I thought I knew the forest pretty well after running each morning, and playing capture the flag here for two summers, but Chiron took us a way I didn't recognize, through a tunnel of old willow trees, past a little waterfall, and into a glade blanketed with wildflowers.

A bunch of satyrs were sitting in a circle in the grass. Grover stood int he middle, facing three really old, really fat satyrs who sat on topiary thrones shaped out f rose bushes. I'd never seen them, but I guessed they must be the Council of Cloven Elders.

Grover seemed to be telling them a story. He twisted the bottoms of his T-shirt, shifting uneasily on his goat hooves. He hadn't changed much since last winter, maybe because satyrs age half as fast as humans. His acne flared up. His horns were slightly bigger so they just stuck out of his curly hair. I realized that Percy and I were taller than him at a fair five-foot-five.

Standing for to one side of the circle were Annabeth, another girl I'd never seen before, Clarisse, and Lee. Chiron dropped us next to them.

I put my earbuds in, and played music. I didn't want to deal with anything else. Lee Fletcher was also there, but I completely ignored him as we entered. He tried saying something to me, but Percy caught onto my mood and the fact I was ignoring him, and pushed him away from me. Percy stood by my side, and rubbed my back slightly, letting me know he was there for me.

Clarisse's stringy brow hair was tied back with a camo bandanna, if possible she looked even more attractive, she was buffer. She glared at Percy and muttered, "Punk." Then she smirked at me and winked. I grinned in reply.

Annabeth had her arm around the other girl, who looked like she was crying. She was small with wispy hair the color of amber and a pretty, elvish face. She wore a green chiton and laced sandals and she was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. "This is going terrible," She sniffled.

"No, no." Annabeth patted her shoulder. "He'll be fine, Juniper."

Annabeth looked at us and mouthed the words Grover's girlfriend.

At least I thought that's what she said. Juniper was a tree nymph—a dryad.

"Master Underwood!" The council member on the right shouted, cutting off Grover. "Do you seriously expect us to believe this?"

"B-but Silenus," Grover stammered. "It's the truth!"

I frowned, looking at the council members. It was pretty sad. They were all short with huge bellies, sleepy expressions, and had glazed eyes. I wanted to leave already.

Silenus tugged his yellow polo shirt over his belly and adjusted himself on his throne. "Master Underwood, for six months—six months—we have been hearing these scandalous claims that you heard the wild god Pan speak."

"But I did!"

"Impudence!" Silenus said.

I stepped forward. "Doesn't your name literally mean, 'silent'? Can you just zip it and let him explain?"

"I—"

"Ah! Zip it, lock it, and put it in your pocket." I said.

Chiron shook his head, as if he was used to it by now. He was. I kept tuning out what Silenus was saying, it was so annoying.

Hold your hair in deep devotion(I'll be)

At least as deep as the Pacific Ocean

Now I wanna be yours

I skipped the song.

Juniper looked like she wanted to charge the old satyr, but Annabeth and Clarisse held her back. "Wrong fight, girlie," Clarisse murmured. "Wait."

I wanted to smile at the sight. It was pretty rare Clarisse was helping someone out without saying anything rude, and she was being gentle.

The conversation continued, but I couldn't focus. Fletcher kept trying to get my attention, he waved a small hand at me, and mouthed, I'm sorry. Please?

I glared at him when I caught him staring. Other than that I kept trying to ignore him. He'd toss a small pebble at me from Percy's other side, but he'd miss. Percy caught on, and put me between him and Clarisse, further away from Lee. He whispered something to him, and Lee's face paled as he backed up. I was going to make him say sorry, but I didn't care. Lee did that to himself. Percy put an arm around me as the meeting came to an end.

"Master Underwood," Silenus announced, "we will give you one more chance."

Grover brightened. "Thank you!"

"One more week."

"What? But sir! That's impossible!"

"One more week, Master Underwood. And then, if you cannot prove your claims, it will be time for you to pursue another career. Something to suit your dramatic talents. Puppet theater, perhaps. Or tap dancing."

My father never talked a lot

He just took a walk around the block,

Till all his anger took ahold of him, then he'd hit.

My mother never cried a lot.

She took the punches, but she never fought

Until she said 'I'm leaving and I'll take the kids'

So she did.

