Jax wasn't sure what he'd expected the Forest of Nightmares to look like. Dark. Twisting. "Pee-your-pants" scary.

Certainly not like this.

He tipped his head back. Golden apples dangled from the trees. A stone path curved along the forest floor, lined with glass jars that glowed like morning stars. Red and blue flowers speckled the earth, bright as popping candy. It looked more like an orchard, Jax thought, or perhaps a fairytale woodland.

"I hate to say this," Romes said, "but the forest looks... okay?"

Her dark hair was scraped back. She'd changed out of her wet clothes into a pair of form-fitting black trousers, and Jax wrenched his gaze away. He'd been doing that a lot, over the last twelve hours; the siren magic was fading, but he could still feel it. A hot, hungry thing that lived in his stomach.

"I miss my ship," Asa said.

The other boy was staring gloomily at where their ship bobbed in the water. They'd had to leave most of the supplies on board, save for a few backpacks stuffed with tinned food, weapons, and bedding. Romes shrugged.

"You'll get over it," she said.

Asa gave her a look. "Empathetic as always, pipsqueak." He shouldered his bag. "Right. Let's get a move on."

They started into the forest.

The air grew thick and damp as they walked, settling on Jax's shoulders like a blanket. A bead of sweat slid down his back. He wondered briefly if his cousin would have made it this far. But that was a stupid question, Jax thought; of course he would have. Percy would have never fallen prey to the sirens. Percy would have never jumped off the boat or forced his companions to rescue him.

A knot tightened in his chest.

Jax touched Wind-Singer; the sword felt odd and bulky on his back.

Asa charged ahead, barreling down the stone path with single-minded determination. Bibi bounded beside him, pausing occasionally to sniff at a mushroom or roll in a patch of mud. Asa eyed her with distrust.

"I really do hate that pig," Asa muttered.

Jax frowned. "She's done nothing wrong."

"It annoys me," Asa said.

"Everything annoys you."

"You know," Xander said conversationally, "there's a religious group in Southern Banks that worships pegapiglets." He skirted around a loose stone. "They have a festival every May where two hundred pegapiglets are released through the village. The first person to catch one wins a year's supply of cheese."

Asa rolled his eyes. "There's a religious group for everything."

Romes raised an eyebrow. "That's not true."

"Name something," Asa said. "I bet people worship it."

"Sirens," Romes said.

Xander nodded. "There's a group in Pemberthwaites. Their symbol is a green tail. Members tattoo it on to their back."

Her eyebrow inched higher. "Potatoes."

Xander inclined his head. "Spudditers. Very controversial cult."

Romes snapped her fingers, triumphant. "Monsters! Nobody worships those."

"Oh, yes," Xander said, warming to the topic. "There's a cult in Netherton that does. Every month, a holy man is blindfolded and sent through the village with red paint. He marks a door at random during the night, and that family agrees to be sacrificed. The idea is to appease the monsters so that they—"

"Enough," Asa said tightly. "You've made your point, Bird-Boy." He pulled out his compass. "Now everyone shut up. I'm trying to navigate."

The stone path split into two. Asa turned toward each branch, staring hard at his compass. Xander was scanning the treetops, his brow slightly furrowed beneath his red bandana. "Does anyone else see that? It's a—"

"If this is another bird fact," Asa said, without looking up, "I will actually hang myself."

Xander looked exasperated. "It's not a bird fact." He paused. "And even if it was, I think you'll find most of them are very useful and interesting."

Asa jiggled the compass. "Whatever you say, Bird-Boy."

"I told you," Xander said, with a long-suffering look. "I'm an ornithologist."

"You're a hobbyist with a niche interest."

Xander cast his eyes upwards. "Ornithology is a very extensive scientific field, Asa."

"Please," Jax said. "Back to your point, Xander."

"I was going to say," Xander said, with great dignity, "that the path we're on has a lot of silver residue." He gestured to a tree. "Do you see that? It's left behind by squidarium monsters. There are at least three of them in the area, judging by my calculations."

