Chapter 19 Apparently, I Hate Trees
Apparently, I Hate Trees
We timed our escapes to the forest in intervals so if one of us were caught, we wouldn’t all be caught.
I tried to use my invisibility ring to hurry across the courtyard, but when I spotted Hestia tending the fire and immediately had the urge to punch her, I decided to take the ring off and stick to the shadows instead.
Some god of luck must have wanted us to make it out safely, because none of the Wild Omada were spotted. As we gathered under the canopy of the nearest tree, we nodded to one another, then strode through the forest with silent determination.
With her bow in hand, Zuri led the way, navigating through the darkness like a true nocturnal predator.
Benny and Harper followed, both gripping swords they must have borrowed from the armory.
Slung over Benny’s shoulder was a backpack that I hoped was full of helpful supplies like snacks, a first-aid kit, and maybe a few anti-monster hand grenades.
Harper wore a dark ski cap so his blond hair wouldn’t glow like a beacon in the moonlight.
I brought up the rear. My folded scythe thwapped against my back as I walked, and my father’s dagger hung heavy on my belt. Though my heart beat fast, I felt more determined than scared.
The last time the four of us had marched together, our hands had been tied and we’d had burlap bags over our heads.
Back then, we’d been a bunch of clueless newbies, strangers to one another.
Now everything felt different. We were armed.
We had a sense of purpose. We were the Wild Omada on a mission—a team of not-quite-as-clueless newbies who were only partially strangers to one another.
When we finally reached the string of mati charms that marked the border of the Wild Zone, we stopped and dared to speak.
“We have maybe three hours to search before we need to get back,” Benny said. “I left a bag of table scraps at the edge of camp where the harpies like to hang out. After they go through it, they’ll be drowsy for a bit.”
Zuri smiled. “Taking trouble off the playing field with a nap. Not a bad plan.”
“Thanks,” Benny said. “The idea of making them sleepy just came to me. And this way, if they catch us again, they might be too full to eat us.”
Harper stared into the Wild Zone. “I wouldn’t worry about the harpies. The monster most likely to eat campers is about to get a fresh batch of them at its doorstep.”
I gave him a pained look. “I don’t want to be a ‘fresh batch.’ ”
“Stale single?” he asked with a grin.
I snorted and pointed ahead. “Let’s do this.”
We were just inside the Zone when a twig snapped nearby.
Benny and Harper raised their swords. Zuri drew her bow. I swung my scythe around.
A racoon waddled past us. We lowered our weapons.
It was possible we were a little on edge.
Harper cleared his throat. “Here’s an idea. Katie, why don’t you put on the ring and scout ahead so we don’t accidentally kill one another when one of us sneezes?”
I shook my head. “I told you, it gives me violent visions. Plus, I lose track of time.” I pulled the ring out of my pocket and held it out. “But if you want to try it…”
Harper shied away. “Oh, you don’t want me to get violent.”
Benny gave him an amused look. “I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you get angry.”
“Yeah,” Zuri said. “What’s a child of Aphrodite like when they’re violent? Do you insult someone’s haircut? Threaten to give them a makeover?”
I wagged a finger. “Hey, they’re not bad chemists. They could probably match your skin tone with a poison-tainted lipstick, and you’d be dead before you knew it. But you’d look great.”
Harper frowned. “Are we done? Can we maybe lower our voices and get back to being heroes now?”
I slipped the ring back in my pocket and motioned to the others. “Come on. This way.”
We crept through the Wild Zone until we reached the spot along the creek where Grant and I had parted ways. Benny pulled a flashlight from his bag. He swept the beam across the forest floor, illuminating patches of fallen pine needles and dried leaves.
“There.” I pointed to an area where clods of dirt had been unearthed by three long gouge marks side by side, each about eighteen inches long. Then a few feet over, we could see three more gouges.
“Is that…a footprint?” Harper asked.
Zuri knelt next to the markings. She wrinkled her forehead and worked her jaw from side to side. “Talons.”
“Definitely avian,” Benny said.
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“Back in Iowa, we had neighbors who raised emus,” he said. “Similar bird tracks. But, uh…these are even larger.”
Harper eyed the marks warily. “That’s a big bird. And not the kind that lives on Sesame Street.”
“It’s more than just a bird,” Zuri said darkly.
I shivered. Being back here, I was tormented by the memory of Grant’s last stand.
I could almost smell his cinnamon gum. I could see him holding his makeshift spear, shooing me away as he tried to sound brave for my sake.
Once I deal with this thing, I’ll follow. I’ll see you at the edge of the woods.
