After the memorial, Lila heads into the woods. She's been tending to her garden; well, she's been digging it up. She's begun to learn that as a child of Persephone, she has an affinity for certain plants that she never realised before. She always tended to follow what the Demeter kids grew - strawberries and daffodils and roses. But now Lila has begun to tend her power like it is a plant, and that means allowing it to bloom with the right flowers. So she's spent her time digging up the stupid flowers she doesn't really like anymore, and replacing them. 

Asphodel, narcissus, poppies, even hyacinth. It's a little sad that all her favourite flowers seem to have been borne from a tragic story and a god. Apollo's lost many lovers for her garden to bloom. 

Lila never makes it there, however. She reaches the glade of the Council of Cloven Elders, planning to avoid it, but the sound of raised voices drifting through the woods draws her toward it. There in the centre of the clearing stands Juniper, Grover's girlfriend, and one of the Elder Satyrs. 

"What's going on?" Lila steps in. Juniper looks pale and slightly faint. "Is everything okay?"

The satyr seems to recognise her, for he calls her by her name. "Lila!" his tone is too familiar. She tries not to physically recoil. 

"Lila!" Juniper runs over and drags her to the centre of the glade. "Please, tell Leneus that Grover - " 

The satyr huffs. 

"We need to find Grover!"

Lila nods. The Council of Cloven Elders is pretty much useless, anyway. They may as well find someone useful. "I agree with Juniper." 

He looks scandalised, rocking back on his hooves. "But - but you're a nature - nevermind. But I'm not wasting resources on -" 

"What resources?" Lila asks. 

He glares at her. "I have a great breadth of resources at my disposal, should I deem it necessary to use them. Which I have not."

"So... what are you using them on?"

He huffs. "Finding the great god Pan, of course! When he returns, he will sort out this silly tale you and your friends have been spinning." 

Lila narrows her eyes at him. Her patience is running very thin; she can feel it wearing down inside her, slowly fraying. "Pan has faded. I saw it myself. Maybe you should put your resources into something more - " 

"Lies!" he shrieks, flailing his hands. "Pan is waiting for us, and Grover is a traitor." 

Juniper literally trembling, her voice cracking. "Grover is not a traitor! Stop saying that!" Her eyes are suspiciously green, the whites growing greener with every word as chlorophyll tears gather there. Her gossamer dress is torn and frayed at the edges, like she hasn't been taking care of it, while there are dark circles under her eyes. Do dryads sleep? If they do, Juniper hasn't been getting enough.

Lila takes a deep breath. She is not going to lose her temper again. She is not going to snap at the satyr. Everything is fine. Totally fine. "Leneus," her voice is fragile in it's calm. "Even if you think Grover is a liar, he can still contribute to the war effort ... why don't you leave your fight with him until after we fight - after we defeat Kronos?" 

He hums, though she can tell he is slightly placated at her sweet tone. 

"Wouldn't you want to be known as the satyr who saves the camp?" she adds. "Or the satyr that rescued Grover?" 

She may have convinced him. However, at that exact moment, the shadows behind Leneus thicken and darken, cloaking something within. They morph into the shape of a familiar figure, slowly gaining shape, until in the space of a second, Nico stumbles into the clearing. 

Juniper screams. Leneus falls over. 

Nico looks at Leneus and snickers. Nothing could have turned the satyr against their cause more. He pushes himself to his feet again, his shoulders pushed down in stubbornness. "This is unheard of! Treating one of the Cloven Elders with such disrespect! - well, I won't stand for it." 

"Hi, Nico," Lila says, without much joy. If he's here, there can only be one reason for it. 

He meets her eyes grimly. "Li." He's wearing a T-shirt with a skull on it, and a black jacket. At his side hangs his sword, dark as Hades's cloak or the River Styx. 

"I will not be helping you!" Leneus continues, ignoring them. "You can count on that! Nothing would convince me!" 

