the_blood_of_olympus_-_rick_riordan

There wasn’t much to see. According to Annabeth, the hill they stood on had once been Sparta’s
acropolis – its highest point and main fortress – but it was nothing like the massive Athenian
acropolis Piper had seen in her dreams.
The weathered slope was covered with dead grass, rocks and stunted olive trees. Below, ruins
stretched out for maybe a quarter of a mile: limestone blocks, a few broken walls and some tiled
holes in the ground like wells.
Piper thought about her dad’s most famous movie, King of Sparta, and how the Spartans were
portrayed as invincible supermen. She found it sad that their legacy had been reduced to a field of
rubble and a small modern town with an olive-oil museum.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead. ‘You’d think if there was a thirty-foot-tall giant around
we’d see him.’
Annabeth stared at the distant shape of the Argo II floating above downtown Sparta. She fingered
the red coral pendant on her necklace – a gift from Percy when they started dating.
‘You’re thinking about Percy,’ Piper guessed.
Annabeth nodded.
Since she’d come back from Tartarus, Annabeth had told Piper a lot of scary things that had
happened down there. At the top of her list: Percy controlling a tide of poison and suffocating the
goddess Akhlys.
‘He seems to be adjusting,’ Piper said. ‘He’s smiling more often. You know he cares about you
more than ever.’
Annabeth sat, her face suddenly pale. ‘I don’t know why it’s hitting me so hard all of a sudden. I
can’t quite get that memory out of my head … how Percy looked when he was standing at the edge of
Chaos.’
Maybe Piper was just picking up on Annabeth’s uneasiness, but she started to feel agitated as well.
She thought about what Jason had said last night: Part of me wanted to close my eyes and stop
fighting.
She had tried her best to reassure him, but still she worried. Like that Cherokee hunter who
changed into a serpent, all demigods had their share of bad spirits inside. Fatal flaws. Some crises
brought them out. Some lines shouldn’t be crossed.
If that was true for Jason, how could it not be true for Percy? The guy had literally been through
hell and back. Even when he wasn’t trying, he made the toilets explode. What would Percy be like if
he wanted to act scary?
‘Give him time.’ She sat next to Annabeth. ‘The guy is crazy about you. You’ve been through so
much together.’
‘I know …’ Annabeth’s grey eyes reflected the green of the olive trees. ‘It’s just … Bob the Titan,
he warned me there would be more sacrifices ahead. I want to believe we can have a normal life
someday … But I allowed myself to hope for that last summer, after the Titan War. Then Percy
disappeared for months. Then we fell into that pit …’ A tear traced its way down her cheek. ‘Piper,
if you’d seen the face of the god Tartarus, all swirling darkness, devouring monsters and vaporizing
them – I’ve never felt so helpless. I try not to think about it …’