Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“past me, i want to tell you not to get lost in these petty things”—taylor swift

Katie Gardner furiously blinked away the stinging behind her eyes as her third summer at camp bled into the beginning of her third winter. The first few days of the year-round season were never easy, when everyone filed out and camp was left nearly empty and significantly quieter, but this year felt harder still. The events of the summer had left everyone feeling a bit on edge, and though Katie had acted excited for her friends and half-siblings as they packed to return home, she couldn’t help the gnawing bitterness that settled in her stomach. Katie wanted to go back home, too. Back to her little farmhouse and her two dogs and her own bedroom. Back to her dad. She knew it wasn’t safe, that her dad was scared of all the monsters and had a classroom full of kindergarten kids that he couldn’t risk putting in danger, but Katie was fourteen and she ached for home. 

It was stupid, really, because she had never had friends in the mortal world. She lacked some unnameable trait that everyone else seemed to possess. Where the other kids had played and laughed at lunch, Katie had sat on the ground, picking at blades of grass. She had always been too much—too eager, too stubborn, too argumentative. At Camp Half-Blood, it was easier. She had two best friends who didn’t care that she was too much. She had siblings. But, still. She could do it this time, she thought. If she just got the chance, she could do it. 

Katie watched from the top of the hill with undeniable jealousy as the last strawberry bus drove along the winding road out of camp. She frowned as it faded out of view, hidden by the woods and the setting sun. She knew she should return back to camp for dinner, but something about the grass under her feet and the way the setting sun cast golden patterns through the leaves of the big trees—and, more pressingly, the threat of a near-empty camp and a fully empty cabin—kept Katie on the hill. The sun had almost entirely set before Katie took one last look at the view of camp from the top of the hill: the sprawling cabins, the Big House, and—her personal favorite—the blossoming strawberry fields that looked like they stretched on forever. Camp looked smaller than it really was, from this perspective. Finally, she turned on her heel and jogged down the hill. 

She made it to the dining pavilion just in time—only a few minutes early rather than her normal five—to settle into her spot at the empty Demeter table. It was always just Katie over the winter, but she forgot every time how used to the company of her half-siblings she became accustomed to over the summer until they were gone. She sulked at her sad-looking salad, missing Miranda. Miranda had arrived the same summer as Katie, and they had both been nervous and overeager and grateful for a built-in friend. Miranda was cooler than Katie could ever dream of being, and Katie was sure Miranda would never have befriended her in the mortal world, but they quickly realized they got on like a house on fire. Miranda was nice and wickedly funny, and only a little younger. Katie missed May, too, the oldest and the head of the Demeter cabin. If May were here, she’d poke Katie in the side, call her “squirt,” and laugh at Katie’s indignant protests that she was too old to be called “squirt,” but May had left for her junior year. Katie was so lonely she’d even take Liam, who was a ten year old. Katie supposed she was too old to be missing her half-siblings.

Steadily, the others began filing in. Beckendorf and Silena came in first. They were both older than her and had been year-round campers for as long as Katie had been at camp, which meant they were part of the group of older kids that had their own in-jokes. They were cool and in the know and didn’t really hang out with the younger kids much. Not that she was judging, though. It wasn’t as if she went out of her way to hang out with the little kids like Will and Drew, or that little one from Hephaestus of whom she could never remember the name. Still, a little part of her secretly hoped she’d become closer to the older kids this winter since she was a high-schooler now. 

Katie only really spoke to Beckendorf and Silena once everyone had gone for the summer, and rarely outside of school activities or training exercises, but she liked them. Beckendorf was sixteen, and had a dry humor that Katie could appreciate. He also listened to Katie rant about the pranks the Hermes cabin kept pulling last year without once telling her to shut up, so she had decided to like him. Silena was a pretty Aphrodite camper who once taught Katie how to make friendship bracelets as part of an Arts and Crafts project for Chiron. She was friendly and funny and Katie liked her, too. Now, she waved at them shyly as they entered the pavilion, and they both waved back enthusiastically. Katie felt the corners of her lips tugging up. Two years at camp, and the glee of being included still burned in her chest as bright as a flame. Katie grinned even wider when they both sat down at the Aphrodite table—it wasn’t technically allowed, but Chiron wasn’t as strict once the summer was over, and they had both been at camp forever. She was still smiling like an idiot when the Stoll brothers walked in and wiped all traces of happiness off her face immediately. 

Katie did not like the Stoll brothers. They’d made it their personal mission to prank the Demeter cabin ruthlessly since she walked into camp. Without fail it would be something stupid and immature, and without fail Katie would yell at them for it. Travis (the older one—the Stoll brothers weren’t twins, even though lots of people thought they were) had an annoying habit of acting like he was oh-so-much wiser than Katie, even though he wasn’t even a year older and had gotten to camp a only couple of months before Katie had arrived. Katie had been upset by it at first, insecure even, but she had gotten over that once she had made her own friends. Still, something unpleasant was always lurking below the surface when she saw the Stolls. Travis must’ve noticed her sitting by herself at the Demeter table, because an evil grin started to form on his face and he nudged Connor as they took their seat at the Hermes table. Katie looked away with an eye roll, feeling her cheeks redden. She had much more important things to think about than some silly Hermes boys. They kept on snickering, though, and she had almost resolved to march over there and give them an earful when she was startled by a pat on her shoulder. 

She jumped, and whirled around to see Josh Sarr, one of her friends, grinning at her. Katie and Josh hadn’t spoken much when he had arrived last December, but they’d gotten close over the summer after he offered to help her organize the Big House basement where all the strawberry jam was kept. Katie had been so excited to post a sign-up list for a “summer cleanout,” but had been subsequently crushed and humiliated that only one person had shown. She was glad it was Josh, though. The scowl that had appeared on her face at the sight of the Stolls melted away, and she grinned back. He slid into the seat next to her, and Katie raised an eyebrow. 

“You know that’s against the rules,” she chided, but shuffled over to make some room. 

“Well, I was planning to sit at my table, but it looks pretty occupied to me.” Josh nodded his head to the Aphrodite table, where Beckendorf and Silena were laughing together. Katie laughed. She was an avid rule follower, but she had always made some exceptions for her friends. 

“If Chiron catches you, then I hope you know I’m saying it was all your idea and you held a dagger to my throat to let you sit here,” she said matter-of-factly, and Josh laughed.

“I would expect no less.” He smirked, and stole some of her salad. They chatted while the rest of camp entered. It didn’t take long, given that there was barely anyone staying this year. There was a girl from Hermes who loudly joined the Stolls, and Katie scowled when they greeted her obnoxiously. Three buff-looking kids were at the Ares cabin—none of them were Clarisse, who was normally a staple of the year-round campers, but two of them were Miles and Louisa, the new kids around Katie’s age. It would be their first winter at camp. Next to them, the Apollo table had three kids and the Hephaestus table had two boys who were sending accusatory looks Beckendorf’s way. Drew, Josh’s sister, joined Beckendorf and Silena at the Aphrodite table and Katie could hear her speaking a mile a minute to the pair, even from across the pavilion. 

Sitting with Josh was nice. He didn’t care when Katie laughed too loud or said something embarrassing. He just grinned and told her funny stories about his siblings over the summer. Sometimes, she couldn’t believe that someone like Josh would even want to be friends with someone like her. 

Josh was suppressing a giggle when he pointed out Malcolm Pace, Katie’s best friend, filing in and sitting miserably at the Athena table, glaring at them both like they’d burned his books. Malcolm was even more of a rule-follower than Katie, and Katie knew that he’d just kick them out if they tried to go and sit with him. She still felt a pang of guilt. 

“Should you go back to your table?” she asked.

Josh laughed. “Don’t be stupid, Malcolm can come sit here if he really wants.”

Katie nodded, and tried to send a sympathetic expression Malcolm’s way. Malcolm subtly stuck up the middle finger. 

Josh laughed, and Katie poked his shoulder. After dinner, a grouchy Malcolm joined them as they made their way back to the cabins. 

“I’m going to tell Chiron,” Malcolm said. Katie and Josh both laughed, because they both knew Malcolm wouldn’t. 

“Make sure to tell him that it was all Josh’s idea,” Katie replied, and looped her arms around them both. They walked the rest of the way back to the cabins, like that, trying to walk in time to mimic a three-legged race (Katie’s idea). She and Malcolm were both uncoordinated enough that they fell over three times in the short walk. 

They reached the Aphrodite cabin first, dropping Josh off, before heading towards the Athena cabin. Malcolm and Katie had been best friends since Katie’s first year at camp, when, after a few false starts, they’d bonded over a shared hate for canoeing and a love for all things nerdy. They’d grown up a lot since then, but when Katie looked at Malcolm, she still saw the shy eleven year old who’d awkwardly asked her if she wanted to be friends. Malcolm was taller though, now, and so lanky that May had started lovingly calling him “beanpole.” He was the smartest of them by far, and he and Katie had never run out of things to talk about in all the years they’d known each other. Katie sent him inside the Athena cabin with the blow of a kiss and a “sleep well, snuggly-bear” (an old inside joke), to which Malcolm dryly responded, “You too, cuddle-boo.”

Katie was still giggling as she made her way to the Demeter cabin, but it wasn’t until she got settled and into bed that some of her loneliness from before came creeping back in. Katie wasn’t as brave in the dark, when every shift of the wind outside the cabin felt menacing. 

Without her siblings, Cabin Four was too quiet. She missed them, the Demeter kids. She missed whispering with Miranda. She even missed the off-key singing to May’s overplayed Avril Lavigne CD that occurred almost every night right when Katie was trying to go to sleep (Miranda was a menace to society). She missed Liam, with his little nightlight that he insisted was more for everyone else’s benefit than his own. Tucked in her bunk next to the window, the cabin illuminated by the light of the moon, the gentle end-of-summer breeze wafting through the open windows, Katie found herself wide awake, thinking about home. 

To distract herself, she took a mental tally of the year-rounders. There were 15 kids in total. Last year, there were 25. Katie didn’t like to think about what the drop in numbers meant.

There were some noticeable absences. Clarisse La Rue, who had been a year-rounder as long as Katie had been at camp, was off on some secret quest. Even more noticeably, Annabeth Chase was absent. One of the kids Katie’s age (and Malcolm’s sister), Annabeth Chase was another staple of camp during the year. This year, she and Thalia Grace were off to some boarding school in Brooklyn. 

Thalia Grace…gods, was she a new development. She was a year older than Katie, with electric blue eyes that looked like they could see right through you. Even weirder, she’d been a tree for the entirety of the time Katie had been at camp. A couple of months before, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Percy’s brother Tyson, and Clarisse La Rue had gone on a quest for the golden fleece to heal Thalia’s tree, and the next thing they knew, the fleece had worked too well and Thalia was human again (Katie and May had begged Chiron for a closer look at the Fleece—the possibilities in healing dead or dejected crops were endless, but he had told them it was only for emergencies). Katie thought Thalia was nice enough, but she was super intense. And, she didn’t like the implications of what Thalia coming back meant. They all knew the great prophecy would begin when one of the Big Three kids turned sixteen. At least with Percy, they had more time.

That night, her sleep was restless.

_____

The start of the school year was a welcome return to routine, making it easier to get used to the new normal until summer rolled around once again. They all sat in the main room of the Big House, with small table clusters that fit four people. There was always a bit of a scuffle to find the best table at the start of the school year, and it wasn’t uncommon for the tables to change throughout the year as friend groups changed, or arguments happened. Katie found herself with Josh and Malcolm, of course, and a grouchy Miles Mason, one of the Ares kids. He was about fourteen, and he kept shooting resentful looks to the other table of kids their age, where Louisa Williams, the Stoll brothers, and Michael Yew sat, looking smug. 

Katie loved sitting with Malcolm and Josh—even if she had been pleasantly surprised that Josh wanted to sit with them; last year he had sat with Michael Yew and the Stolls—and Miles was alright, even if he was a little argumentative. Mainly, Katie was just glad she didn’t sit with either of the Stolls. Even from her table, she could hear Travis talking loudly.

They didn’t learn about the same stuff they would’ve at regular school—Chiron mainly taught them about mythology and monsters, with some English and math and science thrown in there for good measure. The only proper subject they really covered was history. Chiron would tell them long, winding stories, and they’d take notes and talk about them afterwards. Or, more accurately, Katie and Malcolm would take notes while Josh would talk with Miles. They only had school a couple of days a week, too—Chiron assured them that it was more than enough, and that they’d learn all the really important stuff, but Katie secretly wished it would be a little more like normal school. Most of the other kids liked it, though, especially the Stoll brothers, because it was easy for them to get the answers off someone else in exchange for either some smuggled-in junk food or the promise not to prank their cabin for a week. Katie very much did not approve, but that had never stopped them before and it didn’t now. The Stoll brothers liked a lot of things that Katie didn’t approve of. 

The hardest part of school was that it made her think of her dad. Larry Gardner was a kindergarten teacher, and he always used to tell funny little anecdotes about his class and his students. Even though he visited occasionally and took her to New York for the day, thinking about her dad hurt. It was hard, too, when everything reminded her of him; she saw small-town Texas in the Big House’s sunny porch, felt his warm hugs in the glint of the fire, heard him in Chiron’s rambling lessons. She saw her dad every time she looked in a mirror—they had the same red-brown hair and the same rounded nose. 

“How do you guys think the Big House got its name?” Malcolm asked thoughtfully one day. Katie, Malcolm, and Josh were sitting out on the grass on their school lunch break, and Katie was absent-mindedly making a single blade of grass grow and then shrink back down into the earth. Katie was beginning to get less and less surprised that Josh was still hanging out with them; instead, she was just glad. Josh was lying next to her, staring at the sky, and Malcolm was lying on her other side, his head resting on her leg like a pillow.

“It’s not that big,” Katie replied, moving to a second blade of grass to grow and shrink. Of course, the Stoll brothers chose that exact moment to walk past, snickering at her words. Katie felt herself turning red. 

“That’s what she said!” Travis yelled over at her, and Katie glowered at his back, rolling her eyes as he walked away. Travis was so immature. 

“What an idiot,” Katie huffed to Malcolm and Josh, before raising her voice so Travis would hear when she said: “and that wasn’t even funny!”

Malcolm and Josh exchanged a look, but nodded. They had both heard plenty about Katie’s hatred of the Stolls and were resigned to just letting her rant. Even though Josh helped them with their pranks sometimes, much to Katie’s annoyance, he had long since stopped trying to argue with her when it came to the Stoll brothers. 

Katie flopped down to lie on the grass and willed it to weave around to create a sort of pillow. It was nice, and she got that familiar tingling in her fingers, like the plants were sending some of their magic into her, too. If May were here, she probably would have made a whole bed out of the grass, but Katie would settle with her pillow. One day, she would be as strong as May, too. She hoped. 

“They’ll grow up one day,” Josh said, yawning. His dark skin glinted in the sunlight, and he grinned lazily at Katie. Katie grinned back at him. They really weren’t little kids anymore. It worried Katie sometimes, when she thought about how close they were to actually being the older kids. Especially with Luke betraying the camp a few summers ago and Thalia waking up, Katie had no time for the immaturity of the Stolls when she could feel something bad was just over the horizon.  

“Annabeth said Percy’s pretty immature,” Malcolm said, looking around nervously like he was afraid his sister would just manifest out of thin air and kick his butt for telling Katie and Josh her personal business. Katie wasn’t surprised that Annabeth thought Percy was pretty immature—Annabeth was even more serious than her. Malcolm chewed his lip thoughtfully. “But I think he’s grown on her.”

“He seems alright enough.” Katie never really spoke to Percy Jackson much, but she secretly thought he had pretty eyes. He’d caused quite the drama at camp—his first year, he was claimed by one of the Big Three and his second, he and Annabeth Chase had snuck off on a quest and found the Golden Fleece. Katie was someone who didn’t really have the taste for the dramatics—she was happy to fly under the radar if it meant she could get work done. 

“I just think we all need to grow up sooner rather than later,” Katie said. She could feel herself get sleepy under the warm summer sun, and yawned widely, her ears popping. “It’s just—things are happening at camp, and we’re gonna be the old ones soon. We need to learn to be more—I don’t know—more mature.”

Josh yawned again, and Malcolm did too, which made Katie yawn once more. Katie felt the edge of her lips pulling up into a smile, and tried to tug them down.

“Katie’s having her midlife crisis,” Josh said lazily—teasingly—to Malcolm. Katie reddened, and sat up from her pillow of velvety grass. 

“Am not!” She glowered indignantly at Josh, who snickered. “Most certainly no- Wait a second! Mid-life? How old do you think I’m gonna live till?”

“Mid life, Katie,” Josh emphasized. Katie swatted his head, lying back down. 

“Malcolm, tell Josh he’s absolutely ridiculous and that I’ll definitely live to be older than thirty.”“Well, I mean, technically, the average lifespan of a demigod—” Malcolm had that tone to his voice, teasing in a very snarky, very Malcolm way. Katie groaned, and sat up again, pushing his head off her lap.

“Ugh, you’re both ridiculous!” She stood up, brushing little bits of grass off her camp clothes, glaring at Malcolm and Josh (even though she was also trying to suppress laughter), who were trying to avoid each other’s eye contact. Malcolm’s shoulders were shaking with barely repressed giggles. “Boys.”

Katie rolled her eyes fondly, making a point to stomp away, only letting herself properly laugh when she was just out of earshot of Malcolm and Josh, who she could hear giggling like girls in the grass behind her. She rolled her eyes again. Her stupid, dumb, friends. She loved them so much.

The rest of the school day continued as normal. The Stoll brothers tried to trick Katie by putting a whoopee cushion on her seat, but she sent them a nasty look before picking it up and throwing it at them, scowling when they decided to spend the afternoon trying to get people to do their work for them because they were “very important senior co-counselors of the Hermes cabin.” Katie always had a little tinge of bitterness when she thought about the whole situation; the Stolls were only counselors because Luke Castellan, a cool older boy who had always been a staple of the year-rounders, had betrayed the camp and tried to kill Percy Jackson. It put Katie on edge. For starters, camp was meant to be a safe space, and Luke’s betrayal had ruined that by creating a looming threat over the heads of its campers. More pettily, Katie hated that the Stolls of all people got to be head counselors. Katie worked ten times harder than them, and Chiron barely even looked at her. Anyway.

Katie just tried to avoid the Stolls as much as possible, and it wasn’t until a few days later that she properly had to interact with them again. 

“D’you think they’ve seen it, yet?” Travis was loudly whispering to Connor. Chiron had sent them out in groups to collect medicinal plants as a break from their studies. To be more accurate, though, Katie and Malcolm were collecting plants. The Stolls were being their deviant selves.

Katie and Malcolm exchanged an exasperated look. 

“They definitely have!” Connor grinned. Katie glared at him—dropping the pretense that she wasn’t listening to their conversation—as he trampled over a flowering yarrow plant. 

“Can you shut up and actually work on finding plants?” Katie snapped, and shoved her notebook with the diagrams of the plants they were meant to be collecting towards the Stolls. “See? Plants. Easy.”

“But, Katie, if it’s so easy, why can’t you and Malcolm just do it?” Travis asked innocently. Katie glared at him so hard her eyes hurt. If she had powers like Percy Jackson, Travis would be submerged at the bottom of the canoe lake by now. The image comforted Katie. 

An awkward silence fell over the group. Katie knew her cheeks were blotchy and went back to forcibly collecting flowers. She turned a page in her notebook and the force with which she did so almost made the paper rip. 

Malcolm let out a sound that could’ve been a suppressed laugh, and Katie glared at him. He tried to look innocently back at her, like the traitor he was. 

“What are you guys planning that’s so important, then?” Malcolm said in an obvious attempt to break the silence. The Stoll brothers practically lit up. 

“A proper prankster never reveals his secrets,” Travis said matter-of-factly, “but if you drop by the Ares cabin later tonight, we can guarantee a good show.”

Later, Katie decidedly did not drop by the Ares cabin. They recounted the story to Josh, who laughed and made fun of Katie’s temper. Josh decided he would go by the Ares cabin, and he tried to rope Malcolm into it, who looked awkwardly between the two. 

“I don’t care, you go if you want to,” she said grumpily, “but there’s no way I’m feeding into the stupid ego of those stupid Stolls!”

“Katie I thought you loved the Stolls? Where’s this coming from?” Josh joked, and Katie just glared at him, annoyed. He sighed. “Well, I’m going. Malcolm, you should come. It’ll be fun.”

Malcolm looked tempted, but ultimately refused, flopping back down into the grass of the hill. Even though it was late September, the weather at camp still felt like summer.

“I’ll stay with Katie. Our resident cranky old woman in the body of a fourteen-year-old.”

“I’m not a cranky old woman!” Katie snapped, annoyed. “Just because they’re idiotic and you buy into it doesn’t mean I’m boring!”

There was silence for a second, and Katie flushed red with embarrassment. She flopped into the grass beside Malcolm.

“Sorry,” Katie said in a small voice, ashamed. “You can go if you want.”

Malcolm considered it for a second, before shaking his head. “Nah. I’d rather be here.”

There was silence, and Katie watched the clouds drift over the afternoon sky, wondering if she’d really put her foot in it this time. A couple of minutes passed. Malcolm turned to her. 

“You know you’re not boring, right?” Malcolm said softly. Katie laughed, but it sounded fake even to her. Malcolm just waited. Katie sighed.

“I am really sorry for snapping at you,” Katie said sincerely, and Malcolm just nodded. There was more silence. And then-

“We’re fun.”

“So fun,” Katie responded. “Literally the funnest.”

“Katie, funnest isn’t a word,” Malcolm corrected automatically with a little Malcolm-sigh, and then Katie caught his eye and they both dissolved into giggles. 

“We can be totally crazy, like the Stoll brothers, too. If we wanted to, we could totally pull a massive prank. We’re just more mature,” Katie said, and Malcolm laughed.

“We would be evil geniuses, if we really wanted to.”

“We’re the evil geniuses.”

“An evil genius duo.”

“One hundred percent. Total menaces. We’d do something totally crazy, like- like- like switching all the tables around in the schoolroom.” Take that, Stolls. 

Malcolm laughed, and the two spent the next ten minutes brainstorming increasingly stupid ways they could become the camp’s resident pranksters instead of the Stolls, ending with Katie doubling over in laughter with tears in her eyes when Malcolm suggested they “spread the rumor that there’s a massive prank, but then the prank ends up being that there’s no prank” as a surefire way for them to one-up the Stoll brothers.

Katie had almost forgotten about the Stolls' promise that there'd be something good waiting at the Ares cabin until she and Malcolm got back to the cabins to the sound of a screaming match between Miles, Louisa, and the Stoll brothers. Turned out, the children of the war god did not react well to finding out that their cabin had been somehow transformed into a shrine to High School Musical, life-size cutouts and all. 

Louisa and Miles were still fuming the next morning, if the landmine that exploded in front of the Hermes cabin in the early hours of the day was any indication. As Clarisse was still mysteriously absent, the Ares kids had a slightly terrifying amount of freedom, especially when Jason—who was acting head counselor in Clarisse’s absence—left the next day for a trip to the city with Laurel from Aphrodite.

Katie secretly stood at the site of the explosion when everyone was at breakfast, silently willing the grass and earth to knit itself back together and grow back greener from the tinge of fire. The tips of her fingers tingled, and with a little jolt of glee, Katie grinned as the grass responded. It grew patchy and inconsistently, but it grew, happy with the attention. She stayed for fourty more minutes, silently willing the grass to heal, but some stubborn patches still refused. Katie made a mental note to tell Miles and Louisa to plant the landmine in gravel next time. 

The war between the Hermes Cabin, Miles, and Louisa went on for far too long, and the classroom in the Big House became just another battleground. Louisa was refusing to sit with the Stoll brothers, somehow roping Malcolm into swapping with her, who shot glum looks at Katie and Josh all day long from his new table. After this new development, Katie was more often annoyed than not at school. She hadn’t realized how much she relied on Malcolm to keep her sane when everyone else was chatting instead of doing the worksheet that Chiron had given to them. Katie also didn’t like the way she felt around Miles and Louisa. Josh tried to include her, but Katie always felt a second too late in their conversations, unable to emulate their casual camaraderie that Josh was so quickly a part of.  

The Stolls even talked their little sister, Isabella, into joining the war. Isabella, everyone quickly learned, had a killer mean streak when it came to pranks, even though she couldn’t’ve been more than ten. It became customary to look both ways when you stepped out onto the green that the cabins surrounded—no one wanted to end up like Jake Mason, one of the Hephaestus kids, who’d gotten a misfired arrow in his leg after being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chiron even had to move the tables around in the schoolroom, because Miles and Louisa were starting to need to be physically held back from properly beating up the Hermes kids when the rest of them were trying to learn about Medea. Katie fumed about it all, and considered protesting to get them to stop. The endeavor was only shut down by Malcolm, who took one look at her handmade signs and bluntly told her that none of the other campers would want a part of it. 

The prank war finally ended when Silena Beuragard charmspoke both parties into stopping. The day they officially called a ceasefire, Katie, Malcolm, and Josh snuck into the Big House kitchen and made a chocolate cake to commemorate the day. It was surprisingly good—no thanks to Malcolm, he was totally clueless in the kitchen (probably the first time he’d ever been clueless about anything in his life)—so they shared it around, and all of the campers ate it by the campfire that night. Even the Stolls and Isabella begrudgingly had a piece each. 

The semester continued quickly, the campers keeping busy with schoolwork, training, and drama. Katie had taken to going into the woods to forage for other medicinal herbs, like the ones she’d collected with the Stoll brothers that day, and dropping them to the infirmary. She had just dropped a batch off to a grateful looking Lee—who she was starting to grudgingly like, despite his rivalry with May—and gone down to the strawberry fields when Malcolm and Josh approached, looking glum. Katie picked a sweet strawberry and popped it in her mouth, waving her hand to feel the vine already replenishing itself, growing back two plump red strawberries in the place of the one she’d just picked. 

“What’s wrong with you two?” She asked after swallowing her strawberry. It was strange that neither of them had spoken yet, just looking at her with matching miserable expressions.

“Michael Yew is a sniveling bitch,” Josh said, annoyed. “And I wish he would go die in a ditch.”

“Josh. What.”

“What my friend Josh is trying to say,” It was Malcolm’s turn now, looking resigned, “is that Michael Yew cursed us and it won’t go away!”

Katie looked at her two friends and burst out laughing. She had to double over with the stitch that was beginning to form, and tears came to her eyes and threatened to spill over. They both made matching noises of disgust and turned to walk away. Katie ran after them, still wheezing with laughter.

“No- wait- wait- say something else! I promise I won’t—” She broke off into laughter. “Laugh!”

“It’s all the fault of the cabin of Hermes,” Malcolm said glumly, fixing the black, chunky glasses that sat on the end of his nose. “They told Michael Yew that we would be enemies.”

Katie had to resist the urge to snort, stray little giggles still leaving her mouth without her permission. “Not a perfect rhyme, but continue.”

“Kathleen Gardner, don’t criticize my rhymes. You wish you were as cool as these lines.” Malcolm’s deadpan words sent Katie into another fit of laughter. Once she had cooled down, Josh glowered in the direction of the Hermes cabin in the distance. 

“I don’t blame Michael for this curse. ‘Twas the Stoll brothers who said it was what we deserved,” Josh said glumly. Katie bit her lip to keep herself from giggling again. It didn’t really work, and she snorted. 

“Katie please help us get revenge on the Stolls; those brothers are literally like trolls.”

Katie burst out into another round of laughter. “Can I- Can I get that on my gravestone?” She wheezed. 

Once Katie had calmed down enough, Josh and Malcolm talked (rather, rhymed) their way through the story. Malcolm had told the Stolls they should stop cheating on the work Chiron assigned, the Stolls had gotten him back by putting a spider into the Athena cabin, Malcolm had screamed like a girl and then told Josh, Josh had cursed the brothers with semi-permanent blue eyeshadow, and then the Stolls had gone to Michael Yew and then somehow convinced him to curse Josh and Malcolm. 

Throughout their story, Katie got progressively more frustrated. If it was anyone else, she might’ve let it slide—it was a beautiful day and she couldn’t deny that laughing at Malcolm and Josh had put her in a good mood. But she’d always had a temper, and the Stolls were undeniably the best at making it flare up. Of course Travis was behind that. Travis couldn’t take anyone or anything seriously—Katie had no doubt that it would be the death of them all some day. She was still annoyed at him, too, for the other day: he had put a stink bomb in one of her jars, effectively ruining the sourdough starter she had been trying to have ready for summer when her siblings came back. She could still picture his annoying little face.

“It’s just a joke, Katie,” he had teased, and Katie had seriously considered decking him.

She glowered at the memory. 

“Katie, you have such a strong sense of wrong and right,” Josh said glumly. “That’s why we came to you to put an end to this night.”

Josh’s weird poetic metaphor aside, Katie took his words to heart. She did have a strong sense of wrong and right! It was one of the things she loved the most about herself. And she wouldn't just sit around while the Stoll brothers were off pranking her two best friends.

“So,” she said, “Here’s the plan.”

If they were all younger, she might’ve pulled them in for a huddle. She couldn’t really remember when they’d stopped doing that, but it probably had something to do with the way the older kids acted with one another, not touchy in the way the younger ones were. Maybe they stopped when other campers had started to circulate rumors that Katie was dating either Malcolm or Josh (depending on who you asked), and they had come to an agreement to quell those rumors as much as they could. 

(“No offense Katie, but you’re, like, hostile.” Josh had said good-naturedly. “Like a chihuahua. You’re scaring people off.” 

Katie had been half-offended, but tried not to let it show. He did have a point, she supposed. She didn’t want anyone to think she was dating Malcolm or Josh either—gross). 

Katie explained the plan. It would’ve been a really good one, too. She was going to pretend to be nice to the Stolls and then secretly make ivy grow out of their ears. In practice, however, they had just taunted her as soon as they’d seen her. Katie had glowered and flushed, and then—and then they’d started to make fun of her cabin, of her mother, and something inside Katie had snapped and she’d just yelled at them until her face turned tomato-red. She yelled and yelled, and green ivy started to grow out of their ears anyway, and she had felt a bit sorry, but not sorry enough that she stopped. 

“And the prank war! Don’t get me started on that! Your stupid little prank war—you know the dryads were traumatized from when you hung all of Miles’s underwear in the woods! Trau! Ma! Tised! You need to—”

She was cut off by Connor Stoll reaching into his pocket and throwing some kind of magic powder on her. She coughed in it, and then looked down at her arm, which—to her horror—was bright blue. Her skin was the color of a cornflower. All over. 

“Real mature!” she shouted. “Turning me blue! Way to make a point! Gold star to you!” And then they’d both laughed and, red faced (or, more accurately, blue-faced), Katie had run past the Big House, past the amphitheater and the dining pavilion, past the cabins, all the way back into the little shaded grove into the woods that she’d discovered her second year at camp and cried her eyes out. 

She was already embarrassed. Why had she yelled at them like that? Why couldn’t she just control her temper? Why did the Stolls have blue-skin powder on hand and how did she get rid of it?

She hated the Stolls. She hated them. She hated the way they acted, and—even more—hated the way they made her feel. 

She felt like a little kid. She wished she was more like May, who was always calm and always knew exactly what to say. Even Malcolm and Josh wouldn’t’ve lost their temper like that and yelled at the Stolls. Katie was so ashamed, and so angry, and all of it made her cry some more, like a little baby. All she wanted to do was prove that she could be responsible and grown-up, prove herself to her friends, to Chiron, even to her mom, who she’d never met.

Katie hoped her mom wasn’t watching her now. Ever since she was claimed, she could barely believe Demeter was her mom. She’d wanted to be like her mother in every way: calm, in control, caring but stern enough, respected. She’d once begged her dad to tell her about Demeter once, and Larry Gardner had obliged, pulling a much-younger Katie into his lap. His smile lines had crinkled, graying hair illuminated by the rising sun, Southern accent as smooth as melted butter. 

“Your mother was divine, Kate. Really, just really. She was on the older side, but I’m not exactly young anymore either—'' He'd paused to poke Katie in the stomach, and she had giggled right on cue, “—but she had this air about her. Ever the peacemaker, your mother. She made it feel like everything would be just alright. And then you came along, my little mournin’ dove, and it all was.”

Katie wiped away her tears furiously and was horrified to see that they were bright blue, too. It just made her cry some more. She hated this feeling, like she was just teetering on the edge of adulthood, walking this tightrope between being one of the big kids and the babies. As a daughter of Demeter, all Katie wanted was to be back on solid ground. Katie bet that Demeter had never yelled at some boys and ended up with blue skin all over. Katie bet that if her mother was watching her now, she’d be ashamed to have a daughter like Katie. 

Eventually, Katie trekked back to camp and was intercepted by Chiron, who told her that she shouldn’t let her temper get the better of her, but gave her a drink that would turn her skin back to normal. Katie apologized and gave him a watery-eyed nod, then ran back to Cabin Four and sobbed again, ignoring Malcolm when he knocked on the door. 

School at the Big House the next day was the most mortifying experience of Katie’s life. She felt absolutely humiliated when she walked into the Big House and saw everyone staring at her—even the older kids like Lee and Silena! Nothing—absolutely nothing—could compare to this total humiliation. 

By some small blessing, Chiron had them working in groups of their own choosing instead of their normal table group, so she sat down next to Malcolm. Chiron had given her a nod to acknowledge her presence and completely buried her face in her hands. He gave her a look somewhere between sympathetic and amused, and Katie straightened up. 

“You know what,” she whispered to him, “It’s my fault. I was an idiot, and I need to control myself, and I’m really going to try to be better, and-”

The door swung open, and Connor and Travis Stoll walked in.  

“Hey, smurfette! Oh, sorry— Hey, Katie.” Travis snickered as he walked past her to take his place at the table next to her. Katie changed her mind—Malcolm and Josh had to hold her back as she immediately tried to leap up and punch Travis right in the face. 

The next few weeks passed uneasily. Travis and Connor were clearly not the forgive-and-forget type, and they had seemingly decided it was their personal mission to piss Katie off as much as possible: one day she woke up with green hair, the next, the whole Demeter cabin had been vandalized with Halloween decorations, and the day after that, all of her clothes had been thrown in the canoe lake. Katie was not the forgive-and-forget type either, and while she was originally determined to stay above it all and uninvolved, her fury ignited more and more with each stupid prank. 

Eventually, Katie began to lay out the groundwork for her own payback.

“I don’t want to stoop to their level,” she whispered to Josh. Chiron was talking about the Iliad or something, but Katie had already read it and she decided that teaching the Stolls a lesson was more important than some old dead Greek guy. “But I’ve got to do something. I’ve been thinking about enlisting the nature spirits—the dryads and the satyrs hate the Stolls’ pranks because they always end up intruding on their space. One was literally complaining to me the other day that Travis woke her up because he was in the woods early trying to get ‘supplies,’ so I could—”

“Miss Gardner.” Katie was cut off by Chiron. All heads turned to her, and she flushed bright red. The old centaur just gave her a look and continued to teach, but Travis stuck his tongue out at her when Chiron wasn’t looking. Katie tried to burn holes in the back of Travis’ skull with her glare for the rest of the class. 

Just before they were to be let out on their morning break, Chiron paused. 

“Children,” he said thoughtfully. He was in his centaur form, pacing around the classroom, hooves clopping on the wood. “I have debated whether to talk this over with you, but it is only fair you know.”

Some of the younger kids looked like they’d already tuned out—Will and Drew looked like they were playing a game of footsie under the desk—but Katie exchanged a wide-eyed look with Malcolm and Josh and sat up a little straighter in her seat. She saw the older kids out of the corner of her eye—they all looked worried. Katie frowned. Chiron wearily asked the younger kids to leave the room temporarily to go outside, where a satyr was waiting to take them on a walk. No one left, and Chiron cleared his throat. 

“Anyone who is younger than thirteen, please.” Chiron nodded towards the door. The four kids grumpily obliged, and Connor Stoll—who was turning thirteen in a week—shot a resentful look Chiron’s way. Katie felt her heart speed up as Chiron closed the door behind them. She looked at Malcolm apprehensively, who returned the look.  

“Something is emerging,” Chiron said in that gravelly voice of his, like he was speaking at a funeral. “Something that has been emerging from the moment Luke Castellan stole Lord Zeus’s lightning bolt from Olympus.”

Katie swore that the room dropped twenty degrees. She snuck a look over at the other tables, and saw Travis sitting as still as a statue. Even though she hated him—even though all of her clothes were still drying from the lake, and the ones she had on now were damp and cold—Katie felt the strangest urge to ask if he was alright. She pushed it away, and turned back to Chiron. 

“There is conflict on the horizon, my young demigods. We have news that Luke Castellan is building a force—a force of demigods and monsters alike in the hopes to destroy Olympus.” 

Katie’s heartbeat was a drum in her ears. Her eyes flickered around the room, but everyone’s expressions were indecipherable. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and Chiron paused for a moment before continuing to speak, weaving a story so terrifying it had to be true—he spoke about the Titan Lord Kronos and how he ate his children, the first Olympians. How after the Titan War, Kronos had vanished and how, with Luke Castellan’s support, he might be coming back. Katie prayed to her mother that Chiron was wrong, or that he was joking, or that this was all the Fates idea of some kind of a test. Katie had never before wanted to be a little kid again—she could see all the others out of the window, playing with a grumpy-looking satyr in the afternoon sun. 

“I have faith in you, my brave demigods,” Chiron said, and Katie gulped. “And there is no need to panic just yet. Things may still work out as we hope they will. But it was only fair…” Chiron trailed off, looking helpless. Katie had never seen him look that way before. It was like the sky was crushing him down. The look vanished almost as quickly as it had begun, but it wasn’t one that Katie would be forgetting for a very long time. “It was only fair that you’re all aware.” 

Later that day, Katie ended up sitting with all of the kids her age in the grass on the hill. The sun was just setting, its warmth slowly leaving the world and an icy chill beginning to settle into her bones. Katie had no idea where the older kids were, or the little ones—everyone seemed to have mysteriously vanished after the meeting with Chiron. Katie snuck a look at Travis. Her fury at him from this morning seemed stupid, now. His expression was unreadable, his freckled face turned down, looking away from the group, uncharacteristically quiet. Next to him were Louisa and Miles, who were both stocky and big, with strong noses and matching stormy expressions. Katie was sitting in between Malcolm and Josh—Josh looked as calm as usual, even though Katie knew that it was at least half an act, and Malcolm was nervously chewing his fingernails. Katie resisted the urge to grab Malcolm’s hand and squeeze it. Michael Yew was sitting on Malcolm’s other side, glaring into the setting sun like it personally offended him. He was short—shorter than Katie—with cropped dark hair. He was the best archer at camp. There they all sat, the little group of medium kids, not old enough to be the older kids but not young enough to be the little ones, either: Travis, Louisa, Miles, Malcolm, Josh, Michael, and Katie. 

They all looked at each other a little warily. It was just weird for them all to be hanging out outside of either class or games like Capture the Flag, and they all knew it. Normally they would’ve branched into smaller groups—Katie, Malcolm and Josh together, then probably Travis and Louisa and Miles, and then Michael would’ve stuck with the older Apollo kids. It was weird, was all. And it made Katie feel like something really was happening, something urgent and scary that she wasn’t really ready to deal with. 

They sat in silence for a second until Michael spoke. He was the one that called them all together. Katie pressed her lips together.

“So, I guess I should say something.” He was fifteen, a whole year older than Katie, and he looked at them all now with a determined glint in his eye. “We need to be prepared. We all heard Chiron: if something is coming we need to be prepared."

The others murmured in agreement. Malcolm, next to her, put up his hand tentatively like he was in class and Louisa snickered. Katie shot her with her best death glare.

“I think you’re right, Michael,” Malcolm said nervously. “We need to be prepared to look out for our younger siblings. And- uh-” Malcolm stuttered a little when he noticed everyone listening. “Yeah.”

Louisa groaned. “I’m not here for all that pussy shit, Pace. If our older siblings are gonna fight, then we’re gonna be ready to fight, too. We’re not the babysitters!” 

Malcolm blinked, taken aback. Katie glared even harder at Louisa and wondered if it would be taken well if she made the ground turn into mushy mud beneath her. 

“You’ve both got good points,” Josh pointed out from next to her, and even though he was a son of Aphrodite, he wasn’t skinny and gangly like Malcolm, so everyone looked at him with a little glint of respect. Besides, it didn’t hurt that he was friends with all of them, too, even the Stolls and Michael Yew. “We’ve got to be prepared to fight and to look after our little siblings.” 

Katie knew he was thinking about his little sisters. Only one of them, Drew Tanaka, was staying for the winter, but Josh was protective of them all. He had a reputation around camp for being the favorite of the little kids—they all practically flocked to him for hugs and the special crossover braids that only he could do. 

Katie flicked her eyes over the others. Louisa was nodding appreciatively, and Michael had his mouth set in a determined line. Travis was still uncharacteristically quiet, and Katie narrowed her eyes at him. His eyes met Katie’s all of a sudden and she quickly looked away, embarrassed to have been caught staring. 

“We could start doing some extra training and stuff?” Katie offered half-heartedly, cheeks still red. “To make sure we’re prepared, like the others. We all have stuff we know better than anybody—Josh could teach us about the little kids and how to look after them, Mal could teach us Athena-stuff like battle strategy, Travis could get in some extra supplies and teach us how to, Michael could help with archery and infirmary stuff, and I can show you guys herbal first aid and we could go to the woods.”

Katie’s face flushed as everyone looked at her, but she stubbornly kept her gaze, staring them down. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Michael Yew nodded and grinned, a glint of Stoll-like mischief in his eyes. 

“Let’s do it.”

The days passed the same on the outside: Katie would get up, go the borders of the woods to gather some plants for the infirmary, have breakfast with Josh (Malcolm still refused to switch tables, but they were making progress), walk to the Big House, do all the schooling for the day, and then stay outside for the rest of the day until the sun set. There was a small change, though; ever since that day with Chiron and the conversation on the hill, their little group of medium kids had been meeting up every afternoon to learn something. It wasn’t exactly a roaring success—Louisa was too short-tempered when trying to teach them to use their swords, and Josh had to go to the infirmary because one dropped on his foot; Michael—as it turned out—was actually pretty useless in the infirmary, so he wasn’t much help in showing them all the ropes; Malcolm didn’t really know what battle strategy he was supposed to be teaching, so he just ended up talking for an hour in complex tangents that none of them could understand; Josh didn’t really know how he could contribute and ended up getting annoyed because Louisa called him useless; and Travis didn’t even know what he was meant to be smuggling in, so he just showed up on his day to teach with a packet of M&Ms and an explicit magazine that made Katie blush, then glower at him and threaten to tell Chiron. By the end of the week the group of medium kids might actually have disliked each other more than when they started. 

The number of little dramas that popped up was uncountable—Josh was still annoyed that Louisa’s sword dropped onto his food, so he didn’t show up for Michael’s infirmary lesson which made Michael mad, which, by extension, made Katie mad at Michael and Malcolm mad at Katie (he thought she was being unreasonable), and then Travis started to ignore them all, which annoyed Louisa enough to yell him during lunch one day.

And—under all of the arguments and pettiness—there was something else, too. As the winter drew closer, so did the unmistakable, unnerving feeling that something was going horribly wrong. The feeling that there was something lurking just around the corner, ready to bite when they were least expecting. 

As a child of Demeter, Katie had never really liked the winter. She didn’t like the icy cold, or the snowy blizzards, or the bare winter trees. But this was the first time where there was something more than her usual dread of the colder months—this was the first year that the world around her felt as cold and as bitter as the weather that was sure to come. 

Chapter Text

‘oh, darlin’ don’t you ever grow up’—taylor swift

The atmosphere was still icy around camp when December came. There’d only been more and more petty arguments, and Katie would be lying if she said that camp felt like the same home she was used to. Chiron’s confession to them about the enemy army had hit the camp hard, and the winter weather didn’t bring any relief in the same way the summer sun could. 

They were all gathered in the dining pavilion, Katie half-heartedly stirring her bowl of pumpkin soup. Katie sent a resentful stare in the general direction of the Apollo table. Because of his grudge against May, Lee Fletcher was refusing to help with the wintertime preparation of the strawberry fields (even though the weather didn’t affect Camp Half-Blood as harshly, there was a long organized tradition of the Apollo and Demeter cabins laying some protective, sunny magic over the strawberry fields at the beginning of every winter). Katie had thought he was kidding until she went up to Lee at the start of December and he point-blank refused. She had just been starting to like Lee, too. She had tried to plead her case with Michael Yew, but he had just told her it was “a matter of pride,” so she was ignoring him now and giving him resentful looks when she could. Logically, Katie knew it was because of their dispute with May. Secretly, Katie wondered if they just didn’t want to spend more time with her than they had to. 

At the sound of Chiron clearing his throat to get the attention of the camp, Katie turned to the old centaur and listened to the chattering and murmuring die down. Chiron ran through his nightly announcements—he reminded them of cabin inspections, addressed some complaints the cleaning harpies had with the noise from the forge, and reminded the Ares cabin that they needed to have signs alerting other campers of active landmines (Katie guessed that particular reminder came from last night’s incident in which an older camper had set one off and ended up in the infirmary). 

“And remember,” Chiron finished, “now more than ever, it is important to look out for one another. To be kind. Thank you.”

Katie swore she heard an audible laugh coming from the direction of the Ares table.

___

Winter break began quickly, and Katie couldn’t work out where the time had gone. Instead of spending the break with Malcolm and Josh, Katie spent most of her free time in the strawberry fields, desperately trying to get the plants to cooperate. Being the main source of income for the camp, it was important that they grew well, even during the winter months. Katie took that responsibility very seriously. May had told her that it was the main job of the Demeter Cabin at camp. She’d even taught Katie how to pick them and mush them into jam, carefully labeling and recording each bottle before stacking them in the Big House basement to be sold. 

As if they could sense the absence of the Apollo kids, the strawberries refused to cooperate with her, staying frosty and bitter. Camp was meant to have year-round summer weather, but Mr. D liked the snow and Katie wasn’t about to go up to a literal god—even an old, crabby one—and ask him to change to weather. 

Earlier that week, a small group of Maenads had appeared at camp looking for Mr. D and causing general havoc (the Ares kids were still trying to clean up all of the glitter the Maenads had thrown at their cabin, the Hephaestus kids were working on rebuilding the parts of the Big House that the Maenads had burned down in their frenzy, and there were three kids recovering in the infirmary). Katie didn’t mind all that—no one was that seriously injured, and Mr. D’s kids Pollux and Castor had quickly returned from their home in the city to convince the Maenads that Mr. D would be in Miami and that they should go and look there—but in the process of leaving, the Maenads had completely trampled parts of the strawberry field. Katie had complained to Chiron and requested that the next time there was drama at camp, they leave the strawberry fields firmly out of it, but Chiron had just given her a blank stare before walking away. 

So, Katie was left on damage control. Today, she was picking through the trampled berries to dispose of, and trying to use her powers to coax the plants into growing once more. 

“Stupid. Lee. Fletcher.” Katie muttered through gritted teeth as a particularly unresponsive plant refused to move. “Stupid Michael Yew. Stupid Will Solace.”

Katie groaned as she tried to make the sad-looking, stubborn, trampled plants return to their original state.

“C’mon. Please. You won’t get trampled again, those mean girls aren’t coming back.”

That must’ve been what they wanted to hear, because the leaves slowly began to unfurl and turn a happy green, and Katie felt the tiniest glint of satisfaction. Katie had always been one for good hard work, and so she didn’t mind being out working on the fields. It would be quicker with Lee Fletcher’s sun magic, though, she thought bitterly.

She worked throughout the morning, moving around the field, the December sun not doing much to warm Katie from the chill in the air. It wasn’t snowing anymore, but the ground had turned mushy and the air was cold and damp. Katie worked in silence, her hands soon ached from the many plants she had to relocate, dirt under her nails and calluses forming from the uncomfortable handle of the little spade she was using. 

She hummed contentedly as she worked. New life, growth, gardening: these were the things Katie felt most proud of. When she had been claimed, May had sat her down and told her that being a child of Demeter was all about hard work. It was about replenishing life, helping to keep the gardens and fields prosperous and thriving. The gardens could be home to a whole ecosystem if they were looked after with enough care. It was sort of a beautiful thing. 

Katie was just starting the third section of the trampled plants when she noticed Isabelle Goldmann and the Stoll brothers in the distance, making their way over to the fields where she was working. She glowered at the sight of their curly brown heads bouncing their way over, hoping they would change their mind and head in a different direction. Since the Stoll brothers had pranked Katie so ruthlessly a month before, she had developed a whole new kind of hatred for them. The brief concern over Travis after Chiron’s announcement had disappeared as quickly as it had come on when Travis dyed all the grass outside the Demeter cabin neon orange a week earlier. He just liked to make fun of her because she knew she would lose her temper, Katie knew logically, but that didn’t stop her from getting mad when he was acting like an idiot, and then feeling like an idiot because she knew he was making fun of her because he thought she was an idiot. It was a vicious cycle. At least Josh didn’t really protest her grudge against the Stolls anymore—everyone was running out of patience for them on some level, as winter break had only given them more time to cause general mischief and mayhem. 

“Sup, Katie,” Connor nodded, impish eyes alight at the sight of the strawberries. Katie pointedly ignored them. 

“No ‘hello’ for your favorite friends to ever exist?” Travis asked, and Katie pursed her lips.

“That honor would go to Malcolm. And Josh,” Katie said, not looking at them and instead grabbing her spade to dig the cold dirt around the plant.

Travis groaned. “Ugh, you’re such a buzzkill, Gardner.” He sat down in the plants next to her. Katie whacked him with the flat side of her spade.

“Don’t squish the plants, Travis!” she scolded, glaring at him. Isabelle snaked her hands out to pick off a ripe strawberry, and Katie slapped it away.

“Keep your hands off my strawberries! They’re barely recovered from the Manead attack!” Katie chastised.

Isabelle turned on the big pouty eyes. “It’s Christmas time, Katie. A time of love and friendship! Show some compassion!”

“Isabelle, you’re Jewish.” Katie rolled her eyes, returning to patting the dirt around her back into place. 

The Stolls and Isabelle apparently had decided firmly to make Katie wish she was in the Fields of Punishment, because they kept on pestering her as she worked, stealing strawberries whenever she had her back turned. Katie fumed silently, until she finally snapped: “

Seriously, guys.” She glowered. “Is there a reason you came down here?”

“Oh yeah,” Travis grinned. “Apollo was here.”

Katie’s first thought was: Good, I can ask him to fix my strawberries and tell him to knock some sense into those stupid, idiotic, kids of his. Then, she actually thought properly about it, and:

“Oh my gods. How stupid do you think I am? I’m not falling for your pranks, Stoll.”

Travis’ brow furrowed.“I’m not kidding.”

“Sure. And I guess Zeus is here, too. Or maybe Hades.”

“No, but Percy Jackson is,” Isabelle chimed in, “and the Hunters of Artemis.”

Katie laughed out loud. “You really think I’m dumb enough to fall for that? I don’t know what sick, twisted, prank this is gonna lead me to, but I’m not just going to walk straight into-”

A voice in the distance cut her off. It was the unmistakable sound of a Hunter of Artemis, all old English and “thees” and “thous,” drifting up from near the Big House. Katie shot Travis a final suspicious look before peering down the hill towards camp. It was busier than it had been since the summer ended, with girls in white parkas and fancy hunting gear lugging bows and bags towards the cabins. Katie stood staring at the scene, dumbfounded.

“I’m sorry, Travis,” Travis said in a high-pitched voice, and Katie was jolted to her senses enough to glare at him. “You were right. I’m sorry for ever doubting you. You are the best.”

“You are an idiot,” Katie glowered, and Isabella and Connor laughed. Travis sighed, before making for camp.

“Can’t please everyone, I guess,” he said with a shrug. Together, they all made their way towards camp, where Katie could now properly see the Hunters getting reacquainted. Isabelle was recounting the story of the morning. 

“...and then Percy went off to find Chiron and we came to the strawberry fields, because Beckendorf said he saw you coming out here this morning and he told us to go find you,” Isabelle finished. 

Katie frowned. She didn’t realize anyone had seen her in the early hours of the morning, but, she reasoned, Beckendorf was always in the forge at strange hours. That was probably it. 

She quickly left the Hermes kids and found Malcolm and Josh inside the Athena cabin. They were sitting on the floor, leaning on Malcolm’s bunk and laughing about something. They grinned at her when she came in and made her way across the precarious piles of books and other miscellaneous items on the floor to plonk herself on Malcolm’s bed. She had always thought the Athena kids would be total neat freaks until she had gone into their cabin and realized that they were probably the most disorganized of them all. 

“Hello, pookie-pie.” Katie blew a kiss to Malcolm. “Hi, Josh.”

“My snookums-muffin, where have you been?” Malcolm asked, completely dead-pan, and Katie and Josh snickered. She liked the way that Josh didn’t care that she and Malcolm were weird—she liked the way he seemed to like them all the more for it. 

“Fixing the strawberries,” Katie said with a sigh. “I think I’ll hate Lee Fletcher until the day I die.”

“Did you see those girls?” Josh asked, uncharacteristically wide-eyed.

“The Hunters?” Malcolm asked incredulously. “I think I’d have to be an idiot to miss them.”

“They’re loud enough.” Katie grumbled. “And they couldn’t even give us a heads up that they were arriving. They never do. Last time-”

“They showed up in the middle of the night!” Malcolm finished. “Woke us all up! The cleaning harpies were annoyed for weeks.”

“Hey,” Josh protested, and Katie and Malcolm exchanged looks. “I bet they’re not that bad.”

At the silence of Katie and Malcolm, Josh raised an eyebrow. “They’re just girls. They’re not monsters.”

 “No, not at all,” Katie grumbled. “And Medusa is just a woman.”

“I still don’t understand why we don’t like the Hunters.”

“No, no, we’re fine with the Hunters. No animosity at all. I’m a feminist—go girl power! They’re fine. They’re great. The Hunters? Love those girls.” Katie said hurriedly, and Malcolm laughed. Josh raised an eyebrow, and Katie groaned. “They’re just annoying. All Shakespearean and serious, and they think they’re better than everyone else, and they come into our camp and act like they’re so much better than us, and gods, they’re so judgy, too—they’re like, every school clique combined into one. I still swear that one redhead last time told everyone about the time I called Travis a butthole. The rest of them didn’t stop laughing at me for days.”

Josh laughed. “You called Travis a butthole? That’s a terrible insult—I think I’d probably laugh at you, too.”

“I know that now!” Katie protested, red-faced. “But the point is that the Hunters are judgy. And annoying. And the sooner they go, the better.”

“Listen,” Malcolm said, because it was clear Josh wasn’t convinced. “It’s just camp culture. The Hunters hate us. We hate them. You’ll get it soon enough.”

Dinner was the loudest it had been since the summer campers left, with the Hunters doing most of the talking and everyone else sitting grouchily at their own tables. Apparently pressured into appearing like a strict and responsible authority figure, Chiron had sent Josh right to the Aphrodite table when he had tried to sit with Katie, so she was stuck alone, glumly prodding at her pasta. Out of the corner of her eye, she could tell that neither Malcolm, Percy, or Thalia Grace were any happier to be sitting alone, if their disheartened expressions were any indication. 

Katie didn’t even really know why they were here in the first place—Malcolm had said that he overheard Travis saying that it was something to do with a quest, but Katie didn’t really trust Travis as far as she could throw him, so for all her knowledge they could be at camp on a nice little holiday. 

By the time Chiron announced that they would have a friendly game of Capture the Flag the following day, even Josh looked like his never-ending patience was wearing thin at the obnoxious table behavior of the Hunters.

The only campers that seemed genuinely happy at the news were the Ares kids. Over at the Ares table, Miles and Louisa had twin grins on their faces. They were probably imagining all the ways they would beat the Hunters and bring glory to the camp. Katie thought that they were in for a rude awakening tomorrow. 

After dinner, everyone seemed pretty tired, and they all collectively trailed back to the cabins for an early lights-out. The Stoll brothers had found a new camper to follow them around: a little kid with dark hair who, in the time it took to walk back to the cabins, didn’t stop talking. The Hunters, of course, were all laughing and talking together, which made Katie feel all the more like a geek. She made sure to glare at them extra hard on behalf of Silena and the Aphrodite kids, whom they belittled even more than the others. Thalia Grace and Percy walked separately, each looking stormy and scary in their own way. Katie didn’t know either of them that well. Thalia Grace and Percy Jackson were the kind of kids who got involved with prophecies and the whisperings of war that Katie didn’t particularly understand or like to think about. They were just different from the rest of them. 

Back in the Demeter cabin, Katie rolled into her bunk, unable to stop her racing mind. Something about Percy and Thalia, about the Hunters—Katie thought that it must be something serious, to bring them all to camp a week before Christmas, when they all should be enjoying the winter break. 

The next morning, Katie slept in, waking up with a jolt of alarm to the December sun already high in the sky, reflecting off the snow and pouring light in through the open windows. 

Katie rushed to get herself ready in time for archery with Chiron. Because the Hunters and Percy and Thalia were here, Chiron had posted on the announcements board that they’d be running training instead of the endless free time they’d become used to over winter break.

Checking her watch with an “Oh, shit,” Katie very quickly realized there wouldn’t be time to shower, or even properly get dressed. She was meant to have been at the archery range about five minutes ago—it was a two minute trek to get there, and that was if she ran. Quickly pulling on an too-big purple sweatshirt that read in colorful letters “I survived the road to Hana Maui Hawaii, August 2005” (definitely one of May’s that she had left from the summer) over her long, striped PJ bottoms, Katie practically ran outside, pausing only to pull on a pair of sneakers that were sitting at the door. 

She probably looked like a madwoman running over to the archery range; she hadn’t even had time to pull her hair into her usual dutch braids, and she could feel it frizzing out around her head like crazy. Her chest burned as she sprinted through the snow, finally arriving at the archery range to a snicker from two of the Hunter girls that were there and a raised eyebrow from Malcolm.

“Don’t say a word,” Katie whispered to Malcolm as she filed in next to him. Malcolm just grinned at her. 

“Nice hair,” he whispered. Malcolm, of course, looked put-together as usual. He—unlike her—had actually brushed his blonde mop of hair, and was wearing jeans and a plain, blue sweater. “Just so you know, we haven’t actually started yet. Chiron’s still waiting on Travis.”

If she had supersonic, laser vision (like one of those guys in the superhero comics Malcolm guiltily loved), Katie could guarantee that Travis Stoll would be dead. Unfortunately, she didn’t, so Katie settled for groaning in annoyance, receiving an amused look from Chiron. 

“That stupid little-” Katie muttered to Malcolm. “I can’t believe he’s late.”

“You’re late,” Malcolm pointed out. 

“Shut up, Mal, that’s different. Besides, if I knew he was gonna be later than me, then I probably would’ve actually brushed my hair.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your hair looks great to me,” Malcolm said, deadpan with only the slightest twitch of his lip. 

“Shuddup, Malcolm,” Katie groaned again, trying to run her hands through her hair to get it looking at least a little more presentable. She could feel the judgemental stares of the Hunters on her, and she resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at them in annoyance. 

After what seemed like an eon of waiting, Travis finally showed up to the archery range. He was wearing an ugly Christmas sweater with a llama on the front that Katie could’ve sworn was in the camp store a week ago. He looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower—his curly hair was still damp.

“Ah, Mr. Stoll, Thank you for finally joining us,” Chiron said dryly. 

“No problem, C-Dawg,” Travis responded. Katie facepalmed, which—unfortunately for her—made Travis look at her. His face lit up with glee.

“Hey, Katie, nice new look! You look kind of like the Oracle in the attic, except, you know, you’re not dead.”

Katie wanted to sink into the earth and die of embarrassment. 

Later, Katie somehow found herself in the Ares cabin with Malcolm and Josh, Miles Mason, Louisa Williams and Silena Beauregard. Until that moment, with all five of them cramped into the (admittedly terrifying) Ares cabin, Katie hadn’t realized how much closer she’d gotten to the others over the summer. Especially Miles and Louisa—even though Katie still got the impression they thought she was weird, they chatted occasionally both in class and out. Katie felt a little glow in her stomach when they all laughed at something Katie said, and she realized she was a part of the group rather than outside of it. Katie knew she could sometimes be awkward and annoying, but these people liked her. These people were her friends. Aside from Malcolm and Josh, Katie never used to have that. With a little jolt of a weird mix of triumph and guilt, Katie realized that Louisa and Miles didn’t invite Percy or Thalia to come into the Ares cabin that afternoon, even though they were both around camp; Miles had been just complaining that Percy had woken him from his nap, and Josh and Katie had watched, giggling, from the sidelines earlier as Thalia had tried to break up a fight between Louisa and one of the Hunters.

“I almost punched one of them today,” Silena was in the middle of grudgingly admitting, and Louisa cheered. “And please don’t pass that on because I don’t want a lecture from Chiron, but by Zeus’s left tit, they’re so annoying.”

“I wanted to give them a chance,” Josh sighed. “I really, really wanted to give them a chance. But they just have it out for us!” 

“Exactly! They look down on us!” Silena huffed, running a hand through her silky dark hair. “Gods forbid some people think love is valuable and important.”

“You should definitely beat them up, Silena,” Miles said. “I ain’t no snitch.”

Silena looked like she was considering it, even though she protested. 

“We could all chip in,” Louisa suggested thoughtfully, absently throwing and catching a brutal looking sheathed dagger in the air. “Plan an ambush.”

Katie rolled her eyes. The Hunters annoyed her as much as the next camper, but it frustrated her that no one could see that it didn’t matter at all. There were things that mattered—much bigger things. Things like Luke and his army. Things like Thalia turning sixteen. 

“We’d have to wait until the Apollo kids get back, though,” Josh added thoughtfully, and Katie kicked his outstretched leg. The Apollo kids had gone into the city to spend a couple of days with one of their older siblings. Katie couldn’t say she was sad to see them go. 

“We could even break out the landmines,” Louisa said wistfully. 

“No landmines will be broken out,” Silena said with a sigh. “I better go before y’all rope me into some mass murder plan.”

The Ares kids booed, and Silena laughed, grabbing her pink sweater off the floor and getting to her feet. At the door, she paused for a second.

“If you do need someone to bury a body, you know where I live.” Silena winked and left, and Katie laughed. Silena was so cool. Next to her, Josh rolled his eyes fondly. There was a second of awkward silence, but it was broken by Miles complaining about the Hunters again, and everyone joined in enthusiastically. Katie just pursed her lips and refused to say a word. When she left, the sky was gloomy, and she shivered in the cold. 

Later, Katie somehow found herself alone with the little new kid who had been following the Stolls around like a puppy. He had dark hair and dark eyes, and—apparently completely oblivious to Katie’s uncomfortable body language—was ranting about the Orientation Film and some card game that Katie guessed the Stolls introduced him to. Katie felt mean for disliking a kid. It wasn’t even that she disliked him, per se. Maybe it was the way that he—rambling and awkward and never knowing when to shut up—reminded Katie of a much younger version of herself. Maybe it was something else, some weird vibe that she got from him that she would sound crazy if she ever tried to tell someone about. 

“And then,” the kid was in the middle of saying, “Apollo came out—you know Apollo, and he was dancing and singing, and it was so cool, because he’s a Mythomagic card, y’know, he gets loads of defense points, and he has kids here, too, did you know?”

Yes, you idiot, Katie wanted to say. I know that because his kids are all absolute assholes, and you’re annoying me so please shut up now. Instead, she just gritted her teeth and nodded.

“I did know that.”

“Whose kid are you?” The kid turned to her, eager, almost dropping the pile of armor they were meant to be carrying to the edge of the woods. 

“My mom is Demeter.” Katie paused to readjust her own pile of armor, cursing as it almost slipped out of her arms. The kid wrinkled his nose distastefully. 

“She’s definitely not as good as Apollo,” the kid said matter-of-factly, shaking his head. “That sucks.”

Katie had to grit her teeth for the rest of the never-ending walk. Hearing the kid talking about their parents' attack and defense points reminded her of an unwelcome truth about the war they would inevitably be fighting soon. It made her think of Chiron, sitting them all down that day in the Big House. It made her restless, her mind running over every possible scenario like a train on a track.

They finally—finally—met up with everyone else and ditched the armor, which everyone started clamoring for immediately. Katie was glad, probably for the first time ever, to see the Stolls. She nudged the kid towards Travis, who was absently fidgeting with his curls. 

“Hey, look, it’s Travis! Weren’t you just telling me how you wanted to tell him all about Hermes’ attack points again?”

The kid didn’t have time to even speak before Katie had left, scanning for Malcolm and Josh in the—admittedly small—crowd. Everyone in battle armor put her even more on edge, like the universe was trying to force her to imagine what they would all look like in battle for real, not just a stupid Capture the Flag game. It took a minute before she spotted her friends, muttering to each other. She jogged to meet them.

“Hey, precious pumpkin. Hey, Josh.” She poked Josh’s cheek, and he swatted her away. “What’s gotten into you, Mr. Grumpy?”

“He wants to beat the Hunters,” Malcolm explained, as Josh tightened his armor with gritted teeth. “Like, really wants to win.”

“Nervous, Joshy-bear? It’s just a game,” Katie teased, and Josh glared at her. Katie stuck out her tongue. 

“They think we’re idiots. They’ve been talking down to Silena and me the whole time they’ve been here,” Josh snapped.

Katie laughed. “It’s just Capture the Flag.”

“It’s not just Capture the Flag, Katie,” Josh huffed. “I knew you wouldn’t get it.”

Katie narrowed her eyes, hurt. “Wouldn’t get what?”

“Nothing,” Josh sighed. “Just- just, forget it.”

“No!” Katie could feel blood rushing to her cheeks. “Wouldn’t get what?”

Josh’s eyes sparked. “Nothing.”

“Well, there was obviously something.”

“Katie,” Malcolm groaned. “Just drop it.”

“Oh, so you’re taking his side?” Katie glared at him, her face hot. “There’s obviously something I’m too stupid to get, and I’m just asking—”

“You can just be so annoying, sometimes, Katie,” Josh cut her off harshly, and Katie felt like he had just slapped her in the face. “Y’know? And you’re my friend and all, but— It’s like all the shit with the Stolls, y’know? You’re always above it all. And this— You’re acting like it doesn’t matter. But it does matter to me.”

The air had turned uncomfortable. Despite the cold, her face felt red and hot. With anyone else, she would’ve been angry. And she was angry, she realized. But she was hurt, too. And Josh was her friend - one of her best friends.  An uncomfortable feeling settled in her gut.

“I know it matters to you.” Katie hated the feeling that settled over her, like she was too big for her skin. Like nothing fit right. Like Josh and Malcolm and the whole world could see right through her. 

“Look, I’m not trying to be dick. And I know you don’t care about this stuff. But the rest of us do.” Josh pulled his helmet on. “The game is starting. I’m gonna go.”

Katie watched him walk away. Malcolm was still there, with an uncomfortable expression on his face. 

“The game is starting,” Katie said. She couldn’t help herself from snapping: “And apparently the rest of you care about all of this more than me, so just go.”

Malcolm shot her one of his Malcolm Looks, and Katie very suddenly realized the extent to which Malcolm knew her. He knew her. He knew her even better than she knew herself sometimes. And she knew him, too. But she was still somehow surprised when Malcolm furrowed his brows and awkwardly walked in the opposite direction of the clump of campers.

He turned back to her with a wry grin. “You coming?”

Instead of speaking, she just nodded her head and jogged to catch up with him.

“Such a slow-poke,” Malcolm sniffed disapprovingly. “So slow. Such a poke. Why are we even friends?”

“Shush,” Katie said. “Not all of us are freakishly tall.”

They walked in comfortable silence back to the cabins, taking their normal seats by the hearth and warming their hands on the flickering flames. After a minute, Katie broke the quiet. 

“Mal?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I was being an idiot?”

Malcolm sighed thoughtfully. It was one of the things she loved most about Malcolm—he was honest and thoughtful, but never unnecessarily mean. He always thought before he spoke. 

“I think you were being, like, 50% more Katie than usual. I think you’re stressed about the Hunters being here and about everything with Luke and his army. And I think Josh is being snappy and stressed because he doesn’t like the holidays.” Katie furrowed her brow.

“He doesn’t?”

“He hates this time of year.” Malcolm informed her in a low voice, even though there was no one but the whistling wind and the crackling hearth to hear them. “I think. He doesn’t talk about it much, but I think it reminds him of his family.”

Katie felt a sudden rush of pity for Josh that she knew he would hate. Katie had never even thought about Josh’s family or how he had ended up arriving at camp in the middle of December looking small and alone. 

“I’m an idiot.” Katie’s face was hot. 

“You’re not,” Malcolm said, and then paused. “Well, you are. Sometimes. But not about this…I guess I just picked up on it, he’s never really said anything. And there’s been a lot happening.”

“I should’ve picked up on it, too.” Guilt and frustration coiled in Katie’s stomach. “I thought we were friends.”

“Of course you’re friends,” Malcolm said. “Who wouldn’t want to be friends with either of you? I guess you just didn’t pick up on it. But you know now.”

“Does he talk to you?” Katie asked after a pause. “About what happened?” Malcolm hesitated.

“Not really. Once, I guess. Maybe he knows I can relate.”

Katie let that hang heavy for a second in the air. Malcolm’s dad was dead, she knew that. He had never liked Malcolm, never even wanted him. Malcolm hadn’t cried when he had got the news in February, just retreated somewhere unreachable for a few days. It had been awful. Selfishly, Katie had never understood how Malcolm so easily got over the death of his dad. She couldn’t imagine not loving her dad. Now she was older, she had realized that sometimes it was more complicated than that. 

“Josh’s family—”

“I don’t think they ever really liked him that much,” Malcolm said quietly. Katie was shocked. 

“How can someone not like Josh?” 

Malcolm looked around, like he was afraid someone would see them. “I think—I think his dad and his stepmom were together for a long time. They had a few kids and everything. And then his mom dropped Josh off, and…y’know.” His voice was low.

“Oh,” Katie said. “Oh. So he—” It felt too awful to finish.

Malcolm just nodded. “I think so. I mean, they never really treated him like family should, anyway.”

Katie blinked. “We’ll be his family. You and me and the others. He’s our family, now.”

“Done.” There was a steeliness in Malcolm’s gray eyes.

They were silent for a minute. 

“I’m sorry for being a bad friend,” Katie said, and it felt like a confession. “I know I can be self-centered, and righteous, and—”

“You’re not a bad friend, Katie,” Malcolm said with a huffy little laugh. “We all have our stuff.” 

“I’m sorry. I know you hate this emotional stuff.”

“I do,” Malcolm said. “But it’s fine. You’re my friend.”

Katie took a moment to look at him—really look at him. Blonde and gangly and wiry, his cheeks pink in the cold. His glasses were crooked and there was a little gap in his front teeth that he had never really grown out of. His sweater had a stain on it that might’ve been a bit of toothpaste. He hated being emotional and vulnerable. He loved nerdy books and Marvel comics. He felt very passionately about pineapple on pizza. His instinct was to run at the first sign of tears but here he was, awkwardly patting her back as she tried not to cry. 

“I really do love you a lot,” Katie said quietly. Malcolm’s lips twitched in a small little smile.

“Gross,”  he said, and Katie laughed despite herself. “But, y’know. Ditto.”

Naively, Katie hoped that everything would resolve itself and all be fine, but Josh ignored her at breakfast and morning training, even when everyone was filling Malcolm and Katie in on the drama of the last night in overlapping tones. Katie tried to respond appropriately—and she was shocked that the Oracle had come out of the attic and that the questers had long left camp—but most of her brain was occupied by sneaking glances at Josh and trying to glean an indication that he wasn’t still mad. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t get that. Josh was icy with her the whole time the questers were gone. Katie took a stupidly long time to pick up on it. Malcolm had to pull her aside after an increasingly awkward conversation where Katie kept rambling about the strawberry fields to a less-chatty-than-usual Josh to tell her that he thought that Josh just needed some space.

Katie gave him space. She stuck her head down and worked, spending hours at the strawberry fields. It was easy to forget about her problems when she was at the strawberry fields; all that existed was her hands and the plants and the smell of new life filling the air. 

Josh only spoke to her once over the next few days—to tell her to turn down her CD player because he was trying to get to sleep. Katie doubted he could even hear the music from the Aphrodite cabin, and was about to say just that if not for Malcolm grabbing her arm and pulling her away. Malcolm had been made into a sort of middleman, even though Katie insisted that it wasn’t necessary. 

“I’m giving him space!” she would say lightly, before ducking off to the woods. She had decided to revive an old patch of burnt trees (an experiment of the Hephaestus cabin gone wrong) with the help of some of the dryads. It was hard, grueling work, but Katie didn’t mind it. It turned out, she was very productive when she didn’t spend all her time hanging out with Malcolm and Josh. 

Even as Katie stayed sheltered in her own little bubble of productivity, the mood at camp seemed to have taken a sharp decline since the questers (and Percy, although Connor had told Malcolm that Percy was banned from going with them) had left.  The energy was so low that even the Stolls dressing up the fake legs of Chiron’s wheelchair in lingerie and knee-high socks—gods knew where they even got them—didn’t get more than a few half-hearted laughs. 

The only camper who still seemed in high spirits was the kid, Nico Di Angelo. He went around telling everyone that his sister, Bianca (apparently one of the Hunters who went on the quest), would be fine because “Percy promised.” 

“That poor kid,” Malcolm said one day as Katie scrubbed at one of the sinks in the kitchen. Her newest endeavor was cleaning the kitchens of twenty-years worth of grime, which served to be about as disgusting as she had feared. 

“Hmm,” Katie hummed non-committedly. 

“She just left,” Malcolm said, a sour look on his face. “Siblings shouldn’t do that to their siblings.”

