A Thousand Angels

A Thousand Angels surrounds the life of Skylar Thorne, the daughter of Nemesis who ends up being the prey of the Gods of Olympus after she commits a terrible crime.

The Beast
The worst name in the world, combined with the worst situation in the world, tends to combine into becoming one of the worst things in the whole world.

"The sky is falling!" screamed Theo Gardener, the fifteen-year-old bully that had plagued Skylar since the day she started high school. He was taller than Skylar, and he had thin arms and a flat stomach, and a shock of dark brown hair. He always seemed to wear the same crimson jacket and tracksuits, with a long-sleeved white shirt. The most distinctive thing about Theo was the huge, hideous birthmark on his right cheek, shaped almost like a radish and streaking down his face into his collar. The worst part of this combination was that, when he wore the jacket, it looked like the birthmark was staining the jacket red. And, when he laughed, the birthmark flexed.

And he was laughing his head off now,as he threw Skylar into the pool with a shriek of enjoyment. Skylar hit the water hard and her face burned with impact, and she flailed around like an insect turned on its back. She couldn't see, the water stung her eyes, and she flailed even harder when something else floated down on top of her, stroking her hair. It was only then that she realised that her schoolbooks were floating down on top of her - that Theo had thrown them in the pool with her. She pulled up to the surface of the water, to the raucous laughter of Theo's three goons.

"The sky fell into the water!" cried Theo, shrieking with laughter, before finally controlling himself, "How extraordinary, I never knew if that were possible. Boys."

Two of the boys seized Skylar by the arms and hoisted her out of the pool. They bent her arms back until she screamed, but they didn't dare break them - then they'd actually have to answer for much more than just throwing some girl in the pool. They dragged her towards Theo, who towered over her, smiling. That smile stretched, making the birthmark buckle, and Theo punched her in the stomach. Skylar hissed with pain and he hit her again, this time a little higher up. The two boys pulled her up to her feet and Skylar looked Theo directly in the eye. Theo leaned in, so that their noses were almost touching.

"Give us a little kiss, pretty girl." he giggled. Skylar stretched her head back and then snapped it forwards as sharply as possible. Her forehead impacted violently with Theo's nose, and Theo screamed, blood streaming from both nostrils and making the birthmark look darker by comparison. Skylar followed up by kicking him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Skylar noticed, out of the corner of her eye, her schoolbooks floating to the bottom of the pool.

"Help!" she screamed, before the two boys holding on to her slammed her into the wall, where she slid to the ground. Someone kicked her in the stomach and she moaned. Theo, still clutching his nose as blood threaded through his fingers, keeled over into the pool. His cronies turned, as if they only just realised that their precious little boss was in pain and had fallen into the pool. One of them dived in after him and Skylar saw the third boy, who had thus far stayed out of this, advance on her. There were still two boys remaining, and Skylar was still outnumbered...but she didn't care. She snapped her ankle against the heels of one of the boys, causing him to topple into the pool. The final boy, who was slightly obese and had frizzy black hair, dragged Skylar to her feet, and held his fist out.

"Go on," he hissed, trying desperately to be scary. He came off as high-pitched and girlish, "try something! Try it!"

"Gladly," Skylar slammed her knee in between the boy's legs, so hard that the boy fell to his knees and gagged pathetically. Wanting to see him join his friends in humiliation, Skylar planted a foot into the collarbone of the boy kneeling in front of her, and pushed him into the pool. He didn't scream like the last boy, not even when he landed on one of his friends.

"I hope you know how to swim!" sneered Skylar, but then she felt sick in herself - she shouldn't have said something so horrible. Why had she said something so horrible?

That was when she heard wet, suctioning footfalls, and turned to see Theo limping towards her, a sickening look on his face. He looked like he was suffering from more than just pain.

"You savage little cow!" he lunged at her, and the birthmark bulged as his mouth opened in a furious scream that pitched higher than Skylar thought possible. Skylar jabbed a finger at him, not having a single idea of what she was doing, opened her mouth to speak.

"Stop!"