Why had I listened to him?
“Zuri…” My voice quavered. “Now might be a good time to tell us what you think we’re facing.”
She scowled, but she didn’t look angry, more…concerned.
“Believe me, this is exactly the wrong time,” she said. “I don’t need any of you paralyzed with fear.”
“Too late,” I mumbled.
“Just keep an eye on the treetops,” she said. Then she added, as if mostly to herself, “It can’t be the same one. But if it is…”
Harper followed Zuri’s advice. He scanned the treetops, holding his sword in both hands with the point up, as if the monster might be considerate enough to drop right on it and impale itself.
Benny kept examining the ground. “I don’t see any more tracks. It’s been a few days since Grant disappeared, but I was hoping there’d be some sign of him.” He glanced up at me.
“You were here last night, right? Has anything changed?”
I froze.
I’d told them the ring gave me bad visions. I hadn’t mentioned anything about my fight with the possibly real/possibly imagined hooded figure.
“Uh…it took me a while to find this place yesterday,” I said. “By the time I did…”
Then I saw it.
Benny’s flashlight was illuminating a spiky patch of briars. Suspended in the middle of the vines, like a meatball in spaghetti, was a black-and-white sneaker with a swoosh on one side.
My heart climbed into my throat. “That’s Grant’s shoe!”
I shoved branches aside to grab it, ignoring the bloody scratches the thorns left on my hands.
“Is there a foot in it?” Zuri asked.
I glanced back at her. “Gross!”
Then, as I extracted the sneaker, I prayed, “Please be empty. Please be empty.”
Thankfully, it was.
But it still wasn’t great that it had been separated from its owner.
Harper peered over my shoulder. “No blood. That’s good, at least.”
“And the outside’s in mint condition, except for a few scratches,” Benny added.
He sounded like he was appraising it for resale, which told me he’d been spending too much time with the Stoll brothers.
“Plus, it’s fully laced,” Zuri said. “Either it got caught in the vines and came off during a struggle—”
“Or Grant could have kicked it off himself,” I speculated, turning over the sneaker. “As a clue? To let us know he’s still alive?”
Zuri looked dubious, but Benny gave me a hopeful smile.
“Maybe,” he said. “At the very least, this is proof Grant didn’t go home on his own, unless he did it with only one shoe. We should keep looking. Where’s the fissure where you found the ring?”
I pointed upstream and then led the group back along the path that Grant and I had followed.
I didn’t have a watch. I couldn’t check the time on my phone, either, since demigods couldn’t use them.
(Mobile phones + demigods = terrible, horrible, no good, very bad.
Long story. Don’t ask). It felt like we’d been in the forest for about thirty minutes already.
Finding Grant’s sneaker was a good start—or an ominous one, depending on how you looked at it—but we needed more.
Finally, we reached the fissure—a jagged line that wove across the ground for about fifty feet before disappearing into the underbrush on either side. I remembered it being bigger and more sinister; in the glow of Benny’s flashlight, the crack looked unremarkable.
“That’s it?” Harper asked.
“I—I think so,” I said.
“But you said Grant put his arm inside,” Benny recalled. “That doesn’t look wide enough.”
Zuri pried at the ground with her fingers, but Benny was right. Even at the fissure’s widest point, there was no way she could even get her hand inside.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe it’s closing up? Do fissures heal on their own?”
Zuri studied me, as if wondering whether I’d made up the whole story. I fought down a surge of irritation. I’d told them the truth. At least…about this.
Benny scanned our surroundings. His flashlight beam came to rest on a gnarled oak tree across the creek.
“That’s it!” he said. “That’s where I saw the Hermes rune.”
He took a running start and jumped to the other side of the creek. Harper, Zuri, and I did the same, catching up with Benny beneath the tree.
He pointed out the rune on the trunk—a lowercase Greek eta.
Definitely carved by someone, or rather slashed.
It looked like Zorro had come along and sliced this symbol into the wood with two quick strokes of a rapier.
Except to cut the bark so deep, the blade would’ve had to have been incredibly strong and sharp, like Celestial bronze… .
Benny’s hand hovered over the mark, though he was careful not to touch it. “It’s not glowing anymore, but I know this is it.”
I glanced back across the creek. The location of the rune fell along the same line as the fissure. “Do you think they’re connected? The sign on the tree, the crack in the ground?”
Harper scanned the treetops around us. “Either way, I’d say we’ve made good progress on the clue front. How about we call it a night and head back?”
“Are you kidding?” Zuri asked.