[absit omen]

"Mark?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you been listening to a word I've been saying?"

Mark's leg froze where it was bouncing up and down in anxiety at the derision lacing Dale's voice. He widened his eyes and straightened up, meeting the daughter of Demeter's intense stare sheepishly.

"Sorry," He muttered, scratching the back of his neck. "I can't really focus on anything right now."

Dale sighed, leaning back in her chair as she stirred the coffee in her Styrofoam cup. "You're hopeless."

Mark narrowed his eyes at her. "What'd you say?"

Dale drained the coffee, exhaling when she was finished. "I said, my dearest Mark, that you're hopeless. You're like a spurned puppy."

"Am not."

"Are too."

Dale tilted her head at Mark, fixing him with a look that read 'Oh, please.' "Mark, come on. What's it going to take for you to admit it?"

Mark glanced at the shut door, behind which was one daughter of Nemesis that Mark desperately needed to see. "Admit what?"

"That you're in love with Ad—"

"—Hara!" Mark shot to his feet as the door opened and Adhara emerged. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Adhara said simply, although her voice was laced with something that Mark couldn't place. She flicked her violet eyes up to meet Mark's, and Mark wondered if this was what it was like to stare into a crystal ball and see violet mist curling around the glass, possessing some knowledge that only few were privy to.

"Adhara," Mark's voice was hardly above a whisper, yet Adhara flinched at the sound of her name. "Please."

Adhara met his gaze, and for a second, Mark thought that was going to slap him. However, she sighed and sank down into the chair beside Mark's. Despite looking like she'd seen a ghost, the chair became Adhara's throne.

"I don't exactly what you want me to tell you," Adhara said, each word clipped as if she were dancing around something.

"We need you to tell us what happened to you," Dale said, leaning towards Adhara. "We've heard bits and pieces, but you're the only one that knows for sure."

Adhara bit her bottom lip, her eyes everywhere but Dale and Mark. At last, she blew out a long sigh. "I...had dreams. Terrible dreams. All of you were in them."

Mark drew his eyebrows together. "You dreamt of us?"

Adhara pursed her lips, focusing on some point in the distance. "I saw things that I'd only heard of. I saw Tessa in Chicago, raising a river. A cave-in in California. Kaya vaporizing monsters after Alex's death. It was like I was watching them all happen, and I was powerless to stop them."

"Was that all?" Dale asked, golden eyes beseeching.

Adhara shook her head. "There was a woman. I was standing on some ruin, and a woman appeared before me and started chanting in a language I didn't know, but I understood every word."

"You were chanting something, when you were in the trance," Mark confirmed, his heart beginning to race in his chest. "It sounded like a prophecy."

"That's because it was one," Adhara's voice sounded faraway, her eyes were haunted. "What I said...it's an extension of the Great Prophecy. Or rather, another version of it."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees. When Mark released a breath, he was surprised to see that it didn't fog up. "But the Great Prophecy...we haven't had it come true in years."

Dale was shaking her head slowly. "It should have been complete after the General's forces were defeated. 'Accept thy darkness, accept thy name.'"

Adhara gripped the arms of her chair. "After that day, things changed. I sensed them, I knew they changed. Each of you had accepted the darkness in your hearts, and you were forced to live with them. Only it affected some people more than they had anticipated."

Mark and Dale met each other's gaze, mutual understanding passing between them. Tessa. Reese.

"From then on, the narrative changed. Aether rose, and I infiltrated his forces to see how the shift would spread. The Great Prophecy changed, only I think it will come to pass much sooner than we anticipate." Adhara looked up, frightened. "There is more going on with this war than both camps realize. If we don't grasp it in time..."

Adhara didn't need to finish her sentence for Mark to understand what would happen. Images of his visions came to the forefront of his mind. He fought the glimpses of bloodied bodies and stormy skies away, watching as Adhara got to her feet.

"I need to find answers. I can't be sure that what I said was the true prophecy until I do some digging." She said, starting for the door.

Mark cut off her path. "I don't think so. You were unconscious, Adhara. There's a war coming. You can't just fling yourself into the abyss in search for answers."

"I never needed your permission, Mark, and that doesn't change now," Adhara snapped. "I need to do this. It could change the war."

"It could kill you. What if you have another episode?"

"Mark's right, Adhara," Dale got to her feet, ever the voice of reason. "This isn't the first time you've had an episode."