Lila pats him on the shoulder. "Seriously, you need to -" 

"What?!"

At that precise moment, Lila hears a bark; one she knows well. A huge mass of shadow bounds into the arena. Leneus falls over again, and Juniper screams, backing up behind Lila.

Mrs O'Leary gives her a lick before running over to Nico and running in circles around him. She's so huge, her circle pushes them all back, Leneus stumbling away in fear. Her mouth is hanging open as she pants, the entire glade beginning to smell like wet dog. The hellhound licks Nico, her slobbering tongue leaving his face covered in saliva. 

Out from behind her, Percy runs into the glade, probably having chased her into the woods. He looks relieved to find the source of her excitement; Nico and their weird little group in the glade. He catches her eye and smiles. 

Leneus scowls at him. "Will someone - what is this underworld creature doing in my forest!"

"Your forest?" Lila asks, raising her eyebrows. 

He ignores her. "You there, Percy Jackson! Is this your beast?"

"Sorry, Leneus," Percy says, not looking at all sorry. "That's your name, right?"

The satyr rolls his eyes. "Well, of course I'm Leneus. Don't tell me you've forgotten a member of the Council so quickly. Now, call off your beast!"

Mrs O'Leary barks happily, running in another circle around the glade, her tail wagging. 

Leneus backs up, paling to a nasty shade of white. "Make it go away! Juniper, I will not help you under these circumstances!"

Lila doubts he would've helped them under any circumstances, but okay.

"Percy," Juniper sniffs, turning to him. "I was just asking about Grover. I know something's happened. He wouldn't stay gone this long if he wasn't in trouble. I was hoping that Leneus—"

"I told you!" Leneus protests. "You are better off without that traitor."

Juniper stamps her foot, wisps limbs flailing violently. She's a pacifist, but she may be driven to murder at this rate. "He is not a traitor! He's the bravest satyr ever, and I want to know where he is!"

"WOOF!"

Leneus's knees start knocking together. "I . . . I won't answer questions with this hellhound sniffing my tail!"

Nico presses his lips together and shakes slightly, clearly suppressing laughter "I'll walk the dog," he volunteers.

He whistles, and Mrs. O'Leary bounds after him, out of the grove, but probably not too far away.

Leneus puffs, standing straighter and brushing twigs off his shirt. "Now, as I was trying to explain, young lady, your boyfriend has not sent any reports since we voted him into exile."

"Why would he send you reports if you voted him into exile?" Lila asks. It seems a little pointless. Isn't the whole point of exile to keep him far, far away? Why would they want his reports?

"You tried to vote him into exile," Percy corrects. "Chiron and Dionysus stopped you."

"Pfft! They are honorary Council members. It wasn't a proper vote."

"I'll tell Dionysus you said that."

Leneus pales, stepping back a bit. "I only meant . . . Now see here, Jackson. This is none of your business."

"Grover's my friend," Percy scowls, eyes shimmering darkly. "He wasn't lying to you about Pan's death. I saw it myself, so did Lila. You were just too scared to accept the truth."

Leneus's lips quiver. "No! Grover's a liar and good riddance. We're better off without him."

Lila resists the urge to grab her spear and whack him on the head with it. Percy meets her eyes, visibly struggling with the same urge. He points at some withered thrones - Lila hadn't even noticed them, in the centre of the clearing. Where they used to bloom with fresh shrubbery, they're now only a semblance of their past glory, barren branches that are ripe with rot. "If things are going so well, where are your friends? Looks like your Council hasn't been meeting lately."

"Maron and Silenus . . . I . . . I'm sure they'll be back," he says, unconvincingly. "They're just taking some time off to think. It's been a very unsettling year." 

He hasn't seen anything yet. 

"It's going to get a lot more unsettling," Percy promises, on the same wavelength. "Leneus, we need Grover. There's got to be a way you can find him with your magic."

