“She had to go on this quest. The fate of the world might depend on it. But part of him wanted to say: Forget the world. He didn’t want to be without her.”

“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.”

“Menshikov wants to see the old gold swallowed by Apophis. He wants to see the world plunged into darkness and chaos. He is quite insane."Oh."[great response, I know. But what do you say to a story like that?]”

“I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up.”

“No," I said. "I choose the prophecy. It will be about me.""Why are you saying that?" she cried. "You want to be responsible for the whole world?"It was the last thing I wanted, but I didn't say that. I knew I had to step up and claim it."I can't let Nico be in any more danger," I said. "I owe that much to his sister. I…let themboth down. I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more.”

“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.”

“She pulled away. “I missed you, Percy.”Percy wanted to tell her the same thing, but it seemed too small a comment. While he had been on the Roman side, he’d kept himself alive almost solely by thinking of Annabeth. I missed you didn’t really cover that.”