Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. Enjoy, and thanks for all the reviews, kudoses, etc. Greek words are: bitch, damn you to Tartarus, and damn you. (Ana has a very salty mouth, because honestly, in her situation, who wouldn't?)
Chapter Five
A Dream of Disaster and Betrayal
It was a struggle to swim out of the lake. I was a bad swimmer at the best of times, and currently the water was rough and dark. I guess no one needed to tell Poseidon what had happened to his daughter. Eventually though, with help from the naiads, we were all out of the lake and standing on the beach.
Camp Half-Blood is always beautiful, but Ana said last year that she thought it was almost magical in the winter. It's protected by weather wards, so nothing gets inside the borders unless Mr. D wants it to. Typically, it's all warm and sunny, but during winter the snow is allowed to fall lightly.
Frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they were real balls of fire. More lights glowed in the woods, and, (I always find this a little bit creepy) a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle dwelt, imprisoned in an old mummified body.
Ana had wondered once if the spirit of Delphi roasted marshmallows up there or something. The thought had freaked both of us out, and we had mutually decided not to think about it ever again. My heart hurt as I remembered Ana's delight last winter. It hadn't started to snow last time she left.
"Whoa," Nico was wide-eyed with amazement as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"
"Yeah," I nodded.
"Why is there lava pouring down it?"
"Little extra challenge. Come on. I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoe—"
"Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight," Zoe cut me off curtly. "Hunters, follow me."
"I'll show you the way," Grover offered.
"We know the way."
"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here, if you don't"—he tripped over a canoe and came up still talking (maybe the empathy link gave him Ana's ability to breathe under water?)—"like my old daddy goat used to say! Come on!"
Zoe rolled her eyes, but I guess she figured there was no getting rid of Grover. The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. As Bianca was leaving, she leaned over and whispered something in her brother's ear. She looked at him for an answer, but Nico just scowled and turned away. I felt a jab of contempt for her. Bianca had chosen the selfish path, and I had little to no patience for that type of person. Ana would never choose herself or someone else and it seemed like a terrible trade, her for Bianca.
"Take care, sweethearts!" Apollo called after the Hunters. He winked at me. "See you soon, Luke."
My eyes widened, but in alarm, not pleasure. "What do you mean?"
Instead of answering, he hopped back in the bus. "Later, Thalia," he called. "And, uh, be good!"
He gave her a wicked smile, as if he knew something she didn't. Then he closed the doors and revved the engine. I turned aside as the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. When I looked back, the lake was steaming. A red Maserati soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight.
Nico was still looking grumpy. I wondered what his sister had told him.
"Who's Chiron?" he asked. "I don't have his figurine."
"Our activities director," I said. "He's… well, you'll see."
"If those Hunter girls don't like him," Nico grumbled, "that's good enough for me. Let's go."
The thing I always found strangest about camp in the winter was how empty it was. I mean, most half-bloods only trained during the summer. Just the year-rounders would be here—the ones who didn't have homes to go to, or would get attacked by monsters too much if they left. But there didn't even seem to be many of them, either.
Ana herself was technically a year-rounder, but she tended to get restless if forced to stay in one place more than a few weeks. As a child, it had resulted in her dividing her time between seventeen different foster homes and the streets in about four years (her mother died when she was eight, and then she came to camp at twelve). Now it meant that she wandered in and out of camp and her mom's old beach house on Montauk as she pleased. What would happen to Ana's beloved cabin with the sandy bedsheets if we didn't find her? I didn't think that I could bear to step foot in it again. Not without her.
I spotted Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin stoking the forge outside the camp armoury. The only full siblings in camp, my brothers Travis and Connor Stoll (and yes, everyone makes the Stoll/stole joke), were picking the lock on the camp store. A few kids from the Ares cabin were having a snowball fight with the wood nymphs at the edge of the forest. That was about it. Truthfully, it was a relief. The less people around, the less hearts I had to break when I revealed Ana's fate. She was friendly with everyone, even Athena's children (Ana had no interest in playing out her father's feuds), but she had a particular group of close friends, and I was dreading telling them what had happened.
The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but nothing caught on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlour.
Chiron's brown beard was shaggier for the winter. His curly hair had grown a little longer. He wore a fuzzy sweater with a hoofprint design on it, and he had a blanket on his lap that almost hid his wheelchair completely.
He smiled when he saw us. "Luke! Thalia! Ah, and this must be—"
"Nico di'Angelo," I introduced, waving at the small boy, who was getting excited all over again. "He and his sister are half-bloods."
