“I guess it started in London, the night our dad blew up the British museum.”

“I’d been to the British museum before. In fact I’ve been in more museums than I like to admit—it makes me sound like a total geek.[That’s Sadie in the background, yelling I am a total geek. Thanks, Sis.]”

“So Beckendorf was pretty popular?" Leo asked. "I mean-before he blew up?”

“So for Magic Problem-Solving 101, we headed to the training room and blew stuff up.”

“When he pulled away, he smiled kindly at me. I felt so good, I'll admit I teared up a little. I guess until that moment I hadn't allowed myself to realize just how terrified I had been the last few days."Dad-""Shhh," he said. "No hero is above fear, Percy. And you have risen above every hero. Not even Hercules-”

“It seemed weird calling a teenager 'sir' but I'd learned to be careful with immortals. They tended to get offended easily. Then, they blew stuff up.”

“The other thing that troubled me: Dad was clutching his workbag. Usually when he does that, it means we're in danger. Like the time gunmen stormed into our hotel in Cairo. I heard shots coming from the lobby and ran downstairs to check on my dad. By the time I got there, he was just calmly zipping up his workbag while three unconscious gunmen hung by their feet from the chandelier, their robes falling over their heads so you could see their boxer shorts. Dad claimed not to have witnessed anything, and in the end the police blamed a freak chandelier malfunction.”