The Diary of Luke Castellan

[chiseler]

My name is Luke.

Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with this diary. My life is pretty crazy. But I promised the old man I would try. After what happened today... well, I owe him.

My hands are shaking as I sit here on guard duty. I can’t get the horrible images out of my head. I’ve got a few hours until the girls wake up. Maybe if I write down the story, I’ll be able to put it behind me.

I should probably start with the magic goat.

For three days, Thalia and I had been following the goat across Virginia. I wasn’t sure why. To me, the goat didn’t look like anything special, but Thalia was more agitated than I’d ever seen her before. She was convinced the goat was some sort of sign from her dad, Zeus.

Yeah, her dad is a Greek god. So is mine. We’re demigods. If you think that sounds cool, think again. Demigods are monster magnets. All those ancient Greek nasties like Furies and harpies and gorgons still exist, and they can sense heroes like us from miles away. Because of that, Thalia and I spend all our time running for our lives. Our superpowerful parents don’t even talk to us, much less help us. Why? If I tried to explain that, I’d fill up this whole diary, so I’m going to move on.

Anyway, this goat would pop up at random times, always in the distance. Whenever we tried to catch up to it, the goat would vanish and appear farther away, as if it was leading us somewhere.

Me, I would’ve left it alone. Thalia wouldn’t explain why she thought it was important, but she and I had been adventuring together long enough that I’d learned to trust her judgment. So we followed the goat.

Early in the morning, we made it into Richmond. We trudged across a narrow bridge over a lazy green river, past wooded parks and Civil War cemeteries. As we got closer to the center of town, we navigated through sleepy neighborhoods of red brick town houses wedged close together, with white-columned porches and tiny gardens.

I imagined all the normal families living in those cozy houses. I wondered what it would be like to have a home, to know where my next meal was coming from, and not have to worry about getting eaten by monsters every day. I’d run away when I was only nine —five long years ago. I barely remembered what it was like to sleep in a real bed.

After walking another mile, my feet felt like they were melting inside my shoes. I hoped we could find a place to rest, maybe get some food. Instead, we found the goat.

The street we were following opened up into a big circular park. Stately red brick mansions faced the roundabout. In the middle of the circle, atop a twenty- foot white marble pedestal, was a bronze dude sitting on horseback. Grazing at the base of the monument was the goat.

“Hide!” Thalia pulled me behind a row of rosebushes.

“It’s just a goat,” I said for the millionth time. “Why—?”

“It’s special,” Thalia insisted. “One of my dad’s sacred animals. Her name is Amaltheia.”

She’d never mentioned the goat’s name before. I wondered why she sounded so nervous.

Thalia isn’t scared of much. She’s only twelve, two years younger than I am, but if you saw her walking down the street you’d clear a path. She wears black leather boots, black jeans, and a tattered leather jacket studded with punk rock buttons. Her hair is dark and choppy like a feral animal’s. Her intense blue eyes bore into you as if she’s considering the best way to beat you to a pulp.

Anything that scared her, I had to take seriously.

“So you’ve seen this goat before?” I asked.

She nodded reluctantly. “In Los Angeles, the night I ran away. Amaltheia led me out of the city. And later, that night you and I met...she led me to you.”

I stared at Thalia. As far as I knew, our meeting had been an accident. We literally ran into each other in a dragon’s cave outside Charleston and teamed up to stay alive. Thalia had never mentioned a goat.

As far as her old life in Los Angeles, Thalia didn’t like to talk about it. I respected her too much to pry. I knew her mom had fallen in love with Zeus. Eventually Zeus dumped her, as gods tend to do. Her mom went off the deep end, drinking and doing crazy things—I didn’t know the details—until finally Thalia decided to run. In other words, her past was a lot like mine.

She took a shaky breath. “Luke, when Amaltheia appears, something important is about to happen... something dangerous. She’s like a warning from Zeus, or a guide.”

“To what?”

“I don’t know...but look.” Thalia pointed across the street. “She’s not disappearing this time. We must be close to wherever she’s leading us.”
Thalia was right. The goat was just standing there, less than a hundred yards away, contentedly nibbling grass at the base of the monument.

I was no expert on barnyard animals, but Amaltheia did look strange now that we were closer. She had curlicue horns like a ram, but the swollen udders of a girl goat. And her shaggy gray fur...was it glowing? Wisps of light seemed to cling to her like a cloud of neon, making her look blurry and ghostly.

A couple of cars looped around the traffic circle, but nobody seemed to notice the radioactive goat. That didn’t surprise me. There’s some sort of magical camouflage that keeps mortals from seeing the true appearance of monsters and gods. Thalia and I weren’t sure what this force was called or how it worked, but it was pretty powerful. Mortals might see the goat as just a stray dog, or they might not see it at all.

Thalia grabbed my wrist. “Come on. Let’s try to talk to it.”

“First we hide from the goat,” I said. “Now you want to talk to the goat?”

Thalia dragged me out of the rosebushes and pulled me across the street. I didn’t protest. When Thalia gets an idea in her head, you just have to go with it. She always gets her way.

Besides, I couldn’t let her go without me. Thalia has saved my life a dozen times. She’s my only friend. Before we met, I’d traveled for years on my own, lonely and miserable. Once in a while I’d befriend a mortal, but whenever I told them the truth about me, they didn’t understand. I’d confess that I was the son of Hermes, the immortal messenger dude with the winged sandals. I’d explain that monsters and Greek gods were real and very much alive in the modern world. My mortal friends would say, “That is so cool! I wish I was a demigod!” Like it’s some sort of game. I always ended up leaving.

But Thalia understood. She was like me. Now that I’d found her, I was determined to stick with her. If she wanted to chase a magical glowing goat, then we’d do that, even if I had a bad feeling about it.

We approached the statue. The goat didn’t pay us any attention. She chewed some grass, then butted her horns against the marble base of the monument. A bronze plaque read: Robert E. Lee. I didn’t know much about history, but I was pretty sure Lee was a general who lost a war. That didn’t strike me as a good omen.

Thalia knelt next to the goat. “Amaltheia?”

The goat turned. She had sad amber eyes and a bronze collar around her neck. Fuzzy white light steamed around her body, but what really caught my
attention were her udders. Each teat was labeled with Greek letters, like tattoos. I could read a little Ancient Greek—it was sort of a natural ability for demigods, I guess. The teats read: Nectar, Milk, Water, Pepsi, Press Here for Ice, and Diet Mountain Dew. Or maybe I read them wrong. I hoped so.

Thalia looked into the goat’s eyes. “Amaltheia, what do you want me to do? Did my dad send you?”

The goat glanced at me. She looked a little miffed, like I was intruding on a private conversation.

I took a step back, resisting the urge to grab my weapon. Oh, by the way, my weapon was a golf club. Feel free to laugh. I used to have a sword made from Celestial bronze, which is deadly to monsters, but the sword got melted in acid (long story). Now all I had was a nine-iron that I carried on my back. Not exactly epic. If the goat went commando on us, I’d be in trouble.

I cleared my throat. “Um, Thalia, you sure this goat is from your dad?”

“She’s immortal,” Thalia said. “When Zeus was a baby, his mom Rhea hid him in a cave—”

“Because Kronos wanted to eat him?” I’d heard that story somewhere, how the old Titan king swallowed his own children.

Thalia nodded. “So this goat, Amaltheia, looked after baby Zeus in his cradle. She nursed him.”

“On Diet Mountain Dew?” I asked.

Thalia frowned. “What?”

“Read the udders,” I said. “The goat has five flavors plus an ice dispenser.”

“Blaaaah,” said Amaltheia.

Thalia patted the goat’s head. “It’s okay. He didn’t mean to insult you. Why have you led us here, Amaltheia? Where do you want me to go?”

The goat butted her head against the monument. From above came the sound of creaking metal. I looked up and saw the bronze General Lee move his right arm.

I almost hid behind the goat. Thalia and I had fought several magic moving statues before. They were called automatons, and they were bad news. I wasn’t anxious to take on Robert E. Lee with a nine-iron.

Fortunately, the statue didn’t attack. He simply pointed across the street.

I gave Thalia a nervous look. “What’s that about?”

