LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . pjo

VII.

THE SUN WAS sinking behind the mountains by the time they found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.

The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," Percy said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."

"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."

"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.

"Who is she? Echidna?"

"No, Aphrodite," Mia said, remembering back on her research of the goddesses. "Goddess of love."

"I thought she was married to somebody," Percy said. "Hephaestus."

"Percy, they're Greek gods," she said. "You've seen the Aphrodite cabin. At least, I think you did. Do you really think that the gods would be monogamous?"

"Oh." The tips of Percy's ears turned red. "So how do we get in?"

"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.

He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"

Percy, Annabeth, and Mia had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as they crawled over the top.

The shadows grew long as they walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was AnkleBiterIsland, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?

No monsters came to get them. Nothing made the slightest noise.

They found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—

"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."

"Yeah," Mia said. "But you can't just—"

"Watch me."

Annabeth snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.

"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all four of them were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.

"I hate everything about this," Mia muttered.

"Just deal with it for a few days," Annabeth told her. She rolled her eyes, but she put on sunglasses and lead them on to continue searching for the Tunnel of Love.

"So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy started, "they have a thing going?"

"That's old gossip, Percy," Mia told him. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus or Hera, I can't remember who. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"