More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Death shouldn’t be beautiful.
Alas, there is no arguing with bureaucrats, traffic cops, or boundary gods.
“You dare think of me as a transaction?”
Why did hilltops have to be uphill?
HOME. SUCH A WONDERFUL word. I had no idea what it meant, but it sounded nice.
“This is what we signed up for. Defending the legacy of Rome.” “From its own emperors,” Thomas said miserably. “I’m sorry to tell you,” I put in, “but the biggest threat to the empire was often its own emperors.”
“I don’t have a sight pin,” said Marcus. “It’s the little circle thingie right there.” Lavinia showed him. “I have a sight pin,” Marcus corrected himself.
It was late evening when the final horn blew and the cohorts tromped back to camp. I was hungry and exhausted. I wondered if this was how mortal teachers felt after a full day of classes. If so, I didn’t see how they managed. I hoped they were richly compensated with gold, diamonds, and rare spices.
Aurum and Argentum, not being able to climb, stayed on the ground to guard our exit like the opposable-thumb-lacking slackers they were. If we ended up plummeting to our deaths, the dogs would be right there to bark excitedly at our corpses. That gave me great comfort.
“All I smell is Lester’s shoes. I think he stepped in something.” “A large puddle of shame,” I muttered.
It made no sense to me why Tarquin would put something as important as his silent god at the top of a radio tower, or why he had allied himself with the emperors in the first place, or why the smell of roses might signal that we were getting closer to our goal, or why those dark birds kept circling above us in the fog. Weren’t they cold? Didn’t they have jobs?
“Ptolemaic gods are awful,” I said. “They’re unpredictable, temperamental, dangerous, insecure—” “Like a normal god, then,” Meg said. “I hate you,” I said. “I thought you loved me.” “I’m multitasking.
“Never underestimate the power of thousands of human minds all believing the same thing. They can remake reality. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not.”
“I forgive you. Not because you deserve it. Not for your sake at all. But because I will not go into oblivion carrying hate when I can carry love.”
O, blood moon rising Take a rain check on doomsday I’m stuck in traffic
We had found our alternate route. It was the regular route we weren’t supposed to take.
“We are gods.” “And I’m the son of Mars,” Frank countered, “praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. I’m not afraid to die. Are you?”
Either I could die with my friends, or they could cut off my head after I turned into a brain-eater, which was what friends were for.
Tarquin himself was too busy to notice our entrance. He stood with his back to us, at the information desk, yelling at the bookstore cat. “Answer me, beast!” the king screamed. “Where are the Books?” Aristophanes sat on the desk, one leg straight up in the air, calmly licking his nether regions—which, last I checked, was considered impolite in the presence of royalty. “I will destroy you!” Tarquin said.
if you cooperate and explain”—he pointed at the cat—“the meaning of this.” “It’s a cat,” I said.
THOU HAST DONE WELL, APOLLO! THOU HAST ONLY ONE JOB NOW: LIVE! “That’s a really hard job,” I muttered. “I hate my job.”
We didn’t count the dead. They weren’t numbers. They were people we had known, friends we had fought with.
At one time, I would have discounted that connection. They’re just demigods, I would have said. Not really family. Now I found the idea hard to accept for a different reason. I didn’t feel worthy of that family.
“You’re going to have to invest in some calamine lotion if you keep seeing her.” “Hey, no relationship is perfect,”