Chiron breathed a sigh of relief. "You succeeded, then."
"Well…"
His smile melted. "What's wrong? And where is Ana?"
"Oh, dear," Mr. D said in a bored voice, "Not another one lost."
I clenched my fist in reflexive anger at his callous words. I'd been trying not to pay attention to Mr. D, but he was kind of hard to ignore in his neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and his purple running shoes. (Like Mr. D had ever run a day in his immortal life. I sometimes seriously doubted whether or not he had ever actually been a demigod. He certainly didn't care about us, anyway. In fact, I think he cares even less about half-bloods than the gods who were born immortal do.) A golden laurel wreath was tilted sideways on his curly black hair, which must've meant he'd won the last hand of cards.
"What do you mean?" Thalia asked sharply. "Who else is lost?"
I frowned, wondering if someone else had gone off to join the Titans. Only a few had, mainly due to Ana regularly reminding everyone that there would be no demigods without gods, but some still hated our godly parents enough to choose half-blood extinction in exchange for revenge. Truthfully, I didn't really blame them. I'm honest enough to admit that it's my love for my siblings, friends, and Chiron that keep me from joining the Titans. Not my 'loyalty' to the gods.
Just then, Grover trotted into the room, grinning like crazy. He had a black eye and red lines on his face that looked like a slap mark. "The Hunters are all moved in!" I shoved down a flare of fury that he was so cheerful when Ana was missing. How could he? She was supposed to be his best friend! When he had gone missing last summer, Ana had been out of her mind with worry, not flirting with people who didn't give half a damn about her!
Chiron frowned. "The Hunters, eh? I see we have much to talk about." He glanced at Nico. "Grover, perhaps you should take our young friend to the den and show him our orientation film."
"But… Oh, right. Yes, sir."
"Orientation film?" Nico repeated. "Is it G or PG? 'Cause Bianca is kinda strict—"
"It's PG-13," Grover told him.
"Cool!" Nico happily followed him out of the room.
"Now," Chiron said to Thalia and me, "perhaps you two should sit down and tell us the whole story."
When we were done, Chiron turned to Mr. D. "We should launch a search for Ana right away."
"I'll go," Thalia and I declared at the same time.
Mr. D sniffed. "Certainly not!"
Thalia and I both started protesting, but Mr. D held up his hand. He had that purplish angry fire in his eyes that usually meant something bad and godly was going to happen if we didn't shut up.
"From what you have told me," Mr. D said, "we have broken even on this escapade. We have, ah, regrettably lost Amy—"
"Ana," I snapped. She'd gone to camp for over a year now, saved the world and camp itself, and still Mr. D pretended not to know her name.
"Yes, yes," he said. "And you procured a small annoying boy to replace her. So I see no point risking further half-bloods on a ridiculous rescue. The possibility is very great that this Abby girl is dead."
I wanted to strangle Mr. D. It wasn't fair Zeus had sent him here to dry out as camp director for a hundred years. It was meant to be a punishment for Mr. D's bad behaviour on Olympus, but it ended up being a punishment for all of us. And how dare he claim that Nico could replace Ana? She was Anaea Jackson, the only mortal daughter of Poseidon in recorded history, and a candidate for the Great Prophecy! She was my Ariel. Ana was irreplaceable, completely unique. No one could ever take her place. Ever.
"Ana may be alive," Chiron said, but I could tell he was having trouble sounding upbeat. He'd doted on Ana since she first stepped foot in Camp Half-Blood. Maybe even since he met her in Yancy Academy. Ana herself considered him the closest thing she had to a parent. This had to be difficult on her. "She's very bright. If… if our enemies have her, she will do her best to stay alive until she can escape. And they won't be quick to, to kill her."
"That's right," Thalia agreed. "She might be the Prophecy Child. Annabeth and Ethan would want her alive, to try and use her."
"In which case," said Mr. D, "I'm afraid she will have to be smart enough to escape on her own."
I got up from the table.
"Luke." Chiron's tone was full of warning. I was about to ignore him and tell Dionysus just what I thought of him, but I was interrupted when Nico burst into the room, followed by Grover.
"SO COOL!" Nico yelled, holding his hands out to Chiron. "You're a centaur!"
Chiron managed a strained smile. "Yes, Mr. Di'Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer to stay in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."
"And, whoa!" He looked at Mr. D. "You're the wine dude? No way!"
