²Olden Crown, heroes of olympus

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OLDEN CROWN
━━ chapter sixteen

━━ THE HOUSE WAS COLD. Abilene didn't expect anything different. Frank's grandmother looked, well, dead. If, by some miracle, she was still alive, she wasn't in any state to take care of the house, let alone herself. The bed was comfy, but she couldn't sleep well either—mainly because of the dreams of Gaea who was still talking in Ceres's voice. Well, the voice Abilene thought belonged to Ceres. She knew now who used to talk to her back at Camp Jupiter was not Ceres, but that it was Gaea. The voice who had given her Viridis hadn't been Ceres, it had been Gaea.

It was all Gaea. But Abilene couldn't say that. That made it real. Real, instead of her brain trying to fill in the gaps of questions she had. Why had Ceres taken such interest in Abilene when she had other children? Because it hadn't been Ceres who had taken an interest in Abilene. Why did Ceres tell Abilene that she would bring a "new age" to Ceres's name? Because that hadn't been Ceres saying that to Abilene.

Abilene couldn't bring herself to say it aloud, but ... Ceres was Gaea. Or, what she had thought was Ceres had always been Gaea. It made sense—George Briar, her father, was a farmer. He worked with, and for, the earth. He respected it, because it gave him life. Of course any goddess that ruled over the earth would go for a man like George Briar. And her grandmother—Barbara—knew it all. That Abilene was a half-blood, she knew about Hazel being dead, she knew Abilene's mother was a goddess. But Barabra said that Abilene's mother was Ceres, but technically, Abilene had never been claimed. And Barabra had been right about everything else. Abilene struggled to believe her grandmother could get this wrong, too—but she said that Abilene's mother was Ceres. But Ceres also never claimed Abilene; it was always just accepted that she was a daughter of Ceres. No one doubted her when she came to Camp Jupiter and said her mother was Ceres and then she controlled some plants. It seemed there was nothing to question.

The more she thought about it, the more queasy she became. Abilene felt like she was back on the Pax, rocking and swaying with the water. How did her grandmother know all of this? She wasn't a seer, there was no way. She must've ... She had to be involved. One way or another.

No one else seemed to get a good night's rest. They were all up pretty early in the morning, right as the sun rose. And one look out the window, Abilene knew things were only going to get worse.

At the edge of the lawn, the Laistrygonians were stacking bronze cannonballs. Their skin gleamed red. Their shaggy hair, tattoos, and claws didn't look any prettier in the morning light. Some carried clubs or spears. A few confused ogres carried surfboards, like they'd shown up at the wrong party. All of them were in a festive mood—giving each other high fives, tying plastic bibs around their necks, breaking out the knives and forks. One ogre had fired up a portable barbecue and was dancing in an apron that said KISS-THE-COOK. The scene would've been almost funny, except Abilene knew that monsters loved to eat demigods.

She took one last look at the KISS-THE-COOK apron before she turned away from the window. Hazel and Percy were bumping into each other as they tried to find ingredients to make breakfast. Percy found four plates, nearly dropping one as he showed them off. "Frank okay?" he asked Abilene.

She sighed and shrugged. "Sprawled on his grandmother's floor, but ... breathing." It was the truth—she had checked on him that morning once she realized he had never made it out of his grandmother's room. She found him lying on the wood floor, arm draped over his eyes. One foot was caught under his opposite leg, but he shivered lightly. Worried he'd get sick before they could finish the quest, she draped one of the blankets on a chair.