Mystic Island

☼☼21☼☼

Raine

I lost sight of the guiding silver hawk as the sun began to slowly drift downward. It was after noon, around four when we were flying over sunny mountains. The green-brown hilltops were actually swathed in fog…I guess that didn’t make any sense. I wasn’t really sure why, but I swear, it could be really light outside, all of the sun out, and yet it could still be really cloudy. Look up sometime when the brightness and see how surprised one can be when that person sees gray instead of blue or yellow (from the sun). Except one thing---we were above the clouds.
“I don’t see why we can’t fly low now,” Kayla pointed out for the umpteenth time. “We’re in the mountains again…who’s going to notice us?”
“People who live in the mountains,” Rose muttered. She seemed more annoyed than the rest of us…well, she had been a lot darker lately. I felt a twinge of worry. Andrea and Nichole had seemed darker before they’d turned against us. But Rose couldn’t do that…she couldn’t; she was one of the Epic Three! She had to remain loyal!
“Well, if they haven’t noticed us already, then why should they now?” Kayla asked, and some of us groaned. We were lighter than we had been for a while---except Rose, of course, and Brayden. His eyes were flat and focused. Was he just looking out for when we’d dive down or…what was the matter with him?
I looked to Heather, who looked healthier than she had before and was smiling, but she shook her head. “I explained last time! It’s not my turn, and it’s not my fault she can’t learn the first time!” Stern words, but all of the time she was trying not to laugh…she was failing miserably.
“Brooke?” I asked hopefully, but the gray-eyed demigod refused.
“Damn it, Kayla,” I hissed to the dark-skinned daughter of Hades. “Do I need to explain everything to you? When we land, we get bigger! Of course people down there can’t see us! We are flying over clouds and thousands of miles over the ground!”
“Does it look like we are?” I muttered to myself.
“Then we should land.”
“Why are you answering rhetorical questions?” I asked Kayla.
“Why are you not?”
I threw up my hands comically. “I’m done! Wallow in ignorance Kayla!” Sunny my ever-so-calm pegasus threw a little buck under me, and I hissed to him, “If you buck me off, I swear…”
“Brooke, can you tell Raine that she’s being stupid?” Kayla asked the sighing daughter of Athena. “It’s too cold to stay up at airplane height! Speaking of which, how come we can breathe?”
“We are half god, not totally human. We don’t have the same breathing issues they do. Besides which, do you really think Raine’s going to have any problem in her own father’s domain?”
Kayla looked to me with questioning eyes, and I merely said something deeply philosophical, “Hi.”
Kayla rolled her eyes, and I asked her, “Why are you cold anyway? You have a jacket on!”
She tugged her usual purple jacket over her, shivering theatrically. Brooke had her gray one with a hood over her head, and the purple-jacketed Kayla pointed to mine. “So do you.”
I looked down at the remnants of my torn blue-green one. Sure, if you want to call this a jacket. “My point exactly.”
Brayden coughed. He tried to rein Hunter over to us (the little bay winged horse was beginning to drift), but the pegasus fought him. Brayden resorted to spurring the gelding, tapping his heel left heel into his side, like I’d seen riders do to their horses before. But those were simple Warmbloods and Thoroughbreds (I’d heard a lot about horses from Rose, being her father created horses, before she’d decided to hate me), and this was a mythical and highly intelligent descendent of the winged horse Pegasus, but what was the difference. Well, either way, Hunter didn’t like it. He snorted, and swerved his body, showing the son of Hermes he didn’t like being kicked. Thankfully Brayden had become an excellent rider, so he stayed on. Hunter turned his head back and stared at the boy on his back, dark eyes pulsing with irritation.
I’d asked Brayden why he was riding Hunter earlier, while we were somewhere over the sea. If I’d recalled correctly, Hunter did not belong to Brayden. Hunter was the satyr Ryan’s horse. The orangey brown-furred pegasus named Scout was Brayden’s pony, but the stallion was not with us. I replayed Brayden and my conversation in my mind.
