GROWING UP IN TEXAS, Juliette knew her way around a bull. A mechanical bull in that sense.

When she was really young and her mother couldn't afford a babysitter, she would take Juliette and Will with her to the country clubs she performed at. One of their main attractions would be a mechanical bull.

She had never ridden one, but the ones she faced now didn't seem like regular bulls—but bronze ones, the size of elephants. That also happened to breathe fire.

Juliette was in the infirmary when the camp alarms went off. She saw Clarisse and her cabinmates running up Half-Blood Hill, already donned in armor and weapons.

According to the clock hanging on the wall, they were probably the ones on patrol at the time.

She looked down at her leather gloves and cursed under her breath. She needed to see if a Hephaestus kid could make her some new ones. The leather material wouldn't be doing much protecting against fire.

Juliette ran out of the clinic with her bow along with her brother. Will saluted his sister goodbye before running off to look for wounded and bringing them to safety. Naturally, Juliette ran towards Clarisse.

Clarisse. Clarisse. Clarisse.

Clarisse La Rue, head counselor of the Ares cabin that Juliette might've had an obsession with—at least according to Silena, her best friend. And her brother. And her cabinmates. And anybody else who had eyes and a functioning brain.

Maybe Juliette should've been worried about being tackled by a bull at any minute, but all she could think about was whether or not Clarisse was okay.

The bulls were ranging all over the hill, even around the back side of the pine tree. Summer at Camp Half-Blood was rough. Normally the camp's magic boundaries didn't allow monsters to cross past Thalia's tree, but the tree was sick. Every other week, new monsters found their way to Camp Half-Blood and Juliette and Will had been treating injured campers for the past several months.

Juliette stumbled when she passed by Percy, Annabeth, and someone else she didn't recognize.

"Hey guys! When did you get back?"

She didn't have time to stop to hear if they answered. The sound of Clarisse's voice pushed her to run faster—uphill.

"Border patrol to me!"

Other Ares kids were scattering, running in panic as the bulls charged. The grass was burning in huge swathes around the pine tree. One hero screamed and waved his arms as he ran in circles, the horsehair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery mohawk. Clarisse's own armor was charred. She was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull's shoulder.

The useless campers were starting to piss Juliette off. They were doing more harm than helping. Whenever a panicked camper pushed past her, she yelled at them to get off the hill if they weren't going to fight.

Clarisse yelled at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation. It seemed like a good idea. The few who were listening lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, locking their shields to form an ox-hide-and-bronze wall, their spears bristling over the top like porcupine quills.

Unfortunately, Clarisse could only muster six campers. The other four were still running around with their helmets on fire. Annabeth ran toward them, trying to help. She taunted one of the bulls into chasing her, then turned invisible, confusing the monster. The other bull charged Clarisse's line.

The bull moved deadly fast for something so big. Its metal hide gleamed in the sun. It had fist-sized rubies for eyes, and horns of polished silver. When it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.

"Hold the line!" Clarisse ordered her warriors.

Upon her arrival at camp, Juliette found Clarisse stunning. Despite Clarisse's tough exterior, Juliette was determined to befriend her, even in the face of protests from her own cabin mates and others at camp. Predictably, Clarisse rebuffed her advances, but Juliette found it worthwhile just to see Clarisse display a different expression than her usual stoicism.

Even now, Clarisse was beautiful with her muscles, curly brown hair and cruel brown eyes. Her tan skin was covered with fading scars and scratches from battles and training. She looked like she was born to wear Greek battle armor.

Percy's voice snapped Juliette out of her daydreaming who was warning Clarisse to look behind her.

It didn't do the effect the son of Poseidon wanted—only startling the daughter of Ares. Juliette barely pushed forward and tackled Clarisse into a smoldering patch of grass in time for the bull to charge past them—not before blasting other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms.

"Hi..." Juliette smiled breathlessly on top of Clarisse's chest.

"Get off!" Clarisse grunted.

But Bull Number Two closed in on them for the kill.

