Chapter 1
When I woke up, something was weighing down my chest. I swatted at it and reached for my sword even before I had opened my eyes. I shot up off the ground, took a natural defensive stance, only to realize it was a chicken.
My first thought: chicken?
My second thought: sword?!
The chicken squawked at me and then escaped from the barn. The barn was small with peeling red paint, and filled with hay that made my nose itch. Sunlight poured in the windows. How did I get here? The sword in my hand was bronze and it glowed softly in my hand. Thinking I could get a clue as to why I was here, I searched my jeans pockets.
I took out the only thing in my pockets: a bronze pen cap. Somehow, I knew it was for the sword. I capped the sword and watched in amazement as it shrank into a pen. I had nothing else with me: no cell phone, no ID, nothing to help me understand.
Now I just had to figure out where exactly I was. I tried to think of the last thing I did before ending up in this barn, but the memories slipped through my fingers. Before I could decide what to do next, there was a girl standing in the barn doorway. She had long blonde hair and golden skin that came from spending a lifetime in the sun. That was all I could register before she had a golden arrow aimed at my neck. What was with all these metal weapons?
Her bow was drawn as she glared at me with blue eyes flecked with purple. “Who are you?” the girl demanded.
That was a hard question to answer because I wasn’t entirely sure. “I, uh, Percy,” I said nervously while staring down the arrow shaft.
She drew the bow back further. I backed away to the wall and succeeded in knocking over a stack of buckets that fell to the floor with a crash.
“Okay then. Why are you here, Percy? And I suggest you tell the truth.”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I can’t remember anything before a minute ago, when I woke up here.” She eyed me suspiciously, still ready to shoot. This wasn’t necessary, I realized. I was probably stronger than the girl, and at this point, her arrow in my face wasn’t that reassuring.
I went from having my hands in the air like, whoa, don’t shoot to lunging at her, trying to use my element of surprise. She fired. I guess she missed, because I didn’t feel any pain. I slammed her to the ground and grabbed and arrow from the quiver strapped to her back. She looked furious as I pressed the tip to her throat.
“How did you do that? Why aren’t you hurt?” She squirmed underneath my arms where I pinned her to the ground.
“Huh?” She wasn’t making any sense.
“You should be dead- or at least wounded,” she said matter-of-factly. Fear filled her eyes. “What kind of monster are you?”
I backed off so that I wasn’t crushing her. “I’m not a monster!” I protested. At least I knew that much. “Where am I?”
“You really don’t know?” She looked doubtful.
“Of course not. I was telling the truth.”
“Fine then, Percy. Let me go!” I released her and stood up. She backed away and spit a bit of blood onto the dirt floor. Oops. I hadn’t meant to hit her that hard.
“Dakota. My name’s Dakota. And if you’re as confused as you say you are, this is my parent’s vineyard. My mom and my stepdad,” she clarified. Dakota snatched her bow up off the ground.
“Do you have any idea how I might’ve gotten here? I can’t remember anything. Not even my last name.”
Apparently, she believed me now, because she said, “This is bad. Real bad. Let’s go somewhere we can talk and maybe find out who you are.” Dakota took my hand and led me out of the barn. The bright light outside hurt my eyes, and I shielded them from the sun’s glare. When they adjusted, I could see an enormous stone house surrounded by acres of rows of grapevines. There was nothing else for me to do, so I had no choice but to follow her onto the porch.
“Wait here a sec,” Dakota ordered. She crept inside her house. A minute later she came back to me. “C’mon. No one’s home.” I walked with her into what was obviously professionally decorated home. It was incredible. We had to go up two flights of wooden stairs to get to her room, which had an amazing view of the vineyard.
Dakota’s room made me a little uncomfortable. Not because it was a girl’s room, but because of what was inside of it. It would have been girly from the light pink walls, but then I saw the arrows, bronze shields mounted on the wall, and hunting trophies cluttering her shelves.
“What is all this stuff?” I asked in wonder.
“Just a hobby of mine.” She shrugged. “I like archery- and fighting.” She flopped down onto her bed and bounced a few times. I leaned against her window and casually crossed my arms. “So. Do you have anything that might tell us something about you?”
