Chapter 109 - 109. Percy Jackson and the curse of lust part 3.

From the moment I woke up with a draft between my legs, I knew that something was wrong.

Lines colder than ice were digging into my wrists. Looking up, there was just barely enough light in the dim room to make out chains tethering me to the ceiling. The reason for the cool breeze I was experiencing downstairs became clear within seconds. I was as naked as the day I was born.

"Awake, are we?"

The voice sounded human, but there was something slightly wrong with it. The way it pronounced words wasn't quite right, as if the speaker just burnt her tongue really badly. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom I slowly managed to pick out my captor.

It was the same half-snake woman that had been dangling from the outside of the train. Similar to a dracaena, she was different in a few key ways. Instead of twin snake tails for legs, she slithered on just one. Where dracaena stood at the height of regular women, this one was nearly nine feet tall, bending forward slightly to keep from banging her head on the ceiling.

"Awake!" squawked another voice. "Awake! Awake!"

There was the other half of the duo that attacked Emily and I. Clopping sounds echoed through the room as the beast prowled back and forth. It had the body of a deer, down to four unassuming hooves, but with the head of a lion and an unnaturally wide mouth stuffed with razor teeth. It continued to squawk and repeat words, right up until the snake woman beat its snout with a fist.

"Quiet!" she hissed.

The lion-thing whimpered and cowered. The snake woman turned back to me. The way she smiled didn't make me any more at-ease than I had been.

"Sorry about that," she said. "Leukrokottas have the nastiest habit of never shutting up. It's just repeat, repeat, and repeat some more with them. Terrible to work with, I'm telling you."

"You had it imitate a baby, didn't you?" I asked, keeping my voice level. If I could just buy time for the others to catch up with us…

The snake woman blinked. She turned her head, looking puzzled, before realization dawned.

"Ah!" she said. "I see why you thought that. What a clever move that would've been. Unfortunately, I can't take credit. Leukrokottas don't just go around repeating any old person they hear, see. They only imitate their prey. It's a truly wonderful psychological tactic."

My blood went colder than the air on my lower body.

A baby's cries. Prey. My fingers wrapped around the chains holding them still.

"I'm going to grind you to dust," I said.

"Well no, you won't," said the snake woman, "but grinding certainly will be involved."

While I was still deciphering what that was supposed to mean, the door banged open. A squad of four broad creatures stomped in. These I didn't need more light to recognize. The slap of flippered feet would give away Telekhines even in the depths of Nyx's Mansion.

"We did as ye asked," said one I took for the leader. He had a big horizontal scar across his graying snout. "This whole train has been trapped to Hades, Lamia. Any demigod takes one step wrong, and they'll be taking a few dozen mortals to the underworld along with them."

The snake lady — Lamia — only spared him a half a glance. "Good, yes. Well done. You can wait in the back now."

For a moment the Telekhines didn't move. Lamia looked back at them, raising an eyebrow. Somehow the extra acknowledgment didn't feel like a prize.

"Are you waiting for a thank you?" Lamia asked, her voice deceptively sweet. "She gave you to me to use as I see fit, not to coddle. Now go."

Rather than erupt, the Telekhines forced their faces toward the floor and slapped their way toward the back of the room.

"More quietly!" Lamia snapped after them. She turned to me and sighed, a sneer melting back into a smile. "Sorry about that, sweetie. I'm afraid none of the help here is good for intelligent conversation."

"Intelligent conversation!" squawked the Leuokrokotta. "Intelligent conversation!"

The shout only earned it another smack from Lamia. I stared at the lion-like creature for a long moment as it turned silent and skulked away. Finally, slowly, I turned my eyes back to Lamia.

"What do you want with me?" I asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" Lamia said.

"I thought it would be. You're monsters. I'm a demigod. But you haven't eaten me yet, so it must not be as straightforward as I was guessing."

"Maybe we just wanted to take our time cooking you."

"That's possible. It's happened before. But I don't think that's the case. Who is 'She' and what does it want with me?"

She only slipped up once, while threatening the Telekhines, but I hadn't missed it. Lamia said that 'She' had given the Telekhines to her. That alone might not have seemed like much, but it was actually pretty major. Monsters almost never worked together, especially powerful ones like Lamia clearly was. For her to be taking orders, that meant something major was on our tails. Combined with my current imprisonment, something I didn't understand was clearly at work.

Lamia shifted slightly. She covered it well, but I could tell the question made her nervous.

"Don't you worry a hair about that," she said. "You'll find out soon enough. For now, I want you to focus completely on me…"

The way she purred the words set my spine tingling. I'd heard that tone before. A lot, actually. Mostly within the last week. I was suddenly very conscious of my lack of clothes and the way Lamia was looking at me.

She slithered closer, agonizingly slowly.

"Aren't you excited?" Her eyes were fixed way lower than I would've liked. As she approached, her lips pressed into a deep line. "You would've been," she said. "In my prime no man could keep himself from staring! I put all those little harlots you're traveling with to shame. I even seduced the king of the gods!"

"Yeah," I said, "because that's hard."

She ignored me completely. "His jealous wife could not handle it. She stole away my poor children. But Zeus truly loved me. He granted me this lovely form so I would never be alone again. I could steal away errant children for all of eternity!"

"Everybody's happy."

Lamia beamed as if I'd been serious. "Precisely!"

She was close to me now. If there'd been any doubt about where her eyes had been aimed, that was gone now.

"Here," she said suddenly. "This should get the ball rolling!"

Up to now, she'd been wearing a simple red t-shirt over her human upper half. She tore it off over her head, revealing an upper body just as scaly as its lower counterpart. There were lumps roughly shaped like breasts, but they were made of hard green skin with nipples that looked like shriveled cactus flowers. Lamia looked proud, right up until she realized my dick was staying just as flaccid as it had been before.

"Why is nothing working!" she complained.

"Can we leave?" asked a voice from the back.

Even the Telekhines were looking slightly disgusted. Who knows, though. That could've just been because Lamia had too few flippers and not enough fur.

Lamia wheeled on them. "I told you to be QUIET!"

The Telekhines all flinched back. The leader clasped his hands into fists, snout pointed floorward.

"Apologies, Ma'am," he muttered.

"You know, I once heard from a Telekhine that you hated my father," I said. "After you made his Trident he let you get locked away. But now you're here, serving another master that doesn't care about you at all."

The leader growled, but wouldn't look up at me.

"Don't focus on them when I'm right in front of you," Lamia said with what might have been a pout.

"Is getting walked all over your favorite pastime?" I asked the Telekhines. "Do you enjoy it or something?"

"Of course not!" snapped the leader, finally looking at me.

"Prove it," I said.

"Look at me!" Clawed hands grasped my cheeks, jerking my face forward. Lamia's bladed nails cut thin wounds onto my face with their grip. "Aren't I beautiful? I've always been beautiful! Zeus told me so. Only before the change, come to think of it… But I haven't changed that much, have I?"

"If you have a single ounce or respect as the smiths that forged Kronos's Scythe and my father's most powerful weapon, dig it out," I said, talking past Lamia even as she held my head straight. "Show this two-bit snake that Telekhines don't take flack lying down!"

"STOP TALKING TO THOSE HORRIBLE SEA MUTTS!" Lamia screamed.

The shriek was so loud that she had to take a moment to catch her breath. In that pause, a single powerful howl rose up, pinging off the enclosed walls. Three more quickly joined it.

"Who are you calling mutts?" demanded the Telekhine's leader. "Get her, boys, and we'll tell the boss that the demigods did it!"

They charged. The leader pulled a sword off his back as he crossed the room. The others weren't even armed, relying on just their claws.

"I'll pluck your scales off!" shouted the leader.

"Raaaaaaaah!" roared four voices.

That was a problem, because he only had three friends.

The author of the fourth battle cry, the Leukrokotta, pounced on one unlucky seal-dog, pinning it to the floor and quickly biting its head off. When said head turned to dust in its mouth, the Leukrokotta raised its head back and cried like a baby.

The other three telekhines reached Lamia. One went down to her claws before he got the chance to do anything. The leader swung his sword, but Lamia leaned out of the way looking bored, although she was forced to let go of my face.

The last subordinate lunged at her and managed to slice a few scales off of her hip, but the damage was too shallow to slow Lamia down. She didn't even use her own claws on him, just hit him over the head so hard that he slammed into the floor and dissolved.

The move offered an opening. Bringing his sword around, the leader swung again while Lamia was distracted. He got closer this time, if only by a little bit. Lamia still dodged easily. She struck out, slicing his throat and ending the short battle.

"Was that worth it?" she asked an audience that couldn't hear a thing. "You've gone and ruined the mood."

But I was already moving. My feet reached down, grabbing the handle of the Telekhine's sword on the floor with all ten toes. I hurled it up, and whether by skill, luck, or the blessing of some unknown god, managed to get catch it in my hands. Twisting the handle, I used it to cut through the chains holding me to the ceiling, freeing myself.

I stumbled back, still holding the sword between Lamia and I. Unfortunately, I couldn't do all that much with it. I'd cut the chain holding me to the ceiling, but my hands were still bound together, and slicing that part would take a lot more precision and effort. As good as I was with a sword, fighting with both arms stuck together was too much for me.

So I ran.

"There's nowhere to escape to," Lamia said, slithering after me. "We're stuck in here. The sooner you accept things, the happier both of us will be."

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to work for me," I said. She lunged, and I darted to the side, avoiding her grasping hands. She pulled back and clicked her tongue.

She lunged for me two more times, and I managed to dodge both. Unfortunately, my legs got tangled after the second one. I clattered to the floor.

"Look at that," Lamia said. "You've fallen for me."

There was hardly any space between us. I dug out my last resort.

Twisting, I threw my borrowed sword at Lamia's face. She swiped it away dismissively.

"Giving up?" she asked.

