Chapter 4

Thunder rumbled on Mount Olympus, as Zeus paced back and forth before his throne, furious. The Olympian Council was gathered, and once again the room nearly shimmered with power.

"It's not a real prophecy, you know," Aphrodite said softly, trying to keep Zeus' anger from exploding in her direction. "It's just this…gut feeling I have. It could be nothing. It's quite possible he feels nothing for her, but I can't say anything for certain. Hades and his children are extremely adept at hiding their thoughts and emotions…they're hard to read, even for me."

Zeus snarled at her. "And how many times, Aphrodite, have ANY of your hunches been incorrect? Maybe once if we're lucky?" He whirled around suddenly to face Poseidon. "And I want to know just what else my brother has been hiding from me. More children? A plot to usurp my throne?"

"You are being foolish," Poseidon said quietly. "We have been over this before – I have no desire to take your throne. And I have only these two children – other than them, I honored our pact. And we don't yet have any proof that they pose any threat to the balance of power we have here. I fail to see what your concerns are."

"Yeah, we've got bigger fish to fry," Ares interrupted. "What about Kronos – if it is him? He can't be strong enough to attack again, but he's the only one who could work something like this. We need to prepare for –"

"Relax, bud," Apollo interposed. "We still don't know if Kronos can lift himself from the mud." He chuckled at his rhyming, while his sister rolled her eyes at him. "And besides, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't think the kids have even realized that they've stopped aging from the moment they stepped inside camp."

"Isn't it obvious?" Athena finally spoke, and all the gods quit their bickering and turned to face her. "As our children age, their bodies grow into the powers they have been given. They physically gain the strength to wield the abilities they inherit from us. If they are stopped from aging, they are stopped from maturing physically, and this will make many of them easier to defeat in battle. And at the same time, if we keep them from entering camp until they are eighteen or so, the monsters outside will tear them to pieces. It's actually quite clever, in a diabolical, twisted way. We have no method of protecting our children – they have to take care of themselves, and each other."

"And seeing how well we get along, there is very little chance of that happening," Artemis sighed. "I think I'll be sending my Hunters back to camp soon. It's very possible there is a military offensive headed our way – I just don't know who it'll be headed by. My girls can help train the campers – they are experts at immortal fighting."

"Hades," Zeus growled. "I would bet anything that he is behind this."

"Brother," Poseidon groaned, "Hades is not foolish enough to attempt anything like this. He is powerful, yes, but not stupid. And besides, his son –"

"You will keep your daughter away from his son," Zeus ordered. "I hope Aphrodite is wrong, but she very rarely is, and we don't need multiple catastrophes on our hands. Aphrodite, you said they have no feelings for each other, right?"

The goddess of love shook her head, her soft waves of her swaying with the motion. "No, I simply said that I cannot tell how the boy feels. The girl, however…"

"The girl what?" Poseidon demanded. "Finish your sentence!"

"She's a lost case, dude," Apollo laughed, examining his reflection in his Ray-Ban sunglasses. "Head over heels, but with a temper. This should be fun to watch." He started humming Love Story by Taylor Swift tunelessly while Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at a nearby fountain, smashing it into rubble.

That evening, at Mount Olympus, Chiron stood up to speak before the campers made offerings to the gods. "I have two quick announcements: Firstly, we have a new camper, as most of you noticed yesterday. Her name is Lily Shaw, she is from California, and she is a daughter of Poseidon." Murmurs broke out throughout the camp as teenagers craned their necks to get a good look at the girl sitting next to Percy Jackson, whose dark wavy hair was conveniently hiding her face. "Secondly, I would like to see all senior camp members at a meeting tonight at the Big House. Enjoy your dinner." As he sat down, the campers filed up to scrape offerings into the braziers for the gods.

Percy scooted into line next to Annabeth, leaving Lily to her conversation with Clarisse. "Hey," he breathed into her ear.

She smiled at him. "Hi, Percy."

"So, Lily seems to think you don't like her very much."

She fixed him with her story gray eyes. "Do you?"

"Yeah, she's fantastic," he replied. "But really, why didn't you like her?"

"Well, just because I thought you wouldn't like her. She doesn't seem bad, really, but a bit girly – more of an Aphrodite than a Big Three, in my opinion."

