Rick Riordan

“It’s a training camp,” Leo realized. He looked at Aphros in awe. “You train heroes, the same way Chiron does?”Aphros nodded, a glint of pride in his eyes. “We have trained all the famous mer-heroes! Name a merhero, and we have trained him or her!”“Oh, sure,” Leo said. “Like…um, the Little Mermaid?”

“Even his hair was bigger—a massive globe of blue-black frizz so thick that hislobster-claw horns appeared to be drowning as they tried to swim their way to the surface.“Is that why they named you Aphros?” Leo asked as they glided down the path from the cave. “Because of the Afro?”Aphros scowled. “What do you mean?”“Nothing,” Leo said quickly.”

“Leo,” Hazel gasped, “I can’t—my arms—”“Hazel,” he said. “Do you trust me?”“No!”“Me neither,” Leo admitted.”

“The stars are out,' Zoe said.She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to ruin turn the sky orange.'Amazing,' Bianca said. 'I've never actually seen the Milky Way.''This is nothing,' Zoe said. 'In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution.''You talk like you're not human,' I said.Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?''For you,' Thalia corrected. 'Not thee.''But you use you for the beginning of a sentence.''And for the end,' Thalia said. 'No thou. No thee. Just you.'Zoe threw up her hands in exasperation. 'I hate this language. It changes too often!”

“You teach combat, I guess.”Aphros threw up his hands in exasperation. “Why does everyone assume that?”Leo glanced at the massive sword on the fish-guy’s back. “Uh, I don’t know.”

“Frank didn’t drop you on purpose,” she said. “He’s not like that. He’s just a little clumsy sometimes.”“Oops,” Leo said, in his best Frank Zhang voice. “Dropped Leo into a squad of enemy soldiers. Dang it!”

“Coach Hedge came pounding up the stairs with Hazel at his hooves.“Where are they?” he demanded. “Who do I kill?”“No killing!” Annabeth ordered. “Just defend the ship!”“But they interrupted a Chuck Norris movie!”

“Sometimes wisdom came from strange places, even from giant teenaged goldfish.”

“Coach," Annabeth said, "it was an accident. We were talking, and we fell asleep.""Besides," Percy said, "you're starting to sound like Terminus."Hedge narrowed his eyes. "Is that an insult, Jackson? 'Cause I'll-I'll Terminus you, buddy!”

“Everyone thinks you've been kidnapped," he said. "We've been scouring the ship. When Coach Hedge finds out- oh, gods, you've been here all night?""Frank!" Annabeth's ears were as red as strawberries. "We just came down here to talk. We fell asleep. Accidentally. That's it.""Kissed a couple of times," Percy said.Annabeth glared at him. "Not helping!”

“Ceres wanted a united front in the plant war.""The plant war," Percy said. "You're going to arm all the little grapes with tiny assault rifles?”

“She'd secretly had a crush on him since they were twelve years old. Last summer, she'd fallen for him hard.”

“I don't deserve you.""You're not allowed to say that.""Why not?""It's a breakup line. Unless you're breaking up-"Jason leaned over and kissed her. The colors of the Roman afternoon suddenly seemed sharper, as it the world had switched to high definition."No breakups," he promised. "I may have busted my head a few times, but I'm not that stupid.”

“Besides, Reyna will do what she can to slow things down. She's still on our side. I know she is." "You trust her." Piper's voice sounded hollow, even to herself. "Look Pipes. I told you, you've got nothing to be jealous about." "She's beautiful. She's powerful. Se's so...Roman." Jason put down his hammer. He took her hand, which sent a tingle up her arm. Piper's dad had once taken her to the Aquarium of the Pacific and shown her an electric eel. He told her that the eel sent out pulses that shocked and paralyzed its prey. Each time Jason looked at her or touched her hand, Piper felt like that. "You're beautiful and powerful," he said. "And I don't want you to be Roman. I want you to be Piper. Besides, we're a team, you and me.”

“Good luck is a sham. True success requires sacrifice.”

“The Olympians were a reminder that there was always someone better than you, so you shouldn't get a big head.”

“I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing...”