I kicked off with my legs, sending myself sliding across the floor. I skidded at least ten feet, crossing the cramped compartment. Lamia slithered after me.

"Fool boy," she chided. "I don't know why you insisted on making this so hard, but you've done it now. Get him!"

The command was meant for the only thing in the room other than us. The Leukrokotta had watched our chase in silence since finishing off its Telekhine. My last escape had sent me dangerously close to it, giving me a view of parts of the monster that I really could have done without dangling between its legs.

The Leukrokotta stared down at me. I held my breath. If I was right…

"Get him already!" Lamia was still slithering toward us. "Hold him down until I get there! I know you're not too dim to understand me. One word from me, and mother will cast you so deep into Tartraus that you'll never crawl out again!"

The Leukrokotta stood up off its haunches. It opened that creepy, unnatural mouth, giving me a view of multiple ridges of flesh-speckled teeth.

Just as it pounced, the monster spun sideways.

It hurled itself across the gap at Lamia, landing atop the snake woman before she could react. Its hooves battered her sides while its fangs aimed for its neck.

Lamia barely managed to catch the monster by its neck, arms straining as she held it at bay. "No! What are you doing?"

I caught my breath, trying not to show how relieved I was that I'd been right.

"It only repeats its prey," I said. "Those were your words. You were too arrogant to think that could apply to you, too, and that's how you were wrong. You should really hit your subordinates less the next time you come back."

Lamia glared at me.

"You won't escape from her," she said. "No matter how far you run, or how hard you struggle, all of it is useless. Escaping me only delays your fate. Mother wants you. And what Mother wants, Mother gets!"

Her arms gave out. The Leukrokotta's fangs came down, ending Lamia's time on earth. Standing above the dust pile, the Leukrokotta turned its head to the ceiling and howled.

It was so distracted that it never noticed me picking up the Telekhines sword until I buried it deep into its back. The howl cut short.

Breathing hard, I dragged myself to the wall and sat down against it hard. I positioned the sword facing up with the handle between my legs. Slowly, I worked my chained wrists up and down against the blade. The entire action was horribly suggestive, but I didn't have much choice. After minutes of work, the chain finally fell away.

I struggled to my feet and made for the door the Telekhines entered from. I brought the sword with me, just in case. Before their death the monsters talked about traps. Even now, I'd have to keep my guard up.

Which is why I froze with my hand on the handle. I sniffed the air again, wondering if I'd imagined it. But no, I hadn't.

I smelled smoke.

And that was all the warning I got before the train exploded.

On the plus side, I didn't spontaneously immolate, so that was good. Heat struck the door in a bright wave of raw flames. I hurled myself back, but never hit the floor. The entire car turned sideways with a shriek of metal. Dust from the destroyed monsters churned up and filled the air. I landed against a wall — which had become the floor — with an unflattering noise that I was glad nobody was around to hear.

I just lay there for a moment, resting against the cool metal, before finally forcing myself up. I could still smell smoke somewhere outside. Whatever just happened, I couldn't be certain that it was over just yet.

The door was now sideways and about five feet off of the ground, forcing me to crawl through it after smashing it open. I dropped to the ground on the other side. More good news: the entire train hadn't flipped onto its side, only the car that I'd been in.

With a start, I realized Lamia's cell for me was actually one of the luggage cars. Only one other car was anywhere in sight, and it looked in even worse condition than the one I'd crawled out of.

This car was still upright, but every single one of its windows was busted out. Smoke billowed out of every opening, and molten debris had been spewed out in a wide radius. A country road ran adjacent to the tracks. Beyond that, seemingly-endless seas of corn extended out of sight in both directions. More than a few patches of the green-and-gold plants were being absorbed into rising columns of fire that were still spreading.

I felt as if two hands gripped my throat and squeezed. Before they died, the Telekhines had talked about boobytrapping the train. What if it was my friends that set off this blast?

What if they got caught in it?

I was three steps into a sprint toward the destroyed car when I heard beating wings.

Spinning, I brought the Telekhines 'borrowed' sword around in a deadly arc just in time to catch a dive-bombing harpy. I rolled out of the way of the falling dust…

And immediately got hit in my blindside by another one.

The harpy's clawed hands carried me far enough for us to crash-land in the corn. I felt my skin slicing under her grip. My weapon had fallen from my hand in the collison. Staring into the harpy's deceptively beautiful face, I wondered if the uncomfortable scratchiness of unripe corn against my backside was going to be the last thing I ever felt.

"One taste," the harpy said, leaning in and opening her mouth to give me a too-good view of her nasty teeth. "I muuuust try your flavooor…"

"Percy, catch!"

I wasn't in a position to do to much, but thankfully that was one thing I could manage. Something came hurtling toward us from the side, and I managed to get my hands up in time to snag…

A pair of pants?

No. My pants.

In a flash my hands had found the pocket and what was contained within. Riptide came free in my fingers. I flicked the cap off with my thumb and watched with satisfaction as the blade burst straight through the harpy's feathered back.

My close brush with getting my body 'tasted' didn't stop me from scrambling to my feet. I turned quickly—

And breathed out in relief. All my friends were standing there. They were slightly singed around the edges, but much more rare than well-done.

I was dirty from monster dust and bleeding out of more than a few cuts and knocks, not to mention being completely naked, but that didn't stop Emily from rushing forward and wrapping her arms around me.

"I'm so glad you're alright!"

I patted her back awkwardly. "Hey, this much is nothing. You have no idea how often I deal with stuff like this."

By the time she pulled away, the others had caught up. Annabeth was carrying my shirt that had been left in our cabin. She was the one that threw the hail mary with my pants that most likely saved my life.

Isn't my girlfriend awesome? Not only can she fight, make buildings, and come up with plans simple enough that a guy like I can follow them, she even has one mean arm. If the NFL ever moved on to using articles of clothing instead of balls, she was a shoe-in for a Super Bowl.

"Telekhines booby trapped the train," I said to them.

"Yeah, we figured that out," Annabeth said. "Tripwires, pressure plates, you name it. It took us almost an hour just to evacuate mortals and work our way to the last car."

Clarisse crossed her arms. "We would've made it just fine, too, if it wasn't for someone."

Her side eye made it clear who she was talking about.

"Hey!" Valentina said. "It's not my fault you guys all decided to crawl under the last tripwire! I told you I wouldn't fit. But noooo, let's not listen to the daughter of Aphrodite."

"If you weren't carrying around all that extra weight…"

Valentina twisted so that her ass was facing Clarisse and gave it a slap.

"It's not my fault you don't have this much going on," she said.

"The Telekhines," Annabeth said to me, trying to re-rail the conversation. "Did you get rid of them?"

"Not exactly," I said. "Actually, I might not have survived if it wasn't for them. Or at least, my innocence wouldn't have."

Before I could explain further, the day got slightly darker. That was a real problem, because it was only like noon. All of us turned toward the horizon.

Turns out, the pair of harpies that we fought off must've been an advance party. Hundreds more were flapping toward us, their bodies blocking the sun like a swarm of oversized locusts. I hadn't seen so many monsters in one place since the last war.

"Run," Annabeth said.

"Can we outrun that?" Lou asked, looking pale.

"Better to find out than to stand here waiting," I said. "Let's go!"

We scrambled off the tracks and toward the road. That surface would be easier to run on. Emily quickly started falling behind, so Clarisse scooped her up bridal-style. Even though she was a demigod Lou wasn't much faster, so I picked her up the same way.

"There's a car up ahead!" Valentina shouted.

She pointed, even though we could all see it. It was parked on the shoulder. That seemed strange, because there was nothing around here except corn and bloodthirsty harpies that a mortal wouldn't be able to see. Still, it was worth checking out.

As we got close I was able to make out the details. It was a big tye-dye van that looked like something you grandmother might've driven in the sixties. It had a Virginia license tag, despite the fact that we were hundreds of miles from Annabeth's home state. The plate was a vanity one with FLOWERS for its seven-digit code. Beneath the license, on a dented and slightly bent back bumper, was a huge yellow sticker with "Make Love, not war!" in bold black text.

We sprinted up to the car and Annabeth banged on the window. Nobody answered. That made sense, because a quick glance showed that the car was empty.

"Should I bust in?" Clarisse asked.

Click!

As the driver side door swung open, Valentina turned to her and raised a single eyebrow, hand still on the handle.

Annabeth wasted no time in jumping inside. I looked behind us and immediately wished I hadn't. The harpies had covered over half the distance to us, and I could see now that they weren't alone. Stymphalian birds flapped around the edges of the swarm. Something was running along the ground, because I could see dust rising up as if an army was approaching. In the middle of the swarm, I swore I could see a titanic dark shape looming, larger than even a hundred harpies put together.

"Please tell me you know how to hotwire a car," I told Annabeth.

"No need." She turned something and looked back as the engine guttered to life. "The key was in the ignition. Get in— we're getting out of this place."

I grinned ear to ear. Finally, something I could get behind!

Clarisse set Emily down and jumped in the passenger side. The rest of us crawled into the back. The seats were wooly, like the carpet you'd find in an old person's house. A cassette tape already in the sound system came to life, blasting pop music at least three decades out of date. As the screeches of the first harpies tickled our ears, Annabeth smashed the gas pedal to the floor.

We shot into motion… at a blistering fifteen-miles-per hour.

"Faster!" Clarisse roared.

Annabeth smacked the top of the steering wheel. "I'm trying!"

With bigger things to worry about, none of us had fastened our seat belts. When the car started moving, even at its disappointingly slow speed, we were all jostled slightly. My clothes were still in my hand, along with riptide, now returned to pen form.

Valentina thumped into my shoulder, one hand reaching down instinctually to steady herself.

As it so happened, the best spot for her to do that was directly between my legs. Her fingers accidentally wrapped around my dick like it was a handle.