Jax squinted up at the trees. He could just make out the glint of shiny silver liquid, like melting knives dripping down the tree trunks. Although that was not, Jax thought, a particularly comforting mental image.

"Right," Jax said slowly. "And that's... bad?"

Xander looked genuinely astonished. "Do none of you know what a squidarium monster is?"

All three of them exchanged looks.

"Do they eat tears?" Romes ventured.

"All monsters eat tears," Xander said patiently. "But these are a specific form. They're shape-shifting invertebrates that exist only in the Forest of Nightmares. They identify your worst nightmare, and then transform into that object."

"Brilliant," Asa muttered.

"It's really very fascinating," Xander added.

Asa shook the compass. "I think you'll find it significantly less fascinating when the monster is trying to rip your head off."

"Oh, no," Xander said cheerfully. "They paralyze you with fear and then consume you whole. It's an ingenious pursuit strategy."

He looked delighted by the prospect. Asa muttered, poking at the compass. Jax closed his eyes. His right shoulder ached, and he could feel the beginning of a migraine coming on. How long had they been hiking? Six hours? Eight? He hadn't slept much last night — only about an hour or two — and his dreams had been haunted by images of black waves and velvet skin.

"Shall we stop for the night?" Romes suggested.

Jax opened his eyes. She wasn't looking at him, but Jax could feel that she had been. Part of the siren magic, he supposed. Asa frowned.

"Here?"

Romes shrugged. "I don't see why not. It's not like we're getting anywhere."

Asa muttered something. Still, he must have decided that Romes was right because he stuffed the compass back in the bag. "Fine. Let's make camp."

Things moved very quickly. Asa pored over maps. Xander went to find water ("It's easy," he said, looking surprised. "You simply have to study the bird flight paths."). And Romes waded into the woods and returned with three dead rabbits slung over her shoulder. Jax — who'd been fiddling with the fire — looked away as she skinned them, the metallic tang of blood heavy in his nostrils.

They ate in silence. Well, Jax thought, the others ate in silence; he pretended to nibble on his barbecued rabbit and then chucked it into the bushes when nobody was looking. His stomach churned at the smell of it.

Jax extinguished the fire. He turned to see Asa frowning at the rucksacks, ticking things off with his fingers. Romes planted her hands on her hips.

"What?" she asked.

Asa dropped his hand. "There are only three sleeping bags."

"You're joking," Romes said flatly.

Asa raised an eyebrow. "I don't see why that would be funny."

"It makes sense," Xander said, unfurling a cot. "Zark organized the supplies. And he wouldn't have realized that Romes would..."

Xander trailed off, looking awkwardly at the forest floor.

Asa crossed his arms. "No, go on. Finish the sentence. He wouldn't have realized that Romes would...?"

"Asa," Jax said warily.

"Hide in a barrel of fish?" Asa suggested. "Stick her nose where it doesn't belong? Try to sabotage the whole mission?"

"Shut up, Asa," Jax said firmly. "Romes saved my life; if it wasn't for her, I'd be at the bottom of the ocean right now. So leave it alone, alright?" All three of his companions stared, and he felt a prickle of self-consciousness. "What?"

Romes cleared her throat. "Did you just... speak assertively?"

"I didn't like it," Asa muttered.

Xander held up a hand. "I also didn't like it."

"That was weird," Asa said. "Like, really weird."

"Oh, shut-up," Jax muttered.

He could feel the tips of his ears growing hot. Romes flopped on to the forest floor. She grabbed a rucksack, sticking it under her head.

"I'll sleep on the floor," she announced.

Jax sighed, massaging his aching temples. "You're not sleeping on the forest floor."

"It's fine," Romes said.

"One of us will do it," Jax said. "You can have a sleeping bag."

"Why?" She raised an eyebrow. "Because I'm a girl?"

His ears grew warmer. "I never said that."

"You implied it," Romes said.

"For gods' sake," Jax said, dropping his hand. "We'll just share the sleeping bags."

"I," Asa said, looking horrified, "am absolutely not sharing a sleeping bag."

