It hadn't quite sunk in yet for him.

They roamed around the place silently and in a zombie-like state, each top absorbed in their thoughts. At the edge of the dump, Thalia had had enough of an awareness to spot a truck that looked worn way past its guarantee, but the piece of junk actually roared to life with the turn of the ignition and had a tank full of gas, and so they all piled in.

Thalia drove, seeming to be the least stunned about what happened out of the six—no, five of them.

"The skeletons are still out there," she reminded them. "We need to keep moving."

Zoë sat in front with Thalia, and that left Kia, Grover and Percy to squeeze together in the back. They leaned against the tow wench, Percy's eyes trailing up lifelessly to the sunny blue skies and perfectly cool air, the bright sand stretching miles around them; Percy couldn't find it within himself to take it in, it was just insulting considering Bianca had just died.

His hand tightened unknowingly around something. He relaxed his palm to see the figurine that had cost Bianca her life. It was so disfigured and soot-covered that Percy couldn't even tell which god it was. He figured Nico could probably tell, though.

And then it hit him, coming down on him like a shower of meteors.

What was he going to tell Nico?

Percy had torn himself apart trying to convince himself that Bianca was alive somewhere, probably a little miffed to have her friends abandon her, but still as bright as ever, however much you could be as a demigod. Despite all the efforts, he could feel it somewhere in his body that Bianca was gone for good.

In a way, his illusion cracking was probably worse than just accepting she was dead. It was like convincing yourself you were just a step away from reaching the top of an endless mountain, just to fall back into the lake below; it would've been better to just stay at the bottom.

"It should have been me," Percy muttered to himself in frustration. "I should've gone into the giant."

"Don't say that!" Grover panicked. "It's bad enough Annabeth is gone, and now Bianca. Do you think I could stand it if..." He sniffled. "Do you think anybody else would be my best friend?"

"Ah, Grover..."

He wiped under his eyes with an oily cloth that left his face grimy, like he had on war paint. "I'm... I'm okay."

He definitely wasn't. Ever since the encounter in New Mexico from the rubber rat to the birds on the cup to the wild boar, Grover seemed really fragile, more emotional than he'd usually be. Percy had thought about talking to Grover about it, but he was afraid he'd start bawling; it hurt Percy to see his best friend so sad.

"Grover's right," Kia said quietly from beside Percy.

Percy was surprised to hear her talk. Her reaction of Bianca's death was rather... sedate than expected. She barely spoke to anyone, only replying with one worded answers and head shakes or nods. Not that she spoke all that much anyway, but her face usually gave off some sort of expression, but ever since the junkyard, she'd been a blank slate, like she was dragging herself along. The only thing she'd done was stare vacantly at the concrete while a few tears slipped down her face. Percy had reached out to maybe run her back or comfort her, but he was scared he'd trigger something and retracted his hand.

He looked at her unsurely; he thought she was probably saying it out of courtesy.

She didn't move from her position, looking up at the clouds, and Percy suspected it was because she didn't want to cry. "I mean it, by the way." Her voice was strained. "There was no way you could have saved her."

A trace of bitterness found its way into her words—not towards him, though. Percy wondered what she was thinking.

In a way, the fact that Bianca's death had impacted his two friends so much had cleared up his mind. Percy couldn't afford to be depressed about her, he needed to look forward and drag them if need be. He had to be the one to take initiative; he was responsible for making sure her death wasn't for nothing—like Thalia was doing.

The tow truck squeaked to a stop as it ran out of gas at the edge of the river canyon—perfect, because the road was a dead end.

Thalia got out, slamming the door shut. One of the tires immediately blew. "Great, what now?"

Percy's eyes scanned the horizon. There wasn't much to see; desert in all directions, with the occasional clumps of barren mountains plopped here and there. The canyon was the only thing interesting—the river itself wasn't very big, maybe fifty yards across, green water with a few rapids, but it carved a huge scar out of the desert. The rock cliffs dropped away below them.

"There's a path," Grover pointed out. "We could get to the river."

Percy narrowed his eyes trying to detect what Grover was talking about and eventually, he zeroed in on a a tiny ledge winding down the cliff face.

"That's a goat path," Percy deadpanned.