Adhara turned her head to face Dale, violet eyes vindictive. "What're you talking about?"

"In Aether's mansion," Dale spoke, and Mark snapped his attention to his best friend. Much like his own time in the Regiment, Dale hardly spoke of her time as Aether's hostage. She hadn't been hurt or brainwashed, as Mark had been, but she'd still seen gruesome things. And Adhara had been at her side during it all. "When we found Typhon. You knew exactly what this would mean."

"Well, that's all the more reason why I need to figure this out for myself," Adhara said briskly. "I have my sources. I need to meet with them."

"Adhara," Mark pleaded, his voice low.

Adhara stared into his eyes, as if waiting for Mark to back down. But Mark's resolve was stronger than most people gave him credit for.

Adhara sighed. "Give me 48 hours. I'll be back by then. And please," She fixed Mark with a look. "You can't tell anyone until I get back. I need to be sure."

Mark wanted to say no. He wanted to make sure that Adhara and the rest of those he cared about stayed safe, but safe was not something that demigods were used to being. A war was on the horizon, and if Mark didn't let Adhara go, they could all be dead by its beginning.

"Be safe," Mark whispered.

A small smile tugged at Adhara's lips, and her eyes glinted mischievously as she beheld him. "Always am."

She started to go, but before she did, brushed her lips fleetingly along Mark's cheek. Then, with that, she darted down the infirmary's halls.

Adhara's kiss burnt like a brand, but Mark didn't care. He looked after her and wondered if he'd ever see Adhara again.

"We need to tell the others soon," Dale crept to Mark's side, eyes locked after Adhara. "If there's a new prophecy, we need to stay ahead of it."

"I just don't understand," Mark muttered. "It's like some insane butterfly effect. How could everything then be changing things now? If Menoetious started all of this, why would he change it?"

"He didn't change it, Mark," Dale said. "We did. And we can change it again, but only if we tell everyone."

"Adhara said not to."

Dale bristled at that. When she had a plan, she didn't like to waffle over it, Mark knew that much. But she also didn't want to double-cross Adhara.

"Fine then," Dale exhaled. "But we need to do something."

Mark felt like he was standing in the middle of a cyclone as it raged on around him. Menoetious had them like pawns on a chessboard, single-handedly creating their misery and heartbreak and torture. He'd given Tessa those nightmares, he'd sent them on the quest, he'd put Mark under Orion's spell, and the list of his crimes only continued. Now, he'd managed to have them change a prophecy, only to become subject to a much more frightening one.

And even though Mark was raised to be a warrior, even though this was his life and there was no shaking it, he had had enough of standing by and watching as horrible things happened to people that didn't deserve it. Too many of his friends had died. He wouldn't let it happen to anyone else.

"Let's go."

--

When Mark and Dale busted into the Library of Athena, guns blazing, Mark had expected his friends to at least notice their entrance. However, Tessa, Kaden, Reese, Imogen, and Amelie were all crowded around the central monitor, watching something that looked like a news feed.

"This feels significantly less badass than I had hoped," Mark whispered to Dale.

Dale gave him a funny look before sauntering towards the group. "What's going on?"

"Watching hell begin to break out," Reese deadpanned without looking up from the monitor.

"Oh, fun," Dale noted, folding her arms across her chest. Mark hurried to follow and noticed that the news reel was of Alderman Rainier standing behind a podium at his latest debate, and apparently, it had taken a turn based on Tessa's allegations.

Mark's eyebrows raised as he looked up to Tessa, watching with a mix of smug confidence and veiled concern. "I see your mission went well?"

Tessa shrugged her shoulders. "It went swimmingly, to say the least."

A chorus of boo's emanated from the screen, and everyone's attention flicked back to Rainier's steely-faced figure behind his podium.

"If he's not Menoetious, do you think that he'll still get revenge for ruining his career?" Imogen speculated, glancing at Tessa. "What if he knows the mob?"

"I'd like to see him try to touch Tessa if he's not Menoetious," Kaden countered, sharing a glance with the daughter of Poseidon.

Tessa smiled amicably between Kaden and Imogen, before glancing at Mark and Dale. "What's up with you guys?"

Suddenly, Mark felt like his plans had slid down the drain. They had information that Adhara had made them promise not to share, and yet had come barging in under the pretenses of doing something.