“Is Scout alright?” I asked, causing the green-eyed boy to turn to me.
“Scout’s fine,” Brayden replied shortly.
“Then do you just enjoy stealing defenseless satyrs’ horses?” I had meant to joke, but the demigod threw fire in his eyes at me.
“What,” he snapped.
I shivered. “It’s just your dad is the god of thieves, so I just figured…”
“Ryan said it was okay!” Brayden snarled. “I just didn’t want to ride Scout, okay?” He had been trembling, and I backed off then, leaving him to his own devices.

I’d still dreaded talking to Brayden, so I practically avoided him throughout the rest of the flight. Hunter was starting to loosen the wing-footed demigod off of his back. I wasn’t so worried that Brayden would plummet to his doom…after all, he wad wings on his feet. But we’d rather not risked it, so Rose and Heather set to work. They both had a strange glint in their eyes, and a feeling of tranquility filled the air. The worked up bay settled down, his ears dropping. Rose, with her horse-sense power, tapped into the winged beast’s brain and silenced its aggressive feelings there while Heather, with her power to calm others, released all anger anywhere else in the equestrian’s body.
When I saw that the hawk-like wings on the bay horse were beginning to flap more slowly, I ordered the pair of peace-makers, “Hey. Cut out the anesthetic; you’re putting him to sleep.” The air of calm recoiled but Rose kept her hold over Hunter, in case the stallion would try anything again.
Brayden muttered a ‘thanks’ to the two demigods, but ignored me. Yes, maybe all I did was warn them to make sure the horse didn’t fall out of the sky…
Brayden sighed, and looked downward. “What I was going to say before I was nearly killed…” I felt a strange twinge of frustration towards that. I stopped myself before I said anything. Why the hell should I feel angry? “…We’re directly above the demigod campsite in the mountains. If anyone’s ready to dive, we…”
“Yes!” Kayla interrupted loudly, reining her horse (well really it was Belle’s) down, ordering him to drop out, and dive. Grapevine folded his wings against his side as he picked up speed.
I screamed, “No!” and turned Sunny down. Kayla was inexperienced; she had no idea what she was doing and she’d kill herself at that dangerous speed. Grapevine was acting up, misbehaving as he wheeled towards the ground. The blue-gray stallion wasn’t planning on stopping at Kayla’s expense.
My golden stallion opened his metallic, feathery wings wide and, after rearing theatrically on his part, we dove towards the falling Grapevine. The free blue horse spun around, throwing his rider off. And at thousands of feet in the air, falling was not something where you could brush off and remount. I pressed Sunny harder against the air resistance, but the airborne pegasus was not quick enough. Kayla was breathless to be able to make any noise of fear.
There was a flash of brown and black, and I saw a bay pegasus with wings outspread fly under my horse, catching the falling demigod on his back. Brayden pulled his horse to a slower flight, Hunter flapping his wings at a halt. The others pulled their horses down at us, stopping their mounts at our level. My horse was still at an upper air distance, and I watched the son of Hermes who saved the dark demigod’s life reservedly. I felt…jealous.

I patted my golden stallion’s shoulder in farewell, and the pegasus folded his wings to his side as he galloped away to the river of the naiads. He snorted at me puzzled, and I told the palomino horse, “I’ll see you later, Sun.”
I turned back, watching the first stars appear in the sky. I picked up a run in the darkness---not running from anything in particular, just running for the hell of it. After days of pure hell on Mystic Island, as everyone was beginning to call it, I was happy to be running where I would not be hunted. I slowed to a walk when I entered the campsite, the orange glow of a bonfire welcoming me with its further warmth.
It was late June, the night before the summer solstice, and I wondered in the back of my head, ‘Is this my last day in America?’