“Annabeth,” he said hesitantly, “in New Rome, demigods can live their whole lives in peace.” Her expression turned guarded. “Reyna explained it to me. But, Percy, you belong at Camp Half-Blood. That other life—”“I know,” Percy said. “But while I was there, I saw so many demigods living without fear: kids going to college, couples getting married and raising families. There’s nothing like that at Camp Half-Blood. I kept thinking about you and me…and maybe someday when this war with the giants is over…”It was hard to tell in the golden light, but he thought Annabeth was blushing. “Oh,” she said…“I’m sorry,” he said. “I just…I had to think of that to keep going. To give me hope. Forget I mentioned—”“No!” she said. “Gods, Percy, that’s so sweet.”

“If we can’t repair things with the Romans—well, the two sets of demigods have never gotten along. That’s why the gods kept us separate. I don’t know if we could ever belong there.”Percy didn’t want to argue, but he couldn’t let go of the hope. It felt important—not just for him, but for all the other demigods. It had to be possible to belong in two different worlds at once. After all, that’s what being a demigod was all about—not quite belonging in the mortal world or on Mount Olympus, but trying to make peace with both sides of their nature.”

“When he woke, daylight was coming through the glass floor, and a boy's voice said, "Oh...You are in so much trouble.”

“Did someone just call me the wine dude?” he asked in a lazy drawl. “It’s Bacchus, please. Or Mr. Bacchus. Or Lord Bacchus. Or, sometimes, Oh-My-Gods-Please-Don’t-Kill-Me, Lord Bacchus.”

“As Hazel marched down the hill, she cursed in Latin. Percy didn’t understand all of it, but he got son of a gorgon, power-hungry snake, and a few choice suggestions about where Octavian could stick his knife.”

“Reyna looked at Percy without much hope. “You do have a plan?”Percy wanted to step forward bravely and say, No, I don’t!”

“I can’t believe how much this place has grown,” Hazel muttered. The taxi driver grinned in the rearview mirror. “Been a long time since you visited, miss?”“About seventy years,” Hazel said. The driver slid the glass partition closed and drove on in silence.”

“At the end of the warehouse was a dais constructed from pallets of books: stack of vampire novels, walls of James Patterson thrillers, and a throne from about a thousand copies of something called The Five Habits of Highly Aggressive Women.”

“You both passed out,” Percy said. “I don’t know why, but Ella told me not to worry about it. She said you were…sharing?”“Sharing,” Ella agreed. She crouched in the stern, preening her wing feathers with her teeth, which didn’t look like a very effective form of personal hygiene. She spit out some red fluff. “Sharing is good. No more blackouts. Biggest American blackout, August 14, 2003. Hazel shared. No more blackouts.”Percy scratched his head. “Yeah…we’ve been having conversations like that all night. I still don’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Before Keto could notice, Hedge pointed towards the top of the amphitheater. It looked like he might be screaming, Gods of Olympus, what is that?Keto turned. Coach Hedge promptly took off his fake foot and ninja-kicked her in the back of the head with his goat hoof.”

“They had a silent staring contest, but Percy didn’t back down. When he and Annabeth started dating, his mother had drummed it into his head: It’s good manners to walk your date to the door. If that was true, it had to be good manners to walk her to the start of her epic solo death quest.”

“Leo couldn't help smiling. "That could be fun.""Fun" she said unhappily."Blue elephants.""Blue elephants.""Kiss me you fool.""You fool.”

“Save yourselves!” Percy warned. “It is too late for us!”Then he gasped and pointed to the spot where Frank was hiding. “Oh, no! Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!”Nothing happened. “I said,” Percy repeated, “Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!”Frank stumbled out of nowhere, making a big show of grabbing his throat. “Oh, no,” he said, like he was reading from a teleprompter. “I am turning into a crazy dolphin.”He began to change, his nose elongating into a snout, his skin becoming sleek and gray. He fell to the deck as a dolphin, his tail thumping against the boards. The pirate crew disbanded in terror.”

“Together we made our way down to the street level. Neither of us said a word. The music was awful--Neil Diamond or something. I should've made that part of my gift form the gods: better elevator tunes.”

“I kept climbing--past another telkhine, who was so startled he dropped his Lil' Demons lunch box. I left him alive--partly because his lunch box was cool, partly so he could raise the alarm and hopefully get his friends to follow me rather than head toward the engine room.”

“He turned it upside down and shook the fries and hamburger into the grave. "In my day, we used animal blood," the ghost mumbled. "It's perfectly good enough. They can't taste the difference." "I will treat them with respect," Nico said. "At least let me keep the toy," the ghost said.”

“Sure, sis!' Then he raised his hands in a stop everything gesture. 'I feel a haiku coming on.”

