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the shadows. She yelled for her father, but her father was away for work. He always seemed to be away
for work.
Her stepmother came instead.
I don’t mind being the bad cop, she had once told Annabeth’s father, when she didn’t think
Annabeth could hear.
It’s only your imagination, her stepmother said about the spiders. You’re scaring your baby brothers.
They’re not my brothers, Annabeth argued, which made her stepmother’s expression harden. Her
eyes were almost as scary as the spiders.
Go to sleep now, her stepmother insisted. No more screaming.
The spiders came back as soon as her stepmother had left the room. Annabeth tried to hide under
the covers, but it was no good. Eventually she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. She woke up in the
morning, freckled with bites, cobwebs covering her eyes, her mouth, and nose.
The bites faded before she even got dressed, so she had nothing to show her stepmother except
cobwebs, which her stepmother thought was some sort of clever trick.
No more talk of spiders, her stepmother said firmly. You’re a big girl now.
The second night, the spiders came again. Her stepmother continued to be the bad cop. Annabeth
wasn’t allowed to call her father and bother him with this nonsense. No, he would not come home
early.
The third night, Annabeth ran away from home.
Later, at Camp Half-Blood, she learned that all children of Athena feared spiders. Long ago,
Athena had taught the mortal weaver Arachne a hard lesson—cursing her for her pride by turning her
into the first spider. Ever since, spiders had hated the children of Athena.