A 1

Kill the Romans, she heard her mother urging. They can never be your allies.
Annabeth wanted to sob. Camp Half-Blood was the only real home she’d ever known, and in a
bid for friendship, she had told Reyna exactly where to find it. She couldn’t leave it at the mercy of the
Romans and travel halfway around the world.
But their quest, and everything she’d suffered to get Percy back…if she didn’t go to the ancient
lands, it would all mean nothing. Besides, the Mark of Athena didn’t have to lead to revenge.
If I could find the route, her mother had said, the way home…
How will you use your reward? Aphrodite had asked. For war or peace?
There was an answer. The Mark of Athena could lead her there—if she survived.
“I’m going,” she told Reyna. “I’m following the Mark of Athena to Rome.”
The praetor shook her head. “You have no idea what awaits you.”
“Yes, I do,” Annabeth said. “This grudge between our camps…I can fix it.”
“Our grudge is thousands of years old. How can one person fix it?”
Annabeth wished she could give a convincing answer, show Reyna a 3-D diagram or a brilliant
schematic, but she couldn’t. She just knew she had to try. She remembered that lost look on her
mother’s face: I must return home.
“The quest has to succeed,” she said. “You can try to stop me, in which case we’ll have to fight to
the death. Or you can let me go, and I’ll try to save both our camps. If you must march on Camp
Half-Blood, at least try to delay. Slow Octavian down.”
Reyna’s eyes narrowed. “One daughter of a war goddess to another, I respect your boldness. But if
you leave now, you doom your camp to destruction.”
“Don’t underestimate Camp Half-Blood,” Annabeth warned.