"This can't be happening," I gulped hard, pacing the length of the infirmary. "This can not be happening."

Percy and Annabeth watched me worriedly, perched on the edge of the bed beside Thalia's. My sister was sound asleep, just like she had been since Annabeth had found her a day ago. Beside her, Will Solace had his hands wrapped around Thalia's arm, his eyes closed and his lips murmuring a prayer to Apollo.

"Acacia, please calm down," Chiron sighed behind me.

I couldn't help scowling. "Calm down? How do you suppose I do that?"

"Stop shouting," he insisted quietly, and my lips twisted irritably, but I didn't make another sound, dropping my gaze to the floor as I continued to pace. Shouldn't I be happy? My sister wasn't dead. She was going to be okay.

But my fingertips twitched and my hand lifted to the side of my throat. It was so unfair. She'd wake up, and I was going to have to tell her about a war she was never supposed to be a part of. I'd have to tell her that it was Luke's fault, and that I was dying. What hurt more was the things I couldn't tell her, the ones I couldn't tell anybody.

How were any of them to know that most of my mood was because of those stupid prophecies? Even my Father didn't know about one, I couldn't exactly explain it to them all. And Percy . . . was I going to tell him they were using me to get to him? Would I ever?

No, I decided. Because you aren't accepting godhood, so they can't ever do it. There's no point in annoying Percy with it, it's you they've hurt. A sour snort slipped my lips at the thought. Was I really still protecting them?

The thoughts only made me more angry.

"This is what Luke meant, isn't it?" Annabeth suddenly asked in a small voice, and my footsteps faltered, my narrowed eyes flicking sideways. Her own were red and puffy, and dried tears trailed down her cheeks.

"What do you mean?" Will blinked in confusion.

"Acacia said he wanted us to find the cure," she replied. "He wanted us to heal the tree."

"He wanted to use the Fleece to bring Kronos back," Percy interrupted sourly.

"Do not say that name here, Percy," Chiron warned under his breath, and Percy grimaced apologetically.

"Do you really think Luke would have given you the Fleece back?" Will questioned. "To bring Thalia back?"

"Yes," I answered shortly. "Yes, he would." They shot me a questioning look, but no one said anything. There was no doubt in my mind that Luke would do just about anything anymore. He and Thalia had obviously been close, but aside from that, there was now one more demigod to manipulate for the Great Prophecy.

I pulled a face and started pacing again. "If he even thinks about touching her-" My teeth gnawed my bottom lip in a mixture of anxiety and anger.

"Right with you," Percy agreed darkly, and Annabeth nodded curtly.

"Do you think she's okay?" she asked, her eyes shining as she turned back to Will.

He sighed heavily, checking her pulse for what felt like the hundredth time. "Her muscles are a little weak and unsteady, but her pulse is strong and she seems healthy. She's gonna be exhausted for a while, though. It'll take some training to get her strength back comple-"

As he spoke, Thalia suddenly shifted with a quiet groan. Annabeth gasped quietly, her hands clamped around Percy's arm so tightly, his eyes widened and a wince slipped in his lips. I halted on the spot, holding my breath behind my teeth.

Will pulled his chair closer to the side of the bed and sat down. "Thalia? Can you hear me?"

She groaned, lifting a shaky hand to her head. "W-What happened?" she croaked, her voice catching several times in the back of her throat.

"You're in the infirmary at Camp Half-Blood," he continued. "Do you remember being brought here?" I winced at the memory. When Thalia had woken up at the tree, she'd barely been conscious. The longer she was awake, the less sense she began to make, until Percy had had to lift her onto Chiron's back to get her to the infirmary. She'd been muttering under her breath, but I'd only caught odd words.

She'd asked for Luke a lot.

"Camp?" she repeated in confusion.

"Camp Half-Blood," Will agreed. He frowned in concern when she didn't answer, glancing between the rest of us. "Your sister, Acacia, is here."

"Acacia?" Thalia asked hopefully, and my lips pursed. But then she sighed heavily. "No, she can't be. She wouldn't leave. She's still . . ." She trailed off, and I flinched, automatically stepping forward to Thalia's other side and sinking onto the bed beside her.

