Chapter 3

ALEXANDER

Man, this line sucked. Game Palace was always busy, but this time it was jam packed with people eager to get their hands on Ares Wrath III.

Alyssa was standing next to him, asking questions about the game. They’d hit it off in biology when she was assigned to be his lab partner seemingly out of the blue. He didn’t even remember her transferring to the school, but apparently she’d been there for weeks. She seemed to be really interested in Greek myth, and was asking if this monster or that god appeared in the game. He told her what he could.

“My friend Mavis is the one you should be talking to.” He said. “She’s obsessed with these games.”

“She sounds really cool.” Alyssa cooed. “Tell me more about her.”

Alexander wondered where to start. He could honestly talk about Mavis for hours.

“Well, she’s insanely smart, and she’s always there for you when you need her. She’s tough as nails too.”

“I heard she beat up Christian pretty bad.” Alyssa added, taking a moment to inspect her makeup in one of those compact mirrors. She didn’t wear a lot of makeup, but she was still a knockout, which made Alexander wonder why she was bothering to hang out with someone like him. She should have been out with the popular girls trying on designer clothes or something, not waiting in line with a bunch of geeks like him for a video game she wouldn’t even play.

Alexander shrugged. “He wasn’t that hurt. She got a couple good hits in, but one of his goons tripped Mavis and sent her flying into him. Christian ended up falling into a handrail. That’s what knocked his teeth out. Gave Mavis some nasty road rash too.”

“Cheaters.” Alyssa said with a grin.

Alexander chuckled and looked back up at the front counter of the store. The number of Deluxe Edition boxes was dwindling fast. He hoped he’d make it to the front in time. Mavis had been looking forward to this game for a long time. Alexander remembered when they’d first released photos of the Deluxe Edition and she’d literally squealed in delight, talking for thirty minutes about the sculpting on the statue and the art on the steel case. If she couldn’t be here to buy it, he had to get it for her. Heck, her birthday was next week. Maybe he’d even wrap it up for her and surprise her. He sucked at wrapping though. A gift bag would be a better option.

Alexander’s heart sank as he finally got up to the cashier. The shelf where all the boxes had been stacked lay barren.

“Any deluxe editions left?” He asked the pimply kid working behind the register.

“Nah man, sorry. Just sold out.” The kid answered.

“What about that one?” Alyssa asked, pointing to a box on top of a display cabinet. It had been unpacked to show off all the contents.

“Oh sorry, miss. That’s the store’s display copy. Not for sale.”

Alyssa leaned in and batted her long eyelashes. “Aw, come on. Surely we could buy that one. We’re still gonna pay for it, after all.”

Alexander’s head felt funny all of a sudden, but he agreed wholeheartedly with Alyssa. They were still going to buy it, so no harm in handing over the display, right?

The kid behind the counter agreed as well. He packed up the box as neatly as if it had come off the line. Alexander paid, but not before Alyssa had convinced the guy to give them a ten percent discount because it had already been opened.

“That was awesome.” Alexander said as they walked out.

“I can be very persuasive.” Alyssa said, making a show of buffing her nails on her shirt.

“Thank you. Really. Mavis is going to be stoked.” Alexander looked into her emerald green eyes and smiled.

“You’re welcome. It sounds like Mavis means a lot to you.”

Alexander blushed. “Yeah. I mean, she’s my best friend. I don’t think I would’ve survived at this school without her.”

Alyssa smiled back. It made Alexander feel warm inside, like he was sitting by the fire on a cold snowy night.

“So I’ve got an extra twenty bucks to spare.” He said. “Wanna get something to eat?”

Alyssa nodded and they headed off.

“Chalupa-cabra’s?” Alyssa read as they approached the restaurant. Over the name, there was a cartoon of a lizard-like gremlin creature with sharp teeth wearing a sombrero and double-fisting overflowing chalupas.

“Don’t let the name fool you. This place is pretty good.” Alexander chuckled.

A deep voice rumbled behind them, in an unmistakably New York accent. “Gods, it’s been decades since I had a good chalupa.”

