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"Long time no see."

Asbolus didn't look pleased, which was normal, but I had a feeling that the reason for his displeasure this time wasn't the usual one.

Seeing Asbolus in my dreams was growing common, so I wasn't surprised by his appearance. My dream showed nothing special: just a field of green grass and a dark cloudy sky. It looked like it was going to rain, so I swiped my hand to change the grey clouds to fluffy white ones instead.

"You hold the Madness of Hera," he said shortly. It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about.

"Oh, right," I recalled the dream from a while ago. "Heracles had it, but I took it out of him. I thought it was gone in the Void?"

Asbolus shook his head. "No, it remains in that chaotic domain, it may be scattered because of your doing, but it can be pulled out any time."

"Interesting...so I could take it out?"

"Yes."

"And I can curse it on someone? Or something?"

Asbolus' stoic expression was betrayed by his tail twitching. "Perhaps."

"Nice, that'll be useful," I said thoughtfully. "But I'm guessing that you didn't visit me just to talk to me about the curse of madness."

"Your father advises you to sing, soon, for whatever you have prepared," the centaur replied shortly. "There isn't much time left."

I grimaced. "I know, I know. But thanks for telling me this, it's good to confirm that singing will work in the Underworld."

Asbolus nodded before fading into dust. Only a few moments passed before my next visitor entered.

"Jade," Nico greeted, bending over to lie down on the nonphysical grass.

"Hey, kid, how are you holding up?" I asked, eyeing the dark circles under his eyes and his pale skin. He only seemed to lose more color every time I saw him.

Nico half-heartedly shrugged as he admired the sky above us. "It's hard."

"How's camp treating you?"

"It's whatever… no one really talks to me but it's not like I want to talk to people either," he mumbled. "I feel like I don't belong."

I laid down next to him, watching the sky together. "You can come to California and stay with me, if you'd like."

"No, you said that camp is the safest place for now and to learn all that I can while I'm here. Camp is fine, it's just… I still can't sleep sometimes, so I just go to the Underworld, to see Bianca on the hero's island, and it helps to see her, but-"

My mouth twisted when his voice got wobbly.

"I miss her so much," he finished the last part in a hoarse whisper and covered his face with an arm.

I looked at him sadly. "Yeah, she must miss you too."

Nico quietly nodded, his face still covered. "She likes it when I visit her, but I know she wants to try for rebirth. I think me visiting her all the time keeps her back."

"Did you talk to her about rebirth?"

"No," Nico said, his voice was small. "I'm scared of what she'll say."

I hummed in agreement. "It's okay to be scared. But that's something you need to talk it out with her, Nico."

"Yeah," he sighed heavily. "But, not now."

I watched him crack a huge yawn.

"Not now," I repeated after him. "You should get a lot of rest instead."

Nico uncovered his face. "Okay, that sounds nice. Could you…?"

I gave him a small smile. "Of course," I said and patted his head.

"Sleep," I told him. Nico's eyes immediately drooped and he yawned a second time.

"Thanks, Jade," he murmured as his eyes fluttered shut. "Your dreams are so nice…"

Even though it was just a dream, I kept him company until I lost track of time. I swept away his bangs from his eyes; Nico needed a haircut. I wondered if anyone back at camp was looking after him, but I doubted it.

Nico's curled up body resembled a puppy. He'd grown a bit, but he was still a small kid. He was still young and going through too much.

Because of me, I thought to myself. I brought this on him.

The thought made me feel all the more responsible for him.

Justin POV

When Fritz told his children about the possibility of having a new mother, Justin was skeptical.

Because, well, not all families with stepfathers or stepmothers or step-siblings were happy stories.

But Yuri was great. The woman was way too kind and considerate to be considered an 'evil stepmother'. When Fritz broke the news about a current girlfriend but potential stepmother, Justin was rather happy that his father managed to find another person to be with; his biological mom hadn't been the best of mothers. His dad needed someone who was good and patient, and Yuri was exactly that.

If anything, Justin wryly believed that it was Yuri who was too good for his dad. He thought his dad was lucky to meet Yuri and sometimes didn't know what she saw his father. Besides that, he knew that Paige was also very approving of Yuri, so neither of them were worried about the stepmother.