The voice couldn't have been hers. It wasn't hers. But she heard it come out of her mouth, and the moment it did, Theo Gardener froze. His mouth was frozen open, and he was poised on the balls of his feet, his arms stretched, and he had stopped moving entirely in a split second. Skylar stared at him, and after a few seconds he collapsed, as if he'd run a marathon in the past seven seconds. He was out of breath, and coughing. There was blood webbing across his shirt from where she'd hit him.

"What the hell is going on?" said a voice. She turned around, and immediately wished that she hadn't. Mrs. Kendrick, the thin, grey-haired stick insect of a principal was standing in front of me. Skylar realised then that she was standing, coated in water, over a bloodsoaked Theo Gardener and three of his spluttering friends trying to struggle out of the water. In any other case, Skylar guessed this would look freaking amazing, like she'd kicked their ass in a fight like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, but right now Skylar felt nothing like an action hero.

She felt like a damn fool.

"Come with me, Miss Thorne," ordered Mrs. Kendrick, stepping to one side and jabbing a pencil finger through the door. Her hair stringing in front of my face, she turned and walked through the door, as the principal barked for someone to come and take care of Theo and his friends. Skylar saw Theo look up, a beard of blood forming under his nose and the birthmark making him look like he'd fallen asleep in a bowl of strawberry jam, and she smiled.

Seven minutes later, Skylar was sitting, in a towel, in front of Mrs Kendrick's chair in her office. She looked in the mirror, at the silvery blonde hair and the triangular jaw, at the dull blue eyes that looked pleadingly back at her, and she wiped my face, at the pitiful tear that journeyed down her cheek. Her hands were shaking, and she realised that she was frightened. She didn't know what Mrs Kendrick was going to do.

That was when Mrs Kendrick slithered through the door behind Skylar and moved to sit opposite her. She didn't look happy at all. That was when I noticed the cat - a large cat, almost as big as the computer on the windowsill where Mrs Kendrick always moved it when she wanted to scold a naughty student. The cat had thick golden fur and intense green eyes, and it was licking its paws lazily. Skylar looked away, back at Mrs Kendrick and she looked even less happy.

"How is he?"

"He's filing for a complaint against you, Skylar," Mrs Kendrick said, "he said you stopped him from breathing during the struggle, that you strangled him."

"But, I didn't! He had his idiot friends throw me in the pool!" Skylar shouted. She had heard Theo whining that she'd tried strangling him, and she hadn't, "They threw my books in the pool. They were going to beat the crap out of me, if I hadn't!"

"Miss Thorne!" shrieked Mrs Kendrick, horrified, "Don't you dare use that abominable language in my office! You have no idea what trouble you are in already, you don't want to worsen it for yourself now, don't you?

"I hate rhetorical questions, Mrs Kendrick," Skylar snapped back, and the cat moved incredibly fast. It pounced on the table and hissed at her, clawing its front paw at Skylar's face so suddenly she almost fell out of her chair. Mrs Kendrick picked up the cat calmly and stroked it, and soon the cat calmed down, purring gently and sliding back on to the windowsill. Skylar turned back to Mrs Kendrick, trying her best to look as tough as she possibly could.

"Miss Thorne," the woman said, gently, "why did you make him bleed like that? Surely the best idea would be to turn the other cheek?"

"So that he can punch it for me, you mean? They already made my stomach feel like I'd been charged by a cougar, how much pain did you want done to me?" Skylar retorted, careful not to anger the cat again.

"I'm not going to tolerate that tone of voice spoken in my direction a second time, Miss Thorne. Do you understand me?" But Skylar didn't listen.

"They attacked me. I attacked them." She burst to my feet and slammed her fists hard on the table, making the whole thing shudder under the impact, "They've done it before, Miss, or haven't you noticed? Haven't you noticed this school is full of people who are absolute cows to me. That girl who threw chicken curry at me in sixth grade, did you forget that? Or the girls who would trip me up in the halls, make me fall so close to the stairs I almost killed myself falling down them, did you forget that? We've had that conversation before, haven't we? I remember, I remember how angry you were with me, said I'd almost knocked Mr Reeves over when I 'dove for the stairs'. I'm sick of this, Mrs Kendrick; aren't you?"

Skylar stopped to catch her breath. Her hands were in fists, she noticed. She couldn't remember feeling any angrier, or any more light-headed, than she felt now.

And Mrs Kendrick leaned back in her seat, folded her arms, looked Skylar in the eye...and laughed.

