Chapter 16: Reunion

"I had an awful dream last night." Annabeth said, yawning. I plucked at the string of my bow absent-mindedly.

"I dreamt about the night we fought those spiders off, and rescued Cassy." I felt myself shiver at the recollection. I had been so close to dying. Had they not come to rescue me when they did, I would never have lived to see Camp Half Blood, or to know who my father was, or to meet Percy.

"And you know what I woke up thinking?" She said, a triumphant smile curling her lips. Percy, who had been splashing his face with water in the lake, straightened up and walked over to join us around the extinguished campfire.

"Those spiders we fought…we didn't actually defeat them all. We only held them off long enough to escape. But we know the army was heading west." She said, her voice thick with excitement.

"Where are you going with this?" Percy asked, crouching down next to Annabeth, brows furrowed.

"Well…they weren't the first group of spiders we'd come across heading west. And Marcus seemed to think that there was a pattern to all the sightings." Marcus was one of Annabeth's half-brothers at Camp Half-Blood. I fitted an arrow into my bow, only half listening.

"Well…I've just been thinking. Maybe he was right, and they're all heading towards a rallying point!" She looked between the two of us excitedly. When neither of us spoke, she gave a quick sigh and pressed on.

"Maybe they're on their way to join Echidna!" With a soft twang! I sent the arrow soaring into the trees, where it stuck into the trunk of a young oak tree. Then I turned around to look at her, my mind whirring.

"That would mean…" Percy said, slowly fitting the pieces together, "That to find Echidna…"

"We have to follow the spiders!" I finished! For a brief moment I was thrilled, but that quickly changed, as soon as I realized what I was saying.

"…we have to follow the spiders?" I repeated, horrified at the thought. "The giant, acid-spitting spiders?"

"I know." Annabeth said, the victorious smile sliding from her face. "I hate those nasty creatures."

"That's it!" Percy said, clapping his hands together. Both Annabeth and I raised our eyebrows in unison.

"Annabeth. A spider, or more specifically, Arachne, is your parent's foe!" Annabeth let the words wash over her for a short moment and then she too smiled.

"You're a genius." She beamed, clapping her hands together. "So we find the spiders, and follow them to Echidna's lair. Then we've 'faced the wrath of an ancient beast', 'encountered a parent's foe', and gone to 'the lair of the mother of ruin'." She seemed to be checking items off of a mental checklist.

"That leaves the 'gift of a goddess' and…" He trailed off, deep in thought.

And the 'blackest night', I thought. The oracle had said 'Death prepare you for the blackest night'. But what could that mean?

We sat in silence for a moment, each of us silently trying to decipher the cryptic prophecy. At last, having found no answer, we all packed up our things and left the reserve. We took the train to the nearest city, and got some lunch at a small French café. When we had finished, we ordered some more drinks and stood outside the door, leaning against the posts.

"So how exactly do we find a great bunch of spiders? They seem to only turn up when we don't want them to." Annabeth mused, before taking a sip of her ginger ale.

"I was wondering the same thing." I said, looking at her curiously.

"Maybe we can help with that." A solemn voice came from behind us. The three of us hastily whirled around on the spot, Percy drawing Riptide out from his pocket. But before us stood two familiar faces, equally pale and solemn, surrounded by matching locks of dark black hair.

"Nico! Clio!" I cried. I rushed up to hug them both, but catching the expressions on each of their faces, I merely took their hands in my own. "It's good to see you two. What are you doing here?"

Blushing furiously, Nico slipped his hands out of mine and muttered, "We were…uh…on a quest."

Clio eyed the two of us with as little emotion on her face as was humanly possible. Averting her gaze, seemingly out of boredom, she faced Percy.

"We were sent to find the Chimera." She said dully. "And I believe that is why our ways have crossed."

"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked, guiding the five of us to a nearby table outside the café.

Percy pulled out my seat, allowing for me to sit down. Nico cleared his throat and looked furtively between me and Percy before continuing, "Clio believes that our quests are linked."

Annabeth shook her head slightly, "You mean the Chimera attacks and the missing fleece?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot, actually," she said in a small voice. "I mean your prophecy is seemingly leading you towards beasts and a mother of ruin-" she began.

"Echidna." Annabeth inserted, "Cassy thinks it means Echinda."

"That's what we think too." Nico said, making an obvious effort to not look towards Annabeth's left, where Percy had accidentally spilled his soda onto the knee of my jeans, and was now attempting to dab it up.

"Anyways." Clio said, raising her voice over the distraction, "It seems sort of random that your quest to find who stole the fleece is taking you to a place full of monsters."

I caught Nico's gaze momentarily and looked away hastily. "So I was thinking about it and…maybe it isn't a question of who stole it, but what stole it." She said, glancing around the table. Percy, Nico, and I were so distracted that we didn't immediately register what she was saying. Only Annabeth covered her mouth with her hands in excitement.

"The Chimera stole the fleece!" she shouted.

"Yes, exactly!" Clio beamed, while Nico leaned back and took a deep breath. Percy looked at Annabeth in astonishment.