It was the step-sibling he had been concerned about.

It was like the opposite of Cinderella, which was funny. Instead of the evil stepmom and two evil step-siblings to the orphaned Cinderella, it was the Cinderella that seemed evil.

Paige had been excited at the idea of gaining a sister of a similar age while Justin was initially wary.

The first impression wasn't so bad. They first met Jade abroad, in Turkey, when she and Yuri was helping with the upcoming film King of Sparta that starred Tristan McLean. Fritz had told him and Paige that like themselves, Yuri and Jade worked in the film industry. Yuri was a costume designer and wardrobe caretaker while Jade had part-time jobs as a stunt woman, which he thought was cool since it was a shared interest between everyone. The entire family were entertainment workers that way.

At first glance, Jade seemed as average as a teenager could be: very laid back with a huge tendency of dozing or zoning off. Of course, she wasn't quite the average teenager since she knew how to sword fight, twist, and flip like a gymnast, but there was a vibe that he couldn't quite shake off. It wasn't that Jade was very tomboy-ish, or had a weird habit of falling asleep anywhere, or her ability to knock out for more than twelve hours. He didn't mention the feeling to his sister, Paige, because Paige was too busy fangirling over Lola Peters during their visit to Turkey.

Justin wasn't overly worried about the weird feeling though, because he and Paige were used to weird things.

They shared a secret. They could see ghosts and monsters that no one else could see, the supernatural stuff that people would watch on TV or in movies. Due to childish curiosity, Justin and Paige passed it off as their imagination initially until they persisted throughout their elementary years.

They never told anyone, except their parents but that had been a huge mistake. When they were younger, he and Paige would constantly try to convince their parents that they could see ghosts but their parents often brushed off their words. A few years later right before Justin turned ten, their mother cited 'irreconcilable differences' as one of the reasons for a divorce. One of the other reasons was that she couldn't stand Justin or Paige's stories of monsters walking around them on a daily basis.

Ever since then, Justin and Paige never spoke another word about the monsters and kept their mouth shut. Even when their father would kindly ask them about their sudden silence of their grand stories of random strangers with dragon tails or goat legs or one eye, they dodged the inquiries.

He and Paige quietly agreed to simply tell their father that they 'grew up'. That it was all made up.

Now, they were both experts in keeping poker faces whenever they saw strange things. They chose to ignore it all since they experienced firsthand how someone could reject them for what they see.

And this cursed ability to see the supernatural is what made Justin think that he could handle almost anything. He thought he knew how weird the world could be, but he realized just how wrong he was when he met his new step-sister.

It all first started when he was hanging around the movie set while he and his sister waited for Yuri and Jade to finish their work. If he lingered behind corners and eavesdropped on some conversations, he'd overhear of how some of the more vocal set workers would mutter unkind rumors about Jade. The fact that she'd randomly disappear at random hours of the day and night, how she'd fall asleep while standing when the director was talking, how Yuri would constantly fret over her daughter, the suspicious liquids that Jade sometimes drank, the standoff attitude she'd sometimes blindside someone with, the weird faraway distant looks at the most random moments, and more.

Honestly, Justin's first thought after hearing the rumors led him to think that Jade was into some sort of drugs and possibly an alcoholic. It wasn't a case unheard of since there were plenty of problematic teens in the entertainment industry struggling with substances. Also, Jade had the circumstance of having ADHD; his dad had told him and Paige about Jade's learning disability beforehand.

And then he confronted her about it, to which she refuted quite vehemently, even scolding him for putting the blame of misbehaviors on disorders. And right after that tense conversation, she disappeared again, making Justin and Paige search for her when they discovered her secret.

They hadn't told Jade a part of their story, but they wouldn't have found her if a shadow of a half-man half-horse on a wall of an abandoned building hadn't pointed them in the right direction.

Paige had later told him that the shadow had probably belonged to a centaur, which was a creature Justin could not wrap his head around. How does that work? A torso of a man attached to the body of a horse?

But that was beside the point, in which they literally walked into her secret.

After witnessing the fight with the carnivorous ice giant, his world was blown into something larger because of Jade. He and Paige immediately understood the reasons behind the absences, the tiredness, the weird mutters, and her behavior.

