Kyra Pafford has been at Camp-Half Blood for three months. The gates to Olympus have closed and she has yet to be claimed. When three demigods show up to Camp Half-Blood, everything begins to change. She finally gets her chance to prove herself to t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
PORPHYRION WAS EVEN TALLER, and even more ripped. He didn't radiate heat, or show any signs of breathing fire, but there was something more terrible about him—a kind of strength, even magnetism, as if the giant were so huge and dense he had his own gravitational field.
Like Enceladus, the Giant King was humanoid from the waist up, clad in bronze armor, and from the waist down he had scaly dragon's legs; but his skin was the color of lima beans. His hair was green as summer leaves, braided in long locks and decorated with weapons—daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of them bent and bloody—maybe trophies taken from demigods eons before. When the giant opened his eyes, they were blank white, like polished marble. He took a deep breath.
"Alive!" he bellowed. "Praise to Gaea!"
Jason made a heroic little whimpering sound he hoped his friends couldn't hear. He was very sure no demigod could solo this guy. Porphyrion could lift mountains. He could crush Jason with one finger, "Leo," Jason said.
"Huh?" Leo's mouth was wide open. Even Kyra and Piper seemed dazed.
"You guys keep working," Jason told them, "Get Hera free!"
"What are you going to do?" Piper asked. "You can't seriously—"
"Entertain a giant?" Jason said. "I've got no choice."
Kyra stepped up next to him and squeezed his hand, "We've got no choice." She looked up at him, "I'm not letting you do this alone."
"Excellent!" the giant roared as Jason approached. "Appetizers! Who are you—Hermes? Ares?"
Jason thought about going with that idea, but something told him not to. "I'm Jason Grace," he said. "Son of Jupiter."
Kyra raised her chin, "And I'm Kyra Pafford. Daughter of Apollo." Another arrow appeared in her hand. Jason knew she was ready to fight.
Those white eyes bored into them. Behind them, Leo's circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus, Apollo, you sacrifice your children to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."
The sky didn't even rumble. No help from above. They were on their own.
Jason dropped his makeshift club. His hands were covered in splinters, but that didn't matter now. He had to buy Leo and Piper some time, and he couldn't do that without a proper weapon. It was time to act a whole lot more confident than he felt.
"If you knew who I was," Jason yelled up at the giant, "you'd be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."