“Just a sword,” I said sadly. That was discouraging. I felt completely lost with no belongings.
“A sword? I know a lot about weapons. Give it here.” Dakota leaned forward, and I reluctantly tossed her my only possession. She caught it easily but looked perplexed. It was in pen form. “Uh…”
“Just uncap it,” I said, laughing at her confusion. Dakota did, and promptly dropped the sword that appeared.
“That’s celestial bronze!” she exclaimed.
That meant nothing to me. “What?”
“It’s the only thing that can kill monsters,” she explained quickly. “But never mind that. You’re a demigod! You already knew that, right?” Dakota looked excited by this discovery.
“Demigod?” The term felt familiar to me, but I didn’t know what it meant. “What’s a demigod?”
Now Dakota’s face filled with concern. “Oh, Styx. This is bad. You’re too old…” I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be an insult. I was, like, 16 or something. “I’ve get to get you to camp, ASAP.”
“Whoa,” I said. “Slow down. What camp, and what’s a demigod?” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“I’ll explain later. Right now, we have to go.”
Chapter 2
I took a step away from her. “No.”
Dakota had already stood up to leave, but when she heard me, she froze. “What did you just say?” There was a warning in her voice, like a volcano about to explode. Her eyes flickered with anger.
I could think of a ton of reasons why I shouldn’t run off somewhere with Dakota. I didn’t know where we were going, she wasn’t explaining anything… But I said the reason that was forefront in my mind. “I only met you 10 minutes ago! I’m not going to just follow your orders when I don’t even know you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said rolling her eyes. I stood my ground, unwavering. On the inside, I knew that I was being stubborn. Not counting the arrow aimed at me in the barn, Dakota had at least tolerated me. But still, I felt like I had to draw the line somewhere.
“Why don’t we do what I want to do?” I hoped I looked intimidating.
She started ticking off on her fingers. “One, because you have absolutely no idea where to go from here. Two, because I have more experience at all things demigod…”
“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “I’ve been to the Underworld more times than you can count.” Where had that come from? And yet I knew what I said was true.
Dakota shrugged. “Not possible.” I frowned. “A half blood hasn’t visited Pluto since, like, Orpheus. But never mind that. Since you insist on being difficult…” Dakota moved so that she was standing right in front of me. She locked on to my gaze and snapped her fingers.
Oh, great, so now she’s crazy. “Uh, what are you doing?”
She didn’t answer me. “You trust me,” Dakota said in a calm but firm voice. “I’m a friend.”
Suddenly, my vision blurred. It felt like the world spun in a 180 around me. Then it cleared.
Of course I trusted Dakota. How could I not? She was my friend. “What are you waiting for?” I asked impatiently. “We have to go.”
Dakota smirked as she watched my willpower crumble. “Much better.”
I was glad to get her approval.
On our way out, Dakota stopped to grab some car keys and leave a note in the kitchen. On a blue post-it note she wrote:
Emergency. Went to camp. Be back soon. XOXO
She jogged out the door and I followed behind her. Dakota climbed into the driver’s seat of an army-green jeep. I sat shotgun. When she shoved the keys into the ignition, I wondered how old she was. Probably 15. No way did she have a license. But that didn’t matter; I trusted Dakota.
We sped off down the driveway and on to a highway devoid of other cars. “Oh, I almost forgot. Why didn’t my arrow hurt you?” It didn’t sound like she was asking me; more like she was trying to figure it out for herself. I stayed silent, content to watch the land flash by out my window. “I mean, it just doesn’t make any sense. I never miss; I know I hit you. But it’s like the arrow bounced off your skin…”
We swerved off the road. The sudden movement made me snap back to attention.
“Di perduint is!” she groaned. Either I was really tired, or Dakota wasn’t speaking English. We had narrowly avoided driving straight into a lake. My eyes scanned our surroundings as I searched for whatever had made Dakota crash the jeep. Then I saw it.
“Anemoi thuellai,” I breathed. “Storm spirits.” Two black clouds were floating towards us, crackling with energy. I darted out of the jeep and uncapped my sword. I was ready to defend.