This might sound crazy, but that was actually pretty far from the most attention grabbing thing I was dealing with. A harpy appeared in the window, flying parallel with the car. She flew through corn, knocking stalks flat with every beat of her wings. She reached out and brought her claws against the window, eliciting a high-pitched wine. Lou made a couple of gestures with her hands. One of the corn stalks in the harpy's path turned to steel, just in time for her face to meet it. She disappeared into the rearview mirror with a squawk and a spray of feathers.

She was far from the only one, though. Three more harpies had gotten ahead of us. They banked around, flying directly toward our windshield.

Suddenly, something down in my crotch really did get my attention. Rather than let go, Valentina's hand had started moving back and forth. She was jerking me off.

"Are you serious?" I said.

"Sorry!" she apologized. "Muscle memory!"

Before she could let go, the van jumped from twenty miles per hour all the way to sixty. We accelerated fast enough to pin us back in our seats. The harpies flying toward us were blasted aside like bowling pins while the corn out THE windowS became the colorful blurs it should've been.

Valentina and I traded looks.

"You don't think…?"

"One way to find out!" she said happily.

She bent over and engulfed my length, tongue working quickly to keep it hard.

I groaned, leaning back in my seat. My hands extended and grasped whatever happened to be beside me as I grappled with the rush of pleasure.

On my right, that meant Lou Ellen's thigh.

The Hecate counselor had been waving her hands in intricate patterns, casting spells to keep the harpies off our trail, but her efficacy dropped as I unintentionally groped her upper thigh.

Not that I stopped. As crazy as it was, this was working. I could see the proof.

It wasn't just our speed. What I'd originally mistaken for a gas gauge on the dashboard was steadily filling. Considering there wasn't a station or pump anywhere in sight, that meant something else was filling this car with juice. As Valentina's mouth worked, I watched it creep closer to full. I slid my hand higher up Lou's leg into sensitive territory, giving firm squeeze. The girl squeaked. The gauge's growth rate jumped.

"Whatever you're doing back there, do it more!" Annabeth shouted.

I looked at Lou. "Forget the magic. This'll do way more to help us escape."

My other hand reached across, sliding up her shirt and grasping her perky breasts. My mouth found hers. As we kissed, my member finally reached full-mast inside Valentina's mouth. Her gag reflex-less throat caressed me with its warm ridges.

Lou clumsily and urgently unbuttoned her jeans. As soon as they were loose my fingers were under her panties, digging into her. She moaned against my mouth. I could feel the car speeding up around us, climbing past seventy as monsters continued to give chase.

My view of the speedometer was cut off suddenly as I got a faceful of something warm or soft. A weight hit my lap.

Emily, missing her top, had jumped over Valentina in order to straddle me. Her breasts hung in my face, and I'm not the kind of guy to turn down an invitation. I pulled away from Lou to bite down on those wide dark nipples.

Emily caressed the back of my head, pulling me tighter to her bust.

"I may be useless at all this fighting business, but I know what I can do!" she declared. "Suck as much as you want, Percy!"

So I did. My teeth worked like I was Tantalus digging into an all-you-can-eat buffet. Emily moaned, unconsciously moving her hips— which considering they were hovering over Valentina's head, repeatedly shoved her down so far that her lips brushed my balls.

I was slightly worried about her… but I should've known better. When I pulled one of my hands away from Lou, reaching over to shove it down Valentina's yoga pants, I found her pussy slick and gushing.

With her mouth unoccupied, Lou quickly busied herself by leaning over and suckling on my neck. Valentina's blowjob was quickly becoming more than I could handle. At the same time, my assault on Emily's chest was so intense that the woman had thrown her head back, shuddering. Both my hands worked deep inside of Lou and Valentina simultaneously.

Emily came first. That set off a chain reaction.

Just from the stimulation of my teeth, she reached a climax that ruined the pair of panties she was wearing under her pants… if she had any on at all. That orgasm saw her stiffen, pressing Valentina's head down harder than ever. The daughter of Aphrodite really had discovered a new kink. She came immediately as she was shoved against my groin. With my cock buried so deep in her, the sensations were on a completely different level. My head mashed back on the headrest as I fought to hold on. The way that I tensed made my fingers go stiff inside Lou, and that was enough to put her over the edge with the other three.

Then, as my willpower gave out, I came too. I felt it pour out into Valentina, following mere seconds after the others' orgasms.

Bing!

The soft, bell-like chime was the only warning we got as the false fuel gauge hit 'Full'.

The car exploded into motion.

I couldn't see the speedometer anymore, but I was certain we were doing a hundred and twenty at least. Thank the gods we were on a straight country road. My gums were flapping, and my head bent backwards all the way over the headrest, giving me an upside-down view out the rear window.

The harpies were being left behind, completely out raced by the blur we called a car. That wasn't what caught my eye. Something else had emerged at the forefront of the swarm. It was the shape I'd noticed earlier. The one far larger than everything else.

A dragon the size of a ship flew impossibly fast on majestic wings. Its yellowish scales shone in the light, and its enormous white fangs glinted. Intelligent serpentine eyes refused to leave us, tracking our van even as we zoomed toward the horizon.

Maybe I imagined it — I really hoped I did — but I could've sworn I saw someone was standing on the dragon's head.

Soon it was too far back to make out details. Our car was still speeding up, even now. Nothing could keep up.

We raced off into the midwestern afternoon.

I was pretty sure I understood what it felt like to be roadkill now, which was impressive considering I didn't need to be struck by any vehicles to do it.

My back was plastered to the wooly cushions of our new ride's backseat. My clothes were scattered across the floor. Despite having escaped the monster swarm over two hours ago, I hadn't had a single chance to pull them on.

Instead, my naked body had been ridden and worked to the point of being coated in thick sweat. Lou Ellen was passed out beside me, while Emily lay on the other side, equally unconscious. Valentina wasn't even in her seat anymore. She lay face-down on the floor, wonderful ass raised above her head.

My eyes drifted toward the front seat, where Annabeth drove in silence next to a snoring Clarisse. I wasn't sure how exactly the daughter of Ares managed to drift off with all the noise we had been making, but I learned long ago not to question anything when it came to her. My life was easier that way.

"Do we have enough fuel?" I asked tiredly.

"It was full about an hour ago," Annabeth said.

"Oh."

She laughed. "Yes, oh."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

She glanced back at me, taking her eyes off the road for a minute just to roll them.

"And get in their way? I think they would've killed me. Much easier to keep quiet."

I glanced at the girls scattered around me.

"Yeah," I said. "That makes sense."

I tried to think of something else to say, but my brain was running pretty much on fumes. The van descended into silence.

"Go to sleep, Percy," Annabeth said gently, returning her attention to actually driving. "We can talk later."

I meant to say okay, only to nod off before I even managed that much.

The brakes were what woke me up. Our speed dropped from a cool eighty-five miles per hour all the way to a hard stop. I leaned forward, shaking the cobwebs out of my head. Before I could ask why we stopped, I saw the reason.

It was a pretty good one. There was no road.

There had been at some point. We were on a highway now, not the tiny country road we'd been following at the start. It was two lanes wide and perfectly straight, exactly the type of place you could push ninety without anybody batting an eye. The only thing out of place was the fact that a forest had grown straight through the asphalt. The road simply ended in a wall of bark and twigs.

"That's probably not natural, is it?" I said.

Everyone else was awake by now, too.

"You really think so?" Clarisse asked with a snort.

"Hey. I'm just trying to be optimistic."

"Try getting dressed instead," she said. "We're going to investigate."

She stomped outside. Annabeth and the others followed a moment later while I lagged behind, pulling on my clothes as quickly as I could.

When I joined them at the edge of the forest, it didn't seem like I'd missed much.

The terrain around us had changed. The endless seas of corn were gone, replaced by forests with lots of thin-trunked trees. I wasn't an expert in forestry, but if I had to guess, I'd say we were somewhere around the middle of the country. Kansas, maybe, or Missouri.

Nothing about the forest changed in front of us — not the type of trees, the color of their leaves, or anything else — except for the fact it had simply grown over the road. It was only halfway, too. The concrete median between both lanes marked the end of the unexpected forest. No other cars were visible on our side, but I could see tons passing the other way, not even breaking to look at the natural roadblock next to them. If we needed any more confirmation that this was magic in some way, that was it.

"Do we just… go around?" Lou said.

I glanced back at our ride. The van sat there in all its glory— which wasn't much. I took in the bent front fender and glanced at the tires, each missing their hubcaps.

"I don't think off-roading is on the table," I said.

"I have an idea." Clarisse rolled up her sleeves. "Two hours and an ax. I'll have the way clear for us."

Annabeth wasn't impressed.

"You can't chop a trunk out of the ground, Clarisse. Cutting the trees won't help us drive through them."

"Plus you don't have an ax," Valentina pointed out.

Clarisse crossed her arms. She tilted her head, deep in thought. Finally, she said, "Anybody have a match?"

"Stop trying to hurt us!"

The shout didn't come from any of us. Slowly, four almost-identical girls peeled themselves out of the trees in front of us. If the entrance hadn't given it away already, their green skin and colorful orange hair marked them as dryads.

"Are you the ones that blocked the road?" Clarisse asked.

"Indeed," said the one in the middle. "We have a task for you, heroes!"

Unfortunately for her, Clarisse had stopped listening halfway through. As soon as she had confirmation who had caused this problem, she was marching forward cracking her knuckles.

"We— What are you doing?" said the nymph. "Hero, you… Stop. Stop!"

Clarisse did not, in fact, stop. She grabbed the nymph by her throat, lifting her off the ground. Her three friends quickly scurried halfway back into their trees, glaring.

"Get this crap out of our way," Clarisse growled, squeezing down.

"Harder!" said the nymph.

Everyone stopped for a minute, and she blushed bright green. "I mean, stop!"

"Put her down, Clarisse," Annabeth said.

