Business went about as usual the next day, with the exception of a few new developments. For one, those students who had classes that took place on the field had to find other places to assemble, which Alec wouldn't have thought would be too difficult, given that they had the entirety of a private island at their disposal, but apparently he had been wrong; for another, the teachers seemed rather preoccupied today. Alec had never really seen them being overly familiar towards one another, except maybe in the canteen at mealtimes, but now he saw many of them bustling along corridors together, talking in low, avid voices. Alec didn't have to think very hard about what the subject of their gossip was — not when their eyes followed him as did the students' whenever they caught sight of him.

After breakfast, during which they were treated to a short speech by Headmistress Lewis, which dictated the same terms she had explained to him the day before (the cancelation of the Tournament and their meanwhile hunt for another activity to replace it), they headed off to their first class: Weapons and Equipment.

Professor Sheilds, to Alec's slight surprise, did not treat him any differently during the lesson, not because he had blown up their very expensive track field, nor because he had left him buried in a deserted tunnel below the school hours before that. He carried on cheerfully, bringing them through the simple Freeze Ray. They worked in trios that day, which Alec found rather uncomfortable, given that some of the students who had been gawping at him outside were in this class; on one side of him was a female Zeus student with her hair tied back in a long plait, who seemed to regard any moment she was not drinking him in with her large, amber eyes a moment wasted; and on the other was Javon, whom Alec still felt a bit uncomfortable being around, given that he had still not told him what else had transpired in his meeting with the Headmistress.

After detailing the Freeze Ray's anatomy and capabilities, Professor Sheilds gave them their first homework assignment, to provide an annotated sketch of the gun and, as extra credit, to list a few heroes and villains known to have used them. The bell rang to signal break and the room packed up and swept out of the Armoury.

"Hey. You all right?" Javon asked as him as they moved along the corridor. "You look a little tense."

"I'm fine," Alec said, rather curtly. Javon raised his eyebrows. Regretting his snap, Alec sighed and continued, "Sorry, I'm just . . . just need something to eat."

Javon grinned and flung an arm around his shoulders. "A hungry man is an angry man after all," he said cheerfully. They deposited their bags and books inside their room and strode off towards the canteen with the other boys from Number 24. Amid the swarm of students rushing into the room, Alec managed to extricate himself from their presence by stating that he had just remembered that he had wanted to make a quick call to his parents before break ended, asking Javon to save him something good in case he didn't manage to return in time, and then slipping back down the corridor feeling thoroughly disgruntled.

He made his way through the school, his head down, trying his hardest to ignore the stares he was receiving from those many students who had collected their food but decided to break outside the canteen, and consequently walked headfirst into what felt like a stone wall and fell back to the ground. Rubbing his head, he looked up and saw a familiar mane of golden-brown hair and a pair of green eyes gazing down at him.

"Oh, for God's sake," he muttered, getting to his feet. "If this is about the Tournament being canceled —"

"I know what the Principal said to you yesterday," Damon Messus cut across him coolly. He was weaing a strange, calculating sort of look, his pale eyebrows drawn together. Alec gaped at him, taken aback.

"How did you —?"

Damon shrugged. "I hear things. Walk with me." He turned and began to walk casually through the gawking mass, which was now focused more intently upon this strange new development — hadn't those two almost fought a while back? they seemed to be asking themselves — and Alec scrambled up beside him, so shocked that he was almost impervious to the piercing stares. "What did you say to her?"

Alec immediately recovered himself. "I thought you heard things?" he said with a snort.

"Not everything, dolt," Damon said calmly. "And answer the question."

Alec was silent for a moment. "I didn't tell her anything," he muttered. "I don't know what I'm going to pick yet."

Damon laughed, shocking Alec again. "How could you not know? There's literally only one right answer here."

"Here we go again." Alec rolled his eyes. "Does it ever occur to you that maybe you don't have to be such an ass all the time?"

