( STEPHANIE PHẠM )

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⁀➷｡˚⸙͎۪۫⋆ ༄

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ𝐉𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄. her boyfriend, her fiancé, her husband. in every life they'd shared together somehow stephanie pham and jason grace continued to find each other. hecate had warned her various times that the grace boy would bring about her demise.

year after year hecate would wait for her daughter to return in a different form. after all, she was the first half-blood she'd ever given birth to. before all of her other demigod she had given birth to a beautiful baby girl. she had given birth to a mortals child. at the time she was still young and had been leaving the underworld to mess with a mortal man up on earth without anyone knowing. 

the man was next in line to be emperor and how would he explain a child out of wedlock. persephone was more than happy to aid to her attendant in raising the child. the goddess was worried that her offspring wouldn't possess any of her abilities and wasn't sure how she would handle raising a human baby in the underworld.

but much to her delight, the child displayed signs of strong magic from a young age. similar in range to that of circe's. but she knew this child was different from her others. at the age of three, during a time persephone would regularly watch the child like her own, she witnessed the baby bring plants back to life with a simple touch. the withered and dying pomegranate tree brought colour back to her field in a matter of seconds.

hecate was delighted with the news as she realised this was the first of her offspring to display the power of necromancy. necromancy stronger than her own. but with this power, came a rage which only was fuelled the older she grew.

arguments with hades would result in disturbances in the river styx, arguments with her mother would cause hades' palace to shake. the older beings realised that with the girls power also came her temper. a temper that they feared would one day make the world burn.

"𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭?" the howls piercing the night didn't help with the eery tension in the air. piper had just explained how her father had been kidnapped by enceladus and was going to be killed if piper didn't betray her friends. the day the giant was going to kill her father was the same day they were meant to rescue hera. there was no way around it stephanie thought to herself.

she hadn't grown up with a father how piper had, she grew up with no parents and no family. no family except nicholas. but these people around her now were the closest thing she had to a family, and she knew. she knew that if it came down to it she'd save them before anyone else.

"wolves ," piper said. "they sound close" jason gently removed his arm from stephanie's body and rose well summoning his sword. leo and coach hedge got to their feet too. Piper tried, but black spots danced before her eyes.

"you two stay there," jason said without looking down. "we'll protect you."

stephanie just rolled her eyes at the boy. if she really wanted to they'd all be dead with the click of her fingers. she knew she kept passing out but all the rest she'd been getting those three days recharged her powers to the max. that scaring her more than being powerless.

then, just outside the firelight at the entrance of the cave, the two girls saw a pair of red eyes glowing in dark.

More wolves edged into the firelight—black beasts bigger than great danes, with ice and snow caked on their fur. their fangs gleamed, and their glowing red eyes looked disturbingly intelligent. the wolf in front was almost as tall as a horse, his mouth stained as if he'd just made a fresh kill.

stephanie felt herself gulping as her hand instinctively went to grab jasons wrist. jason felt her, but couldn't let her presence distract him this time. he stepped forward and said something in latin.

piper didn't think a dead language would have much effect on wild animals, but the alpha wolf curled his lip. the fur stood up along his spine. one of his lieutenants tried to advance, but the alpha wolf snapped at his ear. then all of the wolves backed into the dark.

"dude, I gotta study latin." leo's hammer shook in his hand. "what'd you say, jason?"

hedge cursed. "whatever it was, it wasn't enough. Look."

the wolves were coming back, but the alpha wolf wasn't with them. they didn't attack. they waited—at least a dozen now, in a rough semicircle just outside the firelight, blocking the cave exit.

the coach hefted his club. "here's the plan. I'll kill them all, and you guys escape."

"coach, they'll just eat you," stephanie said as if to remind the man he resembled a goat. the fable of the wolf and the goat coming to mind

"nah, I'm good." then they saw it. the silhouette of a man coming through the storm, wafting through the wolf pack.

