𝟬𝟮𝟮. you suck at backstabbing

THE DOORS OF THE PRINCIPIA STORMED OPEN. Felix from the Second Cohort ran in, his breathing heavy and his face drained of color. Jason, who had been going over case files with his co-praetor, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, raised his head from the paper-scattered desk.

"Another legionary's been taken," Felix gasped, his voice tight with urgency. Before the doors had even fully swung open, he added, "Nathaniel Myers. He was on guard duty at Caldecott Tunnel this morning. When Hazel Levesque from the Fifth went to switch shifts with him... he was gone."

Reyna threw down her dagger on the table so hard the jelly-bean bowl they kept as a joke rattled. Jason was fast to move it off the desk. Poppy, who was leaning against the back corner wall, polishing her gleaming gold garden hoe, set down her prized weapon on the polished marble floor with a clunk.

Reyna had told her several times to clean up her unconventional battle gear someplace else, but Poppy was persistent if anything. Jason, on the other hand, was inwardly glad to have her around at times like these.

"How many is that now?" Poppy asked, her voice hoarse as gravel.

"Six," Reyna answered darkly. "Six missing demigods."

She was seated next to Jason behind the praetor desk, her hands folded in front of her face. Her dark eyes were alert and dangerous. Jason got the feeling she was about half a demigod away from running someone through with the knife at her belt.

"Praetors, if I may..." Felix said reluctantly. "I think this has something to do with the ice soldiers spotted around the ruins."

Reyna exchanged a meaningful look with Jason, who knew her well enough to capture what she was thinking. They had come to an agreement to keep the existence of those things a secret. Chaos would ensue within the legion if word got out that these ice soldiers were lurking closer and targeting demigods. Especially if it got to Octavian. They didn't need another challenge on their leadership when their leadership was so vital right now.

"What do you know about those things?" Jason asked carefully. Reyna helped herself to a jelly-bean from the jar in his lap.

"Not much," Felix confided. "Just that demigods started disappearing as soon as they showed up. I mean, it's gotta be connected somehow, right? They must be the monsters left over from the assault on Mount Orthys last summer. They want revenge for their master."

Something churned nervously in Jason's stomach. Months had passed since they raided the iron throne of Saturn and he still got bad feelings thinking back on it.

"Interesting theory," Reyna said cryptically, not giving even an inch away. Her piercing brown eyes raked the length of Felix. She was trying to access him, to decide if she should put an end to the gossip around camp or not bring attention to them. She chewed on her jelly-bean slowly, as if savoring the observation.

"Leave us for now," she finally said. "Go back to your afternoon duties."

"But—" Felix was silenced immediately by one of Reyna's steely looks. Jason couldn't blame him. Even Jason sometimes found himself stumbling on his words when his co-praetor stared him in the eyes.

"Go on," Jason encouraged, mustering a reassuring smile. "Reyna and I will speak on the matter at evening muster. For now, you should at least enjoy your lunch."

At this, Felix nodded and took his leave, but not without casting another reluctant glance back at the war banners on the walls behind them, a symbol of his dad, Mars. He muttered something like a prayer under his breath.

He wasn't the only one around camp who was feeling uneasy. They could all sense something dark stirring out there, looming closer towards them, abducting legionaries.

"We have to stop this," Poppy said gruffly as soon as the doors closed behind Felix. "We have to do something."

Reyna frowned. She had never been the biggest fan of Poppy's forthright attitude. The worry lines on her face made her appear wiser, sterner, and that much older. "What are you suggesting?"

"These monsters are agitated," Poppy said. "They're targeting demigods. They must resent us for annihilating Saturn's throne. My guess is that they're kidnapping demigods as some sort of sick sacrifice to bring the Titans back to life. If we launch another assault and sweep through that mountain one more time, it could put an end to this for good. Nip it straight at the bud." Poppy swung her hoe through the air in an arc as though sowing out weeds.

"But we don't know what dark forces still linger on that mountain," Reyna pointed out. "We stay away from it because it's swarming with dark energy. If we go in blindly, even with our best soldiers, we could be ambushed. Outnumbered. We'd come out with a bigger loss than we have now."