Juliette grabbed Clarisse by the straps of her armor and rolled them sideways before they could get trampled as Bull Number Two trailed past. Percy ran in and gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.

"Let me go!" Clarisse shouted.

Juliette blushed, letting go of Clarisse. She shelved the memory away for when she created scenarios in her head before bed and focused on the problem at task.

If they didn't stop the bulls now, they would destroy Camp Half-Blood—the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House—all of it at risk if they got past.

Annabeth shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.

Bull Number One ran a wide arc, heading towards Percy. As it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming. Bull Number Two turned to face Percy, fire sputtering from the gash he'd cut in its side.

He couldn't fight two bulls at once, could he?

The year before, when he first arrived at camp, he had taken down a minotaur all on his own.

Percy lunged back, but Bull Number Two blew flames at him. Right when he rolled aside, his foot caught on something. He managed to slash with his sword and lop off part of the monster's snout. It galloped away, wild and disoriented. When Percy tried to stand, his left leg buckled. As Juliette squinted her eyes, Percy grimaced in pain, gritting his teeth.

With her x-ray vision, Juliette could see beyond the surface, peering past Percy's skin and muscle to the underlying bones. The bones of his left ankle appeared misaligned, hinting at a possible sprain or even a fracture. She could sense the pain radiating from him, the discomfort evident in his every movement.

Juliette moved to help, firing arrows and running at the same time when the stranger Percy was with before started barreling towards him. The stranger dove between him and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.

"Tyson!" he yelled.

The blast swirled around him like a red tornado and Juliette winced. Surely the guy would be rendered into a pile of ash but when the fire died, he was still standing, completely unharmed. Not even his grungy clothes were scorched. The bull must've been as surprised, because before it could unleash a second blast, Tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. "BAD COW!"

Juliette made herself useful and ran over to Clarisse who was fighting Bull Number Two by herself. Juliette started shooting arrows, grabbing its attention while Clarisse used the distraction to impale the bull through its back leg with a celestial bronze spear. Now, with its snout half gone and a huge gash in its side, it was trying to run in slow motion, going in circles like some merry-go-round animal.

Clarisse ripped off her helmet, letting sweaty damp curls fall down past her shoulders. One of her curls was smoldering, but she didn't seem to notice or care.

"You ruin everything!" she yelled. "I had it under control!"

"Hi..." Juliette smiled at Clarisse in awe.

Annabeth grumbled, "Good to see you too, Clarisse."

Percy just snorted at Juliette's reaction, undeterred by Clarisse's attitude by now.

"Argh!" Clarisse screamed. "Don't ever, EVER try saving me again!"

"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "you've got wounded campers."

That snapped her out of her attitude. Even Clarisse cared about the soldiers under her command.

"I'll be back," she growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.

The daughter of Apollo blinked before turning around toward the three of them. "Welcome back!"

Her blue eyes focused on the stranger, not really being able to see his face. "Uh—glad you're alive—Tyson? I think?"

Tyson seemed fascinated by Juliette's blonde hair. He tried to touch it, but Percy smacked his hand away.

Clarisse came back and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can stand, get up. We need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."

"Tantalus?" he asked.

"The activities director," Clarisse answered impatiently.

"Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."

Clarisse made a sour face. Juliette was probably making the same one. "Argus got fired. You guys have been gone for too long. Things are changing."

"But Chiron...he's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. He can't just be gone. What happened?"

"That happened," Clarisse snapped.

Juliette pointed to where Clarisse was looking at Thalia's tree.

Every camper knew the story behind the tree. Six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, and two other campers named Thalia and Luke had come to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters. When they got cornered on top of the hill, Thalia, a daughter of Zeus, had made her last stand there to give her friends time to reach safety. As she was dying, Zeus took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine tree has stood there ever since, strong and healthy—until a few months ago. A huge pile of dead leaves littered the base of the tree. In the center of the trunk, three feet from the ground, was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole, oozing green sap.

The magical borders were failing because Thalia's tree was dying.

Someone had poisoned it.

casually publishes first chapter as if i don't need to pack and drive 3 hrs back home in 30 minutes