LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

V.

MIA DIDN'T WANT to, but Nico forced her awake and shoved her toga and a muffin at her. "You're incorrigible," he told her. "The meeting's soon."

"Thanks," she yawned, taking a giant bite out of her muffin. "How soon?"

"Like . . . five minutes?"

"Shit," she made random hand gestures at him as she shoveled down her muffin. He took the hint and left.

That was why Mia was putting on makeup while walking to the Senate meeting, letting Nico guide her to where she needed to go as he talked to Gwen. She wasn't really paying attention, she was just trying to perfect her eyeliner. She'd totally got the bottom line down but the top one . . . absolutely ridiculous, how she'd managed to mess up that many times.

"Terminus," she heard Nico hiss at her, and she finally got the wing to be decent just in time to plop her eyeliner on the tray that Terminus provided before walking through the boundaries. "It's okay that you want to step down, Gwen. I get it."

"Oh, yeah," Mia chimed in."You died, Gwen. It's normal to discharge from the legion after that. I would do the same."

"You would?" Gwen asked.

Mia chuckled, putting her lipstick on and staring at herself. Yeah, that was fine. She put her lipstick and her mirror away. "Then again, I'm not cut out to be a legionnaire. But in that situation . . . I would."

She didn't have time to dwell on past memories when she walked into the Senate House.

The interior looked like a high school lecture hall. A semicircle of tiered seats faced a dais with a podium and two chairs. The chairs were empty, but one had a small velvet package on the seat.

Mia went to sit with Nico, but a glance and a nod toward the left from Reyna stopped her, so she sat on the edge to the left. Only a one in three chance that Percy would sit next to her.

He didn't, thank the gods, Hazel did, smiling at Mia as she sat, Percy and Frank sitting to their right. The ten senators and Nico di Angelo occupied the rest of the front row. The upper rows were filled with several dozen hosts and a few older veterans from the city, all in formal togas like Mia's. Octavian stood in front with a knife and a Beanie Babylion, just in case anyone needed to consult the god of cutesy collectibles. Reyna walked to the podium and raised her hand for attention.

"Right, this is an emergency meeting," she said. "We won't stand on formalities."

"I love formalities!" a ghost complained.

Reyna shot him a cross look.

"First of all," she said, "we're not here to vote on the quest itself. The quest has been issued by Mars Ultor, patron of Rome. We will obey his wishes. Nor are we here to debate the choice of Frank Zhang's companions."

"Three from the Fifth Cohort and an Ambassador of the Underworld?" called out Hank from the Third. "That's not fair."

"And not smart," said the boy next to him. "We know they'll mess up. They should take somebody good."

Dakota got up so fast, he spilled Kool-Aid from his flask. "We were plenty good last night when we whipped your podex, Larry!"

"Besides," Mia added, leaning back in her chair with a raised eyebrow. "Are you saying that an Ambassador from the Underworld isn't good enough to go on a quest? Because I can show you just how good I can be."

"Enough, Dakota, Amelia," Reyna said. "Let's leave Larry's podex out of this. And no demonstrations, Amelia. As quest leader, Frank has the right to choose his companions. He has chosen Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque, and Amelia Starfury."