Thalia nodded in the direction the statue was pointing.

Across the traffic circle stood a red brick mansion overgrown with ivy. On either side, huge oak trees dripped with Spanish moss. The house’s windows were shuttered and dark. Peeling white columns flanked the front porch. The door was painted charcoal black. Even on a bright sunny morning, the place looked gloomy and creepy—like a Gone with the Wind haunted house.

My mouth felt dry. “The goat wants us to go there?”

“Blaah.” Amaltheia dipped her head like she was nodding.

Thalia touched the goat’s curly horns. “Thank you, Amaltheia. I—I trust you.”

I wasn’t sure why, considering how afraid Thalia seemed.

The goat bothered me, and not just because she dispensed Pepsi products.

Something was nagging at the back of my mind. I thought I’d heard another story about Zeus’s goat, something about that glowing fur...

Suddenly the mist thickened and swelled around Amaltheia. A miniature storm cloud engulfed her. Lightning flickered through the cloud. When the mist dissolved, the goat was gone.

I hadn’t even gotten to try the ice dispenser.

I gazed across the street at the dilapidated house. The mossy trees on either side looked like claws, waiting to grasp us.

“You sure about this?” I asked Thalia.

She turned to me. “Amaltheia leads me to good things. The last time she appeared, she led me to you.”

The compliment warmed me like a cup of hot chocolate. I’m a sucker that way. Thalia can flash those blue eyes, give me one kind word, and she can get me to do pretty much whatever. But I couldn’t help wondering: back in Charleston, had the goat led her to me, or simply led her into a dragon’s cave?

I exhaled. “Okay. Creepy mansion, here we come.”

The brass door knocker was shaped like Medusa’s face, which wasn’t a good sign. The porch floorboards creaked under our feet. The windows’ shutters were falling apart, but the glass was grimy and covered on the other side with dark curtains, so we couldn’t see in.

Thalia knocked.

No answer.

She jiggled the handle, but it seemed to be locked. I was hoping she’d decide to give up. Instead she looked at me expectantly. “Can you do your thing?”

I gritted my teeth. “I hate doing my thing.”

Even though I’ve never met my dad and don’t really want to, I share some of his talents. Along with being messenger of the gods, Hermes is the god of merchants—which explains why I’m good with money —and travelers, which explains why the divine jerk left my mom and never came back. He’s also the god of thieves. He’s stolen things like—oh, Apollo’s cattle, women, good ideas, wallets, my mom’s sanity, and my chance at a decent life.

Sorry, did that sound bitter?

Anyway, because of my dad’s godly thieving, I’ve got some abilities I don’t like to advertise.

I placed my hand on the door’s dead bolt. I concentrated, sensing the internal pins that controlled the latch. With a click, the bolt slid back. The lock on the handle was even easier. I tapped it, turned it, and the door swung open.

“That is so cool,” Thalia murmured, though she’d seen me do it a dozen times.

The doorway exuded a sour evil smell, like the breath of a dying man. Thalia marched through anyway.

I didn’t have much choice except to follow.

Inside was an old-fashioned ballroom. High above, a chandelier glowed with trinkets of Celestial bronze—arrowheads, bits of armor, and broken sword hilts—all casting a sickly yellow sheen over the room. Two hallways led off to the left and right. A staircase wrapped around the back wall. Heavy drapes blocked the windows.

The place might’ve been impressive once, but now it was trashed. The checkerboard marble floor was smeared with mud and crusty dried stuff that I hoped was just ketchup. In one corner, a sofa had been disemboweled. Several mahogany chairs had been busted to kindling. At the base of the stairs sat a heap of cans, rags, and bones—human-sized bones.

Thalia pulled her weapon from her belt. The metal cylinder looked like a Mace canister, but when she flicked it, it expanded until she was holding a full-sized spear with a Celestial bronze point. I grabbed my golf club, which wasn’t nearly as cool.

I started to say, “Maybe this isn’t such a good—”

The door slammed shut behind us.

I lunged at the handle and pulled. No luck. I pressed my hand on the lock and willed it to open. This time nothing happened.

“Some kind of magic,” I said. “We’re trapped.”

Thalia ran to the nearest window. She tried to part the drapes, but the heavy black fabric wrapped around her hands.

“Luke!” she screamed.

The curtains liquefied into sheets of oily sludge like giant black tongues. They oozed up her arms and covered her spear. It felt like my heart was trying to climb my throat, but I charged at the drapes and whacked them with my golf club.

The ooze shuddered and reverted to fabric long enough for me to pull Thalia free. Her spear clattered on the floor.

I dragged her away as the curtains returned to ooze and tried to catch her. The sheets of sludge lashed at the air. Fortunately, they seemed anchored to the curtain rods. After a few more failed attempts to reach us, the ooze settled down and changed back to drapes.

Thalia shivered in my arms. Her spear lay nearby, smoking as if it had been dipped in acid.

She raised her hands. They were steaming and blistered. Her face paled like she was going into shock.

“Hold on!” I lowered her to the ground and fumbled through my backpack. “Hold on, Thalia. I’ve got it.”

Finally I found my bottle of nectar. The drink of the gods could heal wounds, but the bottle was almost empty. I poured the rest over Thalia’s hands. The steam dissipated. The blisters faded.

“You’re going to be fine,” I said. “Just rest.”

“We—we can’t...” Her voice was shaky, but she managed to stand. She glanced at the drapes with a mixture of fear and nausea. “If all the windows are like that, and the door is locked—”

“We’ll find another way out,” I promised.

This didn’t seem like the time to remind her that we wouldn’t have been here if not for the stupid goat.

I considered our options: a staircase going up, or two dark hallways. I squinted down the hall to the left. I could make out a pair of small red lights glowing near the floor. Maybe night-lights?

Then the lights moved. They bobbed up and down, growing brighter and closer. A growl made my hair stand on end.

Thalia made a strangled sound. “Um, Luke...”

She pointed to the other hallway. Another pair of glowing red eyes glared at us from the shadows. From both hallways came a strange hollow clack, clack, clack, like someone playing bone castanets.

“The stairs are looking pretty good,” I said.

As if in reply, a man’s voice called from somewhere above us: “Yes, this way.”
The voice was heavy with sadness, as if he were giving directions to a funeral.

“Who are you?” I shouted.

“Hurry,” the voice called down, but he didn’t sound excited about it.

To my right, the same voice echoed, “Hurry.”

Clack, clack, clack.

I did a double take. The voice seemed to have come from the thing in the hallway—the thing with the glowing red eyes. But how could one voice come from two different places?

Then the same voice called out from the hallway on the left: “Hurry.” Clack, clack, clack.

Now I’ve faced some scary stuff before—fire- breathing dogs, pit scorpions, dragons—not to mention a set of oily black man-eating draperies. But something about those voices echoing all around me, those glowing eyes advancing from either direction, and the weird clacking noises made me feel like a deer surrounded by wolves. Every muscle in my body tensed. My instincts said, Run.

I grabbed Thalia’s hand and bolted for the stairs. “Luke—”

“Come on!”

“If it’s another trap—”

“No choice!”

I bounded up the stairs, dragging Thalia with me. I knew she was right. We might be running straight to our deaths, but I also knew we had to get away from those things downstairs.

I was afraid to look back, but I could hear the creatures closing—snarling like wildcats, pounding across the marble floor with a sound like horse’s hooves. What in Hades were they?

At the top of the stairs, we plunged down another hallway. Dimly flickering wall sconces made the doors along either side seem to dance. I jumped over a pile of bones, accidentally kicking a human skull.

Somewhere ahead of us, the man’s voice called, “This way!” He sounded more urgent than before. “Last door on the left! Hurry!”

Behind us, the creatures echoed his words: “Left! Hurry!”

Maybe the creatures were just mimicking like parrots. Or maybe the voice in front of us belonged to a monster too. Still, something about the man’s tone felt real. He sounded alone and miserable, like a hostage.

“We have to help him,” Thalia announced, as if reading my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

We charged ahead. The corridor became more dilapidated—wallpaper peeling away like tree bark, light sconces smashed to pieces. The carpet was ripped to shreds and littered with bones. Light seeped from underneath the last door on the left.

