"When?" he asked. "When did Luke visit you last?"

 

"Well, it was ... Oh goodness ..." A shadow passed across her face. "The last

time, he looked so different. A scar. A terrible scar, and his voice so full of

pain ..."

 

"His eyes," I said. "Were they gold?"

 

"Gold?" She blinked. "No. How silly. Luke has blue eyes. Beautiful blue eyes!"

 

So Luke really had been here, and this had happened before last su mm er —

before he'd turned into Kronos.

 

"Ms. Castellan?" Nico put his hand on the old woman's arm. "This is very

important. Did he ask you for anything?"

 

She frowned as if trying to remember. "My — my blessing. Isn't that sweet?" She

looked at us uncertainly. "He was going to a river, and he said he needed my

blessing. 1 gave it to him. Of course I did."

 

Nico looked at me triumphantly. "Tha nk you, ma'am. That's all the information

we — "

 

Ms. Castellan gasped. She doubled over, and her cookie tray clattered to the

floor. Nico and I jumped to our feet.