𝗚𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗘! 𝙥. 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 ¹

Swiper, No Swiping!

CHAPTER ELEVEN: LYDIA

The tacos were awesome, but Lydia couldn't enjoy them when Percy was potentially getting mauled by Ares in front of a shiny limo.

Luckily, that wasn't the case.

"You met Aphrodite?" Lydia asked in disbelief, once Percy had told them everything. "What did she say?"

"Oh, uh, not sure," he lied. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard, and not to pick anything up."

Lydia narrowed her eyes. She called bull. Percy was a terrible liar, and it didn't help that he was going out of his way to avoid eye contact with her. His cheeks were tinged pink.

Zoe seemed to be thinking along the same lines because she said, "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."

"For once I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

Lydia rolled her eyes. They were Hunters, of course they would think that, but it didn't explain why Thalia thought that too.

Lydia noticed Grover was looking at her and Percy funny. She raised a brow in his direction, and he let out a very obviously fake cough.

She didn't know what that was about, so she asked him, "Why are you looking at me like that—"

"So," Percy said, cutting her off. "How do we get out of here?"

He didn't exactly trust Grover to keep his mouth shut. But then again, he didn't know if Grover knew anything. This empathy link was proving to be trouble.

"That way," Zoe said. "That is west."

"How can you tell?"

In the light of the full moon, Lydia was surprised how well she could see her roll her eyes at Percy.

"Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west."

She pointed west, then at the northern constellation, which was hard to make out because there were so many other stars.

"Oh, yeah," Percy said. "The bear thing."

Zoe looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

"You act like it was real."

"Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!"

They'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

"Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff... some of it looks like real gold."

"It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."

"Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side, as if it had been split by an axe. "You call this junk?" He bit off a point and began to chew. "It's delicious!"

Thalia swatted the crown out of his hands. "I'm serious!"

Lydia looked around, wondering how much this stuff would sell for on eBay. She didn't see anything that she particularly wanted to keep until a gleam of bronze caught her eye.

At first, Lydia brushed it off, thinking her eyes were playing tricks on her but when she looked again, it was there. Her ring, the one she'd lost on Polyphemus' island.