DON'T BLAME ME! (p. jackson) (#2) (ON HOLD)

- five

IF WEAPONS HAD BEEN ALLOWED IN THE CITY, ROSE'S FRIENDS WOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEAD.

the roman demigods in the forum had coalesced into an angry mob. some threw plates, food, and rocks at the argo ii, which was pointless, as most of the stuff fell back into the crowd.

several dozen romans had surrounded piper and jason, who were trying to calm them without much luck. piper's charmspeak was useless against so many screaming, angry demigods. jason's forehead was bleeding. his purple cloak had been ripped to shreds. he kept pleading, "i'm on your side!" but his orange camp half-blood shirt didn't help matters—nor did the warship overhead, firing flaming spears into new rome. one landed nearby and blasted a toga shop to rubble.

"pluto's pauldrons," reyna cursed. "look."

armed legionnaires were hurrying toward the forum. two artillery crews had set up catapults just outside the pomerian line and were preparing to fire at the argo ii.

"that'll just make things worse," rose said.

"i hate my job," reyna growled. she rushed off toward the legionnaires, her dogs at her side.

percy, rose thought, scanning the forum desperately. where are you?

two romans tried to grab her. she ducked past them, plunging into the crowd. as if the angry romans, burning couches, and exploding buildings weren't confusing enough, hundreds of purple ghosts drifted through the forum, passing straight through the demigods' bodies and wailing incoherently. the fauns had also taken advantage of the chaos. they swarmed the dining tables, grabbing food, plates, and cups. one trotted by rose with his arms full of tacos and an entire pineapple between his teeth.

a statue of terminus exploded into being, right in front of rose. he yelled at her in latin, no doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker; but she pushed the statue over and kept running.

finally she spotted percy. he and his friends, hazel and frank, along with annabeth, were standing in the middle of a fountain as percy repelled the angry romans with blasts of water. percy's toga was in tatters, but he looked unhurt.

rose called to him as another explosion rocked the forum. this time the flash of light was directly overhead. one of the roman catapults had fired, and the argo ii groaned and tilted sideways, flames bubbling over its bronze-plated hull.

rose noticed a figure clinging desperately to the rope ladder, trying to climb down. it was octavian, his robes steaming and his face black with soot.

over by the fountain, percy blasted the roman mob with more water. rose ran toward him, ducking a roman fist and a flying plate of sandwiches.

"rose!" percy called. "what—?"

"i don't know!" she yelled.

"i'll tell you what!" cried a voice from above. octavian had reached the bottom of the ladder. "the greeks have fired on us! your boy leo has trained his weapons on rome!"

rose's chest filled with liquid hydrogen. she felt like she might shatter into a million frozen pieces.

"you're lying," she said. "leo would never—"

"i was just there!" octavian shrieked. "i saw it with my own eyes!"

the argo ii returned fire. legionnaires in the field scattered as one of their catapults was blasted to splinters.

"you see?" octavian screamed.

rose was about to snap back at him when someone shoved her from behind, causing her to fall flat on her face.