Percy Jackson's Greek Gods Read Online Free PDF Page A

heard that (surprise, surprise) Rhea was expecting their first child, he tried to convince himself everything was fine. He was happy! He would never be a bad father like Ouranos. It didn’t matter if the baby was a boy Titan or a girl Titan. Kronos would love him or her and forget all about that old curse.
    Then the kid was born—a beautiful baby girl.
    Rhea had been secretly worried her child might turn out to be a Cyclops or a Hundred-Handed One. Maybe Kronos had been stressing about that, too. But nope. The child was perfect.
    In fact, she was a little too perfect.
    Rhea named her Hestia. She swaddled the baby in soft blankets and showed her to her proud papa. At first, Kronos smiled. The kid was not a monster—sweet! But as he tickled her chin and looked into her eyes and made the usual cute goo-goo noises, Kronos realized Hestia wasn’t exactly a Titan.
    She was smaller than a Titan baby, but heavier and perfectly proportioned. Her eyes were much too intelligent for a newborn. She radiated power. With Kronos’s understanding of time, he could easily envision what this girl would look like when she grew up. She would be smaller than a Titan, but capable of great things. She would surpass any Titan at whatever she chose to do.
    Hestia was like an improved version of the Titans—Titan 2.0, the Next Big Thing. In fact, she wasn’t a Titan at all. She was a goddess —the first member of an entirely new branch of immortal evolution.
    Looking at her, Kronos felt like an old cell phone staring at the latest model smartphone. He knew his days were numbered.
    His proud papa smile faded. This kid could not be allowed to grow up, or the prophecy of Ouranos would come true. Kronos had to act fast. He knew Rhea would never agree to have her child killed, and she’d brought those stupid lions with her as usual. He couldn’t have a fight in the throne room. Besides, he couldn’t reach for his scythe while holding the baby. He had to get rid of Hestia immediately and irreversibly.
    He opened his mouth—super, super wide, wider than he even realized he could. His lower jaw was hinged like on one of those massive snakes that can eat a cow. He stuffed Hestia in his mouth and swallowed her whole.
    Just like: GULP. She was gone.
    As you can imagine, Rhea completely freaked.
    “My baby!” she screamed. “You—you just—”
    “Oh, wow.” Kronos belched. “My bad. Sorry.”
    Rhea’s eyes bugged out. She screamed some more. She would have launched herself at Kronos and pummeled him with her fists, or ordered her lions to attack, but she was afraid of hurting the baby that was now stuck inside him.
    “Cough her up!” Rhea demanded.
    “Can’t,” Kronos said. “I have this super-strong stomach. Once something goes down, it doesn’t come back up.”
    “How could you swallow her?” she shouted. “That was our child!”
    “Yeah, about that…” Kronos tried to look apologetic. “Listen, babe, it wasn’t going to work out with that kid.”
    “Work out?”
    “There was this curse.” Kronos told her what Ouranos had prophesied. “I mean, come on, sweetcakes! That baby wasn’t even a proper Titan. She was trouble, I could tell! The next kid will be better, I’m sure.”
    This sounded perfectly reasonable to Kronos, but for some reason Rhea wasn’t satisfied. She stormed off in a rage.
    You’d think Rhea would never forgive him. I mean, your husband eats your firstborn child like a slider hamburger….Your typical mother isn’t going to forget that.
    But Rhea’s situation was complicated.
    First, Kronos had swallowed the baby Hestia whole. Hestia, like her parents, was technically immortal. She couldn’t die, even inside her father’s stomach. Gross in there? Yes. A little claustrophobic? You bet. But fatal? No.
    She’s still alive, Rhea consoled herself. I can find a way to get her back.
    That calmed her down a little, though she didn’t have a plan. She couldn’t use force to get her way. Rhea was a gentle