LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

XXXVI.

MIA HAD STAYED awake long enough to see them descending through Rome, leaning on the railing and staring at it while she made Jason wake everyone else up. She wasn't missing the chance to take pictures of the city with her phone.

The sky was brilliant blue, as if the stormy weather had never happened. The sun rose over the distant hills, so everything below her shone and sparkled like the entire city of Rome had just come out of the car wash.

She'd seen big cities before. She and Nico had basically traveled all over the world, after all. But the sheer vastness of Rome grabbed her by the throat and made it hard to breathe. The city seemed to have no regard for the limits of geography. It spread through hills and valleys, jumped over the Tiber with dozens of bridges, and just kept sprawling to the horizon. Streets and alleys zigzagged with no rhyme or reason through quilts of neighborhoods. Glass office buildings stood next to excavation sites. A cathedral stood next to a line of Roman columns, which stood next to a modern soccer stadium. In some neighborhoods, old stucco villas with red-tiled roofs crowded the cobblestone streets, so that if Mia concentrated just on those areas, she could imagine she was back in ancient times. Everywhere she looked, there were wide piazzas and traffic-clogged streets. Parks cut across the city with a crazy collection of palm trees, pines, junipers, and olive trees, as if Rome couldn't decide what part of the world it belonged to — or maybe it just believed all the world still belonged to Rome.

The rest of the crew eventually made their way up, and Mia found Hazel, smiling at her and grabbing her hand. "Welcome home, darling."

Hazel scrunched up her nose. "This isn't my home."

"If you had to move anywhere out of the US, where would you move?" Mia asked.

". . . Rome."

"Exactly," she smiled softly at her sister. "Welcome home."

"We're setting down in that park," Leo announced, pointing to a wide green space dotted with palm trees. "Let's hope the Mist makes us look like a large pigeon or something."

Mia rolled her eyes and subtly wiggled her fingers, silently praying that they wouldn't, in fact, be found out.

It seemed to work. She didn't notice any cars veering off the road or Romans pointing to the sky and screaming, "Aliens!" The Argo II set down in the grassy field and the oars retracted.

The noise of traffic was all around them, but the park itself was peaceful and deserted. To their left, a green lawn sloped toward a line of woods. An old villa nestled in the shade of some weird-looking pine trees with thin curvy trunks that shot up thirty or forty feet, then sprouted into puffy canopies.

To their right, snaking along the top of a hill, was a long brick wall with notches at the top for archers — maybe a medieval defensive line, maybe Ancient Roman. Mia wasn't sure.

To the north, about a mile away through the folds of the city, the top of the Colosseum rose above the rooftops, looking just like it did in travel photos. That's when it really hit Mia. She was actually here. She'd thought her trip to Alaska, Seoul, or Tokyo had been pretty exotic, but now she was in the heart of the old Roman Empire, enemy territory for a Greek demigod. In a way, this place had shaped her life as much as New York.

Jason pointed to the base of the archers' wall, where steps led down into some kind of tunnel.

"I think I know where we are," he said. "That's the Tomb of the Scipios."

Percy frowned. "Scipio . . . Reyna's pegasus?"

"No," Annabeth put in. "They were a noble Roman family, and . . . wow, this place is amazing."

Jason nodded. "I've studied maps of Rome before. I've always wanted to come here, but . . ."

Nobody bothered finishing that sentence. Looking at the crew's faces, Mia could tell they were in more awe than she was. They'd made it. They'd landed in Rome — the Rome.

"Plans?" Mia, naturally, brought them out of their cloud of happy thoughts. "Nico has until sunset — at best. And this entire city is supposedly getting destroyed today."

Percy nodded. "You're right. Annabeth . . . did you zero in on that spot from your bronze map?"

Her gray eyes turned extra thunderstorm dark, which made Mia bite back her snickers.

"Yes," Annabeth said carefully. "It's on the Tiber River. I think I can find it, but I should—"

"Take me and Mia along," Percy finished. "Yeah, you're right."

Mia's eyebrow subtly rose. "Excuse me?"

Annabeth glared daggers at him. "That's not—"

"Safe," he supplied. "One demigod walking through Rome alone. We'll go with you as far as the Tiber. We can use that letter of introduction, hopefully meet the river god Tiberinus. Maybe he can give you some help or advice. Then you can go on alone from there. Besides, Mia knows her way around Rome, right?"

Mia rolled her eyes. "I told both of you that I've gone to Milan and Venice, not Rome. But I'd never pass a chance to sightsee."

Percy and Annabeth had a silent staring contest, which made Mia's lips curl into a smirk as she watched them. She'd missed them, more than she wished to admit.

"Fine," Annabeth muttered. "Hazel, now that we're in Rome, do you think you can pinpoint Nico's location if Mia doesn't while we're looking for Tiberinus?"

Hazel blinked, as if coming out of a trance from watching the Percy / Annabeth Show. "Um . . . hopefully, if I get close enough. I'll have to walk around the city. Frank, would you come with me?"

Frank beamed. "Absolutely."

"And, uh . . . Leo," Hazel added. "It might be a good idea if you came along too. The fish-centaurs said we'd need your help with something mechanical."

"Yeah," Leo said, "no problem."

Frank's smile turned into something more like Chrysaor's mask.

Mia was no genius when it came to relationships, but even she could feel the tension among those three. Ever since they'd gotten knocked into the Atlantic, they hadn't acted quite the same. It wasn't just the two guys competing for Hazel. It was like the three of them were locked together, acting out some kind of murder mystery, but they hadn't yet discovered which of them was the victim.

Piper drew her knife and set it on the rail. "Jason and I can watch the ship for now. I'll see what Katoptris can show me. But, Hazel, if you guys get a fix on Nico's location, don't go in there by yourselves. Come back and get us. It'll take all of us to fight the giants."

She didn't say the obvious: even all of them together wouldn't be enough, unless they had a god on their side. Mia decided not to bring that up.

"Good idea," Percy said. "How about we plan to meet back here at . . . what?"

"Three this afternoon?" Jason suggested. "That's probably the latest we could rendezvous and still hope to fight the giants and save Nico. If something happens to change the plan, try to send an Iris-message."

The others nodded in agreement, but Mia noticed several of them glancing at Annabeth. Another thing no one wanted to say: Annabeth would be on a different schedule. She might be back at three, or much later, or never. But she would be on her own, searching for the Athena Parthenos.

Coach Hedge grunted. "That'll give me time to eat the coconuts — I mean dig the coconuts out of our hull. Percy, Annabeth, Mia, I don't like you three going off on your own. Just remember: behave. If I hear about any funny business, I will ground you until the Styx freezes over."

Mia gave the ground a wide eyed look. She has never talked to Coach Hedge in her life, why was he scolding her?

"We'll be back soon," Percy said, though Mia didn't believe it, to be honest. "Good luck, everyone."

Leo lowered the gangplank, and Mia, Percy, and Annabeth were first off the ship.