Behind us, the pounding of hooves got louder.

We reached the door and I launched myself against it, but it opened on its own. Thalia and I spilled inside, face-planting on the carpet.

The door slammed shut.

Outside, the creatures growled in frustration and scraped against the walls.

“Hello,” said the man’s voice, much closer now. “I’m very sorry.”

My head was spinning. I thought I’d heard him off to my left, but when I looked up, he was standing right in front of us.

He wore snakeskin boots and a mottled green- and-brown suit that might’ve been made from the same material. He was tall and gaunt, with spiky gray hair almost as wild as Thalia’s. He looked like a very old, sickly, fashionably dressed Einstein.

His shoulders slumped. His sad green eyes were underscored with bags. He might’ve been handsome once, but the skin of his face hung loose as if he’d been partially deflated.

His room was arranged like a studio apartment. Unlike the rest of the house, it was in fairly good shape. Against the far wall was a twin bed, a desk with a computer, and a window covered with dark drapes like the ones downstairs. Along the right wall stood a bookcase, a small kitchenette, and two doorways—one leading into a bathroom, the other into a large closet.

Thalia said, “Um, Luke...” She pointed to our left.

My heart almost burst out of my rib cage.

The left side of the room had a row of iron bars like a prison cell. Inside was the scariest zoo exhibit I’d ever seen. A gravel floor was littered with bones and pieces of armor, and prowling back and forth was a monster with a lion’s body and rust-red fur. Instead of paws it had hooves like a horse, and its tail lashed around like a bullwhip. Its head was a mixture of horse and wolf—with pointed ears, an elongated snout, and black lips that looked disturbingly human.

The monster snarled. For a second I thought it was wearing one of those mouth guards that boxers use. Instead of teeth, it had two solid horseshoe-shaped plates of bone. When it snapped its mouth, the bone plates made the jarring clack, clack, clack I’d heard downstairs.

The monster fixed its glowing red eyes on me. Saliva dripped from its weird bony ridges. I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. I could still hear the other creatures—at least two of them—growling out in the hallway.
Thalia helped me to my feet. I gripped her hand and faced the old man.

“Who are you?” I demanded. “What’s that thing in the cage?”

The old man grimaced. His expression was so full of misery I thought he might cry. He opened his mouth, but when he spoke, the words didn’t come from him.

Like some horrific ventriloquist act, the monster spoke for him, in the voice of an old man: “I am Halcyon Green. I’m terribly sorry, but you are in the cage. You’ve been lured here to die.”

We’d left Thalia’s spear downstairs, so we had just one weapon—my golf club. I brandished it at the old man, but he made no threatening moves. He looked so pitiful and depressed I couldn’t bring myself to smack him.

“Y-you’d better explain,” I stammered. “Why— how—what...?”

As you can tell, I’m good with words.

Behind the bars, the monster clacked its bone- plated jaws.

“I understand your confusion,” it said in the old man’s voice. Its sympathetic tone didn’t match the homicidal glow in its eyes.

“The creature you see here is a leucrota. It has a talent for imitating human voices. That is how it lures its prey.”

I looked back and forth from the man to the monster. “But...the voice is yours? I mean, the dude in the snakeskin suit—I’m hearing what he wants to say?”

“That is correct.” The leucrota sighed heavily. “I am, as you say, the dude in the snakeskin suit. Such is my curse. My name is Halcyon Green, son of Apollo.”

Thalia stumbled backward. “You’re a demigod ? But you’re so—”

“Old?” the leucrota asked. The man, Halcyon Green, studied his liver-spotted hands, as if he couldn’t believe they were his. “Yes, I am.”

I understood Thalia’s surprise. We’d only met a few other demigods in our travels—some friendly, some not so much. But they’d all been kids like us. Our lives were so dangerous, Thalia and I figured it was unlikely any demigod could live to be an adult. Yet Halcyon Green was ancient, like sixty at least.

“How long have you been here?” I asked.

Halcyon shrugged listlessly. The monster spoke for him: “I have lost count. Decades? Because my father is the god of oracles, I was born with the curse of seeing the future. Apollo warned me to keep quiet. He told me I should never share what I saw because it would anger the gods. But many years ago...I simply had to speak. I met a young girl who was destined to die in an accident. I saved her life by telling her the future.”

I tried to focus on the old man, but it was hard not to look at the monster’s mouth—those black lips, the slavering bone-plated jaws.

“I don’t get it...” I forced myself to meet Halcyon’s eyes. “You did something good. Why would that anger the gods?”

“They don’t like mortals meddling with fate,” the leucrota said. “My father cursed me. He forced me to wear these clothes, the skin of Python, who once guarded the Oracle of Delphi, as a reminder that I was not an oracle. He took away my voice and locked me in this mansion, my boyhood home. Then the gods set the leucrotae to guard me. Normally, leucrotae only mimic human speech, but these are linked to my thoughts. They speak for me. They keep me alive as bait, to lure other demigods. It was Apollo’s way of reminding me, forever, that my voice would only lead others to their doom.”

An angry coppery taste filled my mouth. I already knew the gods could be cruel. My deadbeat dad had ignored me for fourteen years. But Halcyon Green’s curse was just plain wrong. It was evil.

“You should fight back,” I said. “You didn’t deserve this. Break out. Kill the monsters. We’ll help you.”

“He’s right,” Thalia said. “That’s Luke, by the way. I’m Thalia. We’ve fought plenty of monsters. There has to be something we can do, Halcyon.”

“Call me Hal,” the leucrota said. The old man shook his head dejectedly. “But you don’t understand. You’re not the first to come here. I’m afraid all the demigods feel there’s hope when they first arrive. Sometimes I try to help them. It never works. The windows are guarded by deadly drapes—”

“I noticed,” Thalia muttered.

“—and the door is heavily enchanted. It will let you in, but not out.”

“We’ll see about that.” I turned and pressed my hand to the lock. I concentrated until sweat trickled down my neck, but nothing happened. My powers were useless.

“I told you,” the leucrota said bitterly. “None of us can leave. Fighting the monsters is hopeless. They can’t be hurt by any metal known to man or god.”

To prove his point, the old man brushed aside the edge of his snakeskin jacket, revealed a dagger on his belt. He unsheathed the wicked-looking Celestial bronze blade and approached the monster’s cell.

The leucrota snarled at him. Hal jabbed his knife between the bars, straight at the monster’s head. Normally, Celestial bronze would disintegrate a monster with one hit. The blade simply glanced off the leucrota’s snout, leaving no mark. The leucrota kicked its hooves at the bars, and Hal backed away.

“You see?” the monster spoke for Hal.

“So you just give up?” Thalia demanded. “You help the monsters lure us in and wait for them to kill us?”

Hal sheathed his dagger. “I’m so sorry, my dear, but I have little choice. I’m trapped here, too. If I don’t cooperate, the monsters let me starve. The monsters could have killed you the moment you entered the house, but they use me to lure you upstairs. They allow me your company for a while. It eases my loneliness. And then...well, the monsters like to eat at sundown. Today, that will be at 7:03.” He gestured to a digital clock on his desk, which read 10:34 AM. “After you are gone, I—I subsist on whatever rations you carried.” He glanced hungrily at my backpack, and a shiver went down my spine.

“You’re as bad as the monsters,” I said.

The old man winced. I didn’t care much if I hurt his feelings. In my backpack I had two Snickers bars, a ham sandwich, a canteen of water, and an empty bottle for nectar. I didn’t want to get killed for that.

“You’re right to hate me,” the leucrota said in Hal’s voice, “but I can’t save you. At sunset, those bars will rise. The monsters will drag you away and kill you. There is no escape.”

Inside the monster’s enclosure, a square panel on the back wall ground open. I hadn’t even noticed the panel before, but it must have led to another room. Two more leucrotae stalked into the cage. All three fixed their glowing red eyes on me, their bony mouth-plates snapping with anticipation.

I wondered how the monsters could eat with such strange mouths. As if to answer my question, a leucrota picked up an old piece of armor in its mouth.
The Celestial bronze breastplate looked thick enough to stop a spear-thrust, but the leucrota clamped down with the force of a vise grip and bit a horseshoe-shaped hole in the metal.

