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I started to bolt after them. Then the door knockers yelled, “Lock the door! No, leave the door open! CRÊPES SUZETTE!”
I raced back inside, grabbed the keys, then locked up and ran after my friends, who were now disappearing up Lexington Avenue.
The only things that saved Annabeth from being dragged to death were her own fast feet and the fact that Hecuba was a sprinter, not a marathoner. The oversize Labrador would race a block, stop to smell a trash can, race another block, look back to see if Annabeth had been killed in traffic, sniff another trash can, and so on. Because life is short. You have to take time to stop and smell the trash cans.
I caught up with them at 30th and Lex, nine blocks north of the manse. By this point, Gale was taking a break on board the Satyr Express. She was cheerfully perched on Grover’s head, gnawing on his left horn while he tried to coax her down without much luck. I wondered if mortal passersby saw the polecat, or if they thought Grover was just talking to himself and having a really bad hair day. Annabeth’s braids had come undone, like she’d just been through a wind tunnel. She had new stains on her shirt, new rips in her jeans, and a skinned left knee.
“My turn?” I gestured to the leash.
She handed it over.
“Running shoes,” she gasped, nodding toward her flats. “Tomorrow, I bring running shoes.”
“WOOOF!” Hecuba must have liked the wordrunning. I had just enough time to grab the ski handle before she yanked me into a full-out sprint.
By the time we got to East 80th, I was sweating, out of breath, and in total agreement with Annabeth about running shoes.
While Hecuba deposited a Niagara Falls of pee on a manhole cover in the middle of the street, Grover trotted up to me, his polecat friend chattering happily on top of his head. “Doing okay?” he asked me.
I wanted to comment that not all of us had goat hooves for running, but I didn’t have enough air in my lungs. I just gave him a thumbs-up. Then Hecuba took off again.
As my muscles turned to putty, my mind started to wander. I realized that I’d never actuallywalkedMrs. O’Leary. We’d played together and romped around, but whenever we needed to travel, we did so through her shadow-teleportation power, which made her a very handy friend. I wondered if Hecuba could do that, or if Hecate had taken away her power with a shadow-ectomy.
What would Mrs. O’Leary think of Hecuba? Something told me they wouldnothave a meet-cute. With Mrs. O’Leary, I’d never doubted she had the soul of a dog—an ancient giant supernatural dog from the Underworld, but still a dog.
With Hecuba…well, I tried not to look in her eyes for too long. When I did, I saw something worrisome—the echo of a human personality. My friend Hazel had told me that Gale and Hecuba were both human once, back in ancient times. I couldn’t recall the details, but it was clear that even after thousands of years, Hecuba still had plots and schemes swirling around in her brain. I didn’t know how to deal with that knowledge other than to hold on tighter to her leash and hope she didn’t decide to assassinate me by running in front of the 101 bus.
Around 95th Street, the polecat finally took mercy on us. Gale chittered and squeaked, pointing south with her nose. Hecuba huffed, irritated, but she seemed to agree that maybe it was time to go home.
“You want to take her?” I asked Annabeth.
“No, you’re doing great!” She’d taken her shoes off a few blocks before. Normally this wasn’t recommended when walking in Manhattan, but she’d developed some nasty-looking blisters on her feet, so I decided not to complain as Hecuba towed me back down Lexington.
By the time we reached Gramercy Park, I felt like I’d been holding the weight of the sky on my shoulders. I don’t mean that figuratively—I’ve done it. So has Annabeth. It’s the worst. I wouldn’t have been surprised if my hair got a gray streak again, like it did when I took on Atlas’s job. I wondered if that often happened to Greek demigods, and if they had to dye their hair back afterward. Maybe that’s why there’s a hair dye called Grecian Formula.…
I might have been getting delirious from oxygen deprivation.…
In fact, at the corner of Gramercy Park West, I had a hallucination. At the other end of the block, in the shadows between the streetlamps, I thought I saw a glowing blue apparition—the figure of a child on a bicycle, pedaling away from us in terror. When I blinked, it was gone.
I took another step. Somethingcrunchedunder my shoe. I looked down. A child-size pair of eyeglasses lay broken on the pavement.…Then they too vanished into mist.
“You okay?” asked Annabeth.
“Did you see that?”
“What?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer. “Hecate’s the goddess of ghosts, right?”
Annabeth frowned. “You think you saw one?”
“I’m not sure.…”
“Guys, come on!” Grover called from up ahead, blissfully unconcerned. “It’s finally time forourdinner!”
I unlocked the front door, trying to ignore the knockers that were threatening to hex us if we didn’t play their guessing game. We wrestled the animals out of their leashes, then headed to the basement kitchen to make our meal: some greens and trail mix Grover had brought, along with Annabeth’s bug-licious bounty from the Black Ant.
As I was trying to find the microwave to reheat the Mexican food, I noticed Grover hovering near Hecate’s ice cream machine.
