The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries Read Online Free PDF Page B

today, Hal typed.
    “That’s—that’s good, right?” she asked. “Why do you look so sad?”
    Hal stared at the blinking cursor. He typed, Someday soon, you will sacrifice yourself to save your friends. I see things that are…hard to describe. Years of solitude. You will stand tall and still, alive but sleeping. You will change once, and then change again. Your path will be sad and lonely. But someday you will find your family again.
    Thalia clenched her fists. She started to speak, then paced the room. Finally she slammed her palm against the bookshelves. “That doesn’t make any sense . I’ll sacrifice myself, but I’ll live. Changing, sleeping? You call that a future? I—I don’t even have a family. Just my mom, and there’s no way I’m going back to her.”
    Hal pursed his lips. He typed, I’m sorry. I don’t control what I see. But I didn’t mean your mother.
    Thalia almost backed up into the drapes. She caught herself just in time, but she looked dizzy, as if she’d just stepped off a roller coaster.
    “Thalia?” I asked, as gently as I could. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”
    She gave me a cornered look. I didn’t understand why she seemed so rattled. I knew she didn’t like to talk about her life back in L.A., but she’d told me she was an only child, and she’d never mentioned any relatives beside her mom.
    “It’s nothing,” she said at last. “Forget it. Hal’s fortune-telling skills are rusty.”
    I’m pretty sure not even Thalia believed that.
    “Hal,” I said, “there’s got to be more. You told us that Thalia will survive. How? Did you see anything about the bracelet? Or the goat? We need something that will help.”
    He shook his head sadly. He typed, I saw nothing about the bracelet. I’m sorry. I know a little about Amaltheia the goat, but I doubt it will help. The goat nursed Zeus when he was a baby. Later, Zeus slew her and used her skin to make his shield—the aegis.
    I scratched my chin. I was pretty sure that was the story I’d been trying to remember earlier about the goat’s hide. It seemed important, though I couldn’t figure out why. “So Zeus killed his own mama goat. Typical god thing to do. Thalia, you know anything about the shield?”
    She nodded, clearly relieved to change the subject. “Athena put the head of Medusa on the front of it and had the whole thing covered in Celestial bronze. She and Zeus took turns using it in battle. It would frighten away their enemies.”
    I didn’t see how the information could help. Obviously, the goat Amaltheia had come back to life. That happened a lot with mythological monsters—they eventually re-formed from the pit of Tartarus. But why had Amaltheia led us here?
    A bad thought occurred to me. If I’d been skinned by Zeus, I definitely wouldn’t be interested in helping him anymore. In fact, I might have a vendetta against Zeus’s children. Maybe that’s why Amaltheia had brought us to the mansion.
    Hal Green held out his hands to me. His grim expression told me it was my turn for a fortune-telling.
    A wave of dread washed over me. After hearing Thalia’s future, I didn’t want to know mine. What if she survived, and I didn’t? What if we both survived, but Thalia sacrificed herself to save me somewhere down the line, like Hal had mentioned? I couldn’t bear that.
    “Don’t, Luke,” Thalia said bitterly. “The gods were right. Hal’s prophecies don’t help anybody.”
    The old man blinked his watery eyes. His hands were so frail, it was hard to believe he carried the blood of an immortal god. He had told us his curse would end today, one way or another. He’d foreseen Thalia surviving. If he saw anything in my future that would help, I had to try.
    I gave him my hands.
    Hal took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His snakeskin jacket glistened as if it were trying to shed. I forced myself to stay calm.
    I could feel Hal’s pulse in my fingers—one, two, three.
    His eyes flew open. He