The satyr's eye twitches. "I'm telling you, I've heard nothing. Perhaps he's dead."

Juniper lets out an anguished cry. Lila pats her shoulder. "Don't listen to him." 

"He's not dead," Percy agrees, "I can feel that much."

"Empathy links," Leneus scorns. "Very unreliable."

"So are you," Lila mutters, but quiet enough that he doesn't hear. 

"So ask around," Percy adds. "Find him. There's a war coming. Grover was preparing the nature spirits."

"Without my permission! And it's not our war."

That's the last straw. Lila lunges forward with the intention of beating the stupid old satyr with a club - Percy gets there first, grabbing his shirt. "Listen, Leneus. When Kronos attacks, he's going to have packs of hellhounds. He's going to destroy everything in his path—mortals, gods, demigods. Do you think he'll let the satyrs go free? You're supposed to be a leader. So LEAD. Get out there and see what's happening. Find Grover and bring Juniper some news. Now, GO!"

She's never seen Percy furious before. It shakes her out of her own anger; he glares at the satyr with a stormy ferocity, his eyes dark green, swirling with a contained explosion. He pushes the satyr, who falls onto his back, before scrambling back to his feet and trotting out of the clearing. "Grover will never be accepted! He will die an outcast!"

Juniper wipes her eyes. "I'm sorry, Percy, Lila. I didn't mean to get you involved. Leneus is still a lord of the Wild. You don't want to make an enemy of him."

"No problem," Percy calms down quickly, his voice relaxed again. "I've got worse enemies than overweight satyrs."

"Like Kronos," Lila mutters. Percy is the only one to hear, which is good, because Juniper would begin to stress even more. Percy just chuckles, sharing a grin with her. 

Nico walks back into the glade. "Good job, Percy. Judging from the trail of goat pellets, I'd say you shook him up pretty well."

"Hey," Lila protests. "How'd you know that was Percy? He could have been running away from me."

Her brother raises his eyebrows. "Uh, I'm not going to answer that one." 

Percy's face falls, his eyes turning toward the ground. He catches Lila watching him, and forces a smile onto his face, though it's fractured. "Welcome back. Did you come by just to see Juniper?"

Nico blushes, avoiding all their eyes. "Um, no. That was an accident. I kind of . . . dropped into the middle of their conversation."

Lila forces herself to laugh, but she is on the same train of thought as Percy. If Nico is here... there's only one reason he would come to Camp Half-Blood. "It was pretty funny." Her tone doesn't match her words. 

"He scared us to death!" Juniper contradicts, seemingly oblivious to the mounting stress they are all feeling. "Right out of the shadows. But, Nico, you are the son of Hades and all. Are you sure you haven't heard anything about Grover?"

Nico shifts on his feet. "Juniper . . . even if Grover died, he would reincarnate into something else in nature. I can't sense things like that, only mortal souls."

Actually, that sounds like a terrible deal. No wonder Nico was so distressed over Bianca's death; he must have known it had happened before anyone told him. He must have felt it approaching, and felt the Fates cut her string just as the life left her body. 

"But if you do hear anything?" Juniper pleads, putting her hand on his arm and squeezing. "Anything at all?"

Nico's cheeks burn even brighter red. "Uh, you bet. I'll keep my ears open."

"We'll find him, Juniper," Percy promises, and for once Lila is certain they can follow through. "Grover's alive, I'm sure. There must be a simple reason why he hasn't contacted us."

Juniper nods, though her eyes are chlorophyll green from tears. "I hate not being able to leave the forest. He could be anywhere, and I'm stuck here waiting. Oh, if that silly goat has gotten himself hurt—"

Mrs. O'Leary bounds back over, wagging her tail, to sniff Juniper's dress. Perhaps she scents the Underworld from where she's been hugging Nico, or the faint smell of woodland monster. 

Juniper yelps. "Oh, no you don't! I know about dogs and trees. I'm gone!" She disappears into a green mist, smelling faintly off fresh grass. 