"stick together," jason said. "they respect a pack. and hedge, no crazy stuff. we're not leaving you or anyone else behind."

piper got a lump in her throat. she was the weak link in their "pack" right now. no doubt the wolves could smell her fear. she might as well be wearing a sign that said free lunch. stephanie could sense the girls fear and scuffled closer to where she sat just in case anything were to happen.

the wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. his hair was greasy and ragged, the colour of fireplace soot, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. his robes were tattered fur—wolf, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and several others the kids couldn't identify. the furs didn't look cured, and from the smell, they weren't very fresh. his frame was lithe and muscular, like a distance runner's. but the most horrible thing was his face. his thin pale skin was pulled tight over his skull. his teeth were sharpened like fangs. his eyes glowed bright red like stephanie's would'—and they fixed on jason with absolute hatred.

"ecce," he said, "filli romani."

"speak english, wolf man!" hedge bellowed. stephanie only rolling her eyes, an action she had become accustomed to around the satyr.

the wolf man snarled. "tell your faun to mind his tongue, son of rome. or he'll be my first snack."

"son of rome" there it was again. the voice in stephanies head giving her information without background or furthermore explanation.

the wolf man studied their little group. his nostrils twitched. "s it's true," he mused. "a child of aphrodite. A son of Hephaestus. the offspring of hecate. a faun. and a child of rome, of lord jupiter, no less. all together, without killing each other. how interesting."

the wolf man's eyes returned to stephanie with a look of interest, jason noticed this and stepped forward slightly. "you. I've heard about you. you don't look as powerful as they say but i can basically smell the blood tainting your hands" his statement making stephanie's stomach turn.

she had not killed a living thing since she was fifteen. how would he know that though. every time it had happened she hadn't meant for it. she was younger and full of more rage. 

the other demi-gods all knew there was something special about stephanie that none of them were aware of, it seemed every one they met had a story about her. each a story that shouldn't have been able to be true. stories from times they weren't alive.

"you were told about us?" jason asked. "by whom?" the man snarled—perhaps a laugh, perhaps a challenge. "oh, we've been patrolling for you all across the west, demigod, hoping we'd be the first to find you. the giant king will reward me well when he rises. I am lycaon, king of the wolves. and my pack is hungry."

the wolves snarled in the darkness. out of the corner of her eye, piper saw leo put up his hammer and slip something else from his tool belt—a glass bottle full of clear liquid.

lycaon glared at jason's sword. he moved to each side as if looking for an opening, but jason's blade moved with him. "leave," jason ordered. "there's no food for you here."

there's us, stephanie thought to herself as she watched the scene play out in front of her.

"unless you want tofu burgers," leo offered.

lycaon bared his fangs. apparently he wasn't a tofu fan. "if I had my way," lycaon said with regret, "i'd kill you first, son of jupiter. your father made me what I am. i was the powerful mortal king of arcadia, with fifty fine sons, and zeus slew them all with his lightning bolts."

"ha," coach hedge said. "for good reason!"

jason and stephanie turned to look at the man "coach, you know this clown?" jason asked, taking to insult the wolf man at the same time.

"i do," piper answered. the details of the myth came back to her—a short, horrible story she and her father had laughed at over breakfast. she wasn't laughing now.

"lycaon invited zeus to dinner," she said. "but the king wasn't sure it was really zeus. so to test his powers, lycaon tried to feed him human flesh. zeus got outraged—"

"and killed my sons!" lycaon howled. the wolves behind him howled too. stephanie could admit trying to make the king of the gods eat human flesh was a stupid idea but zeus' idea of retaliation was brutal. 

"so zeus turned him into a wolf," piper said. "they call... they call werewolves lycanthropes, named after him, the first werewolf."

"you're the king of wolves," stephanie finished. "an immortal mutt who really knows how to hold a grudge obviously."

lycaon growled. "if i could, i would tear you apart, witch!" his words sent shivers to stephanie's spine for a second before she relaxed. he said he could if he would, meaning he wasn't allowed,

"stop it," jason said. "lycaon, you said you wanted to kill me first, but...?"

