ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

65

KAT HAD BEEN examining the mostly healed wound on her head — mostly because she was still sulking over not being allowed to explore Rome, but she was also tired of watching Jason and Piper pace.

Once she'd come out of the bathroom, though, she was met with Jason with a blanket tucked under his arm.

"Hi," he smiled at her.

"Hey," she said, a little confused. "What's up?"

"We're gonna have a picnic," he explained. "Piper's asking for permission from Hedge right now. Do you want to come with us?"

"Yikes." She shrugged, but she started going up the stairs anyway. "Sure."

"Stay where I can see you," Hedge was telling Piper as Kat and Jason emerged from the stairs.

"What are we, kids?" called Kat.

Hedge snorted. "Kids are baby goats. They're cute, and they have redeeming social value. You are definitely not kids."

They spread their blanket under a willow tree next to a pond. Piper turned over her cornucopia and spilled out an entire meal — neatly wrapped sandwiches, canned drinks, fresh fruit, and ( for some reason ) a birthday cake with purple icing and candles already lit.

Piper frowned. "Is it someone's birthday?"

"Don't look at me," said Kat. "Mine's on Christmas Eve."

Jason winced. "I wasn't going to say anything."

"Jason!" Piper protested. Kat swatted his arm in agreement.

"There's too much going on," he said. "And honestly . . . before last month, I didn't even know when my birthday was. Thalia told me the last time she was at camp."

"Well, at least your birthday isn't Christmas Eve," commented Kat. "Then we would've had a problem."

"July First," Piper mused. "The Kalends of July."

"Yeah." Jason smirked. "The Romans would find that auspicious — the first day of the month named for Julius Caesar. Juno's sacred day. Yippee."

"Sixteen?" she asked.

He nodded. "Oh, boy. I can get my driver's license."

"And have you ever driven a day in your life?" Kat drawled.

"No . . ." Jason said, but then he looked at her meaningfully. "But you could teach me."

"I can't, legally."

"And since when have you cared about the law?"

Kat stared at him for a really long moment. Then she said, "fine, you win. Now, blow out your fucking candles."

Jason did, and Kat realized that he looked more . . . present. Since they'd left the Pillars of Hercules yesterday evening, he'd seemed distracted. She couldn't blame him. Hercules had been a pretty huge disappointment as a big brother, and the old river god Achelous had said some unflattering things about the sons of Jupiter. She knew some things about having a shitty big brother.

She nearly grimaced at the thought, but she forced herself to keep that in her head.

Ugh, don't think about Luke now, she thought. That was probably a bad sign of what was coming. She always found thinking of him brought bad shit around.

Jason plucked an extinguished candle from his cake. "I've been thinking."

Kat heavily resisted the urge to say, you can think? That was more of a Travis and Connor comment, anyway. They share half a braincell between them. Maybe Leo, but he's smart. He's just also stupid, but he's also smart. Stupid smart.