Mr. D turned his eyes away from me and gave Nico a look of pure loathing. "The wine dude?"
"Dionysus, right? Oh, wow! I've got your figurine."
"My figurine."
"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you've only got like five hundred attack points and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card, I totally think your powers are sweet!"
"Ah." Mr. D seemed truly perplexed, which is a memory I will savour for years. "Well, that's… gratifying."
"Luke," Chiron said quickly, taking advantage of Mr. D's distraction. "you and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we'll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening."
"Capture the flag?" I blinked. "But we don't have enough—"
"It is a tradition," Chiron explained. "A friendly match, whenever the Hunters come for a visit."
"Yeah," Thalia muttered. "I bet it's real friendly."
Chiron jerked his head toward Mr. D, who was still frowning as Nico talked about how many defence points all the gods had in his game. "Run along now," Chiron told us in a pointed tone of voice.
"Oh, right," Thalia said. "Come on, Luke."
She hauled me out of the Big House before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill me.
"What were you thinking, Luke?" Thalia huffed at me as we trudged toward the cabins. "You're not Ana or me. You've got no protection against immortal enemies, remember?"
She was right. With them being the only (known, considering the facts, I doubted the gods bothered to keep their oaths at all, River Styx or not) children of the Big Three, no god dared to outright kill them, even if we all doubted their fathers would actually care. Not to mention the whole Prophecy thing. But my father had dozens of kids at the moment. He probably didn't even remember me, let alone my poor, insane mother. I had no safeguards against enraged gods killing me for insulting them somehow.
"Sorry," I sighed. "I know. It's just..." I trailed off, my gaze going to Ana's cabin, where she slept alone (save for my regular visits to her bedroom for cuddles whenever one of us had a nightmare. Would I ever curl up in her purple duvet (she had hated the under water colour scheme, always resenting being forced into a stereotype) again?
She stopped by the armoury and looked out across the valley, toward the top of Half-Blood Hill. Her pine tree was still there, the Golden Fleece glittering in its lowest branch. The tree's magic still protected the borders of camp, but it no longer used Thalia's spirit for power.
"Life's not fair, Luke, you know that" Thalia muttered. "Sometimes I wish…"
She didn't finish, but her tone was so sad it broke my heart. Thalia was like my favourite sister, and it broke my heart whenever I caught a glimpse her heartbreak. With her ragged black hair and her black punk clothes, an old wool overcoat wrapped around her, she looked like some kind of huge raven, completely out of place in the white landscape.
"We'll get Ana back," I promised. "I just don't know how yet, but I won't lose her as well."
"First I found out that Annabeth is lost," she said. "Now Ana— She's the only one who gets it-"
Translation: Ana was the only one who knew how to felt to be cursed because her father broke an unbreakable oath, and the fear of knowing you could be the one to destroy the world, and everything in it. As much as I tried, I knew that I would never fully understand what that felt like. It would be an insult to them both if I pretended that I could.
"We're gonna get her back," I insisted hoarsely. "It's Ana. She'll make it through this. She's tough. Hades, she'll live just to spite everybody who thought she wouldn't be able to."
"You're right." She straightened up, a hint of a smirk lifting her lips the slightest amount. "We'll find a way to get her back."
Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.
"I'll break that up," Thalia said, gesturing towards them. "You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about capture the flag tomorrow."
"All right. You should be team captain."
"No, no," she said. "You've been at camp longer. You do it."
"We'll co-captain," I compromised.
She gave a swift nod of assent before she trudged off toward the court, where the Ares camper and the Hunter had started trying to kill each other with a sword and a basketball.
The cabins were the weirdest collection of buildings you've ever seen. Zeus and Hera's big white-columned buildings, Cabins One and Two, stood in the middle, with five gods' cabins on the left and five goddesses' cabins on the right, so they all made a U around the central green and the barbecue hearth. Ana hung out there a lot, chatting with Hestia apparently. Hestia was the only god or goddess Ana had ever shown admiration for, and I mentally promised to give her some of my dinner, the way Ana usually did.
I made the rounds, telling everybody about capture the flag. I woke up some Ares kid from his midday nap and he yelled at me to go away. I bit my lip as I realized who the other missing demigod was. Clarisse had gone on a mission for Chiron, and just a few days ago Ana had mentioned over IM that she was beginning to get worried about her, seeing as there'd been no word for a while. I asked about Clarisse, but he said he didn't know. After he threatened to make me go MIA as well, I decided to let him go back to sleep.
