When I saw the sea of monsters I was happy to be riding a pegasus rather than a boat.

A couple thundered feet I could see Scylla and Charybdis. Neither of them looked like something I would want to pick a fight with.

It spent a few hours riding before I spotted Circe's island. If I didn't know the dangers of it I might have been tempted to think it was a resort.

When I landed on the dock, I struggled to keep my mouth from dropping. Large marble palaces all connected together covered the shoreline. A series of water slides and pools were speckled around the area as well.

I wanted to walk through every building, learn every secret this place had to offer. But I knew that was what Circe wanted. She wanted me to forget what I had come to do.

Without looking at anything else I marched straight towards what appeared to be the main mansion. As I walked I paid no attention to the women around me or the animals that were staring me down. I was on a mission and I didn't have much time left.

Before I could knock on the front door, it swung open. Before me stood an old women, how I knew she was old I did not know, for she looked young on the outside.

Her black hair matched her dress, both long and draping over her like a waterfall. Her eyes were evil and untrustworthy. This had to be Circe.

"My dear, what a beauty you are," she smiled at me. The way she said dear and beauty sounded more like subtle insults than kind comments.

"Where is he?" I cut straight to the point.

She laughed, "Do you see any men around here?"

I looked around, no I didn't. In fact the men all seemed to have disappeared. If I were stupid I might have beloved Circe, but I knew the myths. She had a habit of turning men to pigs or whatever animal she desired. I may not see humans but judging by the animals around, I was surrounded by men.

"I'm not an idiot, where is he?" my voice was firm and angry. I had been through too much for something as stupid as a sorceress to stop me now.

"My dear, I don't..." she began.

While she was talking I pulled out my knife and held it to her neck. "Where is Apollo?" I asked.

"Ohhh him... Right this way," she tried to smirk but I could tell she was scared.

I know I held a knife but I there was no reason for her to be scared, she was a sorceress, she could have killed me by now. Yet she was shaking underneath my grasp.

She turned around and began to walk through the mansion. "It is so sad how being in love makes women irrational." she said and I knew she meant me. She thought I was in love with Apollo... figures, I thought, everyone else does too, even him.

I knew I may love him, but being in love is different. Right now I wasn't even sure how I loved him, as a friend, as family... as something more.... Until I could figure that out, being in love was out of the question.

We stepped through a door into a room where three cages sat on a table. Inside each was a small guinea pig.

"If only Aphrodite hadn't forbid me, I would have loved to keep him here forever," she sighed, "He would make a fine leopard."

So that's why she hadn't attacked me. Aphrodite had stopped her. I swore to myself that if I ever saw her again she wouldn't be glad about it. That god had made me undergo two trials, just to tell me the person I was trying to find was being held captive by someone else. Then she had the audacity to test me again! I was completely fed up with gods.

"You can have your lover, if you can figure out which one he is and free him," she smirked like the task was impossible.

Well I had already done some impossible things in my life. I was reborn, I sorted a room full of seeds in a few hours, I survived outside of camp half-blood for 15 years. What was another impossible task?

"I'll be fine," I told her.

I swear I jinxed myself. As I looked over the cages I realised I was lost. One of these was Apollo and I had no clue which one.

On the far left was a smaller guinea pig than the others, he was black with a white streak and obviously wasn't Apollo. One down two to go.

As I watched the one in the middle, I thought that it might just be him. Sandy fur. I bookmarked him in my head and went onto the next one.

The last one was big and beefy. His hair was light blonde and soft with light blue eyes.

After looking at all of them, it was obvious that the middle one was Apollo. It just had to be.

Now to save him. The gummy! I thought. I wasn't sure how it would help but I opened the box and moved my hand towards the middle cage.

Just as I began to reach it, I stopped myself. The guinea pigs eyes were black and cold. This wasn't my Apollo.

I moved to the one on the right and looked at him intently. His blue eyes hosted no warmth to them either. That meant...

I ran to the cage on the far left. His eyes met mine with warmth. He looked at me like a man in love, and he was. How his fur was black I didn't know, but this was my Apollo... well not my Apollo... but you get what I mean.

As I fed him the gummy I could see fear fill Circe's eyes. Within seconds of him eating it, the guinea pig began to grow and change.

Before I could blink an eye Apollo was sitting in front of me. He looked dizzy, and I thought it must've been from the transformation, but then he fell into my arms passed out.

I growled at Circe, "What did you do to him?"

"I did nothing," she giggled.

Then it hit me... this was another one of Aphrodite's doings. She was so desperate for a good story that she poisoned the very thing that she gave me to help him.