Page 49 of The Wild Zone

A few feet to my right, Zuri was also practicing with a javelin. Judging from her scowl, she didn’t seem to be enjoying herself. She was already so amazing with a bow, I supposed practicing with a different missile weapon probably felt like a waste of time.

I sidled up next to her as she halfheartedly chucked her javelin, leaving it dangling from a straw dummy’s thigh. “Hey, Zuri, you remember about the baton race tonight, right?”

She didn’t seem to hear me. She kept scowling and mumbling to herself: “These wings are more than simple feathers…. They’re the hope and promise of a life untethered.”

I tilted my head. “Huh?”

Zuri finally focused on me. “Oh, sorry. I’m working on a rewrite of one of our Icarus Two songs. The early reviews were not good.”

“Yikes. Sorry.”

She snorted. “Hey, at least some of the campers bothered to write reviews. They got more down on paper than I’ve been able to write lately.”

“Really? I thought Apollo kids had an ever-flowing fountain of inspiration.”

“Well, mine seems to have dried up.” Zuri sighed. “Anyway, I’m not taking the musical’s reviews personally. Those songs were written long before I came to camp. According to the audience feedback, they sound like they were written decades before.” At a questioning look from me, she added, “Apparently, someone in the Apollo cabin is fanning hard over early 2000s pop rock.”

I snickered. “What?”

“You know NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’? We have a song called ‘Fly Fly Fly.’ ”

I snort-laughed. “Nooo!”

“It’s bad bad bad.”

We both cracked up.

I tapped my hangul pendant. “I guess people could say I’m the same way with K-pop, since it’s all I listen to. Gotta represent.”

Zuri nodded approvingly. “Anyway, what were you saying about the baton race?”

I dropped my voice. “I’m going to search for Grant then. I could use your help.”

If anyone could shine a light in the dark, it would be her.

Zuri frowned. “I thought we agreed to wait until KP tonight to make a decision.”

My heart sank at her less-than-enthusiastic response. I thought about Silas’s grim-faced conversation with the counselors this morning, the flood of memories I’d seen when I wore the ring, and that mysterious note telling me to go back. “Yeah, but…I can’t wait that long. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like Grant may be running out of time. There’s something bad in that forest.”

Zuri nodded, her expression darkening. “I know that’s true. But…Look, I can’t promise, Katie. You’re going to have to trust me that if I say I need to do something else tonight, it’s important.”

I had trouble imagining what could be more important than finding Grant. Honestly, I was a little irritated with Zuri for being so evasive. On the other hand, I felt like she was trying to be as honest with me as she could. If she was keeping secrets…well, I wasn’t exactly being an open book with her, either.

“Got it,” I said, trying to keep my tone light. “Well, if you decide—”

“Zuri! Katie!” Clarisse shouted from the far end of the range. “I don’t see any javelins flying!”

Zuri and I returned our attention to the range. We both took aim at a Minotaur-shaped target (even though I’d been informed Percy Jackson had already defeated that monster). My javelin struck the Minotaur (Minotaurget?) soundly in the gut while Zuri’s fell short.

I won’t lie. I was a little proud of myself. In one morning, I’d seen an Aphrodite kid flirt even worse than I did, and I’d done better with a missile weapon than Zuri, the Queen of Archery. Miracles happened. Maybe I could find Grant tonight after all, even if I went by myself.

At the all-clear signal, we trotted out to retrieve our javelins along with everyone else. From the target end of the range, I had a good view of the canoe lake, with a floating object at its center. Make that a flailing object.

I shielded my eyes and squinted. “Is that Benny?”

Zuri followed my gaze. “Yeah, the Stoll brothers heard him say he’s pretty sure he has Cuban heritage on his mortal side. Since Cuba’s an island, they figured he might be another secret son of Poseidon’s, like—”

“Percy Jackson,” we said at the same time.