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he wasn’t there. But if you looked out of the corner of your eye, you could make out his shape. A ghost.
    “It has never been done,” the ghost said. “But there may be a way.”
    “Tell me,” Nico commanded. His eyes shined with a fierce light.
    “An exchange,” the ghost said. “A soul for a soul.”
    “I’ve offered!”
    “Not yours,” the ghost said. “You cannot offer your father a soul he will eventually collect anyway. Nor will he be anxious for the death of his son. I mean a soul that should have died already. Someone who has cheated death.”
    Nico’s face darkened. “Not that again. You’re talking about murder.”
    “I’m talking about justice,” the ghost said. “Vengeance.”
    “Those are not the same thing.”
    The ghost laughed dryly. “You will learn differently as you get older.”
    Nico stared at the flames. “Why can’t I at least summon her? I want to talk to her. She would…she would help me.”
    “ I will help you,” the ghost promised. “Have I not saved you many times?
    Did I not lead you through the maze and teach you to use your powers? Do you want revenge for your sister or not?”
    I didn’t like the ghost’s tone of voice. He reminded me of a kid at my old school, a bully who used to convince other kids to do stupid things like steal lab equipment and vandalize the teachers’ cars. The bully never got in trouble himself, but he got tons of other kids suspended. Nico turned from the fire so the ghost couldn’t see him, but I could. A tear traced its way down his face. “Very well. You have a plan?”
    “Oh, yes,” the ghost said, sounding quite pleased. “We have many dark roads to travel. We must start—”
    The image shimmered. Nico vanished. The woman’s voice from the mist said, Please deposit one drachma for another five minutes. There were no other coins in the fountain. I grabbed for my pockets, but I was wearing pajamas. I lunged for the nightstand to check for spare change, but the Iris-message had already blinked out, and the room went dark again. The connection was broken.
    I stood in the middle of the cabin, listening to the gurgle of the saltwater fountain and the ocean waves outside.
    Nico was alive. He was trying to bring his sister back from the dead. And I had a feeling I knew what soul he wanted to exchange—someone who had cheated death. Vengeance.
    Nico di Angelo would come looking for me.

THREE

    WE PLAY TAG WITH
    SCORPIONS

    The next morning there was a lot of excitement at breakfast. Apparently around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. I was so exhausted I slept right through the noise. The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in our defenses, and it didn’t seem anxious to go away until Lee Fletcher from Apollo’s cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon’s armor, it got the message and withdrew.
    “It’s still out there,” Lee warned us during announcements. “Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It’s eyes—” he shuddered.
    “You did well, Lee,” Chiron patted him on the shoulder. “Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before.”
    “Aye,” Quintus said from the head table. “And it will happen again. More and more frequently.”
    The campers murmured among themselves.
    Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of us expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn’t help that our attendance was down. We only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, when I’d started, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.
    “This is a good reason for new war games, “Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. “We’ll see how you all do