My girlfriend sounded stern, but mostly just tired. Giving the nymph a disgusted look, Clarisse let her throat go and watched her drop onto the ground. I don't think she cared that much what Annabeth said. I think she just had a natural disdain for anything submissive.

Touching her throat tentatively, the nymph said, "If you let me explain, I would've said we have no problem letting you through."

"Then do it," Clarisse said.

"Not yet!" the nymph insisted. "We cannot allow you to pass for free."

"What do you want? More choking?" Clarisse asked.

For half a second, the nymph looked tempted. "No!"

One of her friends took over.

"We need your strength," she said. "You fight monsters, don't you? That's what heroes do!"

"There's a terrible monster in these woods," said another. "If you rid us of it, we'll clear the road right away! We swear it on the River Styx!"

I'd been on enough quests to see similar things. It reminded me of Triple G ranch, where Geryon gave me a task to save my friends and earn safe passage.

Of course, back then, the giant had been lying and betrayed us. This time, though, we had a binding oath. And I didn't think these nymphs were as conniving as that old monster anyway.

The problem was time. We'd made our escape from the monsters chasing after us, but there was no telling how long it would be before they caught up. Thinking along similar lines, Annabeth said, "Group conference!"

Once Clarisse had stomped back over, we grouped up in a huddle like a sports team at halftime.

"I say we do it," Lou said. "They need help. Why don't we just get it over with?"

"We don't know how long this might take," I pointed out.

"We also don't know how long it would take to go around," Annabeth said. "This is likely our fastest way, with or without a task."

"I say we go straight through!" Clarisse stomped her foot. "A little more and they'll cave. Does anybody have a lighter?"

"You already asked that," Valentina told her. "No, we don't. Why do you want to threaten everything that moves?"

"Life's more fun that way," Clarisse said matter-of-factly.

"So are we helping them or not?" I asked.

"We'll talk to them some more," Annabeth decided. "If we tell them we'll do it, we can get more information. Whether we follow through from there… That depends on what we find out."

All of us nodded. The huddle broke apart as we turned to the nymphs.

"Tell us about this monster," Annabeth said.

"It's horrible!" said the one that spoke first. "It's covered with bright, shiny skin that glows in the dark. I felt like its glare would kill me! There was a bright ring around its forehead, and it was fast, faster than even a mountain lion as it ran through the woods!"

I glanced at Annabeth, but from the look on her face that description wasn't ringing any bells for her either.

"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.

"It moved on two legs," said one nymph thoughtfully. "It could speak, too. I didn't like the sound of its voice one bit."

Any time I thought about talking monsters, my head went straight to a cyclops. As much as I loved my half-brother Tyson, rogue cyclopes had the nastiest habit of talking to you in different voices as they fought. It wasn't an experience I'd wish on anyone.

"Do you know where we can find this monster?" Annabeth asked.

The nymphs looked at each other.

"Not exactly," one admitted.

"But it's close by!" said another. "We saw it just the other day! And we can still smell its stink."

All of them scrunched up their noses.

"We'll do it," I said. "We'll track down this monster and get rid of it for you."

I still wasn't sure it was a good idea to cooperate when we were essentially being blackmailed, but we had to deal with this quickly. Whatever this monster was, it sounded like it was alone. Sending it back to Tartarus seemed quicker than forcing the nymphs to cave. Plus I would've felt kind of bad, burning down their trees and leaving them stuck with a monster.

"When you find it, bring it back to us here," said one of the nymphs. "We'll be waiting!"

In the end, it was decided that we would split up.

Annabeth and I went into the woods with Lou Ellen, while the rest stayed to protect the van. If anything happened to our ride, we would be completely stranded again.

Besides, even with three of us there weren't many monsters we couldn't handle. Annabeth had her knife, I had Riptide, and Lou didn't need a weapon to work her spells. The three of us walked between the trunks as evening dawned, light beginning to fade slowly.

"This would be a lot easier if we knew what to look for," I said.

"We do!" Lou said. "Silver skin, two legs, mean eyes… Oh. That really isn't much, is it?"

"Just keep your eyes peeled," Annabeth said. "With how these things go, trouble will find us. We only have to be ready."

She was right, but the phrasing got me thinking. It reminded me of what was on our tail, and more specifically, about how all those monsters were chasing us. Or at least why they were.

"Speaking of trouble finding us…"

Over the next fifteen minutes as Lou, Annabeth and I crunched through midwestern woods, checking thickets and letting Lou cast spells to tell her if anything passed through them, I explained everything that Lamia had told me before her vaporization.

When I was done Lou wrinkled her nose. "You mean that monster actually almost… With you…?"

"Don't remind me," I said, shuddering as I thought of Lamia's scaly form.

"So far you've been chased by harpies, a cow, and now Lamia, a half-snake woman," Annabeth listed off, tallying them on her fingers. "But the Myrmekes in the woods at camp didn't act any different, and neither did the Telekhines and the Leukrokotta. What makes them different?"

I'd already come up with a pretty good answer, even if I didn't like it.

"Back in that train car, I got a pretty good look at what was between the Leukrokotta's legs."

"Ew," said Lou.

"The point is, it was definitely male. Same with the Telekhines. I don't know about the ants I tested before, but that seems like a pattern."

"It's the curse!" Annabeth said.

Lou and I let her explain.

"I think those monsters are being attracted to you," she said to me. "In the same way the curse is drawing girls to you, it's affecting monsters, too. It has to be that, right? Just look at how Lamia was acting."

I'd half been hoping I was wrong when I had that thought, and that Annabeth would come up with a completely different answer. Unfortunately, she was right. This was the obvious answer.

"Does that mean all of those monsters chasing us were just, you know, after Percy?" Lou asked, looking paler than usual.

We stopped to look at each other in the shadow of a sprawling elm with a hollowed trunk.

"Not necessarily," Annabeth said. "I'm sure some of them were. But there's clearly something commanding all of them. Whoever the 'Her' is that Lamia was talking about."

"Just like the Telekhines and the Leukrokotta," I said. "They were only sent after me."

"Oh. That's… better, I guess," Lou said.

All of a sudden her eyes widened. She wrapped her arms around Annabeth and I and pushed us toward the elm trunk nearby.

"Something tripped a spell nearby!" she hissed. "Hide!"

All three of us piled inside of the tree. There was enough room, but it was tight. The interior was black and smooth, hollowed out long ago by a fire, or maybe even a strike of lightning that the tree had survived. We held our breath, pressing out of sight.

There was never any sound of footsteps. One moment the forest was empty, the next a person was there, walking deftly over the fauna like they were born on a forest floor. Her parka sparkled in the dimming light.

Even though I'd never seen this girl's face, there was no mistaking that outfit.

"Oh," Lou Ellen said, "it's just a Hunter—"

Annabeth and I clapped our hands over her mouth, pulling back deeper into the tree until dark flakes clung to our shirts. Both of us were thinking the same thing.

Right now, running into the Hunters was worse than any monster.

Where one went, all of them went, meaning if the Hunter in front of us was here so were the rest. We couldn't afford to get mixed up with them. Even if it had been strangely dormant for the last few days, the curse had already shown that it wasn't picky with who it targeted. If it got to any of the Hunters…

The Hunter stopped, turning her head left and right. She'd obviously heard Lou's voice. She tilted her head back, sniffing the wind, but thankfully it was blowing away from us. Still, she wasn't moving on. Her eyes fell on the other side of the tree we were hiding inside of.

Lou flicked her hands. Far away, on the other side of the hunter, a small rabbit formed out of thin air. It wasn't real, but it looked pretty convincing at a glance. Turning, the artificial animal bounded loudly away through the brush. The Hunter spun on a dime, chasing after it.

Annabeth and I relaxed, letting go of Lou.

"What was that about?" she complained.

"Shhhh," we both said.

More quietly, we explained exactly why it was an awful idea to get mixed up with the Hunters right now.

"You don't think Artemis would really blame you, do you?" she asked me.

"I don't know," I said. Our relationship wasn't bad. But then again, I'd heard stories. "The thing is, I'd rather not find out."

"Which means we need to find this monster, and get out of here," Annabeth said. "Fast."

It was not fast, in the end.

We searched through the woods for hours. The moon came out, along with the stars, which only reminded me of the Hunters and made me want to finish quicker.

In the end our lucky break was just that: lucky.

After way too much searching, I hit my limit and excused myself to pee. I found a nice big tree out of sight of the girls and started to relieve myself with a satisfied sigh.

As the stream hissed out and splattered against the leaves, I realized just how badly I had to go. It was long, and not all that quiet. Just as the stream was tailing off, a twig crunched behind me.

"Annabeth?"

"What?" her voice came from out of sight.

"Is Lou still with you?"

"Yeah! Why?"

I didn't answer. I flicked my cock, knocking off the last drops, and drew Riptide in a single fluid motion.

The Hunters didn't make noises in nature, period. If Annabeth and Lou weren't here, that meant someone else was behind me…

A huge shape leaped back as Riptide slashed through the air. The shape let out a startled bellow. Over seven feet of humanoid monster stood behind me, moonlight gleaming off his (for some reason) oiled up muscular body.

The full-grown cyclops reached toward me with a gnarled, crusty hand…

I was ready to slice that monstrous hand off at the wrist. But rather than try to crush my head like I expected, it just pointed.

"Man!" yelled the cyclops.

"Monster!" I yelled as my own surprise bubbled over.

The cyclops's lone eye dipped down to my still unzipped pants, his pointing finger dipping a moment later. "Small penis!"

This time, I pointed back at him.

"Asshole!" I said.

"Mean!"

"Sensitive!"

This was the scene Annabeth and Lou burst onto.

"Ugly girls!" said the cyclops, shrinking away from them.

"...What?" Annabeth asked.

I laughed, and when she glared at me, I shrugged.