And almost equally importantly, it explained why he and his sister would occasionally see weird things growing up that no one else would see. The one eyed giant, the multi-headed serpents, vampire girls with robot and lizard legs, and more. They had always been quick to shake off the experiences, but Jade had confirmed their strange sights.

It also explained the scars. Justin may or may have not taken it upon himself to carry a makeshift first aid kit with him at all times. So now, whenever Paige noticed Jade disappearing, his sister would let him know and then he'd have to treat her injuries. He knew that there was a special type of food and drink that only demigods and Greek gods could consume, ambrosia and nectar, which could easily heal her instead of using normal mortal treatments. But once, Justin and Paige saw her catch a fever by eating too much and immediately decided that regular first aid was best. After that, they chose to hide Jade's stash of ambrosia and nectar in the house so that she wouldn't rely on it too much.

Jade was really strange, Justin knew. She was sarcastic, never let people know her thoughts, kept everyone at a distance, even her own mother.

Justin would catch Yuri's sorrowful eyes every time Jade would avoid answering her questions. It put a strain on the whole family, because it was uncomfortable for Paige and Justin seeing Jade being distant with Yuri, and it upset Yuri, which would also upset Fritz. All of this would ultimately put more stress on Paige and Justin, who could only stand by and watch the entire ordeal.

It wasn't a pleasant cycle.

The last straw had been that one chilly autumn morning, when Justin woke up to Yuri sobbing. He had heard her voice through the walls from his bedroom and the echoes of his stepmother's cries still haunted him in nightmares.

Where's Jade? Yuri had cried, tears running down her face. Did they take her? Where is she? She's not in her room, I can't find her in the house, she can't be gone-

Yuri had nearly dissolved into an anxiety attack when she couldn't find Jade anywhere in the house. Justin, Fritz, and Paige had jolted out of their post-slumber state and dove into a search-and-rescue mode, combing through their home to find Jade.

They finally found Jade sitting outside in the backyard garden, in her night clothes. And judging from her clammy skin and stiff joints, they all knew that she must have been there for at least several hours, instead of sleeping in her bed, like a normal human being.

Justin wanted to immediately yell at her, demanding to know why she was outside, to explain herself, to say sorry for worrying everyone, especially Yuri.

But at the same time, no one could say anything because they also saw her scabbed knuckles and tear-stained face. Red eyes. Dirt lining underneath her fingernails.

And a dead, dead, cold look in her flat eyes.

It was a look that didn't care for anyone, it was one that could watch life die without trying to help. Someone who was about to give up with trying to live a life worth living. It was completely disinterested, too dispassionate and disconnected from humanity.

For the first time ever, Justin was scared of his step-sister.

Before, he had been scared for her. The entire family, save their dad who didn't know the situation, were scared for her; they worried about her because of her dangerous half-life.

But this time, he was scared of Jade.

Justin fought down a shiver. He hated that cold expression. It reminded him that his stepsister wasn't human.

She was part god. She was something not fully human. She was just as unworldly as the monsters that he saw growing up.

"Are you okay?" His sister's voice broke Justin out of his reverie.

"I'm fine, really," Justin insisted at Paige's dubious stare. "Let's just get this over with already."

They stood in front of their house's basement door, where they had a mini gym. The door was closed, but they could hear music thumping through the walls.

"You're saying she's been in there for four hours now?" Paige doubtfully asked.

Justin grunted in confirmation. "I'm telling you, she spends a minimum of six hours in the gym. I have no idea why she's doing this, she won't tell me."

Paige shook her head. "Of course she wouldn't tell you."

Justin narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "What's that supposed to mean?"

His sister rolled her eyes. "You're the bad cop while I'm the good cop, remember? That's how we deal with her, so it's my turn now."

Justin sighed and schooled his expression into one that he usually adopted when facing an obstacle. He pushed the door open. Music drowned their ears as they walked in and Justin pushed down the urge to shiver when cold air washed over him. Jade must have left the air conditioner on for a long time.

Speaking of which, Jade was on the floor, sweaty with hair plastered over her face. She wore basketball shorts and a sports tank, so Justin could see the muscles in her arms, legs, and back. As a stunt double, Jade was already fit; Paige had testified that her knuckles hurt when she once tried punching Jade's abs. If he wasn't half-angry at her, Justin would have considered asking Jade for her workout regime because he could use some advice on how to bulk up.

