Drew slept through dinner and Lea sat at her side the entire time.
Though Lou Ellen, Lee Fletcher, and Will Solace all assured her that Drew's slumber had nothing to do with her spell, Leaneira was still drowning with guilt.
And truthfully, their reassurances did not make the guilt any easier to bear though waiting for the younger girl to awaken had given Lea time to have a breakdown about Ethan and his disappearance.
Wonderful.
He was her first friend at the camp and even if he was a backstabbing, traitorous, heart-breaking, assholish fake friend, she still cared about him—still loved him. The simple fact that he was missing and Alabama could not recall the exact moment that he disappeared did not sit right with her.
To add on to her incredibly horrible day, her aunt was missing; an aunt she had never met unlike Hestia and Ceres, but an aunt nonetheless.
And to add insult to injury, the cherry on top of it all... her Brother was also missing.
(Hermes was also out of contact, but the mark on her chest still thrummed with energy and she made him swear on the River Styx to never bother it again so she wasn't too pissed off about that. Much.)
(Who was she kidding? She was going to gut him like fish and skin him like a snake the next time she saw him!)
Drew woke up.
There was no fanfare. Between one blink and the next, the girl awakened.
And Lea burst into tears, wrapping her arms tightly around her.
"Neira? I'm fine," Drew murmured, voice hoarse from sleep. "I'm okay. I promise." The girl kept murmuring reassurances which really only made Lea cry harder. After being fucking possessed, she was consoling Lea.
Lea pulled away, wiping at her face as she smiled hesitantly. "I'm sorry."
"Not your fault," Drew said immediately. "But, uh, what happened?"
So, Lea explained as she helped her to her feet and passed her the food that Lee had set aside for her alongside a nice glass of nectar.
"Huh," Drew mused, downing the glass of nectar. "Still don't see how it's your fault."
"You're blinded by sentiment."
"And you have a guilt complex."
"Gee thanks."
"You're welcome," Drew smiled before reaching for the clothes that Brinkley brought her to change into some kind of vintage faux-fur coat dress shawl thing with a bowknot. "Now, let's go to the campfire. I want some smores and I'm staying in your cabin tonight. I don't... neither of us should be alone."
Lea sighed, following her out and waving a hand of mageia over her form to change her own clothes.
Lea thought that she was good at deflection though she knew any conversations about Ethan and Hera body-snatching her were far from over.
The amphitheater steps were carved into the side of a hill, facing a stone-lined fire pit. Fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners. Drew immediately went to her siblings, sitting down as gracefully as ever under a rose-colored banner with a dove emblem. Lea, herself, took a seat under the green banner with a trident emblem which coincidentally also put her beside the Sixth Cabin sitting under their blue-colored banner with an owl emblem.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Percy's khaos-mates were in each cabin. Nooo, nothing at all.
Standing in front of the fire, half a dozen campers with guitars and strange, lyres were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. There was entire duet with Eliza and Kayla going on as they tried out perform one another. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turning from red to orange to gold.
Lea relaxed back into her seat, allowing the mageia to twirl around her fingers, conjuring the image of a snake. None of the campers except the newest three blinked when Salome emerged from the shadows to plop at her side.
Finally, the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause and Chiron stepped up. He had been doing a lot better since Lea had raged on him back in August and actively paid attention to the things that they were taught and how they behaved around the camp. Things were a lot more chill, and it was easy to get rid of contradicting information when you could listen to the person that was there.
(Of course, because of that, she and the Eleventh Cabin had to deal with Argos' glares whenever a lesson came around about how Hermes killed him.)
Chiron brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Kheírōn, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"
"What about capture the flag?" Sherman yelled. Grumbling broke out among his siblings though Clarisse was staring up at the sky absently.
"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Árēs cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."
"And kill people!" one of them—Kevin?—shouted. Lea had been at the camp for four years now. She should really learn names.
"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"
One of the girls stood up and Lea blinked before her expression clear. Right. Jake Mason was in a body cast and on bedrest. This was his sister and the next in line to be the cabin leader. She wore an army jacket with her hair covered in a red bandana.
"How, Nyssa?" Carmen? demanded.