Before I had the chance, a third previously unseen storm spirit swooped out of the clouds above us. It threw Dakota far to my left where her body smacked into a tree trunk with a sickening thud. That distracted me, allowing for a storm spirit to rush at me and slam me back into the lake. I stumbled in the clear water and fell. The water filled me with energy like one huge shot of pure adrenaline. I stood up, relishing in the way the power filled my muscles.
The storm spirits came closer to me. From what I could tell, Dakota was unconscious, but I didn’t need her help. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, just that I felt so strong at that moment I knew I could take on a whole army of storm spirits singlehandedly.
I willed the lake water to rise into a massive tidal wave. I commanded a hundred thousand gallons of water to crash on top of the monsters, and it obeyed. The unexpected onslaught of water crushed them, and I watched in satisfaction as the spirits exploded into golden dust. The dust washed away when the water trickled back into the lake. And yet somehow, I was dry. Not a drop of water on me. After standing amidst a tidal wave, my clothes should have been sopping wet. Only they weren’t.
I couldn’t dwell on that for long. I heard a moan from Dakota and ran over to her. When I knelt by her side, I saw that her eyes were barely open and she had a gash running down the length of her arm. I didn’t have any medical experience, but her leg might have been broken.
Dakota was too hurt to walk, so I gingerly scooped her up in my arms and ignored her weak protests. I carried her back to the jeep and tried to move her leg as little as possible when I lowered her into the passenger seat. Dakota’s shirt was soaked with blood from her arm, so I wrapped a tourniquet around her forearm. I thought I heard her mutter, “No more ambrosia…silly me,” but I wasn’t sure.
“Dakota, do you want me to take you to the hospital?” The car might still be working…if I was lucky. Leaning over her, I turned the keys that were still in the ignition. The engine rumbled and the jeep started.
Dakota feebly waved off the question. “No, we have to get to camp…” She snapped her fingers. “Mist off,” she mumbled.
It was like a veil had been lifted over my eyes. I hadn’t noticed it until it went away. My thoughts from earlier returned to me. Why had I gotten in the car with her?
“What did you do to me?” I demanded.
“I manipulated the Mist to make you more reasonable,” Dakota said sadly. She shifted in her seat to get more comfortable, and I was reminded that she was hurt. “Sorry. I don’t like to, but this was an emergency. I needed you to trust me.”
Did I trust her? Maybe. Either way, I couldn’t just leave her, even though I had no idea what she was talking about half the time. I sighed. “I guess I’ll help you. I kinda have to now, don’t I?” I said, thinking of the way she was hurt. No way in Hades was I letting her drive.
“Good. Just drive down this road and stop when you get to the Caldecott tunnel, kay? I’ll take it from there.”
I nodded my consent before sliding into the driver’s seat. I maneuvered the car back onto the highway and continued the way we were driving before the storm spirits had attacked. Dakota appeared to be regaining strength. She was sitting upright and the deep gash on her arm had already stopped bleeding somehow. “You better not tell any of my friends what happened,” she warned after a period of silence.
“What do you mean?”
“If everyone knew the leader of the Apollo cabin got taken down by a runaway demigod and a venti…” she groaned. “I’d never hear the end of it.”
“Demigod?” She had called me one earlier, but I still didn’t know what it was.
“Yes. And by that, I mean you. You really have no memory before today?” I nodded. “What’s bad about that- besides the obvious- is that you might have already been claimed. And you can’t remember who your godly parent is.” I gave her a blank look. “The gods are real, Percy. You’re a demigod- I’m sure of it. That means you have one mortal parent and one that’s a god.”
My hands tightened on the wheel at this new revelation. It wasn’t surprising. I should have known this already, and that was frustrating. “And your parent is Apollo?” I asked her.
“Yeah. That’s why I’m healing so quickly.” She gestured at her arm, which now had only a pink line where her wound had been. Dakota had removed my homemade tourniquet. “Perk of being a daughter of the god of medicine. Apollo is also the god of archery, the sun, music, poetry, prophecies, etc.”
“And you don’t know who my parent is?” I asked, taking this all in stride. I kind of wished I was a son of Apollo. It seemed like it would be pretty cool.
