The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo #5)(99)

“Yeah.” Percy sighed. “Meanwhile, I’ll be all the way across campus in this empty boys’ dormitory. Two whole blocks away.”

Annabeth swatted his arm. “Besides, Apollo, our living arrangements are none of your business.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “But you did travel across the country together to get here?”

“With Grover,” Percy said. “It was great, just the three of us again. But man, that road trip…”

“Kind of went sideways,” Annabeth agreed. “And up, down, and diagonal. But we made it here alive.”

I nodded. This was, after all, about the most that could be said for any demigod trip.

I thought about my own trip from Los Angeles to Camp Jupiter, escorting the coffin of Jason Grace. Percy and Annabeth both seemed to read my thoughts. Despite the happy days ahead of them, and the general spirit of optimism at Camp Jupiter, sadness still lingered, hovering and flickering at the corners of my vision like one of the camp’s Lares.

“We found out when we arrived,” Percy said. “I still can’t…”

His voice caught. He looked down and picked at his palm.

“I cried myself sick,” Annabeth admitted. “I still wish…I wish I’d been there for Piper. I hope she’s doing okay.”

“Piper is a tough young lady,” I said. “But yes…Jason. He was the best of us.”

No one argued with that.

“By the way,” I said, “your mother is doing well, Percy. I just saw her and Paul. Your little sister is entirely too adorable. She never stops laughing.”

He brightened. “I know, right? Estelle is awesome. I just miss my mom’s baking.”

“I might be able to help with that.” As I had promised Sally Jackson, I teleported a plate of her fresh-baked blue cookies straight into my hands.

“Dude!” Percy stuffed a cookie in his mouth. His eyes rolled up in ecstasy. “Apollo, you’re the best. I take back almost everything I’ve said about you.”

“It’s quite all right,” I assured him. “Wait…what do you mean almost?”





SPEAKING OF PIPER MCLEAN, I EMBARRASSED myself when I popped in to visit her.

It was a lovely summer night in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The stars were out by the millions and cicadas chirred in the trees. Heat settled over the rolling hills. Fireflies glowed in the grass.

I had willed myself to appear wherever Piper McLean might be. I ended up standing on the flat roof of a modest farmhouse—the McLean ancestral home. At the edge of the roof, two people sat shoulder to shoulder, dark silhouettes facing away from me. One leaned over and kissed the other.

I didn’t mean to, but I was so flustered I flashed like a camera light, inadvertently changing from Lester to my adult Apollo form—toga, blond hair, muscles, and all. The two lovebirds turned to face me. Piper McLean was on the left. On the right sat another young lady with short dark hair and a rhinestone nose stud that winked in the darkness.

Piper unlaced her fingers from the other girl’s. “Wow, Apollo. Timing.”

“Er, sorry. I—”

“Who’s this?” the other girl asked, taking in my bedsheet clothing. “Your dad has a boyfriend?”

I suppressed a yelp. Since Piper’s dad was Tristan McLean, former A-list heartthrob of Hollywood, I was tempted to say Not yet, but I’m willing to volunteer. I didn’t think Piper would appreciate that, though.

“Old family friend,” Piper said. “Sorry, Shel. Would you excuse me a sec?”

“Uh. Sure.”

Piper got up, grabbed my arm, and guided me to the far end of the roof. “Hey. What’s up?”

“I…Uh…” I had not been this tongue-tied since I’d been a full-time Lester Papadopoulos. “I just wanted to check in, make sure you’re doing okay. It seems you are?”

Piper gave me a hint of a smile. “Well, early days.”

“You’re in process,” I said, remembering what she had told me in California. Suddenly, much of what she and I had talked about started to make sense. Not being defined by Aphrodite’s expectations. Or Hera’s ideas of what a perfect couple looked like. Piper finding her own way, not the one people expected of her.

“Exactly,” she said.

“I’m happy for you.” And I was. In fact, it took effort for me not to glow like a giant firefly. “Your dad?”

“Yeah, I mean…from Hollywood back to Tahlequah is a big change. But he seems like he’s found some peace. We’ll see. I heard you got back on Olympus. Congratulations.”

I wasn’t sure if congratulations were in order, given my general restlessness and feelings of unworthiness, but I nodded. I told her what had happened with Nero. I told her about Jason’s funeral.

She hugged her arms. In the starlight, her face looked as warm as bronze fresh from Hephaestus’s anvil. “That’s good,” she said. “I’m glad Camp Jupiter did right by him. You did right by him.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said.

She laid her hand on my arm. “You haven’t forgotten. I can tell.”

She meant about being human, about honoring the sacrifices that had been made.