the_blood_of_olympus_-_rick_riordan

was family.
That night the camp felt empty without the Romans. Piper already missed Hazel. She missed the
creaking timbers of the Argo II and the constellations her lamp used to make against the ceiling of her
cabin aboard the ship.
Lying in her bunk in Cabin Ten, she felt so restless she knew she wouldn’t be able to doze off. She
kept thinking about Leo. Again and again she replayed what had happened in the fight against Gaia,
trying to figure out how she could have failed Leo so badly.
Around two in the morning, she gave up trying to sleep. She sat up in bed and gazed out of the
window. Moonlight turned the woods silver. The smells of the sea and the strawberry fields wafted
on the breeze. She couldn’t believe that just a few days ago the Earth Mother had awoken and almost
destroyed everything Piper held dear. Tonight seemed so peaceful … so normal.
Tap, tap, tap.
Piper nearly hit the top of her bunk. Jason was standing outside the window, rapping on the frame.
He grinned. ‘Come on.’
‘What are you doing here?’ she whispered. ‘It’s after curfew. The patrol harpies will shred you!’
‘Just come on.’
Her heart racing, she took his hand and climbed out of the window. He led her to Cabin One and
took her inside, where the huge statue of Hippie Zeus glowered in the dim light.
‘Um, Jason … what exactly … ?’
‘Check it out.’ He showed her one of the marble columns that ringed the circular chamber. On the
back, almost hidden against the wall, iron rungs led upward – a ladder. ‘Can’t believe I didn’t notice
this sooner. Wait till you see!’
He began to climb. Piper wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous, but her hands were shaking. She
followed him up. At the top, Jason pushed open a small trapdoor.
They emerged on the side of the domed roof, on a flat ledge, facing north. The whole of Long Island
Sound spread out to the horizon. They were so far up, and at such an angle, that nobody below could
possibly see them. The patrol harpies never flew this high.
‘Look.’ Jason pointed at the stars, which made a splash of diamonds across the sky – better jewels
than even Hazel Levesque could have summoned.
‘Beautiful.’ Piper snuggled up against Jason and he put his arm around her. ‘But aren’t you going to
get in trouble?’
‘Who cares?’ Jason asked.
Piper laughed quietly. ‘Who are you?’
He turned, his glasses pale bronze in starlight. ‘Jason Grace. Pleased to meet you.’
He kissed her, and … okay, they had kissed before. But this was different. Piper felt like a toaster.
All her coils heated to red-hot. Any more warmth and she’d start smelling like burnt toast.
Jason pulled away enough to look in her eyes. ‘That night at the Wilderness School, our first kiss
under the stars …’
‘The memory,’ Piper said. ‘The one that never happened.’