"I'm just happy that I'm not the only one who got this treatment."

The cyclops was a huge figure, and not nearly as awful to look at as many of his brood. His face was more like Tyson's, broad and square but not grotesque, with white teeth instead of the usual yellow. He was wearing basketball shorts and a white tank-top that wasn't quite big enough for him. By far the strangest thing was the oil rubbed over his muscular arms and calves. Under the moonlight, it made them glow almost silver.

Annabeth moved first. She had bad blood with cyclopes, and even though she worked it out with Tyson that grudge hadn't gone away. She drew her dagger and pulled her yankees cap on, fading from view.

The cyclops turned to me with renewed energy. "You help me! Make her stop!"

"Why would I want to do that?" I asked. "And why are you asking me to make her stop?"

"Because you're a man!"

"Huh. Now that just feels sexist."

Seeing I wasn't moving, the big guy panicked and bolted.

I wasn't used to monsters running away. Usually they stuck around and fought, even if it was to their last breath. But this one wanted no part of that, turning his huge frame and barreling away through the woods.

I didn't think too much of it until I realized how far away he'd already gotten. The cyclops hurtled through the woods way faster than he had any right to at that size. Every time he passed a tree he'd push off of it, girthy shoulder muscles straining as they propelled him forward.

But we couldn't let him get away. From that oily skin that glowed in the dark to his monstrous vocal chords, to the brutal look of disdain in his eyes as he looked at my manhood… he fit every criteria given to us by the nymphs. And now, watching him flee incredibly fast, he matched the last clue too.

I was certain about it. This was the monster the nymphs sent us after.

"Stop him!" I said.

Lou said something and threw her hands up. A moment later, dry ground turned to thick mud in the cyclops's path. He charged through it with natural power, but even he was slowed for a few seconds.

The moment he broke free, something hurtled through the air. A bronze knife appeared from nowhere, flying past and leaving a cut on the monster's glistening calf. It wasn't nearly enough to vaporize him, but he quickly pulled up with a limp, slowing down even more.

That was more than enough of an opening for me to catch up.

I was on him before he could pull away. As he looked back over his shoulder, I brought Riptide's hilt down past the hands he raised protectively, smashing his temple as if it were a punching bag.

He slumped forward, his eyes closing, and we all caught our breath. Lou cast another spell and vines slithered off a nearby tree, wrapping around the unconscious monster.

"Nice work, team," I said.

Annabeth appeared next to me.

"You're dick is still out," she said, picking up her knife.

I hastily zipped up my pants.

"Not anymore."

"Hey, I have a question," Lou said.

We turned to her.

"They nymphs definitely said they wanted him brought back to them, right?"

"That's right," Annabeth said.

"So… how do we get him there?"

We went silent as we all considered it. Slowly, they turned toward me.

"Well crap," I said.

"Just… a bit… more…"

For about the thousandth time my fingers slipped off the oiled-up ankle they were fighting to grip. The cyclops's leg thudded onto the ground. I nearly screamed.

"If I have to keep this up for fifteen more feet—" I started.

Annabeth cut me off, silently pointing ahead. Right in front of us was the road, our swanky lovemaking-powered ride sitting there in the dark. Clarisse leaned against the hood keeping a hawk-like vigil. When she caught sight of us, she cupped her hands around her mouth.

"THEY'RE BACK!" she bellowed.

I saw the nymphs hastily peel themselves out of their trees. Giggling to each other, they halfway tripped over their own feet as they rushed out to greet us.

When they reached the edge of the road, their features stretched in shock. I smiled proudly, putting my hands on my hips, ready to bask well-deserved compliments and, more importantly, have the road cleared so we could drive far, far away.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM?"

I pulled up short as all four of them rushed over to us. They pushed me away from the cyclops, and I stumbled back, too surprised to brace myself. Each of them dropped onto their knees, rubbing different parts of his body and cooing soothing sounds.

"You told us to bring the monster to you!" I said.

The nymphs glared at me.

"Larry's not a monster!" said one.

"He just has a few monstrous qualities," said another, stroking his upper thigh.

"Larry? You gave the cyclops a name?"

"He came with one you sick fuck!"

Clarisse had wandered over and settled her hands on her hips. She stared down at the scene, seeming slightly befuddled. Finally, she said, "I guess you aren't about to clear the road, huh?"

"We had a deal!" said one of the nymphs. "You haven't followed through! This was all for Larry's sake, and now you've knocked him out while that awful beast still roams free!"

In the woods, something screamed.

It was high-pitched and not quite human, like a chicken that got its tail feathers stepped on. Lou Ellen perked up, tearing her eyes off of where they'd been staring dumbfoundedly at the irate nymphs.

"What was that?" Annabeth asked.

"Sounded like somebody getting stabbed," Clarisse said… hopefully?

Lou grabbed a branch off the ground, raising it like a bat. At the same time, her eyes darted around the dark woods around us.

"I cast a few spells earlier," she said. "Little things to warn us if anything got close to the car. That was the alarm sound."

"Which direction?" I asked.

"…all of them?"

A cold, dry breeze cut through the humid summer air. Bushes rustled. Branches swayed. More than a dozen glinting arrows appeared from all sides, still notched in their bows.

Don't move!" said a girl's voice. "If you try to run, before you know it you'll have an arrow so far up your— Annabeth? Percy?"

I winced. Holding my hands in the air so that none of the newer Hunters got any ideas, I faced Thalia Grace, Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis and one of my closest friends. I couldn't remember a time I was less happy to see her, which was crazy, because as much as I considered her a friend she could annoy the Hades out of me.

"Hey Thalia," I said. "I don't suppose you'd listen if I asked you to walk back into the woods and put a few states in between us?"

She ignored me completely. "Clarisse is here too? And… Sorry, I don't actually know you."

"It's fine," Lou rubbed her toe in the dirt. "I'm not that famous."

"Ah! It's her!" The nymphs shot to their feet, jabbing their fingers at Thalia. "She came herself! Take her down! Gauge out her eyes!"

Thalia's Parka glittered brightly in the moonlight. Her blue eyes didn't look hostile now, but I'd been on the end of more than enough glares to know just how fierce she could make herself look. As a hunter she was unnaturally fast, and when she got worked up, her voice could be just as bad as her eyes. Nestled around her head was the mark of her Lieutenant status: a gleaming circlet of silver.

"You mean that's the monster you wanted us to take care of?" I asked.

"She chased off poor Larry!" said one of the nymphs. "She put an arrow straight into one cheek of his beautiful butt?"

Thalia looked at them, recognition dawning. "You're those nymphs that snapped at me after I saved you a few days ago. You should be grateful. You'd be cyclops chow if it wasn't for me. He already had you at his mercy when I stumbled on you in the woods."

"The only part of us Larry would eat is between our legs!" shouted the nymph with a pretty rude gesture toward her crotch. "And you have no idea how good he is at it!"

"You slept with that thing?" Thalia asked, her face twisting in revulsion.

The nymph dropped to her knees. I guess Larry was having a pretty good dream, because something well over a foot long was straining his loose basketball shorts. The nymph wrapped her hand around the shape, waving it back and forth under the fabric. "Jealous?" she asked.

Thalia looked like she might hurl, but more importantly, she was distracted. I couldn't outrun the Hunters in a forest. I just didn't stand a chance. But if I could get to the car…

I took off at a sprint. I'd explain everything to Thalia. Later, when it was safe. For now, I had to get away. We couldn't let the curse activate.

As the nymphs rambled on, extolling the virtues of Larry the Cyclops's girthy cock in far more detail than was necessary, the Hunters stood almost frozen. It was pretty much the antithesis to the maidenhood they swore themselves to. No wonder gods were always chasing after nymphs. Those green-skinned girls fucked.

A few Hunters shouted as I made my break for it, loosing their arrows. I sliced them away without looking. The others ran after me, following my lead.

"Wait! Stop!" Thalia called after us, but it fell on deaf ears.

I wrenched open the door and jumped in the driver's seat. The forest was still in our way, but we'd just have to hit a u-turn. The others had piled into the backseat, Clarisse landing on Valentina who had sprawled out with Emily in the back to get some sleep. Ignoring the squawks from the girls, I wrenched the key around and yanked the parking break. Our tires squealed as the car jolted into motion.

Just as quickly we stopped dead. The tires went on shrieking even louder, but we weren't moving. A girl had appeared in our path with bright red hair. She was dressed the same as the Hunters, with eyes that perfectly matched her parka. She wasn't bothered about being in the path of our van. One of her feet rested on the fender of our ride, holding it in place even as the engine tried desperately to accelerate.

"That isn't allowed, Perseus Jackson," she said. "The two of us must speak."

I gulped. I reset the parking break and turned the key upright again, letting the motor die. Taking a deep breath, I patted the center console behind me, staling to work up my courage.

Then I stepped outside, as ready as I could be to face Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt.

The first time I visited a Hunters' camp I was fourteen coming off one of the worst nights of my life. Since then I'd grown up. I fought side-by-side with these girls and their goddess with our lives on the line. I figured I'd earned their respect, or at least as much of it as a man ever could.

That — all of it — was the reason I was way more nervous this time than outside of Westover. A bad impression then might've burned bridges. Now, all it would take was one bit of bad luck and this curse could undo years of hard-won trust.

The silver tents still looked exactly the same. A big fire pit in the middle lay charred and empty. Falcons, hawks, and other birds of prey perched on canvas roofs and nearby branches, keeping watch. Artemis led me deftly through toward the furthest-back tent— just me.

The minute I stepped out of the car she took me away with a single command. I followed her, because pissing off the goddess I couldn't escape from seemed like an all around really bad idea, but it had made for the most awkward fifteen minute walk of my life.

Annabeth and the others were following with the Hunters. They probably weren't far behind, but wrangling the nymphs and their pet boy-toy cyclops had taken some time. Just because the nature spirits swore Larry couldn't hurt a fly, didn't mean the Hunters were ready to take their word for it.

