Page 22 of Wrath of the Triple Goddess

“Yeah,” I said. “Uh, we ready?”

Annabeth pointed toward Grover, who was leaning against the wall, trembling like he had just thrown up.

“I—I can try,” he said. “I can—”

His knees buckled. I managed to catch him before he face-planted on the carpet.

“Whoa, okay,” I said. “You’re not going anywhere, G-man. You need to rest.”

“But the first twenty-four hours are critical,” he murmured, “in missing-animal cases. We need to…urgh.”

He slumped against me, all his energy sapped. He’d gone from being Fur Mountain, Destroyer of Worlds, to a paper satyr who weighed almost nothing in my arms.

“Let’s get you sitting down,” I said.

Then I remembered that all the furniture in the great room was broken. Our bedrolls were half-burned from magical chemicals.

Annabeth and I made a nest out of our spare clothes and eased Grover onto the floor.

“I’ll be okay in a minute,” he said. “I just…”

He keeled over sideways and started to snore.

Annabeth and I stood over him. The house was quiet except for the cries of the buried door knockers and the eels in their tank, singing the Gollum song about fish in four-part harmony.

“Pretty sure Grover will recover,” Annabeth ventured.

“You think he’s right about the twenty-four-hour thing?” I asked.

She made a listless, one-shoulder shrug. “I don’t know. Sounds like something he heard onUnsolved Murders. But I do think we need to get out there.”

I stared down at Grover—a pitiful, strawberry-frosted lump of unhappiness, whimpering in his sleep. A cold feeling of certainty settled over me—the kind I usually get when I’m about to do something necessary and potentially fatal. I’d been wrong to leave Grover alone before and put him in this position. I needed to fix it.

“You stay with him,” I told Annabeth. “I’ll track down the pets, starting with Hecuba.”

Annabeth frowned. “Won’t you need help?”

I tried not to feel like she was doubting my abilities the wayIwas doubting my abilities.

“I’ll have help,” I assured her. “It’s time to use a hellhound to catch a hellhound. I’m calling in Mrs. O’Leary.”

That sounded real impressive when I said it.

Then I actually had to do it.

Calling Mrs. O’Leary didn’t always work. Sometimes she was too far away to sense me. Sometimes she was busy doing something else, like digging holes in the Underworld or chewing on a juicy drakon bone. Years ago, Daedalus had left her in my care, but these days she was her own person. She did what she wanted.

If I thought about her hard enough, though, she might show up. If that didn’t work, I’d need incentives. I grabbed some treats from Hecuba’s stash. Ifthosefailed me, I’d have to go with my last resort. On my keychain, I kept a dog whistle that Leo Valdez had given me. It wasn’t made of Stygian ice like my first one—that had shattered. This one was Celestial bronze and engraved withLEO+PERCY4EVER♥, because Leo is a doofus. I tried not to blow that whistle unless I really had to.

The second thing I would need: lots of open space. Mrs. O’Leary usually got excited when she saw me. We didn’t need to wreck the mansion any more than we already had. I grabbed Hecate’s keys, walked across the street, and unlocked one of the gates to Gramercy Park.

I expected a chorus of billionaire angels to start singing when I opened it, but the only sound was the creak of rusty hinges. Inside (spoiler alert), there were trees. Also shrubs, gravel paths, and benches, like a lot of neighborhood parks in New York. Nothing was gilded in twenty-four-karat gold. No diamonds or rubies decorated the flower beds. I wanted there to be a sign on the path welcoming new visitors:ARE YOU NOT UNDERWHELMED?

In the middle of the park stood the statue of a sad-looking old-timey dude, the nameEDWIN BOOTHengraved at his feet. I didn’t know why Edwin looked so depressed. Maybe he’d lost his hellhound. Anyway, I had the park to myself, so I figured it would be a safer place to call Mrs. O’Leary, rather than on the corner of Third Avenue, where she might trample a taxi.

I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my anxiety about Hecate obliterating me. I focused on Mrs. O’Leary.Come here, girl!

Silence. No rustling in the shadows. No disturbance in the Force. Just me and Edwin Booth standing by ourselves, looking sad.

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