I was joining Artemis. And if all of the gods had to remain in Greece before the war ended, then would I be trapped there? I stared at the beautiful American flag that Belle hung over her, Scarlet and Brooke’s cabin. The sleeping arrangements had changed. It would be Rose, Kayla, and I in one, Brooke, Belle, and Scarlet in two, and Ryan and Brayden in three. Heather had none, for she was not remaining here. And I had not told anyone else that I was leaving. Actually, I wasn’t planning on telling anyone face to face. I was just going to leave the old-fashioned note. Ryan had returned, by the way, from his trip around…he would not explain very well where…Belle was taking her monoceros (Americans would call it a unicorn) out with Rose and her pegasus Seaweed to go hunt with Ryan and the now-perfectly-behaved Hunter. They would not return for a long time, probably after midnight was when they’d return. It was eleven now.
I paced around the fire until it hurt my eyes to remain near it. it was too nice of a night to go inside, so I picked a spot in the shadows of a large tree (the dryad didn’t mind) and sat in the darkness, pulling out my iPod that I had left at the campsite for my return and picked an old Beatles song that had been randomly stuck in my head, Strawberry Fields Forever. I became absorbed in the music that I had not heard the cloppity-clop of the horse, muffled on the grassy ground. The cry of the spooked pegasus awoke me from my daydream, and I looked up in terror as I saw a rearing gray horse over me, wings outspread in fear. I scrambled out of the way, picking myself up to stand when the scared pegasus stallion stamped down. And who was on the stallion’s back? Rose, of course. Belle was wide-eyed next to her on her unicorn.
The watery demigod quieted Seaweed until he was calm again and dismounted. She gave the gray’s reins to Belle to hold him and approached me. The glowing water from Rose’s Cascade glowed where it hung at her side.
“You idiot!” she screamed. “You could’ve scared Seaweed enough to throw me into the tree!”
“Poor tree,” I hissed.
“I could’ve been killed,” Rose snarled.
“What about me?” I yelled at her. “Your pegasus could’ve stomped me to death!”
“Oh no,” Rose taunted. “Not you. You’re Raine the Invincible, the killer of Hecate. Nothing can kill you, you self-centered ass.”
I nearly lost control of my anger, and lightning flashed in the distance. Heather looked up from her seat at the fire, knowing lightning here could only be a sign of my anger, and saw Rose and I facing each other with rage in our eyes. She raced to my side with swiftness that had to come with her granted immortality. She turned me and looked into my eyes with her calming power. I felt anger being washed away, and Rose’s was as well.
“Raine, Rose,” she scolded us. “It’s late and practically everyone else is asleep. Don’t you think, after everything we’ve gone through, that they deserve not to be woken up by your fight?”
I sighed with frustration, and threw one last glare at Rose before following Heather away. Belle brought Seaweed over to Rose so they could continue their ride, and the satyr followed them on Hunter.
When they’d gone, I was sitting with Heather by the fire, and Kayla had woken to join us. We were talking and bringing Heather up to date with school (although it was over) and American stuff. We told her about the oil spill that happened in the spring, but she told us she already knew about that. Artemis had been furious that no one bothered to care about the animals that were dying because of the oil.
I saw movement in the corner of my eye and saw Brooke walking around her cabin through the window. I also saw Scarlet sitting and watching her. I told Heather and Kayla, “I’ll be right back, okay?” They nodded and I got up and walked towards Brooke, Belle, and Scarlet’s cabin. I opened the door and the light of the bonfire behind me shed light into the cabin already dimly lit by a lamp. Brooke had a map and books on her bed. “Hey,” I said softly.
Brooke smiled at me while Scarlet murmured sleepily and aggressively, “Can you close the door? I’m exhausted here!”
Because you’ve done so much just like we did at Hecate’s island. Did you come? No! “Sure,” I said, closing the wooden door shut. But when I didn’t leave, Scarlet said harshly, “Oh, you’re staying?”
“Yes,” I said uncomfortably.
“See you,” Scarlet said, climbing off her bed and walking out to the campfire. Thank the gods, now I could talk to Brooke privately.
Brooke snorted after the annoying daughter of Hephaestus. She looked up at me with sleep in her gray eyes, and she asked wearily, “What’s the matter, Raine?”
“Rose and I had another fight,” I told her bluntly, and she rolled her eyes comically.