"Really hard," the girl said. Drew laughed, the sound almost twinkling and Lea shot her a smile.
Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones —bang, bang, bang—and the campers fell silent.
"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."
"Percy?" someone asked. The fire dimmed even further. Lea turned away, burying her face into Salome's fur, not flinching when she felt a hand pat her shoulder.
Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.
"We didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like we thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis, Lea scries for him everyday —everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."
From beside her, Drew tensed, calling out: "It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?"
Lea blinked as she turned to look at her. Not only did Drew avoid addressing the crowd, but also... the Great Prophecy meant a quest. And Drew hated quests.
Everyone turned and looked surprised. And she wanted to inwardly roll her eyes, but she knew just as they did that, Drew and her siblings did not address the crowd very often.
"Drew?" Annabeth said. "What do you mean?"
"Well, come on." Drew spread her hands like the truth was obvious. "Olympus is closed. Percy's disappeared. Hera sends three of you a vision and you come back with three new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?"
And that was without mentioning Hera's body snatching with herself.
"Well?" Drew called down to Rachel who stared at her. "You're the oracle. Has it started or not?"
"Yes," Rachel said, stepping forward and addressing the camp. "The Great Prophecy has begun."
Pandemonium broke out.
When the talking finally subsided, Rachel took another step toward the audience, and most of them leaned away from her.
Wimps.
"For those of you who have not heard it," Rachel said, "the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It arrived in August. It goes like this: 'Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—'"
Jason shot to his feet. His eyes looked wild, like he'd just been tasered.
Even Rachel seemed caught off guard. "J-Jason?" she said. "What's—"
"Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum dejuremus," he chanted. "Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem."
An uneasy silence settled on the group. Lea sat straight in her seat, mageia flaring to life in her eyes and exuding around her like wind.
"You just ... finished the prophecy," Rachel stammered. "—An oath to keep with a final breath. And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. How did you—"
"I know those lines." Jason winced and put his hands to his temples. "I don't know how? Tav? I don't know, but I know that prophecy."
"In Latin, no less," Drew called out, placing a calming hand onto Lea's shoulder. The girl in question felt a bit confused no understanding why Jason speaking in latin felt more like a threat than the mark on his arm. "Handsome and smart."
There was some giggling from her siblings.
It didn't do much to break the tension. The campfire was burning a chaotic, nervous shade of green.
Jason sat down, looking embarrassed, but Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder and muttered something reassuring. Lea raised a brow at the way the new girl frowned at the two of them.
Rachel Dare still looked a little shaken. She glanced back at Chiron for guidance, but the centaur stood grim and silent, as if he were watching a play he couldn't interrupt—a tragedy that ended with a lot of people dead onstage.
"Well," Rachel said, trying to regain her composure. "So, yeah, that's the Great Prophecy. We hoped it might not happen for years, but I fear it's starting now. I can't give you proof. It's just a feeling. And like Drew said, some weird stuff is happening. The seven demigods, whoever they are, have not been gathered yet. I get the feeling some are here tonight. Some are not here."
The campers began to stir and mutter, looking at each other nervously, until a drowsy voice in the crowd called out, "I'm here! Oh ... were you calling roll?"
"Go back to sleep, Clovis," someone yelled, and a lot of people laughed.
"Anyway," Rachel continued, "we don't know what the Great Prophecy means. We don't know what challenge the demigods will face, but since the first Great Prophecy predicted the Titan War, we can guess the second Great Prophecy will predict something at least that bad."
"Or worse," Chiron murmured.
Maybe he didn't mean everyone to overhear, but they did. The campfire immediately turned dark purple.
"What we do know," Rachel said, "is that the first phase has begun. A major problem has arisen, and we need a quest to solve it. Hera, the queen of the gods, has been taken."
Shocked silence.
"Grandmother," someone from the Ares cabin muttered. And then the entirety of Cabin Nine and Cabin Five started yelling, well except the new kid. Then fifty more demigods started talking at once.
Chiron pounded his hoof again, but Rachel still had to wait before she could get back their attention.
