~ ☼ ~

Fighting a vampiric monster across the street from my high school was not how I planned to start my summer.

The last day of school was supposed to be normal. I'd ride my bike there, as usual, return all my text books, go through class one last time, and say goodbye to the few acquaintances I had. Then, my mom was going to pick me up and drive me to Camp Half-Blood for my first official full season.

My siblings - Alec Thompson and Riley Brown, along with Lee Fletcher - said they were excited to see me last time we talked on the forums on myspace. And I was excited to go, despite every gray cloud that loomed over the present.

I had my sword packed into my violin case, my clothes and toiletries in my backpack, and a sense of adventure in my heart.

Okay, that's a little too corny.

Still, the truth was, I felt positive about the upcoming summer. More Capture the Flag, more delicious food, more nights spent around the campfire with my friends... it sounded like a dream come true. Except for the fact that titans were currently rising and trying to start a war that would kill us all.

But I was trying to be more positive. Not focus on the fact that we were all in danger. Maybe that's just another way to describe running from my problems, but to fit into Cabin 7, I kind of had to be like that. The amount of times my siblings would sing Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic last summer proved 99% of them were eternal optimists. So I was optimistic too.

And then I ended up in a sword fight before I even left Highland Falls.

Shoot. Why do I keep starting like this? I should back track. But where to start?

I guess I'll begin on the morning of the last day of school, when I was riding my bike to class and nearly ran into Lucas Burgess.

He was standing in the middle of the sidewalk as I rounded a corner, his back to me. Across from him, talking, were Kiera Bane and Aria Nalau'i.

I braked so hard I was worried my tires would catch on fire, and exclaimed, "Lucas?"

He turned, his brown hair waving a little in the wind. Surprise, and then sheepishness, spiraled in his stormy eyes. "Hi, AJ," he said slowly, as if bracing for a mean reply.

"Uh..." I looked between him and my other acquaintances. Aria had a tight, polite smile on her face, her woodland hair pulled up in a ponytail and a bow case slung across her back. Kiera, meanwhile, was raising her eyebrows expectantly, though I had no idea what she was expecting.

"Sorry if this seems weird," Lucas quickly said. "But we had to find you before you got to Camp."

"Why?" My neck got hot. Immediately, worst-case scenarios started to float through my mind. A cabin's burned down. Chiron's gone missing. The dining pavilion has somehow run out of food!

I suspected none of the above were true, of course. This was confirmed when Kiera stepped forward with a steely but mischevious look in her eyes and said simply, "We need you to go on a quest with us."

———

They followed me as I walked my bike to school, explaining that over the winter, a whole bunch of stuff had happened. Annabeth Chase had been kidnapped, and then rescued; some new kids, children of Hades, came to camp, but one of them joined the Hunters of Artemis and then died while the other was currently missing; and Thalia Grace had become the new lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. Just last summer, she had turned from tree to human. Now, she was immortal.

I hadn't talked to Lucas since the day Thalia Grace gained back her human body. After he warned me of what was next - a titan war -, Riley and Alec came out of our cabin, and some of his siblings came out of theirs, and we said our goodbyes. Over the course of the summer, we saw each other every now and then, and sometimes we'd nod in acknowledgement.

But that was it. So I was still pretty dang confused why he and Kiera and Aria wanted me to go on a quest with them.

Then... Kiera explained, and my neck went hot.

She stayed year round at camp, and sometime after the events of the winter solstice, she snuck into the attic of the Big House and got a prophecy from the Oracle. Who the Oracle was, I had no idea, but I figured asking would pretty much be like me holding up a giant sign that said "I am ignorant and know close to nothing about the mythological world unless it has something to do with Apollo!"

Anyway, the point is, Kiera got a prophecy. And gravely, she said it went like this:

Half bloods shall leave to find the blade of war

The wise man, the singer, the unclaimed make four

Into a land unknown by most

To journey past the victor's ghost

The fox and the hound will guide the way

Until the Windy City sees the light of day

One shall leave and break all hearts

But no one shall realize until the world goes dark

When Kiera finished, I stopped walking, leading Lucas to almost bump into me. We were right in front of the school, and I could see my classmates filing in, but being late was not my concern at that moment.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked. "And how do you know it's the 4 of us that are meant to go?"

Kiera looked at Aria warily, who pressed her lips together before answering for her friend, "For the second question, we don't. It was just a hunch. Kiera and I are unclaimed, so we fit the first part. You're a daughter of Apollo, so you could be the singer. And Lucas is the son of the goddess of wisdom, so... he's the wise man. There's a lot of people it could be, I know, but... this just felt like the right team."

I stared at her. This seemed like very weak logic. Like something I would make up to get out of my responsibilities. But then Lucas stepped forward, and explained the first part.

"Kiera and I actually already knew each other, and she asked me when I got to camp what I thought it meant. And I knew immediately. It's the sword of Peleus. We have to find the sword of Peleus."

Questions soared through my mind. Since when did Lucas and Kiera know each other? And who the frick - ahem, Hades - was Peleus?

I decided to only ask the second question. Lucas' expression brightened.

"Oh! I guess I probably should've explained that first." His hands, formerly stuffed in the top pockets of his cargo shorts, ran through his curly hair. "Peleus was the father of Achilles in Greek mythology. Allegedly, he had a legendary sword that was enchanted with magic powers by Lord Hermes. If we found it... it could change the tide of the war. We might actually have a chance of winning."

The tide of the war. A chance of winning. Great, so much for trying to not focus on the negatives!

"So you're telling me... you want me to go to 'The Windy City' with you and find a mystical weapon that holds enough power to save the world? Doesn't that seem a little dangerous?"

