RAVENS CIRCLED FAR ABOVE, blocking out the sickly sunlight that lay smothered behind grey clouds and mist.

Alex watched them, rooted to the ground. Pine trees stood in silent lines unbroken unto shadow in the distance. The chill of a bleak December reached all the way to his aching bones. Aside from the caws and cackles far above, silence reigned.

He could feel the fiery eyes above him watching every breath and blink. The gaze of a thousand birds dug into his very soul. Alex froze.

A loud croak went up. One bird broke off from the circling masses, landing behind him in a branch. It laughed at him. Alone, standing beneath boughs of uncaring pine trees and devoid of warmth. This thing of evil haunted his steps as he tried to flee.

No more pine trees. Only leafless trunks, deadweight black against the greyed sky. Alex tried to find something, anything. But there was nothing.

His heart raced. With every step, his feet leadened. Water seeped through the soles of his torn shoes, freezing his toes and shocking his system. But still he marched.

The ravens followed him. They hopped along behind, tiny laughs and scattered caws. Others spied him from above. In the mist to either side Alex could feel someone.

"Hello?"

His voice wavered, hollow even to his own ears. It died in the mist. There was darkness, nothing more. No voice, no cry.

Beating wings flew by him. Alex cowered on the floor, crouching from the beast. But when he looked up, it had disappeared.

"You're all alone, child."

The voice, feminine and cold, reverberated around him. Alex grabbed his head. Pain seared through his mind. All around him, everywhere. He heard her. He felt her.

"You ran from the darkness."

Alex screamed. He reached for Vindication, but his wrist lay bare. His weapon, gone. His father, gone.

"You can't save her this time."

"No!"

Alex stood off the hard ground. The ravens screamed with laughter from every side. Where was she? Not here.

"She left, Alexander."

He knew this frigid cold. Shadows of the Underworld filled this forest, sucked the life from tree limb and left death in its place. Tears spilled down his face as he struggled to breathe. His chest tightened. The snaking black necromantic scars burned. Every breath became a gasp, every cry a stifled sob.

"This is what happens when you listen to the voices of the Underworld, child. They have crawled inside your soul, and are rotting you from the inside."

He fled. Feet pounded against leaf rot and broken stones. Tree limbs bit into his face. He tasted blood. But still, Alex ran.

"You cannot escape me, Alexander. I haunt your every step and see you through dark eyes."

A light laugh surrounded him. Whether from raven or goddess, he couldn't tell. Maybe both. Perhaps they were the same. He knew one thing only. He had to get out. He had to leave. He couldn't be there. He had to be anywhere but here.

The tree line died. Pebbles and river rocks crunched under foot. Alex saw a great lake, stretching in cold silence as far as his eyes could see. He skidded to a halt.

"You can pretend I am not real. You can wish for bright days and a sun far above. But the dark rot grows. Tartarus grows."

Alex stumbled back as a shadow formed in the mist a few meters away. It drew upon the darkness of the Underworld.

A glint from the waves caught his eyes. A bow, celestial bronze and platinum, lay half submerged beside a quiver. Alex willed himself to move.

As ravens croaked and cawed, he ripped the bow from the earth. The shadows held a woman's featureless face. Alex drew back the arrow. If dripped, not water but poison, a blackish green mucus he had never seen before. Alex aimed.

A raven broke away. Down it came, claws forward. Tears streamed down his face as he felt himself shivering. Alex took aim at the bird.

"Stop."

A familiar woman's voice echoed around him, reigning in the shadows. The bird screamed, caught in the hand of the shadows figure as it took a more recognizable form. Squealing and screaming, the raven could not escape.

The shadows became dark hair upon ivory skin. Blue grey eyes mirrored her blue robes. A black choker lay around her neck matching an iron crown. Alex had never seen this form, but he knew her voice. Persephone, queen of the Underworld, strangled the raven.

"Alex Griffith, son of Hermes."

Stunned, he lowered the bow. A hundred memories rushed back in. Persephone's tears as she reached to touch Orpheus's lyre. Persephone's aid in finding the Door. Persephone's attempt to heal Kitty. But the image most seared into his memory, the one that he could never repay, was when she gave Ophelia the chance to leave the Underworld with him.

Alex dropped to one knee. Water soaked his ripped jeans. He didn't care.

"You owe a debt."

He looked up at her face. "I know."

Alex guessed that before him stood not Persephone, but her Roman form: Proserpina. Why she had chosen to appear to him like this, he couldn't tell.

"There is a boy of fifteen who needs guidance," she said.

Proserpina dismissed the shadows and allowed herself to touch the ground. Bare feet treaded on river rocks as she approached him. Alex shivered as she gently touched his cheek, guiding him to look at her face. She finally offered a light smile, sad but genuine.