“What is it this time?”
“Ah, you don’t want to know.”
“Frankly, no.” She tilted her head.
“So, would you mind if we switch cabins, Brooke?” I asked awkwardly. “I mean, I don’t know if I can share a cabin with…”
“No, I get it,” Brooke said to my relief. “I can, if that’s what you want. Let me just finish sorting these things out.” She was fiddling with some equipment on her bed, reading books in Greek.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
She smiled at me. “Remember the gift my mother gave me last November?” She held a ball of glittering yarn in her hand.
“Oh, right,” I said. “Ariadne’s string.”
“Yes, well I still want to explore the Labyrinth this summer,” Brooke said happily. “Will you and Rose come…I mean, I know you’re having issues…”
“We’ll get over it,” I said. “If it makes you happier.”
Brooke beamed at me with light gray eyes. “So you’ll come?”
“Oh…” I lulled, remembering Artemis. “Sure,” I lied, making Brooke light up more. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was joining my half-sister soon. I wanted the daughter of Athena to be happy.
“Oh, great!” Brooke said. “I’ll tell you when we’re ready! It might be a week or so…”
“A week?”
“Yeah, but that’ll give us time to relax a bit,” she said with joy. “Yay, yay. I’ll tell Rose when she comes back.” She gathered the things up, and I said, “Thanks.”
“No problem.” She moved into my cabin, now empty, and I moved my stuff into hers. Living with Scarlet would be awkward, but it wouldn’t be for long. I just didn’t want to be killed in my sleep. Thunder flashed at this thought, and I felt a cold wind stolen from winter at this. And ominous air filled the air, but only I felt it. I sat with Heather, Scarlet, and Kayla at the fire, or I was beginning to, until Kayla said, “Oh, Raine, I forgot to get my sword back from Brayden. He had pockets and I was afraid to let go of the reins…”
“A whole sword in his pocket?”
“Actually, just the hilt…it kind of was broken by the end…”
“And you kept the hilt…why?”
“Memories for my first quest.”
I agreed and walked to Brayden’s cabin. He was alone after Ryan had gone riding, so I hoped he wasn’t asleep yet. I knocked at the door, and there was no response. There was a muffled sound of…crying?
I opened the door, shedding light into the room. There was a candle lit by his bed and some kind of thin book spread out on his bed. A magazine? No, as I peered harder, I saw it was filled with pictures of people in rectangles. A yearbook. It was open to one page in the eighth grade section in particular.
I said, “Knock, knock.” Two pairs of dark green eyes opened as his face lifted from his hands. They were puffy and red while his face was wet. The eyes were filled with immense grief. A droplet of tears fell upon a picture of a blonde girl with blue eyes. It was Alexa.
“Oh, Brayden,” I said, forgetting Kayla’s sword hilt. “I’m so sorry.”
His voice was dull and filled with sadness. “Hi, Raine. What’s the matter?”
“It’s…forget it.” I approached him and sat down on his bed. “What’s wrong?” I asked, though I knew.
He nearly choked the words out. “I miss her so much. I can’t go through the day without feeling my heart break again and again.”
“She’s in a better place,” I told him softly.
“That’s what Christians say,” he muttered. “Believing in Heaven and whatnot. But we know better.”
“She was a hero, Brayden. She’s in Elysium, waiting for you.”
“Then I’ll kill myself. I’ll kill myself to see her again!” Brayden had an arrow on his table and grabbed it.
“No!” I snapped, grabbing the arrow from his hand and throwing it to the floor.
Brayden glared at me. “That was Lexi’s.”
I saw how much he could not let go. “Brayden, you have to let her go.”
“I could never!” he cried. “I love her!”
“I understand…”
“No you don’t!” he hissed. “None of you do! I don’t care what Aphrodite said; you’ve never lost anyone!”
That was like an arrow to my heart. My voice dropped to a steely low. “You think I’ve never lost anyone?”
“I know you haven’t.”
