Emma
I knew quests weren’t easy, there were always stories at camp about them going wrong. But this one was just going from bad to worse.

After Bailey and I split up it took me all of about ten seconds to get lost. I then spent the next twenty minutes wandering around, getting frustrated that I had no clue where I was going. If I hadn’t run into four of the hunters of Artemis, who knows how long I could have been walking round lost in the forest.

I didn’t know why the four of them where in the forest and I didn’t get a chance to ask, the second they saw me Thalia, their lieutenant, ordered me to come with them.

“Why?” I asked as they ran past me.

Thalia signalled for the other girls to go on ahead before she turned to look at me, her eyes fierce. “Bailey and the other boy you’re with are in trouble,” she said quickly before running after the other hunters. I followed her, not even having to think about it. I had to help the boys.

It took us less than five minutes to get back to Theo’s house. Thalia motioned us to be quiet before we crept towards the back door.

I had no clue what was going on inside but a bright light was coming from the windows and I could hear shouting. Then I heard someone cry out and the light died down. When we reached the side of the house I looked in through the window to see what was happening.

However I chose the wrong time to look. The first thing I saw was a red haired girl in her twenties pull out a dagger and throw it. It landed in Bailey’s shoulder who was slumped next to the door leading to the store, cradling his wrist which was burnt badly.

Theo didn’t waste any time, he released the arrow he had mounted in the direction of the girl. But she was fast and was able to dodge out of the way. Unfortunately for Theo a bow and arrows weren’t for close combat.

“Now,” Thalia whispered. Without warning Thalia and two other hunter stood up, kicked the door down and ran into the kitchen.

“Come with me,” the hunter who stayed with me, Georgia her name was, said. I didn’t want to go with her, I wanted to help Theo and Bailey, but I didn’t have a choice, she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the front of the house.

When we got there Georgia didn’t even check to see if the door was locked, she just went straight to picking the lock.

I understood why we were going in this way, Bailey was near the door that lead from the store to the kitchen, by going in this way it would be easier to get to him and then get him out.

It took Georgia seconds to unlock the door. However when she opened it I wasn’t expecting to find two teenage boys standing there, swords raised, smiling at us.

Except for the fact that both boys looked about fourteen or fifteen and had an evil smirk on their face, nothing about them was the same. One was Latino with dark hair and eyes. He was the taller of the two and held a black sword in his left hand. He was a son of Hades. The other boy had lightly tanned skin and golden brown hair. It was his eyes that struck me most of all, they were unnaturally bright green.

Next to me Georgia cursed and pulled the dagger from her belt, I did the same. Obviously if we wanted to get to Bailey we had to go through these two first.

The Hades boy made the first move, he leaped through the doorway and slammed his sword down. If I hadn’t have been quick blocking him with my dagger he might have killed me. The green eyed boy went for Georgia.

As we fought I could hear the mini battle going on in the kitchen. I was desperate to go in there and help Theo fight off the others. I wanted to know if Bailey was alive, when I saw him through the window he was losing a lot of blood.

Suddenly I heard Theo shout and seconds later the tall tanned boy with bright blue eyes ran out the front door with Bailey, held limply in his arms. The red headed girl and tall boy followed after him. Their appearance was enough to distract me, the Latino boy I was fighting knocked my dagger away and pointed his sword at my throat. I glanced to my right to see that the green eyed boy had Georgia in the same position.

Unable to move all I could do was watch as Bailey was carried away. Where were Theo and Thalia and the other two hunters?

“Justin, Haidyn, come on!” the older, taller boy yelled as he ran towards a chariot and Pegasus at the end of the street. How had I not noticed that before?

“Don’t even try to follow us or he gets it,” the Hades boy warned before both boys obeyed and ran off towards the trio who had Bailey.

“Emma!” I heard Theo cry behind me, I turned round to see him stood in the door way, leaning against the frame. His hand was clutched to his side and there was blood coming from between his fingers.

“Oh gods Theo are you alright?” I ran over to him trying to assess how bad the wound was.

“Don’t worry about me,” he replied his voice raspy. “Your coin. Use your coin.”

I hadn’t forgotten about the coin of chance that Tyche had given me, however I didn't want to use it. The idea of flipping it terrified me, I didn’t know what was going to happen when I did. “But what if it isn’t the right time?” I asked worried.

“What does it matter?” Theo spluttered as he began to cough. “It’s the only chance at the moment we have of saving Bailey.” Theo fell to his knees weakening from his wound. He began to cough more violently and when I saw the blood on his lips I began to panic.

“Georgia! Thalia” I yelled hoping one of them would come and help.

“Flip the coi-“ before he could finish his sentence Theo began coughing up blood again. Luckily Thalia and Georgia both came to my aid.

“Help him will you” I pleaded, fiddling with the coin in my hands. “I have to do something quick.” Thalia and Georgia nodded and helped Theo back into the house.

I turned back round to see the group that had Bailey were about to take off in the chariot. Even though I was scared I didn’t waste any time. I positioned the coin on my fingers and tossed it into the air. I watched it spin three times, burnt to gold to burnt, before it landed on my palm.

It was the golden side, I sighed in relief but nothing happened. Starting to panic I began to run towards the chariot hoping that maybe I had to do something to get the good luck to kick in. But it didn’t work, the Pegasus flew off with the chariot and Bailey before I could get to it.

It had failed, the coin didn't work and now Bailey was gone and Theo was pretty much dying. Remembering Theo, I sprinted back to the house.

"Is he alright?" I cried crashing into the kitchen.

Georgia and the other two hunters stayed tending Theo as I came in but Thalia stood up to talk to me. "He's fine," she said, "he's lucky, we got to him quite late the nectar shouldn't have worked."

Lucky!

Before I could thank Thalia, Theo groaned and sat up. The hunters had cut his T-shirt down the middle so they could tend to the wound, meaning as he sat up I could see that it was completely healed. Not even a scar was left, the only sign there was that he had been injured was the dried blood on his lips and stomach.

"Where's Bailey?" Theo asked desperately when he saw I was on my own. "Didn't the coin work?"

I didn't know what to say. How could I tell Theo that the coin had worked, but had save him instead of Bailey?

Notes

I hope you enjoy. Please comment I'd love to know what you think. :)