Grover didn't seem to notice any issue. "So?"

"The rest of us aren't goats."

"We can make it," Grover said, squinting unconvincingly. "I think."

Percy took a moment to think about it. He didn't care much to dabble in the art of extreme cliff climbing, but he'd done it before (he shivered at the though of Polyphemus' Island). But then he looked over at Thalia and saw the pale shade her skin had taken to. There was no way with her fear of heights she'd be able to do it.

"No," Percy said, more curtly than intended. He amended, "I, uh, think we should go farther upstream."

Grover frowned and said, "But—"

"Come on," Percy said. "A walk won't hurt us."

He glanced at Thalia, seeing her eyes read a quick Thank you. He noticed that Kia, who had been standing beside Thalia silently so far, had been eyeing their interaction scrutinisingly, eyes stormy. Percy had seen that look before; it was the way Annabeth looked when she was making some sort of connection. A trace of realisation settled onto her features; she met Percy's eyes, nodding as an awkward way to diffuse the random eye contact they'd made. He nodded back.

They followed the river about half a mile before coming to an easier slope that led down to the water. On the shore was a canoe rental operation that was closed for the season, but Percy left a stack of golden drachmas on the counter and a note saying IOU two canoes.

"We need to go upstream," Zoe said. It was the first time he'd heard her speak since the junkyard, and Percy was worried about how bad she sounded—like somebody with the flu. "The rapids are too swift."

"Leave that to me," Percy said. They settled the canoe into the river.

Thalia pulled him aside as they were fetching the oars. "Thanks for back there."

"Don't mention it."

"Can you really..." She nodded to the rapids, her eyes hesitant. "You know."

"I think so. Usually I'm good with water."

"Would you take Zoe?" she asked. "I think, ah, maybe you can talk to her."

"I don't think she'd like that," Percy said unsurely. He looked over to where her and Kia were getting settled into one canoe. Dream team, really. "Besides, she's sitting with Kia."

"Well, someone's gonna have to sit with them. There's only two canoes and I can't stand being in the same boat as you or Zoë"—Percy rolled his eyes—"and... Zoë... she's starting to scare me." She hesitated. "Kia doesn't seem much better."

Percy silently agreed. Even though it was the last thing he wanted to do, he nodded.

Thalia's shoulders relaxed. "I owe you one."

"Two."

"One and a half," Thalia said, her features on the edge of breaking out into a grin.

Despite herself, her lips quirked up into a tiny smile, and Percy remembered that he actually liked her when she wasn't yelling at him. It seemed like a trend for him to get yelled at by girls he found cool. Thalia turned and helped Grover get their canoe into the water.

As it turned out, he didn't even need to control the currents. They got into the river, Percy looking over the edge and finding a couple of naiads staring back at him with their wide, green eyes.

They looked like regular teenage girls, pretty in a way you'd associate with mermaids you'd see in cartoons (he didn't have a good word to put in for sirens).

Hey, he said in his mind.

He must've looked stupid, because Kia looked over at him weirdly. He figured it wasn't weird enough because Zoë didn't seem to care (wasn't she, like, a thousand years old? Constipated expressions couldn't have been the weirdest thing she'd ever seen).

The naiads made a bubbling sound which might've been giggling—he wasn't sure, it was hard to tell what naiads were doing half the time, anyway.

We're heading upstream, he told them. Do you think you could—

Before he could finish, each naiad chose a canoe and started pushing them up the river. They started so fast that Grover fell into his canoe with his hooves up in the air and Kia clutched onto Zoë's arm; even Thalia had to grasp the side of the canoe to remain stabilised.

Zoë, who surprisingly allowed Kia to hold on (she didn't strike Percy as someone who liked to be touched by anyone), grumbled, "I hate naiads."

A stream of water squirted up from the back of the boat and hit Zoë in the face.

"She-devils!" she raged, going for her now.

"Whoa," Percy said. "They're just playing."

Kia looked over at him unsurely, like she didn't believe they were just 'playing.'

Zoë recomposed herself a little. "Cursed water spirits. They've never forgiven me."

"Forgiven you for what?"

She slung her bow back over her shoulder. "It was a long time ago. Never mind."