“Do you know what pain I felt when I witnessed Artemis die?” I said, pain of the memory returning to my voice. “Watching Hecate break her neck, knowing I could do nothing for her? And that I was still alive? I don’t love her like you still love Alexa, but I love her as a sister.”
Brayden’s green eyes flooded with remorse. “I’m sorry, Raine. But at least Artemis was granted life again. Alexa will never live again.”
I wanted to hug him, the poor boy looked so far from happiness. “I would have always felt the pain of loss, Brayden. But I would’ve have to have moved on, if I wanted a happy life. I have responsibilities, as one of the Epic Three, and you have those kinds of responsibilities too. Alexa would want you to move on.”
Brayden said nothing. He only stared at me with sorrowful dark green eyes.
“I don’t want you to commit suicide, and neither would she.”
Brayden sighed, and stared at Alexa’s last arrow on the floor. “Thank you, Raine. You’re the only one who understands me.”
Words fell from my tongue, silent, and we stared at each other for a long time. A new emotion radiated from his eyes behind the immense sadness, and it was overwhelming. Our gazes were intense, and when I realized that there was still a world around us, I broke the gaze and blinked rapidly. My voice, mostly stolen, said, “Night.” I stole out of the cabin, only to run into Kayla.
“Hey!” she said. “I was wondering what happened to you, you were gone so long.”
“Oh,” I said. My brain was a little dazed. “Was it a while?”
“Yeah, like five minutes,” she said. “Did you get the sword?”
“Oh, uh, no,” I said. “He was asleep.”
She fell for the lie. “Oh.”
“I was trying to wake him up for all of that time.”
She nodded, and scanned my face. I recoiled, asking, “What the hell?”
“Sorry,” she apologized. “You just look so…dazzled. What happened?”
“Nothing,” I said rather sharply, and she backed off.
“Okay!” I followed her to the campfire, absorbed in thoughts. What if I’d stayed a moment longer?
I sat down with Heather and Scarlet at the fire. “He was asleep,” I explained.
“What about Brooke?” Scarlet asked.
“She’s asleep too.”
“Are Belle, Rose, and Ryan back yet?”
“Uh…no.”
She nodded, and tilted her head towards my former cabin. “Shouldn’t you be asleep too?”
“Who are you my mother?” I asked jokingly, but Scarlet didn’t smile. “Kayla, are you going too?”
“No, I’ll stay with Heather,” she said. “I haven’t talked to her in forever.” Scarlet sighed, and when I looked at her, she quickly rolled her eyes. I felt disturbed. Was Scarlet just sighing theatrically at Kayla’s lack of need for sleep?
I said “Good night” and went to my new cabin to go to sleep.
Inside, I realized something. Because of the cabin changes before we’d returned, the cabin I’d been in before I left had been switched. And as I switched with Brooke, I returned to my old cabin. So when I sat in my new bed, I saw orange light from the campfire pour in. My old looking-hole was still there. I watched the three talk, me being able to hear every word, and eventually Kayla and Scarlet resolved to stay with Heather, since she had no cabin, throughout the night. The fire went out, and I was left alone in darkness.
Everything else was quiet, everyone asleep, and once again I was left in peace to look up at the moon through the looking-hole. I felt full staring up at my companion, and I wondered, lost in thought, until I decided to check the clock on the wall. It was midnight exactly.
I began to fall asleep until I heard the pitter-patter of feet. I looked through the hole to see if Rose and the other two had returned, but there were no horses. There was a strange feeling in the breeze that flowed conspicuously through the looking-hole. Someone was standing by where Heather was sleeping, someone with blonde hair and glowing green eyes. She stared straight at me, it seemed, but before I could make out who it was, she disappeared. I shivered, knowing I’d imagined it all. I was about to fall asleep before I noticed an orange glow fell through the hole in the wall again. I looked to the campfire, but it was still out. But I swore I heard a crackling sound…at the smell of smoke, I ran outside. I burst through the door to see one of the other cabins on fire.
