I felt my mouth drop open and my heart smashed on the floor as I watched Raph leave the war council. Clarisse was being unreasonable. And so was Michael for that matter! The fate of...well everything rested on this...on us... and they were arguing over some stupid chariot. I could feel my hands, not only sparking but now I felt the fire flowing in my veins. I felt the anger and bitterness. I felt the stupid petty arguments between the gods and how it translated into their kids. And this is why we are fighting a war; because stupid petty crap like this.

I turned, blinking the golden tears away. I rounded on Michael.

"What in the actual Hades?!" I sighed angrily. I wish I could scream and rage and cry. But my hands now had sputtering flames and I'm pretty sure my hair was starting to have that angry fiery glow. The air around me rippled with extreme heat.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. And saw the steam. I jerked my head and saw Percy. His sea green eyes were filled with sorrow and confusion, but I got his message. "Not here. Not now."

I clamped my hands into fists and threw myself into the chair beside Selina. I folded my arms and ground my teeth. I could feel the eyes of every counselor watching me, but they all avoided eye contact.

Finally Michael Yew said, "Good riddance." Along with his hands.

I narrowed my eyes at my half brother. As if he actually thought that. I was too angry and hurt by Raph to fully tap into the Apollo gift of if he was telling the truth or not. And at this point, I didn't care. He screwed us all over with his dam pride.

"Are you kidding?" Katie Gardner protested. "This is a disaster!"

"She can't be serious," Travis said- his sign wasn't as fluid as some of the others, but I could follow the conversation well enough. "Can she?"

Everyone looked to Chiron for answers. Hoping he would say something along the likes of April fools or got chya! But no such luck. Of course, we're demigods, we never have any good luck on our side.

Chiron sighed. "Her pride has been wounded. She'll calm down eventually." But he didn't look convinced. I knew Clarisse and Raph. They were stubborn. They wouldn't change their minds. Percy looked like he was going to ask something but at a glance at me, still litterly sparking and red puffy eyes from Beckendorf and a quick glance at Annabeth he clamped his mouth shut and shook his head.

"Now," Chiron continued, "if you please, counselors. Percy has brought something I think you should hear. Percy—the Great Prophecy."

Annabeth handed him the parchment. It looked dry and old, and I could see his fingers fumbled with the string. He uncurled the paper, trying not to rip it, and began to read:

"A half-blood of the eldest dogs . . ."

Annabeth interrupted. "That's gods. Not dogs."

"Oh, right," he said.

Chiron was signing fluently now for me, as Percy read, but I could read Percy's mouth as he got the words mixed up and Annabeth had to help.

Being dyslexic is one mark of a demigod, but sometimes I really hate it. The more nervous I was, the worse my reading got. It was even worse when I became deaf and mute. So I understand when Percy's face became red with embarrassment. But glancing around the room no one seemed phased. We all struggled with reading.

"A half-blood of the eldest gods... shall reach sixteen against all odds..."

He hesitated, staring at the next lines. I gulped. Feeling cold dread rise in place of my boiling lava anger.

"And see the world in endless sleep. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap."

He had stopped talking and everyone was sitting forward waiting for him to read the rest.

"Percy," Chiron urged. "Read the rest."

He looked white as a ghost, but he spoke the last two lines. While Chiron signed.

"A single choice shall... shall end his days. Olympus to per-pursue-"

"Preserve," Annabeth said, her face looked gentle. "It means to save."

"I know what it means," he grumbled. I could see the annoyance on his face, his teeth ground together and his slight eye roll. "Olympus to preserve or raze."

The room was silent. (It was always silent for me- but no one spoke, every councilor looked shocked and scared.)

Finally Connor Stoll said, "Raise is good, isn't it?"

"Not raise," Silena said. I assumed her voice was hollow, judging by how vacant her eyes looked as she spoke. "R-a-z-e means destroy."

"Obliterate," Annabeth said. "Annihilate. Turn to rubble."

"Got it." Percy signed with a huge eye roll. "Thanks."

Despite my heart feeling heavy for Percy, I snorted in ammusment. Even as Percy reads his own death sentence, she had to be miss know it all. Sometimes I didn't understand how Percy liked this girl. But then again...my boyfriend of a year just ditched me and essentially said fight this war yourself, Imma sit and eat popcorn and watch. So who was I to judge.

Everybody was looking at Percy- with concern, or pity, or maybe a little fear.

Chiron closed his eyes as if he were saying a prayer. In horse form, his head almost brushed the lights in the rec room. "You see now, Percy, why we thought it best not to tell you the whole prophecy. You've had enough on your shoulders—"

"Without realizing I was going to die in the end anyway?" He said. "Yeah, I get it."

"What about Nora's prophecy?" Katie asked.

I picked my head up and looked around the room. I turned to Annabeth and narrowed my eyes. She gulped.

"You told them?" I jumped to my feet. "You can keep this dark prophecy from Percy for 3 years, but you couldn't keep this one from the entire camp?"

"I..." She started.

"No what? Whatever. While we're reading the death sentence, might as well throw mine into the mix." I sat back down ignoring her. Selina took my hand.

"Okay...but what if it...like connects with this one?"

