermes. Annabeth was glaring around camp, searching for a boy with black hair and green eyes. He'd just up and disappeared, apparently. No one knew where he'd gone.

"No, he just vanished! What idiotic thing is he getting into now?"

"He'll turn up. Remember when you told me he was gone for days and you had a funeral for him and then he showed up alive and frazzled?"

Annabeth frowned. "You don't think someone sent him to Ogygia again, do you?"

Emma touched Annabeth lightly on the arm. "I think he found something and went off after it without thinking twice. You know how he is."

"I just hope he's not dead."

"He's not."

Percy didn't show up all day. Emma returned to her cabin after dinner, exhausted from hours of training with Annabeth and Will. She'd written out replies to her letters, but hadn't sent them yet. Gradually, she and Draco Malfoy had become friends through their correspondence. Emma realized she felt more comfortable telling him about Camp now. He seemed to actually be interested in what she was saying. And maybe it was him just trying to get information from her, but for some reason, Emma didn't think he was interested in that anymore. He was genuinely interested in her life now, not in revealing her secret.

Dean's letter, on the other hand, was as stressful to read as it was to write a reply. He continued to question Emma about her father, her life, why she couldn't come home and see him. He was honestly kind of annoying her. She hated saying that. But it was true. She knew she was right not to tell him her secret, but it was still difficult.

As always, Emma told him that her father was getting better after his surgery, and they had been going to all the landmarks around New York. In that letter, she wrote about the Empire State Building and Times Square. She told him she'd be back at the end of the summer, like she told him in every letter. And then she signed it off without saying "Love," just her name.

The next day after her afternoon nap, Emma awoke to Will shaking her. She peered at him through tired eyes, and he told her to get dressed.

"What's going on?" Emma said, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of her bed.

"Percy left Annabeth a message. Said to gather everyone we could and meet Percy at the Empire State Building."

Emma didn't need anymore information than that. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a camp T-shirt, and went to the bathroom to change. She didn't bother brushing her hair and teeth, though she did slip a hairband around her wrist for later.

Emma checked herself to make sure she had all her weapons, then pulled on her shoes, slipped her wand/dagger into its holster, which she strung through a belt loop. The other dagger was contained in its pendant form around her neck, and her orange-stoned ring shone on her finger.

She and Will raced to the Big House, stopping shortly at the pavillion to grab some food. They met the rest of the Apollo Cabin, as well as thirty other campers, in front of the three Camp vans.

"Into the vans, guys!" Annabeth ordered, doing a headcount. "We're going into the city. Percy said we needed to be at the Empire State Building before it closes."

Emma and Will ducked into the first van with Annabeth, one of her brothers, Silena, another Aphrodite girl, the Stolls, Chiron, Michael, and Fawn. Chiron was in his wheelchair form, so he took up a lot of space.