“If their godly parent had parented them better, it wouldn’t have even happened in the first place,” Katie said. Malcolm shot her an indecipherable look, but said no more. 

There were only two things of real note that happened while the questers were away: first was that Clarisse finally returned. She had a new scar on her chin and a short messy haircut that had Silena begging to let her fix it up. She brought with her a boy who Katie vaguely recognised as a son of Hermes from her first summer at camp. He was moved to live in the basement of the Big House, tucked away from prying eyes. They only saw him occasionally when he was getting some food or sunlight. Chiron said he was healing. Drew Tanaka said she overheard that he was crazy. The Stoll brothers said nothing. 

Secondly—and far worse—was the disappearance of their oldest campers, Jason Webb and Laurel Ortiz from Hephaestus and Aphrodite. They vanished from their cabins one morning, leaving scrawled notes haphazardly placed on their made beds. 

Leaving for Luke, both of the notes read. We want to fight for a better world.

Unceremoniously, Silena and Beckendorf were made the new counselors of their respective cabins. Katie swore she saw Silena tear up when Chiron announced it at dinner. 

Katie didn’t know Jason and Laurel that well, but she thought she hated them a bit. A better world? They had a perfectly fine world the way it was. The gods—they were gods. And even if—even if things should change, leaving camp, leaving friends, leaving family? It wasn’t the way to do it.

 It was worse for their siblings, though—Malcolm told Katie that Josh told him that it felt like the whole camp was watching him, waiting for him to leave, too. Even though she and Josh were fighting, Katie couldn’t suppress the rage bubbling inside her when she heard Miles Mason theorizing that Josh would be the next to leave one day at archery.

Embarrassingly, Silena caught her crying one day. Katie couldn’t even say what had brought it on; she had been fine until all of a sudden everything had seemed to catch up with her at once and she was suddenly not. 

Everything was not okay, and there were no more projects that could make Katie pretend that it was. Josh still wasn’t talking to her. Chiron had moved all of Jason’s things from the Hephaestus cabin into a big box to put in the attic of the Big House. Her dad still hadn’t called her for Christmas, even though he’d promised that he always would. 

Katie had tried to stop the tears, but they seemed determined to come no matter what she might do. Frustration and confusion and fear and loneliness bubbled up in her stomach; everything was too much, too soon. Attending sword-fighting class felt impossible and so Katie didn’t go at all, just sat, crying on the floor of Cabin Four. 

“Katie?” Silena stood at the door, looking polished and pretty. Katie felt like a little kid. She sniffled and wiped her eyes so hard it hurt, but it was impossible to pretend. 

“I’m fine,” Katie managed, but it sounded hollow, even to her. Silena raised an eyebrow judgmentally, and stepped inside the cabin. She slid to sit down next to Katie. She smelled like vanilla and caramel. Katie couldn’t look her in the eyes. 

“You don’t look fine,” Silena said, even as she procured a tissue from somewhere and handed it to Katie. “You actually look a bit like shit.”

That shocked a laugh out of Katie, despite everything. Silena grinned at her, full of mischief and kindness. 

“Rude,” Katie said after blowing her nose. Her voice sounded stuffy and strained. Silena laughed. 

“You should hear Clarisse trying to give pep talks. Really, you’re just lucky it was me who walked in. Now, what’s happened?”

Silena sat patiently with her hands folded in her lap, one perfectly groomed eyebrow raised expectantly. A fresh round of tears sprang to Katie’s eyes and she blinked them away, so embarrassed that she wanted to crawl under her bed and never resurface. As if she could read her mind, Silena gently shoved Katie’s shoulder. 

“Don’t go getting all embarrassed now. You’re fine. I promise. Tell me what’s the matter, and I’ll see if I can help. Or don’t—up to you. If you don’t want to talk, I can get you some of this great moisturizer that’ll literally make your skin glow and we’ll go to training and no one know a thing.”

Katie talked. She told Silena everything: her fight with Josh, her fears for camp, her dad not contacting her, her worries that she would never be good enough to be a proper camper. Katie even told Silena about how she had been praying to Demeter every night, desperate, and how the only sign she’d ever gotten that her mom even knew she existed was that golden, glowing scythe that had appeared the day she was claimed. 

“First of all,” Silena said once Katie was finished, “the fight with Josh? That’s just normal dumb teenage stuff. It sounds like you both need some space, and then it’ll blow over and you can be a big happy family again.”

“But-”

“No buts,” Silena said, and then laughed. “Trust me on this one.” Inexplicably, Katie did.

“What about— What about camp? The war? Jason and Laurel, and-”

“That’s for the big kids to worry about,” Silena said, and from anyone else it would’ve sounded condescending. “Right now, just enjoy being fourteen. The war— I don’t even know if there’ll be a war. If the gods would just—”

“They’re gods,” Katie sniffled, parroting something Malcolm had told her a million times. “They’re not going to change.”

“They could.” Silena shrugged. She had a way of making anything seem possible. For a split-second, Katie thought that in a debate with Malcolm, her best friend might actually walk away the loser. “They could change. Like your mom? You said she’s never sent you a sign? Never spoken to you?”

“She claimed me,” Katie said, but it sounded weak even to her. Silena looked sad and angry. 

“You deserve more than that,” Silena said. “You all do.” Katie just looked at the ground. 

“Now,” Silena said, pinching Katie’s cheek, “let’s get to sword-fighting. Hopefully we can still get there in time to see Charlie do his thing.”

Katie laughed and wiped her face. Silena worked some Aphrodite magic, sweeping Katie’s hair into the perfect ponytail—frizz and all—and pulling a little tub of cream out of her purse that would “refresh and rejuvenate.” Katie had never been all that into skincare, but she put it on and couldn’t deny that she felt just a little better as she let Silena lead her to the sword-fighting arena. 

That afternoon, Katie found herself at the Aphrodite cabin door, feeling strangely clear-minded. She had tried to follow Malcolm’s advice and wait it out—she really did—but it had never been in her nature to be patient, and her talk with Silena had only made her realize even more how stupid their fight was. They either were going to be friends again, or they weren’t. There was no point postponing the inevitable. 

Besides, Katie had already fixed up the whole woods and scrubbed down every sink at Camp. She was starting to think the cleaning harpies were getting sick of seeing her. 

She opened the door without knocking to see Josh, his clothes all spread around him on the floor like a cyclone had torn through the cabin. Josh raised his eyebrows at the sight of her.

“Come to give me a lecture?”

“Yes, actually.” Katie walked herself inside. “I like you. I want to be your friend. And we’re not good at fighting—scratch that, we’re plenty good at fighting, but I like us better when we aren’t. We’re not good at not liking each other. I shouldn’t have said what I said. Or acted like I acted. But I did and it’s done, and I’ll try to be more understanding and less annoying and I want us to be friends again. And if you don’t, that’s fine— It’s not fine, but I’ll leave you alone and back off and all that. But I—I really want to be your friend.”

Josh raised an eyebrow. There was a long pause. And then: “Only you could apologize without actually saying the words ‘I’m sorry.’”

Katie wanted to snap at him—she almost did. Instead, she took a deep breath and, a little forcefully, spoke.

“I’m sorry.”

Josh didn’t smile, but his eyes glinted and the iciness in the air seemed to evaporate. “Yeah. I’m sorry, too. I’ve been kind of acting like a douche.” Katie grinned at him and plopped herself down to sit on his bed.

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Takes one to know one,” Josh just shrugged, and Katie laughed. He smiled, too, and Katie felt something warm and fuzzy in her chest. 

“So,” Katie was suddenly shy, “we’re cool?” Josh thought about it for a second, and then nodded.

“We are.”

“Josh…” Katie started, and then realized she didn’t know how she was going to finish her sentence. She cleared her throat. “I’m glad we’re friends.”

“Yeah,” Josh said, dark eyes gleaming. “Me too.”

“Josh—” Katie said, and then stopped herself. Josh raised an eyebrow, silent. Katie took a deep breath. “Do you ever miss your family?” Josh looked like he was expecting the question. He sighed.

“I—I guess. They were awful, but…they were still my family, y’know? It used to be worse.”

“Worse?”

“I used to—” Josh took a deep breath. There was a steadiness to Josh even now that Katie had to admire. A sort of unshakeable confidence in who he was. “I used to think that it was my fault. That if I was just more—I don’t know. Silena helped. Malcolm helped. Being here—it’s helped. Still sucks, though.”

Katie felt such a sudden surge of protectiveness over Josh that she shocked even herself.  “I’m—”

“It is what it is.” Josh shrugged. “Doesn’t do any good to dwell. Hey, if you’re gonna be here, you can make yourself useful.” Josh held up two blue shirts, one with little white checks that Katie remembered him wearing all through the summer.

“Which one of these is darker?”

Even Katie could pick up on the less than subtle change of subject. She didn’t push, though. 

“Umm…The one on the left, I guess? My left.” Her brow furrowed in realization. The clothes scattered around him. The half-filled closet was filled exclusively with red and pink. “Are you…color-coordinating your closet?” Josh looked half-offended, half-embarrassed.

“It’s what I do when I get stressed.”

Katie laughed. “You are a little nerd, aren’t you? You just hide it better than me and Mal.”

“Like that’s hard,” Josh muttered, and Katie laughed again. The day felt warmer, lighter—she could’ve sworn that the sun was shining more brightly outside. 

That night at dinner, Katie, Malcolm, and Josh all sat at the Athena table. Chiron sent them a disapproving look, but Katie didn’t even care. Malcolm looked queasy at the sight of it, but even he couldn’t protest breaking the rules this once. Katie felt happy, truly, truly happy, for the first time in a while. She grinned as Josh unsuccessfully tried to throw peas into Malcolm’s mouth. 

From across the pavilion, Silena winked at her. 

Her brief feeling of triumph was short-lived, however. The next day, the questers came back—out of the original party of five, only three returned. The Hunters and Thalia Grace (who was a Hunter now too, apparently) set off the day they got back, and camp felt strangely empty without them. Secretly, guiltily, Katie was so glad that the campers all came back; Percy, Thalia, Annabeth Chase, and Grover the satyr were all alive. 

At least Malcolm was happy to see his sister again. He hadn’t even known she’d been missing—no one had thought to tell any of the campers that Annabeth had been kidnapped. She’d left camp pretty quickly anyway, but still, Malcolm was happy. 

The thrill of being friends with Josh again disappeared quickly with the awful atmosphere at camp, which was not helped by the new crack in the marble floor of the dining pavilion. Chiron assured everyone it was under control, but everyone had been exchanging wary looks and talking about it in hushed voices when neither Chiron nor the younger kids were around. Nico di Angelo, the annoying kid, had disappeared too. Even though she didn’t like him, Katie couldn’t help but worry.

Sometimes it felt like all she was doing was worrying these days. She worried about Nico di Angelo. She worried about Luke and his army. She worried about Jason and Laurel. She worried about Malcolm, who had been looking even more pale and withdrawn than usual, despite Annabeth’s brief return. She worried about Josh, who had admitted that he was struggling to sleep since Laurel had disappeared. She worried about her siblings in the mortal world—not so much May, but what about little Liam? Or Miranda? Would they be safe? She worried about her dad, who she hadn’t heard from in months. She worried about her mom, too—if there was a war, would she survive? Would she even help? Or would she just watch as her children fought in her name?

Josh wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been sleeping. 

Despite it all, life at camp continued. Christmas came and went, and Katie enlisted the help of Connor Stoll to smuggle in a comic book for Malcolm and a new beanie for Josh. The days went quickly, and before Katie knew it, it was New Year’s Eve. 

The frost of winter had well and truly set over Camp Half-Blood, and Mr. D—who had returned that morning and was clearly feeling celebratory—had conjured up some tiny flickering balls of heatless fire stored in mason jars to prop inside the cabin windows. Chiron had asked Katie to do it, and Katie, so pleased with the fact that Chiron trusted her to do something, hadn’t even protested when he’d asked Travis to go with her. 

Travis tugged at one of his curls, humming some annoying tune under his breath. Katie frowned at him. He must’ve felt her gaze, because he glared mockingly back, his freckles a dark contrast to his pale face. 

“What?” He picked at one of his fingernails, and Katie’s face flushed. He was taller than her by at least a couple inches thanks to a recent growth spurt, and Katie felt weird, given that they’d been the same height in all the years she’d known him. 

“Nothing!” Katie snapped, embarrassed to have been caught staring. They’d reached the empty Poseidon cabin, and Katie breathed in the smell of the ocean as she followed Travis inside to place a jar of light on the windowsill. He raised his eyebrows at her.

“You’re so high strung, partner,” he observed, drawling in an exaggeration of her own accent, tossing a jar of light from one hand to the other. Katie scowled in annoyance, trying to snatch the jar out of his hand. 

“Don’t call me that! And don’t throw that, it’s breakable!”

“It’s made by a god,” Travis tossed the jar again. “I don’t think a god would go to the trouble of making a ball of fire to make the jar that it’s kept in breakable.”

“This god definitely would,” Katie grumbled under her breath, thinking of Mr D. Travis laughed, crisp and light, and even Katie had to acknowledge there was something nice about making Travis Stoll laugh. She arranged her face into a scowl, but despite it all, there was something soft and sweet that had made its home inside her chest, warming her even in the winter cold. 

Chapter Text

‘so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it’—taylor swift

Malcolm’s birthday was in early January, just two weeks after they’d all sat by the beach on New Year’s Eve and ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ at the fireworks Beckendorf and his brothers engineered. Just one week after Isabella Goldmann disappeared without warning or explanation and the Hermes Cabin had shrunk to the smallest anyone had ever seen. 

Malcolm didn’t want to celebrate his birthday: “It’s just another day,” he told anyone who would listen, but Katie and Josh privately agreed that this was bullshit, and that the campers could do with a celebration. 

“And sour candy,” Katie was in the middle of adding, checking it off her list. She and Josh were with the Stolls, armed with the list of contraband they needed smuggled in for Malcolm’s upcoming fourteenth birthday. “The sourest you can find.”

The Stolls had, if anything, doubled down on their Stollishness since Isabella had disappeared. It wasn’t uncommon to have to check all of your drawers in the morning in case they had planted something gross or creepy in one of them while you slept. It had just doubled Katie’s hatred for them—a camper had gone missing on their watch, and all they could do was act like juvenile trouble-makers.

She had felt sorry for them at first, studying their reactions when Chiron announced it at breakfast. Were Travis’s eyes puffier than usual? She didn’t know what she had expected, but she had been prepared to take it easy on them, maybe offer to help with the schoolwork Chiron assigned if they needed it. Instead, they acted like Isabella leaving was their excuse to act out more, causing so much mischief around camp that even Josh was starting to get annoyed. Katie couldn’t help the bitterness that arose at the sight of them—their inability to take things seriously was probably the whole reason Isabella had left.

Maybe, Katie sometimes thought, they wanted her to leave. Luke was their brother, after all. She never voiced this thought; she knew it was terrible. But, still. 

“Make sure you get some of those fruit gushers, too,” Josh said, peering over Katie’s shoulder to read her list. Travis nodded. 

“And chocolate,” Katie added. “Only dark chocolate, though, Mal says it’s better for the brain or something.”

Josh snickered. Malcolm cared very passionately about dark chocolate, and it was something they teased him endlessly for. 

“This is going to be one boring-ass party,” Travis muttered, and waggled his eyebrows ridiculously. “You know I have contacts, right? You don’t want drinks or anything? A little bit of grass?”

“We already have plenty of grass,” Katie said, exasperated and confused. There was a moment of silence before she flushed bright red, realizing what they were referring to. Travis and Connor snickered, and even Josh looked amused. She shot him with her best You’re my friend don’t laugh at me look, but he was still grinning. 

“Maybe a bottle of something,” Josh said thoughtfully. Katie glared at him, but he just shrugged. “Might be fun.”

Katie shook her head. “No. Malcolm wouldn’t want that.”

“Malcolm wouldn’t want that, or you wouldn’t want that because you’ve got a stick up your ass?” Connor challenged, and Katie flushed. She was not a violent person, but she wished she could slap that stupid little grin off his face.

“Malcolm wouldn’t want that,” she said firmly. Josh’s brows knitted together.

“No drinks,” he said finally. “Just a fuckton of candy.” 

The Stolls looked disappointed, but Katie smiled sweetly and ripped the checklist out of her notebook to hand over to Travis with an air of satisfaction. 

“I’ll meet you at your cabin tomorrow morning to pick it all up.” 

“Can’t wait,” Travis muttered sarcastically, and Katie resisted the juvenile urge to stick her tongue out at him. Instead she just gave him a sarcastic smile and a “Pleasure doing business with you,” and she and Josh set off for breakfast, trying to come up with a cover story to tell Malcolm where they had been. 

The next day, Katie arrived bright and early at the Hermes cabin. If someone had accused her of taking any extra time with her appearance, she would’ve called them an immature liar (and probably made plants grow out of their ears for good measure), but she had decided with an analytical look in the mirror that morning that she was looking nice. For Malcolm’s birthday, she figured. Silena had done her hair in pretty French braids, and while her freckles had faded significantly over the winter, she liked the way they sprinkled over the bridge of her nose. She was even wearing her favorite pair of jeans and one of Josh’s old sweaters that she had stolen after New Year’s. It was white and fleecy and the comfiest thing Katie had ever worn.

When she knocked on the door, Travis answered with a yawn. He was still in his pajamas, and Katie flushed at the way his too-big shirt—a blue, worn shirt with the words ‘I’m with stupid’ lettered above a printed arrow—rode up and a thin strip of his stomach was revealed. His curls were disheveled and messy, and Katie wrinkled her nose at them in distaste. 

“The stuff?” Katie held out her hand expectantly, glancing around to make sure Chiron wasn’t lurking anywhere. Chiron was very strict on his “no junk food” rule, but Katie wasn’t above breaking the rules for her friends. 

“Good morning, Travis,” Travis said in a high-pitched voice that Katie assumed was meant to be her. She rolled her eyes at him. “How did you sleep? I slept great, thanks K-dawg. Good morning.”

“I didn’t ask how you slept because I didn’t want to know.” Katie raised her eyebrows, holding out a hand expectantly. “The stuff?” Travis narrowed his eyes.

“Why would I give you it when you’re being oh-so-rude?” Travis raised his eyebrows, and Katie glowered at him.

“The. Stuff. This is a business deal. No need to be nice.”

Travis sniffed, and gestured for her to follow him into the Hermes cabin. The minute she stepped inside, Travis held out his hand. 

“Pay up.” 

Grudgingly, she passed him a couple crisp notes. May had given her some money for her birthday last year—May worked part-time at a record store in the city—and it wasn’t as if Katie ever had the opportunity to spend it. Travis counted the money, his elfish features furrowed in concentration.

“You’re short ten.” 

“I am not. I counted it twice this morning.”

“Entry fee,” Travis shrugged. “New system for non-Cabin 11 campers.” Katie looked at him, bewildered and annoyed.

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever—I’m not paying you ten dollars, Travis!”

Travis shrugged. “Then you don’t get your shit.”

“Language,” Katie huffed. “You stupid Hermes kids and your stupid— Just— I am going to stand outside, and you can hand me the stuff there. Deal? Deal.”

Katie muttered a few choice words about Travis while he shrugged, pocketed her money, and rummaged around in one of the cupboards. While his back was turned, she took the time to peer into the Hermes cabin. 

It was as small and cramped as she remembered it being her first summer. She could see the evidence of its usual occupancy—stray sleeping bags stuffed under beds, clothes on the floor, a toothbrush sitting on the windowsill—but there were only two beds that were clearly in use. Chris Rodriguz was still in the Big House, apparently. He was tucked away so mysteriously that Katie often forgot he was there in the first place. Katie would never say it, but the near-empty Hermes cabin was sort of sad. If nothing else, the Hermes cabin was always busy, full of laughter and chatter and people. Now, it was just Travis and Connor. 

“No respect for the hustle,” Travis was muttering, loud and exaggerated enough that Katie knew he was wanting her to hear. “The reason why this camp has gone downhill.”

No, Katie wanted to say, This camp has gone downhill because idiots like you can’t take anything seriously, even with a war on the horizon.  Instead, Katie just grabbed the bag of contraband out of his hand when he held it out and gave him a forced, cheery smile.

“Thanks, Travis. Always a pleasure.”

Travis stuck his tongue out at her, but Katie just left, resisting the urge to turn around and make poison ivy grow in all of Travis’s clothes. 

Malcolm’s party was a quiet affair. They held it after curfew, but Silena gave Katie a wink and told her that she “and Charlie would keep an eye out,” so Katie wasn’t as worried as she might’ve been. They invited all of the kids their age: obviously Josh and Katie, and then the Ares kids, Michael Yew (one of the Apollo kids), and, grudgingly, Travis and Connor Stoll. 

“Surprise!” everyone shouted when Malcolm finally entered the Demeter cabin with Josh. 

Malcolm did a pretty good job at looking surprised, and Katie laughed and wrapped an arm around him. She grinned as he took in the decorations; he laughed at the homemade “Happy Birthday Sugar-Bear” banner. 

“That took me and Katie a week to make,” Josh grinned. 

“Clearly.” Malcolm laughed. 

“For what it’s worth, we wanted to have your party in our cabin,” Miles said. Malcolm looked surprised, and Katie sighed. 

“A decision that was vetoed because of the landmines,” she reminded him. Louisa, his sister, scowled.

“The landmines are the main appeal!”

“Well, we sure as shit weren’t having it in my cabin,” Michael Yew said, already helping himself to some of the snacks. 

“We thought about having it in your cabin,” Josh explained to Malcolm. “But, honestly, messing up all your shit would probably be about the opposite of a birthday present.” Katie giggled.

“He’d kick us all out instantly.”

Malcolm didn’t argue. “I think here is perfect.”

It was. Katie had shoved all of her clothes and belongings haphazardly into the wardrobe and strung some fairy lights on the roof with all the decorations. The candles on the windowsill made the whole place smell faintly of vanilla, and the hardwood floors were covered with soft, cozy rugs. 

“You might think that,” Miles grumbled. “But me and Louisa were in here for twenty minutes lugging all the plants out of the way.”

Malcolm laughed, and Josh grinned. All in all, it felt like home. 

At one point in the night, Katie and Malcolm ended up alone on the veranda of the cabin. She could hear everyone laughing inside, playing some stupid card game Travis had brought, but outside it was cool and peaceful and Katie felt impossibly content.

Malcolm was sitting next to her, their legs dangling off the edge of the cabin like little kids. In the moonlight, his blonde hair shone. Unthinkingly, Katie looped an arm around him, squeezing him so tightly she could feel his laughter reverberating in her own chest. She laughed, too, and when they separated she grinned at him so widely her face hurt. 

“Happy birthday, honey-poo.” Grinning, she scooted over and pecked him on the cheek. His skin was soft. She could just make out his blush in the pale light of the moon. She rested her head on his shoulder and watched the stars glimmering thousands of miles away. “I love you a stupid amount.”

Malcolm didn’t respond, but he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed and Katie smiled contentedly. She didn’t know how long they sat there like that—long enough for her butt to go numb against the hard wood of the veranda—but she was content to stay like that until the sound of the cabin door opening had her shifting and craning her neck. It was just Josh, dark skin gleaming in the moonlight. Katie grinned at him, and patted the deck next to her. 

“Am I interrupting something?” Josh waggled his eyebrows mischievously, and Katie groaned. 

“Sarr, I will make vines grow out of your ears if you don’t come sit.”

Josh laughed, and took his place beside Katie. “Remember when you did that to the Stolls?”

Katie shuddered. “The day they dyed me blue? Ugh, don’t remind me. That was so embarrassing.”

Josh and Malcolm both laughed, and she swatted at them. The trio fell into content silence for a minute. 

“Happy birthday, Malcolm,” Josh said suddenly. “You’re a good guy.”

Katie couldn’t see his face, but she knew Malcolm was blushing. 

“Yeah,” Malcolm just said. “You too.”

The night drew to a close quickly after that, with the campers filing out to head back to their own cabins. The Ares kids and Michael Yew left first, with a hurried “Happy birthday, Malcolm,” on their way out. Connor Stoll was next, yawning and sleepy eyed as he gave Malcolm a fist bump on his way out. Katie and Josh both giggled at Malcolm’s awkward response, flushed and tongue-tied.

“Is that everyone?” Katie yawned, when Connor’s figure had disappeared into the darkness in the direction of the Hermes cabin. Malcolm, still flushed, nodded. 

“Think so.”

Josh frowned, counting on his fingers. “Not everyone—I think Travis is still in there.”

Katie groaned and glanced back to her cabin. Sure enough, a long figure was just visible through the window. 

“Of course,” she muttered. “Creepy little weirdo. I’ll go tell him the party is over. You guys go to bed.”

After a sleepy “Bye,” Malcolm and Josh left, laughing about something Katie couldn’t hear as they wandered away. She smiled fondly at the sight of them, but it was quick to disappear as she looked back to her cabin. She crept to the door quietly, determined to catch Travis in the middle of whatever sneaky shit he was surely doing. Instead, as she pushed open the door, she saw him rummaging through some candy wrappers on the floor. He looked startled at the sight of her, and she frowned at him as she cautiously entered her cabin, perching on the edge of her bed.The air had turned awkward, and Katie couldn’t stop herself from opening her mouth and breaking the silence.

“What are you doing?” Her tone came out accusatory.

“Seeing if there’s anything worth stealing.” Travis grinned at her mischievously, and Katie glared at him. He held up his hands in surrender. “Kidding. Cleaning up. It’s a bit of a mess.” Katie realized that some of the wrappers were in a neat little pile in the corner. She could feel herself turning red, but Travis didn’t seem to notice.

“You don’t have to do that.”

Travis shrugged, and threw a stray chocolate bar at her. Katie looked at it suspiciously. 

“It’s not poisoned,” Travis said, too cheerfully. Katie raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Wouldn’t put it past you,” she muttered. He stopped whatever he was doing on the floor, and looked at her defensively. 

“I’m in here cleaning up when I could be in bed, and you’re gonna accuse me of poisoning you? Wow, Katie.”

Katie stood up, annoyed. “Seriously? It’s not as if you haven’t pulled stuff before. Like the time you gave me a packet of M&Ms that was actually full of bugs. What about that, huh? Or the time you told me that that dryad wanted to talk to me in the forest, but it was just so you could get me alone to throw that stink-bomb at me!”

Katie flushed furiously at the memory. Her first winter at camp she had told one of the older campers—in confidence—that she thought one of the dryads who hung around at the edge of the woods was really cute. Next thing she knew, Travis Stoll was coming up to her, all sparkling eyes and “Katie, you won’t believe it, Aspen the dryad just told me that he heard you like him and he thinks you’re cute, too! He wants to meet up with you!”

Katie had been young then, and stupidly naive. She had gotten dressed in her nicest outfit and babbled to Malcolm all day about how excited she was, how insane it was that Aspen might’ve thought she was pretty, or nice, or whatever. A stupid part of her had been convinced it was a sign from the universe of something, a sign that Camp Half-Blood had been a good choice. She had gone to the edge of the forest, nervous and excited, only to be greeted with a stink bomb in the face and the grating laugh of the Stoll brothers. That wasn’t even the worst part—the worst part was when she had overheard Aspen himself recounting the story, laughing, to a satyr. 

“You have to admit, it was a little funny,” Travis laughed. Katie glared at him.

“Just hilarious, Travis. So funny. I’m laughing so hard.” 

“Get a sense of humor,” he spat. 

“Get out of my cabin.”

“Remind me not to do anything nice for you ever again.” Travis grabbed his stuff with more gusto than was necessary. Katie glared daggers at him as she ushered him out of the door. 

“Fine by me,” she hissed, and slammed the door in his face with a loud bang. Through the window, she watched him leave. 

Stupid Travis Stoll. 

After Malcolm’s birthday, the year seemed to move more quickly than Katie was ready for it to, the winter beginning to thaw away into spring. Travis Stoll made it his personal mission to annoy Katie in every way possible, and Katie made it her personal mission to pretend he didn’t exist to try and keep her temper at bay. School was pushed to the side in favor of training—they still did their lessons of course, but Katie couldn’t count on all of her fingers and toes the number of times a history lesson turned into a spontaneous sword lesson in the combat arena. 

It seemed that monster sightings (and fights) were getting more frequent, too. It was like the cold air had kept them at bay, but now that summer was approaching they were ready to play. Katie took personal offense to this; stupid monsters were not allowed to ruin her favorite time of the year. 

One memorable day, a terrifying black dog the size of a grizzly bear with glowing red eyes and a haunting growl lurked around the forest near the parameters of camp. Katie, Malcolm, and Josh saw it first when they were out on an early morning walk because Katie wanted to check how the strawberries were doing. Malcolm yelped when he saw that thing in the distance, just outside of the camp perimeters, but closer than it should have been able to get. 

“Holy shit!” Josh exclaimed. “Holy shit!”

The three of them froze for a second, completely still. Katie felt her heart thumping inside of her chest so loudly that she was sure Malcolm and Josh could hear it, too. 

“That’s a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment,” Malcolm said in a low voice. “They’re not meant to—”

Whatever he was saying was cut off as the trio sprinted away from the strawberry fields as fast as they could. They ended up almost running into Chiron on the veranda of the Big House, and told him the story in out-of-breath, terrified snippets. Chiron immediately sent them inside their cabins and told them to tell all the other campers not to leave their cabins either. Katie wasn’t about to argue, not with that thing out there, looking like it was hungry for a snack of yummy demigod. The Ares kids argued, though, when Katie breathlessly told them the story. Katie and Josh held Miles and Louisa back, but Clarisse ran straight past them to “go destroy that motherfucker.”

Katie, Josh, and Malcolm managed to barricade the door of the Ares cabin closed with their bodies; Miles slumped like all the fight was taken out of him, and Louisa paced around the cabin frantically. 

“That son of a bitch,” she said. Since Louisa had turned fifteen in February, she’d been swearing a whole lot more, claiming it was an “older kid privilege” and telling Katie and Malcolm that they’d understand when they were older. “That son of a bitch.”

“This is bad,” Malcolm said once they’d all sat down in a circle on the floor, squished together unnecessarily. His face was dark. “The last time a hellhound was near camp, it was when Luke summoned one—to kill Percy.”

Katie hadn’t been there for that; she’d only heard about it in hushed voices when she had arrived a week later. Josh hadn’t arrived until the end of that summer, and Miles and Louisa started the summer after that, so Malcolm was the only one of them who really remembered it. Now, he was staring at the ground. He looked nothing like the boy who had stolen Katie’s favorite sweater with a gleeful grin just the week before. 

“This,” Malcolm said again, an air of finality to his voice, “is really bad.”

The cabin went deathly silent. 

“I’m gonna beat Katie to the punch and say it,” Louisa said finally.  “Shut up, Malcolm.” Josh let out a little strangled laugh. Katie looked at him, thinking that he’d finally gone crazy. He huffed another laugh, looking far more relaxed than Katie felt.

“I’m sorry, just - you’re right. Katie does always say that.”

“Hey!” Katie protested. “I do not.”

“You kind of do,” said Miles. “But whatever.”

Katie groaned. The group fell into silence. 

“We should go and do something,” Louisa paced around the room, her gaze locked on the window with eagle-eyed intensity. 

“Chiron said to stay in the cabin,” Katie argued.

“I don’t have a death wish—not today, at least,” Josh said darkly. 

“We should stay in here,” Katie insisted. “Chiron said.”

Louisa groaned, flopping to sit on the corner of her bed. “This is the worst year ever.”

___

Louisa seemed to be proven right over and over as the year continued. Spring brought with it a whole new series of monsters and creepy encounters—even though the days were getting longer, it felt like the world was getting darker. Chiron continued to ramp up training efforts. He said he wanted them all to be experts to “run classes for the campers” when summer got back. 

While the Ares kids and the older kids found their niche easily—Louisa was excellent with sword and shield training, and Miles was the best at javelin—Katie and Malcolm struggled. The only thing Katie seemed really good at was working with plants, but it wasn’t exactly as if anyone was jumping for joy at the idea of a gardening class in the middle of a brewing war. Travis seemed delighted at Katie’s weakness, though: every opportunity he got, he brought it up in this stupid little innocent voice that made Katie’s blood boil.

“Maybe Katie could teach us how to grow a flower!” he suggested sweetly one day when Clarisse didn’t turn up to train their sword fighting class. Katie had to bite her tongue to stop herself from yelling at him. 

Even though the year was shaping up to be pretty bleak, there were a few highlights to the spring. May came and visited camp at the end of March, a couple of weeks before Katie’s birthday. May had finally got her license over the winter, so she arrived at camp in her beat-up, secondhand van. She beeped her horn, making Katie jump and then laugh, uncharacteristically giddy.

Silena had helped her get ready that morning, and Katie was clad in a flowery dress of Silena’s (it was a originally little small, but the Aphrodite cabin had a magical iron that instantly made any item of clothing the wearer’s size, so Silena made it fit perfectly) and her worn pair of Dr. Martens, a borrowed jacket from Malcolm buried in the bottom of her bag in case it got cold. Silena had even done her hair with little butterfly barrettes, taming Katie’s frizz into manageable, pretty curls.

Katie watched through the window as May chatted with Chiron for a bit in the Big House. It felt like an eternity before they both came outside and May wrapped Katie in one of those big-sister hugs. She smelt like vanilla. 

“You up for a road trip?” May asked, eyes filled with mischief. She’d grown since Katie had last seen her—she would be almost finished her junior year, now, Katie supposed. For a second, Katie wondered how she looked through May’s eyes. She wondered if she had changed. She shook her head slightly, trying to clear her mind. She grinned at May.

“Always.”

___

Katie made herself comfortable in May’s messy car. There were a couple of stray McDonald’s bags crumpled at her feet and a vanilla air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. May had a crochet cover over her steering wheel. She grinned at Katie and twisted the keys in the ignition. 

“So, how’s camp?” May asked, turning some knobs on the radio. Avril Lavigne started playing. Katie felt strangely shy.

“Camp’s good.” 

“Just good?” May raised an eyebrow. “I want to hear about all the crazy shit you kids have been up to—and don’t lie and say you haven’t, because if I know anything I know that camp is never just ordinary.” Katie grinned, and May laughed.

“My second summer, me and my friends talked all of the satyrs into performing a flash mob with us. We even got the Hermes kids to get these sparkly confetti cannon things—you had to be there. Coolest shit.” 

“Our Hermes kids are just stupid and mean,” Katie said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. May raised her eyebrows, swearing as she tried to change lanes and a car cut her off.

“Yeah?”

Katie nodded. “Totally. I’ve got Mal and Josh, though.”

May furrowed her brow. “Josh…he’s the Ares kid?” she asked.

Katie laughed. “Aphrodite. He was the one who came to my Big House basement clean-up in the summer. He’s actually really cool.”

“Silena’s kid sister!” May laughed. “And of course he’s cool—he’s friends with you. Gods, how old is he now?”

“Fifteen,” Katie said. “He turns sixteen in September.” May looked away from the road for a second to smile at her.

“I’m glad you’ve got your people.”

“Yeah,” Katie responded happily. “Me, too.”

May had decided to take Katie out to the city for the day for an early birthday present. May was well-loved at Camp, and those qualities definitely translated to the mortal world, too. She was the definition of the word “cool.” She even had a nose piercing. She dressed up-to-date with all the trends, too, Katie noticed—May was wearing low-waisted cargo pants and a tank top for some band Katie didn’t know the name of. Her previously-dark, tight braids had been dyed blonde and hung around down her back in a sort of half-up, half-down style. She was even wearing Avril-esque eyeliner—which looked so cool—and her dark skin was practically glowing. 

“You’re still short, I see?” May ruffled Katie’s hair. Silena had recently given Katie a haircut—her previously long-ish hair now hung just above her shoulders, and it was still weird to run her hands through. 

“I am not,” Katie protested, even though she was the shortest by a mile in her group of friends. Probably out of all of the kids her age at camp—excluding Michael Yew. 

May just laughed.

The rest of the day consisted of May showing Katie around New York City. Even though Katie had lived on Long Island for over two years, she’d rarely been to the city. Katie had maybe the most fun she’d ever had. Even though May was older, she didn’t talk to Katie like she was a little kid. They grabbed snacks at a tiny bodega on a corner where May knew the guy behind the counter, and headed to Central Park to have a mini feast. The spring air was still crisp, but there was life in it still. 

Katie giggled as they got comfortable on the grass. May winked and the grass grew softer, velvety beneath Katie’s legs. Softer than non-magical grass could be, surely. It shimmered in the light of the sun, rich and lush. Katie gaped.

“How do you do that?”

May tapped her nose, leaning in like she was letting Katie in on a big secret. “Not a clue.”

Katie frowned. “I can’t do that.”

“We’re all good at different things,” May said, “I can’t do half the shit that you, or Miranda, or Liam can do.”

“You so can! You’re the one who taught us how to do all that stuff!”

“Not all of it!” May argued. “Remember last summer? Liam scared us all half to death when he somehow managed to summon that weird little fruit guy.”

Katie laughed. “They were attached at the hip.”

May shook her head. “That kid reminds me so much of Jake sometimes. He’s obsessed with animals now, did I tell you?”

“No?”

“Obsessed,” May said. “He’s been begging Dad and Sam for a puppy. Or a cat. Or a bird. Or a snake. Or a-”

“A snake?” Katie shuddered. “No thank you.”

“That’s what I said!” May waved a hand. “I think I would actually die if my little brother owned a pet snake. He promised me it would be a non-venomous one, but it’s still a snake!”

Katie laughed. “Right!”

“Our Planet has been playing, like, twenty-four seven at my house.” May peeled open one of the chocolate bars, taking a bite. “I swear, if I have to hear David Attenborough say one more thing about yellow-bellied penguins…”

Katie laughed. They lounged in the park for hours, steadily eating their way through the sugar-loaded food they had picked up. May absently made four-leafed clovers grow out of the ground, and Katie inspected the magic patch of grass with renewed interest. The sun seemed to hit it more softly, the blades glittering and shining in a way that normal grass did not. Whenever Katie’s skin brushed against it, she felt warm and tingly. Peaceful. May must have read something in her expression, because she threw a balled-up chocolate wrapper at Katie. Katie blinked. 

“Don’t be so glum,” May said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you can do it, too, someday.” Katie stared at the grass, the way it shimmered in the sun. The idea warmed her more than she thought it would. 

“Yeah. Yeah, maybe.”

Katie almost regretted when she saw the sun beginning to set and May started to talk about heading back to camp. She loved camp, but the day with her big sister in the mortal world had made her realize she missed normalcy more than she thought. When the day was over, May would drive back to her real life, with her real siblings and her real dad and her real stepmom and her real home. Katie would be left at camp, just as she always was. 

In the car on the way home, May finally asked about how things were really going at camp. Katie bit her lip, not wanting to spoil the fun, but May insisted. 

“There’s been a lot more monsters,” Katie said slowly. May glanced sympathetically at Katie. 

“Chiron said as much.”

“There was a hellhound last month,” Katie said, “and Chiron’s put together a couple of the older campers like Clarisse and stuff to be ready to fight. And we’re all doing training.”

May’s face darkened from the driver's seat. Outside, it had started to rain.

“Camp wasn’t always like this, y’know?” May said finally. “I’m—I’m sorry for leaving y’all during the school year.”

The tiniest, tiniest part of Katie wished that May had stayed. There were the older campers like Silena and Beckendorf, but May was May. She was Katie’s sister. Katie pushed that little voice as far down as it would go. 

“It’s fine. You’ll be back for the summer, soon, anyway.”

May hummed. “It seems like you guys have been taking good care of each other, though. You’re grown up a lot, Katie.”

Katie considered that. She didn’t feel like she’d grown up that much. She was almost fifteen, though. Soon, she wouldn’t be a lame freshman anymore. She’d be one of the older campers. 

“Still short, though.” May took one hand off the wheel to poke Katie in the shoulder. 

“That’s dangerous,” Katie protested dryly.

May laughed. “I’ve got it under control.” May smiled at Katie warmly. And then, too-casually: “You heard from Mom recently?”

“No. Nothing.” Katie avoided looking at May.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing,” Katie confirmed. She snuck a look over at May, who looked deflated.

“Have you been praying to her?” 

“All the time,” Katie admitted. “Every night.”

“And-”

“Nothing,” Katie said again, her fists clenched tight. May looked at her sadly, ruffled her hair. 

“Sucks.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does.”

That night, Katie prayed to her mother as usual, but it was half-hearted. It was hard to pray properly when you were unsure anyone was listening.

___

Inevitably, spring continued. March crept up with scary stealth, and before Katie knew it, it was the day before her 15th birthday. They were meant to be studying a scene from the Odyssey, but even to Katie, a self-proclaimed goody-two shoes, it was apparent that no work would be getting done. Clarisse had just returned to camp, bloody and bruised. Lee Fletcher was helping her in the infirmary, and Silena was mysteriously missing, too—probably with Clarisse. Everyone was talking in low voices about what might’ve got her. It was no secret that Clarisse was their best fighter (no matter how much the Ares kids and Michael Yew might’ve protested), and the fact that something had hurt her so severely was terrifying. Even more unsettling, the rumors that Clarisse’s injuries had looked more like sword slashes than monster claws or talons. 

The day moved quickly, and before Katie knew it, she was in the dining hall looking out at the stormy sea. Chiron was trying to make his nightly announcements, but the pavilion was still full of low murmuring. He cleared his throat forcibly, and the voices quieted down. Katie glumly looked at him.

“From this point forward,” Chiron was saying, “please refrain from entering the woods—at the very least, exiting the perimeters of camp—alone. If you must do so, do so in pairs or small groups.”

“Like the buddy system?” Travis snickered from the Hermes table, and Chiron gave him a troubled smile.

“Call it what you must. Furthermore, Lee Fletcher requested me to pass on that some help in the infirmary would be appreciated by all those able to. He has a list of jobs to prepare for summer, and he specifically asked,” Chiron glanced down at the piece of paper he was holding with a mixture of amusement and disdain, “his ‘lovely siblings to…’ er, ‘pull their heads out of their asses and lend a hand.’ While such…colorful language is frowned upon, the sentiment remains.”

Everyone snickered and pointed accusatory looks at the Apollo table. Michael Yew was grinning sheepishly, and Will Solace was blushing. Despite her gripes with Lee Fletcher, Katie made a mental note to make a trip down to the infirmary as soon as she got a chance. 

That was how Katie found herself, in the early hours of her fifteenth birthday, pulling all of the bandages out of one of the infirmary cupboards and dusting everything down before replacing everything organized by size. Her back was aching and her hands were cramping and she was sure Lee had given her this job just because he had a grudge against May, but someone had to do it, she supposed. The infirmary smelt like antiseptic and sickness. Katie hated the place. She could faintly hear Clarisse’s breathing from the other room. In the brief glimpse Katie had gotten of her, she was sleeping restlessly, tossing and turning, crisp white bandages wrapped around her stomach. 

Lee had looked terrible when Katie had knocked on the infirmary door tentatively a few hours earlier. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was messy and tangled. Secretly, Katie felt a bit relieved that he wasn’t looking his best—she herself had just rolled out of bed and come straight there, still equipped with bedhead and ratty old pajamas. She couldn’t have slept if she tried. Her mind was too busy racing, thinking about how her dad had yet to call her, how her mom had yet to answer her prayers, the war that was sure to come. She had resolved finally that she may as well make herself productive and had snuck down to the infirmary, shivering in the cold. 

Katie let out a self-satisfied little sigh as she rolled the last bandage and placed it in its box (labeled ‘big boys’ in chicken-scratch handwriting). Her knees cracked as she stood up, and she sighed as she stretched her back—finally.

She made her way back to the main room, where Lee was sitting amid a strewn pile of blankets. Katie raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat. He looked up, startled, but settled when he saw it was just Katie. 

“You’re done?” he asked.

Katie nodded. “You bet.”

There was an awkward silence.

Katie gestured to the blankets on the floor. “You need a hand?”

Lee contemplated the offer for a minute, his pride clearly wrestling with his need for a nap. Katie decided that yes, Lee did need a hand. She picked up one of the blankets as a bundle in her arms.

“You folding them?” 

“Trying to,” Lee sighed. “The cleaning harpies just dropped them off. There’s so much to do.”

Katie laughed. “It’ll be quicker with two of us, anyway.” 

It was. Together, they wrestled the newly-cleaned blankets into neat bricks, stuffing them into one of the open cupboards. They worked in relative silence, for long enough that the sun had risen by the time they were done, wiping sweat off their brows and staring in satisfaction at the organized blankets.

Lee nodded at her in acknowledgement. “Thanks.” 

“No problem,” Katie shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep anyway. Thought I might make myself useful.”

Lee nodded again. “Right.” Lee sounded tired. Katie frowned at him.

“You should probably get some sleep.”

“Can’t,” Lee shrugged. “Too much to do.”

They stood in silence for a minute more. Finally, Katie made to leave, telling Lee that she was hungry and didn’t want to miss breakfast. Lee nodded again.

“Katie?” Katie paused at the door. Lee was in the middle of starting the next job on his list—writing detailed daily summer checklists for infirmary jobs—but he had paused, and was looking at her a little uncomfortably. “I’m sorry for not helping with the strawberry fields. I will next winter.”

Katie nodded at him, the edges of her mouth pulling up.

“I’ll hold you to that, Fletcher. Next winter. You’re on.”

Katie was so hungry and so done caring about what the others thought that she went straight from the infirmary to the dining hall, pajamas, bedhead, and all. The Stolls let out obnoxious whooping sounds, but Katie just stuck her tongue out in their general direction and sat down at the Athena table with Malcolm, who scooted over to make room.

“Happy birthday, sweetie-bear-pookie-pie,” Malcolm deadpanned, and Katie giggled. Breakfast was divine—stacks of pancakes with syrup, Nutella, and fresh berries that Katie ate with gusto, only pausing to quickly scrape some of her meal into the fire before she forgot.

Josh quickly joined them with a “Looking good, Gardner.” 

“I’ll kill you and hide the body,” Katie threatened, waving her pancake-laden fork at him. Josh laughed, and punched her in the shoulder. 

“Happy birthday, plant girl.” Josh grabbed a blueberry off her plate, and Katie protested indignantly. 

After breakfast, she made sure to drop by the infirmary to bring Lee a plate. He gave her a funny nod and a smile that probably would’ve been blinding if he looked like he’d slept in the last 48 hours. 

“Get some rest, Lee!” she called on her way out, resolving to enlist Malcolm and Josh to help him in the infirmary after classes were finished. It was her birthday, after all. They couldn’t say no.

It was weird being the center of attention. In the schoolroom of the Big House, everyone wished Katie a happy birthday (except Travis Stoll, obviously, but she couldn’t care less if she tried). Katie knew she was blushing from all the attention, especially when Beckendorf gave her a kind grin and said that he hoped she was having a good birthday. Beckendorf was way too old for Katie, but no one could deny that he was one of the cutest boys at camp. Josh made fun of her red cheeks ruthlessly until she stomped on his feet under the school desks to shut him up. 

The rest of the day flew by until nighttime, when Katie walked into the Demeter cabin to Malcolm, Josh, Michael Yew, Louisa, and Miles huddled around a pink cake. 

“Happy Birthday, Katie!” they yelled. Katie covered her face in her hands to hide her pink cheeks. 

The cake was delicious and the company was good. Even though it was after curfew, Malcolm assured her that they had run it by all of their head counselors, and that Chiron had left at lunch-time for some super secret mission, anyway. Normally, that fact would’ve made Katie worry about the war. Instead, she just found herself grateful that it meant she could spend more time with her friends without the creeping stress that Chiron would find them. Someone had strung fairy lights all over the cabin roof, and Malcolm had lit some of the candles that sat on the window sill, giving the room an impossibly cheery feel. At one point, Louisa pulled out a bottle of clear liquid.

“Birthday girl gets the first sip!” Louisa pushed the bottle across the floor to Katie, who wrinkled her nose but picked it up and took a sip anyway. She almost retched—it was unexpectedly fiery, burning its way down her throat and into her stomach. 

“What the fuck?” she sputtered, wiping her mouth. The aftertaste was just as bad as the drink itself, and she gagged. “Gross.”

Everyone laughed teasingly, and Katie stuck her tongue out at all of them. She slid the bottle back to Louisa, who took a big gulp before passing it to Michael on her right.

“I can’t believe you brought alcohol to camp,” Katie chided. Louisa just shrugged. 

“Give it back to Katie,” she instructed Michael. “Birthday girl wants some more.” 

Katie protested and shook her head, but, somewhat intoxicated by Louisa grinning at her and the thrill of breaking the rules, ending up taking gulps across the night until she was giggly and spinny. 

They all ended up huddling in a little circle on the floor. Louisa, Josh, and Miles had combined their shared brawn to lay all of the blankets and pillows from the cabin on the ground, and they were all sitting on them now like a picnic blanket. It had started raining outside, but it was warm and toasty inside the cabin. Everyone except Malcolm had been drinking—Josh privately told her that he’d run it by him before, and Malcolm didn’t mind being the sober one—and they were all chatty and giggly. Katie found everything ten times funnier than usual, and found it twenty times harder to filter herself. She leaned to Michael Yew, who was sitting on her right.

“You know we’re the same age now?” she whispered, giggling. He nodded.

“Time, right?”

Katie laughed. There was old music playing out of the CD player. Katie didn’t know the band, but they were soft and croony and Katie thought she loved them. The CD didn’t even belong to Katie—May had said that it had been in the cabin even before she arrived, probably belonging to a child of Demeter from a long time ago. Katie wondered if sometime in the future, when she had grown up and left camp,  some new camper would sit and listen to her music, protected from the rain in the cozy cabin with their best friends. It was a nice thought. 

The night came to an organic end, and Katie was happy and smiley as she watched everyone leave. She hugged Malcolm and Josh and kissed them both on the cheek for good measure, laughing as she watched Malcolm try to stabilize a wobbling Josh as they walked away. Michael and Miles had already gone, and so it was just Louisa left. Louisa was leaning against the door frame expectantly. Katie looked at her questioningly.

“We should do something,” Louisa said. Katie raised her eyebrows, still happy and warm and only a little wobbly.

“We should be in bed right now.” 

“Clarisse said she’d cover for me, and you’re the only one even in your cabin.” Louisa’s eyes sparkled mischievously. If Katie didn’t know any better, she’d almost think Louisa was a Hermes kid. 

“We have school tomorrow,” Katie protested, but it sounded weak even to her. She couldn’t deny that her heart was starting to beat a little faster at the prospect of a late-night adventure. 

“C’mon, Katie, don’t be a buzzkill,” Louisa groaned. “We’re big kids now. We can do whatever we want.”

“That’s not true,” Katie protested, but it was like her voice had dried up in her throat. “Even the older kids listen to Chiron.”

“Come on. Silena and Beckendorf sneak out literally every night to go and make out. They’re older kids.”

Katie blushed, her heart beating faster in her chest. Louisa’s eyes were alight, her face glowing in the moonlight, her low voice cutting through the song of the spring night. 

“Besides, you’re the birthday girl,” Louisa said, and it sounded like the promise of adventure. Katie was helpless to do anything but follow Louisa as she started away from the Demeter cabin. 

They spoke as they walked, giddy after the events of Katie’s party. Katie, who had never really spoken to Louisa much outside of the context of “Louisa and Miles, the Ares kids” found that she actually quite liked the girl. She didn’t know if it was just the alcohol making it easier, but Katie and Louisa were soon giggling like fourth graders, stumbling as they walked. Louisa insisted she had a destination in mind, but Katie thought that was bullshit.

“We’re just going in circles!” she giggled. Louisa stuck out a clumsy hand to shush her. 

“We’re being stealthy,” Lousia whispered. “Throwing them off the trail.”

“Okay, Miss Stealthy.” Katie felt exhilarated, even though their circumstances were ridiculous, walking around behind all the cabins like they were spies in a movie. “Can I ask you something?"

“Shoot,” Louisa said, and looked left and right in an overexaggerated spy move. 

“Okay,” Katie bit her lip, “top three moments from this winter.”

Louisa kept walking, occasionally pausing to check around the back of a cabin before jogging to the next one. Katie giggled at her exaggerated antics, and played along. She felt almost light-headed.  

“Number one: when Miles, the Stolls and I tried to prank Chiron by making him think that Miles had never existed and was just a figment of his imagination.” Katie laughed loudly, startled.

“What? How have I never heard about this?”

“Shhh! Stop giving away our position, Gardner! It didn’t work—obviously—but us three were just losing it. It was the funniest shit ever.”

“That’s so stupid,” Katie wheezed. “Never tell the Stolls I said this, but that’s so funny.”

The idea of Chiron getting increasingly frustrated at the Stolls and Louisa as they adamantly tried to convince the centaur that one of his campers was just a hallucination really was—as Louisa put it—the funniest shit ever. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Louisa said, but she was grinning. “I’m hilarious. Number two would be when Clarisse and Miles and I killed that telekhine thing. Best sibling bonding ever.”

If that was what Louisa considered to be sibling bonding, Katie was secretly very glad she wasn’t a child of Ares. 

“Number three would probably be New Year’s,” Louisa shrugged. “I liked the fireworks.” Katie remembered the way the bright colors evaporated into the icy night sky with a sigh. 

“They were pretty.”

“Aha!” Louisa said suddenly. “We’re here!”

“Here” turned out to be the Apollo cabin, which glinted slightly gold even in the moonlight. Katie hung back on the ground as Louisa jogged up the stairs and knocked lightly on the door, but when Louisa turned to her and gestured for her to follow, Katie did. Will Solace opened the door, and Katie had to suppress a giggle as Louisa grinned at him charmingly.

“Solace, go get Michael. Pretty please,” Louisa said. Katie gave him an awkward wave.

“Hey, Will.”

“Hi, Katie. Hi, Louisa,” Will said with a resigned little sigh, before disappearing into the cabin. A second later, there was Michael, looking sleepy and confused. 

“What do you want?” He was still in his cargo shorts from the party, plus a comfy-looking black sweatshirt. Katie looked to Louisa, who grinned widely.

“I think tonight’s the night,” she said in a low tone. Katie looked at her in confusion. “We should do that thing.”

Michael’s eyes widened with recognition, and his brow furrowed. He nodded towards Katie. 

“With her?” 

Katie was about to snap at him and ask what that was supposed to mean, but Louisa quickly jumped in.

“Naturally. I hate to say it, but she’s our best bet at protection when we’re going through the woods. Demeter kid, y’know.”

Katie tried to protest, but Louisa stomped on her foot to shut her up. Katie turned her glare on Louisa, annoyed, but then Louisa winked at her and all of her irritation fell away, leaving only intrigue. Michael looked thoughtful for a long minute until finally he shrugged.

“Right then. Katie Tree Gardner, you are officially invited on this epic quest.”

“Her middle name is not Tree, you stupid fuck,” Louisa huffed as Michael rummaged around for some shoes.

“Language,” Katie automatically chided, and both Louisa and Michael turned to her with judging looks so identical that it sent Katie off into giggles again. Michael must’ve gotten ready quickly, because next thing she knew, Louisa was linking her arm into Katie’s and they were setting off towards the edge of camp. Michael trudged along beside them, loudly complaining about the little insects that flew in the air around them.

“Why do you even want to go into the woods? D’you have a death wish?” Katie whispered, and Louisa laughed, eyes sparkling.

“It’s a surprise.”

“You hate surprises,” Katie said suspiciously

Louisa just shrugged and continued to walk, unlinking her arm from Katie’s but gesturing for Katie and Michael to follow. Michael gave Katie an indecipherable look before following Louisa. Katie hesitated for a beat, watching Louisa and Katie make their way towards the woods, talking and laughing under the pale glint of the moonlight. She bit her lip, and then, with one last, wistful look towards the cabins, jogged to catch up, muttering under her breath about how annoying Louisa was. 

Katie was not a mischievous person by nature. The only thing that overcame her desire to follow the rules was her stubbornness—she stubbornly chose her friends and she stubbornly stood by them. And—Katie realized as she followed Louisa and Michael around the other side of the Lake, away from the cabins—Louisa was one of those friends. The promise of adventure had Katie’s heart beating a little faster. She really was growing up. 

When she caught up with her friends, Louisa sent her a smug look, and Katie scowled.

“Don’t look so happy.” Katie tried to glower but ended up laughing instead, holding her hands up in surrender. “I’m just coming along so you don’t get yourself killed with whatever stupid thing you’re doing.”

Louisa grinned. “Nah, you love me.”

They made their way to the edge of the woods, walking around the lake that separated them from the cabins and the main buildings at camp. The sight of their shadowy expanse made Katie’s laugh (Michael had been telling a story about his siblings) die in her throat. She steeled herself the best she could. She was a daughter of Demeter—the woods were meant to be her home turf. Still, she couldn’t help the thumping of her heart and the clamminess of her palms, despite the relatively cool breeze.  

“If you’re scared, though, you can go back, Gardner,” Louisa teased when she noticed Katie’s hesitance.

“I’m not scared,” Katie claimed, trying to sound more certain than she felt. 

“Good. I’m not scared. Michael, are you scared?”

Michael shrugged. “Not particularly.”

Louisa shrugged, too, as if to say, Point proven. Katie glowered at her, and Louisa softened just a little. “Look, Katie. Michael and I have been planning this for ages. This’ll even beat the time we tried to get that pizza guy to deliver to camp. Sometimes, you just need a forced adventure.”

“Kidnapping,” Katie muttered. “That is the definition of kidnapping.”

But she took a deep breath and followed Louisa and Michael into the dark woods nonetheless. Looking back, she would never really be able to explain why she followed them. Maybe it was because of the alcohol. Maybe it was because she was fifteen and everything felt a little bit more possible. Maybe, she just trusted Louisa enough to follow her.

Either way, she was on high alert—every crack of a branch made her jump, and the sounds of the forest sent her heart beating faster. As if sensing her fear, the shrubbery near her pulled in closer, and Michael and Louisa both shot her a weird look. The trees cast dark shadows in the moonlight, and the trio unconsciously gravitated closer to each other. At one point, a bird flew down near them and all three of them almost jumped out of their skins, then pretended it never happened. 

They walked for ten excruciating minutes, and just as Katie thought her heart was fully about to explode out of chest in terror, they broke through the woods onto soft sand. In the distance, the endless stretch of the ocean reflected the moon and stars like a fun-house mirror. The sky above them looked like a tapestry, and the darkness of the night made the beach look like it stretched on forever. 

“The beach. You brought us to the beach,” Katie said in disbelief, a laugh bubbling in her chest. Louisa and Michael nodded with matching grins and immediately began to sprint down towards the water—Michael let out a victorious whoop, the sound disappearing into the warm night air. 

“C’mon, Katie!” Louisa called. Katie took one last look at the woods behind her. She steeled herself. 

“Screw it,” Katie decided, and ran after Louisa and Michael towards the water, pausing only to kick off her sneakers and feel the sand beneath her, the summer breeze warming her as she ran towards the darkness of the ocean. 

She was grinning when she finally met Louisa and Michael down by the shore. They were close enough to the water that it tickled Katie’s toes, the ocean mist spraying gently on her face.

“You win,” Katie said over the sound of the ocean. “This is awesome.” 

Katie could almost forget there was a camp at all. All that existed was the endless expanse of the ocean, the cool water against the warm night air, and the grinning faces of Michael and Louisa. 

Katie wasn’t someone like Louisa and Michael by nature. She’d never be someone who ran to climb the nearest cliff, or snuck out to the beach at midnight, or embraced the world for all of its terrifying rough edges. Katie was made of soft music and hard work—gardening and cooking, warm cabins in the dead of winter. But, looking at Louisa, Michael, and the dark expanse of the ocean seeming to stretch on forever, Katie was glad she was here and nowhere else. She felt alive, magical; Louisa and Michael looked like they felt the same way. 

Katie was content to stand in the shallows and dip her toe into the edge of adventure. 

Of course Louisa wasn’t. Katie watched in disbelief as her friend pulled off her camp shirt to reveal a black sports bra and muscular shoulders. 

If she was feeling more like herself, Katie probably would’ve yelled. She wasn’t, though—she loved Louisa and she loved the world and she felt so intoxicatingly happy that she just laughed. 

“Lou, what the—what the fuck are you doing?” Swearing, too, made Katie feel that giddy jolt of freedom and adrenaline. 

“Prissy Katie Gardner has a mouth on her,” Michael grinned, but it wasn’t mean. Louisa smirked at them both, pulling off her jeans, too, and making Katie’s cheeks burn. Louisa looked to the ocean, and then to Katie, her long, dark braid flicking as she turned. 

“Are you guys coming in, or what?” Louisa unceremoniously tossed her clothes into the sand, venturing out back into the shore to join Katie and Michael. Katie looked at Michael, a laugh bubbling inside her chest. She’d barely even exchanged four words with him before today. He grinned at her.

“You too pussy?” Louisa teased.

“You’re insane!” Katie yelled at her, but she was laughing. 

Michael just shrugged, before retreating to the shore to pull his shirt off. Katie didn’t even like him like that, but she actually felt like she might spontaneously combust from the redness in her cheeks, what with Louisa in her underwear and Michael shirtless in his cargo shorts. 

Katie retreated back a couple of steps onto the shore. Michael and Louisa, who were already waist deeping in the cold water, looked back at her. 

“C’mon, Gardner!” Louisa shouted, like she was running drills at training. “You’ve got this!”

Michael gave another loud whoop. Katie laughed, but hesitated for a moment, feeling like she was a completely different person, like she’d stepped into a parallel universe in the weirdest, best way possible. 

“I don’t have a swimsuit!” she called out. 

“Who cares?” Louisa yelled back. “Not me! Do you care, Michael?”

“Not one bit!”

“None of it even matters anyway, Gardner!” Louisa yelled with another laugh. Katie half-heartedly scowled.

“That’s terrifying!”

“That’s the best part!” Louisa grinned at her, and Katie was enchanted. Katie was wearing cargo shorts—much like Michael’s—with an old sports bra and her camp shirt. She bit her lip, hesitating for one more moment, before-

“I’m doing this,” she whispered to herself, half in disbelief. She shook her head, squared her shoulders. “I’m doing this.”

Katie was as stubborn with herself as she was with everything else in her life—once she made a decision, there was no going back. Trying to look more confident than she felt, Katie pulled off her camp shirt and placed it with Louisa’s and Michael’s clothes before running down to the water to meet them.

“Ooh!” Katie exclaimed as she found herself waist deep in the frigid waves of the ocean. Michael and Louisa grinned like crazy people from a little further out. “I hate you both!”

Katie took the plunge, diving in to meet them both a little further out. She planted her feet on the sandy ground and jogged on the spot to try and warm up. 

Louisa splashed Katie with water and she shrieked, the cold hitting her like a slap in the face. Katie splashed some back, which led to an all-out war until Louisa and Michael got bored and started to play a game where they shoved each other as hard as they could into the surf. It looked violent, but they were both laughing, so Katie assumed there were no hard feelings. Bored of watching them, Katie swam out a little further, out past where the waves were breaking. She floated gently on the still water, lying on her back and watching the stars emerge.

Katie didn’t know how long she lay there, floating—it could’ve been a minute, it could’ve been ten. Eventually, feeling lighter than she had in a long time, she paddled back over to closer to the shore, where Michael was getting dumped by a wave.

“C’mon waves! You can do better! Really throw him around!” Louisa yelled. 

Katie rolled her eyes, but she was grinning and warm inside. “C’mon, Ares. Let’s go back to camp. I’m freezing.”

The walk back to camp was cold and squelchy, but they filled it with stories and laughter, even as their teeth chattered. Louisa insisted on dropping Michael back to the Apollo cabin first, and they watched him retreat into the cabin, giggling at the way his cargo shorts dripped seawater onto the floor. 

Louisa insisted she would walk Katie back to her cabin, and Katie flushed and grinned at her so hard it made her cheeks hurt.

“You’re a gentleman,” Katie announced when they had made it to her cabin door. Louisa laughed, but she seemed distracted. In the moonlight, her dark hair gleamed, still wet and dripping from the ocean. Katie was just about to ask what was the matter when, out of the blue, Louisa leaned down and kissed her. Just a peck. A brush of the lips, really. Katie barely had time to register it before Louisa pulled away.  

They stared at each other for a second, silent. Katie felt like she could run a marathon with the amount of adrenaline she had swirling inside her. Louisa cleared her throat. Her cheeks were tinged pink, too.

“I’m really drunk,” Louisa said, even though she couldn’t have more to drink than Katie, and between all the walking and the swimming Katie had sobered up plenty. “I’m not…”

She trailed off helplessly, and Katie resisted the urge to pick up her hand and squeeze it. Instead, she just gave Louisa the most reassuring smile she could muster, trying to ignore the hurricane inside of her chest. 

“Okay. I mean, it’s okay if you are-”

“I’m not,” Louisa snapped, fists clenched like she was ready to fight. Her eyes were glassy underneath the moonlight. Louisa shut her eyes so tightly it looked like it hurt, and cleared her throat. “Don’t tell anyone. I’m gonna go.”

Katie tried to say something—an apology, a comfort, anything, but Louisa had already left, her figure stalking into the darkness and away from the light and warmth still emanating from the Demeter cabin, and Katie was left alone on the porch, wondering what she did wrong. 

Chapter Text

‘the devil’s in the details / but you’ve got a friend in me ’— taylor swift

Something was off-balance. Katie’s whole world had been tilted on its axis, but time was marching forward to the summer and to the change it would bring. Louisa had been acting like nothing had happened, ignoring the way that a simple glance from her left Katie burning from the inside. Katie had been trying to act like nothing had happened, too, but subtlety had never been her specialty and she was using a ridiculous amount of self-restraint to not walk up to Louisa and confront her like she had to Josh all those months ago. 

You don’t have to be afraid, she wanted to tell her. I think I might like you.

And maybe that was the problem. Maybe Louisa didn’t mean anything by the kiss—maybe she was drunk and lonely and wanted a kiss. Maybe Louisa was just messing around, seeing how Katie would react. Maybe Katie was the weird one, the wrong one. 

And Katie liked boys ; she knew that. She liked their short hair and their voices and their laughs and their grazed knees and their comfy sweaters. But then Louisa kissed her, and it was like her whole self-perception came crumbling down before her. Because Katie liked boys . But she thought she might like Louisa, too. 

They weren’t even proper friends, never really had been. But the night of Katie’s birthday made her wish they were. Now that Katie had noticed her, it was impossible to not notice her. Louisa would always be the first to fight, true, but that just meant she had beliefs and she would stand for them. She wasn’t the loudest person in the room, but she was the most unafraid; she walked around like she knew what she was worth and she knew that everyone else knew that, too. She had opinions on almost everything: the weather, the worksheet Chiron assigned them, the perfect water temperature for a shower (overhearing that argument between Louisa and Michael in school one day had Katie turning so red that Josh had asked if she needed some air). 

Katie couldn’t talk to Malcolm and Josh about it. She couldn’t talk to anyone about it, least of all Louisa, who acted like she didn’t know Katie any more than she knew Drew Tanaka.

Katie, predictably, threw herself into her work. There were flowers to be maintained, strawberry fields to be tended to, reports to be sorted through from Chiron. Summer approached too quickly. She was running out of time before things would change. 

“You’re so boring lately,” Josh complained one day. Katie gave him the stink eye.

“I’m not boring,” Katie protested. “I’m doing important work.”

“I’m pretty sure Chiron is avoiding you.”

“He’s so not!” Katie flushed. “He likes that I help out around camp!” Josh raised a skeptical eyebrow at the old attendance records that Katie was currently sorting by cabin, year, and last name, but didn’t say anything. 

Katie was sure that he was wrong. Chiron probably loved that she took initiative around camp! It was the sort of thing May might do if she was a year-round camper. Besides, it helped take her mind off of other things. Mostly Louisa. Did Louisa like her? Did she hate her? Did she want to be friends or not want to talk to her ever again? Did she want to kiss again? Katie had always been good at black and white, and trying to live in the gray area felt like it was slowly making her crazy. 

_____

Somewhere, in the icy cold and pure white snow of winter, Katie had gotten used to things the way they were. Even now, with Louisa being strange and Katie’s world turned dizzying and nausea-inducing, there was a routine to it. Unfortunately for Katie, she couldn’t stop time as much as she couldn’t stop Travis Stoll from being the most annoying person on the planet, and on the second last day of May, the summer campers began trickling in and camp was once again full of noise and movement. 

Miranda was the first to arrive. Early in the morning, her dad dropped her off with a kiss on the cheek that Miranda swatted away. Katie, who had been craning her neck from the top of Half-Blood Hill to see if she could spot a familiar face, grinned so hard she felt like her face might fall off and ran down the hill to greet her sister.

Miranda had gotten taller since last summer—taller than Katie, at least, but that wasn’t hard. Her sleek dark hair was pulled back into a braid and her skin was even tanner than usual. When she saw Katie, she squealed and set down her bags to pull Katie into a hug. Miranda smelled like bubblegum perfume. 

“Holy shit, I’ve missed you!” Miranda squealed. Katie grinned at her. 

“Hey, watch the language, there’s kids around.” She swatted Miranda’s arm, and Miranda laughed. 

“You haven’t changed a bit,” she giggled. Katie stuck her tongue out.

On the way to Cabin Four, Miranda updated her on everything that had happened at home—normal teenager stuff. Miranda had a boyfriend, a tall boy named Derek who she sort of liked but was worried about going long-distance with over the summer. She’d been really into knitting lately. Her stepmom had had a health scare and was in the hospital, but things were looking good. 

In return, Katie told her all about what had happened at camp during the year. She told her that Malcolm and Josh were still the best, and Travis Stoll was still the worst, and everyone else was pretty much the same. In one of her stories, she must’ve offhandedly mentioned Louisa, because a minute later, Miranda was snapping her fingers like she always did when she was trying to remember something.

“Louisa…Louisa. Is she that one Hermes kid? Y’know, with the blue hair and shit?”

Katie felt like a deer in the headlights, but she tried her best to act casual. To Malcolm or Josh, it would’ve been totally transparent. Luckily, Miranda hadn’t seen her since last summer, and so when Katie said, “Nah, Ares. Tall. Dark hair,” Miranda just widened her eyes.

“Wait, she’s that buff one, right? The one who tried to get our wheels in that chariot race last year? Oh my gods, I never would’ve thought you’d be friends with her!” Katie flushed, suddenly self-conscious.

“We’re not even really friends. I mainly hang out with Mal and Josh.”

“Oh, no, K, I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I always just thought she was kind of scary, that’s all!”

“Yeah.” Katie tried to laugh, but it sounded forced even to her. 

“I’m sure she’s really nice,” Miranda said kindly, with an air of finality that was hard to protest. Miranda was as stubborn as Katie, so Katie knew she’d stick to that now. She found herself wishing she hadn’t even brought up Louisa at all. 

May was the next to arrive, opening the door to the cabin so quietly that it startled both Katie and Miranda when they looked up and she had suddenly materialized. May grinned devilishly.

“You two teaming up already, huh?” she laughed. “Still obsessed with the Jonas Brothers, M?”

“I was not obsessed with the Jonas Brothers!” Miranda protested, her face flushed. Katie snorted.

“Remember her shrine to them?” 

“That was two summers ago—”

“Ha!” May snorted. “I remember giving her a very strict suggestion to take it down, because Liam said that Joe Jonas staring at him while he was trying to sleep was giving him nightmares.”

Miranda argued, but Katie was already laughing. 

Liam arrived next, and Katie was shocked to see how much he had grown since last summer. He proudly informed them that he was eleven now, and that he had brought his Ninja Turtle models and would appreciate it if none of them touched them. Once he had left the cabin, Katie, Miranda, and May burst into laughter. 

That night, on the way to dinner, they passed a nine-year old walking with the Hermes cabin, struggling to carry a sword that looked like it was taller than him and drowning in a heavy-looking set of Greek armor. The girls all “awwwed,” but Liam snickered.

“I’m not a camp baby anymore,” he informed Katie. “Look at how stupid that kid looks.”

Katie whacked him on the back of the head, and he stuck his tongue out at her. 

At dinner, the pavilion was the busiest and rowdiest it had been in months. Katie caught sight of Malcolm at the Athena table, surrounded by half-a-dozen of his athletic-looking siblings. Katie was shocked to see how old Malcolm looked next to them. She also was shocked to see how few of them there were. During her first year at camp, the Athena cabin had at least a dozen kids. 

At the Aphrodite table, Josh, Silena, and Drew were surrounded by newcomers, too, as was the case for most of the tables. Instinctually, Katie shot a look over at the Hermes cabin, where Travis Stoll was in the middle of talking, his hands waving around expressively. There were a lot more empty seats than usual at the Hermes table. Travis Stoll caught her gaze, and Katie turned away, embarrassed. 

At the head of the pavilion, Chiron cleared his throat. The hall fell quiet. 

“Welcome to camp,” Chiron said. With amusement, Katie caught some of the new campers looking at him in wonder, fixated on the tail that swung from the end of his body. She nudged Miranda and pointed it out. Miranda giggled.

“Welcome back to many familiar faces, and welcome to any new ones. I trust that our more senior campers will make you feel welcome and provide answers to any questions that may arise.”

The room immediately filled with chatter. Katie grinned as she looked at all of the wide-eyed newbies. 

“Finally,” Chiron said wearily, “your chore schedules and daily schedules will be posted to your cabin doors come morning. Please stick to curfew; the cleaning harpies have returned for the summer, and have no reservations about eating any campers out of bed when they shouldn’t be. Thank you, and once more, welcome to Camp Half-Blood.”

True to Chiron’s word, schedules were posted bright and early the next morning. Liam, ever the early riser, woke Katie up with a shake and shoved the piece of paper in her face. Katie groaned and rolled over, trying to smother herself in her pillow. 

“Chiron put us on stable cleaning duty,” Liam complained, “ and we’ve got battle training at nine with the Ares kids. C’mon, we better go if we want the best showers.” 

