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Deep down inside her, Bianca felt bad about yelling at Cast, but at the same time, he was the one talking shit about her. He’s the one who should feel bad, she told herself. She tried not to let what the two of them had said get to her, but at the same time, she was a teenager with real emotions, so it was harder than she thought.
She went down to the cabins, letting her feet guide her. The Hades cabin didn’t seem very inviting, knowing her parents were in there and they would try to get her to talk. She didn’t want to talk to them. She needed something else to do, and she knew exactly what she needed to do.
Donovan O’Madoc, the son of Tyche who she was friends with, had left last year. He told everyone he was going to Iceland to marry Etienne, his boyfriend. Bianca was the only one who knew the truth.
“I’m leaving.” He said one day, coming into her cabin and closing the door behind him.
“I know.” She didn’t look up from her book. “You told me a few days ago-”
“I lied to you.” He cut her off. Without another word to her, he pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and grabbed a golden drachma from her nightstand, tossing it into the ever going mist machine she had. He tossed the coin in and said the name on the paper.
“Mara?” Bianca repeated the name, but he slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Be as quiet as possible.” He whispered to her right before the image of the girl came up. “Mara!” He smiled at her. “I’ve thought about your offer.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yes. I’m not willing to let my friends die or any of these kids at camp. I’ll advocate for you, but I have a few conditions.”
“Of course.” She nodded and got out a paper.
“I want the mansion you promised for my family.”
“Naturally.”
“And I want to be a part of your plan.”
She was silent for a moment. “Why would we let you know our plan?”
“So that I know you’re not lying about your promise to not hurt these kids.”
“We aren’t going to-”
“No.” He cut her off, standing firm. “I want to know the plan.”
She thought about it for a moment, turning her head away and talking to someone they couldn’t see. She turned back. “Fine, but that will cost you extra.”
“I have information. Valuable information. I’ll be honest with you, if you be honest with me.” He offered.
She turned again. “Prove it. Tell me something.”
“Will and Nico are both back, which I know is horrible for you. But I bet you don’t know how Will came back.”
She was quiet for a moment. “And I take it you do know?”
“Bianca brought him back.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Nyx’s magic is too powerful, even for Bianca. Apollo couldn’t even heal his son. Unless Bianca is actually a god that we’ve never heard of, there’s no way.”
Don didn’t say anything, just smirked and raised his eyebrows.
“She isn’t…is she?”
He still didn’t answer her. “Here’s how this is going to go. You’re going to come up here, take me down to wherever you lot moved to after the exorcism of your prisoners. I’m going to stay with you for the year then come back a few days before you plan on executing your plan and telling Chiron not to launch a counterattack.”
“You’ll just disappear for a year? They’re get nosy.”
“I’ve told them all I’m moving to Iceland to get married.”
“And they believe you?” She scoffed.
“Of course they do. I would never lie to them.” He smirked.
She looked off again then nodded. “I’ll come up tonight and pick you up at midnight at the edge of camp.”
“Pleasure doing business with you.” The Iris message ended and Don turned to Bianca who had been sitting on her bed, not in the image, the entire time. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “So?”
She furrowed her eyebrows. “So you’re betraying us for Mara? Why would you tell me? I’m going to tell everyone.”
“No, I'm not betraying you. I’m going to be your spy. I’ll stay down there, figure out what they’re doing, then tell you. But I can’t let you tell anyone. This needs to stay between us. The less people that know a secret, the easier it is to keep it.”
She thought about it for a moment. “How will you get the information to me? You can’t Iris message. It’s too risky.”
“I’ll write something for you and leave it by Orpheus’s entrance in Central Park. Throughout the year, I’ll send you something every month. When camp starts up again, it’ll become every week. When I finally come back, then you’ll know that they’re going to attack.”
“What if you get caught?”
“I won’t.”
“Don.”
“I know. But we can’t think like that right now. If I get caught, I’ll deal with it myself.”
“…okay. I’ll send you updates too. Anything they think they can us against us.”
“Perfect.”
Bianca grabbed a pen and paper from the Big House before heading out of the camp. She didn’t tell anyone she was leaving, since she knew she’d be back before anyone noticed. As she was walking down the street, she wrote her letter to Don.
She summoned the Grey Sisters who talked to her as she wrote. She responded, of course, but had no idea what they were actually talking about. Everything they said went in one ear and out the other. They dropped her off at Central Park and she walked down to the entrance to the underworld. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and grabbed the sliver of paper that was wedged between two rocks.
She read it. It wasn’t his handwriting, but she didn’t know who’s it was. It had a few words. One simple message.
Come to the Oculus.
She looked around, and crumpled up the paper. She also balled her letter up, knowing that something had gone wrong. She didn’t want her information to end up in the wrong hands. She shoved both wads of paper into her pockets and went back out to the street. The Grey Sisters hadn’t left, so she just got back into the car with them.