They sped up the river, the cliffs looming over either side of them. Percy saw Kia looking up at them wondrously like a child, also noticing the ends of Zoë's lips twitching at the sight. He sighed; the elephant in the room had to be addressed at some point.

"What happened to Bianca wasn't your fault," Percy started, staring down at his feet. "Either of yours. It was my fault. I let her go."

He wasn't sure what he expected Kia's reaction to be, but he thought that this would maybe give Zoë an excuse to start yelling at him—anything would have been better than having her mope around uncharacteristically depressed.

Instead, her shoulders slumped. "No, Percy. I pushed her into going on the quest. I was too anxious. She was a powerful half-blood. She had a kind heart, as well. I... I thought she would be the next lieutenant."

Kia stayed quiet, so he said: "But you're the lieutenant."

She gripped the strap of her quiver; she looked more tired than he'd ever seen her. "Nothing can last forever, Percy. Over two thousand years I have led the Hunt, and my wisdom has not improved. Now Artemis herself is in danger."

"It wasn't your fault," Kia said quietly, so quietly they almost didn't hear her.

Zoë seemed surprised to hear her talk, but shook it off fairly quickly. "If I had insisted on going with her—"

This time Percy cut her off. "You think you could've fought something powerful enough to kidnap Artemis? There's nothing you could have done."

Zoe didn't answer.

The cliffs around them started to get taller. The shadows that stretched around them made it feel colder, even though the day was as bright as ever.

Without thinking, Percy took Riptide out of his pocket. Kia looked entranced by it, like she had a million questions running through her head about the pen—he guessed that she'd figured out that it was his sword; Zoë had a much different reaction, her expression pained.

Fiddling with it in his hand, he said to Zoë, "You made this."

"Who told thee?"

"I had a dream about it."

She studied him; he was sure she was going to call him crazy, but she just sighed. "It was a gift. And a mistake."

"Who was the hero?" he dared to ask.

Zoe shook her head. "Do not make me say his name. I swore never to speak it again."

Okay. Intense.

"You act like I should know him," he opted to say.

"I am sure you do, hero. Don't all you boys want to be just like him?"

Her voice was so bitter, he decided not to ask what she meant. Percy looked down at Riptide, and for the first time, he wondered if it was cursed.

Kia seemed to have similar curiosities. She awkwardly held out her hand, and Percy plopped the pen into it. He stared absently at her fingers weaving around the ordinary looking object as he spoke to Zoë, "Your mother was a water goddess?"

"Yes, Pleione. She had five daughters. My sisters and I. The Hesperides."

Percy looked up at Kia confused as her hand froze on the pen. She shook her head at him, hesitantly continuing to palm it in her hand.

"Those were the girls who lived in a garden at the edge of the West. With the golden apple tree and a dragon guarding it."

"Yes," Zoë said wistfully. "Ladon."

"But weren't there only four sisters'?"

"There are now. I was exiled. Forgotten. Blotted out as if I never existed."

"Why?"

Zoe pointed to the pen resting in Kia's hands. "Because I betrayed my family and helped a hero. You won't find that in the legend either. He never spoke of me. After his direct assault on Ladon failed, I gave him the idea of how to steal the apples, how to trick my father, but he took all the credit."

"But—"

Gurgle, gurgle, the naiad interrupted in his mind. The canoe was slowing down.

Percy looked ahead, and saw why.

This was as far as the naiads could take them—the river was blocked because of a dam the size of a football stadium standing in their path.

"Hoover dam," Thalia said in slight awe. "It's huge."

They stood at the river's edge, looking up at a curve of concrete that loomed between the cliffs. People were walking along the top of the dam—they were so tiny they looked kind of like fleas.

(Percy had muttered the comparison to Kia, who shot him an annoyed look over her shoulder.)

The naiads had left with a lot of grumbling—not in words Percy could understand, but it was obvious enough that they hated this dam blocking up their nice river. The canoes floated back downstream, swirling in the wake from the dam's discharge vents.

"Seven hundred feet tall," Percy recited. "Built in the 1930s."

"Five million cubic acres of water," Thalia continued, as if on impulse.

Graver sighed along. "Largest construction project in the United States."

Zoë stared at the three. "How do you know all that?"

"Annabeth," Percy said. "She liked architecture."

