Prologue
Annabeth took a deep breath as she stood on the wraparound porch of the Big House, looking around at what was left of Camp Half-Blood. The monsters had finally either been turned to dust or just left as if the idea of attacking a camp full of demigods was no longer appealing. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts, wishing Chiron or even Mr. D in one of his ridiculous shirts was here. They'd both gotten emergency summons to Olympus the morning before and still hadn't returned. Thalia had gone to the city to get them, but she hadn't been in any contact with Camp Half-Blood as far as Annabeth knew.
Her eyes filled with tears as she opened them, knowing that so many of her friends were dead. The people she had grown up with; killed by the things they were trained practically their whole lives to fight. If they hadn't been surprised they might've had a better chance, but it had been the middle of the night when the monsters somehow broke through the magical border and attacked.
"Annabeth!" Relief washed over her as she turned to see Percy running toward her, concern obvious in his expression. He had a good sized cut on his right arm and judging by the condition of the shirt he was wearing, Annabeth figured he'd been in a battle against one of the many monsters that could breath fire at some point. He waited for her to meet him at the foot of the steps before wrapping his arms around her and holding her for a moment in silence before speaking. "Are you alright?"
"I'm okay." Annabeth replied, allowing herself a moment to relax before the rising sadness in her chest forced her to pull away before it overwhelmed her. She couldn't let it take over - not when she still had work to do. "How many of us are left?"
"So far, I know that Piper and Jason are a little beat up but alright." Percy said, looking around at the camp. "So are Clarisse, Chris, and Leo. I don't know about anyone else yet."
Annabeth sighed. She couldn't believe this was happening. After everything else that had happened to her and Percy over the years, she had hoped that they could have something close to a normal life after the second Giant War. Or at least as close to normal as a son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena could get.
"Come on, Seaweed Brain." She said, walking away from the Big House towards the courtyard where survivors were starting to gather in the brilliant orange glow of the rising sun among the broken statues and slightly smoldering plants. "Let's go see what needs to be done."
As Annabeth and Percy walked up to the group of survivors, she looked around to see how much damage the monsters had done to them. There were around sixty demigods before the attack happened, and now the group was around half that size. Piper's hair had come unbraided and was slightly singed at the ends. She had a small cut above her left eyebrow, and her cheeks were smudged with dirt, but she didn't seem to have any serious injuries. Jason was still gripping his sword tightly, looking around warily as if expecting more monsters to appear. He had a quickly rising bump on his forehead as if he'd been hit by a club or something equally as hard.
The sound of running footsteps behind them tugged Annabeth away from her thoughts. She turned to see Thalia rushing up to them, her breath catching as she noticed the mixture of panic and worry etched on her friend's face.
"What is it?" Jason asked as he and Piper stepped forward to stand beside Percy and Annabeth.
Thalia stopped in front of the group, taking a deep breath with a hesitant look in her bright blue eyes as she looked into the exhausted, bruised, and scratched faces of the demigods who were staring at her expectantly.
"I couldn't find them." She said after a moment. "Mount Olympus is completely deserted. The gods are gone."