“Back to camp, sweetheart?” One of them turned around and asked her.
She clenched the ball of paper in her hand and nodded. “Yes, thank you.” She couldn’t go to the Oculus. Not yet. Not alone. The fates took her right back to camp. They talked to her again, but this time she didn’t respond or listen at all.
She paid them extra, for no particular reason, then went back into camp. She made her way down to the Hades cabin. She could hear the two of her parents talking idly before she entered.
“Hi, daring.” Will gave her a hug and a kiss on her temple. “Are you feeling better?”
“What?” She remembered her argument with Grace earlier that day. “Oh. Yeah, I’m fine, now.” She went over to her dresser and sat down on top of it.
“I saw you and Cast at the arena earlier.” Nico sat on his old bed, drinking some sort of red liquid. Bianca assumed it was wine, but she could have been wrong.
“I was teaching him how to throw a knife.” She responded, crossing her legs.
“Is he any good?” Will handed her a cup of whatever Nico was drinking. She knew it wasn’t wine. Her parents would never willingly give her alcohol.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, not looking at them. She chose a spot on the bookshelf and just stared at it. “Can I ask you guys to do something for me?”
“Of course, piccolina.” Her father took a sip of his drink.
“You can’t ask why. I can’t tell you.”
Will furrowed his eyebrows and laughed. “Okay?”
“I want to go to Oculus.”
“Okay.” Her dad nodded.
“Tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“Both of us?” Her father asked.
“Yes, like a little family vacation.”
“Why do you- Nevermind.”
Her parents filled the silence that followed with idle chatter about something she wasn’t paying attention to. She hopped down from the dresser and read until she fell asleep. She dreamt about Don. He was talking to her in the underworld. He was speaking gibberish. Then he showed her to the hole that held Tartarus. She heard someone call her name. She leaned in closer to try and see who it was. She lost her footing and fell.
Bianca jolted out of her bed, her heart racing. Her parents were in the beds across from her. Nico was fast asleep, but Will stirred slightly. He sat up and squinted across the way to see her. “You okay, baby?” He muttered out.
She nodded and got out of her bed. “Yeah. Just a nightmare. I’m fine.”
“You want to talk about it?”
She did want to talk, but she wanted to talk to Nico instead, so she just shook her head. “No, it’s something I need Papa for. I’ll talk to him when he’s awake.” She figured her father had better experience with dreams about the underworld.
Her dad nodded and flopped back down in the bed. Bianca left the cabin and stepped out into the early morning. The sun rays were barely peeking over the horizon as she made her way down to the archery range. She grabbed an arrow and drew back her bow.
Before she could shoot, she heard a caw from behind her. She turned immediately and pointed the arrow at the crow that was perched on her quiver. It cawed again then flew off. She watched as it left, then came back. It landed on her quiver again then flew off. She followed it that time. It led her out to the volleyball pit. In the sand, she saw three words, written in large, chicken scratch handwriting, but the message was very clear.
I AM MILO
She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at the bird who pointed its beak at the writing. She would have been lying if she said she didn’t believe it for a second. After a moment, she shook her head. “I have to go back to bed.” She turned and walked away. She heard the crow caw at her, but she didn’t look back.
She went back to her cabin. Her father was awake and upright. He smiled. “Hey, I was just about to go looking for you.” He whispered and walked over to her. “Come here.” They went outside and shut the door so Will could keep sleeping. “Your dad said you had a nightmare that you wanted to talk about.”
“Yeah.” The two of them walked down to the mess hall for an early breakfast. “It was about the underworld.” As they picked up some bread and sat down, she explained the dream to him, telling him as many details as she could remember.
When she finished she looked to her father, expecting him to brush it off with a simple explanation or ‘it probably means nothing, you’re fine’. No. He looked mortified, staring her dead in the eyes. “You heard someone calling you from Tartarus?” He repeated.
“Yeah. Is that bad?” She took a bite of her loaf. He didn’t respond for a while. She wanted to throw up. She’d never seen her father so scared before.
“I had a similar dream once.”
“What happened?”
“I went down to Tartarus to find who was calling me.”
“I thought you said you were dragged into Tartarus by force?”
“That was the first time.”
“You’ve been there twice?” Her eyebrows shot up in shock.
“Yes. The second time was with Will. We-”
“Dad’s been to Tartarus?! Why am I just now hearing about this?”
“It’s kind of a sensitive subject, mia luna. Not exactly something we’d use to rock you to sleep.”
She relaxed her shoulders in defeat. “This is crazy.” She almost felt lied to, but then she realized that she can’t feel bad about that. She lied to them all the time, about things much bigger than that. “Maybe it means nothing.”
“Right, sure.” He looked down at her through the bottoms of his eyes. “Look, I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re not going to Tartarus. I’ll make sure of it.”