𝐂œ𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬é𝐬 [Percy Jackson]

12

"Foes bearing arms to the Doors of Death" Annabeth went on, "...that means Romans and Greeks. We have to combine forces to find those doors."

Hazel, the girl with the cavalry helmet and the long curly hair, picked up something next to her plate. It looked like a large ruby; but before Hadrian could be sure, Hazel slipped it into the pocket of her denim shirt.

"My brother, Nico, went looking for the doors," she said.

"Wait," Annabeth said. "Nico di Angelo? He's your brother?"

Hazel nodded as if this were obvious. Hadrian remembered the son of Hades from the battle. Hadrian himself had spent the last half of the fight trying and failing to not cry or throw up.

"Okay. You were saying?"

"He disappeared." Hazel moistened her lips. "I'm afraid...I'm not sure, but I think something's happened to him."

"We'll look for him," Percy promised. "We have to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos told us we'd find both answers in Rome—like, the original Rome. That's on the way to Greece, right?"

"Thanatos told you this?" Annabeth for the first time looked deeply out of her depth. see?? Hadrian had said all that planning would do nothing if something completely bonkers happened. "The death god?"

Percy took a bite of his burger. "Now that Death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to Tartarus again like they used to. But as long as the Doors of Death are open, they'll just keep coming back."

Hadrian resisted the urge to say good. 

Leo continued to do whatever he was doing "Like water leaking through a dam," he suggested.

"Yeah." Percy smiled. "We've got a dam hole."

"What?" Leo asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Inside joke. The point is we'll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to Greece. It's the only way we'll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they stay defeated."

Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. She turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. "You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands—and the Mare Nostrum—are dangerous?"

"Mary who?" Leo asked. 

"Mare Nostrum," Jason explained. "Our Sea. It's what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean."

Reyna nodded. "The territory that was once the Roman Empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It's also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans and giants...and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse."

"You said Alaska would be bad," Percy reminded her. "We survived that."

Reyna shook her head. Her fingernails cut little crescents into the apple as she turned it. "Percy, traveling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. It's been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would go there."

"Then we're good!" Leo grinned over the top of his pinwheel. "Because we're all crazy, right? Besides, the Argo II is a top-of-the-line warship. She'll get us through."

"We'll have to hurry," Jason added. "I don't know exactly what the giants are planning, but Gaea is growing more conscious all the time. She's invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. We have to stop the giants before they can wake her up fully."

Hadrian had had his fair share of nightmares about Gaea and getting chased by lumps of clay. Still in all this, he felt like an outsider. All the other demigods seemed to have groups and friendships of their own. And what did Hadrian have? A fake adoring Fanclub who was infatuated with him as long as they could see him.