Chapter Fifteen

“I don’t get it,” I say.

“It’s quite simple,” Quinn says. “Mutt wants to stop the future that has been set for you two. He thinks by going into Hypnos’s palace he will stop it. Those who go into Hypnos’s palace usually fall into a deep sleep unless they have his blessing. And once you go to sleep, you don’t wake up.”

“Wait,” I say. “So you’re plan is to go to sleep forever?”

Mutt glares at Quinn. “And if it is?”

“Have fun,” I say, turning around and walking out. Mutt grins, looking absolutely happy. Quinn rolls her eyes.

Now now now, would you look at that. When are you going to stop denying the fact that you like him? The voice says.

It wasn’t Waverly, no, this voice showed up after Waverly.

Only this time with the voice came an image, of a girl with dark red hair, it was wavy and went just past her shoulder blades. And dull green eyes that you could tell used to be bright. Used to hold the world of hopes and dreams. And now, now they held a world of pain and loss.

I shrug off the odd occurrence and walk out of the Poseidon House.

“Have you heard?” a nymph tells a demigod.

“Heard what?” the demigod asks.

“They’re going to do it. They’re are going to do Mutt’s plan,” the nymph says with a wide smile.

“Oh man,” the demigod laughs. “Adaline must’ve been pissed.”

The nymph nods, I walk faster, trying to get away from their conversation, not in the mood to hear it.

Unfortunately it seemed to be the talk of town. Without really meaning to I end up finding myself at building 18, the Meeting Palace. Sure enough, all the House Heads were there, along with a few of the volunteers to go with them.

I find myself standing beside Derek, he nods at me, he hasn’t really said anything since Nikki went missing.

“Mutt’s going to infiltrate the palace by going through the front door,” Lenzie says. “The children of Hermes will all each have a small team with them and they will be doing what they do best. Sneaking in.”

Jadaenlee nods, as does everyone else. Lenzie glances around, staring at everyone. “Derek I want you to stay here,” she says.

“What?!” He shouts. “No way!”

“Mutt’s going to infiltrate the palace by going through the front door,” Lenzie says. “The children of Hermes will all each have a small team with them and they will be doing what they do best. Sneaking in.”

Jadaenlee nods, as does everyone else. Lenzie glances around, staring at everyone. “Derek I want you to stay here,” she says.

“What?!” He shouts. “No way!”

Lenzie sighs, “Derek you are emotionally involved in this. It’s best if you don’t participate in the extraction mission. Plus you have no fighting experience.”

“Not true,” James says from where he was leaning against the wall.

“Excuse you?” Lenzie says, standing up.

James shrugs, “I figured you’d try to pull something like this, so I decided that a simple training job would be in order.”

Lenzie frowns slightly, Quinn raises an eyebrow and Mutt stifles a laugh. James just stares at Lenzie, meeting her glare head on with one of his own.

“He is still emotionally involved,” Lenzie snarled.

“So’s Quinn,” James pointed out. “She’s still going.”

I frown at that but didn’t have time to question it.

“Because I can’t tell her what to do,” Lenzie snaps.

James stands, no longer leaning against the wall. “And I’m telling you that you can’t tell Derek that he can’t go. If he wants to, and I’m sure he does, then he will be going. And he will succeed in this. After all, he’s a child of Athena.”

“Fine,” Lenzie growls. “When he dies it’s on you.” She turns on her heel, walking out.

“You’re not gonna die right?” James asks, turning to look at Derek.

“I hope not?” Derek says.

James shrugs, “Good enough for me.”

I swallow a laugh, Mutt was already laughing his head off. The sound bouncing off the walls. Even Quinn was smiling.

۝

Derek

After James and Lenzie had another argument over me going with them they finally agreed, well, more like Lenzie flat out gave up. I stood with James, we were at an entrance of Hypnos’s castle. The white, cloud like walls seemed darker than the day I had seen them.

“Ready?” James asks.

I nod, there was a bang, that meant that Mutt had successfully ended up getting in. James nods, and then the next thing I knew we were standing on the other side of the wall.

James frowns, looking around. He turns in small, slow circles, his gaze flickering from side to side. Something was wrong. I could feel it in the air.

“What is it?” I ask.

“We’re in a room,” he says.

“Yeah, so?” I ask, not really seeing the thing that was supposed to be a big deal.

James sighs, “That entrance was supposed to lead into a hallway. And we are in a room.”

“Trap?” My eyes widen. “But- how? No one knew the plan!”

“Apparently we have a spy,” James sighs.

“Really? Who?” a new voice says.

A voice I knew. I look up to see Nikki, she was leaning against a pillar in the middle of the room. Hypnos beside her, smirking. The others where in chains around the room. Some kind of cloud people holding them at arm's length, with a knife against their throats.

“Nikki?” I ask. “What are you doing?”

Nikki laughs, “Isn’t it obvious? I’m choosing the winning team.”

I open and close my mouth, this wasn’t what I had been expecting. “But,” my brow crinkles.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Lenzie says, throwing her head back.

I look around at the others.

