Chapter 20 My Secrets Come back to Bite Me #3
Finally, when the cabin was silent except for snoring and the white noise of Hate Faction, I slipped on my invisibility ring.
I grabbed my scythe and headed out the door.
With every step, violent images filled my mind.
I saw myself punching Harper, choking Zuri, drowning Benny.
And they were people I liked. What I imagined doing to that monster in the woods, and to the clay creatures who had taken my family… those images were beyond disturbing.
By the time I made it to the top of Half-Blood Hill, I was shaking with rage. I stopped at the edge of camp—just within its magical boundary—and removed the ring. An immediate calm washed over me.
I almost dropped to my knees in relief, but I forced myself to remain standing.
I couldn’t look weak in front of him.
Directly across from me, on the other side of the boundary, a figure emerged from the shadows. The scar-faced man in the hooded robe loomed over me. And this time, I was sure he wasn’t an illusion. I could feel the power radiating from him, making my skin crawl.
“Report,” he said.
I drew myself to my fullest height. I wasn’t ready, but I had to be ready. I slung the scythe off my shoulder.
“I brought this out of the Wild Zone last night,” I said. (Technically true.) “I believe it’s what you’re looking for.”
“Really.” It was a statement, not a question, and his tone was filled with disbelief. “Give it here.”
I tightened my grip on the handle. “First, hand over my mom and my sister.”
The man chuckled. It was hollow and dangerous, like a lid rattling on a too-hot pot.
He flung aside one corner of his robe. The fabric flickered like a projection screen. Then an image came into focus—a dark, windowless room, a basement, maybe. Sitting side by side, with their ankles tied to the legs of their wooden chairs, were Mom and Olivia.
I tried not to sob. I didn’t succeed.
Their wrists were shackled behind their backs.
They still wore the clothes from the day they’d been abducted: my mom in her denim romper and sandals, Olivia in her fencing outfit.
Olivia had a fat lip and a black eye. Mom had a crusty trail of blood running down the left side of her face. When they saw me, their eyes widened.
“Katie!” Olivia cried.
“You’re all right!” Mom struggled against her bonds, as if she wanted to run straight through the hooded man’s cloak and hold me in her arms, but she couldn’t move. “Katie, do not listen to him! Do not worry about us! Stay there! Stay safe!”
She was worried about my safety?
My eyes welled with tears. Before I could speak, the man closed his robes, snuffing out the image of my family.
I glared at his scarred face. “Let them go! Bring them here. Now.”
“First, the scythe.” He held out his hand.
There were a lot of things I wanted to yell at him. I didn’t need my magic ring to imagine how fun it would be to tear him apart. But he had my family, which meant, for the moment, he had all the leverage. I just had to hope….
“Fine,” I growled. “Here!” I tossed the scythe across the border.
He caught it, weighed it in his hands…and chuckled again. Then he snapped the weapon over his knee—shaft, blade, and all.
I screamed in frustration. I wanted to charge him, punch him in the face, make him take me to my family, but somehow I knew that the camp’s border was the only thing keeping me safe. I doubted he would kill me. He still needed me. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t hurt me.
“You tried to trick me.” He sounded almost amused. “That scythe was demigod dross. I should have my minions crush your family right now.”
I tried to remember how to breathe. It felt like golem clay was seeping into my lungs.
“Luckily,” he continued, “I admire your connivery. Intellectual warfare can be just as effective as physical. Your father would be proud.”
The man leaned closer. “But if you try something like that again, I will lose…my…patience. Now report.”
I blinked away my tears. Half choking on my words, I managed to tell him what I’d seen in the Wild Zone the night before—the tree with the rune, the fissures, the cave in the clearing, the monster.
“But you know all that already, don’t you?” I growled. “Was that really you in the woods, the night of the footrace?”
He scoffed. “If I could enter this cursed camp myself, I wouldn’t need you. But unfortunately, this is work only a hero can do.”
He said the word hero as if it were the worst insult he could think of.
He stepped closer and drew back his hood. His dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and his eyes flickered with strange, silvery fire. His brutalized face looked like it had been clawed repeatedly by vultures, which according to the stories, it had.
“You must do better,” he said. “You are my eyes and ears at camp. Now you must also be my hands. Your family’s lives depend on it. The entire cause of the Titans depends on it! Find me the blade!”
My muscles ached to attack him. My heart rapid-thumped in my chest, ready to fuel my fight. I wanted to spit in his face. I wanted to curse the Titans.
But this was the guy who’d shaped humankind out of clay. This was the guy who was still using that clay to make the monsters that held my family. He was too powerful for me to fight. And without him, I’d never get my mother and sister back.
So I clenched my jaw, breathed deep, and said, “Yes, Lord Prometheus.”
“Good,” he said. “Now go back and get the job done.”