KARINA WAS CERTAIN that the thief hadn't been there a second ago. he'd simply materialized, as if he'd stepped out from behind an invisible curtain.

"who are you?" hazel asked.

the bandit laughed. "sciron, of course!"

"you act as if we should know that," karina muttered.

"chiron?" jason asked. "like the centaur?"

the bandit rolled his eyes. "sky-ron, my friend. son of poseidon! thief extraordinaire! all-around awesome guy! but that's not important. i'm not seeing any valuables!" he cried, as if this were excellent news. "i guess that means you want to die?"

"wait," hazel said. "we've got valuables. but if we give them up, how can we be sure you'll let us go?"

"oh, they always ask that," sciron said. "i promise you, on the river styx, that as soon as you surrender what i want, i will not shoot you. i will send you right back down that cliff."

karina, jason, and hazel shared a wary look. river styx or no, the way sciron phrased his promise didn't reassure her.

"what if we fought you?" jason asked. "you can't attack us and hold our ship hostage at the same— "

BANG! BANG!

it happened so fast, karina's brain needed a moment to catch up.

smoke curled from the side of jason's head. just above his left ear, a groove cut through his hair like a racing stripe. one of sciron's flintlocks was still pointed at his face. the other flintlock was pointed down, over the side of the cliff, as if sciron's second shot had been fired at the argo II

hazel choked. "what did you do?"

"oh, don't worry!" sciron laughed. "if you could see that far— which you can't— you'd see a hole in the deck between the shoes of a big young man, the one with the bow."

"frank!"

sciron shrugged. "if you say so. that was just a demonstration. i'm afraid it could have been much more serious."

karina's jaw twitched in anger, and in a blur of gold, she unsheathed her gladius and pressed the tip of it against the bandit's throat.

but, he saw it coming. at the same time, he raised on of his flintlocks directly in the center of her forehead, metal only inches from her face. her face remained stoic as she stared into the bleak eyes of sciron.

"i wouldn't do that if i were you," sciron said with a devious smile on his face. "i don't play nice with bratty demigods."

karina's lips pressed together hardly, refraining herself from slitting the thief's throat. her hands trembled with anger, and restraint— she could feel gaea's influence willing her the kill the man.

"try me."

sciron smirked, and pressed the flintlock against her forehead. "i only want my treasure. and i don't need you in order to get that. i will not hesitate to pull the trigger."

karina's lips pulled into a smirk. "then why haven't you killed me yet?"

jason intervened at that point. he walked up to her, and pulled her away from sciron, dragging her back to his side, where he gave her a hard glare.

"what the hell are you doing?" he asked harshly.

karina glared back at him, but a small smirk was still on her lips. "poking the bear."

jason's hard stare didn't waver. "don't make things worse, nina. feeding into his games won't get us anywhere."

she shrugged. "i know," she said. "but it was fun."

sciron waggled his eyebrows at jason. "so! to answer your question— yes, i can attack you and hold your ship hostage at the same time. celestial bronze ammunition. quite deadly to demigods. you three would die first— bang, bang, bang. then i could take my time picking off your friends on that ship. target practice is so much more fun with live targets running around screaming!"

jason touched the new furrow that the bullet had plowed through his hair. for once, he didn't look very confident.

karina's stomach churned. frank was the best shot she knew with a bow, but this bandit sciron was inhumanly good.

"you're a son of poseidon?" hazel managed. "i would've thought apollo, the way you shoot."

the smile lines deepened around his eyes. "why, thank you! it's just from practice, though. the giant turtle— that's due to my parentage. you can't go around taming giant turtles without being a son of poseidon! i could overwhelm your ship with a tidal wave, of course, but it's terribly difficult work. it nearly as fun as ambushing and shooting people."

karina could tell hazel was trying to stall for time, but she kept staring down at the smoking battles of the flintlocks, which unfocused her. "uh . . . what's the bandana for?"

"so no one recognizes me!" sciron said.

"but you introduced yourself," karina said dryly. "you're sciron."

the bandit's eyes widened. "how did you— oh. yes, i suppose i did." he lowered one flintlock and scratched the side of his head with the other. "terribly sloppy of me. sorry. i'm afraid i'm a little rusty. back from the dead, and all that. let me try again."

he leveled his pistols. "stans and deliver! i am an anonymous bandit, and you do not need to know my name!"

an anonymous bandit. something clicked in karina's memory. "theseus. he killed you once."

sciron's shoulders slumped. "now, why did you have to go mention him? we were getting along so well!"

jason frowned. "karina, you know this guy's story?"

she nodded, though the details were murky. "theseus met him on the road to athens. sciron would kill his victims by, um . . . "

something about the turtle. karina couldn't remember.