Mrs. O'Leary's tail droops for a second, but her attention is immediately caught by something beyond the glade. She gives Lila a quick lick and jumps off to find something else to pee on. 

Nico taps his sword on the ground and a tiny mound of animal bones erupts from the dirt. They knit themselves together into a skeletal field mouse and scampers off. "I was sorry to hear about Beckendorf."

Lila physically flinches, but Percy squeezes her hand. She squeezes back, as he says "How did you - "

"I talked to his ghost."

"Oh . . . right." Percy looks quite unsettled, but Lila's gotten used to the constant ghosts and skeletons that follow Nico, jumping out of the closet to bow to him. "Did he say anything?"

"He doesn't blame you. He figured you'd be beating yourself up, and he said you shouldn't."

"Is he going to try for rebirth?"

Nico shakes his head. "He's staying in Elysium. Said he's waiting for someone. Not sure what he meant, but he seems okay with death."

"Silena," Lila surmises. It seems fitting. Though, she hopes Silena won't be meeting him there for a long, long time. As if he can read her thoughts, Percy squeezes her hand again. 

"I had a vision you were on Mount Tam," He says to Nico. "Was that—"

"Real," Nico admits. "I didn't mean to be spying on the Titans, but I was in the neighborhood."

Lila forgets everything else in the need to scold Nico. "You were what? Spying on the Titans? Nico - " 

He rolls his eyes. Naturally, he has no regard for his own life. "I was following a lead on . . . you know, my family."

Actually, they don't know. No one knows, and that's the problem. (Hades probably knows, but he'd never divulge that information.) Nico's obsession with answers has begun to concern Lila... she's not sure what lengths he wouldn't go to. 

"So how did it go?" Percy asks, tugging Lila backwards. He's a lot calmer about Nico's need for dangerous situations, but then, Percy was fighting gods while in middle school. "Any luck?"

"No," he murmurs. "But I may have a new lead soon."

"What's the lead?"

He chews his lip. "That's not important right now." 

Lila narrows her eyes. He's lying about something, or hiding it. She knows Nico's tells, and one of them is the lip-chew. "Nico - " 

 "You both know why I'm here."

And just like that, Lila forgets. Together, Nico and Lila had brainstormed this plan last summer. It had mostly been Nico, guided by Lila's recollection of events in Camp Half-Blood and Luke's reaction, his metamorphosis into a vessel for Kronos. Lila told him everything she knew about Luke. Nico told her everything he knew about ghosts. They'd worked out exactly what had happened to Luke. 

Then Nico had an idea. Lila still has nightmares about it. Constantly, frequently. Almost every night. 

Percy is pale. "Nico, I don't know. It seems pretty extreme."

Lila nods. "Surely there's another option. Another way to beat him, so we don't have to - so Percy doesn't have to ..." 

"Maybe," Nico allows. "But you don't have the time to find it. You've got Typhon coming in, what . . . a week? Most of the other Titans are unleashed now and on Kronos's side. Maybe it's time to think extreme. Maybe it's time to think desperate. They're no match for the Titan army. You know that. This comes down to you and Luke. And there's only one way you can beat Luke. We can give you the same power. You heard the Great Prophecy. Unless you want to have your soul reaped by a cursed blade . . ."

"Well, maybe," Lila says, voicing her anxiety. "But maybe this is what leads to the soul-reaping."

Percy nods. "You can't prevent a prophecy."

"But you can fight it," Nico insists. "You can become invincible."

Lila doesn't really believe that. Invincibility can't really be a thing. Surely there must be some balance to it, some negative aspect that balances out the overall ridiculousness of invincibility. They call it the curse of Achilles, after all. 

"Maybe we should wait. Try to fight without—"

"No!" Nico snarls. "It has to be now!"

"Nico, chill out," Lila hisses back. "What do you mean? It's not like the Styx is going to explode over the next few days. Why are you being so weird?"

