The Demigod Diaries (The Heroes of Olympus)(12)

“Go, go, go!” I yelled.

Thalia wriggled through as the metal plate started to bend the golf club.

From the bathroom, Hal’s voice yelled, “You know what this is, you Tartarus scum dogs? This is your last meal!”

The leucrota landed on me. I twisted, screaming, as its bony mouth snapped at the air where my face had just been.

I managed to punch its snout, but it was like hitting a bag of wet cement.

Then something grabbed my arm. Thalia pulled me into the chute. The panel closed, snapping my golf club.

We crawled through a metal duct into another bedroom and stumbled for the door.

I heard Halcyon Green, shouting a battle cry: “For Apollo!”

And the mansion shook with a massive explosion.

We burst into the hallway, which was already on fire. Flames licked the wallpaper and the carpet steamed. Hal’s bedroom door had been blown off its hinges, and fire was pouring out like an avalanche, vaporizing everything in its path.

We reached the stairs. The smoke was so thick, I couldn’t see the bottom. We stumbled and coughed, the heat searing my eyes and my lungs. We got to the base of the stairs, and I was beginning to think we’d reach the door, when the leucrota pounced, knocking me flat on my back.

It must have been the one that followed us into the enclosure. I suppose it had been far enough away from the explosion to survive the initial blast and had somehow escaped the bedroom, though it didn’t look like it had enjoyed the experience. Its red fur was singed black. Its pointed ears were on fire, and one of its glowing red eyes was swollen shut.

“Luke!” Thalia screamed. She grabbed her spear, which had been lying on the ballroom floor all day, and rammed the point against the monster’s ribs, but that only annoyed the leucrota.

It snapped its bone-plated jaws at her, keeping one hoof planted on my chest. I couldn’t move, and I knew the beast could crush my chest by applying even the slightest extra pressure.

My eyes stung from the smoke. I could hardly breathe. I saw Thalia try to spear the monster again, and a flash of metal caught my eye—the silver bracelet.

Something finally clicked in my mind: the story of Amaltheia the goat, who’d led us here. Thalia had been destined to find that treasure. It belonged to the child of Zeus.

“Thalia!” I gasped. “The shield! What was it called?”

“What shield?” she cried.

“Zeus’s shield!” I suddenly remembered. “Aegis. Thalia, the bracelet—it’s got a code word!”

It was a desperate guess. Thank the gods—or thank blind luck—Thalia understood. She tapped the bracelet, but this time she yelled, “Aegis!”

Instantly the bracelet expanded, flattening into a wide bronze disk—a shield with intricate designs hammered around the rim. In the center, pressed into the metal like a death mask, was a face so hideous I would’ve run from it if I could’ve. I looked away, but the afterimage burned in my mind—snaky hair, glaring eyes, and a mouth with bared fangs.

Thalia thrust the shield toward the leucrota. The monster yelped like a puppy and retreated, freeing me from the weight of its hoof. Through the smoke, I watched the terrified leucrota run straight into the nearest drapes, which turned into glistening black tongues and engulfed the monster. The monster steamed. It began yelling, “Help!” in a dozen voices, probably the voices of its past victims, until finally it disintegrated in the dark oily folds.

I would’ve lain there stunned and horrified until the fiery ceiling collapsed on me, but Thalia grabbed my arm and yelled, “Hurry!”

We bolted for the front door. I was wondering how we’d open it, when the avalanche of fire poured down the staircase and caught us. The building exploded.

I can’t remember how we got out. I can only assume that the shockwave blasted the front door open and pushed us outside.

The next thing I knew, I was sprawled in the traffic circle, coughing and gasping as a tower of fire roared into the evening sky. My throat burned. My eyes felt like they’d been splashed with acid. I looked for Thalia and instead found myself staring at the bronze face of Medusa. I screamed, somehow found the energy to stand, and ran. I didn’t stop until I was cowering behind the statue of Robert E. Lee.

Yeah, I know. It sounds comical now. But it’s a miracle I didn’t have a heart attack or get hit by a car. Finally Thalia caught up to me, her spear back in Mace canister form, her shield reduced to a silver bracelet.

Together we stood and watched the mansion burn. Bricks crumbled. Black draperies burst into sheets of red fire. The roof collapsed and smoke billowed into the sky.

Thalia let loose a sob. A tear etched through the soot on her face.

“He sacrificed himself,” she said. “Why did he save us?”

I hugged my knapsack. I felt the diary and bronze dagger inside—the only remnants of Halcyon Green’s life.

My chest was tight, as if the leucrota was still standing on it. I’d criticized for Hal for being a coward, but in the end, he’d been braver than me. The gods had cursed him. He’d spent most of his life imprisoned with monsters. It would’ve been easy for him to let us die like all the other demigods before us. Yet he’d chosen to go out a hero.

I felt guilty that I couldn’t save the old man. I wished I could’ve talked to him longer. What had he seen in my future that scared him so much?