“No. Unless you noticed any distinctive abilities since you woke up, like making flowers grow,” she half-joked. Demeter.
Up until now, I had forgotten about my strange experience with the lake when Dakota had been partially unconscious. “What about with…water?” I asked hesitantly. It might have just been something that all demigods could do, and I didn’t want to sound ignorant.
Her eyes narrowed. “That would have to be Neptune. But he isn’t allowed to have children. Why?”
I told Dakota about what had happened with the lake water. As I talked, her eyes filled with fear, though she tried not to show it.
“Eheu. Haec est mala. I thought with Jason, that he was the last… but that’s the only explanation…” her voice trickled off.
“What language were you speaking?” I asked.
“Latin. Sorry. But never mind that-” Her voice filed with wonder. “You must be a son of Neptune.”
It started to rain. I stared out the windshield and watched the droplets slide down. Dakota explained to me why she was so shocked. “The first three gods- Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto-swore to have no more children about seventy years ago. They ended that last year, but you were born before that.” Her eyes widened. “And that means Pluto was the only one to keep his promise. How ironic.”
“And Neptune is the god of the sea?” I clarified.
“And horses,” she added.
Okay then. Deep breaths. This was all really weird, but I decided to just go with it.
I stopped the car when we got to an old brick tunnel. Dakota got out of the jeep, and I could see that her wounds had healed. If I didn’t see the blood washing off her from the rain, I wouldn’t have thought she had been hurt. She walked over to the entrance of the tunnel.
“Semdei preces ingressu,” she announced confidently… to the empty tunnel. Then, right before my eyes, the tunnel morphed into a dirt road. The rain cloud stopped where the road began. My mouth fell open. As if my day couldn’t get any weirder.
Dakota turned towards me. “Pretty clever, huh? We had some fauns whip up the allusion a few decades ago.” She motioned for me to follow her. Reluctantly, I did. For some reason, I felt like I didn’t belong here. This was all wrong. I drew my sword.
“Don’t be so paranoid, Percy,” she scoffed. “Nothing is going to attack us here.” Dakota started walking. “This is home.”
When I woke up, something was weighing down my chest. I swatted at it and reached for my sword even before I had opened my eyes. I shot up off the ground, took a natural defensive stance, only to realize it was a chicken.
My first thought: chicken?
My second thought: sword?!
The chicken squawked at me and then escaped from the barn. The barn was small with peeling red paint, and filled with hay that made my nose itch. Sunlight poured in the windows. How did I get here? The sword in my hand was bronze and it glowed softly in my hand. Thinking I could get a clue as to why I was here, I searched my jeans pockets.
I took out the only thing in my pockets: a bronze pen cap. Somehow, I knew it was for the sword. I capped the sword and watched in amazement as it shrank into a pen. I had nothing else with me: no cell phone, no ID, nothing to help me understand.
Now I just had to figure out where exactly I was. I tried to think of the last thing I did before ending up in this barn, but the memories slipped through my fingers. Before I could decide what to do next, there was a girl standing in the barn doorway. She had long blonde hair and golden skin that came from spending a lifetime in the sun. That was all I could register before she had a golden arrow aimed at my neck. What was with all these metal weapons?
Her bow was drawn as she glared at me with blue eyes flecked with purple. “Who are you?” the girl demanded.
That was a hard question to answer because I wasn’t entirely sure. “I, uh, Percy,” I said nervously while staring down the arrow shaft.
She drew the bow back further. I backed away to the wall and succeeded in knocking over a stack of buckets that fell to the floor with a crash.
“Okay then. Why are you here, Percy? And I suggest you tell the truth.”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I can’t remember anything before a minute ago, when I woke up here.” She eyed me suspiciously, still ready to shoot. This wasn’t necessary, I realized. I was probably stronger than the girl, and at this point, her arrow in my face wasn’t that reassuring.
I went from having my hands in the air like, whoa, don’t shoot to lunging at her, trying to use my element of surprise. She fired. I guess she missed, because I didn’t feel any pain. I slammed her to the ground and grabbed and arrow from the quiver strapped to her back. She looked furious as I pressed the tip to her throat.
