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RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE was one of my favorite mortals.
I wanted to assure her that those other Oracles didn’t mean a thing to me! Rachel was special!
Stop it, Apollo, I scolded myself. You’re beautiful and everyone loves you.
As aggravating as Meg could be, I was deeply unsettled by the idea that she might come to harm. I decided that I could not allow that to happen.
but it was comforting to know that in a dire emergency I could hit people with my ukulele while Meg planted geraniums.
soaked. I was tired of being picked on. Mortals often talk about the whole world being against them, but that is ridiculous. Mortals aren’t that important. In my case, the whole world really was against me.
I rushed after him and grabbed his shoulders. “Do not what? Please don’t leave me again!”
How cruel to see them—the flowers that I had created to honor my fallen love, with their plumes stained red like his blood or hued violet like his eyes.
Seeing them together, supporting each other, made my heart feel even heavier. During my delirium, both of my great loves had visited me. Now, once again, I was devastatingly alone.
I sang of my failures, my eternal heartbreak and loneliness. I was the worst of the gods, the most guilt-ridden and unfocused. I couldn’t commit myself to one lover. I couldn’t even choose what to be the god of. I kept shifting from one skill to another—distracted and dissatisfied.
brushed a tear from the tip of her nose. “Why, dear Meg? You did nothing wrong. I failed you.”
I’ve turned too many people I cared about into flowers, Meg. I won’t—”
As we approached the Colossus, I bellowed loudly, “IMPOSTER! I AM THE REAL APOLLO! YOU’RE UGLY!” Oh, dear reader, it was hard to yell such words at my own handsome visage, but I did. Such was my courage.
“Will, Kayla, Austin,” I said, “come with me.” “And Nico,” said Nico. “I have a doctor’s note.”
Will caught him in a fireman’s carry and took him away. “Good luck! I’m going to get the Lord of Darkness here some Gatorade!”
Out of the shadows dropped a furry black monster dog—a hellhound—and astride his back was a young man with a glowing bronze sword. The weekend was here. Percy Jackson had arrived.
could’ve done something like that in my sleep, of course, but I had to admit Percy Jackson was moderately impressive.
This time, the words came to me. I didn’t know why. Perhaps Percy’s arrival had given me new faith.
Somehow, I managed to react appropriately. (Three cheers for reacting appropriately!)
“I’m not lord of anything!” I wailed. “I’m a stupid ugly mortal teenager! I’m nobody!”
He squinted at the
sunrise, the sea breeze tousling his hair. “Yeah, I used to think I didn’t belong here either.”
We only have one life, but we can choose what kind of story it’s going to be.”
For that matter, I never anticipated Percy Jackson and Rachel Elizabeth Dare.
Miranda had to move on, because the line was getting pretty long behind her.
I hadn’t witnessed such a tense greeting since Patroclus met Achilles’s war prize, Briseis. (Long story. Juicy gossip. Ask me later.)
But the real difficulty would be saying good-bye to Will, Austin, and Kayla.
Perhaps tomorrow I would weep and think about good-byes. Perhaps the day after that we would be flying toward our deaths. But tonight, I intended to enjoy my time with my family.