But that wasn't the point right now. They needed to interrogate her.

My legs felt like jelly.

Glancing down at the treadmill tracker, I eyed the time limit. Two more minutes until the course was over.

I shook the tension out of my hands, pumping my arms to carry the momentum since my legs were starting to lag. The air around me felt muggy despite the air conditioner blasting in the miniature gym. Sweat covered every part of my body, ponytail forming clumps behind my head, strands of hair plastered to my face. I could feel a bead of sweat trickling down my spine and the narrow space between my sports bra and skin. My throat was dry, breathing was difficult. My body never felt more heavy than right now.

This sucked.

One minute left.

I was a child of Hypnos, the god of sleep, for goodness sake, not the god of running or whatever. I tried focusing on the music booming through the room, my inhales following the fast tempo, pushing my limbs according to the beat.

30 seconds. Come on.

I wanted to flip the bird at Hypnos. Any of the other demigods of major gods or goddesses could easily outpace me in stamina, heck, even Silena could probably run longer than I could if she really wanted to.

0 seconds.

I slapped the red stop button with enough force that the treadmill hand bar rattled. The machine slowed and I didn't bother stepping down, energy way too depleted to even do something like that. My feet stuck to the moving belt and once it reached the edge of the treadmill, I toppled over like a sack of potatoes onto the cushioned gym floor. Groaning, I rolled over to my knees and tried to get my breathing under control.

"Oh gross," I commented when I saw my sweat covering the floor where I laid. My elbows trembled when I pushed myself up from the ground, knees wobbling and thighs burning, as I grabbed a wet wipe from a cabinet to scrub the floor when the door swung open.

I greeted my step-siblings with a wave, tossing the dirtied wipe into the trash bin. They couldn't hear me over the blasting music, but the point was to make a physical indication of a hello.

Paige crossed her arms in a manner much like Yuri that I sensed I was about to receive a lecture. She opened her mouth and began speaking in what seemed like scolding, but I couldn't discern words because the music drowned out her voice.

I shook my head and cupped my ear.

Paige tried talking over the music again, but the sounds were muffled. Justin threw up his hands next to her and stalked over to the boombox, turning off the music.

The sudden absence of sound left the air ringing in silence. I took a swig of water.

"What's happening." I sounded tired.

"We're staging an intervention," Paige declared. Her ringing voice in the suddenly music-less room felt strange to my ears.

Am I hearing things? I snapped my fingers next to my ear, testing my hearing. Nope, ears were working fine.

I breathed loudly, panting from the physical exercise, and tilted my head in confusion. "What?"

"You're working yourself to the bone. Justin said you've been spending at least six hours everyday in the gym ever since you got back from camp a week ago," she said in a very concerned tone.

Paige had been gone for some advertisement shooting so she hadn't seen me when I came back to our home in LA. She wouldn't have known that I'd been spending so much time in the family gym. This only meant that Justin had told her about my schedule.

Snitch.

I glared at him. Justin didn't look the least bit guilty or bothered, returning my annoyed expression with an equally vexed one.

"Gossiper," I muttered as I bent over stretching my legs and arms to relieve the tight muscles. They watched me stretch for a little bit before Paige began the intervention.

"Is there a reason why you're obsessed with working out all of a sudden?" Paige asked.

I walked over to a freestanding punching bag, adjusting the chain lever to bring it down from the ceiling to my height.

"Gotta stay in shape."

Justin snorted. "You're a stunt double. You're in shape."

"More training can't hurt," I said airily.

"The amount of training you're doing is ridiculously exhausting. There's no way you're not hurting yourself doing this much exercise," Paige argued.

"I'm being careful," I said. "I know what I'm doing."

Paige was hardly convinced. "Jade, this is not normal. If you were a pro-athlete, this would be normal, but you're not. Yeah, you're a stunt double, but you're fit and skilled enough to already handle any stunt. And lastly, we know you're a demigod, but you were never obsessed with working out like this."

I didn't respond to her words.

I'd been home for about a week, and I was going to meet Luke in ten days. I had only six days to whip my ass into better shape, or as ready as I could be to just prepare myself. The remaining four days before meeting Luke was going to be spent doing a task.

