When I finally came to, the first thing I saw was the inside of a makeshift tent—patches of torn cloth and duct tape holding it together, casting weird, flickering shadows in the dim light. The place smelled faintly of damp earth and metal, like an old construction site left abandoned.
My head throbbed. Every inch of my body ached as if I'd been trampled by an entire herd of monsters. Given my last memory, that might not have been far from the truth.
Blinking away the haze, I noticed a figure leaning over me.
A girl.
Maybe twelve years old, with wild, tangled hair that hung down in scraggly clumps around her face. Her clothes were torn and caked with dirt, and her wide, dark eyes stared at me like she'd been watching me sleep for hours.
With her mud-streaked face and unsettlingly silent gaze, she looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
Naturally, I screamed.
And to my surprise, she screamed back.
Scrambling backward, still dizzy and weak, I tried to put as much distance between us as possible. My heart pounded as I took in the sight of this bedraggled, wild-eyed girl.
Then, just as I thought things couldn't get weirder, someone else rushed into the tent.
A guy—maybe eighteen—tall and broad-shouldered, with shaggy brown hair, a rough tunic, and… goat legs.
I froze.
His legs were covered in thick fur, ending in shiny black hooves that clacked against the floor.
I was staring at an honest-to-goodness satyr.
The guy took one look at the two of us and rolled his eyes. "You two done yet?"
I opened my mouth. Then closed it. Opened it again. Nothing came out.
My brain struggled to process the fact that I was looking at a real, living, breathing half-man, half-goat.
So, naturally, I did the only logical thing and screamed again.
The girl backed away, scowling. The satyr sighed, rubbing his temples like he had a migraine. "Yeah, I get that reaction a lot," he muttered. "Name's Jace. And yes, I'm a satyr. Keeper of the wild, yadda yadda."
I gaped at him, unable to form a coherent sentence.
I needed to get out of here. Wherever here was.
I tried to slip away, but the girl wasn't done with me yet. With an excited shriek, she launched herself onto my back like some kind of feral monkey, clinging to me with surprising strength.
"I got him! I got him!" she yelled, arms and legs wrapped tightly around me.
"Get off!" I shouted, twisting and turning, but she held on like a determined barnacle. For a scrawny kid, she was ridiculously strong.
The satyr—Jace—chuckled. "Ellie, quit climbing on people."
She huffed but slid off me, her bare feet hitting the ground as she stood next to him. Now that she wasn't actively trying to choke me, I could actually look at her.
Beneath the dirt and grime, she had a sharp, mischievous face. Her eyes, big and dark, studied me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
I swallowed, still trying to wrap my head around everything. "You… can talk?"
Jace snorted. "What kind of question is that?"
"I mean—you're a—you have—" I gestured helplessly at his hooves.
"Goat legs?" he finished for me, smirking. "Yep. Satyr. Like I said."
I blinked. "Right. Cool. Totally normal."
Jace flopped down cross-legged, completely at ease. "We found you knocked out cold near an alley close to the subway. The Minotaur got to you first, I take it?"
The Minotaur.
The memory slammed into me like a tidal wave—the gods' voices, their power coursing through me, Mat's terrified face as—
I clenched my jaw. My hands curled into fists.
"Yeah," I muttered. "I… I got lucky."
Jace's expression flickered with curiosity, but he didn't press for details. Instead, he studied me for a moment, then asked, "So, whose vessel are you?"
"Vessel?" I repeated, frowning. That word had been thrown around in my nightmare, but I still didn't understand it. "What does that mean?"
"Oh, right," Jace said, stretching his legs. "You're new to this." He motioned for me to sit. Ellie plopped down beside him, still watching me like I might suddenly sprout extra limbs.
I hesitated, then finally sank down, too exhausted to argue.
Jace grinned. "Alright, sit tight, kid. It's story time."
So there we were, sitting on the ground inside a makeshift tent, huddled under the dim light of a single flickering lantern. The air smelled of damp earth and metal, as if we were camped near an old, forgotten construction site.
Jace scratched at his goatee and cleared his throat. Here comes the lecture, I thought.
"See," he began, "in this world, gods can't walk around in their true forms like they used to. Their bodies are in, uh, what we call slumber—hidden away in places no one knows. But their essence is still around. It needs vessels to survive, to avoid fading out of existence altogether. You follow?"
I nodded, though my brain felt like it was still buffering.
Jace continued, "So, gods need humans to act as, well, hosts. We call them 'vessels.' It's like a partnership: the human provides the god with a body to inhabit, and in return, they get access to some of the god's powers."
Ellie perked up, bouncing slightly. "I'm a vessel! For Artemis. Goddess of the hunt and archery. And twin sister of Apollo," she added, her voice taking on a sing-song rhythm like she was reciting a school lesson.
I stared at her, still trying to wrap my head around everything. "So… wait," I said slowly. "You mean, you're carrying around part of Artemis?"
Ellie nodded proudly. "Yep. I'm taking her to camp. Jace is helping me get there so we can do the ceremony. Then, I'll be officially connected, and she'll lend me her powers."
Jace grinned and ruffled her tangled hair. "Ellie here's one of the toughest vessels I know. And she's got a knack for archery already. Give her a bow, and you'll see what I mean."
She beamed, clearly thrilled by the praise.
I turned back to Jace, still confused. "But why can't the gods just… use their own bodies?"
He shrugged. "It's complicated. Their physical forms are hidden, deep in slumber. No one knows where exactly, but it's been that way for eons. So they rely on us, their vessels. Without us, they'd just… fade away. That's why you've got gods vying for you, trying to get you to agree to carry their essence."
That part made sense—at least, as much as any of this could. It explained why Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had all been so insistent on me choosing them. But something Jace had mentioned earlier stuck with me.
"You said camp?"
"Yep. Camp Empyrean," Jace said. "It's where vessels go to train, learn to control their powers, and—most importantly—stay safe from monsters."
I frowned. "Monsters?"
Jace nodded, his expression turning serious. "Yeah. See, vessels give off a certain… scent, you could say. Something about the divine essence makes us smell like prey to monsters. That's why the Minotaur was able to sniff you out near the subway."
A chill ran down my spine. I could still see the Minotaur's red eyes, the way its massive frame had charged toward me, unstoppable.
"So this camp," I said slowly, "it's a safe place?"
Jace nodded. "That's right. We've got a barrier around it that keeps most creatures out. It's about the only place a vessel can really be safe—at least for a while."
His words lingered in my mind. A sanctuary.
A part of me wanted to believe it.
Mat was gone. My only real connection to this city—my only family—had been ripped away from me. The idea of fighting monsters on my own, of constantly looking over my shoulder, wasn't exactly appealing. But still… this was a lot.
Jace must've sensed my hesitation. "So," he said, "will you come with us? Camp's got food, shelter, people like us. You'd fit right in. And it's safe."
I hesitated.
Did I really have a choice?
I had nowhere else to go. No one left.
I closed my eyes, the weight of everything pressing down on me. When I finally spoke, my voice felt heavier than it should have.
"Yeah," I said. "I'll come."
Jace grinned, looking relieved. "Good choice. The next train out of here is at midnight tomorrow. We just have to survive one more day, and then we're good."
I frowned. "Survive?"
He shrugged, giving me a mischievous smirk. "Well, the monsters aren't exactly gone, and our little Artemis over here has a knack for attracting trouble."
Ellie just grinned. "It'll be fun."
Fun wasn't the word I would've chosen.
But looking at Jace and Ellie, seeing how easily they seemed to navigate this insane world, I realized something.
For the first time since that awful night, I had a direction. A purpose.
Even if it meant stepping into a world I barely understood.