He glared down at broken tip of his spear. He wished he had any father but Mars. “Let’s go,” he said. “My grandmother might be in trouble. ”
XXXIV Frank
THEY STOPPED AT THE FRONT PORCH. As Frank had feared, a loose ring of campfires glowed in the woods, completely surrounding the property, but the house itself seemed untouched.
Grandmother’s wind chimes jangled in the night breeze. Her wicker chair sat empty, facing the road. Lights shone through the downstairs windows, but Frank decided against ringing the doorbell. He didn’t know how late it was, or if Grandmother was asleep or even home. Instead he checked the stone elephant statue in the corner—a tiny duplicate of the one in Portland. The spare key was still tucked under its foot.
He hesitated at the door.
“What’s wrong?” Percy asked.
Frank remembered the morning he’d opened this door for the military officer who had told him about his mother. He remembered walking down these steps to her funeral, holding his piece of firewood in his coat for the first time. He remembered standing here and watching the wolves come out of the woods—Lupa’s minions, who would lead him to Camp Jupiter. That seemed so long ago, but it had only been six weeks.
Now he was back. Would Grandmother hug him? Would she say, Frank, thank the gods you’ve come! I’m surrounded by monsters!
More likely she’d scold him, or mistake them for intruders and chase them off with a frying pan.
“Frank?” Hazel asked.
“Ella is nervous,” the harpy muttered from her perch on the railing. “The elephant—the elephant is looking at Ella. ”
“It’ll be fine. ” Frank’s hand was shaking so badly he could barely fit the key in the lock. “Just stay together. ”
Inside, the house smelled closed-up and musty. Usually the air was scented with jasmine incense, but all the burners were empty.
They examined the living room, the dining room, the kitchen. Dirty dishes were stacked in the sink, which wasn’t right. Grandmother’s maid came every day—unless she’d been scared off by the giants.
Or eaten for lunch, Frank thought. Ella had said the Laistrygonians were cannibals.
He pushed that thought aside. Monsters ignored regular mortals. At least, they usually did.
In the parlor, Buddha statues and Taoist immortals grinned at them like psycho clowns. Frank remembered Iris, the rainbow goddess, who’d been dabbling in Buddhism and Taoism. Frank figured one visit to this creepy old house would cure her of that.
Grandmother’s large porcelain vases were strung with cobwebs. Again—that wasn’t right. She insisted that her collection be dusted regularly. Looking at the porcelain, Frank felt a twinge of guilt for having destroyed so many pieces the day of the funeral. It seemed silly to him now—getting angry at Grandmother when he had so many others to be angry at: Juno, Gaea, the giants, his dad Mars. Especially Mars.
The fireplace was dark and cold.
Hazel hugged her chest as if to keep the piece of firewood from jumping into the hearth. “Is that—”
“Yeah,” Frank said. “That’s it. ”
“That’s what?” Percy asked.
Hazel’s expression was sympathetic, but that just made Frank feel worse. He remembered how terrified, how repulsed she had looked when he had summoned Gray.
“It’s the fireplace,” he told Percy, which sounded stupidly obvious. “Come on. Let’s check upstairs. ”
The steps creaked under their feet. Frank’s old room was the same. None of his things had been touched—his extra bow and quiver (he’d have to grab those later), his spelling awards from school (yeah, he probably was the only non-dyslexic spelling champion demigod in the world, as if he weren’t enough of a freak already), and his photos of his mom—in her flak jacket and helmet, sitting on a Humvee in Kandahar Province; in her soccer coach uniform, the season she’d coached Frank’s team; in her military dress uniform, her hands on Frank’s shoulders, the time she’d visited his school for career day.
“Your mother?” Hazel asked gently. “She’s beautiful. ”
Frank couldn’t answer. He felt a little embarrassed—a sixteen-year-old guy with a bunch of pictures of his mom.
How hopelessly lame was that? But mostly he felt sad. Six weeks since he’d been here. In some ways it seemed like forever. But when he looked at his mom’s smiling face in those photos, the pain of losing her was as fresh as ever.
They checked the other bedrooms. The middle two were empty. A dim light flickered under the last door—Grandmother’s room.
Frank knocked quietly. No one answered. He pushed open her door. Grandmother lay in bed, looking gaunt and frail, her white hair spread around her face like a basilisk’s crown. A single candle burned on the nightstand. At her bedside sat a large man in beige Canadian Forces fatigues. Despite the gloom, he wore dark sunglasses with blood red light glowing behind the lenses.
“Mars,” Frank said.
The god looked up impassively. “Hey, kid. Come on in. Tell your friends to take a hike. ”
“Frank?” Hazel whispered. “What do mean, Mars? Is your grandmother . . . is she okay?”
Frank glanced at his friends. “You don’t see him?”
“See who?” Percy gripped his sword. “Mars? Where?”
The war god chuckled. “Nah, they can’t see me. Figured it was better this time. Just a private conversation—father/son, right?”
Frank clenched his fists. He counted to ten before he trusted himself to speak.