She told them about the incident on the Grand Canyon skywalk—how Gleeson Hedge had sacrificed himself when the storm spirits attacked, and the spirits had warned it was only the beginning. They apparently served some great mistress who would destroy all demigods. Then Rachel told them about Drew passing out in Lea's cabin and Piper seeing something in the knife that Annabeth got for her. Drew's siblings all tried to reach out to touch her comfortingly. Finally, Rachel told them about Jason's vision in the living room of the Big House.
"Jason," Rachel said. "Um ... do you remember your last name?"
He looked self-conscious, but he shook his head.
"We'll just call you Jason, then," Rachel said. "It's clear Hera herself has issued you a quest."
Rachel paused, as if giving Jason a chance to protest his destiny. Everyone's eyes were on him; there was so much pressure. He looked brave and determined. He set his jaw and nodded. "I agree."
"You must save Hera to prevent a great evil," Rachel continued. "Some sort of king from rising. For reasons we don't yet understand, it must happen by the winter solstice, only four days from now."
"That's the council day of the gods," Annabeth said. "If the gods don't already know Hera's gone, they will definitely notice her absence by then. They'll probably break out fighting, accusing each other of taking her. That's what they usually do."
Lea rolled her eyes. She was one of the six. She was much too powerful for anyone that wasn't one of her siblings aside from Aphrodite to kidnap. Well, there was the "good" titans but like, after fighting an entire war with the "bad" titans. Who would be dumb enough to target the Queen of the Gods?
No, this had to be something different.
"The winter solstice," Chiron spoke up, "is also the time of greatest darkness. The gods gather that day, as mortals always have, because there is strength in numbers. The solstice is a day when evil magic is strong. Ancient magic, older than the gods. It is a day when things ... stir."
The way he said it, stirring sounded absolutely sinister—like it should be a first-degree felony, not something you did to cookie dough.
"Okay," Drew and Eliza said, glaring at the centaur. "Thank you, Captain Sunshine. It's also our birthday unless you have something more sinister to add."
Annabeth shook her head. "Whatever's going on, I agree with Rachel. Jason has been chosen to lead this quest, so—"
"Why hasn't he been claimed?" somebody yelled from the Ares cabin. "If he's so important—"
"He has been claimed," Chiron announced. "Long ago. Jason, give them a demonstration."
At first, Jason didn't seem to understand. He stepped forward nervously, but Lea wondered why he made her so antsy. It wasn't like that earlier. She was sure that she had seen him before. And then memory of the roman camp and Hermes flying her over it came to mind.
He glanced at Piper, and she nodded encouragingly. She mimicked flipping a coin. Lea scowled. He was Alabaster's soulmate, not hers.
Jason reached into his pocket. His coin flashed in the air, and when he caught it in his hand, he was holding a lance—a rod of gold about seven feet long, with a spear tip at one end.
The other demigods gasped. Rachel and Annabeth stepped back to avoid the point, which looked sharp as an ice pick.
"Wasn't that ..." Annabeth hesitated. "I thought you had a sword."
"Um, it came up tails, I think," Jason said. "Same coin, long-range weapon form."
"Dude, I want one!" yelled somebody from Ares cabin.
"Better than Clarisse's electric spear, Lamer!" one of his brothers agreed. He yelped not even a second later as she tapped it against his skin.
"Electric," Jason murmured, like that was a good idea. "Back away."
Annabeth and Rachel got the message. Jason raised his javelin, and thunder broke open the sky. Every hair on Lea's arms stood straight up and Salome bristled.
Lightning arced down through the golden spear point and hit the campfire with the force of an artillery shell. A shimmering shield surrounded Lea, Salome and those the closest to them.
When the smoke cleared, and the ringing in Lea's ears subsided, the entire camp sat frozen in shock, half blind, covered in ashes, staring at the place where the fire had been. Cinders rained down everywhere. A burning log had impaled itself a few inches from Clovis, who hadn't even stirred.
Jason lowered his lance. "Um ... sorry."
Chiron brushed some burning coals out of his beard. He grimaced as if his worst fears had been confirmed. "A little overkill, perhaps, but you've made your point. And I believe we know who your father is."
"Jupiter," Jason said. "I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky."
"That makes you my cousin or something," Lea asked, eyeing the boy warily. And how was that possible? Unless the romans went by other rules and didn't need to make a pact?