Finally I arrived at Cabin Three, the cabin of Poseidon. Ana's home. It was a low grey building hewn from sea stone, with shells and coral fossils imprinted in the rock. I stared at it for a moment, before entering on impulse.
Ana had hung a curtain up around the area surrounding her bed, giving herself a bit of privacy and making it feel smaller and less empty. I slipped behind it, sat on her bed, and just stared around dully.
Her duvet was purple, with gold trimming, and a matching pillowcase. The walls were covered with various posters and a floor-length mirror to disguise the stone wall. She had an oak bedframe and matching desk, shelves, bedside table and drawer. It was tidy enough, with the bedside table cluttered with photos, various knickknacks and CDs on the shelves, a camp t-shirt dangling out of the half-open drawer. Her first spoil of war, the Minotaur's horn, hung on a hook beside the back door that led to the beach. The desk had some stuff on it too, but she had tidied it well-enough before going back to Montauk, so it wasn't as bad as usual.
I took Ana's bracelet out of my pocket, and activated the shield. It creaked noisily as it spiralled out. Doctor Thorn's spikes had dented the brass in a dozen places. One gash kept the shield from opening all the way, so it looked like a pizza with two slices missing. The beautiful metal pictures that Tyson had crafted were all banged up. In the picture of Ana and I fighting the Hydra, it looked like a meteor had made a crater in Ana's head. I shuddered and hung the shield on its' hook, next to the Minotaur horn, but it was painful to look at now. Ana would be devastated if she saw that. Maybe Beckendorf could fix it for me, so I could give it back to her when I got her to back. He was the best armoursmith in the camp. I'd ask him at dinner. He would understand the urgency of getting it fixed quickly, so Ana wouldn't be as upset when she came home. Which she would.
I was staring at the shield when I noticed a strange sound—water gurgling—and I realized there was something new in the room. I stood and pulled open the curtain, staring in surprise at the back of the cabin. Against the stone wall was a big basin of grey sea rock, with a spout like the head of a fish carved in stone. Out of its' mouth burst a stream of water, a saltwater spring that trickled into the pool. The water must've been hot, because it sent mist into the cold winter air like a sauna. It made the room feel warm and summery, fresh with the smell of the sea.
I stepped up to the pool. There was no note attached or anything, but I knew it could only be a gift from Poseidon to his daughter. Times like this, I got the odd feeling that Poseidon might actually care about her. Not that I'd ever say that to her, though. Ana coped by convincing herself that she and Poseidon shared a love of the sea, and that was their sole link. She wouldn't be able to deal with the thought of him caring. Not after everything she had been through.
I looked into the water. "On Ana's behalf, thank you, my lord."
The surface rippled. At the bottom of the pool, coins shimmered—a dozen or so golden drachma. I realized what the fountain was for. It was for Ana to keep in touch with the people she loved. And I needed to make a call.
I opened the nearest window, and the wintry sunlight made a rainbow in the mist. I could see the ocean churning unhappily at the beach, reflecting Poseidon's anger. Then I fished a coin out of the hot water.
"Iris, O Goddess of the Rainbow," I muttered, "accept my offering."
I tossed a coin into the mist and it disappeared. "Show me Tyson," I requested. "At the forges of the Cyclopes."
The mist shimmered, and the image of Ana's half-brother appeared. He was surrounded in fire, which would've been a problem if he weren't a Cyclops. He was bent over an anvil, hammering a red-hot sword blade. Sparks flew and flames swirled around his body. There was a marble-framed window behind him, and it looked out onto dark blue water—the bottom of the ocean. As far as I could see, Poseidon's wrath was not disturbing the depths, only the surface of the water.
"Tyson!" I yelled.
He didn't hear me at first because of the hammering and the roar of the flames.
"TYSON!"
He turned, and his one enormous eye widened. His face broke into a crooked yellow grin. "Luke!"
He dropped the sword blade and ran at me, trying to give me a hug. The vision blurred and I instinctively lurched back. "Tyson, it's an Iris-message. I'm not really here." It still amazed me that he seemed to like me so much, after I'd been so cold to him originally. Then again, he was a bit like a brain damaged child, so he probably hadn't even realized that I'd disliked him.
"Oh." He came back into view, looking embarrassed. "Oh, I knew that. Yes."
"How are you?" I asked, trying to delay the inevitable conversation that had triggered my call. "How's the job?"
