but at two am on Monday morning, Scarlet nearly knocked my door down and woke me up in the process. I sat up straight on my bed thinking I was under attack when she suddenly jumped on my bed, carrying a thick book.

"Camila! Camila, I got it!!" Her voice sounded super excited but I couldn't stifle my yawn. It's two AM for Odin's sake! Seemed like that annoyed her as she grabbed my shoulders and shook my whole body while saying "Wake up!" in an annoyed tone.

I shrugged her off. "Okay, okay, I'm awake now. Geez. What is it?" I was about to yawn again but she shot me daggers, sending me a 'don't you dare' vibe. I raised both hands in defeat. Geez, is she on her period or something?

"It's the answer to all of your questions." She wiggled her eyebrows, clearly pleased with her choice of words for dramatic effect. When she noticed how unamused I was, she twitched her lips. "You could at least pretend to look excited. I work my ass off to steal this without mom noticing."

If Scarlet was a regular girl, my classmate perhaps, I wouldn't be worried about her stealing something from her mom. But since she was a pure royal and her mom was our Queen, I freaked out right now. "You stole from your mom?!" I asked her incredulously.

"Yeah, why?" She shrugged and raised one brow in question. Scratching her head, she looked at me as if I was stupid for not getting the facts straight the first time she'd mentioned it.

I took a deep breath, telling myself that it was alright, at least she didn't get caught. At least the Queen didn't know yet. "She's the Queen," I said matter-factly.

"And also my mother," Scarlet rolled her eyes. "Don't you ever steal something from your parents?" Yes, I did. Tons of liquor from Hawke's liquor cabinet but that was beside the point. "And it's just her diary anyway." Scarlet quickly added.

"Oh my God. That's it, we're going to put it back from where you took it. Come on." I swung my legs, getting ready to drag her but she caught my arm. "Don't you want to know, Camila?"

I sighed exasperatedly. "About what? The punishment for someone who stole the Queen's diary? I doubt it'll be kind anyway. Come on now, no time to waste!" I put on my flip-flop.

"Not that," Scarlet shook her head. "About the reason why you're the last Stavros."

I flinched at the mention of my dying clan. "I know why I'm the last one. The others were killed in the massacre."

"No. I mean yes. But don't you want to know about Isabelle? Don't you want to know why she could read two men just like you can read Vlad and Adrian?" Knowing I was hooked and on the verge of betraying my current plan, she shifted closer whilst putting the big leather book close to her chest. "Don't you want to know what happened to her? Her disappearance?"

Giving in, I threw up both hands and jumped back on the bed, kicking my flip-flops off. "Okay, okay, you got me, sales lady!"

Scarlet jumped on the bed like a little girl, I let out a giggle. "Go on," I paused and continued in a dramatical voice, "Reveal the secrets." Scarlet nodded eagerly.

Together, we opened the book and looked for the writings that could unveil the mystery.

We've been reading and flipping tons of pages but we didn't find anything. Scarlet gave me a duh look and shrugged. This was her mom's diary but the date on that report was like a decade ago. "I don't think your mom was even born when the incident with Isabelle happened."

"Dude," Scarlet gave me another look that said I was being stupid for thinking that she was that stupid. She took my hand and put it on the open page before closing the book. Fuck, that hurts! This book weighs a ton! "See that crown?" She pointed at the middle where a beautiful crown which looked the same as the one on our Queen's head was engraved on the leather cover. "This is the Queen's book. Yes, plural." She nodded like a smartass. "All the Queens passed this book down to the successor so they could learn about the history and also add another."

Narrowing her eyes, Scarlet asked, "Didn't you learn our race history?"

Okay, now I felt dumb. I did learn it before but in my defense, my brain could not work properly at two AM in the morning when even the sun was still sleeping. Or rolling. Whatever.

Ignoring her, I opened the book again and started looking. Seemed like this book had been passed over many times, we finally found details about Isabelle right in the middle of the thick book they called a diary.

It was the most horrifying thing that I've ever witnessed in my fifty-five years of life. The fire burned so brightly it could blind everyone. There he stood in the middle of the blazing fire as he offered his hand to her. Lady Isabelle Stavros took it with no hesitation as if it wasn't the devil himself offering her the hand. I was too perplexed to move and I could see Travis Hawke, Todd Warwick, and Typhon Lachowski were all pinned to the ground. "Come, my child, it's time to end your suffering," was the last thing I heard before they were both gone, along with the fire. No smoke because nothing was burnt. I stood there, completely immobile, as it was the first time I've seen a god in person. And it was Hades.

I smacked the book closed and then opened it again to realize that I wasn't imagining things. It was clearly written in ink Hades.

"That's impossible, right?" I heard Scarlet ask in a small voice that was out of her character. With her big eyes and brows furrowed, she stared at me in disbelief. "There's no way she could meet a god in person. I mean they haven't done that in years. Gods stopped visiting humans for thousands of years!"

"Well, tell that to Percy Jackson," I could hardly believe I found humor in this but apparently I did.

Scarlet frowned. "What?"

I shook my head, I hated when I had to explain my jokes to people. "Anyway, consider that it was possible and that stuff really happened, where do you think they went?" That was a mystery that bugged my mind. "Did he take her to the underworld? Or just another camp half-blood? Seriously, I'm intrigued and amazed at the same time."

"Why aren't you scared?" asked Scarlet as she put one hand on my shoulder and locked our eyes.

To be frank, I was. I experienced the same thing Lady Isabelle was experiencing. I could read Vlad and Adrian but Adrian couldn't read me just like Jonathon Chance had not been able to read Lady Isabelle's mind. The only difference was that in her case Jonathon was a regular and Lord Theo Christoulakis was a pure royal just like her while in mine both guys were pure royals. Did royal bloodline have anything to do with this?

I had too many questions in my head that I could feel it was going to explode. To add the pain, the door of my chamber swung open.

"Scarlet," a voice broke the silence. "What are you doing here?"

I heard her gulp before she opened her mouth to say one dreadful syllable, "Mom?"

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