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the hunters piled into the van.
they all crammed into the back so they'd be as far away as possible from apollo and the rest of the highly infectious males. bianca sat with them, leaving her little brother to hang in the front with us, which seemed cold to me, but nico didn't seem to mind. he actually seemed excited.
"this is so cool!" nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "is this really the sun? i thought helios and selene were the sun and moon gods. how come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and artemis?"
"downsizing," apollo said. "the romans started it. they couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices,so they laid off helios and selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. my sis got the moon. i got the sun. it was pretty annoying at first, but at least i got this cool car."
"but how does it work?" nico asked. "i thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"
apollo chuckled and ruffled nico's hair. "that rumor probably got started because artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. you want to talk astronomy? bah, what fun is that? you want to talk about how humans think about the sun? ah, now that's more interesting. they've got a lot riding on the sun... er, so to speak. it keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. this chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. it's as old as western civilization. every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. the chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. make sense?"
nico shook his head. "no."
"well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car."
"can i drive?"
"no. too young."
"oo! oo!" grover raised his hand.
"mm, no," apollo said. "too furry." he looked at me. "ever driven a bus?" he asked me.
