The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1)(17)

“Excuse me?”

“The entrance to Mount Olympus these days.”

“Oh,” Piper said. “Sure, why not?”

“Annabeth was redesigning Olympus after it was damaged in the Titan War,” Rachel explained. “She’s an amazing architect. You should see the salad bar—”

“Anyway,” Annabeth said, “starting about a month ago, Olympus fell silent. The entrance closed, and no one could get in. Nobody knows why. It’s like the gods have sealed themselves off. Even my mom won’t answer my prayers, and our camp director, Dionysus, was recalled.”

“Your camp director was the god of … wine?”

“Yeah, it’s a—”

“Long story,” Piper guessed. “Right. Go on.”

“That’s it, really,” Annabeth said. “Demigods still get claimed, but nothing else. No messages. No visits. No sign the gods are even listening. It’s like something has happened —something really bad. Then Percy disappeared.”

“And Jason showed up on our field trip,” Piper supplied. “With no memory.”

“Who’s Jason?” Rachel asked.

“My—” Piper stopped herself before she could say “boyfriend,” but the effort made her chest hurt. “My friend. But Annabeth, you said Hera sent you a dream vision.”

“Right,” Annabeth said. “The first communication from a god in a month, and it’s Hera, the least helpful goddess, and she contacts me, her least favorite demigod. She tells me I’ll find out what happened to Percy if I go to the Grand Canyon skywalk and look for a guy with one shoe. Instead, I find you guys, and the guy with one shoe is Jason. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Something bad is happening,” Rachel agreed. She looked at Piper, and Piper felt an overwhelming desire to tell them about her dream, to confess that she knew what was happening—at least part of the story. And the bad stuff was only beginning.

“Guys,” she said. “I—I need to—”

Before she could continue, Rachel’s body stiffened. Her eyes began to glow with a greenish light, and she grabbed Piper by the shoulders.

Piper tried to back away, but Rachel’s hands were like steel clamps.

Free me, she said. But it wasn’t Rachel’s voice. It sounded like an older woman, speaking from somewhere far away, down a long, echoing pipe. Free me, Piper McLean, or the earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice.

The room started spinning. Annabeth tried to separate Piper from Rachel, but it was no use. Green smoke enveloped them, and Piper was no longer sure if she was awake or dreaming. The giant statue of the goddess seemed to rise from its throne. It leaned over Piper, its eyes boring into her. The statue’s mouth opened, its breath like horribly thick perfume. It spoke in the same echoing voice: Our enemies stir. The fiery one is only the first. Bow to his will, and their king shall rise, dooming us all. FREE ME!

Piper’s knees buckled, and everything went black.

LEO’S TOUR WAS GOING GREAT UNTIL he learned about the dragon.

The archer dude, Will Solace, seemed pretty cool. Everything he showed Leo was so amazing, it should’ve been illegal. Real Greek warships moored at the beach that sometimes had practice fights with flaming arrows and explosives? Sweet! Arts & crafts sessions where you could make sculptures with chain saws and blowtorches? Leo was like, Sign me up! The woods were stocked with dangerous monsters, and no one should ever go in there alone? Nice! And the camp was overflowing with fine-looking girls. Leo didn’t quite understand the whole related-to-the-gods business, but he hoped that didn’t mean he was cousins with all these ladies. That would suck. At the very least, he wanted to check out those underwater girls in the lake again. They were definitely worth drowning for.

Will showed him the cabins, the dining pavilion, and the sword arena.

“Do I get a sword?” Leo asked.

Will glanced at him like he found the idea disturbing. “You’ll probably make your own, seeing as how you’re in Cabin Nine.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that? Vulcan?”

“Usually we don’t call the gods by their Roman names,” Will said. “The original names are Greek. Your dad is Hephaestus.”

“Festus?” Leo had heard somebody say that before, but he was still dismayed. “Sounds like the god of cowboys.”

“He-phaestus,” Will corrected. “God of blacksmiths and fire.”

Leo had heard that too, but he was trying not to think about it. The god of fire … seriously? Considering what had happened to his mom, that seemed like a sick joke.

“So the flaming hammer over my head,” Leo said. “Good thing, or bad thing?”

Will took a while to answer. “You were claimed almost immediately. That’s usually good.”

“But that Rainbow Pony dude, Butch—he mentioned a curse.”

“Ah … look, it’s nothing. Since Cabin Nine’s last head counselor died—”

“Died? Like, painfully?”

“I ought to let your bunkmates tell you about it.”

“Yeah, where are my home dawgs? Shouldn’t their counselor be giving me the VIP tour?”

“He, um, can’t. You’ll see why.” Will forged ahead before Leo could ask anything else.