Moon was looking confused at the whole thing, she had a long jagged cut on her arm. It was bleeding bad.

Lenzie had a gash on her head and she was leaning heavily on her left leg. Her pant leg torn on the right leg.

James looked mostly unharmed, considering he had came in with me. He just looked mad.

Jadaenlee was hanging her head, so I couldn’t see her face since it was shielded by her long brown hair.

Emma, a daughter of Ares was glaring up at the ceiling, she appeared to be unharmed other than her clothes were torn and wrinkled.

Larissa was grinning, like she had a crazy plan that she wasn’t going to tell anyone. But she knew it would work.

Maya was muttering to herself, occasionally glancing up and meeting Lenzie’s “I-told-you-so” expression.

Ralfy was yawning, he was leaning against a wall, much to the cloud guy’s despair. He looked right at home, except his eyes darted around, looking for anything to help them out.

Quinn was nowhere to be found. I frown at that, but then shake off the feeling. She wouldn’t have been the spy. Would she?

Mutt was sitting in the far corner, eyes closed, leaning against the wall. He seemed to be asleep. His wrists weren’t even chained.

“Oh goodie,” Hypnos says with a grin. “You noticed.”

I turn to him, “‘Goodie’? Seriously?”

Nikki facepalms and Hypnos huffs.

“Yes, goodie. Now, as you can see. Young Mutt there has been enchanted to an eternity of sleeping. Isn’t it wonderful. It was Nykole’s idea of course! And naturally, you are going to get the same treatment,” Hypnos says.

I back away, my mind was racing. I didn’t know what to do. Come on think. You’re supposed to be the son of Athena. THINK. I look at all of the demigods that had followed me here. Willingly. Despite the fact that they could die. I brought them here. This was all my fault.

“You’re supposed to be my best friend,” I say, turning to look at Nikki.

“I am your best friend,” Nikki says, looking away.

“Really? So this is what a best friend does now?” I ask, trying to fight back the tears.

Nikki briefly meets my gaze, before turning away again. “I-” she inhales. “Friendship comes with betrayal. I’m sorry,” she adds. Finally looking at me. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this. You were never supposed to be here.”

“Liar,” I say. Not moving when the two cloud guards come up and grab my arms. Forcing me to go towards the grinning god of sleep.

“What?” Nikki says.

“Liar,” I repeat. “You’re not sorry. And even if you were I can’t accept your apology. You’re not my friend. You’re not my family. I don’t even know you anymore. And I’m the one about to die. So maybe you shouldn’t be sorry.”

I was standing directly in front of her now. “I hope betraying your friends was worth the power Nikki. I thought you were better than that. I guess I was wrong.”

“Enough talk,” Hypnos says, raising his hand.

Before he could put me into his “eternal sleep” however a silver arrow flies through the air. Skimming past Nikki’s throat, brushing it just enough to leave a small trickle of red. Flying by me so close that I could hear the wind as it rushed past. The arrow buries itself through Hypnos’s hand and into the wall on the other side of the room. Dripping gold, the blood of the gods.

I turn around, locking eyes with a girl with straight brown hair and bright silver eyes. She was wearing a gray sweater, and black pants. She had boots that stopped just below the knees. On her waist was a variety of daggers. She had a quiver full of silver arrows on her back. And a silver bow in her hand.

Standing beside her was Quinn, looking bored. And surrounding them was a bunch of other girls, all holding a bow, or daggers, or even a sword.

“Someone call for the Hunters of Artemis?” One of the girls spoke up. She had long curly blonde hair and one green eye, one blue.

Everyone except the girl that had shot the arrow had a black bow. I frown, trying to figure out the significance of a black bow, compared to the silver eyed girls silver bow.

The girl that had fired was crouching on one of the lower beams attached to the ceiling, her bow still pointed at Hypnos, another arrow notched. The girl that had spoken was kneeling beside her, her bow resting at her side. The others were behind them in sort of a half circle. Then Quinn was hanging upside down from the top beam

“Finally,” Ralfy says. “What took you guys so long?”

“Jordan couldn’t figure out what to wear,” the silver eyed girl says.

The girl with the green and blue eye blushes, that must be Jordan. “Shut up Astrid,” she hisses.

The silver eyed girl, Astrid, shrugs. And that seems to make everyone bolt into action. Quinn flips over the beam, dropping to the ground and landing on her feet. Drawing her sword and starting for a cloud guard.

The Hunters of Artemis jump down from the beams as well, half of them going to free the captured demigods, the other half fighting the cloud guards. Astrid stalks towards Hypnos.

I turn to face Nikki. “Why?” I ask.

She scoffs, “Because I wanted to prove to the gods that I was someone that they couldn’t ignore. I wanted to be somebody other than the daughter of Hades. I wanted the gods to fear me.”

“Why?” I repeat.

She stares at me, “Because fear is as close as I can get to being noticed. Being feared.”

I close my eyes, inhaling. “Being feared is something to be scared of. You shouldn’t wish for it.”

I raise my sword, and crouch down into the attack position James had showed me.