“As you see,” said another leucrota in Hal’s voice, “the monsters are remarkably strong.”

My legs felt like soggy spaghetti. Thalia’s fingers dug into my arm.

“Send them away,” she pleaded. “Hal, can you make them leave?”

The old man frowned. The first monster said: “If I do that, we won’t be able to talk.”

The second monster picked up in the same voice: “Besides, any escape strategy you can think of, someone else has already tried.”

The third monster said: “There is no point in private talks.”

Thalia paced, as restless as the monsters. “Do they know what we’re saying? I mean, do they just speak, or do they understand the words?”

The first leucrota made a high-pitched whine. Then it imitated Thalia’s voice: “Do they understand the words?”

My stomach churned. The monster had mimicked Thalia perfectly. If I’d heard that voice in the dark, calling for help, I would’ve run straight toward it.

The second monster spoke for Hal: “The creatures are intelligent, the way dogs are intelligent. They comprehend emotions and a few simple phrases. They can lure their prey by crying things like ‘Help!’ But I’m not sure how much human speech they really understand. It doesn’t matter. You can’t fool them.”

“Send them away,” I said. “You have a computer. Type what you want to say. If we’re going to die at sunset, I don’t want those things staring at me all day.”

Hal hesitated. Then he turned to the monsters and stared at them in silence. After a few moments, the leucrotae snarled. They stalked out of the enclosure and the back panel closed behind them.

Hal looked at me. He spread his hands as if apologizing, or asking a question.

“Luke,” Thalia said anxiously, “do you have a plan?”

“Not yet,” I admitted. “But we’d better come up with one by sunset.”

It was an odd feeling, waiting to die. Normally when Thalia and I fought monsters, we had about two seconds to figure out a plan. The threat was immediate. We lived or died instantly. Now we had all day trapped in a room with nothing to do, knowing that at sunset those cage bars would rise and we’d be trampled to death and torn apart by monsters that couldn’t be killed with any weapon. Then Halcyon Green would eat my Snickers bars.

The suspense was almost worse than an attack.

Part of me was tempted to knock out the old man with my golf club and feed him to his drapes. Then at least he couldn’t help the monsters lure any more demigods to their deaths. But I couldn’t make myself do it. Hal was so frail and pathetic. Besides, his curse wasn’t his fault. He’d been trapped in this room for decades, forced to depend on monsters for his voice and his survival, forced to watch other demigods die, all because he’d saved a girl’s life. What kind of justice was that?

I was still angry with Hal for luring us here, but I could understand why he’d lost hope after so many years. If anybody deserved a golf club across the head, it was Apollo—and all the other deadbeat parent Olympian gods, for that matter.

We took inventory of Hal’s prison apartment. The bookshelves were stuffed with everything from ancient history to thriller novels.

You’re welcome to read anything, Hal typed on his computer. Just please not my diary. It’s personal.

He put his hand protectively on a battered green leather book next to his keyboard.

“No problem,” I said. I doubted any of the books would help us, and I couldn’t imagine Hal had anything interesting to write about in his diary, being stuck in this room most of his life.

He showed us the computer’s Internet browser.

Great. We could order pizza and watch the monsters eat the delivery guy. Not very helpful. I suppose we could’ve e-mailed someone for help, except we didn’t have anyone to contact, and I’d never used e-mail. Thalia and I didn’t even carry phones. We’d found out the hard way that when demigods use technology, it attracts monsters like blood attracts sharks.

We moved on to the bathroom. It was pretty clean considering how long Hal had lived here. He had two spare sets of snakeskin clothes, apparently just hand-washed, hanging from the rod above the bathtub. His medicine cabinet was stocked with scavenged supplies—toiletries, medicines, toothbrushes, first-aid gear, ambrosia, and nectar. I tried not to think about where all this had come from as I searched but didn’t see anything that could defeat the leucrotae.

Thalia slammed a drawer shut in frustration. “I don’t understand! Why did Amaltheia bring me here? Did the other demigods come here because of the goat?”

Hal frowned. He motioned for us to follow him back to his computer. He hunched over the keyboard and typed: What goat?

I didn’t see any point in keeping it a secret. I told him how we’d followed Zeus’s glowing Pepsi- dispensing goat into Richmond, and how she had pointed us to this house.

Hal looked baffled. He typed: I’ve heard of Amaltheia, but don’t know why she would bring you here. The other demigods were attracted to the mansion because of the treasure. I assumed you were, too.

“Treasure?” Thalia asked.

Hal got up and showed us his walk-in closet. It was full of more supplies collected from unfortunate demigods—coats much too small for Hal, some old- fashioned wood-and-pitch torches, dented pieces of armor, and a few Celestial bronze swords that were bent and broken. Such a waste. I needed another sword.

Hal rearranged boxes of books, shoes, a few bars of gold, and a small basket full of diamonds that he didn’t seem interested in. He unearthed a two-foot- square metal floor safe and gestured at it like: Ta-da.

“Can you open it?” I asked.

Hal shook his head.

“Do you know what’s inside?” Thalia asked.

Again, Hal shook his head.

“It’s trapped,” I guessed.

Hal nodded emphatically, then traced a finger across his neck.

I knelt next to the safe. I didn’t touch it, but I held my hands close to the combination lock. My fingers tingled with warmth as if the box were a hot oven. I concentrated until I could sense the mechanisms inside. I didn’t like what I found.

“This thing is bad news,” I muttered. “Whatever’s inside must be important.”
Thalia knelt next to me. “Luke, this is why we’re here.” Her voice was full of excitement. “Zeus wanted me to find this.”

I looked at her skeptically. I didn’t know how she could have such faith in her dad. Zeus hadn’t treated her any better than Hermes treated me. Besides, a lot of demigods had been led here. All of them were dead.

Still, she fixed me with those intense blue eyes, and I knew this was another time Thalia would get her way.

I sighed. “You’re going to ask me to open it, aren’t you?”

“Can you?”

I chewed my lip. Maybe next time I teamed up with someone, I should choose someone I didn’t like so much. I just couldn’t say no to Thalia.

“People have tried to open this before,” I warned. “There’s a curse on the handle. I’m guessing whoever touches it gets burned to a pile of ashes.”

I looked up at Hal. His face turned as gray as his hair. I took that as a confirmation.

“Can you bypass the curse?” Thalia asked me.

“I think so,” I said. “But it’s the second trap I’m worried about.”

“The second trap?” she asked.

“Nobody’s managed to trigger the combination,” I said. “I know that because there’s a poison canister ready to break as soon as you hit the third number. It’s never been activated.”

Judging from Hal’s wide eyes, this was news to him.

“I can try to disable it,” I said, “but if I mess up, this whole apartment is going to fill with gas. We’ll die.”

Thalia swallowed. “I trust you. Just...don’t mess up.”

I turned to the old man. “You could maybe hide in the bathtub. Put some wet towels over your face. It might protect you.”

Hal shifted uneasily. The snakeskin fabric of his suit rippled as if it were still alive, trying to swallow something unpleasant. Emotions played across his face —fear, doubt, but mostly shame. I guess he couldn’t stand the idea of cowering in a bathtub while two kids risked their lives. Or maybe there was a little demigod spirit left in him after all. He gestured at the safe like: Go
ahead.

I touched the combination lock. I concentrated so hard I felt like I was dead-lifting five hundred pounds. My pulse quickened. A line of sweat trickled down my nose. Finally I felt gears turning. Metal groaned, tumblers clicked, and the bolts popped back. Carefully avoiding the handle, I pried open the door with my fingertips and extracted an unbroken vial of green liquid.
Hal exhaled.

Thalia kissed me on the cheek, which she probably shouldn’t have done while I was holding a tube of deadly poison.

“You are so good,” she said.

Did that make the risk worth it? Yeah, pretty much.

I looked into the safe, and some of my enthusiasm faded. “That’s it?”

Thalia reached in and pulled out a bracelet.

It didn’t look like much, just a row of polished silver links.

Thalia latched it around her wrist. Nothing happened.

