What would've been a quiet summer turns into a globe-trotting adventure when an incident in Olympian High's campus garden gets the attention of resident Chosens Amelia Kingston and Zeus Olympian. To their surprise, the culprit is none other than the...
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It had been a few months since Amelia last saw him, but the changes in his face shook her to the core—sickly pale skin wrinkled with age, a healed scar on his forehead, and a metallic gray eye instead of his warm brown ones. All of what made Ben himself was gone, withered and replaced by a stranger's features.
If he was Ben in the first place. As much as Amelia hated to think about it, he was kidnapped and probably dead somewhere. There was no way that Claudius Constantine was Benjamin Miller. For all she knew, he might as well be his doppelganger and nothing else.
"It's not him. . ." Amelia muttered, trying to console herself.
Zeus started, "Is it just me or does he look like—"
"He does," Athena said, "so just shut up about it."
"You guys know him?" Ivy asked, looking back and forth at the four of them.
From the corner of her eye, Amelia could see the three siblings glancing at each other, questioning themselves.
"Well. . . no," Poseidon replied, hesitating. "He only looks like Amelia's—"
"It's not him," Amelia repeated, this time her voice cracking. "It can't be him."
Zeus grasped her trembling hand. "Ames. . . do you want to go?"
Yes, Amelia wanted to say, to plead in front of her friends to abort the mission. She couldn't stand looking at Ben's twisted face any longer, but she didn't want to raise any sort of suspicion of them. She had to keep it to herself for a little longer.
Amelia straightened her back. "No, it's fine. I'll be fine."
"I'm still waiting." Claudius' voice was amplified by the microphone he was holding, but there was no mistake that it slightly resembled Ben's cheerful tone. Amelia shook her head at the thought.
"What should we do if he flushes us out anyway?" Zeus whispered at them. "Make a run for it?"
"Possibly," Poseidon said, then turned to Amelia. "Get ready to cover us if things go bad."
"And. . . time's up!" Claudius said. "Guards!"
The armed men standing by held the guns hanging on their shoulders and aimed towards the guests near them, who began to shriek. Before anyone could protest, a shot pierced through the air. Amelia didn't know where it came from, but a man from afar collapsed in a sickening thud with a hole in his chest. People jumped into panic as they ran for the exits, but were blocked by Claudius' goons. Some of the guests began to cry and beg for him to stop, but he ignored them.
Claudius peered into the crowd smugly. "For every second you don't reveal yourselves—" Bang! "—someone dies. This will not stop—" Bang! "—until I say so."
Another shot sounded, and another. And another.
Amelia's heart pounded inside her chest. So much chaos, and she and her friends were in the middle of it all. The five of them looked at each other, fear and hesitation radiating behind their masks. No one dared to say anything. They didn't want to get caught, she could hear their minds say so, but they also didn't want people dying because of them.