The rest of the camp wasn't so sure. Everything broke into chaos, with dozens of people asking questions until Annabeth raised her arms.
"Hold it!" she said. "How can he be the son of Zeus? The Big Three ... their pact not to have mortal kids ... how could we not have known about him sooner?"
Chiron didn't answer, but Lea knew, and it had a lot to do with Medea's camp.
"The important thing," Rachel said, "is that Jason's here now. He has a quest to fulfill, which means he will need his own prophecy."
She closed her eyes and swooned. Two campers rushed forward and caught her. A third ran to the side of the amphitheater and grabbed a bronze three-legged stool, like they'd been trained for this duty. They eased Rachel onto the stool in front of the ruined hearth. Without the fire, the night was dark, but green mist started swirling around Rachel's feet. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing. Emerald smoke issued from her mouth. The voice that came out was raspy and ancient—the sound a snake would make if it could talk:
"Child of lightning, beware the earth,
The giants' revenge the seven shall birth,
The forge and dove shall break the cage,
And death unleash through Hera's rage."
On the last word, Rachel collapsed, but her helpers were waiting to catch her. They carried her away from the hearth and laid her in the corner to rest.
"Is that normal?" Piper asked. Then she realized she'd spoken into the silence, and everyone was looking at her. "I mean... does she spew green smoke a lot?"
"Gods, you're dense!" Drew sneered though there was a bit of fear in her voice. The dove was quite clear and the emblem seemed to glow in the night. "She just issued a prophecy—Jason's prophecy to save Hera! Why don't you just—"
"Drew," Annabeth snapped. "Piper asked a fair question. Something about that prophecy definitely isn't normal. If breaking Hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death ... why would we free her? It might be a trap, or—or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She's never been kind to heroes."
"Well, that's not true," Lea mused. "She helped Jason of the Argonauts and when he disrespected her and her domain, she took away the protection she had for him. One of her priestesses asked her for the best gift a god could give a person and Hera gave them the blessing to die in their sleep. No war. No murder. No accident. Just peaceful rest. And the Trojan War couldn't have been won if she didn't trick Zeus into sleeping with her so that the gods could interfere."
Lea shrugged. "She doesn't like us. Mainly because most of us are born from affairs and as the goddess of marriage that's an insult to everything she stands for especially since she has never cheated on Uncle Zeus. But she's kind when it counts."
Jason rose. "I don't have much choice. Hera took my memory. I need it back. Besides, we can't just not help the queen of the heavens if she's in trouble."
Nyssa stood up—Nyssa, the one with the red bandanna. "Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful. She threw her own son—our dad—down a mountain just because he was ugly."
"Real ugly," snickered someone from Aphrodite.
"Shut up!" Nyssa growled.
"That's a lie also," Lea called out. "He wasn't ugly. He was crippled. Disabled. Literally. His hymns mention that Hera wanted to him for being 'lame' and that Hera birthed her son who 'weakly among all the blessed gods and shrivelled of foot'. Nowhere did it ever say he was unattractive, and he literally married two goddesses of beauty? Aphrodite first and then he married Aglaïa. When it comes to looks, there are no imperfections amongst the gods."
"Lea likes to spend her time studying the myths and correcting everybody on misinformation," Annabeth explained to the newcomers. "She says it's to keep down confusion, but I think she just likes to brag."
Lea gave her a smile. "If this was a test, I'd be at the top of the class." The two of them gave small laughs.
"Anyway," Nyssa said loudly. "We've also got to think —why beware the earth? And what's the giants' revenge? What are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?"
Annabeth took a deep breath. "It's Jason's quest," she announced, "so it's Jason's choice. Obviously, he's the child of lightning. According to tradition, he may choose any two companions."
Travis yelled, "Well, you, obviously, Annabeth. You've got the most experience."
"No, Travis," Annabeth said. "First off, I'm not helping Hera. Every time I've tried, she's deceived me, or it's come back to bite me later. Forget it. No way. Secondly, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy."
"It's connected," the new girl blurted out. Lea raised a brow. "You know that's true, don't you? This whole business, your boyfriend's disappearance—it's all connected."
"How?" demanded Drew. The boyfriend line clearly struck a nerve. "If you're so smart, how?"