“How did you do that? Why aren’t you hurt?” She squirmed underneath my arms where I pinned her to the ground.
“Huh?” She wasn’t making any sense.
“You should be dead- or at least wounded,” she said matter-of-factly. Fear filled her eyes. “What kind of monster are you?”
I backed off so that I wasn’t crushing her. “I’m not a monster!” I protested. At least I knew that much. “Where am I?”
“You really don’t know?” She looked doubtful.
“Of course not. I was telling the truth.”
“Fine then, Percy. Let me go!” I released her and stood up. She backed away and spit a bit of blood onto the dirt floor. Oops. I hadn’t meant to hit her that hard.
“Dakota. My name’s Dakota. And if you’re as confused as you say you are, this is my parent’s vineyard. My mom and my stepdad,” she clarified. Dakota snatched her bow up off the ground.
“Do you have any idea how I might’ve gotten here? I can’t remember anything. Not even my last name.”
Apparently, she believed me now, because she said, “This is bad. Real bad. Let’s go somewhere we can talk and maybe find out who you are.” Dakota took my hand and led me out of the barn. The bright light outside hurt my eyes, and I shielded them from the sun’s glare. When they adjusted, I could see an enormous stone house surrounded by acres of rows of grapevines. There was nothing else for me to do, so I had no choice but to follow her onto the porch.
“Wait here a sec,” Dakota ordered. She crept inside her house. A minute later she came back to me. “C’mon. No one’s home.” I walked with her into what was obviously professionally decorated home. It was incredible. We had to go up two flights of wooden stairs to get to her room, which had an amazing view of the vineyard.
Dakota’s room made me a little uncomfortable. Not because it was a girl’s room, but because of what was inside of it. It would have been girly from the light pink walls, but then I saw the arrows, bronze shields mounted on the wall, and hunting trophies cluttering her shelves.
“What is all this stuff?” I asked in wonder.
“Just a hobby of mine.” She shrugged. “I like archery- and fighting.” She flopped down onto her bed and bounced a few times. I leaned against her window and casually crossed my arms. “So. Do you have anything that might tell us something about you?”
“Just a sword,” I said sadly. That was discouraging. I felt completely lost with no belongings.
“A sword? I know a lot about weapons. Give it here.” Dakota leaned forward, and I reluctantly tossed her my only possession. She caught it easily but looked perplexed. It was in pen form. “Uh…”
“Just uncap it,” I said, laughing at her confusion. Dakota did, and promptly dropped the sword that appeared.
“That’s celestial bronze!” she exclaimed.
That meant nothing to me. “What?”
“It’s the only thing that can kill monsters,” she explained quickly. “But never mind that. You’re a demigod! You already knew that, right?” Dakota looked excited by this discovery.
“Demigod?” The term felt familiar to me, but I didn’t know what it meant. “What’s a demigod?”
Now Dakota’s face filled with concern. “Oh, Styx. This is bad. You’re too old…” I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be an insult. I was, like, 16 or something. “I’ve get to get you to camp, ASAP.”
“Whoa,” I said. “Slow down. What camp, and what’s a demigod?” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“I’ll explain later. Right now, we have to go.”
Chapter 2
I took a step away from her. “No.”
Dakota had already stood up to leave, but when she heard me, she froze. “What did you just say?” There was a warning in her voice, like a volcano about to explode. Her eyes flickered with anger.
I could think of a ton of reasons why I shouldn’t run off somewhere with Dakota. I didn’t know where we were going, she wasn’t explaining anything… But I said the reason that was forefront in my mind. “I only met you 10 minutes ago! I’m not going to just follow your orders when I don’t even know you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said rolling her eyes. I stood my ground, unwavering. On the inside, I knew that I was being stubborn. Not counting the arrow aimed at me in the barn, Dakota had at least tolerated me. But still, I felt like I had to draw the line somewhere.
“Why don’t we do what I want to do?” I hoped I looked intimidating.
She started ticking off on her fingers. “One, because you have absolutely no idea where to go from here. Two, because I have more experience at all things demigod…”
“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “I’ve been to the Underworld more times than you can count.” Where had that come from? And yet I knew what I said was true.