"That's why we have to go to Echidna. The Chimera stole it on Echidna's orders." He said, looking around the table for support.

"And will be back to her soon with the precious fleece in its teeth." Nico said darkly.

"So you don't need to follow any spiders." Clio said in an equally sinister tone. "They'll be there with Echidna."

"Then how do we get there?" Clio and Nico looked at each other as Annabeth asked. Out of their bags they pulled a handful of roses.

"Travel roses!" Percy exclaimed. "You're a genius!"

"We cut them out of Persephone's own garden in the underworld. We have the whole bag full of them." He handed a rose to each of us, blushing again when he handed mine to me. For a moment, my hand brushed his as I took the rose from him. I felt a chill creep through my body, but it wasn't an unpleasant kind of chill. I shook my head to regain my senses, and began to listen again to the conversation.

"…they'll take you wherever you want to go. It's how we got out of the underworld, and how we found you all. We can use them to get to the lair." She finished.

"Can't you shadow travel, though?" I asked, remembering that night when Nico and Seth had suddenly appeared out of the shadows.

"It weakens us, especially if we're traveling long distances," Nico explained, "And since we wouldn't actually know where to travel to, it wouldn't be in our best interest."

Annabeth nodded absently, "Nico, what was the prophecy you received before your quest? It may be able to shed some light on our own." Nico recited it softly, his voice cracking subtly on the last line, 'one of your number shall never return'.

"You did say…'three the kingdom below shall behold'?" I asked, scarcely able to breathe. Both faces darkened, but neither child of Hades gave a reply.

"Nico, where is Seth?" I asked, my voice getting higher in pitch with apprehension, "Clio," I turned to her, seeing her eyes well up with tears before she blinked them away. "Where is Seth?" I shouted. Nico and Clio flinched as I did so, but neither could bring themselves to answer. I looked away quickly, horrified, and let hot tears spill down my face.

The whole, horrific story was recounted on the long walk back to the reserve, where we had decided to make camp for the night. Nico had mentioned aerial combat might come in handy when we fought the Chimera finally, and we would have to use the travel roses to return to camp and get the pegasi, and perhaps fly into Echidna's lair. But then the question of where the lair was kept fresh in our minds.

For hours we talked and strategized, and planned our quest until there was nothing left to explore. It was obvious that all the planning was a feeble attempt to take our minds off the loss of Seth, and after Annabeth had recited our detailed plan for the eleventh time, I excused myself. The tents were only a short distance away, but far enough that the voices coming from the campfire were indiscernible.

Ducking into the first tent, I sat down and took off my shirt and jeans, replacing them with a tank and running shorts. I couldn't find my pair of flip-flops, so I tiptoed over to Clio's empty tent. Why do I always steal this exact pair of flip-flops? I asked myself, chuckling. At least I returned them before the quest. Then my chuckling died, as I remembered the meeting Seth and I had had when I dropped off the pair of flip-flops. He had said one thing "Be safe." Why hadn't I said the same to him? Would it have made a difference?

My vision grew blurry from tears, and I hastily crept into tent and began to rummage through her bag. I didn't contain the items she usually carried in it, though. A blunt-looking pocket knife, a dark green canteen (Clio's was dark purple), some old, faded T-shirts that looked far too big for her tiny frame, and cargo pants. This must not be Clio's tent, I thought. Maybe I've gone into Nico's…into Nico's…

But just then, I pulled out a long, shimmering, pink scarf. It was the smoothest, silkiest scarf, which felt like flowing water, as I held it in my hands. I couldn't resist; I pressed it to my face, smelling a sweet scent of roses and laurels, and my whole mind went dizzy. Faintly I heard footsteps coming in my direction, but I didn't care. I kept my face buried in the silky fabric, inhaling the heavenly scent. Then I heard someone call my name.

"Cassy?" It asked. The voice was deep, and heavy. I couldn't stop myself from quivering at the sound. I let the scarf slowly float to the ground as I stepped, dreamlike, towards the opening of the tent.

"Cassy? Are you alright?" His voice was warm, and smooth, and moist. As he spoke, it sent a hot wave down my whole body.

"I love you." I said, my voice thick with desire. He immediately took a step back, as if he thought I might attack him. I reached a hand to touch his long, dark hair. Nico. Sweet Nico.

"What?" He muttered, trembling at my touch.

"I love you, Nico. Don't you love me?" My hand was now tracing the back of his spine with my finger.

"Y-yes. Yes I d-do." He said, staring at me in disbelief, and continuing to shiver as I laced my fingers through his thick, dark hair. I lifted his chin slightly and pressed my lips to his. For a moment he just stood there, entirely still, eyes wide open. Then he slowly closed his eyelids and began to return the kiss passionately. All of my body began to shiver, and it took all of my strength to break away.

His eyes were still closed, as if he didn't want to wake up and discover it was all a dream. I slid my arms over his shoulders, pressing myself lightly against his statue-like body, the sides of our faces touching, and whispered in his ear, "Come with me."

Our eyes were locked, and, smiling triumphantly, I dragged him slowly into the tent.