"We wanted to see if there were any updates on Rainier." Mark jutted his chin towards the monitor everyone was still crowded around. "Apparently, there are."

"On that note," Reese took a deep breath, shutting off the monitor. "We need some serious plans. If Rainier is Menoetious, we can't wait around for him to strike. We only have, what, six days?"

"We're already mobilizing as best we can," Tessa offered, sinking into the nearest chair. "But you're right. We need to move."

Kaden crossed to one of the computers nearby, typing something in and straightening back up. "I'll keep a closer watch on the bugs in Rainier's office, see if something comes up."

"We need tails," Imogen suggested. "We need eyes on Rainier at all times."

"Maybe the Romans would be up to that," Dale offered, and even though it was a fair suggestion, Mark could feel the ice in her voice.

Imogen quirked a brow. "What do you mean?"

"The Romans are making a military base in Midtown," Kaden reported casually. "They're already in the city, so why not give them the job?"

Imogen shook her head. "Hold on, why are the Romans making a military base here? Was this Kaya and Alex's idea?"

"Most likely," Tessa confirmed.

Imogen rolled her eyes, mumbling something in Latin that had Kaden's eyebrows flying up as she said it. She got out her phone, said "I'll be back," then stormed down the stairs of the Library.

Reese pointed a finger at Dale. "What was that, Alcander?"

Dale blinked at the son of Apollo innocently. "What?"

Reese rolled his eyes, running a hand over his face. "I'm gonna have to deal with this, aren't I?"

Mark clapped a hand on Reese's back. "Most definitely."

Reese groaned, slumping into a chair. It wheeled away from the group with his weight, and he had to dejectedly scoot it back towards the others. Mark tried not to laugh as he averted his attention back to the tactics at hand.

"Amelie," Tessa called, and the daughter of Hecate's head popped up from behind a bookshelf she'd been rifling through. "Status report, please."

"Well, there's not much to say," Amelie responded, walking towards the group. "The barrier's held since the battle, and nothing aside from a few forest animals have really come near it. Our mysterious murderer seems to have fled to the city."

Mark tensed, remembering the shrouded face of Sierra's killer in the threshold of Rainier's apartment. "Do we have any information on who he is?"

"Nothing," Amelie confirmed with a sigh. "Whoever he is, he knows how to stay hidden."

"We'll find him," Kaden reassured, meeting Mark's eyes knowingly. Mark wondered for a second if Adhara had left a lipstick stain on his cheek, but before he could make it obvious and check, he turned away.

"Until then, we need defense strategies," Tessa got out of her seat and crossed to the monitor, tapping a few things until a map of New York City shimmered to life on the screen. "If Menoetious is looking to launch Project Maelstrom, we need to know how to beat it."

"An earthquake would decimate the city," Amelie noted.

Tessa shook her head, biting her lip. "He wouldn't use an earthquake. Maybe to hit Camp Jupiter, as it has before, but New York's something else...I just don't know what."

Mark knew Adhara would slap him for it later, but he couldn't stop himself as he spoke. "Adhara's gathering intel as we speak."

Everyone looked up at Mark at that, varying degrees of bewilderment on their faces.

"Adhara just got out of the infirmary," Kaden tried to protest. "What's she doing looking for intel?"

"That's what I said," Mark conceded. "But after what she saw...she needed to get answers. She'll be back soon."

Reese drew his eyebrows together. "What did she see?"

Now you've done it, Akagi. Five sets of searching eyes were locked on Mark, and he couldn't give them what they wanted. Not yet anyway.

"She didn't tell us," Dale chimed, alarming both Mark and the rest of the group. "You know Adhara. She thrives on mystery."

Mark made a mental note to thank Dale later as he addressed the group. "Adhara managed to get some information out of Project Maelstrom when she was with Aether and Kane. She thinks she can get more."

"Let's hope she does," Tessa said grimly. Her eyes were locked on the model of Manhattan on the monitor, creating some mental plan that no one could see but her. "If Menoetious started all of this, then he knows that keeping all of us busy will try and weaken us. Whether its finding him, identifying Sierra's killer, or stopping Project Maelstrom, he's thrown all of these obstacles at us in hopes of overwhelming us. We can't let him win. We won't let him win."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Reese folded his arms across his chest.

Tessa turned to face the group, turquoise eyes bright with determination and an expression that seemed to see five steps past the rest of them. "What we always do," She mused. "Give him hell."