The Arrows of Artemis
***All quotes come from the "Orion" page on the Theoi Greek Mythology website.***
Prologue
The letters arrived with quiet menace. They arrived on the same night, even though the delivery locations were hundreds, even thousands, of miles apart. It was unclear who or what sent them. The anonymity only added to the threatening vibe.
Annabeth Chase, in New York, was the first to wake up and find her letter. It had been slipped beneath her dorm room door. Frowning, she picked up the small square of what felt like leather and read the words inked into it:
The billows swelled with rage, and the hurricane arose against man…and Orion was more wrathful than his wont.
The meaning didn't totally make sense, but she knew enough to recognize a threat. A trickle of dread slid down her spine.
Hazel Levesque, waking up before sunrise for guard duty, was the second to locate her letter. Disturbingly, she found it pinned to the side of her bunk in the Fifth Cohort barracks. Her letter, too, was inked onto leather and read:
Orion with his golden bow is on watch during the night.
Her golden eyes darkened as she recalled the stories her brother Nico had shared about the giant. She crumpled the leather in her fist, then shoved it in her pocket while she finished getting ready to head up to the Caldecott Tunnel for her guard shift. She would deal with the letter later. Duty to camp came first.
Piper McLean found her letter next. It had been slipped into the frame of her mirror in her bedroom at her dad's Malibu mansion. The letter caught her attention as it fluttered in the breeze blowing through her open window. She knew instantly that it didn't belong and snatched the leather square off the mirror. Her eyes narrowed as she read the message written in splotchy ink:
So vast a blade does threatening Orion wield on winter nights and terrify the stars.
Like her friends, Piper didn't understand exactly what it meant, but she knew enough to make some calls. Grabbing a prism and a couple drachmas, she stomped into her en suite bathroom to make a rainbow in the mist from the shower, like Annabeth had showed her.
Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano was the last to find her letter. She'd been up late supervising some projects, so she slept in a little bit past her normal time. The opportunity to rest an extra hour was one of the perks of having Frank Zhang to share the duties of being praetor. By the time she'd woken up and showered, it was nearly nine. Unbeknownst to Reyna, Piper McLean had already been in contact with Annabeth Chase. And at this moment, Hazel Levesque was arranging someone to cover her guard shift so she could come speak to Reyna. But Reyna herself was blissfully unaware of the trouble as she brushed her damp hair and padded barefoot into the front room of her house. However, her always alert eyes lit immediately on the leather scrap lying on the floor by her front door. Her eyebrows drew together as she bent to retrieve it, then straightened to read what it said:
You are not like a son of Zeus…You did not kill that unhappy lover, bold Orion.
Cold fury rushed through Reyna. But it was chased through her veins by burning fear. The note was wrong. It had to be wrong. She had killed Orion. She'd strangled him with her cloak two months ago, then watched his body sink into the sea until it dissolved. The hunter was gone.
Wasn't he?
***Thanks for reading this super short little prologue! New chapters will be posted every two weeks, so Chapter 1 will be up May 6th.***