Traitor

Aricia's eyes flickered upwards in an instant. Everyone in Aphrodite's cabin was staring at the silent daughter of Hera with tense expressions on their pretty faces. They were rightly afraid, they'd seen Aricia fight over the three, nearly four years she had been at Camp Half-Blood. Her mother's temper flooded through her veins as she looked at Drew.

"What did you just say?" She hissed through gritted teeth.

"Oh hun, I was just explaining to Dumpster Girl here about what happens to traitors. You know…" She lifted and eyebrow and smirked. "Like the last cabin leader we had."

Aricia snapped and leapt across the bunks. In an instant she had a celestial bronze knife drawn and inches away from Drew's swan-like throat. "Never ever insult Silena Beauregard in my presence." She threatened and pressed the knife closer to Drew's skin. "Or I'll kill you."

Drew's eyes widened in terror since even she knew that her charmspeak would not work on Aricia. However, she knew that it would work on mostly everyone else. "Get her off me!" She ordered.

Several people grabbed Aricia by the back of her shirt and her arms and pulled her roughly away from Drew. They held her tightly as Drew straightened herself out and sneered at Aricia. She glared down at her and slapped her across the face. Sure, she was brave enough to do that when Aricia was tethered down by four other Aphrodite kids under her charmspeak.

"Hey! Let her go!" Piper, who'd been staring in horror, ordered.

Instantly the other kids let her go. Aricia shrugged them off and glared at Drew with a look that could pierce even the armor of the gods. She could feel her godly blood beginning to boil which wasn't a good sign. Zeus allowed her to live only because she had sworn to live as a demigoddess, not a goddess in her own right.

"What is going on in here?"

Everyone turned to see Clarisse La Rue hulking in the doorway of Cabin 10. At one point, she had wanted nothing more than to crush Aricia. But after Silena and Clarisse had become face she had grown to tolerate Aricia. After she was allowed to learn the truth, that Aricia was the daughter of Hera, she had treated the younger girl with respect. When Silena was killed Clarisse had taken Aricia under her wing out of respect for her friend.

"Calf get outside now." She said.

"Hey! You can't come in here!" Drew protested.

"Now Calf!"

Aricia pushed past Drew and stormed out of her cabin despite the protests from her cabin 'leader'. She slammed the door on her way out.

"You're going to get yourself in big trouble if you pull something like that again Calf." Clarisse thumped Aricia's head with her fist.

"Oh you're one to talk!" Aricia snapped. "You've tried to kill nearly everyone in this camp, including me!"

"What would Silena say if she saw this?" Clarisse asked gently.

"If Silena was able to see anything then she would have still be the cabin leader, not that ignorant charmspeaking witch!" Aricia rubbed her eyes furiously and looked back at the cabin.

"You should have taken leadership." Clarisse said. "You still can, challenge Drew for it. You'll win, everyone's been waiting for you to do it ever since…."

Ever since Silena died.

The unspoken sentence hung thickly in the air. Ever since Silena had been killed during the Battle of Manhattan things in Cabin 10 had gone downhill.

"You know that I can't. It wouldn't be right Clarisse. Hera is my mom, and Cabin 10 has to be lead by an Aphrodite. That's the way things work."

"Hey! Clarisse! Calf!" Annabeth called and ran up to the other two girls.

Clarisse had started calling Aricia 'Calf' when she had first arrived at camp a few years ago. It was because of her big brown eyes that made her look like a baby cow, which ironically was one of her mother's symbols. Silena had turned it into an affectionate nickname, and soon it had stuck with her. Even now when her eyes were a bizarre purple from Zeus sending wave after wave of lightning in to her body. The campers all just thought she had been struck by lightning. Most everyone else she wasn't close with called her Ari. Not many were told she was really Aricia, daughter of Hera.

Annabeth looked worried, which was understandable. Percy had disappeared and Olympus had shut itself off a month ago. Annabeth had Jason with him, who was a son of Zeus. He had arrived with Piper and Leo a few days ago. Huh….so there had been two children of Zeus when he had hounded Aricia for her entire life just because he had thought Hera had made her the way Hephaestus was born. Little had he know she was his as well.

"Annabeth." Aricia nodded. Her eyes fixed themselves on Jason, another insult to her mother, but she smiled all the same. No one asked to be born, especially not to the parents they were stuck with. "Hey Jason."

"Hello Ari." He answered politely, but with a hint of formality in his tone. This boy held himself like a soldier, which was a breath of fresh air here.

Calf, there's a big problem. Worse than we thought." Annabeth cut in. "This time you very well could be involved in the new Great Prophecy. It speaks of seven halfbloods and doesn't give any narrow specifications."

"Why me though? There are plenty of people here now." She spread her arms wide. "Everyone is being claimed faster so newbies are flooding in every day it seems."

Jason stepped forward and looked at her apologetically. "This new prophecy seems very lightly to involve you daughter of Hera." He whispered.

Aricia flinched. Ah, so he knew the truth now too. Best not keep it hidden from him. Jason was Aricia's half-brother after all, like Thalia and her were half-siblings. She took a deep breath and gave Jason the same questioning look Hera sometimes gave Zeus.

"Okay, tell me why I seem to be involved in this."

"The reason Mount Olympus has been shut off for the past month is because an Olympian has been kidnapped." Jason answered.

"What! Impossible!" Aricia exclaimed. "Who could ever….?"

"That's not all Calf." Annabeth said gently.

Aricia understood. She clenched her fists and though she wanted to accusingly look at Jason, son of Zeus she knew better. This time, it wasn't Zeus.

"It's my mother, isn't it?"