were stormy gray. Most of the time we couldn't get through a conversation

without trying to strangle each other. Still, just seeing her made me feel fuzzy

in the head. Last summer, before Luke had turned into Kronos and everything went

sour, there had been a few times when I thought maybe . . . well, that we might

get past the strangle-each-other phase.

 

"What happened?" She grabbed my arm. "Is Luke — "

 

"The ship blew up," I said. "He wasn't destroyed. I don't know where — "

 

Silena Beauregard pushed through the crowd. Her hair wasn't combed and she

wasn't even wearing makeup, which wasn't like her.

 

"Where's Charlie?" she demanded, looking around like he might be hiding.

 

I glanced at Chiron helplessly.

 

The old centaur cleared his throat. "Silena, my dear, let's talk about this at

the Big House — "

 

"No," she muttered. "No. No. "

 

She started to cry, and the rest of us stood around, too stunned to speak. We'd

already lost so many people over the summer, but this was the worst. With

Beckendorf gone, it felt like someone had stolen the anchor for the entire camp.