The Truths Spoken In The Sea Of Lies

The Last Olympian: To preserve and to destroy

Blackjack get off the car!

Cruise ship echoes with doom,

Explosions resound.

***

The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of Rhea's car.

Up until then, she was having a great afternoon. Technically she wasn't supposed to be driving because she wouldn't turn sixteen for another week, but Sally and Paul, took her and Rachel to this private stretch of beach on the South Shore, and Paul let them borrow his Prius for a short spin.

Paul figured taking a car a few hundred yards wasn't exactly the most dangerous thing Rhea had ever done.

Anyway, Rachel and Rhea were driving along. It was a hot August day. Rachel's red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore a white blouse over her swimsuit.

Rhea's hair was pulled in a Greek bun braid, and she was wearing a blue dress over her ... -you guessed it- blue swimsuit.

"Oh, pull up right there!" she told Rhea.

They parked on a ridge overlooking the Atlantic. The sea is always one of Rhea's favourite places, but today it was especially nice—glittery green and smooth as glass.

"So." Rachel smiled at Rhea. "About that invitation."

She'd asked Rhea to come to her family's vacation house on St. Thomas for three days.

Rhea's idea of a fancy vacation was a weekend in a rundown cabin on Long Island with some movie rentals and a couple of frozen pizzas, and here Rachel's folks were willing to let her tag along to the Caribbean.

Not that Rhea never went there, but when you are the daughter of a sea god, able to breathe underwater and swim at a great and unhuman speed you tend to swim to crazy places.

The good side? Rhea did not need to pay a penny for those trips, but she mostly made those trips to help sea creatures and ensure those places were clean enough.

She did NOT want to have another drowning dolphin accident thank you.

"I can't the war is in a few weeks," Rhea said.

Something big was supposed to go down any day now. And Rhea was "on call" for a mission. Even worse, next week is her birthday.

And it made her restless -either because she was eager for battle or because she was nervous, she still didn't decide, maybe both, her lust for battle is a little bit over the top.-

"Rhea," she said, "I know the timing is bad. But it's always bad for you, right?"

Rachel knew. Unlike most mortals, she could see through the Mist—the magic veil that distorts human vision. She'd seen monsters. She'd met some of the other demigods who were fighting the Titans and their allies. She'd even been there last summer when the chopped-up Lord Kronos rose out of his coffin in a terrible new form.

Rachel looked at her. "Just think about it, okay? We don't leave for a couple of days. My dad..." Her voice faltered.

"Let me guess, he's trying to play nice?" Rhea said.

Rachel looked disgusted. "Yes, which makes everything worse. He wants me to go to Clarion Ladies Academy after the fall."

"The school where your mom went?"