Chapter Ten REYNA RAMÍREZ-ARELLANO As it turned out, it wasn’t a monster. It was a drug. From… guess who…Circe! I glared at Thalia when she told me that part. “If you brought me along, I could have told you all about Circe! But nooo, you don’t take me! And so you get drugged! And almost die!” Thalia held up her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, okay? Now let me finish telling the story.” I was definitely not accepting her apology, but I let her finish telling the story. “So with me in the clutches of Circe, Amanda couldn’t really do anything offensive to her face, but she cleverly agreed to accept Circe’s training. And, to not make it take about four years for her to finally have some real training in, she quickly crafted a machine that made time speed up inside Amanda’s training chambers. Very clever, right? Anyway, about three hours later” “It seemed like three years” - Amanda interrupted- “She came out, and she beat Circe with the one thing we had been beaten with: a drug.” Thalia gestured for Amanda to continue the story. “While I was inside, Circe taught me a lot of things, but I knew things she taught me couldn’t beat her. So at night, I studied my old books-not Circe’s, I knew the risk-and finally mixed a drug powerful enough to destroy the queen of drugs. Finally, one day, after many decoy feasts to prevent Circe from thinking this was weird, I invited her to yet another feast. She accepted and I put the drug in both our napkins. This was because I knew I was immune to the drug I had mixed up and she wasn’t. So, naturally, when she wiped her mouth, she fell asleep.” “-And you two came out and found Zoe and Nico at the door waiting for you.” Katherine finished. Amanda looked at her in astonishment. “How did you know?” Katherine shrugged. “Lucky guess.” “Anyway, let me introduce you to Nico.” Thalia said. “I already know Reyna,” Nico murmured. “I’m introducing you to Katherine and Luna!” Thalia hissed. “Um, this is Luna Silver, daughter of Artemis-” “Wait, what now?” Nico interrupted. Apparently, he still had some of his childish energy left. “Long story,” Luna said. He studied her in a way he had not studied Katherine. Hmm… please tell me he doesn’t have a crush on Luna… “All you have to know about her is that she was raised in the Hunt by Artemis herself. And this is Katherine Walker, a mortal that joined our cause three years ago.” Thalia said. “Oo-kay. Well, Luna, Katherine, and Reyna, this is Zoe Nightshade.” Still blushing, he turned to the ghost. “Hello,” she said. “Do not fear me, fellow sisters. Your comrade Thalia is right. I can lead you to Atlas.”