I took a deep breath as winds blew him off of his throne. Silenus quickly hopped back up, his face burned red.

"But, sir, I—I can't lose my searcher's license. My whole life—"

"This meeting is adjourned," Silenus announced. "And now let us enjoy our noonday meal."

The old satyr clapped his hands, and a bunch of nymphs melted out of the trees with platters of vegetables, fruits, tin cans, and other satyr delicacies. The circle of satyrs broke and charged the food.

I say they're the just ones who gave me life

But I truly am my parent's child. . .

Grover walked dejectedly toward us. His faded blue T-shirt had a picture of a satyr on it. It read GOT HOOVES?

"Hi, Kiera, Percy." He said, so depressed he didn't even hug or shake our hands. "That went well, huh?"

It's hard to put it into words,

How the holidays will always hurt.

I watch the fathers with their little girls

And wonder what I did to deserve this

How could you hurt a little kid?

"Those old goats!" Juniper said. "Oh, Grover, they don't know how hard you've tried!"

God, I have my father's eyes

But my sisters when I cry.

"There is another option," Clarisse said darkly.

"No. No." Juniper shook her head. "Grover, I won't let you."

His face was ashen. "I—I'll have to think about it. But we don't even know where to look."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

In the distance, a conch horn sounded.

Annabeth pursed her lips. "I'll fill you in later, guys. We'd better get back to our cabins. Inspection is starting."

Might share a face and share a last name, but

WE ARE NOT THE SAME.

————————☁︎ ✯  ☾ ✯ ☁︎————————

It didn't seem fair that we'd have to do cabin inspection when we just got to camp, but that's the way it worked. Every afternoon, one of the senior counselors came around with a checklist. Best cabin got better training hours and first shower hour—even though each cabin had its own bathroom, the water was still all shared—which was hot water guaranteed. Worst cabin got kitchen patrol after dinner.

The problem for us: we were the only two in the Poseidon cabin, and I may be a neat freak, but Percy? That boy is not at all clean. The cleaning harpies only came through on the last day of summer, so his side was probably just the way he'd left it on winter break: candy wrappers and chip bags still on his bed, his armor for capture the flag lying in pieces all around the cabin. I like to furnish my side, since I was the only demigod daughter, I got my own side, curtesy of my youngest brother—a Cyclops—Tyson. He made a wall to separate the cabin into two sides, and it was retractable, but my side was still always cleaned. My  armor was always neatly put on a mannequin—I barely ever wore it—I used for my skating costumes, all my trash was in the can, and even that was pretty empty.

My side of the room had my bed next to the window by the front, and it was a beach view, duh. I had black and navy blue sheets and a comforter—I stole them since they were silk and hundreds of dollars, who'd care?— a small couch on the other side of my 'room', a bookshelf filled with Ancient Greek translated books. I could read perfectly in Ancient Greek, and with Hermes express, you can get anything. I also had a huge work area by my closet and bathroom I used for building stuff when I wasn't in the forges or Bunker Nine. Festus's finished blueprints laid there so I sprinted and cleaned that up. The rest of my room was pretty comfy.

We raced toward the commons area, where the twelve cabins—one for each Olympian god—made a U around the central green. The Demeter kids were sweeping out theirs and making fresh flowers grow in their window boxes. Just by snapping their fingers they could make honeysuckle vines bloom over their doorway and daisies cover their roof, totally unfair. The guys in the Hermes cabin were scrambling around in a panic, stashing dirty laundry everywhere and causing each other of taking stuff. They were slobs, but they had a head start on us.

Over at the Aphrodite cabin, Silena was just coming out, checking things off the inspection scroll. I cursed under my breath. Silena was amazing, but she was an absolute neat freak, the worst inspector. She liked things to be pretty. Percy didn't do 'pretty'. We kept running.

The Poseidon cabin was at the end of the row of "male god" cabins on the right side of the green. It was made of gray shell-encrusted sea rock, long and low like a bunker, but it had windows that faced the sea and it always had a good breeze.

We dashed inside, wondering if maybe I could shadow travel all of Percy's mess into another cabin, maybe Aphrodite, and I found my littlest brother Tyson sweeping the floor.

"Kiera! Percy!" He bellowed. He dropped his broom and ran at us. If you've never been charged by an enthusiastic Cyclops wearing a flowered apron and rubber cleaning gloves, I'm telling you, it'll wake you up quick.

