Adira has never been a normal girl. Plagued by monsters and a mysterious past, she walks the streets of New York City alone. Soon she happens upon two young demigods who show her a magical camp for people like her.
She soon has friends-a family...
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Once Percy and I were out of earshot from the dining hall, he began to lecture me. I think. I'm not exactly sure, because I was more focused on what the guardian's rhyme could be and who "they" were.
A daughter of Poseidon must depart,
To restore the wrong set in twin hearts.
The daughter of Poseidon is me, obviously, unless Percy has another half-sister that I don't know about. But whose twin hearts? I've heard about conjoined twins, maybe the hearts are stuck together? Or are they just saying two hearts?
Face a death worse than time,
Take notice of the guardian's rhyme.
A death worse than time? That can't be good. And who is this guardian? Why is their rhyme so important? Is the guardian related to the twin hearts? What am I suppo—
"Adira!" Percy snapped his fingers in my face to catch my attention. His eyes were hard—whatever he was saying must've been serious. "Were you listening?"
Before an unbelievable lie could spill from my mouth, I heard a snap and crackle of a twig breaking behind me. I whipped around, half-unsheathing my sword from its hilt.
Annabeth appeared from thin air, just like what she did the first day I met her. In her raised hands was her blue Yankees baseball cap.
"Beth? Were you spying on us?" Percy asked, half-joking, half... hurt?
Annabeth stepped closer to the two of them. "No, Seaweed Brain. I was only wearing the cap so that I could sneak away from camp without making a fuss."
Her striking grey eyes met mine. "Adira, listen to me. This quest will be the hardest, scariest thing you've ever done. You will face foes worse than you could ever imagine and go through hardships more challenging than anything you've ever faced. Are you ready to accept that challenge?"
I steeled my nerves and thought about how far I've come since Percy and Annabeth found me. It was only yesterday, but so much has changed since then. I've discovered my godly parent and my powers. I've made more friends than I've ever had. I feel like I've found a family. A home.
But was I ready to leave just yet on a quest that could potentially kill me? Was I ready to risk everything? Everything that I've just now, for the first time in my life, received?
The short answer: "No."
Annabeth and Percy glanced at each other then looked back at me.
"Why not?" Annabeth asked me. Almost like she expected a different answer, or something.
"I've only just gotten here. Is it possible that I could stay for a few more days?" I said, suddenly nervous of their response. Were they going to force me to go now? They wouldn't do that, right? Maybe.
Percy and Annabeth stared at each other for a few moments, as if they were having some sort of silent conversation with their eyes.
Seemingly having come to an agreement, they turned back to me.
"Fine. But you're going to be training as hard as you can, and we're going to be teaching you everything we know until you're ready to leave," Percy told me.
Annabeth cleared her throat. "Everything I know," she corrected. "You know nothing, Seaweed Brain."
"Ooh, how are you so sure?" Percy retorted.
The couple began to get uncomfortably close, so before anything could happen, I ran off, back towards camp.
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"Aaron!" I called, sprinting across the field to the sandy haired child of Apollo.
"Adira? I thought you were with Percy," Aaron said to me as I stopped in front of him.
"I was, but—Annabeth showed up."
"Ohhhh. Yeah, now I see why you ran. I heard once that the campers caught the two making out during capture the flag a few years ago. By Zeus's Fist."
"Zeus's Fist?" I asked, knotting my eyebrows together.
"Yeah—oh, right, you haven't been there yet. It looks like Zeus's—" he paused, scanning my face. "You know what? I'll just show you."
He took my hand, and we went racing off to the woods on the other side of camp.
I laughed as we tore through the trees, nearly tripping over a twig but managing to catch myself. We flew past countless forest nymphs among large trees, before finally stopping at a large rock formation.
"Here we are," Aaron told me. "Zeus's Fist."
I squinted at the boulder, trying to make out why it was called that. Apparently, it was supposed to look like a fist, but all it looked like to me was an almost-round shaped, huge rock.
"I don't get it."
"Get what?"
"Why it's called Zeus's Fist. I mean, it doesn't even looked like a fist."
Aaron whipped his head around to look at me. "What do you mean it doesn't look like a fist? It's literally right there. Look at it."
I shook my head. "Nope. I don't see it."
Aaron's exasperation was prominent on his features. I resisted the urge to smile and laugh at his annoyance towards me.
He sighed. "Fine. What does it look like to you?"
"A big rock."
Aaron let out a heavy breath of air. He shook his head. "You have no imagination," he deadpanned.
"Or," I countered. "Maybe you have too much imagination."
"You're impossible," he said, but I could see the smile tugging at his lips.
I suddenly realized with a jolt how close we were standing. His fingers were still intertwined with mine.
I stepped back, pulling my hand from his. Walking towards the conglomeration of boulders, I peaked over my shoulder at him to say, "Come on! Let's climb this thing."