The first few days at camp for the summer were always uniquely chaotic. As everyone was still settling in, the chore schedule was a mess and everyone was struggling to get used to the routine of it. Even worse, cabin inspections didn’t start until a week into the summer, meaning that the attainment of certain privileges (like being first to the showers) turned into an all-out war. 

One morning, Katie woke up to clanging. Groggily, she peered out of the door of Cabin Four, blinking in the sunlight. The Hermes kids were all crowded around Cabin Seven, armed with shovels and wheelbarrows. Katie blinked, sure that she was hallucinating. 

“ Ugh…” Miranda groaned from inside the cabin, rolling over to smother her pillow over her ears. “Tell them to shut up.”

May was still snoring in her bed. Liam put down his comic book and wandered over to the door to stand next to Katie, squinting in the direction of Cabin Seven. Predictably, he was already dressed and ready for the day. Katie wiped the sleep out of her eyes, suppressing a yawn.

“What are they doing?” Liam frowned. 

“Not a clue,” Katie said. “Probably something stupid.”

They looked in silence for a second. It was the most work Katie had ever seen the Hermes kids do: muttering conspicuously amongst themselves as they dug their shovels into the ground, tearing up the grass and dumping it into wheelbarrows. They had dug quite deep, really; one of the taller Hermes kids was up to his knees in his part of the trench. Katie pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“They’re ruining the grass!” Liam sounded distressed. “They’re ripping it all up— look!”

“I know,” Katie grumbled, glancing back to May. “May could probably tell them to stop. They won’t listen to me.”

“Why not?” Liam asked. 

“Not a head counselor.”

“Oh.” Liam frowned as he surveyed the Hermes kids again. “Well we have to do something. Can we wake up May? What about Chiron? Could we tell him? Or Mr. D? Could he stop them?”

“Mr. D won’t.” Katie pursed her lips. “Maybe Chiron?”

“Can we go and tell him?” Liam asked. “Surely he’s awake.”

Katie bit her lip. “Maybe we should wake up May?”

“We have to do something,” Liam said again, agitated. “They’re ruining the lawn. The dryads are gonna be so mad.”

Katie hesitated, looking over at May. She was still sporadically snoring in bed, her pink satin bonnet secured over her long braids. “Maybe we should wake up May.”

“No!” Liam said urgently. “We’ve got to do something now ! May will take, like twenty minutes to wake up properly—by then, they’ll probably have ruined the whole lawn!”

“Liam—” Katie didn’t get to finish her sentence before her little brother marched down the stairs of the porch, making a beeline towards the Hermes kids. Katie took one, last, lingering look over at May before rushing after him, ignoring the strange looks she was getting from some of the Athena kids as she jogged past their cabin. The grass was still dewy beneath her feet, cool condensation wetting her socks. She shivered at the sensation. 

“A little more on the right, Lou Ellen!” Travis Stoll called out from the back of the Apollo cabin, his head ducking around the side. “Perfect!”

A new girl about Drew’s age who Katie presumed was Lou Ellen, gave him a thumbs up. She was standing knee-deep in the ground, a pile of dirt almost as tall as Liam piled up next to her. 

“You guys don’t have the nature spirits’ permission to dig up the grass!” Liam called out, his arms crossed firmly. Katie finally reached him, huffing. She wrapped an arm around him, trying to coax him away.

“Look, lets just go and get May—”

“Chill.” Connor Stoll poked his head out from the other side of the cabin. “They’ll just be glad there’s no landmines involved this time.”

“ Landmines?” Liam turned to Katie, his mouth hanging open and eyebrows raised so high they almost disappeared into his hairline. “ LANDMINES? ”

Katie opened her mouth and then closed it again. The Hermes kids continued to dig. Their shovels clung into each other, the metallic sound of impact ringing in Katie’s ears. 

“What the Hades are you guys doing?” A new voice rang out through the clearing. Katie swung around to see Michael Yew, his face red with anger. His hair was dripping wet, and he carried a bundle of clothes in his arms. Behind him stood some other Apollo kids— Katie spotted Joe King, a tall blonde who she vaguely knew from last summer, as well as a younger new girl with a shock of ginger hair. “What the f—”

“What are you doing?” one of the Hermes kids asked, looking equally annoyed. “Y’all are meant to be inside the cabin! What are you—”

“You guys didn’t check inside the cabin?” Another one of the Hermes kids threw his shovel to the ground in exasperation. “Are you kidding me? How stupid do you have to be to not check—”

“You could’ve checked!” The first Hermes kid responded, her face flushed. “I thought Connor was checking.”

“Julia!” The first Hermes kid said. “ You guys were here first ! You should’ve checked before you—”

“You still haven’t explained why you’re ruining our cabin in the first place!” Michael Yew yelled, throwing his pile of clothes to the grassy ground and clenching his fists threateningly. 

“You guys always hog all the hot water!” Julia shouted back. “We’re always left for last—”

“We do not hog the hot water!” Joe snapped. “And you guys are left for last because you’re the biggest cabin! If y’all went first, there’d be no hot water for anyone!”

“You guys are the second biggest cabin,” Connor, who had emerged from the trench, added. “Why should you guys get to go first?”

“Because we get there first!” Joe snapped. “You guys are more than welcome to get up before the conch if you want first showers, too!”

“We want—”

“And you wonder why everyone hates you!” Joe wasn’t finished. His pale skin was flushed pink. “You know, if everyone thought my cabin were giant traitors, I’d probably be a little nicer around camp to make up for it!”

Connor opened his mouth, but he didn’t get a chance to speak before Julia and the Hermes boy were flying towards Joe. Katie instinctively pushed Liam behind her and stepped forward, although she was completely unsure what she was about to say. A loud voice cut through the clearing before she even got the chance to speak. Katie looked around, confused for a split second. May was standing at the edge of the trench, her hands planted firmly on her hips. 

“Joe, Julia, Charlie— Cut it out right now.” May was still in her pajamas. Her eyebrows were firmly scrunched together, her tone cold and commanding. There was a distinct aura of authority to her that even the Hermes kids responded to. “You all are losing first shower privileges for two weeks if you keep this bullshit up.”

“But—”

“But nothing. Michael— Where the hell is Lee?”

Michael, who had launched himself in the middle of the three fighting kids, glowered at May, his features pinched together. “He’s in the infirmary with Will. But he said I could be second in command—”

“He did not!” Joe argued. “I’m older!”

“Yeah, and I’ve been here longer!”

“That’s such—”

“Not important right now,” May said with a withering stare. “Julia, Charlie— No excuses for fighting another camper. Travis, Connor, this will be getting mentioned in the meeting tonight.”

Travis and Connor didn’t look happy, but neither of them protested. 

“Joe— What you said was completely out of line. I’ll be having words with Lee and you’ll be on KP for the rest of the week.”

The Apollo kids all protested, but May didn’t listen to any of them. She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to Katie and Liam, looking distinctly disappointed. Katie burned with shame. 

“Katie, Liam— You can go to breakfast and then come back and help me fix up this…” May surveyed the damage. The grass was patchy, and, for the most part, completely gone. The dirt trench surrounding Cabin Seven was uneven and bumpy: it probably wouldn’t trap the Apollo kids in the cabin, but it would surely result in a rolled ankle or broken arm if it wasn’t restored. 

“Trench,” Connor provided helpfully. “Fat lot of good it did, though. We didn’t even get the first showers.”

May sent them all off to breakfast without another word. Even though no one looked happy, no one argued either. Miranda joined them at breakfast, dark hair twisted into an intricate-looking braid. She yawned.

“What’s on for today?”

“Fixing up the ground,” Liam supplied helpfully, mid-bite. He had maple syrup all over his face, and Katie tried to wipe it off with her thumb before he swatted her away. “Hermes kids screwed it up.”

“What about training?” Miranda frowned. “I thought we were doing more of that this summer.”

“We are,” Katie replied, mid-way through her own bite. “May’s going to try and get us out of it. Either that or we’re just going to have to fix up the ground in between training and classes and stuff.”

May didn’t end up being able to get them out of training. All day, the Hermes kids and Apollo kids alike shot Katie and her siblings deadly looks. 

“Ignore them,” Katie told Liam, even as her own face flushed when Esther Allen from the Hermes cabin refused to work with any of them in Beckendorf’s forgery class.

“It’ll blow over soon,” Miranda promised, wincing as she narrowly avoided burning her finger on the red-hot tongs. The forge was headache inducing, a result of both the fiery heat and the constant loud, metallic clanging. Katie puffed, reaching the back of her arm to wipe away the sweat beading on her forehead. They were meant to be making shields; Katie doubted that her poor attempt would protect anyone from anything. 

Instead of going to the campfire, Katie and her siblings gathered by the failed trench later that night. The sun had well and truly set, and the ground was only illuminated by the moon and the faint golden glow of the Apollo cabin. Katie could faintly hear the familiar rhythms of campfire songs in the distance. She shivered in the cool night breeze, pulling her jacket tighter. 

“I don’t understand why we couldn’t just miss training,” Miranda muttered to Katie, shivering. “It’s not as if Chiron had a problem with us missing it last summer.”

“He wants everyone prepared this summer,” May said with a stern look, but refused to explain anymore. She surveyed the messy ground with an analytical gaze. “Alright. So here’s what I’m thinking. If we shovel the dirt back in, we should be able to make the root system grow well enough to get it back to the way that it was. And then I’m thinking the grass should be easy to redo over the top of it. We should be able to get it done before curfew, if we work hard.”

Katie surveyed the damage. It seemed impossible to think that it could be back to normal in two hours. She remembered the landmine-damaged grass over the winter. Katie hadn’t been able to fix that properly on her own, and that had been nothing compared to this . This time, though, she had her siblings. 

It became clear almost immediately that both May and Miranda were far better at nursing the grass back to life than either Liam or Katie. Even though her face warmed, Katie tried not to let it bother her. Instead, she focused on the plants in front of her. She focused on the tingling in her fingers, the warmth in her stomach as the roots began to stretch and intertwine once more. May gave them clear directions throughout, beaming with pride when Miranda managed to coax a particularly stubborn patch of mutilated daisies back to life. By the end of it, Katie’s hands were covered in dirt and she was exhausted. She was undeniably proud, though, as they all stood back to see the fruits of their labor. The trench was no more: the grass grew long and green and luscious, shining with May’s magic, velvety and soft. They had brought life. It was hard work, and Katie was proud. 

_____

The next few weeks seemed to fly by. Katie and her siblings always seemed to be busy doing something : battle training, first aid training, shifts in the infirmary, shifts collecting herbs in the woods, time at the strawberry fields, trying to stay out of the hundreds of arguments between other cabins, and practicing about a million different things Katie was sure she would never need (For example, the two-hour-long course on forgery, led by an increasingly frustrated Beckendorf: really, Chiron?). Katie was always exhausted by the time the end of the day rolled around. 

The Hermes kids and Apollo kids quickly forgave Katie and her siblings. Katie suspected this was largely due to May, who everyone seemed to both like and respect. Katie glowed with pride whenever someone brought up May, and she and Miranda both agreed they had the best big sister in the whole of camp. 

It took very little time to get back into the familiarity of depending on the tight-knit family of Cabin Four. The sun shined down on them, the breeze light and warm and smelling of summer. Katie’s freckles grew prominent with the endless hours outside. She and her siblings fell into the habit of visiting the strawberry fields everyday during lunch, working together as the satyrs played music on their reed pipes and the bees buzzed around their heads. There was no need for much talk when they were at the fields. Katie lived for the steady beat of their hard work, the silent companionship of her siblings, and the calluses that began to form on the palms of her hands.

_____

A new sibling was added to the mix one Friday. Katie was eating lunch by the canoe lake when Josh sat down next to her, a sandwich in his hand. 

“New kids today,” he said conversationally. “Did you hear?”

Katie raised her eyebrows, turning away from watching the naiads dance in the azure canoe lake to sit cross-legged, facing Josh. “No?”

Josh nodded. “They arrived about ten minutes ago. Apparently their satyr found them both in New York being attacked by monsters and took them straight here.”

“Gods,” Katie frowned. “ More monsters?”

“Seems so.” Josh’s eyebrows were furrowed together. According to Malcolm, there had been an increase in monster attacks outside of the borders of camp since summer had begun. “They made it out okay, though. I think the boy is in the infirmary—broke his ankle or something.”

“How old?”

“The boy’s ten, and the girl’s eleven. That’s what Malcolm said, at least.”

Katie’s frown deepened. “That’s so young.”

“I know,” Josh said lowly. 

“I thought monsters weren’t meant to be able to attack kids that young,” Katie said. 

Josh bit his lip. “I mean, Malcolm said that sometimes they do. But they shouldn’t. Normally, demigods have until about twelve or thirteen before the monsters can properly pick up their scent.”

Katie shivered. It was easy sometimes, at camp, to forget the world that lay outside of its barriers. 

Katie got her first sighting of the two demigods at dinner. They looked very young sitting over at the Hermes table. The boy was round and short, with chestnut brown hair and round rosy cheeks. The girl was blonde and slight, dressed in jeans and a colorful jacket, despite the warmth. Miranda followed her gaze over to the Hermes table. 

“They look so little,” Miranda said. Katie nodded in agreement. “I feel like I should be tucking them into bed and giving them hot cocoa, not teaching them to fight monsters and go on quests.”

“They’re not that little,” Liam protested. “It’s not like they’re, like, eight.”

“Apparently they were caught by monsters in the city,” Katie filled Miranda in quietly while May joked with Liam. “Attacked in broad daylight. They barely made it to camp—according to Miles.”

“Gods.” Miranda shook her head. “The poor things. They must be terrified.”

Katie looked over to the Hermes table again. The boy looked frightened, staring around the pavilion with wide eyes, barely touching his food. The girl, on the other hand, seemed to be mid-argument with one of the other Hermes kids. She waved her hands expressively, nearly knocking Travis’s drink off the table. They were attracting a fair bit of attention; kids over at the other tables were staring at them, too.

“I wonder what they’re fighting about,” Miranda muttered, but she didn’t have to wonder for long. The Hermes kid stood up, face red. 

“You just got here!” he shouted. “You can’t come into our home and insult our pegasi—”

“I just said that I don’t like horses!” the blonde girl shouted back, standing too. “Just because you want to be a big crybaby about it, then…” The girl abruptly trailed off as she—along with everyone else in the pavilion—noticed the glowing light that abruptly materialized above her head. 

Katie frowned at it as it took a minute to form into a clear shape. A blade, most definitely. Golden. Curved and deadly looking, with a wooden handle, and…

Katie turned to May, whose eyebrows were raised with clear surprise. Up at the head table, Chiron cleared his throat. 

“Alana McBride.” Chiron nodded in the direction of the Demeter girls. “Child of Demeter.”

Katie watched open-mouthed as May waved over the girl—Alana—to their table. It was fairly rare that they got new siblings, and none were ever as…competitive as Alana appeared to be. Alana approached the table with a skeptical expression, ignoring the other campers, many of whom were still looking at her.

“Good luck!” Connor called from the Hermes table. Sunflowers immediately began to grow from his burger, but no one claimed credit. 

Alana slid into the seat next to Liam, staring them all down with a judgemental expression. “None of you are going to fight with me because I don’t like horses, right?”

May laughed. “Hopefully not. I’m May. I’m the head counselor of Cabin Four. Did Travis and Connor explain to you how everything works around here?”

“Not really.” Alana still looked skeptical. “But I’m not surprised. My aunt always said my mom was a bit weird.”

Miranda choked on her water. Katie thumped her back as she coughed. 

“That’s a bit of an understatement,” May said lightly. “But we’ll explain everything as we go. For now, just know that if you have any issues, you can come to me or to one of the others. We’re your family, here.”

“Hmm.” Alana didn’t look convinced. “We’ll see about that.”

Dinner was an awkward affair. After it finished, they showed Alana the way to the cabins. She didn’t even blink as they stepped inside Cabin Four, not even at the grass roof, or the million plants strewn about. Katie couldn’t help but feel a little offended as she sat down with Miranda on her bed, watching Alana take in the room with a critical eye.

“This is the cabin,” May explained patiently. “You can pick any empty bed you like.”

The rest of them watched as Alana narrowed her eyes judgmentally at the beds. She came to a decision after a long minute, pointing definitively to the bed two over from May’s.

“That one. That one’s mine.”

“Perfect!” May clapped her hands together. “When you get some stuff from the camp store, you can put it in—”

“Camp store?” Alana interrupted curiously. “Where’s that ?”

“Near the Big House,” May supplied, with much more patience than Katie would have. “We’ll take you there tomorrow so that you can get some clothes and toiletries and stuff.”

“For now you can borrow a pair of my pajamas,” Miranda offered. Alana scrunched her nose, but didn’t complain. “Don’t worry— I have much cuter taste than Katie.”

Katie prodded Miranda in the knee, and Miranda stuck her tongue out. 

“So,” Alana said. “When do I get to meet my mom? Does she come to visit much?”

Katie winced. 

“She doesn’t come around much,” May said smoothly. “But we have each other.”

“So she’s a god?” Alana looked skeptical. “A real life god? That wasn’t just Travis and Connor—”

“Goddess, technically,” Katie said, since she had been clearly spending too much time with Malcolm. “But, yeah.”

Alana’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly before returning to their normal shape. “Cool.”

Katie had to stifle a laugh with a cough when she caught Miranda’s eye. 

“So what’s she the god of, anyway?” Alana asked. “Because the other guys just told me that you guys are really into plants.”

“I mean,” May laughed, “that pretty much sums it up.”

Alana looked a little disappointed. “Okay. Okay. Cool.”

“I’m kidding,” May said hurriedly. “Mom is associated with a lot of things. She mostly is the goddess of grain and agriculture, though.”

“Grain and agriculture?” Alana’s nose crinkled. “Like… cereal?”

“She’s the goddess of the Earth, too!” Miranda added, before frowning. “Well, sort of. It’s a bit vague.”

Alana looked lost. Katie snapped her fingers as inspiration struck. “She created the seasons! When Persephone was stolen to the Underworld, she—uh—” Katie realized suddenly that their absent mother starving all of mankind until she got her godly daughter back might not have been the best Cabin-Four-crash-course-story. Luckily, Alana didn’t seem to notice Katie’s slip up.

Alana snorted. “I know where the seasons come from, I’m not an idiot . We learned about it at school—something about the sun and the earth, I don’t know. I didn’t pay that much attention. I’m not a nerd.” Alana stuck her chin out defiantly. Even though it was a clear night outside, thunder began to rumble. 

“So,” May said, effectively steering the topic of conversation away from the trainwreck that it had been heading towards. “Tell us a bit about yourself, Alana. We can tell you a bit about us, too, if you have any questions.”

Alana sat down tentatively on the bed she had claimed. “I’m from New York. Live with my aunt.”

“I know this must all be a bit overwhelming,” May said easily. “It always takes a while to adjust to life at camp. And, if we’re being honest, this whole world takes a bit of time to adjust to.”

“It didn’t take me that much time,” Liam boasted. 

“It took me loads of time,” Miranda said, with a kind smile at Alana. “But I’m used to it now. It’s just a bit weird at first.”

“My aunt will be worried about me,” Alana said. “I need to call her. Do you have a phone?”

“None of us do.” May shook her head. “Something about demigods and technology just doesn’t…mesh. Chiron has one in the Big House, though. But I spoke to Firenze and he said they were sending a satyr to talk to your aunt. I’m sure she knows by now that you’re safe.”

Alana didn’t look happy with the answer, but she didn’t complain. Instead, she just scanned over them all again analytically, pausing to frown at Liam.

“Everyone calls you the ‘Cabin Four girls.’ You’re not a girl.”

Liam went all pouty and refused to take the sour look off his face for the rest of the night, not for a lack of trying from Katie, May, and Miranda. Katie was grateful to finally slide into bed and escape Alana’s judgemental silence. 

Over the next few days, Liam and Alana’s rivalry only grew, and Katie found herself playing the mediator more often than not. At least Alana seemed to be adapting, Katie and Miranda agreed. After a rocky first day, she slid quickly into the dynamics of the cabin, as well. Alana also started to absolutely idolize May, which grated on the others no matter how they tried to hide it. Alana’s favorite phrase was “May says”— “May says Mom fights with a sick sword,” “May says we can pat the flying horses,” and, now, dryly, “May says that’s a bad word, Katie.” 

Katie just groaned. “Well, Katie says she was talking to Miranda and you weren’t meant to overhear that. And you’ve got something in your teeth.”

Alana scowled and Katie reached out to ruffle Alana’s hair like May always used to do to her. 

“Can we go sword-fighting now?” Alana groaned. “I want to try another dagger. My one’s stupid.”

“We’ve got to finish the gardening, first.” Katie pinched the bridge of her nose. “If we don’t look after the strawberry fields, the camp won’t have any money and the nature spirits will be mad at us.”

Alana huffed, but didn’t complain any more. 

On Monday, Percy Jackson arrived at camp, and on Tuesday, Lee Fletcher announced at breakfast that there was an Aethiopian dragon lurking around the borders. Katie heard May bristling next to her, but that was probably more to do with Lee Fletcher than the dragon. May still refused to let go of her grudge against him, even as Katie assured her that over the winter he’d sort of grown on her. 

“Everyone, stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before,” Chiron said as Lee finished, and Katie exchanged a wary look across the dining pavilion with Malcolm and some of the other winter campers. 

Later that day, Travis Stoll approached Katie during their first aid class, looking like he was up to something. Katie, in the middle of getting increasingly angry at a bandage that just wouldn’t roll right, glared at him suspiciously. 

“Hey, Gardner.” Travis sat down next to her, and smirked at the bandage she was resisting the urge to stomp on. “You need a hand with that?”

Katie glared at him. It was the first time they had spoken properly since Malcolm’s birthday, besides snide comments and glares across the dining pavilion. She pointedly ignored him. 

“I mean, you look like you’re struggling.” Travis said, and Katie could hear the grin in his voice. She felt the tips of her ears growing hot, and felt certain she was as red as a tomato with anger. She tried to think of May, the way she was so effortlessly calm and cool and collected. Instead, she crushed the bandage in her hand so tightly that a couple of nearby blades of grass shot up to nearly a yard tall. 

“What do you want?” she bit out.

“Why do you assume I want something?” Travis laughed. “Maybe I just want to say hello to my friend.” 

Katie looked at Travis like he’d just grown a horn out of the top of his head. “Are you feeling okay? Do you need to go to the infirmary?”

Travis’ eyes sparkled mischievously. “I want a truce.”

Katie raised her eyebrows, caught totally off-guard. “A truce?”

“Yep.” Travis popped the ‘p.’ “A truce. I say I’m sorry for trying to do a nice thing and help you clean up after Malcolm’s party, you say you’re sorry for accusing me of trying to poison you and generally being the worst.”

Katie glared at him, her temper flaring. “You were trying to poison me! Malcolm ate one of the chocolates after the party and his fingernails grew so long that we had to go to Lee Fletcher to cut them off!”  

Katie shuddered at the memory, and Travis grinned. What she wouldn’t give to punch him right in his stupid little—

“Okay, no truce. But I have a business proposition. I think you’ll love it. It’s all to do with gardening—your favorite! Basically, me and, er, some of the others thought of a great business venture for the Demeter cabin. We’ve come into the knowledge that there’s definitely a market at camp for a certain medicinal plant, and we think you guys would be the perfect growers. Fun for everyone!”

Katie paused for a moment, looking at Travis suspiciously, before— “Oh my gods, Travis! I’m not growing weed in the Demeter cabin! Literally, go away!”

And then, like the idiot he was, he didn’t, so Katie—in a flash of temper—made daisies grow out of his shoes with a snap of her fingers, and he stormed off (with a bit of a struggle: the daisies had grown through the ground beneath him) muttering about children of Demeter and stupid flower powers. 

Later, Katie recounted the event to Malcolm and Josh as they adjusted their armor, gathered in the dining pavilion in preparation for whatever war game they were playing that night. Their new trainer, Quintus, looked a bit like a ghost in the torchlight. She got bad vibes from him, but, to be fair, maybe she was just still traumatized from Tantalus last summer. All around her, campers quietly talked in their own little groups, everyone seeming a little apprehensive. Katie was extremely jealous of May, who was back in the Demeter cabin with the excuse of needing to get some summer homework done. 

“And then ,” Katie was in the middle of hissing, quickly checking to make sure that none of her siblings were in earshot, “he just stormed off!”

“I mean,” Josh said thoughtfully as he helped Malcolm fasten the straps of his breastplate, “Travis did kind of have a point. We could totally make bank.”

“What—” Katie sputtered. “There is no us . I’m not growing weed in the Demeter Cabin, Josh!”

Her voice had raised to a shriek, and one of the Apollo kids standing nearby turned to look at her strangely. Katie just glared at him until he shrugged and turned back around.  

“He ignores me all spring after he tries to poison me, and then he comes up to me and asks me to grow weed in the Demeter Cabin! Where—mind you—we currently have two eleven-year-olds living! Acting like nothing is wrong! When, and I’ll say this again, he’s been tormenting me all year!”

Katie huffed, and Malcolm hummed thoughtfully, a teasing glint in his eyes. “You know, Chiron has never said it’s not allowed. You know, you could always grow it outside the cabin.”

“Shut up, Malcolm,” Katie groaned, and whacked him on the arm. 

“I don’t—” Josh started with a teasing glint in his eyes, but he was interrupted by Quintus clearing his throat from where he was standing on one of the tables. Katie eyed him distastefully, but fell silent, wiggling a finger between Malcolm and Josh and mouthing I’m not done with you two. 

“Right, gather ’round. You will be in teams of two,” Quintin announced. Katie looked between Macolm and Josh. None of them were particularly strong fighters, but Malcolm was good with battle strategy, and Josh was decent with a dagger. As much as she hated to admit it, Katie herself was probably the weakest link of the three of them. The only advantage she might have was that the game would take place in the woods: even then, though, she wasn’t nearly as strong as she could be. 

“Which have already been chosen,” Quintus hurriedly followed. The campers around her let out an annoyed groan. Nearby, she could see Louisa stick her middle finger up, and Katie grinned before remembering she was annoyed at Louisa and her stupid mixed signals and scowled instead. Of course, Katie trusted in authority. This Quintus guy, however, just gave her a bad feeling. Maybe it was his hellhound—Chiron had said that children of Demeter were generally more distrustful of Underworldy-stuff because of their mother’s rivalry with Hades.

“Your goal is simple,” Quintus said. Katie doubted that. “Collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course…you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive.”

Katie pursed her lips at the dramatics. Quintus went on to announce the pairings: of course the Stolls were together, and Louisa got paired with Miles, which she seemed annoyed by, if her groan was any indication. Katie turned away from Louisa abruptly, realizing that she was staring. Silena and Beckendorf were paired together, and Katie laughed as Josh waggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

“Katie Gardner and Josh Sarr.” Katie felt Malcolm huff next to her. He had been paired with one of the Ares kids, a scary one neither of them talked to. 

“Can I switch?” Josh teased, white teeth gleaming. 

“War games are dumb,” Katie muttered to him while Quintus kept listing names. Josh sighed.

“Knew you’d say that.”

Twenty minutes later, the game officially started. Katie and Josh wandered through the shadowy woods, the summer air unnaturally cold. They hadn’t run into anything yet—monsters or campers alike—and Katie was starting to get jumpy, hand resting on her borrowed dagger. Josh looked a little more confident, but barely. 

“What are the odds that he’s sent us on a wild goose chase?” Josh broke through the silence. Katie snickered. 

“I wouldn’t put it out of the question. You know that I’m, like, hardwired to listen to authority figures, but something about that guy just doesn’t sit right.” Katie shuddered, and Josh frowned. 

“Does Chiron always bring in extra trainers over the summer?”

“I’m actually not sure,” Katie said. “The first year I was here, he didn’t. But maybe he’s starting something.”

They both shuddered, thinking of Tantalus. 

“What—” Whatever Josh was about to say was cut off by a rustling in the trees nearby and the sound of branches snapping. Katie immediately drew her dagger. It felt foreign and awkward in her hands. She could see Josh doing the same thing, and he sent her a wary look. 

Monsters? Josh mouthed. 

I don’t know, She mouthed back, hoping he’d be able to read her lips. He must have, because he looked at her, seemingly trying to work out their next move. Katie felt her heart pounding in her chest. She hated this. In all her time at camp, she’d never actually fought a monster, and now she was feeling like that was a serious oversight on Chiron’s part. If she died in a war-game, she would come back from the dead to haunt that centaur. She squared her shoulders, and tried to take a deep breath.

The woods shifted around them, old and alive. The setting sun shone through gaps in the foliage, creating eerie shadows on the ground that swayed with the wind. Katie’s heart pounded in her chest, threatening to burst. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans, her legs shaky. 

Josh looked as nervous as Katie. He jerkily nodded towards the path behind them that led back to a clearing. Katie was all too quick to follow as they hurriedly made their way through the shadowy woods. It was only once they were in the grassy clearing that Katie felt like she could breathe again. The grass swayed in the breeze, the leaves in the trees rustling around them. 

“I can’t believe he’s setting monsters on us, now,” Katie grumbled. “As if Capture the Flag wasn’t dangerous enough.”

“It’s training,” Josh said evenly. “It’s important.”

“I just”—Katie shuddered—“I just can’t stand the thought of killing something. Especially in a training activity. It’s so…unnecessary. I know they’re monsters, but…I don’t like it.”

Josh kicked the dirt. “It’s probably good that we have practice. Considering…y’know. Everything.”

“Hmm.” Katie shrugged.

“I mean,” Josh continued. “There might be a war . Everyone is basically saying so. We might have to kill, then.”

“We could work out another way,” Katie offered, but she didn’t sound as sure as she might like. “We could—”

“What?” Josh scoffed. “ Talk things out with Luke?”

Katie stayed silent. Josh softened. 

“Look. I’m just saying, if it comes down to it, we’re going to have to kill. It’s probably good that we train for it, first.”

Katie didn’t say any more on the subject, and neither did Josh. Instead, they stayed tucked away in the clearing for the rest of the game, hoping that someone else would find the laurels and put an end to the whole ordeal. 

The night turned into a fiasco. Percy and Annabeth went missing, and everyone was sent with torches and flashlights to search for them, combing the woods until the night turned cold and the wind harsh. Katie and Josh joined up with Malcolm, Miles, and Louisa (to Katie’s irritation) to search. Malcolm was anxious and fidgety as they searched for his sister, and Katie was selfishly grateful for the chance to forget her own anxieties in favor of linking arms with Malcolm and shining their torches into every nook and cranny of the woods they could find. 

They found Percy and Annabeth eventually, and all filed back to camp, tired and dirty. Annabeth and Percy were cagey about where they had been for the last few hours, spurring the Stolls to talk about starting a betting pool with the most popular guesses. Maybe it was the creepy atmosphere of the darkness, or maybe it was May’s dark looks, but Katie slept restlessly that night. 

In the bathroom the next morning, she took a minute to look in the mirror, ignoring the long, droning story a camper was telling to her friend in the shower stall behind. Her freckles had grown more prominent, as they always did during the summer, and her hair had grown, too, since Silena had cut it. It looked almost red in the light. Her cheeks were still round, but there were dark circles under her eyes that she prodded at distastefully. 

She joined Malcolm in boot camp after breakfast. Dark circles bruised the pale skin under his eyes, and she gave him a worried look. 

“You good?” She muttered with a wary look at Clarisse, who was talking everyone through the amount of pushups they’d have to do today. Malcolm was still into space. Katie nudged him and he jumped, startled, even though she’d been standing next to him for a good few minutes. 

“What?”

“Are you alright?” Katie frowned. “You look awful.”

“Thanks,” Malcolm deadpanned. Katie nudged him in the shoulder and he tensed. “I’m fine. Just…stressed.”

“About what?” Katie frowned. “Did something—”

“GARDNER! PACE!” Clarisse hollered from the front of the group. Katie jumped. “THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE YOU’RE DOING PUSH-UPS!”

Everyone turned to stare, and Katie and Malcolm reluctantly dropped to the ground to start their push-ups. Katie’s arms shook. 

Malcolm ran off almost immediately after boot camp had ended, and Katie was left alone in the arena, staring at the back of his retreating blonde head. She couldn’t get a hold of him the rest of the day, which didn’t make her feel much better about any of the worries swirling around her brain. On her way to pegasus riding class, she was so lost in thought that she walked dangerously close to the climbing wall and got a splash of lava right on her arm, harshly startling her back to reality. Nyssa, an unclaimed camper, walked her to the infirmary, grumbling that she had disrupted her experiment (she had been trying to trigger the boulders to fall into the lava on command: Katie made a mental note to tell Chiron). In the infirmary, a little blonde Apollo kid gave her some ambrosia and bitched about a fight she was in with her friend. Katie tried to listen, but aside from some obligatory “hmms,” didn’t really contribute much.

At dinner that night, Katie craned her neck for a glimpse of Malcolm. He was over at the Athena table, head bent in low conversation with Annabeth. They both looked serious and steely, occasionally glancing over to where Chiron sat at the head table with apprehensive expressions. Katie shivered. 

She forced herself to look away, although unable to escape the pervasive gut feeling that something was horribly not right. Distantly, she could hear the chatter of the dining pavilion, as well as Liam telling May about how one of the Hermes kids had set up a betting pool for whether Percy Jackson would be going on another quest this summer, and consequently explaining to Alana who Percy Jackson was. 

When Chiron stood up to make an announcement at the end of the meal, Katie watched him eagerly, desperate for answers. He looked grave and old in the light of the torches that illuminated the pavilion, shadows flickering eerily on his face. 

“We have reason to believe that the Labyrinth is, once again, active, and that there is an entrance in the woods.” The dining hall erupted into muttered chatter. Chiron raised a hand, silencing them all. “Because of this, we’ll be consulting with the head counselors to set up a constant guard around the entrance—please, campers, communicate with your head counselors over the coming days to ensure the safety of the camp.”

The Labyrinth. The Labyrinth…Katie remembered the way Chiron spoke about it in lessons and shivered. An entrance to the Labyrinth at camp ? She didn’t understand where that could be—or how that could be, for that matter—but she knew the Labyrinth was old and ancient and benevolent and dangerous . She looked around, instinctively searching for Malcolm and Josh to glean their reactions. Malcolm looked paler than she had ever seen him, brow furrowed like he was trying to work out a particularly distant equation. Josh was grinning and talking to one of his siblings, but even from across the pavilion, the tense line of his shoulders was unmistakable to Katie. She turned back to her own siblings and sought out May, first, whose teeth were gritted—a sure sign that she disapproved of something. 

Next to her, Alana was groaning. “ Guard duty? Does that mean I don’t get to sleep in?”

“I’ll protect the camp,” Liam responded with a sniff. “ I don’t care about sleeping in.” 

May ruffled his hair, though she still looked troubled. “You’ll stay safe where you belong. Protecting camp is for the older kids, squirt.”

Liam still looked dissatisfied, and Katie chimed in.

“It’ll probably be really boring, anyway. Imagine standing at a post for an hour with someone you don’t like— Imagine standing at a post for an hour with the Stolls . I think I’d sleep in if I were you.”

Liam grumbled, but, perhaps thinking about it, seemed more mollified. On the walk back to the cabins, Miranda grabbed Katie by the arm. She looked deep in thought.

“This Labyrinth thing?” Miranda spoke quietly so that Liam and Alana (who were arguing about who had shot the farthest that day in archery) wouldn’t hear. “What are we thinking?”

Katie frowned, cautious. “I don’t know. I guess we'll wait and see.”

Miranda’s green eyes were filled with worry. “What was he talking about? I barely even know what the Labyrinth is , let alone—”

“I honestly don’t know much,” Katie said, hesitantly, unsure of how much she should say. She looked desperately to May, but she was busy with Alana and Liam. Miranda was still looking at Katie expectantly, worried and waiting. “I think— I need to talk to Malcolm, for more information.”

“Malcolm Pace?” 

“He’s smarter than half of the camp combined,” Katie reassured her. “He’s got, like, a photographic memory. He’ll know. I know it.” 

Miranda shrugged, still looking uneasy. “And you’ll tell me? What he says?”

“Yeah.” Katie said, but her fingers were crossed by her side. “I promise.”

The next week passed quicker than Katie thought possible. Percy Jackson and Annabeth set off on a quest, and rumors and theories were traded like Pokémon cards amongst the campers. In her absence, Malcolm was made temporary head counselor of the Athena cabin, a responsibility he bore with very Malcolm-like fussiness. Josh and Katie got used to exchanging looks when Malcolm set off on another tangent about cabin cleanliness or patrol rosters. Katie couldn’t deny that she was proud of him, though— Malcolm made a good head counselor, even if it was only temporary. She’d asked him about the Labyrinth, but it seemed like even Malcolm was keeping secrets now, because he refused to tell her anything more than what she already knew. Malcolm’s touchiness about anything to do with the Labyrinth became a frequent topic of conversation between Katie and Josh, who was just as desperate for information as she was. 

“We’ve been here almost as long as him,” Josh would huff on another one of their long rants where they effectively made the same points over and over. It was like being in one of those hamster wheels—they ran and ran but never reached the finish line. Katie and Josh had tried to research it on their own, but neither of them were as studious as Malcolm. Katie liked schoolwork, sure, but she preferred it when she was completing a task with set parameters: fill out this worksheet, collect this plant, label this diagram. The Labyrinth was just one big question mark. “And we’re his friends — It’s not as if we’re going to run off and tell half the camp whatever confidential head counselor business he’s keeping a secret.”

“Exactly!” Katie would exclaim, and they would both feel good for a second in their agreement before feeling awful again about everything else. 

On one of these rants, something dawned on Katie that she couldn’t believe hadn’t before. She and Josh were on patrol, watching the entry to the Labyrinth for what felt like the millionth time that summer. There were a couple of other campers, too, but everyone was chatting in their own little groups. 

“I would understand if we were just random people,” Josh was saying, drawing patterns on the ground with the blade of his dagger. “But he’s known us for years. You’d think he’d trust us a little more. We’re probably more trustworthy than some of the people that do know.”

Katie nodded her agreement and glowered, thinking of the Stolls and their head counselor status. Their immaturity hadn’t been affected by the mood around camp, it seemed: just that morning, the canoe lake had to be closed because the Stolls dyed it bright purple. She was about to rehash another old point that they had talked themselves to death about over the past week when it dawned on her, and she smacked herself in the head for not seeing it sooner. 

“He’s trying to protect us.” Like Katie had tried to protect Miranda. Like May had tried to protect Liam and Alana.

Josh frowned. “We don’t need protecting. I mean, that’s sweet and all, sure, but seriously ?”

“Well, he’s got it into his head that we do.” 

“Some protection, keeping us in the dark.” 

“Stupid Malcolm,” Katie said, but her heart wasn’t in it. 

“Stupid Malcolm,” Josh agreed, and she could tell his heart wasn’t, either. 

As it turned out, Malcolm didn’t even need to say anything: news of an apparent invasion began spreading around camp like wildfire.

“Where are you guys even hearing this stuff?” Katie threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. Nyssa, Cecil, and Drew blinked at her guiltily. 

Cecil shrugged. “Um. Just around.”

Katie pinched the bridge of her nose, wishing that May were here. She had stumbled across the three younger demigods after lunch. They were tucked in the sun by the canoe lake, talking in hushed frantic voices about the ‘almost definite’ upcoming invasion that was going to involve ‘like, a thousand’ monsters. When Katie had found them, Cecil had been in the middle of suggesting that they all go into the woods to try and fight the giant Myrmeke for “practice.”

“No one is going and fighting anything,” Katie said firmly, trying to possess some of the same authority May always had in spades. 

“But Katie !” Cecil protested. “There’s going to be an invasion. I heard that they’re bringing a thousand Myrmeke to fight. And that—”

“Cecil!” Katie interrupted. “We don’t know anything for sure yet. For now…for now, just listen to your head counselors. And don’t go off alone into the woods.”

Katie wished she could talk to Malcolm about the whole ordeal. Unfortunately, Malcolm had become ridiculously elusive since becoming head counselor. He could most always be found with his siblings in the new command tent, spending all his time pouring over battle plans and strategies and asking if Katie could just come back in another ten minutes. It seemed that all of camp had become ridiculously busy all of a sudden, especially the head counselors. Steadily, each cabin was given a job in preparing camp for what seemed to be an inevitable invasion, and while Katie hated everything it represented, she couldn’t deny that the routine and purpose provided the perfect opportunity to squash down the internal struggles that had been driving her crazy. 

“Katie!” May called, throwing her a bag of seeds. Katie missed the catch, obviously, and promptly began picking them up off the ground. “We’re going to bring these out to where we left the other day. Keep up the shield.”

“On it.” Katie saluted, sweat beading on her brow as she hefted the bags onto her back. “Are you coming?”

“I’m heading into the city,” May said. Katie sent her a questioning look. “Buying more seeds. Chiron thinks we’re running low.

“Didn’t you go the day before yesterday?” Miranda asked, struggling under her own bag of seeds. 

“That was to meet up with some dryads in Central Park,” May said quickly. “To get some more intel. Can you guys manage with Liam and Alana while I’m gone?'

“Probably not,” Miranda said under her breath, and Katie snickered. Liam and Alana had been feuding recently over who was better friends with the dryads, and they were constantly trying to outdo each other. It was funny at first, but was definitely beginning to wear on the nerves of all the older girls. Miranda cleared her throat and raised her voice. “Yeah, totally.”

“Thanks,” May said gratefully. “Just give them jobs where they don’t have to be right near each other: maybe Alana can get started on the other side of the clearing with one of you.”

“I’ll take her,” Miranda volunteered, shooting a sideways glance at Katie. “She’s still learning with all the plant stuff, so it’ll be quicker if I…”

“Good plan,” Katie said, even though her cheeks were a bit red. It was true that Miranda was much better than Katie at all the Demeter stuff; if she and Alana worked together, and Katie and Liam worked together, then they would probably end up moving at about the same pace. 

“Thanks, girls.” May grinned at them. “I’d better go. You got it from here?”

Katie and Miranda confirmed, and May left soon after, jogging towards the borders of camp where her car was kept. 

They spent the rest of the day working. Katie paired with Liam, and Alana and Miranda took the other side of the clearing, as Miranda had suggested. It worked well. Katie liked working with Liam: he never complained, and Katie was happy to listen to him talk non-stop about whatever piqued his interest that day.

“Because we don’t have training now,” Liam said as he made thorny brambles grow around the perimeters of the woods with a wave of his hand, “does that mean that we don’t have to train after the invasion either?”

“Probably not.” Katie poured some of the seeds into the dirt, patting it closed. Children of Demeter didn’t technically need seeds to make something grow but all they could really do without seeds was grass and flowers, which, as Clarisse expressed, was not sufficient to secure the perimeter of the woods. “We’ll still have to train.”

Liam scowled. “I thought we wouldn’t have to. I told Alana that I’ll never train again after the invasion.”

“I thought you liked training.” Katie looked up from the dirt. Liam shrugged. 

“I sort of did. Not really, though, only when I was eleven. Alana is way better at it than me. I like talking to the nature spirits more, anyway.”

“I mean, we’re certainly talking to enough of them,” Katie said under her breath. It was true: she had probably spoken to more nature spirits in the last few weeks than she had her whole time at camp. It wasn’t that Katie disliked the nature spirits. It was just that the ones she’d spoken to had all been stubborn and resistant to change, fiercely protective of what they owned but unwilling to find a new way to make sure it was protected. She always walked away from conversations with them with a burgeoning headache and a sudden desire to remove all of the plants from Cabin Four. They liked Liam, though. He could be found most days in his free time at the edge of the woods, sharing gossip and gardening tricks with one of the dryads. 

The days passed quickly, the forest growing more and more protected by the day. Cabin Four as a whole seemed to thrive in times of stress. Like a field weathering the harshest storms, they worked hard and they worked well and they returned to the cabin at the end of the night dirty but satisfied. Unlike some other cabins (cough, Aphrodite, cough), they rarely complained, and always did what was expected of them. Despite the circumstances, Katie found herself ridiculously proud of her siblings and proud to call herself part of them. Even Liam and Alana eventually developed a sort of truce born from a shared, unspoken understanding that there was work to be done—the day Katie saw Liam giving Alana advice on how best to make the greenery grow spiky and thick, she thought she might cry (who was she kidding, she cried to Miranda about it that night—in her defense, she was on her period). Miranda herself seemed determined to talk to every dryad she could and warn them about the possible invasion, helping countless nature spirits develop a safety plan in the case of an emergency. 

Even more than that, May was running herself into the ground, coming back to the cabin at crazy hours of the night (Chiron had temporarily given certain campers immunity from the cleaning harpies, much to the harpies’ disgust) and leaving in the early hours of the morning. Katie didn’t know how May did it; she even found time to keep the flowers in the windowsill looking pretty and chide Alana and Liam (and sometimes, Katie and Miranda) about making their beds.

Katie, too, had been busy. On top of the forest stuff, she had taken special care to find time to help Lee in the infirmary, which Chiron had instructed would now be constantly manned due to the increase of injuries from attacks and training alike. It was always crowded with Apollo kids and non-Apollo kids alike learning the ropes and working and a steady flow of injured half-bloods needing treatment. Together, Lee and Katie experimented with the best medicinal plants and herbal remedies they could find, working out a system to ensure they were cataloged and available for easy access. They worked well together, and when she realized she was assigned to work in the infirmary more than all of her siblings and friends (on top of the additional hours she was putting in), Katie wondered if Lee had something to do with it.

Either way, she was in there enough that she became one of the few people to be let in on the fact that Chris Rodrigez, the Hermes kid who had been living in the Big House, had been moved to the very back room of the infirmary, too weak to even move. Katie had never actually seen him properly, but Lee always came back from his visits to Chriss quiet and subdued. Clarisse La Rue came every day and Katie would let her into the little room at the back, where Clarisse would stay until Chiron practically ordered her to leave. Katie found herself growing more confident in the infirmary, too—not Apollo kid level, sure—but confident enough to look over Lou Ellen’s broken leg and give her enough ambrosia to sort it out without even having to bother Will Solace.

Safe to say, everyone was flat out. Camp felt more like a war ground than ever, and there was a subtle, underlying tension, like the camp itself was holding its breath. 

Through it all, though, was the unmistakable mundanity of life at Camp Half-Blood. The Stoll brothers were still pulling stupid pranks, and Katie was still yelling at them (though now, she had her siblings to back her up, which proved to be very satisfying when they collectively turned the Stoll’s bunks to grass in a moment of weakness on Katie’s part). There was still the usual drama about who was dating who, but now it was happening on patrol instead of at pegasi lessons, or in the command tent instead of the bathrooms. 

Josh found himself at the center of one such drama, much to Katie’s amusement, when he was caught making out with an Ares girl in the armory. Katie, while inherently opposed to the idea of slacking off when there was work to be done, had always had a soft spot for her friends and teased him ruthlessly about it. 

“All those times when you said you were just going to the bathroom, or to fix your hair—was it just a lie? A facade?” Katie gasped dramatically one night on patrol, and even got a laugh out of Louisa, which made Katie a tiny bit proud and mostly annoyed. Louisa couldn’t ignore her the whole summer and then turn around and laugh at her jokes like they were best friends.  

“It’s nothing,” Josh said good humouredly. “I’m still the same guy you know and love."

Katie laughed. Josh refused to give any more information at all, though, even when they were completely alone. 

“Dude.” Katie huffed. “Like, is she your girlfriend? Are you in loooove?”

“It was just a kiss,” Josh said shortly, before telling her that he had to meet Drew and promptly leaving. 

_____

Annabeth Chase arrived back from her quest alone the Thursday that Michael Yew dragged Katie, Josh, and Miles to the firing range to show off his new arrows that the Hephaestus kids had made. The news spread quickly. Michael hadn’t even gotten to show them the explosive arrow (which was a relief for Katie) by the time one of the Hermes kids had run down to the range and told them that Percy Jackson was missing. 

“He’s coming back,” Annabeth kept saying to anyone who would listen, but she sounded less sure of herself the more that she repeated it. 

Word was that Chiron sent some of his friends around the world to go and search for Percy, and Katie bitterly found herself thinking about the campers who had disappeared during the winter—there had been no one searching for them . 

Still, if there was a positive to it all, Malcolm had been relieved of his duties as head counselor and demoted to Annabeth’s second in command, meaning that Josh and Katie started to see a lot more of him. 

“You kind of disappeared on us there,” Josh said gently one day, eyebrows raised. Malcolm looked at the ground. 

“Yeah. Sorry. Busy.”

“Don’t do it again,” Katie threatened. “Or else I’ll get Miranda to turn all your books into honeysuckle.”

Malcolm laughed, but it sounded a little strained. Josh looked like he wanted to say something more. Instead, he just told them that they’d better get to the amphitheater, because Chiron apparently had an important announcement to make. 

The announcement wasn’t good news. Katie blanched as Miranda turned to her, looking worried. 

“Quintus is gone ?” Miranda whispered. “Do you think—”

“I don’t know,” Katie said quickly. She didn’t need to hear the rest of Miranda’s sentence: there was only one question asked when campers would vanish, these days. “Maybe not. I’ll…maybe May will know.”

“Maybe,” Miranda said, looking troubled. 

Katie would’ve asked May, but she was missing again and so Katie was left to jog to catch up with Malcolm and Josh after Chiron dismissed them all, tapping them both on the shoulder in lieu of a greeting. 

“Quintus?” Katie said. “You think—”

“Couldn’t tell you,” Malcolm said shortly, before hurriedly wishing them goodnight and leaving to join the other Athena kids. Katie and Josh shared dark looks. 

“He can’t keep doing this,” Josh said.

“He just doesn’t like admitting that he doesn’t know something.” Katie glowered. She thought she knew Malcolm better than she knew herself, sometimes. Josh shook his head. 

“No.” Josh sounded more hurt than annoyed, and Katie frowned at him. “He thinks— He doesn’t trust me. Us. It feels like he doesn’t even want to be friends …”

“Don’t be silly.” Katie slung an arm around Josh’s shoulder, squeezing. “Of course he wants to be friends. He’s just doing his annoying Malcolm thing. After the invasion things will go back to normal. You’ll see.”

Josh didn’t look convinced. 

Despite Quintus’s absence and the overbearing preparations for an imminent invasion, life seemed determined to forge onwards. What Katie began to consider “normal camp stuff” had determinedly carved out a place against the threat of war over the horizon. 

“Fuck my life,” Miranda groaned, throwing her fork onto her plate in exasperation. Katie sort of wanted to do the same. Instead, she reluctantly placed down her half-eaten toast and squared her shoulders. 

“C’mon.” Katie pushed herself up from the table. “We have to go.”

“I hate life,” Miranda said mournfully. “I didn’t even get to finish my breakfast.”

“It’s our turn,” Katie reminded Miranda (and herself). The conch horn rang out once

again, loud and clear over the clearing. “Alana and Liam are still at the showers.”

“And I thought we were the smart ones choosing to go to breakfast early this morning. Little did I know…” Miranda trailed off. They began to walk towards the edge of the forest, where, Katie knew, one of the dryads would be waiting to report back whatever the scout had seen. It was a system developed by Annabeth and Malcolm over the past week, and it was working well so far. 

“Is May around?” Miranda wondered aloud. 

“No,” Katie responded in a low voice, conscious of the other campers also making their way to the edge of the woods. “Haven’t seen her since last night."

Miranda bit her lip, looking around nervously. “I’m worried…”

“She’s not a traitor,” Katie said, more defensively than she intended. Miranda looked offended. 

“I never thought she would be. I was going to say that I’m worried that some of the others might start thinking that she is.”

Katie flushed. “Oh. Sorry.”

Miranda twisted her camp beads. “I’ve heard rumors…”

“Me too,” Katie confirmed. “But she’s not. None of us would ever…”

“I know,” Miranda said. “I just worry. What if people think—”

“I’ve been defending her,” Katie said firmly. “To anyone who asks. I’ve been telling them that they’re stupid and that they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“ Katie !” Miranda chided. “It’s no time to pick fights.”

“So you’ve just been letting people talk?” Katie asked. Miranda reddened. 

“Well…no.”

“Ha!”

“I made flowers grow out of an Apollo kids' ears the other day,” Miranda admitted hurriedly, red faced. “Told him that it might stop him from hearing nasty rumors.”

Katie laughed, despite herself. “We can never let Alana hear about that.”

“Agreed,” Miranda nodded. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the sudden shout of a camper from the direction of the woods. 

“GO BACK!” The yell was sudden and jarring, and Katie looked around, confused. A gaggle of Aphrodite girls nearby looked equally frightened. “RUN!”

The source of the voice came closer. Faster than Katie could blink, an orange blur came tearing through the woods, sprinting back towards the camp. There was about a second of confusion before chaos broke loose. 

“RUN!” another camper called, tearing past. “BACK TO THE CABINS!”

“RETREAT!” a third shouted, sprinting past Katie and nearly knocking her over. 

“RUN!” one of the Aphrodite girls squeaked, turning on her heel and racing back towards camp, her sisters following closely behind. Katie didn’t have to wonder why. She turned back to the woods, and, towering over the campers and clambering through the trees were two giant hellhounds, shadowy and black with vicious white teeth and bone-chilling snarls. Pure blind fear shot through Katie. She grabbed Miranda’s hand and they were running, running so hard and fast that Katie’s breath caught in her chest, that her side stabbed with pain and her legs ached.

Miranda nearly stumbled on the rocky path, but Katie held onto her hand with an iron grip. Running. All around them, campers ran for their lives. The hellhounds continued to advance, tearing closer and closer. Katie swore she heard a scream from behind, but there wasn’t time to stop, there wasn’t time to think.

“Where—?” Miranda breathed hard, pulling Katie forward as she began to lag behind. 

“GO TO THE CABINS!” A ginger-haired Hermes kid called from their left. “RETREAT TO THE CABINS!”

Katie didn’t know what good wood and bricks would do to protect them, but she ran down the familiar path to the cabins for her life, the hellhounds feeling closer and closer by the second. Miranda made it inside Cabin Four first, pulling Katie inside so hard that her arm nearly popped out of its socket before slamming the door shut, pressing her whole body weight up against it to hold it closed. Liam and Alana were sitting on the other end of the cabin on Liam’s bed, wide-eyed and uncharacteristically afraid. 

“Katie?” Liam said. “Something feels—”

“Not right.” Alana shuddered. “We didn’t know what to do ; they just said to lock ourselves in our cabin, and we didn’t know where you or Miranda or May were, and—” 

All at once, Alana was crying. Katie was instantly at her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, trying to soothe her. 

“I was scared!” Alana said, and she sounded angry, even through tears. “I was scared , and—”

“ Shhh. It’s okay. It’s okay ,” Katie consoled. Her mind raced, trying to come up with some sort of plan. “We need…Malcolm. I need to talk to Malcolm. He’ll know what to do.”

“Everyone’s in their cabins.” Miranda’s voice shook. She was still by the door, peering at the window. “I can’t see the—the—”

“Lee said that there’s hellhounds.” Liam sounded close to crying, himself. Katie wrapped her other arm around him. She pulled her siblings as close as she could, wishing that she was as powerful as a god, powerful enough to protect them with a thought. “Is that right? Are there…y’know?”

“Yes,” Katie said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “May. Where’s May?"

“In the city for her brother's recital.” Alana sniffled, clearly trying to pull herself together. Katie wanted to tell her that it was okay , that she was a child and she was allowed to be scared. Instead she just scanned the cabin, looking for anything that might help. 

“Okay,” Katie said. “Okay. Umm…Iris Message! We’ll Iris Message Malcolm. If he doesn’t answer, then…Clarisse, or Miles, or Lee, or…someone. Someone.”

“Katie?” Miranda sounded nervous. “I can see them. They’re near the forge. They’re—I don’t know if there’s people—”

“Everyone will be in their cabins,” Katie said firmly. “And the Athena kids will be working out a plan. Now, c’mon. Anyone got a drachma?”

They somehow found a drachma in the mess of one of the drawers, and Liam set up the humidifier to create a steady mist. Miranda stayed at the window, watching, as Katie tossed the coin through. 

“‘O, Iris, Goddess of the rainbow. Please accept this offering. Please show me Malcolm Pace at Camp Half-Blood. Umm…thank you.”

The mist shimmered, the rainbow flickering in and out of view. Slowly, Malcolm’s face began to solidify in the vapor. Surprise and relief flashed across his face. Katie scanned his surroundings: the Athena cabin. In the background, she could see some of his siblings, frantically speaking in a little clump. 

“Katie!” Malcolm exclaimed. “You guys all good?”

“All good here,” Katie replied. “What’s—what’s the plan? What happened ?”

“We’re not sure how they got in,” Malcolm said, in a tone that very clearly meant and don’t ask . “But we’ve got a couple campers down.”

Dread sunk like a stone in Katie's stomach. “ Down ?”

“Injured,” Malcolm corrected. “We’re about to send the Ares and Apollo kids to them, though. And the Hephaestus kids. Beckendorf has got a new weapon he thinks might help, so we’ll send the Hephaestus—”

“How do you even take down a Hellhound?” Alana interrupted, her lip quivering. She had wiped her face of tears, but her eyes were puffy and red. Uncertainty crossed Malcolm’s face.

“The same way you take down any other monster,” Katie said firmly.

Malcolm nodded. “Yes. Now, we’re telling everyone to stay in the cabins for now. We’ll start by sending the Ares and Apollo kids, and then send in reinforcements as they need. For now, just stay in the cabin .”

Malcolm waved a hand through the mist, and the Iris message dissipated into the air. The cabin suddenly felt smaller, less sturdy than it had always been. Katie forced herself to breathe. 

Uncharacteristically, Alana didn’t ask if they could go and join the fight. Instead, she just retreated closer to the wall, her legs curled up to her chest. Katie understood. Something about the hellhounds—they were just wrong . More so than any other monster she’d ever seen. 

It could’ve been hours or minutes that they waited in Cabin Four with bated breath, listening to the sounds of the battle outside. The hellhounds’ wicked snarls echoed through camp, the sound reverberating chillingly under Katie’s skin. 

Kill the monsters , she found herself wishing. Please. Just kill them. Make them go away. Make them leave my home.

At one point, Miranda let out a strangled squeal, jumping away from the window as though it burned her. Katie raced up, peering out of the window before jumping away in horror almost immediately. The fight had moved to the green in between the cabins. 

About ten Ares kids were trying to attack one of the hellhounds, but they weren’t getting very far. The hellhound snarled, its red eyes gleaming as it thrashed and snapped at the campers. It was the size of a truck, and seemed to suck all of the warmth and light out of the air. 

“Should we…” Miranda seemed near tears. Katie shook her head, her own eyes stinging at the sound of another camper crying out in pain. 

“No. We follow Malcolm’s plan. If they need us, they’ll tell us.”

The fight continued. Some of the Apollo archers joined, and Beckendorf appeared, bleeding from his arm with a giant metal ball in tow. Katie held her breath as she watched the hellhound bite at the campers again, narrowly missing Miles’ leg in the process. 

Quicker than Katie could blink, Beckendorf set down the metal ball and began to roll it towards the woods. It glinted in the sunlight. Katie watched in equal parts horror and relief as the hellhound pricked up its ears and began to move after the ball—and Beckondorf—leaving about four Ares kids down on the ground, crying out in pain. The rest of the Ares kids (as well as some Apollo kids) followed the hellhound and Beckendorf, well out of the parameters of the cabins and out of Katie’s line of sight.

“Look,” Miranda, who had crept up to stare out the window, too, whispered. “Lee Fletcher.”

Katie gasped. Lee’s recognizable blond head was moving out the door of the Apollo cabin, a first aid kit swinging in his hand as he ran closer to the injured campers. Over by the forge, the second hellhound still fought the Ares kids, casting a giant shadow over the green. 

“What is he doing ?” Miranda continued. “Does he have a death wish?”

Over at the Apollo cabin, Katie could faintly make out some of the other Apollo kids trying to call Lee to get him to come back to the cabin. He didn’t listen, crouching down beside one of the injured Ares kids and rummaging in his first aid kit. 

Katie held her breath. 

“Should we…” Liam sounded terrified. “Should we go and help him?”

“No.” Katie spoke before she even registered it. She looked at Liam and Alana, so young and afraid. “No. We need to stay here. We need to stay safe.”

“I could go,” Miranda offered quietly to Katie. All the blood had drained from her cheeks. “If he needs help, I could…”

“No!” Katie insisted. Her eyes stung. “No. No one is going anywhere. What if…if it comes over here, we need to be together. To protect each other. Lee…Lee will be fine .”

They all watched in silence as a few more of the Apollo kids went and joined Lee on the green, still shadowed by the giant hellhound over by the forge. Distantly, Katie could hear the clanging of swords and cries in pain from those fighting. Guilt swelled in Katie, but she pushed it back down. Lee…It was Lee’s choice to go and heal the others. Katie was making the choice to stay with her family, to be prepared to protect them . Besides, there wasn’t anything Katie could really do . She couldn’t heal like the Apollo kids. 

When they heard the last hellhound fall, Katie and her siblings left the cabin. The green was a trampled mess, and gold dust still clung to the air where the hellhounds had dissolved. Katie watched helplessly as a few Apollo kids frantically tried to staunch the bleeding from Miles’ nearly completely severed foot, torn and bloody. 

Liam and Alana were pale. Katie quickly steered them away from the scene. 

“C’mon,” she muttered. “Let’s go and get the infirmary ready.”

None of her siblings argued as Katie directed them all to the infirmary. There wasn’t much they could do, really, but they pulled down the beds and grabbed down the ambrosia and nectar supply from the top of the cupboard and laid out the first aid supplies in the way that Katie knew Lee liked them. It wasn’t long before the injured started filing in, and Katie and her siblings let the Apollo kids take over. 

They all found themselves in the Hermes cabin. The Aphrodite kids were there, too, as well as Castor and Pollux. They were all cramped in the tiny cabin, everyone shocked and filled with adrenaline. Katie was sitting next to Josh on the floor, their legs so close they were touching. 

“Where are the Athena kids?” someone asked. “And Beckendorf and his siblings?”

“I think they’re all regrouping in the Athena cabin,” one of the Hermes kids explained bitterly. “Talking strategy and stuff.”

“Is everyone—”

“Everyone is alive,” Castor answered. “A few injuries, but nothing life-threatening. The Apollo kids have got it.”

“How did the hellhounds even get in ?” Drew Tanaka asked, her face scrunched in worry. “I thought monsters had to be summoned .”

“Through the labyrinth,” Travis explained. “They could get in through there.”

Drew didn’t look convinced. “But—”

“It makes sense,” Silena chimed in, squeezing Drew’s shoulder. “There’s been a few monsters slipping through the cracks lately. That’s why we set up guard duty in the first place.”

“What now?” A Hermes kid asked helplessly. Katie looked to Silena. 

“ Now they keep healing,” Silena said. “And we wait. Charlie will tell us if there’s any damage he needs help fixing.”

The mood was somber and tense. No one seemed to know what to say. Luckily, though, they didn’t have to speak. All of a sudden, booming music came warbling through the open door of the Hermes cabin. Katie—and just about everyone else—frowned, staring out at the green. The song was loud and electronic: pulsing bass and high keys. The drums came in, so loud that Katie’s eardrums hurt. 

“What the Hades?” One of the Aphrodite kids looked around, shocked. The music was so loud that it made the whole cabin shake. 

“A monster?” A Hermes kid had a hand on his sword.

“No,” Pollux said, horrified. His whole face was red. “Not a monster.”

Katie opened her mouth to ask what it was, then, but the singing started before she could even say anything at all. 

“ Mum-mum-mum-mah—mum-mum-mum-mah.” The voice was as loud as the music. It was definitely male, and had a sort of tinny quality that Katie assumed came from being projected all around camp. 

Lisa Faulkey furrowed her brow. “Is that… Lady Gaga ?”

“No,” Castor looked resigned. “That’s my dad.”

“ I want to hold them like they do in Texas please—” the voice—Mr. D—continued. Somehow, it seemed to get even louder. “ Fold ‘em, let ‘em hit me, raise it baby, stay with me.”

“Your dad’s not even at camp,” Silena shouted over the music, but her mouth was twitching. Katie pursed down her own lips to keep herself from laughing, too. “He’s been gone for weeks!”

“He must have got back!” Castor shouted back, burying his face in his hands. Travis, on the other hand, looked like someone had just handed him one hundred gold drachmas. 

“WAIT!” Travis yelled, barely audible over the music and Mr. D’s warbling singing. “He’s done this before! Remember our first year at camp, Connor? He cursed the karaoke machine—”

“CAN’T READ MY—CAN’T READ MY—NO, HE CAN’T READ MY POKER FACE .” Mr. D’s magically amplified voice reverberated through the whole cabin. Katie let out a strangled snort, despite herself. “P-P-P-POKER FACE—P-P-POKER FACE.”

Josh let out a bark of a laugh next to her and suddenly, they were all laughing. Katie’s stomach hurt as she doubled over in giggles. Miranda had tears streaming down her cheeks, clutching at Katie’s shoulder as she snorted with laughter. All the while, Mr. D sang, magically amplified across the whole camp. 

The day later became known as D-Day, marked not for the hellhounds, but for “that one time Dionysus returned for three hours and proceeded to create chaos that got his kids teased for a week”. It was a spot of light in the weeks that would come: later, Katie would always bite back a smile when she would hear “Poker Face” played on the radio in the mortal world. 

 _____

The day they planned to burn Percy Jackson’s shroud, Katie found herself in the infirmary. She and an unclaimed demigod named Anthra, who was tall with unsettlingly blue eyes, had been making the rounds to tell everyone that archery that afternoon was canceled (the Hermes cabin and the Apollo cabin were arguing for some stupid reason, and the archery range had become collateral and was now unusable). Anthra didn’t seem to like Katie much, but Katie wasn’t letting that stop her: she ranted about the feud between the Hermes and Apollo kids so passionately that she forgot to watch her step accidentally triggered one of the many bear traps that littered the ground around the Ares cabin. The pain had been agonizing, but she had still somehow found the energy to swear obscenities at a grouchy-looking Ares camper when he came to open the trap and take her to the infirmary, her temper flying. The Ares camper had spent the whole trek the infirmary, in which he had had to practically carry Katie, bitching about how Katie had just wasted a perfectly good trap. 

“You’re lucky it wasn’t one of the strong ones,” he had grunted, and Katie had scowled pointedly at her bruised leg that was definitely broken, head woozy from the pain. 

In the infirmary Lee Fletcher gave her a judgemental look.

“First rule of camp,” he said as he propped Katie on one of the infirmary beds and prodded at her leg, making her wince, “watch where you’re walking around the Ares cabin.”

Then, with an annoyed sigh, he gave her some ambrosia and some good old-fashioned Apollo healing magic, and Katie felt warm and sunny for a second while it washed over her. She sighed at the sensation. The feeling of her bone knitting itself back together inside her leg was notably less pleasant, though. 

After, he referred her to Will, who prodded at her tender leg, looking pleased. 

“You’ll be as good as new in a couple of hours,” he said. “Lee’s the best out of all of us.”

Thoughtfully, he prescribed her a couple of hours in the infirmary while it finished healing. Katie nodded glumly, eyeing the second piece of ambrosia in the container he was holding. Ambrosia could burn you up if you had too much, but Katie’s leg was dully aching and she thought she’d risk it for the taste of her dad’s apple pie again. 

About an hour into her bedrest, a familiar face was carried into the infirmary, shirt bloody and red. Katie paled at the sight of Louisa, clearly unhappy about the situation but wincing in pain as she sat on the bed next to Katie. 

Will Solace tended to her, and Katie took the opportunity to look at Louisa cautiously, ears burning, a jumble of feelings muddying her chest. Louisa caught her looking, and Katie fought the urge to instinctively look away at the feel of Louisa’s muddy green eyes burning into her own. Instead, she held Louisa’s gaze, chin down, stubborn, ignoring the burning of her face. Distantly, Will rambled about Lee Fletcher and proper wound treatment, but Katie was too busy searching Louisa’s face. For what, she didn’t know—all she knew was that she felt uncomfortable and exposed, but she had never backed down from a challenge and she wasn’t planning on starting now. Louisa had kissed her, and then ignored it for weeks. 

Finally, Louisa just sighed, deflated, like even keeping up the forced pleasantries between Katie and her would be too much effort.

“Half-blood in the forest,” she explained, and then winced as Will Solace cut away her shirt to reveal a deep, bleeding slash across the top of her arm. “Watch it, kid.”

Katie frowned, forgetting she was even annoyed at Louisa. “One of Luke’s?”

Louisa sent a troubled look Will Solace’s way, and waited until he was out of the room grabbing something or other to reply in a low voice: “One of ours. Gemma—one of the unclaimed kids in the Hermes cabin. We were out on patrol investigating a noise in the forest—thought it was a monster or some shit—when she started going crazy all of a sudden, ranting about all of this shit. Takes out her knife and stabs me—thought I was going to die on the floor of the fucking forest for a good minute there. She ran away right after; everyone’s still out looking for her.”

“You didn’t fight back?” Katie frowned. Louisa wasn’t exactly known for being a pushover. Louisa shook her head with another glance at the door, presumably to make sure Will Solace wasn’t lurking there, listening. 

“She’s just a kid.” Louisa scowled. “She—”

Louisa cut off abruptly as Will reentered, looking suspiciously at Katie and Louisa. Katie tried for her best do-gooder smile, and Louisa nodded at Katie.

“What are you in for then, Gardner?”

“Lost a fight with a bear trap.” Katie tried to look more irritated than she felt, mind still pouring over Louisa’s story. “Thinking about turning the whole Ares cabin into a field of sunflowers. No offense.”

“Bet it was Sherman’s,” Louisa grumbled. “Kid has never heard of subtlety. I keep telling him bear traps are overrated. Should break out the landmines instead.”

Katie let out a startled laugh that she barely managed to turn into a cough. There was silence, then, as Will Solace worked his Apollonian magic on Louisa’s wound, Louisa wincing in pain as he adjusted it the wrong way. Katie’s own leg throbbed in sympathy. She took advantage of the brief lull in conversation—and Louisa’s conveniently screwed shut eyes—to study the girl, ignoring the way her own face flushed red at the proximity. She had spent so long rerunning the night of her birthday in her mind that she could’ve pictured Louisa with her eyes closed. The bridge of her nose stood strong as always—a Greek nose, her dad probably would’ve called it—and her eyelashes were enchantingly long. She’d cut her hair recently, and it hung, short and choppy, just below her ears. 

“You’re gonna be okay,” Will reassured when Louisa flinched as he prodded at her half-healed wound. He looked tired, and Katie wondered how long Will had been in the infirmary for without a break. She didn’t think she’d seen him at breakfast that morning and made a mental note to make sure he was at dinner. 

Louisa snorted, shoulders tensing defensively. “Sure.” 

The room fell silent, and the awkwardness had become almost unbearable by the time the door shot open and Josh burst in, nodding at Katie and wincing apologetically towards Will, who shook his head at the disturbance. 

“Gardner!” He frowned at her leg. “Thought I might find you here. You were a no-show for patrol.”

Katie waved her hands at her elevated leg. “Bear trap. Ares kids. Infirmary.”

Josh shrugged his shoulders, like “what can you do?” Finally noticing Louisa, he frowned at her—she did look like quite a sight. Her bloody shirt was still sitting next to her. Her wound had begun to stitch itself together, the blood surrounding it beginning to dry and crust. 

“Training accident?” he asked, and Louisa shot a loaded look towards Will Solace. Will, seeming to catch her drift, made his way to the other side of the room and busied himself with sorting some bandages. Katie kept an eye on him, though, even as Josh sat down next to her and jostled her sore leg. 

“Camper in the woods,” Louisa explained in a low voice, “Gemma Green? One of the unclaimed kids.”

Josh’s eyes widened. “Gemma…she’s friends with Drew. She’s at our cabin all the time.”

“Not anymore,” Louisa said darkly, and filled Josh in on everything she’d told Katie before. Katie watched Josh carefully, studying his reaction. When Louisa was finished, he massaged his temples.

“Jesus Christ ,” he muttered, and the atmosphere in the room was so depressing that Katie didn’t even tease him for being blasphemous. “And here I was thinking Percy’s burial would be the most depressing thing to happen today.”

“Gods, I forgot that was today,” Katie muttered. That must’ve been where Lee had gone. 

Percy had been missing for two weeks. When she thought about it, Katie just felt sad and stupidly guilty that they had never invited Percy to hang out with them back in December when he was at camp. 

“Annabeth’s a wreck,” Josh said grimly. “Silena’s been with her trying to help, and Malcolm’s been feeling awful about it all morning.”

“Gods,” Katie said again, feeling very small. “Poor Annabeth. Poor Percy. It must be awful to go through something like that.”

Katie tried to imagine a world without Malcolm and found that she physically couldn’t. A world without her best friend was a world her brain didn’t want to comprehend. 

“Everyone’s been through things, Gardner,” Louisa said, pointedly. “Jason disappeared in the winter—and Laurel, and Isabella—Chiron didn’t burn shrines for them . Bet he won’t even look for Gemma.”

“That’s different,” Josh argued, before Katie could say anything. “They were traitors. They didn’t deserve shrouds.”

“We don’t know that,” Katie finally said, purposefully not looking at Josh. “No one even looked for them.”

As soon as she said it, she realized it was true. It had been something that had been nagging her subconsciousness for a while—an itch she had pointedly refused to acknowledge. She felt like she was saying something dangerous, but she had never been one for hiding her feelings. An uncomfortable tension rose. While Louisa looked satisfied, maybe even a little triumphant, Josh looked at her warily, like she had just cut up his favorite shirt and he couldn’t work out why. 

“Get your head on straight. It was pretty clear that they left, Katie,” Josh said, and the sharp edge to his voice made Katie remember suddenly that Laurel was his sister. “They betrayed the camp.”

“I wonder why,” Louisa snapped before Katie could speak. “It’s not as if there was anything here for them.”