"Hey, Ty!" I said, wrapping my arms around him. "It's been too long."

"Hey, big guy!" Percy said. "Ow, watch the ribs. The ribs."

He put us down, grinning like crazy, his single calf-brown eye full of excitement. His teeth were as yellow and crooked as ever, and his hair was a rat's nest. He wore ragged XXXL jeans and a tattered flannel shirt under his flowered apron. I hadn't seen him in almost a year, since he'd gone under the sea.

"You are okay?" He asked. "Not eaten by monsters?"

"Not even a little bit." Percy smiled.

I remembered back to the time under the sky when Artemis 'blessed' me. The mark on my back tingled as if remembering the good ol times. "Yep!" We showed him we had both arms and legs, and Tyson clapped happily.

"Yay!" He said. "Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!"

I hoped he didn't mean all at the same time, but I told him absolutely, we'd have a lot of fun this summer. I couldn't help smiling, he was so enthusiastic about everything.

"But first," Percy said, "we've gotta worry about inspection. We should. . ."

He looked around the room and realized what I was staring at. The floor was swept. The beds were all made. The saltwater in the corner had been freshly scrubbed so the coral gleamed. On the windowsills, Tyson had set out water-filled vases with sea anemones and strange glowing plants from the bottom of the ocean, more beautiful than anything I'd ever seen.

"Tyson, the cabin looks amazing!" I said.

He beamed. "See the fish ponies? I put them on the ceiling!"

A herd of miniature bronze hippocampi hung on wires from the ceiling, so it looked like they were swimming through the air. I couldn't believe how he had done them. The wall separating the cabin had been retracted, making the cabin seem bigger and clearer.

"You fixed it!" Percy said.

I looked where he was, and I saw his old shield hanging on the wall. The shield had been badly damaged in a manticore attack last winter, but it was perfect again—not a scratch. All the bronze pictures of our adventures with Tyson and Annabeth in the Sea of Monsters were polished and gleaming.

I smiled and turned to my side, and saw Festus's finished sketch hung up in a picture frame, over my work table. My breath caught in my throat. The outside of the frame had flames etched into it, and new tools laid on it. My eyes watered. It was one of the nicest things someone had ever done for me. "Oh. . .Ty." I hugged him again. "I don't know how to thank you."

Then someone behind us said, "Oh, my."

Silena Beauregard was standing in the doorway with the checklist. She stepped inside the cabin and did a quick twirl, then raised her eyebrows. "Well, I had my doubts. But you clean up nicely, Jackson's. I'll remember that."

She winked at me and left the room.

————————☁︎ ✯  ☾ ✯ ☁︎————————

Tyson, Percy, and I spent the afternoon catching up and just handing out, which was nice after a morning of getting attacked by demon cheerleaders and fighting with my boyfriend.

We went down to the forge and helped Big Me with his metal working. Tyson showed us how he'd learned to craft magic weapons. He fashioned a flaming double-bladed war axe so fast even Beckendorf was impressed. He promised me Festus was coming along well, and that we would work on it in the coming days together.

While he worked, Tyson told us about his year under the sea. His eye lit up when he described the Cyclopes's forges and the palace of Poseidon, but he also told us how tense things were. The old gods of the sea, who'd ruled during Titan times, were starting to make war on our father. When Tyson had left, battles were raging all over the Atlantic. Hearing that made me feel nervous, like I should be helping out, but Tyson assured me that Dad wanted us both at camp.

"Lots of bad people above the sea, too," Tyson said. "We can make them go boom."

After the forges, we spent some time at the canoe lake with Annabeth. Lee tried to join, but Percy sneered at him and threatened him with another few words and Fletcher took off running. Percy didn't ask what had happened, but he knew I didn't want to talk about it or to Lee. Annabeth was glad to see Tyson, but I could tell she was distracted. She kept looking over at the forest, like she was thinking about Grover's problem with the council. I couldn't blame her. Grover was nowhere to be seen, and I felt really bad. Finding the lost god Pan had been his lifelong goal. His father and his uncle had both disappeared following the same dream. Last winter, Grover had heard a voice in his head: I await you—a voice he was sure belonged to Pan—but apparently his search had led nowhere. If the council took away his searcher's license now, it would crush him.