"theseus was such a cheater!" sciron complained. "i don't want to talk about him. i'm back from the dead now. gaea promised me i could stay on the coastline and rob all the demigods i wanted, and that's what i'm going to do! now . . . where were we?"

"you were about to let us go," hazel ventured.

"hmm . . . " sciron said. "no, i'm pretty sure that wasn't it. ah, right! money or your life. where are your valuables? no valuables? then i'll have to— "

"wait," hazel said. "i have our valuables. at least, i can get them."

sciron pointed a flintlock at jason and karina's heads. "well, then, my dear, hop to it, or my next shot will cut off more than your dear friends's hair!"

karina could sense hazel's anxiousness, so it didn't take much for the ground to rumble beneath her. immediately, she yielded a bumper crop— precious metals popping to the surface as though the dirt was anxious to expel them.

hazel found herself surrounded by a knee-high mound of treasure— roman denarii, silver drachmas, ancient gold jewelry, glittering diamonds and topaz and rubies— enough to fill several lawn bags.

sciron laughed with delight. "how in the world did you do that?"

hazel didn't answer. "just take the treasure," she said. "let us go."

sciron chuckled. "oh, but i did say all your valuables. i understand you're holding something very special on that ship . . . a certain ivory-and-gold statue about, say, forty feet tall?"

the sweat started to dry on karina's neck, sending a shiver down her back.

she stepped forward. despite the gun pointed at her face, her eyes were as hard as emeralds. "the statue isn't negotiable."

"you're right, it's not!" sciron agreed. "i must have it!"

"gaea told you about it," karina said. "she ordered you to take it."

she knew this was true. despite gaea infiltrating her thoughts, karina also had access to her's. and whenever she found herself in situations like these— having gaea in her possession was almost a gift. she could read gaea's thoughts and intentions to the person or creature that they came in contact with. and that's how she knew that gaea had ordered sciron to take the statue— she read her exact thoughts that she had with the bandit.

sciron shrugged. "maybe. but she told me i could keep it for myself. hard to pass up that offer! i don't intend to die again, my friends. i intend to live a long life as a very wealthy man!"

"the statue won't do you any good," hazel said. "not if gaea destroys the world."

the muzzles of sciron's pistols wavered. "pardon?"

"gaea is using you," karina said. "believe me— i would know. if you take that statue. we won't be able to defeat her. she's planning on wiping all mortals and demigods off the face of the earth, letting her giants and monsters take over. so where will you spend your gold, sciron? assuming gaea even lets you live."

karina let that sink in. she figured sciron would have no trouble believing in double-crosses, being a bandit and all.

he was silent for a count of ten.

finally his smile lines returned.

"all right!" he said. "i'm not unreasonable. keep the statue."

jason blinked. "we can go?"

"just one more thing," sciron said. "i always demand a show of respect. before i let my victims leave, i insist that they wash my feet."

karina wasn't sure she'd heard him right. then sciron kicked off his leather boots, one after the other. his bare feet were the most disgusting things karina had ever seen . . . and she'd seen octavian's feet before.

they were puffy, wrinkled, and white as dough, as if they'd been soaking in formaldehyde for a few centuries. tufts of brown hair sprouted from each misshapen toe. his jagged toenails were green and yellow, like a tortoise's shell.

then the smell hit her. she didn't know if pluto's underworld palace had a cafeteria for zombies, but if it did, that cafeteria would smell like sciron's feet.

"so!" sciron wiggled his disgusting toes. "who wants the left, and who wants to right? i must say, my left foot is quite bigger than the right— so i'd recommend two people on that one."

jason's face turned almost as white as those feet. "you've . . . got to be kidding."

"not at all!" sciron said. "wash my feet, and we're done. i'll send you back down the cliff. i promise on the river styx."

he made that promise so easily, alarm bells rang in karina's mind. feet. send you back down the cliff. tortoise shell.

the story came back to her, all the missing pieces fitting into place. she remembered how sciron kills his victims.

"give us a moment," karina told sciron, a hard set look directed at him.

sciron's eyes narrowed. "what for?"

karina kept her anger to a minimum. "well it's a big decision," she gritted out. "left foot, right foot. we need to discuss."

she could tell he was smiling under the mask.

"of course," he said. "i'm so generous, you can have two minutes."

karina pulled hazel out of her pile of treasure. she led her and jason as far away as she dared— about fifty feet down the cliff, which she hoped was out of earshot.

