The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo, #5)

by Rick Riordan

To be human is to move forward, to adapt, to believe in your ability to make things better.

I had become a human-life hoarder!

Someone had trimmed the crusts off the bread. They were cut into squares rather than triangles. This is how you can tell when your lunch has been prepared by barbarians.

You can help them if they ask. But wait for them to ask. It’s their choice to make, not yours.

I’d learned that promises are precious. If you’re not absolutely sure you can keep them, you should never make them, much like chocolate chip cookies.

No one gave the proper response, because barbarians.

How could someone twist the truth with such brazenness, telling you the exact opposite of what was clear and obvious, and still sound like they believed what they were saying? How could you defend against lies that were so blatant and brash they should have required no challenge?

“No one hits my boyfriend,” Will thundered. “And no one kills my dad!”

So…I was watching them watch me watch them.…Nope. Too meta.

I was not ready. I was not rested. I was definitely not bringing my A-game.

below my A-game for so long, I could barely remember any letters north of LMNOP.

everyone who had fought and sacrificed to drag my sorry mortal butt from quest to quest for the last six months, just to get me this chance at redemption.

“Wisdom. It comes in handy.”