"Sometimes," Damon said sardonically. "But common sense usually takes over pretty quickly. Listen." He came to a halt directly in front of Alec, towering over him. In that moment, strangely, Alec found himself focusing on his uniform; he had never noticed before, but there was a subtle distinction between the Hades and Zeus garments, apart from the colours: the material that Zeus was made from seemed softer, more elastic, whereas the Hades garments were more rigid. The uniform fit him perfectly, clinging to every part of his bulky form, as Alec's did him: the absurd thought rose across his mind that the uniforms were somehow capable of adjusting themselves to the exact measurements of their wearers. There was a food stain down his front. "What are you thinking, pertaining to your choice, right now, after what you've seen so far?"

"I said I don't know, you idiot!" Alec snapped. "Why are you so interested anyway?"

Damon shrugged again. "Just curious. Anyway, the reason I was looking for you. You mind meeting me around the Zeus Dorms tonight? There's something I want to show you."

"At night?" Alec looked at him in disbelief. "That's against the rules. And Professor Wyatt already caught me outside after hours before —"

"Here's a suggestion — don't get caught this time. Eleven o'clock, Hades."

And he walked away before Alec could respond. Alec stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds, wondering what could possibly have prompted such a request, then he realized that he was standing foolishly amid a crowd of apparently transfixed onlookers and that he actually did want to call his mother. Within fifteen minutes he had reached the front office, been granted a phone, and dialed the number he had known by heart for over ten years.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mom."

"Oh, Alec!" she said breathlessly. "Oh, honey, how are you? I was beginning to think you'd forgotten you were supposed to call back!" she burst out. Then she immediately adopted her earlier tone again and said, "Oh, darling, I want to hear everything. Your father told me you're in Hades, I know that place gets a bad reputation but it's not all bad, I promise, your grandfather was actually —"

"Mom," Alec said, half-laughing. "Breathe."

"Sorry, dear." He heard her draw a deep breath. "Go on."

And so he told her, as much as he could and as quickly as possible with the time limit, skimming over a few details but including the essentials right up to yesterday morning's meeting with the Heads. There was a brief pause, which lengthened. He actually looked back at the phone to ensure that they hadn't been cut off.

"Mom?"

"I'm still here," she said, her tone a good deal less exuberant. "But I'm . . . oh Alec."

"No, you can't just give me 'oh Alec,' Mom."

"Well, what else can I say?"

"I don't know. Don't Moms always know best? Maybe you could tap into your infinite motherly wisdom and tell me what you think I should do?"

"Me? Well, I'm sorry, but this isn't my decision to make, Alexander —" Alec noted the use of his full name with a feeling of ill-boding. "This is entirely your choice, but know that whatever you choose, your father and I will stand by you. So has anything else happened?" she went on, with a hurriedness that made Alec think she was keen to change the subject. "New friends?"

"Yeah, several," Alec told her heartily, forgetting his suspicions. "They're great. Well, two of them aren't really friends, they're just my squad-mates, but we're working on changing that. How's Dusty, by the way?"

Another small pause.

"Haven't you spoken to him?"

"Well I have but . . ." Alec trailed off. He did not want to admit that he had, in fact, been quite stung by Dusty’s disregard for his situation when he had first called, and was a little reluctant to attempt to phone again now. Thankfully, his mother picked up the trail of the conversation.

"Well he seems good enough. Though I haven't exactly heard glowing reviews about the new group he's running along with. Troublemakers, the lot of them, reportedly. Although we've had him around for dinner a few times and he doesn't seem that different. I can tell he really misses you, though."

Alec did not express his doubts to this point. They spent the next few minutes exchanging pleasant catch-up talk, then the secretary silently signaled to Alec that his time was up and he rang off, rather hesitantly. It had been a relief talking to his father the other day, and even more so speaking to his mother now.

He went through the rest of the day slightly cheered. They did not meet Wildfire at his room again, because he was still working on new training formats and was yet to secure a new assembly point, so they remained in the common room that evening, then went to dinner and retired to bed. In all that time, Alec had looked out for Maddison, who had looked, as expected with recent developments, even more furious and sulky than usual. He thought it best not to approach her just yet.

