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

by Rick Riordan

She looked almost her age: a sixth grader entering the circle of hell known as puberty.

“The son of Hades, cavern-runners’ friend, Must show the secret way unto the throne. On Nero’s own your lives do now depend.”

She sounded hurt, confused, incredulous—as if, in a life full of indignities, this was one indignity she never could have anticipated.

SEEKEST THOU THE PLACE OF THE SEVEN-LAYER DIP. With that, the projectile fell silent. I groaned in misery. The arrow’s message was perfectly clear. Oh, for the yummy seven-layer dip of our hostess! Oh, for the comfort of that cozy apartment! But it wasn’t right. I couldn’t.… “What did it say?” Meg demanded. I tried to think of an alternative, but I was so tired I couldn’t even lie. “Fine,” I said. “We go to Percy Jackson’s place.”

I found myself staring in amazement at Paul and Estelle, who struck me as even greater miracles than Percy’s graduation. Paul seemed like a caring husband, a loving father, a kind stepfather. In my own experience, such a creature was harder to find than an albino unicorn or three-winged griffin.

“You are a good man, Paul Blofis.”

But mostly I needed to stand with my forehead against the tiles, shaking and weeping until I felt like I could face other people again.

He hadn’t meant all the terrible things about being human, of which there were plenty. He’d meant the best things: standing up for a just cause, putting others first, having stubborn faith that you could make a difference, even if it meant you had to die to protect your friends and what you believed in. These were not the kind of feelings that gods had…well, ever. Sally Jackson meant the term in the same way Jason had—as something worth aspiring to.

Sally smiled, though there was a tinge of disappointment in her eyes, as if she’d been looking forward to busting some evil Roman heads.

You know that meme with the honey bear and the caption honey, he gay? Yes, I created that. And in Ganymede’s case, it was hardly news.

“Dad!” Will shot to his feet. He ran down the steps and tackled me in a hug. That’s when I lost it. I wept openly. My beautiful son, with his kind eyes, his healer’s hands, his sun-warm demeanor. Somehow, he had inherited all my best qualities and none of the worst. He guided me up the steps and insisted I take his seat. He pressed a cold glass of lemonade into my hands then started fussing over my wounded head.

Will i love you

He didn’t look angry, exactly. He looked as if he’d been hit in the gut not just once but so many times over the course of so many years that he was beginning to lose perspective on what it meant to be in pain. He swayed on his feet. He blinked.

On his left pectoral was a stylized sun tattoo, which seemed unnecessary to me—as if he could be mistaken for anything but a child of the sun god.

“It’s complicated. Nico sensed Jason’s death weeks ago. It sent him into a rage.” “I’m so sorry.…”

said he had an emergency meeting with a cat and a severed head, whatever that means.”

“William Andrew Solace,” Nico said, “do you have something to confess?”

“I told you, Apollo, the world has many crises. Just this morning, scientists released another study tying soda to hypertension. If they continue to disparage the name of Diet Coke, I will have to smite someone!” He stormed off to plot his revenge on the health industry.

I had never stopped to consider that it had feelings, hopes, dreams, and perhaps even a family as dysfunctional and unsupportive as mine.

Since Jason Grace’s death, I’d spent sleepless nights wondering if I could keep my promise to him. Assuming I made it back to Mount Olympus, could I remember what it was like to be human, or would I slip back into being the self-centered god I used to be?

Change is a fragile thing. It requires time and distance. Survivors of abuse, like Meg, have to get away from their abusers. Going back to that toxic environment was the worst thing she could do. And former arrogant gods like me couldn’t hang around other arrogant gods and expect to stay unsullied.

Nico sighed. “I’m guessing that was a Star Wars reference. My boyfriend is a Star Wars geek of the worst kind.” “Okay, Signor Myth-o-magic. If you would just watch the original trilogy…” Will looked at the rest of us for support and found nothing but blank expressions. “Nobody? Oh, my gods. You people are hopeless.”

