The Shadow Summoner | Book Three - PJO Universe

one

TROUBLE GETTING TO CAMP JUPITER

Have you ever been dead before?

Ariana has, well technically twice. The first time was when she was fifteen years old, just before the battle of the labyrinth.

She and Percy were attempting to try and get Hephaestus one of his old workshops back. Somehow she and Percy managed to blow up the volcano and everybody thought they had died.

For two weeks the pair had disappeared. In that time Ariana had seen her mother as well as grabbed Percy off of Calypso's island.

All was well and good - they crashed their own funerals and headed back into the labyrinth.

The second time being dead was not as fun.

Ariana had the luxury of watching all of her friends believing she was dead, the worst part? Having to watch their whole world crumble around them and not being able to doing anything to stop it.

The news of her death quickly spread around the two Camps - something which would make Ariana returning to the world of living very very annoying.

She had no doubt that like Leo, they'd all want to punch, kick and possibly kill her.

She didn't fancy being dead for a third time and she suspected that time would be permanent.

Another luxury Ariana had was watching Apollo and Meg fly over to Camp Jupiter (though she wished they had taken her to Camp HalfBlood first, but she was dead. Her opinion didn't matter) with her dead body.

How fun!!

Apollo apparently believed in returning dead bodies.

When it came to Ariana Parker, his fallen friend and lover, he wasn't going to leave anything to chance.

He would personally escort his coffin to Camp Jupiter and see her off with full honors.

That turned out to be a good call. What with the ghouls attacking them and everything.

Sunset turned San Francisco Bay into a cauldron of molten copper as their private plane landed at Oakland Airport.

They say their private plane; the chartered trip was actually a parting gift from their friend Piper McLean and her movie star father. (Everyone should have at least one friend with a movie star parent.)

Waiting for them beside the runway was another surprise the McLeans must have arranged: a gleaming black hearse.

Meg McCaffrey and Apollo stretched their legs on the tarmac while the ground crew somberly removed Ariana's coffin (Ariana wondered how dead she looked) from the Cessna's storage bay.

The polished mahogany box seemed to glow in the evening light. Its brass fixtures glinted red. Apollo hated how beautiful it was.

Death shouldn't be beautiful but then again Ariana, daughter of the king and queen of the dead realm, was beautiful.

It was beauty like Apollo had never seen before.

The crew loaded it into the hearse, then transferred their luggage to the backseat. They didn't have much: Meg's backpack and Apollo's, his bow and quiver and ukulele, and a couple of T-shirts they'd inherited from Ariana.

Ariana just hoped they wouldn't ruin her shirts. Especially Meg, who always seemed to spill everything on her clothes.

Apollo signed some paperwork, accepted the flight crew's condolences, then shook hands with a nice undertaker who handed Apollo the keys to the hearse and walked away.