The hours whisked away while Alec lay in bed, wide awake. By the time Alec had finished debating with himself whether or not this was a bad idea, or if Damon was simply pulling his leg, trying to get him in trouble, his curiosity was at its peak.

He silently climbed out of bed, wearing a set of carefully selected garments that would, he hoped, help him to remain unseen better, and hurried down to the common room and outside.

The night air wasn't pleasantly cool tonight, unlike the first time he had emerged into the open late at night, but stingingly chilly. He took this as the first sign that this was a bad idea, yet he was still immensely curious about what Damon could possibly have to show him at such a late hour. Glancing around nervously, he made his way swiftly through the darkness and up to the Zeus common room.

When he got there, he found Damon leaning against the trunk of the great oak that was planted in front of the building, hidden by the shade of its huge branches and thick leaves. Alec had not noticed him until he made a loud snort of impatience. He had swapped his bright uniform for a pair of dark jeans, a black t-shirt, and a thick jacket embroidered with a large, golden D.

"Isn't that like, sacrilege, or something?" Alec said, gesturing at the tree.

Damon disregarded the question. "You sure took your time," he said, voice surly once more, as he prised himself from the trunk and made his way towards him. "Or do they not teach how to read a clock in Hades, because you know, digitals exist." He brandished his watch at Alec: it read 11:32.

"What do you want anyway?" Alec asked.

For answer, Damon simply turned and started marching around the side of the building, obviously expecting Alec to follow. Angry with himself for allowing his curiosity to lead him forward like an obedient puppy, he followed, hissing, "What the hell are we doing? What if a teacher catches us? Or a prefect? Or —"

"Will you relax?" Damon bit back. "You fought Shadow Shifter and you're afraid of a teacher?"

"That's not how it happened. And — what are you doing?" he added. They had just passed what were obviously the Zeus bathrooms, and were now approaching a small slope, which led towards the forest.

Damon did not break stride; he strode into the woods, ducking beneath the lower-hanging branches or brushing them aside impatiently. Alec, his pride fast being replaced by apprehension, flitted along behind him. "Look, I don't know if this is some kind of joke or something —"

A rustling to his left interrupted him. He shot a nervous look in the direction from which he had heard it, but the trees were so thick here that moonlight was barely penetrating the area; the darkness was harsh against his eyes. He hurried off behind Messus, who had still not stopped. They stumbled into a small clearing, and finally Damon halted, though with an unnerving abruptness, gazing around.

"What's going on?"

"See, the perimeter is surrounded by an invisible barrier," Damon said, making a wide gesture that encompassed the section of the forest they were currently in and the schoolyard they had just left behind. "Both to keep students in and intruders out. It's about thirty feet in front of us — see the unevenness of the trees? If we touch it, the silent alarm will be tripped and the teachers will be here in about a minute."

It was both amazing and startling that he could say this with such casualness.

"But we can work around that," he continued.

"How so?"

"The barrier is state of the art, impervious to blunt force and a number of powers. Obviously the basics: super strength, flight, superspeed, intangibility — none of it will get you across. Nor can you even hope to cross it from below; the barrier stretches underground too."

"So what —"

Damon turned towards him, grinning. "Well, you wanted to see what I can do. Here's one."

Alec immediately understood that he was about to show him his powers. Though he wanted to protest, to say that they were being too reckless, that they should turn back before Damon got them expelled, he was also curious to see precisely what made him the best in the year.

Damon approached the barrier. Alec moved forward as well, not wanting to miss it. He raised a hand lazily towards the region he had indicated earlier, where the invisible wall supposedly stood, and something odd began to happen. A rough, circular patch of the barrier came into view, glowing red, and a stream of energy flew from the highlighted section into his palm and disappeared. "Now," he said. He slid through the partition, and after an infinitesimal hesitation, Alec followed. He had moved almost instinctively, and now realized his mistake.