Artemis brushed aside the canvas entrance to her tent and slipped inside. For half a second, I considered trying to run again. Then I followed her.

Although the outside hadn't changed, the interior was different. It still had animal pelts across the floor like carpets and trophies from big game — both ordinary and magical — mounted on the walls. The large desk I remembered was gone. Instead of one big brazier, the space was lit by four small ones, each in a different corner. Artemis walked to the center of the room and settled down.

"Sit."

I did as she asked, choosing a spot as far away as possible without making it seem like I was trying to escape. The pelts were coarse and soft at the same time.

I'd seen Artemis with a few different looks before. The first time I met her, she took the appearance like a little girl with bright auburn hair. When Kronos marched on Olympus, her hair had been almost black. It was like she told me years ago in this very tent: she could appear any way she wanted, all depending on her mood.

On this night she looked older than I'd ever seen her, probably around my own age. Her face had been cute before, in the way a little sister might be, but now without a preteen's chubbier cheeks it had transformed, looking every inch as beautiful as any goddess I'd ever met. She looked more like her brother, with high cheekbones and lightly tanned flawless skin and bright white teeth— except unlike the permanently-grinning Apollo, you only saw Artemis's teeth in brief flashes as she spoke or laughed, somehow making them even more enthralling.

"It has been some time since you set foot in our camp," Artemis observed.

It was almost small talk, which was the last thing I expected from the blunt goddess.

"I shouldn't be here," I warned her.

"True." Artemis nodded. "This is not a place for men. The last to see the inside of this tent and walk out on two legs was you. Do not worry. I've already made up my mind to allow the transgression. Begrudgingly, of course."

"No!"

Artemis raised a thin red eyebrow. "You wouldn't like to leave on two legs?"

"No," I backtracked again. "I just meant that's not the reason I shouldn't be here. Or… not the main reason. I just really, really shouldn't be this close to your Hunters right now."

"Because of the curse?"

Everything I planned to say died in a jumbled mess on the tip of my tongue. I ended up sitting there gaping at the goddess for an embarrassing amount of time.

"You know about the curse?" I said finally

She nodded.

"Then you know I shouldn't be here!"

"The opposite, actually." Her yellowish-silver eyes, so unique and striking, pierced me like arrows. "That is the reason you must be here."

A chill ran down my spine. Outside the tent I heard voices. The Hunters arrived, filling the camp with activity and life. I heard hunting knives being sharpened, wolves being fed, and above all, adoptive sisters talking to one another. I heard them laughing. And all I could wonder was how many the curse might claim before I got out of here.

The bonds these girls shared were based on their oath. They swore off men in favor of their goddess and the great hunt, outliving any mortal and finding a new family in return. If the curse got its fangs into them, they'd be forced to choose between their lives and their entire lifestyle. Either way they would lose everything.

"If you know about the curse," I said carefully, "and you still brought me here, then that means…"

"It has already struck," Artemis said matter-of-factly.

I took a deep breath, turning my head toward the roof of the tent and shutting my eyes.

"...Shit."

"Indeed," Artemis agreed.

My fingers dug ridges into the pelts at my sides. It didn't make any sense. We'd been so careful, tried so hard, but the hunters had been cursed this fast? Emily had been traveling with us for a week, and she was still perfectly fine. How did it choose? Where was the pattern?

I wasn't ready to give up yet, though.

I opened my eyes and focused on Artemis. "You're a goddess. No, you're one of the strongest goddesses out there. Can't you just get rid of it?"

"If that were the case, we wouldn't have bothered searching for you," she said.

A thought dawned on me.

"You were never here hunting Larry, were you."

"You mean that cyclops?" Artemis frowned. "We aren't concerned with small game. My Hunters have placed him and those nymphs in the next tent over. If he truly isn't a threat, we'll release him."

That was great news for my one-eyed half-brother, but it also confirmed the worst of my suspicions.

"You were here for me," I said.

"Yes."

"Because your hunters were already cursed."

"Yes."

"How many?"

"Three," Artemis said, and although it wasn't as bad as I feared, I still felt my heart sink. "Avery, Isa, and Brynn have been afflicted for days. I have held the symptoms at bay, but I cannot cure them."

"Great. So even you can't do anything."

Artemis shifted. She looked away, stroking the fox pelt beside her like it was a live animal. "Well, that is not completely true."

I didn't press her. I gave her time to go on at her own pace, and she did, although she paused for a good few seconds.

"This curse was created by something as powerful as I. But while I cannot break it, I can… manipulate it, to a certain extent. I can—"

Just as the grand reveal was on her lips, we were interrupted.

"BURY THAT THICK FUCKING BRANCH DEEP IN MY TRUNK!" a woman's voice screamed outside the tent.

Artemis and I paused, looking toward one of the walls. Deep rhythmic thumps vibrated the canvas. Artemis cleared her throat. For the first time, I got to see the proud goddess looking embarrassed.

"It's coming from another tent," she said.

"Let me guess. The one with Larry and the nymphs?"

"…I believe so."

"YOU'RE TEARING ME IN HALF! DON'T STOP!"

Artemis waved her hand and the shrieks of pleasures dimmed and disappeared, although her blush remained.

"As I was in the process of saying, with my abilities, I believe I can transfer the curse between those in the Hunt. The sick girls, at least, can be spared."

"But if it's in the hunt, someone will still have to choose, right? Three Hunters will lose their maidenhood or their lives."

"Not a Hunter, necessarily."

"…What?" I asked.

"Hunters are not the only members of the Hunt," she said. "There is one other."

I froze. Then I started to say something, then I froze again. I was pretty sure I knew what that meant. But I was worried that if I said it, I wouldn't walk out of here in one piece.

"I can sleep with you in their place," Artemis said, speaking the words I'd been too frightened to imply. "If I offer my body, those girls can be spared."

There were a million things that flashed through my head right then, and I'd be lying if I said half of them weren't mental pictures of the beautiful goddess following through on that offer.

"You would do that?" I asked.

"For my Hunters, I would do anything," Artemis swore. "They've earned it."

"I'm not doubting that you love them," I said quickly. "It's just, this is serious stuff we're talking about here. You're the goddess of chastity."

Artemis stood up. Maybe I should've been worried she was going to blast me, but just by the look on her face I could tell that wasn't going to happen. She started to pace, like a lion in a little cage.

"When Gaia returned, I was useless. Useless! While I hid out on Delos for fear of my mind, my Hunters fought for me. I lost half of them to one of my oldest mistakes. At one time, you're right. There were lines I would not cross, even for their sake. I've seen now that I was foolish. They saved me with their lives on the line. I will never allow that to happen again, not while I'm capable of changing their fate."

Her pacing brought her close to me. She was right above me, and as she stood there her silver coat melted into motes of light. Underneath was a simple tight black shirt, with leather pants that gripped her frame. There was a different look in her eyes to any I'd seen before. It wasn't quite hesitation, but it wasn't anticipation, either.

"Let us engage in sex," she announced.

Neither of us moved. We stared at each other, the air in the tent stifled and still. Eventually, Artemis frowned.

"Are you unwilling?" she asked, possibly a touch dangerously.

"It's not that," I said. "It's definitely not that. It's just, that isn't usually how people go about this."

"Is my state of dress a problem?" Artemis asked. "I will fix it."

Before my brain caught up, she hauled her shirt off. There was no bra underneath. Her breasts were big enough to grab, but small enough not to get in the way of movement. She pushed her pants down a moment later. And then the goddess in front of me was completely naked. There was no seductiveness in the way she stripped, but that didn't matter when your body was this hot. I felt my cock rising.

"This is not a show," she said impatiently.

It was right about then it settled in for me this was really happening. I stood up. Even though her body was about my age, I was almost a foot taller than her. I pulled my shirt over my head. I unbuttoned my pants. I pushed them down to my ankles, my boxers following a moment later, and I stepped out of both.

Artemis stared unabashedly at my half-erect cock. She reached out and poked it with one finger. When it bounced up and down she pulled her hand back quickly, before reaching out and giving it another poke.

"Fascinating," she said.

She continued to prod and flick my manhood while I just kind of stood there. After a minute, she looked at me.

"Isn't it supposed to get harder?" she asked.

"Well, you have to do things to get it that way," I explained.

"Things like what?"

"I mean…" Feeling unbelievably awkward, I grabbed my shaft and slid my hand back and forth a few times, jerking off in front of the goddess. "Something like this usually works pretty well."

"Very well," Artemis said. "I will do that."

She knocked my hand out of the way and grabbed my cock with both of her own. She pushed and pulled almost like she was stabbing a sword. Even the warmth and silkiness of her delicate hands wasn't enough to salvage the sensation.

"Not like that," I said. "You're supposed to use one hand."

Artemis frowned. She let go with her left hand, but continued making the same motion with the other one.

"Hold it the other way. So that your pinky is toward my body."

Again, she listened dutifully. And again, it wasn't enough.

I kept coaching her (go faster, grip lighter, get closer to the tip). Every instruction helped, but there was only so much they could do. The pink tip of Artemis's tongue poked from the corner of her mouth. She was focusing so hard that whatever magic she worked to soundproof the tent disappeared.

Yowls and meaty slaps echoed into the tent from next door. The wails of the nymphs were too much for my stubborn cock. It hardened completely in seconds.

"Success!" Artemis said.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was the noises from next door.

After the initial rush, she seemed to notice the cries herself. The nymphs were screaming their voice boxes out, sounding like a cross between howler monkeys and cats in heat.

Artemis stared at the wall of the tent. I thought she was pondering telling her Hunters to stop them, but instead she said, "Does it really feel that good?"

"Excuse me? You mean sex?"

"Yes," she said. "I've never heard that kind of pleasure before."

