KITTY'S HEAD SPUN, BOTH FROM seeing the rage on Alex's face and from the horrific out of tune viola section on her left. She'd been in many fights in her seventeen years, but as she looked at her best friend, rarely had Kitty felt as betrayed.

He knew her. Kitty hadn't changed in the last month. She'd always been a risk taker, a gambler. Pushing limits, testing boundaries, that was what she did in card games, in training sessions, at war, and on this quest. She and Alex had teamed up for years, pulling pranks on Silena—rest in peace—and Clarisse and all manner of other campers.

"I did what I always do," Kitty said. "I took a risk. They don't always work out."

Alex scoffed. He threw his head back with a humorless smirk and half a laugh. "A risk? You dropped her!"

"I didn't drop her!" Kitty couldn't suppress a half grunt, half scream in frustration. "I chose to make sure the lyre didn't fall! Besides, she went all evil and opened a door into the Underworld while floating like some demon out of a horror movie!"

Kitty could feel her whole body shaking. The ugly blending of 1980s punk and out of tune classical music only fed her fury towards Alex, towards Ophelia, towards this whole situation. When he opened his mouth, she shut him down.

"No, Alex. You shut up! This is all her fault. Ophelia's dangerous—"

He took a step forward, getting almost nose to nose with her. "We're all dangerous. But at least Ophelia knows how to defend her allies."

"I was defending the lyre!"

"What about when you let Percy hit me in the face with a river of water?" He bared his teeth. "Where were you then? Hiding like a coward."

Kitty felt her jaw drop. She backed up by a half step, dropping the lyre to the ground. "Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said." Alex closed the distance again. "You're selfish. And a coward."

"You're a traitor!" A white hot blaze of anger filled her chest. Kitty felt her cheeks burning. Her breaths got shorter and shorter. Hands empty, lyre on the ground, she punched Alex across the jaw.

Kitty grabbed her hand to her chest. Her knuckles ached and tears steamed down her cheeks. This didn't make any sense! She'd never punched anyone in her life. She'd aired her grievances with Alex a year ago when they'd returned.

The golden glow of the lyre in the ash and dirt beside them splashed a bit of light on Alex as he cradled his face. He didn't respond. In fact, he didn't even look at her. Kitty followed his gaze.

The viola section had each other in headlocks. The trombonists were ganging up on a single bassoonist and beating her into the blood covered stage. Screaming arguments surrounded them.

This didn't make sense. Alex wasn't a traitor. Not anymore. He'd been ready to die and to kill for Camp Half-Blood. What had she called him a traitor?

Why had a flutist kneeled over the writhing body of a young violinist and used her instrument to strangle him?

"Stop," Alex said.

Voice low but tense, he turned to her. For the first time in days, Kitty found herself looking into his blue eyes without being faced with rage in return. She did as he asked. Kitty tried to stop shaking.

"Something's wrong," she said.

Alex closed his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair and then covered his mouth. He shook his head. "She lied."

Kitty frowned. She watched as Alex wavered, sinking to his knees seemingly of pure exhaustion. "Ophelia?"

He didn't respond at first. He just stared at the ground and the chaotic fights around them. "She lied. We have to find her. Kitty—"

"What's going on?"

Alex looked up at her. In the Lyre's light, his pale blue eyes shone. Kitty sat across from him still nursing her hand.

The prophecy. "A choice born of wrath he must unlearn, For to Herald's home but one returns'. That's me. 'Fortune's favor untie fates of three, Twist the threads and form darkest key'. You."

Kitty nodded. "All hope lost, they seek their share, Led through shadow by Strife's chosen heir' is Ophelia."

"Strife's chosen heir'." Alex shook his head. Covering his mouth again, she couldn't tell if he looked more angry or more hurt. "She said Eris stopped talking to her."

Kitty paused. Eris, the goddess of Strife and Discord, the orchestrator of the Trojan War and the buddy of Ares, god of brutal warfare, has Ophelia on speed dial? And she'd never mentioned it?

Alex shook his head. "If I'd known—"

"She's here?" Kitty said.

With a sweeping gesture, Alex pointed out the angry arguments and betrayals playing out in this section of the Fields of Punishment. Then he pointed to her. "She's here. I'm sorry. I never meant to—"

"No. I know." Kitty took a deep breath, swallowing the lump in her throat. She extended her hand. "Sorry I punched you."

Alex chuckled. "It was a good one."

"I learned from the best."

A chilly wind swept through the music venue. As Alex and Kitty stood up off the ground, Kitty brushing off all the dirt and ash from the Lyre of Orpheus, they shuddered. It made sense now. Sort of. But how had Ophelia never said anything?

