I honestly didn't get much sleep that night. I woke up before dawn and I was tired and grumpy. Let me say that camping is so not my thing unless it’s on a beach. My back was sore and my nose and toes were frozen.
I groaned and hauled myself out of the tent and there was a thin blanket of snow all around. The fire from the previous night was completely out so I had to start a new one to get myself warm. I wrapped myself tightly in a thick wool blanket and toasted my hands over the pathetic fire. The sky was starting to turn from black to pink to blue when someone joined me.
"Hey. Are you cold or something?" Nico teased.
"F-freezing," I stuttered through my trembling lips.
Nico laughed and pulled me close to his side. My eyes widened in shock and I instantly started to blush. Well, I guess my blood rushing from his proximity was definitely one way to heat me up.
The others were starting to wake up so Nico and I pulled away from each other quickly. My cheeks were still rosy from embarrassment and I kept my eyes cast at the ground. I tried not to be so aware that Nico was right next to me.
"Morning," Annabeth greeted everyone. "So where do we go from here."
"Um, the train," I answered quickly in hopes to avoid the awkwardness that was quickly settling in. "Crap, I have no idea where the stupid thing is or what time it leaves."
"Leave it to me," Grover said, digging in his bag, probably for more food. "That's all part of being a satyr."
I cleared my throat and tried to settle my nerves. "Okay, so Grover can get us to the train and we have some drachmas to pay. What do we do when we get to Seattle?"
Annabeth's pretty face scrunched up and she had a look that said she was thinking deeply. "Well, it would be nice to know what we were going up against. We're going to have to ask people when we get on the train."
I rubbed my temples to try to ward off the massive migraine that was quickly threatening. All this responsibility crap was going to give me premature wrinkles. "All right. Well we should probably pack up and get going."
It was kind of a boring walk into the city. Grover led the way with Percy and Annabeth following, holding hands. Tyson skipped along and people were giving him strange looks that quite frankly pissed me off. I rolled my eyes and wanted to tell them off.
"You okay?" Nico whispered beside me.
I took a deep breath and sighed to calm myself down. "I'm fine. I just think that people are rude. They could at least try not to be so obvious staring at my brother."
"Hey, forget about them. To all of them, Tyson's just a big kid that looks kinda strange. They don't even see him as a Cyclops."
A wrinkle appeared between my brows. "Why is that?"
"The Mist," he explained easily. It was the second time I'd heard that but it didn't tell me anything. I stared at him curiously. He laughed when he saw my expression. "I'm guessing no one told you about that? Well Mist is what keeps the humans from discovering about our world. It alters their perspectives into something that makes sense. A Fury could walk right by and they would see a normal human."
"A Fury? The demonic women from the underworld?"
"Yep. There are three of them that work for my dad. They're pretty annoying if you ask me. Sometimes they can even cast Mist so that demigods don't see them for what they are."
"I think I'd rather see the Mist than to actually see what they look like," I admitted.
He bumped my shoulder with his. "Don't worry about them. I'd protect you."
I cast my eyes down for the second time that morning and my face turned red. Oh wow, I was totally falling for this guy. I tried my best to ignore whatever was stirring between us but it was hard with him right there. Maybe after we survived this quest I’d try to figure out how I felt. If we survived, at least.
Grover led us to an old train graveyard that didn't look like it'd have a train to get us to Seattle. I glanced around and arched my brows. "Um, are you sure that this is the right place?"
"Yeah, just keep following me."
We followed him through an old train station with bits and pieces of antiques behind glass cases and plaques describing everything. I went to what looked like a giant nail and tried to read the description but it quickly made me dizzy. "Grover, this is a museum. This stuff is definitely not written in Greek, either. How the hell are we supposed to find the Grey Sisters' train now?" I had to whisper the last part so that none of the completely mortal patrons would hear.
"Would you relax, Naida?"
"And here we have one of the original steam locomotives as made in the early 1800s." My eyes darted to the middle-aged tour guide and the huge train behind her. I was looking around absently and getting bored quickly when I noticed one guy break off from the rest of the group and climb into the train. He seemed to disappear into the train without anyone else noticing. It took a moment before I could make out all of the dark shapes moving in the windows. I walked toward the train in a daze and peeked in. It was full of monsters and made my eyes grow wide. And the strangest thing was that none of the humans even noticed.
"Wh-what?"
Grover laughed. "I told you so."
The others all climbed on board and Nico stopped by my side. "Is this that Mist stuff you were talking about?"
He smiled at me. "Yeah. The mortals think that this is just a museum artifact. They can't see any of us on here."
"But what about when it's gone?"
Nico shrugged. "They see what they want to see. C'mon, let's go find a seat." He grabbed my hand to lead me in, making me turn bright red.
I took a seat by the window next to Nico and looked out at the mortals. I couldn't believe that they didn't know that anyone was on the ancient locomotive. I giggled. "This is very Platform 9 and three-quarters."
Nico stared at me. "What?"
My eyes widened in shock. "You've never seen Harry Potter? Oh man, I've got so much to tell you."
He smiled. "I'm looking forward to it."
Again, he made me blush bright red. Annabeth caught my eye and winked knowingly. Oh gods, why was I crushing so bad on him?

Notes

THANK YOU Thalia grace and Evil espresso drinks and
Percy jackson rocks:D for your fantastic comments!!