Coin
Harry and Percy stood in front of an improvised campfire, watching the pieces of wood they had thrown in burn softly, both of them nervous and unsure whether what they were about to do would actually work.
And also afraid that, if what Annabeth had said was true, they might end up angering Hecate, who, despite never having met them, had always seemed fairly kind to them, gifting them things in the past whenever they made an offering.
And right now, the last thing they wanted was to make her angry.
Especially Harry.
He was holding the Chimera's poisoned spine Percy had taken, staring into the flame with far too many thoughts running through his head.
Meanwhile, Percy looked at him for a moment, understanding his hesitation immediately.
"Harry, if you don't want to... we can just look for another way," Percy said quietly to his brother.
"No," Harry said, slowly shaking his head. "I... feel like we can trust her," Harry said before letting out a breath and raising the hand holding the spine, silently praying that this offering would be enough to receive Hecate's help.
"Wait!"
A voice suddenly rang out, stopping Harry just before he tossed the spine into the fire.
So Percy and Harry turned around and saw Annabeth running toward them.
For a moment, both of them stared at her, feeling like she had probably come back just to tell them not to do it again.
But when she finally reached them, taking one breath before speaking, her next words made it clear that wasn't what she had come for.
"I... I'm sorry. I'd like to join you for the offering, if you don't mind," she said softly.
Even she didn't know whether she was there because of wounded pride... or because a part of her genuinely wanted to believe not everything was lost with the gods just yet.
Both Harry and Percy looked slightly surprised, since just moments ago she had seemed firmly against it, and had even walked away upset.
And they could say a lot of things... but they both knew this would only make everything worse.
So Harry and Percy exchanged a glance and gave Annabeth a small smile.
"Of course," they both said calmly, as if nothing had happened.
Though Annabeth still noticed that Harry hadn't completely forgotten what happened earlier... he had simply decided to let it go for now.
Annabeth opened her mouth as if to say something, but ended up closing it again with a small laugh before stepping in beside them, joining the two of them around the fire.
Though her curiosity and faint nervousness were obvious.
Especially because how the goddess of magic chose to respond from now on could mean help...
or maybe just one more angry god.
Harry let out another uneasy breath, but this time he didn't hesitate as much and tossed the spine into the fire.
Then Harry spoke immediately.
"Hecate, guardian of the crossroads... receive this offering. If there are paths we cannot see, show us the right one. We need to find our friend. Gro..."
Before he could finish the prayer, the flame turned green instantly and flared to life, as if something on the other side had truly heard him.
Harry tensed for a moment.
But only for a moment.
Because something suddenly golden shot out of the flames and flew straight toward him, as if it had been placed directly into his hand.
Harry raised his hand and caught it on instinct, while the flames quickly returned to normal, leaving him with an expression somewhere between surprised and grateful...
and with a small sense of relief he hadn't even realized he needed.
Even Annabeth's eyes widened when she saw Hecate had answered their request for help.
Meanwhile, Percy smiled faintly when he saw the look on his brother's face.
At least one of the two of them seemed to be loved by their divine parent.
Or in this case... grandmother.
Harry looked down at the object he had received from the flames and made a slightly confused face.
Percy quickly stepped closer with interest, and so did Annabeth.
The three of them stared at it for a moment.
Round and somewhat large, almost the size of a Girl Scout cookie, and very familiar, since they already had several of them inside their magical bags.
From Chiron... and others they had bor... borrowed from Medusa, who probably wouldn't have had much idea how to use them anyway.
Especially now that she didn't have a head.
It was a golden drachma.
When they saw the image of the goddess of magic represented with three heads on one side, it was obvious it was Hecate.
But it was still more of a drachma than a clue.
"Well... maybe it's money to pay the ransom," Percy said lightly.
"And who exactly are we supposed to pay that ransom to?" Harry asked, glancing at his brother for a moment.
But Annabeth seemed to notice something, so she suddenly took the drachma from Harry's hand and turned it over, a confused look crossing her face.
"This is a drachma... but at the same time, it isn't one," she said immediately.
Harry looked back at Annabeth, just like Percy did, both of them confused by that vague answer.
Annabeth quickly pulled a drachma out of her own bag and held it in front of them next to Harry's.
Both of them had the face of a god on one side.
In the case of the drachma Annabeth had taken out, it was Apollo, represented as a handsome man, as if whoever made it had put in a suspicious amount of effort carving him there.
Then she flipped it over.
On the other side, it had the Empire State Building engraved into it.
But the one Harry had received had something else.
A pentagram.
And it seemed to glow faintly for a moment.
"Pentagrams again," Harry said, frowning slightly.
Following the pentagram had genuinely saved them not long ago, leading them to a fireplace in the last place they would've expected.
And now the sign was another pentagram.
Harry couldn't help but feel that, somehow, that symbol had been guiding them since before they even understood what it meant.
"So... it's saying we should keep following the pentagrams," Harry said, lifting his head.
"Maybe..." Annabeth thought for a moment. "Do you remember the fireplace in St. Louis? We followed the pentagram there. I don't know if you two noticed, but next to the fireplace there was also a black door with a pentagram marked on it," she said.
"Well, I didn't see it. I was pretty unconscious at the time," Percy said calmly.
"So... should we go back there?" Harry asked.
But that really made him hesitate, because they had just escaped that place crawling with monsters.
Who was to say they'd be gone now?
"Even though I really don't like saying this... maybe we should wait one more day. Besides, Harry still isn't fully healed. And maybe Grover can survive one more day. If we go now, the monsters might still be around the area," Percy added quietly.
Annabeth clearly didn't like the idea of losing another day, but Percy was right.
It would be better to rest properly and prepare before going to find Grover.
And their only clue was still in the same place where there had just been a full monster stampede.
Harry wanted to say something, but he also knew it was the best option.
Losing one day was already bad enough, and they had no idea how long finding Grover might take.
And Percy's quest couldn't be delayed too much either, so he would have to think carefully about how to speed things up afterward.
"I guess there's no other choice," Harry said with a nod.
He honestly needed proper rest too.
His magic still wasn't fully back.
His body still ached slightly.
Annabeth was obviously exhausted from running.
And Percy... well, Percy seemed perfectly fine thanks to the seawater, which honestly was starting to feel like a ridiculously unfair cheat.
But considering he had nearly died from Chimera venom, no one was really going to complain too much.
"Then I guess we'll rest in Avalon," Percy said calmly, and Harry nodded.
Meanwhile, Annabeth's eyes widened slightly for a moment as she remembered the owner of this place.
But after the words he had said to her earlier, she had honestly lost much of her fear of him.
So she didn't reject the idea.
Besides, this place might actually be one of the safest places in the world.
After all, it was trapped under a curse, completely cut off from the real world.
Maybe as a punishment of total loneliness and uselessness.
But it seemed that both Harry and Percy had somehow made that part of the curse meaningless.
Even so, for a moment, Annabeth couldn't help but think about the kind of loneliness that could break even someone like him...
if he had truly spent all that time alone until Percy and Harry arrived.