"A smaller party then. Just to scout out the area first."

"We're not gambling with the lives of our legionaries for a mission that may not even accomplish anything."

Poppy's nostrils flared. "How do you know it won't work? Do you not have faith in your own soldiers? In your own comrades?"

Reyna's eyes flashed murderously. Before they could get into a real fight, Jason broke in.

"I'll go," he volunteered, cutting off their debate.

Both girls turned on him immediately.

"Don't be rash," Poppy said, eyebrows furrowed. "Why would you go back to that horrible place, ading?"

Uh oh. Poppy only called Jason ading when she was extremely worried about him. It meant 'younger sibling' in Tagalog. The last time she had used that term of endearment was when Jason was twelve and had been severely concussed after being hit in the head during one of the war games.

"Jason." A muscle twitched in Reyna's jaw. "Do you have a plan?"

"We can't risk any more of our friends," Jason reasoned. "If these ice soldiers truly are working for the Titans, they'll go after me first. They'll want revenge. I defeated Krios in hand-to-hand combat. If I go there alone, I can lure them away from the mountain. Then we can see what we're working with from there."

"You mean, offer you up as bait?" Poppy exclaimed. "No way! Are you crazy? Reyna, tell him that's crazy!"

Reyna's brow tensed at the lack of respect, but her concern for Jason seemed to overpower that. "Yes, you may lure out our enemies, but that could place an irreversible target on your back, which, by extension, affects the legion. It could put Camp Jupiter on the map. We've survived for centuries being hidden from the outside world. We should learn more about who we're fighting before we go charging into battle."

"Reyna's right," Poppy grunted. "You have more than yourself to think about. You're our praetor. You can't lead the legion if you're dead."

If not for how serious the situation was, Jason almost wanted to laugh. He had been at Camp Jupiter almost all his life and these two had never agreed on anything. Ever.

"There are some fights you can't win on your own, ading," Poppy said, hovering over his desk as though she was anticipating he'd run off. "You might be the pride of the Fifth Cohort, the son of Jupiter, but you can't save everyone."

"But I can't just sit back and do nothing," Jason protested. "Our friends are in danger."

"You won't sit back," Reyna said with so much certainty it momentarily stunned him. "You will do something. But first, you need to decide who it is you're truly trying to protect."

Jason sunk back into his chair. He respected Reyna not only as a co-praetor but as one of his closest friends. Without her, he wouldn't have been as successful as he was in the legion. They had risen in the ranks together, built up their legacy with each other's help. He valued her advice the most. But even Jason thought this fact was painfully obvious. He was going to protect Camp Jupiter, his home and his friends. He wasn't going to let another demigod be taken again.

And then, with an almost imperceptible flicker in his thoughts, Jason's mind honed in on something more. A girl. A girl with a saltwater pearl in her hair.

The girl who would destroy everything Jason had worked for.

The girl who would destroy him.

He had waited for this moment for years, never knowing when or where she would appear. But now, as the weight of Reyna's words pressed down on him, he couldn't shake the thought: what if she was already here? What if the girl with the pearl in her hair had been hiding in plain sight all along?

"No," Reyna said, as if reading his mind. Poppy was staring at him with the same firm look.

"This has to be her," he insisted. "The missing demigods, the monsters... this must be her doing."

"Jase," his co-praetor said in a gentle yet affirmative tone, "you've been waiting for this girl to show up at camp for the past ten years. Every time there's anything slightly out of the ordinary, you suspect it's her doing. We have no leads, no proof she even exists. Don't you think it's time to give up on her?"

"But the Lares said—"

"They say a lot of things. Most of which are a stretch of imagination. Your rationality has always been your strong suit, Jason. Don't let your paranoia cloud your judgement."

To Jason, that girl was everything he had fought to keep in check. All the fears, the instability, the broken promises over the years that he kept tucked behind a locked door inside his heart. There was no way he was going to let her ruin his life. Not after he had fought so hard to have it.

But he knew she was near. He could feel how close she was. Like a gut feeling tugging him toward her.

