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{ 🔮 } · endora doesn't know which god she likes more . ݁ ٬٬ ࣪
IF ENDORA HAD TO say what her biggest fear was, she wouldn't be able to answer you. And that wasn't because she was not afraid of anything, but she didn't really know. Many things scared her, she wasn't afraid to say it, but she didn't know what she feared the most.
For now.
"Nico, you could come with us," Percy blurted out. Endora raised her eyebrow, but she agreed. Even if the boy was a capable demigod, just the thought of leaving him alone made her both uncomfortable and guilty.
Nico shook his head. Endora suspected that none of them had slept well in the demon ranch house, but Nico looked worse than anybody else. His eyes were red and his face chalky. He was wrapped in a black robe that must've belonged to Geryon, because it was three sizes too big even for a grown man.
"I need time to think." his eyes wouldn't meet neither Percy's nor Endora's, but the girl could tell from his tone he was still angry. The fact that his sister had come out of the Underworld for them and not for him didn't seem to sit well with him.
"Nico," Endora said. "Bianca just wants you to be okay." she put her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and trudged up the road toward the ranch house. Maybe it was her imagination, but the morning mist seemed to cling to him as he walked.
"I'm worried about him," Annabeth told them. "If he starts talking to Minos's ghost again ─ "
"He'll be al right," Eurytion promised. The cowherd had cleaned up nicely. He was wearing new jeans and a clean Western shirt and he'd even trimmed his beard. He'd put on Geryon's boots. "The boy can stay here and gather his thoughts as long as he wants. He'll be safe, I promise."
"What about you?" Percy asked.
Eurytion scratched Orthus behind one chin, then the other. "Things are going to be run a little different on this ranch from now on. No more sacred cattle meat. I'm thinking about soybean patties. And I'm going to befriend those flesh-eating horses. Might just sign up for the next rodeo."
Percy nodded, "Well, good luck."
"Yep." Eurytion spit into the grass. "I reckon you'll be looking for Daedalus's workshop now?"
Annabeth's eyes lit up. "Can you help us?"
Eurytion studied the cattle guard, and Endora got the feeling the subject of Daedalus's workshop made him uncomfortable. "Don't know where it is. But Hephaestus probably would."
"That's what Hera said," Annabeth agreed. "But how do we find Hephaestus?"
Eurytion pulled something from under the collar of his shirt. It was a necklace ─ a smooth silver disk on a silver chain. The disk had a depression on the middle, like a thumbprint. He handed it to Annabeth.
