Canyon Lake Park isn’t that bad, all things considered. I grabbed a can of mixed veggies, and Evan I end up taking turns throwing veggies at the ducks and geese.

Mostly the geese. They’re vicious about food, and the ducks weren’t gonna get in their way.

We take turns passing the crystal ball back and forth while we do this.

“Where did it comes from?” Evan questions. I shrug. I don’t know any better than him.

“If nothing else, it’ll look cool on my nightstand,” I tell him. “I wonder what would happen if I shined a flashlight into it.”

He shrugs. I shrug. There’s not much to say. The park is only interesting for so long, and there’s only so many ways I can say This looks cool.

Thankfully, the boring quiet is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a certain Clyde Hoofwell.

Hoofwell. I’ll never get over that name.

A short, awkward guy with crutches and an eternal love for hats, Clyde took it upon himself to become Evan’s new best friend when he transferred in earlier this year. I don’t think he’s trying to snob me out of it, but he always manages to pull Evan away from me somehow.

Behind Clyde, his goth girlfriend follows him. She met him when he transferred in and the two immediately decided they were going to date. She towers over him and reminds me of madness. I don’t know why, but she’s unnerving.

“Evan, my man!” Clyde’s easy-going nature lets him slide right into the conversation without feeling overly awkward… right up until he walked between Evan and I and started walking off with Evan.

I resigned myself, once again, to walk beside Layla, the goth girlfriend. She never says much, but she’s always got a flashlight nearby. I’ll never figure out why. It’s not like she uses it - We had a power outage last year (I think Evan said it had to do with the storms, but I don’t remember), and when we asked her to give us some light, she just shrugged and clicked it on and off. No batteries.

“So…” I awkwardly try and make small talk with the stranger as we walk behind Clyde and Evan.

She nods at me quietly, but otherwise says nothing.

“Alright,” I say.

We continue walking.

Clyde guides Evan to the central gazebo island, but Layla stops halfway across the bridge and stares down at the water below us in the lake. I resign myself to standing silently until Clyde wears himself out and heads home.

Which could be awhile.

“Hey, what’d you think of this?” I decide to show Layla my new crystal ball. “I got hit with this thing earlier,” I say, some pride in my voice.

“Interesting…” She says. Oddly enough, she genuinely seems interested in it. “It’s got an extra star. I don’t think that one exists.”

I shrug. “By our old stories, it’s the star that Red Cheek pulled when she wanted to look down on earth.”

“What?” She looks at me, and I see the first real emotion I’ve ever seen out of this girl in my life as curiosity and suspicion fills her eyes.

Considering I barely know her and I can read her face that easily, no wonder she never says much.

“Girl, what? You know something about it?”
She shrugs. “I’ve heard stories about an eighth star, but it disappeared so long ago… well, nobody thought it was real.”

“Yeah, Red Cheek is old,” I tell her as I hold the ball in my hands. The stars glint within it… and it feels like something is watching me back…

“AHHHHH!!”

A scream startles me, and I nearly drop the ball. Layla saves it from falling into the water before handing it back quickly, and then I drop it for real as I stare at what’s happening on the gazebo island.

Clyde has lost his crutches and he seems to have gained a pair of shaggy trousers at some point, and Evan is cowering in the gazebo itself.

But on the island itself…

“What is THAT?!” I shout, pointing at it and staring wildly at Layla.

But I back away from her as well, as she’s suddenly changed everything about herself.

She’s not a tall goth girl anymore. Well, she is, but suddenly she’s all decked out in black leather armor and she’s holding a dagger of a strange bronze color, far shinier than any dagger should be.

“What are you wearing?!” I half-shout at her, frozen between staring at her and staring at the thing on the island.

“They found us!” She hisses. She stares at me, her eyes wide open. “They shouldn’t have… wait, can you see me?”

“Well, you haven’t turned into Houdini in the last few minutes, so, yeah! I can see you! And what are you wearing?!”

She blinks, unsure of what to say. But her hesitation breaks when she hears Clyde shout again, but this time in pain - I look over and I can’t quite understand what I’m staring at.

It’s… it’s… it’s a snake woman, I think? But no, that can’t be right, nothing’s happening at all. But it’s a snake woman… but no, it’s Mrs. Ophidian, but she’s a snake, but… why is she here?

I rub my eyes, no idea what’s going on. I can’t tell. Layla lunges away from me, towards Mrs. Ophidian, but then… they’re just talking, aren’t they?

The last thing I see is either Layla, Clyde, and Evan talking to Mrs. Ophidian about their homework or Mrs. Ophidian with Clyde halfway down her throat, and she’s got two giant snake trunks instead of legs before my throbbing headache comes back and knocks me out for good.

I wake up to crying. From the sounds of it, it’s a girl. The only girl here was… Layla?

“Layla?” I moan, rolling over to the side. It’s still light out, so not much time has passed.

“Layla?” I say again, wincing as I try and sit up.

“Don’t sit up,” she whimpers, her throat catching as she talks. “Just… just lay down. You hit your head pretty hard.”

I realize as I lay there that she’s got another can of cold Dr. Pepper pressed up against my forehead. The pop machine nearby must have finally been refilled for once.

“What… what happened?” I manage to groan out.

“You… you fell over when… when…” her voice fails her again and she breaks down sobbing again.

I don't’ know what to do. I can barely sit up, let alone console this goth girl for something I’m not even sure happened.

