A Tempting Offer

Apart from the fact that it was pretty miserable at dinner that night, the food was excellent as usual. You can't go wrong with barbecue, pizza, and never-empty soda goblets. The torches and braziers kept the outdoor pavilion warm, but they all had to sit with their cabin mates, which meant Percy was alone at the Poseidon table. Thalia also sat alone at the Zeus table, and they couldn't sit together. Camp rules. Nico sat with the Stoll brothers, since new campers always got stuck in the Hermes cabin if their Olympian parent was unknown. The Stoll brothers seemed to be trying to convince Nico that poker was a much better game than Mythomagic. Y/N didn't want to be nosy but she wanted to warn Nico about them and hoped he didn't have any money to lose.

The only table that really seemed to be having a good time was the Artemis table. The Hunters drank and ate and laughed like one big happy family. Zoe sat at the head like she was the mama.

It was pretty clear that a heavy atmosphere lingered around the trio who came back from their mission. Everyone in Apollo cabin decided to leave Y/N alone. All of them knew how sour her mood gets whenever she fought with her teammates.

Y/N just stared at her food and ate quietly. This time, she would not make any effort to understand Percy unless he had the balls to come up and apologize for his behavior. It didn't make sense to her how it was any of his business about who she gets cozy with. Okay, she could understand if Harris turned out to be a bad guy but that wasn't exactly the case. Percy wasn't even giving him a chance to know him better.

She wasn't in the mood to talk to Harris either. It was a natural reaction. It wasn't every day that she gets accused of being happy about her best friend going missing.

When everyone finished eating, Chiron made the customary toast to the gods and formally welcomed the Hunters of Artemis. The clapping was pretty halfhearted. Then he announced the "goodwill" capture-the-flag game for the next night, which got a lot better reception.

Afterward, all trailed back to their cabins for an early, winter lights out. Y/N was exhausted, which meant she fell asleep easily. That was the good part. The bad part was that she had a nightmare.

Only a dream, but Y/N was sure of two things: Annabeth was in terrible danger. And Luke was responsible.

[ TIME SKIP ]

The next morning, Y/N decided to talk to Harris. She didn't want to ignore him last night but she just had a rough day and wasn't in the mood to talk. Well, she was sure that he would understand. After breakfast, just as she was about to look for him, Percy walked to her along with Grover.

"We need to talk," Percy muttered, "It's about a dream." Y/N didn't realize but her expression already turned bitter as her brows turned down. She ignored him and continued walking when Percy held her hand and stopped her from moving any further.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Percy said.

Y/N knew that he wasn't the kind to apologize so easily to her. It must be important. It has to be something about Annabeth.

She snatched her arm away and said, "You know what, I don't want your half-assed apology. Apologize when you actually mean it."

Sighing, she started walking along with them and sat in the meadow watching the satyrs chase the wood nymphs through the snow. The nymphs had promised to kiss the satyrs if they got caught, but they hardly ever did. Usually, the nymph would let the satyr get up a full head of steam, then she'd turn into a snow-covered tree, and the poor satyr would slam into it headfirst and get a pile of snow dumped on him.

When Percy started talking about his nightmare, halfway through Y/N joined the conversation and completed it. They both had the same nightmare.

"A cave ceiling collapsed on her?" Grover asked.

"Yeah. What the heck does that mean?" Percy asked.

Grover shook his head. "I don't know. But after what Zoe dreamed—"

"Whoa. What do you mean? Zoe had a dream like that?"

"I... I don't know, exactly. About three in the morning she came to the Big House and demanded to talk to Chiron. She looked really panicked."

"Wait, how do you know this?"

Grover blushed. "I was sort of camped outside the Artemis cabin."

"What for?"

"Just to be, you know, near them."

Y/N groaned, "Oh my god, come on Grover..."

"You're a stalker with hooves." Percy said.

"I am not! Anyway, I followed her to the Big House and hid in a bush, and watched the whole thing. She got real upset when Argus wouldn't let her in. It was kind of a dangerous scene."

"What did she say?" Y/N asked.

Grover grimaced. "Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, so it was kind of hard to understand. But something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters. And then she called Argus a boil-brained lout... I think that's a bad thing. And then he called her—"

"Whoa, wait. How could Artemis be in trouble?"

"I... well, finally Chiron came out in his pajamas and his horsetail in curlers and—"

"He wears curlers in his tail?"

Grover covered his mouth.

"Sorry," Percy said. "Go on."

"Well, Zoe said she needed permission to leave camp immediately. Chiron refused. He reminded Zoe that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said..." Grover gulped. "She said 'How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?'"

"What do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?"

"Why would she need directions? She's a goddess, Percy. Use your head," Y/N said.

"As if there isn't enough weird stuff in this world to get lost in. Hah, sorry for thinking that," Percy replied in a sarcastic tone.

"No. I think she meant gone. Taken. Kidnapped." Grover interrupted before they argued further.

"Kidnapped?" Percy tried to get his mind around that idea. "How would you kidnap an immortal goddess? Is that even possible?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, it happened to Persephone."

"But she was like, the goddess of flowers."

Grover looked offended. "Springtime."

"Whatever. Artemis is a lot more powerful than that. Who could kidnap her? And why?"

Grover shook his head miserably. "I don't know. Kronos?"

"He can't be that powerful already. Can he?"

"I don't know," Grover said. "I think somebody would know if Kronos had re-formed.

"The gods would be more nervous. But still, it's weird, both of you had a nightmare the same night as Zoe. It's almost like—"

"They're connected," Percy and Y/N said in unison.

Over in the frozen meadow, a satyr skidded on his hooves as he chased after a redheaded tree nymph. She giggled and held out her arms as he ran toward her. Pop! She turned into a Scotch pine and he kissed the trunk at top speed, "Ah, love," Grover said dreamily.

"I've got to talk to Zoe," Percy said and then cleared his throat, looking at Y/N, "Um, we got to talk to Zoe."

"Before you do..." Grover took something out of his coat pocket. It was a three-fold display like a travel brochure. "You guys remember what you said—about how it was weird the Hunters just happened to show up at Westover Hall? I think they might've been scouting us."

"Scouting us? What do you mean?"

He handed them the brochure. It was about the Hunters of Artemis. The front read, A WISE CHOICE FOR YOUR FUTURE! Inside were pictures of young maidens doing hunter stuff, chasing monsters, shooting bows. There were captions like: HEALTH BENEFITS: IMMORTALITY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU! and A BOY-FREE TOMORROW!

"I found that in Annabeth's backpack," Grover said.

Percy stared at him. "I don't understand."

"Well, it seems to me... maybe Annabeth was thinking about joining," Grover said, his eyes going back and forth between Percy and Y/N.

Percy on the other hand slowly looked at Y/N to observe her reaction. He was expecting her to be surprised, and angry at the most but...her eyes almost felt like they were glimmering. A strange dull tug came into his heart. He quickly folded the paper, which finally made Y/N snap out of whatever she was thinking.

He was about to hand it back to Grover when he realized he was already gone.

"....is it tempting?" Percy asked.

"Yes," Y/N chuckled, "it is."

"But what about Harris? What about..." Percy stopped mid-sentence. He would've cursed himself if he continued any further. They just had a fight. This wasn't the time to talk about himself.

"What about him?" Y/N asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Aren't you guys..."

"We..are not sure," Y/N said, looking at her fiddling fingers.

Oh.

It felt like his heart dropped. Yes, it was too selfish of him to think this way but Percy really thought about how it would still be better for her to join Artemis.

He didn't like the way her expressions changed when she talked about him. Harris.