"What is it again?" Michael asked.

Without hesitation, Annabeth recited it word for word.

"Daughter of the Light, ne'er she be.
The lost child of Ally, Foe an' Rivalry.
Free she must the one to rise,
To conquer Heavenly Light and Splendour Sight.
Seven journey home while light walks alone.
The ancient rival rises in the west,
Unlikely allies keep hope safe before strife becomes thy biggest defeat."

Those words have been rattling around my brain ever since I heard Annabeth say them last year. Not one day goes by when I don't worry about it. But I had no idea what I means- I had slowly started to work it out, well as best I could with the help of the only person I trusted with this- Nico.

"How do they relate to each other?" Pollux asked.

Katie shrugged. "I just thought maybe...I dunno."

I shook my head. I wasn't sure if mine fit with Percy's at all. Maybe some lines worked with the upcoming war. But I had no clue. And my brain was hurting.

Annabeth touched Percy's elbow, "You know prophecies always have double meanings. It might not literally mean you die."

"Sure," Percy said and talked with his hands (he was now so used to signing he did it even when it was just a conversation between him and someone else.) "A single choice shall end his days. That has tons of meanings, right?"

"Maybe we can stop it," Jake Mason offered. "The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. Maybe we could find this cursed blade and destroy it. Sounds like Kronos's scythe, right?"

I hadn't thought about that, but it didn't matter if the cursed blade was Percy's sword Riptide or Kronos's scythe. Either way, I doubted we could stop a prophecy. A blade was supposed to reap his soul. As a general rule, I preferred not to have my soul reaped. Or my brother's. I wasn't sure how to prevent that until Nico's warning came back. "You need to convince Percy. We're all dead if he doesn't follow through." I knew I had to convince him. It was time I told Percy what happened a month ago.

"Perhaps we should let Percy think about these lines," Chiron said. "He needs time-"

"No." He folded up the prophecy and shoved it into his pocket. I could see the defiance and anger in his eyes, though I wasn't sure who he was angry with, but I understood. "I don't need time. If I die, I die. I can't worry about that, right?"

His eyes caught mine. We shared some kind of silent understanding. Maybe it was a sibling thing, or a-we-both-have-dark- prophecies thing or maybe we were both just sick of sitting around and feeling helpless. But I understood him. And he understood me. I gave him a slight nod. I'd follow Percy's lead, whatever he decided I'd follow. He nodded at me. I stood back up taking my hand from Selina for a second.

"We've got other problems." I signed, my face in a scowl, "We've got a spy."

Michael Yew copied my scowl. "A spy?"

I told them what had happened at the train station, how they were ready for me to be alone to kidnap me, with that Jones kid what he said and then on the Princess Andromeda- how Kronos had known we were coming, how he'd shown Percy and me the silver scythe pendant he'd used to communicate with someone at camp.

Silena started to cry again, and Annabeth put an arm around her shoulders.

"Well," Connor Stoll signed, I could see his uncomfortable body language, "we've suspected there might be a spy for years, right? Somebody kept passing information to Luke- like the location of the Golden Fleece a couple of years ago. It must be somebody who knows him well."

Maybe subconsciously, he glanced at Annabeth. She'd known Luke better than anyone, of course, but Connor looked away quickly. "Um, I mean, it could be anybody."

"Yes." Katie Gardner frowned at the Stoll brothers. She'd disliked them ever since they'd decorated the grass roof of the Demeter cabin with chocolate Easter bunnies. "Like one of Luke's siblings."

Travis and Connor both started arguing with her.

"Stop!" Silena banged the table so hard the rest of her hot chocolate spilled. "Charlie's dead and... and you're all arguing like little kids!" She put her head down and began to sob.

Hot chocolate trickled off the Ping-Pong table. Everybody looked ashamed. I faded my arms and glared at everyone.

"She's right," Pollux said at last. "Accusing each other doesn't help. We need to keep our eyes open for a silver necklace with a scythe charm. If Kronos had one, the spy probably does too."

Michael Yew grunted. "We need to find this spy before we plan our next operation. Blowing up the Princess Andromeda won't stop Kronos forever."

"No indeed," Chiron said. "In fact his next assault is already on the way."

Percy scowled. "You mean the 'bigger threat' Poseidon mentioned?"

"Percy," Chiron said, "we didn't want to tell you until you returned to camp. You needed a break with your . . . mortal friends."

I snorted in amusement as I saw Annabeth blush and Percy look stricken for a split second before he looked furious again. ns then I remembered what I had seen in the Sight. Typhon. That was what Chiron was talking about. And my stomach dropped.

"Tell me what's happened," Percy signed as he clearly deflated. I felt the same. I had been out of commission for a week, sleeping in some kind of magic cage, and was dreading this new development.

Chiron picked up a bronze goblet from the snack table. He tossed water onto the hot plate where we usually melted nacho cheese. Steam billowed up, making a rainbow in the fluorescent lights. Chiron fished a golden drachma out of his pouch, tossed it through the mist, and muttered, "O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, show us the threat."

