Trials of Apollo: Different Perspectives

Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle: Chapters 30-33

Meg stared at the ground, unwilling to witness Apollo's face as she told him the truth. "The Beast killed my father. This is Nero. He's - he's my stepfather."

She grimaced toward the ground as Nero spoke his next words. "That's right, my darling. And you've done a wonderful job. Come to Papa."

Meg continued to stare at the ground. She couldn't bring herself to move - couldn't bring herself to stare Apollo in the eye.

"Meg, we are friends." Apollo's voice was petulant. Meg avoided his gaze. "How could you do this to me?"

She forced down the bile in her throat, examining her shoes like they were the most interesting thing in the world. "I tried to tell you, to warn you."

"She has a good heart," Nero said in a way that made Meg want to punch him. Wait - punch Nero? No, she was helping him. Wasn't she? "But, Apollo, you and Meg have been friends for just a few days - and only because I asked Meg to befriend you. I have been Meg's stepfather, protector, and caretaker for years. She is a member of the Imperial Household."

Meg felt a tear slide down her cheek. Why was she so conflicted? The answer was simple: she was loyal to Nero.

"I risked my life for you!" Apollo sounded mostly in shock. "And that actually means something, because I can die!"

Meg smirked through her tears. Leave it to Apollo to complain about his mortality at a time like this.

Nero clapped. Again, Meg felt her hands curl into fists. "We're all impressed, Apollo. Now, if you'd open the gates. They've defied me for too long."

Meg looked up as she felt Apollo's weak glare hit her. His heart clearly wasn't in it, and he quickly looked away and examined the oak tree gates.

"Nero, what have you done?" Apollo asked, his voice shaken and decidedly un-godly. Then again, he was all un-godly now.

"Oh, a number of things!" Meg's stepfather said cheerfully. "We found a way into this antechamber weeks ago. The Labyrinth has a convenient opening in the myrmekes' nest. But getting through these gates -"

"You forced the palikos to help you?" Apollo asked, clearly scandalized. "You used a nature spirit to destroy nature? Meg, how can you tolerate this?"

There it was again. He was using her guilt against her, trying to get her to help him. And . . . it was working.

Peaches growled at her side. Meg wondered who he was growling at: Apollo or Nero. She kind of hoped it was Nero, though she hated the admission.

"Come now," Nero said. "Meg knows there are good nature spirits, and bad ones. This geyser god was annoying. He kept asking us to fill out surveys. Besides, he shouldn't have ventured so far from his source of power. He was quite easy to capture. His steam, as you can see, didn't do us much good anyway."

"And the five demigods?" Apollo demanded, his voice practically shaking with fury. "Did you 'use' them too?"

"Of course. I didn't plan on luring them here, but every time we attacked the gates, the grove started wailing. I suppose it was a call for help, and the demigods couldn't resist. The first to wander in was this one." Nero pointed to Cecil Markowitz - or at least Meg thought that was her name. "The last two were your own children - Austin and Kayla, yes? They showed up after we forced Paulie to steam-broil the trees. I guess the grove was quite nervous about that attempt. We got two demigods for the price of one."

Meg cringed. How was this really her stepfather?

Apollo let out a scream. He charged at Nero, and tripped over a bone lying on the floor.