Skylar stared at her. Mrs Kendrick laughed again, higher, and covered her face, which was now going red for some reason. Even the cat seemed surprised.

"Perfect," she said, "absolutely perfect."

"Pardon?" Skylar was baffled. What about this situation could possibly funny to Mrs Kendrick, a woman who called Mr. Bean an abomination against television.

"You are perfect," Mrs Kendrick announced, almost triumphantly, "just the spawn I've been looking for!"

Skylar held her stare, wondering what on earth Mrs Kendrick was talking about.

"Miss, I'm sorry, but you sound like your losing your-"

"I didn't know at first, but now I'm sure. Your little comebacks have proven it," Mrs Kendrick had started laughing again. But this time, she sounded different. Like Skylar was hearing her from the bottom of a well, or something, "it's you, I knew it! I knew it."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Skylar snapped.

That was when the cat moved phenomenally fast. It pounced off the desk and landed right on my chest, digging its teeth into my neck. I screamed and tried to tear it away from me, and when it came off, she realised she'd fallen out of the chair and the cat had suddenly gotten bigger, almost as big as a labrador. Its claws were as long as Skylar's fingers. She threw it to the other side of my room and immediately put my hand to her neck. There were four small bleeding holes punctured in my skin and I found myself screaming again. That was when the cat pounced at me again, but I was ready for it this time. Skylar kicked out, her sole punching into the cat's stomach. It rebounded off my foot and hit the windowsill, over Mrs Kendrick's shoulder. She didn't move an inch.

That was when I realised that Mrs Kendrick had changed as well. She had risen to her feet, and I saw that her eyes had brightened to the point of being the colour of molten gold, with dark slits for pupils. She opened her mouth, and a serpentine tongue curled between her teeth. Skylar gasped.

"I've been waiting for a long time, Miss Thorne," hissed Mrs Kendrick - seriously, she actually hissed, "to find a demigod with your talent. Take a seat, and we needn't make things any more unpleasant."

"What the hell are you?" as Skylar said this, she shifted towards the door, and then Echidna opened her mouth and let out an explosive shriek, so sharp that Skylar wrenched her head back and yelled, and as if by command the cat lunged over Mrs Kendrick's shoulder, claws outstretched and eyes blazing. Had it suddenly gotten bigger?

Skylar darted out of the way and the cat hit the door face-first, claws puncturing into the wood. It hung there, writhing like a worm on a hook. As it tried to wrench itself free, Mrs Kendrick smiled. She had risen to her feet, but suddenly she was getting taller still.

"Run, little rabbit, run!" she cackled. She raised a clawed hand and Skylar realised that it had become green and scaly - and there were actual claws, almost rivalling that of the cat's, injecting out of the fingertips. Skylar screamed, and Mrs Kendrick let out another shriek. The cat detached itself from the door and lunged. Skylar threw herself into the door, ripping it open and lunging through. Before she knew what she was doing, she started running for her life. Something that sounded like wood shattering resounded behind her, and Skylar heard Mrs Kendrick scream.

"Kill her!" the other students, who were now piling out of classrooms, having probably heard the commotion in her office, turned between Skylar and the now green, scaly principal. And then Skylar heard one of the worst sounds she'd ever heard in my life - the sound of an animal, something like a lion, roaring. Skylar changed a glance behind her and saw something huge and furry lunging at her. How had the cat gotten so big?

"Get out of the way!" Skylar screamed. She pounced through the nearest door and started leaping  the stairs one by one, her only thought being to get away from whatever monster was chasing after her. She reached the top of the stairs, which led through to a janitor's closet - knowing that she would be trapped if she hid in there, Skylar turned to the nearest thing comparable to an exit - an open window. Skylar had a serious problem of impulse-control, ADHD to be exact, and it didn't do her any favours this time. Hearing the monster roaring, Skylar squeezed through the window and started climbing up to the roof, knowing instinctively that it was there. There was no way the beast could find its way through there, fitting through that window without mortally injuring itself.

"Skylar Thorne!" hissed Mrs Kendrick, which only made Skylar more determined to get through to the top. Once there, Skylar turned and saw that it was starting to rain. Typical, Skylar screamed in her head, and I left my bag in Mrs Kendrick's office. Looking back at the ground, I saw that a lot of the kids were starting to pile outside and look up, muttering loudly.

