Thanks for the reveiws...sorry it takes so long for me to update. I'm trying not to be one of the people who has a somewhat good story but never updates and sort of fades from Fanfiction...

Opened - Window - I am a VEGETARIAN, so no mention of meat on this poor story! Haha, just kidding...not about the vegetarian part, though.

Bookits - Why, thank you! I appreciate that very much. And I love your name(:

WhisperMaw - I guess she did! I kept going back to look at the prophecy like, twenty times for this chapter. I cannot seem to remember ANYTHING today.

365. Pages. Of. Awesomeness - Oh hey, no problem! A reveiw is good, even a late one(: And that's a good thing you want a second book...I have tons of ideas I can't cram into the one! I guess that's good though.

~Hayden

I feel terrible...I can't even remember how old Alex is...

I realize there's a bit of rambling, but it explains a lot! So no matter how painful and not flowy ( Opened - Window, cough cough) please read! Thanks :)

I stared at Eli for a moment, looking in those bright blue eyes. We looked absloloutly nothing alike, talked in different mannerisms, had different attitudes, and hell, he even had an accent! Did he seriously believe he could sell me the, 'We're related' crap?

"Ok," I drawled slowly. "We're siblings. You're mentally insane. Simple."

Eli sighed. "Seriously, you're not that bright, are you? We have the same father."

I clapped a hand to my head. "No, we really, really don't."

"Eli," Gabriella said. "If you had the same father, your father would be the greek god Hermes."

"No, my father is not Hermes. And neither is yours," Eli said, looking at me. "It's Nicholas. Nicholas the Great."

"Can I hit him?" I asked Gabriella.

"No. That'd be considered child abuse."

Eli sighed. "We don't have the same mother, though. You may know yours, Artemis."

Now Gabriella even seemed to be losing patience. "Okay, Eli, believe what you want to, but the prophecy we're following speaks of kind of an unsure fate, so if we could just move on, that'd be great-,"

"No. Listen," Eli said. "This is our palace. This is where our father lived with us, and his other family. He was a great King, and we were his most important children, granted we were half-bloods. We had a stepmother, Queen Anna, and three older siblings - the oldest, a set of twins, Alexi and Angelo. Then was Vivian, our older sister, you, Alex, then me. You were only...what, three? Four, maybe? I was just a baby.

"But anyway, your mother Artemis. You've heard some of the tales, haven't you? Before she became an eternal goddess, when she was young and had a good relationship with Zeus, she asked for certain things. Always be a virgin, have lots of names to be set apart from Apollo, to be a light-bringer, to be able to hunt, ect. Well, eventually, she did fall in love with a man named Orion."

"Didn't Orion die?" I asked impatiently, putting my hands on my hips. "Didn't she hate him 'cause he kept hitting on her Hunters, or something like that?"

"Love and hate build a strong relationship," Eli sighed, like he was a thousand years old, instead of like, ten. "But yes, Orion did die. Apollo was protective of his sister's maidenhood, so he sent a scorpian to kill Orion. Well, Poseidon, his father granted him one last wish; to someday see Artemis again, in real life.

"It took hundreds of years, but finally, thirteen years ago, Poseidon granted Orion his wish. Nicholas, our father, had given Poseidon permission to let Orion use his body as a host, where he then tracked down Artemis. Yes, she is still the goddess of virginity and everything, but the way they had you was the way Athena has her kids - through thoughts and memories. A few days after Orion left this world for good, you were given to Nicholas, considering you were born through his body and Orion's mind - it's like you have two fathers, almost.

"It wasn't intentional, you being born, but it happened. And you're lucky you're a girl. If you'd have been a boy, Artemis probably would have killed you, or tossed you off a mountain. But anyway, that happened, and then Nicholas fell in love with Demeter and had me. The end."

"What about the one chick? Nicholas's wife or whatever?" Gabriella asked.

