𝐈. 𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 | 𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏

two

"My dad would have. He loved her." Annabeth gave Percy a cautious look.

She didn't want to burst his bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."

"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"

Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."

Percy thought about some of the kids he'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. He'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.

"So I'm stuck here," He said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"

"It depends," Annabeth said.

"Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some  of  us,  it's  too  dangerous  to  leave.  We're  year-rounders.  In  the  mortal  world,  we  attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble-about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."

"So monsters can't get in here?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."

"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"

"Practice fights. Practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?"

"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."

"So ... you're a year-rounder?" Annabeth nodded.

From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.

"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session,you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."

"Why did you come so young?" She twisted the ring on her necklace.

"None of your business."

" Oh." He stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence.

"You mentioned that Gods don't really care about their demigod children. But what about Lilith? There's been a rumor going around that she grew up with her father, Hades." He asked, turning to Annabeth.

"Like you said Percy, They're just rumors. We don't know if it's true or not, besides, she's only been here a couple days. We don't know her that well, and she's the daughter of a Big Three. That would mean that she might be the one, but I have a feeling she isn't.." She mumbled the last part.

"Big Three?"

"Years ago, the Big Three, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus made an oath. They wouldn't have any more demigod children because most of them are too powerful, and dangerous. But over the past few years, Zeus and Hades has broken the oath. And you might be one of their offspring too.." Annabeth trailed off, staring at Percy with a contemplating look,