She scowled. “It should do something. If Zeus sent me here—”

Hal clapped his hands to get our attention. Suddenly his eyes looked almost as crazy as his hair. He gesticulated wildly, but I had no idea what he was trying to say. Finally he stamped his snakeskin boot in frustration and led us back to the main room.

He sat at his computer and started to type. I glanced at the clock on his desk. Maybe time traveled faster in the house, or maybe time just flies when you’re waiting to die, but it was already past noon. Our day was half over.

Hal showed us the short novel he’d written: You’re the ones!! You actually got the treasure!! I can’t believe it!! That safe has been sealed since before I was born!! Apollo told me my curse would end when the owner of the treasure claimed it!! If you’re the owner—

There was more, with plenty more exclamation points, but before I could finish reading, Thalia said, “Hold it. I’ve never seen this bracelet. How could I be the owner? And if your curse is supposed to end now, does that mean the monsters are gone?”

A clack, clack, clack from the hallway answered that question.

I frowned at Hal. “Do you have your voice back?”

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His shoulders slumped.

“Maybe Apollo meant we’re going to rescue you,” Thalia said.

Hal typed a new sentence: Or maybe I die today.

“Thank you, Mr. Cheerful,” I said. “I thought you could tell the future. You don’t know what will happen?”

Hal typed: I can’t look. It’s too dangerous. You can see what happened to me last time I tried to use my powers.

“Sure,” I grumbled. “Don’t take the risk. You might mess up this nice life you’ve got here.”

I knew that was mean. But the old man’s cowardice annoyed me. He’d let the gods use him as a punching bag for too long. It was time he fought back, preferably before Thalia and I became the leucrotae’s next meal.

Hal lowered his head. His chest was shaking, and I realized he was crying silently.

Thalia shot me an irritated look. “It’s okay, Hal. We’re not giving up. This bracelet must be the answer. It’s got to have a special power.”

Hal took a shaky breath. He turned to his keyboard and typed: It’s silver. Even if it turns into a weapon, the monsters can’t be hurt by any metal.

Thalia turned to me with a silent plea in her eyes, like: Your turn for a helpful idea.

I studied the empty enclosure, the metal panel through which the monsters had exited. If the apartment door wouldn’t open again, and the window was covered by man-eating acid drapes, then that panel might be our only exit. We couldn’t use metal weapons. I had a vial of poison, but if I was right about that stuff, it would kill everyone in the room as soon as it dispersed. I ran through another dozen ideas in my head, quickly rejecting them all.

“We’ll have to find a different kind of weapon,” I decided. “Hal, let me borrow your computer.”

Hal looked doubtful, but he gave me his seat.

I stared at the screen. Honestly, I’d never used computers much. Like I said, technology attracts monsters. But Hermes was the god of communication, roadways, and commerce. Maybe that meant he had some power over the Internet. I could really use a divine Google hit right about now.

“Just once,” I muttered to the screen, “cut me some slack. Show me there’s an upside to being your son.”

“What, Luke?” Thalia asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

I opened the Web browser and started typing. I looked up leucrotae, hoping to find their weaknesses. The Internet had almost nothing on them, except that they were legendary animals that lured their prey by imitating human voices.

I searched for “Greek weapons.” I found some great images of swords, spears, and catapults, but I doubted we could kill monsters with low-resolution JPEGs. I typed in a list of things we had in the room— torches, Celestial bronze, poison, Snickers bars, golf club—hoping that some sort of magic formula would pop up for a leucrota death ray. No such luck. I typed in “Help me kill leucrotae.” The closest hit I got was Help me cure leukemia.

My head was throbbing. I didn’t have any concept of how long I’d been searching until I looked at the clock: four in the afternoon. How was that possible?

Meanwhile, Thalia had been trying to activate her new bracelet, with no luck. She’d twisted it, tapped it, shaken it, worn it on her ankle, thrown it against the wall, and swung it over her head yelling “Zeus!” Nothing happened.

We looked at each other, and I knew we were both out of ideas. I thought about what Hal Green had told us. All demigods started off hopeful. All of them had ideas for escape. All of them failed.

I couldn’t let that happen. Thalia and I had survived too much to give up now. But for the life of me (and I mean that literally) I couldn’t think of anything else to try.

Hal walked over and gestured at the keyboard.

“Go ahead,” I said dejectedly.

We changed places.

Running out of time, he typed. I’ll try to read the future.

Thalia frowned. “I thought you said that was too dangerous.”

It doesn’t matter, Hal typed. Luke is right. I’m a cowardly old man, but Apollo can’t punish me any worse than he already has. Perhaps I’ll see something that will help you. Thalia, give me your hands.

He turned to her. Thalia hesitated.

Outside the apartment, the leucrotae growled and scraped against the corridor. They sounded hungry.

Thalia placed her hands in Halcyon Green’s. The old man closed his eyes and concentrated, the same way I do when I’m reading a complicated lock.

He winced, then took a shaky breath. He looked up at Thalia with an expression of sympathy. He turned to the keyboard and hesitated a long time before starting to type.

You are destined to survive today, Hal typed. “That’s—that’s good, right?” she asked. “Why do you look so sad?”

Hal stared at the blinking cursor. He typed, Someday soon, you will sacrifice yourself to save your friends. I see things that are...hard to describe. Years of solitude. You will stand tall and still, alive but sleeping. You will change once, and then change again. Your path will be sad and lonely. But someday you will find your family again.

Thalia clenched her fists. She started to speak, then paced the room. Finally she slammed her palm against the bookshelves. “That doesn’t make any sense. I’ll sacrifice myself, but I’ll live. Changing, sleeping? You call that a future? I—I don’t even have a family. Just my mom, and there’s no way I’m going back to her.”

Hal pursed his lips. He typed, I’m sorry. I don’t control what I see. But I didn’t mean your mother.

Thalia almost backed up into the drapes. She caught herself just in time, but she looked dizzy, as if she’d just stepped off a roller coaster.

“Thalia?” I asked, as gently as I could. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

She gave me a cornered look. I didn’t understand why she seemed so rattled. I knew she didn’t like to talk about her life back in L.A., but she’d told me she was an only child, and she’d never mentioned any relatives beside her mom.

“It’s nothing,” she said at last. “Forget it. Hal’s fortune-telling skills are rusty.”

I’m pretty sure not even Thalia believed that.

“Hal,” I said, “there’s got to be more. You told us that Thalia will survive. How? Did you see anything about the bracelet? Or the goat? We need something that will help.”

He shook his head sadly. He typed, I saw nothing about the bracelet. I’m sorry. I know a little about Amaltheia the goat, but I doubt it will help. The goat nursed Zeus when he was a baby. Later, Zeus slew her and used her skin to make his shield— the aegis.

I scratched my chin. I was pretty sure that was the story I’d been trying to remember earlier about the goat’s hide. It seemed important, though I couldn’t figure out why. “So Zeus killed his own mama goat. Typical god thing to do. Thalia, you know anything about the shield?”

She nodded, clearly relieved to change the subject. “Athena put the head of Medusa on the front of it and had the whole thing covered in Celestial bronze. She and Zeus took turns using it in battle. It would frighten away their enemies.”

I didn’t see how the information could help. Obviously, the goat Amaltheia had come back to life. That happened a lot with mythological monsters—they eventually re-formed from the pit of Tartarus. But why had Amaltheia led us here?

A bad thought occurred to me. If I’d been skinned by Zeus, I definitely wouldn’t be interested in helping him anymore. In fact, I might have a vendetta against Zeus’s children. Maybe that’s why Amaltheia had brought us to the mansion.

Hal Green held out his hands to me. His grim expression told me it was my turn for a fortune-telling.

A wave of dread washed over me. After hearing Thalia’s future, I didn’t want to know mine. What if she survived, and I didn’t? What if we both survived, but Thalia sacrificed herself to save me somewhere down the line, like Hal had mentioned? I couldn’t bear that.

“Don’t, Luke,” Thalia said bitterly. “The gods were right. Hal’s prophecies don’t help anybody.”

The old man blinked his watery eyes. His hands were so frail, it was hard to believe he carried the blood of an immortal god. He had told us his curse would end today, one way or another. He’d foreseen Thalia surviving. If he saw anything in my future that would help, I had to try.