"sciron kicks his victims off the cliff," she whispered angrily.

jason scowled. "what?"

"when you kneel down to wash his feet," karina said. "that's how he kills you. when you're off-balance, woozy from the smell of his feet, he'll kick you over the edge. you'll fall right into the mouth of his giant turtle."

jason and hazel took a moment to digest that, so to speak. jason glanced over the cliff, where the turtle's massive shell glinted just under the water.

"so we have to fight," jason said.

"sciron's too fast," hazel said. "he'll kill all three of us."

"then i'll be ready to fly. when he kicks me over, i'll float halfway down the cliff. then when he kicks you two, i'll catch you both."

hazel shook her head. "if he kicks you hard and fast enough, you'll be too dazed to fly. and even if you can. sciron's got the eyes of a marksman. he'll watch you fall. if you hover, he'll just shoot you out of the air."

karina groaned lowly. "she's right."

"then . . . " jason clenched just sword hilt. "i hope you have another idea?"

a few feet away, gale the weasel appeared from the bushes. she gnashed her teeth and peered at hazel as if to say, well? do you?

"unfortunately, yes," hazel said. "we have to let sciron win."

"what?" karina demanded.

hazel told them the plan.

"FINALLY!" SCIRON CRIED. "that was much longer than two minutes!"

"sorry," jason said. "it was a big decision . . . which foot."

hazel had to clear her mind and imagine the scene through sciron's eyes— what he desired, what he expected.

that was the plan.

hazel would use the mist to deceive sciron— make him see what he thinks is happening. what he desires.

jason and karina stepped forward, their hands open in surrender. "we'll go first, sciron. we'll wash your left foot."

"excellent choice!" sciron wriggled his hairy, corpse-like toes. "i may have stepped on something with that foot. it felt a little squishy inside my boot. but i'm sure you'll clean it properly."

karina's body felt rushed with anger and disgust. she could feel gaea's hold on her pushing her to drop the charade and attack— one quick slash with her imperial gold blade. it was hard to resist the temptation that gaea was forcing upon her. it physically hurt to push back the urge— and she saw her arms begin to glow faintly gold.

jason saw karina struggling to contain herself— her eyes flickering gold as she tried to blink it away. he glanced down to her arms to see them doing to same thing, and he felt fear ripple through his body. he couldn't let her change now— not at a time like this. he gently took her hand into his, looking at her encouragingly.

"stay focused," he whispered. "don't give in to her."

she swallowed and nodded, taking a shaky breath before looking back up at sciron.

"sciron," hazel broke in. "do you have any water? soap? how are we supposed to wash— "

"like this!" sciron spun his left flintlock. suddenly it became a squirt bottle with two rags. he tossed it to jason, and threw karina a rag.

jason squinted at the label. "you want us to wash your feet with glass cleaner?"

"of course not!" sciron knit his eyebrows. "it says multi-surface cleaner. my feet definitely qualify as multi-surface. besides, it's antibacterial. i need that. believe me, water won't do the trick on these babies."

sciron wiggled his toes, and more zombie café odor wafted across the cliffs.

karina swallowed down the bile that had risen into her throat.

jason gagged. "oh, gods, no . . . "

sciron shrugged. "you can always choose what's in my other hand." he hefted his right flintlock.

"i would choose death over this," karina muttered, and jason elbowed her.

"they'll do it," hazel said.

jason glared at her, but hazel won the staring contest.

"fine," he muttered.

"excellent! now . . . " sciron hopped to the nearest chunk of limestone that was the right size for a footstool. he faced the water and planted his foot. so he looked like some explorer who'd just claimed a new country. "i'll watch the horizon while you scrub my bunions. it'll be much more enjoyable."

"yeah," jason said. "i bet."

they knelt in front of the bandit. at the edge of the cliff, where they were an easy target. one kick to each of them, and they'd topple over.

jason squirted the cleaning fluid. karina and his eyes watered. she wiped sciron's big toe with her rag and turned aside to gag.

karina didn't anticipate the kick like she thought she had.

sciron slammed his foot into jason's chest first, and then karina's. she tumbled backward over the edge, her arms flailing, screaming as she fell. but then, she suddenly felt a pair of arms catch her mid-air, and she turned to see jason holding her body tight against his as he hovered in the air.

