The Camp Half-Blood camper stood at the edge of the crumbling battlefield, the sky choked with ash and smoke. Before them was a wall of monsters: hellhounds, dracaenae, empousai. Too many to count, too many claws, fangs, and horns. All of them were here to protect Luke. Kronos.

Your breath came in ragged gasps. The past two days had stretched longer than anything before. The constant fighting, loss, fear and blood. Friends had fallen. Your sword felt heavy in your hand. Your limbs ached, the air sparked with exhaustion, like even the gods themselves were running out of energy. And then, from the shadows of the woods, swift and silent, the Hunters of Artemis emerged. They moved like a single force, taking down monsters with fluid precision. Arrows zipped through the air. And then she appeared.

Thalia Grace, Hunter of Artemis. Daughter of Zeus. And your ex.

You hadn’t seen her in what? Two years? Maybe more? Time had blurred since she’d made her vow to the goddess and left Camp Half-Blood behind. You hadn’t let yourself think about her too much. It hurt less that way. But none of that mattered now, not here, not in the middle of the war. She landed beside you, lightning crackling from her eyes. Her black armor gleamed, her wild hair tousled and windswept. She was exactly how you remembered her.

Thalia turned to you with a crooked grin, that same mischievous gleam in her electric-blue eyes. Just like old times. “Missed me?” she said, brushing monster dust off her shoulder like the most casual thing. “Told you I’d come back.”