THE THOUGHT OF A HOTEL BED AND BREAKFAST overpowered Alex's fear when they reached the outskirts of Orlando. His legs ached from driving all day. His mind couldn't stop twisting in knots thinking about his mother, his father, and that day in the Rocky Mountains.

At first, he'd tried to focus on what Kitty told them over dinner. They had names for the demigods now: Phoebe, Cole, and Julien. They knew the Trigon had the Lyre. They just didn't know quite where. All Kitty remembered was white walls, Four Keys, and the symbols of Hebe, Hermes, and Nike etched into a black Mickey Mouse table. Alex had managed to focus on that for about an hour of their drive before that day on the bikes had taken over again.

He'd turned eleven in September but his mom didn't like to take him out on long rides during the winter. Weather conditions could be dangerous. So they'd waited for spring. They'd waited for April and Alex got to take some time off school. He remembered it like it was yesterday.

They'd brought their road bikes. His mother preferred bikepacking, which meant a mountain bike, but Alex loved the speed of descents. His mom always yelled at him for it. She said not everything was about speed and strength, but about the journey, the struggle, the destination, the challenge. Still, this was his birthday trip so she acquiesced.

The Cyclops trapped them on a small climb. Pedaling in a low gear, laughing with his mom about beating the Presidential Physical Fitness Test again, they'd been easy targets. Even sweaty and confined under a yellow helmet, he remembered the beauty of her blonde hair and stormy blue eyes. He remembered every laugh line, every streak of dirt along her cheeks. Even when he tried to forget, he remembered.

His mom kept him on the inside, always. That way cars would pass her, not him. Alex had been so close to the boulders, he could've touched them. He counted every spruce and pine tree. He never gave the passing cars a second thought.

Then he heard a scream, a crash and scraping of metal, and felt white hot pain. The bike went out from under him, sending Alex tumbling to the asphalt. The details got fuzzy after that.

He remembered feeling warm liquid against his abdomen. But more clearly he remembered the towering figure of a cyclops standing behind a smashed car. And even more, he remembered the way his mother's neck lay at an odd angle, the way his hands shook as he clawed towards her and her twisted bike under the vehicle, the way the blood just wouldn't go back inside her body.

That's where the memories stopped. An endless loop of screaming, crunched metal, and wet hot blood. Until Ophelia had pried them back open.

"Sir?"

Alex refocused on the here and now. The here? An Embassy Suites in Altamonte Springs, about a forty minute drive from Disney. The now? Trying, desperately, to focus on getting a room from the young blonde woman behind the front desk.

"One room is fine, two beds," he said. "Just for a night."

She eyed him carefully but nodded, clicking away at her computer. Ophelia stood beside him, doing her thing with the Mist to make them look old enough to be renting a hotel room unsuspiciously. They all agreed that three teenagers buying a hotel room for a single night in cash wouldn't be a good look. But as Kitty said, they might die tomorrow, so they might as well enjoy a night's sleep.

And Alex really wanted a nice bed. He'd done nothing but sleep on hard ground, an apartment floor, or the carpet of an office room since they'd left Camp Half-Blood. His best night of sleep had been with the Hunters. And even then, he'd been too in pain to appreciate it.

"Here's keycards. Room 1113." The woman slid them little paper cards with two plastic hotel keys each. "Breakfast starts at eight, Check out is at eleven."

"Thank you," Ophelia said.

Alex said the same. He allowed Kitty and Ophelia to lead the way to the elevators. They saw a few other guests moving about, many with kids and almost all in Disney merchandise. The center of the hotel looked like something out of a movie. Two hotel elevators flanked a massive, open indoor central courtyard. Red brick, white metal accents, and real plants created an indoor paradise.

Not as good as an outdoor paradise, though. Alex preferred spruce and pine to palm trees. Anguish washed over him again. Ophelia had pried open the memories he'd shut away and now he couldn't put them back. He didn't know how the cyclops had died.

Alex had never been so scared in his life as when he'd looked up at the one eyed, sallow skinned behemoth with jagged teeth towering over them from behind the car. It must've been thirty feet tall. Or that's how Alex remembered it. He'd been so small, hands so covered in blood.

He'd found a knife on the ground. His pocket knife. Or, that's what Alex had thought. But as he dug deeper, tried to make sense of it, he wasn't so sure. He didn't remember his pocket knife being celestial bronze. Maybe he'd been too young to understand. Or too scared.

Alex remembered some of it now. He remembered how the hilt fit into his hand, perfectly balanced. He'd never thrown a dagger before. He's never fought with a weapon, ever. But with the monster laughing above him, his mother dying or dead between his knees, he'd flung it.

The cyclops screamed when it hit him directly in his eye. Alex remembered that. Nothing made sense but he remembered that strangled scream even when he found himself doubling over, clutching the cut across his abdomen to the sounds of sirens and helicopter blades.

