Marie Billows' POV

My mother and grandmother always told me I was different, and it was pretty obvious why. I could see things that were yet to come. But when my suspicions of what I was came true, I thought my assumption of who my godly father was would too. But how wrong I was.

I had been wrong about things before, there's no doubt about that. Like when Lydia ended up being a demigod, that was a surprise to me, but I had the feeling that Ivy and Ian were children of Athena and my instincts were correct in that case. So, I guess it just depended on the situation.

But, ever since I was very young I've loved playing on the warm beach, reading poetry, listening to all types of music, and, of course, archery. Plus, with my prophetic ability, it just seemed to connect all the dots to who my father was. It had to be Apollo, it just had to be.

For the past year, where I lived with my grandparents. I was homeschooled, and my grandma was obsessed with me knowing everything I could about Greek and Roman mythology, so I considered myself to be quite informed in field. Maybe my grandma knew my mother had fallen in love with a god. It would explain a lot.After Capture the Flag was finished, we all headed towards a large campfire that seemed to reflect the moods of the campers, because at the moment it was big and red, kind of like the Ares cabin. Lydia was over with her cabin, the same with Ivy and Ian, who both seemed conflicted that they were on the winning team, but were now in the losing cabin. Understandable distress.

I sat down in between Cameron and Bekah, Bekah didn't seem to mind, but Cameron had a very uncomfortable look on his face.

"What's wrong, Cameron?" I asked him softly.

"Nothing." I heard him mutter. I looked over to Bekah to see if I did something wrong, but she just shrugged. Then, I spotted some girls that were from the Aphrodite cabin throwing mock kissy faces in Cameron's direction and pointing at his red and pink apparel, apparently finding it quite hilarious. I felt bad for him. I knew what it was like to feel like an outcast every day of your life. But in one lightning fast movement, I saw Cameron whip out his hot pink straw and shoot his made-with-love spitballs at the girls. Now one was making out with her make-up bag and the other with an unsuspecting Hephaestus camper. Bekah burst out laughing when she noticed this, and Cameron grinned proudly at his handy-work.

Suddenly, it happened again. A bright red symbol of a bow appeared over Cameron's head. Another from our group was claimed. But, I didn't recognize the symbol. No one else did either.

Chiron summoned Cameron to come down the bleachers over to him. Cameron awkwardly stood and approached the centaur until he was front and center, for the whole camp to see.

"All hail, Cameron Valparaiso, son of Eros, god of love." Chiron announced to the camp.

Another thing I hadn't seen coming. Was something happening to my abilities?

Everyone kneeled at Chiron's announcement, and everyone definitely seemed shocked. I guessed that children of Eros were rare. I saw only two people in the crowd who looked truly peeved though, Nico di Angelo, who I'd met at the infirmary earlier and a pretty Asian girl with pink eyeliner on from the Aphrodite cabin. She still seemed pretty upset that he enchanted two of her cabin members into a forced love trance.

The girl even proceeded to stand up and exclaim, "Excuse me? But there is only one true god, or should I properly say, goddess of love here at this camp, and that is Aphrodite. Who else agrees with me?" Many people began nodding their heads in agreement to her, I had to admit, her words were powerful.

Chiron called out for calm as he pointed out, "Eros, although I have never heard of him having a demigod child before, is an official god of love, and a child of Aphrodite herself. And until we get our main architect over here to discuss the construction of an Eros cabin, it makes the most logical sense for Cameron to stay in the Aphrodite cabin until then." This caused much protest from both Cameron and the Aphrodite cabin, but the discussion was over. Cameron dejectedly made his way over to where the Aphrodite kids were seated and sat down in an empty spot next a girl with blonde pigtails and pink and white braces showing as she smiled kindly at him.

I looked at Bekah, we were down to two, and this fact made me nervous.

The camp snapped out of their surprised mood and began singing various campfire songs. The night dragged on and on, but no one else got claimed. I headed back to the Hermes cabin at the end of the night with Bekah. Sleep was beginning to sound pretty good. We rolled out the sleeping bags that Travis and Conner handed us, and I was out like a light the second my head hit the pillow. But, then the nightmares came.

Flashes of different monsters attacking my new friends, a three headed dog growling menacingly at me, a bloody, silver bow thrown at my feet, and Nico di Angelo drowning, he was staring into my soul with a look of pure betrayal in his eyes.

I woke up in a cold sweat. It was always the visions that I had in my dreams that, without a doubt, came true every time. I shuddered.

