Chapter One

Disclaimer: I have not magically obtained the publishing rights, sorry to disappoint (as if anyone is…).

I stood in the center of the throne room, determinedly staring at my feet. I didn't want to look at the furious gods who were waiting to pass judgment on me for my betrayal, however unintentional, of two of their number. I didn't want to see the faint pain etched into Hermes' features or the look of disgust from Ares. I couldn't bear the thought of Athena's cold scrutiny or the angry disappointment Dionysus was barely even trying to hide behind his customary look of boredom.

But more than anything, I couldn't bear the sight of the two empty thrones. It was bad enough I couldn't avoid looking at the broken weapons lying at Zeus' feet.

"Cassandra McNova! Have you nothing to say in your own defense?" Zeus thundered, and I flinched but still did not raise my gaze.

"No Lord Zeus…" There was no defense possible, I didn't even know what I was being accused of. I closed my eyes as Zeus stood and called for the vote, I could hear my heart racing in the seemingly endless silence that followed, and then even my closed eyes couldn't protect me from the nearly blinding flash.

I sat up in the bed and slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream that nearly broke loose. I bit my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, but I managed to keep from making a sound, not wanting to wake up my half-siblings. While most of them were naturally early risers, they didn't tend to enjoy waking to up to the sound of screaming. Usually, something like that would result in finding out how many of us sleep with our bow beside our bed. By the way, a disturbing number of us do… So if you're ever thinking about visiting our cabin, wait till we wake up on our own.

There, that's the moral you can take away from this story; don't wake up the Apollo kids… Or for that matter, the Ares kids, they get grumpy when they don't get enough sleep. That advice could save your life, so remember it.

Once I calmed myself down a little I threw on some clothes, grabbed my bow out from under my bunk and slipped out of the cabin. I glanced towards the Big House, and for a moment I was tempted to tell Chiron about my dream. But no, the sky was just starting to turn grey with the first hint of sunrise, neither he nor Mr. D would appreciate being woken up at this hour over a stupid nightmare. So I started towards the archery range instead, walking along the edge of the woods to lessen the chances of being seen by the harpies.

I pretty much spent the next couple hours shooting arrows at a target and trying to forget that stupid dream. Normally I'm a pretty good shot, if I do say so myself, but that morning my arrows were all over the place. I tried to convince myself that it was just that I was still shaken up over the dream, but the truth was that my archery had been going downhill since Manhattan. I was even kicked off the school archery team, not that I intended to tell my siblings that unless they asked outright. If I was really being honest, and as a daughter of the god of truth I didn't have much choice, I knew what the real problem was. Every time I let an arrow fly, whether or not I hit the target, I heard the sound of an arrow burying itself in flesh as far too many had during the war.

I was so focused on my thoughts and trying to get over my new issues with archery that I didn't even notice my half-brother until another arrow knocked my arrow off course. I spun to face him, with an arrow already nocked. You'd think he'd know better than to sneak up on people, demigods tend to be very jumpy. Who wouldn't be with all the monsters that come after us? Luckily for him I realized who it was before I released the arrow.

"What do you want Justin?" I asked, lowering my bow slightly and relaxing a little. Justin wasn't so bad, a little too nosey and he spent way too much time around Joker… But okay, except that at that moment I just wanted to be left alone for once.

Instead of answering Justin walked up beside me and took aim, at my target no less. Jerk. It was bad enough he was a better shot, did he have to show off even more? Wasn't knocking my arrow off course enough for one day?

"What was the nightmare about?" He asked, releasing the arrow at the bottom of the exhale. His arrow hit dead center of the bulls-eye; typical.

"Who says I had a nightmare?" I aimed my own arrow, just so I didn't have to look at him while I avoided his question. I was off on the release though; the arrow flew just as I started inhaling. It hit just outside the bulls-eye. "One snicker and you're eating that bow." I said, partially so that he wouldn't comment on my flinch even if he'd noticed it… I hoped he hadn't noticed; what kind of Apollo kid can't handle archery? Seriously; cruel joke much?

"Violent this morning…" Justin muttered, smirking. "Definitely had a nightmare. What was it about?"

"None of your business." I muttered, walking towards the target to retrieve my arrows. It was past time for breakfast to start anyway and surely I could lose him in the two dozen or so other kids at our table… I forgot how stubborn he was. He kept pestering me about the dream all the way to the dining pavilion…

"Can the Hermes cabin even hold that many kids?" I asked; stopping in shock, there must have been sixty kids hovering around table eleven, most of them waiting for someone to get up so someone else could eat breakfast. I mentioned it because I really was shocked at how many were there, the fact that it changed the subject was just a happy bonus.

"No." Came the irritated answer. Yay, Joker had joined us. How nice. At least he didn't know about the dream so he couldn't pester me about it. "Most of us are currently sleeping in tents set up behind the cabin. I can't wait until they figure out what they're going to do about the minor gods' cabins…"

"When you say 'us'…" I started, pausing as the three of us automatically moved out of the way for the Aphrodite Cabin "Do you mean the cabin or-"

"I mean the actual children of Hermes." Joker, answered with a scowl. Speaking of cruel jokes his real name was Joe Ko which I personally thought was probably a sign of what his mother thought of him. "Along with a good number of the others, they have got to figure something out before our cabin explodes."