“There was plenty here for them.” Katie flushed, suddenly annoyed at Louisa. “I was just saying that there’s no guarantee they joined Luke. Leaving camp and actively joining Luke are two different things.”

Louisa turned her glare on Katie, and Katie got the impression that if Louisa were not currently in the infirmary with a still-healing arm, she probably would’ve tried to start a fight. Her eyes were fiery as she opened her mouth to speak, but Josh cut her off, digging into Katie’s arm with his elbow. 

“Guys,” he muttered, and Katie followed his line of sight to where Will Solace was standing on the other side of the room, bandages long-since neglected, clearly looking over at them with thinly-disguised interest. When he saw them all looking at him, he quickly turned away, busying himself with rummaging through the box of first aid supplies sitting near him.

Katie had the strangest sense of deja vu. Not too long ago, she had been Will, desperate to know what the older kids were talking about, sure that if she just knew , everything would make more sense. 

Don’t get your hopes up, she wanted to tell Will now, just enjoy being a kid for a bit.

“You guys can keep on talking,” Will said, eager and steely. “I won’t say anything.”

Katie, Josh, and Louisa exchanged a look.

“You’ve heard enough, Will,” Josh said finally, not unkindly, but with a little glare at Katie and Louisa. Katie glared right back, irritation sparking in her like a match on a box. Josh had been talking about it as much as Katie and Louisa. Will looked like he wanted to protest, but Josh continued. “Besides, Michael would probably kill us all if he found out his brother overheard us talking about this shit. Don’t tell, but that dude is scary.”

Louisa scoffed. “Michael is about as scary as a chihuahua. All bark and no bite.”

Will looked like he wanted to say something, but bit his lip and stubbornly turned back to his bandages. Looking at him, Katie was abruptly reminded how young he was: at eleven years old, Will should be playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or obsessing over Star Wars, not wasting away in the infirmary with a war on the horizon. 

Just as the infirmary had fallen stifling and silent again, Lee Fletcher barged in, light in his eyes and an easy grin on his face.

“Percy’s back.” He grinned. Will lit up. “He’s not- oh, hi, Louisa, hi, Josh—he’s not dead!”

They had a celebratory campfire that night, but it felt half-hearted. It was mostly overshadowed by the battle preparations: the Labyrinth would not miraculously disappear just because Percy was alive. Katie sat at the campfire with Malcolm and the others, talking in quiet voices about Jessica Parker, an unclaimed camper who apparently left camp almost immediately after Percy arrived back. Katie felt herself getting a headache. It was nice to see some of the younger kids celebrating, though—Liam and Alana sat by the campfire, eating so many of Lee Fletcher’s s'mores that Katie made a mental note to make sure they brushed their teeth extra well before bed. 

As Katie tried to go to sleep that night, her mind was restless. The conversation in the infirmary had burrowed its way into her thoughts and refused to leave. A seemingly endless loop of Isabella and Jason and Laurel and Gemma played in her mind—kids who no one had bothered looking for. Kids who, it seemed, no one would celebrate if they returned.

Chapter Text

‘forever is the sweetest con ’—taylor swift

Katie yawned and rubbed her eyes, trying to blink herself into alertness as Lee Fletcher tried to teach them all how to set up a medic tent. It was important, she knew, which was why she shot a glare towards two younger campers who were talking and giggling about something nearby in low voices, but she couldn’t deny the fact that it was too early to be fully awake. Stupid Apollo kids. Stupid early risers.

“It’s important for active combat situations to have a place near the heart of the action,” Lee explained, and Katie looked over Malcolm’s shoulder to see that he was taking notes, misspelled bullet points summarizing everything Lee had talked about for the last half hour. She resisted the urge to rest her head on his shoulder and fall asleep.

A couple of minutes later, Lee seemed to catch onto the fact that rambling to a bunch of ADHD demigods at the crack of dawn wasn’t really doing much. He told them to get into groups and practice setting up the tents. Katie ended up with Malcolm, as well as Miranda, Alana, and two younger campers from the Hermes cabin, Cecil and Mona. Katie ended up taking charge—as she often did in group activities—and Miranda and Alana were both good enough workers that it compensated for the others’ uselessness. Cecil and Mona attempted to steal from another camper's backpack until Katie scolded them and they resorted to lowly muttering and sending nasty looks her way. Katie would bet a golden drachma that they were plotting some nefarious prank to get her back, and she rubbed at her temples tiredly. Malcolm, as much as she loved him, had never been good at practical stuff, and he was distracted anyway. He had temporarily been put in charge of the Athena cabin again in Annabeth’s absence, and had a busy day ahead of him full of battle planning and recourse delegation (ninety-nine percent of which went over Katie’s head, but she let him ramble anyway). 

When Lee came by to check on their progress, Katie, Miranda, and Alana had put up the tent in record time, making sure the camp stretchers were placed in the right spot and the first aid supplies were clearly visible, just as Lee had instructed them to do. As he nodded at their work, Katie felt a glimmer of pride in her siblings—you could say a lot about the Demeter kids, but no one could say they were afraid of hard work. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Lee dismissed them all, and Katie made her way back to the cabin with Miranda and Alana, the three of them still bleary-eyed. 

“I have never been so glad…” Miranda cut herself off with a yawn. “For May being such a tight-ass about cabin inspections,” 

“Language.” 

“I know what tight-ass means,” Alana said, and then sighed dreamily. “I’m so excited to take a shower.”

Katie grinned, excited as well. The Demeter cabin had pulled through in cabin inspections last week, attaining the highest overall score. None of them cared about the glory of it all much (not like the Aphrodite kids, who were notoriously competitive when it came to cabin inspections), but none of the Cabin Four occupants could hide their excitement about first showers and guaranteed hot water. 

“Where’s May?” Miranda frowned. “I thought she said she was going to come by.”

“Out again today,” Alana supplied. “Stuff for Chiron I think.”

Katie tensed. May had been missing more and more lately. A few of the other campers liked to talk about it in low mutters, sending sideways glances at the Cabin Four girls, and it made Katie’s blood boil. She didn’t even know what they were trying to implicate—all she knew was that it wasn’t good. 

“Are you guys going to the Hephaestus cabin’s sword thing today?” Miranda asked through yet another yawn, referring to the announcement made at dinner the night before. Beckendorf had stood up and told everyone that the Hephaestus cabin would be in the forgery at lunch time, providing updates to any old weapons and starting to forge new ones for campers who wanted them.

“Jake said he’d try and make me a scythe, like Mom uses!” Alana exclaimed gleefully. Katie and Miranda exchanged a half-amused, half-weary look. “I can’t wait to rub it in Liam’s face—he’s gonna be so mad that he’s already got boring stuff to do.”

Katie frowned. “One: no rubbing anything in Liam’s face. We’re a family. Two: Liam’s skipping lunch? He missed yesterday, too.”

“He’s trying to arm the dryads,” Alana shrugged. “Got them some bows and arrows and shit.”

“Do I need to start a swear jar?” Katie frowned, but she ruffled Alana’s hair anyway. Alana made a face. 

“We’ll bring them some food,” Katie decided, before turning to Miranda. “You free?”

“I was going to—” Miranda cut herself off, shaking her head. “I’m free.”

Katie raised an eyebrow, but Miranda pointedly ignored her gaze, and Katie just shook her head with a little smile. Let Miranda have her secrets. Katie would bet it was something to do with Mike Johnson, anyway, who Miranda had been seeing a lot recently since she had broken up with Derek over the phone. She had been blushing fervently any time she spoke about Mike. 

The morning passed quickly. After showers and breakfast, she stopped by the infirmary as rostered, but found it to be strangely quiet. Kayla Knowles, one of the Apollo kids, just shrugged when Katie gave her a questioning look.

“Guess everyone is staying out of trouble today.” Kayla gave a wistful look out the window toward the archery range. “We could always close up…I mean, it’s probably more important to practice other stuff anyway.”

One of Kayla’s sisters, Alice, who was quiet and blonde and an impressively hard worker, gave her a surprisingly scathing look for a nine year old. “Lee said to stay open, even if it gets quiet.”

Kayla huffed in annoyance. Katie grinned approvingly at Alice, who blushed and busied herself with reorganizing the first aid kit again. Kayla glared at Katie.

“She just wants to impress you,” Kayla muttered. “Won’t shut up about you—Katie said this, Katie said that. One hundred percent, if you weren’t here she’d be down at the archery range with me.” 

“Good thing I am here, then,” Katie snapped, annoyed at Kayla’s lackadaisical attitude, but she couldn’t help herself glowing with pride at Kayla’s words. She had always been fond of Alice, whom she had gotten to know over the course of the summer. Kayla, on the other hand, had always been more prone to just doing what she wanted than following the rules. She and Katie often butted heads. 

“Yep.” Kayla popped the ‘p’, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “Aren’t we all so lucky?”

The spark of irritation that flashed in Katie made one of the sunflowers in the windowsill shoot up to double its height. 

“Yes,” Katie said through gritted teeth. “If we all decided to leave in the middle of our jobs, then camp would be a disaster .”

“Only your sister that’s allowed to leave, then?” Kayla said, eyes flashing. Katie’s fists clenched. 

“She’s doing stuff for Chiron!”

Kayla left the room, clearly annoyed. Katie busied herself with re-rolling some of the bandages but the rest of the shift was tense. She was almost relieved when Nyssa Barrera came in with a broken arm after a climbing wall incident.

“She’s just so annoying,” Katie ranted later to Josh while on patrol. It was the hour before lunch, and Katie’s stomach was already grumbling. Josh was wearing cargo shorts and the camp shirt—basically the same outfit as Katie—but he was somehow making it look fashionable. Katie was sure she just looked frumpy. “I mean, I know she’s a kid. And I don’t really dislike her. But I wasn’t that annoying when I was ten!”

Josh shot her a doubtful look, and Katie corrected herself. “Okay, I was probably that annoying, but I always cared about camp and the rules! Even my first summer, I took things seriously, and followed the rules, and I didn’t just accuse people of … just… ugh . It’s so… ugh.”

“What’s so ugh?” A new voice chimed in, and Katie looked up to see Michael, bow in hand. He must’ve been in one of the trees as a lookout, as there were little twigs in his hair. 

“Kayla Knowles,” Katie huffed, and then suddenly flushed when she remembered that she was Michael’s sister. “I mean, I’m sure she’s nice and all, but I just don’t think she likes the infirmary very much. Wanted to close today—I had to keep an eye on her because I was ninety-nine percent sure she’d run off to the archery range the minute I looked away.”

Michael laughed. “She’s just excited because she wants to try out her gift from Dad.”

Katie and Josh gave him a questioning look, and Michael shook his quiver as though to explain.

“Some brand new explosive arrows. It was her birthday a few days ago, and she’s been itching to try them all week.” 

Katie frowned. An unnameable feeling had started to whir deep inside her gut.

“Like…like a gift from Apollo?”

Michael nodded. “He’s a bit of a deadbeat, but he sometimes makes an effort. I got acid arrows last year. Helped me take out that weird dragon thing a few months ago.”

Katie frowned again, feeling suddenly very small. “He gives you gifts?”

“Only sometimes. When he remembers our birthdays, I guess. Alice didn’t get anything, and neither did Lee this year. Bit of a roll of the dice.” 

Katie found herself at a loss for words, and let Josh and Michael continue the conversation as they headed back to camp for lunch at the sound of Chiron’s magically amplified call, unable to stop the deep sense of betrayal and hurt from stirring in her chest. Katie didn’t care about gifts, and there was nothing she really wanted, anyway. The fact didn’t do anything to alleviate the hurt that Demeter had never even shown any indication that Katie existed at all. 

That afternoon, they sparred in training. Katie was paired with Louisa, whom she had decided was her friend. Katie could ignore the kiss if Louisa could (which she seemed determined to do). 

“More aggressive than usual today,” Louisa teased as she effortlessly blocked Katie’s strike. Katie had never been good with swords, but her face was hot and sweaty with the effort. 

“Hmm,” Katie just replied, and they sparred in silence until Clarisse called for a water break. Katie’s muscles were screaming at her as she sat on one of the benches, wordlessly passing Louisa her water bottle. She watched Louisa as she drank. Louisa’s leggings were covered in dirt, and her choppy hair was tied back with a bandana. The words were out of Katie’s mouth before she could stop them.

“Does your dad ever talk to you?” 

Despite their uncertain friendship, Katie felt certain that Louisa was about to pummel her into the ground. Instead, she just shifted to glower at the floor.

“No,” she replied. “He gave me a dream once, when I first came to camp.”

“Oh.”

“He has no problem talking to the others, though.” The air had turned deadly like a live wire. “For our fifteenth birthday, Miles got to take his chariot for a ride. Rite of passage, he said.”

Katie frowned. Louisa handed her the water back, still refusing to break eye contact. She looked at Katie like she was challenging her—to what, Katie didn’t know. She held her breath.

“Not sure if his daughters aren’t good enough for him, or maybe just me. Clarisse didn’t get to do it either, but she’s been praying to him about it for months. Not that she’d admit it.”

“Oh,” Katie said again, stupidly.

“A lot of kids feel ignored, Katie,” Louisa said, and there was that fiery challenge in her eyes again. “A lot of kids want a change.”

Finally, Katie found her voice. Anger flared up in her.

“That’s no justification for joining Luke. He doesn’t just want a change —he wants all of us dead. He wants all of this—” she gestured around her, to the campers chatting and laughing amongst each other, to the arena and the cabins strawberry fields and the Big House, “—gone.”

“Would that even be so bad?” Louisa challenged, and Katie looked away, refusing to play into her stupid little game. The tension in the air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. 

Finally, Louisa just scoffed. “Never pegged you for a pushover, Gardner.”

Katie got the distinct feeling that she had let Louisa down in some way, but she had no time to ruminate on before they were back to training and Louisa was kicking her butt again. The conversation stuck with her throughout the rest of the day, though, and she found herself getting progressively madder and madder at Louisa. Their personal problems aside, Katie hated the way she talked about camp as someplace not worth saving. Katie loved camp. More than that, Katie loved the people in it. Katie had always been ride or die, and she knew that she would die for every single person at Camp Half-Blood. She loved them all with the ferocity that she had always loved—hot and burning and to the bone. 

At the amphitheater that night, she sat with her siblings. Almost everyone was there—except the kids on patrol or infirmary duty—but by either fate, or some good scheduling on Chiron’s part, all the Demeter kids had the night off. The summer air was warm, and the firelight made everyone look softer in its glow. Cicadas chirped in the background, and the loud voices of the campers seemed to fill the whole night sky. Katie tugged her sweater closer around her, cozy and soft. Even May was there for once, sitting next to Katie and absentmindedly fiddling with a flower crown.

Lee Fletcher strummed on his guitar, glowing in the firelight and singing some song Katie had never heard in a honey-smooth voice. 

“He sure knows how to sing a campfire song,” Katie said, nudging May, who had her head resting on Katie’s shoulder lazily. 

“Still an arrogant piece of shit,” May yawned, but even she sang along when Lee later led a rousing rendition of “Rock the Chariot.” 

During the campfire, Liam moved to sit on Katie’s lap. She rested her chin on his shoulder, sleepy and lazy and happy. 

“Love you,” she murmured into his shoulder at one point. Liam turned to roll his eyes pointedly at her, but he muttered, “I love you, too” when he thought Katie wasn’t listening. It left her grinning for the rest of the campfire. 

At the end of the night, Alana demanded a piggy-back ride, and Katie laughed as May hoisted her onto her back. Katie grinned at them both. Of course, Liam asked for a piggy-back ride as well, and after a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors with Miranda, Katie grudgingly obliged, grunting under his weight. Her little brother had grown over the course of the summer, and, as with all of the Demeter kids, the days spent in the summer sun had treated him kindly. Of all of her siblings, Liam was the one who resembled Katie the most—they both had auburn hair and pale, round, freckled faces, with warm brown eyes that Katie hated on herself (they were so boring ) but loved on Liam. They had, Katie realized, worn almost identical outfits: flannel pajama pants and May’s old sweaters. He was a good kid, Liam was.

_____ 

That night, May led them in one of their favorite pastimes last summer that had become essentially forgotten with all the training and preparation this year. They pulled the blankets and pillows onto the floor to make a cozy little picnic. May grabbed a worn set of Uno cards from one of the drawers. Miranda laid down, resting her head on one of Katie’s outstretched legs, and Katie paused the braiding of her long dark hair to catch the cards May tossed at her, opening them up and dealing them around. The pack had a little label on it written in neat handwriting:

Property of Abigail Greene and Cabin Four once she leaves camp. 

After a few rounds, they quickly discovered that Alana was superhumanly good at Uno. 

“This is ridiculous,” Miranda groaned, throwing her cards onto the floor after she lost her seventh round. “She has to be cheating.”

“Nuh-uh. Y’all just suck,” Alana boasted with a flick of her blonde hair, and May grinned.

“Smart kid.” May looked impressed.

“Lucky kid,” Miranda grumbled.

“Hey!” Alana protested. “I am not .”

“We should get into teams,” Katie suggested, even though her eyes were starting to droop with sleep. “Everyone against Alana.”

“Bring it on.” 

“She talks a big game.” Miranda giggled.

“No, we need to think bigger,” May said. “Start placing bets, exploit the other cabins: you do our chores for a week if this eleven year old can beat you three times in a row at Uno. It’s a no-brainer.”

Katie laughed with everyone else, shifting to rest her back on the wall as the others chatted. The Demeter kids certainly weren’t the flashiest at camp. They weren’t the strongest, or the bravest, or the best fighters, or the smartest. But they were dependable, Katie thought. They were as refreshing as a breath of fresh air in a smoky forest, as strawberries during the summer. Like the roots of a tree, stretching deep and solid into the ground. Katie liked the idea that her siblings—her family—would always be there, filling their cabin with laughter and filling camp with warmth and filling the gardens with flowers. Naively, she found herself wishing the night would never end. She wished they could stay like this forever. 

The night couldn’t last forever, though. Nothing could. Katie found herself on the porch with May, sleepy-eyed in the pale light of the moon. It wasn’t yet curfew, and a group of campers had gathered by the hearth. Their low conversation drifted in the wind over to Katie and May, though they couldn’t make out any details. A laugh, here and there. They must’ve been toasting marshmallows, because the air smelled sweet and smoky at once.

May sighed, her legs swinging off the edge of the porch as they watched the campers in comfortable silence. 

“Where have you been, lately?” Katie finally worked up the nerve to say, trying very hard not to sound like a whiny child. “We’ve missed you.” 

I’ve missed you. 

May’s gaze stayed trained on the campers at the hearth, avoiding Katie. The cicadas chirped, the summer night air rustling the many plants they kept on the porch. 

“People have been saying that you’re going to leave,” Katie said, her voice jarringly loud. May did look at her, then. Her dark eyes swirled with something that Katie couldn’t pinpoint, shadowed by the low light. “I told them they were wrong. And stupid. And I made daffodils grow out of Miles’s shoes.”

May laughed lightly. The tension of the moment was broken by the sound, low and grounded and fond.

“Look at you. Always defending my honor, K.”

“Yeah.” Katie grinned. “Of course.”

They sat in silence for a little while longer until the conch horn sounded, and they retreated to their beds. Katie slept soundly, dreaming of acres and acres of bright red strawberries.

_____

The next day, Chiron gathered them all in the dining pavilion after lunch. Katie sat next to May, who looked ashy and stressed, even as she reached out to ruffle Katie’s hair. Katie frowned at her. She had never seen May look so off-kilter before.

It took a while for everyone to file in. There were a few notable absences, but Katie guessed the missing campers were on guard duty. Miranda sat next to Katie, her dark hair braided, wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt that Katie was pretty sure was hers. Alana and Liam sat across from them, looking ominous. 

“The invasion is coming,” Alana whispered while Chiron told everyone to get settled. “Sherman Yang said so.” 

Sherman Yang was, unfortunately, right. The rest of the day flew by—camp was thrust into all out action, and Katie felt like she had been put in a washing machine and spun around on high. She tried not to let it show, but she was secretly grateful for May. May wrangled them all into shape easily, telling them where to go and what to do until they received further instructions before disappearing to do something else.

The rigid order of the last few weeks had disappeared, leaving something slightly chaotic in its place. The Hephaestus kids were marching through camp towards the woods with giant catapults and machines, recruiting the help of anyone they could. The Athena kids were struggling to put up a giant command tent in the clearing of the woods, hurriedly transporting their battle plans to sit inside it. Katie and her siblings were in charge of arming the dryads. Katie shoved a bow and arrow into the arms of a confused-looking Aphrodite camper.

“Run them down to the juniper bush,” Katie said. “Tell the dryads to activate Operation 007.”

“They’ll know what it means,” Liam chimed in. The operation had been mostly his idea. 

When Katie reported to the command tent in the late afternoon to get their cabin orders, Malcolm was looking as stressed and pale as she’d ever seen him, but there was steely determination in the way he was giving Silena her cabin orders. He was wearing what she knew to be his pajama shirt underneath his armor, and his hair was messy and unkempt. When he saw her, a troubled smile flicked across his face.  

“Get into your armor,” he said by way of greeting, and pointed to the edge of the tent, where a group of Aphrodite kids were transporting a chariot-full of armor into the clearing.  “We’re not sure when they’ll come, but we know it’ll be soon. We want everyone to be prepared when they get here.”

“Where do you want us?” Katie asked, nervous, and Malcolm stopped tapping his pen impatiently to look up at Katie, clearly confused. “May’s gone MIA. So I’m getting our cabin orders. Where do you want us?”

“May’s gone MIA?” Malcolm frowned. “Where—”

“Probably something for Chiron,” Katie cut him off. “She’s been busy lately.”

“Chiron’s delegated the orders to us.” Malcolm frowned, a little suspiciously. “And I don’t think any of us have seen May since this morning.”

“Well, she’s been busy with the dryads,” Katie snapped. “Chiron put us in charge of working with them and making sure they were prepared.”

Malcolm pursed his lips. “We need you to go and ask the Hephaestus kids where they want you and Alana. They’re in the middle of setting up catapults, so they know where it's safe for now. Ideally, you’ll be somewhere you can use your”—Malcolm waved his hands around—“plant stuff without being right in the middle of the fighting; it’ll mean that you can go where you’re most needed.

“Also, Lee said to keep an eye on the infirmary tent— If they’re running low, he said he trusts you to fill in some gaps. Liam and Miranda should get set up in the trees near the archers—Michael knows where—and we want them to instruct the dryads. They’ll have a good view of the fighting and do their plant stuff from there. We did position May near the entrance to the labyrinth, but obviously that’s not happening.”

Katie narrowed her eyes. “She’ll show.”

Malcolm looked like he wanted to object, but didn’t. Instead, he just turned to the mess of maps and armor and battle plans strewn about the tent. The command tent was hot and stuffy. The Athena kids all looked busy, identical focused expressions on their faces. It was only because Katie knew Malcolm so well that she could tell it was at least fifty percent an act. He was pale. Dark bruises sat under his eyes. 

“Okay,” Malcolm said. “Okay.”

Katie turned to the maps and armor and battle plans as well. It was all indecipherable to her, a foreign language she had never taken the time to learn. Outside the tent, campers continued to rush from place to place. Their combined nervous energy seeped under Katie’s skin, making her twitchy and afraid. 

“Malcolm—” Katie started, and then realized she didn’t know how she was going to finish her sentence. Malcolm turned back to her. His gray eyes were cloudy. He looked so young. 

“Yeah?”

Katie reached forward, her limbs moving faster than her mind as she pulled him into a hug. Her head was buried into his chest, the heavy armor preventing her from hearing the thrum of his heartbeat. He hugged her back, arms enclosing and gently squeezing around her. They separated too soon. There was no time for embraces, not when the invasion was so close. 

“Stay safe, yeah?”

Malcolm nodded. “Yeah. You too.”

Katie left the command tent full of adrenaline. Once she was back in the fresh air, her feet on solid grass, she forced herself to breathe. It was impossible to calm down with the chaotic whirl of the other campers and the tense knowledge of the invasion to come. She walked back to her siblings with forced assurance, sure they could see right through her. They were waiting at the edge of the woods, clad in heavy-looking armor. 

“No May?” Katie asked, and everyone shook their heads. “Okay. She’ll be with the dryads, then. Um. Malcolm told me the plan. Liam and Miranda, head to where the archers are set up in the trees— Find Michael Yew, he’ll help. You talk to the dryads with May, try and get a good view of the fighting when it comes, help where you can. Send in the dryads for reinforcements if they want to fight— only if they want to. Alana—Alana, you’re coming with me. We’re going to be on the ground, close enough to the fighting that we can provide reinforcements and help secure any weak spots. C’mon, Malcolm said the Hephaestus kids would tell us where to go.”

Katie was sure her siblings could see right through her, so she turned on her heel towards the woods before they even got the chance. They walked in silence. When they reached the clearing, they split. Katie hugged Liam and Miranda as tightly as she could. 

“Stay safe,” Katie whispered in Miranda’s ear, squeezing her extra tight. Miranda nodded, her dark green eyes a mixture of determination and fear. Katie and Alana watched them retreat towards the trees, where she knew the Apollo kids and Hermes kids were readying themselves. 

It was just Katie and Alana for a second. They both stood, looking at the scene in front of them. The Hephaestus cabin had set up a variety of deadly-looking traps around the entrance to the Labyrinth. All around the clearing, campers eyed the traps with equal parts apprehension and interest. The Ares kids were nearby, Clarisse leading drills and a dozen or so campers moving into formations that Katie definitely should’ve known the name of.

Katie resisted the urge to look at Alana to make sure she was still there. Guilt was settling deep in her stomach already, but she knew she’d made the right decision as soon as the words had left her mouth. She couldn’t let Alana go into the fighting alone. She needed to be safe, out of the thick of it, where Katie could protect her. 

“Katie!” A voice cut her out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see Beckendorf waving her over. He was in armor, too, and was struggling to lift a heavy-looking piece of metal. Katie ruffled Alana’s hair.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” she said. “Beckendorf’s just going to tell me if there are any traps set for the outskirts of the clearing, so we don't— So we know where to go.”

Alana scoffed. “I’m not a baby, Katie. I’m pretty sure you can leave me alone for twenty seconds.”

Katie laughed, though it was more for Alana’s benefit than her own, and told her to stay put before jogging over to Beckendorf to help. He looked pleasantly surprised as vines curled themselves from the forest floor to support the metal. It would’ve been easy work for May—or even Miranda—but Katie strained under the effort, sweat beginning to bead on her forehead as Beckendorf instructed where he wanted it. After Katie had placed the metal down, Beckendorf stood back to admire his handiwork.

“Thanks.” He nodded, and Katie nodded grimly back. “Did you hear Percy’s back?”

“No?” Katie frowned. “When?”

“Just got back a few minutes ago—one of our lookouts saw. They came in on Pegasi—Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and another kid. They’re with Chiron right now.”

“Gods.” Katie gnawed at her lip anxiously. “Not like Chiron has anywhere else to be or anything.”

Beckendorf laughed, and Katie managed a smile.

“Malcolm said you wanted us somewhere on the outside of the fighting? He said you’d tell us where it was safe.”

“We’re hoping for a contained fight,” he said in a low voice, a dark look flashing over his face. “So, best case scenario, fighting stops at the end of the clearing—before, hopefully. But even Chiron doesn’t know what we’re up against.”

As if summoned, Chiron appeared at the edge of the clearing with Percy Jackson in tow. Katie watched as he took in their work, talking to Percy in a low voice. Katie shot a look over to Alana, who had busied herself talking to Pollux, one of Dionysus’s kids, who was in the middle of handing out juice boxes and water to campers.

“Do you think we’re prepared?” Katie asked Beckendorf, suddenly feeling twelve years old again. She half expected Beckendorf to give her a cop-out answer, like what he’d say to Alana, or one of his younger siblings if they asked. Instead, he thought for a second.

“I hope so,” Beckendorf said finally. “I’m worried that we’re not. We don’t know what to expect.”

“What if we aren’t?” Katie was unable to stop the words from leaving her mouth. She looked around at the clearing, dread sinking into her stomach as she let herself consider the prospect.

“I really don’t know,” Beckendorf said after a long pause. “I guess-”

Whatever Beckendorf was about to say was interrupted by the ground starting to shake and the deadly silence that fell over camp.

“Lock shields!” Katie heard Clarisse shout and barely had a millisecond to panic before the monsters exploded out of the entrance to the Labyrinth and fighting seemed to materialize out of nowhere. One minute: a familiar clearing. The next: carnage, fighting, and noise. 

“Shit, Alana!” Katie desperately pushed her way through the crowd of campers, running away from the giants that began to break out of the ground. She scanned the crowd frantically, but Alana was nowhere to be seen. “Shit! Shit! ”

Around her, the battle had broken into full force, and Katie let out a strangled yelp as she dove out of the way of a falling flattened car—one of the giants’ shields. Around her, she could hear Clarisse and Beckendorf barking orders to their respective cabins, but Katie thought helplessly that it was useless. Everything was drowned out under the noise of fighting and the loud, pounding footsteps of the giants. Katie nearly jumped out of her skin when a giant collapsed next to her, courtesy of a flaming cannonball from the Hephaestus cannons and a couple of well-aimed arrows from the arches in the trees. 

It was chaos. Katie swore when she saw one of the giants smack their club into the Ares kids, sending them flying into the woods with an awful sound. She weaved through the insides of a giant’s planted legs— gross— and narrowly missed a batch of Greek Fire exploding into the air in their direction. Her heart was racing when she finally caught sight of Alana, standing determinedly near the edge of the clearing where Katie had left her, gripping her newly-forged scythe like a lifeline.

“Alana!” Katie called again, and she had just made it to Alana when the next wave of monsters emerged from the entrance of the labyrinth. Dracaenae— snake ladies —Katie thought, as she gripped Alana’s arm so tight that it hurt, watching the monsters advance on the first line of campers. For a minute, it looked like they’d be stopped by the traps and Katie held her breath. They couldn’t be that lucky. The dracaenae, as well as a whole group of other monsters, surged towards the campers, and Katie watched in horror at the blur of faces—familiar or otherwise—fighting. Stray arrows from the trees were flying everywhere, and it was a mark of the skill of the Apollo kids that they missed the campers. 

The fighting had stretched across the whole clearing, and Katie gasped in horror and pulled Alana out of the way as one of the snake-ladies lunged at them. Katie shrieked, scrunching her eyes closed and frantically trying to reach to feel for the plants that surrounded her, only exhaling when the roots finally bent to her will and wrenched the snake-lady down into the Earth with an awful snapping sound. She dissolved into dust, and Katie furiously pulled Alana towards a pack of campers fighting a vicious-looking pack of feather-shooting birds. Alana was deadly with her scythe, and Katie could feel sweat beading on her forehead as she manipulated nearby vines to shoot out and grab the birds out of the sky, yelping in pain when one of their razor-sharp feathers found its mark in her arm. She could barely even see who she was fighting with—only a glimpse of a face every now and then, a shout of instructions on how to best take down the birds. Even once all the birds had been killed, there was no time to pause. 

“Katie!” Katie heard a familiar voice from the middle of the battle, and swung around so quickly she got whiplash. May was there, clearly struggling to hold back a group of snake-ladies who were trying to cut their way out of their thorny entrapment. Katie had no time to check with Alana—who was in the middle of fighting a snake-lady with the help of one of Josh’s sisters—before she was sprinting to May, dodging giant clubs and stray monsters the best she could, relying on her instincts with the tree roots and plants to keep them away. She yelped as a snake-lady’s sword grazed her arm but barely stopped to think, flicking her other arm and feeling the for tug in her gut that would pull that snake-lady down to the earth as well. 

Katie finally reached May, who looked like she was struggling with the effort it was taking her to keep the hissing snake-ladies trapped in their thorny prison.

“About time.”

Katie looked at the thorns doubtfully. “I don’t think I can—”

“I need your help,” May breathed, sweat beading on her brow. “It’ll be easier with both of us.”

Even though it was something that would’ve been beyond Katie alone, she shifted all of her focus into trying to tighten the prison. Her hands shook, and May looked at her as though evaluating something. 

“Squeeze?” 

Katie nodded. Together, they tightened the shrubbery until the group of snake ladies dissolved into bronze dust with awful screeches. There was no time to celebrate their victory, though. May rushed off into the fray of the fighting again, her bronze sword flashing as she attacked, and Katie was left alone in the middle of the battle, disoriented. With horror, she spun as a nearby camper cried out. Their face was hidden by their oversized helmet, but they were small and crumpled and bleeding, a dagger lodged in their stomach and another kid—one of Luke’s, Katie guessed—backing away slowly, hands bloody. 

Katie didn’t have a moment to think before she ran to the kid, using her own hands to staunch the bleeding, horror whirling inside of her uncontrollably. She ripped off the kid’s helmet and realized it was Jeremy White, one of Malcolm’s kid brothers. His heartbeat was erratic under her hands, and his breathing was shallow as she grabbed him by the armpits and tried her best to drag him towards the edge of the clearing. The kid who’d done it had disappeared in the chaos, and Katie was sickened by the possibility that it might’ve been a face she recognised. 

Around her, the battle continued. She could see Annabeth and Miles fighting a pack of snake-ladies together, could hear the groans of something undead and bone-chilling in the distance. She couldn’t stop, though, not when she saw Percy Jackson whirl past her into a fight, not even when she saw Castor crumple to the ground looking sickeningly still after being hit by a giant that the Ares kids were trying to take down. She finally reached the edge of the battle—if you could even call it that—and shoved Jeremy into the arms of one of the wide-eyed Apollo kids with a medic’s armband. Campers were on the ground all around the outskirts of the battle—some moving and groaning and some terribly, terribly still. About half-a-dozen Apollo kids crouched by them, Will Solace among them, armed with ambrosia and nectar and—Katie hoped—their good instincts.  

“Megan, right?” Katie’s voice sounded hoarse as she handed off Jeremy to the Apollo kid, who immediately pulled up his shirt to examine the wound. She nodded her confirmation, looking nauseous. Katie took a deep breath to steady herself, forcing her voice to remain calm and pretending she wasn’t covered in the blood of a twelve-year-old. “You’re healing them here?”

Megan nodded, looking nauseous as she tried to coax some ambrosia into Jeremy’s mouth, muttering some healing hymn.

Katie couldn’t stop herself from reaching out and squeezing Megan’s shoulder. “You’re doing good.”

“We’re trying,” Megan said, and Katie took one last look at the injured campers before forcing herself back into the battle. May was in there somewhere. Alana, Malcolm, Josh, even Louisa—her family. 

People fell everywhere. Sherman Yang had a bone sticking out of his calf, but Katie could only pause and yell for a medic before she saw one of the little Aphrodite kids cowering in front of a snake-lady and ran over to her. She relied on the instinctual tug in her gut to get the nearby tree branches to keep the hissing monster contained as she grabbed Josh’s sister and dragged her out of the fray. Once she seemed in a relatively safe position, Katie squeezed her hand.

“Stay safe,” she said, unable to keep the shake in her voice at bay, hating herself with every ounce in her being as she left and headed back towards the fighting. A fire had broken out nearby, and Katie watched in horror as she saw May, Alana, Miranda, and some dryads near it, trying desperately to smother it. Katie was wracking her brain for a way to help when a wall of water came rushing through the trees, dousing almost everyone in the clearing. Katie spun around to see Percy Jackson and mentally thanked him.

Impossibly, it seemed like things were starting to balance out. They weren’t winning, but something like fierce hope reignited in Katie when she saw the Apollo archers make another giant disappear into dust. She looked around wildly—people were fighting everywhere, but she could barely make out who anyone was and couldn’t distinguish between the enemy half-bloods on the ground and her own friends and family. The ground beneath her feet had turned muddy and mushy, courtesy of Percy Jackson’s water. She almost didn’t notice the giant trampling towards her, its club swinging wildly. She would’ve been crushed if not for a painful hand on her arm, yanking her out of the way so harshly that she swore she heard something pop. Panting, she looked to see Travis Stoll, who gave her a half-hearted smile. There was blood on his hand from where he’d grabbed her arm, still stinging from where the dracaenae had swiped her earlier. 

“You’re welcome,” Travis Stoll said lightly, even as blood dripped down his face from a nasty-looking nosebleed. It was a sign of how grateful Katie was to see a familiar face that she didn’t snap at him, instead resisting the urge to wrap her arms around him and hug him. She didn’t of course, because that would be stupid. 

“Do you have a plan?” Katie said hoarsely. Travis shook his head.

“See if anyone needs backup?” Travis sounded more certain than Katie felt. For the first time in a long time, Katie found herself thinking about how Luke was Travis’s brother. She wondered if they were ever close. 

“You’re looking at me funny,” Travis said. His eyes were hardened, but his face was light, like they were just joking around at the campfire. Katie didn’t know how he did it—she felt like she was in hell.

She scowled at him. “C’mon, Stoll.”

They were jogging towards the center of the battle when a haunting, horrible shriek emanated from the entrance of the Labyrinth. If Katie was scared before, she was now heart-stoppingly terrified. The screech was bone-chilling, inhuman. She found herself frozen with fear for a split second, and she could see Travis in the same boat, his normally goofy expression turned petrified and unnatural.

The monster emerged, horrifying and winged, a creature from a nightmare, and Katie grabbed Travis’s arm and tried to scramble backwards. She tripped on a root and landed sprawled on the ground with a jolt of impact, Travis next to her, Katie still squeezing his arm so tightly he was probably losing circulation. She found herself unable to look away from the monster—it was a half-human, half-dragon thing , with wings and a scorpion tail and bubbling skin, with a snarling boar-head at her waist, snake hair, and a hundred tiny vipers darting from her reptilian legs. The monster drew two shining, vicious looking swords. Katie could see people trying to run for safety in her peripheral vision, and could hear the horrible sound of the last giants stepping on the fleeing campers. Were those her friends? Her siblings?

She let out a strangled gasp as the creature began flying, seemingly straight towards them. Katie was convinced she was going to die—she was going to die, here, on the forest floor. She was going to die. Without even thinking, Katie’s let go of Travis’s arm and reached for his hand. She clutched it, desperate for some form of human connection, desperate not to die alone and afraid, and he squeezed her hand so hard it hurt. They were going to die, but they would die together. She closed her eyes and waited. 

It took Katie a beat too long to realize that she was still alive. She could feel her heart beating erratically, and she heard a loud bang from the direction of the command tent. Her thoughts were moving sluggishly with fear, and it didn’t register for a minute that the creature had flown over them towards Chiron. Towards the tent with the Athena kids. Katie’s heart dropped. Malcolm . Panicked, she scrambled to her feet, dragging Travis with her towards the tent. All around her, campers were injured, but she couldn’t afford to stop for them. All she could think about was Malcolm.

Her instincts did half the work for her. She supposed it was a heat of the moment sort of thing. Distantly, she heard Travis curse as tree roots jumped out of the ground to claw at a hellhound that tried to launch itself at them, its horrible red eyes hungry for death. Katie silently vowed that if she came out of this alive, she would bake the Ares cabin (a group of whom were throwing themselves at the hellhound in attack) a cake.  

Over by the command tent, Percy and Annabeth were fighting the nightmarish creature. They didn’t look like they were winning. Everyone else was either fighting other monsters, cowering in fear, or injured on the ground. 

“Come on!” Katie heard Percy shout. “We need help!”

Katie couldn’t force her feet to move. She suddenly felt completely drained, probably from the extensive use of her powers, and the world moved dizzyingly around her. She looked at Travis, completely lost. Travis was looking in horror at the destruction around them, wincing at every sound. Everything seemed to go still.

Katie looked to her left, and everything started up again. Josh . He was lying there, dark hair matted, his armor nearly shredded. A pool of blood had turned the grass red around him. Katie felt like she was in a nightmare. Guilt welled up inside her as she ignored Percy and Annabeth’s cries, ignored the groans of campers, ignored it all to struggle over to Josh, feeling more bruised than ever before. She didn’t realize that Travis had followed her until they were there, their eyes meeting over Josh’s scarily still body. Katie felt the familiar sting of tears beginning to form as she leaned down to check for breathing like Lee had taught her, pressing her hand to Josh’s chest and letting out a strangled gasp when she felt the thrum of his heart under her hand. 

A hellhound darted through the fray, and Katie thought she was hallucinating when the hellhound began to attack the monster with Percy and Annabeth, followed closely by a giant man with an uncountable number of hands who began launching boulders at the monster. A heartbeat later, the monster was buried in boulders, and there was a faint cheer from the campers. Travis grinned faintly, too, but Katie was focused on Josh. 

“We need to get him to the Apollo kids,” she said. Travis nodded with a frown. They had just begun to attempt to maneuver him over to the healers when Katie glanced at the battle and realized that the tides had—yet again—turned. The rest of Luke’s army surged forward towards the campers. If Katie was alone, she probably would’ve closed her eyes and waited for them to come. But she wasn’t alone. She focused on the weight of Josh between them as they struggled to drag him to safety, the feel of his shredded armor digging into her hands and causing blood to bubble. 

Distantly Chiron fell and the monsters continued to move forward. Then, suddenly, a sound echoed through the clearing. It was pure fear, magnified, echoing throughout the woods, pouring its way into every nook and cranny and sending a chill deep into Katie’s bones. They all watched numbly as the forces fled, retreating down into the Labyrinth with a final rumble of the ground.

After they left there was a moment of stillness. Everything and everyone seemed to stop. Time seemed to slow. It was like camp was holding its breath.

When the creatures didn’t return, the action resumed. Katie had to take a deep breath and try to push everything but the present from her mind. She waved down one of the Apollo kids to check on Josh, a boy—Joe, she thought—came quickly.

“I’ve got it,” he said. “Go check on the others.”

“Okay,” Katie said, but she couldn’t find it in her to make her legs move, eyes focused on Josh, tracking the rise and fall of his chest. She jumped at the feel of a hand tapping her shoulder, and swung around to see Travis, his hand outstretched as if to help her up. Katie looked back at Josh again. His chest was still moving: up and down, up and down. It physically hurt to tear her gaze away from him. She grabbed Travis’s outstretched hand, pulling herself up and ignoring the stinging in her arm from where the dracaenae had slashed her earlier. Travis watched her with amusement, and Katie thought that only Travis Stoll could find a smile in these conditions. She tried to ignore the magnetic pull urging her to turn back to Josh. 

“You know, you’ve got a feather in your arm,” he said, and Katie frowned and realized that yes, she did indeed have a razor-sharp feather sticking out of her arm like an arrow. She winced as she pulled it out, putting pressure on it with her other hand to stop the bleeding.

“Stupid birds,” Katie muttered. Together, Katie and Travis surveyed the situation. Some campers were doing the same thing. Some were collecting the wounded, helping them towards the smoldering remains of what once was the infirmary tent. Some were down on the ground, groaning, clearly injured. Worst of all, some lay still, completely unmoving. Katie blinked away tears. 

Without words, they went to work. Katie lost sight of Travis quickly, too focused with helping up those she could see and keeping an eye out for her friends and siblings, praying desperately to catch sight of them in the chaos. She was in the middle of wrapping a strip of her ripped shirt around the leg of a Hephaestus kid as a makeshift tourniquet when she caught sight of a familiar blonde head of hair nearby, supporting a limping kid towards the infirmary tent. Katie’s heart leapt out of her chest, and as soon as she was certain the Hephaestus kid was alright, she walked as quickly as her aching body let her over to Malcolm, throwing her arms around him and burying her head into his chest. His armor was gone. She felt his steady heartbeat echo throughout her own body. 

When they separated, his eyes were red. Katie couldn’t find the right words to express exactly how relieved she was that he was alive, so instead, she just squeezed his hand. He seemed to get it.

“We need to get everyone back to camp,” she murmured, throat sore. Malcolm nodded.

“I know.” He looked wearily around. “We need some sort of system.”

Katie agreed wholeheartedly, but, looking around, even she could see it was a lost cause. Right now, their biggest priority needed to be physically transporting everyone to camp. After that, they could worry about everything else. 

It took two hours to get everyone back into the vicinity. It was impossible to know who was dead or alive; in the time it took to walk to camp and back, others were making the same trip, moving people and themselves to where they needed to be. The Apollo kids quickly set up a triage system: an exhausted-looking Michael Yew who was camped out in front of the infirmary and told people where they needed to go. When Katie and Malcolm dragged an unresponsive Ares kid to him, huffing under his weight, Michael examined them with a critical eye. 

“He breathing?” Michael asked, and Katie nodded. 

“We think he got hit in the head.” She shuddered at the memory of the greenish wound.

Michael nodded. “Put him in the Apollo cabin, any bed you can find.” He looked skeptically at them both, covered in blood. “Any wounds?”

Katie hesitated for a second before speaking. “Arm got slashed a bit, but it’s not bad.”

“Did something to my knee,” Malcolm admitted. “Telekhine hit it, but I can still walk.”

Michael nodded again. “Get some ambrosia or nectar— Megan’s got it all set up in the rec room. If they get worse, come back. If not…just check in with one of my siblings once we’ve got a better system worked out.”

Katie and Malcolm were both smart enough not to ask when that would be, and with a mutual look decided they would make a few more trips back to the clearing before stopping by for some ambrosia. 

“Josh?” Malcolm finally said tentatively as they trudged back towards the clearing. Katie swallowed.

“He was knocked out pretty good. Think a hellhound got to him. Left him with an Apollo kid, though.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence. 

Katie almost cried—who was she kidding, she did cry—when she finally saw May and Alana back at the clearing, standing and talking to some dryads. 

“I’m gonna—” she sniffled to Malcolm, who just nodded with a pained smile. 

“I’ll wait here.”

That was all the permission she needed before she was off. When May caught sight of her, an undeniable expression of relief crossed her face, and a sob bubbled up stupidly inside of Katie’s chest. She threw herself into May’s arms, relishing in the feel of being safe and protected and sheltered by her older sister. May looked worse for the wear: the ends of her braids had been singed off, and there was a burn on her arm that Katie frowned at. She had taken her armor off and was clad in leggings and a sweatshirt that smelled like smoke. Katie buried her face into May’s shoulder.

When they separated, May gave her a tired smile, and ruffled her hair. Katie hugged Alana, too, whose camp shirt was scorched. Her blonde hair had fallen out of its braid and hung messily around her face. She had a gash on her cheek that someone had plastered a bright blue butterfly bandaid on. 

“Are you in the middle of something?” May asked when Katie had wiped her eyes furiously to stop herself from crying. Katie sniffled, but tried to put on a brave face, conscious of Alana.

“Malcolm and I are helping the others get back to camp,” she said. May nodded.

“You keep on doing that, then. We’re trying to sort out a plan with the dryads to fix the forest. You haven’t seen Miranda or Liam recently, have you?”

Katie thought back as hard as she could. Her heart sank.

“Not since before. You?”

May looked troubled. “Saw Miranda about fifteen minutes ago. She said she had lost sight of Liam after the battle, but that she was out looking for him. Just—just let me know if you see either of them, okay?”

Katie nodded, and pushed down the rock of dread that had settled in her stomach as she gave May and Alana another hug, and trudged back to join Malcolm. He must’ve picked up on it, though, because he gave her a worried look.

“Everything good?”

Katie shook her head. “Liam’s MIA. Miranda’s looking for him, though.”

Katie was wracked with guilt as they left the clearing with a couple of other campers. She supported Nyssa Barerra—Nyssa’s leg was bloody, and she limped as she leaned on Katie through the journey back to camp. There was a tense silence as they went back and forth, everyone afraid to ask who had been lost.

It was late afternoon by the time everyone had been moved, and the littlest Apollo kids had started to go from cabin to cabin, treating injuries the best they could. Katie joined them, moving on autopilot, grateful for something to do to tear her racing thoughts away from Miranda and Liam and the fact that she hadn’t seen them since before the battle. There was barely anything she could do, but almost everyone was injured and Michael told her to just bring ambrosia to anyone who needed it. At what would normally be dinner time, May approached Katie. She was still wearing her clothes from the battle.

Katie smiled at her wearily. “Found Liam and Miranda?”

May shook her head. “We’ve got the dryads on lookout. We’ve been busy trying to put out the fires. Alana’s staying to help the dryads, but she’s exhausted.”

“Everyone is,” Katie said, grief settling over her like a blanket. May looked a thousand years old when she spoke, her voice low.

“Do you know— Do you know how many we lost?”

“No,” Katie said, and the little word seemed to be heavier than the sheet of metal she had helped Beckendorf carry that morning. It felt like ten thousand years ago. “I’m guessing the Apollo kids have a better idea. Michael’s been triaging.”

May pressed her hands over her eyes, and Katie reached to put a hand on her shoulder. Seeing May break down was its own sort of awful; May had always been untouchable, in control, careful to protect the younger kids. Katie had never realized how heavy the weight of being an older kid was. Not until today, running around and reassuring the young ones that things would be fine. Not until today, setting a nine-year-old’s broken leg. Not until today, trying to steer a group of Aphrodite kids away from a sobbing Pollux, whose brother had died in the battle. 

“They’re putting the bodies in the stables,” May said, barely a whisper. “Getting shrouds ready to burn tonight. The Ares and Athena kids are coordinating it all. The older ones, at least.”

There was nothing Katie could say to that. There was nothing anyone could have said to that. 

May pressed her hands to her eyes again, composing herself with a long, deep breath. “Chiron’s injured. Everyone’s a mess. I’m going to try and start getting people taken care of—making sure everyone has showers, food, and gets into clean clothes. Things like that. You want to help?”

Katie considered the offer. She knew she wasn’t much help with the healing stuff, but this felt like something she could do. Not for the first time, she found herself admiring May’s strength. Katie had been wandering around aimlessly, desperate to help, but May had a plan. A good one. A very May-like plan, that brought the same sense of stability and comfort that May managed to bring to everything. Right now, they needed stability and comfort. 

“I’m in. How are we doing this?”

May frowned. “Just go around, I guess. Make sure everyone’s taken care of. It’ll be a big job.”

“That’s why we need a system. Maybe even start checking off names, seeing that everyone’s accounted for. We could go cabin-by-cabin, grab lists from the Big House to check names. I could even get Jo—” Katie cut herself off abruptly. She took a deep, steadying breath. Malcolm and Louisa would be busy with the dead, if May was right (gods, what an awful thought). Miranda and Liam were MIA, and Alana was with the dryads. Josh was out of action, still unconscious in the infirmary. “We can do it ourselves. Split it up.”

May raised her eyebrows, but nodded. Katie was too exhausted to think about the implications of her decision. 

“By cabin?” May confirmed, and Katie was grateful they were on the same wavelength. She thought about it for a second. 

“Yes. I’ll take…I’ll take Apollo, Aphrodite, and, um, Hermes. And I’ll check for Percy. You take Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, and the twin—and Pollux. We both keep an eye out for our siblings?”

May nodded thoughtfully. “Check that everyone’s showered and mark off names. I’ve got some food in my car, non-perishables and ramen and stuff. There’s not much, but I doubt many people will have much of an appetite. You can make it in the Big House kitchen. Let's say we’ll meet there in about an hour for dinner. Get everyone in warm, clean clothes. I think they’re burning the shrouds tonight.”

Katie let that hang heavy for a second, before nodding at May. Together, they set off. 

Katie went to the Aphrodite cabin first. Armed with the list of summer campers from the Big House and a bag full of ramen noodles, she took a deep breath before entering the cabin. It was empty, save for a young boy, whose eyes were red. Katie vaguely remembered him from training. Mitchell. 

“Hey.” Katie tried to be gentle. “Mitchell, right?”

Mitchell nodded warily. “Yeah.”

“Do you know where Silena is?” Katie asked, sitting down gently on the bed opposite him. She glanced down at her list to tick his name off. According to Chiron’s records, there were eight Aphrodite kids currently at camp.

“She’s helping with the hurt people.”

“Are you hurt?” Katie asked bluntly. Mitchell held up his wrist, which had been bandaged with all of the professionalism of one of the Apollo kids. “Just my wrist. Megan came in earlier and fixed it.”

Katie nodded. “That’s good. Listen, why don’t you take a shower? Get into some comfier clothes? I’m making dinner in the Big House—hope you like ramen.”

Mitchell shook his head, but Katie could see the temptation in his face. Being friends with Josh, Katie knew how much the Aphrodite kids hated dirt and grime, and Mitchell was covered in it, still in a bloodied camp shirt and cargo shorts. 

“C’mon,” Katie said, trying to project authority. “You have to do it eventually, right?”

“What if they come back?” Mitchell said. Katie tried for her best May-look. Reassuring and in control. She doubted that May had ever had to fake it. 

“They won’t,” Katie said firmly. “We scared them away pretty good. The Labyrinth is gone . If they do, the older kids will take care of it.”

It sounded weak, even to Katie, but Mitchell eyed her warily before standing up, rummaging through his wardrobe. Katie ruffled his hair. 

“Dinner in the Big House in an hour—pass it on to your siblings. But only if they’ve showered and gotten into some fresh clothes.”

Katie made to leave, but Mitchell stopped her, gesturing down towards his bloodied clothing. “What—what do I do with this?”

Katie frowned. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Thinking on her feet, she knelt down and dragged out a cardboard box from under Josh’s bed that she knew he had there to store his hair care stuff. She tipped them onto his bed, mentally promising to buy him a new one, and slid it over to Mitchell.

“Anything that you don’t think’s salvageable, put it in there. I don’t know, we’ll burn it or something.”

Mitchell nodded wordlessly, and Katie took it as her sign to leave. After some aimless wandering, she finally stumbled into Silena, who looked awful. She was carrying some bloodied sheets, presumably from the infirmary. Her usually neat hair was a mess, as if she had been running her hands through it, and her eyes were puffy. When she saw Katie, she dropped the sheets and wrapped her into a hug. Katie savored it.

When they separated, Silena sniffled. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“You too,” Katie said, honestly. “May is— May and I are trying to make sure everyone’s accounted for. Have you seen all of your siblings since the battle?”

Silena’s eyes turned watery again. “Yeah. We’re all okay.”

Katie breathed out a sigh of relief, ignoring the voice in the back of her head that sounded a lot like jealousy. When would Liam and Miranda get back?

“Good. That’s good.”

Katie ticked off the Aphrodite kids on her list. Her pen hesitated over one name. “Is—is Josh okay? Have you seen him?”

Silena nodded. “Yeah. He’s okay. Still knocked out, but they’ve got him in the infirmary. He’s in good hands.”

Katie thought of Lee Fletcher and nodded. Silence settled over them then, the loaded heaviness that had been present in every encounter since the battle. Katie couldn’t deny that she felt a little bit like an imposter, about to ask Silena to do something. Silena had been at camp long before Katie, and she was older, too. Still, Katie took a deep breath and spoke. 

“If you can, make sure they all shower and get changed?” Katie said. “May and I are making dinner in the Big House kitchen. Pass it on?”

Silena nodded, and they parted ways with another hug. Grateful to have checked all of the Aphrodite kids off her list, Katie hurriedly made her way to the Hermes cabin, figuring that she would do the Apollo kids last, as they were all centralized in the infirmary anyway. She tentatively knocked, but no one answered. She pushed open the door anyway, peering into the cabin. According to her list, there should’ve been twenty kids. She counted maybe half a dozen, all in various stages of changing. 

“Ever heard of knocking?” Travis Stoll was suddenly right in front of her, in the middle of pulling on a sweatshirt, and Katie was sure she flushed bright red, despite the circumstances. 

“If you go past that line,” one of the younger boys pointed to a crudely chalked white line on the floor, “we have to charge you. Just so you know.”

Travis shrugged. “Cabin Eleven policy.”

“Gods’ sake, Travis.” Katie scowled, her ears burning. She had the stupid urge to squint her eyes shut, but instead she just focused her gaze on Travis’s left eyebrow. A perfectly inoffensive body part. “I just came to tell y’all to shower and get changed into warm clothes. But clearly you’re on top of that.”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Travis said, and Katie felt ashamed for about a millisecond before one of the younger Hermes kids piped up.

“Travis told us we didn’t have to shower!”

Katie raised an eyebrow and Travis had the nerve to not even look ashamed. Katie sighed.

“Y’all need to shower. Non-negotiable. Shower, change, then dinner in the Big House. Pass it on.”

The Hermes kids groaned and grumbled, but Katie sent them her sternest look and they begrudgingly made their way out of the cabin, grabbing clean clothes in bundles. Travis hung back, looking annoyed. 

“I had it under control.”

“They need to shower, Travis. Half of them have got— They’ve got blood and shit all over them.”

Travis glared at her, but suddenly his bravado left. He sank to sit on one of the bunks, burying his head in his hands. Katie frowned. She was the first to say that she hated Travis Stoll, but he seemed— He seemed genuinely upset. Katie couldn’t deal with anyone feeling that way. Cautiously, she made her way inside the cabin. Travis didn’t say anything when she stepped over the chalked line to make her way to sit down next to him. The bed creaking. Stupidly, she flushed.

“Hey,” Katie said.

“Hey,” Travis muttered. The silence between them was awkward, and it made Katie realize they had rarely been around each other without argument, if ever. Even when she first got to camp, they had instantly clashed in the Hermes cabin. Now, though, Katie didn’t think either of them felt like arguing. 

The silence had gotten heavy, and Katie was looking at the door longingly when Travis finally spoke. “How do you do it?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know. Know what they need, and shit. Tell them what to do without them hating you. You’re not even a head counselor, and you’re a better head counselor than me.” Katie was surprised by the self-deprecative bitterness in his voice. It was the longest she’d ever heard Travis be serious. She found herself half-expecting him to pull a water gun on her or something. 

“I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m just good at bossing people around. I’m not good— Travis, you’re a good counselor. If you told anyone I said that, I’d have to—” Katie cut herself off. “I’d have to make ivy grow out of your eyes or something, but the kids like you. Anyone can see the way they all look up to you. You make them laugh.”

Katie turned bright red. She hadn’t realized she had been keeping such close tabs on Travis. Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice. He looked at her, his green eyes troubled. 

“Naomi is dead.” His voice was as quiet as a whisper. “She was seventeen. She was planning on going to college after the summer. I don’t know how to tell them. Only Connor and Jason know—they found her in the woods. They’re taking her body to the stables now.”

Katie didn’t know what to say. That had been happening a lot today. A heavy silence fell over them.

“Are the rest of you accounted for?” Katie said as gently as she could. Travis nodded. He buried his head in his hands. Katie resisted the urge to reach out and give him a hug. To squeeze his hand, like she would if Malcolm was upset about something. “That’s something.”

“Hmm.” Travis only hummed in response, and after another minute of silence, Katie guiltily stood to leave. At the cabin door, she paused for a second, looking back. Travis looked pitiful in the darkness, alone in a slowly darkening cabin that usually housed dozens. Katie flicked on the light switch, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. 

“Travis?” Katie said hurriedly, even though he gave no indication that he was listening. “If you ever want to talk, I’m here, y’know?” Katie cleared her throat. “Also, shower and get changed. Then come to the Big House, bring your siblings. May and I are making dinner. You need to eat.”

Without waiting for a response, Katie left. 

Her eyes were growing heavy as night fell, her body exhausted and aching. She was sure she looked a mess, still in her clothes from the battle, but she pushed herself towards the infirmary. It was the fullest Katie had ever seen it, and she ran a quick headcount of the Apollo kids, trying to ignore the metallic scent of blood that emanated from the room. There should have been nine Apollo kids. Katie counted five, including Michael, who was still sitting out the front, directing people. She frowned at Will Solace, who was directing a few of his siblings. He looked—like the rest of them—awful. Katie realized suddenly that none of them had probably left the infirmary since the battle, that they had been stuck in this claustrophobic room all afternoon, surrounded by the injured and wounded. 

“Will,” Katie said gently, and he looked at her with a flash of irritation. Next to him, Kayla Knowles grabbed the ambrosia square out of his hand, bringing it over to a Hephaestus camper in one of the beds. “Y’all need a rest. Where’s Lee? Can he take over for a while?”

A horrible, suffocating silence fell over the infirmary, broken only by the moans of the injured. To Katie’s horror, Will’s eyes filled with tears. A sinking dread crept over Katie, from her fingertips to her toes. She hadn’t even considered the fact that Lee could be - that Lee could be dead. Lee was the best archer in the cabin. He was head of the infirmary and an unmovable staple of camp. Lee had promised to help her with the strawberries during the winter. 

Katie blinked the tears out of her own eyes, and forced her voice to be steady. “Okay. Okay. Who else have you got? Who’s out doing rounds?”

“Alice. Megan. Joe…” Will said automatically. Katie nodded.

“Okay. Okay.” Katie wanted to ask if he could half the number, work out some sort of shiftwork, but looking into Will’s pale face, only eleven years old, she couldn’t bring herself to say a word. Instead she squeezed his shoulder and spun on her heel, bursting out of the claustrophobic infirmary and breathing in the deep air. Michael didn’t say anything, but Katie sat down on the step next to him. They sat in silence for a moment. 

“Lee?” The word spilled out of Katie’s mouth before she could stop it. Michael shook his head. 

“Giant’s club. Gone before anyone could even get to him.”

Katie had no words for that, either. Instead she looked into the stars. They glimmered above her. She thought of Lee, of those days in the infirmary where they worked together, both of them prickly and stubborn but growing to like each other anyway. She thought about him singing at the campfire, armed with a guitar and a honey-smooth voice. Lee was her friend, she realized. She blinked away tears. 

“I’m sorry.” It sounded weak, even to Katie.

Michael shrugged. “Yeah. Me too.”

There was silence.

Katie broke it. “May and I are making dinner in the Big House. Make sure they come? They need to eat. You too.”

Michael looked at her like she was an idiot, and Katie supposed she was. She felt like one. There was no way the Apollo kids would have time to step away from the copious amounts of injured. There was no way any one of them could have an appetite after everything they’d surely witnessed today. After losing Lee. 

Katie met up with May in the Big House, and May looked as drained as Katie felt. The sun had well and truly set, and Katie flicked the light on in the kitchen. She placed the bag she had been carrying around onto one of the benches, emptying it out. May looked through the cupboards, pulling out anything she deemed usable. They both washed their hands in the sink, scrubbing the blood from under their fingernails until there was no sign it had been there in the first place. 

They cooked in silence. Katie was grateful for the chance to turn her mind off for a bit, to focus on nothing more than boiling a pot of water, pouring in as many packets of ramen noodles that would fit. She watched as May silently cut up some fruit to place in a big bowl. The freezer was—surprisingly—full of five minute dinners that they began to heat in the microwave, and, if not for the circumstances, Katie probably would’ve laughed at the thought of Mr. D and Chiron having a stash of TV dinners to share. Instead, she just watched the dinners circle and steam, grateful for the simple instructions to follow. 

“Lee’s dead.” Katie’s voice was hoarse. She didn’t look at May, keeping her eyes focused on the ramen boiling on the stove, stirring it occasionally. “So’s Naomi, from the Hermes cabin.”

“Two kids from Ares,” May said after a long pause. “Daniel Lopez. Jonathan Thorne. Both fourteen. Two from Athena—both girls. Posie was twelve. Lyssa was seventeen—been at camp almost as long as me. And then Jonah from Hephaestus. He was a year-round camper, I think.”

Katie buried her face in her hands for a minute. They smelled metallic, like blood. Jonah was one of Beckendorf’s brothers—quiet but nice. Posie and Lyssa…her mind jumped to Malcolm’s siblings, trying to match names to faces. At one point, it became too horrible, and she sniffed, wiping her eyes. 

“Gods.” 

“Yeah,” May said. “That about sums it up.”

They kept on cooking, and steadily, campers began to file in. Katie was too numb to be pleased, but something like satisfaction spurred inside of her when she saw that the majority of them were dressed in clean clothes. Nowhere near as many people as they had told showed up, but enough did that Katie and May used all the bowls in the cupboards and had to resort to serving ramen in Camp Half-Blood mugs that Travis Stoll brought them from the gift shop. He showed up wordlessly, bag of mugs in tow, and Katie didn’t scold him for stealing like she normally would. Instead, she turned back to the stove and thrust a scalding mug of ramen at him, along with a fork. 

“Eat,” she told him, and moved on to the next person.  

About half an hour in, Chiron entered, followed by Silena. He moved tenderly in his wheel-chair, still injured. According to one of the Hermes girls, he had only just left the back room of the infirmary. His wheelchair’s faux legs were still dressed up from the winter, Rocky-Horror Style. Katie half expected him to yell at them for taking over, but instead, he just nodded. Katie and May both stopped what they were doing. 

“Thank you,” he said, looking weary and every bit his age. “Silena has volunteered to take over for a while. Rest. Get clean. Your siblings are outside, I believe.”

Katie looked at May, who nodded. 

“There’s more ramen in the bag,” May said to Silena. Silena’s eyes were still puffy, but she had changed into warm-looking fluffy pants and a sweater, her dark hair hanging damp down her back. “Make sure you check for allergies.”

Katie followed May out of the Big House, uncertain. She was surprised to find that the night air had turned cold, and she shivered under the breeze, goosebumps emerging on her arms. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, searching for Alana, Miranda, and Liam. 

Suddenly, May stopped walking, going very still, and Katie almost barged straight into her. She followed May’s eyeline. Miranda and Alana were standing together at the edge of the volleyball courts, illuminated by the light of the moon. 

Even from this distance, Katie could see that their eyes were puffy, like they had been crying. The sinking sense of dread that had been following Katie all afternoon threatened to choke her. May let out a strangled sort of noise that made Katie’s heart ache. Everything had suddenly seemed to move very slowly, like the world was reduced to a bubble that contained just the four of them. Everything else had fallen away. 

Katie blinked away tears as she finally put the pieces together. Alana and Miranda, together, with puffy eyes. The aching sense of dread deep in her gut. May’s strangled cry. 

Liam, who she hadn’t even thought to worry about during the battle. Liam, who she had just assumed would be safe, out of the way of the firing and fighting. Liam, who had been missing since that afternoon, who Miranda had been out looking for. Miranda was here, and Liam wasn’t, and that could only mean one thing. 

She had hugged Liam just yesterday. He had sat on her lap at the campfire and giggled on her shoulders on the way back to the cabin. He had come up with a plan to arm and to protect the dryads and called it Operation 007 after James Bond and had threatened them all with plants in their shoes if they touched his Ninja Turtles, which he insisted were models, not toys. Liam —

The walk back to the cabin seemed to last an eternity. When May asked about it, Miranda just shook her head.

“He was in the woods.” Her voice was shaky. “On the ground. He— It was smoke inhalation, we think. He’d been trying to help the dryads get out of the fire. He was all burnt.”

Miranda started crying, then, and Katie could do nothing but wrap her arm around her for the remainder of the walk. Guilt stung in her eyes, welled in every corner of her body. Back at the cabin, the sight of his messy bed threatened to make her cry again. His Ninja Turtles sat right where he left them on his bedside table, as if waiting for him to come back and play with them. His outfit for tomorrow was laid out at the end of his bunk, the way it always was. 

Wordlessly, May rummaged in the chest to pull out a long piece of silken fabric, forest-green, embroidered with intricate ivy. Katie realized it was a shroud. A shroud for her little brother. She couldn’t stop herself from crying, then, choked tears that bubbled up from deep inside of her, sobs that left her gasping for breath. 

That night, everyone who was able to gathered in the amphitheater. Katie had showered, changed, and had some ambrosia for the gash on her arm, but loss and grief still cut through her like a knife. She felt like she was just going through the motions, numbly gathered with May, Alana, and Miranda as they watched Liam’s shroud be added to the row in the middle of the amphitheater. Anyone who wanted to was invited to say a few words, but none of the Demeter girls moved forward. They really were just the Demeter girls , now, Katie realized with a stab of grief. Liam had hated that name. 

Katie clutched May’s hand as Pollux got up to say a few words, but was ultimately too choked up. The crowd was full of familiar faces, but Katie’s eyes were swimming and they all looked blurry. Finally, the pyre was lit. Flames licked through the nine shrouds, sending sparks into the air. Katie looked at the stars and prayed to her mother.

Chapter Text

‘breathe in, breathe deep, breathe through, breathe out’ - taylor swift

The weeks following the battle switched between moving agonizingly slowly and achingly quickly. Katie and her siblings buried themselves into their work, a coping mechanism they all shared. Training had somewhat relaxed around camp in the wake of the battle, so Katie found herself with far too much time on her hands for her liking. She spent most of her days in the woods with her siblings, trying to help the dryads and satyrs fix the damage. The dryads had gotten emotional the first time they had seen them all. One of them, a shy girl with a green tinge to her skin, had wiped her eyes and reached out to take Katie’s hands. They were rough like bark. 

“Your brother is a friend to the dryads,” the girl said. “We will forever be grateful.”

Katie just nodded, too overcome with emotion to speak.

Life without Liam was uniquely awful. Katie, who had always loved the Demeter cabin, now found it unbearably painful to be in. They all refused to touch Liam’s bed and so it stayed unmade, as if waiting for him to come and slide into it after a long day at camp. The absence of the dead was felt heavily through camp, rippling through them all. It wasn’t made any better by the presence of Nico di Angelo, who, as they all learned, was the son of Hades. Katie knew it wasn’t fair, but the way he lurked around camp sent a shiver down her spine, and the familiar tang of grief into her mouth. He left soon after the battle, and Katie was secretly relieved.

The Fourth of July—usually one of the biggest events of the summer—had a hollow feeling to it. Katie sat with Josh and watched the fireworks numbly, his head resting on her shoulder. His dark hair tickled the side of her face. 

The Hephaestus kids had gone all out with the fireworks. They had been locked away in the forge since the battle, even Beckendorf unusually withdrawn and quiet. If Katie had to guess, she would probably say that the Hephaestus kids shared something in common with the Demeter kids when it came to dealing with life after the battle. 

After the fireworks were over, Josh lifted his head from Katie’s shoulder with a wince. Katie frowned at him. 

“Are you—”

“I’m fine,” Josh said shortly. 

“There’s no need to—” Katie started, hurt.

“I’m sorry.” Josh raked his hands through his hair, looking frustrated. “It’s just all anyone’s been asking me these days.”

“You were hurt,” Katie said, scanning him up and down. Josh had only just been released from the infirmary, and was still being carefully surveilled by little Will Solace every meal. “We were worried.”

“I’m fine, now,” Josh said. “Ambrosia fixed me right up.”

Katie got the sneaking suspicion that he might not have been telling the whole truth. 

“I’m more worried about Malcolm,” Josh continued. “I’ve barely seen him since the battle. And I don’t think that’s just because I’ve been in the infirmary.”

“Me neither.” Katie shook her head. She stared at the sand, where she had been drawing little patterns. Above them, the moon hung like a light in the sky. “He didn’t come and visit?”

“Once,” Josh said. “When I was asleep.”

Despite the worry that was steadily swirling in her stomach, Katie had to smile. “That’s so Malcolm.”

“Yeah,” Josh said, surprisingly tender. “It is.”

They walked back to camp with everyone else, all the campers clumped in their own little groups of two or three. Katie caught sight of Louisa walking with Michael Yew, her hands in her pockets as she kicked a stone in front of her. They met each other’s eyes. Louisa looked away first. 

_____

Katie and Josh stood together at the Athena cabin door. It was two weeks since the fireworks, and Katie had probably spoken about three words in total to Malcolm since the battle. He was avoiding both Katie and Josh with surprising stealth, and Katie was getting sicker and sicker with worry and self-doubt. 

(The confrontation had been Katie’s idea, obviously. Surprisingly, Josh had been on board, too. 

“I thought you said that some situations need a gentle, tender hand?” Katie raised an eyebrow, skeptical, when Josh agreed without blinking an eye. 

“Malcolm is a special case,” Josh decided. “He wouldn’t pick up a subtle hint if it hit him in the face.”)

At the door of the Athena cabin, Katie and Josh both stood still. Katie looked at Josh and then back to the door, nodding her head towards it. Josh’s eyebrows flew up, and he quickly shook his head. Katie narrowed her eyes. Josh gestured towards Katie and then to the door, and Katie firmly shook her head, waving yet again between Josh and the door. 

I’m more stubborn than you, and we both know it, Katie tried to tell Josh subliminally, glaring into his dark eyes. Now just knock on the stupid door. 

After another minute of silent arguing, Josh knocked on the door. Katie only had a moment to bristle in satisfaction before the strange sense of apprehension was back.

Katie only had to sit in it for a moment before Malcolm answered, peering suspiciously at them through the crack in the door. “What?”

Katie crossed her arms. Josh gestured for Malcolm to open the door further. Clearly reluctant, Malcolm did so. 

“Hello, Malcolm,” Josh said casually, walking into the cabin as easily as if he lived there. “Good to see you, too.”

Katie wandered in more tentatively. Cabin Six was as full of organized chaos as always, but there were clear markers of the battle that had just come. Two beds sat, unmade, as if waiting for their owners to return. Dust had started to gather on top of the sheets. On one of them sat a little toy rabbit, yellow and loyal and clearly well-loved. Katie tore her gaze away from it and over to Malcolm. He had sat back on his bed, his open book neglected next to him. His blonde hair was tangled, and his glasses sat low on his nose. His skin was pale. 

“Why are you not at dinner?” Katie demanded. “You’ve barely shown for the last week.”

“Why are you guys not at dinner?” Malcolm challenged. Katie and Josh stared at him with twin expectant expressions. Malcolm’s shoulders dropped. “I’ve been busy.”

Katie tentatively stepped closer. She hadn’t felt this distant from Malcolm since they were probably twelve years old. 

“Not that busy,” Josh said, coming closer too. His dark eyebrows were knitted together in concern. “We’re worried about you.”

“The battle’s over,” Katie said, trying to recite what May had told her just the other day. “We don’t have to be in fight or flight anymore. We need to come together, and—”

“I know the battle’s over!” Malcolm said shortly. He stood up abruptly, his heavy book slamming to the floor with a thud that seemed to fill the entire cabin. “I just— I’m going for a walk.”

Malcolm stormed out the door. It swung ajar after him, the light of the setting sun creeping in through the gap. Katie stared at Josh, dumbfounded. 

