BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

He hardly felt brave, but he stepped forward. ‘So you’ve got us. What are you waiting for?’
Lycaon studied him like a new type of meat in a butcher’s display case. ‘Nico di Angelo … son of
Hades. I’ve heard of you. I’m sorry I can’t kill you promptly, but I promised my employer Orion that I
would detain you until he arrives. No worries. He should be here in a few moments. Once he’s done
with you, I shall spill your blood and mark this place as my territory for ages to come!’
Nico gritted his teeth. ‘Demigod blood. The blood of Olympus.’
‘Of course!’ Lycaon said. ‘Spilled upon the ground, especially sacred ground, demigod blood has
many uses. With the proper incantations, it can awaken monsters or even gods. It can cause new life
to spring up or make a place barren for generations. Alas, your blood will not wake Gaia herself.
That honour is reserved for your friends aboard the Argo II. But fear not. Your death will be almost
as painful as theirs.’
The grass started dying around Nico’s feet. The marigold beds withered. Barren ground, he
thought. Sacred ground.
He remembered the thousands of skeletons in the Chapel of Bones. He recalled what Hades had
said about this public square, where the Inquisition had burned hundreds of people alive.
This was an ancient city. How many dead lay in the ground beneath his feet?
‘Coach,’ he said, ‘you can climb?’
Hedge scoffed. ‘I’m half goat. Of course I can climb!’
‘Get up to the statue and secure the rigging. Make a rope ladder and drop it down for us.’
‘Uh, but the pack of wolves –’
‘Reyna,’ Nico said, ‘you and your dogs will have to cover our retreat.’
The praetor nodded grimly. ‘Understood.’
Lycaon howled with laughter. ‘Retreat to where, son of Hades? There is no escape. You cannot kill
us!’
‘Maybe not,’ Nico said. ‘But I can slow you down.’
He spread his hands and the ground erupted.
Nico hadn’t expected it to work so well. He had pulled bone fragments from the earth before. He’d
animated rat skeletons and unearthed the odd human skull. Nothing prepared him for the wall of bones
that burst skyward – hundreds of femurs, ribs and fibulas entangling the wolves, forming a spiky briar
patch of human remains.
Most of the wolves were hopelessly trapped. Some writhed and gnashed their teeth, trying to free
themselves from their haphazard cages. Lycaon himself was immobilized in a cocoon of rib bones,
but that didn’t stop him from screaming curses.
‘You worthless child!’ he roared. ‘I will rip the flesh from your limbs!’
‘Coach, go!’ Nico said.
The satyr sprinted towards the temple. He made the top of the podium in a single leap and
scrambled up the left pillar.
Two wolves broke free from the thicket of bones. Reyna threw her knife and impaled one in the
neck. Her dogs pounced on the other. Aurum’s fangs and claws slipped harmlessly off the wolf’s