Then, Skylar heard a resounding crash explode behind her and turned to see that a hole had been punched in the roof beneath her. Then the cat climbed through. Only, it wasn't even a cat anymore. It was much bigger, larger than any cat Skylar had ever seen, even the biggest cats you could find at Central Park Zoo. It's fur was no longer gold, but deep pitch black, and it had a woman's face - a woman with deep green hair tied in two ponytails, and wild yellow eyes. And, when it opened its eyes, it had the teeth of a vampire, with streaks of my blood still there. She screamed, and the monster roared.

It lunged, and Skylar buckled under her instincts by lunging to the right, hoping she didn't go right over the edge of the building; Skylar's shoulder slammed into a ventilation shaft, which clanged loudly. Skylar slumped to the ground and started crying. The monster landed faultlessly and arced around, roaring. How could a woman's jaw move so wide open.

"Nowhere to hide, Skylar!" sneered Mrs Kendrick, and suddenly I realised that she was standing right next to the monster. She had changed completely - she no longer had legs, but a huge green snake's body that was almost as long as the school bus. She towered over the monster, over everyone, so much that she blotted out the sun.

"What the hell is going on?" Skylar asked, sobbing, "What are you, and what do you want with me?"

"I am Echidna, the mother of all monsters," hissed Mrs Kendrick, "and now I'm going to feed you to my little pet, see how long you last against her."

The monster exploded towards Skylar, and Skylar rolled to one side, conscious of the hysterical laughter of Echidna, who was looping around us, enjoying the show. The monster pawed the ground, its claws creating deep, jagged lines in the ground. Skylar inched closer to the edge, so that she was standing between the monster and nothing but thin air. She smiled, beckoning with her hands like a wrestler in the arena - like a gladiator, she realised.

"Hit me with your best shot, kitty-cat!" Apparently, giant lion-woman monsters don't like the name, which I gathered when the monster shrieked and sprinted towards me, the paws thudding on the ground. Its jaws opened wide and its eyes shone with rage.

It lunged for Skylar.

Skylar threw herself to the ground.

The monster's claws punched into thin air and its shrieks pitched higher than I ever thought possible. Skylar didn't see it as it fell, but she could damn well hear it - she heard the monster's shrieks, the sound of razor claws scything the air with sounds that would put lightsabers to shame, and then the huge thud, like a crack opening in the earth, when it landed. Then I heard the hysterical screeches of frightened students and teachers as they probably realised that a huge monster that looked like something out of Supernatural had landed in the middle of the yard.

I turned back to Echidna, not even daring to look down at what my little trick had resulted in.

Echidna did not look happy.

"Well played," she hissed, and Skylar realised that she was in the worst possible predicament for the third time today - she was unarmed, she was injured, she was bleeding a lot, and more importantly she was face to face with another monster, who was determined to rip me apart from the look on her face, "you think you've won, though. Now your weak, and you won't stand a chance against me!"

That was when Skylar heard the sound of fearsome thunder and suddenly the clouds darkened, and then it started to rain. Skylar's first thought was how she was out in the open, about to take the full brunt of the rain. The second thing was that the effect of the thunder was much, much worse on Echidna. She threw her head back and cursed in an unknown, incomprehensible voice that Skylar somehow knew meant she was cursing terribly.

"Di immortales," Echidna howled, "fine! I'll leave you to lick your wounds, little rabbit. But we'll meet again, I promise you. And you'll get worse than that nibble on your neck when we do meet again, or I am not the mother of all monsters!"

Echidna swerved around and nosedived over the edge of the building, out of sight.

Camp Half-Blood
The best thing about being arrested was the peace and quiet, Skylar decided. Nothing else. Skylar had been in the same interrogation room all day, and had decided that it was one of the worst things in the world, with that one exception. When they had rescued her from the roof via a ladder from a fire engine, Skylar had looked back to see the body of the monster. It wasn't there. And everyone was looking at her, as if she'd died on that rooftop and they were looking at her ghost. Skylar had gone through most of the sixth, seventh and eighth without being noticed by anyone but bullies, but being looked at in this way as she'd been escorted away to a police car was so much worse.