The girl with the saltwater pearl was going to destroy New Rome, his legacy, and everything he fought so hard to build. After everything we've done to make this a safe place for demigods, he couldn't let that happen. Jason swallowed, forcing himself to focus. He had no idea who she was, or when she would strike. But the thought gnawed at him like a silent promise. One way or another, he was going to face her. And he would be ready.

Turns out, the girl with the saltwater pearl wasn't the only person he had to look out for.

Jason had suspected Piper had her own reasons for insisting on coming on this quest, but when he heard the full truth, he never felt worse. All along, Piper's dad had been held captive by the giants. They had blackmailed her with her father's life and she had been forced to be their double agent, and Jason hadn't been there for her at all. He hadn't been a good friend.

Jason scooted next to her. "God, Piper. I'm so sorry."

Leo nodded. "No kidding. You've been carrying this around for a week? Piper, we could help you."

But Piper wasn't looking at either of them. They had buried her in blankets since her dip in the river, but she was still shivering. Next to her, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It might've been day or night. The storm made it too dark to tell.

Aera, who had been previously satisfied about turning Piper into a human burrito (Jason knew she secretly liked human burritos, she just didn't want to admit it), wasn't smiling anymore. She kept her eyes zeroed in on the campfire as if something large and scary was going to jump out from it. She was hiding something...

"How long have you known, Aera?" Piper asked.

"Since the campfire," Aera confessed. "When you got claimed."

Jason winced. He feared what Piper's reaction would be. Aera had known Piper's dad was in danger the whole time and kept it to herself. Piper said nothing, which made the tension thicken.

"I didn't know what it was exactly," Aera explained when no one else said anything. "There was just the suspicion you had more at stake than your dead badger hair. That prophecy scared the concealer off the senior campers. Since the war, no one wants to go on quests anymore. Everyone knows what it's like out there now. It was weird a newbie like you volunteered as soon as you came. And since you know..." Aera smiled sardonically but Jason could tell it was forced. "You hate your cabin."

"Why didn't you rat me out then?" Piper demanded, clenching her fists. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Aera's teeth sunk into her bottom lip. Her fingers restlessly drummed against her thighs. Whatever she wanted to say, it wasn't coming out easily.

"That knife you got from the armory..." Aera pointed to her pocket. Piper drew her dagger. It had a hilt made of polished wood with an eighteen inch triangular blade that reflected like glass. "Katoptris, right? The looking glass. I know the demigod who brought it to camp." Aera paused, drawing in a shaky breath. "Her name was Sooyoung Ryu. She was Luke's sister, a daughter of Hermes. She didn't want to fight the gods but she loved her brother more than herself. Because of that, she died in the most brutal way possible."

"In sweatpants?" Leo offered jokingly.

"Alone, and in pain," Aera said bluntly, "despising herself for the choices she made."

Leo's grin dropped. The cave suddenly felt colder than before. Outside, the snowy wind continued to howl, making Jason feel even more cornered.

"I remember her," Hedge broke in, cutting the silence. Their goat fu coach had been unusually peaceful, chewing on a paper plate in the corner. "Sooyoung Ryu had a big heart. She wasn't a fighter, she was a healer. And a good one at that. Always thought she was going to make it." He shook his head mournfully, stuffing the paper plate between his teeth.

"I don't know if you heard Ethan Nakamura back at camp," Aera said grimly. "But to this day, we still don't know exactly what happened to her. Her body hasn't been found. That's how tragic her life was."

"Why are you telling me this?" Piper questioned.

Aera's eyes danced sadly in the firelight. "Because I know what it's like to have to choose between your friends and your family. I've seen it in every terrified demigod that Kronos recruited. I've seen it in heroes like Annabeth and Percy Jackson, who try their best to do good but never seem to do enough. I wanted you to see it for yourself. There is no justice for us. No right decision. Demigods always lose."

"Then why did you volunteer for this quest knowing all that?" Piper said hotly, nearly yelling now. "You trusted me knowing I would betray you! The prophecy says you'll lose something. Aren't you scared?"

Aera peered at Piper with a heavy level of fondness that didn't match the length of their friendship. Even though she was facing Piper, Aera's gaze seemed far away, as if her mind was stuck in a distant past.

