Blackjack pulled another unnecessary dive, nearly sending me flying off. He whined, but eventually he settled into a semi-steady flying pattern.

"Could you not do that please?" I asked him. Big mistake.

He shook himself violently, and for a scary second I fell off the saddle. But before I started falling, my hand grabbed onto Blackjack and held on for dear life. I pulled myself back up with a grunt.

"Hey I saved you from being turned into pegasus soup! The least you could do is not try to kill me," I reminded him. He grunted, but kept flying.

I blew a strand of hair out of my eyes and sighed. "Look, like I told you before, we're doing this for Percy. Does that make you not want me dead?"

Blackjack grunted. Gods I wished Percy was here. I don't speak horse. So I took a wild guess at what Blackjack had said and responded.

"No he didn't ask me too but–"

Blackjack cut me off with more horse noises I didn't understand. Again I took a guess at what he'd said.

"I know he still hates me, but I'm sorry for what I did. And now–"

Blackjack cut me off again, and I could've sworn at some point I heard him say pft.

"You think I don't know that?" I cried, tears suddenly in my eyes. "Yes, the world was destroyed and it's all my fault. My best friend hates me because I tried to kill him, and all my other friends are DEAD! So thank you Blackjack. Thank you for reminding me that I'm a terrible person!"

Maybe it was my imagination, but Blackjack seemed to fly a lot less rough after that.

After a while, we reach Mount St. Helens. I told Blackjack to swoop down low enough for me to jump, and he did. I slapped on my invisibility hat and jumped. I landed somewhere in the volcano, surrounded my Telkhines. Carefully, I crept toward the forging area where I thought there might be fewer monsters.

Three Telkhines were in the forging area, working on something I couldn't see until they held up. It was a four foot long compact trident with god-level explosive points.

"Careful," one of them warned. "Drop it and you'll cause an explosion big enough to blast the smith god free."

The other two Telkhines shivered. They obviously weren't in the mood to let Hephaestus escape. I was tempted to make them drop it, and Probably would've if I were Seaweed Brain, but I knew an explosion that big would probably kill me too. So I waited until they placed the trident down before I tore them to shreds with Riptide.

I picked up the trident and took it with me, a plan already forming in my head. I killed about forty Telkhines as I traveled through the mountain. I felt like some kind of ninja assassin.

But I wasn't here to kill Telkhines; I was here to help Percy before he even showed up. I carefully made my way to the prison of Hephaestus, where he struggled with his chains under the magma. I held the trident above the lava, and said a silent prayer Athena that I wouldn't be killed in the explosion that followed. I dropped the trident in and ran like my life depended on it... because it did.

The explosion sent me face first into the ground and my invisibility cap fell off. A nearby Telkhine saw me and raised his spear. We fought for a second and a half, but then one of his buddies called out: "Intruders approaching! Ten of them, headed this way!"

I sliced through the monster while he was distracted. I scooped up my hat and ran for the exit, calling out to Blackjack. He dived down and I leaped on just in time. As we flew away, I saw Percy and nine depowered gods storming Mount St. Helens. Three of them, Artemis, Apollo, and Percy, were shooting volley after volley of arrows as they made their approach. The other gods and goddesses had their swords and spears ready.

That's when something awful happened. In the middle of his charge, Percy suddenly cried out in pain and fell to his knees.

"Percy!" I instinctively shouted. A monster took advantage of his momentary weakness and raised a sword. I couldn't see where the monster was aiming, but I threw Riptide anyway, which sailed through the air.

I was shooting a volley of arrows as we made our charge. For some reason, the Telkhines were acting like a bomb had gone off, which only made this easier. The other gods that didn't have bows and arrows raised the swords and spears I'd conjured up for them. True it was risky to use raw godly energy like that but I–

I cried out in pain when I suddenly felt like my heart had exploded. My arms and legs felt like they'd been flash frozen and then thawed all in sixty seconds. Before the pain passed, a Telkhine raised his sword. I could tell from the angle that his blade would strike me in the small of my back, my one weak spot.

At the same moment the pain cleared, a flash of Celestial bronze sailed in front of my face. I looked at the Telkhine and saw a sword jutting from its chest. The sword looked familiar. The monster turned to dust and the sword disappeared.

What the heck?

Riptide reappeared in my hand. I loved how it did that. When this was all over, I would give Percy back his sword. And take my knife back thank you very much. As I flew away, a voice entered my head. It stayed long enough to utter one, single, comforting sentence.

That's my girl.

When I got back to Kronos, I reported my mission a failure. I told him Percy had gotten to the mountain before I had and that he'd broken Hephaestus out before I got there. That got me slammed against the wall a few times and slashed with a scythe, but I thought it was worth it. Hephaestus was free, and Percy was one step closer to saving Olympus. Blackjack was free, I'd let him go and told him to follow Percy, but without being seen.

I was pretty hopeful for the future really. Once Percy had all the Olympians' powers, he could beat Kronos and then everything would go back to normal. And now I was helping. It made me feel good inside. Even so at night, when I slept, I heard a voice that would keep telling me:

Do you really think he trusts you? Do you think he'll ever trust you? You'll be lucky if he doesn't kill you on sight! If he was anyone else, you'd be dead.

If he was anyone else, I'd still be with Kronos.

What do you call tending his hearth and running his errands?

Shut up. I would tell it.