RECLUSE ?Leo Valdez?

Two tratiors??

She refused to meet any of their eyes.

"God, Piper. I'm so sorry." Jason said.

Leo nodded. "No kidding. You've been carrying this for around a week? Piper, we could help you."

"Why won't you yell at me? I was ordered to kill you!" She yelled at them in disbelief. "I know you want to, Maisie. I'm doing the exact thing I accused you of!"

"Well you weren't completely wrong," Maisie admitted.

Everyone now turned to Maisie.

"I haven't been honest either," She revealed. "I got a message too. Hera spoke to me in a dream. She warned me to stop somebody from awakening, and stop 'her'. Before I could question her more, somebody else appeared. A woman."

She looked into the fire, avoiding their piercing gazes. "If I brought you to Enceladus to be killed, she would bring my friends back."

"Your friends?" Leo questioned. "The ones that— you know—"

"Died? Yeah. She said that 'the other girl has forgotten her duty' which I assume was you, Piper." She met the girls kaleidoscope eyes. "I agreed. I would sabotage you in exchange for the lives of my friends."

Everybody went silent. Maisie had wished for one of them to say anything. When she looked up she could only meet Pipers eyes. She had hated her, but now she saw her differently. She saw herself in the reflection of her sad eyes. They were both just kids willing to do anything for those they loved.

Jason spoke first. "Do you guys want hugs?"

Maisie's head snapped over to him. "Are you joking?"

"Same, can I give hugs too?" Leo agreed.

"You don't get it!" Piper said. "We've probably ruined our deals by telling you guys this!"

"Doubt it." Hedge said. "They haven't gotten what they wanted yet. They'll wait until the deadline passes, see if you guys show up. He wants you to divert the quest to the mountain right?"

Piper nodded.

"Then Hera isn't being imprisoned there," Coach reasoned. "So we have to choose— save your dad and get your fiends back, or rescue Hera. Enceladus wouldn't even let both of you go if you cooperated. You're obviously two of the eight in the great prophecy."

"So we have no choice." She said miserably. "He'll kill my dad."

"He's not going to kill your dad," Leo said. "We'll save him and bring back Maisie's friends"

"How?" Maisie questioned. "They're already dead, we can't bring them back. And besides, we don't have time. It's just a death trap."

"We're your friends," Leo said, placing g his hand in Maisie's. "We'll figure something out."

Coach Hedge grumbled. "Would help if we knew where the mountain was. Maybe Aeolus could tell us. The Bay Area has a bad reputation for demigods. Mount Othrys, sits over Mount Tam, where Atlas holds up the sky. I hope that's not the mountain you saw."

"I don't think so," Piper tried to envision it. "It was inland."

"Bad reputation ... that doesn't seem right ... the Bay Area ..."

"You've been there?" Piper asked.

"I ... I don't know. Hedge, what happened to Mount Othrys?"

"Kronos build a parlance there last summer," Coach explained. "He left other giants to take care of it while he charged for Olympus. After he was defeated in Manhattan, it crumbled in its own."

Manhattan still sent a diver down Maisie's spine.

"No." Jason stated.

"What do you mean no?" Leo asked.

"That's not what happened. I—" a shrill howl cut him off. "Did you hear that?"

Wolves.

Unedited
7/24/24
2162 Words