"Thalia?" Her eyes flickered, and I forced myself to smile as best as I could. "Hey, remember me?" I questioned.

She gulped. "Acacia? You're really here?"

"Yeah," I agreed. "And I'm kind of screwing things up a little."

That made her lips pull into a shaky smile. "I can't leave you alone for five minutes, can I?" she replied with a soft laugh that made her cough and splutter.

"Hate to break it to you, Tal, but it's been a little longer than five minutes."

She blinked a few more times, staring up at me in confusion. I met her gaze unwaveringly, trying not to look as sad and grief-stricken as I felt. "You're old," she told me blandly, and I laughed.

"Fourteen is not old," I retorted calmly, but if anything, it only made her worse.

"It's been ten years?" she gawped, suddenly scrambling to push herself up. "But Luke - Annabeth - Grover - where-"

"I'm right here," Annabeth suddenly rushed, pushing herself up to stand beside me with a tight smile.

Thalia blinked, staring at her. "What happened? I don't remember . . . I remember the hill, and the monsters, and - and dying, and then . . ." She trailed off, suddenly looking panicked.

"Thalia," Chiron started, wheeling forward and smiling gratefully at Will when he took a step back. "You are an incredibly brave young girl. Your sacrifice on Half-Blood Hill allowed your friends to live, and in recognition of that, your father used your life force to create your pine tree that has created and maintained the protective borders all around camp. The risk you took has allowed countless demigods to live in safety and peace, and we will never be able to thank you enough for that."

My sister looked stunned and confused all at the same, sat staring at him with a slack jaw. "W-Who . . .?" she trailed awkwardly, staring around the room.

I cleared my throat. "Thalia, this is Chiron, the activities director here. Behind him is Will Solace, he's one of the best healers from the Apollo cabin, and behind Annabeth is Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon."

She managed a small smile with a wave of her hand. "Hey."

"It's only natural to feel a little disorientated," Will assured her, and she shot him a disbelieving look with a small scoff.

"Way to state the obvious," she muttered. Annabeth pulled a face at her, but he just smiled softly.

"With any luck, you should be out of here by the end of the week."

"What day is it now?"

"Monday."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "You're just a little ray of sunshine, aren't you?" He blinked in surprise, but I found myself choking with a small laugh, trying to hide it behind my hand. She glanced at me cautiously. "So, how does my baby sister end up at Camp Half-Blood? Last I heard, you refused point blank to move."

I didn't feel any better about that when I noted the sourness still in her voice. "I, err, wasn't given a whole lot of choice," I admitted with a grimace.

"What?" she asked, frowning tightly.

I glanced sideways at Annabeth and Percy for support, but they only turned and pretended not to notice. "Thanks guys," I grumbled, before taking a deep breath. "I was fine at home for years-"

"Fine?" Thalia snorted. "Acey, no one was fine where Mom was concerned."

Percy scoffed loudly. "Whoa, wait . . . Acey?"

I glowered. "Shut up, Percy."

"I'm not saying anything," he laughed, holding his hands out in surrender.

"Anyway," I continued, trying and failing to shake my scowl away. Thalia's lips pursed in a vain attempt to hide her smirk. "The monsters didn't find me until I was about seven, and even then it started slow. One or two every few weeks eventually turned into one or two every day. I remembered a few finding you, and I knew they existed, but I never knew why until I forced Mum to tell me the truth."

Thalia's expression darkened. "How'd you manage that?"

I shrugged. "I waited until she was sleeping and hid the bourbon. The point is, when she finally told me the truth, I started to realise I could do more. I could control the wind, lightning, make it rain. It helped, but eventually it just got too much. One day, I found a huge group of them, but they were organised."

"Monsters don't organise," she argued.

"That's the point," I said. "Turns out, they were sent by Hades to take me to the Underworld." She choked. "Yeah," I winced. "It wasn't exactly my best year."

"Year?" she breathed.

"Not my worst, either," I admitted with a twisted expression.

