For the third time this week, I had a dream about Percy's apartment burning down. Considering the only dreams I ever have are from being the Oracle, I figured it had to be prophetic. I just couldn't figure out how.
Anyway, that morning I was going about my business, just sitting in my cave and painting a landscape of New Rome when a vision hit me.
I was standing in New Rome with flames roaring at my back and a row of white Roman style houses in front of me. There were Seven. This sparked a memory in me from about a year ago.
I realized with a sudden chill that I had gotten the same exact vision over a year ago. I recall calling Annabeth immediately afterward to tell her. And she designed the houses I saw.I was already out the doorway of my cave and down the hill before I had time to breathe.
I plowed someone over on my way to the portal and in no time I was in New Rome. I ran from block to block, searching for the houses. I had to know if they were ever actually built.
At one point I crashed into Reyna. Which hurt a lot considering she still wears her armor all the time, even though she's no longer Praetor.
"Rachel?" She asked with a smile, "what's got you in such a hurry?"
"The houses," I gasped. "Were they ever built?"
Reyna's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "What houses?" She asked.
"I had a vision over a year ago. It was before Annabeth was kidnapped. It was this row of seven houses. There was a roaring fire behind me. I painted them and Annabeth designed them. She thought if I had a vision about it it must be important. I just had the vision again this morning. I need to know if they were ever built."
Reyna got a thoughtful look on her face. She held up a finger, thought some more, and then darted off. I ran to catch up with her. She led me back the way I came, then took a different turn, another turn, and then we were there. I stood in front of the seven houses. They looked exactly as they had in my visions. My heart ached at the thought of a Annabeth designing them.
And the fire...it signified the burning of the Jackson apartment. It was always going to happen. Even back when Annabeth was still alive, before everything went to hell, it was prophesied. And there just happened to be seven houses.
I walked forward and Reyna followed me. We went into the middle house and soon figured it was meant for the Jacksons. There were plenty of bedrooms to accommodate them all and there were framed pictures everywhere, all of them before Annabeth's death and the twins.
Looking in the kitchen, there was a plaque on the wall near the fridge with a Blue Chocolate Cookies recipe on it. There were many personal touches throughout the house. I found a perfectly folded note on the master bed with Percy's name written in Annabeth's handwriting. I smiled sadly and left, Reyna following close behind.
Once outside, I noticed that the house had Jackson written on the door. How I didn't notice before, I don't know. We ventured to the house on the left and it had Grace written on the door. Farther down the line we found a house for Zhang and Solace-di Angelo.
Back the way we came and past the Jackson house, there was one for Valdez, Underwood, and Ramirez-Arellano. I still couldn't quite grasp the houses in front of me. It was meant for all of them to live here. I left Reyna to investigate her house and ran off to the portal, the Los Angeles location in mind.