"Um… Joker?" Justin hesitated, like he was trying to figure out how to say something. "You've been sleeping in a tent since March, and most of your cabin has to wait for their turn for breakfast… I think it's too late for that, your cabin has already exploded." Both Justin and Joker were year-round campers, I didn't know what the story was for Joker. But Justin once mentioned that his mom was a druggie and he'd been perfectly happy to come to camp after he was found by a satyr when he was eleven. To my knowledge he hadn't really left camp since, unless you counted going into Manhattan to fight a war as leaving.

Joker groaned, as he walked with us towards our table he probably didn't expect to get his turn for awhile or he wouldn't have done it. The boy loves eating more than he does breathing, how he stays so lanky I'll never know. Nor will I ever forgive him for it… "I know… We've been praying to dad to help us out for months, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good, and with summer here there's bound to be even more kids coming in!" he complained.

"Have you tried Hera? Or Zeus?" Justin asked, grabbing a seat at our table. I sat across from him, and then remembered that I had been planning on sitting where he couldn't talk to me about that dream. I shrugged; I figured he was well distracted from it by then anyway.

"Why?" Joker questioned, standing nearby. He couldn't sit at our table, it was against the rules. I thought they were stupid rules, but they were stupid rules that were strictly enforced by a god, so I never argued. Besides, it meant that I didn't have to deal with Joker during meal times… usually.

"Hello! King and Queen of the gods! If they can't help straighten this out, there isn't help to be had." I said, catching on to Justin's thought. Maybe it wasn't so bad having him around, he reminded me of my brother sometimes. Crap that made me sad and lonely again.

Joker blinked, "Why didn't I think of that?" he asked. But before either of us could answer him he was called back over to his own table, someone had gotten up and it was his turn to eat. It was a shame; I had a pretty good retort ready too… I let it go, I was bound to get a chance to insult his intelligence later the Hermes kids couldn't seem to go a day without doing something stupid, and Joker usually managed to drag Justin into it too. To make matters worse he was probably biggest kleptomaniac at camp, at least the other Hermes kids remembered what they stole when and from whom. He stole as a nervous habbit and almost never noticed when he did it. I figured it was bound to get him killed someday.

After I finished getting my breakfast I walked over to the fire, I dropped a juicy strawberry in for Apollo and then selected a really nice big chunk of cantaloupe and dropped it in with a quick prayer to Hera; Please Lady Hera, help them figure something out for the minor gods' cabins. I don't think the Hermes cabin can take this much longer… I didn't expect praying to work, not really. I figured they would ignore us even if we got the whole camp in on it.

Justin and I mentioned the idea of praying to Zeus and Hera for help with the issue of the children of the minor gods to the rest of our cabin, and they assured us that they would help spread the word. By lunch I think most cabins had at least a few campers offering to two gods… Most of us were starting to feel really bad for the Hermes guys, and after last year… Let's just say the whole camp was closer than it was a few years ago. Besides, we'd all been in there at one point or another so it was probably the only cabin we'd unite to help. Much like our parents, we rarely agree on anything for more than five minutes.

For the most part the rest of our day was uneventful. Justin pretty much forgot to bug me about my nightmare, thank you Joker, glad to know you're good for something other than stealing random items; and I reminded Joker that stealing my stuff was a bad idea by hitting over the head with my quiver. So he stole some Demeter guy's watch instead, got caught, and ran for his life…

While Justin tried to help Joker smooth thing over with the Demeter kid, I hung out with a guy I had met in my hometown over spring break. The guy's name was Ben, he was a half-blood, obviously, and he was probably the only guy I'd ever met who could make me blush, it was a shame he was probably my half-brother. He hadn't been claimed yet though, so he was one of the many kids staying in the Hermes cabin. He was pretty cool, but he had weird eyes. They were almost too bright, but otherwise he seemed about as normal any other half-blood. He asked a lot of questions about camp, I tried to answer as many as I could but frankly, he was asking about a lot of stuff that I'd never really cared about. He wandered off back towards cabin eleven after we made plans to meet up again later.

It was a pretty typical day at camp, or as typical as it gets at camp. I slipped off to take a nap after lunch and after waking up from the nightmare again I had to deal with Justin and Will pestering me about it. Obviously I'd slept longer than I'd intended if they were coming to look for me, Will was probably pissed I'd skipped archery practice but I guess screaming yourself awake after a nightmare gets you out of that lecture… And signs you up for a whole new one. Will finally decided to leave me alone when Annabeth called him over to help with some new camper that fell off the climbing wall. Justin however, stuck with me and refused to let himself be distracted; I blamed Chiron for spending so much time teaching us how to handle the ADHD in everyday life… Now it vanished whenever it would actually be useful to someone.

Eventually, I told Justin about my plans to meet up with Ben. That finally had the desired effect, and he stopped bugging me about my dream and started bugging me about Ben. He didn't seem to agree with me that Ben was likely one of our brothers that just hadn't been claimed yet.

Author's Note: Yes, I took out the prophecy; don't worry, I'm replacing it with another later in the story.