"i've got you," he said breathlessly, and karina gripped her arms onto his neck tightly.

alarm bells sounded on the argo II as her and jason flew back up above sciron— the mist hiding them from view. their friends scrambled on deck, manning the catapults. karina heard piper wailing all the way from the ship— and she heard nico and leo scream out her name in agony.

it was so disturbing, karina almost felt like throwing up again. jason readjusted her in his grip, so that now she was leaned up against his side, and not pressed against his chest.

she could tell jason was pained to hear piper's cries as well, but he did good hiding it. karina swallowed and leaned her head against his shoulder, her head pounding from her previous restraint against gaea. he held her tighter, watching with nervous eyes as the scene below them unfolded.

they watched from above as hazel screamed in outrage, playing the part. "what did you do?"

"oh, dear . . . " sciron sounded sad, but karina got the impression that he was hiding a grin under his bandana. "that was an accident, i assure you."

"my friends and i will kill you now!"

"they can try," sciron said. "but in the meantime, i think you have time to wash my other foot! believe me, my dear. my turtle is full now. he doesn't want you too. you'll be quite safe, unless you refuse."

he leveled his flintlock pistol with her head.

hazel hesitated, letting him see her anguish. she couldn't agree to easily, or he wouldn't think she was beaten. despite this— karina still felt her heart racing in head as the pistol remained trained at hazel'z head, terrified that he would kill her.

"don't kick me," hazel said, half-sobbing.

his eyes twinkled. this was exactly what he expected. hazel was broken and helpless. sciron, the son of poseidon, had won again.

karina could hardly believe this guy had the same father as percy jackson. (just the name alone sent her heart plummeting into her stomach). then she remembered that poseidon had a changeable personality, like the sea. maybe his children reflected that. percy was a child of poseidon's better nature— powerful, but gentle and helpful, the kind of sea that sped ships safely to distant lands. sciron was a child of poseidon's other side— the kind of sea that battered relentlessly at the coastline until it crumbled away, or carried innocents from shore and let them drown, or smashed ships and killed entire crews without mercy.

hazel snatched up the spray bottle jason had dropped.

"sciron," she growled, "your feet are the least disgusting thing about you."

his green eyes hardened. "just clean."

she knelt, and shuffled to one side, forcing sciron to adjust his stance, but karina knew that hazel was imagining that the sea was still at her back. she was holding that vision in her mind as she shuffled sideways again.

"just get on with it!" sciron said.

karina saw hazel suppressing a smile, and she couldn't help but have a small grin as well. hazel had managed to turn sciron one hundred and eighty degrees, but he still saw the water in front of him, the rolling countryside at his back.

she started to clean.

when the kick came, hazel flew backward, but she didn't go far. she landed on her butt in the grass a few yards away.

sciron stared at her. "but . . . "

suddenly the world shifted. the illusion melted, leaving sciron totally confused. the sea was at his back. he'd only succeeded in kicking hazel away from the ledge.

jason lowered karina to the ground. "that's my cue."

she grinned at him, and turned back to hazel and the bandit.

"stand and deliver," hazel told sciron.

that was her cue.

karina tapped her foot against the ground, and suddenly the ground beneath sciron broke away from the ground— sending the thief a few feet into the air. that gave jason the perfect moment to swoop out of the sky, right over hazel's head, and body-slam the bandit over the cliff.

sciron screamed as he fell, firing his flintlock wildly, but for once hitting nothing. hazel got to her feet. karina and her reached the cliff's edge in time to see the turtle lunge and snap sciron out of the air.

distantly, she could hear her friends cheering from the ship below.

jason grinned. "hazel, that was amazing. seriously . . . hazel? hey, hazel?"

hazel collapsed to her knees, and karina immediately grabbed onto her shoulders, stabilizing her as she slowly crumbled to the ground.

she quickly fell unconscious, and karina knelt down beside her, taking her into her arms. "that overworked her," she said, pulling hair away from hazel's face.

jason nodded, kneeling down beside them. "i'll carry her back to the ship, and then i'll come back to get you, okay?"

karina nodded, and jason carefully gathered hazel in his arms, flying down to the ship.

she watched as piper slammed jason into a hug, and eventually leo joined in, saying something that karina could only guess was a death joke— before she saw him coming back up to her.

"took you long enough," karina said, and jason rolled his eyes.

"just hold on to me."

he flew them back down to the ship, and karina was instantly greeted with the bone-crushing hug of leo, his arms nearly choking her as he embraced her.

"leo," she choked out. "can't breathe."

"no me importa, (i don't care)," leo mumbled angrily into her shirt. "si alguna vez pretendes morir de nuevo, te arrojaré de mi barco." (if you ever pretend to die again, i'm throwing you off my ship).

karina forcefully pulled herself away from him. " i going to need a translation of whatever just came out of your mouth, idiot. i don't speak spanish."

leo glared at her. "i don't care. i'm too mad to even speak to you properly."

