My breath caught in my throat. I turned around, my heart pounding, and looked up to see a twelve-foot-tall goddess standing before me. Her curly black hair hung halfway down her back, and she was dressed in dazzling white with a bronze war helm on her head. I stared up into her eyes-stormy gray, exactly like mine.

I dropped to my knees. "Lady Athena," I said, bowing my head.

I dutifully focused my eyes on the floor, so I couldn't see my mother's expression when she said, "Rise, my daughter." I stood uneasily, trying my best not to fidget.

"I have been looking forward to meeting you," Athena said, but her voice was reserved, professional.

"Really?" I gasped, shocked. Why would she have wanted to meet me? It was another moment before I realized my mistake and hurriedly added, "My lady."

"Yes, Annabeth," Athena said, a hint of a smile appearing on her lips. "I have been observing your journey for a long time."

I was too stunned to say anything, so after an uncomfortable pause, Athena continued. "I know you believe yourself weak, my daughter, but I see much more in you. You work harder to uphold my values than any of my other offspring."

I still couldn't believe what my mother was saying to me, or even that she was here talking to me, but I managed to squeak out, "Well, I want to do right by you, My Lady."

"And you have, Annabeth," Athena said. "Although you still have much to learn. But I have seen your future. I know you may not believe it, but someday you shall be a great hero."

"May I ask you a question, Lady Athena?" I said nervously, and she gave a small nod. "What exactly do you see for me?"

Athena smiled. "That is one thing I cannot tell you, my daughter. I am forbidden from interfering in the lives of mortals. But I can tell you this: your future is fast approaching. You have been very patient, Annabeth, and that patience will be rewarded. Very soon, you will be given the chance to prove yourself a hero. But you may need the help of another to guide you."

I flashed back to what Chiron had said to me all those years ago. "So... Chiron was right? There's a boy coming to camp who's supposed to lead me?"

My mother chuckled. "Perhaps it can be looked at that way," she admitted. "But the Fates show much more for you than Chiron has let on. You are not ready yet, daughter. But this demigod can show you the way. He will help you become the hero you were meant to be, and then you will achieve greatness in your own right."

I nodded, staring up at my mother in awe. "You see all of this for me?" I asked incredulously.

Athena nodded. "Yes, my daughter," she said, reaching into a pocket of her dress. "You may need some help along the way, but you are destined to be a hero. And I have a small gift for you that will help you along the way."

It was an ordinary New York Yankees baseball cap, probably cost thirty bucks in the city. I looked up at Athena in confusion, and she said, "Put it on, daughter."
I pulled it on, amazed when it fit my small head perfectly. I still didn't feel any different, but Athena looked satisfied. "Look down," she instructed.

When I did, I just about had a heart attack.

My body wasn't there.

I shuffled my feet, sliding them along the marble floor, but all I saw beneath me was white marble. I lifted my hand, holding it right in front of my face. I could feel my body doing the movement, feel the air flow from my hand, but I saw nothing in front of me.

I was invisible.

I removed the cap, staring up at my mother in fascination. "It's amazing," I said, kneeling hastily. "Thank you, My Lady."

"You're welcome," Athena said, smiling kindly. "This will be of great service to you in the years to come. I know you will make me proud one day, Annabeth."

And just like that, my mother turned and walked elegantly back into the crowd.

A few minutes later, the gods decided the palace had gotten boring and it was time to move the party to the streets. Zeus snapped his fingers and a bunch of naiads scurried to pick up the food from the tables as we all headed out of the throne room and down the mountain.

Chiron told us we had half an hour before we had to get back to camp, and everyone hurried off to make the most of the Olympian party while we could. All I wanted to do was find Luke and tell him about my conversation with Athena. I wanted to show him my baseball cap and speculate about this mysterious hero who was supposed to change my life, but he was nowhere to be seen. I wondered if he was off somewhere talking to Hermes.

So I spent the next half-hour sampling very tiny amounts of nectar and ambrosia recipes, making sure not to eat too much of the magic food. I struck up a conversation with a dryad who lived in one of the olive trees I had seen in the park, who was delighted to hear that I was a daughter of Athena. I saw Silena Beauregard talking and giggling with Aphrodite; the two of them seeming to be getting along great. Apollo was playing a concert for a small crowd which included all of his children, the twin sons of Dionysus, and what appeared to be some of his Muses. Hermes was deep in conversation with a couple of his children, none of whom were Luke. I wondered where he could have disappeared to.

Before I knew it, it was time for us to leave. We waved goodbye to the partiers, gave one last bow and thank you to the gods, and headed back across the Sidewalk of Death to the elevator.

The next few weeks were full of excited chatter. Everyone was swapping stories about meeting this god or that spirit, marveling about the beauty of Mount Olympus, and hoping and praying that one day we would get to go back. There was an energy in the camp that I had never felt before, and it didn't seem like the excitement of the visit would ever fade.

Unfortunately, the gods didn't seem to be sharing in our happiness.

As soon as we got back to camp, the weather started acting up in a way we had never seen before. Clouds rolled in over New York, and the whole state was hit with thunder, lightning, hail, blizzards, and enough rain to flood the Hudson River five times over.

No one knew what was going on, but Zeus was clearly angry. The weather channels in Manhattan were working overtime, chalking it up to climate change, oncoming hurricanes, just about anything they could come up with to explain away the gods' rage.

The storms continued all the way into the spring, and although Thalia's magic was supposed to keep them away from camp, people were starting to get anxious. The rain still couldn't get in, but the clouds had stopped skirting around the edge of the valley and passed right over us, threatening downpour at any moment.

In April, just as we had decided that it must be Zeus' rage causing this weather, the sea started acting up as well. Hurricanes and tsunamis threatened to devastate the country at any minute, and the waves at the beach became dangerously high. Some of the Hermes and Apollo campers had been excited to see the waves at first, rejoicing that Poseidon had finally blessed us with good surfing, but after a few weeks and some minor injuries it became too dangerous to even go in the water.

It seemed that whatever had happened to provoke Zeus had now angered Poseidon as well, and the storms and natural disasters started a national panic. People were packing food into their cellars, filling their bathtubs with clean drinking water, or hiding away in their garden sheds with shotguns preparing for the apocalypse. No one at Camp Half-Blood knew what had made the gods so angry, but we knew that something big was coming. The only person who had ever seen anything like this was Chiron, but he refused to tell us much, clearly not wanting to cause a camp-wide panic about the situation on Olympus.

All he could tell us was that something terrible had happened at the solstice, and Zeus and Poseidon were angry.

We had all guessed that, but Chiron said one other thing that terrified us beyond belief.

Not only were Zeus and Poseidon angry, but they were angry with each other. Which meant only one thing.

War was brewing.