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A woman lay twisted in agony, her mouth open to scream, her arms thrown overhead. A man knelt<br />
with his head bowed, as if accepting <strong>the</strong> inevitable.<br />
Reyna stared with a mixture <strong>of</strong> horror and revulsion. She’d read about such figures, but she’d never<br />
seen <strong>the</strong>m in person. After <strong>the</strong> eruption <strong>of</strong> Vesuvius, volcanic ash had buried <strong>the</strong> city and hardened to<br />
rock around dying Pompeians. Their bodies had disintegrated, leaving behind human-shaped pockets<br />
<strong>of</strong> air. Early archaeologists had poured plaster into <strong>the</strong> holes and made <strong>the</strong>se casts – creepy replicas<br />
<strong>of</strong> Ancient Romans.<br />
Reyna found it disturbing, wrong, that <strong>the</strong>se people’s dying moments were on display like clo<strong>the</strong>s<br />
in a shop window, yet she couldn’t look away.<br />
All her life she’d dreamed about coming to Italy. She had assumed it would never happen. The<br />
ancient lands were forbidden to modern demigods; <strong>the</strong> area was simply too dangerous. Never<strong>the</strong>less,<br />
she wanted to follow in <strong>the</strong> footsteps <strong>of</strong> Aeneas, son <strong>of</strong> Aphrodite, <strong>the</strong> first demigod to settle here<br />
after <strong>the</strong> Trojan War. She wanted to see <strong>the</strong> original Tiber River, where Lupa <strong>the</strong> wolf goddess saved<br />
Romulus and Remus.<br />
But Pompeii? Reyna had never wanted to come here. The site <strong>of</strong> Rome’s most infamous disaster,<br />
an entire city swallowed by <strong>the</strong> earth … After Reyna’s nightmares, that hit a little too close to home.<br />
So far in <strong>the</strong> ancient lands, she’d only seen one place on her wish list: Diocletian’s Palace in Split,<br />
and even that visit had hardly gone <strong>the</strong> way she’d imagined. Reyna used to dream about going <strong>the</strong>re<br />
with Jason to admire <strong>the</strong>ir favourite emperor’s home. She pictured romantic walks with him through<br />
<strong>the</strong> old city, sunset picnics on <strong>the</strong> parapets.<br />
Instead, Reyna had arrived in Croatia not with him but with a dozen angry wind spirits on her tail.<br />
She’d fought her way through ghosts in <strong>the</strong> palace. On her way out, gryphons had attacked, mortally<br />
wounding her pegasus. The closest she’d got to Jason was finding a note he’d left for her under a bust<br />
<strong>of</strong> Diocletian in <strong>the</strong> basement.<br />
She would only have painful memories <strong>of</strong> that place.<br />
Don’t be bitter, she chided herself. Aeneas suffered, too. So did Romulus, Diocletian and all <strong>the</strong><br />
rest. Romans don’t complain about hardship.<br />
Staring at <strong>the</strong> plaster death figures in <strong>the</strong> museum window, she wondered what <strong>the</strong>y had been<br />
thinking as <strong>the</strong>y curled up to die in <strong>the</strong> ashes. Probably not: Well, we’re Romans! We shouldn’t<br />
complain!<br />
A gust <strong>of</strong> wind blew through <strong>the</strong> ruins, making a hollow moan. Sunlight flashed against <strong>the</strong> window,<br />
momentarily blinding her.<br />
With a start, Reyna looked up. The sun was directly overhead. How could it be noon already?<br />
She’d left <strong>the</strong> House <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Faun just after breakfast. She’d only been standing here a few minutes …<br />
hadn’t she?<br />
She tore herself from <strong>the</strong> museum display and hurried <strong>of</strong>f, trying to shake <strong>the</strong> feeling that <strong>the</strong> dead<br />
Pompeians were whispering behind her back.<br />
The rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> afternoon was unnervingly quiet.<br />
Reyna kept watch while Coach Hedge slept, but <strong>the</strong>re was nothing much to guard against. Tourists