The flames were high and strong, reaching to the low branches of the skyward trees. The intensity of the fire was nearly overwhelming, flushing my skin with immense heat, but while I stared at the flames in awe and horror, something struck me. I was overtaken with fear. “Brooke!” I shrieked. I was beginning to panic. “No! She’s trapped in there!”
I looked around the camp frantically. I had known this was going to happen. I spotted the glare of the fire on the stream. I tore towards it as fast as I could, yelling, “Naiads! Naiads, use your water against the fire! Hey!” One water nymph pushed her head above the surface, looking upon me sleepily and rather irritated. But at the sight of the blaze behind me, her eyes widened in terror and she dove beneath the waves. Angrily, I kicked the water, and desperately yelled, “Damn nymphs! Help me! My friend is in there!” My voice rose with pure fear.
I ran breathlessly back towards the fire. “Wake up!” I screeched. “Everybody wake up! The cabin is on fire! Brooke’s trapped! Help!”
Stirring demigods around the campfire pit opened their sleepy eyes, but when they saw the fire, they leaped to their feet. Brayden rushed from his cabin, his messy hair even messier than usual and his jacket half on. His bow was in his hand, but what would a bow do against a blaze?
“Oh my gods,” Heather whispered, staring at the fire in horror.
“Where’s Chiron?” I asked frantically.
“On Olympus,” Brayden said with a quivering voice.
“Someone, get Rose!” I screamed, pacing swiftly around the clearing. But the clops of horses announced the hunters’ arrival. Rose dismounted her pegasus immediately, running to the fire.
“Oh my gods…” she began. She looked to me, all feelings of tension between us earlier forgotten in this crisis. “Is anyone in there?”
“Brooke,” I said, and she gasped in terror. Her blue eyes glowed fiercely. Leagues of water from the creek rose and crashed over our heads into the cabin.
“Watch out!” she yelled, and we ran back as the water flooded towards us and coddled our legs. We could only watch in horror.
Scarlet whispered hoarsely, “Raine?” I looked back at her and her face was torn apart in fright. “What…what are you doing out here?”
“I awoke when I saw the fire,” I said quickly, wanting to help
Brooke so much.
“You were supposed to be in there!” she wailed. Her green eyes were distressed, but I would not waste time on Scarlet’s own problems.
Rose released another tide of water which spouted into the broken-glass window of the cabin. The last glow of the fire had faded under the surge of the water. The cabin, once beautifully-crafted had become a blackened, burnt-out shell of what used to be a haven for the living. I hoped there was still life.
But I had a terrible feeling. Hecate’s words filled my head once again. Do not rejoice. You have not won. Where there is victory in battle, there is always a death in fate’s payment to the victor.
Fighting the fear rising in my throat, I whimpered, running into the cabin. Everyone except Rose was frozen with shock, and the daughter of Poseidon followed me.
When I pushed the door open, it fell to the floor with a shattering thud. I searched around the smoky room, desperate to see my friend. Everything…the beds, any possessions, and even the back wall…it had burned down. I gazed for the light of gray eyes, the sound of breathing…all I heard was my own and Rose’s.
I walked weakly to where her bed had been. Everything there was in ashes…but a gleam caught me eye, under charred fabric.
“Brooke?” I said hopefully, and Rose’s head shot in my direction.
But when I lifted the cloth, there was only a ball. A ball of yarn. Only Ariadne’s string had survived the fire…only that.
I felt so angry, I punched the wall. But punching a burned wall was not the smartest thing I’d ever done, and pieces of wood fell from where I hit it.
“How did this happen?” Rose cried.
“There’s only one person who could have done this,” I said flatly, and turned to run outside.
Ryan’s eyes lit up. “Did you find her?”
Before I could say anything, Rose cleared her throat of smoke behind me. “All that remained was this.” She held the glittering magic yarn in her hands.
Everyone’s heads fell, and Kayla whimpered, “No.”
Though I was burrowed in grief, I felt inflamed with rage. I marched right up to Scarlet and pushed her back. “You! You did this!”
Scarlet’s green eyes opened innocently, and she said, “Me?”
“Don’t pretend you’re stupid! There’s only one person who could create a fire so quickly!”