“If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?”

“Yeah! Bring it on lake!”

“Incredible,” Jason said. “These are really good brownies.”“That’s your only comment?” Piper demanded.He looked surprised. “What? I heard the story. Fish-centaurs. Merpeople. Letter of intro to the Tiber River god. Got it. But these brownies—”“I know,” Frank said, his mouth full. “Try them with Esther’s peach preserves.”“That,” Hazel said, “is incredibly disgusting.”“Pass me the jar, man,” Jason said.Hazel and Piper exchanged a look of total exasperation. Boys.Percy, for his part, wanted to hear every detail about the aquatic camp. He kept coming back to one point: “They didn’t want to meet me?”“It wasn’t that,” Hazel said. “Just…undersea politics, I guess. The merpeople are territorial. The good news is they’re taking care of that aquarium in Atlanta. And they’ll help protect the Argo II as we cross the Atlantic.”Percy nodded absently. “But they didn’t want to meet me?”Annabeth swatted his arm. “Come on, Seaweed Brain! We’ve got other things to worry about.”

“So, great. This is Camp…what do you call it? Camp Fish-Blood?”Aphros frowned. “I hope that was a joke. This is Camp __________.” He made a sound that was a series of sonar pings and hisses.”

“Wisdom's daughter walks alone.That didn't just mean without other people, Annabeth realized. It meant without any special powers.”

“Behold!" Percy shouted. "The god's chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!”

“So…these Pillars of Hercules. Are they dangerous?”Annabeth stayed focused on the cliffs. “For Greeks, the pillars marked the end of the known world. The Romans said the pillars were inscribed with a Latin warning—”“Non plus ultra,” Percy said. Annabeth looked stunned. “Yeah. Nothing Further Beyond. How did you know?”Percy pointed. “Because I’m looking at it.”

“[Piper] rushed to get dressed. By the time she got up on deck, the others had already gathered—all hastily dressed except for Coach Hedge, who had pulled the night watch. Frank’s Vancouver Winter Olympics shirt was inside out. Percy wore pajama pants and a bronze breastplate, which was an interesting fashion statement. Hazel’s hair was all blown to one side as though she’d walked through a cyclone; and Leo had accidentally set himself on fire. His T-shirt was in charred tatters. His arms were smoking.”

“Piper had a new entry in her top-ten list of Times Piper Felt Useless. Fighting Shrimpzilla with a dagger and a pretty voice? Not so effective.”

“Aphros nodded, a glint of pride in his eyes. “We have trained all the famous mer-heroes! Name a famous mer-hero, and we have trained him or her!”“Oh, sure,” Leo said. “Like…um, the Little Mermaid?”Aphros frowned. “Who? No! Like Triton, Glaucus, Weissmuller, and Bill!”“Oh. ”Leo had no idea who any of those people were. “You trained Bill? Impressive.”

“Hazel!” he yelled. “That box! Open it!”She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. Te label read WARNING. DO NOT OPEN. “Open it!” Leo yelled again.”

“Once the others were below, Hazel and Leo faced each other awkwardly. They were alone except for Coach Hedge, who was back on the quarterdeck singing the Pokémon theme song. The coach had changed the words to: Gotta Kill ’Em All, and Leo really didn’t want to know why.”

“Percy says be talked to a Nereid in Charleston Harbor!”“Good for him!” Leo yelled back. “The Nereid said we should seek help from Chiron’s brothers.”“What does that mean? The Party Ponies?” Leo had never met Chiron’s crazy centaur relatives, but he’d heard rumors of Nerf sword-fights, root beer-chugging contests, and Super Soakers filled with pressurized whipped cream. “Not sure,” Annabeth said. “But I’ve got coordinates. Can you input latitude and longitude in this thing?”“I can input star charts and order you a smoothie, if you want. Of course I can do latitude and longitude!”

“Down in the water, Octavian yelled, “Get me out of here! I’ll kill you!”“Tempting,” Percy called down.”

“Aphrodite,” [Annabeth] said. “Venus?” Hazel asked in amazement. “Mom,” Piper said with no enthusiasm. “Girls!” The goddess spread her arms like she wanted a group hug. The three demigods did not oblige. Hazel backed into a palmetto tree.”

“The meeting was like a war council with donuts. Then again, back at Camp Half-Blood they used to have their most serious discussions around the Ping-Pong table in the rec room with crackers and Cheez Whiz, so Percy felt right at home.”