"Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."
"He's the sun god," I said.
"That's not what I meant."
"Don't feel bad, I'm usually about to die."
"'God alert!' Blackjack yelled. 'It's the wine dude!' Mr. D sighed in exasperation. "The next person, or horse, who calls me the 'wine dude' will end up in a bottle of Merlot!"
"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.
"It only works on wild animals."
"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.
"You weren't able to talk sense into him?"
"Well, we kind of tried to kill each other in a duel to the death."
"I see. You tried the diplomatic approach."
"Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we're related for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum."
Jason scratched his head. "You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"
Leo: Rainbows. Very macho.
Annabeth: Butch is our best equestrian, he gets along great with the pegasi.
Leo: Rainbows, ponies...
Butch: I'm gonna toss you off this chariot.
"On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up."
"Very slowly using two fingers, Annabeth drew her dagger. Instead of dropping it, she tossed it as far as she could into the water.
Octavian made a squeaking sound. "What was that for? I didn't say tossit! That could've been evidence. Or spoils of war!"
Annabeth tried for a dumb-blonde smile, like: Oh, silly me.
Nobody who knew her would have been fooled. But Octavian seemed to buy it. He huffed in exasperation.
"You other two..." He pointed his blade a Hazel and Piper. "Put your weapons on the dock. No funny bus--"
All around the Romans, Charleston Harbor erupted like a Las Vegas fountain putting on a show. When the wall of seawater subsided, the three Romans were in the bay, spluttering and frantically trying to stay afloat in their armor. Percy stood on the dock, holding Annabeth's dagger.
"You dropped this," he said, totally poker-faced."
"Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies"
"Blackjack," Percy said, "this is Piper and Jason. They're friends." The horse nickered. "Uh, maybe later," Percy answered. Piper had heard that Percy could speak to horses, being the son of the horse lord Poseidon, but she'd never seen it in action.
"What does Blackjack want?" she asked.
"Donuts," Percy said. "Always donuts."
"Rachel: You're a half-blood, too?
Annabeth: Shhh! Just announce it to the world, how about?
Rachel: Okay. Hey, everybody! These two aren't human! They're half Greek god!...They don't seem to care."
