The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

seven

AND SO IT BEGINS

Ariana loved New York.

Anyone can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.

Of course, the Mist helped. People probably couldn't see Mrs. O'Leary, or maybe they thought she was a large, loud, very friendly truck.

It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped them at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts.

Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.

Percy whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood.

She had never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though she knew they shuttled their fresh produce into the city.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief. The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes.

They used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive.

Ariana was glad so many had come: Pollux, Silena Beauregard, the Stoll brothers, Michael Yew, Jake Mason, Katie Gardner, and Annabeth, along with most of their siblings.

Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift.

The Ares cabin wasn't here, but she tried not to get too angry about that. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. End of story.

Ariana did a head count: forty campers in all.
Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods she had ever seen gathered in one place outside camp.

Everyone looked nervous, and she understood why. They were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew they were here.

As she looked at their faces all these campers I'd known for so many summers a nagging voice whispered in her mind: One of them is a spy.

But Ariana couldn't dwell on that. They were her friends. She needed them.

Then she remembered Kronos's evil smile. You can't count on friends. They will always let you down.

Annabeth came up to her and Percy. She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder- ready for stabbing or surfing.

"You're looking at me funny." Annabeth said.

Ariana was grinning when she saw she was stood behind a group of demigod, of around forty.

She was glad she didn't feel faint.

Usually, when shadow travelling she felt like she was going to die but for the last few times she was fine.

On top of that, she felt stronger than ever before. She felt as if there was another part to her that had been added yet like an old friend saying hello again.

Finally, her rings were placed back onto her fingers, she twisted them in-between her fingers.

"Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you." Ariana exclaimed.