"Come on, Piper," Aera said softly. She sounded a little entertained, as though Piper had brought up something silly. "That one's easy. The prophecy can't hurt me. I don't have to make these decisions anymore."

"How come?"

"Because there's no one left that I love."

Jason's blood instantly ran cold. He leaned away from Aera as an uncomfortable pressure settled on his chest. He wanted to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth.

Piper's multicolored eyes darted from Aera to Jason. Back to Aera. Jason couldn't imagine what she was thinking.

"So that's it?" Piper demanded, anger spreading across her pale face. "You're just going to do whatever you want because you don't have anything to lose?"

Piper threw down the blankets around her body with impressive strength for someone who had hypothermia. Her lips were purple, but they spoke with a disarming severity. "How can you be so selfish? Whoever this lady in the dirt is, whoever took Hera, they're not just your enemies, they're after us, too. Me, Jason, Leo, Coach. All demigods. Camp. The giants could have my dad dead by morning! And you—you're not even taking this seriously! Why are life and death so easy to you?"

The expression Aera wore was indecipherable. Jason couldn't look at either of them. He felt the same helplessness he did in Midas' mansion, watching his friends turn to gold without being able to do anything to stop it. He waited for Aera to yell at Piper, or throw her into the snow, or beat up her face with a makeup brush.

Instead, Aera let out a laugh. The sound was so loud, it bounced off the cave walls, echoing through the howling snow.

"You suck at backstabbing people, you know that?" she jeered with a smirk. "Take it from the notorious traitor herself. You really need to work on your guilt."

Piper glared at her. Hedge draped the blankets onto her back again.

"That makes two of you," he said sagely. "You wouldn't have gone on this quest if you weren't."

"Maybe," Aera admitted, to Jason's immense surprise. She reached into Jason's bag and brought out a small silver dagger the length of her palm. Jason didn't even know when she had put it with his belongings. The dagger was short, but the edge of it was thinly serrated. Jason could tell it'd cut through anything. "Or maybe I just wanted to get close to the kind of entity that's strong enough to capture the queen of the gods and finish her off." The deadly glint in her eyes was as keen as the knife she held.

Jason was still at a loss for words. He couldn't fault Piper for keeping this a secret from them. She was in a difficult position and her father's life was at stake. She was doing the best she could.

As for Aera, she was hurting. Badly. Jason wanted to help her but it wasn't that simple. Every time Jason took one step closer, Aera took three steps back. He was going to have to move more thoughtfully. Tension could snap their group in half if he left it alone for too long.

"You don't get it!" Piper cried. "I've probably just killed my dad, telling you this."

"I seriously doubt that," Aera said. She was back to looking bored again, twirling her knife around in her hand. "Giant hasn't gotten what he wants yet, so he'll keep your super hot dad as leverage." She caught the severe look on Piper's face. "Sorry for calling your dad super hot, but he is, so I'm not sorry."

Coach Hedge belched. He had finished his paper plate. "Glamour girl's right. He'll wait until the deadline passes, see if you show up. He wants you to divert the quest to this mountain, right?"

Piper nodded uncertainly.

"So that means Hera is being kept somewhere else," Hedge concluded. "And she has to be saved by the same day. So you have to choose—rescue your dad, or rescue Hera. If you go after Hera, Enceladus takes care of your dad. Besides, Enceladus would never let you go even if you cooperated. You're obviously one of the eight in the Great Prophecy." He turned to Aera with a stern expression. "And so are you, cupcake, whether you like it or not."

Aera wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Whatever you say, Bush."

"That's Coach to you," the satyr responded roughly. "Coach Hedge."

"Okay, Coach." Aera smirked. "...Bush."

Jason pulled the old satyr back before he could get up and start fist-fighting Aera.

"So we have no choice," Piper whimpered. Her voice sounded so miserable Coach sat back down. "We have to save Hera, or the giant king gets unleashed. That's our quest. The world depends on it. And Enceladus seems to have ways of watching me. He isn't stupid. He'll know if we change course and go the wrong way. He'll kill my dad."

"He's not going to kill your dad, Piper," Aera said defiantly. "We'll kill him first."

"But we don't have time!" Piper said. "Besides, it's a trap."

