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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Rick Riordan
Read between
June 8 - July 24, 2025
He growled and muttered as he tapped on his keyboard. Maybe he was messaging his friends on uglyface.com.
Then he threw me another essential tool of demigod heroes—duct tape.
My head felt like it had been microwaved in aluminum foil.
“A half-blood of the eldest gods…shall reach sixteen against all odds…”
“And see the world in endless sleep, The hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap.”
“A single choice shall…shall end his days.
“Olympus to preserve or raze.”
His blue silk pajamas had “WD” monogrammed on the pocket. Seriously, who has monogrammed pajamas?
Draco Malfoy thats who
“Are they any good?” I asked. She shook her head. “They taste like cardboard.” I didn’t have anything against cardboard, so I tried one.
I found myself staring at her, which was stupid since I’d seen her a billion times. She and I were about the same height this summer, which was a relief. Still, she seemed so much more mature. It was kind of intimidating. I mean, sure, she’d always been cute, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful.
And I know some of you might be thinking, Aren’t all demigods related on the godly side, and doesn’t that make dating gross? But the thing is, the godly side of your family doesn’t count, genetically speaking, since gods don’t have DNA.
Anyway, for some strange reason I was thinking about this as I watched Annabeth straighten up.
She got right in my face. “Yes, you. You’re a coward, Percy Jackson!” We were nose to nose. Her eyes were red, and I suddenly realized that when she called me a coward, maybe she wasn’t talking about the prophecy.
She looked like someone who enjoyed sticking her fingers in electrical sockets.
Hestia shook her head. “I am here because when all else fails, when all the other mighty gods have gone off to war, I am all that’s left. Home. Hearth. I am the last Olympian. You must remember me when you face your final decision.”
“With great power…comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”
“Last thing.” Hermes looked at me. “She said to tell Percy: ‘Remember the rivers.’ And, um, something about staying away from her daughter.”
“You’re cute when you’re worried,” she muttered. “Your eyebrows get all scrunched together.”
If you’re heading downtown from Central Park, my advice is to take the subway. Flying pigs are faster, but way more dangerous.
“Hey, ugly!” Annabeth yelled. I hoped she was talking to the giant, not me.
“Erre es korakas, Blinky!” Dionysus cursed. “I will have your soul!”
The game played a song and Mr. D progressed to level 254. “Ha!” he shouted. “Take that, you pixelated fiends!” “Um, fabric of civilization,” I prompted.
But leading the charge was a girl in familiar red armor, her face covered by a boar’s-head helm. She held aloft a spear that crackled with electricity. Clarisse herself had come to the rescue.
I knew who the hero was who had led the Ares cabin into battle. I looked down at the dying face of Silena Beauregard.
“You stupid Aphrodite girl,” Clarisse sobbed.
Clarisse sniffled and wiped her nose. “She was a hero, understand? A hero.”
“Percy,” Annabeth said quietly. “You were right about Luke.”
Grover cradled his laurel sapling in his hands. “Well…sure good to be together again. Arguing. Almost dying. Abject terror. Oh, look. It’s our floor.”
“To claim your place at the hearth,” Hestia told her, “you must let go of your distractions. It is the only way you will survive.”
Sitting in his throne, I felt like I had the entire sea at my command—vast cubic miles of ocean churning with power and mystery. Why should Poseidon listen to anyone? Why shouldn’t he be the greatest of the twelve?
A wave of gale-force anger slammed into my mind: WHO DARES— The voice stopped abruptly. The anger retreated, which was a good thing, because just those two words had almost blasted my mind to shreds.
Nico drew his sword—three feet of wicked sharp Stygian iron, black as a nightmare. “I don’t agree.” The ground rumbled. Cracks appeared in the road, the sidewalks, the sides of the buildings. Skeletal hands grasped the air as the dead clawed their way into the world of the living.
“Mom!” I yelled. She whirled when the monster was almost on top of her. I thought the thing in her hands was an umbrella until she cranked the pump and the shotgun blast blew the giant twenty feet backward, right into Nico’s sword. “Nice one,” Paul said. “When did you learn to fire a shotgun?” I demanded. My mom blew the hair out of her face. “About two seconds ago. Percy, we’ll be fine. Go!”
Kronos backed me up against the throne of Hephaestus—a huge mechanical La-Z-Boy type thing covered with bronze and silver gears.
While Kronos was still on his knees, Ethan brought down his sword on the Titan lord’s neck.
A column of storm was approaching the Hudson River, moving rapidly over the Jersey Shore. Chariots circled it, locked in combat with the creature in the cloud. The gods attacked.
Kronos loomed over Annabeth, his sword raised. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She croaked, “Family, Luke. You promised.”
“You were like a brother to me, Luke,” she said softly. “But I didn’t love you.”
He gripped my sleeve, and I could feel the heat of his skin like a fire. “Ethan. Me. All the unclaimed. Don’t let it…Don’t let it happen again.” His eyes were angry, but pleading too. “I won’t,” I said. “I promise.” Luke nodded, and his hand went slack.
I turned and faced the Olympians. “We need a shroud,” I announced, my voice cracking. “A shroud for the son of Hermes.”
I thought about May Castellan, alone in her kitchen, baking cookies and making sandwiches for a son who would never come home.
In the end, I wasn’t really the hero. Luke was.
He snapped his fingers and informed me that a bright blue flag fifty feet wide was now flying from the top of the Empire State Building. The mortals would just have to wonder what it meant, but my mom would know: I had survived. Olympus was saved.
what kind of weapon would you like? A sword? An axe?” “Stick!” Tyson said, showing his broken club. “Very well,” Zeus said. “We will grant you a new, er, stick. The best stick that may be found.”
“You mean…I can design whatever I want?” “As your heart desires,” the goddess said. “Make us a city for the ages.”
“Hmm,” Ares mused. “That means I can smash him to a pulp as often as I want, and he’ll just keep coming back for more. I like this idea.”
“No more undetermined children,” I said. “I want you to promise to claim your children—all your demigod children—by the time they turn thirteen. They won’t be left out in the world on their own at the mercy of monsters. I want them claimed and brought to camp so they can be trained right, and survive.”
“All in favor,” Hermes said. All the gods raised their hands.
“All hail, Perseus Jackson,” Tyson said. “Hero of Olympus…and my big brother!”
