I’m Coming Too!

Someone was watching me.

The feeling filled my head, jolting me wide awake. I lay there beside the pool with my eyes still closed. Chirping birds and chilly air told me the time was still early. Around dawn, probably.

"If you're going to stab me in my sleep, I should warn you that IT won't kill me. And I'll be pretty pissed off after."

The only answer was a feminine snort.

It wasn't that Leila had woken up before me. I could still feel her head resting on my forearm. Now that I knew this wasn't an assassin standing over us, I could move on to other things, like feeling embarrassed about being as naked as the day I was born.

I cracked my eyes open and looked up… but not as high as I expected to.

A girl I'd never met before sat above us. She was gorgeous in a severe way, like a particularly pretty drill sergeant. Her skin was dark and her hair was darker. She had pretty black eyes with long lashes, but I didn't like the look in them. I'd seen corpses that looked more full of life. Her hands gripped a set of armrests above the rusted spokes of a wheelchair. A threadbare woven blanket lay in her lap, covering her legs.

She didn't say anything, so I slid my arm out from under Leila and rolled to my feet.

"Can I help you?" I asked, backing toward my clothes.

"You're that god," the girl said.

"That's me."

"I have something to say to you."

"Can it wait until I put on my clothes?"

"No," she said. "Put them on as we talk. You can manage that much."

It was a ruder reception than I expected… But then again, given the fact that I didn't recognize her, this must've been one of the Roman demigods. I had basically just had sex in the middle of her house. Even if my partner lived here too, I figured I wouldn't be too happy if I had to wake up my friend's one-night stand.

"Fair," I said, nabbing my pants and starting to pull them on.

Despite what she said, the girl in the wheelchair didn't speak immediately. I had my underwear and pants in place by the time she said, "I do not like you."

I shrugged, pulling my shirt over my head. "Plenty of people don't. Is that why you woke me up before the sun was up? Because I'm really not used to being awake this early."

"You have done something terrible."

"I know it might look that way, but I promise Leila asked for everything I did to her."

"That!"

I blinked as a long finger tipped with a sharp nail was jabbed toward me.

"You swept in from nowhere, just like his sister did!" said the girl. "You smile, and laugh, and joke. That's what lured them in, and now the damage is done. You've given them hope."

She spat the word like it was the most foul curse ever thought up. But all it could make me think of was Martin from the day before.

First we were running from the aftermath of Kronos's attack, then we were meeting the other half of our pantheon that we never knew existed, and by the time I wasn't worrying about Prometheus I was drunk enough not to be worrying about much of anything. But the buzz was gone now. All that was left was the dull throb of an almost-headache. For the first time I could properly mourn the boy that saved me. The one who sacrificed his life because in me, he saw a chance for a better future.

"Hope, huh?" I said.

She wheeled herself closer, scowling.

"We were doing fine before!" she said. "We were surviving!"

"That doesn't sound very fine to me."

"But it is! In this world, that's the best you can ask for. If you try more, if you try to fight back… You die."

She said it like it was a simple fact, something as straightforward as the sun rising and setting at each end of the day.

"We were anonymous here. We had what we needed to keep living. We were safe. And now you've ruined everything by giving the others hope, the most dangerous thing to have!"

By the end she was yelling loud enough to drown out the early-rising birds. Some life had crept into those passion-less eyes, but it was raw and angry. It looked like she wanted to slap me, but even from right in front of me I would've had to bend down for her to reach.

"You're right," I said. "Hope is dangerous."

It was what cost Martin his life. The girl perked up.

"Exactly–"

"But it's not the most dangerous thing," I said. "That's living with no hope. Because at that point, you aren't even living. You're just breathing while dead."

I'd seen it, as much as it tore at my heart. The moment he died was the happiest Martin was in the weeks that I knew him. It was like he'd come alive again, or been born for a second time. 

The girl in the wheelchair stared at me for a long time. Her fingers clutched the armrests tightly. I could almost hear her teeth grinding, and then her face cleared.

"He's going to want to come with you," she said finally. "Make of that what you want."