"you just did."

leo let out a sound that reminded her of an angry baby, before he looked at her again, his lips pursed. "i hate you."

karina raised an eyebrow at him. "is that my translation for earlier?"

"yes."

karina smiled at him deviously, and flicked his forehead. "keep this up and i'll only speak to you in french."

he rolled his eyes. "whatever," he muttered. "i'm just glad you're not turtle food like i'd thought i'd seen before."

karina sighed. "you and me both."

KARINA SHOT UP from her spot at the top of the ship at the sight of jason falling from a thousand feet out of the sky.

he had just been fighting against a few venti— wind spirits— when he'd suddenly fell over the side of the boat, catching the attention of everybody on the ship.

"what the hell," karina muttered annoyedly to herself, hastily climbing down from her seat and getting to the main deck— where everyone else had appeared.

it took them awhile to formulate a plan to save him. there was no time for frank to turn into an eagle and catch him; no time to think of a rescue plan.

only piper's quick thinking and charmspeak had saved him. she'd yelled WAKE UP! with so much force that even karina felt like she'd been dowsed in cold water, waking up completely. jason came up shortly afterwards— and he pulled leo aside, suggesting a course correction. she had no idea why, but she figured that he'd had a dream during his plummet to the sea that showed him important information.

"weird vacation spot," leo grinned. "but, hey, you're the boss!"

now, with everyone sitting in the mess hall, jason reported on his midair vision. as they ate lunch, the crew was quite long enough for coach hedge to finish a peanut butter and banana sandwich, along with the ceramic plate.

the ship creaked as it sailed through the adriatic, its remaining oars still out of alignment from the giant turtle attack. every once in a while festus the figurehead creaked and squeaked through the speakers, reporting the autopilot status in that weird machine language that only leo could understand.

karina could hardly breathe properly when jason said that there had been a note from annabeth sent to camp half-blood. that meant that they were alive. that she hadn't failed yet.

percy was alive.

"a note from annabeth." piper shook her head in amazement. "i don't see how that's possible, but if it is— "

"she's alive," leo said. "thank the gods and pass the hot sauce."

frank frowned. "what does that mean?"

leo wiped the chip crumbs off his face. "it means pass the hot sauce, zhang. i'm still hungry."

frank slid over a jar of salsa. "i can't believe reyna would try to find us. it's taboo, coming to the ancient lands. she'll be stripped of her praetorship."

karina shook her head, her jaw tight. "i've known reyna longer than any of you. if the praetorship of rome meant that much to her— she wouldn't be coming after us. trust me, being praetor is the least of her worries right now."

jason nodded. "she's right. reyna takes her job seriously, but if she is coming to look for us— it means she has a reason to."

"if she lives," hazel said. "it was hard enough for us to make it this far with eight demigods and a warship."

"and me." coach hedge belched. "don't forget, cupcake, you got the satyr advantage."

jason seemed to have spaced out during this, and karina nervously took a large bite out of her grilled
cheese, watching as her best friend stared into nothing.

"jason?" leo asked. "argo II to jason. come in."

jason blinked. he seemed to realize that everyone was looking at him expectantly.

"yeah, sorry." he touched the groove that sciron the bandit had cut in his hair. "crossing the atlantic is a hard journey, no doubt. but i'd never bet against reyna. if anyone can make it, she will."

karina leaned back in her seat. "damn straight."

piper circled her spoon through her soup. "well, i'd love to see reyna again," she said. "but how is she supposed to find us?"

frank raised his hand. "can't you just send her an iris-message?"

"they're not working very well," coach hedge put in. "horrible reception. every night, i swear, i could kick that rainbow goddess . . . "

he faltered. his face turned bright red.

"coach?" leo grinned. "who have you been calling every night, you old goat?"

"leo!" karina hissed, and slammed her foot down on his, making him yell out in pain, and stomp on her foot back. they both glared at each other for a few silent moments— but leo had to force himself to look away, his own body getting chills at the unnerving glare that the daughter of ceres could produce.

"no one!" hedge snapped. "nothing! i just meant— "

"he means we've already tried," hazel intervened, and the coach gave her a grateful look. "some magic is interfering . . . maybe gaea. contacting the romans is even harder. i think they're shielding themselves."

frank drummed his fingers on the table. "i don't suppose reyna has a cell phone . . . ? nah. never mind. she'd probably have bad reception on a pegasus flying over the atlantic."

karina thought about the argo II's journey across the ocean, the dozens of encounters that had nearly killed them. thinking about reyna making that journey alone— she couldn't decide whether it was terrifyingly or awe-inspiring.

