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