cupiditas |PERCY JACKSON| [book 3]

VIII

SELENA SMILED AS SHE LOOKED AROUND the lightly snow-covered camp. Frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they seemed to be balls of real fire. More lights glowed in the woods, and weirdest of all, a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle dwelt, imprisoned in an old mummified body.

"Whoa," Nico said as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"

"Yeah," Selena smiled,

"Why is there lava pouring down it?"

"Little extra challenge." She smirked,

Percy stepped down beside them, "Come on. I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoe, have you met—"

"I know Chiron," Zoe said stiffly. "Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me."

"I'll show you the way," Grover offered.

"We know the way."

"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here, if you don't"—he tripped over a canoe and came up still talking—"like my old daddy goat used to say! Come on!"

Zoe rolled her eyes, but Selena guessed she figured there was no getting rid of Grover. The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. As Bianca di Angelo was leaving, she leaned over and whispered something in her brothers ear. She looked at him for an answer, but Nico just scowled and turned away.

"Take care, sweethearts!" Apollo called after the Hunters. He winked at Percy. "Watch out for those prophecies, Percy. I'll see you soon."

"What do you mean?"

Instead of answering, he hopped back in the bus. "Later, Thalia," he called. "And, uh, be good!" He gave her a wicked smile, as if he knew something she didn't.

"And Selena Madison, until we meet again." He smiled at her.

Then he closed the doors and revved the engine. Selena turned aside as the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. When she looked back, the lake was steaming. A red Maserati soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight.

Nico was still looking grumpy. She wondered what his sister had told him.

"Who's Chiron?" he asked. "I don't have his figurine."

"Our activities director," Percy answered, "He's... well, you'll see.

"If those Hunter girls don't like him," Nico grumbled, "that's good enough for me. Let's go."

Selena spotted Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin stoking the forge outside the camp armory. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, from the Hermes cabin, were picking the lock on the camp store. A few kids from the Ares cabin were having a snowball fight with the wood nymphs at the edge of the forest. That was about it.