Wisdom's Revenge | Olympus's Traitor #2

Chapter 3: Life of the Fallen

"Mistress Annabeth?" Aether hesitantly asked as he walked into her office. "I've been having the dreams again."

"What dreams?" Annabeth questioned, knowing full well what Aether meant

"Of. . . Of the woman with long black hair, and a loving voice, singing to me."

"Pay it no mind," Annabeth snapped. "It is merely a distraction."

"Yes, mistress." Aether sulked as he walked back out. "I will find you, whoever you are," he whispered once he was out of earshot, a tear running down his cheek.

Annabeth frowned as Aether left. Try as she may, she could not make the boy forget his parents. Annabeth's blood boiled as she thought of them, Perseus and Thalia Jackson. She would not let them thwart her plans, not this time. This time her plan was fool-proof. This time, she would win.

#    #    #

Sophie sat, enraptured, as she listened to her adoptive mom, Thalia, tell her stories of Percy's adventures. Clara sat nearby and was listening, even though she had heard these stories countless times. Thalia was in the middle of telling Sophie about the Battle of Manhattan when she suddenly interrupted. "Who are Jacob and Hannah?" she questioned. "You keep mentioning them, but I've never met them or really know anything about them."

As she said this Thalia's face fell, and Clara started silently crying. The fire that the rest of the Hunt was gathered around even seemed to dim as though it could sense the dark subject Sophie had inquired about. "They're. . . gone," Thalia answered sadly.

"Gone?" Sophie asked.

"They're dead. Annabeth killed them," Thalia said bitterly, which caused Clara to start crying a little harder before she ran off to her tent. 

"Oh," Sophie said quietly before looking down, wishing she hadn't brought it up.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Thalia abruptly stood up. "Come on, let's get you to bed," Thalia said lovingly before taking Sophie's hand and escorting her to her tent.

Thalia took her time tucking Sophie in before giving her a kiss on the forehead and wishing her a good night's sleep. It wasn't long before the young girl found herself gently drifting off into a deep sleep. Unfortunately, dreams plagued her like they do most demigods.

Sophie found herself in a quiet neighborhood in front of a quaint little townhouse. Before long a young boy with brown hair and blue-green eyes that looked to be about her age walked down the street before stopping in front of the house Sophie was in front of. Before long a young girl with wavy brown hair and brown eyes, who also looked to be about nine, bounded down the steps.

Hey, Jacob!" she said cheerfully, causing a slight blush to creep into the boy's cheeks.

"Morning, Hannah," the boy, Jacob, said quietly as they started walking down the sidewalk.

It didn't take long for Sophie to figure out that these were the people Thalia had been talking about. After maybe 15 minutes the two reached a school, and the dream faded to black. Moments later light came back into Sophie's vision, and she found herself back in front of the same school as before. However, instead of the late autumn like it was before, now it was late spring. After a few seconds the bell rang, and kids came streaming out of the school. Within minutes the place was abandoned except for a few cars. Something inside her told Sophie to go inside the school, so Sophie did just that. 

Before long Sophie made her way to a classroom, where she heard some voices coming from within. "You wanted to see me Ms. Skytha?" a girl's voice said.