"she'll find us," jason said. "she mentioned something in the dream— she's expecting me to go to a certain place on our way to the house of hades. i— i'd forgotten about it, actually, but she's right. it's a place i need to visit. and . . . so does karina."

karina and jason made eye contact, and suddenly everything seemed to fall into place. "yeah," she said hesitantly. "yeah, you're right. we have to go there."

piper leaned toward jason, and karina could tell that her stare was making it hard for him to stay focused.

"and where is this place?" she asked.

"a . . . uh, a town called split."

"split." piper deadpanned.

"um, yeah." jason said slowly, still entranced by piper. karina wondered if she was working some sort of aphrodite magic on him— like maybe every time he mentioned reyna's name, she would befuddle him so much he couldn't think about anything but piper. revenge is sweet. "in fact, we should be getting close. leo?"

leo punched the intercom button. "how's it going up there, buddy."

festus the figurehead creaked and steamed.

"he says maybe ten minutes to the harbor," leo reported. "though i still don't get why you want to go to croatia, especially a town called split. i mean, you name your city split, you gotta figure it's a warning to, you know, split. kind of like naming your city get out!"

"wait," hazel said. "why are we going to croatia?"

karina noticed that the others were reluctant to meet her eyes. since her trick with the mist against sciron the bandit, even karina felt a little nervous around her. she knew that wasn't fair to hazel. she was her best friend, after all. it was hard enough being a child of pluto, but she'd pulled off some serious magic on that cliff. and afterward, according to hazel, pluto himself had appeared to her. that was something romans typically called a bad omen.

leo pushed his chips and hot sauce aside. "well, technically we've been in croatian territory for the past day or so. all that coastline we've been sailing past is it, but i guess back in the roman times it was called . . . what'd you say, jason? bodacious?"

"dalmatia?" nico said from beside karina, and she saw jason nearly jump out of his seat.

he stepped forward, his dark eyes fixed on jason. since they'd rescued him from the bronze jar in rome, nico had slept very little and eaten even less, as if he were still subsisting on those emergency pomegranate seeds from the underworld. she'd always hear him walking around the ship at night as she sat at the top of the ship, both of them struggling to keep themselves awake throughout the night.

"croatia used to be in dalmatia," nico said. "a major roman province. you want to visit diocletian's palace, don't you?"

coach hedge managed another heroic belch. "whose palace? and is dalmatia where those dalmatian dogs come from? that 101 dalmatians movie— i still have nightmares."

frank scratched his head. "why would you have nightmares about that?"

coach hedge looked like he was about to launch into a major speech about the evils of cartoon dalmatians, but karina decided she didn't want to know.

"moving on," karina snapped, taking a deep breath afterwards, calming herself down. "nico is right. jason and i need to go to diocletian's palace. it's where reyna will go first, because she knows we would go there."

piper raised an eyebrow. "and why would reyna think that? because you two have always had a mad fascination with croatian culture?"

that statement was mostly directed towards jason. but, even then, karina found it hard to talk about her life at camp jupiter. she'd never really shared any moments or memories of what happened there with the crew— and she didn't think she ever would. but now, she would have to.

"reyna, karina, and i used to talk about diocletian," jason said. "we all kind of idolized the guy as a leader. it was kinda reyna and i more than karina. but, we talked about how we'd like to visit diocletian's palace. of course we knew that was impossible. no one could ever travel to the ancient lands. but still, we made this pact that if we ever did, that's where we'd go."

"diocletian . . . " leo considered the name, then shook his head. "i got nothing. why was he so important?"

frank looked offended. "he was the last great pagan emperor!"

leo rolled his eyes. "why am i not surprised you know that, zhang?"

"why wouldn't i? he was the last one who worshipped the olympian gods, before constantine came along and adopted christianity."

hazel nodded. "i remember something about that. the nuns at st. agnes taught us that diocletian was a huge villain, right along with nero and caligula." she looked askance at jason. "why would you idolize him?"

"he wasn't a total villain," jason said. "yeah, he persecuted christians, but otherwise he was a good ruler. he worked his way up from nothing by joining the legion. his parents were former slaves . . . or at least his mom was. demigods know he was a son of jupiter— the last demigod to rule rome. he was also the first emperor ever to retire, like, peacefully, and give up his power. he was from dalmatia, so he moved back there and built a retirement palace. the town of split grew up around . . . "

he faltered when he looked at leo, who was mimicking taking notes with an air pencil.

"go on, professor grace!" he said, wide-eyed. "i wanna get an A on the test."

