by Rick Riordan
‘Unbelievable,’ said the girl. ‘I want to strangle him.’
Assuming she meant me, I hunkered down a little more.
Her dad sighed. ‘We should probably avoid killing him. He is your uncle.’
‘But two years?’ the girl demanded. ‘Dad, how could he not tell us for two years?’
‘I can’t explain Randolph’s actions. I never could, Annabeth.’
I inhaled so sharply I was afraid they would hear me. A scab was ripped off my brain, exposing raw memories from when I was six years old.
Annabeth. Which meant the sandy-haired man was … Uncle Frederick?
I flashed back to the last family Thanksgiving we’d shared: Annabeth and me hiding in the library at Uncle Randolph’s town house, playing with dominoes while the adults yelled at each other downstairs.
You’re lucky you live with your momma. Annabeth stacked another domino on her miniature building. It was amazingly good, with columns in front like a temple. I’m going to run away.
I had no doubt she meant it. I was in awe of her confidence.
Then Uncle Frederick appeared in the doorway. His fists were clenched. His grim expression was at odds with the smiling reindeer on his sweater. Annabeth, we’re leaving.
Annabeth looked at me. Her grey eyes were a little too fierce for a first-grader’s. Be safe, Magnus.
With a flick of her finger, she knocked over her domino temple.
That was the last time I’d seen her.
Afterwards, my mom had been adamant: We’re staying away from your uncles. Especially Randolph. I won’t give him what he wants. Ever.
She wouldn’t explain what Randolph wanted, or what she and Frederick and Randolph had argued about.
You have to trust me, Magnus. Being around them … it’s too dangerous.
I trusted my mom. Even after her death, I hadn’t had any contact with my relatives.
Now, suddenly, they were looking for me.
Randolph lived in town, but, as far as I knew, Frederick and Annabeth still lived in Virginia. Yet here they were, passing out flyers with my name and photo on them. Where had they even got a photo of me?
My head buzzed so badly that I missed some of their conversation.
‘– to find Magnus,’ Uncle Frederick was saying. He checked his smartphone. ‘Randolph is at the city shelter in the South End. He says no luck. We should try the youth shelter across the park.’
‘How do we even know Magnus is alive?’ Annabeth asked miserably. ‘Missing for two years? He could be frozen in a ditch somewhere!’
Part of me was tempted to jump out of my hiding place and shout, TA-DA!
Even though it had been ten years since I’d seen Annabeth, I didn’t like seeing her distressed. But after so long on the streets I’d learned the hard way: you never walk into a situation until you understand what’s going on.
‘Randolph is sure Magnus is alive,’ said Uncle Frederick. ‘He’s somewhere in Boston. If his life is truly in danger …’
They set off towards Charles Street, their voices carried away by the wind.
I was shivering now, but it wasn’t from the cold. I wanted to run after Frederick, tackle him and demand to hear what was going on. How did Randolph know I was still in town? Why were they looking for me? How was my life in danger now more than on any other day?
But I didn’t follow them.
I remembered the last thing my mom ever told me. I’d been reluctant to use the fire escape, reluctant to leave her, but she’d gripped my arms and made me look at her. Magnus, run. Hide. Don’t trust anyone. I’ll find you. Whatever you do, don’t go to Randolph for help.
Then, before I’d made it out of the window, the door of our apartment had burst into splinters. Two pairs of glowing blue eyes had emerged from the darkness …
I shook off the memory and watched Uncle Frederick and Annabeth walk away, veering east towards the Common.
Uncle Randolph … For some reason, he’d contacted Frederick and Annabeth. He’d got them to Boston. All this time, Frederick and Annabeth hadn’t known that my mom was dead and I was missing. It seemed impossible, but, if it were true, why would Randolph tell them about it now?
Without confronting him directly, I could think of only one way to get answers. His town house was in Back Bay, an easy walk from here. According to Frederick, Randolph wasn’t home. He was somewhere in the South End, looking for me.
Since nothing started a day better than a little breaking and entering, I decided to pay his place a visit.
THE ADVENTURE NEVER STOPS …
THE GREEK GODS ARE ALIVE AND KICKING!
They still fall in love with mortals and bear children with immortal blood in their veins. When Percy Jackson learns he’s the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, he must travel to Camp Half-Blood – a secret base dedicated to the training of young demigods.
The Percy Jackson series:
PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF
PERCY JACKSON AND THE SEA OF MONSTERS
PERCY JACKSON AND THE TITAN’S CURSE
PERCY JACKSON AND THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH
PERCY JACKSON AND THE LAST OLYMPIAN
THE DEMIGOD FILES
PERCY JACKSON AND THE GREEK GODS
PERCY JACKSON AND THE GREEK HEROES
PERCY JACKSON IS BACK!
Percy and his old friends from Camp Half-Blood join forces with new Roman demigods from Camp Jupiter for a deadly new mission: to prevent the all-powerful Earth Mother, Gaia, from awakening from her millennia-long sleep to bring about the end of the world.
The Heroes of Olympus series:
THE LOST HERO
THE SON OF NEPTUNE
THE MARK OF ATHENA
THE HOUSE OF HADES
THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS
THE DEMIGOD DIARIES
AN OLYMPIAN HAS FALLEN!
The god Apollo has been cast down from Olympus in the body of a teenage boy. With the help of friends like Percy Jackson and familiar faces from Camp Half-Blood, he must complete a series of harrowing trials to save the world from a dangerous new enemy.
The Trials of Apollo series:
THE HIDDEN ORACLE
THE GODS OF EGYPT AWAKEN!
When an explosion shatters the ancient Rosetta Stone and unleashes Set, the Egyptian god of chaos, only Carter and Sadie Kane can save the day. Their quest takes the pair around the globe in a battle against the gods of Ancient Egypt.
The Kane Chronicles series:
THE RED PYRAMID
THE THRONE OF FIRE
THE SERPENT’S SHADOW
THE GODS OF ASGARD ARISE!
After being killed in battle with a fire giant, Magnus Chase finds himself resurrected in Valhalla as one of the chosen warriors of the Norse god Odin.The gods of Asgard are preparing for Ragnarok – the Norse doomsday – and Magnus has a leading role …
The Magnus Chase series:
MAGNUS CHASE AND THE SWORD OF SUMMER
Find out more at www.rickriordan.co.uk
PUFFIN BOOKS
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Puffin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
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The Son of Sobek, The Staff of Serapis and The Crown of Ptolemy first published respectively in the USA by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, and in Great Britain by Puffin Books as digital editions in 2013, 2014 and 2015
First published in this collection in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2016
Text copyright © Rick Riordan, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
Hieroglyph art by Michelle Gengaro-Kokmen
Cover illustration by Paul Young
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-141-36729-3
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Rick Riordan, Demigods and Magicians
