Page 40 of The Wild Zone

“There’s another possibility.” Benny grimaced, like he didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news. “If it was Grant’s gum you smelled, he might not have been moving under his own power. Something could have been carrying him. Or…”

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Benny didn’t need to finish his thought. Something could have had Grant for dinner and then gone for a stroll in the woods, belching cinnamon.

“No,” I said. “No, the satyrs didn’t catch Grant’s scent at all. If he’d been…If he wasn’t alive anymore, there’d be something left behind. He’s probably still alive.”

Benny and Zuri looked dubious.

Harper rubbed his chin. “I suppose he could’ve been taken to a lair…. That’s a thing monsters do, right? But without knowing what kind we’re dealing with—”

“Not a problem,” I said. “There’s got to be a camp library or monster database or something. I can do research.”

“Why, though?” Benny asked.

I stared at him with an appalled expression. “Because I want to save Grant! Aren’t you all about looking out for one another?”

“Yes, but…” Benny shook his head. “What I meant is why would monsters that dangerous be allowed inside camp anyway? I thought the whole point of the magical borders was to keep monsters out.”

I chewed my lip as I considered this. I remembered Benny telling me that safe wasn’t the first word he conjured when he thought of Camp Half-Blood, but he was right. This felt different—too dangerous even for demigods in training.

“And,” Benny continued, “why would this thing attack Grant? Why would it carry him off rather than just, you know, eat him? Did Grant have something that it wanted?”

“Huh.” I leaned against the counter, hands shoved in my pockets. My fingertips brushed metal, and I froze.

The ring.

Grant had pulled it from a fissure in the Wild Zone. What if it belonged to the thing that had chased us?

“I hear Grant’s rich,” Harper said. “That’s motive right there.”

Zuri gave him a skeptical look. “For a monster that lives in the woods?”

“Maybe there’s no monster. Maybe the mist was a distraction.” Harper’s eyes widened. “A…a smokescreen! People use them all the time.” Zuri raised an eyebrow at him, and he shrugged. “Dramatic people use them all the time. Whatever.”

“And these people somehow knew Grant was going into the Wild Zone?” Benny asked.

“Hermes is the god of thieves, right?” Harper countered. “No offense, but the Stoll brothers don’t exactly seem trustworthy. Maybe they saw this rich kid go into the woods and thought they could shake him down for money. They drop a smoke bomb, gag him, and carry him back to their hideout to hold him for ransom.”

Zuri looked Harper over. “You know an alarming amount about how to abduct someone.”

Harper attempted a menacing glare. “I have a very particular set of skills.”

Zuri rolled her eyes. Benny scowled, maybe wondering if the Hermes cabin really could have a secret hideout. I continued to stand there, running my thumb along the ring in my pocket.

Harper nudged me. “Katie, back me up. It’s possible humans could be involved rather than monsters, right?”

I wanted to shrug and say nothing. I supposed Harper’s theory was possible. But it was also possible that the ring in my pocket was responsible for Grant’s disappearance. If I told Harper, Benny, and Zuri about it, how could I be sure they wouldn’t turn me in and get me kicked out of camp? I wasn’t ready to go back home. Not yet.

“Katie?” Harper touched my shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Whatever happened, we’ll figure it out together. We’ve got your back.”

Right then, a switch flipped in my brain. There was no charmspeak involved—only an earnest look from Harper and the memory of how he’d genuinely seemed to understand my side of things when Grant first went missing. I didn’t have to trust him or Benny or Zuri completely, but I couldn’t deny they’d been there for me several times now. Having a few allies wouldn’t hurt.

And allies shared crucial intel.

I took a deep breath. “I’m sticking with the theory that a monster took Grant.”

Zuri pumped her fist. “Ha!” Then she lowered her hand. “That was a weird thing to celebrate. Sorry.”

“What makes you so sure?” Benny asked me.