PERCY

I was ninety-eight percent sure I was not at Camp Half Blood.

I opened my eyes just to make sure, and instantly I knew I was right. Because on the bed next to me lay Piper.

See, at Camp Half Blood, we have this rule. It's called the 'No-one-can-sleep-in-the-same-cabin-as-the-opposite-gender-unless-you're-siblings' rule. It's awfully important, so that was check one.

Check Two: there were tribal symbols all over the walls. No building in the entire camp had anything like that. Also, my head was seriously pounding, and this was definitely not the Apollo-kid-HQ I was used to.

I looked around some more, and saw that not only were Piper and I in this predicament, but Hazel, Frank, Leo, Annabeth, and Jason were all flopped in beds around the room. In other words, it looked like the Argo II had exploded and we had all been injured. All except Isi.

Frantically, I looked through all the empty beds that filled the room. Isi was in none of them.

I tried not to freak out too much. After all, Isi was an immortal goddess. She couldn't die... could she? If I were anyone else, I wouldn't be this worried. The rest of the Eight had taken her immortality for granted- minus Annabeth, of course, who was too rational to take anything for granted.

I was starting to feel kind of lonely and helpless, so I went over to Annabeth's bed. I shook her shoulder gently, whispering her name.

"Whasshappening?" she said, voice slurred.

"We're not at either camp," I told her. That got her up.

Blonde hair sticking out everywhere, Annabeth surveyed the dismal scene before us. "Go wake everyone up," she said after a little while. "We think more rationally together."

Five minutes later, the crew of the Argo II was seated in a circle on the floor-minus Isi, of course.

"So..." Hazel paused to yawn. "We're all trapped here? And Isi is gone?"

Leo got up and left the circle. None of us questioned him. He was the most ADHD of any demigod to walk the Earth and couldn't sit still. Like, at all.

"Yes," Annabeth said to Hazel. "Percy got up first. He told me."

"Guys!" It was Leo. "The door's unlocked!"

Annabeth facepalmed. "Of course," she muttered. "I should have checked that."

The seven of us crept into the hallway beyond the door. No one was in sight. Corridors branched off in every direction, all made of gothic, creepy stone. It reminded me of a castle.

"Split up?" Frank suggested.

"No!" Annabeth yelped. "This place is a maze! We'll be lost in seconds."

She was right, so we all inched down a random hallway in a pack. I could tell some of my friends were nervous, mostly because our weapons seemed to be gone.

We paused by a door where faint voices were leaking out from the crack. I motioned for us to huddle, then raised my eyebrows at Annabeth. As a daughter of Athena, she was our prime strategist.

"Okay," she hissed. "Percy, Leo, you guys are going first. You're the only ones with weapons. Frank, you're right after them. Change into something smallish, but still powerful. Hazel, Jason, you and I will be protecting Piper. She's our secret weapon. If force fails, you need to charmspeak us out as fast as you can. Everyone clear?" We nodded. I grabbed Riptide. Leo set his hands on fire. Frank transformed into a lynx. We set our formation, then I kicked down the door.

I registered a bunch of things at once. First, the room was occupied by mostly adults. Second, a redheaded woman seemed to be crying. Third, the only teenager in the room was Isi.

"Stop!" Annabeth and I had spoken at once, seeing Isi hovering above a chair (yes, literally hovering, she was blessed by Zeus), comforting the crying woman.

Isi's head flew up. Upon seeing us, she danced into our midst, hugging all of us: even Leo, whose hands were still on fire, and Frank, who was still a lynx.

"Ohmigods, guys! You were out FOR-EV-ER!" She shot back to the adults. "Holy Hephaestus, I have to introduce everyone. Eight-besides-me, this is Jocelyn, Luke, Maryse, and Magnus. Shadow-World-members, this is Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Jason, Hazel, and Frank."

"Isi, what-" Piper began.

"You guys are here because my hero world turned upside down!" Isi trilled. "You are here at the New York Institute, the Shadowhunters who normally live here are at Hogwarts, and the wizards are at Camp!"