I gave him my hands.

Hal took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His snakeskin jacket glistened as if it were trying to shed. I forced myself to stay calm.

I could feel Hal’s pulse in my fingers—one, two, three.

His eyes flew open. He yanked his hands away and stared at me in terror.

“Okay,” I said. My tongue felt like sandpaper. “I’m guessing you didn’t see anything good.”

Hal turned to his computer. He stared at the screen so long I thought he’d gone into a trance.

Finally he typed, Fire. I saw fire.

Thalia frowned. “Fire? You mean today? Is that going to help us?”

Hal looked up miserably. He nodded.

“There’s more,” I pressed. “What scared you so badly?”

He avoided my eyes. Reluctantly he typed, Hard to be sure. Luke, I also saw a sacrifice in your future. A choice. But also a betrayal.

I waited. Hal didn’t elaborate.

“A betrayal,” Thalia said. Her tone was dangerous. “You mean someone betrays Luke? Because Luke would never betray anyone.”

Hal typed, His path is hard to see. But if he survives today, he will betray—

Thalia grabbed the keyboard. “Enough! You lure demigods here, then you take away their hope with your horrible predictions? No wonder the others gave up—just like you gave up. You’re pathetic!”

Anger kindled in Hal’s eyes. I didn’t think the old man had it in him, but he rose to his feet. For a moment, I thought he might lunge at Thalia.

“Go ahead,” Thalia growled. “Take a swing, old man. You have any fire left?”

“Stop it!” I ordered. Hal Green immediately backed down. I could swear the old man was terrified of me now, but I didn’t want to know what he saw in his visions. Whatever nightmares were in my future, I had to survive today first.

“Fire,” I said. “You mentioned fire.”

He nodded, then spread his hands to indicate he had no further details.

An idea buzzed in the back of my head. Fire. Greek weapons. Some of the supplies we had in this apartment...the list I’d put into the search engine, hoping for a magic formula.

“What is it?” Thalia asked. “I know that look. You’re on to something.”

“Let me see the keyboard.” I sat at the computer and did a new Web search.

An article popped up immediately.

Thalia peered over my shoulder. “Luke, that would be perfect! But I thought that stuff was just a legend.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “If it’s real, how do we make it? There’s no recipe here.”

Hal rapped his knuckles on the desk to get our attention. His face was animated. He pointed at his bookshelves.

“Ancient history books,” Thalia said. “Hal’s right. A lot of those are really old. They probably have information that wouldn’t be on the Internet.”

All three of us ran to the shelves. We started pulling out books. Soon Hal’s library looked like it had been hit by a hurricane, but the old man didn’t seem to care. He tossed titles and flipped through pages as fast as we did. In fact, without him, we never would’ve found the answer. After lots of fruitless searching, he came racing over, tapping a page in an old leather- bound book.

I scanned the list of ingredients, and my excitement built. “This is it. The recipe for Greek fire.”

How had I known to search for it? Perhaps my dad, Hermes, the jack-of-all-trades god, was guiding me, since he’s got a way with potions and alchemy.
Perhaps I’d seen the recipe somewhere before, and searching the apartment had triggered that memory.

Everything we needed was in this room. I’d seen all of the ingredients when we’d gone through the supplies from defeated demigods: pitch from the old torches, a bottle of godly nectar, alcohol from Hal’s first-aid kit...

Actually, I shouldn’t write down the whole recipe, even in this diary. If someone came across it and learned the secret of Greek fire...well, I don’t want to be responsible for burning down the mortal world.

I read to the end of the list. There was only one thing missing.

“A catalyst.” I looked at Thalia. “We need lightning.”

Her eyes widened. “Luke, I can’t. Last time—” Hal dragged us to the computer and typed, You can summon lightning????

“Sometimes,” Thalia admitted. “It’s a Zeus thing. But I can’t do it indoors. And even if we were outside, I’d have trouble controlling the strike. Last time, I almost killed Luke.”

The hairs on my neck stood up as I remembered that accident.

“It’ll be fine.” I tried to sound confident. “I’ll prepare the mixture. When it’s ready, there’s an outlet under the computer. You can call down a lightning strike on the house and blast it through the electrical wiring.”

“And set the house on fire,” Thalia added.

Hal typed, You’ll do that anyway if you succeed. You do understand how dangerous Greek fire is?

I swallowed. “Yeah. It’s magical fire. Whatever it touches, it burns. You can’t put it out with water, or a fire extinguisher, or anything else. But if we can make enough for some kind of bomb and throw it at the leucrotae—”

“They’ll burn.” Thalia glanced at the old man. “Please tell me the monsters aren’t immune to fire.”

Hal knit his eyebrows. I don’t think so, he typed. But Greek fire will turn this room into an inferno. It will spread through the entire house in a matter of seconds.

I looked at the empty enclosure. According to Hal’s clock, we had roughly an hour before sunset. When those bars rose and the leucrotae attacked, we might have a chance—if we could surprise the monsters with an explosion, and if we could somehow get around them and reach the escape panel at the back of the cage without getting eaten or burned alive. Too many ifs.

My mind ran through a dozen different strategies, but I kept coming back to what Hal had said about sacrifice. I couldn’t escape the feeling there was no way all three of us could get out alive.

“Let’s make the Greek fire,” I said. “Then we’ll figure out the rest.”

Thalia and Hal helped me gather the things we needed. We started Hal’s stovetop and did some extremely dangerous cooking. Time passed too quickly.

Outside in the hallway, the leucrotae growled and clacked their jaws.
The drapes on the window blocked out all sunlight, but the clock told us we were almost out of time.

My face beaded with sweat as I mixed the ingredients. Every time I blinked, I remembered Hal’s words on that computer screen, as if they’d been burned onto the back of my eyes: A sacrifice in your future. A choice. But also a betrayal.

What did he mean? I was sure he hadn’t told me everything. But one thing was clear: My future terrified him.

I tried to focus on my work. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I had no choice. Maybe Hermes was watching out for me, lending me some of his alchemy know-how. Or maybe I just got lucky. Finally I had a pot full of goopy black gunk, which I poured into an old glass jelly jar. I sealed the lid.

“There.” I handed the jar to Thalia. “Can you zap it? The glass should keep it from exploding until we break the jar.”

Thalia didn’t look thrilled. “I’ll try. I’ll have to expose some wiring in the wall. And to summon the lightning, that’ll take a few minutes of concentration. You guys should probably step back, in case...you know, I explode or something.”

She grabbed a screwdriver from Hal’s kitchen drawer, crawled under the computer desk, and stared tinkering with the outlet.

Hal picked up his green leather diary. He gestured for me to follow him. We walked to the closet doorway, where Hal took a pen from his jacket and flipped through the book. I saw pages and pages of neat, cramped handwriting. Finally Hal found an empty page and scribbled something.
He handed the book to me.

The note read, Luke, I want you to take this diary. It has my predictions, my notes about the future, my thoughts about where I went wrong. I think it might help you.

I shook my head. “Hal, this is yours. Keep it.”

He took back the book and wrote, You have an important future. Your choices will change the world. You can learn from my mistakes, continue the diary. It might help you with your decisions.

“What decisions?” I asked. “What did you see that scared you so badly?”

His pen hovered over the page for a long time. I think I finally understand why I was cursed, he wrote. Apollo was right. Sometimes the future really is better left a mystery.

“Hal, your father was a jerk. You didn’t deserve —”

Hal tapped the page insistently. He scribbled, Just promise me you’ll keep up with the diary. If I’d started recording my thoughts earlier in my life, I might have avoided some stupid mistakes. And one more thing—

He set the pen in his diary and unclipped the Celestial bronze dagger from his belt. He offered it to me.

“I can’t,” I told him. “I mean, I appreciate it, but I’m more of a sword guy. And besides, you’re coming with us. You’ll need that weapon.”

He shook his head and put the dagger into my hands. He returned to writing: That blade was a gift from the girl I saved. She promised me it would always protect its owner.

Hal took a shaky breath. He must’ve known how bitterly ironic that promise sounded, given his curse. He wrote, A dagger doesn’t have the power or reach of a sword, but it can be an excellent weapon in the right hands. I’ll feel better knowing you have it.

