{1} 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐒𝐄𝐘𝐄 | p.jackson

c h a p t e r - t h i r t y - o n e

( chapter thirty-one )

in which another family reunion takes place
( but this one is way, way worse )

"CAN'T THIS THING GO ANY FASTER?" Thalia demanded. 

Zoë glared at her. "I cannot control traffic." 

"Some people just don't deserve a driver's license!" Nia complained as Zoë swerved the car to avoid a reckless driver. Nia rolled down the window, stuck her head out, and yelled, "Maniac!"

"You all sound like my mother," Percy said. 

"Shut up!" all three of them said in unison.

True to her word, Nia had immediately taken the shotgun seat in the VW while Thalia and Percy were sitting in the backseat.

Zoë weaved in and out of traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun was sinking on the horizon when they finally got into Marin County and exited the highway. The roads were insanely narrow, winding through forests and up the sides of hills and around the edges of steep ravines. Zoë didn't slow down at all.

"Why does everything smell like cough drops?" Percy asked. 

Zoë pointed to the huge trees all around them. "Eucalyptus."

"The stuff koala bears eat?" 

"And monsters," she said. "They love chewing the leaves. Especially dragons." 

Nia paused, then looked at Zoë. "Dragons chew eucalyptus leaves?" 

"Believe me," said Zoë, "if you had dragon breath, you would chew eucalyptus too."

Nia didn't question her, but she did keep her eyes peeled more closely as they drove. Ahead of them loomed Mount Tamalpais. It was a small one in terms of mountains, but it looked huge as they were driving toward it. 

"So that's the Mountain of Despair?" Percy asked. 

"Yes," Zoë said tightly. 

"Why do they call it that?"

Zoë was silent for almost a mile before answering him. "After the war between the Titans and the gods, many of the Titans were punished and imprisoned. Kronos was sliced to pieces and thrown into Tartarus. Kronos's right-hand man, the general of his forces, was imprisoned up there, on the summit, just beyond the Garden of the Hesperides."

"The General," Percy said. Clouds seemed to be swirling around its peak, as though the mountain was drawing them in, spinning them like a top. "What's going on up there? A storm?"