“Did you see that?”

“Yeah.” Josh’s face was unreadable. 

“That’s not Malcolm!” Katie’s eyes stung. “He never acts like that— We’re meant to be best friends and he’s hardly even spoken to me, and now— What’s wrong with him? What—”

“Nothing’s wrong with him!” Josh snapped. Katie blinked. 

“I didn’t mean—”

Josh pressed his hands to his eyes, silent for a minute. 

“I don’t know what to do.” His voice was gravelly, muffled from behind his arms.

Suddenly, Katie realized that Josh was about to cry. 

“We’ll find something,” Katie said firmly, ignoring her own worries. She gently put a hand on Josh’s shoulder, squeezing. “Hey. Hey. We’ll find something. I’ll talk to May. You can talk to Silena. We’ll talk to Annabeth, if we have to. It’ll be fine. Just— We’ll find something.”

Katie could tell Josh didn’t believe her, but the emptiness of Cabin Six was suffocating them both like smog and she didn’t think either of them wanted to be in there for a minute longer. She led them out the door, shutting in gently behind her with one last, searching look at Malcolm’s neglected book on the floor.

After dinner, Katie poked her head inside Cabin Four. She and Alana were the only two of their siblings who had attended dinner; when Katie had asked where May and Miranda were, Alana had just shrugged. 

“Probably in the forest,” Alana theorized, her mouth full of food. “It’s where we spend the rest of our time, anyway.”

“You didn’t see them?” Katie asked anxiously. Alana had shaken her head.

“Nope. But I came straight from Louisa and Mark’s monster fighting class.” She swallowed the rest of her food in one go, pushing away her empty plate. “Alright. I’m going to the campfire.”

Katie hadn’t had time to say another word before Alana was off, darting out of the dining pavilion, her blonde head shining in the firelight. Katie had made her way back to the cabin alone. Now, she stood at the door. It was slightly ajar. Inside the cabin, Miranda and May were sitting on Miranda’s bed. May’s arm was wrapped around Miranda’s shoulders, gently patting her arm. Miranda’s face was wet with tears. 

Katie quickly crept away from the door, feeling uncomfortably like she was intruding on something. She didn’t think they had seen her. She hoped they didn’t see her as she ran away from Cabin Four, her braids flying behind her as she jogged to the campfire. Alana looked at her strangely as Katie filed into the seat next to her, gesturing for the Ares kid on her other side to budge up. 

“Why are you sweating?” Alana asked, nose wrinkling. Katie ran her hands over her braids self-consciously.

“Ran here.”

“You hate running,” Alana said. Katie shrugged.

“Felt like it.”

“Weirdo.”

“Just sing along to the campfire songs like a normal kid.” Katie poked Alana’s arm, and Alana sighed. Katie thought she saw a hint of fondness in her face, though.

When they arrived back at Cabin Four later that night, Katie made sure to very loudly announce their arrival before they opened the door in case Miranda was still upset. Alana had no such reservations, barging straight in through the open door with a loud complaint about Austin’s recent endeavor to bring his saxophone to every single campfire they had. Luckily, Miranda didn’t seem upset anymore. She and May were sitting on the ground, mid-way through a game of uno. The CD player was blasting Avril Lavigne; Katie grinned at the sight of May, absentmindedly bobbing her head to the beat and singing along under her breath. 

Katie and Alana joined in the next round of Uno, and Alana predictably beat them all. Miranda didn’t say anything about being upset earlier, and Katie didn’t ask. May was far better at comforting people than Katie had ever been. Besides, it wasn’t as if it was difficult to guess what Miranda had been crying about. Even weeks after the battle, Liam’s unmade bed still haunted the cabin like a ghost. 

_____

“So you didn’t ask her?” Josh looked unimpressed. Katie narrowed her eyes at him. They were in the Arts and Crafts pavilion, participating in a painting class run by one of the young Aphrodite kids who was dabbling in starting classes in the mortal world and wanted some practice. Josh’s painted field of flowers was looking almost as good as his sisters. Katie's, on the other hand, was looking more like a bunch of painted blobs a kindergartener had strewn together on a canvas. She didn’t understand how she could basically spend all day every day in nature and then be completely unable to replicate it on canvas. 

“No,” Katie huffed. “I didn’t want to bother her when she’d already been helping Miranda.”

“She wouldn’t have minded ,” Josh pointed out, adding a splash of white highlights onto his painting. 

Katie shrugged. “I’ll ask her tomorrow. But— We’re Malcolm’s best friends. We should know.”

“Well, I talked to Silena,” Josh said pointedly. 

“And?”

“She said to give him time.” Josh’s face was sour. 

“That’s it ?”

“I told her that we’d given him time. But he’s still acting…un-Malcolm.”

“There has to be something,” Katie consoled, spurred by Josh’s disheartened expression. “There has to be.”

That night, Katie swallowed her pride and uncertainty and finally spoke to May.

“I just don’t know what to do .” Everything poured out of her all at once, going a million miles a minute to explain the situation to May. “Malcolm’s my best friend. But he won’t even speak to me. Or Josh! And we went to his cabin yesterday, and he was just so annoyed ! I’m just…I’m really worried about him.”

May looked thoughtful. Katie desperately waited to hear her response. May would know what to do. May had to. 

“If it were one of my little brothers at home,” May spoke slowly, “I would try and give him space. But I would let him know that I was still there for him. I think…this is bigger than Jake being upset over a little thing. But the same principles still stand. I don’t think…I wouldn’t push it. Be there. Give him space. Time. He’ll come to you when he’s ready.”

“That’s all I can do?” Katie felt like crying. A naive part of her had hoped that May would present the perfect solution that would fix everything. 

May ruffled her hair and didn’t respond. 

_____

Katie tried to heed May’s advice. She really did. But Malcolm looking so sad and solemn all the time was eating her up inside like an itch and Liam was still gone and she was hearing rumors all the time about how Will Solace was struggling to manage the infirmary without Lee, and Katie had never been good at sitting and waiting. 

Two days after speaking with May, Katie finally managed to corner Annabeth in the tiny gap between training and lunch. Annabeth had a pile of weapons and shields in her hands as she speed-walked towards the Forge the minute training was dismissed. Katie had to jog to catch up with her.

When, puffing, Katie finally managed to tap her on the shoulder, Annabeth’s eyebrows knitted together in annoyance before she rearranged her expression into a more neutral one. 

“I’m on my way to the Forge,” Annabeth said. “Beckendorf wanted to fix all the damaged weapons.”

“That’s okay!” Katie said. “I’ll walk with you. I called your name after training, though. I thought you heard.”

“Must’ve missed it. Sorry.”

“No worries.”

“Look,” Annabeth said. “I’ve really got to get to the Forge— Can we walk and talk?”

Katie nodded, and made to grab some of the weapons off the top of Annabeth’s precarious pile. Annabeth looked reluctant, but didn’t protest as Katie grabbed a shield and a few sheathed knives to take in her own arms as they continued towards the Forge, where Katie could hear the Hephaestus kids hard at work. 

“It’s about—”

“While I’ve got you,” Annabeth started quickly, “can I ask you something?”

Katie frowned. “Yeah?”

“Where was May?” Annabeth looked thoughtful. “Before the battle? None of us could find her anywhere.”

“She was in the city.” Katie instantly felt defensive. “She had things to do.”

“She’d been taking trips to the city all week,” Annabeth said. “What did she—”

“She was visiting her brothers,” Katie said firmly, even though she wasn’t sure that was even the truth. “Besides, it wasn’t as if she knew the battle would come that afternoon. And she was there for the battle. She fought like the rest of us.”

Annabeth didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t say anything more. Katie powered on. 

“It’s about Malcolm,” Katie said bluntly. “I’m worried about him.”

Annabeth frowned, adjusting one of the daggers on her pile. “Malcolm?”

“He’s barely at training,” Katie said pointedly. “ Or meals. And he’s been avoiding me and Josh.”

“He’s been busy,” Annabeth said gently. “He’s doing work for Chiron: he’s my second, so we’re splitting the logistical—”

“Can you just tell him to talk to me?” Katie hated how desperate she sounded. “ Please?”

“Yeah,” Annabeth said after a long pause. “Okay. I’ll talk to him. He’s just busy, though. We’re all just busy.”

They were all busy, it seemed. Katie spoke to more campers than she ever had before in July. She didn’t know exactly why, the best she could guess was that it seemed that everyone was a bit more desperate to get to know everyone else after being through what they went through together. Katie still harbored guilt over the fact that she hadn’t even known some of the kids who had died, even though a lot of them had been at camp for even longer than her. She spoke to some new people and hung out with Josh, but Malcolm was still avoiding her and Katie felt bad for burdening Josh with her company all the time.

He must’ve picked up on her reluctance, because one day in mid-July, he rolled his eyes and said: “Katie, you’ve got to stop being an idiot.”

Katie, very offended, scowled. “Excuse me?”

Josh sighed and moved the magazine he was flipping through to the side. “I know you feel like I’m only hanging out with you because I feel bad for you. That’s stupid.”

Katie glared at him. “Why would you think I think you feel bad for me?”

“Silena told me that you think I only hang out with you because I feel bad for you,” Josh said, and Katie felt sheepish. She had forgotten she had told Silena. 

“Oh.”

“Idiot.” Josh grinned. “Not that I wouldn’t’ve been able to work it out for myself. You’re not exactly subtle.”

Katie flushed. “It’s not my fault you’re an Aphrodite kid!”

“Katie,” Josh massaged his temples, “ Malcolm could tell you think I’m only hanging out with you because I feel bad for you.”

“I don’t know what Malcolm would say,” Katie huffed, “because Malcolm is still refusing to speak to us.”

“I thought you said you told Annabeth to speak to him?” Josh said. 

“I did !” Katie protested. “But I think she’s avoiding me, too, now.”

“When did things get so complicated?” Josh said, half-jokingly, half-genuine. Katie shook her head. Even she didn’t have an answer for that. 

“He’ll come around eventually,” Katie said, trying to sound more sure than she felt. Malcolm had always been dependable, never prone to acting on emotion like Katie or Josh. More to reassure herself than Josh, Katie quickly added: “He can’t avoid us forever.”

Although it was the truth, Malcolm seemed to be trying awfully hard to do just that.

So Katie found herself spending less time with Malcolm and spending more time with Josh, and sometimes with Josh’s other friends, too. Things were easy with Josh. Josh had always been better with people than Katie or Malcolm, and now was no exception. Where they stumbled, came across as anxious or argumentative, Josh shone. 

_____

“A lawyer?” Katie guessed halfheartedly. She was hanging out with Josh and two of his friends: Hermes girls with matching mischievous expressions. They were meant to be on kitchen patrol. Instead, Katie was on kitchen patrol and Josh was trying to fend off the Hermes kids' attempts to know more about him. Katie glowered at them. Classic Hermes. 

“Nope.” Josh shook his head. “I told you guys I don’t know what I want to do after camp. To be fair, I’d be a killer lawyer.”

“You probably could charmspeak the jury into doing anything you wanted,” one of the Hermes girls said, looking wistful, and Katie glared at her. “Exploiting the criminal justice system one case at a time.”

“Dude,” the other Hermes kid said. “ Sick.”

“Silena’s already set on law.” Josh shrugged, drying up one of the burning hot plates and placing it in the drawer. “I think she’d probably kill me in my sleep if I tried to make it my thing, too.”

“Silena wants to be a lawyer?” Katie frowned.

“Ever since she saw Legally Blonde with her dad last winter,” Josh said. “She keeps telling Drew they need to watch it together.”

“Shit, that was like Jeremy and Grey’s Anatomy last year.” One of the Hermes kids giggled. “Bro wanted to be a surgeon after seeing, like, one episode of that shit.”

“Bro would probably kill off his first patient.” The other Hermes girl chuckled. “Doing all his research the night before and shit.”

“Are you kidding?” Josh was grinning now, too. “Jeremy doing research? He’d be in the surgery room trying to make it up as he went.”

“He’d probably nail it, too.” The first Hermes girl sighed. “Slimy little shit.”

Katie, who had no idea who Jeremy was, scrubbed the next dish with more force than necessary. 

“So…not a lawyer.” The Hermes girl frowned. “An actor? A small business owner? A male prostitute?”

“Ha. Ha.”

“Totally serious, dude. I mean, you’d make serious bank.”

“Yeah, no shit.” 

The Hermes girls didn’t let up about it all through kitchen patrol, and Katie was glad to be finally rid of them when they left to join some of their other siblings on the walk back to the cabin. Katie grinned as she watched them leave, and Josh gave her a judgemental look. Katie sighed.

“What?”

“It wouldn’t kill you to be nice, y’know?”

Katie glowered at him. “I was nice.” 

“You stood there in silence and washed the dishes so forcibly you broke one. That’s not being nice.”

“Well, I wanted to throw them into the lava. So I thought I was actually being quite kind.”

Josh rolled his eyes. “Dude.”

“Don’t dude me!” Katie grumbled, and then immediately felt bad. “Look, they swapped out all the plants in our cabin for plastic ones yesterday. Sue me for being a little mad.”

“Correction: Travis, Connor, and Cecil swapped out all the plants for plastic ones. Alicia and Julia were hanging with me and some of the others at the archery range.”

“They were accomplices!” Katie retorted. “And besides, I’m pretty sure they were the ones who decked out the Hephaestus cabin with slime the other day. Nyssa Barerra was so annoyed.”

Josh raised his eyebrows. “When did you talk to Nyssa Barerra?”

“The other day!” Katie said. “Because she was annoyed about the slime thing!”

Josh looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. Katie sighed. 

“Just— We just had a battle . People died. And the Hermes kids are out here, pulling stupid practical jokes like it meant nothing . Sue me if I don’t feel like being nice to them all the time.”

“I thought you decided to make nice with Travis,” Josh argued. “ He’s a Hermes kid.”

“I’m not going to be friends with Travis,” Katie said, red-faced. “ All I said was that I felt bad because he seemed upset after the battle. But he’s been avoiding me, too, so—I’m not friends with Travis!”

“You can’t just be all brooding—”

“I wasn’t brooding ! I was— I just— I didn’t know what to say . I’m not good with—with people like that. And they were annoying you, too, I could tell! They wouldn’t take no for an answer!”

“Yeah, but I was humoring them , Katie. I was being polite . Because that’s what you do when you’re talking to people!”

“It’s not my fault that—”

“Look, I’m just saying that it wouldn’t kill you to be a bit nicer. I’m trying to help you. And I know that you miss Malcolm, but he’s not talking to us . You can’t just sulk all summer—”

“Of course I miss Mal!” Katie fumed, hot tears stinging her eyes. “At least other people like you! At least you have other friends! The whole camp is your friend! Malcolm is— He’s my best friend, and he’s not even talking to me!”

“He’s my best friend, too!” Josh erupted. “You’re not the only one he’s ignoring! You don’t think I care? He’s the first person to ever—”

Josh stopped himself abruptly. His fists were clenched at his sides, swinging awkwardly as they walked. Something guilty twisted inside Katie. 

“Josh—”

“People only like me because I’m an Aphrodite kid,” Josh spat. “They like me, because they don’t know me. Malcolm—I thought that he might actually know me. And I thought…I should have seen this coming. I should have known .”

“What are you talking about?” Katie asked incredulously. “ Everyone knows you and everyone likes you.”

“ No.” Josh looked genuinely distressed. “I don’t…They don’t.”

“Well,” Katie said, her anger forgotten in favor of a fierce rush of love. “ I know you. I want to know you. And I like you.”

Josh didn’t look like he believed her. 

“You’re my friend,” Katie said firmly, leaving no room for argument. “And I know that I’m not Malcolm. But I’m your friend, too.”

“I’m not Malcolm, either,” Josh said finally. “I know you miss him.”

“You miss him, too.” Katie felt stupid for not really realizing it before. There was a tiny little part of her that felt strangely jealous: Malcolm was her best friend. That tiny little part of her didn’t like the idea that Malcolm could be Josh’s best friend, too. She could deal with the idea of Malcolm having two best friends, though. If Malcolm was going to have anyone else as a co-best friend, she was glad it was Josh. 

Josh was kind and thoughtful. He was surprisingly good at sword-fighting, and he was the favorite of all the little kids. The thing that Katie liked the most about Josh, she was slowly realizing, was his ability to be kind. He was socially adept, but rarely used that to make anyone else feel bad. He and Katie had become friends after he was the only one to show up at her Clean-the-Big-House-Day. He had never commented on the fact that no one else was there. He’d just grinned at her, introduced himself, rolled up his sleeves and gotten to work. 

“Yeah,” Josh said, bitterly wistful. “I do.”

Katie reached out and took Josh’s hand. Squeezed. Josh didn’t say anything, but he squeezed her hand right back and that was enough for Katie. 

_____

Later in Cabin Four, May cornered Katie, bearing hot chocolate and a salty bag of chips for them to share. 

Katie frowned. “What’s the occasion?”

May laughed, sitting on Katie’s bed next to her and opening the chips, holding them out to Katie. Katie took one. The salt stung the little ulcer on the inside of her cheek, but it tasted good enough that Katie didn’t really mind. 

“Alana and Miranda are at the campfire,” May explained, grabbing a handful of chips for herself. “And I thought I might find you here.”

“I didn’t feel like going to the campfire,” Katie said.

“I thought that might be the case.” May adjusted so that she was sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing Katie. “I heard you and Josh had a fight today.”

Katie’s jaw dropped. “How do you even—”

“I have my ways,” May said elusively, before laughing. “Some of the dryads filled me in. I just wanted to check in with you. Everything alright?”

Katie’s eyes stung with sudden gratitude. May really was the best big sister in the world. To stop herself from doing something stupid, like crying, she helped herself to some more chips and a sip of hot chocolate. 

“Yeah,” Katie said finally. “I think so. We were just…Malcolm’s still not talking to us. He’s not talking to anyone, really. It’s just…everything’s so complicated . I really miss him. And so does Josh.”

May reached out and squeezed Katie’s shoulder. “It’s hard, hey? Growing up?”

Katie nodded. 

“But you and Josh are okay?” May continued when Katie didn’t respond. 

“Yeah. I think.”

“That’s good,” May said. “He seems like a good friend. I’m proud of you, K.”

“I’m just— Is it meant to be this complicated? Or am I just…messing it up?”

May frowned. “Is what meant to be complicated?”

“Friendship!” It spilled out from Katie like a confession. “It’s so complicated. And I…I thought it would be easier. I thought growing up would make it easier , not harder . I never even had real friends back in the mortal world, and when I got to camp, I thought…Just— Am I messing it up?”

“Katie!” May said, lightly chiding. Fondness shone in her eyes. “I promise you, you’re not messing anything up. When I was your age, I went through the exact same thing. I still go through the exact same thing. Life here has been…crazy, recently. Tensions are high. I’d be more surprised if you guys weren’t going through it a bit at the moment.”

“You think so?” Katie’s throat felt tight. May nodded. She had never been one to bullshit Katie; it was one of the things Katie admired the most about her. 

“I do.” 

Katie wanted to trust her. 

_____

It was, Katie would later convince herself, largely due to the situation with Malcolm, and her conversations with both Josh and May, that she found it in herself to actually approach Travis near the end of July. She didn’t like Travis Stoll by any means, but no matter how hard she tried it was impossible to forget the lost expression on his face after the battle. He was another person who had been avoiding her since the battle. He ignored her pointed looks across the dining pavilion at meals, and the Hermes cabin hadn’t pulled any pranks on the Demeter kids since June. 

Katie hated Travis’s stupid pranks. The absence of them, though, proved to be more unsettling than anything. 

When she finally managed to pin him down one day on her way to lunch, he had all the other Hermes kids in tow. Travis and Connor were both standing in the hot sun at the Poseidon cabin, instructing their campers on something and looking around suspiciously like they were afraid to get caught. Katie stopped in her tracks, narrowing her eyes at the pair of them. She stayed there, stubbornly, with her arms crossed over her chest until finally —after a brief inaudible argument with Connor—Travis jogged over, flashing Katie a blinding smile. 

“Should I ask what you’re doing?” Katie raised an eyebrow. 

Travis shrugged, grinning at her again. It was a bit disarming, really. Katie didn’t know what to do with her hands, so she crossed her arms at her chest.

“Just enjoying this weather! It’s a beautiful day, really— Isn’t that what Demeter’s all about? Summer sun, hard work, blah blah?”

Katie narrowed her eyes at him, already regretting her decision. “Y’all are supposed to be at lunch.”

“You Southern now, partner?” Travis said in an over-exaggerated accent.

“I’m from the South!” Katie snapped, annoyed. She took a deep breath. “I’m just going to assume you’ve run this by Chiron.”

“That old horse,” Travis waved a hand, “pfft.”

Over at the Poseidon cabin, Katie could vaguely make out Connor telling one of the Hermes kids to “bring in the pink.” Katie tried to peer over Travis’s shoulder to see what they were doing, but he quickly moved, blocking her view. 

“So…” Travis started. “It’s great to see you and everything, but did you want something? Or are you just gonna stare at me all day? Not that I blame you. It’s a good view.”

Katie’s cheeks flushed against her will. “Shut up. I just wanted to tell you that my offer still stands. Y’know. From before.”

Travis stared at her blankly for a long moment, and Katie felt herself increasingly turning more red. Why was she so awkward? Why was she only good at arguing? Why was she not able to have a conversation with Travis Stoll that didn’t make her feel like jumping in front of a bus? 

“ Oh.” Travis snapped his hand in remembrance. Katie had to resist the urge to mutter ‘about time,’ under her breath. “Yeah, that.”

Travis shifted uncomfortably, and Katie waited expectantly. Her face was still hot. She desperately wanted Travis to— She didn’t know what she wanted exactly. She just wanted him to know that she was there . She just wanted—

“Don’t need it.” He grinned. “I mean, thanks , and all, but I’m not really the ‘talking about your emotions’ type, y’know? A bit gay for me. Can I go back to definitely not graffiti-ing Percy’s cabin now?”

Katie felt like she had been slapped in the face.  

“I’m telling Chiron.” It sounded weak, even to Katie. 

“We’ll be done by then, anyway.” Travis grinned and clapped her on the shoulder. “So don’t even worry about it. Nice seeing you, Katie.”

Travis Stoll bounded off back towards the Hermes kids, who were, yep, spray-painting the wall of Percy’s cabin with pink love hearts. Katie blinked, before turning on her heel and storming away, sliding into her seat at the Demeter table twenty minutes late and with a pink face. 

Malcolm, Travis…Katie was beginning to wonder if the battle had impacted everybody more than they had realized. 

The best thing about summer after the battle—not that it was a high bar—was the garden. It had started as a pet project of Miranda’s that she’d brought up to Katie, and had somehow grown to include all of the Cabin Four girls. 

“A vegetable garden,” Katie said firmly. They were presenting the idea to Chiron. Miranda—the best artist out of the lot of them—had drawn up intricate plans and designs in the arts and crafts station. Katie pointed to the colorful diagrams now. “In between the Big House and the strawberry fields, where we know the soil is fertile. We do everything the mortal way: we all promise to take care of it, and everything we grow can be used in meals, or we can expand the strawberry business and sell it.”

“Jake Mason said he’d help with building raised garden beds,” Alana added. “And May can drive us into the city to collect supplies."

“We would need a little funding”—May winced apologetically—“for seeds and fertilizer and the like. But we could pay it back once the garden is up and running. And we’ve been keeping the strawberry fields going almost single-handedly since they started.”

“Any profit would go back to camp,” Miranda said smoothly. “And once it’s up and running, we want to put a bench in there and just—make it a nice space, y’know?”

Chiron thought for a moment. Katie held her breath. She couldn’t put into words how much this meant to her, or even why it meant so much, but she hoped that Chiron would understand. He seemed to, finally nodding at them, a smile playing on his lips. Katie felt the deep flood of relief all the way to her toes.

From that moment on, the Cabin Four girls were hard at work. Katie was proud to be one of them. 

She did more research than she had ever done in her life, delving into as many books as she could find about gardening. They were determined to do it the mortal way: they hauled heavy bags of fertilizer and rattling containers of spades and shovels and set to work. Alana supervised the construction of the raised beds and Katie and Miranda poured over plans on how best to lay it out. They found mesh nets to keep the bugs away, and worked for hours with their hands in the soil, growing dirty and calloused but ready . Katie grew into the habit of getting up early to check on the plants, to see how they were growing, green life slowly emerging from the fertile Earth. It kept them busy, and they were all desperate for an outlet. One day, Alana suggested that they name the garden, and Katie cried when she first saw the intricate carved metal signpost with the inscription “Liam’s Garden.” For the rest of summer, they threw themselves into the project. New life blossomed under their hands, growing and twisting and beautiful. 

Working in the garden, hands deep in the earth, Katie could almost forget how much things had changed. 

Life at camp continued. It was almost disturbingly normal; they had pegasus-flying lessons, played Capture the Flag, and sang by the campfire. The gaps were filled with unsettling ease: unceremoniously, Michael was made the new head counselor of the Apollo cabin, and Austin and Joe, two of his brothers, stepped up to lead the campfire songs. 

Katie spoke to Malcolm. Properly. Finally. They sat by the hearth one night, the flickering light of the fire shadowing the face that she knew like the back of her hand. The flames spat warm sparks into the air, glowing in the darkness. The world around them was bustling with life, as it always was in the summer. All the cabins had a light on, dusky brightness seeping out through the windows. She could faintly hear the Ares kids arguing about something or other, and see another group of campers clustered together on the porch of the Apollo cabin. 

“I’ve really missed you.” Katie scanned her best friend up and down, relief and concern flooding her whole body. He’d approached her at dinner, asked if she wanted to grab some marshmallows to eat by the hearth later that night. Katie had stared at him in shock for a moment before quickly affirming. Malcolm had dark circles under his eyes, shadowed with the flicking of the firelight. He was holding a marshmallow in his hands but made no indication that he would eat it. Maybe he’d forgotten he had even picked it up. 

“I’ve felt so guilty,” Malcolm burst out suddenly. He stared into the flames, his eyes glassy. “That’s why I’ve been avoiding you and Josh all summer. I just couldn’t…”

“Guilty?” Katie asked incredulously. “Mal, you didn’t—”

“It was my plan!” Malcolm argued, more upset than Katie had ever heard him sound the whole time she’d known him. “It was my plan that got people killed.”

Katie gaped at him, shocked. Malcolm furiously wiped his eyes. 

“Malcolm,” Katie said, trying to be gentle. “No one is blaming you— You didn’t set those monsters on us. You didn’t ask for the Labyrinth to be opened. You didn’t do any of it.”

“What about Liam?” Malcolm’s voice came out strangled. “There’s not even a tiny part of you that blames me? What about Lee? Daniel? Posie? Lyssa and Jonathan, and—”

“Stop,” Katie said, because it was too awful. The names of the dead seemed to hang in the still night air, heavy and horrible. 

“How could anyone not blame us? Blame me?”

“You did the best you could,” Katie said, and tried to ignore the way she could feel Liam’s ghost breathing down her neck, eternally twelve. “It was—awful. And you did the best you could.”

“I should have done better.” Malcolm didn’t look away from the fire. “I should have done better.”

There were times when Katie thought they all should have done better. More than once, she walked into the infirmary looking for a person who would never step foot inside there again. Liam’s bed sat in the corner of Cabin Four like a ghost, gathering dust. Everyone was afraid to touch it.

“You couldn’t have changed anything.” Katie tried. “You’re not a…”

She trailed off with a nervous glance towards the sky. Malcolm didn’t seem to notice. He kept staring into the hearth. 

“I just couldn’t face you both.” Malcolm’s voice was so quiet that Katie had to strain to hear it. “You. Josh. Anyone, really. I can’t—”

“I don’t blame you, Malcolm.” Katie’s voice sounded raw. She wanted to reach for Malcolm, to comfort him, but something made her hesitate. She had never seen Malcolm this emotional before. Normally, Malcolm ran away at the first sight of tears. Now, his eyes threatened to spill over, glassy in the flickering light of the fire. She didn’t know when her best friend had become a stranger. “No one blames you.”

Malcolm opened his mouth like he was about to say something. He never got there, though. Instead, his features twisted, crumpling into tears. 

Katie was closer to him in an instant, her arm wrapped around his skinny shoulders, his frame shaking with tears. Her other hand found one of his hands, squeezed tight. 

“My—fault.” Malcolm’s voice broke. “I—they died .”

Something in Katie’s heart twisted. 

“No,” Katie said firmly into his hair, squeezing his shoulders tighter. “It’s not your fault, Malcolm.”

She could tell Malcolm didn’t believe her. Katie couldn’t think of a way to make him, and so she just kept her arm around his shoulders until he stopped crying and then walked him back to the Athena cabin, hugging him tightly before sending him inside. 

She visited Josh in the Aphrodite cabin before curfew, smiling quickly at Silena as she let her inside. The Aphrodite cabin smelled of a thousand different perfumes, sweet and floral. It was much tidier than Cabin Four, and Katie found Josh easily. He was sitting on his bed, cutting something out of a colorful mortal magazine.

He didn’t look surprised to see Katie, moving over so she would have room to sit next to him and answering her inquisitive look towards the mortal magazine with a simple “scrapbooking.”

“Scrapbooking?” Katie frowned. 

“Silena suggested it,” Josh explained. “It’s artsy but requires absolutely no real skill, which is perfect for me. But that’s besides the point. Did Malcolm speak to you?”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. Her heart felt heavy in her chest. “I just came from the hearth. We were speaking for a while.”

“He spoke to me, too,” Josh said lowly, so that Drew and her friend, who were sitting over by the window, wouldn’t hear. “I didn’t— I didn’t even know what to say.”

“Me neither,” Katie admitted. “He seemed so…what are we even meant to say to that?”

“I told him it wasn’t his fault,” Josh said bitterly. “I don’t think he believed me.”

Katie’s eyes stung. “Me neither.”

Josh pushed his half-finished scrapbook off his lap and leaned back to lie down in defeat. Katie laid down, too. Her head rested on his shoulder as she stared at the roof up above, projected constellations spinning from a projector lamp in the corner of the room. 

Katie didn’t know where they were meant to go from here. She didn’t like that feeling. She didn’t like it one bit. 

_____

The time continued to pass, though, as it was wont to do, and before Katie knew it it was the end of July. The heat was so intense during the day that Katie’s note began to peel and the strawberries in the field baked. Liam’s Garden struggled in the heat, too, and Katie, Miranda, May, and Alana spent more time than ever tending to it and trying to find ways to protect the delicate life that had started to blossom. 

Malcolm had started to spend more time with Katie and Josh. He was quieter and more withdrawn than he was before, but he was Katie’s best friend and his presence would always be enough for her, no matter how quiet he was. 

Shyly, she showed him Liam’s Garden one day. The sun was still rising but the warmth had already set in: Katie showed Malcolm how best to pull out the weeds and take care of the geraniums. Together, they watched the bees float around the lavender, the world golden and soft around them. 

“I don’t know how to make it go away,” Malcolm admitted, barely louder than the rustling of the leaves. Katie looked at him in surprise, her hands busy patting in the soil around some newly transplanted daffodil bulbs. “This feeling. And I—I don’t like it.”

“Of course not,” Katie said without thinking. “You don’t like not knowing things.”

Malcolm looked a little taken aback. Katie’s face warmed. 

“Here,” Katie said, grabbing one of his hands and dragging it over to the soil in front of her. “I’ll show you how to plant the daffodils. We put the bulbs ten inches apart, so they’ll have room to grow.”

“Okay,” Malcolm said. 

“We just need to pat the soil in, now,” Katie continued. Malcolm copied her movements, making sure that the bulbs were properly covered by the cool dirt. “Then we’ll water them: lots while they’re growing, and then barely any once they’re grown. We should probably plant them in the fall, but May had some bulbs she wanted to get rid of before she leaves at the end of summer.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. We’ll put mulch over them in the winter. To control moisture. But they’re pretty tolerant of the cold. They bloom in spring, though. They’ll get plenty of sunlight. We’ll get rid of any weeds that grow near them. And then that’s it.”

“That’s it,” Malcolm echoed. They worked in silence for a minute. 

“You know, daffodils grow facing the light?” Katie said. Malcolm shook his head. “They face the biggest source of light. Usually, that’s the sun.”

“I once read that they’re the flower of tenth anniversaries,” Malcolm said conversationally, sounding more like his old self than Katie had heard in months. “And that they’re the official flower of…Wales? I think?”

“May said that there’s at least twenty five different species of daffodil,” Katie added. “And about a million hybrids.”

“In flower language, they’re meant to symbolize friendship,” Malcolm said quietly. “And new beginnings.”

Katie looked down at the bulbs, buried in the dirt. Then she looked at Malcolm, his blonde hair shining in the light of the rising sun, his glasses sitting crooked on his nose. Friendship and new beginnings . Katie could get behind that. 

_____

That night in Capture the Flag, Katie met up with Josh by the creek. It babbled next to them, the occasional naiad popping out to blushingly wave at Josh. Although the interruptions were annoying, Katie didn’t really blame them. Since Malcolm had sort of started talking to them again, he had been brighter, warmer. Katie had no trouble believing that his mother was the goddess of love, not when Josh walked around like he was made of the stuff.

“But I was thinking,” Josh said, clearly trying for casual, “about what I want to do after camp.”

“Yeah?” Katie paused from tracing nonsensical symbols into the dirt with a stick. She and Josh were technically on opposite teams and Katie was technically meant to be on border patrol, but neither of them really cared about Capture the Flag that much and Katie doubted that the Hephaestus kids—the cabin in charge of her team for tonight—ever really expected her to get that involved, anyway. 

“I was thinking about trying to go into teaching,” Josh said, his eyes flicking up to Katie’s, searching for approval. Katie grinned, warmth flooding her chest.

“A teacher!” Katie exclaimed. “That’s awesome ! You’d kill at that! You know, my dad is a teacher!”

“I thought he was,” Josh said, grinning too. “I don’t know. I don’t know. It seems sort of stupid, but I think it could be cool, y’know? My own classroom full of elementary schoolers. They’re so little, y’know? They need someone to look out for them.”

“You’d be a really good teacher,” Katie said, and she meant it with all her heart. Josh flushed.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve just— I had some good teachers in the mortal world. I’d like to be able to be that person for some kid.”

Katie got the feeling that there was more to the story, but—for once in her life—didn’t push. She just grinned at him. 

“You think the game’s over yet?” The Ares and Athena cabins were both on the red team, which meant an almost certain defeat for Katie’s team. The only thing they had going for them was Percy, but even a son of Poseidon couldn’t do much against the combined brains and brawn of the red team. 

“Hope so.” Josh smiled softly. Katie raised her eyebrows. 

“Why?”

Josh looked flustered. “What?”

“Why do you hope so?” 

“Really excited for the campfire,” Josh said, too quickly. Katie narrowed her eyes at him. For a child of Aphrodite, Josh really was a terrible actor. He sighed. “ Fine . I made plans to hang out with Malcolm before curfew. He has this nerdy book he wanted to tell me about.”

Katie couldn’t stop herself from smiling.

“ What ?” Josh sounded defensive. Katie shook her head, stupidly happy. 

“Nothing. It’s just…it’s good to have him back.”

“Yeah,” Josh agreed, leaning back onto his elbows. “I guess it is.”

_____

On the last day of July, Katie actually spoke to Louisa for what felt like the first time in forever. It started nearly entirely accidentally. 

Katie wasn’t entirely sure how she found herself in the Ares cabin helping Miles Mason, but the Ares cabin was just as terrifying as she remembered and a shiver ran down her spine at the sight of a deadly-looking machete hanging over one of the kids messy beds. 

“That’s got to be a hazard,” Katie grumbled to Miles, pointing towards the machete. “What if it fell?”

Miles shrugged. “It’s pretty stable. Jake Mason helped us put it up there. Mark loves machetes.”

“ Jake Mason ?” Katie made a mental note to tell Beckendorf to ban his campers from using their skills to help the Ares kids engineer life-threatening accidents waiting to happen. 

“He also helped us with the landmines!” Miles explained gleefully, and Katie scowled. 

“Just give me the sheets.” 

Miles looked offended, as if he couldn’t fathom why Katie disliked the idea of active landmines planted in the grass of their summer camp . Nevertheless, he handed Katie a ball of crumpled sheets—sticky with honey and bright pink food coloring. 

“Remind me what you did to piss the Stolls off this much again?” Katie asked, grimacing in disgust at the feel of the honey-soaked sheets in her arms. The pink dye was already brushing against her skin: Katie bet that it would leave a stain. 

“Wasn’t actually the Stolls this time.” Miles said, pulling the sheets off yet another pink-stained bed. “We think it was Alicia and Julia. They’re still mad about that gladiator thing.”

“Gladiator…?” Katie trailed off. “I don’t think I want to know.”

“No.” Miles agreed. “You definitely don’t.”

Once they had gathered most of the destroyed sheets, Katie showed Miles the way to the underground laundry. 

“We won’t bother the harpies with this.” Katie explained. “If you put a load on now and put it in the dryer when it’s done, I’ll go grab the rest of the sheets and put another one on.”

Miles nodded. “Done.”

“I still can’t believe you didn’t know where the laundry was.” Katie sighed. “How long have you been at camp again?”

She attracted some weird looks as she walked back to the Ares cabin: it took only one look down at her outfit to confirm that yes, it was indeed stained bright pink from the food coloring. Katie hated her life. 

Thankfully, none of the Ares kids were in the cabin as she let herself inside and began to strip the remainder of the beds, gathering sheets into her arms, the pile nearly obscuring her field of vision. She stumbled on the way back out of the cabin; she was only saved by a strong pair of arms, steadying her from the brink of a fall. Katie flushed, quickly pushing down the pile of sheets to see what camper she would inevitably have to explain herself to. 

Staring back at her, face wryly amused and cheeks slightly pink, was Louisa. 

“Oh!” Katie said before she could stop herself. “Hey!”

“Hey.” Louisa replied. Her dark eyes swirled, murky in the shade of the cabin. Although Louisa had stopped her fall, Katie felt a bit like she was still spinning.  

“Um.” Katie’s stupid mouth blurted out. “I’m not stealing your sheets. I mean, I am , but Miles said I could. Alicia and Julia dyed them all pink, so I’m washing them. We’re washing them. Miles is down at the laundry, now. You can ask him, if you want.”

“I believe you.” Louisa said. And then, hesitantly: “You want help?”

If someone had told Katie that she would be walking to the underground laundry with Louisa , their arms filled with pink-stained sheets, she probably would have told them they were crazy. 

They walked in silence for a second. Katie’s skin itched. 

“Are we friends?” Katie blurted out, unable to stop herself.

“What?”

“Are we friends?” Katie’s face was hot, and she avoided Louisa’s gaze. “Just—you’re confusing me. I don’t know if you want to be friends, or if you hate me, or if—”

“I don’t hate you.” Louisa interrupted. Their gazes met for a split second before Louisa’s eyes darted away. “I just…I really don’t hate you.”

“But then…” Katie felt awkward and stilted. She felt like she was asking something that she shouldn’t: like she knew she was crossing a line, but couldn’t help herself. “Are we friends ? I want…we don’t have to talk about—”

“I’m sorry.” Louisa’s expression had turned alarmingly guarded, bitterness leeching into her voice. “I should never have…I was just—”

“I don’t care .” Katie was afraid that if she were to say one wrong thing, Louisa would disappear again. “I’m…I just want to know where we stand. I really—I think you’re really—I’d like to be—”

“Yeah.” Louisa said. “You’re…yeah. Me too.”

Katie could’ve cried with relief. She didn’t, though. Instead, she just smiled at Louisa shyly and asked her about training. They talked the whole way to the underground laundry: by the time they arrived, Katie felt warm all the way to her toes.

That night, Miranda grinned at Katie mischievously as they were both braiding their hair for bed, camped in front of the bathroom mirror and giggling as they watched some of the younger Hermes and Apollo girls fight over the free shower. 

“What?” Katie sent an inquisitive look to Miranda. Miranda smiled, too innocently. 

“Have you been feeling alright today?” Miranda asked teasingly. Katie gave her a weird look, puzzled. “I just heard through the grapevine that you were hanging out with Miles Mason .”

Katie stared at her. “What grapevine ?” 

“Just a rumor.” Miranda giggled. “He’s cute !”

“What— No—” Katie sputtered. “I don’t like him like that. I’m just trying to be nicer to people! I just helped him clean up his cabin after Alicia and Julia put honey in their sheets!”

Miranda just pursed her lips knowingly and gestured for Katie to hand her one of the hair ties sitting on the bathroom counter. 

Katie supposed she should’ve expected it. Over the preceding few weeks, it was like a switch had been flicked at camp, and everyone around her age had become suddenly seemingly obsessed with dating. Maybe it was Silena and Beckendorf giving heart eyes to each other every three seconds. Maybe it was everyone just trying to be normal teenagers for once, not completely occupied with the world of monsters and gods and deadly, life-ruining battles. Maybe it was just good old-fashioned teenage hormones. Whatever the case, suddenly, everything was about who was making out with who, and whispered rumors that some boy liked some girl, and giggled games of Kiss, Marry, Kill in the girls bathrooms. Katie found herself blushing like a beet every time it was all brought up and she cursed her stupid tomato-red face for making her totally transparent. 

“I don’t like anyone ,” she insisted time and time again to her friends. Miranda, who had started seeing Mike Johnson in a “totally casual way,” would just sigh and shake her head.

“You really don’t know what you’re missing, Katie,” she said one day. “Love is a beautiful thing.”

May had let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a choked laugh, and Miranda had sighed dreamily, making pretty pink flowers grow out of her toast. 

At the campfire, Katie recounted the ‘Miles Incident’ to May, speaking in a low voice as to not be overheard by any curious ears.

“People don’t think I—like— like Miles, do they?” She frowned. “Because I definitely don’t. I was just trying to be nice!”

May looked amused. “Gods, I’m so glad I’m not fifteen anymore.”

“Answer the question!”

“No one thinks you like like Miles.” May laughed. “Miranda’s just teasing you because she’s your sister, and that’s what sisters do.”

“I don’t like Miles.” Katie insisted. May laughed again, her whole face lit. When Katie asked why she looked so happy, May just shook her head, a smile still playing on her lips. 

They tried to outsing each other by the campfire and ate marshmallows until Katie’s stomach hurt, and Katie thought she might understand. 

_____

On the first day of August, they had to pack up Liam’s things to send to his mortal family. That was hard. 

On the second day of August, his unmade bed was suddenly made, his possessions gone, his corner of the room a blank slate for some future Demeter camper. That was harder. 

When they cleaned out his stuff, they discovered a little inscription on the wall beside his bed. Hidden by one of his many posters, there it was, in pencil and messy handwriting: Liam wuz here . May traced over it in black marker, and the four of them looked at it with equal parts satisfaction and loss. Alana, who had eternally been at odds with Liam, had cried, and May made her cookies and stroked her hair until Alana’s sobs had dried up to nothing more than a sniffle. 

Katie didn’t understand how May always seemed to know what to do, what to say. If May was as stable and sturdy as the roots in the woods, Katie herself felt a bit like a leaf, hanging onto a tree through the thinnest of twigs, swaying precariously in the warm breeze. 

“We’re not going to forget him,” May said the day they packed his stuff, folding one of his sweaters like it was something precious. “Because we all know he would hate that. But we’re not going to be sad all the time, forever either. Because he would hate that, too.” 

Katie knew it was true, but it didn’t stop the tears from stinging in her eyes when they transported all of his stuff to Chiron in the Big House.

_____

The end of summer seemed intent to approach, and Katie didn’t know if she was ready for it. She had just started to get used to the hustle and bustle of summer, the business of the Demeter cabin, the organized chaos of it all. More than anything else, she was used to the camaraderie, the hours spent in comfortable silence at the garden, the shared, communal excitement when another green sapling began to peek through the soil towards the sun. 

Since their conversation by the Ares cabin, Katie and Louisa had begun talking again. Louisa never brought up the kiss, but Katie thought she could live with that if it meant that she could be friends with Louisa.

Learning more about Louisa was like putting together a particularly good puzzle. Katie thought she might be addicted to the feeling. Louisa made Katie feel electric: every time their hands brushed, Katie swore that she lit up. 

Unlike Josh, Louisa had no reservations about sharing personal things. Louisa was unabashedly herself, a trait which Katie realized she admired a stupid amount. Louisa didn’t get along with everyone, but neither did Katie. 

“Stupid bitches,” Louisa said, slamming one of the training swords into one of the dummies with more force than necessary. “Little pussy-ass motherfuckers.”

“I think I need to start a swear jar for you.” Katie rolled her eyes, but she was grinning despite herself. Louisa glowered.

“ Fucking Miles and Sherman. I’m actually going to kill them.”

“See,” Katie folded her knees so she could rest her head on them. She was sitting on the dusty floor of the amphitheater, shoulders burning in the summer sun, “you say that now, but I would bet ten drachmas that you’re all still going to be singing by the campfire tonight like a big, happy family.”

“Big happy family, my ass . Big happy family siblings don’t make other big happy family siblings get rostered until the end of summer on KP.”

Katie privately thought that Kitchen Patrol was a lenient punishment for almost blowing up half of camp, but she didn’t say anything. The Ares kids were just lucky that the explosion missed the garden and the strawberry fields. 

“Two weeks isn’t that long,” Katie consoled halfheartedly. That morning, when Chiron had announced the punishment for the Ares Cabin at breakfast, the Demeter girls had been among the cheering group of campers. “I’m sure it’ll pass in the blink of an eye.”

Katie narrowly dodged the dirt Louisa kicked at her, laughing as she flung herself to the side. 

“You’re the worst, Gardner.” Louisa finally threw the sword to the ground, her arms sweaty and gleaming. She made her way over to sit down next to Katie, whose heart raced at their proximity. She could see the fading purple bruise on Louisa’s cheekbone from Capture the Flag, standing harsh against her pale skin. She passed her the water bottle, heart racing as their fingers brushed. Louisa nodded to her. 

“Thanks.” She took a long swig, and Katie drew patterns in the dirt, her face red. Finally, Louisa sighed, handing the water bottle back to Katie. “ Fuck , I can’t wait to get out of this place.”

“What will you do?” Katie asked, genuinely curious. There was a little grin on Louisa’s face. 

“First, I’ve got to get my license. Get Chiron to mist me up a GED. Then, the minute I turn eighteen, I get my mom’s inheritance and I’m out of here. I’ll find a sweet apartment in Brooklyn, do my EMT training, volunteer at the local firehouse and land a job there until I’m running that shit. Save people from burning buildings, get cats out of trees, put out fires— All that shit.”

Katie couldn’t stop the smile from pulling at her lips. “Get cats out of trees?”

“Fucking love cats.” Louisa grinned. “Plus, I’d get to wear a sick uniform. I’d look hot.”

Katie blushed so red that Louisa made fun of her for five minutes and poured her water on Katie’s hair. 

“It’s gonna get frizzy now,” Katie groaned, cold water dripping onto her face. 

“Yeah, yeah, carrot-top.” Louisa was grinning. Katie’s jaw dropped. 

“ Carrot top? ”

“Ginger-ass freak.”

“I’m not a ginger!” Katie was outraged. “My hair is auburn ! It’s practically brown!”

“Yeah, but it gets lighter in the summer,” Louisa said, and then she was blushing. “So: ginger.”

“You’re the worst.” Katie pushed herself up. “I’m going to lunch.”

“Make sure to walk a bit in front of me.” Louisa pushed herself up, too, and then she was grinning at Katie lopsidedly and Katie’s heart was pounding so loudly that she was sure Louisa could hear it. “I don’t want anyone associating me with a ginger .”

Louisa mustn’t have cared that much, though, because later that night she demanded to braid Katie’s hair and they sat in Cabin Four, Louisa chatting with May and Katie progressively turning redder and redder as Louisa’s callused hands gently combed through her hair. 

“Sherman says she talks in her sleep,” Alana said as they all watched Louisa leave an hour later at curfew. Katie—as well as Miranda and May—looked at her strangely. Alana shrugged. “He does . Says that him and Miles and Clarisse and Ellis have to wear noise-canceling headphones.”

“The Ares kids are better than me,” May said. “If one of you talked in your sleep, you’d be sleeping out on the porch.”

Katie booed, along with Miranda. She was unable to stop herself from grinning. 

“Gods,” Miranda said. “Remember Liam his first summer? I swear to Mom, he snored like a grown man. We all couldn’t believe that noise was coming from such a little kid.”

Katie laughed. Her heart ached with loss and love for her little brother. They had grieved for Liam so constantly, so pervasively. It was nice to love him, as well. 

“Remember how he used to have that lisp?” Katie added fondly. “And that little Padawan braid he refused to cut off?”

“Gods, he would’ve been bullied so bad if he wasn’t one of us.” May grinned. 

“Wait, why if he wasn’t one of us?” Alana frowned. “We’re not, like, the Ares kids. Or even the Athena kids.”

Katie looked at May and Miranda, grinning. They were both grinning back. 

“Who's gonna tell her?” Miranda asked, and Katie looked at May expectantly. May shook her head. 

“Katie, you want to do the honors?” 

Katie grinned. “Okay. This is top secret information. Once we tell you, you’re officially a Cabin Four girl. And it doesn’t leave this cabin, and you can never tell anyone who's not a child of Demeter. Got it?”

Alana hesitated for a moment. She bit her lip.

“Did Liam know?”

Katie nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, he did. May told him his first summer.”

Alana looked relieved. “Okay, good. If he didn’t know, then I wouldn’t want to either. It just- it wouldn’t be fair.”

Katie paused. She found herself having to blink away unexpected tears. She watched as May squeezed Alana’s hand. 

“You’re a good kid.” 

Katie nodded in agreement, and, next to Katie, Miranda sniffled. In a very Cabin-Four move, Alana rolled her eyes. 

“Get on with it, then.”

Katie pursed her lips to stop herself from smiling. “This is a tradition that has been going on for generations . Before I was here, before May was here, before even Declan, the counselor before May was here. Firstly, I do not condone violence or anything like that. But Cabin Four has—let's say—an unspoken agreement with the head counselor of the Ares cabin.”

“Landmines,” Miranda interrupted, her eyes gleaming. “They have a shit ton of them.” Alana’s brow furrowed, and Katie had to grin.

“That’s not a secret. Paulo Montes got sent to the infirmary ’cause he stood on one last week.”

“Oh no,” Katie said. “This isn’t your ordinary landmine supply. We’re talking a whole bunker , out in the woods. More than that— There’s food and weapons and supplies. It’s basically a full doomsday preparation situation. And a long time ago, one of the Demeter kids found it.” Katie grinned. This was her favorite part.

“Instead of telling Chiron, the Demeter kid went straight to the Ares counselor. He told her that he’d found the bunker—and he told her that he’d written down the information and told it to his siblings—but that he was prepared to make a deal. Instead of telling Chiron and getting it all confiscated, he’d keep the information a secret in exchange for protection of his siblings. If anyone messed with the Demeter kids, the Ares kids would mess with them.”

Alana whistled. “Holy shit , that guy fought dirty.”

“Language,” Katie chided automatically. She grinned. “I don’t think he fought dirty. He wanted to protect his siblings. It was just the smartest way to do it.”

“See, she says this now, but it took her a whole day to recover from the fact that we still benefit over such a clear breach of the rules,” May grinned, and Katie threw a pillow at her. 

“Wait.” Alana’s eyes were wide. “So, do you know where the bunker is?”

Katie looked to May, who was grinning mischievously.

“I do. And the head counselor after me will know it, too. And it gets passed down, and down. And the Ares kids pass it down, and down too— Not the specifics, y’know. Just that they have to keep an eye out for the Cabin Four girls.”

“Or else.” Miranda’s eyes were gleaming. Katie grinned. Alana nodded. She was grinning, too.

“I think I like being a Cabin Four girl.”

Katie liked being a Cabin Four girl, too. She liked being a Cabin Four girl when one day, she showed Josh and Louisa Liam’s Garden. They had both seen it before, but Katie had woken up one day and decided it was time they saw it together. Malcolm was too busy to join, and he didn’t like Louisa much, anyway, so it was just the three of them.

Josh and Louisa got along, of course, mostly because Josh got along with everyone and Louisa was clearly trying not to antagonize Katie’s only friend. She wasn’t doing a very good job—she had already made a comment about Aphrodite kids that had sent both Katie and Josh into angry tangents—but Katie had to admit, it was very sweet that she was trying at all. She seemed uncharacteristically flustered, rambling to Josh about how much she just loved their cabin decor. Josh sent Katie an amused look and she shrugged, something warm fluttering in her chest. 

Katie was stupidly shy as she led them into the garden. It was clearly still in its beginnings, but the sun was warm and kissed Katie's shoulders and the air smelled fresh like summer and new life. 

“It’s still in its early stages,” Katie said, suddenly afraid to meet their eyes. She focused instead on the signpost: Liam’s Garden. She was afraid that Louisa and Josh wouldn’t understand— That, instead of seeing the promise of new life and growth and food and nourishment, they would just see some dirt and some plants. Louisa grabbed her hand, so softly, and squeezed. 

“It’s really nice,” Louisa said, as softly and tenderly as Katie had ever heard her. Something swelled in Katie’s heart, and she blinked. She felt like Louisa was the only person in the world, even as Josh stood right there, looking between them like he had just realized the answer to a question that had been bugging him for weeks. 

“I love it,” Josh said, and Louisa dropped Katie’s hand as quickly as she had taken it. She didn’t look nervous, though. She just crossed her arms and looked around at the garden. “It’s really, really beautiful.”

Katie felt something melt inside her. “I hope so.”

Hope : what a beautiful, fragile thing. Hope was nights spent awake with her siblings, pouring over stacks and stacks of gardening books. Hope was the calluses on her hands, the freckles on her shoulders. Hope was Liam’s Garden , hope was watering and fertilizing and nourishing to make something small grow into something bigger. 

Hope was lying with Josh under the setting sun by the canoe lake, listening to the music drifting from the campfire in the summer air. The sky was cotton-candy pink, and the hard wood of the canoe dock was sun-warmed. Katie had rested her sweatshirt under her head like a pillow, sighing as she watched the stars slowly emerge from wherever they had been hiding.

“Saw Mal at dinner.” Josh said conversationally. “He’s going to Silena’s thing tonight.”

Katie smiled softly. Silena was hosting an arts night in the Arts and Crafts pavilion. It was the sort of thing that was totally up Malcolm’s alley. She and Josh had been thinking of going, but Silena and Josh had been arguing lately and he decided to give it a miss. “I’m glad.”

“Yeah.” Josh said. “It’s good to see him putting himself out there again.”

Katie nodded in agreement. 

“I still worry, though.” Josh said. “He’s still…”

“I know.” Katie stared at the sky, as though she might find an answer in the sprawling clouds and faint constellations. “May says that it’s normal. That he needs time.”

“Yeah.” Josh said. “Time.”

They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the cicadas hum.

“Oh!” Katie snapped her fingers together suddenly. “Will Solace has been trying to track you down for the last week about having another checkup. He keeps on complaining to me that you’re avoiding him.”

Josh was silent. And then: “I swear, that kid is like Lee 2.0.”

Even though it was almost the end of summer, hearing Lee’s name still stung. 

“Yeah, well, you should probably listen to him.” Katie said pointedly. “Is he worried about side effects from the hellhound attack? Are you feeling okay? Is there—”

“It’s about the scars, Katie.” Josh’s voice was bitter.

Katie rolled over on her side to frown at Josh, confused. “Scars?”

Josh’s expression darkened. “A hellhound ripped open half of my chest. It’s— They’re not very pretty.”

“Oh.” Katie bit her lip. “Well, why does Will want to see you about them?”

“He thinks he might’ve found something that can make them look better, I guess. Silena thinks it could make them worse, though. She told me one of the Ares kids used it years ago and they made the skin around them all red and inflamed. She told me not to do it.”

“Yeah,” Katie said. “Gonna have to agree with Silena on this one.”

Josh was silent for a long moment. Katie looked over to him, concerned. To her surprise, he was blinking away tears, glassy eyes gleaming in the dying light of day. 

“Hey. Hey . Talk to me.”

For a moment, it seemed like Josh wasn’t going to say anything at all. In the silence, the cicadas sang.

Finally, he cleared his throat. “They’re more than not pretty. The Apollo kids tried their best, but…y’know.” 

“Josh…no one would care. Lots of people have scars,” Katie said gently. Josh shook his head.

“Not like these.” 

Katie took his hand. Squeezed it. He squeezed back.

“I promise you. No one would care. You shouldn’t, either. I don’t care. I promise you.”

“I know,” Josh said, and his voice was tense. “I want to show people. To be able to wear it with pride.”

“Then what are you scared of?” 

Josh gave her a look. “ Nothing .”

“Then why don’t you want to show people?” Katie challenged. Josh was silent, and there was only the song of the cicadas and the steady to and fro of the water for a long minute.

“I don’t know. They’re ugly. They’re not me. And if they are me, then they’re a really ugly part of me.”

Katie didn’t know quite what he meant, but she let it sit anyway, running his words over in her mind.

“You see ugly parts of me all the time. Always have. I don’t think you love me any less for it.”

Josh looked at her. “I don’t.”

Katie nudged him in the side again. “Then there’s your answer, doofus.”

Josh smiled faintly, and they laid together in silence and watched the sun set and the sky turn dark. The stars twinkled kindly at them from afar. Eventually, the conch that marked the end of dinner rang out from afar, and Katie propped herself onto her elbows. 

“We should probably go.” 

“Yep.”

“Don’t want to get eaten by the cleaning harpies.”

“Nope.” 

Neither of them moved. They stayed, watching the stars, until May yelled at them from across the canoe lake that it was well past curfew, and to “get your asses in bed now if you don’t want the harpies to eat you.” 

Katie walked Josh to the door of the Aphrodite cabin. Instead of opening it, he stood for a minute, hovering. His face was unreadable. Katie frowned.

“What?”

Josh looked like he was teetering on the edge of something terrifying. Katie looked him up and down.

“Are you alright?”

Josh blinked. As if making up his mind, he minutely shook his head and flashed her a quick smile. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m good. Night, Katie.”

Katie, still a bit worried, reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Night, Josh.”

As she walked back to Cabin Four—as she walked back home —there was a certain freshness in the air. Like something was happening. Like something was beginning. 

______

Summer was ending. Everyone packed up, gathered their belongings, searched through lost property for that specific item they’d somehow misplaced throughout the summer (privately—and not so privately—Katie thought they should be searching the Hermes cabin instead).

Katie helped her siblings pack up their things, glad to have something to do. Soon, Cabin Four looked almost as it had before the summer had started. All the bunks except Katie’s were neat and tidy, three suitcases and duffel bags lined up a neat row by the door, ready to leave. 

Although Katie was glad her siblings were excited to return to the mortal world, she couldn’t help the gnawing sense of anxiety that always accompanied the end of summer. It seemed to be much worse, this year: a writing knot inside her stomach when she looked around at the cabin, devoid of all the chaos and warmth that her siblings filled it with.  

Louisa didn’t really understand when Katie tried to tell her how afraid she was. 

“The time’s going to pass, anyway.” Louisa shrugged. “No point being scared.”

“I guess,” Katie responded dully. Louisa’s eyes quickly flicked around the empty amphitheater before she reached out and squeezed Katie’s hand, surprisingly gently. 

“C’mon.” Louisa’s cheeks were tinged with pink. “Want to go and pretend that Chiron told us to tell the Hermes kids to clean out the weapons shed? That’ll cheer you up.”

Katie smiled despite herself. Louisa sort of had that effect on her. 

“I don’t know…” Katie bit her lip. “I don’t want to outright lie to them.”

“Pft.” Louisa waved her hand. “It’s not as if they’re doing anything else. Chiron will probably be glad to have them distracted for a few hours, anyway.”

Katie laughed. Louisa was right. The last few days of camp were always chaotic, with activities pretty much neglected in favor of campers just doing what they wanted. That usually manifested in the form of quickly organized pranks and games that almost always ended up in fights. 

Naturally, Katie hated the chaos of it all. Thankfully, her siblings backed her up. 

“Great idea, Chiron.” Katie fanned herself with one of May’s books, hanging upside-down off the edge of her bed. “Let sixty kids run around crazy around a million potentially deadly weapons for a few days. Very responsible.”

Miranda groaned. “It’s driving me crazy!”

“I never thought I’d actually miss school,” Alana grumbled, and then made a face like she had eaten something sour. “Oh my gods, I’m a loser.”

“Don’t worry,” Miranda said, “a few weeks back there and I’m sure you’ll be daydreaming of camp in no time. I always do.”

“I can’t believe it’s my second-to-last year in middle school. I’m gonna be a high schooler soon. That’s gonna be sick .” Alana sighed dreamily, and Katie and Miranda exchanged an amused look. “Also where’s my skateboard? I want to bring it home with me.”

“Hermes cabin, probably.” Katie glowered. “I'll go and threaten them into giving it back tomorrow. Maybe make some sunflowers grow out of all their shoes for good measure. Ooh , I could bring Louisa. She loves scaring kids.”

That night, May, who had been mysteriously absent all day, called for a round of Uno. They sat on the floor like they always did, piled on top of one another despite the heat. May had brought them all mugs of hot cocoa and when asked where she got it, just shrugged elusively. 

Predictably, Alana crushed them all at Uno. Katie didn’t know how she did it, but none of them were particularly competitive—not like the Ares kids—so they all just pretend-groaned and laughed when Alana said that she was considering going professional.

They played an old CD, lilting guitar and soft singing drifting around the cabin in a way that reminded Katie—with a little pang—of Lee Fletcher. They spoke about Liam, shared memories. It was painful, but it was nice. It almost felt like he was there. 

That night, tucked in bed, Katie fell asleep quickly.

In her dreams, she found herself in the strawberry fields. 

Acres and acres of strawberries, red and lush and fresh. The soil was warm and the grass was silky beneath her feet. Katie laid back, content to watch the clouds form fluffy white shapes in the sky. She didn’t know how long she lay there, contentedly drinking in the sweet scent of the strawberries and the cool crispness of the air. Suddenly, the scene shifted. 

Katie was falling through the ground, down, and down, and down, and, down. With a jolt of impact, she realized she had landed in a wheat field, glowing golden in the setting sun. She frowned. It stretched on for as long as the eye could see, nothing but plants and sky stretching to the horizon. She scrambled to her feet, heart racing, scanning around the field. She turned to check the other direction, and when she turned back she let out a strangled yelp. A woman had appeared. Katie’s first instinct was to curse and scowl. 

Instead, she was transfixed. The woman had soft-looking dark hair woven with dried glasses, and warm, brown eyes. Her dress was the golden color of the wheat at sunset. There was the unmistakable hum of recognition somewhere deep inside Katie’s chest, aching of home. Lazy summer afternoons in the sun. Hard work and rough calluses. A hug from May. Apple pie and fresh-baked bread. The vase of flowers that sat on the cabin windowsill. Loving so much that it hurt. 

Katie’s mother smiled at her, her dark hair glinting in the setting sun. “Katie.”

“Mom.” Katie’s mouth had gone dry. Demeter waved a hand, and an intricately carved wooden bench appeared into existence. Katie blinked, and Demeter smiled wryly at her.

“Sit.” 

Katie sat. Her mom sat next to her, and they were so close that Katie felt like she could barely breathe. Demeter was her mom . Demeter had let Katie pray to thin air, tip half of her meal into the fire every night unconvinced it was going anywhere but the ashes.Earth. As if reading her thoughts, Demeter smiled sadly. 

“I have not visited you before.”

“No.”

“You’ve grown.” 

“Yeah.” Katie’s voice came out bitter, but either Demeter didn’t notice or she refused to acknowledge it. 

“The colder months are approaching. I’m not the god of prophecy,” Demeter’s nose wrinkled distastefully, almost exactly the way Liam’s used to when he would eat something he didn’t like, “But I foresee there will be trials and challenges ahead come winter.”

“You created the first winter,” Katie remembered, “when Persephone was stolen to the Underworld.”

“Yes.” Demeter’s gaze hardened. “And I would do it again, a thousand times over.”

Katie clamped her mouth shut before she could snap at her godly mother, who Katie had no doubts would turn her into a plant or something if she was disrespectful.

“That is what people often overlook,” Demeter continued, “about me. My children. People seem to forget that I, too, am one of the original six Olympians. Not just those boys who argue about nonsensical things and behave like children without focusing on what is really important: agriculture .”

Katie laughed without meaning to, and Demeter turned her gaze on her, raising an eyebrow. The look on her face sent a chill down Katie’s spine. Her eyes were exactly the same shade of brown as May’s. After a long moment, Demeter softened.

“Agriculture is food,” Demeter explained. “It is life . When there is a prosperous harvest, communities are brought together. Families are fed. Life is maintained. It is hard work, yes, but it is necessary. My enemies never understand its importance, either. But with time, I ensure that they do. What happens when there is no harvest? When there is nothing to eat, nothing to consume? When crops wither and there is no relief of summer around the corner?”

Katie frowned. “Why are you telling me this? Why are you here ? You’ve never shown up before.”

She was unable to keep the hurt from leaching into her voice. Demeter looked at her, and softened. All of a sudden, Katie felt like crying.

“I’ve watched you all grow up. I am so proud of my children. You have all grown to make me proud.”

Katie blinked away tears, thinking about Liam. Demeter hadn’t shown up then . Gently, Demeter reached a hand to cup Katie’s face, forcing her to look at her. Katie felt warm. She felt cared for. At the same time, her cheeks were hot with frustration and emotion.

“There is a war on the horizon, my daughter. It will not be easy. You all have much to learn. I wish there was more I could do - alas, as gods, we have less power than some may think. You must all make the right decisions. I wish for you all to be safe.”Distantly, Katie felt herself waking up. She could hear Miranda and Alana arguing about something, their voices echoing like she was underwater. She blinked, Demeter’s face beginning to go blurry and out of focus. The last thing she heard before she woke was Demeter’s voice, echoing in her subconscious.

“Tell May that she is making the wrong decision.” 

Suddenly, Katie was back in the real world, sitting up straight like someone had run a live wire through her. She looked around. She was in Cabin Four, and Miranda, Alana, and May were all looking at her with matching strange expressions. 

They were all in various stages of being ready. Miranda was already dressed—and showered, by the look of her hair. She was wearing a pair of overalls that were definitely Katie’s over the top of a bright green T-shirt. She had on the same scruffy pair of converse that she wore almost everywhere. Alana, alternatively, was still in her PJs, her hair still covered in the pink silky bonnet she wore every night. May was half-dressed, wearing Jorts and her PJ shirt. Katie’s heart sank when she remembered the last words of her dream. 

“You right there, K?” May asked, tossing Miranda a pair of socks. Katie blinked. 

“Yeah. Definitely.”

May eyed her suspiciously, but went back to telling off Alana for spilling her water bottle on one of May’s textbooks.

_____

The morning moved hazily, Katie’s mind whirring quicker than usual. The visit from Demeter had left her with a conflicting mix of emotions bubbling just under the surface. Mostly, it just made Katie grouchy. Her mother was confusing and cryptic and had never cared before. Not even when Liam— Not even during the battle. Still, Katie couldn’t deny how right it had felt to be in her presence. It felt like everything Katie valued. 

Later, Katie bit the bullet and pulled May aside. She would never have imagined doing this a year ago. While Katie had always been one for direct confrontation, May had always seemed untouchable, older, in control. Katie would’ve probably just ruminated on her dream with Josh and Malcolm, ultimately deciding to let it be.

Now, though, Katie tapped May on the shoulder during the campfire, and nodded in the direction of the Demeter Cabin. May’s expression was weary as she followed Katie into the empty cabin, leaving Alana and Miranda alone by the fire. 

“I had a dream last night,” Katie said, and she sounded more accusatory than she meant. 

“Mom?” May said, like she had been expecting it. Katie nodded, and May sighed. “She’s been visiting me recently, too. More than she ever before, at least. Not that that’s hard.”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen her,” Katie admitted. 

“Let me guess. You cursed her out? Told her to leave and never come back? Made flowers grow out of her ears?”

Katie shook her head. “I was angry. But it was nice, too. I don’t know. It’s all mixed up.”

Katie blinked away the stinging in her eyes. May sighed, and reached out a hand to rub her back. They were both sitting on May’s bed, Katie resting her head on the wall behind them. The cabin had finally been packed up, everyone’s things shoved in duffle bags and suitcases. It would be properly empty, soon, except for Katie. 

“You’ve grown up.” May said, “Six months ago you would’ve rolled your eyes at me for saying something like that.”

Katie rolled her eyes, and May laughed. 

“That’s more like it.” She poked Katie’s cheek. Katie sighed.

“I don’t know. I guess, everything isn’t as clear as I thought it was. It’s all gotten so messy.” 

“That’s not a bad thing, though,” May challenged. “Things don’t have to be one way or the other. Balance can be good.” 

“I guess.”

“It’s like the seasons, right? There can’t be summer without winter.”

“It’s just— Everything is changing.” Katie blinked away heat from behind her eyes. “It’s all going too quickly.”

May laughed, but not meanly. “You’re fifteen, Katie. I promise, you’re not alone.”

There was comfortable silence for a minute.

“May?”

“Yeah?”

“In my dream…Mom mentioned you. She said— She said you’re making the wrong choice. What did she mean?”

Katie turned to look at her. May looked like she was pulling herself together, preparing herself for something. Katie frowned. Suddenly, she realized that May would have been younger than Katie was now when Katie first arrived at camp. She’s always seemed so knowing, like a full adult. Katie realized now that that was a stupid assumption. 

May ran her hands through her braids. She met Katie’s eyes with the same set determination that Katie saw in the mirror every day.

“This is my last summer at camp.”

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” May laughed bitterly. “I was planning on leaving before the Labyrinth. Had my car packed and everything. Chiron convinced me to stay, and I couldn’t leave after that. Not after—Not after Liam.”

Katie felt something pass between them. A shared understanding, maybe. Katie didn’t snap or shout or cry, even though she wanted to. May had stayed out of a sense of duty to them, and it was Katie’s job now to respect her decision. Katie had to be strong, and brave, and stable, the way May had always been for her. 

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

“If I’d said something, I wouldn’t’ve left. I know it. I love you guys so much. I just— It’s an Irish goodbye, y’know?”

“I’ll miss you.”

“You can call me.” May poked her in the side. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”

“Mom said there was gonna be a war.”

“I know.” May pressed her hands to her eyes. “This decision— It’s been the hardest thing of my life, K. You guys are my family. But— But I have siblings at home. Mortal ones. I can’t leave them, I just— I want to be there for them. See— I don’t know, see everything . I can’t chance on that. They need me. If I— If I wasn’t there, they wouldn’t be able to function. You guys are strong. You’re so strong.”

“Only because of you. You’re the best big sister. The best.”

“Nah,” May said. “That’s all you guys.”

Katie shook her head. A thought occurred to her, but she hesitated before speaking.

“Why doesn’t Mom want you to leave?”

May’s mouth twisted. “She says she just wants us to be safe. I can defend myself in the mortal world. I think the Olympians are scrambling, Katie. And don’t pass this around, but it’s true. They’re worried that there’s not going to be enough people to fight for them.”

“Oh.”

May looked at her with a critical eye. “I want you to be head counselor. I’ve already run it by Chiron. He said yes.”

Katie frowned. “Me?”

May laughed. “Yes, you. You’ve basically been acting like one, anyway. You’ve done more work on the garden than any of us— Don’t think I haven’t seen you get up early to go and check on it.”

Katie’s first instinct was to accept. Isn’t that what she had always craved - responsibility, authority, recognition? Now, though, she hesitated.

“I don’t think— I don’t think I’d be any good at it. I can barely take care of myself.”

May smiled faintly. “You remind me so much of myself, sometimes.”

“What?” Katie’s jaw dropped. May laughed softly. 

“Don’t look so surprised.”

“But—”

“You’ve got this, K.” May brushed Katie’s hair away from her face. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”

Katie’s eyes stung. “We’re going to miss you.”

May’s eyes were teary, too. “I know. I’ll miss you guys, too.”

____

The next day, everyone left. Campers had been gradually trickling out over the last week, but Katie’s siblings had all waited until the last possible day to leave. They all had thrown May a goodbye party. It wasn’t a party, really, just a celebratory game of Uno and a block of chocolate Katie had acquired from one of the younger Hermes kids. May had cried, which had made Katie cry too. 

Katie had given May an extra long hug. May had kissed the top of her head, reaching out her callused hands to cup Katie’s face. There was something so solid in her touch, something warm and friendly and stable and real . It grounded Katie, and she leaned into the feeling. 

“Take care of them, okay?” May had bit her lip, and for the first time, Katie got the impression that there was a part of May that was afraid to leave. Katie had felt the heavy weight of responsibility settle on her shoulders and deep inside her stomach. She had nodded. 

“I will. I promise.” 

May had kissed her head again. “And take care of yourself. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Now, Katie sat at the top of Half-Blood hill, watching as the last few summer campers boarded the strawberry buses that would take them through the woods and to the city, out of the world of gods and monsters until next summer. 

Katie shivered, drawing her knees to her chest, resting her head on top of them. Suddenly, she wished she could go back to Katie-from-a-year-ago: that Katie hadn’t known what was to come. 

She remembered the blood that had stained the clearing of the woods; Malcolm’s tears; her mother’s warning. War on the horizon. May leaving camp. Nothing would be the same as it was. 

Summer was truly ending. 

Her eyes stinging, Katie watched as the last of the strawberry buses vanished out of sight.  

____

Katie was in a weird mood for the rest of the week. Camp felt empty without all the summer campers. 

She spent more time with Louisa. Louisa was full of adventures. She didn’t just suggest, or ask—if Louisa wanted to do something, she would be there at the Demeter Cabin door with sparkling eyes and a “c’mon, Gardner, let's get going.” One night, Louisa and Katie snuck out by the cleaning harpies to watch the stars from the canoe deck. They had been pressed so closely together that Katie had thought she might implode. Sometimes, Katie swore Louisa’s eyes flickered down to her lips. The thought of it gave Katie a million butterflies. 