"shut up, leo."

karina smacked his hands down, and then smacked the back of his head, glaring at him. leo just rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her, shooting a small spark from his finger onto her nose— causing her to jump back and exhale aggressively from her nose, the small shock burning her.

she glared at him. "do you realize how easily i could kill you right now? i have a whole greenhouse below deck waiting for me to wrap weeds around your neck."

leo smirked at her, but his eyes sparked with fear. but, even then, he still managed to come up with a cheeky clap back. "didn't know you were into that kinky shit, karina."

frank spit out his water, and jason's eyes widened at his statement— but karina could've sworn she saw the ghost of a smile cross across his face.

her jaw clenched, and she dug her nails into the wooden arm rest of the chair. "watch your mouth valdez. because the next comeback that comes out of your mouth will have you free falling off the side of the ship."

leo was about to respond, but then piper cleared her throat awkwardly, taking another sip of her soup. "so why is diocletian's palace so special?"

nico leaned over and plucked a grape. probably that was the guy's entire diet for the day. "it's said to be haunted by the ghost of diocletian."

"who was a son of jupiter, like me," jason said. "his tomb was destroyed centuries ago, but karina, reyna, and i used to wonder if we could find diocletian's ghost and ask where he was buried . . . well, according to the legends, his scepter was buried with him."

nico gave him a thin, creepy smile. "ah . . . that legend."

"what legend?" hazel asked.

nico turned to his sister. "supposedly diocletian's scepter could summons the ghosts of the roman legions, any of them who worshipped the old gods."

leo whistled. "okay, now i'm interested. be nice to have a booty-kicking army of pagan zombies on our side when we enter the house of hades."

"not sure i would've put it that way," jason muttered, "but yeah."

"we don't have much time," frank warned. "it's already july ninth. we have to get to epirus, close the doors of death— "

"which are guarded," hazel murmured, "by a smoky giant and a sorceress who wants . . . " she hesitated. "well, i'm not sure. but according to pluto, she plans to 'rebuild her domain.' whatever that means, it's bad enough that my dad felt like warning me personally."

frank grunted. "and if we're surviving all that, we still have to find out where the giants are waking gaea and get there before the first of august. besides, the longer percy and annabeth are in tartarus— "

"we know," karina snapped, her eyes flickering gold. "we won't take long in split. but looking for the scepter is worth a try. while we're at the palace, we can leave a message for reyna, letting her know the route we're taking to europe."

nico nodded. "the scepter of diocletian could make a huge difference. you'll need my help."

"hey, sounds fun," piper said. "i'll go too."

nico shook his head. "you can't, piper. it should only be karina, jason, and me. diocletian's ghost might appear for a son of jupiter, or a roman demigod, even, but any greek demigod would most likely . . . ah, spook him. and i'm the only one who can talk to his spirit. even hazel won't be able to do that."

nico's eyes held a gleam of challenge. he wasn't worried about karina agreeing, but he seemed curious as to whether or not jason would protest.

the ship's bell sounded. festus creaked and whirred over the loudspeaker.

"we've arrived," leo announced. "time to split."

frank groaned. "can we leave valdez in croatia?"

"yeah," karina said plainly, and leo gaped at her.

jason stood. "frank, you're in charge of defending the ship. leo, you've got repairs to do. the rest of you, help out wherever you can. nico, karina, and i . . . " he faced the two of them. "we have a ghost to find."

KARINA FIRST SAW the angel at the ice cream cart.

the argo II had anchored in the bay along with six or seven cruise ships. as usual, the mortals didn't pay the trireme any attention; but just to be safe, the three demigods hopped on a skiff from one of the tourist boats so they would look like part of the crowed when they came ashore.

at first glance, split seemed like a cool place. curving around the harbor was a long esplanade lined with palm trees. at the sidewalk cafés, european teenagers were hanging out, speaking a dozen different languages and enjoying the sunny afternoon. the air smelled of grilled meat and fresh-cut flowers. karina was almost tempted to go over and join them, but then she remembered that she had life threatening errands to run today, and decided that she'd sit out.

beyond the main boulevard. the city was a hodgepodge of medieval castle towers, roman walls, limestone town houses with red-tiled roofs, and modern office buildings all crammed together. in the distance, gray-green hills marched toward a mountain ridge, which made karina a little nervous. she kept glancing a that rocky escarpment, expecting gaea to appear in its shadows.

the three of them were wandering along the esplanade when karina spotted the guy with wings buying an ice cream bar from a street cart. the vendor lady looked bored as she counted the guy's change. tourists navigated around the angel's huge wings without a second glance.

jason nudged them. "you guys seeing this."