“Where’s Evan?” I say.

“Here,” he answers for me. His voice is flat, like he forgot how much fun we’ve had since we got out of school this afternoon. “I told you Mrs. Ophidian was new.”

“Huh?” I ask. “That… who’s Mrs. Ophidian?”

I open my eyes, staring up. Layla is looking at Evan, her expression both broken and firm at the same time. She raises her eyebrows, like she’s saying I told you so.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing,” Evan dodges the question. He hands me back my crystal ball. “You dropped this, though. You might want it.”

“Where’s Clyde?”

At the mention of Clyde, Layla freezes up, then gives me a glance.

“Who?” She asks.

I frown. “Your boyfriend. Duh.”

“I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

I just give her a weird glance. I’m not in the mood to argue. “Bad breakup?”

“What?” Layla gives Evan another glance, but he just looks lost.

“Where’s Mrs. Ophidian?” I ask Evan. “Weren’t you just… just…” I scrunch my eyes. I swear, I just had an idea who she was.

“Where’s who?” Layla asks.

“The summer school ISS teacher,” I finally manage to say. “She was just on the gazebo island, she was…” I trail off, thinking about what I just saw.

The memories don’t make sense. Was she talking to these three - or two - about homework? Or was she a terrifying woman eating… someone, with two snake legs instead of human legs?

“I don’t know what I saw,” I finally say in a small voice.

Layla shakes her head. “Something’s wrong,” she says.

“Really, Sherlock? I hadn’t noticed,” Evan’s sarcasm drips off his tongue as he stares her down. “Where did you figure that out?”

“The Mist…” Layla trails off, helplessly gesturing and looking at me. “It’s like Seth can see both what the Mist wanted him to see, but also what actually happened, both at the same time.”

“What’s the mist?” I ask, finally managing to sit up enough to lean against the bridge railing. I take over holding the cold can to my forehead.

Layla hesitates, but I can see her eyes and lower lip tremble as she tries to decide what to tell me.

Evan ends up telling me.

“Layla here just told me that the Mist is a magical force that exists to prevent people like you from seeing what actually goes on in the world,” he says, his voice steely and tight. “Because you’re not a… a half-blood, you can’t see through the Mist.”

“Is that why Layla was wearing that badass armor?” I ask.

Layla manages a small smile off that. I feel a little better.

“But… where’s Clyde?” I manage to ask. “I… I think his name was Clyde.”

“Was,” Layla says softly. “You said was.”

“I…” I close my eyes. “Is?” I open my eyes, lost.

“Was,” Layla confirms slowly. “Clyde was a satyr - A Keeper, sent out to protect and collect your friend Evan, here.”

“Was?” I ask.

Layla shudders. “What you saw - what attacked Evan here - was a scythian dracanae. A she-snake demon.”

“What’s it doing here?” I ask, not caring enough to ask much more.

“Evan is a late-blooming demigod,” Layla explains. “Usually we find demigods around the time they hit puberty, but Evan here… he’s, what, sixteen?”

“And a half,” I helpfully supply.

“Sure,” Layla says. “I don’t know why, but his scent is extremely… faint.”

“His scent?” I ask. I look at Evan. “I know my boy can get pungent after gym class, but… really?”

Layla shakes her head, a small chuckle escaping her. “Not like that.” She sighs. “Demigods have strong scents that attract monsters.”

Layla points towards gazebo island. “Monsters like that one, who show up and generally only have one goal in mind - To kill demigods.”

“Why?”

She shrugs. “No idea.”

A sudden thought occurs to me. “Hold up,” I say, holding up my hand. “How do you know all this? Are you a… a demigod, too? Or are you more like…” I scrunch my eyes, thinking hard. “Like Clyde? He had hooves.”

Layla sighs. “Clyde was a satyr. Satyrs are sent out across the world to find and collect demigods, to bring them back to Camp Half-Blood.”

“And what are you?” I ask her, my eyes narrowing.

Her gaze drops. “I am a nymph. An infernal nymph.”

“A what now?” Evan asks, and I don’t say anything. For once.

“A nymph from the underworld,” Layla says quietly. “I came up here because I could smell you, but… I don’t understand why I could, especially if nobody else really could.”

“A lampades,” Evan breathes out, his eyes filled with excitement. “You’re a lampades, aren’t you?”

She sniffs. “I just said that, yes.”

“Then I know exactly who my mother is,” He says with excitement. “Dad used to talk about her, he used to say completely wild things about her, about her torches and her tendency to meet him at three-way intersections.”

Layla looks up, surprised. “Well… I hadn’t expected that.”

“I’m guessing most demigods don’t figure out who their godly half is from for awhile?” I venture a guess. “But it would make sense, considering how you’re one of hers. You are, aren’t you?”

Layla nods slowly. “And you’re probably the only demigod within hundreds of miles of this place, too. I could sense you, since there weren’t any others to sense in the first place.”

I snort. “The Olympians avoid the midwest?”

Layla shrugs. “Not intentionally, I don’t think. But you don’t get a lot of demigods down the central states.”

“Not much to see out here,” Evan says dryly. “I suppose someone like Demeter might really like the endless waves of crops, but just about nobody else would have reason to be out here.”

“Then why was Hekate out here?” I finally ask. “What reason could she have to be out here… in the middle of nowhere?”

A voice speaks up from behind us, startling all three of us.

“I believe I can answer that for you, young man.”