"The alarm —"

"Won't go off," Damon said airily. "The barrier requires an immense load of energy to be projected and maintained, whatever power source they're using is pumping out energy by the kilowatts per second. I absorbed just a small part of the barrier, only enough to make a temporary passage. It'll be restored in a moment, the machines won't even notice, just chalk it up to a regular drop in voltage that caused a slight breach — it happens. Now —" He beckoned and began to walk down the path again. Alec let out a grunt of frustration: this time he had no choice but to follow, it was either that or sleep outside the school.

They made their way steadily down to the beach, where waves were lapping against the shore, making that oddly calming rushing sound, the water glistening in the pale light. Damon approached the water's edge, his eyes on the sand, shifting objects with his foot. He seemed to be looking for something.

"Try a metal detector, they work better," Alec said irritably, shivering from cold now. Being this close to the sea seemed to have made it even worse, with the chilly breezes wafting from the water; he wished he'd thought to wear a jacket as well.

Something collided with his face and he jumped in alarm, thinking wildly that he was being attacked. When nothing else happened, he looked around. Damon was still determinedly scouring the ground; he hadn't even looked up. Alec looked down at what had hit him. His mouth fell open. Damon had thrown his jacket at him.

"Ah, here we go," he said a moment later. He bent down and picked up what looked like a crab, oddly stiff and gleaming in the moonlight. Alec stood for a moment, unsure of what to do with the item of clothing in his hands. Then slowly, tentatively, he drew it on. He waited for Messus to protest, but he didn't. Though pleasantly warm, it was ridiculously longer and larger than him. He felt as though he'd raided his father's closet and found it, except that none of his father's clothes ever had a strong smell of apples lingering over them, nor had they ever been peppered with so many food stains.

Damon motioned him closer and Alec looked down. He turned the crab over in his hands and Alec saw a digital keypad on the bottom. Damon punched in the number 5776, then set the false crustacean down on the sand again, waiting. A moment later, the ground ahead of them shifted, sliding apart to reveal a kind of lift.

"What the heck is that?" Alec asked.

"Hydra-loop." Spotting the confused look on Alec's face Damon went on, rolling his eyes, "Transportation to and from the island, Hades. Did you think the genius architects who built that high-tech field you destroyed would leave us stranded here with no way to get off? Come on."

Damon leapt down into the lift. Alec sighed, exasperated, and followed again. The door slid shut above them, and the lift began to move downwards until they had descended into what looked like a train carriage, with leather seats and a large round table in the center. Slowly, the glass-like, cylindrical lift rose upwards and out of sight. Through the octagonally shaped windows, Alec saw the velvety blueness of the sea enveloping them, as well as other similar carriages lined up behind them, about a dozen in total from what he could see.

"Is this some kind of underwater train?"

"Sure, let's call it that," Damon said. He reached into a compartment and pulled out snacks. He threw one across the table to Alec and sat down on the other side of the carriage, cocking his feet on the tabletop and delving into a pack of crisps. He dribbled crumbs all down his front as he ate.

"Like a child," Alec muttered, shaking his head in disbelief as he grabbed the packet Damon had tossed him.

"You'll want to be sitting for this part," Damon said in a bored voice as a loud clattering noise rang around the carriage. Alec hastily assumed the seat opposite. The hydra-loop, as Damon called it, stirred into motion and zoomed off, moving forward along a vast, transparent, tunnel-like structure.

"Is this how the rest of you got here from the mainland?"

"Yep. And you . . . helicopter, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." Alec inwardly thought that he would much rather have travelled via the hydra-loop, if only for the speed. Where the helicopter had taken hours, the hydra-loop was covering great swathes of water in minutes, so that it was only 12:15 on the dot when it finally slowed to a halt.

"Look alive, Hades." Damon chuckled, apparently at the irony of his own statement. He moved towards the entrance of the carriage again, where the lift had deposited them, and where it was now trundling downwards to claim them again, and Alec joined him. It closed around them and carried them upwards. They emerged at the edge of his own home city, alive with lights and sounds.

"Home at last," Damon said cheerfully. "Shall we?"