"What?" she gawped. "What in the name of Zeus have you been doing, Ace?" There was an uneasy silence, filled with awkward looks from Chiron, Will, Percy and Annabeth. I gnawed my bottom lip gently. "Start talking, Acacia," Thalia demanded.

"Alright," I sighed. "But you aren't going to like it."

Chiron cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should leave the girls to talk? Percy? Annabeth? Don't you have classes to teach?"

"That depends," Percy yawned. "If Clarisse tries to tip one of the new kids out of the canoes again-"

"I'm sure she'll behave," Chiron insisted.

"Do you know Clarisse?" Percy snorted sourly as the group moved towards the door.

I waited until all of them had left and closed the door behind them before perching myself on the side of the bed, folding my legs underneath me carefully. "Where do you want me to start?" I asked cautiously.

"Erm, the beginning?" she suggested sourly. "How is it my baby sister ends up in the Underworld for a year, and then at Camp Half-Blood? How did you get out?"

My lips twisted. "Athena found out Hades was holding me prisoner," I told her honestly. "By all accounts, Zeus was furious. They managed to get him to release me, wiped my memory and sent me to leave in the UK. Glasgow in Scotland, to be precise."

"Wiped your memory?" Thalia clarified.

"You have no idea how much that confused me," I scoffed with a small laugh. "I was taken in by a woman named Mary Cunningham and her little girl, Felicity. I had absolutely no idea about any of it until our class took a trip to New York and my Chemistry teacher turned out to be a Kindly One. Luckily, Percy was there, too."

"The son of Poseidon kid?" she frowned.

I pulled a face at her. "He saved my life, Tal," I assured her. "He's been great since I got here. It's not exactly easy by the child of the Big Three at the moment, let alone since everyone here knows about the year I spent in the Underworld, and Percy gets it. When we got here, Zeus's Lightning Bolt had been stolen from Mount Olympus, and Percy and Poseidon got the blame."

"How does someone steal a Lightning Bolt like that?" Her eyes were wide and stunned.

I felt something twitch in my expression and I had to sit on my hands to stop myself drawing attention to my scar, currently hidden beneath my upturned collar. "Carefully, I guess. The point is, it wasn't Percy, and the two of us, along with Annabeth and Grover, managed to get it back to Mount Olympus in time to stop Zeus and Poseidon going to war."

She frowned curiously. "Did you find out who stole it?" My lips pursed. "Ace?"

"Would you please stop calling me that?" I rushed with a wince.

"You never used to hate it," she blinked.

"I was four," I reasoned, unwilling to admit my sudden dislike for my nickname had anything to do with Apollo's insistence on using it.

Thalia only rolled her eyes. "Fine. Have it your way, Acacia. Who stole the bolt?"

This was the part I was dreading. Thalia and Luke had obviously been close, so close I was beginning to worry whether she'd even believe me if I told her the truth. But I had no choice. "Luke Castellan stole it," I told her, and her face dropped.

For a moment, she said nothing, the light and storm in her eyes shifting in fear. "No," she gulped, shaking her head. "He can't have. He wouldn't."

I tried not to let that irritate me, but suddenly, my scar was tingling. "I'm sorry, Tal, but he did. He admitted it."

"What? When?"

"About the same time he led a monster army into an attack against camp and killed three half-bloods," I told her, and only realised my tone was too bland and blunt when her expression hardened.

"Why?" she demanded. "Luke wouldn't . . . why - I don't understand, this makes no sense!"

My teeth ground together. "He believes that the gods have deserted us, and that he could do things better than them. By bringing the Titans back."

"Are you mad?" Thalia scowled. "Luke was always angry at Hermes, but even he wouldn't-"

"Yes, Thalia, he would!" I interrupted irritably, and her face straightened. That one change, the defiant look in her eyes, pushed me over the edge. Of all the people to take his side, why her? My own sister. Groaning in anger, I pushed myself away from her bed furiously.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you didn't wake up to find Camp exactly the way you left it and I'm sorry your boyfriend is a head-case! But don't tell me I'm wrong! I'm the one he kidnapped and beat repeatedly, I'm the one who went through the Sea of Monsters to get the Golden Fleece after he poisoned and almost killed your tree, and I'm the one he's slowly murdering, so don't sit there and defend him, because I can't take much more of it!"

