The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo #5)(101)

She got up and wrapped me in a bear hug. Her fingers splayed and started tickling me between the shoulder blades, but I decided this must be unintentional, as Lu didn’t strike me as the tickle type.

“You look well,” I said, pulling away.

Lu laughed. “I’ve got my Sapling here. I’ve got a home. I’m a regular old mortal again, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

I stopped myself from saying Me, too. The thought made me melancholy. It would have been inconceivable to the old Apollo, but the idea of aging in this lovely desert tree house, watching Meg grow into a strong and powerful woman…that didn’t sound bad at all.

Lu must have picked up on my sadness. She gestured back to the rocking chair. “Well, I’ll let you two get on with the tour. Assembling this IKEA furniture is the toughest quest I’ve had in years.”

Meg took me out to the terrace as the afternoon sun sank behind the San Jacinto Mountains. My sun chariot would just now be heading toward home, the horses getting excited as they sensed the end of their journey. I would be joining them soon…reuniting with my other self, back at the Palace of the Sun.

I looked over at Meg, who was wiping a tear from her eye. “You can’t stay, I guess,” she said.

I took her hand. “Dear Meg.”

We remained like that in silence for a while, watching the demigods work in the gardens below.

“Meg, you’ve done so much for me. For all of us. I…I promised to reward you when I became a god again.”

She started to speak, but I interrupted.

“No, wait,” I said. “I understand that would cheapen our friendship. I cannot solve mortal problems with a snap of my fingers. I see that you don’t want a reward. But you will always be my friend. And if you ever need me, even just to talk, I will be here.”

Her mouth twitched. “Thanks. That’s good. But…actually, I would be okay with a unicorn.”

She had done it again. She could still surprise me. I laughed, snapped my fingers, and a unicorn appeared on the hillside below us, whinnying and scratching the ground with its gold-and-pearl hooves.

She threw her arms around me. “Thanks. You’ll still be my friend, too, right?”

“As long as you’ll still be mine,” I said.

She thought about this. “Yeah. I can do that.”

I don’t recall what else we talked about. The piano lessons I had promised her. Different varieties of succulents. The care and feeding of unicorns. I was just happy to be with her.

At last, as the sun went down, Meg seemed to understand it was time for me to leave.

“You’ll come back?” she asked.

“Always,” I promised. “The sun always comes back.”

So, dear reader, we have come to the end of my trials. You have followed me through five volumes of adventures and six months of pain and suffering. By my reckoning, you have read two hundred and ten of my haiku. Like Meg, you surely deserve a reward.

What would you accept? I am fresh out of unicorns. However, anytime you take aim and prepare to fire your best shot, anytime you seek to put your emotions into a song or poem, know that I am smiling on you. We are friends now.

Call on me. I will be there for you.





Achilles a Greek hero of the Trojan War who was killed by an arrow shot into his heel, his one vulnerable spot Aelian an early third-century-CE Roman author who wrote sensational stories about strange events and miraculous occurrences and was best known for his book On the Nature of Animals

Agrippina the Younger an ambitious and bloodthirsty Roman empress who was Nero’s mother; she was so domineering toward her son that he ordered her killed.

ambrosia a food of the gods that can heal demigods if eaten in small doses; it tastes like the user’s favorite food amphisbaena a snake with a head at each end, born from the blood that dripped from Medusa’s severed head Anicetus Nero’s loyal servant, who carried out the order to kill Agrippina, Nero’s mother Aphrodite Greek goddess of love and beauty. Roman form: Venus

Ares the Greek god of war; the son of Zeus and Hera. Roman form: Mars

Artemis the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon; the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Apollo. Roman form: Diana Asclepius the god of medicine; son of Apollo; his temple was the healing center of ancient Greece Athena the Greek goddess of wisdom. Roman form: Minerva

Athena Parthenos a forty-foot-tall statue of the goddess Athena that was once the central figure in the Parthenon of Athens. It currently stands on Half-Blood Hill at Camp Half-Blood.

Bacchus Roman god of wine and revelry; son of Jupiter. Greek form: Dionysus

Battle of Manhattan the climactic final battle of the Second Titan War

Benito Mussolini an Italian politician who became the leader of the National Fascist Party, a paramilitary organization. He ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, first as a prime minister and then as a dictator.

boare Latin equivalent of boo

Boreas god of the North Wind

Caligula the nickname of the third of Rome’s emperors, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, infamous for his cruelty and carnage during the four years he ruled, from 37 to 41 CE; he was assassinated by his own guard Camp Half-Blood the training ground for Greek demigods, located in Long Island, New York Camp Jupiter the training ground for Roman demigods, located in California, between the Oakland Hills and the Berkeley Hills Celestial bronze a powerful magical metal used to create weapons wielded by Greek gods and their demigod children Celtic relating to a group of Indo-European peoples identified by their cultural similarities and use of languages such as Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and others, including pre-Roman Gaulish centaur a race of creatures that is half human, half horse. They are excellent archers.