Sometimes, Katie couldn’t believe that Louisa chose to be friends with her . Louisa was sort of magic. Sometimes, lying in bed at night, Katie would get terrified that she was just imagining things, just making it all up in her head. Then, the next day, Louisa would smile at her from across the breakfast pavilion and Katie would light up from the inside. 

There was something that began to grow between them. Something fragile and special and secret. As a daughter of Demeter, Katie knew how to wait. Whatever was between her and Louisa could stay between them and the flowers and the pale light of the moon.

“You’re friends with Louisa?” Malcolm asked one day. They were completing a worksheet about the Iliad, sprawled lazily on the grass outside of the Big House, drinking in the late-summer sun. “When did that happen?”

“We just started talking, I guess.” Katie avoided Malcolm’s gaze. “She’s really…awesome. I think you’d like her.”

“I don’t think so,” Malcolm replied, his voice tinged with judgment. 

Katie stared at him. “What?”

“I just don’t think I’d like her.” Malcolm said, forcibly neutrally. “I just…she’s said some stuff that I don’t really agree with.”

“Are you kidding?” Katie was annoyed, now. Malcolm didn’t respond. “You haven’t even given her a chance .”

Malcolm still stayed silent, refusing to meet Katie’s eyes. Angry, now, Katie shoved her worksheet away, pushing herself up to her feet, her blood boiling. Malcolm couldn’t just… disappear from Katie’s life for weeks and then come back into it and decide to be judgemental about Katie’s friends. 

“I’m going inside.” Katie fumed. “Have fun doing the worksheet on your own.”

She felt guilty by the time she made it inside the Big House, sliding into the seat next to Michael Yew and ignoring Louisa’s curious gaze. She refused to give into the guilt, though, refused to go back outside and apologize to Malcolm. He couldn’t just insult Louisa like that. 

Katie and Malcolm were on speaking terms again the next day. He came up to her at breakfast and asked how she slept and Katie politely responded that she slept well, thanks, and that was that. 

Katie’s mind was too full, anyway, with trying to convince herself that she really only cared about Louisa in a totally friendship kind of way. 

Platonic , Katie had to tell herself when Louisa mindlessly reached up to brush a strand of hair out of her face one day at the strawberry fields.

Totally platonic , Katie reminded herself when she was watching Louisa at sword training one day, her strong arms glinting with sweat.

We are totally platonic friends. Nothing more, Katie thought like a mantra the day they all went swimming and a soaking-wet Louisa bounded up to pull Katie into the water, bodies tangling in the cool water.

Katie wasn’t very good at platonic, she realized one day when she caught herself daydreaming about Louisa’s arms in the middle of dinner and only realized she had completely zoned out when Josh tapped her on the arm, looking amused, and Katie was startled to the reality that the dining pavilion was entirely empty. 

“Oh.” Katie blinked, her face warm. “I was just—”

Josh looked thoughtful. Katie felt like he could see right through her. She touched her hair self-consciously, her face hot. 

“Do you want to come for a walk with Malcolm and I tonight?” Josh asked as they filed out of the pavilion. “We were thinking of going down to the beach. Maybe swimming if it’s not too hot.”

“Maybe,” Katie said. “I think I was going to hang out with Louisa.”

“You’ve been hanging out with her a lot lately.” Josh said, too-casually.

“We’re friends.” Katie said quickly, ignoring the way her heart was thumping in her chest. “She’s really nice. And—I don’t know. She likes to do stuff . And it’s sort of infuriating but sort of awesome, too, because she won’t even ask . She’ll just show up and be like ‘Katie, we’re going to the shooting range to challenge Michael to a shoot off and see how pissy he gets when we can’t hit the bulls-eye,’ and it’s like all common sense leaves my brain! I don’t even say, ‘Hey, we need to alert Chiron if we’re using the equipment,’ or ‘let’s make sure we let everyone know so no one gets shot by a stray arrow!’. I just…go!”

Josh’s brow was furrowed, like he was trying to put together the pieces of a difficult puzzle. 

“I wish I’d known her sooner.” Katie blurted out. “I think we all would’ve been friends last year. I really…she’s really cool.”

“She’s cool.” Josh said finally. “I’m glad you’re friends.”

“Yeah.” Katie’s face was still warm. Josh gave her a kind smile: it felt sort of like understanding. 

She was still thinking about the interaction later, sitting by the hearth, shivering a little in the cool night air. Malcolm and Josh had wandered off down to the beach, and everyone else was sort of doing their own things around camp. Curfew was getting closer and closer.

“Deep in thought, Gardner?” A voice startled her, and Katie jumped. She looked up to see Louisa, glowing in the coals of the hearth. 

“Sort of.” Katie gave a non-committal shrug, trying to avoid Louisa’s gaze. 

Louisa didn’t let her, grabbing her by the arm and tugging her up. Katie flushed, and Louisa grinned.

“Want to sneak into Chiron’s office and watch a movie?”

“What if Chiron comes in?” Katie frowned, but she couldn’t deny that her heart started to race at the possibility. 

“He left this morning. Top secret mission.”

Katie’s mood lifted a little. “Cleaning harpies?”

“On strike.” Louisa held a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell. Heard it from Clarisse.”

Katie fought back a smile. She made a dorky “lips sealed” motion and immediately regretted it. Luckily, Louisa just looked amused.

A minute later, Katie was jogging towards the Demeter cabin. It was empty and lonely without her siblings. Katie had been spending as little time there as she could, recently, preferring the warmth and bustle of the outdoors to the stifling silence of Cabin Four. 

She pulled on a cozy jacket, stopping briefly at the table to spray a nice vanilla perfume onto her wrists. She quickly checked her reflection in the mirror before leaving, smoothing her auburn braids to sit neatly over her shoulders. She didn’t know why she was nervous. 

Katie’s heart was racing by the time they made it to the bronze-lined office, narrowly avoiding Mr. D as he stomped upstairs. That didn’t stop Katie from jumping at the slightest sound from above. Louisa noticed, and giggled, poking Katie in the side when she flopped down next to her on the cramped lounge chair they’d dragged out from a corner. The tiny TV they showed the orientation film on was tucked against one side of the room. Demigods and technology were typically a bad mix, but the celestial-bronze-lined walls provided relative safety. Chiron had a few VHS tapes tucked away in the bookshelf, and Katie and Louisa quickly moved over to look through them. 

“C’mon,” Louisa grinned, holding up an old copy of Top Gun. “Best movie of all time.”

Katie scoffed. She had been eyeing a copy of Men in Black. Eventually, after much argument, they decided on Hercules, which they both agreed was funny that Chiron kept. Louisa, Katie quickly realized, was a talker during movies. She would point at the screen and give Katie her running commentary, characteristically opinionated about every choice the characters made. When Hades appeared, Louisa booed. Katie got the distinct feeling that if she had popcorn, she’d be throwing it at the screen.

While Louisa watched the movie, Katie watched Louisa. Just a glance, every now and then. Louisa was invested, her face lighting up and scowling along with whatever was happening on the screen, turning to mutter conspiratorially to Katie whenever something important happened. She even smiled during some of the songs, something so soft and content that Katie felt like she was an intruder for seeing it. 

Finally, the movie finished. Across its course, they had somehow ended up entangled in one another, their legs twisted together and Katie’s head resting on Louisa’s shoulder. Their proximity hadn’t really been as obvious during the movie, but now, in the silence and the soft blue light of the TV screen, Katie's heart raced. She was conscious of everything. Her mouth was suddenly dry. She shifted, slightly to look up at Louisa who was—Katie realized with a jolt—looking directly at Katie. 

Katie opened her mouth, realized she had nothing to say, and then promptly shut it again. Louisa huffed a laugh. 

“You look a bit like a fish, you know that?”

Katie glowered. “A fish?”

“Yeah. A fucking fish, like a freshly caught one, too.”

Katie stared at her for a second, before dissolving into giggles, barely catching her breath.

“You’re such a weirdo, oh my gods.”

“You’re the fucking weirdo, Gardner,” Louisa said, but she was grinning, too. Her cheeks were pink. Katie bit her lip, and the air was suddenly heavy with all the things she wanted to say. 

Instead of saying anything, Katie just hushed Louisa as they tiptoed down the stairs, giggling as they spilled out into the open air. 

Before they reached the cabins, still in the privacy of darkness, with only the moon and the stars as witness, Louisa came to a sudden stop. 

Katie, still feeling giddy and warm, looked over at her. “You alright?”

Louisa looked as though she was standing on the edge of some great precipice. She looked as afraid as Katie had ever seen her before. Katie frowned, a little worried now, but Louisa stepped closer. Her dark eyes swirled, reflecting the bright light of the moon. Katie could stare into them forever. She might have, too, if not for Louisa stepping closer again and then—as if making a decision—cupping her hands around Katie’s face. 

“Can I—”

“ Yes .”

Katie wasn’t sure who leaned in to kiss who, but the next thing she knew they were kissing and Katie’s mind was spinning, her heart thumping. Every cell in Katie’s body seemed to light up, seemed to bend towards Louisa like she was summer sun and fresh air and new life coming from the soil. A million butterflies took flight. Louisa smelt like smoke and faintly like something sweet, too, something fruity and fresh and familiar. They were so close that Katie could make out an old scar on Louisa’s cheek when she opened her eyes for a split second. When they pulled apart, Louisa had that look again, afraid but ready-to-fight. 

“I don’t want to tell people,” Louisa said, and Katie nodded before she even realized what she was doing. 

“I won’t tell a soul,” Katie promised. Louisa looked her up and down for a moment. Katie got the distinct feeling that she was being judged. Finally, Louisa nodded. There was a little grin on her face when she reached her hand to Katie’s face, sending electric currents through her body as she pulled her back in for another kiss.

Chapter Text

‘say what you want / and say it like you mean it with your fists for once’ - ethel cain

The school year started with an air of tension around camp. There were the same familiar faces, with a few noticeable absences and a few new additions. The absence of Lee Fletcher was felt, and Katie couldn’t help the pang in her gut whenever she swung by the infirmary and didn’t see him.

Will Solace had pretty much taken it over, and Kayla Knowles, Austin Lake and Adam Bright, three new year-rounders, seemed determined to make sure the Apollo cabin was never quiet. At ridiculous hours of the morning, Austin could be heard playing the saxophone so loudly that the Ares kids were considering rigging the instrument with explosives. When Louisa told her, Katie whacked her on the leg. Louisa withdrew her hands from Katie’s hair to flick her forehead.

“No one is exploding Austin’s saxophone,” Katie groaned, even though she herself had fantasized about burying that thing six feet under in Liam’s Garden when everyone was sleeping. 

“Try telling Sherman that,” Louisa said pointedly. Louisa had three siblings staying for the year: Clarisse (predictably), Miles, and Sherman Yang. By proximity alone, Katie had begun to spend more time with the Ares kids than she ever had in the past, and was finding them increasingly headache-inducing. If she had to threaten to make flowers grow out of Miles’ clothes one more time…

Increasingly, Katie found herself thinking about Demeter’s words from the dream she’d had at the end of summer. She became obsessive, pouring over them for some kind of clue. She was sure Malcolm might have some of the answers, but something stopped her from approaching him. 

“I just don’t want to bother him with war stuff so soon.” Katie insisted to Josh, who she had disclosed the basics of the dream to. Josh didn’t look convinced. 

“You told me.”

“You didn’t just avoid me for a month because of the giant battle that we just had.”

“He probably knows,” Josh said, a little sadly. “That there’s more to come. That the battle wasn’t the end of it.”

“He’s smart.” Katie agreed. 

“I think we all sort of know.” Josh’s face twisted bitterly. “I don’t think anything will be the same again.”

Katie squeezed his hand, trying to ignore the jolt of fear that crept into her stomach at his words. 

So Katie didn’t mention the dream to Malcolm. It wasn’t as if she really got a chance to, anyway, she justified to herself. The beginning of the school year had brought with it all the business and chaos that it usually did. Even with a war on the horizon, it seemed that the Stoll’s would not back off. They organized increasingly stupid pranks that made the tip of her ears go red. They had recruited two of the new year-rounders in their cabin: Cecil and Lou Ellen, who were both as annoying as their siblings. It seemed their older brother, Chris, had no interest in keeping them under control.

“I’m a head counselor now, Travis!” Katie yelled after waking up to find her bed in the middle of the amphitheater, shivering in the cool morning breeze. “I’m not above making you do double chores!”

From the distance, she heard Travis laugh. Of course, he was a head counselor, too, and knew Katie had no real power over him. Louisa helped her drag her bed back to the Demeter cabin, listening to her rant about the Stolls the whole way there.

“I don’t get why you never go off at Connor,” Louisa said, her face red with the effort it took to carry Katie’s bed. “I can barely even tell them apart.”

“I go off at Connor.” Katie was a little offended. “He’s plenty annoying, trust me. And as for telling them apart: Travis is taller, just a little, and he’s got more freckles and his hair’s lighter.”

Louisa made waggly eyebrows at her, and Katie turned bright red and stuck up her middle finger. Louisa laughed. 

“Travis is the whole brains of the operation,” Katie told her, and then blanched. “ Not that I’m calling him smart, because he’s obviously not. But he’s the instigator, that’s for sure. I don’t think Connor would pull half the shit they pull without Travis.”

“You’ve clearly thought about Thing One and Thing Two a lot more than me, Gardner.”

Katie scowled. “They’re the banes of my existence. And besides, aren’t you technically friends with them?”

Louisa shrugged. “Used to be. Fell out over stupid shit. Whatever.” 

Katie nodded, and huffed under the effort of the bed. She was still fuming by the time they finally got it back to its normal position. Louisa tried to pull her in for a kiss, and Katie reluctantly pushed her away.

“I’ve got morning breath,” Katie protested. “And bed hair.”

“I must’ve turned into an Aphrodite kid overnight, because I genuinely could not give less of a fuck.” 

She was a good enough kisser that Katie forgot about everything soon enough.

Another unwelcome addition: Liam had started haunting her dreams. Without the hustle and bustle to keep her distracted, there was nothing stopping Katie from disappearing into her thoughts in the empty Demeter cabin, ruminating and cursing herself and wishing that it would all just stop. Regularly, she looked over to what had been his bed and wished with all her heart that it still was. Sleep brought no relief. He was always there, reminding Katie of what was lost. 

Katie, predictably, threw herself into work. She did all of her schoolwork and Louisa’s, grateful for a distraction, ignoring the annoying voice in her head that told her she was breaking the rules. 

She spent her free time at either the strawberry fields or Liam’s Garden, worrying about the winter that was sure to come, working twice as hard at finding cold-weather-friendly plants to keep it lively. The fruits of their labor during the summer had begun to show, and Katie was delighted at the first crop of tomatoes that grew red and lucious and fresh. She brought them to Chiron proudly, and they all had tomato soup for dinner. Katie looked around happily as her friends dipped their bread into the warm, wholesome soup, glowing with something like pride. 

It was one of the only things that could calm her mind, the garden. Hope and hard work. 

She even started working in the camp store; Chiron gave her the keys, and every Sunday she would let herself in and make sure the shelves were clean and pristine. Travis and Connor had somehow wormed their way into working in it years ago, but after some negotiation it was decided that it would be their job through the week, and Katie’s on the weekend. She’d taken the initiative to start taking inventory, too, and was horrified at the sheer amount of things that had been stolen. She started a record book, and logged every transaction she could in neat, practiced handwriting. Whenever something went missing, she marched herself over to the Hermes cabin and demanded that Travis, Connor, or Cecil hand it over. Louisa sometimes kept her company, even though she got bored easily and hated the camp store. Katie filled the time by asking her questions, ranging from awkward to stupid to sweet.

“What did you want to be when you grew up, when you were a kid?” Katie asked one day while cleaning out one of the drawers, and Louisa flushed bright red. Katie grinned, enthralled at the prospect of Louisa being embarrassed about something. “What? Tell me!”

“A Navy SEAL,” Louisa said too quickly, and Katie raised an eyebrow. Louisa groaned. 

“Fine! I used to want to be a professional dancer.” Louisa buried her face in her hands, and Katie laughed out loud.

“You danced?”

“For five years,” Louisa admitted, like she was sharing some horrible secret. “I was the best in my class. Fucking ballet shoes and leotards— I rocked that shit.”

Katie kissed her on the nose. “You know now I’m totally gonna have to see this, right?”

Louisa protested, but she let Katie kiss her and Katie counted it as a win. Katie somehow accepted that Louisa liked her. Louisa called her pretty and played with her hair when no one else could see. Katie didn’t know how she had managed to end up so entangled in Louisa, but she was ridiculously glad. Louisa was a whole universe. 

More worryingly were the new conflicts with Luke’s army. Chiron had begun calling head counselor meetings every Saturday night. After dinner, Katie, Annabeth, Silena, Beckendorf, Clarisse, Michael, and the Stoll Brothers would pour over battle plans in the rec room of the Big House, arguing about the best way to proceed. It was made difficult by the fact that they had little to no information, and the information they did have was unreliable at best. 

“If we think there’s an encampment there, we need to go after it!” Clarisse said, angrily prodding her finger at the square of chocolate Annabeth had placed somewhere in Ohio. 

“We don’t know for certain,” Annabeth argued, “it’s just what Chiron has heard. Even if it is, we could be walking straight into a trap.”

Katie glanced over at the Stoll brothers, who were playing tic-tac-toe. 

“It’s too much of a gamble,” Beckendorf said evenly, with an apologetic shrug at Clarisse, who scowled. 

“So we’re just going to let them gain more numbers? Let them get a big enough army to fuck over our camp?”

“How would we even get to Ohio?” Travis asked, looking up from his game. Clarisse threw her hands into the air in clear frustration.

“The buses! We fly! Take the pegasi!”

“We need more information,” Annabeth said firmly, and it was a sign of how much Clarisse liked Annabeth that she didn’t try to stab her with her spear. “Now isn’t a time for impulsive moves.”

“What about that base in Rhode Island?” Michael asked thoughtfully. “Didn’t the satyrs say it was only small? We could try our luck there.”

“He also said it was mostly demigods,” Katie pointed out. “What’s the point? What would we even do?”

The room went awfully silent for a second. Everyone avoided everyone’s eye contact.

“We could incapacitate them somehow?” Travis said uncomfortably.

Katie scoffed. “That’s a big word for you.”

“Shut it, Gardner. I mean— Just, we could take them out in some way. Not like, kill them. Just— I don’t know. Maybe talk them into coming back, fighting with us.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Real insightful, idiot. You want to talk the evil demigods into becoming friends again. While we’re at it, let’s go and ask Luke if he wants a truce.”

At that, both the Stoll brothers and Annabeth protested loudly. 

“Stop fighting,” Silena snapped. “We need to cooperate . For one, I think Clarisse is right. We should try the Ohio base.”

“No!” Annabeth and Michael exclaimed in unison. 

And then they were arguing again. Katie mostly just pretended she wasn’t feeling completely out of her depth, chiming in every now and then and exchanging looks with Beckendorf, who sometimes felt like the only other sane one there.

After an hour, they took a break, milling around the rec room. The Stoll brothers brought candy that Katie refused to touch. Katie ended up sitting with Michael, who she had gotten to know a little better since summer, purely from the fact that he was Louisa’s best friend. 

“Totally inappropriate!” He hollered now in Silena and Beckendorf’s direction, making Katie laugh. It was practically an open secret that Silena and Beckendorf were totally in love—even if neither of them actually admitted to everything—and the others liked to give them a lot of shit. While Katie tended to take it easy on them, she couldn’t deny that their position—squished together on one of the corner lounge chairs—wasn’t verging on PDA. Michael especially found it hilarious to make fun of them, which was saying something because Michael wasn’t the type of guy who found a lot of things hilarious. 

The meeting continued for another hour after the break, everyone restless and antsy by its conclusion. Chiron was out on official business, and Mr. D couldn’t care less if he tried, so they ended up wrapping up early. Katie was exhausted by the time they finally spilled out into the night air, tired from wrangling everyone into some semblance of order. She walked with Michael, who was complaining about Clarisse. They made their way together back to the cabins, where they both winced at the all too familiar sound of Austin’s saxophone blaring loudly. 

Michael pinched the bridge of his nose. “That kid. I swear.”

“You should give him a curfew or something. No music past eight. Or before dawn.”

“You don’t think I’ve tried? Says I’m ‘depriving him of his connection to Dad,’ and then he gives me the puppy dog eyes and everything I say may as well be in Latin. Don’t know how Lee managed for all those years.”

Katie laughed. “I think the same about May. Not sure how I’m going to get through the summer.”

“Yeah, good luck with that one.”

Michael must’ve worked something out, though, because Austin’s saxophone playing decreased to a slightly more bearable amount in the days that followed, to the relief of absolutely everyone.

“It’s not as if he’s a bad musician,” Josh was saying, “he’s actually, like, pitch perfect. It’s just a lot . Like, all of the time. Like, constant.”

“Exactly!” Katie snapped her fingers. They were sitting by the hearth, warming their hands in the night air. “That’s exactly it. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.”

“Okay, philosophical. Maybe you should start teaching class instead of Chiron.”

“One hundred percent,” Katie said dryly. “There’s probably some teacher gene that Dad passed on.”

“Definitely.” Josh nodded. “Hey, you ever hear from him?”

“Dad?” Katie shook her head firmly. “No. But I’m past caring, y’know? He’s out of my life for good.”

“I hear that.”

Katie bit her lip. Josh exhaled. 

“You want to ask about my family, don’t you.”

“Kind of...” Katie admitted. “But if you don’t want to talk—”

“It’s fine.” Josh smiled tightly. “There’s not much to say, honestly.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Josh nodded. His voice was strained. “I just…They didn’t want me. They never even…they didn’t like me.”

“They’re idiots.” Katie said, surprised at the ferocity of her voice. 

“I know.” Josh said. “I mean—I think I know. It’s just…They’re the only people in the world who are sort of obligated to like me. And they…couldn’t.”

Fury burst through Katie’s chest, and she clenched her fists. “They’re idiots. ”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’m not obligated to like you.” Katie said firmly. “And neither is Mal. And neither is anyone else at camp. And we all do. We all love you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah.” Josh said. Katie couldn’t work out if he was lying or not.

They fell into comfortable silence, and  Katie half-wished she had a bag of marshmallows to toast on the fire. She rested her head on Josh’s shoulder, and was almost dozing off until another voice interrupted, making her jolt and nearly fall off her seat.

Malcolm, standing on the other side of the hearth, snickered. Katie looked over to Josh indignantly, hoping that he would stick up for her against Malcolm’s clear bullying. Instead, she was surprised. Josh was smiling fondly, his whole face lit up, warmer than the hearth. Josh’s small was a small, soft, little thing. Just seeing it made Katie feel warm enough to close her mouth and—instead of berating Malcolm for laughing at her—scooch over so that there was room for him next to Josh. 

“Hey.” Josh seemed unable to keep the smile off his face. As he looked over at Malcolm, his eyes shone. 

“Hi.” Malcolm said, looking flustered for a second. Neither of them seemed particularly interested in doing anything other than being weirdly silent for a second, so Katie cleared her throat to remind them that, yes, she was still there. 

“Where did you come from?” Katie asked Malcolm. Malcolm blinked.

“Oh—” He straightened himself up. “I was just on call with Annabeth. We’re looking into some of the old myths and stories—just for a bit of fun.”

Josh laughed. “ Fun ?”

“We’re doing it in chronological order.” Malcolm added. His cheeks were pink, and his eyes were alight with passion. Katie smiled, fondness glowing in her chest. “I mean, the best we can. We’re up to the heroes.”

“What did you just look at, then?” Josh asked. 

“Orpheus and Eurydice.”

“Ooh !” Katie exclaimed. “I know that one.”

She remembered Chiron telling the story to them, maybe last year or the year before. They were all crowded in the Big House school-room. Katie had been drawn in by the myth for reasons she hadn’t been able to explain: something about the tragic tale of the two lovers had had her leaning forward in her seat, feeling as though she could practically hear the ghostly song of Orpheus echoing faintly in her ears. She was no musician, but there had been something about the story that had stuck in her head long after hearing it. A mortal, refusing to accept ‘no’ for an answer, following his love to the depths of hell. The strumming of a lyre, honey-sweet notes that had brought the kingdom of the dead, once more, to life. And then, of course, the tragedy of it all. Looking back. 

“Is that the Romeo and Juliet one?” Josh asked. “That Shakespeare totally plagiarized.”

“That’s Pyramus and Thisbe.” Malcolm said instantly. “And that story has been retold thousands of times. Shakespeare’s was just the most prolific.”

“Orpheus is the musician.” Katie said quickly, before Malcolm could start rambling about literary love stories again. “Who followed his wife, Eurydice, to the underworld. He played a song, and Hades told him that Eurydice could come back to the Overworld with him.”

Josh whistled. “Must have been a good song.”

“It was.” Katie promised. “Um—I mean, I wasn’t there. Obviously. But it was meant to be the most beautiful song anyone had ever heard. A love song. So beautiful that even Hades let them go free.”

“So they made it?” Josh asked. “Orpheus brought his wife back?”

“No.” Malcolm said. “Hades let them go on one condition: Euridyce would have to follow Orpheus, ten paces behind, out of the Underworld. If he looked back, even once—”

“He looked back?” Josh sounded like he already knew the answer. 

“He looked back.” Malcolm said, and it sounded like a warning. “Because he was human. No human can defy the gods.”

“Orpheus did, though.” Katie insisted. “Hades let them go free. If he didn’t look back—”

“But he did.” Malcolm said. “He was always going to.”

“That’s not even what the story is really about, anyway.” Katie insisted. “Orpheus followed Eurydice because he loved her. He would’ve followed her anywhere.”

“To the Underworld?” Malcolm asked. Josh’s head swiveled between the two of them, seemingly amused by the Katie-Malcolm show. “To look Hades in the face and defy him?”

“I would.” Katie said, strangely sure of herself. “I don’t think…I don’t know if I’d be able to let go. Not really.”

Malcolm looked thoughtful. Finally, he just said: “You’d look back, though.”

Katie thought about it. She’d like to think that she wouldn’t. That she’d be able to walk out of the Underworld, head held high, never once doubting that the person she loved was behind her. 

“We’d all look back.” Malcolm continued. “That’s the point.”

Katie frowned. “There’s no point. True stories don’t have points. Besides, what kind of advice would tha be? If you’re walking out of the Underworld because Hades decided to let you and your love go on the condition that you don’t look back, then don’t look back? That seems sort of specific.”

“The moral is that we’d all look back, because we’re humans.” Malcolm said, and there was that tone of warning in his voice again. “The moral is that we can never defy the gods and get away with it.”

____

Malcolm’s words played in Katie’s mind, all the way to bed and the next day. She couldn’t explain why she was so unsettled by them, but even as she wandered down to Liam’s Garden in the early hours of the morning, she could almost hear his ominous tone. 

Louisa joined her after breakfast, poking Katie in the nose after a few minutes of working in silence. “What’s got you so grumpy?

Katie swatted her away. 

“Blueberries.” Katie explained shortly, even though she had been in a weird mood since she woke up. She shuddered as she examined one of the plants again. “Bug infestation, I think.”

“Gross.” Louisa said flatly. 

Katie frowned as she saw another mushy-looking blueberry, squishing it and yelping at the sight of a tiny little worm munching its way through. 

“So,” Louisa said casually, sitting down next to Katie, her red-painted nails rummaging through the foliage. “What’s this about? Because I know you don’t get this worked up over blueberries. At least, not if something else isn’t bothering you, too.”

“You’re being too harsh.” Katie showed Louisa the proper way to handle the plants. “And nothing is bothering me! I do get very worked up about plants—you should’ve seen me when those manaeds destroyed the strawberries last year.”

Louisa didn’t say anything for a long while. The silence grated on Katie, enough that she finally burst out: “ Fine . Me and Malcolm had a weird conversation. It was just…weird.”

“Malcolm Pace? Weird ?” Louisa said, too innocently. “You’re kidding.”

“I’m not kidding.” Katie clarified. “He was talking about Orpheus and Eurydice.”

“You’re right.” Louisa deadpanned. “That is weird.”

Katie was about to continue, but a smile was stretching across Louisa’s face as she leaned forward over the flowers and Katie’s brain forgot how to do anything but lean in and meet her halfway. 

Katie smiled softly into the kiss, bringing a hand up to thread itself in Louisa’s hair. Louisa’s warm hand had found its way to Katie’s, and Katie felt herself light up from the inside. All thoughts of Malcolm and the blueberries had left Katie’s mind; all that mattered was Louisa. Louisa, Louisa, Louisa. 

“I’m actually going to shoot myself in the foot if Mr. D—” A loud voice rang through the clearing. Katie and Louisa jumped apart, her heart thumping. Michael was standing there, his mouth hanging open in a way that would be funny if it wasn’t so awful. His bow was slung over his shoulder. Katie’s heart raced, and she looked over at Louisa. Louisa looked like a deer in the headlights. “Shit, I didn’t mean to…”

Michael kept rambling, but Katie’s eyes stayed on Louisa. She watched as Louisa steeled herself the way Katie had seen her do a million times before training. Against all the odds, Louisa steadied her shoulders and cleared her throat, interrupting a red-faced, uncharacteristically flustered Michael. 

“We’re seeing each other,” Louisa said. “Not like boyfriend-girlfriend. But. Yeah. If you have a problem with that, I’ve got a cabin full of siblings who like playing with grenades as a hobby.”

“Enough with the grenades!” Katie groaned, even though it definitely wasn’t the time or the place. “You need to stop encouraging them!”

“Stop demonizing grenades!” 

“They’re grenades! They’re inherently demonized!”

Michael actually laughed, then—a rare occurrence from the usually scowly Michael—and reached out a hand to help Louisa up. “Yeah, stop demonizing grenades, Katie. Also, if you think I of all people would have a problem with this, you need to brush up on your Greek mythology.”

Louisa helped Katie up then, and Katie felt warm from her chest to the tips of her fingers. On the way back, Katie fondly listened to Louisa and Michael bicker. When she dared to reach out and grab Louisa’s hand, she didn’t pull away. 

Later that night, Michael pulled Katie aside at the campfire. She had been sitting with Louisa, singing along to some stupid song Austin was trying to teach them. Louisa had been ruthlessly making fun of Katie’s awful voice, but they had both been laughing. 

“Hey,” Katie said when she and Michael were alone. Michael eyed her suspiciously. From anyone else, it might’ve been intimidating, but Michael was 4’6” and—as Louisa often described him—had a much bigger bark than his bite. 

“You hurt my friend…” Michael said, and gestured to his bow threateningly. If Katie was closer with him, she probably would’ve made fun of him for wearing his bow with his PJs. 

“Got it.” She gave him a little salute. 

“One hundred percent serious: you hurt my friend and I’ll get Austin to play just out the front of your window every night when you’re trying to go to sleep.”

“Note to self—don’t hurt Louisa. Or piss off Austin.”

Michael gave her a grudging smile, and Katie grinned back. They shook on it.

_____

Slowly, fall began to draw to a close. Michael had apparently officially deemed Katie as good enough to be properly integrated into their group—Katie noticed the difference from being “Louisa’s lame tag along” right away—and Katie found herself even sitting with them at meals sometimes. She still spent some time with Malcolm (who had seemingly much more spare time since Annabeth had left for San Francisco) and Josh, but she found herself drifting slightly without even realizing it. 

Mostly, Katie spent time with Louisa.  Katie liked her more and more every day. She was argumentative, but so was Katie, so they evened each other out. Katie liked making her hot chocolate, and they’d sit in Katie’s empty cabin with mugs of steaming cocoa until curfew most nights. It was sort of funny: everyone constantly reminded Silena and Beckendorf about the “no campers of opposite sexes alone in a cabin together” rule, but no one blinked an eye when Katie and Louisa left the fire early to go to Cabin Four. They were still a secret to everyone apart from Michael, which sort of sucked, but Katie could deal with it if it meant she could be Louisa’s...whatever she was. Louisa wasn’t big on labels, which was a struggle for Katie, who had always liked order and structure. She half wished she could go up and ask Silena for advice - Silena gave her advice on almost anything else, anyway - but Louisa shook her head when Katie suggested telling more people, and that was that. 

Still, Louisa helped her in the garden and they worked in comfortable silence and it was nice . The plants liked Louisa, Katie could tell, even if she was sometimes rough and too forceful when pulling out the weeds.

_____

Slowly and steadily, they began to get more insight into the army of monsters that was sure to come. Instead of being reassuring, it tended to be disheartening. As Chiron informed them gravely, their new intel wasn’t from any new sources or anything. Rather, there were just more monsters than ever. Katie worried about her siblings in the mortal world. 

“So let’s do something about it!” Clarisse was in the middle of arguing. They were in another meeting, and, predictably, getting nothing done. Katie was getting a headache from everyone arguing with one another. “We know there’s more monsters—good! Let’s go kill them!”

“It’s a resource issue, Clarisse.” Katie was not surprised to hear Malcolm speak. He’d been filling in for Annabeth since she’d left, and, while timid at first, he’d quickly grown confident enough to argue with even Clarisse. Katie supposed it was all that practice before the Battle of the Labyrinth. “We don’t have enough campers to send people into fights that we don’t know the details of. It would be different if we had more solid information.”

“Okay, then how do we get more solid information?” 

Malcolm shrugged helplessly. 

“Exactly!” Clarisse huffed. “We’re not making any progress. Nothing is going to change if we don’t start making it change. And I, for one, am not going to just sit here and watch these fuckers get stronger!” 

Clarisse stormed out of the rec room, and everyone else looked at each other warily.

“I would never say this to her face, but she’s got a point.” Michael scowled. “It’s been three months since summer ended, and we haven’t done jack shit.”

“Probably because Chiron is missing half the time,” Silena pointed out. “If we leave on a mission, who’s going to look after the Camp? Mr. D?”

They all let out a mutual sigh. Travis, who had previously been trying to tape a sign that read “kick me” onto Michael’s back, leaned forward. Katie looked at him suspiciously. His eyes were gleaming, the way they always did when he was plotting something that Katie fundamentally disagreed with.

“So some of us stay,” Travis shrugged, “we put together a team, designed best for what we need it for. We try the Rhode Island base—”

Everyone protested, and Travis cut them off.

“We try the Rhode Island base, but we don’t do anything about the demigods. If they’ve got a base, you know what else they’ve got? Loot . Let’s steal their stuff.”

No one was protesting anymore. Katie frowned. It was actually—and she would never admit it aloud, not even if Michael held an arrow to her head— a good idea. Take their stuff. She was weirdly reminded of what her mother had said in her dream so long ago. Without a harvest, there is no life.

“Suppose we did do that,” Malcolm started, “hypothetically. Who would we use? We’d need to get more details on the base, and the type of defenses and supplies they had there. And we’d need to send a team of demigods for the quest.”

Connor snapped his fingers. “ Now  you’re thinking like a thief.”

“We can’t go on a quest without the Oracle,” Michael said. “And I don’t think she’s really in a questy mood right now.”

Everyone looked at him strangely, and he shrugged. “Just a feeling.”

Katie frowned. “Who said it needed to be a quest, per se? Like—Like what defines a quest? There’s no hard and fast rules, right?”

Everyone was quiet, and Katie’s heart started to speed up. “Instead of a quest, let’s do— Say, let’s do combat missions . Totally different than a quest. Bam. Loophole.”

Everyone considered her words for a minute. 

“So, hypothetically, we do these combat missions. Who decides who gets to go? If there’s no prophecy—”

“Just like you said before,” Katie interrupted Malcolm—who she could already tell was going to go on a tangent until the momentum of the idea was lost entirely—with an apologetic look. “We get more details on the base, as much as we possibly can, and then we send the team that we think are the best suited for the particular qu- combat mission. I mean, we need to play to our strengths, right?”

“Katie,” Travis shook his head, “it’s a shame you usually have a stick up your ass. I have a feeling you would plan killer pranks.”

After they had sent a pissed-off Travis to the infirmary because of the dandelions that had started growing out of his ears (to be fair, it hadn’t been completely intentional), they threw the idea around for the rest of the meeting. By its conclusion, Katie was feeling strangely invigorated. It was a good idea. She had even promised to ask some of the nature spirits for more information on the Rhode Island base in preparation for their next meeting. Katie walked out with Michael and Malcolm.

“I think we’ve actually got something good,” Malcolm said. “For once.”

“Of course we do,” Katie poked his shoulder. “We’re an evil genius duo, remember?”

Katie went to bed that night happy, for once, not thinking about everything that could go wrong. 

“C’mon,” Katie dragged Louisa by the arm, “I said I’d meet him at dawn.” 

“Why do I like you?” Louisa groaned. “Of course my— Of course you’re an early riser.”

“I’m definitely not an early riser.” Katie corrected, horrified. “I just arranged to meet him early. He suggested it, and he’s really…fussy, so I didn’t want to argue.

She was practically jumping off the walls. She had arranged to meet with Fleetus, one of the satyrs who had been scouting out the Rhode Island base for them. She’d even brought a notepad to jot down any information he might have to bring to the meeting that night. 

The head counselor meetings were supposed to be strictly confidential, and Louisa got weird and touchy whenever Katie brought it up, but if Katie had to be up at the crack of dawn, she wanted company. Louisa had been her go-to person for that, anyway. 

“What’s so special about Fleece-face anyway?”

“ Fleetus,” Katie corrected, “and he’s got information. He’s been scouting out the Rhode Island base for us.”

Louisa stopped suddenly, making Katie—who had been pulling her by the hand—stumble. She turned. 

“What?”

Louisa’s expression was unreadable. “The Rhode Island base…yeah, fuck no.”

“ What?”

“Clarisse told me about it a while ago. It’s the one with all the demigods, right?”

“Yeah. And?”

Louisa shrugged Katie’s hand out of her own. Her features were contorted in disgust.

“Yeah, no. I’m not going with you to get information that you’re just going to use to kill a bunch of demigods. Fuck no.”

“What are you— We’re not going to be killing anyone.” Katie could feel herself getting all twisted inside. The disgust hadn’t left Louisa’s face. Katie could feel her own face heat up, her annoyance flaring. “And the fact that you think that I would ever be a part of something that—”

“So what? You’re just going to steal their shit then? Leave them defenseless? A bunch of scared kids? In my eyes, that’s just as bad.” 

“What do you expect us to do? Just let them build an army? Wait for them to come and kill all of us? Because that is not happening,” Katie snapped, and Louisa took a step back.

“Yeah, no. I’m going back to my cabin. I’m not being a part of this shit .” Louisa stormed off, and Katie was left with red cheeks, stinging eyes, and hurt and anger with nowhere to go.

Fleetus was waiting exactly where they’d planned. Katie could only manage a half-smile by way of a greeting, and they got straight into business. Fleetus, Katie learned very quickly, did not agree with linear storytelling. He tangented and circled back and maybe Katie was just angry from before, but she wanted to reach out and shake him.

She didn’t, of course. She just nodded consolingly when he spent twenty whole minutes complaining about the “robotic death trap of a chariot” in the woods. 

“That’s Beckendorf’s,” Katie said as sympathetically as she could make herself. “He’s trying to rig it for missions and stuff. I’ll tell him to make it safer. Or put up some signposting or something. I promise.”

“You’d better,” Fleetus huffed. “That thing almost killed me! Almost reminds me of the time…”

Two hours later, Katie finally finished up with Fleetus. She was exhausted and upset and wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed and stay there. The walk back to camp felt endless. Around her, campers were just beginning to wake up. Silena waved at her as she passed, presumably on her way to breakfast, and Katie forced a smile. She had almost made it back to the cabins when she heard the familiar sound of clanging from the forge. She groaned, cursed her stupid moral code, and turned on her heel towards the headache-inducing cacophony. Inside it was smokey and warm, the fire running, and Katie had to take a few moments to blink the water out of her eyes before she was ready to glare at Beckendorf. Neither of his siblings—Jake Mason or Nyssa Barrerra—were there, a fact that Katie was grateful for, purely because it meant that she didn’t have to censor her language. 

Katie had to clear her throat a few times before Beckendorf noticed her. When he did, he put down his work and grinned. 

“Wanting to learn some welding?” 

Katie glowered at him. “Your stupid chariot cost me twenty minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.”

“Umm…sorry? Raphael’s a work in progress.”

“You call him—” Katie furrowed her brow. “Wait, like the ninja turtle?”

Beckendorf had the decency to look ashamed. “It was between that and Leonardo.”

Katie would’ve laughed, if she wasn’t so exhausted. She massaged her temples to fend off the headache that was starting to throb.

“Just Just tell it to be nicer to the satyr—s. We need them on our side.”

Beckendorf frowned at her. “You good?”

Katie nodded, and then hesitated. “I had a fight with Louisa.”

“Figured as much.”

“What? Why?”

“The yelling this morning gave it away.”

Katie groaned, and sunk into one on the cool metal chairs. “Did everyone hear?”

Beckendorf shrugged. “I was up early anyway. Went to the pegasus stables with Silena— No one would’ve heard from the cabins, I’m sure.”

Katie raised an eyebrow. “With Silena? Alone?”

Beckendorf blushed, which was sweet. Beckendorf was so big and bulky that he might’ve been intimidating, had you never spoken to him. Instead, he was one of the best guys at camp. “Silena likes the pegasi.”

“Sure.” Katie laughed, and then was struck by a thought. Shyly, she spoke. “Hey…how do you guys do it?”

“ It?”

“Like, the…friendship stuff. Just— You’re so consistent! Just…not argue. Especially with,” Katie waved her hands around, “everything.”

Beckendorf thought about it for a moment. 

“I guess,” Beckendorf said thoughtfully, “we just like each other. And we try to understand each other.”

Beckendorf blushed, and Katie softened, even though his advice was sort of bad. She did like Louisa. She thought Louisa liked her.

“Thanks.”

“Any time.” Beckendorf grinned wryly at her. “Now, do you actually want to help, or can I go back to making Chris a new sword?”

Katie left hastily. Three years at camp and she had never used the forge by choice; she was not planning on starting now. Instead, she went to the garden and worked through breakfast, picking a ripe tomato to satiate her grumbling stomach.

Louisa stubbornly avoided Katie all day. She even switched tables with Travis in class, much to Katie’s (and Michael’s) annoyance. Since the start of the school year, the tables had shifted, as they always did. Katie had joined Michael, Louisa, and Louisa’s brother, Miles. The other table consisted of Josh, Malcolm, Travis and Connor Stoll. Katie couldn’t say she didn’t occasionally glance over to Josh and Malcolm and feel that undeniable pang of envy, but sitting with Louisa had been sort of thrilling. Sitting with Michael and Miles, however, was its own kettle of fish. All of them except Miles were grumpy at the arrangement for their own reasons, and the school day seemed to drag on forever. 

That night at the head counselor's meeting, they nervously presented their idea to Chiron, who had returned that morning. Katie watched with bated breath as the centaur hesitated, pondering the idea. After what seemed like an eternity, he frowned. 

“While the idea of this loophole is certainly an unorthodox one,” Chiron said, “It is not as if we have not enacted similar measures in the past in times of peril. These are certainly unorthodox times.”

And so the meeting continued. Despite Katie’s bad mood, she couldn’t deny how pleased she was at their progress. When it was Katie’s turn to speak, she took a nervous breath and stood up. Everyone’s eyes were on her. Beckendorf shot her an encouraging smile. 

“I talked to Fleetus this morning. He said that the Rhode Island base is situated in the middle of a nature preserve. A stupid move, considering all the dryads that live there.” Katie said. “The poor dryads are all terrified, and they’re even cutting down trees to make more space for their base, which is just horrific, especially when considering the litter that they’re—”

Chiron cleared his throat. “Katie. The topic at hand, please.”

Katie reddened. “Oh. Right. Basically, he said that it’s pretty remote. An abandoned management facility that they’ve taken over. He said there are a few monsters—a couple of cyclops—but it’s mostly demigods. About 60.”

The room fell silent with the weight of her statement. Sixty demigods was over triple what they had at Camp during the winter. It was almost as many as they’d had for the Battle of the Labyrinth. 

“Where are they even finding these fuckers?” Michael broke the silence, fuming. “Sixty demigods…that’s climbing to nearly our summer attendance. At one base?”

“Indoctrination,” Clarisse snapped. “Get them while they’re young and don’t know shit. Before they even get to camp, some of them.”

“Most of them,” Katie realized. “We’ve only had three people willingly leave since last summer.”

“Three winter campers,” Beckendorf corrected, looking pained. “Not counting all the ones that just didn’t come back for the summer.”

“Like May.” Malcolm said.

Katie’s face went hot, something like betrayal stinging in her chest. “May didn’t leave to join Luke. She left because—she just left. Okay?”

“No one is accusing May of joining Luke,” Silena said quickly. 

Malcolm cleared his throat. “Beckendorf makes a good point. I was running some numbers with Annabeth a few weeks ago, and we’ve lost a lot of kids over the last few years. Attendance last summer was down to an all time low. And Clarisse is right, too - there are plenty of half-bloods that don’t even make it to camp.”

“Malcolm is correct,” Chiron said. The old centaur looked saddened. Katie wanted to glare at him, too. “We simply do not have the resources of the Titan Army. Many half-bloods are intercepted before they can arrive at camp. We don’t always have the most reliable methods for locating half-bloods, and, even when we do, it can be a treacherous ordeal to bring them to camp.”

“So we’re just letting them fend for themselves?” Katie snapped, unable to stop herself. “No wonder they joined Luke.”

That set off a fresh round of protesting, mostly from Michael, who muttered: “Now you’re sounding like a traitor.” 

Katie was so angry that wheat grew from her notebook. She snapped at Michael, who snapped right back, and soon, they were all arguing. 

“Children!” Chiron cut them off, and Katie found herself unable to meet his eyes. Instead, she just glared at Michael, who stuck the finger up at her. “We are getting away from the topic at hand. Katie, did the Fleetus provide any more information that may be of value about the Rhode Island base?”

Katie glowered at her notebook. Her carefully penned notes were now obscured in wheat.

“He said that it looks like they’re using it as a training and living facility, mostly. Nothing too much of note. No big, giant, war-ending weapons that they’re building.”

Travis Stoll laughed, and the sound was so unexpected that Katie was not the only one who looked at him strangely.

“Something funny, punk?” Clarisse glowered, and Travis shook his head.

“I mean, sort of. Training and living facility? That’s basically thief code for money and supplies. We should stick to our plan. Go there. Take their shit. Leave.”

“We’ve got weapons,” Silena pointed out, “and supplies.”

“Not enough,” Malcolm said grudgingly. Even though she was mad at him, Katie had to stop the edges of her mouth from pulling up at the thought of Malcolm being pissy about agreeing with Travis. “Summer depleted us on the resource front.”

“Will’s been bitching about the infirmary supplies for weeks. Keeps talking about the ambrosia inventory.” Michael said. “That kid worries too much.”

“A lot of the armor is down, too.” Beckendorf said. “I mean, we might be able to fix it, with time, but it’s just me, Jake, and Nyssa at the moment. And they’re— I don’t want to worry them with it too much.”

“We could always use more weapons,” Clarisse said darkly, but it seemed like they were all in agreement. 

“Okay,” Malcolm said. “Okay. So, say—hypothetically—we follow Travis’s plan. Sixty demigods? How would we even— Who would we send?”

“I’d go.” Michael shrugged. “I’m the best archer at camp.”

Katie exchanged a look with Beckendorf. No one would argue that Michael was the best archer, but there was no denying that he had a temper and that he hated the enemy half-bloods. Katie—and Beckendorf, judging by the expression on his face—didn’t like those two facts in combination.

“It’d have to be a stealth mission,” Beckendorf said. “We’d have to send people who could go undercover. Get in and get out with no one noticing.”

Katie looked at the Stoll brothers and frowned. Travis and Connor were both avoiding everyone’s eye contact. They were the obvious choice for the mission, but there was no need to wonder why no one was suggesting them. No one liked the idea of sending Travis and Connor straight into Luke’s base. 

“I vote Travis,” Clarisse said, and Katie looked at her, bewildered. Clarisse shrugged. “He’s a good kid. Stealthy little shit. If he can get in and out of the Ares cabin with enough time to dye all our sheets pink without no one noticing—still gonna get you for that, Stoll—the Rhode Island base will be a piece of cake.”

Travis looked like he was pretending not to be flattered, but his proud little grin was transparent from a mile away. Connor looked grouchy. Katie watched him critically, half expecting him to gloat.

Instead, he just rolled his eyes and muttered, “At least the Rhode Island base probably doesn’t have active landmines.”

Katie let out a strangled laugh that she tried to disguise as a cough, and busied herself with dusting the wheat off her notebook while the others argued about Clarisse’s idea. When she finally looked up, cheeks burning, Connor was grinning at her like the cat who got the cream. Next to him, Travis was looking grumpy. 

“It’d have to be a team ,” Beckendorf was arguing. “We shouldn’t just send Travis alone.”

“I know,” Malcolm said thoughtfully. “But too big a team is bound to garner attention. We don’t want that.”

“We need a distraction,” Katie suggested. “Something to keep them occupied for a while—not all of them, but just enough to make it a bit easier for Tra—whoever to sneak in.”

Malcolm hummed the way he always did when he was thinking hard. “We’d also need some way to transport the items they steal back to camp, and a way to get out there undetected. 

“We don’t have to steal a lot ,” Silena suggested. “We just take what we need. They’re clearly a relatively new camp; they probably don’t even take inventory. We could get in and out and they’d be none the wiser. A distraction would be too obvious.”

“A different kind of distraction then,” Malcolm spoke quickly, like he was afraid he would forget if he didn’t get the words out. “Or, Travis is the distraction. We send a couple of campers to pretend they’re joining them. They stay there for a day, not even, take what we need and meet us at a rendezvous point.”

“They’d notice, though.” Connor, who had been silent since everyone started talking about Travis, chimed in. “They’d know if people were only pretending to be on their side.”

“I don’t know.” Malcolm looked thoughtful. “Would we?”

By the end of the meeting everyone was on edge, but a plan had been made. They’d send three people to pretend they wanted to join. The three would stay there for twenty-four hours, steal as much as they could and learn as much as they could about the inner workings of the enemy half-bloods, and then leave. Someone else would meet them with the pegasi at a rendezvous point, and they’d come straight back to camp. 

The hardest thing to agree on, it seemed, was who should go. Immediately, the Ares kids were ruled out. Even though Clarisse was pissed, everyone else agreed. The Ares kids were too argumentative, too quick to fight. 

“I’m sure there will be many opportunities over the coming months for you and your siblings,” Chiron said gravely, and Clarisse huffed and puffed, but even she couldn’t argue with Chiron. 

Michael still wanted to go, but no one liked the idea of that, either. They talked about sending Chris Rodigez, but Clarisse was adamantly against that, too, and no one could argue with her. Malcolm suggested Drew Tanaka, who could speak so persuasively that you’d do what she wanted no questions asked, but both Katie and Silena immediately shut him down—Drew was only thirteen—and Malcolm hadn’t protested. Besides, no one had been fond of sending anyone who wasn’t them onto the mission. 

Eventually, it was uneasily agreed that it should be Travis, Connor, and Beckendorf, who had volunteered himself with a wary look at Silena. Katie didn’t like the idea of sending Travis and Connor somewhere together—privately, she was still uneasy about the idea of trusting the Stolls at all with something this important—but even the Stolls respected Beckendorf. 

There was only one thing they could all agree on: the mission needed to take place soon .

“The longer we leave it, the more time they have to prepare their defenses,” Malcolm kept reminding them in a tone so depressing it would’ve made Akhylis proud.

After the meeting, Katie walked back to the cabins with Malcolm. Something felt a little strained between them—Katie tried to tell herself she was just imagining things. 

“Michael wasn’t happy,” Malcolm muttered, and Katie scowled.

“When’s Michael ever happy?” Katie was still annoyed at Michael for calling her a traitor. 

Malcolm ran his hands through his hair, messing it up even more. It stuck up wildly from his scalp, and Katie resisted the urge to reach up and smooth it down. “It’s the most logical combination, though. Out of all the head counselors. I wish—”

Katie frowned. “You wish what?”

“I was thinking that Josh would’ve been perfect,” Malcolm admitted. “He’s likable and good at pretending. He could keep Travis in line and would work well in a team. And—”

“And we know there’s not a chance in the world he’d turn on us,” Katie finished, and felt suddenly exhausted. 

When they reached the Athena cabin, they stood in awkward silence.

“Okay.” Malcolm did a stupid little nod. “Night, then.”

“Night.” Katie wanted to say something more, but she didn’t. Instead, she just watched him leave, the Athena cabin door shutting behind him, silvery light emanating from its windows. 

It was only a week later that the mission actually occurred. A week full of excessive amounts of head counselor meetings, numerous trips to the infirmary to get ambrosia for stress headaches, and uncountable arguments and disputes that resulted in everyone barely being able to remember who was mad at who. Katie swore that Chiron was tempted to neglect the long held tradition of tables in the Big House classroom in favor of free for all seating. Katie was frustrated and on edge, snapping at Miles when he tried to cheat off one of her worksheets. 

Everything was made ten times more frustrating by the fact that Katie had been barely sleeping, her mind too busy racing through every possibility. Long nights awake in Cabin Four were becoming the norm. 

The day of the mission, they all gathered by the hill to watch Travis, Connor, and Beckendorf leave.  Katie stood with Silena, who was barely holding it together. Katie herself couldn’t get rid of the apprehension that had sat in her stomach the whole week, threatening to constrict her rib cage and stop her breathing entirely as she watched them fly away on the pegasi. 

That night, Katie couldn’t sleep. She tried until the moon was high in the sky, shining through the cabin windows and creating strange silhouettes on the floor. She pressed her palms to her eyes, resisting the urge to cry. She ended up at Liam’s Garden as soon as it was socially acceptable, sitting cross-legged in the grass with stinging eyes, breathing in all the warmth she could.

Later, sleep-deprived and grumpy, Katie sought out Louisa. She was with Miles in the amphitheater, taking advantage of the day of no classes (Chiron had disappeared somewhere again) to train. When she saw Katie, she muttered something to Miles and jogged over to meet her. Katie was afraid she would still be angry. Instead, Louisa just looked concerned. 

“You look like shit,” she said, bluntly. Katie didn’t have the energy to argue. Besides, she supposed it was a fair assessment. She had left her hair out, frizzing around her head in what she was sure was an unflattering way. She was wearing an old sweatshirt of May’s that was probably in need of a wash and a pair of jeans that were still tattered from an old training exercise gone wrong. The circles under her eyes were so dark that Silena’s concealer barely did a thing. She’d shown up at the infirmary that morning to help Will Solace—who was taking advantage of the free day to take inventory (gods, he was so much like Lee sometimes that it hurt)—but he had turned her away and told her to get some sleep.

“I’m sorry.” The words came tumbling out of Katie before she could think about it. “Everything is— Can we be friends again?”

Louisa’s face was unreadable for a second, and Katie felt like she was going to cry. Finally, Louisa’s expression softened.

“Yeah, Gardner. Let’s be friends.”

She looked back at Miles before wrapping an arm around Katie, leading her back to Cabin Four. Katie didn’t even protest, just let herself feel warm and safe in Louisa’s embrace. Back in the cabin, Katie sat on her bed, and Louisa snapped her fingers together. 

“Wait here for a second,” she said, and turned on her heel and left Cabin Four like it was a house on fire. If Katie wasn’t completely exhausted, she probably would’ve stewed. Instead, she just crossed her legs and waited. 

Fifteen minutes later, Louisa returned with two steaming mugs and a gruff expression. 

“I didn’t make it as good as you.” She handed Katie a mug, and Katie smelled rich sweetness. Hot chocolate. “Stupid instructions are actually really fucking misleading.”

Louisa sat on Katie’s bed next to her, both leaning against the wall. The mug was warm and cozy in Katie’s hand, and she had to blink away stupid tears.

“Thanks.” 

“No big deal,” Louisa said, but she smiled in that telltale way that meant she was proud of herself. Katie took a sip. She could immediately tell that Louisa hadn’t waited long enough for the boiling water to cool down before adding in the hot chocolate powder, but Katie didn’t breathe a word of complaint.

“Gods,” Katie massaged her temples. “When did everything get so complicated?”

Louisa laughed, but it was harsh. “You said it.”

There was a pause. 

“You okay?”

“Yes,” Katie said automatically, and then sighed. “No. Everything— I’m just so frustrated. All the time.”

“Imagine being a daughter of Ares,” Louisa grumbled, and Katie couldn’t help but laugh. The hot chocolate was warming her from the inside out. “I know how you feel, though, if it means anything. Shit is fucked.”

Louisa clinked their mugs together in mock cheers, and Katie thought that she loved her.

Travis, Connor, and Beckendorf returned with three bags full of ambrosia, armor, and golden drachmas the next day. At the head counselors’ meeting that night, Malcolm asked if they had been suspected at all, and the three went silent for a second until Beckendorf finally answered, shaking his head.

“Just in the day we were there, four other kids showed up. None we knew, but…”

He  trailed off, and Katie’s heart sank. A heavy quiet fell over them all. Beckendorf cleared his throat.

“No. They weren’t suspicious of us.”

Combat missions became more frequent after that. While the plans were generally made by the head counselors, they started sending others, too. They avoided the Rhode Island base and used the intel Connor had gathered—he had a surprisingly good memory, and a keen ear for eavesdropping - to plan other missions. These ones mostly involved killing monsters, which was something they all became desensitized too quickly. 

Even though Katie had been feeling off kilter recently, she found no excuse to slack off. If anything, she doubled down on work, so much so that Louisa was starting to say that Katie liked her garden more than she liked Louisa.

Katie even went on a mission. In the last week of fall, she, Michael, and Clarisse took one of the strawberry buses to a small town in Indiana where they had intel about a group of empousa staying in a dingy motel. The intel in question was from Drew Tanaka, who had charmspoken a rogue demigod on one of her own missions earlier that month. Katie suspected that she was mostly there to stop Michael and Clarisse from killing each other, a suspicion confirmed almost immediately over the twelve-hour bus ride. On the mission itself, Katie hadn’t done much fighting (Louisa had been trying to teach her how to use a sword properly, but Katie clearly wasn’t naturally gifted), but she helped come up with the plan, made sure they’d had enough ambrosia and nectar on the bus ride back, and snapped at them to stop arguing the whole time, which was good enough for her. 

On the last day of October, everything fell apart. Katie was with Michael and Louisa in the strawberry fields, where she had dragged them to keep her company while she worked. Will Solace had been down earlier, helping with the sunshiny-Apollo-kid magic, but Katie had been in the fields for at least an hour each day, and she secretly thought that it was thanks to her that they were looking so good. 

“And then we used attack plan Macedonia.” Michael grinned. Katie snuck a look at Louisa, who still looked stormy. Louisa got touchy and pissy whenever they spoke about the combat missions—Katie guessed it was probably because she had never been on one—but Michael had even less tact than Katie and was enthusiastically recounting their adventure. “Katie came in and pretended to be this motel worker and Clarisse and I snuck around and it was badass. Fucking Clarisse though. On the bus ride back she threatened to kick me out of camp.”

“What a shame that would be,” Louisa muttered, and Michael laughed. 

“I mean, yeah. If I got kicked out, who would lead the Apollo kids? Will ?”

Louisa shoved him. “Gods forbid. Whatever would we do without a head counselor? No one else could do the job.”

Michael shoved her right back. “Just because you’re not head doesn’t mean you need to bitch about it. It’s a hard job.”

“Oh, boo hoo.” Louisa pushed him properly this time, hard. 

“Hey,” Katie interjected. “Calm-”

“It must be so hard, leading missions to steal from scared kids and being head counselor at a summer camp .”

“Louisa!” Katie gaped, but Michael scrambled up from the ground. He sent an annoyed look at Katie before turning his glare on Louisa. 

“Yeah, it is hard. Because one minor correction: it’s a summer camp where we fight monsters . And those ‘innocent kids’ want to kill us . Like that Battle? Huh? Remember that?”

“Yeah, I do.” Louisa had a positively murderous look on her face. Katie held up her hands.

“Louisa—”

“Shut up, Katie,” Louisa snapped. “ Yeah , Michael, I remember that battle. The one where we fought for our parents to keep ignoring us. For kids to keep dying. We fought for nothing .”

Katie flushed with anger, and saw that Michael was clenching his fists.

“Watch your fucking mouth. Lee died in that battle.”

Louisa glared at him, and Katie thought she was going to punch him. Instead she just muttered, “Fucking waste,” and turned on her heel and stormed back toc.

Katie felt like she had whiplash. Michael seethed, ranting to Katie.. 

“You know, she lost two siblings, too,” Michael muttered. “I know you guys lost Liam. We lost Lee . She’s got no right to be running her mouth. No fucking right.”

Katie nodded, that familiar pang running through her at the sound of Liam’s name.

“Yeah.”

Michael was still scowling by the time they made the walk back to camp, the setting sun turning the world golden, the cool breeze settling in.

“She’s always been like this,” he muttered. “I’m sick of defending her. Fucking traitor shit coming out of her mouth.”

“She’s not a traitor,” Katie retorted, even though a part of her agreed with Michael. 

Louisa wasn’t at dinner. Katiestruggled to sort out the hurricane of emotions that stirred within her, but the last few months had taught her one thing, at least. The people Katie loved were more important than anything , and Katie was better when they were by her side. Katie couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling as she walked from the pavilion to the cabins, pausing in front of the Ares cabin hesitantly. The boar head at the front of the cabin seemed to be staring her down, and Katie shivered. She remembered how Louisa had made her hot chocolate and sat with her when she was sad, and she squared her shoulders and knocked on the door. 

Nobody answered. 

Now starting to get really worried, Katie pushed it open. Louisa was in the cabin, a stormy expression on her face. She had a duffel bag out, and clothes were strewn around her like a tornado had just swept through. When she saw Katie, she glowered. 

“If you’ve come to tell me to make nice with Michael, you’re as much of a pussy as he is.” 

“I’m not a pussy.” Katie narrowed her eyes. Louisa was infuriating sometimes. “What are you doing?”

“What the fuck does it look like I’m doing?”

“You look like you’re packing.”

“Have you gotten stupider over the last three hours, Gardner?”

Katie flushed, but took a deep breath, resisting the urge to snap at Louisa and slam the door on her way out. Instead, she just rolled her eyes.

“You’re not leaving camp over a stupid fight with Michael.”

“Fuck him,” Louisa sneered, sniffing a shirt and throwing it in the bag. “You’re all so self-absorbed. I’m not leaving because of Michael .”

“Don’t be an idiot, Louisa,” Katie chided. “You’re not leaving. You won’t survive out there on your own. You’ve never even been on a quest.”

“I won’t be on my own.” Louisa zipped up the duffle bag. Katie frowned. It hit her like a bus. She felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. 

“You’re joining Luke.”  

“Took you long enough,” Louisa snarked. Katie felt her face go hot. 

“You can’t do this. Don’t be an idiot.”

“Am I being an idiot for wanting things to be different? For wanting to be better ?”

“Joining Luke isn’t—”

“Neither of us are blind, Gardner,” Louisa’s voice was dripping with bitterness. “I know it and I know you know it, too. The Battle of the Labyrinth? We lost so many people for absolutely nothing.”

“That’s not true,” Katie protested. Louisa scoffed.

“Keep lying to yourself. Fine by me.” She zipped up her bag with force, and Katie saw red.

“So what do you think Luke’s army is going to do to us if they win? Make friendship bracelets? Because I don’t!”

“What happens to all the kids who don’t make it to camp?” Louisa argued. “What happens to the kids who sit in the Hermes cabin for years, waiting to be claimed. What happens to the ones who come to camp for a fun summer and end up dying because of some stupid quest or a pointless battle? What happens to the ones whose parents don’t acknowledge them, who let them fend for themselves, who always feel like a piece of shit because of it? What about them, huh? I know you agree with me.”

“I don’t—” Katie suddenly felt hopeless. There was a hot sting behind her eyes, and she wiped them furiously, refusing to cry. “I would never leave camp. Never. Not like this. How— Why—”

“It’s not like Camp has ever done shit for me.” Louisa hoisted her duffel bag onto her shoulder. “I’m not going to stand by while Chiron makes kids prepare for war.”

“So you’re joining the other side?” Katie was incredulous. “Do you realize how backwards that logic—”

“Jesus fucking Christ, you sound like Malcolm fucking Pace.” Louisa glared at her. “I’m fighting for things to be better. There’s no shame in that.”

“You can’t—”

“You know, I thought you’d actually be on my side.” Louisa’s arms were crossed tightly over her chest. “I should’ve known you’d never have the nerve.”
“What the Hades is that supposed to mean?”

“You know that this—that how the gods treat us—is wrong! I know you know that. But you’d never even have the nerve to do anything about it. What do you even want, Katie? Do you want things to stay the way they are? Or do you want a better world—one where every demigod feels like their parents actually want them.”

“I—” Katie’s voice was thick. She remembered the bitterness that swelled up in her whenever she thought of her Mom. She remembered the way that her mom had only spoken to her once—to get into contact with May. She thought of May, the bitterness in her voice as she had explained to Katie that the gods were panicking. She thought of Liam. 

“See?” Louisa said. “You know I’m right.”

Katie blinked hot tears from her eyes, shaking her head. Without meaning to, she thought of Malcolm. His blonde hair, gleaming in the sunlight. His stormy gray eyes, constantly analyzing the world. She imagined what Malcolm would say if he heard that Katie had left. She imagined his hurt and his disappointment and Katie knew in an instant that there was no world in which she was leaving to fight against Malcolm. “I can’t. Just—this is our home. You have to—”

“I don’t have to do anything.” Louisa’s eyes flashed. “I’m going.”

Hot tears rushed to Katie’s eyes, her blood pounding in her ears. “Then you’re a traitor. You’re a traitor, and if you leave you’re dead to me.”

“Fuck you, Katie.” Louisa’s voice was small but lethal and she shoved past Katie, knocking her to the ground and leaving the cabin without a word. Katie was winded for a moment, like the air around her had thinned in an instant. Finally, she jolted to her senses, cursed herself, and scrambled to her feet to run after Louisa. She could see her figure in the distance, taking long strides towards the border of camp. Katie ran after her, past the cabins. Distantly, she could hear the chatter at the dining pavilion, but Katie didn’t care. Her heart hammered inside of her chest, blood rushing through her so forcefully she could almost feel it. 

“You can’t leave,” Katie called once she was finally close enough, desperation pouring into her voice. “Don’t leave. You want— You want to be a firefighter, and you’re gonna live in Brooklyn and you—you still have to show me how you can dance—and—Don’t leave. Please.”

Louisa didn’t say a word. Katie was out of breath by the time she finally caught up, reaching to grab at Louisa’s arm. Louisa immediately shoved her off, pushing Katie straight to the grassy ground. Her ankle twisted painfully beneath her, and she yelped.

“Grow the fuck up, Katie,” Louisa snapped, but she looked heartbroken, too. She walked off, then, and Katie desperately tried to push herself to her feet, her ankle painful and tender and screaming at her when she tried to make it hold her weight. She tried to get the grass to bend to her will, to claw and grab at Louisa’s legs to prevent her from moving, but Louisa was pulling herself free and walking on anyway. By the time Katie pushed herself up and trudged to the border—her ankle throbbing painfully—Louisa was long gone, faded into the darkness of the woods, and Katie was left on the hill with tears in her eyes and shards in her chest. 

The next day, Chiron announced at breakfast that Louisa had left. Josh would tell Katie later that Louisa had left a brief note, explaining where she was going, and that Clarisse had found it in the late hours of the night before when they’d all returned from dinner. Katie clenched her fists and gritted her teeth and refused to cry. She snuck a glance to the Apollo table, where Michael looked stunned, like someone had punched him in the face and he hadn’t been expecting it. Katie burned with shame and looked back down at her own breakfast, which had never seemed more unappetizing. 

Before class, she stopped by the infirmary. She let herself in and snatched a piece of ambrosia for her ankle with a hasty IOU note to Will that she left on one of the tables. 

Malcolm stopped her on the way to class, his grey eyes dark and stormy. “I told you.”

“What?”

“I told you she was bad news.” Malcolm’s voice was low. Katie stormed away from him, refusing to hear another word. 

All day, Katie felt like she had been shocked by some of Thalia Grace’s lightning. She yelled at the Stolls when they were talking too loud in class, and Chiron sent her out of the room for ten minutes to calm down. Katie burned with shame from the tips of her toes to the top of her ears. She paced outside the Big House, guilt-ridden and fuming and still so angry. 

Louisa was a traitor. A traitor. Michael was right and Louisa was as good as dead to Katie—she had said it herself. Katie still felt a bit like someone had dug into the ground and ripped out a part of her roots. She furiously blinked tears out of her eyes, digging her nails into her palms so hard that it hurt. She was so sick of people leaving. She was so sick of never being enough to give people a reason to stay. 

When Katie reentered the classroom, she shot a glare over to the Stolls and wanted to punch their stupid little faces in. She was alone at her table—Miles and Michael were both mysteriously absent—and even though Josh offered to pull up a seat at the table with him, Malcolm, and the Stolls, Katie firmly refused. She glared at her textbook and copied notes so forcefully that the tip of her pencil snapped. 

Malcolm tried to talk to Katie again, but she ignored him. Something swirled dangerously in her gut. 

I stayed for you! She wanted to yell at him. She didn’t, though. 

Silena pulled her aside after class, on the walk back to the cabins. Her dark hair was curled in pretty ringlets, flowing over her shoulders like water, and her silver earrings caught the sunlight. Her eyes were red, though, and a little puffy. 

“I know you two were…close,” Silena said, and there was no doubt as to who she was referring to. Katie gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms painfully. 

“She’s a traitor,” Katie spat out. “Good riddance.”

Silena winced. “It’s not easy, having someone leave. I know Clarisse is devastated. If you ever need someone to talk to, or want anything like that— I’m here.”

But Katie wasn’t a little kid anymore. She was a head counselor and there was a war and if Louisa wanted to leave then fuck her. Chiron had trusted her and Katie burned with the need to prove herself, burned with the need to push Louisa as far away as possible and forget she ever existed. Louisa was a traitor, and nothing could change that. 

Still, she had to blink away that familiar burning behind her eyes. 

“Thanks,” Katie said. “But fuck her.”

“Attagirl,” Silena said lightly, but there was that softness, that kindness again. Katie wondered if it was an Aphrodite kid thing; Josh was kind, too. “But, really. My door is always open.”

Michael was missing again from dinner. Miles was there, though, sitting at the Ares cabin with a glowering look and a black eye, murmuring darkly with Clarisse. The mood was subdued and suffocating. Before Chiron had even stood to make his announcements, Katie wordlessly left the pavilion. She practically stomped down the hill, blood pounding in her ears, her face hot and her skin itchy like it was a size too small. She would go to Liam’s Garden, she decided. She would go to the garden and weed and prune until her hands were callused and her back was sore.

She was almost there when she heard the familiar sound of arrows firing, the whistling of the wind and the thud that meant they had landed in their target. 

Michael.

Without even thinking, Katie turned on her heel and sharply pivoted towards the archery range. Michael was mindlessly shooting, arrows landing in targets so quickly that Katie could barely track them with her eyes. He was wearing camo pants and a camp shirt, and, as she got closer, Katie saw that his eyes were puffy, and there was a mark on his cheek that looked suspiciously like a bruise.

“Michael?” Katie started, tentatively.

Michael grit his jaw, and continued to fire. One, two, three arrows hit the bulls-eye.

“Michael.”

“The fuck did you say to her?” Michael said suddenly, not looking at Katie. He sounded annoyed, and irritation and guilt flared inside Katie like old friends.

“What?” Katie barely had time to think before Michael was dropping his bow with an awful clanging sound and pacing over towards her, shoving her so hard that she stumbled backwards onto the ground. There was a sickening impact when she reached the floor, her palms burning as they landed roughly on the gravel. “The fuck, Michael?”

“Louisa. What the fuck did you say to her?” 

Katie pushed herself to her feet, blood rushing in her ears. She wiped her stinging palms on her sweatshirt, and they left a trail of red. “I didn’t say shit!”

“I know you went to talk to her at dinner. What the fuck did you say that made her pissed enough to leave?” Michael reached and shoved Katie again, but she was prepared for it this time and stood her ground, lunging to shove him right back. He stumbled. 

“She left because she’s a traitor! ” Katie snapped. “I didn’t say shit ”

Michael’s eyes flashed. “We all know you can be—You drove her off! She was fine before—”

Nearby, some of the grass withered. “Before what? Because the way I remember it, you were the one that was fighting with her before she left— You were always fighting with her! Calling her a traitor! Calling her— She was already packing when I saw her!”

Michael drew back a fist and Katie had just enough time to register it before it hit her right in the middle of her face. Her nose burned with a crack, and metallic blood rushed into her mouth. Katie spat it out onto the ground, and didn’t even think before she drew her own fist back and hit Michael in the face as hard as she could, her knuckles aching at the impact. Michael stumbled back. Katie breathed heavily, uncurling her fist and tentatively touching her nose, which was hot and bloody and painful and definitely felt crooked. 

“ Fuck ,” Michael hissed, and Katie saw there was blood running down his nose, too. He marched to shove her again, and she fell to the ground, her elbow taking the brunt of the impact with a painful jolt. She scrambled to grab his arm, blood rushing in her ears and dripping down her face as she yanked him down to the ground, too. Michael fell forward with a loud crunch as he landed on the gravel. 

Katie didn’t have time to catch her breath before he was diving at her again, pummeling his fist into her side and making her wheeze. Plants shot up from somewhere deep underneath the gravel, yanking Michael and dragging him backwards, immobilizing him on the ground. Michael tried to pull himself out, but Katie clenched her fists and pulled them tighter. Michael hissed and threw a handful of gravel at her. Katie yelped as the rocks made impact, momentarily losing her concentration and allowing Michael to break free. 