Kiera shook her head ferociously. "No, it won't be dangerous at all. Just go to Chicago, find it, and come back. We'll be at Camp by the 4th of July, if not the Solstice."

Chicago... that's where Fall Out Boy is from!

I put that thought away, not wanting it to distract me, and focused on the fact that I'd been on enough quests to know it was never that easy. And by enough, I mean one.

But what was I going to do, reject them? They looked like they were counting on me. And there was still a small part of me that yearned for more adventure past the confines of Camp... although I'd rather it be with Alec and Riley, but still.

"Look, AJ," Lucas started plainly. His hands had dropped to his sides, and his stormy eyes seemed slightly hopeless. "I know this seems random and kind of worrying. But... I truly think this will help. This could be an easy way to save Camp. Would you rather this, or a giant, violent battle?"

My skin went cold. Somehow, he knew exactly what would appeal to me the most: the easy way out.

He had a point. A long quest was better than a long war, any day.

I pressed my lips together. "Fine. I'll go. But can we, like, drive to my mom's work or something so I can let her know?"

"We can Iris Message her," Aria suggested. "Next time we're near water."

I nodded, hoping my mom wouldn't be too mad I was heading to the midwest with three veritable strangers. Maybe I'd just make something up, say another demigod lived nearby and I decided to just carpool with them, or something.

But before I could begin formulating more lies, I noticed Kiera had turned towards the now-empty schoolyard, her hands going towards the black knife at her side. Following her gaze, I realized why.

Out of nowhere, a shadow had come over the school, and it wasn't from clouds.

Then, a figure swooped down from the roof, cloaked in black. When it lifted its head, all I could see was two blood red eyes and a mouth full of fangs as it let out a horrifying scream.

And then it came for us.

———

I immediately ducked out of the way, falling into my bike and knocking it - and my violin case - to the sidewalk. I couldn't tell what was going on above me, besides flying shadows and arrows, but my main concern was joining the fight myself.

Scrambling to open my violin case, I ignored my newly-scraped knee and reached for my sword. My instrument was fine, thank the Muses, and Liakada was as golden and shiny as it was when I packed it earlier - and as when I used it last, in August. A surge of warmth sluiced through me as I picked it up and spun around to face the monster.

Lucas, Kiera, and Aria were all looking up, towards the top limbs of a tree just into the woods. The monster that just attacked us was perching there, staring at us, not moving. I guess nobody had hit her successfully, because she seemed unharmed.

Hesitant, I came up between Kiera and Lucas. A shallow cut was across the former's forehead, and I grimaced.

"What... what is that thing?" I asked quietly.

"I think-" Lucas shook his head, "I think her name is Mormo. She was a vampiric witch back in Ancient Greece - an urban legend of sorts, you could say."

"So why is she in early 2000s upstate New York?!"

Lucas narrowed his eyes. "I... don't really have an answer for that."

I resisted the urge to say something passive aggressive. To be completely honest with you, I was a little too terrified to think of anything than AHHHHH!

Then, Mormo hopped down from the tree.

I flinched. Aria drew an arrow. Kiera flicked her wrist, the knife she held glinting in the June sunlight. Lucas, next to me, just frowned.

Mormo screamed again, and came towards us.

Suddenly, Aria let her arrow fly, striking Mormo in the thigh. The hag let out a moan of pain, stopping for only a moment and giving Kiera the chance to run up, take her by the neck, and put a knife to her throat. "AJ!" she yelled.

Mormo began wiggling out of her grasp, kicking at Kiera, but she was frail and my unclaimed acquaintance was surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) tough.

But she couldn't hold her forever.

So I broke out into a sprint, nearly sliding in the mud, and swung Liakada in her direction; Kiera, thank the Gods, ducked out at the last minute, and my sword sliced clean through Mormo's torso.

The witch dissolved into a waterfall of golden dust, falling to the ground. I caught myself before I fell, too. Just like that, Mormo was dead - or at least, temporarily deceased. Out of my worries, definitely.

Looking to Kiera, I saw her nod approvingly. "That's how you do it."

She came walking over to me; I met her halfway, and we high-fived. So much for her being bitter, I mused to myself. Maybe she's changed since last summer.

I sure hoped so.

Kiera and I made our way out of the small clearing we'd found ourselves in, back to where Aria and Lucas were waiting at the edge of civilization. Aria swung her bow case around and put back her weapon; Kiera and I sheathed our own. Lucas just smiled at me.

"Our first fight of the quest," he said. "If it was over that quickly, maybe this whole thing will be, too."

I'm not gonna spoil things, but I think you can guess... he was wrong.

———

I ended up not going to school that day.

We used a payphone to call my mom; she seemed a bit concerned, but allowed it, if just for the sake of my social life. She had no idea we were going to Chicago - and she would never find out the truth.

Lucas revealed he didn't have a car, and they'd gotten to Highland Falls on a cab. I couldn't imagine the price of that ride, but Lucas... he kinda looked like he wouldn't be struggling with it, if you know what I mean. He was rich, basically. Or that was my guess.

He had tickets for us now, a Greyhound apparently being our primary source of transporation to Chicago. Knowing how this stuff went, I fully expected us to get stranded somewhere else. There was no way a bus ride all the way to Illinois could go off without a hitch. But my questing companions seemed confident.

Maybe you should be confident too, I told myself. You said you'd be more positive this summer.

So, more positive I would be. But I couldn't help feeling like everything was going to go wrong.

~ ☼ ~

A/N: Hi! Idk if anyone is reading this, but if you are... thanks! Hopefully I will update this consistently (unlike the first book... literally took me 4 years to finish...)!! Please vote and comment! Sorry I'm using so many exclamation points! Until the next chapter, positive vibes! Stay awesome!