Nico’s eyelids fluttered. His pupils rolled up in his head and he slumped against Will’s shoulder. It might have been a clever ploy to fall into his boyfriend’s arms—I had used the catch me, handsome fainting trick a few times myself—but since Nico immediately began to snore, I decided he was not faking.

Nico smirked. “Friends, meet my glow-in-the-dark boyfriend.” “Could you not make a big deal about it?” Will asked.

Nico and Will sat on Screech-Bling’s right. Nico sported a top hat, which worked well with his black-and-white aesthetic. Will, my poor boy, had been given a lampshade. No respect for the light-bringers of the world.

That old metaphorical skink was trying to claw its way back up my throat. The fact that Nero—a man who had killed his own mother—was talking about defending traditional Roman values…that was just about the most Roman thing I could imagine. And the idea that he wanted to play Daddy to the entire world made my guts churn.

the metaphors to irl evetssssss

“You’re important,” I said. “Your life!” Jason tilted his head. “I mean…sure. But if a hero isn’t ready to lose everything for a greater cause, is that person really a hero?” He weighted the word person subtly, as if to stress it could mean a human, a faun, a dryad, a griffin, a pandos…even a god.

The similarities between Nero’s household and my family on Mount Olympus made me increasingly uneasy. The idea that we gods were just as manipulative, just as abusive as the worst Roman emperor…Surely that couldn’t be true.

“Try unplugging it,” said the second tech. “Then plug it back in.”

Claasic

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

Will Solace strode confidently across the room, barking “Out of my way!” to the Germani. He marched straight to Nico and helped the son of Hades to his feet. Then he dragged Nico back to the entrance. No one tried to stop them.

Omg

Rachel pulled out a blue plastic hairbrush and threw it at the nearest barbarian, beaning him in the eye and making him howl. Sorry I underestimated you, Rachel, I thought distantly. You’re actually kind of a hairbrush ninja.

“Lu…You’re good people. I’m sorry I mistrusted you.” “Eh.” She waved one of her daggers. “That’s okay. I thought you were pretty useless, too.” “I—I didn’t say useless.…”

Even in serious timez

All any of us could do was try, and hope that, in the end, the virtuous cycle would break the vicious one.

“A severed head. And a cat. Two different…uh, people. Acquaintances of mine from other pantheons. We were discussing a mutual problem.”

Oooh other book refs

She glared at her husband. “At least Apollo did something.” “Not this again,” Zeus rumbled. “My chosen,” Hera said. “Jason Grace. Your son. And you—” “I didn’t kill him, woman!” Zeus thundered. “That was Caligula!” “Yes,” Hera snapped. “And at least Apollo grieved. At least he got vengeance.”

Interesting how he put that: I had done him proud. I had been useful in making him look good. My heart did not melt. I did not feel that this was a warm-and-fuzzy reconciliation with my father. Let’s be honest: some fathers don’t deserve that. Some aren’t capable of it.

You cannot change a tyrant by trying to out-ugly him. Meg could never have changed Nero, any more than I could change Zeus. I could only try to be different than him. Better. More…human. And to limit the time I spent around him to as little as possible.

We love beinow contact

“Faith in our ability to write our own stories, regardless of what the Fates throw at us. Faith that you will find a way to make wine out of your sour grapes.”

The boys sat comfortably next to each other, Will’s arm around Nico’s shoulder, as the son of Hades twirled a burnt marshmallow on a stick.

No story ever ends, does it? It just leads into others.”

He laced his fingers through Nico’s. “We’ll handle whatever comes next. Together. With or without a prophecy—”

What did surprise me: Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase had arrived and taken up residence in New Rome, giving them two months to adjust to their new environs before the fall semester of their freshman year in college.

“Whoa, there, Wise Girl,” Percy said. “First you have to help me get through freshman English. And math. And history.” Annabeth’s smile lit up the empty dorm room. “Yeah, Seaweed Brain, I know. We’ll take the basics together. But you will do your own homework.”

Jason. He was the best of us.”

However, anytime you take aim and prepare to fire your best shot, anytime you seek to put your emotions into a song or poem, know that I am smiling on you. We are friends now. Call on me. I will be there for you.