The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5)(45)

‘Flames.’ Frank scowled. ‘I don’t like that vision.’

‘Me neither.’ Percy kept one eye on the red sea serpent, which was still slithering through the waves about a hundred yards to port. ‘If the statue engulfs people in fire, we should send Leo.’

‘I love you too, man.’

‘You know what I mean. You’re immune. Or, heck, give me some of those nice water grenades and I’ll go. Ares and I have tangled before.’

Annabeth stared at the coastline of Pylos, now retreating in the distance. ‘If Piper saw the two of us going after the statue, then that’s who should go. We’ll be all right. There’s always a way to survive.’

‘Not always,’ Hazel warned.

Since she was the only one in the group who had actually died and come back to life, her observation sort of killed the mood.

Frank held out the vial of Pylosian mint. ‘What about this stuff? After the House of Hades, I kind of hoped we were done drinking poison.’

‘Store it securely in the hold,’ Annabeth said. ‘For now, that’s all we can do. Once we figure out this chained god situation, we’ll head to the island of Delos.’

‘The curse of Delos,’ Hazel remembered. ‘That sounds fun.’

‘Hopefully Apollo will be there,’ Annabeth said. ‘Delos was his home island. He’s the god of medicine. He should be able to advise us.’

Aphrodite’s words came back to Piper: You must bridge the gap between Roman and Greek, my child. Neither storm nor fire can succeed without you.

Aphrodite had warned her of what was to come, told her what Piper would have to do to stop Gaia. Whether or not she would have the courage … Piper didn’t know.

Off the port bow, the cherry-flavoured sea serpent spewed steam.

‘Yeah, it’s definitely checking us out,’ Percy decided. ‘Maybe we should take to the air for a while.’

‘Airborne it is!’ Leo said. ‘Festus, do the honours!’

The bronze dragon figurehead creaked and clacked. The ship’s engine hummed. The oars lifted, expanding into aerial blades with a sound like ninety umbrellas opening at once, and the Argo II rose into the sky.

‘We should reach Sparta by morning,’ Leo announced. ‘And remember to come by the mess hall tonight, folks, ’cause Chef Leo is making his famous three-alarm tofu tacos!’

XVIII

Piper

PIPER DIDN’T WANT TO get yelled at by a three-legged table.

When Jason visited her cabin that evening, she made sure to keep the door open, because Buford the Wonder Table took his duties as acting chaperone very seriously. If he had the slightest suspicion a girl and a boy were in the same cabin without supervision, he would steam and clatter down the hall, his holographic projection of Coach Hedge yelling, ‘CUT THAT OUT! GIVE ME TWENTY PUSH-UPS! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!’

Jason sat at the foot of her bunk. ‘I was about to go on duty. Just wanted to check on you first.’

Piper nudged his leg with her foot. ‘The guy who got run through with a sword wants to check on me? How are you feeling?’

He gave her a lopsided smile. His face was so tanned from their time on the coast of Africa that the scar on his lip looked like a chalk mark. His blue eyes were even more startling. His hair had grown out corn-silk white, though he still had a groove along his scalp where he’d been grazed by a bullet from the bandit Sciron’s flintlock. If such a minor scrape from Celestial bronze took so long to heal, Piper wondered how he’d ever get over the Imperial gold wound in his gut.

‘I’ve been worse,’ Jason assured her. ‘Once, in Oregon, this dracaena cut off my arms.’

Piper blinked. Then she slapped his arm gently. ‘Shut up.’

‘I had you for a second.’

They held hands in comfortable silence. For a moment, Piper could almost imagine they were normal teenagers, enjoying each other’s company and learning to be together as a couple. Sure, Jason and she had had a few months at Camp Half-Blood, but the war with Gaia had always been looming. Piper wondered what it would be like if they didn’t have to worry about dying a dozen times every day.

‘I never thanked you.’ Jason’s expression turned serious. ‘Back on Ithaca, after I saw my mom’s … remnant, her mania … When I was wounded, you kept me from slipping away, Pipes. Part of me …’ His voice faltered. ‘Part of me wanted to close my eyes and stop fighting.’

Piper’s heart did a slow twist. She felt her own pulse in her fingers. ‘Jason … you’re a fighter. You’d never give up. When you faced your mother’s spirit – that was you being strong. Not me.’

‘Maybe.’ His voice was dry. ‘I didn’t mean to lay something so heavy on you, Pipes. It’s just … I have my mom’s DNA. The human part of me is all her. What if I make the wrong choices? What if I make a mistake I can’t take back when we’re fighting Gaia? I don’t want to end up like my mom – reduced to a mania, chewing on my regrets forever.’

Piper cupped her hands around his. She felt like she was back on the deck of the Argo II, holding the Boreads’ ice grenade just before it detonated.

‘You’ll make the right choices,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what will happen to any of us, but you could never end up like your mom.’