A very dangerous, risky, stupid and suicidal task.

You're probably going to die.

I shook my head to snap myself out of the negative thought.

Paige didn't give up trying to get a response. She was impressive in that way, Paige was one of the most persistent people I knew and one of the few who could press answers out of me. I tried not to let my face show my unease because if she continued this line of questioning, I was afraid that my mouth was going to spill something. Paige had a way of asking the types of questions that hit hard and to the point, and I didn't have the willpower to lie right now.

"Jade, what's going on? It's like you're training for something big, something that even you need to prepare for. And it seems like it's going to be dangerous, or you wouldn't be so serious with this."

I turned around, grabbing boxing gloves that hung from a rack on the wall. I'm glad my back was facing them because I wasn't able to keep a straight face at Paige's sharp deductions. My hands threatened to shake out of nervousness from her uncanny ability of just knowing. I focused on the gloves; they were elastic, with thick padding over the knuckles, and fitted over my hands with a comfortable level of tightness.

"You're overthinking things, Paige. There's nothing going on," I told her.

"You're a stunt double, Jade, not an actress. You think we can't tell when you're lying?" Justin said. "We know you lie all the time, we just let them pass because it's not worth bringing up."

"Wow, you're really considerate, Justin. Thanks for that," I returned over a shoulder.

"I'm going to murder her," Justin muttered to Paige, purposely loud enough to let me hear.

I turned around to look at Justin. "I'd like to see you try."

Justin folded his arms. "Don't think that I can't handle you just because you know how to fight with swords."

I didn't know why but something about that remark sparked a bit of aggression inside my stomach. My gloved hands curled into fists.

"I don't need swords to beat the crap out of you."

Something in Justin's eyes chilled. "I'm well aware, but that's not what I was talking about."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"We'll tell Yuri."

My hands uncurled. "You wouldn't."

Justin's expression didn't change but it now a vague hint of victory. He fully understood the weight of his threat.

"We would."

I involuntarily swallowed out of nervousness. Letting Yuri know what was happening was the last thing I wanted to do. If she got a hint of what was going on, she'd freak out, which would freak me out, and that's not what I needed.

I tightened my jaw. "There's nothing to tell Yuri."

Justin's arms folded. "We don't need to say much to Yuri for her to badger you."

"You're so annoying," I exhaled loudly in frustration. "You both need to stop digging into my business. There's nothing going on and you're making a big deal out of nothing."

Paige spoke up, "Jade. Tell us. Or the next time we ask you about this, we're asking in front of Yuri."

They got me.

I looked up at the ceiling and ripped off the gloves, returning them on the wall hook.

"This is ridiculous," I muttered as I turned off the AC, grabbing my water bottle and gym towel in the process. I stomped out out of the gym, heading over to the kitchen to eat something because I was starving now.

"So you're going to tell us?" Paige asked as she and Justin followed me. I tried not to react to the triumphant edge in her voice but a glare managed to sneak out.

Making a noncommittal sound, I scanned the fridge contents and took out leftovers of Yuri's cooking from the night before. I might have slammed the microwave door a bit harder than necessary.

I stared down my step-siblings from the other side of the kitchen counter with my arms crossed while the microwave hummed behind me. Neither Paige's expectant, sparkling eyes nor Justin's smirk faded even when I frowned at them.

"If you say a word about what I'm about to tell you to Yuri, I will make sure your memories are wiped so you remember absolutely nothing about your life."

My threat hung in the air and it could have been my wishful thinking, but I hoped the air chilled a few degrees at the tone of my voice. I watched Paige and Justin exchange glances, as if judging whether or not to take my threat seriously.

"You're joking, right? About wiping our memories?" Justin hesitated.

"I am not."

After I come back from the River Lethe, I was going to have enough drops of memory erasing liquids to wipe out a couple of people's brains.

"I still want to know," Paige said. She didn't look the least bit bothered.

The microwave dinged and I took out the tupperware and started eating. After swallowing down a couple of bites, I began telling them from beginning to end about what was happening in Camp Half-Blood, about Luke, about the anti-god sentiments, and lastly, my plan.

They weren't happy about it, to say the least.

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