And now she was alone in contemplation of what she had just gone through - they had patched up her bite mark, but they hadn't believed her when she explained how the cat had transformed into a monster and Echidna had chased her, and they had dismissed her as a silly little girl spreading stories, which her school had actually supported. Nobody accounted for the disappearance of Mrs Kendrick, or how anything, let alone a cat, had been able to cause such damage to her office. They had dismissed the monster for being a lion that had escaped from Central Park Zoo, even though Central Park Zoo had been unable to account for a disappearing animal. None of it made any sense.

The door opened, and a young woman walked through. She was probably nineteen, and beautiful, with a slender body and lustrous black hair. She had dark brown eyes that looked like chips of dark chocolate, and she was wearing a red zip-up jacket and dark green trousers, and there was a silver watch around her left wrist. Skylar's ADHD noticed the watch. When the girl moved to sit next to her, Skylar inched away, suddenly feeling very, very cold. The woman smiled at her.

"I'm Mallory," she said, "and you're Skylar, is that right? Skylar Thorne."

"I'm telling you, there was a-" Skylar started, but the woman, Mallory, cut her off by raising a hand very sharply. It was as if she held all of the authority in the world at the tip of her finger.

"Are you Skylar Thorne, eighth grade, from Sully Children's Home?" she asked.

"Yes," Skylar answered, impatiently, "now, officer, I don't care what the idiots at school are saying, but you have to believe me?"

"And why is that?" asked Mallory, sharply, "You defeat a sphinx without even carrying a weapon, and suddenly that entitles you to be listen to, is that it?"

"Yeah...sorry? A what?"

"A sphinx, Skylar," answered Mallory, "part lion, part woman, really bad tempers. You know what I'm talking about, you did send one plummeting off the rooftop, didn't you?"

Skylar hated being talked to like she was an idiot, and that's exactly what was happening now. She felt like she was going to try and punch this woman right here if she didn't seem like she knew what was going on, when Skylar had no idea.

"What's going on, officer?"

"I'm not an officer, dear," muttered Mallory, "I don't even work here. Does this look like working clothes to you?" She accentuated her point by smoothing her hands across her jacket.

"Then why are you here?"

"I was asked to talk to you, of course."

"Have we met?"

"No," said Mallory, gently, "I've seen you many times, but we've never met, Skylar. I made sure of it. I'm very good at hiding, you know."

"Who are you?"

"Why, I'm Mallory," she laughed, "I've been asked to talk to you. Did you see what brought the sphinx to your school?"

"No."

"You didn't?"

"It was a cat when I first saw it, and then it started growing, after..." Skylar stopped. She then realised where this Mallory was going.

"Yes, dear?"

"You know about Echidna?"

"Of course I do, dear." giggled Mallory, in a bright, cheery laugh, "I was asked to deal with her myself, you see. Then you ran to the roof, and she followed you with that monstrosity in tow. I was going to give you a hand, but then you beat the sphinx yourself and I knew that if I even approached you while you were being helped down from that rooftop, it would be way too awkward. Did I mention I called the cops. I called the firemen. And I had to pay for the damage you did to poor Mrs Kendrick's office."

"Why?" Skylar asked.

"What did Echidna say to you, dear?"

"She said I was the one she was looking for, and that my little comebacks proved it." Skylar answered.

"Ah," Mallory sighed, "She came here looking for you, specifically, not to just hunt some more demigods. Why do you suppose she fled?"

"I'd beaten her."

"You beat the sphinx. But you didn't kill it. You didn't make any move to kill Echidna, either. Why do you suppose that she fled?"

"I don't know," I snapped, "maybe some other girl called and asked for an attempt on her life!"

Mallory threw back her head and laughed, "That would make sense, wouldn't it. But, no, that's not the reason. Do you know what you are, Skylar?"

"A girl."

"Try again."

"A girl with a bad temper."

"Clearly, but guess again," Skylar did not like how Mallory seemed to be enjoying this so much.

"What am I?"

"A demigod."

There was a very long pause.

"I'm sorry?"

"You are a demigod," explained Mallory, "part human, part god. A Greek one, as well, but I'm not entirely sure which parent. Can you tell me who your mother and father were?"

"My father? He died when I was little, and my mother ran off when she had me."