She hit Michael again, aiming for the ribs and feeling something crackle under her hand, which was bruised and bloody. Michael grunted and reached forward to push her over, toppling her hard enough that her head slammed back onto the gravel and she was left winded, gasping for breath as she stared at the spinning sky. She spat out another mouthful of metallic blood, and could hear Michael groaning from the ground just beside her. Her whole body ached. Her nose was screaming at her, and she lifted an arm to prod at it, wincing at the steady flow of blood that poured down into her mouth. 

“Louisa left because she’s a traitor,” Katie said once she had finally caught her breath. Her eyes prickled. 

“Maybe.” Michael coughed. “But we could’ve stopped her. It’s on us. And Miles and Clarisse, because fuck them, they should’ve known . We should’ve known.”

Katie was suddenly exhausted. She ached all over.

“Yeah.”

They lay on the archery range for a long time. Finally, she grit her teeth and forced herself to her feet, wincing. She looked around. The last glint of the sun could just be seen in the distance, setting as the world slowly turned to night. Katie set her jaw. She had chosen to stay. So had Michael. She turned, and reached out an aching hand towards him. He eyed it for a second. He was covered in dirt, and there were painful looking red marks where the roots had trapped him down. Blood was smeared over his face. Katie couldn’t imagine that she looked much better. Her hand hung in the air for an awkward amount of time. Katie squared her shoulders and kept it there. Finally, Michael grabbed it, and Katie helped pull him up. She ignored the general protests from her own aching body. 

“Sort of fucked up your face,” Michael said, raking his eyes over Katie. Katie nodded towards him.

“Sort of fucked up yours.”

It wasn’t an apology. Katie didn’t really mind. Together, they hobbled down towards the infirmary. Will Solace was in there, and he looked them both up and down. 

“Not a word,” Michael threatened and Will just sighed and gave them some ambrosia. He had to reset Katie’s nose, and she yelped at the feeling. Michael actually snickered from the corner, and Katie threw a nearby bandage at him. 

“Fought with Miles, too,” Michael said offhandedly as he bit into his ambrosia square. “Asshole. Throws a better punch than you.”

Katie frowned. “He start it or you?”

“Him.” Michael glowered. “Fuck the lot of them.”

“We shouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves,” Katie said automatically, and Michael raised an eyebrow. Katie flushed bright red. Her ribs were still tender. 

By the time curfew came, Katie was tucked into her bed, clad in one of May’s old sweaters that she’d left for Katie. The cabin was cold and dark, and even though Katie had done such a good job at not thinking about Louisa, she found her mind wandering. She tucked herself under her blankets, pulling them over her head, and let herself cry. 

Over the next few weeks, Katie threw herself back into work with exhausting dedication. She found herself brittle and exhausted more often than not, but she faced every day with the best teeth-clenching, shoulder-squaring, fist-clenching determination that she could muster. She thought of Louisa a lot of the time, and tried not to think of Louisa the rest of the time. She felt like something had been ripped out of her chest. She worried about Louisa and she hated her, too. When would people stop leaving? 

It was scary how quickly the camp had adapted to her absence. Within a few days, almost everything was back to normal and Louisa’s name was rarely brought up, except in the context of Nyssa groaning that it was Louisa’s turn to clean the pegasus stables one dreary Wednesday.

That wasn’t to say there wasn’t fallout, however. Most noticeable was the new tension between Michael and the Ares kids; it became dangerous to leave Michael and Miles, who both blamed each other for Louisa leaving, alone in the same room together. 

“You’re both insane!” Katie yelled at them one day, slamming her workbook shut. “Grow up !”

They both snapped at her, then, and Katie had made tulips grow out of their shoes. 

Michael himself could be seen training in the archery range at ridiculous hours, and it became common knowledge to always keep an eye out when passing through. No one wanted to end up like Chris, who had taken an arrow straight to the ass. Will Solace had stood up at morning announcements and pointedly cleared his voice in Michael’s direction.

“If anyone is using the archery range, please inform the other campers,” he said. He was looking more like Lee every day. Lee was always more grouchy, though; Katie had never seen Will actually mad. “We’ve had four arrow-related incidents just this month, and would like not to have anymore.”

“Fuck you, Michael!” Clarisse called from the Ares table. She had been fighting with Michael since Louisa had left, too, and Katie doubted that her arrow-to-the-arm was completely unintentional on Michael’s part. 

Katie stopped by the garden and the strawberry fields every morning and night. She relabelled all of the stock in the camp store. She tended to the tomatoes and made sure that the mushy blueberries were picked and put into a basket, away from the rest of the crop. She found it hard to get to sleep at night, and relied on a steady supply of Silena’s magic eye cream to keep her looking half-human. Her skin burned, the winter sunlight cutting through the trees and reflecting on the snow. 

She spent more time by herself. The tables shifted again, and Katie found herself sitting with Michael, Josh, and Malcolm (with Miles shooting death glares Michael’s way from the table over with the Stolls). Even though the new seating should’ve been nice, she mostly kept her head down and did her work, disappearing to the garden or the strawberry fields the minute Chiron let them out. One day, Josh confronted her, standing at the door of Cabin Four with his hands on his hips.

“I’ve barely seen you,” he said, and Katie’s arms crossed tightly over her chest. “I feel like I barely know you anymore. I know that it’s been hard with Louisa—”

“It’s not about Louisa,” Katie retorted and then immediately felt bad. “I’ve just been busy. There’s lots to do.”

Josh rolled his eyes. “Malcolm’s busy, and we still find the time to hang out.”

“Good for Malcolm,” Katie muttered. Josh huffed. 

“I’m getting sick of your bullshit, Katie. Pull yourself together, or don’t—it’s not my job to make you. I’m just saying. Spend time with us. We’re your friends.”

“I know.” Katie said, and her cheeks were warm. “I really just have been busy.

It wasn’t a lie, but what Josh didn’t need to know was that a lot of her business was specifically orchestrated so that she could throw herself into work and not have to deal with everyone. 

Maybe Michael had been right. Maybe Katie was the poison—destined to destroy everything she touched. 

Besides, it wasn’t as if she didn’t talk to anyone. She occasionally spoke to some of the dryads—just small talk about the weather. She organized the strawberry fields with Chiron. She even ran a nature skills class with one of the satyrs, Grover, even if they disagreed a lot on what was best to teach. 

“It’s important,” insisted Grover one day, and Katie clenched her fists so hard that a nearby flower shriveled. If any of them ever found themselves stranded in the wild with Luke’s army on the loose, knowing what poison ivy looked like would probably be the least of their worries. 

Head counselor meetings continued. They were usually tense, with Clarisse and Michael in the same room, but both of them seemed to be able to push down their pride enough to at least make sure they could get through the meeting. Still, they disagreed on almost everything, and just the thought of a meeting was enough to give Katie a headache.

One meeting, Malcolm finally presented he and Beckendorf’s brain-child: a map of the US, with little color-coded pins on it to signify the bases they knew about. They had come a long way since the start of the summer—gleaned a lot of new information—but Katie couldn’t stop the anger from bubbling inside of her at the sight of the map, the overwhelming forces that they were facing. 

“We’ve been running some numbers for summer attendance, and we’re worried we’ll be down to about sixty or so campers,” Malcolm solemnly said at one meeting, and Katie gritted her teeth. 

“A lot of people just don’t want to return,” Beckendorf said, “Some have gone off the grid entirely. But we won’t know for certain until summer comes.”

Summer felt very far away, indeed. Katie had never liked winter, but this winter was a different beast entirely. 

She couldn’t stop thinking about the past. Last year, before everything had fallen to pieces. When she knew Malcolm like the back of her hand, when her friendship with Josh was coming together, when Louisa was sparkling eyes and the promise of adventure, when Lee Fletcher tended the infirmary and Liam’s bed was waiting for him to come home. She thought back further, too, back to her days in that picket fence house in Texas. Her dad. 

It was all too much. Some days, she felt a little more like herself. She laughed with Josh in class, and even ate lunch. One day, they made a poster for class and Katie actually felt happy. Neither of them were artists, and what was meant to be a representation of Icarus’ fatal fall looked more like a couple scratches on paper made by a five-year-old. To remedy their mistake, they had gone to the Arts and Crafts station and poured an obscene amount of glitter onto it, leaving Katie grinning like a child when they presented it to everyone at the end of the day. Some days, she was convinced that it would mark a change: she was feeling better, happier, lighter. 

Some nights, she cried until she was amazed that she had any tears left at all. 

Mostly, Katie was angry. She didn’t know who she was angry at—she thought that might’ve scared her the most. Her anger was a bubbling, acidic, vicious thing: clawing inside of her chest and climbing up her throat and choking her. Katie didn’t know how to get rid of it.

Malcolm dropped by Cabin Four one day, his cheeks pink from the cold. He was carrying a book, his brow furrowed in concern. 

“Katie?” His voice was stilted, and her name sounded unpracticed. She remembered how it had used to sound, how it had used to roll off his tongue like water. 

“What?” Katie said through gritted teeth. She remembered the way his eyebrow had raised after Louisa had left: the I-told-you-so taunt in his voice. 

 “I know we haven’t spoken much—or, at all. Recently. But you’ve been acting strangely. I just— Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Katie bit back.

Malcolm tentatively put the book down on the edge of her bed. “It’s a gardening book. I found it in our cabin.”

“Thanks.” Katie avoided meeting Malcolm’s gaze. He had always been able to see right through her. 

After hovering in the doorway for another awkward second, Malcolm left without another word.

_____

Josh’s birthday rolled around in late November, and Katie was surprised when Travis Stoll of all people came up to her and told her they were having a party down by the beach late the next day.

“That’s definitely dangerous,” Katie chided, and felt like an awful friend for not being the one organizing Josh’s party. He would be sixteen . 

“We’re big kids.” Travis grinned. “And, besides, anything for our Joshy-bear, right?”

There was something that felt like jealousy that clawed into Katie’s stomach, but she just pushed it down and glared at Travis. 

“If any of us die, I’m going to kill you myself.” 

Travis clapped her on the shoulder. “Good talk, Katie.” Katie snuck out to the beach with everyone the next night, anyway. She mostly tagged along with Michael, who glowered at Miles the whole time. Katie was surprised to see how close Josh and Malcolm had become with Travis and Miles. She sat with Michael and kicked at the sand, taking swigs of the bottle Travis had procured and wishing that Louisa was there before remembering she was trying not to think about Louisa. 

She buried her feet in the sand and looked around at the others. She wondered if they felt the same way as her—if they were just better at hiding it. She looked at Travis, the way the moonlight reflected in his dark hair and the way that his nose crinkled right before he laughed.

Are you angry, too? She wanted to ask—to demand. Did you ever wish you’d gone with him? Are you angry like I’m angry?

Travis—obviously—wasn’t able to read Katie’s mind, and so she was left with trying to puzzle the answer from the bark of his laugh and curl of his smile. 

_____

By the time winter began, Katie was sure that she had burned any bridges she might’ve once had. 

She stopped praying to her mom. She was sure that there was no one listening. She thought about Iris-messaging Louisa. She didn’t. 

She neglected the fields, neglected Liam’s garden. There was no point, Katie justified to herself, trying to make something grow. Not when she was like this. 

Although it had just begun, winter felt never-ending. Katie shivered away the nights in Cabin Four, sleeplessly counting the marks on the ceiling. 

Chapter Text

‘to live for the hope of it all ’ - taylor swift

On New Year’s Eve, Katie sat with everyone else at the campfire for what seemed like the first time in forever. She hadn’t wanted to go—she was still acidic and angry and, surely, no one would ever want her around—but Josh had all but dragged her. 

Now, she sat squished between Josh and Silena, her head tentatively resting on Josh’s shoulder. The sweet smell of s’mores swirled through the air as Michael and Austin handed them out. Katie bit into one appreciatively, chocolate-y richness melting in her mouth. 

“This is so good.” Josh bit into his own s’more with an appreciative sigh. “Oh my gods.”

“Remember,” Malcolm said from Josh’s other side. “Chiron—”

“Can’t know,” Josh recited. “Got it.”

“I don’t even know what he’s got against good food,” Cecil complained from across the campfire, already holding out his hand to Austin for a second s’more. Austin obliged. “We’re kids . We should be allowed to eat whatever we want .”

“We should protest.” Lou Ellen’s eyes lit up. “He’ll have to give in eventually.”

“No he will not,” Silena said quickly. “Trust me. I’ve seen it too many times before.”

Despite herself, Katie nearly smiled. The firelight shrouded everything in a warm, orange-yellow glow. Up above, the stars twinkled brightly. One of Josh’s arms snaked around Katie’s back, squeezing her shoulders. Travis made ‘oohing’ sounds, and Katie shot him a withering glare that seemed to shut him up quick enough. 

After they had finished singing every campfire song they knew and Katie had eaten so many s’mores she thought her stomach would burst open, they started to tell stories. Silena started—naturally—recounting how she and Beckendorf had watched the Fourth of July fireworks from the hill (in a ‘totally platonic way, of course’). No one was buying it, probably because of the way Beckendorf was blushing and avoiding meeting everyone’s eyes. 

“I’m glad someone had fun at the fireworks,” Lou Ellen groaned, presumably trying to put Beckendorf out of his misery. “I got into a fight with stupid Alana McBride and she spent the whole night trying to make daisies grow out of my ears.”

“Hey!” Katie frowned, lifting her head from its place on Josh’s shoulder. His arm was still around her, warming her with its weight. “She never told me about that. And don’t call her stupid.”

Lou Ellen shrugged. “We made up in the end after I turned some of the grass into snakes.”

Lou Ellen sighed contentedly at the memory, and Katie saw the Hermes kids exchange a look. She didn’t have to be a mind reader to know they were thinking about Lou Ellen’s godly parent. 

Instead of commenting on that, though, Cecil Milesowitz just laughed. “Remember that time you made Sherman think that I was a pig?”

Lou Ellen giggled, and Sherman Yang flushed bright red. 

“I was just pretending!” he insisted. “I knew from the beginning you were tricking me!”

“You tried to feed me wheat!” Cecil grinned, setting Sherman into a fresh round of protesting. Katie rested her head back on Josh’s shoulder. 

“Whose brilliant idea was it to get a bunch of demigods together in one camp?” asked Josh, and Katie could feel his voice through her cheek. Without meaning to, she laughed out loud. Everyone sent her questioning looks. Katie’s cheeks felt warm, but something was glowing inside her chest and she couldn’t stop herself from explaining.  

“Just— Remember the time Michael cursed you and Malcolm with rhyming couplets?” 

Michael laughed abruptly from where he was sitting with Kayla and Austin. “I’d forgotten about that.”

“We can do that?” Austin asked, and Katie scoffed. 

“Don’t be getting any ideas,” she chided, but had to grin. “Never thought I’d say this, but, gods , it was so funny. They came up to me in the strawberry fields and they wanted to tell me what happened but—of course—they were rhyming their way through it. I laughed so hard that I think I fractured a rib or something.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Malcolm said, and when Katie looked over, his eyes were sparkling. She felt that same warm fondness that she had always associated with Malcolm. “Still not as good as the time Josh cursed the Stolls with that eyeshadow thing.”

Katie snorted, and she didn’t need to see Josh’s face to know he was glowing with pride, grinning with all of his teeth. 

“I once did that to Isabella Goldmann,” Drew chimed in, and it was a sign of how content they all were that no one shifted uncomfortably at the sound of Isabella’s name. “Except I cursed her with this hot pink color, when she obviously had a spring complexion.”

“Not a spring complexion!” Travis teased, and Drew threw a marshmallow at him. Katie laughed as it hit him square in the face. Travis stuck his tongue out at her, but he was nearly beaming. Katie was helpless to stop herself from smiling back. “Hey, remember the time that May Harris turned the Apollo cabin into a jungle?”

“ What ?” Katie couldn’t help her jaw from dropping as she lifted her head from Josh’s shoulder. “ May ?”

All the older campers were grinning—even Clarisse had a grudging smile (although, maybe that was just because she hated the Apollo kids).

Beckendorf laughed. “That must’ve been before you got to Camp, Katie. It was what, May’s first summer? Something to do with a fight with Lee Fletcher, I think. The Apollo kids were mad , but the rest of us thought it was hilarious.”

“Gods.” Katie laughed. The thought of Lee Fletcher was bittersweet. “No wonder Lee hated me so much at first.”

“I remember he told me about that.” Will giggled. “Said that it was so bad that he had to get some gardening shears to cut his way through.”

Everyone laughed, and Katie felt that tug of fondness that warmed her right to the bone. She laid her head back on Josh’s shoulder, resisting the urge to grab his hand and squeeze it. 

“Hmm,” Silena said, giggling. “While I appreciate the complete abuse of demigod powers, nothing will top the Sweetie Curse.”

This prompted a mix of groans, laughter, and excited ‘ oh, gods ’ (mostly from the Aphrodite kids). Katie furrowed her brow, and, from across the campfire, Clarisse shook her head.

“We were so pissed at you guys,” Clarisse said, but there was fondness in her voice. “Everyone was. That was the worst .”

Austin made a ‘T’ with his hands. “Time out. What happened?”

Katie looked around, and most of the others looked just as confused as her. Silena grinned knowingly. 

“Way back when I first started at camp, we had this head counselor, right? Freya Johnson.”

Katie was still lost, but the name sent a groan of recognition through a few of the others. Travis’s eyes widened. 

“Holy shit! She was that psycho one, right?”

“She wasn’t psycho ,” Silena protested. “She was just…really into love? Anyway, this one time, she got into a fight with this guy from the Hephaestus cabin about love— It was a stupid thing, really, but he said that it was pointless and unnecessary and she disagreed. They were fighting for ages. This was like, all out war.”

“It was my first summer,” Beckendorf said, grinning. “I was twelve, ready for this fun summer camp experience— I was in the Hermes cabin at first, y’know, and was hearing all about this crazy fight between the Hephaestus cabin and the Aphrodite cabin. Which—fine—you know, I’ve just started adjusting to the whole Greek Gods thing, and then I get claimed and suddenly there’s just this guy—Aaron, was his name—telling me to never speak to the Aphrodite kids unless I wanted to be murdered in my sleep. It was terrifying!”

Silena smiled, cheeks pink. “And then you went and spoke to me anyway.”

Beckendorf blushed, and everyone made overexaggerated ‘oohing’ sounds. 

“Stop being gross.” Austin pretended to throw up. “Tell us the story.”

Silena leaned forward, her eyes sparkling. “So one day, Freya comes up to us and is all ‘Guys, I need your help.’ And back then, gods, it’s like me, Laurel, and a couple of other kids. We’re all super confused, and then she tells us the plan, and we’re all like holy shit . Like—”

“They cursed everyone who had a secret crush to call their crush ‘sweetie,’” Chris interrupted, and everyone laughed and groaned, erupting into another round of overlapping questions. Katie shook her head, but she was grinning and laughing and ridiculously happy.

“What did—”

“How—”

“What was—”

“That’s so—”

“We haven’t even got to the best part, yet.” Silena’s eyes were twinkling. “So the Hephaestus camper—Aaron—walks up to Freya and starts yelling at her. He’s absolutely furious, right? And everyone’s watching, because this war has taken over camp for a good few weeks. And then, after he’s yelled and yelled and yelled, he mutters—so quietly that you can barely hear—‘ sweetie .’”

Everyone laughed and groaned. Katie couldn’t deny that it would be a horrible curse, but she found herself giggling alongside everyone else. Suddenly, Clarisse—who was normally stoic and grumpy—barked out a laugh that she hastily turned into a cough. The Stolls started teasing her and asking her what was so funny, and Clarisse reddened but sighed.

“I just— Remember Horse Girl?” 

Katie didn’t know what she was talking about, but she watched, amused, as Beckendorf, Silena and Chris dissolved into laughter. 

“Who’s Horse Girl?” Kayla Knowles asked eagerly. Silena, who was sitting next to Katie, was laughing so hard she was crying. 

“Gods— It’s awful— It’s— She—” Silena dissolved into another round of laughter. “Charlie, you tell. I—I can’t.”

Beckendorf was holding back laughter himself. “So there was this Apollo girl. College-aged. This is around the time the ‘Sweetie Curse’ thing happened, and she’s doing morning announcements. Chiron calls her up and tells her to start speaking, and she goes, ‘ Thanks, sweetie. ’”

Katie burst out in laughter. Everyone was giggling and laughing and looking appalled and disgusted at once. Michael and the other Apollo kids had all gone bright red. 

Katie was still giggling by the time the Stoll brothers had started talking again, bragging about the time they’d turned the Ares cabin into a High School Musical shrine. Miles grumbled but he was largely ignored, and Katie bit her lip to keep herself from giggling as Travis and Connor argued. 

“I was clearly the brains of that operation,” Connor insisted. “Like I am of all the operations.”

“Not true!” Travis protested.

“You can both be as dumb as each other,” Katie said placatingly. “Let’s call it a day and say you’re both stupid.”

“Travis is stupider!” Connor insisted. 

“Hey—I’m older!”

“Yeah, and you’ve got the IQ of a ten-year-old.” Connor shoved Travis, and Katie exchanged a Look with Josh, who was shaking his head at them in amusement. 

“Yeah, and you’ve got the IQ of a four-year-old,” Travis huffed, and Malcolm let out a little aborted giggle. Katie looked at him curiously—as did most everyone else—and he flushed.

“I’m just saying—” Malcolm said, and the Stolls were watching him expectantly. “I don’t think you’ve got the case you think you do, Travis.”

Katie grinned at him, but Malcolm was grinning at Travis. “Not trying to start anything, but— Remember Percy’s pen?”

Travis groaned, and Katie raised her eyebrows. She laughed. 

“What about Percy’s pen?”

Travis shook his head, and Malcolm made a sealed-lips gesture, looking satisfied with himself as everyone started pestering Travis at once to tell. Katie grinned at Malcolm. He had changed so much. Katie loved him all the more for it. 

Finally, Travis groaned. “Okay, fine, fine, fine. Stop with your rambling.”

Austin and Kayla, who had been shouting ‘tell-us-tell-us-tell-us-tell-us-tell-us-tell-us-tell-us’ in annoying screechy voices looked satisfied. Katie raised her eyebrow. Travis took a deep breath.

“I didn’t realize Percy’s pen was his sword until, like, the-end-of-this-summer.”

Everyone broke into a fresh round of questions. Katie laughed so hard that her chest hurt, and she caught Travis’s eye. He was red-faced, but bashfully grinning. She grinned at him. 

“I thought he was, like, really into art or something!” Travis protested. He continued trying to justify himself, but he was drowned out in a fresh wave of chatter and stories. Katie’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

At around eleven, Katie decided she would head back to the cabins. Everyone had almost completely dispersed, anyway: standing in little groups around the campfire, debating the decision to disobey Chiron and head to the beach to set off some fireworks. 

Katie laughed as she overheard Michael trying to convince a hyperactive Kayla Knowles that no, they didn’t need to go the archery range at this time of night unless they wanted to be eaten by the harpies and that no, going to the beach to set off fireworks was not a suitable alternative. 

“You leaving already?” Josh frowned. 

“I’m tired,” Katie said honestly. “I just want to go to bed.”

“You’ll miss the fireworks,” Josh said teasingly. Katie swatted him in the arm.

“Chiron said no fireworks.”

“Hey.” Josh grinned. “Beckendorf is the one setting them up. If you have a problem with it, you can talk to him.”

“Night, Josh,” Katie said pointedly. And then, softer: “Night, Malcolm.”

“Night,” They chorused back. Katie made to head back to the cabins, completely colliding with Travis Stoll in the process. She let out an involuntary yelp as she ran straight into him, jumping back immediately. 

“Woah.” Travis blinked, sheepishly rubbing the arm that Katie had just managed to walk directly into. “If you wanted me to talk to you that badly, you could’ve just asked.”

“Ha ha,” Katie said, flustered. “Very funny.”

She turned on her heel, making to leave with a very May-esque huff. Travis, however, jogged after her. Katie, confused, stopped abruptly to frown at him, a suspicious eyebrow raised. 

“What?”

“Are you going back to the cabins?”

“Yeah.” Katie waited expectantly. 

“Cool.” Travis’s cheeks were a little pink from the cold. “You know, I was kind of tired, too.”

“Okay…” Katie wondered if Travis was feeling alright. 

“So….” Travis trailed off, his dimples popping. Katie looked at him, completely lost. “Shall we?”

“ What ?” 

“Oh my gods,” Travis face-palmed. “You’re so dense.”

“I am not so dense!” Katie flushed, annoyed. “Just say what you mean!”

“I did say what I meant,” Travis argued. “And you are so dense.”

“ You’re dense.” Katie glowered. Travis sighed. He took a deep breath and spoke through gritted teeth, his face flushed with color. 

“Katie. Do you want to walk back to the cabins with me?”

Katie flushed. “Oh. Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

And so they walked. The night had turned cold, and Mr. D was clearly in a mood because soft snow was falling lightly through the borders, catching in Katie’s hair and eyelashes. She shivered and groaned. 

“Gods, the strawberry fields are going to hate this.” She wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her exposed skin. Goosebumps were prickling on her arms. She shivered. 

“You should probably go over and check on them tomorrow,” Travis said, and Katie shot a suspicious look at him. The snow had dusted the top of his curls. She had the strangest urge to reach out and brush it away. In the glowing lights from the distant cabins, his face was illuminated. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Katie asked, and shivered again, wishing she’d brought a sweatshirt. Travis gestured awkwardly to his own jacket, and Katie reddenned and shook her head when she realized what he was insinuating. Travis shrugged, and stuck his hands in his pocket. 

“Just that— I don’t know— Josh said you haven’t been to them in a while. You used to be there all the time. Might be nice, is all.”

Travis was avoiding Katie’s gaze, and Katie felt herself frown. It was true that she hadn’t been to the strawberry fields in a while. Even the thought of visiting them hit her like a truck. Stone cold fear and dread, a rock in her stomach. She remembered the way that the grass had withered when she was fighting with Michael: as if reacting to something deep down in her subconsciousness. 

She blinked. There was an awkward silence. 

“I haven’t really seen you in a while,” Travis said conversationally. Katie crossed her arms, feeling strangely defensive. 

“We don’t talk, anyway,” Katie reminded him. “It’s not as if we ever hang out.”

“I was just saying,” Travis said defensively. “You used to always be up in our business.”

“I’m not in the mood to deal with—”

“I’m friends with Josh and Malcolm, now,” Travis said pointedly. “So you’re probably going to have to deal with me more often.”

“What do you want?” Katie said bluntly, drawing to a stop. She shivered in the cold, wiping away snow from her shoulders. 

“What?”

“What do you want ?” Katie asked, something hateful spurring in her stomach. “Why are you even talking to me?”

Travis looked taken aback.

“We’re not friends, Travis,” Katie said, as harsh as the snow. “And if you’re coming back to the cabins with me to pull some stupid prank, then I don’t want any of it. I can’t— I don’t want to deal with that, tonight.”

Travis was silent for a long moment. Maybe if he had been Josh or Malcolm, Katie would’ve been able to work out what he was feeling. She knew their quirks, knew how to read their faces like books. Travis, however, was a mystery. She remembered how annoying she used to find him, how his stupid pranks and his stupid teasing smile would make her blood boil. She always got the impression that he liked that she was always a step behind him—he certainly made no secret of the fact that he found it funny when she got annoyed at him. Then, she remembered the Travis she had seen after the Battle of the Labyrinth, sitting on his bed in the dark, his camp shirt bloody. He had looked so helpless, so afraid. Katie didn’t know why she found it so difficult to collate the two Travises.

“I’m just going back to the cabins,” Travis said finally, evenly. “I just thought I’d walk with you.”

Katie instantly felt bad. She didn’t know how she had the ability to mess up any situation she found herself in. “I’m—”

“Camp looks nice,” Travis cut her off with an easy smile, instantly evaporating the tension in the air. “I love the winter.”

Katie looked around. The cabins—which they had now reached—were adorned in twinkling, warm lights. The hearth burned steady and bright at the center. Snow fell softly, kissing the earth and catching on Katie’s shoulders and nose. 

“I hate winter,” Katie said cautiously. “It’s so cold. Nothing can grow. There’s no sun. No warmth.”

“There’s warmth!” Travis protested. “It just takes a bit more work.”

Katie hummed. She looked over at Cabin Twelve appreciatively. While there were no occupants in Cabin Twelve during the year—Pollux was at college across the state—Mr. D had clearly been decorating. Grape vines grew up the door, shimmering and twisting with some kind of magical light, casting a purple glow onto the porch and the ground surrounding the cabin. “Mr. D went all out this year.”

“Surprised there’s not a Diet Coke shrine or something,” Travis laughed. Katie nudged him, forgetting for a minute that he was Travis Stoll and that everything was upside-down. 

“ I’m surprised you guys haven’t used that one for a prank yet. Put a shrine in the Big House or something and convince everyone it was Mr. D and—I don’t know—it’s, like, cursed.” 

“Katie Gardner,” Travis said with glee, “are you condoning our pranking?”

“No!” Katie protested. “I was— No — I was just—”

“Sounds to me like you were giving us ideas. Sounds to me like you secretly think I’m hilarious and a genius.”

“Definitely not,” Katie said firmly. Then, shyly: “So. Percy’s pen, huh?”

Travis buried his head in his hands, and Katie almost laughed.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Katie protested. “I mean, it was a fair assumption. Percy seems like an artsy guy! He’s a regular poet.”

“Laugh it up,” Travis said, looking so forlorn that Katie did actually laugh. She pushed his shoulder, like she might do to Michael, or Josh—like she might’ve done to Louisa. The thought sobered her up. She shifted.

“Go to bed, Stoll. I’m freezing out here.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Travis muttered. He went to leave, then paused for a second and turned back to her. Katie frowned. “Happy New Year, Katie.”

Katie blinked. “Yeah. Happy New Year.”

___

It was mid-January by the time Katie finally worked up the courage to visit the strawberry fields. Since the new year had begun, her life had sort of felt a bit like an elaborate game of tug of war. She was trying to make an effort to spend more time with her friends, but, at the same time, she still couldn’t get rid of the anger that threatened to bubble over the surface. The worst part was that Katie couldn’t even pinpoint who exactly she was angry at: she just knew that she had a lot of it and that if nothing was done about it, it would certainly ruin something. 

Still, Katie told herself, she was trying. That had to count for something. 

Nerves prickled in her stomach as she wandered to the strawberry fields one Saturday morning, the sun beginning to turn the sky golden and cotton-candy pink. Satyrs were already at the fields, the melodic lilt of their reed pipes drifting and dancing through the fresh morning air. When they saw Katie, they shot her harsh looks. Katie’s face colored as she knelt down next to one of the strawberry runners, examining the frostbitten berries with a critical eye. While she had not visited the fields in a long time, it seemed her body had remembered the familiar routine of it all, and she fell back into it easily. 

For the most part, the strawberries were fine. Katie, ever the perfectionist, couldn’t help herself from noticing every flaw, every withered berry, every tiny bit of frost. She grew increasingly more frustrated with herself as she worked, feeling like she had betrayed a fundamental duty in neglecting the fields for so long. After an hour or two, she was startled by a voice behind her, as rough and old as bark.

“So, she returns.” Milton Woodruff, one of the satyrs, stood expectantly behind Katie, his reed pipes hanging from his neck. Milton was old even by satyr standards. Katie’s first winter at camp, they spent many long hours together picking the berries and making sure they were growing nicely. “Took you long enough.”

Katie blinked back stupid tears that were prickling in her eyes, horrified. She was angry, but not at Milton.

She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry.”

Katie hated apologizing. She hated how stupid and vulnerable and childish it made her feel. Milton frowned, and then—as if making up his mind—reached forward to pat her awkwardly on the shoulder. 

“We’ve managed without you just fine,” Milton said gruffly, not without a tinge of warmth. “The powerful Mr. D has kept the vines growing like nothing you’ve seen. And that little blonde one has been down here with sunshiney magic all winter long.”

Katie blinked, furiously wiping her eyes. “Will?”

Milton sniffed. “Nothing like that other blonde one. Selfish little man. Refused to help us at all!”

Katie laughed wetly. “Lee?”

“May he rest in peace,” Milton added, seemingly as an afterthought, and Katie couldn’t help but laugh again. Lee had disliked Milton, too, always calling him a “stuffy old satyr.” 

“Thanks,” Katie gestured helplessly to the fields around them, despite the cold, were blooming and flourishing, “for holding up the fort here.”

“I’ll be expecting you to make it up,” Milton sniffed, but he winked at Katie just the same before going back to playing The Beatles on his reed pipe. Katie wiped her face, and kept on working.

___

She was dirty and exhausted by the time she made her way out of the strawberry fields. She almost walked towards her cabin, wanting so desperately to let herself take the easy way out. She didn’t.

When she arrived at Liam’s Garden, she was so horrified she couldn’t make herself take another step. Her garden had withered. The soil was dry and desolate. The tomatoes had gone yellow and black, shrinking and rotting. What had been so full of life and promise had turned rotten. Her garden had withered. 

Her garden had withered like Katie herself had withered, Katie realized that afternoon, staring at her reflection for what felt like the first time in months. Her cheeks had lost their roundness, their color. Her eyes were dull and tired. Her hair—which she had always hated for being so thick and unmanageable—had lost its volume and luster. Her freckles had faded. It took everything in her not to cry. 

Katie had become something that she was afraid of. 

Staring at her reflection, that jarring anger rose up again in Katie. This time, though, she knew who she was angry at. 

Anger, Katie realized suddenly, could be used. It should be used. Katie would use her anger at herself, at everything to make things better. She would try. Winter would be over soon, and spring would arrive. 

It wouldn’t be easy, she knew. Nothing that was good was truly easy. It took work to grow, to prepare the soil, to plant the seeds, to tender and nurture them with sunlight and water as they bloomed. But, Katie tried to tell herself, growth was always possible: it was as inevitable as winter. 

Katie’s anger seemed—for the first time—to meld into something sharper and more solid. Something that seemed to settle under her skin, something that seemed less likely to burn. Determination. As many mixed feelings Katie had towards her mother, she could acknowledge that determination was most likely a family trait. Demeter was about stability, about the first signs of spring after a long bitter winter. 

Katie had felt a bit like a leaf since Louisa had left—drifting aimlessly, never really moving anywhere. She was determined to feel as though she had roots again. 

It didn’t feel like a magical epiphany. It didn’t feel like something supernatural, or something easy. But Katie had never been afraid of hard work. And this little shoot of hope that had somehow blossomed somewhere deep in her heart—she would work hard to protect it, to nurture it, to make sure that she never lost it again. 

___

Katie approached Malcolm properly near the end of January. 

He was pouring over some books in the Athena Cabin, accompanied by Annabeth Chase, who was visiting camp for a few days. Katie couldn’t help the warmth that spread over her when she saw him, looking cozy and concentrated. 

“Chiron could just use the mist,” Annabeth was saying doubtfully, and Malcolm was shaking his head.

“I want to do it properly. I want…” He trailed off when he saw Katie, standing at the cabin door. She felt exposed, face warm. She swallowed down her pride. 

“Hey.” She waved awkwardly. “Hi, Annabeth.”

Annabeth looked amused. Her blonde hair was braided down her back, and she had been chewing on a pen that she hurriedly pushed into her bag.

“Hey, Katie. How’ve you been?”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. “Good. Been busy getting ready for the next strawberry delivery.”

It was true. She had been picking them all day, packing them in little jars and putting the jars into big boxes with the Delphi Delivery Services logo on them. She had begged Chiron for help and he had assigned a very reluctant Nyssa Barerra and Lou Ellen Blackstone, who both hated the outdoors and squished nearly half of all the strawberries they picked. 

“Cool,” Annabeth said, responding to Katie’s awkward gesture and showing her grime-covered hands. 

“How’s school?” Katie asked, and Annabeth’s eyes lit up. 

“Awesome,” she admitted. “I thought I’d hate it, but they have some great facilities.”

Annabeth rambled about their architecture elective for a good ten minutes, and Katie tried to look interested. She mustn’t have done a very good job, because Malcolm looked like he was holding back a laugh as he nodded along to Annabeth’s spiel. Finally, she shook her head. 

“Gods, sorry, that was totally an information overload.”

“It’s cool.” Katie smiled, even though she had just learned more about architecture than she ever wanted to know. “I do the same thing if someone asks me about my garden.”

Malcolm properly laughed, then, and Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him playfully. 

“I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you, Mr. I Just Spoke For An Hour About The Merits Of An Economics Degree.” 

Malcolm flushed, and Katie and Annabeth laughed. 

“If this is a bad time I can leave,” Katie said nervously, “but can I talk to you for a second, Malcolm? I won’t keep you for too long.” 

Malcolm frowned, but nodded, standing up. “Don’t worry, I need a break, anyway.”

Katie smiled at him, even though her heart was racing. 

“I haven’t eaten yet today,” Malcolm said as an afterthought, pushing his glasses to sit right on his nose. Katie frowned at him. 

“It’s three o’clock!” 

“I’ve been busy,” Malcolm said, but he looked sheepish. Katie rolled her eyes. 

“Want to get some strawberries? The cleaning harpies have taken the lunch stuff, but I have a few spare jars of strawberries if you want some.” Katie felt suddenly shy, like she was suddenly in middle school again and desperately trying to make friends. Malcolm seemed to think about it for a moment, before nodding. He looked back at Annabeth.

“Do you want to come?” he asked, and Annabeth shook her head. 

“Bring me back some?”

Malcolm nodded, and then he and Katie were off. Katie felt sort of awkward and sort of foolish, like a child who had been having a month-long tantrum. She realized suddenly that she had barely hung out with Malcolm one-on-one since winter had begun—she had been avoiding her best friend in the world like a plague, afraid that he would be able to see right through her. 

They awkwardly small-talked their way to the Big House, laughing about the Hephaestus kids being down on kitchen patrol.

“We had to do it yesterday.” Malcolm shuddered. “Those harpies freak me out.”

Katie grinned. “Hey, remember when you were convinced that one harpy had a grudge against you?”

Malcolm shuddered. “I avoided her for four months and made Annabeth keep lookout at night. I was so sure she was going to eat me in my sleep.”

Katie laughed awkwardly. “I still think she just had a crush on you.”

“She was definitely hopelessly in love with me. So much so that she literally wanted to murder me and keep my bones for all eternity. Love’s a beautiful thing.”

Katie laughed. It almost felt like old times. They made it to the Big House basement, and Katie busied herself with opening one of the boxes and stealing two jars of strawberries. They had excess, anyway, and she would go and pick some more tomorrow before they sent them off into the city. Without the small-talk, she felt shy again as they left the Big House, sitting on the sun-warmed grass outside. Malcolm fidgeted as she opened one of the jars. Katie handed it to him and he thanked her, popping on into his mouth and sighing. 

“I should really eat more fresh fruit,” Malcolm said. She took one herself, the sweetness rushing into her mouth. There was something special about the Camp Half-Blood strawberries, if Katie did say so herself. 

“You should,” Katie found herself saying. “You know, strawberries specifically are actually really good for your heart? They’ve got this thing in them—I can’t remember what it’s called—but a study actually showed that having three or more servings of strawberries per week can actually lower the risk of a heart attack.”

“That’s good,” Malcolm said. “It would be a shame if I died of a heart attack just before the war that I’ll probably die in.”

Katie winced. “You’re not going to die.”

Malcolm shrugged, but his eyes were stormy. 

“So,” he said finally, awkwardly. “What did you want to talk about?”

Katie bit her lip. She could feel her heart in her ears, and suddenly didn’t know what to do with her hands. She tucked them under her legs, forcing herself to meet Malcolm’s eyes. “I wanted to…I’m sorry. For disappearing on you.”

Malcolm shifted. “We don’t have to—”

“I want to,” Katie insisted, and it all seemed to pour out of her at once. “I’ve flat out ignored you for—for months. And I’m really sorry. I’m so sorry, Mal. I just— I don’t know. I’ve felt…You’re my best friend. And I’m sorry. I’m really—”

“It’s fine,” Malcolm said. He was avoiding her gaze. “We don’t have to…It’s fine.”

Katie felt unsettled. She couldn’t read Malcolm as well as she used to, but she was sure that there was something he wasn’t saying.

“Mal—”

“It’s fine,” Malcolm said firmly, pushing himself to his feet. “Honest. Now, let’s go bring some strawberries back to Annabeth. I’ve got work to do.”

___

“I’m not going to go and confront him,” Josh said incredulously when Katie told him about the whole Malcolm thing. 

“I’m not asking you to confront him!” Katie protested. “I’m just…asking you to ask him about it. I just wish he’d say what he meant. I can tell that there’s something up.”

“I’m not going to get involved,” Josh said with an air of finality. “I mean, in all honesty, Katie, I think he’s just hurt.”

“Hurt?”

“Yeah,” Josh said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You kept blowing him off to hang out with Louisa. Right after this giant battle that he planned. And then she leaves, and you start ignoring all of us.”

Katie was surprised by the tone of malice in Josh’s own voice. “Josh—”

“I’m just saying,” Josh said before Katie could continue, “he really trusted you. And he doesn’t do that much.”

It was safe to say that despite Katie’s original intentions of making everything better again, it was proving harder than she thought to smooth over everything at more than just a surface level. Bitterly, Katie supposed that it was her own fault. She had been waiting for everyone to leave for years: it was just that the other shoe had finally dropped. 

___

Still, everyone was nice to her superficially and Katie must have been maturing because she thought she could live with that. Malcolm’s fifteenth birthday came quickly, and Katie was surprised to be invited to a party down by the beach. Clarisse and Chris kept lookout, and Silena and Beckendorf promised to cover for them if Chiron came looking. They didn’t stay out past curfew—the cleaning harpies had been grumpy ever since the Hermes kids failed to show up for kitchen patrol, and had been looking for an excuse to eat them ever since—but they stayed until the moon had truly risen in the sky and the stars sparkled above them. 

Katie felt shy around the people she had once considered her best friends. She couldn’t stop the little stab of jealousy as she watched Travis Stoll seamlessly laugh with Josh and Malcolm. Michael must have read something in her expression, because he dragged her away from the three boys and over to the edge of the water. Katie slipped her shoes off, letting the cool water lap at her ankles. 

“It’s all gone a bit shit, hey?” Michael said lowly, gaze firmly fixed on the horizon. “Since she left.”

Katie laughed humorlessly. “Yeah.”

“That’s life, I guess.” Michael kicked the sand. “I can’t believe I peaked at fifteen.”

Katie pushed his shoulder. “You did not peak at fifteen.”

Michael shrugged. “Feels like it.”

“Definitely not.” Katie said, even though she sort of felt the same way. “We’ve got time.”

___

“Tell me about Louisa,” Josh said one day, his face thoughtful. Something instinctively reacted inside Katie at the sound of her name. She just shook her head. Josh seemed to understand, because he didn’t ask again. 

___

Katie began to get back into the habit of things: she even made an effort to check on Will Solace in the infirmary from time to time, insisting that she help out with little odd jobs (no matter how much Will stubbornly insisted that he could do it by himself). 

Today, they were taking inventory, working in relative silence as they pulled the items out the cupboard and recorded their findings in a dusty notebook that Will had procured from Cabin Seven. 

“Lee used to do it all the time,” Will explained. “Take inventory and stuff. I thought with all the missions recently it might be good to start again.”

“You’re a good kid, Will.” Katie said, because he was.

“Michael hates coming in here.” Will said suddenly, his cheeks pink. “I don’t mind it, though.”

Privately, Katie thought that it was no wonder that Michael hated the infirmary. Will was as blonde and pale as his older brother: sometimes, the light would shift and Katie would think for an instant that she had been talking to the ghost of Lee Fletcher all along. 

“We want to plan something for Cecil’s birthday,” Will said conversationally, ever the Apollo kid, “but none of us can think of anything. We all have siblings in our cabins, and Cecil’s the best at coming up with plans, anyway.”

“You could have a party,” Katie suggested, surprising even herself. 

“Really?” Will’s eyes lit up.

“Just a little one,” Katie said quickly. “Use the Artemis cabin or something. I’ll cover for you.”

“Cool!” Will grinned. Katie bit back her own smile: she remembered how lucky she had felt when Silena had told her that she and Beckondorf would cover for them during Malcolm’s birthday party last year. 

May had told Katie once that being a head counselor was all about giving and taking. Katie thought she might actually be starting to understand what May meant. 

___

Time, it seemed, might actually heal all wounds. Katie told this to Josh, one day, and he actually laughed out loud. 

“That’s a walking teenage cliche,” Josh said. “But I’m glad you’re feeling that. Honestly, I probably could have told you that three months ago.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Katie said. They fell into comfortable silence, packing up the practice dummies from Clarisse’s training. 

After everything that had gone down, Katie had never really properly apologized to Josh. Josh had never seemed to mind. Katie had tried to show it in other ways, though. She got the Stolls—or rather, Connor who, after spending more time with Travis, Katie quickly realized was the brains of their smuggling operation—to get in a journal and a magazine and some of those chocolate things Josh loved for a late birthday present. She wrapped it all up with a little bow and gave it to him one day after training. Josh blushed and grinned and told her that he loved it. She poked him in the side. 

“Miranda gave me the idea; she journals almost every day. Says it’s a good way to clear her mind and get out all her thoughts. I don’t know, I thought you might like to try it.”

Josh smiled, but it was a little sad. “My half-sister used to journal all the time, too. She had a pink one with a little lock, and she wore the key around her neck. Would never let it leave her sight.”

Katie frowned, because she had never even known Josh had a sister who wasn’t one of the Aphrodite kids. She didn’t push, though. She just squeezed his shoulder and he tucked the present away and they walked down together to the campfire. 

Katie was always better at acting than speaking, anyway. She gave the Aphrodite kids the first strawberry pie she made: a new experimental recipe she had dug up from the wells of Cabin Four. She dropped by tomatoes and grapes from Liam’s garden. She made sure the flowers of the Aphrodite Cabin were always growing and lucious and fragrant, snapping her fingers to make honeysuckle bloom in the windows. Josh seemed to get it, anyway. 

Now, Katie sat down on the hard ground of the amphitheater, wiping away the sweat from her brow and looking over to Josh, who was absentmindedly swinging one of the training swords. “Hey, Josh?”

“Hey, Katie?”

Katie bit her lip. “You know how you said ages ago that you wanted to be a teacher, after camp?”

Josh stiffened a little, the way he always did when someone brought up something personal. He hid it well. If Katie didn’t know him, she doubted she would’ve been able to tell at all. 

“Yeah?”

“My dad’s a teacher. In the mortal world. I haven’t spoken to him in ages, but I was thinking, maybe next year we could try and go and find him? I don’t particularly like the guy, but he’s a good teacher, a really good one. He probably has some advice— I even remember when I was little, he’d have, like, student teachers and stuff. We’ll both be seventeen next year— We could drive there, and ask about college and the best career paths, and—and I bet he’d even be able to get you a job, too. Y’know, eventually.” 

Katie’s face flushed. She had been thinking over her plan for a long time—longer than she would usually think over anything—but she had decided that it was a good one. As hard as she tried to not think about her dad, she knew in her heart that he was a good man. A good teacher, certainly. He would offer Josh kindness and help, because Larry Gardner had never been able to turn away a person seeking solace. Katie was afraid to look at Josh, afraid that he would laugh and make fun of her. Of course, Josh was Josh . He must’ve seen Katie’s offer for the fragile, earnest thing that it was, because he nodded. 

“Yeah. Yeah, maybe. After the war.”

“Just in time for college,” Katie said. Although she herself hadn’t given much thought to life beyond camp, being friends with Malcolm meant that it was impossible to ignore the future that was coming towards them with alarming velocity. “We could all go together, y’know. Mal could study economics and join nerdy math clubs, and you could become a teacher and I—I don’t even know what I’d study, but I’d have a little room on campus and fill it with plants and we could all hang out there together.”

“I’d be on campus, too.” Josh grinned. “Me and Malcolm would be roommates and we would both hate it because we’re both so picky about how we keep our stuff.”

Katie laughed. “You’d probably pick a fight because his sticky notes were the wrong color, and they didn’t go with the aesthetic.”

“And then you’d come over and put all your shit everywhere and we’d both bond over how messy you are.”

“Hey!” Katie protested. “It's an organized mess! It’s homey!”

For a minute, Katie felt like she could see their future with alarming clarity. Katie and Josh and Malcolm, living in a city somewhere. Katie and Malcolm would be fine , without any of the weird pervasive awkwardness that had seemed to creep into their friendship in recent months. They’d talk about classes and get coffee in the morning from a local coffee shop, shivering in the cold in the winter but warmed by the company. Katie would drag them to the local botanical garden every month, and Malcolm would pester them about the new museum exhibit they wanted to see. Josh would complain but go along, probably inviting the friends he would surely make from all the clubs he would surely join. They’d complain about the course load and reminisce about camp, but they would be together and they would be happy. It was a nice thought. 

In the weeks that followed, a group seemed to form. For once, Katie was a part of it. Malcolm, Josh, Michael, Travis, and Katie. It was the kind of group that Katie might’ve once been jealous of, might’ve once fantasized about one day belonging to. It wasn’t perfect—Michael and Malcolm disagreed more often than not on things, and Katie still got a funny feeling whenever she spent too much time with Travis, like she was going against all of her morals—but it was nice. And they were friends. Katie sometimes felt giddy at the inclusion.

Their little group of medium kids were steadily growing together, finding their way to each other despite everything. Growing together: what a beautiful sentiment. Katie knew growth. She knew the way in which flowers leaned towards the sun, the way that ivy grew crawled up walls, the way the strawberries in the field grew ripe and sweet. This was a different kind of growth altogether.

Katie was slowly growing into something like her old self, slowly re-intertwining with the people she cared about. Inside jokes, memories, split-second looks that communicated more than words ever could. Growing back together, Katie decided privately, was a beautiful, stupid, underrated thing.

One day, she marched them all to the Big House kitchen and peeled them oranges. Travis and Josh sat on the spinny chairs and giggled like little kids as they tried to spin around faster and faster. Michael and Malcolm watched them with a clear expression of judgment. 

“You’re both as bad as Kayla, Austin, and Will. Actually, you’re worse. They probably would’ve tired themselves out by now.”

Josh’s teeth glinted. “I think you’re just jealous. You wish you were me right now.”

Michael scowled, and Josh wobbled, dangerously close to falling off his chair. “Shit, the room is spinning.”

“Yeah,” Malcolm muttered, but his lips were pursed like he was trying not to smile. “That’s what happens when you spin around for ten straight minutes.”

“Shit, really?” Josh grinned. “Wish you’d told me that before. What would I do without you?”

Malcolm’s cheeks turned pink, and Katie rolled her eyes at their mutual idiocy. 

“Can’t believe we broke into the Big House kitchen,” Travis said, and Katie frowned.

“We didn’t break in. I got permission from Chiron.”

“I was kidding, Katie.” Travis snorted. “As if you would do anything without permission.”

“I’ve done plenty without permission!” she snapped. “I mean— No, I haven’t! Rules are there for a reason, and we should follow them— Just— Ugh. Get up and help— Peel this orange.”

Red-faced, she slid one of the oranges across the kitchen counter towards him. She didn’t know what it was about Travis that made her so frustrated, sometimes—it was like he knew exactly what buttons to press to get a rise out of her. Maybe it was all the pranks that she still had yet to forgive him for. Maybe it was his new shiny friendship with Malcolm. She had always been irrationally territorial over her friends, and it was bad and she knew it, but she couldn’t stop that little glint of irritation whenever Travis referenced something they had done together, or joked about Malcolm like he knew him. Maybe, Katie had seen enough of Travis Stoll to be wary, and was just subconsciously waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

“Oh my gods, Travis, I said peel the orange, not murder it!” 

“I am peeling it!” Travis was red now, too. 

“That’s not how you peel an orange!” Katie snapped, incredulous. “How do you not know how to peel an orange?”

“Why would I know how to peel an orange? I’ve been at camp since I was ten! And before that we weren’t exactly the fresh fruit kind of family!”

“What— It’s an orange ! It’s not rocket science!”

“I don’t even care about the stupid orange!” Travis’s cheeks were pink as he slid the orange forcibly back to Katie. It was mutilated from where he had tried to dig his knife straight into the center. There was an awkward silence. Katie peeled her own orange so forcibly that its juice shot straight into her eye, and she cursed at the sting. Her cheeks were hot. 

“Oh my gods,” Josh muttered. He cleared his throat. “Katie. Why don’t you show Travis how to peel the orange?”

“Don’t talk to me like—” Katie swallowed down her annoyance, forcing herself to take a deep breath. “Travis, do you want me to show you how to peel an orange?”

There was a long pause. Katie peeked at Travis, whose cheeks were still pink. He was shifting uncomfortably.

“Whatever. I mean, I guess. It’s just an orange.”

Katie shot an annoyed look at Josh, who rolled his eyes. She made no move to go towards Travis. Finally, Michael groaned, throwing his hands up in the air. 

“Gods’ sake! You guys are so stupid. I’m getting some fresh air. Josh? Malcolm?”

Josh, Malcolm, and Michael left without a second glance. Katie could hear them arguing about something already, their voices getting fainter as they left the Big House. The room had turned suddenly awkward. Travis was still sitting on one of the stools, fidgeting with his camp necklace. A habit that Katie, too, shared, she realized uncomfortably. She glared at him, grabbing another orange out of the box and chopping it with a little more force than was probably necessary. Finally, Travis cleared his throat. He looked grouchy. 

“So are you going to show me how to peel this orange or should I just go out and sit with my friends like a normal person?”

Katie glowered. “If you’re gonna be like that , then do whatever you want!” 

Travis muttered something under his breath and Katie used all her energy to resist the urge to make wheat grow out of his hair. She took a deep breath. Then another. Then another. Just like Silena had taught her when Katie had come to her after a fit of temper, upset and feeling out of control.

Katie rolled the orange back across the bench towards Travis. She refused to meet his eyes, but held up her own orange in demonstration. 

“So, you cut the ends off first. Like this, see?” She chopped the other end off, holding her breath. Feeling like she was tempting fate, she finally looked at Travis. She watched as he hesitated for a long moment before grabbing his knife and copying her. He met her eyes, and Katie felt suddenly exposed, like she had been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. She reddenned. 

“Yeah, good. Then, you want to make little cuts from one end to the other—not so deep that you’ll cut the actual orange, but just deep enough that you get through the skin.”

She demonstrated on her own orange, watching carefully as Travis replicated her careful slices. Despite herself, she smiled. 

“That’s really good.”

Travis reddened. “It’s not rocket science.”

Katie laughed, and disguised it with a cough. Travis raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Katie watched in silence as he finished the slices, grinning despite herself at his face contorted with concentration. Cautiously, she made her way across the kitchen, bringing her own orange, board and knife with her. She settled in the stool next to him, watching as he finished the last of his cuts. The smell of fresh citrus filled the air. 

“Now, we peel,” Katie explained. “Easiest part. Some people like to do it a different way— Y’know, cut the orange instead of peeling it and eat it in wedges, but they’re stupid, because it all gets stuck in your teeth and then it’s no fun for anyone. This is the best way, trust me.”

“I can’t believe you have opinions on the best way to eat an orange,” Travis said, but he didn’t sound like he was making fun of her. “It’s an orange. Tastes the same either way.”

“I said that to my dad once,” Katie admitted, arranging her peels in a neat pile on the corner of the chopping board. “He gave me a half-hour lecture about why this way is better. And then we did a taste test. The results were clear.”

There was a bittersweet stab in her heart at the thought of her dad. She busied herself with arranging Travis’s strewn-about peels into a neat little pile, too. 

“Not many people know this,” Katie said, “but oranges actually taste better if you get them ready in sunlight, too. That’s why we’re not in the underground kitchen.”

Travis looked at her, his eyes gleaming. Katie pursed her lips to stop herself from grinning. 

“Now, that’s total bullshit,” Travis said, and Katie laughed. 

“I just hate the underground kitchen,” Katie admitted. “And the harpies give Malcolm the creeps.”

Travis laughed. Katie reddened for no reason whatsoever and distracted herself by cutting her orange into bite-sized slices.

“Connor’s scared shitless of them. He’d kill me for saying so, but, I mean, it’s true,” Travis said. Katie hit his hand away as he tried to steal one of her orange pieces. 

“Hey! No eating the goods!”

Travis pouted. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Katie rolled her eyes, transferring her orange slices and his into the big bowl she’d been putting the others in. She tossed the peels into another bowl, making a mental note to come back and put them in the compost bin that May had set up before she’d left. Meanwhile, Travis wiped down the chopping boards and told a story about Connor and the harpies. Katie tried not to laugh, but her cheeks were hurting with the effort of not smiling by the end of the story.

“C’mon, Stoll.” She hoisted the bowl onto her hip, making for the door. “Let’s go eat some oranges.”

Travis followed her. “Finally. You’ve been starving me here.”

Katie sighed and Travis grinned. Katie squinted.

“You’ve got orange in your teeth! You cheat!”

Travis grinned boyishly and spent the rest of the walk trying to grab another piece out of the bowl. Finally, they joined Malcolm, Josh, and Michael, who were splayed out on the sun-warmed grass. Josh grinned, and Malcolm groaned at the sight of them. Katie gave them both a puzzled look as she settled on the grass next to Malcolm, swatting away another attack from Travis. 

“Pay up, Pace.” Josh held out his hand. Malcolm grumpily pulled out a shiny gold drachma from his pocket. 

“Yeah, pay up Pace.” Travis held out a hand, too, and Malcolm rolled his eyes. Katie snickered, and Travis shot her a dirty look. 

“What are we paying up about?” Katie took an orange slice from the bowl, sighing as she bit into it. 

“They bet on the chances of one of you coming out having to go to the infirmary.” Michael said, grabbing an orange piece. He scowled. “I hadn’t chosen what side I was on yet.”

“We had a very civilized conversation,” Katie informed Malcolm. “No violence involved.”

“Only a few murderous thoughts. And threats of violence,” Travis added, and Katie rolled her eyes. The conversation moved on, and they sat there until dinner, laughter and arguments, citrusy sweetness and sticky fingers in the afternoon sun. Katie let herself grin as she walked back to the Big House alone afterwards, something warm glowing in the very center of her chest that was only slightly diminished when she realised, later, that throughout the whole afternoon, Malcolm didn't try to speak to her once. 

___

February passed quickly, with things continuing mostly the way they had been. They went on less missions and focused more on gaining information, but the war loomed over them like a dark cloud. Training was upped tenfold, and Katie was—for the first time in her demigod career—actually starting to become semi-competent with a dagger. She was no Annabeth , that was for sure, but she could stab at the training dummy in a way that made even Clarisse nod her head and say that she guessed it was “passable.” 

“I talked to Will yesterday, and supplies are running low,” Malcolm was saying, a thoughtful look on his face like he was trying to solve a particularly good puzzle (or trying to fumble his way through an SAT Prep notebook). They were on their way to the Big House for a head counselor’s meeting. “We need a better way of keeping track of what’s entering and leaving. Especially with summer coming up.”

Michael glowered. “Kid’s overworking himself enough as it is. I swear, the ‘medical emergency’ conch has been sounding at least twice a day for the last two weeks. Not to mention all the extra stuff.”

“It probably wouldn’t be sounding as much if Clarisse stopped trying out monster attack techniques on us,” Travis grumbled. Everyone at camp had been laughing about how he had taken a spear to the butt as part of one of Clarisse’s experimental new training workshops. 

“It’s good to know how to defend ourselves,” Katie chided, mostly just because she wanted to disagree with Travis. She understood it was important and all, but there was a part of her that was frustrated at the amount of classes Chiron had been missing in favor of training.

“If a monster ever stabs me in the butt with an electric spear, I’ll probably just accept my fate and give in then and there.” 

Michael laughed. “Ha! Kayla didn’t tell me it was the electric one.”

Travis pouted, which made Katie laugh. Travis sent her the stink eye, and Katie was annoyed for a split-second before rolling her eyes at him. 

“We could try incident report sheets,” Malcolm said thoughtfully. “Try—”

“You don’t think we’ve tried ?” Michael scoffed. “Lee was able to enforce them for about ten minutes a few years ago before it became impossible to manage. You try getting Kayla to fill out an incident report.”

“Will probably would,” Malcolm argued. “He was the one suggesting some kind of system.”

“Will can’t be the only kid working in the infirmary!” Michael snapped. “He’s twelve .”

“No one’s saying that Will should be the only kid working in the infirmary.” Travis rolled his eyes. “Although…come to think of it—”

“Shut up, Travis,” Katie huffed. “And a system that’s only followed some of the time is just as bad as no system at all.”

Malcolm frowned thoughtfully. They had reached the rec room, and Travis split off with a stupid little salute to join Connor, who looked about three words and a smirk away from getting stabbed by Clarisse. Suprisingly, Malcolm followed him. A little miffed, Katie grabbed a can of Coke—courtesy of Mr. D, who was actually present for once—and moved to stand between Michael and Beckendorf. 

Once everyone had filed in, Chiron cleared his throat and moved to the head of the ping pong table. He was in his wheelchair, and its fake legs were decorated with butterfly stickers and pink glitter. Katie rolled her eyes in Travis and Connor’s direction. The brothers were both snickering.

“So stupid,” Katie whispered to Michael, nudging him and nodding towards Chiron’s legs. 

The meeting continued as usual. They argued about a reconnaissance mission that Clarisse wanted to do, and they argued about needing a better system for the infirmary, and they argued about the Hermes cabin slacking off in the chores department. Clarisse got into a fight with Michael about the music that was always emanating from the Apollo cabin, and Silena had to hold her back from punching him. Katie and Beckendorf held back Michael, who was scowling murderously, exchanging the same look they used to exchange whenever the Stolls did something stupid in class. 

The only actual progress they made in the meeting was thanks to Chiron, who informed them all that, as head counselors, they would all be expected to lead a class during the summer. 

“We’ll work out scheduling and the like in the future,” Chiron said with a pointed look to Malcolm, who was already buried in his notebook with a thoughtful look on his face. “For now, though, I anticipate these sessions will run for approximately an hour each. Something relevant to your cabin’s unique skill set.”

Chiron raised an eyebrow at Travis and Connor, who were muttering conspicuously on their side of the table. 

“Something, er, useful to the war efforts.”

The room darkened. Katie frowned. She would probably curse someone else if they said it, but she couldn’t imagine anything that she could teach that Chiron would consider useful to defend the campers in the war that was sure to come. Everything that Katie had learned about combat, she had learned from the Ares kids, or even the Apollo kids. Alana could swing her scythe like a demon, but she had learned all that from May. Katie wasn’t May, and she had never felt so inadequate for it. 

She confided in Josh, funnily enough, after the meeting. They were in Liam’s Garden, sitting on the new bench that Beckendorf and Nyssa had made earlier that week. They were intertwined, Katie’s legs twisted around Josh’s, his hand resting on her knee and tapping a beat Katie didn’t know. 

“So I don’t know what to do,” Katie finished with a dramatic sigh. 

“There’s loads you could teach,” Josh said confidently, with no sign of bitterness. “You’d be great.”

“Not war stuff.” Katie’ cheeks were hot. “I can’t swing a sword. I can’t shoot an arrow. I can’t teach uber fancy battle plans like Malcolm probably will.”

Without even meaning to, Katie noticed one of the tomato plants withering. It turned yellow and brown and rotted, as though it hadn’t seen the sunlight in months. A jolt of panic raked through Katie’s chest—discreetly, she guiltily waved her hand to bring the plant back to life, praying that Josh wouldn’t notice. 

“Malcolm mentioned…that,” Josh said bluntly, gesturing to the tomato plant. Katie frowned. 

“Malcolm…?”

“He said he went to visit you in Cabin Four the other day but you weren’t there,” Josh said. “He said that all the plants…”

Katie shifted, shame rising in her stomach like nausea. “That’s— It’s nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Okay,” Josh said. He didn’t push it. Katie was grateful.

“It’s not as if I could teach—I don’t know— strawberry picking. Travis and Connor would never let me live it down. Michael and Miles, too, for that matter.”

“And why do we care what the Stolls and Michael and Miles think?” Josh teased. Katie exhaled, shoving him gently in the shoulder. 

“ Oh my gods—fine. I’ll teach strawberry picking and then be a complete loner for the rest of my life.”

“You’ll have me,” Josh said. “I won’t let you be a loner forever. Maybe a few months.”

Katie shoved him again with a laugh. “You’re the worst.”

“Totally,” Josh said. And then, like he was holding his breath: “Hey, Katie?”

“Hey, Josh?”

“Can I tell you something?”

Katie frowned at the serious quality of Josh’s voice, lifting her head to look at him. His expression was uncharacteristically uncertain. 

“Yeah, of course,” Katie said. Josh had that same expression that he’d had during the summer by the door to his cabin: like he was close to running. 

“I—” Josh cleared his throat. He looked like he might be sick. “I like someone.”

“Oh?” Katie blinked. Was that it? “Um…who?”

“I like…” Josh steeled himself, like he was about to dive head-first into icy cold water. “I like a guy.”

“Oh.” Katie blinked. “Oh . So you’re—”

“I’m not gay,” Josh said, and the word felt too loud and too heavy for the warm afternoon air to carry. “I mean—not completely. I’m sort of…I’m a bit of both.”

“There’s…that’s a thing?”

A nervous smile flashed across Josh’s face. “Yeah. I think so. I told Silena. Bisexual, it’s called.”

“Oh.” Katie felt like she had stumbled across an answer to a question she didn’t know she had. She looked up at Josh, who was still avoiding her gaze. Fondness glowed in her chest like fireflies: she wrapped her arms around him and planted a big kiss on his cheek (which he immediately wiped away). “I’m proud of you.”

“Gross,” Josh said flatly, but he was smiling, dark skin glowing. “I just told you that I like a dude, Gardner. Don’t be trying to put the moves on me, now.”

Katie snickered. She looked over the garden, head on Josh’s shoulder, and—despite the chill in the air—felt warm with pride. With love. The cold of winter felt so far away. 

Later, Katie would pester Josh about who he liked. She would beg to know, suggest half of the guys at camp. Now, though, she just felt strangely content to rest her head on Josh’s shoulder and watch the plants of Liam’s Garden sway in the gentle breeze.

She realized suddenly that Josh was one of the best things in her life. Her most consistent friend. She was certain, in that moment, that wherever Josh may go, Katie would follow. Josh was probably the best person Katie knew. Kind and warm and a great, great friend. 

She was so lucky, she realized suddenly. Despite everything else, she was lucky to know Josh. She was so, so, glad that they had met. She told him so—at the risk of sounding like a giant sap—and Josh looked bashful. Perhaps he could tell she was being completely serious, because he didn’t make fun of her. 

Instead, he just sighed contentedly and they listened to the cicadas chirp and the leaves rustle and Katie let her breath fall into sync with Josh’s and wished the moment would never end. 

Chapter Text

‘it’s a long cold war / with your kids at the front’ - ethel cain

On the first day of March, Michael and Clarisse came back from a mission bruised and bloody and barely standing. At the emergency counselor meeting that night, Katie fidgeted with her necklace. The air was tense. 

“They’re all gonna have to spend the week in the infirmary, according to Will,” Silena told everyone, absentmindedly braiding and unbraiding a piece of her dark hair. 

Beckendorf was out, too. He was dealing with a “mechanical emergency,” which was code for saying that half of the Forge had exploded in the early hours of the morning. The Hephaestus kids were all hands on deck. A very annoyed Jake Mason placed the blame on Cecil Markowitz, but Cecil claimed that it was all Nyssa Barerra. Drew Tanaka, who could usually be counted on for a reliable source of gossip, claimed that it was actually Lou Ellen messing around trying to make a lightsaber. 

Whatever the case, without Michael, Beckendorf, and Clarisse, there were only five of them. Six, if you included Mr. D, which no one did, because he just lounged around, drinking Diet Coke and calling them all by the wrong names. 

The balance of the meeting felt all wrong, like trying to garden without a shovel. The Stolls stood together, looking more serious than usual. Silena’s sleek dark hair tumbled over her shoulders, shining in the light. Next to Silena, Malcolm’s eyebrows were furrowed together and he gnawed at his fingernails nervously. 

Everyone was quiet for a minute, like they were waiting for Michael or Clarisse to butt in with an argument, or for Beckendorf’s familiar anchoring cadence. When no one spoke, Katie cleared her throat again. 

“I think we need to call off missions for a while. At least until the summer. It’s too dangerous, and we don’t have the numbers.”

“She’s right,” Silena said. Katie sent her a grateful nod. “We’re stretched too thin.”

No one seemed to feel like arguing. Mr. D took a loud sip of his Coke. Silena sniffled and wiped her nose. Connor tossed a ping pong ball and it hit the wall. Katie glared at him. 

“We’re still in contact with the nature spirits,” Katie said, trying again. “But we need a better way to record the information that we’re getting. Chiron is barely here, and we can’t keep Iris Messaging him whenever we have a question or forget something.”

Travis snorted. “Last time we did that, he was asleep. Scared the shit out of him.”

Connor grinned. “Hey, remember that time we Iris Messaged Jonathon and he was in the middle of—”

“Okay, Connor.” Katie’s face was warm. Connor and Travis had recounted the story of the time they’d accidentally intercepted one of their older brothers mid-shit too many times to count. Connor snickered. 

“The point is that we need a better system. I don’t know— We need to write it down or something.”

“Most of us are dyslexic,” Travis pointed out. “I don’t think writing it down is really your smartest idea.”

“Write it in Greek, then!” Katie huffed. “Or record it! Or—something! We just need all the intel we’re getting in a more accessible place. We’ve got Malcolm’s map, which is helpful for knowing where they’re based, but we keep on forgetting stuff! We’re never going to win this war if we can’t keep track of all our information!”

There was a heavy silence, and Katie’s face felt hot. Sometimes, the head counselor meetings felt like they were running around in circles. Katie didn’t think she’d ever related more to Sisyphus than when they were trying to come up with a tangible plan to face the inevitable war ahead of them. She forced herself to take a deep breath. Stability. Hope. Determination. Those three words had been her mantra over the last few months, ever since New Year, really. She tried to think of what May would say. 

“We are making progress.” She hated that she was trying to convince herself as much as everyone else. “But we need to be making more. Recording it in more tangible ways. By the time summer comes, we need to be ready.”

Summer was the deadline. They all knew this. Mostly because of the prophecy. Katie didn’t know the full thing, but she knew that it was to do with Percy turning sixteen. Chiron was convinced that Percy turning sixteen would be the catalyst that the war would follow from. They were safe—relatively safe, at least—until then. 

“I’m worried about the kids,” Silena said, and her voice was thick. “About the others. They’re not getting the same experience we used to get— It just— It hasn’t been the same since last summer.”

“The kids are fine.” Travis waved a hand dismissively. “Lou Ellen, Cecil, and Kayla are literally in the middle of planning a paintball fight with some of the others. Not sure the others are wanting to fight, but they’re pretty determined that it’ll happen.”

Katie rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the heads up, Travis. Nyssa has been ranting to me about it for days— I’ll make sure to let her know. Y’all need to tell your kids to leave Nyssa, Jake, and Will out of it! None of them want anything to do with it!”

“Will just doesn’t want anything to do with it because he’s overworked,” Connor said. “He keeps bitching about how many injuries there’s been lately.”

“Which is exactly why we need to stop the combat missions,” Malcolm said evenly. “At least, until the summer.”

And they were right back where they started. Katie felt herself getting a headache, and she was half-relieved when, fifteen minutes later, Mr. D finally waved his hand dismissively. 

“Well, Curtis, Thomas, Serena, Magnus, and Katherine, it’s been a very boring and unproductive afternoon with you all. If you stay for much longer, I’m afraid I will have to turn you all into dolphins.”

Katie exchanged a look with Silena as they all filed out, disheartened. Clearly not reading the room, Travis bounded up to Katie, a grin on his face. Katie didn’t even have the energy to properly glare at him, even though she wanted to. Just yesterday, he had put a realistic-looking cockroach at the bottom of her coffee when she wasn’t looking, and she had screeched so loudly that everyone had turned to look at her. 

The week before, Katie had had to yell at all four of the Hermes kids (excluding Chris) for making staying out past curfew into a game. Katie had been woken up in the middle of the night by a scream outside of her cabin door, and run out to see Lou Ellen, who had explained through tears that they were trying to see who could not get eaten by the cleaning harpies for the longest, but one of them had found Lou Ellen and scratched her right down the arm with long claws. Lou Ellen had somehow defended herself and the harpy had left, but her arm was raw and bloody from the harpy’s talons. 

“I can’t believe I lost,” Lou Ellen sobbed as Katie led her to the infirmary, shivering in the night air, a cautious eye out for further harpies. “I really thought I’d beat Cecil at least.”

“Those idiots are never caught,” Katie muttered. “Just another thing to love about the Hermes kids.”

She had given Lou Ellen some ambrosia and patched up her arm. It wasn’t as good as Will Solace could have done (or even Michael, probably, even though he hated the infirmary), but it was passable and at least Lou Ellen had stopped crying. By the time Katie dropped her off at the Hermes cabin, she was so exhausted and cranky that she had snapped at Chris Rodriguez (who had looked half asleep) right then and there.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. Katie turned to Lou Ellen, who looked red and bashful. 

“I only implied that Chris knew. Besides, Travis and Connor are counselors.”

Katie massaged her temples. “Go to bed, Lou Ellen. I’ll deal with the others in the morning.”

It was safe to say she would never be Travis Stoll’s number one fan.

Now, Travis was just grinning at her dopily. Katie scowled at him.

“Yes?”

“Can’t believe he got your name right!”

Katie frowned. “What?”

“Katie—short for Katherine, right?”

Katie rolled her eyes. “How many years have I known you again?” 

Travis grinned. “So I guess that big banner I’m in the middle of making that says ‘Katherine Gardner is a loser’ needs to be revisited, right?”

