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Evasive maneuvers! I thought. I couldn’t lie. I couldn’t tell the truth. Maybe I should follow the lead of the third door knocker and spout something random likeFahrvergnügen!

“Just heading back now,” I said. “Wow, Hecuba and Gale sure love their walks. They really surprised us the first night.”

Hecate chuckled. “Yes, my little babies.” She bit off the tip of a candy corn with her sharp white teeth, which made me think of guillotines. “I hope they’re not being too much trouble.”

“How’s the trip going?” I asked, changing the topic all subtle-like. “Where are you today?”

When in doubt, I’ve found the best way to distract someone is to get them talking about themselves. That seems to be a source of endless fascination for selves everywhere.

“Ireland!” Hecate said. “Helping them prepare for the Púca Festival. They have an entirenightof torch dancing, obviously in honor of me, though they’ve gotten their traditions a bit mixed up over the millennia, bless their hearts.”

“Right,” I said. “With candy corn?”

“Oh, no, I brought that with me,” Hecate said. “I always travel with a bag of candy corn.”

This was horrifying, but somehow not surprising.

“Glad you’ve having fun,” I said. “Hey, just curious, you would never…”

I stopped myself. I’d been thinking about Chiron’s comment that maybe Hecate was setting us up. Now that she was right here in front of me, I was itching to confront her about that. I’d almost askedYou would never want us to fail, lose your pets, and destroy your house, would you?That was a Percy-level bad idea. It would lead to questions about how we had, actually, lost her pets and destroyed her house.

“I would never do what?” Hecate asked.

I needed to pivot—turn my question into something that would help us, not get us killed more quickly.

“Uh, you would never consider extending your trip, would you? Couple of days? An extra week?”

Hecate narrowed her eyes. “Why would I do that?”

I felt like I was sweating into my bench, melting into my own puddle of shadows. “Well, you’re having such fun. You don’t get much time off. I imagine there’s a lot of festivals you won’t be able to make.”

A tense moment passed. I waited for Hecate to snap her fingers, teleport to her mansion, learn what was going on, then come back and hurl my W train straight to Tartarus.

She laughed. “So, youdolike my pets. I knew they would grow on you! Don’t worry, Percy Jackson. If you do a good job this week, I will put you on my list of preferred pet-sitters for the future.”

“I mean, yay.”

“But I would feel bad coming home any later.”

“I get it. Maybe just…aim for Saturday morning? Friday night is Halloween, after all. It would be a shame to cut that short. We don’t mind.”

She nibbled pensively on a candy corn. “Well…I have always wanted to attend that festival in Transylvania.”

“Transylvania!” I nodded. “I love that for you.”

“The Ritual Killing of the Living Dead, you know.”

“Sounds fun!”

“They know me so well there. Plus they have yummy kürtoskalács.”

I thought she’d saidconniption fits, but I used my context clues and decided that couldn’t be right. Unless Hecate found Transylvanian temper tantrums tasty.

“Yum!” I said.

“Very well,” Hecate decided. “I will return on Saturday morning. Thank you, Percy Jackson!”

“Don’t mention it.”