"That doesn't help us, doesn't it." Mallory seemed disappointed, "Have you any recollection of what they looked like?"

"No. Why are you asking me this?"

"I'm trying to figure out who your godly parent is. You clearly have no idea."

Skylar stood up. She'd had enough weirdness for one day. Mallory didn't move.

"I'm sick of this. I've had a really weird day, Mallory, so if you don't mind, I'm going to go back where I came from."

"I can't let you do that, Skylar." answered Mallory, quietly.

"You aren't a cop. You can't stop me!"

"I can't let you do that, Skylar," Mallory said, suddenly sounding urgent, "because I would rather you didn't face the monster that's coming towards us without a weapon or a form of defence."

Skylar froze for a moment. Then she laughed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't open that door," ordered Mallory, and now there was an edge to her voice. Skylar liked that even less than before. Then she did something that, try as she might, Skylar could never have expected: she raised both hands, held them above her head, joined the thumbs, and then unjoined them and slowly moved her hands in a circular motion, bending down so that she was touching the ground. As she did this, the air between her hands shimmered, and then it started to fold until a void of blackness appeared in front of me. Mallory paced around it so that we were side by side, then turned around and looked at her work, "let's go through this one."

Then someone slammed on the door, and a hissing voice demanded, "Open this door. I command you. Open this door!" Then a series of banging sounds, each of which ended with the door shuddering. Skylar knew she wouldn't like the look of whatever was on the other side.

"Where are we going?"

"Trust me," Mallory seized Skylar's shoulder painfully hard and threw her head-first towards the black void that she'd made. Skylar staggered into it, and the moment she passed into the blackness, she felt a dazzling sensation of dizziness ripple through her body. She screamed, flailed for something to grab on to, not seeing anything but blackness in front of her.

Then she landed, on her belly, on a pile of garbage bags. Wrestling the bags off of her, Skylar staggered back, mopping her front to get the garbage off. She saw Mallory walk calmly through the black void behind her, and then clap her hands, at which point the void disappeared.

"What the hell was that?"

"Let's keep going." ordered Mallory. Skylar didn't move a muscle. Mallory turned around and saw this, before striding furiously towards her and suddenly becoming angry, "I said let's keep going!"

"Who are you?" Skylar demanded to know, "and where are we going?"

"My name is Mallory Shade, daughter of Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, and we are going some place safe where the monsters can't find you!"

"That's not the whole truth!" I shouted back, "Why are you so interested in me? What did Echidna want with me? Why do we have to keep going, what are we running from?"

Mallory grabbed Skylar by the shoulders and shook her, all the sweetness on her face replaced by anger and impatience.

"You're a demigod," she snapped, "and monsters hate the gods. The closest thing they have to being able to insult, harm or in any way damage the gods is through damaging people like us-" she stopped for a moment, seeing that my face lost focus. I was still feeling amazingly dizzy from going through that portal. Seeing this, Mallory inserted a finger under my armpit and drilled it, tickling me. I shrieked and pulled away, and she glared at me, "do I have your full attention?"

"Yes!" Skylar gasped, giggling nervously.

"Monsters are drawn to the...scent of demigods," she sounded like she was trying to explain this to a pre-schooler, but for once it didn't sound condescending, "I've been chased by monsters my whole life, and I know that they'll always bee back. That sphinx you fought at the school, she'll be back and she'll be well angry. Monsters will always hunt you, unless you come with me to Camp Half Blood."

"Camp Half-Blood?"

"I don't have time to explain any more of this," hissed Mallory, "let's just go, and I'll explain when we arrive." She grabbed me and we ran out of the alley, and Skylar noticed that there were heading up Long Island - up a great green hill through a web of woodlands. The sun was going down, and there was a red hue in the sky, making the hill glow with an almost golden shade.

"Keep going!" shouted Mallory, throwing me in front of her, and then Skylar noticed what she was so afraid of - there was a huge shadow powering through the woodlands towards us, and Skylar immediately recognised its shape to be that of an enormous cat. And the sound of it was all too familiar.

"How far do we have to go?"