I had my iPod playing aloud, so Annabeth, Percy, Tyson, and me could all listen. Labour by Paris Paloma was starting as we were talking.

"What's this 'other way'?" Percy asked Annabeth. "The thing Clarisse mentioned?"

The capillaries in my eyes are bursting

If our love died, would it be the worst thing?

She picked up a stone and skipped it across the lake. "Something Clarisse scouted out. I helped her a little this spring. But it would be dangerous. Especially for Grover."

The calloused skin on my hands is cracking

If our love ended would that be a bad thing?

I looked down at my palms, rough and beat from sword handles, working in the forges and Bunker Nine with too many tools, scarred from too many incidents with people. Ironic.

"Goat boy scares me," Tyson murmured.

I stared at him. Tyson had faced down fire-breathing bulls and sea monsters and cannibal giants. "Why are you sacred of Grover?"

Sip the gossip, drink till you choke

Sip the gossip

Burn down your throat, you're not iconic

"Hooves and horns," Tyson muttered nervously. "And goat fur makes my nose itchy."

And that pretty much ended our Grover conversation.

————————☁︎ ✯  ☾ ✯ ☁︎———————

Before dinner, Tyson, Percy and I went down to the sword arena. Quintus was glad to have company. He still wouldn't tell us what was in the wooden crates. I sparred against Percy, and won, so I went against him. He was pretty good. He fought the way some people play chess—like he was putting all the moves together and you couldn't see the pattern until he made the last stroke and won with a sword at your throat.

"Good try," he told me. "But your guard is low."

He lunged and I blocked.

"Have you always been a swordsman?" I asked.

He parried my overhead cut. "I've been many things."

He jabbed and I sidestepped. His shoulder strap slipped down, and I saw the mark on his neck—the purple blotch—a bird with folded wings, like a quail or something.

"What's that on your neck?" I asked, which was kind of rude, but you can blame my ADHD. I tend to just blurt things out.

Quintus lost his rhythm. I his his sword hilt and knocked the blade out of his hand. I had to keep my leg down, due to instinct my first thing to do after was kick the person down, but he had lost the round so no need.

He rubbed his fingers. Then he shifted his armor to hide the mark. It wasn't a tattoo, I realized. It was a burn. Like he'd been branded.

"A reminder." He picked up his sword and forced a smile. "Now, shall we go again?"

He and Percy went again, so I took the minute to rest and have some water. Tyson played with Mrs. O'Leary, who he called the "little doggie" They had a great time wrestling for the bronze shield and playing Get the Greek. Bu sunset, Quintus hadn't even broken a sweat, which was odd. But Tyson, Percy and I were hot and sticky, so we hit the showers and got ready for dinner.

I had a camp shirt on and jean shorts, I was feeling good. It was almost like a normal day at camp. Then dinner came, and all the campers lined up by cabin and marched into the dining pavilion. Most of them ignored the sealed fissure in the marble floor at the entrance—one that 'I' had created—a ten-foot-long jagged scar that hadn't been there last summer, but we were careful to step over it.

As I went to get my seat at the Cabin Three table, someone pulled me into the shadows. I didn't hesitate to get a blade at their throat. The boy's blue eyes were wide, like he was genuinely afraid of me.

"What do you want?" I mumbled.

"Um," He said. "For starters, can you put the knife down?"

"No."

"'Kay. . .Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry, okay? I feel bad about what happened." He said.

I kept the dagger at his aorta, the vital vein in your neck. "Okay, so you're apologizing?"

"Yes. I'm sorry"

"Okay, I don't forgive you." I said, looking anywhere but him.

"Kiera," He sighed. "I said I'm sorry."

"Yeah. And I don't forgive you." I removed my blade from his throat, and backed up. "I need space."

He held onto me. "Kiera, please."

I shook his arm off like I had hours ago in his cabin. "I told you already. Give me some time."

Lee went to reach for me agin, but someone's hand shot out and snatched him from the shadows. I turned and saw Percy holding Lee by the front of his shirt. "You heard her. Fuck off."

Lee nodded and hurried to Cabin Seven's table, where Kayla saw the whole thing with wide eyes.

Percy handed me my plate and we sat at our table. Tyson sat across from us, and was happily eating his food. "You gonna tell me what that was about?" Percy muttered.

I nodded once, I didn't want to say anything