BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

hide, but Argentum brought the beast down.
Argentum’s head was still bent sideways from the fight in Pompeii. His left ruby eye was still
missing, but he managed to sink his fangs into the wolf’s scruff. The wolf dissolved into a puddle of
shadow.
Thank goodness for silver dogs, Nico thought.
Reyna drew her sword. She scooped a handful of silver coins from Hedge’s baseball cap, grabbed
duct tape from the coach’s supply bag and began taping coins around her blade. The girl was nothing
if not inventive.
‘Go!’ she told Nico. ‘I’ll cover you!’
The wolves struggled, causing the bone thicket to crack and crumble. Lycaon freed his right arm
and began smashing through his prison of ribcages.
‘I will flay you alive!’ he promised. ‘I will add your pelt to my cloak!’
Nico ran, pausing just long enough to grab Reyna’s silver pocketknife from the ground.
He wasn’t a mountain goat, but he found a set of stairs at the back of the temple and raced to the
top. He reached the base of the columns and squinted up at Coach Hedge, who was precariously
perched at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, unravelling ropes and knotting a ladder.
‘Hurry!’ Nico yelled.
‘Oh, really?’ the coach called down. ‘I thought we had tons of time!’
The last thing Nico needed was satyr sarcasm. Down in the square, more wolves broke free of
their bone restraints. Reyna swatted them aside with her modified duct-tape-coin-sword, but a
handful of change wasn’t going to hold back a pack of werewolves for long. Aurum snarled and
snapped in frustration, unable to hurt the enemy. Argentum did his best, sinking his claws into the
throat of another wolf, but the silver dog was already damaged. Soon he’d be hopelessly
outnumbered.
Lycaon freed both his arms. He started pulling his legs from their ribcage restraints. There were
only a few seconds until he would be loose.
Nico was out of tricks. Summoning that wall of bones had drained him. It would take all his
remaining energy to shadow-travel – assuming he could even find a shadow to travel into.
A shadow.
He looked at the silver pocketknife in his hand. An idea came to him – possibly the stupidest,
craziest idea he’d had since he thought, Hey, I’ll get Percy to swim in the River Styx! He’ll love me
for that!
‘Reyna, get up here!’ he yelled.
She slammed another wolf in the head and ran. In mid-stride, she flicked her sword, which
elongated into a javelin, then used it to launch herself up like a pole-vaulter. She landed next to Nico.
‘What’s the plan?’ she asked, not even out of breath.
‘Show-off,’ he grumbled.
A knotted rope fell from above.
‘Climb, ya silly non-goats!’ Hedge yelled.
‘Go,’ Nico told her. ‘Once you’re up there, hang on tight to the rope.’