Chapter Nine REYNA RAMÍREZ-ARELLANO They did leave without us. I was burning mad on the inside, but managed to keep my tone on the outside. Katherine seemed much more calm. Apparently, those myths about people who drink a lot of water face hard situations calmer were true. Come to think of it, I had never seen Katherine lose her cool. Hmm. Maybe I should start drinking more moonwater. “Hey, we can’t just leave Luna here. Ideas?” Katherine asked. “You first,” I said. True, I was usually the one with ideas, but now, I wasn't the leader. Nobody expected me to do anything. I could push the weight onto other people’s shoulders freely. “One: I stay here, take care of Luna. You go look. Pretty bad idea. Two: We stay here and I heal Luna. Three: You go scout, make sure there are no dangers, come back, we take Luna on the stretcher to find them. I hate this one. It’s very risky.” “Hmm… I prefer number two,” I said. Katherine nodded. “I agree.” Twenty minutes later, with the help of the super-awesome hyperness potion (and time, of course), Katherine had healed Luna back to her normal self. When we told her what Amanda and Thalia were doing, she was all action. “Come on. Let’s find them!” As it turned out, we did not find them. They found us. Just as we were getting ready to finally have some fun, Amanda and Thalia returned and backstabbed the monsters. Katherine, Luna, and I sheathed our hunting knives in disappointment. “Aww, that was gonna be our kill,” I whined playfully. “Fine, let’s make a deal. From now on, as soon as we meet a monster, someone in particular kills it. We can take turns. Let’s go from old Hunter to new Hunter.” Thalia suggested. “No!” Amanda, Katherine, and I shouted. “Yes!” Luna shouted. Thalia looked at her in surprise, apparently remembering she was actually one that had been a Hunter the longest. “You know, on the other hand, forget it. New to old? Everybody in favor?” “Yes!” Amanda, Katherine, and I shouted. “No!” Luna shouted. Thalia chuckled. “I guess that’s a yes then.” “Wait a minute, who are those two?” I asked, suddenly seeing a boy and a shimmery silver gho- wait, did those two get Nico di Angelo and Zoe Nightshade without us? “Nico! It’s so nice to see you again!” I said, trying for a friendly smile before glaring at Thalia. “We wanted to do that part too! Why do you get all the fun?” “It wasn’t all fun,” said Amanda, her face darkening. “In fact, we better not speak of it here at all.” I gulped as I considered what the monster could have been.
