The Heir of a Thousand Lifetimes (A PJO Universe Story)

I want nothing to do with him or the stupid gods.

"So...where are we going again?"

Josie glances over at me. I'm completely unbothered, drinking a milkshake from the Sonic we passed and I made Josie stop at. Josie's a bit more nervous, constantly checking the rearview mirror- presumably for monsters. She's happy enough, though, since Taylor Swift is blaring through the car's speakers.

"Camp Half-Blood," she answers. "It's on the northeastern shore of Long Island."

"Right. And it's a camp for demigods," I say. She nods.

"It is. You'll likely have to live there year-round. It'll be too dangerous for you to leave very often if my theory is correct," she sighs, taking a sip of her own milkshake. My head whips over to look at her. "And I'm rarely wrong."

"What?"

"Well, yeah." Josie shrugs. "It's one of two safe places on Earth for demigods. And you- you're powerful and the object of a prophecy. You're a walking danger magnet. Camp is the best place for you."

I huff and cross my arms. When I got in the car to leave my home, I never expected I'd have to live at a new place permanently! Dear God- or gods, I guess- what is my life becoming?

And what is this about a prophecy? Everyone keeps talking about a prophecy! I have so many questions, I don't even know where to begin.

"How long do you think it'll take?" I ask eventually, twisting one of my rings around my finger.

"Almost eight hours total. So only six more, since we're about in Dover, New Hampshire," she says after glancing at the GPS. "Be glad I got a special GPS. Normally we can't use technology. It's typically a honing device for monsters."

"I didn't realize Maine had so many monsters," I say truthfully, looking back out the window.

I lean against it, trying not to pout. I don't want to leave our little town. I love it there. I have my boat, and I get to go out at sea and look at the wildlife. It's peaceful. Until the water decides otherwise. And Aunt Kendra's there, my only family.

"Monsters are everywhere. You'll find that out fast."

"That's just wonderful."

"Isn't it?"

If she says something else, it's lost on me. My world shifts as the vision overwhelms me. A sacred fire is extinguished as a king goes into mourning. A pain as  raw as any roots itself in my chest and makes me hollow. I feel the burdened ruler's grief as if it was my own.

Flashes of drowning in honey choke me, and pounding hoofbeats fill my ears. The rich aroma of incense overtakes my senses and makes me dizzy. I'm falling, falling, rising. The bleating of rams echoes through the stone chamber as the milky water before me mirrors a hazy image of a golden-crowned savior.

A burning temple ignites before my eyes, the smoke filling my throat and searing my lungs. A silver-cloaked maiden with hair of fire turns her back on the flames to keep watch over a city of stone until an infant's cry echos through the sky. She disappears as quickly as she arrives, and the flames an ocean away are soon extinguished.

You are invincible, my son! A desperate plea, a fading scream. Another lifetime, another branch of the bloodline. Elephants roar as they make landfall and rage to war, the salty water of the Mediterranean washing over their age-old ankles. Soldiers ride and soldiers die. Their blood stains the water red, but victory is in my veins. An empire is rising, the phalanx never fails. Sicily is mine for the taking.

"Audra!"

I flinch, blinking several times as I try to get my bearings. My eyes and throat are dry, and I realize I don't recognize our surroundings anymore. We're on another stretch of highway. My heart is racing in my chest, and I'm slumped against the window.

"Sorry, sorry," I mumble, straightening up and unclenching my fists. "What?"

"You had another vision," Josie guesses, her voice softer and sympathetic. I nod, rubbing my forehead.

"Yeah. It was...weird," I say reluctantly, tiredly. My voice is scratchy. I reach for my milkshake, but Josie shakes her head and passes me a lukewarm bottle of water from the center console.

"The milkshake's old now. All warm and melted. Don't drink it," she says. I nod and take a sip of the water. "Weird how? Aren't all your visions kinda weird and abstract?"

I'm quiet for a moment as I try to think it through. She's right. But somehow, it felt different.

"This one felt stranger than usual," I say eventually, looking down at my rings. I open and close my fists slowly to stave off stiffness. "I felt like I was looking through two different people's lives. Not...whoever's I normally do. It wasn't what my visions typically are.

"And it was- it was violent. Burning and war and screaming and empires and- I don't know. It was chaos, Josie. I don't understand why this is happening."

Josie doesn't reply straight away. The radio is still playing, but it's quieter now. I know my visions scare her and she tries to brush them off for my sake, but things have become far more real in the past few hours. Speaking of...

"How long was I out?" I ask quietly, and Josie looks over at me quickly before her eyes are back on the road.

"About half an hour. Nothing too bad this time," she assures me with a half-smile. "We're five and a half hours or so away from camp. Should make it there before the campfire's over tonight. Maybe you'll get claimed before the night's over."

I swallow roughly. Right. Claimed. I've been mentally avoiding that whole situation. My father is a millennia-old god, which probably means I have some sort of latent powers that are just waiting to be unlocked. But more importantly, I have an immortal father who just sat around and watched while my mother died giving birth to me. Whoever he is, he most certainly does not care about me, or else he would have found time to make himself known to me at some point in the last sixteen years of my life.

I want nothing to do with him or the stupid gods.

Hecate, however, who is apparently my immortal grandmother...I might be very interested in getting to know her. If my mother and aunt were and are witches, that means I have witch's blood by default, doesn't it? Just thinking logically? How do you even get to know your immortal family? Is that possible?

Unlikely, I think bitterly. They've never cared before, why would they care now?

"When were you claimed?" I ask Josie after she loudly honks her horn at someone who cut her off.

"At birth. All Athena kids are," she explains. She pushes her hair back. "My dad didn't love the idea, but, what could he do?"

"And do you live at this...Camp Half-Blood...all year? Except when you're apparently sent on missions to befriend and rescue objects of millennia-old prophecies?"

She grins at my sarcasm and shakes her head. "Nope. I always go back home to South Carolina for the school year. I'll do that for college too, unless I get into New Rome's museum curation program."

"Wait- New Rome? What the hell is New Rome?" I ask, bewildered.

"It's a city for demigods in the Roman camp. I don't anticipate it'll mean much to you, though."

"Roman camp? And why not? What is that supposed to mean?"

She gets kind of a grim look on her face. "You'll find out."