Alexander and Alyssa both turned around at the same time and came face to shoulder with a freaking horse. The clydesdale was enormous, but as Alexander’s eyes moved up the beast, it transitioned into a beefy dude with a huge beer gut wearing a black tank top and who had a gold figaro chain around his neck. He had slicked back hair and Ray-Bans shades. He looked just like your typical New York Guido, but he had a Budweiser horse instead of legs.

Alexander stared wide-eyed. “Am I crazy, or is that—”

“A centaur? Yes.” Alyssa supplied.

“Is he—”

“Friendly? Probably not.”

Chapter 4

ALEXANDER

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“C’mon now,” said the centaur to Alyssa, “I can be very friendly. ‘Specially to a pretty little demigod like you.”

Alyssa didn’t take her eyes off the centaur as she said, “Alexander. Run.”

She then drew a bronze knife from god-knows-where and stabbed the centaur in one of its knobby front knees. He howled in rage as the knee buckled. Alyssa grabbed Alexander’s hand and dragged him down the street. He looked over at her, but she started to shimmer, like heat waves coming off the pavement. Her body didn’t change, but her clothes did. A silhouette of a pegasus appeared on her orange t-shirt, along with the words Camp Half-Blood. A leather sheath was suddenly belted to her right thigh, where she stowed her dagger.

“Keep moving,” she said. She was perfectly calm, like she wasn’t exerting any effort at all, despite sprinting away from a sleazy-looking centaur. “He wasn’t destroyed. He’ll be on our tails any second.”

“What in God’s name is going on?” Alexander asked, pushing his hair out of his face.

“Run now, talk later.” As they rounded a corner she pointed to a Goodwill “In there!”

They burst into the door, scaring several shoppers, and then walked into the aisles of musty clothes.

“We’re hiding in a thrift store?” Alexander hissed.

“Monsters don’t have great eyesight.” Alyssa said, as if it were the most normal sentence in the world. “They mostly rely on smell. A store full of human-used clothes and books and stuff should help mask our scent.”

Alexander took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay. That—I can’t believe I’m saying this—centaur called you a demigod.”

“Yes.” Alyssa led him back towards the restrooms. “Okay. Here’s the short version. All the myths about Greek gods and monsters are real. Every one of them. And the gods are too. Even in modern times, the gods are doing the same thing they always did, coming to Earth to get jiggy with mortals. Nine months later, give or take depending on the god, you get demigods, A.K.A half-bloods.” She underlined the words on her chest with her hand.

“So you’re saying one of your parents was a Greek god?” Alexander’s head was starting to spin. If he hadn’t just seen her stab a literal centaur, he would have called her nuts, bonkers, absolutely crazy.

“Goddess actually,” she corrected, like it made a difference, “my mother is Aphrodite.”

His mouth fluttered open and closed a couple of times before he said, “That checks out.”

Alexander thought for a moment. He’d never known his dad. His mom raised him alone, taking him from army base to army base as she was reassigned. He’d asked about his dad a couple of times throughout his life, but she’d never talk about him.

“He went MIA when we were overseas,” she would say, “but I’m sure he would’ve loved to meet you.” And then she would ruffle his hair and stare off into the sunset, as if he were leaving her all over again.

“Do you think I could be a half-blood too?” He asked in a low whisper.

Alyssa nodded. “That’s why I’m here, Alexander. You’re a demigod, like me. Mavis too. I came to watch over you and take you both to camp at the end of the year, but it looks like we’ll need to leave early.” She rummaged around in a leather bag on her belt, which her whole forearm disappeared into, despite it being much too small, and pulled out a small glass prism and a gold coin about the size of a half-dollar. She angled the prism and made a rainbow appear on the wall. Then she began to speak an incantation like she was casting a spell.

“O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood.”

Then she flicked the gold coin at the wall. Alexander expected it to ricochet back at them, but instead it disappeared into the rainbow with a plop like it was a wishing well. The rainbow then began to shimmer and a middle-aged man’s face appeared. She had apparently caught him in the middle of trimming his bushy salt and pepper beard, because he had a pair of bronze scissors in his hands and half his face looked like a scraggly rat’s nest.

“Alyssa, my dear,” the man said, going back to trimming. He had a gentle and patient voice, “what can I do for you?”

