I swallowed. I guess now was the time. “Percy’s not coming, Annabeth. He’s dead”

There was a shocked silence. Annabeth turned pale.

“What?” She whispered disbelievingly.

I repeated, “Percy is dead.”

Annabeth stood completely still, not moving at all. Katie Gardener stepped forward, and said in a slightly high pitched voice, with tears starting to come to her eyes, “What do you mean he’s dead? He can’t be dead. He’s the child of the prophecy. His birthday hasn’t even passed yet! We need him!”

I cleared my throat, and everyone's attention shifted back from Katie to me. “Actually, there’s another half blood that fits the prophecy’s description, and was born on the same day as Percy.”

The atmosphere grew even more shocked, if that was possible.

Then Travis Still stepped forward to stand next to Katie. “What do you mean, another half blood? There is not anyone at camp that is the child of the big three! I am pretty sure we would have noticed by now.” He said sarcastically, but there was a hint of sadness in his voice that he tried to hide.

Annabeth stiffened, then looked at me, her eyes full of tears. “But they aren’t at camp, are they, Nico?” She whispered, her voice slightly choked.

I nodded, and she continued. “Then they probably don’t know about us at all, right? So they wouldn’t have been trained, or have any knowledge of what to do. We don’t even know if they would want to help us or if they would join Kronos.”

When she said his name, the room darkened and became colder, then went back to normal a few seconds later.

There was silence as everyone processed this, then Chiron said, “Who is the child of the prophecy then, my boy?”

I took a deep breath, then replied, “My sister, Persia Zastrow.”

There were a few gasps, and cries of outrage. One particularly ardent protestor, pushed to the front of the crowd and said, “Please tell me your joking. A child of Hades, as the child of the prophecy? That’s preposterous. She’ll probably be a traitor.” She scoffed at the idea.

I glared angrily at the person who said this. I had seen her before around camp, but I never knew her personally. Her name was Drew Tanaka, and she was never that nice to anyone but her cabinmates, and anyone she considered ‘popular’. And even then, she was never that nice to some of them. Could she be the spy? It was possible.

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind for now, and instead scowled and said, “Ok, first of all what’s wrong with being a child of Hades? In case you forget I am a child of Hades. And you haven’t even me Persia yet! You all are just fucking biased and don’t even pay attention to what’s right in front of you, instead hanging on to old prejudices and ideas. Do you have any idea how unfair it is to us? We were just normal people until we came to camp, or met other demigods, and then we turned into what you think we are, just because of some shit ideas. You are the ones that turn us into what we are.”

I finished my rant, breathless, and then paled. I had not meant to say that. It had just slipped out. Damn it, stupid emotional exhaustion was getting to me.

I looked around. Everyone was staring at me in surprise. Clearly they had not expected me to say that.

Then Drew snorted. “It’s not our fault you Hades children are so dark and depressed all the time. You do have a choice in how you feel or act.”

I glared at her. I opened my mouth to say something, when Annabeth interrupted me. “No, what he says is correct, Drew. It is our fault. Half Bloods (And pretty much everyone else in the mythological world that isn’t a monster) have always shunned Hades children for no reason. If we had actually accepted them then they wouldn’t be so bitter. And it’s true that none of us have even met Persia yet, so you shouldn’t judge her based on some ill-conceived notions.”

I was surprised. Annabeth was defending me? Why? Before I could put any more thought into it somebody started speaking. It was Jake Mason.

“So, when do we meet her?” He asked curiously.

“Well, I don’t really know.” I admitted, mentally scolding myself for not asking my father that. “Hades just said he would be sending her. He never said when.”

Everyone shifted around nervously. “You know, I think there might be a chance she does know about us.” Travis said, going back to the earlier conversation topic.

“Then you would be right,” Said a voice coming from somewhere upwards, behind me. I turned around, startled. There was a person perched on the branch of a tree, grinning at me. She jumped down, crouching on the ground for a second, then straightening up. My jaw nearly hit the ground. Everyone around me gaped at her.

It was my sister. It was Persia.