Chapter One: Emma

Silence cascaded through the room as the Oracle finished speaking.

A half-blood of eldest gods…

That was me. Me and my family. Me and my closest friends. And prophecies were hardly ever good. Most of us were still grieving for the loss of Jonathon, my half-brother, killed in the South Pacific little under a month ago. He had died at sea, and that was a small comfort. He had died close to the thing he had loved.

Shall reach 16 against all odds…

I was 14, and I stayed at Camp year round. It was nearly impossible to do otherwise, monsters would attack every other day, and I would have to fight them off. The outside world was not friendly to demigods like me with insanely strong scents.

And see the world in endless sleep…

Endless sleep? Like death? Or like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, cursed to sleep until kissed. But that whole idea was ridiculous. No, endless sleep had to mean death… Which means that the end of the world had been prophesized.

A hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap…

There were many blades that were considered coursed, so that wasn't such a big deal, but having your soul reaped was not something I wanted to experience.

A single choice shall end his days…

His. As in, this did not apply to me. As in I most likely would not have my soul reaped because of this. I took a breath of relief. It won't be me. But my mind told me differently, prophecies might not always be gender specific.

Olympus to preserve or raze

Preserve or raze. Keep or destroy.

Thunder rumbled, and lightning cracked. I was willing to bet if I looked at the sea, it would be turbulent in obvious anger. I turned to Alexander, my half-brother, three years my elder and head counselor of Cabin 3. My confident, the person who I could tell everything, was looking at me with a face that looked blank but I could see the fear in it.

"Emma." He said calmly, although I know he really wasn't calm, he was just acting like it for my sake. My heart quickened. "Run."

For once I followed orders, and sprinted across the common. People were staring at me as if I had grown another head, but I kept on going until I was in my cabin. I quickly gathered the necessities; clothes, shoes, drachmas, and some mortal money, put them in a backpack, and double checked that my pearl bracelet was on. It hid my weapon, a celestial bronze sword, the only gift I had ever received from my father.

I looked around the cabin one last time. My siblings and I were scheduled to be scaling the rock wall right now, along with the demigods from Cabin 1. I knew that wouldn't be happening. I knew that everyone in Cabins 1 or 3 who was under 16 was either being told of what had happened, or was hastily packing so they would be able to get away in time.

I would miss the constant smell of salt, the comforting echo of the waves. I would miss the way my older siblings had always made time for me, and how I had made time for my younger siblings. They would hopefully be warned in time to miss the blood bath that I predicted Camp would become for them within the hour. I would miss the way whenever something had made me feel angry, sad, or wronged, I could walk up and down the beach for a while and come back with a clear head. I would miss the way we always took the Capture the Flag games to the extreme, and our friendly competitions with Cabin 1. I would miss my cousins, even if they were jerks at times.

But as I walked up the hill, I knew those days were gone. The real world waited. At the top of the hill, I turned and looked over the place that had been home for three years one last time.

I knew I would never be back.

xXx

I was surrounded on top of a hill somewhere in Virginia. I had zigzagged my way across the Eastern Seaboard in the three months I'd been on the road, avoiding New York like the plague. It was twilight, my favorite time of day, right after the sun had set. You could still see the traces of orange and pink on the horizon.

It would likely be the last sunset I ever saw. Hellhounds, drachne, and other monsters surrounded me, and I knew my end was imminent.

I drew my sword.

I prayed to my father for the first time in months to make it end fast.

I looked up. Clouds were gathering. One way or another I was dead, by Hades or by Zeus, one would have me killed by the time the sky was inky black and dotted with stars.

The last thing I ever saw was a blinding flash of light.

And my last thought was 'Thank you'.