He met my eyes, and I finally understood what he was planning. “Don’t,” I said. “We can all make it out.” Hal pursed his lips. He wrote, We both know that’s impossible. I can communicate with the leucrotae. I am the logical choice for bait. You and Thalia wait in the closet. I’ll lure the monsters into the bathroom. I’ll buy you a few seconds to reach the exit panel before I set off the explosion. It’s the only way you’ll have time.

“No,” I said.

But his expression was grim and determined. He didn’t look like a cowardly old man anymore. He looked like a demigod, ready to go out fighting.

I couldn’t believe he was offering to sacrifice his life for two kids he’d just met, especially after he’d suffered for so many years. And yet, I didn’t need pen and paper to see what he was thinking. This was his chance at redemption. He would do one last heroic thing, and his curse would end today, just as Apollo had foreseen.

He scribbled something and handed me the diary. The last word read: Promise.

I took a deep breath, and closed the book. “Yeah. I promise.”

Thunder shook the house. We both jumped. Over at the computer desk, something went ZZZAP-POP! White smoke billowed from the computer, and a smell like burning tires filled the room.

Thalia sat up grinning. The wall behind her was blistered and blackened. The electrical outlet had completely melted, but in her hands, the jelly jar of
Greek fire was now glowing green.

“Someone order a magic bomb?” she asked.

Just then, the clock registered 7:03. The enclosure’s bars began to rise, and the panel at the back started to open.

We were out of time.

The old man held out his hand.

“Thalia,” I said. “Give Hal the Greek fire.”

She looked back and forth between us. “But—”

“He has to.” My voice sounded more gravelly than usual. “He’s going to help us escape.”

As the meaning of my words dawned on her, her face blanched. “Luke, no.”

The bars had risen halfway to the ceiling. The trapdoor ground open slowly. A red hoof thrust its way through the crack. Inside the chute, the leucrotae growled and clacked their jaws.

“There’s no time,” I warned. “Come on!”

Hal took the jar of fire from Thalia. He gave her a brave smile, then nodded to me. I remembered the final word he’d written: Promise.

I slipped his diary and dagger into my pack. Then I pulled Thalia into the closet with me.

A split second later, we heard the leucrotae burst into the room. All three of the monsters hissed and growled and trampled across the furniture, anxious to feed.

“In here!” Hal’s voice called. It must’ve been one of the monsters speaking for him, but his words sound brave and confident. “I’ve got them trapped in the bathroom! Come on, you ugly mutts!”

It was strange hearing a leucrota insult itself, but the ploy seemed to work. The creatures galloped toward the bathroom.

I gripped Thalia’s hand. “Now.”

We burst out of the closet and sprinted for the enclosure. Inside, the panel was already closing. One of the leucrotae snarled in surprise and turned to follow us, but I didn’t dare look back. We scrambled into the cage. I lunged for the exit panel, wedging it open with my golf club.

“Go, go, go!” I yelled.

Thalia wriggled through as the metal plate started to bend the golf club.

From the bathroom, Hal’s voice yelled, “You know what this is, you Tartarus scum dogs? This is your last meal!”

The leucrota landed on me. I twisted, screaming, as its bony mouth snapped at the air where my face had just been.

I managed to punch its snout, but it was like hitting a bag of wet cement.
Then something grabbed my arm. Thalia pulled me into the chute. The panel closed, snapping my golf club.

We crawled through a metal duct into another bedroom and stumbled for the door.

I heard Halcyon Green, shouting a battle cry: “For Apollo!”

And the mansion shook with a massive explosion.

We burst into the hallway, which was already on fire. Flames licked the wallpaper and the carpet steamed. Hal’s bedroom door had been blown off its hinges, and fire was pouring out like an avalanche, vaporizing everything in its path.

We reached the stairs. The smoke was so thick, I couldn’t see the bottom. We stumbled and coughed, the heat searing my eyes and my lungs. We got to the base of the stairs, and I was beginning to think we’d reach the door, when the leucrota pounced, knocking me flat on my back.

It must have been the one that followed us into the enclosure. I suppose it had been far enough away from the explosion to survive the initial blast and had somehow escaped the bedroom, though it didn’t look like it had enjoyed the experience. Its red fur was singed black. Its pointed ears were on fire, and one of its glowing red eyes was swollen shut.

“Luke!” Thalia screamed. She grabbed her spear, which had been lying on the ballroom floor all day, and rammed the point against the monster’s ribs, but that only annoyed the leucrota.

It snapped its bone-plated jaws at her, keeping one hoof planted on my chest. I couldn’t move, and I knew the beast could crush my chest by applying even the slightest extra pressure.

My eyes stung from the smoke. I could hardly breathe. I saw Thalia try to spear the monster again, and a flash of metal caught my eye—the silver bracelet.

Something finally clicked in my mind: the story of Amaltheia the goat, who’d led us here. Thalia had been destined to find that treasure. It belonged to the child of Zeus.

“Thalia!” I gasped. “The shield! What was it called?”

“What shield?” she cried.

“Zeus’s shield!” I suddenly remembered. “Aegis. Thalia, the bracelet—it’s got a code word!”

It was a desperate guess. Thank the gods—or thank blind luck—Thalia understood. She tapped the bracelet, but this time she yelled, “Aegis!”

Instantly the bracelet expanded, flattening into a wide bronze disk—a shield with intricate designs hammered around the rim. In the center, pressed into the metal like a death mask, was a face so hideous I would’ve run from it if I could’ve. I looked away, but the afterimage burned in my mind—snaky hair, glaring eyes, and a mouth with bared fangs.

Thalia thrust the shield toward the leucrota. The monster yelped like a puppy and retreated, freeing me from the weight of its hoof. Through the smoke, I watched the terrified leucrota run straight into the nearest drapes, which turned into glistening black tongues and engulfed the monster. The monster steamed. It began yelling, “Help!” in a dozen voices, probably the voices of its past victims, until finally it disintegrated in the dark oily folds.

I would’ve lain there stunned and horrified until the fiery ceiling collapsed on me, but Thalia grabbed my arm and yelled, “Hurry!”

We bolted for the front door. I was wondering how we’d open it, when the avalanche of fire poured down the staircase and caught us. The building exploded.

I can’t remember how we got out. I can only assume that the shockwave blasted the front door open and pushed us outside.

The next thing I knew, I was sprawled in the traffic circle, coughing and gasping as a tower of fire roared into the evening sky. My throat burned. My eyes felt like they’d been splashed with acid. I looked for Thalia and instead found myself staring at the bronze face of Medusa. I screamed, somehow found the energy to stand, and ran. I didn’t stop until I was cowering behind the statue of Robert E. Lee.

Yeah, I know. It sounds comical now. But it’s a miracle I didn’t have a heart attack or get hit by a car. Finally Thalia caught up to me, her spear back in Mace canister form, her shield reduced to a silver bracelet.

Together we stood and watched the mansion burn. Bricks crumbled. Black draperies burst into sheets of red fire. The roof collapsed and smoke billowed into the sky.

Thalia let loose a sob. A tear etched through the soot on her face.

“He sacrificed himself,” she said. “Why did he save us?”

I hugged my knapsack. I felt the diary and bronze dagger inside—the only remnants of Halcyon Green’s life.

My chest was tight, as if the leucrota was still standing on it. I’d criticized for Hal for being a coward, but in the end, he’d been braver than me. The gods had cursed him. He’d spent most of his life imprisoned with monsters. It would’ve been easy for him to let us die like all the other demigods before us. Yet he’d chosen to go out a hero.

I felt guilty that I couldn’t save the old man. I wished I could’ve talked to him longer. What had he seen in my future that scared him so much?

Your choices will change the world, he’d warned.

I didn’t like the sound of it.

The sound of sirens brought me to my senses.

Being runaway minors, Thalia and I had learned to distrust the police and anybody else with authority. The mortals would want to question us, maybe put us in juvie hall or foster care. We couldn’t let that happen.

“Come on,” I told Thalia.

We ran through the streets of Richmond until we found a small park. We cleaned up in the public restrooms as best we could. Then we lay low until full dark.