"I'll share," Xander volunteered. "Only I sometimes get restless leg syndrome and kick in the night. Also, I like to put some seeds on the blanket in case any birds want to join. It's sometimes very difficult for them to find their nests in the darkness."

Jax caught Romes' eye, and then quickly looked away. He weighed up his options: sharing a sleeping bag with a convicted felon, sharing a sleeping bag with another convicted felon, or sharing a sleeping bag with a woman that he was not-so-secretly lusting after. No option, Jax reflected, was ideal.

"You know what?" Jax sat down. "I'll sleep on the floor."

Romes adjusted her rucksack. "I can do it."

"No," Jax said. "You take the sleeping bag."

"Blackwater—"

"Look," Asa said, "I'm sick of this. You two are the scrawniest." He unfurled his bedding with a snap. "Just suck it up and share a godsdamn sleeping bag."

There was a pause. Romes crossed her arms.

"Blackwater?" she asked.

Jax shrugged. Nonchalant. "Fine with me."

"Okay," Romes said. "But if you snore, I'm punching you in the ribs."

"Noted," Jax said.

Twenty minutes later, Jax lay on his back and stared up at the stars; they were so bright here, he thought, like someone had scattered a necklace of golden beads across the sky. He could feel Romes' warm body next to him. Her hair smelled oddly flowery, mixing with the scent of her vanilla chapstick.

Hot blood pounded in his veins. Jax clenched his jaw.

Siren magic, he told himself. It's just siren magic.

His body didn't want to listen.

Jax closed his eyes, sorting through a mental catalogue of flowers. "A" was for angler vines. And
"B" was for bitter daisies. And "C" was for coldcrown lilies, which incidentally was exactly what Romes' hair smelled like—

A branch snapped.

His eyes flew open. Bibi, Jax thought, but no; the pegapiglet was curled up on Asa's sleeping bag, her tiny wings fluttering as she dreamed. Jax scanned the dark treeline, his heart pounding. He'd heard the branch. He was sure of it.

He poked the girl next to him. "Romes?"

Romes' eyes fluttered. "What?"

"Did you hear that?" Jax murmured.

They were both silent for a moment, listening to the gentle hush-hush of the wind through the trees. Romes yawned.

"You're imagining it, Blackwater." Her voice was thick with dreams. "Go back to sleep."

Another branch snapped.

Romes sat bolt upright, scanning the trees. Any trace of sleep was gone from her expression. "Okay." Her voice was soft. "I heard that one."

"Do you think—?" Jax began.

But Romes was already shrugging off the blankets, a silver knife glinting in her hand. She kicked at a cot. "Xander." Her voice was a hiss. "Xan. Wake up."

"What is it?" Asa asked.

Both boys were sitting up, rubbing groggily at their eyes. Romes slunk toward the treeline. Her green eyes shone like polished coins in the darkness, and her footsteps were silent. She looked like a jungle cat, Jax thought, all feline grace.

"We heard a noise," Jax said.

Asa stared. "You woke me up because you heard a noise?"

"Er. Yeah."

Asa rubbed his face. "I swear to god, Fish Food, if you woke me up because you heard a godsdamn squirrel—"

"It's not a squirrel," Romes said grimly.

Her eyes were fixed on the treeline. Something was shifting in the shadows, solidifying like black tar in the winter. The hulking shape drew closer, and Jax's stomach dropped. The thing looked almost like... well, almost like...

Asa inhaled. "Is that a puppet?"

"Actually," Xander said, "it's a scarecrow."

The shape stepped into the moonlight. The monster was tall and slim, its smile like an upside-down rainbow. Black button eyes gleamed in the darkness. The creature took jerky steps toward them, its arms held aloft like a marionette doll.

"You have to be kidding me." Asa rounded on them. "Which one of you losers is afraid of a scarecrow?"

"Oh, no," Jax muttered.

He looked at Bibi, who was cowering behind a pair of binoculars, her wings scrunched close to her body. Asa groaned.

"You have to be kidding me," Asa said.