The news blamed it on a rogue moose attack. Conspiracy theories blamed it on Bigfoot. Alex hadn't known quite what to make of it, remembering the one eyed face and muscular frame. It only made sense when his history teacher and emergency legal guardian, Mr. Alder, had revealed himself as a tall satyr with brown fur and dark eyes. He'd promised a life where he would be safe. Where he'd have a family, siblings, other sons and daughters of Hermes.

As Alex finished his shower, he stared at his own reflection. His blue eyes were lighter than his mother's, pale like ice. Paler than Luke's. His scar ran across his stomach, not his face like Luke. He allowed his hair to grow out further, keeping it looser than Luke or Chris. More like Connor and Travis. But all of them had the same sharp nose, high cheekbones, and permanent resting smirk of their father. The sons of Hermes.

Exhaustion crashed over him. He changed, covering the scars of his past, and climbed under the white sheets of one of the beds. Ophelia had already showered. She sat up against the headboard, eyes closed and breathing rhythmic. Mediating, perhaps. Alex wondered if she ever spoke to her mother.

He knew she'd been close to Hecate. The pendant of crossed torches on one side and Hecate's Circle on the other that rested against her collarbone reminded him of that daily. She'd refused to wear it for a long time after they left Kronos. She'd told him it wasn't for the campers' benefit. It was because she felt ashamed for betraying Hecate, unworthy of wearing her symbol. But she wore it again now.

They all slept in street clothes. Supplies nearby, after losing almost everything to the Colchis Bull no one wanted to take chances. But by the time Kitty finished her own shower and climbed into the other bed, no one wanted to speak. They just wanted to sleep. He drifted off to the sound of his mother's voice and the smell of conifers.

Shouts and laughter interrupted him. He fell to the floor, pushed off the bed by a cold hand, disoriented. Light flooded the room. Alex looked up and found himself staring at the face of a beautiful dark skinned woman with red braided hair. Until it wasn't.

The red hair turned into flames. Alex cursed, ripping Vindication off his wrist and stabbing upwards at the Empousa. She leaped away, unharmed, laughing. Alex hauled himself to his feet with the other bed and saw three Empousai in their room. Kitty's eyes widened as she held a quiver of arrows to her chest and backed into a corner but Ophelia stood her ground.

A wave of black tendrils shot forward from her hands. The Empousai screeched, cursing the name of Hecate. Alex flinched as the lights flickered with Ophelia's power.

"Grab Kitty!" She ordered.

Alex didn't question her. He vaulted over the second bed and threw his free arm over Kitty's shoulder. He couldn't help but be amazed at the way Ophelia managed to hold back three Empousai alone, the darkness bending to her command. But she slowly took one, two, three steps back.

"We've gotta go," Ophelia said. "Ready?"

He nodded. Alex shrunk Vindication down and grabbed by caduceus and the leather straps in the same hand he held Kitty with. With his other, he grabbed Ophelia's shoulder. "Go!"

The world went black. Inky darkness as cold as dry ice blasted into his face. Alex tried to ignore the way it made his stomach lurch and skin crawl.

He fell down onto asphalt underneath the moon. Kitty groaned beside him, clutching her stomach. But they didn't have time for this. They couldn't wait.

"Get up," Ophelia said. "Get up!"

Alex knelt. He looked up at the side of the hotel from the parking lot as Ophelia helped Kitty. Glass crashed as out of the eleventh floor, three winged monsters made of magic, metal, and animal parts screeched at the moon. Alex didn't know why his mother's voice came to him in that moment. But he remembered her whispered words of love and the right grasp of her hugs. He remembered the cyclops.

"Get in!" Kitty screamed.

Alex backed up, hitting the car. Ophelia had already clambered into the front. He reached for the keys. They weren't there.

"I'm driving," Kitty said. No leveity. It was an order. She didn't flinch when he turned to face her and she flashed the keys. "We need you."

Alex nodded. The Empousai circled in front of the moon, flaming hair and red eyes glowing like pin pricks of blood against a dark sky. He grabbed the quiver of arrows she held out to him and got in the back. Ophelia had already opened the sun roof for him to stand in.

He felt the car lurch as it started to move. The wind blew his hair against his face as Vindication grew from caduceus to winged bow. He looked up at the monsters. Alex angled the first shot.

He remembered the moment the dagger had left his hand. He remembered the Ancient Greek words whispered in the wind. He remembered now. The knife hadn't been his pocket knife. It had been a beautiful celestial bronze throwing dagger laying beside his hand.

Alex slowed his breathing. For the first time in years, he sent a silent prayer to his father. If he had really guided that dagger almost a decade before, guide this arrow now.

He let go.

The central Empousa shrieked in the night sky as celestial bronze pierced her heart, splitting into golden ash that fell like sparks to the ground.

Alex released his breath. He forgot about the flashing street lights around them. He forgot about the other two Empousai.

As sudden thunder split the sky and lightning shot through the clouds, Alex smirked. He notched another arrow on Vindication's bowstring. At least he wasn't the only son to disobey a father.