Dakota shrugged. “Not possible.” I frowned. “A half blood hasn’t visited Pluto since, like, Orpheus. But never mind that. Since you insist on being difficult…” Dakota moved so that she was standing right in front of me. She locked on to my gaze and snapped her fingers.
Oh, great, so now she’s crazy. “Uh, what are you doing?”
She didn’t answer me. “You trust me,” Dakota said in a calm but firm voice. “I’m a friend.”
Suddenly, my vision blurred. It felt like the world spun in a 180 around me. Then it cleared.
Of course I trusted Dakota. How could I not? She was my friend. “What are you waiting for?” I asked impatiently. “We have to go.”
Dakota smirked as she watched my willpower crumble. “Much better.”
I was glad to get her approval.
On our way out, Dakota stopped to grab some car keys and leave a note in the kitchen. On a blue post-it note she wrote:
Emergency. Went to camp. Be back soon. XOXO
She jogged out the door and I followed behind her. Dakota climbed into the driver’s seat of an army-green jeep. I sat shotgun. When she shoved the keys into the ignition, I wondered how old she was. Probably 15. No way did she have a license. But that didn’t matter; I trusted Dakota.
We sped off down the driveway and on to a highway devoid of other cars. “Oh, I almost forgot. Why didn’t my arrow hurt you?” It didn’t sound like she was asking me; more like she was trying to figure it out for herself. I stayed silent, content to watch the land flash by out my window. “I mean, it just doesn’t make any sense. I never miss; I know I hit you. But it’s like the arrow bounced off your skin…”
We swerved off the road. The sudden movement made me snap back to attention.
“Di perduint is!” she groaned. Either I was really tired, or Dakota wasn’t speaking English. We had narrowly avoided driving straight into a lake. My eyes scanned our surroundings as I searched for whatever had made Dakota crash the jeep. Then I saw it.
“Anemoi thuellai,” I breathed. “Storm spirits.” Two black clouds were floating towards us, crackling with energy. I darted out of the jeep and uncapped my sword. I was ready to defend.
Before I had the chance, a third previously unseen storm spirit swooped out of the clouds above us. It threw Dakota far to my left where her body smacked into a tree trunk with a sickening thud. That distracted me, allowing for a storm spirit to rush at me and slam me back into the lake. I stumbled in the clear water and fell. The water filled me with energy like one huge shot of pure adrenaline. I stood up, relishing in the way the power filled my muscles.
The storm spirits came closer to me. From what I could tell, Dakota was unconscious, but I didn’t need her help. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, just that I felt so strong at that moment I knew I could take on a whole army of storm spirits singlehandedly.
I willed the lake water to rise into a massive tidal wave. I commanded a hundred thousand gallons of water to crash on top of the monsters, and it obeyed. The unexpected onslaught of water crushed them, and I watched in satisfaction as the spirits exploded into golden dust. The dust washed away when the water trickled back into the lake. And yet somehow, I was dry. Not a drop of water on me. After standing amidst a tidal wave, my clothes should have been sopping wet. Only they weren’t.
I couldn’t dwell on that for long. I heard a moan from Dakota and ran over to her. When I knelt by her side, I saw that her eyes were barely open and she had a gash running down the length of her arm. I didn’t have any medical experience, but her leg might have been broken.
Dakota was too hurt to walk, so I gingerly scooped her up in my arms and ignored her weak protests. I carried her back to the jeep and tried to move her leg as little as possible when I lowered her into the passenger seat. Dakota’s shirt was soaked with blood from her arm, so I wrapped a tourniquet around her forearm. I thought I heard her mutter, “No more ambrosia…silly me,” but I wasn’t sure.
“Dakota, do you want me to take you to the hospital?” The car might still be working…if I was lucky. Leaning over her, I turned the keys that were still in the ignition. The engine rumbled and the jeep started.
Dakota feebly waved off the question. “No, we have to get to camp…” She snapped her fingers. “Mist off,” she mumbled.
It was like a veil had been lifted over my eyes. I hadn’t noticed it until it went away. My thoughts from earlier returned to me. Why had I gotten in the car with her?
“What did you do to me?” I demanded.