Her boyfriend squeezed her hand and laughed. "Nah, you should've seen her today. She made friends with Clarisse in like five minutes – just because Clarisse was impressed that she walked into the Ares cabin and managed to avoid all the land mines without even looking for them or having to dodge. I mean, even I nearly got hit by one of those once." He ducked when she tried to slap him, grabbing her hands. "And they both played basketball against me and Nico – Jake and Grover decided to watch – and they were winning till we realized that Clarisse was using her child of Ares thing to get projectiles to go where she wanted them to, and then Nico started shadow-traveling all over the court, and we won."

They reached the end of the line, scraped some food into the flames, and stood off to the side for a moment.

"Just please make an effort with her, will you?" Percy whispered. "She's actually really sweet. Give her a chance."

Annabeth nodded. "We should get back. I'll see you at the meeting tonight, alright? And bring Lily with you – she should be there even if she isn't a senior here." She kissed him quickly and took her seat at the Athena table, ignoring the catcalls from Apollo's children.

Lily picked at her food. She wasn't hungry – she was homesick. Memories of her mother, of her old friends, of her dog, and of her older brother (well, her half-brother now) crowded in on her, making her feel ill. Glancing around, she saw that no one was watching her – Percy and Annabeth were having a moment (she snickered to herself), and the other cabins were engrossed in other things. Slipping off her sandals, which would make a loud noise against the marble floor, she stole away from the eating area in bare feet and slipped between the trees in the woods.

Following the sound of running water, she found a creek making its way through the woods. She smiled at the naiads who waved at her from the water, and slid her feet into the cool water. She was picking at the grass next to her when she heard what sounded like a large dog snuffling around nearby. Standing up, Lily smoothed grass off her dress and moved quietly towards the sound, which stopped as she approached. Pushing aside some low tree branches, she found herself face-to-face with a fully grown timber wolf.

Terrified, she stepped backwards, and took another step as it followed her, baring its teeth. She opened her mouth to scream when a hand covered her mouth.

"Quiet," a voice hissed in her ear, holding her still with its other hand. "Don't startle him and I'll get him to back off."

The hands holding her didn't relax or move, but the wolf gradually moved away, until he lost interest completely and disappeared between the trees. The person holding her released her, and Lily turned around to find herself standing less than an inch away from Nico.

Before she had completely registered who she was talking to, she found herself giving voice to her shock. "There are WOLVES in here? Is that fricking normal?"

"Nah, the wolves are mine," he said. "Son of Hades – I attract carnivores. But there are monsters in here, yeah."

"How are you so blasé about that? Doesn't it bother you that we could be dead right now? Is no one else freaked out about this?"

Nico just raised his eyebrows. "Well, everyone else is used to it. I mean, even the Aphrodite kids don't panic about the woods and you're Poseidon's daughter, so I don't think you should –"

She scoffed at him. "Oh, okay. So just because my dad is some powerful dude holding a trident who controls 70% of the earth's surface doesn't mean that I have to be like him! Why does everyone here always look at me like I'm a loose cannon or I'm not what they expect? I'm just me! I've spent my whole life not even knowing who my father is, and all of a sudden I'm supposed to be just like him? I've never even MET him!" Blinking away the angry tears in her eyes, she stormed away.

Pushing her way between two tall trees, she leaned against one of them, succumbing to her tears after she was sure she had lost him.

"Hey," a quiet voice said. Wiping her eyes and turning, Lily shot up when she saw Nico looking at her with concern, standing right behind her. "You okay? Can I help?"

"Leave me alone," she snapped. "You've done enough."

Her anger mounted when he simply moved closer. Nico took her elbow in his hand, but as he tried to pull her closer, the rage she was feeling overcame the tingles that his touch produced, and suddenly a strong spray of seawater emerged from nowhere as she felt a powerful tug in her gut. The pain overpowered her, and she heard Nico yelling as the water crashed down on him. Overwhelmed, she gave in to the darkness eating at the corners of her vision.

A/N: See, an update! Sorry if I'm boring anyone, I tend to ramble but I'll try not to! Thank you very very very much to everyone who subscribed and Favorited my story or me as an author, as well as everyone who reviewed!, I love you all and see you soon!