Alex explained what he knew; a grandparent or great grandparent had been a Half-Blood of Eris. Kitty knew that. Since she had started fighting for Kronos, Eris had whispered in her ear. Kitty hadn't known that. Most of the time, it'd been harmless. But when he and Ophelia had left Kronos's rebellion, it had taken hours upon hours of learning and concentration to keep Eris away until she'd only been able to reach her battle. Ophelia hated her.

"Or she said she did," Alex said. He frowned, shivering ever so slightly. "Now, I don't know what to think."

The chill died. Kitty glanced around. The fighting instrumentalists paused in their arguments. The violinists scrambled away from the violists. The flute section fell to the floor in tears.

How easily had she and Alex gone to blows? Kitty looked at him. Shoulders sinking, tears on his cheeks. Fires on the horizon splashed colors onto the otherwise void sky of shadows of the Underworld.

How easily had they all turned to infighting, and Eris hadn't even said a word to them? Her mere presence had brought them all to blows.

"We don't know if she's doing this on purpose," Kitty said. When Alex perked up a little, she added, "Eris could be controlling her."

"O hasn't been acting right since we got here."

Kitty wracked her brain for any point in the quest where Ophelia's personality had changed. She'd been sober, more focused perhaps. But so had they all. Besides, Ophelia had always been on the quieter side.

When they'd first met, it had been a couple hours before Kitty figured she'd receive her imminent death by way of Kronos. They hadn't said much. Ophelia and Alex both looked haunted. And she didn't see them much in battle. She'd been helping the healers or otherwise staying out of the way where possible.

But that night, when the survivors returned to the cabins or to the campfire, she'd found herself alone with Ophelia in Cabin 11. The girl's luck aura spun a light grey. Not great, but not terrible either. She'd seen far too much bad luck during the Battle of the Labyrinth that day. Watching Lee Fletcher's luck go from gold to black to nonexistent as he died had been traumatic enough.

With wind battering the shutters in the otherwise quiet cabin that evening, she'd introduced herself. Kitty Ellis, Tyche's favorite daughter, Alex's best friend. She still remembered that last bit tasting foreign on her tongue as she spoke to Alex's girlfriend, years after he'd left her and Camp Half-Blood.

Ophelia had needed a change of clothes. Blood stained her already ripped to shreds Ramones tee shirt. After Kitty had tossed her an extra Camper tee, she'd watched Ophelia slip a necklace into her hand.

She'd said it was the symbols of her mother: Hecate's wheel and crossed torches. Kitty could still remember the curiosity that had buzzed through her whole body like a transfusion of nectar. Ophelia must've noticed. Instead of returning to silently getting settled in her bunk, she'd faced Kitty.

Her blue eyes splashed with gold had been wet with tears when she'd explained she wouldn't wear the necklace while dishonoring her mother. She didn't care that wearing the mark of a traitor goddess could make the other campers uncomfortable. She didn't care about being accepted. But she had cared about betraying her mother. And though she didn't regret walking away from Kronos's army, she didn't want to continue disrespecting Hecate by wearing her symbols while fighting against her.

Kitty hadn't thought it made a lot of sense. Sure, Tyche was great. They had a good run going—mutually beneficial. Kitty got cool powers and Tyche got a cool daughter. Sometimes Travis had made fun of it, saying she and Tyche were more like colleagues than family. Kitty didn't care though.

But as she'd watched Ophelia place her Hecate necklace gently in a pouch and lay it in her chest, she remembered thinking that clearly, this girl did care.

Somehow, Kitty didn't think that Ophelia had removed her necklace again at Persephone's Garden out of love and respect. Something had happened. She asked Alex if he'd noticed.

For a moment, he just stood in silence. They wandered to the edge of the music venue and looked out at the other slate roads. "I hadn't thought much about it."

"We need to leave," Kitty said.

Alex nodded. "I know. We need to find Ophelia and get out of here."

She wanted to suggest they just leave her be. They couldn't trust her. If the goddess of Strife really was whispering in her ear, who knew how dangerous she could be? But one look at Alex and she knew that wasn't an option.

"When we find her, we have to watch her," Kitty said.

Alex nodded. "I know. I'll talk to her."

Kitty didn't know that it would help. But she did know it wouldn't help if she tried anything. The anger that had dripped from her voice like venom when Ophelia had called her "Katerina" said all she needed to say. But she did know one thing. Kitty would protect Alex to the end, partially because he was still her best friend. And partially because if he didn't get back to Olympus and save the half-bloods, then all of this suffering had been for nothing. Kitty didn't do anything for nothing.