"sadly, child of rome, you are spoken for. since this one"—he waggled his claws at piper—"has failed to kill you, you are to be delivered alive to the wolf house. one of my compatriots has asked for the honour of killing you herself."

"who?" jason said.

the wolf king snickered. "oh, a great admirer of yours. apparently, you made quite an impression on her. she will take care of you soon enough, and really I cannot complain. spilling your blood at the wolf house should mark my new territory quite well. lupa will think twice about challenging my pack."

as piper struggled to stand she tried to use her charm speak "you're going to leave now," she said, "before we destroy you."

it was obvious the girl was weak, shivering in her blankets, pale and sweaty and barely able to hold a knife, she couldn't have looked very threatening. lycaon's red eyes crinkled with humour. "a brave try, girl.

"i admire that. perhaps I'll make your end quick. only the son of jupiter and the daughter of hecate are needed alive. the e rest of you, I'm afraid, are dinner."

"why is stephanie needed?" leo spoke up now, why did they not also want him and piper. what was so special about stephanie pham?

"stephanie, you call her" lycaon laughed as he stared the girl down, her eyes turning a threatening red, reflecting his own. "the daughter of hecate is too valuable to us" the daughter of hecate. stephanie feared she was beginning to lose her identity to the woman she'd never met.

jason took a protective step forward. "you're not killing or taking anyone, wolf man. not without going through me."

lycaon howled and extended his claws. jason slashed at him, but his golden sword passed straight through as if the wolf king wasn't there. lycaon laughed. "gold, bronze, steel—none of these are any good against my wolves, son of jupiter."

"silver!" piper cried. "aren't werewolves hurt by silver?"

"we don't have any silver!" jason shouted.

wolves leaped into the firelight. hedge charged forward with an elated "woot!"

but leo struck first. he threw his glass bottle and it shattered on the ground, splattering liquid all over the wolves—the unmistakable smell of gasoline. he shot a burst of fire at the puddle, and a wall of flames erupted.

wolves yelped and retreated. several caught fire and had to run back into the snow. even lycaon looked uneasily at the barrier of flames now separating his wolves from the demigods.

every time a wolf came closer, leo shot a new wave of fire from his hands, but each effort seemed to make him a little more tired, and the gasoline was already dying down. "i can't summon any more gas!" leo warned. then his face turned red. "wow, that came out wrong. i mean the burning kind. going to take the tool belt a while to recharge. anyone got anything?"

stephanie knew it was now or never, she pulled leo back away from the wall of flames and flicked her wrist towards. it was though someone had thrown buckets of gasoline forwards, a roar from the fire as the wall only increased and turned a hypnotising red. the others only stared in amazement. "it won't hold for long, it only gives the illusion that it's gotten worse" she told the others.

"we have nothing else," jason said. "not even a weapon that works."

"lightning?" piper offered as she kept getting distracted by the flames dancing in front of her.

"can't we unleash the venti!" piper asked as she glanced at the golden backpack on the floor.

"no! then we'll have nothing to give aeolus," stephanie argued. "we didn't come all this way for nothing."

lycaon laughed. "i can smell your fear. a few more minutes of life, heroes. pray to whatever gods you wish. zeus did not grant me mercy, and you will have none from me."

the flames began to sputter out, dangerous flickers going both ways. jason cursed and dropped his sword. he crouched like he was ready to go hand-to-hand. leo pulled his hammer out of his pack. stephanie created a pretty ball of power in her hand. piper raised her dagger—not much, but it was all she had. coach hedge hefted his club, and he was the only one who looked excited about dying.

then a ripping sound cut through the wind—like a piece of tearing cardboard. a long stick sprouted from the neck of the nearest wolf—the shaft of a silver arrow. the wolf writhed and fell, melting into a puddle of shadow.

more arrows. more wolves fell. the pack broke in confusion. an arrow flashed toward lycaon, but the wolf king caught it in mid-air. then he yelled in pain. when he dropped the arrow, it left a charred, smoking gash across his palm. another arrow caught him in the shoulder, and the wolf king staggered.

