ONCE SILENA WAS GONE, Selena knelt next to Annabeth and felt her forehead. She was still burning up.

"Don't be so worried. I'll be fine," Annabeth muttered,

"I'm not worried." Selena replied,

"Yes, you are." Annabeth responded, "Your eyebrows get all scrunched together."

The door opened behind them, "You are not going to die while I owe you a favor," Percy said. "Why did you take that knife?"

"You would've done the same for me."

It was true. The three of them would take a knife for any of them. That's just how they are, "How did you know?"

"Know what?"

Percy looked around to make sure they were alone. "My Achilles spot. If you hadn't taken that knife, I would've died."

"I don't know, Percy. I just had this feeling you were in danger."

Selena stared at Percy, "Where . . . where is the spot?"

"The small of my back." Percy answered,

Selena leaned back and lifted his shirt slightly, "Where? Here?" She put her hand on his spine, and her fingers tingled. Percy moved her fingers to the one spot that grounded him to his mortal life, "Oh, Percy." Selena whispered,

"You saved me," Percy said, trying to change the subject, "Thanks."

Selena removed her hand, but Percy kept holding it.

"So you owe me," Annabeth said weakly. "What else is new?"

The three of them watched the sun come up over the city. The traffic should've been heavy by now, but there were no cars honking, no crowds bustling along the sidewalks.

Far away, Selena could hear a car alarm echo through the streets. A plume of black smoke curled into the sky somewhere over Harlem. She wondered how many ovens had been left on when the Morpheus spell hit; how many people had fallen asleep in the middle of cooking dinner. Pretty soon there would be more fires. Everyone in New York was in danger—and all those lives depended on them.

"You asked me why Hermes was mad at me," Annabeth said.

"Hey, you need to rest—"

"No, I want to tell you. It's been bothering me for a long time." She moved her shoulder and winced. "Last year, Luke came to see me in San Francisco."

"What?" Selena sat up, 

"In person?" Percy questioned, squeezing Selena's hand, "He came to your house?"

"This was before we went into the Labyrinth, before . . ." She faltered, but Selena knew what she meant: before be turned into Kronos. "He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He looked scared, Percy. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world. He said he wanted to run away, like the old days. He wanted me to come with him."

"But you didn't trust him."

"Of course not. I thought it was a trick. Plus . . . well, a lot of things had changed since the old days. I told Luke there was no way. He got mad. He said . . . he said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I'd get."

Her forehead broke out in sweat again. The story was taking too much of her energy.

"It's okay," Selena squeezed Annabeth's hand, trying to comfort her, "Try to get some rest."

"You don't understand. Hermes was right. Maybe if I'd gone with him, I could've changed his mind. Or—or I had a knife. Luke was unarmed. I could've—"

"Killed him?" Selena asked, "You know that wouldn't have been right."

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Luke said Kronos would use him like a stepping stone. Those were his exact words. Kronos would use Luke, and become even more powerful."

"He did that," Percy said. "He possessed Luke's body."

"But what if Luke's body is only a transition? What if Kronos has a plan to become even more powerful? I could've stopped him. The war is my fault."

Selena remembered last summer, when the two-headed god, Janus, had warned Annabeth she would have to make a major choice—and that had happened after she saw Luke. Pan had also said something to her: You will play a great role, though it may not be the role you imagined.

Then she remembered her own prophecy. Selena knew she should tell them, it might be her last chance.

Before Selena could get up her nerve, the terrace door opened. Connor Stoll stepped through.

"Percy." He glanced at Annabeth like he didn't want to say anything bad in front of her, but Selena could tell he wasn't bringing good news. "Mrs. O'Leary just came back with Grover. I think you should talk to him."