VERONA AND CONNOR WILL RETURN IN... BLOOD FOR BLOOD — heroes of olympus
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PREMISE
The myth, like all myths that are actually real within Greek mythology, starts with the prospect of love and ends in the hands of death. Millenium before any of them had even been born, Adonis had fallen from the tree his mother had birthed him from, after being turned into one to hide from her own father. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, had been the one who discover him. In an act of pure selflessness (which sounds less and less like Aphrodite as time went on), she gave him to Persephone to be raised until he was grown. Adonis, golden smile, white teeth so shiny they almost blinded you, bright blue eyes and hair the colour of the finest ray of sunshine, was fought over by any once he had grown up — including Persephone and Aphrodite. In an effort to have him, a mortal man, all to themselves, they went to Zeus, and decreed that he should choose — Zeus declared that Adonis would spent one third of the year in the Underworld with the Persephone (most of which was spent hiding from Hades), one third with Aphrodite (which he thoroughly enjoyed), and one third on his own (he enjoyed his time with Aphrodite so much so that he spent his last third with her as well).
The time a mortal spent with Aphrodite, who usually did not pay much attention to her mortal lovers, did not bode well with Ares. So, came with the heartbreak. In an effort to rid himself of Adonis, Ares sent a wild boar after him until all that was left was a marred body of what was once a beautiful man. In an effort to preserve the last of his life even after he was gone, the heartbroken goddess of love turned her mortal lover into the Anemone flower, full of power that would bring back to life people, including primordial beings, that were far from gone. Zeus, unhappy that Aphrodite had created such an item, demanded that she destroy it at once.
But, Aphrodite and Persephone both could not destroy the flower of a man they once loved dearly, and so together for once, the two hid it away where nobody would ever be able to find it, far away in a land beyond Greece, where no one dare step.
There had never been a story of more woe since then — not until the day Verona was born, that is. It seemed like maybe her mother, or somebody, the Oracle of Delphi (now inhibiting a bright and red headed Rachel Elizabeth Dare) or maybe simply the Fates, wanted her dead. So dead, they were willing to do anything to get their way.
Four months had passed since the Battle of Manhattan — where Verona had learned within the same sixty seconds that Silena was a spy, and the lost her — when a flaming chariot carrying a worried Annabeth and three much too old to be unclaimed demigods appears in the sky of Camp Half Blood, following Annabeth's search for Percy, who had somehow disappeared overnight from Camp weeks before. Distraught, Annabeth and the rest of the campers had been searching everywhere. And Annabeth's search in particular leads to three demigods, including a son of Hephaestus, a son of Zeus (or Jupiter, as he seems to think he is much later on) and Piper, another member to join cabin ten. It would have all been okay too — it seemed okay, like maybe they would find Percy.
Catarina Lethe feels she may have been wasting her entire life fighting for something that was now worth nothing. Traumatized following the loss of both her sisters, refusing to return home and paralyzed by grief, and something akin to terror, she has become a walking source of anger. Not only does she blatantly and wholeheartedly despise her father, for not believing her the word of a nine year old who just wanted help when something felt wrong, but also her mother who had left her to suffer at the hands of her uncle, Catarina wants nothing to do with her parents, the demigod world, or Olympus. Most especially, she wants nothing to do with Jake Mason, who seems infuriated at the mere sight of her and scolds her like a child who doesn't know what she's doing. It seems however, that her mother, has decided to switch her sights off of Verona for a moment, and damn Catarina to a life of misery instead.
In one last effort to throw her into the hands of death, the Oracle sends Verona and Connor on a quest once more, in search of Adonis' lost Anemone flower before Gaea, who is awakening, can get it — this time, Delphi makes sure to send Catarina, and Jake Mason, a son of Hephaestus in tow.
So, the four set sail (if you could even call it that — Jake had somehow snagged them a yacht?) towards the place where all the most powerful demigod objects in the world are — Anchorage, Alaska.
What could ever go wrong?
(The answer, in case you wondered, is everything...and everything did go wrong).
11/06/2021 EDIT: just for the record, blood for blood has been published btw, and the first 4 chapters r already up!