"To the top!" Mallory answered. She pushed Skylar forward again, and then turned around to face the sphinx as it bounded closer to us. I could see the acidic golden eyes blazing from its face. Mallory seized her own wrist, where the watch was, and pressed down on the screen. The watch blazed with white light and when the light faded, Mallory was holding in both hands a longsword with a shimmering bronze blade. Mallory charged the sphinx and it shrieked, scuttling back at the sight of the blade. Mallory started swiping at it, the blade circling through the air and biting at the monster's face. Skylar took a moment to marvel at the way that Mallory wielded the blade, then turned and continued to run. Then she stopped dead in her tracks, realising that she was leaving behind a girl who was helping her.

"Run!" screamed Mallory, and for the first time since Skylar met her Mallory sounded frightened. Skylar turned around and charged towards the sphinx, leaping into the monster's path. It paused briefly, inches away from chewing into Mallory's face. Skylar couldn't see Mallory's face, but guessed that she wasn't very happy that Skylar hadn't listened. Skylar spread her arms and charged the sphinx again, but the Sphinx swatted her aside with its paw - it struck Skylar so hard it felt worse than anything Theo Gardener had ever dealt her. She hit the ground and Mallory yelled. Skylar turned and saw her lunge with the sword and plunge her sword into the front leg of the sphinx, which let out an ear-splitting howl. It swung its head with anguish, and then darted its head down, its teeth plunging into Mallory's leg. Mallory screamed.

Skylar watched as the sphinx turned around, its teeth bared and its eyes aflame with colour. Then, as if the forest itself came alive, the world around Skylar exploded with cries of rage and a huge ring of dark figures appeared out of the corner of her eye. Skylar saw that they were carrying spears and wearing bronze armour. One of them, who was probably the shortest one there, was a boy wearing a helmet that looked like it had wings and something jutting out of the front. He wielded a huge axe and charged the sphinx head-on, which backed away in fear of him. The ring of shadows flanked around him and raised their spears, ushering the sphinx back. The monster shrieked with rage and scampered off out of Skylar's view. The boy in the winged helmet raised his axe and the shadows cheered as he did so. Skylar cried out for their attention, and the boy saw her. He said something inaudible and three of them rushed over to her, while the boy himself strode over to where Mallory was lying, motionless.

A minute later, the boy walked back towards her, supporting Mallory over one shoulder, which was phenomenal from Skylar's view since he was nearly half her height. Skylar tried to reach out to them, but then yelled as pain lanced through her.

"Relax," the boy said. He had an English accent, "you're safe now. We have to get you back to camp before that thing comes back."

Skylar didn't know how long it took for them to carry both her and Mallory up the hill, or how she ended up in the bottom bunk in what looked like an indoor wooden cabin. She couldn't feel her arm, and she remembered Mallory's screams when the sphinx had brought her down. She couldn't imagine what Mallory was going through. Skylar didn't know how many times she phased in and out of unconsciousness, but what stayed the same was the boy in armour sitting beside her bed - she somehow knew that it was the boy who had driven the monster away. When she finally found the strength to sit up, she got the chance to look at the boy for real. He was no longer in his armour, but Skylar could see the winged helmet on the bedside table. It was made of some kind of bronze metal, and there were curved wings jutting out spread as if about to swoop into the air - the piece jutting out was a long swan's neck and head, which had two tiny red rubies for eyes. The boy himself was thickset, but he was rather short, Skylar reckoned that he was probably fifteen years old. His hair was an inch long and brown, and he had green eyes, but the most horribly distinctive thing about him was the fact that there was a thin, jagged scar running along his left cheek, reaching up from his left lip into the back of his head.

"You've finally woken up," the boy said, before Skylar could study anything else about him.

"Where am I?"

"You arrived. It was a close-run thing, actually," the boy said, "my name is Gene Torrance, and you're in the cabin of Apollo."

"Why am I here?"

"Because you're injured, and you kept phasing in and out of consciousness, kept screaming, kept thrashing, kept getting cold sweats that we thought you were going through something worse than just a damaged arm...you're fine now, but I'd take it slow if I were you." As Gene was speaking, Skylar tried to get to her feet. Her arm still throbbed where the sphinx had hit her.

"Mallory?"

"She's tough, that girl....she's fine," he didn't seem so certain, and Skylar immediately touched on this. She turned violently on him and he backed away, frightened.

"What happened?"

