The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo, #2)

by Rick Riordan

“Huh.” Leo glanced at his feet. “You think I can keep this brick, at least?” The corridor rumbled. “I would leave it there,” I suggested. “Yeah, think I’ll leave it there.”

Josephine tapped her left temple. “Waystation tells me stuff.” “Oooh.” Leo’s eyes widened. “That’s cool.”

“Don’t test me, Valdez. When I am a god again, I will make a constellation out of you. I will call it the Small Exploding Latino.” “I like it!”

You would then descend into the cave and experience…untold horrors.” “Such as?” Calypso asked. “I just said they were untold.

“You must be kidding,” I said. “If I get close enough to feed them, they’ll eat me.” She stopped her song. “Aren’t you the god of ranged weapons? Throw the Tots!”

I was special and different. And I deserved better treatment.

It would be an honor if you killed me! I like the way you think, good reader.

We were ten feet away when we triggered the First Law of Percy Jackson.

If you have ever tried to walk while immersed in a swift stream, you know how difficult it is. Also, if you have tried it, then may I ask why?

I hoped Athena was watching, because WISDOM, BABY!

I hadn’t known I could feel any worse, until I did. I really hate that about the mortal heart. It seems to have an infinite capacity for getting heavier.

“Kill them? They’re kind of pretty.” “The Spartan warriors were kind of pretty, too, until they skewered you.

Her eyes gleamed with absolute hatred. I found her presence delightful. “Hi, Styx!”

It occurred to me that I was probably going into hypothermic shock. I remembered all the symptoms of that: shivering, dizziness, confusion, rapid heart rate, nausea, fatigue…Wow, I was batting a thousand!

Alfred? Hmm. No. That would make this young girl Batman, and that didn’t feel right.

I flashed on the name Monty Python. Was that correct? I didn’t think the monster and I had ever been on a first-name basis.

“It was a sonnet,” I said, still in disbelief. “May the gods help us; it was a Shakespearean sonnet.”

“How is that possible? Other pantheons of gods, side by side?” I shrugged. I was often surprised by mortals’ limited imaginations, as if the world was an either/or proposition.

“So you’re the sun god,” Thalia said. “But some other deity from some other culture is also the sun god?” “Exactly. Different manifestations of the same truth.”

But surely you’ve been a demigod long enough to know: the longer you live, the weirder the world gets.”