Even though Katie knew he was joking—there were those telltale measures she had come to know: the quirk of his lip, the slight dusting of pink on his cheeks, the twitch of his eyebrows—it took effort to refrain from making cabbage grow from his hair. 

“That was worse than usual.” 

“Oh.” Travis looked gleeful. “So what I’m getting is that you secretly think that I’m usually hilarious.”

“No—” Katie sputtered. “I usually think you’re unfunny and ridiculous. That was just especially dreadful.”

Travis shrugged. “Can’t please everyone, I guess.”

“I wasn’t aware you were trying to,” Katie said shortly. Even though she and Travis were technically now something adjacent to friends, something about him still made her itchy and uncomfortable. 

Travis didn’t answer, just gave her a weird look before running off to talk to Malcolm. Katie shook her head as she watched him go. Boys. 

She brought up the whole affair to Michael the next day, visiting him in the infirmary bearing homemade chocolate cupcakes (his favorite), some echinacea loose-leaf tea (courtesy of the herbal drawer in Cabin Four), and news from the world outside the infirmary. He immediately shoved one of the cupcakes into his mouth, but eyed the tea skeptically. 

“It’s for your immune system,” Katie explained, placing the jar onto one of the tables and sitting down on the edge of Michael’s bed. “You can make it taste better with honey.”

“Thanks, Katie.” Will Solace, who was fiddling around with some medical supplies in the corner of the room, picked up the jar and squinted at it. “I think Lee used to keep a whole thing of this in here.”

“Probably,” Katie shrugged. “We used to do loads for the infirmary. I could start up again, if you wanted—get you some herbs and stuff.”

“That’d be good,” Will said thoughtfully, placing the jar in one of the shelves and scanning them analytically. “Lou Ellen’s been helping us a bit, but it’d be good to have you, too. I’m trying to keep our ambrosia supply for emergencies only.”

“Lou Ellen?” Katie raised her eyebrows. “And the ambrosia—”

“She’s ace at making shit,” Will explained. “And the ambrosia— Well, I just haven’t been able to find any nature spirits who have some made up for a while. They're all so busy with the war.”

“I’ll try and help out,” Katie promised. Will shot her a grateful smile. “Talk to some of the dryads I know.”

Will left soon after that, and Katie was left alone with Michael, who was looking wistfully at the remaining cupcakes still set on the table. Katie took pity on him, getting up from her spot at the edge of his bed to grab another cupcake and toss it over to him, picking up one for herself while she was there.

“These are so good,” Michael said, his mouth full, once she had settled back on the edge of his bed, careful to avoid his painful-looking, heavily bandaged legs. 

“Right?” Katie sighed as she bit into her own cupcake. The chocolatey taste seemed to overpower the normally strong smell of the infirmary: rubbing alcohol and metallic blood. “I’ll bring some to Clarisse, later, too. I just don’t know what flavor she likes.”

“ Boooo.” Michael gave her a thumbs down. “Don’t bring some to Clarisse.”

“She’s hurt ,” Katie chided. “I’m going to bring her cupcakes.”

Michael just rolled his eyes. “So, how are things on the outside?”

“The outside?”

“Y’know,” Michael said impatiently, “camp. Head counselor meetings. My siblings. You guys.”

“Doesn’t Will give you updates?” Katie asked teasingly. Michael responded with a look so sour that she had to laugh. “Things are okay. I guess. We’re mostly just busy with this war . And Mal’s been acting funny. And Travis keeps on annoying me. He’s just— I don’t like him. He keeps trying to talk to me.”

“No idea why,” Michael said. “I’m only friends with you for the cupcakes.”

Katie hit his shoulder playfully, but Michael winced, an involuntary yelp of pain escaping.

“Shit—” Katie clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“I’m fine.” Michael’s voice was tight. Katie must've looked unconvinced, because he quickly corrected himself. “I’ve had worse.”

Katie still felt awful. “Do you want me to grab some ambrosia, or—”

“We’re running low,” Michael said. “No ambrosia for me. I promise, I’ll be right. Just healing.”

Katie bit her lip, not quite convinced. Before she could say anything else, though, Michael reached out his other arm and hit her on the shoulder, hard.

“ Ouch ,” Katie said involuntarily. 

“There.” Michael looked satisfied as he laid back in bed. “Now we’re even.”

Katie couldn’t stop herself from smiling, but she tried to look a little exasperated so as not to encourage him. 

“Not that I wouldn’t have taken the ambrosia if we had more,” Michael said. “I would kill to taste some s’mores right now.”

“S’mores?”

“Yep.” Michael’s expression had turned wistful and sad. “The ones we used to make all the time at the Campfire. Chocolatey and gooey.”

The confession hung heavy in the air. Katie remembered those s’mores; Lee always used to be in charge of making them, because he could make them the best. He used to put sinful amounts of chocolate in them. 

To fill the silence, Katie nodded at the door. “Will’s really getting good at this infirmary thing, hey?”

“I guess,” Michael said, but he scowled. Katie frowned at him.

“What?”

Michael was silent. Katie frowned again, taking another tentative bite of the ambrosia. 

“Is he not going as well as you thought he would?”

“No, he’s a natural.” Michael glowered at the infirmary floor. “It’s just— The infirmary was always Lee’s, y’know? The first year I was here, I was the archer, Amber was the musician, and Lee was the healer. And that’s just the way it was.”

Katie frowned. “Amber?”

Michael scowled even harder, if that was possible. “Sister. She vanished along with Luke.”

Something reached and squeezed Katie’s heart. “Shit.”

“Yeah. Fuck her, though. So she left. But Lee was always the healer. He was so— And now Will’s there, taking over, which is good, but it’s just—”

“It’s Lee all over again?” 

Michael shook his head. His voice was tight. “No. He’s not Lee. And that’s the problem. Kayla and Austin— They barely even knew Lee. They met him a month before— They never even knew him. The infirmary was his. And now— And now it’s Will’s, and Kayla and Austin will never even know that it used to be Lee’s.”

Katie thought about how cruel it was that no new camper would ever get to meet Lee Fletcher. He was stubborn and prickly, but he was also hard-working and he always kept a level head in a crisis. He had all the comfort of a healer, without any of the uncertainty that Will sometimes possessed. 

Katie imagined getting a new camper in Cabin Four that summer. They would never meet May. Never meet Liam . She blinked away tears. 

“I just—” Michael clenched a fist. “It’s like he never even existed at all. He was the best big brother ever.” Michael looked like he would fight Katie if she tried to disagree. “And now he’s gone.”

“No.” Katie shook her head. “Of course Lee’s not gone. Where do you think Will learned it all? Who do you think taught you to be so stubborn and grumpy all the time? Gods, one of the satyrs still complains about Lee not helping with the strawberry fields every time I see him, and then tacks on a hasty ‘rest in peace’ at the end. Every time.”

Michael barked out a choked-sounding laugh. 

“ I remember Lee. I remember that he was good and hard-working. I remember that he cared. We remember Lee, and Will remembers Lee, and you remember Lee. I don’t— I don’t want to overstep, but I think half of myself is just May. Our siblings— They can never leave. Most of us is made of them. As long as we’re around—”

“Fuck, Katie, what if we’re not around?” Michael looked as helpless as Katie had ever seen him. Michael fought when he was angry. Michael spent hours at the archery range, shooting arrow after arrow to finally get it right. Michael led his siblings through rigorous training and was talking about starting up a five mile run every morning. Michael was the last person Katie associated with helplessness. But, here he was. 

“The war,” Katie breathed. 

“ Fuck. I’m worried— What if none of us make it? Who's gonna remember Lee then?”

Katie didn’t know what to say. She wanted to reach out, to squeeze Michael’s hand. She did. It was callused and warm, strong and dependable. “We will. We will make it. After it’s all over, you’ll keep on remembering Lee forever. And he’ll never disappear.”

Michael wrenched his hand away. He ran his hands through his hair. Katie could tell he didn’t believe her.

___

Michael and Clarisse were still in the infirmary by the time their next head counselor meeting rolled around. 

“Clarisse wants out,” Silena said. She was perched right next to Beckendorf on one of the lounge chairs, curled around him like a cat. Katie couldn’t believe that they still weren’t dating. “She keeps on telling me that she’s about this close to murdering Will in cold blood.”

"It has been an abnormally long infirmary stint,” Malcolm said, brow furrowed. “Has Will—”

“Yeah, I helped him with the incident reports when I was there visiting Michael the other day.” Katie explained, and Connor oohed . Hot cheeked, Katie powered on, refusing to give him a reaction. “Clarisse broke her leg and some ribs, too, and Michael messed up his knee— They took some ambrosia on the mission, so it started to heal all wrong. Plus, our ambrosia and nectar supply is running low, so he’s had to rely mostly on mortal first aid and Apollo magic.”

“Could he get the satyrs to help?” Beckendorf asked. Katie shook her head. 

“There’s barely any of them at camp anymore. Chiron’s got them running reconnaissance and checking in on other demigods.”

An almost imperceptible tension passed through the room at the mention of Chiron. He’d been at camp briefly the week before, but was absent again. These days, it seemed like he was never around. They were left in the care of Mr. D, who mostly just waved his hand and told them to take care of it themselves.

Two days before, Katie had gone to him and told him that Cecil and Lou Ellen were going on a hunger strike to try and get desserts with dinner, and Mr. D had just shrugged, sighed, and said: “I’m in the middle of something right now, Caitlin. Tell Cece and Lulu that if they starve to death, I will not be filling out the paperwork. Now, run along. I have important matters to attend to.”

“You’re trying to play pinochle with Seymour!” Katie had exclaimed, unable to bite her tongue. Mr. D had glowered at her with those glowing eyes and Katie had rolled her eyes and stomped away. She’d ended up making a deal with Lou Ellen and Cecil: if they stopped their hunger strike (and their loud protesting at mealtimes), she would make a strawberry pie for everyone every Sunday night. 

“Listen, guys,” Beckendorf said. “We’re not getting anywhere in these meetings. I heard from Jake that the last one was basically pointless.”

Everyone glared accusingly at Connor, who was friends with Jake. Connor shrugged, running a hand through his curly hair. 

“We can’t count on Chiron to be here all the time. We need to take matters into our own hands, and get some structure at camp. It’s the only way we’re actually going to make progress.”

Katie was reminded again of how much she liked Beckendorf. He was sensible and kind, two traits that Katie always admired. Even more than that, he was levelheaded. He was a leader, but not overbearing about it in the way that Clarisse or Michael (or even Malcolm, sometimes), could be. 

“Beckendorf is right,” Malcolm said with a nod. “I Iris Messaged Annabeth the other day and she said that there might be some old timetables beneath her bed. Old summer schedules and the like that we could adapt into a current schedule.”

“We can’t use the summer stuff.” Travis frowned. “We used to just spend all day doing Arts and Crafts and shit.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” Silena pointed out. “We were just talking last week about how the kids needed some sense of normalcy.”

“We could do a split?” Katie suggested, biting her lip. “Put some focus on battle training and fitness—I don’t like it, but we’d have to be stupid to ignore everything that’s happening—while also allocating time for schoolwork and summer stuff?”

“There’s only so many hours in a day,” Malcolm said, but he had his thinking face on. “We could do an hour of schoolwork after breakfast. Mythology class, the way we used to. We could—”

Connor made a fart noise with his mouth. “We don’t even have a teacher. Chiron’s MIA.”

“We could teach.” Beckendorf looked thoughtful. “Most of us here have been taking Chiron’s classes for years. It’s not as if we don’t know basic mythology. And any formal education stuff, well…Malcolm, any ideas?”

It was only because of how well Katie knew Malcolm that she could tell he was a little shocked that Beckendorf had passed the question to him.

“I mean, it’s not as if the stuff we’d need to be teaching would be difficult. We could dig up old work, find some of Chiron’s old lesson plans in the attic.”

“No one wants to do schoolwork, anyway,” Connor grumbled. “I say we take this as a sign that the gods think us pretending we’re at mortal school is stupid.”

“I don’t think any of us are suggesting that we’re pretending we’re in mortal school. It would just be really basic stuff,” Beckendorf said, and Katie had to pull back a smile when she saw Malcolm’s disappointed expression. 

“Best case scenario, we’d all still be getting taught by Chiron,” Katie said. “But he’s barely here. We can’t— We can’t count on him. I think that we should focus on the younger kids: Will, Kayla, Austin, Cecil, Lou Ellen, Nyssa—even Jake, if he wanted.”

“He won’t want,” Connor chimed in. “Jake just wants to be left alone with his machines. He doesn’t care about school and shit.”

“That’s not your decision to make,” Katie argued. “Everyone should be able to learn.”

Beckendorf nodded. “It’s not a bad idea. Those guys are what, twelve? Thirteen, max?”

“Jake’s about to be fourteen,” Connor grumbled, and Katie shot him her best May look. 

“It’s not as if they’re learning super complicated stuff,” Beckendorf continued. “We can just run them through the basics for an hour or so a day, like Chiron used to do with us. It’ll just be more condensed.”

“Who’ll do the teaching?” Silena asked, and everyone’s heads swiveled towards Malcolm. Malcolm frantically shook his head. 

“No way. I’m an awful teacher.”

“You’re an Athena kid.” Travis raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t teaching sort of…your thing?”

“Nope.” Malcolm shook his head again. “Remember that one year I tried to teach you guys battle strategy? I was awful!”

Katie had to bite back a laugh. “You kept on getting mad when we couldn’t understand what ‘paradoxical nature’ was.”

Travis laughed. “Holy shit, I remember that. After the Golden Fleece summer, right? We all tried to teach each other shit, but we all sucked at it.”

“Hey!” Katie protested. “I didn’t suck! Y’all just weren’t interested in what I had to say!”

“Yeah, because you tried to tell us how to garden!”

“Oh, like you were any better— If I remember right, you showed up with that—that magazine!” Katie hissed, her face hot. Travis laughed again, and opened his mouth to say something before Beckendorf cut him off, an amused expression on his face.

“I think what we can take away from this is that no one is going to let Malcolm or Travis teach.”

“I teach in the school of life , B-dawg.” Travis grinned.

“Never say that again,” Katie muttered. 

“What about Josh?” Silena said. Katie cursed herself for not thinking of him sooner. “I know he’s not a counselor, but the kids love him. He’s patient with them.”

“Nepotism at its finest,” Connor muttered, and Katie glared at him. 

“I think it’s a great idea, Silena.”

“I can ask him after the meeting,” Malcolm volunteered. “We were planning on going to the canoe lake anyway.”

Katie rolled her eyes fondly at Malcolm’s pink cheeks. That boy was so unsubtle. 

“We’d need someone else, too,” Malcolm said. “Alternate days so that the workload isn’t too much. I think Beckendorf.” Katie nodded in agreement.

Beckendorf wrinkled his nose distastefully. “I don’t think teaching is really for me. I was actually thinking that Katie should do it.”

Katie frowned. “Me?”

“Josh is a good guy,” Beckendorf said, “but he has some trouble saying no sometimes. I think you’d keep them in line. And they like you, too.”

Katie scoffed, even though she was glowing a little at the compliment.

Malcolm laughed. “You were just telling me earlier that Austin and Cecil roped you into sitting through their hour-long performance the other day.”

Katie bit back a smile at the memory. Austin Lake was—of course—extremely musically inclined. Cecil, however, was not. The resulting performance consisted of three costume changes, four choreographed dance numbers (entirely on Cecil’s behalf), and five complaints from the nearby dryads that Katie had to sit through after the show. 

“I’m pretty sure that was just a distraction so that Connor and Travis,” Katie glowered in the direction of the Stolls, who were both looking faux-innocent, “could sneak into my cabin and raid my purse.”

Travis held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, they wanted to perform for you, too! It was just convenience on our part!”

Katie rolled her eyes. “The joke’s on you, because all I had in there was a single drachma. Which I am expecting back, by the way.”

Connor groaned. “Didn’t expect you to be so broke. We’ll try the Aphrodite cabin next, they’ve probably got better loot.”

Silena laughed. “You step foot into the Aphrodite cabin, and I’m getting Drew to charmspeak you into falling in love with a tree. Again.”

Connor reddened. “Hey, we had a connection!”

Travis laughed. “Didn’t you get a poison ivy rash?”

Connor nudged his side. “Dude!”

“ Dude!” Travis grinned back, and Katie rolled her eyes at the both of them. 

“If y’all are done, I nominate that we do lessons from ten to one every weekday, right after breakfast.”

A couple of the others were nodding, but some looked doubtful. “Ten to eleven,” Malcolm said. “We have to prioritize training.”

“What?” Katie’s jaw dropped. “ One hour? We used to do lessons all day!”

“One hour,” Malcolm said firmly. “Training is more important. This war is more important.”

“That’s stupid,” Katie said honestly. “They’re kids.”

“They’re kids walking into a war.” Malcolm’s voice was sharp. “I’d rather them be prepared than…”

“It’s just—” Katie stood her ground. “It’s not like camp without all the other stuff.”

“Funny,” Malcolm said, and Katie couldn’t read his face. “That’s what May always used to say.”

Katie didn’t have time to ask what Malcolm meant by that before the conversation was swiftly moved on, Beckendorf scribbling something down in his notebook.

“Okay. So we’ll do breakfast from eight to nine, class from ten to eleven. I’ve been thinking about it, and I think we need to put some first aid training in there somewhere. It’s basically only Will who knows what he’s doing in there. All we’re going off is some minor training last summer, and then one thing the satyr’s ran a few years back.”

Katie shuddered, recalling Gleeson Hedge’s intense first aid seminar. Katie doubted you could even call it that; it was more like an excuse to make them all beat each other up. Katie was normally friendly with the satyrs, but she supposed everyone had an exception and Gleeson Hedge was hers. 

“I got some training from Lee last summer,” Katie volunteered cautiously, sneaking a look at Malcolm. He was avoiding her gaze. “But it’s not enough. First aid training would be a great idea.”

“I was talking to Chiron about it before he left,” Beckendorf said. “And he thinks that all head counselors should be at least competent in the infirmary. And everyone else needs to have a basic knowledge of first aid.”

Katie looked at Beckendorf for a second. He was looking around, seemingly trying to gauge everyone’s reactions. This meeting was probably the most Katie had ever heard him talk in one sitting. It was just another thing she admired about him, she realized. His ability to take charge when needed, steadying and responsible, and always with an easy grin. He grinned at her, now, and Katie smiled shyly back. 

“I don’t need to know first aid ,” Travis yawned. “That’s what ambrosia’s for.”

“Do you just never listen?” Katie narrowed her eyes at him. “Our ambrosia is running low! And besides, what if you’re in a situation where you can’t access ambrosia? Or what if there are people who need it more? Or what if—”

“Good points, Katie!” Silena said. “So we’re all agreed that first aid training should definitely be a thing?”

Travis looked grumpy. Katie stuck her tongue out at him in a moment of childish weakness. Instead of having the desired effect—Travis going red and embarrassed and stopping being annoying—he just looked like he wanted to laugh. Katie rolled her eyes. She could feel Malcolm’s gaze on her. By the time she tuned back into the conversation, Connor and Silena were arguing over the logistics of the first aid training. 

“I’m not teaching Cecil and Lou Ellen how to put a splint on!” Connor said. “Or—gods forbid— Kayla and Austin? Have you met those kids?”

“Well, someone’s got to do it!” Silena protested, but Katie noticed that she wasn’t exactly volunteering for the position either. It was no wonder. Teaching first aid wasn’t like teaching battle strategy, or monster fighting, or even teaching them mythology. No one really considered it that important, not when there was ambrosia and nectar and a steady supply of Apollo kids. After spending more time in camp, too, Katie had begun to suspect that one of the reasons that people looked down on first aid so much was because it was one of the few things that was regularly taught by satyrs or other nature spirits. It frustrated Katie to no end. Katie had always considered it important, had always made an effort to learn from Lee and find the right herbal medicines in the woods. 

“Nose goes!” Connor touched his hand to his nose, and Katie rolled her eyes. 

“You can’t be—”

“Nose goes.” Silena copied his movement. 

“Nose goes.” Beckendorf, with an apologetic little grin and a starry-eyed look at Silena.

“Nose goes.” Malcolm winced next to Katie. Katie scowled. 

“If y’all are gonna be so immatu—”

“I’ll do it.” Travis shrugged. Katie frowned at him, momentarily thrown off. 

“Do what?”

“Teach first aid.” Travis shot a nervous glance at Katie. Katie narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ll do it.”

In all her years at camp, Katie had never seen Travis Stoll volunteer to take on any responsibility. Ever. In fact, Katie had only ever seen Travis explicitly trying to weasel his way out of responsibility. He traded off responsibilities like they were Mythomagic cards. Her first instinct was to be suspicious. 

But, as she studied him closer, that bashful expression on his face, something strange stirred in her stomach. Was she impressed? Maybe. 

Travis’s eyes flitted to Katie’s again and she realized she was staring at him. Her face went hot and she abruptly looked away. Katie had always worn her feelings on her face. She wondered what he saw, when he looked at her. 

She shook her head to clear her mind and focused on Malcolm, instead, who was rambling about when they should fit first aid training into the daily schedule. 

By the time the meeting ended, they’d come up with something vaguely resembling a timetable. It wasn’t perfect, but everyone seemed relatively happy with it. Katie was, at least. There was an hour in the morning for class, followed by an hour and a half of first aid training. They would break for lunch and free time and get straight into battle training in the afternoon, which they’d all be sharing the responsibilities for until Michael and Clarisse were allowed to leave the infirmary. Silena had insisted that after dinner, they dedicate two hours for Arts and Crafts, volleyball, and other fun activities.

Malcolm had still looked doubtful, but Katie had firmly told him that he was being stupid. He was outvoted anyway, most enthusiastically by the Stolls. Katie was starting to realize that being a Head Counselor was a bit of a delicate balancing act. She was determined that she wouldn’t drop anything. 

“It’s not right,” Malcolm said as they filed out of the meeting. His arms were crossed firmly over his chest.

“Yeah,” Katie said through her teeth. “It’s not right that we’re training up kids to fight in a—”

“Well, what’s the alternative, Katie?” Malcolm suddenly halted to a stop, swirling around to face her. His voice dripped with bitterness. Katie blinked, momentarily stunned. “Let them fend for themselves? Like in the Battle of the Labyrinth? Let more kids die ? Is that what you want?”

“Excuse me?” Katie was horrified that Malcolm would even say something like that. “What—”

“I’m going to my cabin,” Malcolm said, turning sharply on his heel and swiftly moving towards the cabins. Katie was left alone, standing on the footpath at his retreating blonde head, mouth still open but words nowhere to be found. 

___

Later that night, things were still stiff and awkward with Malcolm. Katie and Josh had gone over to the Athena cabin—initiated by Josh, obviously—and Malcolm didn’t seem too pleased to see Katie. Of course, he was Malcolm , though, so he wouldn’t outright say that he was mad. Instead, Katie’s blood boiled hot as he spoke to her briefly and formally, preferring instead to converse with Josh about his studies. 

The Athena cabin was as tidy and organized as always, the walls covered in complicated looking battle plans and sticky notes left from the summer that read things like “ask heather about flying chariot logistics,” and “jake, clean up!! cabin inspections tmr morning.” The whole cabin smelled faintly of lavender. The evidence of Malcolm’s own recent research tangents was clear; binders and piles of baking paper with Malcolm’s messy scribble were strewn about messily in a way that made Katie think that Malcolm knew exactly where each of them was, and that he would probably try to murder her if she moved one of them. Josh seemed to get the memo, too, because he had cautiously tiptoed in and sat against one of the beds delicately. 

Katie sighed, rolling her head back to stare at the roof. Josh, who was perched behind her on one of the beds attempting to braid Katie’s hair, kicked her arm. 

“Stop moving!” 

“I’m not!” Katie protested, even though she definitely had been. 

“We should get Mal to do this,” Josh said. “Aren’t Athena kids meant to be good at braiding?”

“That’s a myth.” Malcolm said instantly, without looking at Katie. “We’re good at weaving. Not braiding.”

“Same thing.” Katie muttered under her breath.

“Actually, it’s not.” Malcolm corrected. Katie rolled her eyes. 

Josh, perhaps sensing some tension, cleared his throat. “Why are all Athena kids good at weaving, anyway? It’s not as if all the Apollo kids are good at archery, or all of them are good at healing. Just look at Michael and Will.”

“I’m not actually sure.” Malcolm said, much less maliciously.. Katie glowered. “ Our running theory is that it’s because our mother just really wanted to drive the point home.”

Josh laughed. “That’s cold. Like, it’s not enough that you’re turned into a giant spider for all of eternity? She just really wanted to rub it in by making all of her kids inhumanely good at weaving, too.”

Katie couldn’t see Malcolm’s face, but she knew that his cheeks were pink. “We’re not inhumanely—”

“Shut your mouth, Pace,” Josh cut him off. “I consider anyone who can make Chiron literally speechless inhumanely good at weaving.”

“What?” Katie frowned, momentarily thrown. 

“At the start of last year,” Josh explained, eyes twinkling.,“Chiron asked Malcolm to try his hand at that loom that’s been sitting in the attic since, like, 1990. He ended up doing this amazing tapestry of camp— I swear, you can see the details in each individual strawberry. It’s awesome.”

“It’s not that good,” Malcolm said instantly, but he sounded proud. 

“It is that good,” Josh told Katie. “He put us in it, too y’know? Hanging out by the Big House, all together. He swore it wasn’t us specifically, but you’re in that one purple sweatshirt you always used to wear, and I’m, like, one of the four black kids who stay year-round, and he made himself like a foot taller than us both so it checks out, in my opinion.”

“It was nothing.” Malcolm shifted. His grey eyes flicked towards Katie, and—for a split second—they made eye contact. Katie felt uncomfortably exposed. From the expression on his face, she guessed that Malcolm felt the same way. “I just wanted to try out the loom.”

“Sure, sure.” Josh said lightly, securing the ends of Katie’s braids. She ran her hands over them, grateful for a distraction. “He loves us, really.”

Malcolm didn’t say anything more on the topic, swiftly shifting gears to talk about Mr. D’s latest disappearance. Katie let Malcolm and Josh talk, picking uncomfortably at her braids as the day shifted to night and the silver light of the moon began to flood the cabin. 

Before curfew that night, Katie snuck to the Big House. Her heart thumped like she was doing something she wasn’t allowed to as she tiptoed under the cover of darkness, slipping inside the white painted door and praying it wouldn’t creak. The Big House felt abandoned and creepy at night, illuminated only by the silver glow of the moon leaching through the windows. Shadows stretched and distorted around Katie as she tiptoed up the stairs; her blood rushed in her ears. 

The ghostly gaze of the Oracle seemed to rest heavy on her as she entered the attic. Katie shivered. She remembered what her Dad had used to say whenever he got creeped out: that it meant that someone had just walked over his grave. 

Katie searched the attic for twenty minutes before finally leaving, defeated. It was a stupid thought, really: Malcolm’s tapestry was probably kept somewhere else. There would be no reason for Chiron to put it in the dusty old attic—not while Katie and Josh and Malcolm and the rest were still at camp, anyway. Katie didn’t even know why she felt the burning desire to find it in the first place—not really. 

Maybe, she wanted to see if it was possible to dive back through time to the picture Malcolm had weaved, to feel fresh summer air and sweet strawberries on her tongue and Malcolm’s hand in hers and the soft, summer-feeling that nothing would ever be bad. Maybe, Katie just wanted— needed—to see some proof that Malcolm had ever loved her at all, that their friendship wasn’t just the imagined fantasy of a lonely girl. 

On the way back to her cabin, Katie swore she could feel Malcolm’s silvery gaze on her across the whole green. When she glanced at the Athena cabin, though, Malcolm was nowhere to be seen. 

___

The newly developed schedule quickly set in around camp. Everyone took to it with surprising ease. Katie tucked it away as another bullet point on her endless mental list as to why routine and schedules were the best. Josh was quietly ecstatic in a very Josh-like way when Katie and Malcolm asked him if he wanted to teach some of the classes, and he was only slightly deflated when Katie told him that she’d be teaching some, too. 

“It could be worth a go,” Josh said one day, thoughtful and shy at once. Katie frowned at him, looking up from the headache-inducing pile of worksheets she was trying to go to. Instead of correctly labeling the medicinal plants, Cecil had just written as many variants of “your mom” that he could possibly think of. 

“What could?”

Josh bit his lip. “It’s stupid.”

Katie rolled her eyes. “I guarantee you it’s not. Spit it out, dummy.”

Josh flipped her off, and Katie stuck her tongue out at him. 

“Just, like—” Josh looked uncertain. “I mean, teaching here. When I’m older. Do the whole college thing and then come back here to teach the year-round campers all the stuff they would learn in regular school. I mean, Chiron’s good and all, but we’ve got so many gaps in our—”

“Josh,” Katie murmured, half-amused, half-fond. Josh looked bashful and nervous and hopeful - a far cry from his normal confidence and seeming ease, but he was still so Josh that it hurt. She felt a sudden rush of fondness for him, for his desire to make their world better, for his genuine care for other people. He’d always been like that, so friendly that it ached. Katie was undeniably proud of him, too, for opening up more and more. “That’s, like, the best idea. That sort of thing would be so valuable to the campers— Even just having an adult around who’s not Chiron or Mr. D, one who just… gets it. And you’re so— You’d be perfect.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Josh said, but he looked pleased nonetheless.___

Michael and Clarisse were finally let out from the infirmary—Katie roped Malcolm and Josh into helping her bake a strawberry cake to say ‘thank you’ to Will Solace for putting up with them that long—a few days into the new schedule, both antsy and ready to go. They both had issues with the new schedule for various reasons, and it took a frustrating head counselor meeting to work out one that everyone was happy with. Clarisse originally wanted to cut into their after-dinner recreational activities with more training, but they all negotiated her down to an hour of boot camp before breakfast in the morning.

Katie would secretly come to regret that decision in the weeks that followed, though, when her muscles were sore and aching and the sounds of pots and pans clanging at her door (Clarisse’s version of an alarm) instantly sent her body into fight or flight mode.  

Chiron returned about a week into their new schedule. He looked proud and maybe a little amused when they showed him their work, but Katie had never been able to read the old centaur that well, so she let it pass. 

“I hope that I’ll be staying at camp much more permanently, now,” Chiron told them. “My duties are—for the most part—done. Mr. D will be taking regular absences to help with the war effort, however.”

Everyone halfheartedly groaned, but Katie could tell that the only people who were actually disappointed were the Stoll brothers, who could get away with much more under Mr. D than under Chiron’s watchful eye. 

Having Chiron back as a more permanent fixture was strange. Katie had always respected Chiron, had always admired him, feared him, desperately craved his approval. Now, though, it was like something had shifted. She didn’t even realize it until she was standing in front of him one day, updating him on the progress of the strawberry fields. 

“You’ve done well, Katie,” Chiron said, kindly, and Katie was appreciative but her heart didn’t swell or threaten to explode. She didn’t freak out, or grin, or feel so relieved that it hurt. 

“Thanks.”

“You’re making your siblings proud,” Chiron said, and something solidified inside Katie’s chest. Her friends, her siblings: those were the people who Katie cared about. Who she would fight for, when the time came. Not Chiron, not even her mom. She thought back to all those years ago, when Chiron had sat them down and told them something bad was coming, and Katie had been so afraid and so determined for all the wrong reasons. She understood, now. There was a calmness that hadn’t been there before, the pieces shifting into place. There was a certainty, a sureness of her place in the camp.

Katie would never be the fighter, not like Michael or Clarisse. She would never be the smart one, or even the funny one. Katie would always be there, though, to make sure the strawberry fields were growing and to make sweet pies and to lend an ear if anyone needed it. Katie would be there, steady and sure, because she loved camp and she thought it might love her too. She would fight to preserve their slice of peace.

One of Katie’s favorite things about the new schedule was the recreational activities time. Penciled in after dinner and before curfew, it mostly consisted of the head counselors taking groups of the others to do mundane camp activities. During Silena’s week, she taught all the girls how to do their makeup. Katie sat, blushing and giggling as Silena painted her cheeks a pretty pink and showed her how to make her brown eyes look big and soft. When she met up with the boys at the end of the night, they all teased her, but it was soft and happy teasing, and so it was fun. Katie made flowers grow out of all their shoes, and they moved on pretty quickly to making fun of each other instead. Katie listened, laughing, as Michael grumpily recounted how Josh had tried to give them a seminar about the best shoes to pair with different cuts of jeans. 

“Night, then!” Katie finally called out as Malcolm, Michael, and Josh disappeared towards their cabins and she was left alone with Travis on the porch of Cabin Four. His skin glowed silver in the moonlight, his curls soft and shiny. She felt flustered all of a sudden. 

“You’re probably going to get eaten if you stay any longer,” Katie informed him. “Chiron’s got the cleaning harpies being extra vigilant since the Harpy-and-seek thing.” 

“Nah.” Travis grinned boyishly. “They love me.”

Katie scoffed. “I’ll make sure to say tomorrow morning when we’re burning your shroud. Travis Stoll: the harpies loved him.”

Travis laughed, and the sound was so warm that it made Katie warm, too. She pulled down the smile that was threatening to appear, reminding herself that this was still Travis Stoll , of all people. 

“So?” Katie cleared her throat. “Anything up?”

Travis’s expression was unreadable. If Katie actually cared about Travis Stoll, she probably would’ve paid ten golden drachmas to read his thoughts at that moment. Disappointingly, Travis just shook his head. 

“Night.”

Katie was torn between being amused and being annoyed. She settled for a mix between the two, shooting him a fond little eye roll that was usually reserved for Malcolm, Josh, or Michael. 

“Night.”

Travis made to walk away, taking a few aborted steps before swinging around suddenly. Katie squinted at him.

“You look nice.” It was barely audible, and Katie almost asked him to repeat himself. For a split-second, she was sure that he was making fun of her and something in her stomach twisted. She looked at him, though, features softened by starlight, his expression unreadable but undeniably sweet. Sweet. That wasn’t a word that Katie had associated with Travis Stoll, before. She bit back a smile. 

“Night, Travis.”

___

Even with the schedule and the routine of it all, Katie found herself slipping by the end of March, slipping down a familiar, rocky slope that terrified her to her core. It was subtle at first, and she mostly attributed it to the long hours and hard work: she was tired more often and was quicker to anger, irritation coursing through her veins like fire. Whenever she was annoyed, plants would wither with astonishing frequency, and it was becoming harder to keep this new part of herself under wraps. 

“Seriously, Katie,” Josh said one afternoon when they were on KP duty, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Katie tried to shoot him her best charming smile, but there was a chill that had settled under her skin and it terrified her. “Now, can we please just keep washing up?”

Katie didn’t think she was fine. Bone-aching exhaustion had settled somewhere deep inside her. She was angry at it, and angry at herself. She was angry because it stopped her from walking the extra mile to bring the Hephaestus kids some flowers after they fixed up the door of Cabin Four, angry because she was too busy dwelling to make a cake to commemorate the day that Beckendorf drove Malcolm into the city so that he could get his hands on some practice SAT papers, angry because she was too exhausted to love the people that she loved in the way that she wanted to love them. She was angry at the familiarity of it all. Her muscles turning to lead beneath her. Sleepless nights in Cabin Four. Being unable to muster up the joy she should have been able to muster up when Drew Tanaka said that she wanted to start learning how to garden. 

It might’ve been to do with Louisa’s upcoming birthday, April 10th. Thinking about Louisa was something that Katie tried very hard not to do. Thinking about Louisa made her stomach turn and her mind start racing down familiar tracks that Katie did not want it to race down. 

Because Louisa had left. Katie had loved her and she had left. 

Katie sometimes liked to think of her mind as a series of rooms, an old house. Malcolm and Josh and Michael lived in the same place as May and Liam and her siblings: in the garden, with the sunshine and strawberries and summer air to keep them company. The war lived in the attic, dusty and old and inevitable. Her mom lived in the sitting room to the corner that Katie tried not to visit; whenever she did, she always found herself getting lost. Mostly, Louisa lived in the same place in Katie’s mind as her dad. She tucked them both away in the dustiest, darkest place she could find and locked the door as many times as she could. Thinking about them, visiting them tore her apart, sometimes.

Katie knew how lucky she was to get a second chance from Malcolm (distant and strange as he might be acting lately) and even from Josh. There was a part of her, stabbing and aching, that was consumed by the fact that she would never get that chance with Louisa. Thinking about it all had her spiraling. What about May? Katie had been close to her for years, and now they hadn’t spoken since summer. They might never speak again. There was a deep sadness that Katie felt like she was carrying around like a body. On Louisa’s birthday, Katie thought about Iris Messaging her. She didn’t. 

There was no time for dwelling, Katie told herself.

She was proven right time and time again. In the last week of April, a fox the size of a building tore through camp, demolishing the Arts and Crafts pavilion, the Aphrodite cabin and half of the Hermes cabin. Katie was almost secretly grateful for the distraction. 

“Holy shit!” Cecil exclaimed when they first saw it. “What the fuck is that?”

It was mid-morning, and Katie had brought half of the non-counselor campers down to the edge of the woods for a hands-on biology lesson (which mostly consisted of gathering medicinal plants that Will needed for the infirmary). Nyssa, Lou Ellen, Cecil, and Kayla, had all broken into panicked chatter, pointing and gasping at the giant creature in the distance. It was the kind of outlandish thing that Katie herself would’ve been freaking out about two years ago (who was she kidding; she was freaking out now), as big as a building with paws the size of tables, prowling up Half-Blood Hill and crushing trees with single footsteps. Its snarls echoed through the valley, making every hair on Katie’s neck stand on end. 

“What the fuck do we do?” Lou Ellen Blackstone screeched. “Should we go and fight it? What is it? What—”

“Shut the fuck up, Lou Ellen!” Kayla Knowles barked, but she was as pale as a ghost. “Michael is over at camp. So is Will. What do we—”

“ Shit, did it just step on—”

“Guys.” Katie tried to get their attention, but no one stopped talking.

“Should we ru—”

“What—”

“I think it just stepped on the Aphrodite cabin.” Nyssa’s voice was as quiet as a whisper. Katie’s blood ran cold. She wished May were here, wished it was Silena or Beckendorf or anyone else, because all of the younger campers were sending frantic looks towards Katie like she was the one who was supposed to know what to do. Horrified, Katie realized she was the one who was meant to know what to do. The realization jolted her into action. The desire to protect these kids overwhelmed everything else. She squared her shoulders. 

“Stop watching,” Katie said, and she could feel the heat of their gazes on her, wide and open and afraid. “We’ve been expecting an attack of some kind for weeks. Beckendorf has been working on a defense system so for now, we’re just going to stay calm and—” 

Katie looked around frantically, scanning camp. In the distance, she could hear a loud clatter as the fox toppled another cabin. The fox looked like it was going to prowl over towards them any second; Katie couldn’t afford to wait another moment.

“And we’re going to head deeper into the woods, towards Zeus’s fist. It won’t be able to find us there. And—and hopefully the others have a similar idea.”

“What if—” Lou Ellen looked uncharacteristically afraid. “What if there’s monsters? In the woods? What if it’s all just a trap?”

Gods, Katie wished Josh was there. She wished anyone was there. She took another glance back to camp, to the giant fox that towered over her home. She took a deep breath. 

“I’ll protect us.” As soon as she had said it, Katie knew it was true. She would do anything to protect them. Anything . She shot them with her best knowledgable look. A look that said “I’ve got this.” A look that said “I’ve got you.” “The woods are my home territory. C’mon.”

Their little party was quiet as they moved into the woods. Katie didn’t think she had ever heard Cecil, Lou Ellen, or Kayla go so long without speaking. The trees blocked the sun, casting strange shadows around them and cooling the air. The bushes rustled. Katie tried her best not to be afraid. Behind them, the noise at camp and the cries of the fox echoed. She reached out with all of her senses, trying to detect anything nefarious lurking around them. The hair on her neck stood on end, her eyes desperately raking over every tree, every bush, every crevasse she could possibly see. She kept her fists clenched carefully at her side. 

A particularly loud crash from the direction of camp had them all jolting. 

“What do you think it is?” Kayla breathed. 

“A fuck-off giant fox,” Cecil answered, and Katie swatted the back of his head. 

“Language.” She gave him her best May stare. 

“I think I know what it is.” Nyssa stopped suddenly, sending Lou Ellen crashing into her. Katie reached out a hand to help Lou Ellen up, frowning at Nyssa. “Josh was telling me about a myth a few weeks ago, when he was helping in the forge. There’s this one— I can’t remember the details, but it’s a giant fox. It was sent by the gods to terrorize some city, and it was dangerous because it could never be caught.”

Katie’s head spun. “How did they defeat it, then?”

Nyssa paled. “They didn’t. One of the other gods—or something like that—sent a dog that caught all of its prey. I remember thinking it was sort of sad: the fox that could never be caught, and the dog that caught all of its prey. Zeus ended up turning them both into constellations.”

Katie cursed herself. It was coming back to her, now, an old tale Chiron had told them once. She remembered the Stolls insisting that they could’ve caught it if there was a monetary prize. The Teumessian Fox, it was called. 

“If they’re constellations, then how is it here, now?” Cecil frowned. “And—And if it can’t be caught, then how do we get rid of it?”

“Monsters never really die,” Lou Ellen said. “They just disappear for a bit.”

Her words made the air heavy. Katie shook her head, trying to clear it. Her mind was still racing, plotting, desperately trying to plan. She wondered if this was how Malcolm felt all of the time. So they couldn’t rely on the myth’s to provide them with an answer. Katie frowned. 

Back in Texas, she remembered her dad fretting about foxes. He was worried they would get into their vegetable patch, worried that one would burrow its way into their chicken coop and eat the chickens. Katie had been particularly troubled by this idea; every morning, she would get up at dawn to check that the fence they had laid around the coop was still secure, that all of the chickens were accounted for. 

“How did it even get inside of the border?” Kayla said, her eyes blazing. She looked at everyone accusingly. Her hands were clenched around her bow so hard that Katie could see the whites of her knuckles. That thought had not even occurred to Katie before. Now, though, it hit her with terrifying gravity. If a monster was inside the border, that could mean one of two things. The borders could be faulty again, like that summer when Thalia’s tree was dying. Far worse, for a monster to be inside of camp, someone would’ve had to summon it. One of them . Katie shook her head, steeled herself. 

“That’s not important,” Katie said. “There could be so many reasons as to why it’s here. We just need to focus on making sure we’re safe, and getting rid of it. I remember— Back in Texas, we had a sprinkler system to scare the foxes off. They hated loud noises, too, so we’d be out there with our pots and pans whenever we saw one. Foxes aren’t generally vicious creatures.”

“I don’t know, Katie,” Cecil muttered. “That one looked pretty vicious to me.”

As if to prove his point, another loud clang sounded from the direction of camp. Katie’s heart raced, but she just rolled her eyes with a huff. 

“Even magical foxes are still foxes,” she told him. “Now, c’mon, not far to go. I should really make y’all start hiking regularly.”

It seemed like an endless walk to Zeus’s Fist. They encountered no monsters, but Katie was on edge the whole time and—despite the chill in the air—by the time they arrived, her hair was sticking to the back of her neck with sweat. 

“Where to now?” Cecil asked, shiftily looking around. The pause hung in the air for a moment too long before Katie realized she was expected to answer. She frowned. 

“The creek,” Katie decided. “We’ll try and Iris Message Malcolm, or some of the others. See what they’re doing. Work out a plan— Mal’s good at that.”

Dutifully, the campers followed her down the worn path towards the creek. It was impossible to tell the time of day, and no one was wearing a watch, but Katie guessed that it had been about an hour since they had first seen the fox. Her thin shirt wasn’t doing much to protect her against the chill that had settled in the air, and she shivered in the cool. 

“Take advantage of this while it lasts,” Katie told the others, who looked progressively more nervous the deeper they got into the woods. “I’m pretty sure Clarisse will make us do boot camp drills the minute we walk back into camp.”

It wasn’t a good joke, but Katie had never been particularly funny, and at least a few of the campers smiled faintly. 

When they arrived at the creek, Katie realized she was drachma-less. Fortunately, Lou Ellen sheepishly pulled one out of her pocket and Katie tossed it into the mist, crossing her fingers and praying it would work.

“O, Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept this offering,” Katie said. “Please show me Malcolm Pace at Camp Half-Blood.”

The mist glinted rainbow. Katie held her breath. Suddenly, she was looking at Malcolm, blonde and frazzled and glasses-less, and Katie was stupidly glad to see him. He was standing with Michael, Travis, Beckendorf and Silena. Katie frowned, trying to ascertain their location.

“You’re at the pegasus stables?”

Malcolm nodded. “It seemed like the safest place. We were all in the Big House when we saw that thing in the distance. Chiron led us here.”

“We’re in the woods,” Katie told him, “by the creek. Have you heard from—”

“Josh has got his group down at the beach,” Malcolm said instantly. “Chiron’s IMing him at the moment.”

Katie nodded. She was conscious of the kids, all listening into their conversation with keen ears. 

“We think it’s the Teumessian Fox,” Malcolm explained. “In the original myth, it was sent by Mr. D—”

“That’s a rumor, Matthew,” Mr. D’s bored voice droned from the background. “And if you repeat it again, I’ll have to turn you into a grape vine.”

Katie rolled her eyes. “Can’t he just get rid of it, then?”

Mr. D was in the frame, now, his eyes narrowed. “If I could get rid of it, don’t you think I would’ve done it by now, Kelly?”

Katie had to resist the urge to roll her eyes again. She had to poke Kayla in the side when she heard her mutter, “doubt it,” under her breath. Gods, that kid was just like Michael. 

“So how do we beat it?”

“In the original myth, a paradox was created because—”

“Screw this.” Katie heard Michael’s exasperated voice. “Let's just go and get rid of it. Travis, you in?”

“Definitely,” Katie heard Travis reply. 

“You little shits aren’t doing anything without me,” Katie heard Clarisse cut in.

“No one is doing anything !” Malcolm said again. “We’re going to stay safe and stay away , and—”

“Guys?” Katie tried for her best authoritative tone, refusing to meet Malcolm’s eyes through the Iris Message.  “Foxes are scared of loud noises. And we used to get rid of them by using a sprinkler system, and banging pots and pans together. Maybe Beckendorf has something that could help?”

Katie ignored Malcolm’s accusatory look and ended the Iris Message after some more discussion with Michael and Travis. 

The problem was resolved fairly quickly after that. As it turned out, Beckendorf did have something that could help—a giant blow dryer he had been working on for canoe lake emergencies (it was true that a lot of campers had been falling into the canoe lake recently)—and the fox was scared away quickly. They met back at Camp to reassess the damage, and—after making sure that Cecil, Kayla, Nyssa, and Lou Ellen were okay—made a beeline for Malcolm, who was surveying some of the damage to the Arts and Crafts pavilion with a disappointed look. 

“Don’t be mad,” Katie said in a way of greeting. 

Katie couldn’t place Malcolm’s expression.  “Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

Katie rolled her eyes. “I just had to sit through two hours of “I Spy” and “Never Have I Ever” with a group of hyperactive twelve-year-olds. It’s actually illegal for you to be mad at me right now.”

Malcolm gave a laugh that even Katie could tell was forced. She rolled her eyes. “If you’re going to be a little—”

“Okay.” Malcolm still sounded grumpy. His gray eyes looked stormy as he massaged his temples. “I’m done. I’m just— It took out half the Arts and Crafts Pavilion, parts of the Big House, as well as the Aphrodite Cabin, and half of the Hermes Cabin. And Michael got hurt when they were trying to scare it away.”

Katie frowned. “What—”

“Minor electric shock,” Malcolm sighed. “He tried to fill Beckendorf’s blow dryer with water when there was electricity running through it.”

Katie shook her head fondly. “What an idiot. Is he okay?”

“Yeah. Will’s giving him some ambrosia in the Apollo cabin. But there’s bigger things to worry about.”

“Like?” Katie prompted. Malcolm shook his head, and Katie rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Mal.”

“I’m just—” Malcolm said finally, “I’m just worried. That’s all.”

“About?” 

“Nothing.” Malcolm shook his head, and Katie raised an eyebrow at him. 

“You don’t have to be worried alone, Mal,” she reminded him. “That’s what friends are there for. That’s what I’m here for. I know…I know things have been weird between us. But you can talk to me. You know that, right?”

Malcolm shot her a doubtful look, and Katie was suddenly struck with how much he had changed in the time they had known each other. He was taller, now. Less gangly. Quicker to speak his mind. He was still the same in some ways, though: he’d never been a talker about his feelings. He had never liked telling people his fears; Katie remembered back to before the Battle of the Labyrinth, when he had refused to tell Katie and Josh any information about the battle that he had known. They had both been furious at the time—Katie was still annoyed when she thought too much about it—but they had realized it had come from a place of fear. Of love. Which were, sometimes—according to Josh—one and the same. 

“I know you think you’re protecting me, by not telling me stuff. I know your mind is genius and brilliant and about twenty steps ahead of the rest of us. But you’re not protecting me. You’re just making yourself more freaked out. Now, c’mon, spit it out— I want to go and check the strawberry fields before we start working out plans for the next few days while we rebuild.”

Malcolm seemed to hesitate for a split second, before: “It’s really nothing. C’mon. We should check out the rebuilding plans.”

Katie gave him a long look, but didn’t say anything else as they jogged back down to rejoin everyone else. She didn’t have much time to dwell on it, anyway, because they were straight into action. Chiron decided that normal camp activities would be called off for a few days while they repaired all the damages. Nyssa, Jake, and Beckendorf were assigned with repairing all the damages, each putting together teams to work on a specific area. Katie secretly hoped that she could be on Beckendorf’s team. It wasn’t that she disliked Nyssa or Jake, but she wasn’t really keen to be bossed around by a twelve- or thirteen-year-old. 

“We’ll talk about it tonight,” Beckendorf said, “and work out who we'll need for each area. If nothing else, consider this a mid-fall seminar on carpentry and woodworking.”

“Yeah,” Michael, who had rejoined the group with Will (looking only a little more frazzled than usual), muttered. “Because that’s what we need to be learning right now.”

Irritation flickered in Katie, and she shot him her best May look, narrowing her eyes and raising her eyebrows in a disdainful way. Michael glowered at her. 

“I’ll be Iris Messaging Annabeth tonight anyway,” Malcolm said, looking thoughtful. “She’s an architecture fanatic. I could let her know to IM you guys later to help with the rebuilds?”

Katie thought that Nyssa and Jake looked a bit offended, but neither said anything, especially when Beckendorf nodded gratefully.

“That would be great. Thanks, Malcolm.”

“Regarding accommodation,” Chiron said, “the Aphrodite cabin is currently unusable.” 

Katie raised her hand immediately. Chiron nodded at her.

“I’ve got an empty cabin— People can stay at mine if they need.”

Beckendorf nodded, and Katie bit back a smile when she saw that he was looking at Silena. “Us, too. I mean, not empty . But we have spare beds, if people need them.”

Katie turned expectantly to Malcolm. After a minute of silence, she had to actually nudge him before he sighed and half-heartedly raised a hand, too.

“I can take people, too.”

“Glad you guys can, because we definitely can’t.” Michael snorted.

It was eventually decided that Malcolm would take Josh into Cabin Four, and Drew would go to Cabin Eleven so that she could stay with Lou Ellen, who she had become fast friends with. Silena somehow ended up in the Hephaestus cabin, though no one was really sure how that happened.

The only issue arose when the topic of Mrs. O’Leary, Percy’s awful hellhound that had been in the care of the Hermes kids, was brought up. Drew outright refused to stay anywhere near the thing. Some of the others began to look expectantly at Katie, but she firmly refused.

“It’s a no,” Katie said for the millionth time with an involuntary shudder. “That thing gives me the creeps.”

Mrs. O’Leary ended up with the Hephaestus kids, unfortunately for Silena. Katie tried to send her an apologetic look, even though she wasn’t really that sorry. Beckendorf looked happy, at least. She said so on their way to dinner, and Travis laughed. 

“Of course he’s happy.” Travis’s eyes sparkled. He didn’t seem too outwardly bothered by the partial destruction of Cabin Eleven; he had just shrugged, said that it was due for a remodel anyway, and then asked Chiron if they could claim their insurance money for any damaged possessions. “He’s got his girlfriend and his dog. What more could a guy need?”

Katie laughed, despite herself. “You know they’re not actually dating, right?”

“They may as well be.” Travis shuddered. “If I have to see them make heart-eyes at each other one more time…I feel bad for Nyssa and Jake.”

At dinner that night, Beckendorf stood up. Everyone cheered, and Katie’s face hurt from grinning so hard. He looked bashful and flushed. Katie loved him so much. 

“I just want to say that I’ve been getting a lot of credit for the blow dryer,” Beckendorf said. “And yeah, I made it, but—”

The Stoll brothers led another loud round of raucous applause, and Katie shot them a halfhearted stink eye, which was diminished by the fact that she was cheering, too. 

Beckendorf huffed, but there was a little proud grin on his face. “Thanks, guys. Really. But I just wanted to say that it’s really all thanks to Silena that it even existed in the first place; she’s the one who came up with the idea for the blow dryer.”

“Just make out already!” Miles yelled from the Ares Cabin, and Katie had to purse her lips as Clarisse almost knocked him off the bench. Everyone cheered for Silena, who was blushing prettily under the soft light. 

Katie looked around. Everyone was grinning and cheering and Silena and Beckendorf were in the center of it all, looking flushed and lovesick and happy and Katie was struck for a moment with how much she loved them both. How much they all loved them both. They really didn’t get enough credit for just existing, for anchoring the camp with friendly smiles and steady hands and calm words. 

Malcolm was still in a bad mood after dinner—or, a thoughtful one at least. After telling Lou Ellen and Drew to be at Cabin Four by curfew (with a strongly implied “ or else ”), Katie jogged to catch up with him. On the way, however, Josh grabbed her arm. He was walking with Michael and Travis, who Katie nodded at. She frowned at Josh.

“What?”

“Malcolm’s in a pissy mood. Just thought I’d give you a heads up. You might want to give him some space, y’know?”

“He’s just being stupid.”

“Nah, I think that Josh is right with this one,” Michael chimed in with a grin, which looked weird on his face since he didn’t do it a lot.

“Just—Just, be careful.” Josh instructed.

“It’s Malcolm, J. He’s not some uncontrollable wild animal. This is the guy who refuses to eat pickles because he says they have a weird texture.”

Josh raised his hands. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Night, guys.”

On her search to find Malcolm, Katie ran into Chiron at the Big House. He didn’t ask her what she was doing, just asked about the next crop of strawberries. Katie told him they were doing well—save for a few odd patches that had been cursed by some malicious nature spirit, probably—and Chiron had told her that he had organized a way to sell the produce from Liam’s Garden in the city. 

“Unfortunately, our Delphi Strawberry Service buyers were not interested in other fresh produce,” Chiron said. Katie frowned, disappointed. “However, I have been in contact with a rather popular Farmers Market in Brooklyn. You may go in with Argus one Sunday after the damage has been repaired and set up a stall, if you wish. If it is a success, we will make it into a regular occurrence.”

Despite everything that had happened earlier, Katie suddenly felt like it was the best day in the world. She felt warm inside, like she had just bitten off some bread fresh from the oven, wholesome and homey. “You mean—”

Chiron had a faint smile on his face, too. “Yes. You may repurpose some things from the attic to create a suitable stand to set up, and I have been liaising with the mortal organizers in order to get all the necessary permits. Of course, you will need to bring Clarisse with you for protection, and perhaps another, more - er - more personable camper to assist in selling the produce. I would suggest Josh Sarr, or perhaps Silena Beauregard. I trust that you’ll collect all the profit and return it to the Big House once you return.”

Katie’s heart was leaping out of her chest. Her face was warm. Even though it was dark, she swore she could feel the sun shining from afar. “What— Where— Should I— Won’t it be dangerous? Are you sure? Not that I’m saying no , I think it sounds like an amazing, perfect—”

Chiron looked amused, and Katie reddened. “I trust that you’ll be in safe hands with Clarisse and Argus. You’ll be surrounded by mortals, as well as fragrant produce and goods. I also trust that you’ll be responsible and I have no doubt that you can defend yourself well enough in case of an emergency.”

Katie bit her lip to pull back her smile. It didn’t really work. “Thank you, Chiron. Really, really—thank you.”

Chiron nodded at her. “I’ll discuss the further details with you some time this week. I know that mortals are fond of writing up a little history of their stand, giving some context behind their small business. While it would obviously be inappropriate to mention— Well, the Greek of it all— I thought you might like to mention Liam. It is his garden, after all.”

Katie was suddenly blinking away tears, but they were happy ones. She cleared her throat. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do that. Thanks.”

Chiron just nodded, and maybe Katie really was learning because she knew this was him dismissing her. She gave him another grin, made a mental note to bake him a pie when the rebuilding was done, and continued her search for Malcolm.

When she finally found him, she was still in a good mood. He was sitting by the hearth, staring into the flickering flames. Katie nudged him in the side, sliding into the seat next to him. 

“Guess what?”

Malcolm didn’t acknowledge her for a long second. Katie frowned at him, concerned. She studied his face carefully. There was a strange, thoughtful expression on his face. Katie could deal with that. She had encountered thoughtful Malcolm before, a Malcolm who got so enthralled by his work that it was impossible to draw him out of it. She had always known that he was far smarter than her, but it wasn’t until moments like these, though, that she could really feel the distance. She felt something shift strangely inside of her. 

“What?”

Katie’s good mood felt dampened. Still, she nudged his side again.

“Chiron said I could sell some of the produce from Liam’s Garden in a farmers’ market in the city. He said that I could go on Sunday with Argus and get a stall set up.”

Malcolm shot her a faint smile. “Cool.”

Hurt twisted inside of Katie. She suddenly didn’t really want to be out here with Malcolm; it was too cold and the fire too hot and burning, projecting strange shapes onto the ground. The silence between them was deafening all of a sudden. Katie, being Katie, tried to break it. 

“What are you thinking about?”

“Huh?”

Katie sighed. “I’ve known you since we were eleven. You’ve got your thinking face on. What’s up?”

Malcolm paused. Katie could practically hear the wheels in his mind turning.

“It’s nothing, really.”

Katie groaned, a twinge of annoyance in her chest. “Don’t be a dummy, Mal. You always get like this and then you always feel like shit because you just keep it to yourself and—”

“I was thinking about how the fox got inside the borders.” Malcolm’s voice was uncharacteristically sharp. “According to some of the research that Annabeth and I were doing over the summer, it takes a powerful demigod to summon a powerful monster like that. It’s like— Luke could only summon the scorpion, right?”

“Right,” Katie said, even though she wasn’t really following. Malcolm was avoiding eye contact, gray eyes shifting away from hers to stare at the fire. 

“Like, the type of power that only the oldest gods possess. And I’m not trying to— Just, Percy isn’t here.”

“What does Percy have to do with any of this?” Katie frowned. “And ‘oldest gods?’ I’m not following.”

“Oldest gods. I mean— It’s a theory. Percy is the only kid of the Big Three, yes, but Annabeth and I have been playing with the idea of the original six—”

“Original six? Wait. You don’t think— Are you trying to say that I did this?”

An uncomfortable mix of hurt and betrayal and anger was whirling in Katie’s stomach like a hurricane. Malcolm looked shifty, the firelight casting his face in strange, alien shadows. He didn’t say anything, just pinched his mouth and kept his gaze locked onto the fire. 

“I wouldn’t even know how to do something like that!” Katie said, and she wasn’t sure if she was arguing or pleading. “I don’t— I’m not powerful, not like that, and I—”

“I’m not saying you did this, Katie,” Malcolm interrupted hurriedly, but he still wasn’t looking at her. “At least, I’m not trying to accuse you of anything. Just— It’s a logical—”

“Logical— Bullshit!” Katie snarled. “You’re— When have I ever done anything to show that I would— I love camp. I love— You’re my friend. I wouldn’t do that—”

“I know, but I just— I have to take everything into consideration,” Malcolm snapped, and he was looking at her, now. The night air felt like it had dropped several degrees. His face was weary. He looked about a thousand years old. Katie could feel tears stinging in her eyes. “That’s my job . That’s my purpose, in this war. I have to think about everything, in a logical—”

“Louisa.” The realization felt like lead in Katie’s stomach. Just saying her name stung. “You think that— I don’t know, you think that because I was— Because I was friends with her, that I would betray the camp? You think that I would be capable of something like that?”

“It’s not just—” Malcolm still refused to meet Katie’s eyes. “You’re powerful. Don’t try to argue, because I’ve seen the whole withering-plants thing that you refuse to talk about. I asked Annabeth, and she said— She said it was bad news. A bad ome—”

“Just shut up!” Something inside Katie was stinging and burning and aching all at once. The uncomfortable itch beneath her skin had set in again. Malcolm bringing up her newfound power was like the final straw. He knew how uncomfortable it made her, how she refused to address it. He didn’t know the complicated feelings that came with it—horror and anger and shame and some sort of sick satisfaction all at once—but he knew her so well that he could probably guess. How could he do this? How could he not do this?

“It might…It might not even be intentional.” Malcolm’s voice was strained and strangled. “The Fox—I was doing some research, and something like that can even be subconscious. ”

“I wouldn’t do something like that.” Katie interrupted, horrified. “I wouldn’t betray camp.”

Malcolm was silent. Katie’s eyes prickled and she was blinking away tears, now, face hot and throat itchy. She felt like Malcolm had taken his knife and driven it deep into her chest, twisted it. She had always said that Malcolm knew her better than anyone. They knew each other too well, the way that you knew your own reflection. Katie wiped at her eyes furiously, clenching her fists so tightly that her nails dug into her palms. 

“Louisa asked me to leave with her,” Katie hissed, and she realized it was the first time she had told anyone. Hot tears continued to well in her eyes and she was helpless to do anything but furiously try to blink them away. For a split second, Malcolm’s face contorted with something like guilt. “And I said no . I said no, because I— Just— Fuck you, Malcolm.”

There was that familiar twist in her gut, the lump of anger and shame and hatred, and Katie barely even realized it as all the grass in a ten–foot radius began to shrivel, dead and brown and harsh and angry. She didn’t even realize where she was going. Her feet seemed to have some mind of their own.

She seemed to blink, and she was in Liam’s Garden. It flourished in the light of the moon. The air smelled of life. Katie looked at her own hands, and she was suddenly deathly afraid that she would ruin it all. Her eyes stung and her chest ached, like someone had stuck their hand inside and twisted. Her heart pounded, blood rushing in her ears.  

What if Malcolm was right? The thought was so terrifying that Katie felt like she couldn’t breathe. The night air seemed to close in on her, suffocating her. For an awful moment, she swore that the plants in the garden were reaching towards her, as if to strangle her. Could someone even subconsciously summon a monster? Malcolm knew Katie so well that he could see straight through her skin, and if he had thought—

Katie forced herself to breathe. 

It was nearing curfew, but Katie couldn’t bring herself to go back to her cabin. A strangled sob escaped from her without permission, pathetic and heartbroken and oh so alone. For a fleeting, shameful second, Katie let herself wish that she was a little kid again, that she could run straight into the arms of her dad and that he could hug her and kiss her forehead and tell her everything was alright. She let herself wish that there wasn’t a war, and let herself wish that she wasn’t the way that she was. Because that was the crux of it, wasn’t it? Katie was nothing like the person she’d always thought she’d be. She thought she might hate herself. 

She didn’t know how long she sat there, sobbing and stewing and hating herself and hating Malcolm and hating the world so hard that it burned. 

“Katie?” A voice cut through the silence. Katie jumped, immediately trying to fix herself up. She wiped her nose, blinked back some stray tears, combed her fingers through her hair and hoped she looked somewhat presentable. “You out here?”

“Yeah,” Katie called back finally. Her voice sounded all wrong: stuffy and raw and shaky. She cursed herself and clenched her fists. Something inside of her jolted with terror when a nearby tomato plant began to look suspiciously less healthy. Silena Beauregard stuck her head around the corner. She was wearing an oversized shirt and flannel pajama bottoms that were clearly too large for her, but she managed to somehow still look effortlessly pretty. At the sight of her, shame welled inside Katie. Her eyes stung. Her cheeks burned. Silena moved closer, like she was approaching a wild animal. 

Katie felt a flicker of hate burning inside her, and her stomach twisted with guilt. 

“Hey.” Silena crept closer. Her lips were twisted into a concerned frown, her eyebrows pinched. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. It’s— I’m fine.” She sniffled, which didn’t do much to prove her point. Silena raised a skeptical eyebrow, and crept even closer, close enough that Katie reddened, even as she shifted on the grass to make room. Silena sat down beside her. Katie had to fight the sudden urge to start crying again. Instead, she stared at the moon. 

“Hey.” Silena nudged her. “You know what I admire about you, Katie?”

Katie looked at Silena in surprise, and found that she didn’t quite know what to say. If it was anyone else, Katie might’ve been more defensive, but Silena had always had a way of calming people down. Katie just sniffled again, and wiped her eyes to make sure no more tears were threatening to spill over. 

“I think you’re awful at hiding your feelings.” Silena’s voice was soft, her face unreadable. Her brown eyes were full of an emotion that Katie couldn’t quite place. “You care so deeply about people. I saw how much you struggled at the end of last year. But—But you’re here, y’know? Every day, you walk around with your heart on your sleeve, for better or for worse. You’re kind. You make that choice, to be kind.”

“I’m not like you,” Katie burst out, and it felt like a confession that she had never had the courage to voice. “Or Josh, or May, or—or Malcolm, or even—even Louisa. I’m not— I’m not easy to love.”

“That’s not—”

“Don’t say it’s not true, because it is.” Katie’s eyes filled with tears. It was like a dam had broken, somewhere deep inside of her. “People don’t love me. And—And if they do, or if I think they do, they always leave. And I’m not— Sometimes I don’t even blame them. Sometimes I think that it’s just me— That I’m just— That I’m just rotting . And I— And I don’t know what to do .”

Silena laughed, but it was soft and reassuring and had all of Silena’s kindness condensed into a single sound. Because Silena was kind from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. She was full of kindness. It was a marker of how kind Silena was that when Katie nearly started sobbing again, Silena just wrapped a steady arm around her and pulled her in close. 

“You’re not rotting, Katie,” Silena said, and she sounded fierce, now. “Love is— Love is complicated. Believe me. I know. But love is never wasted. However short. However—However ill-fated, or however pointless it seems. You’ll find your people. And this whole— This is so complicated. This war— People can love you so, so much and still do— It’s complicated. But I promise, you just need to keep on loving. It’s a good thing. Just—Just trust me on this one.”

Katie wanted to.

___

It was safe to say that Katie was not in a good mood for the rest of the week. In retrospect, it was easy to see how the pieces had fallen into place to make what followed inevitable. At the time, though, all Katie knew was that she was hurt and betrayed and she woke up on Sunday morning with bright red, firetruck red, stop-sign red hair. Katie—ironically—saw red. 

She fumed as she marched towards Cabin Eleven, blood rushing furiously in her ears and turning her cheeks hot. It took active effort to not let all the grass around her whither, turned bitter and cold and twisted and lifeless. 

At Cabin Eleven, Cecil Markowitz answered the door, grinning impishly. “Yes?”

“Where is Travis?” Katie bit out through gritted teeth. Cecil Markowitz “I have no idea of Travis’s whereabouts on this lovely morning—”

“Cut the bullshit, Cecil,” Katie snapped, drawing herself up to her full height of about 5’4. She was pretty sure she didn’t exactly cut an intimidating figure. Bits of her newly bright-red hair were frizzing out from under her beanie, which was pink and clashed horribly with her hair. She was wearing one of Silena Beauregard’s sweaters, a loud red, green, and gold Christmas one that Silena’s dad had mailed her before the new year. Silena had promptly offered it for auction at breakfast the next day, and Katie—always a lover of comfy sweaters, no matter how ugly—had taken it. 

Still, Katie told herself, she was a head counselor . She could make plants grow with the snap of her fingers, and could make them wither with a look. She was almost sixteen, and had been at camp for nearly triple the amount of time as Cecil Markowitz. She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms over her chest. 

“I’ll ask one more time.” Katie glowered at him. “Where. Is. Travis?”

“I’ll tell you for twenty bucks?”

“Cecil, I will personally make daisies grow out of places where you really don’t want daisies to be growing. And I’ll tell Chiron about that stupid harpy game.”

“It’s called Harpy and Seek: Loser Gets Eaten,” Cecil grumbled. “But fine. Odds are he’s at the camp store.”

Katie scowled. “It’s a Sunday . That’s my day. He gets weekdays, I get weekends. Stupid— He’s probably messing up my system. Ugh.”

She stomped towards the camp store, blood boiling. The rational side of her brain—the side of her brain that sounded a little bit like Josh—wearily told her that she was probably just projecting. The Head Counselor meeting. Clarisse and Michael. The war. The Katie side of her brain shut the other side of her brain up.

She made it to the camp store in record time. True to form, Travis Stoll was inside. He was wearing jeans and a camp shirt, perched on the counter, his feet kicking against the wall. He was going to scuff it. When he saw her, he grinned, and it was so infuriating that Katie burned. Her cheeks were hot.

“Nice hair!” Travis said. “Now you’re a true ginger!”

“ Why?” Katie bit out, fists clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms. She was unable to stop one of the windowsill pot plants that she had spent hours tending from withering, twisting and folding in on itself as its color drained. 

“ Why what?” Travis’s eyes widened innocently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do !” Katie seethed, and it was like she was twelve years old again, hurt and red faced. It was like she was fourteen, lost and angry. Another plant withered. Katie felt sick to her stomach. “You do know what I mean because every time I think that we’re starting to— Every time I think that you’ll stop , you just keep on doing stupid shit and I’m so sick of it! Aren’t you sick of it by now? We’ve— There’s a war, and people keep getting hurt, and Malcolm—”

“I was just kidding around.” Travis raised his hands defensively. “It’s just a joke .”

“No it’s not !” Katie’s eyes burned. “It’s not just a joke! Because it feels like— it feels like you’re making fun of me and I’ve had enough of that feeling to last a lifetime, so I’m gonna— I’m just gonna need you to stop , okay? And there’s so much— There’s so much stuff . And we don’t need more stuff!”

“I’m not making fun of you, Katie!”

“That’s not the point!” Katie yelled, and one of the plants on the windowsill grew with such gusto that the pot toppled off the edge and shattered, sending ceramic shards flying around the room. It took Katie a second to realize that a shard had embedded itself in her bare leg, stinging sharply, hot blood beginning to spill down towards her shoes. The world seemed to heighten: all of a sudden, everything was too loud and her clothes were rubbing at her skin the wrong way and blood was seeping down her leg and everything was too much . She almost forgot Travis was there until he was crouching in front of her, looking at her skeptically as she frantically tried to dig the ceramic shard out of her leg. 

“Hey,” Travis said. “Don’t freak out.”

“I’m not freaking out!” Katie snarled, running her hands over her hair and then realizing a second too late that the only thing she had succeeded in doing was spreading blood over her braids. She felt suddenly close to tears as she surveyed the damage, soil and ceramics scattered all over the clean floor of the stop. She was going to cry. She was going to cry, right here and now in front of Travis Stoll and then her life would officially be over. She made to press her palms over her eyes—Travis grabbed her hands before they could make it there. Katie wrenched them out of his grip, momentarily startled. Travis’s brown-green eyes were unreadable. 

“You’re just going to get blood in your eyes.” Travis pointed out, and then, as if testing the waters: “Doesn’t really take a genius to figure that one out.”

For a moment, Katie was too startled even to respond. And then, as if on autopilot: “Well, clearly not if you could work it out.”

Travis snorted, and the air somehow felt indescribably lighter. “It’s no big deal, hey? We’ll get to the infirmary. They’ll fix it up in no time. And I’ll clean this mess up.”

Katie raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Travis cleared his throat. “I’ll bribe someone else into cleaning it up.”

To Katie’s complete shock, a laugh somehow bubbled up in her chest. Travis looked just as shocked as she was to hear it, strange and wet and sniffly as it was. “I’ll clean it. It’s my fault.”

Travis shook his head. “Nah. I’ll get some of the kids to do it. Call it character building.”

“You’re awful.”

“Pretty much.” Travis grinned, and Katie followed him as they stepped cautiously out of the store. “Careful of the Uggs.”

They made it out the door. Katie couldn’t meet Travis’s eyes. “Can you not—Can you—”

“My lips are sealed.” Travis made a dorky lips zipping motion, before pausing for a second, looking unsure. “Look—you know I really wasn’t trying to make fun of you, right?”

“It’s not…” Katie’s face felt hot. She stared down at the drying blood on her leg. “It’s not even about that. I’m—It’s Mal. He thinks I’m…he’s angry at me.”

“You’ll work it out.” Travis said, and he sounded so certain that Katie looked over at him. “You two always do.”

Katie looked to the ground again, suddenly embarrassed. “I’m really—”

“It’s fine.” Travis said. “Seriously. What happens in the camp store stays in the camp store. Plus, you owe me one, now. I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to have something dangling over your head.” 

“Ha, ha.” They kept up small-talk as they made their way to the infirmary. Katie even laughed a few times, despite herself. Despite everything, Travis was funny. And—she was steadily realizing—he was good at making things feel light. At making people feel comfortable. It was surprisingly sweet. Also—for Katie, who never liked to admit she was wrong—a somewhat strange realization. 

Michael was at the infirmary, and he looked her up and down once Travis had excused himself to talk to Connor, who was in a bed on the other side of the room because he had pissed off a dryad the day before. “What happened to you ?”

“Got into a fight with a pot plant,” Katie said. “And also with Travis Stoll.”

Michael raised his eyebrows, prompting her to sit on the bed and examining the ceramic shard in her leg with a skeptical eye. “You seem like you’re fine now, though?”

Katie shot a look at Travis across the room. He was mid-laugh at something Connor was saying, the sound filling the room with something like warmth. 

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. “I think we are.”