"Who will?"

"Jason."

"But they need him here!" I said.

"You're right," she said. "We do."

She wheeled herself in a circle, turning away.

"What's your name?" I called after her.

"Reyna Ramirez-Arellano," she said after a pause. "Former Praetor of the Twelfth Legion."

The girl disappeared inside the wolf house on creaking wheels, all without a look back.

O-O-O

There was no getting back to sleep after that. I carried Leila inside to keep her from catching a cold, then I went walking.

The Wolf House wasn't quite like anywhere else I'd been. It was really nice. The walls were mahogany, or maybe an equally expensive wood, like redwood. The carpets were fresh and nice. Every piece of furniture was functional, sturdy, and stylish. If it had been on the market — if real estate had still been a thing at all — I was sure its price would be well into the millions, especially in Wine Country.

At the same time, those nice walls were completely bare. Every piece of furniture was there for a purpose— seating, storage, or table space. Even walking for hours I didn't spot a single thing I'd describe as decorative. This was practicality on an unlimited budget.

The hallways wound into each other with tons of rooms branching off. There were so many that I doubted even Jason could've said what was in all of them.

I wasn't just wandering aimlessly, but my search went on for so long that I might as well have been. Finally, around the time others were starting to stir and go looking for breakfast, I found the person I was after.

There was a reason it took so long. Calypso in the most out-of-the-way room I'd visited yet. It was a wood room with nothing but a table and two-chairs, like the kind you saw criminals interrogated in on TV. Calypso sat in one of the chairs, reading a book held in one hand. Her other hand was raised, Mist gathered below the wrist as she cast the strangest spell I'd ever seen.

A screen about the size of a tv hovered in the air above the table, connected by a trail of mist to Calypso's hand. Video of a forest played on it, with a huge buck grazing in the middle of a lush clearing. Movement caught my eye in the background. A hunter in a neon vest was creeping through the undergrowth. Opposite Calypso, a thoroughly-bound Lelantos watched the scene with wide eyes, completely enraptured.

"What are you doing?"

Lelantos didn't so much as glance my way as I entered, but Calypso paused her reading.

"Good morning." She smiled at me. "I was just giving our guest his due. You know, for all the hard work he put in."

The hunter stopped moving. He raised his rifle, bracing it against his shoulder. The stag heard the safety click off. Its head jerked up, leaving the tasty grass behind. Lelantos strained against his binds to lean closer.

"We couldn't have gotten this far without his help," Calypso said. "Willingly offered or not, it would have been so much worse if Kronos discovered us without his aura partially shielding us."

Bang! 

The hunter pulled the trigger. There was a flash, then a crack. The buck launched into motion. Lelantos gasped and jerked in his seat, face looking like I kid that just spotted Santa shimmying down his chimney.

The second before you could tell if the bullet had hit or if the buck dodged, the screen reset to how it looked when I walked in.

"Not again!" Lelantos howled.

"Of course, his reaction when Kronos attacked must also be taken into account," Calypso said brightly. "He tried to order my wind spirits around. And, most importantly, he demanded they leave my Love behind. Serious offenses."

I tried not to blush at being called 'her Love'. Lelantos groaned.

"I said I was sorry!" he whined. "Can't you let me see the bullet connect? One drop of blood and I won't complain anymore. I swear."

"That's strange," Calypso said. "I see his lips moving, but I can't seem to hear any words. Oh well. What can I help you with, Percy?"

I spared the huntsman Titan one last look, already deciding I didn't have it in me to feel sorry for him.

I walked beside Calypso, turning around to face her while leaning my butt against the table. "Can Prometheus be trusted?"

"He's a man of his word," she said. "Unfortunately, his words are always picked in advance, and his promises tend to be only as specific as they need to be. He's the least-honest truthful man I've ever met."

"He's offered us his help. He says he wants what we want: the Titans gone."

I thought that was a pretty major revelation, but Calypso just nodded.

"I assumed so."

"Is there something I'm missing?" I asked. "Why does it seem like you expected this?"

