Page 26 of Wrath of the Triple Goddess

I turned to Annabeth. “So, what now?”

That’s what I do anytime I have a problem I can’t solve, which happens, like, every sixty seconds. I ask Annabeth.

She looked down at my pee-soaked shoes and her own splattered clothes. “First, let’s get cleaned up. I’ll meet you back here in thirty minutes.”

I must have been pretty tired, because I staggered into a bathroom I hadn’t seen before, where the shower sprayed sideways at the toilet. I didn’t feel like finding another bathroom, so I just willed the water to corkscrew around me and took a tornado shower. It worked out okay, though I did give my hair a swirlie that wouldn’t come out no matter how much I combed it.

We reconvened in the ruins of the great room. I’m not going to say I felt refreshed, or more hopeful. When I looked at Hecuba’s empty dog bed, Gale’s heavy-metal harness, and the shattered stained-glass windows, I felt a sinkhole opening in my stomach, swallowing all my hopes of getting through the week alive. But at least I was clean, and I was with my friends.

Somehow, Annabeth had managed to order pizza. How she’d gotten it delivered to an invisible mansion without the use of a phone app, I don’t know. It smelled amazing, though.

She was sitting cross-legged on her tattered, half-burned bedroll, chomping on a slice of mushroom and black olive. Lying on the floor next to her were the three door knockers she’d rescued from the wreckage of the front entrance. They were silent, probably still in shock from losing their purpose in life to a giant rampaging goat monster.

As for Grover, he was eating garlic breadsticks. I knew from experience this would make his breath smell putrid for days, but the guy had had a rough afternoon, so I wasn’t going to protest.

Nope scampered back and forth between Annabeth and Grover, nuzzling for bites and wagging his tail so hard his whole body shook. Grover had done a great job of getting him cleaned up and bandaged. The puppy’s fur had puffed out so much he looked like a black Underworld dandelion.

When Nope saw me, he barked happily, slamming down his front paws in a play bow. I didn’t need to be a satyr to understand what he was saying.Boy gimme pizza or I pee on boy again!

I got a slice and picked off pieces of pepperoni for him while he stared at me with those big, sad hell-spawn eyes.

“So, um…” I wasn’t sure how to follow up that great opener. I wanted to offer an incredible plan for solving all our problems, except I didn’t have one. “I guess I can get back out there and search through the night.”

Annabeth shook her head. “We can’t just randomly canvass the city. Hecuba and Gale are magical creatures. They could be anywhere. They might decide to come home on their own, or…”

That was a pretty bigOR.

Orthey could terrorize the five boroughs and bring death, destruction, and polecat gas upon the innocent people of New York.Orthey could disappear into the Underworld and refuse to ever be found.Or, or, or.

My eyes drifted up to the balcony, where Hecate’s crossed torches were still fixed on the railing. “Maybe we could use those,” I said. “This seems like an emergency. They might…I dunno, light a way back home for the pets.”

Annabeth’s frown told me she’d already thought of this and dismissed the idea. “Just a gut feeling? I’d leave those torches alone. They’re a serious last resort. They might even alert Hecate that we’re in trouble. First, we should try to think our way through this, solve the problem on our own.”

“Problems, plural,” I said. “Missing hellhound. Missing polecat. Destroyed house.”

Grover dabbed his tears away with the end of a breadstick. “Guys…”

“Don’t say it, G-man,” I told him. “Don’t apologize. Annabeth’s right. We’re going to figure this out.”

He heaved a sigh, possibly because Nope had taken advantage of his distraction and stolen the breadstick. It probably tasted even better seasoned with salty satyr tears.

“We all mess up,” Annabeth consoled him. “Remember when Percy sent Medusa’s head to Mount Olympus? Or when he got a nosebleed and woke up Gaea? Or that time—”

“Are you just running down a list of timesImessed up?” I asked.

Annabeth shrugged. “You’re cute when you mess up.”

That didn’t seem to help Grover’s mood. He watched listlessly as Nope chewed on his left hoof.

“We’re all going to die!” he sobbed. “We’re going to die with a puppy, which is always how I wanted to go, but still—”

“Nobody is going to die,” Annabeth promised. “We still have three days before Hecate comes back.”

Grover moaned. “You’re right. Then we’ll die on Halloween, with all our friends watching!”

I took a second to process that. “Wait.…You already sent out the party invitations?”

“Of course!” he said. “This morning, before everything went strawberry. I gave them to the aurae.”

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