OPHELIA MUST'VE BEEN HALLUCINATING when she woke up because she opened her eyes to see a blonde, grey-eyed girl come into focus. Shifting where she'd settled down next to Alex along the wall, Ophelia yawned. Annabeth Chase.

She eased herself away from Alex, careful not to compress the squeaky toy he clutched against his chest. In the fading red and purple glow of the sunset through the windows, his messy golden hair and bloody clothes looked even worse. Ophelia stifled the urge to fix his hair away from his eyes. Turning away from him, she moved with Annabeth a few feet away.

"What do you need?" Ophelia said.

"There's an army heading south into Central Park," Annabeth said. She kept her voice low, which Ophelia appreciated even if she knew they'd need to wake Alex for battle. Annabeth moved her arm around, massaging it. "I want you to stay with Will. Help him and the healers however you can."

Expected. Ophelia pointed to Annabeth's right arm. "How's that?"

"It's fine."

The pain written all over her face told a different story. But Ophelia saw no reason to bring it up. She just nodded, assuring Annabeth she'd send Alex to Connor and Travis.

"Is that a dolphin dog toy?" Annabeth said, pausing as she turned to leave. "When did he get that?"

Ophelia half snorted, half laughed. "This afternoon. Don't ask me why. He went out with Connor and Travis to find Will supplies and came back covered in blood and holding that thing."

Alex groaned, shifting against the wall. "It's for Mrs. O'Leary. Courtesy of the sons of Hermes." He pushed himself off the floor, hissing in pain at the movement. The dolphin let out an airy squeak. "Here."

Annabeth caught the dolphin toy with her left. "Lose a bet?"

"Won a dare," Alex said. He smirked at her. "Couldn't let the Stoll brothers get one over on me."

"No, you never could," Annabeth said.

Ophelia watched the back and forth quietly. She knew they had history. History tied to Luke. But Alex didn't like to talk about it, said he wanted to focus on the here and now. All she knew was that he'd joined camp at eleven and stayed year round for the next three until Percy Jackson had thrown Camp Half Blood into chaos.

Annabeth gestured towards the door. "Go organize Cabin 11. Connor and Travis will be back in a bit."

He waited a moment before flashing her a tiny smile and a quick, "Whatever you say."

"Hey." Ophelia grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers through his before he could leave. She held him there a moment, forcing herself to smile. Shadows began to lick up his left arm like black flames and smoke. "Don't die."

Alex squeezed her hand tighter. "Don’t worry about me."

“I’d worry less if you had Kitty to watch your back,” Ophelia said.

His smile fell. Ophelia watched him fidget with the clasps of his leather armor. Alex didn’t respond, but she knew him well enough that he didn’t need to. They were all worried about Kitty. Him more than anyone, probably. Especially without that skinny girl in the Ares cabin, Sienna. She and Kitty had something going on, Ophelia was sure of it.

Gods, they really could've used the Ares cabin.

"Right," Alex said, attaching his sword to his side. "Good luck."

He shot her one more tight smile before following Annabeth and several others out into the hall of the Plaza hotel. Ophelia found herself alone in the massive suite. To her right were massive glass sliding doors covered by black out curtains. She slid them open.

Ophelia smiled. The reds and purples slipped into navy blues and blacks as the sun dipped. As she stepped outside, Ophelia took a deep breath in. The cold air should've surprised her for midsummer. But as it filled her lungs and sent an icy chill through her veins she knew it was the shadows, the night bringing her strength.

They don't trust you.

Ophelia gripped the handrail tighter. Don't listen to the voices. Don't listen to Eris. She kept her eyes clothed and breathed again. In for four, hold for four, out for four, repeat.

They'll never trust you.

Ophelia opened her eyes. A swirling mist of shadows licked up her arms like flames, sprouting from her hands that now looked as black as the void.

Why should they trust you? You already betrayed one family.

The handrail disappeared. It disintegrated, fading in the night until it simply ceased to exist. Ophelia scrambled back. Her heart pounded a mile a minute as the shadows tried to consume her.

"Ready?"

Ophelia spun around. Will Solace, half a foot shorter with his golden hair and blue eyes eyed her carefully from the door. But as Ophelia looked down at her hands, they looked normal. No smoke, no blackness, no shadows.

It took a moment to form words. "Where to?" she said.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Will leaned closer. His eyes narrowed, looking her up and down in the same way she'd seen him look at his patients. "Sure you can do this?"

"Shadow-travel is no problem."

He paused. But then he nodded. "Cabin 7 needs us."

Her stomach dropped. Apollo cabin, again? They'd already lost Michael Yew, and so many others injured. No wonder Will looked sick to his stomach.

"Come on," Ophelia said. She held out her hand. "Just tell me where."

With wind whipping through her hair from the breeze off Central Park, Ophelia took his warm hand in hers and felt it start to chill. She slowed her breathing and then with a flash, melted into the darkness. Moments later, they appeared behind the Manhattan Bridge, just where Will had directed.

They materialized into a warzone. An explosion destroyed the last of a pile of cars on their left. Ophelia shielded herself. Ducking out of instinct, she withdrew to any darkness she could find. Dracaenae flooded the area, accompanied by several demigods that Ophelia recognized. She froze.

