𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐖𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆, luke castellan

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞

"Kei, if you keep staring at Castellan so intensely, you might start a rumor that you've developed a secret crush on his canoeing skills."

Keira snapped out of her trance at her half-sister Melissa's playful voice, noticing her intense gaze on the blond guy on the other side of Canoe Lake. He was tying the canoe to a post at the lake's edge. His concentrated expression, with his eyebrows slightly furrowed, and the way his upper arm muscles flexed beneath his shirt as he worked with his hands, revealed the effort he was putting into securing it properly.

Jolene and Sonia, sitting beside them, shared some knowing giggles at the youngest daughter of Athena's teasing remark. Keira simply rolled her eyes in exasperation but didn't take her gaze off the boy.

"Since when does kiddo have so many fans?" Keira spat, squinting her gray eyes as a group of Ares' boys approached him to say something, and he smiled as if graciously accepting a compliment, shaking their hands while momentarily abandoning his task of securing the boat. She assumed they were congratulating him for becoming the new head counselor of Cabin 11.

No big deal, thought Keira. After all, there were twelve cabins at Camp Half-Blood. Excluding those of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Artemis, which had been empty throughout her years at camp, there were eight cabins left, each with its own captain. Occupying a place among those eight people wasn't a very remarkable feat worthy of such congratulations.

Keira found Marcus's decision to be foolish. She couldn't understand why he had chosen to step down when he had been at camp for so long, whereas Luke had only been there for a year. Marcus had explained that he would be heading off to college the following year and believed it was more appropriate for someone planning to stay longer and be a year-round camper to take over. He even mentioned Luke's bravery in saving the camp during the winter quest as a factor that helped him make that decision.

"I warned you last year," Melissa murmured, her face bearing an amused smile. Keira internally promised to punch her sister if she didn't drop the mocking tone. "He's always been admired by the girls for being extremely... hot," she summarized, and Keira swore she saw Sonia blush as soon as she said that word. The blonde rolled her eyes again at her friend's pathetic behavior. "But since he came back from the quest and brought—"

"I brought the Knee," Keira cut her off brusquely, emphasizing the pronoun 'I'. "On the motorcycle I borrowed from Apollo. After I fought Nik. In my best friend's quest."

During the past winter, Keira and Luke had embarked on a quest with Jon, Luke's half-brother and Keira's lifelong best friend, to search for the Knee of Talos. This magical artifact was crucial for protecting the borders of Camp Half-Blood and keeping monsters at bay. The theft of the Knee turned out to be a bait to lure the three demigods out of camp so that Nik, a former friend of theirs who turned out to be a traitor, could interrogate them about the whereabouts of Jason Grace, a demigod son of Zeus.

Nik's objective was to eliminate all the so-called forbidden children — children of Zeus or Poseidon who shouldn't have been born after the Big Three pact. He had allied with Hades, who granted him powers to fulfill this goal. During the retrieval of the Knee, Jon tragically lost his life when he was stabbed by Nik. This event ignited Keira's fury toward the son of Hephaestus, who managed to escape before she could seek vengeance for her best friend's death.

After reclaiming the Knee and reinforcing the camp's defenses, Luke and Keira journeyed to Olympus, only to discover that Nik had betrayed Hades as well. It was revealed that the plan to attack Camp Half-Blood originated from Nik himself, rather than being orchestrated by the lord of the Underworld.

"Kei, give him some credit," Jolene protested.

Aphrodite's daughter was accustomed to Keira's attitudes when it came to Luke. The two had developed a complicated relationship last summer, marked by her making ironic comments to provoke him, which inevitably led to arguments. Given the rivalry they seemed to have established, no one at Camp Half-Blood quite understood how they ended up going on a quest together without having killed each other in the process.