Heroes with Wands

Chapter 6

Ginny

The next night, I had a strange dream.

"They're coming," said a girl with spiky black hair and electric blue eyes. She pointed north with a silver arrow. "One of my scouts just reported they've crossed the Harlem River. There was no way to hold them back. The army...." she shrugged. "It's huge.''

The girl was standing with another group of teenagers at an American reservoir. I saw Annabeth there, too, except she looked a little younger. The street lamps glowed against the water and trees. City lights were blinking on at twilight.

"We'll hold them at the park," said a boy with green eyes and black hair. Wait...I knew him! He was the boy that'd hugged Annabeth in my vision. He was younger, too. "Grover, you ready?"

An older boy with horns growing from his head and lots of acne nodded. Then I saw the furry legs and arse. Satyr, right? Yeah.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Grover the satryr said. "If my nature spirits can stop them anywhere, this is the place."

"Yes, we will!" said a voice. Bloody hell-a big fat, old satyr pushed through the huge crowd and stumbled over his spear. His bark-made armor only covered half his fat belly.

They kept the conversation going. Then the black-haired boy said, "Um...yeah. Well, Grover, you won't be alone. Annabeth and the Athena cabin will make their stand here. And me....and Thalia?"

The spiky haired girl, obviously Thalia, patted the boy on his shoulder. "Say no more. The Hunters are ready."

Mr. Black-haired-boy looked around the crowd. "That leaves the rest of you with a job that's just as important," he said. He seemed to be the leader of the poor lot. "You have to guard the other entrance to Manhattan. You know how tricky Kronos is. He'll hope to distract us with this big army and sneak another force in somewhere else. It's up to you to make sure that doesn't happen. Has each cabin chosen a bridge or tunnel?"

Kids around him nodded with grim looks on their faces. Cabins....Blimey, that's right. In the first vision, there'd been cabins all around. Like a camp or something.

That dream matched my first vision. The kids looked like they'd just been to battle. They were all holding weapons and looked as scratched up as they did in the dream. Of course they were Greeks.

"Then let's do it," the black-haired kid said. "Good hunting, everybody!"

Then a loud sound like a cannonball seemed to startle them all. They all looked around, and the black-haired boy narrowed his eyes.

Before I could see what it was, the dream shifted.

Instead, Annabeth, the black-haired boy, and a group of their friends were standing with that centaur, Chiron, and a boy and a girl at the crest of a hill.

The boy I guessed wasn't one of Annabeth's friends snickered. "Who's your parent, Annabeth? Aphrodite?" Okay, they were definitely Greeks. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, I'd read about her in the book. And these kids....that boy had said 'parent.'

The book said that the gods sometimes had children with mortals called 'demigods'. Were these kids, was Annabeth-a demigod?

I saw the black-haired boy move out of the corner of my eye, but was too focused on Annabeth's reaction to really bloody care or pay attention.

She squared her shoulders and looked proud. "Athena." Yep. Definitely a demigod.

The-girl-I-hadn't-seen-before's jaw dropped. "Okay, can I leave now? You're telling me this loser is my sister?" Annabeth's jaw dropped, too. "Oh, great. Just perfect. Besides, what's Athena good at anyway? Making olives? Turning a woman into a spider because she thought she was better than her godishness? I bet she was better!"