The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

sixteen

ZOËS FAMILY

"We will never make it," Zoe said, "we are moving too slow. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus."

"Moo." Bessie said.

He swam next to them as they jogged along the waterfront. They had left the shopping center pier far behind.

They were heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was a lot farther than Ariana realised. The sun was already dipping in the west.

"I don't get it." Percy said. "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

"The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset." Zoe said. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"What happens if we miss it?"

"Tomorrow is winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening. And by then, the Olympian Council will be over. We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

Or Annabeth will be dead, Ariana thought, but she didn't say that.

"We need a car." Thalia said.

"But what about Bessie?" Ariana asked.

Grover stopped in his tracks. "I've got an idea. The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?"

"Well, yeah." Percy said. "I mean, he was in Long Island Sound. Then he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam. And now he's here."

"So maybe we could coax him back to Long Island Sound." Grover said. "Then Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

"But he was following us." Percy said. "If we are not there, would he know where he's going?"

"Moo." Bessie said forlornly.

"I... I can show him." Grover said. "I'll go with him."

Ariana stared at him. Grover was no fan of the water.

He'd almost drowned last summer in the Sea of Monsters, and he couldn't swim very well with his goat hooves.

"I'm the only one who can talk to him." Grover said. "It makes sense."

He bent down and said something in Bessie's ear. Bessie shivered, then made a contented, lowing sound.

"The blessing of the Wild." Grover said. "That should help with safe passage. Percy, pray to your dad, too. See if he will grant us safe passage through the seas."

Ariana didn't understand how they could possibly swim back to Long Island from California.

Then again, monsters didn't travel the same way as humans. She had seen plenty evidence of that.

"Dad." Percy said. "Help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp. Protect them at
sea."

"A prayer like that needs a sacrifice." Thalia said. "Something big."

Percy thought for a second. Then he took off
his coat.

"Percy." Grover said. "Are you sure? That lion skin... that's really helpful. Hercules used it!"

As soon as he said that, Ariana realised something.

She glanced at Zoe, who was watching Percy carefully. She realised she did know who Zoe's hero had been- the one who'd ruined her life, gotten her kicked out of her family, and never even mentioned how she'd helped him: Hercules.

"If I'm going to survive," Percy said, "it won't be because I've got a lion-skin cloak. I'm not
Hercules."

He threw the coat into the bay. It turned back into a golden lion skin, flashing in the light.