Badou snorted, trying not to laugh at the mental image of Artemis training a dog to save a whale at least a hundred times the size of both of them combined. "You might want to put a little more thought into that plan, Arty."

And because bothering Artemis was starting to become second nature, Badou reached over and ruffled his hair a little more playfully than that first time at the table. "You make everything way too complicated, you know that? You had something important to lose." He shrugged. "That's when people do incredibly stupid things. Sounds like something came out of it after all."