His eye lit up. "Love the job! Look!" He picked up the hot sword blade with his bare hands. "I made this!"
"That's really cool."
"I wrote my name on it. Right there."
"Awesome. So you're having fun then."
Tyson's smile faded. "Some. But I don't see Daddy much. He is busy. He is worried about the war."
"What do you mean?" If one of the Big Three was worried, that didn't spell good things for our future.
Tyson sighed. He stuck the sword blade out the window, where it made a cloud of boiling bubbles. When Tyson brought it back in, the metal was cool. "Old sea spirits making trouble. Aigaios. Oceanus. Those guys."
I recognized the gods he was talking about. He meant the immortals who ruled the oceans back in the days of the Titans. Before the Olympians took over. The fact that they were back now, with the Titan Lord Kronos and his allies gaining strength, was not good.
Tyson shook his head sadly as he continued. "We are arming the mermaids. They need a thousand more swords by tomorrow." He looked at his sword blade and sighed. "Old spirits are protecting the bad boat."
"The Princess Andromeda?" I established. "Ethan's boat?" Easier to think of Ethan as an enemy then Annabeth.
"Yes. They make it hard to find. Protect it from Daddy's storms. Otherwise he would smash it."
"Smashing it would be good."
Tyson perked up, as if he'd just had another thought. "Sissy! Is she there?"
"Oh, well…" My heart fell and I knew that I couldn't avoid the inevitable any longer. Tyson adored his sister, who'd acted as best friend, mother and protective elder sister to him for months. But when I opened my mouth to say what had happened, I couldn't bring myself to shatter his cheerful innocence. Ana wouldn't want me to, either. "Well, no… she's not here right now. She just asked me to call and check up on you for her, because she won't be able to for a while."
"Tell her hello!" He beamed. "Hello and I love her to Sissy!"
"Okay." I fought back a lump in my throat. "I'll do that. She loves you too."
He beamed and nodded confidently at that. "And, Luke, tell Ana not to worry about the bad boat. It is going away."
"What do you mean?"
"Panama Canal! Very far away."
I frowned. Why would Annabeth and Ethan take their demon-infested cruise ship all the way down there? The last time we'd seen them, they'd been cruising along the East Coast, recruiting half-bloods and training their monstrous army.
"All right," I said, not feeling reassured. "That's… good. I guess."
In the forges, a deep voice bellowed something I couldn't make out. Tyson flinched. "Got to get back to work! Boss will get mad. Good luck, Luke! Remember to tell Sissy I love her."
"Of course," I choked out as the vision shimmered and faded. I was alone again in Ana's cabin, feeling even worse than before.
I was pretty miserable at dinner that night.
I mean, the food was excellent as usual. You can't go wrong with barbecue, pizza, and never-empty soda goblets. usually it would be more Greek and healthier, but Chiron got lax during the winter for some reason. The torches and braziers kept the outdoor pavilion warm, but we all had to sit with our cabin mates, which meant I was sitting between Travis and Lou Ellen, a daughter of Hecate. Thalia sat alone at the Zeus table, but I couldn't sit with her. Camp rules. Nico sat between Travis and Connor. The two were trying to convince Nico that poker was a much better game than Mythomagic. I hoped Nico didn't have any money to lose.
The only table that really seemed to be having a good time was the Artemis table. The Hunters drank and ate and laughed like one big happy family. Zoe sat at the head like she was the matriarch. She didn't laugh as much as the others, but she did give a small smile from time to time. Her silver lieutenant's band glittered in the dark braids of her hair. Bianca di'Angelo seemed to be having a great time. She was trying to learn how to arm wrestle from the big girl who'd picked a fight with the Ares kid on the basketball court. The bigger girl was beating her every time, but Bianca didn't seem to mind. After being reminded of Ana and Tyson's closeness, despite everything that separated them, my contempt for how easily she had abandoned her brother only grew.
When we'd finished eating, Chiron made the customary toast to the gods and formally welcomed the Hunters of Artemis. The clapping was pretty half-hearted. Then he announced the "good will" capture-the-flag game for tomorrow night, which got a lot better reception.
Afterward, we all trailed back to our cabins for an early lights out. I was exhausted, which meant I fell asleep easily. That was the good part. The bad part was, I had a nightmare, and even by half-blood standards it was a whopper.
Ana was on a dark hillside, shrouded in fog. It almost seemed like the Underworld, because I immediately felt claustrophobic and I couldn't see the sky above—just a close, heavy darkness, as if I were in a cave.