We didn’t talk about what had happened. We wandered in a daze through neighborhoods and industrial areas. We had no plan, no glowing goat to follow anymore. We were bone tired, but neither of us felt like sleeping or stopping. I wanted to get as far as possible from that burning mansion.
It wasn’t the first time we’d barely escaped with our lives, but we’d never succeeded at the expense of another demigod’s life. I couldn’t shake my grief.

Promise, Halcyon Green had written.

I promise, Hal, I thought. I will learn from your mistakes. If the gods ever treat me that badly, I will fight back.

Okay, I know that sounds like crazy talk. But I was feeling bitter and angry. If that makes the dudes up on Mount Olympus unhappy, tough. They can come down here and tell me to my face.

We stopped for a rest near an old warehouse. In the dim light of the moon, I could see a name painted on the side of the red brick building: RICHMOND IRON WORKS. Most of the windows were broken.

Thalia shivered. “We could head to our old camp,” she suggested. “On the James River. We’ve got plenty of supplies down there.”

I nodded apathetically. It would take at least a day to get there, but it was as good a plan as any.

I split my ham sandwich with Thalia. We ate in silence. The food tasted like cardboard. I’d just swallowed the last bite when I heard a faint metal ping from a nearby alley. My ears started tingling. We weren’t alone.

“Someone’s close by,” I said. “Not a regular mortal.”

Thalia tensed. “How can you be sure?”

I didn’t have an answer, but I rose to my feet. I pulled out Hal’s dagger, mostly for the glow of the Celestial bronze. Thalia grabbed her spear and summoned Aegis. This time I knew better than to look at the face of Medusa, but its presence still made my skin crawl. I didn’t know if this shield was the aegis, or a replica made for heroes—but either way, it radiated power. I understood why Amaltheia had wanted Thalia to claim it.

We crept along the wall of the warehouse.

We turned into a dark alleyway that dead-ended at a loading dock piled with old scrap metal.

I pointed at the platform.

Thalia frowned. She whispered, “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Something’s down there. I sense it.”

Just then there was a loud CLANG. A sheet of corrugated tin quivered on the dock. Something —someone—was underneath.

We crept toward the loading bay until we stood over the pile of metal. Thalia readied her spear. I gestured for her to hold back. I reached for the piece of corrugated metal and mouthed, One, two, three!

As soon as I lifted the sheet of tin, something flew at me—a blur of flannel and blond hair. A hammer hurtled straight at my face.

Things could’ve gone very wrong. Fortunately my reflexes were good from years of fighting.

I shouted, “Whoa!” and dodged the hammer, then grabbed the little girl’s wrist. The hammer went skidding across the pavement.

The little girl struggled. She couldn’t have been more than seven years old.

“No more monsters!” she screamed, kicking me in the legs. “Go away!”

“It’s okay!” I tried my best to hold her, but it was like holding a wildcat. Thalia looked too stunned to move. She still had her spear and shield ready.

“Thalia,” I said, “put your shield away! You’re scaring her!”

Thalia unfroze. She touched the shield and it shrank back into a bracelet. She dropped her spear.

“Hey, little girl,” she said, sounding more gentle than I’d ever heard. “It’s all right. We’re not going to hurt you. I’m Thalia. This is Luke.”

“Monsters!” she wailed.

“No,” I promised. The poor thing wasn’t fighting as hard, but she was shivering like crazy, terrified of us. “But we know about monsters,” I said. “We fight them too.”

I held her, more to comfort than restrain now. Eventually she stopped kicking. She felt cold. Her ribs were bony under her flannel pajamas. I wondered how long this little girl had gone without eating. She was even
younger than I had been when I ran away.

Despite her fear, she looked at me with large eyes. They were startlingly gray, beautiful and intelligent. A demigod—no doubt about it. I got the feeling she was powerful—or she would be, if she survived.

“You’re like me?” she asked, still suspicious, but she sounded a little hopeful, too.

“Yeah,” I promised. “We’re...” I hesitated, not sure if she understood what she was, or if she’d ever heard the word demigod. I didn’t want to scare her even worse. “Well, it’s hard to explain, but we’re monster fighters. Where’s your family?”

The little girl’s expression turned hard and angry. Her chin trembled. “My family hates me. They don’t want me. I ran away.”

My heart felt like it was cracking into pieces. She had such pain in her voice—familiar pain. I looked at Thalia, and we made a silent decision right there. We would take care of this kid. After what had happened with Halcyon Green...well, it seemed like fate. We’d watched one demigod die for us. Now we’d found this little girl. It was almost like a second chance.

Thalia knelt next to me. She put her hand on the little girl’s shoulder. “What’s your name, kiddo?”

“Annabeth.”

I couldn’t help smiling. I’d never heard that name before, but it was pretty, and it seemed to fit her. “Nice name,” I told her. “I tell you what, Annabeth. You’re pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you.”

Her eyes widened. “You could?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said earnestly. Then a sudden thought struck me. I reached for Hal’s dagger and pulled it from my belt. It will protect its owner, Hal had said. He had gotten it from the little girl he had saved. Now fate had given us the chance to save another little girl.

“How’d you like a real monster-slaying weapon?” I asked her. “This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer.”

Annabeth took the dagger and studied it in awe. I know...she was seven years old at most. What was I thinking giving her a weapon? But she was a demigod. We have to defend ourselves. Hercules was only a baby when he strangled two snakes in his cradle. By the time I was nine, I’d fought for my life a dozen times. Annabeth could use a weapon.

“Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters,” I told her. My voice caught as I remembered Hal Green, and how he’d died to save us. “They don’t have the reach or power of a sword, but they’re easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy’s armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you’re pretty clever.”

Annabeth beamed at me, and for that instant, all my problems seemed to melt. I felt as if I’d done one thing right. I swore to myself I would never let this girl come to harm.

“I am clever!” she said.

Thalia laughed and tousled Annabeth’s hair. Just like that—we had a new companion.

“We’d better get going, Annabeth,” Thalia said. “We have a safe house on the James River. We’ll get you some clothes and food.”

Annabeth’s smile wavered. For a moment, she got that wild look in her eyes again. “You’re...you’re not going to take me back to my family? Promise?”

I swallowed the lump out of my throat. Annabeth was so young, but she’d learned a hard lesson, just like Thalia and I had. Our parents had failed us. The gods were harsh and cruel and aloof. Demigods had only each other.

I put my hand on Annabeth’s shoulder. “You’re part of our family now. And I promise I’m not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?”

“Deal!” she said happily, clutching her new dagger.

Thalia picked up her spear. She smiled at me with approval. “Now, come on. We can’t stay put for long!”

So here I am on guard duty, writing in Halcyon Green’s diary—my diary, now.

We’re camping in the woods south of Richmond. Tomorrow, we’ll press on to the James River and restock our supplies. After that...I don’t know. I keep thinking about Hal Green’s predictions. An ominous feeling weighs on my chest. There’s something dark in my future. It may be a long way off, but it feels like a thunderstorm on the horizon, supercharging the air. I just hope I have the strength to take care of my friends.

Looking at Thalia and Annabeth asleep by the fire, I’m amazed how peaceful their faces are. If I’m going to be the “dad” of this bunch, I’ve got to be worthy of their trust. None of us has had good luck with our dads. I have to be better than that. I may be only fourteen, but that’s no excuse. I have to keep my new family together.

I look toward the north. I imagine how long it would take to get to my mom’s house in Westport, Connecticut, from here. I wonder what my mom is doing right now. She was in such a bad state of mind when I left....

But I can’t feel guilty about leaving her. I had to. If I ever meet my dad, we’re going to have a conversation about that.

For now, I’ll just have to survive day to day. I’ll write in this diary as I have the chance, though I doubt anyone will ever read it.

Thalia is stirring. It’s her turn on guard duty. Wow, my hand hurts. I haven’t written this much in forever. I’d better sleep, and hope for no dreams.

Luke Castellan—signing off for now.

*"The Diary of Luke Castellan" is property of Rick Riordan from his book, "The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries", part of the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus universe. I in no way shape or form own this short story. The rest of these entries are for fun, not profit.