The mist shimmered. I saw the familiar image of a smoldering volcano—Mount St. Helens. As I watched, the side of the mountain exploded. Fire, ash, and lava rolled out. A newscaster's voice was saying

"-even larger than last year's eruption, and geologists warn that the mountain may not be done."

I knew all about last year's eruption. I had witnessed Percy be the cause of its initial explosion. But this explosion was much worse. The mountain tore itself apart, collapsing inward, and an enormous form rose out of the smoke and lava like it was emerging from a manhole. I hoped the Mist would keep the humans from seeing it clearly, because what I saw would've caused panic and riots across the entire United States.

The giant was bigger than anything I'd ever encountered. Even my demigod eyes couldn't make out its exact form through the ash and fire, but it was vaguely humanoid and so huge it could've used the Chrysler Building as a baseball bat. The mountain shook with a horrible rumbling, as if the monster were laughing.

"It's him," I signed.

"Typhon." Percy added.

He looked up and caught my eye. We both blinked and looked at Chiron, seriously hoping Chiron would say something good, like No, that's our huge friend Leroy! He's going to help us! But no such luck. He simply nodded.

"The most horrible monster of all, the biggest single threat the gods ever faced. He has been freed from under the mountain at last. But this scene is from two days ago. Here is what is happening today."

Chiron waved his hand and the image changed. I saw a bank of storm clouds rolling across the Midwest plains. Lightning flickered. Lines of tornadoes destroyed everything in their path- ripping up houses and trailers, tossing cars around like Matchbox toys.

"Monumental floods," an announcer was saying. "Five states declared disaster areas as the freak storm system sweeps east, continuing its path of destruction." The cameras zoomed in on a column of storm bearing down on some Midwest city. I couldn't tell which one. Inside the storm I could see the giant- just small glimpses of his true form: a smoky arm, a dark clawed hand the size of a city block. His angry roar rolled across the plains like a nuclear blast. Other smaller forms darted through the clouds, circling the monster. I saw flashes of light, and I realized the giant was trying to swat them. I squinted and thought I saw a golden chariot flying into the blackness. Then some kind of huge bird- a monstrous owl- dived in to attack the giant.

"Are those... the gods?" Percy said.

"Yes, Percy," Chiron said, while signing for my sake. "They have been fighting him for days now, trying to slow him down. But Typhon is marching forward- toward New York. Toward Olympus."

I let that sink in. "How long until he gets here?"

"Unless the gods can stop him? Perhaps five days. Most of the Olympians are there... except your father, Percy, who has a war of his own to fight."

"But then who's guarding Olympus?" Percy frowned. I didn't want to give voice to my opinion, which was no one was guarding Mount Olympus. I glanced at Percy and when we made eye contact, I knew he was thinking the same thing.

Connor Stoll shook his head. "If Typhon gets to New York, it won't matter who's guarding Olympus."

I thought about Kronos's words on the ship: I would love to see the terror in your eyes when you realize how I will destroy Olympus.

Was this what he was talking about: an attack by Typhon? It was sure terrifying enough. But Kronos was always fooling us, misdirecting our attention. This seemed too obvious for him. And in my dream, the golden Titan had talked about several more challenges to come, as if Typhon were only the first.

Percy had stepped over beside me and nudged my elbow. I gave him the side eye, and raised an eyebrow.

"It's a trick," I signed.

Percy nodded in agreement. "Typhon isn't the real problem...as much if a problem as he is ... He's the diversion."

I nodded we looked at Chiron. And Percy voiced our concern. "Typhon is a trick. We have to warn the gods. Something else is going to happen."

Chiron looked at us gravely. His dark and solum eyes flicked back and forth between us. "Something worse than Typhon? I hope not."

"We have to defend Olympus," I insisted. "Kronos has another attack planned."

"He did," Travis Stoll reminded me. With a nudge, "But you and Percy and Beckendorf sunk his ship."

Everyone was looking at me and Percy now. They wanted some good news. They wanted to believe that at least I'd given them a little bit of hope. I glanced at Percy. And he glanced at Annabeth. As much as I didn't like Annabeth, I could tell the three of us were thinking the same thing: What if the Princess Andromeda was a ploy? What if Kronos let us blow up that ship so we'd lower our guard?

But I wasn't going to say that in front of Silena. Her boyfriend had sacrificed himself for that mission. Percy glanced at me and I gave him a subtle nod.

"Maybe you're right," Percy said, though I knew he didn't believe it.

I tried to imagine how things could get much worse. The gods were in the Midwest fighting a huge monster that had almost defeated them once before. Poseidon was under siege and losing a war against the sea Titan Oceanus. Kronos was still out there somewhere. Olympus was virtually undefended. The demigods of Camp Half-Blood were on our own with a spy in our midst. And my boyfriend and his sister had peaced out, taking the best warriors with them. Oh, and according to the ancient prophecy, my brother was going to die when he turned sixteen- which happened to be in five days, the exact same time Typhon was supposed to hit New York. Almost forgot that. I growled in frustration.

"Well," Chiron said, "I think that's enough for one night."

He waved his hand and the steam dissipated. The stormy battle of Typhon and the gods disappeared.

"That's an understatement," I muttered silently.

And the war council adjourned.