“Chiron, I need an extraction team out here, fast. We have a massive centaur on our tail, and he’s not a Party Pony.”

Alexander had no idea what a Party Pony was, but if it was anything like that other centaur, it was probably insane. More than anything, he was fascinated by the godly Skype call that he was witnessing.

Chiron’s expression sobered and he paused his grooming. “I see.” He said. “I’ll muster what forces I can. Be careful.”

“Understood.” Alyssa said. Then she ran her hand through the image and it faded away.

Before Alyssa could speak there was a loud crash, followed by the sounds of screams.

“Where you at, little demigods?” An all-too-familiar voice bellowed.

“What’re we gonna do?” Alexander asked.

“You go wide. I’ll distract him and try to kill him if I can. Not much I can do with a knife.”

“You didn’t pack anything bigger in your divine fanny pack?”

Alyssa snorted. “No, I didn’t. I knew there’d be monsters, but I didn’t think they’d be this strong. I guess my overconfidence got the better of me.” She looked at him with a playful glint in her eyes. “Runs in the family.”

Alexander got a sick feeling that she was enjoying this.

Alexander broke left while Alyssa went right. She ran fast and let out a battle cry as she charged. Meanwhile Alexander tried his best to sneak between racks of clothes. The store was a wreck. The whole right side of the store had been trampled flat in the centaur’s charge. The automatic sliding doors were nothing but a pile of fine glass on the floor. He tried to make a break for it, but a wooden entertainment center exploded like a bomb as it landed inches in front of him. He had to throw up his arms to avoid getting wooden shrapnel in his face. A few nasty shards tore at his arms though, and he felt blood start to run down them. He didn’t feel much pain though. In fact, his senses seemed to grow sharper. His vision sharpened, like he could see every little thing that was happening all at once and react in an instant. Adrenaline was a hell of a drug.

“Don’t think I forgot about you, boy.” He bellowed. Alexander turned around and glared at him. “Oh, lookadat. Pretty boy’s got a grill on ‘im, don’t he?”

“Eyes on the fight, Meathead!” Alyssa called as she slashed with her dagger. She cut the centaur’s waist and a gout of blood streamed out. He cried out and backhanded her. She flew against the wall and slammed against it with a loud thwack. Her knife flew out of her hand and skittered somewhere into a pile of VHS tapes.

“Man, you’s a feisty one, girly.” the centaur said, trotting over to her where she lay, desperately sucking in air. He reached down and picked her up. His hand was large enough to wrap completely around her head. She kicked and flailed and clawed at his meaty paw, her cries muffled by his palm.

“You remind me of Atalanta. She was feisty too. ‘Course, she was actually able to kill me.”

Alexander watched the tendons in his hand shift as he started to squeeze. He couldn’t just stand there. He had to do something. Anything. A ray of sunlight passed through the destroyed window and Alexander caught a glimmer of bronze a few feet away. Alyssa’s knife! He didn’t stop to second guess himself. He just acted. He dove for the blade, grabbing it and turning his dive into a roll. He flipped the dagger once in his hand so he was lightly gripping the blade. He primed his right hand to throw.

“Hey, Guido!” he cried.

Once the centaur turned his head he flung the knife at him. It flipped once, twice. On the third tumble the blade embedded itself in his forehead. His Ray-Bans split in half and fell off either side of his face as he began to dissolve into dust.

Alexander shook his head, as if he was coming out of a dream. How did he do that?

He’d have to figure it out later. Alyssa was in a heap on the floor. She coughed and sputtered, choking on centaur dust.

“Good shot.” She managed after a while.

“I don’t even know how I did that.” Alexander helped her up, but that incited a loud hiss. Alyssa grabbed at her side and doubled over in pain.

“Your ribs are broken.” Alexander got his shoulder under her arm to support her. She cried out again, but she gritted her teeth.

“I’ll be fine. We need to get back to the school. Mavis is in danger.”

“What do you mean?” Alexander’s heart started to pound with worry.

“That centaur said he fought Atalanta.” She looked at him, fear in her eyes.

“There were two centaurs in that fight.”