Getting to my feet, my legs were shaking severely. I silently exited the cabin, making sure not to wake anyone. I sprinted to the lake, laid down on the beach, and listened to the flowing water. I was at complete peace until something squawked angrily at me. It was a chicken lady, I mean harpy from what I've been informed, and she looked furious yet cheerful at the same time. I realized why when I saw her lick her lips and squawk for her harpy friends to join in the new snack that she had found. I stumbled backwards and fell into the lake. I stood up quickly in the shallow water and kept my hand stretched out far in front of me as the harpies hurdled at me, feverous to attack.I clenched my eyes shut and waited for their claws to dig into me. What a way to spend my first day here, getting mauled by the cleaning harpies. But the attack didn't come, instead, the squawking ceased and cautiously opened my eyes to find unconscious harpies on the beach, all of them drenched in water like they were hit with a tsunami. Bekah was there also, wide awake from surprise. She probably saw my empty sleeping bag and came out to check on me. Now she was staring at my like I was absolutely fascinating yet terrifying at the same time. I was just as surprised as she was, looking down at my clothes, I saw that I was completely dry and I felt full of energy, like I could run a marathon. I calmly approached her, trying to think of something logical to say, but all that came out off my mouth was, "I had a nightmare." As if that explained everything.

I then noticed that it wasn't me she was looking at. It was the giant green trident glowing above my head.

I heard a door spring open, and the symbol still wasn't fading. I saw Clarisse the Ares cabin leader marching towards us, I guess I made more noise than I thought. But she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what was suspended above me. The look she gave me was one of complete urgency, as if I was a nuclear bomb that was ready to go off. Grabbing my arm, she half led, half dragged me to the large blue house where Chiron stayed. She pounded on the door for almost two minutes before Chiron opened it, his peppered brown hair and white horse's tail in curlers, as he asked, shocked by their abrupt intrusion to his sleep, "What is it, Miss La Rue?"

Pointing back at me dramatically, she responded in a deadly whisper, "She just got claimed. By Poseidon. I saw the symbol with my own eyes. It was just like Percy's."

Chiron's eyes widened significantly as he looked at me with a new interest in them. I wanted to shrink away. This couldn't be right.

"Come inside, Miss Billows. Hurry!" Chiron urged quietly. Obeying, I made my way to the couch across from him.

After Chiron convinced Clarisse that she had done enough bringing me to him, he told her to f back to her cabin and get some sleep. She grudgingly complied. For about five minutes, Chiron merely watched me as if he expected something, but I wasn't sure what to do.Finally, he asked my a question, "Marie, do you know who Poseidon is?"

"He's the god of the sea and earthquakes." I answered automatically.

"Correct. But you don't seem convinced." Chiron stated simply, I nodded.

"I suspected, from the moment I arrived here that my father was Apollo. I match so many of his traits that it is more than uncanny." Chiron then answered my statement with a similar nod. I didn't understand how Poseidon could possibly be my father, yes, I do enjoy the ocean back in California, but it was never my favorite. Then, Chiron said something I truly didn't see coming, these surprises were beginning to bother me."I knew your last name seemed familiar. You're Soulle Billows' daughter, aren't you." I simply stared at him with a clearly dumbfounded expression, there was no possible way he could've known that. All I answered with was, "It's technically Soulle Billows-James now."

"I'm just guessing that you didn't know that your mother was a demigod. Child of Apollo if I'm not mistaken." Chiron speculated.Accidently slipping into Spanish, my step-grandpa Jose insisted on be being fluent, I cried out in exasperation, "Como pudo mentirme?" - "How could she lie to me?" - Chiron must've taken a course in Spanish during his free-time because he immediately responded,

"She probably lied to you because if your father is Poseidon and your mother is a demigod, then you had more god in you than mortal. You are going to be quite the powerful demigod."

I just shook my head and remarked, "Trust me, the only power I have is prophecies that don't always add up, good aim, and the ability to splash giant chickens."

"I can tell this is a lot for you to process, so how about you go sleep in the guest room tonight and I'll bring someone by tomorrow morning who will be able to relate to you more than I can." Chiron told me gently. Suddenly, the face of a older boy with swept-aside black hair, a natural tan, and sea-green eyes popped up in my head, and although I'd never seen him before in my life, I instantly knew his name,

"It's Percy Jackson, isn't it? My brother." Chiron only nodded in response again and motioned me towards the guest room. Without complaint, I fell asleep as easily as I had the first time, but of course the same haunting images ran through my head until I woke up again.

This time, morning sunlight was shining through my window, and I heard voices coming from the other room.

"I have a what?" One voice exclaimed.

"Chiron! This is a big deal. Another child of Poseidon?" A voice of a girl questioned.

"Yes, I agree with you, Annabeth. It was unexpected, but we should probably quiet down our voices, I suspect she's listening." Chiron stated calmly. It became stone silent, and I took this as my cue to enter.

Percy looked exactly like the image that appeared in my head the night before, except he looked at me with complete amazement. The girl, who I assumed was Annabeth, looked me up and down like I was some strange anomaly that she couldn't figure out, and Chiron just simply gave me a light smile, taking note of my clear discomfort. Seeing no other way to make things less awkward, I held out my hand to Percy and tried to sound as confident as possible,

"My name is Marie Billows. I guess we're siblings."

He gave me one last uncomfortable look before he firmly shook my hand in return.