For a long, tense moment, the two of us remained rigid, staring straight at each other. But as I watched, the anger in her eyes faded, being replaced by a fear and loss I recognised all too well.

"He can't," she insisted, but her voice was quiet and weak. "Not you. He wouldn't hurt you, he swore - he promised me-" She broke off as my face fell in shock, and something in my chest sunk horribly.

"I'm sorry, Thalia," I gulped. "Really, I am."

But she wasn't listening. Instead, she turned away, pale and shaking, and lowered herself back down against the pillow. As she drew the sheets up around her shoulders, I took a shaky breath, blinking a few more times than necessary and turning for the door to let myself out. I didn't stop to think; I'd thought about everything too much recently. I just bolted out of the room and down the stairs.

Still, before I could even reach the door, I looked up and saw my father sat in exactly the same seat as he had yesterday.

"Good morning, Acacia," he greeted, and I was stunned to see a pale looking Percy wavering opposite him.

My cousin cleared his throat. "I-I'll leave you two to talk," he muttered, spinning and almost racing for the front door.

I gulped, taking a shaky step forward. "What was that about?"

Zeus lifted an eyebrow. "Nothing you should concern yourself with," he answered easily, brushing a piece of lint off the collar of his suit. "Do you have an answer for me?"

My face straightened. Apollo. The prophecies. The tests.

"No," I told him.

"You don't?"

"No, I mean, my answer is no. For all of it."

His eyebrows tightened a fraction, and he shifted in his seat as he scanned my expression. "Sit down," he instructed, pointing at the chair opposite him. Immediately, I crossed the room and did as I was told. "What do you mean, all of it?"

"The tests, the prophecy . . . Apollo . . . all of it," I shrugged. "I want nothing to do with it."

"I'm not sure you can make that choice, Acacia," he warned. "You cannot avoid prophecies forever."

His words made me shudder. If only you knew about the second, I thought to myself dryly. "I can this time," I persisted. "You were right, I don't want to see Apollo again. And the tests, I won't finish them."

"I beg your pardon?" he blinked, obviously caught by surprise.

But despite the shot of fear that sent through me, I didn't let it stop me. "You were going to grant me godhood at the end, and Apollo has already told me that's the only way to save me from the poison. If I don't finish the tests, I don't get immortality, and that means I'll die before I get to sixteen. The prophecy can't mean me if I'm not here."

Zeus's expression remained neutral, but something shifted in the back of his eyes. "And this is what you want?" he clarified quietly. "You'd rather we allowed you to die than join the gods on Mount Olympus."

"I'd rather let the poison kill me than be used as blackmail against my best friend and spend the rest of eternity with-" I cut off, a lump suddenly forming in my throat. Apollo, a voice in the back of my mind whispered. You meant Apollo.

My father straightened in his seat. "There are more ways to gain immortality than accepting godhood, Acacia," he told me quietly. "Artemis would be more than willing to allow you to join her huntresses."

"No," I replied immediately, unable to stop myself scowling at the idea. As far as I was concerned, she was as bad as her brother. She must have known what Apollo had been up to if she'd sent Sasha for me in the first place.

"And why not?" he demanded.

"Because I don't want her help any more than I want his," I replied, trying to keep my voice level.

His jaw locked, "You expect me to sit back and watch my daughter die?" he questioned.

"Yes," I answered with a croak in my throat.

He paused. "And this is truly what you want?"

"It is."

Glowering, Zeus pushed himself to his feet and straightened his suit out sharply. "Very well. I shall inform the Olympians. From now on, you are no longer expected to finish your tests. Any Olympian found communicating with you personally for whatever reason will be charged with interference."

I kept my expression perfectly straight, watching him turn and let himself out of the room. The door clipped shut behind him, and in that moment, I was all too aware I'd sealed my fate.

I'd removed myself from the Great Prophecy. From the other . . . I wasn't sure if what I was doing was right or wrong, but I did know I needed to put as much distance between me and the Sun God as possible.