“I manipulated the Mist to make you more reasonable,” Dakota said sadly. She shifted in her seat to get more comfortable, and I was reminded that she was hurt. “Sorry. I don’t like to, but this was an emergency. I needed you to trust me.”
Did I trust her? Maybe. Either way, I couldn’t just leave her, even though I had no idea what she was talking about half the time. I sighed. “I guess I’ll help you. I kinda have to now, don’t I?” I said, thinking of the way she was hurt. No way in Hades was I letting her drive.
“Good. Just drive down this road and stop when you get to the Caldecott tunnel, kay? I’ll take it from there.”
I nodded my consent before sliding into the driver’s seat. I maneuvered the car back onto the highway and continued the way we were driving before the storm spirits had attacked. Dakota appeared to be regaining strength. She was sitting upright and the deep gash on her arm had already stopped bleeding somehow. “You better not tell any of my friends what happened,” she warned after a period of silence.
“What do you mean?”
“If everyone knew the leader of the Apollo cabin got taken down by a runaway demigod and a venti…” she groaned. “I’d never hear the end of it.”
“Demigod?” She had called me one earlier, but I still didn’t know what it was.
“Yes. And by that, I mean you. You really have no memory before today?” I nodded. “What’s bad about that- besides the obvious- is that you might have already been claimed. And you can’t remember who your godly parent is.” I gave her a blank look. “The gods are real, Percy. You’re a demigod- I’m sure of it. That means you have one mortal parent and one that’s a god.”
My hands tightened on the wheel at this new revelation. It wasn’t surprising. I should have known this already, and that was frustrating. “And your parent is Apollo?” I asked her.
“Yeah. That’s why I’m healing so quickly.” She gestured at her arm, which now had only a pink line where her wound had been. Dakota had removed my homemade tourniquet. “Perk of being a daughter of the god of medicine. Apollo is also the god of archery, the sun, music, poetry, prophecies, etc.”
“And you don’t know who my parent is?” I asked, taking this all in stride. I kind of wished I was a son of Apollo. It seemed like it would be pretty cool.
“No. Unless you noticed any distinctive abilities since you woke up, like making flowers grow,” she half-joked. Demeter.
Up until now, I had forgotten about my strange experience with the lake when Dakota had been partially unconscious. “What about with…water?” I asked hesitantly. It might have just been something that all demigods could do, and I didn’t want to sound ignorant.
Her eyes narrowed. “That would have to be Neptune. But he isn’t allowed to have children. Why?”
I told Dakota about what had happened with the lake water. As I talked, her eyes filled with fear, though she tried not to show it.
“Eheu. Haec est mala. I thought with Jason, that he was the last… but that’s the only explanation…” her voice trickled off.
“What language were you speaking?” I asked.
“Latin. Sorry. But never mind that-” Her voice filed with wonder. “You must be a son of Neptune.”
It started to rain. I stared out the windshield and watched the droplets slide down. Dakota explained to me why she was so shocked. “The first three gods- Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto-swore to have no more children about seventy years ago. They ended that last year, but you were born before that.” Her eyes widened. “And that means Pluto was the only one to keep his promise. How ironic.”
“And Neptune is the god of the sea?” I clarified.
“And horses,” she added.
Okay then. Deep breaths. This was all really weird, but I decided to just go with it.
I stopped the car when we got to an old brick tunnel. Dakota got out of the jeep, and I could see that her wounds had healed. If I didn’t see the blood washing off her from the rain, I wouldn’t have thought she had been hurt. She walked over to the entrance of the tunnel.
“Semdei preces ingressu,” she announced confidently… to the empty tunnel. Then, right before my eyes, the tunnel morphed into a dirt road. The rain cloud stopped where the road began. My mouth fell open. As if my day couldn’t get any weirder.
Dakota turned towards me. “Pretty clever, huh? We had some fauns whip up the allusion a few decades ago.” She motioned for me to follow her. Reluctantly, I did. For some reason, I felt like I didn’t belong here. This was all wrong. I drew my sword.
“Don’t be so paranoid, Percy,” she scoffed. “Nothing is going to attack us here.” Dakota started walking. “This is home.”