"He is my son."

Alex's eyes widened. Proserpina had a son? He'd never met a child of Persephone. When? Why?

"Your son?" he said.

Proserpina nodded, taking his hand and guiding him off the ground. "A child born out of bitterness and fear. I worry for his safety, and the safety of others." She frowned, looking around. Ravens circled above, distant but ever present. "You are not the only one who dreams of darkness."

"What do you need me to do?" he said.

He felt himself shaking, even in the goddess's presence. He didn't understand half of this. Proserpina had a son. The son was Roman. Prosperina needed him to find this boy before he did something bad.

"Find him. Bring him to safety," Proserpina said. "You owe a debt. This is how you begin to repay it, Alex." Her face softened, taking his hand again. "You look a bit like him."

"Your son?"

She chuckled. "No." With a squeeze and a distant glance, she let him go. "Adonis." Proserpina sighed. "He's heading north. I believe you call it Canada?"

"How will I know it's him?"

Her expression darkened. Proserpina drew herself up, glaring into the mist and shadow around him. One hand reached for the choker around her throat, feeling each of the seven red rubies.

"My domain reaches both decay and rebirth. When I remain with Pluto, the world plunges into darkness." Proserpina looked him in the eye, her gaze hardening. "Linus was born of betrayal. It haunts his footsteps. You'll know him."

That sounded absolutely terrible. But as he looked around, cold setting into every inch of his aching body, he saw no other choice.

"You said he's having nightmares too. What do these mean?"

Proserpina smiled. She shook her head. "Now that would be telling. You're a hero, Alexander Griffith. That's for you to figure out."

He had to count backwards from ten not to scream in frustration. Even Proserpina, the nicest goddess he'd met thus far, wanted entertainment. She'd saved him because he reminded her of heroes of old. Now she wanted another quest.

"Find my son. Take him to safety." She called shadows to her side again, stepping back. "My husband chooses to flaunt his children these days. I will no longer allow mine to live without a home just to please him. If he claims his, then I wish to claim mine."

Alex paused. Children plural? He knew of Nico of course. And hadn't Nico had a sister? Had the di Angelo girl come back? As Proserpina faded, he scrambled towards her.

"Wait! What's his full name?"

"Linus Wren."

A bright flash and screeching of ravens sent Alex tumbling back. He felt dampness under him. Scrambling up, Alex hit the wooden floorboards of the Big House with a groan. Sweat covered his whole body. He felt cold fear creeping down his spine in the darkness. He didn't move.

A gentle breeze blew the tattered curtains of his window further into the room. Outside, the sun had yet to rise. How long he'd been asleep, Alex had no idea. But he couldn't move from the floorboards. He just wanted rest. No quests, no missing demigod heroes, no Gaea.

Alex watched the ceiling fan spin. Slow and steady, he counted a hundred rotations before dizziness closed his mind and he had to look away.

Linus Wren. A child of Proserpina.

Born out of betrayal. The way she had shuffled and glared at the ground when recounting Linus's birth unnerved him. The gods didn't get scared. At least they made sure not to show it. But her son had been born of bitterness. Of decay.

Linus Wren. A potentially dangerous child of Proserpina.

The clip clop of hooves would've made Alex move under normal circumstances. But he couldn't. His limbs felt like lead, unable to move on their own. When Chiron opened the door and stared down at him in concern, he just tried to flash a tight smile.

"Are you alright, Alex?"

"Yeah," he said. Another wave of shivers ran through his body. But Alex grabbed ahold of his bed post and hoisted himself up to sit. "Just a bit of a bad dream. Sorry to wake you."

Chiron frowned. "No, no. It's quite alright. I'm glad you're not injured."

"Don't worry about me," he said. Alex forced himself to flash a more genuine smile this time. The weight of Vindication against his wrist made it easier. "Just worked out too hard. Too much adrenaline."

Chiron nodded. He shuffled from hoof to hoof. "Perhaps take a few days off. The camp will survive without you for that long."

Alex hated taking days off. The camp would be fine, sure. But his muscles itched. His sword arm wanted nothing more than a worthy opponent.

Still. He had work to do. Alex had almost nothing to go on but his nightmares and Canada. Even as he thought about the dreams, he wanted to shrink in on himself.

"Fine," he said. "Just a couple days."

Chiron smiled. At least he'd be happy. It didn't take long for him to turn away and head back to sleep, however he did it as a centaur.

A couple days. He took a shuddering deep breath. He had a couple days to find out what a giant celestial bronze bow, Canada, and Linus Wren had in common. Not an easy task.