I coughed. "I mean, yeah, it feels good. Not everybody sounds like those nymphs, though. That's a little bit extra."

"So I won't make noises like that?"

Artemis looked earnestly at me as she asked it. She didn't mean it as a joke or an insult. It was an honest, genuine question.

"Probably not," I said. "But it's possible."

"I see." Artemis nodded. "Let us find out then."

Before I could react she gave my cock a tug with all her strength. I yelped, and like any guy would, moved forward reflexively to keep from pulling a muscle in the worst place possible. I fell past her onto the pelt-covered floor, exactly like she wanted.

I landed on my back, and she knelt above me a moment later. She really was beautiful, with her cool eyes and fiery hair. I don't know if it was because she was a goddess, but I could've sworn she looked better when you were looking up at her.

"This part I know!" she said excitedly. "Now the penis goes into my vagina many times."

And she dropped her hips resoundingly against mine.

Her face twisted. One eye closed halfway while the other one shut completely. Her lips peeled back, showing off those pearly teeth. Even her nose scrunched up.

"Women subject themselves to this by choice?" she gasped. "It's like I've taken an arrow to the loins!"

I winced. "That's only the first time. I was going to warn you."

"Then why did you not?"

"I didn't expect you to just slam straight down! Usually, girls take it a little slower."

"Excuses," Artemis said. But at the same time, she began to move her hips. Though it started small, soon she was rising up and down me as the pain faded.

Her hands pressed onto my pecs to support her, while her knees were tight to my hips. The fur behind my back felt strangely perfect, its coarse embrace both comfortable and stimulatingly scratchy. Artemis's movements were amateurish. But she was unbelievably tight, more so than any girl I'd ever been inside of. It was like her entire body was one lithe muscle, gripping my cock with then sole intention of squeezing it dry.

"Mm," she groaned as she rose and fell. "Mm. Mmm!"

She didn't sound like the yowling nymphs in our ears. Artemis's voice came out quietly and high-pitched. The noises were dainty, and cute. I wanted to grab her hips and hold her body, but I held back. She should be the one to set the pace… especially since she could turn me to dust or worse if I crossed any lines I shouldn't have.

So I satisfied myself with looking. I took in the way her small breasts bounced wildly. I looked at her stomach, tight with core muscles and only the slightest bits of fat. Auburn muff decorated her crotch. Every time my cock filled her, another cute moan would escape her lips.

"My body feels strange, Perseus!"

Artemis's eyes were wide. She looked confused, or maybe even worried, but her body wasn't stopping.

"It's warm between my legs!" she said. "Like a flood! and it is coming as swift as a stag! What… What… Ah!"

For the first time, the goddess Artemis came.

I could feel it in the way her walls brushed my cock. The way she was riding didn't get any more skilled, but the thought that I was her first, after thousands of years alive, tipped me over the edge.

My own wave of pleasure ripped through me, and I came inside of her, just like the curse demanded. That was what Lou said was the proper treatment.

But…

Artemis wasn't taking on the curse for one person. There were three Hunters affected. I wondered if that meant what I thought it did.

The goddess had gone still. She was leaning forward, red hair hanging messily around her head as she supported herself against my chest. I only saw glimpses of her eyes through the auburn curtain. Even with that much, I could tell. She wasn't done.

"Two to go, right?" I asked.

Artemis nodded weakly. But even a minute later she hadn't started moving again, sitting stunned and flushed instead. At that point I decided that if this was the way I died, it would be worth it.

My hands grabbed Artemis's hips, noticing the way she straightened and yelped at the contact. I rolled us over so that it was her back against the animal skins. Her hands were still on my chest, but instead of supporting her they were fondling my muscles. Her hair fanned out behind her, giving me a perfect view of her face as she gaped at me in shock.

I brought my hips down.

The pain of her first time was gone by now. And unlike when she'd been on top, there weren't any amateurish movements to get in our way. I plunged into her with all the rhythm and technique I'd built up over my life.

Outside, all four of the nymphs were screaming. From what I could piece together, one was on Larry's cock, another had his tongue inside her, and the last two were getting fisted by his enormous hands. I guess that explained the shiny oil all over him. It was lube.

But despite all the noise, I barely noticed the sounds filtering in, fixated on something much closer. Artemis moaned every time our bodies clapped together. I covered her smaller body almost completely, which didn't stop her legs from wrapping reflexively around my hips. Her mouth was stuck open. Those silver eyes, always so alert, were cloudy with pleasure.

I basked in the warmth of her body. I noticed another orgasm hit her lower body, then a third. But above all, I couldn't get enough of the way she was looking at me. In that moment all she cared about was me, and that I keep making her feel this good.

There's only so long a guy can hold himself back in a situation like that. I came for a second time. Which, of course, didn't mean we were finished yet.

I rolled Artemis around onto her stomach, drawing a squawk from her. She had an amazing ass, the kind you only worked your way up to after a thousand years of sprinting swiftly over the roughest terrain nature had to offer. Her back was narrow and slight. I planted my hands on either side of her shoulders and continued thrusting away.

Clapping filled the tent louder than ever as I smacked repeatedly against her perfect, athletic ass. The pale skin on her backside turned pink thrust-by-thrust. Artemis's cute squeaks slowly changed, becoming deeper and more guttural.

I don't know how long we went at it for, just that it was long enough for the air in the tent to turn humid. Even though the braziers in the corners weren't burning any higher, the temperature had risen by multiple degrees. Our bodies were red where they'd repeatedly collided. At some point Artemis stopped making noise entirely, but her hands had grabbed my wrists, holding on and urging me forward.

When I finally came again, I was spent. I slumped down, catching my breath on top of the goddess, cock still embedded in her gooey insides. We'd even outlasted the nymph-omaniacs next door. In fact, it was completely silent outside. I wondered how late it was.

Knowing I wasn't going to stay conscious much longer, I tried to roll off of Artemis, so that I'd pass out on my back on the floor. But when I started to, her grip on my wrists tightened.

"Huh?" I said.

She didn't say anything. But she held on so tight that I couldn't have rolled away even if I was fresh and full of energy. So we stayed like that, there on the floor, breathing hard and run ragged, until I couldn't hang on anymore and drifted finally to sleep.

I woke up vibrating.

Considering nothing in Artemis's tent should've been bouncing (you know, except our hips) that immediately made me bolt upright.

"Hey, look," Clarisse said. "Sleeping Beauty lives."

We were back in our sixties-style ride. Clarisse was behind the wheel with Valentina riding shotgun. Annabeth and Lou were in the middle seats. That left me, Artemis and Emily all the way in the back.

"How did I get here?"

"I carried you," Artemis said.

I glanced down at my body. My clothes were folded next to me, conspicuously not shielding my modesty. I pictured Artemis walking purposefully through a forest hefting my naked body bridal-style. I wasn't sure how I felt about that image.

"You carried Percy?" Emily asked. "You're a very strong girl."

Artemis looked at the mortal. "I am a goddess."

"Well, then you're a very strong goddess."

"Thank you."

"We're still okay?" I asked. "No sign of monsters?"

It had been bothering me since the nymphs first blocked our path. This van was crazy fast, and with it we'd put hundreds of miles between us and the swarm that attacked the train. But monsters were nothing if not persistent. They had to be after us still, and an entire day without any westward progress was bound to have slashed our head start to ribbons.

But Annabeth said, "None but that one."

She pointed out the side window. Standing just off the road was Larry the Cyclops and his nymph lovers. All the nymphs stood with their thighs pressed together and their knees shaking. They looked happier than I'd seen them. Larry had his muscular arms around all four of them, helping them stand with his glistening muscles.

"You know, it keeps bothering me," Lou said suddenly. "All the other parts I get, but why is that Cyclops always covered in oil?"

"Fisting," I said.

"Fisting?"

"Fisting," I repeated.

Either Lou understood what I meant, or she decided she didn't want to.

The nymphs raised their hands. Branch by branch, then trunk by trunk, the forest shrunk away from the road. Our path cleared. Annabeth pressed the gas, accelerating us forward. Larry and his nymphs waved goodbye, and I waved back. Then I leaned deeper in my seat and sighed. It felt good to be moving again.

"So, Artemis," Valentina said, twisting in her seat to look at the goddess, "won't your hunters miss you."

"They are more than mature enough to act without my supervision," Artemis said. "They have done it before. I left a note."

"What did it say? I've run off to take some bomb ass dick while you muck around in the woods?"

I coughed, choking on my own spit. Clarisse laughed. Annabeth eased on more gas, glancing in the rear view mirror to keep an eye what was happening behind her. Artemis wasn't flustered.

"I've done what I had to in order to keep my Hunters healthy and safe," she said. "I do not regret that."

Valentina smiled sweetly. "Aww, that's great."

You could practically smell the sarcasm throughout the car. I sighed, rubbing my face.

I'd forgotten for a minute. Anything Aphrodite did not get along with Artemis. Even Silena, the sweetest counselor at camp when she'd been there, had been ready to start a cat fight whenever the Hunters were around.

"The curse got to the Hunters?" Annabeth asked.

"Three of them," I said. "And it did it before we were anywhere near them."

She was silent for a minute, staring at the road.

"It really is completely random," she complained finally.

"Perhaps not."

Everyone in the car turned to Artemis, except Annabeth who was driving and Valentina who would prefer looking anywhere else.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You are confused about how the curse strikes," Artemis said.

"Well, yeah. Emily has been with us for days and she's fine. It hadn't only gotten Valentina since we left camp. But suddenly it got three hunters… there's no pattern."

"Which does not necessarily mean it is random," Artemis said. "In fact, it could mean the opposite."

Annabeth jolted in her seat. I could see the realization spread across her face in real-time.

"You think it's manual," she breathed.

"I know nothing for certain. However, that is what I suspect."

Lou raised her hand. "We're not talking about the car right now, are we?"