"curse them!" lycaon yelled. he growled at his pack, and the wolves turned and ran. lycaon fixed jason with those glowing red eyes. "this isn't over, boy."

as lycaon and the rest of the wolves retreated to the woods, the abandoned wolves on the floor took their last breaths. one however caught stephanie's eyes. it was smaller than the others and had a streak of blonde fur from between its eyes all the way to it's tail. it looked like it had passed quicker than the others.

she slowly began to approach it as the others stayed back on edge. jason went to reach for her wrist but she had reached it's side already. she could feel it. she could feel it's soul still in his body quickly fading. she brought her palms to the wolves skull and channelled her energy into it's body. the others watched with interested eyes as to what she was doing.

"stephanie, what..." piper silenced herself as she watched the creature's eyes burst open. as if the blood in it's body has started flowing again. as if its soul just returned to its body. stephanie didn't know why she did it, but she knew that she had to .

the smaller wolf slowly regained balance to it's feet before stopping directly in front of the girl. jason rushed to her side resulting in it snarling in his direction, but with no indication of attack. "jason wait" stephanie told the boy as she stuck her hand out in front of him.

she brought a hand to stroke its side before looking it in it's eyes. the eyes which so closely resembled her own. it happened quickly, she couldn't tell if she had imagined it. it's eyes flickered to a haunting blue, and just as quickly as it occurred it was gone.

she nodded her head towards the woods in the direction the pack had gone and watched as the beast turned and ran. it ran home to it's pack.

"did you just bring it back to life?" leo exclaimed as he repeatedly blinked, wondering if they had seen what he had just seen. his hands went to pull at the strands of hair on his head.

"it didn't deserve to die" stephanie said wiping the dirt off her bare knees before walking back to sit by the fire. she didn't feel like saying anything else, this was the first time she'd used her necromancy in a while and wasn't prepared to receive the stares.

seconds later, they heard more wolves baying, but the sound was different—less threatening, more like hunting dogs on the scent. a smaller white wolf burst into the cave, followed by two more.

hedge said, "kill it?"

"no!" piper said. "wait."

the wolves tilted their heads and studied the campers with huge golden eyes.

a heartbeat later, their masters appeared: a troop of hunters in white-and-gray winter camouflage, at least half a dozen. all of them carried bows, with quivers of glowing silver arrows on their backs.

stephanie's actions quickly pushed to the side, but not forgotten. definitely not forgotten.

their faces were covered with parka hoods, but clearly they were all girls. one a little taller than the rest, crouched in the firelight and snatched up the arrow that had wounded lycaon's hand.

"so close." she turned to her companions. "phoebe, stay with me. watch the entrance. the rest of you, follow lycaon. we can't lose him now. i'll catch up with you." the other hunters mumbled agreement and disappeared, heading after lycaon's pack.

the girl in white turned toward them, her face still hidden in her parka hood. "we've been following that demon's trail for over a week. is everyone all right? no one got bit?"

jason stood frozen, staring at the girl. stephanie stared at the girl, she reminded her of jason. the way they spoke.

it seems piper had seen the resemblance as well, considering she spoke up, "you're her" piper guessed. "you're thalia."

the girl tensed. piper was afraid she might draw her bow, but instead she pulled down her parka hood. her hair was spiky black, with a silver tiara across her brow. her face had a super-healthy glow to it, as if she were a little more than human, and her eyes were brilliant blue. she was the girl from jason's photograph stephanie remembered seeing.

her eyes were nearly a duplicate to jason's. electrifying. it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were something you inherited. she thought of lou ellen and alabastar, with their mystical green eyes, like her own. she guessed jason must've felt like he was looking into a mirror.

"do I know you?" thalia asked.

"thalia." jason stepped forward, his voice trembling. "i'm jason, your brother."