"She was nuts about monuments," Thalia added helpfully.

"Spouted facts all the time." Grover sniffled. "So annoying."

"I wish she were here," Percy said.

The others nodded. Zoe was still looking at them strangely, but Percy didn't care. It seemed like cruel fate that they'd come to Hoover Dam, one of Annabeth's personal favorites, and she wasn't there to see it.

"We should check it out," Kia suggested gently. "Maybe you guys could tell her about it when we get her back."

Percy appreciated her saying 'when.'

"You are mad," Zoë decided. "But that's where the road is—" she pointed to a huge parking garage next to the top of the dam "—and so, sightseeing it is."

The five of them had to walk for almost an hour until they found a path that led up to the road. They straggled up to the dam, finding how cold and windy it was, up so high. On one side, a big lake spread out, ringed by barren desert mountains; the other side had the dam dropping away like the world's most dangerous skateboard ramp, down to the river seven hundred feet below, and water churning from the dam's vents.

Thalia walked in the middle of the road, cautiously keeping away from the edges, while dragging a sleepy looking Kia behind her by the arm. Grover kept sniffing the wind and looking around nervously—he didn't say anything, but Percy knew it was a sign of monsters.

"How close are they?" he asked him.

Grover shook his head. "Maybe not close. The wind on the dam, the desert all around us... the scent can probably carry for miles. But it's coming from several directions. I don't like that."

Percy didn't either; it was already Wednesday, only two days until winter solstice, and they were still ways off of their destination, wherever it was. They didn't need any more monsters.

"There's a snack bar in the visitor center," Thalia said, her eyes flashing hungrily like she could really use a burrito.

"You've been here before?" Percy asked.

"Once. To see the guardians." She pointed to the far end of the dam where carved into the side of the cliff was a little plaza with two big bronze statues. They looked kind of like Oscar statues with wings.

"They were dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built," Thalia said. "A gift from Athena."

Tourists were clustered all around them, seeming to be looking at the statues' feet.

"What are they doing?"

"Rubbing the toes, I think," Kia said. "I think I read somewhere that it's meant to be good luck."

"Why?"

Thalia shook her head. "Mortals get crazy ideas. They don't know the statues are sacred to Zeus, but they know there's something special about them."

"When you were here last, did they talk to you or anything?" Percy asked.

Thalia's expression darkened. Percy could tell that she'd come here for exactly that—some kind of sign from her dad. He could relate to the feeling for wanting some—any—connection to your godly parent. "No. They don't do anything. They're just big metal statues."

Percy thought about the last big metal statue they'd run into—not the best experience. He decided not to mention that.

"Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoe said. "We should eat while we can."

Grover cracked a smile. "The dam snack bar?"

Zoe blinked. "Yes. What is funny?"

"Nothing," Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. "I could use some dam french fries."

Even Thalia smiled at that. "And I need to use the dam restroom."

Maybe it was the fact that they were all tired and delirious, but the Grover, Thalia and Percy started snorting out bouts of laughter.

"You guys are idiots," Kia said, but her lips twitched and Percy could make out a faint trace of amusement.

Zoë just looked perplexed. "I do not understand."

"I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said.

"And..." Thalia tried to catch her breath. "I want to buy a dam T-shirt."

Percy busted up, and he probably would've kept laughing all day, but then he heard a distinct, unforgettable noise:

"Moooo."

The smile slipped off his face. For a second, Percy wondered if he was just hearing it in his head, but Grover stopped chortling too. He was looking around confusedly. "Did I just hear a cow?"

"A dam cow?" Thalia laughed.

"No," Grover said. "I'm serious."

Zoe listened. "I hear nothing."

Kia stared at him intently.

Thalia was looking at him. "Percy, are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said unconvincingly. "You guys go ahead. I'll be right in."

"What's wrong?" Grover asked.

"Nothing," Percy said. "I... I just need a minute. To think."

They hesitated, and Kia said, not taking her eyes off of him, "Go ahead, I'll stay with him." Her voice didn't leave any room for argument.

Percy forgot how commanding she could be when she wasn't an awkward, angst-ridden teenager.

The others seemed to get the message and headed into the visitor centre without them.

"Lead the way."