She struggled up the hill, her sword raised in a guard position and giving out a faint bit of light for guidance as she scanned her surroundings. Blood coated her left arm, and I realized that one of Thorn's spikes had pierced her at some point. Old broken Greek columns of black marble were scattered around, as though something had blasted a huge building to rums, and every so often she used them for support, shuddering each time like it was poisonous or something.
"Thorn!" Ana cried, anger covering the fear I could make out in her beautiful sea-coloured eyes. "Where are you? Why did you bring me here?" She scrambled over a section of broken wall and came to the crest of the hill.
She gasped, tensing.
There was Annabeth. And she was in pain.
She was crumpled on the rocky ground, trying to rise. The blackness seemed to be thicker around her, fog swirling hungrily. Her clothes were in tatters and her face was scratched and drenched with sweat, I couldn't see what was wrong with her. She seemed to be struggling against some invisible curse, as though the fog itself was squeezing her to death. Any feelings of anger I felt towards her disappeared, and all I think was that I needed to help her.
Ana was not me, however, and her expression was cold as she reluctantly made her way to stand a few feet away from the other girl. "What happened to you?" she demanded icily.
Annabeth seemed to be trying to glare back at her, but she was too exhausted and weak to manage it.
"Wasn' supposed to be you," she mumbled.
"Too bad," Ana sneered. "What happened?"
"You need to take this from me, or I'll die," Annabeth replied, still not answering. I shuddered, feeling torn. On one hand, it was Annabeth, the little girl I had raised and sworn to protect. On the other, I didn't want Ana to take her place either.
"I'm okay with that," Ana replied honestly.
Annabeth somehow managed to glare at her, though she was trembling so badly it wasn't remotely frightening. Not that Ana had ever been intimidated by Annabeth before, anyway.
"Do you care about the 884,363 mortals who live in that city over there?" she gasped out. Ana went pale.
"You're lying," she whispered, but both Annabeth and I could read the worry and doubt in her face as she spoke. My heart grew heavy with anticipatory dread.
Annabeth gave a weak smirk. "I swear on the River Styx that I'm not," she replied. "I die, so does everyone within the surrounding couple of thousand yards."
"You rotten σκύλα," Ana snapped bitterly. I shook my head desperately as I watched her glance away, towards the city, obscured from our vision by the thick fog.
"Don't do it," I begged softly, though they obviously couldn't hear me. I didn't know if I was begging Ana not to give in to Annabeth's manipulations, or begging Annabeth to stop her treason. "Please don't do this."
Ana scowled and returned her sword to its' hairpin form and slipping it into her hair. "βλάκα σε Tartarus," she spat as she clenched her fists, not moving.
Then the darkness above Annabeth began to crumble, like a cavern roof in an earthquake. Huge chunks of black rock began falling. Ana rushed in just as a crack appeared, and the whole ceiling dropped. She held it somehow—tons of rock. She kept it from collapsing on her and Annabeth just with her own strength. It was impossible. She shouldn't have been able to do that. Ana's strength was in her abilities, not in pure brawn.
Annabeth rolled free, gasping with a horrible smirk on her face. I couldn't reconcile this monster with the little girl who I had loved as my baby sister. "Thanks," she chuckled darkly, making me recoil in pained anger.
"Πανάθεμά σε," Ana groaned. "Whatever you want, you won't get it."
Annabeth caught her breath. Her face was covered in grime and sweat. She rose unsteadily to her feet, and I noticed the knife I had given her dangling from her waist. I wanted to rip it away. I hated her. I hadn't really hated her before, even though I had pretended to, but now I genuinely despised her for everything she had done. Hadn't poisoning Thalia's tree been enough?
"You're so predictable, Ana. And, actually, I will. She's predictable as well." She began to walk away as the trembling blackness threatened to crush Ana underneath it. Already, she was drenched in sweat and struggling to hold the weight up, gasping in pain.
"Oh, don't worry," Annabeth added. "Your help is on the way. It's all part of the plan. In the meantime, try not to die."
The ceiling of darkness began to crumble again, pushing Ana flat against the ground.
I sat bolt upright in bed, clawing at the sheets. There was no sound in my cabin except for the occasional snores from my year-round roommates. The glow-in-the-dark clock on the wall read just after midnight.
It was only a dream, but I knew it was a demigod vison, and now I was sure of two things: First of all, Ana was even worse danger than I'd thought. And two, Annabeth was the one responsible for it.