Heather approached me and said softly, “Raine. It was an accident. No one is an arsonist here. The fire was an accident.”
I stared straight into her dark brown eyes. “Really? Do you believe that, Heather?”
“Yes, I do!” she hissed. “Scarlet has no reason for murdering Brooke, nor anyone here. It was an accident!”
“I was awake.”
“And did you see anyone?” Heather inquired.
“What am I, on trial?” Scarlet muttered.
“You should be!” I rasped harshly.
Heather nudged me. “Stop that! Did you see anyone?”
“Yes,” I answered truthfully, remembering the green eyes. Scarlet had green eyes as well.
“Do you know who it was?”
I hesitated before I answered. Everyone’s eyes were on me, and I knew how serious this was. This was an accusation of murder. But I knew they wouldn’t believe when I told them who I saw. I didn’t believe it completely myself. But I knew exactly who I saw, and who saw me.
“Nichole,” I said. “It was Nichole.”
There were sounds of confusion around me. “Nichole?” Belle asked. “But she’s dead!”
“She’s tired,” Scarlet said. “She hasn’t gotten any sleep, and it’s making her see things that aren’t there.”
My gold eyes were inflamed with fury. “I’m not crazy, you murdering arsonist! You have your father’s power, and…”
Ryan trotted to me and stepped before me. “That’s enough! You have no proof that Scarlet did anything.”
I pushed him back, and desperately gazed at Kayla. “You believe me, don’t you?”
Kayla didn’t meet my eyes. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Heather?”
“I want to, but I don’t think…”
I hissed, and looked to the daughter of the sea. Rose met my eyes solemnly, but before she could answer, Ryan said again, “That’s enough! There’s still a chance that Brooke’s alive!”
“How?” I snarled.
“She could have run to the woods to escape the flames. Some of us should go out and look for her!” He turned to Kayla and Heather. “Could you two…?” The demigods found their horses and rode away into the night forest.
Scarlet hissed at me, and ran to the woods. No one else seemed to notice. Belle and Ryan ran in the other direction to call out Brooke’s name. Brayden stood where he was, watching me sorrowfully, and I sat down hard on a log by the campfire pit. Rose sat down next to me, putting her face in her hands.
I knew Scarlet had done it. The ghost of Nichole’s presence had warned me. Her devilishly creepy smile, a pure evil grin…it reminded me of what she told me before she died. No one else had thought a great amount of it before…but now I knew it was true. There was someone else. Before Andrea, there was and remained to be a demon among us. Nichole had not worked alone and she had warned us of it too. Sierra had told me the same thing. There was a treacherous demigod servant of Hades in the alive in the comfort of our campsite. Scarlet had betrayed us. She had murdered my friend.

Rain began to fall around five in the morning, and the horses and riders that were sent out to search for Brooke had returned, finding nothing. Ryan and Belle had not yet come back. I knew there was no hope left for my friend’s life. She had died in the fire.

The light of the new day was gray as the rain continued to fall. I almost felt as if I were in a rainforest…it kept raining on green, green leaves, and it was hot and buggy. Normal weather for the Amazon…and Western Maryland.
I’d stayed awake throughout the night, not feeling the need to sleep nor feeling exhausted now. I had remained still for hours, not thinking about anything in particular, but replaying scenes of past quests in my head. I was seeing the memory of the last battle against Hecate when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
Brayden looked down on me and he sat down on the log-chair beside me. He looked into my eyes and whispered, “I’m sorry.” I nodded, and he continued, “She was my friend too. I’ll miss her, but there isn’t any reason to go around accusing people of murder.”
“Did Heather tell you to knock some sense into me?” I was surprised on how raspy my voice sounded now.
“Truthfully, yes,” he admitted. “But I also came on mostly my own accord. Why do you think it was Scarlet?”
“Do you remember what Nichole said as she was dying?”
“Yes, perfectly.”
“How she said she had a helper?”
“She was lying.” I was biting my lip and shaking my head, and he said, “Oh. Oh.”
