The Titan's Curse Read Online Free PDF Page B

were on guard duty, too. Even the weather seemed to bend to the goddess’s will. The air was still cold, but the wind died down and the snow stopped falling, so it was almost pleasant sitting by the fire.
    Almost . . . except for the pain in my shoulder and the guilt weighing me down. I couldn’t believe Annabeth was gone. And as angry as I was at Thalia, I had a sinking feeling that she was right. It was my fault.
    What had Annabeth wanted to tell me in the gym? Something serious , she’d said. Now I might never find out. I thought about how we’d danced together for half a song, and my heart felt even heavier.
    I watched Thalia pacing in the snow at the edge of camp, walking among the wolves without fear. She stopped and looked back at Westover Hall, which was now completely dark, looming on the hillside beyond the woods. I wondered what she was thinking.
    Seven years ago, Thalia had been turned into a pine tree by her father, to prevent her from dying. She’d stood her ground against an army of monsters on top of Half-Blood Hill in order to give her friends Luke and Annabeth time to escape. She’d only been back as a human for a few months now, and once in a while she would stand so motionless you’d think she was still a tree.
    Finally, one of the Hunters brought me my backpack. Grover and Nico came back from their walk, and Grover helped me fix up my wounded arm.
    â€œIt’s green!” Nico said with delight.
    â€œHold still,” Grover told me. “Here, eat some ambrosia while I clean that out.”
    I winced as he dressed the wound, but the ambrosia square helped. It tasted like homemade brownie, dissolving in my mouth and sending a warm feeling through my whole body. Between that and the magic salve Grover used, my shoulder felt better within a couple of minutes.
    Nico rummaged through his own bag, which the Hunters had apparently packed for him, though how they’d snuck into Westover Hall unseen, I didn’t know. Nico laid out a bunch of figurines in the snow—little battle replicas of Greek gods and heroes. I recognized Zeus with a lightning bolt, Ares with a spear, Apollo with his sun chariot.
    â€œBig collection,” I said.
    Nico grinned. “I’ve got almost all of them, plus their holographic cards! Well, except for a few really rare ones.”
    â€œYou’ve been playing this game a long time?”
    â€œJust this year. Before that . . .” He knit his eyebrows.
    â€œWhat?” I asked.
    â€œI forget. That’s weird.”
    He looked unsettled, but it didn’t last long. “Hey, can I see that sword you were using?”
    I showed him Riptide, and explained how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it.
    â€œCool! Does it ever run out of ink?”
    â€œUm, well, I don’t actually write with it.”
    â€œAre you really the son of Poseidon?”
    â€œWell, yeah.”
    â€œCan you surf really well, then?”
    I looked at Grover, who was trying hard not to laugh.
    â€œJeez, Nico,” I said. “I’ve never really tried.”
    He went on asking questions. Did I fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn’t answer that one.) If Annabeth’s mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn’t Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff ? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Annabeth my girlfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)
    I figured any second he was going to ask me how many hit points I had, and I’d lose my cool completely, but then Zoë Nightshade came up to us.
    â€œPercy Jackson.”
    She had dark brown eyes and a slightly upturned nose. With her silver circlet and her proud expression, she looked so much like royalty that I had to resist the urge to sit up straight and say “Yes, ma’am.” She studied me distastefully, like