~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

The Daughter of Pluto

{Kiara}

"For those of you who have not heard it," Rachel said, "the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It arrived in August. It goes like this: Eight half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—"

Jason shot to his feet. His eyes looked wild, like he'd just been tasered. Kiara looked at him with surprise. She hadn't been paying attention in the last ten minutes until the pandemonium broke out, but now, she was watching intently.

Even Rachel seemed caught off guard. "J-Jason?" she said. "What's—"

"Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum dejuremus," he chanted. "Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem."

An uneasy silence settled on the group. Kiara could see from their faces that several of them were trying to translate the lines. She knew the lines, of course. Like Jason, she was fluent in Latin. And she could tell Jason had finished the prophecy.

"You just... finished the known part of prophecy," Rachel stammered. "—An oath to keep with a final breath/And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. How did you—"

"I know those lines." Jason winced and put his hands to his temples. "I don't know how, but I know that prophecy."

"In Latin, no less," Drew called out. "Handsome and smart."

There was some giggling from the Aphrodite cabin. God, what a bunch of losers, Kiara thought. But it didn't do much to break the tension. The campfire was burning a chaotic, nervous shade of green.

"Wait hold up," Kiara said. All heads turned towards her. Apparently, not much of the campers had noticed the dark haired girl as mumbles filled the air. "The known part? What do you mean?"

Rachel hesitated and looked at Chiron, the centaur stood grim and silent, as if he were watching a play he couldn't interrupt—a tragedy that ended with a lot of people dead onstage. Kiara thought he looked like he had aged 10 years since she had last looked at him.

"There is another verse," Rachel said at last. "In shadows deep, a soul concealed, a daughter of Pluto, her heart revealed. But we don't—"

"In umbris profundis, anima latebrata, filìa Plutonis, cor suum detegit," Kiara said in one breath. Daughter of Pluto. That's what the woman in her head had called her. That was what she was. She was the daughter of the god of wealth and the Underworld. She was the daughter of Pluto.

Kiara's knees buckled and she stumbled back, falling onto her seat. Rachel and Chiron rushed immediately to her side.

"That's me," she muttered in dismay. "I'm the daughter of Pluto." She shook her head, as if she would be able to shake away the truth. She saw Piper making her way towards her in the crowd that had formed in front of Kiara.

She got up, pushing everyone out of her way, and rushed out of the amphitheater, heading to the forest. She knew she would be alone there, and that was what she needed. It was one of the things that Juno—or Hera—hadn't been able to steal from Kiara: that she found comfort in solitude and shadows.

Behind her, in the amphitheater, she heard more shouts. She didn't know if the other campers were yelling at her to come back, or if something else had happened. But she didn't care either way. She didn't belong here and she knew it. Whatever Juno was up to, it was a dangerous game.

She heard footsteps behind her, but they stopped when she reached the end of the amphitheater and continued to run towards the woods. She could start to make out the trunks and leaves of the trees. Without stopping, she ran inside.