A 1

“But…okay.” He hurried off.
Annabeth didn’t argue with Piper either. She was too busy examining the horseshoe-shaped dent
on the back of Percy’s head.
“What hit him?” she demanded.
“Blackjack,” Piper said.
“What?”
Piper tried to explain while Coach Hedge applied some healing paste to the boys’ heads. She’d
never been impressed with Hedge’s nursing abilities before, but he must have done something right.
Either that, or the spirits that possessed the boys had also made them extra resilient. They both
groaned and opened their eyes.
Within a few minutes, Jason and Percy were sitting up in their berths and able to talk in complete
sentences. Both had fuzzy memories of what had happened. When Piper described their duel on the
highway, Jason winced.
“Knocked out twice in two days,” he muttered. “Some demigod.” He glanced sheepishly at Percy.
“Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to blast you.”
Percy’s shirt was peppered with burn holes. His hair was even more disheveled than normal.
Despite that, he managed a weak laugh. “Not the first time. Your big sister got me good once at
camp.”
“Yeah, but…I could have killed you.”
“Or I could have killed you,” Percy said.
Jason shrugged. “If there’d been an ocean in Kansas, maybe.”
“I don’t need an ocean—”