Samuel led them. She could've recognized his shaggy head of blonde hair a mile away. The teenage son of Hecate moved with grace, an odd contrast to his otherwise unattractive presentation. To his right hand, a young daughter of Nemesis. Ruthie? She shifted her sword as she fell into step with Samuel. But further behind, quiet and unassuming, stood ten year old Leah Kim, daughter of Hecate.

The hiss of arrows over her head pulled Ophelia's attention away. Four Dracaenae dropped dead beside the enemy demigods.

Traitor.

"Shut up!" Ophelia seethed. "Shut up!"

A hymn to Apollo sung under someone's breath made her turn from the carnage of explosions and disintegrating monsters. There was Will, knelt over a girl, Kayla maybe. Blood streamed onto the pavement from a gash in her head.

Ophelia gritted her teeth. She turned back to the bridge. Kronos's forces were overwhelming them. Ruthie had gone down, two arrows in her chest. One of the Apollo kids engaged Samuel in swordplay. Or tried to. Her half-brother was just toying with him, manipulating the Mist with illusion and casting a warding spell whenever the son of Apollo managed to discern his true position.

"Samuel!"

She called out over the din, hoping to catch him off guard. And it did. He turned, giving the son of Apollo enough time to slam the hilt of his celestial bronze sword into Samuel's head. He crumpled to the ground.

Ophelia watched him fall. Panic filled her chest as she realized what spell he'd been casting mid-collapse. As he hit the ground, sparks flew from his open palm. Ten feet around him burst into flames as all the spilled gasoline ignited.

The son of Apollo screamed as flames shot into his face. Another cry, young, female followed. Leah. Ophelia ran forward, driving her Stygian iron dagger into a dracaenae in the process. The others had died in the blast.

Her boots skidded on rubble as she moved to the flames. Apollo's kid, looked like Austin, rolled around on the ground while two of his half brothers slammed him with their tee-shirts. They had to douse the flames. But Leah kept shrieking.

Ophelia couldn't see anything except shadows and flames. Instead she followed Leah's cries. When she found the ten year old, she was covered in burns. Ophelia wrenched her out of where she'd been stuck under a piece of car wreckage and looked her over.

"No, no, no," Ophelia said. "No. Leah, Leah look at me. It's me. It's your name buddy. Leah and Ophelia?"

It became hard to see through the tears. Grabbing the last of her ambrosia, she stuffed it into Leah's mouth. The chattering and hissing of dracaenae beyond the flames reminded her of the whispers of the fallen that Eris filled her mind with.

"Leah, look at me." Ophelia knelt over her, hands shaking. The girl's burns started to pale, but her eyes stayed shut.

Traitor!

Ophelia screamed. The shadows deepened all around them, the voices beyond the flames subsiding. The fire wavered as if hit by a blast of air. "Shut up!"

"Ophelia!"

She spun around, baring her teeth like the racoons she used to run from as a child on the streets. Scary creatures loved alleyways for the food scraps. She had loved them for the darkness.

Will's eyes widened, lined with tears that refused to fall. She took a deep breath. "Sorry," she said.

"We're pulling back," he said. "No one else is dying today. But we need to get Austin to the hotel, right now."

She nodded. Austin. They needed her to be a night time taxi service. Or, ambulance service. Camp Half-Blood needed her.

Ophelia looked back at her half-sister. Eris's voice echoed in her mind, accompanied by the whispered screams of the dead. She turned back to Will. "I'm not going without Leah."

His gaze softened. Looking past her at Leah on the ground, he nodded. Kneeling, Will began to sing the hymn to his father. A wave of peace washed over her as well as she realized Will had taken her hand in his right and placed his left over Leah's chest.

A moment later, looking a bit strained and out of breath, he nodded. "Can you shadow-travel all of us?"

"I have to."

As the flames continued to rage, the few children of Apollo not being carried or stumbling into the city recovered what arrows they could. Will and Ophelia moved Leah beside Austin into the shadow of a building. She closed her eyes. Four people? A bit of fear took root in the pit of her stomach.

She would make it.

She had to make it.

With one hand on either of the wounded and Will's hand on her shoulder, Ophelia closed her eyes. She let the cold wash over her. She allowed herself to melt, to sink into the darkness. Pain exploded in her chest as she felt wind and shadows of the void fly past them. Ophelia tried not to scream.

They landed out front, surrounded by clashing swords. Collapsing to the ground, voices filled her mind as the shadows Eris loved torment her with, trying to overwhelm her. One spoke her name, a deep and gravelly voice. Another, female, just spat Greek curses.

"Ophelia, come on!" Will grabbed her. He yanked her arm.

Ophelia spat blood onto the ground from where the stone step's edge had split her lip. Why the hell were Greek gods so damn petty? But she pushed herself off the ground, took a deep breath, and grabbed Leah's limp body.

The wounded weren't happy to see her. Leah wore Kronos's colors. But Ophelia didn't care. She ran a hand down Leah's face, the burns subsiding slowly from the ambrosia. Boils still covered her arms and chest. Holding back her tears, Ophelia let the shadows in the corners of the room strengthen her.