It was a stupid question, so I was really glad she was the one asking it since I'd been wondering the same thing.

"In failing to dispel this curse, I came to know it quite well," Artemis said. She leaned forward, auburn eyebrows set in a line. "It is unlike anything I have seen before. This is the work of something ancient and powerful, as powerful as I. It is entirely possible that the one who cast it picks when it activates, and whom it strikes."

The car got quiet, the only sound the whirr of the engine and the hum of tires. All of us thought about that, turning it over in our heads.

Without warning Annabeth punched the steering wheel, forcing a brief honk out of the van's wimpy horn. "Damn it!"

I felt for her. Randomness — a lack of a pattern and proper solution — was to Aphrodite kids what anything Artemis-related was to Aphrodite ones.

"It cannot strike too often," Artemis offered as a silver lining. "You say it was latent for multiple days. I believe that time was to save power in order to target my Hunters. There are limits to it."

"In other words, just one more reason to fix this as soon as possible," I said.

"Indeed."

Consciously or unconsciously, Annabeth eased on the gas at that. We accelerated west, five women and one goddess traveling in a beat-up van with a naked man, just doing our best to keep anybody from dying.

O-o-O

Things were going too well.

I know what you're thinking. Percy, you're always complaining that your luck sucks, and now you're complaining that it's too good? The problem wasn't that the last day had been ominously easy, cruising across multiple states without spotting a single monster or stopping for anything but the bathroom. The problem was that when things went well for too long, it was always, always to warm you up from something big.

I kept reminding myself of that as we pulled into Colorado Springs.

I was driving. The day was warm and bright. The Rockies lay ahead of us, filling our windshield while out the back window we kissed goodbye to the flat plains we'd been cruising through.

Colorado Springs was a big enough city to have its own suburbs. The population sign said over four-hundred-thousand people lived here, and for the first time since leaving New York, the city kid in me felt in his element.

"The Rockies." Emily sighed nostalgically. "We used to have cabins in Vail, but I haven't seen these mountains since the divorce!"

"You mean a cabin, right?" I asked.

Emily tilted her head. "Hm? No, cabins. Three of them. Why?"

"My mistake," I said.

I forgot for a second how filthy rich her ex-husband really was.

Rachel's mom was riding in the seat beside me. Artemis sat behind us. The others were laying wherever was most comfortable, napping or catching up on sleep they missed while driving through the night.

"The Rockies are wonderful mountains," Artemis said. "So much prey. On our last visit, my hunters even caught a young dragon."

"Dragons are real too?" Emily asked.

"Oh, yes," Artemis said. "As real as jackalopes."

"I see." Emily did an impressive job of keeping her confusion out of her voice.

Reluctantly, I eased off the gas as we navigated the city. In the sparsely populated land we'd been traveling through earlier it was easy to push past a hundred. Of course, it helped that Lou could make any cop coming after us drop what he was doing and turn off for an extra donut break.

"What time is it?" Emily asked suddenly.

I glanced at the dashboard. "Noon. Why?"

She frowned. "That's strange. It feels like it's getting dark."

Now that she mentioned it, the road did look dimmer. It was almost enough to make me turn our headlights on.

"Maybe clouds rolled in?" she suggested.

Boom!

A green shape hit the road in front of us hard enough to shake the earth. The others all jolted awake, Lou and Valentina screaming in surprise as they came to

"That's not a cloud!" I shouted, crushing the brakes just fast enough for us to skid to a stop instead of crashing into the wall of scales.

"I told you they were real," Artemis said.

Emily stared out the windshield with terrified eyes, stiff in her seat at the sight of an honest-to-gods dragon.

It was bigger than Peleus, the pet dragon at Camp who guarded the Golden Fleece, but not so big as Ladon. It looked straight out of a storybook, like it should be kidnapping princesses and fighting with knights, not blocking traffic on a weekday. Semi-intelligent eyes locked on our van. Its maw opened, flames swirling inside eager to escape.

As its fiery breath erupted toward us, ready to melt our tires and turn our van to scrap, Artemis snapped her fingers.

The flames dissolved into thin air. The dragon jerked its head back. It shut its eyes, roaring and starting to thrash. It was shrinking. An antler burst out of its head above one eye. The same thing repeated on the other side as all its scales melted away. I watched as its long tail shrunk to a short bob, fur spreading across its body, and listened as its roars quieted to nearly-silent sniffles. By the time the process was complete, a Jackalope no higher than my knee stood alone in the deep impact crater it had created.

The jackalope's eyes widened. It scrambled across the median, barely dodging an oncoming truck, and fled off down an alley.

"What?" Emily said hoarsely.

Artemis giggled. "I'll tell you a secret," she whispered. "Those are only real because I make them."

"Look!" Annabeth said.

She pointed toward the horizon, and I realized that the dragon had only been the beginning.

Dark shapes were flying toward us from the mountains. Dozens of medium-sized monsters were among them, accompanied by hundreds of stymphalian birds. Something dawned on me.

"That's why they hadn't caught up with us," I said. "They went around and set a trap."

"They're over here too," Clarisse said grimly from the right side of the car.

"This side as well!" Lou said on the left.

I froze with my hand on the wheel, unsure which way to turn.

"We'll be fine though, right?" Emily said nervously. "I mean, Artemis can make them all into jackalopes!"

"I would dearly love to," Artemis said. "However, gods can only interfere so much. That dragon's breath was sufficient to be a direct challenge to me. Smaller monsters we will not be so lucky with."

"We punch straight through them," Annabeth said from the back. "Our van is still faster. If we can get to the other side, we can outrun them."

I wasn't so sure. This was the mountains, not the flat straight roads of the Midwest. We might have a higher top-speed, but could we use that going over steep passes and around sharp curves?

We'd just have to see.

I let off the brakes and hit the gas to the floor. We zoomed through the city, weaving between cars and pedestrians while accelerating directly toward our possible doom.

So, you know, a Thursday.

The first monster to reach us was a Stymphalian Bird. It dive bombed, desperate to get the first bite of these tasty demigods.

It didn't really think that plan through. The van smashed through it like a bug on the road, and the monster's body bounced to the ground in a broken heap. That was a good start for us, but it was far from over. Five more birds pulled the same stunt, getting the same result as their friend, but the sixth managed to hit the glass with its bronze beak.

Hairline cracks spread across the surface in a flash. Lou muttered a spell and the windshield held out through the next impacts, but I was already struggling to see. Puffs of black feathers, splotches of blood, and long glass fractures combine for some awful visibility conditions. They never warn you about the important stuff when you're taking your driver's test.

A harpy pulled alongside Lou's window. She swiped with her claws, trying to break the class to reach the daughter of Hecate, but Annabeth stretched across and spun the window crank to lower the glass. As soon as there was a gap, Clarisse thrust a spear out, vaporizing the monster instantly.

"Where did you get that?" I shouted.

"It was under the seat!" she said happily. "And it's in my size!"

That window was covered now, Clarisse using it like she was part of a phalanx, but it was only a matter of time before the monsters made it in. They were on all sides. I could hear heavy footsteps; the ones not lucky enough to be able to fly were getting close. The only thing keeping the swarm from forcing us to crash was restraint on their part. They wanted us alive.

Me, specifically.

"Go right!" Annabeth shouted.

I couldn't even see what was right anymore, but I banked when she told me to. Anything was better than here.

We turned a couple more evil pigeons into roadkill and tore into a huge empty parking lot. It was big enough to service a football stadium, but the only building was three stories and an eye-catching shade of purple.

I think I knew what about it caught Annabeth's eye. There were no windows, and the walls were sturdy concrete. It was practically a bunker in the middle of the city. The tires squealed as I braked hard on the sidewalk in front of the entrance.

"Go! Go! Go!" I said. "Get inside!"

A harpy crashed through the windshield from directly above, breaking both Lou's spell and the glass. She clawed at me, only to get a faceful of Riptide. All four doors were hurled open, and we jumped out into the swarm.

It was only a few feet to the entrance. I let Emily go first, swinging Riptide to fend off more nasty winged beasts. At the entrance to the parking lot, I saw giants and multiple oversized cows like the one from New York charging toward us.

Artemis moved slowly, walking behind the others as they ran. I was going to yell at her to hurry up when a Stymphalian Bird made the mistake of dive-bombing her.

As soon as I saw her smile, I realized that was exactly what she'd been hoping for.

"It seems I've been attacked," she said.

Every monster within fifty feet spontaneously turned to dust. Waves fell to the ground like sooty rain as Artemis reached the rest of us.

"You saw it," she said. "That bird attacked me. I'm afraid the rest just happened to get caught up as I dealt with it."

There were more monsters to replace the ones she took care of. Many more. But it had bought us enough time to get inside at least. All of us ducked through the door, into what the sign advertised as LION STUDIOS: HOME OF THE HOTTEST SHOWS AROUND!

It was dark on the inside from the lack of windows. No lights were on. Clarisse grabbed the front desk and hauled it in front of the door as a makeshift barricade. Then we all forged deeper.

The others huddled behind me while I raised Riptide in the air, using the sword's natural light to give us something to see by. It reminded me of traveling in the Labyrinth, if the Labyrinth smelled like cleaning products and old wax.

We walked up a flight of stairs and out into a cavernous room big enough for our steps to echo. The floor changed from linoleum to polished wood. No matter how high I lifted Riptide, we couldn't see more than a sliver of the massive room.

Then there was a soft ping! and my vision turned white.

I heard the others growling and moaning behind me, blinded the same way I was. I managed to get a hand up, blocking my face, and that helped a little bit.

"Welllllllllllcome, ladies and gentleman, to your favorite show on the air!" A female voice exclaimed over the loudspeaker. "That's right! It's time for, Hole in the Wall: Couple's Edition, the show with more plunges and penetration than any other! Today, your lovely contestants will be playing for the most valuable prize we've ever offered: survival."