Your Loyalty to Me

Why Did I Have to Fall in Love With the Most Powerful Being in The World?

Apollo's POV

'We've been towed,' Piper announced casually, as if this was a regular occurrence for her.

She returned to the school's front office. A few minutes later, she emerged from the front gates driving Edgarton's green-and-gold van.

She rolled down the window. 'Hey, kids. Want to go on a field trip?'

As we pulled away, Jason glanced nervously in the passenger-side rear-view mirror, perhaps worried the security guard would give chase and demand we get signed permission slips before leaving campus to kill a Roman emperor. But no one followed us.

'Where to?' Piper asked when we reached the highway.

'Santa Barbara,' Jason said.

Piper frowned, as if this answer was only slightly more surprising than Uzbekistan. 'Okay.'

Next to me in the back seat, between me and Aria, Meg drummed her fingers on her knees. 'How much further?'

'About two hours,' Jason said, dashing my hopes. 'Northwest, along the coast. We're going to Stearns Wharf.'

Piper turned to him. 'You've been there?'

'I ... Yeah. Just scouting the place with Tempest.'

'Tempest?' I asked.

'His horse,' Aria explained. Piper turned to Jason: 'You went scouting there alone?'

'Well, Tempest is a ventus,' Jason said, ignoring Piper's question.

Meg stopped drumming her knees. 'Like those windy things Medea had?'

'Except Tempest is friendly,' Jason said. 'I kind of ... not tamed him, exactly, but we made friends. He'll show up when I call, usually, and let me ride him.'

'A wind horse.' Meg pondered the idea, no doubt weighing its merits against her own demonic diaper-wearing peach baby. 'I guess that's cool.'

'Back to the question,' Piper said. 'Why did you decide to scout Stearns Wharf?'

Jason looked so uncomfortable I feared he might blow out the van's electrical systems.

'The Sibyl,' he said at last. 'She told me I would find Caligula there. It's one of the places where he stops.'

Piper tilted her head. 'Where he stops?'

'His palace isn't a palace, exactly,' Jason said. 'We're looking for a boat.'

My stomach dropped out and took the nearest exit back towards Palm Springs. 'Ah,' I said. I looked over at Aria to see if she had gotten it too.
She did. Her eyes widened and mouthed an "o".

'Ah?' Meg asked me. 'Ah, what?'

'Ah, that makes sense,' I said. 'In ancient times, Caligula was notorious for his pleasure barges - huge floating palaces with bathhouses, theatres, rotating statues, racetracks, thousands of slaves ...'

'Anyway,' Aria continued, breaking off my trail of thoughts, 'that explains why you've had trouble locating him. He can move from harbour to harbour at will.'

'Yeah,' Jason agreed. 'When I scouted, he wasn't there. I guess the Sibyl meant I'd find him at Stearns Wharf when I was supposed to find him. Which, I guess, is today.' He shifted in his seat, leaning as far away as possible from Piper. 'Speaking of the Sibyl ... there's another detail I didn't share with you about the prophecy.'

He told Piper the truth about the three-letter word that began with D and was not dog.

She took the news surprisingly well. She did not hit him. She didn't raise her voice. She merely listened, then remained silent for another mile or so.