She turned to Will. "I'll be back."

He said something, but she ignored him. The Hephaestus kid currently managing Annabeth's tracking device had said the fighting was heaviest in the block around the Empire State Building. All their forces had retreated there, or gone into hiding.

Ophelia stepped out into the shadows of the balcony.

Walk with the shadows, her mother had always said. Use them. They are a tool.

Hecate never spoke to her these days. But Ophelia remembered the lessons and the voice of her mother when hiding in dark alleyways and city parking garages. She remembered when her mother had guided her to Luke. She'd brought her to family.

Shadows enveloped her. That family had broken. She'd chosen a new one. But she was done being used as a live-action fast travel mechanic.

Darkness consumed her.

When she materialized on the steps of the Empire State Building, a sword swung towards her neck. With a flash and a single Greek word, Ophelia conjured a hand to stop it in its tracks. She stared into the grey eyes of one of Athena's sons.

"I'm on your side!" Ophelia said.

She pushed him away with the conjured shadowy hand before letting it evaporate. Chaos spilled out everywhere. In every section of the street, monsters exploded into dust at the Hunters's arrows or Cabin 6's swords and daggers.

Cold anger took root in her stomach. Ophelia drew her long, black Stygian iron dagger. The harsh, uneven edges of the blade shimmered in the moonlight. Ophelia took a deep breath.

Walk with the shadows.

She allowed the night to wash over her, desperately ignoring the whispers at the back of her mind. She became the night.

Jumping from shadow to shadow, Ophelia drove her dagger into laistrygonians, empousai, and dracaenae alike. With each travel, the voices grew bolder. But she didn't care. Fury kept her going. Every dagger slash into monster flesh and scream of the enemy emboldened her.

Murderer!

Ophelia stopped. She crashed into a laistrygonian, losing her rhythm as Samuel's voice rang out in her mind. She'd not pulled him from the flames. She'd not seen him! Was he dead? Was the Mist playing tricks in her mind?

A rock hard fist collided with her chest. Ophelia cried out, flying backwards. She couldn't breathe. Agonizing pain filled her entire body, radiating from her ribs. Tears rolled down her face, cutting through dirt and grime. Ophelia looked up, struggling to take a breath as the eight foot tall, tattooed monster grinned through his yellow teeth over her.

Music filled the air. The laistrygonian paused in his step. Vines began to climb up his legs, turning into bark. The monster howled. He tried to rip himself free but nothing budged. It didn't take long for his entire form to harden into tree bark.

Ophelia, gasping against the pain and the dark spots in her vision, caught sight of a satyr watching her, wide-eyed. He hurried over. Screaming in pain, she nonetheless accepted his hand up. Together they hobbled back towards the doors.

So few remained. Ophelia fell against the side of the building, unable to walk any further. She wanted to lay down. Voices screamed at her, searing pain made every breath nearly impossible. She curled in on herself.

The Hunters of Artemis lined the front steps. A few of Annabeth Chase's siblings stood beside Demeter's Katie Gardener with some of the nature spirits. Percy wove in and out of pockets of the defense. But Kronos's army forced them back. They lost a foot every few minutes.

Ophelia screamed again as she yanked herself up. She would not die on the ground, cast aside like trash in an alleyway. No. Ophelia held her dagger up. She would die on her feet.

A horn call blasted through the chaotic night. Silence fell, until moments later the fading echo of the horn turned into a responding chorus. The monsters faltered. The demigods paused.

Ophelia glanced around at the buildings. The horns echoed and reverberated off of every structure. She held her breath. Kronos?

One of the flanks surged forward, monsters screaming and waving their weapons. Chaos filled the entire block. Ophelia grimaced, holding her dagger closer as she used the wall for support.

But they kept running. They ran straight into their own army. Whooping and hollering filled the air, followed by another chorus of horns. Hundreds of arrows flew over the heads of the demigods, impaling and exploding dozens of monsters. Hoofbeats pounded the asphalt.

"Centaurs!"

The shout revitalized the defending army. Ophelia cried, leaning back against the wall and sliding to sit down. She'd never been so happy to see Party Ponies in her life. Though to be fair, she'd never been happy seeing them period, so the bar was low.

They could handle this. Ophelia tried to breathe. Every inhale felt like being stabbed. And she knew that pain.

Darkness began to cloud her vision. Her head ached. Her chest burned. Clutching her Stygian iron dagger to her chest, she crumbled against the building, laying down on the sidewalk.

This is what you deserve.

Ophelia tried to breathe. She wanted the cool relief of shadows but only found the burning pain of what she guessed was many broken ribs. Ophelia closed her eyes.

"Hey, O, look at me."

Alex. He was here? Ophelia opened her eyes. It stung, ash and rubble falling into them from her once blonde, now almost dirt brown, hair.

"Look at me, Ophelia. Hey. You're okay. Look at me."

She couldn't though. At least he was alive to fight. Thinking about Leah Kim, Hecate, and the shadows of the night, Ophelia closed her eyes just as Nectar passed her lips. Yet another thing to burn her as the darkness of night gave way to early dawn.