Changing the Future

Chapter 17

I completely disregarded Apollo's orders to rest for the next eighteen hours, pacing back and forth around the infirmary like a madwoman, muttering my thoughts aloud to myself. He probably thought I'd lost my mind, but it was more of a way to keep myself distracted from what was going on at camp.

As I passed by a mirror, I saw dark circles under my eyes after staying up all night, my face pale from my time in a coma. My hair was a frizzy mess, standing up around my head like a lion's mane despite the fact that I had a ponytail on.

I knew Apollo was on the verge of restraining me to a bed, his eye twitching in irritation every time he came into check on me, only to see me up and about. I was pretty sure I had worn out a path on the floor with all my pacing.

From the infirmary window, I saw the sun beginning to sink in the sky. Although the room I was in smelled like bleach and hand sanitizer, I could imagine the scent of the strawberries baking in the summer heat back at camp. I imagined Argus and the harpies helping load up the luggage of the kids leaving camp into the three vans we owned, ready to drop them off at the bus stop or train station.

I'd missed six weeks of camp, which I was already miffed about, but I was more annoyed about the fact that I'd been prohibited from leaving. Apollo had been so afraid of my disappearing that he clamped a Celestial bronze anklet around my ankle, basically a godly equivalent of those tracking devices they gave people on house arrest.

If I so much as stepped over the threshold of the infirmary, the thing would light up and beep incessantly, only stopping when Apollo punched in a code onto his phone that would reset the anklet. The anklet also weakened my powers to the point where I couldn't escape, so any form of traveling was out of the equation.

Seeing that I wanted to leave as soon as possible, I spent a lot of time in the shower, hoping that the water would help expedite my healing. It definitely helped, but since I wasn't a full-blooded child of a water deity and the anklet was dampening my powers, the most the water could do is strengthen the skin underneath my stitches, preventing the chance of them tearing.

Then, a lightbulb went off in my head. I ducked into the shower again, as it was the only place in the infirmary where none of the cameras recorded. I turned on the water, twisting the showerhead to spray the wall instead of rain down on me as I bent down to examine the anklet.

Hephaestus had taught me about all kinds of tracking devices and godly traps, like the throne trap that kept Hera pinned to her chair for a few months. I reached into my bag, my fingers closing around the toolkit Hephaestus had given me for my fifteenth birthday.

The anklet was the exact same design that the mortals used, the only difference being the material being used. With a screwdriver and some wire cutters, I managed to bypass all the complicated wiring responsible for tracking my every movement. Once that was done, I kept fiddling with the anklet until the head of my screwdriver struck a piece of metal, sending a rush of strength through my body.

Ah, so this must be what's dampening my powers, I thought, drying my hands on my dress before returning to disassembling the anklet. After some struggling, a little black stone came out, clattering onto the floor.

"Andy?" I heard Apollo ask, causing me to curse internally. I quickly hid my equipment and bad before readjusting the shower head, letting it soak me from head to toe. "Are you taking another shower?"

"So what if I am?" I sassed back.

"That's the seventh one today."

"It helps with the pain."

"Oh, okay. I'll give you some privacy." By privacy, Apollo meant he'd leave the room, watching from the other side of the glass until he saw me again.