"We're your friends, beauty queen," Leo said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We're not going to let your dad die. We just gotta figure out a plan."

"Yeah, like, do you have any idea where this mountain is supposed to be?" Aera grumbled. "How's the weather? Fair warning. If it's too windy, I might flash someone with my dress."

"Where did you get another dress?" Leo wondered.

Aera shook her head dubiously. "You don't want to know."

"Maybe Aeolus can tell you that," Hedge suggested. Aera looked horrified. Hedge shuffled his club impatiently. "Not the dress, the location! The Bay Area has a bad reputation for demigods."

Coach shot Aera a pointed look, but Jason didn't notice. His ears began to ring at the idea of the Bay Area. His brain tingled with electricity. The Bay Area brushed against something Jason was supposed to remember. Something important.

"Glamour girl knows this better than anyone," Hedge continued. "The old home of the Titans, Mount Othrys, sits over Mount Tam, where Atlas holds up the sky. I hope that's not the mountain you saw."

Jason's jaw stiffened. "Bad reputation...that's not right. The Bay Area..."

"You think you've been there?" Piper asked.

Jason tried to collect his thoughts before they could scatter off again. "I—"

"Wait," Aera said, clipping his words short. She leaned in. "You're from there, aren't you?"

The ringing cut off at once. Fear crawled up Jason's neck, one finger at a time. His breathing shortened. "How do you know?"

"I think I remember something..." Aera said, rubbing her forehead tenderly. "From that week the crusty old goat men lost me...." She looked at Jason with a cautious attentiveness. "We met in the Bay Area...when I went to Silena's grave."

Jason's heart plummeted. Aera was starting to remember. She was starting to remember they were enemies.

"How did we meet?" Aera pondered.

Jason couldn't move. For a split second, it felt like he wasn't even breathing, like he had been the one turned to gold this time.

Aera, in all her oblivious wonder, smiled cutely at him. "You saw me and instantly had a crush on me, didn't you?" She nodded smugly. "Well, at least pre-amnesia you had taste. Can't fault you there."

Leo snickered, giving Aera a thumbs up. "Smooth."

Piper rolled her eyes. "My dad's dying, FYI."

Jason decided he was going to deflect the conversation for now. He had to. Aera was getting too close to the truth.

"Hedge," Jason said, his eyes stuck to Aera's like glue. "What did you say happened to Mount Orthys?"

"I didn't." Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw Coach Hedge tap Aera on the shoulder with his club. "Why don't you explain it to him?"

"Fine," Aera said through clenched teeth. She pushed Coach's club off her shoulder. "Mount Orthys was Kronos' palace. I had to hire a bunch of these snake ladies called the Scythian Dracaena to restore it from the ground up. They were so annoying, all snake-y and always complaining about how I was making them do a bunch of unfair labor without any good wages, retirement plans, blah, blah, blah. Well, it's like, if you don't want to do a bunch of unfair labor, you should just join the gods' side, you know? It's like, one or the other. Pretty obvious. The gods would've just sent them straight back to Tartarus, so really, I was doing them a favor by giving them unfair labor."

Before Aera could go into more detail about the Scythian Dracaenae labor union, Piper said, "Okay, but what happened after the war?"

Aera sniffed. "I dunno. The main battle was fought in Manhattan when we tried to take Olympus. Total fail, by the way. We should've used more Greek fire. We had so much of it stored in the mountains..." She rolled her eyes and pursed her lips.

"Anyway, I was too busy in the east to care about what was happening in the west. The gods were debating on whether or not to make me die a horrible death or whatever. I think when Kronos got defeated, the palace just crumbled on its own? Those Scythian Dracaenae were probably just mad and didn't do a good job. They were all gone when Kronos fell. Probably went into hiding to avoid punishment. Snakes." Aera shuddered.

"No," Jason said. Everyone looked at him.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" Aera demanded sourly.

"That's not what happened," Jason said.

Aera made another show of rolling her eyes again. "I think I remember the war I waged and almost lost my perfect eyebrows in. Besides, it's not like you were there. You were—" Aera suddenly tensed, looking toward the cave entrance. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Leo asked.

For a second, nothing. Then Jason heard it: howls piercing the night.