My name is Thalia Grace, and I'm the Daughter of Zeus, as far as I know my brother Jason and I are the only children of Zeus that are still alive. Just let me say that being a child of Zeus is dangerous, especially since Hera doesn't exactly like it when Zeus has affairs with mortals. So anyway this story starts with my brother my mom and me going on a family outing to see Jack London's burned out house.

Now the really weird thing about this is that my mom insisted on doing it. She never insists on taking us anywhere. Mainly she just yells at us for making noise, but this time she insisted, so we packed a lunch and drove from LA to the wolf house.

When we finally got there mom was acting really, really, strange. She looked like she was about to cry and she wouldn't let go of Jason's hand, another strange thing. She doesn't even like Jason or me. The only person she's ever cared about was dad and he wasn't even human. He was a Greek god.

Anyway we walked around for about an hour, then Mom told me to go back to the care and get the picnic basket. I really didn't want to leave Jason alone with her, especially when he looked pleadingly up at me with his big blue eyes, but mom was pretty insistent and eventually I had to leave them together.

I went to the car got the picnic basket and hurried back to where I'd left mom and Jason. Mom was sitting on the burned out steps of the wolf house crying and Jason, Jason was gone.

"What did you do with him!" I yelled, shaking my mom's shoulders. "What did you do to Jason? Where is he!"

She just looked blankly up at me and said, "Gone."

"Where? What have you done?"

"Hera," my mom muttered. "Hera took him as payment for Zeus' love! Do yo understand?" she was yelling now. "Hera took Jason! He's as good as dead now!"

We got back to LA somehow, and the next weeks were like an endless nightmare. Mom started drinking even more than before. She took me out of school and told me not to leave the house or Hera would kill me too. I was devastated. For years Jason was all I had, and now he was gone. I was convinced it was Mom's fault, she'd never cared about Jason.

I cried for weeks and i wouldn't speak to mom, that only made things worse with her. Finally I couldn't take it anymore. I sneaked downstairs one night while mom was laying drunk on the couch and called the police I reported Jason as missing and turned my mom in for drinking and child abuse.

The cops came and found mom drunk on the couch. They woke her up and arrested her, but there wasn't any proof so they couldn't keep her under arrest. After a week they let her go.

When she came home the first thing she did was yell at me that it was all my fault. She told me it was my fault that Zeus had left and my fault that Hera had taken Jason. Then she told me to get out and never come back.

Now I'm somewhere in Connecticut in the middle of the winter. I'm lost and hungry, but all I can think about is Jason. He's all I ever think about. I remember how he tried to eat a stapler when he was three and how he used to look up at me so trustingly. I had failed him. I had left him with her and now he was lost to me for ever.

I wish Hera would come and kill me then at least I might meet Jason in the Underworld. I wish I were dead instead of him. I'm angry at mom and Hera, but most of all I'm angry at dad, how could he just let Hera take his son? Did Jason matter so little to him?

I wonder what would have happened if i had refuse to go to the car for the lunch. Would Jason still be with me? Would we still be at home together laughing over the silly games we always played? Or would I still have ran away and taken Jason with me? I guess I'll never know but i wish I did.

A growl made me turn. A huge black dog was standing behind me teeth bared and foam dripping from its lips. I just stood there staring at it. The dog, it really was huge, more the size of a garbage truck than a dog, the dog jumped at me and knocked me backward. I didn't even try to resist. I knew that i was going to die I was going to join Jason.

Then the dog thing froze and exploded into dust. A blonde haired boy was standing over me with a knife in his hand. His eyes were blue and looked concerned. For a minute I just stared at him. "J-Jason?" I stammered. Then he stepped forward and I saw it wasn't Jason. This boy was older about my age.

"Uh-sorry, but I'm not Jason my name's Luke. I'm a son of Hermes, you're a half-blood right?