"Anna? The Queen? She was powerful, sure, but she was competeing with goddess's for Nicholas's attention. He never was unfaithful after me, and they settled their differences and were a happy couple ruling over their kingdom." Eli said.

"Yeah? And where is the rest of this family now?" I asked. Surprisingly, Eli's story wasn't hard to believe. I was actually trying to prove him wrong.

Eli looked a little upset. "Honestly, they didn't tell me. All I got was...and this was almost three years ago, so you know...a vacation home in Siberia."

"Siberia...as in..." Gabriella looked at me.

"You mean we're in Russia?" I asked.

Eli nodded.

Things got a whole lot complicated after that.

Me and Gabriella took turns ansking questions.

"Why'd they leave a nine year-old alone in a palace?"

"I'm very mature."

"Where's the vacation home?"

"I don't know."

"Did you ever look for them?"

"I would if I knew where to begin."

"Where'd all the servants and what-nots go?"

"No idea."

"Is that your accent? Russian?"

"Yes."

"Did you actually know them? Nicholas, Anna, and them?"

"Very well. They were my family."

"DO YOU EVER TALK IN ANYTHING BESIDES A MONOTONE? You freak!"

"You're quite mean. And no."

"Woah. Your eyes. They are quite vibrantly blue. I never noticed that before."

"We're all getting a little off-track, ladies."

The questions were interuppted by the ground shaking. Luckily, the palace was only covered in dust and white sheets, so everything was good except for almost dying of an asthma attack from the dust.

"Okay, Gabriella." I said. "I just want to get back to camp, so if you could use your amazing memory and tell the little freak the prophecy, that'd be great."

"Right," Gabriella said. "Okay. First line, A barren land the jeweled three must find."

"Arizona has been located by three jeweled freak children. Next."

"There a palace uncovered by a daughter of mind."

"Gabriella was being a show-off, yes. Next."

Gabriella shot me a glare before continuing. "The boy least expected is the one you seek."

"I definitly wasn't expecting some pale, albino, twelve year-old. Next."

"Take him away whether he be rich or meek."

"Sons of Kings are normally rich. And he does look a little gangly. Next."

"Tunnels through the ground the boy will create.

If It's a trick discovered, it is your fate.

Beware of the Onyx, don't give it your trust.

For returning to camp is a definite must."

"And there is our slight problem!" I announced.

"I have to create tunnels? Easy enough," Eli said, walking down a patch of random stairs off to the side.

"You know how?" Gabriella asked, sounding astounded.

"I've been living on my own for three years," Eli scoffed. "With absoloutly no TV or books that I haven't already read. I had to do something, and practicing some unknown power my father had been telling me about since I was two seemed like a good idea."

Gabriella sighed. "You're brilliant. Why can't you be my brother instead? It doesn't make sense you're Alex's brother."

"Uh, gee. Thanks, sunshine," I scoffed.

Gabriella smiled at me. "Anytime."

Eli stopped at a random oak door and stepped through it. Inside, it should have been a wine cellar, but a massive hole with ragged edges had been torn through the ground.

Eli led the way through the tunnels, occasionally pointing out places where he had made mistakes or improvments, until he faltered in mid-sentence.

Gabriella furrowed her eyebrows and put a hand on Eli's shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Eli mumbled, looking into the dark tunnel. "But...this is supposed to be where I stopped at last week. It shouldn't be going on."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Maybe you just remember it wrong. I mean, it's all rock. It all looked the same to me so far..."

"No," Eli said. "I have a photographic memory. This is where I stopped."

"Well, that's not safe. Maybe we should just,"

Gabriella was cut off by a moan coming from the darkness. It sounded painful. And human.

I broke into a run. Something about the voice was familiar...

I didn't even realize that I had stopped when I got to the cavern. I didn't realize Gabriella and Eli almost running into me. I didn't realize we were in a dome-shaped hole cut into the underground, or that tiny branches of tunnels wove through the walls. Not when I saw the body lying in the middle of the floor, covered in blood.

I didn't realize, because the body belonged to Jason.