"Her leg..." he stammered. He was looking at the helmet on the table behind her, as if he wished he had it on to somehow protect himself. Skylar wondered why, since he'd be better suited to having the axe he was carrying in the woods.

"What happened to her?"

"Nothing." Skylar turned around and saw Mallory standing, silhouetted, in the doorway. She walked into the light, and Skylar stared at her. She had gone pale, and her face had hardened to being almost porcelain. But it wasn't like she was unhealthy - she looked furious, under her skin. That wasn't the thing that had made Skylar stare - it was her leg. The sphinx had bitten her at the thigh, and now her leg looked totally different. It was a little slimmer, and the knee was almost an orb, and she was wearing shorts now so Skylar noticed that the leg sticking out was made of metal, like a mechanical limb. The foot was shaped precisely like a shoe, and the limb moved completely identically to the flesh leg. But it looked completely out of place, and Mallory knew it. The rage on her face, Skylar didn't need to ask where it was directed.

"Mallory..."

"Shut it." Mallory said, bitterly, "Not a word. It's not your fault, Skylar. It would have bitten me with or without you getting in its way - and I thank you for that, that was brave of you...or stupid, that doesn't matter. Get well soon."

"I'm better, Mallory." Skylar stammered.

"Then you've excelled at getting well soon, have you not?" the venom in Mallory's voice was unmistakeable as she stormed out of the cabin. Skylar moved to chase after her, but Gene grabbed her arm and held her back.

"She's fine, Skylar," he said, soothingly. I turned to him. His face was incredibly bright, like even if he wasn't smiling the inside of his face was grinning like a child. But the look on his face differed drastically - he looked serious, "she hasn't slept these past few nights, at all. By the time we got her back to the camp, she had started screaming. She wouldn't stop screaming, and she clawed at anyone who tried to soothe her. Not even Dionysus could soothe her, or maybe he didn't care. And her leg...the sphinx had bitten really hard into it. We had to replace it, had to make three dozen sacrifices to Hephaestus to get him to bless her with a leg that would work. And when it was attached, and we left her to her own devices just to test it out, she just sat down and cried. And when one of the campers went in to try and console her, she punched him. Hard."

"The sphinx?"

"It ran off." the boy led Skylar out of the cabin, showing her the camp. The place was immense, green, covered in cabins on one hill and, far off, what may as well have been some kind of family camp - the kind that has a sword arena, a climbing wall that juts out stone pillars and pours lava, and a river teeming with tree people. Skylar stared at the place, and she caught Gene smiling at her, taking some kind of pleasure in her surprise at the place she'd found herself in.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," he said. There were already a dozen kids gathered around, muttering. They wanted to see Skylar come out, she guessed, to see the girl they'd rescued. At their head was a centaur - somehow, Skylar wasn't surprised to see it, a tall man with a horse's body, with a thick dark brown beard. The centaur turned and approached Skylar and Gene, smiling.

"Skylar," he greeted, "good to see you've finally recovered." Skylar wasn't listening. She caught sight of Mallory somewhere in the crowd, those dark brown eyes shimmering with pity. Was it self pity? Skylar wasn't sure. She looked back at the centaur.

"How long have been out...?" Skylar asked, gesturing for the centaur to introduce himself.

"I'm Chiron," the centaur answered, "and you're at Camp Half-Blood. Mallory got you there just in time, just close enough that we heard you fight the sphinx. Just so you know, Skylar, we are so..." His calm smile faded and he stepped back, his back legs briefly slipping behind the front. Everyone behind him suddenly wore the same exact expression.

"What is it?" Skylar smiled, embarrassed, wondering what they were so surprised. She turned to Gene, who was walking back, staring above her head. Skylar looked up. There was a silver broken wheel hovering over my head, illuminated by a deep purple glow. It hovered there like an upturned halo. Skylar stepped back, shocked, and the wheel followed her, like a cloud hovering over a man's head in some cartoon. She looked back at Chiron. He had gone to his knees and bowed his head. So had everyone else.

"Hail Skylar Thorne," chanted the centaur, loud enough that everyone across the camp could somehow hear it, so that it was carried across the wind across the whole of Camp Half-Blood, "daughter of Nemesis, Goddess of Balance, Retribution and Vengeance."