"yeah," nico agreed. "maybe we should buy some ice cream."

this guy seemed too chill to be an immortal. he wrote a red tank top, bermuda shorts, and huarache sandals. his wings were a combination of russet colors, like a bantam rooster or a lazy sunset. he had a golden tan like karina's and black hair almost as curly as leo's.

"he's not a returned spirit," nico murmured. "or a creature of the underworld."

"no," jason agreed. "i doubt they would eat chocolate covered ice cream bars."

"so what is he?" nico wondered.

they got within thirty feet, and the winged dude looked directly at them. he smiled, gestured over his shoulder with his ice cream bar, and dissolved into the air.

karina figured jason could track the trail of wind that the winged man emitted, because his eyes trailed all the way to the end of the promenade, where a big fortresslike structure loomed.

"i'm betting that's the palace," jason said. "come on."

even after two millennia, diocletian's palace was still impressive. the outer wall was only a pink granite shell, with crumbling columns and arched windows open to the sky, but it was mostly intact, a quarter mile long and seventy or eighty feet tall, dwarfing the modern shops and houses that huddled beneath it. karina imagined what the palace must have looked like when it was newly built, with imperial guards walking the ramparts and the golden eagles of rome glinting on the parapets.

"we've got to catch him," jason said. "hold on."

"but— " nico started to say.

jason grabbed nico and karina and lifted them both into the air.

karina wasn't fazed, wrapping her arms tight around his body. as for nico, he made a muffled sound of protest as they soared over the walls, and into a courtyard where more tourists were milling around, taking pictures.

a little kid did a double take when they landed. then his eyes glazed over and he shook his head, like he was dismissing a juice-box-induced hallucination. no one else paid them any attention.

on the left side of the courtyard stood a line of columns holding up weathered gray arches. on the right side was a white marble building with rows of tall windows.

"the peristyle," nico said. "this was the entrance to diocletian's private residence." he scowled at jason. "and please, i don't like being touched. don't ever grab me again."

jason's shoulder blades tensed, and karina struggled to hold back a laugh. "uh, okay. sorry. how do you know what this place is called?"

nico scanned the atrium. he focused on some steps in the far corner, leading down.

"i've been here before." his eyes were as dark as his blade. "with my mother and bianca. a weekend trip from venice. i was maybe . . . six?"

"that was when . . . the 1930's?"

"'thirty-eight or so," nico said absently. "why do you care? do you see that winged guy anywhere?"

"no . . . " jason seemed distracted, as if he were still wrapping his mind around nico's past. "i just . . . i cant imagine how weird that must be, coming from another time."

"no, you can't." nico stared at the stone floor. he took a deep breath.

karina gave jason a warning look, telling him with her eyes to tread with caution around this subject. she knew that nico was extremely sensitive with his past, and she didn't want jason to overstep.

"look . . . i don't like talking about it. honestly, i think hazel has it worse. she remembers more about when she was young. she had to come back from the dead and adjust to the modern world. me . . . me and bianca, we were stuck at the lotus hotel. time passed so quickly. in a weird way, that made the transition easier."

"percy told me about that place," jason said. "seventy years, but it only felt like a month?"

nico clenched his fist until his fingers turned white. "yeah. i'm sure percy told you all about me."

his voice was heavy with bitterness— more than karina could understand. she knew that nico had blamed percy for getting his sister bianca killed, but they'd supposedly gotten past that, at least according to what percy told her.

nico's eyes swept the windows above them. "roman deed are everywhere here . . . lares. lemures. they're watching. they're angry."

"at us?" jason's hand went to his sword.

"stop," karina muttered, and pushed his hand down.

"at everything." nico pointed to a small stone building on the west end of the courtyard. "that used to be a temple to jupiter. the christians changed it to a baptistery. the roman ghosts don't like that."

"and over there . . . " nico continued, pointing east to a hexagonal building ringed with freestanding columns. "that was the mausoleum for the emperor."

"but his tomb isn't there anymore," karina guessed.

"not for centuries," nico said. "when the empire collapsed, the building was turned into a christian cathedral."

jason swallowed. "so if diocletian's ghost is still around here— "

"he's probably not happy."

the wind rustled, pushing leaves and food wrappers across the peristyle.

something caught jason's eye. "that way." he pointed. "the winged guy. where do you think those stairs lead?"

nico drew his sword. his smile was even more unsettling than his scowl. "underground," he said. "my favorite place."

7332 words

hazel showing off her girl power is so yes

i miss percina. what if i just completely ignored the storyline and made a one shot of them next chapter LOL