The Blood of Olympus Read Online Free PDF Page A

Why not join us? I gather these two serving girls are your friends? We will spare them. You wish to have your mother remain in the world? We can do that. You wish to be a king –’
    ‘No.’ Jason’s mind was spinning. ‘No, I don’t belong with you.’
    Michael Varus regarded him with cold eyes. ‘Are you so sure, my fellow praetor? Even if you defeat the giants and Gaia, would you return home like Odysseus did? Where
is
your home now? With the Greeks? With the Romans? No one will accept you. And,
if
you get back, who’s to say you won’t find ruins like this?’
    Jason scanned the palace courtyard. Without the illusory balconies and colonnades, there was nothing but a heap of rubble on a barren hilltop. Only the fountain seemed real, spewing forth sand like a reminder of Gaia’s limitless power.
    ‘You were a legion officer,’ he told Varus. ‘A leader of Rome.’
    ‘So were you,’ Varus said. ‘Loyalties change.’
    ‘You think I belong with
this
crowd?’ Jason asked. ‘A bunch of dead losers waiting for a free handout from Gaia, whining that the world owes them something?’
    Around the courtyard, ghosts and ghouls rose to their feet and drew weapons.
    ‘Beware!’ Piper yelled at the crowd. ‘Every man in this palace is your enemy. Each one will stab you in the back at the first chance!’
    Over the last few weeks, Piper’s charmspeak had become truly powerful. She spoke the truth, and the crowd believed her. They looked sideways at one another, hands clenching the hilts of their swords.
    Jason’s mother stepped towards him. ‘Dearest, be sensible. Give up your quest. Your
Argo II
could never make the trip to Athens. Even if it did, there’s the matter of the Athena Parthenos.’
    A tremor passed through him. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Don’t feign ignorance, my dearest. Gaia knows aboutyour friend Reyna and Nico the son of Hades and the satyr Hedge. To kill them, the Earth Mother has sent her most dangerous son – the hunter who never rests. But you don’t have to die.’
    The ghouls and ghosts closed in – two hundred of them facing Jason in anticipation, as if he might lead them in the national anthem.
    The hunter who never rests.
    Jason didn’t know who that was, but he had to warn Reyna and Nico.
    Which meant he had to get out of here alive.
    He looked at Annabeth and Piper. Both stood ready, waiting for his cue.
    He forced himself to meet his mother’s eyes. She looked like the same woman who’d abandoned him in the Sonoma woods fourteen years ago. But Jason wasn’t a toddler any more. He was a battle veteran, a demigod who’d faced death countless times.
    And what he saw in front of him wasn’t his mother – at least, not what his mother
should
be – caring, loving, selflessly protective.
    A remnant
, Annabeth had called her.
    Michael Varus had told him that the spirits here were sustained by their strongest desires. The spirit of Beryl Grace literally
glowed
with need. Her eyes demanded Jason’s attention. Her arms reached out, desperate to possess him.
    ‘What do you want?’ he asked. ‘What brought you here?’
    ‘I want life!’ she cried. ‘Youth! Beauty! Your father couldhave made me immortal. He could have taken me to Olympus, but he abandoned me. You can set things right, Jason. You are my proud warrior!’
    Her lemony scent turned acrid, as if she were starting to burn.
    Jason remembered something Thalia had told him. Their mother had become increasingly unstable, until her despair had driven her crazy. She had died in a car accident, the result of her driving while drunk.
    The watered wine in Jason’s stomach churned. He decided that if he lived through this day he would never drink alcohol again.
    ‘You’re a
mania
,’ Jason decided, the word coming to him from his studies at Camp Jupiter long ago. ‘A spirit of insanity. That’s what you’ve been reduced to.’
    ‘I am all that remains,’ Beryl Grace agreed. Her image flickered through a spectrum of