Chapter 2 (64) Watcher's Start

                                    

                                          
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Nothing caps off the perfect morning like a long taxi ride with an angry girl. The added blind girl that kept demanding answers didn’t add much help. 
I tried to talk to Annabeth, but she was acting like I’d just punched her grandmother. All I managed to get out of her was that she’d had a monster-infested spring in San Francisco, she’d come back to camp twice since Christmas but wouldn’t tell me why (which kind of ticked me off, because she hadn’t even told me she was in New York and she’d learned nothing about the whereabouts of Nico di Angelo (long story).
“Any word on Luke?” I asked.
She shook her head. I knew this was a touchy subject for her. Annabeth had always admired Luke, the former head counselor for Hermes who had betrayed us and joined the evil Titan Lord Kronos. She wouldn’t admit it, but I knew she still liked him. When we’d fought Luke on Mount Tamalpais last winter, he’d somehow survived a fifteen-meter fall off a cliff. Now, as far as I knew, he was still sailing around on his demon-infested cruise ship while his chopped-up Lord Kronos re-formed, bit by bit, in a golden sarcophagus, biding his time until he had enough power to challenge the Olympian gods. In demigod-speak, we call this a ‘problem’.
“Who’s Luke?” Toph asked, her tone demanding.
“Another demigod who betrayed Camp Half-Blood.” I told her the short version and looked back at Annabeth.
“Mount Tam is still overrun with monsters,” Annabeth said. “I didn’t dare go close, but I don’t think Luke is up there. I think I would know if he was.”
That didn’t make me feel much better. “What about Grover?”
“He’s at camp,” she said. “We’ll see him today.”
“Did he have any luck? I mean, with the search for Pan?”
Annabeth fingered her bead necklace, the way she does when she’s worried.
“You’ll see,” she said. But she didn’t explain.
“No, I don’t think I will.” Toph muttered, making me both chuckle and wonder if Y/N had reincarnated this fast.
As we headed through Brooklyn, I used Annabeth’s phone to call my mom. Half-bloods try not to use cell phones if we can avoid it, because broadcasting our voices is like sending up a flare to the monsters: Here I am! Please eat me now! But I figured this call was important. I left a message on our home voice mail, trying to explain what had happened at Goode. I probably didn’t do a very good job. I told my mom I was fine, she shouldn’t worry, but I was going to stay at camp until things cooled down. I asked her to tell Paul Blofis I was sorry. I had asked Toph if she wanted to call her parents and she just scoffed so I left it at that.
We rode in silence after that. The city melted away until we were off the expressway and rolling through the countryside of northern Long Island, past orchards and wineries and fresh produce stands. Toph consistently tapped her foot, seeming uncomfortable in the taxi.
I stared at the phone number Rachel Elizabeth Dare had scrawled on my hand. I knew it was crazy, but I was tempted to call her. Maybe she could help me understand what the empousa had been talking about – the camp burning, my friends imprisoned. And why had Kelli exploded into flames?
I knew monsters never truly died. Eventually – maybe weeks, months or years from now – Kelli would re-form out of the primordial nastiness seething in the Underworld. But, still, monsters didn’t usually let themselves get destroyed so easily. If she really was destroyed.