“That’s why she made sure everyone else was out and told me to go to bed.” Realization had hit me at around four. “She was trying to kill me, not Brooke. She was surprised to see me, shocked actually, and frightened that Brooke was inside.”
Brayden nodded, his dark green eyes darker than usual.
“I…I think she was ordered to keep everyone else alive,” I said. “That was why she only wanted me inside of the cabin she set on fire. She didn’t know me and Brooke switched cabins.”
“But why would she want that?”
“Hades knows that without me, the Epic Three would be pointless. There would be nothing to stop him.”
“But Brooke was one of you,” he pointed out. “Isn’t it a moot point now?”
“That’s another theory I have,” I said solemnly. “What if…what if Brooke wasn’t one of the Three?”
Brayden opened his mouth to reply, but Ryan and Belle had returned. Ryan called out, “Brayden, can you come here?”
The son of Hermes looked to me apologetically, and said,” I have to see what he wants.” His green eyes were almost embarrassed. “I’ll, uh, see you around, okay?”
He was remembering last night. “Okay,” I said. Brayden fluttered with his winged feet to the satyr and I heard a rustle from nearby.
I looked at Rose, but the water demigod had fallen asleep and was still asleep. No, the rustling had come from the rain-lit leafy green bushes beyond the campfire pit. I picked myself up and walked over to see what was past the plants.
I pushed the leaves aside, and something grabbed my shoulder from behind me. I jumped, turning around with blazing golden eyes. But no one was behind me. Instead, a silver falcon perched contentedly on my shoulder, eying me with amused yellow eyes.
Raine, you spook pretty easily. I rolled my eyes, shrugging my shoulder, forcing the bird to fly off. It landed on the ground, turning into an immortal fourteen-year old girl, who sat on the long-bench. She had amusement on her face before, but when she saw my mourning expression, the light faded away. “What’s wrong?”
I had completely forgotten about Artemis. After the fire, events from before that had nothing to do with this had fallen into the background. “I’ll tell you later.”
“I smell smoke. Was there a fire?”
I turned my head to see the cooled off charcoal heap, aka the cabin, and I said somberly, “Yes. We have a traitor among us.”
Artemis frowned. “My family will not be pleased to hear that.”
“Shouldn’t you be on Olympus already?”
“Oh, no, Father Zeus lifted that rule. Thanks to my brother discovering the Minors on the border of Canada, we know of their plans. They have all been forced back to a remote area in the Atlantic…a wide blockade had been kept around the ocean, and the sea immortals on our side are keeping them back.” Her face lit up. “Until there are any more movements of Hades’ forces, we are free to roam wherever. Except a small part of the Atlantic Ocean,” she added cheerfully.
I nodded. “Does Zeus know about Hecate?”
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks to Apollo, everyone knows about Hecate. They know what you did as well. Most of the good minor gods are calling it the Battle of Wolves, but I think it’s stupid. There was only one wolf after all.”
“’Battle of the Moon’ would be more suitable.”
“Hell, but what do they know?” She tilted her head towards the mountains. “Are you ready?”
“Ready?”
“To leave, of course. Heather has already rejoined the nymphs. Are you coming?”
I hesitated. I would be leaving my friends behind with no word of goodbye, and directly after the death of one of my closest friend. They needed me. Or did they?
These were also the people who took no notice of my accusation of Scarlet, the true murderer of Brooke. No one believed me. And now, no one bothered to even care that I was still here---they were all too busy---and none of them even noticed the goddess who was with me. Well, screw them all.
I looked to the moon goddess. I whistled a clear melodic sound, and soon, a gold shape appeared bigger and bigger until faithful Sunny landed before me. I climbed upon the pegasus stallion’s back and nodded to Artemis. “Yes, I’m ready. Let’s go.” The young immortal smiled, and sprinted towards the forest. Her form flashed, and the silver wolf and I upon my horse ran galloped step for step as swiftly as the wind under the cool, pouring of the rain…

Voices cried through the woods. “Raine! Scarlet! Where are you?”