Gaea was stopped a decade ago, the monsters now reside in Tartarus, and the surviving heroes of Olympus have begun new generations of demigods. Fifteen year old Yvette Grimes doesn't know anything about this, but she does know something is different...
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The picture fell from my hands, onto the surprisingly clean hardwood floor. Like a feather, it fell gently. I looked at Chiron with desperate eyes. He had to be joking, right? The King of the Underworld didn't want to see me. Obviously.
"I'm sorry," I said with a lifeless chuckle. "What?"
Chiron frowned. "Hades." He repeated it with sympathy. I'm sure anyone would.
"You mean like, someone named Hades. Just a regular person?" Anxiously, I rolled my braid between my fingers. Was Hades a popular baby name at anytime? I had to remind myself to check.
"No," Mr. D. cut it. He was playing with sunglasses that I didn't realize he had until now. "Hades, the God of the Underworld. Persephone's husband. And here I thought you were smarter than this." He bent down to pick up the fallen photograph and placed it in my lap.
"Thank you," I muttered staring at my lap. Not only did I win Capture the Flag, get claimed by my mother, was selected to lead a quest, now Hades wants to see me? In all my fifteen years (oh yeah, and it's my birthday. Happy Birthday to Yvette, I guess), I never would have thought those events could happen in one day. Or at all, really. "So, is he coming here, or..."
"He spoke to me via Iris message, right after you were claimed. I'm sure the Gods were watching the camp closely. Anyway, he will not be making it... above ground."
"Is he busy?"
"He is afraid to leave his castle. If Persephone does show up again, he doesn't want to miss her."
"So he doesn't believe in the prophecy?"
Mr. D snorted. "Girl, half the time prophecies are nonsense riddles. Who knows what they mean really." Rachel nodded with the statement.
"Sorry, let me get this straight. You want Cash, Gwen-if she even agrees-and I to somehow get to the Underworld, speak with Hades, then try to figure out where we go next. And somehow do this before my mother creates another ice age?" I fidgeted in my seat. Suddenly, the dream I had popped into my head. I was so absent-minded I forgot to mention the dream.
"I know it sounds drastic, but please remember it will-Yvette, is something on your mind?" Chiron completely took me out of my panic state.
"If-if someone say had a dream-a really vivid dream about this exact situation-should that person tell you?" I furrowed my brows. I didn't want them to think that the person chosen to save a queen was incompetent enough to withhold important information, but so far that wasn't working.
"Yvette," Chiron said slowly, trotting over to me. "Did you have a vision?"
I sighed, straightening the end of my dress to distract myself. "Yes; when I first woke up. I saw Persephone, and she was tied up in a middle of the room. She looked beaten and tortured-it was awful. Then, something came in. He was big and-and bright. Like the sun. He slapped her, called her incompetent. He did something with light to knock her out, and as he was dragging her out, something... began talking. He praised him, and called him 'Lord of Light'-like in the prophecy. As the vision faded, the thing called the voice father."
