²Olden Crown, heroes of olympus

001.

OLDEN CROWN
━━ chapter one

━━ WHEN ABILENE FIRST arrived at Camp Jupiter three years ago, she thought her time with Lupa had done her in for good. Lupa had ... explained it—"explained" with barks and snarls, so Abilene didn't catch nuch of the answers of course. From what Abilene did understood was that she was the daughter of a Roman goddess ( she later learned was Ceres, Goddess of Agriculture ), the goddess had fallen in love with a mortal man George Briar, and Abilene's grandmother had known all of this somehow and lead Abilene to the Wolf House with letters. ( Her grandmother, Barbara Briar, whom Abilene never actually met in person—only ever exchanged letters between one another. )

Even three years later, it still didn't make much sense to Abilene. But ... she didn't talk to George and her stepmother, Raleigh, anymore. Abilene no longer had the chance to ask why Barbara never once reached out until when she did. And her grandmother ... well, apparently Barbara thought she did all she needed to do and never once contacted Abilene again. It stung more than Abilene cared to admit—hurt by the fact a grandmother she had exchanged letters with for a month suddenly ghosted her? It was odd to have her feelings hurt who was never in her life until a month before she turned thirteen.

Anyway, Abilene—when first arriving at Camp Jupiter—thought it all was odd ( which, it was! ), but she grew used to it ... eventually. Something she still struggled with were the Lares—Roman house gods. It was freaky to see ghostly people pretending they weren't, well, dead. They stood outside the armory, polishing ethereal swords. Others hung out in front of the barracks. A ghostly boy chased a ghostly dog down the street. And at the stables, a big glowing red dude with the head of a wolf guarded a herd of unicorns.

She tried to give it time, but seeing them act as if they were still among the living made Abilene's head swivel. And recently—it seemed she had done something to tick them off. They already seemed peeved that she was a daughter of Ceres ( one of the purple warriors "guarding" the armory literally scoffed when it was announced—Maybe Ceres had done something to hurt the ghost when he was alive? Abilene didn't know, but she noticed the way the ghost had scoffed as if the idea was ridiculous to him. ) The ghost would stare at her, like she was a specimen to study.

Or like she was an enemy.

As they made their way to the Principia, ghosts hovered around, stopping and watching as the campers walked by. Abilene supposed it looked important to the onlookers—it was like an entourage was leading the way for Percy, the boy who had brought Juno across the Litter Tiber, later when the goddess basically said This is your ticket to not dying! Abilene didn't know what the goddess meant, and she was only more confused when the ghost of a young boy pointed at Percy and shrieked, "Graecus!" before turning invisible.

Percy stared where the boy had been, his eyebrows pinched and his eyes wide. "Am I seeing things? Or are those—"

"Ghosts?" Hazel glanced back at him. Abilene always thought the girl's eyes were gorgeous—like fourteen-karat gold. "They're Lares. House gods."

Percy blinked at her for a moment. "House gods. Like ... smaller than real gods, but larger than apartment gods?"

Abilene hid a smile when Reyna, who glanced over Hazel's head, glared at the boy. "They're ancestral spirits," she quickly explained. "They ... represent families—in a way. They're harmless, but I've never seen them so ..." She didn't finish her sentence. Truth be told, Abilene had seen them get pretty agitated before—at her. But when Reyna present, who was glaring at Percy like he had spit in her breakfast, she wasn't going to say anything.