Percy nods, shifting slightly. "Um, you sure you're okay?"

He inhales deeply, like the fresh air is unknown and alien to him. "All I mean . . . when the fighting starts, we won't be able to make the journey. This is our last chance. I'm sorry if I'm being too pushy, but two years ago my sister gave her life to protect you, Percy. I want you to honor that. Do whatever it takes to stay alive and defeat Kronos."

Something about the way he says it seems ingenuine. "Don't be like that," Lila retorts. "It's not all on Percy to defeat him. Bianca's saved Percy because he was her friend, not so he could be shoved into the Styx and dropped in a war."

Nico doesn't meet her eyes, but Percy does. Lila's always been able to read him pretty well - been able to read most people pretty well. But Percy's suddenly closed off, retreating away from her into whatever realisation he's made. She looks at Nico, but he's shut her out too, his eyes only a simmering mixture of hurt and desperation. 

"All right," Percy decides, squeezing Lila's hand. "What do we do first?"

"First we'll need to retrace Luke's steps. We need to know more about his past, his childhood."

"Why do we need to know about that?"

"I'll explain when we get there," Nico says. "I've already tracked down his mother. She lives in Connecticut."

Lila frowns. She's alive? Luke always spoke as if she were dead - always in past tense, always as though she was confined in some dark memory of his past. 

"Luke ran away when he was really young," Percy agrees. "I didn't think his mom was alive."

"Oh, she's alive." Coming from Nico, the son of the God of the Dead, his tone is disconcerting. His knowledge of Luke's mother makes Lila wonder if she isn't something close to death - enough for Nico to understand it. 

"Okay . . ." Percy says. "So how do we get to Connecticut? I can call Blackjack—"

"No." Nico scowls. "Pegasi don't like me, and the feeling is mutual. But there's no need for flying." He whistles, and Mrs. O'Leary appears, thankfully no longer peeing.

"Your friend here can help." Nico pats her head. "You haven't tried shadow travel yet?"

"Shadow travel?"

Lila forces a smile. "You'll see," she nudges his arm, and he turns to her, raising his eyebrows. "It's fun." 

Nico whispers something in Mrs. O'Leary's ear. "Hop on."

Percy pulls himself up onto the hellhound's back, before leaning down to help Lila up, until she's sitting in front of him, her back resting on his chest.  

"This will make her very tired," Nico warns, "so you can't do it often. And it works best at night. But all shadows are part of the same substance. There is only one darkness, and creatures of the Underworld can use it as a road, or a door."

"I don't understand," Percy says, while Lila plays with Mrs O Leary's long fur. 

"No," Nico says. "It took me a long time to learn. But Mrs. O'Leary knows. Tell her where to go. Tell her Westport, the home of May Castellan."

"You're not coming?"

"Don't worry, I'll meet you there."

Percy squeezes Lila's waist; she jumps, ignoring the way her body lights up and her skin tingles. "You sure you want to come?"

She nods, her hair brushing his chin. "Yeah, gotta keep an eye on Nico. He's acting weird." (And keep an eye on Percy, but she won't admit that to him.)

"I can still hear you." 

She ignores him. "And if Annabeth's not coming, someone's got to stop you from getting killed." 

He shrugs. "Well, no complaints from me." 

She grins, rubbing the hellhound's neck again. "Okay, can you take us to Westport, Connecticut? May Castellan's place?"

Mrs. O'Leary sniffs the air, turning a circle, before leaping forward into the darkness of a tree. It washes over Lila, the cold shadows chilling her to the bone, before they pass into the darkness, cloaked in night. 

a/n i like the image of lila redoing her garden because last act she was pretending to be something she wasn't but now she's being herself

idk if this chapter feels a little rushed but im not really in the mood to edit it rn lol so im publishing it and moving on - this is like the last "boring" chapter before the war and the drama so i kinda just want to get onto those

ly x