"You may be right, Piper," Annabeth cut in. "If this is connected, I'll find out from the other end—by searching for Percy." Lea and Eliza nodded at her. "As I said, I'm not about to rush off to rescue Hera, even if her disappearance sets the rest of the Olympians fighting again. But there's another reason I can't go. The prophecy says otherwise."
"It says who I pick," Jason agreed. "The forge and dove shall break the cage. The forge is the symbol of Vul—Hephaestus."
Under the Cabin Nine banner, Nyssa's shoulders slumped, like she'd just been given a heavy anvil to carry. "If you have to beware the earth," she said, "you should avoid traveling overland. You'll need air transport."
"The flying chariot's broken," Nyssa continued, "and the pegasi, we're using them to search for Percy. But maybe Hephaestus cabin can help figure out something else to help. With Jake incapacitated, I'm senior camper. I can volunteer for the quest."
She didn't sound enthusiastic.
Then the new boy stood up.
"It's me," he said. His cabinmates stirred. Several tried to pull him back to his seat, but he resisted. "No, it's me. I know it is. I've got an idea for the transportation problem. Let me try. I can fix this!"
Jason studied him for a moment and Lea studied Jason. Then he smiled. "We started this together, Leo. Seems only right you come along. You find us a ride, you're in."
"Yes!" Leo pumped his fist.
"It'll be dangerous," Nyssa warned him. "Hardship, monsters, terrible suffering. Possibly none of you will come back alive."
"Oh." Suddenly Leo didn't look so excited. Then he remembered everyone was watching. "I mean ... Oh, cool! Suffering? I love suffering! Let's do this."
Annabeth nodded. "Then, Jason, you only need to choose the third quest member. The dove—"
"Oh, absolutely!" Drew was on her feet and flashing Jason a smile. "The dove is Aphrodite. Everybody knows that. I am totally yours."
Piper's hands clenched. She stepped forward. "No."
Drew rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Dumpster girl. Back off."
"Well ..." Annabeth said. "Given the wording of the prophecy—"
"No!" Piper's voice sounded strange in her ears—more insistent, richer in tone. Lea narrowed her eyes, standing to her feet. "I'm supposed to go."
"Watch it, girl. The toes you step on today might be connected to the foot in your ass tomorrow." She allowed just a bit of mageia to pour into her eyes. "And besides, Drew has a bigger claim than you." Lea looked around at the campers. "Ethan's gone missing. Backtracked his dreams. He was kidnapped." Everyone gasped in horror. Some of them looking at Drew in pity which she refused to acknowledge while Lea turned back to Piper. "And you. Stop trying to charm us."
"Charm," Drew echoed, looking between the two of them in horror. "No. No way."
"What does that mean?" Piper asked as the rest of the Tenth Cabin campers began to mutter to themselves.
Suddenly there was collective gasp. Lea and Drew scowled as the claiming took effect and the girl began to glow a bit red. Piper looked above her, but there was no burning symbol like the one that appeared over Leo. Then she looked down and yelped.
She was adorned in a beautiful white sleeveless gown that went down to her ankles, with a V-neck so low it was totally embarrassing. Delicate gold armbands circled her biceps. An intricate necklace of amber, coral, and gold flowers glittered on her chest, and her hair ...
"Oh, god," she said. "What's happened?"
A stunned Annabeth pointed at Piper's dagger, which was now oiled and gleaming, hanging at her side on a golden cord. She unsheathed the blade and stared at her reflection in the polished metal blade. Her hair was perfect: lush and long and chocolate brown, braided with gold ribbons down one side so it fell across her shoulder. She even wore makeup—subtle touches that made her lips cherry red and brought out all the different colors in her eyes.
She was...she was...
"Beautiful," Jason exclaimed. "Piper, you ... you're a knockout."
Drew's face was full of horror and revulsion. "No!" she cried. "Not possible!"
"This isn't me," Piper protested. "I—don't understand."
Chiron the centaur folded his front legs and bowed to her, and all the campers followed his example. "Hail, Piper McLean," Chiron announced gravely, as if he were speaking at her funeral. "Daughter of Aphrodítē, lady of the doves, goddess of love."