After I said goodbye to Valkyrie, I headed home, thinking about the rather full day I'd had. My conversation with Valkyrie had better than I'd feared, though perhaps not as well as I'd hoped, but in general things seemed to be in a good state on that front, and I let myself be happy with that ( Read more... )

Leaving Coraline as we did put a damper on the afternoon. I knew I'd have to go to her and apologize at some point, though for what, I wasn't entirely sure. I was nursing hurt feelings as Valkyrie and I headed up the Strand ( Read more... )

Though we were done with the home renovations, adding two separate bedrooms to what was now a common area, our work was far from over. We had all of Luke's stuff to unpack and sort. But, being teenagers or not-far-removed-from-teenagers, when we'd unpacked and set up Luke's game console, we paused, considered the massive amount of work still to do ( Read more... )

It had been a rough night for Coraline, tossing and turning in her sleep. Strange dreams haunted her -- not of the Other Mother, but of dolls, moving and whispering through the huts on the Island.

She woke with a gasp, and heard a shrieky young voice near her ear. At first she thought it was a dream.

"Who do we ask when we don't know which one to ( Read more... )

The afternoon found me again on the western beach, watching the sun set. I was spending more and more of my time, here. Between school classes and some time with Luke, the times I had alone, I spent them near the ocean. I guess I was trying to reconnect with Dad ( Read more... )

The worst day of my life started as any other. I woke up, walked Mrs. O'Leary, and grabbed breakfast. The first moment I realized something was wrong was when Annabeth didn't show up. We always shared breakfast together, these days. That was unusual enough that I decided to check up on her, though I assumed that she was just probably working on ( Read more... )

Okay. I looked myself up and down in the borrowed mirror. Clean shirt? Check. Clean jeans? Check. Hair not messed up? Check. Nervous about this date? Oh, yeah ( Read more... )

I thought I was through wandering ( Read more... )

After leaving Annabeth -- and the less said about that the better -- I knew there was someone else I had to see. Luke being here was big news, and people needed to be warned. And one of those people was Aphrodite. Even if she wasn't from the Mount Olympus of Manhattan, she was still a target ( Read more... )

After walking Mrs. O'Leary (who demanded to be walked and, besides, deserve it. She hadn't brought Luke to the Island, after all. Besides, have you ever turned down a hellhound who demanded anything? At all?), I left my hut and made a beeline for Annabeth's place. I'd had enough of this awkwardness. We needed to talk -- moreso than ever, now that ( Read more... )