“What’s going on here?” the queen B—and I don’t mean the bumble kind—demands.

“Nothing,” Phoebe, Griffin, and Troy insist.

“Seriously?” Stella rolls her eyes. “You three fail at lying.”

She studies each of us in turn, giving Phoebe, then Griffin and Troy, her most withering look. Choosing her victim wisely, she walks up to Troy, who is—literally—starting to shake.

“Troy,” she says in a voice far sweeter than should be possible for someone as sour as Stella, “what is the Greek squad up to?”

“I—um—well—we—” Hazel eyes wide, he looks wildly around the room for help.

If I don’t step in he’s liable to spill the whole story.

“It’s nothing, wicked witch,” I answer, trying to save him from more distress. “Go back to your evil castle and ask your monkeys to give you a makeover.”

Stella turns to me and flashes an unamused smile. “Always quick to his defense, rebel girl. Makes a girl wonder if you two are more than friends?”

Phoebe turns to stare wide-eyed at me. Griffin clears his throat and Troy studies the ceiling. Even though my heart is thumping in my chest, I force myself to stay calm on the outside.

“Did you need something?” I ask. “Or did you just come in here to interrogate us?”

“If I wanted to interrogate you,” she replies, “you’d know it. Now, tell me what’s going on or I’ll make the Spanish Inquisition look like tea with the queen.”

Phoebe, Griffin, and Troy all blurt out answers at once.

“We’re planning a party.”

“It’s a summer research project.”

“Book club.”

Stella shakes her head and keeps her focus on me. For several long moments we have a serious stare-down. Her gray eyes meeting my blue ones. It’s part battle of wills and part battle of powers. I can tell she’s trying to psychospection her way into my thoughts.

Don’t even think about it, I psychodictate back into her snobby blond head.

She arches one dark blond brow.

Tell me, she says.

There’s nothing to—

Don’t bother lying, she interrupts. I inherited my father’s deception detector.

I suck in a tight breath, and scowl harder. If there are two things I know about Stella Petrolas it’s that her mind-reading powers are unequaled and that when she smells a juicy secret she’s like Cerberus with a freakin’ bone. She won’t back off until we come clean, and it’ll be easier if we do it sooner rather than later.

Fine.

“We’re trying to find a way into Hades.”

Phoebe gasps.

Griffin laughs.

Troy looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.