Calypso smiled sympathetically. Her fingers wiggled, and the Sisyphus-style video changed scenes. We both ignored the way Lelantos whined. A series of images flashed past— a banquet of the gods, a torch held high, and a wide flat rock dyed black by dried blood. The entire life of Prometheus flashed by, sped up to hit the key events in a few minutes.

"Uncle has suffered in his life," Calypso said. "But he molded the first humans with his own hands. He earned Zeus's wrath when he won fire for them with his wits. If there is one thing I can say he loves for certain other than himself, it's his creation. And what has happened to humans?"

"They've been slaughtered," I said.

In just three years how many lives had been lost? How many would continue to be snuffed out, hunted down by monsters or smited by out-of-control immortals? 

"I believe that he wants to protect them," Calypso said. "He will help us, so long as our goals include that."

A coarse chuckle interrupted us. We looked across the table, where Lelantos was watching us with a smirk.

"Something to add?" I asked.

"No, no, you two seem to have it covered," he said. "It's just… Well, I couldn't help but laugh, hearing her go on. You think a desire to protect mortals is driving him?"

"You think it is not?" Calypso asked defensively.

"Maybe that's a part," Lelantos said. "A very small part, deep in his mind. One he'd probably cite himself, if pressed. But the main reason he wants revenge? Everybody knows that."

The room went silent. We waited for more, but Lelantos just returned to smirking at us.

"Are you going to explain?" I asked.

"Are you going to show me the end of that lovely movie earlier?" he countered.

Calypso growled. The magic screen changed back to the forest, just at the moment of the climax. The hunter's gun fired. It burst cleanly through the skull of the deer— except just at the moment of impact, the deer's head morphed into a perfect copy of Lelantos, accurate gore and all.

"Happy?" Calypso asked.

Lelantos shivered, just about managing to keep his smirk.

"Y-Yes. Message received. You wanted to know why Prometheus would hate the Titans? It's because they don't trust him one bit. He was one of Kronos's generals when they rose to power. His father was the one missing out of the brothers. Lo and behold, who gets chosen to rule the West? His half-brother, the Titan killed first in the original war. Menoetius is nobody compared to Prometheus. That's exactly why Kronos chose him. Prometheus can't stand it."

"His love of humans is stronger than that kind of slight," Calypso said.

"If that's what you believe," Lelantos said.

"It doesn't matter."

Both of them stopped, their attention falling on me.

"Either way is the same," I said. "It doesn't matter if he's altruistic or not. If he wants to protect humans, so do I. If he wants revenge, well, so do I. And if it turns out he's lying about taking down the Titans, I'll use our oath to milk him for all he's worth before getting rid of him. Motives don't matter. Results do."

"I suppose you're right," Calypso said.

A knock came at the door. Calypso resumed the hunting clip (this time without Lelantos's face superimposed over it) to distract the Titan. "Come in!"

When the door swung open, Jason stepped inside. His blond hair was slightly more disheveled than the day before. I spotted a suspicious bruise half-hidden by his shirt collar that hinted I wasn't the only one who had fun after last night's party.

Jason paused a few steps inside. "Is this a bad time?" he asked, glancing at Calypso and Lelantons. "I just had something to ask Percy."

"It's fine." I pushed off the table, walking over to him. "We covered what we had to, so I was just leaving."

"About that," he said. "Leaving, I mean—"

"You can come."

He froze. After a minute of trying to collect as many flies in his mouth as possible, he shook himself.

"And here I was, working up all my courage just to ask." He laughed. "How'd you know?"

"I got a heads up." I patted him on the shoulder, smirking. "You know, if you're serious about this, you should probably get packing."

His unseeing eyes widened. "Now?"

I checked a watch that didn't exist. "Well, you've got about an hour. We've decided to give your friend Prometheus a chance. For his plan to work, we've got to leave fast… otherwise it'll backfire and every one of us will die horribly."

Jason just stared at me. I think he was trying to figure out if I was joking, but he didn't know me well enough to tell.

"Still want to come? Good. I hope you pack light."